Iowa billboard compares Obama to Hitler

http://www.washingto...010_07/024781.php

[...]

The speed with which conservatives went from zero to hysterical in 2009 was impressive, but it's the mainstreaming of sheer madness that doesn't get the attention it deserves. As Milbank noted, "[A]ccusations that once were beyond the pale -- not just talk of Nazis and Marxists but intimations of tyranny, revolution and bloodshed -- are now routine."

And they're common, not just among fringe media personalities and activists, but with the Republican Party establishment.

It's tempting to think there will be eventually be a Joseph Welch moment, but no one in the party seems willing to step up and acknowledge that Republicans shouldn't follow the orders of unhinged zealots. On the contrary, they're afraid to disappoint the radical base, which may in turn undermine the GOP's "enthusiasm gap" edge.

And so the Republican Party shows no meaningful qualms about becoming the party of conspiracy theories ("Birthers," Gulf oil spill was deliberate), wild-eyed accusations (ACORN, "re-education camps," Gestapo-like security forces, New Black Panther Party), and radical policy positions (a five-year spending freeze to address a global economic crisis, the belief that tax cuts pay for themselves, a freeze on federal regulations, willful ignorance about energy, health, and education policy, the entire Sharron Angle/Rand Paul platform).

Rage and paranoia are not an attractive combination, but they're driving the GOP talking points and the larger political discourse. So, when a member of the Republican leadership talked about the GOP emulating the Taliban, no one in the party deemed this controversial. When Republicans regularity compare U.S. leaders to Germany in the 1930s, the party mainstream barely bats an eye. When GOP policymakers openly discuss the prospect of state nullification of federal laws, no one in the Republican ranks stepped up to say, "Good Lord, these people are mad."

Best of all, Republican "leaders" are content to keep it this way. Indeed, it seems to be the centerpiece of the midterm election strategy.

The point isn't that political radicalism is new; it's clearly not. Rather, the key development over the last 18 months is the ways in which right-wing extremism has gone mainstream -- with the consent of the Republican Party, which sees the electoral benefits of blind rage and fear.

[...]

Yup.

Cheers,
Scott.

Post #329,609 by lincoln 7/14/10 10:56:03 AM Reply	Iowa billboard compares Obama to Hitler Way to go, Iowa Teabag Party! http://gazetteonline...r-draws-criticism "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Post #329,612 by boxley 7/14/10 11:08:35 AM Reply	wa wa wa
Post #329,617 by Andrew Grygus 7/14/10 11:33:17 AM Reply	So the lunatic fringe thinks that Iowa . . . . . has gone too far?
Post #329,650 by beepster 7/14/10 5:07:28 PM Reply	Nobody ever did that to Bush. </sarcasm> I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #329,674 by lincoln 7/15/10 5:29:09 PM Reply	I'm hitting Google now and haven't found one yet in the USA, although there was one in Cuba - but that doesn't count. "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Post #329,677 by boxley 7/15/10 5:36:07 PM Reply	with what yer grannies unwashed toes? try http://politicalhumo...blbushmonkeys.htm
Post #329,682 by lincoln 7/15/10 5:43:51 PM Reply	we're talking Bush = Hitler billboards not goofy "comedy" stuff. "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Post #329,687 by boxley 7/15/10 6:49:25 PM Reply	Re: we're talking Bush = Hitler billboards Oh you mean hate billboards in general or only billboards that equate shrub specifically with hitler? Getting picky in the last days of the Obama presidency?
Post #329,698 by beepster 7/15/10 10:20:40 PM Reply	oh, it has to be a billboard? not http://www.youtube.c...tch?v=GkmP3wbynPU or http://www.youtube.c...s&feature=related or a collection of writings and other.... http://semiskimmed.net/bushhitler.html I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #329,707 by boxley 7/16/10 8:17:00 AM Reply	it has to be a billboard? appearing in Mason City paid for by moveon.org not before 2002 and no later than 2007 on South Federal Ave or it doesnt count and the tea partiers are racist meanies.
Post #329,708 by beepster 7/16/10 8:21:04 AM Reply	thats what I thought but I figured I'd show the hundreds of examples anyway. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #329,729 by lincoln 7/16/10 4:41:02 PM Reply	Yeah - it has to be a billboard If one existed, I have yet to find proof via Google. "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Post #329,731 by beepster 7/16/10 5:19:01 PM Reply	ok then... the comparison only counts on iowa highways, not on the info superhighway and highly publicized. That'll work. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #329,732 by boxley 7/16/10 5:45:04 PM Reply	toldya
Post #329,733 by beepster 7/16/10 5:54:30 PM Reply	yes you did. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #329,778 by lincoln 7/17/10 4:37:07 PM Reply	stop whining The criteria was and is: show me a billboard, along any highway in America, that equated Dubya to Hitler. Period. If you can't do that, then you can't alter your sources to fit your wishlist. "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Post #329,790 by beepster 7/17/10 8:14:32 PM Reply	Ok... so since it was a billboard in Iowa, that makes it worse than sponsored ads on the internet. You win. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #329,808 by lincoln 7/18/10 9:55:13 AM Reply	Still going off on irrelevant tangents If you keep this up, you'll be a shoe-in for any RepubliCANT office you run for in Floriduh. "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Post #329,812 by beepster 7/18/10 11:28:14 AM Reply	Um, excuse me ...but you are the one pretending that one billboard comparing Obama to Hitler somehow is a travesty, but about a hundred different examples of comparing Bush to Hitler don't count because it wasn't a billboard in the Iowa sticks. Who's the one playing in irrelevance here? I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #329,822 by mhuber 7/18/10 2:14:01 PM Reply	Well, it does in Iowa There is something special about billboards. At the very least, they are larger than the typical screen space occupied by a blog post. --------------------------------------- I think it's perfectly clear we're in the wrong band. (Tori Amos)
Post #329,824 by boxley 7/18/10 2:31:40 PM Reply	got yer billboard right here http://www.flickr.co...3606934/lightbox/ now you cant see it in buttplug iowa
Post #329,825 by Another Scott 7/18/10 2:38:16 PM Reply	Havana. Good catch. :-/
Post #329,892 by lincoln 7/19/10 2:19:47 PM Reply	like I said in my earlier post: I found one in Cuba; STILL can't find one in the US. All I asked for is one. Maybe it's so hard because ... NONE EXISTS? "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Post #329,827 by beepster 7/18/10 2:41:14 PM Reply	and you think that is more visible... ..the the 2 highly publicized moveon.org commercials. what exactly are you smoking? I want some. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #329,893 by lincoln 7/19/10 2:24:42 PM Reply	no, you're not excused - because of the dozens of examples of Obama = Hitler pictures taken at Teabagger rallies. They're all over Flickr. - because of the dozens of racist pictures created by RepubliCANTS that were emailed to fellow RepubliCANTS. Example: picture saying that Obama is planting watermelons in the White House lawn. Example: picture of Obama as a African witch doctor with a bone through his nose. - because of the hundreds of nutjobs that believe that Obama was born in Kenya and refuse to accept his Hawaiian certificate of live birth; thus, they believe that he's not a US citizen and thus his presidency is invalid. "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Post #329,901 by boxley 7/19/10 2:33:16 PM Reply	so with all the states requiring the long form cert for the 2012 presidential election will he still have enough electoral votes to win if he fails to produce it to get on the ballot?
Post #329,905 by lincoln 7/19/10 2:35:35 PM Reply	let me check my magic 8 ball it said: "outlook good". "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Post #329,907 by beepster 7/19/10 2:47:58 PM Reply	Oooh boy so your saying that Obama is being picked on just as much as GWB...with the monkey boy pictures and the hitler comparisons and the yadda yadda yadda. I've yet to see the watermelon planting picture. And just for fun I go to flickr and search Obama and first pic is http://www.flickr.co...views/3052483151/ and then I search Bush and first pic of GWB is this one http://www.flickr.co...omalous/41460347/ Cry me a river. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #329,828 by Another Scott 7/18/10 2:42:51 PM Reply	Steve Benen's take. http://www.washingto...010_07/024781.php [...] The speed with which conservatives went from zero to hysterical in 2009 was impressive, but it's the mainstreaming of sheer madness that doesn't get the attention it deserves. As Milbank noted, "[A]ccusations that once were beyond the pale -- not just talk of Nazis and Marxists but intimations of tyranny, revolution and bloodshed -- are now routine." And they're common, not just among fringe media personalities and activists, but with the Republican Party establishment. It's tempting to think there will be eventually be a Joseph Welch moment, but no one in the party seems willing to step up and acknowledge that Republicans shouldn't follow the orders of unhinged zealots. On the contrary, they're afraid to disappoint the radical base, which may in turn undermine the GOP's "enthusiasm gap" edge. And so the Republican Party shows no meaningful qualms about becoming the party of conspiracy theories ("Birthers," Gulf oil spill was deliberate), wild-eyed accusations (ACORN, "re-education camps," Gestapo-like security forces, New Black Panther Party), and radical policy positions (a five-year spending freeze to address a global economic crisis, the belief that tax cuts pay for themselves, a freeze on federal regulations, willful ignorance about energy, health, and education policy, the entire Sharron Angle/Rand Paul platform). Rage and paranoia are not an attractive combination, but they're driving the GOP talking points and the larger political discourse. So, when a member of the Republican leadership talked about the GOP emulating the Taliban, no one in the party deemed this controversial. When Republicans regularity compare U.S. leaders to Germany in the 1930s, the party mainstream barely bats an eye. When GOP policymakers openly discuss the prospect of state nullification of federal laws, no one in the Republican ranks stepped up to say, "Good Lord, these people are mad." Best of all, Republican "leaders" are content to keep it this way. Indeed, it seems to be the centerpiece of the midterm election strategy. The point isn't that political radicalism is new; it's clearly not. Rather, the key development over the last 18 months is the ways in which right-wing extremism has gone mainstream -- with the consent of the Republican Party, which sees the electoral benefits of blind rage and fear. [...] Yup. Cheers, Scott.
Post #329,829 by beepster 7/18/10 2:52:28 PM Reply	Interesting, in that... ...just a few short years ago we were hearing about how the moveon.org and moviemaking folks didn't represent the core values of democrats and should be dismissed...but now the tea party folks and a couple of iowa farm boys are the heart of the republicans. this is the state of amusement that I spoke of being in a couple years back when the tables would turn. maybe this will poll better for them than blaming rush limbaugh for everything...since they seem to have stopped doing that. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #329,833 by Another Scott 7/18/10 3:29:24 PM Reply	Read it again. MoveOn was condemned by the Democratic leadership for many of their ads - http://www.google.co...&client=firefox-a . The teabagger rhetoric has been embraced by much of the Republican leadership, as Benen said. Your attempt at "balance" won't work here. Cheers, Scott.
Post #329,835 by beepster 7/18/10 3:40:06 PM Reply	Correct... ignoring is embracing. Got it. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #329,951 by jake123 7/20/10 11:42:59 AM Reply	I think it's pretty safe to say that it's a lot more than ignoring. I kinda hate to say it Bill, but I don't think you realise that the party is not what it used to be.
Post #329,955 by boxley 7/20/10 11:51:06 AM Reply	yeah, the democrats used to pretend to care for the people
Post #329,956 by beepster 7/20/10 12:03:38 PM Reply	And I think it's pretty safe to say that there's a huge amount of selective memory going on here. As easy as it is to assign fringe behavior from tea party to the Republicans is as easy as it was to assign same behavior from moveon and other organizations to the democrats when they were hunting for power. They didn't condemn or alienate those groups at that point either. Heck, Jimmy Carter had Mike Moore in his box at the convention. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #329,960 by jake123 7/20/10 12:20:29 PM Reply	Comparing Michael Moore to that other guy with the "us coloreds want you to pay taxes so we can have big screen TVs" screed does your integrity a serious disservice, Beep.
Post #329,965 by beepster 7/20/10 1:40:19 PM Reply	And that guy was summarily bounced within a day by the movement and the party. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #329,970 by jake123 7/20/10 3:27:06 PM Reply	Summarily bounced a day after someone finally said "enough". He's been ranting like that for a long time while everybody that was paying him said sfa.

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