Of course, we all know that for 8 years, George W. Bush was called everything in the book by his detractors. It began when he was accused of having stolen the election in Florida (all he really did was survive an attempt by Al Gore to steal said election.) On the day, Bush was inaugurated, his car was pelted with eggs as he was driven to the White House. He was accused of being a draft dodger by the likes of Michael Moore and Bill Maher, none of whom ever served a day in the military, reserve or otherwise. He was and is accused of orchestrating 9-11. A movie was produced entitled, " The Assassination of George W. Bush". In addition, Air America radio host, Randi Rhodes, once said on air that (they) should put Bush on a boat, sail him out on the water and do to him what they did to Fredo in "The Godfather".
"Comparing Bush and his family to the Corleones of "Godfather" fame, Air America host Randi Rhodes reportedly unleashed this zinger during her Monday night broadcast: "Like Fredo, somebody ought to take him out fishing and phuw. "
Rhodes then imitated the sound of a gunshot."
(NewsMax.com)
Let's go back to Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton. During the impeachment hearings, Alec Baldwin, who knows a thing or two about over-heated rhetoric, made a spectacle out of himself when he appeared on a talk show and advocated that Henry Hyde and all his family should be killed. (Of course, it was all done in good humor.)
Don't forget the things that have been said about Dick Cheney. Left-wing radio talk show host, Mike Malloy, has said this about the former vice-president:
"I’m not going to feel anything but intense gratitude that this miserable bastard has stepped off this earthly coil. Really! And I’m sure on a much lesser scale when I die, there will be some of you right-wing flip tops who will feel the same way, I frankly don’t give a damn!
....Cheney is responsible, Cheney is a murderer, he’s a killer, he’s a torturer, he is evil personified! He is a walking mass of horror and when he’s gone this planet will be cleaner!"
(Source: Blugrass Pundit)
Today, Larry Elder, a black, conservative talk show host, told his radio audience about the time, Jeanine Garofalo referred to him as a racist, douche bag, and fascist. She, of course, is remembered for telling an MSNBC audience that President Obama;'s opponents are "straight up racists." Michael Moore also recently said that those who are against Obama's policies don't want to have a black man in the White House. Elder is not the only black conservative who gets these labels. Remember when Condoleeza Rice was referred to as an "Aunt Jemima" and "plantation house slave" for President Bush? Remember the caricatures?
And then there is your friend and mine, Keith Olbermann. Which outrageous statement should I pick out of the huge grab sack of Keithisms? I think the best is when he called tea party folks, "slack-jawed tea-baggers" with all of its sexual innuendo, which he delighted in using on air.
Talk about dishonesty, how about New York Times columnist Paul Krugman? This is a man who won the Nobel Prize for Economics, yet changes his economic theories according to who is in the White House. Krugman is quoting Michele Bachmann as saying she wants her followers to be "armed and dangerous". What she really said was that she wanted her followers to be armed with information and dangerous in debate.
Question: Who said, "God Damn America"?
a- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
b- Osama bin Laden
c- Vladimir Putin
d -Jeremiah Wright
The answer may be all four, but one is an American-Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for 20 years.
Here's another. Who said, "If they bring a knife, we'll bring a gun."?
a Mack the Knife
b Charles Manson
c Esteban Nunez
d Jerod Loughner
e Barack Obama
The answer is "e".
Surely by now, you have all seen the Sarah Palin maps of the USA with election targets marked in cross-hairs, right? Here it is.
Here is a map the DLC put out in 2004 using bulls'eyes.
If you want to see and hear five straight hours of vitriolic speech, just tune into MSNBC beginning with "Butter and Egg man" Ed Schultz and continuing with Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and finally Lawrence O'Donnell before finally "mellowing out" with re-runs of "Lock Up". It is five hours of repeating the same stuff over and over-attack after attack after attack.
Hypocrisy? This is not just a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The kettle isn't even black.
Do I really have to explain to you the difference between placing crosshairs (normally associated with gunsights) on representatives' NAMES thereby tying them to a living, breathing person and placing a bullseye (normally associated with a department store chain) on a STATE?
ReplyDeleteThen again, you're never too good with nuance.
Furthermore, if you're going to complain about all of the incivility, then why not stop contributing to it? You know, take the high road?
Uh, yeah, right. Now, from all the rest of us who live in America, would all of you please shut up? I am not impressed with the pot calling the kettle black as a defense, although you're very thorough about it.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I have to say about Sarah Palin, after studying President Obama's memoriam in Tucson:
Sarah Palin deserves a lot of credit for promptly pulling the cross-hairs icon off her web site within hours after the Tucson shootings. She or her team recognized how inappropriate it was, and did the right thing. That speaks for itself. There is no need for long vitriolic wordy commentaries to rub it in. Of course that "blood libel" rant sort of took some of the shine off.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in the army, Customs and DEA, we went to the shooting range. We looked through the crosshairs of the weapon and shot at the bulleye.
Department store chain?
Hypocrisy? This is not just a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
ReplyDeleteActually, that's EXACTLY what this is. I'd post quotes from conservative pundits, but I know you'd just ignore them, like usual.
Hypocrisy? No, more like projecting.
Lance,
ReplyDeleteIt is all the complaining about conservative pundits that the left is complaining about. R-read my first paragraph. Do you want me to parrot the Olbermanns and the Dupniks et al?
Yeah, I get it. Your defense can be summed up as follows: "You guys do it too!"
ReplyDeleteI don't get the connection at all between this crazy kid and hate speech. There is not a shred of evidence that connects them, including the recollections of his friends. They say he was apolitical... just anti-government ... actually more anti-reality. He was a nihilist!
ReplyDeleteHis first contact, maybe his only contact with his victim was at a town meeting of hers in 2007 (!). That was before there was a Tea Party or anyone ever heard of Sarah Palin. He wrote she was a "bitch" because she did not answer some nonsensical question of his about the government.
The ONLY connection is that the Left immediately blamed the Right because they THOUGHT or PROJECTED what they THOUGHT caused his insanity... namely the same ENEMIES they have. Their ENEMIES must have been responsible for this tragedy!
This is just the latest example. As far as hate speech is concerned, the Left is 10 times as bad as the Right. Read the Daily Coz blogs for some real obscene hate speech. For violence, just check out the "student" riots in Europe or a Greenpeace demonstration and compare it to a Tea Party event. (At Glenn Beck's event in Washington, they cleaned up after themselves and left the area cleaner than when they came. Republican convention attendees in the past have been subject to bags of piss and blood thrown at them by the Left wing nuts.) I don't see how anyone can make the comparison.
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I'm not surprised that Miggie can't figure out the obvious. It is really simple for the rest of us. There is always heated rhetoric in politics. Sometimes that is because there are real concerns about people's livelihoods and future prospects, or fundamental freedoms. Sometimes it is because deeply held beliefs are at stake. But, the atmosphere of the nation has varied considerably as to whether the acceptable level of discourse is
ReplyDeletea) harsh language
b) tarring and feathering, arson, vigilante squads ordering someone to leave the area,
c) outright killing.
In another decade, this deranged nut case might have thrown rocks, tomatoes, or cream pies, or might have thrown a few punches. In this decade, he senses that the appropriate way to vent is to look down a gunsight at the object of his disdain and fire thirty rounds, then another thirty rounds. Even mentally disturbed individuals are not psychopathic in a complete vacuum.