Today's diary is--and yes, I know, this is a shocker--NOT going to be about Sarah Palin.  At least, not directly.  This is more towards some of her supporters...and especially in light of Palin throwing stones whilst in a glass house re the Jeremiah Wright controversy, a deeper look is warranted into one group Palin is associated with in particular.

The truth is, Palin's stealth candidacy is but a single symptom of a much larger problem--much as a wound that won't heal is often indicative of the cancer beneath.  And so it is here--as we'll get into in the coming weeks, Palin is actually a rook in what amounts to a high-stakes national game of chess that the Joel's Army movement is playing with the rest of America.

Today, we focus on some statements that were made with Thomas Muthee's "annointing" of Palin as governor--yes, that Thomas Muthee, the infamous Kenyan witch-hunter who spoke at Palin's supposed former congregation--and how he actually revealed much of what amounts to a longterm strategy by Joel's Army groups to steeplejack the country...and society.

With American society in free fall, some activists are now reviewing the effectiveness of political organizing models they've used in the past. We suggest they include in their discussions two of our reports on the topic. Research as Organizing Tool, which includes highlights of The Public Health Model, should give them plenty to chew on.

Contrary to public opinion, promoting murder is not protected by the Constitution. Nor is it protected by tax exempt status, as in the case of charitable trusts and organized religions. The only place we find some degree of protection for individuals engaged in promoting murder is in the limited liability of corporations and in the immunity of public officials.

Yet, looking at the history of domestic terrorism in the United States, promoters of murder have consistently found sanctuary in these locations. Looking closer, though, it becomes clear that this has been primarily for the purpose of mobilizing human and financial resources effectively in carrying out a murderous agenda. The ideological protection, however, has been provided in the distorted interpretation of free speech, a protection not provided by law, but rather by practice.

This practice takes two essential forms: lack of prosecution by law enforcement, and lack of challenge by civil society. In fact, civil liberties groups have arguably had as much influence on public misperception about promoting murder as has the Department of Justice. Granted, the existing statutes against promoting murder are applied more vigorously against non-Christian, non-white terrorists than they are against white Christian terrorists, but the public perception of these cases is usually distorted by the added elements of conspiracism and ideological misrepresentation.

Which brings us back to our main topic. Why are charitable organizations like the Clarion Fund allowed to openly promote murder of Muslims in the media and through the U.S. mail? Why are US corporations allowed to promote murder of environmentalists and Native Americans through charitable organizations like the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise?

Is it only institutionalized bigotry, or is there more to it?

<h2> Attacking the Truth</h2> Robert Parry talks about the role of right-wing US foundations in funding the attack on truth in media.

I receive on average half a dozen e-mails from Bay Area activists* daily. Almost all of these unsolicited notices are for vigils held at various locations in Berkeley, Oakland, or San Francisco. In addition to the daily notices, I receive occasional urgent alerts on matters of utmost importance--generally one or two a week.

Being a middle age man, it's difficult for me to imagine the considerable energy expended by regular attendees of these emotional events, but perhaps piety activates some energy-supplying glandular secretion I'm unaware of, or maybe the drive to acquire status within the moral milieu is something akin to cornering energy markets or establishing religious missions in the Fourth World; once you're on the treadmill, it's hard to get off.

As hobbies go, I suppose, vigil mania does little harm, although I suspect that after several years of this frantic activity, the pointlessness of it all might drive some to depression or violence. Still, as an experience of social interaction, it's possible that some participants will eventually recognize the recurrent theatrics as ineffective role-playing ascribed to concerned but confused citizens. If this is true, then as an inadvertent contributor to subverting spectacle, it is a welcome addition to modern madness.

Defending democracy requires overcoming obstacles to moral conduct.

There's a difference, as we know, between thoughts and deeds. Inciting hatred that leads to violence -- especially hatred based on rejection of human rights -- is more than just thinking; it's an act of persuading people to deny others the right to exist. At its most extreme, it results in ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, and genocide.

The correlation between denying human dignity to a distinct ethnic, religious or racial populace, and the subsequent brutalities visited on them is clear. The lessons of Bosnia, Rwanda, Palestine, North of Ireland, America, and Nazi Germany all indict unrestricted speech as reckless; how we might go about restricting it is something we should discuss at length, but not something we should avoid out of some misguided sense of freedom to hate as a civil right.

Perhaps looking at how these freedoms have been abused here and elsewhere will provide guidance to our discussion.

I often wondered how otherwise reasonable people in the US could believe in human equality and civil rights in our country, while at the same time opposing equality in Israel. Granted, ADL is much preferable to JDL, but the mindless support for Israeli exceptionalism by the former in some ways emboldens the latter. In this article, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights‘ Laith Marouf examines the movement for academic boycott against Israeli Apartheid in North America and the UK. Encountering the usual threats, harassment, lawsuits and violence by the anti-democratic Zionist network, Marouf looks at how some students and faculty have overcome easily intimidated university administrations in taking a stand against racial discrimination.

There is an article in the Lakeland Ledger about a new law starting the "In God We Trust" license plates.  There are two such plates- one is a regular plate in which the motto is added, the other is a specialty plate in which it is in the main body of the plate (I don't know how prominent the motto will be).

"In God We Trust" is the Florida State Motto according to the article, and it will replace the slogan "Sunshine State" or where the issuing county is placed now on the regular plates.  Since it's the state motto, it is supposed to be able to stand up to court challenges.

I wonder if people are going to have a choice in this matter- or if they'll be forced to take a plate with the motto.  The article indicates that there may be a choice, but knowing how things often go in this state, I wonder.

The article is located at: http://www.theledger.com/article/20080927/NEWS/809270344/1003/NEW S00?Title=New_Law_Creates_In_God_We_Trust_License_Plates

Paul de Armond explains why Christian militancy should concern us. As he observes, "A mandate from God is a powerful thing."

America didn't suddenly become a nuthouse, that took some effort. While it's always been home to religious fanatics and prophets of doom, it's only by the mainstreaming of these damaged people that it seems like our society has come unhinged.

Not to downplay the public harm and threat to democracy that unleashing this violent milieu on the political process has done, but it's worth remembering that while sometimes dormant or marginalized, right-wing terrorists have always been part of the American social landscape. It's just that bringing them out of the closet makes them seem new.

Normalcy, as defined by the time prior to the mainstreaming of religious-based bigotry in the 1980s, had its problems, but the readily-apparent insanity of the present GOP ticket, for instance, signals a qualitative change in power politics that many Americans are having difficulty getting their minds around. And indeed, the fallout from this electoral fiasco may be something even the GOP regrets.

The decision by America's aristocracy to unleash religious savagery on the American public is perhaps the ultimate sign of a society in decline, but the dysfunction of governance is only one of the consequent problems. The resurgence of domestic terrorism that is almost sure to come as a result, is not an easily controllable outcome. For, unlike the strictly criminal enterprise of the present administration, an apocalyptic regime inciting true believers to run rampant is a pathogen cured only by official violence.

In other words, what mad behavior we are unable to constrain by moral sanction, in time will have to be put down by lethal force. If one looks back over the last thirty years, it isn't hard to find examples of what I mean.

Over the past few weeks, folks on the Internet have turned up an impressive amount of info re Sarah Palin's questionable judgements--including scandals involving the Alaska State Police (now known as "TrooperGate") and similar hijinks with the Wasilla PD, info re Palin trying to make rape victims pay for their own evidence collection kits (which led to the state stepping in), and Palin's disturbing connections with "Joel's Army" neopentecostal dominionists.

What has not been publicised so far is that the first two scandals have direct connections to the third--and, even worse, there's the most damning evidence yet that the very "Joel's Army" folks Palin is linked to may have been grooming her explicitly as a "stealth candidate".