Reply #1: You've got a nice kid -

[Tangerine LaBamba]

that's obvious.

I agree with you about the hatred and passion out there. I remember back to Eisenhower, very clearly. I remember people bashing Adlai Stevenson (I was a political junkie VERY early, but that was my family's doing). I remember the anti-Catholic rants against JFK, and I remember being one of the people who chanted "Hey, hey, LBJ' - you know the rest.

Granted, with the advent of the Internet, there's a whole lot more of this stuff being made public, and I think it also emboldens those who might otherwise be silent - they see the others who think as they do, they feel like they're part of a greater group (they are, actually), and that, in their minds, gives them great freedom and credibility.

So, they're vocal and they're obsessed.

Obama's blackness just makes it all so much worse for them. The notion that his election was some kind of watershed moment in our racial history has turned out to be true - but not as we had hoped or envisioned. It just gives the bigots a focus, and now that it's permissible to hate out loud in public, they're set free in a way that's not been seen since the days - and I remember them - of Emmett Till.

Ugly out there, indeed, my friend. Ugly and getting uglier..................................