Through the looking glass: surreal campaign ads

First, this laugably bad ad. It appears that the McCain campaign’s latest attack is “Obama wants to Photoshop his face onto Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty”. Incredibly juvenile, but it would work if your average McCain voter knew what a Photoshop was.

Secondly, there’s this video, “The One”.

Twist ending : “Paid for by John McCain 2008″. Really? Are… are you sure, official McCain Youtube channel and JohnMcCain.com?

I see two possible messages McCain could be trying to get out here.

He might be trying to say “Vote for Obama”, which is bizarre and likely not a winning strategy for McCain. Then again, his campaign, his party, and a good portion of the news media appear to be under the influence of hallucinogenic substances.

At this point I wouldn’t be that surprised if Bush went on a puppy-kicking spree only to have McCain come out and defend him, blame it on Obama and the Liberal Media, and say that this type of situation shows he’s “ready to lead” and his opponent is “naïve”. Somehow, it would probably even work, and the media would spend the next two days asking questions like “Voting for McCain : good idea, or great idea?” and “The Liberal Media’s biased reporting: should we stop favoring Obama?”.

Anyways. The other message, the one McCain is more likely trying to push with the world-leader imagery and the glorification of his opponent, is something along the lines of “Obama is the Antichrist”. That might make sense in the mind of Americans who consider reading forwarded emails to be ‘research’, but those people already have lists of contradictory reasons why they’re afraid of him.

In any case, I’m pretty sure the Antichrist is actually supposed to get elected. If McCain was a good Christian and he really believed what he’s trying to scare people into believing, he’d have to make sure the Antichrist won the election or he’d be standing in the way of Prophecy.

On the other hand, if he was a good Christian he probably wouldn’t be ridiculing Moses to make a political attack.

The persecution of ‘Dr.’ Kent Hovind

From “The Fight To Save Dr. Kent Hovind” :

“But friends – there is one of Jesus’ flock that has been abandoned by America.  No – this is not a blood sucking Muslim – but a white Christian male.  Yes, this man should be at the very top of the Christian food chain – but instead he has been persecuted by the liberals in the Justice Department. This man is, of course, Dr. Kent Hovind – or as you probably know him – Dr. Dino.”

That’s silly, you know they don’t allow liberals in the Justice Department. They also don’t allow people who admire left-wing pro-choice nuts like Condoleeza Rice. Only good Republicans can properly deliver justice.

Fire Katie Couric (hire a journalist instead)

Someone should lose their job over this, anyways. Here’s a brief timeline for those of us who are temporal-perception-impaired.

September 2006 : The Anbar Salvation Council is formed. This is known as the beginning of the Sunni Awakening, in which a majority of Anbari tribes aligned themselves with the American and Iraqi government forces and began fighting against Al-Quaeda.

January 2007 : Bush announces an increase in US troop levels in Iraq. This increase becomes known as the surge. Notice that this happens after the Awakening.

“So I’ve committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq,” says Bush, while US troop levels are slightly over 130,000.

March 2007 : US troop levels pass the 140,000 mark.

April 2007 : US troop levels pass the 150,000 mark. The surge troops Bush announced in January have mostly arrived.

July 21, 2008 : Barack Obama claims that the troop surge is not the only factor contributing to reduced violence in Iraq, saying it’s also because of “political factors inside Iraq that came right at the same time as terrific work by our troops.”

July 22, 2008 : Katie Couric interviews John McCain. She asks him for his response to Obama’s statement on the surge and reduced violence.

McCain claims (this is from the CBS transcript) that “Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that’s just a matter of history.” That’s right, he’s claiming that the 2007 troop surge caused a 2006 event.

Katie Couric, apparently as unaware as McCain that in this universe cause generally comes before effect, fails to call him on it. She follows up this complete fabrication, and the rest of his rambling Abe Simpson response, with the question “A commentary on what?”

You see, the last word in McCain’s answer was ‘commentary’, so she just asked him to explain that word. Hard-hitting journalism!

CBS news sensed that they were on to a big story about a presidential candidate’s lack of foreign policy knowledge and problems understanding how time works. They did the only thing they could as responsible journalists : they replaced McCain’s ridiculous answer with the answer to a completely different question.

McCain’s explanation of imaginary history was replaced by one of his canned slogans. And they aired it that way. CBS’s response?

“The report was edited under extreme time constraints and one piece of tape was put in the wrong order. Fortunately, this did not in any way distort what Senator McCain was saying.”

Bullshit. They didn’t just distort what he said, they replaced it with a fictional response that meant something completely different, in order to make him look better.

At best, it’s some incredibly lousy journalism.

Sixty-nine fascists : there’s still one place where the majority will defend Bush.

Tuesday night on Countdown, Rachel Maddow talked to Jonathan Turley, professor of constitutional law. The professor had this to say about the Democrats’ capitulation on the FISA bill :

“So, what the Democrats are doing here with the White House is they‘re trying to conceal a crime that is hiding in plain view, that everyone can see it.  And so, the argument for it is quite sill simple, nobody wants to have a confrontation over the fact that the president committed a felony, not once, but at least 30 times.  That‘s a very inconvenient fact right now in Washington.”

“I think that the founders would have found this incomprehensible.  The expanse of power to the point of including what is now defined as a federal crime.  And not only that, but the Democrats have learned well from Bush.

Because the telecoms are losing in court, because the administration is losing in court, they‘re just going to change the rules, so that these public interest organizations that have brought these cases will all lose by a vote to fiat by the Democrats.  It‘s otherworldly.”

MADDOW:  “Senator Obama says he does not like this bill, but he says he‘s supporting it as a compromise.  Is this a compromise?  Is that the right term for it?  Is he right?”

TURLEY:  “Yes.  I got to tell you, I am completely astonished by Senator Obama‘s position and obviously disappointed.  You know, all of these senators need to respect us enough, not to call it a compromise.  It‘s a cave-in.”

TURLEY:  “And, you know what‘s terrible is like one of those stories where someone is assaulted on a street and a hundred witnesses do nothing.  And in this case, the Fourth Amendment is going to be eviscerated tomorrow.  And 100 people are going to watch it happen because it‘s just not their problem.

But you talk about expanding the president‘s power, it‘s coming out of the marrow of the Fourth Amendment.  It‘s coming out of the bone.  And it‘s going to hurt.  And it‘s being done for political convenience.  There‘s not an ounce of principle, not an ounce of public interest in this legislation.

So, at least show us respect of not calling it a compromise.”

Amen. Calling it a compromise is an insult to Americans on top of the injury to the Constitution. Yesterday was a terrible day for freedom and justice, and the cowards that let this happen in a Democrat-controlled Senate need to be called out.

One more reason to use encryption wherever we can. If only Tor was faster.