Brains, Lunchtime Bites

[elfs]

Make It So

Two days ago a woman in Pittsburgh claimed she was attacked by a black man who initially set out just to mug her, saw her McCain materials, and threw her to the ground, sat on her chest, and carved a "B" into her face with a knife.

John Moody, executive vice president at Fox News, wrote an editorial about Obama-inspired political and racial violence entitled "It Had To Happen," in which he predicted:

If Ms. Todd's allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.

If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.

I don't get the first. This wasn't at a rally; this wasn't an entire crowd whipped into a frenzy by Sarah Palin's red-meat red-baiting. What about this incident would cause anyone to "revisit their support for Obama?"

As for Moody's second paragraph, Guess What?

Anti-gay-marriage proponents send out "extortionist" letters to gay marriage supporters

In what has to be the most boneheaded maneuver by a political advocacy group yet, the "Yes on 8" (Proposition 8 is the California proposition that would put a ban on gay marriage into the state constitution) has been sending out letters telling companies who donated to the "No on 8" side, "Give us a similar amount, or we'll publish your company's name on a list of companies opposed to traditional marriage."

Lovely, extortionist language there.

McCain's highest paid staffer? Palin's makeup artist!

After hearing Sarah's plaintive "we shop at consignment stores and second hand places, really!" whine on CNN this morning, I have to say that learning this little detail leaves me cold. I'm no longer giggling.

Krauthammer declares that he's a "contrarian" ready to go down with the McCain ship

Krauthammer says two things that show that voices reach him deep within the coocoon, but they don't really make him think. He writes:

I'll have no truck with the phony case ginned up to rationalize voting for the most liberal and inexperienced presidential nominee in living memory. The "erratic" temperament issue, for example. As if McCain's risky and unsuccessful but in no way irrational attempt to tactically maneuver his way through the economic tsunami that came crashing down a month ago renders unfit for office a man who demonstrated the most admirable equanimity and courage in the face of unimaginable pressures as a prisoner of war, and who later steadily navigated innumerable challenges and setbacks, not the least of which was the collapse of his campaign just a year ago.

The difference being that Barack Obama held steady, demonstrated restraint when restraint was called for, and let John McCain implode. That Krauthammer doesn't see that, and somehow wishes that the strong young man of the 1960s was the same guy we see today, says more about Krauthammer than it does about McCain's worthiness to lead.

The financial crisis has made us forget, or just blindly deny, how dangerous the world out there is. We have a generations-long struggle with Islamic jihadism. An apocalyptic soon-to-be-nuclear Iran. A nuclear-armed Pakistan in danger of fragmentation. A rising Russia pushing the limits of revanchism. Plus the sure-to-come Falklands-like surprise popping out of nowhere.

All of which begs many, many questions. George Will said that experience can be learned (and apparently has been learned), but temperment is innate.

But what I find most insulting in Krauthammer's screed is that he assumes that those Not Of His Party are incompetent to deal with crises. I find that insulting and unworthy.

Krauthammer's continuing efforts to shore up His Tribe's version of events, both with note to Obama's take on "the surge" and to Obama's take on the Georgia/Russia conflict (As Glenn Grenwald points out, how in "Our Vibrant and Diverse Democracy" did the blatant falsehood that Russia attacked Georgia unprovoked become unchallengable orthodoxy?) now come across as simply sad and pathetic.

Down with the ship, Charles.

Unfortunately, experience has taught us all that right-wing writers who repeatedly fail at their principle jobs continue to get hired by other right-wing institutions. Call it Conservative Welfare.

And finally... remember L'affair d'Ann Althouse? I thought she was a bit over the top then, but Jon Swift brings us even more fun in an article entiled Great Moments in Election-Year Blogging, in which he documents the craziest conspiracy theories of far-right websites this year. I heard Limbaugh ranting about this, but I wasn't aware that Althouse was the first to float the story that Obama had "an invisible hearing aid" that helped him during the debates and that Obama was an empty vessel remotely controlled by others. (She backed away from that story... sorta.) Althouse also added her cachet to the idea that Ayers, and not Obama, wrote Obama's book Dreams of my Father.

I pick on Althouse only because she googles for her name and responds to her detractors. I know because she's made an appearance in this blog. But there are dozens of other examples. If you want a taste of the madness, enjoy!

(Hey, and let's not forget that similar accusations have been dropped on McCain and Palin.)

I note with sadness that Swift doesn't include the two latest crazy ideas: first, that Obama is going to Hawaii not to visit his grandmother, but to finish the job of forging his birth certificate or rifling her apartment to destroy the copy that says he was born in Kenya or something. What, the Daily Kos Ninja Brigade wasn't good enough, so now Master O must rise and do it properly?

Or, if you're crazed and repulsive enough, maybe you're willing to accuse Obama of being ready to murder his grandmother to generate national sympathy.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

For what it's worth, the woman who claimed to have been so mugged has already been recanting her story, it seems. Seems she has psychological problems and may have faked the entire thing, with or without the aid of a friend. According to CNN, anyway.

I would bet good money...

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

that one hell of a lot of the markets/sites/papers, etc. that trumpeted the first story will bury the fact that she's admitted the attack was a hoax.

Somebody I see in the company lunch room still believes in the madrassa story, the "not a citizen" story (Obama supposedly also renounced his citizenship while in Indonesia), and a lot of other tripe. He has also sworn to me that his polling place in my County still uses punch card machines, which we scrapped two years ago. We don't even own any of the supplies for the damned things. His pants are so on fire.

Re: I would bet good money...

[blaisepascal]

Given the time he was living in Indonesia, I doubt a court would accept his renunciation even if he did so.

Re: I would bet good money...

[codeamazon.livejournal.com]

You know, if that person isn't familiar with the voting mechanism in your county, that is maybe not such a bad thing. ;-)

Re: I would bet good money...

[(Anonymous)]

I live in Pittsburgh, and it was on the front page of the paper, and their website this morning. It even made the late news last night!

Speaking of forging birth certificates...

[(Anonymous)]

I got this in my email yesterday. I was not exactly amused.

It's too long for this reply, so I'll pastebin it at http://pastebin.com/m311243ab

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

And finally... remember L'affair d'Ann Althouse?

Which one do you mean? There have been so many....

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

So, did McCain or someone in the campaign order her to fake the attack? Which candidate has repeatedly made race an issue? Do the words "did I mention he's black" and "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/Story?id=5495348&page=1")" ring any bells? You are, however, correct that the first paragraph you excerpted from Moody's editorial doesn't make any sense.

And it's not as if there isn't any precedent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerri_Dunn) for someone faking an attack to engender hostility against the opposition.

As for those videos embedded in the HuffPo post you linked to, well, how many on the left have called Bush a terrorist or even worse, or have said similarly reprehensible things about other/all Republicans? Both sides have their extremists. Don't pretend the left is any better in this regard.

Finally, can't agree more with your assessment of the "Yes on 8" group's epic fail. Regardless of which side of the debate one falls on, this was just plain dumb.