Must. Stop. Fist … Of … Doom!

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake.]

First it was Bob Novak in his black Corvette, obviously reliving his viewing of The Dark Knight on his way to work at 18th and K the other day. ["Must . Ignore. Pedestrian."]


Now, Andrew Klavan at the WSJ wants us to see George W. Bush as … [nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh] Batman!

There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war.

Yeah, he’s just like Batman. Except that Bush’s frat-boy-on-steroids presidency has turned everything it’s touched — from the "war on terror" to Iraq to the economy to disaster preparedness — to complete shit. Batman is, you know, competent. Other than that, he’s just like him.

You lie down with dogs ...

-- by Dave

In a way, you have to feel kind of sorry for Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry:

For the past month, Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, has been the subject of an anonymous letter-writing campaign that appears to be run by a white supremacist group called the White Christian Nation.

In June, the group announced that it planned to give Metcalfe its White Christian Soldier Award. He declined the award and denounced the group which already had used his name in publicity postcards for a rally on Aug. 10 in Adams Township Community Park.

Nothing worse than being adopted unwillingly by neo-Nazis. Ah, but how did this happen to come about?

The situation apparently stems from remarks Metcalfe made on the House floor last month.

Metcalfe is a Christian and social conservative and has been outspoken about his religious beliefs.

Metcalfe held up voting on a routine House proclamation honoring the 60th annual convention in Harrisburg of a Muslim group, saying he wouldn't vote for the measure because Muslims "do not recognize Jesus Christ as God."

I don't feel so sorry for him after all.

Wingnuts: Obtuse in any language

-- by Dave

K Lo is "just curious":

If Obama could go to Germany and give a speech in English and be not only understood but well-received, why does he say we all need to learn another language?

Gee, maybe because he thinks being multilingual, as the Germans (and most Europeans) are, is a good thing. Here's what he said:

“You know, it’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], ‘Merci beaucoup.’ Right?"

I guess K Lo thinks monolingualism is one of those gawd-given American rights that actually makes us superior to the rest of the world. Hey, they all want to learn English, right -- so why should we bother?

Some Immigration Advice For John McCain

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake.]
 
[Written in the spirit of all that pre-2006 helpful advice to liberals right-wingers used to dispense]

Dear John: Your poll numbers with Latinos are sucking worse each week. Now you’re down to 23%.

Wow. Never thought Mr. GOP Latino Sensitivity Guy could do worse than Team Bush, but you’re there. It’s obvious the "I’m your pal but just don’t tell anybody" routine with Latinos is kinda backfiring.

So what the hell. Jettison ‘em! Embrace your party’s inner nativist wingnut! Who cares if it does for the GOP with Latinos what the Southern Strategy did with blacks? You can’t do any worse, can you?
 

Immigration and the Democrats

-- by Dave

A new study by ImmigrationO8 about Latinos and the November elections confirms what we've been saying here for awhile: Immigration is a winning issue for Democrats if they know how to handle it right, and a losing issue for Republican bigotry-mongers.

Most of all, it's an important opportunity: Progressives can establish that they can solve seemingly intractable policy problems by taking a pragmatic and humane approach, contradistinct from the Republican scapegoating approach that only makes the problem worse.

In introducing the study yesterday at a conference call [audio here], Frank Sharry of America's voice put it best:

Immigration is an issue that works for Democrats who lean into it rather than for Republicans who demagogue it.

Polling maven Celinda Lake joined Sharry on the call, and offered advice to Democrats based on what her group found whenever immigration became a campaign issue: "It's an issue you cannot duck and hide from," she said. Candidates are successful, she said, when they engage voters in what it means to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

The study itself also debunked a lot of the myths about the election that are commonly bandied about among the pundit class, most of which fit into the "Americans aren't eager to end the war" insofar as they have any grounding in reality. For instance, the notion that Latinos are unsure about Obama and like McCain. Bzzzzt! Likewise, ixnay on the "Clinton's Latino supporters voted against Obama"ay.

But this is particularly worth remembering:

Anti-Immigrant Politics Push Latinos Away From the GOP

As with most Americans, Latinos view the Republican Party as being on the "wrong side" of key issues such as immigration, health care, the war, and the economy. In addition, the Republican Party's embrace of harsh anti-immigrant campaign tactics and policies has clearly undermined its ability to attract and retain Latino voters.

All apologies

-- by Dave

Hey all. It probably seems like I've dropped off the face of the earth over here at my little blog. I've been swacked by:

-- A trip to the San Juans where I was completely out of touch.

-- Meeting a deadline for my months-long investigative project on the Minutemen. (More about that later.)

-- Heading off to Austin for Netroots Nation.

-- Plus the exigencies of being managing editor at Firedoglake.

Upcoming, I also have a trip to the Democratic National Convention on the schedule.

It's been quite a summer.

I've decided that, for the time being (or at least until I have more time) I'll just largely be cross-posting from FDL here. I know that a lot of you are having trouble finding my stuff at FDL (though you can always check here).

And to make up for the last couple of weeks, I'm going to start off with the video I made in the San Juans. Followed by some of my better FDL posts of the past few weeks.

Back in action. Hope to see you all here.

Because Organizing Bloggers Is Just Like Lynching Black People

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake.]
 
So BillO thinks Al Gore shouldn’t have been at Netroots Nation:

The fact that he went to this thing is the same as if he stepped into the Klan gathering. It’s the same. No difference.

Right. Well, I decided to call up someone who actually knows something about the Klan and what they do: Mark Potok of the SPLC. He told me:

The idea that Netroots Nation is somehow like the Klan is not only ludicrous but obscenely misleading. This is a group with a long history of murder and terrorism, and they continue to inflict it on American society. This kind of talk utterly trivializes the very real problems, the real violence and hatred, caused by the Klan and groups like them.