Birthers – still racist morons

As predicted, following the release of certified copies of the President’s so-called long form birth certificate, the idiots have moved the goalposts.

This is why I think this was an unwise move on the part of the White House. The birthers don’t care about evidence; if they did, the birth certificate released in 2008 would’ve made them shut up and go away.

What the birthers care about is getting the Black guy out of the White House, and every piece of evidence presented to them will simply result in a new demand – witness the idiocy of Larry Wells, as linked above. Shown evidence of the so-called long form, without pause he then demands the President’s school records, as if that had any bearing on his fitness or eligibility to the office.

That’s why the claims of simply being defenders of the Constitution ring hollow; why the cries that releasing the original documentation would be enough sounded so false.

Nothing will ever be enough, because the birthers have made their minds up – they think Barack Obama is not a legitimate President because he’s Black, and they will go to any lengths to hold onto that.

ETA: Cogent analysis at the OC from Dr C as well.

ETA: Andrew Sullivan forfeits the last, tiniest iota of credibility he had on making cogent political analysis at the Daily Beast by putting on his clown shoes and splashing about in the eligibility muck. Enjoy your red nose, Andy.

ETA: Visit Rumproast for some snark on it. And be their fans, also, too; they’re actually all very nice, and the whole snarling and teeth showing is just an act. Except for Kevin, who consumes puppies on a daily basis.

ETA: See also Patrick’s take on it. As usual, some quality writing and analysis; if you’re not already a fan of Bad Fiction, you should be.

ETA: Further news via the BBC. Worldclass douchecanoe and fuckhead extraordinaire Joseph Farah of WingNutDaily infamy weighs in as his mealticket starts to crumble:

It remains unclear whether the release of the birth certificate will satisfy the most hard-core birthers.

Joseph Farah, chief executive of birther-orientated website WorldNetDaily.com, said on the site the document “raises as many questions as it answers”.

“It is important to remember there are still dozens of other questions concerning this question of eligibility… concerning Barack Obama’s parentage, his adoption, his citizenship status throughout his life and why he continues to cultivate a culture of secrecy around his life,” he said.

Well, you would say that, Joe. You’ve been making a living off being a liar about this for a couple of years now; why would additional evidence stop you? What a piece of work you are, you obnoxious little fuck-knuckle.

ETA: The President’s address on the subject below the jump. He just ripped the birthers a new one; essentially the content is “Grow the fuck up, you stupid, silly children. When you’re ready to be grown-ups, you can find us sitting at the adults’ table, trying to solve some real problems.”

I would snark this…

… but, well, why gild the lily? It’s a self-snarking post. If I didn’t know better from the extensive litany of wingnuttery present elsewhere, I’d assume this were a Poe. That’s a sad state of affairs for any country, though, when a significant fraction of its politically-active citizens cannot be told apart from a joke version of themselves.

Anyway. Herewith, a shorter from some redneck embarrassment to the United States:

Steve Hilton, Get Offa My Front Porch ‘Fore I Get The Shotgun, Boy
Relaxing on Illegals Voting, Here’s the way the Dem’s sneak in…

Those damn Demmycrats want to let brown people vote! What? What they really want is to let brown people who ain’t citizens vote? Lord! That would be just awful in some way to do with citizens! I can’t figure it out right now, but I just know that letting more brown people vote is a recipe for disaster, ‘specially if they ain’t citizens. Hell, even if they are!

Nurse! Come here, I need changing again!

Honestly, that’s not even too far from what he actually wrote, wording and everything…

Mighty White of You!

Ok, it might seem like I’m picking on BlartBlartHollywood here, and that’s because I am.

Shorter Michael McGoober, True Colors: A Race Discussion With Isaiah Washington:
In race relations, it’s the negroes who are racist. A Black guy was kinda sorta mean to me, and it’s racism! When will the boot of the Black Man be off the neck of the poor, misunderstood Aryan?

The comments are especially nasty:

Capt_Kirk
I’m a taxicab driver in the ghettos of Philadelphia and I’m sick and tired of all of this “racists” talk.

I see how these people live. I see how these people act. Enough already. They have lost all credibility in my opinion due to their behavior.

OK, racism aside, who says “taxicab”? And Kirk, why? You could’ve been driving a taxicab among the stars, getting it on with hot green alien women! Why leave all that for a life as a wingnut?

Bohemond
Emulate Wellington: “Publish and be damned.” So your ancestors were slaves? Get over it. Grow up and stop whining. My give-a-damn is broken.

We were good enough to free your ancestors from slavery, eventually. What else do you want, boy?

Old_Tom
On the subject of history, does it matter to any of these knuckleheads that Barack Obama has absolutely no genetic connection to American slavery (except possibly on his white mother’s side)? As the descendant of an East African Muslim tribesman, he has no more connection to the West African Animist blacks who were brought over here as slaves, than I have to the Norwegians because my ancestors came from Italy.

Which means Obama isn’t Black, not one bit, nuh-uh, no how.

teh_Mob
I had this very conversation with a black friend of mine. She was ranting and raving about slavery and how terrible it was (I agreed) and how it was responsible for the terrible place blacks were in today (I disagreed) I went into a long detailed explanation that included welfare and the cycle of poverty and I’m sure it sounded like yada yada yada to her until I asked a simple question. If your great great great …however many great grandparents had not been brought to this country as slaves….where would you be living now? Would you be in America working two jobs while you finish college or would you be living in Darfur running from rape squads and feeding your children ants and mud? Perhaps you should thank whoever it is that you thank that your ancestors endured what they did, and that people fought to see that you could be free…and stop your whining. Conversation over.

Yeah! Why aren’t you grateful that your ancestors were slaves? It means you get to be American! You should be thanking us for slavery and Jim Crow – at least you get to be here!

Hitchens curbstomps Friel

I’m not a huge fan of Christopher Hitchens, generally; he’s arrogant, boorish and often far too pleased with himself. I get enough of that looking in the mirror to want to spend my free time on someone else doing it. There’s also his lurch to the political right in recent years; he’s probably centre-right more than right, to be honest, but he’s still to the right of me, which makes his politics occasionally distasteful. Something I saw this morning, though, has utterly redeemed him in my eyes, at least for now. This comes courtesy of the righteous PZ; cheers, Professor!

Fuck that!

Age-ratings plan for websites

Websites could be given cinema-style age-ratings under plans by the Government to limit access to “unacceptable” material, Culture Secretary Andy Burnham warned.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Burnham said “clearer standards” were needed as to what could be displayed online.

He said it was his “absolutely categorical” view that there was material on the web – including beheadings – which should not be available to anyone.

He confirmed one of the proposals being considered by ministers to protect children from harmful material was the introduction of age-ratings for websites.

“That would be an option. This is an area that is really now coming into full focus,” he said.

Another option said to be under consideration was a requirement on internet service providers to offer a service which would give access only to websites which are suitable for children.

Mr Burnham insisted his proposals were not intended as an attack on freedom of speech, but that some material on the web had gone too far.

“If you look back at the people who created the internet they talked very deliberately about creating a space that governments couldn’t reach. I think we are having to revisit that stuff seriously now,” he said.

“I think there is definitely a case for clearer standards online. You can still view content on the internet which I would say is unacceptable. You can view a beheading.

“There is content that should just not be available to be viewed. That is my view. Absolutely categorical. This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there is a wider public interest at stake when it involves harm to other people.” Via Yahoo! News

More news available here.

Oh, fuck that shit!

I’ve become more and more disgusted by the Labour Party in recent years; the real deep-seated revulsion towards it began, for me, with the refusal to allow a general election following the leadership contest which resulted in Brown becoming Prime Minister – while not constitutionally required, this would, at least, have provided the party with a symbolic new beginning and at least a patina of the legitimacy which Blair so deftly destroyed.

Further events which have caused me to doubt not only the ability of the Labour Party to govern but also its commitment to civil liberties include the ID cards fiasco, as well as the recent proposals by Jacqui Smith to enshrine radical feminist doctrine into law by adopting a partial version of the Swedish model of regulation of prostitution (a la the boiling frog scenario) something I’ve previously blogged about and which is opposed by more or less every group with a legitimate interest in the matter.

Enough is enough! Under the guise of attempting to protect children, the Labour Party is attempting to usher in a new era of Internet censorship and yet further attack our civil liberties.

Mr Burnham said:

“It’s not about banning or stopping people having that freedom of expression,” he said. “It’s simply about clearer signposting, more information, so people know where they’re working.”

It fucking is about banning! You mentioned beheadings online – if I want to watch a fucking beheading, I’ll watch a fucking beheading. I’m an adult. Don’t try to protect me from my own choices; stop trying to be my parent, because I don’t need one.

As for the child protection angle, don’t make me laugh! You know who should be protecting children from accessing unsuitable material on the internet? Their parents. Until you can demonstrate the influx into the lives of children of beheadings or bestial porn or whatever else you feel like gathering some phony moral outrage over this week in your quest to regulate every aspect of our lives, you can fuck off, Andy Burnham, and take your illegitimate Prime Minster with you. This is just the first step towards actual censorship of the internet, and we will not stand by and let it happen.

If you want to protect children, help their parents; don’t try to be mine.

Palin jumps the shark

Palin makes Obama terrorist claim

US Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin has accused the Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, of associating with terrorists.

She said he had been “palling around” with an ex-member of US-based militant group Weather Underground, which opposed the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

Mr Obama once served on a charity board with a member of the group, but he has denounced its activities.

A Democratic spokesman accused the Republicans of gutter politics.

“What’s clear is that John McCain and Sarah Palin would rather spend their time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy,” Hari Sevugan said.

Commentators say Mrs Palin’s attack forms part of a broader Republican strategy to attack Mr Obama’s character.

Via BBC News

Gutter politics is right. One of the more repugnant Republican tactics of the 1990s was the constant impugning of the patriotism of Democrats, a tactic which they then took into the new century with Swiftboating and the constant references to Obama’s middle name, as if that proved something.

The McCain campaign should be ashamed over this. This is negative campaigning at its most disgusting and abhorrent, and frankly, whichever puppeteer was operating Sarah that day needs to be fired, immediately.

I won’t say that Palin needs to be ashamed, because I don’t give her enough credit to have actually come up with it on her own; she’s a mouthpiece, a gimmick, a one-trick pony brought in for entirely cynical and despicable reasons, and I wouldn’t give her credit enough for being able to tie her own shoes.

Anti-Carnival is late

Due to back problems etc, plus the fact that I have shit to do…

The basic framework is in place, I just have to write the details.

This weekend, though, for realz.