As much as I wish that this insanity would stop, the GOP continues to encourage and defend their Teabagger storm troopers.
Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported that several Democratic offices around the nation had been vandalized in the days surrounding the House health care vote. Vandals have struck the Tuscon office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), the Monroe County Democratic Committee headquarters in upstate New York, Rep. Louise Slaughter’s (D-NY) Niagara Falls office, the Knox County Democratic headquarters in Ohio, and the Sedgwick County Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita, KS. The local Rochester ABC affiliate now has more information on the upstate NY vandalism, including an assassination threat against the children of lawmakers who voted for health reform:
No one was inside when the brick was hurled through the Democratic Patry Headquarters on University Avenue. Attached was a note quoting conservative Barry Goldwater: “Exremism [sic] in defense of liberty is no vice”. […]
[Rep. Louise] Slaughter has been at the center of the push for reform. Last Thursday she received a chilling recorded message at her campaign office. “Assassinate is the word they used…toward the children of lawmakers who voted yes.”
The FBI is now investigating.
Pictures of the note attached to the brick thrown at the Monroe County Democratic Committee headquarters:
Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars [GOP hatemonger delinked] is taking credit for inspiring the vandalism, saying that he’s urging people to break Democratic offices’ windows. He insists that he’s not advocating violence… [emphasis original]
Inserted from <Think Progress>
Prior Vanderboegh’s bragging admission, GOP pundits claimed that these were isolated incidents. They were not. Rachel Maddow covered this story and tied it into other GOP threats of violence.
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Even the GOP’s most exalted leaders, such a the tweeting tundra twit, Sarah ‘Hand Job’ Palin are in on the act.
Even before this story broke, Keith Olbermann made it clear that there is nothing random about this GOP push toward domestic terrorism.
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Had I not been so indisposed, I would have put up his special comment yesterday. The GOP is directly responsible for this insanity, because there are too many isolated incidents for them to be anything other than a directed pattern. I admire Keith’s olive branch, but I see little chance that the GOP will acknowledge it, let alone act on it. Therefore, every Republican in office is one Republican too many.
34 Responses to “GOP Hate and Violence on a Roll”
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While I do NOT advocate violence beyond the measure needed for self defense, these people are being whipped into a frenzy. a frenzy that sows the wind and will reap the the whirlwind. the thing of it is that they are fostering even more reason for federal troops to be deployed on these shores and then they will what…fight an army trained in urban warfare?
I think before to much longer it is going to be safer being in a minority populated slum than in a pristine white suburbia.
Mark, it certainly does not bode well.
I agree the GOP is directly responsible – either overtly or covertly. The MSM bears a big responsibility because of their horrendously biased reporting, for never calling a Republican on a lie. Rupert Murdoch is guilty as charged along with Dick Armey and the rest of corporate America. It sucks and it’s scary.
Tnlib, I agree. Faux Noise is directly complicit in instigating the violence,
PS: Glad you’re back and hope you had all the fun in the world. If I hadn’t had a sleeping disorder before, I certainly would after all that crap is attached – especially the mask.
Tnlib, I didn’t have to sleep with the mask yet, but testing them was gruesome.
The Republicans are riding on the coattails of these nut jobs, they are either loving it, or they are fearful. I am thinking they are fearful.
Holte, once upon a time, a farmer, wanting to have the fattest pig at the county fair, corked the pigs ass. The farmer won the blue ribbon and was happy until a monkey trained to pull corks from champagne bottles got loose. You don’t need to be psychic to forcast the end of this fairy tale.
The GOP, having corked the pigs ass, is probably scared to death of the legion of monkeys that are going after that cork.
These people can’t think so they use their guns to make a point. So sad indeed.
Violence is always the last resort of the incompetent.
Extremism is destructive to liberty and is therefore a very bad vice.
Amen, Jack.
Tom, I have never been one for violence and have so far managed to avoid it for 68 years, but I am afraid the time is coming when the left will also have to take up guns and clubs to meet this insanity head on. This will be the only thing that will stop them.
Charles, in my view the only justification for violence is to protect one’s self and loved ones from a direct violent attack. I hope that will not be necesary.
I’ve been coming closer to Charles’s point of view for some time. Events like Stonewall and White Night served a purpose. Violence is not always the right answer to violence, but it is not always not the right answer. Bullies are very often cowards; if they find that the people they want to bash are able to bash back, they retreat.
I do hear you, Infidel. I learned my nonviolence from King, so I’m pretty headstrong about it.
The far-right has gone too far and the GOP is granting them validity by not only tolerating them, but by goading them into believing the Democratic administration is the enemy. Maybe they are fearful that this right-wing movement will turn on them should they cease supporting them, and that may be the case, but I think the GOP sees the money coming in from the fringe and thinks they are their only hope…
There was an audio clip from Glenn Beck today on Media Matters that consisted of Beck telling his listeners they must be peaceful unless their life are being threatened. Beck is walking this fine line, pretending he is doing nothing wrong while sending mixed messages to his fans…
“Don’t murder. Murder is wrong. Unless, of course your liberties are being trampled upon by the Obama administration. Always be peaceful. Don’t resort to violence, unless…”
His language is dangerous, as well as the rest of his Fox buddies, and others like Limbaugh and Breitbart… They won’t rest until somebody is dead…
And tomorrow his show will be about how Democratic Party policies are life-threatening.
I just heard that Stupak, Slaughter, Periellio and one other that the name escapes me got a security detail. I think these clowns are taking it too far for my taste.
Jess, I think it’s to far for any decent person’s taste, but that does not include the GOP base and leadership.
The hateful acts that occurred at the Teabaggers’ unruly gatherings in Washington this weekend were not isolated incidents – they are part of a growing pattern of violent rhetoric, racially charged imagery, and paranoid conspiracy theories emerging from Republican supporters.
Republicans have continuously contributed to this atmosphere with their fear-mongering and coded racism – and they have actively courted this element of their party. It’s past time that Republican leadership is forced to address the ugliness it has so gleefully helped to create.
Yet rather than confronting Republican leaders and asking why they will not disavow the bigotry and hate among their supporters, the media has delighted in providing a platform to Teabaggers to spew their vile bile and vituperative venom.
Thanks, Nameless. I could not have said it better.
Are these Republican thugs hell bent on self destruction? Complete bonkers!
Anna, that’s hard to fathom. It could (and should) end the GOP.
It has only just begun. History tells us that the propaganda arm of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, known far and wide as Nazis, was instrumental in ensuring the rise of Adolph Hitler, and his ultimate rise to power as the sole leader of the German nation. This arm of the government, led by minister Joseph Goebbels, managed to persuade the vast majority of the populace that the Jews were evil incarnate and responsible for all of the ills of the country. The Germans were/are a cultured, well educated people. The hatred spread by lies and propaganda changed all that. I do believe it can happen again. I am confident it will. Probably not here, but one never knows. The whole thing is scary….
Mike, the parallels are obvious. I remain convinced that the GOP intended a Republican Reich under Bush, with Rove playing Goebbels role. At the rate they were politicizing the courts and federal bureaucracy, they would have succeeded had their sheer incompetence, greed, and lust for power not crumbled it around them. They must never have another opportunity,
“Exremism in defense of liberty is no vice.” I remember that famous slogan from Barry Goldwater. Brings to mind a few other stirring slogans from American history. “Won if buy land, too if buy see.” “I have knot yett begun two fite.”
And tyranny will come holding a cross and wrapped in the flag.
I figure before too much longer, one of these nutters will bomb another building, leave the rest of us seeing front page photos on USA Today of a fireman carrying someone’s toddler out of the rubble, and everyone will calm the fuck down real quick. I reckon it will go that far.
Bee, I figure you are right about the atrocity, but will it calm down or will the GOP leadership and Faux Noise stand agape and say, “We didn’t do that!” as they continue to instigate more?
Joe Scarborough was defending this scum this morning as he usually does and I as usual sent them a email comment.
I as usual called him Nazi Joe the Lawyer and I again told him I pray for all their deaths.
I agree with Mad Mike above that our country is in real danger if nothing is done to stop these people. They should be rounded up and arrested under {which by the way I hate} the Patriot Act, shipped off to Baghram Prison in Afghanistan and interrogated with the very same techniques they love.
You know the very same ones we used on those in our custody, after all according to them it’s not Torture. Well lets see how much they love it when it’s used on them.
We have now witnessed the beginning of Kristallnacht right here in America.
God Bless.
AP, my friend. I must disagree with part of what you say. I do think there is enough evidence to justify criminal investigations in some cases, but even they must not be deprived of their rights or tortured. That is the GOP way. If we adopt their ways, we will become them.
A truly dangerous thing about thewse nuts is that they can hide behind the cloak of anonymity so easily. I ended my old blog and one of the reasons was my identity was known but those who spit out their hate at me and my views weren’t. A Congressman votes for a healthcare bill gets threatened. The guy who writes a letter to the editor will be on the list as well.
I had to take steps a couple years ago and I was a small time blogger. Granted, I got far more traffic then than now and I’m happy it’s that way. But there are kooks that think they’re justified because some right wing talk show host said so.
Truth, I maintain anononymity for the same reasons and have had similar experiences.