An upsurge in right-wing violence/terrorism is occurring within and outside the United States (UPDATED)

While the actual base of the Republican party, right-wing extremist racists, is being riled up by the Alaska Disasta’ and her running mate, it seems the unevolved natives are starting to bubble up everywhere.

First Palin:

It was time to revive the allegation, made over the weekend, that Obama “pals around” with terrorists, in this case Bill Ayers, late of the Weather Underground. Many independent observers say Palin’s allegations are a stretch; Obama served on a Chicago charitable board with Ayers, now an education professor, and has condemned his past activities.

“Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers,” Palin said.

“Boooo!” said the crowd.

“And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,’” she continued.

“Boooo!” the crowd repeated.

“Kill him!” proposed one man in the audience.

Then McCain:

McCain was speaking today in New Mexico, doing his usual personal attack on Barack Obama, as the stock market plummeted (you can see the ticker next to McCain on the screen, an apt reminder of what McCain and his fellow Republicans represent), and McCain asked the crowd “who is Barack Obama?” Immediately you hear a supporter yell “terrorist.” McCain pauses, the audience laughs, and McCain continues on, not acknowledging, not chastising, not correcting. Oh, but McCain does say in the next sentence that he’s upset about all the “angry barrage of insults.” Is McCain losing his mind, or just a liar?

NB It’s particularly ironic calling Obama a terrorist when it’s Sarah Palin’s church that preaches that terrorist attacks against Israel are “God’s judgment” on those awful Jews for not accepting Christ.

Now, it seems that this garbage is happening outside the US as well.

From liberal Toronto:

Toronto police patrolled a midtown area overnight, after vandals cut brake lines on at least 10 cars parked at homes with Liberal election signs on their lawns.

“We’re investigating. Officers are paying special attention to the designated area and we take this very seriously,” Staff-Sgt. Shawn Meloche, from 53 Division, said last night. “This is a danger to life as well as to property. Regardless of the motivation – and there appears to be a connection (to the signs) – this is a public safety issue.”

Affected residents live in the riding of St. Paul’s, in a swath of the city around Eglinton Ave. between Bathurst St. and Mount Pleasant Rd., and had Carolyn Bennett signs on their property. Although Meloche confirmed 10 cases of vandalism last night, Liberal riding headquarters said the number was going up, reporting 14 by 9 p.m.

(snip)

“There are two child seats in the back of my car,” said Andrew Lane, chief financial officer for Bennett’s campaign. “To cut the brake line on a car like that is just evil. Awful.”

Added Lane, whose children are 6 months and 22 months: “You have to crawl under someone’s car and cut the brake line, knowing that it could kill someone, or their whole family.”

Lane discovered his brakes didn’t work on his silver Saturn View as he tried to pull up at a stop sign near his home yesterday. He kept slamming the brakes and, in a “moment of terror,” narrowly avoided slamming into a bus.

Later, the garage called to tell him it had been no accident. When Lane expressed disbelief, the mechanic told him: “Look, this is a big, heavy rubber hose and it’s been cut through with a very sharp knife. You should phone the police.”

Jesus.  And then from liberal London, via Crooks and Liars:

A man told today how he was shot three times in a London street for wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt.

Dube Egwuatu was buying a mobile telephone top-up card in an off-licence when the gunman confronted him and glared at the top, which carries an image of the Democrat US presidential candidate underneath the legend ‘Believe’.

The man then launched into a tirade of racist slurs, shouting ‘I f***ing hate n*****s’ and urging 36-year-old Mr Egwuatu to leave the shop with him.

(snip)

‘I couldn’t believe it was happening – and just because I was wearing an Obama T-shirt. He was trying to make me walk somewhere quieter, saying: ‘I’ve got something for you,’ and ‘I’m going to kill you.’

He added: ‘Obama inspires me, his educational track record alone is quite unbelievable – that is why I was wearing the T-shirt.

‘I did not think for one minute it could stir up such powerful feelings of hatred and I never said a word to him.’

Sheesh.  I love how we pretend in the United States and elsewhere that this kind of overt hatred, this pig-ignorant racism doesn’t exist.  People all over the US begin statements with “I’m not racist, but…,” as they launch into horribly racist tirades.  Hint:  If you start any statement with any permutation of “I’m not racist, but…,” you’re a flaming racist.  I think this is something that Southern liberals get, maybe more than others.  Because Southern liberals have lived and continue to live amongst the most obnoxiously racist, pigheaded people in the country, I think we might be a little more frank about these things.

Digby sums it up:

I hate to jump to conclusions, but there’s just too much evidence of the right wing fringe coming unglued right now. I would expect that if they lose, we’re going to see more of it here in the US. Times are likely to get tough and these people have been indoctrinated in propaganda for the past three decades that says liberals are the cause of all their problems.

I don’t think Digby’s jumping to conclusions at all.  Due to right-wing radio, family indoctrination, general pig-ignorance, and whatever else, people in this country have been conditioned (goddamn you, Ronald Reagan) into believing the distinctly anti-Christian propaganda that the people responsible for their problems are those who have less, those who have different opinions, those who look differently, those who speak differently, rather than the people they’ve put into power.  It’s a sick kind of game that continues to infect the “heartland” of these United States, and, as we see above, elsewhere as well.

In case you’ve missed it, Pam Spaulding put together a little compilation of the overt racism and bigotry that’s been exposed during this election cycle within the United States:

* More fun in post-racial America
* John McCain forced to denounce racist, homophobic member of Virginia leadership team
* Kentucky, I know you can do better than this
* FL: middle school teacher uses ‘nigger’ to describe Barack Obama
* Palin praised racist writer who called for RFK’s assassination
* Values at the Values Voter Summit – Obama as a Muslim Aunt Jemima
* Westmoreland stands by ‘uppity’ remark about Obama
* White supremacists: Obama’s boosting our movement
* John McLaughlin: Obama fits the ‘Oreo’ stereotype
* Georgia: publication features Obama in crosshairs on cover for article on white supremacist threat
* Bigot eruption: GOP House member refers to Obama as ‘boy’
* South Carolina: black reporter attacked by white family (on camera!)

I fear this is only the beginning.  The wingnuts fear that Obama has “terrorist connections.”  It’s true that there are terrorists among us, but they’re not on the left side, baby.  They’re where they always are — at the base of the right-wing.

UPDATE: Lord, even Peggy Noonan admits that the GOP base is basically a bunch of hate-mongering racist assholes.  From Hardball last night:

(Blue Texan @ Firedoglake)