The Dems are going to lose big unless they go on offensive. This kind of cheap thuggish hate-speak cannot go answered.

Any news on the shooting in the federal building in Las Vegas?

Let me guess - Quist has never served in the military himself.

I agree with BrklynLubrul: until and unless the Dems and Independents expose the lies and tell the truth about the liars, naming names and associations(financial and professional), there will be no end. They have to get on TV and call out the liars. If the media won't have them, go after their licenses. Use the system that is in place until a new one is implemented.

For Republicans, there is no such thing as simply disagreeing on something. You either agree 110% with whatever Republicans propose, or you are the enemy of all that is good and true, upright and virtuous. Simply failing to agree with a Republican on a matter as small as where to have lunch indicates that you really deeply despise America and devoutly wish that al Qaeda was in control of Washington right this very minute!

And will be shocked and surprised when people are shot for their political beliefs?

I don't think snickering at these people is OK anymore (not saying Steve was dismissive, either, but it's an indulgence I see around.) It is a serious indication of social decay and conflict, driven by a slimy alliance of big money corporatism and immature personalities both of influence and among the public. This nation can't compete among more rational nations if this crap keeps up. And for this pathetic psychopath to say this about people who'se main problem is selling out too much to corporate interestss, rather than of being too radical ...

Allan Quist has no credibility in MN. Except with the tea bag crowd. It's true that he won the state party endorsement for governor, but he lost in the primary quite handily to the moderate incumbent, Arne Carlson. I registered that year as a republican so I could vote against Quist in the primary.

Well, I think the fight against Republicans is the defining fight of this generation, and that if we don't destroy them utterly it will ultimately lead to the death and dissolution of the US and everything good and decent we want it to stand for.

I second cld.

Actually cld, the battle against the Republican Party could indeed be one of the defining fights of the century, altho phony and tacky to diminish the problem of terrorism thereby. There is no logical contradiction at all. It is Broderite "false equivalence" to think the groups are equally rational and for the public interest. Defining and defending the claim of who is actually better or worse is exactly what needs doing, not it being always bad "form" to be critical of some major party per se.

Ooh the divine right to rule rears its ugly head.

Democrats ARE going to lose big in the coming elections. Unfortunately the reason we're going to lose, and the reason that Obama now looks like a one-term president, is that we have a tendency to hold elected Democrats up to the same scrutiny we give elected Republicans. It's part of what it means to be a Democrat. We feel it's our job as Americans. Republicans, by and large, pick Democrats apart and invent bullshit and brand them as whatever they like. It would never occur to them to question what their own leaders say or do. It's who they are. And it's why so many more Republicans are religious fanatics. They're incurious about themselves and their world, yet foaming skeptics and lying cynics about ours.

Meanwhile, our self-evaluation, however well intended, will be our undoing. Again and again. When we start screaming that Obama hasn't kept all his promises by the end of his first year, we're pushing other Democrat voters into skepticism and complacency. And we're handing the keys back over to the crooks and liars and jackals and fools.

If we want to win a few more elections, we'll have to fall into lockstep with the party. Sure we'll keep a few Republicans at bay. But, is it worth relinquishing what it means to be a Democrat?

I third cld. 9/11 happened in part because the President would rather read My Pet Goat than his daily intelligence briefings.

8 years of Bush/Cheney left this country circling the drain.

If McCain/Palin had posessed juice to steal the elections like Bush did we'd be in the septic tank.

McCain never met a three page proposal on bailing out the banks he could be bothered to read, and Palin clearly does not read or write for herself.

Until we can educate people to be critical thinkers, and not blind followers of corporate determined conventional wisdom, we will will never pull this nation out of the toilet.

Two terms of Obama perhaps gets us back to where we were when Clinton handed off a budget surplus to Dumbya. I won't hold it against Obama if we come up a little short but, Republicans have got to go for what theydid to the nation.

neil b,

Terrorists are an expression of social conservatism as are the Republicans and the people they exploit.

The difficulties of dealing with terrorists from the Islamic world are unmanageable while we have the same kind of people as an important and privileged force in our own society because trying to address their cause will always seem hypocritical on the one hand and Republicans will always work against anything that might truly help because their motivation is little more than a need to hurt and injure others. If our actions can't be characterized that way, or in a way that is utterly selfish, they'll oppose it.

As with climate change we won't get anywhere without at least a willingness to clean up our own mess first.

Great point, cld. Republicans and terrorists have a lot in common. They believe they are the penultimate authority on earth. They bask in the knowledge that they alone are doing god's will. They are willing to dehumanize an enemy and kill innocent people in order to maintain their worldview. They believe that liberals — who want to give power to the people, share wealth, preserve cultures, treat women as equals, help the poor, and scrutinize what our collective presence is doing to our home planet — are ruthless marauders.

It's a wonder they haven't tried to team up.

Is there ever going to be any chance at all that a journalist will ask him "in what way are they destroying our country?" or "what is your evidence that they are destroying our country?"

Because, of course, he can't answer that, now can he?

"John Brennan tried to remind Americans of an important truth: "I think we have to remember who the enemy here is. The enemy is al Qaeda."

He then added, "and al Qaeda is whoever we say it is! SuckaZ!!"

The candidate and his Quistling supporters must be way-y-y to the right if T-Paw is described as a moderate GOP governor.

ya know, the projection is getting very, very thick. Due to be thicker, too, I'm thinkin'.

Since everything Quist said applies most appropriately to REPUBLICANS.

One assumes he's too stupid to know he's projecting. Of course, one can hope he's merely cynical and is projecting on purpose. After all, it's what goopers have been doing for over 50 years now.

It's a little frightening to imagine Quist being so stupid he actually believes what he's saying.

I am not sure the Democrats can deal effectively with hate speech from the right. Sadly, we are dependent on the media to see this for what it is -- crazy and dangerous.

There are some EXCELLENT comments here!

Fight back! Not with violence or subversion or even sand in the eye. With loud truth and quiet confidence.

I've been a reader here for years; I'm moved to post this time because I see you have both identified the problem AND provided for a course of action. I believe that's called strategy and tactics. All that's needed after that is agreement on mission and scope.

Let's get after it; find out what we can agree on, -rather than what we might disagree on. A united front that draws something small from each & all for the large good of all and each.

Hard work? Possibly. Probably. Crucial? No doubt about that.

Christianity is the worst disaster in human history. The cost to humanity of fifteen centuries of Christian savagery of hundreds of millions of lives brutalized and truncated, sacrificed to war, torture, pogrom, burning, pestilence and plague is incalculable. ~ Kenneth Humphreys

When George W. Bush was president, there was a t-shirt made illegal in 5 states, people during Katrina were unarmed, and Americans were knowingly lied to causing the death of over 4000 American Troops along with thousands of Iraqis, while spewing his fundamentalist Christianity.

There is a group of people in the USA that are racists. They are usually Christian extremists, as dangerous as those who flew airplanes into the WTC on 9-11. The difference is, those on 9-11 were reacting to the US governments actions, these fundamentalist Christians have had nothing done to them, yet they act like victims while they demonize every other group of people.

They have infiltrated our politics, trying to pass laws to make America ruled by the bible, happily killing off anyone who isnt a follower.

If anyone should be hung, it is the Americans that want to make the USA a theocracy and are the Christian version of Jihadists that would gladly die for their cause.

I support that they die for their cause and I wait hoping for another Waco-like incident, that will cleanse America of the low-life that is these people.

The REAL threat to America: http://www.coreymondello.com/americantaliban.html

Why does the Republican Party hate America so?

-Z