A number of Democratic party representatives and senators exhort the crowd into a greater frenzy. A blast from a pagan horn quiets the mob so that one of them can invoke the blessings of God on a Congressman who has joined them.
A state party leader and two Republican Congressmen who support the war report that unknown people have hurled bricks through windows of their home offices. One receives death threats against her and her family, including use of the word "assassinate." A number of other representatives receive threats as well. When reporters contact a leading anti-war activist, he disavows responsibility for the death threats:
I’m advocating broken windows. I’m advocating vandalism...How ambiguous is it if I say break windows? Am I saying kill people, absolutely not.The spouse of a third representative, one who supported the war after initially expressing reservations, tells him that she has had to unplug their home phone because of threatening, obscene messages left with their answering service. One caller says that "I hope you get cancer and bleed out your ass and die."
A prominent Democratic senator speaks out about the militarization of America, arguing that the war is unaffordable and foreign to our way of life.He argues that America simply can't afford a massive defense establishment.
An anti-war leader releases the home address of another pro-war representative. Someone cuts a propane line leading to the house, creating the danger of a massive explosion. Police reveal that the house is actually the family home of the brother of the representative. When contacted, the activist who supplied the address calls the episode "collateral damage" and "condemns" the vandalism initiated by his actions. Other activists insist that the address was correct, apparently to justify the vandalism.
Does it take much to imagine the reaction of Republican politicians and the conservative media had any of this actually happened? Does it even require your imagination?...
Axis struts shocks...
Born under a bad sign...
The teabaggers deny up and down that they are racist in any way, shape, or form. Point out specific examples of signs and speeches and you'll hear that they don't exist. Wonder why the rallies are all white and someone will mumble something about playing the race card. But when was the last time a mob of screaming white people meant anything good to a member of a minority group?...
Senator Rachel Maddow? We can only dream...
GOP senators block health care...and national security...and fire safety...and law and order...(Thanks, Projections)...
Birds on a Wire remembers Civil Rights movement martyr Jim Reeb...
Stop the Presses! Most teabaggers are Republicans...
Yes we can/No you can't...
Rush has that old fashioned love in his heart...
You knew it was just a matter of time before this happened. The Black Negro College Fund?...
Audio of threats made to Bart Stupak:
Watch CBS News Videos Online
"There muzzles of three million rifles who [sic] can be, if required, pointed directly at the hearts of anyone who wants to be a tyrant in this country:"
This one goes out to Rush and the gang:
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24 comments:
Those messages for Stupak were scary. These people are not right in the head. And people like Palin and Rushbo and Beck are deliberately inciting this. This is getting out of the realm of First Amendment-protected speech.
It's beyond the Palin-Rushbo-Beck axis of evil. Fox News, the Republican Party, and local conservative talk radio stations are all responsible. Something terrible is going to happen, and when it does it will be their fault.
Did you click on the link to Rushdo saying that he's all about love? Ugh. I can just imagine the BFI in bed with...let's not go there.
Oh, well: At least there's Merle to wash the taste of these thugs out of our mouths...
Very well said K. I think the comparison is great.. They would all be arrested and sent to Gitmo or one of the sites in Europe never to be heard from again... That's what would have happened...
My goodness we were all told we were traitors if we spoke against the president while the troops were in harms way.... and now all bets are off... Anything can be said about this president and no one blinks an eye.
Amazing double standard on display for anyone who wants to see....
I just posted part of this and linked back to you as a must read... Hope you don't mind.
Do these nutcases want a civil war? Absolutely frightening.
The frightening part to me is that the nutcases could possibly have been elected president and vice president in 2008. sp
A: Thanks! I'm honored.
T: I honestly believe that, in their addled minds, they believe that they are in a civil war.
S: Amen. And let's not forget to vote this fall.
I have believed for years we are in a civil war, one with many, many fronts, like Haiti's Revolution -- revolutions are also civil wars.
However, I know that They are the aggressors, just as the south was the aggressor in the War of Southern Aggression. They are the ones firing the shot, driving truck bombs into public buildings, planes into public buildings, shooting doctors and killing gay people and Others like women, Spanish speaking people, people of color, etc.
Love, C.
From the Patriot Act, Title VIII, definitions (since they refuse to repeal it, might as well get some use out of it):
(5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that— (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; (B) appear to be intended— (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
From:
Patriot Act, Title VIII definitions
The activities that have been described seem to fit these definitions pretty nicely, so yes, these people could be arrested
K.,
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F: Thanks for the Patriot Act quote. I'm holding that one in reserve for the wars on fivethirtyeight.com.
M: I'm flattered. Will do.
Came here via Annette and think I've been by once or twice before.
McCain defended Palin on the Today Show this morning. No surprise there.
Like your blog very much and would like to add it to my list. Is the Trinity University you refer to in your profile the one in San Antonio?
Welcome! And thanks for adding me to your list.
That is indeed the Trinity in San Antonio -- I'm from the class of '77.
The true character of THe Tea party, will come out, when immigration reform is on the table.
They'll go berserk.
A big difference, though, is that the immigration reform people are exceptionally well organized. Nonprofits and community organizations, led by trained, experienced staff, all over the country can turn out marches and counter demonstrations on a moment's notice. In many cities and even rural areas, they'll outnumber the teabaggers.
In other words, there's a trained, experienced opposition supported by an infrastructure with deep community roots. It could get very interesting.
They only succeed as an opposition. My suggestion is for all progressives to step down in 2010 and work to get the most extreme right wingers elected. How long would they last trying to govern?
Until this demonstration takes place America will remain paralyzed, capitalism will run with a free hand, we remain de-politicized and sinking slowly into the mire.
Only after their political/economic philosophy has been utterly and thoroughly discredited will they go back to being the kooky letter bomb writers they were back in the seventies.
"immigration reform people are exceptionally well organized."
And far more intelligent. Too bad the HC bill and Tea Bugger protests took away from the huge Immigration demonstration last weekend. 20,000-30,000 participants and the MSM hardly mentioned it. Actually, they probably would have overlooked it anyway.
My mom was associate librarian for years at Trinity. I always enjoyed my visits there and absolutely love San Antonio.
There way more immigration people than teabaggers. I saw one cutaway, split-second shot on one network, but it was long enough to make an impression on me.
Anyone wanting to take on the teabaggers personally could do worse than identifying the immigration reform organizations in their community and finding out what their immediate plans are.
San Antonio is a wonderful town. As a Trinity student, I worked at both the Storch and Chapman libraries, the predecessors to the current facility. Have you eaten macho nachos at Chris Madrid's?
Go Spurs!
Troutsky, that's an interesting and in many ways tempting thought. But they would wreak too much havoc, plus the monied interests would work awfully hard to co-opt the 'baggers and keep them in power.
At the end of the day, this is a big reason why I supported a health care bill that I didn't particularly like. The alternative, it seemed to me, was to allow the system to collapse. That may well have forced a single-payer plan, which to me is by far the most desirable approach.
But how many millions of people would suffer while we waited for that to happen? And it wouldn't be the affluent and wealthy who suffered, either. I've decided to accept that Congress just passed what amounts to the camel's nose and push for improvements.
My mom worked out of both. She was 2nd in command to whoever he was - can't remember his name. Her name was Gertrude Parsley. You two may have just missed each other or bareley overlapped.
It's been awhile since I've been there, so I'm not familiar with
Chris Madrid's. The food in that town is exceptional.
Hauze, I think his name was.
San Antonio does have excellent too, and at all prices, too. My roommate and I used to get the plato Mexicano takeout at a place called El Milagrito, over on St. Mary's. It was $1.89, and you had to hold it with both hands!
Yes it was Hauze.
Oh gosh, there's so much there - the restaurants, the parks, the zoo, the River Walk. And there used to be a charming artists area along the walk but think it's been long gone.
I went to UH and we had the same experience with restaurants. But Lord knows Houston in no way has the charm San Antonio has.
I wandered in at Annette's suggestion.
A key difference between the right and the left is that the right tends to believe in absolutes only. For the right, all is black or white, and gray does not exist. People on the left tend to believe in relative terms. We see an infinite spectrum of shades between one extreme and the other and tend to treat issues situationally. Since they believe they are absolutely right, they feel that anything they do is right by definition. They think their ends justify whatever means they choose to employ. We realize that unjust means seldom, if ever, lead to just ends.
That is why the left believes in ballots, while the right believes in bullets.
Tom, thanks for stopping by. I suspect that the tension for the individual right-winger is that he or she wants the world to be black/white, thinks it should be, and senses that it is not. Hence the alienation and dislocation.
There's also a belief that the past was a better and simpler time without the pesky nuance of the present. Now, for example, they seem to have fixed on an absolute reading of the Constitution without the slightest grasp that its meaning has always been subject to debate.
I suppose that in the end, they don't want debate. As you say, any idea that differs from their world view is automatically suspect and probably seditious. Thus, it has no value.
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