The Commentariat -- August 7, 2012

Today in Mass Murders News

I think all of us recognize that these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity for us not to do some soul-searching and to examine additional ways that we can reduce violence. And as I've already said, I think there are a lot of elements involved in it, and what I want to do is to bring together law enforcement, community leaders, faith leaders, elected officials of every level to see how we can make continued progress. -- President Obama, on the shooting at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin (See video following today's Ledes) ...

... Charles Pierce on Ann Althouse's "confusion." Althouse is a conservative law professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who is right good at defending the right. In a post yesterday, she "explained" why Wade Page would reasonably have known that Sikhs weren't Moooslums. Conservatives really don't want to own their own terrorist extremist white supremacist mass murderer. Mr. Pierce demurs. CW: Conservatives really don't want to own their own terrorist extremist white supremacist mass murderer, so they are working overtime to pretend Page's motives were in no way akin to the views of your ordinary real-American winger bigots. ...

Juan Cole: Wade Page "operated in an atmosphere of virulent hate speech against American Muslims [which] ... has plagued the United States in the past decade, pushed by unscrupulous bigots in public life and by entire media organizations such as Fox Cable News and other media properties of ... Rupert Murdoch. Among them is also Rush Limbaugh, who, incredibly, is still broadcast to US soldiers abroad. Among the hatemongers are Frank Gaffney, and his acolyte Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn), Rep. Peter King (R-NY)... John Bolton, and sometimes Rudi Giuliani, Mike Huckabee and others, most associated with the Republican Party. The push for hate speech against American Muslims is funded by a small group of billionaires.... Some ... are connected to the US arms industry.... Others are Israel-firster fanatics. Others are looking for a bogey man to scare Americans with...." Thanks to Kate M. for the link. ...

... Adam Weinstein of Mother Jones: "Using photos of Wade from his white-power band's Myspace page, it's possible to see what concerned police: Much of his body reads like a poster text for white nationalism. In particular, a tattoo on Page's left shoulder ... suggests he was a committed devotee of white-power ideology. The tattoo consists of a large '14' in Gothic lettering superimposed on a black cross in a circle. The cross, known elsewhere as 'Odin's Cross,' is 'one of the most popular symbols for neo-Nazis and white supremacists,' according to the Anti-Defamation League. It's also used as a logo by Stormfront.org, one of the world's most-visited racist web forums." ...

... Erica Goode & Serge Kovaleski of the New York Times: "To some who track the movements of white supremacist groups, the violence was not a total surprise. [Wade] Page, 40, had long been among the hundreds of names on the radar of organizations monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of his ties to the white supremacist movement and his role as the leader of a white-power band called End Apathy.... Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said Mr. Page had come to the center's attention a decade ago because of his affiliation with rock bands known for lyrics that push far past the boundaries of tolerance." ...

... Scott Bauer & Todd Richmond of the AP have more on Wade Page's history. ...

... Here's the Washington Post story by Michael Laris, et al.

... Greg McCune of Reuters: "The semiautomatic handgun used in the deadly attack on a Wisconsin Sikh temple is the same type used in other recent U.S. mass shootings, including one at a theater in Colorado, and the attack on a congresswoman in Arizona, gun experts said. Wisconsin shooter Wade Michael Page used a Springfield 9mm semiautomatic handgun to carry out the attack at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, officials said. As in several other recent mass shootings, the gun had been purchased legally, at a Milwaukee-area gun store called the Shooter Shop."

Mark Greenblatt, et al., of ABC News: "The psychiatrist who treated suspected movie-theater shooter James Holmes made contact with a University of Colorado police officer to express concerns about her patient's behavior several weeks before Holmes' alleged rampage, sources told ABC News."

Tim Gaynor of Reuters: Jared Loughner, "accused of killing six people and wounding 13 others, including then-U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in a Tucson shooting rampage last year was expected to plead guilty on Tuesday if a judge finds him mentally competent...."

... AND reporters at Mother Jones have updated their interactive Mass Murder Map. The map includes "details on the shooters' identities, the types of weapons they used, and the number of victims they injured and killed." Thanks to contributor Lisa for the link.

* * *

Gary Gensler, Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in a New York Times op-ed: "The Barclays case demonstrates that Libor has become more vulnerable to misconduct. It's time for a new or revised benchmark -- an emperor clothed in actual, observable market transactions -- to restore the confidence of Americans that the rates at which they borrow and lend money are set honestly and transparently."

Surprise, Surprise! New York Times Editors: "Republican lawmakers demanded ... [spending] cuts last year as part of their brinkmanship over the debt ceiling, and business lobbies have generally supported slashing the deficit. But now that the cuts are imminent, corporate executives seem to have realized that the last thing the economy needs is a large budget cut across the board.... Now it is up to Democrats to force Republicans to rework the coming spending cuts and tax increases in a way that benefits most Americans and the broader economy."

Reed Abelson & Julie Creswell of the New York Times: "HCA, the largest for-profit hospital chain in the United States with 163 facilities, had uncovered evidence ... showing that some cardiologists at several of its hospitals in Florida were unable to justify many of the procedures they were performing.... Unnecessary -- even dangerous -- procedures were taking place at some HCA hospitals, driving up costs and increasing profits.... In some cases, the doctors made misleading statements in medical records that made it appear the procedures were necessary, according to internal reports.... Documents suggest that the problems at HCA went beyond a rogue doctor or two."

Presidential Race

Poker Face Edition. In today's installment, Harry Reid once again demonstrates how Mormons gamble.

This whole issue is not about me. This whole controversy would end very quickly if he would release his income tax returns like everybody else has done that's running for president. -- Harry Reid, yesterday

[Mitt Romney is] the most secretive candidate since Richard Nixon. It's clear Mitt Romney is hiding something, and the only way for him to clear this up is to be straight with the American people and release his tax returns. -- Adam Jettleson, Reid's spokesman

... "The 'Missing Evidence' Instruction": Joe Conason in the National Memo: "There is a legal doctrine that applies to Romney's current behavior, as Indiana attorney John Sullivan points out -- and it doesn't place the burden of proof on Reid:

At law, if a person in control of evidence refuses to produce the evidence, then the jury is instructed that there is a presumption that the evidence would be against the party failing to produce. It is called the 'Missing Evidence' instruction.

     "The missing evidence is in Romney's grasp, yet he insists that he will never produce it. Does anyone need instruction from a judge to make the correct inference?" ...

... OR, as Hunter of Daily Kos puts it, "Whatever's in Mitt Romney's old taxes, whether it be zero-tax years or Swiss tax amnesties or non-tithing or that he made several million dollars on a new product called Fetus Chow, it's apparently so bad that America wouldn't vote for the rich business guy if they saw it. At this point, that's damning enough." ...

... House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi connects Secret Mitt's secret tax returns to Secret Mitt's secret tax policy of raising taxes on the middle class while lowering taxes on millionaire & billionaires like Willard who already use extraordinary means to further reduce their tax rates -- to somewhere around nothing. ...

... Imani Gandy in Balloon Juice: "Politifact calls Harry Reid a liar; wishes there was a way to prove that Romney paid income tax." CW: as the cited title implies, a pretty funny post.

... David Dayen of Firedoglake: "If Republicans thought they could bully Harry Reid into backing down about his comments over Mitt Romney's taxes, they simply miscalculated, and all their outrage has done is keep a story front and center that they would rather push to the margins. ...

... CW: Outraged by unproved allegations made by a friend of Harry Reid's, John Sununu jumps in to make an unproved allegations about President Obama. Tom Ovadia of Politico: "John Sununu ... [called] Sen. Harry Reid ... a 'bumbling Senate leader' and alleg[ed] that President Barack Obama is 'behind this dishonesty and misrepresentation.'" With video. ...

... Amy Parnes of The Hill: "The White House on Monday distanced President Obama from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's comments that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney hasn’t paid taxes in a decade. White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Monday that Reid (D-Nev.) 'speaks for himself' and had spoken on the issue without any guidance from Team Obama."

Alexander Burns of Politico: "In a new ad from Romney and the Republican National Committee, the GOP candidate laments Obama's support for waiving welfare work requirements for states that want to implement different policies." CW: oh, look, in an update Burns (no relation) writes, "... Romney supported certain welfare waivers for states, when he was governor of Massachusetts." Includes attack ad. Read the whole post, especially the update.

It's like Robin Hood in reverse -- it's Romney Hood. -- President Obama on Mitt Romney's tax plan

President Obama’s lawsuit claims it is unconstitutional for Ohio to allow servicemen and women extended early voting privileges during the state's early voting period. -- Mitt Romney

PolitiFact: "It is simply dishonest for Romney and his backers to claim that Obama's effort to extend early voting privileges to everyone in Ohio constitutes an attack on military voters' ability to cast ballots on the weekend before elections."

Jonathan Chait of New York: "If Romney is conceding that voting is a fundamental right rather than a privilege -- not all Republicans concede this anymore -- and, more importantly, that practical impediments can interfere with that right, then what justification do they have for their wide-ranging campaign to deny the same convenience to other Americans?"

David Firestone of the New York Times on Mitt Romney's "extraordinary lie" about early voting in Ohio.

Joe Vardon of the Columbus Dispatch: "The Romney campaign and veterans groups opposed to a lawsuit in Ohio filed by President Barack Obama's campaign continue to portray the suit as an objection to certain voting privileges for military voters. But two constitutional-law professors from different battleground states -- Ohio and Florida -- strongly disagree with the Romney campaign, and some other veterans groups say that Romney is supporting denial of voting access to hundreds of thousands of Ohio military veterans by opposing Obama's lawsuit." CW: though this appears to be a straight he-said/he-said news story, it doesn't make the Romney case look good. The headline is "Experts: Romney's wrong on Ohio early-voting suit." We like to see stories like this hit the local papers. Via Greg Sargent.

** Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones: "Ann Romney, [who has multiple sclerosis,] has done much to raise the profile of an incurable, degenerative illness that afflicts some 400,000 Americans.... But ... MS advocates say that policies [Mitt] Romney now supports would be detrimental for many MS sufferers, and they are actively opposing these proposals.... Romney has pledged to 'repeal and replace' the Affordable Care Act.... He also would turn Medicaid, the government health care plan for children and the poor, into a block grant, a plan that would ultimately cut millions from the program. And when he promises to replace Obamacare, Romney has offered only a few weak substitutes, such as capping damages in malpractice lawsuits. All of this would have tremendous implications for people with multiple sclerosis." CW: read the whole post. Thanks to Lisa for the link. ...

CW: Mencimer links to this video on MittRomney.com (one of my favorite sites) in which the Romney family talks about Ann's illness. The video, released in late May 2012, obviously should be one that, among other goals, puts candidate Mitt in a positive light. While their sons say Mitt has been very supportive of Ann, the only things Mitt says in the video -- titled "Soul Mate," are,

Probably the toughest time in my life was standing there with Ann as we hugged each other and the diagnosis came. As long as it's not something fatal, I'm just fine. I'm happy in life as long as I've got my soul mate with me.

     ... Ann learns she has a debilitating illness, yet somehow it's all about Mitt -- how tough her illness is on him, how he's just fine and he's happy in life. This is absolutely the closest Mitt can come to feelings of love and empathy for another human being. He doesn't get close, and evidently he and his campaign advisors see nothing wrong with his sheer selfishness. ...

... This is a tough anti-Romney ad, which I think reflects exactly the trait we see in the "Soul Mate" spot:

     ... CW: normally, I find this type of ad unfair. After all, every person in power -- even a well-meaning, caring person -- makes decisions that have negative impacts on other people's lives. But I think the ad reflects a true thing about Romney -- that he doesn't care how his decisions hurt other people; ergo, his positions on health care.

AND in Sporting News for the Super-Rich, CBS News reports, "Ann Romney said her horse Rafalca had another 'fabulous' ride at the Olympic team equestrian dressage competition and that she's thinking of breeding the German-born mare when she stops competing in a year or two. Rafalca, the 15-year-old bay that has inspired political jokes about Mitt Romney's wealth and Republican presidential ambitions, had a solid performance Tuesday, although rider Jan Ebeling said he wished the score of 69.302 percent could have been higher. The low score confirmed that Rafalca won't advance to the individual medal competition Thursday."

Congressional Races

Cameron Joseph of The Hill: "The big-spending GOP outside group Crossroads GPS has bought $7.2 million in airtime in five key Senate states, an ad-tracking source told The Hill. The ads will begin to air this Wednesday in Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota and Virginia -- all key swing states The Hill rates as 'toss-ups.' The GOP needs to gain a net of four seats for Senate control."

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "As they kick off tough reelection battles, the GOP [Congressional freshmen] are taking pains to distance themselves from a Capitol that remains toxic, casting themselves as the same insurgent forces that swept to power in 2010. Far from embracing the Congress that they promised to change, the freshmen are taking an ice pick to it," effectively pretending their opponents -- not they -- are the incumbents. ...

... Dave Weigel finds some Democratic incumbents who are doing the same.

News Ledes

AP: "Congressman Todd Akin has won a hard-fought Republican primary for the right to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill. Akin on Tuesday topped businessman John Brunner and former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman in a primary in which all three leading candidates portrayed themselves as the top conservative choice. McCaskill was unopposed in the Democratic primary."

AP: "Former Michigan Congressman Pete Hoekstra has won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, overcoming a challenge from two Republicans who questioned his record as a conservative. The Holland former lawmaker defeated Clark Durant of Grosse Pointe and former Kent County Judge Randy Hekman of Grand Rapids Tuesday in the GOP primary. He'll advance to a November matchup with Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow."

AP: "Jared Lee Loughner agreed Tuesday to spend the rest of his life in prison, accepting that he went on a deadly shooting rampage at an Arizona political gathering and sparing the victims a lengthy, possibly traumatic death-penalty trial."

AP: "A major fire at one of the country's biggest oil refineries that sent scores of people to hospitals with breathing problems will push gas prices above $4 a gallon on the West Coast, analysts said Tuesday. The fire, which sent plumes of black smoke over the San Francisco Bay area, erupted Monday evening in the massive Chevron refinery about 10 miles northeast of San Francisco."

AP: "A Texas man, [Marvin Wilson,] convicted of killing a police informant two decades ago was executed Tuesday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments that he was too mentally impaired to qualify for the death penalty."

AP: "The Federal Aviation Administration will bar airports nationwide from using a traffic-reversing operation that led to a close call last week at an airport near the nation's capital."

New York Times: "Marvin Hamlisch, the singularly productive and sensationally decorated composer of musicals like 'A Chorus Line' and songs like 'The Way We Were,' has died, his family said Tuesday through a representative. He was 68." ...

     ... Update: the Times' obituary is here. The Times also features videos of performances of Hamlisch's songs here.

The Hill: "Missouri's hotly contested Republican Senate primary will be decided on Tuesday, with major implications for the fall campaign against embattled Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) -- and control of the Senate."

Detroit News: "Headlining the ballot [in Michigan] is a GOP primary for U.S. Senate among Pete Hoekstra, Clark Durant and Randy Hekman.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Nearly 900 Roman Catholic nuns will gather in St. Louis this week to discuss their future relationship with the Vatican.... In the spring, the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog office issued a report that questioned the organization's fidelity to some church teachings, accused it of 'serious doctrinal problems' and announced that three U.S. bishops would temporarily take the group's reins in order to reform it. This week, the members of the Leadership Conference for Women Religious -- which represents 80 percent of the country's 57,000 Catholic nuns -- will discuss their options, which could range from accepting the reforms to severing their official connection to the Vatican."

More on the Mars landing at this NASA.gov page.

Charlotte Observer: "Andrew Young, the ex-aide to John Edwards, and his wife will not be prosecuted for criminal contempt for their actions in a civil case brought against them by Edwards' former mistress, the district attorney for Orange and Chatham counties announced Monday." Via Kevin Robillard of Politico.

President Obama signed a bill yesterday designed to improve health care for veterans. The bill also prohibits protesting within 300 feet of a military funeral. He answered a press question about the Oak Creek, Wisconsin murders:

Comments

[Akhilleus]

The level of hatred in this country has reached epidemic proportions. The reasons are many. For some it begins as a simple suspicion of those who don’t look like they do or worship in the same church or belong to the same groups. In many cases, it doesn’t go much further, but for many others, it’s the beginning of full blown bigotry which for a few leads directly to murder. This usually happens because those most likely to fall into the hatred hole are given tacit and in many cases full throated support for feeling as they do.

Black and white water fountains, rest rooms, theater seating, restaurant and hotel service would never have come about if there wasn’t some essential and far reaching support for such divisions. Conversely, once public opinion of a more enlightened variety became the norm, Jim Crow traditions began to fade to the point where now even many who might welcome their return don’t feel all that comfortable saying so in public (unless you’re an overweight drug addicted conservative windbag whose initials are the same as Repulsively Low). But hatred against Muslims and Islam in general, and the ignorance that goes along with all racism and bigotry, is cheered on by major media outlets, thousands of right-wing screamers, and influential (if not very bright) political “leaders”—and even some who are smart but cynically manipulative, probably the worst snakes in the shithole. They give comfort and support to the haters.

For some reason I am on a mailing list to which is delivered regular screeds so hate-filled I feel the need to wipe the venom off my screen after opening some of these unhinged philippics.

Recently I was treated to an e-mail that appears to be making the rounds of right-wing mailing lists. I will bet anything that Wade Michael Page (why are so many of these murdering louts given the three name treatment?—more on that later) read this one.

It begins with a vicious slap at President Obama (why not? Him being Moooslum and all…) who dared in a speech given in Cairo in 2009, known as the New Beginning Speech, to refer to the contributions of Muslims to American society.

The writer departs on a hate fueled rampage, challenging this assertion by stating that no Muslims signed the Declaration of Independence or voted for the Constitution, no Muslims were at Plymouth Rock with the “real founders of America” white Puritans, meaning no Muslims were at the first Thanksgiving. No Muslims fought in the Civil War or any other wars for America’s freedom, aligning themselves instead with Hitler. He goes on (wild guess here that this writer is a he—I know it’s not Michele Bachmann because there aren’t enough misspellings) to rip Muslims for not treating women very well—as if this guy and his most rabid readers all own well thumbed copies of Virginia Woolf novels and “The Feminine Mystique”. Another ignorant assertion is that Muslims had nothing to do with Civil Rights in this country. Hello? Moron? Ever hear of Malcolm X? Muhammad Ali? The Black Muslims?

Fucking idiots.

Luckily there are students of real, as opposed to imagined, history who can easily rebut such trash and offer some much needed context (not that many in the targeted audience would read them). In this case though here’s a sample:

It’s true no Muslims were at the first Thanksgiving. Neither were there any Catholics or Jews. Or Irish or Italians. Do those groups have no place in the development of American society? No Muslims signed the Declaration of Independence. But neither did any Native Americans. Are they not included in this version of American history? Apparently not.

As for the Pilgrims (Ie, white people) getting here first, a Muslim slave named Estevanico was brought to this continent in 1527 nearly a century before those Puritans set sail for Plymouth Rock.

A common mistake made by the knuckledraggers is to assume that all Muslims come from the Middle East. Only 1 in 5 do. A couple of months after the Normandy invasion of 1944 a large contingent of troops stormed the beaches of Provence. The majority of these troops were Free French Muslims from northern and western Africa. As for the Civil War, it’s very likely that many freed slaves who ended up fighting for the North were of Muslim extraction, taken from the Islamic kingdoms of West Africa.

On and on it goes. But the fact that such crazy bullshit, sent along with powerful orders to pass this along to all “REAL AMERICANS—OR ELSE!!!!!” is a big part of what spurs on haters like this loser murderer of peaceful Sikhs. As others have pointed out, right-wingers are scrambling to make sure that everyone knows that this guy was not a standard issue GOP hater because he didn’t actually go after any real Muslims—they were, you know, Sikhs, so he must be just a kook. Sorry. Bigots don’t usually make such fine distinctions. Their small lizard brains are unable to accommodate differences of such granularity. All they know is “Brown skinned?” Check. “Turban wearing?” Check. “Don’t worship Jesus?” Check.

Fuck ‘em. Kill ‘em all.

The American Right Wing: solidly behind the murderers and the haters. Next step is to elect one of those ignorant haters president. Oh wait. They already did that. He started two wars to murder as many brown skinned turban wearers as he could.

And now he’s playing golf, enjoying life, kicking back. His heritage is alive and well most recently seen in Wisconsin. And that heritage is picked up and amplified by Fox screamers, right-wing douchebags, and imbeciles like whoever wrote this e-mail. The problem for the rest of us is that there are so MANY of these creeps out there.

Where will they strike next?

[Akhilleus]

The GOP has sent out invitations to various right-wing illuminati to speak at their upcoming clam bake in Tampa. Among the luminaries are boy genius Rand Paul, Saint Rick Santorum, and Jebby (my turn to be pres next) Bush. Hard to believe that a Bush can be seen as the most reasonable of the three but that’s the truth.

So Rand Paul, who has his beady little eyes (don’t forget boys and girls, Lil’ Randy is a “self-certified” ophthalmologist) cross-eyed on the White House in 2016, is an excellent example of the kind of candidate fielded by Teabaggers: ignorant, bigoted, self-important, woefully uninformed ignorant about the actual workings of government (he instructed us that the Supreme Court does not have any say in constitutional matters. Yup. He really did.), beset with juvenile and immature belief systems (LOVES Ayn Rand. ‘nuff said.), and thinks discrimination is a god given right for Americans who want to keep minorities away from their places of business. THIS guy wants to be president.

Then we have Savonarola, Rick Santorum, who has perhaps the most warped and savagely medieval beliefs about sex and science and who wants to outlaw pre-marital sex even for heterosexuals. Homosexuals he just wants locked in prison. See? He’s not that bad.

The fact that the GOP is inviting these two despicable actors onto the dais, giving them places of honor in the party’s biggest show simply reinforces all of your worst fears about the Party of No.

These fools will make Pat Buchanan’s embarrassing racist tirade at the 1992 GOP convention look like a model of political sobriety and civic temperance.

They’ll make a dangerous, election-stealing, right-wing demagogue like Jeb Bush look positively presidential.

But then again, what does it say about today’s Democratic Party that insufferable imbeciles like these still beat them regularly like a rented mule?

Sad. It really is.

[PD Pepe]

So, Akilleus, welcome back to the real world which must be a shock to the system after your sojourn to the heavens of Mars. A dear friend of mine also took the trip claiming, like you, that he witnessed that same scrub woman––ugly as sin, he says, who kept asking everyone around her "Where is John Galt?" He didn't see Twain, but did see the newly launched Gore Vidal spotted with Bill Buckly, both looking as serene as sleeping serpents and holding each other's hands. He found that nifty tavern you mentioned, downed a couple of cold ones before calling it a day ––or night, he wasn't sure––said there were a bunch of old guys playing checkers, and one, a very chubby black man, called out to my friend to remind us earthlings, "Rock and Roll is here to stay." Will do, said my friend, and as he turned to leave noticed a large vault in a corner with the words: MITT ROMNEY'S TAX RETURNS––NO ADMITTANCE. Hot damn, thought my friend, who reported this to the authorities when he landed back here who laughed and asked what he had been smoking. And so it goes~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[PD Pepe]

To add to the history:

By KENNETH C. DAVIS
Published: November 25, 2008
TO commemorate the arrival of the first pilgrims to America’s shores, a June date would be far more appropriate, accompanied perhaps by coq au vin and a nice Bordeaux. After all, the first European arrivals seeking religious freedom in the “New World” were French. And they beat their English counterparts by 50 years. That French settlers bested the Mayflower Pilgrims may surprise Americans raised on our foundational myth, but the record is clear.

Long before the Pilgrims sailed in 1620, another group of dissident Christians sought a haven in which to worship freely. These French Calvinists, or Huguenots, hoped to escape the sectarian fighting between Catholics and Protestants that had bloodied France since 1560.

Landing in balmy Florida in June of 1564, at what a French explorer had earlier named the River of May (now the St. Johns River near Jacksonville), the French émigrés promptly held a service of “thanksgiving.” Carrying the seeds of a new colony, they also brought cannons to fortify the small, wooden enclosure they named Fort Caroline, in honor of their king, Charles IX.

In short order, these French pilgrims built houses, a mill and bakery, and apparently even managed to press some grapes into a few casks of wine. At first, relationships with the local Timucuans were friendly, and some of the French settlers took native wives and soon acquired the habit of smoking a certain local “herb.” Food, wine, women — and tobacco by the sea, no less. A veritable Gallic paradise.
Except, that is, to the Spanish, who had other visions for the New World. In 1565, King Philip II of Spain issued orders to “hang and burn the Lutherans” (then a Spanish catchall term for Protestants) and dispatched Adm. Pedro Menéndez to wipe out these French heretics who had taken up residence on land claimed by the Spanish — and who also had an annoying habit of attacking Spanish treasure ships as they sailed by.

Leading this holy war with a crusader’s fervor, Menéndez established St. Augustine and ordered what local boosters claim is the first parish Mass celebrated in the future United States. Then he engineered a murderous assault on Fort Caroline, in which most of the French settlers were massacred. Menéndez had many of the survivors strung up under a sign that read, “I do this not as to Frenchmen but as to heretics.” A few weeks later, he ordered the execution of more than 300 French shipwreck survivors at a site just south of St. Augustine, now marked by an inconspicuous national monument called Fort Matanzas, from the Spanish word for “slaughters.”

With this, America’s first pilgrims disappeared from the pages of history. Casualties of Europe’s murderous religious wars, they fell victim to Anglophile historians who erased their existence as readily as they demoted the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine to second-class status behind the later English colonies in Jamestown and Plymouth.

But the truth cannot be so easily buried. Although overlooked, a brutal first chapter had been written in the most untidy history of a “Christian nation.” And the sectarian violence and hatred that ended with the deaths of a few hundred Huguenots in 1565 would be replayed often in early America, the supposed haven for religious dissent, which in fact tolerated next to none.
Starting with those massacred French pilgrims, the saga of the nation’s birth and growth is often a bloodstained one, filled with religious animosities. In Boston, for instance, the Puritan fathers banned Catholic priests and executed several Quakers between 1659 and 1661. Cotton Mather, the famed Puritan cleric, led the war cries against New England’s Abenaki “savages” who had learned their prayers from the French Jesuits. The colony of Georgia was established in 1732 as a buffer between the Protestant English colonies and the Spanish missions of Florida; its original charter banned Catholics. The bitter rivalry between Catholic France and Protestant England carried on for most of a century, giving rise to anti-Catholic laws, while a mistrust of Canada’s French Catholics helped fire many patriots’ passion for independence. As late as 1844, Philadelphia’s anti-Catholic “Bible Riots” took the lives of more than a dozen people.

The list goes on. Our history is littered with bleak tableaus that show what happens when righteous certitude is mixed with fearful ignorance. Which is why this Thanksgiving, as we express gratitude for America’s bounty and promise, we would do well to reflect on all our histories, including a forgotten French one that began on Florida’s shores so many years ago.

[Akhilleus]

PD,

Religious intolerance is still happily celebrated by the GOP. Why else invite a vicious bigot like Rick Santorum to a place of honor at their quadrennial dance?

But isn't it funny how none of these people ever seem to wonder how it could be that god told both sides to kill the other. Either that god is a bit of a sicko, or somebody (everybody?) has their wires crossed.

Haters gonna hate, I guess.

Same as it ever was.

[Ken Winkes]

The social and political dance is all about tribes and walls. So it has always been, but this time around the choreography is impossible to ignore.

Robert Frost long since took care (rhetorically) of the walls with his trenchant, apt, and one would think rather obvious observation that walls wall in as much as they wall out, but we still have one political party that survives and in some venues prospers by preaching their efficacy.

Beyond the literal wall they have erected along our southern border, they pit white people against black or brown, Christians against anyone who does not adhere to an accepted brand of religion, the rich against the poor, and the illiterate against the educated.

The irony of it all is how we condescend to the people in the Middle East. We don't understand why they just can't set aside their petty squabbles and simply get along. We even bankrupt ourselves, spending billions upon billions trying to force their disparate sects into some kind of cohesion and lament the task is so difficult because they are organized into tribes not into what we would consider rational nations or states. We just can't understand why they can't see beyond the limitations imposed on they by their tribal perspective and join the larger, more tolerant world.

But surely a look in the national mirror would tell us how one party encourages us to head in the same direction, not coincidentally the direction that Germany took in the 1930's. We're just fine; it's those other people who are the problem.

Some ironies are not all that funny.

[Akhilleus]

Ken,

I think your assessment of the current state of the Republican Party is far more sanguine than it deserves. Your suggestion that they view difficulties in the Middle East as originating in inviolate and irreconcilable tribal perspectives suggests that Republicans themselves recognize differences of opinion. That is simply not true. They recognize one--and only one--point of view. Their own.

Rick Savonarola has declared that there is NO SUCH THING as a Palestinian. Let me say that again; NO SUCH THING AS A PALESTINIAN. Why? Well, according to Mr. Medieval (don't stick that dick up my ass unless I tell you to) Christianity, there is no such place as Palestine. Since the Balfour Declaration in 1917 (which has immense, orgasmic appeal to Republicans and Neo-cons--a thing is a thing because we FUCKING say so and we don't give a good goddam what you, who have lived here for eons, have to say about it. FUCK YOU you fucking towel heads) Palestine is now officially Israel and therefore there is no such thing as a non-Jewish Palestinian. Such nonsense has, of course, been roundly dismissed by anyone with a brain. EXCEPT bigoted doggie ball lickers like Rick (freshly licked canine scrotum) Santorum.

So really, Republicans don't give a Willard the Rat's ass about Palestinians.

Because they don't exist.

Just like anyone who harbors opinions and beliefs different from right-wing leaking anal orifices like Rick Santorum don't exist.

That's why he's being invited to lecture the GOP faithful and you are not.

In the modern GO fucking P, brains are not optional. They are anathema.

Leaking assholes rule.

[Ken Winkes]

@Akhilleus. If by "sanguine" you mean "hopeful", I didn't mean to convey all that much hope. If fact, I'm too often depressed by the state of our political affairs, particularly that championed by the Right's supreme intolerance of any and everyone who does not thoughtlessly genuflect at the altar of their Black Gods of Fear and Hate . And yes, I suspect my rants might be taken as a form of self-administered, too seldom effective, therapy.

Though we say it differently and we mostly agree, if by "sanguine" you meant "bloody," perhaps we've both understated our anti-GOP cases.