When the Greatest Generation meets your average right wing blogger

Roger Ailes (not THAT Roger Ailes), long a favorite blogger, succinctly refers to this story as "The Greatest Generation meets the Fighting Keyboarders.

The Fighting Keyboarders (or the 101st Fighting Keyboard Brigade) is the apt name given to right wing bloggers, many of enlistment age, who gave (and continue to give) lusty support to the invasion of Iraq, cheering on the carnage, and loudly jeered and attacked anyone who actually pointed out what a collossal cluster-f*** it was and is.

Of course, they never enlisted themselves to say, maybe support the war effort in the manner they felt all the miority and other enlistees should. One young Republican on TV to bash those who weren't sufficiently enthusiastic about the war was famously called out by Chris Matthews, I believe.

The hapless "hero" stammered with a straight face that no, he hadn't enlisted and Matthews then got him to admit that he had no desire to. Why? Because, as he put it, he was doing his part in the "war" by fighting the ideological battle from the comfort of his living room. America salutes you, Skippy.

Anyway, the "Sadly, No" blog gives an account of a couple of these troglodytes who live to be the next nerd to expose some imagined liberal misdeed, as when the brave Republican keyboarders went to truly bizarre lengths in the matter of the forged documents featured by CBS in a piece about Bush having skipped out on his National Guard duty.

They endlessly analysed in literally microscopic detail the kerning and typefaces used by IBM Selectric typewriters of the period involved to show that some of the documents referred to were faked. (of course, this didn't alter the fact that the information in the documents was true or that Bush was indeed, AWOL from his National Guard unit.)

This incident eventually brought down Dan Rather and embarassed CBS news, and was hailed as a great victory by the Fighting Keyboarders. (Again, never mind that the forgeries didn't affect the facts of the case in any way, shape, or form.)

Cut to a few days ago. The latest absolutely insane bit of trivia to get these guys rubbing their pasty thighs in excitement involves Barack Obama's recently saying that his great-uncle helped liberate a concentration camp in WWII.

The wing-nuts immediately set in to feverish research on Barack Obama's claim, intent on finding a comma out of place and being the next wing-nut hero.

Imagine their orgiastic glee when they found out that Obama's great-uncle's unit did NOT liberate Auschwitz! They were besides themselves, Obama was lying, they shouted from the rooftops! They'd done it! This would surely topple Obama's chances at a political career. Ruin him!

And indeed, they were correct. Sort of. Obama's great-uncle liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp... not Auschwitz, thus proving conclusively their premise that in matters of great importance, Obama just can't be trusted. (rolling eyes)

But this phony triumph just egged a few Keyboard Kommandos onward, feverish in their quest to reveal some similar earth-shattering bombshell. (These are the sort that fantasize about gaining favor from the authority figures they worship by digging up dirt on opponents. They like to pretend they're really big oppo researchers who will be hailed as heroes to wing-nuts everwhere. When that's their fondest fantasy... I think that pretty much tells it all. No doubt in my mind they would have been willing and proud brownshirts in the late 30s.)

"Sadly, No" explains what happened next.

And I can not stop laughing.

Greatest Generation indeed.

And if you've got the stomach for it, go read the Sweetness & Light post and the comments to it.

It really provides a stark introduction into their mindset.

But don't say I didn't warn you. It might just ruin your faith in mankind.