Vacation, All I Ever Wanted
Just got back from hanging loose in Hawai'i (I'm getting too old for red-eye flights). While there, I got a number of emails from friends pointing me to the Bush campaign "Faces of John Kerry's Democratic Party" ad (which was also pointed out by various John Kerry campaign and Democratic leadership emails). It includes the "ranting" of Al Gore in his recent emotional, vociferous, and wholly(/holy) motivational speech railing against the current administration (which the Right has labeled "unhinged" and crazy) and images of that wacky Howard Dean. Oh, and it's got Hitler. I was flabbergasted, to say the least. You can check it out yourself, as the shameless Bush reelection campaign continues to flout it (go to the W campaign site and click "Latest Videos" in the center section).

Now, the Bush campaign got this cannon fodder from a liberal source--a grassroots political ad posted on the MoveOn.org site during a commercial contest last winter that compared Bush to Hitler. It was posted for just part of a day until the true content was discovered by MoveOn, at which point the video was yanked. The Right (from Limbaugh to Coulter to HANNITY and tool) have used this to show the Left as being unhinged, crazed, and out of bounds. Interesting that they'd recycle this now for their own purposes.

NPR's Day to Day program (in conjunction with Slate) has some good commentary on this, which I've transcribed below (you can also listen to it via RealPlayer using this link):

Alex Chadwick: Now, those pictures of Hitler actually come from an earlier anti-Bush web ad, which was posted briefly, very briefly, by the liberal group MoveOn.org, but in this case, it's the actual Bush campaign that is use the footage. It just seems like very strong stuff.

Will Saletan: Very strong. And I know I try to stay a little bit balanced in my political commentary, but I have to say, Alex, that this is the most despicible ad I think I have ever seen run by a major party candidate for President. This ad begins with the statement onscreen, "The Faces of John Kerry's Democratic Party." It attributes the following footage to John Kerry.

[audio of Hitler]

Now, this footage of Hitler was, first of all, on a Web site not affiliated with the Kerry campaign, MoveOn.org. Secondly, it wasn't even MoveOn.org's idea. It was a contest in which somebody submitted this. And thirdly, the MoveOn leadership pulled down the ad immediately once they saw it because it was so disgusting. To have this regurgitated to us now and presented as the work of John Kerry is completely dishonest, and furthermore, later on in this ad is some footage of John Kerry saying that Bush will lay you off from your job and, quote, kick your bleep. And the word there is your posterior. But it's very odd for the Bush campaign to be doing this in the same week that the Vice President, Dick Cheney, said to a United States Senator on the floor of the Senate, go "F" yourself.

I am really looking forward to November, when George, Dick, Don, Paul W., Condi, et al get an early vacation from their plans for a two-term residency.

Speaking of inflammatory media, my Mom, Parie, and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 on Friday (helping it to boffo box office over the weekend--almost $22 million). I'm looking forward to seeing it again soon, after which I'll write some commentary about it. But it's very well done--both humorous and gut-wrenching.