Dum Pendebat Filius

It’s not surprising when a Grade-A fool like the Costco Coulter displays her ignorance of the meaning of the most basic political terms, such as “socialism.” It’s quite another when someone who’s running for President does the same thing:

In the radio address, McCain didn’t directly call Obama a socialist, but he let the now-famous Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher nearly do it for him.

“You see, [Obama] believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that help us all make more of it. Joe, in his plainspoken way, said this sounded a lot like socialism,” McCain said Saturday.

Readers, words don’t just mean whatever we want them to mean at any given moment. Socialism means collective ownership of the means of production in a centrally-planned economy. Most of us learned this in our ninth-grade Social Studies (or Civics) class.

Socialism does not mean “redistribution of wealth,” or “higher taxes,” or “taxing the rich,” or whatever else some fool decides he wants the word to mean on any given afternoon. When the word socialism is redefined to mean one of these things, the word has lost its meaning and has just become a term of abuse, just another scary word to scare the voters with.

This “socialist” silliness is just one of the many deeply foolish and nasty themes with which the kooky fringes of the right wing have been trying to dupe the American voter over the past couple of weeks, as desperation causes their shirts to get all wet and nasty with flop-sweat. If they can’t convince the people to vote their way, then by God, they’ll tell them lies to scare them.

It’s one thing to hear some kooky AM-radio talk show host or wingnut blogger say something stupid and ignorant such as “Obama’s socialist policies,” but it’s beyond pathetic to hear invocations of “socialism” come from the mouth of an ostensibly intelligent man such as Sen. McCain.

If Sen. McCain doesn’t know what the word socialism means in real life, he’s a fool. If he does actually know what the word means and still pretends to think Sen. Obama’s policy proposals resemble “socialism” in any way, shape or form, he’s a duplicitous liar who’s trying to play the American voter for a fool.

What do you think is the case, readers? Does John McCain not know what socialism is, or is he just cynically trying to dupe the voters?

Readers, Saint John Straight-Talk McCain, darling of the political press corps in Campaign 2000, was never anything but a myth. We’ve seen the real John McCain this year, and he’s an absolutely craven, cynical, deeply nasty political hack who’s willing to do and say anything to win this election. He’s even using the same robocall company that smeared him in 2000, for God’s sake. The man has sold his soul.

He claims to respect the American people, while he’s desperately trying to play them for a bunch of fucking fools.

Readers, I’ve about had it with Bloglines, a site that seems to be experiencing scalability issues. Half the feeds I subscribe to are broken these days.

Who knows about a good, reliable web-based RSS/Atom feed aggregator (other than Bloglines)? It has to be web-based (i.e. not an application that runs on my computer, not a browser plug-in), so that I have access to my feeds wherever I happen to be. If you have recommendations, please let me know. Thanks!

The Costco Coulter thinks “Joe the Plumber” is onto something here:

Joe the Plumber seems responsible and he gets it. He sees that Obama is a socialist who wants to take his hard-earned money and tax him out of starting his small business.

Readers, it’s true: Barack Obama is a socialist. Just look at his campaign website and you’ll see: after he (1) surrenders to Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, (2) suspends the Constitution and imposes Sharia Law on the USA, his next step as President will be to (3) have the US government seize control of the means of production. Yes, under President Obama, we will finally see the abolition of private property. Did you catch last night’s debate, when he called John McCain a “bribed tool of reactionary intrigue”? That was some good stuff, readers.

Time to put on my tinfoil hat, readers…

Using a spreadsheet program on my computer, I have kept track of every tank of gas I’ve ever put in my 2004 Chevy Cavalier. I’ve been keeping records since 17 February 2005. Therefore, I’m able to keep track of trends in gasoline prices.

Gas is currently selling for $3 a gallon (technically, $2.999, with that ridiculous “nine-tenths of a cent” folderol) at GetGo stations here in Pittsburgh. The last time I saw sub-three-dollar gas was on 30 December 2007, and that was in Egg Harbor Township, NJ (about 15 miles from Atlantic City), where gas is always about ten cents cheaper than in the Pittsburgh or Washington DC areas (the other places where I frequently fill my tank).

The last time I saw gas this cheap in the Steel City was on 21 December 2007, when it was $2.999/gallon, the same as today. That was exactly 300 days ago. The last time I bought gas in Pittsburgh, just a couple weeks ago (1 October 2008), it cost me $3.53 a gallon. The price of gas has gone down almost fifty cents in the past two weeks.

Is it just a coincidence that gas is getting so much cheaper a couple weeks before Election Day? Something to ponder, readers.

(For those who are interested: Since I started keeping records in February 2005, the cheapest gas I’ve bought was $1.92, in Atlantic City, NJ, on 22 November 2005. The most expensive gas I’ve bought was $4.10, here in Pittsburgh, on 11 July 2008. I’ve filled my tank 152 times in the past three years and eight months, to the tune of $3806.61, and the average price of gas has been $2.77/gallon in that time period.)

What’s David Horowitz up to these days, readers? Chez lui, c’est toujours la même chose…

He’s bravely battling campus jihadists in the Wolverine State:

Tonight I’m speaking at Central Michigan University a campus with 20,000+ students [...] As usual the threat of violence from the campus left is great enough that the university administration has decided to assign security guards to the event [...]

Presenting themselves [the Muslim Students Association] as a religous [sic] group when they are a political arm of the Islamo-fascist jihad against the West is a form of deception. Allowing them to get away with this endangers the lives and security of moderate Muslims who do not support the jihad and Christians, Jews and Atheists who are infidels in their path.

Scary stuff, readers. But, thank God, “The Left” was distracted last night in Michigan:

Last night’s talk at Central Michigan University went off without incident, probably because the left was attending a parallel event in which a Professor Fatah delivered a talk on how the Jews blew up the World Trade Center.

The only thing that could dissuade “the left” from turning out en masse to cause “incidents” at a David Horowitz campus event would be getting a chance to hear a radical Muslim college professor blame the Jews for 9/11. That’s life on the planet David Horowitz lives in, readers. What a character.

Paul Krugman has won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

Watch for Wingnut Nation to erupt in a fit of pique and chagrin as they try to reassure themselves it’s all just a reward for Paul Krugman’s “anti-American” views. The world, remember, is all just one big anti-conservative conspiracy.

We’re smelling a distinct odor of desperation and flop-sweat from Wingnut Nation as Campaign 2008 enters its final weeks. Sen. McCain (John Sidney III) and Gov. Sarah W. Palin have gotten straight-out nasty, bending over backwards to try and depict Sen. Obama as a terrorist-lover, a scary Outsider, and a traitor. They seem to feel their only remaining hope is to be as negative as possible and hope they can get voters to be scared of Obama Hussein X.

There’s even been activity in the comments section of old posts on this blog, as AM-radio talkshow wingnuts keep trying to resurrect the Barack Obama = Secret Muslim With Arab Blood meme.

I thought I’d heard it all, readers. Then I saw that one enterprising wingnut columnist has decided to go simian on us, flinging some crazy poop between the bars of his cage. (Ihm ist, als ob es tausend Stäben gäbe,/ Und hinter tausend Stäben keine Welt, perhaps.) His claim? Lefty Weatherman Terrorist Bill Ayers ghost-wrote Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father.

Who says wingnuts are anti-intellectual? Jack Cashill can “deconstruct a text” like he was Jacques Derrida. Peep this, yo:

Bill Ayers and Barack Obama have a good deal in common. Indeed, their respective memoirs, Fugitive Days and Dreams From My Father, read like they could have been written by the same person — and, in fact, they may very well have been.

All the cited quotes that follow come from these two books. On the subject of content I will refer to the author of Dreams as “Obama.” On the subject of style, I will refer to him as the [sic] “Dreams’ author.”

Dreams melds two styles: one, a long-winded accounting of conversations and events, polished just well enough to pass muster; the second, a fierce, succinct and tightly coiled analysis of the events that have been related.

Fugitive Days is fierce, succinct and tightly coiled throughout. It lacks the sometimes tedious fluff of Dreams and is the better book.

“Fierce, succinct, and tightly coiled.” Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the prosecution rests its case.

(via Sadly, No!)

Dear Costco Coulter,

If you’re going to claim on your biography page that you “speak Arabic,” you might want to think about getting the most basic Arabic phrases right.

There’s no such thing as “Alhamdillullah.” This is a mistake you’ve made many, many times. We’ve even talked about it before.

The phrase is al-hamdu lillah. Not al-hamdi lullah or “Alhamdillullah.” Furthermore, it doesn’t mean “Praise Allah.” It means “Praise [be] to God,” or simply Thank God.

Most Arabs say it about fifty times a day. You might want to try getting it right once in a while. That would make your claims of linguistic prowess a little easier to believe.

Just something to think about.

Love,
Dumpendebat

Remember how John McCain giggled and chuckled when a supporter asked him, “How do we beat the bitch?” (referring to Hillary Clinton)?

(If you have problems viewing the embedded video, head over to YouTube to watch it.)

Well, his running mate, Sarah Palin, also thinks it’s pretty funny when somebody calls her political opponent a “bitch” and a “cancer.”

(If you have problems viewing the embedded video, head over to YouTube to watch it.)

[N.B. The woman whom the radio jerkoff referred to as a "cancer" and a "bitch" is a cancer survivor. All the same, Gov. Palin thought the whole thing was just too funny. See Sadly, No! for details.]

We already know all about McCain’s character issues. Regrettably, it looks like Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has some character issues of her own.

Remember how, four years ago, John Kerry was derided as a “gigolo” because his second wife had so much money?

But if there is one characteristic of Kerry’s life that should disqualify him absolutely as a candidate for president, it is the fact that he has sought out millionaire wives to take care of him. Not to put too fine a point on it, he’s a serial gigolo.

[...] [H]is second wife, Teresa made him sign a prenuptial agreement when they were wed: “Which begs the question: If his own wife doesn’t trust him with her money, why should we trust him with ours?”

Teresa Heinz Kerry is not sure about her husband’s character. Are you?

Four years later, it’s the Republican candidate whose second wife is extremely rich. Why, McCain and his wife own so many properties, he couldn’t even count them! In fact, McCain even signed a pre-nup, just like Gigolo John Kerry did! Wow! “His own wife doesn’t trust him with her money.”

So how does a right-winger deal with this unpleasant turning of the tables? Easy. You see, readers, on Planet Wingnut, houses and condos are like neckties. Who could possibly keep track of exactly how many he’s got?

I can relate, though. For example, if a reporter asked me how many ties I own, there’s no way I could answer. Just like McCain, I’d tell him he has to ask my wife.

You can’t make this stuff up, readers.

See Glenn Greenwald’s blog post today for more “gigolo” quotes from Campaign 2004. The double standard really is stunning.