Now *this* is the type of crazy shit I like to see!
First things first: our pal and colleague Mr. Leonard Pierce has published a hilarious and insightful piece over at AlterNet documenting the Right’s sleaziest and most contradictory anti-Obama smears. Among other things, Leonard uncovers the Right’s goofy campaign to portray Obama as an elitist:
Despite promoting tax policy changes beneficial to the middle class and supporting innumerable aid programs for working Americans, Barack Obama seems determined to keep doing things that, in the eyes of multimillionaire Republicans, make him an out-of-touch elitist aristo whose ability to relate to the common man is constantly hampered by his tripping over his platinum walking stick or getting his diamond-studded monocle stuck in his eye. From his failure to adequately enjoy sport shooting to his inability to bowl a 300 game to his infuriating capacity to talk to farmers about farming, there seems to be no end to what this man will do to establish that he’s better than the Republican conception of the working man and/or woman. (The fact that this conception is itself an egregious stereotype doesn’t seem to bother the GOP.) What’s more, Republicans have tarred Obama’s wife, Michelle, as a stuck-up, snooty, Princeton-educated lawyer who looks down on ordinary people, unlike down-to-earth, USC-educated booze heiress Cindy McCain.
Second: through the comments to Leonard’s article, I found this amazing website called UnfitMcCain. And while it’s certifiably kooky, I have no doubt that if this guy were leveling charges such as this against John Kerry, he’d be invited onto Hannity & Colmes every night:
In McCain’s 1999 autobiography, Faith of My Fathers, he admitted to smoking cigarettes provided him by his captors. It’s reasonable to assume the North Vietnamese weren’t aware he was addicted to nicotine. Thus, if McCain, a two packs a day smoker, had initially refused the tobacco favor, nothing would’ve been said or inferred.
On the other hand, when he took that first puff, his captors knew instantly McCain had a weakness that could make him more vulnerable to disclosing military secrets during interrogations, which he did.
In return for medical treatment at a civilian hospital, a privilege never granted to other injured POWs, McCain reportedly told NVA interrogators the name of his aircraft carrier, how many Navy pilots had been lost, the number of planes in his flight formation, tactics used during bomb runs and the location of rescue ships in the Tonkin Gulf.
Because of the revelations which McCain repeated in propaganda radio broadcasts, the North Vietnamese contemptuously nicknamed him “Songbird.”
Now this is how you smear someone, people! Why isn’t Michelle Malkin jumping up and down to promote the treacherous saga of Songbird McCain, just as she enthusiastically promoted claims that John Kerry shot himself to get out of ‘Nam! Why isn’t the Ole Perfesser linking to his page every half hour and adding his trademark “hehs,” “indeeds,” “hmmmmms,” and “disturbing if trues?” Why isn’t FOX News blaring non-stop coverage of these devastating allegations that Tweety McCain was a lapdog for the Vietcong? I mean, it’s almost like they only get enthusiastic about smearing someone’s military credentials if they’re a Democrat.
Each time they defame arugula a guy named Tony Bagadonuts weeps.
OMG. Why haven’t we been talking about Songbird McCain all this time?
Yeah yeah, I know. Spare me the platitudes and principled statements. I’m just tired of being on the receiving end of all the smears, and this it’s long past time we gave the right wing a dose of its own medicine.
well done, mister leonard pierce! “…tripping over his platinum walking stick or getting his diamond-studded monocle stuck in his eye” is particularly beautiful. keep up the good work!
Would Batman cop to a nic fit? I don’t think so.
Ergo: McCain is a fucking chickenshit.
That unfitmccain website is awesome! It is like some weird wingnut bizarro-world site. It is riddled with the same typos and poor grammar and even cites a dead guy for one of the main narratives – much like you would expect from the normal wingnut world. But it is anti-mccain. Just fabulous! I am torn about this. I would love to think the content is mostly true, but I feel like I should know better.
Sully’s column Makes me laugh where it refers to McCain’s “Inner Norma Desmond.” regarding his own celebrity.
Who cares if it’s true? Does it fit a narrative that helps our candidate?
It’s hard to give a fuck about the truth when, four years after John Kerry lost an election because of outright lies about his military service, anyone who dares to do anything less than kiss McCain’s heroic feet gets pilloried by our librul media.
Fuck it. As far as I’m concerned, anyone talking shit about McCain’s military record deserves as much exposure as the Swift Boaters. This is particularly true when you consider that McCain was probably one of the shittiest pilots to ever serve our country.
John “Reverse-Ace Songbird” McCain: a disgrace to the uniform.
I’m digging the link to myrightwingdad — the most recent post updates the Obama Murder List to include Larry Sinclair (who claimed to have had all kinds of crazy sweaty gay sex with BHO), which is a bit odd as he’s not dead, but still, what does it say about Obama that people believed it?
Arugala:
It’s a veg-a-ta-ble.
Is it time to start handing out nicotine patches with little purple hearts on them?
Maybe we can start slapping them on Cindy, when she’s stripping down for the Cow Chip finals – just like Saffy did to Pats on Ab Fab.
No Skin, No Win!!
Who cares if it’s true? Does it fit a narrative that helps our candidate?
No, no, no! This stuff is such patent bullshit—McCain got cigarettes to smoke, which proves he’s a traitor?!–that if any Democrats try to get behind it in any way, the backlash will be horrific. A lot of fence-sitters will say, “See, those guys aren’t any better when you get right down to it.”
If you must do something devious, encourage Bob Barr and the Libertarians.
A lot of fence-sitters will say, “See, those guys aren’t any better when you get right down to it.”
More than that, I think the dumbshit loony version of spite only works when you own the media.
just like Saffy did to Pats on Ab Fab.
Wasn’t it the other way around?
Maybe Larry Sinclair just smells dead.
Kinda makes me ill. Can you imagine yourself in that situation?
Fuck. Shove your self-satisfied personal safety up your ass.
Here’s the news, happy campers. I would have rolled over. YOU would have rolled over. Your smirking laughter has NOTHING to do with McCain, who is a political disaster and a leadership thug.
But any GODDAM one of you who think you might have, what, stood up to your NV captors and what, told them to fuck off, you didn’t want any goddam meds or better treatment?
This is sad and sick. I’m very disappointed in y’all.
But carry on. Know in your safe little living room that you would have been so much more, so much better. I’ll tell you what. I’m impressed…
mikey
the only reason this crap works is because the media right-wing infrastructure keeps saying it over and over and over again.
the latest meme is the concern troll whine: why isn’t obama doing better?
which, when taken with a pinch of reality, comes down to “hey, our guy is a loser, but he’s not a really big loser, at least, we hope, maybe!”
i noticed david brooks concern trolling this subject yesterday, and then today when i turn on the tv, bill schneider is asking the same question on cnn, so i turn to msnbc (because i hate bill schneider) and there’s andrea mitchell and mike barnicle bill the sailor asking the exact same question at the exact same time!
amazingly enough. faux news was trumpeting bin laden’s driver getting busted for running a light, or something, but my point is that the talking point was set for the day, and the mmm (multi-millionaire media and yes, i coined that phrase) dutifully parroted it to death.
that’s why this shit works. because we don’t have an infrastructure.
but fear not, at least the innertubez gets our point into the cw, albeit slowly. it took a few days, but the “obama lurvs tire gauges” crap got slapped down.
Sam from Utah is correct. It was Pats on Saff.
mikey is also correct, as always. I smoke, and I would not just have rolled over, I would have somersaulted and stuck the dismount.
But then, so would have the ‘tards wearing the purple heart bandaids in RNCWorld2004 if confronted with the situation John Kerry had faced.
Which is central to my point.
Maybe we can start slapping them on Cindy, when she’s stripping down for the Cow Chip finals – just like Saffy did to Pats on Ab Fab.
The fact is, I thought that was the other way around, where Pats put it on Saffy to get her to take up smoking. Maybe I missed the first part of the episode.
*AHEM*
Sorry. Lemme try it with a little less spittle.
There is NO difference between calling McCain on acquiescing to the demands of his captors in north vietnam and ridiculing Obama for suggesting that it would be helpful to make sure your tires are correctly inflated.
McCain didn’t do anything that you or me or John Kerry wouldn’t have done. It’s neither appropriate nor necessary to attack McCain on his survival of his captivity. He’s everything that’s wrong with american politics and governance today. The fact that he didn’t choose to DIE at the hands of his captors, the fact that he was nothing more than a cog-in-the-wheel fighter pilot back in the old days and they got him, that’s no goddam path to call him out. And if you try it and you don’t feel shame? I’m sorry for you…
mikey
Uh, maybe y’all are forgetting the episode where Pats was trying to quit smoking, and they covered her with nicotine patches, and finally figured out that they weren’t working because her body was recharging them with nicotine….
John McCain – because America hasn’t hit rock bottom quite yet.
Here’s my take: Any jackass stupid enough and lacking the most basic sense of awareness that he’d put a fucking (R) after his name, in 2009, deserves no sympathy, no respect and no mercy from Americans.
Fuck John McCain and his skeevy lobbyist whore-friends. Fuck him forever, Bart!
This is sad and sick. I’m very disappointed in y’all.
When aren’t you? Seriously, Mikey, you’ve been a snarling drag on more than a few recent threads. And the common denominator is you.
Anyway, I’m torn on stuff like this. Since the media won’t do its job, and will pole-vault Swift-boat sewage into the mainstream at the right’s beck and call, I don’t know what else to do. My days of having faith that the public would see through it and it would backlash on the party and candidate making the smears are over. It worked for the right. If you ever want the White House back, WTF are you supposed to do other than fight fire with fire?
Both McCain and Kerry served admirably and honorably in Vietnam, and both deserve that due respect. Did the right give a fuck? Did a groundswell of Vietnam and other vets respond with a loud, organized, and media-visible repudiation of that shit? No. The right will tear apart the military record of anyone to ruin a Dem candidate. You can either politically roll over and die, or do something about it.
And the advantage here is no lying is necessary. It’s true that McCain almost couldn’t even graduate from the academy. It’s true that he got shot down. It’s true that his rank and role in the Navy had everything to do with nepotism. Pointing those things out is simply bringing up actual history.
But yeah, anything he said or did while under torture is off limits and irrelevant. Before that, not so much.
In regard to Mikey’s comment:
If so many people would have rolled over, as you put it, then that begs the question of why only McCain earned the sobriquet of Songbird; doesn’t seem like too many of the other POWs rolled over and got to enjoy the same privileges that McCain did.
It’s well known that McCain made dozens of propaganda tapes for the enemy and that the transcripts of those tapes have been sealed by the U.S. government. There is a monument to collaborator McCain at the lake where he was shot down. To this day, he serves as a symbol of American defeat in Vietnam. His father was an Admiral, which allowed him special treatment as a POW. This article came out awhile ago and sheds a lot of light on this subject:
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn04192008.html
I’m surprised people haven’t gone after him on this stuff before.
Look, you assholes, I’ve been busy lately. Maybe if you people weren’t suh elitist elites, you’d realize writing “I will stop taking creepy pictures of hawt co-eds” over and over on my dean’s chalkboard takes some fucking time out of my day.
Additionally, Heh. Indeed. We’re winning! Read the whole thing. Obama’s got an oozing sense of entitlement. Dude, where’s my recession? Mickey Kaus with the scoop on John Edwards. Heh. Indeed. We’re winning! Read the whole thing. Obama’s got an oozing sense of entitlement. Dude, where’s my recession? Mickey Kaus with the scoop on John Edwards. Heh. Indeed. We’re winning! Read the whole thing. Obama’s got an oozing sense of entitlement. Dude, where’s my recession? Mickey Kaus with the scoop on John Edwards. Heh. Indeed. We’re winning! Read the whole thing. Obama’s got an oozing sense of entitlement. Dude, where’s my recession? Mickey Kaus with the scoop on John Edwards. Heh. Indeed. We’re winning! Read the whole thing. Obama’s got an oozing sense of entitlement. Dude, where’s my recession? Mickey Kaus with the scoop on John Edwards.
If so many people would have rolled over, as you put it, then that begs the question of why only McCain earned the sobriquet of Songbird; doesn’t seem like too many of the other POWs rolled over and got to enjoy the same privileges that McCain did.
This line of thinking carries collateral damage, if you will. At a time when we’re trying to end the practice of torture by our own fucking government, and one of the major arguments used in this effort is that torture never really produces reliable intelligence because the victim can and will say anything to end it, and that basically no one is immune to this natural human weakness, it doesn’t help to suggest that some who were tortured by the Viet Cong could withstand it and some couldn’t, and the ones who couldn’t should be ashamed, is contradictory and wrong. It reinforces why the right claims torture can actually be helpful.
…but for 40 years McCain has been boasting of and using his HONORABLE POW experience to attain and keep high office Now he’s using it to get the Presidency. Pointing out his behavior was not all that honorable isn’t unreasonable.
Ok.
Sure, SP.
You go ahead and pull the trigger on that. See what you get. My fuckin hero.
And you’re right. I don’t do lockstep. I’m a human with beliefs and experiences.
If you wanna hear lockstep, reckon you can find all sorts of places to read exactly what you already believe. You don’t actually have to think, son. You won’t have any trouble avoiding that.
Of course, you’ll have to live in the world you create. But that’s your problem.
Carry on, youngster…
mikey
Hey, speaking of Glenn Reynolds:
Heh indeedily ding dong diddily! Not gonna touch that one, promise. Well, other than saying birds of a feather…
Not gonna touch that one, promise.
You kind of just did, only in a passive-aggressive, dare I say Instapundit-ian way.
Sully’s column Makes me laugh where it refers to McCain’s “Inner Norma Desmond.” regarding his own celebrity.
Nora Desmond as played by Carol Burnett
I guess you just gotta decide if your humanity is more important than your politics.
And hell. Maybe it’s not…
mikey
a snarling drag on more than a few recent threads said,
August 7, 2008 at 3:25
Now that IS funny.
You go ahead and pull the trigger on that. See what you get. My fuckin hero.
If you’re talking to me, remember I’m agreeing with you about using anything McCain did or said while under torture to be repugnant and irrelevant. I just think it’s fair game to mention, and frequently, that McCain graduated 894th out of 899th in his class, and that he probably would never have been flying jets off of carriers had it not been for his father. Fuck, Bush had a better record in college, by far.
Carry on, youngster…
Again, if that’s towards me, I’m not sure how you think you determined my age.
Sully’s column Makes me laugh where it refers to McCain’s “Inner Norma Desmond.” regarding his own celebrity.
Nora Desmond as played by Carol Burnett (better link)
If the right wing is allowed to peddle ridiculous bullshit like the Obama Death list, then let the anti-McCain faction have it’s own scurrilous bullshit underground as well.
Most people who’d refuse to vote for McCain after reading a cc of a copypasted email would probably never vote for Obama. That’s why the best and most important way to help swing the election is actively convincing anyone who’s not a lost cause racist to vote Obama. These sorts of attacks on McCain are a way to keep the lost causes at home this November.
I’m definitely not saying that anyone actually connected with Obama’s campaign should say this sort of shit. I’m not saying you shouldn’t rail against it from the left, if you’re so inclined. I’m saying that, if it’s spread around a bit, it will keep a lot of hyper-macho gullible moron rightwing paranoids home, or better yet writing in Ron Paul. This is a job for Anonymous.
In any case, talking up Obama has the dual advantages of gaining Obama more votes and being morally justifiable, so that’s how I plan to work to get him elected, since I’m too broke to do much donating. But hey, if someone feels like finding a mailing list, making a new web mail account through a proxy, and sending out thousands of copies of articles from UnfitMcCain.com, I won’t complain.
For the record: I would have sung like a bird, and I’m not ashamed.
The problem, as I see it, is not failing to honor veterans for their service.
The problem for me arises when veterans enable chickenhawks.
This problem is exacerbated when veterans who are torture victims flip-flip and enable torture on the Senate floor.
McCain has done both, and that’s why every schmuck who has Cheeto crumbs stuck in the bindings of his Tom Clancy novels thinks he’s the bee’s knees.
At least Douglas MacArthur knew that the game was up when he decided to fade away before he died. He knew better than to do either, and that’s because, I think and hope, he knew what “render the military subservient to” meant in Philadelphia in 1776.
McCain, and that bitch with that bandaid and gooper straw gimme cowboy cap on her head in that picture, still piss me off, in large part because, as he knows, they are ultimately dissing not just our country, but mikey, too.
h
Not like I truly even have a dog in this race, but it looks to me like you have 2 issues with the “Songbird” attack:
1: major cognitive dissonance between the entire prior “high-road” campaign theme (the one that’s been winning seats in GOP stronghold territory) & this,
&
2: standing the sight of yourself in the mirror if it backfires against Obama massively.
That’s if you discount that little “Democrats: we’re not unprincipled rat-fuckers like the GOP” thing. I believe way way back in the bad old days, that was called ethics.
POTUS campaigns aren’t D&D games – “I was only trying to help” really doesn’t cut it if you fuck the pooch.
Kinda piggy backing on what mikey’s comments, it seems to me going after McCain’s Vietnam experience would be a strategic blunder, no matter what the “truth” of the matter was. There’s just no way to win on that.
Hell, look what happened when people went after Bush in 2004. Dan Rather ended up being the posterchild for the RW’s conspiracy of the liberal media, the underlying issue of Bush going AWOL was conspicuously forgotten, and if that weren’t all enough, it was John Kerry, the guy who actually served and was awarded a purple heart for his bravery in combat, not the AWOL screw-up, whose record ends up being called into question.
I think we’re better off ridiculing the McCain of 2008 and leaving the McCain of 1968 alone.
More than my personal honor rides on this election. It could be the future of the world. McCain would just love to nuke Iran, or any country that looks at him ‘funny’. (maybe that would cause a nuclear winter, ending our fears of global warming) After being tortured himself, he voted in favor of torture by our administration. Maybe his personal experience caused him to believe it is effective.
He voted to rescind Habeas Corpus, for crying out loud!
I would not make up lies against the man, put I wont recoil in horror when the truth is told, just because it is ugly, and maybe dishonors a person who’s been boasting of his honor for decades.
Goddam, chilluns, if you can’t come up with an anti-mccain narative that doesn’t include “he gave in to torture and sold out his country” you ain’t even trying.
The fucks a political hack, a thug, a sellout and oh by the way he can’t deliver a speech on a bet in an opium den.
So whaddaya really wanna do?
mikey
The fact is, I hope President McCain does outlaw liberalism and hate-America leftist treason and keep us safe from terror.
The fact is, I like to eat my own poop and make airplane shapes out if you. I my mind, where the sun is floopy and USA honor bias is approved.
That’s my kind of man!
“The fact that he didn’t choose to DIE at the hands of his captors, the fact that he was nothing more than a cog-in-the-wheel fighter pilot back in the old days and they got him, that’s no goddam path to call him out. And if you try it and you don’t feel shame? I’m sorry for you…
mikey”
Mikey, first of all McCain uses his POW fantasy experience to sell his candidacy, so it’s fair game. Secondly, do you remember Dukakis, Mondale and Kerry? You don’t win elections by being good little boys and girls. Stop kidding yourself. We all sell our humanity down the river dozens of times in our lives. You do the best you can, but it’s hard to imagine something about John McCain being president that makes me want to keep my honor. I’m just not that important of a guy. I’ll sell my honor right down the river to get these cretins out of office and I can rightly say that I believe I will have saved thousands of human lives in the process.
I mean, it’s almost like they only get enthusiastic about smearing someone’s military credentials if they’re a Democrat.
Heh. Disturbing if true.
<blockquote.So whaddaya really wanna do?
Win in November. Personal honor and “we wouldn’t stoop to that” are great reasons not to smear a former POW. An even better reason is because said former POW is a Republican with a sycophant media.
You’ve got to accept a simple fact about the way things work in American electoral politics–Republicans can get away with shit that Democrats can’t. That’s not an opinion, it’s demonstrable fact. Republicans can successfully attack a Democrat’s military service, but Democrats cannot do the obverse. If you can come up with any examples to refute that, I’d be interested in seeing them.
But Republicans also demonize people based on their race or religion, and a host of other shitty things that appeal to our baser instincts. I’ve said since McCain was nominated that if the Democrats pulled any “purple bandaid” shit I would withdraw all support for them, and I meant it.
D’oh! Forgive the broken blockquote!
How about:
McCain was a POW.
McCain was tortured as a POW.
This resulted in him signing whatever false confession thing that anyone other than a fictional character would do, sooner or later. Nobody can fault him for that, unless they’re an asshole.
Forty years later, McCain is basically endorsing torture (of others) as a means of getting important information. He has firsthand knowledge of how well that works, as well as of what it is to endure. And he is still willing to “compromise” his anti-torture stance.
That’s really, really fucked up.
The Republicans were perfectly happy to criticize McCain for his behavior while a POW, when they were backing a different horse for Candidate.
Do we really want to lie down in their soiled bedclothes?
fuck ’em. As mikey says, there’s enough to hit McCain about without resorting to his behavior as a POW.
Uh, OT, but did anyone mention this Onion classic in the K-Lo fish thread the other day?
My take, again: McCain has no moral standing on the issue of torture. He admitted, on more than one occasion, that he gave false information to his captors. I suppose that’s admirable, in the sense that he’s “one of our guys”, but it proves to the finest point, that torture is not a legitimate intelligence gathering activity.
Then, even with these multiple, prideful admissions (wherein he openly pandered to his geographic audience), he had the soulless nerve to vote against an anti-torture bill. He told America and the world that he gave false information, that torture is bad – but it’s ok for America because we’re special.
He served. So have thousands of Americans. I’ve been in the service with some of them and I can tell you – the Law of Averages still applies and there are plenty of people in the military who are the most special kind of fuck-ups. That shouldn’t surprise anyone.
He was a POW. That’s a horrible reflection on War and mankind’s retarded evolution toward real civility, absolutely. It doesn’t qualify him to be President anymore than my Dad whipping my ass when I was young qualifies me to be President.
I’m not saying that it’s a smart move for the Dems to “attack his service”, but his service shouldn’t be regarded as sacrosanct. If anything, we should be saying, “Yes, he served. John Kerry served, as well, remember? Millions of Americans have served. So what?”
We can defang without denigrating.
Did you know that Bruce Ivins was a registered, dyed-in-the-wool DEMOCRAT?
NO?
Then what the devil have you dweebs been reading all day? Get with the program, already!!
And Ted Bundy was a lifelong Republican. What the fuck’s your point?
I have been trying to sell my honour down the river for some time, so far without attracting a buyer. Perhaps I have been trying on the wrong river. Please advise.
Dear Smut,
Have you considered your current lack of progress is due to a language barrier? Buyers may not be able to notice your “honour” when looking for “honor”. Be sure to cover your bases by selling property under both names.
Note: If you find one purchaser, take other property off-market immediately, or you may find you have nothing to sell to first buyer!
How come you no make typety-type ’bout that, eh Brad?
Shorter Bruce Ivins (postmortem):
“When my fellow progressives find out my leftwing political affiliations they will go frickin’ bananas, desperately trying to prove I didn’t do it because we all know only wingnuts are capable of such nefarious deeds.”
Number one:
Democratic party affiliation does not make an immediate leftwing affiliation.
Number two:
If you’re dead, you can’t talk. If you can’t talk, you’re already at the bare minimum of possible words. It’s therefore impossible to be shorter.
In sum, maybe the reason you only see the left-wing blogs using the shorter strategy is because right-wingers are too dumb to follow the fucking mechanics of the joke.
It’s like watching someone mangle a haiku into 4-10-7 scheme, without a single mention of a season or natural feature.
His captors called him ‘Songbird,’ but his flyboy buddies called him ‘Ace’ – for crashing five planes.
They were his own planes.
He has firsthand knowledge of how well that works, as well as of what it is to endure. And he is still willing to “compromise” his anti-torture stance.
That’s really, really fucked up.
In a golden nutshell.
That’s what really tore it with McCain. He has to have sold his soul to support torture with his history, which HE wraps himself in.
The great part is, the devil had a lot of fine print in that contract. How much you wanna bet the contract McCain signed said, “I get to run for President.”
He forgot to specify, “I get to win.”
Kerry tried the “We’re better than Them” approach 4 years ago. It didn’t work. The Repugs called him a coward and traitor: he should have punched the Swiftboat author into the gutter where he belonged, he (Kerry) should have pointed to Rove as the real author, and reminded people of what Bush/Rove did to McCain in 2000, or the Texas Governor before that, and the Wilsons…all those people slimed by the Repugs.
Maybe it would have backfired on him…maybe he’d of lost. He LOST ANYWAY looking like a wimp.
Now Obama is looking…colorless! bland, cookie-cutter Dem. People want a Liberal, Hell, II think peope want a Radical!
Perhaps Obama is keeping his cards close to his vest and after (if) he’s elected, he’ll bust out, tossing his namby pamby advisors, flinging Bush & Co in prison, kicking Nancy and Harry’s ass’s. Its nice to Dream.
Kerry tried the “We’re better than Them” approach 4 years ago. It didn’t work.
Obama hasn’t been in a losing position for quite a while now because it’s obvious the Republicans have fucked up at everything. Don’t panic. I’d like Obama to be a little less respectful of his Republican colleague too but holy shit he’s a black guy with a scary name leading the polls in a race for president.
How come you no make typety-type ’bout that, eh Brad?
I think you’re missing the whole point of the blog, there, bubba. This isn’t a news source. When some mouth-breathing, right-wing paid hate monger – I figure Debbie Schussell or Michelle Malkin – claims that Irvings’ voting history means all liberals should be shot in the back of the head, then the Sadly, No! team might get cracking. ‘Cause that’s what they do, make fun of hate-mongering, knuckle-dragging, spittle-flecked right-wing dead-enders. Dipstick.
As often as not, what Righteous Bubba said. For cryin’ out loud, Obama’s been lamped as an arrogant elitist out of touch with Real *winkwink* Americans by the media, and he’s bent over backwards to not, rhetorically speaking, give McCain the gob in the eye he so richly deserves. Besides, it’d almost be too cruel at this point. McCain got pawned by Paris Hilton today, y’know. And again, this is America and our cultural defaut when it comes to A Black Dude is to clutch our purse and cross the street as soon as possible. We think “there’s just something about him that worries me, but I can’t really describe it” is an adequate response to pollster’s questions about A Black Dude’s fitness for presidents. We’re children. Chill.
I’d like Obama to be a little less respectful of his Republican colleague too but holy shit he’s a black guy with a scary name leading the polls in a race for president.
If you can’t cope up with the idea that spreading FALSE information to win snowballs into the next lie and then the Next FUCKING LIE, please remember the above fact?
Smearing is nothing more the ego masturbation…
Please masturbate in private.
Lies snowball into more lies!
The Bush Administration is an EPIC fucking cautionary tale of that fact.
Idea for a John McCain parody video:
Remember Eddie Murphy as James Brown performing “Hot Tub” on SNL?
The McCain video should be shot in a Vietnamese-American nail salon. Young prisoner McCain should enter in a silk bathrobe a la Murphy’s James Brown or even Hugh Hefner – smoking Vietnamese cigarettes.
He seats himself at a pedicure station and several beautiful NVA women tend to him – doing his nails, massaging his shoulders and serving him trays of curried prawns and pho.
His friends from the North Vietnamese government enter bearing gifts of cartons of cigarettes and sit with him as he is massaged and pedicured to record dictation from him about military tactics, statistics, codes and the like.
Viral video people: run with it!
Shorter Bruce Ivins (postmortem):
“When my fellow progressives find out my leftwing political affiliations they will go frickin’ bananas, desperately trying to prove I didn’t do it because we all know only wingnuts are capable of such nefarious deeds.”
Tim McVeigh hated the federal government. Conservatives hate the federal government (well, they say they do, anyway), ergo, conservatives are all mass-murdering right-wing terrorists.
This game is fun!
Ted the Unibomber was a big ol’ libertarian who hated liberals.
The Green River Killer was a Republican.
BTK (Dennis Rader) was a Xtian fundie and a republican.
A young Republican former rising star here in Iowa on the run from the sex offender program bashed a baby’s head in last winter, while living with the baby’s teen mother.
You really want to play this game, goober?
Jesus, the self-righteousness is deafening mikey.
I think the mewling worship, the hallowed off-limits, of being a POW, is a fucking fetish. He was a POW in a shitty, illegal, hideous war that his entire heritage informed him to be his birthright. His captors were subhuman assholes. He was calloused enough (with FERVOR, of course) that he would have bombed the shit out of anything he was told to — villages, people, Cong and civilians alike — without giving it a second thought.
But because he suffered in prison — and we’re living in a time where our own government took a page from regimes like the Viet Cong regarding torture — he gets a pass for endorsing this latest atrocity? Fuck him. I’ll tell you what, I’d respect him a lot more as a victim if he decided that after seeing war and being in captivity he would think war isn’t always the answer.
That he still does, despite his agony, makes him pathetic.
And that I brought in Batman should have been the signal it was a joke. A hard joke. The Republicans want to live by a comic book code, they run their foreign policy on what fictional characters do in the popular media. If they think Batman represents a Republican, well then, since we’re talking about torture and machismo (the GOP way), then why not make that connection between the two. Don’t like it? Great. Who the fuck cares?
Moreover, my grandfather was a POW in Germany and of course I believe I’d crack too. Neither have anything to do with the fact that the GOP has to be mercilessly mocked. There are no sacred cows. And there should be no reverence for a man’s experiences when it’s clear the man learned absolutely nothing from them.
That’s the kind of “foreign policy experience” we want: a guy who’ll sell out his country for a packet of fags.
I’m with Mikey on this, now that I can see through the spittle. I don’t think McCain’s experience at the hands of the NVA is worth exploiting: leave that to his biographers. But the Keating 5 stuff, his temper, his vague understanding of current affairs — those are worth hitting on.
I really hope in a head to head debate, Obama gets under his skin and he blows up. A guy who will call his own wife a cunt in public could really make a mess in a more heated forum.
hmmmmmmmmm……..
Beware the veracity of any allegation preceded by the word “reportedly.” It’s by far the worst weasel-word in a journalist’s considerable inventory. That said, fuck it. I’m not saying I’m for indiscriminately using this stuff, but by all means, someone should bankroll more research into the matter. A lot more.
And here’s why, mikey. Not just because McCain’s warmongering would subject more POWs — ours and other countries’ — to torture, not just because, in McCain’s subsequent position, he had to have known the CIA was teaching torture techniques to the South Vietnamese which should have instantly led him to take a Kerry-esque attitude to the Vietnam War’s worthiness, but also because of his experience he should have put everything on the line to sabotage Bush’s pro-torture regime, yet he did/has not. Clearly McCain didn’t learn any moral lessons from his experience, so why should anyone else pussyfoot about the subject?
You seem to think this is about sneering at McCain’s cracking — moreover you think this is done by people who assume they would not crack in the same position. But nobody here is saying that. It’s not that he cracked; it’s his subsequent attitude/beliefs *after* cracking. You’re understandably touchy on the subject, but it’s causing you to see things in other ppl’s minds & hearts that simply aren’t there.
Also — sorry, I gotta say it — but principles and ideals are part of ‘our humanity.’ Where do you think our politics come from? Look, I understand your disgust at partisan hacks on either side who would step over their own grandmother just to spite over the opposition for the sake of petty political gamesmanship. Yes, such people are awful. But sometimes what seems to be someone’s partisan hackery or political perfectionism or purity fetish or abject ruthlessness is actually about that someone’s humanity and decency coming through. I ask that you remember this next time you bitch at someone *cough cough* who hates and fears any politician or pundit who advocates or endorses wars that result in torture, destruction, mass death. It’s precisely because most of us don’t want to have POWs who get tortured that we are so disgusted with those on the other side, and why some of us are dissatisfied with those on our own.
“Clearly McCain didn’t learn any moral lessons from his experience, so why should anyone else pussyfoot about the subject?”
Just to be clear. McCain didn’t learn the moral lessons you have decided he should have learned as your justification for mocking his suffering while a POW?
Just a heads up: TBogg’s dog Satch is having a really rough patch right now. Much to my amazement, comments on firedoglake work in the latest version of IE. They hadn’t up until now. Anyway…if you’re a fan of the Satchmo, send a little love. You might have to use IE…the comments and registration over there have never worked for me in firefox.
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2008/08/06/the-bitterest-pill
McCain didn’t learn the moral lessons you have decided he should have learned as your justification for mocking his suffering while a POW?
Well, I guess I could say it’s perfectly acceptable for someone who was tortured to not be very enthusiastic about stopping actions which result in other people being tortured. That would certainly stop, for one, douchebagerific insinuations about my moral subjectivity on the topic, and for another, absolutely bullshit accusations that I want to “mock” anything regarding torture. Happy now?
I guess I missed the point of your post.
I thought you were saying you wouldn’t do it yourself but you certainly think someone else should and would be justified in project.
Even if that were my point, it has zilch to do with mocking McCain’s being tortured. I understand my writing sucks but I can’t for the life of me see how you could honestly get that I advocate *making fun of* his torture or anyone else’s.
Once more, with feeling: The subject is fair game for further research because mostly it is relevant to McCain’s position on war and torture, and is potentially relevant to McCain’s macho posture.
Let’s go for the big win, not just the little one here. We go low, we win, but we win without it. If we do win without it, we look so damn good, so inspiring, and so shiny that the Republicans will be forced to attack people on substantive issues hereafter. If they go to the dirty tricks well and it runs dry, my God what is left for the poor fuckers? Imagine twenty or thirty years of actual substance from your politics, right left middle whatever, before they get back to the underhanded bullshit we all know and love. Audacity of hope for real.
The alternative is all the people who decided to give a damn about this election cycle turning over and going back to bed, turned off by politics and usual and buying the canard that both parties are the same. Kerry lost because he started playing the game, (and because he played it so poorly, the man was so tepid, so nice to that imbecile and his handlers.)
If we play their game, we play by the rules they’ve already codified and formalized for at this point generations. Let’s all go play a new game instead.
It was the “..anyone else should pussyfoot about the subject”. Saw that as a blanket approval.
So more research is needed ‘not for mocking’ but to know more about what really happened to McCain as a PoW? Was he actually tortured? Did he trade information for favors? Was he really called “the Songbird”?
This is not directed at you HTML, as I think I understand what you are trying to get at but I don’t think it really leads to useful information, BUT why is it necessary to know details? McCain is on the record as saying Torture is bad. Now he blows it off. He is a hypocrite. Why is it necessary to say, “HE’S ALSO A SQUEALER”?
There may be reason to poke into every corner of McCain’s life if you believe that you have to know yourself, know your enemy, and know the ground & weather you’re fighting on and in.
We know ourselves: a smallish group of fairly cynical people who want to end the neocon disease, or at least go into remission for a time so our country can heal. We have to partner with and convince a larger group of people, who aren’t as cynical as we are, to fight with us, and keep them with us. We have to get this guy who we kinda, sorta like, a pretty smart guy who doesn’t really agree with us that much, but who is sane, to be president.
We know the swampy, treacherous ground we’re fighting on: an American public that’s pretty ignorant, dumb and rather childish. But which may have actually noticed that their current government sucks. “Normal” political tactics don’t work so well on this swampy ground.
We know the weather: a nasty, whorish, biased, and trivial media that will selectively rain on us but not on our opponent, and which will try to find any weakness in us and broadcast it, and will also try to cover us with muck and mud at any opportunity. This weather/media will never get any better.
This website has already done a great job of showing us our opponents, with their mostly stupid and irrational, but quite dogged and well-financed, hatred toward us and everything we stand for. Now it might be a good idea to learn as much as we can about McCain. Even if we don’t decide to use the smears about McCain’s captivity, we should try to learn as much as we can about his captivity, his life, his marriages, whatever. It gives us that much more ability to fuck him but good.
guys, don’t lose your perspective. I agree that McCain turned out to be much more pathetic and despicable that what we (or at least I) thought. But he is still a more honorable man than pathetic macho hate-mongers who has never been there, such as GWB and Mitt Romney… So there are degrees here…
But he is still a more honorable man than pathetic macho hate-mongers who has never been there, such as GWB and Mitt Romney… So there are degrees here…
Good point. Actually, as Billmon always has pointed out, McCain pretty much has contempt for the political and media establishment, and he has good reason to feel contempt for those comtemptable assholes and bitches.
We might be able to use that against him somewhat.
Gawwl-lee, Uncle Jed!
That’s sure some white-hot overnight thread, there.
Glad all I ever wanted to be was a double-naught spy or a fry-cook.
Pardon me if I’m just jaw-droppingly amazed anyone reads comments at AlterNet. Talk about a trollbridge….
Goddamn!! Who are you little pukes to impugn the honour of a man who bravely bombed civilians in support of a vicious war of imperialist aggression?!
How dare you! How very dare you!
Bless you, Mr Leonard Pierce. You’re a credit to your race.
Too many words! If it’s any longer than “McCain is a flipper flopper on nut zappin’,” your audience will get bored.
Sorry. Nothing on this world or any other could make that happen –not even torture.
Dear Smut,
I regret to inform you, but with all these right-wingers in public office right now, honour is a glut on the market. Perhaps you would do better to divest some other properties at the moment. I am given to understand that dishonesty and political expediency are in high demand at the moment, should you have any reserves.
Cordially,
Interrobang,
Characteristics Funds Manager, First International Bank of Moral Turpitude
God bless Photoshop. Nice work;)
All true. And in spite of that, he’s still got a serious shot at winning.
I’m not ready to go there.
But at the end of the day, I’d rather feel shitty about winning than look at a Google Earth picture of where Tehran used to be and wish I’d done more to keep McCain out of office.
[…] (wing man) […]
Actually, it’s McCain fault that iraqi terrorists/insurgents/extremists/whatever executed a US airman. So sayeth Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry on their front page.
http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.org/
Linky right here: http://www.usvetdsp.com/maupin_exe.htm
So – the anti-Kerry crowd is gonna come screaming at McCain for this one, right? And Mr. Indeedy is gonna start going all Indeedily again, right?
but with all these right-wingers in public office right now, honour is a glut on the market.
Perhaps I should be buying honour now, in anticipation of the inevitable upswing in the price.
There’s a lot on this on YouTube – check out the few I posted in this article on the “Songbird”
http://www.thealders.net/blogs/2008/08/04/john-songbird-mccain-supports-the-troops/