The Velvet StraitJacket

“If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard,”              

-An anonymous right wing extremist

I hadn’t really planned to write about this issue, even after ekg wrote her blog, Are they trying to someone killed…which featured a twitter message from Sarah Palin using the word “reload” as well as a map featuring Congressional districts as” targets.”    If this is what has liberals shaking in their boots, they’re pussies.

But… I didn’t see it as an issue worth pursuing, since what else could I say about the real acts of incivility, not to mention threats, which had been made by people opposed to the recently passed healthcare bill?  I do not condone that behavior, they don’t represent the majority and your side does it too, let’s move on.

But the left doesn’t really seem to accept that both sides are equal in this regard.  Not surprisingly they view themselves as much more the victim against crazed “Tea Bagger” hordes, spittle and N words flying, than as perpetrators of such threats and violence themselves.  And they are quick to make wild eyed accusations before all the facts come out.

Remember Bill Sparkman?  The Kentucky census worker found hanged with “fed” scrawled on his body?  As memory serves, ekg tried to pen his murder on right wing commentators in general and Michelle Bachmann and Glenn Beck in particular.  Of course, what really happened was that Sparkman committed suicide.  No apology from the left of course, on to the next hate message.

And then there was James Von Brunn, the white supremacist who shot up the holocaust museum in Washington DC?   Von Brunn was a white supremacist, but he was a lot of other things as well.  He was a registered Democrat, a 9/11 truther, and hated neo-cons.  He would have fit in perfectly well at a Kos convention.  But he took his hatred of neo-cons to the next level.  He had intended to attack the offices of The Weekly Standard, the neo conservative political magazine.

So the left gets it wrong; a lot.  Mainly because they can’t wait for the facts, they already know them.  Those “facts” are bouncing around in their heads just waiting for a headline, so instant accusations need not wait for verification.

The Seattle Times originally reported that a rock was thrown threw the window of the offices of Democratic Representative Driehaus.   The problem?  His office is located on the 30^th floor.  There are some Tea Party giants afoot!

Then there was the misreported Congressman Carnahan coffin incident, which was first reported as practically a scene from the Godfather, with a coffin left on Carnahan’s front lawn as a warning.  Practically a horse’s head.  The actual Tea Partiers who actually had the coffin tell a different story.

Contrary to reports that a coffin was placed on Rep. Russ Carnahan’s (D-Mo.) lawn on Mar. 21 while the House voted on the health care bill, the casket was never put on his property and was not used to signify a threat against him, according to the tea party activists who used it.
 
The coffin, in fact, was used as a prop at a prayer vigil on Mar. 21 to symbolize the “loss of freedom and the loss of lives due to government medical rationing,” said the activists. Further, the coffin, made of wood and stained a medium brown, was always in the possession of Bill Hennessy, a member of the St. Louis Tea Party Patriots, and is in his possession now in his garage.
 
On Thursday, Hennessy told CNSNews.com in an e-mail: “How I found out about this story is last night [Wednesday] a local reporter called me and asked me if I knew anything about it. He said that Carnahan’s office called and told him that someone left a coffin on his lawn last night — and I didn’t.”
 
Hennessy also explained that the prayer vigil started in front of Carnahan’s district office in St. Louis and then was continued in front of his home. “The coffin was never placed on anyone’s lawn,” said Hennessy, and “the coffin was not left behind.”
 
Politco reported on the issue on Mar. 24 with a headline, “Coffin Placed On Carnahan’s Lawn,” and a lead paragraph that read: “A coffin was placed on a Missouri Democrat’s lawn, another in a string of incidents against lawmakers after their vote Sunday on a health care overhaul.”

The biggest story of course is the “N Word” Controversy. Congressman Lewis was alleged to have been called the N word at the Tea Party protest in Washington DC the day before the Health Reform bill was voted on.  I say alleged, because even though it was widely reported in the MSM as fact, the only witness to hearing the word is Rep. Cleaver, of spittle fame.  Congressman Lewis, canny as ever, never confirmed that he heard that particular epitaph, instead related that he heard “kill the bill.”  The fact that the encounter was taped with multiple video cameras by Rep. Jackson doesn’t really lend creditability to the charges.  If the target of the word didn’t hear it, and multiple video cameras didn’t catch it (and if they had we would have seen it a hundred times by now), I will maintain my call of shenanigans on this.  I’m perfectly willing to change my mind of course, as soon as either some video or multiple witnesses come forward.

I’ll be waiting.

There is big money on it too.  Blogger Andrew Breitbart had offered $10,000 (now raised to $100,000) donated to the United Negro College Fund for evidence that the N word was used towards Lewis even once.  A sure loser if he was opening the bet up all the way back to the civil rights era, but for this most recent incident?  No one has tried to collect it yet. 

Shame too.  A phony racial incident is a terrible thing to waste.

Give credit to Al Sharpton for trying to say he had seen a tape for it, before having to backtrack  (starts around the 4 minute mark)!

 “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun”

     -An anonymous right wing extremist

These purposefully misreported incidents, amusing as they are, shouldn’t detract from really incidents of course.

Every reasonable person of good will regardless of political persuasion, should be quick and clear in condemning any death threats, intimidation, or acts of violence and vandalism. Right?

Apparently no.

And that’s what inspired me to write this.

Ekg, in responding to me in a comment on her blog, saw no comparison between the violence and hate that the left perpetrated.  Why?  Because the violence and hate of the left was justified!

let’s not forget the outright hate and anger caused by 8 years of GOP policy and let’s face it, a black man being President..

Mike will never admit that these things are a problem for some people though.. so he will never see the reality that is being played out all around him. Which in a way is sad, because it’s historic and to be a part of history but burying your head so you don’t witness it.. is a waste..the fact is there was anger and distrust under Bush.. and it was well deserved

Although the perennial call to racism as excuse was interesting, that was still more of the same from some one who can’t view dissent against the policy positions of this administration in any other terms than racism, the Frank Rich meme, I found myself most fascinated with the her view that that the hatred and anger towards the Bush administration was a perfectly legitimate response to Republican control of government.  Of course people threatened to assassinate Bush!  They had no choice!

I despair sometimes, that if we can’t even agree on civility without one side feeling their incivility was justified while the other side’s incivility is based on racism, sexism, homophobia, or whatever the current hot buttons of the left are, then how can we ever talk?        

If your hate is justified, then you can excuse anything your side does.  So far, only the left seems to have that position, but how long will that last?      

It’s scary enough that one side has already figured out how to justify their threats and violence.  Imagine what happens when the other side does as well.

“Things got a little out of hand.  It’s just this war and that lying son of a bitch, Johnson.

            - Jenny’s dirt foot hippie boyfriend from “Forrest Gump”

 *Update*  ekg streniously objected to my characterization of her comments on her blog as being indifferent at best and supportive at worst of political violence committed by the left  on the Muche weboard.  It’s only fair of me to note that she totally disagreed with how I viewed her words, and as she emphatically stated that she does not in any way support political violence by the left, I will take her at her word and withdraw that characterization of her remarks.

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President Obama, you were not given the Oval office and the Congress solely for the purpose of trying to appease or make friends with the party that shut out an entire political section of the country for 8 years. It’s time to start acting like the majority elected you to act.

Yes we can!

You were elected and given the keys to your success because you promised us change during your campaign. You were given a friendly congress because we knew the losing party would do everything in their power to discredit and demonize you. To prevent the loss of any political capital, you were given massive support, money, votes and Congress… so what are you waiting for? Use the tools you’ve been given already! You have tried and failed at extending your hand across the aisle and now it is time to give them the finger. This failure, like the disastrous condition of every aspect of the government, foreign and domestic, is not your fault. You were given a ‘Handy-man’s special’ and while you’ve made some improvement just by being there, you have a long way to go before this country is back up to ‘code’

Mr. Obama, you expected to come into Washington and work with adults, only to find nothing but spoiled children running through the aisles.  Every day you spend trying to bring your opponents into your circle, they are spending theirs  eating your political capital  like a fat girl eating chocolate flavored bacon-bits.

Change you can believe in!

Had the Holocaust Museum shooter been Muslim, your presidency would have been over. You would have not only been the country’s 1st black president, but after weeks of allowing Dick Cheney to call you every form of dangerous and venting about  your lack in the ability to keep us safe, you would have become the country’s fastest Lame Duck President ever.You have let this kind of abuse go on for too long and now you are seeing a drop in your poll numbers.

I understand your strategy of letting them become the party of “NO”. I understand that the more ‘right’ they go the more ‘centered’  you look and the more Independent voters you pick up.  But what I don’t understand is this need for all ‘political correctness’( so to speak) in the face of such outrageousness.

“It may include groups and individuals

that are dedicated to a single-issue,

such as opposition to abortion or immigration,”

the warning says.”

A few weeks ago your Head of Homeland Security had to  apologize for a report that said ‘right-wing extremists’ were on the rise and their chatter was reaching higher levels.   The GOP went apoplectic in its anger over such extreme “Liberal MSM-type” spin and accusations. Even some Democrats screamed about being ‘dumbfounded’ by this report. Michael Steele of the R.N.C told Fox news

“This is the height of insult here,I mean to segment out Americans who dissent from this administration, to segment out conservatives in this country who have a different philosophy or view from this administration, and labeling them as terrorists and then to call into question the service of the men and women who are right now standing on that wall defending our freedom and linking them to terrorism while you refuse to call the terrorists — the real terrorists — terrorists, to me it’s the height of insult.”

In the height of irony, not “insults” as Mr. Steele put it, this report that the GOP went into seizures over, warned  that

The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in “rightwing extremist activity,” saying the economic recession, the election of America’s first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.

A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines “rightwing extremism in the United States” as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority

Since that report and the GOP’s temper tantrum over it, we’ve seen not one, but  two atrocious acts that we were warned about. While the party of “NO” has a record in ignoring threats and warnings when given to them,  that doesn’t mean you, Mr. President, should have your people apologize to them for being right.

Doctor Tiller was murdered in a sanctuary, his place of worship by exactly the person the report warned against. A week later, James Von Brunn, who was a Navy officer during World War II and after leaving his notebook with a list of places he planned to hit and a statement saying “You want my weapons – this is how you’ll get them. The Holocaust is a lie. Obama was created by Jews,” decided to shoot anyone in his way.

I know saying “We told you so” is not the politically savy thing to do, but had Mr. Brunn been of Arab decent, how fast do  you think Dick Cheney would have been on Fox news saying exactly that?

Misters Brunn and Roeder, Dr. Tiller’s murderer, are not the first extremists to meltdown since you took took office. As I’ve blogged about before, another unstable radical believed in the same insane,violent and dangerous rhetoric of the Right when they said you were going take  away his guns. So he went out and murdered 3 police officers.

“Friends said 23 year-old Richard Poplawski feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.”

Mr. President, it’s time to put an end to this trying to reach across the aisle.  As PAUL KRUGMAN of the New York times says; There is an ‘upsurge of right-wing extremism’ that is being “fed by the conservative media and political establishment.” Your ideal world in which Republican and Democrats can live in harmony is a wishful Utopia that will not exist until a generation has passed from the extreme partisanship the Bush Administration spread throughout this country.

There are some of course, like Shep Smith on the FNC channel, who see this hate and are fearful of the level in which it is being amped up to.

But just as fast as he can bring attention to this hate and anger, others paint over it by saying Smith is ‘”whining and moaning and complaining about emails”, while making it about themself and in then  justifing  the hate they and others  spread throughout this country. You cannot reach out to these types of people. Their motives are clear, with blood on their hands from their ‘hate speech’ they only speak louder,harder, angrier. They put their hands up and say “Wasn’t me” like they haven’t been the one rattling the cages of most extreme of their extremists. They are spoiled and dangerous children who cannot be appeased by rational thought and/or actions. These are not the moderate GOP persons you want in your circle. Even those people see what is being done and are appalled by it, but they cannot stop it because they understand this ‘hate’ will spread to them next.

“If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican,

I’d go with Rush Limbaugh.

I admire your tenacity in continuously  trying  to bridge the partisan gap in the face of such mounting and dangerous rhetoric, but there comes a time when it’s OK to use the popularity you’ve been given. You promised change, you have been given all the tools necessary to bring about this change, you do not need 100% cooperation when 51% wins the race. We who you convinced to  stand behind you, who believed in you and voted for you are still standing here waiting to support you. We are waiting for you to remember what you promised us…. Yes we can Mr. President… Yes we can.

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