I just hung up from being blindsided by a Tea-Party loving "friend" - I'm speechless, shocked.

[UTUSN]

28. "nuclear level of hate" - saw it in person yesterday

Have seen it for OBAMA on the internet and Faux, but not that much in person. This fellow vet is a seemingly mellow dude, has been totally friendly and polite. We've been acquaintances for about a year, and only in the past few months have we started having longer conversations that have not been about politics. Briefly, he made clear he is Rethug with the passing dismissal that the Dem party is for "food stamps." We hadn't talked politics these few months, the conversations themselves not that frequent anyway. But somebody else told me he believes OBAMA/Dems are for "redistributing."

He's been busy the past month, a week's vacation to an unusual and distant region, then his mother's death, so yesterday we caught up for about an hour and we were wrapping it up when the news clip was OBAMA comforting a woman starting to faint during his speech. This dude suddenly became quietly INFLAMED, with eyes squinting with absolute hatred, and he said, "It's a FAKE!1 This isn't the first time he's pulled that stunt!1"

I told him we were going to have to face this really impassable divide, probably a going-our-separate-ways thing. He said he was leaving anyway at that point.

What I find puzzling is where he gets his "information." This goes beyond the Faux Propaganda Network. He's a Marine veteran, just saying there might be some wingnut connection there although wingnuttiness is rampant in all branches. I terminated participation in a webbring of my Vietnam shipmates over this back in '04, that was just a ring of wingnut chain letters.