I’m shocked but not surprised. From The Hill:
The Secret Service may investigate a fax sent to a Democratic lawmaker that depicts President Barack Obama as the Joker and warns of “death to all Marxists.”
The black-and-white fax portrays Obama in makeup similar to that worn by actor Heath Ledger in his portrayal of the Joker in last summer’s “The Dark Knight.”
On Obama’s forehead is a communist hammer-and-sickle insignia, and beneath the image is the text: “Death to All Marxists! Foreign and Domestic!”
Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) received the fax and passed it along to U.S. Capitol Police.
I’m sure the state’s editorial boards will renew their calls for civility on the left.
One little fact that is consistently being overlooked, even by some traditional media reporters, is that Baird had never scheduled any in-person town halls in August to begin with. A right-wing Portland radio host and a Republican blogger from Clark County started demanding that he do so, for obvious partisan effect. And if there’s one thing we know about Baird, it’s that you don’t get anywhere by pushing him.
I listened to his telephone town hall, and he took calls from quite a few Republicans, including some party chairs and the very same right-wing blogger who has teamed up with the Portland radio host. Much to my surprise, the format actually seemed to work pretty well.
Incredible interview with Frank Schaeffer, author of “Crazy for God” on the insane birthers and tea baggers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzvmhNtmUks
Yeeeee Haaaaa!
The Mat-Su Barbie is tea baggin’ in style with the throngs:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.....e-baby.php
That “Death Panel” will really light the tea baggers’ fire!
Baird was on Rachel’s show the other night. Maybe that is why he was a target. Whoever it was might have thought that they could ride on the coattails of the broadcast.
Another right wing dimwit, for sure. Hey, it was probably a brainstorm, considering the source. (I’m all for charity.)
There is a very interesting article at http://www.columbian.com/apps/...../708069952 with a majority of comments against Baird.
It will be interesting to see the ‘post’ town hall meeting and comments.
McDermott has a little health care discussion coming up next week. They should take addresses at the door; don’t live in his district or are in the media. Out.
I’ll be there and I’ll be interested to see what the other side of the aisle has to say. They should be warned; you try to disrupt, scream or shout down Jim and well, we all like a challenge. There’s civil discussion and there’s worried discussion and then there’s the bullshit that’s happening now.
Heh. Heh. Heh. Why so serious?
you guys are the jokers. the tea baggers protested, got criticised. the health care people protested, got criticised. you must think we’re all as fucked up as you.
5 Or you can get in if you haven’t showered in a couple weeks, check. Dreadlocks, check. I hate Bush sign, check. Union Yes bumper sticker, check.
6, 7, 8 — Please, please bring your brass knuckles to Jim McDermott’s town hall … we’re ready for you motherfuckers.
*9 Hey, just kidding — I’m experimenting with the literary effect of Glenn Beck jokes this morning.
@10 Was posted by Roger Rabbit; apparently Goldy’s “Spew Your Opinion” gizmo defaulted back to Mrs. Rabbit’s screen name after I posted #9, and I didn’t notice it. That isn’t the only weird shit HA is doing on my computer this morning; this is the second time I’ve typed this. The first time, when I clicked on “Submit,” instead of posting I got the White Screen Of Death. AOL doesn’t like Goldy’s blog. For that matter, AOL doesn’t like anything. AOL is goddam rightwing software … hates everything and everybody … and never works …
Paul Krugman in the NY Times tells a fascinating anecdote about the health reform rioters:
“There was a telling incident at a town hall held by Representative Gene Green, D-Tex. An activist turned to his fellow attendees and asked if they ‘oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.’ Nearly all did. Then Representative Green asked how many of those present were on Medicare. Almost half raised their hands.”
The point of this story, of course, is that these fucking idiots don’t even know that Medicare is a federal program.
Krugman believes the Republican grassroots fury is genuine, but is being whipped up by “cynical” Republican leaders and front organizations. He points out, for example, that House Republican leaders are openly telling the angry anti-reform crowds that Obama’s reform plan will lead to euthanasia of senior citizens.
He also drops another very revealing fact about who is pouring gas on this firestorm:
“Yes, well-heeled interest groups are helping to organize the town hall mobs. Key organizers include two Astroturf (fake grass-roots) organizations: FreedomWorks, run by the former House majority leader Dick Armey, and a new organization called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights. The latter group … is run by Rick Scott, the former head of Columbia/HCA, a for-profit hospital chain.
“Mr. Scott was forced out of that job amid a fraud investigation; the company eventually pleaded guilty to charges of overbilling state and federal health plans, paying $1.7 billion — yes, that’s ‘billion’ — in fines. You can’t make this stuff up.”
That’s right — one of the leading napalm-bombers is a Republican crook who literally stole billions of dollars from, you guessed it, government-run health plans.
As Krugman said, “You can’t make this stuff up.” Once again, truth is stranger than fiction. And the greatest mystery of all is why anyone at all listens to these lunatics.
Well, Krugman has the answer for that, too. But if you want to know, read his article, because I’m not going to say.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08......html?_r=2
Meanwhile, on the Looneytunes Front, Bailin’ Palin’ is doing her best to whip up mob frenzy and ignite a shooting civil war by telling her looney followers that Obama’s health reform is “evil.”
With riots already taking place, and violence breaking out in some town halls, and Democratic congressmen and the president himself getting death threats from the Lunatic Fringe, I can’t imagine anything more irresponsible — or more disqualifying to hold any public office.
At what point does their speech cross into the realm of screaming FIRE in a dark movie theater?
We expect big corporations to run misleading TV ads against health reform. But who would have imagined Republicans would go so far as to foment violence and attempt to instigate the violent overthrow of our elected government? They’re showing their true colors as anti-American traitors in broad daylight now.
#15. Damn, I don’t like what you say, but it does ring true. Do you really think it will come to a shooting war?
You expect politics to be rough and tumble, but Republicans are taking it to a whole new level. What it boils down to is this. They’re baiting America’s racists by telling them Obama, a black man, is setting up Death Panels to euthanize elderly white people. I would riot, too, if I thought someone was scheming to murder me. Problem is, the leaders of the Republican Party who are cynically exploiting America’s festering racial divisions are lying to the most ignorant — and dangerous — elements of our society. This is pure fiction, and they know it. So why are they doing it? It very much looks like they are, in fact, trying to start a civil war. I’ve said it before, but I’m compelled to say it again:
LIBERALS MUST ARM!!
Conservatives are always on the wrong side of every issue. Always. And they are responsible for unmeasurable human conflict, misery, and death through the centuries.
150 years ago, the issue was not health reform, but slavery. The political climate then was even uglier than today. In 1856, Preston Brooks, a southern conservative House member, ambushed Charles Sumner, a liberal northern senator, in the Senate chamber and beat him nearly to death. Why? Because Sumner opposed the notion that one man could be another man’s property. Around the same time, southern conservative ruffians were burning towns and murdering unarmed citizens in “bleeding Kansas.”
The civil war that followed was America’s deadliest war, killing more people than all of America’s wars since then put together. This war was started, and its first shots were fired, by pro-slavery conservatives.
The century of anti-black terrorism that followed was also the work of conservative racists (and sore losers of the war). And when the civil rights movement gathered steam, it was conservative racists who kidnapped and murdered civil rights workers, and blew up 4 little black girls in a church.
So let’s not kid ourselves, history makes it clear that conservatives are violent and capable of anything, so we can’t safely assume these health reform riots will be the end of it — they may be just the beginning. Therefore:
LIBERALS MUST ARM!!
@19 Hey, just kidding! I’m merely experimenting this morning with rightwing apocalyptic and eliminationist rhetoric as an art form, purely for the literary effect, just to see if I can get the same audience reaction you guys get when you do it. Frankly, I think this stuff sucks, but I’d like to sell my material if I can, so I have to do market tests.
Roger @18
Some Republican coworkers were starting in on the Obama jokes. As the token educated, informed citizen present, I looked up and asked “You really want to go there?”
Then someone made a crack about liberals wanting to take away guns.
I said “Where do you guys come up with this crap? I’m as liberal as they come and I don’t know anyone who wants to take away guns.” They were skeptical.
“Most of my friends have guns”, I continued. They asked why.
“To protect ourselves from you. Think about it. Since the installation of Bush, you guys are calling us traitors and advocating killing us off. Well, when you come to take us away, know that we’re not going without a fight.”
Oddly, that made a lot of sense to them. The joking stopped.
And conservatives wonder why Baird is only doing telephone town halls. Gee, it’s so hard to figure out!
@14 It’s already gone beyond that. Basically, they’ve poured gasoline all over the theater. All that’s need now is a lighted match.
@20 and Mr. Rabbit: Same experience with the gun BS, jokes and my reply.
I live in the hinterlands in Kommisar-Senator Sheldon’s district.
I’m took heed of his dick waving when he cut our Deputies (by 5), but probably not the way he intended: Hot lead enemas for wingnuts!
12 RR
OF COURSE they don’t know! Republicans believe all kinds of crazy crap, even when faced with facts that contradict it.
As follows:
What we need is Republican riot being beat down by the Police, the un-WTO riot (if you will).
I hope they have insurance for the bloody scalp, and scraped skin.
Corporations rise up against the people!
The Republican base thinks liberals and corporations are in cahoots to take away their jobs and give them to ‘minorities’.
It doesn’t help our cause that Clinton was responsible for Nafta. With a little tweak, we can point the base in the correct direction. Once they are convinced that corporations are the source of their misery, watch out!
We have to think like Huey Long when it comes to using these people for some good purpose. Repitition seems to work.
What would be a good teaching moment? We have to keep pointing out Republican collusion with big business. The Max Baucus’ of the world make that task a little more difficult.