why do the republicans hate america?

Back in the heady days of The Decider, anyone who dared question the wisdom of any Bush/Cheney policy was immediately accused of hating America and supporting "the terrorists." When Natalie Maines said in London that the Dixie Chicks "do not want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas," they were denounced by Republicans for criticizing America on foreign soil, boycotted by country music radio stations, and were the recipients of numerous death threats.

But now that we've got a scary black man in the White House, the rules seem to have changed. A couple of weeks ago, Sarah Palin appeared at an annual conference of investors in Hong Kong and criticized Obama for his economic policies, his campaign for healthcare reform, and for not acing more like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher (seriously). According to a report by AFP, two of the Ameican delegates left early, one stating, "it was awful, we couldn't stand it any longer."

So, here we have a private citizen (just like Natalie Maines) dissing the president's policies (just like Natalie Maines) on foriegn soil (just like Natalie Maines). I'm sure we can expect the outraged howls of Republicans to start any minute now.

Hmm... crickets.

But that's just one example. In light of the conservatives rejoicing at Chicago's failure to win the Olympic bid, over at Daily Kos, autoegocrat puts recent news into perspective:

Here's what these people have rooted against so far:

• Bill Clinton freeing American journalists from North Korea
• Marines rescuing Americans from Somali pirates
• Rescuing American automobile manufacturers
• Health care for all Americans
• An American city hosting the Olympics

Can we call them anti-American yet?

Can we?