Pundit Country

I’m almost tempted to make a joke about this considering Bruce’s side gig, but this is obviously a disturbed individual who has listened to so much right-wing radio and television that he’s now seeing enemies everywhere.

This also illustrates why it’s important for more consistent, legitimate pushback against the fact-free stories that getting foisted on the public and contaminate the discourse. There are still far too many people who treat the likes of Beck, Limbaugh, O’Reilly, et al as actual journalists rather than propagandists and apologists for authoritarianism.

TAMPA — A Marine reservist armed with a tire iron beat and chased a man he thought was an Arab terrorist and even called 911 to say he was detaining the man, police said.

But the man he assaulted was actually a Greek Orthodox priest visiting from overseas who spoke limited English, police said.

That’s why police arrested reservist Jasen D. Bruce on a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Police said they’re also investigating whether Bruce, 28, committed a hate crime.

The incident took place around 6:35 p.m. Monday, police said. The priest, Alexios Marakis, 29, is from Crete, Greece. He is visiting St. Nicholas Greek Cathedral at 17 E Tarpon Ave. but police said he was in the Westshore area to bless another retired Greek priest.

But Marakis apparently got lost and exited northbound Interstate 275 into downtown Tampa, police said.

The priest followed several cars into the Seaport Channelside Apartments on Twiggs Street. He got out of his car and asked Bruce for help.

Instead of offering help, Bruce struck the priest on the head with a tire iron, police said.

He then chased the priest for three blocks to the Madison Avenue and Meridian Avenue, police said, and even called 911 to say that an Arabic man tried to rob him.

Bruce said he was going to take the Arab into custody. When police arrived, Bruce told them the victim was a terrorist.

The priest was taken to Tampa General Hospital. There, a translator helped Marakis speak to police.

Then officers went to Bruce’s apartment to speak to the reservist again. But he already had an attorney with him and refused to speak, police said.

The priest was treated and released from the hospital.

Records show Bruce was released from the Hillsborough County jail at 8 a.m. Tuesday on $7,500 bond. His occupation is listed as sales manager of a Palm Harbor pharmacy.

• Rush Limbaugh will be a judge at next year’s Miss America pageant.  Seriously.

• Larry Klayman has a new book out.  Its title? WHORES.

• Justice Antonin Scalia doesn’t seem to think that a cross is a Christian symbol.

• This has got to be one of the most God-centric political ads I think I have ever seen.

• Rep. Paul Broun declares Nancy Pelosi to be a “domestic enemy of the Constitution.”

• Pam’s House Blend: The right-wing media gay witch hunt continues with Obama EEOC nominee Chai Feldblum.

• Rep. Michele Bachmann says she is perfectly comfortable with Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck being the voices of the GOP, and claims that it is only people on the Left who are talking about President Obama’s birth and citizenship.

• Meet The Man Behind The Conservative Bible

• American Prospect: The Second Coming of Sarah Palin.

• The Lodi City Council unanimously supported changing its invocation policy to allow religious leaders to give uncensored prayers before its meetings despite a threat of a lawsuit from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

• Texas Freedom Network: Could the Republican Party of Texas move even farther to the extreme right? Apparently, yes.

Related articles

• Joe Wilson, Kanye West, and the End of Civility (suzanneanderson.net)
• One Vote Palin Won’t Get (blogs.wsj.com)
• Frum unloads on talk-show wingnuts for distorting health-care debate, while Kurtz tweaks Fox hypocrisy (crooksandliars.com)
• David Brooks: The problem for Republicans is that race-baiters like Limbaugh and Beck own them (crooksandliars.com)
• U.S. Representative Accuses Democrats of Wanting Martial Law (outsidethebeltway.com)

*semi-weekly to be defined as “whenever the hell I get around to it” (links courtesy of Right Wing Watch and Hatewatch).

For the period ending October 4, 2009:

• Truth Wins Out: Focus on the Family Seeks to Exempt Alabama Gays from Antibullying Protection.
• Amanda Hess: Ex-Gay Group Calls Hate Crime Laws “Anti-Ex-Gay.”
• Family Research Council released its anti-ENDA testimony, in which it claims that “homosexuality is [not] biologically determined” and “‘transgender’ people have a mental illness.”
• Group marches for ‘white civil rights’ after Limbaugh hyped bus beating as a hate crime against whites.
• The LA Times takes a look at the “personhood” efforts, which is now coming to Missouri as well.
• The Pacific Justice Institute has filed suit against a California school district over it’s LGBT anti-bullying efforts, claiming it is really a effort to indoctrinate school children into the gay lifestyle.
• David Hart reports that the anti-LGBT group National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is desperately trying to connect the fight over marriage equality to ACORN.
• Media Matters chronicles the on-going right-wing crusade against Kevin Jennings.
• Think Progress: Rep. Steve King Says Same-Sex Marriage Is “A Purely Socialist Concept.”
• The Alliance Defense Fund has announced its second Pulpit Freedom Sunday, to be held on September 27 in order to challenge IRS restrictions on what pastors and priests can say.
• Randall Terry and company are now targeting the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
• Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute warns that bullying and harassment prevention programs are “one of the central ways to get pro-homosexual information and resources into public schools.”
• You really should read the excerpt from the forthcoming book by former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer published in GQ.
• Everything you need to know about the Tea Party movement can be learned for Mark Williams’ pathetic appearance on AC360.
• FAIR (not the media watchdog group) Embraces Racist Founder.
• Rick Santorum: running for president?
• Think Progress: Neal Boortz compares President Obama to a child molester.
• Adele M. Stan: “Make no mistake; the Tea Party movement is the new religious right. The megaphone of Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network and James Dobson’s Focus on the Family media empire has been replaced by FOX News Channel and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal.”
• Alan Turing gets a long overdue apology from the British government … the sort of which, had it happened here, the Religious Right would have vehemently opposed.
• Joseph Farah says that President Obama should be impeached for the “audacious plot of the White House to harvest personal e-mail addresses from Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites for political purposes.” Of course, none of that is true.
• The effort to place a “Personhood Amendment” on the Florida ballot would likely end up outlawing birth control.
• Dave Weigel recently wrote a great piece on the rising influence of WorldNetDaily.
• Student Hate Group in Michigan gets new faculty advisor.

• The Southern Poverty Law Center has released a new report chronicling the rise of militia and hate groups since Obama’s inauguration. One will note the same thing occurred following Bill Clinton’s ascension to the Presidency.
• Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) believes Obama and his administration is just itching to declare martial law at the earliest opportunity.
• Rep. Michele Bachmann, a favorite of this blog has spoken out time and time again on the need to rein in groups like Americorps who she believes are the first line of Obama-sponsored re-education camps for political dissidents. Guess which which son of a prominent Member of Congress (MoC) just joined Americorps?
• Scott Roeder, the man accused of killing OBGYN Dr, George Tiller has been getting an odd collection of visitors to his jail cell. Enough to make the FBI take notice.
• The radical right and Tea Party organizers are so furious with leftists and their goals to destroy America that they’re going to start using the playbook of a famous author to fight back – Saul Alinksy, leftist, community organizer, and author of Rules for Radicals.
• Obama Tranny-Care? I find it hard to believe these people are taken seriously by media outlets.
• If there was an smattering of a doubt that George W. Bush was a religious zealot, this outta take care of that. Not for nothing, but didn’t Superman defeat Magog?
• HBO really is becoming the go-to network for me when I’m looking for good TV. This will probably be no exception.
• Salon has posted a how-to-guide to winning an argument with a birther. Personally, if you chose to engage one of these half-witted conspiracy nuts, I think you’ve lost already.
• The American Psychological Association is going after groups like Exodus International, which claim they can cure someone of their homosexuality.

I’m watching the mainstream news media completely lose their collective minds over the Michael Jackson story. This really has become a parody of what a news network should be about. Regardless of his or any other well-known celebrity, their passing is worth mentioning, but cutting into the regular cycle isn’t necessary.

It’s as if the management of content for CNN, MSNBC and the other cable outlets have been surrendered to 14-year olds. The idea that this is a story better suited for the entertainment division seems ludicrous to even consider, but it’s true. Compare their handling of this story with the handling of the beginning of the Iranian protests. Regardless of the reasoning for not cutting their weekend coverage, they made the wrong call for doing nothing and again have completely overreacted by making this the only story worth covering. It’s like they can’t tell anymore what’s important and what isn’t. If it won’t appear on the cover of The National Enquirer, then it’s not worth spending much time diving into.

Think back on the coverage of the death of former Beatles guitarist George Harrison a few years ago. Harrison had been a member of probably the most influential rock band of the 20th century and continued to produce successful music throughout his life both as an artist and producer. But his death didn’t warrant this level of borderline hysteria. MJ was many things throughout his life and career but as of the 1990’s and this part of the 21st century, culturally relevant isn’t one of them. His last truly successful and influential work was at least 15 years ago.

The comparison that have been most mentioned are the passing of Elvis and John Lennon, however both were very relevant at the time of their death. Elvis was still touring regularly to sold-out venues and maintained his status as a cultural icon while Lennon was not only relevant musically but politically as well and his subsequent murder had much to do with his views as it did his music.

I’m just asking for a little perspective here.

Related articles

• Gossip Sites Turn The Snark Way Down For Coverage Of Jackson’s Death (paidcontent.org)
• Michael Jackson Dies (themoderatevoice.com)
• Mark Morford: Michael Jackson vs. the news (huffingtonpost.com)