Siobhan OFlynn

That's very fair and balanced of you, Gigs.

__________________

jacqueline trudeau

If they keep mistaking the mob energy at their rallies for the actual mood of the country, then they deserve the ballot box drubbing they are about to recieve.

A companion piece in today's Times.

Concern in G.O.P. After Rough Week for McCain


With a party incumbent President at the lowest ratings in history, economic meltdown on his watch, the current candidate's positions lurching from day to day, strongly advocating a blank check and infinite timelime to an unpopular and budget busting war, a running mate who beleives in witch doctors and is married to a successionist... If they are so out of touch to think the problem is their message, consisting now of one notch above hate speech, is not connecting with the voters, then the GOP relinquishes all claims to the title of opposition party.

__________________
Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts

Briar Bing

I'm sure a certain Obama hater will be along, anytime now, to tell us how there's nothing wrong with that sign.

__________________
The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.
~Mark Twain

Asher Bertrand

What's wrong with that sign is I don't live near enough to it to commit my own free speech upon it.

__________________

Cindy Claveau

What the HELL does that have to do with this? Legal, marginally legal, or whatever, this is about ethics. It's about conducting a clean campaign like McCain once (long ago) promised to do.

That promise stuck until he started falling so far behind in the polls that he grew desperate. Now he has 'operatives' and his pit bull VP candidate engaging in the worst sort of racist fear-mongering just for the sake of gaining power.

I'm sickened, and anyone with a brain and a conscience should be sickened as well.

And as an American, you should be condemning such thin, scurrilous inferences and the violent, tragic Pandora's box they promise to open.

To me, that's one hell of a lot more important than quibbles over the Constitution. Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates have an obligation to show the quality of leadership they would bring if elected.

Judging from what I'm seeing so far, McCain/Palin has exceeded all expectations for FAIL. They deserve to lose, and lose BIG next month.

God help us all if they win.

__________________
"People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything." - Wizard's First Rule

Colette Meiji

this sign isn't even internally consistent

If Barrak really is a Islamic fundamentalist like the smear - he wouldn't advocate Abortion, same sex marriage, or Gun Control.

Cristiano

What is hilarious now is McCain is acting all outraged because civil rights leader John Lewis, a friend of McCain, made a strong public rebuke of how McCain and Palin have been deliberately sowing the seeds of hatred and intolerance, and comparing it to George Wallace.

Never mind that there has been a very vocal chorus of people from all sides of the political spectrum saying essentially the same thing, that McCain/Palin are playing with fire by not immediately clamping down on the violent, racist commentary occuring from crowds at their rallies, and that stirring this pot will end badly.

McCain responded to John Lewis' comments with outrage, demanding a rebuke and an apology from Obama.

He didn't get exactly what he wanted. Obama did say he did not think the George Wallace comparison was fair, but otherwise stood behind what John Lewis said.

An Uncivil War Of Words - Marc Ambinder

It is absolutely laughable that McCain would call someone else's words divisive, and a distraction from talking about the real issues. I'm not surprised he is acting this way by any means, it is just bizarre to see it all playing out.

__________________
"At least he died doing what he loved most - blogging on the Huffington Post" - 30 Rock

* slu stuff *

Lo Jacobs

Astonishing.

__________________
MY STORE//MY BLOG//FLICKR//EMAIL

Ramonna Villota

Getting to be no middle ground here soon......

__________________
Ramonna
Enginn er verri þótt hann sé perri.

http://www.plurk.com/Ramonna
http://thepeoplescube.com/

Briar Bing

Comment from the site this vid was embedded on:

(non-italicized text is mine)

THAT IS NOT A McCAIN AD. (DO YA THINK??)

Please Obama play your anti-white McCain Ad. It will back fire on you.

This is Obama's problem, he's in the lead, then he gets stupid.

He thinks because the economy went south, that people are turning to him, but that not the case.

His lead in the polls are an anti-republican not pro-Obama.

Now Obama thinks the people like him, and instead of playing it cool, Obama starts to mug in front of the camera.

This is why Obama can not close.

Malachi

But this comes close to the argument that Metallica or Marilyn Manson or whoever had a causal effect upon the Columbine shooters, or that Grand Theft Auto games cause people to kill cops.

I understand your sentiment, but merely whipping up the bigotry already in her crowds is not Palin inducing assassination. It may be unseemly, but it just isn't an inducement.

As far as the man arrested in Florida for stating his intention to kill Obama, he "threatened to kill, kidnap and cause bodily harm upon a major candidate for president of the United States, that is, Senator Barack Obama, in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Section 879". This law is a power of the Secret Service and is very specifically addressed to presidents, vice-presidents, and candidates and holdsThere is no adjudication needed, just go directly to jail, do not pass go. Like all laws, it is subject to judicial review but it isn't a ordinary criminal prosecution.

Siobhan OFlynn

So, the guy who shouted "Kill him!" Was he arrested?

Malachi

Not to my knowledge, but I think I read that someone in one of those rally situations was questioned by the Secret Service and then released.

The SS is given pretty broad discretionary powers and often have to make a quick determination of actual threat. There is a pretty big difference - a least in my mind - between saying "kill him" as plenty of people do at sporting events as metaphor and Geisel's explicitly telling his classmates of his intention to kill Obama if elected and having "a 9-mm handgun, ammunition that included armor-piercing and rifle bullets, police-style emergency lights, body armor, a machete and two canisters of tear gas, among other military-style items" in his car and hotel.

Kit Lacy

As an outsider I have wondered about this. There seemed to be doubt that Al Gore lost the election back in 2000 and I could conceivably see the Republicans asking Obama in the case of a Dem win to "stand aside for the good of the country."

Every time I see that rally footage I think of two things.

1. They are an ugly minority that don't represent the US as a whole.

2. They own the guns.

Brenda Archer

Personally, I still think Gore would have won in a fair count.

Point 1 is absolutely true, except that they are concentrated in certain regions, and many of them are culturally isolated. In many ways our current cultural and political conflicts are repeats of the Civil War - over and over. We have a large non-majority that has rejected the liberal social contract and a secular Constitution, and they define themselves to some degree in regional terms. (Using the word liberal here in the sense of "classical liberal" not in the sense of leftist.)

Point 2, fortunately, is only partly true. The greater danger here is not that the theocons are better armed on the ground, because if things get bad enough the equally well-armed normal conservatives are likely to turn on them. Rather the huge danger is the way the theocons have been working hard to more or less take over the influential officer ranks in the armed forces.

The "aha!" moment that is taking place now is that the average centrist, and the average non-extreme conservative, is waking up to the danger posed by the neocons and the theocons. But if these more moderate people feel they are not represented at all and the political process is irreparably broken, their passivity could give the election to fascists anyway.

Obama is as far to the right as the Democrats can go without losing their own organized base. Will it be far enough for the non-extreme conservatives to go ahead and vote for him?

Brenda Archer

That's horrifying.