No, this is not a diary about Obama's bowling.

We have seen the smear machine rolled out en masse this week. I feel it is important to commemorate the throwing down of the gauntlet and address it briefly.

A chronology of the last few days of smears below, and how I suggest addressing, a.k.a. "counter-attacking", each one.

This video record should come with a "MA" or "PG-13" rating as some of McLame's ads are so pathetic they may induce vomiting. You've been warned.

Republican family values . . . hmmm just what ARE they teaching their children? This is one of the most horrific things I've seen in this campaign.

Bob Schafferof Colorado is running against Mark Udall. Schaffer served 3 terms in the House of Reps, and stepped down because he pledged he would observe a 3-term limit. Now he wants to be Senator.

As a Republican, especially in Southern Colorado where James Dobson's Focus on the Family is a strong, toxic force -- one would expect Schaffer to have strong family values. As a Roman Catholic with 5 kids, one would also expect Schaffer to have strong family values. So what are his kids learning at home? One wonders.

What a bunch of garbage.  As Richard Cranium diaried yesterday, Slate was repeating the National Enquirer Edwards "love child" story.  And he pointed out what a bunch of tabloid garbage the unsourced story was.

You'd think that would be the end of it.  Another example of a supermarket tabloid making stuff up.  But guess what?  Today Faux News, America's favorite source of disinformation, is pursuing the story:

A hotel security guard told FOXNews.com he intervened this week between a man he identified as former Sen. John Edwards and tabloid reporters who chased down the former presidential hopeful after what they're calling a rendezvous with his mistress and love child.

I don't think it is overly sensitive to point out how the NYT continually puts an anti-Obama spin on lead items about Obama.

Consider this: http://www.nytimes.com/...

In Iraq, Affection for Obama ... but His Proposal?
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and RICHARD A. OPPEL JR

There are conflicting emotions about Barack Obama in Iraq, the place outside America with perhaps the most riding on its relationship with him.

The real story in the article is that the Iraqis are worried about Obama's policies and feel more comfortable with McCain's policies.  Yet somehow that gets spun into Iraqi "affection" for Obama... a framing which amounts both to a distortion (indeed a reversal of the main content of the article) and a subtle smear.  

How does the New Yorker magazine fail to discern the difference between irony and slander in its recent cover depicting Obama as a terrorist?

Easy.  It is locked inside a world in which the idea of Obama as a Muslim or terrorist is so absurd that just to say it is to see the stupidity of it.

Unfortunately most of America is not inside that insular little world on Manhattan island.

To think that "Obama is a muslim" is so obviously absurd is to be madly out of touch with the reality on the ground.  It would be like printing Nazi caricatures of Jews on the grounds that every sensible person could see they were obscene.  Hello!  What planet are the New Yorker editors operating on.  Everybody most certainly doesn't get it.

Let's consider what Irony and Libel are.

Time to hammer this bullshit hard:

The McCain campaign, which has said it doesn't question Obama's patriotism, is now doing something awfully similar: Claiming that Barack Obama and the Democrats are dedicated to losing the war for their own political benefit.

The new accusation was unveiled on a McCain campaign conference call moments ago, with top McCain surrogates making this charge in tandem.

This is absolute shameful bullshit.  If the MSM thought that their twisted version of Wes Clark's comments were bad, claiming that Obama and Democrats WANT the U.S. to lose in Iraq (or anywhere) is the height of slander.  So does that mean that all Democratic war veterans want America to lose -- even those who fought in Iraq?  Does the McCain campaign think that Obama and his supporters are rooting for casualties?

I had trouble deciding whether or not to even write this because I don't want to give this the free coverage the group wants it to get, but the McCain campaign must denounce this or suffer the consequences of being associated with it.

The conservative swift boaters are at it again. The National Campaign Fund sent out an email to supporters today titled "Was Barack Obama Muslim?" in an attempt to promote a bigoted smear ad they produced about a week ago and released on the internet. The email was authored by Bruce Hawkins of the National Campaign Fund and ExposeObama.com. What is shocking the the ties they have to the McCain campaign. The National Campaign Fund operates the site HelpJohnMcCain.com, featuring McCain's name, pictures, and portals to donate to his campaign. What is more unconscionable that this ad is that John McCain allows them to sport his brand in their spreading of hate.

Even if you don't read to the bottowm, please rec this diary and take the time to contact the McCain campaign and call on them to 1) denounce the ad, email, and website and 2) force the National Campaign Fund to remove McCain's picture and name from their website. The McCain Campaign MUST do something about this.

At about 12:40pm CDT today, I heard Rush Limbaugh say "...why are they trying to get Obama, I mean Osama, killed?"

You've seen the "Obama is a Muslim" e-mails.  No biggie, right?

Well, the Republican 527's have started to spread the lies; they claim that Obama was "enrolled in a school as a Muslim" and "is lying about it now".

More below the fold....

Barack mentioned it in his town hall meeting today: internet e-mails are spreading vicious rumors and must be stopped. So let’s get our anti-viral defense going now. Below the break is an e-mail that I think you can send to everyone on your list --- Republican, Democrat, Liberal, and Conservative. Please pass it on...with the fierce urgency of now!

While many of us can easily point to some very specific instances of the Clinton campaign playing the race card or the victim card so as to either create divisions among the electorate or to garner sympathy votes for Hillary, I am hard pressed to find equal counter examples of expicit acts of sexism by Obama, or members of his campaign. That is not to say that there has been no sexism in this election cycle, but any such sexism has come from either corporate media, or by Republican bigots.

So to those - such as Geraldine Ferraro - accusing Obama of sexism, and threatening not to vote for him in November out of spite, I say to them, put up or STFU. Offer specific evidence of these charges of bigotry, or back away from them.

 Yes, it is true.  "By their fruits you shall know them".

  There were a couple of patriarchs of the Bush family named Sam and Prescott, one of them even being the senator from Connecticut (long before Lieberman got the job). One of their progeny, their grandchild is named George W Bush.  He actually gave an utterly ridiculous and hypocritical speech attempting to compare some Americans in the present day with the "appeasers" like Chamberlain who gave  half of Czechoslovakia to Hitler.  The "comparison" was a tortured twisted reference to negotiating with terrorists, as comparable to acting as appeasers with the Nazis, (more/jump]

I am pleased that our Democratic Leadership has come out and forcefully rejected and denounced the comments George Bush made overseas in Israel attacking Senator Barack Obama , the presumptive Democratic Nominee. I had not seen Obamas response posted , so I am posting it as well. Now is the time to come together as Democrats and aggressively answer this smear.

Barack Obamas Statement: Below

I was calling Indiana last week and had a difficult 20 minute conversation with an intelligent seeming woman who would not vote for Obama because he wouldnt wear a flag pin, Michelle isnt proud of America and Obama "sat in that racist church for 20 years!".  We started talking about racism in America, and I was shocked to learn she was a fairly recent immigrant from mexico (she had no accent at all).  She said she and her children were the subject of constant racism in IN, but did not make any connection between the struggle of the AA community and her own.

So I hit her with Hagee and his anti catholic screeds.  It was like she saw the light.  Didnt question whether it was true or not, just declared there was now no way she could vote for mccain.

I was a little behind the news cycles yesterday and only this morning had an opportunity to view Barack Obama's absolutlely sensational response to the Clinton/McCain attacks.  Last night, after my wife and I had heard only the attacks and didn't know if Barack had yet had a chance to respond, we wondered what kind of negative impact they might have.  And then I remembered what I had seen before when the MSM was sensationalizing the attacks of either Hillary or John.  I told her that I expected Barack would see this as yet another opportunity that he could use to further define himself in a favorable way.  This morning I was quite pleased to tell her that I had underestimated the man, once again.  His response was so perfect, I could only shake my head in awe.

Sometimes, for some deep-seated self-destructive reason unknown to me, I stop my radio dial on my local wingnutter station.

How I wish I had not done that today.

Not only was Sean Hannity ranting the most ridiculous rants about the scary, secret, unknown thoughts that must surely be lurking in the deep recesses of Barack Obama's deeply disturbed mind, not only did he offer compassionate understanding to a Democrat frightened of what her party has become (and here I almost regurgitated the lovely chips and nachos brought into work by my boss; the liberal-hating Hannity was so disgustingly saccharine that only the most ignorant of voters couldn't have seen the tactic as the smooth talk a cult leader uses to lure in the weak, attention starved, or naive), but he crossed the line so egregiously that I hope he gets his ass sued by Mr. Obama himself.

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that this filthy rag would slander anyone, but they've targeted Barack Obama.  He's obviously doing something right and they need to slander his good name and do their level best to slow down the obvious groundswell of support and the landslide victory that will be his when we finally get Shrillary out of this race.

How can such a slanderous hit piece make it on CBS? How can Hillary Clinton imply that Barack Obama may be a muslim, but she takes him at his word that he is not? To paraphrase Patrick Moynihan, this is defining despicability downward!