Who'll Stand Up for The American Other?

Re those Hutarree militia nutjobs, Instapundit takes hammer to head of nail:

[Christian apocolyptic warriors in the woods has] never been much of a theme here at InstaPundit, but with Balloon Juice looking out for their procedural rights, I’m sure those militiamen will be okay. And I’m sure top lawyers from top law firms on Wall Street and K street will be lining up to provide the Huttaree militia with a pro bono defense, too.

Excuse me, ma'am?!

Ma'am Barbara Boxer, Chairman, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee

"You call it 'Climategate'; I call it 'E-mail-theft-gate."

Settled Science

But, but . . . his heart was in the right place . . .

From Sweetness and Light, we are reminded how some men of power and high regard are so blinded by their passions and self-righteousness that they will commit treason.

The Crusader – Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, Paul Krengor

Appendix

TEXT OF KGB LETTER ON SENATOR TED KENNEDY
_________________________________________
Special Importance Committee on State Security of the USSR 14.05. 1983 No. 1029 Ch/OV Moscow
Regarding Senator Kennedy’s request to the General Secretary of the Communist Party Comrade Y.V. Andropov

Comrade Y.V. Andropov

On 9-10 May of this year, Senator Edward Kennedy’s close friend and trusted confidant J. Tunney was in Moscow. The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Center Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov.

Senator Kennedy, like other rational people, is very troubled by the current state of Soviet-American relations. Events are developing such that this relationship coupled with the general state of global affairs will make the situation even more dangerous. The main reason for this is Reagan’s belligerence, and his firm commitment to deploy new American middle range nuclear weapons within Western Europe.

According to Kennedy, the current threat is due to the President’s refusal to engage any modification on his politics. He feels that his domestic standing has been trengthened because of the well publicized improvement of the economy: inflation has been greatly reduced, production levels are increasing as is overall business activity. For these reasons, interest rates will continue to decline. The White House has portrayed this in the media as the "success of Reaganomics."

Naturally, not everything in the province of economics has gone according to Reagan’s plan. A few well known economists and members of financial circles, particularly from the north-eastern states, foresee certain hidden tendencies that many bring about a new economic crisis in the USA. This could bring about the fall of the presidential campaign of 1984, which would benefit the Democratic party. Nevertheless, there are no secure assurances this will indeed develop.

The only real threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations. These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign. The movement advocating a freeze on nuclear arsenals of both countries continues to gain strength in the United States. The movement is also willing to accept preparations, particularly from Kennedy, for its continued growth. In political and influential circles of the country, including within Congress, the resistence to growing military expenditures is gaining strength.

However, according to Kennedy, the opposition to Reagan is still very weak. Reagan’s adversaries are divided and the presentations they make are not fully effective. Meanwhile, Reagan has the capabilities to effectively counter any propaganda. In order to neutralize criticism that the talks between the USA and the USSR are non-constructive, Reagan will grandiose, but subjectively propagandistic. At the same time, Soviet officials who speak about disarmament will be quoted out of context, silenced or groundlessly and whimsically discounted. Although arguments and statements by officials of the USSR do appear in the press, it is important to note the majority of Americans do not read serious newspapers or periodicals.

Kennedy believes that, given the current state of affairs, and in the interest of peace, it would be prudent and timely to undertake the following steps to counter the militaristic politics of Reagan and his campaign to psychologically burden the American people. In this regard, he offers the following proposals to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Y.V. Andropov:

1. Kennedy asks Y.V. Andropov to consider inviting the senator to Moscow for a personal meeting in July of this year. The main purpose of the meeting, according to the senator, would be to arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA. He would also like to inform you that he has planned a trip through Western Europe, where he anticipates meeting England’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French President Mitterand in which he will exchange similar ideas regarding the same issues. If his proposals would be accepted in principle, Kennedy would send his representative to Moscow to resolve questions regarding organizing such a visit. Kennedy thinks the benefits of a meeting with Y.V.Andropov will be enhanced if he could also invite one of the well known Republican senators, for example, Mark Hatfield. Such a meeting will have a strong impact on American and political circles in the USA (In March of 1982, Hatfield and Kennedy proposed a project to freeze the nuclear arsenals of the USA and USSR and pblished a book on the theme as well.)

2. Kennedy believes that in order to influence Americans it would be important to organize in August-September of this year, televised interviews with Y.V. Andropov in the USA. A direct appeal by the General Secretary to the American people will, without a doubt, attact a great deal of attention and interest in the country. The senator is convinced this would receive the maximum resonance in so far as television is the most effective method of mass media and information. If the proposal is recognized as worthy, then Kennedy and his friends will bring about suitable steps to have representatives of the largest television companies in the USA contact Y.V. Andropov for an invitation to Moscow for the interview. Specifically, the president of the board of directors of ABC, Elton Raul and television columnists Walter Cronkite or Barbara Walters could visit Moscow. The senator underlined the importance that this initiative should be seen as coming from the American side.

Furthermore, with the same purpose in mind, a series of televised interviews in the USA with lower level Soviet officials, particularly from the military would be organized. They would also have an opportunity to appeal directly to the American people about the peaceful intentions of the USSR, with their own arguments about maintaining a true balance of power between the USSR and the USA in military term. This issue is quickly being distorted by Reagan’s administration.

Kennedy asked to convey that this appeal to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is his effort to contribute a strong proposal that would root out the threat of nuclear war, and to improve Soviet-American relations, so that they define the safety of the world. Kennedy is very impressed with the activities of Y.V. Andropov and other Soviet leaders, who expressed their commitment to heal international affairs, and improve mutal understandings between peoples.

The senator underscored that he eagerly awaits a reply to his appeal, the answer to which may be delivered through Tunney.

Having conveyed Kennedy’s appeal to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Tunney also explained that Senator Kennedy has in the last few years actively made appearances to reduce the threat of war. Because he formally refused to partake in the election campaign of 1984, his speeches would be taken without prejudice as they are not tied to any campaign promises. Tunney remarked that the senator wants to run for president in 1988. At that time, he will be 56 and his personal problems, which could hinder his standing, will be resolved (Kennedy has just completed a divorce and plans to remarry in the near future). Taken together, Kennedy does not discount that during the 1984 campaign, the Democratic Party may officially turn to him to lead the fight against the Republicans and elect their candidate president. This would explain why he is convinced that none of the candidates today have a real chance at defeating Reagan.

We await instructions.

President of the committee

V. Chebrikov

Snark on the Plane

New York Post:

A top White House aide resigned today for his role in Air Force One's $328,835 photo-op flyover above New York City that sparked panic and flashbacks to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. His resignation was made public at the same time the photo of the flyover was released by the White House.

Excuse, SBD?

The photo? The photo?

For $328, 835, one would expect an album of photos, a montage of photos, at the very least a triptych of photos.

Not the photo. We're to believe all that business was over a photo. The little button wasn't pushed until just the right moment of glorious airship righteousness was caught on the SD card?

Which means that the true story behind the photo op remains undeveloped. Where are the photos taken as the plane cruised over lower Manhattan, with little tiny ants below running and screaming and pointing in terror?

Where is the video taken of the plane on its Big Apple tour? There must be video. Perhaps the video remains with George Lucas' Tuskeegee Airmen film production team.

A Most Successful Flyover

Sydney Brillo Duodenum is a fan and generator of conspiracy theories. He has a theory about the errant “Air Force One” flight over New York City. It is Sydney Brillo Duodenum’s rabidly held belief that this flight is solely the work of a frustrated element of the American military. Of course, one could argue that "the frustrated element" of the American military is the entire American military, so this particular conspiracy comes courtesy of the 89th Airlift Wing.

For the past month, we have witnessed a President abroad apologizing for America’s 8 year resolve to defend itself. We have seen a US President bow before a Saudi king. We have seen him exchange a soul-brother grasp with a prominent South American fascist dictator. We have seen him sit silently for 45 minutes while another two-bit commie thug excoriates America and we have seen the President respond that he was only three years old when it committed the crimes lectured upon. We have seen a Pentagon announce ill-considered, politicized cuts in aspects of our military profile, such as missile defense. At home, we have heard the President suggest that former Bush administration personnel should be considered for prosecution for their legal analysis of harsh interrogation of terrorists directly responsible for the September 11 murders. Several days after that, the administration agreed to release photos of said so-called interrogations.

We are to believe the context for all of this is that, for eight years, these United States have acted without reason, have reacted irresponsibly to murder of its civilians, have unleashed professional soldiers on misunderstood brown peoples, have serially and unreasonably tortured innocent teenagers, and have abridged the world’s US Constitutional rights. Nothing that happened on that bright sunny September day warranted the past 8 years. Or so we are told.

After a month of Obama misdirection, sickening apologies, and messiah mirroring, a good many Americans have been infused with shameful doubt about their country and themselves.

Which brings us back to our allegedly scheduled PR flight of one of the 747s used for the Air Force One fleet. Certainly, a modicum of warning was delivered by the White House to the appropriate bureaucratic moles in New York City, indicating a million mile removal from reality such that it did not see the effect such a flight would have on New Yorkers and the nation. Why? Because that hole in the ground is just a PR opportunity for them. It has no meaning beyond its political usefulness, either as a tool to chastise Americans for their overreactions or as a tool to remind Americans who’s in the Executive seat. There is no amount of "heads up" that could be given to prepare the city for the flyover that took place. It's an affront at all altitudes.

But certainly those responsible for actually managing the use of the aircraft, the 89th Airlift Wing, knew this flight would be sensitive and provocative. “Oh, you want to buzz New York City for some photos. Um, certainly, sir. And you want F-16s trailing it as well, while photos are being taken? No sir, not a problem at all, sir. The Air Force always likes to be in the air, even for public relations photo ops designed to create an image of President Obama as the Great Protector. Yes, sir, sorry, sir. No, sir we will not make a big deal out of it, sir. Yes, sir, we will keep it quiet, sir. Last minute notice? Oh, certainly, sir. Yes, sir, makes perfect sense. How about a Monday morning, sir, just after everyone gets to work in the city? Agreed sir, not before lunch. And you want that 5,000 off the ground? May I recommend a 1000, sir? That will make for some very nice photos, sir.” Later, to men and women of the 89th: “Ladies and Gentlemen – the White House wants to buzz New York City next week to get some promotional photos and videos that the White House can use to hand out to big time contributors and use for campaign spots for the coming 2012 election. Let’s help them be very successful at this flyover and get a really accurate picture of the Obama administration, er rather, for the Obama administration (snicker, snicker).”

And it was indeed a very successful flyover. As some say, Mission Accomplished!

Today's Wild Ass Conspiracy Theory

Is this formula the work of a Chicom agent sent to the US years ago to bring down capitalism?

You decide.

Well, now that you've settled on a name . . .

. . . how about you build the goddamned thing!?!?!!?!?

Freedom Tower Will Be Called One World Trade Center

NEW YORK — The Freedom Tower is out. One World Trade Center is in. The agency that owns ground zero confirmed Thursday that the signature skyscraper replacing the towers destroyed on Sept. 11 will be more commonly known as One World Trade Center.

The building under construction at the site was named the Freedom Tower in the first ground zero master plan. Officials at the time said the tallest, most symbolic of five planned towers at the site would demonstrate the country's triumph over terrorism.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey chairman Anthony Coscia says the agency refers to the building as One World Trade Center. He says it's the building's legal name and "the one that's easiest for people to identify with."

Yes, we know it's been ONLY eight years since murder and mayhem were brought to our shores, and there was the whole design contest, and of course EVERYONE knows what the permitting story is in NYC, and . . . (start channeling Christian Bale, here folks) NO, NO - FUCK THE EXCUSES!

WHERE IS THE FUCKING BUILDING?

WHEN IS THE FUCKING BUILDING GOING TO BE DONE?

WHY IS THERE NO FUCKING BUILDING NOW?

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS FUCKING STUPIDITY?

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT IT ISN'T FUCKING DONE ALREADY?

Guess what? Sydney Brillo Duodenum doesn't any want any answers.

THERE IS NO FUCKING EXCUSE!

Hate him as most do, but Donald Trump would have finished it by now. It would be a monstrous Gold 2001 Space Odyssey block, but it would be done.

If anyone should have lost their jobs in these times, it is the asshats and serial fuck ups associated with the reconstruction of the World Trade Center.

BUILD IT. NOW. FAST.

You want to put people to work, President Obama? Send them to New York City and put up that damned skyscraper.

No doubt, when it is finally done, it will be named Obama Plaza.

Long Term Perspective

President Obama, March 3, 2009:

"What you're now seeing is profit [sic] and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you've got a long-term perspective on it."

End of the week news, March 6, 2009:

MARKET SNAPSHOT
Stocks look cheap, but they could get cheaper; By some measures, P/E ratios are near lows, though it depends how you slice it

By Laura Mandaro, MarketWatch
Last update: 4:45 p.m. EST March 6, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Price-to-earnings ratios, a popular measure of how expensive stocks are by historical standards, have surpassed lows seen in recent recessions. But that's no guarantee they won't sink further.

"There's no doubt that people can look at market valuations and determine that stocks are relatively inexpensive -- but that doesn't mean they're going to quit going
down," said Michael Gibbs, director of equity strategy at Morgan Keegan & Co. in Memphis, Tenn.

The price-to-earnings ratio of stocks in the S&P 500 has sunk to 10.6 from nearly 17 at the end of 2007, says FactSet Research. That's based on the Thursday close of the S&P 500 compared to index members' past four quarters of operating earnings, or net income excluding what analysts consider to be extraordinary charges and gains.

Thomson Reuters, which publishes similar analysis, estimates the trailing P/E ratio for the S&P 500 is around 11.

Those numbers are well below the valuations reached during the market low of the 2001 recession, when the ratio stopped at 19. They're also lower than the P/E ratio of 13 touched at the market bottom during the 1990-1991 recession, says Morgan Keegan, which used data compiled by Yale University's Robert Shiller for its historical research.

But widen out the lens, and P/E ratios dropped even further in some earlier recessions. During the market low of the early 1980's recession, for example, stocks in the index were trading at a mere 8 times earnings. "There have been periods when the market multiple [P/E ratio] traded lower. And the economy is declining at a rapid pace, meaning earnings could fall more," Gibbs said.

We read this and we think, how can we use this sterile and unsurprising information to create an overwrought and emotional blog post. Let's try this:

Sydney Brillo Duodenum recently downloaded the iDie application for his iPhone. Essentially an actuarial table showing at any given moment your expected remaining lifespan, iDie finds that SBD has used up approximately 56 percent of his life. This little application has removed any and all sense of any "long-term perspective," as the President might describe it, on anything. It's all short term from here on out. In fact, it was during a highly productive part of that first 56 percent of his life that SBD maintained "a long term perspective" on things and it is that very thing which led him to be a good egg by directing a decent percentage of earnings into nest eggs. The result? A murder of crows has made off with almost half of SBD's little chicks and an unkindness of ravens has its eyes on the remaining little bastards. Living now only in the short term as SBD does, there simply isn't any long term opportunity to get back to break even.

Someone is to blame, of course.

First and foremost, SBD is to blame because he "bought into the system" as it were. His money is locked up in goodietwoshoes, government prescribed financial investment vehicles - 401(k), life insurance, 529, etc. - all designed to minimize taxes in addition to minimizing access to hard earned money. To get it out will cost money and penalties. And then what? Thus, SBD gave up his freedom for some kind of freedom in retirement. Short term advice to the next generation: never give up control of your money.

Second, Obama is most certainly to blame for our present condition. It is absurd and obtuse to claim that he "inherited" this "crisis." He blames out of control government spending, so-called lax regulatory oversight, and capitalist greed. It was Booooooosh that did it. We know that government spending got out of control paying for things President Obama himself is now promising full sized versions of: nationalized health care, education outlays, hidden welfare; bailouts for deadbeats, statist energy policy. And yes, there certainly was a great deal of regulatory blindness, especially the kinds that allow quasi-government entities - Fathead and Frannie Fuckface - to run amok in a vital area of the nation's economy and pysche. And while it's interesting and makes allowance for stern furrowed brow speeches, capitalist greed is what funded President Obama's break the bank presidential campaign. The regime was not built on drib and drab contributions from some hempclothed fat chick with hairy underarms living in a tent under a freeway in Portland, OR. Wall Street and James Bond-type villains paid for President Obama's campaign. It was Barack Obama's "philosophy" that brought us to where we are today. Government meddling and control over market forces, government policies that pervert human action and create moral hazard are to blame. In the past 40 some days, President Obama has promised a degree of government meddling, coercion, perversion, and disruption unseen in modern times. His policies and philosophy took us to where we are today. Falsely, they indict free market principles that have never been allowed to function. Obama is now in control and promising an explicit and accelerated application of his philosophy.

People need to understand that this will not blow over. People sometimes become trapped in their own circumstance, believing it to be global and paradigm altering when it really just an isolated squall in the wide ocean. Not this. This not melodrama or middle age heat or desk draw whiskey or even sour grapes talking. It's sober fear. America is in the grip - the clenched fist - of an egomaniacal academic charlatan.

Our republic is in great peril and there is not a goddamned thing that can be done about it. It must simply play itself out in the short term. Obama will get most of what he wants. In that sense he will succeed. He will create a government chatal class, incapable of ever being a Greatest Generation. Obama's success is national failure. The Republic is dying. SBD's "long term perspective" is that in the short term, he witnesses it die.

Note to the Wall Street Journal

Sydney Brillo Duodenum, after long and careful consideration, and taking into full account his spoiled nature and demand that all things be efficient, right and functional, and with complete understanding that "media" cannot stand still and certain age-proven models of information presentation need to be questioned and reshaped now and then, is of the firm opinion that the new Wall Street Journal web site sucks owl pellets. What was once the equivalent of Clint Eastwood in Gran Torrino - a wizened, experienced no nonsense man beating down punks with his simplicity and understanding of timelessness of certain human values has morphed into a fat, lethargic, overfed, Hawaiian shirt wearing guy from New Jersey standing in the middle of Main Street, Disney World, sucking on a soda while studying a map and making it difficult for everyone to get their fastpasses to their favorite ride and stake out a position on the parade route. Slow does not begin to describe this lumbering unresponsive over served beast, and network connections, user error, browser choice nor a generally dyspeptic cranky attitude explain the problem.

There is but one thing to be said: Fuck You, Rupert Murdoch. Other than this small quibble about the utility of one of the great tools of western civilization, you're doing a great job.

We Are France!? Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!

Well, well, well. The magazine that featured Commissar Obama on its cover no less than 14 times since February 2008, now informs us that “We Are All Socialists Now.” And it blames Bush!

Question: will those of us who warned that Obama is a socialist and that his administration would rush this country into the wholesale - permanent - takeover of key parts of the economy by the government receive an apology from all those people who told us we were crazy McCarthyite conspiracy hounds?

Sydney Brillo Duodenum will accept a Starbucks gift card in lieu of a written apology.

State of Unprecedented Emergency

Well, it's martial law, friends. So unprecedented and costly and, apparently, unprecedentedly dangerous is the (unprecedented) Inauguration of (unprecedentedly named) Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States that the only way to handle it is to declare it a national emergency and smash open another federal piggy bank. But, since we have been living under a virtual dictatorship lo these eight shameful and embarrassing years, it only makes sense that Obama's people would seek to maintain that aspect of the Bush Hunta, in addition to its general economic and national security policies and personnel and the chef. Don't forget the chef.

How is this not the biggest racist statement yet from white America (other than their racist act of voting for Obama because he is black and his election would assuage their White Guilt?) "Uh, oh, a black man is about to take the White House - better declare an emergency!!!!" You know, if a Republican did that it would be the end of the . . . , oh, wait a minute . . . As White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said,

"Because of this anticipated influx of people, declaring an emergency permits the federal government to provide additional requested support ... to ensure that the inauguration is not only safe and secure, but that the health and well-being of visitors is preserved."

Who do they think is crashing this party dressed in death and mayhem? Are they talking about the guests? Are they talking about the host not being able to manage the Unwashed Deluge? Talk about the low bigotry of soft expectations, or something to that effect. Honestly, if you have blown the catering budget wide open, just admit it and put out the call to the B-listers to kick in a little potluck here and there. And apparently, Obama has done quite well tallying subscriptions to his Day of Glory from a not unprecedented group of morons. The Wall Street Journal reports that, "A total of 207 fund-raisers have collected $24.8 million of the $27.3 million in contributions disclosed by Mr. Obama through Thursday, according to an analysis by nonpartisan campaign finance group Public Citizen." Apparently they have contributed so much that The Fashion House of Goodwill is the only morally acceptable source of ball regalia this year. These monies do not cover the expenses of Democratic-run governments in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and D.C. to ensure the health and well-being of visitors. So many people are expected at all the historic events they have arranged that taxpayers need to kick in more money to pay for it. Those entirely unprecedented costs can be expected to run the entire cost of this unprecedented extravaganza above $100 million. That's more than twice what President Bush spent on his second coup d'etat. And, to the Professional Elite, spending that kind of money on a Republican was an unprecedented scandal.

Of course it's unprecedented nonsense to declare an emergency. Democrats simply want to ensure a further historical zenith attached to the ascendancy of Obama. If you don't get it, then you'll have to fuck off. For the Lore to take its place in the national psyche and to serve its purpose across this century as a beacon of unprecedented hope, the Obama Inauguration has to have been so unprecedented that every unprecedented step that could be taken had to be taken. Close the bridges! Shut down the city arteries! Commandeer the parking lots! Deploy every man, woman and child wielding a badge! Build a sound stage in front of the Lincoln Memorial bigger than the Lincoln Memorial! Close down the schools! Shut down the Beltway! Scare everyone away! But keep telling them it's the most historic national event to occur since the Founding itself and Being There may help you get a gold star when Obama's Mutaween stop you in the street and ask where you were when Obama was sworn in.

What's truly unprecedented is the cult of personality enveloping this man. Even more unprecedented is his total embrace of his own myth. Now that is an emergency unanswered.

Of course this entire post is really just sour grapes, but it's an unprecedented case of sour grapes!

Flinging dirt and mud and not giving a damn

Sydney Brillo Duodenum loves conspiracies. He would not be Sydney Brillo Duodenum if he did not. It would also not be the day before a US presidential election if people such as Sydney Brillo Duodenum, as obscure and unread as he is, did not do his part to spread scurrilous rumors. Protein Wisdom led Sydney Brillo Duodenum to this patch of fog in Obama's personal landscape sends a shiver up his leg (to borrow a phrase from gravedigger Chris Matthews). It is a beautiful conspiracy. It's the hole that fills in the holes of our understanding of Obama.

This conspiracy stretches back to the Revolution. Not the American Revolution. The 60's Revolution. The suburban middle/upper-class student commie revolution. The one fought by Weatherpeople Bill Ayers and his dear wife Bernadette Loonytunes. The revolution that never ended in this country's institutions of higher education. The ones where Barack Obama spent his youth. The universities where the revolutionaries became ensconced and have wrecked havoc on young minds ever since.

Many interested people have tried to paint an accurate picture of just what the hell Barack Obama was doing, if anything, while attending (or not) the prestigious Columbia University? By all lights, at least according to his own biographies (!), he was avoiding establishment types (e.g., white men) and hanging out with every sort of counter-cultural poseur, hangers-on, socialist, anarchist, Euro-trash, activist, cigarette smoking, black turtleneck wearing Third Worldism loving scholarship hound. It all sounds so innocuous and youthful and reminds us of our days in college. Well, no it doesn't, really. But it does sound like a fabulous amount of time was wasted on USDA Prime Certified Bullshit. These conspiracies ask not just what he was doing, but who was doing it with on whose behalf he was doing it, whatever it was he doing. Remember - nobody knows. There isn't even a transcript to review.

Oh, Sydney Brillo Duodenum, why does it matter, you may ask?

Because we are talking about what the next President of the United States was up to in his college years. Nobody can tell you that the events, places and people described in these posts are complete fabrications and misalignments and curiosities of happenstance. There has been no definitive treatment of Sen. Obama's college years, save what he himself has offered in his two biograpahies (!). Isn't college where the first coat of paint is applied - the one that always manages to bleed through no matter what color you choose later on? That is one of the many outrageous scandals marking "the media's" behavior this election cycle. When has a candidate for President ever been as unknown as Barack Obama? How is it possible that at the height of the information age, we know less about Barack Obama than we do about George Washington?

Or is it possible that we know a great deal about Barack Obama? Sydney Brillo Duodenum believes that everything we need to know is in plain sight, but it is too incongruous for us to grasp at the moment. There is such a large, compounding debt of liabilities associated with Barack Obama that it can not all be processed at once. The bits and pieces are still perceived as such and are swept away when considered in the context of healing and national reconciliation and moving on and coping and change and all the other dross of the professional confabulators. Some headway was made this past week with the spot on designation of Barack Obama as an unreconstructed socialist. His first coat of paint, bleeding through. Some were reported to rush in to defend this, history be damned. But who applied the paint? It's possible that Sydney Brillo Duodenum is old-fashioned for wanting to know these things in this supposed age of privacy and the protection thereof.

The nub of this conspiracy, as set out in two parts, one best described as the Manchurian Candidate thesis and the other Manchurian Candidate lite, by Mencius Moldbug at Unqualified Reservations, is thus:

Manchurian Candidate Thesis:

My guess - not because I have any reason to believe that this specifically is what happened, but just because every other explanation I can think of strikes me as less probable - is that Obama, as a young black radical with SDS credentials and obvious talent and potential, found it relatively trivial to earn quick admission to the inner circle, spent two years as a gofer, intern, catamite, or what have you for the Ayers crime family, and was rewarded by the gift of a Columbia degree and a ticket to Harvard Law.

Did Bill Ayers have connections in the administrative staff at Columbia? It would be remarkable if he didn’t. Folks, the Movement was the center of the universe in 1968. If you were one of the top hundred people in it, let alone Bill Ayers, you were the giant glowing sun in the core of your social galaxy. You were a stud beyond studs. You had friends everywhere.

And would someone who blows up police stations blanch at planting a file? Honestly, can we even be confident that the staff at Columbia looked at the file? Who are they, and how do we know them? Again: why do we believe that Barack Obama attended classes at Columbia.

Manchurian Candidate Thesis lite, e.g., Wallflower:

Perhaps Obama, as an activist at Columbia, was a little like a football player on scholarship. He is not ever seen in class, because he is not ever in class. It is generally understood, at least among the staff, that he has other things to be doing. And it might even be that someone else is doing his homework. In other words, he might have been an intern/catamite/etc in some parallel, opaque world of activist politics. The goal is to have a capable young man for a couple of years who will do all kinds of odd jobs for you, while in exchange receiving a Columbia degree.

Also of note and eliding nicely with Mencius' work is this post at Zombietimes:

Barack Obama would have you believe that the bombings by the radical domestic terrorists known as The Weather Underground were something that happened when I was eight years old" and with which he had absolutely no connection. And while it is true that their bombings started when Obama was eight years old, they actually continued until he was twenty years old. And, incredibly, the life of Barack Obama and the terror campaign of the Weather Underground nearly intersected on the evening of September 26, 1981 at an anti-Apartheid protest which turned violent at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.

Delicious, spicy stuff. Read it all, if not as a fun diversion on this dark eve, than at least as a piece of hard tack to stow away for the long, arduous journey ahead. Let it represent your bit of hope that this quintessential enigma will be called out, exposed, uncovered, deposed, what have you.