There's a reason the Obama-hating crazies are coming out of the woodwork
By David Neiwert Friday Aug 14, 2009 6:17pm
ABC News had a noteworthy story today on the increasing fears for President Obama's safety because of the plethora of nutcases -- many of them in fact mentally ill -- who are crawling out of the woodwork and threatening Obama and anyone associated with him:
Experts who track hate groups across the U.S. are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric targeted at President Obama, especially as the debate over health care intensifies and a pattern of threats emerges.
The Secret Service is investigating a Maryland man who held a sign reading "Death to Obama" and "Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids" outside a town hall meeting this week. And in New Hampshire, another man stood across the street from a Presidential town hall with his gun on full display.
Los Angeles police officers apprehended a man Thursday after a standoff with him inside a red Volkswagen Bug car in Westwood, CA – the latest disturbing case even though officials said the man had mental problems.
"I don't think these are simply people who are mentally ill or off their rocker," Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told ABC News of those behind the threats. "In a very real sense they represent a genuine reaction, a genuine backlash against Obama."
Experts say a sharp growth in so-called militia groups that helped spawn a wave of domestic terrorism in the 1990s – and are now using YouTube, rock music and the Internet to recruit members and spread hate and fear - shouldn't be ignored.
"It's certainly a scary time," said former FBI agent Brad Garrett, now an ABC News consultant. Garrett said the Secret Service "cannot afford to pass on anyone," and he believes "they really do fear that something could happen to [Obama]."
Garrett said statements like one recently made by controversial radio host Rush Limbaugh comparing a logo for the White House plan to a Nazi symbol "legitimizes people who are on the edge to go do something or say something."
Naturally, the right is full-throated whine about people making this very logical connection: Yesterday on his show, Glenn Beck repeated the standard whine that "left is trying to silence me." No; we just want people like Beck to live up to the immense responsibility that comes with having those powerful media megaphones they hold.
Often we hear the excuse that the problem is simply the fact that these people are mentally ill crazies who would be doing something crazy anyway.
This is, of course, a complete cop-out. It ignores, in fact, the cold reality that violence, even by the mentally ill, does not occur in a vacuum. When people become the subject of a relentless campaign of demonization -- especially by the use of grotesque smears that make them out to be monsters and provably false "facts" that have the concrete effect of unhinging people from reality -- it will only be a matter of time before the lethal violence breaks out.
And while the concern for Obama is well-placed -- he is, after all, the focus of all this hatred -- there is only a remote likelihood of anyone actually succeeding in harming him, since he is very well protected indeed. What's far more likely, in fact, is that some innocent bystanders in his vicinity will be harmed -- or, moreover, that the crazies will decide that instead of harming Obama, they will take out their hatred on his supporters.
This was the thinking, after all, of Jim David Adkisson, the Knoxville church shooter. Recall this passage in his manifesto:
This was a symbolic killing. Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg's book. I'd like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I know those people were inaccessible to me. I couldn't get to the generals & high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chickenshit liberals that vote in these traitorous people. Someone had to get the ball rolling. I volunteered. I hope others do the same. It's the only way we can rid America of this cancerous pestilence.
The right-wing crazies popping up almost daily, thanks to right-wing fearmongers, are very real cause for concern about Obama's safety. But we should also be concerned about our own.
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They want this to happen, but they want deniability. It is just like the wars of aggression they are so fond of as long as someone else pays the price. These people are corrupt and cowardly beyond imagination.
of palin, limpbow, beck, robertson, buchanan, l.dobbs, and bachmnan...they have legitimized the crazies and the low information people..Some of it is racists but not all are mentally ill! When our President gets 30 death threats a day ---there is a serious undercurrent of frustration and anger...manifested in someone that does not look like them!
My problem, with the organized groups and corporate lobbyists, is the cowardly way they manipulate those that are scared to begin with..further victimizing the victims !
The MSM and cable are furthering the cause with constant looping of bad behavior, including the offal signs or hate filled statements..It makes the media look even more stupid never mind feeding the fear and anger!
These are methods from the Bush administration ,,,, why are a.. holes getting away with verbal attacks , threaten Obama and democrats with their lies , and BS while some are even carrying guns and yelling death to the president.////
This was your Bush and Cheney type of government or shall I say dictatorship..
Bush I believe the constitution is nothing but a G.D. piece of paper and I can do as I please...
Bush I can run this government very well if it was a dictatorship ,,, and I was the dictator..
So all of the obove statements of Bush happen and the republican conservatives were delited..
Now that a democrat has taken office they are not satified with the government no matter what it does to better the living condition of this country..
FAKE SECRET SERVICE AGENTS ROUTINELY TOSS NON-BUSHIES FROM RALLIES
White House claims impersonator in Denver was a lone overzealous Republican Party volunteer. But the same guy has kicked out or denied entry to dozens of people at Bush events nationwide.
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Jerusalem: 6 people arrested for hanging anti-Bush posters
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-349...
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A person was handcuffed , jailed , photographed in detail of tattoos and all. questioned like a terrorist for holding an impeach bush sign.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/25922
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A persona was stopped , fined and jailed for having an anti bush sign on their car...
Nicole and Jeff Rank were removed from the event in handcuffs after revealing T-shirts with President Bush's name crossed out on the front.
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Upset by the war in Iraq, 14 year old Julia Wilson posted a picture of the president, scrawled "Kill Bush" . She later replaced her page on the social-networking site after learning in her eighth-grade history class that such threats are a federal offense.
It was too late.
Federal authorities had found the page and placed Wilson on their checklist. They finally reached her this week in her molecular biology class.
The 14-year-old freshman was taken out of class and questioned for about by two Secret Service agents.
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FEMA worker ordered home (in handcuffs, for anti-bush t-shirt)
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Bush's tour of duty 2001 - 2008
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HOUSE VOTES TO MAKE Bush's PATRIOT ACT PERMANENT
Your library, business and medical records can be searched without your knowledge, your web surfing can be tracked, searches that once required a judge's OK can be conducted on the whim of the CIA or FBI, and you don't even have to be a terrorism suspect. 257 House members think this is just ducky and the Patriot Act needs no revisions at all.
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REPORTERS INVITED TO TOUR GITMO PRISON, THEN DENIED ANY USEFUL ACCESS
comfortable cells were shown , but their pictures and video are censored, and they're not allowed to talk to prisoners, especially those who shouted out "We take the torture in here!"
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HAS THE U.S. GOV'T BEGUN HOOVER-TYPE SPYING ON AMERICANS AGAIN?
A new unit of the California National Guard has apparently been investigating peaceful protesters, just like during the Vietnam War, and covering it up
.
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REPUBLICAN HEADING PATRIOT ACT HEARINGS CUTS OFF CRITICS, CLOSES TESTIMONY
James Sensenbrenner interrupted witnesses, shut down hearings on the renewal of the Patriot Act when critics cataloged US abuses of human rights that have occurred under its regulations.
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CONSTITUTION? WHAT CONSTITUTION? 43% OF AMERICANS THINK THE PRESS HAS TOO MUCH FREEDOM, 22% SAY GOV'T CENSORSHIP SHOULD BE ALLOWED
53% say news organizations should be prevented from printing stories with unnamed sources, and just 14% of the public can name "freedom of the press" as a guarantee in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
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U.S. GETS HUMAN RIGHTS INVESTIGATOR BOOTED FROM U.N. JOB FOR EXPOSING U.S. RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Under U.S. pressure, the United Nations eliminated the job of its top investigator on human rights in Afghanistan last week after the official criticized violations by U.S. forces in the country.
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DEM. SENATOR PROPOSES NEWS CENSORSHIP SO U.S. WAR CRIMES CAN BE COVERED UP
Following videotaped shooting of an injured Fallujah insurgent by a U.S. Marine, Sylvestre Reyes (D-Texas) says reporters' war privileges should be revoked, saying, "We don't want to know everything that's going on on the field."
This past Monday, outside a couple of Anchorage rallies, several Teabaggers were visibly armed. They're encouraged to pack - either visibly or taking advantage of concealed carry permits - by local talk radio host Eddie Burke.
I missed the Monday Anchorage events, but at a teabagger rally in Wasilla in April, I counted over 40 people - all men - packing. Here's a link to pictures from that event. The tenth image down is typical of the guys who were packing that day:
http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2009/04...
that is scary.
Theres quite a bit of teabaggery dumb up there, the progressives need support.
no need to register to comment.
And do it NOW?
Those employed in the media have a responsibility to act and speak responsibly. This isn't happening.
we need to have the government regulate talk radio and make sure people say what we want to hear! Thats the american way!
alaska is an open carry state? if the left wasnt terrified of guns it wouldnt be an issue, go buy a gun and open carry it your self, you are a free human being too.
and i will guarantee you the south (crazy righties) will get their butt's handed to them in this civil war also if it comes to pass.
nothing more frightening that a pissed off liberal.
and hopefully, forty months until the 2nd term begins. will the booshchainey holdovers allow anything to happen to Obama? Will we all have to regret that Obama did not clean house? I truly hope not.
What these reichwing turds don't understand is
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility...
Oh wait...that's Spiderman.
One thing that has to be kept in mind though
Is we don't want to malign those who lost theirs.
That it's only what, 8 months into this new administration, and it's received MORE criticism than the Bush admin. did over it's entire 8 years? I mean really?
The "mainstream media" is owned by corporations that have a lot to lose.
Public perception is controlled by the media. And without a fairness doctrine the media is free to always promote perceptions that benefit corporate interests. The media controls the minds of our citizens. Why did 76 percent of Americans believe Iraq was involved with 911? Our media is no longer the watch dog of our government, but rather an accomplice to their crimes against our citizens and the world. The only place you can find real factual news today is on the internet on sites like this outstanding site. The media will continue to do everything they can to derail meaningful health care reform and anything else that benefits the average citizen. You can count on that.
Yep!
"the crazies will decide that instead of harming Obama, they will take out their hatred on his supporters"
Yea, that is one of my concerns too. I swear they have all eyes on me, the people around here. I am Obama to these people, if they only knew. I ask you, how do you protect yourself from the crazies when the crazies are the ones protecting you?
They ignore the rightwingers and tea baggers, but follow me around. Nothing good ever came from them dedicating so many resourses to policing me, they ignore the real threats time and time again.
Of the Neocons who conveniently use these dupes for their self centered ends. They empower them by making them feel important and legitimate, but when they are done with them they will be discarded like the trash that they really are.
Congratulations fools for being used by narcisstic sociopaths.
You mean like "Joe the Plumber"? What a tool.
These chumps are so cluelessly freaking stupid, it boggles the mind.
to continue his hate mongering? It's pretty damn obvious in the Adkisson case that he's implicated with good reason of inciting violence to commit murder in that shooting. There's a frigging LAW AGAINST THAT in this country!!!
If there is ANY violence at any of these town halls the health insurance companies who are underwriting the hooligans should be charged and prosecuted to the FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW!
people yelled and screamed that too much coverage was being done on el druggo, malkin, coulter the bloodsucker and others
and every time i attempted to remind them of what happened in rwanda
it is only a matter of time until one of these hate mongers on the radio steps over the edge and tells their followers to begin arming and to take out the cockroaches
mark my words...its going to happen
beck and rush are already there. they are trying to remain on the edge of plausible deniability.
I don't remember much of this kind of thing during the Bush/Cheney years. I guess the crazy community recognize their own.
You must have short term memory loss, President Bush was repeatedly greeted by left wing invective this extreme. The Main Stream Media did cover up the worst of it, but this is just a case of what's good for the gander, is good for the goose. Grow up and realize that you are simply reaping that which you have sown for at least ten years.
GWB was breaking the law, ignoring intelligence pointing to imminent attack, vacationing more than any other president, being incredibly incurious and simplistically moralistic while being a mass murderer among other things. And it's well established he wasn't really elected -- either time.
We are not reaping what WE sowed -- the entire world is being put at risk by assholes like this/you who want the president/country to fail, as some sort of proof that God is on their/your side.
The fact you don't see the difference between a guy trying to fix the ruins left behind by a horrific law-breaking despotic predecessor and the horrific law-breaking despotic predecessor himself, and the fact that there are so many morons just like you is quite chilling indeed.
That give VW New Beetles a bad name.
Loved mine for over 9 years now.
Or course, mine's not RED!!!!
I had 1978 or so, VW fast-back I loved. But for the time, I was gettin promiscuous is the backseat with this girl and the seat caught fire! I did not know at the time, that the red protective plastic cap was missing from the positive battery terminal. Seems the spring action was shorting out the positive and negative terminal with each depression, I was wondering why my romantic music being played on the car radio seemed a little jagged. :P
It was not until she smelled smoke and my bum got hot, that I decided to investigate. Upon lifting the rear seat, we noticed the top of the battery was on fire and melting. With licking flames reaching the straw undercarriage of the seat, I swiftly blew it out with the same energetic optimism of a birthday candle, lowered the seat back in place... and decided it was best that we sit on the other side of the seat.
PS. It was good in the snow as well, due to the engine being in the rear and all. :)
Reminds me of the time my lawnmower caught fire!
musta been uncomfortable, hope it wasn't a push mower :P
It never dawned on me the battery could of exploded in my face. After I blew it out, you could visibly see into one of the batteries cells, located for whatever reason just about smack dab in between the two terminals or just about in the center.
In hindsight(Though relieved), I'm curious just what it would take for a car battery to explode? Needless to say at the time, I did experience generator/alternator problems in the weeks that followed. Though with a standard(stick-shift) transmission, I was able to jump-start the car on the slightest of declines.:) About two weeks later after a keg-party, while returning to the sub-base the lights began to dim and at a stop light the car died. :(
As a active duty service member, while the vehicle was towed to a nearby garage... I was taxied by state and local police to the base. The RI Trooper drove me to the CT line, at which point the two CT. locals helped with the rest. With their help, I managed not be late for roll-call. ;)
The following weekend and about $300 later, I had my car back, with a new/used generator and battery(W/red plastic cap) in place. :)
Memories I'll always cherish ♥
I learned how to drive using a standard transmission and I fondly remember doing 'the old rolling start' whenever it was needed (often). Thank goodness for hills! I always liked that about stick-shifts. Good times!
These Republinazi traitors whip up their fellow insane loons in to violent killing frenzies and the rightarded piles of Christoshit stand back and demand they had nothing to do with it.
Round up all the right wing extremist hate spewers and put them on trial for incitement to murder and incitement to treason.
"When people become the subject of a relentless campaign of demonization -- especially by the use of grotesque smears that make them out to be monsters and provably false "facts" that have the concrete effect of unhinging people from reality"
So true...
i posted this earlier at thinkprogress:
OT - just heard about the ross/abc story on ed schultz,
so i search googlenews for it, and this is what i get:
Fear for Obama's Safety Grows as Hate Groups Thrive on Racial Backlash
ABC News - Brian Ross, Anna Schecter - ?5 hours ago?
Experts who track hate groups across the US are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric ...
ABC Tries to Tie Health Care Town Hall Protesters to Hate Groups
NewsBusters - Matthew Balan - ?11 minutes ago
wawawaaah! they're persecuting us!
"I am in this race because I don't want to see us spend the next year re-fighting the Washington battles of the 1990s. I don't want to pit Blue America against Red America; I want to lead a United States of America." So declared Barack Obama in November 2007, making the case that Democrats should nominate him, rather than one of his rivals, because he could free the nation from the bitter partisanship of the past.
You are dishonestly inferring that Obama caused nutballs to act out their violence. That's like blaming a firefighter for destroying a door with an axe when a building is on fire.
The fascist nutcases were always there since the rise of the Immoral Minority of Jerry Falwell. They kept their mouths shut during the Reagan and Bush Sr. terms and the eight years of George Bu**sh**'s unelected Residency because they were getting what they wanted: laws and policies favoring them and discriminating against the poor, minorities and women. Or didn't you notice similar rabid behavior during Clinton's two terms (e.g. Operation Miscue, christian terrorists like James Kopp and Eric Rudolph, etc.)?
They don't know what in the hell they want, only what they've been told.
Fools, all of them
atleast since its obama we can say all his failures are because the right wasnt socially evolved enough to see his political genious and blame it on racism.
Sadly, he often found himself in trouble due to lack of medication, as he would often spend his meager income on booze. At least that is what his part time friends, custodians or caretakers claimed?
My landlord's 30 something year old Son, two months ago stabbed himself in the chest or heart 5 to 7 times and killed himself. After sharing my condolences with my Landlord regarding his Son, he told me with some remorse, just a couple days prior, his Son had stated... he thought he was possessed by demons.
Who the fuck invented demons? Well whomever it was... has blood on their hands. It is a shame, yes, it is. :(
Sometimes I just get tired of the foolishness. :-/
"If you can not tell the Christians from
the crazy people,"then what does that mean?"
[Graham Kendall]
Considering Volkswagen's history, how interesting the nutcase owns one. No doubt he think's he's "connecting" with VW's past.
When George Bu**sh** was the twice unelected pResident of the White House, the attitude of those who agreed with rethugnican policies was, "Leave the country if you don't like it."
The rethugnican nutball in the car, and the rest of them, should take a dose of their own medicine and emigrate. Given Russia's fascist phony-democracy and overt activities of racist groups in Russia, the rethugnicans would fit right in.
LA and a German car? Yeah, my first thought was skinhead.
if he found out Beetles are assembled in Mexico, by Mexicans OMG
Probably not too deep of a thinker tho.
A good lecture and Q&A from William K. Black dated 06-11-2009:
http://www.askbutwhy.com/2009/08/william-k-black-great-american-bank.html
We saw these loons at the McCain rallies, more lately at the health reform town meetings. Although McCain/Palin are out of the picture (somewhat), it isn't like these loons crawled under a rock and disappeared, although that is what we would like them to do.
...has warned us about this, because he is a prescient genius who does everything he can to scare the craziest people out there (and, trust me, the craziest people out there are all watching Beck...kindred spirits -- loons of a feather flock together) and then blesses humanity with his clairvoyance by predicting imminent violence. When it happens, be prepared for Glenn to spend hours telling us how he predicted it and only he, the visionary Glenn Beck, has the ability to guide humanity to the promised land.
Naturally, if everyone would carry a firearm at all times, this would be a much safer country, since we'd have a perpetual standoff -- everyone afraid to fire because they know they will have to survive return fire, a form of mutually assured destruction.
And of course the GOP political class and conservative media do their part in stoking this hatred and rage. I'm convinced something will happen. If these loons were coming out of the woodwork during Clinton's administration, I'm sure it will be much worse with Obama.
If one of these, Glenn Beck et al, inspired wackos does what they are programing him for it's all our loss. They will just deny culpability and hide behind the first amendment
republicanism is a mental illness!
There is no other conclusion that can be drawn.
If it looks crazy, acts crazy, and talks crazy, guess what it is crazy!
republicanism is a mental illness!
This is what I was afraid of. More nutcases crawling out of the woodwork.
Believe me, the next war is about to happen: the Nazis (the "left") versus the Nutzies (the "right").
The "nutzies" are the "nazi's"!
Please use definitions of words properly! Are you related to Jonah Goldberg?
The word nazi comes from shortening and combining the words National Socialist (Sozialist).
The things the administration have done or are advocating seem to be accurately described by the terms national socialist.
Most people associate nazism with fascism and fascism would more accurately describe the GWB administration. That would be a german style nazism... what we've got going today is a more pure form of nazism. American nazism.
Wouldn't even have a base if it wasn't for these easily malleable fools.
These are former/current pro-wrestling fans who watch Faux mostly now because the matches are getting too expensive to attend and they used up all of their welfare check buying bullets.
Easily malleable doesn't begin to explain these imbecilic fools.
When I have talked to some of them and pointed out how badly they have been screwed by the corporate facsist oligarch's (GOP), they could care less.
Homeless? Not a problem.
Jobless? We'll get by.
No health insurance for the kids? We pray.
Lost any chance of having a retirement or comfort? So what.
Obama wants to give some of the money back to you and the American people that the rich have been gorging on? Well lock and load baby, I ain't gonna put up with that.
You can't fix stupid.
.
If you want to talk about validating or legitimizing radical anti-Obama fear/hatred, Rush, Beck, etc... take a distant second place to McCain/Palin and their rhetoric during the campaign. Here is a sitting senator, 'war hero', respected man of the counrty, and HE's promoting the idea that Obama is a terrorist, socialist, outsider, and we should all be afraid of him.
Lets never forget that. Let that be McCain legacy. Fear and hate.
McCain was thinking this was just politics to get every disaffected persons vote that his party has disaffected over the years.
He's a true Gooper tho, if somebody gets killed in the process, he won't bother to connect the two
But he IS responsible. He could have not done it or stopped it. Instead he supported it and exacerbated it. When a "war hero" sitting senator who is supposedly respected by both sides and is, I've heard it said, a "maverick" puts forth the idea that Obama is a danger to America, you can't get much more validation for hate and fear than that.
"I don't think these are simply people who are mentally ill or off their rocker," Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told ABC News of those behind the threats. "In a very real sense they represent a genuine reaction, a genuine backlash against Obama."
To be a Republican after the last 8 years you have to be mentally ill.
about the sociopath
http://www.mcafee.cc/Bin/sb.html
Ha! 'if you run into anyone like this you are supposed to call the police and report it' and I'm thinking what!? report the Republican party to another sociopath?
No shit, that's in the link lol
Yes, silencing Beck would be good for the country. But not if it were done by the government. It's Murdoch responsibility to take the megaphone away from Beck. He owns the damned thing.
It's the MSM's responsibility to marginalize and expose this buffoon. It's the left's responsibility to shout louder.
Shut that ass up. It spews so much excrement it dirties everyone.
Mebbe we need to rat beck out to Thomas Monson.
They'll just tell him that the car he's sitting in was manufactured by a company that was founded by Adolf Hitler and is still partially owned by the German federal state of Lower Saxony (25%).
It shows the world once again just how many mentally disturbed Reslug terrorists are out there. The CIA and FBI warned of the racist Right Wing, terrorist nutjobs, coming out of the walls after the election and warned of the danger of these lunatics. Now we are seeing it.
Funny Story (well, not so funny).
Last night I had a chat with an old friend of a friend whom I hadn't spoken to in 10 years. I hadn't really been close to him because of his immaturity, irresponsibility and somewhat sociopathic behavior.
Still, I was interested in what he'd been up to.
He started talking about politics, about how he was gun ho on the wars Dubya Bush started, was O.K. with Iran contra, didn't care that Prescott Bush (who committed treason and worked for the Nazis) was a war profiteer. He didn't care that Prescott sired two more generations of profiteers, and actually said he was OK with the corruption and monetary theft the white house committed under Bush because that happens in every war. He also thought that Bush made the right choices regarding economic policy, and that we were having problems because we didn't go far enough. He also was a racist, and supported the mobs that are on the brink of committing violence against senators and the white house.
When I asked him why, he just said because he supported liberty. When I pointed out the treason, war profiteering, the near destruction of our economy and the loss of rights under Bush, and so forth... all he did was get quiet, screw up his face and said: "I wouldn't understand"
He was wrong. I understood very well. The man was mentally ill, and a moron. It didn't take a genus to figure it out. He was basically behaving the way he was told to behave.
Here's the funny thing: He has no health insurance, and is going to be out of a job soon.
Irony is beautiful.
True story.
To top it all he wanted me to get in a business deal with him. When you consider that I'm a democrat, generally honest, find racism disgusting, and am Hispanic (which he seemed to have forgotten). I told him that Based upon what he told me regarding his views, there was no way I could ever trust someone like him.
Republicans are truly insane. Dangerously so. What's more, they know how they're behaving is wrong. They just don't care... and knowingly committing wrongful acts is evil.
You should see all the wingnut posts over at the ABC link from this article. Virtually every comment is by a wingnut. It's like freeperville over there.
That's all you have to say to my comment?
You don't have a leg to stand on, and you know it. All you can do is call people names, and all I have to do is throw the facts in your face.
But, people like you don't care about facts. You just want propaganda.
You're sick and delusional. No doubt about it. And idiotic comments like "you should see all the wingnut posts" just shows you've got nothing to refute anything I say.
Pathetic.
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