Politi-Psychotics: Views Stewd n Skewd

There’s a new and *oh so exciting* link headlined at the Sublime Bloviating blog called Bews News n Vews, just another Blogspot published by *JD* aka Jeff Dyberg, who has partnered up with Bryan White to collectively stew up misrepresentations and aspersions of all things liberal, including even more unremarkable contemplations of their view(s) that PolitiFact is skewered left in its fact-checks.

But before getting to Jeff’s PolitiFact *skewered* left bias allegations, let’s see what I’ve learned about him since observing him debate on the PolitiFact (PF) Facebook Page. Although he looks like a college-kid-in-his-dorm-room in his avatar, unshaven with that goofy green tuque and yellow T-shirt, he seems to like all things “fifties”—Ayn Rand, Lawrence Welk, and having sex with Golden Girl Blanche. But I’ve witnessed his behaving like a "kid" in one respect—if a debater is too hard on him, for example, PF commenter Garret Fitzgerald, Jeff will rat them to PolitiFact. So go easy on the little guy.

Along with that, he seems to conveniently appear in PolitiFact Facebook threads whenever the tough gets going for Bryan White, or vice versa. It’s “tag-team obfuscation” (as Bryan terms it) at its finest.

Before I begin, one note: While Bryan made highly scathing criticisms of the “atrocious” formatting of my infant blog before I made it public, which he claimed made it difficult to read, he does not do the same for Jeff’s identical formatting errors in a blog already published. So….blog formatting errors are only atrocious when your politics are in not in agreement?

This particular post by Jeff was about Geraldo Rivera’s attacking Robert de Posada, who ran a TV ad urging Hispanics not to vote in the upcoming Nevada election. As Jeff describes it:

What was Posada's crime? He's the conservative activist that's behind the "Latinos Don't Vote" campaign. Posada has taken the extremist position that Latinos shouldn't vote for politicians that don't act in their interests. According to de Posada, Democrats and Republicans alike have failed to pass legislation important to Latinos, and therefore should sit this election out in protest in order to send a message that their votes should be taken seriously.

Rivera’s response to de Posada’ attempts to explain why he would run such an ad involved a lot of name calling by Rivera: “You are a punk...You are a yellow-bellied down and dirty punk.” Of course Jeff highlights what he believes to be Geraldo’s liberal condescension “complete with the finger pointing and smug look of disgust on Gerald(o)'s face” (by the way, what is this with the (o))?

Dyberg then begins his mesmerizing interrogatory, saying de Posada actually makes a “point” with his ad, and that Geraldo never asked the obvious question: “Why should Latinos vote for Democrats?”

Well, if one really listened to what Geraldo had to say to de Posada besides the taunts, he actually answered that question with, “let them vote Republican” instead of Democrat. And if Jeff (or de Posada) knew anything about the voting system in Nevada, Latinos could have voted “None of the Above” which would have been an alternative (although, just as nullifying) to the statement Jeff lifted from de Posada that “… voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil.”

Nevada is a proud state with an idiosyncratic political tradition, including at least one quirk that is wholly unique in American politics: voters have the choice of casting a ballot for "None of These Candidates."

I also wonder why Univision refused to run de Posada’s ad:

“Univision will not be running any spots from Latinos for Reform related to voting," said a spokeswoman for the network, Monica Talan, in an email. "Univision prides itself on promoting civic engagement and our extensive national campaigns encourage Hispanics to vote.”

Once Geraldo cut off de Posada, he then interviewed a Democratic strategist (on Fox??? I’m shocked, just shocked!) by the name of Alicia Menendez, who said that “[Latinos] not voting does not shift power, it concedes power.” In other words, Latinos should concede power because (as Jeff claims) neither party has done anything for them.

So, let’s say Jeff is right, and this de Posada has a point. Using his reasoning:

There should definitely be [an ad] asking social conservatives to stay home, because abortion is still legal. By tuning out of the political process, their anti-choice cause will get a huge boost.

And how about an ad targeting anyone thinking Obama was born in Kenya. There has been NO PROGRESS in Congress getting Obama impeached for being a Kenyan communist. They can make their anger heard by doing nothing on Election Day!

Then Jeff asks “What has Harry Reid done for Latinos, let alone all his other constituents?”

Senate Majority Leader Reid has been a strong advocate for immigration reform policies that are supported not only by Latino voters, but the broader electorate. Reid was instrumental in bringing the DREAM Act up for Senate action in September. Recent polling from Latino Decisions shows that Latino registered voters in Nevada favor Democratic candidates by a whopping 68% to 16% margin over Republicans, and that attempting to move the DREAM Act as part of the Defense authorization bill was extremely popular with Latino voters.

Jeff then implies that Geraldo is not upset that Latinos are being bamboozled into giving up their franchised rights, he’s upset that de Posado is undermining the Democrats, because the Latinos “belong to the Democrats.” I guess that's why he told de Posada to let them vote Republican--because they belong to the Democrats. I guess Latinos have nothing to say about it, there’s just one big monolithic group mind-controlled by the Democrats….and don’t know how to vote in their own rational self interest because they’ve never read the Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged like Jeff has. Or maybe, just maybe, the Republicans never cared about their vote either:

“Latino voter registration and outreach has always been a priority of progressive Latinos. The leading Hispanic voter education projects, while nonpartisan, have been consistently led by the Latino left. Latino conservatives have never engaged in wide scale Latino voter registration preferring that others roll up their sleeves while they sit comfortably in the beltway. It has always been speculated that the emergence of Latino voter activity would be to the detriment of the conservative movement and this direct attempt to ask those voters to stay home is proof positive that the right believes the speculation to be accurate.”

But there’s more! Jeff tries to show his non-partisan, *fair and balanced* side by making a false analogy that the right was doing the same in Delaware when Christine O’Donnell beat Mike Castle in the primaries. The answer to this doozy deserves a list: (1) There was no Delaware voter suppression or TV ads telling Delaware voters not to vote, unless Jeff can prove otherwise; (2) Krauthammer’s prediction was correct (confirming the "Buckley Rule"), as O’Donnell lost by a landslide and (3) As Krauthammer so aptly put it: “You'd rather have a Democrat who bats .000 and who might give the Democrats the 50th vote to control the Senate?” More from Krauthammer (italics added):

Castle wasn't only electable. He was unbeatable. Why do you think Beau Biden, long groomed to inherit his father's seat, flinched from running? Because Castle, who had already won statewide races a dozen times, scared him off. Democrats had already given up on the race.

Finally, Jeff goes off on a tangent griping about the tax code, but does offer some truthful advice about the Republicans and their plans now that they have control of Congress—which is, don’t get your hopes up. “Republicans will not meaningfully reduce the deficit, tangibly cut spending, or repeal Obamacare.” At least Jeff got that one right, so his rant wasn't all a crock. If Jeff feels so strongly about the failings of the parties, particularly those in his *home* state of California, it makes me wonder: did he vote? Because, according to the rants in his post, if Jeff does what he says, he shouldn't have voted.