Maine Owl

Ms. Owl: Is McCain sure he wants to go there? If we start looking into his associates we're liable to find Al Capone.

Hypocritical Republicans 100% on negative meter


"Playing to the rally": Rachel Maddow with Lawrence O'Donnell, Thursday October 9 show.

Those are scary, angry people. More, link from a friend ...

Anger Is Crowd's Overarching Emotion at McCain Rally
By Michael D. Shear and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, October 10, 2008; Page A04

WAUKESHA, Wis., Oct. 9 -- There were shouts of "Nobama" and "Socialist" at the mention of the Democratic presidential nominee. There were boos, middle fingers turned up and thumbs turned down as a media caravan moved through the crowd Thursday for a midday town hall gathering featuring John McCain and Sarah Palin. ...

[Wisconsin wingnut radio talker James T. Harris]: "We have the good Reverend Wright. We have [the Rev. Michael L.] Pfleger. We have all of these shady characters that have surrounded him," Harris bellowed. "We have corruption here in Wisconsin and voting across the nation. I am begging you, sir. I am begging you. Take it to him."

The crowd of thousands roared its approval.

But often those who cast stones live in glass houses. It is quite shocking to do the kind of looking into McCain and Palin pals that Ms. Owl suggests. Alaska anti-government secessionists provide fertile ground for harvesting Palin hypocrisies.

The Palins' un-American activities
Imagine if the Obamas had hooked up with a violently anti-American group in league with the government of Iran. - By David Talbot, Salon.com

Oct. 7, 2008 | "My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand."

This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week.

Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that’s the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. ("Keep up the good work," Palin told AIP members. "And God bless you.")

And there is this from Max Bleumanthal and Dave Neiwert:

Meet Sarah Palin's radical right-wing pals
Extremists Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll helped launch Palin's political career in Alaska, and in return had influence over policy. "Her door was open," says Chryson — and still is.

So long as Alaska remained under the boot of the federal government, said Chryson, the AIP [Alaska Independence Party] had to stand on guard to stymie a New World Order. He invited a Salon reporter to see a few items inside his pickup truck that were intended for his personal protection. "This here is my attack dog," he said with a chuckle, handing the reporter an exuberant 8-pound papillon from his passenger seat. "Her name is Suzy." Then he pulled a 9-millimeter Makarov PM pistol — once the standard-issue sidearm for Soviet cops — out of his glove compartment. "I’ve got enough weaponry to raise a small army in my basement," he said, clutching the gun in his palm. "Then again, so do most Alaskans." But Chryson added a message of reassurance to residents of that faraway place some Alaskans call "the 48." "We want to go our separate ways," he said, "but we are not going to kill you."

It seems to me that Palin's association with gun-toting lunatics in Alaska secessionist militias are a lot more current and a lot more vital than ties to the 1960s Weathermen that Obama the child never had.