UPDATE: 11:30 AM, May 13, 2009
The Republicans and the Conservative movement in America have developed various conspiracy theories about what they believe to be President Obama's hidden agenda for America. Obama they claim is a socialist , a collectivist, a communist, a fascist that he is destroying capitalism in America. They also claim that Obama is part of some sort of New World Order conspiracy which will put an end to America's sovereignty. Meanwhile they believe Obama is involved in even more illegal spying on average Americans than the Bush Regime but now the spying is aimed especially at those Patriotic Americans on the right as opposed to those UnAmerican anti-Christian Evil Doers on the Left. Limbaugh and others also have suggested that Obama has set up FEMA camps to incarcerate large numbers of Patriotic Conservative Americans who dare to oppose Obama's agenda. For instance they claim that large numbers of conservative White Americans would be rounded up under the pretext that they own illegal fire-arms or because they broke the soon to be new laws regarding Hate Speech.
Rush Limbaugh believes that Obama is deliberately sabotaging the American economy as part of his Scheme to get reparations for African-Americans whose ancestors were once kept as slaves in America. If this were true then Obama could be accused of sedition - of course its just a new Rovian style "Talking Point" . Limbaugh as their new leader sends out his "Talking Points" and then waits to see if they will be picked up by others - if not he moves on to a new "talking Point". This is also typical of other conservative talking heads like Glenn Beck who claimed Obama was a socialist but has decided he was wrong about that and so now says Obama is a fascit who wants to set up a totalitarian state ala "Big Brother".
Rush's Race Bait & Tackle Shop- Rachel Maddow
Anyway let's begin with some joking around by two comedians George W. Bush & Wanda Sykes at the Washington Correspondents Dinner 2007 & 2009 :
Bush Joking at Washington Correspondents Dinner- 2007
Wanda Sykes: Rush is 20th Hijacker; Let Olbermann Waterboard Hannity-2009
Conservative American Media Divas or stars and former members of the Bush administration such as Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck , Karl Rove , Dick Cheney, Michael Savage, Michelle Bachman, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter accuse Obama of Betraying America. I do not know how far they want to go to stop Obama or if it is all hyped over the top rhetoric by which they don't expect any sort of seditious or traitorous acts to take place- are they just venting ? Let's look at it in terms of a thought experiment or how one would plot this out as a likely or unlikely scenario and see where that leads us.
First we have to accept that these conservatives really mean what they are saying and are hoping that some action will result.
We have to try to see the world that is from their point of view.
They have called Obama a Socialist compared him to Stalin or as a Fascist comparing him to Hitler or 1984's Big Brother
Some of them seem to be trying to incite a violent overthrow of the US government - ie Obama's administration
Have they crossed a line ?
Should these people be investigated and if necessary be tried for sedition or treason?
Anyway Sean Hannity last week on Hannity's America outlined the ways in which he believes Obama has failed America. Sean Hannity in a rather hokey piece presents the history of the causes of the American revolution and then claims that Obama has betrayed all of the basic beliefs upon which America was founded. In his view America is therefore at a cross roads or at a point of departure or crisis in which case Americans once again have to rise up and overthrow the current illegitimate administration.
Sean Hannity has also said that Obama is a traitor in his foreign and domestic policies that therefore he believes Obama is out to do a radical make-over of America or even destroy America. Hannity claims like others on the right that Obama's stimulus bill is the start of Obama's plan to make America into a Socialist country .
Hannity like Karl Rove & Beck & Cheney believes that Obama has already gone too far in promising to shut down Guantanamo and by putting an end to the use of the so-called "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" (AKA Torture ) on "terrorist" suspects.
Further Hannity argues that by releasing the Super-secret Torture Memos Obama has crossed the line and in effect is giving out America's secrets to its enemies. ( of course most of what is contained in the memos was already public and it seems naive to believe that Al Qaeda wasn't already aware of the Interrogation Methods being used by US personnel)
Anyway Hannity further claims that Obama has undermined America in the international community by going around the world apologizing for some of America's actions and by apologizing for America's arrogance and its belief in its own Exceptionalism. Obama even dishonered America by saying that America was not a strictly or purely Christian Nation but that there was a Separation of Church and state and that America was now a country of many faiths-OMG unfreaking believable.
Hannity , Beck & Fox News also like to press those conservative & Far Right hot button issues erroneously claiming Obama is going to ban all or most guns sales to individuals and that he his administration is posed to confiscate most of the guns already owned by Americans . This may be nonsense but once it is said by Hannity or Beck or Limbaugh & repeated over and over again some people begin to believe it must be true. They have done the same in talking about issues like Hate Crimes exaggerating whatever has been posed as possible legislation. The conservatives also get all exited about the Fairness Doctrine for the media which they erroneously believe the Obama administration intends to force on America.
By these actions and others Hannity argues that Obama has betrayed America's basic principles and core values and therefore has betrayed the American people.
Now in this video Sean Hannity is explaining why it is time for American Patriots to rise up and in someway or other remove Obama and his administration from the White house. Is Hannity hoping for a popular uprising of millions of well armed Americans who will toss Obama out of the White House ? Or is Hannity hoping for a military coup since Hannity believes that Obama has not sufficiently supported the US military ? Given that as we have discussed in earlier posts that the US military is now largely under the control of the Evangelical Fundamentalists or the Religious Right and the Neoconservatives U.S. there is the off chance that they might be willing to stage a coup. Now add to the Christianized military the 20 million Americans who make up the Religious Right- Evangelical Fundamentalists then one can imagine such an event as being within the realm of possibility.(though of course not that probable or likely)
If we continue along the conspiratorial line of reasoning of Hannity , limbaugh, Beck Karl Rove Dick Cheney & FOX NEWS how should Obama proceed if he he were to take these angry lunatics seriously.
So the question of treason raised by Wanda Sykes about Limbaugh may also apply to Hannity and others. So is Hannity crossing the line into sedition & treason- should he and other conservatives be investigated - held without trial indefinitely( which the conservatives would approve of otherwise ) , should Obama allow the C.I.A. to use the "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" ( which it so happens Hannity and others think would be appropriate when dealing with foreign or domestic terrorists)on Hannity and his co-conspirators to get information from them or to extract a confession?
As co-conspirators involved in a conspiracy to overthrow the US government those arrested would have no rights as their acts or planned acts are beyond any normal or ordinary criminal acts and we wouldn't want Obama to act as they would say in a "Wussy" manner.As traitors and being characterized as a real and imminent threat to the Nation these prisoners would have to be held in a secure facility with little or no contact with the outside world because we know they would just try to get others to commit treasonous and acts of sedition so we put them in Guantanamo or have them sent of to some secret C.I.A. facility.
The Baby Jesus, Hannity, Is Calling for Armed Revolt and Insurection
As patriotic music played in the background, Hannity, who just a few weeks ago vehemently supported Governor Rick Perry's threat of secession, quickly suggested that an uprising against the government might be in order. In 1765, Parliament passed The Stamp Act, provoking outrage among the American colonists, Hannity began. Now, the leaders of the tax uprising were the sons of liberty. (From http://www.newshounds.com and http://www.crooksandliars.com).
In the last month or so Obama has done a number of things which could be seen in the light of a conspiracy theory. For instance after all this new evidence was released about the "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" ie the so-called "Torture Memos", the leaked report by the International Committee of the Red Cross " and the Senate Armed Service Report etc. President reassured the personnel in the C.I.A. that they would not be prosecuted as he believed they were acting in "Good Faith"( aside: that is quite debatable & improbable as if they didn't know the law)-
Then President Obama visited the FBI and congratulated them on their honor and dedication to the United States. Next he went to the military with hat in hand and told them more of the same - they were honorable & brave & kept America safe and if they did anything wrong they were "Just following orders" or acted in "Good Faith" also.
So was Obama trying just to mend fences or reaching out to make sure that the US Military, the Pentagon, the C.I.A and FBI would be on his side and not on the side of Dick Cheney, Sean Hannity, Karl Rove and the Conservative Movement and the Neocons and the Religious Right and thereby prevent any talk of an overthrow or Coup d'etat going beyond the talking stage. Given this little conspiratorial thought experiment would this explain why Obama seems to have given the Military free-reign in Iraq, Afghanistan & Pakistan and allowed the Drone Wars to continue.
Karl Rove erroneously claimed that Obama and his supporters and the Anti-Bush, Anti-Torture crowd wanted to turn America into a "Banana Republic " . But Karl Rove using his own form of Newspeak ( where meaning is twisted to fit an ideological perspective ie war is peace) got it backward- Karl Rove was referring to the possibility of the Obama administration creating a special prosecutor to investigate and where necessary to indict those who committed War Crimes or other lesser crimes in allowing the torture and mistreatment of enemy combatants or Prisoners of War( euphemism of Bush Regime :"detainees"). To do so would show that the US was attempting to follow the rule of law which is the opposite of what "Banana Republics" do.What one could argue is that over the last eight years Dick Cheney, Karl Rove , Condoleezza Rice, Alberto Gonzales etc. ran the US as if it were an authoritarian state or a dictatorship ie a "Banana Republic in which almost all opposition is silenced or just ignored and accused of being unpatriotic and it was a state in which people could be disappeared into secret facilities or sent to other countries to be tortured by proxy or sent to Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram without any rights whatsoever because these prisoners were enemies of the state and not just mere criminals.
Anyway for Obama's protection and for America's own security it would be prudent for the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security to keep an eye on these outspoken incendiary conservative Far Right rabble-Rousers just in case.
The last few days the Republicans and conservatives in the US have been expressing their anger over the jokes mad at the Correspondents Dinner . They were and are especially upset over jokes made during that event by comedian Wanda Sykes about Rush Limbaugh. These remarks may have been a little over the top but after all she was referring to Rush Limbaugh who is now seen as the front man for the Conservative movement and on his Radio Talk show Limbaugh quite often is offensive and mean and cruel and at times makes up facts to back his statements.
Joe Klein nails the issue - Limbaugh often goes over the line and he does make up phony facts to defend his extremist positions. He is a racist and a Homophobe.Limbaugh is held up as the future of the Republicans and the conservative movement in America. So he becomes a legitimate target especially since he accuses Obama , the Democrats and even some Republicans of being unpatriotic if they don't agree with him on every issue. When Rush Limbaugh says that American's are expected to bend over & grab their ankles( ie prison rape scene-I guess) and do whatever Barack Obama tells them just because Obama's father was black the image is quite an ugly and hateful Paranoid Racist type fear which Limbaugh has conjured up & make no mistake it is offensive and it reveals a great deal about Limbaugh and his followers for whom the image resonates- it is the image of a White America being sodomized by a Black man - and it is reminiscent of the old racist theme of the pure white woman being raped by black men.Just take a look at some racist literature or films ie Birth of A Nation which is really just propaganda film for the KKK & a condemnation of the abolition of slavery. This is that other thread which runs through or lies just beneath the surface of those who rant and rave about everything and anything Obama does from closing Gitmo to how he eats his hamburger to how he looks in a bathing suit or his laugh or his wife's bare arms or what clothes she wears or that she tauched the Queen's back or giving someone an I-pod or dvd etc.
Joe Klein Slams Rush Limbaugh - "Inappropriate, Delivers Lies On A Daily Basis"
Rush does believe Obama should fail and even that America should fail to prove that he, Rush Limbaugh is right.
Dick Cheney has claimed that by closing Guantanamo and releasing the secret Torture Memos etc.that President Obama is giving aid and comfort to the enemy which is a Treasonable Act.
Going With Rush
and so it goes,
GORD.
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