’)We on the left have been granted amazingly idiotic political opponents.
Also, anti-semetic.
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Oliver Willis
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This is who they are, this is what they do
Either they think Wiesel’s a woman, or they know he is a man but are impugning the 81-year-old Holocaust survivor’s masculinity.
And either way, it’s par for the course for the Modern Republican Party.
I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you!
(And as usual, this means nothing. Right, trolls?)
These are the class acts I keep hearing about from a certain tea bagging fanboy wingnut around these parts.
What a commenter! He speaks for all the Republicans and all the conservatives in the nation!
I say you lefties should leave this country, before the power and might of The Commenter consumes you…
MWAhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha !!
Frank, if it was just one guy I’d agree with you. But click through to the original Politico item, and it’s one comment after another disrespectful of a great witness of man’s inhumanity to man, and man’s capacity for healing and forgiveness. And all that trash talk just because this epochal figure had the gall to chastize teabaggers for using photos from liberated death camps for their rinky-dink protests against health care reform.
(in quasi-defense of those knuckle-draggers, I’m quite certain that they have never heard of Elie Wiesel, and hence had no idea just what douches they were being)
Like I said, this means nothing. Right, troll?
BTW, Oliver, that’s anti-semitic …
I’ve always found it fascinating that liberals (even Jewish liberals) are labeled “anti-semitic” by the right because they don’t objectively support Israel in everything they do, despite the very real anti-semitic history and actions of the Religious Right.
Gee, Zython, you know what, I’ve always found it fascinating that on a website like Politico that liberal bloggers have targeted as being slanted too far right, and one in which there is no log-in requirement to post comments there, that idiots like Andrew Sullivan would try to make political hay out of anything anyone would post there.
Far be it from Sullivan or anyone here to consider that the type of far-left nutcase liberal who would post something like this using the identity of another conservative blogger:
..That that same type of nutcase might ever consider doing the same thing in the comments section of a site like Politico so that other liberal blogs could highlight and point to it and say “This is who they are; this is what they do.”
You guys are amazing. Laughingly amazing.
Every. Single. Day.
Got a source for that quote? Cause Zython provided a link to sourced quoted from the modern Republican leadership–including two who were, technically, President of the United States (see the link from November 8, 2009 at 9:54 pm).
But keep telling yourself that all of those quotes must have been from Evil Liberals trying to make right wingers look bad. Because you just know it’s true. Kind of like you just know it’s true that Frank Capra put the Mr. Potter character in a wheelchair to make him–and all conservatives–look bad (and to make fun of cripples!). Don’t let those Facts, which have a well known Liberal Bias, change your thinking. You just know it’s true. Never give an inch!!!
Indeed, you are guilty of promoting forged quotes that you knew to be forged quotes falsely attributed to a conservative you hated. Even after being told they were false, it only strengthened your resolve to keep posting them….. you not only ‘never gave an inch’, you stepped up your game and redoubled your efforts.
Now you laud Zython, who also posted a false quote-,attributing a highly racist quote to another conservative. This is how you guys roll.
And you now point to anti-Semitic anonymous quotes on a political website and deny that there’s any way these could be the same types of people as you and Zython; liberals posting as anti-Semitic, racist right-wing extremists, who later point to them as examples of being part of the conservative base. You’ve both shown just how much you enjoy doing that sort of thing.
Now you act surprised and indignant when you’re called out on it.
Amazing that this sort of blog topic attracts you two in particular, too.
What about the link to the American Taliban? Why did you ignore that? Are those quotes, attributed to the Leaders of the Republican Party, made up? Really?
And do you still stand by your assertion that Frank Capra cast Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Potter in a wheelchair to stick it to the right wing? Why do you ignore that too?
But keep on keepin’ on believing it’s true just because…shut up! It’s just true!
Never give an inch!!!
Sullivan is a nut-case just like you are and he should be completely ignored by those on the right and those on the left. Especially when he devolves into blog comments sections from anonymous posters to make a point, knowing full well the nefarious examples of folks like you and Zython prove just how worthless those anonymous posts are.
Neither one of you can deny with any credibility that you’re not above doing that sort of thing, because both of you did that very thing.
From Zython’s link, quotes from Dennis’ people. Never give an inch:
Ah, the modern Republican party leadership. Any quotes fake? If you can point out which are, I’ll admit the mistake. I can do that. Can you?
Yeah, guys! If you’re going to doctor quotes to give them the exact opposite meaning of what the speaker intended you should have the guts to use your usual screen name. Just like Dennis.
Bonus fun fact: identify the source of this quote -
“My friends, God does not hear the prayers of a Jew.”
Seriously, though, the proximate cause of this outrage (that is,
the outrage of those generating the comments listed above) was
Wiesel’s criticizing the use of Holocaust imagery to demonize
Obama. That’s ALL it took for their reptile brains to activate.
Robert, you got that quote a tad wrong, it’s:
“With all due respect to those dear people, my friend, God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew.”
That poster probably also thinks “Elie” has a father named Jed, and likes to feed her critters out by the ce-ment pond…
Hilarious there Randy, just about spit all over my screen.
LOL!
The only thing missing here is the context of those comments, right Dennis?
kth, you are probably right, more’s the pity. Weisel’s Night used to be required reading in good high schools. Now most kids probably think Hitler is some “old, dead guy.”
and, BTW, who the hell is Bailey Smith?
Kids know who Hitler is. He’s that guy from Germany who was mean to corporations and who insisted that a nation should provide health care for all its citizens, right?
Despicable. Completely.
This is the company the repub constituency these days. Frank, you can mock the fact that these are simply commenters, but this is the dark ignorant heart of the right these days. These are your allies in the common cause.
I think the commenters were polled from my breakroom at work. Life in the Southeastern United States, sadly.
First of all, I am not climbing the gallows for some commenters on somebody else’s blog, OK ?
So we can stop that right now.
Spider, your comment is somewhere between distasteful and idiotic.
And, Gumby, “the dark ignorant heart of the right” is a bit histrionic, I would say. Every time you lefties get a chance to get all indignant, you get all “Quincy, M.E.” all over the place!
But when an Islamofascist shoots 41 soldiers, “Let us not be hasty to judge”, and “We don’t know if a guy who changed his name to a Muslime name , dressed like a Muslim, quoted the Qu’uran; and spoke like a Muslim, is actually a Muslim — let’s wait and see …”
Please try to talk out of at least two sides of your mouth, not 11.
1. He didn’t change his name, he was born with a Muslim name. His parents were Palestinian and he was raised as a Muslim.
2. No one is denying that he was a Muslim. What we do object to is the automatic assumption that he went off the deep end because he was a Muslim, or that his ethnic and religious identity somehow makes him more of a “terrorist” than just another guy who went postal.
Yeah, Frank, trivializing the holocaust is no big deal. I should tone it down.
Gumby, you have made my point … I didn’t trivialize the Holocaust; as a matter of fact, neither did those commenters.
Interesting that Mr Weisel should mention the unfair comparison of Pres Obama to Hitler now…
How often did he mention it during the Bush administration?
Would pointing that out be considered “trivializing the Holocaust”?
I am beginning to sense the makings of a formula: When mentioning the Holocaust smears the Right, it is perfectly OK, but when mentioning the Holocaust makes the Left look bad, it is not allowed.
Does that sound about right?
Actually, Frank, Wiesel was a strong supporter of Bush’s WOT and frequently drew comparisons between al Qaeda and Nazi Germany.
Does he get his moral authority back now?
Depends, Frank.
If it is criticizing the right for, dunno, opposing tax increases or wanting to privatize the Post Office or whatever, of course it is unwarranted.
However, for doing things like:
- engaging in an imperialistic military venture
- invading a country on false pretexts as an opening gmbit in that imperialistic military venture
- engaging in widespread spying on its own citizens
- curtailing individual liberties on the pretext of enhancing national security
- engaging in torture
- imprisoning people without trial
…well, you can see how people could go there, no?
But, yeah, health care reform. As fascist as the Bush/Cheney stuff. Sounds fair.
Right over Frank’s head. Just right over.
Southern Quaker and Gumby: You are missing the point.
There is no reason to compare either Pres Obama or Pres Bush to Hitler…
But, the “ice was broken” by the left. Someone mentioned in a comment to a weblog (so I can’t verify it) that the last Republican President who was not compared to Hitler was President Eisenhower (!!)
Interesting, no?
And IIRC Weisel did neither. But somehow he’s become a left wing operative or something for calling the tea bag protestors out when they equate providing health care to Americans to the Holocaust.
Let me remind you of your own words, Frank: “Interesting that Mr Weisel should mention the unfair comparison of Pres Obama to Hitler now…”
Your righteous indignation is a bit misplaced where Mr. Weisel is concerned, don’t you think?
“There is no reason to compare either Pres Obama or Pres Bush to Hitler…”
?!
Yup, right over.
Gumby, you’re not really saying that comparing Pres Bush to Hitler might have been justified, are you ?
Because if that’s the part that is “going over my head” Mambo, you’re goddamed right it has.
It is stupid, vile, and intellectually dishonest to compare Pres Bush to Hitler.
Right on over your head.
Is it ludicrous to compare G.W. Bush to Hitler? Yes, I think probably so. Is it ludicrous to compare Obama to Hitler? Again, yes.
But if you look at the unreasonableness of each case, and view it as a continuum rather than a binary “yes or no” question, Bush is more like Hitler than Obama. For reasons that gumby states above.
Does that mean he’s very much like Hitler? Of course not.
A little nuance. Let’s see if this sinks in.
What’s worse, bigots or people who spend 12 hours a day defending bigots?
Mambo : Nuance schmuance !
Did Pres Bush:
Invade countries, and oppress them under our thumb?
Turn this nation into an armed camp, with no freedom of the press, religion, or speech?
Did he deport or kill millions of Jews, Catholics, blacks, gypsies, communists, gays, developmentally disabled and mentally ill?
Did he send thousands of children and old men to their death, when the war was lost?
There IS no comparison.
Wrong is wrong!
End of story.
Jaim: Neither . People who ask irrelevant questions are the worst.
Sigh. You have serious reading comprehension issues, Frank. Just… appalling.
In terms of fascism: Health care reform is “less fascist” than illegally wiretapping citizens of your country, promoting propaganda that supports the administration, and yes, invading and occupying a foreign country under false pretenses, while killing thousands of civilians and US soldiers.
There IS a comparison. Just because Bush wasn’t nearly as bad as Hitler doesn’t mean that Obama is as close to Hitler as Bush was.
Try understanding that point.
End of story.
Try this: If you think that I am going to agree that Pres Bush was kinda sorta like Hitler, you are out of your minds.
Let’s look at Gumby’s Hitlerian catalogue :
- engaging in an imperialistic military venture
You must define imperialistic differently from me. Which country did we invade where our actions resemble anything Hitler did?
- invading a country on false pretexts as an opening gambit in that imperialistic military venture
Which country was that, and when did Hitler do that? And which country did Hitler allow to unseat a dictator?
- engaging in widespread spying on its own citizens
Widespread? Howso? And don’t even dare try to compare the actions of the Homeland Security Agency with the SS
- curtailing individual liberties on the pretext of enhancing national security
You mean searching people before they get on airplanes? Name some others (c’mon now — surely something resembles wearing colored badges — think, man, think!)
- engaging in torture
Torture by your definition; not the government’s ; and they didn’t just pick up any old body and question them — see below
- imprisoning people without trial
Yeah, right, they imprisoned millions of people before they killed them , just like Hitler …
Nuance , my ass!
C’mon Frank. You know exactly what I’m talking about.
1 and 2. Giving Iraq the quickie “democracy makeover” as a prequel to reshaping the middle east in our image. The much ballyhooed “draining of the swamp”.
3 and 4. Umm….Patriot Act?
5. Not the government’s definition of torture. You are aware of the point I’m making? And you say this?!?!
6. Think sunny Cuba and the generous long term care at Gitmo for Iraqi cab drivers. Who also happen to be “people”, though I’m not sure if the government got around to redefining that yet.
Obviously the guy with the funny moustache was several leagues beyond this stuff, but at least it bears some comparison in an absurdly hyperbolic way. Whereas the comparison with someone who wants you to not go bankrupt paying for medical care doesn’t even come close to making any sense.
Mambo : We are not trying to see who is closer to Hitler …
We are talking about whether an American President should be compared to Hitler .
It is either wrong, or it is not wrong.
Now, answer my question, or shove off :
Is it wrong to compare an American President to Hitler ?
If you think it is right, then you get what you pay for …
If you think it is wrong , then I agree with you that they should stop.
Is it wrong to compare an American President to Hitler ?
Not intrinsically, no. An American President does not have any claim to not be compared to Hitler simply because they are an American President. Conceivably, a situation couple arise in which a President really does deserve to be compared to the great fascists of the past. This situation hasn’t happened yet, however.
Now answer THIS question: In a continuum of “Completely not fascist whatsoever” to “Hitler”, who’s closer to Hitler? Bush or Obama?
I don’t want to get into this awesome debate but I couldn’t help but pause and gasp at this sentence:
Frank, whether or not Bush or Obama are like Hitler, you sound a hell of a lot like the average German who aided and abetted Hitler’s rise to power.
Nice going.
Well, there’s yer nuance.
I didn’t trivialize the Holocaust;
Yes you did.
Also, Shorter Dennis: “Maybe if I ignore what the leaders of the Religious Right have said, maybe it’ll never have happened.”
fafaroo, neither you , nor Oliver, nor any of you lefties have criticized Pres Obama since he took office. Because you agree with him 100% of the time, does that make you Nazis?
I meant that some commenter on a blog doesn’t define torture, I choose which definition to accept, and I accept the government’s belief that their interrogation techniques do not constitute torture.
I also believe that if things go well in the Middle East, they will not be living in the American Reich, so that is another difference from Hitler…
I also did not ask for the name of a piece of legislation, which for you lefties acts as a buzz word .. I asked you to name which rights had been taken away from you …
There are quite a few people at Guantanamo who are not simply “Iraqui Taxi drivers”.. Nuff said
If it only “bears some comparison in an absurdly hyperbolic way,” that’s not much of a comparison.
And , finally, Mambo, on a scale of 1 to 100 1 being non-Hitler like, and 100 being Hitler , I would rate Pres Bush at at or near 1; and given what may happen if Obamacare passes, I would place Pres Obama at or near 1.
fafaroo, neither you , nor Oliver, nor any of you lefties have criticized Pres Obama since he took office. Because you agree with him 100% of the time, does that make you Nazis?
Frank, that’s a load of bullshit. I for one (along with many others here) have criticized Obama for his position on FISA, extraordinary rendition, DADT, telecomm immunity, and DOMA. I also think his stimulus package could have been more directly applied towards infrastructure and job creation, and that he has caved on the single payer issue in health care.
Is that enough, or should I come up with a few more areas in which I disagree with the President? Or is disagreement only “real” when it comes from the right?
“Fafaroo, neither you , nor Oliver, nor any of you lefties have criticized Pres Obama since he took office. Because you agree with him 100% of the time, does that make you Nazis?”
Laughably false. People here have criticized Obama for his handling of Iraq and Afghanistan (i.e., not leaving sooner), DADT, continuing Bush-era wire-tapping policies, not fighting back hard enough against teabaggers/birthers/Republicans, etc.
All you do is make shit up Frank.
But I eagerly await your wetting yourself and whining about how oppressed you are in about an hour or so.
Save yourself the wait, Jaim … STFU
I’ll take that as a yes you moronic hypocrite.
There are quite a few people at Guantanamo who are not simply “Iraqui Taxi drivers”.
– who are still “people” and who have never been charged with a crime nor been presented with the reasons why they are being detained. Heck, they aren’t even prisoners of war, but “enemy combatants”. ’nuff said, indeed.
A yes to what , Jaim, did you ask a question?
But I just realized something, guys: I professed to agreeing with the government’s definition of interrogation as not including torture ( a definition which remains unchanged in this administration ), and I was accused of sounding “a hell of a lot like the average German who aided and abetted Hitler’s rise to power.”
And, yet, you lefties admitted that you disagreed with Pres Obama on only a few issues, and were actually proud of voting for him at the time. So, are you saying that if I disapprove of something he does, I get to call you Nazis, because “you sound a hell of a lot like the average German who aided and abetted Hitler’s rise to power.”
You see what I am driving at here? You want desparately to compare Pres Bush to Hitler, so you rationalize and confabulate to make it so. But if someone attempt to do the same thing to the President you chose, you scream like banshees.
You just don’t want to see that they ARE doing it , because you DID it, and if they ARE wrong, then you WERE wrong.
Got it?
You see what I am driving at here?
As usual, no, Frank.
I am sorry it is beyond you, fafaroo … Ask a nearby grown up.
Oh, don’t be obtuse Frank.
And, yet, you lefties admitted that you disagreed with Pres Obama on only a few issues
Which include the very policies (rendition, torture, indefinite detention) that some would argue are fascist in nature.
For the record, I am not one to compare Bush to Hitler. However, Frank, let’s be honest. Can you at least admit that policies such as the ones I listed above – which I object to no matter who is president – are a hell of a lot closer to fascism than universal health care???
(My guess would be “no,” by the way.)
I am going to assume a modicum of intelligence on the part of some of you (no, Jaim, not you).
If “Who is more like Hitler?” is meant to be the same question as “Which group of the President’s opponents is more justified in comparing him to Hitler – Pres Obama’s or Pres Bush’s?” , then I am going to answer that it is not a fair question.
The comparison is odious, in any case.
If the statement is “You cannot justify comparing Pres Obama to Hitler over national health care” , then isn’t the statement “Hitler did attempt to establish a totalitarian state in Germany, which surely included national free health care” a fair one?
But that comparison would be ludicrous, would it not?
I suspect that the issue here is who has the “semantic superiority”.
If conservative leaders, and conservative governments are viewed as “fascistic,” then, by that standard, any conservative President resembles Hitler more than liberal President.
However, I do not accept the judgement that all conservative leaders are “fascistic”. I look at a different assessment: Is the leader authoritarian? Does the leader seek to control the ‘engines of society’?
Who is bullying his opponents in the Press? Pres Obama
Who has attempted to take over the automobile industry and control securities? Pres Obama
Who is attempting to nationalize health care (one-sixth of our economy) Pres Obama
Of course, there will be bellowing and gnashing of teeth, but you see how the door of subjectivity swings both ways?
(My guess would be “no,” by the way.)
Who is bullying his opponents in the Press?
How has FOX’s broadcasting license been threatened? What? You say it hasn’t? You think a few pointed remarks from the President’s press secretary constitutes bullying? Talk to Helen Thomas about the press being bullied, Frank.
Who has attempted to take over the automobile industry and control securities? Oh, please. The auto industry was going bankrupt, thanks to their own short-sighted business models (see: the Humvee and Saturn) coupled with an economic crash which started long before Obama won the election. They went to him for the money. He has hardly “taken over the industry.” Should he have forked it over no strings attached?
Who is attempting to nationalize health care (one-sixth of our economy) Obama has never supported a single payer health care system, more’s the pity. Until he does, claiming that he is trying to “nationalize” the health care system just makes you sound paranoid and ignorant.
So, no, Obama is not a fascist. And for the record, modern European socialism has absofuckinlutely NOTHING in common with National Socialism.
I asked you to name which rights had been taken away from you …
How about this one:
Anatomy of a Bogus Subpoena
You did name one, and it was not about you, it was authorized by legitimste legislation, but …
OK, I surrender !
Bush was Hitler ! Were it not for you liberals , we’d all be in wiretapped concentration camps!
The people who compared Bush, Reagan, Ford and Nixon to Hitler were all justified.
Since Pres Obama wants only good things, he can do no harm , even by accident. The people who compare him to Hitler should deported to the East, and never seen again!
Thank God for the Obamassiah!
That’s the wonderful thing about illegally broad search warrants … they might include you, me, and everyone posting to this blog but we have no way of knowing. Does your fourth amendment right really mean so little to you?
Just asking for a bit of intellectual honesty, Frank, but that seems to be beyond you.