The Right Tries to Suspend the First Amendment (But Just for Muslims, Naturally)

Otoki said:

It's actually really funny in some ways, if you try not to think about the fact that they're being serious.

FreakPirate said:

Oh, it turns out rabbits rape cats because they have witnessed gay sex. Yeah.

PointBlank said:
Come on, gang.

Christwire is clearly satire.

mingol said:

The sad thing is, right wing talking points have grown so absurd that it's becoming almost impossible to distinguish them from satire.

Is FOX News a terrorist command center?"

Coyotemike said:
Holy Fucking Brainpain, Batman!

It's like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin were doing Madlibs!

And they're the ones controlling the conversation. I think we should all be ashamed of ourselves.

Adroitbeing said:

True, but Jon Stewart clears that up for us and proves

Huffington Post article and embedded clip

Coyotemike said:
Everywhere I look, the political commentators are writing this off as "It's just August." Is that it? And what the hell is that supposed to mean?

mingol said:

The sad thing is, right wing talking points have grown so absurd that it's becoming almost impossible to distinguish them from satire.

Both supporters and opponents of the "Ground Zero" "Mosque"—a proposed community center—held rallies in lower Manhattan today. Can you guess which side started chanting "no mosque here" at a black guy wandering through the crowd?

While you spent your Sunday trying to teach your cat to go to the bathroom on a human toilet, a group of brave, freedom-loving Americans gathered in New York City to express their extreme disapproval with the Park 51 project, an al-Qaeda plot to build a community center featuring a swimming pool and auditorium on the very site where a Burlington Coat Factory once stood.

As you can see in the video above, at some point during the rally, a dark-skinned man wearing an Under Armor skullcap and what looks like a necklace with a Puerto Rican flag walked through the anti-"Mosque" crowd. The crowd, astutely recognizing that he was on his way to build the mosque, began to chant "NO MOSQUE HERE" at him. In the video, someone says, "run away, coward." The man turns around, perturbed. "Y'all motherfuckers don't know my opinion about shit," he says. Au contraire, my friend: You are a black man wearing a skullcap, after all! You are definitely a pro-Mosque, anti-freedom Jihadist! Why, aren't you, in fact... Osama Bin Laden??

No, actually, according to the guy who uploaded the video to YouTube, the skullcap-wearing gentleman's name is Kenny and he's "a Union carpenter who works at Ground Zero." Kenny is also—as he points out several times in the video—not a Muslim. (No word on whether or not he voted for Obama, as one of the very reasonable and intelligent-sounding anti-"Mosque" protestors speculates.) But I'll bet you Kenny has been totally convinced about the truth of the Burlington Coat Factory Desecration Community Center. Who wouldn't be?

But other than the whole "person of color ruins our rally" thing, the protest sounds like a delightful time:

They even played "Born in the USA," Bruce Springsteen's famous anthem about how awesome the United States is! Meanwhile, a bunch of hippie losers protested across the way and tried to teach people about "religious tolerance," or whatever. Guess what, hippies? The mosque doesn't have a chance:

America: If we don't like something, we'll bombard it!

One of the loudest voices in conservatives' fight against the center has been Glenn Beck, who has specifically targeted Imam Rauf with blatant falsehoods and hypocritical attacks in a desperate attempt to smear him as a radical.

Additionally, among other offensive comments, Beck has asked, "after you've killed 3,000 people you're going to now build your mosque?" He's also absurdly labeled the center an "actual danger" and suggested it is an "Allah-tells-me-to-blow-up-America mosque." Though we -- and many other outlets -- have repeatedly pointed out that Rauf is widely viewed as a moderate and has often denounced the extremists who carry out violent attacks in the name of Islam, Beck and his fellow demagogues continue to push the dishonest attack.

But Beck does not need to take our word for it that Imam Rauf is a moderate who distances himself from radicals -- Rauf told Beck as much while sitting at the same table with him during a 2006 discussion on ABC's Good Morning America.

During the ABC segment, Rauf condemned the extremists who issued death threats against the Pope and political cartoonists, specifically saying that "these reactions are not at all called for by Islamic teaching. The teachings of Islam are very similar to the teachings of Christianity, of loving the one God and loving thy neighbor. These are the two common principles."

When Diane Sawyer mentioned that Imam Rauf says the radicals are just a "group of people" and "not him," Beck seemed to agree, saying "sure, sure." He added, "I believe it's a small portion of Islam that is acting in these ways."

Beck, for his part, even appeared to gesture to Imam Rauf when he invoked the idea of "good Muslims."

MrCrisp said:
Also, HA!

Many fellow conservatives say they understand the property rights and 1st Amendment issues and don’t want a legal ban on building the mosque. They just want everybody to be “sensitive” and force, through public pressure, cancellation of the mosque construction.

This sentiment seems to confirm that Islam itself is to be made the issue, and radical religious Islamic views were the only reasons for 9/11. If it became known that 9/11 resulted in part from a desire to retaliate against what many Muslims saw as American aggression and occupation, the need to demonize Islam would be difficult if not impossible. [...]

It is repeatedly said that 64% of the people, after listening to the political demagogues, don’t want the mosque to be built. What would we do if 75% of the people insist that no more Catholic churches be built in New York City? The point being is that majorities can become oppressors of minority rights as well as individual dictators. Statistics of support is irrelevant when it comes to the purpose of government in a free society—protecting liberty. [...]

This is all about hate and Islamaphobia.

FellOnEarth said:
Yeah, well, I'd imagine a bunch of the teabaggers aren't really all that with it on most things, including being Libertaryans. They always forget about the freedom and liberty part. I'm really not sure exactly why that is.

Also, Ron Paul is right on about 5%* of the time, this is one those times.

*(within a margin of ±5%, it's a scientifically proven fact, I looked it up.)

"This is demagoguery of the first order," Scarborough said Monday. "And people in the Republican Party need to separate themselves from these voices."

"And I talk to you, my Republican brethren," he said into the camera. "I don't know how much longer you'll be my brethren. I'll be honest. I'm looking for a conservative party that actually believes in small government and not engaging in Wilsonian wars but that's another discussion."

"I'm just talking, you know, as a friend," Scarborough continued. "I promise you this. You're going to be embarrassed. You're going to look back two, three, four years from now and this is going to be dark blot on your record if you don't speak out against New Gingrich and the voices of hate."

"This is an embarrassment and you need to speak out against it," he said.