The Excoriation of Jill Carroll
Many people have pointed out the disturbing similarities between present day America's social and political climate and Germany's evolution from Weimar stoicism to blind Nazi excess. Comparisons always tend toward the invidious; but that does not render them illusionary. We do more than just resemble pre-WWII Germany; we now mirror its every communal shift and political nuance; making the tragic end result almost a given. Nothing reflects this with more come-to-meeting revivalism and jack-boot stupefaction than how hostage Jill Carroll has been treated by the so-called conservative press since her near miraculous release. The right-wing pundits hate her - wish her dead, would shove her in an oven at Auschwitz and not turn a hair - hate her. Here are a few of the choice comments I uncovered.
This from Charles Johnson - founder of the red state, right-wing blog
Little Green Footballs. Now - I'm not sure if it came directly from his lips, or from one of his acolytes, a nasty piece of business who calls himself
`Earth to Satan'.
Think Progress attributes it to Johnson,
LGF Watch his minion. As Johnson has since scrubbed his site - it's difficult to determine who came first - the snake or his egg; whoever the culprit - Charles Johnson promoted this statement within hours of Jill regaining her
liberty. This tells me he'd been thinking about the poor woman for quite some time (filthy thoughts and obvious misspellings are his and his alone - only the emphasis is mine):
"I've been watching this traitor bitch fawn all over her captors this morning. "Nice furniture, safe, nice clothes, they NEVER threatened me". I'm very glad you were so comforatble while working to undermine our efforts in Iraq. Now, wipe that muslim DNA from your face and confess to pre-planning this?"
"She's probably coming home with a suitcase full of cash (her kickback) and a dose of the clap."
Ugggg! I want to shower! Makes you wish he were one of those children Bush `left behind', doesn't it? Sorry, but we're not done. National Review's slightly more educated John Podhoretz felt the need to chime in:
It's wonderful that she's free, but after watching someone who was a hostage for three months say on television she was well-treated because she wasn't beaten or killed -- while being dressed in the garb of a modest Muslim woman rather than the non-Muslim woman she actually is -- I expect there will be some Stockholm Syndrome talk in the coming days.
Ah, but it gets worse, folks. Didn't think that possible, did you? Well - Imus Morning Show executive producer Bernard McGuirk just had to add in his own Napoli-like perversions:
She strikes me as the kind of woman who would wear one of those suicide vests. You know, walk into the -- try and sneak into the Green Zone.
He followed up that little love note with:
She may be carrying Habib's baby at this point. (The reference with the racist-tinged `Habib' comment is to al-Qaeda terrorist Zarkowi).
Hating Jill Carroll seems almost contagious amongst the pseudo-Christian crowd. Here's what neo-Liebensborn Debbie Schlussel had to say:
Why was Jill Carroll freed? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she HATES AMERICA and our Mid-East policy. And, oh yeah, she HATES ISRAEL, too.
Lord - Jill Carroll even hates Israel! Who'd have thunk it! I mean - wow - the irony in that statement is so thick it resembles congealed grease. Jill Carroll proffered up as not only anti-American but anti-Semite as well - tsk, tsk - well maybe we should just lynch the bitch and be done with it! That's Schlussel's tone, at any rate. Amazing - all this from a woman who's clearly visible vitriol drips from overly botoxed jaws with such Pavlovian precision she practically creates her own lake! I mean - if girlfriend there continues snapping so ferociously, she should really take over as head werewolf in the newest Underworld iteration!
What does all this mean? I'm getting to that. And beyond it as well, I'm afraid. The people who are currently trashing Ms. Carroll also say the exact same things about artists and teachers, journalists and entertainers, college graduates and the college bound. Indeed - anyone or anything that smacks of an independent or intellectual bent usually comes under their republican sponsored, financially flush and always deadly gun. And you know - that's the first thing Goering did before enshrining Nazi segregationism as Germany's new religion; get rid of or discredit anyone or anything that had the power or ability to call the government on the carpet. That's what Pastor Niemoller meant in his famous poem `They Finally Came for Me'. It was only after a concentrated campaign to eliminate dissent that the Nazi's were able to implement their own warped agenda with impunity. No one stood up to defend the attackees - so one by one all fell under the sword; until only the ultimate target remained. Jill Carroll is just one of many in a long line of innocents thus victimized.
So what's to be done? Well - identification and recognition helps. Let the New Nazi's know you are not blind - that you see them for who and what they are. Raise your voice, don't remain silent, stand the fuck up and be counted. If you don't; if you allow the Bernard McGuirk's and Debbie Schlussel's of the world to point and cry `traitor' at the drop of a hat and without repercussion - it will eventually be your ass that gets fried - make no mistake about that. People who hate are always in need of a victim. So when they run out of the usual suspects; when you are the last man standing, those big guns will turn - and you will be judged too tall or too short; too fat or too thin; too Catholic or not Christian enough. And trust me on this - when that sword descends upon your lily-white unprotected throat - crying amnesty because you helped the tyrants to power will be greeted with nothing but apathy and a smile. After all - you knew they were snakes when you picked them up. Don't blame a reptile for reverting to form.