BY OTHER MEANS

In his latest right-wing bloviation, World Net Daily's Joseph Farah refers to the junior senator from Illinois four times as "Barack H. Obama."

If you listen to Barack H. Obama, you might get the impression Arab-American families are getting knocks on door in the middle of the night after which they are spirited away to concentration camps never to be seen again.

..."If there is an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney, it threatens my civil liberties," he said.

...Does Barack H. Obama believe Arab-American families are being rounded up? Does he believe any have been rounded up? Does he believe it will happen?

...Let me tell you, as an Arab-American, I believe my chances for being part of any mass roundup will be greatly increased through a Barack H. Obama presidency.

...I'm sure America's enemies are putting Barack H. Obama's campaign rhetoric to use in their propaganda at this very moment.

I'm ignoring Farah's actual argument, which is just the usual WND boob bait. (Farah says that he is more likely to be rounded up by the government in an Obama presidency, "because of my open allegiance to constitutional government" -- I guess in the same way that all those right-wingers were rounded up and put in camps in the Clinton and Carter presidencies.) The "H." is what I'm noticing. This is a two-note dog whistle -- it says "Hussein" to right-wingers and it says "The liberal fascists won't let us say 'Hussein.'"

I'm sure it will be widely imitated.

Which makes me think that declaring the name off limits just isn't going to work -- Obama's going to have to find a way to get the public used to it.

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(Cross-posted at Too Sense.)