That’s what a poster that greeted visitors to the John McCain campaign office in Pompano Beach, Florida has to say. The sign was headlined “Barrack Hussein Obama” and compared Obama to Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, and Fidel Castro. The poster questioned Obama’s call for change:

Who else called for change in this fashion? Each and every one called upon youth movements.

Karl Marx. Joseph Stalin. Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini. Fidel Castro.

And you want Obama for President? Are you nuts!

More after the jump…

Jeffrey Sanders, a registered Republican, raised concerns about the poster when he stopped by the office to pick up tickets for a McCain rally at Florida International University:

To label someone as the next Hitler is beyond outrageous [and] offensive. And it needs to be addressed. And if Barack Obama does the same thing to McCain I would expect the same reaction. That was not American.

When confronted by about the sign by a Sun-Sentinel reporter, Broward Republican Chairman Chip LaMarca said he was “disgusted” by it and would immediately go to the office and remove it.

I’m speechless at the ignorance. It’s not something we can condone.

We’re trying to promote positive messages for our candidates. I understand people want their candidate to win. It’s ridiculous. I’ll find out who put it up there, and maybe they’ll volunteer somewhere else.

Let me see if I have this straight.

A McCain Campaign office has a poster comparing Obama to horrendous figures like Hitler and Mussolini – and also mocks youth voters – in plain view for who knows how long, yet the Chairman is surprised and “speechless”? And his solution is to move the person behind it to another office to keep working for the campaign?

Way to tamp down the crazy rhetoric…

I wonder if this has any connection to the “Vote Republican or the Terrorists Win” flier that has been going out to Florida voters. Maybe they’ll just move the person behind that bit of fear mongering “somewhere else” as well.

Wait- that was Charlie Crist behind that flier…

Looks like there is a lot of shuffling around to do in the Republican Party.

There is nothing more frustrating to me than a gay person who won’t vote. While hard to believe, there are still some of you out there. Recently, my friend Patricia, whom I have known for almost 20 years and lived with as a roommate for two years, told me that she had never registered to vote, nor does she plan to do so for the upcoming presidential election.

“I would have voted, if it were Hillary,” she explained.

What’s more, Patricia just moved to Pennsylvania, where her vote could really make a difference. I explained why it was so important. I went through the laundry list of reasons, from the Supreme Court to the economy to the war in Iraq. Nothing made a difference. But what I didn’t say was that her vote might just be a matter of life and death.

According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, in a 78-page report released in May of 2008, anti-LGBT hate crimes have increased by 24 percent since 2006. The number of reported incidents rose from 1,954 to a whopping 2,430 and occurred in every region of the country. Shockingly, since that report was released, an increase in hate activity was reported, with at least 13 brutal crimes perpetrated on our community.

Many of you have heard about Lawrence King, the 15 year-old boy who was shot by a classmate in California this past February for wearing nail polish and acting less than manly. Unfortunately, Lawrence is only the tip of the iceberg and, as many of these crimes are perpetrated against our transgendered brothers and sisters, the media is not so comfortable, or adept, with accurately reporting what is going on.

But the numbers don’t lie. In Michigan, the number of LGBT-related hate crimes increased by 207 percent. In Minnesota, the increase was 135 percent; in Kansas City, 142 percent. And in Pennsylvania, the number rose by 28 percent. When it happens to one of us, Patricia, it happens to us all.

So how does her vote matter? John McCain has consistently opposed creating federal hate crime protections for gay and transgendered people. He voted against LGBT-inclusive hate crimes bills in 2000, 2002, 2004, and, just last year, McCain was the only senator to miss the voting session on the Matthew Shepard Act, which gave the Justice Department the ability to aid, or take over, investigations and prosecutions of bias-related crimes. The Matthew Shepard Act was eventually attached to a Defense Authorization bill, but later gutted in a conference committee because of Bush’s veto threat.

To contrast, Barack Obama has pledged throughout his campaign to enact a fully inclusive federal hate crimes law. He not only took time away from campaigning to vote on the Matthew Shepard Act, but he cast the deciding 60th vote to pass the law in the face of a filibuster threat, and he co-sponsored the bill as well.

In 2002, Obama was the chief co-sponsor in the Illinois State Senate of a bill that not only identified classes of felonies for the commission of a hate crime, but also created the offense of “conspiracy against civil rights,” by which a person, with intent to interfere with the free exercise of a right or privilege secured by the Constitution, agrees with another to inflict or threaten physical harm on any person if one of the two acts in furtherance of that agreement.

If that kind of protection were in place on the federal level, hate crime numbers would plummet and all of us, in the LGBT community and others threatened by violent crime based on prejudice, could rest assured knowing that our country believes that we deserve equal protection under the law. Currently, only 11 states, and the District of Columbia, have LGBT-inclusive hate crime laws. Luckily for Patricia, Pennsylvania is one of them. Thirty-one states have hate crime laws that cover sexual orientation, but not gender identity.

Seventy-three percent of Americans, according to a 2007 Hart Research poll, already support the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in federal hate crimes law. I am not sure how Patricia feels about hate crimes protections; I just hope that those other 73 percent are registered to vote!

Anthony M. Brown, an attorney, is a member of the Obama for America National LGBT Steering and Policy Committee (but is not writing on its behalf), and is the executive director of The Wedding Party. He can be reached at Brown@msclaw.net.

We all know from past disappointments that Florida can be an important factor in national politics. Everyone in the country is familiar with hanging chads, Teri Schiavo, and other issues that have catapulted the Sunshine State into the national spotlight. We’ve also seen the impact of Florida when it comes to LGBT issues- things like Anita Bryant, Mayor Naugle, adoption bans, and many other setbacks. But this year Florida has the chance to make a huge difference in both the Presidential race and the arena of LGBT rights.

The LGBT community in Florida is flexing its political muscle like never before this election cycle. Strong GLBT democratic groups like the Dolphin Democrats of Broward County in South Florida and the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus are organizing huge “Get Out The Vote” efforts for both Barack Obama and the fight against Amendment 2, the dangerous “Marriage Protection Amendment” that would not only ban same-sex marriage but also repeal domestic partnership registries with its vague, broad language.

Both efforts are leading to what many are predicting to be a record-breaking turnout in November.

With its 27 electoral votes, it is no surprise that the Obama campaign is focusing on Florida. They are pouring resources, over 200 staffers and dozens of campaign offices around the state, into Florida to turn out the voters for Obama. They are also working closely with local and state LGBT democratic groups, lending resources and volunteers in the fight against Amendment 2.

The excitement over Obama’s campaign and the fight against Amendment 2 are creating a surge of new membership and volunteers to many groups around the state. Both campaigns are feeding into each other, especially since Obama came out early to denounce Amendment 2 while John McCain has come out in support of it, further showing LGBT Floridians and their fair-minded allies the importance of working to get Obama elected.

Both campaigns could help each other make history in Florida. The Obama campaign is bringing in new voters, many younger and more progressive, who will most likely vote to defeat Amendment 2. The same is also true for the SayNo2 Campaign, which is galvanizing the progressive community to stand up and fight for the rights of all Floridians by defeating Amendment 2, which will bring out more voters for Obama.

This is the year when Florida can finally redeem itself from its dark past. We can move forward by electing a President who stands for the equality of all Americans and defeating an amendment that would strip rights away from families in our state. We are in a historic time- on a historic battlefield- that could tip the scales for not only our state, but the entire country- especially LGBT Americans.