Today’s opining on the public discourse.

The right wing must be totally illiterate or unbelievably dishonest. There’s no other explanation for enormously stupid statements like this:

Right-wing radio host Dennis Prager spoke before an audience of 3,000 at Minneapolis’ Orchestra Hall, during which he attacked the “left” for constructing “a grand edifice of lies about America.” One of those lies, according to Prager, is that “equality” is an American value:

Equality, which is the primary value of the left, is a European value, not an American value. Let me tell you that right now. I
know this sounds offensive to half of my fellow Americans, because they have been Europeanized in their values. The French Revolution is not the American Revolution. The French Revolution said Liberty, Fraternity, Equality. The American Revolution said Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We have lost touch with what our distinctive American values are. We have distinctive American values. … We have a better value system, and this is being protected by one of the two parties: the Republican party.

[snip]

It’s a good thing Prager was there to explain the ideals behind the American Revolution. Otherwise, Americans might have relied on “Europeanized” documents like the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…

These fuckwits have no idea what “American values” actually are. And they seem to be getting more ignorant by the instant.

They can’t even answer the simplest of questions:

Last night on CNN, host Larry King — taking a viewer question — asked former Bush administration press secretary Ari Fleischer, “How would a McCain administration be different to Bush’s on foreign and economic policies?” Instead of answering the question, Fleischer diverted into how both McCain and Bush are similar:

FLEISCHER: Well, you know, on foreign policy, number one, John McCain will be a powerful supporter of Israel, just as George Bush was. So I’m going to go right to that where there is an agreement.

When King tried to steer him back on course, noting that “the question was different,” Fleischer finally settled on taxes and global warming and falsely claimed that McCain called on Bush to fire Donald Rumsfeld.

[snip]

It is rather odd that Fleischer cited taxes as an economic policy difference between Bush and McCain. While McCain did vote against Bush’s tax cuts, if elected president, he plans to extend and double those same cuts — giving most of the benefit to big corporations and the wealthy, while allowing the federal deficit to skyrocket.

Moreover, Fleischer’s example of a foreign policy difference between McCain and Bush isn’t even true. McCain never called for the firing of
Rumsfeld, a fact that even the McCain campaign has acknowledged.

It’s pathetic that right-wing hacks can’t even comprehend the questions put to them. Utterly pathetic that a former press secretary can’t even understand what the word “different” means. And as for knowing what their candidate has said: epic fucking fail.

And this grade-school “I know you are but what am I?” bullshit is getting old in a hurry:

By now, I suspect most people have seen the breathtaking interview between Joe Biden and Barbara West of WFTV in Orlando, in which, by any reasonable standard, West’s questions fell somewhere between “ridiculous” and “in need of medication.”

Soon after, the Obama campaign realized there wasn’t much point in talking to Barbara West. She’s not really a journalist, the campaign wouldn’t be treated professionally, and there’s no real point in having a dialog.

In response, John McCain is now whining to Fox News’ Sean Hannity about the Obama campaign’s media “boycotts.” McCain said, “[I]f anybody in the media, much less Joe the Plumber asks a tough question, then they’re boycotted. They pull their ads, etc.”

I sincerely wonder about McCain’s grip on reality sometimes. Amanda Terkel noted the irony of McCain’s latest complaints.

* McCain canceled an appearance on CNN’s Larry King Live after CNN’s Campbell Brown conducted a tough interview with McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds about Palin’s foreign policy experience.

* Last month, the McCain camp
aign barred New York Times
columnist Maureen Dowd from flying on both the McCain and Palin press planes after she wrote a negative column.

* McCain campaign officials barred Time’s Joe Klein from traveling with them, after he asked McCain an uncomfortable question about foreign policy.

* Campaign officials have repeatedly gone on air to bash journalists after tough interviews, saying that Katie Couric asked Palin “a series of trapdoor questions,” the New York Times “cast aside it’s journalistic integrity to advocate for the defeat of John McCain,” and demanded that the media treat Palin with “deference.”

If you’re going to bitch and moan about what somebody else does, it’s generally a good idea to make sure you’re not doing that horrible thing yourself. But not Republicons. They think double standards are perfectly acceptable.

Two words: Hell. No. We’ve played that game for eight fucking years. We’re done.

That could be why battleground state numbers look like this:

The new CNN polls confirm the conventional wisdom that Barack Obama is close to locking up Colorado and Virgnia — a combination that would would deliver him the presidency if he holds on to all the Kerry states — and he’s running strong in other swing states, too:

• Colorado: Obama 53%, McCain 45%. Two weeks ago, Obama led 51%-47%.

• Florida: Obama 51%, McCain 47%, not all that different from the 51%-46% Obama lead two weeks ago.

• Georgia: McCain 52%, Obama 47%. This is not significantly changed from the 53%-45% McCain lead a week ago — but it is significantly different from the 17-point win that George W. Bush had here in 2004, and could have serious implications in down-ticket races.

• Missouri: McCain 50%, Obama 48%, basically the same as a 49%-48% McCain lead two weeks ago.

• Virginia: Obama 53%, McCain 44%, not significantly changed from the 54%-44% Obama lead two weeks ago.

All five of these states went to George W. Bush twice, and combined they have a total of 75 electoral votes. These surveys all have a margin of error of ±3.5%.

We’re so dramatically sick of the lies and the bullshit that even blood-red states are turning purple. Game fucking over.