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McClatchy has just released a story that updates the disruptions at town hall events held by Congressional Democrats and the associated death threats that have been received. It appears that the the US Capitol Police take the threats very seriously:
A few Democratic congressional offices also have received threats connected to the health care debate. The U.S. Capitol Police has advised all of them to cancel their town halls.
It is not clear from the wording here whether the Capitol Police recommended canceling all town halls or just those by Congressional Democrats who have received threats. I haven’t been able to find any other news reports about the recommendation. At any rate, if you are intending to attend a town hall in the next few days, it might not hurt to call your local Congressional office to make sure the event is still going to take place. [And by all means, be careful and be very aware of what is going on around you at all times.]
The rest of the story is well worth reading, and McClatchy does their usual job of going farther than the rest of the M$M in looking at just who is behind the actions taking place:
"I don’t agree with people cussing them," said Bob Ballard, an organizer with Kansas City Tea Party, a conservative activist group involved in the protests. "I do believe people get very passionate, but passion and vulgarity are two different things."
So are facts and allegations. In calls to lawmakers and at the town halls, opponents charge, among other things, that proposed legislation would force them to lose their own insurance even if they’re satisfied with it, or require euthanasia for seniors.
Neither is true, according to FactCheck.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
/snip/
Backers of the protests include a variety of conservative activist groups, including the Tea Party movement, which grew out of protests earlier this year against Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package. Some of their Web sites list every upcoming congressional town hall in the country held by lawmakers from both parties.
Democrats charge that the demonstrators are organized and scripted. They point to a memo widely available on the Internet called "Rocking the Town Halls," whose tactics — "Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early" — has been used at demonstrations around the country.
Thank you McClatchy for putting the outrageous actions by these thugs into perspective.
13 Comments
McClatchy may be anti-union scum who raped the once-excellent StarTribune, but I’ll give them credit: They kept the core of Knight-Ridder’s superb journalist stable and may have improved it. When you see McClatchy publish a particularly good story, it very likely came from a Knight-Ridder alum.
I’ve no knowledge of the history you mention but I do know that when I see the AP byline, my first reaction is, “How many lies can I find herein?” whereas with McClatchy my experience has been, “There might be a few nuggets of truth to be found”…….or, at the very least, a greater depth of information than crops up elsewhere.
Then Waccamaw, you can imagine my pain as I get to choose from two “all AP all the time, except for high school sports and canoe races” rags, the Maui News and Honolulu Advertiser.
Today was a particular hair-tearer, as the News, whose letters to the editor consistently confirm Hawaii’s rank down there with LA, AL and MS in the education sewer, included two items criticizing health care reform with the usual WingNut canards.
Could we get a “Too Stupid to Vote” designation?
So when is the FBI going to do something?
Yes, where exactly is the FBI? Homeland Security? All of that National Security State Apparatus so assiduously put together to protect and defend?
Some of us were around during last year’s political conventions and some of us recall preventive detention, mass arrests of mostly peaceful protestors, flash-bang grenades, pepper spray and tear gas, bludgeons and clubs, on and on and on. All led from authoritarian “Fusion Centers”.
Now? Anarchy. Police stand mostly aside. The People’s Business allowed to grind to a halt, and the Capitol Police saying, “Cancel these events, too dangerous”
Why not “cancel” congress, then, and simply have the authorities decree whatever it is they decide to do?
Just who told the FBI, Homeland Security, and the police to stand down?
Clearly, the order not only went out, it is being rigorously adhered to.
One difference, Che, is that many of these wingnuts are armed to the teeth and those subject to the preemptive arrests last fall were armed only with their ideas. It’s much easier to bully those who don’t have automatic weapons.
Thanks for stopping by.
I’m suddenly feeling nostalgic for the Bush town hall meetings; where never was heard a discouraging word, thanks to ruthless pre-screening. It’s funny how protest is now 100% American, whereas then it was the vilest treachery. You certainly have a point, Jim; nobody is afraid of liberal protesters, since so few are packing heat.
That is a point I hadn’t considered. If the Congressional Democrats ran their town halls by the Bush model, no astroturfers/teabaggers would ever make it through the door.
This is domestic terrorism: shutting down the business of government by the threat of violence.
Who will call it such?
Yep, right down the alley of the Fusion Centers. Except the Centers don’t occupy the center.
What I really can not figure out is why the “screamers” have not been hauled out when they persistently interrupt Town Halls or any other meetings.
When Code Pink verbally interrupts a meeting or hearing in D.C. their asses are hauled out. Sometimes they have been arrested. They are very aware that they can hold their signs at a certain height..but when they verbally interrupt or chant out they go.
Why are the cops allowing these folks to continuously interrupt? Time to let them know if they interrupt they will be asked to leave, if they do not out they go and possibly arrested.
The local police are allowing these people to break laws. Why is there selective enforcement…haul their asses out of the room and arrest them.
ENOUGH
Sadly, it seems the *crickets* of our leadership are parleying an increasing and escalating din among both left and right.
Our leaders at ALL levels are letting this one run of its own volition, without restraint. There are NO holds barred for the rightwingnutz, none. They run free of any rein.
Aside from Obama’s exhortation to Rush in regards to using Nazi like epitaths, it’s *crickets*.
The ONLY end result is going to be increasing violence, intimidation and confrontation.
A deliberate attempt on the part of our leadership to force chaos and confrontation so they can use a heavy hand? How else to explain their obvious behavior in NOT intervening to protect the country, and counter domestic terrorism?
And I was worried about Martial Law under Boosh/Shooter . . . sigh.
How about that right wing terrorism memo…anything about this in there?