December 3, 2012

Ms. Geller popped into my mind the first time I read about the video by the American

Coptic Christian which defamed Muhammed. Yes, that same video the world later blamed for inflaming the Middle East and causing a dozen Muslim deaths after it was translated and sent to Egypt. I was reminded of it again in September when four Americans died at the hands of terrorists in Bengazi (although the GOP denied there was any connection at all to those deaths).

As I read the Village Voice article referenced in this OP, I was again reminded of Ms. Geller and all the questions I had at the time the video first surfaced. The captions are mine; the excerpts are from the article.

Opportunity By Any Name:
“In 2008, she published cartoons of Muhammad from a Danish newspaper. Her readership increased tenfold, she says, because when the cartoons made international headlines, her blog was one of the only websites to run them. It was also helped along because, a couple of times, she video-blogged while in a bikini.”

Obama Makes a Great Enemy:
“Geller, still largely unknown, was hungry for more. … She was firmly a part of the war against what she called an Islamic "world takeover." The only problem is, if you believe you're in a war—an actual war—it's easier when there's a visible enemy to fight.

Then a brown guy whose parents had the lack of foresight to name him Barack Hussein Obama ran for president of the United States. Geller finally had her enemy."

Profitable Untruths:
“We're talking now, of course, about the first time she won Worst Person in the World, when she published, but didn't herself write, an outlandish claim that Barack Obama was Malcolm X's love child.”

And More Untruths (Worth $) for Repeating:
“In October 2008, when it was all but a lock that America would have its first African-American president, Geller took to Atlas Shrugs. "Conventional" birth certificate birtherism had already started a year before, but no one expected what came next. One of her readers, a conspiracy theorist named Rudy Schultz, had conjured a new claim that Malcolm X had impregnated Ann Dunham, a white woman."

"She posted Schultz's ludicrous theory. …The theory took off nationally, and because of that post, she was thrust into the public eye when Olbermann named her Worst Person in the World. Geller's celebrity and readership jumped again.”

"So you kind of indirectly started birtherism even though you weren't the one peddling it," I say. "Kind of, right?"
Geller looks at me, smiles coyly, and nods."

The Tea Party Loves to Hate With Geller:
"It (the Tea Party) was just organic. People got up and said: 'No. No way.' And it didn't have a leadership," Geller says. "I kinda liked that about the Tea Party. Because weak people need a strong leader. Strong people don't need a strong leader."

Geller Attacks Ground Zero:
"Geller got gigs blogging for other sites. Fox News loved her. Halfway through Obama's presidency, her blog was fielding 200,000 unique visitors a month. And then plans for the Cordoba House, an Islamic community center since renamed Park51, were announced. Geller seized her opportunity."

"I thought it was deeply humiliating, wildly offensive. I didn't say they couldn't build it," she says. "I appealed to them not to build it."

“Top Republicans such as Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, John McCain, and Sarah Palin spoke out against the community center, which also had a mosque. Geller teamed with Spencer and other Southern Poverty Law Center–certified hate groups to denounce the $100 million project. She went as far as to say the "Ground Zero Mega-Mosque"—as she liked to call it—was a "victory mosque."

“It earned Geller her second Worst Person in the World award. Olbermann said Geller's rhetoric helped stoke a paranoia that resulted in, among other things, a national spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes and a mosque firebombing in Jacksonville."

"That November, she traveled to Sherman Oaks, California, to receive the Annie Taylor Award for Courage from the ultra-conservative, anti-Muslim David Horowitz Freedom Center. Spencer himself presented her with the award. "You have to understand that we're in a war," Geller said in her acceptance speech. "We are at war now. It's not coming. It's not around the corner. We're at war now. The Ground Zero Mosque is the second wave of the 9/11 attack."

Geller & Friends Inspire Hate in Norway:
“Eight months later, Anders Behring Breivik ignited a bomb in Oslo, Norway. He killed eight people. A few hours later, dressed as a police officer, he traveled to a children's summer camp. He pulled out a gun and slaughtered 69 teenagers."

"Breivik wrote a manifesto in which he stated the purpose of the killings: to prevent a Muslim takeover. He quoted from Geller's Atlas Shrugs. He also cited Spencer, her partner, dozens of times by name."

Obama Changes Game – Profits Slip:
“The president had just won re-election in a landslide. The Tea Party, doomed by the rise of flawed presidential candidates such as Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, and Michele Bachmann, and "Rapey Republican" congressional candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, was on life support. Park51 was still on schedule to open steps away from Ground Zero.

News outlets distanced themselves from Geller. Even Fox News, which had supported her views for years, recently backed away. In a segment on Happening Now, anchor Jenna Lee said Geller's transit ads used "controversial language so inflammatory, we're not going to show it to you."

"You don't think you're inciting hatred?" I ask her. "No," she answers quickly."

Geller Fans the Flames in Gaza:
“A week ago, the New York Post covered the Gaza conflict by showing a full front-page photo of young Hamas men on motorcycles dragging a suspected Israeli spy through the streets of Gaza City. "Savages!" the headline read.”

“Spencer, on Geller's sister blog, jihadwatch.org, posted about it. New York Post admits Pamela Geller is right," he wrote. "Palestinian jihadists are savages."

When that video first came out, I seriously wondered if Geller had something to do with its funding or distribution. Today I continue to wonder if she did. Or do you think she just used the opportunity of the video to further profit from her hate mongering?

December 2, 2012

It's another GOP shell game.

They intend to lie that keeping the Bush cuts for lower wage earners is a GOP goal = GOP heroes

while bashing dems for protecting Medicare/Medicaid (the "takers" in their dictionary) = DEMS villans

The spin has become more obvious this past week as a few republicans (pretending to be moderate) have had the "courage" to step out and be "responsible" by acknowledging tax cuts for the 98% are necessary AND SO ARE MEDICARE CUTS.

Just listen to Bob Corker today. Or Lindsay Graham:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/02/graham-i-think-were-going-over-the-cliff/
CNN) – Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was blunt in his assessment Sunday of where negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff are headed. "I think we're going over the cliff," he said.
"It's pretty clear to me they've made a political calculation," the South Carolina senator said on CBS' "Face the Nation," calling the administration's initial proposal offered Thursday "a joke" when it comes to entitlement reform. Graham, like other Republicans, has said he's willing to accept new tax revenue, but only if it comes with significant changes to entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

They haven't had a change of heart. They just intend to shift the blame onto Obama if he refuses their deal and we go over the cliff.

December 1, 2012

Thanks for catching that - and my apologies to Mr. Pitt!

December 1, 2012

He also thinks God is sad because we don't eat all the endangered animals.

God is insulted because they all taste like chicken.

Only God and Bryan Fischer know this now.

Bryan Fischer will tell us as soon as God says it's OK to tell.