Well, somebody struck a nerve:

It’s worth noting that McCain’s point man in deflecting allegations that weren’t made is Bud Day, one of the original Swift Boat Veterans who smeared John Kerry. (More on Mr. Day and McCain here.) John Kerry was a decorated Vietnam War hero, and yet he was smeared continuously as a traitor by people like Bud Day, who now feign outrage and lie about Vietnam War hero Gen. Wesley Clark. Everybody tut-tuts that McCain is being “swiftboated”, everybody knows not to notice that McCain is in bed with the original swiftboaters, and has been for some time. He’s got such core principles, don’tcha know.

It’s also worth considering how McCain himself perceived these ridiculous attacks on John Kerry:

McCain said Kerry may have opened himself to criticism by focusing on Vietnam. In his own primary campaign in 2000, McCain said, he didn’t have to because everyone knew he’d been there. For Kerry, “it’s clearly a tactical or strategic move” to shield him against “charges of being too liberal and soft on defense.”

On the part of McCain and his defenders, then, we may safely conclude that constantly bringing up his POW experience is “a tactical or strategic move” to shield him against charges that he’s a crazy person who shouldn’t be allowed within 100 yards of the White House unless in Hannibal Lector-type full body restraints. Then, logically, we may conclude that any attacks on John McCain’s record as a POW, however regrettable, are merely the fruits of this tactic and/or strategy. Wesley Clark didn’t “swiftboat” McCain, and he never will. But somebody should. With that in mind, then, I present to you again:

And there’s much, much more where that came from. POW/MIA groups have held a grudge against McCain for decades, and, while some people (e.g., me) might think they are sad, damaged, delusional figures on the fringes of wingnuttery, that is no reason not to promote their claims. For if there is one thing I have learned over the last several years, it is that my personal views – and the views of tens of millions of Americans – are completely disgraceful and have no place in our political discourse. Alrighty, then. Secondly, I have learned from the internets that pointing out that someone is clearly several Spartans short of a phalanx is “ad hominem”*, which is … um, I think a Harry Potter spell intended to compel me to waste my time listening to pointless assholes. In any case, it’s Greek, or Latin, or some language spoken by those woof-woof butch progenitors of Western Civ that V.D. Hanson is always on about, so that means we have to do what it says or the terrorists have already won. Done, and done.

These objections dispensed with, then, we can get on with the ratfucking. If you have a friend, acquaintance, or family member who might be susceptible to this sort of shit – particularly if they have been bombarding you with mass emails about how Barack Obama is a secret Muslim, etc. – why not send them a link to the above video, and ask them why conservative boner idol (and bona fide war hero) Bob Dornan would say such things if they weren’t true. You could perhaps go on to mention the 32 anti-American propaganda tapes McCain made for the Communists (how does that qualify one to be President, I wonder?) some of the other issues real conservatives have raised about McCain’s dubious record in Vietnam, his San Francisco values, his atheism and hatred of traditional Christianity, his crazy temper, such grand unified theories of VC mind control as may suggest themselves, and other issues which might make the true conservative vote for crazy Bob Barr instead. If you don’t have an in like that, you could consider trolling right-wing message blogs and message boards and passing along this important information that the MSM won’t tell you. Outgoing people may brave talk radio call-in shows, even. Manchurian candidate references are encouraged, but no pressure. If you really can’t bring yourself down to this level, you might consider throwing a few dollars at the good, and legally sane, people from Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain. These are things you might do.

If one wishes to emulate people who have had success pushing their political agenda, these are some things you should do. You should encourage your opponents to emulate the Habits of Highly Impotent Political Movements – third party vanity candidates, purity tests, self-serving justifications for apathy, threats to move to Canada if your demands are not met, etc. We’ve all expressed our disappointment at Obama’s refusal to filibuster the FISA bill – he did the wrong thing there, unfortunately – but if you think this absolves you of responsibility for stopping McCain, and of the responsibility that you will incur by paying the bill for war with Iran and the rest of the Bush/McCain agenda, you are a hopeless, useless idiot. (Buh-buh some Democrats will vote for it too so I CAN NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS FALLEN WORLD!!!) You are a grown up, you live in a democracy. Figure out how it works. Personally, I can’t take another four years of this horseshit. I can not take it. Enough of this shit already.

… A useful source of material.

* Not to be confused with ad homonym, which sounds the same, but means something different.

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