Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Associations are important as they provide a significant insight into character yet Salon hasn't had a single article about their Jesus figurehead.

If a Republican had launched his politcal career at the home of an abortion clinic bomber he wouldn't get elected to the position of dog catcher. But somehow we have a corrupt Senator from Chicago pawning himself off as a healer and you're all ready to elect him PotUS.

...when their party is not in power; that is the fissured and factionalized nature of modern politics. At some time in the past, the allowance of peaceful secession might have prevented the imminent balkanization of the US, but that's neither here nor there at this point.

What intrigues me is the vitriol spewed towards what is perceived as the lifestyle of one of the finest regions in the United States, the Pacific Northwest, of which Alaska is simply the most distilled emblem.

The American northwest is a truly unique region--a place where outposts of urban cool dot the map among a landscape of the most beautiful and pristine nature anywhere in the industrialized world. The prevalence of native American culture--both in localized symbology and in actual fact--testifies to the underlying tolerance that does indeed gird the loins of our rugged individualists. Resistance to sterile, uniform governmental tyranny is simply a natural corollary to this mind-set.

I know that the letters written to Salon do not represent the "liberal" Democratic Party left in its totality, but what is represented speaks volumes about our modern polity. I have seen letters mocking us poor, backwards idiots who enjoy hunting and fishing and who oppose forced government taxation for such noble and benevolent ends as funding Wall Street's global consumer credit "markets" and bureaucratic monsters such as the "Drug Enforcement Agency," the "Department of Homeland Security," and yes, even the much-esteemed "National Endowment for the Arts" (because great art has never existed without federal tax dollars).

I even see one articulate fellow aptly named The Screaming Steam Hammers of Hate gleefully waiting for the day when tanks roll into Alaska to settle once and for all the matter of just just who is the rightful Lord and Master of these United States--never mind that the 2012 election cycle could very well bring us another fine imperial statesman bearing the Bush or Clinton brand name-- and if not, surely they will enjoy a most disproportionate patronage within our all-powerful .

As long as it engenders the furtherance of global corporate consolidation and can eliminate the superstitious ignorance of those who believe in the laws of a higher Deity above man, by violence of necessary, it is surely good. Federal tax dollars and the Screaming Tank Hammers of Hate have already managed to decimate the ancient Chaldean Christians of Iraq; I'm sure the dumbass goldminers of Alaska won't be far behind.

Sarah Palin is one worhtless B..t.ch

Her Role as Mom.

Raised a whore of a child.

Raised a drug addict son and shipped to Iraq since the army is recruiting any moron that shows up as they are desperate.

Role as a Politician

Never wanted Alaska to be part of US. But claims she is patriotic.

Travelled out of US for the first time last year and claims she knows foreign policy

Speaks worse than G.W.Bush. God knows which public school she went to.

Has never met a Black or Hispanic person and claims she understands America

No wonder she connects with all the right wing morons who are uneducated.

Cindy McCain as First Lady.

A former drug addict when McCain had her as his mistress.

She was on drugs when McCain travelled around and her family had to take care of the kids.

2 great role models for all American family.

Everyone here in Oklahoma City remembers as if it were yesterday just how dangerous radical right wing extremists can be. For those most directly harmed with the loss of a child, a mother, a father, a friend, a colleague, or by their rescue efforts, I imagine thirteen years seems less than a day. McVeigh, Nichols, and their cohorts were nurtured among such thinkers and motivated by such thinking. That doesn't mean any but the fewest are the extremist of the extremist, but I still have to ask, when did McCain first know Palin was associated with such a group, and why is she on the ticket?

These sort of people are perfectly harmless. There is no comparison between someone who says he wants Alaska to secede and a real terrorist who is unrepentant about murdering people for political purposes. Sorry, you uninformed idiots, but EVERYBODY in Alaska talks about that from time to time, because we're far away from the lower 48. And the man is right that most Alaskans own guns. Even most Democrats. Idiots.

The fact that Palin befriends such a person says nothing damning about her. But the fact that Obama befriends a person who says he "didn't do enough" and doesn't regret his politically-motivated murders says a great deal indeed about his character. It says a lot about the degree to which he is radicalized and a lot about his dishonesty in how he has portrayed himself. He is not a moderate who will bring people together. He is one of the most left-wing of Democrats, and the farthest left presidential candidate ever to be inflicted on the U.S.

Also to the point is the fact that Palin and her associations show that she stands for the principles that this country was built upon. Oh, how radical. Meanwhile, Obama and his associations show that he stands for radically changing the structure of the country. He wants to add over $1 trillion in spending, radically expand the size of the out-of-control federal government, and he thinks health care is a RIGHT, which it is not in our constitution. The latter things are not associations, but known facts about Obama, that most people have not reflected on sufficiently.

The self-serving intellectual dishonesty here is very disappointing. Grow a character, Salon.