Robert Stacy McCain: Catherine The Great Was Actually Stalin In A Dress!

Over at the Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan drew a parallel between voter suppression tactics pushed by Karl Rove, and the apparent electoral fraud perpetrated by the Ahmadinejad administration.

Ahmadinejad’s bag of tricks is eerily like that of Karl Rove – the constant use of fear, the exploitation of religion, the demonization of liberals, the deployment of Potemkin symbolism like Sarah Palin

Meanwhile, Confederate apologist Robert Stacy McCain has gotten his antebellum bloomers in a twist over this affont to the honor of Mrs. Todd Palin by a notorious sodomite:

I went outside, smoked a cigarette, then took a shower and ate a pizza and now, an hour later, I’m still agog at the wretchedness of Sully’s phrase, “Potemkin symbolism like Sarah Palin.” Sully attributes this to Rove — as if the governor of Alaska were self-evidently a signature “Rovian” tactic — and then says it is part of a “bag of tricks is eerily like that” of Ahmadinejad. Or vice-versa, actually, but the idea of moral equivalence is there.

How? Why? I’m scratching my head. Given that hyperbolic extremity of ad hominem is sort of a speciality of mine, and that I am a three-time nominee for Sully’s “Malkin Award,” you might think I’d have the kind of insight necessary to reverse-engineer a thing like this.

I’ve been irked by things I’ve read on the internet, sure, but I’ve never had to frantically pace the breezeway, sucking on a Salem, then scrub myself pink with a loofah and wolf down a Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine Three Meat Pizza before I could compose myself and sit back down at the computer.

WTF? I look at phrase, and try to figure out exactly what Sully means by it. “Potemkin villages” were the cruel propaganda hoax by which the Soviets sought to convince naive foreign visitors that everything was hunky-dory in the worker’s socialist paradise.

Zing!  Ouch!  Damn, McCain, your superior grasp of history has totallynailed Sully…give or take a century.  The “Potemkin village” was a (probably apocryphal) ruse attributed to Grigory Potemkin, who allegedly tried to deceive his girlfriend, Catherine the Great, about the value of her conquered real estate in the Crimea during the campaign of 1787.  Inconveniently, Potemkin died in 1791, about 130 years before the Soviet Union was created, but I’m sure the Prince was a total Commie.

Posted by scott on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 9:54 pm

Well, he’s got a point. I mean, “Potemkin Village”, that’s actually a better description of Bush’s New Orleans press conference in which they hauled in lights so they could pretend the neighborhood was being aided, and then yanked the generators out just as soon as the photo-op was over.
And Scott, you’re probably not bookmarking the same sites I am. Which is probably good.

Left by D. Sidhe on June 15th, 2009

the constant use of fear, the exploitation of religion, the demonization of liberals, the deployment of Potemkin symbolism like Sarah Palin
And an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.

Left by herr doktor bimler on June 15th, 2009

How, exactly, did we wind up with Sullivan? Did we flip a coin, and Canada won? Did TNR advertise for a bad drag-show Lady Thatcher? Did he just hit land and start walking until an American who thinks anyone with an English accent is smart gave him a job?
It’s bad enough when the Evil Cheney/Rove Empire gets slagged by someone who wasn’t simply hoodwinked by it when it counted, but who was actively stomping on anyone who disagreed. But poorly paired with these warmed-over Cold War fantasies they tie into like comfort food? Nuclear threat! Stolen elections! And they know nothing whatsoever about it, but that doesn’t stop them from swallowing it whole. Or insisting that we have to meet the threat represented by their steady tub-thumping with a dozen or so of the aircraft carriers we have lying around.
Y’know, the time to sound the alarm about Cheney, Rove, et. al.was back when the multiple disasters they were perpetrating could still be reversed. Back when Sullivan was agreeing with them, in other words. Doing so now amounts to arguing over the clothes the corpse of the GOP was found in.

Left by Doghouse Riley on June 15th, 2009

I realize that Sullivan writes above the level of a third grader, so I’m assuming that Stacy (and now Althouse) are just missing the nuance.
He didn’t compare Sarah Palin to the Potemkin villages. He basically said Palin is emulating Rove with her down-home folksianisms, which resonate with Ahmadinejad’s “man of the people” image, while both take handouts and bribes from the very big businesses they are supposedly shunning.
The “Potemkin Village” meme is probably an overplay here. What he really needed to do was to connect Ahmadinejad and Palin, not to Rove, but to Ronald “Rancher” Reagan, the ultimate fraudulent “man of the people”.

Left by actor212 on June 15th, 2009

Doghouse,
In fairness to Sully, he did turn his back on Bush/Cheney while they were still in office. I wouldn’t count him as anything more than a fair weather friend, but he’s not recently come-to-God.

Left by actor212 on June 15th, 2009

In all fairness, I believe it was not a mere coin flip, but rather a vigorously performed rock-paper-scissors contest that doomed us to Life with Sully.

Left by heydave on June 15th, 2009

Well, IIRC, Sullivan felt “betrayed” when George W.–whose codpiece he had helped stuff, up to that time–came out in favor of a Constitutional Defense of Marriage amendment. Now, as far as I’m concerned, anyone who ever believed, or pretended to believe, that George W. Bush and his party would do anything else is a first-class fool, but for this to be the breaking point for a man who had been the worst sort of tenth-row-of-the-mob brick tossing Iraq war supporter is simply inexcusable. It’s like supporting the Confederacy until 1864, when JEB Stuart’s cavalry trampled your petunia bed.

Left by Doghouse Riley on June 15th, 2009

I come here for the excellent humor, the verbal tour jetes, and often enough there’s as much in the comments as in the post.
Thank you, all. I’ve been a martyr to tree pollen, molds and spores for 48 hours, but now I feel better.

Left by Li'l Innocent on June 15th, 2009

Sorry, I can’t see the Norma Desmond of Provincetown as a particularly reliable ally no matter what part of the political spectrum one inhabits.

Left by LA Confidential Pantload on June 15th, 2009

I, too was stumped by the Palin=Ptomkin comparison. I don’t smoke, but after a couple of “fake lattes” (hot milk with Taster’s Choice added) I realized it was just a *typo*, and Sully really meant Palin=Pumpkin!
The clue: “Ahmadinejad’s *bag of tricks* is eerily like that of Karl Rove”
The plot thins. Consider, if you will:
“…the constant use of fear…”= Trick or Treat!
“…the exploitation of religion”: Glowing crosses on plastic grave stones. Palin’s being given protection from witches by a…witch doctor.
“…the demonization of liberals…”: well, *that* needs no explanation!
“…the deployment of Pumpkin symbolism like Sarah Palin”: The many blasphemous people carved Sarah’s face into many a jock-a-lantern.

Left by Kathy on June 15th, 2009

Let’s give Sullivan credit for one thing: He is the only MSM journalist who has stayed skeptical, in print, about Sarah Palin’s increasingly ridiculous argument that she gave birth to Trig. THAT is the biggest Potemkin-village-like tale still following Palin around. Mainly because she threw her daughter Bristol under the bus, declaring her “five months pregnant” last August as a way of PROVING that Trig had to be Sarah’s baby. SP’s never released the baby’s birth certificate. Anyone who shows the merest hint of interest in this subject over to the site conservatives4palin is dubbed a “Trig Troother”–their spelling–and banned at once.
Given that Sully’s, uh, not altogether familiar first-hand with human reproduction, he actually did some legwork and interviewed a slew of ob/gyns. All of them were aghast that SP ever got the press to swallow the “Wild Ride” theory. This is the one in which she “announced” her pregnancy at seven months (to the astonishment of her staff) around March 5, 2008, the day after McCain officially entered the campaign. Six weeks later, Palin alleges that her water started breaking at the National Governors Assn. meeting in Texas, and that she flew back to Alaska, bypassed the hi-tech hospitals in Anchorage, and allegedly gave birth at a Band-Aid station in Palmer that doesn’t even allow twin births, on April 18, 2008, some 24 hours after her alleged amniotic fluid allegedly began to leak.
Really, if you have any interest in this subject–you can tell that I do–head on over to http://www.palindeception.com/blogand http://www.theimmoralminority.blogspot.com, andhttp://www.palingates.blogspot.com.
Look! There goes Halley’s Comet! David Letterman made my water break!

Left by Mrs. Tarquin Biscuitbarrel on June 16th, 2009

I don’t know. The whole “Trig-is-Bristol’s-baby” seems like the birth certificate scandal of the left. There is too much attention on her family already. Who cares how many babies she’s had, she’s was a crappy mayor, she’s a crappy governor, and she has no interest or even knowledge of politics beyond her pet issues.

Left by Hysterical Woman on June 17th, 2009

The fake pregnancy is only one of many, many issues. If SP will lie about that, what won’t she lie about? The list grows…

Left by Mrs. Tarquin Biscuitbarrel on June 17th, 2009

Come to think of it, “Potemkin Village” would have been the perfect name for Dubya’s ranch. Although Rancho Estupidoalways worked for me.

Left by Realist on June 18th, 2009

The Dog Ate Jonah’s Homework. Then Jonah Ate The Dog

It will probably come as no surprise that Jonah (I’m Rubber and You’re Fascist) Goldberg has been in the forefront of disavowing, Mission: Impossible-style, the wingnut bona fides of Holocaust Museum shooter James von Brunn.  You also won’t be astonished to hear that a few bloggers have taken issue with his assumptions and obfuscations, with the sad, but inevitable result that Jonah has been served.  With an apple in his mouth.

But Jonah takes his responsibilities as editor-at-large of NRO seriously, and never makes assertions he cannot back up with incontrovertible facts and thoughtful analysis.

First, I should say that my email to David Weigel was in haste as I was on a deadline and had just made a train to New York with my daughter in tow.

“I’m not stupid…I’m busy!”

And, as fruitless and overheated as the Obama birth certificate thing has become, I’m at a loss as to how it is racist (and I reject liberalism’s relentless insistence that racism = rightwing).

“I believe I’ve proved my point by demonstrating conclusively that I don’t understand yours.”

I can assure you  that you’d be hearing the same arguments about Obama’s eligibility for office if all the facts were same, except that he was white.

I don’t recall Atlas Shrugs shrieking that McCain, born in the Canal Zone, was an ethnic Panamanian and the illegitimate child of Manuel Noriega, but in this case I don’t really need facts — I’ve got Jonah’s assurance.

As for Neiwert, as usual, he is so beholden to his cartoonish version of fascism that he’s being intellectually dishonest.

Intellectual dishonesty is a sign of latte-sipping elitism.  Real Americans are just dishonest.

Finally, Jonah unravels the perplexing skein of claim and rebuttal, and like a latter day Arachne weaves an illuminated tapestry of truth:

I did not know the stuff about the Noontide press  and, contrary to all of my instincts, I will take Neiwert at his word that that’s all true and fairly presented. But, I’m still hard-pressed to know what the point is.

‘Nuff said!

Posted by scott on June 14th, 2009

A Brace of Imbeciles

Old WO’C favorite Sandy Rios, a Chicago radio host and occasional FoxNews Talking Wig Stand, takes time out of her busy Townhall column today to answer an important question:  What’s the collective noun for pagans?

It would take a missile’s laser focus to cut through the confusion and conflict concerning the murder of late-term abortionist, Dr. George Tiller.

These missile lasers are great for cuttin’ through interpersonal drama and emotional states of being!  I’ll never use my Sawzsall again!

Shot down in his church while ushering on a Sunday, the crime was shocking. The pro-abortion lobby is rightly grieving the loss of a colleague while strangely expressing no remorse for his thousands of little victims.

My that is strange.  Sure, most of his patients were women who were trying to bring a pregnancy to term, but who suffered complications that threatened their future fertility and often their lives, but then, you could say the same thing about cancer; and if a right wing nut shot and killed your oncologist for interfering with God’s will,  you’d at least have the good taste to apologize to the tumor.

The pro-life community is struggling to find the balance between relief that his death is saving lives and revulsion at the means by which they have been saved.

Dabbing at imaginary tears while tittering behind your handkerchief seems to strike the proper tone.

What about a mother who practices Satanism and believes in child sacrifice? Is our right to life guaranteed only by our mother’s individual belief system? Clearly-stated American principles alone would reject this view. The first inalienable right conferred upon us by our Creator—according to the Founding Fathers—was life … life… life.

Caller, can you turn down your radio?  Thank you.

Dr. Tiller was an usher in the Lutheran church…Why do the people who perpetrate this monstrous practice refer to the Christian God in their own defense—and insist on maintaining some sort of identity with Him? The Judeo Christian God is not the god of confusion, and he is not unclear on this issue of the murder of the innocent.

Let them be pagans and practice what pagans do. Let them refer to the gods and worship nature and pleasure and preach child sacrifice in their gathering places, but let them cease and desist all claims to the Judeo-Christian God.

Thanks to DRM, the Judeo-Christian God can only answer Region 1 prayers.

We should not succumb to the confusion of the pagans.

Or the pirates of the Caribbean.

Now let’s check in with another old friend of WO’C, Rachel Marsden:

An 88-year old by the name of James Von Brunn allegedly walked into DC’s National Holocaust Museum in Washington this week, mowing down a security guard. Are leftists going to feel the Holocaust Museum shooter’s pain and find ways toblame ourselves for this act of terrorism like they do when the “usual suspects” do such things? I bet not.

Wait, Rachel’s a leftist now?  Come on, she can’t have stalked everyonein the GOP already.

In the left’s view, this guy doesn’t have any boxes to tick off in the “victim” column. He’s white, male, and hence “privileged”. That’s how they see it. How do I know this? Because I’ve been called “privileged” enough times by leftists who don’t know a single thing about me beyond my skin color.

Rachel makes a good point.  Before we leap to conclusions about how “privileged,” or “likely to to go on a shooting spree” she is, let’s take the time to really and truly get to know her.  S.z.’s already done the basic spadework for us:

In case you don’t recall Rachel, here’s a brief recap of her career:

In 1997 she seduced her swim coach at Simon Fraser University, stalked him when he tried to break up with her, then charged him with date rape when he tried to ignore her.  This was the case that put her on the map, in that it caused the coach to get fired, caused many good people a lot of unnecessary grief, and cost her college lot of money, both in dealing with the case, and then to reinstate and compensate the swim coach when the truth came out.

While at SFU, she also:

* Seduced then stalked one of her college professors.

* Seduced (in a non-sexual way) then stalked the college sexual harassment officer who helped her file her case.

After graduation, she decided that a career in wingnuttery was the one for her:  She went on to write columns for such no-rent sites as GOPUSA, and American Daily.  She claimed in her bio to have written for McLeans magazine and the National Post, but it later was discovered that her contributions consisted of a letter to the editor.  She was hired by Paul Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation, but resigned after she was arrested for stalking again.

Read the whole thing.

But what’s Rachel been doing lately, besides seeking revenge on her ex-boyfriend by auctioning off his clothes on eBay?  According to her Townhall bio, she’s “a columnist with Human Events Magazine, and Editor-In-Chief of GrandCentralPolitical News Syndicate.”  Now, as for the first qualification, I’m pretty sure my cat has contributed columns to Human Events Magazine…

I’m a keen observer of human events, and to be honest…you people are morons.

But the latter credit sounds quite impressive and entrepreneurial — let’s check it out:

Welcome to Grand Central Political, the premiere website connecting people working in politics and political media directly with politicians, campaigns, public relations firms, and media outlets looking for both experts and new talent. We serve the USA, Canada, UK and France. Sign up for a free account to get your own professional webpage, orsearch for jobs and opportunities. Take control of your career and get discovered today. And if you like, you can upload your contributions to our bipartisan international political magazine and have your work seen by the top decision makers and employers.

So it’s like Monster.com for people whose resumes apparently aren’t good enough to post on Monster.com, with the added benefit to the user that he can while away the time he’s not getting a job by writing articles for which he won’t get paid.  Let’s see what’s in the Bipartisan International Political Magazine today:

From Susan Boyle To Hitler: Why Some Simply Can’t Hack Fame

By Rachel Marsden

Hm.  Okay then.  Reaching back into the archives, it appears there’s a grand total of eight articles in the “magazine,” six by Rachel Marsden (and one by Bernard Kerik, entitled “Obama Risks National Security With CIA Scrutiny,” in which the former Commish gives it to the Prez man-to-man, warning that if Obama exposes CIA methods and sources, the intelligence community will retaliate by exposing the President’s adulterous love nest overlooking Ground Zero, ’cause that’s what your enemies fuckin’ do to a man in this fuckin’ town!).  Still, I’m sure it’s a fast-growing new media enterprise that’ll prove to be the next Google, or Pets.com.  Let’s see if there’s still time to jump on the Grand Central Political IPO…

Wait — this can’t be right.  Rachel Marsden is an internationally known pundit who John Hawkins of Right Wing News considers the 15th Hottest Conservative Woman in New Media, and yet her website isn’t worth half of WO’C, which isn’t worth anything?!  (And John ought’a know, because he’s worth ten times what we are.)

So what have we learned about Rachel?  Well, she believes that Susan Boyle would make a world-conquering fascist dictator, if she was just a little less camera-shy (or, alternatively, we could have totally avoided World War II if Simon Cowell had only gone to the 1934 Nuremberg Rally and made snotty remarks about Hitler’s gesticulating).  Anyway, I believe we’ve done sufficient supplementary reading that we should now be able to comprehend the broad outline of Rachel’s Townhall column, if not its many nuances.

Every terrorist apparently has a giant axe to grind – one which the left is always happy to retrieve for them the second it’s misplaced, if they pick the right cause.

I tell ya, I couldn’t find my terrorist axe anywhere — but thanks to The Left, I made it to the grindstone just in time!  Now if I could just get some other metonym to find my keys and sunglasses…

Until now, as Rachel points out, liberals’ involvement in the Long War has been limited to recovering brobdignagian, yet missing axes, like a combination of Jason Voorhees and St. Anthony.  But now that they have a terrorist of their own to torture, we’ll see if they’re still so eager to shut down Gitmo.

if President Obama was looking for an excuse to keep Club Gitmo open – because the status quo is much easier than taking any action that could result in a screw-up, given that they often return to the battlefield upon release – he should just tell leftists that Von Brunn will be in there propping up the walls. Until he comes up with an excuse the left finds sufficiently self-serving, they probably wouldn’t even mind if he’s pushed against a hollow wall, put in a room with caterpillars and ladybugs, or given an aggressive face-washing by a federal agent.

If Bush and Cheney had actually been serious about protecting America, they wouldn’t have subcontracted the harsh interrogations to a couple of psychologists from Spokane; they would’ve jobbed it out to Rachel, who knows a thing a two about torturing a man.

Some are having a hard time categorizing Von Brunn.

I’m gonna say…”Animal”?

That’s what happens when you try to foolishly rationalize insanity.

Instead, you should follow Rachel’s example, and try to monetize it.

Posted by scott on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 12:20 pm

Not only were those columns a brace of imbeciles, they were also a crutch FOR imbeciles.
Hmmm….that sounded funnier in my head. Oh well.

Left by Bill S on June 14th, 2009

Wait, what? I couldn’t get past the first one. Sandy, honey, Satanists are not pagans. They are, in fact, a subset of Christians. Without you, they wouldn’t exist. Don’t fucking blame us for them.

Left by D. Sidhe on June 14th, 2009

Paul Bunyan’s gratitude to The Left will change when it’s his ox being gored.
I think I’m sufficiently abraded now.

Left by herr doktor bimler on June 14th, 2009

“FoxNews Talking Wig Stand.”
I hope you have the copyright on that one. I’ll try to remember to give credit.

Left by M. Bouffant on June 15th, 2009

P. S.: My web log is worth more than GNP.com, mostly from people Googling “Sophia Loren topless” everyday.
(I should’ve known when I took that job at Red Hot Video I’d end up being a pornographer.)

Left by M. Bouffant on June 15th, 2009

[…] World-O-Crap: A Brace of Imbeciles […]

Left by Mike’s Blog Roundup | My Blog Channel on June 15th, 2009

How Grand Central Political could come in behind big-tits-boobs-pictures-small-breasts-puffy-hard-nipples.com
in terms of value is beyond me…NOBODY likes puffy hard nipples!

Left by actor212 on June 15th, 2009

I am deeply grateful to this post for making me look up Jason Voorhees (I don’t watch slasher movies) and St. Anthony (I’m not good on saints’ metiers, or bailiwicks, or whatever they are). I’m intellectually richer now, I think.
What gets me about some of these beings is their energy. If I were revenging myself by selling my ex-boyfriend’s clothing on eBay, that would just about shoot my bolt, given the other demands of day-to-day life. But not our Rachel! She swims, she writes letters, columnizes, she entrepreneurializes, she sucks the blood of the male, she’s everywhere!

Left by Li'l Innocent on June 15th, 2009

Yeah, they’re “struggling to find the balance” by dancing on Dr. Tiller’s grave. The whole lot of ‘em make me want to hurl.

Left by Toni on June 16th, 2009

Gee. Herr Dokton Bimmler said what I wanted to say. So I will just take off my ladies’-luncheon hat to all these classy (with a K!) Vagino-Americans: writing for Human Events, pretending to have vast vast MSM chops, overestimating the worth of their websites, auctioning off the menfolk’s clothing (Hmmmm! There’s a new threat: “Hang it up or I’m putting it on eBay!”).
As I said, gee. Compared with Sandy and Rachel, the Ozymandias of our day, should I look upon their works, ye mighty, and despair? What do I do? Read great and trashy works of literature, browse the blogs, keep house, bake bread. Sometimes pie. No stalking.

Left by Mrs. Tarquin Biscuitbarrel on June 16th, 2009

Satanists are not pagans.
Neither are Lutherans, Sandy. Just sayin’.

Left by Duros62 on June 19th, 2009

The Corner To Sotomayor: Thanks For Making It OK To Hate Brown Folks Again!

I get the sense that many conservatives spent the early portion of the decade biting their tongues, and digging manicured nails into tender, uncalloused palms whenever Bush cozied up to Vicente Fox, or otherwise attempted to woo the Hispanic vote.  Now that That One has nominated One of Them to the Supreme Court, however, they can at last heave a sigh of relief, heft the Wiffle bat, and beat that piñata until the candy flows like blood.

Hispanic 101   [Heather Mac Donald]

NYU history professor Jonathan Zimmerman deconstructsthe category “Hispanic” in today’s LA Times.  Richard Nixon gave it a push in 1970 in the ever-green hope of attracting Latinos to the Republican party:

“All Spanish-speaking Americans share certain characteristics — a strong family structure, deep ties to the church, which makes them open to an appeal from us,” wrote one GOP campaign strategist on the eve of Nixon’s 1972 presidential reelection bid.

Whatever the truth of the observation in 1972, let’s review the myth of the redemptive Hispanic today.  Fifty-three percent of all Latinas under the age of 20 have been pregnant at least once, virtually always outside of wedlock.

Today’s GOP would really prefer you rotund, milky-boobed, baby-making sluts not vote for them.  But if you must, at least get an abortion first.  No, wait –!

An official with the Pew Hispanic Center recently recounted to me the gang violence and ubiquitous teen pregnancy in his former high school on the east side of Los Angeles.

In this rumble, our chief weapons are fear, stereotype, and anecdote!

Such social facts do not help California’s budget situation.

It’s because teenagers with Spanish surnames are fecund that we require a 2/3 majority to pass a tax increase in this state.

Zimmerman amusingly calls Sonia Sotomayor “one of the most qualified nominees in the history of the Supreme Court,”

Yeah, the idea of putting a Latina on the Supreme Court is a lot like the concept behind that “dogs playing poker” painting: charming, but absurd.

Posted by scott on June 12th, 2009