David E. Smith: homophobic douche-yokel

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Saturday October 17, 2009 · 1:18 PM PDT

2009/10/17 · 13:18

It's been a while since I've posted an entry in the yokel series, where I have a bit of fun poking fun at the ignorant nimrods that write in to the News Gazette. Normally, I'd jump at the chance to write about this woomeister that manages to create an entirely fact-free letter about the flu vaccine.

No, this time I feel compelled to write about a recent letter by David E. Smith of the Illinois Family Institute about Kevin Jennings, former teacher, founder of GLSEN, and currently Assistant Deputy Secretary at the Department of Education.

narciblog

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Sunday August 10, 2008 · 3:23 PM PDT

2008/08/10 · 15:23

No, that's not a rhetorical question. Just how crappy is the world's crappiest encyclopedia? Pretty crappy, it turns out. In a solar-flare-sized burst of irony, Conservapedia actually accuses Wikipedia of being "anti-intellectual."

In looking up stuff for my previous post about Conservapedia, I poked around a bit. The John McCain article is reasonably level-headed, if not balanced. There's nothing in there that's particularly kook-worthy.

Oh, but just take a look at the Barack Obama article

narciblog

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Sunday June 08, 2008 · 7:28 PM PDT

2008/06/08 · 19:28

I'm glad Obama got the nomination. I think he stands a pretty good chance at winning. But for the next six months (and possibly longer after that) don't expect to hear him referred to by a lot of Republicans as anything other than Barack Hussein Obama. They are going to push it relentlessly. You won't hear them refer to John Sidney McCain, however. The reasons are obvious. Racism and xenophobia. It's happening locally and at the national level.

narciblog

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Saturday June 07, 2008 · 1:27 PM PDT

2008/06/07 · 13:27

Various people have testified in front of Congress that it's OK that we waterboard, because we've only done it to three people, and they were the worst of the worst. Well, it looks like those officials may have been "bending the truth" a bit.

narciblog

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Sunday May 18, 2008 · 8:51 PM PDT

2008/05/18 · 20:51

Glenn Greenwald has an insightful-as-usual post up about the California gay marriage ruling. He basically points out that the CA Supreme Court's recent ruling basically requiring CA's civil unions to be now made equal marriages is fully in accordance with CA law and the state constitution.

narciblog

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Tuesday March 25, 2008 · 9:03 PM PDT

2008/03/25 · 21:03

The "liberal" media is largely ignoring this recent story about McCain saying Iran is training Al Qaeda terrorists. He's wrong, of course, since Iran is largely Shiite and Al Qaeda is basically a Sunni movement.

The McCain campaign is trying to pass this off as a "slip of the tongue" sort of thing. Saying "Shia" when you mean "Shiite" now and then is understandable, I suppose. This clearly wasn't just a simple mistake. McCain has said this exact same thing on at least four different occasions. His campaign has even been using this point in its literature.

I just want to point out how, not wrong, but stunningly wrong he is here. Even I knew the moment I heard that, that something wasn't right. That's sort of analogous to getting the Chinese and the Japanese mixed up during WWII, or maybe the Germans and the Russians.

narciblog

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Saturday February 23, 2008 · 10:39 AM PST

2008/02/23 · 10:39

As more timely bloggers than I have pointer out, Supreme Court Justice said the other day:

...it would be absurd to say that you can’t stick something under the fingernails, smack them in the face. It would be absurd to say that you couldn’t do that.

I just want to point out the complete moral turpitude of what Scalia is saying. He's not even bothering to participate in the legal sophistry so popular among Republicans these days that waterboarding isn't torture. He's flat-out saying that the US can torture detainees. He's talking about putting splinters under people's fingernails, for crying out loud.

That's where this issue has brought us. It used to be that the United States could claim to be a moral authority in the world. Now a member of the highest court in the land is claiming the US has the legal authority to torture captives and it barely even makes the news.

(Crossposted from narciblog.)

The United States does not torture. Much.

narciblog

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Wednesday January 30, 2008 · 8:17 PM PST

2008/01/30 · 20:17

Our new Attorney General, Michael "Thumbscrews" Mukasey, testified before Congress today about torture. Specifically, waterboarding. In most cases, he avoiding saying anything of substance about it.

narciblog

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Sunday January 20, 2008 · 1:59 PM PST

2008/01/20 · 13:59

John Bambenek is at it again. He's "filed a complaint with" (i.e. written a letter to) the Michigan Attorney General complaining about the suggestion made by kos of Daily Kos that Michigan Democratic voters vote for Romney in Michigan's open primary. TheSquire pretty much eviscerated his complaint by looking at what Michigan law actually says, as does Adam B.

I'm not posting about the silliness that is Mr. Bambenek's latest attempt at notability, but rather about some things he's said elsewhere. He is also a "freelance columnist" at a Kankakee paper, where he wrote this about a possible Illinois Constitutional Convention:

narciblog

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Saturday January 19, 2008 · 9:51 AM PST

2008/01/19 · 09:51

It was about a year ago that I wrote this post saying why I didn't think Obama could win the Presidency. This, of course, was before his win in Iowa, which probably makes him the one to beat for the Democratic candidacy.

A few days ago, my mother forwarded to me the following email she had from her cousin, who she described as "as far right as you are left." I don't know if the email coming so soon after the Iowa caucus is coincidence or if it reflects a new urgency in the Republican smear machine.

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David E. Smith: homophobic douche-yokel

Just how crappy is Conservapedia?

Something to look forward to for the next six months

My God, it's full of torture!

Calm down, the queer sky is not falling

How much incompetence is enough?

On the normalization of torture

The United States does not torture. Much.

John Bambenek inconsistent? Never!

Why don't they just call him the Manchurian Muslim?