Monday, November 25, 2013

JFK's speech warning us about the Right Wing that a bullet kept him from delivering 50 years ago. Update!

This is an excerpt from the speech that John F. Kennedy had prepared to deliver in Dallas, the breeding ground for the Tea Party of today, but was struck down by an assassin's bullet before he could speak its words out loud:  

In a world of complex and continuing problems, in a world full of frustrations and irritations, America's leadership must be guided by the lights of learning and reason -- or else those who confuse rhetoric with reality and the plausible with the possible will gain the popular ascendancy with their seemingly swift and simple solutions to every world problem. 

There will always be dissident voices heard in the land, expressing opposition without alternative, finding fault but never favor, perceiving gloom on every side and seeking influence without responsibility. Those voices are inevitable. 

But today other voices are heard in the land -- voices preaching doctrines wholly unrelated to reality, wholly unsuited to the sixties, doctrines which apparently assume that words will suffice without weapons, that vituperation is as good as victory and that peace is a sign of weakness. At a time when the national debt is steadily being reduced in terms of its burden on our economy, they see that debt as the single greatest threat to our security. At a time when we are steadily reducing the number of Federal employees serving every thousand citizens, they fear those supposed hordes of civil servants far more than the actual hordes of opposing armies. 

We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will "talk sense to the American people." But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense. And the notion that this Nation is headed for defeat through deficit, or that strength is but a matter of slogans, is nothing but just plain nonsense.

Clearly that is a speech which could be delivered today, and its meaning would not be lost. In fact today a speech like that may be needed more than ever. 

That speech could be talking about Rush Lumbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and just about ANY of those who fear monger over at Fox News or on Right Wing radio.

It could also be addressing the Teabaggers who enter politics simply to sabotage from within.

In fact Tom Brokaw remembered the reaction from the conservatives of the time to the news of JFK's death, and related it on MSNBC on Friday: 

Recounting his experiences from that day, he said that the reaction to JFK’s assassination, “mostly in conservative states,” was encapsulated by his interaction with one man who expressed satisfaction over the president’s killing. 

“This was unusual but it was not unheard of,” Brokaw told the MSNBC hosts, prefacing a conservative’s reaction to JFK’s killing. “As I came running out of the announce booth, the chief engineer, with whom I didn’t get along very well – he’s a really curmudgeonly guy, old, kind of a gnarly guy – said ‘What happened?’” 

“‘Kennedy was shot,’” Brokaw recalled telling the engineer. “He said, ‘About time somebody shot that SOB’” 

“That was heard in other places, mostly in conservative states,” Brokaw concluded. “That was reflecting his real feeling for him and they had to peel me away from him.”

Are there any among us who do not believe that the reaction to news of President Obama's assassination would not be virtually identical among the Right Wing of today?

We need to remember as we document and discuss the sabotage and obstructionism practiced by the conservatives of today, that if they feel backed into a corner there is no telling to what lengths they will go to survive.

(H/T to Rolling Stone.)

Update: Well right on cue here come the Teabaggers to help me make my point.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

An apparent threat made against President Barack Obama’s life posted on Facebook has caught the attention of the Secret Service. 

Agents declined to comment on the post, which has been removed but was preserved in screen captures by Social News Daily, made Tuesday by Everest Wilhelmen, leader of the Christian American Patriots Militia. 

“We now have authority to shoot Obama, i.e., to kill him,” Wilhelmsen posted on his Facebook page. “His willful violations and alienation of our Constitution, constant disregard for our peaceful protests and corruption of all the three branches of government, (i.e., rogue and illegitimate government), reveal the dictator that he is. Obama and his co-conspirators disrespect our Constitution (constitutional rule of law) and abuse the American people.” 

The post was made the same day as a gathering of right-wing cranks, conspiracy theorists and gun advocates met at a park across from the White House demanding that Obama voluntarily leave office.

When the Right Wing cannot get their way through elections, or political maneuverings, then their only fallback is to start the killing.

And this is why we want stronger gun control laws in this country. As far as I am concerned nobody who posts something like this should be able to even touch a weapon for the rest of their life. And that goes for the little one between their legs as well, no sense in letting these idiots procreate.

21 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:19 PM

    Those fuckers over at Palin Cult Land pray for Obama's assassination every single day of their pathetic useless lives.

    Sometimes they almost do it online. They see themselves in the starring role as the killer and then Sarah giving them a blow job.






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    1. Anonymous1:07 PM

      They ought to be all shot! Or better yet a drone fall on them. All of 'em any of 'em!
      Fuck Cons!
      Stick their flags up their asses and fly the fuck away!

      Delete
  2. Add to that the end of Eisenhower's farewell address -

    "We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love."

    Right now it feels that we are so very far away from sense.

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    1. Irishgirl2:29 PM

      You have nuts like this dictating policy.

      http://austinisafecker.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/the-feckers-who-caused-the-shutdown-of-the-american-government/

      Some one needs to chop them off at the knees.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:33 PM

      Did Bush give a 'farewll address?'Was it all about how he 'kept us safe?' by bombing Iraq into smithereens, losing trillions in cash, passing unfunded mandates in education and health care, and spying and torturing?

      Delete
  3. Anonymous12:21 PM

    The RWNJ aren't in any danger of not surviving. They're thriving, the GOP is passing the party to them on a plate. It's the GOP who'll be fighting for survival but killing Obama wouldn't help them against the teabaggers.

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  4. Anonymous12:55 PM

    Christian American Patriots Militia leader: We now have authority to shoot Obama

    An apparent threat made against President Barack Obama’s life posted on Facebook has caught the attention of the Secret Service.

    Agents declined to comment on the post, which has been removed but was preserved in screen captures by Social News Daily, made Tuesday by Everest Wilhelmen, leader of the Christian American Patriots Militia.

    “We now have authority to shoot Obama, i.e., to kill him,” Wilhelmsen posted on his Facebook page. “His willful violations and alienation of our Constitution, constant disregard for our peaceful protests and corruption of all the three branches of government, (i.e., rogue and illegitimate government), reveal the dictator that he is. Obama and his co-conspirators disrespect our Constitution (constitutional rule of law) and abuse the American people.”

    The post was made the same day as a gathering of right-wing cranks, conspiracy theorists and gun advocates met at a park across from the White House demanding that Obama voluntarily leave office.

    Wilhelmsen does not refer specifically to the Reclaim America Now rally, but he does circle the date as he attempts to constitutionally justify his apparent call for the president’s murder.

    “The authority to kill Obama comes from the 2nd Amendment of our Constitution: He is levying war on the United States and aiding and comforting our foreign enemies – the 2nd Amendment gives us the right and duty (authority) to engage an enemy of the United States that does so with the design to reduce us under absolute Despotism. I would be very surprised, if Obama does not leave Washington DC today (Nov. 19th) … never to return, if he is not dead within the month,” Wilhelmsen posted.

    Wilhelmsen is listed as the group administrator of the Christian American Patriots Militia’s Facebook page, which claims more than 1,400 members who operate as a “closed group” and cites a hodgepodge of Bible verses to justify armed rebellion against the U.S. government......

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/25/christian-american-patriots-militia-leader-we-now-have-authority-to-shoot-obama/

    This is just all kinds of wrong and CHRISTIAN? No fucking way. I hope they throw his ass in jail...forever.

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  5. Anonymous1:02 PM

    As we speculated in May, “Republicans Are Using the IRS Scandal to Hide Their Koch Fueled Shady Activities .”

    Busted. Karl Rove’s SuperPAC Crossroads GPS spent more money than it said it did on politics, according to a new tax return procured by Kim Barker at ProPublica.

    Examining the Crossroads tax documents at the request of ProPublica, Marcus Owens – the former head of the IRS’ Exempt Organization division – definitively declared, “That’s called bullsh*t with a serving of horsesh*t on the side.”

    http://www.politicususa.com/2013/11/25/expert-calls-karl-roves-crossroads-gps-tax-documents-bullsht-side-horsesht.html

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  6. Anonymous1:21 PM

    Oh god...you bring the pain and the horrible memories back so clearly. People despised Catholics and especially the Kennedy's.

    Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. characterized prejudice against the Catholics as "the deepest bias in the history of the American people." 1956

    "Catholic baiting is the anti-Semitism of the liberals." Peter Viereck 1960

    It wasn't just the Kennedys. It was all Catholics, just for existing.

    It wasn't until the '80's that the prejudice faded as Protestants and Catholics combined forces to discriminate against gays.

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    1. Anonymous1:59 PM

      What you posted is so true. I remember when Kennedy was running for President. My parents were strong Democrats and planned to vote for him but it did bother them at first that he was Catholic. When a Catholic school opened in my hometown in Minnesota years ago, the KKK burned a cross on a hill overlooking the town in protest.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous1:33 PM

    Mental Health has always been an issue in this country........the sane must prevail.........that is all......

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  8. Anonymous2:05 PM

    Let's see how fast "vituperation" makes it into one of her word sausages!

    And we'll just see how well their little assassination plot goes. Isn't it supposed to start this Friday?

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  9. Sharon2:17 PM

    We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will "talk sense to the American people." But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense.

    No truer words have ever been spoken. There was not the intense money machine of the right back then, the airwaves plus the 24/7 lie and hate sewerage spewed on Fox. Kennedy was the generation of our parents, that were informed with facts...we all know who hated him. The same people that hate blacks, immigrants, gays etc that never were informed with facts anyway. If only the Dems had the balls the GOP does, why are they so wimpy? What a difference it would make....I am hoping 2014 will be better.

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    1. Anonymous6:30 PM

      2014 will be better IF we retain the Senate and get the House back..something unimaginable a few months ago, but doable now. We must get out and vote. We must help candidates get their positive messages out, because all the GOP has is lies and hate. They have not done a damn thing in 10 years to help people, and they never will. Time they get some real jobs.

      Delete
  10. Tea Party = Fascists

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  11. If there was ever a prophetic description of Sarah Palin here it is ....

    "There will always be dissident voices heard in the land, expressing opposition without alternative, finding fault but never favor, perceiving gloom on every side and seeking influence without responsibility. Those voices are inevitable".

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    1. Anonymous6:15 PM

      You are right but she's just the lead singer right now. Can't forget her backup choir --- Cruz, the Pauls, Bachmann, Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Coulter, Boehner, McConnell and so many more. They have more voices than the Mormon Choir & Duck Dynasty combined.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous3:47 PM

    Thanks for the update. I was hoping this FB site would be taken seriously by the Secret Service.

    The same people who tell their children to be careful what they put pen to paper or place on the internet seem to think they are immune from this.

    To publicly write of killing POTUS is crazy in any century. But, these cowards seem to think the 1st amendment will protect them all.

    Geez, I guess they never heard of free speech and the concept of "Clear and present danger".

    The fact that this guy had a following still amazes me. I guess it shouldn't.

    For the folks who "friended" his FB site or added fuel to this guy's fire, well, the Secret Service may now have you on its radar.

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    1. Anita Winecooler10:13 PM

      Well put. I had a similar feeling while reading it.

      Delete
  13. Leland5:25 PM

    I remember the day Kennedy was shot. (Everyone alive and aware then does!) I was in the tenth grade. German class. Our principal came over the PA system and made the announcement. One bitch in our class got up and started to dance saying "About time" and "Yippee!" and shit like that.

    My girlfriend at the time was in the same class. She quietly stood and when the girl was facing her she hauled off and cold cocked the idiot! Out like a light. ONE SHOT!

    The teacher looked at the girl on the floor and said something to the affect that someone should call the janitor to mop up the wet spot so no one else slipped and fell.

    That was the story all of us used when the girl complained of assault.

    I am happy to say that the entire family had to move away because they all basically were too stupid to understand that whether or not you dislike a president is NO reason to dance about their murder.

    I fully expect that the same bitch (and her family if she has one) will try to do the same if Obama is shot.

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  14. Anita Winecooler10:21 PM

    I can't write the words. Since the day he was elected the first time, I felt the level of hate was so ramped up by mc cain's cheerleader and others during the campaign, I actually gasped when Potus and the First Lady exited the car and walked while waving at the crowds.
    JFK's speech is actually more relevant today than it was then. We have electronic media and instant communication along with a constant news cycle. I'm pleased this guy got found, and hope all who are linked to him get the attention he's getting. Just to set an example.

    Why did the push for assault weapons law reform seem to have faded lately?

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