Dogwhistles working? Check.

Some interesting news here. An American has been charged with plotting to kill Obama because he is the AntiChrist.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- An Indian Trail accountant is in jail, charged with threatening to kill senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

According to court documents, Jerry Blanchard called Sen. Obama the anti-Christ and said, "If he gets elected, we have a problem."

Then according to the federal affidavit, Blanchard, a father of two teenage daughters, spells out his plan -- all while sitting in the Pineville-Matthews Road Waffle House.

Secret Service agents say Blanchard told two others eating at the restaurant on July 15 he planned to buy a handgun from Hyatt's Gunshop on Wilkinson Boulevard. He also planned to buy a rifle and a laser scope, saying "I’m worth $50 million. Obama and his wife are never going to make it to the White House. He needs to be taken out... that man will never know what hit him... I just may do that, I’ve got the money and the clout."

Now, I wonder where he could have got the idea that Obama is the AntiChrist from?

BREAKING NEWS!

Paris Hilton's "policies" are just as stupid as the other two candidates.

As you were.

A blogger after my own heart

I honestly wish I had got around to this earlier. Unfortunately, I have been beaten to the punch, and someone has written the truth behind Obama's cultlike following - he is the keeper of the Necrocomnicon.

Read more at The Necrobamacon.

Oil, "Obama Boys" and Iraq

A very interesting and unfortunately far too brief interview with Naomi Klein on the above topics can be found here. Here are some snippets, so you can get an idea of what its about:

"I just want to add one more point, and I just want to take this opportunity, because I feel like people are being so bombarded with these oil industry talking points, and it really is changing public opinion. I mean, people need to know this. There’s—polls are being commissioned that are finding that 67 percent of Americans support offshore oil drilling, because they think it’s going to lower the price at the pump.

What’s actually going on is the oil companies may not even bother drilling. What they’re doing is they’re stockpiling leases. And what that means is that the oil companies will have a much greater control over the oil supply. When the oil companies have a much larger control over the oil supply, they can turn it on and off. They can control price. They can fix the price. So, in fact, what this is doing is the opposite of what they’re saying. It’s actually giving the oil industry much more power to drive the price of oil up by controlling supply, by just giving them all of these leases. And we keep hearing, well, they have all these leases already, and they’re not using them, and they want more. Why? Why do they want all these leases? Because that is what gives them control over supply. That’s what allows them to fix prices."

[...]

it’s shades of Bill Clinton’s first campaign, where he also campaigned very actively about labor and environmental standards and NAFTA. NAFTA had already been signed, but it hadn’t come into law. And then there was a turnaround, and there was a turnaround in the transition period, after the election but before he took office, where there was a sort of fateful meeting.

And I think the fear is that some of the same people, like Rubin, responsible for, you know, Rubinomics, which turned into Clintonomics, which was, you know, the Democratic full-scale embrace of the ideology of privatization and so-called free trade, that this same sort of group of people are following—are now surrounding Obama. And Jason Furman is a Rubin protégé and worked with him at the Hamilton Project, which is a sort of sub-think tank of the Brookings Institution, which emerged a few years ago to prevent the Democratic Party from embracing what they saw as populist economic policies, the centerpiece of which would have been a reexamine of the ideology of free trade, which is being discredited around the world.

Like I said, a fascinating listen, and highly recommended.

YES! Hillary/Obama fanfiction!

Fuck you, I'm sick and this appeals to my sense of humour:

“Hillary,” she heard from behind her. It was Obama.

She stiffened with jealousy. Lucky him, able to wear a suit. Oh, how she envied him, for his popularity and the fact that he was a man.

“Yes, Mr. Obama?” She answered, stifling her anger.

“Hillary, you can call me Barack.”

She turned around and forced one of her fake smiles. “And why would I want to do that?”

He sighed and tossed his head. “Why are you always like this, Hillary? I was going to congratulate you on the debate, but you . . . you always pull this sarcastic attitude on me.”

She gave up on the fakeness, then. “I don’t know. Why are you always so sweet? When you’re out there, heck, when you’re in here, you always make it seem like we’re friends or something.”

“Aren’t we?”

“No, Barack, and I don’t see why you can’t understand that,” she said. She didn’t feel like this right now. She felt like kicking off her shoes and passing out. It was ridiculous.

He was silent. He stared at her. “If I get nominated, do you want to be my vice president?”

It was a nice thing for him to say, but she sighed instead of thanking him. “What, did you and Bill Richardson get in a fight or something?”

“What?”

“Wasn’t he going to be your vice?”

“No. Why would I want that goofy New Mexican?” He smiled.

She smiled, too. The thing about Barack was that he was hard to hate for a long time. “I suppose so, if you’d really like that.”

“I would,” he said. “There’s something else I’ve been meaning to tell you, also, Hillary.”

“What’s that?” she headed for her dressing room, and gestured for him to follow.

He followed. “Well, um, I know that we don’t always get along, but, um . . . ” he stuttered ungracefully.

She narrowed her eyes. She knew that Barack could be a sneaky, sneaky guy, and it was hard to tell if he was acting. Why on earth would such a wonderful speaker like him feel the need to hesitate? “Yes?” she pried, opening the door to her dressing room.

“I...never mind.”

“No, I want to know now.”

He sat down on the couch in her dressing room. “I feel like it would hinder what little relationship we have.”

She sat in the chair across from him and started taking off her makeup. “I doubt something you would say would make that happen.”

He sighed. But then, instead of speaking, he stood, and in a swift movement, he was standing behind her. “Hillary, I don’t know how to tell you . . . ” his hands moved to her shoulders.

She stiffened at his touch. His hands were so strong yet gentle, just like his words. Could it be . . . ? “Tell me what, Barack?” she nearly whispered.

“We’ve . . . even though we’re opponents, I feel like I’ve never been closer to anyone in my life,” he said.

“Nor have I,” she agreed.

His hands gently squeezed her shoulders. It was enough to drive her mad.

She quickly turned around and stood up, knocking his hands away. “If you feel how I feel, Barack, just tell me, tell me!”

“I think I do,” he said. In moments, his hands were back, holding her arms like he’d never let go. “I’ve fallen for you quicker than the youth of America have fallen for my campaign.”

“Oh, Barack! Why?”

“I can’t say. Perhaps I have a thing for arrogant, white women.”

“Perhaps you do. Perhaps I have a thing for overly popular, half-black men.”

He grabbed her and kissed her like she’d never been kissed before.

Hey, remember The Family?

As I'm sure you recall, a while back I decided to do a post on Hilary Clinton's religious links with The Family, a rather scary and theocratic organization with what looks like a lot of clout in Washington DC.

Well today, Alternet has a very interesting post on their seeming fascination with Hitler:

Lindsay Beyerstein: In "The Family," a lot of subjects explicitly state their admiration for Hitler and other authoritarian political figures. How much of that is admiring their style, and how much is admiring their substance?

Jeff Sharlet: I'd argue that there isn't a hell of a lot of difference. I spent a lot of time living with these guys, and I remember at one point asking them, "What's the deal with all this Hitler talk?" And they'd say, "Oh, it's not the ends, it's the means." But to most of us, the means seem pretty bad, too. The means are authoritarianism.

Shartlet does go onto argue that they are not Fascist in a traditional sense, that they lack the belief in the redemptive power of violence, but that they do hover around the 80% mark going by Paxton or Umberto Eco's checklists:

Lindsay Beyerstein: So, they don't literally believe in physical conflict when they describe themselves as warriors for Christ?

Jeff Sharlet: Oh, no. (They think) that's fine, but they don't love violence the way that fascism did. Their leader, Doug Coe, says that the Bible is filled with mass murderers. And it is. The difference is that European fascism was based on this idea that you can only become truly human through violence. The Family will say, oh no, we're pursuing peace. Hitler wasn't pursuing peace. The goal was this constant redemptive violence.

The other thing is they differ in the strictness of their nationalism. The Family is an American ideology, and it has a lot of American ideology involved, but still it was founded by a Norwegian immigrant. It's more pluralist than European fascism that was about cleansing the blood. The Family is an imperial ideology, which is why I think it's ultimately worse than fascism. Since the Second World War, fascism hasn't been a very powerful ideology, but imperialism has.

Which is an interesting way of slicing it. I can't say I totally disagree...its likely such a group could attract proto-fascist elements, as David Neiwert describes them, but it lacks a certain racial component and explicitly thuggish bent/exultation of violence which seems to be a core attribute of fascism. Note he did say "(they think) thats fine" which suggests they could help cultivate such an atmosphere, but its not an end in and of itself. Plus there are a number of problems with the idea of an authoritarian Christian empire based around the world's most powerful nation, without getting into the possibility of fascist connotations.

Anyway, the interview goes on for 5 pages and is well worth reading. The book looks fascinating too, and if I wasn't so poor, I'd immediately consider ordering it from Amazon. Another day, perhaps...

Clinton supporters update

You know how there was those Japanese soldiers who retreated into the rainforest in 1944-5, hiding for years, eating raw birds and hunting American troops, thinking WWII was still going on? Or those people who claim Hitler really won WWII, because he ran away to a giant Antarctic base, is now the Chosen One of the Dero who live inside the hollow earth and will soon emerge at the head of a Flying Saucer Army to establish a worldwide 4th Reich?

This is the current state of Hillary's online supporters, basically.

For example, let us consider the hilarious No Quarter USA blog. Here is a perfect example of the sort of thing outspoken and well known Hillary supporters (this man has advised Clinton on national security and defence policy) have been saying:

The recording that shows Michelle Obama saying disparaging things about white folks is for real. It is not part of some elaborate dirty trick. The people who have seen her comments describe it as “stunning” or “devastating.” I have not spoken directly with the people who have seen the tape, but I have spoken to two of my friends who are friends with those who watched the tape/dvd.

....

Why does this “tape” of Michelle Obama matter? The folks who have it are working to elect John McCain. They are using it now to raise money for a 527 effort that will attack Barack Obama. I am told that they fully intend to keep this “off-the-market” until after the Democratic Convention. The Republicans involved with this believe that Barack Obama is a more beatable candidate than Hillary Clinton and see the tape as reinforcing an image of racial division that will hurt Obama.

I support Hillary Clinton for President. I believe she will be a stronger candidate. And if I had the tape I would put it out in a heartbeat. Getting the tape out now does one of two things–either it persuades Super Delegates that Barack is not electable or it gives the Obama campaign time to repair the damage.

I now appreciate somewhat how Cofer Black, the head of the CIA’s Counter Terrorism Center, must have felt as he tried to warn Condaleeza Rice and the Bush White House about a brewing terrorist attack in the days leading up to September 11th. And please, I am not equating the Michelle tape with the attacks of 9-11. Rather I am focused on the point of what happens when someone has incomplete information, which warns about a future event, and tries to raise the alert. Just because Cofer Black could not say in late July 2001 that the coming attack would be carried out by 19 hijackers on four commercial airliners did not mean his intelligence was wrong.

Those who want to vilify me for having the audacity to raise this warning can have at it. I ran up against similar attacks and skeptics in May of 2003 when I warned that the Bush Administration had cooked the intelligence on Iraq. It is only now that we get a Senate Intelligence Committee Report and a book from Scott McClellan confirming what I said five years ago.

ONLY HILLARY CAN STOP A POLITICAL 9/11 FROM BURYING THE DEMOCRATS FOREVER! OBAMA = POLITICAL TERRORISM!

The comments are even more amazing. Obama and his wife are apparently white-hating Bushies in waiting who use thug tactics, like having supporters make fun of the No Quarter people in lieu of serious debate. And he's an elitist, too!

Of course, I realize I'm going to look REALLY stupid if there is a video, but I somehow doubt it really exists. This conspiracy theory is the last thing the Clintonista have to hold onto, a perfect representation of their fantasy that Clinton is more electable. Clinton stepping down has just made her most ardent supporters go totally off the wire, engaging in the most destructive of dirty politics.

And the most amazing thing, the one that really surprises me, is that if you were to compare the treatment of Obama's wife to any other significant other of a politician in recent history, it would be....Hillary Clinton, who was constantly harassed and the target of near-libellous conspiracy theories and stories by the right and significant sectors of the media throughout the 90s. Amazing.

Thanks to Sadly, No! for the link.

9/11 conspiracy theorists in retreat (avec assorted musings)

An interesting article from The Skeptic about how the ranks of 9/11 Truthers are thinning out:

Today, the 9/11 conspiracy movement is a shell of what it once was. The website masquerading as an academic journal, Journal of 9/11 Studies, has dropped from a high of six or seven articles published per issue to one....The introduction to the main hub of 9/11 denier activity, 911truth.org, welcomes its visitors with a plea that announces, “we’ve cut to the bare bones, but are still far short of our basic budget needs.” Prominent “truthers” like Mark Dice, Dylan Avery, Jimmy Walter... and Kevin Ryan have dropped into obscurity.

I can't say I'm terribly upset by all this. The 9/11 Truthers were probably the most useless and pointless fringe group in the modern world, whose only real purpose seemed to be deflecting the very real criticisms of Bush's leadership and foreign policy, by retreating into a fantasy world of unprovable and outlandish accusations.

The areas of real interest - how badly was the intelligence managed by the executive and various security organizations before 9/11, has faded into obscurity as people have debated ludicrous theories involving missiles, gold, Reichstag Fire scenarios, entirely fictitious terrorist organizations and insurance scams.

I also found the organic growth of a sceptical counter-movement to oppose the Truther's very interesting:

Staking their fortunes almost solely on Internet-based content may have been the 9/11 deniers’ biggest mistake. What seems like a perfect place for pseudoscience — the Internet is un-edited, without fact-checkers or minimum publishing standards of any kind — also became a perfect place for a rapid-response system of blogs and forums to fight back. Drawing on the freely available technical information from the NIST, FEMA, and academic journals which most colleges let their students access for free, skeptical sites like ScrewLooseChange.blogspot.com and debunking911.com are able to defuse 9/11 denier claims as they arise.

Web 2.0 may be useful after all! Now we need to get this going on the media a little more...maybe even the government as well. Government 2.0 perhaps. Its not very catchy, but instant feedback could be interesting.

This also may help explain the failure of US Presidential Candidate Ron Paul, whose internet support was huge, and yet offline was not worth mentioning. Barack Obama, by contrast, has a powerful grass-roots campaign online, but has anchored himself fairly strongly offline too. In Ron Paul's case, the online communities filtered through his policies and discovered many of the key flaws in them....by contrast, the Obama-supporting web in many cases has been used to debunk several myths and nasty rumours about him. Ron Paul's online support didn't translate into offline success and collapsed....Obama by contrast carried his offline success online and it helped him. A parable here, maybe.

Anyway, back on topic. Recently, I read an interesting little document that goes by the name of "The Creators of Loose Change Speak" by Mark Roberts. Its an interesting 98 page long document which shows the general contempt the people behind Loose Change seem to have for...well, everyone really. It pretty much convinced me that one reason behind the attempted spread of 9/11 conspiracy theories, especially this case, was the financial incentive. Because I am a kind and forgiving blogger (and more importantly, I forgot where it was hosted) I have uploaded this PDF document to Rapidshare, should anyone want to read it. Just follow the link.

Anyway, I think that's all I have to say on the topic for now. Cheers to Blairwatch for the link.

Hillary Clinton to form "Surly Eris" party

Via the Huffington Post:

NEW YORK...Hillary and Bill Clinton announced today that they are forming a new political party to continue her fight for the presidency. Seeking to draw comparisons with Theodore Roosevelt's 'Bull Moose', the new party will be called 'Surly Eris' for the Greek Goddess of discord and strife. According to the press release, the party will "cater to the perceived slights and accumulated frustrations harbored by women of a certain age and Lanny Davis."

Speculation that Clinton would be placed on the Democratic ticket ended earlier in the day when representatives for Barack Obama refused her demand that he do all his campaigning in an open top limousine. Said a visibly indignant Harold Ickes, "Would we have liked Obama to be capable of enjoying pleasant weather? You bet your ass."

Meanwhile, longtime Clinton friend and bagman Terry McAuliffe stressed that the new party would be open to "anyone with resentments and a credit card" including "honest, hard working Americans who just happen not to like blacks."

When pressed by reporters on how Senator Clinton had managed to squander every institutional advantage in her descent from inevitability to runner-up, spokesman Howard Wolfson decried "this endless media fascination with the factual" adding "this isn't about who won what how, this is about something far more important, the future of the Clintons".

Its Obama versus McCain

Well, this should make things interesting. More interesting than the shooting-yourself-in-the-foot strategy that was being deployed by the Democrats, anyway. Perhaps, if I can be bothered, I will trawl the interwebs to find the funniest lamentations coming from the Clinton camp. Maybe.

At least I can now report on McCain and Obama tearing into each other. Praise Eris, this race was getting dull.


Edit: as promised, we have the hilarious Hillary is 44 asking "when will Obama concede?" Obviously not too up on this 'counting' thing...and over at No Quarter, apparently Obama is limping and wounded, and his thugs will do anything to make sure he wins.

Obviously just some slightly sore losers there, then...

Now Clinton herself is recklessly spreading the Obama assassination meme

Via Associated Press.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton quickly apologized Friday after citing the June 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy as a reason to remain in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination despite increasingly long odds.

“I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever,” the former first lady said.

The episode occurred as Clinton campaigned in advance of the June 3 South Dakota primary.

Responding to a question from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board about calls for her to drop out of the race, she said: “My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don’t understand it,” she said, dismissing the idea of abandoning the race.

Emphasis mine. Unashamedly spreading the idea that Obama is uniquely open to assassination attempts - all her.

I've already dealt in some detail with the Obama Assassination Meme before, but just to make it absolutely clear to everyone:

Creating a political climate and discourse where the potential asssassination of a major Presidential candidate is constantly referenced and referred to as a possibility, well out of proportion to the risk posed (a risk that is shared by all candidates) will only help create a situation in which potential assassins believe his death is inevitable and will seek to hasten it.

Damn, its not hard.


Update: Keith Olbermann has a special comment on this.

Who will rid me of this troublesome politician?

Here is an interesting clip of Mike Huckabee, ex-Presidential nominee for the Republican Party, 'joking' in front of the staunchly right-wing NRA crowd about the possibility of an Obama assassination.

Now, I should first of all point out, for any readers, that I am not especially against gun ownership per se, in the UK or America. Yes, I know I have a reputation as a subversive left wing liberal who hates freedom and loves terrorism etc etc but to a degree, I side more with the right-wing/libertarian view when it comes to firearms. Not to mention I did spend part of my misspent youth in the countryside and have been a member of my University rifle club and so actually enjoy shooting too.

But anyway, that's not the point, so I wanted to dismiss the strawman straight away. The point is noting the spread and even acceptance of the "Obama assassination meme" within mainstream political discourse, especially in circles like the above, where Obama is not seen in an especially friendly light.

Now I know you'll be saying "Oh Huckabee is just joking, I thought you Discordians knew about larking about", but to be honest, that's kind of the point. I'm very used to using humour to mask a point, to say something I wish to be known in an indirect and subtle manner. That's often the function of humour in politics, it gives a veneer of deniability to a statement.

Its also one that has been used to death by the American right, such as Ann "lets assassinate a US Judge, teehee I'm only joking" Coulter, Rush "lets not kill all the liberals, just most of them" Limbaugh and other such 'wits' of American politics, like Michael Savage.

So you'll excuse me a certain degree of scepticism when I see the tactic repeated by others.

We all believe Obama is probably the most likely candidate to be targeted, followed closely by McCain (the Middle Eastern groups tend to not operate much outside their own territory, but when they do they are usually very good at it). It's hardly news. He's a charismatic, black man who appeals to a wide constituency of people, comes from a cosmopolitian, is opposed to favourite ventures of the nutjob-right and has a good chance of becoming the next US President. And we know people like the Aryan Nations are still out there, still exist and have people motivated and trained well enough to attempt something like this.

But repititions of the idea that Obama will inevitably face an assassination attempt seem to be aimed more at the idea of spreading this idea of inevitability far and wide, hoping some far-right nut will decide to take one for the Aryan cause and have a go at killing him. Its one step off encouraging it, when repeated like this.

The entire point of modern day, non-state/terrorist assassination is this - that it takes place within an enabling environment and narrative, and is done in a public place to validate the killer themselves. Making continued references to this happening only increases the chances of someone trying to have a go.

Equally bad is the downplaying of the chances of someone killing him. All three US candidates are at risk, its the nature of the game of politics. Killing the potential next President has long been a route to fame for no-hoper's around the world. Suggesting that Obama is perfectly safe and has nothing to worry about, in the same poisonous media climate which is also telling us he is likely to be killed, as it makes an attempt on him look easy and invites more attempts.

Here are just a few examples of the meme spreading from extremist to more mainstream circles

• Neo Nazi, longtime target of Anonymous and friend of Sean Hannity, Hal Turner threatens Obama.

• The notorious Freerepublic wont allow pro-Obama comments, but will allow posts talking about other people (on the left) raising the possibility of his assassination.

(Just as an aside, I think people on the left who continually raise the prospect of his assassination are just as guilty of perpetuating the meme as everyone else, though I suspect their motivation is more benign. Unless they are Hillary Clinton supporters).

• Sean Hannity of Fox News pops up again, this time with some interesting use of language...

"I just feel that with the more we learn about the racial implications in his past, the more likely it is for sure he will be killed."

He all but left out the *Hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink* from that statement. We all know the implication is that he is a black supremacist is being spread by the right, which is like a lightning rod to any racists out there.

• Jonah "liberals once called me a fascist, so I call them it back now" Goldberg engages in more than just a bit of projection here when he suggests if Obama loses certain people will become unhinged. Maybe they will, but for the moment, it seems more likely a win will unhinge other 'certain people', as the above comments and Greenwald's own article are showing.

• Halfrican Revolution documents how a Unification Church owned publication practically went out of their way to give tips to any nutters crazy enough to give assassination a shot.

• The hilariously named White Civil Rights website also engages in a degree of projection, when they fantasize about Mossad killing Obama. Because thats no way an excuse to talk freely about an assassination attempt at all, is it?

• Even the bloody Torygraph tries to pooh-pooh the chances of an assassination emanating from the right, instead blaming the idea on a mix of conspiracy theory, wish for martyrdom (nice touch, by the way, the Muslim implication there) and generalized paranoia. Obviously Tony Harden doesn't pay much attention to the lunatic fringe, or he'd know how pumped up on this idea many of them are. While no doubt many of the left wing comments implicating the likes of Blackwater or Clinton are nonsense, there is a real radical threat.

• Again, Vanguard News Network, another far-right US site, is spreading the Obama assassination meme under the cover of "tEh Jo0s DiD iT! (oR aT lEaSt wIlL dO!)".

And on and on it goes. I didn't even bother to go to some of the crazier, less well known sites. I thought this should cover it fairly nicely.

As a commentator at the Seattle PI points out, the best thing the media could do in order to play down these fears is not talk about it all the time. Yes, I do realize that makes me guilty to a degree as well, but I'm trying to introduce a phage here, to undercut the meme. By constantly finding ways to bring up the idea, either in terms of denying it having any possibility at all (all US Presidential candidates are potential targets, get over it) or prophesying it as a certainty, is only doing more damage and poisoning the civil discourse.

While everyone is concentrating on Obama's "crazy" pastor

I decided to do some digging into another candidate's odd religious links. I'm sorry, but hysteria bores me unless it is very funny, and all the Rev. Wright drama is showing is how out of touch white America is with black America, and how some conspiracy theories are pefectly acceptable for the media to believe in and accept, but others are not.

I think McCain's religious links are fairly well known, if contested in what they signify, so instead I decided to look into Hillary Clinton who, aside from her Bosnia sniper lies has kept a relatively low fuck-up profile of late.

And that's why I find so much of this interesting, because while it is being reported on the fringe news sites, it doesn't seem to have translated over into a general media concern. Not yet, at least.

I am talking, if you hadn't already guessed, of The Family, the strange religious group to which Hillary Clinton belongs. Very strange, given almost all of their members are part of the religious right, especially on Capitol Hill, where the sort of people who tend to belong to the Family (or Fellowship, they like to play fast and loose with names) include people like Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, most famously known in the UK for denying evolution during one of the Republican Presidential nominee debates.

So yeah, we're not exactly talking Methodists here.

But there is much more to the Family than a prayer group for Christians in DC. Much, much more. As Mother Jones goes on to explain, The Family is built along:

sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public event, the annual National Prayer Breakfast. (Aside from the breakfast, the group has "made a fetish of being invisible," former Republican Senator William Armstrong has said.) The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan.

Starting to feel a little worried?

You should be, because The Family not only says it wants to do these things, like so many groups of religious nutters, but it apparently has the means as well. In 1978 it secretly helped the Carter Administration organize a worldwide call to prayer with Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, and in 2001 it brought together the warring leaders of Congo and Rwanda for a clandestine meeting, leading to the two sides' eventual peace accord last July. But its power is not simply limited to waging peace. It also helped the US government forge relationships with Africa's brutal postcolonial dictators in the 60s, not to mention Brazil and Indonesia's anti-Communist military dictatorships.

As you've probably realized, at least during the Cold War, the aim would seem to be in building an anti-Communist coalition among the Third World, no matter the cost in money or lives. Suharto killed hundreds of thousands of supposed Communists, and I couldn't even begin to try and fathom how many were lost in Africa.

So...Christian and dedicated to anti-Communism, but with a decidedly Realist streak of cynicism when it comes to power politics. A question for the political science students: who does this sound like? If you said Reinhold Niebuhr, then give yourself a cookie. Niebuhr is considered among the pre-eminent early Realists. And just so happens that he is a favourite of one-time Goldwater gal Hillary Clinton, who learnt of his teachings under the leadership of Reverend Don Jones, shortly before she joined the Republican party.

I do this to illustrate that despite Clinton's apparent apathy towards religion except as a tool of power, there are links between her early life and the thinking of the Family, and that this should not just be dismissed by appeals to "triangulation" or cynical politicking.

You shouldn't make the mistake of thinking the Family is entirely part of the Religious Right either. They probably hate secular Democrats as much as any on the Religious Right do, but if someone is a Democrat and a Christian, they are more than willing to embrace them. Because their mission is a higher calling, they are here to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

One of the more well known members on Capitol Hill is David Coe. Here is a quote of a talk he was giving to, what he thought, was just a cell of Family members, but also included an undercover Harpers reporter:

You guys know about Genghis Khan?” he asked. “Genghis was a man with a vision. He conquered”—David stood on the couch under the map, tracing, with his hand, half the northern hemisphere—“nearly everything. He devastated nearly everything. His enemies? He beheaded them.” David swiped a finger across his throat. “Dop, dop, dop, dop.”

David explained that when Genghis entered a defeated city he would call in the local headman and have him stuffed into a crate. Over the crate would be spread a tablecloth, and on the tablecloth would be spread a wonderful meal. “And then, while the man suffocated, Genghis ate, and he didn't even hear the man's screams.” David still stood on the couch, a finger in the air. “Do you know what that means?” He was thinking of Christ's parable of the wineskins. “You can't pour new into old,” David said, returning to his chair. “We elect our leaders. Jesus elects his.”

Exactly. Chew on the implications of that for a while.

Blogging Civil War!

A little bit of hilarity that I was alerted to by Jon Swift. It looks like the Hillary supporters at Daily Kos have had enough of the Obama supporters and so are "going on strike" or, more accurately, are taking their ball and going home.

Fortunately, I don't seem to be the only one who finds the whole thing somewhat stage-managed and planned in advance, what with the anti-Kos site stickers showing up shortly after the walkout started.

Now personally, I have to admit I think Obama is probably a better choice than Hillary, not least because it seems that Hillary is hated by about half of America, and America has already had 16 odd years of that. But I'm not that attached to his winning the primaries. If Hillary wins, that means at minimum, I get 4 years of bashing left-wing authoritarians, as exemplified Algere's opening post, asking the mods to censor things she doesn't like to see. I also have this cool fake conspiracy theory relating to Hillary, the NWO, 2012 etc and although it will likely work equally well with any incumbent President, Hillary suits it the best.

And if McCain gets in...well, then the NeoCon giggle-ride wont stop! Maybe a little less religious nuttery, in the homeland, but those foreign adventures will keep on rolling!

Either way, the split is significant, and interesting. While the majority of Americans are not bloggers, and do not get their information from them, those who are politically interested or active likely do, and Daily Kos is a hugely influential site for the Democrats. A split there shows that the campaign strategies being used so far are only helping to divide the Democratic base - in some cases, to the point of Hillary supporters saying they will not vote for Obama if he wins the primaries, simply because of how they feel they were treated by his supporters.

It also ties in neatly with a pet project of my own that I have been whispering in select ears over the internet, that of creating a split between the anti-interventionist/Libertarian wing of the Republican party with the GOP, and that of a split between the progressive elements of the Democrats and the main party. Both splits would break the backs of their respective parties and while the dissenters do not agree with each other, they seem to have far more in common with their respective dissenting 'opponenents' than they do with the mainstream ideology of their own party.

And the reverse is true for the main party's themselves. More than a few mainstream GOPers have expressed sympathy for Hillary and how her supporters are being treated by Obama fans - much in the way they were treated by supporters of Ron Paul.

If anything, this election is bringing out the real weak points in each party, and the main splits between them. All it will likely take is a couple of Black Swans and someone savvy enough to take advantage of those events.

BREAKING NEWS: Diebold leaks US Presidency winner!

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Headline writers make another stupid mistake

I normally like Reuters when it comes to news....but when they make silly mistakes like this in their headlines, I really have to wonder how accurate the rest of their reporting is.





Its not like the S and K keys are even anywhere near each other.

Our Lady of Discord: UNDER ATTACK!

GUYS, THE INTERNETS ARE NOT ASSISTING OUR LADY OF DISCORD, HILLARY CLINTON, ACHIEVE MAXIMUM LULZ AS PRESIDENT OF THESE UNITED STATES. She is falling far behind in polls and funds. She is breaking down emotionally almost twice a month. Her mascara is running. She has been making crazy talk about getting a boob job. She has been having sex with Bill again. EVERYTHING IS FALLING APART FOR HER. This election season should be a time for America to HEAL, but nobody will let Nurse Clinton take care of our country.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HELP HILLARY. Her campaign is accepting DONATIONS OF ALL SHAPES AND SIZES at this address:

Hillary Clinton for President
PO Box 1781
Merrifield, VA 22116-9965

She is accepting money, but it may be too late for that. DISCOFLUX.COM ENCOURAGES YOU TO SEND THE FOLLOWING ITEMS INSTEAD:

- Socks
- Canned food
- Kleenex (generic preferred)
- Tiny violins
- Paper airplanes made from Hillary Clinton campaign fliers
- Matchbox cars
- Cleaning supplies
- RAZORBLADES
- Condolence cards

THERE ISN'T MUCH TIME LEFT. ACT NOW, OR THE ESTABLISHMENT MIGHT LOSE THIS ELECTION.

STATUS QUO GO!

- Vexati0n

Who is driving downed US spy-satellite?

HIMEOBS is driving downed US spy-satellite, according to an email from "Agent Rapier" that I recieved earlier today.

For those of you who don't know, a 10,000 pound US satellite is falling out of the sky, and is expected to land somewhere in the USA, with all its wonderful variety of toxic chemicals over the place.

Or is it? As mentioned above, I was contacted by a HIMEOBS agent and ordered to relay this message on my blog. So, as I promised, here it is, HIMEOBS' claims as to what is really going on (click to expand the image):

Ron Paul set to win Maine

According to the rumours I hear. Of course, I hear all sort of strange rumours from the Ron Paul camp, many of them unverifiable, but this doesn't come from them and seems to be well grounded. We all know Maine has a contingent of highly Libertarian Republicans, and that things can get a bit strange up there from time to time, so its not totally implausible.

You go, guys! Stick it to the Reptilian/Illuminati/Zionist/International Banking/NWO/Discordian conspiracy! KICK EM IN THA NADS!!!

Bolton's hard on for war with Iran

I sometimes wonder about John Bolton. I mean, firstly he has a silly moustache, and if WWII taught us anything, it is to never trust men with silly moustache's when it comes to politics. And he was Bush's choice for UN envoy, and we all know how much President Bush luuuuuuuurves the UN. On the other hand, he occasionally shows signs of higher cognitive functions, like when he was interviewed on BBC's Newsnight. He is an enimga, wrapped in bad facial hair.

Yesterday on Fox News he also decided to show his support for Giuliani and McCain. Ignoring Mr 9/11, according to the Israeli daily, Haaretz, McCain said "At the end of the day, we cannot allow the Iranians to acquire nuclear weapons." Not as quite as...um, outspoken as Rudy "Peace is Strength" Giuliani, but if he has the backing of Bolton, he obviously seems to think he'll do something about Iran.

Because Bolton really, really, really hates Iran. He hates it with that strange passion that only a man who has never personally had anything done to him by Iran can. Well except making him stall in giving information to John Kerry when Kerry was inquiring about the Iran-Contra issue. You can tell how much he hates Iran by how often he calls for it to be bombed. Maybe he's a fan of The Secret and hopes if he concentrates on it enough it will be true?

The Israelis apparently take him seriously, probably because they don't want to repeat the mistake of the last time they didn't take a man with a silly moustache seriously, but the National-Reviewista have apparently closed ranks in support of his position as well. And given how a Middle Eastern Discordian with a radio nearly started the war last month by trolling the US Navy while the Iranians were zipping around nearby, and the history of these guys when it comes to outright distortion and lying, I don't give Iran very good chances for 2009.