Thuggery is nothing without a heavy dose of lying

The desperation clicks up a notch. The RNC is caught telling people that they will have their Bibles taken away if the Democrats win. This is more clever than it seems, because the tracking of and harassment of people who read "subversive" material is something that the Justice Department can only be expected to ratchet up quite a bit if BushCo wins again. But by falsely claiming that the Dems want to take away Bibles, they have set up a no-win situation for people who believe this lie--either censorship of something you like or censorship of something you don't like. Freedom, of course, is not an option.

Meanwhile, a wingnut type, taking a page out of the Nazi handbook on public relations, the page that instructs you to burn down the Reichstag and blame it on your enemies, seems to have gone around staging "incidents" at Kerry rallies where meanie Democrats make his little girl cry. Unfortunately for him, someone caught a picture of one of those meanie Democrats tearing up the little girl's sign--and that meanie Democrat looks remarkably like the wingnut's teenage son. (From August Pollak.)

Also, TBogg effectively destroys a pathetic attempt to make Bush look like a war hero and Kerry like a flag-burning hippie. What really kills me about this is there is no doubt in my mind that this little weasel at Powerline knows full and well which man went 'Nam and which couldn't even risk the dangers of 'Bam, so this was no innocent mistake but a full on willingness to push misinformation propaganda. Sorry, dumbasses who want the uniform to stand in for the actual service. If this pic isn't a reminder of the difference between actually doing something and just showing up for the photo op, I don't know what is.

And, from Echidne, we find that the real detective work on the infamous memos is just beginning. Is it possible that Rove deliberately arranged it so forgeries were released and then tipped the Freepers off, knowing that their collective asses couldn't be counted on to be clever enough to think that they might be forgeries on their own? Let's just say it's an amazing, an absolutely amazing coincidence that the guy who first "discovered" the forgeries is a long-term dirty trickster for the Republicans. Clever work, Rove. The Republicans are pretty much never above using misinformation and diversionary tactics to gain even the tiniest advantage, but they usually get away with it because by the time the conspiracies are sniffed out, the story is cold and/or they've covered their tracks.

You know, I hate to sound paranoid, but I always thought the liars that misled the press over the October Surprise were probably Republican ops, too, set up to discredit all sources who tried to confirm the story.