Indecision 08 Wingnut thread

[fomenter]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/2601914/Frank-Marshall-Davis-alleged-Communist-was-early-influence-on-Barack-Obama.html
more guilt by association

[Cain]

Yeah, heard that one before too. 

Interesting articles about the GOP's main anti-Obama man, Jerome Corsi, in Alternet and The Nation recently.  Here is Alternet's:

http://www.alternet.org/election08/95820/jerome_corsi%3A_how_a_racist%2C_conspiratorial_crank_became_a_top_gop_anti-obama_point_man/

These are good times for Jerome Corsi. Already notorious for his factually challenged book-length takedown of 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, Unfit For Command, the 61-year-old Corsi has another hit on his hands. His new book, Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality has made Corsi a hot commodity again on the right-wing radio circuit, the bane of the Obama campaign and catapulted to the top slot on the New York Times bestseller list. With his newfound notoriety, Corsi has brought his pathographic anti-Obama narrative to hundreds of thousands of readers -- and millions on radio and TV -- just as he did with Kerry. Corsi has become the court bard of the conservative movement. "The goal is to defeat Obama," Corsi told the New York Times. "I don't want Obama to be in office."

[...]

Corsi had dabbled off-and-on the fringes of conservative backlash politics for nearly three decades. In his spare time, which he appeared to have lots of, Corsi busied himself at his computer, firing off opinions on the far-right website Free Republic, marked by their sexual and racial obsessions.

In a comment typical of the dozens he posted under the handle "jrlc," Corsi wrote, "Anybody ask why HELLary couldn't keep BJ Bill satisfied? Not lesbo or anything, is she?" In another, he ranted, "Isn't the Democratic Party the official SODOMIZER PROTECTION ASSOCIATION of AMERICA -- oh, I forgot, it was just an accident that Clintoon's [sic] first act in office was to promote 'gays in the military.' RAGHEADS are Boy-Bumpers as clearly as they are Women-Haters -- it all goes together."

Then he composed Unfit For Command, suddenly vaulting into best-sellerdom. Surrounded by the media buzz of talk radio and Fox News, Corsi no longer plied the seamy troll-zones of the right-wing blogosphere. Overnight, he had become a conservative folk hero. But as Bush's popularity waned during his second term, Corsi's star dimmed. He tried to reignite it by co-authoring a book with "prophecy expert" Michael Evans, Showdown with Nuclear Iran, calling on the United States and Israel to attack Iran "before it's too late," and another, Black Gold Stranglehold, claiming to expose the Big Lie that will "enslave" Americans: "the belief that oil is a fossil fuel and a finite resource." Corsi's conspiracy theories consolidated his cult status, but he did not revive the brightness of his Swiftboating campaign. As another presidential election approached, however, Corsi followed his well-trod path back to renown.

In early 2007, Corsi huddled with an old friend, Howard Phillips, a veteran conservative operative who had attempted to organize the anti-government militia movement into a cohesive political bloc during the 1990s. Corsi emerged from their discussion convinced of his destiny. He would declare his campaign for the presidential nomination of the ultra-right Constitution Party, enthusiastically embrace the party's call for a complete halt on immigration, banning abortion even in cases of rape and incest, and upholding its official platform that the "U.S. Constitution established a Republic under God, rather than a democracy." With this momentous announcement, Corsi hoped to cast himself as the last, best hope to save America from the godless, globalist duocracy conspiring to merge the United States, Mexico and Canada into a "North American Union." (His latest flop, published in 2007, was a screed entitled, The Late Great USA: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada.)

[...]

Backed by Corsi, Baldwin seized the Constitution Party's nomination this May. Then he unfurled a bold new agenda, calling for "an independent investigative committee to analyze" whether the attacks of 9/11 were an inside government job.

Corsi, for his part, shared Baldwin's skepticism. "The government's explanation of the jet fuel fire is not a sufficient explanation," Corsi said in January on the radio show hosted by Alex Jones, a fellow Baldwin supporter who promotes himself as "the grandfather of what has come to be known as the 9/11 Truth Movement."

"With people like you starting to question 9/11 with the science," Jones marveled, "boy that's really gonna ... "

"That's what rattles the cage," said Corsi in a self-satisfied tone.

In late 2007, with Obama in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Corsi gleaned a new opportunity to "rattle the cage." He punched out a proposal for an anti-Obama attack book, Obama Nation, and floated it to right-wing publishers. Mary Matalin, the longtime Republican consultant and former senior adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, was hunting for titles for her two-year-old publishing imprint, Threshold, a conservative division of Simon and Schuster. When Corsi's proposal landed on her desk, she was thrilled.

Matalin promptly signed Corsi to a lucrative deal, positioning Obama Nation as Threshold's premier release of the summer season. In anticipation of heavy sales, Matalin ordered the printing of 475,000 copies. When the book was released in early August, conservative foundations and think tanks ensured its early success with a massive bulk buy, propelling it to number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

Like Unfit For Command, which wrongly claimed that Kerry had falsified combat reports in order to earn medals in Vietnam, Obama Nation was larded with crackpot smears cobbled together from assorted right-wing blog posts. Corsi asserted, for example, that Obama had "extensive connections to Islam," that he may have snorted cocaine in the Senate, and that he has staffed his campaign with card-carrying communists (including the former youth politics reporter at The Nation, Sam Graham-Felsen, an official Obama blogger and self-described progressive Democrat).

[...]

Thrown on the defensive by the revelation of Corsi's myriad factual errors, Matalin rushed to her author's defense. Obama Nation, she told the New York Times, "was not designed to be, and does not set out to be a political book. Instead, it is "a piece of scholarship, and a good one at that." Following Matalin's lead, the conservative movement rallied to Corsi's side. Rush Limbaugh hailed Obama Nation as a "pretty damn good" book; Fox News host Sean Hannity hosted Corsi twice on his top-rated Hannity and Colmes, asking him during his second appearance whether Obama was ever a drug dealer. Meanwhile, the National Review's Mark Levin assailed the media for "wanting to know about anything [Corsi] has ever said or written and his associations." Even John McCain refused to condemn Corsi's work. When asked by a reporter about Obama Nation, McCain responded simply, "Gotta keep your sense of humor."

Though the conservative movement's most influential media personalities are clamoring for interviews, Corsi still found time to visit the fringe figures that had promoted his conspiratorial tracts during his lean years between campaigns. On August 4, Corsi reunited with Alex Jones, the 9/11 "Truther," to claim that Obama "really" was a Muslim. "We should not have anybody as president who -- both their parents aren't Americans," Jones barked. "Bottom line, that's always been the way it is." Two weeks later, Corsi scheduled a spot on something called "James Edwards' Political Cesspool," a show he had already appeared on in July.

[trillian]

sweet merciful shit.

[Iason Ouabache]

and another, Black Gold Stranglehold, claiming to expose the Big Lie that will "enslave" Americans: "the belief that oil is a fossil fuel and a finite resource."

LOLWUT???

[Iason Ouabache]

Corsi, for his part, shared Baldwin's skepticism. "The government's explanation of the jet fuel fire is not a sufficient explanation," Corsi said in January on the radio show hosted by Alex Jones, a fellow Baldwin supporter who promotes himself as "the grandfather of what has come to be known as the 9/11 Truth Movement."

Holy shit!  Alex Jones actually endorses the Constitution Party?  I knew he was crazy, but not THAT crazy.

Matalin promptly signed Corsi to a lucrative deal, positioning Obama Nation as Threshold's premier release of the summer season. In anticipation of heavy sales, Matalin ordered the printing of 475,000 copies. When the book was released in early August, conservative foundations and think tanks ensured its early success with a massive bulk buy, propelling it to number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

Yeah, I was getting ready to point that out.  The fact that he is on the NYT Bestseller list doesn't mean that all of those books are getting read.  The Right Wing media machine did the exact same thing with Coulter's last 2 books. It's a good tactic to make it look like you have the majority on your side even if your ideas are batshit insane.

[Cain]

Its hardly surprising though.  They have so much in common!  Both:

love militias
are fond of conspiracy theories
hate immigrants
love Christianity
are near universally derided
make a living from scapegoating and irrational fear

[Iason Ouabache]

Glenn Greenwald makes a good point today about hypocrisy from the Right Wing Noise Machine: Jerry Kerry is a gigolo for marrying a rich heiress but John McCain is a Man of the People despite cheating on his first wife with and eventually marrying an even richer heiress.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/22/gigolo/index.html

[Cain]

Greenwald always makes good points.

However, I bet he did not mention than McCain was a POW, did he?  Did you know McCain was a POW?  POW POW POW.

Obama was never a POW.

[LMNO]

"Getting shot down is not a qualification for presidency."

[Cain]

"Getting shot down is not a qualification for presidency."

POWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOW














































POW.

[AFK]

"Getting shot down is not a qualification for presidency."

I love this quote. 

[LMNO]

I would add a follow-up...


"Gaming the Chicago political system to rise to the top in only a few years is, or should be, a qualification for presidency."

[AFK]

Nader?
Barr?

[LMNO]

Ummm... Obama.

[Jenne]

Keyword:  Chicago