C'mon!

See: New Yorker editor defends controversial Obama cover

.....We're officially hopeless.
.....(OK. If you believe that Jonathan Swift was a cannibal, you need to stop reading this post. Please go away.)
.....Over at YouTube, you'll find a number of people who have posted angry diatribes against the New Yorker, not for supposedly implying (via its infamous cover) that Obama is a Muslim terrorist, but for making fun of those who believe that!
.....Well, at least they "got" the New Yorker cover.
.....But how can so many Americans believe that Obama is an Islamic terrorist? WHENCE STUPID PEOPLE?
.....Recent polls suggest that many Americans believe specifically that Obama is a Muslim, that he refuses to say the Pledge, that he refused to be sworn in (as U.S. Senator) on a Bible, that he attended an Islamic school, etc.—when numerous news organizations have determined that these rumors are flat false. (See CNN on "Obama Muslim Myth".)
.....(—Not that there's anything wrong with being Muslim, etc.)
.....Q: So where do these ideas come from?

.....As you know (don't you?), a Rovian dirty trick ensured that George W. Bush won the crucial South Carolina primary against John McCain, back in 2000:

Wikipedia on Whisper Campaigns (See also Boston Globe):

During the 2000 Republican presidential primary, Senator John McCain was the target of a whisper campaign implying that he had fathered a black child out of wedlock. (McCain's adopted daughter is a naturally dark-skinned child from Bangladesh). Voters in South Carolina were reportedly asked, "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain if you knew that he fathered an illegitimate black child?". McCain would later lose the South Carolina primary, and the nomination, to George W. Bush.

In addition, on the week of the nomination vote, dozens of radio stations were called on the same day asking talk show hosts what they thought of McCain's having fathered a black child out of wedlock.

McCain later said of the incidents:

"There were some pretty vile and hurtful things said during the South Carolina primary. It's a really nasty side of politics. We tried to ignore it and I think we shielded [our daughter] from it. It's just unfortunate that that sort of thing still exists. As you know she's Bengali, and very dark skinned. A lot of phone calls were made by people who said we should be very ashamed about her, about the color of her skin. Thousands and thousands of calls from people to voters saying, 'You know, the McCains have a black baby.' I believe that there is a special place in hell for people like those."

* * * * *
.....Here's some background re the "Obama as Muslim" whisper campaign:

Wikipedia on Barack Obama presidential primary campaign, 2008:

In 2004, conservative columnist Andy Martin issued a press release alleging that Obama had "sought to misrepresent his heritage," indirectly triggering one of the first viral emails spreading false rumors about Obama's background.

The issue lay fallow for almost three years, but picked up again in late 2006, as the announcement of Obama's presidential candidacy approached. In October, a conservative blog, Infidel Bloggers Alliance, reposted Martin's press release in response to a question about Obama's heritage. Then, on December 26, conservative activist Ted Sampley, co-founder of Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, posted a column suggesting Obama was a secret Muslim, heavily quoting Martin's original press release. Shortly afterward, many chain e-mails began circulating claiming that Obama was a hypothetical "Manchurian Candidate." According to [Christopher] Hayes, one of these emails was forwarded to Snopes [an "urban legend" site] within hours of Sampley's story. Hayes believes that the email was likely a slightly altered version of the Sampley article, which was in turn heavily based on Martin's 2004 press release. Martin told Hayes that he got numerous calls once the emails began circulating. When the callers asked him if he wrote the release, Martin replied, "They are all my children."

* * * * *
• .....You might want to read A Tale of Political Dirty Tricks Makes the Case for Election Reform, which appeared in the New York Times in January.
.....This opinion piece discusses a tell-all book by Republican Party operative Allen Raymond, who went to jail for jamming phone lines on election day 2002 (for the benefit of Republican John Sununu). Raymond is bitter about the experience.
.....Raymond, who came from a privileged background, eventually made his way to the top of the Republican Party’s national organization:

.....It was a world in which, he claims, dirty tricks were the norm. When [he] opened a political telemarketing firm, he was hired by a Republican challenging a New Jersey Democratic congressman. Mr. Raymond’s company — in a plan he says he hatched with [the challenger's] advisers — called liberal Democrats and urged them to vote for the Green Party candidate.
.....Those same advisers, he says, gave Mr. Raymond another assignment: to call white households asking them to vote for the Democrat, using the voice of, as he puts it, a “ghetto black guy.” He also called union households, using voices with thick Spanish accents.

.....In the case of the Sununu election dirty tricks,

Mr. Raymond says his instructions came from James Tobin, the northeast regional director of the Republican National Committee. And he says a top official of the New Hampshire Republican Party provided the phone numbers of the Democratic get-out-the-vote banks. Mr. Raymond jammed the lines — placing hundreds of hang-up calls an hour — to five Democratic offices across the state and a phone bank run by volunteer firefighters.

.....Ah, but this effort was detected. The Republican Party then spent big money defending Tobin (successfully), but not Raymond, who went to the pokey. According to Raymond, the Party “not only threw me under the bus but then blamed me for getting run over.”
.....Congress seems uninterested in stopping the dirty tricks, which have been with us always in one form or another. Evidently, there is a decent bill that addresses dirty tricks. It the Deceptive Practices Act, and it is sponsored by Barack Obama and Charles Schumer, et al.
.....It doesn’t have a prayer.

McCain bashes USC; UC workers go on strike; Arnold helps part-timers; Spain moves toward granting chimps rights

• BUT AT THE BALBOA BAY CLUB? In this morning’s OC Register: Barack Obama raises more than $1 million in O.C:

…The seven-figure haul led to a little gloating by Frank Barbaro, chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County, who noted that presumed Republican nominee John McCain raised slightly less during a Newport Beach fundraiser last month….

See also Jim Lacy on Obama's enemies list

• UC STRIKE. Also in the Reg: UCI workers on strike:

.....Janitors, cafeteria employees and other workers at the UCI Medical Center and residence halls are on strike this morning, potentially disrupting some services for hospital patients and visitors.
…
.....The job action is part of a statewide strike against the University of California involving a bitter wage dispute that led to the cancellations of commencement speakers such as Bill Clinton last month at UCLA….

• GOOD NEWS FOR PART-TIMERS. In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed: California Raises Ceiling on Part Timers’ Work:

.....California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday signed legislation that raises the limit on how much individual part-time faculty members can work at any one community college from 60 percent to 67 percent of a full-time professor’s load.
.....While the increase of seven percentage points may seem relatively minor, it will have a significant impact on many adjuncts. Those who teach 5-unit courses (a common circumstance for those in languages and some other fields, and one third of a standard 15-credit load) have been unable to teach more than one course at a college. Those wanting a full-time load have to teach at three or more institutions.
…
.....“The original idea was to assure that we had no non-tenure track, full-time positions,” said Marty Hittelman, president of the California Federation of Teachers, who teaches mathematics at Los Angeles Valley College. The problem, he said, is that “it wasn’t advancing the number of full-time positions. Districts were hiring for 60 percent and then people had to teach somewhere else.”….

• THE UNIVERSITY OF "SPOILED CHILDREN." Also in Inside Higher Ed:

.....You expected serious discussion of higher education on the campaign trail? Sen. Barack Obama is being attacked by some anti-immigration groups for suggesting that more Americans should learn to speak foreign languages. Obama is sticking with his position. Sen. John McCain, meanwhile, is being subjected to online analysis for his statement that the University of Southern California (his wife’s alma mater) is “the University of Spoiled Children.” Some observers think a little university-bashing may be good for the McCain campaign, some at USC aren’t amused, while still others are upset that Cindy McCain is being described as having been a cheerleader at the university when she was actually a “song girl.”

• IN SPAIN, A GREAT DAY FOR CHIMP RIGHTS. In yesterday’s New York Times: When Human Rights Extend to Nonhumans:

.....The Times reports a “vote of the environment committee of the Spanish Parliament last month to grant limited rights to our closest biological relatives, the great apes — chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans.”
.....Evidently, the committee was reflecting the principles of Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri’s “Great Ape Project,” “which points to apes’ human qualities, including the ability to feel fear and happiness, create tools, use languages, remember the past and plan the future.”
.....According to the Times, the bill, which is likely to pass, will make it illegal in Spain to kill apes. Further, “Torture, including in medical experiments, and arbitrary imprisonment, including for circuses or films, would be forbidden.”
.....And, no, Spain will not be granting chimps the right to drive or vote.
.....Naturally, the scientific community (at least that part that uses chimps to study AIDS) are mighty upset. Singer says that scientists need to explain why they don’t use a better study model: humans. “Why apes?”, he asks.
.....And the church is pretty peeved. Spain’s Catholic bishops “attacked the vote as undermining a divine will that placed humans above animals.”
.....The Times writer relates a personal story:

.....Ten years ago, I stood in a clearing in the Cameroonian jungle, asking a hunter to hold up for my camera half the baby gorilla he had split and butterflied for smoking. ¶ My distress … struck him as funny. “A gorilla is still meat,” said my guide, a former gorilla hunter himself. “It has no soul.” ¶ So he agrees with Spain’s bishops….