WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH 2009


Truthout Original

Idiot Wind
Wednesday 11 March 2009

by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Columnist


Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull,
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
- Bob Dylan


One thing is certain: martial arts movie star Chuck Norris does not like President Obama. Not at all. Not one little bit. Norris dislikes Obama so much, in fact, that he discussed running for the office of president of Texas, which doesn't exist, as part of a larger move by him and a variety of other right-wing groups to overthrow the American government and return honor and decency to the country.

No, really, he said all that, and more. Read it yourself if you don't believe me. The best part is where he writes, "Remember the Alamo!" Great stuff.

Or something.

There's more. The owner of right-wing web forum Free Republic, Jim Robinson, was recently forced to post a truly deranged piece of apologia regarding the attention his web site recently earned from the Secret Service. "Unfortunately," wrote Robinson, "we are saddled with a communist sympathizer in the White House. I don't know whether or not he's an actual card carrying commie, but he's definitely an America-hating, anti-capitalist Marxist leftist who thinks communism is the way to go. So now comes the problem. If you feel it's your duty to call Obama a traitor and use salty language in your proposed resolution, ie, suggest the commie be keelhauled, walked off the plank, run up the yardarm, tarred and feathered and run out of Dodge, etc, etc, etc, you may be facing a visit from your friendly Secret Service."

"Keep," wrote Robinson in closing, "your powder dry." Yeah, O.K., good thinking.

Or something.

Last month, Fox News celebrity Sean Hannity ran a poll on his web site. It asked readers what kind of revolution they'd prefer: military coup, armed rebellion or war for succession? "#3 seems most realistic," opined Hannity, "since it does present an opportunity for more homogeneous states to sort of capitalize on their homogeneity. However, it would likely lead to mass migrations of the minority partisans out of the rebel states. Of course, that may be fine with those states. Yet it seems that the ultimate paradox in any rebellion for freedom from within is that the ultimate goal is to impose the will of the rebels on everyone else through force. It seems the very foundation of representative democracy is ****tered if we accept that we exchange the power of ideas for the power of the sword upon each other. Nevertheless, I am still very interested in your own preferred form of revolt."

That page has since been removed from Hannity's web site, surely due to some technical glitch, but before it was taken down, "armed rebellion" appeared to be the most popular choice of the three.

Of course.

Earlier this week, right-wing loudmouth Glenn Beck asserted during his radio show that President Obama's lifting of the ban on embryonic stem cell research would open the way for the genetic development of a new master race. "So here you have Barack Obama," said Beck, "going in and spending the money on embryonic stem cell research, and then some, fundamentally changing - remember, those great progressive doctors are the ones who brought us Eugenics. It was the progressive movement and it was science. Let's put science truly in her place. If evolution is right, why don't we just help out evolution? That was the idea. And sane people agreed with it! And it was from America. Progressive movement in America. Eugenics. In case you don't know what Eugenics led us to: the Final Solution. A master race! A perfect person. The stuff that we are facing is absolutely frightening. So I guess I have to put my name on yes, I hope Barack Obama fails. But I just want his policies to fail; I want America to wake up. "

One assumes this forthcoming master race will enjoy minds of greater volume and depth than Mr. Beck's, because, well, people just can't get much dumber than this. It would be a profound waste of genetic material if we went out and created some master race that, like Messrs. Beck, Hannity and Robinson, was incapable of rational thought or speech. Just an idea.

There is even more out there like this, from all over the place, with each seemingly trying to out-weird the other. So, yeah, it appears a fair portion of America's hard-right population, along with most if not all of their spokespeople and commentators, have been driven absolutely, positively bat-poop crazy by the election of and policies by Barack Obama.

The trend has been sucking in more and more high-profile members of the conservative community. Newt Gingrich was forced to jump up and down on Rush Limbaugh for saying he wants Obama to fail. Limbaugh responded by calling Gingrich "a fly-by-night operator," who can't be depended on and who "will sell you out." Republican Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah came close to threatening Arizona with an infestation of crickets to shut John McCain up about earmarks in the budget. Conservative commentator David Brooks called House Minority Leader John Boehner "insane" after Boehner called for a complete freeze on federal spending as an answer to the ongoing economic crisis.

Perhaps the most resounding cannonade fired at conservatives by a conservative was David Frum's Newsweek article lamenting the sad state of the party, and the ongoing catastrophe represented by the ascendancy of Limbaugh. "Even before the November 2008 defeat," wrote Frum, "even before the financial crisis and the congressional elections of November 2006 - it was already apparent that the Republican Party and the conservative movement were in deep trouble. And not just because of Iraq, either (although Iraq obviously did not help)."

"Every day," continued Frum, "Rush Limbaugh reassures millions of core Republican voters that no change is needed: if people don't appreciate what we are saying, then say it louder. Isn't that what happened in 1994? Certainly this is a good approach for Rush himself. He claims 20 million listeners per week, and that suffices to make him a very wealthy man. And if another 100 million people cannot stand him, what does he care? What can they do to him other than ... not listen? It's not as if they can vote against him. But they can vote against Republican candidates for Congress. They can vote against Republican nominees for president. And if we allow ourselves to be overidentified with somebody who earns his fortune by giving offense, they will vote against us."

Unfortunately for Mr. Frum and any conservatives who share his concerns, it does not appear any of the hard-right noisemakers have any intention of moderating either their tone or their tantrums. Maybe it will be another couple of months before the swelling from that electoral bruising goes down enough for these people to calm themselves, but at this point, it ain't happening.

The hardest part for the GOP? Neither Obama nor any other Democrat have been required to say a word about any of this. The right-wing shouters do their shouting, get shouted at by other right-wing shouters, and a perfect circle of Republican self-destruction is formed.

Stay tuned ... and, yeah, keep your powder dry.

Or something.
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William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books: "War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know" and "The Greatest Sedition Is Silence." His newest book, "House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies, and America's Ravaged Reputation," is now available from PoliPointPress.





What an excellent read, sorry for the cut and paste.

I keep saying stand on hatred and your house will fall. It just shows that instead of taking a step back and looking at what the problems in the conservative/republican party are, they forge forward with their messages of hatred souring all who have a level mind to the thought of them being in control of ANYTHING.

i think this shows how divided this country is getting these days. i would dare say that we are more divided than ever. very few can find people of like minds these days. it's a shame but it has to happen or it wouldn't have happened. look at the tower of babel in your bible. with all of the different political views out there we might as well be speaking different languages.

I'm guessing the writer meant secession..

double tap

yea I guess hatred is a hard pill to swallow for those who do not practice it.

and it was an amzing day, as the whole truth was revealed before the eye's of the world, after all the voice's of singular had come to be divided one against the other, and all myth's were uncovered as half truth, and all truth as half lie's.

David, you and your parables...lol I agree though.

yet all who knew the truth were once again tucked into dark cubby holes so they could not speak it again. the hidden hand has risen up and covered the people's eyes to their own detriment. these people were brought to the hidden hand's own breasts and taught to suckle. as they drank the vile liquids that spewed from the bosom, they were deeper encapsulated in the untrue visions that were spreading thru their heads like tiny worms. each was inundated with an umbilical chord that was connected to the main trunk. now the hidden hand has become mater and pater to these once self sufficient souls.

You must mean those conservatives/republicans and their suckling of the hatred and discourse being fed them to their own detriment by their own.

it is most difficult, if the statement is indeed considered as true by any hearer, to speak "in between" the two halve's of all things that are both true and less true, and why such word's called "parable's" are used to descibe such words that may seek to do this.

if one see nothing as inherently evil, then it most only seek to divide asunder only what thinking create less good, as gently as possible, and allow the hearer to be the tell, if there are greater mean's needed, with words of more direct and personal scrutiny.

the most reason for such things called as parable's, it is indeed only the weak, and what has hid from itself, that first cast a stone in all case's, as a constant 100% of the time, lol...

the peoples i speak of are not among any one or two groups, they are among all groups that make up the people who do not see inside of themselves. who do not read from their own stories but borrow from others the stories that they will read. these peoples are the ones that have suckled from the breasts of tyranny even as they were born from angels.

Oh good then. I know that is not my problem. Others though I cannot account for them.

it is most deceptive to self, to allow any THEY to exist within the brain.

your right, but i have included myself among the 'THEY'

The only people I see disagreeing are the small minority of right wing repukelicans that cant accept that they LOST and the American people arnt buying into their crap anymore

if you actually did such thing at this present time, then no "they" would any longer exist, and so such word is removed from the sight, so removed "naturally", without "will", from the speech...

by the heart that seen and know wisdom, and turned such inward, before it came forth, trying to change itself, but only along with everything else that agreed to change as well???

a highly treacherous path indeed, that lead to roads with dead ends.

the path of wisdom is lonely, and nothing walk the path but alone.

but after such path is trodded out by the heart, that seek to know how to care for other's, there is joy immense.

When the populace has seen that all sorts of concessions and indulgences are yielded it, in the same name of freedom it has imagined itself to be sovereign lord and has stormed its way to power, but, naturally like every other blind man, it has come upon a host of stumbling blocks. IT HAS RUSHED TO FIND A GUIDE, IT HAS NEVER HAD THE SENSE TO RETURN TO THE FORMER STATE and it has laid down its plenipotentiary powers at OUR feet. Remember the French Revolution, to which it was we who gave the name of “Great”: the secrets of its preparations are well known to us for it was wholly the work of our hands.

carry forth T2D...

it is as you deem best.

But wait, didn't you just say:

I appears you are guilty of the same as this can be googled and found in many places, so your words aren't your own either I see.

Those who think as you do are as different as day and night to those that think as we do. Hard not so see why we don't get along. But you act as if this is a new thing. The religious right has devided us to the point that we can't speak to eachother with out condeming eachother.. so exhausting.

tis true, you didn't read the mitigating post afterwards or you chose not to include it because it would have muted your point.



now please stop your character bashing.