Round The Bend

by hilzoy

The crowd at The Corner seems to have gone well and truly insane. It all starts when David Frum asks:

"Does anybody really seriously believe that Barack Obama is a secret left-wing radical? And if not, then what is this fuss and fury supposed to show?"

There follow a series of posts at The Corner which basically answer: yes. Jonah Goldberg:

"Well, yes. Lots of people do. For me, it depends on what you mean by "radical" ..."

Mark Levin:

"How can anyone who actually follows this stuff, who reads Freddoso, Kurtz, and scores of other reliable sources of information, conclude that Obama is not some wild-eyed radical?"

Andy McCarthy:

"If you accept the premise that he was a radical, how has he changed such that he should no longer be considered a radical? Obviously, he is very smooth and he presents himself as a reasonable, moderate fellow. But that doesn't affect substance."

There follow several more posts, and then we get to the pièce de resistance, from McCarthy again:

"Obama's radicalism, beginning with his Alinski/ACORN/community organizer period, is a bottom-up socialism. This, I'd suggest, is why he fits comfortably with Ayers, who (especially now) is more Maoist than Stalinist. What Obama is about is infiltrating (and training others to infiltrate) bourgeois institutions in order to change them from within — in essence, using the system to supplant the system. A key requirement of this stealthy approach (very consistent with talking vaporously about "change" but never getting more specific than absolutely necessary) is electability. With an enormous assist from the media, which does not press him for specifics, Obama has walked this line brilliantly. Absent convincing retractions of his prior radical positions, though, we should construe shrewd moves like the ostensibly reasonable Second Amendment position as efforts make him electable.

This is why Ayers is so important: it is a peek behind the curtain of Obama's rhetoric."

So, if I understand this correctly: Barack Obama is in fact a radical; if not himself a Maoist, then at least someone who "fits comfortably" with people who are "more Maoist than Stalinist." But he is disguising this fact in order to infiltrate bourgeois institutions and implement his radical vision from within. A quiescent media does not press him for specifics, thereby allowing his centrist disguise to go unquestioned. Only his relationship with Bill Ayers allows us "a peek behind the curtain."

This is delusional. It would be interesting to ask, for instance, why so few of Obama's law students have come forward to talk about his attempt to transform them into Maoist cadres, or why the lawyers in his firm have not mentioned his commitment to cultural revolution, or how he has managed to conceal his desire to nationalize the means of production from, well, everyone. Was he secretly plotting to get asked, unexpectedly, to speak at the Democratic Convention, take a chance on running for President, and succeed, back when he was on the Harvard Law Review? That, plus absolutely iron self-control, might explain why no one caught a glimpse of Obama's secret radicalism: he has been concealing it for decades, the better to bore away at our bourgeois institutions.

There's only one problem with that hypothesis: if Obama were as stealthy as that, if he had lived a secret life for decades, completely concealing his inner Maoist, he would never, ever have blown his cover by getting on a board with William Ayers.

Corner: you're getting into When Prophecy Fails territory. Get a grip.

Comments

[Peter VE]

Our plan has finally succeeded! While we have distracted the True Patriotic Americans with the Obama Threat, our cleverly infiltrated Maoist cadre has just nationalized the entire capitalist system.

[flicker]

Yeah, man they are nutty. Props to Frum though for questioning the madness.

My favorite line from McCarthy: "Absent convincing retractions of his prior radical positions" ... just what would be convincing to McCarthy? How would he distinguish such a retraction from an even more subtle and insidious infiltration of our institutions?

[Ugh]

Peter VE: yeah, as I said in another thread, if Obama wins he might:

1. Nationalize the largest insurance company in the world!

2. But close to a trillion dollars of mortgage assets from the private sector!

3. Make massive amounts of loans available to all sorts of private industry at low, low rates!

4. Nationalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack!

5. Intervene in the commercial paper market!

6. Ban short selling on almost 800 stocks!

7. Cause a massive drop in the markets resulting in the complete collapse of private industry culminating in government control of the credit markets and a second great depression!!!

We're doooooooooomed in an Obama presidency!

[dbm]

I happened to read that exchange on The Corner earlier today. McCarthy's last post reminded me of the graduate student in the movie "Good Will Hunting" who spewed philosophical ideas he'd read somewhere in an attempt to impress his audience (young co-eds in the film). My impression of the whole exchange was "do these folks actually believe what they write?" Sadly, I think I know the answer.

[shah8]

these people are concerned about potential decreases in white priviledge, is all.

[malraux]

very consistent with talking vaporously about "change" but never getting more specific than absolutely necessary
For all the bitching about lack of specificity, Obama's policy pages are incredibly detailed. Hell, the democratic primary was heavily a wonk fest. Obama has a detailed webpage on just about every policy out there, with even more detailed whitepapers buried inside. Complaining about lack of details from Obama is incredibly obtuse.

[Ayn Rand]

Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it.

[Gary Farber]

In the rest of a later McCarthy post, he, in a familiar trope, claims that "[Obama's] wife Michelle, is notoriously less circumspect than her careful husband about where she’s coming from. Her college thesis, which Princeton tried to keep under lock and key, testifies to a race-obsessed worldview...."

Because, you know, it's really crraaaaaaazzzy of African-Americans to be concerned about racial issues.

I wonder to how many Jewish folks he's explained how obsessed they are to write or read about the Holocaust, or antisemitism. Or to how many women he's explained that they're obsessed with equal rights.

Once again: privilege rears its angry head, and comes into NRO's air space.

[Gary Farber]

"Complaining about lack of details from Obama is incredibly obtuse."

But he has yet to confess to his Maoistic outlook. He's been unreasonably hazy about that.

[Incertus]

See, the Ayers bit is the cleverest part of the plan. It's a super-double-backflip that draws the nutters out just enough to discredit them, thereby keeping the plan intact.

[Warren Terra]

Ugh, your ironic recitation of the heights of government intervention to which Obama might aspire reminds me of this week's edition of the BBC News Quiz (a fantastic show, even for an American who, like me, hasn't visited the UK as an adult), there was a good line from Jo Caulfield:

It's a very weird time, it's like the Cold War, but reversed, so that America is nationalizing wealth and invading Afghanistan, and Russia are oil-rich capitalists.

I also wonder how many of these same NRO nitwits obsessing about what secrets Obama has kept hidden during two years under the national spotlight taking questions from all comers have had to say about Sarah Palin.

[The Crafty Trilobite]

Alert, cadre! Incertus is on to us! Arm the bom---ah, er, is this thing on?

Heh. Nothing to see here folks. Move along please, comrades. I mean friends! Friends, that what I meant!

[Redland]

"Marl Levin"

All one needs to know about this 77 WABC "hate radio" talking head is that he describes himself as "our leader" broadcasting from a secret "underground bunker" in NYC.

The man is a certifiable, right-wing, raving lunatic nut job. The nauseating Hitlerian imagery he oozes is all the more sickening coming from a member of the Jewish faith. You'd think he'd know better.

[novakant]

What McCarthy seems to be referring to here is the concept of the "long march through institutions" coined by Gramsci and popularized by Dutschke in 1968. I would be quite amazed if this was actually Obama's guiding principle, but it is not totally out of the question. However, both those on the right and centrist Democrats have little need to worry since

a.) Obama never was a real radical in the first place

and

b.) people like e.g. Fischer, Cohn-Bendit, Schröder, Schily, Straw, Blunkett who had actually embarked on such a march have forgotten about their youthful radicalism rather quickly and instead championed policies ranging from neo-liberal to conservative.

[Martin]

I might be stupid, but I thought that the first sign of a radical is that they, you know, do something radical. Radical things usually get noticed and yet nobody has found anything, which is pretty shocking given that we've gotten monthlong investigations of birth certificate typography.

So, I hereby proclaim that if Obama is a radical, he is the worst radical of all time by not having done anything radical. Ever. Obama is, in fact, fantastically boring - even moreso than 'maverick' McCain - when you look at his story. It's all about working hard and being successful. Maybe that's what qualifies as radicalism for conservatives these days.

[Nell]

Fischer, Cohn-Bendit, Schröder, Schily, Straw, Blunkett

When you march too long through the institutions, the institutions march through you.

[Ugh]

I don't know what it is with some people. Maybe some sort of need to demonize your opponents in order to get comfortable with what you say about them and still be able to sleep at night, along with easily aroused fear bubbling just below the surface of "oh noes! the communists/socialists/muslims/dirty fncking hippies are coming!", childhood insecurities lasting into adulthood, feeling threatened by anyone who you perceive to be smarter than you, living in an echo chamber, and chirping "SOCIALIZED MEDICINE! SOCIALIZED MEDICINE!" on a regular basis.

I mean, sh!t, aren't these some of the same people who think Hillary put a hit out on Vince Foster for... well, I forget what the batsh!t insane reason was (said she looked fat in a pantsuit?). Suppose you asked them today how the Clinton presidency went for the United States in the 1990s? After blaming him for 9/11, wouldn't they have to admit that 1993-2001 was pretty damn good? I guess they'd give all credit to Newt. Wankers.

But whatever, maybe it's just abject stupidity combined with a lack of empathy.

This has been Ugh's free form long distance psychoanalysis of the week. Tune in next week when he tries an even longer distance free form psychoanalysis of the week from the Amalfi Coast.

[Hartmut]

Don't you folks (may I call you friends?) realize that the fiendish plot is even older. Hasn't it been proven beyond doubt that Barack Hussein Obama was sired in the first place by his communist parents* in order to become president and destroy America?
[/make it stop, it hurts!]

*or why else would they have miscegenated (Rassenschande!) at the time, if they were not commies.

[Pooh]

When you march too long through the institutions, the institutions march through you.

Oh come on, this is such an easy "In Soviet Russia..." joke.

[byrningman]

The irony is, if you are going to indulge in paranoid conspiracy theories about secret Maoist candidates, surely it's the guy who spent years exposed to North Vietnamese brainwashing? We know that when given a chance to leave Hanoi, McCain at first refused. Maybe he liked his new home! I hope the wingnuts will properly investigate this worrying possibility.

[Pascal's bookie]

Maybe there is an esoteric subtext to the Corner thread. Is it really about Obama?

There are some former Marxists around the place that have positioned themselves in places of influence.

As ugh and others have pointed out, radical things are happening now.

There is one candidate that seeks change, and one that promises change we can believe in, comrades.

Perhaps a corner has been turned.

[Mike Schilling]

It's a very weird time, it's like the Cold War, but reversed, so that America is nationalizing wealth and invading Afghanistan, and Russia are oil-rich capitalists.

Russia was oil-rich through much of the Cold War. GOP propaganda notwithstanding, what brought down the Soviet Union was as much falling oil prices as geopolitics.

[OCSteve]

They’re a day or two behind. Today’s official talking points are:
Obama was officially a member of a socialist party – and his campaign plane stinks.

[Hartmut]

OCSteve, you left something out: I read about a national socialist party, Obama allegedly belongs to (of course there is no intention at all to conjure up any Nazi ghosts, although we all know what being popular with crowds in Berlin means).
And a [n word] of course smells bad, even when uppity, so why shouldn't his transport vehicle?
Pass me the anti-emetic please*

*clarification: unconnected to the smelling smear

[cschack]

Was he secretly plotting to get asked, unexpectedly, to speak at the Democratic Convention, take a chance on running for President, and succeed, back when he was on the Harvard Law Review?

Well, duh!

[cleek]

don't forget: it's not the smart kids who have to go sit in the Corner.

[cleek]

Obama was officially a member of a socialist party

yup.

and all anyone needs to know about that is that Larry "Whitey Tape, Rove Indictment" Johnson is at the end of all those links.

[John Spragge]

The folks at the corner have it backwards, really backwards. Politicians have a really limited ability to make change or impose the directions change will take. Only what Isaac Asimov called the broad sweeps of economics and sociology shapes society in a really deep and lasting change way. This means leaders must accept the actual limits of reality, and also the relatively small choices that individuals commit themselves to.

In that sense, Obama's personal perspectives matter much less that the failures of the neo-conservative, and specifically Reaganite, project. Has wealth trickled down? Did tax cuts produce greater revenues? How much has life for millions of Americans and other people improved over the past seven administrations? It seems that many Americans, looking at their country's debt and their own, and the economic and political fallout from both debts, would say the conservative project over the last three decades has come up short for both individual Americans and for the United States.

To the extent Americans believe that, to the extent their experiences confirm it, the ideologues at the Corner have a problem, and so does their candidate. And as Ross Douthait points out, the issue does not resonate with Americans' anxieties today. In fact. I'd go further: if you spent the last year watching the value of your house sink so far that you owe more on it than you could sell it for; if you pay your mortgage with a credit card and your health premiums with another credit card, if you've watched your food bills double and your gas bills more than double and your five year old SUV lose all but scrap value, then a scary ad about Dr. Ayers may remind you of just how little (beside your third job) you have to lose.

[Nell]

@Pooh: I was going for a variation on the Nietzsche line about the abyss ...

[OCSteve]

Hartmut: I read about a national socialist party, Obama allegedly belongs to

I think that a smelly plane is a much bigger deal:

Reynolds describes a campaign that seems almost as lost as its candidate in a foreign-policy debate. No one knows the schedule for the day, or at least no one wants to tell the press. And does anyone else wonder why Team Obama seems so keen on getting their hands on the baggage of reporters? I find it curious that the press hasn’t objected to this yet.

Read the entire account, and ask yourself which candidate appears to be the best executive just on the basis of the campaign — which Barack Obama assures us serves as his qualification for office.

I mean, if you can’t even manage to FeBreze your plane how are you going to run a country?

And this: “And does anyone else wonder why Team Obama seems so keen on getting their hands on the baggage of reporters?”

Clearly sinister. You get a look at Katie Couric’s undergarments; maybe she’s packing something a little sexy. That could lead you to some blackmail material. Next thing you know she’s making Palin look bad in an interview.

These guys at the Corner are pikers – way behind the curve.

[Gary Farber]

"When you march too long through the institutions, the institutions march through you."

Bravo, Nell.

"Only what Isaac Asimov called the broad sweeps of economics and sociology shapes society in a really deep and lasting change way."

Tomorrow's Corner meme: Barack Obama is secretly the Mule!

OCSteve, my bet is someone unfamiliar with you is going to take you seriously.

[EnderWiggin]

The man is a certifiable, right-wing, raving lunatic nut job. The nauseating Hitlerian imagery he oozes is all the more sickening coming from a member of the Jewish faith. You'd think he'd know better.

Every so often, I flip on WABC to see how the wingnuts are spinning Bush's latest fuck up or whatnot, and Levin is so over the top, I can't still understand how Disney put him on their air. The best description of the show is a two hour version of Orwell's 'Fifteen Minutes of Hate'. I don't think we is the type that all of the 27%ers would like, but I would guess a lot of them would enjoy it, and that is scary.

The fact that he is Jewish is relevant, everyone of his rants on air probably would sound better in the original German.

I would recommend that anyone unfamiliar check it out during a live stream at 6:00 - 8:00. If you think you have heard it all with Rush and Hannity (who are on right before him), believe me you can't imagine how bad it can get.

I am not shocked that people are shouting about beheading Obama at these McCain events. And after listening to Levin and his callers, one's ability to get judgmental about the German citizens circa 1933 drops to zero.

[Ugh]

Tomorrow's Corner meme: Barack Obama is secretly the Mule!

No no no. Bush is the Mule, someone that ended up being the most powerful man in the known universe President by an accident of history.

[bobbyp]

Pretty damnned clever, elevating this mesengenist spawn to the presidency, cementing the final culmination of the Long March to power of the Third Eye of the Masonic conspiracy and its alliance with the real power behind things...the Illuminati (some kind of Semetic)international bankers, for whom socialism is a convenient cover. The useful idiots at NRO have played their part well (yes, they are part of the Plan, too). This will become apparent when the Seizure is complete, and I can then get my secret decoder ring out of hock, and get a secure government job.

[Ugh]

Under an Obama Administration, the American Stasi will listen in on your most intimate phone">http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5987804&page=1">phone calls!

[clevergirl]

The Corner needs to look in the mirror. Strangely, the anti-elitist, anti-science rhetoric of the far right is more reminiscent of the cultural revolution than anything the left has cooked up. And the policies of this administration have forced us into socialism at least for corporate giants.

The right also needs to recognize and respect mature argument when they see it... and up their game. Debate and discuss the needs of the day which---face it---call for FDR scale initiatives to build infrastructure, cities, and energy technology. Purge the dead weight 20th century industries dragging the economy down and invest in the future. Obama makes so much sense, it's refreshing...such as with taxes. If the well-to-do on Wall Street get a bailout, Wall Street should expect to pay higher taxes. The bailout is their "break"; they don't need, or deserve, tax relief.

[freelunch]

It's all about working hard and being successful. Maybe that's what qualifies as radicalism for conservatives these days.

Yes, those who work hard undermine those who got their position by blood. No doubt, Jonah will be defending inherited power any day now.

It's odd how America has been going back to a political power structure controlled by inheritance rather than performance. It's not so odd that the party that is more committed to that is the enemy of free enterprise: Republicans nominate folks like GWBush, who would never have gotten into Yale on his own or John McCain who wouldn't have been considered for Annapolis without connections while, aside from Gore, the Democrats pick folks who are self-made. Funny how Republicans lecture on the virtues of picking yourself up by your bootstraps, but the Democrats are the ones who reward it.

[OCSteve]

Gary: my bet is someone unfamiliar with you is going to take you seriously

I suppose you’re right. After all, these guys actually are serious. Amend the above comments to include a /satire tag…

It’s a shame really. Ed can usually be relied on for some sharp (if extremely partisan) commentary.

[Ugh]

An Obama Administration will nationalize the banking industry!

[Anderson]

Because, you know, it's really crraaaaaaazzzy of African-Americans to be concerned about racial issues.

Yeah, that was even more offensive than the "Maoist" nonsense. N.b. the language that McCarthy spotlighted:

Michelle recoiled at the thought of “further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.”

Leaving aside her apparent discomfort with the semicolon, one wishes that McCarthy would explain why Michelle should *not* "recoil" at the thought of such assimilation.

Presumably he rejects the "will only allow me to remain on the periphery," conveniently ignoring the role of his magazine, and of his own blog posts, in trying to keep the Obamas "on the periphery" by calling their mainstream liberalism "Maoist."

[John Thullen]

Well, all of this reminds me of bad ghoul movies which end with perfectly normal people giving way to their inner demons via facial meltdowns exposing the death skull underneath.

Much cackling and horrific screaming as holy water sizzles on sore-infested demon skin.

Despite William F. Buckley's gentlemanly demeanor during life, we may be faced with exhuming him from the mausoleum, plunging a stake into his heart and pouring salt into his mouth.

Levin's, McCarthy's and the rest's heads will spin from their moorings and explode and they will collapse from within into a pile of harmless dust on to the floor.

Palin is despicable. We may have to invade Alaska to hunt her down after the election.

She'll be found with her snout buried in moose viscera, ripping sinew with her demon jaws. Get her before she disappears into the Alaskan backcountry, howling and gibbering, to ascend to the Presidency another day.

Come to think of it, McCain reminds me of Bilbo Baggins when he gives out a little snarl as someone tries to pull the ring from his grasp.

[cleek]

call it what it is: this "he's a secret commie" stuff is red baiting. it was dangerous in the 60s and it's dangerous today.

Coates draws the parallels.

[Fraser]

So Obama is suspicious because he's working for change within the system? Well, of course, the sixties civil-rights marchers worked outside the system and look how conservatives admired them and supported them and .... OK, wait a second.

I'm inclined to agree with Spragge (and Douthat) that this is a stupid line of attack: I'm quite sure it riles up the base (I know it riles up the base--my very red hometown is full of people for whom the Democrats' socialist agenda is as deadly a threat as the imminent Islamofascist takeover), but how many people in the mainstream really find "He's a Red!" to be a red flag (sorry!) these days?

[...now I try to be amused]

So, if I understand this correctly: Barack Obama is in fact a radical; if not himself a Maoist, then at least someone who "fits comfortably" with people who are "more Maoist than Stalinist." But he is disguising this fact in order to infiltrate bourgeois institutions and implement his radical vision from within. A quiescent media does not press him for specifics, thereby allowing his centrist disguise to go unquestioned. Only his relationship with Bill Ayers allows us "a peek behind the curtain."

This is just more right-wing projection. They believe this stuff because they have been infiltrating their own extremists for years in the guise of "compassionate conservatives" and the like.

[russell]

But wait, there's more!

The folks at Fox are outraged -- outraged!! -- because Newsweek's cover close-up of Palin was not retouched!

Barack gets a halo, and Palin gets facial hair and wrinkles.

The long march through the institutions has finally arrived at the Newsweek photo lab.

All is, truly, lost.

Thanks -

[dutchmarbel]

@JT: I *like* Bilbo and he was a quite honorable hobbit!

Obama would fit in well with our Christian Democrats (who should be renamed into Religious Democrats), one of the biggest parties here, centrist with conservative leanings. Far from radical left :).

I'm a member of our "liberal democrats", progressive liberal stream, which makes me a centralist in our system, and Obama is too rightwing for me (and I am more to the right than many of my friends).

@ugh: lol at your list of 'scary socialist things, brought to you by the GOP'.

[aimai]

Kudos to hilzoy for the "when prophecy fails" link. Exactly. Another good referent would be "chicken little." Either way there is going to be nothing left for these true believers after barack-the-middle-class-centrist gets in but to retreat to their bunkers and hole up for the end times, convinced until their lonely deaths that the fact that Obama doesn't instantly convert the entire country to islamomarxism is just another clever trick, on his part. I'm waiting for them to accuse him of *not even being black, and not even being muslim* but of actually being the white russian jewish love child of saul alinsky and Obama's mother. Under this new origin myth Obama (real name: sheldon alinsky) faked his color and his funny name to "get over" on a credulous and easily swayed american populace eager for false "diversity" cred.

aimai

[norbizness]

Why should I inherently care whether loathsome human beings which whom I never agree get a grip?

[Gary Farber]

Heh.

[AndrewBW]

When it comes to "infiltrating (and training others to infiltrate) bourgeois institutions in order to change them from within — in essence, using the system to supplant the system" who has done it better over the years than the Republican Party?

[Eric Martin]

Thers on the Cornerite meltdown:

It is a very edifying spectacle. Strangely admirable, though, like the band that kept on playing as the Titanic slowly slid 'neath the frigid tide. Except in this case they're all playing kazoos. Badly.

[EVan]

If that is the test for redicalism - isn't McCain the most radical presidential aspirant we have seen? He has been biding his time in the Congress for 26 years claiming to not have been winning Ms COngeniality and taking on all comers, and is now bringin his team of mavericks, after getting elected, to reform and change the system from within. That fits much more McCarthy's vision of radicalism than anything Obama has done

[cleek]

i suspect McCarthy's definition of radicalism can be summed up in three words: Is A Democrat.

[Matt Abrahams]

Come on, the New Party is not just a socialist organization, it's tied to the communist party (noted by many current members). Maybe Democrats are not offended by Communists, but I am. By the way, why isn't the media reporting this? EVEN DRUDGE! DRUDGE< WHERE ART THOU?

SOMEONE TELL DRUDGE ABOUT THIS...

GET DRUDGE TO INVESTIGATE, GOD KNOWS MSNBC WON'T

[cleek]

deep breath. now exhale slowwwwwly.

there. doesn't that feel better?

[Ginger Yellow]

Ugh, your ironic recitation of the heights of government intervention to which Obama might aspire reminds me of this week's edition of the BBC News Quiz (a fantastic show, even for an American who, like me, hasn't visited the UK as an adult)

It is indeed pretty good. The Beeb put it out as a podcast as well. It's on iTunes under Friday Night Comedy along with the distinctly less funny Now Show.

[Megan]

What Obama is about is infiltrating (and training others to infiltrate) bourgeois institutions in order to change them from within — in essence, using the system to supplant the system.

But, this is what democracy IS. That's what you do, infiltrate bourgeois institutions and using the system to get elected. That is THE POINT.

[nadezhda]

Stephen Bainbridge has produced a masterpiece of parody today. Much more imaginative and, dare I say, even plausible than what hilzoy has linked to. Bainbridge may be a knee-jerk conservative on some issues, but he sure isn't a Cornerite fellow-traveller!

[Eric Martin]

link not working n.

[Gary Farber]

Try this, Eric.

[Jeff]

DRUDGE!

DNFTT -- either the poster OR Drudge.

[nadezhda]

Thanks Eric for the link fix. Don't know why that obwi prefix snuck in there.:(

[Gary Farber]

"Thanks Eric for the link fix."

Well, Eric does own the trademark on my name.

[nadezhda]

Gah! Apologies, apologies. I seem to have let my fingers do the walking. I kneel before the one and only Gary Farber, my Amygdala pulsing with terror, to beg forgiveness. Which, knowing the generosity of spirit of the one and only GF, I trust will be instantly forthcoming.

[Gary Farber]

Respect mah authoritah.

Rise, our trusty nadezhda, and go forth with our blessings.

That'll be three Hail Garys, and two Our Farbers.

Bless you, my child.

[Eric Martin]

Gary, our respective attorneys are still in negotiation ;)

BTW: Everyone should go to American Footprints and read Nadezhda's latest gem of a sledgehammer.

[Gary Farber]

Clicking on this would be easier, Eric.

I live to serve.

[Randy Paul]

Hilzoy,

Thanks for reading The Corner so we don't have to.

[lewp]

There are conspiracy theorists like this on the left. People who think Bush is behind 9/11, think he shot down Wellstone's plane, etc. But their ilk is so far outside the mainstream as to be invisible. You can find them if you look hard enough, but you've really got to look, and know what you're looking for.

On the right, they're front and center, in the middle of the power structure of the Republican party. And the "MSM" promotes these guys. "Little Starbursts" Lowry appears regularly on Lehrer, NR guys are all over cable and the Sunday talk shows. And when it's not them it's bozos like Kristol.

Why can't the media start getting guys like Larison on. Or maybe the Culture 11 guys, or, heck, even Russ Douthat? These NRO guys need to be kicked out to the fringe, or preferably way further, where they belong.