
The Empire Struck Back this morning. Naturally, with no defense for Mr. Romney’s indefensible stance on the attacks on U.S. embassies, deciding to play politics on 9-11 after eschewing this course as fundamentally offensive to the American people mourning their dead, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post absurdly attack the “main stream media.”
Gots news for youse, keeds: you ARE the mainstream media. Motes and planks. We turn to the Book of WSJ, Chapter and Verse, from the anonymous assassins on the editorial board:
Romney Offends the Pundits
Doesn’t he know he’s not supposed to debate foreign policy?
[no byline]
Tuesday’s assaults on the U.S. Embassies in Benghazi and Cairo have injected foreign policy into the Presidential campaign, but suddenly the parsons of the press corps are offended by the debate. They’re upset that Mitt Romney had the gall to criticize the State Department for a statement that the White House itself disavowed.
We’re referring to the statement issued Tuesday under the headline “U.S. Embassy Condemns Religious Incitement.” The statement came in response to Muslim protests against a 13-minute anti-Islamic video making the rounds on YouTube.
In response to anger in Egypt at the video, the Embassy in Cairo issued its statement saying that “The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims—as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.” It added that, “Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”
But it gets worse.

One problem is that the statement came not long before Egyptian protestors stormed the Embassy and some of them made it over a wall and into the compound. An Embassy Twitter post after the assault said its earlier statement “still stands.”
Mr. Romney reacted late Tuesday with his own statement: “I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.” He followed Wednesday with a press conference reinforcing his criticisms of the Administration’s “mixed signals” on “our values.” [...]
OK, I guess. If that’s the gun you want to put to your head, Rupert Murdoch’s WSJ (and New York Post), then pull the trigger whenever it’s convenient for you.
The notion of “religious tolerance” is offensive to Mr. Romney and the Wall Street Journal. Remember that.
If you want to go down the “kill the messenger” road, while completely ignoring the deeply offensive political use of 9-11 and shooting off one’s mouth even AS the attacks were taking place; if you want to ignore 230+ years of American tradition and practice that “politics ends at the waters’ edge,” that’s fine.
The WSJ is, after all, one of those horrible, biased mainstream media joints (highest circulation of any newspaper in America) filled with those awful pundits they hate so much. There you go.
But listen:
His political faux pas was to offend a pundit class that wants to cede the foreign policy debate to Mr. Obama without thinking seriously about the trouble for America that is building in the world.
A version of this article appeared September 13, 2012, on page A14 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Romney Offends the Pundits.
This absurd use of the idiotic rhetorical question in place of an argument only reveals how threadbare their “defense of the Mittwit” whole cloth really is.
In order to pretend that what Romney did WASN’T offensive, they must dismiss every thinking American, every Republican politician who criticized Romney’s astonishingly naked and self-serving act of borderline treason against the nation he would purport to govern, and pretend that the great straw man (the phony Action Figure they have constructed) of the “Biased Liberal Media” is solely to blame, and, by implication, NO ONE ELSE COULD HAVE BEEN OFFENDED by Mr. Romney’s naked use of 9-11 to attempt to advance his personal agenda, even as Americans were being killed and threatened in service to our nation.
Well, at least he’s consistent.

(I’ll pass over the Usual Suspects of the Flying Monkey Corps, squealing their “MEETOO!”s to the world, because they all take their marching orders from the same central point — probably Karl Rove’s office and Rupert Murdoch’s fax machine — and are, from the evidence, incapable of original thought. An echo machine is, after all, an echo machine and not an orchestra.)
I can’t imagine that they actually thought this through. After all, if being a “pundit” is automatically a cause for disdain and dismissal, then I guess there are a lot of cracks in the glass walls of their own glass house. But, worse, I can’t imagine that Romney bothered thinking this through. Let’s engage in a little Reductio ad Moroni, shall we?
Mr. Romney’s complaint that this statement on religious tolerance, issued six hours before the protests at the Cairo Embassy boils down to this: It is an “apology” for “American values,” and, thus, is a shameful act in our American name, created through reverse causality by President Barack Obama HIMSELF:
“It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”

Here is that “sympathizing” per the WSJ:
“The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims—as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.” It added that, “Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”
We may, therefore, deductively conclude that the First Amendment trumps any condemnation of religious beliefs and that such condemnation, no matter how out of bounds is entirely legitimate and is defended by Mr. Romney, the Mormon heretic who follows the teachings of Joseph Smith, who had sex with goats.
And let us not forget Brigham Young, who regularly engaged in anal rape with small boys.

Joseph Smith
Neither of these statements are true, in any sense, but Mr. Romney has taken the position that it doesn’t matter AND that such scurrilous attacks on religious freedom and tolerance are “American values,” and than any condemnation of my admitted lies about the satanic cult of Mormonism would be “shameful.”
(This is also not my position, but is an intentional lie and libel against Mormons, please note.)
This is what Mitt Romney said, doubling down yesterday morning (9-12):
“I think it’s a terrible course for America to apologize for our values,” Romney said, referring to the original U.S. Embassy Cairo statement on the protests there, which was issued before protesters broached the embassy compound walls Tuesday. “They clearly sent mixed messages to the world. And the statement that came from the administration — and the embassy is the administration … was a statement which is akin to apology and I think was a severe miscalculation.“
Because we are not talking about what I think. We are talking about what someone who hates Mormons with a purple passion might think, and, therefore, are “American values,” that it would be “disgraceful” to rebut or condemn.
Which is what we must conclude about an evil, secretive cult that steals Christian babies to sacrifice in their dark rituals to their lord and master, the Devil, personification of evil. (Again, a lie, but no matter how offensive, Mr. Romney believes this to be an “American value” that it would be shameful to disagree with.)

Brigham Young
“Ye Mormon swives ye devil’s wives,” saith the National Lampoon (The Judeo-Christian Tradition, December 1974, Vol. 1, No. 57), and, we must leave it at that.
Because Mitt Romney speaks FOR the Mormon Church, by his own reasoning (quoted by Bill O’Reilly, who is a SUPER-expert and never inaccurate):
“They clearly sent mixed messages to the world. And the statement that came from the administration, and the embassy is the administration, the statement that came from the administration was a statement which was akin to apology. And I think was a severe miscalculation.”
Mr. Romney speaks for the Mormon Church, having been a bishop and a missionary, and, by his own reasoning, the Mormon Church, therefore, believes that the most offensive possible criticism of a religion is an “American value,” and “religious tolerance” is “akin” to an apology.

Detail from Mormon Temple Art
Therefore, since we all know that Mormonism is an evil, godless cult, in which “magic underwear” is worn so that believers can identify corpses NOT to be mutilated after the armageddon against all other religions preached by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, slandering Mormons and their heathen ways is an American value for which NO APOLOGY should ever be issued.
Because that would be a sign of weakness, and we all know how the Devil hates weakness, unless that weakness can be exploited for His Gain.
(Again, all of the above are lies, libels and not my beliefs, but Mitt Romney is in favor of defending them, because they are “American values.”)
And, by his own reasoning, the Mormon church believes this too.

So, you can make up any kind of slander you want against the non-Christian Mormon cult (this last, however, IS official Catholic doctrine):
While the Catholic Church would reject nothing that is true or good in Mormonism or any other world religion, Catholic theology would have to note that there is a tremendous amount in Mormonism that is neither true nor good. Further, because Mormonism presents itself as a form of Christianity yet is incompatible with the historic Christian faith, sound pastoral practice would need to warn the Christian faithful: Mormon theology is blasphemous, polytheistic, and cannot be considered on par with the theology of other Christian groups.
[For a discussion of the Catholic position on Mormonism, see here, an 18 page pamphlet declared "nihil obstat" and "free from doctrinal error." Or see here, in which I discuss it at length, "Sorry: Glenn Beck is NOT a Catholic"]

But I have strayed into factual territory. Mea culpa.
We were talking about:
1. Slandering the religious beliefs of others is “akin” to an apology and, therefore not an “American value.” and
2. Because one is a member of any hierarchical order, any statement from a lower rung of the hierarchy is, BY DEFINITION, the official position of the entire hierarchy.
Thus, the Official Position of the Mormon Church is that they defend anyone’s right in America to make the ugliest possible slanders against their Mormon religion.
Which is, of course, a cult spawned by Satan, for whom Mitt Romney works.

Which is why he defends your right to say so, whether it is true or not, and whether you believe it or not.
After all, in this election, on the Republican side of the equation, facts and reasoning do not matter, and if the “pundits” notice the Mittwit doing something offensive, then surely it is the pundits who are to blame.
We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.
Which Mitt Romney REJECTS.
Courage.




























We all knew that a Romney presidency would be a disaster. NOW we know that it would be a tragedy, a nightmare for the world, possibly WWIII. I feel like my country is undergoing a HOSTILE TAKEOVER. Please Hart, tell me something, anything, to make me calm down. Would it be possible for this clown to fool enough people, and the GOP to suppress enough votes, to get this dictator elected?
The country IS undergoing a hostile takeover, sad to say.
The Republican party has just concluded one, with the Koch Cabal having purchased their way onto the ticket in return for naming Paul Ryan veep nominee.
We have 54 days to make sure that it doesn’t happen. Register and vote. And get your friends to vote. The democracy you save just might be your own.
53 days and counting now!
As a Mormon (not the Mitt Romney kind, thank God), I LOVED this piece. The tone-deafness and frank evil hypocrisy practiced by most of the religious right (including my own people – sigh) is maddening and frankly scary. What is worse, however, is the ability that Mr. Romney has of engaging in such cynical twaddle with a straight face.
I never thought I’d say this, but I can at least understand Terry Jones – he truly believes the crazy crap he spews about the Muslims & gays, and whoever else. I mean, he totally buys the farm, the goat, the pail and the drainpipe of the crazy. So, though I think he is a crazy bigoted piece of cowpie, at least, in this instance, he is an honest, bigoted, crazy, piece of cowpie. But Romney? I get the feeling that if it served his purposes he would f*ck a goat on a satanic altar while giving the devil a BJ – and say sayonara to the Mormon church if he could get one more step toward is goal – whatever the hell that is.
I’m just saying….. I’m not from the goat f*cking part of the Mormon church…. just so you know.
Now go a VOTE!
Thanks deb. I don’t have any issues with Mormons, but for a “Mormon” to go down the road of religious bigotry given the history of the Church just to try and get back a couple of points in the polls … not only NOT a road he wants to go down, but you’re right about who he WOULD go down on, given half a chance. Or maybe he already has.
Deb…you don’t KNOW how much I NEEDED that laugh!! Just the picture that popped in my head, the goat…..the BJ, I’m good for the night.
Deb, one more thing is the “white horse prophecy” believed by the Romney and the goat?
I grew up on the White-horse prophecy, although it was presented as a rather benign possibility. The basics were that the political parties would be both incomprehensibly corrupt and the Constitution would hang by a thread and the government would ask “the priesthood” to come and fix.
It never occurred to me that there would be this fact-free lie ridden bruising campaign to buy the whitehouse. Although as I said before, I’m not convinced that Romney is acting out of pure belief or pure ambition. I lean toward ambition. That is the only real reason I can fathom for Romney throwing his lot in with the evangelical Christians who HATE us.
There is much to be admired in the Mormon gospel. But I do not think that anyone’s religion should be at the helm of our country. Though it might sound good in the abstract, the question has to be asked…. Whose God and who decides? I don’t think I want even “my” God at the supposed helm. The main problem being, while, again, there is much to be admired…. when men begin to lay out God’s laws all to often things get left out, like tolerance and acceptance of others.
To answer, Romney and the goat really only believe in each other…..
I am not all that interested in the inner workings of anyone else’s religion (I don’t mean that in a bad way, but in a “religion is a private matter” way).
What astonishes me, is, as you said, that Evangelical Christians HATE Mormons, and I could not understand how, knowing that, Mitt would openly try to incite that faction.
Result? Take a look here.
Indeed! Try being on the receiving end of a Baptist youth minister’s hate rally. My Jewish friend and I worked the superbowl several years ago and really bonded because our supervisor (said baptist youth minister), couldn’t decide who he hated more, the Jew or the Mormon. It was quite the conundrum for him. He’d walk by us with the most puzzled look on his face because he didn’t know what to do with his hate. It’s quite comical now, but at the time eerily uncomfortable. To this day, I think that’s why our breaks were “forgotten” and we didn’t have any back-up.
And as I said, I don’t want anyone’s God at the helm – way to personal and emotion ridden – not to mention to rife for abuse. I don’t even like the Ten Commandments being up on public buildings – not because they aren’t good guidelines (they most certainly are) – but because that gives one group supposed ownership of the building – and again, “Whose God and who decides”.
I loves me some Separation of church and state!
As for Mitt, the only thing I can think of is that Mitt has never really had to face consequences in his life. Everything we read or have heard of him, even in his dressing like a cop – or gay bashing – days, daddy was there with a checkbook and title to wipe away the sin. I truly think that Mitt is so used to thinking of everything in such abstract terms (how many people to fire – how to wring the most money out of a company, who cares about the town), that he just sees another abstract issue. I’m sure, in his heart of hearts, he is wondering when he can fire the lot of them. The old Tiger by the tail analogy comes to mind…………..
Thanks for this, Deb. Religious intolerance in America is far worse than people realize, as you well know.
The long history of the Mormon Church is one of savage attacks on Mormons, including the lynching of Joseph Smith. Whether one agrees with Mormonism or not, there was absolutely no call for that, nor for the Governor of Missouri’s infamous proclamation.
I don’t equate Mitt with the Mormon church (although I can’t say the same for the leadership): he is simply a salesman who has spent a lifetime saying whatever it takes to get what he wants. If he’s “religious” it’s the classical “I do it on Sunday” and then screws widows and orphans the other six days of the week.
The Baptists called for the First Amendment, fearing that the Massachusetts Puritans would return to the theocracy of Cotton Mather (the one that Benjamin Franklin ran away to Philly as a teen to escape). It’s a very wise notion.