The Hollywood Liberal

Early Morning Swim: George Pataki Hilariously Denies Anti-Islam Sentiment on Right on “Hardball”
Meanwhile, Pataki should listen to the Mayor of New York.

Meanwhile, Pataki should listen to the Mayor of New York.

“In that spirit,” Bloomberg concluded, in words that echoed John F. Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, “let me declare that we in New York are Jews and Christians and Muslims, and we always have been. And above all of that, we are Americans, each with an equal right to worship and pray where we choose. There is nowhere in the five boroughs that is off limits to any religion.“

But…but…sacred ground!

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Late Late Night FDL: Mrs. Hughes
Mrs. Hughes — live at the Ice House.

Mrs. Hughes — live at the Ice House.

What’s on your mind?

h/t BustedKnuckles for the video

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NYT and Matt Bai Falsely Call Social Security Trust Fund a “Lottery”
Matt Bai has a NYT article ostensibly about Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer and his willingness to cut wasteful spending to reduce the deficit — no news there — but Bai turns it into a dishonest hit piece on the Social Security Trust Fund.

Matt Bai and the editors of the New York Times have printed an article ostensibly about Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer and his willingness to cut wasteful spending to reduce the deficit — as though eliminating unhelpful or harmful programs were an unheard of position for Democrats even though they just adopted legislation to cut unjustified payments to health care providers and private education lenders by hundreds of billions. But that misdirection isn’t even the main problem.

With no apparent oversight from the Times’ editors, Bai turns the “news analysis” article into a Republican talking point attacking Social Security and the US Government’s credit worthiness. You can see upcoming “corrections and retractions” written all over this one.

Here is how Matt Bai, who apparently gets his understanding of how Social Security works from Alan Simpson, describes how the Trust Fund works:

The liberal groups that are already speaking out against the debt panel’s unfinished work have chosen to start with Social Security because it is likely to be at the center of any budget compromise. “If there’s a place where it looks like Republicans and Democrats can reach agreement, we’re afraid it’s Social Security,” says Frank Clemente, the director of Strengthen Social Security. (In other words, the two parties might actually work together on something. They must be stopped!)

The coalition bases its case on the idea that Social Security is actually in fine fiscal shape, since it has amassed a pile of Treasury Bills — often referred to as i.o.u.’s — in a dedicated trust fund. This is true enough, except that the only way for the government to actually make good on these i.o.u.’s is to issue mountains of new debt or to take the money from elsewhere in the federal budget, or perhaps impose significant tax increases — none of which seem like especially practical options for the long term. So this is sort of like saying that you’re rich because your friend has promised to give you 10 million bucks just as soon as he wins the lottery.

So ignore Bai’s gratuitous insult that anyone concerned about protecting Social Security is merely worried about an outbreak of bipartisan agreement. Does the New York Times have editors? Surely someone there must know this entire framework is false, misstating how the Trust Fund works and even how bonds and debt are created.

More important, someone at the Times must surely know that a frequent canard of the Republican Party and Social Security opponents is to argue that the Social Security Trust Fund, which has a surplus of $2.5 trillion in US Treasury bonds built up since 1983 by higher payroll taxes paid by future retirees, is just worthless paper. And if it’s worthless paper, future beneficiaries will never be able to rely on the $2.5 trillion they paid into the system to help pay the Social Security benefits to which they’re entitled.

The canard was always designed to convince today’s and tomorrow’s elderly that they cannot rely on the US Government honoring its own Treasury bonds — in effect, arguing the US would be so irresponsible as to engage willy nilly in a sovereign debt default, not to mention breaking a sacred promise to its own people. The goal of the canard is to convince Americans they should not count on Social Security, or government in general, to help in their retirement. Give that money to Wall Street instead.

Social Security is “broke,” they claim; it’s “in crisis,” they continue, and if the Government were forced to pay off those bonds when the system needs to redeem them to pay benefits — just as the government planned — it would create a massive “debt crisis” for the United States. Everything about that story is false and malicious.

The Trust Fund’s bonds are just like other Treasury bonds except they aren’t traded. When the Trust Fund needs to “redeem” a bond to cover ongoing benefit payments, all that happens is that electronic entries reflecting the change appear on the respective governments accounts, and Social Security checks go out, as always, as scheduled. Calling this a “lottery” is stunningly false.

But the perpetrators of this falsehood don’t care about the facts. They hope to convince people that Social Security is in crisis, because the Trust Fund is illusory, and then use those lies to convince Congress and the public to accept cuts in Social Security benefits to “save it.” As Paul Krugman has characterized it, we had to cut future benefits to avoid cutting future benefits.

The hucksters have convinced enough fools or charlatans to believe the lies, and convinced the White House to pander to them, possibly the worst domestic policy blunder possible for a presumably Democratic President (along with not having a plan A or B to put 15 million people back to work). So now we have a phony “fiscal responsibility” commission that has no connection to fiscal responsibility, no regard for the truth, and no protection for Social Security or the public interest.

This is the big con, folks, maybe the biggest con in an era of big cons, and it’s all designed to take money paid by middle class and seniors and put aside for their retirements, and use it as a cover for tax cuts for the richest people in America. Matt Bai just told us he is a dupe in that con, but what excuse do the New York Times editors have?

More:
Dean Baker has a similar reaction over at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

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Germany Might Make Facebook Snooping Verboten for Employers
If you’ve recently entered the job market (and who hasn’t in the last couple of years), you’re probably familiar with the ritual of sterilizing your Facebook presence and hoping your prospective boss doesn’t find anything juicy. Apparently Germans are sick of potential employers snooping, and a proposed law would put limits on that. New York Times: The bill would allow managers to search for publicly accessible information about prospective employees on the Web and to view their pages on job networking sites, like LinkedIn or Xing. But it would draw the line at purely social networking sites like Facebook, said Philipp Spauschus, a spokesman for the Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizière. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet on Wednesday gave its backing to the proposed law. The bill will now go to Parliament for discussion, and could be passed as early as this year, Mr. Spauschus said. Read more

If you’ve recently entered the job market (and who hasn’t in the last couple of years), you’re probably familiar with the ritual of sterilizing your Facebook presence and hoping your prospective boss doesn’t find anything juicy. Apparently Germans are sick of potential employers snooping, and a proposed law would put limits on that.

New York Times:

The bill would allow managers to search for publicly accessible information about prospective employees on the Web and to view their pages on job networking sites, like LinkedIn or Xing. But it would draw the line at purely social networking sites like Facebook, said Philipp Spauschus, a spokesman for the Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizière.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet on Wednesday gave its backing to the proposed law. The bill will now go to Parliament for discussion, and could be passed as early as this year, Mr. Spauschus said.

Read more

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Beck’s “non-political” 8-28 rally steeped in politics

Glenn Beck says his August 28 Restoring Honor rally in Washington, DC will be a “non-political” event. However, many aspects of the rally, including its promotion by Beck and allied conservative groups, have been explicitly political.

Beck claims 8-28 rally will be “non-political” 

Beck: Rally about “First Amendment rights” and honoring the military. The webpage for Beck’s August 28 “Restoring Honor” rally in the National Mall in Washington, DC describes the event as a “non-political, non-partisan event” that “will recognize our First Amendment rights and honor the service members who fight to protect those freedoms.” The rally will raise funds for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.  

Conservative groups deeply involved with 8-28

Tea Party Patriots providing staff, promotion. An August 24 Politico article reported that Beck requested that the conservative group assist with planning the rally: 

At the request of Beck’s team, which lacked the organizational infrastructure or logistical know-how to pull off Saturday’s march, asked for assistance, Tea Party Patriots agreed to help promote the march among its 500,000 email subscribers and to provide 400 volunteers to staff it, a requirement before the National Park Service would issue a permit. 

National Rifle Association sponsoring, promoting the event. As Media Matters noted, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence reported that the NRA shipped copies of its news magazine with advertisements for Beck’s 8-28 rally.  

FreedomWorks to cater to attendees’ “political” interests. According to a July 17 Politico article reported that Beck had “offered assurances” to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation that “he will leave his politically charged rhetoric behind” for the rally, but will nonetheless encourage attendees interested in politics to join the right-wing group FreedomWorks, which is chaired by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey: 

Instead, the plan is for Beck to tell rally attendees that, if they want to get involved in politics, they should sign up with FreedomWorks, said the group’s president Matt Kibbe, who has appeared on Beck’s radio show since FreedomWorks became a sponsor to talk tea party politics with Beck.

“This is about cultural renewal and a lot of the themes that he talks about on his show,” Kibbe said of the August rally. “He’ll go on to say, ‘but we do need to organize and we do need to get politically active, and that’s why I’ve joined forces with FreedomWorks, because they’re the guys out there doing this, and I’ve looked around, and they’re the best at what they do.'”

Americans for Prosperity providing buses to rally. Politico reported on August 24 that the Americans for Prosperity, a major conservative political organization backed by right-wing billionaire David A. Koch of the oil giant Koch Industries, “moved its annual Washington training session to correspond with Beck’s rally and are offering to bus attendees to it.” According to Politico:

“We very much appreciate and support Glenn’s general message that he puts forth on a daily basis … He consistently espouses free market views and views that espouse what the founders thought,” said AFP President Tim Phillips. “It’s a good message — and so whatever direction he chooses to take with this day and this march, we support it.”

FreedomWorks, Tea Party Patriots, hosting their own corresponding events. Politico also reported on July 17 that FreedomWorks and the Tea Party Patriots are “taking advantage of the expected crowds” at Beck’s rally “to hold their own events.” According to the article: “FreedomWorks’ political action committee is holding a fundraiser and get-out-the-vote training session the night before Beck’s rally, and the Tea Party Patriots are urging the 500,000 activists on their e-mail list to attend both Beck’s rally and a tea party rally the following day to seek the repeal of the Democratic health care overhaul.”

Sarah Palin will speak at rally

Palin a featured speaker at the 8-28 rally. On May 26, Beck announced that he had “selected” Sarah Palin to speak at the 8-28 rally “not for political reasons at all but because I think she understands duty and honor”:

BECK: To bring on the medal of honor winners along with Gary Sinise will be somebody that I selected that I, not for political reasons at all but because I think she understands duty and honor, I think she understands what it’s like — the first people that we have to point out before we go into the badge of merit are the people that have done remarkable things in wartime. She has a son who is serving currently. Sarah Palin will also be joining.

Palin inextricably linked to GOP politics. After running as the Republican nominee for vice president in 2008 and serving half a term as Alaska’s Republican governor, Palin has remained deeply involved in national GOP politics. Following the June 8 elections, several media outlets credited Palin’s endorsements of various Republican candidates as critical to their primary victories. A June 24 ABCNews.com article reported: “Though she currently holds no political office, the former Alaska governor has emerged as a key player in some of the most contentious races. Her endorsements — mostly done informally via Facebook and Twitter — have sparked instant media attention and, in some cases, significantly boosted a candidate’s popularity. Several of Palin’s previously unknown picks have gained national attention.”

Palin’s political action committee, SarahPAC, has donated over $125,000 to federal candidates in the 2010 election cycle, every one of them a Republican.

Palin is a wildly polarizing political figure. As Greg Sargent of the Washington Post‘s The Plum Line blog noted, a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that Palin, while popular among “GOP primary voters,” is “toxic” among “the broader electorate.” The poll asked respondents to gauge their response to various attributes Congressional candidates might have, and 52 percent said they would have “some reservations about” or be “very uncomfortable with” Palin’s endorsement of a candidate (just 25 percent said they’d be “enthusiastic” or “comfortable” with her endorsement).

GOP members of Congress raised money for the rally

Sen. Hatch and Rep. Chaffetz attended Beck fundraisers. The July 17 Politico article also reported that Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) attended a fundraising event with Beck in Salt Lake City to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Fund. The Utah Republicans also attended one of Beck’s “American Revival” events in Salt Lake City, the proceeds for which were “expected to go to Beck’s production company, Mercury Radio Arts, which is also putting on the Restoring Honor rally.”

GOP Congresswoman Michele Bachmann sold Capitol tour to raise funds for 8-28. Beck reportedly auctioned off a Capitol tour with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and right-wing activist David Barton in order to raise funds for the 8-28 rally. The tour sold for $27,500.

Beck promotes the rally in political terms

Beck: Rally will “fix the capital.” During his May 7 Fox News show, Beck said: “On August 28, I’m going to Washington, D.C., and I’m going to be at the feet of Abraham Lincoln and facing the Washington Monument. Everybody tries to fix the capital. I’m telling you, the capital will fix itself if we just stand between Washington and Lincoln and try to be those people. Restore honor in the country, and we’ll be fixed.”

Beck: Rally will “reclaim the civil rights movement.” Also on his May 26 radio program, Beck said: “This is going to be an iconic event. This is going to be a moment that you’ll never be able to paint people as haters, racists, none of it.  This is a moment quite honestly, that I think we reclaim the civil rights movement.”

Beck will counter the alleged “progressive” distortion of the “badge of merit.” Also on May 26, Beck said: “Today, we announced the first 15 minutes of the 8-28 event and the people that will join me on stage. We announced that we are going to start — restart the badge of merit that George Washington gave his troops. It’s what the Purple Heart is based on, except the progressives — what a surprise — in 1933 introduced the Purple Heart.”

Events intended to lead up to 8-28 rally were explicitly political

Beck planned “education conventions” as precursor to 8-28, would teach Beck fans “how to be a politician.” During a November 21, 2009, rally at a Florida retirement community, Beck announced that he would be holding several “education conventions” across the country in the lead-up to the 8-28 rally in Washington, DC. Beck said the conventions would teach participants “history,” “finance,” and “community organizing,” and “if you want to be a politician, we’re going to teach you how to be a politician.”

BECK: So here’s what we’re doing. This is the beginning. Next year, we’re holding – I’ve divided the country up into seven separate regions, and I’m having conventions around the country. They’re education conventions. You’re going to get up early on a Saturday morning and you’re going to go to bed late. And you are going to learn about history, you’re going to learn about finance, you’re going to learn about community organizing. You’re going to learn everything we need to know. If you want to be a politician, we’re going to teach you how to be a politician. We’re going to teach you the fundamentals of why values and virtues and ethics are important. We’re going to mass together in our little community organizing group, the beginnings of the 9-12 group, and we are going to go out and register people to vote. But we’re going to register people to vote without taking a dime from the federal government, and without smuggling any underage hookers across the border!

[…]

We’re going to do seven of these, is the initial thought. And then, come August 28 – I would like you to make your plans now – to join me at the feet of Abraham Lincoln in Washington, DC.

Beck announced “100-year plan” for successful libertarian candidates. During his November 2009 rally, Beck explained why he believed libertarian candidates “never win elections,” and said he was “developing a 100-year plan for America” to help implement libertarian policies:

BECK: Our libertarian friends, they never win elections because they always stand up and say “You know what? I’m gonna swear, take the oath of office on Tuesday. And on Wednesday, I’m abolishing the IRS. And on Thursday, I’m bringing all of our troops home from around the world.” And, honestly, it can’t be done. It has been done for a hundred years. A hundred years of laying this foundation. Some of the stupid stuff we can do on Tuesday afternoon. “Hey, let’s skip the parade this year. I’m cleaning up some of the stupid stuff.” But the rest of it might take two years, four years, ten years, fifty years. We need to start thinking like the Chinese. I’m developing a 100-year plan for America. A 100-year plan. We will plant this idea and it will sprout roots.

Beck designed “100-year plan” in response to progressive “ticking time bomb.” At the same November 2009 rally, Beck explained that his “100-year plan” was developed to counteract a separate 100-year plan, allegedly set into motion “at the beginning of the Progressive movement,” which Beck described as a “ticking time bomb” designed to bring about a “socialist utopia.”

8-28 rally and “The Plan”

Beck planned to unveil “The Plan” at 8-28 rally. In a November 2009 announcement on his website, Beck hyped his “education conventions” and his “100 year plan,” saying that they “will culminate in The Plan, a book that will provide specific policies, principles and, most importantly, action steps that each of us can take to play a role in this Refounding.” Beck wrote that the “unveiling of The Plan” will occur at the 8-28 rally, “at the feet of Abraham Lincoln on the National Mall.” Beck has since scuttled the “unveiling of the Plan,” instead turning the event into a promotion for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

Beck’s “Plan” puts conservative ideology over efficacy. Over the course of five Fox News shows in April 2010, Beck unveiled various elements of “The Plan,” promising viewers on April 12 that he would show them “how to slash the budget.” However, most of the proposals Beck and his guests offered valued conservative orthodoxy over efficacy.

• Medicare. On the April 13 edition of Glenn Beck, Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute recommended privatizing Medicare, saying that the best thing to do is go to a “consumer-based system” in which people who reach age 65 are given a federal voucher for $11,000 to “buy health insurance in the private market.” On January 27, the Congressional Budget Office released an analysis of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) legislation to privatize Medicare, which included a provision to provide vouchers to Medicare-eligible seniors, the “average value” of which would be $11,000 if “all Medicare beneficiaries” were to receive it. According to the CBO’s scoring, Ryan’s proposal would have increased the financial burden of health care on seniors: 
  

  Under the Roadmap, the value of the voucher would be less than expected Medicare spending per enrollee in 2021, when the voucher program would begin. In addition, Medicare’s current payment rates for providers are lower than those paid by commercial insurers, and the program’s administrative costs are lower than those for individually purchased insurance. Beneficiaries would therefore face higher premiums in the private market for a package of benefits similar to that currently provided by Medicare. Moreover, the value of the voucher would grow significantly more slowly than CBO expects that Medicare spending per enrollee would grow under current law. Beneficiaries would therefore be likely to purchase less comprehensive health plans or plans more heavily managed than traditional Medicare, resulting in some combination of less use of health care services and less use of technologically advanced treatments than under current law. Beneficiaries would also bear the financial risk for the cost of buying insurance policies or the cost of obtaining health care services beyond what would be covered by their insurance.

• Federal salaries. On the April 14 edition of Glenn Beck, he proposed cutting salaries for federal employees so that the average federal salary would match the average private-sector wage, claiming that this would save between $44 and $104 billion. However, this amounts to only one to three percent of all federal spending.
• Education. The April 15 edition of Glenn Beck was devoted to eliminating the Department of Education. As Media Matters noted at the time, conservative Republican politicians have been promising since 1980 to eliminate the Education Department to no avail. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, education accounted for just two percent of all federal spending in 2008.

Enright Arraigned On Hate Crime Charges
Michael Enright was arraigned this afternoon in Manhattan criminal court, but entered no plea for the three charges: attempted murder in the second degree as a hate crime, assault in the first degree as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.


Hate crime – Manhattan – Michael Enright – Murder – Assault

DOJ ‘Hopeful’ Sheriff Joe Will Cooperate With Discrimination Probe (VIDEO)
A lawyer representing controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio met with lawyers at the Justice Department on Tuesday to discuss the government’s request for documents as part of their inquiry into whether Arpaio’s immigration enforcement is discriminatory.


Justice Department – Sheriff – Law – Joe Arpaio – United States Department of Justice

Group Enright Worked With: ‘Deeply Distressed If This Is The Mike Enright We Know’
Intersections International, the interfaith group “dedicated to promoting peace and understanding” between cultures which has a volunteer named Michael Enright, said today they hope their volunteer is not the same man who allegedly slashed a cab driver last night after asking if he was Muslim.



Muslim – Michael Enright – Intersection International – Taxicab – Interfaith

The Black Republican’s Burden

Another Poll Shows Toomey Leading
A new Franklin & Marshall poll in Pennsylvania shows Pat Toomey (R) leading Rep. Joe Sestak (D) in the U.S. Senate race among likely voters, 40% to 31%.

The contest is closer among all registered voters, with Toomey leading by only 3 points.

Said pollster Terry Madonna: “The Democratic Party’s difficulty in this election is their voters do not have the same motivation and they’re less likely to vote. That is a huge problem for them.”

Corbett Holds Solid Lead in Pennsylvania
A new Franklin & Marshall poll in Pennsylvania shows Tom Corbett (R) leading Dan Onorato (D) in the race for governor among likely voters, 38% to 27%.

Among registered voters, the race is a toss up with Corbett ahead by just one point.

At War On Our Own Soil — How Do We Fight Against the Right Wing?
Our value system is being challenged by forces willing to take away our basic freedoms. We must fight back.

Our value system is being challenged by forces willing to take away our basic freedoms. We must fight back.

Mexico: Bleeding to Death in the War on Drugs
Another 72 corpses found in a new mass grave. Feuding cartels blamed for displays of mutilated bodies. Death toll in four-year crackdown passes 28,000

Another 72 corpses found in a new mass grave. Feuding cartels blamed for displays of mutilated bodies. Death toll in four-year crackdown passes 28,000

Despite Fresh Rhetoric About Saving U.S. Manufacturing, Obama Is Quietly Pushing Failed Bush Trade Policies
Obama is talking up a plan to boost U.S. manufacturing. Too bad he’s also pushing Bush’s offshoring agenda behind the scenes.

Obama is talking up a plan to boost U.S. manufacturing. Too bad he's also pushing Bush's offshoring agenda behind the scenes.

Is Mosque Hysteria Being Ginned Up to Bolster Support for the Disastrous Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?
The right-wing mobilization at the core of the Islamic center controversy is about rebuilding political support for the ‘global war on terror.’

The right-wing mobilization at the core of the Islamic center controversy is about rebuilding political support for the 'global war on terror.'

Presented By:

Pull the Plug on US Commission on International Religious Freedom?
During the battle over John Bolton’s US Senate confirmation to serve as US Ambassador to the United Nations which resulted in “no vote” and thus his early resignation from a recess-appointed position, I received a lot of sensitive information from…


Freedom of religion – Cordoba House – United States – Barack Obama – Advice and consent

Juicy. Goldberg Caught Lying, Apologizes & Keeps Lying
Nice Friday. Glenn Greenwald catches Jeff Goldberg (live and on tape) in flatout lies. And, proving my crybaby thesis, Goldberg apologizes, whines, and then lies some more. I can’t add anything. I think Jeff should go back to the Israeli…


Middle East – United States – Jeff Goldberg – Warfare and Conflict – Israel-Palestine

Meet Bruce Majors: The Tea Partier Advising Beck Rally-Goers To Stay Off The Green And Yellow Lines

On Monday, a Maine tea party blog created a sensation when it published a “visitor’s guide” to Washington, D.C. for tea party activists coming to the city this weekend to attend Fox News host Glenn Beck’s big rally. The guide was widely mocked on blogs and cable news for its paranoid warnings about the vast majority of the city, but overlooked so far is the author of the guide — right-wing activist Bruce Majors.

While the guide’s absurd warnings could be dismissed as written by an overly-cautious out-of-towner who doesn’t understand D.C., Majors should know better — he’s “lived and worked in DC since 1980 (in 3 of the cities 4 quadrants),” according to his blog. Majors should also be intimately acquainted with the unsafe zones of the city, as he is a Realtor who is currently listing several homes (his company has many more) deep within the forbidden zone, and even near the dreaded Green and Yellow Metro lines. And apparently his political views seep into his business, as one client was forced to find another agent after Majors “was extremely inappropriate when he began discussing President Obama and how evil he is.”

While the guide’s absurd warnings could be dismissed as written by an overly-cautious out-of-towner who doesn’t understand D.C., Majors should know better — he’s “lived and worked in DC since 1980 (in 3 of the cities 4 quadrants),” according to his blog.

But “Majors is no mere small-time troll or newcomer.” He is an active “Tea Party community organizer in Washington, D.C.,” and a major online organizer, especially at Tea Party Patriots. On that site, he is the second biggest poster of all time, with 2277 messages, to the group’s official email listerv:

He’s organized protests online, and is the owner of the Tea Party Professionals group on Linkedin. He was also identified as a “LP [Libertarian Party] campaigner and everyone’s-facebook-friend” by a libertarian blog. He also appears to have written for the American Spectator, among other publications.

A frequent commenter on progressive blogs, Majors describes himself on his OpenSalon.com profile as an “Anarcho-capitalist revolutionary sharpening his guillotine.” On Talking Points Memo — where he was flagged with a “Troll Alert” and the subject to a lengthy profile — his bio states that he is “[l]ooking for employment as guillotine operator for citizens’ tribunal.”

Indeed, elsewhere in Majors ‘extensive online presence, there is a clear flirtation with violence as a political tool. In a Facebook note titled “We will remember in November,” Majors listed the names of all the members of Congress who voted for the Affordable Care Act — dubbed the “The Executioner’s List” — followed by a picture of a guillotine and accompanied by this call to action:

Call Capitol Hill and promise them retribution. Not just in their next race, but in their attempt to run for or be appointed to ANY office, and any private enterprise they will engage in in the future. And any member of their family.

Commenting on a TPM story, Majors wrote, “Poor walking cadaver [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid [D-NV] shouldn’t run fake tea party candidates to split the opposition vote against him. Someone might drop a plane on him. They already dropped a truck on his family,” referring to a car accident that seriously injured Reid’s wife and daughter. His Facebook page also features two jokes about President Obama’s death (and that he is a Muslim), and a picture of a sign referencing the Thomas Jefferson quote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Like his visitor’s guide, which offered advice to dealing with “African immigrants,” Major’s other writings have clear racial undertones. In a tweet linking to an article about Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and affirmative action, Majors wrote, “Kagan says Obama is ‘my niggah.’” In another tweet linking to a video of Obama, Majors tweeted, “Poor little flop eared bitch. People are so mean to him.” Upon news of White House economic adviser Christina Romer’s upcoming departure, Majors tweeted, “Congratulations Christiina Romer! A house slave is now free. But all us field slaves are still in chains!” On the Shirley Sherrod dust up, Majors wrote:

[I]t is clear that most black Democrats in politics & the media are complete knaves and idiots (much like their white counterparts). The purpose of their constant race focus is, as Angela Codevilla discusses in his American Spectator article, to have a charge, racism, which which they can convict average Americans of a crime so they can then demand to enslave them.

Majors also posted a picture on his Facebook page comparing First Lady Michele Obama to Chewbacca from Star Wars:

In addition, Majors appears to be a birther, posting images on his Facebook page of a forged Kenyan birth certificate that birthers claim is authentic, and several birther joke images, including a sign saying, “Illegal immigration is destroying this county — look what it did to the White House.”

TPM’s Troll Watch reported that Majors has also conducted “direct e-mail harassment and identity theft against liberals,” using stolen screen names to harass commentors on blogs he has been banned from. Indeed, he is the subject of several threads on online forums warning about his harassment, and he reportedly told one woman who accused him of using multiple screen names to hide his identity, “you silly facist bitch. Do not tell me what screen name I can use or what I am free to say.”