A new video posted to Youtube shows McCain/Palin supporters spewing racism and hate at peaceful pro-Obama demonstrators outside a McCain/Palin rally Oct. 27 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. One older gentleman early in the video shouts "Bomb Obama!" at the videographer and Obama supporters. Asked by the videographer what that means, the man says, "Get rid of him," then gestures indicating this means assassinating Obama. A younger man holding a "Democrats for McCain" sign says, when asked why he supports McCain, "I'd never vote for a black man." Another young man declares, "I do not want a black man running my country." Among women at the rally, one says she is against Obama because "his associations and his judgment are not American," repeating the Obama-as-foreigner meme. Another older gentleman also repeats this idea, insisting that Obama was born in Kenya, not the United States, and asking for his birth certificate (ample proof exists that Obama was born in the US state of Hawaii). Other rallygoers shout various combinations of "Barack Hussein Obama" in addition to the usual charges that Obama is a "terrorist" and a "baby killer." If we needed more proof that racism and hate are indeed running rampant in the grassroots Republican ranks, this is it. The video is credited to the Pennsylvania progressive organization Keystone Progress.

The scene following a Sarah Palin rally Oct. 21 outside Las Vegas turned ugly when departing McCain/Palin supporters confronted a small group of peaceful pro-Obama demonstrators. Video from the Las Vegas Sun shows McCain/Palin supporters in Henderson NV shouting, "Vote McCain, Not Hussein!" at Obama supporters in addition to more overtly race-based taunts including nonsensical charges that Obama either is an Arab or has dangerous ties to Arabs. One woman shouts: "This country needs to wake up! Obama is dangerous! This man is a tyrant to this country. I mean, he has connections to Arabs! His education was paid for by Arabs! He's an abomination!" A man says: "Yes, I am a racist.... Those Arabs are dirtbags. They're dirty people, they hate Americans, they hate my kids, they hate my grandkids." More video from the Henderson event at Youtube includes the usual shouts of "Terrorist!", "Communist!", and "Anti-American!" at the small group of Obama supporters in addition to two men shouting: "No Arabs in the White House!" while the Obama supporters sing "Why can't we be friends?" An additional video at Youtube includes one man shouting "Dope and loose change!" at Obama supporters and a woman shouting: "Barack Hussein Obama! Barack Hussein, he associates with terrorists...! He is anti-American, he is anti-military, he has done nothing for Chicago, his middle name is a terrorist name, he takes money from terrorists, he associates with terrorists!" These video records from Henderson NV are only the latest in a growing library of similar material from McCain/Palin events across the United States, illustrating a disturbing pattern of hate-based behavior at these events that seems to be intensifying as Election Day nears.

McCain/Palin campaign volunteer Ashley Todd of College Station, Texas, has admitted to police in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that her report of a mutilation attack there by an Obama supporter was a hoax. In an apparent attempt at race-baiting to draw white voters away from Obama, Todd initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM the night of Oct. 22 by a tall black man who became enraged, beat her, and carved a "B" into her cheek after seeing a McCain-Palin bumper sticker on her car. Todd said the man told her he was going to teach her a lesson for supporting McCain, and that now she was going to be a "Barack supporter."

Police later said, however, that details of Todd's story kept changing, prompting them to give her a polygraph test. Other problem in Todd's story included the fact that the "B" scratched onto her cheek was reversed as though done in a mirror by Todd herself, and the absence of any video surveillance or bank records verifying her claim of having carried out an ATM transaction immediately prior to the alleged attack. Finally today (Oct. 24), Todd confessed to police that the attack never happened, indicating that her wounds were self-inflicted. Todd is now facing charges for filing a false report to police (see AP, KDKA, Huffington Post).

An incident such as this is exactly what I would have expected from the grotesque circus the McCain campaign has become particularly since the arrival of Sarah Palin. McCain/Palin rallies, and particularly Palin rallies, have turned into festivals of hate as attendees shout "Terrorist!" and "Kill Him!" at each mention of Obama's name and vent their rage at the media by attacking reporters. An obvious wingnut, willing to use racist tactics in a sick attempt to make white voters nervous about Obama, Ashley Todd is precisely the type of personality I would expect to be drawn to Palin. Indeed it isn't hard to imagine the 20-year-old Todd as a younger, less fortunate mirror image of Palin herself, and I wouldn't be surprised if Todd identified personally with Palin in ways a psychoanalyst would find fascinating. Her willingnes to mutilate herself suggests anything but good mental health, and the pathological feelings about African Americans her actions reveal put her in good company with the other crazies we have seen turning up at Palin events.

Fox News executive vice-president John Moody wrote hopefully in his blog earlier today that "if Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists..., but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee." On the other hand, Moody observes not so hopefully, "if the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."

Unfortunately for Mr. Moody and Sen. McCain, the latter would seem to be the case.

Marcia Stirman (pictured here), head of the  Republican Women of Otero County, New Mexico, published a letter in the Alamagordo Daily News Oct. 21 stating her belief that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is "a Muslim socialist." The letter listed Stirman's reasons for being a Republican, including her belief that "Muslims are our enemies," and concluding with her belief that Obama is "a Muslim socialist."

In fact, as most Americans know full well, Obama is neither a Muslim nor a socialist. Ms. Stirman is obviously an ignorant bigot.

Interviewed by the Associated Press following the publication of her letter, Stirman said of Muslims: "I don't trust them at all. They've sworn across the world that they are our enemies. Why we're trying to elect one is beside me." Sassy Tinling, chair of the Otero County Republican Party, said Wednesday that Stirman would be asked to resign from her position as head of the Republican women's group. Stirman herself has stood by her remarks and has offered no apology to any who might have been offended.

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said of Stirman's statements: "Because these hate-filled remarks were made by a prominent Republican, it is incumbent on state and national GOP officials to repudiate her divisive and intolerant views." Stirman remained unapologetic, however, as she expressed in the Las Cruces Sun News: "I still have freedom of speech and an opinion. If the Islamic group doesn't like it, well, I don't like what's going on in their camp, either."

Stirman is an interior decorator with Artistic Interior Solutions, 1702 23rd St., Alamogordo NM 88310. Comments may be directed to Stirman by e-mail at mstirman@yahoo.com or by telephone at (575) 437-9362.

Attendees at a Barack Obama rally Oct. 19 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, had their tires slashed apparently by supporters of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Following the rally, early Obama voters were heckled by McCain/Palin supporters outside at least one polling place in Fayetteville.

According to the Fayetteville Observer, some person or persons unknown slashed the tires of at least 30 vehicles parked outside Fayetteville's Crown Coliseum during the Oct. 19 Obama rally, leaving attendees including a single mother and her baby stranded and upset. At least four tow trucks had to be called for stranded vehicles at a cost upwards of $100 for each vehicle. One Obama supporter quoted in this report expressed the belief that the slashed tires were an effort to intimidate her and others like her, but insisted that she wouldn't be deterred from supporting Obama.

Following the rally, Obama supporters taking advantage of early voting were met by hecklers outside at least one Fayettevile polling place. Unlike the anonymous tire-slashers of earlier in the day, the hecklers outside this polling place left no doubt as to who they were and why they were there. As shown in two videos posted to the Washington Times, many of the hecklers were holding McCain/Palin campaign signs; and all were white while most of the voters they were heckling were black. Reporter Christina Bellantoni described the McCain/Palin forces here as "a group of loud and angry protesters who shouted and mocked the voters as they walked in" to vote, their shouts including the usual claims that Obama is a "socialist" or a "terrorist," and even that the voters themselves were "cheaters."

A report by the Institute for Southern Studies in Durham NC suggests that the heckling incident may be a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1964, which states: "No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for voting or attempting to vote, or intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for urging or aiding any person to vote or attempt to vote."

John McCain and Sarah Palin did not tell their supporters to slash the tires of Obama supporters or to heckle voters at a polling place. In view of their continued insistence on the use of fear and hate to manipulate voters, however, and in view of the similar types of hate-based behavior we have seen at McCain/Palin rallies across the United States, I would argue that McCain, Palin, and the GOP are as responsible for these acts as the perpetrators themselves. McCain and Palin need to be held accountable for the lynch-mob mentality they have knowingly cultivated among their supporters with their own divisive rhetoric.

The McCain/Palin campaign of hate and fear against Barack Obama, and its attempts to tie Obama to alleged vote fraud by ACORN, have resulted in a string of attacks on ACORN offices and staff including vandalism, hate calls, and at least one death threat.

As McClatchy reports, ACORN offices in Boston and Seattle were vandalized Oct. 16, and ACORN staff in Cleveland and Providence RI have reported telephone hate calls as well as e-mails including direct threats. A senior ACORN staffer in Cleveland, after appearing on television last week, received an e-mail saying that she "is going to have her life ended." Meanwhile, a female staffer in Providence received a threatening call from someone who directed racial slurs at her and said words to the effect of "We know you get off work at 9."

ACORN spokesman Brian Kettenring told McClatchy that, since McCain's remarks accusing his organization of vote fraud, ACORN's 87 offices across the country have received hundreds of hostile e-mails, many of them containing racial slurs. "We believe that these are specifically McCain supporters" sending the messages, Kettenring said.

Right Wing Watch has obtained audio files of hate calls ACORN has received as well as copies of e-mails including threats and racial slurs. One young woman caller openly states that Barack Obama and other blacks should be lynched: "Barack Obama needs to get hung...," the young woman says, "...All the niggers on oak trees. They're gonna get all hung, honeys, they're gonna get assassinated, they're gonna get killed." A male caller, meanwhile suggests with obvious racial undertones that all "liberals" are "welfare bums" who "come to our country, consume every natural resource there is, and make a lot of babies." Accusing these "liberals" of sucking up welfare and health care benefits for their children, the caller continues: "I just say let your kids die.... And I hope you all die." In addition to the e-mail death threat from Cleveland cited above, an e-mail copied at Right Wing Watch says: "You blue gums are not going to steal the election. All of you porch monkeys need to go back to Africa."

As Rachel Maddow and others have reported and as ACORN itself has explained, any cases of voter registration fraud connected to ACORN are  most likely attributable to dishonesty on the part of people hired by ACORN to register voters (it's easier to fake registrations than go out and get real ones) rather than any dark conspiracy on the part of ACORN itself; and in any case is unlikely to result in actual voter fraud since fictional people are unlikely to show up on Election Day. As Maddow and others have also reported, Obama's only relationship to ACORN was as an attorney in partnership with the US Justice Department and the League of Women Voters in addition to ACORN to sue the State of Illinois for enforcement of the 1993 federal "motor voter" registration law.

John McCain, meanwhile, has his own links to ACORN as Maddow and others have also noted. McCain was in fact the keynote speaker at an ACORN-sponsored event in Miami on Feb. 20, 2006 in support of comprehensive immigration reform, which McCain once supported. A video of the event including McCain's address clearly demonstrates McCain's support for ACORN's objectives at that time: "What makes America special...," McCain's declares to an audience filled with with red-shirted ACORN members, "...is what's in this room tonight" (see also Politico, MarketWatch).

The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) is an organization dedicated to empowering low- and moderate-income Americans through voter registration drives, ballot initiatives, service delivery, and other organizing efforts. ACORN is not the sinister cell of subversives John McCain, Sarah Palin, and other Republicans have accused it of being. In fact, ACORN has frequently been on the same side as the federal government in voters' rights cases such as that in which Barack Obama was involved as an attorney-at-law.

Republican attacks on ACORN have nothing to do with voter fraud, and everything to do with smearing Barack Obama and with finding ways to stop likely Democrats from voting. These Republican attacks are nothing more than a grand voter intimidation scheme aimed at young voters, low- and moderate-income voters, urban voters and people of color who would most likely be voting Democratic on Nov. 4.

John McCain and Sarah Palin did not tell their supporters to vandalize ACORN offices or contact ACORN with death threats. In view of their continued insistence on the use of fear and hate to manipulate voters, however, and in view of the similar types of hate-based behavior we have seen at McCain/Palin rallies across the United States, I would argue that McCain, Palin, and the GOP are as responsible for these acts as the perpetrators themselves. McCain and Palin need to be held accountable for the lynch-mob mentality they have knowingly cultivated among their supporters with their own divisive rhetoric.

Republicans across the United States are getting into a lot of hot water these days for hate-based attacks on Barack Obama, and "tolerant" California is no exception. Earlier this week, the Sacramento County Republican Party and its chair, attorney Craig S. MacGlashan, caught some well-deserved flack for posting anti-Obama materials on the county GOP website including a call to "Waterboard Barack Obama" and a statement equating Obama with terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. Having removed the materials Oct. 14 in the face of sharp criticism from Republicans as well as Democrats, MacGlashan later found it necessary to apologize for the materials even as local Republicans called for his resignation. MacGlashan's wife, a Sacramento County supervisor, also condemned the materials, calling them "hateful, stupid and offensive."

Following these events in Sacramento another instance of hate-based Republican attacks on Obama was reported Oct. 16 in San Bernardino County east of Los Angeles. Here, an organization of Republican women circulated a newsletter including a depiction of Barack Obama on a US food stamp surrounded by a watermelon, ribs, and a bucket of fried chicken (pictured here). Diane Fedele, president of Chaffey Community Republican Women Federated, was also forced to apologize for the picture but denied any racist intent despite the obvious racial stereotypes included in it. As in the Sacramento case, state Republican officials were forced to condemn and disavow the San Bernardino attack.

There was a time, not so long ago, when Republicans could get away with hate campaigns like this, particularly on the local level free of national attention. Thanks to the internet, those days are gone.

Craig S. MacGlashan is an attorney with the Sacramento law firm of Nageley, Meredith, and Miller (8001 Folsom Boulevard, Suite 100, Sacramento CA 95826). The firm can can be contacted by telephone at (916) 386-8282 or by e-mail at mail@NMLawFirm.com. MacGlashan may be directly contacted for comment by telephone at the same number or by e-mail at cmacglashan@nmlawfirm.com. MacGlashan sits also on the board of directors of the Saramento Valley Lincoln Club, a conservative political action committee, and is married to Sacramento County Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan.

Diane Fedele and the Chaffey Community Republican Women Federated may be contacted by e-mail at diane1354@mindspring.com and diane1354@verizon.net, by telephone at (909) 981-0493, by fax at (909) 982-6880, or by mail at P.O. Box 974, Upland CA 91785. Chaffey Community Republican Women Federated meet the fourth Wednesday of every month, 7:00 p.m., at the  Magic Lamp Inn, 8189 Foothill Blvd., Rancho Cucamonga CA 91730.