Black Box Report

Winston Churchill once said, "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." These days the lies come in anonymous emails, rightwing blog posts and via FOX News, repeated by Rush Limbaugh and the cashier at the supermarket. They are legion:

So we’ve all heard the rumors: Obama is a Muslim. Obama isn’t American. Obama hearts terrorists (and gives terrorist fist-jabs). Obama is too black. Obama is not black enough. Obama is a thug. Michelle Obama is Barack Obama’s baby-mama. Obama wants to give up all of our rights to the Muslims, and probably the French, too. Obama is every right-wing scare tactic ever.

And all it takes is for normal Americans, non-political junkies who are only tangentially aware of the Democratic candidate with the funny-sounding name, to hear these rumors repeated ad nauseum as the gospel truth...and believe it. People like the good citizens of Findlay, OH, aka Flag City, USA, profiled on today's cover of the Washington Post:

[Jim Peterman] believes a smart vote is an American's greatest responsibility. Which is why his confusion about Barack Obama continues to eat at him.

On the television in his living room, Peterman has watched enough news and campaign advertisements to hear the truth: Sen. Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, is a Christian family man with a track record of public service. But on the Internet, in his grocery store, at his neighbor's house, at his son's auto shop, Peterman has also absorbed another version of the Democratic candidate's background, one that is entirely false: Barack Obama, born in Africa, is a possibly gay Muslim racist who refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

"It's like you're hearing about two different men with nothing in common," Peterman said. "It makes it impossible to figure out what's true, or what you can believe."

Well, no, not impossible. Because all of the rumors, from flag pins and faith to his heritage and “questionable patriotism,” are demonstrably false. With proof and everything. But when critical thinking has gone the way of pet rocks and platform shoes, it may not make a difference:

The problem is, of course, that even when they’re "corrected", the correction is simply another story they're being told about Obama, one they then weigh against the story they're being told by their friends and neighbors, and one that they're allowed to approach as if they're simply equivalent narratives.

Reading the Post’s piece, I’m reminded of William F. Buckley saying the job of conservatives was "to stand athwart history, yelling, 'Stop!’” Small town America is often more conservative than its urban counterpart, suspicious of change and the inexorable flow of history that threatens their idyllic status quo. They’re set in their ways and quite happy about it – and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, except when reality needs to be perverted to maintain the illusion. There’s a term for this kind of behavior, and it’s not a kind one:

A friend of mine emailed me recently, mentioning that he and I have a mutual acquaintance who believes all of the same nonsense about Obama (and then some). When he tried to set our friend straight, it was pointless. Any and all evidence was simply rejected out of hand.

He asked what to do. I’m at a bit of a loss. Someone who hears a lie, is given evidence that proves it’s a lie, but chooses to believe the lie anyway is being willfully ignorant.

Fortunately some people aren't taking willful ignorance lying down:

The Obama campaign is fighting back with television ads and its rumor-debunking website, plus it has a couple college students going door to door in the town trying to set the record straight. But seeing as how people seem to believe the rumors because they hear them from people they know and trust, you wonder if the Obama campaign's tactics will actually work.

Good luck on that. When each new day brings a new internet headline like – honest to god – this one:

Is Obama devotee of monkey-god idol?

...they've got their work cut out for them.

Appeasement!

President Bush on Thursday lifted trade sanctions against North Korea and moved to remove it from the U.S. terrorism blacklist, a remarkable turnaround in policy toward the communist regime he once branded as part of an "axis of evil."

Activist Judges!

Americans can keep guns at home for self-defense, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday in the justices' first-ever pronouncement on the meaning of gun rights under the Second Amendment.

The court's 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia's ban on handguns. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most federal firearms restrictions intact.

Liberal Media!

The Washington Post’s ‘fair and balanced’ op-ed page: four conservatives and David Broder.

War is Over!

Long time readers know I am a fan of Barron's, and frequently reference the usually fine Econoday updates of daily economic data. But the NYT's Floyd Norris points to what can only be described as the single most absurd commentary on Sentiment data you will likely read in your lifetime.

"Consumer confidence is unusually low, at its fifth all time worse reading in 40 years of Conference Board data. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index literally plunged in June, down nearly 8 points to 50.4. The expectations component is at a record low of 41.0, down more than 7 points, with the present situation at 64.5, down nearly 10 points for its worst reading since the early part of the ongoing expansion in 2003. But there is an expansion still underway and this is not a time of war, which makes the results difficult to figure."

Normally at this point in our conversation, I would be railing about whether the economy is expanding, given the negative readings in jobs creation, manufacturing, income, and consumption, and how understated inflation makes GDP look better than it is regardless.

But considering that this is not a time of war, I must have another explanation. It seems I have fallen thru a tear in the fabric of spacetime into an alternate universe.

That would explain a lot.

But not everyone else is...

UPDATE: ...and a new meme is born.

A giant in American journalism, Tim Russert - NBC News Washington Bureau Chief and host of the seminal political gab fest Meet the Press - passed away today, dead of a heart attack while working on the job at NBC. He was 58.

I had often been a critic of Russert, not because I thought he was bad at his job, but because it was readily apparent that he had all the tools, skills and, certainly, the platform to be better at his job than he often was. And even at that, he was often leagues above his contemporaries.

And then, when we least expected it, Russert had an epiphany, of sorts:

What he said bears repeating:

MATTHEWS: What about John McCain perhaps being attended by his bad angels? Some time in October deciding that he has to win this campaign in the worst way. Isn’t there a tremendous opportunity against a guy named Barack Hussein Obama to run a very tough negative campaign and win, perhaps not in a happy country, but just win it in the worst way. Isn’t that opportunity just sitting there for him?

RUSSERT: Well, I think you heard Senator Obama talk about wedge issues of patriotism and religion, trying to put that down as a marker. I’ve heard Mike Murphy, a former McCain adviser, saying that he thinks that Senator McCain should not be criticizing Senator Obama as much as he has, but be much more optimistic and not be seen or perceived as angry. But I don’t think that’s the kind of campaign Senator McCain wants to run. There may be some so-called independent groups, 527s, who might take a different tack.

But in an interesting way, based on our previous conversation, it’s a role I think the media can play, in really trying to keep pushing this back to this big debate on big issues and not get caught up in a lot of this minor skirmishing that goes on and videotape that gets released where we just run wild with it and sit back and say, what happened? Why did we not cover some of these big differences like Iraq, like Iran, like negotiating around the world, like health care? There’s profound differences between McCain and Obama in health care.

[emphasis added]

Yes, Mr. Russert, there are. And I am profoundly sorry that you won't be here to help point those out.

I speak for everyone at RNN in expressing condolences and respect to his grieving friends and family.

Sunday mornings won't be the same.

Given her "What does Hillary want?" non-concession concession speech last week, many Democrats were concerned about Hillary's follow-up this weekend. As it turned out, concerns were unwarranted, as Hillary hit all the right notes and delivered the speech many hoped she would give last Tuesday night.

Let the healing begin!

This was the speech that she needed to give. Senator Clinton showed class, courageousness, determination and a unshakable commitment to the causes she and the Democratic party believe in - yes, there were bumps in the road over the last 16 months, but she never gave up and we commend her for sticking to her guns.

They say the best speech a politician ever gives is the one following a loss, and this was easily Hillary's best. Reviews were glowing almost across the board. Even passionately-pro-Clinton bloggers like Taylor Marsh were ready to turn the page:

Hillary Clinton did what she needed today and then some. No reservations. No pauses. Complete commitment.

Hillary is a better candidate today and all I can do is dream about tomorrow. I stand by her today, tomorrow, anywhere, any time, any year. Today and tomorrow that requires me to do everything I can to defeat John McCain, and make sure Barack Obama is elected president in November. That's exactly what I intend to do.

An argument can be made that the prolonged Democratic primary process was good for Democrats: massive increases in registered voters in all 50 states; vetting of Obama's background to pre-empt the coming GOP attacks; record fundraising for Democrats. But the scars are all too visible. Schisms in the progressive blogosphere were stark. While a majority of left-leaning blogs either declined to choose sides outright (even if a majority of those approved of Obama's campaign style more than Clinton's), many A, B and C-list blogs made no bones about which candidate they supported, and which they despised.

Of the pro-Obama/anti-Hillary blogs, the Huffington Post, Daily Kos, AMERICAblog, Oliver Willis all either praised Clinton's speech and (to varying degrees) welcomed their Hillary-supporting brethren and sistren back into the fold - or at least if they had nothing to say, said nothing. Of that lot, the worst had to be Andrew Sullivan, sufferer of CDS (Clinton Derangement Syndrome) from way back, who, while praising Hillary's speech, couldn't help but get in one last dig:

I think history will show that she didn't quite have the talent to do it on her own steam, but that she made it much easier for another woman to become president one day. Her two biggest problems: She first married a man who was her political superior and was then defeated by one. She is a very talented politician but it was her fate to find her career hemmed in by two even more talented ones: Bill and Barack. She made up for it all with enormous hard work, diligence and ruthlessness. At any other moment, she would have won. But this is history and politics at the highest level. You cannot defeat such a moment if you are a Salieri. And she had to deal with two Mozarts.

Buh-bye.

Classy. Guess the Soul of a Conservative just can't let go of some things. To wash that bitter taste out, I suggest this post from John Cole at Balloon Juice, another former conservative-blogger-turned-reality-based-community-resident who, despite a deep and abiding dislike for the Clintons, managed to find a graceful nugget of empathy on what must have been Hillary's hardest day:

Clearly, this is a concession and Clinton is now ready to move forward. We’ve all given the Clintons a very rough time here over the past couple months – so much so that we could, at times “no longer rationally discuss” it. Fair enough. Her camp has aggravated us. At the same time, I really kind of feel for her. For years, it has been assumed that Hillary Clinton would be the first woman president of the United States. It was also assumed, rightly or wrongly, that this would happen this year, and I have no doubt that was in her plans (and those of the Democratic Party) all along. At the beginning of this campaign, nearly all of us assumed she would be the nominee until this phenomena named Barack Obama joined the race.

So while I didn’t like it, I can completely understand how Hillary wanted to go right till the end, making every argument she could, even when to the rest of us it seemed irrational. It was her dream job and she was going to make history. But someone else comes along who’s going to get that dream job and is also going to make history. It’s got to be quite a kick in the stomach. Think about it: You apply for the job of a lifetime. You know you’re going to get it because there is no competition. You psych yourself up, knowing the job is yours and the interview process is merely a formality. All of a sudden, a new candidate for the job comes along and becomes the favorite with the recruiting manager.

On the other side of the coin, pro-Hillary/anti-Obama blogs like the aforementioned Taylor Marsh, TalkLeft and Corrente all agreed (again, to varying degrees of begrudgement) to support Obama as the party's nominee.

So everyone can all hold hands and sing Kumbayah now.

Well, almost everyone.

In every war, there are casualties, and in the Great Democratic Primary War of '08, the most noticeable loss was that of former CIA spook and lefty blogger Larry Johnson at No Quarter. During the campaign, like the other pro-Hillary/anti-Obama blogs, No Quarter trafficked in the rightwing talking points about Obama: "Bittergate", Rev. Wright, "illegitimate" election, "elitist", etc. But once the candidate herself drew the line for her supporters and urged them to unify behind the man with the most delegates, Larry and Co. said "Hell no, we won't go!"

I never imagined that less than 24 hours after Hillary suspended her campaign some of her most ardent supporters would overdose on the Cult-Aide...Have the pod people taken over???...
Nothing has changed. Obama did not become qualified because Hillary was forced to suspend her campaign. All of the horrible things we know about Obama and his unelectability are still real. There is no magic wand that can make it go away.

Disappointment is understandable. Clinton ran an historic campaign and came thisclose to being the first female presidential nominee. That’s a tough pill to swallow. But if time doesn’t heal all wounds, maybe cold reason will:

Clinton supporters understand who the nominees are. I suspect they are not about to vote for an anti-choice Bush third termer like John McCain, who is on the wrong side of every issue Hillary cares about, and who will appoint Supreme Court justices that will be with us for years to come, but we shall see.

If you can't accept your own candidate's eloquent call for unity as the best way to advance the ideals your own candidate stands for, might I make a suggestion? Take your voter registration card – the one that says “Democrat” – and rip it up. Then, go out and register as a Republican. Campaign, blog and rant to your heart’s content in support of John McCain. It’s time to re-evaluate which side you’re on.

I admit, I hadn't thought twice about this moment when I saw it. After walking out into the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN to give his victory speech upon the conclusion of the Bataan Death March Democratic primary process, the presumptive Democratic nominee shared a hug and a kiss with his wife, Michelle, and then the two shared a moment that was almost more intimate than the kiss; a fist-bump, a small, private gesture of celebration between the two. I thought it was telling for a campaign that has it's own signature way of doing things, but mostly I thought, "what a sweet gesture."

Little did I know what malice lurked in such a seemingly innocent gesture.

First the press zeroed in on this novel gesture, as if they had just discovered a new tribe in the wilds of Borneo. The gesture has only been around for decades, but I'm guessing DAP (short for Dignity and Pride) doesn't get thrown around much at Beltway cocktail parties.

And with good reason!

Teasing a segment on the "gesture everyone seems to interpret differently," Fox News' E.D. Hill said: "A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? ... We'll show you some interesting body communication and find out what it really says." In the ensuing discussion with a "body language expert," Hill referred to the "Michelle and Barack Obama fist bump or fist pound," but at no point did she explain her earlier reference to "a terrorist fist jab."

It's either that, or the Obamas are flashing secret gang signs.

This has been a very educational campaign season. Who knows what ruin our country would've come to if we hadn't discovered all the ghetto thugs and terrorists in Major League Baseball.

New numbers from the Labor Department have left economists aghast. In the month of May unemployment jumped a shocking half a percent to 5.5%, the biggest spike since the 1980's. Digging into the numbers, many noticed an unusual jump in the number of teens and 20-somethings looking for work in may. It appears an early start to the summer job hunt might be skewing the numbers. But economists say there is no question, the nation's job market is getting worse. Businesses handed out 49,000 pink slips last month, with workers in construction, manufacturing and retail all seeing jobs vanish at a quick pace. This month's jobs report is the fifth in a row where employers have cut positions. So far, 2008 has seen almost 325,000 jobs disappear thanks to the economic slowdown.

And here's a sobering thought: Statistics say that in just a few years, 3.5 million jobs will have been sent overseas, American jobs outsourced as cost-saving measures by companies who are employing cheaper labor around the globe. Outsourcing is far from a black and white issue, as everyone tries to adjust to the growing global economy.

In a way the issue of outsourcing has its roots in WWII. Protectionism, it can be argued, drove the Japanese attacks. Our leaders after the war decided in their wisdom that we could not wall off the world, and the results have been good for America. But while we've historically enjoyed trade surpluses, in recent years that surplus has turned into an ever-growing deficit.

In business, nobody promises you a profit. As a champion of capitalism, I accept the risks with the rewards of trade. But the problem today is that we’re losing on an uneven playing field and, even worse, many of our own are the worst offenders. I'm all for making a buck, I even get that the global economy for some means outsourcing or closing up shop. But for entire industries in America, jobs are getting shipped overseas and pink slips are getting handed out by the thousands to U.S. workers - just because they can. CEO's get even more obscene pay packages, foreign workers still get exploited and worst of all the offenders get rewarded - not condemned - by our government. In the bizarre world that can only be Washington, a company that shutters its plant stateside, sends jobs to China and sets up a corporate shell in the Caymans actually gets rewarded with a de facto tax shelter.

I’m not here to rewrite the tax code, but I do know this: If you take advantage of all this country has to offer, then cut and run to make the heftiest profit margin you can, there ought to be price. Again, I believe in capitalism, but if you're willing to do anything to make a buck, you ought to pay the piper.

This:

...to this:

QOTD from Attaturk at Eschaton:

"Oh, Go with the Green Background"

"It'll make you look like the cottage cheese in a lime jello salad" Always a good look for an older gentlemen.

The aesthetics of McCain's speech, just mercifully completed before a slightly energized crowd of literally dozens, was awesome in how dreadful it was.

On substance, it's kind of hard for anyone to compare to the first African American acknowledging his nomination as standard-bearer for a major political party and odds-on favorite to be the next president of the US. But when McCain's substance consisted of loud protestations that he's not really a third term for Bush, while mirroring him on just about every major policy point, perhaps he should have just taken a pass Tuesday night.

On style...? While I doubt the lime green background was McCain's idea, his PR handlers should be thoroughly horse-whipped for letting him stand in front of it. On rhetorical style, McCain's halting, sweating speech, riddled with difficulties reading his teleprompter in front of a (small) roomful of 200 or so bored supporters in which he bltantly ripped off the Obama campaign message (to an awkward effect)...Well...I'll let his biggest fans weigh in with what they thought:

QOTD II:

I’m listening to John McCain’s speech (live) down in Louisiana as I type this.

My prediction: the Republicans are going to get beat like a red-headed stepchild this fall. Sigh.

Do presidential debates have mercy rules?

Before we get into the backroom politics and the mystery of “will he or won't he ask her to be his VP” – let’s step back for a moment, take a breath and remember this moment in history.

Whether you were a Hillary supporter like myself, or even a Republican with no intent of voting for Obama in your lifetime - take a mental snapshot of this moment and be proud that you lived in a time in American history where you witnessed what many believed, even a few years ago, we would not witness in our lifetime. A black man, in a post 9/11 world, with a name like Barack Hussein Obama, is representing his party for president.

Not many years ago, Obama wouldn't have been allowed to vote or even share a cab with a white guy, let alone marry a white woman. In five months he is the odds-on favorite to become leader of the free world, shepherding in a chapter in history, I believe, will be the most important in my lifetime.

Nobody needs to tell me all the problems we have in America. We’re stuck in a war; the economy is a mess; the gap between the Haves and Have Nots has never been wider. I know this, and I shine a light on it every night. But that doesn't take away from last night. We have come a long way, and while we have a long way to go, we are getting there.

AP tally: Obama effectively clinches nomination

WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House.
......
The AP tally was based on public commitments from delegates as well as more than a dozen private commitments. It also included a minimum number of delegates Obama was guaranteed even if he lost the final two primaries in South Dakota and Montana later in the day.

Superdelegates have been pouring in to Obama all day, Clinton says she's "open" to the idea of being Obama's VP, and Michelle Obama has yet to be caught railing against "whitey."

We can has General Election now?

The end may be near and the final curtain dropping for a couple of area Democrats. Obviously, Hillary is the headliner here and I'll get to her end game in a moment. But while the New York senator may have done it her way, Rob Andrews in New Jersey absolutely has done it the wrong way.

In going after fellow Democrat Frank Lautenberg in the Garden State's senatorial primary, Rep. Andrews has launched a scorched earth campaign that burned every bridge he had in his own party, and for what? He has a snowball's chance in you know where of winning, broke his word to the delegation that he wouldn't run and then took a cheap shot on the age issue that nobody will, or should, forget. About the only thing going for Andrews is that nobody will be watching his exit, since we'll all be focused on Hillary's next move.

Unlike almost every other talking head I've had no problem with the former First Lady hanging around. She's toughened Obama up, gotten the dirty laundry out before the general and forced Democratic voters and party elders to make a choice in a very close race. But with Florida and Michigan resolved by the DNC, a decision has been made. After tomorrow night, if Hillary fights on she will quickly learn not many of her steadfast allies are so steadfast. Here's hoping she gets out on her own terms and brokers a deal in everybody's best interest, including hers.

Maybe she'd be the Democrats best chance in November, maybe she'd be the best president, but after last weekend, I believe that ship has sailed. It's been a heck of a race. I, for one, hope it ends now, not in Denver.

So, last week, Barack Obama was giving a speech in New Mexico, and committed the heinous crime of misstating a bit of his family history. He claimed his great-uncle helped liberate the concentration camp at Auschwitz at the end of WWII. That was incorrect, as Republicans and the Crack Conservative Blogger Brigade pointed out with much tsk-tsking and questioning of Obama's fitness for office.

The truth of the matter was that Obama's great-uncle actually helped liberate Buchenwald, a Nazi slave labor camp, and not Auschwitz. And while some resorted to (im)moral equivocation between the two, most conservatives realizing this was not their "Tuzla" moment for Obama, dropped it and the case was closed.

....or was it???

No, to all our amusement, it was not:

Steve Gilbert of Sweetness & Light did some digging and discovered a website dedicated to preserving the history of the 89th Infantry Division of World War II, the division in which Obama’s great uncle served and helped liberate the Ohrdruf satellite of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Seeking to get to the bottom of a mystery that had been solved hours earlier, Gilbert dutifully fired off an email to the site’s owners, Ray and Mark Kitchell, thus setting up the greatest b**ch slap in history:

—– Original Message —–
From: Steve Gilbert
To: markkitchell@yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 6:14 AM
Subject: Any Record Of Charles W Payne?

Mr. Kitchell,

As you may have heard by now, Barack Obama has claimed that his great uncle Charlie Payne was a member of the 89th Div that liberated Buchenwald.

According to records his full name is either Charles W Payne or Charles T Payne (most likely the former), and he was born in 1924 — and he is still alive today.

He most likely was from Kansas at the time of enlistment.

Do you have any record of this gentleman?

Thank you,

Steve Gilbert
sweetness-light.com

PS - If you go to my website, you will see that I was probably the first to note the error in Mr. Obama’s first claims about his “uncle.”

And now, the coup de grace:

The reply was quick and to the point:

Please crawl back under the rock you came out from.
Good day

Raymond Kitchell, veteran 89th Inf Div

Watch it all in its slow-motion-train-wreck glory here.

Brings a tear to your eye....