eager to incite

TPM has been all over the Todd hoax and the McCain campaign's role in spreading it (which they of course deny, lying about this as they have everything else in this cycle). Oh, and Todd herself is upset with the media for "blowing it out of proportion." Wow.

Now some may to treat this as No Big Deal: Unbalanced girl gins up hoax on her own, without the campaign directing it. But the point of radical right politics is and always has been to set the tone and let the most extreme supporters draw their own conclusions. They then act to make real what the propaganda has told them already is real, but is not being paid attention to because of the biased media.

And as Eugene Robinson said on the Countdown coverage (paraphrase of around 3:40 in):

If the McCain communications director got out ahead of the police in spreading this story to the press, as it appears he did, it indicates not only a willingness to believe it, but an eagerness to incite racial backlash against the Obama campaign in a part of PA where race can be a very raw and divisive issue to this day.

He properly contextualizes it as the age-old "blood libel" of black predators against "the flower of white womanhood." It's sick, as is the camp's eagerness to spread the hoax.

Update: Perp walk!

Update 2: Youtube guy - "What Ashley Todd did wrong". Funny and understated ;)

McCain, Pinochet, and torture

Digby relays complaints by anti-torture blog After Downing Street, that the liberal blogosphere is giving McCain a pass on torture. (As Digby points out, its more properly the traditional media that has given the pass. The bloggers have been all over it.)

HoffPost has discovered that McCain met with Pinochet. PINOCHET.

McCain's many narratives

NYT reports on the McCain camp's inability to come up with a sustained narrative for their candidate. ("The Making (And Remaking) of McCain" by Robert Draper, author of Dead Certain.)

I'm kind of pissed that 'narrative' has become the buzzword this campaign, yet nobody ever talks with historians. Waah. Let's have some Hayden White!!

political violence 2008

Welcome to 1932 -- oh wait, 2008. The GOP returns to its "ugly roots" (Salon: Gary Kamia) in racist paranoia and violence against elites and urban faggotry.

Palin supporter yells out "KILL HIM!!" at rally. Others racially taunt a media sound man.

McCain supporter responds to his question "Who is Barack Obama?" with answer, "A terrorist!"

Looks like it's spreading to Canada too: Cars in front of houses with liberal yard signs have their brakes cut in St Paul. (Digby)

Meanwhile, a porn producer is sentenced to 4 YEARS PRISON for filming consensual activities... while the Abu Ghraib perpetrators in the White House walk free.

Make-believe Maverick

From Rolling Stone, a fairly complete and thoroughly devastating history of John McCain:

In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches.

In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot.

All in all, "a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty."

consolidating frame

Some recent DailyKos posts to add to AS and others - we may be at a moment where a new liar frame is emerging about McCain. Not because the bloggers are calling out lies like they've been doing, but that the traditional media is shifting (finally) to ignoring the superficial content and going for the real pattern - the consistent lies on all subjects. And if you believe that elections are decided on things like framing, then this is devastating.

What is surprising this election season is that a piece of the megamedia actually seems to be starting to call out campaign lies, as Chris Carlson points out. Some of the traditional media - the old and established media so calcified and concentrated and craven that it failed to examine the lies of the men and women of an administration whose policies McCain and Palin would like to continue for another four years - actually are saying, "wait a minute, that’s frakkin’ bullshit."

Well, they've not gone quite that far.

Also, the loss of intellectual authority then gives other figures cover to oppose you on principle, like Alan Greenspan has just done. (AP: "Greenspan: Country Can't Afford McCain's Tax Cuts")

Cool chart of the tax plans btw. Send to friends!

quoted in entirety

Andrew Sullivan brings it:

If McCain were a blogger, he would have had to retract by now. But he's running for president of the United States, so he can say anything, lie about anything and not have to answer for it. Yesterday, John McCain lied on national television about something that no one disputes in the public record. He was challenged by the only serious journalists on television right now - the hosts of "The View" - about the large number of pork barrel earmarks Sarah Palin sought and secured as governor of Alaska, including the "Bridge To Nowhere" that Palin and McCain lied about and are still lying about in public. Here was his clear and irrefutable statement:

Palin's comments came after McCain sat for a feisty grilling on ABC's "The View," where he claimed erroneously that his running mate hadn't sought money for such pet projects. "Not as governor she didn't," McCain said, ignoring the record.

It has now been a day since McCain lied this explicitly in public. And he hasn't yet retracted his lie. This AP piece is dated as of this afternoon. Why not?

Because if he has to retract this lie, he will have to retract his multiple other lies? While the media demands that Obama respond to things he never said and never meant, McCain is not even asked to retract a bald-faced, massive, obvious, refutable lie.

In the last month, McCain has become the biggest liar in the modern history of presidential politics. He makes Bill Clinton look like George Washington.

Word.

creeping falangism

Ha. Nice title for this story from TPM. McCain campaign caught making up crowd size numbers.

Also from TPM, a reader's comment on the consequences of politics based on lies. Possible end stage campaign theme seems to be shaping up. Josh: "This campaign has shown that while we know McCain has physical courage, he has bad moral character"