America-Hater

Several people, myself included, wonder why Washington Times columnist Frank Gaffney hates America so, and why the Washington Post continues to pay him to do so.

More Fun with Snuff Radio KSFO

Yes, Gentle Reader, another update regarding Spocko's heroic battle against the fascist-wannabes at KSFO. Here's a link to the hate until I can find a way to host the mp3s myself. Here's a video. Here's another video. The more KSFO bawls about people disseminating their hate radio clips, the more I feel compelled to link to them. It's a curse.

Looks like the Chronicle and local TV station CBS 5 have joined the fun - and in a way that will have the cut-rate Limbaughs gnashing their teeth over the liberal media.

Now KSFO's snuff-talkers are claiming that they're the victims in all this - that everyone's picking on them, taking them out of context, and making up lies about what they innocently joke about to their listeners.

To which I respond: Precisely which of the mp3s recorded from KSFO radio shows, in the hosts' own voices, are made-up lies? They were sure as hell willing to stand up to their words when talking to their callers - why are they so reluctant to have their advertisers hear the same shows?

Are they ashamed? Did it occur to them that many companies would be reluctant to have their products mentioned alongside calls to stomp people to death? Maybe someone might wonder about their protestations of innocent humor, when all of their jokes seem to be about killing people.

They want context? How's this for context? Or this?

Yeah, and Spocko's too smart for their candy-ass town-hall setup, as is Mike Stark - as we discover in this press release:

[KSFO Program Director Ken] Barry told me that the show would be call-in only. I expressed my trepidation with regards to that format. After all, having made a name for myself by wallowing in the fetid cesspool that is right wing talk radio, I’m fully aware of disgusting and unfair techniques hosts use to maintain control of the dialogue and marginalize the opposition. Hosts regularly mute microphones, shout over callers, disconnect calls and rant afterwards about the caller that can no longer defend himself or his point of view.

I offered Barry the following proposal. If KSFO is interested in a genuine and reasonable discussion of the important First Amendment issues at play, I would be happy to be a guest on their show for 20 or 30 minutes – or however long they desired. I made clear that I have no interest in a radio cage match; I’m not looking for a shout-fest or name-calling. Put simply, I agree that a free and open exchange of ideas would benefit the San Francisco community and I am willing to advocate for my side with the dignity and decorum decent human beings have come to expect from one another.

Barry sharply dismissed my proposal and told me, like anyone else, I could call in if I wanted to.

They don't give a shit about First Amendment issues unless it's their cushy jobs on the line. They were damned quick to shut down Spocko's blog - but look how they whine when advertisers pull out of their shows, like the world owes them a living sitting indoors threatening, bullying, and spewing hate. They whine that their livelihoods are in danger. Maybe they need to.

If they get too hard up for money - I hear the Army's hiring.

Freedom of the Press.

Something else that, were I not a regular reader of Glenn Greenwald's blog, I wouldn't have known:

Bilal Hussein is the Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer who was detained by the U.S. military in Iraq back in April -- almost six months ago. Along with 14,000 other people around the world (at least), he continues to remain in U.S. custody without being charged with any crime. The U.S. military has vaguely claimed that he has close ties with Iraqi insurgents but refuses to specify what it is specifically that he is alleged to have done, refuses to provide any hearing or process of any kind for him to learn of the charges or contest them, and refuses to respond to AP's requests for information about why he is being held.

Apparently what he's guilty of is trying to document the war in Iraq. The bastard. That will teach him to commit photojournalism without spouting the Partei line. How the hell do you think we went from 17th in the world in freedom of the press to a whopping 53rd?

And see that power that the Administration is using on journalists it doesn't like? That's the same power that they, thanks to that obscenity called the Military Commissions Act of 2006, can now use on you.

Points for any seething Bushites reading this:

First, where in the Constitution does it say that only citizens have the right to due process of law? Last I checked, if a foreigner committed a crime in the US, we put him on trial instead of summarily jailing him.

Second, although the Military Commissions Act specifies that it only applies against non-citizens, how would a United States citizen "mistakenly" labelled as an enemy combatant seek redress without habeas corpus? Answers involving the infallibility of the Bush administration will be met with well-deserved derision.

Third, what's with all the hate? Labelling everyone that disagrees with you America-haters that need to be jailed or killed for the good of the country makes you look like a bunch of brown-shirted, jackbooted, seig-heiling fascists.

And Yet, Ann Coulter Walks Free

Today's post is about the Secret Service investigating terrorist threats against a public official, only to find a blonde who was just kidding.

And no, sadly I'm not talking about Ann Coulter.

Apparently a 14-year-old girl decorated her anti-Bush MySpace group page with a picture of the Chimpster getting stabbed in the hand with the caption, "Kill Bush". This was considered to be such a dire and imminent threat that agents were sent to pull her out of school and interrogate her for two hours.

Fortunately, she's a cute little blue-eyed blonde. Were she a dark-skinned brunette, she'd be riding the waterboard in whatever hellhole we've replaced Gitmo with.

This story brings up many questions - not the least of which is precisely what reaction did she expect?

But, also, let us return to Ann Coulter and discuss how someone can walk around still free after threatening the lives of public officials, Supreme Court justices, and pretty much anyone who has ever disagreed with her, ever - and yet law enforcement from the SS on down pay her no mind.

The "I was only joking" defense. Learn it and use it, kid. Apparently it's ironclad.

If you're a Republican.

Oh, on a tangent - in case the reason I homeschool isn't clear - let me award the "Thank God This Man Works with Children" award to McClatchy Assistant Principal Paul Belluomini:

McClatchy Assistant Principal Paul Belluomini said he usually does not notify parents when law enforcement officials come to school to interview students.

"Parents usually interfere with an investigation, so we usually don't notify them until it's done," he said.

Can't have those parents interfering with any investigations. All that whining about rights and consent and what we may reasonably expect from minors just throws the interrogators off, and we can't have that. Asshole.

Story in Sacramento Bee.

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