The Reichstag Phone Call, Part III
By Mitch Berg
Again, and as always, I reject violence and threats and intimidation in any area of life, to say nothing of politics.
Of course, with last week’s non-events – the unexplained severing of a propane line, a “brick thrown” through a 30th floor window, the non-intentional lofting of spittle and the non-chanting of a racial slur at Congressmen, and the non-news that some people reacted to Obamacare by sending threatening or (more usually) threatening-sounding or socially inappropriate phone messages to Congresscritters (as if a listen through a week of Michele Bachmann’s messages wouldn’t curl their nose hair!) – the majority Democrats in Washington are trying to seize the mantle of victimhood.
And innocence, of course.
- It was not the fear of conservative violence that caused Ann Coulter’s speech to be cancelled this week.
- It was a liberal who bit the finger off a man who disagreed with him on healthcare.
- It was Obama-loving Amy Bishop who took a gun to work and murdered co-workers.
- Joseph Stack flew his plane into the IRS building after writing an anti-conservative manifesto.
- It was liberals who destroyed AM radio towers outside of Seattle.
- It’s liberals who burn down Hummer dealerships.
- It was progressive SEIU union thugs who beat a black conservative man who spoke his mind.
- It’s doubtful that a conservative fired shots into a GOP campaign headquarters.
- In fact, Democrats have no monopoly on having their offices vandalized.
- Don’t forget it was Obama’s friend Bill Ayers who used terrorism as a tool for political change. SDS is still radical, with arrests in 2007 and the storming of the CATO Institute in July 2008.
- It was a liberal who was sentenced to two years for bringing bombs and riot shields to the Republican National Convention in 2008.
- It was a liberal who threatened to kill a government informant who infiltrated her Austin-based group that planned to bomb the RNC.
- It was liberals who assaulted police in Berkeley.
- It was liberals who intimidated and threw rocks through the windows of researchers.
- The two Black Panthers who stood outside polls intimidating people with nightsticks were probably not right-wingers.
- Every time the G20 gets together, it’s not conservatives who destroy property and cause chaos.
Oh, and it wasn’t conservatives who threw bleach at elderly RNC delegates, or dropped sandbags on delegate buses at the RNC.
Let’s not forget the Minnesota union thugs who attacked the Young Republicans at the 2004 MN State Fair, or burst into the St. Paul Bush Campaign headquarters with clear intent to intimidate.
Let’s be clear, here; Conservatives and Republicans aren’t “victims”. Just, occasionally, targets.
And – unlike Steny Hoyer and Frank Rich and Ed Schultz – I’m not going to use this long, and by no means complete, list of outrages to try to tar all Democrats. Unlike many of the left’s most “respected” talking heads, I’m not going to slime all of my opponents by association. That’s the mark of the intellectual bankrupt and the moral coward.
Still – when you count actual incidents, as opposed to the innuendo-via-press-release that Steny Hoyer got splashed in front of the media last week, the balance of idiocy is pretty clear.
March 29th, 2010 at 10:15 am
It’s about distraction, Mitch.
Pay no attention to the dismal economy.
Pay no attention to the malaise.
Pay no attention to our falling world status.
Pay no attention to the growing Liberal Fascism.
Pay attention to a voice mail telling a congresscritter they will “rue the day”. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Rinse and repeat, sheeple.
March 29th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Its interesting and actually kind of disturbing how the democrats are going on about this. When republicans are talked to about this they say that it happens to everyone all the time but that the dems and libs are doing exactly the OPPOSITE of what the police and security says they should do. They have been told that if they talk about it and mention it to the press that it will INCREASE the amount of teh crazees out there and encourage copycats. Forgive me for sounding like a conspiracy nut but I think this is a coordinated effort that reeks of the White House and Obama’s Chicago type politics. Say your being harassed and threatened so your side will be “justified” in going after the evil republicans and those “tea party” brownshirts like some moron on the huffpo put up this weekend. I will be tearing her to shreds in a post later today on my blog, check it out!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/caroline-myss/are-republican-right-wing_b_516467.html
March 29th, 2010 at 11:10 am
These guys must be liberals too:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/feds_release_details_in_hutaree_arrests.php?ref=mblt
March 29th, 2010 at 11:17 am
Yeah, Rick, I figured either you, TiSP or the Clown would be sounding off on that one.
Do you have any evidence that:
a) the Hutarees and the Tea Party are in any significant way related?
b) I or any significant conservatives have ever supported breaking the law (presuming that’s what the Hutarees actually did – and they ARE innocent until proven guilty).
You don’t, of course, because none exists.
Of course, was anyone out there willing to lay odds that the Feds would bust a white/Christian “domestic terrorist group” just in time for Tea Party season, for maximum guilt my association?
Which would seem to be what Rick is shooting for here, since there is no other logical reason?
March 29th, 2010 at 11:28 am
Rick, I wonder what is “Christian” about them. I did not see anyone like this at my Palm Sunday service yesterday. MSM reports do not say why they have labeled them as such.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:29 am
I hope the ACLU is there to make sure the civil rights of these protestors aren’t being violated.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Oh, Chuck, it’s the same guilt-by-association the left always peddles.
Timothy McVeigh was a white, Christian tax protester; therefore, all white Christian tax protesters were in some way responsible for the Murrah Building bombing.
And because we have a white, “Christian” group that professed a desire for violence, we must suspect all White Christian activists. Especially the you-know-what-parties, heh heh.
Straight outta Alinski.
(Naturally, mentioning that the sitting President spent 20 years sitting in the pew of a church whose minister’s rhetoric was scarcely more subtle than that of the Hutarees makes you a racist, and it must never be spoken of).
March 29th, 2010 at 11:35 am
any chance that this will backfire people?
March 29th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Mitch:
Re: b) GOP Congressman Wally Herger called himself a proud “right-wing terrorist” in a public forum. For that and other GOP members of Congress threatening violence in response to the passage of HC reform see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqi-DRbt69o&feature=player_embedded
March 29th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Rick,
Certainly even you aren’t obtuse enough not to note that Herger was being sarcastic, as a send-up to (among other things) Napolitano’s putting almost all conservative groups on her “watch list” last year.
Aren’t you?
I mean, please tell me there’s at least SOME level of disingenuity that’d be beneath you? Even hypothetically?
March 29th, 2010 at 11:55 am
wow, rick can you say sarcasm? You DFLers should ask Santa for a sense of humor this christmas.
March 29th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
RickDFL supports the SEIU. SEIU thugs have been caught, on film, calling a black man ‘ni**er’ and beating him up.
Why does RickDFL hate black people?
March 29th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
because hes a democrat, just look at history, democrats have always hated blacks. Look what the “Great Society” has done to the black nuclear family, its effectively nuked it.
March 29th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
SITD: And you come loping in like Rambo without a jockstrap and you dangle him out a fifth-floor window. Now, was that smart? Was it shrewd? Was it good tactics? Or was it stupid?
RickDFL: Don’t call me stupid.
SITD: Oh, right! To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people! I’ve known sheep that could outwit you. Various female commenters have worn dresses with higher IQs. But you think you’re an intellectual, don’t you, ape?
RickDFL: Apes don’t read philosophy.
SITD: Yes they do, RickDFL. They just don’t understand it. Now let me correct you on a couple of things, OK? Aristotle was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is not “Every man for himself.” And the London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, RickDFL. I looked them up.
March 29th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Ahh, “A Fish Called RickDFL”. A Classic.
March 29th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Boy you wingnuts sure waste a lot of breath trying to convince people you’re not racist thugs.
Wonder why that is.
March 29th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Wonder why that is.
Because we’ve got everyone from Paul Krugman, Frank Rich and Janet Napolitano down to a zillion flea-bitten leftybloggers continually waterboarding fact to claim it’s so.
March 29th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Wonder why that is.
I blame Omar Minaya.
March 29th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Of course, was anyone out there willing to lay odds that the Feds would bust a white/Christian “domestic terrorist group” just in time for Tea Party season, for maximum guilt my association?
SitD: Come for the breathless hysteria, stay for the crippling paranoia.
Ha, ha, it’s been some kind of banner day for you crazies. First the Feds bust the Palookaville Battalion for PRAISE JESUS, now it’s been reported that the RNC is spending Tea Party dollars at bondage-themed lesbian strip clubs. Credit goes to Michael Steele for at least trying to get back to traditional GOP twisted sex values, i.e., no underage boys.
March 29th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
I thought you far-right types had more faith in waterboarding as a tool to extract the truth.
March 29th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Mitch:
I don’t know what Herger meant to say. Like most politicians he probably ‘meant’ his comments to be taken different ways by different people. But it is exactly the kind of statement some people in the audience would take as an encouragement to violence. That is why Congresspeople generally try to avoid endorsing terrorism, sarcastically or otherwise. You have any examples of Democratic members of Congress sarcastically joking about supporting left wing terrorism?
And that is the rub. Whether the left or the right does more to encourage violence is a different and larger question. The healthcare bill stands out for the degree to which sitting members of Congress have been willing to play rhetorical footsie with violence.
March 29th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Sadly, those “far-left types” who dominate both the media and the weak-minded have a very slim commitment to truth.
Now go brush up on your Alinksy.
March 29th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Mitch said: “Of course, was anyone out there willing to lay odds that the Feds would bust a white/Christian “domestic terrorist group” just in time for Tea Party season, for maximum guilt my association?”
After CounterMitch said: “It’s liberals who burn down Hummer dealerships” and linked to a story about “the eco-terrorist group ELF.”
Mitch, you’re so full of shit today it’s coming out your ears.
March 29th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Mitch, you’re so full of shit today it’s coming out your ears.
Mommy?
Is that you?
Don’t lie, Mommy…
March 29th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Though I fear a bullet through my window, I’ll answer Rick:
I don’t know what Herger meant to say.
But you know damn well what you meant to imply by linking to it in this context.
Like most politicians he probably ‘meant’ his comments to be taken different ways by different people.
Well, that’s a nice, one-size-fits-all little, non-testable bit of slanderous innuendo!
But it is exactly the kind of statement some people in the audience would take as an encouragement to violence.
Yeah, so we keep getting told. Of course, nobody can show us any examples of such violence – except on the left.
That is why Congresspeople generally try to avoid endorsing terrorism, sarcastically or otherwise.
Rubbish. “War on Poverty?” “”Get in their faces?”
How many moons orbit the planet you’re on?
You have any examples of Democratic members of Congress sarcastically joking about supporting left wing terrorism?
Irrrelevant; you don’t have any examples of Republican members joking about right-wing “terror”; you have one (among many conservatives) who jokes about how the media and DHS is coming to call all conservative thought “violent”.
And that is the rub. Whether the left or the right does more to encourage violence is a different and larger question.
It’s not actually a question.
The healthcare bill stands out for the degree to which sitting members of Congress have been willing to play rhetorical footsie with violence.
Balderdash. Sarcastic jibes at Frau Napolitano aside, the only footsie has been the left’s slandrous guilt-by-association game.
Nothing more.
March 29th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
“your Neighbors… I want you to argue with them and get in their face.” – Barack Hussein Obama Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Thug
March 29th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
so ELF isn’t filled with a bunch of crazy liberals AC?
March 29th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Tim in StP….that is exactly what the Tea Party is about….fighting the establishment, Republican or Democrat. Republican leadership allowing staffers to spend big bucks in Lesbo “performance” clubs is exactly why we are out there protesting.
March 29th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
You are forgetting the Obama admin telling people to “punch back harder” against critics. It’s terrorism I tells yah! It’s only a matter of time before Axelrod and Emanuel start beheading people in the Rose Garden!!!
March 29th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Mitch:
“War on Poverty”: You are confusing the use of violent imagery with encouragement of violence.
“Get in their faces”: is certainly confrontational, but calling on people to argue is far different than calling on people to do violence. Solving a dispute by arguing is the opposite of solving it by violence.
“you have one (among many conservatives) who jokes about how the media and DHS is coming to call all conservative thought “violent”. ”
So the question is not whether GOP members of Congress encourage terrorism, sarcastically or otherwise, but whehter they are justified in doing so.
March 29th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Say Rick? Don’t wear yourself out, pal…take a seat and have a nice steaming mug of STFU, dolt.
March 29th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Mitch, you’re so full of shit today it’s coming out your ears.
That sounds like an offer for a free salad tossing session from AssClown & Son, Mitch. I hear a good AC tongue lashing leaves you feeling “springtime fresh”. HAHA!
March 29th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
““Get in their faces”: is certainly confrontational,”
Obama incited people to be aggressive/violent to their neighbors if they didn’t support The Obama.
DickDFL, do you think Obama was justified to encourage aggressive/violence toward their neighbors?
March 29th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Obama incited people to be aggressive/violent to their neighbors if they didn’t support
Well, now, let’s be accurate – because as conservatives, we HAVE to be more accurate than the libs.
Obama said “be confrontational” which, according to RickDFL, is intended to be interpreted in different ways by different people including, one might suppose, those predisposed to instability and violence which, the record shows, would seem to be largely concentrated on the left.
March 29th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Christian militia accused of plotting to kill cops:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hGc00FR9o4OUr36gm80mOpG00ccwD9EOIHMG0
The lunatics were supposed to be influenced by what some congressman said last week? Or what Palin has on her facebook page?
Just like McVeigh was driven mad by listening to Limbaugh & Liddy, I suppose.
March 29th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
Bozo- “I thought you far right types had more faith in waterboarding as a tool…..” Yes, we do. So what?
March 29th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
I guess this group was a bunch of those rich, country-club republicans Mr. Clown is always blathering on about, Lol.
March 29th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
So the question is not whether GOP members of Congress encourage terrorism, sarcastically or otherwise, but whehter they are justified in doing so.
My personal interest in psychopathology makes me wonder, just a little bit, how you got from what I said to that sentence.
Not enough to want to investigate, mind you. Just wondering.
So no. That’s not the question at all.
(Did you use to get hung up by your underwear elastic a lot in junior high gym class?)
March 29th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
RickDFL is demonstrating the blazing logic he used to prove that the surge would fail, Missouri was a Confederate state, and that the federal government was not the creation of the states.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
A few reichstag fire posts back I asked where the arrests were, where the indictments were . . . well, one arrived today:
Man Charged With Threatening To Kill Rep. Eric Cantor
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/man-charged-with-threatening-eric-cantor.php
Via Instapundit.
March 30th, 2010 at 2:47 am
[…] way, their exploits are vast and varied…and usually very under-reported, except perhaps by bloggers more commited to truth than […]
March 31st, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Remember when calling the President Hitler WAS PATRIOTIC?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6b1VOAATNk&feature=player_embedded