At least in this context, as Barney Frank isn’t afraid to call people who are so stupid that they believe Obama’s health care reform equals Nazis crazy and as much use to debate as “arguing with a dining room table”. More goodness here as well.
Wingnuts
Comment of the Day: Obama letchery edition
Over at Edge of the West, SEK has done an excellent debunk of the above picture, which seems to show Obama checking out that woman’s ass, but which video evidence puts the lie to. Not that this has stopped wingnuts like Ann Althouse from obsessing over Obama’s crudeness and infidelity and all that good wingnutty stuff. You could argue that this doesn’t matter and let the wingnuts have their fantasies, but Scott was alive during the nineties and knows what similar moronic memes did to Clinton, so:
I’ve taken to pre-emptive meme stamping. I figure if I can marginalize these idiocies before they have the chance to “blossom†into the mainstream a la Lewinsky and the Foster murder, we might could avoid a repeat of the ’90s.
The comment thread on this post shows exactly why this meme stamping is needed, as comment after comment shows that people, rightwing or not, have been taking in by these false accusations of letching. It’s also worth reading for one of the best putdowns of a troll I’ve ever seen– “If you have anything substantive to add to this conversation, by all means, add it; but if you’re here to remind the rest us that people like you someone survived long enough to learn how to type, I’d rather you took your sad act somewhere else“.
But the most insightful comment comes from Thers, a reminder of why this incident is important even if seemingly trivial, as it’s not a trivial incident to the young women int he centre of it:
The thing about this nonsense is that the young woman in question, and her family, are being put through the wringer, and what should have been a wonderful moment in what sounds like a pretty hard life has now been trashed. For, as you show, nothing but an obvious cheap shot. NY Post article is even more despicable than most NY Post articles, and intensely depressing.
If you don’t buy the abstract idea that dishonesty like Althouse’s should be given a response because it just should be, well, consider that stuff like that almost always features a human being getting hurt by it.
Shorter Lou Pritchett
Lou wrote an open letter to president Obama full of wingnutty goodnes, but which came down to this:
Dear President Obama. Unlike the twelve other presidents I’ve know, you scare me. It’s not because you’re Black!!
(It is because he’s Black.)
There Goes Labour’s ‘No Platform’ Policy
New Labour’s just so bloody, bloody inept. Only Gordon Brown could manage to position himself against a wall of swastikas, complete with gurning grin, much to the glee of lobby correspondents and picture editors. You’d think he’d show a little more sensitivity, having literally just paid a visit to Auschwitz.
As if that dreadful image management weren’t enough, now Jacqui Smith’s giving fascists the oxygen of publicity too, having banned Fox-sanctioned eliminationist rabble rouser and ‘shock-jock’ Michael Savage from Britain:
Ms Smith said she decided to make public the names of 16 people banned since October so others could better understand what sort of behaviour Britain was not prepared to tolerate.
She told BBC Breakfast that Mr Savage was “someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country”.
But Mr Savage, real name Michael Weiner, insisted he has never advocated violence.
No, but he’s certainly adept at deliberately winding up those who do, in between churning out crappy books on nutrition. Sorry Savage, no 1st Amendment here.
He’s suing Jackie Smith for libel, for damaging his reputation. Good luck with that…
A libel in England is defined as “….any published statement(s) which are alleged to defame a named or identifiable individual or individuals in a manner which causes them loss in their trade or profession, or causes a reasonable person to think worse of him, her or them”
I’m a reasonable person and his banning couldn’t possibly make me think worse of Savage.
Savage’s all over the airwaves saying he’s got seven (or was it nine, or twenty-three) lawyers on the case. Seems to me the Home Secretary actually has a legal leg to stand on, for once: given Savage’s inflammatory statements and status as a public figure, a banning appears to be nothing but fair comment and besides, truth is always an absolute defence.
I hope he does sue, I can’t wait for the show. But then again maybe not: he’s desperate for ratings since times have changed, his audince is dwindling and he’s losing advertisers. Smith and New Labour, in their typically inept way have given Savage exactly what he needs. So much for ‘no platform.’
Evil Encapsulated
Interesting if real: Karl Rove’s Twitter feed.
The wingnuts think it’s real, to judge by the tweets, and
Precautions taken 2 guarantee compliance w/ federal prohibition on torture. U might characterize diligence as overcautious.
certainly sounds suitably Rovian.