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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Africa on the brain

Africa on the brain

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I think this is a pretty good sign of just how much birtherism and this “post-colonial mind” nonsense has infected the brains of the right. Some kids do a jokey video urging people to vote since Justin Bieber can’t. It gets picked up by Politico (no link) and prompts the Weekly Standard to ask one of the kids behind it whether she is related to a former Ethiopian dictator:

Weekly Standard: My understanding is that you’re related to the former Ethiopian leader Haile Mariam Mengistu. Can you confirm whether this is true? If it is true, would you mind telling me how you two are related?

Sara (Haile-Mariam) responded that she is not related to the former dictator and asked why he was inquiring about this. “Someone was intrigued by your name — and asked an obvious question,” is the answer. Because, hey, I know every time I see a random news item about a white guy named “Smith” I immediately launch a journalistic inquiry into whether or not he’s related to Rhodesian white supremacist leader Ian Smith.

Reader Interactions

69Comments

  1. 1.

    Kryptik

    Good fucking god. That’s just hacktastic on a level beyond comprehension.

    Which naturally means that I should expect the Beck, and by extension the NYT and WaPo to come out with this stunning connection anytime soon.

  3. 3.

    FlipYrWhig

    Hey, when your entire political movement is based on finding sinecures for everyone named Kristol and Kagan, you develop a nose for nepotism.

  4. 4.

    MikeJ

    Even if the kid were related, so what? Alan Keyes and Rudy 9/11 both have kids that hate their politics.

  7. 7.

    El Cid

    Also, the right pretty much tries to link anything they can from liberals to Robert Mugabe. Health care was Mugabe. Education assistance is Mugabe. Trade policy is Mugabe. So on and so forth.

  9. 9.

    Jay in Oregon

    Forget “first, we kill all the lawyers”; I’m putting professional “journalists” at the head of the line for the chopping block.

  10. 10.

    El Cid

    The right winger on Hardballed in discussing the tax cuts has said “CLASS WARFARE” at least several dozen times within maybe 3 minutes. Say what you want about conservatives, but they’re willing to drill a message in.

    [He also just schooled us that when you’re talking about public worker cuts it would be controversial if you talk about firefighters and police officers and sanitation workers, but if you call them “gubmit workers” and specifically recommending cutting the DMV because surely that would help those long slow lines then maybe people will support it.

  12. 12.

    Ailuridae

    Everyone should read the Economist piece that El Cid posted. If not for Fallows ass-kicking of Peretz it would be my favorite thing I read this month.

  13. 13.

    Joel

    my favorite are the string of anti-soros rants in the comments section.

    it’s good to see that “in-jew-endo” hasn’t died in the right-wing. not exactly a huge leap from the other reviled semites.

  16. 16.

    Violet

    Daniel Halper at the Weekly Standard is an idiot. The most cursory of internet searches would have told him that Haile-Mariam is a common Ethiopian name.

    Do these people who call themselves reporters not even know how to use teh google? Are they hiring people who have never seen the internet before?

  21. 21.

    Steve

    @El Cid: What I’ve learned this month is that even spending money to prevent teacher layoffs can sound controversial if you just say “more Democratic giveaways to their union backers.”

  22. 22.

    JGabriel

    Weekly Standard: My understanding is that you’re related to the former Ethiopian leader Haile Mariam Mengistu. Can you confirm whether this is true?

    They forgot to ask about her countertops?

    .

  23. 23.

    jrg

    My understanding is that you’re related to the former Ethiopian leader Haile Mariam Mengistu.

    Wow. Just fucking wow. It’s good to see that “understanding” carries the same weight as “truth” with these people.

  25. 25.

    Zifnab

    Leave it to conservatives to take a mildly humorous YouTube video and suck every last ounce of humor out of the room.

    @AhabTRuler: Are you worried this person would be too scholarly, or that he will stand astride the mouth of a port dressed as the Greek God Helios?

  26. 26.

    soonergrunt

    @John Cole: Birferism is the semi-polite form of that.
    They’re just dying to shout “the president is a {GONG}”

    This is getting to be a huge issue. The Army is preparing to court-martial a Lieutenant Colonel Doctor of 17 years by the name of Lakin for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan. He claims that he believes that President Obama is not legally the President and therefore a deployment order is unlawful.
    That ain’t gonna work, and he’s going to do some time in a stockade, but the birfers are all over this.
    One of Lakin’s proposed witness lists includes some African-American NCOs, specifically to rebut the perception that Lakin is a racist.

    I don’t believe that he is a racist in the ‘classic’ sense. I don’t think he owns a set of tailored sheets, and I’m certain that he’d never say the “N” word even if he thought you were just like him. I do believe that he is one of many who are freaking out over the fact that the black guy in the white house isn’t holding the doors for his betters and shuffling like Stepin’ Fetchit with a mint julep on silver tray.
    The conservatives hated Clinton with a passion that I thought I would never see again. They impeached him over bullshit, but as stupid as it was, they never questioned his ‘right to rule’ as President. They didn’t want him to BE President, but at least they acknowledged that he WAS President. With this guy, they don’t even acknowledge that he’s the rightful President, and it’s because they think a black man shouldn’t be placed over them.
    We wouldn’t be seeing this if his last name were O’Bannon instead of Obama.

  27. 27.

    SpotWeld

    My understanding is that you’re related to the former Ethiopian leader Haile Mariam Mengistu.

    By which they mean “My understanding is that journalism = Googling someone’s name”

  31. 31.

    Davis X. Machina

    I thought she was Irish… as a lad we all said constantly “Haile-Mariam, full of grace…”

    Or maybe Italian. Definitely Catholic, though…

  34. 34.

    Annie

    I am a “Cohen.” Apparently that makes me one of only a few members of “priestly” origins. I didn’t choose my name. Sorry suckers, I was “chosen” by God. So please in the future, I except proper respect.

  36. 36.

    Nutella

    People from the east used to ask visitors from California: Do you know my cousin? He lives in California, too!

    It’s the assumption that all the ‘other’ types must know each other because you yourself only know a few of these ‘other’ types so there must not be very many of them.

    It’s a kind of solipsism that should be way too primitive for anyone capable of holding down an actual job to indulge in. Employment standards at TheWeekly Standard must be low. (In other shocking news, water is wet!)

  37. 37.

    Ed Marshall

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Haile Marium literally means “Hail Mary”, it’s also a first name, not a family name, which sort of puts another thumb on “how fucking stupid are you”.

  38. 38.

    Nylund

    Shorter Weekly Standard:

    “Our base really loves the whole “Barack HUSSEIN!!! Obama” schtick. Can we demonize you that way too you? Uppity blackity black.”

  39. 39.

    Roger Moore

    @Annie:

    I am a “Cohen.” Apparently that makes me one of only a few members of “priestly” origins.

    Sorry, but you have too many X chromosomes (and lack the Cohen Y chromosome) so it doesn’t count. Thanks for playing, though; you can get one of our nice consolation prizes.

  40. 40.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Jay in Oregon: I have a more moderate proposal, involving a midnight simultaneous swap of the students, alumni and faculty of every creative writing MFA program with the ditto of every J-school.

    It might kill English belles-lettres in this country, but it could save the Republic in the process.

  42. 42.

    geg6

    It’s a version of “all niggers look alike.”

    I wish I believed in a god so I could believe in a hell where these fuckers would suffer for all eternity as they deserve.

  43. 43.

    gnomedad

    @ppcli:

    Double plus agree with Ailuridae – The El Cid link is an indispensable contribution to human enlightenment.

    Hear, hear! That is the most erudite snark I’ve seen in a while. BTW, the web page title bar prefixes “Obama Derangement Syndrome” to the title of the piece. Is this a series?

  45. 45.

    wasabi gasp

    Inquires such as this wouldn’t be necessary if Muslims would just stop plotting their terrorist takeover of America behind the guise of prepubescent lesbian pop aficionado.

  48. 48.

    El Cid

    @gnomedad: It’s intended as satire, but personally I’d bet the evidence-free hypothesis (the biography, local elite activities, and regional context is accurate) is actually spot on. The stuff about Obama and Kenya is as realistic as discoveries of the Hollow Earth.

  49. 49.

    gnomedad

    Oh, and Steve’s comment is worth recalling in this thread:

    The ultimate proof that Barack Obama knows nothing of our Founding Fathers can be found in his anti-colonialist attitudes.

    Comment of the day, IMO.

  52. 52.

    parksideq

    I’m not sure what’s worse: the Weekly Standard’s lack of any journalistic integrity (seriously, who let them out of high school without proper Google-Fu skills?) or the cesspool of right-wing trollery in the comments thread of that YouTube video.

    One dude insinuated that their catchphrase “vote again” was some sort of innuendo for ballot stuffing. The kids were clearly implying that they wanted 08 voters to do so this year, yet that clown really accused them of trying to commit voter fraud.

    I can only hope that was a Poe. If not, we are truly fucked if they get their hands back on Congress.

  53. 53.

    BillyBoy

    Charles Taylor in Liberia?!

    First, mechanic for the Wright Bros,
    then the classic tennis shoe,
    and then ruler of a country?

    There ought to be a BET special.

  55. 55.

    Anne Laurie

    @Davis X. Machina:
    __

    I have a more moderate proposal, involving a midnight simultaneous swap of the students, alumni and faculty of every creative writing MFA program with the ditto of every J-school.
    __
    It might kill English belles-lettres in this country, but it could save the Republic in the process.

    Last I heard, most journalism majors get some basic training in English spelling, grammar & punctuation. (Not up to our standards as nun-instructed alte kackers, but some training.) Having the Litry sorts exposed to sentence diagramming, and the Journos exposed to a basic collection of the stories & sagas that (used to) underpin our common culture so that they would recognise their re-use in political reporting, can only improve both branches of modern word-cranking.

  57. 57.

    Cain

    @Nutella:

    It’s the assumption that all the ‘other’ types must know each other because you yourself only know a few of these ‘other’ types so there must not be very many of them.

    I don’t think that’s racial. I get that from people who ask me if I know “so and so” because he happens to work in the same global company as me not realizing that my employer is all over the place with over 25,000 people, but still I get asked that.

    You should recognize what it is, an attempt to start a conversation from a shared knowledge.

    cain

  59. 59.

    Cain

    @soonergrunt:

    @Cain: Like people asking Soldiers “hey, do you know my sister’s husband’s nephew? He’s in the Navy!”

    I do get that kind too, which is just plain amusing.. “Hey, I know an Indian, his name is Ajay Kulkarni! Do you know him?!” Me: “I do, he impregnanted my friend, Laura Hurst. Do you know her?”

    cain

  61. 61.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Cain: Better than the guy in SF who was trying to hit on me. He said, “Where are you from?” I said, “MN.” He said, “I didn’t know there were any Asians in MN.”

  64. 64.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Anne Laurie:

    Last I heard, most journalism majors get some basic training in English spelling, grammar & punctuation.

    I know I’m late to this, but I’m also perhaps a bit more aware of what journo majors get in the way of grammar, spelling, and punctuation training. Compared to the years of fail they get in K-12 (some probably wouldn’t know a sentence diagram if it bit them on the ass) and what passes for comp. and rhetoric, it’s not much – at *most* a couple of semesters of copy editing, the spelling, grammar and punctuation of which are part of AP Style (along with things like spelling out zero through nine and using numerals for 10 and above except for measurements – simplified style – and how to abbreviate state names).

    Plus, at accredited j-schools, they can’t take more than 40 hours in the journalism department – so they go through a lot of other (usually) liberal arts/social sciences classes along the way.

    You do not know head/desk until you have a student come back from an assignment to find an academic journal in the library with US News & World Reports or the like.

  66. 66.

    AxelFoley

    @asiangrrlMN:

    @Cain: Better than the guy in SF who was trying to hit on me. He said, “Where are you from?” I said, “MN.” He said, “I didn’t know there were any Asians in MN.”

    lolwut? Damn, gotta SMH at that.

  67. 67.

    Remember November

    technically speaking, if you aren’t a fundie asshole who believes early man rode on dinos, we are all from Africa-since Mitochondrial Eve walked those plains.

    ZOMG we’re all Kenyans nao!

  68. 68.

    El Cid

    @Remember November: Plus, since the oldest pre-human remains are found in and near Ethiopia, maybe we’re all named Mengistu Haile Marium!

    [PS. Yes, I know that it’s wrong to categorize a perfectly well-adapted-to-their-time species as ‘pre’ something else, but YKWIM.]

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