October 2007

Perhaps apropos of Halloween, Paul Krugman recently published a NYT editorial entitled “Fearing Fear Itself” (mirrored at truthout.org) in which he examines the unreasoning fear that has gripped the wingnut right:

For one thing, there isn’t actually any such thing as Islamofascism — it’s not an ideology; it’s a figment of the neocon imagination. The term came into vogue only because it was a way for Iraq hawks to gloss over the awkward transition from pursuing Osama bin Laden, who attacked America, to Saddam Hussein, who didn’t. And Iran had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11 — in fact, the Iranian regime was quite helpful to the United States when it went after Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies in Afghanistan.

Beyond that, the claim that Iran is on the path to global domination is beyond ludicrous. Yes, the Iranian regime is a nasty piece of work in many ways, and it would be a bad thing if that regime acquired nuclear weapons. But let’s have some perspective, please: we’re talking about a country with roughly the G.D.P. of Connecticut, and a government whose military budget is roughly the same as Sweden’s.

…

In the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration adopted fear-mongering as a political strategy. Instead of treating the attack as what it was — an atrocity committed by a fundamentally weak, though ruthless adversary — the administration portrayed America as a nation under threat from every direction.

Most Americans have now regained their balance. But the Republican base, which lapped up the administration’s rhetoric about the axis of evil and the war on terror, remains infected by the fear the Bushies stirred up — perhaps because fear of terrorists maps so easily into the base’s older fears, including fear of dark-skinned people in general.

And the base is looking for a candidate who shares this fear.

Just to be clear, Al Qaeda is a real threat, and so is the Iranian nuclear program. But neither of these threats frightens me as much as fear itself — the unreasoning fear that has taken over one of America’s two great political parties.

The neocons and their wingnut friends in the media and the blogosphere are acting solely on their fears. That’s a poor basis on which to base any policy decisions, nor indeed the future of this country.

The terror weenies would do well to recite the litany against fear to themselves, daily if not more often:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

(hat tip: Crooks and Liars)

I just ran across this and started laughing. Lizardbitch Cao is telling her readers that thousands of antiwar protesters are being paid by activist and philanthropist George Soros.

The hilarious part is that despite given her well-documented history of lies, Cao still expects to be believed in the absence of any hard evidence whatsoever.

Soros Derangement Syndrome™ is an ugly disease. Please keep the families of Cao and other sufferers in your thoughts.

UPDATE 10/28/07 5:15 PM EDT: Absolutely hilarious. Cao is now trying to paint me as yet another of those imaginary “shills”:

Everything that promotes conservative values is a ‘lie’ according to Meatbrain, who apparently takes his marching orders from Media Matters and the Center for American Progress.

Here’s a challenge, lying lizardbitch: Produce independently verifiable, documentary evidence that I have ever had any affiliation with either of those organizations.

Run away now, Cao. Honest discussion is beyond your ability — that’s why you can only smear and lie. That’s why, rather than actually debate the war, you spin wild conspiracy theories about the majority of Americans who oppose it.

And here’s an interesting factoid: As of this writing…

• Number of hits for the Google search site:caosblog.com “george soros” : 684 547

• Number of hits for the Google search site:caosblog.com “richard mellon scaife” : zero

  Hmmmmmmmmm…

  UPDATE 10/28/07 8:59 PM EDT: Hunh. Somehow this post got marked ‘Private’ in the WordPress administrative interface, which made it disappear for a while. Now it’s back.

Raven is still ranting about S-CHIP, and what a terrible thing it is that the richest country in the world would stoop to providing health care coverage for all of its children:

But I have a huge problem with the choices people are making that lead them to be uninsured. I’m not re-hashing all that now.

No, of course not. Raven has not shown any interest in actually discussing this claim. It’s sooooo much easier to make a bald-faced, unsupported accusation and then walk — no, run — away.

I’m not fooled by the Lemoncrats lies on this.

What lies? Raven doesn’t say. She makes the assertion, and expects to be believed in the absence of any facts whatsoever.

Neither should anyone else: They will do whatever it takes to cover illegals, higher (Much higher) income families and adults… with my tax dollars.

The money for S-CHIP isn’t going to come out of Raven’s taxes — unless she makes a very specific choice. As the S-CHIP bill is structured now, Raven has absolute control over whether her taxes pay any part of the cost. Raven either is too ignorant to know this, or is deliberately concealing this fact from her readers.

Let’s just note in passing here that Raven, who is supposedly a health care professional, is entirely ignorant of the costs of not insuring children.

Others really do need this coverage and I for one could not take from them that which I could provide for myself!

Which begs the question: How will those “others” get this coverage if S-CHIP is abolished?

I can predict with some confidence that this is another hard question that Raven will not find the courage to discuss.

A contributor to StopTheACLU.com has come out in support of racist comments recently made by scientist James Watson.

If any additional proof was needed that Jay Stephenson and his fellow maggots are truly the rectum of humanity, we now have it.

This is how Republican politicians discharge their civic duty these days: they lie to their constituents.

From The Louisville Courier-Journal:

A McConnell aide, Don Stewart, admits he sicced reporters on the Frosts when “trusted” bloggers began to question their authenticity as an income-qualified CHIP program participant. But he says he quickly called off the dogs when he decided there wasn’t a story there after all, because the family’s situation was legitimate. Mr. Stewart told The Courier-Journal he explained all that to his boss on Thursday.

So Sen. McConnell was deliberately untruthful the next day, when he told WHAS-TV’s Mark Hebert, “There was no involvement whatsoever.” The senator will object to any suggestion of lying, but what else is it when you knowingly misrepresent facts?

It’s clear what Mitch McConnell knew and when he knew it. It’s clear he deceived the public when he answered Mr. Hebert as he did about the e-mail sent by his press agent.

Mr. McConnell is so used to Washington-style gamesmanship and inside-the-beltway rules that he has forgotten what constituents back in Kentucky want: the simple truth.

(Hat tip: Daily Kos)

Raven has posted a “defense” of her smear of an Iraq veteran suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (aka PTSD). Let’s have some good old-fashioned rollicking blogfun taking her pathetic excuses apart.

I stand by what I wrote. I am not a doctor. I am not a registered nurse -and I never claimed to be such. I’m really nobody in the command chain in health care.

Apparently, Raven compensates for being a nobody by spitting on veterans who aren’t sufficiently manly enough to come back from the Iraq clusterfuck without PTSD.

I am a Licensed Nursing Assistant. I’ve worked in many health care settings for almost 18 years now: nursing homes, veterans centers, hospice, home health care. Currently I work in a rehab center for brain injured children and young adults. Most of my experience is with this population (15 yrs). The lowly position I hold is the front line of the health care work force: Aides see it all, experience much and have the scars to prove it.

It seems that having “scars” and being “lowly” is all the qualification Raven feels she needs to accuse a veteran of “being the worst that [he] can be”.

I don’t question the existence of PTSD; but I do question people, who have suffered trauma, using it as a reason to behave in certain ways.

Remember, kids: Being a self-confessed lowly nurse’s aide and reading a newspaper story is all you need to justify accusing an Iraq War veteran of “exploitation” and “being the worst that [he] can be”. Spitting on the troops is fun and easy! Just ask Raven!

As explained by Tom Tomorrow:

(click for full cartoon)

See also Daily Kos: Malkin taking tips from the master smearer himself — Limbaugh:

See, it would never occur to me to think about going after one of my critics’ children.

Then again, I’m not a Republican.

“Big Dog” comments at Sadly, No:

And to clear it up, Max Cleland blew himself up when he dropped the grenade he was playing with. I appreciate his service but if you open your mouth and make comments you will get attacked whether you are in a wheelchair or not.

“Big Dog” gets challenged:

big dog, in the thread over at sadly no, you denigrate Max Cleland’s amputations as due to “the grenade he was playing with.” We’re all grateful that you appreciate his service, but unless you’ve got proof re the cause of his injuries, then you are just a troll.

“Big Dog” tacitly admits that his original comment was a lie:

Max Cleland saw a grenade on the ground and figured he had dropped it so he picked it up and it went off. Now, he was not playing, as in fooling around, but he was picking up a dangerous item that he should have gotten away from until it was deemed safe (like if it did not go off after a few minutes) and then he could have examined it to ensure the pin was in it.

That’s what these vermin do. Disagree with them, and they will smear you. Doesn’t matter if you are a veteran and triple amputee. They will say anything — anything at all — to smear someone who has dared to express an opinion with which they disagree.

Ed Brayton explains succinctly just how foolish political extremists of all varieties truly are:

The whole point of such dichotomies is to avoid having to think. If you can just put that “liberal” or “conservative” label on someone, you can know whether to dismiss them or not. If you’re intellectually lazy, that is. If you’re capable of rational thinking, you know that labeling an argument does not defeat the argument and that you actually have to examine the logic of the argument and whether it explains the evidence or not.

Actually discussing the argument being made, rather than merely slapping a bogus label on it and moving on, is a talent too few folks exhibit in the political discourse of today.