Pat Robertson (Wingnut for God), Pete Hoekstra(R-MI), Chuck 'Pulling the Plug on Grandma' Grassley (R-KS), Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Sarah Palin (Celebrity)…..all have something very much in common.

Rachel Maddow explains…..

Bashing Muslims is back in vogue…..not that it ever fell out of favor within the more imaginative far right winger groups. But I find it remarkable that 2 GOP Senators think al-Qaeda "sympathizers" now work for the U.S. Justice Department. AG Eric Holder found it remarkable too…and worthy of a guffaw.

Having already alienated women, blacks, and Hispanics…I guess the only group left for xenophobic Republicans to offend is the .6% of Americans who are Muslim.

Do we absolutely have to retrace the ugliness of the Joe McCarthy red scare days? Can't Republicans learn anything? Ever?
____________________

But if you can believe it……the new Muslim McCarthyism in the Republican Party is mild in comparison with the mighty moral warriors of the American evangelical kind.

The new "take it to Jesus" slogan for the evangelical nuts in America is Psalms 109.

Here's the new bumper sticker you can buy from zazzle.com…..

What would a person praying for President Obama on the basis of Psalms 109…be praying FOR?…..

8May his days be few;

may another take his place of leadership.

9May his children be fatherless

and his wife a widow.

10May his children be wandering beggars;

may they be drivend from their ruined homes.

Those righteous Bible believing Christians who pray FOR Obama on the basis of Psalms 109 would be praying for him to be dead and his two young girls to be homeless, wandering beggars.

These are the same folks who call the Prince of Peace and Love their Master and Saviour.

Shucks…it's all just good funnin'…..

ABC….

For many, the slogan is just a humorous way express disapproval for President Obama. It's been tweeted and retweeted by Obama critics with messages like "too funny" and "an excellent prayer for America."

See? In the minds of evangelical followers of Jesus, it's just "too funny" to pray for Obama to be dead and for Obama's children to be homeless. Humorous.

But it's those American Muslims who are threatening our nation.

Jesus.

The North Carolina Republican House representative pictured above is Sue Myrick. In 2003 Ms. Myrick had this to say about Muslim Americans….

"Look at who runs all the convenience stores across the country."

Myrick wrote the forward to a World Net Daily-published book entitled, "Muslim Mafia", written by this guy, David Gaubatz….

Gaubatz calls President Obama, "our Muslim leader". Gaubatz claims he found WMD in Iraq in 2003. He also spent time in 2007 producing "a comprehensive map of every mosque and Islamic school in the U.S." for the purpose of finding out which ones were teaching "Islamic law." In 2008 Mr. Gaubatz said this, "We are now on the verge of allowing a self admitted crack-head to have his finger on every nuclear weapon in America."

I think it's safe to say that Mr. Gaubatz is a tad biased.

Here are four Republican representatives, including Sue Myrick, announcing last week that they were going to "formally ask the House sergeant of arms to investigate whether a Muslim advocacy group placed interns in national security committees."

Here's the link for the letter sent by those four GOP representatives October 21, to the House sergeant of arms.

From that letter….

"We are very concerned ….in light of claims made in the recently published book Muslim Mafia."
..[..]..
"Muslim Mafia raises claims that CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations)….has made it a strategic goal to influence Members of Congress on the Judiciary, Intelligence and Homeland security Committees"
..[..]..
"Further, the book alleges that CAIR is not only working to influence national security policy, but is actively placing associates in Congressional offices. In the book, an internal CAIR strategic memo states that they have made it a goal to place interns in offices of Members of Congress."

The letter was signed by these four GOP House members: Paul Broun (R-GA), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Sue Myrick (R-NC) and Trent Franks (R-AZ). These four say that CAIR "is connected to or supports terrorists[and} is running influence operations or planting spies in key national security-related offices."

Consider: Four GOP House representatives are basing their call for an investigation of CAIR on the extremely biased book, "Muslim Mafia", written by the extremely biased, some would call unhinged, author, David Gaubatz.

But wait, there's more….

Remember the entrapment scam a couple of FOX-paid stooges ran on ACORN? Check this out….

The guy on the right is Chris Gaubatz son of "Muslim Mafia" author David Gaubatz. Son David grew a beard and went "undercover" for his daddy, secretly "infiltrating" CAIR. The fellow on the left is CAIR executive director Nihad Awad.

Son David had this to say about CAIR….

"They were nice people and I got along with them very well which is why I was able to retrieve the information I did," Gaubatz says. "But just because somebody is outwardly friendly doesn't mean they can't be doing something wrong or even harming National Security."

So, what do we have here?

It is true that hundreds of groups, many of them religious in nature, lobby Washington politicians. Hundreds of groups also try to place interns in congressional offices. Obviously then, CAIR hasn't done anything out of the ordinary, if they sought to do something hundreds of other groups also do on a regular basis.

Why is CAIR being singled out then?

Because, just like ACORN has been singled out for targeting by the GOP opinion outlet, FOX, so too now, CAIR.

ACORN represents poor, urban, mostly minority Americans by helping those mostly-minority folks obtain mortgages, deal with tax issues, and register to vote. Those folks mostly vote Democratic, so to Republicans and FOX, they are the enemy.

CAIR represents Muslim Americans. To Gaubatz and Son who see President Obama as the "Muslim" enemy…to four anti-Obama state representatives calling for an investigation into CAIR for doing what hundreds of other lobbying groups also do…..those "Muslim" enemies inside America must be up to no good….because….well….they're Muslims.

Today's Republican Party McCarthyism isn't very sophisticated in it's hunting of witches. The "undercover" work of anti-Muslim and anti-ACORN fanatics would be amusing if it were not so obviously hateful and vindictive, so basically unAmerican.

But make no mistake…..that's what this is. A witchhunt. This is all an ugly, childish attempt by American fanatics to black ball, to demonize, to smear and to spread unwarranted fear about groups of fellow Americans who perform normal American political activities.

Having alienated blacks and hispanics by their over-the-top screeching, Republicans are now going for the tri-fecta with Muslims.

I know these hateful, divisive GOP'ers are beyond shame….but shame on them anyway.

The comedy show continues….

I realize that Newt Gingrich is considered to be a bonafide, certified, conservative intellectual…..a master GOP sharpie….the Republican go-to guy for "ideas."

So, I'm thinking Newt thinks, because he is just so smart and full of, like, ideas, that Republicans are going to take back the House and the Senate next year. What I would like smart Newt to tell all of us non-smart liberals….is how the f*ck, Newt, is that going to happen?

20% of Americans identify themselves with the GOP. Twenty percent.

Republicans are acknowledging Democrats could GAIN Senate seats next November, up to four….and the very best Republicans are projected to do in the House is a gain of between 20-24 seats.

Given that scenario…..Newt, nothing has a chance of being repealed, you know, this side of hell freezing over,….and Newt, I gotta' tell ya'…..if you're planning on things getting better in 2012 with some kind of Palin-Pawlenty-Romney-Huckabee combo-platter, you are going to be one sad conservative intellectual.

Republicans are still in denial, most all GOP politicans now are only appealing to the extremist base. America is moving away from the extreme right's conservative philosophy, not towards it.

Whether the far right likes it or not, the American population has become more tolerant of sexual and racial diversities. The neo-conservative doctrine is not favored by the American people. Laissez-faire economics has blown up in the face of everyone. The past GOP administration doubled the national debt in 8 years,….so much for small government and fiscal conservancy.

Republicans are still in denial. I think what has happened is that George W. Bush and The Dick have left a bigger neo-con, chickenhawk-cowboy, never-back-down, never-admit-error, impression on the individual psyches of the far right, than anyone expected. Or at least reality-based anyones.

An so there's ole' Newtie, 9 months into a new Democratic administration with big Democratic margins in Congress, and instead of coming up with some new, you know, ideas…..and admitting that, yeah, Republicans, like Michael Steele said, can't be trusted right now…..Newt runs his big, bait-the-base, mouth, about how Republicans are so big and bad and we're coming back and we're going to repeal Obama and the Democrats' health care reform legislation.

Perhaps someday, thoughtful conservatives will distance themselves from the likes of Fox and it's many Fiends. Maybe down the road Republicans and conservatives will genuinely analyze their humiliating failures to govern, their predilection to make everything they touch while governing corrupt. I suppose it's possible for conservatives to come up with other ideas other than, "let's cut taxes" or "be afraid" or "let's bomb another country"……I suppose it's possible….someday…but it sure isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Until it starts to happen Newt…..go back to Georgia and pound salt.

The man in the above picture was arrested on September 15 and charged on September 25 with possession of child pornography…..

Ottawa police have issued an arrest warrant for a Roman Catholic bishop from Nova Scotia facing child pornography charges…….

(Bishop Raymond) Lahey was re-entering Canada at the Ottawa International Airport on Sept. 15 when members of the Canada Border Services Agency pulled him aside for a secondary examination, according to a release from Ottawa police. Officers found images on Lahey's laptop computer "that were of concern."

He was released at the time. The computer was seized and police said a subsequent forensic examination of the computer revealed child pornography.

As if that's not offensive enough, consider this….

The former leader of the diocese of Antigonish is perhaps best known as the man who helped broker a $15-million settlement with people who said they had been sexually abused by priests in the diocese, in some cases dating back to 1950. That settlement was approved by a Nova Scotia court on Sept. 10.

Jesus.

Just in case you missed this from last year….

In Ireland, reports into clerical sexual abuse have rocked both the Catholic hierarchy and the state.

The Ryan Report, published last May, revealed that beatings and humiliation by nuns and priests were common at institutions that held up to 30,000 children. A nine-year investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades terrorised thousands of boys and girls, while government inspectors failed to stop the abuse.

On September 18, 2009…..

The UN Human Rights Council today published a written statement by IHEU on the role of the Holy See in the child abuse scandals that rocked the Catholic Church in recent years, and its failure to honour its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Commenting on the report, Roy Brown, IHEU Main Representative at the UN Geneva said: "The Holy See has been heavily implicated for decades in covering up cases of child abuse carried our by its clergy and religious orders, in obstructing justice, and in failing to deal appropriately with abusers. Yet for too long it has been given a free ride by the international community because of its presumed moral leadership. Our report is the first to bring the issue to the attention of the Council. We shall be referring to our report in the plenary of the Human Rights Council next week."

The Vatican's permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, responding to the report's findings that up to 5% of Catholic clergy were involved in child abuse, did the Christian thing…..and blamed others….

Children were more likely to suffer at the hands of relatives, family friends or babysitters than clerics, he argued.

Jesus.

And if that isn't bad enough, wait…there's even more….

The Archbishop also quoted research published in the Christian Science Monitor newspaper which suggested that most congregations affected by child sex allegations in the US were protestant churches while the problem was also common in the Jewish community.

'Yeah, 1 in 20 of our clergy are child-terrorizing fiends, but hey, what about those babysitters and those Jews and Protestants.'

Thoroughly disgusted yet? I've saved the worst for last.

Yesterday……………Cardinal Daniel DiNardo and Chief Justice John Roberts

An American cardinal on Sunday issued a plea for the rights of the unborn at a church service that included Vice President Joe Biden, six members of the Supreme Court and hundreds of members of the legal community.

Five of the six Roman Catholics on the high court – Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito – heard the homily by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo…..

What did the representative of this child-terrorizing religious cult have to say to enlighten America's vice-president and 5 other terror-cult members who just happen to be Supreme Court Justices?

Speaking at the annual Red Mass the day before the opening of the Supreme Court term, DiNardo said that people represented by lawyers are "more than clients. … In some cases the clients are voiceless for they lack influence; in others they are literally voiceless, not yet with tongues and even without names, and require our most careful attention and radical support."

Jesus.

High leaders of the United States of America, leaders of a country alledgedly fighting a "long war" against international "terrorists", seek moral guidance from a representative of an international child-terrorizing cult. A religious cult so morally depraved and so hypocritically twisted, it's representatives have the audacity to preach to America's highest legal representatives about our national morality in dealing with the "unborn", while dismissing and downplaying a scathing, yet factual, report of the cult's own centuries-old terrorization of underage boys.

It's all disgustingly maddening.

No, crystal balling it ain't as arousing or provocative as, say, Teabagging it…but crystal balling it is a bit more coherent and understandable than TeaBagging it…so there's that.

One year ago on October 13th, in a blog post entitled, The Upcoming Obama Presidency, The Reverend typed out these predictions….

".…..after having paid very close attention to what took place between the years of 1992-2000, I think it's safe for me to predict…..if you liked the savaging-Clinton days, you're gonna' just love the savaging-Obama days starting after January 20, 2009."

A media so corrupt, so perverse, that they couldn't even use the word lie or liar in any article they had written or on any teevee appearance for 8 straight years of an openly fraudulent and lying Bush administration…..will….magically…..snap out of the spell they've been under….and begin microscopically examining every word that Obama speaks. A main media so covered-up in their own mistaken, propagandistic, slime encrusted wrongheadedness for 8 straight years, a media who never really ever considered impeachment as worthy of discussion for the worst president America has ever known….will be balls-to-the-wall aggressive in not only savaging a President Obama but encouraging an obstructionistic-minded Republican minority to gum up the federal works with impeachment talk and accusations."

"With the upcoming Obama presidency….Democrats will have near total control. This, in itself, will anger and frustrate the extreme right so badly that (I can't help but say this) actions of violence will follow. I believe that is what we witnessed last week at McCain-Palin gatherings. The first-fruits realization by the extremist nuts on the right that they've lost the game and lost it badly, is beginning to sink in."

Maybe I should change my name to The Prophet.

But wait….there's more.

Less than 9 months into the Obama presidency and just look at what is being suggested by some of the crazy folks at Newsmax…..

There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America's military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the "Obama problem." Don't dismiss it as unrealistic.

America isn't the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn't mean it wont. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it.

…..

Will the day come when patriotic general and flag officers sit down with the president, or with those who control him, and work out the national equivalent of a "family intervention," with some form of limited, shared responsibility?

…..

Military intervention is what Obama's exponentially accelerating agenda for "fundamental change" toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America.

After only 9 months of a new Democratic president, radical conservatives are suggesting that America needs a "military intervention" to deal with the "Obama problem."

Newsmax is a primary source for American wingnuts. I am sure that main-whore-media will soon be asking conservative Democrats, and in all seriousness, whether, indeed, the military should intervene to stop President Obama from carrying out his Constitutional duties as president.

It is the job of main-whore-media to investigate and report on the unhinged and insane beliefs of the American wingnuts….as witnessed in the main-whore-media's coverage of Rush Limbaugh's "I want Obama to fail", the TeaBagger incoherent nuttiness, townhall bust-ups complete with semi-automatic weaponry, and most recently, the Beck-ClusterFox 9-12'er event attended by a minimum of one zillion people. (one zillion equaling approximately 60,000.)

No matter how crazy American wingnuts behave, or talk, (like in the cases of Sarah Palin or Joe "You Lie" Wilson), main-whore-media, just like they did during Bill Clinton's days, MUST take it very seriously and dwell on all the "implications" for weeks.

What I'm saying, after having predicted one year ago what we're now experiencing, is that the ugliness will get worse. The craziness, the frenziness, the threats, the intimidation, the witchhunts…..and, eventually, the calls for violence…unfortunately….will only get worse.

America has entered a domestic crisis period.

Maybe you saw David Fluffy Gregory's interview with Bill Clinton this past weekend on Meet the Press. The Village Fluffy, always trying to keep it real, asked Clinton about that "vast right wing conspiracy"…..

Fluffy…."Your wife, famously, talked about the vast right wing conspiracy targeting you. As you look at this opposition on the right to President Obama….is it still there?"

Clinton…."Oh, you bet. Sure it is. It's not as strong as it was because America has changed demographically…but it's as virulent as it was. I mean, they're saying things about him, you know, it's like when they accused me of being a murderer and all that stuff they did. But, it's not really good for the Republicans in the country, what's going on now. They may be hurting President Obama, they can take his numbers down, they can run his opposition up. But fundamentally, he and his team have a positive agenda for America. Their (GOP'ers) agenda seems to be wanting him to fail. And that's not a prescription for a good America……"

In the 1990's, when Newt and his majority Republican gang persuaded Clinton to vote to gut American jobs with NAFTA and further punish the poverty class by "reforming" welfare, the vast right wing conspiracy rewarded Bubba's move to the right by hounding him mercilessly with made-up-sh*t. Then came the impeachment. That was the beginning of the incoherent, unintelligible and mindless Wingnut World that we are so privileged to be burdened with today.

That, and the birth of the 4th Estate's anti-Christ, FOX "News."

But I disagree slightly with Clinton here. The American winger world is MORE virulent today than during the 90's. The automatic weapons-bearing outside presidential townhalls, the 4-fold increase in threats to Obama versus threats to W., the hourly-generated lies and frenzied propaganda by a corrupt and rotted corporate media, the unhinged encouragement to behave badly by main media sponsors of anti-Obama Tea Parties and 9-12 events, the proliferation of Mao, Stalin, Castro, and Hitler signs equating Obama with tyrants……..all of it for the purpose of poisoning Obama's presidency, intimidating Americans and making the wingers feel better about themselves in a nation which has embarassingly rejected their now-dead conservative policies of intolerance, lassez-faire, trickle-down capitalism, and imperialistic wars of choice.

Why is the virulence worse now? Democrats not only have the Presidency now, like they did during the 90's, but also a firm majority in Congress. When political rats are cornered, as it were, they can prove the old adage of being "crazier than sh*thouse rats."

American conservatives say they are sticking to their principles in their virulent opposition to Obama and the Democrats. And that, of course, is the problem. Conservative principles have led directly to today's marginalized and impotent Republican Party,…..regionalized to mainly the southern states. Only 7% of all New Englanders, for example, identify now with the GOP.

Today's conservative "resistance" is more virulent now because the U.S.S Ronald Reagan is slowly sinking into the dark waters of political policy irrelevance. Rather than going through serious self-examination, acknowledging that America has changed, rather than coming up with new ideas for the 21st century……today's GOP, today's conservatives, apparently, would rather hang around their old stomping grounds, the political outhouse……where they can dart out daily, looking and sounding all crazy…..in the hopes of scaring any progressive change away.

The imaginative Steve King (R-IA) says that gay marriage is a "purely socialistic concept."

Have you noticed how conservatives and Republicans see socialistic threats, like, everywhere? Damn odd, if you ask me.

Here's Rep. King in the House explaining how President Barack Obama is the "star of ACORN, the lead, chief organizer."

King is a wild and crazy guy, huh?

_______________

Latest Times/CBS poll….

"Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government administered health insurance plan — something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get — that would compete with private health insurance plans?"

Favor 65%

Oppose 26%

Proving that facts still have a known liberal bias….OR….Americans want more socialism. Anybody want to break the news to Michelle Malkin and Sean Hannity?

Malkin yesterday on President Obama's UN speech….

"He (Obama) doesn't like this country very much." Obama is "the great Appeaser and the Groveler in Chief."

"..he (Obama) has solidified his place as the weakest of weak leaders of modern American history…..They laugh at us. He is a laughingstock."

That must be why, after Obama's appearance at the UN, that Russia is now considering new tougher sanctions on Iran. Russia's President Medvedev must have been laughing so hard over how weak Obama's leadership is that he couldn't help agreeing with America's New Weakling-in-Chief.

Later, Obama presided over the UN Security Council unanimously passing a resolution "that “urges” countries to put conditions on their nuclear exports, so that international inspectors would be authorized to continue monitoring the use of some nuclear materials even if a country withdrew from the nonproliferation pact."

Yep, Michelle and Sean,…..laughingstock.

________________

Next up….George W Bush's former speech writer Michael Gerson. Once again, the AB Journal insisted on printing Gerson's column. Gerson says that internet discourse in America is kind of like the Nazis using radio in the 1930's. Heil, Michael, you assh*le.

One sentence….

"The absolute freedom of the medium paradoxically encourages authoritarian impulses to intimidate and silence others."

As opposed, say, to the "absolute freedom" of Knee Pad Media members, like Gerson, whose neo-conservative "authoritarian impulses to intimidate and silence others"…..we witnessed in the main media's complicity in leading us into a war of The Dick's choosing. Extra smiley face stickers for blaming internet discourse for what his ex-boss did for 8 straight years…."intimidate and silence others"…resulting in 4400 U.S. dead soldiers. But it's the anonymous and dirty f*cking internet bloggers who possess those "authoritarian impulses."

_______________

Little known info….

The Fox Network did not cover President Barack Obama's speech before the joint session of Congress. The Fox cable outlet, I understand, did cover it….but not the broadcast network. It's the first time a major broadcaster, using public airwaves, refused to televise a presidential address before Congress.

So, according to another Beacon blurb from the Dallas Morning News today, President Obama should go on Fox and be interviewed by the blackout boyz.

"…what should concern the president more is that Fox delivers a devoted audience that doesn't always hear from the president unfiltered."

Is it me, or does that sound like a very naive statement? Nothing ever presented on Fox is "unfiltered." My suggestion to Obama? Keep flipping the bird to Fox offers…..they are unworthy to be considered a legitimate media participant.

______________

Just in case you have been confused by the flaming wingnuttery recently over the non-profit group ACORN, Rachel Maddow had an excellent piece on the whole thing last night. And the imaginative one I referred to at the top makes an appearance too. It's worth watching…..but look out for those pesky facts flying….

Finally…..Glenn Greenwald lays out the rotted landscape in the mainstream media and the halls of Washington.

The Villagers have a very ugly habit of chastising and punishing the weak and vulnerable while praising and rewarding the corrupt and the powerful. ACORN is simply the latest example.

The guy in the above picture is Bill Sparkman from Kentucky. He's now dead, having been hanged recently and left to rot in a remote area of Daniel Boone National Forest. That's right, he was hung from a tree and when found had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest.

Bill Sparkman worked part time for the Census, according to the AP article, conducting interviews once or twice a month in Clay County, Kentucky.

Cleveland.com reports…

Gilbert Acciardo, a retired Kentucky state trooper who directs an after-school program at the elementary school where Sparkman was a frequent substitute teacher, said he had warned Sparkman to be careful when he did his Census work.

"I told him on more than one occasion, based on my years in the state police, 'Mr. Sparkman, when you go into those counties, be careful because people are going to perceive you different than they do elsewhere,' " Acciardo said.

"Even though he was with the Census Bureau, sometimes people can view someone with any government agency as 'the government.' I just was afraid that he might meet the wrong character along the way up there," Acciardo said.

A part time federal Census worker in red state Kentucky hung from a tree with the word "fed" scrawled in his chest.

Why it would be necessary for a former state trooper to warn Mr. Sparkman about specific Kentucky counties where "people…perceive" federal workers differently…….is yet to be determined.

I know that back in the 60's many citizens from southern states considered federal workers, especially civil-rights workers, "differently." So differently that some of those civil rights workers were murdered.

Now, it would be easy for me to attribute this heinous act as part and parcel of the larger conservative hate-Obama-government movement. A result of endless conservative gasbag rhetoric over ACORN and the upcoming Census in 2010….or the frenzy of anti-government emotions witnessed in the incoherent TeaBagger and 9-12'er movements.

Perhpas Bill Sparkman's killer embraced the viewpoint of Minnesota's wingnut representative, Michelle Bachmann…..

"The mother lode of all data information will be from the Census. … Unfortunately, the Census data has become very intricate, very personal, a lot of the questions that are asked. I know for my family, the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home. We won’t be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn’t require any information beyond that."

Maybe the person, or persons, who hung Bill Sparkman and scrawled the word "fed" in his chest were pre-emptively resisting, like Bachmann suggested she would, the Census. Michelle said that ACORN could be involved with the Census, so, you know, can't take any chances.

Even the lunatic Glenn Beck disagreed with Bachmann over her Census comments.

Make no mistake…..this murder looks like a political assassination, much like the Dr. George Tiller assassination a few months ago by the conservative culture warrior Scott Roeder. If, in the end, that proves to be the case….the hanging of Bill Sparkman, a very nice man who worked as a substitute teacher in Kentucky public schools and part time for the Census, may come to be known as one of the earliest victims in America's new domestic war of the 21st century.

Nancy Pelosi made some very sobering comments yesterday about the potential for political violence inside America….

"I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco, this king of rhetoric. … It created a climate in which violence took place. … I wish we would all curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements and understand that some of the ears that it is falling on are not as balanced as the person making the statements may assume."

Naturally, Republicans disagree with Pelosi. Pete Sessions (R-TX), head of the National Republican Congressional Committee responded to Pelosi's comments…..

“Speaker Pelosi is right that the American people are upset, but it is her own words that continue to fuel voter frustration in America," Sessions said in a statement sent to POLITICO. "No longer content with criticizing concerned citizens for being ‘un-American,’ the Speaker is now likening genuine opposition to assassination. Such insulting rhetoric not only undermines the credibility of her office, but it underscores the desperate attempt by her party to divert attention away from a failing agenda."

Abortion doctor George Tiller experienced firsthand the "genuine opposition" Sessions refers to here. Tiller was assassinated while attending church. Tiller was murdered by a man genuinely opposed to legal abortion rights for women. Scott Roeder, the assassin, I'm sure, was frustrated that America elected a president who favors keeping abortion legal in the U.S. The assassination came after 4 months of heated and wildly irrational rhetoric from extreme conservatives over all things Obama.

Yet the Republican response from Sessions to Pelosi's honest and emotional assessment of today's thuggishly heated rhetoric aimed at all things Obama….is to blame the Speaker, herself, and the words she speaks as the reason for conservatives' "frustration." Sessions is saying that if there is any heated rhetoric, Nancy Pelosi fueled that rhetoric by the words she spoke.

What words? Pelosi and Steny Hoyer (D-MD) co-wrote these words in USA Today in August….

"These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades,"

Pete Sessions, as most Republicans are prone to do now, describes Pelosi's, "Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American"…as…"No longer content with criticizing concerned citizens for being ‘un-American,’ the Speaker is now likening genuine opposition to assassination."

Numerous examples of planned conservative disruptions at town halls, with all the ugliness, intimidation and hatred displayed there, are translated by Republicans, like Sessions, as only "concerned citizens", who, if angry and frustrated, were made that way by what Nancy Pelosi says.

Those "concerned citizens" very purpose in attending primarily Democratic town hall meetings was to "drown out opposing views." Many buster-uppers followed a shared playbook explaining how to bust-up a town hall. Many buster-uppers who traveled to Democratic representative's town halls came from other voting districts. The plan from the beginning was to raise hell and disrupt. To Sessions, that's what "concerned citizens" do. Everyone has seen the town hall videos…..there's no question that drowning others out, intimidating and disrupting was the "concerned citizens" goal from the beginning.

For Pelosi to recall the 1970's when domestic political violence seemed like a weekly occurrence….and for Pelosi to warn that 70's violence was also accompanied with heated and hateful rhetoric…simply a fact,…. is to Republicans like Sessions "likening genuine opposition to assassination."

Nancy Pelosi did not accuse the people using the heated rhetoric of being assassins themselves. She said…."some of the ears that it is falling on are not as balanced as the person making the statements may assume." Like Scott Roeder, or the guy who killed three cops in Pittsburgh because he'd heard that Obama was coming for his guns, or the guy who shot up the Holocaust Museum.

Perhaps….THAT'S the goal of people like Pete Sessions. Perhaps, Republicans want unhinged, hateful, lying rhetoric-spewing buster-uppers to be heard by citizens who are "not as balanced" as those spewing the rhetoric or throwing a tantrum.

Perhaps Republicans, conservatives….while never stating so explicitly….want national breakouts of political violence by dangerous lone-wolf, conservative nutcases.

All this time I've been thinking that the nonsense I've been hearing and seeing from conservatives since Obama's inauguration were all just attempts to "grab" those headlines, those teevee video bytes.

Is it possible that what's really going on with all the hateful language, all the displays of firearms, all the Obama-is-Hitler posters, all the thuggish intimidation,…..is a dog-whistle call to the "not as balanced" in the hope that random political acts of violence,….if nothing else works,….will bring down Obama's presidency?

Former President Jimmy Carter…..

2:34

“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he is African-American," Carter said.

“Racism … still exists and I think it has bubbled up to the surface because of a belief among many white people, not just in the south but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It’s an abominable circumstance and grieves me and concerns me very deeply,” Carter told NBC News.

Is the former Democratic president correct?

If he is….does that mean that every TeaBagger and every Townhall Buster-Upper is a racist? Of course not. My blog friend King attended last Saturday's protest and I don't consider him a racist.

That said, do racial animosities play ANY role in what appears to be an organized and concerted effort to delegitimize America's first black president? Undoubtedly.

As I have observed the Tea Party opposition to virtually anything Obama it's been hard to rule out racial animosity as a major contributing factor.

Racial animosities played a role during the presidential primaries…..

From an ABC piece May 27, 2008….

In recent weeks, the role of race in the Democratic primaries has been increasingly discussed. And while racist caricatures and jokes about threats against Obama's life have been widely condemned, they seem to reflect an undeniable element of racism that still exists in the country and could play an unknown role in a general election.

……

The latest controversy centered on a depiction of Obama in the cross hairs of a rifle used that appeared on the cover of Georgia's Roswell Beacon newspaper. The controversy focused on the image, though the story, which included interviews with several white supremacists threatened by Obama's candidacy, reflected a deeper reality.

Racial animosities played a role AFTER Obama was elected president….

Arizona Daily Star, November 16, 2008…..

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting, "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hanging from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

Ever hear the phrase, "we want our country back", from those at Tea Parties or Townhall Bust-up sessions?

Here's what the director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center said after the November election…..

Potok, who is white, said he believes there is "a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them."

Grant Griffin, a 46-year-old white Georgia native, expressed similar sentiments: "I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades, and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.

"If you had real change, it would involve all the members of (Obama's) church being deported," he said.

Who can forget the Obama-dressed-up-like-Aunt-Jemima waffle mix and the numerous signs alluding to Obama's race?

Who can forget the hours of wasted time by main stream media anchors and talking heads microscoptically analyzing the black/white vote count in every primary? Why was that done? At the very least it was done because of an awareness that there is still a racial divide in the U.S.

How many times did we hear folks like NBC's Chuck Todd or Nora O'Donnell tell us that the black presidential candidate Obama was having trouble with white voters?

Why is it that still today a majority of southern Republicans believe Obama is not a U.S. citizen? Why the drumbeat, even now after 8 months of the Obama presidency, about Obama's father's native country of Kenya? Is that explained by some coincidental big-bang randomness theory? Or more likely, does that southern belief, one which Jimmy Carter understands and has experienced first hand, reflect a predetermined rejection of a black Democratic president, because he's black?

How can the intense focus on ACORN by Fox enthusiasts during the primary and general election campaign….and again now by the Teabaggers and Townhallers….be explained away as an innocent non-racially tinged focus?

Why the triumphant jubilation over the black second-tier appointee, Van Jones, resigning? Why the recurring use of the word "uppity" by so many opposed to Obama? Why the projectionist claim by Glenn Beck that Obama "hates white people", "white culture?"

Conservative culture warriors are more sophisticated than during the 1960's,….not all but most….and I'm thankful for that. Modern forms of racial animosity are more subtle and oblique. It's Obama's policies, opponents say, not his skin color, which riles them up. Policies that many opponents say will take stuff from them and hand it over to the undeserving, however, are just barely thinly-veiled jabs reminiscent of Uncle Ronnie's southern strategy baiting over fictitious Cadillac driving "welfare queens".

Yes, racial animosities play a significant role in today's unhinged attacks on America's first black president.

Can we overcome these animosities that still exist in America? Will the "we want our country back" crowd ever be content with a black president?

I honestly do not have an answer. I certainly hope so…..but I fear that yet another generation will have to die off before it happens.