State Attorney General Rob McKenna has ordered his offices on “modified lockdown” today in anticipation of protests against his bullshit lawsuit to block national health care reform. According to spokesperson Janelle Guthrie:
“We understand that a number of groups are going to be rallying tomorrow and bringing petitions over to our office. Some blogs have been encouraging acts of violence toward our office,” Guthrie said, declining to identify which ones caused alarm. “It’s for protection of all the employees here who have nothing to do with this lawsuit.”
Uh-huh. Well, I didn’t make an exhaustive search, but I haven’t seen any of the local blogs I usually read advocating violence, so I can only assume that Guthrie is referring to me. And here’s what I wrote on the subject:
Tomorrow at the AG’s office, let the polite petitioners do their thing, but if you’re pissed off at Rob McKenna for pandering to Teabaggers and threatening health care reform with his cheap political ploy, I encourage you to show up at his office and make a ruckus. Get loud, get angry, get threatening. I don’t particularly want to see any actual violence or property damage, but I’d love to see the genuine fear of it.
So here’s my question to our state’s top law enforcement officer: if saying that “I don’t particularly want to see any actual violence or property damage” can be understood as advocating violence and property damage, then you damn well better send a state trooper to my door and have me arrested, because I’m not backing down.
I mean, Jesus Christ… the teabaggers are faxing nooses and cutting gas lines and flashing their weapons and generally behaving like health care reform is the legislative equivalent of Red Dawn, and you’re locking down your offices because some blogger says he hopes protesters will be loud and angry? Could you be a bigger pussy?
That said, protesters will be gathering at the Tivoli Fountain on the Capitol campus at noon today, and marching to the locked-down AG’s offices at 1125 Washington Street SE to deliver over 18,000 petitions. And yes… I urge you to show up and get loud, angry and disruptive. But you know, not violent per se, because that sort of behavior is apparently only acceptable from the right.
UPDATE:
Guthrie confirms via email that yes, she was referring to my post, but claims she was misquoted.
UPDATE, UPDATE:
Guthrie elaborates that it was this line that allegedly prompted the need for a lockdown — “… it’s not our fault if some people get out of hand” — a line that parodies the refusal of Republican congressional leaders to forcefully condemn the violent acts and threats from the right that has been spurred on by their party’s incendiary rhetoric during the health care debate.
But, you know, I am a liberal, so you can never be too careful.