At a local parade that I recently attended, I did "shout out" two times.

Once was when Hennepin County Commissioner Penny Steele walked by. This was the opening day of Light Rail. "Penny, you're not at the light rail opening!" "Yeah, isn't that great!" She knew I was joshing with her...

The next was the DFL float. They had a guy with a sign "Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?" and I yelled "I AM Better off than I was 4 years ago AND I DON'T HAVE A JOB!" He didn't know what to say or do. His face got all puzzled up, like "how can that be?"

a couple clowns act like assholes at a parade and that somehow represents a "climate of hate"? Im sure that if you asked the majority of folks at that parade the vast majority, right left and center fully appreciated and admired what that soldier had done for his country.

Interestly one of the things he was fighting for was those few jerks ability and protection to do what they did.

The "climate of hate" statement is hyperbole to a point; the left tried to pin the James Byrd dragging death on Rush Limbaugh's "climate of hate"; they tried to pin Matthew Shepard's murder on talk radio and Fox News.

Now the tables are turned; via groups like MoveOn, Democrat Underground and Democrats.com, idiots like Michael Moore, Whoops Goldberg and Babs Streisand, and plutocrats like George "Bush is like Hitler" Soros, and cynical lies like "Bush Stole the Election", a lot of the dim minds of the left are in high, hateful dudgeon. They're engorged with hatred for all of the symbols of the things they've been trained to loathe, from dogs with Bush/Cheney placards to campaign workers to soldiers.

Take one incident, and it looks silly. Look at the huge, nationwide pattern of such incidents, and it shows that a lot of people on the left are really, really frothing with hate. I shudder to think what the moonbat left will do when Bush wins.

"..I shudder to think what the moonbat left will do when Bush wins."

Like a boy whistling in the dark to keep up his spirits. Just keep telling yourself that.

Um, right. If it makes you feel better.

Look, Mr. Rizzo - at the moment it's all wind in sails. Anything can happen. But looking at the *facts* as they are today - the polls, the economy, the *fact* that no incumbent president with a 50% approval rating before the conventions has ever lost the office (and Bush is within the MOE of 50% in every poll that matters), the fact that Kerry has nothign to sell but negativity, hair and a non-Bush surname, and Kerry's polls getting *no* benefit from any of Bush's media-generated troubles - I'm as confident as I've been in the past year. If I weren't (like I was at this point in '92, '96 and '00) I'd say so.

But, Mr. Rizzo, keep bringing the echo chamber's perspective to this space. It's always interesting.

Im pretty "moonbat" myself but I certainly wont predict a Kerry victory as a done deal. And I absolutely dont condone insulting vetrans, yelling crap like that at a vet is like yelling at the grocery store clerk when you get a bad loaf of bread.

Regardless of the politics behind the war the guys who do the fighting and dying are brave, noble, and deserving of our respect.

As far as the confrontational atmosphere a good bit of that seems to happen every election year, but I do think that the left which has typically been the more "mushy" side is fighting back. Im not sure I like it, is having a "left wing rush limbaugh" such a benefit? Id usually prefer the democrats taking the high road, but this year it is going to be a gruesome cagematch from both sides.