Recap: Politics

November 4th is nearly here, and as election day approaches, you cannot blink without hearing another story about the presidential and vice-presidential candidates. Sadly, most of the stories making headlines are hateful and frightening.

Effigies of Barack Obama being hung from a tree have surfaced at Oregon's George Fox University and University of Kentucky. So much for my generation being the new voice of acceptance. U. of Kentucky's President, Lee Todd said that he was "deeply embarrassed" and announced plans to personally apologize to the Obama family. But unfortunately, the hate doesn't end with the Democrats. At a West Hollywood home, a man "decorated" his house for Halloween using a likeness of Sarah Palin hanging from his roof. However, unlike the other two incidents, the Los Angeles Police Department is not calling this a hate crime.

But the worst of these stories are the legitimate threats from several hate groups against Obama and other innocent people. This past weekend, FBI officials arrested Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman for plotting to assassinate Barack Obama, shoot 88, and behead 14 African-Americans. And as if this couldn't be any worse, the two men were barely men at all...Cowart is 20 and Schlesselman is only 18. Some individuals are fearing that more legitimate threats will be made, but it's probably better just to be thankful these two men were caught in time.

UPDATE:
Today (October 30) there is more controversy in Southern California with Halloween "decorations." A house in Rodando Beach belonging to Lisa Castaneda shows the Democratic Senator over her balcony with a knife to his neck and a sign reading "NObama."