Opus 1000

According to the statistics on my blog control panel, this is post number one thousand. My, what a long, strange trip it’s been since November of 2005.

Anyone who has read this blog for any extended period of time knows by now that a major focus here is the vast cesspool of distortion and outright mendacity that is the right-wing blogosphere. Put simply, the far right in this country lies, repeatedly and endlessly and with much gusto. One cannot conduct discussions or debates with those who are determined to start out by lying. The proper response is to point out those lies for what they are.

So I thought I would take a moment in Post 1000 and look back at some of the most notable lying wingnuts that I’ve encountered in years past.

Jay Stephenson of StoptheACLU.com distinguished himself quite early as a serial liar. He’s been caught lying about the contents of a UN report, about the legal status of an NSA wiretapping program, and lied about statements made by Democrats and by Glenn Greenwald. If there is an opportunity to lie, Jay Stephenson is among the first to take it.

The blogger calling himself “Ogre” has an impressive track record of lies. He has lied about non-existent Democratic opposition to legal wiretaps, lied about the purpose of clean-air legislation, lied about discrimination against gays, and lied about the actions of a teacher who decided to brand his students’ arms with crosses. Wow, that’s some seriously prolific mendacity.

And what is there on this planet that Cao has not lied about? Let’s see: the lizard bitch has deliberately mislabeled criticism as ‘censorship’, lied about the covert status of Valerie Plame, lied about the media coverage of a supposed plot to bomb the JFK Airport, and lied about the content of a British court ruling regarding the film ‘An Inconvenient Truth‘. This list, of course, comprises only the tiniest fraction of Cao’s massive output of pure bullshit.

Of course, we cannot neglect to mention Justin Higgins, that amazing young man who combines all the worst traits of the wingnuts: mendacity, intellectual cowardice, and utter moral incompetence. One really only need to read Justin’s response the the evidence in the Plame case to understand this. But if more evidence is needed, have a look at Justin’s lies regarding 9/11 attacker Mohammed Atta, his lies about civilian casualties in Iraq, his lies about the torture technique known as ‘waterboarding’, and his lies about the provisions of the Employee Free Choice Act.

There are many, many other liars who deserve a mention: Kender, Kit Jarrell, Andrew ‘Gribbit’ Richardson, Ric Ottaiano, Raven, Big Dog, and of course, Jim Hoft.

I’ve made this point before, but it bears repeating: The problems that this country faces deserve honest, open, and intense debate. Such debates are possible only if all participants stick to the facts. The wingnuts don’t believe in honest discussion — they want to derail any honest debate by injecting as many lies and distortions as possible.

I don’t harbor any illusions that such people can be convinced by rational debate. My purpose is merely to expose them for the liars that they are. There are so many of them, of course, that anything I do will be a mere drop in the proverbial bucket — but one does what one can.

Onwards…