VIDEO- Ed Schultz is fired up: "I think Palin is flat out stupid."

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Earlier I liveblogged Ed's hard core, very welcome, heartfelt rant. Now you can see it for yourself.

Ed Schultz is fired up: "Fox fueled all of this stupidity!"

By GottaLaff

Ed Schultz went on a hard core rant just now, and I liveblogged; paraphrased some:

People on Potomac River are embarrassing Caucasians in this country. We have people of color advancing in America, we should be proud of this. They're a bunch of phonies. Obama has done nothing to take anyone's guns away!

Why didn't they do this in the last eight years? Why now? What has Barack Obama done? What have the liberals done?

Wall St: Where do the Tea Bag nut jobs stand on R's being responsible for it?

Fox fueled all of this stupidity.

[Shows clips of Palin, Bachmann, Beck, Hannity... others...]

6 idiots you can always count on.

[Plays clip of Clinton opining on Oklahoma City parallels]

That got the Drugster's attention today. [Plays Boss Limpdong clip].

Rush, there's no such thing as gov't. run media. They all want you to believe that gov't. is the problem. Let me give you something real easy to understand: Obama has an F rating, meaning suck, bad, from Brady campaign against gun violence.

Obama does NOT want your gun. He hasn't proposed a single thing that would infringe on 2nd amendment rights.

If we face another anti-gov't. attack, we could spiral out of control re: civil unrest. Media must focus on this. [Laffy Note: Thank you!] I do.

They're playing with the emotions of Americans out there who are easily misguided. ... who just live by a little bit of information...the 'two word culture.' We read less, don't have all the facts.

O'Reilly couldn't let his ego get out of the way, his own people called him on it, but he didn't back down. What does that tell you about responsibility in commentary?

We don't get the facts.

I think Palin is flat out stupid. Bachmann irresponsible. I feel good that I was angry, because I'm calling them out on it. I'm a lefty. I hunt and fish more than any of 'em. ...

Why is it that some people have a hard time with what's really happening out there? What's happening is that we are fed lies every day. There's a difference between debate and lies. O'Reilly lied.

Tea Partiers are misguided, mostly racist, afraid, clinging to their guns/religion, and in many respects are what's wrong with America, and sometimes we the media are what's wrong with America... because we COVER the Tea Party. That's a huge story? It's outta whack.

Whew!

Someone had to say it. Ed finally did.

AUDIO: Leader of Hutaree Christian militia rehearses for rally

By GottaLaff

From the Department of Guess Who's Not Coming to Dinner:

David Stone rehearses for militia rally:

What a guy. Just the type you'd want to bring home to Mom and Dad.

Federal court officials today released a secret recording of David Stone, the leader of the Hutaree Christian militia in Lenawee County, made as he practices a speech to supporters during a Feb. 6 car ride to a national militia meeting. [...]

"We outnumber them, " Stone said. "They forget, they live in our neighborhoods. They shop at our grocery stores. They eat at our restaurants. We are the ones who control everything in this nation from preparing the food that they eat to running the power stations. … "

Is the media ready to call them terrorists yet?

This post is dedicated to those who incite violence and hate speech, and/or stand by as others do either or both.

I'm talking to you, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michele Bachmann (and other conservative Congress members), and any extremist who may have momentarily slipped my mind.

This kind of behavior should not be the new normal, but unfortunately, that seems to be the case.

"This country, I think, will be brought down into violence."

From the April 19 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program

H/t: T1theinfamous

VIDEO: Rep. Steve King grabs Think Progress blogger's arm in anger

By GottaLaff

Via Think Progress:

Today, King spoke at FreedomWorks‘ Tax Day Tea Party Rally in Washington, D.C. I caught up with him to get further clarification about his remarks, asking, “Do you regret what you said when you justified the attack against the IRS building?”

Which is the Party of Violence again?

Asked about his comments in February justifying the IRS attacks, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) grabbed a Think Progress blogger's arm in anger, and inexplicably accused the blogger of calling him a murderer.

This from the same rational anti-ACORN, anti-health care reform, bigoted, talking points-spewing guy who accused the Humane Society of taking meat off our tables.

This is the polar opposite of how any elected representative should behave, especially in this horribly volatile day and age. King should be setting an example of calm and reason, but instead, he is the perfect role model for the more violent "protesters" who are all of a hair's breadth away from snapping entirely.

The Party of No Mental Equilibrium.

Washington man charged with threatening Sen. Murray

By GottaLaff

Here we go again. As we've posted here repeatedly, it just takes one extremist, one nutcase, one desperate person with the means (in this case, a gun) and motive (even a baseless one).

This time it was via voicemail from someone who had been harassing Senator Murray for months. He said it would take "just one piece of lead":

A Washington state man has been charged with threatening to kill Democratic Washington Sen. Patty Murray over her support for health care reform.

Court documents say federal agents arrested Charles Alan Wilson in Yakima on Tuesday.

Let's wait together as the GOP either blames Patty Murray for her preexisting Democratic condition, blames health care reform, blames President Obama, or calls it a figment of our imaginations. It shouldn't take long.

I bet Eric Cantor will be first.

ObamaHate: The Health Care Years

By GottaLaff

BoingBoing has a slew of disgusting slogans and images of President Obama from various tee shirts, buttons, stickers, you name it. I'm posting some of them, but there are a lot more here.

The merchandise is from the period during which the beyond-heated health care debate took place.

Anyone who dares to claim that there is, and was, no racist slurs directed at the president should study the images below.

How in the world do we dial this toxicity back? It's essential that we do.

Here's an idea: How about a few in the GOP leadership give it a sincere effort? A few words from them could help some. Of course, there are a few Americans who are so filled with venom, nothing will help.

But one thing is certain: If those extremists who are teetering on the edge continue to be encouraged, if the worst of the Tea Baggers persist in inciting hatred and violence, it is nearly inevitable that something tragic will occur, and then it will be too late.

Click on image to enlarge:

Chris Matthews: "Someone should tell this walrus (Rush Limbaugh) to stop this"

By GottaLaff

Chris Matthews ripped into Boss Limpdong on Hardball just now. He was expressing his deep concern over the amount of rancor and virulent speech freely expressed by media personalities about President Obama when he said the following:

This walrus under water makes fun of this administration calls it a "regime"...

You go to war with "regimes". They're tyrannies, they're military coups...

Someone should tell this walrus to stop this.

Now Chuck Todd is rambling on about how this kind of talk just has more of a platform now. Yeah right, Chuck. That's all it is.

Sure, all the technology and outlets contribute, but that wasn't Tweety's point. It wasn't so much about availability, but about the terminology, the vitriol, the extreme language.

Matthews responded, and cited this interview:

Joe McCarthy never used the word "regime".

Indeed. And it's that kind of language that incites threats and violence. It only takes one, and we're fast approaching the breaking point.

Loudmouthed louts like Limbaugh, Beck, and let's not forget Palin and a few Congress members, should be held at least partially responsible if and when a real tragedy occurs as a result.

Send Them to Gitmo: Double Standard on White Christian Domestic Terrorists is Direct Threat to U.S.

By GottaLaff

Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash, via my pal Mark Karlin:

It's a relief of sorts that the Michigan militia members, White Christian Domestic Terrorists, were apprehended before they launched a killing spree of police officers and other Americans. But why should they receive a civil trial, according to right wing arguments; why shouldn't they be flown directly down to Guantanamo?

Of course BuzzFlash does support criminal trials for all charged terrorists and those plotting terorrism, but why the double standard on the part of the right wing when it comes to White Christian Domestic Terrorists? [...]

[T]he destructive white male power feeling of "victimization" (which translated means: "why don't we call all the shots anymore, and why don't the undeserving minorities know their place?") virtually disappeared during the Bush administration, when you had a white male with a cauliflower for a brain as titular head of the nation; but that's okay, white males -- even if as dumb as cabbages -- are entitled to rule.

That's what the White Christian Domestic Terrorism of the Michigan militia is all about. [...]

[T]his is just the tip of the iceberg.

Anyone planning domestic terrorism or shooting a few people dead after reading books by FOX news inciters or Rush Limbaugh or the like should be sent directly to Guantanamo.

They are as dangerous in terms of terrorism as Al-Qaeda, so why should they get an exception just because they are white and Christian?

For the whole thing, please go here.

VIDEO- Tea Partiers in Searchlight, Nevada: Obama Flag with Bullet Hole in it

By GottaLaff

What's that LieFace McHellNo? Time to incite again? That is so 2008 ago....

Palin urged people to make clear their opposition on health care reform, though without violence. "We're not going to sit down and shut up."

Say what, again, Mappy McCrossHairs? Was it you or your ghost writer who came up with this:

"The crossfire is intense, so penetrate through enemy territory by bombing through the press, and use your strong weapons -- your Big Guns -- to drive to the hole. Shoot with accuracy; aim high and remember it takes blood, sweat and tears to win," Palin wrote. In the headline of her update, she mockingly predicted that the message would be "subject to new politically correct language police censorship." [...]

"When we talk about fighting for our country, let's clear the air right now about what it is that we're talking about. We're not inciting violence. Don't get sucked into the lame-stream media lies," she said.

Well, when you put it that way...

How could we have been so wrong?

I'm sure the bullet holes next to Obama's head are just there to provide an extra special artsy touch. It's creativity o'clock. Do you know where your firearms are?



H/t: EricGrant, Gr8RDH

Tweet from Glenn Beck: "We will rise and crush in November"

By GottaLaff

Take a look at what Glenn Beck tweeted a few hours ago. I just got wind of it:


A call to violence? Bluster? A ClusterFox promo? Or his usual insatiable need for attention and infamy?

Whatever it is, it's hostile and typically odious.

This is exactly the kind of talk that incites others to do things like, oh I don't know, shout vile slurs and spit on Congress members... at the very least.

Fox Nation comment: "It is time to shoot them all."

By GottaLaff

A Twitter pal of mine who goes by StopBeck (you can see why we're friends) sent me this screen grab from the Fox Nation website. I wanted to share the love:

(click on image to enlarge)

Remember when the wingnuts accused sites like Daily Kos of allowing hostile comments on their sites? Who was that again? Bill O'Reilly? Why yes, yes it was.

I guess "It is time to shoot them all" is meant as an overture of civility.

With ClusterFoxers like this, who needs Beck?

And yes, my source is notifying the Secret Service.

Tolerance: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff

My very caring, impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about the conservatives' hostile intrusion into what is left of the Republican party, and the resulting split. I am more than happy to oblige.

But first, a personal note from 42bkdodgr:

Many of you may wonder why I chose to use the “ 72 year old friend” as the introduction to my Special Comments. I selected the moniker so readers could see that from my age and life experiences I give a different perspective to the issues of today.

Now for his Special Comment:

Tolerance

In the last couple of month three events have taken place, which for me shows where the Republican Party is heading.

The first event is the New York State 23rd Congressional District election. The local Republican leadership chose Dede Scozzafava as their candidate, whose selection was endorsed by the Republican leadership in Congress and by National Republican Congressional Committee.

Dissatisfied with Ms. Scozzafava positions on abortion, same-sex marriage and taxation; the Conservative wing of the Republican Party led by Sarah Palin and Dick Armey decided to put up their own candidate to defeat the Republican candidate.

We all know how that turned out, the election of Democratic candidate Bill Owens, the first Democrat to hold that District’s seat in over 100 years.

The second event took place on Nov.7th during the voting on the HCR Bill. With all Republicans indicating they would all vote NO on the bill, I wondered if there was at least one representative who knew his constituents were in favor of having a health care reform bill passed.

Well I wasn’t disappointed, a courageous individual, Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao (R-New Orleans), listening to the needs of his constituents, who were concerned about the rising costs of health care premiums, voted for the HCR Bill with a public option.

Rep Cao did what he was elected to do, represent interests of his constituents and not just support party ideology. I believe there where others who felt the same way but were afraid to go against their party leadership and the conservative wing of the party.

For actually representing the wishes of his constituents, Rep Cao received a lot of hateful words from the right wing of the party. He received such hateful remarks as “The face of an American traitor”, “I will go broke supporting a dog to run against this traitor”, “Go back to Saigon, Vietnam, where you f_ _ _ing belong G_ _K”. Some people even asked that their donations be returned.

The third event involves Sen. Lindsey Graham (R - SC). The Charleston County, S.C., Republican Party censured Sen. Graham for his work with Democrats and GOP moderates. They were upset that Sen. Graham worked with Sen. John Kerry ( D-Mass.) and Joseph Liberman (I-Conn.) on climate change legislation and for also working on a bipartisan basis with members of the Democratic party on immigration reform.

Now what do these three events have in common? Its that the Conservative wing (tea baggers/ Tea Party) of the Republican Party has little or no tolerance for those with different point of views.

The Conservative wing of the Party has indicated they will endorse those Republican candidates in the 2010 primaries who support their ideology (abortions, gay marriage, taxation) or they will select a candidate to oppose them.

When you take into account these three events along with the actions, dress, signs and posters displayed by the protesters at the Town Hall meetings, the 9/12 Rally and the Bachmann “Press Conference” rally, you can see that the Republican Party is slowly being taken over by the far right wing of the party.

When the intentions of a political party’s wing is to drum out those members who have different points of view and expects all followers to be in lock step-- or should I say goose step?-- with their ideology, then the political party that emerges looks no different from a Fascist or Communist Party.

Many thanks again for another timely, thoughtful piece, 42bkdodgr. You never fail to say what so many of us are thinking and feeling.

"If someone assassinated Obama, could we call self-preservation?"

By GottaLaff

Here we go again. The following Tweets courtesy of Joe SixpackSays:

And finally, all wrapped up purty in the American flag:

Again, whether or not this was simply blowing off steam, getting kicks, joking, seeking attention, or malicious, misguided attempts at spurring some kind of response, the problem is the end result.

The problem is incitement. The problem is spreading hate. The problem is encouraging behavior in others that can lead to violence, whether intentional or inadvertent (although most of these expressions of anger sound as if they're calculated to induce action).

And those are big, nasty problems.... as is this, via Wonkette:

H/t: TQNEWS, Cody and Shoq (for Wonkette link)

Mob Rule: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff

(click on image to enlarge)

My very caring, impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about the rampant out-of-control expressions of hatred that have been forced upon us recently. I am more than happy to oblige.

But first, a personal note from 42bkdodgr:

Many of you may wonder why I chose to use the “ 72 year old friend” as the introduction to my Special Comments. I selected the moniker so readers could see that from my age and life experiences I give a different perspective to the issues of today.

Now for his Special Comment:

The Mob Has Taken Over

In my first Special Comment on this site I said I hadn’t seen such hatred in this country since the Civil Rights movement; since then it has continued and has gotten worse.

I also said in another comment that the two most dangerous women in America were Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann. Since then I have come to the conclusion that Bachmann is the one to fear. She uses the same antics of Joseph McCarthy, making outrageous statements, and in some cases without any proof.

Some of Bachmann’s outrageous statements include:

* "What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing.” referring opposing the HCR Bill.

* Linking swine flu outbreak to Democrats.

* Liberals in Congress should be investigated for being anti-American.

* Thomas Jefferson has told us: having a revolution every now and then is a good thing

* Obama has anti-American views.

* “I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back.”

* Asking tea baggers attending Nov. 5th rally to go “ up and down through the halls, find members of Congress, look at the whites of their eyes and say “ Don’t take away my healthcare””

I believe when you look at the language of the Bachmann’s statements there seems to be a tone of a call to violence and is preaching to mob-like intelligence .

Because of her statements Bachmann has become the darling of the tea baggers, as evidenced by the reception she received at the rally on the Capital steps yesterday against the Democratic Health Care Reform Bill.

During the rally we saw such poster signs as “ Heath Care Reform is the Holocaust”, “Obama and his Marxist Buddies Are After Your Freedom”, Health Care In General, Is Just Like Nazi Germany”, I’m King Of The World (character of Obama) We Know What Happened To The Titanic”, “Kiss Mao Ass”, “Ken-ya Trust Obama”, Obama Takes His Orders From The Rothchilds”. These signs show that to some extent tea baggers are made up of radicals, racists and anti-Semites.

Yet with all these signs Rep. Boehner said he didn’t see any hate coming from the crowd; while he adds fuel to the growing fire saying that the health care bill is the “greatest threat to freedom that I have seen.”

When Bachmann, Boehner and the rest of the Republicans attending the rally make no statement regarding the inappropriateness of the signs being displayed, this only tells me that the mob has taken control of the Republican Party.

Until the moderates regain control of the Republican Party and denounce the antics, words and actions of the tea baggers, Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, Palin and Bachmann the hatred will continue and the division in the country will only get wider.

Lets hope the Republican party regains its senses before a horrific event takes place in this country.

Many thanks again for another timely, truthful, provocative piece, 42bkdodgr. You never fail to say what so many of us are thinking and feeling.

A Speech Can Have an Impact: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff

My very caring, impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about President Obama's upcoming education speech, and I am more than happy to oblige.

This one really got to me.

Take it away, 42bkdodgr:

A Speech Can Have an Impact

I’m sure many of you have found the uproar from the right wing of the Republican party regarding President Obama upcoming speech to the students of this country about the benefits of getting a good education quite disturbing and disgusting.

In fact, in several states, school districts are blacking out the President’s televised speech and many parents aren‘t allowing their children to go to school that day. I would like to tell you how a speech can have a very positive impact on a student.

I have a friend who is a Holocaust survivor, was in six concentration camps during the war, and lost all of his family, except for a sister. He often speaks of his experiences by giving speeches to high school students; and I would like to tell you about one such event.

He recently spoke at a high school that was in a large black and Hispanic area, that has many gangs. He related to the students his experiences in the concentration camps and how he eventually became a very successful business man. He told them when he came to this country he didn’t speak the language, was basically penniless, hadn’t completed his education, and lost his teenage years; but through hard work and getting an education, he lived the American dream.

He ended his presentation by telling them how lucky they were to live in such a great country where they can accomplish anything they set their minds to through hard work and study. He encouraged them to go home and hug and kiss their parents and siblings and pursue the American dream. Over 100 hundred students, after a six hour presentation, waited outside to thank him for coming to their school.

About a week later, he received a call from one of the parents. She said, “What did you do to my son?” My friend became apprehensive thinking he did something wrong.

The parent said, my son came home kissed me, his father and brother and sister; and all he wants to do now is study and make something of himself. She said, we could never get our son motivated to do his school work; and she went on to thank my friend for the impact he had on her son's life.

I’m sure his presentation had similar impact on other students.

If my friend can have such an impact on a student, you can only imagine the effect the President will have on students when he makes his speech on Tuesday.

The uproar about the President giving the speech is another example, of the hate that is going on in this country. I wonder what effect it will have on students knowing the President is making a speech but they aren’t allowed to hear it; sure sounds like censorship to me.

Great thanks again for a relevant, heartfelt, touching, and thought-provoking piece, 42bkdodgr. We need 100 more like you.

Joe Klein agrees with my 72-year-old friend: It's powder keg time

By GottaLaff

Please read my pal's Special Comment, and then come back and check this out:

Joe Klein: "Could I just say that the intensity of this is getting pretty scary...and dangerous? We are heading toward a cliff and the usual brakes of civil discourse are not working. Indeed, the Republicans have the pedal to the metal... I'm usually not one to panic or be overly worried about the state of our country -- even when we do awful things like invade Iraq and torture people, we usually right our course before long -- but I have a sinking feeling about where we're headed now."

UPDATE: On The Ed Show just now, they were just covering, and agreeing with, this very premise.

We're Sitting on a Powder Keg: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff

My very caring, impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about something many of us see, including him, as a rapidly looming threat, all the hate speech and hostility we've witnessed recently... and I am more than happy to oblige.

Take it away, 42bkdodgr:

Powder Keg

In July, I wrote that I haven’t seen so much hate in this country since the Civil Rights movement. Since then the hate and anger has only gotten worse, and it will continue to get worse. You may wonder why I feel this way and what makes me upset about this hate and anger.

I get upset, when commentators are allowed to call the President Obama a “racist”, compare him to Hitler, question his place of birth-- with no disciplinary action taken by the media outlet.

I get upset when sponsors have removed their advertisements because of “racist “remarks and the viewing audience continue to grow. These commentators by their words and actions have encouraged mob rule at Town Hall meetings, instead of encouraging real discussions about the issues.

Their encouragement has led to demonstrators appear outside Town Hall meetings carrying signs “ It’s time to water the tree of liberty”?”, showing President Obama with a Hitler style mustache, questioning his religion; and demonstrators carrying loaded guns to the events. All this indicates to me they are directing their programs to a very narrow minded group of people.

I get upset when you have Republicans, discussing the Health Care Reform Bill, make misleading remarks and misrepresent provisions in the bill by making such statements as “pulling the plug on grandma”, “Death Panels” Death Book”, or such a ludicrous statement as, “What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t pass.”

These statements are made to frighten and scare their constituents and to rile their base.

When I take into consideration the hate being spewed by the right wing media together with the misleading and misrepresentations made by the GOP about the Health Care bill I have come to the conclusion: This country is sitting on a powder keg that I think is ready to explode. When it does, no good will come from it. I hope our politicians come to their senses and turn the country away from the hate and anger we are seeing.

While there have been Democrats in both the House and the Senate who indicated they may vote against a HCR Bill, not one Republican has indicated they will vote in favor, I find it extremely hard to believe that not one Republican favors a HCR Bill with a public option.

Then there are the politicians who promote that their state should secede from the Union.

We have become a nation where party comes first before the people.

Thank you once again for a relevant, heartfelt, and thought-provoking piece, 42bkdodgr. We need more like you.

Glenn Beck with a Turban Would be Just Another Terrorist in Gitmo as He Daily Commits Treason

By GottaLaff

(original post about this jerk here:
The Face of Treason. If Glenn Beck wore a turban and incited violence the way he does, he would be in Gitmo as a terrorist and enemy of the state.)

This post by Mark Karlin over at BuzzFlash dovetails with my previous Frank Rich post. Here's a sample, then please go read the rest:

But because he's a white guy on the airwaves who has helped bully through the notion that white guys who believe that America belongs to them -- and they've got the guns to make it that way -- he continues to air his anti-American "wink and nod" call for blood in the streets over a phantom enemy (meaning the U.S. government) without repercussions. In fact, he has become a multi-millionaire from spooning out what is essentially terrorist rhetoric. [...]

If it walks like a domestic terrorist, talks like a domestic terrorist, and acts like a domestic terrorist, then Glenn Beck and co-horts are enablers of domestic terrorism and a threat to the nation.

The Obama Haters’ Silent Enablers

By GottaLaff

Frank Rich:

When a Fox News anchor, reacting to his own network’s surging e-mail traffic, warns urgently on-camera of a rise in hate-filled, “amped up” Americans who are “taking the extra step and getting the gun out,” maybe we should listen. He has better sources in that underground than most.

The anchor was Shepard Smith, speaking after Wednesday’s mayhem at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. [...]

What he reported was this: his e-mail from viewers had “become more and more frightening” in recent months, dating back to the election season. From Wednesday alone, he “could read a hundred” messages spewing “hate that’s not based in fact,” much of it about Barack Obama and some of it sharing the museum gunman’s canard that the president was not a naturally born citizen. These are Americans “out there in a scary place,” Smith said.[...]

These are extraordinary words to hear on Fox. The network’s highest-rated star, Bill O’Reilly, had assailed Tiller, calling him “Tiller the baby killer” and likening him to the Nazis, on 29 of his shows before the doctor was murdered at his church in Kansas. O’Reilly was unrepentant [...] But now another Fox star, while stopping short of blaming O’Reilly, was breaching his network’s brand of political correctness: he tied the far-right loners who had gotten their guns out in Wichita and Washington to the mounting fury of Obama haters.

What is this fury about? In his scant 145 days in office, the new president has not remotely matched the Bush record in deficit creation. Nor has he repealed the right to bear arms or exacerbated the wars he inherited. He has tried more than his predecessor ever did to reach across the aisle. But none of that seems to matter. A sizable minority of Americans is irrationally fearful of the fast-moving generational, cultural and racial turnover Obama embodies — indeed, of the 21st century itself. [...] Change can be frightening and traumatic, especially if it’s not change you can believe in. [...]

But well before the latest murderers struck — well before another “antigovernment” Obama hater went on a cop-killing rampage in Pittsburgh in April — there have been indications that this rage could spiral out of control.

This was evident during the campaign, when hotheads greeted Obama’s name with “Treason!” and “Terrorist!” at G.O.P. rallies. At first the McCain-Palin campaign fed the anger with accusations that Obama was “palling around with terrorists.”[...]

This homicide-saturated vituperation is endemic among mini-Limbaughs. Glenn Beck has dipped into O’Reilly’s Holocaust analogies [...]

But hyperbole from the usual suspects in the entertainment arena of TV and radio is not the whole story. What’s startling is the spillover of this poison into the conservative political establishment. Saul Anuzis, a former Michigan G.O.P. chairman who ran for the party’s national chairmanship this year, seriously suggested in April that Republicans should stop calling Obama a socialist [...] pushed “fascism” instead [...] He didn’t seem to grasp that “fascism” is nonsensical as a description of the Obama administration or that there might be a risk in slurring a president with a word that most find “bad” because it evokes a mass-murderer like Hitler.

The Anuzis “fascism” solution to the Obama problem has caught fire. The president’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court and his speech in Cairo have only exacerbated the ugliness. [...] Uniting all these insults is an aggrieved note of white victimization only a shade less explicit than that in von Brunn’s white supremacist screeds.

Obama’s Cairo address, meanwhile, prompted over-the-top accusations reminiscent of those campaign rally cries of “Treason!” It was a prominent former Reagan defense official, Frank Gaffney, not some fringe crackpot, who accused Obama in The Washington Times of engaging “in the most consequential bait-and-switch since Adolf Hitler duped Neville Chamberlain.” [...]

If this isn’t a handy rationalization for another lone nutjob to take the law into his own hands against a supposed terrorism supporter, what is? Any such nutjob can easily grab a weapon. Gun enthusiasts have been on a shopping spree since the election, with some areas of our country reporting percentage sales increases in the mid-to-high double digits, recession be damned.

The question, Shepard Smith said on Fox last week, is “if there is really a way to put a hold on” those who might run amok. [...] The genteel public debate in right-leaning intellectual circles about the conservative movement’s future will be buried by history if these insistent alarms are met with silence. [...]

[A]s Smith also said last week, Homeland Security was “warning us for a reason.”

No matter. Last week it was business as usual, as Republican leaders nattered ad infinitum over the juvenile rivalry of Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich at the party’s big Washington fund-raiser. Few if any mentioned, let alone questioned, the ominous script delivered by the actor Jon Voight with the G.O.P. imprimatur at that same event. Voight’s devout wish was to “bring an end to this false prophet Obama.”

This kind of rhetoric, with its pseudo-Scriptural call to action, is toxic. It is getting louder each day of the Obama presidency. No one, not even Fox News viewers, can say they weren’t warned.

Glenn Beck: The face of treason

By GottaLaff

Thank you, Mark Karlin, for linking me to this:

The Face of Treason.

If Glenn Beck wore a turban and incited violence the way he does,
he would be in Gitmo as a terrorist and enemy of the state.