Republicans and the romance of violence (or, at least, violent talk)

The junkie bigot Rush Limbaugh's general approach to news could be called "making [Bush] up". Or maybe "pulling stuff out of you butt". Al Franken has a good joke about how rightwing talk radio relies on the Bureau of Rush's Butt for their factoids.

Digby writes that Mr. OxyContin is Down on the Hezbos, Hullabaloo blog 07/31/06

Before treating your self to the dopehead ravings Digby quotes from Rush, for a quick dose of those old-fashioned facts, the kind that have something to do with events in the real world, check out: Livni: Qana attack led to turning point in support for Israel by Yoav Stern, Yuval Yoaz and Amos Harel Ha'aretz 08/01/06; Robert Fisk Reports From Lebanon on the Israeli Bombing of Qana That Killed 57, Including 37 Children Democracy Now! Web site 07/31/06

Digby gives us samples of the dope fiend Limbaugh spewing out various justifications for killing civilian noncombatants in order to thrill his blowhard-white-guy fans. Then Digby writes:

This blatant genocidal bloodlust has become de rigeur on the right now. It's on talk radio, TV and in the columns of respectable newspapers. They don't even pretend to be civilized anymore. Maybe it's just the SOS, but I've got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I don't ever remember this kind of stuff being openly bandied about like it's normal. And those who did, like Curtis LeMay, didn't have audiences of 25 million listeners to spew their bilge to.

I agree with her and with many others like David Neiwert that are concerned about the "eliminationist" rhetoric we hear more and more not just from the goony fringe, but from people who are considered perfectly respectable among mainstream Republicans.


Whether it's Rush and his OxyContin-pickled brain, or the anorexic psycho Mad Annie, or one of their many imitators and devoted fans. It is ugly, emotionally-charged rhetoric that certainly creates a climate to tolerate war crimes, as well as domestic hate crimes and political violence.

There's certainly a pathetic side to this, too. Rush and Mad Annie may actually believe a lot of their venomous talk. But they also know they're making a living by scamming the rubes. A lot of the clowns who post rants anonymously on the Internet and in blog comments about how much they want to kill, kill, KILL them foreigners are just showing they've been listening to their heroes like Rush and Mad Annie. It would be silly to think that most of them are anything other than unpleasant rightwingers who nurse sadistic fantasies.

Here's another example, via Rachel Kleinfled, from neocon enthusiast Too Nice to Win? Israel's Dilemma John Podhoretz New York Post

He uses a cutsey device of putting his advocacy in the form of questions. Such as:

What if the tactical mistake we made in Iraq was that we didn't kill enough Sunnis in the early going to intimidate them and make them so afraid of us they would go along with anything? Wasn't the survival of Sunni men between the ages of 15 and 35 the reason there was an insurgency and the basic cause of the sectarian violence now?

All this careless talk about killing civilians indiscriminately, and the grisly, sophomoric excuses for the criminal, sadistic torture being practiced in the various stations of what Al Gore has called "the Bush Gulag", it all leads nowhere good.

One answer to that kind of talk is this quotation I used Jessica Stern, one of the real American experts on terrorism, as the quote-of-the-day for Tuesday (Jihad - a global fad Boston Globe 08/01/06):

Violence, once unleashed, seems to create its own evil momentum. Those who attack others, even in self-defense, must be prepared for the collateral damage that inevitably ensues. That damage is measured, not just in childrens' lives, but also in damaged souls, on all sides of the conflict. But today, we must calculate a new form of collateral damage, which is the way that cynical terrorists capitalize on military mistakes. And whatever we learn about what really happened at Qana or at Haditha or at Abu Ghraib, there is little doubt that the terrorists will benefit.

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