OH PLEASE...

My prediction about the new president of Iran supposedly being one of the Iranian hijackers in 1979: this is one of those stories that we'll look back on as one of the ways in which the Republicans swept Congress in the 2006 election. We've already been told that "Al Qaida [is] hiding in Iran" and now we're told that the new president of that country is a "terrorist" as Tucker Carlson just did. And not just any terrorist, but one involved with the one of our most ignominious encounters with Middle East culture prior to Sept. 11.

I will bet dollars to doughnuts that Ahmadinejad was in fact not actually one of the captors, and he and others have already protested to the contrary. However, let's remember that in these times, facts, truth, and reality have no bearing on anything our leaders do. What matters is that today Bush said that if Ahmadinejad was one of the captors, that raises "serious questions" or some such rubbish. The Bush smear jihad never ends: McCain, Gore, Paul O'Neill, Max Cleland, Kerry, Durbin, and now Ahmadinejad.

It's the only winning strategy the Repukes have: demonize and terrify, demonize and terrify, demonize and terrify--or if you prefer, call it "the ol' smear 'n' fear". Mark my words, after this case of mistaken identity thunderstorm blows over, we'll get the facts in a light breeze that no, in fact Ahmadinejad was not one of the captors. But by then conventional wisdom will already be fixed--the new president of Iran is a cold-blooded terrorist and always has been. So when the Iran invasion is rolled out, that will already be set in the public's mind.

LINCOLN MEMORIAL

And then there's this story about changing the video at the Lincoln memorial because it contains footage of pro-abortion and pro-gay rights activists but not Promise Keepers or other Christo-fascist rubbish. What makes these Christ thugs think that abortion and gay rights activists aren't Christians and that those movements aren't in fact rooted in Christian sentiment? Did Jesus ever say anything about homosexuality or abortion? No, he did not--not one word. Did he say anything about loving people even if they don't love you and giving people as much as you are able if not more? Ummm, yeah, he did.

Not only that, but the fight for abortion and gay rights are civil liberties issues, of a piece with the black struggle for equality--civil rights are civil rights. The Promise Keepers are about men being better fathers--a noble undertaking, but not necessarily the moral equivalent of fighting for civil rights. This just feeds into what has become the conventional wisdom among evangelicals--that Christianity is under fire in the U.S. and this Lincoln Memorial video is just one more strike against it.

Well, let's put it this way, no one is trying to introduce a constitutional amendment that says only Catholics can marry or that Baptists can't get married or what have you. The Christian persecution complex is only perceived and objectively not real, whereas homosexual persecution is perceived because it is objectively real.

If only Fred Phelps would get as impassioned about the other things in the various lists in which homosexuality is included in the Bible--he might picket the White House with signs saying "God HATES Liars"...