October 2008

Ed Brayton interviewed the attorney for a rightwing group that filed a RICO suit against ACORN in Ohio. Surprise! The wingnut lawyer was lying:

What the GOP called “undeniable proof that there was voter fraud in the June election” was really just a few voter registration cards that were incompletely filled out, had missing birth dates or social security numbers. But this is hardly proof of voter fraud. When local elections officials receive incomplete cards, they follow up with the applicant to correct it before approving their voter registration and adding them to the state’s central voter file.

…

So let’s review. The plaintiff's attorney in a case that alleges that they have proof that ACORN has committed massive institutional voter registration fraud for the purpose of helping people vote illegally, when asked if he could document any case of someone actually voting illegally because of ACORN, dishonestly described a situation in another state that, it turns out, was based on flimsy evidence and is false. Do you need any more proof that his lawsuit is purely a PR move rather than a serious claim for relief?

Here’s a simple question for lying wingnut child Justin Higgins:

Why are you spending your time running around a college campus drawing pictures on the sidewalk, instead of defending your country as you said you would?

Matthew Yglesias exposes the stupidity of the latest wingnut meme. The money quotes:

[The right wing’s Khalidi freakout] does expose some pretty massive hypocrisy on the part of the right-wing.

…

[A]nyone who thinks there’s a real risk of Khalidi controlling US policy toward Israel is living on some other planet.

More on the McCain-Khalidi association from the Huffington Post.

UPDATE 10/31/08 7:39 AM EDT: I posted the following comment at Cao’s site last evening; naturally, she refuses to publish it:

“Meatbrain and the Huffpo are objecting to people talking about this, complaining that McCain gave money to Khalidi…”

That’s a lie, of course… I haven’t objected to anyone saying anything regarding Khalidi. Nor have I “complain[ed] that McCain gave money to Khalidi”. I’ve merely called attention to the fact that McCain is also associated with Khalidi, to the tune of nearly half a million dollars. If an association with Khalidi should be considered poisonous to Obama, then it should be considered equally poisonous to McCain.

“McCain has never been caught sitting around a dinner table with Khalidi for a “chat”.”

Explain why merely chatting with Khalidi is a bad thing.

”…this is just another socialist lie…”

What lie? Did McCain serve as chairman of the IRI? Yes or no? Did McCain distribute several grants to Khalidi’s CPRS? Yes or no? Explain exactly what “lie” you are referring to.

Juan Cole has further commentary on this shameful example of wingnut racism — racism that John McCain is only too happy to try to exploit.

UPDATE 10/31/08 8:49 AM EDT: And more from Matthew Yglesias:

Might I also add that it seems we’re a pretty sick society where a person can be seriously accused of the being acquainted with someone (an Arab someone!) whose views on Israel are unpopular as if it were a hanging offense.

Grownups talk about issues. Children — and make no mistake, the wingnuts have all the worst traits of childhood — scream about cooties.

“Emperor” Misha:

I’m just another bitter, gun-clinging moron…

As I’ve documented here many times, one of the fundamental traits of the far right wingnuts is their willingness to lie, and lie, and lie. The wingnut that calls herself “Raven” is a textbook example of the mendacity so beloved of her kind.

Recently, she posted the following in a comment at her site:

All my life I have always associated socialism with INCOME redistribution, not wealth sharing.

Well, no. She has specifically stated in the past that the redistribution of wealth is socialism:

What Hillary and her fellow Lemoncrat ilk don’t understand is that the world’s “freedom” loving nations put a price on that freedom… in the form of government oversights and economic regulation and “wealth” redistribution (AKA socialism).

(Emphasis mine.)

Then there’s this gem, from the same comment thread:

I respect all life. And will do what I can to maintain it. I consider it my moral duty.

Um, no. Raven has made it plain that she finds it perfectly moral to suggest that someone else (in this case, Congressman John Murtha) should die for the horrific crime of seeing things differently than she does:

Dumbo surely realizes the US Capitol Building is a high value target; the only good thing that might come of a suicide mission-attack on this building would be that Murtha is in his plush office when the hour arrives.

Yeah. That’s right. I hope he gets blown up. He deserves it.

So much for Raven’s “respect” for “all life”. It ends the moment one dares to disagree with her.

Raven will lie about anything, up to and including her own past and present beliefs. Unfortunately, she’s simply not very good at lying. Perhaps she should try being truthful for a change.

PZ Myers point out a curious omission regarding the story of two Tennessee men who were plotting to kill Barack Obama and perpetrate other mayhem:

It's a horrible and sordid story of idiots with guns, but in scanning the various news sources, there is a curious but obvious word missing — a word that normally our media and government fling about with unscrupulous abandon.

That word is "terrorism".

Doesn't it strike you as peculiar that white homegrown right-wing fascist killers are somehow exempt from being called what they are — terrorists?

As one of PZ’s commenters points out, the other missing word in the news reports and wingnut blog posts concerning these morons is “Christian”.

Now, come on. You had to know that a game called “Meat Boy” would deserve a post on this blog…

(hat tip: Metafilter)

Twenty-five years ago, the movie WarGames changed the way we view computers — and computer hackers — forever.

It should be noted that in 1983, the same year that WarGames was released, a potential nuclear holocaust was averted by Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who chose to ignore a warning of a missile attack against the Soviet Union — a warning that came from a faulty computer system.

Pa never steered us wrong…

Hot DAMN, I love Jesus’ General: