When Bigots go Main Street.

If CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) needs a fight song, maybe they could just dust off this Golden Conservative Oldie.

And play it under the Confederate Battle Rag at their next rally.

First this from Max Blumenthal via the irreplaceable Crooks and Liars…

Max Blumenthal infiltrated CPAC and here's what she said to an adoring audience. Frist of course instead of denouncing her- tosses the "no comment" line:

"I think our motto should be post-9-11, 'raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences.'" (This declaration prompted a boisterous ovation.)

"Coulter on killing Bill Clinton: (Responding to a question from a Catholic University student about her biggest moral or ethical dilemna) "There was one time I had a shot at Clinton. I thought 'Ann, that's not going to help your career.'"

"Coulter on moderate Republicans: "There is more dissent on a slave plantation then amongst moderates in the Republican party."

How charming. Like an eight-year-old sociopath writing "Fuck" on the wall with his own shit to impress his smirking, mouth-breathing peers.

Well, I suppose if the only Gods you kneel to are blow and Joe McCarthy, you don't have to keep your prayer-hole very clean.

And since you all know what’s going on in the world of Dutch Cartoons…let’s jump to this from the Asian Times. (You’ll like it; it’s got “nude” right in the title…)

When a Muslim paints nude Hindu gods
By Siddharth Srivastava

NEW DELHI - Fortunately, there have not been virulent protests in India against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, though close to 150 million Muslims reside in the country. However, attention is being drawn to Hindu fundamentalists taking umbrage at India's top artist, M F Husain, who has been booked by police for "hurting sentiments of people" with paintings that depict nude gods.

The tirade against Husain also puts into question the often-held perception that Islam is the least tolerant of all religions to any act that is perceived as blasphemy. Fringe elements exist everywhere, though it is also true that the extent and intensity of protests by some of those who follow Islam set the religion apart.

Last year, Husain's painting The Last Supper sold through an online purchase for US$2 million, the highest ever by an Indian. He is more than 90 years old, sprightly, very creative, known for quirks such as walking barefoot and having an obsession for Bollywood actresses, prominent among them being Madhuri Dikshit, whom he has painted as well as featured in a movie.
…

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which subscribes to Hindu majority rule, has severely criticized Husain, with party general secretary Vinay Katiyar demanding the arrest of the painter. Extremist Hindu organizations have been more aggressive. "Being a good Muslim, Husain should know the worldwide reaction over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in European newspapers," a former Bajrang Dal (right-wing Hindu outfit) chief said. "He, too, should refrain from repeatedly hurting the sentiments of Hindus."

A case has been registered against Husain in Mumbai and Thane by radical Hindu organizations - the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti (HJS, for Hindu reawakening) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) - for hurting sentiments of people.

The HJS has also appealed to President Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take action against the "anti-national and perverse attitude of great artists". The deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state, R R Patil, has said state police are conducting a probe into the allegations. The HJS has also organized protests in Goa, Karanataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Husain, meanwhile, has apologized and though the offending painting has been withdrawn from the website, it has already sold for about $175,000, which will bring some succor to the victims of the earthquake.

At one level such intolerance to free expression is a reflection of the way India is - a multi-layered and cultural cauldron of classes, castes and religion, liberal and conservative opinions.

It is also a sad commentary that radical and extremist elements hold people to ransom whenever they wish, a wasted vengeance that is often buttressed by politicians to fulfill their own narrow gains.

As in any other society, one has to live with culture vigilantes and they are well within their rights to protest through legal means. However, it is the extent to which they affect popular imagination, cause violence, disrupt normal existence and cost lives that calls for different action against them.

…
By voting en masse, Muslims offer a powerful vote bank. Such a strategy has been followed for long by national parties such as the Congress party in the past (the Shah Bano case, wherein the Congress in power overturned a ruling by the Supreme Court to provide maintenance due to divorce) and continues to the present.

Emboldened, Muslim clerics continue to issue irrational diktats. They include the instance of the alleged rape of a Muslim woman, Imrana, by her father-in-law. The clerics declared that Imrana should treat her husband as a son and move in with her alleged rapist. In another recent case, Muslim women were asked not to contest in local elections in the state of Uttar Pradesh, and those who went out to vote were ordered to wear veils.
…


In another instance, an Israeli couple who kissed after marrying according to Hindu rituals at the famous religious destination Pushkar in Rajasthan were in for shock and harassment after priests filed a complaint with the police that they defied Hindu religious norms by doing so.

There are reports of more foreign couples being victimized by priests at Pushkar. A hotel was forced to shut down in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, after pictures appeared in the media of a couple kissing at a party in the premises. In the past, Hindu fanatics have attacked film halls playing the movie Fire that dealt with a lesbian relationship.
...

Hmmm. A group of religious fanatics? Using their electoral power to reshape the courts? And to ram their pecksniffing beaks into other people’s weddings?

Why oh why does this sound so fucking familiar?

These are not the unrelated narratives of different faiths. No, this is about the bastardization of all faiths by thugs and haters with Bibles, and Torahs, and Korans and probably even Vedas. This is an evolutionary timeline, with rioters torching embassies at the amateur-hour end, Muslim clerics in India in the middle, and the James Dobson GOP at the apex. All of one mind and all moving in one direction.

Because The Enemy, as any lover of Democracy knows, is religious bigotry and God-Sponsored intolerance everywhere. Zealotry, in all of its flavors and skin tones, is the implacable, eternal Enemy With a Thousand Faces. And to that extent, we really are in the middle of a Culture War -- a War against Freedom -- with some of the most virulently anti-Liberty shock troops operating right here at home, deep in the doughy bosom of the GOP.

And anyone that thinks America isn’t every bit as steeped in the bloodletting and terror of such extremists doesn’t know a damn thing about history, or how to adjust their cognitive focal range to take in something more than what’s happened since breakfast.

For a century, Bible-thumping fanatics ranged as free and unfettered through Red State America as Hannibal and his war elephants through Gaul.

They were called Segregationists.

They had their own cartoons**…


And rallies…


And they murdered human beings…

for the same reason Islamic militants burned buildings;


because something

offended their sensibilities.

The difference is that our lynchers clevered up and spent the last 30 years taking over a major American political party. I mean, why burn a few buildings when you can run the courts? Why bother with scrawled placards when you own your own television network? Why threaten politicians when you can just buy them by the score?

Why kill retail and local and only be scary when you can slaughter wholesale and global and be absolutely terrifying?

The Klan grew up, and become James Dobson and Jerry Falwell. Phyllis Schlafly and Ann Coulter. Tom DeLay and Jesse Helms.

All of one Despicable Party

All of one Despicable Purpose.

All of one Despicable Faith.

If thirty years from now, the same militant rioters are still around and still full of Divine Bile, but have grown fat, prosperous and “respectable”, and run whole governments in the name of their twisted, Deathgod vision of the Almighty, we’ll probably have to think up a new name for them.

So what’s Arabic or Javanese or Persian for “Republican”?


(Images from this article in the Wikipedia…)