It’s been a long time since I’ve posted. Over 2.5 months. But, NASA’s proposal-writing season is dying down, and I only have two left, and those are due on Friday. Writing on here will still likely be hit-or-miss for a bit as I gear back towards a regular schedule, but I expect to be back to a few posts a day within a week or three.
In the meantime, I have a gagillion WND stories flagged to potentially write about. And, I’m going to lump a lot together that deal with the same topic. To start with, I’m going to talk about Dinesh D’Souza.
Never heard of him? I’m not surprised. He’s a Z-list celebrity on the religious “right” in ‘Mer’ca, but he’s yet another trumped up fake example of Christian Persecution by the non-majority in this country. From what I can find (and seriously, I did not look that long), D’Souza is just another guy who can’t stand President Obama and keeps finding publishers to print his material denigrating the President. Among other things.
The “persecution” started back in July, while I was still writing, and I flagged many WND stories about it:
- “Costco Removing D’Souza’s ‘America’ from Shelves” –by Jerome Corsi (07/07/2014)
- “Costco Denies Political Motive for Pulling D’Souza’s Book” –by Jerome Corsi (07/08/2014)
- “D’Souza: Costco Book Dump ‘Solidarity with Obama'” –by Jerome Corsi (07/08/2014)
- “Costco Surrenders to ‘America’ Consumers” –by Jerome Corsi (07/08/2014)
Meanwhile, there were some slightly more mainstream – well, at least sites that I read – sources that carried the story.
So, what went on? Well, it looks like Costco initially stocked his book, it wasn’t selling well so they pulled it, people screamed persecution, and Costco figured they’d already bought ’em so might as well still try to sell ’em. Oh, that and, “because D’Souza’s film, America, has created an uptick in sales.” From The Raw Story article:
In a statement posted on its Facebook page, a Costco representative named “Dave” wrote that “Costco is not a book store. Our book shelf space is very limited. We exercise discipline in the best utilization of that limited space based solely on what our members are buying. We can’t carry every title that our members are interested in reading. We are constantly monitoring book sales, and make decisions to pull books off the shelves frequently based on sales volume to make room for other titles. Politics or controversy over content do not influence our decisions.”
In the wake of renewed interest, however, Costco has decided to begin stocking the book again.
However, throughout the “ordeal,” as RWW puts it: “Conservative activist Dinesh D’Souza insists that he is the victim of persecution by a left-wing conspiracy emanating from the White House which directed Costco, the New York Times and Google to discriminate against his latest anti-Obama movie and companion book, “America: Imagine the World Without Her.””
As I said, Persecution. So far as I know, he hasn’t pulled the Galileo Fallacy … yet.
But, D’Souza’s persecution but the Liberal Loonies didn’t end with Costco or Google in July. Instead, he was hit again in September:
- “Obama Nemesis Dinseh D’Souza Learns Punishment” –by Jerome Corsi (09/23/2014)
- “Post-Sentencing: D’Souza Preparing Film for 2016” –by Jerome Corsi (09/23/2014)
- “Judge Needs His Head Examined, Not D’Souza” –by Deborah C. Tyler (10/05/2014)
I think “nemesis” is a bit too strong a word here. Perhaps “annoying buzzing mosquito” would be a better term. This was also covered by RightWingWatch by Brian Tashman, “Dinesh D’Souza: Government Is ‘Shutting Me Up’ With Campaign Finance Trial.” And there was a follow-up that refers to that last WND post by Deborah; this is via the Raw Story’s David Ferbuson, “Judge to Dinesh D’Souza: No, you can’t delay your sentence to promote your movie.”
The issue this time is that D’Souza kinda screwed up with The Law by, well, violating it. It was a white collar crime, violating campaign finance law, by making illegal contributions to a Republican Senate candidate. He arranged for “straw donors” to contribute $10,000 each to the failed 2012 campaign of a college friend of his, Wendy Long. He was faced with two years in prison and large fines, and prosecutors had asked for at least a 10-month prison term, in part because D’Souza showed no remorse.
Instead, he got 8 months in a “community confinement center,” 5 years probation, community service, a $30,000 fine, and mandatory psychological therapy. Not bad for someone facing two years in prison. And whose ex-wife wrote to the judge and asked him “to impose the harshest sentences he could against D’Souza, who she said was a serial liar and abuser.”
What’s incredibly outlandish is that he wanted his sentence delayed. From the Raw Story:
federal judge has denied conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza’s request to postpone his eight months of confinement to a halfway house so the he might promote his new film and spend time with his daughter during her school holidays.
D’Souza and his attorney Benjamin Brafman asked the court to allow D’Souza to honor several “professional engagements” this fall promoting America: Imagine a World Without Her — the sequel to the 2008 film 2016: Obama’s America.
According to the New York Post, Judge Richard Berman issued a ruling on Wednesday wherein he not only slapped down D’Souza’s request for a delay, but expressed surprise that the former Reagan administration wunderkind is still at large.
“Application respectfully denied,” Judge Berman wrote. “The court is, in fact, surprised that its 9/23/14 sentence is not already in effect.”
… “I’m not sure Mr. D’Souza gets it and it’s hard for me to discern any personal acceptance of responsibility in this case,” Berman said.
Of course, this is all Obama’s fault. Isn’t it? That’s how the WND stories spin this (helped perhaps by Corsi being the “birther-in-chief” — he’s been the main drive behind the birther movement). They claim that D’Souza is a victim of political pressure and that despite all of those pressures, his book and movie are still great and making inroads against The Man.
Edited to Add (next day): Corsi has another update, this time it’s “Judge Restricts Dinesh D’Souza’s Travel.” D’Souza doesn’t seem to understand that this is meant to be a punishment not just a line on a piece of paper.
Meanwhile, the top-rated comment, by “ratamacue76” also doesn’t get it: “The Left really, really does not like this guy. From such an intense reaction to him I’d say he scares them to their very core.”
No, he really doesn’t. I don’t care what your politics are. You were given a sentence by a judge. You carry it out. You don’t get exceptions because you want to give an interview or a talk in a different state. You’re lucky you aren’t actually behind bars.
WND Watch 