No Treats Just Dirty Tricks And Plenty of 'Em

The fliers they are a-flyin.

It's scary the amount of energy Republicans put into downright dishonesty and/or flat-out cheating. They whine and complain to distraction forcing the media to tilt at absurd windmills i.e. ACORN, Rashid Khalidi, William Ayres, etc. This strategy is doubly effective in that it steers the press away from a closer examination of the Republicans' sub-rosa actions. That they do this all the while both claiming the hide road and attacking the patriotism of anyone who questions them makes it all the more sickening.

McCain's supporters have been active indeed. The AP has this overview of the 2008 campaign dirty tricks pulled thus far. One point stands out:

Laughlin McDonald, who leads the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said he has never seen "an election where there was more interest and more voter turnout, and more efforts to suppress registration and turnout. And that has a real impact on minorities."

The Obama campaign and civil rights advocacy groups have signed up millions of new voters for this presidential race. In Ohio alone, some 600,000 have submitted new voter registration cards.

Across the country, many of these first-time voters are young and strong Obama supporters. Many are also black and Hispanic.

There's not a single example of any group distributing fliers in white neighborhoods targeting white conservatives. Funny 'dat. And just what would they say? "If you are more than one week late on Lexus or stupid big pickup truck payment, you cannot vote this year"?

Voter suppression efforts are a national disgrace. If the Democrats do snag the White House, they'd be smart to pass a law with some teeth to punish these assholes. It's the American thing to do.

-AF
**Fliers clipped from BradBlog.

Our Leader's Response to Saudi Rape Atrocity

via Think Progress: King George speaks to King Abdullah about various things. The Saudi rape case? “I don’t remember if that subject came up.” But it doesn't matter if Bush broached the subject because Abdullah “knows our position loud and clear.” Our position? "And our opinions were expressed by Dana Perino from the pulpit — from the podium." Really? Perino's entire comment on the subject:

I think that the situation is very discouraging and outrageous. There is an appeals process and we hope that the verdict changes. It is certainly not consistent with the judicial reforms that the Saudis have said that they would undertake.

That is not an unambiguous condemnation of a Saudi government for persecuting a Shiite woman brutally raped by 5 Sunni men. It is not one head of state putting direct pressure on another head of state to force the recognition of basic human rights. Instead our President sent a surrogate up to the "pulpit" to say we hope you do better like you told us you would. Bush further diluted his message by his choice of messenger. You don't enlist a diminutive woman who doesn't even hold a cabinet position to deliver a missive to the King of a patriarchal society.

If this had been say Myanmar or Iran, Condi would be screaming bloody murder. But the House of Saud and the Bush family have long been uncomfortably close. And when it comes to Bush's loyal friends, no crime is too large to be ignored.

AF

Sully Is Not Just Tone-Deaf and Colorblind. He's Flat-Out Dumb Too!

Sully is told just how much of a bigoted jerk Will Saletan is. Our zero learns important lessons about the folly of using standardized IQ tests to determine genetic and racial absolutes. Robert Farley delivers a mighty body blow calling out Saletan for his utter failure to research the racist source of the very research upon which he based the worst of his recent ignorant and inflammatory columns. You'd think this sort of thing would be important if one were about to write that science sure does prove them black folks are dumb. Then again maybe not. It's not like people actually read Slate, right?

Upon being learning the truth about the deeply flawed basis of Saletan's argument, Andrew Sullivan's response is so typically Sully:

A chastened Will Saletan...deserves mad props for raising this important but frustrating issue.

Is Sully for real? Could he really be that clueless? At best Saletan is an egotistic hack nonpareil "accidentally" peddling bigoted bullshit. At worst he's a nasty racist. For Sully's part he time and time again fails to examine his active role in disseminating such nonsense. Then he puts the topper on this by giving Saletan a compliment!

I'm officially speechless.


AF

h/t Atrois

Sully's Colorblindness

The Prospect's Dana Goldstein applies the wood to evil bigot William Saletan on Race & IQ. Saletan's written a series of columns on the subject. Race, Genes and Intelligence defends uber-biologist James Watson who last month claimed that Africans' "intelligence is the same as ours." Here he scribes the particularly self-serving Jewgenics.

It's not enough for unabashed Saletan admirer Sully to buy into Saletan's racial rhetoric. He does him one better:

I like the fact that asking these kinds of questions is also part of the Jewish inheritance.

Really? Did you also know that all Irish are drunks and those blacks are such wonderful dancers?

As an openly gay HIV-positive "journalist" of British descent, you'd think that Andrew Sullivan would be more sensitive to stereotypes, bigotry and the folly of sweeping generalizations. Instead he once again chooses to perpetuate them.

These two deserve each other.

AF

h/t Atrios

Atrios Gives Sully A Poke or Two

Atrios finds fault with Sully's fantasy world within which we would all agree...with him (natch):

"National Consensus"

I'm always puzzled when this phrase is thrown around, as Andy Sullivan and others do. I don't know why it's assumed to be a good thing. I don't know how we'd know if we had it when we did. I don't know why Andy and the gang imagine they'd feel better if such a thing were achieved, or why it seems to be important to them.

Exactly. Andy, the retro-cons and his formerly close friends, the neo-cons, yearn for the days of yore when everyone thought the same and lived in perfect harmony. The reality is that there hasn't been anything close to resembling a national consensus in either our country or his in 50+ years. It's a dirty little historical secret that even in in the dark days of World War Two, dissent was commonplace especially among the socially marginalized. The African-American community was particularly ambivalent. Why fight for a country that tried Nazi saboteurs in court while lynching black men for minor slights real or imagined?

But I digress. Sully's fervent wish for a national consensus reflects a deep inferiority complex at the core of the conservative baby-boomer. Having been raised by the Greatest Generation, it's only natural to want to blaze your own trail. But with the Cold War won (by pre-boomers no less) and Vietnam lost there has been scant opportunity to do so. Until 9/11. Thus a war for oil is marketed as a "global war against islamofacist terroristas" or what have you. This is position is born not just out of the need to mollify the masses but also is a desperate attempt to convince themselves that they are continuing in the honorable legacy of that "greatest of generations."

Which leads nicely into where Atrios gets to the nub of what drives Andrew Sullivan and his compadres. He goes in for the kill:

...I mean, I guess I do basically understand - it's the need of the narcissist for the world to line up completely with their views, along with the ego to be convinced that one's rightness transcends all.

AF

Manifesto

Welcome to the party.

The impetus behind this modest blog is my burning desire to stop "progressive" bloggers from uncritically disseminating the views of one Andrew Sullivan. Bringing positive attention to this fraud only serves to legitimize him. This must end now.

Why so angry Anacher? I’m glad you asked. Andrew Sullivan is an opportunistic hack. A weather vane if you will. I freely admit that Sully is a gifted writer and upon occasion makes a cogent point or two. His ability to tap into the zeitgeist of whichever side he's taken on any issue is impressive.

Unfortunately, Andrew Sullivan is not to be trusted. For starters, he sinned too long in the service of the neocons and retrocons. In spite his partial public repentance, Sully remains permanently damaged. I cannot and will not accept his supposed mental makeover. It’s too convenient how his “changed“ position has largely allowed him to avoid bearing responsibility for so enthusiastically beating his Iraq war drum. $100 says that under the right circumstances Sully would flip-flop rejoining the other side so fast he’d throw his back out. Make that double-or-nothing.

That's the least of it. It has been ignored how the biggest ramification of Andrew Sullivan’s “conversion” is also the most beneficial. Let’s be honest. The Right was never going to embrace a gay conservative blogger. He was an oddity -- a freak. (Not that there's anything wrong with that). Suddenly Sully is perceived to be far more "relevant" than previous. This transformation has conveniently made him a hot commodity:

Tada! It’s the new improved Sully! Now with Progressiverol (TM). He’s not too far left… He’s not too far right… He’s juuuuuuust right!

His installation at Time magazine alone proves how eminently more marketable Andrew Sullivan’s carefully crafted “new” image is.

After this greatly hyped ideological “Presto! Change-O!,” the vast majority of progressive bloggers have fallen all over themselves to haul out the welcome wagon. Sure Atrios, Ezra Klein and a scant few others direct consistent criticism towards Sully (tempered by their occasional “Atta boy” and a pat on the back). But what’s with the rest of the crowd?

Their compliant response is a fascinating psychological phenomenon. Exactly as the freepers need to believe in the false neocon/retrocontm mythology, the lefty blogosphere desperately wants to swallow Andrew Sullivan’s cock-and-bull story of how a conservative HIV-Positive out gay man renounces his years of gushing support for the most corrupt administration in this nation’s history. Hey, if Sully admits that we were sorta right all along then we really must be right. Right?

Even more disturbing than his intellectual dishonesty, Andrew Sullivan is a barefaced liar. Sully frequently misrepresents himself as an American citizen. As recently as last week appearing on Real Time with Bill Maher Andrew Sullivan claimed, that though he had "voted for Bush in 2000," he could not bring himself to do so in 2004. Damn straight he couldn’t again “vote” for his former crush George W. Bush. Sully can’t even “vote” in a local school board election. He’s not a United States citizen!

This is no small matter considering the column inches Andrew Sullivan has dedicated to whomever he has purported to have "voted" for in our elections. A writer's credibility begins and ends with his or her integrity. In this respect Sully is sorely lacking. Integrity cannot coexist with falsehood and manipulation.

Andrew Sullivan is a Fraud will not be a one-trick pony. I'll be sure to examine other topics for your perusal and entertainment.

Stay tuned...

AF