Well, the Nazi’s are at it again, or so it would seem. Apparently there have been rumors going around the anti-Palin blogosphere concerning her desire to compose a list of books to have banned while she was mayor of the small town in Alaska. This added to her now discovered false statements concerning selling jets on EBAY and firing official governor cooks is just more fodder for the ultra-paranoid left to write more blog posts attacking Palin and trying to get people to see just how wicked and Nazi-ish she really is.

Problem is, apparently this book burning story is completely false. I was watching Fox News today, you know to find out what the enemy is saying (apparently a WHOLE LOT LESS coverage of the Presidential election than MSNBC, which really REALLY surprised me.) They had some dude on there yacking about how the liberal media (by which they neglect to mention, they mean leftist blogs, which are NOT legitimate sources of news, regardless of how many people pretend that they are, and I mean this one too) were claiming that Palin tried to have books banned. I thought, “Huh, how about that… Good thing I don’t trust or even read leftist blogs, because I know every last site that presents commentary as if it were legitimate journalism is full of shit… Next Story.”

Then I get something from my friend Dave McReynolds in NYC that contained a mea culpa from some dude at www.flamesofdiscontent.org saying “Whoops. I got this book-burning story from someone I thought was a reliable source, and I heard the rumor on NPR, so I immediately wrote up a report and sent it out to presumably everyone on my email list. Sorry: it turns out it wasn’t correct after all, but that still doesn’t mean Palin isn’t dangerous.” Yet another piece of crap sent through internet media to probably hundreds or thousands, and we have Fox news reporting on it the next day. And I hear about it in my email forwarded to me by my friend Dave.

I love it when people have to print retractions. There is really no larger blow to the ego than to have to write that they screwed up. I really like seeing that, especially when it comes from the left. See, here’s the problem: As leftists, we are trying so hard to find the devil badge which we can stick on Palin to prove what we all believe. We can call her on lies, but see, it is very frustrating because she just keeps repeating them (it is true, the right is not listening to the left’s media where these lies are being fact checked, so the people these factchecks are supposed to influence aren’t hearing any of it.) It makes no difference, so we are so willing to pick up on any rumor or wild scenario to try to bring this person down AND make the right see just what a wicked person she truly is. We grasp at ANY thing, hoping that something sticks to her and the right wingers are forced to admit, “Yeah, left, you were right I guess. She isn’t as good as we thought.” The left concocts boogeymen and latches onto unsubstantiated rumors hoping that maybe they will be right just that one golden time, and then their website will get the credit for uncovering what a den of iniquity the Republican Party really is.

It’s really a very malicious smear campaign reminiscent of… oh yes, the same thing the right did to Obama… Yeah that’s right. Remember the tales told about how Obama was really a Muslim being pushed by the fanatics on the right AT THE SAME EXACT TIME that they were crying about how his (christian) reverend was anti-white? Yeah, you remember the disconnect there when the right made a huge deal about how he didn’t wear a flag pin? And you remember how upset the left was about that?

Well, leave it to the left to be petty turnabouts and promote their own series of slander and outright malicious falsehoods. Sure we can believe Palin lies to her audience. But this is stuff her audience wants to hear, and it sure isn’t going to get Democrats to go “Oh, well, she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere. I guess she really IS the honest politician I have been hoping for all these years. I’m going to turn in all my Barack stuff and get a ‘Mid America for Palin’ sticker, cause I’m a sucker.” Ain’t going to happen. The left is just upset that the right’s base has finally come home the way they wanted their own to come home for so long. In fact, McCain, it appears has been a bit more successful at this than the Dems and I suspect this fuels part of the frustration and the desire to slander.

We SO want to believe she really is a Nazi that we will make up stuff about that and then put it out on our blogs. Nevermind the fact that she is a Republican and we all know Republicans are racist fundamentalists, for the most part. That isn’t important. It’s almost like we don’t really believe that ourselves on the left, so we need the Republicans and the right to believe it as well, so we can be sure that we aren’t wrong. It’s really very schizophrenic, when you get down it. But the right partisans aren’t going to believe that, because Palin is the gift that the (social) conservative right have been praying (literally) for. Palin is to them, as she is to my father in law, “Smart, energetic, seems to be of good character, and really gives us an excuse to support McCain, because she is different from the old Washington Crowd and she has the executive experience that none of the others has.” The left wants to believe wicked things about her, while the right really wants to believe good things about her. When confronted with the opposite side of the argument, both sides simply shut their ears. The right makes up more rumors about Obama, and the left apparently gets right in the same muck with them and makes up some shit about Palin. Never mind that the left should be qualitatively better than the right: when we do this we demonstrate that we are just as morally reprehensible.

And then the stupid blogosphere proves this fact beyond a shadow of a doubt by repeating these rumors as if they are facts.

Friends, we need to check our sources. If you didn’t see it personally, always back your shit up, always ALWAYS source your claims. The more scurrilous, the more strenuously and robustly must be your sources. It is the only way we can defeat this notion that blog writers are a bunch of idiots presenting their mindless biased opinions as fact, worthy of someone else coming in and using that in turn as a source. Never use another blog to back up some claim you make. The AP is a good enough source, and you can read their wire in fifty different places. For those who want a little liberal bent to their sources and news, there are numerous independent media sources out there, indymedia being one of the better ones, which do legitimate work for you to source. Don’t pretend you are Dan Rather or whoever it is on the right. If you run a blog, there is a real good chance that you aren’t them. Even Political Director Chuck Todd backs his blog up, but you shouldn’t use his musings as sources either. Be smart. Blogs aren’t legitimate media yet, there is no normative QC on the blogosphere yet. And most of all, don’t let the lunatic fringe cite your shit because instead of increasing your legitimacy, it makes you look like you are in league with conspiracy theorists. (I mean, if you’re John Jenkel, then go right ahead, but if you don’t know who that is, chances are you aren’t in the right community to be providing information to the conspiracy left anyway, so don’t try to.)

Finally, hit Palin on the issues, not on what she supposedly did (now, turns out didn’t do) when she was mayor. Who gives a flying rat’s ass? Is that discussion really that important, or is her belief that the War is God’s plan more important? What about her position on choice? How about her position on equal pay and equal rights for women, minorities and the GLBT community? What is her position on paying for public education? How about renewing the beef with Russia? What about judge appointments? What about free medical care and the pharmaceutical industry? There are hundreds of issue positions the left can legitimately hit her on without reprinting reprinted lies and unsubstantiated rumors or attacking her family (a good example of this is sexist questions concerning whether Palin, a mother can juggle family and the job that I believe came out first on the blogoshpere, then were stupidly repeated by the left news media, giving Palin a campaign position and anti-Obama Clinton supporters a rallying point. It was wrong when the Republicans did it to Clinton, it was wrong when she used that to get votes, and now it is similarly wrong when leftist bloggers who secretly fear/hate the idea of a female VP do it, legitimate media outlets repeat it, and Palin uses it to get votes.) You don’t attack the person, you attack what they believe, and you will be doing legitimate political commentary.

Otherwise, there is no reason that a person like me should bother reading your shit. I can write better myself, and I do, in my sleep. I also podcast better shit.

Tags: Alaska, blogosphere, buring books, lies, McCain, Palin, rumors, stupid leftists, Wasillia