Link dump

[infrogmation]

The Atlantic: Closing the book on the Bush Legacy

Tongodeon: United States Already Spends More Per Capita On Socialized Medicine

"Things Only a Republican Could Believe" political satire

Eric Boehlert: A President Was Killed the Last Time Right-Wing Hatred Ran Wild Like This

"Like A Virgin" a fine rant from Driftglass on the the U.S. "Right"'s polical exploitation of 9/11

Comments

[ernunnos.livejournal.com]

Kennedy was killed by a commie. The last time right wing hatred ran wild, a nursery in Oklahoma City got bombed and a bunch of children died. Remember that? I guess not, and it tells us something about Eric Boehlert's priorities. In an attempt to smear conservatives, he skips right over the mass murder of children by an actual right-wing extremist, to a crime decades more distant in history that was committed by a left-wing extremist!

Why? Because to a liberal, a threat against an American city, and American children in the midwest is hardly a crime worth mentioning. Barely a tragedy. But ending a cult of personality? Now that's an outrage.

Liberals: Incompetent even at demagoguery.

Yes, I'm setting you up for, "We don't have that much practice!" See how nice I am? When I can argue your own side better than you can, you pretty much suck.

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

"Kennedy was killed by a commie."

Uh... debatable. Got 40 years to go over the details?

But really, I think the point of Boehlert's essay is not what individuals perpetrated the greatest acts of violence, but the attitudes of the vocal mobs. He's far from the only one to be reminded strongly of the radical right of the late '50s and early '60s.

The Birchers and the Segregationists, calling Eisenhower and then Kennedy willing dupes of the Communist Conspiracy, actively preparing to destroy the American Way of Life.

Just good patriotic Americans sticking up for their rights against the threat of Communism.




But now the demagogues who whip up such yahoos are running the party.