Piece Of Shit Country

A douche or douchebag is a device used to introduce a stream of water into a body cavity for medical or hygienic reasons.

It is also

A fair representation of Rep. Steve King

Actual Photo Rep. King

Think Progress » Rep. King Fear-Mongers On Obama’s Plan To Close Gitmo: It Could Give 9/11 Mastermind A ‘Path To Citizenship’.

When Mike Gallagher said that Obama wanted to “bestow American citizenship rights to somebody from another country” who wants “to murder civilian Americans,” King claimed that closing Gitmo could put 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed “on a path to citizenship”:

KING: Let’s just say that, that, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, is brought to the United States to be tried in a federal court in the United States, under a federal judge, and we know what some of those judges do, and on a technicality, such as, let’s just say he wasn’t read his Miranda rights. … He is released into the streets of America. Walks over and steps up into a US embassy and applies for asylum for fear that he can’t go back home cause he spilled the beans on al Qaeda. What happens then if another judge grants him asylum in the United States and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is on a path to citizenship. I mean, I give you the extreme example of this.

Here are some words I was compelled to look up in the dictionary:

Integrity: adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.

Self-Respect: Due respect for oneself, one’s character, and one’s conduct.

Ok, I’m going to make one big assumption here, as a starting point.  I will be assuming that Rep. Steven King from Iowa’s 5th district, a walking, breathing human being with a pulse, actually knows that what he is saying is NOT TRUE.  It’s a bit of a shortcut to get to the good stuff, but I’d really rather not rummage through the possible pseudo-arguments that could support Mr Kings good faith.

Sidenote, if you’ll indulge me dear readership:  Dear Mr King, there is no fucking US Embassy inside the U.S.  – Dumbass.

Ok, moving swiftly along.  So he knows its Bull.  How did we get to this?

I mean Mr King was once a little boy, a little Stevie.   How exactly did this happen to him?  That’s what I find fascinating.  I mean what events, experiences laid the foundation for Mr King to think, “yeah you know what… I’ll just go ahead and make these types of statements because it serves my interests.”  Does anyone actually intend to grow up to become manipulative, deceitful, and intellectually dishonest.  Who romanticizes this?

No one.

So is it a “win at all cost” mentality, that taken to its extreme, is at the origin of this perversion?

Because indeed it is a form of perversion, these radio talk shows, that under the guise of reporting information to a public, in fact construct a deliberate phantasmagorical narrative.  What is worse, “public” servants, such as congressmen, participate in the practice.

And this makes me think that I should make an effort not to be so surprised.  Its always hard to recognize what is happening when you are in the midst of it.  In a round about way it reminds me of this great story my law professor once told my classmates and I when discussing the high point of Stalinist Great Terror.  He mentioned that an audio recording was found in the Russian archives, where at the end of Stalin’s speech the audience composed  of Stalin loyalist and members of Soviet intelligentsia broke out into furious applause.   The applause recorded was uninterrupted and lasted 48min.

48 min.  What could this possibly mean?  What was going on?  What could cause such a senseless exaggeration?  It was simply that everyone in the audience was looking at his/her neighbor and looking to spot the first one who would dare stop.   The fear of anonymous unsubstantiated and in fact even trivial denunciations that were current practice at the time even ended up affecting the duration of applause.  Simple explanation.  He who would be found less enthusiastic, might be noticed, might be reported and could disappear.  My point is that those people actually had to live and suffer that reality, as absurd as it was.  So that story should be remembered as a stern warning that mass delusions can be constructed again.

So I why do the people participating in sensationalist talk shows, politicians that choose to steer away from any approximation of the truth, why do they do it?  There must be a simple explanation.  Could it be the unbridled profit motive?

This week Fox News CEO Roger Ailes said proudly On ABC’s Round Table “I’m not in politics.  I’m in ratings.  We’re winning.”

Hey, there is an other good word for you:

Demagogue:  a person, esp. an orator or political leader, who gains power and popularity by arousing the emotions, passions, and prejudices of the people.

What a shame.

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Just because I love this Steve King guy so much, I thought I’d quote him one more time in a different context.

On March 7, 2008, during his press engagements to announce his reelection campaign, King made remarks about Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama and his middle name, saying:

“I don’t want to disparage anyone because of their race, their ethnicity, their name – whatever their religion their father might have been,” I’ll just say this: When you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States — I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam? I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the radical Islamists, the al-Qaida, the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11 because they will declare victory in this War on Terror. Additionally, his middle name (Hussein) does matter. It matters because they read a meaning into that in the rest of the world. That has a special meaning to them. They will be dancing in the streets because of his middle name. They will be dancing in the streets because of who his father was and because of his posture that says: Pull out of the Middle East and pull out of this conflict. There are implications that have to do with who he is and the position that he’s taken. If he were strong on national defense and said ‘I’m going to go over there and we’re going to fight and we’re going to win, we’ll come home with a victory,’ that’s different. But that’s not what he said. They will be dancing in the streets if he’s elected president. That has a chilling aspect on how difficult it will be to ever win this Global War on Terror.” [37

What a Douche.