Let's have our own unofficial poll.

[pattygreen 5]

If Obama really cared about the other 1/2 of the citizens here who are not in favor of his HC plan, he would not have gloated about getting his way and deceitfully passing this bill. He actually said, concerning the law suits filed, "Bring it on". What kind of mature, bipartisan leader would say that? He actually promoted and encouraged a fight with those who oppose him. This is not a campaign any more. He should grow up. He does not have the maturity, wisdom, or integrity to run things. He is an inexperienced and deceitful liar.

Edited March 27, 2010 by pattygreen

[pattygreen 5]

Historical note: Republican presidents who were assassinated: Lincoln: Garfield, McKinley

Recent History:

September 5, 1975: President Gerald Ford survives assassination attempt in Sacramento. (“Squeaky” Fromme) September 22, 1975: President Gerald Ford survives assassination attempt in San Francisco. (Sarah Jane Moore)

March 30, 1981: Just 69 days into his presidency, there was an assassination attempton President Ronald Reagan. President Reagan and three others were shot, one of them crippled for life. President Reagan’s lung was punctured.

January 19, 2001: When the Clintonistas left the White House, they threw paint on the walls, ripped all the W’s off the computer keyboards, trashed the Executive Wing. The Clintons moved a bunch of furniture and silver out of the White House. Mr. Bush chose not to press charges.

March 21, 2003: GOP Headquarters in Madison hit with bricks, paint bombs Journal Sentinel

In 2004, Republicans were subject to an aggressive and sometimes violent campaign of harassment and intimidation orchestrated by Kerry supporters. At least three Bush-Cheney offices were shot at during the election season. A swastika was burned into the front yard of a Bush-Cheney supporter in Madison, Wisconsin. Other incidents included offices burglarized, windows smashed, tires slashed and other property damage. The following is a timeline of documented election-related violence and intimidation against the Bush-Cheney ‘04 campaign and Republicans in 2004.

September 2, 2004: Gun Shot Fired Into Huntington, WV, Republican Headquarters.

September 3, 2004: Windows Broken, Anti-Bush Messages Scrawled At Gallatin County, MT, Republican Headquarters.

September 2004: John Kerry supporters and other libs/dems take to the streets of NYC destroying property, beating a NYC detective into a state of unconsciousness and harassing/threatening attendees during the 2004 GOP convention in NYC

September 6, 2004: Huntington, WV, Republican Headquarters Egged.

September 13, 2004: Swastika Drawn On Duluth, MN, Resident’s Lawn, Signs Also Defaced With Words “Nazi” And “Liar.”

September 16, 2004: Community College Professor In Florida Punched Republican County Chairman In Face.

September 22, 2004: West Elmira, NY, Resident Found Swastika Drawn On Bush Campaign Sign In His Yard.

September 23, 2004: Office Ransacked During Break-In At Vilas County, WI, Republican Headquarters, Obscene Words And Graphic Pictures Sprayed On Campaign Signs.

September 26, 2004: Windows Smashed And Signs Stolen At Oxford, MS, Bush-Cheney ‘04 Headquarters.

October 1, 2004: Laptops Of Executive And Field Director Stolen From Bush-Cheney ‘04 Headquarters In Seattle, WA.

October 1, 2004: Swastika Burned Into Front Yard Of Bush-Cheney ‘04 Supporter In Madison, WI.

October 2, 2004: Collinsville, OH, Resident Chains Down Bush-Cheney ‘04 Signs After Several Signs Stolen And One Was Replaced With Kerry Sign.

October 3, 2004: Burglary At Thousand Oaks, CA, Victory 2004 Headquarters Where Bush-Cheney ‘04 Banner Was Stolen From Outside Premises.

October 5, 2004: Gun Shots Fired Into Knoxville, TN, Bush-Cheney ‘04 Office, Shattering Office’s Glass Front Doors. October 5, 2004: AFL-CIO ACTIVISTS RANSACK BUSH HEADQUARTERS IN ORLANDO, The Orlando Sentinel . . . part of 20 coordinated union attacks across U.S.

October 8, 2004: Two Men Were Caught On A Hidden Camera Tearing Down And Urinating On Bush-Cheney ‘04 Sign In Akron, OH.

October 9, 2004: Oxnard, CA, Supporter Placing Bush-Cheney ‘04 In Yards Verbally Abused, Knocked Down And Had Signs Stolen.

October 9, 2004: Bush-Cheney Signs Near Vail, CO, Cut In Half And Burned In “Ransacking.”

October 10, 2004: Office Windows Broken And Field Director’s Laptop Bag and Purse Stolen In Burglary At Canton, OH, Victory Office.

October 11, 2004: Windows Broken, Petty Cash Stolen And Computers Tampered With In Burglary At Spokane, WA, Victory 2004 Headquarters.

October 13, 2004: Walls And Windows Of York, PA, Victory 2004 Headquarters Vandalized With Pro-Kerry Spray-Paint And Signs Outside Destroyed.

October 13, 2004: Window Smashed At Laconia, NH, Victory 2004 Headquarters.

October 13, 2004: Kerry Supporter Caught Stealing Bush Sign In Cape Girardeau, MO, Pulled Knife On Sign’s Owner And Was Arrested.

October 15, 2004: Someone Destroyed Large Plywood Bush-Cheney ‘04 Sign, Then Tried To Smash Debris Though Glass Door Of Santa Fe, NM, Republican Party Headquarters.

October 15, 2004: Someone Lined Window Sill With Bullet Casings At Littleton, NH, Republican Headquarters.

October 16, 2004: Unknown Suspects Vandalized Large Bush-Cheney Campaign Sign In Hollister, CA, With Obscenities.

October 17, 2004: Stickers Placed Over Windows Of Gettysburg, PA, Victory 2004 Headquarters.

October 18, 2004: eggs Thrown At Keene, NH, Victory 2004 Headquarters.

October 18, 2004: 21 Protesters Arrested At Bush-Cheney ‘04 Campaign Headquarters In Arlington, VA.

October 20, 2004: Rocks Thrown Through Windows At Multnomah County, OR, Republican Party Headquarters.

October 21, 2004: Bomb Threat Made Against Lake Havasu, AZ, Republican Party Headquarters.

October 21, 2004: Windows Smashed At Multnomah County Republican Party Headquarters In Portland, OR.

October 22, 2004: Break-In Discovered At Cincinnati, OH, Victory 2004 Headquarters.

October 22, 2004: Break-In Discovered At Flagstaff, AZ, Victory 2004 Headquarters. Perpetrators gained entry by throwing a cinder block through a plate glass window.

October 22, 2004: Chunk Of Concrete Tossed Through Glass Door Of Republican Headquarters In Santa Cruz, CA.

October 23, 2004: Two Kerry Supporters Arrested After Stealing Pro-Bush Signs From Activist And Pushing Police Officer At Edwards Rally In St. Petersburg, FL.

October 26, 2004: A Florida man has been charged with attempting to run over controversial Republican congresswoman Katherine Harris with his Cadillac.

November, 2004: Editors say Yale Free Press stolen Yale Daily News

November 2004, Election Day: 30 vans intended for getting out the vote in Milwaukee in 2004 had their tires slashed . . .Of the four men who were arrested, one is the son of Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, and one is the son of former acting Milwaukee Mayor Marvin Pratt.

June 8, 2004: Court sets release of Ryan's divorce file Chicago Tribune

May 10, 2005: Vladimir Arutyunian, a native Georgian who was born to a family of ethnic Armenians, threw a live hand Grenade toward a podium where President George W. Bush was speaking at Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia.

August, 2005: Reservist suspected of spray painting pro-Bush bumper stickers in Denver - Associated Press

October 26, 2006: A New Campaign Tactic: Manipulating Google Data. New York Times

October 30, 2006: RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman Responds To Today’s Letter From DNC Chairman Howard Dean GOP October (?) 2006: Staffers from Chuck Schumer’s office steal the social security number of Michael Steele then run an illegal credit report.

June, 2008: Speaking of inflammatory rhetoric, it was candidate Obama who urged followers in June, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun"

Sept 17, 2008: Sarah Palin’s E-Mail Hacked

October, 2008: Sarah Palin effigy hanging in someone’s yard

December, 2008: Sarah Palin’s church was set on fire by arsonists while children were inside.

September, 2008: Obama telling is supporters to “get in their faces” when confronting opponents. Columnist Michael Barone wrote at the time, “In this campaign, we have seen the coming of the Obama thugocracy, suppressing free speech, and we may see its flourishing in the four or eight years ahead.”

September, 2008: In Orlando Florida, a small group of middle-aged homemakers took their little McCain signs to an approved street corner, carried their small American flags and assembled to do their hour's vote-for-our-guy walk, when they were accosted by a group of Obama thugs and terrorized.

September, 2008: A videographer at a Tampa, Florida townhall got roughed up by union thugs and had his camera smashed.

September, 2008: A local doctor from Douglasville, Georgia was shouted down by his own Democratic congressman and accused of not being a constituent, a charge that was later shown to be blatantly false.

September, 2008: St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce warned citizens that they would bring criminal libel prosecutions against anyone who made statements against Obama that were “false.”

September, 2008: the Obama campaign called for a criminal investigation of the American Issues Project when it ran ads highlighting Obama's ties to Ayers.

September, 2008: Obama’s minions orchestrated a massive stream of complaints on the phone lines of Tribune Co.-owned WGN-AM in Chicago. “The offense: The station hosted National Review’s David Freddoso, author of ‘The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate,’ (Chicago Tribune)

October, 2008: conservative Stanley Kurtz appeared on Milt Rosenberg’s WGN radio program in Chicago to discuss his lack of access to papers about Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers in the Richard J. Daley Library in Chicago — papers that were closed off to him for some days, apparently at the behest of Obama supporters.Obama fans jammed WGN’s phone lines and sent in hundreds of protest emails.

October, 2008: McCain-Palin campaign bus coming under gunfire in New Mexico.

October, 2008: the home of a Republican headquarters manager in central Florida was shot up that same week as the shooting of the McCain-Palin bus in New Mexico. McCain supporters in the area woke to find the brake lines on their cars severed, their telephone and cable television lines cut, and political graffiti scratched into automobile paint and scrawled on their homes.

October 1, 2008: Vandals destroy Republican candidate signs, PolitickOr.com

October 6, 2008: Laptop stolen from regional GOP headquarters CNET News

October 8, 2008: Tennessee Man Indicted in Hacking of Palin's E-Mail Account Fox News

October 12, 2008: Authorities have arrested two men after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a 4-foot by 8-foot campaign sign for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in a southeast Portland yard.

Karen Scrutton said she was asleep inside her home at 7956 S.E. 17th Ave. in the Sellwood neighborhood when she saw her sign go up in flames after 1 a.m.

October 17, 2008: an unprovoked assault by an enraged Democrat against a [female] McCain volunteer in midtown Manhattan: “Defendant grabbed the sign the informant was holding, broke the wood stick that was attached to it, and then struck informant in the face.”(from police report)

October 22, 2008: Minnesota, Senator Coleman campaign: Senator's garage vandalized Associated Press

November, 2008: Black Panther with a billy club threatening voters outside polling place in Philadelphia. Eric Holder let him walk.

January, 2009: Hackers get Republican Senator Norm Coleman’s donors’ credit card info and post it on the internet

August (1st week?) 2009: a black gentleman who was a Tea Party participant named Kenneth Gladney went to a town-hall meeting hosted by Rep. Russ Carnahan, Missouri Democrat. While passing out "Don't Tread on Me" flags, he was viciously attacked by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) members. One called him a "nigger." A woman filming the violence also was accosted. NBC News.

August 4, 2009: a communique was issued from DNC headquarters about mobs of right-wing extremists whose extreme mobbiness threatens to mob ObamaCare with extremism.

Summer (?), 2009: a handicapped woman in a wheelchair was attacked by a protester at an Obama town hall in New Hampshire. Another protester kicked an armed man in the groin, & spit into a camera filming it.

Summer (?) 2009: At a tea party in Milwaukee, a heckler attacked several people and rushed the stage while a speaker was talking, YouTube video shows. Police tackled and removed him

September, 2009: The Washington DC Tea Party appears to be a big success, but it’s not for lack of trying among the movement’s more lunatic opponents. Yesterday, the DC Metro police evacuated the offices of Freedomworks after several threats, including a bomb-threat phone call that police considered credible enough to investigate.

September 3, 2009in Thousand Oaks , California, a nationalized healthcare advocate attacked and bit off the finger of a Tea Partyer who was a healthcare opponent, Associated Press.

November 14, 2009: in Fort Lauderdale, Florida violence broke out between tea party protesters and pro-amnesty protesters who had e-mailed group members calling for "a militant confrontation" with "tea-baggers," the Christian Science Monitor reported.

November 14, 2009, in Phoenix, tea partyers were attacked by a group of neo-Nazis brandishing a swastika flag and a portrait of Adolf Hitler. Police intervened quickly, and no one was hurt.

March 22, 2010: Bullet shot through window of Republican Congressman Eric Cantor's Richmond, Virginia campaign Office.

March 24, 2010: Republican Congresswoman Jean Schmidt of Ohio receives telephoned death threats. March 24, 2010: Republican Congresswoman Jenny Brown of Florida receives telephoned death threats.

[pattygreen 5]

[Cleo's Mom 257]

If Obama really cared about the other 1/2 of the citizens here who are not in favor of his HC plan, he would not have gloated about getting his way and deceitfully passing this bill. He actually said, concerning the law suits filed, "Bring it on". What kind of mature, bipartisan leader would say that? He actually promoted and encouraged a fight with those who oppose him. This is not a campaign any more. He should grow up. He does not have the maturity, wisdom, or integrity to run things. He is an inexperienced and deceitful liar.

To answer your question, this kind:

Bush: 'Bring on' attackers of U.S. troops

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush said Wednesday that American troops under fire in Iraq aren't about to pull out, and he challenged those tempted to attack U.S. forces, "Bring them on."

Pres. Obama challenged the republican AG's to file a lawsuit they will lose, whereas bush challenged Al-Qaeda to attack our soldiers. Very mature. Probably as mature as looking under his oval office desk for WMD that soldiers died looking for.

Edited March 27, 2010 by Cleo's Mom

[LeighaMason 19]

Yeah because the Republicans are such upstanding individuals. As shown by the email I recieved this morning...

Received this today. I feel better already

Relax!

Don't worry about your future.

Quit paying your insurance premiums.

Free health care is here.

The doctor will see you now.

doctor.bmp

Edited March 27, 2010 by LeighaMason
layout

[Cleo's Mom 257]

June 10, 2009

RIGHT-WING VIOLENCE.... In light of the shootings at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C. this afternoon, allegedly committed by white supremacist James Von Brunn, Matt Yglesias noted, "I hope that everyone who mau-maued the Department of Homeland Security for expressing concern about this kind of thing feel appropriately ashamed of themselves."

It's hardly an unreasonable point. Two months ago, Richard Poplawski, a right-wing extremist, allegedly gunned down three police officers in Pittsburgh, in part because he feared the non-existent "Obama gun ban." A few weeks ago, Scott Roeder, another right-wing extremist, allegedly assassinated Dr. George Tiller in Kansas. A few hours ago, Von Brunn, another right-wing extremist, allegedly opened fire at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

There are other recent examples that bear similar characteristics. This story out of Tennessee from last year continues to haunt.

Knoxville police Sunday evening searched the Levy Drive home of Jim David Adkisson after he allegedly entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and killed two people and wounded six others during the presentation of a children's musical. [...] Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

The shotgun-wielding suspect in Sunday's mass shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was motivated by a hatred of "the liberal movement," and he planned to shoot until police shot him, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV said this morning.

Adkisson, 58, of Powell wrote a four-page letter in which he stated his "hatred of the liberal movement," Owen said. "Liberals in general, as well as gays."

Obviously, we're dealing with sick individuals here. There are key differences between violent right-wing radicals and mainstream Americans who happen to be conservative. Indeed, I'm not suggesting that conservative activists are necessarily dangerous, violent people.

I am suggesting that it makes sense of the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate and communicate with law enforcement agencies about potentially violent extremists -- of every ideological stripe -- to help prevent tragedies like the ones we've seen lately.

The DHS report specifically addressed the possibility of violence from anti-abortion radicals and anti-Semitic extremists. And in the last two weeks, Tiller was assassinated and a white supremacist opened fire at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The Republican hysteria over the DHS report -- which was, by the way, initiated by a Bush administration official -- was always based more on a partisan scheme than reality, but the incessant complaints look especially misguided today.

And since this was written you can add the right wing terrorist who flew his small plane into the IRS building, killing one person.

Oh, and BTW, the teabagger who blogged and encouraged throwing bricks through windows of democrats who voted yes on healthcare? Well, he sits at home all day collecting his government disability checks. Now, why hasn't he refused this "socialism" that he fears is being promoted with this bill. Hmmm!

[Cleo's Mom 257]

Rasmussen: 55% Favor Repeal of Health Care Bill

Rasmussen Reports

March 25, 2010

• Just before the House of Representatives passed sweeping health care legislation last Sunday, 41% of voters nationwide favored the legislation while 54% were opposed. Now that President Obama has signed the legislation into law, most voters want to see it repealed.
  

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, conducted on the first two nights after the president signed the bill, shows that 55% favor repealing the legislation. Forty-two percent (42%) oppose repeal. Those figures include 46% who Strongly Favor repeal and 35% who Strongly Oppose it.

In terms of Election 2010, 52% say they’d vote for a candidate who favors repeal over one who does not. Forty-one percent (41%) would cast their vote for someone who opposes repeal.

Read entire article

Why it's increasingly difficult to take Rasmussen polls seriously

July 07, 2009 12:49 pm ET by Eric Boehlert

The surveys seem to exist solely to advance GOP talking points. Meaning, Rasmussen at times appears to function less as a legitimate polling firm and more as the polling wing of the RNC. Today's new survey about Sarah Palin and the repercussions of her "No mas" moment is a perfectly example.

You quote their polls often. I will stand with the more reputable Gallup poll that I posted that more people than didn't thought passing the healthcare bill was a good thing.

[Cleo's Mom 257]

This is what I struggle with. As Americans we are bombarded with commercial messages and it not just for us to buy a product anymore so much of it is for us to buy an idea. Now not only does Coke and McDonald's have huge advertising campaigns that run year round but other interests have less noticeable ones too. In 2007 I spent a year in radio advertising, it was such an eye opener. Everything is sold, from the joke that the DJ tells in the morning to casual banter between 2 DJ's, a lot of these are scripted, recorded and paid for to promote an idea. It all comes from advertising companies who are hired to promote their customers ideas. I believe this is where so much of the anti health care emails came from as well, if you look at the quality of the pictures (think Obama with joker makeup) they were obviously created by a professional graphic artist.

There is an advertising campaign right now that promotes the idea that you should vote against your own interests and it is so transparent that most Americans don't even know its there.

You are so right. I read the book "Idiot America" which I have quoted on this forum. It talks about how the conservative message is about selling units. It's all about sales. So true.

I also read an analysis by someone in PR who said the whole political movement is about selling an idea. That is why, he said, they could get poor people to protest increases in capital gain taxes.

And that is why we see the middle class voting against their own self-interests when they vote for those who stand with wall street instead of main street.

[Cleo's Mom 257]

Paul Krugman: Extremists capture the GOP

They don't just disagree; they consider Obama illegitimate

Saturday, March 27, 2010

I admit it: I had fun watching right-wingers go wild as health reform finally became law. But a few days later, it doesn't seem quite as entertaining -- and not just because of the wave of vandalism and threats aimed at Democratic lawmakers. For if you care about America's future, you can't be happy as extremists take full control of one of our two great political parties.

To be sure, it was enjoyable watching Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., warn that by passing health reform, Democrats "will finally lay the cornerstone of their socialist utopia on the backs of the American people." Gosh, that sounds uncomfortable.

And it's been a hoot watching Mitt Romney squirm as he tries to distance himself from a plan that, as he knows full well, is nearly identical to the reform he himself pushed through as governor of Massachusetts. His best shot was declaring that enacting reform was an "unconscionable abuse of power," a "historic usurpation of the legislative process" -- presumably because the legislative process isn't supposed to include things like "votes" in which the majority prevails.

A side observation: One Republican talking point has been that Democrats had no right to pass a bill facing overwhelming public disapproval. As it happens, the Constitution says nothing about opinion polls trumping the right and duty of elected officials to make decisions based on what they perceive as the merits.

But in any case, the message from the polls is much more ambiguous than opponents of reform claim: While many Americans disapprove of Obamacare, a significant number do so because they feel that it doesn't go far enough. And a Gallup poll taken after health reform's enactment showed the public, by a modest but significant margin, seeming pleased that it passed.

But back to the main theme. What has been really striking has been the eliminationist rhetoric of the GOP, coming not from some radical fringe but from the party's leaders. John Boehner, the House minority leader, declared that the passage of health reform was "Armageddon." The Republican National Committee put out a fundraising appeal that included a picture of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi surrounded by flames while the committee's chairman declared that it was time to put Pelosi on "the firing line." And Sarah Palin put out a map literally putting Democratic lawmakers in the cross hairs of a rifle sight.

All of this goes far beyond politics as usual. Democrats had a lot of harsh things to say about former President George W. Bush -- but you'll search in vain for anything comparably menacing, anything that even hinted at an appeal to violence, from members of Congress, let alone senior party officials.

No, to find anything like what we're seeing now you have to go back to the last time a Democrat was president. Like President Barack Obama, Bill Clinton faced a GOP that denied his legitimacy -- Dick Armey, the second-ranking House Republican (and now a Tea Party leader) referred to him as "your president."

Threats were common: Mr. Clinton, declared Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, "better watch out if he comes down here. He'd better have a bodyguard." (Mr. Helms later expressed regrets over the remark -- but only after a media firestorm.) And once they controlled Congress, Republicans tried to govern as if they held the White House, too, eventually shutting down the federal government in an attempt to bully Mr. Clinton into submission.

Mr. Obama seems to have sincerely believed that he would face a different reception. And he made a real try at bipartisanship, nearly losing his chance at health reform by frittering away months in a vain attempt to get a few Republicans on board. At this point, however, it's clear that any Democratic president will face total opposition from a Republican Party that is completely dominated by right-wing extremists.

For today's GOP is, fully and finally, the party of Ronald Reagan -- not Reagan the pragmatic politician, who could and did strike deals with Democrats, but Reagan the anti-government fanatic, who warned that Medicare would destroy American freedom.

It's a party that sees modest efforts to improve Americans' economic and health security not merely as unwise, but as monstrous.

It's a party in which paranoid fantasies about the other side -- Mr. Obama is a socialist, Democrats have totalitarian ambitions -- are mainstream.

As a result, it's a party that fundamentally doesn't accept anyone else's right to govern.

In the short run, Republican extremism may be good for Democrats, to the extent that it prompts a voter backlash. But in the long run, it's a very bad thing for America. We need to have two reasonable, rational parties in this country. And right now we don't

[Cleo's Mom 257]

More Far-Right Violence? Anti-Immigrant Suspects In Arizona Killing Have Ties To White Supremacists

By Zachary Roth - June 16, 2009, 12:48PM

The recent murders of a Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions and of a guard at the National Holocaust Museum have stoked fears of a rise in right-wing extremist violence -- just as that much-maligned DHS report predicted. And now it looks like we've got another one to add to the list... According to local law enforcement, three people posing as police officers forced their way into the home of Raul Flores in Arivaca, Arizona, about 10 miles from the Mexican border, on May 30. They shot and killed Flores and his nine-year-old daughter, and wounded Flores' wife. The three, Shawna Forde, Jason Bush, and Albert Gaxiola, were arrested and charged last Thursday and Friday.

But here's where it gets interesting: Forde's brother, Merrill Metzger, has told the Arizona Daily Star that Forde had been talking recently about "starting a revolution against the United States government," and had said she planned to recruit members of the Aryan Nations as part of a plan to rob drug cartels.

[BJean 16]

Paul Krugman: Extremists capture the GOP

They don't just disagree; they consider Obama illegitimate

Saturday, March 27, 2010

I admit it: I had fun watching right-wingers go wild as health reform finally became law. But a few days later, it doesn't seem quite as entertaining -- and not just because of the wave of vandalism and threats aimed at Democratic lawmakers. For if you care about America's future, you can't be happy as extremists take full control of one of our two great political parties.

To be sure, it was enjoyable watching Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., warn that by passing health reform, Democrats "will finally lay the cornerstone of their socialist utopia on the backs of the American people." Gosh, that sounds uncomfortable.

And it's been a hoot watching Mitt Romney squirm as he tries to distance himself from a plan that, as he knows full well, is nearly identical to the reform he himself pushed through as governor of Massachusetts. His best shot was declaring that enacting reform was an "unconscionable abuse of power," a "historic usurpation of the legislative process" -- presumably because the legislative process isn't supposed to include things like "votes" in which the majority prevails.

A side observation: One Republican talking point has been that Democrats had no right to pass a bill facing overwhelming public disapproval. As it happens, the Constitution says nothing about opinion polls trumping the right and duty of elected officials to make decisions based on what they perceive as the merits.

But in any case, the message from the polls is much more ambiguous than opponents of reform claim: While many Americans disapprove of Obamacare, a significant number do so because they feel that it doesn't go far enough. And a Gallup poll taken after health reform's enactment showed the public, by a modest but significant margin, seeming pleased that it passed.

But back to the main theme. What has been really striking has been the eliminationist rhetoric of the GOP, coming not from some radical fringe but from the party's leaders. John Boehner, the House minority leader, declared that the passage of health reform was "Armageddon." The Republican National Committee put out a fundraising appeal that included a picture of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi surrounded by flames while the committee's chairman declared that it was time to put Pelosi on "the firing line." And Sarah Palin put out a map literally putting Democratic lawmakers in the cross hairs of a rifle sight.

All of this goes far beyond politics as usual. Democrats had a lot of harsh things to say about former President George W. Bush -- but you'll search in vain for anything comparably menacing, anything that even hinted at an appeal to violence, from members of Congress, let alone senior party officials.

No, to find anything like what we're seeing now you have to go back to the last time a Democrat was president. Like President Barack Obama, Bill Clinton faced a GOP that denied his legitimacy -- Dick Armey, the second-ranking House Republican (and now a Tea Party leader) referred to him as "your president."

Threats were common: Mr. Clinton, declared Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, "better watch out if he comes down here. He'd better have a bodyguard." (Mr. Helms later expressed regrets over the remark -- but only after a media firestorm.) And once they controlled Congress, Republicans tried to govern as if they held the White House, too, eventually shutting down the federal government in an attempt to bully Mr. Clinton into submission.

Mr. Obama seems to have sincerely believed that he would face a different reception. And he made a real try at bipartisanship, nearly losing his chance at health reform by frittering away months in a vain attempt to get a few Republicans on board. At this point, however, it's clear that any Democratic president will face total opposition from a Republican Party that is completely dominated by right-wing extremists.

For today's GOP is, fully and finally, the party of Ronald Reagan -- not Reagan the pragmatic politician, who could and did strike deals with Democrats, but Reagan the anti-government fanatic, who warned that Medicare would destroy American freedom.

It's a party that sees modest efforts to improve Americans' economic and health security not merely as unwise, but as monstrous.

It's a party in which paranoid fantasies about the other side -- Mr. Obama is a socialist, Democrats have totalitarian ambitions -- are mainstream.

As a result, it's a party that fundamentally doesn't accept anyone else's right to govern.

In the short run, Republican extremism may be good for Democrats, to the extent that it prompts a voter backlash. But in the long run, it's a very bad thing for America. We need to have two reasonable, rational parties in this country. And right now we don't

This is also very disturbing to me. And the support of the extremists comes from the very top of the GOP, Steele. It seems there is no hope for moderately conservative people these days. And some of your everyday Republicans are angry at Democrats because they've been lumped in with the nutjobs. But what else can be expected when the people who run the party and who are Republicans on a national level of government fully endorse extremism rather than true debate?

[Cleo's Mom 257]

Ok, this one is a toss-up. I can’t decide which is more disgusting. Is it the picture of poor deceased Terri Schiavo, the actual picture of someone’s grandmother in their coffin, or using a graphic photo of the Twin Towers in flames. Maybe its the fact that they had the nerve have an American flag and a quote from the Bible on this entire piece of crap.

So now Nancy Pelosi is a Nazi too?

The sign was held by a 16 year old kid.

According to Andrew Sullivan the protestor is comparing an attempt to privately ensure millions of people currently uninsured is the equivalent of this:

Action T4 (German: Aktion T4) was a program, also called Euthanasia Program, in Nazi Germany spanning October 1939 until August 1941, during which physicians killed 70,273 people specified in Hitler’s secret memo of September 1, 1939 as suffering patients “judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination”, but described in a denunciation of the program by Cardinal Galen as long-term inmates of mental asylums “who may appear incurable”.

Wouldn't be a teabag party with out a birther sign

more birther fun

Just in time for Halloween, it's the hearse from the Munsters

Shout-out to Dick Cheney

Just had to give this sign an honorable mention...

[LeighaMason 19]

Is she volunteering?

obama2.bmp

Edited March 27, 2010 by LeighaMason

[BJean 16]

I wouldn't be surprised. She's the one who thought of it.

I have a feeling that she doesn't understand the term "impeach"

As for Cleo's post with all the signs, it's obvious that some of those signs were professionally made. And some of the slogans are too politically saavy to just come from some random citizen who's disgruntled with the health care reform bill.

I feel sure that there is some really big money behind a lot of this. Smacks of the same nasty political thinking as the Swift Boat freaks.

[BJean 16]

Hey, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.