The Weathermen

There has been so much said about the debate between Palin and Biden that I almost feel the issue has been exhausted. She talked in circles, not worth a whole post about. You're welcome to disagree.

Mostly on the Palin front, crazy things have been happening, like inciting racial hatred. But I really wanted to talk about the Weathermen. What really strikes me about this is no one knew who they were until this whole thing "Obama knows Bill Ayers" started circulating. I still know quite a few people who don't know the name of the guy Obama is associated with. The whole thing is just so insanely obscure.

Yet without knowing much about the guy or his radical organization, Obama is suddenly a terrorist. Barack Hussein Obama, friend of terrorists, ergo he is a terrorist! So maybe he had dinner with Ayers, had coffee talk with him, if that makes him a terrorist then why aren't we arresting Ayers and all the Weathermen for treason? For the safety of this country, shouldn't we go all Japanese-internment-camp-style and just imprison everyone with a Muslim sounding name?

No. Because that would be stupid. However, that brings me back to what just boggles my mind about all this. The Republicans support "non-elitism" (ie no education) therefore most of their supporters boo Palin's mention of the New York Times....why do they even care who the Weathermen are? That's like ancient history. But then the people who hate Obama for being a terrorist probably count Birth of a Nation in their top ten films along with the Passion of Christ.

Do we really live in this country? Sarah Vowell was on the Daily Show last week, a woman born on Oklahoma, who now makes NY her home. She brought up the point that someone like Palin goes to Ground Zero and people all around America wrap themselves in this East Coast tragedy and two seconds later are complaining about our East Coast elitism (interesting as Obama isn't from the East Coast). Vowell also went onto wryly proclaim, "New York was American enough for Al Qaeda." Yet we aren't American enough for Americans. But to point out the irony of this to "wholesome" small town folk would brand us "elitist" once more.

For more reading about Obama being guilty by association, read Frank Rich's op-ed in the Times. He brings up a valid point that Palin is Anti-Semitic for quoting an Anti-Semitic guy, if we're doing the whole guilt-by-association thing. And why not? It's so easy to play this game. My grandfather was discharged from the US Army for reading Communist newspapers so I must be a Communist. Feel free to share your own guilt-by-association stories.