I'm not going to lie, I had a misspent youth, most of my teens and half of my twenties were spent throatchopping and clotheslining unsavory individuals in drunken bar brawls. Since then, with the help of my girlfriend, I'm a much calmer soul - the other day she shot me a rather bewildered look that stopped me from hopping on one of her friends who very casually regurgitated an Obama smear.

That being said, I really want to beat the fucking brakes off of Larry Johnson and his smearing of Obama - suddenly the scene of Sean Penn in "Bad Boys" when he was wielding a pillowcase full of soda's comes to mind.

Have to disagree. This smear's already making the rounds -- it's not as though TPM is taking it from nowhere to everywhere.

At this point, spreading the debunking (and announcing Larry Johnson's dishonesty) everywhere is in order.

You do exactly what Obama did - call them out on it:

“We have seen this before. There is dirt and lies that are circulated in e-mails and they pump them out long enough until finally you, a mainstream reporter, asks me about it,” Obama said to the McClatchy reporter during a press conference aboard his campaign plane. “That gives legs to the story. If somebody has evidence that myself or Michelle or anybody has said something inappropriate, let them do it.”

Asked whether he knew it not to be true, Obama said he had answered the question.

“Frankly, my hope is people don’t play this game,” Obama said. “It is a destructive aspect of our politics. Simply because something appears in an e-mail, that should lend it no more credence than if you heard it on the corner. Presumably the job of the press is to not to go around and spread scurrilous rumors like this until there is actually anything, an iota, of substance or evidence that would substantiate it.”

Well, there is historical precedent. Some believe that the _Protocols of the Elders of Zion_ was plagiarized from various sources, including an anti-Free Mason play from 50 years earlier. Entire scenes of the play were said to have appeared, with "mason" replaced by "jew"...

i'm with you on this one.

And not even a good book, evidently. The cited paragraph was simply atrociously written.

And Eric.

Way to go both of you - good story; good journalism.

Very good post and good job.

Hi agave - what a treat to see you, my dear. I hope you're well.

I'm heading to New Mexico in the morning.

You have no idea how thrilled I am that the wingnuts are latching on to this.

They have short memories. If they didn't, they'd recall how the Dan Rather fiasco in 2004 innoculated Bush from claims he ducked out on military service in Vietnam.

The more they grab ahold of this clearly bogus story and push crap like the picture you mention, the more marginalized they'll become.

And this year, that's not something they can afford.

Sure, with those skills you'd think he'd have been able to find a high position in the Bush administration.

New York Times July 10, 2001 Larry C. Johnson

Declining terrorist threat

Judging from news reports and the portrayal of villains in our popular entertainment, Americans are bedeviled by fantasies about terrorism. They seem to believe that terrorism is the greatest threat to the United States and that it is becoming more widespread and lethal. They are likely to think that the United States is the most popular target of terrorists. And they almost certainly have the impression that extremist Islamic groups cause most terrorism.

None of these beliefs are based in fact. While many crimes are committed against Americans abroad (as at home), politically inspired terrorism, as opposed to more ordinary criminality motivated by simple greed, is not as common as most people may think.

The greatest risk is clear: if you are drilling for oil in Colombia — or in nations like Ecuador, Nigeria or Indonesia — you should take appropriate precautions; otherwise Americans have little to fear.

Although high-profile incidents have fostered the perception that terrorism is becoming more lethal, the numbers say otherwise, and early signs suggest that the decade beginning in 2000 will continue the downward trend.

I hope for a world where facts, not fiction, determine our policy. While terrorism is not vanquished, in a world where thousands of nuclear warheads are still aimed across the continents, terrorism is not the biggest security challenge confronting the United States, and it should not be portrayed that way.