JUST AS UNCLE SAM HAS TRADITIONALLY PERSONIFIED THE UNITED STATES ... JOHN BULL, ENGLAND ... Marianne, France ... and The Boy from Manly, Australia, Germany has traditionally been personified in cartoons and satires by a character named "Michael."

Who is traditionally seen wearing an old-fashioned-looking nightsuit (cap included) and a skeptical, hangdog look on his face (as if trying to come to terms with Germany's defeat and loss of honour in both World Wars, the excesses of the Nazi regime under Schicklgruber and its warped delusions of reclaiming German honour and pride, and the 41 years of enforced division between free West and Communist East, ending with Reunification on 3 October 1990 and the subsequent relocation of the German capital from Bonn to its traditional such of Berlin).

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YOUR CORRESPONDENT'S MIND WAS SET TO THINKING WITHOUT ANY REASON WHATSOEVER the other day about a rather unlikely possibility:

Videlicet, that cartoonist R. F. Outcault's creation "The Yellow Kid," becoming the first popular cartoon character in American history (in its turn inspiring the term "yellow journalism," referring to a highly-sensationalised brand of The Fourth Estate as panders to the lowest common denominator, and then some, with reckless and utter disregard for journalistic conventions and ethos in favour of ad hominem, code and "weasel" words, oversimplification, etc., etc.), may actually be an indirect cousin of Germany Personified, what with "Michael" and "The Yellow Kid" commonly seen in nightshirt (and, in the latter case, having his dialogue, almost always in street dialect of the times, displayed on same).

But then again, "The Yellow Kid" had a shaved head; perhaps in deference to lice-control programmes in the poorer neighbourhoods when he first debuted.

Of course, when "The Yellow Kid" debuted in the pages of the New York World in 1894, quite a few German immigrants arrived by way of Ellis Island and some made their acquaintenance with America by way of the Lower East Side (especially such of Jewish belief) or by way of the Williamsburg district of Brooklyn. And many German immigrants were no doubt familiar with the "Michael" character back in Germany, particularly so by way of satiric journals from "the old country" like Simplicissmus.

It's probably just me, but you have to imagine just such a possibility....

(BTW, is "Michael" still seen much as Germany personified, even with Reunification?)

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IT'S NO WONDER THE CONWEB IS A BIG FAN OF THE CONCEPT KNOWN IN ORWELLIAN NEWSPEAK AS "PROLEFEED"--false, inaccurate or misleading news and information by deliberate design, targeting in particular the poor, undereducated and easily-influenced Not Expected (in the conservative line of thinking) to Handle the Truth.

Which they will blame on the likes of public education, State welfare, "secular humanism" and suchlike other patsies without any credible substantiation.

A couple of interesting recent examples from the ConWebBlog of ConWebWatch perhaps demonstrate the point well:

Looks like WorldNetDaily will try to do the same thing to Barack Obama as it did to the Clintons--hurl unverified, sleazy charges.

A Feb. 17 WND article unquestioningly repeats accusations made by one Larry Sinclair that he "he took cocaine in 1999 with the then-Illinois legislator and participated in homosexual acts with him." The article merely repeats Sinclair's claims and links to a YouTube video he made--even reprinting a lawsuit Sinclair filed against Obama containing the allegations--without examining Sinclair's background or even making much of an effort to get a response from the Obama campaign (it adds at the end at "Calls placed to the Obama campaign were not returned").

Interesting that the bluenoses at WND--remember, it banned links from its site to Salon.com in 2001 because it ran "erotic art" and moved to a subscription based model, thus it was "sell[ing] porn"--adds an "editor's note" at the top saying, "The accompanying YouTube video contains sexual language that some will consider offensive. The article itself contains material that is inappropriate for children." Apparently, porn isn't offensive to anyone at WND when it can be used in the service of attacking a political enemy. WND even cynically acknowledges what it's doing by putting "sleaze charge" right in the headline.

It's also interesting that WND reprints Sinclair's lawsuit when it couldn't be bothered to reprint any of the legal papers filed in Clark Jones' libel lawsuit against it (as we had challenged WND to do). WND just settled that lawsuit by admitted it made false claims about Jones (and, presumably, handing over a little cash for damages), thus suggesting an answer to why it wouldn't post any lawsuit documents (though we did). With this article, though, WND continues to demonstrate that it learned nothing from that lawsuit by being a disseminator of charges it suggests are true that it has made no effort to verify.

But then again, WND was--and still is--all too willing to repeat claims against the Clintons by people whose veracity, shall we say, leaves something to be desired, from Kathleen Willey to Peter Paul. This is all in the service of a conservative agenda that WND refuses to acknowledge.

Meet the new sleaze, same as the old sleaze...

UPDATE: One blogger notes a couple things WND could have investigated but didn't: Sinclair claims to be a resident of Duluth, Minnesota, but apparently is actually from Texas, and while WND claims Sinclair "says he is a registered Democrat but has never voted for any candidate," he is apparently a Ron Paul supporter.

UPDATE 2: WND has added another article repeating Sinclair's allegations and making no effort to verify anything he has said.

Such smear jobs on Democrats are nothing new for WND: In 2004, it did several articles repeating never-proven tabloid-based claims that John Kerry had an affair.

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Two Feb. 15 WorldNetDaily articles have a missing component. Can you spot it?

• The first describes a "new book" (in fact, it came out in 2006) by Lyle Rossiter, in which he claims that the "the ideology motivating [liberals] is actually a mental disorder." It describes Rossiter as an "acclaimed, veteran psychiatrist" and a "board-certified forensic psychiatrist" who "received his medical and psychiatric training at the University of Chicago."
• The second describes the "Dear Abby" advice column as a "shock jock for promiscuity," citing a report by the Culture and Media Institute that claims that the column takes "a distinctly non-traditional approach toward moral questions." The article described CMI as "designed to 'advance, preserve, and help restore America's culture, character, traditional values, and morals against the assault of the liberal media elite.'" 

Nowhere in either of these two articles will you find any ideological descriptor for Rossiter, CMI, or its parent organization, the Media Research Center (which the article also names)--even though they are obviously conservative-leaning--the MRC, of course, is part of the ConWeb.

While Rossiter assiduously avoids publicly identifying himself as a conservative, his columns appear at conservative opinion sites like Townhall.com and Family Security Matters, and are promoted by conservative sites such as Discover the Networks and conservative writers such as Joan Swirsky.

Why is WND so afraid of accurately describing these people and organizations?

A robe of seeming truth and trust
Hid crafty Observation;
And secret hung, with poison'd crust,
The dirk of Defamation:

A mask that like the gorget show'd,
Dye-varying on the pigeon;
And for a mantle large and broad,
He wrapt him in Religion.
Hypocrisy A-La-Mode

--from "The Holy Fair" by Robert Burns (1759-1796)

*************

THE GOP, FOR ITS PART, MUST ENJOY GIVING HIGH CARNIVAL TO THE LIKES OF DOUBLETHINK AND HYPOCRISY GALORE, especially considering their unwillingness to face Reality in the face of emerging scandals as reveal a clear and compelling pattern of hypocrisy when it comes to their supposed defence of "Traditional Values" in army with the Elmer Gantry Institute of Religiopolitical Theology.

Consider:

• A report in today's New York Times hath it that GOP Presidential candidate presumptive John McCain has been having what amounts to les liasons dangeruses with a lobbyist for a Senate committee on which McCain served during the 1999-2000 period, thereby raising conflict-of-interest and morals issues. (McCain, for his part, denies the story, claiming, as is usual among the forces of conservative Zealotry and True Belief, that the Times is in it with the Greater Liberal Media Conspiracy; IMHO, conservatives may be using "liberal" as anti-Semitic code in this and similar contexts.)
• Over recent days, two Federal judges--both appointees of His Fraudulency, know--have been caught in Pantsdown Parade, so to speak, for, respectively, wearing clothing "not belonging to his or her sex" during an arrest for drink driving and perousal of child pornography on the Information Stuporbahn.
• Phoenix New Times, the Valley of the Sun's alternative weekly, hath it that a GOP precinct committeman in suburban Phoenix was seen distributing white-supremacist and Holocaust-denial pamphlets and tracts during a recent meeting of the Maricopa County Republican Party. (Hat tip here to the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Centre; as well, be advised that the linked article contains language which some people may find offensive.)

What do you have to say now?

*************

CONSERVATIVES MUST HAVE THIS PARTICULAR FEAR AND LOATHING FOR THOSE WITH MENTAL DISORDERS, as witness Michael Savage's oft-repeated bromide of "liberalism [being] a Mental Disorder"--howbeit not formally recognised by DSM-IV.

Consider where a since-discredited report of female suicide bombers conducting a Notorious Terrorist Attack in a Baghdad market recently having been recruited from the ranks of the mentally-defective may have to be discredited itself: It's emerged that the suicide bombers themselves had previously received psychiatric treatment for schizophrenia and depression.

But then such, such is highly unlikely to stop the GOP's dirty-tricks operatives from looking @ innovative ways to use mental defectives as cheap patsies for (officially) "terrorist" acts His Fraudulency's Great Within will feel compelled to use to excuse indefinite suspension of Indecision 2008--and while the hue and cry for the "terrorists" goes on, the "real" culprits are quietly shipped off to Canada and put on conditional remittances.

*************

WHY THE "DANGER OF HOMOSEXUALITY" SHOULD REMAIN A NON-ISSUE for Indecision 2008 is best exemplified by these remarks from Judge Roy "Ten Commandments" Moore, as quoted by Right Wing Watch via WorldNetDaily:

Driven by political correctness, candidates have likewise failed to discuss moral issues like homosexuality. Content to placate their audiences with vague generalities about the need for strong families and a desire to care for our fellow citizens, they refuse to call attention to the moral decay associated with the glorification of "alternative lifestyles." All the while, federal courts allow public schools to teach kindergartners about homosexuality against the wishes of their parents, but prevent Christians in public schools from espousing a biblical view about this immoral behavior.

Which amounts, methinks, to nothing more than a cheap distraction from The Bigger Picture, as in:

• The failings of the ur-RAHOWA Against International Terrorism, and the ensuing pariahdom brought upon the United States and its antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity;
• The ever-widening gap between rich and poor, and the dangers of socioeconomic polarisation thus ensuing;
• The consequences of the "sub-prime/Alt-A" mortgage meltdown, and the involvement of His Fraudulency's "inside of the inside" in policies allowing high-risk mortgages being made to those with problem credit, and yet unlikely to make timely repayments; and
• The ascendency of weird and unwholesome elements in positions of confidence and trust within His Fraudulency's Administration, and their (un)conscious potential for being an unwitting Fifth Column as could compromise "our antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity," not to mention causing wholesale moral lapse.

Come to think of it, for an unlikely example:

• How many communities with substantial populations of homosexuals have seen serious loss or dilution of real property values as a direct byproduct of homosexuality?
• Has the mere presence of homosexuals in substantial numbers (particularly in traditionally lower-working-class "white trash" neighbourhoods) actually led to "blockbusting" or threats therefor among Those Who Should Know Better?
  (N.B. "Blockbusting," as in dumping real properties on the real-estate markets for significantly less than fair market value en bloc, is a penal offense under fair-housing laws.)
• How many communities with substantial homosexual populations saw significant and measurable loss of business volume, closing or scaling back of business operations, reductions in bank deposits or deposit runs, wholesale unemployment or mass layoffs, or threats to close down local operations, solely because of the homosexual presence in the community?
• Have the likes of Wally World, Aldi and Homer D. Poe's had to close stores in communities afflicted by the mere presence of homosexuals? Were such closings because of said homosexual presence?

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SO MUCH FOR SHOWING DIVINE JUDGEMENT UPON AMERICA FOR EXCUSING HOMOSEXUALITY, to use the pet platitude of the so-called "Westboro Baptist Church" in excusing their protests @ funerals of troops killed in the ur-RAHOWA Against International Terrorism:

On several occasions through this winter so far, the cultural conservatives' perfection and ideal of a "morally superior" Amerikanischer Realkultur, otherwise known as Branson, Missouri, has seen episodes of ice and sleet storms unrivalled in climatological history for the district.

Making you wonder if such amounts to a collective show of Divine Judgement upon nothing less than a warped reincarnation of the "folk culture festivals" which the Kraft durch Frude (KdF) movement sponsored wholesale back in Nazi Germany for the sake of "promoting national and racial honour and pride." Never mind the propaganda message being kept discreet by deliberate design.      

SO MUCH FOR THE PROLEFEED-BY-DESIGN EXCESSES OF CARTOON SUPERHEROES which, @ times, can cross over into the old ultraviolence as translates into Bad Moral Lessons for Children and Other Impressionable Elements of Society.

(Transformers and Power Rangers easily come to mind here.)

In case parents are looking for a more worthwhile hero and role model worthy of study and emulation, TwinCities.com offers the perfect example from the other day:

You know those faxes. The ones touting a great deal on a vacation cruise or a not-to-be-missed investment opportunity.

Peter Seebach has seen them all. He's been saving every "junk fax" his machine has coughed up for years. And he's made it his hobby to fight back.

"I would like to see the junk faxing actually stop—and spam, too, while I'm at it," he said from his Northfield home.

But the 35-year-old computer programmer does more than just kvetch. He has taken the battle into the courts and hired an attorney to help him. This month in Ramsey County District Court, he sued Integris Mortgage of Coon Rapids, which sent Seebach 11 unsolicited faxes between Feb. 27 and Sept. 27, 2006.

That, said Seebach's attorney, is against the law.

"It is 100 percent illegal to advertise via unsolicited facsimile," said Steven Appelget, a consumer protection attorney in St. Paul.

Unless the sender has an "established business relationship" with the recipient, it can be sued for $500 per fax under the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

"That's to some extent a bounty to slap some people into doing what they're supposed to," Appelget said.

Integris has since gone out of business. But former CEO Mary Hanson said Friday the company never sent out illegal faxes. Another outfit that offered it mortgage leads did it for them—for free.

"I had no clue as to how they were receiving leads," she said. "When I discovered that (they were sending faxes), I stopped using the company."

No matter, Appelget said: The company doing the advertising is still liable under the law.

Junk faxes are rarely sent directly by the company whose products or services are being hawked, he said.

Instead, a marketing firm handles the faxing with "war dialers"—a bank of auto-dial machines that march through a block of numbers and listen for a fax tone at the end.

"If you hook up your fax machine to a phone line, wait a few weeks," Appelget said. "Even if you never give that number to anybody, you will eventually get junk faxes."

Seebach has five lawsuits kicking around various Twin Cities courts, including the Ramsey County one against Integris, Appelget said. Three more cases settled in Seebach's favor.

The Integris suit was filed in Ramsey County because Seebach—and his fax machine—lived there until recently.

Seebach has detailed his crusade against the mortgage company on a blog titled "Seebach Exhibit 7." The faxes claim to come from "Mortgage Services," and when he called the listed toll-free number, he was directed to Integris, he said.

They told him everything was aboveboard but hung up when he pressed the issue of legality, Seebach said.

So what's the big deal? So you get a few faxes you didn't want. You can just throw them away, right?

"People say, 'It's just one sheet of paper.' But a typical fax run is 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 faxes. And every one of those faxes takes some amount of time for someone to deal with," Seebach said. "If you look at the social cost there, it's unbelievably large."

Then there's the dollar cost. Seebach is on his third fax machine since 1997. "I think I've gotten a total of five faxes that were not junk and I'd say 1,500 that were."

To those who would say, "Get a life!"—as some have offered in response to his blog—Seebach said he's having fun. "This is my hobby," he said.

Though he estimates he has pulled in about $40,000 from the lawsuit settlements, after paying himself back for expenses, he scoffs at charges by Integris and others that he "does this for a living." Seebach said he has given all the money away.

Right now, his "junk fax" account is in the red by about $8,000 because he's donated money he has yet to collect, he said. But his wife, Jessie, puts up with it.

"I apparently get this cheerful glow about me when I'm going around smiting wrongdoers," he said. "I think my wife views it like video games, only slightly more socially useful.

"And some of these people actually stop faxing, which makes it worthwhile."

Breathes there a better role model than this, parents?

20 hours old

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WITH THANKS TO THINK PROGRESS for the following item (mit Video):

This weekend, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) announced his “goal” of balancing the budget in his first term. “It has to be our goal, because we’re mortgaging these young people’s future,” he said.

There are two ways to lower the deficit: raise taxes or cut spending. On Sunday, McCain took taxes off the table by taking the “Read My Lips” plunge, proclaiming that as president he would not raise taxes for any reason:

MCCAIN: No new taxes. […]

Q: But under no circumstances would you increase taxes?

MCCAIN: No.

Watch it:

 

But it’s not just that McCain won’t raise taxes. On his campaign website, McCain trumpets a laundry list of tax cuts:

• Permanently repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
• Cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent
• Provide all individuals with a $2,500 [health care] tax credit ($5,000 for families)
• Expanded health savings accounts
• Allow first-year deduction, or “expensing”, of equipment and technology investments.
• Establish permanent tax credit equal to 10 Percent of wages spent on R&D.

McCain may decry the current deficits, but his plan will only exacerbate them. The first three items on his tax cut list alone would cost more than $380 billion in 2009, far more than President Bush’s tax cuts combined.

So, how will McCain pay for his tax cuts? He touts his pledge to eliminate earmarks, but this would save roughly $20 to $30 billion a year. McCain is still left with over $350 billion in tax cuts unaccounted for, which will require massive—and unpopular—spending cuts if he is going to keep his word.

McCain has said in the past that he thinks tax cuts should be paid for. He voted against Bush’s 2001 tax cuts, for example, because the President did not provide a way to pay for them:

“All the predicates for the 2001 tax cuts and all the predictions for its results were absolutely, completely wrong,”he said. “And it will worsen the deficit before it ever helps the economy,” he added. [Newhouse News Service, 2/24/03]

Despite admitting to not understanding the economy, McCain still needs to answer a fundamental question about his tax plan: if he’s going to lower taxes and balance the budget at the same time, what programs will he cut?

For starters, folks, did you know that donations can be made to reduce the National Debt Outstanding held by the American People? (Your Correspondent intends to donate part of the online shopping proceeds generated by your online purchases--and only your online shopping here can make it possible--to reducing the National Debt.

(Unless, reader, you can show good cause why nothing ought be done to the National Debt on the part of the American People. Spare us your pathetic bromides and platitudes about "political reasons" requiring the maintenance thereof, please.)

In any case, consider this an opening salvo for "swift-boating" John McCain's aspirations. Especially considering his possible lack of mental capacity and risk of emotional breakdown further on in the campaign.

CREDIT IT, PERHAPS, TO THE STRESS OF INDECISION 2008 AS MUCH AS TRYING TO SHAKE OFF EVIL HABITS ... but "The Oxycontin Cow" himself, t/n Rush Limbaugh, could be about to make that One Fatal Error as could be not only his own downfall, but also that of conservative talkback radio and its abuse of the medium's power and intrusion upon especially weak-minded and vulnerable elements of the community who can be considered its hard-core audience and support base.

The following YouTube video (ultimately via Brave New Films) demonstrates why: