“No Knock” calls bullshit on government promises for racial and social progress. Very funny, angry stuff.

“Home is Where the Hatred Is” is funky and full of disgust. Amazing.

“Pieces of a Man” broke my heart when I first heard it. Still does. Just about a guy getting a pink slip.

Yeah, forty years old, still relevant. Sorry to see him go.

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Seriously, this kills me. At least with the “Bush Was Right” meme, there was an underlying agreement that people demanding freedom and democracy in the Middle East was a good thing. But now we can’t even agree upon the fundamental reality that the vast majority of Egyptians are demanding an open, free and democratic government. Now we have the Neo-Birchers — the Glenn Becks, the Sean Hannities, the Frank Gaffneys — insisting that they are dupes of a worldwide conspiracy to impose a socialist caliphate. Not only in the Middle East, but with Muslim Brotherhood affiliates waiting to wreak havoc in Britain and the U.S., egged on by the socialist agenda of the Obama White House.*

What the hell? I understand disagreements about abortion, about global warming, even about evolution — but about this? It’s disgusting. Shameless. The craven authoritarianism and insipid racism underlying this disinformation utterly appalls me.

So does this cartoon. Thanks for spreading Mubarak propaganda, Bob.

*Meanwhile Omar Suleiman, current vice president and former go-to guy for extraordinary rendition and torture, appears on Egyptian state television blaming all thee unrest on meddlers with “foreign agendas.” That pretty much puts him and Beck on the same page.

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Despite the strong association of the term with collective Jewish guilt and concomitant slaughter, Sarah Palin has every right to use it. The expression may be used whenever an amorphous mass is collectively accused of being murderers or accessories to murder.

If we define it vaguely enough and stretch the definition a little bit, we can surely apply “blood libel” to a highly simplified and distorted portrayal of media coverage of the Tuscon shootings and right wing rhetoric.

To be fair, Rabbi Boteach does a very good job of explaining the origins and history of antisemitic murder that the “blood libel” myth represents. All the more disappointing that he has chosen to trivialize this history for partisan purposes.

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During this election cycle, Arizona politicians are touting the potential dangers of illegal immigration. Gov. Jan Brewer is one of the loudest voices.

She has made several statements to the national media, the validity of which CBS 5 Investigates could not confirm. The governor told one media outlet that almost all illegal immigrants are bringing drugs across the border. U.S. Border Patrol officials said that statement is false.

Brewer also said law enforcement officials have found decapitated bodies in the desert. Calls to all of Arizona’s border county medical examiners revealed no decapitated bodies have been reported to them.

A look at data from the FBI shows crime in Arizona is actually down. Murders in Phoenix have dropped by 50 percent since 2003. The violent crime rate across the state has dropped every year since at least 2004. Even the number of illegal border crossers is down. Border Patrol numbers show they are arresting half as many illegal immigrants as they did in 2004.

U.S. Attorney for Arizona, Dennis Burke, told CBS 5 Investigates, “If you’re not into drug trafficking and you’re not into human smuggling, you’re going to be safe. This is a safe place to live.”

Well, geez, what if I WANT to smuggle drugs and humans over the border? What about MY safety?

Meanwhile, Talk of the Nation gave way too much credence to the “anchor baby” hysteria driving the GOP and Dem wingnuts to demand a revision of the 14th Amendment. To be fair, the main guest was a thoughtful and patient opponent of such a revision, and most callers gave great arguments against it. But host Neal Conan’s “objectivity” failed to fact-check the reality behind the “anchor baby” term or psuedo-phenomenon. “Well, gee, one caller said she sees illegal aliens dropping babies all the time, so it must be true.” C’mon, man — prepare! Call bullshit when you see it! Sadly, this is probably the best treatment of the subject one can expect from the major news outlets.

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Dr. Laura has announced she will end her show following criticism for her repeated use of the “N-word” at a black caller on her show. Classic white whining about her “First Amendment rights” and “some special-interest group deciding this is a time to silence a voice of dissent.” She does “not want to live in fear anymore.” Remember, the worst thing you can do to a white person is point out their racism. Worse than the HOLOCAUST!!!

But don’t get her wrong: “I’m not quitting.” She is now “freer to say the things that I believe need to be said for people in this country.” Like, say, insisting black people not get so testy when they hear white people use the “N-word” with manic glee.

Somewhere Sarah Palin is winking with approval. Is this a kind of “going Galt” among right wing nutjobs? Quit a position of influence and responsibility in a petulant gesture with delusions of somehow leading the country without the power that position granted (governor, nationally distributed talk show). To Palin’s credit, she has turned her Facebook and Twitter accounts into platforms for launching disinformation campaigns that have had real effects on public policy — “death panels.” But I think that’s a one-trick pony. Schlessinger has none of Palin’s soap opera/divisive appeal.

I’m not saying Dr. Laura will go quietly into that dark night, of course. She’ll probably join Alan Keyes in the asteroid belt of conservo-cranks, floating around until some odd gravitational force dislodges them from their orbit and hurls them into the sun, where they’ll crash and burn.

UPDATE (8/18/2010): I knew the comparison between Dr. Laura and Sarah Palin was obvious, but never predicted Palin would latch onto it with pride.

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For instance, consider the inevitable “draws fire” article on Republican responses to President Obama’s support for the construction of a mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero. It’s got Peter King, that reliable voice of downstate NY dipshits:

“While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque, they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much,” he said. “The right and moral thing for President Obama to have done was to urge Muslim leaders to respect the families of those who died and move their mosque away from ground zero. Unfortunately, the president caved into political correctness.”

Note that it is NOT “political correctness” to defer to the knee-jerk sensibilities of people who confuse a major global religion with the violence committed by a fringe terrorist sect. Forget the Constitution or simple fairness, let the fears and grievances of a handful of victim’s families hold sway. In that light, I refer you to Matt Bors’ excellent cartoon on the subject.

But wait, there’s more! While the rest of the world would rather cram broken glass in their ears than hear what Rick Santorum has to say on any subject whatsoever, FOXNews knows their audience.

Former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania told Fox News that Obama seems to misunderstand that Islam is not just a religion, but also a political doctrine. He also said the mosque is being run by a man who accused the U.S. of being an accomplice in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Santorum compared the ground zero mosque to a minister who wants to builds a church near the location where the Rev. Martin Luther King was killed but preaches racial separation and the notion that King brought his death upon himself.

Martin Luther King — such handy rhetorical cover for right wing racism. Ironic, too, given that the good doctor would most likely support the construction of Cordoba House. Ah, but what about that nasty imam whom The Santorum calls out for victim-blaming? That would be Feisal Abdul Rauf, a respected Muslim cleric who has served the diplomatic missions of both Obama and Bush administrations. Insert hypocrisy here:

Oddly, Republicans didn’t complain when the Bush/Cheney State Department partnered with “this radical” to help with our diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. This isn’t complicated — if Bush considered Feisal Abdul Rauf a valuable American voice and representative, there’s no reason for the GOP to freak out now.

Reasons. Don’t make me laugh.

BTW, the “victim blaming” in question — the rhetorical arrow that King and Santorum fire off with all the precision of a drunk aiming for the urinal (coating the floor and walls in a perfect circle, the center target perfectly dry) — derives from an interview imam Rauf gave to the late Ed Bradley many years ago.

Bradley: And throughout the Muslim world, there is also strong opposition to America’s foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East because of its support of Israel and economic sanctions against Iraq.

Faisal: It is a reaction against the US government politically, where we espouse principles of democracy and human rights, and where we ally ourselves with oppressive regimes in many of these countries.

Bradley: Are you in any way suggesting that we in the United States deserved what happened?

Faisal: I wouldn’t say that the United States deserved what happened, but united states policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.

Bradley: You say that we’re an accessory? How?

Faisal: Because we have been accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.

Make of that what you will — everyone else is!

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(Title taken from Dylan’s “Idiot Wind.” No decent YouTube vid for it, but Adam Levy does a good impersonator version.)

Oh, and my two cents on how the Obama Admin dealt with this? (Not that you asked….) Breitbart deserves all the feces we can throw at him for distorting the truth and creating a controversy where there is none. Yet it was Vilsack who acted like a good little Democrat and assumed Breitbart was reporting in good faith, willing to throw another hard-working black woman to the dogs rather than risk right wing criticism. To the Obama Admin’s credit, they reinstated Sherrod and apologized. So what are the chances that Washington Dems have learned a lesson here? It’s not like they haven’t had plenty of chances to develop skeptical approach to Repug disinformation. At this point they should be puffing Brechtian cigars.

UPDATE: Oh, wait. I forgot that when it comes to how low can the right wing go, there is no bottom. Blargers are demanding Sherrod apologize to Breitbart for calling him racist. Yes, you read that right.

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Homophobes are concerned with only one thing: who is putting what where. More specifically, they are really concerned with the unregulated interaction between the penis and the anus. Consider two recent examples. Barb Davis White has a little quip she uses to argue against the legitimacy of same-sex marriage as a civil rights issue:

“Rosa Parks did not move to the front of the bus to support sodomy.”

Technically, this is true. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to an arrogant white man. She had had a long day at work and simply did not want to stand up just so this obnoxious asshole could express his social supremacy. True, this act of resistance was not wholly spontaneous — Parks was active in her church and in the NAACP. But while she had an awful lot of issues on her mind at that moment, sodomy was probably not one of them.

All of which is totally irrelevant to the question of social equality for sexual minorities. Yet to an anally fixated teabagger like White, this is a trump card.

“I’m here today to tell you that homosexuality and lesbian behavior is unhealthy,” claiming that gays and lesbians have higher rates of STDs than anyone else in the world, including “gay bowel disease,” an ailment that does not exist and is often used by religious right figures to paint gay men as diseased.

Okay, until I read the above quotes at Pam’s House Blend, I had never heard of “gay bowel disease” or “gay bowel syndrome.” For one thing, it’s discredited junk science. For another, the origin of the term goes directly to the heart of my thesis: GBS is the figment of the anally fixated.

In 1976, a group of physicians in private proctologic practice in New York City coined the illness “Gay Bowel Syndrome” in reference to a constellation of gay male anorectal disorders. Through analysis of biomedical discourse and popular media, it is apparent that Gay Bowel Syndrome is an essentialized category of difference that is neither gay-specific, confined to the bowel, nor a syndrome.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with anal sex. There is something wrong with being so preoccupied with the anal sex habits of complete strangers that one becomes a deranged proponent of punitive social policies and irrational discrimination.

So you know that expression, “Get your head out of your ass”…?

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“21st Century building, 7th Century people.”

That’s what his little bird-like avatar thingy quips. (I think if you quip, you should be automatically registered as Criminal Douchebag.) Dubai has been at the forefront of global financial speculation and excess, using the same dodgy tools as London, New York and Tokyo. Shouldn’t they get credit for being current? Modern? Post-modern? Late capitalist?

Camels? Really?! No helicopters or limos or Humvees?

Perhaps Oli will be gracious enough to contribute this piece for the anniversary edition of the late Edward Said’s Orientalism. “Exhibit A!” Ed’s dead, but this shit lives on.

*who had a valid point to make about the prejudices of the American electorate, but chose insensitive language to do it. Sorry, Michael “Honest Injun” Steele — not resignation-worthy.

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There is, of course, a cultural divide between the crowded parts of the country and the nearly empty parts when it comes to guns. Residents of rural areas see them as a natural part of daily life. Those of us who live in the crowded places tend to regard them as a problem.

The column cites some interesting stats about public attitudes toward gun control. But the rest is devoted to criticizing Washington Wizards basketball player Gilbert Arenas for having an inappropriate sense of humor, in contrast to that safer role model Tiger Woods, who has an unusual libido. The implication seems to be that black men who shag a lot of call girls are less threatening than black men who make stupid jokes about guns and gambling debts. At least I think that is what Collins means by quipping:

The second thought is that the average Tiger Woods fan is a middle-aged guy who is frequently too tired at night to behave badly if he wanted to, and that we have spent the last month worrying about the wrong role model.

Emphasis mine. Honestly, there are so many below-the-surface white fears of black power here that I don’t know where to begin. Look, I think Arenas behaved stupidly and inappropriately; the NBA should make it clear to him that guns in the locker room is a serious matter, a point Arenas seems a little dense on. That said, the NBA risks overplaying its hand, much in the way Woods’ corporate sponsor defectors have overreacted to his (admittedly comical) long list of dalliances. Arenas is really guilty of having an out-of-bounds sense of humor, plus being young and foolish. Woods is a cad. All else is corporations defending their public image against ignorant fears by touchy whities like Gail Collins.

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