The sickness continues...this is the Right’s idea of a “political statement”—shooting a bear in the head and stapling Obama-Biden signs to it.
“I just can’t believe people would go to such an extent to state their political beliefs,” said WCU Junior, Bethany Rowe “A sick individual who thinks extremely badly about Obama,” said Freshman Daniel Ford.
Political Science professor Chris Cooper agrees with students;
“I think it sends a pretty disturbing message, obviously it sounds like it may have some racial implications and at the very least its somebody sending the wrong message and taking this hot political season the wrong way.”
University police are investigating and are asking for anyone with information to come forward.
Today, Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, is publicly reconsidering using the Wright issue. This is after publicly ruminating over using it before, then graduallly and publicly determining that they probably wouldn’t. The reason that the McCain campaign seems so sleazy is that every time they’re about to embark on another attack on Obama, they launch a media pondering tour about whether or not they should do it. Because every anti-Obama smear they toss out lingers for days and days at a time, their crazy base picks each of them up and runs with them (or has already been running with them and therefore feels emboldened to continue).
It’s not so much that McCain’s campaign has been purposefully sleazy as they’ve been meanderingly, pointlessly sleazy. It’s the “fuck it, whatever” guide to Republican politics, with no particular focus except putting anything out there to win a daily news cycle. Obama was a conspirator in voter fraud for a weekend, a terrorist for about three days, until he was a socialist because some plumber in Ohio said so. Before that he was a celebrity and presumptuous, a race-baiter, a shady community organizer, sexist, inexperienced, a baby killer, a sex predator and a dozen other things. You wonder why McCain/Palin supporters feel like they can go to rallies and talk about Obama being a Jew-bought Islamic radical cokehead forced abortionist communist? Because it’s the standard that the campaign’s set by having ridiculously drawn out public conversations designed to draw full attention to the charges while laboring under the pretense that they’re “debating” over using the smear.
Am I going to call McCain a Neo-Nazi? Don’t know - maybe I will, maybe I won’t. It might reflect poorly on me, but it might also be a useful strategy. I’m going to go call up Mike Allen at Politico.com and talk to him about it on the record…you know, just to have a sounding board.
I have to admit that I’m somewhat shocked that the McCain/Palin campaign—-in addition to running with the “Obama is a terrorist” lie—-has picked up the “Obama supports infanticide” lie, and are putting it out in their robocalls. As John Cole says, here’s the results:
It’s interesting, because the infanticide slur is so obviously bullshit. I mean, so is the stuff about him being a secret Muslim or a terrorist, but at least in that case, you can say, well, terrorists exist and so do Muslims, and Obama has known many Muslims. (So has George W. Bush, though.) But people who think infanticide is an acceptable form of birth control are pretty much non-existent. Not to say that it doesn’t go on, but when it does, it’s usually inspired by extreme poverty and/or desperation (such as that shown by high school kids who’ve had abstinence impressed upon them so thoroughly that killing a baby seems like a safer bet than admitting they aren’t virgins anymore), and looks like babies dumped in dumpsters, not babies killed in hospital settings. (In the U.S., but the motivations—-poverty and desperation—-are stable everywhere infanticide happens.) And it’s a well-documented fact that women would rather not get pregnant in the first place, but if they do and they choose to abort, they prefer to get it done as soon as possible—-which is why the 30 year trend shows that women get abortions earlier on average than they used to, as new technologies make that possible.
I don’t know that there’s a more comical figure in American politics right now than Stanley Kurtz. He’s like Father Coughlin, if instead of focusing on the worldwide Jewish conspiracy to take down our financial systems he simply complained about how a Jewish banker gave the loan to the diner on the corner that makes dry tuna sandwiches.
I’ve been mulling over this post by Fred at Slactivist (and its follow-up) since I read these posts last night. The original post is about the psychology behind the ludicrous rumor that the CEO of Proctor & Gamble went on some talk show and proclaimed his love of Satan. This one really does show the truism that the spread-ability of an urban legend is dependent on how much it flatters the prejudices of the person who is spreading it—-for instance, I’ve heard more legends in Austin of the horrible goings on of evil gang-bangers than I have in El Paso, though the latter actually has gangs in a way that Austin doesn’t. That’s because the source of all hair-raising and untrue horror stories of criminal behavior in El Paso were attributed to illegal immigrants. You can tell a lot about someone’s prejudices by what urban legends they tell. The P&G legend obviously made its way through evangelical Christians, who are highly motivated to convince themselves as a group that Satanists exist, because it flatters their self-perception as mighty spiritual warriors.
Now that I think about it, a lot of right wing nuttery is about engaging fantasies of being more important and powerful than you are. Stockpiling guns in preparation for some kind of imaginary warfare isn’t all that different from praying for strength to beat back imaginary Satanists. Translation: Pay no attention to my mild-mannered exterior, people! I am a mighty warrior who just happens to look like a soft-bodied couch potato.
Obviously, the impetus for thinking about these kind of fantasies is the use of similar ones in service of the McCain campaign. Fully 95% of any one of Sarah Palin’s speeches now take place not in the real world we know, but in the fantasy plane of right wing nuttery, where the Anti-Christ is real, and he’s a “terrorist” masquerading as an ordinary politician. With tax raises. What’s frustrating about these myths is that people seem to be so damn intent on overlooking the obvious, which is that no sane person can seriously believe this shit. No sane person being honest with herself can really believe any of the following:
Last night, Sarah Palin was resoundingly booed at the Wachovia Center before the Flyers game. Over the past week, several members of McCain/Palin audiences have declared that various people are terrorists, traitors and deserve death.
Booing Obama… Bad.
Booing 6 year-old little girl & daughter of Republican… Good!
All week we’ve heard about how angry and mean the Republicans are because of 4 or 5 hecklers at the McCain-Palin rallies.
The McCain-Palin campaign has even been compared to well known Democratic racists.
Tonight—Leftists at the Philadelphia Flyer’s game booed Sarah Palin, her daughter Willow, and her 6 year-old daughter Piper as they went on the ice to drop the first puck of the season:
Governor Palin thought the big Democrat city would not boo a 6 year-old.
Apparently, she was wrong.
No offense, but using your six-year-old daughter as a boo shield is a little bit scummier than the good people of Philadelphia booing you for cynically using your six-year-old daughter as a boo shield. Glenn Reynolds is angry - angry, angry…sorta angry - that after years of mainstream Democrats fantasizing about killing George W. Bush (Democrats like…you know…the, uh…well, if you think about it like…Democratic Underground, okay?), the MSM is putting false equivalence between rallies where screened Republicans shout out threats and accuse their opponent of being a terrorist and a traitor in front of the Republican ticket and random people that Reynolds can’t even name fantasizing about doing bad things to Bush.
In fact, it’s not just that Democrats are evil hatemongers that Republicans are just catching up to. Republicans are actually justified in insane public displays of hatred because the media hasn’t projected random internet postings to national scandals.
The Angry Left has gotten away with all sorts of beyond-the-pale behavior throughout the Bush Administration. The double standards involved—particularly on the part of the press—are what are feeding this anger. (Indeed, as Ann Althouse and John Leo have noted, the reporting on this very issue is dubious). So while asking for McCain supporters to chill a bit, can we also ask the press to start doing its job rather than openly shilling for a Democratic victory? Self-control is for everybody, if it’s for anybody. . . .
How in God’s name does the modern conservative movement propose leading us against the challenges of the 21st century when they turn into a bloodthirsty mob every time some forum post doesn’t make the evening news? Al-Qaeda could turn the GOP into cannibals just by putting up a Huffington Post article about how tasty liberal flesh is. Never have such whiners asked for so much for being worth so little. In their mind, Barack Obama is a terrorist Arab nigger - not because he, you know, is, but because they’ve wholeheartedly embodied the Nixonian penchant that a slight against them is worth the completely and utter destruction of everything they allegedly hold dear in order to make things “right”.
The only question now is when one of these conservatives decides that they’re an elite sniper who needs to dig themselves out of their mounds of Soldier of Fortune magazines and empty bags of Doritos and destroy the Great Negro Muslim Terror before he converts their children to tiny Islams and, I don’t know, gives them better healthcare.
George Fox University broke the news to students and staff Tuesday afternoon at an all-campus meeting. About 1,000 people attended, said Rob Felton, a university spokesman.
A statement from the school said the penalties against the four students were “immediate long-term suspension and public service.” The school cited federal privacy rules in not disclosing more about the students or their punishment.
The FBI is investigating whether any civil rights were violated.
Knowing a bit about the behind-the-scenes of this, I have the feeling that the potentially light sentences (while long-term suspension could mean various things, I got community service for smoking a cigarette off campus, for crying out loud!) may have more to do with the FBI investigation - do you expel a kid to go home to Hayden Lake, Idaho or do you keep him or her around for the FBI to question at their leisure? It’ll be interesting to see what happens next.
“What’s that sound?” “That? Why, that’s just ol’ George spinning in his grave.”
So I got a rare opportunity to sleep in this morning, but I did have a really weird dream: I dreamed that Augustienne, who had gotten up before me, came in to tell me that some bigoted asshole at my alma mater had hung a noose and a cardboard effigy of Obama from a tree.
A custodian discovered the cutout of Obama about 7 a.m. Tuesday and removed it. The cutout was hung from a tree with fishing line near Minthorn Hall. He said the image of the African-American Democratic nominee for president was accompanied by the words, “Act Six reject.”
Act Six is a scholarship program that was established two years ago and is aimed at including more low-income and minority students in the George Fox student body, Baker said. Students are chosen for their leadership potential; all receive full scholarships.
I told them this would happen when they started letting entitled, white, usually home-schooled Baptists into the school, but did they listen?
George Fox is a weird conundrum, in a way: The faculty is very moderate for a Christian school - the perennial conflict is when sheltered fundies get their kids to the school, find out the Biology program has a course in Evolution, they raise a stink about it, and the administration calmly tells them that if their kids don’t want to learn evolution, they’re more than welcome to stay as far away from the science building as their conscience dicates, thank you very much. Of course, this throws a wrench into the plans of a few pre-med creationists. Win-win, n’est pas? - but the student body skews crazy. I’m talking Sarah Palin, God-bought-my-swimming-pool crazy. And although you don’t have to be a BMW-driving evangelical to be a complete, unrepentant bigot, it certainly helps.
Of course, not only the fundies have unexamined privilege issues: This is a private college in Oregon, after all. And although when I was there 10+ years ago (holy! shit!) there were several racially charged incidents on campus, I had both hoped things had improved and wondered what the reaction was to Obama’s candidacy, given the overwhelming conservativeness of the students. Both questions were answered for me yesterday, and I wish I were more surprised.
Can this election season get any more bizarre? Of course we’ve got the PUMAs and the Log Cabin peeps displaying an incredible willingness to present embarrassing, debasing, credibility-crushing arguments in service of John McCain’s candidacy.
There is also a mind-boggling tiny anti-Obama “movement” backed by an anti-choice, anti-LGBT black preacher named Michael Warn. His followers put on a bit of unhinged performance art on Friday at a Barack Obama rally at the University of Miami, heckling and holding up signs that said “Obama endorsed by the KKK,” “Blacks Against Obama”, “Obama for abortions”, “Obama for gay marriage” Obama’s reaction (here’s the video):
Obama briefly paused and tried to calm the crowd down by telling the crowd to hold on. “Hey young people out there - it’s no problem for you to put your signs up, but let everybody - let me finish what I have to say, alright?,” he told the protesters as he stood on stage.
The group was escorted out shortly afterwards by security. “Alright guys, see ya,” Obama said as they left, “Alright, let’s get back to work.”
It would be a relief if I could say that this is some phony front organization put out there by the GOP, but alas, even the Republicans aren’t this insane. Warn’s folks believe:
* Black women are destroying the black man
* Oprah is the devil, leading all women down this path;
* Obama is the enabler of this destruction of the black man.
(UPDATE: John McCain’s handlers had to stop him from giving his opinion of the book, but he did have something to say. It’s below the fold.)
Infamous anti-Kerry discredited Swiftboater Jerome Corsi, author of the new fish wrap, The Obama Nation, is on his media tour. Is anyone out there surprised at the kind of folks he hangs out with? Media Matters:
In an appearance on the August 13 edition of CNN’s Larry King Live, after Media Matters for America Senior Fellow Paul Waldman noted that Jerome Corsi, author of The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, had “put up on right-wing Web sites a whole series of bigoted and hateful posts,” Corsi replied that “you haven’t mentioned all my apologies for those statements.” But notwithstanding Corsi’s apologies for his comments, Corsi is reportedly scheduled to appear with host James Edwards on the August 17 edition of The Political Cesspool Radio Show, which, according to its “Statement of Principles,” “represent[s] a philosophy that is pro-White” and which “heartily endorse[s] and accept[s] as our own, the founding tenets of the Council of Conservative Citizens [CCC].” According to a Fall 2007 article in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report, ” ‘The Political Cesspool’ in the past two years has become the primary radio nexus of hate in America.” Corsi previously appeared on the July 20 edition of the show, in which he promoted The Obama Nation and criticized Sen. Barack Obama.
...The show’s statement also asserts that “America would not be as prosperous, ruggedly individualistic, and a land of opportunity if the founding stock were not Europeans” and that “[w]e wish to revive the White birthrate above replacement level fertility and beyond to grow the percentage of Whites in the world relative to other races.” It also states: “Secession is a right of all people and individuals. It was successful in 1776 and this show honors those who tried to make it successful in 1865.” According to the statement, Political Cesspool is also “against feminism” and “against homosexuality.”
John Kerry has set up a Web site to combat these kinds of attacks (unlike the Swift Boat crap he brushed off back in 2004)—http://www.truthfightsback.com.
Would it shock you one iota to learn that the editorial prowess behind Corsi’s book is former Darth Cheney aide and James Carville’s
The book is published by Threshold Editions, Mary Matalin’s imprint at Simon & Schuster. It “was not designed to be, and does not set out to be, a political book,” Matalin sniffed to Jim Rutenberg and Julie Bosman of the New York Times. Rather, it is “a piece of scholarship, and a good one at that.”
Today is the celebration of the birth of Our Lord and Hustler, Barack Hussein Obama, the new Liberal Messiah. Sorry, Al Gore, but we are constitutionally required by Liberitical law to take an underqualified black Messiah over more qualified white ones.
As we celebrate the new covenant between mankind and our race baiting Savior, let us look back and learn his story. Barack Obama was born in Hawai’i on August 4, 1961. He was simultaneously born in Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Australia and on the Moon. There are birth certificates for each.
The Five Obamas of Fury, although a blessing to an earth in desperate need of guidance and salvation, could not all simultaneously stand as beacons to a mankind crying in desperate need for a senator from Illinois whose focus was on passing landmark ethics reform and nuclear proliferation legislation. As it was prophesied.
So, on August 4, 1966 (also the day on which false prophet John Lennon declared his Beatles more popular than Jesus), the five Obamas were brought to the First Indonesian Church of Obama (also known as Obama’s house) and there did a miracle happen! The five Obamas in a bright flash of light became one…and then disappeared!
The newly whole Obama was sent back to the origin of time by…well, by himself, because that’s the way Barack Obama rolls. (Thus, incidentally, is the genesis of the rap group Jurassic 5’s name.) The reason Barack Obama understands his place in history is because he has literally experienced all of history - personally. The whole presidency thing is just kind of a lark, really.
Upon his arrival back in 1966, Obama made his ageless form back into that of a five-year old, so as not to startle the minds of disbelievers. That leads us to today, where Obama is set to realize his true destiny as Mesus, the Uppity, Narcissistic Messiah. Obama is infinite and endless, and you cannot stop him - you cannot even hope to contain him. Come and drink of his drank and eat of his chicken nuggets.
I don’t think John McCain is running 
I’ve been mulling over 
Last night, Sarah Palin was resoundingly booed 
Can this election season get any more bizarre? Of course we’ve got the PUMAs and the Log Cabin peeps displaying an incredible willingness to present embarrassing, debasing, credibility-crushing arguments in service of John McCain’s candidacy. 
Today is the celebration of the birth of Our Lord and Hustler, Barack Hussein Obama, the new Liberal Messiah. Sorry, Al Gore, but we are constitutionally required by Liberitical law to take an