Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
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Thursday, October 09, 2008
McCain Support at Stabler Demonized
Earlier today, I told you about the exchanges between McCain supporters and deriders outside Stabler arena. Exchanges of vitriol, delivered with smiles, were very much two-sided.
Mike Morrill, Dear Leader at Keystone Progress, was there, too. He's now circulating an email, with a link to a very misleading video. He includes some of the more goofy statements made by McCain supporters with no mention of the equally ridiculous taunts coming from the other side.
It is an intellectually dishonest portrayal of the exchanges. The obvious reason is to demonize McCain support.
36 comments:
You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.
Just more quacking from the same old ducks who want to extend charity to others by using my money. I had to work for a living yesterday in order to pay for the charity of this non-working, protesting, coveting class bilge. I hope they enjoyed the freedom I paid for yesterday. SSDD.
ReplyDeleteThe reason so few protesters were there. The young work. What was the average age of that crowd? 88???
ReplyDeleteAnd BTW demonize Republicans?
How about some of the stuff they yelled ?
"Commie faggots!"
or how about the one person the rape victim should die?
Or what about the (Clearly Sean Hannity fan) with the ANTI-ACORN banner? Somehow he feels ACORN is connected to the Fannie Freddie fallout by regiestering dead voters?
I'm not Fucking Dumb enough to get these people.
How about the person who screamed "Off with his head" about Obama in the rally when McLame spoke?
Or what about all these folks who hate him because he is a "Muslim" ?
What I saw a bunch of grey racist pigs who disgrace America everytime they wave their bought in Wal-Mart made in China little American flags.
What I saw is Miss Palin has locked up the neo-nazi vote.
Ask Lincoln Rockwell how far Presidential campaigns go with the NAZI vote wrapped up?
WOW!
Bernie I love you brother, but seriously you have been making out with Dent too much. Was there any protesters yelling racist stuff?
Were the black protesters calling them crackers?
Calling someone a Asshole is not bad behavior espically when its a large group of assholes.
Hating a candidate for their religion sounds a awful lot like old Germans blaming Jews for the fatherlands fall.
Spike, It went both ways. Calm down.
ReplyDeleteBernie,
ReplyDeletethis is your account
""I want Sarah to wink at me."
Republicans: "You got a really big crowd."
Protesters: "Our friends are all at work cuz' they have to be."
Republicans: "You're takers!"
"Baby killers."
Protesters: [to kids in Catholic school uniforms]: "Why aren't you in school?"
Republicans: "Remember September 11."
Undetermined: "Penn State sucks!" [Everybody laughs].
Republicans: "Why don't you go register some dead people?"
Protesters: "Where do you work, Wall Street?"
Republicans: "USA, USA, USA."
Protesters: "USA, USA, USA."
Cop: "Finally, they agree on something."
Protesters: "Equal pay for women."
Republicans: "Equal rights for Hillary."
"Is Nader running again? Didn't know he was still alive."
Protesters: "Didn't know John McCain was, either."
Republicans: "Bill Ayers for Secretary of Defense."
Protesters: "Read the Book of Luke. Jesus was a commie."
Republicans: "50 million babies have been killed by abortions."
Protesters: "How many babies have died in Iraq?"'
Republicans: "You can do this because my son is protecting us in Afghanistan."
So "Commie Faggot" and using ones religion (and it is not even his) against him is ok?
Thats amazing, sounds like racist pigs, neo nazis and scum bags.
Commie Faggots? thats ok? Watch the tape he just as well scream nigger, it is probaly what he calls Obama on his lazy boy watching Sean Hannity.
Come on!
Spike,
ReplyDeleteYou weren't there. In fact, I wonder if you've ever even witnessed the typical confrontations between left and right at this sort of thing. I have on several occasions, including yesterday. Both sides taunt each other. For every weird statement from the right, there was an equally goofy statement from the left. That's the way these things go. Each side tries to out-extreme the other.
What Morrill did, and this is wrong, is present extreme views from one side w/o presenting the taunts that motivated these remarks.
It's intellectually dishonest. he does not have to be objective, but he does have to be truthful.
Whether or not the video is misleading, there were some horrible things said. I wonder if those are some of the people that hang out in The Morning Call's reader forums.
ReplyDeleteajc probaly are. And I've learned recently the same calibur that hang out in the Pocono Records forums as well.
ReplyDeleteSomething about the Uber Reich Wing being trolls in news forums.
Bernie I've seen it plenty of times. We were called "Commie pinko fagots" for having a candle light vigil in opposition to invading Iraq the sunday before we started the war.
It was even a front page story on the Express Times the next day the event. We had maybe 80 folks.
Lots of anti war signs greeted with middle fingers from folks with Harley Davidson and Earnhardt stickers.
As was the case in 2005 with the gathering in support with Cindy Sheehan whcih had far more supporters.
Easton police told us we had to leave that day by sundown because it was against the law to be in the center after dark "due to drug dealers".
You say the trash talking went both ways. Will you be doing another post reporting on the flip side as well? What on earth could have been said by the protesters to justify the kind of ugly and bigoted comments that were captured on the video you posted? To be fair, if the protesters were equally offensive and bigoted with their comments, they should be outed as well.
ReplyDeleteBy your account, there were some 18 or so protesters and about 17,000 Sen. McCain supporters there. How could these supporters have felt ganged up on enough to verbally assault the protesters and Sen. Obama? If anything, they were the mob at this event.
I recall the 2004 presidential election also being quite hostile, but I believe this election is even worse. It seems as if many people feel they owe it to their party to demonize the other side's candidate. It's not traitorous to take the time to read up on where the other candidate stands on the issues (in their own words, not via your own party's statements) or how they actually voted in Congress. Most likely, doing so would not change your vote, but it might just help cooler heads prevail. This would do voters good in the long haul as well, because Novmember 4th will come and go, and our government will still have much work to do. In light of our current economy and international affairs, we will need informed citizen input and oversight, perhaps more than ever before in our lifetimes.
Pete, Spike,
ReplyDeleteHaving been there (and Spike, i was at that candlelight vigil, too) as an "impartial" observer, I'm telling you the taunts went both ways. I wrote a post with some of the remarks and they all look silly.
How did protesters taunt? How about some of the remarks like, "I love to kill babies" and "I love abortion." Comments like that tend to fire up pro-life folks.
I'll tell you, nobody felt "ganged" up on. Most of the folks, on both sides, were actually quite friendly to each other.
What Morrill did is take some of the more extreme statements made by one side and put them together to make his video. It is dishonest because it fails to reveal what the other side was saying.
Bernie -
ReplyDeleteHaving been there, I saw it as you reported.
Obviously, the 18 protesters (that was my count as well) got the sound bytes they wanted from a line that probably took over an hour for everyone to get past (the protesters). Now they can edit, distort, and play it as they please (as Keystone Progressive is doing).
How sad it is that this is what politics has come to.
Ahh yes blame the poor and minorities not the white collar slime who rigged the system. Blame the poor and minorities not deregulation.
ReplyDeleteWhen you have talking points not from Sean Hannity get back to me!
"Having been there (and Spike, i was at that candlelight vigil, too) as an "impartial" observer, I'm telling you the taunts went both ways. I wrote a post with some of the remarks and they all look silly."
ReplyDeleteBernie just answer my question, please don't Palin me.
Did any of the 18 yell "Fagot?" or they "oppose McCain becasue he is a Christian"?
Considering in the rallies folks keep screaming "Obama is a terrorist" and one as reported by NBC and ABC yelled when McCain asked folks at the Stabler what should we do about obama, and some one yelled "Off with his head!"
Or Lehigh county GOP chair using the Hussien bit.
Like it or not the campaign is cashing in racist sterotypes.
Maverick: "one who will do or say anything to try to get votes"
ReplyDeleteMcCain is just pathetic now. He's got nothing to offer. Now, he's a coward, afraid to say his lies to Obama's face.
Obama is a real man. McCain wouldn't recognize himself if the 2000 McCain could see himself now.
pathetic. visionless. pimping his wife and whatsherface.
"Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody."
ReplyDelete~Franklin Pierce Adams~
Science says we evolved from primates. I'm not too sure about the evolved part.
It seems it takes longer and longer for kids to grow up. Some never do obviously.
:)
I too have some raw footage...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIj4U2KLdn0
Why does Morril have to be truthful? Nobody else is. Not even the candidates.
ReplyDeleteBernie, I have to be honest in that I don't understand what your gripe is with this video (I find it kind of funny, actually). The Keystone Progress Blog is a left wing blog. So of course they are going to present the footage in a way to make the McCrazies look bad. I mean, that's how it works; you skew things to make a point. The Daily Show does it. Fox News does it. Every political ad on TV does it. The candidates do it during the debates.
BTW, I think anyone who shows up to these candidate rallies is a nut anyway.
I showed up at the rally, so I guess that proves your point.
ReplyDeleteI was there before Morrill arrived, and remained there during the entire time he was making his video. He only recorded the more extreme righties. He recorded none of the taunting remarks that set them off.
It is intellectually dishonest. it is one thing to have a bias. it is quite another to misrepresent what is happening. That's what Morrill did.
The fact that he is a leftie is no excuse for dishonesty. I'm a lefty myself, and am turned off by the distortion.
I can't believe that one guy said that Michelle Obama lied about getting pregnant and about her giving birth to a child with mental and physical disabilities.
ReplyDeleteOh, wait, it was liberal bloggers who said that about Sarah Palin and her child.
Good thing that straight-talking, left-wing Americans like J. Spike rushed to condemn those remarks and defend her.
All the holier than thous posting might want to remember there's enough shit on both sides to cover us all.
Anon 10:21,
ReplyDeleteYou've got my point. In addition, most of the exchanges were good-natured. Morrill's video is terribly misleading.
anon 10:21
ReplyDeleteOne I never gave two shits about Caribou Barbie's "cover up" that was that jackass Michael Moore who does more harm than good.
And as for both sides, I'm a Nader fan....... so there is more than two sides.
And BTW pussies hide under anonymous and slam folks. People with balls use their names.
But then again how smart can you be you think Sarah Palin is qualified because a member of the Government (mcLame) tells you so.
Gee wasn't it Stalin that told the people what was good for them? And wasn't it the Soviet Union that had a giant centrally run department to protect the "Motherland"?
Oh wait also the Neo-Cons.
Good thing the GOP is protecting us from the commies, aside from themselves of course.
Soon we can wait on bread lines like the old Soviet Union as well!
Spike,
ReplyDeleteWhen you use misogynistic words like "pussies" and "balls", you exhibit the same traits you are condemning in McCain supporters.
No Pussies and balls is like shit and fuck.
ReplyDeleteFagot is like the N'word.
I'm pretty sure from the writting style that I know who he is. I'd respect him more if he just came out as himself and used that line about the Palin pregancy.
Also I never wished any rape victims should die.
Nice try though Bernie with this "gotchyaaah Journalism" as Governer Palin and Senator McCain would say.
J Spike's underwear must be riding up on him tonight.
ReplyDelete"Caribou Barbie," seriously. That's what you got. That's it?
In the immortal words of Sgt. Elias:
"Hey, J. Spike, take it easy. You don't have to be an asshole everyday of your life."
Spike,
ReplyDeleteLet me tell you a few things.
1) I don't really know what the hell you're suggesting, but if you are insinuating that I posted that comment anonymously, try again. If I have a problem with what you or anyone is saying, they'll hear it from me directly, not some anon.
2) I happen to agree with the anonymous comment. That has been my point. You weren't even there and did not see how Morrill distorted what had actually occurred. It was intellectually dishonest.
3) Most of the people on both sides were fairly good-natured. It was almost ritualistic. The chants going back and forth were kind of neat. There were only a few vicious statements.
4) For every goofy slam from the right, there was one from the left.
5) You don't help your cause or argument with the repeated use of profanity. It also is misogynistic. I know you're trying to emulate Hunter S. Thompson, but he could spell stoned. I don't think you can.
All I can write after watching the video, reading some of the virulent e-mail forwards I receive, listening to the radio talking heads, and skimming the comments on this page is this:
ReplyDeleteit is sad, at a time when our country is facing foreign and domestic/financial crisis that instead of pulling together we have become so polarized...us vs. them mentality...red vs blue....whatever happened to the UNITED States of America? I can only pray that it is all the result of an unusually long (2 year) run for the presidency that has driven us to this point, and that after the election both parties work together regardless of who wins rather than immediately working to undermine the winner with an eye on 2012 already....but the older I get my idealism seems so naive.
I fail to see why the blogger has any obligation to edit his video in any other way than he sees fit.
ReplyDeleteBiased is not dishonest. Biased is biased.
The video and the comments on the video speak for themselves. After eight of the most divisive, fear mongering and hate inspiring years the Country cannot endure any mors.
ReplyDeleteThe so-called 'good natured' folks who made those statements should be ashamed of themselves.
It may be biased but it was gut wrentching to watch.
"The video and the comments on the video speak for themselves. After eight of the most divisive, fear mongering and hate inspiring years the Country cannot endure any mors."
ReplyDeleteIn the immortal words of Sgt. Hulka -- lighten up Frances.
You must be one of thise commie pinko, fag, terrorists. Just a fun statement don't take it seriously, like you said-just lighten up.
ReplyDeleteShe is an exciting candidate and might be just what this country needs.
ReplyDeleteSticking by this Bernie?
Jim
Bernie I never said you. I know you would just say it, so easy cowboy.
ReplyDeleteAnd btw you also make spelling errors sober.
and light house this is all the effect of a two party system. Pretty easy to be polarized when there is only TWO choices.
ReplyDeleteLet's see. Until a few minutes ago, I was at a Liberty High football game with my grandson while you peck away anonymously on a computer.
ReplyDeleteMost of the people at that rally were good and decent people. It was mostly good-natured ribbing. To demonize either right or left is a mistake. Nobody is entirely right or wrong.
I am by no means a John Kerry fan, however, I do think his letter on this past week's campaign is spot on:
ReplyDeleteJohn McCain has shown a stunning failure of leadership. His campaign, in a time of economic crisis and foreign policy drift, has degenerated into a negative and nasty campaign of smears.
The reports are piling up of ugliness at the campaign rallies of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Audience members hurl insults and racial epithets, call out "Kill Him!" and "Off With His Head," and yell "treason" when Senator Obama's name is mentioned. I strongly condemn language like this which can only be described as hate-filled.
According to reports, every ad paid for by the John McCain campaign is now a negative ad -- every single one! McCain allows his running mate to make outrageous charges that only a few years ago would have disqualified someone from serious consideration for national office.
Some lady told McCain one of the "problems" os Obama is a muslim. McCain debunked her and said NO thats not right. And was... BOOED by his supporters.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Palin is not the one that will leave the ticket maybe mcCain will.
I feel almost sorry for him. He seems put off how he is left with pure nuts.
The lady was saying Arab and I agree with you. McCain has wanted to be President for some time. He was chewed up the Rove machine in 2000 and the dirty political tactics he has perfected. Now McCain has joined with the dark forces to win.
ReplyDeleteThe problen is John McCain is fundamentally a decent and intelligent man (not so much with Bush) so I think he seemed to realize the tone of the campaign has taken a very dark and nasty turn.
He corrected the woman and said , no, no, no he is a decent man, an American.
It is true the mob booed McCain. The problem is he is down to the hardcore Republican right-wing supporters and they don't really like McCain, they never did. They hate Obama and all the silly worries that Fox and Freiends have fed them over the past year.
I truely fear for Obama's saftey when I hear how some of these people react.
The Counrty will survive either man winning, get a grip.
There are more choices than just coke or pepsi, but they don't want you to think that do they?
ReplyDelete