Underlying all of this is the deeply corrosive, all-out war on liberalism.

[seafan]

The screamers have so blanketed the landscape with the vilification and outright demonization of the word "liberal" that it causes a Pavlovian flinch in the targets of this lie, a demoralized and now very angry public. Consider the percentage of right wing attack ads in the run-up to the election that derisively spit out the word "liberal" in the manner of a rapist stalking new prey.


The right wingers spent millions over decades, crafting the code language and points of attack against liberalism, now directed at Obama's policies that, in nearly every direction, are numbing continuations of Bush policy. And yet, the screamers call these policies "liberal", and must be repudiated.


That must mean that Bush was "liberal" too.



The right wing goal has always been to so poison the concept of looking out for the people, the very essence of liberalism, that sheer repetition of the word becomes deadly toxic to the discourse.



Our nation is being poisoned by this manipulation.



Here's a prime example:


Two days ago in South Florida, Broward County schools underwent districtwide lockdown because of a threat of a mass shooting that was e-mailed and phoned into Joyce Kaufman's radio show in South Florida.

Who is Joyce Kaufman? She was recently named as the new chief of staff of newly elected U. S. Representative Allen West (R-FL), a rabid tea party member.

She is also a lightning rod for public hate speech.

The investigators in Broward County are looking at the incendiary speech on Ms. Kaufman's radio program as a catalyst for the emergence of this specific threat against the schools.


Fortunately, no one was injured at the schools, but high-level investigations continue.


Ms. Kaufman has now angrily quit West's staff.

Kaufman pushed back against depictions of her as a gun crazy nut. After suggesting she wants to "exterminate" the left, she laughed and said, "I mean that in a pest control way...in a humane way, trap them and release them in their homes.

"I'm really nice, sweet tempered," she said. "Sometimes I get a little ballistic, but I don't want to hurt anybody, I just want to see my country go back to what it was."

A caller with Tea Party Fort Lauderdale says it will have a Joyce Kaufman day on Saturday, waving signs to support the host. Kaufman joked that there's some upsides to not going to DC, telling one caller that she "wouldn't have fit in anyhow. Can you see me in a pantsuit?"

And the woman whose show intro bellows, "The Most Heavily Armed Radio Talk Show Host in South Florida," said she's relieved she won't have to give up her concealed weapons permit -- "I'd have to give it up in DC," she said.

She told listeners she's going to be on Lou Dobbs' radio show today and that fellow talkers are "outraged." She said she got hate e-mails after bloggers and cable TV attacked her: "They say, well I can't say what they say because those words are not allowed on the air, followed by Kill You."

During that same radio program, Allen West called in. This is what he said:

The incoming congressman (Allen West) just called into Joyce Kaufman's radio show and told her while she's taking on the left in South Florida, he'll "fight them on the battle field in Washington DC.

"I'm even more committed, even more focused on making sure that this liberal, progressive, socialist agenda, this leftwing vile, vicious, despicable machine that is out there is soundly brought to its knees," he said.

This is the newly elected U. S. Congressman representing parts of South Florida.




Is this the new normal in the United States of America?

[SidDithers]

1. Unrec...nt

Sid

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Yes it is becoming the new normal

and you will hit a nerve with this post young one!

And well done.

:hi:

[leftstreet]

3. And it didn't cost the other side a dime to destroy the word 'Republican'

Reaganomics did it all by itself.


Remind me again why this party got revived?


K&R

[Octafish]

4. ABC, the CIA, and the Rise of Rush Limbaugh

Junking the Fairness Doctrine was only part of it.

ABC and the rise of Rush Limbaugh.

The following brief history of ABC offers a perfect snapshot of everything that has gone wrong with the media. This remarkable story includes ABC's takeover by a conservative parent corporation, the demise of the Fairness Doctrine, the rightward shift of the evening news, the rise of conservative talk radio, and the cozy relationship between a state and a press that are supposed to be separate.

In 1985, ABC was taken over by Capital Cities, a conservative, Roman Catholic media organization with extensive ties to the CIA.

(If you think we're making this up, you should know that the Capital Cities takeover of ABC is one of the most analyzed in history, and the subject of many books by Wall Street experts and scholars. Especially recommended is Networks of Power, by Emmy Award-winner Dennis Mazzocco.) (1)

Capital Cities was born in 1954, and rapidly prospered. Many of its founders had previously worked in the U.S. intelligence community and had a great amount of wealth, social contacts and influence in government. Yet they opted to keep the company's actions out of the public eye -- they did not flaunt their wealth with private planes and lavish offices the way so many successful companies do. Just exactly how well-connected Capital Cities was to the CIA is unknown, but it is clear that the CIA concerned itself with the company at various times. The fact that the CIA has often used private businessmen, journalists and even entire companies as fronts for covert operations is not only well-known by historians, but legendary. (Recall Howard Hughes and Trans-World Airlines...)

One of Capital City's early founders was William Casey, who would later become Ronald Reagan's Director of the CIA. At the time of Casey's nomination, the press expressed surprise that Reagan would hire a businessman whose last-known intelligence experience was limited to OSS operations in World War II. The fact is, however, that Casey had never left intelligence. Throughout the Cold War he kept a foot in both worlds, in private business as well as the CIA. A history of Casey's business dealings reveals that he was an aggressive player who saw nothing wrong with bending the law to further his own conservative agenda. When he became implicated as a central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal, many Washington insiders considered it a predictable continuation of a very shady career.

Another Capital Cities founder, Lowell Thomas, was a close friend and business contact with Allen Dulles, Eisenhower's CIA Director, and John Dulles, the Secretary of State. Thomas always denied being a spy, but he was frequently seen at events involving intelligence operations. Another founder was Thomas Dewey, whom the CIA had given millions to create other front companies for covert operations.

CONTINUED...

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-libmedia.htm

Thank you for another oustanding post, seafan. You put our mind's eye on it: These days are the "New Normal."

Kick and Recommend for those interested in learning. The hell with wastrels!

[OHdem10]

5. Either KO or Rachel showed a clip of her at a rally yelling

about using bullets if ballots do not work.

She seems to be something else.

[seafan]

6. Yes.

The link to that video is in the OP and also here.


There are no words to describe fully the manipulative and dangerously corrosive effects of this type of language on an unemployed, impoverished, powerless and angry population.

But, that seems to be the condition the radical right wants for the rest of us. Just not for themselves.