Inside the Republican Mind

By now I'm sure everyone has gotten some spam email from Ted Baiamonte, or bje1000@aol.com (he gives that out pretty willingly, so I don't consider it to be a bad thing). He's one of our finest "blog-spammers," sending out insane rantings to his email list and inviting people to read his weblog The Dumb Democrat. Corrente did a great and revealing profile of him here (he apparently has a predilection for young boys, if Corrente is on target, and I have no reason to doubt it). He even used to post here every so often, although I forgot under what screen name.

Yesterday I received another one of his many screeds, and as I do on occasion I decided to confront him on it. The missive contained plenty of mischaracterizations and outright lies, but I honed in on this paragraph:

And then there is Darfur. Are the Democrats clamoring to get involved in that civil war just to stop a little genocide? Of course not. Bush didn't lie there, there is not even an opposing military to speak of. It is the first genocide of a new century; yet the sweet, caring and ever so principled Democrats are still dead silent, or should we say, dead cowardly, just as they were when their hasty retreat from Vietnam precipitated the massive genocide in Cambodia.

This is actually (believe it or not) central to his critique; his argument is that Democrats, for all their talk or compassion, are somehow causing the death of 100 million Africans (his stat).

Sometimes when I'm feeling frisky I'll mix it up with this guy. I scared the shit out of him one time when I threatened to sue him for violating the CAN-SPAM act of 2002 by not allowing an "opt-out" option on his emails and by advertising for his book (therefore marketing). He actually changed his emails after that, but quickly changed them back and I didn't have the stamina to bother with it again. But this line on Darfur I found just ridiculous. Especially since just yesterday 7 prominent Democrats were arrested for protesting the Darfur situation. As the minority party, there's simply not a lot to do to move this issue outside of raising awareness. Getting arrested (and this is the second time) is hardly remaining "dead silent."

So I sent him this email:

Seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus were
arrested at the Embassy of Sudan on Tuesday while protesting conditions in the nation's Darfur region.

"We will not tolerate genocide," said Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., the caucus chairman. "We are saying to Sudan this has got to stop."

The seven were taken away in Secret Service cars after blocking the entrance to an embassy. They were released a short time later after paying $50 fines.

Who's in the majority in Congress again?

-d

After a day, I received a response. I should mention that normally this clown takes about 5 minutes to get back to me. That he mused for an entire day must have meant some elaborate crafting was going into this statement. Here it is in its entirety:

Seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus were
arrested at the Embassy of Sudan on Tuesday while protesting conditions in the nation's Darfur region.
***********so??????

"We will not tolerate genocide," said Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., the caucus chairman. "We are saying to Sudan this has got to stop."

*********so???????

The seven were taken away in Secret Service cars after blocking the entrance to an embassy. They were released a short time later after paying $50 fines.

*********so??????

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/14592154.htm

Who's in the majority in Congress again?

******Republicans but so what?????

Well, there you have it. A peek inside the fertile wingnut mind, replete with all the scintillating ideas contained therein. I am pleased that Ted has seemed to have found the asterisk key AND the question mark key, and has no trouble using either. It certainly does wonders for the depth of his argument.

Since there's no way to ever get Ted to stop sending these emails (unless I can manage to actually get him sued), it's very amusing to watch the synapses snap crackle and pop as he returns serve with such zeal and terrifying intelligence. At any rate it's fun to bat him around for a few rounds, as long as you don't take it seriously.

What a loser.