A Sanctimonious Shift Of Blame

Probably one of my least favorite columnists at the Washington Post is Eugene Robinson. Which is why he gets an enormous amount of pixels (since the internet doesn't do ink) on my blog. He is reliably vitriolic against literally anything the administration does. He is reliably contemptuous of the man elected to the office of President of the United States. And he is reliable in placing the blame for all the woes of the world at the feet of George W. Bush.

So it goes today.

My but the lesser nations are getting uppity.

I do love that word, uppity. Once upon a time, it was used to describe a black person who didn't know his place. The word came back to me this week as I heard all that impertinent oratory at the United Nations, most of it aimed at the United States in general and George W. Bush in particular.

Did Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez actually call Bush the devil? And then ostentatiously cross himself? And then complain that the podium, where Bush had spoken a day earlier, still smelled of sulfur? That's exactly what he did.

And as Chavez continued his monologue, calling Bush a "world dictator" who "looks at your color, and he says, 'Oh, there's an extremist,' " his audience of world leaders laughed and applauded. Clearly, Chavez had ignored the flashing yellow lights and crashed straight through the guardrails of diplomatic propriety. Clearly, this was no way to speak about the president of the United States. But Chavez, who hosts his own weekly talk show back home in Caracas, had his audience in the palm of his hand.

Afterward, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton did what the diplomatic playbook said he had to do and refused to dignify Chavez's tirade with a response. But while his words were measured, it was hard to look at the anger in his eyes and not think of Yosemite Sam wishing he could blow that varmint to smithereens.

Chavez was so arch in manner and so extreme in his personal attacks on Bush that it's tempting to write him off as crazy, although I tend to think he's crazy like a fox. Can anyone name the last president of Venezuela, or remember when a speech by any president of Venezuela made such news? Still, Chavez may have gone so far that he hurt his chances of securing a temporary seat on the U.N. Security Council, where he would be harder to ignore.

But the uppity leader who spoke Tuesday evening, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, is another story. Like Chavez (his new best friend), Ahmadinejad controls a sizable fraction of the world's oil supply. Unlike Chavez, he has advanced nuclear technology and almost surely is working to build nuclear weapons. And also unlike Chavez — perhaps because he is on the verge of having a very big stick — he speaks softly, at least in the tone of his voice.

Please, by all means read all of Mr. Robinson's screed. For all the problems in the world, at least in Robinson's world, can be traced to one man. George W. Bush. Mr. Robinson does not, even remotely, sense his own culpability in the situation the world is in. He does not even remotely understand that the vile hatred he has spewed against the President has anything to do with the situation in the world. He does not see, even dimly, that he and his kind of vitriolic attack artists had anything whatsoever to do with the "uppity" people (his word, not mine) that feel free to urinate on the UN the left holds so dear and on the very country that lets him spew his venom. He is guilt-free, no repercussions for his actions, no payback for his words, no matter how vile and venomous.

Robinson does not see that his words, and the words of his fellow travelers have real world implications. To him, it is nothing but words attacking a man. there is no collateral damage to his country in his world. There is no emboldening of the people who would kill him in a heartbeat. There are no consequences for him for anything he writes. He acknowledges no responsibility for his words encouraging people who are a genuine danger to world peace. Robinson can sanctimoniously shift all blame away from himself and dump it on the object of his hatred.

You see, to be one of Mr. Robinson's hatred spewing kind is to be guilt, and responsibility, free. What a lovely world he lives in. Unfortunately, the rest of the world will have to deal with the situations that the Robinson's of the world create. There is this world and there is Robinson's world. We'll have to deal with the spillover from his world.

Tolerance Goes Both Ways

Charles Krauthammer sums up the latest "Muslim Rage" rather well:

Religious fanatics, regardless of what name they give their jealous god, invariably have one thing in common: no sense of humor. Particularly about themselves. It's hard to imagine Torquemada taking a joke well.

Today's Islamists seem to have not even a sense of irony. They fail to see the richness of the following sequence. The pope makes a reference to a 14th-century Byzantine emperor's remark about Islam imposing itself by the sword, and to protest this linking of Islam and violence:

· In the West Bank and Gaza, Muslims attack seven churches.

· In London, the ever-dependable radical Anjem Choudary tells demonstrators at Westminster Cathedral that the pope is now condemned to death.

· In Mogadishu, Somali religious leader Abubukar Hassan Malin calls on Muslims to "hunt down" the pope. The pope not being quite at hand, they do the next best thing: shoot dead, execution-style, an Italian nun who worked in a children's hospital.

"How dare you say Islam is a violent religion? I'll kill you for it" is not exactly the best way to go about refuting the charge. But of course, refuting is not the point here. The point is intimidation.

There is no sense of humor in a religious fanatic. Nor is there any real religion in one who uses a religion as a cover for their very worldly ambitions. The people who cannot understand the difference in a belief in a faith and the violent spread of a faith are seriously misguided.

However, the inconvenient truth is that after centuries of religious wars, Christendom long ago gave it up. It is a simple and undeniable fact that the violent purveyors of monotheistic religion today are self-proclaimed warriors for Islam who shout "God is great" as they slit the throats of infidels — such as those of the flight crews on Sept. 11, 2001 — and are then celebrated as heroes and martyrs.

Just one month ago, two journalists were kidnapped in Gaza and were released only after their forced conversion to Islam. Where were the protests in the Islamic world at that act — rather than the charge — of forced conversion?

Where is the protest over the constant stream of vilification of Christianity and Judaism issuing from the official newspapers, mosques and religious authorities of Arab nations? When Sheik 'Atiyyah Saqr issues a fatwa declaring Jews "apes and pigs"? When Sheik Abd al-Aziz Fawzan al-Fawzan, professor of Islamic law, says on Saudi TV that "someone who denies Allah, worships Christ, son of Mary, and claims that God is one-third of a trinity. . . . Don't you hate the faith of such a polytheist?"

Where are the demonstrations, where are the parliamentary resolutions, where are the demands for retraction when the Mufti Sheik Ali Gum'a incites readers of al-Ahram, the Egyptian government daily, against "the true and hideous face of the blood-suckers . . . who prepare [Passover] matzos from human blood"?

If you call us violent, we will kill you. With not a trace of irony, spoken as literal truth. Too many are excusing this kind of behavior in a sickening display of cultural chauvinism masquerading as multiculturalism.

Ahmadinejad and Chavez Get A New Court Jester

Mad Mahmoud and Mini Me Hugo are very proud to announce their newest subject! He's a one time US presidential hopeful, who lies about his combat experience! He's Big! He's Bad! He's TOM HARKIN, newly appointed apologist and court jester for none other than Hugo "Mini Me" Chavez!

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a democrat, today defended Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's United Nations speech in which Chavez called President George Bush the devil. Harkin said the comments were "incendiary", then went on to say, "Let me put it this way, I can understand the frustration, ah, and the anger of certain people around the world because of George Bush's policies." Harkin continued what has been frequent criticism of the president's foreign policy.

Harkin says Bush came to office saying he wanted a new humility in foreign policy in reaching out to other countries, but Harkin says Bush's actual policy has been heavy handed. Harkin says the anger against Bush is generated from the Iraq war, which Harkin says was "unnecessary."

Thank you Tom. I, for one really appreciate you committing political suicide live and in person.

Because if you think for one second that you are going to live this one down, you are as crazy as the little creeps who's boots you are licking. You are politically all done in Iowa. Count on it. I have this little speech of yours all locked up for your next run at reelection – screenshots and all. Damn that Al Gore for inventing this interwebby thingee, right Tom? Enjoy the rest of this last term.

UPDATE: And spanked by Patterico. This one goes into the file for posterity. Flopping Aces Kicks Harkin. Reader_I_Am from Done With Mirrors is an Iowan who votes. And remembers. WuzzaDem has a moonbat convergence documented. John Hawkins thinks Harkin must not have gotten the memo. Sister Toldjah is not pleased. STACLU thinks it's that memo thing again. A Blog For All thinks Harkin is afraid of the swarm from the base.

Is There An Echo In Here?

Here's a little item that indicates – quite clearly, I think – that Mad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is very, very, very conversant with certain leftist talking points that have been in play for a while now. He says that despite all his vile, hateful rhetoric about wiping Israel off the face of the Earth, his problem is not with Jews. His problem is with Zionists.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iran's president, responding to Western criticism of his questioning of the Holocaust and a call for Israel to be "wiped off the map," said on Thursday his quarrel was with Zionists and not Jews.

But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not respond directly when asked by a reporter if he had been correctly translated as saying last year he sought the elimination of the Jewish state. He said Zionists were aggressors and murderers who had driven Palestinians from their home to set up the Jewish state and then occupied Palestinian lands.

"We love everyone around the world. Jews, Christians, Muslims, non-Muslims, non-Jews, non-Christians — we have no problem with people," he told a news conference on the sidelines of a U.N. General Assembly meeting.

"Zionists are Zionists, period. They are not Jews, they are not Christians, and they are not Muslims," he said. "They are a power group, a power party, and we oppose the oppression and the aggression that any party that seeks pure raw power goes after."

Zionism is the name of the movement to establish a Jewish homeland that led to the creation of the state of Israel nearly 60 years ago. Ahmadinejad says he favors a return of Palestinians to the land now called Israel, and a referendum "with the participation of everyone" to determine its fate.

Felice Gaer, director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, dismissed the president's distinction between Jews and Zionists.

"Ahmadinejad's desire to rid the world of Israel is the transference of the classical bigoted treatment of the Jew to the state of the Jews," she said. "There is an inextricable historic Jewish connection with the land of Israel. As Martin Luther King said, 'When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews."'

Now, why is this important? Because the left says the exact same thing. Here on this blog in the comments in fact.

Israel is not “the Jews,” and to instantly jump up and down about the “the Jews” the minute foreign policies concerning Israel are discussed shows a very brainwashed mentality.

The commenter accuses me of being brainwashed because of earlier remarks – go read the thread if you're interested. (His argument with me was completely negated by the Shura council's remarks that said there would be no truce with the West until it submitted. He never did answer after that.) The point is, Ahmadinejad is playing exactly into the beliefs structure of the left. He is, most assuredly, doing so on purpose to gain maximum positive press from the left-leaning press. Understand this: if Ahmadinejad gets nuclear weapons he will use them against Israel. It will not matter one whit whether the people who are being incinerated are Zionists or Jews or Muslims or Atheists.

He will incinerate them all. That day comes closer every day we give him diplomatic and media slack. It has to stop if we are not going to go off the cliff together. We are all in this. Better wake up folks and stop buying what monsters are trying to sell. I noted that Ezra Kein thought Mad Mahmoud was winning the media war in an earlier post. He can only win that war with the willing assistance of the Western media.

And Yea, Verily, The Pigs Shall Sprout Wings

And fly like the wind. Oh, don't get me wrong, I would freaking love it if this pans out. But given the long history of saying one thing and then seizing any opportunity to fail to seize an opportunity, you can color me skeptical here. Mahmoud Abbas stood up in the UN and said his unity government would recognize Israel.

The Hamas-led Palestinian government that won elections in January has refused to recognize Israel, end violence, and honor past agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which Abbas heads.

Abbas told the assembly's annual ministerial meeting that he has recently sought to establish a government of national unity "that is consistent with international and Arab legitimacy and that responds to the demands of the key parties promoting Mideast peace — recognition, ending violence and honoring past agreements.

"I would like to reaffirm that any future Palestinian government will commit to all the agreements that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian National Authority have committed to," he said.

These include the letters of mutual recognition exchanged on Sept. 9, 1993, by the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian chairman Yasser Arafat, whom Abbas called "the two great late leaders."

"These letters contain mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO, renunciation of violence, and commitment to negotiations as the path towards reaching a permanent solution that will lead to the establishment of the independent state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel," Abbas said.

Please keep in mind that Abbas announced the momentary release of the kidnapped Israeli soldier a long, long, long time ago.

He hasn't been, has he? This is a sad pattern that should make anyone with any sense take anything he says with a grain of salt.

Here’s A Theory

I'm looking at some reactions to Hugo Chavez and his vitriolic personal attacks on President Bush. I'd noted Nancy Pelosi and Charles Rangel had both come out rather strongly against Chavez and his antics. Which is kind of refreshing. Bush stayed out of it, too.

"You don't come into my country; you don't come into my congressional district and you don't condemn my president," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, scolded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

….

"I just want to make it abundantly clear to Hugo Chavez or any other president: Don't come to the United States and think, because we have problems with our president, that any foreigner can come to our country and not think that Americans do not feel offended when you offend our chief of state," Rangel said.

"Hugo Chavez abused the privilege that he had speaking at the United Nations," Pelosi said. "In doing so, in the manner which he characterized the president, he demeaned himself and demeaned Venezuela."

Bush administration officials dismissed the Chavez tirade.

"We're not going to address that sort of comic-strip approach to international affairs," John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said shortly after Chavez spoke Wednesday.

I have long been warning that our internal disarray is a huge problem. It emboldens our enemies. A cheap, tin pot dictator like Chavez thinks he can bribe poor Americans with cheap oil. He doesn't understand Americans at all. But I think Pelosi and Rangel also are starting to see that there is real damage being done with the level of rhetoric not just to Bush, but to the United States. At least I hope that is what motivated them today. I know both of them have made horribly slanted and nasty attacks of a highly personal nature on the President, so it sure isn't the moral high ground that they are talking from.

So, is this the change in momentum that the Anchoress hoped she was seeing? I don't really know. It is completely out of character for Pelosi and Rangel to have done this today. So it may well be they are seeing the unintended consequences of the spiteful attack politics and not liking them very much. On the other hand, Ezra Klein thinks Ahmadinejad is winning the media war. But that, I think, raises a different question. Since we know Chavez and Ahmadinejad were in Venezuela just before coming to the UN, did the two plan out a good cop/bad cop routine? (Or maybe madman/court jester routine fits better). One of the things I think that Klein misses here is that part of the "lack of credibility" he claims Bush has with the UN is the making of the harsh, vitriolic, non-stop political attacks here at home. Including the baseless lies and distortions that have pumped around for three years over the Plame matter. The scandal that has the Baron rolling around on the floor.

There may be a few things coming home to roost. I wonder if Pelosi and Rangel may have noticed that, too.

UPDATE: The Anchoress. Damn, she's good.

Nicely Dodged

I was pretty upset when I read this article. Columbia University had issued an invitation to Mad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak. The invitation was extended by Lisa Anderson, dean of the School of International and Public Affairs. Columbia's president however was not made aware of it.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been invited to speak at Columbia this Friday, University officials confirmed Wednesday night.

Ahmadinejad, who has been criticized for promoting Islamic fundamentalist rule in Iran, is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meeting.

University President Lee Bollinger, who learned of the invitation on Wednesday, said in a statement, "I happen to find many of President Ahmadinejad's stated beliefs to be repugnant, a view that I'm sure is widely shared within our university community."

David Stone, executive vice president of communications, said in an e-mail that he understands the invitation came from Lisa Anderson, dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, "as many such invitations to foreign leaders and government officials to speak at the university often do."

However, I checked over at LGF and Charles Johnson has the update to the story. Mad Mahmoud will not be spouting his holocaust denial or any of his other repulsive ideologies at Columbia. Because the administration couldn't arrange security fast enough, they say.

Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs Lisa Anderson invited Ahmadinejad to speak Wednesday morning, and he accepted Wednesday afternoon, Robert Garris, SIPA director of communications told Spectator.

But SIPA and University officials decided Thursday morning that it was not possible to coordinate the security precautions necessary to accommodate such a high profile guest under short notice.

I think that Bollinger got blindsided by Anderson and darn well wasn't going to jump through hoops to bring someone like Mad Mahmoud in to pollute the campus. Think about this for a second: would they have invited the head of the Ku Klux Klan to speak?

Here We Go ‘Round The Blueberry Bush

British Columbia, Canada: home to some overachieving thieves. Most dishonest people would steal some blueberries. Not these guys. They took the entire blueberry patch. Every single bush. 20,000 of them, overnight.

OTTAWA (AFP) – Thieves in Canada's westernmost province stole an entire blueberry patch, or 20,000 bushes worth about 75,000 Canadian dollars (65,000 US), amid skyrocketing berry prices, police said.

The bandits struck overnight earlier this week and left a "large mess in the field," Constable Casey Vinet of the Abbotsford police in British Columbia province told AFP Thursday.

The farmer had the blueberry bushes delivered and intended to have them planted, but when his laborers showed up, the plants were gone, he said.

"I've been here 13 years and it's the first time I've ever heard of blueberries being stolen," Vinet said. "Sometimes folks are caught stealing a few stalks of corn for personal use, but never an entire field."

I told you they were overachievers.

Not Ready For Prime Time

Hugo Chavez continues to show that he is a sad little man. Today he wandered around Harlem calling President Bush an "alcoholic" and a "sick man".

Speaking while walking in a Harlem street, Chavez told a group of passers-by: "Bush is an alcoholic, a sick man with a lot of hang-ups."

"He walks like John Wayne," declared the left-wing Venezuelan leader. "He doesn't know anything about politics, he got there because of Daddy." Bush's father, George Bush, was also a US president.

In a controversial speech before the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, Chavez called Bush "the devil" and "a tyrant."

Chavez went to Harlem to announce the expansion of a programme to send cheap Venezuelan oil to poor families in New York.

I noticed today that both Nancy Pelosi and Charles Rangel condemned Chavez's speech to the UN. Good for them. It must be kind of embarrassing for a little man like Chavez to draw attention to the more vitriolic talking points that the left has itself used in the past.

Rumors Swirling

The Associated Press is reporting that it looks likely that some sort of deal is about to be reached in the standoff over terror legislation. No details of any sort are leaking out yet, but a White House spokesperson seems to indicate a deal is almost ready.

President Bush's call for legislation has been deadlocked in an intraparty dispute, with Republican Sens. John McCain, John Warner and Lindsey Graham seeking a provision to make it clear that torture of suspects is barred.

Also at issue was whether suspects and their lawyers would be permitted to see any classified evidence in the cases against them.

Warner, McCain, Graham and Hadley met at mid-afternoon with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in the Capitol. The session came a few hours after Frist phoned the lawmakers and strongly urged them to reach a compromise after more than a week of Republican discord.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in an e-mail there was not yet an agreement, but added, "Good trajectory. Stand by for confirmation."

No details of the emerging compromise were immediately available.

Nor was it clear how Senate Democrats might react.

I really don't think that the Democrats would want to really block anything this close to an election when they are already fighting uphill on the "soft on terror" issue. But it wouldn't be the first time they fought the wrong battle, either.

UPDATE: MSNBC is reporting a deal has been reached.

WASHINGTON – President Bush and Republican negotiators led by Sen. John McCain have reached an agreement on legislation covering tribunals for enemy combatant suspects, NBC News has learned.

Details on the deal were not immediately available, but Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said it represented “very positive steps forward. Once everyone looks at it, we hope to come to an agreement.” He was meeting with McCain and Sens. Bill Frist and John Warner, according to NBC.

President Bush’s call for legislation has been deadlocked in an intraparty dispute, with Republican Sens. McCain, Graham and John Warner seeking a provision to make it clear that torture of suspects is barred.

Moonbats In Massachusetts? Who Knew?

Margery Eagan from the Boston Herald has identified a moonbat swarm in, of all places, Massachusetts. Who'd a thunk it.

Kerry Healey fans say The Moonbats form the soul of Deval Patrick’s campaign.
 
What’s a moonbat?
 
“Just a left-wing radical who believes there was a conspiracy by George Bush and Dick Cheney and Haliburton to bring down the World Trade Center,” longtime moonbat analyst Howie Carr, my colleague, explained to me yesterday.
 
“Someone who thinks the NSA is monitoring their phone calls, so Deval people can’t make phone calls because Dick Cheney is listening. They have trust funds and haven’t worked in 20 or 30 years. They’re on prescription medication. . . . The women? You will know them by their knitting. . . .”

And it’s easier to find one than you think.
 
Meet Erik Gehring of Roslindale, formerly of Jamaica Plain.
 
“I do know people who buy into the World Trade Center conspiracy theory. I’m not one of those. But I am a quality Bush hater. As for listening in? I know they’re listening in. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were listening (to me).I wouldn’t put much past this president.”
 
Erik, 38, says he does not have a trust fund but “my parents are not un-well off.”
 
He claims no prescription medication, either, “But you know what? (My wife) does knit a sweater here or there.”
 
And like all good moonbats, Erik’s a big cyberspace guy. He’s also a freelance writer, photographer, artist, radio and video producer and devoted environmentalist. Al Gore’s global warming movie? Seen it – which really goes without saying.

Remember, you will know them by their knitting……

The Face On Mars

And other conspiracy theories. The European Space Agency has taken super high resolution photographs of the odd terrain feature on Mars that resembles a face. The "face" dates all the way back to pictures NASA released back in 1976. Using the high resolution imaging equipment on the Mars Express, scientists are trying to show that the formation is just a natural phenomenon.

NASA started it all back in 1976 with an image of an interesting mountain on Mars and a caption that described it as appearing to have eyes and nostrils.

Thirty years later, the Face on Mars still inspires myths and conspiracy theories.

A new set of images from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter will confirm for many that the features are natural, while no doubt offering tantalizing "clues" to others of an ancient intelligent civilization at work.

The spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera provides data the researchers turn into colorized perspective views, which simulate the scene as though you were flying high over the region in an aircraft. The data was obtained in July and the images released today.

"They not only provide a completely fresh and detailed view of an area so famous to fans of space myths all around the world, but also provide an impressive close-up over an area of great interest for planetary geologists, and show once more the high capability of the Mars Express camera," said Agustin Chicarro, ESA Mars Express project scientist.

The feature known as the Face, along another skull-like feature and pyramid-looking hills in the vicinity, are in an area called Cydonia in the Arabia Terra region. It is a transition zone between the southern highlands and the northern plains, and it contains wide valleys and ancient remnant mounds, called massifs, of many shapes and sizes.

They have all the pretty pictures over at Space.com. (They are amazing, by the way). But since we know, without a shadow of a doubt, that rocket fuel will not melt rock and that on Wednesday 1973 Operation Short Sheet occurred at Camp Winitonka and that all hamsters are not named "Frank", we can categorically confirm that they are lying to us.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard have obtained the real, honest to goodness, Reuters Quality™ picture to prove it, too. Using our fearless operatives at Magic 8-Ball Cut Rate Space Exploration and Karaoke Lounge, Inc. we have obtained the picture that the government does not want you to see.

AT LAST THE TRUTH IS OUT. Elvis may have left the building, but he hasn't left the Solar System.

Well, If The Rides Don’t Make You Sick

The way to cut in line might. If you eat a live Madagascar hissing cockroach Six Flags Great America theme park will give you a pass that grants you automatic go to the head of the waiting line status.

GURNEE, Ill. – Why wait in line when you can just eat a cockroach? That's the question Six Flags Great America is asking its thrill seekers during its Halloween-themed FrightFest. The amusement park is daring customers to eat a live Madagascar hissing cockroach in exchange for unlimited line-jumping privileges.

The promotion, which has Lake County Health Department officials shaking their heads, starts Oct. 7.

Anyone who chows down the entire 2- to 3-inch horned cockroach gets a pass for four people to cut to the front of ride lines through Oct. 29.

Park officials insist it's safe to eat the crunchy critters, but health officials are cautioning participants.

Consuming live roaches might increase risks of gastrointestinal illness and allergies, according to Bill Mays, Lake County Health Department's community health director.

Cockroach eaters will have to sign waivers and still pay admission fees, said Six Flags spokesman James Taylor.

Later, park officials will also have a cooked cockroach cooking contest. I think I'll wait in line, thanks anyway.

Crossing The Line

The New York Times reaches yet another low. This time, I suspect that they may well have crossed a line as well. This editorial might just be actionable for libel – some smart lawyers should be looking real hard at this.

One of the cornerstones of the Republican Party’s strategy for winning elections these days is voter suppression, intentionally putting up barriers between eligible voters and the ballot box. The House of Representatives took a shameful step in this direction yesterday, voting largely along party lines for onerous new voter ID requirements. Laws of this kind are unconstitutional, as an array of courts have already held, and profoundly undemocratic. The Senate should not go along with this cynical, un-American electoral strategy. (Emphasis added).

That one sweeping statement is unbelievable for an American newspaper, even in this day of rabid partisanship. There is a huge difference between wanting to keep fraud out of elections and suppressing votes. I can't even stomach the task of fisking the rest of their tortured falsehoods. Read it yourself. Bring an airsick bag.

UPDATE: A Blog For All is thrilled with the NYT, too. Ditto Don Surber.

Filthy, Evil, Inhuman MONSTERS

The Democrats must immediately go on the attack against the biggest threat to Western civilization in the history of the world. They must immediately begin holding rallies and protests against the filthy, evil, inhuman monsters we all know as Wal-Mart! For they have done something so filthy and evil that is is inhuman. And Monstrous.

They are going to start selling a months supply of generic prescription drugs for $4. FOUR DOLLARS a month. To EVERYONE, not just the insured.

Oh, that's right. Never mind. They already are attacking. This, of course shows why the anti-Wal-Mart strategy was incredibly foolish. The millions of people who shop at Wal-Mart daily are not going to take kindly to the Democrat's campaign against the retailer. Especially now.

TAMPA, Fla. – Wal-Mart announced today that it will start a test program in Florida, where it will sell generic prescription drugs for $4 for a 30-day supply. The test will start tomorrow in 65 Tampa Bay-area stores and is to expand to the whole state by January.

In a statement, CEO Lee Scott says the world's largest retailer intends to "take the program to as many states as possible next year."

On average, generic drugs tend to cost between $10 and $30 for a month-long supply.

The world's biggest retailer said that it will test the program in Florida that will make 291 generic drugs available — which are used to treat a variety of condition from allergies to high-blood pressure — for only $4 per prescription for up to a 30-day supply. It will also be available to the uninsured.

The program will be launched on Friday at 65 Wal-Mart, Neighborhood Market and Sams' Club pharmacies in the Tampa Bay area in Florida and will be expanded to the entire state in January.

The company said it plans to take the program to as many states as possible next year.

"Each day in our pharmacies we see customers struggle with the cost of prescription drugs," said Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott, Jr., in a statement. "By cutting the cost of many generics to $4, we are helping to ensure that our customers and associates get the medicines they need at a price they can afford."

I am really looking forward to the attempts to attack this. Or the furious backpedaling among the smarter politicians. Wal-Mart just pulled off an absolutely stunning coup on the unions and the Democrats that are serving as their proxies.

By the way, don't miss the way the article attempts to conflate Wal-Mart's employee health benefit program with this program aimed at all customers. It is one of the most stunningly dishonest pieces of reporting I have ever seen. You will literally do a double take when you realize they shifted to a completely different topic halfway through the article. The spin will make your head spin.

Who do you think are going to be seen as the filthy, evil, inhuman monsters now?

UPDATE: Environmental Republican calls it brilliant. PoliPundit agrees: evil, evil, evil.