The Republican Death Wish for America

Senator Specter Diverted Our Attention Momentarily as the 60^th Democratic Senator Able to Halt Filibusters. If Arlen had any illusions about Republican morality, the vile acts over the eight years by the Bush regime should have dispelled them. As a leading hawk on Iraq, Specter fears trial, disgrace and execution as a war criminal.

To Remind New Yorkers of the 9/11 Horrors, Air Force One Flew Low over Lower Manhattan. To many of New York's gallant First Responders, the horrible memories of the 9/11 tragedy remain fresh in the mind. Nobody needs to see a huge 747-type aircraft its wings vertical in the fatal attack mode.

 
Berlin Noir

Right Wing Talk Radio Exploits Swine Flu to Trump Torture Prosecution Concerns [Quotations from Media Matters]

Michael Savage stated: "Make no mistake about it: Illegal aliens are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico." Savage also stated, "If we lived in saner times, the borders would be closed immediately." Savage went on to theorize that the outbreak might be part of a bioterrorism threat: "[C]ould this be a terrorist attack through Mexico? Could our dear friends in the radical Islamic countries have concocted this virus and planted it in Mexico knowing that you, [Homeland Security Secretary] Janet Napolitano, would do nothing to stop the flow of human traffic from Mexico?" Savage continued: "[T]hey are a perfect mule -- perfect mules for bringing this virus into America. But you wouldn't think that way, would you? Because you are incapable of protecting America's homeland, Napolitano." Savage also stated: "How do you protect yourself? What can you do? I'll tell you what I'm going to do, and I don't give a damn if you don't like what I'm going to say. I'm going to have no contact anywhere with an illegal alien, and that starts in the restaurants." He added, "I will have no any illegal alien workers around me. I will not have them in any of my properties, I will not have them anywhere near me."

• During the April 27 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Neal Boortz asked: "[W]hat better way to sneak a virus into this country than give it to Mexicans? Right? I mean, one out of every 10 people born in Mexico is already living up here, and the rest are trying to get here. So you give -- you give -- you let this virus just spread in Mexico, where they don't have a CDC." Boortz went on to say: "So if you want to get that epidemic into this country, get it going real good and hot south of the border. And, you know, then just spread a rumor that there's construction jobs available somewhere, and here it comes. Because we're not gonna do anything to stop them from coming across the border."

• In an April 25 blog post titled "Hey, maybe we'll finally get serious about borders now," syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin suggested that the outbreak was due to the United States' "uncontrolled immigration," writing: "I've blogged for years about the spread of contagious diseases from around the world into the U.S. as a result of uncontrolled immigration. We've heard for years from reckless open-borders ideologues who continue to insist there's nothing to worry about. And we've heard for years that calling any attention to the dangers of allowing untold numbers of people to pass across our borders and through our other ports of entry without proper medical screening -- as required of every legal visitor/immigrant to this country -- is RAAAACIST." Malkin added: "9/11 didn't convince the open-borders zealots to put down their race cards and confront reality. Maybe the threat of their sons or daughters contracting a deadly virus spread from south of the border to their Manhattan prep schools will." Contrary to Malkin's suggestion, an April 27 Associated Press article reported of the New York City high school students infected with swine flu to whom she referred: "Officials think they started getting sick after some students returned from the spring break trip to Cancun."

Institutionalized Racism at Fox News

Additionally, on the April 27 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News host Glenn Beck stated: "Gee, it would be nice if we had border security now, wouldn't it?" Beck went on to assert: "But if you are a family and you're down in Mexico and you're dying and those in America are not, why wouldn't you flood this border? Why wouldn't you come across this border? It's exactly what I warned of -- different scenario, different reason of -- I was talking about economic collapse. People start to come and rush this border, then what happens? Gee, it would be nice if we had some border security."

Media Matters for America has previously documented that CNN host Lou Dobbs repeatedly defended the false claim by CNN correspondent Christine Romans that the United States has seen a dramatic increase in leprosy cases, which Dobbs said was caused in part by "unscreened illegal immigrants coming into this country primarily from South Asia." Media Matters also noted that Fox News host Bill O'Reilly replied, "You might be right," to a caller on his radio show who claimed that with the numerous diseases "the illegals" purportedly bring to this country, "each one of those people is a biological weapon," and that the impact of illegal immigration "equals and surpasses the impact of 9-11."

The Republican Death Wish for America

When my stepson was a boy, he so loved to drink Coca Cola it became an addiction. If he failed to drain a liter bottle in one sitting, he would spit in it to be sure no one else touched it.

In similar fashion, the Republicans have contaminated much of what was good about America. They did it for the money. They manipulated the public attitude with fear tactics and with appeals to racism and bigotry.

To have their way with us, they refined the crimes such as extortion, fraud, torture and murder into a form of Machiavellian statecraft. They appealed to the lowest instincts of men to rally them to support the most pernicious of endeavors.

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