I wonder if Smith and McCain will get the same advance support as Bush where his goons are instructed:

"If the demonstrators are yelling, rally squads can begin and lead supportive chants to drown out the protestors [sic] (USA!, USA!, USA!). As a last resort, security should remove the demonstrators from the event site."

Read Erik Hoffer's The True Believer to better understand why "rally squads" do what they do.

Cari; US Ambassador John Bolton's disruptive behavior at the doors of South Florida precincts during the 2000 vote counting is precisely the kind of behavior that Nazi brownshirts were famous for previous to Hitler's consolidation of power...

Hoffer's treatise The True Believer will help you to understand America’s subtle step-by-step advancement towards a totalitarian consumocracy. I'd like to recommend Gustave Le Bon's The Crowd for an even more in-depth into the relationships between motivational leadership and its by product, group-think. ohn Bolton's disruptive behavior at the doors of the South Florida precints during the 2000 vote counting is precisely the kind of thing that the Nazis were known for previous to Hitler's rise... Hoffer's treatise The True Believer will help you th understand the subtlies of a totalitarian society. I'd like to recomment Gustave Le Bon's The Crowd for an even morer ih-depth into the relationships between motivational leadership and group-think.

Step-by-step has exactly been the process. Hartmann made the same point on his Air America national show. If Bush had tried pulling the same crap in '02 (or better put, if some of his high crimes had be divulged earlier) it would have shocked enough people. But our rights and freedoms have been stolen incrementally.

World War II was ancient history to me, but i lived 3 years in West Germany, and visited the former East Germany before and after the Wall. Since 9/11 and especially since Bush's "preemptive" war, several Germans with white hair who remember fist hand Hitler's rise and Germany's fall point to parallels in the US.

I don't want to hijack this thread, so just want to add that both Smith and McCain (both of whom have unjustly carried the faux mantel of "independent") can and must be tied to Bush's abuse of power.

I'll be at the Heathman tomorrow, because quite honestly, i have nothing better to do. (And i mean that positively!)

That's what i tried to stress at the end of my comment. The post here gives us the Smith-McCain-Bush nexus.

This is what makes me so hopeful regarding the '08 election. Efforts to defeat Smith go hand in hand with those to put a Democrat in the White House.

By all means divert extraneous discussion my blog. (where incidentally i just got my first troll attack purporting a kari-tj-carla nexus. Talk about wild theories!)

I called the McCain campaign to ask about the event and they told me that the fundraiser has been canceled.

The information on whether the McCain event is still happening is going both ways, but either way Veterans In Action will still go forward with our protest. This will be an excellent opportunity to highlight Smith's continuing hypocrisy on the war and show that both Smith and McCain are running scared, so I look forward to seeing everyone out there tomorrow.

The latest from Veterans in Action:

McCain Cancels Portland Fundraiser - Protest Canceled Gordon Smith’s choice for President runs from his Iraq War Record.

Congratulations to the members and supporters of Veterans in Action! We’ve already secured a victory in the 2008 campaign season. Presidential candidate and Iraq War stalwart U.S. Sen. John McCain has cancelled his Portland fundraiser.

McCain, who is America’s number one proponent for staying in Iraq, couldn’t stand the heat. This is a win for VIA and everyone that has worked so hard here in Oregon to end the fiasco in Iraq!

This is a good lesson for his number one Oregon supporter, U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith. Smith claims to oppose the war, but has voted more than 20 times to authorize and fund the Iraq War and has endorsed McCain’s presidential campaign. Gordon Smith thinks the best choice for president is a man who wants to keep us in Iraq indefinitely. Smith should learn that Oregonians will not support someone with that kind of hypocritical record.

While the McCain event and our protest were cancelled, Veterans in Action’s message still runs strong.  VIA will continue working to expose Smith’s real record on the Iraq War.  Voting over 20 times to authorize and fund the war and endorsing its #1 proponent, John McCain, isn’t behavior of a trustworthy senator.  John McCain can run from Oregon, but Gordon Smith can’t hide from his record and hypocritical positions.

Veterans in Actions will continue to expose his record, and you can help by writing your local newspaper and contacting radio and televisions stations to demand they peel back the facade and expose the real Gordon Smith.

Thank you, Eugene Rosolie President Veterans in Action