Over The Edge, Into The Abyss

[Annie]

Tempers are flying across the country, no doubt of that. At the same time, there seems to be an effort to flame those tempers from both sides. On the far right, there are those who seem to believe that there's a coming war and just want to 'get on with it.' On the left, faux outrage at the tea parties to cover concerns that this bloc is growing and really have messages that resonate with the independents and moderates of both political parties. So comes the continuing efforts to demonize them for the faux violence, since marginalizing failed. The far right is more than willing to use the faux to incite those that are seeing a lack of response from the politicians, this 'game' threatens to spin out of control. It's healthier to let people protest what they truly believe are policies that are dangerous and wrong, until they can vote. While the attempts to demonize are for political machinations, they may well lead to more problems.

Earlier I posted Taranto's column that addresses some of the charges and to a degree the faux nature of some. Here is another that puts perspective on some other charges and counter charges. The lack of civility and the dangers that may lie ahead if changes aren't made. Lots of links to the antics of both sides:

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Saturday Night Card Game (Tea Parties Are Not Racist and Think Progress Is Not Homophobic)

Saturday, March 27, 2010
Saturday Night Card Game (Tea Parties Are Not Racist and Think Progress Is Not Homophobic)
This is the latest in a series on the use of the race card for political gain:

The Mother of All Race Cards was played this week as two years of agitation by the MSM and nutroots seeking to paint critics of Obama as racist and violent came together in a fit of accusations and hyperbole outside the Capitol just before the health care vote.

First, some "facts." The allegations were that a crowd yelled racial epithets and spit at black Congressmen. The MSM and left-wing blogs went crazy, to put it mildly. And if the incident did take place as reported, then outrage would have been justified.

But through the diligent work of numerous bloggers, the facts were investigated and it turns out either that the incident did not take place at all, or if it did, it was a very isolated incident completely unrepresentative of the "crowd" of over 20,000 people.

There were dozens of video cameras on the scene, including some held by Congressmen towards whom the epithets allegedly were hurled, and so far no one has come up with any evidence of racial slurs being shouted or anyone spitting at a Congressman:
Video Debunks Lib Accusations That Slurs were Shouted
SMEARING THE TEA PARTIES: Dana Loesch responds on O’Reilly
MEDIA FRAUD– More Proof That the Leftist Media Lied About Racist Attacks On Black Reps While They Ignored Vulgar Attacks By Lib Politicians
Don't leave it to Cleaver
Andrew Breitbart has offered to make a $10,000 donation to the United Negro College Fund if anyone can present proof of racial slurs being shouted; as of this writing, there were no takers.

But those are facts, and if there is anything I have learned from the past year and one-half of blogging, it is that when it comes to the race card, facts do not matter.

If a single person made an objectionable slur, that certainly would be grounds for criticising that person, but was it grounds for smearing millions of people as racist?

Let's try this hypothetical. Suppose there were a popular blog which was a mouthpiece for a major political party, and the commenters to that blog made derogatory statements about transgendered people, using the term "tranny" as a pejorative.

Would that make the proprietors of the blog, its readers, and the political party transgender-phobic? Should hundreds if not thousands of people somehow affiliated with that blog be maligned?

The hypothetical is not hypothetical. The blog in question is the powerful Think Progress blog, a mouthpiece for Democratic Party operatives and a mover and shaker in formulating public discourse to the Democrats' liking.

Think Progress regularly and systematically seeks to portray Tea Party participants and opponents of Obamacare as racist extremists prone to inciting if not participating in violence.

Here is just a small sampling of some of the comments posted at Think Progress regarding the violent shutdown by liberal student groups of Ann Coulter's speech in Canada:

My, my. How the transgendered have fallen (with apologies to the patriotic American members of the transgendered community, who I know would kick those Canadians asses if they had to).

i wonder how long it is before angry trannie annie claims it’s a squashing of his first ammendment rights. tough tittie trannie, canadians don’t have to adhere to our first ammendment.

Oh Canada…something something something…I know there’s something about “we stand on guard for thee”. Or maybe it’s “we slammed on that trannie…..”

Good, they canceled the Neo-Conservative Drag Queen. These people should be denied every outlet for them to spread their LIES and DISCONTENT. Judging by her last photo, I think it’s time for here to shave that “ADAMS APPLE”, in her neck again.

I don’t really think that the transgender community wants to claim Ann Coulter as their own, guys…:-\​

Who made these comments? Don't know. Were they real or trolls planting comments for the purpose of making Think Progress look bad (which was done to Sarah Palin during the campaign)? Don't know.

Even if made by regular Think Progress readers, would the comments reflect on Think Progress or its other readers? That I do know, and the answer is No.

There is no more basis to smear Think Progress, its employees and readers for what some (anonymous) person says in the Comments than there is to smear the various Tea Party groups, supporters and attendees for what some (anonymous) person at a rally allegedly shouted.

Yet Think Progress and its progeny will take isolated and anonymous comments at a Tea Party rally, or an isolated sign held at a rally, and use it to smear millions of people as racist or violent. Indeed, that is why Think Progress sends photographers and reporters to Tea Party rallies, in the hope of finding someone whose sign or commentary can be used to smear all Tea Partiers.

A union teacher recently hung Obama in effigy, but that no more reflected teachers or union members in general than did the alleged actions of a very small number of people at the Capitol.

There does appear to be evidence that someone shouted "fag" at Barney Frank. The crowd's reaction was very telling, as reported by Politico (emphasis mine):
Frank, who is gay, was leaving the Longworth House Office Building when a man yelled a charged homophobic slur at the Massachusetts lawmaker.

Other protesters quickly admonished the shouter, with one woman yelling back, "We don't need that."

Back in October 2008 I warned that the use of the race card by team Obama was an ominous sign, and a warning for the future:

The suppression of legitimate political expression through false accusations of racism by the Obama campaign and its supporters is the defining theme of the 2008 campaign.
And so it has come to pass this week that the Mother of All Race Cards was played, regurgitated by the MSM, and trumpeted by the nutroots.​

These people do not understand how much damage they have done to this nation, and even if they understood, they would not care.

 

[Xenophon]

Well annie, all the simple minds and big government loving sheep that call the tea party 'racist' and kooks aern't interested in truth.

Their world is they have the votes and if you oppose them there is something wrong with you, no matter what the opposition reasoning is.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Good flick

 

[Xenophon]

Good flick

Kinda boring actually.

 

[Annie]

Well annie, all the simple minds and big government loving sheep that call the tea party 'racist' and kooks aern't interested in truth.

Their world is they have the votes and if you oppose them there is something wrong with you, no matter what the opposition reasoning is.

Then it's time to tell both political sides, Shut up and listen! By nature I'm not a doomsdayer, though there are times recently:

Hot Air Blog Archive A Word to the Weary

A Word to the Weary
POSTED AT 8:40 AM ON MARCH 27, 2010 BY DOCTOR ZERO

I get a lot of email from people who ask if the final degeneration from capitalism to collectivism is now inevitable. Entitlements are never repealed, after all, and we just got saddled with a back-breaking entitlement, piled atop a national debt that was already crushing us. It seems like it would take a miracle just to undo the damage Barack Obama has done in a single year… and that would just get us back to where George Bush left us. Dependency, unemployment, economic contraction, and socialist politics are a perpetual-motion engine of national decline.

I also hear from people who wonder just how bad things really are. If they’re so awful, we should be thinking about unthinkable alternatives. If not, maybe we should follow David Frum’s advice, and work out reasonable terms of surrender with our new socialist overlords. After all, Obama’s not the first guy to wipe his feet with the tattered “Don’t Tread on Me” flag. Perhaps none of the wounds from 2009 and 2010 are all that deep, and we’re just a few elections away from Bush-era prosperity again.

Thoughts about the future shape our actions in the present. If you believe the events of the past week have permanently and irrevocably deformed the American economy and culture, your feelings are likely to consist of anger, or despair.

I can understand why some are tired of fighting the good fight. Robin Koerner at The Moderate Voice reacts to the Obama Administration’s plan to offer incentives if mortgage holders will forgive part of the principle on overvalued homes:

...

 

[RadiomanATL]

Good flick

Kinda boring actually.

Thats cuz yer a grumpy old man

 

[Xenophon]

Good flick

Kinda boring actually.

Thats cuz yer a grumpy old man

Pulease.

It blew chunks till the end, when the water creatures show up.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Kinda boring actually.

Thats cuz yer a grumpy old man

Pulease.

It blew chunks till the end, when the water creatures show up.

No way.

 

[California Girl]

I think Xen is right. It's about simple minds. It is easier to think someone 'hates' the 'black' guy than to honestly look at why people are angry. It's a bite size message.

 

[Xenophon]

I think Xen is right. It's about simple minds. It is easier to think someone 'hates' the 'black' guy than to honestly look at why people are angry. It's a bite size message.

Of course it is.

The left has been on this from day one, they did it to their own side, they called Hillary and Bill Clinton racist because she dared run against the annointed one, remember?

 

[Mr.Fitnah]

Thats cuz yer a grumpy old man

Pulease.

It blew chunks till the end, when the water creatures show up.

No way.

Lindsey Brigman: So raise your hand if you think that was a Russian water-tentacle.

 

[Mr.Fitnah]

I think Xen is right. It's about simple minds. It is easier to think someone 'hates' the 'black' guy than to honestly look at why people are angry. It's a bite size message.

There are billions of dollars at stake you think the inner circle cares about anything but staying in control at any cost?

 

[RadiomanATL]

Pulease.

It blew chunks till the end, when the water creatures show up.

No way.

Lindsey Brigman: So raise your hand if you think that was a Russian water-tentacle.

"Hippy, you think everything is a conspiracy."
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0333804/
"Everything is."

 

[Care4all]

Kinda hard to take a group of people seriously when they lead every conversation with some kind of Obama MOCK, like he is the one actually doing things to them personally....when we know it is CONGRESS that is the one that controls the purse and legislation...

the right has "called wolf" on EVERY SINGLE WORD obama has expressed or said....since he became president...every possible means of fear mongering was put forth on every single stance of his, even if it was a stance that republicans put forth earlier....it is just mind boggling to me the posts and threads started with all of this fear mongering and false accusations in my opinion....

Liberals are NOT SILENCING YOU, YOU are silencing yourselves....

Falsely crying wolf with every single breath you take, diminishes the calls of those screaming wolf, when the wolf actually arrived....be careful, be diligent, but pick your priorities, is my advice.

 

[RadiomanATL]

....when we know it is CONGRESS that is the one that controls the purse and legislation...

I think you are under the impression that majority of congress would actually do something that the leader of their party disagreed with.

When a party controls both the executive and the legislative, it is the executive calling the shots 90% of the time.

So yeah....Obama gets the blame for his own legislative agenda. Funny how that works.

 

[Xenophon]

Kinda hard to take a group of people seriously when they lead every conversation with some kind of Obama MOCK, like he is the one actually doing things to them personally....when we know it is CONGRESS that is the one that controls the purse and legislation...

Not for nothing, but this may be the silliest thing posted so far today.

OBAMA IS doing things to us all 'personally,' he has the authority to stop any bad bill, its called 'Veto' power.

And he should have used it and had congress go back and draft REAL reform, sans payoffs and kickbacks and sweet deals for unions and things.

If'Barrycare is so fucking great, why did two DEMOCRAT senators have to be bRIBED to vote for it?

Ask yourself that, and start to understand why we won't let tis stand, even if it takes years to be rid of.

 

[Annie]

Kinda hard to take a group of people seriously when they lead every conversation with some kind of Obama MOCK, like he is the one actually doing things to them personally....when we know it is CONGRESS that is the one that controls the purse and legislation...

the right has "called wolf" on EVERY SINGLE WORD obama has expressed or said....since he became president...every possible means of fear mongering was put forth on every single stance of his, even if it was a stance that republicans put forth earlier....it is just mind boggling to me the posts and threads started with all of this fear mongering and false accusations in my opinion....

Liberals are NOT SILENCING YOU, YOU are silencing yourselves....

Falsely crying wolf with every single breath you take, diminishes the calls of those screaming wolf, when the wolf actually arrived....be careful, be diligent, but pick your priorities, is my advice.

So faux accusations are ok with you? I mean attempting to silence a group based on the actions, (perhaps) of an individual? You did see where a woman told someone, "We don't need that here..."? Of course, if any dissent would go away, all would be fine.

 

[editec]

I think Xen is right. It's about simple minds. It is easier to think someone 'hates' the 'black' guy than to honestly look at why people are angry. It's a bite size message.

There are billions of dollars at stake you think the inner circle cares about anything but staying in control at any cost?

Does any inner circle ever willingly give up power?

Of course not.

What continues to astound me is that so many of you honestly beleive that there are two inner circles that are TRULY competing for power so that they can each change the system according to their repective rhetoric.

Now for my liberal chums I ask you...how differently is Obama governing than Bush II governed?

Has the patriot act been repealed?

Is Gitmo closed?

Has Obama really done anything differently as it regards our economic meltdown than Bush II did?

Is this HC fix really radically different than what we had?


And for you Bush II, fans?

Some of you spotted what you mistakenly idenified as his SOCIALISTIC response to the meltdown...when he bailed out the banks.

It's not SOCIALISM, but I share your frustration and anger over the fact that the same emite who screwed up, get rewarded for doing so.

In issues that matter to the superwealthy, the parties are identical.

In issues that DON"T matter to the elite, the parties must take radically different stances in order to keep the clueless voting for them.

And hey, it works on me, too.

I often vote knowing that the only difference in how we will be governed will occur in those marginal issues that really don't much matter to the nation overall.

BGut everything that the parties agree on, is about economics and power.

Those issues do not include: gays, abortion, gun control, flag burning, affiramtive action, or a host of other SOCIAL ISSUES that really motivate the cluelss to choose one party over the other.

This is the nature of the GOOD COP/BAD COP system of governance that this nation has had for my entire lifetime.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Kinda hard to take a group of people seriously when they lead every conversation with some kind of Obama MOCK, like he is the one actually doing things to them personally....when we know it is CONGRESS that is the one that controls the purse and legislation...

the right has "called wolf" on EVERY SINGLE WORD obama has expressed or said....since he became president...every possible means of fear mongering was put forth on every single stance of his, even if it was a stance that republicans put forth earlier....it is just mind boggling to me the posts and threads started with all of this fear mongering and false accusations in my opinion....

Liberals are NOT SILENCING YOU, YOU are silencing yourselves....

Falsely crying wolf with every single breath you take, diminishes the calls of those screaming wolf, when the wolf actually arrived....be careful, be diligent, but pick your priorities, is my advice.

falsely crying wolf etc, speaking for myself,I think not, I happen to question the INTENT of anything government does, using the It's For My Own Good line, of course, some of it May Be, but I still question and have my own opinion about my leaders and their pals, no matter WHO is in charge.

With all due respect for both sides:

It seems that those who disagree with another, with an ideology, concept or vision,on either side, for the most part, always seem to have labels for them..

"Oh Well", let the debates continue.

 

[Care4all]

Kinda hard to take a group of people seriously when they lead every conversation with some kind of Obama MOCK, like he is the one actually doing things to them personally....when we know it is CONGRESS that is the one that controls the purse and legislation...

Not for nothing, but this may be the silliest thing posted so far today.

OBAMA IS doing things to us all 'personally,' he has the authority to stop any bad bill, its called 'Veto' power.

And he should have used it and had congress go back and draft REAL reform, sans payoffs and kickbacks and sweet deals for unions and things.

If'Barrycare is so fucking great, why did two DEMOCRAT senators have to be bRIBED to vote for it?

Ask yourself that, and start to understand why we won't let tis stand, even if it takes years to be rid of.

What ever!

I don't believe they were bribed. And they were not bribed or they would be in jail.

It is statements precisely like yours that is crying wolf, (another false accusation), when the wolf is not there, and then blaming obama for it..... bribery is against the law, if bribes were made so obviously, then someone would be in jail....instead it is you all lying, again... I'm tired of the lies and false accusations for the sake of political gain...it seems to be all you've got.....

Speak to the issues, without mocking and the OBAMARAMA DRAMA...then MAYBE you could make some good point with the outcries or REAL concerns....

What is it that you do not like about the bill that passed and legitimate reasons why, not some fear mongering garbage?

What is in it that you actually agree with and think is a good idea?

How would you like to address our health care problems, what do you believe would actually help and why?

I don't pay attention to the screams of you all any more....and I AM A MODERATE...because you, (as in the general you) have been ridiculous with your name calling and false claims and fear mongering and dramatizations that are beyond silly....



As I said...ALL of this liberal mocking and obama mocking for the tiniest little things, most of which do not even exist....IS WHAT HURTS YOU and the valid complaints you may actually have....again, imo....which is only the opinion of one.

I am not here to argue over my own opinion on this....

nuff said.