They probably refer to themselves as 'Freedom Fighters'
March 24, 2010 11:59 AM Subscribe

Following the vote on Sunday, Mike Troxel of the Lynchburg Tea Party posted the address of what he thought was Dem Rep Tom Perriello, with the comment that activists should add a "personal touch" to their anger at Periello -- who voted yes on the health care bill -- by going to his house. It turns out the address was actually Perriello's brother's house, and the FBI are currently investigating the cut gas line that was discovered the next day.

From TPM - "Another tea party activist who reportedly posted Periello's brother's address online, Nigel Coleman of the Danville Tea Party, wrote in a blog comment after learning about the mistaken address: 'Do you mean I posted his brother's address on my Facebook? Oh well, collateral damage.' "

There have been several other vandalism attacks in the wake of the vote, but many involve thrown bricks and smashed windows at the most. Mike Vanderboegh of the Alabama Constitutional Militia has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, and said in an online posting, "And if we do a proper job, if we break the windows of hundreds, thousands, of Democrat Party headquarters across this country, we might just wake up enough of them to make defending ourselves at the muzzle of a rifle unnecessary."

posted by FatherDagon (379 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite

Number of times traditional media will use the word "terrorism": 0
posted by DU at 12:01 PM on March 24, 2010 [116 favorites]

Stay classy, right wing.
posted by cereselle at 12:02 PM on March 24, 2010 [8 favorites]

Threatening Messages Left for Bart Stupak Due To His Health Care Vote (Listen).
posted by ericb at 12:02 PM on March 24, 2010

Lynchburg? Really?
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:02 PM on March 24, 2010 [7 favorites]

This kind of intimidation could turn Democratic legislators into cowardly rubberstampers of the Republican agenda.
posted by Joe Beese at 12:05 PM on March 24, 2010 [24 favorites]

Chuck Todd of NBC is reporting that about ten members of Congress have been given security details after receiving death threats for voting for the bill. Scary stuff.
posted by EarBucket at 12:06 PM on March 24, 2010

Reps. Hoyer and Clyburn just gave a press conference regarding the many threats that have been made over the past 72-hours. Capitol Police will provide protection to those Members of Congress who seek it. The FBI is investigating. Hoyer said that he hopes that Rep. Boehner and other Republicans will come out publicly against the threats.
posted by ericb at 12:06 PM on March 24, 2010

I am so not ready for the teabagger intifada.
posted by zjacreman at 12:06 PM on March 24, 2010 [8 favorites]

Boehner’s ‘Hell No, You Can’t': The Remix.
posted by ericb at 12:07 PM on March 24, 2010 [11 favorites]

None of you understand! Liberals are just as bad! Once, they made this one guy in some state feel uncomfortable about voting for the war when he accidentally passed too close to their free speech zone! ITS THE SAME THING.

/false equivalency
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:08 PM on March 24, 2010 [33 favorites]

Nigel? Do you mean Cletus?
posted by anniecat at 12:09 PM on March 24, 2010

It's great that nineteen Muslim fanatic fuckheads were brave enough to fly motherfucking airplanes into the WTC but our own homegrown fatass fuckhead terrorists are too chickenshit to do anything but break windows and post on blogs. Shit, the one teabagger who actually did fly a plane into a building killed one fucking guy. One. Americans are shit at everything; no wonder there's a trade deficit.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 12:09 PM on March 24, 2010 [68 favorites]

You can listen to some of the threatening calls to Bart Stupak's office here.
posted by EarBucket at 12:09 PM on March 24, 2010

These Tea Party guys are making it really hard to avoid Godwin's Law.
posted by Electric Dragon at 12:10 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I, for one, ~~welcome our new Tea Party over-lords.~~ am ready for these wing-buts to get locked up.
posted by paisley henosis at 12:10 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

I can't wait until the FBI arrests these losers.
posted by anniecat at 12:10 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

My cell number is one digit off of a (Democratic) Representative's main office number. Both have a series of repeated digits near each other on the keypad; that is, mine is like (is like, not is) 552-2977, while his is 522-2977. I get his calls so often that I've changed my voicemail outgoing message to something really informal, "Hey, this is Mike, leave me a message and I'll call you back!" Folks still leave messages, or try to argue me out of the wrongness of the number if I happen to answer. No death threats yet, though.
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:11 PM on March 24, 2010

KagroX: "What could one night of coordinated, targeted glass breaking aimed at political enemies really lead to? I mean, let's not get crazy, right?"
posted by EarBucket at 12:11 PM on March 24, 2010 [36 favorites]

Listening to those messages it seems that Tea Partiers haven't even figured out brevity, much less wit.

Also, what the hell? Are they big fans of The Secret too?
posted by Talanvor at 12:13 PM on March 24, 2010

Know who else led a group of conservative thugs to intimidate and harass elected officials?
posted by swift at 12:13 PM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

"Extremism in defense of liberty is novice."

Yes, but civility in defense of same is expert!
posted by WalterMitty at 12:14 PM on March 24, 2010 [23 favorites]

Americans are shit at everything; no wonder there's a trade deficit.

McVeigh: Great American or Greatest American????
posted by GuyZero at 12:14 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Attached to the brick was a quote from Barry Goldwater: "Extremism in defense of liberty is novice."

Technically, the note read "Exremism in defense of liberty is no vice." Glenn Beck will tell you that sometimes, you need to resort to exremism to fight oligarhy.
posted by EarBucket at 12:16 PM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

Fuck all these fucktards in their stupid faces.

Sorry, I can't really think of anything more eloquent to say about this cowardly behavior masquerading as some sort of bullshit populist rebellion.
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:17 PM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

Shit, the one teabagger who actually did fly a plane into a building killed one fucking guy

You're talking out of your ass again. He wasn't a teabagger.
posted by rocket88 at 12:18 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

They're releasing some steam this week but they'll cool their jets soon enough. I'd bet dollar to doughnuts that the 2010 elections will be about 20% focussed on health care and the rest will be about the economy.

Now, if the Democrats are really smart (or reckless - or both), they'll pursue immigration reform around September of this year. That will make the Tea Partiers lose their shit BIG TIME and you will most certainly some violence and it will almost undoubtedly sway independent voters to Democrats.

That would be some ruthless politics on the part of the Dems and though I'd be against it from a moral stand point, I can't say that it wouldn't be effective, and that's squarely on the shoulders of the Republicans who have done nothing to distance themselves from these clay eaters.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 12:18 PM on March 24, 2010 [10 favorites]

Personally, I'm waiting for one of these brick-throwing thugs to get shot by a liberal home or business owner... thus causing the entire "movement" to implode into some sort of irony singularity.
posted by vorfeed at 12:19 PM on March 24, 2010 [40 favorites]

Well I'm sure Ginni Thomas, Clarence Thomas' wife, the newest leader of a Tea Party Chapter will talk sense into them.
posted by ExitPursuedByBear at 12:20 PM on March 24, 2010

I actually preferexremism, as it gets closer to the (not) word excremism, and excrement is generally what comes to mind when I encounter Tea Party arguments.
posted by Brak at 12:20 PM on March 24, 2010

A group of lowlifes at a Tea Party rally in Columbus, Ohio, last week taunted and humiliated a man who was sitting on the ground with a sign that said he had Parkinson’s disease. The disgusting behavior was captured on a widely circulated videotape. One of the Tea Party protesters leaned over the man and sneered: “If you’re looking for a handout, you’re in the wrong end of town.”

These people are vile, just truly disgusting. They're just out looking to be angry about something.

Does anyone have a breakdown of what this Tea Party demographic is, income/socioeconomic class/geography, etc.?
posted by anniecat at 12:21 PM on March 24, 2010 [8 favorites]

I am particularly disgusted by the hypocrisy of these Tea Party/Republican/right wing lunatics, who demand that a Republican President (such as George W. Bush) must be respected by people of all political persuasions as the legitimate and duly elected President of the whole country, and who believe that laws passed by a Republican administration or a Republican dominated Congress must be respected by all Americans as the legitimtate law of the land, but if Democrats get elected, then loyal Republicans must oppose their actions by every means possible including armed revolution of all else fails. Republicans never believed in democracy in the first place. Democracy exists precisely so that people of differing political opinions do not have to settle their differences by violence, because they can have elections instead. If these nut jobs have their way, all political arguments in the future will be settled only by coups d'etat, and no one will even bother with elections anymore.
posted by grizzled at 12:23 PM on March 24, 2010 [28 favorites]

Now, if the Democrats are really smart (or reckless - or both), they'll pursue immigration reform around September of this year.

From what I've heard, that's actually more or less the plan, although they'll start earlier than September. I'm convinced that Obama's strategy is literally to peel off every single sane person left from the GOP until all that's left are teabaggers. He seems to be blessed with a rare gift in politics--he turns his opponents into angry, sputtering, hapless clowns while he smiles calmly at them.
posted by EarBucket at 12:24 PM on March 24, 2010 [37 favorites]

Like the so called terrorists we have to fight a "war" against, these folks are plain old criminals. Arrest them, prosecute them, and if convicted lock their butts up, I say.

Also, in defense of Barry Goldwater, I am certain that the "extremism" quote had nothing to do with advocating criminal behavior.
posted by bearwife at 12:25 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Eh, not all of them are like that grizzled. Some of the ones I know did in fact have plenty of issues with Bush & the Republicans. The far-out libertarian/teabagger types have been on the crazy edge for a lot longer than Obama has been president.

(not including all libertarians in that, just the portion that overlaps with the teabagger/conspiracy/"communism!" crowd).

But there are also plenty of the folks you mentioned, who somehow were fine with Bush imprisoning a US citizen without trial or charging him with a crime (Padilla) but cry "fascism!" over a 2% tax (max) if they don't get health insurance (which many of them have anyway).
posted by wildcrdj at 12:26 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Sarah Palin urges people to reload, posts map with names of congresspeople with crosshairs on them.

I remember when you were a crazy radical for suggesting it was a bad idea to invade a country for having non-existent WMD.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 12:27 PM on March 24, 2010 [11 favorites]

Tea Party demographics: White, about two-thirds male, generally well-educated and fairly well-off, conservative and Christian. About half describe themselves as political independents, but almost 90% say they vote for Republican candidates.
posted by EarBucket at 12:27 PM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

My cell number is one digit off of a (Democratic) Representative's main office number.

A fella could have a lot of fun with this phone number. Imagine the pranking possibilites!
posted by Kirk Grim at 12:29 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Man. You know, I wish I could reason about this, but it just does NOT make ANY sense. I don't even know where to begin.

These bastards are whipped up into a fit of violence ... over healthcare. Giving people healthcare. That's what is making them so angry. Caring for people. They just can't fucking stand it. It makes them want to kill.

I don't understand any part of this. I'm not sure that I want to.
posted by Afroblanco at 12:30 PM on March 24, 2010 [26 favorites]

These people are just KKK'ers with a new name, right? And throwing bricks? Do they understand that any dumbass with one hand can throw a brick? Do the bricks have notes on them?
posted by mokeydraws at 12:30 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

If I hear a single teabagger shout WOLVERINES, my head may go all 'splodey.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 12:31 PM on March 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

If this ever breaks down to street fighting, it will interesting to see where the teabaggers take their wounded.
posted by doctor_negative at 12:31 PM on March 24, 2010 [46 favorites]

Sarah Palin urges people to reload, posts map with names of congresspeople with crosshairs on them.

Holy shit. What the fucking hell. There was a time when that kind of thing was reserved for radical fringe crazies.
posted by EarBucket at 12:31 PM on March 24, 2010 [10 favorites]

god damn it, you fucks. not one fucking national news outlet will cover this as part and parcel of the running right wing national narrative of incitement to violence. not fucking one.

you will find nothing comparable to this coming from the left. no matter how far back you go, or how oblique an incitement you look for, you won't find anyone on the left asking for something like this or suggesting it could be a reasonable response to action from the right.

I am completely tired of this. I know I won't get my wish, but I never want to hear the words "liberal media" ever again. This is terrorism and attempted murder, and the direct result of right wing propaganda. Further, it is the indirect result of media cowardice for not doing their duty to call out right wing extremism when it presents itself as it constantly and consistently has. You don't need a liberal media to point that out, you simply need one that operates on facts and reports the truth. That this has been absent from our news and general media is evidence of a wildly right-wing dominated media in the country at large. There is no centrist national news, and there CERTAINLY isn't a liberal media. There is simply Radical Extremist Right Wing Terrorism and Moderate Right Wing media.

No more equivalencies. No more "well, it's just as bad when people on the left act like conservatives are blahblahblah." No it fucking well is not. This country is completely out of balance in the worst way possible. We've become a country spoken for by wingnuts and inciters of terrorist violence, and that is entirely on the right side of the court. there is no equivalent behavior on the left at all. The right wing has become the enemy of american freedom and democracy and that is not an exaggeration. Your taxes and your fiscally conservative economic leanings no longer justify continuing to vote for and/or support the GOP or the Tea Party. They are the problem in this country, and they're too big of one to dismiss like it's just politics and both sides are the same. They're not any more. One side is inciting violence and poisoning democracy and the party and movement at large is complicit in it by not publicly - as a unified whole - denouncing it. The other side, while not perfect, is at least not inciting acts of terrorism.
posted by shmegegge at 12:31 PM on March 24, 2010 [137 favorites]

Wow, the fact they're already getting violent over HCR makes me want to sit back and just poke at them with a stick until they finally fucking implode. Quick, somebody draw up a fake bill to take away their guns. THE END TIMES WILL BE HERE.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 12:32 PM on March 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

I feel it's only a matter of time until someone who voted for health care (or a family member) is horribly injured or killed by one of these crazies. I volunteered for Tom Perriello in 2008, and I go cold at the thought of what he has to go through. Of course, he's a tough motherfucker who's not backing down at all, thankfully.
posted by zombieflanders at 12:33 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Bring it on.
posted by hillabeans at 12:34 PM on March 24, 2010 [7 favorites]

He seems to be blessed with a rare gift in politics--he turns his opponents into angry, sputtering, hapless clowns while he smiles calmly at them.

Gee, what's different about Obama from all previous presidents?
posted by octothorpe at 12:35 PM on March 24, 2010 [8 favorites]

I feel like there needs to be a real plan in place to protect everybody from Tea Partiers. Not the Coffee Party. But something that can shut them down. A covert operation. Like if you had a spy go to their meetings and pass along information about what they plan to do. They need an informant for the FBI.

Better yet, let's start calling them on the phone, pretending to be their doctor. We call them up and say, "I'm sorry, sir, you have ass cancer. We're going to run a bunch of tests on you and [his insurance co] won't cover it. We'd like a deposit for $20,000 before we start any procedures to treat you."
posted by anniecat at 12:39 PM on March 24, 2010 [7 favorites]

> Mike Vanderboegh of Pinson, Ala., said he issued a call Friday for modern "Sons of Liberty"

Someone's been playing too much Metal Gear Solid.
posted by meowzilla at 12:39 PM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

"And if we do a proper job, if we break the windows of hundreds, thousands, of Democrat Party headquarters across this country, we might just wake up enough of them to make defending ourselves at the muzzle of a rifle unnecessary."

While I truly don't want to go Godwin on Vanderboegh, has this idiot never heard of Kristallnacht?
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 12:40 PM on March 24, 2010 [9 favorites]

Hey Mike, here's a tip. Non-Rabid dogs are not put down, but if you do this kind of shit, well ya know... It's kinda like... When you guys victim blame people who have no power and do nothing, but still receive insults like "Nigger" and "Faggot" and the people in power give false equivalency to justify it? Well here's the thing -- it's NOT equivalent. You are NOT a victim if you're throwing shit through windows, or shooting at windows, or breaking propane pipes to houses. You are, to put it bluntly, using terroristic methods and if you shitheads keep this up, you WILL get the little fight you're waiting for.

And I saw Ruby Ridge and Waco and the Montana Freemen, and that Texas group... And guess who didn't win? Go to hell, shithead.
posted by symbioid at 12:40 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

> "And if we do a proper job, if we break the windows of hundreds, thousands, of Democrat Party headquarters across this country, we might just wake up enough of them to make defending ourselves at the muzzle of a rifle unnecessary."

> Mike Vanderboegh of Pinson, Ala., said he issued a call Friday for modern "Sons of Liberty"

What a bunch of crybaby drama queens.
posted by you just lost the game at 12:42 PM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

> While I truly don't want to go Godwin on Vanderboegh, has this idiot never heard of Kristallnacht?

I'll bet you $20 he hasn't.
posted by you just lost the game at 12:42 PM on March 24, 2010 [12 favorites]

Lynchburg? Really?

I grew up there. ja. rly.
posted by Naberius at 12:44 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Here's something that I still have not managed to wrap my head around; maybe someone can help me:

I've mentioned before that I work as a contractor to the US military. Most of the civilian employees that sit around me (from another contractor) are retired military themselves. They're getting paid in several different ways by the government:
-Current salary comes out of DoD coffers
-Retirement pension AND health care from the DoD
-Most of these people are also into their mid-60s, so they're pulling in social security

These people HATE Obama with a fiery passion, call him a Communist, and question the circumstances of his birth. They all wanted the health care bill to fail. By all accounts, they want reduced taxes and less government spending. Most of them live in New Hampshire, where there's no income or sales tax.

But talk to them about limiting social security of defense spending and they go ballistic. I don't understand how these two separate lines of thought can coexist. They want reduced federal government, but the government feeds them and lets them afford to live in nice houses and lots of guns.
posted by backseatpilot at 12:44 PM on March 24, 2010 [51 favorites]

While I truly don't want to go Godwin on Vanderboegh, has this idiot never heard of Kristallnacht?
I'll bet you $20 he hasn't.

Of course he has! Jeez, how dumb do you think he is?

He'll take one with kraut and mustard, please.
posted by vorfeed at 12:47 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

swift: "Know who else led a group of conservative thugs to intimidate and harass elected officials?"

Oswald Moseley?
posted by symbioid at 12:47 PM on March 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

The thing is, and this is what has me seriously concerned, is that a whole lot of these baggers, truly, honestly, deeply believe that they are the only thing stopping Obama from turning America into a socialist gulag. They honestly believe they are the front line of America's defense. They've lived almost their entire lives marinating in a very hateful broth. They began by listening to talk radio. Then came the militia movement and the whole "black helocopter" paranoia. Then it was the whole Gingrich revolution and the beginning of serious liberal demonizing. Then came Clinton and that whole circus of hate. Then W, 911, "with us or against us" and "mission accomplished". Now TeaBaggers and socialism.

Sure, their numbers are relatively small when compared to the total number of people who take part in the TeaBagger antics, but it only takes one or two to do something truly terrible. The thing is, thanks to the echo-chamber they live in, and the attention they get in the MSM, a lot of these people really do believe the rest of the country supports them. So, if you "see" the country being sold-out to the socialists, and you're armed and ready, and you "know" the country is behind you, and that they'll join you on the front as soon as the shit hits the fan, what do you do?

Someone's going to get seriously hurt. I think it's inevitable, given the rhetoric from these people. Unfortunately, when it happens, the obvious, necessary response will be to hunt them down and bring them to justice, which will only feed the "big government coming to get us" paranoia. It's an ugly cycle that only takes one lone nutjob to kick-off.

Man...I gotta get the hell out of Indiana. This place messes with your head.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:49 PM on March 24, 2010 [28 favorites]

Danville Tea Party leader Nigel Coleman was one of the activists who posted the home’s address online Monday.

Coleman said he is "shocked" and "almost speechless" at the possibility that someone would sever the propane line to Perriello’s brother’s house.

"I obviously condemn these actions," he said. "I would hope that people aren’t thinking about doing anything crazy. We just wanted people to get close to the congressman and have their voices heard. Violence is not going to answer anything. I’m a little shocked and amazed."

Coleman added that he is not certain that the incident is related to the posting of the home’s address. "Of course, we don’t know this is a related event," he said.

I suppose the only thing better then a internet fuckhead is an internet fuckhead without the strength of his convictions.
posted by edgeways at 12:52 PM on March 24, 2010 [9 favorites]

Whither thou, Department of Homeland Security?
posted by fuq at 12:52 PM on March 24, 2010 [21 favorites]

During the nineties, in the time of Ruby Ridge and Waco and before the Oklahoma City bombing, you'd occasionally have these pissant militias try to "secede" from the union.

It's almost quaint now to think about. Those cute little right-wing terrorists! So adorable.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 12:54 PM on March 24, 2010

On being told that he posted the wrong address, Coleman responded, "Oh well, collateral damage." he then, upon finding out that the propane gas line was slashed made this statement:

"I would hope that people aren’t thinking about doing anything crazy. We just wanted people to get close to the congressman and have their voices heard. Violence is not going to answer anything. I’m a little shocked and amazed."

Shocked and amazed? This guy is either breathtakingly naive, and cowardly distancing himself from his earlier braggadocio, or much, much more likely, a man happy to see the family of a person he views as his enemy intentionally put needlessly at risk by his own hand.

Honestly, I hope he is charged with conspiracy to commit murder/ arson when they catch the people who actually did the cutting, and they are sentenced in such a way to set an example.

I'm terribly sick of the non-too subtle veiled threats, we've seen it with abortion doctors, and now the relatives of politicians. This is absurd.
posted by quin at 12:56 PM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

"These Tea Party guys are making it really hard to avoid Godwin's Law."

I don't know, these guys' "night of broken glass" is pretty tame compared to the German original.
posted by edheil at 12:58 PM on March 24, 2010

Sacha Baron Cohen's next project should be about an Arabic fellow who tries to join the Tea Party.
posted by Stonewall Jackson at 12:58 PM on March 24, 2010 [37 favorites]

> But talk to them about limiting social security of defense spending and they go ballistic. I don't understand how these two separate lines of thought can coexist.

Irrationally. Lots of people are irrational. And lazy. To practice sound logical reasoning takes mental effort. It's easier to just believe what you want, and latch on to the people/groups/messages that tell you what you want to hear. It's why whenever I'm asked what the single biggest problem facing the US is, I always say—without hesitation—education.

When you have a significant percentage of your populace who don't really have the academic tools to put together even the most basic critical thinking in their decision making, well...this is what you end up with.
posted by Brak at 12:58 PM on March 24, 2010 [6 favorites]

Ha ha love that the same fucking idiot bloggers who a year ago were screaming about how there wasn't going to be a rise in right-wing extremist violence are actually the ones doing it.

"That damn empathetic black president passed a bill that prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions! Time to go cut a random person's gas line because I'm a little moron bitch" - Real Americans
posted by Damn That Television at 12:59 PM on March 24, 2010 [6 favorites]

Lynchburg? Really?

I grew up there. ja. rly.

What I should have added was that Lynchburg was named for John Lynch, who founded a ferry across the James River there. His brother, Charles Lynch, is generally considered to be the man who gave his name to lynching as a justice of the peace in Bedford County, Va. (which is more precisely where I grew up, and makes Lynchburg itself look like Weimar Berlin). It's exactly the sort of place you'd expect tea party batshittery to run rampant. Bedford County school teachers wore black armbands to class the day after Obama was elected.
posted by Naberius at 1:00 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Remember when you were a horrible, going-straight-to-hell, un-American person for daring to disagree with the president?
posted by Neekee at 1:00 PM on March 24, 2010 [16 favorites]

When you have a significant percentage of your populace who don't really have the academic tools to put together even the most basic critical thinking in their decision making, well...this is what you end up with.

Which is, perhaps not surprisingly, a reason why you frequently find rightwing nutjobs trying to wreck what remains of the educational system.
posted by aramaic at 1:01 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Tea Party Could Wreck 2010 Midterms for Republicans:

In other words, they are hardline wingnuts who think the Republican Party has gone squishy. And if the GOP can’t get them to behave, it will be NY-23 — all over the country.

posted by octothorpe at 1:03 PM on March 24, 2010 [6 favorites]

"Attached to the brick was a quote from Barry Goldwater: "Extremism in defense of liberty is novice."

Technically, the note read "Exremism in defense of liberty is no vice." Glenn Beck will tell you that sometimes, you need to resort to exremism to fight oligarhy."

Ah, you'll notice I left a letter off... Y? Because!

OH haha you got me. T as in Terror. Teabag. Traitor. These ALL BEGIN WITH T! Surely you understand the connection! First it's a brick, then it's hot apple pie, and then it's YOU!!!
posted by symbioid at 1:04 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

These people are traitors. They should be rounded up, lined up against the wall, and forced to receive free medical care.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:05 PM on March 24, 2010 [57 favorites]

Reps. Hoyer and Clyburn just gave a press conference...

Video.
posted by ericb at 1:08 PM on March 24, 2010

It's why whenever I'm asked what the single biggest problem facing the US is, I always say—without hesitation—education.

I say it's more laziness and self-entitlement. I know kids who were high school valedictorians who went on to become the ranting right-wing faithful.

We're lazy and self-entitled at least partly because our entire consumer culture indoctrinates us to accept certain implicit principles of consumer marketing, among them: We are entitled to always expect to get exactly what we want on-demand, and we should never have to accept being inconvenienced in the process.

Those and similar messages have been repeated on a loop continuously on every communication channel used to transmit advertising for decades in America, going back to the earliest days of radio. It's no wonder we have such unrealistic expectations and are so inflexible in our demands.
posted by saulgoodman at 1:08 PM on March 24, 2010 [12 favorites]

Tea-baggers have thrown rocks through Congressmen's windows. Are you a bad enough dude to call this terrorism on your news broadcast?
posted by explosion at 1:08 PM on March 24, 2010 [18 favorites]

Remember when you were a horrible, going-straight-to-hell, un-American person for daring to disagree with the president?

By their logic, I suppose, Obama is a false president (or the anti-president), which means there's nothing un-American in disagreeing with him.
posted by daniel_charms at 1:11 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Anne Coulter was forbidden by police from speaking at the University of Ottawa last night. According to Coulter, police, "had been warning my bodyguard all day that they were putting up [messages] on Facebook: 'Bring rocks, bring sticks, you gotta hurt Ann Coulter tonight, don’t let her speak'" (story here). There is clearly some evidence of Leftist threats of violence here. Every such incident does, in fact, provide the Right with some measure of satisfaction. So... STOP IT!
posted by No Robots at 1:11 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Like I said before, it's going to take another Murrah Building to stop this nonsense.

I lost a friend of mine in the Murrah building. One of 169 dead. How many will die this time? 300? 3000?

And with the GOP having, to paraphrase Martin Luther King, "their lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification," I wonder if anyone on the Right really understands that they're not recalling the opponents of the Civil Rights Movement but the proponents of slavery. Nullification as a concept eventually led us down the road to Fort Sumter and 600,000 American dead.
posted by dw at 1:14 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

By their logic, I suppose, Obama is a false president (or the anti-president), which means there's nothing un-American in disagreeing with him.

That also implies that they believe "their logic" is superior to our system of government and to even more basic things like factual reality, which makes them not only traitors to our system of governance but also stupid.

I won't even give them the credit of calling them insane. It seems like stupidity covers it.
posted by saulgoodman at 1:16 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

There is clearly some evidence of Leftist threats of violence here.

No Robots, there is clearly evidence of Ann Coulter lying here.

There were no rocks, no sticks, and I'd be willing to be a Canadian toonie that there was no FB call for violence, either.
posted by jokeefe at 1:18 PM on March 24, 2010 [15 favorites]

Sacha Baron Cohen's next project should be about an Arabic fellow who tries to join the Tea Party.

An Arabic fellow in a wheelchair.
posted by anniecat at 1:18 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Look at this F*ck*ng Teabagger
posted by anastasiav at 1:19 PM on March 24, 2010 [14 favorites]

The evidence that there were threats of violence against Coulter is that the police forbade her from speaking.
posted by No Robots at 1:19 PM on March 24, 2010

While I truly don't want to go Godwin on Vanderboegh, has this idiot never heard of Kristallnacht?

One of his recent blog posts: The Kristallnacht Fallacy.
posted by ericb at 1:20 PM on March 24, 2010

The evidence that there were threats of violence against Coulter is that the police forbade her from speaking.

Sorry, you're going to have to start making sense before anybody cares what you have to say.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:20 PM on March 24, 2010 [13 favorites]

Gee, what's different about Obama from all previous presidents?

He got health care reform passed. 63 days into his second year as president.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:22 PM on March 24, 2010 [24 favorites]

No Robots, there is clearly evidence of Ann Coulter lying here.

Yeah, and I think the burden of proof in a case like this would have to fall on the person who once wrote:

"[I]f Americans knew what they [liberals] really believed, the public would boil them in oil."
posted by saulgoodman at 1:23 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

The evidence that there were threats of violence against Coulter is that the police forbade her from speaking.

Is there evidence that police forbade her from speaking? Because if she told me there was something called gravity, I would feel the need to drop a hammer just to be sure.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:25 PM on March 24, 2010 [18 favorites]

Hmm. It seems I have been somewhat duped. Here is a CBC report that paints a far different picture.
posted by No Robots at 1:26 PM on March 24, 2010 [12 favorites]

could part of the media's failure-to-report-domestic-terrorism-as-terrorism problem be (in addition to the fact that all MSM corporations are gigantic and, by definition, desire preferential treatment for themselves and other corporations at the expense of citizens) that many MSM corporations in the U.S. are increasingly foreign-owned and therefore have less and less interest in the stability and well-being of their readership?

I mean, why would Rupert Murdoch and Carlos Slim care if the U.S. middle class evaporates and the domestic power/class struggle erupts into violent chaos? especially if reporting accurately and faithfully doesn't benefit them, but not doing so does benefit them.

note I am not xenophobic about outside ownership of domestic assets - I know it's inevitable, and I'd like the opportunity to make international investments of my own, where warranted. But I won't ever have a controlling share of, say, Le Monde, and with it the ability to control how the news is gathered, categorized and selected/approved for reporting.
posted by toodleydoodley at 1:27 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

No Robots, there is clearly evidence of Ann Coulter lying here.

Yeah, and I think the burden of proof in a case like this would have to fall on the person who once wrote:

"[I]f Americans knew what they [liberals] really believed, the public would boil them in oil."
posted by saulgoodman at 4:23 PM on March 24 [+] [!]

see, they got it all wrong. it's "If my thought-dreams could be seen/they'd probably put my head in a guillotine"
posted by toodleydoodley at 1:29 PM on March 24, 2010

The evidence that there were threats of violence against Coulter is that the police forbade her from speaking.
posted by No Robots at 1:19 PM on March 24

No. The organizers cancelled the event. See this story here (warning: enormous gross photograph of Ms. Coulter), which only mentions the police in this context: "[Canadian conservative activist Ezra Levant, who was scheduled to introduce Ms. Coulter] said some demonstrators swarmed the event, making it “a situation the security and police advised was untenable for safety reasons.”

It's turtles all the way down. At no point is there any evidence for these alleged threats or that the police actually forbade Coulter from speaking because of the alleged threats. There's plenty of evidence that right-wingers are committing acts of violence and threatening people. So why can't you or Ms. Coulter or Mr. Levant provide the same?

Goddamn, I'm so tired of this bullshit. Right-wingers actually throw bricks through windows. They actually fly planes into buildings. They cut gas lines, spit on congressmen and call
them "nigger" and "faggot," and all right-wingers can say is "YOU DO IT TOO" but when we say "what are you talking about?" they can never, ever, ever back up their bullshit. Every single one of them is a fucking liar, and they should be ashamed, and you should be ashamed for fallling for it like a fucking sucker.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 1:29 PM on March 24, 2010 [69 favorites]

Hmm. It seems I have been somewhat duped. Here is a CBC report that paints a far different picture.

Somewhat? I'd say, entirely.
posted by ericb at 1:31 PM on March 24, 2010 [6 favorites]

I don't believe that Canadian police can "forbid" anyone from speaking.

I can certainly imagine that if Coulter reported to the police that she was receiving death threats, they might strongly suggest that she cancel, even if they had no evidence of this themselves.

I'd definitely say that given Coulter has a long history of telling massive, barefaced lies, and given that we have not one single shred of proof (not even screen captures of Facebook pages, easy as those are to fake), I think you'd be pretty naïve to believe a word of this.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 1:31 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Hmm. It seems I have been somewhat duped

This is Jack's complete lack of surprise.

You have to be a tool to believe anything Coulter says to begin with, but then again that's her target audience after all.
posted by splice at 1:32 PM on March 24, 2010

Oops. Spin fail. Looks like that's one less conservative lie that managed to get through the selectively-porous media filter and into the news cycle.

Don't worry, though--the right's strategy is quantity over quality. They'll manage to get a few dozen more bias-confirming lies into national circulation before the day is done, never fear.
posted by saulgoodman at 1:34 PM on March 24, 2010

Is there evidence that police forbade her from speaking?

The report I read said her private security detail cancelled the debate/lecture/whatever it was, not the police.
posted by scalefree at 1:34 PM on March 24, 2010

White, about two-thirds male, generally well-educated and fairly well-off, conservative and Christian.

All right, white men with money (educated or otherwise) not wanting to part with a single penny of it to help somebody else... those qualities are not necessarily indicators of some larger ethos. There are plenty of white men with money (educated or otherwise) who would be happy to give money to help somebody else.

The thing that causes me some cognitive dissonance is the whole "Christian" thing. Now, this is purely anecdotal, but most Christians I know are pretty much in favor of the various provisions in the Health Care bill. They think Jesus probably would have wanted us to, say, get a kid with a pre-existing condition medical treatment. In fact, my Christian friends who were against (and ultimately reluctantly for) the health care bill fall more on the Kucinich "where is the single payer or public option?"

So I have a hard time wrapping my head around a self-professed Christian asking themselves "what would Jesus do?" and coming to the conclusion that he would - for example - cut a random person's gas line because that person was in favor of providing health care to more people.

Jesus wasn't a guy who came in and said "hey, everything is peachy, let's leave it the way it is." Jesus (assuming he existed) was a dude who came in and said "UR DOING IT WRONG" in David Mamet style caps and kicked the capitalists out of the temple. Instead of spurning society's most diseased people, he went down to work with them and comfort them and tend their wounds. He urged people to stop being dicks and douchebags to each other, instead urging them to treat other people the way they'd like to be treated. So, yeah, as the song goes, Jesus was way cool.

Indeed, if "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" seems to old fashioned, one could argue that the 21st century equivalent might be "Dude, don't be a dick."

How does a self-proclaimed Christian go from "Do unto others" to "throw rocks through windows of people we don't agree with?" Its completely at odds with what is (allegedly) the whole Christian ethos.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:35 PM on March 24, 2010 [12 favorites]

BTW -- there is an active MeFi thread on Coulter in Canada here.
posted by ericb at 1:35 PM on March 24, 2010

Mike Vanderboegh is loving all the attention he is being given now for his call to violent thuggish behavior against those who have the temerity to disagree and vote against his philosophy of governance.

These type of movements thrive on getting media attention. They also seem to be pleased that liberals are getting upset about their actions. Every little bit of attention they get they escalate their calls to violence and think that they are achieving success. They are behaving like a child who holds his breath and throws things to get attention.

I say we ignore them as much as possible and when they get caught promoting and doing criminal behavior - allow the FBI, police and courts to handle them. This will piss the people in this movement off more than anything and it will let the air out of their windbags.
posted by yertledaturtle at 1:36 PM on March 24, 2010

Sarah Palin's PAC site shows crosshairs over democratic districts. WTF is wrong with these people!?
posted by ExitPursuedByBear at 1:37 PM on March 24, 2010

Apologies, and thanks to all for straightening me out. I am quite relieved.
posted by No Robots at 1:37 PM on March 24, 2010 [9 favorites]

Hey, you learned an important lesson: liars often lie.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:39 PM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

Hah, there's a capture of the Facebook page in question in that CBC report.

What a lot of civilized people!

"He points to these two comments, in particular: "I want to throw rotten veggies and eggs at her evil barbie mask," which appears on page 10 and was posted on March 20, and "Can't we just tar and feather her?" posted the following day, which can be found on page 8."

These are the two worst comments out of hundreds and I'd say even these indicate no intent to cause harm. Certainly Coulter says far worse things every time she opens her mouth.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 1:39 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

The report I read said her private security detail cancelled the debate/lecture/whatever it was, not the police.

What's a bigger headline?

CONSERVATIVE EVENT CANCELED BECAUSE OF LIBERAL VIOLENCE

or

CONSERVATIVE IDIOT ADDRESSES DUMBEST STUDENTS
FRONT-PLEAT DOCKERS EVERYWHERE

She canceled it for the headline she'd get, not because of any danger. Her security team had nothing to do with it. And oh look now we're discussing this obvious bullshit instead of the very real violence rightwingers have been perpetuating since the election of a black President.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 1:40 PM on March 24, 2010 [24 favorites]

Hey, you learned an important lesson: liars often lie.

Players only love you when they're playing.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 1:41 PM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

"Polls aren't always right, but the Gallup Poll is generally one of the nation's most respected. And a new Gallup Poll released this afternoon finds an immediate and dramatic shift in public opinion toward the newly enacted health-reform law."

Hey, Teabaggers! You're a minority. Watcha gonna' do now that we know the "sky isn't falling" and more-and-more Americans are realizing the bullshit lies you and others have been telling have all along been LIES? Fucking morans.
posted by ericb at 1:41 PM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

schmegegge: this situation was on Rachel Maddow Monday night, and again last night, where she discussed this, plus threats for Louise Slaughter, where the threat was to "assassinate the children" of those who voted for the bill.

She also showed the Vanderboegh posts on breaking the windows, and what that bunch of idiocrats things should do. (Of course, he's also on disability payments through Social Security, so he starts at hypocrite and starts from there.)

Really, last night's Rachel Maddow was pretty solid on discussing this. Say what you will, she is on a major network and she did go into it and the reasons behind it.
posted by mephron at 1:41 PM on March 24, 2010

And oh look now we're discussing this obvious bullshit instead of the very real violence rightwingers have been perpetuating since the election of a black President.

Hence my earlier "hey look some liberal did something" false equivalency snark. On the Interweb, its always just a matter of time.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:42 PM on March 24, 2010

These bastards are whipped up into a fit of violence ... over healthcare. Giving people healthcare. That's what is making them so angry. Caring for people. They just can't fucking stand it. It makes them want to kill.

That strikes me as odd, too. Sure, racial segregation was terrible, and I have no sympathy for people who supported it, but I get why someone would riot over it. Integration would have a huge effect on the life of any given racist, and, assuming you're a segregationist, is a great evil being perpetrated. Violence against supporters is, of course, despicable, but at least it's internally sound.
But a relatively slight increase in health care coverage and altering the rules for excluding patients due to pre-existing conditions? That's what you are super angry about? I can almost see this reaction if healthcare was completely nationalized; that is a big change that is in fundamentally in opposition to a libertarian political outlook.
The only conclusion I can draw is that these people:

A) Are just using the health care thing as a smoke screen for other things they are pissed off at- the issue they're protesting may as well have been legislation to make May 12th National Alewife Day; or
B) They don't actually know anything about the thing they're protesting against.
I'm gonna guess its both A and B.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 1:44 PM on March 24, 2010 [7 favorites]

I'd say reality is at fault for not being fair and balanced here.
posted by Artw at 1:44 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

The report I read said her private security detail cancelled the debate/lecture/whatever it was, not the police.

From the CBC article which No Robots posted above:

First, contrary to what Coulter seems to suggest in a brief phone interview with Macleans.ca scribe Colby Cosh, it was not the police who "shut it down." I spoke with Ottawa Police Services media relations officer Alain Boucher this morning, and he told me, in no uncertain terms, that it was her security team that made the decision to call off the event. "We gave her options" -- including, he said, to "find a bigger venue" -- but "they opted to cancel ... It's not up to the Ottawa police to make that decision."

posted by ericb at 1:44 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Hey that's life. One day you're calling for the violent overthrow of the entire Islamic world. The next, you're cowed into submission by Canadians.
posted by condour75 at 1:46 PM on March 24, 2010 [39 favorites]

Anybody watching C-SPAN 2? McCain is going into angry robot mode.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 1:47 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I look forward to the impending resolution in Congress condemning these acts. I mean if they get all huffy about MoveOn ads and Acorn one would think this would rate neh?
posted by edgeways at 1:48 PM on March 24, 2010

Video [12:13]: Rachel Maddow on Vanderboegh and other extremist threats.
posted by ericb at 1:50 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Really, last night's Rachel Maddow was pretty solid on discussing this. Say what you will, she is on a major network and she did go into it and the reasons behind it.

this is true and completely fair. I spoke in frustration, but I believe what I said. On the other hand, Maddow is kind of always my exception to the rule of poor news coverage, and I'm intensely thankful that she exists. So yeah, let me say for the record that there are decent voices out there, and we're all lucky that they exist.
posted by shmegegge at 1:53 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Tea Party demographics: White, about two-thirds male, generally well-educated and fairly well-off, conservative and Christian. About half describe themselves as political independents, but almost 90% say they vote for Republican candidates.

Well educated. Really?
posted by notreally at 1:55 PM on March 24, 2010

Well educated. Really?

Not really.
posted by ericb at 1:55 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

May 12th National Alewife Day

This is a derail that I will endorse with my whole heart and soul.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:04 PM on March 24, 2010

"Well educated" means, I presume, "has a degree." Which, given the number of degree farms in this country -- especially those that cater to the religious fringe -- means nothing at all.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:10 PM on March 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

"Well educated" means, I presume, "has a degree."

Nossir. Means if'n you needed a lesson, you'd spend th' night t the bottom a the well.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:13 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Am I the only one who's sad that an Alewife is a fish?
posted by khaibit at 2:17 PM on March 24, 2010

Am I the only one who's sad that an Alewife is a fish?

If it makes you feel any better, I always picture them in my head as having beards. I have no idea how I got this notion, but I get sad whenever I remember how stupid it is.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 2:20 PM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

All joking aside, hypothetical question: if one of these assholes managed to get elected to high office, say they win a presidential election, what would be my odds of being granted asylum in a foreign country?
posted by paisley henosis at 2:22 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

You'll really be thinking about what could have been a lot should McCain blow a blood vessel and drop dead.
posted by Artw at 2:23 PM on March 24, 2010

All joking aside, hypothetical question: if one of these assholes managed to get elected to high office, say they win a presidential election, what would be my odds of being granted asylum in a foreign country?

Quitter. Stay and work to vote them out again.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 2:23 PM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

Am I the only one who's sad that an Alewife is a fish?

It's also a nature preserve in Massachusetts. Not much more exciting, although you can see wild turkey and coyotes. Also, they all have free health care.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:24 PM on March 24, 2010

During the 1950's and '60's blacks were fed up with Jim Crow and decided to act. They marched (publicly), organized sit ins (publicly), demonstrated (publicly) and were willing to go to be arrested to make their point. "They" were black men and women and even children.

Today we have these unhappy educated (supposedly) white men and women who are unhappy with ??? Health reform? A black president? Whatever. Their M. O. is to skulk around in the night throwing bricks through windows and cutting propane lines.
What a pathetic gaggle of pussies.
posted by notreally at 2:26 PM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

So why haven't the Twittards and others who have encouraged harm against the president and members of Congress been arrested yet? I thought that was something where they didn't hesitate to drag someone in and remind them of the lawlessness of such an act. Are they afraid it will cause the teabaggers to scream more about nazism? I'm confused. I don't want Dick Cheney to set the moral standard in this field! However, it seems strange that such threats are allowed to remain.
posted by theredpen at 2:30 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Quitter. Stay and work to vote them out again.

"I used to live in a crappy little wooden shack that I had to rebuild every time the right wing windbags blew it down. Finally, I spoke out against them, publicly. The first time one of them threw a brick through my window, I knew that I had found my true calling. I spoke out more and more, and the bricks kept coming. Now I live in a big brick house that they can't blow down." - 3rd Little Piggie
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:31 PM on March 24, 2010 [27 favorites]

Those of you who may lean left and aren't pacifist, and/or believe in the right to bear arms for self defense may be interested in the Anarchist Black Cross's Tactical Defense Caucus.

I don't know if it's very active or what the deal is (I last saw it in the mid 2000s)
posted by symbioid at 2:35 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

octothorpe: "Tea Party Could Wreck 2010 Midterms for Republicans"

From the article you linked:

"They are less educated but more interested in politics than the average..."

There is something very unsettling about that.
posted by idiopath at 2:38 PM on March 24, 2010

no robots: I just want to commend you for coming back in and posting the link contradicting your earlier statement. Too many of us would have spent the time looking exclusively for more evidence backing up the version we originally backed. And too many more of us would have just slinked away from the conversation silently after realizing our error rather than owning up to it. The criticism you have received for believing Ann Coulter's version in the first place is undeserved. It can be hard to get in the habit of assuming that people with national platforms will tell bald-faced lies about easily verifiable facts.
posted by 256 at 2:39 PM on March 24, 2010 [32 favorites]

This is a (now televised) call for insurgency. This "exfenestrator" is basically calling for domestic terrorism. You've always had crazy militias, but with the climate existing today, the danger now is that he isn't immediately thrown out as crazy. AND THIS FUCKING THING IS OVER HEALTH CARE?! WHAT THE F.

There might be things along these lines going on in other countries, such as ... oh.. Iraq.

I can't believe how quickly this is spinning out of control. Most of the right in the US (crazies and moderates included) are trapped in the machinery of the media backed fringe.

Here's to hoping it backfires royally come midterms and next election.
posted by flippant at 2:41 PM on March 24, 2010

When I scanned the words 'Lynchburg Tea Party', I thought this was going to be a post about whiskey-tasting.
posted by Flashman at 2:42 PM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

"Those who betray or subvert the Constitution are guilty of sedition and/or treason, are domestic enemies and should and will be punished accordingly.

It also stands to reason that anyone who sympathizes with the enemy or gives aid or comfort to said enemy is likewise guilty. I have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic and I will. And I will because not only did I swear to, but I believe in what it stands for in every bit of my heart, soul and being.

I know in my heart that I am right in my struggle, Steve. I have come to peace with myself, my God and my cause. Blood will flow in the streets, Steve. Good vs. Evil. Free Men vs. Socialist Wannabe Slaves. Pray it is not your blood, my friend."
--Timothy McVeigh
posted by benzenedream at 2:42 PM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

Yeah, I second that. It took some real moral fibre to come back here No Robots. Good show.
posted by Riemann at 2:42 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

From Wonkette, quoting Politico, on the dude who published the address originally:

"Troxel, a 2005 graduate of Liberty University, added “I was a journalism major in college, so I have every reason to believe my research is accurate.”"

Emphasis ours, because why not emphasize the funniest sentence ever?

Yup. I'm sure the journalism program standards are rigorous at Liberty Crazypants University.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 2:42 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Thanks, 256. I have to work out some things here. I was once a colleague and friend of Colby Cosh, the Maclean's blogger I initially linked to. I never shared his politics, but I respected him as a reporter.
posted by No Robots at 2:44 PM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

Neekee: "Remember when you were a horrible, going-straight-to-hell, un-American person for daring to disagree with the president?"

Correction, that's "daring to disagree with the president (R)"
President (D) -- well, that's not just OK, it's pretty much mandatory, and I believe the constitution says something about that.

I mean, unless the President (R) got caught with a mistress or groping boys or in a widestance, then he automatically becomes a President (D).
posted by symbioid at 2:44 PM on March 24, 2010

The journalism program will enable students to develop story ideas; gather pertinent information from a variety of sources; and accurately relay that information through a variety of communication mediums. Judeo-Christian ethics are the foundation for all courses at Liberty University and will train students to effectively, accurately, and objectively approach all information.

I'm a Premack-award winning journalist, and I think I might have noticed a flaw in your course.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:45 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I have a great idea that could SAVE COMICS AND BRING DOWN THE TEABAGGERS AT THE SAME TIME!

(I nominate Booster Gold. Or maybe Hercules.)
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:47 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

These bastards are whipped up into a fit of violence ... over healthcare. Giving people healthcare. That's what is making them so angry. Caring for people. They just can't fucking stand it. It makes them want to kill.

I don't understand any part of this. I'm not sure that I want to.

What's so hard to understand?

The stakes are damned high here (and the roots are deep). This is the definition of AMERICA that's being sorted out (inherently compassionate or NOT), and in this context, the tea-partyers are not unlike cornered rats, backed into the corner by root inflexibility of their ignorance and their hate.

What to do with them is the question. Keep them in the corner, I guess, maybe toss them the odd hundred lot of Ecstasy to neutralize the HATE.
posted by philip-random at 3:16 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Related: A brick was thrown through the glass doors at the Monroe County Democratic Commit tee's Rochester, N.Y., office, lo cated at University Avenue and Culver Road, either late Satur day night or early Sunday. Attached to the brick was a quote from Barry Goldwater: "Extremism in defense of liberty is novice."

Apparently, the rock thrower was inspired/incited by a teabagger blog run by a guy who's on Social Security Disability - which means he's also getting Medicaid healthcare. Talking about screaming irony.
posted by webhund at 3:19 PM on March 24, 2010 [8 favorites]

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was quoted Sunday as saying that President Obama and the Democrats, by passing comprehensive health care legislation, "will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years"

now, old newty-newt is back tracking like a mo-fo and saying he was in no way referencing the civil rights actions of johnson - but, i consider him a lying liar who lies and one who almost got caught admitting that truly changing history and making the country a better place is political suicide.
posted by nadawi at 3:19 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

oh, and lets not forget that newt is also for mandatory coverage
posted by nadawi at 3:20 PM on March 24, 2010

bitter-girl.com: "From Wonkette, quoting Politico, on the dude who published the address originally:"

FWIW, in the blog post linked earlier in the thread he claims this was two separate statements.
posted by graventy at 3:26 PM on March 24, 2010

~~Britain~~ America is a nation built on the very scowling face of adversity. Its dauntless spirit unbowed by any crisis. This is ~~Britain~~ America at its best. This is ~~Britain~~ America. And in this glittering sea, this perfect fusion of man and mineral, we know that conflicts will always perish in the brotherhood of flags. This is ~~Britain~~ America, and everything's all right. Everything's all right. It's okay. It's fine.
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:32 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Quitter. Stay and work to vote them out again.

Does the Tea Bagger Party plan to hand out absentee ballots to prisoners in its concentration camps, I wonder. Probably not.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:37 PM on March 24, 2010

Does the Tea Bagger Party plan to hand out absentee ballots to prisoners in its concentration camps, I wonder. Probably not.

Statements like this are just as stupid as Tea Baggers yelling "Tyranny!!"
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 3:40 PM on March 24, 2010

The Palin crosshairs are up at msnbc.com website. Unsure if any other major news outlet has the story.
posted by bearwife at 3:41 PM on March 24, 2010

Two thoughts:
One, can't we take the people who are anti-HCR, but are on SS or medicare... off those programs? Let's hoist them by their own petard!

Two, could we take up a MeFi collection- or just divert a tiny rivulet of the oceans of MeFi membership lucre- to hire Smedleyman for some private blackops work? I know he's a settled down family man these days, and probably too ethical by far... but I wouldn't mind seeing Metafilter's Own get all "Sam Fisher" on these teabagger terrorists... :)

#tlom
posted by hincandenza at 3:43 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Statements like this are just as stupid as Tea Baggers yelling "Tyranny!!"

Come on, your comment was pretty idiotic. No one should hold any illusions about these Nazi assholes. Read about the Constitution Party if you want to learn about what it would be like to live in a Tea-Bagger-run America.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:44 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Irresponsible fearmongering and hyperbole is bad when the Republicans and Teabaggers do it. That doesn't mean it's not bad when you do it. Cause that would be a double standard.

You can call them Nazis and say they'll imprison us in concentration camps, but I don't see how that's all that different from the Teabaggers calling liberals Nazis and accusing them of setting up death panels.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 3:48 PM on March 24, 2010

One, can't we take the people who are anti-HCR, but are on SS or medicare... off those programs? Let's hoist them by their own petard!

As a liberal, I feel that the bets way we can display our disdain for these people is caring for them really well and making sure they live full and unhappy lives. Sometimes it sucks being liberal, it really does.
posted by Think_Long at 3:49 PM on March 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

Sarah Palin unleases her squadron of flying monkey's against Nancy Pelosi.

Who I hope has some very good security.
posted by Skygazer at 3:53 PM on March 24, 2010

You can call them Nazis and say they'll imprison us in concentration camps, but I don't see how that's all that different from the Teabaggers calling liberals Nazis and accusing them of setting up death panels.

Liberals in this context aren't calling people "niggers" and "faggots", flying planes into buildings, shooting doctors in the back of the head, cutting gas lines, throwing bricks, threatening "Kristallnacht"-style mob violence, etc. etc. etc.

You can choose not to see the difference, but that difference is clear as day to me.

I doubt very much that whoever is manipulating these Tea Bagger brownshirts really respects the ideals of democracy and civility very much to recognize human rights, if they were to ever take office. That much is plainly evident, at least.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:53 PM on March 24, 2010 [16 favorites]

It appears that at least one representative has had enough. "We're not protecting him from you, we're protecting you from him," indeed.
posted by Lulu's Pink Converse at 4:00 PM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

~~monkey's~~ ---> monkeys

So who would be scarecrow, tin man and the cowardly lion??

Obama might make a good Scarecrow, yeah?

Hmm...and who would toto be?

Yeah Biggest fucking deal in government legislation passes since LBJ signing the civil rights amendment, and the right is threatening to hurt people and I'm just trying to finger out how it all plays out vis-à-vis The Wizard of Oz.

Ho hum.
posted by Skygazer at 4:00 PM on March 24, 2010

"We're not protecting him from you, we're protecting you from him," indeed.

Rambo reference. I approve.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 4:02 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

FWIW, Mark Potok of Southern Poverty Law Center calls them Neo-Nazis - "Threats Against Lawmakers After Health Vote:

"This is what neo Nazi leaders in America do today," Potok said. "They post personal information about their enemies and sit back and wait for somebody else to act."
posted by VikingSword at 4:09 PM on March 24, 2010 [6 favorites]

I have to think the Secret Service and the FBI are doing quintuple-overtime right now.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:22 PM on March 24, 2010

"The stakes are damned high here (and the roots are deep). This is the definition of AMERICA that's being sorted out (inherently compassionate or NOT), and in this context, the tea-partyers are not unlike cornered rats, backed into the corner by root inflexibility of their ignorance and their hate.

What to do with them is the question. Keep them in the corner, I guess, maybe toss them the odd hundred lot of Ecstasy to neutralize the HATE." -- posted by philip-random at 5:16 PM on March 24

This is something I've been trying to deal with and sort through in terms of my weltanschaaung. Part of that world-view is (and admittedly, it's a bit flawed science, but map != territory, so I just use it as analogy and metaphor)... The Triune Brain Theory.

This is the theory that the center of the brain holds reptilian survival mechanisms. The fight/flight system, territoriality etc. There is no emotional bonding. Turtles drop their eggs like turds in the sand, bury and move on. The triune brain theory calls this the "R-Complex" The next level is the mammalian complex -- it deals with social cohesion, empathy, emotion. Then the final layer, the neocortex is the logical/rational function.

What we're seeing on a mass social level is a war between the mammalian and the reptilian. The "Socialists" (mammals) want to work for the social organization and community, and the Teabaggers already have theirs...

And now... they're cornered. The antisocial reptilian cortex is terrified at being forced to integrate (integrate, there's another charged word). So it backs up and starts to react the only way it knows how through territorial instinctive dominance reflex.

And there's a whole bunch of other stuff in their about sociality and loyalties and kinship and what one chooses to call their tribe. But that's the basic gist.

Finally: I like the way you think philip-random. I've always said that we just need to dose the parties in the middle east with E and let them sit down and hug it out. *sigh*
posted by symbioid at 4:27 PM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

Sarah Palin unleases her squadron of flying monkey's against Nancy Pelosi.

I am deeply offended by this comparison of Ms. Palin to the wonderful Margaret Hamilton

Also, I know it's been said before many times, in many places, by many people but seriously, America W.T.F?
posted by The Whelk at 4:28 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I have to think the Secret Service and the FBI are doing quintuple-overtime right now.

FBI on overtime? Have they discovered a peace group that needs infiltrating? Cause we know they don't get too excited by right-wing homegrown terrorists.
posted by VikingSword at 4:29 PM on March 24, 2010

I've always said that we just need to dose the parties in the middle east with E and let them sit down and hug it out. *sigh*

I do wonder sometimes if this is perhaps the future of warfare. Don't KILL your enemies; just undermine their hatred of you and yours with vast quantities of feelgood and love drugs. Seriously. Both in human and monetary cost, could the outcome possibly be worse than the dropping of bombs?
posted by philip-random at 4:32 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I ..just ugh- once again

*cough* Bonjour, Je m'appel Whelk. J'ai 25. J'parley en Francis tres' mal, mais j'veux plu bein.
posted by The Whelk at 4:39 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Shit, the one teabagger who actually did fly a plane into a building killed one fucking guy.

Right-wingers ... actually fly planes into buildings

From Joe Stack's manifesto:

"The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed."

I'd be the first to point out that "left vs. right" is a false dichotomy, and that the "Tea Party" protests are about as focused and coherent as your average anti-WTO mob... but surely if the terms are to have any meaning at all, that meaning is less broad than "anyone who doesn't like the IRS", and in particular that meaning doesn't include pro-communist, anti-capitalist politics?
posted by roystgnr at 4:39 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh my god Vanderboegh is on Social Security disability? Unreal. Also, it's funny that he's asking people to throw bricks through windows because he is literally too much of a lazy turd to physically do so himself.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 4:39 PM on March 24, 2010 [7 favorites]

Remember that crazy people are not under much obligation to make sense or be consistent - that's why they are crazy people.
posted by Artw at 4:41 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

*cough* unlawful combatants *cough*
posted by LordSludge at 4:46 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Seriously. These are attacks on elected officials and should be dealt with appropriately:

1: Must be handled by the Dept Of Homeland Security (founded under the Bush Admin)

2: Incarcerated for an indefinite amount of time (under powers granted by the Bush Admin)

3: Tried without representation or jury in front of a secret tribunal--no press allowed! (another Bush admin precedent).

Man, I see how easy this makes everything now! Perhaps that last administration had something going on!
posted by sourwookie at 4:47 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

The stakes are damned high here (and the roots are deep). This is the definition of AMERICA that's being sorted out (inherently compassionate or NOT), and in this context, the tea-partyers are not unlike cornered rats, backed into the corner by root inflexibility of their ignorance and their hate.

This. This is why they're going bugfuck insane: the entire premise of what they think of as their America is being shifted. What looks to me like a pretty moderate bill aimed at regulating the insurance companies is, in their eyes, a huge ideological change in the relationship between the individual and the state. Is America their imagined paradise of individualism, or a society where citizens are not only defined as interdependent but where they are going to be compelled to fork over their money-- their hard-earned money, the sweat of their brow, the results of their labour!-- to help out people who they don't know and don't like, and who they fear in a scary, subconscious, the slaves are coming to exact their revenge kind of way. It's not rational; but for them, it's fundamental. They already hate paying taxes, and now they think that they're going to be forced to pay taxes not for what they approve of-- the military, fixing the potholes on Main Street, etc.-- but for other people who don't deserve the help. And that they will suffer because of it, that what they have will be stolen.

Because they don't understand how health care is conceptualized in other countries, and because their relationship to health insurance has been poisoned by the market, all they can see is that they are going to lose; they don't care that somebody else is going to gain, and that it's not a zero sum game. Because health insurance in America is a zero-sum game; you have to cling to it, you're always afraid of losing it, you have to battle to get the best you can.
posted by jokeefe at 4:56 PM on March 24, 2010 [12 favorites]

Plus massive racism.
posted by Artw at 4:57 PM on March 24, 2010 [9 favorites]

symbioid: The antisocial reptilian cortex

Whoa, does David Icke know about Metafilter?!
posted by hincandenza at 4:57 PM on March 24, 2010 [7 favorites]

Apparently, the rock thrower was inspired/incited by a teabagger blog run by a guy who's on Social Security Disability

I really want this to be true, but the article they link to on that blog doesn't actually mention it. What's the source for the claim that he's on SSD?
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 4:58 PM on March 24, 2010

*cough* Bonjour, Je m'appel Whelk. J'ai 25. J'parley en Francis tres' mal, mais j'veux plu bein

I started writing corrections before I figured out the joke here. Sorry, Whelk.
posted by jokeefe at 4:58 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Hey Cortex or Jess, You've got to be fucking kidding me.
posted by Skygazer at 4:59 PM on March 24, 2010

I really want this to be true, but the article they link to on that blog doesn't actually mention it. What's the source for the claim that he's on SSD?

He even admitted it on his own blog.

The collectivist bloggos are making much of the fact that after suffering congestive heart failure, diabetes and hypertension, that I fell back on Social Security Disability. They feel that I am hypocritical for taking government pennies.

P.S. Anyone with a good photo of this guy gets mad favorites. Please come through for me.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 5:01 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Hey Cortex or Jess, You've got to be fucking kidding me.

It's almost as if in a thread about over-heated, hyperbolic scare-mongering that leads to violence, the mods don't want you to call other people cunts! AMAZING!
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 5:04 PM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

Man, blink and you miss things around here...
posted by jokeefe at 5:08 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

NY lawmaker Slaughter receives 'snipers' threat
posted by brundlefly at 5:08 PM on March 24, 2010

I just hope that when the civil war comes these people won't be smart enough to operate the nukes.
posted by Hastur at 5:08 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'm imagining a Wile E. Coyote scenario where the nuke is facing the wrong way.
posted by brundlefly at 5:12 PM on March 24, 2010 [7 favorites]

Thanks OC!
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 5:18 PM on March 24, 2010

(Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates: It's almost as if in a thread about over-heated, hyperbolic scare-mongering that leads to violence, the mods don't want you to call other people cunts! AMAZING!

I guess they want to keep things civil, and I can't blame them as this could quickly turn into an all out name calling hate-fest, but really, Dudes, it's not like I'm exactly some stranger in off the street. I was commenting on Meta filter when Cortex was in diapers. (Ha ha...)

Thing that gets me is, It's usually 4:30 AM when I get my Metafilter comments deleted and I'm plastered to the gills. When I get online the next day, I'm usually grateful for the quick quiet way my "comment" has been scrubbed.

But, I ain't even had my first drink yet today and it was daylight!

Also Sarah Palin.....ooohhhh she gets me so...steamed for wanting to see people hurt....that....THAT....errr...YOU-KNOW-WHAT.

Grrr...

Okay, fuck this, I'm going to the bar to read my book.
posted by Skygazer at 5:28 PM on March 24, 2010

Da Whelky: I am deeply offended by this comparison of Ms. Palin to the wonderful Margaret Hamilton.

Christ...I can't do anything right today, can I?
posted by Skygazer at 5:29 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Christ...I can't do anything right today, can I?

I am deeply offended by your taking the Lord's name in vain.
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:38 PM on March 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

Hey Cortex or Jess, You've got to be fucking kidding me.

Nope. You want to maybe try and not go in that one, specific shitty direction amidst whatever else you have to say, that would be kind of awesome and not put us in the position of having to deep-six your comment.

Generally speaking, talking about moderation is something to do on meta or over email, so if you or anyone else really wants to hash out the question anymore lets maybe do it via one of those channels instead.
posted by cortex at 5:42 PM on March 24, 2010

Yeah, whatever Anunnaki scum...
posted by hincandenza at 5:47 PM on March 24, 2010

Hey Cortex or Jess, You've got to be fucking kidding me.

Absolutely not kidding. MetaTalk is a perfectly reasonable option.
posted by jessamyn at 5:48 PM on March 24, 2010

P.S. Anyone with a good photo of this guy gets mad favorites. Please come through for me.

And can we please not do this.
posted by cortex at 5:51 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Everybody gets DETENTION!!
posted by Skygazer at 5:56 PM on March 24, 2010

The past pattern has been for right-wing violence to get really out of hand after elections, not before them. You may recall a truck bomb in 1995 at the Murrah building in Oklahoma City? The militia madness organizing phase peaked in the late summer of 1994, prior to the election when the Republicans got control of Congress.

After the election, the militia line was the Republicans, specifically Newt Gingrich, were the real power behind the New World Order. I was covering a lot of militia meetings from early 1994 (well before the first national press stories in August 1994) and it was clear the people ginning up the violence were well outside electoral politics, but they had a lot of fanboys among conservative voters. At that time it was the Brady Bill.

Same thing happened in the 1960's and early 70's with the Minutemen and the Secret Army Organization.

Crazy? Not really. What had happened was the wackos generated a lot of political suction that dragged the voting spectrum to the right. But the really dangerous ones were spoiling for a fight, regardless of the political outcome.

The same dynamic continues to apply. Regardless of the outcome of the next election, it will probably be accompanied by an increase in political violence. The violent actors are orbiting the fringes of the Tea Parties, looking to peel off converts, but they aren't the Tea Parties. They are definitely egging them on. The Tea Party people generally adore them for being outrageous and egg them on in turn. That will change after it gets bad enough, but not before then.

Dave Neiwert nailed it in The Eliminationists. This is the outcome of talking up on national media the notion that political violence is an acceptable tactic for the American Right. Do that long enough and people will act on it.

It's not going to be fun waiting out the year or so that this will take to unfold, but barring a miracle, we're stuck in the ruts of past history.
posted by warbaby at 5:57 PM on March 24, 2010 [15 favorites]

And can we please not do this.
posted by cortex at 5:51 PM on March 2

Wait, why? The guy's a public figure. He was mentioned on Maddow for Christ's sake. No one's posting his address.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 6:13 PM on March 24, 2010

Wait, why? The guy's a public figure. He was mentioned on Maddow for Christ's sake. No one's posting his address.

Because it smacks of "help me track this guy down" and specifically it smells like "give me some other way to belittle and ridicule this guy" Both of which are games we'd rather not play on MeFi, no matter how distasteful the person is. If you want to defend your right to use MeFi as a platform for doing this sort of thing, please make your case over in MeTa.
posted by jessamyn at 6:16 PM on March 24, 2010

Not to pull a Godwin or anything (I probably am), but Teabaggers are starting to sound more and more like the SA Brownshirts. I have a lot of sympathy for those caught in circumstances beyond their control, yet more and more are look like brutish thugs. There are several differences, which are good for us:

1) Many members of the SA were former veterans and lower class. They were not afraid to get their hands dirty, unlike these guys, who sissy out with a gas main and then pretend they didn't do it.
2) The SA was organized. They had spiffy uniforms, and no matter how chaotic they could be, they also had some sort of sense of purpose beyond wandering around acting pissed off.
3) The SA had legitimate gripes that were enough for them to play rough and tumble and risk it all. Most of these goobers don't have anything on the line, so the most they'll do is wave a sign around and some small-time vandalism.

However, it's only a matter of time before the Republican Party—to maintain a shred of dignity—has a metaphorical Night of Long Knives where they disavow the racism and chaos of the Tea Party movement. Immigration reform is coming up, and the average Tea Party protester is going to say things that even Michelle Bachmann won't want next to her name. Not to say the Republican Party is more classy, but they have more tact than to spew their opinions without code.

Plus, the Tea Party mobilization failed, and America (especially Republicans) hates losers. Expect these guys to be kicked to the streets soon enough.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 6:26 PM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

I'm sure the journalism program standards are rigorous at Liberty Crazypants University.

Which, of course, is in Lynchburg, Virginia.

They marched (publicly), organized sit ins (publicly), demonstrated (publicly) and were willing to go to be arrested to make their point.

And they did it, for the most part, nonviolently. I'm in awe of the dignity, discipline, and restraint they showed in the face of overwhelming injustice. Me, I'm not so strong. I'm too hot-tempered, and hearing about shit like people being banned from schools or made to sit in the back of buses makes me want to take a pipe to some heads.

Bedford County school teachers wore black armbands to class the day after Obama was elected.

See, shit like that right there.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:44 PM on March 24, 2010

If you want to defend your right to use MeFi as a platform for doing this sort of thing, please make your case over in MeTa.
posted by jessamyn at 6:16 PM on March 24

MeTa
posted by Optimus Chyme at 6:51 PM on March 24, 2010

MeTa
posted by Skygazer at 7:00 PM on March 24, 2010

Wow, two for the price of one.
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 7:01 PM on March 24, 2010

you will find nothing comparable to this coming from the left. no matter how far back you go, or how oblique an incitement you look for, you won't find anyone on the left asking for something like this or suggesting it could be a reasonable response to action from the right.

Here in Madison, Wisconsin, in the middle of a summer night 40 years ago, the New Year's Gang set off a truck bomb outside the physics department, killing a scientist who was working late.

They were not men of the right.
posted by escabeche at 7:24 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

The number of people killed in the one Oklahoma City bombing is easily ten times as many as all the leftist terrorist attacks in the US put together, no?

And please, let's not forget lynching, another act of right-wing terrorism, that killed (says Tuskegee University) almost 5000 people (mostly before 1930, yes, but not to be forgotten).
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 8:08 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I used to think the rhetoric about Liberty University had to be exaggerated, because there was no way on earth intelligent Christians could be so consistently stupid and offensive. I even read The Unlikely Disciple, and while the book did ring true for me, I was unwilling to write them off. They had to have something to offer, I reasoned. Some of the awesomeness of Jesus and his life just had to rub off on them.

I was wrong. One of my friends is from Lynchburg and is mostly normal, except that she casually told me that she doesn't think interracial marriage is ok as if she expected me to agree with her. But one of her high school friends who goes to LU is off-her-rocker weird. She's a nice person but I came so close to punching her in the face when she visited and talked about evolution, the poor, gay marriage, African-Americans, atheists, and Democrats. Every issue she talks about pushes my buttons repeatedly and my blood pressure soars.

I like to think of myself as a fairly open-minded, reasonable person. I'm willing to talk to libertarians and Republicans if they are willing to not be emotional or illogical, and I love debating politics with anybody who will listen. But this girl would not listen to anything I said, and kept talking about how Biblical characters, like King David, would not have approved of health care reform.

All that's to say that I am in no way surprised about Lynchburg's connection to the Tea Party, and I believe that a lot of the fear about escalating violence based on a narrow-minded interpretation of the Bible and a willful ignorance about reality is pretty justified. I really do have to say that though, because most fundamentalists I know are kind people who are doing what they think is best for their country. In some cases, though, what they think is best for their country is actually hurting it.
posted by pecknpah at 8:20 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

@escabeche: I think it was the "running right wing national narrative of incitement to violence" that had "nothing comparable to this." And you are correct, there was left-wing incitement to violence during the late 60's and early 70's. However, it was not excused away, ignored or minimized in the national media. And left-wing violence has never been exhorted by major establishment figures.

The SAO I mentioned earlier is a very good example of something that can't be used to for anything but a false parallel between right and left. That was a domestic terrorist group organized and covered up by an FBI agent who was never disciplined, chastised or prosecuted.

The Madison bombing and Oklahoma City are reasonable parallels between right and left-wing violence; with the understanding that the Madison bombers did not intend to kill anyone and McVeigh wanted to kill as many people as possible.

Political violence tends to subside when there is a moral barrier of public disapproval and flourish when there is a perception of public or establishment approval.
posted by warbaby at 8:23 PM on March 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

Yes, there has been left wing violence in America, Czolgosz, the early labor movement (and some not so early, but the cause of that is arguable), and there have been riots at different times that could be called "left wing violence. In the 70s there were groups like the Panthers and the Weather Underground and spin off. They condoned violence and some committed acts of violence.

But -- here is the difference -- no party, no congressman or candidate, no network talking head condoned, incited, condoned, or winked at those acts. Even the people that supported those groups goals condemned those tactics. Loudly. The current leaders of the right refuse to do so.

During one of the largest peace marches Nixon - Richard Nixon! - walked onto the mall and discussed football with the protesters. No one yelled at him, or called him names, and if anyone had, no one in office would have applauded that group, as actually happened when the modern wingnuts hurled epithets at congressmen this weekend.

On the left, in the 60s and 70s, and in the last decade and a half, even the rhetoric of 'violence someday' has come only from the margins, and the violent acts have come from the excluded fringe. The last widely excused left wing violence was done by John Brown at Harper's Fairy; the last widely supported left wing violence happened in the 1770s
posted by Some1 at 8:38 PM on March 24, 2010 [25 favorites]

Man, the teabaggers are going to love to see the line item in the budget for security details required for their antics, paid for by their freedom-loving tax dollars.
posted by disillusioned at 2:58 AM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

shmegegge (emphasis added): you will find nothing comparable to this coming from the left. no matter how far back you go, or how oblique an incitement you look for, you won't find anyone on the left asking for something like this or suggesting it could be a reasonable response to action from the right.

Well. The Weather Underground, the Black Panther Party, counter-violence by union organizers against Pinkertons, the Battle of Matewan, the Haymarket bombing, we can maybe include antidraft riots in 1863 as violence from the "left". You can ever go back as far as John Brown and Bloody Kansas.

Annie Cat:But something that can shut them down. A covert operation. Like if you had a spy go to their meetings and pass along information about what they plan to do. They need an informant for the FBI.

Look, I deplore this as much as you do.

But, the last thing we need is another COINTELPRO -- that too was supposedly created for the best of reasons, but that won't bring Fred Hampton back to life, or erase the infamy of the FBI attempting blackmailing the "Communist" Martin Luther King with its wiretaps. And inevitably, it would end with another Ruby Ridge, giving the Teabaggers a real grievance to nurse.

Sorry, but I'm a liberal because government infiltration of political movements -- even those I detest -- is anathema to me. That cure is worse than the disease, and much longer lasting. Of course investigate and prosecute the violence. But do that with police, not secret police.
posted by orthogonality at 4:08 AM on March 25, 2010 [19 favorites]

One night, rather late, I was riding the last train to Cambridge in Boston, which was compltely empty save for my group and one rather sour looking old man at the far end of the car. A friend with us had just gotten back from a trip to England, and we were talking about the stops on the line. My friend says something about All-e-whiff, the last stop the Red Line makes in the South, and then the old man shouts from his end of the car, "IT'S ALE-WIFE! LIKE THE FISH!" and then goes back to staring at his feet.

True story.
posted by kaibutsu at 4:13 AM on March 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

"I would hope that people aren’t thinking about doing anything crazy. We just wanted people to get close to the congressman and have their voices heard. Violence is not going to answer anything. I’m a little shocked and amazed."

Note to the Tea Party. If you're going to quotelines from classic films, get them right. The line is "I'm shocked, shocked to find that..."
posted by Francis at 4:27 AM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

You know, I'd bet a trillion dollars that these teabaggers who carry Hitlerized Obama pictures and yell about their constitutional right to be vocally critical of the president were the same folks giving the Dixie Chicks a metric ton of shit back in 2003 for being "unpatriotic" by being vocally critical of the president. Funny, that.
posted by shiu mai baby at 5:04 AM on March 25, 2010 [5 favorites]

The man who threw dollar bills at that Parkinson's patient has had a change of heart:

"He's got every right to do what he did and some may say I did too, but what I did was shameful," Reichert said. "I haven't slept since that day. I made a donation (to a local Parkinson's disease group) and that starts the healing process. I wanted this to go away, but it won't and I'm paying the consequences."

He said he's fearful for his family after reading comments about his actions on the Internet.

"I've been looking at the web sites," he said. "People are hunting for me."
posted by EarBucket at 5:32 AM on March 25, 2010 [14 favorites]

It's also a nature preserve in Massachusetts. Not much more exciting, although you can see wild turkey and coyotes. Also, they all have free health care.

Close. The health care isn't free, you do have to buy it. But I have seen wild turkeys crossing the road in Boston, so make of that what you will.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:36 AM on March 25, 2010

Bring it on is right. Wait til they discover some of us lefty progressives are *also* gun nuts.
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:45 AM on March 25, 2010 [7 favorites]

Irony would be if the dollar-bill-throwing man gets Parkinson's.
posted by WalterMitty at 5:55 AM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'd rather this not turn into a Turner Diaries style civil war. I would like it if enough pressure were applied to the American right wing that they stopped giving the loonies just enough attention and approval that they go back to their compounds and return to polishing their rifles and fantasizing about revolution, rather than actively plan for it.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:56 AM on March 25, 2010

I meant the animals get free health care.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:58 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

EarBucket, that's the best news I've heard this morning.
posted by mediareport at 6:49 AM on March 25, 2010

Keeping it in perspective: Erick Erickson claims the Georgia House of Representatives is considering articles of impeachment against the state Attorney General for failing to sue the federal government over the bill. Good luck with that.
posted by EarBucket at 7:14 AM on March 25, 2010

The man who threw dollar bills at that Parkinson's patient has had a change of heart

Nice find. Still, if there hadn't been a video, if there hadn't been a public outcry, if he hadn't personally faced a backlash, he wouldn't care. He's faking contrition so this will all go away.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 7:15 AM on March 25, 2010 [4 favorites]

He's "sorry" kinda like (oh fuck, I'm gonna Godwin myself here) you know what country was sorry after world war 2.

The apology has a bit of wiggle room. Yes, yes it is shameful. And I really hope you mean that, but it's funny it took you having to "live in fear" and having "people hunt you" to say this. If they weren't so angry, would you notice? Would you realize? Would you still be on the front lines doing these things?

I'm not justifying internet vigilantism just like I oppose the mob mentality that caused his actions. But I'm seriously wondering if he'd be sorry otherwise.
posted by symbioid at 7:27 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Still, if there hadn't been a video, if there hadn't been a public outcry, if he hadn't personally faced a backlash, he wouldn't care. He's faking contrition so this will all go away.

Yeah, but his feelings don't really matter. To draw a weak parallel, I highly doubt that the Civil Rights movement would have gained such traction nationwide without the proliferation of images like this or this or news footage like this. Sometimes public shame is only way to effect change, sunlight's the best disinfectant, etc.
posted by oinopaponton at 8:07 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Nice find. Still, if there hadn't been a video, if there hadn't been a public outcry, if he hadn't personally faced a backlash, he wouldn't care. He's faking contrition so this will all go away.

The first doesn't necessarily mean the second. There's many people that honestly realize their wrong due to public shaming. Sometimes its because their previous views encountered no opposition, so why revise something that works so well for everyone you know? Maybe he was complaining that night about the whole scene and the fact that it was captured on video and now everyone hates him. He rants away to his friend, and then his friend says, "Well . . . you did sound like a raging dick there. Not one of the good guys." He argues about the situation, but the friend just looks at him. And then suddenly there's that moment that everyone has: "I . . . I could be wrong about this?" Suddenly all the ramifications of them being wrong occur to them for the first time ever. Remorse follows soon after.

The doubt they had from it comes from the resistance not just from the outside world, but from their world, and themselves. When you see the video of you being a douche to other people over and over and over, you might realize you're a douche.

So, I'm glad. I don't know his inner heart, but we should not discount a legitimate remorse and accuse him of false flag. He has my blessings to heal. It's the only way forward.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 8:14 AM on March 25, 2010 [8 favorites]

The man who threw dollar bills at that Parkinson's patient has had a change of heart:

pretty sure I went to elementary school with this guy. lemme check my facebook...

anyway, the problem with mobs is that you do stupid shit you wouldn't do on your own initiative. sorta like the interwebs. he probably went home and was like, omg I'm an asshole. at least, I hope.
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:16 AM on March 25, 2010

I meant the animals get free health care.

To be fair, this is only because the gay marriage laws allow you to marry pets, who subsequently are added to your insurance.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:34 AM on March 25, 2010 [6 favorites]

More likely "omg people might think I'm an asshole, how can I spin this so I'm the victim."
posted by Artw at 8:37 AM on March 25, 2010

More likely "omg people might think I'm an asshole, how can I spin this so I'm the victim."

Why would that be more likely? People actually change their opinions with surprising frequency, sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. Why would you automatically assume the worst?
posted by Lord Chancellor at 8:40 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Because he threw in the "I fear for my family" and "they're hunting me" bullshit.
posted by graventy at 8:51 AM on March 25, 2010 [4 favorites]

Quite.
posted by Artw at 8:56 AM on March 25, 2010

Why would you automatically assume the worst?

Why would you automatically assume that Artw is automatically assuming?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 8:58 AM on March 25, 2010

Astro:

I've seen deer as well and many species of birds (and birders to go along with them). Don't sell The Alewife reservation short.
posted by batou_ at 9:02 AM on March 25, 2010

Why would you automatically assume the worst?

Because if our enemies aren't inhuman monsters, we can't justify our hate.
posted by rocket88 at 9:03 AM on March 25, 2010 [4 favorites]

Gotta love this!

"Rep. Jim Moran, a fiery Virginia Democrat, got a visit from tea party activists at his office earlier this week. Aides got between the burly lawmaker and the activists. The activists, according to the congressman, asked whether he needed 'bodyguards' to protect him.

'We’re not protecting him from you,' the aides said, according to Moran. 'We’re protecting you from him.'"

posted by ericb at 9:12 AM on March 25, 2010 [10 favorites]

I'm a bit late to come back to this discussion, but there was an excellent post on the subject this morning from poet Ron Silliman. I thought these paragraphs were especially worth quoting:

Ronald Reagan did not invent the anti-tax movement whose slogans he co-opted as his own. But he certainly recognized its potency & made great use of its potential. And he appears to have understood that the fundamental premise of the tax revolt, the right’s great perception about the 1960s that still drives that movement to this day, is that we are not ourselves. Government isn’t us, it’s not even about us, it’s about Them.

They are the people who have “invaded” “us.” The hippie commie queers, the blacks who “snuck in” on slave ships, Africans, Asians & Latin Americans who took Emma Lazarus at her word. Ultimately, I think that this is what all this lack of comity is about – one group of Americans (largely tho not entirely white males) look in the mirror & what they see does not look like America, although they may pretend that it does. That other America of difference & diversity has in their view wrested control of the government. Which of course is why everything government does has, for them, become illegitimate. (Tho they would like government, such as the courts, to do whatever it can to preserve their dying stranglehold on power.)

Time will, of course, resolve this precisely because these demographics are headed for change. If the tea-party Mad Hatters think that the socious today looks bizarrely non-white, non-male & non-straight, wait till they look at it circa 2020 or 2050. But between now & then, we can anticipate that this same cluster of conservative – or at least reactionary – values will only get more upset, more hyperbolic, more dislodged from reality, more extreme, and definitely more dangerous. The whole “Obama birth-deniers,” for example, aren’t complaining nearly so much about where the president was or was not born as they are expressing their incomprehension that a man with an African father & who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia could become president. That is the unimaginable & everything else just flows from that.

posted by treepour at 9:24 AM on March 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

Because if our enemies aren't inhuman monsters, we can't justify our hate.

Dude joins a hate group, marches with a mob and does a hateful, assholish thing, catches some flak for it and issues an "apology" for it which is mainly about how he fears persecution by a fictional "fair and balanced" counter-mob that exists only in the delusions of whackjobs, and you think I'm being unfair by scorning him? Get real.
posted by Artw at 9:29 AM on March 25, 2010 [9 favorites]

Rep. Cantor's Richmond Campaign Office Shot at Overnight
posted by mikepop at 9:36 AM on March 25, 2010

Glad to see Fox News starts reporting when Republicans get involved. Who's threatening them? They didn't even vote for healthcare.
posted by graventy at 9:43 AM on March 25, 2010

Rep. Cantor's Richmond Campaign Office Shot at Overnight

Why won't he release the messages? While I don't think he's lying, I really can't imagine who'd shoot at his office-- that's Tea Party-level shit, and don't they like Cantor?
posted by oinopaponton at 9:44 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

I want our lawmakers to be protected from shit like this, to be perfectly clear.

That said, this sounds pretty fake, and kind of reeks of "Look it's not just crazy Tea Partiers because they're doing it too!" which is complete and total bullshit.
posted by graventy at 9:47 AM on March 25, 2010

I read the apology and it sounded like a guy who got caught up in a crowd, did something stupid without realizing the consquences, and regrets it. He's not going to another rally "ever"; he lost control. And yes he hopes people will stop threatening him. Because its wrong.

But you have to realize, the quotes in the article are put there by the author to spin the tale they want. Maybe the guy was all about the me, me, me and the author put in some apology quotes to make it sound better. Or maybe the interview started with the guy talking about the general circumstances, and then moved to a lot of genuine apology, and the author wanted to emphasize Libruls are Evil so put in the fear and intimidation angle. It wasn't a blog post, and it wasn't a block quote of a letter, it was a series of disjointed quotes. Who knows what the original emphasis or order he put his apology in during the initial interview?

I'm not gonna bash his apology for how another person chose to include certain phrases and not others, and in what order. I'm just going to be glad that he apologized, is apparantly making reparations (donations to Parkinson's), and went on record as not going back to another political rally. Those are all positive things.
posted by sandraregina at 9:51 AM on March 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

The Fox News report in mikepop's link also mentions that Jean Schmidt (R-OH) has received a threatening voicemail. As of 12:48 p.m. (EDT), the only site that claims to have a transcript is The Hill.

I'm withholding judgment until a little more information comes in, myself.
posted by bakerina at 9:52 AM on March 25, 2010

Also, the main post illustrates why you should never put out private identifying information about someone you disagree with on a public forum (especially where other people disagree with them too). Putting bricks through windows, setting things on fire, sending death threats, etc are just Not Cool. And its even less cool when it gets directed to people who aren't directly involved. Collateral physical damage from a political dispute? I'm sorry, that's not right, and shrugging and saying 'oh well' is abhorrent.
posted by sandraregina at 9:55 AM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

a transcript of the call left in Schmidt's office

"Yes, uh. Yeah, I'm glad, uh. the president passed healthcare, yeah. Funky-ass, racist-ass Republicans hate that, don't you?"

ahahaha "funky-ass" only republican operatives would think that black people talk like that

"My name is um, Jamal, um, Black...man and I'm a Democrat in the Democrat party and I'm going to kill you honkey, um, mofoers. This is a serious Democrat threat to you Republicans for being jive turkeys. My Black Panther friends and I are itching to clobber honkeys with our, uh, gats and [what does this say?] mines? Gats and mines, bi-aitches. B-H-O forever! Good day!"
posted by Optimus Chyme at 10:03 AM on March 25, 2010 [31 favorites]

Yeah I'm calling "false flag" (ugh I hate that shit - is there another word? for fake things done in the name of your opponents?) on the Republican shit...

That's not to say it's not true, but it sure as hell seems a bit... off.

If it *did* happen (and I do believe there should be a full on investigation just as much as there is of the threats against Dems) then they should attempt to apprehend the individual who did such things as much as they did to those who attacked the Dems.

Justice is justice, and it needs to be equal.

That said, I have a LOT of fucking doubt that this shit is real. It's straight out of the right-wing play book.
posted by symbioid at 10:06 AM on March 25, 2010

It's straight out of the right-wing play book.

Ugh, I was giving Cantor the benefit of the doubt for like five minutes, but then I remembered the ACORN "pimp" and Ashley Todd. Maybe Cantor and Schmidt are telling the truth, but man are they making it hard to tell.
posted by oinopaponton at 10:13 AM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

Oh for christ's sake that call to Jean Schmidt wasn't a fucking threat. It was a wish for a past action to have her suffer, because basically? He's pissed. He's also saying he would have defended himself (although - too far defensive - guns should not be used on people who spit at you...) if someone spat on him.

And I'm hazarding that "I wish you broke your back" thing? It's probably along the lines of "I wish you broke your back so you can know what it's like to have to deal with the pain of health problems".

That said, I'm not saying it's right, but it's different than a threat, IMO. They ARE racist motherfuckers and they SHOULD be called out on it.

The bullet through Cantor's window -- that's interesting. The fact he's the highest ranking Jewish member of something (forgot what the article said) implies a more right-wing threat due to his Jewishness -- it could in theory still be a lefty, but again -- highly doubtful.

Honestly? If the repubs DO start to get threatened by the teabagger crowd, I won't cry.
posted by symbioid at 10:13 AM on March 25, 2010

CNN's newest commentator Erick Erickson on the reported attack on Rep. Cantor's office:

The threats, potential acts of violence, and violence against those who voted against the health care legislation must be condemned. They are neither helpful to those seeking repeal nor the acts of a civilized society. I comfortably say I speak for all the front page posters here condemning the violence and threats. The people who think this country has descended into the darkness do in fact send us down a dark path themselves with these actions.

Clear? Good.

There are a great many Americans who truly believe the Republicans shredded the constitution on Sunday night. I’ve said for weeks I was a bit fearful of what would happen as a result. I sincerely pray we are not on the cusp of some group of angry and now unhinged mob lashing out at congressmen for a vote in the Congress. But something seems to be brewing and I frankly don’t think the Republicans should at all be surprised.

Acts of violence against congressmen for behaving as congressmen are wholly inexcusable. We should be vigilant to police our own side because as we’re already seeing through a series of breathless and inaccurate reports, the press and Republicans are going to be quick to run most any story and the retraction will never be as significant as the initial report.

But let’s not act surprised. The only people surprised by the rage are the ones who refused to venture outside Washington to understand first hand what the voters were actually thinking before congressmen voted.

posted by scalefree at 10:18 AM on March 25, 2010

"Yes, uh. Yeah, I'm glad, uh. the president passed healthcare, yeah. Funky-ass, racist-ass Republicans hate that, don't you?"

Does anybody here speak jive?
posted by brundlefly at 10:19 AM on March 25, 2010 [5 favorites]

CNN really is the new FOX News.

I dread to think what FOX News itself is like these days.
posted by Artw at 10:28 AM on March 25, 2010

There are a great many Americans who truly believe the Republicans shredded the constitution on Sunday night.

That recently?
posted by EarBucket at 10:46 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

There are a great many Americans who truly believe the Republicans shredded the constitution on Sunday night.

Huh, well that's weird. Everywhere my text says Republicans, the original text says Democrats. Now how'd that happen? Oh well, it works equally well both ways, don't you think?
posted by scalefree at 10:49 AM on March 25, 2010

See. I told you it wouldn't take them long after the Coulter lie got called early.
posted by saulgoodman at 11:05 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

link removed. we do not link to stormfront here, thanks
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:05 AM on March 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

Rep. Cantor's Richmond Campaign Office Shot at Overnight

Any news organization actually gone and looked at the bullet hole? Or would that be a bit too much investigating when they could just report exactly what one guy said?
posted by IanMorr at 11:14 AM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

Dude joins a hate group, marches with a mob and does a hateful, assholish thing, catches some flak for it and issues an "apology" for it which is mainly about how he fears persecution by a fictional "fair and balanced" counter-mob that exists only in the delusions of whackjobs, and you think I'm being unfair by scorning him? Get real.

I don't think you're being unfair. They hate you, you hate them...that sounds perfectly balanced and fair.
It's not productive, and it won't lead to change. But it's fair.
posted by rocket88 at 11:15 AM on March 25, 2010

It's not productive, and it won't lead to change.

Change in what? What do you beleive is changeable by pretending that disingenuous whackjobs are not disingenuous? Are you suggetsing that here is some kind of reasoned debate that could be have with the guy who throws dollars at people and then goes crying ff about how liberals are going to persecute him and he's really, really sorry? Do you believe that having any degree of sympathy for him will lead to any change in his deeply entrenched viewpoint? No, it will not.
posted by Artw at 11:26 AM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

Do you believe that having any degree of sympathy for him will lead to any change in his deeply entrenched viewpoint?

Why not? Why not greet his expressions of shame and regret with credulous understanding? In the worst case scenario, he's crying croc tears and nothing changes and you're left with a bad taste in your mouth; in the best case, he is in fact ashamed and regretful and he sees that people who have every reason to reject him for that shameful behavior are instead willing to embrace him and forgive his poor past deeds.

I'm not putting any money on this guy either way—I don't have any real way of honestly divining the fullness of his regret and shame or the size of the genuinely redemptive fraction of his motivation for speaking up—but the idea that something good can from believing people can do foolish or hateful things but become better than that past behavior is an important, valuable one that we shouldn't dismiss no matter how angry or distrustful the circumstances sometimes rightly make us feel.
posted by cortex at 11:34 AM on March 25, 2010 [15 favorites]

Why not greet his expressions of shame and regret with credulous understanding? ... in the best case, he is in fact ashamed and regretful and he sees that people who have every reason to reject him for that shameful behavior are instead willing to embrace him and forgive his poor past deeds.

If we were in some kind of movie or moral homily, I'd agree with you.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:41 AM on March 25, 2010

Do you believe that having any degree of sympathy for him will lead to any change in his deeply entrenched viewpoint?

Maybe not in his, directly, but it will change the overall us-against-them dynamic.where both "us" sides are convinced that the other "them" is so unintelligent, so less knowledgeable, so idealistically driven, so fundamentally broken and so incapable of change that reasoned debate is useless, so we resort to name-calling and demonization instead.
It doesn't matter whether his change of heart or his apology were genuine or not. What matters is that you remain adamantly convinced that it can't possibly be true because . That's what keeps the whole hyper-polarized situation alive. That's what it feeds on.
posted by rocket88 at 11:44 AM on March 25, 2010 [4 favorites]

And now Eric Cantor is accusing the Democrats of "'dangerously fanning the flames' of extremism and using reports of vandalism and death threats against pro-health reform bill lawmakers for political gain."
posted by ericb at 11:44 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

No good can come of good faith attempts engaging with crazy people on crazy people talking points - they'll just talk over you or railroad the conversation down some bullshit semantic rabbithole.
posted by Artw at 11:45 AM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

it will change the overall us-against-them dynamic

Dream on.
posted by Artw at 11:45 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

"He said that a bullet was fired through the window of his office in Richmond, Va., but declined to provide additional details. 'I will not release them because I believe such actions will only encourage more to be sent,' Cantor added."

Bullshit excuse.
posted by ericb at 11:47 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yes. I saw footage of boarded up windows of the congressional offices through which bricks had been thrown. Why can't we see a photo of the bullet hole in Cantor's office?
posted by hippybear at 11:50 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

You know what MIGHT work? The bill actually passing and demonstrably benefitting people. Should that happen a few teabaggers might be persuaded. Maybe. Probably not. After that: FOX News et al shutting off the crazy tap and them getting bored and wandering on to the next thing. And after that it's pretty much just generational die-off.
posted by Artw at 11:52 AM on March 25, 2010

"Funky ass, funky ass, funky ass
Got into class the second half of your funky ass
Funky ass, funky ass, funky funky ass ass
Got into class the second half of your funky ass
Funky ass, funky ass, funky ass

Got into class the second half of your funky ass
Funky ass, funky ass, funky funky ass ass
Got into class the second half of your funky ass
Funky ass, funky ass, funky ass

Funky ass
Got into class the sec got got into class the second
Funky ass, funky ass, funky funky ass ass
Got into class the second half of your funky ass
Funky ass, funky ass, funky ass

Got into class the sec got got into class the second
Funky ass, funky ass, funky funky ass ass
Got into class the second half of your funky ass
Funky ass, funky ass, funky ass"

Happy Hardcore lyrics from the late 90s rave scene or Republican attempt to sound like a human? The answer might just surprise you, coming up after the break.
posted by Damn That Television at 11:54 AM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

Apparently it was a campaign office and...

Cantor, in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, said he doesn’t know whether the shot was random or aimed at the building.
posted by mikepop at 11:57 AM on March 25, 2010

"either last night or two nights ago"???
posted by Artw at 11:58 AM on March 25, 2010

You know what MIGHT work? The bill actually passing and demonstrably benefitting people.

Sadly, very little of the bill actually kicks in for several years. Plenty of time to get the masses whipped into a frenzy about it being passed and then move onto the next faux issue before anyone starts to feel its effects.
posted by hippybear at 11:59 AM on March 25, 2010

"He said that a bullet was fired through the window of his office in Richmond, Va., but declined to provide additional details. 'I will not release them because I believe such actions will only encourage more to be sent,' Cantor added."
Bullshit excuse.\

In other words, he's lying. Just like Coulter was lying. But guess what? All somebody looking to confirm their biases and not see the reality for what it is needs is one headline like this one:

Cantor Says Campaign Office Was Shot At, Accuses Dems of Exploiting Threats - FOXNews

And guess what? Suddenly, the Dems are actually to blame for violence right wing bloggers incited. Amazing.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:00 PM on March 25, 2010 [5 favorites]

You know what MIGHT work? The bill actually passing and demonstrably benefitting people. Should that happen a few teabaggers might be persuaded. Maybe. Probably not.

Over on Freep, where they appear to believe that the Bill contains UHC, they're discussing the merits of clogging up clinics, doctors' offices, and emergency rooms with fake or unnecessary visits in order to make sure "Obamacare" fails.

I have this mental image of a Freeper showing up for health care, being asked to pay, and screaming about how apparently white people are excluded from Obama Commiecare, etc.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:02 PM on March 25, 2010 [4 favorites]

Sadly, very little of the bill actually kicks in for several years.

Not true. Here's a list of what goes into effect right away.

Although, the new opposition game plan appears to be to pretend that the law isn't as clear as it actually is to give themselves some wiggle room on enforcement (or maybe just to opportunistically feed the controversy in hopes of helping undermine the new law in implementation).

Notice that in the "news article" linked above from NPR, the only parties expressing any doubts about the clarity of the intent of the new law whatsoever are representatives of the insurance industry (hardly a credible authority or even remotely impartial source on the meaning of the new laws meant to regulate them). So in effect, this NPR article does nothing more than reprint and broadcast the preferred insurance industry talking points as if they were news.

Did they at least pay NPR for the PR services I wonder?
posted by saulgoodman at 12:09 PM on March 25, 2010

They really value hate over all else, don't they?
posted by Artw at 12:09 PM on March 25, 2010

"Sha-sh-sh-sh-sh-shake like an earthquake; Sha-sh-sh-sh-sh (Fi-fi-five six seven) Sha-sha-sh-sh-sh-shake like an earthquake, shake like an earthquake, and cut like a guillotine.

Earthquake, like an earthquake, earthquake: shake like an earthquake? Earthquake, like an earthquake, earthquake, shake like an earthquake, sha-sha-sha-sha-sha-shake like an earthquake. Sha-sh-sh-sh-sh (Fi-fi-five six seven). Sha-sha-sha-sha-sha-shake like an earthquake, shake like an earthquake ...

In a wonderful wooooooooorld, in a wonderful world. Mmmmmm, yeah."

-Excerpt from threatening leftist message left on Virginia's GOP headquarters answering machine, either last night or two nights ago
posted by Damn That Television at 12:10 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

No good can come of good faith attempts engaging with crazy people on crazy people talking points - they'll just talk over you or railroad the conversation down some bullshit semantic rabbithole.

I'm beginning to see your point.
posted by rocket88 at 12:11 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

saulgoodman: "Not true. Here's a list of what goes into effect right away. "

What does right away mean, exactly? I have friends with kids graduating college soon.
posted by graventy at 12:13 PM on March 25, 2010

What does right away mean, exactly? I have friends with kids graduating college soon.

The time frames are all indicated. Some of these provisions go into effect on signing; others go into effect later this year. But there's a lot of good stuff there.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:19 PM on March 25, 2010

Tea Party Blogger Hints That Pelosi’s Life Is In Danger, Warns Of ‘A Thousand Little Waco’s’.
posted by ericb at 1:23 PM on March 25, 2010

HOLY SHIT A PLANE JUST FLEW INTO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER EITHER LAST NIGHT OR TWO NIGHTS AGO
posted by Optimus Chyme at 1:24 PM on March 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

McCain refuses to condemn Palin’s ‘reload’ rhetoric.
posted by ericb at 1:25 PM on March 25, 2010

Cantor update, and Gawker's summary:

Eric Cantor's Richmond office is in Glen Allen, north of Richmond. This terrifying gun attack happened at an entirely different building that Cantor's direct-mail firm is located in. So this liberal shooter really did his homework, firing into the air in such a fashion that the bullet would come down and break a window in an office building that isn't actually Eric Cantor's office, but one that he occasionally takes meetings in. A lotta research went into this!
posted by oinopaponton at 1:26 PM on March 25, 2010 [10 favorites]

Fox News: Threats against Democrats are wrong, but ...
posted by ericb at 1:26 PM on March 25, 2010

Rep Anthony Weiner (D-NY) closes his Queens office after it receives an envelope of white powder
posted by CunningLinguist at 1:34 PM on March 25, 2010

Jesus. The election really did melt any remaining shreds of McCain's integrity, didn't it.
posted by angrycat at 1:37 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

HOLY SHIT A PLANE JUST FLEW INTO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER EITHER LAST NIGHT OR TWO NIGHTS AGO
posted by Optimus Chyme at 4:24 PM on March 25
posted by Damn That Television at 1:39 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

More on the Cantor incident:

A Richmond Police detective was assigned to the case. A preliminary investigation shows that a bullet was fired into the air and struck the window in a downward direction, landing on the floor about a foot from the window. The round struck with enough force to break the windowpane but did not penetrate the window blinds. There was no other damage to the room, which is used occasionally for meetings by the congressman.
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:40 PM on March 25, 2010

A few years ago, the dominant voice of the American right wing was calling opposition to the Iraq war treasonous. Today we have some of these same people attempting to influence legislative decisions with threats of violence. I really don't want to conclude that such a huge part of the American populace is delusional. But this really looks like a complete disconnect from rationality.
posted by idiopath at 1:46 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

Idiopath, its simple. If you agree with them, you're a patriot. If you disagree, you're a traitor. It doesn't matter who you are, from cash strapped student to President of the country. It has a sort of simplicity to it.
posted by sandraregina at 1:57 PM on March 25, 2010

Cantor should be ashamed at this, downplaying other incidents while at the same time severely overplaying his own.
posted by graventy at 2:00 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

While his organization doesn't condone such behavior, National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Andy Sere said Perriello is not the victim. Technically true, his brother's family is the victim.

Also, GOP.com is still using a picture of Nancy Pelosi in front of flames as their front page.
posted by dirigibleman at 2:02 PM on March 25, 2010

Now now dirigible man... Perriello's brother's gas line is the REAL victim here...
posted by symbioid at 2:07 PM on March 25, 2010

The REAL victim is the gas COMPANY.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:08 PM on March 25, 2010 [4 favorites]

Yeah I'm calling "false flag" (ugh I hate that shit - is there another word? for fake things done in the name of your opponents?)

I think the term "black propaganda" is what you're looking for. It's a technique the Rove Young Republican ratfuck squad has used quite a bit in the last decade or so. Just off the top of my head, there's the Niger Uranium forgeries, the Killian Documents (which I believe were produced by the Rove camp who passed them along to credulous left-wingers, and then alerted the right-wing blogs as to how to debunk them), Obama's alleged Kenyan birth certificate, and last week's doc fix memo hoax.

A false flag operation is something more like Operation Northwoods or the 2001 Anthrax attacks.
posted by vibrotronica at 2:09 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

A Black Flag Operation is when a punk band spreads filthy lies about you in their song lyrics. Filthy, dirty lies. Don't believe them.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:14 PM on March 25, 2010 [6 favorites]

Does that make them liars, liars, who rip your soul up and bear your soul down?
posted by Artw at 2:28 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Somehow, out of all of this, a comment from ericb's Kristalnacht Fallacy post bothered me the most:

The Left is giving us a Kobayashi Maru situation (Trekkies know what that means). We have to cheat if we want to win, like Kirk did, otherwise the Klingon Obamaborg wins.

First off, co-opting Star Trek like that? That stung.

Secondly, Klingon Obamaborg? That shouldn't surprise me, these are people that regularly make reference to "Nazi communists" but you're really gonna lump the Borg and Klingons together like that? Fuck you.
posted by piratebowling at 2:34 PM on March 25, 2010 [15 favorites]

Surely the Kobayashi Maru was simulation to see how well you dealt with losing?
posted by Artw at 2:36 PM on March 25, 2010 [6 favorites]

Oh my -- I hope that the new civil war doesn't all hinge on Star Trek. Can we, if we're gonna have a horrible dissolution of our grand republic over this, please agree to keep it limited to TOS and TNG? Surely we can all agree that Enterprise sucked, right?

Perhaps, perhaps it will be Enterprise that saves the Union from itself.
posted by symbioid at 2:42 PM on March 25, 2010

Come to think of it, I'd bet money they only know about Kobayashi Maru because it was in last years movie.
posted by Artw at 2:44 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

FREE MARS
posted by cortex at 2:46 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

double bonus irony: The Kobayashi Maru is a test of character.
posted by The Whelk at 2:46 PM on March 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

No, there's going to be no hope of the Enterprise swooping in and correcting the actions of the GOP and surrounding cruft - the Prime Directive sets out a strict hands-off stance when dealing with non-advanced or primitive cultures.
posted by FatherDagon at 2:47 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

...and Kirk's response was to completely miss the point of it, albeit in a fun, charming, very Kirk like way.
posted by Artw at 2:48 PM on March 25, 2010

LOL no! Not the ship itself (though I've prayed to the Lord Jesus for so long to show up already and take his followers).

I meant the series. The one with Scott Bakula -- I meant that maybe our mutual hatred and distrust of Enterprise can unite us in a common cause.
posted by symbioid at 2:53 PM on March 25, 2010

My experience with the Kobayashi Maru test is that it's to see whether you understand the reference to Star Trek and are therefore a nerd. (I passed, so it's okay if I use that term, I think.)
posted by theredpen at 2:55 PM on March 25, 2010

Enterprise was an awesome show! (Or so I gathered from the commercials. I turned the premier off when they rick-rolled the theme song, and never went back.)
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:56 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

You know, it's been fascinating – by which I mean slightly scary – to watch this from the vantage point someone living in the UK.

Health care reform in the US was always going to be a big deal; that said, I'm still kind of staggered at the level of rancour and vitriol directed towards actual elected politicians. I mean, many of them – both in the US and the UK – are all kinds of corrupt and self-satisfied and out for themselves, and many of them always have been. But I keep trying to think of instances where MPs would have had their constituency office windows smashed, just for voting this way or that on a particular bill, and I can't think of one (though that's not to say it's never happened).

It seems to indicate an increasingly ugly strand in American politics – or maybe just a regression to the kind of Tammany Hall bullying that was consistent throughout much of the 19th century. But watching this sort of stuff from afar makes me think that things are going to go beyond even the mid '90s right-wing paranoia – not necessarily in a Timothy McVeigh sense, as it were, but in the sense that certain sections of the media are going to delight in, and profit from, creating this air of impending doom which leads a whole load of individuals to go far beyond the normal political discourse and into the realm of small-time domestic terrorism, after which said elements of the media can claim that they had nothing to do with it, and by the way, he only did it because what those filthy politicians did made him so angry.

Also: it's interesting that the health care bill has been passed when America is in such a fucking dire financial state. When the NHS was brought into being – by a Labour goverment, over vocal, vociferous objections from Tories, doctors' associations and the owners of private medical institutions, all of whom spent plenty cash trying to defeat it – Britain was only three years out of WWII and large sections of many of its big cities, including its capital, were still mounds of rubble, rationing (on everything from butter and eggs to tea and petrol) would still be in place for another six years, and the entire country was bankrupt, pretty much. Sixty-odd years on, the NHS, for all its problems, is such a sacred cow that even the leader of the Tories, David Cameron, considers it political suicide to diss it in public. It'd be nice to think that in 60 years time, the leading Republican in Congress has to think the same way.
posted by Len at 2:56 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

Enterprise was pretty horrible, but the 2 part take Enterprise take on Mirrror Mirror remains some of the most awesomest Trek ever.
posted by Artw at 2:59 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

The third season of Enterprise wasn't so bad.
posted by vibrotronica at 3:11 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

Poor Scott Bakula.
posted by saulgoodman at 3:17 PM on March 25, 2010

Oh boy.
posted by Think_Long at 3:20 PM on March 25, 2010 [7 favorites]

I bet he turned up for his first day on set, read the script and said "Oh boy".
posted by Artw at 3:20 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

DAMMIT Think_Long.
posted by Artw at 3:20 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

The threatening black bullet that grazed Cantor's romper room also held him down and carved a backwards O on the side of his face, claiming victory in the name of Obama...or perhaps it stood for...Opportunist.........................?
posted by Juicy Avenger at 3:24 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

We have to cheat if we want to win, like Kirk did, otherwise the Klingon Obamaborg wins.

Sir, you're fired. Please hand over your communicator and Type I phaser.
posted by Errant at 3:29 PM on March 25, 2010

Tuesday next week Republicans will complain that Democrats have been shining a large searchlight from the sky into their windows, and then it will eventually turn out that it was the full moon.
posted by Artw at 3:30 PM on March 25, 2010

Wasn't there universal healthcare on Star Trek?
posted by deliquescent at 3:31 PM on March 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

Only for those damned Romulans!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:34 PM on March 25, 2010

And free counseling!
posted by Artw at 3:34 PM on March 25, 2010

Damn those Romulantribbles.
posted by Artw at 3:35 PM on March 25, 2010

So in this version of the Kobayashi Maru metaphor the republicans are Kirk - that makes Obama Spock, right? Sweet.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 3:35 PM on March 25, 2010

...I eagerly look forward to this part.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 3:36 PM on March 25, 2010

Bones is Sweden.
posted by Artw at 3:36 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

Nope. In this version of the Kobayashi Maru metaphor the republicans are Harry Mudd. Always Harry Mudd.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:39 PM on March 25, 2010

Why do the Daily Show and Colbert always take the most exciting weeks off?
posted by dirigibleman at 3:42 PM on March 25, 2010 [7 favorites]

Also Star Trek.
posted by dirigibleman at 3:42 PM on March 25, 2010

Why do the Daily Show and Colbert always take the most exciting weeks off?

I was so disapointed when I tried to watch the thrilling healthcare coverage on Tuesday morning, only to find that they had the week off. Oh well, they'll have a lot of footage for when they come back.

Also, I think I was the only person who didn't find Stewart's extended Beck impersonation all that funny. He should really leave conservative buffoonery to Colbert.
posted by Think_Long at 3:46 PM on March 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

Also, I think I was the only person who didn't find Stewart's extended Beck impersonation all that funny.

Not the only one. I may have chuckled a little, but I certainly did not LOL.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 3:51 PM on March 25, 2010

A condom, and parts of a shredded American flag doused in gasoline, sent to Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minnesota.

"It represents Obama and your liberal filth. Open the bag, it's covered in the stench you've brought to our government ... Because of you, we are now a country of dirt, shame, corruption and slime."

Let's add flag desecration to sedition.
posted by CunningLinguist at 4:36 PM on March 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

Out of touch with reality: Looking at poll numbers that suggest that a majority of Americans disagree with you and coming to the conclusion that a majority of Americans agree with you.

More out of touch with reality: Decrying government programs that support people while you are being supported by a government program.

Out of touch with even fictional reality: Watching Star Trek and coming to the conclusion that it promulgates conservative values.

Guilty as charged.

I hereby sentence him to be visited by Kate Mulgrew and Avery Brooks, so he can experience the cognitive dissonance of nerdgasm and conservative discomfort with women and minorities in leadership roles at the same time.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:37 PM on March 25, 2010 [6 favorites]

Because of you, we are now a country of dirt, shame, corruption and slime.

Health care in the USA is ritually unclean for many people. Huh. I guess that explains it, sort of.
posted by GuyZero at 4:45 PM on March 25, 2010

Health care in the USA is ritually unclean for many people. Huh. I guess that explains it, sort of.

Oh, absolutely! Other things we hate include: jobs, peace, people who love each other, and democracy. Because the end times already came, and now we're in the Bizarro USA.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:54 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

and now we're in the Bizarro USA.

I maintain the world actually ended in 1983 with that societ near-Nuclear Strike and this is the alternate bizzaro universe Our Hero travels to to escape his nuclear dystopia only to find ...it's worse!

Kinda like "The Man Who Has Everything", Krypton goes to shit cause the disaster they waited and planned for didn't actually happen.
posted by The Whelk at 5:08 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Rep. Cantor's Richmond Campaign Office Shot at Overnight

Interestingly (or not), his office is in the Reagan Building.
posted by armage at 5:26 PM on March 25, 2010

the way Newt's posturing, it seems like he may be aiming for a 2012 run
i had enough of that guy in the nineties
i wonder who tom tan credo is in the star trek metaphor
posted by angrycat at 5:39 PM on March 25, 2010

I maintain the world actually ended in 1983 with that societ near-Nuclear Strike and this is the alternate bizzaro universe Our Hero travels to to escape his nuclear dystopia only to find ...it's worse!

That would explain a lot, actually.
posted by jokeefe at 6:36 PM on March 25, 2010

Bullet that hit Cantor's office was randomly fired

Takes a very gifted vandal . . .
posted by palancik at 6:42 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Let's see if we can't advance the proliferation of this term, for referring to tea party volk: Teahadists.
posted by wowbobwow at 6:51 PM on March 25, 2010 [27 favorites]

Secondly, Klingon Obamaborg? That shouldn't surprise me, these are people that regularly make reference to "Nazi communists" but you're really gonna lump the Borg and Klingons together like that? Fuck you.

You have to read it like a wing-nut: Klingon = sekrit Muslim (swarthy violent terrorist aliens who worship the wrong God), Obamaborg =collectivist Communism (you will be assimilated by Big Government).
posted by orthogonality at 9:40 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Out of touch with reality: Looking at poll numbers that suggest that a majority of Americans disagree with you and coming to the conclusion that a majority of Americans agree with you.

If you disagree with them, you're not a real American. Real Americans are people who hold their batshit crazy right-wing extremist views, and people who don't hold those views are liberals, muslims, blacks, or other un-Americans who don't count in determining what Americans want.

The dehumanization and othering is growing rapidly; Freep itself hosts all kinds of violent fantasies about the murder of millions, and smaller sites host even more. I only hope it ends after the first big one, like it did at Oklahoma City in the 90's.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:28 AM on March 26, 2010

From the ONION ...

Like Hell I'm Going To Let Some Black President Help Me Pay For Dialysis
posted by philip-random at 12:37 AM on March 26, 2010

A Nashville man says he and his 10-year-old daughter were victims of road rage Thursday afternoon, all because of a political bumper sticker on his car. He said Harry Weisiger gave him the bird and rammed into his vehicle, after noticing an Obama-Biden sticker on his car bumper.
posted by EarBucket at 5:24 AM on March 26, 2010

In an article noting reported racial epithets shouted at Democratic officials during a recent Washington, D.C., tea party protest, The Washington Times quoted Dale Robertson, founder of teaparty.org, as saying that Democrats are "trying to label the tea party, but I've never seen any racial slurs." However, Robertson himself was reportedly kicked out of a 2009 tea party event at which he carried a sign reading, "Congress = Slaveowner, Taxpayer = Niggar [sic]."
posted by EarBucket at 5:33 AM on March 26, 2010 [5 favorites]

Cantor should be ashamed at this, downplaying other incidents while at the same time severely overplaying his own.

If he could feel shame, he wouldn't be a prominent Republican.
posted by stevis23 at 6:21 AM on March 26, 2010 [7 favorites]

Washington Post has a profile up today of the guy credited with starting the window breaking campaign.

As others have mentioned, it's more than a little ironic that the guy happens to depend on government welfare assistance checks to survive: it's shameful. The guys got just enough courage of his convictions to encourage others to break windows for him, while he sits on his ass collecting Federal disability checks and griping about other people sitting on their asses and collecting Federal checks. His benefits should be cut immediately.

Truly a work of art, this guy. You know, like one of those NEA-funded shit-smeared paintings of the Virgin Mary. That kind of art.

Vanderboegh said he once worked as a warehouse manager but now lives on government disability checks.

I suppose he and his type probably rationalize away their reliance on welfare on the grounds that they're just sticking it to the man, but Jesus. How self-loathing can you be?
posted by saulgoodman at 7:03 AM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Rep. Vic Snyder (D-AR) received a death threat by mail: "It is apparent that it will take a few assassinations to stop Obamacare. Militia central has selected you for assassination. If we cannot stalk and find you in Washington, D.C., we will get you in Little Rock."
posted by EarBucket at 7:16 AM on March 26, 2010

Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-AZ): One caller said she was so filled with rage that the Congressman should ‘watch his back’ and called for a bomber to blow up his Scottsdale office, Bozzi said. "His wife has been harassed at their Tempe home, and his son – a Tempe city councilman – also received menacing calls, as well," Bozzi said.
posted by EarBucket at 7:17 AM on March 26, 2010

When the FBI finds the assholes behind these threats, I hope they make their names and photographs public. Not so we can threaten their families, which would be just as despicable and revolting as what they're doing now, but so we can point them out to children and say "This is a bad man, this is a terrible person."
posted by oinopaponton at 7:21 AM on March 26, 2010

Is someone documenting all these threats? Might be useful to see them in aggregate instead of piecemeal. Not for law-enforcement as such, since most of it seems to be cowardly ranting, but to show more centrist people how bugfuck crazy one side is getting. If it could be matched with actual facts about the new law that'd be good too. Sunshine is the best disinfectant, and all that.
posted by harriet vane at 7:42 AM on March 26, 2010 [6 favorites]

Whatever you do, don't click this link and go to 2:08.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 7:53 AM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

If it could be matched with actual facts about the new law that'd be good too.

That would probably make sense if the complaints had anything to do with actual policy one way or the other, but most of them are just vague and belligerent anti-Government/anti-Liberal ranting and raving with no real connection to reality.

For example, the Democratic health care plan's individual mandates are evidence of President Obama's allegiance with Satan/Hitler/Stalin on the one hand (because he's one of the bad guys), while good Republican Mitt Romney own endorsement of individual mandates show him to be a tough-minded conservative committed to stopping people from taking "free rides" on the public's dime (because he's one of the good guys).
posted by saulgoodman at 7:58 AM on March 26, 2010 [2 favorites]

The official word has come down from the Richmond Police Department on Eric Cantor's harrowing brush with death at the hands of the Liberal Menace:

"We're calling it random gunfire."

So you see, you crazy Liberal hypocrites, don't go throwing stones--well, unless it's through the window to Pelosi's office! Ha! Just kidding, of course (nudge, nudge, wink, wink...)!
posted by saulgoodman at 10:10 AM on March 26, 2010

No lie, this is how Fox broke this "story" (there's a screenshot on the link above):

Gun Man Shoots Up Office of Number Two House Republican
posted by saulgoodman at 10:13 AM on March 26, 2010

TN Man Enraged By Obama Sticker Slams SUV Into Car With 10 Year Old Child Inside
posted by homunculus at 1:34 PM on March 26, 2010

To be fair, homunculus, the only evidence of the man's being "enraged by Obama sticker" is the speculation of the guy whose car he hit.

Now, I'm not saying that's not what happened—in fact, I'd wager that's exactly what happened—I just think we should wait until all the facts are in before tossing the penalty flag. (I don't want to see our side pulling an Eric Cantor at this stage of the game.)
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:06 PM on March 26, 2010

Now, if he had shouted "Babykiller!" before ramming the car with the kid in...
posted by Artw at 2:10 PM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Was he driving a Toyota?
posted by crawl at 2:18 PM on March 26, 2010

Tea Partiers are descending like locusts on Harry Reid's tiny hometown of Searchlight, NV to hold what they're calling a "Conservative Woodstock". Sarah Palin, Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher, ex-SNLer Victoria Jackson & Andrew Breitbart will all be speaking. An alternate name has been suggested - Douchestock.
posted by scalefree at 4:31 PM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

I heard there will be come sort of Militia-folk gathering on 4/19.... Anniversary of the OKC bombing and Waco. Will also be "bring your guns to DC day."

Weather forecast is mostly cloudy with a 100% chance of a shitstorm of lunacy.
posted by wowbobwow at 5:35 PM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

I vote we do a 4/19 action called "PRE-SHOW" and give them all hash brownies.
posted by The Whelk at 5:40 PM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Active duty Marine has some words of advice for those Teabaggers calling for a revolution.
posted by adamvasco at 2:16 AM on March 27, 2010 [4 favorites]

It's been deleted by the author. Can anyone dig up the original?
posted by canine epigram at 7:28 PM on March 27, 2010

I just pasted the entire URL- http and all- into google and the first result had google's cache of that page.
posted by hincandenza at 12:38 AM on March 28, 2010

This is what I found The original article was withdrawn by the writer after apparantly him and his family were threatened. There is a link to both the original and the new.
posted by adamvasco at 1:26 AM on March 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

Frank Rich: The Rage Is Not About Health Care
posted by homunculus at 2:51 PM on March 28, 2010 [3 favorites]

Hannity calls tea party GOPers “Tim McVeigh wannabees” — and they cheer!
posted by homunculus at 8:41 AM on April 2, 2010 [6 favorites]

Hannity calls tea party GOPers “Tim McVeigh wannabees” — and they cheer!
posted by homunculus at 8:41 AM on April 2

holy shit
posted by Optimus Chyme at 12:58 PM on April 2, 2010

Hannity calls tea party GOPers “Tim McVeigh wannabees” — and they cheer!
posted by homunculus at 8:41 AM on April 2

holy shit

holy shit
posted by theredpen at 1:04 PM on April 2, 2010

FBI Issues Warning About Threat From Yet Another Anti-Government Group With Ties To The Radical Right.
posted by ericb at 1:19 PM on April 2, 2010

Hannity calls tea party GOPers “Tim McVeigh wannabees” — and they cheer!

*boggles*
posted by brundlefly at 1:21 PM on April 2, 2010

Those idiots he refers to as "Tim McVeigh wannabes" (Christ, you know some writer came up with that crap and Hannity was waiting to pop it) ain't going to do jackshit. At least not the armchair patriot/dickheads who cheered when he said that.

These people are full of crap, in the same way Hannity was full of crap when he said he would undergo waterboarding to prove how harmless it was.

Just another toll free, assclown to assclowns, call-out.
posted by Skygazer at 1:34 PM on April 2, 2010

On a good day Hannity is barely a human being wannabee.

Why are the weirdos who predict complete economic collapse so obsessed with gold? You'd think they'd be more interested in hoarding canned food, antibiotics, copper, and water treatment equipment. I can't think of anything more useless than gold in a collapsed economy.
posted by BrotherCaine at 2:50 PM on April 2, 2010

Hannity calls tea party GOPers “Tim McVeigh wannabees” — and they cheer!
posted by homunculus at 8:41 AM on April 2

holy shit

holy shit

holy shit
posted by shmegegge at 2:51 PM on April 2, 2010

yeah, holy shit, but it's not even a compliment. It's like he insulted them and they still cheered. I think they just were waiting for him to stop talking so they could show how much they love him regardless of what the hell he just said.
posted by GuyZero at 3:16 PM on April 2, 2010

Yes, holy shit. Normally I'm not surprised by the stuff that Hannity and Limbaugh and Beck say, even when I'm disgusted by it. But I'm honestly floored that he would say that, let alone get away with it. I was convinced that everyone knew McVeigh was the bad guy in that story. What the fuck.
posted by EarBucket at 7:16 PM on April 2, 2010

Yakima County man charged with threatening to kill Sen. Patty Murray
posted by homunculus at 2:08 PM on April 6, 2010

« Older Suddenly Pooh felt himself in the middle of a... | It's pronounced Throatwobbler Mangrove! Newer »

This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments

MetaFilter

They probably refer to themselves as 'Freedom Fighters'
March 24, 2010 11:59 AM Subscribe

Tags

Share

They probably refer to themselves as 'Freedom Fighters' March 24, 2010 11:59 AM Subscribe

Tags

Share

They probably refer to themselves as 'Freedom Fighters'
March 24, 2010 11:59 AM Subscribe