Since we've all been following this breathlessly, just waiting for our candidate to be exposed for the Manchurian Al-Qaeda communist that he is, I thought I'd provide a quick update.

Last week, over at noted drunken harpy Pamela Geller's web site, they found some guy named techdude who had a mutilated rabbit hung from his front door to do some analysis, and OMG THE KERNING DOESN'T MATCH!!!@!! If you follow the link, there's a bunch of stuff he claims about EXIF data and compression level differences after heat map analyses, which is over the head of 99% of the people who read Atlas Shrugs and can't be independently verified anyway. But it sure got them blog readers all worked up.

On 24 July 2008, Barack Obama will deliver a speech at Berlin’s Siegessäule. This is expected to be a major international event and an excellent opportunity for Obama to address Europe at large regarding his views on the relationship between the U.S. and world. The Obama campaign, hoping for an enthusiastic crowd, has printed fliers to promote the event. Apparently, that was an intensely evil thing to do.

As we all watch the election slowly unfold, it's important to keep your eyes wide open. Kos and the diarists here are terrific, but it's a very good idea to look at some of the right wing blogs to see what "the opposition" is saying. You get a better chance of seeing whether you are or are not in an echo chamber, can occasionally find some good writing, and might even learn a thing or two.

A caveat: I voted for Bush the last two elections. This year, I finally saw how utterly bankrupt the Republicans are in terms of ideology, and I'm hanging my hopes on Obama and a better way. But that doesn't mean I erased my old bookmarks... feel free to use a convert's old tricks.

Here are they are, then: some of my favorite right-wing blogs. Some are good for "enemy research"; some are just good reading for the non-political topics that come up; and some are just nifty. Browse around. It's a big Internet. The more you listen, the more you learn.

A caveat before you good exploring The Dark Side of the Force: Don't troll. Just don't. It's not worth it, really. I'm entirely convinced that no one has ever won an argument, ever, on the Internet... and honestly, in the end, it's just tacky. Read. Don't write. Be respectful of the other guy, and treat them as you'd like to be treated.

I searched and found only a brief comment on this, but I think it needs more attention. Anyone aware of a 'new media' convention happening in Austin this weekend?

It's easy to get bored of political writing. It usually takes the form of airbrushed policy hackwork that you could as easily read on a FAQ or on Wikipedia, or someplace else where you don't have to endure subscription nags or the pretext of topicality. Happily, "Obama, Shaman" by Michael Knox Beran is just the opposite: a piece of unintentional art whose hypotheses reveal so much about the psyche of the author that the subject itself practically vanishes. This isn't about Obama the man. It's about Obama the idea, and why the author is terrified of the Left. Beran conveys the conservative nightmare with surprising, perhaps unintentional expressiveness.

Yesterday I posted a diary which discussed a P. Z. Myers article that denounced the overreaction to a college student stealing a communion wafer.

Today, Dr. Myers is receiving DEATH THREATS and is the target of a campaign to get him fired over writing this article

So...among the top 10 workplace irritants, where does the e-mail bully rank?

I have said person easily in the top five. And in an election year? Probably the number one most irritating workplace person.

What is an e-mail bully? Well, 999 times out of 1000, as near as I can tell, it is a Republican wingnut who has just discovered cut and paste and right wing talking points and has no qualms about flooding the "send all" portion of Outlook with proof of his/her new mad skillz.

Just the other day I was thinking: If Obama wins the election in a landslide (we can hope!) it wouldn't surprise me if the truly hardcore wingnuts start spreading the rumor that he's the Anti-Christ. It would be their last-ditch smear against a popular Democrat with widespread support, and a natural evolution of their he's-a-secret-Muslim-terrorist smear campaign.

Well, turns out they've already beat me to it.

Via Sadly No, I just came across a hardcore religious wingnut who is already claiming that yes, Obama is the Anti-Christ.

Without sarcasm or humor, but entirely seriously.

The only reason I bring this up on Daily Kos is because I feel that we as Democrats need to be prepared for absolutely ANYTHING being thrown at Obama by the wingnuts. Even something you think would be so ludicrous, so vile, and so insane as to be unthinkable. They WILL say it.  The rumors and the smears WILL go out.

And we need to be ready to confront them.

Oh, the moaning and beating-of-chests I am hearing from the wingnuts I work with.  

Environmentalists are Gaia's priests, instructing us in her proper service and casting out those who refuse to genuflect... And having proclaimed the ultimate commandment — carbon chastity — they are preparing the supporting canonical legislation that will tell you how much you can travel, what kind of light you will read by, and at what temperature you may set your bedroom thermostat.  -Charles Krauthammer

That's the quote that David Huntwork leaves us with in his screed entitled The coming fascist state.

His scary head shot aside, Mr. Huntwork's "column" is really frightening.  Thanks to the Intertubes wingnuts like Mr. Lurch Huntwork now have a medium to spread their lunatic notions far and wide.  

Follow me after the fold for some choice bits and contact info so you can send this 'conservative activist' a nice note.

There's no beginning to what Dick Morris knows about politics, so it's surprising then that the good people over at Rasmussen polling are giving him room to vent. He also has another new book out at the moment, which I didn't pre-order months ago and am keenly looking forward not to reading the future. But let's look at his latest column, just for shits and giggles.

Hey kiddies! Well this is one of those diaries that I thought we can make into a game since I've nothing of interest or even substance to contribute (and it's Sunday so nothing new is going to be put out there) and I feel like we should have a little fun. Okay that and I got the inspiration at a recent comment I made on a diary.

Shortly after Larry Sinclair's video first appeared on YouTube, I became his nemesis. It was then that Sinclair began spreading lies about me, too.

This picture will make sense by the end of this diary:

According to the Dallas Morning News the work of the platform committee of the Texas GOP is well underway.  

The usual suspects

prayer in school, getting out of the United Nations, teaching intelligent design....in science classes, repealing of the minimum wage, declaring illegal immigrants criminals and outlawing abortion with no exceptions.

"Hallelujah!" said a delegate who had urged strong anti-abortion language.

The platform calls homosexuality contrary to "the unchanging truths" ordained by God. It opposes gay marriage, civil unions and the custody of children by gays.

According to an alert I just received from Red State, Laura Ingraham has been taken off this air without warning or explanation.  They are terribly upset by this.

UPDATE: From Adam B in comments:

It's just contract negotiations.

So this is much ago about nothing.  (Gasp!  Wingnuts freaking out over nothing?  Whodathunkit?)  Clearly Red State is intent on cultivating the least effective grass root network ever.

While most of the commentariat in this country is obsessed with Obama's pick for VP, I would like to focus on one of the rumored picks for McCain.

Bobby Jindal.

Please, in the name of all that is decent and good, let McCain pick this whack-a-doo as second on the ticket.

Follow below for what, if McCain, does pick Jindal as his Veep, is sure to become  for us in the blogosphere and comics on teevee, fodder that could lead to the most embarrassing and entertaining picks for Vice President in our nation's history.

The blogosphere is rightly amused at Mary Grabar’s column for townhall.com on Monday in which she wrote:

Obama’s advance troops have already taken over our college campuses, have bound and gagged our conservative professors, have ravished our virgins, have pillaged our stores of wisdom, and have ensconced themselves in the thrones of power in deans’, presidents’ and department heads’ offices.

Kos posted a link about this yesterday on an open thread, and even conservatives are embarrassed ("the worst opinion piece I've ever read"), but this is more than just one wingnut with crazy ideas about virgins. The really crazy part of Graber’s is her belief that left-wing radicals have "taken over our college campuses."