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News & ArtsThursday, September 17, 2009
News What's Going On
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 10:26 AM
We all know, or should know, what's going on here. The right wing media blowhards—the men who run the GOP's racist rump—are going to crank up the paranoid, race-baiting rhetoric until they succeed in pushing a deranged "patriot" over the edge and an attempt is made on the life of President Barack Hussein Socialist Hitler Racist Obama. If the assassination attempt is a success—God fucking forbid—the right wing will have succeeded in removing Obama from office by... what's that phrase again... oh, right: by any means necessary. And the country will be consumed by riots, which will have racial overtones, which the right-wing will point to as proof that they were right: black people, from the dead president on down, are dangerous and violent and coming to get you, white America! The GOP may benefit at the ballot box—because they're the law and order party, the "daddy party"—so why wouldn't these immoral fuckers go for it?
Getting the president killed is a win-win scenario for the Limbaughs, Drudges, Becks, Bachmanns, etc. Let's stop pretending that it's not what they're after.
1
There is a big difference between demonizing a person and subversively trying to get them killed.
I think many liberals forget what it is like to have a democrat in office. Same shit, different president. They fucking impeached Clinton over a blowjob, for shits sake.
No one ever drew a Hitler mustache on GWB, right?
You need to get over your weird assassination fantasy.
I think many liberals forget what it is like to have a democrat in office. Same shit, different president. They fucking impeached Clinton over a blowjob, for shits sake.
No one ever drew a Hitler mustache on GWB, right?
You need to get over your weird assassination fantasy.
2
Teabaggers and the Becks of the world say the TEA in "Tea Party" means "Taxed Enough Already", but it's clear now that it really means "Treason, Extortion and Assassination".
Delightful people, really. Must be fun to have over for holiday parties.
Delightful people, really. Must be fun to have over for holiday parties.
4
I don't know if the Becks, Limbaughs, etc actually WANT to see the president assassinated. But they are being careless and irresponsible with the people and feelings they are pouring gasoline on.
Look, these people are scared and paranoid. These are the people who believe in stockpiling food for the Rapture/armageddeon/Race Wars. For 40 years they've either had someone they view as "Their man" (a Republican) or a White Southern Good Ole Boy who was sadly corrupted by liberal elite Northerners (Clinton/Carter) in the White House. A black Man? They can't beleive this can possibly be legitimate in any way.
People who claim this is mere Clinton era partisanship I think are really misreading the underlying fear and racial paranoia of these people.
Look, these people are scared and paranoid. These are the people who believe in stockpiling food for the Rapture/armageddeon/Race Wars. For 40 years they've either had someone they view as "Their man" (a Republican) or a White Southern Good Ole Boy who was sadly corrupted by liberal elite Northerners (Clinton/Carter) in the White House. A black Man? They can't beleive this can possibly be legitimate in any way.
People who claim this is mere Clinton era partisanship I think are really misreading the underlying fear and racial paranoia of these people.
6
And having brought about the assassination of the president by indirection, they will be able to stand back and display completely clean hands, like Herod. But do they think they will be more successful at defeating the librull agender with President Biden in charge? No. But they won't have a non-white in the White House, so they'll be appeased for, maybe, thirty seconds. Except for Limbaugh, Beck, Malkin, Coulter, and Farah; and it'll be a race among that group to see who can make the most tasteless comment the earliest after the shot.
7
We all hated Bush 43, but none of us were hoping for his death. That's the difference. We just wanted him gone. They want Obama dead.
8
No one was wishing for the death of Bush?
How quickly everyone forgets when the shoe is on the other foot.
How quickly everyone forgets when the shoe is on the other foot.
9
Dan I totally agree with you. I just hope you don't get to say "you told us so" someday.
And Rotten 666: Please provide links to instances that prove your point, that liberals wrote and/or spoke for the death of Bush. It's my opinion that if the Dems had talked about Bush the way the teabaggers do, there'd have been a lot of arrests.
And Rotten 666: Please provide links to instances that prove your point, that liberals wrote and/or spoke for the death of Bush. It's my opinion that if the Dems had talked about Bush the way the teabaggers do, there'd have been a lot of arrests.
11
To sum up the intro to Sarah Vowell's excellent book on the topic of presidential assassinations -- assassination leads to immediate martyrdom regardless of how controversial and disliked someone was as president. The hypothetical death of GWB at the hands of an assassination would have led to 1) Cheney becoming president, and 2) the immortalization of said GWB as a martyred figure -- neither of which your average liberal (no matter how rabid) would really want. Not sure that the far Right can think that far ahead.
12
Maybe some were wishing for Bush's death, but not me. A., it would have lead to President Cheney. B. If anything, it would have made the right wingers even more scared, even more likely to vote for someone who would "protect them." Can you imagine the "America's under attack!!!" coverage that would have gotten? No thanks.
13
If such a tragic event were ever to occur, it would pretty much make another "gff" event likely - civil war.
14
Dan,
you should make out pretty well also-
chance to bray "I told you so";
Obama hasn't done Jack for the Queers anyway,
you would milk the upheaval for lots of attention.
you're totally transparent,
however,
no one mistakes your
morbid ghoulish fascination
with Obama's death for concern
you should make out pretty well also-
chance to bray "I told you so";
Obama hasn't done Jack for the Queers anyway,
you would milk the upheaval for lots of attention.
you're totally transparent,
however,
no one mistakes your
morbid ghoulish fascination
with Obama's death for concern
16
@8: There was the sending the president pretzels thing, but there's a big difference between that and trying to bring a rifle into the capital building. One's snarky and potentially in poor taste. The other's a legitimate threat.
18
gee Dan, what if you are as wrong about this as you were about the Eagle raid? You always stumble into the shitpile when you comment on anything except buttsex and flavored condoms...
19
@9
A couple of articles, when you hit the last link please scroll down to see all of the pics.
I found this in about two minutes...would you like some more?
Dumbass.
The thing that kills me, is that you guys dished the shit out for 8 years, and six months with our guy in the white house and you just can't fucking handle it.
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/wp-con…
http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/Patrio…
http://alamedasun.com/index.php?Itemid=1…
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621
A couple of articles, when you hit the last link please scroll down to see all of the pics.
I found this in about two minutes...would you like some more?
Dumbass.
The thing that kills me, is that you guys dished the shit out for 8 years, and six months with our guy in the white house and you just can't fucking handle it.
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/wp-con…
http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/Patrio…
http://alamedasun.com/index.php?Itemid=1…
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621
21
The Right reacted to Bill Clinton and his family with such dispassionate reason, amiable bipartisanship, and all-around magnanimity, and this current manifestation of right-wing hysteria is a 21st century anomaly which surely can be explained only by the critique of racism.
22
You're right (for once)
We ALL know what's going on here.
Dan is every day cranking up the paranoid, race-baiting rhetoric until he succeed in pushing a deranged gay "patriot" over the edge and an attempt is made on the life of President Barack Hussein Homophobic Gay-Backstabbing Bigot Asshole Obama. If the assassination attempt is a success—God fucking forbid(fingers crossed;)—the Gays will have succeeded in removing Obama from office by... what's that phrase again... oh, right: by any means necessary. And the country will be consumed by riots, which will have racial overtones, which the Gays will point to as proof that they were right: black people, from the dead president on down, are dangerous and violent and homophobic bigoted Prop 8 supporters coming to get your basic human right to marriage, Queer America! The Gays have nothing to lose at the ballot box—because they've never won a referendum yet- so why wouldn't these immoral buttfuckers go for it?
Getting the president killed is a win-win scenario for you, Dan. So stop pretending that it's not what you're after.
We ALL know what's going on here.
Dan is every day cranking up the paranoid, race-baiting rhetoric until he succeed in pushing a deranged gay "patriot" over the edge and an attempt is made on the life of President Barack Hussein Homophobic Gay-Backstabbing Bigot Asshole Obama. If the assassination attempt is a success—God fucking forbid(fingers crossed;)—the Gays will have succeeded in removing Obama from office by... what's that phrase again... oh, right: by any means necessary. And the country will be consumed by riots, which will have racial overtones, which the Gays will point to as proof that they were right: black people, from the dead president on down, are dangerous and violent and homophobic bigoted Prop 8 supporters coming to get your basic human right to marriage, Queer America! The Gays have nothing to lose at the ballot box—because they've never won a referendum yet- so why wouldn't these immoral buttfuckers go for it?
Getting the president killed is a win-win scenario for you, Dan. So stop pretending that it's not what you're after.
25
Dan has had an assassination paranoia since the Iowa caucuses.
If it helps ease the mind, it's not likely a nutjob would be successful given modern surveillance vs. say 1980. In which case O's popularity would rise 15 points overnight and he'd be able to ram anything he wanted through Congress.
If it helps ease the mind, it's not likely a nutjob would be successful given modern surveillance vs. say 1980. In which case O's popularity would rise 15 points overnight and he'd be able to ram anything he wanted through Congress.
27
ah, @24, I would disagree... the recently published book In the President's SEcret Service by Ronald Kessler points out recent problems with recruitment and retention in the Sec Svc, leading to a decrease in training time, increases in hours on duty and a decline in numbers of agents in a given protection group... all since the absorbtion of the Secret Service into the Dept of HOmeland security.
28
What if an assasination plan failed though? Wouldn't that cause Obama's approval numbers to shoot through the roof, the media talk endlessly about racism, and Dan to point to Glenn Beck as the cause of it all, leading to the overwhelming approval of every plan Obama proposes? Isn't inciting an attempt more of a win-lose propositon?
Not that I don't agree with you on what the right-wingers are hoping for, but I think their logic is, as usual, flawed.
Not that I don't agree with you on what the right-wingers are hoping for, but I think their logic is, as usual, flawed.
29
Should such an event happen, oddly we haven't had a president die in office in a very long time, then be rest assured that noone on the right will EVER think they had anything to do with it.
Glenn Beck will call it "tragic" but in a sick way blame Obama for that having happened to him.
Glenn Beck will call it "tragic" but in a sick way blame Obama for that having happened to him.
30
hey number eight suck a bag of dicks. did anyone get bring fucking assault rivals to bush rallies?
32
Those saying that others are engaging in race-bating rhetoric are engaging in race-baiting rhetoric themselves.
33
Getting the president killed is a win-win scenario for the Limbaughs, Drudges, Becks, Bachmanns, etc. Let's stop pretending that it's not what they're after.
This is so absurd that I'll follow it with more absurdity by saying that Savage wants it to happen so he can bask in I-told-you-sos.
A dead giveaway on armature punditry is using the plural on things like 'Limbaughs' -- it's a crutch and laziness on any deeper analysis or research.
35
I don't really know if they're trying to get Obama killed, but I do think that they don't care if they do. The biggest difference between the angry left and the angry right is that the angry right packs more heat.
36
@9, I'm reminded of Ben Metcalf's article in Harper's about whether he had the right to say that he wanted to kill George W. Bush with his bare hands. Which he did not, so he never actually said it:
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/06/0…
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/06/0…
37
I'm waiting for the nazis to get mad about their hero being compared to a Black man, and jump into the fray.
38
Sure, there were some crazy ass-hole left wingers who wanted Dub dead. Let's not act like the left has no crazy people. Definitely, there are at least as many crazy ass-hole right wingers who feel the same way about President Obama.
Here's the issue though... most (perhaps not all) of the people who are crazy enough to feel that way are inexplicably stupid. Like stupid to the point of not being able to feed themselves, much less come up with any feesible plan of action for pulling off something like that. So that leaves a teeninytiny portion of crazy ass-holes who are smart enough and willing and able. I feel confident that our security is good enough to stop those few.
And don't hate on Dan for fear-mongering. It's the only thing that gets people to care these days, on the left or the right. If you've got a better plan to get people moving and thinking again, let's hear it. Please.
Here's the issue though... most (perhaps not all) of the people who are crazy enough to feel that way are inexplicably stupid. Like stupid to the point of not being able to feed themselves, much less come up with any feesible plan of action for pulling off something like that. So that leaves a teeninytiny portion of crazy ass-holes who are smart enough and willing and able. I feel confident that our security is good enough to stop those few.
And don't hate on Dan for fear-mongering. It's the only thing that gets people to care these days, on the left or the right. If you've got a better plan to get people moving and thinking again, let's hear it. Please.
39
And how many conservative political figures have been assassinated in our history? Lincoln was a republican, but he was by no means a conservative. The Kennedys, Lincoln, Martin Luther King... It seems that change brings out the worst in the conservatives. Why shouldn't we be paranoid about an assassination attempt? It's not like it hasn't happened before.
During the Bush years, I certainly felt hopeless about the future. But my feelings of despair left me wanting to flee the country not wanting to kill W. Among my liberal friends it was all about fleeing and not about violence.
During the Bush years, I certainly felt hopeless about the future. But my feelings of despair left me wanting to flee the country not wanting to kill W. Among my liberal friends it was all about fleeing and not about violence.
40
#15, thank you for Greenwald's article. This:
As much as he wants to pretend otherwise, this is Sullivan's party.
This is why I have very mixed feelings about the protests of conservatives such as David Frum or Andrew Sullivan that the conservative movement has been supposedly "hijacked" by extremists and crazies. On the one hand, this is true. But when was it different? Rush Limbaugh didn't just magically appear in the last twelve months. He -- along with people like James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Bill Kristol and Jesse Helms -- have been leaders of that party for decades.
As much as he wants to pretend otherwise, this is Sullivan's party.
41
Thanks for putting that out there Dan - You have done your bit - Great Job!!! Now Stop it!!! Diarrhea of the mouth is a dangerous thing - perhaps you should go on Glen Beck and help some more....Cheeezze
42
Actually, Dan just probably had one too many shots in his Americano this morning and got cut off in traffic.
44
I really don't get what the right-wing nutjobs would accomplish with an assassination of Obama? I mean, it would officially make him a martyr for health care reform and every other liberal cause he campaigned for and people would rally around it. Plus, it's not like they're through with democratic presidents if Obama is gone...they get Biden, followed by Pelosi, etcetera
45
I do not know if I totally agree with Dan's perspective. However, I think it is criminally irresponsible for greedy self serving swine like Beck to frenzy up the ignorant masses (read Republicans) simply to gain extra rating points for their pathetic programs.
47
I think the main target of Beck and others are the people who voted for Obama. That is part of the reason they are going after Acorn because Acorn helps minorities register to vote.
The tactic of being disruptive at town hall meetings and bringing guns to Presidential events are designed to intimidate people who favor universal health care. Same goes for their attempts to prevent students from watching a speech.
I think their attempts have backfired because it has only succeeded in bringing out more supporters of health care reform. They have not silenced anybody. In fact there is somewhat of a backlash against the right. One school board in California apologized for banning the President's speech and hundreds of parents and students showed up at a school board meeting to demand the the wing nuts who banned the speech resign.
The tactic of being disruptive at town hall meetings and bringing guns to Presidential events are designed to intimidate people who favor universal health care. Same goes for their attempts to prevent students from watching a speech.
I think their attempts have backfired because it has only succeeded in bringing out more supporters of health care reform. They have not silenced anybody. In fact there is somewhat of a backlash against the right. One school board in California apologized for banning the President's speech and hundreds of parents and students showed up at a school board meeting to demand the the wing nuts who banned the speech resign.
48
45
it is criminally irresponsible for greedy self serving swine like Dan to frenzy up the ignorant masses (read Slog) simply to gain extra rating points for their pathetic blogs.
it is criminally irresponsible for greedy self serving swine like Dan to frenzy up the ignorant masses (read Slog) simply to gain extra rating points for their pathetic blogs.
49
I think its just normal backlash against the president, like it was for the last 8 years, and the last 8 years before it. The problem now is that the zealots (Read: You and Me last 8 years) have changed. When it was liberals they were a somewhat pussy group that felt content with just mocking and satirizing. So now that the machine is on the other foot they have to get the zealots who come to them. I would say its a mix of maybe 30-40% normal people who hate the prez and then the rest are all the racist crazies that want him dead.
I think we are just seeing and hearing the ugly head of the American racists, the ones that we tell ourselves are just so far away from our progressive cities like Seattle, and I think the fear is that they aren't that far away, and that they are just as dense and hateful as we always knew them to be. And that they can co-opt and use all our wonderful progressive technology for their own perverse uses. Its a bitter pill.
I think we are just seeing and hearing the ugly head of the American racists, the ones that we tell ourselves are just so far away from our progressive cities like Seattle, and I think the fear is that they aren't that far away, and that they are just as dense and hateful as we always knew them to be. And that they can co-opt and use all our wonderful progressive technology for their own perverse uses. Its a bitter pill.
50
What @11 said. If you want to immortalize someone, then assassinate them. If you want to assure that the Dems in Congress will grow spines and push through healthcare reform and whatever else they feel like, then assassinate their President. For someone who hates Obama's policies, assassinating him would have the opposite desired effect.
Also, I agree with Rotten666. Bush/Cheney were compared with Nazis, we all laughed about pretzel-gate, and on and on. It's a double-edge sword.
Also, I agree with Rotten666. Bush/Cheney were compared with Nazis, we all laughed about pretzel-gate, and on and on. It's a double-edge sword.
51
If Obama is murdered then the Beck/ Limbaugh/ Hannity/ Coulters of the world will be next. They will be considered responsible for Obama's death and will have fresh holes in their heads.
52
Well, Dan, you got Nancy to go there. Someone will die.
Who will be your Chattering Hunyak?
I hope not that the president.
Who will be your Chattering Hunyak?
I hope not that the president.
54
So all of a sudden Limppaw feels that just because a couple of African American kids went and did something stupid he can go on and compare the acts of violence and discrimination that adults (not kids) have perpetrated against black people in this country. What these kids did is somehow a sign of how the playing fields have been leveled, in his warped mind.
I agree with you one hundred percent mr Savage. But in the name of whatever it is the you believe or better yet whom ever you love the most, please keep from mentioning the *a* word. There are many nutjobs out there and listening and reading Limppaw and the rest of the clan trying to instigate a criminal act, that is bad enough, don't you think? Let's not emulate them (and i'm not saying you are) we don't need to regurgitate their crap) please.
I agree with you one hundred percent mr Savage. But in the name of whatever it is the you believe or better yet whom ever you love the most, please keep from mentioning the *a* word. There are many nutjobs out there and listening and reading Limppaw and the rest of the clan trying to instigate a criminal act, that is bad enough, don't you think? Let's not emulate them (and i'm not saying you are) we don't need to regurgitate their crap) please.
55
I hope Rahm Emanuel becomes president after Obama leaves office. That would really make the Republicans shit themselves....and if they tried their undermining shit he'd totally go apeshit all over their asses.
57
Okay, I'm a little lost. What does a whole slew of folks who are angry about massive government spending (1 trillion dollars equals a million million dollars, consider that figure a moment) and who have been angry for most of a year have to do with race issues? Do I need to change my radio station from light rock to cycling through the right and left extremists?
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