The Party Of Personal Responsibility
Federal and local authorities are investigating a severed gas line at the home of U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello’s brother, discovered the day after Tea Party activists posted the address online so opponents could “drop by” and “express their thanks” for Perriello’s vote in favor of health care reform.
The gas line connected a propane tank to a gas grill on the home’s screened-in porch, according to sources in Tom Perriello’s office.
Wingnuts vandalized the home of Tom Perriello’s brother because some ingrown toenail posted it online. The asshat thought, mistakenly, that he had the Congressman’s home address.
Danville Tea Party leader Nigel Coleman was one of the two activists who posted Bo Perriello’s address online Monday.
“This is Rep. Thomas Stuart Price Perriello’s home address,” Coleman wrote Monday. “… I ain’t holding back anymore!!”
According to the Politico Web site, when Coleman learned that the address actually belonged to the congressman’s brother, he responded on a blog: “Do you mean I posted his brother’s address on my Facebook? Oh well, collateral damage.”
money shot…
Coleman told The Daily Progress today that he is “shocked” and “almost speechless” at the possibility that someone would sever the propane line to Perriello’s brother’s house.
“I obviously condemn these actions,” he said. “I would hope that people aren’t thinking about doing anything crazy. We just wanted people to get close to the congressman and have their voices heard. Violence is not going to answer anything. I’m a little shocked and amazed.”
Of course posting a random person’s home address and inviting angry people who carry signs threatening gun violence to “send a message” has nothing to do with the guy’s home getting vandalized. Reminds me of Joel Surnow, the rightwing freakshow who created 24.
In a more sober tone, [Surnow] said, “We’ve had all of these torture experts come by recently, and they say, ‘You don’t realize how many people are affected by this. Be careful.’ They say torture doesn’t work. But I don’t believe that. I don’t think it’s honest to say that if someone you love was being held, and you had five minutes to save them, you wouldn’t do it. Tell me, what would you do? If someone had one of my children, or my wife, I would hope I’d do it. There is nothing—nothing—I wouldn’t do.” He went on, “Young interrogators don’t need our show. What the human mind can imagine is so much greater than what we show on TV. No one needs us to tell them what to do. It’s not like somebody goes, ‘Oh, look what they’re doing, I’ll do that.’ Is it?”
Yes, Joel, it is like that.
Beaver told me she arrived in Guantánamo in June 2002. In September that year there was a series of brainstorming meetings, some of which were led by Beaver, to gather possible new interrogation techniques. Ideas came from all over the place, she said. Discussion was wide-ranging. Beaver mentioned one source that I didn’t immediately follow up with her: “24 – Jack Bauer.”
It was only when I got home that I realised she was referring to the main character in Fox’s hugely popular TV series, 24. Bauer is a fictitious member of the Counter Terrorism Unit in LA who helped to prevent many terror attacks on the US; for him, torture and even killing are justifiable means to achieve the desired result. Just about every episode had a torture scene in which aggressive techniques of interrogations were used to obtain information.
Jack Bauer had many friends at Guantánamo Bay, Beaver said, “he gave people lots of ideas.” She believed the series contributed to an environment in which those at Guantánamo were encouraged to see themselves as being on the frontline – and to go further than they otherwise might.
“Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. ... He saved hundreds of thousands of lives,” Judge Scalia said. Then, recalling Season 2, where the agent’s rough interrogation tactics saved California from a terrorist nuke, the Supreme Court judge etched a line in the sand.
“Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?” Judge Scalia challenged his fellow judges. “Say that criminal law is against him? ‘You have the right to a jury trial?’ Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don’t think so.
“So the question is really whether we believe in these absolutes. And ought we believe in these absolutes.”
Normal rules of causality do not apply to Republicans. If they do something that looks like a slam-dunk case of cause-and-effect so plainly drawn that the effect basically stands up and announces that the cause caused it, well, in that case the only reasonable conclusion is moral relativism Clinton’s penis ACORN ACORN hey look, a Jackalope!
***Update***
Use our ActBlue link here to give Tom Perreillo some extra scratch to help his brother get a new barbecue grill. Bob Owens would approve.
March 24, 2010 2:09 pm
Posted in: Republican Stupidity
151 Comments
151 Responses
Robin G - March 24, 2010 | 2:13 pm · Link
It’s moments like this that I literally want to bash my head against a wall.
Hopefully they’ll catch the fucker who cut the gas line and show him what a federal charge looks like. (How fast before the PayPal links go up in the Wingnutosphere to pay for his lawyers?)
beltane - March 24, 2010 | 2:14 pm · Link
Who’s pallin’ around with terrorists now?
Menzies - March 24, 2010 | 2:14 pm · Link
Of course normal laws of causality don’t apply. They’re creating their own reality, and we’re just left to study it – judiciously, as we will.
Christ. Just today some classmates of mine were defending the morons who threw rocks through Slaughter’s office windows and kicked in Giffords’ door. What a country.
Violet - March 24, 2010 | 2:15 pm · Link
It’s gonna get worse before it gets better.
Sigh.
Buffalopundit - March 24, 2010 | 2:16 pm · Link
There oughta be a law.
Brian J - March 24, 2010 | 2:16 pm · Link
One more reason I won’t be voting for national Republicans, and perhaps any Republicans, any time soon.
cleek - March 24, 2010 | 2:18 pm · Link
i find it odd when liberal blogs refrain, either deliberately or just casually, from calling this kind of activity “terrorism”.
because it is terrorism, by any definition.
freelancer - March 24, 2010 | 2:19 pm · Link
They are insular fascist pukes (I’d use another P word but it’s a mod hell tripping word) who cannot stand to face the consequence of elections that do not swing their way.
Sully’s readers react to McArdle’s nonsense.
Last night’s Maddow segment on the Bricks of Wrath.
This feels unprecedented, I mean, did even the fringe left do anything like this after Bush v Gore, the Iraqi invasion, or the 2004 election? Fucking anti-democratic fascists.
trollhattan - March 24, 2010 | 2:19 pm · Link
@beltane
C’mon man, “patriot” begins with a p, not a t. They’re just zealous in defending our…somethingorother. In other developments, the president continues to be black, which makes this healthcare thing even worserer.
Jay B. - March 24, 2010 | 2:19 pm · Link
While I’m sorely tempted to support someone posting that asshole Nigel’s address, I think the better thing to do would be to post an ActBlue page for Congressional Victims of American Terrorists.
Any Democrat who is a victim of broken windows, or attacks on their family or threats from the fascist thugs of the Repbulican Party (and their affiliates, let’s stop pretending here) gets money.
I’m in for $20.
Napoleon - March 24, 2010 | 2:20 pm · Link
@Brian J:
Hey posted an answer to you in They Hate Them thread that took some time to write and clear moderation.
GReynoldsCT00 - March 24, 2010 | 2:21 pm · Link
@beltane:
and Palin’s telling them all to RELOAD!
lamh31 - March 24, 2010 | 2:22 pm · Link
Make no mistake, this is about Obama. They know they can’t get at him cause the SS would be on them lik e”white on rice”, and also, unless they are completely delusional, NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE wants to see what would happen if ANYTHING ever happened to Obama. The riots after MLK killing would be like a small protest.
Someone needs to nip this in the bud NOW before it starts to burn, this has been slowly simmering for a while.
JenJen - March 24, 2010 | 2:22 pm · Link
Last week, through a Drudge ad right at the top of the page and my own curiosity, I clicked on a “game” called “2011: Obama’s Coup Fails” from a site called United States of Earth. I’m not linking to it, but at the bottom of the page, under “Breaking News,” and what I assumed to be part of the “game” was a series of fan-fiction style “news stories” that were fucking bizarre. Bloody revolution stories, Pelosi captured (by Ollie North and Rand Paul, lolz), Obama’s czars murdered, the NY Times firebombed, you know, stuff like that. One of the stories made me LOL because it involved Michael Savage leading some kind of legendary, patriot squad, all Wolverines-style.
It freaked me out a little, but, these latest actual news stories have me actually a little jittery.
Violet - March 24, 2010 | 2:23 pm · Link
@cleek:
Not unless a Muslim did it, according to Newsweek. Obviously this was only the act of a survivalist or separatist.
Bill E Pilgrim - March 24, 2010 | 2:23 pm · Link
This should be interesting.
So, are the Republicans who are now going to try to take credit for the bill going to somehow exclude themselves as targets of the retribution they and their supporters are inciting against anyone who was responsible for it?
“Well, I was responsible for it in a “great job!” sort of way, not in a “he should be tarred and feathered” sort of way. That’s those other people!”
NobodySpecial - March 24, 2010 | 2:24 pm · Link
Fuckit, throw this guy in a cell and throw away the cell for conspiracy.
MikeJ - March 24, 2010 | 2:24 pm · Link
@freelancer: the bit in there about mcmegan complaining that Democrats ignored polling results reminds me of one of the Republicans favorite slurs of Clinton in the 90s. “He’s not a real leader. He just pays attention to polls and does what ever is popular.” They exaggerated the Clinton WH attention to polling, and now they want something more extreme than their caricature.
JGabriel - March 24, 2010 | 2:24 pm · Link
“I’m shocked, shocked , to find that there’s violence resorted to by gun-worshipping crazy people that I egged on!”
.
Violet - March 24, 2010 | 2:24 pm · Link
@Jay B.:
This. Count me in for $20 for each one that has been a victim. Can someone start the page and post the link here and elsewhere?
Annie - March 24, 2010 | 2:25 pm · Link
OT, but important. Senate Republicans fuming over the passage of health care reform are now refusing to work past 2 p.m.—already they have prevented important committee work in key areas including national security.
Fine, if Republican Senators don’t want to work passed 2:00pm, let’s dock their pay. Half pay for a half day’s work.
Let’s start documenting what they actually do after 2:00pm that prevents them from fully their obligations.
These are a bunch of evil people, who don’t give a damn about the American public…only their own political asses.
Kyle - March 24, 2010 | 2:26 pm · Link
Did Fatfuck Tony actually use a fictional TV show plot to justify a Supreme Court decision?
Jesus H. Christ on a footstool, is there any mechanism for getting Supremes removed for mental incompetence? In a sane world this asshole would be laughed out of the room and never taken seriously again.
GregB - March 24, 2010 | 2:26 pm · Link
But I thought the GOPuds were upset that the Democrats were working on healthcare reform to the detriment of working on the economy?
beltane - March 24, 2010 | 2:26 pm · Link
@GReynoldsCT00: Why isn’t the FBI questioning her? And no, she cannot use notes written on her hand to cheat on the answers.
Violet - March 24, 2010 | 2:29 pm · Link
@Annie:
Is there some obscure Senate rule that states when business in the Senate can begin? If they’re going to stop business at 2 p.m., can it then begin at 12:01 a.m. to make up for time lost? Anyone know?
beltane - March 24, 2010 | 2:29 pm · Link
Just in case anyone was curious, this is what the approach of Peak Wingnut looks like. When we hear a loud BOOM in the distance, we will know when the moment has arrived.
The Feds need to crack down a lot harder on this sh*t.
r€nato - March 24, 2010 | 2:29 pm · Link
Nigel Coleman is clearly a liberal plant trying to make teabaggers look bad.
What is my proof of this?
1) SHUT UP THAT’S WHY
2) Whenever somebody – a soldier, a fellow teabagger, a GOP politician, whomever – becomes an embarrassment, inconvenient or politically useless to the movement, they automagically become a liberal. This applies retroactively.
Example: GW Bush was always ‘not a real conservative’ president.
Violet - March 24, 2010 | 2:30 pm · Link
@beltane:
I don’t have a Facebook account, but has anyone on Facebook reported her? Training rifle sights on individuals could count as a violation of terms of service for instigating violence. Just a thought.
licensed to kill time - March 24, 2010 | 2:31 pm · Link
Homegrown terrorists, they’re workin’ on it. Heckuva job.
Paris - March 24, 2010 | 2:31 pm · Link
Here is what that low life did- when it was pointed out he had the wrong address, he refused to remove it until the representative gave him the correct one. Isn’t that acknowledging that there were ulterior motives and blackmail?
MobiusKlein - March 24, 2010 | 2:32 pm · Link
Peak Wingnut anybody?
Sadly, no. We may have a long way to go before the tide recedes.
jayjaybear - March 24, 2010 | 2:32 pm · Link
@JGabriel:
“Your brickbats, sir.”
r€nato - March 24, 2010 | 2:33 pm · Link
@freelancer:
you, I, and everybody here knows damned well that had Bush v. Gore gone the other way, the right-wing would have resorted to violence, with the tacit approval of Bush/Cheney 2000 and the full-throated encouragement of Fox News/Rush/Hannity/O’Reilly.
Clambone - March 24, 2010 | 2:33 pm · Link
How long before Instapundit demands that Perriello’s brother apologizes to the guy who slashed his gas, and Professor Althouse says, “So a half-dozen congressmen got their offices vandalized and someone tried to blow up another. So what?”
GReynoldsCT00 - March 24, 2010 | 2:34 pm · Link
@beltane:
I read elsewhere that someone reported her to Facebook for ‘threatening’.
r€nato - March 24, 2010 | 2:35 pm · Link
I look forward to the Malkin post calling for teabaggers to be interred in camps, since obviously they are all prone to violence.
gwangung - March 24, 2010 | 2:35 pm · Link
@Violet: Well, looks like Granpa McCranky is following the rules.
Asshat.
beltane - March 24, 2010 | 2:36 pm · Link
@GReynoldsCT00: Losing her Facebook posting privileges would be a cruel blow to Granny Wingnut. Next up, they’ll have to take her Twitter away.
freelancer - March 24, 2010 | 2:39 pm · Link
@r€nato:
Yes, there would have been a Brooks Brothers riot in every mall. Bunch of shit-kickers walking hand in hand with stuffed shirt bottomtooths tearing up all the Footlockers across America.
Also, 51% is a clear mandate, don’tcha know?
Mark S. - March 24, 2010 | 2:41 pm · Link
Do goopers actually think that refusing to work after 2 PM will endear them to the public? Of all the stupid stunts they’ve pulled in the last year, this may very well be the dumbest.
Comrade Dread - March 24, 2010 | 2:41 pm · Link
So, if I just happen to put up a blog post publishing the names and addresses of Wall St. investment bankers, AIG a$$holes, and Goldman Sachs executives, and encourage people who’ve lost their homes to go make their voices heard, and maybe also give some decent information on a sporting goods store which has Louisville Sluggers on sale at a good price, there would be absolutely no connection with some of those folks getting their legs broken.
It would be irresponsible to speculate and no one could have predicted such a response.
Morbo - March 24, 2010 | 2:41 pm · Link
@JenJen: It’s not new; I know someone (Rumproast, Wonkette maybe) played it and mocked it.
r€nato - March 24, 2010 | 2:41 pm · Link
I guess we should be glad the teabagger brigade are a bunch of pathetic armchair revolutionaries and internet tough guys, since they cut the gas line to his BBQ. Something he probably would have figured out pretty quickly the next time he went to use the grill. The valve to the tank likely would have been shut off, so the worst that would have happened is… uh, replace the hose and wait a little longer to eat.
The trespassing into his screened-in porch is kinda creepy as shit, though.
Is it bad for me to wish that Mr. Perriello’s brother had been armed and discovered/shot the teabagger terrorist as a potential burglar? That sure would have tied them up in knots.
Tsulagi - March 24, 2010 | 2:42 pm · Link
Just brilliant. That torture works is taken as religion with these dumbasses. I’m guessing that way back in the day if they had teevee Surnow would have created a flat Earth show: “We’ve had all these astronomy experts come by saying the Earth is round revolving around the Sun at 67k mph, but I’m standing still and not falling off so I don’t believe that.”
Okay, there’s no way to snark that stupid.
r€nato - March 24, 2010 | 2:43 pm · Link
@Tsulagi: Remember that Scalia is very arrogant about how flippin’ intelligent he is. I wonder what he would have to say about Inglourious Basterds, with regards to the effectiveness and moral justification of torture.
Rick Taylor - March 24, 2010 | 2:45 pm · Link
I asked this before, but is there any somewhat principled mature Republican in a position of influence who can bring a little sanity to the situation; who can tell Republicans unequivocally, look, we lost, it happens, but we have to respect the law of the land and the legal process? Like Gore after the 2000 election? It seems hopeless, but we really do need one.
The aftermath of the lead in to the Iraq war was gut churning for me; I can understand if wingnuts have similar feelings now. But I don’t recall the left acting anything like the right wing is now.
Edward G. Talbot - March 24, 2010 | 2:46 pm · Link
The beauty of this is that Scalia is saying he doesn’t believe in absolutes. This from Mr. Literalist interpretation of the Constitution (at least when it suits him). mkay, perhaps the second amendment isn’t absolute either.
kdaug - March 24, 2010 | 2:47 pm · Link
I’ve said it before – I oppose the Patriot Act, but it IS still law of the land, and it makes no distinction between foreign v. domestic terrorists.
Rendition, anyone?
JenJen - March 24, 2010 | 2:47 pm · Link
@Morbo: Oh, good, because I was thinking that I’ve seen some awfully weird and funny shit on the internet in my time, but that one took the cake.
Tonal Crow - March 24, 2010 | 2:48 pm · Link
@cleek: Yes. And by the GOPers’ own lights, we should be trying the perps before military tribunals. And, of course, the standard for determine who’s a “perp” should be low enough to encompass pretty much the entire wingnutosphere.
Stooleo - March 24, 2010 | 2:48 pm · Link
I wonder who? John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Newt fuckin, Gingrich? The Republicans are quickly becoming the party of conspiracy theory and screed.
rob! - March 24, 2010 | 2:49 pm · Link
Some poor Congressman is going to get shot by some teabagger, its just going to happen.
They know they can’t get to Obama without it being a suicide mission, and if its one thing we know about these scumbags is that they lack the true courage of their convictions, so they won’t try aiming that high.
But someone’s going to get really hurt before this is over.
Violet - March 24, 2010 | 2:49 pm · Link
@gwangung:
I know about the rule that says “no working after 2 p.m. unless there’s unanimous consent.” It’s a stupid rule, but there it is.
My question – is there an obscure Senate rule that says when they can start business? Does it have to be no earlier than 8 a.m. or something like that? Or could they go ahead and start Thursday’s business at 12:01 a.m., so then when they work until 2 p.m. it’s a long day’s work?
It only seems reasonable.
SpotWeld - March 24, 2010 | 2:50 pm · Link
Teabaggers want to be given special accomodation.
Every representitive I can think of has a fax number, a phone number, a email.. etc. Open lanes of communication to thier office specifically designated for the people the represent to telegraph thier feelings and thoughts on poltical policy.
But teabagger are somehow special, they demand a means a communcation just for them. They can’t be bothered to use the paths trod by “dirty liberals”.
And once again, being an @sshole is raised up as somehow noble.
Teabaggers… we’re “Real Americans” just like everyone else (except we’re better than everyone else)
Rick Taylor - March 24, 2010 | 2:50 pm · Link
I have some sympathy for Joel Surnow. I may find his opinions revolting, but he was writing a tv show for God’s sake; he was an entertainer, not an activist or a politician. It’s insane people would have taken it seriously they way they did.
freelancer - March 24, 2010 | 2:50 pm · Link
We’re almost a year out from this, but the Shit Taco parable still remains relevant.
morzer - March 24, 2010 | 2:51 pm · Link
I very much fear that we are going to see more and nastier incidents. I am no lawyer, but isn’t there something on the books that covers posting addresses and encouraging harrassment? I mean, if someone did this to an ex, I am sure they would face legal action.
MK - March 24, 2010 | 2:51 pm · Link
@freelancer:
Liberal fascists tried to pie Ann Coulter during a speech three years ago. That act alone amounts to treason.
beltane - March 24, 2010 | 2:52 pm · Link
@Rick Taylor: Any Republican who did this would be denounced by Beck and Limbaugh, and attacked as a RINO by the Republican base.
That party has passed the event horizon as far as I’m concerned.
liberty60 - March 24, 2010 | 2:53 pm · Link
I cruise the blogs of Wingnuttia for perverse kicks, and as you can imagine, they are (and always have been) bristling with macho he-man gun nut posturing, mixed with stilted “300” style comic book rhetoric (“we pledge our fortunes, our honor, and our lives…”).
But as you can also imagine, when “Commander Strikeforce” steps out from his anonymity, and is faced with the real men with badges who mean business, suddenly he is shocked, shocked at the prospect of violence.
John Ziegler is the poster boy for this sort of slap-down- check out the whining in this video.
Paraphrasing Glenn Greenwald- “When they hold the whip handle, none are more sadistic; when the whip is taken away, none snivel the louder.”
Maybe a new tag for these sorts of posts- “slap the bully in the face”
morzer - March 24, 2010 | 2:53 pm · Link
@Violet:
I suspect that there is a rule that says that if John McCain feels cranky or personally violated no business of any sort can occur until a Day of National Atonement has been observed. Otherwise, he will end his bipartisan efforts.
cleek - March 24, 2010 | 2:54 pm · Link
@kdaug:
actually, it has a specific definition for domestic terrorism.
i’ve probably posted that link 1000 times in the past 8 years.
Violet - March 24, 2010 | 2:54 pm · Link
@kdaug:
A domestic terrorist has to be Muslim, preferably of the brown, Arab variety. African-American Muslim might work in a pinch.
Anyone else is just a separatist or somesuch and obviously wouldn’t be subject to the Patriot Act.
Seriously….Democrats should use the phrases “domestic terrorism” and “domestic terrorist” much more frequently and reclaim the word “terrorism.” It’s accurate to call these kinds of actions terrorism, but the word has been co-opted so that it only seems to apply to brown Muslims.
Pangloss - March 24, 2010 | 2:56 pm · Link
A right wing campaign to break windows under cover of darkness to intimidate an entire class of demonized people? Hmmm…. where have I heard something like that before?
Raje - March 24, 2010 | 2:57 pm · Link
Violence and threats for political purposes is terrorism. Just sayin.
Also, this reminds me I need to donate to Perriello for his vote on HCR.
MikeJ - March 24, 2010 | 2:59 pm · Link
Cutting a gas line:
Check
Check
Check
Wipe down the waterboard, we’re gonna need it.
jron - March 24, 2010 | 3:01 pm · Link
It’s interesting to read Umberto Eco’s definition of a blackshirt:
http://www.themodernword.com/e.....shirt.html
According to Eco, the teabaggers are pretty much already there.
Violet - March 24, 2010 | 3:01 pm · Link
@cleek:
That’s a great link. From it:
“(5) the term `domestic terrorism’ means activities that—
`(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
`(B) appear to be intended—`(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
`(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or”
Yeah, I’d say that the recent actions fall under that. Especially the brick-throwing and posting of addresses.
PeakVT - March 24, 2010 | 3:02 pm · Link
Senate Republicans fuming over the passage of health care reform are now refusing to work past 2 p.m.—already they have prevented important committee work in key areas including national security.
Why do Republican Senators hate America?
Polish the Guillotines - March 24, 2010 | 3:02 pm · Link
@Bill E Pilgrim: Hah! You saw that too. That’s exactly what you and I were saying last night.
That pivot you predicted happened faster than Larry Craig can tap-dance!
tammanycall - March 24, 2010 | 3:02 pm · Link
As crazy as Surnow is – and, yes, I believe he’s crazy – I am uncomfortable with the idea of blaming a television writer for what happened at Guantanamo. He didn’t give the orders, he didn’t carry them out, he didn’t come up with the legal justifications, and he’s never been elected by the people to preserve, defend and uphold the Constitution. He gets paid to make shit up. And this habit of laying torture at the feet of “24”, both on the conservative and the progressive side, smacks of blame-shifting. The sick fucks in charge were looking for a reason to give those orders. Had “24” never aired, they’d have found some other justification.
garage mahal - March 24, 2010 | 3:03 pm · Link
We need to coin a term for terrorist teabaggers. Al Tea Qaeda? Ok, pretty lame, anyone else?
Tlazolteotl - March 24, 2010 | 3:04 pm · Link
Indeed it is just like that
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/415448_water16.html
Sgt. Joshua Tabor of Yelm is accused of holding his 4-year-old daughter’s head underwater because she wouldn’t recite her ABC’s.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford - March 24, 2010 | 3:04 pm · Link
OT: Just words?
C Nelson Reilly - March 24, 2010 | 3:04 pm · Link
Maybe wily al-Qaida operatives have infiltrated the teabag party?
Grumpy Code Monkey - March 24, 2010 | 3:06 pm · Link
@Rick Taylor:
The Republican party has been feeding and nurturing this particular brand of crazy since the late ‘80s, if not earlier; even if there was a Republican in a leadership position willing to tell them to cool it, it’d be too late by a couple of decades.
aimai - March 24, 2010 | 3:07 pm · Link
I know that the Obama administration, with some reason, is afraid of creating martyrs to the cause but honestly, people like Coleman, aren’t some kind of stone McVeigh style fighters. I say sue them civilly for endangering lives, sue them criminally if they fall under the statute. A few months or years in jail and the Coleman’s of the world and their little fans will crawl back under a rock.
aimai
PeakVT - March 24, 2010 | 3:07 pm · Link
@garage mahal: Talibaggers?
ETA: Shock troops for the Unitarian Jihad.
Now that’s the kind of terrorist organization I would join.
Violet - March 24, 2010 | 3:08 pm · Link
@garage mahal:
Good idea! How about the Tealiban?
Pengie - March 24, 2010 | 3:09 pm · Link
@r€nato:
I’m not so sure on that one. I live in the area, and a lot of houses around here, mine included, use underground 500-gallon propane tanks for heating. I don’t know if this line that was cut was from an underground tank into the house, from the house out to a grill, or if it was just a cut in the line from a 20-gal propane tank to the grill.
Whichever it was, there’s a pretty high potential for someone to get hurt.
gregw - March 24, 2010 | 3:09 pm · Link
@rob!:
You’re way more optimistic than I. Too many kooks are involved who either would not care or who are not smart enough to think it through or who think they would be heroes sacrificing themselves for their cause to feel confident that no attempts will be made on Obama. I have no doubts that someone will be killed in the not too distant future by these terrorists.
JGabriel - March 24, 2010 | 3:09 pm · Link
@Violet:
Al Teada.
.
mantis - March 24, 2010 | 3:10 pm · Link
Nigel Coleman, you may remember, is the teabagger who came up with the idea of burning Perriello and Pelosi in effigy last November. They ended up not doing it due to bad press beforehand.
tammanycall - March 24, 2010 | 3:10 pm · Link
@Violet:
I’ve seen both American Taliban and Paliban on Twitter, but maybe BJ can crowdsource something better.
Mnemosyne - March 24, 2010 | 3:11 pm · Link
I’m guessing that a lot of these idiots belong to megachurches that tell them that they can get anything they want if they pray for it hard enough (the “prosperity gospel”), and now they’re exploding in rage because they wished real, real hard and they still didn’t get their way.
That’s one bit of Catholic dogma that still makes perfect sense to me: all prayers are answered, but sometimes the answer is “no.” You don’t always get what you want even if you appeal to the highest power you can think of.
Mouse Tolliver - March 24, 2010 | 3:13 pm · Link
I just saw the Teabagger’s one and only black leader claim Democrats are doing this to themselves—like black people vandalizing their own stores during the Watts riots.
Violet - March 24, 2010 | 3:15 pm · Link
@tammanycall:
So far we’ve got:
Al Tea Quaeda
Talibaggers
Tealiban
Al Teada
Anyone else?
Bill E Pilgrim - March 24, 2010 | 3:16 pm · Link
@Mnemosyne:
I wonder if in the teabag terrorist version, instead of 72 virgins they just promise them three cases of beer.
garage mahal - March 24, 2010 | 3:18 pm · Link
@garage mahal: Talibaggers?
I likey!
Xenos - March 24, 2010 | 3:20 pm · Link
@cleek: Boy, they broadened that definition a whole hell of a lot. I guess this was the basis for going after the Earth First!ers. It definitely seems to cover people inciting and organizing even modest criminal acts (provided they are ‘dangerous to human life’) provided influencing policy is the intent-
pcbedamned - March 24, 2010 | 3:24 pm · Link
Speaking of your beloved TBer’s and their love of all that is good and pure in the world (sarc)
F*ck Canada
Hoping for a terrorist plot to kill off Canada. Nice.
Bill E Pilgrim - March 24, 2010 | 3:25 pm · Link
@Polish the Guillotines:
Yes, though “last night” really made me stop and think, it seemed like just this morning to me. (It was, here ;)
freelancer (itouch) - March 24, 2010 | 3:28 pm · Link
@Violet:
Tea-hahd. (like Jihad)
cleek - March 24, 2010 | 3:28 pm · Link
Teabombers
Citizen_X - March 24, 2010 | 3:29 pm · Link
@garage mahal :
Why go all foreign-y? “The Klan” or “the fucking Klansmen” work just fine for me.
Edit: @freelancer (itouch): OK, that’s pretty good.
kdaug - March 24, 2010 | 3:30 pm · Link
BTW - what ever happened to the right-wingers that used to show up here?
Self-selection, ban rule, just general humiliation?
Hell, I haven’t even seen BoB for a while…
twiffer - March 24, 2010 | 3:31 pm · Link
@Annie: you know what would happen if i decided i wouldn’t work after 2pm because i disagreed with my co-workers? i’d get fired.
fuck them.
FlipYrWhig - March 24, 2010 | 3:35 pm · Link
@Violet: I like Talibaggers a lot.
Jesse Ewiak - March 24, 2010 | 3:36 pm · Link
Again, just imagine if after the passage of a tax cut bill that honest Democrats said was not that bad by a Republican Congress, a former VP put crosshairs on Republicans who served in Democratic-leaning districts, and members of a Meetup group posted a Republican Congressman’s address and told people to make a visit and the next day, the gas lines were cut. That’s not even getting into the other bullshit. Every Democrat from Nancy Pelosi to the dead bones of FDR would have to make a public statement denouncing the actions and FOX along with most of the MSM would blame it all on them still.
PeakVT - March 24, 2010 | 3:36 pm · Link
what ever happened to the right-wingers that used to show up here?
They’ve all outsourced the trolling to BTD.
Tony J - March 24, 2010 | 3:37 pm · Link
Are Teabaggers crazier than Bob Crazy of Crazytown, owner/operator of the Crazy Museum of Crazy Craziness? Well, maybe this guy can help you decide.
I particularly like the whiny “HE made us feel this way” line. Ladies and Gentlemen of Balloon Juice, please raise your glasses for Mr FEDUP of the American Conservative website, winner of today’s Interon Prize for incoherant butthurt.
Menzies - March 24, 2010 | 3:38 pm · Link
@twiffer:
This. If I just refused to go to classes after 2 PM because my professor is Lutheran he’d fail my ass faster than you can say “inter-religious discourse.”
Republicans have proven themselves again and again in the last few months to be nothing more than a pack of WATBs.
Citizen_X - March 24, 2010 | 3:42 pm · Link
@pcbedamned: Wow. Talk about your whiny-biatch wingnuts. Nobody “censored” Coulter’s “freedom of speech,” the fucking rightwing organizers wimped out and cancelled the event because there were protesters out front. And for that he wants some fantastical “terrorist attack that kills off the entire Country.” Sounds like a Coulter fan all right.
Oh, and look what we have right above that:
Lovely company you’re keeping there, Jane.
Comrade Mary - March 24, 2010 | 3:45 pm · Link
I think these Cheeto-snorters consider themselves to be brilliant figures like Mr. Teatime (pronounced “Teh-ah-tim-eh”). Just don’t tell them he was trounced by a governess.
Ash Can - March 24, 2010 | 3:49 pm · Link
Delightfully off the topic of domestic terrorism, nuclear disarmament continues apace.
pcbedamned - March 24, 2010 | 3:52 pm · Link
@Citizen_X:
You want to know the irony of ironies? The guy has comments being moderated
As for Annila the Hun, anyone who doesn’t know that this has played right into her hands, is a fool. SHE (her bodyguard) is the one who cancelled the gig. And now she has all of the publicity she could ever want, all the while spewing her Anti-Canadian gruel. I have nothing against free speech; I’m all for it. But I do have a problem with Anti-Canadian sentiment going on in Canada. Keep it with all the other haters down South, please. (See how polite we are even with those that don’t like us?!? :)
Ash Can - March 24, 2010 | 3:59 pm · Link
@Citizen_X: I posted this on an earlier thread, and I’ll post it again here: MSNBC headlined this story with “Coulter Speech Cancelled After Protesters’ Threats”—but conspicuously absent from the story itself is any mention of any actual threats made by these protesters.
Our liberal media at work.
pcbedamned - March 24, 2010 | 4:05 pm · Link
@Ash Can:
Late to the party (as usual). Which thread are you referring to?
Davis X. Machina - March 24, 2010 | 4:08 pm · Link
Yeah. Render them to Denmark, and make them experience the hell that is Scandinavian social democracy.
They’ll break within hours.
auntieeminaz - March 24, 2010 | 4:09 pm · Link
@Mouse Tolliver: Are you talking about the guy interviewed on David Shuster’s show? His name is Kevin Jackson and he was unbelievable. He pointed out that he has never seen any lynchings at the Tea Party gatherings. It’s the Democrats that did that. Shuster couldn’t get him off the air fast enough.
Waynski - March 24, 2010 | 4:21 pm · Link
Anyone suggest “tearrorist”?
kdaug - March 24, 2010 | 4:22 pm · Link
@Davis X. Machina:
Heh. Brilliant.
Mouse Tolliver - March 24, 2010 | 4:22 pm · Link
@auntieeminaz: Yeah, that’s the one.
wrb - March 24, 2010 | 4:26 pm · Link
@Comrade Mary:
Defining Susan as a governess is kinda like calling a cruise missile a bullet. Sure they have a similar shape…
And that governess had an exceptional grandfather.
Comrade Kevin - March 24, 2010 | 4:26 pm · Link
@auntieeminaz: I think the term for someone like him is “useful idiot”.
CalD - March 24, 2010 | 4:32 pm · Link
What’s Nigel Coleman’s home address and phone number? I think that everyone in Virginia who disagrees with his political views ought to drop by and let him know.
Cacti - March 24, 2010 | 4:37 pm · Link
It’s frightening that actual, elected GOP representatives, are excusing and minimizing brownshirt thuggery.
I’d expect it from talk radio shock jocks, but actual office holders are supposed to be the adults of the group.
Ash Can - March 24, 2010 | 4:49 pm · Link
@pcbedamned: I mentioned it toward the bottom of the “Rough Boys” thread, to someone who was OT with me.
Rick Taylor - March 24, 2010 | 4:49 pm · Link
It’s worse than that; in some cases they are egging it on.
.
Mnemosyne - March 24, 2010 | 4:49 pm · Link
@tammanycall:
It’s the Leni Riefenstahl problem—what do you do with the people who enabled the horror through art? Surnow certainly deserves to receive a share of the blame for his part in bringing right-wing propaganda to the mass media and making people believe that torture works despite all of the evidence against it.
AxelFoley - March 24, 2010 | 4:55 pm · Link
@lamh31:
Bingo.
Nellcote - March 24, 2010 | 4:58 pm · Link
@tammanycall:
At the request of the military, Jack Bauer had to go to West Point and remind the cadets that “24” was only a teevee show and not an instruction video. Seriously.
SiubhanDuinne - March 24, 2010 | 5:02 pm · Link
@Violet:
Apocalipton’s ?
Rick Taylor - March 24, 2010 | 5:04 pm · Link
@Cacti
I found the link to Dana Miblank’s column describing it. Also this older post by Steve Benen.
Svensker - March 24, 2010 | 5:05 pm · Link
@Ash Can:
Classy Ann said that Univ. of Ottawa was a “bush-league” school anyway.
Nellcote - March 24, 2010 | 5:14 pm · Link
“Insurgency we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban. And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes. And these Taliban—I’m not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban—no, that’s not what we’re saying. I’m saying an example of how you go about is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their front line message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with.”—Pete Sessions (R-Texas)
Menzies - March 24, 2010 | 5:17 pm · Link
@Violet, Jay B:
Consider it done. Here’s your page.
I just donated $5 to Perriello and Giffords through the B-J one, and I’m poor, so I’m waiting this out until I get my next check from home, which will be around April Fools. I promise to make that donation, though.
Tim F. - March 24, 2010 | 5:21 pm · Link
@Nellcote: I heard from people there that it didn’t take. The fake show had more influence than the real person.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Just excercising their constitutional right to cut other people’s gas lines - March 24, 2010 | 5:24 pm · Link
[...] Update. I see that Tim F has already covered this. [...]
Gregory - March 24, 2010 | 5:32 pm · Link
@r€nato:
Fixed for historical accuracy.
The Bearded Blogger - March 24, 2010 | 5:35 pm · Link
@rob!: If that happens, and of course it would be a tragedy if it did, dems would need to re-institute a new and fortified fairness doctrine for old and new media
batgirl - March 24, 2010 | 5:37 pm · Link
@Rick Taylor:
No. That is why former governor of Utah Jon Huntsman jumped at the chance to become ambassador to China and run as far away as possible as the Republican party reaches peak wingnut.
Little Dreamer - March 24, 2010 | 5:42 pm · Link
@GReynoldsCT00:
I read that after the HCR vote a bunch of right-wingers started cleaning their rifles and all I can about think is this!
I thought rifles were supposed to be for shooting game, no?
These are some truly sick fucks!
Little Dreamer - March 24, 2010 | 5:45 pm · Link
Re: peak wingnut, wingularity and the wingnut event horizon – we’ve been jokingly referencing these events for a long time, but are they all the same event or what exactly are the differences between the three?
Little Dreamer - March 24, 2010 | 5:49 pm · Link
@Nellcote:
Holy shit!
Freepers are calling these threats propaganda (I linked earlier on another thread) so I don’t want to do it again but will if someone asks.
Is there anything they won’t lie about?
Sly - March 24, 2010 | 5:52 pm · Link
And the Republican response to this shit has been deafeningly silent. Just days before they were conveying nothing but sympathy on those poor souls who had been reduced to shouting “Nigger” at John Lewis and “Faggot” at Barney Frank because of Obama’s tyrannical plot to get them cheaper health insurance.
These were the same people who said that anyone who wanted to understand the motivations of Islamic terrorists were sucking Bin Laden’s cock. I have no sympathy for them or their dumb-ass constituents.
tc125231 - March 24, 2010 | 6:15 pm · Link
Look, one can hope that Republicanism goes the way of the Luddites. I wouldn’t mind. But Republicans merely exhibit the core behavior more frequently than other Americans. The behavior is widespread in all groups. Cole exhibits it with some regularity, when he’s bashing hippies, or otherwise trying to show that he’s a “tough” progressive.
Call it the “Comic Book Mind” syndrome. Take Scalia’s argument.
Huh? This is about as intelligent as suggesting that you should try to get bitten by spiders because you can turn into Spiderman. After all, SOME of them must have that radiation (1st gen) or genetic mutation (2nd gen) “stuff”.
The trouble with these arguments is that they have no discernable relationship to reality—because they confuse a comic book scenario with something real. Comic books can be fun. But they almost always assume situatons where violence has a moral clarity that is almost never found in real life.
Suppose Jack Bauer tortures the wrong person, and the bomb goes off? Is he going to get a commendation for extra effort?
That is most unlikely.
The further reality is that the “wrong person” scenario is much more likely than that he would successfully torture the right person, and save the day.
Unless thinking comes back in style, this country is cooked. Tell Cole that he is not helping when he pulls the “Emo John” routine.
Chuck Butcher - March 24, 2010 | 6:20 pm · Link
@Little Dreamer:
No.
Rifles are for launching a small projectile at high velocity in a controlled manner over a long range. Somebody on the back side of it is responsible for what it is pointed at. I own two rifles that have never been aimed at an animal and won’t be, it is not what they are good at. Paper is all they’ve ever punched a hole in. You seem to have an idea that hunting is the purpose of the 2nd A – it is not and was only ever mentioned as a side benefit during the debate over Amendments.
Little Dreamer - March 24, 2010 | 6:25 pm · Link
@Chuck Butcher:
I’m a pacifist, I’ve never shot a gun in my life. I’ve only been told that rifles were for shooting game (I am probably misinformed and fully admit it).
I do remember the NRA hunting rights ads of the 70’s.
Jamie - March 24, 2010 | 6:33 pm · Link
I wonder how many of these nutjobs realize 24 is a work of fiction?
Uloborus - March 24, 2010 | 6:58 pm · Link
@Tim F.:
I have personal biases on this debate I’d rather not go into, but still. I think that if anything this supports my feelings on the 24 thing.
The show isn’t at fault. It isn’t even marginally at fault. The show isn’t convincing these dufuses who commit torture. The show is an excuse. It’s a less obviously crazy example of Manson’s use of Beatles songs.
This is pure and simple rationalization. They want to believe something, and they’re just going to keep looking until they find something that convinces them of it. If they’re particularly stupid or crazy then song lyrics or fiction will do. It’s A) a fundamental way the brain works, and B) the whole frigging modus operandi of the conservative movement right now. To beat my personal dead horse, going back to bible study and its ‘pick a verse, pretend there aren’t any others’ logic.
Chuck Butcher - March 24, 2010 | 7:03 pm · Link
@Little Dreamer:
Hunting and fishing licenses and permits of various sorts are generally the largest funding of species and habitat actions by states. That the NRA has become the National Rightwingery Ass has not squat to do with the 2nd A. What I responded is accurate. As a gun owning lefty part of my activities have had to do with presenting accurate 2nd A information for political use and I’ve been seriously scrtutinized. Hunting is one of the larger activities surrounding firearms.
I don’t care a bit if someone likes or doesn’t like guns, what I do care about is accuracy and truth. The NRA tries to scare hell out of its members, just as HGI does on the other side.
Mnemosyne - March 24, 2010 | 7:13 pm · Link
@Uloborus:
You need to read up on Joel Surnow if you really think that the fact that he’s bleating out right-wing ideas about terrorism in every show is just a co-inkidink and he has no idea that he’s supporting Dick Cheney with his program.
You can certainly argue that the other people who work on the show are not culpable, just as Riefenstahl’s cameraman was not culpable in her creation of Nazi propaganda, but Surnow’s hands are not clean. He is making the modern-day equivalent of Jew Suss and he doesn’t care.
Little Dreamer - March 24, 2010 | 7:13 pm · Link
@Chuck Butcher:
Well, I’m not one who really feels affected by it, unless I’ve got an entire group of crazed psychopaths who feel they’ve been forced to live in a soshulist/communist/fascist state wanting to pump the projectiles of such weapons into the bodies of those of us who oppose them.
Personally, I’ve never considered owning a gun, I would consider owning pepper spray to defend myself but, I realize that if I tried to do that against someone holding a gun, I obviously will lose the battle.
I’m a pacifist, I will never own a gun, personally.
While I’m not christian, I have deeply studied religion and I take that “thou shalt not kill” thing pretty seriously.
If you want to own a gun (and be able to defend yourself with one) that is your prerogative and I will not judge you on it. I would hope that you wouldn’t ever pull it out and point it at someone like me (an unarmed individual), that’s all.
Chuck Butcher - March 24, 2010 | 7:15 pm · Link
@Little Dreamer:
It is not my intention to start a fight, but there is an internal contradiction in a statement of pacifism in a country of laws, which are enforced. Laws are not backed up by persuasion, for example – laws were what let Ghandi succeed and indeed stay alive. That he used a pacifistic approach to political ends was indeed very laudable but that says nothing about the force of law.
The policeman who answers your call will be carrying a gun and handcuffs, not a book of philosophy. None of that makes me an advocate of violence, though I freely admit to conditional judgements.
The Populist - March 24, 2010 | 7:27 pm · Link
Wow, the idiot who posted a congressman’s address is surprised somebody would do something sinister.
Uh-huh. Why is it I just don’t believe that these guys are acting all naive?
Little Dreamer - March 24, 2010 | 7:31 pm · Link
@Chuck Butcher:
Well, as a female, I’m used to being fairly subservient and I expect that will always be so. Personally, my belief of the 2nd amendment is that the word “militia” doesn’t mean anybody and their grandpa owning guns in their homes, but, as someone who doesn’t shoot one, I really have no business pushing that viewpoint on anyone else. I trust that when a threat exists (even this psuedo-threat of soshulism/communism/fascism) there will be plenty of people with guns willing to use them, I’m sure some of them will be shooting at those who would choose to shoot someone like me.
Lancelot Link - March 24, 2010 | 7:31 pm · Link
Oddly enough, this Coleman person is the other black Teapartier.
“Once when he was 13 or 14, Coleman stayed up listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio. It was the first time he remembers realizing the distinction between conservatives and liberals. And the things he heard started to make sense, he said.”
Little Dreamer - March 24, 2010 | 7:34 pm · Link
@The Populist:
It’s a ploy so they can stick to their “current violence is liberal propaganda” line.
The thought went through my head earlier: “do they have late night closed membership meetings at C-Pac where they discuss Red Dawn strategies”?
Chuck Butcher - March 24, 2010 | 8:13 pm · Link
@Little Dreamer:
I am a real fan of persuasion as opposed to shooting, I’m also very good at shooting.
The meaning of “well regulated militia” would take pages in the face of our changing language. The actual limits regarding militias were removed by Civil Rights, legislative and Amending.
JohnR - March 24, 2010 | 8:27 pm · Link
@Pangloss:
I think they were hoping that ‘Kristolnacht’ would be a bigger hit than it was.