Early on in the Presidential race I sent a small amount of money to Barack Obama's campaign — in recognition of the fact that, as I believed then, I'd be voting in this election, for the first time in my life, in favor a candidate I really liked rather than against a candidate I hated. That all changed when Senator Obama voted to grant immunity to the big telecoms for conspiring with the Bush administration to violate the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. I swore then that Obama would get no more money from me and I accepted the fact that I'd be voting for him while holding my nose.
That was before Sarah Palin, before she and McCain began their program of coded hate speech against Obama, which has emboldened many of their supporters to echo the vile suggestions implied in their rhetoric and take them to their logical ends — overtly violent speech and overtly violent threats against a terrorist other. Posing as the leaders of a sheriff's posse bent on cleaning up Dodge they are in fact the leaders of a lynch mob bent on stringing the colored guy up from the nearest cottonwood.
This is not acceptable morally, and will have heinous moral consequences for the nation if their irresponsible tactics succeed in carrying McCain and Palin to the White House.
Consequently I've decided that it's o. k. to send more money to Obama's campaign as long as I make an equal contribution at the same time to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is bringing suit to overturn the telecom immunity bill Obama voted for.
You can and should do the same. Contribute to the EFF here. Contribute to Obama here. Do it for the good of the country and the good of your own soul.
[With thanks to the awesome Fluharty for the images above.]