This Abe Lincoln craze going on right now – I was wondering why. Why all of a sudden are we bombarded with Lincoln?

Because (a) the twelfth of February is Lincoln's birthday, and (b) this year is the two-hundredth anniversary of Lincoln's birth in 1809.

Not everything is a conspiracy.

Ok, I've found it: Harpers April 2006 "American Coup d'Etat": http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/04/0080995

They hedge a bit and make sure they talk about it in the abstract . . .

It has become horrifyingly obvious that what we have here is a failure to communicate. I have spent the better part of my life in Big Red Oklahoma. My encounters have made me aware that much of the thinking back home goes beyond the power of reason. These people's brains just work differently. Given the same information, watching the same broadcast, completely different conclusions are drawn. I really do not understand, but I know one thing - I just really do not want to have to go through the rise of these crazed militias again. Please GG, say it ain't so.

I'm at work so I can't really watch the videos and haven't made it through all the comments, but, 2 things:

1) Oklahoma City is what happens when that sort of extremism reaches its outer limits (i.e. it's not just dress up)

2) While I'm alarmed by Fox News's seeming insurrection, it isn't without precedent on the other side of the political spectrum. I recall, sometime during the last 8 years (but I don't know the exact date) that Harpers had a roundtable with military experts mulling over the idea of maybe, sort of, perhaps, possibly getting to the point where it would be "moral" to overthrow the executive branch. I leave it to others to find the exact issue of Harpers.

If you followed the Ron Paul campaign at all, he repeatedly stressed that if you want to eliminate the IRS (as he did), you need to scale back the role of government. That is why he talked about ending the empire and getting back to the role for the Federal Government prescribed by the Constitution.

I doubt anyone will read this far in the thread, but still I wanted to address this one little myth.

Ron Paul does talk like a real libertarian and this is why he attracted such a strong following during the presidential campaign. But it is telling that he endored the theocratic Constitution party over the Libertarian party after the Republican convention. Behind his speeches of the past 5 years there is a long history of siding with Christianists and white supremacists.

Paul has learned, like any good politician, to play to his audience. He says the things that his supporters agree with, and by downplaying his racist and Christianist views, he's won a lot of new supporters. But those views are still a big part of who he is.

There is a reason Paul was censored so effectively by Fox News and the rest of the media -- his message, in its entirety, is perfect for the Republican base. No taxes, almost no government, kill the queers and the abortionists (yes, libertarians -- he is is very "pro-life"), deport the brown people, and make segregation legal again.

Liberals are pretty weak and reckless with our rights. Some are worse than others. Look at Carter, Kennedy, and the O man.

I don't know why but the U.N. is more workshiped than the U.S. Constitution, so it's logical that the 'right' worries.

Look at the illegals, it's a fact, democrats in power are hoping they can accept them the VOTES!! While they trample all our rights as Americans - get a fricken spine!!! There's a huge disconnect between Washington Democrats and democrats on the street.

Great article but too long and drawn-out for most igmos to understand. The reason that Republicans have raped this country for the last 3 decades is because Democrats take too long to make a point because they're so politically correct. Republicans regained power (after Nixon)for one reason. They mobilized a majority of whites who are just plain mad and worried about blacks. After all, the Southern Strategy could have been no more clear. 'State's Rights' was the battle-cry of Ron Raygun and the South in the Civil War. If you want to defuse that anger then you have to explain to them that they have been duped by Republicans who just wanted money and used race, insignificant social issues, and platitudes about God and self-reliance to get it. Hughy Long was a god to those rednecks not because he hated darkies but because he made whitey realize he was nothing more than a sharecropper on the bosses' plantation, not much better off than slaves. When liberals learn to throw a punch, and quit falling into fascist traps like hiring the same bosses who got us into this mess then, maybe the trailer trash will wake up and learn who the real enemy is; the ruling class that they will never become unless they hit the lottery. I say term limits on all politicians, public financing of all races and ban jive-talking lawyers from public office. Common sense will go further with common people.

Great article but too long and drawn-out for most igmos to understand. The reason that Republicans have raped this country for the last 3 decades is because Democrats take too long to make a point because they're so politically correct. Republicans regained power (after Nixon)for one reason. They mobilized a majority of whites who are just plain mad and worried about blacks. After all, the Southern Strategy could have been no more clear. 'State's Rights' was the battle-cry of Ron Raygun and the South in the Civil War. If you want to defuse that anger then you have to explain to them that they have been duped by Republicans who just wanted money and used race, insignificant social issues, and platitudes about God and self-reliance to get it. Hughy Long was a god to those rednecks not because he hated darkies but because he made whitey realize he was nothing more than a sharecropper on the bosses' plantation, not much better off than slaves. When liberals learn to throw a punch, and quit falling into fascist traps like hiring the same bosses who got us into this mess then, maybe the trailer trash will wake up and learn who the real enemy is; the ruling class that they will never become unless they hit the lottery. I say term limits on all politicians, public financing of all races and ban jive-talking lawyers from public office. Common sense will go further with common people.