Teabaggers getting nastier.

[SirNitram]

'So a CUT LINE is an attempt on a life?!' Yes. To any other than a mouth-breather, yes.



Compromising a propane tank is NOT A LAUGHING MATTER.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

So a cut gas line counts as attempted murder but firing bullets into an office isn't?

If someone cut a propane line at my home I would certainly consider it an attempt on my life. See SirNitram's pic for why.

[Broomstick]

The current teabaggers remind me of the nazi brownshirts during the 20's and 30's.

Right - including the whole "night of breaking windows" (Democrats this time instead of Jews, but does the targeted group really matter as much as the fact this is happening at all?)

I haven't been following the news terribly closely for the past few weeks, being preoccupied with more immediate survival needs and training for my current (temporary) job but now I wish I had. I am getting some very, very ominous vibes of late. I'm wondering if subconsciously I'm picking up on something.

All I know for sure is that things are bad, have been bad for several years, and I don't see them getting better in the next few years - and possibly worse. At this point, I'm at a loss for how to plan more than a month or two in the future.

And frankly, I don't want to see public unrest, riots, and all that. Not at the level of the 1960's, even less so at the level some of these whackos are calling for.

[Crossroads Inc.]

I think this might be the first time Ive said this....

But can people pull back and not DogPile? There were only me and about two others intially talking on this and I have seen his one comment quoted about six times now....

[FSTargetDrone]

Republican Cantor complaining that Democrats are "fanning the flames" with these incidents:

Cantor: Dems capitalizing on extremist threats

'I hope you bleed ... (get) cancer and die,' says one caller to Stupak's office

msnbc.com staff and news service reports

updated 4:00 p.m. ET, Thurs., March. 25, 2010

A top House Republican accused Democrats Thursday of “dangerously fanning the flames” of extremism and using reports of vandalism and death threats against pro-health reform bill lawmakers for political gain.

"To use such threats as political weapons is reprehensible," said Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., who added that security concerns have been overhyped in media coverage of the debate.

Cantor prefaced his comments at a brief press conference by saying that Republican lawmakers do not condone violence in any form. The sentiment was echoed by Minority Leader John Boehner in his weekly press briefing, held earlier on Thursday. He called the threats against some members of congress "unacceptable" and asked people to find other ways to make their voices heard.

Cantor singled out Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen. "... Letters, statements and press releases can very easily fan the flames by racketing up the rhetoric, some will only inflame these situations to dangerous levels."

The Virginia Republican, who is the only Jewish Republican in Congress, said that he has also been a target of attacks but that he has not made the incidents public.

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.

According preliminary investigation by the Richmond Police Department, the bullet was fired into the air and struck with enough force to break the windowpane. The bullet did not penetrate the window blinds or cause any damage to the room, the department said in a statement, and there are no suspects at this time.

The Democratic National Committee responded to Cantor by saying, "Let's be clear: calling on Republican leaders who have contributed in part to this anger by wildly mischaracterizing the substance and motives of health reform to condemn these acts is entirely appropriate."

Doug Thornell, a spokesman for Van Hollen, criticized Cantor for making "false accusations."

"This is straight out of the Republicans' political playbook of deflecting responsibility and distracting attention away from a serious issue," Thornell said.

Also on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned vandalism and threats against pro-overhaul legislators.

"I don't want this to be a distraction" to the work of Congress, Pelosi said. But she also asserted that such violence and threats of reprisal have "no place in a civil debate in our country" and must be rejected.

At least four Democratic offices in New York, Arizona and Kansas were struck and at least 10 members of Congress have reported some sort of threats, including obscenity-laced phone messages, congressional leaders have said. No arrests have been reported.

Ohio Rep. John Boccieri, one of eight Democrats who switched to "yes" on the most recent House vote, said he had received threats. "Having flown missions in and out of Afghanistan, I know what it's like to be in harm's way. But I never imagined serving in Congress could feel the same," said Boccieri, a major in the Air Force reserve. He did not elaborate on the threats.

A package containing white powder and a letter referencing the health care bill was sent to the Queens office of Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. on Thursday, according to NBC.

Pelosi spoke to reporters at the Capitol shortly after GOP lawmakers took the House floor, pleading with those who vehemently oppose the Democratic health care move to refrain from acts of violence and threats.

Opposition to the health care bill President Barack Obama signed into law Tuesday is "no excuse for bigotry, threats or acts of vandalism," said Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, the House's third-ranked Republican.

Said Republican Rep. Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania: "Some of our colleagues have received threatening phone calls. A brick has been thrown, a window has been smashed. This is not the right way to respond."

Rep. Louise Slaughter, a New York Democrat and chairwoman of an influential House committee, said someone had left her a voice mail that used the word "snipers."

Some of the anger spilled over in a flood of threat-filled phone and fax messages to the office of Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich. Stupak vowed to oppose the health care package unless given greater assurance that it would not allow federal funding of elective abortions. He voted in favor after the administration agreed.

Stupak's office released some of the messages, declining further comment.

"I hope you bleed ... (get) cancer and die," one male caller told the congressman between curses.

A fax with the title "Defecating on Stupak" carried a picture of a gallows with "Bart (SS) Stupak" on it and a noose attached. It was captioned, "All Baby Killers come to unseemly ends Either by the hand of man or by the hand of God."

And in Virginia, someone cut a propane line leading to a grill at the Charlottesville home of Rep. Tom Perriello's brother after the address was posted online by activists angry about the health care overhaul. Perriello also said a threatening letter was sent to his brother's house.

Sergeant at Arms Terry Gainer told The Associated Press Thursday that there was "no evidence that annoying, harassing or threatening telephone calls or emails are coordinated. Regrettably though, bloggers and twitters seem to feed off each other, leaving little room for creativity."

At the news conference, Pelosi noted that "our country has had a lively debate." But she also said that it is "important for us to be able to express ourselves freely, not to diminish that in any way, but also to hit a standard that says some of the actions ... must be rejected."

The California Democrat said she didn't mean her criticism to "paint everyone with what has happened here with the same brush." And she said she did not "subscribe to the theory that these acts sprang from the comments of my colleagues."

"I think we have to manage this issue very carefully, recognizing we are a democracy," Pelosi said. "We do not want to stifle debate, or free expression of it."

The FBI is working with lawmakers subjected to menacing obscenity-laced phone messages. In some instances, bricks were hurled through congressional offices, including Rep. Louise Slaughter's district headquarters in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., called it "an effort to kind of hijack the debate by coercive elements. I'm glad the Republican leadership colleagues denounce it. But they were very late to do that."

"It is unacceptable in America," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who exhorted angry citizens to channel their rage into voter registration.

The vandalism and threats surprised a researcher at a think tank that monitors extremist groups.

"I think it is astounding that we are seeing this wave of vigilantism," said Mark Potok of the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center.

Gun imagery was used in a posting on the Facebook page of Sarah Palin urging people to organize against 20 House Democrats who voted for the health care bill and whose districts went for the John McCain-Palin ticket two years ago. Palin's post featured a U.S. map with circles and cross hairs over the 20 districts.

McCain defended Palin, saying it was commonplace practice and "part of the lexicon" to refer to "targeted" congressional districts.

NBC's Pete Williams contributed to this report.

White powder now? Even if it is (and I assume it is) harmless powder, it's still making a threat. I don't see how that can be interpreted any other way.

[Aasharu]

And yet, back during the Bush presidency, if the democrats had done any of this, the republicans would have jumped all over them, screaming about terrorism and whatnot.

Seriously, why are they able to get away with this? What is it about the American public, or the media, or politics in general, that has caused such a double standard?

[ShadowDragon8685]

I haven't been following the news terribly closely for the past few weeks, being preoccupied with more immediate survival needs and training for my current (temporary) job but now I wish I had. I am getting some very, very ominous vibes of late. I'm wondering if subconsciously I'm picking up on something.

I've heard it said that "gut feelings" are what happens when you recognize a pattern on an instinctive level - the way you 'feel' something is wrong before your mind realizes that all the birds have stopped chirping - a signal which, in the wild, often denotes a large predator on the prowl nearby.

Is there anybody large and unemployed who wouldn't mind accompanying you on your enumerations? I'm starting to be glad they have me manning a pair of QAC sites which are behind locked doors (in one case) and in the same building as armed law enforcement officers in the other. (Even if I do get next to no actual respondants and my hours are literally conflicting.)

In general, if you're getting a bad vibe, I'd seriously reconsider (if I was in a non-immediate situation) the safety of what I'm proposing to do.

[Patrick Degan]

Every bully or gang of bullies needs a toadie, and Mickey Cantor's obviously decided to volunteer his services to the Tea Party Bund.

[FSTargetDrone]

Every bully or gang of bullies needs a toadie, and Mickey Cantor

Not sure if you mistyped or were comparing Eric Cantor to Mickey Mouse (as in this is a "Mickey Mouse job" or some such), but there is a Mickey Kantor who worked for the Clinton election campaign. He is quite unlike the Republican, Eric Cantor. Just so there's no confusion.

[Broomstick]

I haven't been following the news terribly closely for the past few weeks, being preoccupied with more immediate survival needs and training for my current (temporary) job but now I wish I had. I am getting some very, very ominous vibes of late. I'm wondering if subconsciously I'm picking up on something.

I've heard it said that "gut feelings" are what happens when you recognize a pattern on an instinctive level - the way you 'feel' something is wrong before your mind realizes that all the birds have stopped chirping - a signal which, in the wild, often denotes a large predator on the prowl nearby.

Yes. However, it is always wise to try to use one's intellect to doublecheck on the "gut feelings" (assuming there is time in which to do so).

Is there anybody large and unemployed who wouldn't mind accompanying you on your enumerations?

Total violation of the confidentiality rules there, kiddo. Most of the time we'll be working in teams for this anyhow.

I'm starting to be glad they have me manning a pair of QAC sites which are behind locked doors (in one case) and in the same building as armed law enforcement officers in the other. (Even if I do get next to no actual respondants and my hours are literally conflicting.)

I was wondering today how your job was going - but don't let's hijack this thread. Shoot me a PM.

In general, if you're getting a bad vibe, I'd seriously reconsider (if I was in a non-immediate situation) the safety of what I'm proposing to do.

No can do. I HAVE TO EARN MONEY. I am responsible not only for myself but someone else as well.

You don't know my history or me terribly well, so you wouldn't know that I'm actually quite street savvy and still very capable of physically defending myself if necessary. My "bad vibe" feeling comes more from a general sense of the world than from this job I"m taking on. I am old enough to remember political assassinations and riots in this country, I DO NOT want to see those sorts of times return. On top of that we have this economic crisis, the "Great Recession" - that combination of economic upheaval and political violence is quite volatile.

[Broomstick]

OH, and I also meant to say, before being distracted, I heard on the evening TV news that the FBI and USSS are both investigating the recent threats, goadings, and acts of violence but they aren't publicizing what they're doing in accordance with their usual policy.

[The Romulan Republic]

Excellent. Hopefully there will be some arrests soon, and some dangerous people taken off the streets.

[Elfdart]

Well then it's official. The militia crew are mixed in with the teabaggers so a resurgence is now definitely a significant possibility. The FBI and USSS better start watching things closely if they want to deter them.

This is actually old news. The core of the Teabag movement has always been made up of "former" militia movement people. Its nothing more than a sham.

When Clinton beat Bush in 1992, there was a lot of the same bullshit -flags flying upside down, forming militias, black helicopter sightings, fear that UN troops were going to occupy the country, Jesse Helms' death threat, and so on. It didn't stop until Oklahoma City. When Clinton won again, they took an alternate track: trying to dig up dirt on Bubba's sex life in order to blackmail him out of office. When that flopped, they called Clinton a rapist and called for his assassination.

Republitards just don't handle defeat very well.

Teabaggers acting like facists? Colour me shocked.

Teabaggers are fascists. They don't even go to any trouble to hide it. Glenn Beck just tried to blame the incitement of blackshirt behavior on the victims of the vandalism and death threats.

Just in case there was any doubt about what he was implying the day before, Glenn Beck yesterday cleared things up and removed all doubt about the meaning of his garbled rant about administration radicals who advocated violence:

Beck: You see, what they've done is they've radicalized The Man. These people are in the center, but who's down here? They know that these people always lose -- because they experienced it. The crazy teabaggers in the streets.

Why would a government continue to poke you, and poke you, and poke you, and poke you? Why would they say these things? Why have these people said these things about good Americans? Because they need to separate these people from these people.

They know exactly how you feel when the president of the United States says that. ... These guys remember. When these guys said, 'These crazy dope-smoking hippies,' they knew how it felt. They knew and it drove them nuts, and it drove some of them -- it drove this guy and this guy -- to start throwing bombs!

They're counting on it. The Man made them do it. And they learned that once they threw a bomb, they were done. Martin Luther King changed the world without a single act of violence. Gandhi was right in many ways.

This might be the most dangerous monologue I've ever done, because I am telling you now: They need you to be violent. They are begging for it! You are being set up! Do not give them what they want.

The rest of the rant is an ass-covering plea for non-violence -- a lame attempt to cover the fact that he's spent the past year using violent rhetoric to whip people into a state of hysterical paranoia.

And best of all, what Beck's doing here is providing right-wingers with a ready-made excuse for the violence when it does break out: Why, this was what the liberals were planning all along! It's their fault! Even if they are the victims of it.

Wottapiecawork.

This is very much like Ben "Pitchfork" Tillman, the leader of the Red Shirts (the Teabaggers of the late 1800s), who blamed lynchings and death threats on the recipients. When Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to the White House, Tillman's response was very similar to Beck's demented tantrum:

"The action of President Roosevelt in entertaining that nigger will necessitate our killing a thousand niggers in the South before they will learn their place again."

So not only are the Teabaggers and the mountebanks who lead them a bunch of fascist thugs, they're not terribly original either.

[Patrick Degan]

Every bully or gang of bullies needs a toadie, and Mickey Cantor

Not sure if you mistyped or were comparing Eric Cantor to Mickey Mouse (as in this is a "Mickey Mouse job" or some such), but there is a Mickey Kantor who worked for the Clinton election campaign. He is quite unlike the Republican, Eric Cantor. Just so there's no confusion.

Correction noted.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Excellent. Hopefully there will be some arrests soon, and some dangerous people taken off the streets.

The people are white Christian conservatives, no chance.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Snippity snip snip.

I'll compose a PM.


And about having a large friend accompany you, I so totally did not mean to have them like, lurking over your shoulder like "Big Deal" next to Shatner in the latest of his priceline shillings, I mean, you know, have them stay something like 40 yards up the street or something - close enough that they'll hear a yell and see distress and come busting ass towards you if you get in trouble, but not nearly close enough to break confidence on any Title 13 or PII material.

Though I guess with an enumeration, simply seeing where you're going could be PII, as opposed to say, having a big guy wait in the far corner of your QAC site with a crossword puzzle hidden inside a decoy D-10... I wouldn't need that; I don't think the senior citizens in my old folks' home site are going to open up a can of Traveller-style Geriatric-Fu on me.

As far as reconsider, I didn't mean "reconsider doing it," I meant exactly what you said - take a good, hard look about what's making you feel uneasy, find out why, and take what steps are possible and practical to reduce or eliminate the unease.

[The Romulan Republic]

The people are white Christian conservatives, no chance.

Oh please. Just because there can sometimes be biases in the Justice system does not mean it is impossible to get a conviction for this kind of thing against a white Christian conservative. Its just a question of how far they have to go before it happens. I can certainly see the vandals getting at least light sentences, for example, even if the inciters get off on the First Amendment.

[Ritterin Sophia]

The people are white Christian conservatives, no chance.

Oh please. Just because there can sometimes be biases in the Justice system does not mean it is impossible to get a conviction for this kind of thing against a white Christian conservative. Its just a question of how far they have to go before it happens. I can certainly see the vandals getting at least light sentences, for example, even if the inciters get off on the First Amendment.

You're welcome to hold up hope that the Justice system is at all fair anymore, but I'm not. When liberals protested Bush's war in Iraq they were attacked by police, when conservatives both large and small not so subtly incite violence against liberals and advocate killing the president they get off citing the 1st Ammendment.

[weemadando]

The people are white Christian conservatives, no chance.

Oh please. Just because there can sometimes be biases in the Justice system does not mean it is impossible to get a conviction for this kind of thing against a white Christian conservative. Its just a question of how far they have to go before it happens. I can certainly see the vandals getting at least light sentences, for example, even if the inciters get off on the First Amendment.

Imagine if a muslim had cut the gas line on a member of parliaments house. Do you honestly believe that there wouldn't already have been a fucking Code Red, nationwide manhunt and an offshore trip on a private jet to somewhere with less laws on the cards?

Are you honestly that fucking blind?

[Falkenhayn]

The bullet that hit Cantor's window was "randomly fired skyward" according the the Police Report, and the AP.

RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond police say the bullet that hit a window of Republican Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor's office had been randomly fired skyward.
Amid reports of threats and vandalism against Democrats who voted Sunday for sweeping health care reforms, Cantor said at a Washington news conference Thursday that a bullet was fired into his Richmond office.
In a news release, Richmond police said that the bullet had been fired into the air early Tuesday. It hit the front window of a building that houses Cantor's campaign office as it fell to back earth at a sharp angle.
The round landed on the floor of the office a foot inside a broken window pane. No one was in the building, and police say an investigation has yielded no suspects.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... wD9ELT6600

[Flagg]

The people are white Christian conservatives, no chance.

Oh please. Just because there can sometimes be biases in the Justice system does not mean it is impossible to get a conviction for this kind of thing against a white Christian conservative. Its just a question of how far they have to go before it happens. I can certainly see the vandals getting at least light sentences, for example, even if the inciters get off on the First Amendment.

Imagine if a muslim had cut the gas line on a member of parliaments house. Do you honestly believe that there wouldn't already have been a fucking Code Red, nationwide manhunt and an offshore trip on a private jet to somewhere with less laws on the cards?

Are you honestly that fucking blind?

He must be.

The following are facts:

A Muslim got onto an airliner with a bomb in his underpants and attempted to detonate it causing himself third degree burns and injuring no one. This got over a month of nonstop media coverage and is still brought up all the time.

A white anti-tax zealot flew a plane loaded with explosives into a federal building killing himself and a decorated veteran of the Gulf war. This received attention for about a week (in which time Republican lawmakers and conservatard TV and radio dicksnots expressed sympathy for the perpetrator, and is rarely mentioned.

Welcome to America where it's only terrorism and newsworthy if it's a brown Muslim doing it, even if no one is killed.

[Shroom Man 777]

If it was a Muslim who flew that plane into the building, people would be bitching about how Obama was weak on terrorism and would call for increased patriotic security measures on all public buildings - like installing Patriot batteries in IRS buildings or something.

[Simon_Jester]

Cantor: Dems capitalizing on extremist threats...

A top House Republican accused Democrats Thursday of “dangerously fanning the flames” of extremism and using reports of vandalism and death threats against pro-health reform bill lawmakers for political gain.

"To use such threats as political weapons is reprehensible," said Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., who added that security concerns have been overhyped in media coverage of the debate.

In other words: How dare you air our dirty laundry by linking us to a bunch of violent thugs? I am shocked, shocked that you would accuse me of having anything to do with such a thing!

[Darth Wong]

The spectacle of a Republican accusing Democrats of "fanning the flames" while Sarah Palin posts pictures of Democrats with cross-hairs on them is ... well ... only in America.

[irishmick79]

The spectacle of a Republican accusing Democrats of "fanning the flames" while Sarah Palin posts pictures of Democrats with cross-hairs on them is ... well ... only in America.

It's the classic schoolyard response of, "I know you are, but what am I?" Only refined to appeal to adult schoolyard bullies.