John Amato:

If you live in LA then please join me and a host of bloggers to hear David Neiwert talk about his explosive new book (and a timely one I might add) The Eliminationists: How The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right.
There are rare moments in time when an author is in sync with the political surroundings that in habits our culture, but Neiwert is right on the mark.

As Digby states:

There times when a writer publishes a book at exactly the right moment and this is one of them. With violent mainstream rhetoric hitting peaks we haven't seen in nearly 40 years, the village is struggling to comprehend where it's all coming from and what it means. They haven't been paying attention. And because of that there are many people out in the country who are shocked by it too.

Here's the info:

Date: Tuesday, September 1st

Time: There will be a reception at 6 pm. The program will begin promptly at 6:30 pm.

Note: Please be aware that they are filming this event so the studio door will be shut at 6:30 pm sharp.

Location: 10536 Culver Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90232
Please enter through the gate behind the building.

RSVP: Please RSVP by emailing ewagner-at -bravenewfoundation.org
Seating is very limited, so we will be taking a small number of RSVPs.

Parking: There is free parking on the streets on either side of our building.
Please do not park in the parking spots behind the building as they are reserved.

Well worth a half hour or so of your time if you've got it to spend.

I'll be hosting it and leading the Q&A section so be there or be square.

Heather: If you're not in LA for the BNF event---here's our own David Neiwert on I believe Jon Elliot's show talking about the theme of his new book, The Eliminationists.

Dave N.: A brief promotional plug. I'll be in California this week, putting in an invitational appearance at Brave New Films in Culver City on Tuesday. I'll also be in the Bay Area on Thursday, Sept. 3, speaking at 7:30 p.m. at Books Inc. in Mountain View. If you live in the area, hope to see you there.

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Neal Boortz makes Ed Shultz's Psycho Talk for his latest hate filled screed comparing Katrina victims to "debris". I hope this means Boortz won't be making any more appearances on Ed's show.

From Think Progress: Neal Boortz: If New Orleans is rebuilt, the ‘debris that Katrina chased out’ will return.

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Geez Louise. What in the hell does Lou Dobbs have to do next before CNN decides to reign him in or can him? Apparently Dobbs didn't take too kindly to Karen Finney calling him out as using hate speech for the comments he made about her former boss, Howard Dean on his radio show. Our friends at Media Matters posted that one: Dobbs on Howard Dean: "[H]e's a bloodsucking leftist -- I mean, you gotta put a stake through his heart to stop this guy".

DOBBS: Do you think they are also evil mongers? Is that the latest from Senator Reid? We've gone from un-American now to evil mongers.

FINNEY: Our American values say that we believe in free speech. We believe in --

DOBBS: Then why is everybody trying to constrain expression?

FINNEY: Because what we're seeing is, I believe that tyranny is when you organize for the purpose of being disruptive, or when you use hate speech like "I want to drive a stake through Howard Dean's heart."

DOBBS: Really? Did I say I wanted to do that through Howard Dean's heart?

FINNEY: I heart that on your radio program.

DOBBS: You heard me make a reference to Bram Stoker, an allusion to Howard Dean and, as a matter of fact, I was --

FINNEY: That is a convenient correction, Mr. Dobbs. But you called him a blood sucking liberal.

(CROSSTALK)

FINNEY: But how does your saying things like that --

DOBBS: Excuse me. Excuse me. If you will permit me, I called him a blood sucking leftist because of the approach he took.

(CROSSTALK)

FINNEY: Oh, excuse me, leftist, not liberal.

As Finney pointed out, the "leftist" vs "liberal" part wasn't exactly the portion of his comments that concerned her the most. So what does Dobbs do? He plays this from Ed Schultz as some sort of defense that there is hate talk from the left as well.

SHULTZ: Sometimes I think they want Obama to get shot. I do. I really think that there are conservative broadcasters in this country who would love to see Obama taken out. They fear socialism. They fear Marxism. They fear that the United States of America won't be the United States of America anymore.

So there's your left wing hate speech in Dobbs' world folks. Pointing out the obvious. And what does Dobbs finish the segment with? Attacking Finney again, and defending the idiot who brought a gun to a town hall. Wow.

Full transcript below the fold from CNN. Apparently they decided to leave out some of the ugliness with "(CROSSTALK).

Continue reading »

Excuse me a moment while I go throw up (no offense to David Edwards and Muriel Kane at Raw Story):

Madison County, Idaho was once dubbed "the reddest place in America" by Salon, but that didn't make it any less shocking when elementary school children started chanting "assassinate Obama on the school bus.

Matthew Whoolery told KIKD News he found out about the chanting from his second and third graders, who had no idea what the word "assassinate" meant.

"They just hadn't heard anything like this before," Whoolery stated. "I think the thing that struck us was just like, 'Where did they get the word and why would they put that word and that person together?'"

Whoolery, a psychology professor at Brigham Young University in Rexburg, is not an Obama supporter, but he was shocked that any public official would be threatened in that way. "I don't think that the majority of people in Rexburg have extreme ideas like that, but we were just surprised that it would go that far," Whoolery told KIKD.

The Madison County School District has sent out an email saying that students are to be told this sort of behavior is unacceptable.

OK. I grew up in southeastern Idaho -- Idaho Falls, to be exact, about 30 miles south of Rexburg. I've spent a fair amount of time in Madison County; it was where one of my more traumatic experiences as a young adult occurred. So I can talk a little about why this kind of thing might happen there.

This particular corner of the country, as the Raw Story piece notes, is heavily Mormon. Roughly 90 percent of the population there is LDS. And because of that, there is a virulent and entrenched strain of John Bircherite extremism in the body politic. That in turn has helped produce a long-running parade of right-wing extremists (particularly tax protesters and "constitutionalists") who have made Madison County their home.

At the same time, it is by nearly all outward appearances a classic slice of American heartland. My great-aunt and -uncle, both non-Mormons, lived most of their lives there and were not just perfectly comfortable, thoroughly accepted members of the community, but they loved it. There is a decency and integrity to the town and that transcends political considerations.

So having their schoolkids chant "assassinate Obama" must have shocked their sensibilities deeply, which is why school officials and parents made a point of standing up against it.

At the same time, it's not terribly surprising. And not just because there is such a deep streak of ultra-right thinking that runs through this community -- but also because the campaign just finished by Republicans was so rife with rabble-rousing rhetoric that it is, frankly, a wonder this hasn't happened more often, and in more places than just southeastern Idaho.

In fact, it very likely -- indeed, almost certainly -- has. And it's to the credit of Rexburg's conservative Mormons that they drew attention to it. Perhaps they will stop and take a good hard look at the kind of hate they've been spewing before their children.

If only other Republicans in the rest of the heartland would do the same.