Heh, wow, I now feel like part of the radical left, because I know exactly what he’s talking about. I’m surprised at all the people saying they have never heard of these groups. Sam Stone is right, they are a major force for organizing protests. I guess you just aren’t that plugged in. But there is a difference between liberals and ‘leftists’ really.
I have found myself awash in leftists and often found myself feeling like a staunch conservative by comparison. 
I thought ACORN was the new ANSWER? ** Sam**, you sure you got the most recent newsletter?
Which both of the resident conservatives on a different board have hailed as a “true American hero.” They would INVITE the return of McCarthyism.
See, you’re not allowed to say that and then criticize people for irrational hatred. Bush is neither a serial killer or a war criminal. He’s a president who made a bunch of decisions I don’t think was wise, and got us involved in an ill-conceived war he then bungled the execution of, but that doesn’t make him either a serial killer or war criminal, and when you say stuff like that, and call his supporters traitors, you’ve then abandoned the high ground and doing the thing you’re criticizing your opponents for.
I am confused by the labels. I don’t even know what to call myself anymore. My left was close to the center not long ago, too bad I never experienced it. Then again, lately, I find myself moving further to the left. When you think about it, the radical left is anyone who favors progressive taxes and facts, so I figure why not just move all the way over to comrade.
See, I don’t get the connection. Bush, maybe; with the war and internal spying and off-shore prison camps, I could see how an imaginative person might draw a comparison, but Obama? C’mon, people! There has to be SOMETHING to work from or reasonable people will recognize that you are crazy. Go back to using his hippie friends. Or his drug use. Something with some meat.
I don’t think that’s necessarily true, at least not at the outset of our labor pains of birth as a country. Sure, people argued over finer points and all, but the founders were all in agreeance enough to sign documents that declared our nation’s existence and independence from England.
I think that the difference between then and now is partly eloquence in expressing differing opinions (Shakespearean language can kind of couch the impact of accusation in the view of a 21st century American) and also that the landscape WRT politics, technology, money, TV, etc is vastly different than what our politicians would have encountered even thirty years ago.
The nastiness has crept in thanks to TV and the internet, and it isn’t going to let go, and that is playing a role in the deep divide between the parties.
It’s unlikely you’ll see the likes of Fillmore, Clay, Webster, etc all working together towards a common goal in Congress or anywhere else.
The media has it’s role to play here too. Obviously Fox and MSNBC shed differing op-ed pieces on government, and the sad reality is that the fucking glowing idiot box influences minds more than ever before.
Ah well. Here’s to hoping that the political parties can see the forest for the trees when it comes to administering the band-aids to our woes.
You think we might hurt his feelings, then? Pointing out that he is responsible for the loss of more than a hundred thousand innocent lives? Oh, dear.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find any mention of unpleasant avowed anti-Semites in that article. Can you point it, please?
I’m tellin’ ya, my rule is gonna kill a lot of debate around here.
Coulter is always blathering about how “hateful” the left is, it’s kinda freaky.
Makes me think about the 2004 Republican Convention, all that anger and griping - from a party in total power. Meanwhile, over at the Dem convention, we got our first glimpse of our future president talkin’ hope and shit…
I agree that there were some pretty viscous personal attacks against Bush during his presidency. But somebody made a good point: was there this level of animosity in April 2001? What has Obama actually done in the last three months that would lead to these kinds of attack? And if the answer is he hasn’t done that much, then these attacks do look to be based on people’s personal beliefs rather than any political outrage.
(I note some of the signs (Bush as a serial killer) are crude and home-made, while others (Whites are Jews for Obama’s ovens) are professionally printed. I wonder what (if anything) that might mean. Where does one go for printed large signs on heavy posterboard? Are they expensive? How much lead-time do you need to them made?)
I would hope that the most difficult part would be finding someone to print such repulsive crap, but probably not. You can probably design it on a computer and have it printed without actually causing a real person to hurl.
Heh you go to a print shop to get signs printed. I doubt many shops would refuse your business.
But you have to admit it’ll be a long time before we can top conservatives teabagging the nation.
I can’t believe they didn’t know, or at least quickly LEARN how hilarious that was…
I don’t see how anyone could possibly have the nerve to harp on Obama’s drug use given that Bush himself was widely acknowledged as a former coke fiend and alcoholic.
In my college newspaper, there’s an Op-Ed piece entitled Impeach Obama, written by none other than “The Voice of Reason”, or so they call themself. It’s pretty much the most idiotic op-ed I’ve ever read, in that it addresses “radical lefties” and their desire to impeach Bush over “disagreement with his policies”, and how it was stupid for them to want that to happen, but at the same exact time she is asking for the impeach of Obama for completely insane things.
Her main three points were that having pharmacists give out birth control when they were morally opposed to it violated their fourth amendment rights (yes, that’s the “unreasonable search and seizure” amendment…), asking for the resignation of the GM exec amounted to extortion (“extortion is a felony!”), and that not doing anything when Spain called for accountability with the whole Gitmo thing somehow violated someone’s constitutional rights (in this case, I think she cited the third, the quartering the troops one…)
Yea, my vote is with insane.
Those Obama-as-Hitler posters are really freaking me out. I mean, after Rabin…
Let’s not forget that most of the Bush hatred came during a hugely contentious war which killed tens of thousands of civilians as well as viscous abuses like Abu Grahib. Whatever you think about Obama there is nothing remotely comparable in his mere three months of office. He inherited massive budget deficits and is increasing them to stimulate the economy from a crisis that he also inherited. He will be repealing the Bush tax cuts for the top bracket and returning them to the level that existed during the Clinton years. Most of the people who are protesting will probably get a tax cut from Obama. Even if you disagree with these policies comparing them to “white slavery” is pure lunacy.
Secondly as noted above the protests are being fuelled by mainstream right-wing media organs especially Fox. Again you see a level of nuttiness from right-wing media personalities which has no parallel to anything in the Bush years. For example Glenn Beck warning that the US is marching to fascism with ominous Nazi imagery in the background.
This is another example of the complete shambles of the Republican party and the conservative movement. They don’t have credible leaders or ideas that appeal to the majority . So the kooks are taking over and setting the agenda.
(bolding is mine)
Unless you consider these decision not to be unwise, or based on wrong information, but decisions on facts which were known to be wrong by the administration when they presented them, for instance to the U.N.