Why Republicans are Losing Ground

These 10 points explain why republicans are becoming increasingly irrelevant. They're still loud and thorny but they're losing ground:

1. Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan, etc.)

2. Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, Lew Rockwell, etc.)

3. Support for throwing women back into the Dark Ages, and general religious fanaticism (see: Operation Rescue, anti-abortion groups, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, the entire religious right, etc.)

4. Support for anti-science bad craziness (see: creationism, climate change denialism, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, etc.)

5. Support for homophobic bigotry (see: Sarah Palin, Dobson, the entire religious right, etc.) Read the rest

David Gregory Interview With John McCain

John McCain talks about the minute by minute news cycle, which helps leads to a polarized nation, which makes it more difficult to govern.
McCain talks about a little bit of everything, including his thoughts on Sarah Palin's new book.
McCain says we haven't "won" in Afghanistan because we had all of our resources in Iraq. For background on Afghanistan, McCain recommends the book "Ghost Wars." Okay. I'll check it out.
On Iran, McCain says we should apply passive pressure for regime change. I think we should support the Iranian people but only Iranians can change their leadership. And they will. And we can support them as they do.
Modern day communism works for China. Communism works for Cuba. We can co-exist with other nations without them being exactly like us.
McCain paints a pretty picture of the republicans. He makes it sound like they want to negotiate and work with Obama. McCain may want to work with Obama, but most republicans don't.
This interview took place Oct. 1 at the Atlantic's First Draft of History forum. There is a Q&A session at the end with questions coming from the audience:

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Right Wing Extremists Clinging to Their Guns

These people are worthy of a Homeland Security report on right wing extremism. They are seriously delusional, paranoid and psycho. I'm no psychiatrist but it's apparent, there is some form of mental illness en masse going on here. How did these people come to be? I hope Secret Service is watching the insiders, not just these kooks. As we've seen, there are a lot of nutjobs, Michele Bachmann being the leading one, in Congress, who are glossing over their wackiness. You just know that Bachmann really wants to cut loose. 
This video is by Max Blumenthal:

On April 18 and 19, I attended gun shows in Antioch, California, and Reno, Nevada, to probe the culture of gun enthusiasts at the onset of the Obama era. I came away from these events with a portrait of a heavily armed, tightly organized movement incited by right-wing radio to a fever-pitched resentment of President Obama and his allies in Congress. Even as the economy suffers, gun dealers and their Washington lobbyists are leveraging renewed anti-government sentiment into unprecedented sales figures and fattened membership rolls. “We’ve been swamped today,” an NRA representative from Antioch boasted. “We’ve practically ran out of our materials that we give away at sign-up.”

Homeland Security Deems Rightwing Extremism Possible Threat

There is a new report out by Homeland Security that says rightwing extremism is a growing concern, that extremists are recruiting folks through issues such as gun control and immigration and a further downturn in the economy could make it worse. 
It seems these people feel isolated and need to be brought back into the fold somehow. I'm waiting for a strong moderate republican leader to put his or her foot down and say enough of the rightwing wackiness. It's interesting that conservatives, such as Newt, are identifying with the report.
Read the report, which assesses the threat, here.
Those of us who spend a lot of time on the Internet see all the hate there is out there for Obama, irrational hate, the kind of hate that no rescue, no accomplishments, no birth certificate will ever overturn. Just look at any of Sarah Palin's rallies and you'll see what's breeding out there. I believe some of it is deep rooted racism that these folks aren't even aware of. Instead they use the guise of issues such as guns and immigration to appear legitimate.
Look at the stockpiling of guns and ammunition simply because people irrationally believe Obama is going to take away their guns. They have this notion that they may have to defend themselves one day, against what I'm not sure, but it's paranoid behavior. 
It is being fueled by the likes of rightwing talk radio and extremist groups. When people get together and suggest that their survival is at stake because the president is brainwashing America, that's potentially dangerous.
Talk radio hosts may be oblivious to the kind of hatred they're seeding, or maybe not. I tend to think that they're only thinking of the ratings and their paycheck. I don't think they think about what their words might mean to someone who is unstable. 
CNN reports that the Obama administration issued a warning about left wing extremists too and that both reports were initiated under Bush.
Read more at ThinkProgress.
Some of what the report says:

The DHS/Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has no specific
information that domestic rightwing* terrorists are currently planning acts of violence,
but rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about
several emergent issues. The economic downturn and the election of the first
African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and
recruitment.

— (U//LES) Threats from white supremacist and violent antigovernment groups
during 2009 have been largely rhetorical and have not indicated plans to carry
out violent acts. Nevertheless, the consequences of a prolonged economic
downturn—including real estate foreclosures, unemployment, and an inability
to obtain credit—could create a fertile recruiting environment for rightwing
extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and
government authorities similar to those in the past.

— (U//LES) Rightwing extremists have capitalized on the election of the first
African American president, and are focusing their efforts to recruit new
members, mobilize existing supporters, and broaden their scope and appeal
through propaganda, but they have not yet turned to attack planning.

Update: It's not about political groups like conservatives, it's about hate groups trying to get more members: