(The above, in case you're wondering, is a QR [as in Quick Response] Code for mobile phones equipped with the Kaywa QR Code Reader, which allows you to read The Exaggerator on mobile phones enabled to access the Information Stuporbahn. It's free to download. Now you know.)
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You can do so right here, come to think of it--by way of e-mail, RSS feed readers, social-networking sites, what have you:
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(part 1):
New shopping, new life: (Which is intended to help Your Correspondent supplement his disability benefits, for the most part, as well as Some Good Causes, foremost among them being Reduction of the U.S. National Debt):
Be sure to visit The Exaggerator eStore; offering such a selection of products as I find worthy of your consideration for their esoterica or their practicality.
(part 2):
If you're a blogger or webmaster looking to add value for money to your blog/website, please take a look @ these worthwhile options:
And why not take a moment to look @ PayPal as a way to add online shopping to your website, or otherwise raise funds.
FIRST OFF, A REMINDER THAT THE VOTING IN THE BLOGGER'S CHOICE AWARDS WILL CLOSE FOR THE YEAR on 1 October, meaning you still have the entire of September to vote for me in the several categories wherein I have nominated this blog:
Your vote would be greatly appreciated in this the homestretch for the 2008 competition--and would be quite an achievement for this blog to win @ least one of the four categories as above. (You will need to register to vote, however; if not already, visit the Blogger's Choice Awards website, q.v.)
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TO THE MUSLIM READERS OF THIS WEBLOG,The Exaggerator extends best wishes for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as begins tomorrow evening @ sundown.
Your Correspondent hopes that, in the name of Allah, the magnificent, the compassionate, and the merciful, your daytime fast will be an easy one throughout.
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IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED THE ONLINE SHOPPING AREA OFF TO THE SIDE OF THE PAGE, Your Correspondent wishes to call your attention to a number of newly-added e-tailer affiliates as are worthy of your time and interest in your online shopping adventures.
One as may be of particular interest to the likes of the Jot-'Em-Down Store crowd (as in smaller country and small-town retailers struggling to stay afloat in a Wally World socioeconomic mindset, as in being able to get merchandise on competitive terms of wholesale pricing using the Information Stuporbahn):
Meanwhile, for those wanting to get into the cell phone game, might I suggest shopping around for the best equipment and the best plans as meet your requirements and budget. And the best places to start:
For our friends between Land's End and John O'Groats looking for another worthwhile online shopping experience, The Exaggerator is pleased to welcome:
And some other e-tailers worthy of your time and interest have made a return to this hallowed space; among them:
Remember that in any event, you're supporting this weblog and Your Correspondent by your online shopping adventures. Hopefully, you can make such something of a regular habit when you visit this weblog, the reasons of which are obvious(?!).
Thanks again for your support.
Go shopping @ Exaggermall!--online shop of this blog!
YOUR CORRESPONDENT HAS JUST RETURNED HOME FROM THE REEDUNION 2008--AS IN THE FAMILY REUNION held on Friday and Saturday nights @ Camp Winnebago outside Caledonia, Minnesota, where brother Dennis serves as Head of Maintenance (and who made the choice of venue all the more possible).
The whole experience started Friday afterlunch when Dennis picked me up @ my flat for the Reedunion's venue, where, upon arrival, Motherdear agreed that it was alright if I stayed there throughout. Even if it was in a bunk bed in a cabin Dennis had set aside for the unmarried as had two foam mattresses stacked on top of each other to ensure some comfort and a couple of quilts sufficed as sheets, not to mention the window being open to get in some fresh air.
And was it quite the gathering: Not just the majority of my brothers and sisters, but also a few relatives from down Iowa way (Decatur County, in and around Pleasanton, to be exact) I probably hadn't seen since Dad's funeral in 1993; one such had a flowing beard for some reason or another, which I accepted for granted.
(As for those who couldn't come, brother Doug was preparing to evacuate himself from near Mobile in the wake of Hurricane Gustav's likely hitting the region, and Linda Rae was @ the alpaca interests booth @ TGMnGT. Now you know.)
Sheldon was seen with a thin gray moustache and a somewhat lanky build, and Shinko (Darrell's Okinawan wife) was starting to show her age with "salt-and-pepper" hair, a few wrinkles around her face ... but nonetheless, was as spry as ever. Motherdear, for her part, still needed a walker to get around, still managing to take her part on the ur-stage.
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FRIDAY EVENING DINNER WAS BASICALLY A COLD BUFFET to start with, just some sliced ham, roast beef and turkey breast, and some bratwurst Donna had grilled up; chips, salads, raw vegetables and bars rounded out the whole. Which I managed to follow with some cups of herbal (and basic) tea well until the bonfire started for the evening around twilight--and what a bullfest of nostalgia and memories flowed throughout!
Saturday morning started out rather foggy in the valley where Camp Winnebago is situated, and turned out rather bracing heading into breakfast--sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, juice (I had cranberry and orange such) and tea. (Much the same brekkie was had this morning, only whole-wheat pancakes with butter and syrup took the place of toast.) Followed by tea and conversation, which, for the most part, was by gender, discussing old family memories and plenty of doings; Your Correspondent served to correct some errors and offer some insight as required.
Midday: My Iowa kin with a Toyota Prius (that's a gas/battery hybrid auto) had me along for the ride as took much of the afterlunch, including a stop @ a cafe in downtown Caledonia where the ladies retired to for luncheon--and this just as the cafe was getting ready to close for the day, but was still willing to serve. And were the girls surprised @ our sight! (As for lunch, I had a special they had on the day: Grilled chicken breast sandwich and cup of chicken-noodle soup, with iced tea to drink. My hosts had the other special--BBQ beef and French fries.) Following, a browse of a boutiqueish store in Caledonia called Pine Cone Place was called for before the journey went underway.
After fueling up, this joyride followed County Rd. 249 east from Caledonia through Freeburg and Reno, down Minnesota/Iowa 26 to New Albin and Lansing, Iowa, then doubled back on 26, continuing to Brownsville to survey (or try to) what Dennis noted about flood damage when a number of bluffside and blufftop homes collapsed in June's heavy rains, tried looking for further such on County Rd. 7 towards Hokah, and paid respects @ Dad's final place of rest in Union Ridge Cemetery between Hokah and Caledonia, spotting the former farm as a windmill in an opening between two groves of trees as viewed from the cemetery.
Throughout, the fuel economy, helped largely by use of the front wheels as a flywheel of sorts to recharge the batteries, ranged around 65-75 mpg, with a short spurt of over 90 mpg between New Albin and Lansing, Iowa. (The two noted where they had taken the same earlier up on the Alaska Highway, getting quite the workout in fuel efficency throughout.)
Dinner that evening: Shredded turkey breast, au gratin potatoes, baked macaroni and cheese, bread, salads, vegetables and bars. And some more herbal tea. (Speaking of tea, one of the Iowa kin brought along an herbal blend known as Jason Winters Tea; I had a cup of it, and it wasn't half bad. Especially with sugar.) Following was an informal meeting, whence it was decided to hold the next such in two years' time near Leighton's new home patch of Necedah, Wisconsin, where Your Correspondent was appointed to maintain some correspondence and find out about some worthwhile lodgings for all.
And that evening, another bonfire as ran until late, with plenty of nostalgia exchanged among the men. (The ladies played dominoes back in the lodge uphill.)
And I swear that on both nights, the skies were so clear, you could see the stars in the skies above, even allowing for the pecuilarities of the valley translating into fog developing late of nights and continuing until sunrise on a regular basis. But then again, the shower took quite awhile to warm up in the cabins where I stayed.
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THIS MORNING, THE 2008 REEDUNION ADJOURNED, FOR THE MOST PART, after breakfast as the Iowa line of the family was packing up to return back to "the home patch." Adjourned to keep dates for later in the day down along the Iowa-Missouri line as is home to them.
Adjourned until the fourth weekend in July, 2010, near Necedah, Wisconsin, in the Castle Rock/Petenwell Lakes district of the Wisconsin Valley (Necedah closer to the latter).
"...and a good time was had by all in attendance," to translate the Afrikaans title of this item. Even if it meant that the older members felt rather tired out from the whole.
Go shopping @ Exaggermall!--online shop of this blog!
ON THE CONTRARY, IN MY OWN CASE, PLENTY. ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING WHERE THIS IS LIKELY TO BE THE LAST SUCH POSTING FOR AWHILE, what with my annual visit to the Minnesota State Fair, followed by a family reunion on the Labour Day long weekend, preoccupying my time over the next fortnight or so.
In any event, don't worry much about me; on the other hand, I'd appreciate a donation to the Virtual Tip Jar and/or some purchases from the online-shopping area off to the left-hand side of the page. After all, disability benefit only goes so far every month, and besides, I'm deemed too mentally unstable to find traditional income.
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AND YOU THOUGHT JOHN McCAIN WAS THE MASTER OF FLIP-FLOPPING EXTRAORDINAIRE: It turns out that the Russian military has been caught doing some flip-flopping of its own in calculating the number of Georgian civilians killed in the recent South Ossetian campaign.
Initially estimating where some 1,600 had been killed by Russian crack troops, they have since revised the figure downward to an "official" estimate of 133, mostly in and around Josef Stalin's old hometown of Gori (remember, Stalin was an ethnic Georgian).
Human-rights groups, for their part, contend that the actual number of Georgian casualties in South Ossetia numbers still lower; though not specific, the BBC notes where they will only say that "dozens" were thus slaughtered.
Still, though, official Russian propaganda claims the casualties, regardless of the body count you believe and trust, were "byproducts of Georgian genocide;" however, isn't this nothing less than Russian projection for the likelihood of their having set up the Georgians, with the Tbilisi regime having received aid and comfort from the aforementioned McCain?
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THIS MAY OR MAY NOT EXACTLY BE APROPOS THE PRECEDING; however, an editorial in this week's number of the Jewish weekly gazetta Forward, entitled "Terrorism and the Lone Gunman," is worth sharing for reasons as will become evident as you read it:
Hossam Dwayyat, 31, a Palestinian construction worker from East Jerusalem, went on a rampage July 2 and drove his bulldozer into a bus and several cars, killing three Israeli women and wounding dozens more before he was shot dead. Police quickly determined that he had acted alone and had no links to terrorist organizations. Rather, he had a criminal record for drug abuse, and friends said he was despondent over a failed romance. Still, the incident was ruled terrorism, though foreign critics questioned the term. A weeks-long debate ensued over whether to demolish the home of the terrorist's family as a deterrent. One expert, former Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy, confidently stated that the incident was "sporadic" and would "not inspire copycat attacks."
Three weeks later, on July 22, there was a copycat attack. East Jerusalem construction worker Ghassan Abu Tir, 22, drove his bulldozer into several vehicles, injuring some two dozen Israelis before he was shot dead. Like Dwayyat, he had no known links to terrorist organizations. His father blamed the act on confused identity as an East Jerusalem Arab with no clear nationality, Palestinian or Israeli. A search of his home turned up Islamic extremist literature, confirming authorities' belief that he acted from terrorist motives.
Five days later, on July 27, unemployed Tennessee truck driver Jim D. Adkisson, 58, allegedly entered a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville and opened fire with a shotgun, killing two persons and wounding six. A note found in his truck reportedly said he hated "the liberal movement" and its social teachings. He also complained about his inability to find a job and his loss of food stamps. News reports said a search of his home turned up books by Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage and Sean Hannity, conservative talk show hosts known for their slashing verbal attacks on liberals. Following his arrest, according to a police affidavit, Adkisson told officers that "because he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement he would then target those that had voted them into office."
On August 13, an Arkansas man successfully tracked down a liberal movement leader, and killed him. The alleged shooter, Timothy Dale Johnson, 50, lost his job in a Target store and promptly drove 50 miles to the Little Rock headquarters of the Arkansas state Democratic Party, where he asked for the state chairman, Bill Gwatney. He then barged into Gwatney's office and shot him dead. Johnson was later killed in a shootout with police. News reports consistently describe both Adkisson and Johnson as "lone gunmen."
Do two isolated cases, three weeks apart, constitute a criminal pattern? If the attackers appeared intent on killing a particular class of victim, but have no links to an organized group, is it terrorism? If the attacker had literature at home, demonizing the victim group and urging action, did the authors incite the attacks?
Israeli authorities are clear on the answers. American authorities don't seem to have figured out the questions yet.
Points no doubt worth pondering. And making you wonder what sort of interesting times we are living in.
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WITH NEW POLLS IN SOME INSTANCES SUGGESTING A SLIGHT TREND FOR McCAIN OVER OBAMA IN THE PRESIDENTIAL INDECISION heading into the conventions, perhaps it was all the more important @ this time to give John McCain a taste of his own medicine--as in "swift-boating" him for once.
And taking him to task for having so many houses while so many of the working-class Americans seeing McCain as their Shining Knight and Saviour (or so Fox Prolefeed expects them to accept without question or reservation) are facing serious problems with their mortgages, in some cases owing more on their mortgage than the true value of their homes.
So what stands in the way?
"Money is the root of all evil." Why not invest yours in United States Savings Bonds?
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BRITISH GLAM-ROCK ICON GARY GLITTER, HAVING JUST BEEN RELEASED FROM A VIETNAMESE PRISON WHERE HE WAS SERVING TIME for Indecent Sexual Liberties with a Minor, was spotted @ Bangkok's Don Muang Airport after arriving there on a flight from Hanoi--and missing a connecting flight that was to return him to London.
Seems Mr. Glitter's excuse is that he "complained of a heart attack" to the extent that he missed the connexion.
How do we know he isn't faking it to avoid further action back in his native Great Britain?
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SOMETHING WORTH THINKING ABOUT IN THE DEBATE ON HOW BEST TO SAVE MEDICARE AND MEDICAID: Conducting careful and @ once cautious analyses on what would be the most cost-efficent (as opposed to merely the cheapest per se) option to the Good Taxpayers on how best to handle Medicare and Medicaid, in line with the prevailing view that low taxes=jobs=social stability, from these such:
Maintaining the status quo.
Transferring Medicare and Medicaid to the several states, aided and abetted by generous "block grants" to (in theory) allow them to develop such programmes for providing health-care services to the poor and vulnerable based on local customs and experience.
Essentially converting Medicare and Medicaid into vendor-pay plans to allow the Lower Classes "healthy and empowering access to the free market" when it comes to health-care coverage from private-sector insurers and Medical Savings Plan providers (howbeit subject to checks and balances to avoid undue and unreasonable exploitation of those so expected to be"empowered" by "freedom of choice").
All the while consciously aware of the need to "generate taxpayer value"--as in "Which among these options will actually return the most to taxpayers for the least amount of money?" (Which conservatives want to base on what will translate into a net dividend on "share capital," as in taxes--preferably on a "guaranteed" basis, to be loaded onto special-issue Wally World debit cards ISSUED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, or so labelled--all the while expecting the Good Taxpayers to have reckless and utter disregard for practicality or utility while expected to "do their part for their economy" via reckless and wasteful shopping sprees @ Wally World, to be declared an Essential and Protected Company in the National Interest @ the expense of small business in articular.)
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ANYWAY, AS I SAID EARLIER, THE STATE FAIR AND FAMILY REUNION WILL PREOCCUPY MY TIME BY AND LARGE over the next fortnight, thus precluding any serious and regular blogging activity in the interim. Sooooo....
IN A NUMBER OF STATES, AMONG THEM CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WISCONSIN, THE AGENCY OF INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM IS PERMITTED by which citizens may propose legislation through the agency of a ballot plebiscite, thereby bypassing the formalities of legislative ex-lax and gridlock.
And it's no wonder the Zealots and True Believers in the Greater Conservative Agenda find initiative and referendum a cheap and cheerful way by which to legislate their articles of faith, as in banning abortions, condemning homosexuals to outright pariah status, that sort of thing. Especially where the phrasing of the plebiscite's title is designed to be misleading or otherwise deceptive, the better to trap voters unaware--especially the undereducated sort.
In any case, a lesson from ConWebBlog on how not to pervert the whole idea of initiative and referendum to serve a closed-minded agenda, hoping the undereducated voters won't recognise what they were really voting for until the ballot papers are inserted into the ballot box--and how reportage thereof can be manipulated:
An appeals court ruling has trashed the right of Oregon residents to vote on issues in their state by affirming the state's refusal to count referendum signatures even when they were verified in person by the voter.
[...]
The ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an Oregon judge's decision denying state citizens the right to vote on a referendum on a new state law critics contend violates the state's voter-approved definition limiting marriage to one man and one woman.
The appeals court cited the opinion of a handwriting analyst instead of the voters who signed the petition and called the state's "interests" more important than voters' rights.
[...]
The district court at that point simply ruled that Oregon voters have no legal right to have their signatures counted, and the appeals court has upheld the ruling.
The court, of course, denied nobody's rights; it merely affirmed that the method for checking signatures on a conservative-promoted Oregon petition to place on the ballot a reversal of the state's recognition of same-sex couples was valid.
WND quotes only right-wing groups criticizing the ruling, such as Alliance Defense Fund and Restore America, and offers its own creatively biased view of the case:
The state reviewed the tens of thousands of signatures submitted on the referendum issue by a sampling method, ultimately determining there were 55,083 valid signatures, 96 short of what was required. However, a change in just a half a dozen signatures in the sampled portion would have tipped the decision the other way.
At the time the state made that announcement, individual voters checked with their local county officials and found their valid signatures had been arbitrarily disallowed, and state officials had issued orders that county election offices not allow anyone to correct the mistakes.
[...]
The court opinion, instead of citing the voters who signed the petition on the issue of the validity of their signatures, cited a handwriting analysts' opinion on whether the signatures were valid or not.
The San Francisco Chronicle, meanwhile, offers a clearer, more truthful view of what actually happened:
Needing 55,179 valid signatures, sponsors of the referendum turned in 62,000 signatures on petitions to election officials, who followed standard procedures by examining a random sample. After invalidating signatures that didn't match those on registration cards, they concluded that only 55,083 valid signatures had been submitted.
The judge upheld the signature-counting process on Feb. 1 and was affirmed Thursday by a three-judge appeals court panel, which said Oregon took reasonable measures to validate petition signatures.
Sponsors of the referendum argued that election officials should have notified voters whose signatures were rejected and given them a chance to prove their identity. But the court said county registrars are trained in signature verification, allow sponsors of a ballot measure to attend the counting sessions and challenge their decisions, and refer all rejected signatures to a second elections official for added scrutiny.
The question was never about "rights" as WND repeatedly claims. The court did not eliminate or even question the right of voters to intiate ballot referendums--indeed, WND states "the campaign on the recognition of same-sex relationships now will be restarted with plans for voter decisions on the issues in November 2010." The issue at hand was whether Oregon state law on ballot signature verification was followed and was reasonable. The court ruled that it was.
Given that state law "allow[s] sponsors of a ballot measure to attend the counting sessions and challenge their decisions," WND does not explain why those sponsors did not challenge the disqualification of the signatures at the time.
CERTAIN SPECIMENS OF UBERCONSERVATIVE ZEALOTRY AND TRUE BELIEF JUST CAN'T LAY OFF BARAK OBAMA'S SUGGESTION that maintaining proper tyre pressure is but one way to save gas and maintain fuel economy. In fact, some, like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have suggested that such measures may only give aid and comfort to Our Sworn Enemies, a Think Progress recently documented (emphasis supplied):
Well, I got a very funny e-mail from a retired military officer in Tampa who pointed out that most tire inflation is done at service stations and you pay for it. And it's actually a higher profit margin than selling gasoline. So Sen. Obama was urging you to go out and enrich Big Oil by inflating your tires instead of buying gas.
The which Think Progress quickly deflates thus:
This claim is absurd for a number of reasons. First, gas station owners, not Big Oil, receive the profits from selling air if they sell air at all (presumably from mechanized air machines). Second, air is free. So of course the profit margin for selling air is going be higher than a gallon of gas. By contrast, the cost of oil accounts for a significant portion of the price of gasoline. So any profits from gasoline sales (which are actually quite small) also go to the gas station owners, after Big Oil has already been paid.
But beyond Gingrich's ridiculous assertion, the Auto Alliance has noted that maintaining proper tire pressure is "more important than you may think" because it saves fuel and reduces costs and greenhouse gases.
Indeed, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) whom Gingrich once praised as one of the "great winners" agrees. Today he endorsed the thrust of Obama's idea, saying "you can reduce your fuel costs by more than 15%. And I am talking about simple things, like proper tire pressure, avoiding rapid starts and stops, and keeping your engine tuned."
And remember, folks, this is not the first time that Herr Gingrich has been a shill for the "Wise Use" crowd, as in equating wasteful and inefficent use with True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command.
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A COUPLE OF QUOTES FROM SUSAN TEST (AS PER THE NEW CARTOON NETWORK SENSATION JOHNNY TEST) which the "Traditional Values" crowd, for all their implied defence of male chauvinism as one with "preserving and strengthening the Traditional Family" (though not willing to use the word openly For Obvious Reasons, understand), may want to ponder enough to maybe reconsider their support of the Religiopolitical Right, for one:
"Monster trucks are a stupid waste of time, and a sad attempt by men to deal with their own deficencies." (To which Your Correspondent wishes to add that said "deficencies" are probably aggravated by latent hubris excusing and @ once defending machismo.)
"Men are born violent, stupid!"
Don't come crying to me if the message has somehow been lost on you....
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NO WONDER CONSERVATIVE "NEWS PORTALS" ARE THEMSELVES ENGAGING IN PROJECTION, METHINKS, BY BERATING THE "LIBERAL MEDIA ESTABLISHMENT" for "reckless and irresponsible journalism" when they're probably guilty thereof. Case in point, per ConWebBlog:
Brent Bozell goes on a remarkable run of misstatements in his Aug. 12 column while ranting against the media for not taking a supermarket tabloid's claims about John Edwards' affair at face value, as well as purported disparate treatment of Republican scandals:
Ask yourself: what did Rev. Ted Haggard's use of drugs and male prostitutes in Colorado have to do with the national Republican Party?
Who says he did? Not the media (in the U.S., anyway). Plug in "ted haggard republican" into Google, and the first hit is an article from the British newspaper the Guardian claiming that "The Republican party today was assessing the potential political fallout" from the Haggard scandal." The second is a satirical article from The Onion claiming that Haggard "revealed Wednesday that he was repeatedly molested by an unnamed Republican congressman in the late 1990s," adding, "Authorities have not acted on Haggard's allegations, saying that Republicans are often accused of wrongdoings simply because so many of them lead secret gay or criminal lifestyles." The only other article from a news organization, real or otherwise, on the first page of Google's results is a Rocky Mountain News article noting that Haggard has "direct access to President Bush," noting that "Republicans - who have leaned enormously on the vote of conservative Christians in recent years - already reeling from a series of congressional scandals." That would seem to answer Bozell's question.
Or Mark Foley's dirty Internet messages to congressional pages?
We'll let the New York Timesanswer that one: "Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional caucus on children's issues."
What did Larry Craig's shoe placement in an airport bathroom in 2007 have to do with the Republican Party as a whole? The media treated that story as a much larger scoop than John Edwards cheating on the wife dying of cancer.
Let's see ... one case involved (at the time) unverified rumors promoted by a supermarket tabloid of someone who holds no political office and ceased being a candidate several months ago, the other involved an on-the-record guilty plea of a sitting congressman. Further, Edwards' affair is reported to have occured in 2006; Elizabeth Edwards' recurrence of breast cancer, which she may or may not be "dying" from, was revealed in March 2007.
[T]he very same media that almost immediately spread unproven trash on John McCain's alleged "romantic" relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman because the source was the allegedly professional New York Times now remained as quiet as a cabin full of Carthusian monks.
First, the Times never claimed McCain and Iseman had an affair; rather, the article noted that "Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself" and that "to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity."
Second, Bozell was singing a different tune about his new favorite supermarket taboid of choice just a few short months ago. Back in February, Bozell was attacking the Times over the McCain-Iseman story for being--wait for it--"fit to print only for the likes of the National Enquirer."
Bozell isn't slagging the "the likes of" the Enquirer now. Double standard much?
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IN MUCH THE SAME VEIN IS FOX PROLEFEED'S HABIT BORDERING ON VICE which suggests that anyone opposed to the Greater Conservative Agenda that Fox Prolefeed pushes is probably a Nazi in and of themselves, and, hence, ought not be trusted (up there with what kindergarten students back in Nazi Germany were taught about never trusting a fox on the meadow nor the word of a Jew).
NewsHounds illustrates that it may really be Fox Prolefeed playing the Nazi card:
Remember when the republican rightwing had its panties in a bunch about comparisons of the Bush administration with Nazis. They were just sooo outraged about Democratic Senator Dick Durbin's comparison of Gitmo to Nazi death camps. But in an amazingly hypocritical volte-face, the same rightwing uses Fox News to label anyone who strays from republican orthodoxy asguess whatNazis.
After receiving his talking point, Bill O'Reilly went on the offensive. In March of 2007, Bill O'Reilly in discussing the Democratic Party's opposition to Democrats participating in a Fox News televised debate in Nevada, said that "the Daily Kos or whatever that stupid thing is," and others "use propaganda techniques perfected by Dr. Joseph Goebbels.". In July of 2007, Bill O'Reilly compared Daily Kos to Nazis saying that "There's no difference between the KKK and the Nazis, who have websites, than the Daily Kos." He also said that "The website sells hate, as does the KKK and the Nazis. The comparison is valid." (Comment: Oh, the irony!) And who could forget that magical moment when Bill O'Reilly said, regarding Arianna Huffington, "I don't see any difference between Huffington and the Nazis." And in discussing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright (Obama guilt by association), non Mensa candidate, Fox's Ainsley Earhardt said regarding Rev. Jeremiah Wright, "I mean, Hitler did great things. Many Germans followed Hitler because they thought he did great things."
Last week's Obama Berlin was acclaimed, by those in the reality based media, as impressive; but that didn't stop Steve Doocy (not an historian) from making Barack Obama comparisons with Hitler. Stewart did a piece on Obama's appearance in Berlin which included a clip from the Fox morning kids show, Fox&Friends. Steve Doocy, not his usual inanely happy self (Obama was getting good reviews), made a statement which served to demonstrate either his lack of knowledge or a Fox talking point (or maybe both). Stewart showed a clip of Steve, not his usual cartoonish self, telling the audience that Obama was speaking at a monument "associated with Adolph Hitler." Stewart's response was priceless. The video, which includes a great Brit Hume imitation, is here:
The "association" of the monument with Hitler is a stretch as explained here:
It was moved to its current location, on the Grosser Stern plaza in the middle of the city's Tiergarten park, in the late 1930s as part of never-completed plans by Adolf Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, for a grandiose remake of Nazi Germany's capital, which was to be renamed "Germania." (Comment: Fox never lets the facts get in the way of propaganda. But association with Nazisat least Obama didn't visit a German SS cemetery as did a past "messianic" Republican president!)
And to continue this theme of Obama as Hitler, we have Fox's favorite Canadian neo-con, Charles Krauthammer making this cute little statement "I'm not sureI don't think he got a bounce. I'm not sure it was his intention. You don't get a bounce out of standing in front of 200,000 Germans at a rally who are chanting your name. Bad vibes sometimes, historically."
Comment: When Democrats use Nazi references, Fox gets upset - when Fox uses Nazi references to compare a Democratic Presidential Candidate to Nazis, not so much. But the Nazi card is just another in Fox's tainted deck of Obama smears.
Beg pardon, Fox Prolefeed, but in matter of fact, Nazism's articles of faith included a belief in Adolf Hitler as Supreme Leader and Saviour of Germany and the German People, the German nation being entitled "as of natural right" to being a world power, anti-Semitism being necessary to maintain the natural superiority of the German people (and, by extension, the "Aryan Master Race" of which Germans, in Nazi thought, were considered part of), and the use of domineering, even brutal, force to maintain its power against all enemies, real or imagined.
Dictionary.com thus cites the Online Etymology Dictionary for the following explanation of a possible origin for the term "Nazi" in describing members of what was officially known as the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP, in its German abbreviate):
The 24th edition of Etymologisches W๖rterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (2002) says the word Nazi was favored in southern Germany (supposedly from c.1924) among opponents of National Socialism because the nickname Nazi (from the masc. proper name Ignatz, Ger. form of Ignatius) was used colloquially to mean "a foolish person, clumsy or awkward person." Ignatz was a popular name in Catholic Austria, and according to one source in WWI Nazi was a generic name in the German Empire for the soldiers of Austria-Hungary. An older use of Nazi for national-sozial is attested in Ger. from 1903, but EWdS does not think it contributed to the word as applied to Hitler and his followers.
(In a similar vein is where the Japanese term kabuki, as in the traditional dramatic genre, is actually a corrupted form of kabuku, a Japanese colloquialism of the Tokugawa Era [1603-1868] describing ill-mannered or unseemly behaviour, as in suggesting that early kabuki performances were usually little more than low comedy or burlesque performed more often than not by prostitutes, the fact of which often led to rioting after performances ... in turn prompting the Shogunate to ban women from kabuki performances, thus restricting same to young men--only to lead to outbreaks of pedophilia as led to another edict, this time restricting the kabuki profession to mature men exclusively.)
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