What hate has wrought

Senator McCain and Sarah Palin: look upon your creation. This is your hate-child; the viper you have raised in the heart of America.

Take a good, hard look. These are your people. This is your base. This is the fruit of your hate-filled, racist rhetoric.

Now tell me again - go ahead - tell us all how much you love your country.

ATF disrupts skinhead plot to assassinate Obama

By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday.

In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.

Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the two men planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

The Hate-talk Express reaps dark rewards

It has begun. As we knew it would. As we warned it would.

McCain/Palin would not stop. They spewed their hateful accusations and dark innuendos; they declared that Senator Barack Obama was 'palling around with terrorists' and that, by virtue of his middle name, must himself be a Muslim (he isn't - but what if he was?) and a terrorist.

Imagine... calling a fellow senator a terrorist!

And so they reap their dark rewards. And - unfortunately - so does all of America.

This is the GOP 'leadership' that will inspire a nation? This is all we can expect from a former war hero? This is their Christianity -- inciting American jihadists?

In Little Rock, Arkansas:

Little Rock police are investigating an early-morning home invasion that has left a KATV morning anchor hospitalized.

According to authorities, Anne Pressly, 26, is in critical condition at a Little Rock hospital after being found in her home with what police call “severe wounds.” Early reports said Pressly had been stabbed or cut, but Monday afternoon investigators confirmed the injuries occurred from blunt force trauma to the head and upper body.

-- snip --

Recently, Pressly landed a small role in the new Oliver Stone movie, “W” which opened in theaters last week. (She played Ann Coulter.)

Update from Arkansas Times Blog:

The crime had earmarks of a targeted act against a single person. The police have told the local neighborhood association, however, that patrols in the area will be increased until a suspect is arrested.

Pressly has a small role in the current movie, "W," Oliver Stone's portrayal of George W. Bush. She played commentator Ann Coulter in the movie, much of it filmed in Shreveport.

Update from Under the Dome:

She was on her Facebook page last night at 9:51 thanking those who went to see her 30 second part in the movie "W." Pressly has been with KATV since June, 2004.

In Ashville, North Carolina:

A dead bear was found dumped this morning on the Western Carolina University campus, draped with a pair of Obama campaign signs, university police said.

Maintenance workers reported about 7:45 a.m. finding a 75-pound bear cub dumped at the roundabout near the Catamount statute at the entrance to campus, said Tom Johnson, chief of university police.

"It looked like it had been shot in the head as best we can tell. A couple of Obama campaign signs had been stapled together and stuck over its head," Johnson said.

In Hays County, Texas:

In western Hays County, Texas, at around 8PM Sunday night 19 October, thugs trashed my car while I was having dinner with some friends.

Out in the country. Miles from anywhere.

My "Obama 08" bumper sticker was torn off the right rear bumper, a 20-lb rock was dropped through the back window, 2 stolen Obama yard signs were shoved through the gaping hole in the window, and a cryptic almost "OBAHA" (or something...) was scrawled in orange spray-paint on the drivers side front and back doors and windows.

In Jackson, Mississippi:

Government employees in a north Mississippi county were told not to use public property for political activity after a comptroller used a work computer to forward a chain e-mail asking people to pray for Barack Obama's defeat, a county official said Wednesday.

DeSoto County Administrator Michael Garriga said Comptroller Tom Arnold sent the message, titled "Pray, Pray, Pray," sometime in the past few days to at least 35 addresses on the county's e-mail user list. He said Arnold could face disciplinary action as a result.

"We don't need to be expressing any political or religious views when we're at work or when we're using county resources," Garriga told The Associated Press in an interview.

The e-mail implies that Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, is Muslim. Obama is Christian.

"We have the power to change the course of this election and to keep a man as suspect as Barak (sic) Obama from leading our country to who knows where with his message of 'change'; a change which I fear will be away from our Christian ideals, and away from Christ, and further away from one nation under God to one nation under Allah," the e-mail said, according to portions published Wednesday by The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, Tenn.

In Chicago, Illinois:

Two supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama found handwritten death threats in their mailboxes Thursday and reported them to Villa Park police.

A 74-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man with Obama signs in their front yards near the 600 block of South Villa Avenue received similar letters that had a Villa Park Village Hall return address. "Get the Obama signs off your property—now," the letter reads. "Failure to obey this order will result in the immediate death of all family members." Both residents said they will not remove their signs, though the man, who had voted Republican for 25 years before switching parties this year, said his wife is worried about letting their 7-year-old son play alone outside.

In Princeton, West Virginia:



In Richmond, Virginia:

On Friday night, a large Obama sign was stolen on Bailey Bridge Road. It was replaced with something that has shocked the community.

In the sign's place was a confederate flag.

"I was kind of upset and shook up," said Reverend Leroy McLaughlin, the signs owner.

Rev. McLaughlin does not hold back when he describes the culprits.

"...evil folks, mean and got the devil in them."

Stolen campaign signs are a problem every year around election time but Rev McLaughlin says this act crossed the line and seems racist.

In Fayetteville, North Carolina:

Someone slashed the tires of at least 30 vehicles parked outside the Crown Coliseum on Sunday during a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, authorities said.

Sheriff’s deputies are investigating. The tires were cut while people were inside the Crown Coliseum listening to speeches, said Maj. E. Wright of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.

Many of the damaged vehicles were parked on Wilkes Road. Representatives from Obama and Sen. John McCain’s campaigns said they were unaware of the acts.

Susan Lagana, the North Carolina communications director for Obama, said it was extremely disappointing and unfortunate that “people would have to experience something like that.”

Mario Diaz, communications director for McCain, did not respond to a call late Sunday.

Sarah Revis, who lives on Wilkes Road, said the slashed tires left several women, including a single mother and a toddler, stranded and upset. At least four tow trucks were sent to move the vehicles from the Crown, Revis said.

In Columbus, Ohio:

Ohio's elections chief said the state's Web site is running on limited capacity after several security breaches.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said in a statement Monday that the site has been partially disabled to protect state records and data. A spokesman said he is unaware of any personal records being accessed.

The state highway patrol is investigating the breaches.

The statement said officials are also investigating other security threats, including a suspicious package covered with threatening messages and containing an unidentified powder that was mailed to Brunner's office last week.

The statement said the office has also been inundated with death threats in e-mails and telephone calls.

Brunner's office has been embroiled in controversy over Ohio voter registration rules.

In Caledonia, Wisconsin:

In an exclusive interview with 12 News, 58 year-old Nancy Takehara of Chicago says she was going door-to-door when she came across a disgruntled homeowner.

“The next thing I know he’s telling us we’re not his people, we’re probably with ACORN, and he started screaming and raving,” Takehara said. “He grabbed me by the back of the neck. I thought he was going to rip my hair out of my head. He was pounding on my head and screaming. The man terrified me.”

The man eventually stopped and the Caledonia police were called. Takehara was asked if she needed medical assistance, but she was not seriously injured. Instead, she says she was shaken up by the homeowner’s reaction.

“This negative stuff has to stop,” said Takehara. “We’re all Americans. This is all about protecting our democracy, not about attacking each other.”

Where will it break out next?

This domestic terrorism isn't going to stop. Not until the instigators, John McCain and Sarah Palin stop inciting it.

Who is the terrorist now, John McCain? No really -- because the only people I see "palling around with terrorists" right now, are you and your running mate.

I fail to see how I am expected to believe that you love America as much as I do. Your words and your actions say otherwise. "By their works you will know them." I wonder... do you even remember who said those words?

Holding McCain and Palin responsible

I think it is time we all -- as a civilized nation -- tell McCain and Palin in no uncertain terms that we will hold them personally responsible for any violence that results from the hatred they are deliberately inciting at their campaign rallies.

We have seen this before. We are not going back there.

Republican Andrew Sullivan (with more bipartisan voices joining every day) warned McCain to back off the hate rhetoric:

McCain and Palin have decided to stoke this rage, to foment it, to encourage paranoid notions that somehow Obama is a "secret" terrorist or Islamist or foreigner. These are base emotions in both sense of the word.

But they are also very very dangerous. This is a moment of maximal physical danger for the young Democratic nominee. And McCain is playing with fire. If he really wants to put country first, he will attack Obama on his policies - not on these inflammatory, personal, creepy grounds. This is getting close to the atmosphere stoked by the Israeli far right before the assassination of Rabin.

For God's sake, McCain, stop it. For once in this campaign, put your country first.

Republican Frank Schaffer wrote an angry OP-ED that ran today in the Baltimore Sun:

John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence.

At a Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, "Kill him!" At one of your rallies, someone called out, "Terrorist!" Neither was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa., the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee - an attitude encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the local Republican chairman.

Shame!

John McCain: In 2000, as a lifelong Republican, I worked to get you elected instead of George W. Bush. In return, you wrote an endorsement of one of my books about military service. You seemed to be a man who put principle ahead of mere political gain.

You have changed. You have a choice: Go down in history as a decent senator and an honorable military man with many successes, or go down in history as the latest abettor of right-wing extremist hate.

John McCain, you are no fool, and you understand the depths of hatred that surround the issue of race in this country. You also know that, post-9/11, to call someone a friend of a terrorist is a very serious matter. You also know we are a bitterly divided country on many other issues. You know that, sadly, in America, violence is always just a moment away. You know that there are plenty of crazy people out there.

Stop! Think! Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs.

John McCain, you're walking a perilous line. If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters when they scream out "Terrorist" or "Kill him," history will hold you responsible for all that follows.

John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice, to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history of assassinations.

Change the atmosphere of your campaign. Talk about the issues at hand. Make your case. But stop stirring up the lunatic fringe of haters, or risk suffering the judgment of history and the loathing of the American people - forever.

We will hold you responsible.

Yes we will hold you both responsible, although I greatly fear that scenario (and McCain - if he really loved this country - should fear it too. Palin is probably too ignorant, too much the religious intolerant to truly grasp the danger in her words. McCain knows better -- and apparently doesn't care.)

This nation will explode like a powder keg if anything happens to Barack, or if there is any violence at the polls. People are already so angry and anxious that it won't take much for everything to dissolve into violence and chaos. To deliberately incite such behavior is reckless and very dangerous.

As a lifelong student of the Civil War, I can't think of anything worse than 'neighbor vs. neighbor.' And I condemn anyone who would deliberately stir that pot. Shame is too mild a word. Can someone who deliberately incites violence be labeled a 'terrorist' himself?

Is that what you want Mr. McCain -- for this entire nation to dissolve into violence? Are you willing to risk the destruction of our entire nation just to get elected?

And to think I once respected you!

Just STOP. It's not simply shameful and unbecoming -- you are endangering your political opponent and our nation.

If you are indeed losing this election, then for God's sake lose with at least a little moral dignity - dignity befitting a Vietnam vet and former POW.

Nation before party (and certainly before your own political power-trip.)

Obama: Its easy to rile up a crowd

Daily Show: Six Degrees of Desperation

Palin panders to the 'violent hater' vote

Palin at a recent rally in Florida:

"I was reading my copy of the New York Times the other day," she said.

"Booooo!" replied the crowd.

"I knew you guys would react that way, okay," she continued. "So I was reading the New York Times and I was really interested to read about Barack's friends from Chicago."

It was time to revive the allegation, made over the weekend, that Obama "pals around" with terrorists, in this case Bill Ayers, late of the Weather Underground. Many independent observers say Palin's allegations are a stretch; Obama served on a Chicago charitable board with Ayers, now an education professor, and has condemned his past activities.

"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said.

"Boooo!" said the crowd.

"And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.

"Boooo!" the crowd repeated.

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

Inciting violence towards an opposing political candidate? My, Sarah -- why don't you just burn a cross on the stage while you're at it?

Hate-talk TV and radio hosts seem to get away with this all the time, even when it leads to murder. Now we have it from political candidates.

When I was a child, in a state that has decades of experience with Klan activities, the KKK and fellow hate organizations were tracked and pursued by the FBI for exactly this kind of hate-inciting speech. Today our government openly tolerates it -- but only from the extreme right.

We live in strange times indeed when peaceful demonstrators are attacked by black-armored police and arrested without charge; and a vice presidential candidate can openly incite violence towards the democratic candidate for president in front of the police, the media, the FBI and the Secret Service. No consequences whatsoever.

What the hell? Aren't we supposed to be a nation of laws?

So Sarah, let me get this straight (if I can dumb myself down to your reptilian level and perhaps communicate.) You're sliding in the polls. You're getting desperate. The charm and the winking didn't work, and both you and your running mate McCain have each lost your debates. Obviously the people aren't buying what you guys are selling.

So you accuse Obama of hanging around with terrorists, deliberately inciting violence towards a political opponent.

You obviously heard the man in the crowd shout 'kill him!' and you just let it slide, didn't you? Is that the reaction you were looking for? I see you didn't miss a beat, but kept right on stirring that poisonous pot. I've seen your kind before, but seldom without the sheets and burning crosses.

This is your answer for America? If you can't win any other way, incite some wacko into killing your opponent? What -- the nasty smear commercials are no longer enough for you people?

This is what comes from removing all consequences for hate-mongering in this country.

UPDATE: The Secret Service is investigating the man who shouted 'kill him!' Hopefully they will also gently suggest to both McCain and Palin that inciting this behavior is not to be allowed.