Which, of Course, Changes Everything...

[Pamela Troy]

Some call it desperation. I call it a sense of impunity. Never underestimate the lobotomizing comfort of uttering malicious crap secure in the knowledge that you’ll be surrounded and backed up by many others repeating the same malicious crap. The latest kerfuffle in the right-wing blogosphere, still fresh from their triumph over Rachael Ray’s terroristic accessorizing, has to do with Obama’s “gaffe” in citing an uncle who was among the American troops that liberated Auschwitz.

Except that it was a great uncle, and the camp was Buchenwald.

Which, of course, changes everything. How could Obama have gotten such a thing wrong? I mean, really, doesn’t every school child knows the difference between Auschwitz and Buchenwald? And he called his great uncle his uncle! Pretty damning that. Nobody calls a great uncle “uncle.” It’s just not done! These gross inconsistencies call for a closer look. After all, nobody who has ever recounted a family story from two generations back could possibly be so imprecise unless they were either willfully lying or so stunningly ignorant they are unfit to hold office.

Fortunately, eagle-eyed rightwing bloggers are on the case, and they’ve discovered some disturbing discrepancies involving the “uncle's” middle initial, which naturally raises the question -- was this so-called “uncle” of Obama’s really at Buchenwald? Boy detective Steve Gilbert, of the right wing website Sweetness and Light contacted a website devoted to the 89th division and posted the following question to him:

Mr. Kitchell,

As you may have heard by now, Barack Obama has claimed that his great uncle Charlie Payne was a member of the 89th Div that liberated Buchenwald.

According to records his full name is either Charles W Payne or Charles T Payne (most likely the former), and he was born in 1924 — and he is still alive today.

He most likely was from Kansas at the time of enlistment.

Do you have any record of this gentleman?

Thank you,

Steve Gilbert
sweetness-light.com

And blushing prettily, he added the following postscript:

PS - If you go to my website, you will see that I was probably the first to note the error in Mr. Obama’s first claims about his “uncle.”

The response he got from the website manager, 89th infantry division veteran Raymond Kitchell, was sensible and succinct:

Please crawl back under the rock you came out from.

Good day

Raymond Kitchell, veteran 89th Inf Div

The reaction from Steve Gilbert and other right-wingers has been pretty fascinating. Gilbert described the website as one that “purports to honor the 89th Infantry Division.” (Other people might be fooled by the website’s sections on the 89th’s combat history, personal accounts, and reunion events, but not Mr. Gilbert!) Rightwing blogger Macsmind declared that, “While there are no doubt some antiwar WWII vets who are against the present conflict, after knowing a lot of them I’ve never heard this type of language or rhetoric coming from them” and snidely implied that Raymond Kitchell was too senile to have actually responded, adding, “Of course the man is 83, but if the father is indeed - the website claims - active, mentally vital, he should be able to answer his own emails.”

This last is a bizarre form of skepticism that’s endemic among bloggers who fancy themselves online detectives. Frequently the self-appointed expert will make comments intended to impress readers with his or her knowledge and experience, but instead leave the impression of startling naivete – in this case, the notion that WWII vets opposed to the current Iraqi war are so rare and gentle a breed that acerbic language calls into question whether or not it’s actually a veteran who is speaking.

No, I don’t know for sure whether or not it was Raymond or Mark Kitchell who told Gilbert to crawl back under a rock – but I have no trouble imagining a WWII vet saying such a thing to someone questioning the war record of a soldier who served in his infantry division. And it certainly doesn’t strain belief to the breaking point to imagine someone in his 80s dictating this response to his more Internet-savvy son.

It’s possible that not only Obama’s great uncle, but the Kitchells and their site are going to be subjected to the kind of rightwing “detective work” already endured by Graeme Frost’s family and the late Andy Stephenson. If that’s the case, I can only hope that the online spectacle it creates will at last give this manner of blogging the unsavory reputation it deserves and embarrass the right wing mainstream into reassessing its tolerance for this kind of garbage.

[central scrutinizer]

1. embarrass the right wing mainstream into reassessing its tolerance for this kind of garbage

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen. You would have to have a functioning conscience and some critical ability for self-awareness first.

[Indenturedebtor]

3. Yes and some genetic engineering

Or some other such method to remove the anatomical mechanism that compels them to constantly eat and regurgitate feces.

[logosoco]

2. they call their website sweetness and light,,hmmm (nt)

[oxbow]

4. pwned!!11

yea, I love me some greatest generation. They don't take noshit from nobody.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. "The Allies didn't liberate Auschwitz, the Russians did!"

My favorite faux pas from a troll in GD: P.

[The Wizard]

7. But but but

The Russian commies were going to come here and eat our children if we didn't invade and occupy Vietnam. The Russians have always been at war with America. And the Nazis, ugh never mind.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. Funny. About a month ago I published progressive op-ed piece

in my local paper calling for, among other things, an end to the war. Two strangers called me about it, both wanting to congratulate and thank me. Both were WWII vets who are very disturbed by the direction of this country in recent years. The idea that WWII vets are jackbooted jingoists is totally nuts.

[TeamsterDem]

8. I was at a bar the other night

and got into an argument with the bartender over Obama's uncle. He told me that as a Marine he'd never screw up where he was assigned and all that jazz, so I reminded him that Obama was talking about his uncle, not himself. He then told me about his dad being in Vietnam at Khe Sanh, and how he "repelled the communists so the southern area just above Saigon wouldn't fall." He implied after all of that propaganda that he'd never forget where his dad served because that would dishonor all the guys who fought at Khe Sanh. I reminded him that Khe Sanh was up near the DMZ on the western tip of northern South Vietnam nowhere near the southern Cu Chi area he was likely referring to. Unfortunately for him my dad and two uncles were in Vietnam and were all in the battle of Khe Sanh.

The deer in the headlights look ensued, then the usual Republican refrain. Deny, deny, deny. "No Khe Sanh is no more than 30 miles from Saigon." Sure it is buddy. Sure it is.

[Joe Chi Minh]

9. Who do they think they are fooling? Only Republicans who wanted to believe

Obama's minor anecdotal inaccuracies amount to perjury and high treason could be that dumb.

[abelenkpe]

10. Ironic

Didn't someone just mention that Pres. Bush authorized leaking the identity of Valerie Plame to punish a critic of the Iraq war? Aside from outing an undercover agent and all that treason stuff what gets me is the idea of punishing someone's family. It's is so ruthless and immoral. The type of thing one would expect of a mobster. I dunno....
I wish I could say I was surprised.