Mr. Schaller,

You like most commentators throw around the word conservative...none of the extremists clanging up the town hall meetings is a conservative. Bush and Cheney were not conservatives. FOX Noise is not conservative.

Barry Goldwater was a conservative, really the last conservative look at the deficit Reagan rolled up.

So use that word carefully, right wing extremists are the opposite of conservative. Extremists, reactionaries, but never conservatives..... Go look up that word.

Unfortunately, it does seem to be sucking up all the oxygen at this point. Television coverage seems to be too obsessed with the "angry citizens" and the spectacle of the whole thing to actually take the time analyze or refute any of the disinformation being spread, or where it's coming from. Reporting the controversy still seems the order of the day.

Which is why the Left has been treating it like things that are doomed to backfire: ignoring it and most importantly not obsessively dissecting it in every available online forum.

They're totally not worried about it at all nosiree and they're definitely not frantically organizing union thugs to attack those astroweeding frauds whose pathetic attempt at activism is going to go nowhere – less than nowhere! - and we are definitely not scared, no Linda, don't worry, we’re not supposed to worry about it, it’s fine!

Get fucked.

Hey let's hope the end of this movement doesn't come in the form of a giant explosion. Seriously, what would Tim McVeigh do these days if he were still alive? There are still many like him around and this is getting serious.

a fuckin' a match.

>>What happens when a set of elites coordinate, fund and foment public expression, but encourage just about anyone—whether informed or not, whether skilled communicators or not, whether dedicated to the particular issue under discussion or merely dedicated to resistance for "Waterloo"-style resistance’s sake—and send them into the public arena to express their opinions? We get ugly signs, incoherent questions, and blood-curdling screams about the coming end of America as we know it. These are not the fine arts of persuasion, folks, whether in the realm of national health care politics or anywhere else.<<

Or we get the letters section of Salon.

I personally believe that the Republican opposition to the health care "reform" legislation being crafted is actually a cynical pretense to consolidate political capital.

Republican pols know that it was the partisan disparity of intensity of support that enabled Obama to win. But, in keeping with their position as whores of the corporate oligarchy, they realize that the legislation, as it's currently shaping up, will be a giveaway to the corporations that fund both parties. So they've decided to instigate an inflammatory (in the sense of inflaming the passions of their base) opposition movement that has little chance of being effective, but that motivates potential voters.

They win 2 ways: the legislation will pass, and any will be very advantageous to the people who fund campaigns, pack of dogs that form the base will have had their ideological bloodlust sated (for the moment)

The Hegelian dialectic in action...

So use that word carefully, right wing extremists are the opposite of conservative. Extremists, reactionaries, but never conservatives..... Go look up that word.

Well, since the "real conservatives" seem to be extinct, the imposters have been able to claim the word as their own. This sort of thing happens all the time.

For example, John Locke described Isaac Newton as a "nice man to deal with", but the word "nice" had a totally different meaning than in does today. What Locke meant was that Newton was a touchy S.O.B.

Isn't that the new strain in the dispensaries in San Francisco I have heard so much about?

One Puff and you are in outer space and no Oxygen goes to your brain.

Well, that exPalins a lot.

I totally agree. The way the liberals behaved at the beginning of the Iraq war was appalling.

when even some of those who arrived to oppose health care reform stand up and offer empty, angry, uniformed, platitudinous shouts, replete with references to socialism or fascism

This is my favorite. I'd love for some enterprising local reporter, cameraperson in tow, to walk up to some of these bug-eyed, red-faced trolls hollering about "socialism" and "fascism" (who strangely all seem to be upper middle-aged pasty white people) and ask them, on camera, to define "socialism." Or "fascism."

Guaranteed you'd get a totally blank, deer in the headlights stare, probably followed by some profanity and grumbling about the "liberal media." An answer, though, would not be forthcoming.

"For example, John Locke described Isaac Newton as a "nice man to deal with", but the word "nice" had a totally different meaning than in does today. What Locke meant was that Newton was a touchy S.O.B."

I haven't been following Lost, like who really can, but if they have introduced Sir Isaac Newton asa character I am going to have to tune in. Maybe he can make heads or tais of what the hell is going on.

As you go down Taraval look to the ocean and a little to the left and there is NO ISLAND.

As you go down Taraval look to the ocean and a little to the left and there is THE ISLAND.

One day it is there, the next day it isn't.

LOST within sight of San Francisco, sometimes.

Don't try to take a swim, every week is SHARK WEEK!

The air over the island acts as a lens, most of the time. It is a classic invisibility mirage.

Didn't the sight of a Libertarian psychotic attending a Presidential press conference with a freaking gun suggest something to you, Mr. Schaller?

I can safely predict that shots will be fired at one of these events, aimed at whoever may be on the podium. And many of the right wing blogs believe the Secret Service won't wish to take a bullet aimed at a black man. Which kind of gives away the reason why Elephantman's friends want to shoot.