At first I was outraged (OUTRAGED, I say) that Thomas would use such an incindiery term to refer to liberals, but then I remembered a few of us (and possibly even me) referring to Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as the American Taliban. It still makes me mad, mind you, but I got over the shock of the term.
Perhaps it was too extreme to use that to describe the Religious Right, though it is so damn easy when they bash gays, feminists, and seem to want women to cover up more. And let's not forget calling for the death of foreign leaders. More like a fatwa than anything that occurred in Connecticut. In fact, note to idiot Cal: a ballot is not a fatwa--that is what makes us different, remember? Why they hate us?
But back to Cal Thomas's shit piece. And it is a pile of it, trust me. The logical leaps here are so annoying that it would take all morning and more coffee than I have in me to refute them all.
But let me take on a few. As EJ Dionne pointed out, conservatives have all jumped on All democrats for Lieberman's failure, as if the leadership of the party turned on Joe because he stepped out of Democratic orthodoxy on one point (the war). Most of the Democratic leadership supported Joe. Hell, Bill Clinton campaigned for him. But when the people of Connecticut chose otherwise, they decided to support the system of democracy. That doesn't seem like Taliban policy to me.
By the way, Cynthia McKinney, the Representative most famous for punching a Capitol police person also lost in her primary. I didn't hear anyone in the GOP coming to her defense. Democracy worked there, evidently.
But back to Toxic Cal. He makes two points that really infuriate me. First:
As a Jew, Mr. Lieberman is particularly sensitive to those who have targeted the Jewish people for extinction. But even if he weren't Jewish, he would still "get it," because he understands what's at stake in the region and has correctly concluded that the consequences of American failure in Iraq would be catastrophic.See, Republicans and Bush followers are the only people who "get" the problems of the region. Cal, I "get" it too. I wonder why you don't "get" that Bush's little war has caused the entire region to become less stable, not more.
Second, is something we have talked about here before.
Former Bill Clinton aide Lanny Davis, in a recent column for the Wall Street Journal titled "Liberal McCarthyism," printed a sample of the incendiary rhetoric directed toward Mr. Lieberman. There is thinly-veiled anti-Semitism ("As everybody knows, Jews only care about the welfare of other Jews...." Posted on Daily Kos); irrationality ("Joe Lieberman is a racist and a religious bigot." Daily Kos); and personal attack ("Lieberman cannot escape the religious bond he represents. Hell, his wife's name is Haggadah or Muffeletta or Diaspora or something you eat at Passover." Posted on the Huffington Post blog).This is the most annoying and dishonest tactic most recently employed. If you notice, all those stupid things he quotes are not from Kos himself, nor from any other notable liberal, but from the comments. I agree that they are stupid. I find the commenters at the DailyKos (sometimes) annoying and same with other liberal blogs. Yes, liberals can be pretty obnoxious in the comment threads. Some of them are even racist. But those are fucking commenters!
If I want to find obnoxious, racist and demeaning prose from conservatives, I don't have to even read the comments over at LGF. Or, I don't even have to read blogs. All I have to do is check out what Michelle Malkin, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, or Cal Fucking Thomas has written in print, spoken on Fox, or spewed from their syndicated radio show.
The right has put their bigots and idiots in power, yet the left has to answer for anonymous commenters. The RNC puts a Hitler mustache on Howard Dean, yet Cal attacks commenters on a blog.
Yeah, that's right. Sigh.
3 comments:
Maybe Cal needs to be reminded of his own words in his book "Blinded by Might", but then they ignore thier own hypocracy.
Preach on!
You're trying to make sense of Cal Thomas. That's like trying to get directions from a broken compass. Cal is a shill. His single sole purpose for existing in the media landscape is to push the Republican talking points and to advance the religious right's agenda in the media. He gets paid for that, and that only - otherwise he would disappear from the map altogether.
But comparing the Democrats to the Taliban is not only silly, but off the mark. In a point by point breakdown of shared values, the Taliban and the religious right of Falwell and Robertson are much more in idealogical lockstep than the democrats that voted Lieberman out. You remember that it was the Taliban that destroyed one of a kind works of the religious art in their hatred of all things not of their religion. And you remember that is was the Taliban that treated women in such horrific ways, and banning all things they determined to be immoral. Does that sound familiar, does that sound like Democrats?
The irony of Cal Thomas chastising the Democrats for pushing conformity is laughable considering the near clonelike status of all republican representatives and his own rigid guidelines when it comes to abortion related issues...
So ultimately we must conclude that Cal is once again blowing smoke out his ass to push his owner's message.
I guess Cal forgot that the Bush administration gave the Taliban $43 million in May of 2001.
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