This doesn't need much commentary. John "Escalation" McCain, the man who would be King after King George II, is touting his extremism. From the Washington Post:

"I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned," the Arizona senator told about 800 people in South Carolina, one of the early voting states.

Wingnut. I don't know why he is a hero to so many. I mean his record from Vietnam was very brave and honorable. But since he got screwed from behind by Bush and Rove he has been worse than useless. Now he is just another barking crazy rightwinger with no respect for our troops or the Constitution.

From The Albany Times-Union:

BUFFALO -- A man already serving time in a state prison for the sniper-shooting murder of a doctor was convicted Thursday on a federal charge of targeting and killing the man because he provided abortions. [...]

"You do not decide that you are the judge, the jury and the executioner, that's what [the defendant] Mr. Kopp did," U.S. Attorney Terrance Flynn said after the verdict.

The government will seek a prison term of life without parole at sentencing, scheduled for June 19, Flynn said.

Kopp, affiliated with the domestic terrorist groups Operation Rescue and The Army of God, killed – executed is a better term – Slepian with a high-powered assault rifle as the latter was making dinner in his kitchen; his children watched their father bleed to death. Following the murder, Operation Rescue released a statement that justified the murder. After Slepian's execution, pro- and anti-choice groups took out a full-page ad in a Buffalo newspaper calling for civility and abjuring violence, which OR also denounced as a "pitiful philosophy and vision", urging followers to take to the streets.

We've written about Wingnut Maureen O'Connell, anti-choice extremist; now, that message is going to the airwaves in the biggest way. First, via The Albany Project, the official Craig Johnson spot:

Second, via The Daily Politics, an ad put out by EdPac:

The fact of the matter is this: Maureen O'Connell is an extremist, opposing stem-cell research and the morning-after pill, and supporting jail time for doctors and nurses who provide constitutionally guaranteed medical services. That's not partisan hyperbole, but a cold recitation of the public record. If she were to become part of a republican majority in the state Senate, she could legislate her outlandish views on the rest of us.

In the special election scheduled for February 6th in Nassau County, there's a lot of talk and counter-talk about reform; Craig Johnson, the Democrat, is endorsed by Eliot Spitzer, who of course brought reform to Albany in the first place. His opponent, Maureen O'Connell (google her), is campaigning on virtually the same platform of change; this because, presumably, reform is what Joe Bruno really wants to bring to the state capitol, along with democracy.

One thing O'Connell really seems to want to reform is that part of the law pertaining to a woman's right to choose. A fact sheet from a leading choice advocacy organization details her past record of extremist activism in the State Assembly:

Blocking Access to Birth Control
Maureen O’Connell vehemently opposed legislation that would reduce unintended pregnancy by permitting women to access the “morning after pill” directly from a pharmacy.

Criminalizing Abortion
Maureen O’Connell supported legislation that would send doctors and nurses to jail even when facing the most catastrophic situations.

In the universe of anti-choice activism, there are gradations. Opposition to emergency contraception and the demand to criminalize doctors and nurses are extremist by any standard; that's Operation Rescue territory.

A terrorist attack occurred on 9/11/2006 in Davenport, Iowa, on the 5th year anniversary of the terrorist attack on the city where I live. And I heard nothing about it. And Homeland Security seems to have ignored it. Why?

Simple: the attack was done by a right wing white guy targeting a woman's health clinic.

From the Quad Cities Times:

A Michigan man described as a bookworm by relatives has wandered the Midwest since August, looking for a medical clinic to attack with his 2004 Saturn compact car, authorities said.

It was dawn Monday when David Robert McMenemy approached Edgerton Women’s Health Center in Davenport, which he mistakenly believed provided abortions.

He entered the center’s driveway off East Rusholme Street and then took a few moments to turn and configure the car to face straight into the lobby, Davenport Fire Marshal Mike Hayman said.

The 45-year-old crashed the Saturn into the central lobby, coming to rest at the counter. When the car did not immediately burst into flames as he may have expected, police said he took gasoline that he had poured into a Gatorade bottle and spread it over the interior. “I lit it,” McMenemy told investigators, and he exited the structure to surrender himself to startled Davenport firefighters....

The big news in the 13th District is that endangered republican incumbent Vito Fossella is comparing Democrat Steve Harrison to Osama bin Laden.

The glossy [Fossella campaign] handout includes a warning to voters that if they pull the lever for Harrison, they'll be supporting his "anti-Staten Island agenda." Among the issues raised is the claim that "Steve Harrison Opposes Key Tools in the War on Terrorism."

Nestled between that phrase and a picture of Harrison is a headshot of bin Laden, and the candidate said it was an inappropriate tactic meant to draw a correlation between him and the al-Qaida leader.

"It says it in so many words at the top of the page," Harrison said. "Vote for Steve Harrison and you're supporting the following, and there's a picture of Osama bin Laden."

In fact, as is made clear by the following video, showing excerpts of a Harrison-Fossella debate, Vito wants you to think about terrorism as much as he can possibly make you.

That's curious, because the best thing district voters can do to express affection for the terrorist mastermind is to cast a vote for Vito and other republicans.

I dunno, you tell me.

(Image © 2005 by Danny Hammontree, Digitalgrace.com)

Look, we all know deep down that many right wingers (those who aren't just plain greedy) are pretty damned stupid. I mean, who but a person of very little brain would believe Fox News. But it is rare that the stupidity of the right wing nuts is so clearly illustrated as in a recent blog post on an anti-abortion site. This was picked up by Daily Kos.

This anti-abortion fanatic actually read an Onion article about a woman celebrating her abortion by throwing a party...and believed it! His righteous indignation would be great parody if it wasn't so tragically serious.

I am hoping that I have once again made Michael Bouldin snarf his coffee.

Now, I have known some genuinely intelligent and caring people who were anti-abortion. You don't have to be an idiot to be anti-abortion, you just have to make some basic assumptions that differ from those most of us around here make. But somehow the anti-abortion movement just seems to attract a particularly dumb brand of self-righteous fool.

But to be fair, this guy is not the first person to take the Onion seriously. China's news agency reported as serious that Congress was threatening to leave DC if they don't get a new Capitol Dome. And, of course, there was the Christian fool who thought that the Onion article about JK Rowlings writing Harry Potter to encourage Satanism was real.

I will leave you with one sad note. Sometimes, the Onion proves to be far more prescient than we would like. As in the case of a 2001 article titled Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'. Sadly, THAT article proved all too true.

From Daryl Cagle.