In Which I Yet Again Argue that Firing Hobbs is BS

Braisted is reporting that Hobbs is on his way out at the TNGOP and I have to say that it’s wrong for Hobbs to take the fall for this.

See, firing Hobbs makes it seem like the TNGOP was wandering along, innocent as can be, and they accidently tried to smear Obama as a covert Muslim, just because the didn’t quite get the importance of this issue, and now the person who’s the problem has been let go and everything’s fine and dandy again.

As Olbermann suggested, it lets them try to just claim stupidity.

But people have long memories and nothing on the internet is exactly lost and those of us sitting her in Tennessee (and one in San Francisco) remember why Hobbs lost his job at Belmont.

Hobbs has always been an anti-Muslim bigot.  He was an anti-Muslim bigot when the TNGOP hired him and he’s an anti-Muslim bigot now that he’s trying to “help” his cause by making voters think that Obama is some kind of secret Muslim*.

The TNGOP knew when they hired Hobbs that, when it comes to Muslims, dude is a dumbass.  He drew a cartoon of Muhommad holding a bomb with the caption “Muhommad blows” under it**.

And that’s who the TNGOP puts in charge of crafting their “Maybe Obama’s a Muslim” message?

It’s like leaving a heroin addict alone in the methodone clinic.

It’s so monumentally stupid to expect any good to come of that that I cannot believe the talk is of Hobbs losing his job and not talk of anyone who hired him in the first place having to stand in front of the State Capitol wearing a sign that just says “Sorry.”

No, I’m sorry.  Getting rid of Hobbs does little to fix whatever problem brought him there in the first place.

If the TNGOP is serious about appealing to voters based on issues, not innuendo, then they need to clean house, not just dump Hobbs. 

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*I suppose I should make clear that this is my opinion, based on evidence, and not a fact. 

**As a gut check, imagine how you’d feel if someone in the TNDemocratic party made a cartoon captioned “Jesus sucks.”  Or, say, this picture.

Shorter Campfield: Obama Was Asking For It

Y’all, I am neither a brilliant enough feminist theorist or awake enough to give this the attention it deserves, but I point it out in hopes that you can do something with it.

That charmer Stacey Campfield, who, I remind you, can’t even locate Memphis or Chattanooga on a map, says:

And the Photo, If he didn’t want it out there then he shouldn’t have dressed up like that. It may not be complimentary but at least it was an honest non doctored photo. The same people who are screaming all sorts of stuff are the same people who completely, out and out, doctored a photo of me to paint me in a bad light.

America, I repeat, “If he didn’t want it out there then he shouldn’t have dressed up like that.”

Is it any wonder we have the kinds of legislation we have in this state?

Also: Please note how much of his post seems to amount to “whaa, the people we hate hate us, too” and “hey, people hate me and you don’t hear me whinging about it, except for right now.”

In Real Life, It’s a Country Full of Women Who Can Kick Your Ass

GoldenI (which, is clearly pronounced Gold-en-eye, but in my head, until recently, I’ve been pronouncing it Goldini, like Houdini, but… well… not) has a great post today on how weird it is that the pro-Israel conservatives* are so in love with Israel, when, if we tried some of the stuff they take as a matter of course there here, the above-mentioned conservatives would have a stroke.

I keep trying to think rationally about why this is, but I have to admit that, when I think of Israel, the first thing that springs to my mind is a picture from one of those Illustrated Stories of the Bible that I used to sit and look through while I was waiting for my dad to do his rounds at the hospital when I was a little girl.  In it are Joseph, standing, and Mary, on a soft, sturdy donkey, looking out over a tiny Bethlehem made of something like adobe under an enormous sky.  Joseph looks kind and caring.  Mary looks tender and delicate.  The donkey, like I said, soft, and the houses look like a strong rain would melt them.

Now, in my head, I know it’s an artist’s imaginings of a scene from 2,000 years ago–so, obviously, things weren’t like that even then and Bethlehem isn’t even in Israel.  But that is the first connection my brain makes when I think of Israel–to that picture from when I was a kid.

And I can’t help but sometimes think that it’s that imaginary place some conservatives are so infatuated with.

*That’s not quite a satisfactory term, but it’s the best I can do right now.

The Second Hand Comcast Story

So, we were missing random channels from our cable package.  At the same time, our hippie neighbors decided to get basic, basic cable.  Whatever fix the Comcast dude had to do resulted in our channels all coming back and also appearing on the neighbors’ tv as well.

The neighbors, being good-do-bees, explained to the Comcast dude that they were now getting channels they weren’t paying for.

He went out again, looked at the cables, jiggled some things, looked again, looked at our set-up, looked at the neighbors’ set up, and declared, “Well, fuck if I know.  You both are hooked up right and so that shouldn’t happen.”

After fiddling around a while more and getting nowhere, he said, “But you’re getting the channels you want, right?” and the Butcher and the neighbors both said that they were and, supposedly, he gave them a big wink and said, “Then I’ll just trust you not to watch the ones you aren’t paying for.” and with that, he left.

More On Hobbs

This is the other thing I’ve been thinking about in terms of the whole Obama-Farrakhan thing and what the TNGOP flaks are up to in this press release.

And here is my question:

Do you think that the Beatles are responsible for what Charles Manson’s followers did?

By all accounts, Manson loved the Beatles, Beatles lyrics were left in the homes of Manson’s followers’ victims, and, if I’m remembering Helter Skelter correctly, Manson found meaning and direction in “The White Album” when plotting the murders.

So, since Manson loved the Beatles, I ask you, are the Beatles responsible for those murders?

I assume you believe that they are not.

And, as such, how in the world can Obama be responsible for inspiring Farrakhan?

I knew a hardcore white separatist* who was greatly inspired by the Minnesota Vikings, believed they were a symbol of the strength and power of the white man**.  I believe he and his friends were responsible for spray-painting racist graffiti on Lincoln’s tomb decades ago.

Do we hold the Minnesota Vikings responsible for not repudiating the actions of those evil, idiot children?

I assume you can see how that would be ridiculous.

And here’s what strikes me as most curious about this whole affair.  If the TNGOP is so concerned about anti-Semites who think the U.S. as it is now sucks and who have close ties to domestic terrorist organizations giving any sort of positive reaction to Obama, why didn’t they include anything about David Duke in that press release?

You’re telling me they couldn’t spin this—

“I don’t think Obama will be any more negative for the United States than Hillary or John McCain,” explains Duke. “In fact,” he added, “we probably have less preference for a European like a John McCain or a Hillary who has betrayed our interests, our heritage, our rights.”

–into an endorsement?

I’m not buying it.  Farrakhan and Duke may come at it from different angles, but they end up in very similar theoretical spaces.

So, why, when “informing” the Republicans of Tennessee about Obama’s “ties” to anti-Israel factions, was Hobbs all over the Farrakhan “connection” and not the weird, if tepid, preference Duke shows for Obama?

Could it be because Hobbs is well aware that the folks he ultimately crafted that press release to appeal to have much more of a problem with Farrakhan than they ever will with Duke?

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*Using that term to mean someone who not only thought white people were better than everyone else, but that he had a right to live in a community, if not a country, free from non-white people.

**I can only assume he’d never seen a football game in his life.