Sick & Twisted

Marcos gets e-mail:

It's been a while since I've posted hate mail. Here's a particularly illustrative one that came in this morning:

I read your pathetic Oboma ass kissing site and you people are fucking morons. I saw you on TV and you look like a little smug faggot. I think all liberals should paint themselves black and find some black ass to have gay sex with. You people are a disgrace to the white race and to America. Your bastard president and he is a bastard cuz his white mom was a single whore when she got knocked up with him. He is a one termer, he lied, he duped, he brainwashed Americans and now they are GETTING it.

You live by your whacked out biased polls, I dont need fucking numbers to see what Americans minus the liberals think of this disgusting person and his dog face bucked teeth wife.

THEY ARE HATED. I CAN ONLY HOPE HE DROPS FUCKING DEAD."

The only question is which of the right's blowhards is his favorite? Is it Hannity, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, or Beck. This guy is their audience.

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The ugliness continues

Why do some adults have to take the fun out of Halloween for the kids? This woman denied Halloween candy to any kids who support or whose parents support Barack Obama for President. Real classy.



I can just picture her asking the kids if they or their parents support Obama, and if they do, telling them that there is no Santa Claus.

Another wingnut smear bites the dust

Well, we can put this one to bed finally, right?

State declares Obama birth certificate genuine

State officials say there's no doubt Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. Health Department Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said Friday she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate.

Fukino says that no state official, including Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, ever instructed that Obama's certificate be handled differently. She says state law bars release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who does not have a tangible
interest.

Some Obama critics claim he was not born in the US.

Actually, I don't think this will shut the wingnuts up. Many of them still believe he is a Muslim or not a "good" Christian.
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Sleaziest presidential campaign ever?

This is the ugliest presidential campaign in my lifetime. What do you think?
Here is Josh Marshall:

Flashback: McCain's Sleaze-o-rama

As John McCain just gets sleazier and sleazier, let's review the hypocritical record one more time ...

Have you noticed how the McCain/Palin camps have morphed the Republican Party into the White Nationalists Party? Check out the crowds at all their events. And their new attacks on a respected Palestinian-American historian, Rashid Khalidi, are despicable. Hell, all Sarah Palin had to do Wednesday was mention the guy's name and people who knew absolutely nothing about him started booing ... they booed his name. See, he's different, he's middle-eastern, he's probably a terrorist!

All McCain and Palin have on their side is fear and ignorance.

I choose HOPE.


UPDATE: Oh my ... If you were leading a White Supremacist organization where would you go to recruit new members?
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It's good that their racism is out in the open

I continue to be amazed at how many people are willing to express their outright racism in public during this presidential campaign. For awhile there, people kept most of their bigotry and hatred hidden from public view. Now, they are wearing it proudly, like a badge of honor. And we're not talking about actions or statements with fuzzy or debatable interpretations, we are talking about outright racism and racial bigotry. The examples are everwhere to see -- in churches, among co-workers, within families, and in front yards.

I am actually thrilled as much as I am disgusted, because to eradicate racism you have to expose it. And when people write, say or do things that are bigoted and racist it is best if they do it out in the open. Now we know who they truly are.

Here is a perfect example. Watch this! This man hang an Obama ghost figure by a noose in effigy (and places a Star of David on its head?) and stated that it is because Obama is black?


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Nope. No racism here.

Fucking Ignorant Rednecks


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Hatred ... pure evil ... dangerous ...

Not so funny ...

Palin Posse couldn't shoot straight

Despite Sarah Palin's attempts to say she did nothing wrong, the bipartisan investigation determined that Palin broke state ethics laws:

From Kevin Drum:

TROOPERGATE FINALE.... I read most of the Branchflower report on Troopergate last night, but the MSM seemed to be doing a fine job of reporting the results all
its own so I never got around to posting about it.

The basic story, of course, revolves around Todd and Sarah Palin's crusade to get their ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, fired from his job as a state trooper, and their efforts to get Alaska's Commissioner of Public Safety, Walt Monegan, to do the firing. Most of this story is pretty well known already. However, Time's Nathan Thornburgh points out the aspect of the report that struck me as the most remarkable:

The result is not a mortal wound to Palin.... But the Branchflower report still makes for good reading, if only because it convincingly answers a question nobody had even thought to ask: Is the Palin administration shockingly amateurish? Yes, it is. Disturbingly
so.

The 263 pages of the report show a co-ordinated application of pressure on Monegan so transparent and ham-handed that it was almost certain to end in public embarrassment for the governor.

.... Monegan and his peers constantly warned these Palin disciples that the contact was inappropriate and probably unlawful. Still, the emails and calls continued — in at least one instance on recorded state trooper phone lines.

The state's head of personnel, Annette Kreitzer, called Monegan and had to be warned that personnel issues were confidential. The state's attorney general, Talis Colberg, called Monegan and had to be reminded that the call was putting both men in legal jeopardy, should Wooten decide to sue. The governor's chief of staff met with Monegan and had to be reminded by Monegan that, "This conversation is discoverable ... You don't want Wooten to own your house, do you?"

Monegan pointed out to a steady stream of people that (a) Wooten was protected by civil service and there was nothing more that could be done since he'd already gone through a formal disciplinary procedure, and (b) any conversation about Wooten was discoverable in court if Wooten ever got tired of being hounded and decided to file a civil suit. And yet the contacts kept coming and coming and coming — and coming and coming. And Branchflower documents them in painful detail. It's all quite
remarkable.

In fact, here's the part that really puzzles me: what exactly did Todd and Sarah Palin hope to accomplish? Surely they knew perfectly well that Monegan was right: he couldn't have fired Wooten even if he wanted to. And they must also have known that even if Monegan were replaced, any replacement would quickly check into the situation and report back the same thing. Wooten had already been disciplined, and unless something new cropped up there was simply nothing that anyone could do to force him out of his job. In fact, the Palins' efforts probably made it nearly impossible even to reassign Wooten since it would so obviously have been politically motivated. It was a completely futile crusade they were on.

So what were they thinking? Or were they?

They did it because they thought no one would dare to challenge them. They were used to strong-arming or sliming the opposition and winning, they thought this would be the same at the state level.

Here is a much more detailed analysis from Hilzoy.
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More ignorance and vile hatred

A disturbing video from bloggerinterrupted:

It’s no wonder that the slightest incitement from Sarah Palin or John McCain will turn one of their rallies into a lynch mob. Just talk to the folks who attend. My camera was rolling for literally seconds before people happily said to me, on camera, that Barack Obama is a terrorist.
...
Bonus footage of people claiming they know Sarah Palin better than they know Barack, and in fact, never heard of Barack.

I’ve been doing blog video for a while, and presidential rallies a lot longer. And this is the most strange, ignorant, uninformed, angry, up-to-no-good, and gullible group of people I’ve ever seen at a political rally.

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Drunk Ignorant Rednecks

Brace yourselves before you watch this.

As Andrew Sullivan writes: Sit down, take a deep breath and get a better idea of why the people introducing Palin and McCain keep referring to Barack Hussein Obama:
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One of the most appalling campaigns we can remember

New York Times Editorial Board:

Politics of Attack

It is a sorry fact of American political life that campaigns get ugly, often in their final weeks. But Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have been running one of the most appalling campaigns we can remember.

They have gone far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent’s record — into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia. Senator Barack Obama has taken some cheap shots at Mr. McCain, but there is no comparison.

Despite the occasional slip (referring to Mr. Obama’s “cronies” and calling him “that one”), Mr. McCain tried to take a higher road in Tuesday night’s presidential debate.

...

Ninety minutes of forced cordiality did not erase the dismal ugliness of his campaign in recent weeks, nor did it leave us with much hope that he would not just return to the same dismal ugliness on Wednesday.

Ms. Palin, in particular, revels in the attack. Her campaign rallies have become spectacles of anger and insult.

...

Her demagoguery has elicited some frightening, intolerable responses. A recent Washington Post report said at a rally in Florida this week a man yelled “kill him!” as Ms. Palin delivered that line and others shouted epithets at an African-American member of a TV crew.

Mr. McCain’s aides haven’t even tried to hide their cynical tactics, saying they were “going negative” in hopes of shifting attention away from the financial crisis — and by implication Mr. McCain’s stumbling response.

We certainly expected better from Mr. McCain, who once showed withering contempt for win-at-any-cost politics. He was driven out of the 2000 Republican primaries by this sort of smear, orchestrated by some of the same people who are now running his campaign.

And the tactic of guilt by association is perplexing, since Mr. McCain has his own list of political associates he would rather forget.

In a way, we should not be surprised that Mr. McCain has stooped so low, since the debate showed once again that he has little else to talk about. He long ago abandoned his signature issues of immigration reform and global warming; his talk of “victory” in Iraq has little to offer a war-weary nation; and his Reagan-inspired ideology of starving government and shredding regulation lies in tatters on Wall Street.

But surely, Mr. McCain and his team can come up with a better answer to that problem than inciting more division, anger and hatred.

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With friends like these ...

They try to tie Barack Obama to William Ayers, but the tiny thread is elusive.

But Todd Palin was a member of a political party that wanted secession from the U.S. How patriotic!

The Palins' un-American activities
Imagine if the Obamas had hooked up with a violently anti-American group in league with the government of Iran.
By David Talbot

"My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand."

This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week.

Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that's the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. ("Keep up the good work," Palin told AIP members. "And God bless you.")

AIP chairwoman Lynette Clark told me recently that Sarah Palin is her kind of gal. "She's Alaskan to the bone ... she sounds just like Joe Vogler."

So who are these America-haters that the Palins are pallin' around with?

Before his strange murder in 1993, party founder Vogler preached armed insurrection against the United States of America. Vogler, who always carried a Magnum with him, was fond of saying, "When the [federal] bureaucrats come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don't have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we're ready to die."
...
The Republican ticket is working hard this week to make Barack Obama's tenuous connection to graying, '60s revolutionary Bill Ayers a major campaign issue. But the Palins' connection to anti-American extremism is much more central to their political biographies."

He was a member.

Someone needs to ask him why and what he found so attractive about the party.

UPDATE: Here is a great video from Jed.

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How low can he go?

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/


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Sarah 'Embarracuda' Palin

A great post (with an awesome title) here by Joe Klein at Swampland:

Embarracuda

I'm of two minds about how to deal with the McCain campaign's further descent into ugliness. Their strategy is simple: you throw crap against a wall and then giggle as the media try to analyze the putresence in a way that conveys a sense of balance: "Well, it is bull-pucky, but the splatter pattern is interesting..." which, of course, only serves to get your perverse message out.

I really don't want to be a part of that. But...every so often, we journalists have a duty to remind readers just how dingy the McCain campaign, and its right-wing acolytes in the media (I'm looking at you, Sean Hannity) have become -- especially in their efforts to divert public attention from the economic crisis we're facing. And so inept at it: other campaigns have decided that their only shot is going negative, but usually they don't announce it, as several McCain aides have in recent days--there's no way we can win on the economy, so we're going to go sludge-diving.

...

It is appropriate that the prime vessel for this assault is Sarah Palin, whose very presence on a national ticket is an insult to your intelligence. She now has "credibility," we are told, because she managed to read talking points off notecards in the debate last week with unwitting enthusiasm.

Over the weekend, she picked up on an article in The New York Times, which essentially says that Barack Obama and the former terrorist Bill Ayers have crossed paths in Chicago, served on a couple of charitable boards together, but aren't particularly close. To Palin--or her scriptwriters--this means that Obama has been "palling around" with terrorists.

...

This is rather rich coming from Palin, who is married to a man who belonged to a political party--the Alaskan Independence Party--that wanted to secede from the union.

...

Then we have the ever-reliable Bill Kristol, in today's New York Times, advising Palin to bring up the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Palin, of course, believes that's a darn good idea:

...

So then, I'd guess, it would be appropriate to bring up some of the nuttiness that passes for godliness in Palin's religious life. Leave aside the fact that The Embarracuda allowed herself to participate in a cermony that protected her from witchcraft, how about her presence--she didn't "get up and leave"-- at a sermon by the founder of Jews for Jesus, who argued that the Palestinian terrorist acts against Israel were God's "judgment" on the Jews because they hadn't accepted Jesus.

As I said, I'm of two minds about this. I don't want to give currency to this sewage, ... And I'll try to devote the lion's share of my time to the issues -- the war, the economic crisis, the fraying health insurance system, the environment -- that should define this campaign.

But what a desperate empty embarrassment the McCain campaign has become.

McCain/Palin have nothing, nothing to offer the American people right now. Their campaign is doomed unless they can slather on the political slime and filth to Barack Obama. I think the American people are fed up with this type of politics right now and not only want change, they want solutions. McCain/Palin offer neither.
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Dangerous and Corrosive

Troopergate is still looming out there for the Palins. Here is Josh Marshall:

Desperate
By Josh Marshall

Republican state legislators, at the behest of the McCain campaign, have now filed an emergency appeal with the Alaska Supreme Court trying to shutdown the Troopergate' investigation. The plaintiffs (echoing the Bush v. Gore decision) claim "the plaintiffs and Alaskans will suffer irreparable harm" if the Branchflower report is released, as scheduled, next Friday, October 10th.

Bear in mind, the people in charge of the investigation moved the release date up so as not to have it released on the eve of the election. That was the original schedule long before Palin was chosen as veep nominee. And the GOP lawyers the McCain campaign sent to Alaska have succeeded in having almost all the parties connected to Palin refuse to cooperate with the investigation. So it's not completely clear just what Branchflower is going to be able to come up with, either inculpating or exculpating.

But this is an opportunity to refocus our attention on something that has been lost in the nonstop coverage of Palin's campaign trail lies and botched interviews: her record in Alaska strongly suggests she lacks the character to be trusted with high office. Though the troopergate scandal is tied narrowly to Palin's firing of Alaska's top cop, Walt Monegan, the heart of the story is about a private vendetta that Palin tried to settle using her new powers as the chief executive of the state of Alaska. Thwarted in doing so, all evidence suggests she fired the public official who refused to execute her plan.

Nor is it the only example. Both as mayor and governor, Palin has shown the tell-tale signs of a politician who hires cronies and fires or blackballs critics. This part of Palin's record gets deep in the weeds. So it's not as flashy as the boffo interviews or and irresistible as the straight-up lies she's been caught in. But we need no closer example than the Bush administration to know that people like this are dangerous and corrosive to our public institutions.

I've got no time for bigots and liars

In his article today in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof talks about the presidential campaign and "The Push to ‘Otherize’ Obama." The crux of this "otherness" is the smear that has been debunked, yet it persists, about Barack Obama's religious beliefs. Kristof regrets his role in this smear and writes:

What is happening, I think, is this: religious prejudice is becoming a proxy for racial prejudice. In public at least, it’s not acceptable to express reservations about a candidate’s skin color, so discomfort about race is sublimated into concerns about whether Mr. Obama is sufficiently Christian.

So, let's be completely clear here. Barack Obama is not and has never been a Muslim. And there is no evidence to the contrary. Here are some more statements and details:

“Let's make clear what the facts are: I am a Christian. I have been sworn in with a Bible. I pledge allegiance and lead the Pledge of Allegiance sometimes in the United States Senate, when I’m presiding … in the Internet age,there are going to be lies that are spread all over the place. I have been victimized by these lies. Fortunately the American people are, I think, smarter than folks give them credit for.”
– Barack Obama, Democratic Debate, January 16, 2008

THE FACTS

• Barack Obama has never been a Muslim and has never prayed at a mosque.
• Barack Obama never attended a radical madrassa.
• Barack Obama became a Christian long before he entered politics. As a community organizer in the1980s, he worked with a group of Christian churches in a depressed neighborhood of Chicago.

NEWS REPORTS HAVE CONDEMNED THE FALSE SMEARS

NEWSWEEK: "Dueling chain e-mails claim [Obama’s] a radical Muslim or a 'racist' Christian. Both can't be right. We find both are false. . . One claims that Obama is 'certainly a racist' by virtue of belonging to Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, which it says 'will accept only black parishioners' and espouses a commitment to Africa. Actually, a white theology professor says he's been 'welcomed enthusiastically' at the church, as have other non-blacks. Another e-mail claims that Obama 'is a Muslim,' attended a 'Wahabi' school in Indonesia, took his Senate oath on the Koran, refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and is part of an Islamic plot to take over the U.S. Each of these statements is false. These false appeals to bigotry and fear remind us of the infamous whispering campaign of eight years ago, when anonymous messages just before the South Carolina primary." (January 11, 2008)

LOS ANGELES TIMES: "That the rumors are false and vile is self-evident ... Presidential candidates of both parties have a duty to denounce not only the smear against Obama but the bigotry that underlies it." (December 2, 2007)

ASSOCIATED PRESS: “Interviews by The Associated Press at the elementary school in Jakarta found that it's a public and secular institution that has been open to students of all faiths since before the White House hopeful attended in the late 1960s.” (January 24, 2007)

WASHINGTON POST: “Mr. Obama's slimers seem to think such name-calling and Muslim-baiting can score points with the American people. On the contrary, Mr. Obama's multicultural background (his father was Kenyan, and he spent several years living in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather) ought to be viewed as a plus. A president with an understanding of Islam and the developing world would be welcomed by those who too often feel misunderstood and slighted by the United States. Mr. Obama has never tried to hide his past or his family name: He has written about being educated at a predominantly Muslim school. His father, a non-practicing Muslim, was Barack Hussein Obama Sr.”(January 28, 2007)

RELIGIOUS LEADERS HAVE CONDEMNED THE FALSE SMEARS

FAITH LEADERS: “Many of you have seen hateful emails, blog postings and reports circulating on the Internet and in the media about Senator Barack Obama and his religious upbringing. We are writing to deplore this despicable tactic and set the record straight. We have had enough of the slash and burn politics calculated to divide us as children of God. We must come together as one nation, and see our stake in each other as Americans. The bitter, destructive politics that have so riven our country in recent years cannot stand.” (January 23, 2007)

Signed by: Dr. Robert W. Edgar, National Council of Churches; Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner; Salam Al-Marayati, Muslim Public Affairs Council; Rev. Stephen J. Thurston,National Baptist Convention of America; The Rt. Rev. Preston W. Williams, Global Council of Bishops, African Methodist Episcopal Church; Sister Simone Campbell, SSS, NETWORK; The Rev. John H. Thomas, United Church of Christ; Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, Interfaith Alliance; Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Jewish Funds for Justice; Alexia Kelly, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good; Dr. T. DeWitt Smith, Jr., Progressive National Baptist Convention

I have no patience or respect for anyone who promotes this lie about Barack Obama. Let's set aside the fact that a person being of the Muslim faith is not a disqualifying characteristic for holding public office. But, to believe this smear is to believe that Obama has been hiding his true religious belief to everyone in his life for decades. It implies that he is a Trojan Horse or Manchurian Candidate who is waiting to get to the White House so he can begin to exert a Muslim influence on the nation. It's absurd, and like Kristoff I believe there are racial undertones in this narrative.

I don't want people who believe this bullshit and peddle it to others to be a part of my life. I prefer to be surrounded by people with character and integrity.

Stop the smears. Stop the bigotry.
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A Man of Lost Honor

Lies, lies, lies, yeah

There are big lies, there are little white lies, and there are all types of lies in between. The McCain/Palin campaign is lying and distorting at a pace and scale that is greater than any campaign in recent memory. That is being proven every day by fact check organizations and the media. And when I say they lie about everything ...

• They are lying about her visits to foreign countries.
• They are lying not only about the sizes of their crowds, but they are lying about who told them those estimates.
• They are lying about Sarah Palin's record on earmarks.
• They are lying about Palin's fiscal record.
• They are lying about her governing style and popularity.
• They are lying about many, many, many things.

I always thought lying was a character issue.

UPDATE: From Josh Marshall:

Spokesman On McCain Strategy of Campaign Lies

From NBC's First Read ...

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said this to the Politico about the increased media scrutiny of the campaign's factual claims: "We're running a campaign to win. And we're not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it."

Josh adds: Basing a campaign for high office on a strategy of deliberate lies is not an issue of tactics. It calls into question the character of the candidate and his fitness for office.

Documenting the attrocities