The Audacity of Desperation

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Some wingnut found a Weather Underground newsletter from 1975 (I didn’t know the Weather Underground was still around in 1975), and documents that the words “organizers,” “communities,” “audacity,” and “socialism” appeared in close proximity in the same paragraph.

Wow! This proves that Barack Obama is a Marxist! Oh, wait …

This paragraph from the newsletter actually frightened one of the commenters —

… the system itself is inhuman, and socialism is a real alternative; the energy crisis is the fault of Rockefeller and the oil companies, not the Arab people; unemployment is caused by capitalism not “illegal aliens” stealing jobs; war in Indochina or the Mideast is part of the problem, not the solution; political and social action can change things.

I’m not entirely sure why the wingnut found this disturbing. All of these issues were issues in 1975, as I remember. The Yom Kippur was was in 1973 and was still on peoples’ minds in 1975. Also in 1973 OPEC enacted an oil embargo on the U.S., which caused a lot of aggravation. In 1975 we had just pried ourselves out of a war in Indochina, but there was an ongoing war in Lebanon. Most of the issues we are facing now have been going on for a long time.

This post and the commenters also bring up the rumor that Bill Ayers must have ghost-written one of Barack Obama’s books, apparently based on the observation they both speak English and use some of the same words. The Times of London tells us that Robert Fox, a California businessman and brother-in-law of Chris Cannon, a Republican congressman from Utah, are connecting the dots. And if they can’t find dots to connect, they make some.

Fox contacted Dr. Peter Millican, a philosophy don at Oxford who wrote a software program that can detect when works are by the same author by comparing favorite words and phrases. Fox offered Millican $10,000 to prove that Ayers wrote Obama’s books.

Millican took a preliminary look and found the charges “very implausible”. A deal was agreed for more detailed research but when Millican said the results had to be made public, even if no link to Ayers was proved, interest waned.

Millican said: “I thought it was extremely unlikely that we would get a positive result. It is the sort of thing where people make claims after seeing a few crude similarities and go overboard on them.” He said Fox gave him the impression that Cannon had got “cold feet about it being seen to be funded by the Republicans”.

Cannon insisted, however, that he was not interested in making an issue of Obama’s memoir “even if it were scientifically proven” to be someone else’s work.

Of course not. The $10,000 was just to satisfy idle curiosity.

Update: Alert blogger Robert Farley of Lawyers, Guns & Money shows us the Obama-Ayers-Weather Underground conspiracy is broader than even I had imagined.

I don’t want to alarm anyone, but the term “audacity” also appears no less than twelve times in chapter seven alone of US Army Field Manual 3-0. This can only mean that the Weather Underground has already successfully seized control of the United States Army!!!!!11!!1! Has anyone investigated the connections between David Petraeus and Bill Ayers? No one is safe!!!

Further, the Weather Underground had a circular logo. So does Obama. So does Mozilla Firefox.

Is there no end to this?

14 thoughts on “The Audacity of Desperation”

  1. Two days to go til the election and, surprise surprise, McCain is doing everything from criticizing Obama’s patriotism in speeches to pamphleteering many unsubstantiated charges… like Obama favors criminals over police.

    Joe Biden commented on the McCain endgame in a speech yesterday:

    “In my view, over the last few weeks, John McCain’s campaign has gone way over the top,” said Biden Saturday at an outdoor rally on Evansville’s Main Street. “They are trying to take the low road to the highest office in the land. It’s not only George Bush’s economic policies that John McCain has bought hook, line and sinker. He’s also bought Karl Rove’s brand of political tactics.”

    “It is disappointing, I never thought I’d see this from a McCain campaign,” Biden continued. “They’re calling Barack Obama every name in the book. They are going out in a way that I don’t recall it being more personally vicious.”

    As a supporter yelled, “They’re scared!” the Delaware senator predicted that the tone would get worse in the last three days. (via CNN)

    In reality, the early voting has stacked up in Obama’s favor.

    Just under 50% of the vote in Colorado, for instance, a swing state, is in already and it appears to be 2 to 1 in Obama’s favor. This is a state where Republicans outnumber Democrats… but Independents are the largest group. That is where Obama seems to be doing very well.

    Florida, which McCain must win if he is t be elected, has the Republican falling behind in many polls.

    …Continued at Under The LobsterScope

  2. Perhaps I shouldn’t have, but I laughed so hard at this stuff that my morning coffee ended up all over the breakfast table. Thanks for a good laugh.

  3. Wingnut “logic” is like watching small children trying to argue – it’s so totally full of holes, that it’s laughable. That a wingnut would be frightened of the paragraph that began with

    …the system itself is inhuman..

    …shows their utter inability to even consider a different point of view. This people are so hopelessly rigid, and that rigidity is why this country is heading over the cliff.

    Until we can acknowledge and face Amerca’s very real shadow – impossible for these people – this country is going nowhere. The universe has a way of continually presenting bigger and bigger examples of this shadow until we finally get it. VietNam begat Iraq, for example. I am so tired of the jingoists who refuse to open their eyes and see what’s in plain sight.

  4. Of course it will end, maha. On Jan 20, 2017, when Hillary is inaugurated President after 8 years of a successful Obama Administration.

  5. A wingnut came up with an ‘expert’ who has determined that Obama is a ‘narcissist’. Noone with a poor self-image needs to seek the highest office of the land, but Obama has made it clear his campaign is not about him. It’s about us. The 30 minute infomercial was built around the stories of 4 families and their needs. Obama could have built the 30 minutes around his biggest crowds, bigest speeches, the crowd at the Brandonberg gate in Berlin, etc. I asked my wingnut friend to let me know when he reached the bottom of the barrel; they must be getting pretty close now.

    Had Obama engaged each and every ridiculous claim we would have discovered that the righties have an endless list of ridiculous claims. Obama and the voters have stayed on the issues to a much greater degree than I recall from prior elections despite the best (or worst) efforts of the Rovian machine.

  6. I couldn’t be prouder of Obama’s campaign. He was always quick to respond to the lies and I think that helped. The repugs had to really dig and stretch the truth to find anything at all to throw at Obama. So much of what they tried to pin on him were obvious lies. How could anyone be a closet muslim and at the same time be at the same church (that they didn’t like the preacher of) for 20 years?
    I think we all encounter and work with people every day that we have no idea what they do evenings, but we still work with them
    on common goals, so Ayers? I don’t think that means a thing.

    I want Obama’s win for our country. I want this for all Americans. I am still concerned that the challenges ahead are greater than we know, but I think Obama will be the best at meeting them.

  7. Corporate NBC (not MSNBC) is doing their level best to give McCain a leg up. Last week they gave McCain himself 30 minutes on Meet The Press. Then they gave Palin a shot on Saturday Night Live (flop). Then they gave McCain a shot on SNL. Then they gave Fred Thompson 20 minutes to Kerry’s 15 minutes on MTP this morning.

    Anybody want to bet that Matt Lauer has McCain tomorrow morning? Cripes.

  8. Oh, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

    AUDACITY is an anagram for UTICA DAY. Utica is a city in New York state. Wikipedia says of Utica, NY:

    It is famous for Halfmoons, black and white pastry made with a large dark chocolate cake style cookie iced on one half with white cream frosting and the other half with dark chocolate frosting.

    In other words, a round symbol of racial mixing! As Jerry Seinfeld once said, “Look to the cookie.” (Then he threw up!)

    Utica is mentioned in Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl.

    Allen Ginsberg was gay! And a Buddhist! Which means he was probably not a Republican!

    Stephen King’s daughter is a preacher in a church located in Utica.

    Stephen King is a wealthy Democrat! Which means he is a subversive! And he writes books about evil! And his daughter is a preacher! Jeremiah Wright is also a preacher!

    In the 2007 film The Bourne Ultimatum, while reviewing Jason Bourne’s (Matt Damon) Treadstone file at her desk, Joan Allen’s character pauses for a moment at a page that shows a brief bio of Dr. Albert Hirsch (Albert Finney), indicating he was born in “Utica, NY.”

    Matt Damon said mean things about Sarah Palin!! Plus he’s a Democrat! And, Albert Finney is British! Which means he is not an American!!!

    Portions of the 1977 film Slap Shot, starring Paul Newman were filmed at the Utica Memorial Auditorium.

    Paul Newman was on Nixon’s Enemies List! Therefore he, too, was a subversive!!! Plus, he recently died, which distracted the American public from the McCain campaign for several news cycles!!!

    All these things CANNOT be a coincidence! Tuesday, November 4, the Democrats will declare “Utica Day”!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

  9. Man… that was 45 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. Where do these Rightie nuts find the time for all this conspiracy stuff?

  12. A. Nony. Maus, it’s true. He also said it was his proudest accomplishment.

    I wish he could have lived to see Utica Day!

  13. Joanr16, thank you for clearing the scales from my eyes. It is ALL so CLEAR NOW!!!

    I am concerned about the English-only movement. Though nominally part of the right-wing, I can’t help but notice that both Ayers’ manifesto and Obama’s books and speeches are written in this language. Why do these supposed Real Americans want us all to speak this language of violent revolution?????

  14. Ah-the audacity of stupidity and smell of desperation from the McCain/Palin camp. Not to mention, the Obama logo is round and its sun reminds me of the seal of my home state, Ohio, which the Democrats need to win… Are the wingnuts going to slam Ohio? They probably will if the Democrats win, or they will bemoan what they see as the stupidity of the American public, for to them, the GOP can’t fail, it can only be failed by others.

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