New Huckabee Adviser Called For ‘A Cop In Front Of Every Mosque’ Just ‘For Safe Keeping’
New Huckabee Adviser Called For ‘A Cop In Front Of Every Mosque’ Just ‘For Safe Keeping’
Earlier this month, Newsday columnist and Fox News contributor James Pinkerton joined former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign as a “senior adviser” who “will work at the intersection of policy and strategic messaging.” Pinkerton, who worked in the White House under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, says he “felt called” to to join Huckabee’s campaign.
While Pinkerton is considered by some to be a “top-tier rationalist,” he has some policy prescriptions that can only be considered extreme.
Three months before Pinkerton joined the campaign, he recorded an episode of Bloggingheads.tv with Mother Jones editor David Corn. During their conversation, Pinkerton declared that he would handle “American Muslims” by putting “a cop in front of every mosque” in America:
PINKERTON: You asked me what I would do about American Muslims. Answer is I’d put a cop in front of every mosque until I was completely satisfied nothing was going on there.
CORN: You’d put a cop in front of every mosque?
PINKERTON: That’s what I said. […]
CORN: I mean, do you have any proof that every mosque deserves a cop in front of it?
PINKERTON: I said, I would put one in there just for safe keeping all the way around.
Invasive punitive treatment of a religious minority is not the only outrageous idea Pinkerton has put forth over the years. Here are a few more examples:
- In a 2005 column, Pinkerton advocated genocide in Iraq, writing that America can make “anti-American violence in Iraq end” by unleashing “the Shia Arab Muslims and the Kurds to finish the job, all the way to the bloody extreme.”
- On Fox News in June 2006, Pinkerton complained about people who feel the “military needs to be carefully restrained with legal rules and procedures,” exclaiming “I’d rather lose our civil liberties than lose the war.”
- In December 2006, Pinkerton argued that “proximity to Mexico is at least partly to blame” for corruption in Texas.
- In September 2007, Pinkerton warned in the American Conservative of “Muslimization,” concluding that “to keep the peace, we must separate our civilizations.”
As Corn writes on his CQ Politics blog, Pinkerton’s new role as a “senior adviser” to a top presidential candidate raises important questions. For instance, “is Pinkerton now advising Huckabee to call for police surveillance of every mosque in the nation?”
UPDATE: As a note, Pinkerton “resigned as a Fox News contributor and gave up” his column when he took the position with the Huckabee campaign.
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Must now show government issued ID before entering a Mosque.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:24 pmAh, yes… the “Guilty Until Proven Innocent” plank of the Bush Doctrine.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:28 pm5. Ur-Fascism is xenophobic and racist.
Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:28 pmFourteen Warning Signs of a Fascist State
-by Umberto Eco
Judge them by the company they keep.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:28 pmPut a cop on this un-American POS. In fact put a cop on every waco Christian Church in USA. They hate us for our freedoms.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:29 pmSorry, waco should read wacko.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:31 pmI’m sure the Phuckabee is listening to this vile scum sucking fascist pig, he probably agrees with rewriting the constitution to reflect the views of superstitious southern Baptists.
Stone your neighbor, not get stoned with your neighbor.
Buck Fush
January 16th, 2008 at 1:32 pmBoy, this would have been a different sort of place if we had had guys like this back in 1491…..
January 16th, 2008 at 1:33 pmLeaving aside all issues of humanity and first amendment rights, I have a few practical questions:
Would one “cop” be enough?
What kind of training should this “cop” have?
Would the ability to read and write Arabic would be key to effective surveillance?
Would this “cop” need special training about middle-eastern culture so he/she would be able to interpret activities?
Would the “cop” be expected to know what is going on by stand out “front?”
Would the “cop” need to have have phone taps and special surveillance equipment?
Where would these “cops” come from?
Who would pay for these “cops?”
Just asking……
January 16th, 2008 at 1:37 pmWhy don’t these people just go back under rocks they crawled out from underneath?
January 16th, 2008 at 1:39 pmWould the “cop” have to be a Baptist? If so what kind?
January 16th, 2008 at 1:40 pm“I’d rather lose our civil liberties than lose the war.â€
This is a truly clueless person.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
January 16th, 2008 at 1:42 pmPastor Martin Niemöller
OK — moving past the obvious bigotry and paranoia here, I’ve got a few questions for Pinkerton:
1) What, exactly, do you expect this “cop in front” to do? Check the ID of everybody going in and out? Listen to conversations as worshippers enter and exit to find out if anybody plans to bomb anything? Or just stand there and look menacing? And how do you plan to get around the “freedom clause” regarding the right to worship in the first amendment?
2) How is this cop going to find out if “nothing is going on in there”? Whatever might be “going on” would probably be going on INSIDE, not out in front.
3) There have been a few people professing to be Christians who have committed acts of violence “for God” — especially the bombing of abortion clinics. Would you take care of this “problem” by stationing a cop in front of every Christian church in the country — you know, just for “safe keeping all the way around”?
Huckabee’s team is obviously pandering to the evangelicals (and mindless ones at that) and nobody else. Pinkerton’s chances of getting a cop installed in front of every mosque in the country are about the same as Huckabee’s chances of changing the constitution to “God’s standards”.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:42 pmhe should be arrested for his hairdo
January 16th, 2008 at 1:43 pmMark my words, it won’t be long until one of these creeps suggests deporting all Muslims. If they can’t be sent back to another country because, well, they were born here, they should be packed off to an enclave in the deserts or mountains of Mexico, in exchange for a specific allotment of Mexican day laborers critical to the agriculture industry.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:44 pmWingnuts are EVERYWHERE!!! Past the time to round them all up and move’m out..
January 16th, 2008 at 1:45 pm“I’d rather lose our civil liberties than lose the war.â€
January 16th, 2008 at 1:45 pm—————————
As if the two are mutually exclusive. What an asshat. Even if we were fighting an actual war, why can’t it be won without the loss of civil liberties???
& exactly HOW MANY MUSLIMS live in the USA?
& exactly how many did OBAMA insult with his “I’m not MUSLIM!” rebuttal to the ReichWing email propaganda campaign?
even BUSH managed after 9/11 to say, “let’s not go after Muslims!”
honestly. Americans. do you guys ever know how to faceplant on international issues.
wow.
can I make a *small suggestion*? how about making a diverse group of people FEEL A PART OF DEMOCRACY? at least make a SHOW of participation for chrissakes.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:48 pm“I’d rather lose our civil liberties than lose the war.â€
This hairdo deserves to lose both. A little hard labor might straighten this wimp out.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:48 pmOne picture is worth a thousand words.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:49 pmYes! And put a cop an a giant sign in the door of every Republican child molester!
January 16th, 2008 at 1:51 pmThis guy makes Barney Fife look good.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:54 pmI’d be very surprised if mosques are not already under surveillance. These guys assume that all Muslims are either terrorists or terrorists-in-training.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:57 pm“I’d rather lose our civil liberties than lose the war.â€
This is a truly clueless person.
Comment by Zooey — January 16, 2008 @ 1:41 pm
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this truly is a republican.
January 16th, 2008 at 2:00 pmsadly no true republicans will stand up against this mad man. They covet office over principle.
January 16th, 2008 at 2:01 pm“will work at the intersection of fear and loathing.â€
Much more accurate.
January 16th, 2008 at 2:01 pmHe’s a Pinkerton, so when he says “copâ€, he means “rent a copâ€.
Comment by BARTLEBEE
I remember pinkertons….they were not just cops they were union busting thugs….basically the blackwater boys of the era.
Samual Gompers, Joe Hill, Big Bill Haywood…etc. real union men from the past who fought and died for what this generation has discarded with no understanding of what they have done.
January 16th, 2008 at 2:03 pmSamual Gompers, Joe Hill, Big Bill Haywood…etc. real union men from the past who fought and died for what this generation has discarded with no understanding of what they have done.
Comment by Fred — January 16, 2008 @ 2:03 pm
Yeah, the Pinkertons have a long history of creating widows and orphans out of the families of working men and women by murdering striking workers.
Killers for hire.
January 16th, 2008 at 2:25 pmDoes that mean he would advocate putting a cop in front of Christian churches in order to help avoid another Oklahoma City bombing?
January 16th, 2008 at 2:27 pmYes! And put a cop an a giant sign in the door of every Republican child molester!
Comment by Evil Spaniard — January 16, 2008 @ 1:51 pm
We would have to hire a lot more cops……
January 16th, 2008 at 2:38 pmMemo to Wig Salesperson:
Desperately needed at Huckabee HQ.
January 16th, 2008 at 2:41 pmAnd these people, the Huckabees don’t worry anyone else with their over the top fanatical rants?
January 16th, 2008 at 3:21 pmPinkerton = another weasley little reich-wing, chickenhawk, warmongering death loving, coward.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:27 pmJebus. I’d rather we put all the wingnuts in Gitmo than lose our civil liberties.
;o)
January 16th, 2008 at 3:40 pmI really don’t see what putting a cop in front of a mosque accomplishes—unless like Uncle Ho says, he’s checking id’s. And that must be unconstitutional.
Britain is becoming like “1984″ now with cameras everywhere linked to computer servers with facial recognition.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:48 pmI bet he gets all the chicks.
January 16th, 2008 at 4:04 pm“I’d rather lose our civil liberties than lose the war.â€
In the words of Scott Ritter,
“Submit your passport for shredding and get the hell out of my country!”
January 16th, 2008 at 4:09 pmWhoa, whoa, whoa. Give the guy some credit. He probably wants a cop in front of every mosque to protect Muslim Americans from ignorant whites!
January 16th, 2008 at 4:14 pmWelcome to the Neo Fascism…
January 16th, 2008 at 4:33 pmWhy stop with mosques? What about other “funny” religions? And why not go whole hog and just place a Baptist preacher in every classroom?
These modern “Christian Soldiers” scare the Hell out of me.
January 16th, 2008 at 4:37 pm“When we were in college we used to take a popcorn popper — because that was the only thing they would let us have in the dorms — and fry squirrels in the popcorn popper.”
– Mike Huckabeecompletely freaking us out (”Morning Joe”).
January 16th, 2008 at 4:56 pmHuckabee is likable - and that makes him scary - his brand of theocracy is nothing short of middle east mentality.
January 16th, 2008 at 5:11 pmOhg
http://thefiresidepost.com/ 2008/ 01/ 16/ the-scary-theocracy-of-huckabee/
I am not at all surprised at this. I mean, by definition, Religious, Right-Wing Conservatives, the “far right” as many call them, are believers in America as a White Christian country — and all that is wrong with America is due to homosexuals, foreigners and liberals (not necessarily in that order).
The Huckabees of this country want to spread their religion and suppress all other religions. There has been a slow by sure chipping away at everything non-christian by many people, almost all of whom are the right-wingers such as Huckabee and Tancredo, the talking heads of Fox News such as Hannity and O’Reilly, radio hosts such as Limbaugh and Savage and CNN’s Dobbs and Beck. But the list is a LONG ONE.
There has been a steady increase of this kind of fascist rhetoric FROM GOP POLITICIANS over the last few years.
January 16th, 2008 at 5:16 pm“Does that mean he would advocate putting a cop in front of Christian churches in order to help avoid another Oklahoma City bombing?”
Comment by Democrat Soldier
Put ‘em where they’d do the most good: in the priests’ cloakroom…
January 16th, 2008 at 7:20 pmSounds like your typical moderate Republican, to me….
January 16th, 2008 at 10:11 pmHate and fear. Why do fools sow hate and fear about the wrong things?
January 16th, 2008 at 11:48 pmIf only the would be leaders of the world were afraid of hate and hated fear the whole world would be at Peace.
He’s just trying to protect everyone. This way, the Muslims will be safer with a Cop guarding the door. No crazy Christian or Atheist terrorists will be able to hurt them. Pure dhimmitude?
Hey, anybody but the PIAPS!
if you’re MAD
punish your country
Vote for Hillary
http://haltterrorism.com/
January 17th, 2008 at 12:21 am.
You’d think the mooslims would be happy to have the extra security of a cop posted in front of their mosque.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:01 pmSecond-deadliest terrorist attack on American soil? A right-wing whackjob and a Federal building in Oklahoma. I’ve got a better idea where to put the cops…
January 18th, 2008 at 12:20 am