July 2008

We’ve known for several days that the McCain campaign has been spreading a lie about Obama’s canceled trip to a military hospital in Germany. McCain himself went on Larry King Live on Monday evening and stated unequivocally:

I know that, according to reports, that he wanted to bring media people and cameras and his campaign staffers.

But now the McCain campaign has confirmed that the accusation was untrue.

So, can someone explain to me why anyone should consider voting for John McCain, proven liar?

Hatemongers like Kender, Big Dog, Jay Stephenson, and Misha often express their wish that someone whose politics they do not like should be killed. Most often, the targets of this eliminationist rhetoric are marked for death because they hold political views at the liberal end of the spectrum. And this sort of mindless rage is more and more finding its way into the mainstream media.

It seems that the merchants of hate have gotten their wish:

In Tennessee this weekend, the chickens came home to roost when a gunman named James David Adkisson walked into a Universalist Unitarian Church and began shooting. So far, two people are dead, and seven more were wounded. He was saying “hateful things,” according to all the news reports.

…

Now, MSNBC is reporting this morning that Adkisson targeted the church because of its liberal politics. A four-page letter police recovered, according to Knoxville police officials, referred constantly to his “stated hatred for the liberal movement.”

Right-wingers love to “joke” about mowing down, rounding up, and otherwise “wiping out” all things liberal. It’s become a standard feature of conservative-movement rhetoric. And whenever anyone calls them on it, they have a standard response: “Aw, c’mon—it’s just a joke!”

In reality, of course, rhetoric like this has historically played a critical role in some of the ugliest episodes in American history, as well as thousands of little acts of xenophobic brutality: functionally speaking, it gives violent—and frequently unstable—actors permission to act on these impulses. People like this always believe they’re standing up for what “real Americans” think—and the jokes tell them that this is so.

Naturally, as David Neiwert goes on to explain, those who have pushed the eliminationist rhetoric into the mainstream will disclaim all responsibility for their part in setting the stage for such attacks. Fleeing from personal responsibility for one’s words and actions is a hallmark of the far-right fringe.

Lately, I’ve been featuring a series of lies being promulgated by Jim Hoft at ‘Gateway Pundit’. Clearly, he attracts like-minded lairs; as an especially putrid example, I give you Rich Casebolt.

Those who have followed the political scene in the past week know that John McCain told a whopper about the Anbar Awakening, crediting it to the troop surge that didn’t start until months afterwards. When he was called on this falsehood, McCain compounded his mendacity by claiming that whatever counterinsurgency tactics had been employed before the surge began were, in fact, part of the surge.

Rich Casebolt happily drank the McCain Kool-Aid. Read the rest of this entry »

I have Obama fatigue:

• I’m sick…

Yes, dear… we know.

‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard, and shamelessly pilfered from Sadly, No.

Al-Qaeda in America:

• Anyone who protests the war is automatically a member of al Qaeda. Murder them where they stand — that’s the American way.

‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard, and shamelessly pilfered from Sadly, No.

Obama-Lenin Gaffe:

• A profile and diagonal text on a poster is irrefutable proof that Obama is a secret Communist. Be afraid! Scary black man! Be afraid!

‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard, and shamelessly pilfered from Sadly, No.

Indeed:

…[T]he idea that the Rule of Law is only for common people, but not for our political leaders and Washington elite, is pervasive among the political and pundit class, in both parties. While common Americans should be imprisoned in record numbers when they break the law, the worst that should happen to the political elite when they commit crimes is that they should be voted out of office. That’s the dominant mentality governing how our political system works.

For all the talk about how radical and lawless the Bush administration has been, this widely-shared view that our political leaders should be immune from consequences for lawbreaking is the administration’s defining belief.

This is a common belief on the far fringes of the right wing in this country — and the not-so-far fringes as well. It seems to be caused by the insane levels of fear that some folks have regarding terrorist attacks. To hell with the laws, just keep us safe!

Fear is never a reliable basis for dealing with a problem. Those who have surrendered to their fears simply do not — cannot — think rationally about how we can best confront and defeat the terrorists.

Today is the sixty-third anniversary of the start of the nuclear age on a tiny blue planet called Earth. On this date in 1945, the United States detonated the first atomic weapon, in a place called Trinity, New Mexico.

As Los Alamos director J. Robert Oppenheimer watched the demonstration, he later said that a line from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita came to mind:

I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

According to Oppenheimer’s brother, Frank, Oppenheimer simply said, “It worked.” Test director Kenneth Bainbridge replied to Oppenheimer, “Now we are all sons of bitches.”

Sadly, there are still those in this world who believe that using nuclear weapons to wipe out an entire people is a justifiable act. We have a long way to go before we can call ourselves truly civilized.

Big Dog just can’t stop lying. It’s habitual with him — possibly pathological:

Oil companies can be pumping oil in 2 to 5 years and we will be well on our way to lower fuel prices.

As usual, the facts are very different.

The opening of the ANWR 1002 Area to oil and natural gas development is projected to increase domestic crude oil production starting in 2018.

It never fails. A wingnut opens his mouth, and a lie comes out.

Andrew “I DO NOT LIE” Richardson (aka Gribbit the Dipshit) has returned from a too-short hiatus, and is doing what he does best: lying.

He’s decided to join the mob who are enraged that Dr. PZ Myers of the University of Minnesota chose to comment upon the hysterical overreaction of the some Catholics to the removal of a communion wafer — a cracker, mind you — from a Catholic church. But Andykins can’t just express his own religidiotic viewpoint. No, he has to go and lie:

Apparently Myers saw this as an opportunity to make a strike at religion, in particular the Catholic Church, and stated on his blog under the heading “It’s a Frackin’ Cracker” hosted on the University’s servers… Myers injected himself into this in order to get his jollies disrespecting the Church believing that his words are protected under free speech. That may be the case, but by putting those words on the University’s website, he is now speaking on behalf of that university. We should ask the President of the University if Mr. Myers speaks for the entire student body, staff, and himself.

You’re a lying sack of pig vomit, Andrew Richardson. The post never appeared on any U of M server. Dr. Myers made his comments on his personal blog Pharyngula, hosted at Scienceblogs.com. You’ll note that in his post, Richardson never actually cites any page on the U of M website where Myers’ comments allegedly appear. That’s because he cannot. He’s lying, pure and simple. Myers speaks for himself alone.

Andrew Richardson finishes his brainless screed by smugly pretending that Myers “will come to judgement” before his supposed sky fairy. You gotta wonder how Richardson reconciles his big bad god’s commandment against lying with his own serial mendacity.