One of Us

Let us be clear.

The last National Inquirer incursion into presidential politics was not the Edwards thing, but this. Headline:

PALIN FAMILY SHOCKERS: WHAT SARAH'S REALLY HIDING!

As I noted at the time, no left blogger of any stature linked to this.

And now?

Hello, Bob Owens, you sad little fuck, reacting to this headline:

OBAMA SEX PERV SCANDAL

Bob...?

This story has been known by the U.S. media for almost two months now, but I can find no evidence that any network or cable television news outlet, newspaper, syndicate, or magazine has reported on this. Does anyone believe for one second that if John McCain or Sarah Palin were mentored by an self-admitted child rapist and general pervert that it wouldn't be the singular focus of multiple news cycles, questioning how such a relationship was damage their delicate and emerging psychologies, rendering them too unreliable for the Presidency, or perhaps darkly suggesting that the candidate might have been abused by such a mentor themselves?

Instead, they buried the story, until once again the Enquirer shows itself to be the only U.S news organization with enough integrity to report a story detrimental to a Democratic Presidential candidate.

That doesn't mean the Enquirer has suddenly become more credible. It just serves to show you how partisan and unreliable the American news media is today.

Barack Obama's list of known mentors now includes child rapists ("Uncle Frank" Marshall), racists (Rev. Jeremiah Wright) and terrorists (Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn).

Joining Bob are these assholes. That would be Red State's Erick Ericksen, Jules Crittenden, and Dan Riehl. All of these are popular right wing bloggers. Here is Dan Riehl being "funny":

No wonder he says "Pakit-stan" in that funny way of his! heh!

Here is Jim Henley explaining as calmly as possible the moral hideousness of the wingnut response:

In the course of considering Peak Wingnut Theory, John Cole discovers Erick Erickson of Red State staying classy by booming a National Enquirer story about the possibility that, as Erickson puts it, "Barack Obama had an underage, gay affair with a pedophile." That’s a pretty interesting way to describe what may have happened between the two. Obama met Frank Marshall Davis when Obama was ten years old. When people discuss (possible) sexual contact between ten-year-old boys who are not their political enemies and grown men, they usually refer to the "underage gay affairs" as sexual abuse. They also recognize that adults who have been abused may or may not wish to tell the whole world the details, and they respect it. Admittedly, most people are not members of the NAMBLA wing of the Republican Party, or, failing that, curdled into pure meanness. Maybe Erickson just holds with the more sweeping theories about the cultural construction of the age of consent. Whatever the reason, he’s sure that that little vixen, ten-year-old Barry Obama, was asking for it man.

The Right Blogosphere is always more morally disgusting than you thought. Always.

These are utterly revolting, thoroughly unconvincing excuses for human beings.

Comments

[theperilouspea]

The production is blinkless at every level . The fearless know nuttin's of our brand new GOP is echoing the subtle inferences of absolute powers cheerful inclination to relinquish the reins . Like supermans disinterested success of disguising his secret identity with a Suit , Stetson , and Bifocals we see the wristy flail of the Right Wingy deep thinkee's .
For tippy top over the esophagus and into your mouth a little bit please enjoy Rachel Maddows wallow with the inimitable Davy Frum -
Rising Hegemon starts digging out from under the soft runny matter Davy Frum drops between feeding and his nest .

[Ripley]

Bob doesn't think so good:

This story has been known by the U.S. media for almost two months now, but I can find no evidence that any network or cable television news outlet, newspaper, syndicate, or magazine has reported on this.

Dude, if you can't find any evidence, how the hell can you conclude that the media has known about this story for two months? Fucking idiot. And fucking liar...

You know, even for them, that's ugly.

[Tom Mathers]

pretty disingenuous to say no lefty "linked" to that Palin smear, when Andrew Sullivan is still calling for hospital records. Guess that is just more nuance that folks on the right can't possibly comprehend.

[actor212]

Peak Wingnut Theory

This is a keeper.

As a victim of sexual abuse as a child and as the constant target of pedophiles until I got big enough to kick their asses, the whole trope is pretty disgusting to me, but for Cornfed to label it as an "underage sexual affair" speaks more to his own morality and his community's mores, which allow for child brides and 17 year old girls getting knocked up by their hockey-playing boyfriends.

In other words, rednecks is as rednecks does. He ought to be ashamed of himself.

[actor212]

Oh, and one more point: Mark Foley.

Nuff said.

[DrDick]

OK. This exceeds even my abysmally low opinion of the wingnutosphere. These assholes have dived down the privy hole and are eagerly sucking up the contents.

[LA Confidential Pantload]

Andrew Sullivan is a lefty? Who knew?

[Jemand von Niemand]

The American political and religious Right has made hypocrisy and denial more than a virtue; it's what passes for "successful living"; it's an actual culture.

Manipulation through fear and intimidation, pecking-order power and status; and always, the threat of violence, are the hallmarks of the world thse people inhabit. It's Babbit meets Jack Abramoff.

Enabling or protecting of closeted homosexuals, or pedophiles (to the Right, they're one and the same), in their own ranks is all part of the part of the denial and hypocrisy Mambo. Bob Owens and his crowd are part of another hallmark of Wingnutland: The continual projection -- of the Right's fears (and secret hungers) onto the Left.

In Wingnut country, it's the Dirty Fucking Hippes and the Scary Black Men who are the terrorists and pedophiles and bad people. Or, they will be if a Bob Owens has anything to say about it. And those rumors about Limbaugh in the Caribbean, and Ken Mehlman? All just a smear of the Liberal media, man.

Lying to the public for partisan and personal gain is vile, reprehensible, contemptable, and despicable. Adjectives like that carried actual weight, once.

People like Owens live in a Circle-Jerk of Hell, and see it as a Paradise. The problem is, they want the rest of us to live there with them.

According to the National Enquirer:

1) Sarah Palin did it doggie style, with her husband's business partner.

2) One of Barack Obama's grandfather's friends was a perv.

Great stuff. I love America.

[Thers]

pretty disingenuous to say no lefty "linked" to that Palin smear, when Andrew Sullivan

Andrew Sullivan is not a lefty, you imbecile.

[spence-bob]

Thers, you should know by now that anyone who deviates from the GOP script is a lefty. That is the dictionary definition of the word these days.

[actor212]

Dude, if you can't find any evidence, how the hell can you conclude that the media has known about this story for two months? Fucking idiot. And fucking liar...

Actually, the story ran in some British paper in August.

Of course, Greg Palast has covered some actual important American issues for the BBC and Guardian, but you'd never know that, either.

[actor212]

pretty disingenuous to say no lefty "linked" to that Palin smear, when Andrew Sullivan is still calling for hospital records.

Tom, you mixed up your Palin-dromes.

Sullivan asked for the medical records with respect to Trig's birth, and whether indeed Bristol was his mother (and why Palin herself admits to flying after her water broke).

The NE story is about Palin having an affair with her husband's business partner. Sullivan has not, to my knowledge, covered that.

All that said, to call Sullivan a "lefty" is, well, silly. At best, he's a recovering conservaholic.

[Jemand von Niemand]

(Visual Of a bearded man sitting in a darkened room, wearing a baseball cap with a 'Caterpillar' patch. We hear Michael Wiener screeching from a nearby radio.)

WEINER: ...Madeline Albright should be tried for treason, and then she should be hung ...As for the clipped-haired, mean-faced Demoncats who tell me I'm hateful and intolerant because I oppose the tidal wave of Turd World immigration, I say, 'Go find another country'. Who are you to judge me? ...I hope you get AIDS and die... (*)

(Visual: Man moans, leaning forward, putting his face in his hands.)

VOICEOVER: Conservative addiction is a terrible secret. Its broken families, and destroyed the lives of millions... but there is a way out of the spiral of hate, denial, and blame.

(Visual of The Man walking up to the front entrance of a comfortable, Victorian-style building, shaking hands with a Physician in a white lab coat.)

V/O: At Christian Rosenkranz Treatment Centers, we understand how hard it is to change that reliance on hate, fear and irrational beliefs. We offer a non-judgmental, transformative atmosphere that can help break the cycle of addiction.

(Visual: A head-and-shoulders shot of the Man, facing the camera.)

MAN: Thanks to the Rosenkranz Center, I make better, independent judgments about our events in a complex world. I did it for my family. Won't you do it for your country?

V/O: Rosenkranz Treatment Centers: Because Conservatism is a disease that effects everyone.

[Bitter Scribe]

A teacher at George Bush's prep school once sexually molested students. Granted, this happened several decades after Bush graduated, but I think the mainstream media should stop suppressing this story, because who knows what kind of malign influences Bush might have been exposed to?

[Jay_B.]

Guess that is just more nuance that folks on the right can't possibly comprehend.

It's not that the right is utterly oblivious to nuance — although they are — they are also oblivious to overt, explicit reality.

They are constantly puzzled, much like Chris Eigleman's character in Barcelona when he asked "What's the thing above the subtext?"

It's text, you fucking moron.

I will be so thrilled and happy when I can go back to thinking hacks like Sullivan, George Will and Chris Buckley are rightwing idiots. But compared to what's left of the right these days, they seem like principled mavericks of intellect.