extremism

Is this proof Hillary Clinton is turning into a Zel Miller and joining Joe Lieberman in the Dark Side?

Just like Bush's neo-cons, she defines her own reality :

She's winning ... under the rules of the Republican party:
"The states I've won total 300 electoral votes. If we had the same rules as the Republicans, I would be nominee right now," she said. "We have different rules, so what we've got to figure out is who can win 270 electoral votes. My opponent has won states totaling 217 electoral votes."

She's milking Operation Chaos for all its worth:
... there apparently was a mutual overlap of interests here — the desire of Limbaugh, his fill-in host that day and other conservatives to influence the race and the former President to do whatever it took to get every single vote for Hillary Clinton, even if it meant crossover votes from Republicans who wanted to weaken the Democrats. Crossover, schmossover, weaken Obama, schmeaken Obama — as long as it’s a vote for Hillary…

She likes to play with McCain stupid tax tricks :
"More than 200 economists, including four Nobel prize winners, signed a letter rejecting proposals by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain to offer a summertime gas-tax holiday.

and ...

The media frenzy over a pastor at Obama's church seems to finally be dying down. But why hasn't there been a similar frenzy over the bigoted hate-mongers who are endorsing John McCain. McCain embraces the endorsement of far worse people than Obama's pastor, and it gets ignored by the media. Jews on First has this report:

Barrack Obama dealt frankly, openly and intellectually with the issue of his complex relationship to Jeremiah Wright. Contrast that with John McCain's embrace of Christian Right leaders Pastors John Hagee and Rod Parsley. This is big picture stuff...

...the media has not lingered on John Hagee's anti-Catholic bigotry, even though McCain stood smiling with Hagee to receive the televangelist's endorsement. When McCain subsequently distanced himself from Hagee's hateful statements, it was only for fear of losing Catholic votes...

Hagee has based his career, wealth, position and enormous power on hatred: hatred of Islam, of homosexuals, and of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Yet John McCain went out of his way to court him, in hopes that Hagee's endorsement would make the Christian Right forget his not-so-long ago disdain for them as "agents of intolerance." McCain courted Hagee knowing full well that, when it comes to Israel, Hagee is doing all he can to insure there is to be no land for peace deal. Ever.

Barbara O'Brien fisks Jonathan Martin and concludes that Obama won't get the racist vote anyway, why dwell on trying to win that constituency?

Well, because Racism, just as sex, is a currency that in this case, buys votes. A warning to racist mongers though. To quote the famous words of pop philosopher Justin Timberlake, what goes around, comes around.

Here is John Hagee twisting the Bible in order to justify the war in Iraq as a necessary war against Islam and one that has to be taken to its ultimate consequences --the elimination of Islam. Why? Well, they don't say it in the clip but to these people saving Israel is necessary so Christians can ultimately convert Jews and return Israel to the Christian Faith :

Here is Rod Parsley calling for the end of the "homosexual agenda" from McCain's "spiritual advisor" and a "strong, true, consistent conservative",

In 2005 there was much sound a fury about a series of Danish Cartoons portraying the prophet Mohammed. The bottom line was that several Danish cartoonists drew cartoons including the prophet as part of a newspaper's publicity stunt. Two of the cartoons were making fun of the newspaper's publicity stunt itself. Two were, arguably, based on racial stereotypes. At least one specifically addressed Western stereotypes of Muslims. In other words, the cartoons were a mixed bag of attitudes towards Islam and the West's attitudes towards Islam.

The overwhelming reaction in the Muslim world was of outrage, often with no real knowledge of the actual cartoons.

This controversy has come back. One of the cartoonists, Kurt Westergaard, was targeted for death by Muslim terrorists. This plot was stopped by the Danish police. In response to the terrorist threat 11 Danish newspapers reprinted Kurt Westergaard's original cartoon...further pissing off Muslim nations.

Again...much sound and fury, signifying nothing.

In response to this new controversy, I want to show all 12 of the original Danish cartoons followed by my public response to the cartoons and the controversy. Folks, there are major issues of tolerance, freedom of expression, and basic human decency involved here. When someone insults you (which MOST of the cartoons were NOT doing) you don't kill them or threaten them with death. If you do, you are essentially a psychopath. You can insult them back, boycott them, sue them...whatever. But to kill someone or threaten someone with death over a cartoon is insane. So, here are the cartoons and my original comments:

Bangladesh has long been one of the earth's poorest democracies. And yet it remained a democracy. It has long been one of the clearest case studies for the ill-effects of deforestation. As the highlands became denuded of its forests, the entire nation became subject to annual cycles of devastating floods and equally devastating droughts that have helped to keep Bangladesh poor. And yet it remained a democracy. An imperfect Democracy, but who are we to throw stones.

When 9/11 happened, I was struck by something. Bangladesh was one of the poorest Muslim nations, and yet remained largely immune to the sweeping tides of fundamentalist Islam that influenced Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. Bangladesh had the poorest, most neglected population, yet remained more open to democracy than to fundamentalist Islam or what is too often its alternative: military dictatorship. Bangladesh stood out to me as a nation we needed to focus on, to learn what can make Islam and democracy coexist. We also needed to focus on it as something to nurture. Bangladesh was a place we could help and while we helped them we could be fighting fundamentalist Islam while proving that we can be a good friend to democratic Islam. Bangladesh was one of our best opportunities to PREVENT the spread of fundamentalist Islam even as we fought it elsewhere.

Bush and the Republican controlled Congress ignored this opportunity, as they ignored many others, obsessed as they were in the completely unrelated attack on Iraq, an attack that made us LESS safe, not more safe. And while Bush ignored Bangladesh, the case study in how democratic Islam can survive even under crushing poverty, that crushing poverty finally started to create cracks in the democracy. As I predicted after 9/11/01, ignoring Bangladesh led to the spread of fundamentalist Islam into Bangladesh by September 2005. Around then a wave of some 300 bombings led by a growing Bangladeshi fundamentalist movement occurred, signaling that Bush's neglect of that small nation was opening up new recruiting grounds for fundamentalists. I said in 2005 that we had missed our opportunity in Bangladesh and it would soon go the way of other poor Muslim nations: a battle ground between military dictatorship and fundamentalist Islam, two equally repugnant options.