It Ain't My Fault
By this standard, all German politicians with more drawing power than John McCain...er, all German politicians, natch, are, in fact, incipient Hitlers.
Here's a tip for liberals: If your candidate is going to stage enormous rallies in front of tens of thousands of chanting Germans (with monuments to Prussian military might in the background) in the middle of his Presidential campaign, it isn't the GOP's fault if the footage comes out looking a little like Hitler at Nuremberg.
To be fair to Ross Douthat, I too get nervous whenever I see large groups of white people chanting things. Like at Queen concerts, or megachurches.
UPDATE: Blame the Jooooooos!
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We've all had the job - the one where the manager buys into some cockeyed theory about supervising that makes their obvious failings the double-secret-reverse method of improving the workplace. They aren't obsessively checking your computer logs because they're a prying dick who doesn't trust you, they're doing it because it encourages accountability and honesty. They aren't having painfully useless staff meetings because they need to play ridiculous dominance games, they're doing it because they're shown to increase staff coherence by 27%. They don't hold you responsible for your hours in a way they don't hold their friends accountable because they're a petty, tribalistic asshole, but because you're just starting out and need to be shown the right way before you can veer off course.
Yes, I am part of the 1 percent of Americans that paid an astounding 40 percent of all federal income tax in 2006. According to recently released Internal Revenue Service figures, about 50 percent of my fellow Americans paid no federal income tax at all that year. My fellow 1-percenters and I covered for them. But for some it is still not enough. 
Note that McCain's ads become questions to Obama, and Obama's ad is a description of his campaign's action. The basic framing of this always lays responsibility, blame and attachment on the Democrat, leaving the Republican free and clear to keep driving their narrative. Obama's Hysterical Bitchiness is a question through and through for Obama and his supporters, and the only real question for John McCain is when it'll be okay to give him donuts again.
Why does American Apparel have to fuck up everything good with a thick coat of demoralizing sleaze? Even setting aside the complexity of their labor issues (they say they pay fair wages, their employees say they've been union-busted), there's a lot that you would initially like about the company. I like cotton. I like bright colors. I like silly ad campaigns. I really like that nice, thin cotton that's flattering while still being, you know, cotton. I don't like leggings, but that's a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things that AA sells. But everything is coated in this sexist sleaze that dares you to complain about it, lest you get accused of being anti-sex. 
It's weird how PZ's prank with the communion wafer is really creating a moment of reckoning out there, but I'm going to chalk that up to the summer news cycle. 
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