Posted 1:00 AM by Scoobie Davis

Keyword Searches Used to Get to This Site
Every couple months, I do a list of keyword searches people used to get to this site (for the last list of keyword searches, click here). Here's the list of the weirdest during June and July:
callista bisek date of birth [note: Bisek is Wife # 3 for Newt Gingrich]
nikkala stott sideburns
i wore fuck me boots forum
uncensored godaddy commercial candice michelle nude
classic xxx - sweet savage (1978) online
lowell ponte is a nut
alticor illuminati
sean hannity nude
fred ricart's burnt asshole [Ricart is a prominent Columbus, Ohio car deal who was the victim of an urban legend that his betrayed wife shoved a hot curling iron up his poop-chute]
can you do amway global and be a filmmaker
karen hanretty big nipples
john cloud van dam nude [apparently the person was referring to Jean-Claude Van Damme]
alec baldwin handwritten letter
rush limbaugh cornholer
tamron hall nipples tits
erika christensen draw nude
directors showing off william holden's genitals
eva braun nude pictures
why do michael savage and mark levin dislike one another?
who is bob basso douchebag?
liar racist bigot joseph farah
black girls getting ass rubbed at spring break video
pilonidal cyst medicinal marijuana
horny women clubs over 60
bob basso is gop shill

Posted 4:59 PM by Scoobie Davis

Touchy Touchy
The hard right loves to dish it out but they can't take it. Take Jerome Corsi. For those not familiar with Corsi, he's the wing-nut who hit the national scene in 2004 as the co-author of the libelous and nutty Unfit for Command, the Regnery book that denigrated John Kerry's war record. True to form, Corsi attempted to derail Barack Obama's presidential candidacy by promulgating the birther conspiracy theory. As I have pointed out, the media landscape has changed drastically over the past few years. Wing-nut conspiracies, especially the birther conspiracy, are receiving the ridicule they deserve.

Anyhow, last week, I sent Corsi an e-mail noting the laughter the birther movement is generating and sent a link to this must-view video of Jon Stewart mocking the birthers. A couple days later, I recieved the following terse reply: gfys [a text abbreviation for "go fuck yourself"]. Perhaps I should have began the body of my email with "Dear Mr. Corsi" instead of "Hey Douche."

Posted 3:44 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must See
It's funny as shit but not work-friendly.

Posted 10:07 AM by Scoobie Davis

New Posts Soon--today or tomorrow

Posted 10:04 AM by Scoobie Davis

Woo Hoo!
I'm going to Comic-Con! It's sold-out and I didn't register but I'm able to get in today and tomorrow. I'll be one of the few people there who has gotten laid in 2009.

7/26 UPDATE: I just got back from Comic-Con. I'm am tired as fuck. I'll have a brief report soon. Quick note: A lot of people at Comic-Con are pissed off at the way that some Twilight fans behaved.

Posted 11:00 AM by Scoobie Davis

The Birther Movement and Wing-Nut Theodicy
(Updated below)
On Monday, Orly Taitz, the attorney from Orange County representing U.S. Army major Stefan Frederick Cook in the lawsuit contending that President Obama wasn't born in the United States, appeared on Rick Roberts' San Diego radio talk show. Taitz was completely unhinged, claiming that not only was Obama not born in the United States but that the Obama administration is "a Nazi regime." Taitz also made the following statement: "I could see where it is going. This guy [Barack Obama] is extremely dangerous. He is more dangerous than Stalin." Why would an educated person have such delusional beliefs? This makes sense only if one understands the American right's theology and theodicy.

The Right's Theology
It may seem unusual to discuss theological matters when discussing a contemporary American political movement but the American right has become a sectarian movement. Since the late 1970's, the Republican Party has embraced sectarianism and anti-intellectualism. The GOP has become God's Own Party. When George W. Bush said that he heard the call and that God wanted him to run for president, the hardcore elements of the Republican Party not only didn't think that was a doofy thing to say but that it was The Truth. In short, the GOP hardcore believes that the Republicans have been called by God to rule America.

When Bad Things happen to Wing-Nuts: The Sectarian Right's Theodicy
According to the belief system of the American Right, if a Democrat wins a presidential election, it's not a matter of the loyal opposition winning because there is not loyal opposition--God wants Republicans to rule. To the wing-nuts, it is a matter of theodicy (an attempt to explain why a loving God and evil co-exist). Democrats who win the presidency are of the Devil and are ipso facto illegitimate. When Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, the first tactic was to claim Clinton was illegitimate because he didn't receive a majority of the vote (quick note: we quit hearing this argument from the Right after November 2000). The next attempt to delegitimize Clinton was to accuse Bill and Hillary of being mass murderers who were bumping off anyone who got in their way (it's no coincidence that the same people who promoted the satanic ritual abuse scare of the 1980's were the same people who promoted the Clinton Body Count mythology in the 1990's).

The contemporary Birther movement is the logical continuation of the attempts by the hardcore right to impute meaning to their lack of success at the presidential level. It makes not sense from the standpoint of a rational adult but it makes a lot of sense through the prism of contemporary wing-nut theology.

1993 versus 2009
The big difference between the wingnut attempts to delegitimize Clinton and Obama is that those who were involved in the former didn't pay a price for their irresponsible actions. However, most Americans rightfully view the Birthers as nutjobs (the other day on her TV show, Rachel Maddow quipped that it must have been a savvy Democratic operative who concocted the Birther movement). This is a healthy phenomenon. Why the difference? I have discussed the differences between the Clinton years and the Obama years in recent posts (e.g. here), but it comes down to two things: 1) The Clinton administration handled the radical right ineptly (e.g., here and here); and 2) The emergence of the left's blogosphere, MSNBC, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Media Matters for America.

UPDATE I: Media Matters has a comprehensive post on the Birther movement.

UPDATE II: Must view: watch Jon Stewart's hilarious take on Taitz and Birthers such as Lou Dobbs. LOL, the "lost Gabor sister."

Posted 11:40 AM by Scoobie Davis

Tasteless? Yeah. Funny As Shit? Hell, Yeah!
Click here

Posted 11:29 AM by Scoobie Davis

New Post on the Sun Myung Moon Blog
Click here

Posted 1:38 PM by Scoobie Davis

Working on a Long Post
It should be up tonight.

UPDATE: It should be done tomorrow. In the meantime, if you were pissed off by the phony attempt by Freepers and Fox News to gin up a scandal by claiming that President Obama was checking out some underage tail, then I'm sure you will enjoy this.

Posted 11:10 AM by Scoobie Davis

As Nelson From The Simpsons Would Say, "Ha Ha"
Click here

Posted 1:06 PM by Scoobie Davis

What a Name!
Now I know why Sessions, the Klan-loving senator from Alabama who is grilling Sonia Sotomayor about supposedly being racially biased, goes by "Jeff." His full name is
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III.

Posted 4:03 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Eric Boehlert, "The Free Republic/Matt Drudge Connection"

Posted 12:38 PM by Scoobie Davis

If You Have Some Extra Cash
Here are some good reasons to support Consortium News.

Posted 4:05 PM by Scoobie Davis

The Silent Coup Hoax
When Ann Coulter claimed in her 2002 book Slander: Liberal Lies about the American Right that the overwhelming majority of literary frauds were found on the left, I responded with a blog post with a far-from-exhaustive list of recent right-wing hoax books (e.g., I failed to mention Inquisition, Carlton Sherwood's apologia for Sun Myung Moon's criminal activity).

Another book that deserved to be in the list was 1991's Silent Coup by Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin. Although Colodny has left-of-center politics (he writes for CounterPunch), I consider it a right-wing literary hoax because the premise of the book benefited the right and prominent members of the right endorsed the book. At the time I wrote the blog post, I was somewhat familiar with the book and its outlandish premise but didn't know enough about it to put it on the list. I was familiar with the book because G. Gordon Liddy heavily promoted the book on his radio show during the 1990's.

I got the full story when I finally had the chance to read John Dean's book Conservatives Without Conscience recently (I had previously read Bob Altemayer's online book The Authoritarians; Dean based his book on Altemayer's research). In the preface of Conservatives Without Conscience, Dean gives the story behind Silent Coup. The premise of Silent Coup is that the Watergate burglaries were masterminded by Dean, then Nixon White House Counsel, to remove evidence at DNC headquarter that Dean's soon-to-be wife was involved in an escort agency that provided women to prominent Democrats. This premise is libelous and manifestly absurd; it contradicts extensive testimony and documentation culled from numerous investigations. In short, if Silent Coup's premise were accepted, the history of the Watergate scandal would have to be re-written.

One of Silent Coup's biggest promoters was Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy, who used the controversy to get back in the limelight and parlay the publicity into a talk radio program. Liddy knew the claims in Silent Coup were false but presented them as fact to his radio audience throughout the 1990's (this illustrates the contempt that right-wing talk radio hosts like Liddy have for the people who put money in their pockets; not surprisingly, Liddy, along with Rush, was a major proponent of the conspiracy theory that held that Bill and Hillary Clinton killed Vince Foster).

Why discuss a book from 1991? Because the contrast in approaches to Liddy and the Silent Coup hoaxers is applicable to the current scene.

John Dean's Effective Response to The Silent Coup Hoax
Dean, then an investment banker who eschewed politics, didn't take this libel lying down. He not only sued the authors, Liddy, and the publisher (resulting in undisclosed settlements) but he pointed out to media outlets that had planned to provide publicity for the book that the book premises were false; this resulted in negative publicity for the book. Although the book sold well due to wing-nut publicity on Liddy's radio show and other far-right outlets, the book didn't sell as well as predicted and was a critical failure. Dean has gone on to write several acclaimed books on the anti-intellectualism, authoritarianism, and know-nothingism of the contemporary American right.

The Clinton Administration's Weak Approach to Liddy
When Liddy and on the talk radio scene were broadcasting lies about the Clinton administration, the Clinton administration response was feckless and weak. Keep in mind that Liddy was not only a Watergate conspirator, but he was an unrepentant terrorist who had planned to firebomb the Brookings Institute. In addition, Liddy has written about his fondness for eugenics and the Horst-Wessel-Lied. In short, discrediting and marginalizing Liddy is a no-brainer because Liddy is a Nazi-loving nutjob and terrorist.

The Clinton administration instead chose to legitimize Liddy and provided Liddy with an on-air punching bag, Lanny Davis (I have an extensive post on the disastrous effects of Davis and his dysfunctional relationship with Liddy). This would all be ancient history were it not for the fact that, to this day, Davis and other Clintonites, such as Terry McAuliffe and Howard Wolfson, are providing legitimacy to the Fox News Channel. Some people never learn.

UPDATE: Liddy is also a Birther. This performance with Chris Matthews on Hardball was so embarrassing that I almost felt sorry for him.

Posted 6:20 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
I have a post on the Sun Myung Moon blog regarding Moon's alliance with another media organization run by a cult leader.

Posted 4:09 PM by Scoobie Davis

Quick Observation
By being a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act in the first few hours as a U.S. Senator, Al Franken now has more positive accomplishments in the U.S. Senate than Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond had in a combined 77 years in the chamber.

Posted 12:53 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Robert Parry: "Republicans: A Threat to the Republic?"

Posted 4:37 PM by Scoobie Davis

Why Do The Wingnuts Rage?
Two big reasons:
1. Demography. Going after the white vote and alienating the non-white vote was a winner in the 1970's and 1980's but with changing demographics, the GOP has painted itself in a corner.
2. The right's media infrastructure has met its match. I addressed this phemomenon is a several blog posts--namely this one.

Today, Eric Boehlert wrote an article on the unhinged reaction by the right over Sarah Palin's resignation. An article that apparently came out after Boehert's that proves his point about the right's whining is this one by the National Review's David Kahane.

Posted 5:20 AM by Scoobie Davis

Quick Notes on Michael Savage
I don't listen to right-wing hate radio much these days--I leave that to Media Matters for America which has been doing a bang-up job of responding to right-wing misinformation and hate-mongering.

One talk show jock that irritates me is Michael Savage (I have written about him here, here, and here). I did listen to Savage a little bit last week and a little bit yesterday. Here are some insights:
1. Savage is claiming that the reason that then-UK Secretary of State for the Home Department placed Savage on a list of people not allowed to enter Great Britain is that she received critiques of his radio broadcasts put out by Media Matters for America that took his words "out of context." Here's my position: 1) Although he's a major league douche, Savage isn't as bad as most of the other people placed on the list. However, Great Britain is a sovereign nation and should be allowed to keep whomever it wants to keep out of its territory; 2) If Savage thinks that MMFA is treating him unfairly and taking his words out of context, he should give some examples. 2. I believed that Savage is working on a book titled, Banned in Britain."
2. Savage is a fan of Curtis LeMay.
3. Echoing Rush, Savage said that he wasn't planning on jogging in Fort Marcy Park anytime soon.
4. Academician and WorldNetDaily contributor Ellis Washington is apparently working on a book about Savage.

Posted 5:24 PM by Scoobie Davis

From Mad Magazine #500


Also some sad news about Mad--it's going from monthly publication to quarterly.

Notes: I got the image from this site. For those of you not in the know, the image parodies Shepard Fairey's iconic Obey Giant motif.

Posted 5:12 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must View
The Young Turks obtained Fox News show Fox & Friends talking points:

Posted 10:42 AM by Scoobie Davis

For the Love of God, Please Don't Take Pat Robertson's Financial Advice!
I went to a Barnes & Noble the other day and prominently displayed in the window was a copy of Pat Robertson's new book Right on the Money: Financial Advice for Tough Times. It's not enough that in the 1990's, many evangelical Christians lost their shirts in Robertson attempt at network marketing American Benefits Plus. Also, in the previous decade, Robertson had business schemes involving diamond mining in Africa.

When I did a little more research, I discovered that Robertson promoted the book on Fox News. I don't even want those viewers to take Robertson's financial advice.

Posted 6:34 PM by Scoobie Davis

New Chick Tract
The Chickster's latest "The Bully" is kinda sappy.

Posted 1:38 PM by Scoobie Davis

Who Has The Messiah Complex?
Since Barack Obama hit the national scene, critics on the right have accused him of having a "Messiah complex" and claimed that his followers are like members of a cult. I have pointed out (here and here) the irony of people in a political movement that receives heavy funding by a megalomaniac who literally believes himself to be the new Messiah, who was sent by Jesus to fulfill JC's unfulfilled mission of redeeming humanity. Also, there is the issue of Reagan worship in the ranks of the contemporary movement--e.g., the creepy "What Would Reagan Do?" talk among the right that mirrors the WWJD armbands that evangelical teenagers wear.

The other day, there was the revelation in Todd Purdum's Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin that she sent a mass e-mail to friends announcing the birth of her baby Trig:

When Trig was born, Palin wrote an e-mail letter to friends and relatives, describing the belated news of her pregnancy and detailing Trig’s condition; she wrote the e-mail not in her own name but in God’s, and signed it “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.”

One final note, those of you familiar with this blog know that I have two blogs that addresse Amway Global (also here). Here's a YouTube video of Birdie Yager, the wife of Amway kingpin and bigoted reactionary Dexter Yager explaining why she is the "Bride of Christ."