Nancy Pelosi made some very sobering comments yesterday about the potential for political violence inside America….
"I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco, this king of rhetoric. … It created a climate in which violence took place. … I wish we would all curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements and understand that some of the ears that it is falling on are not as balanced as the person making the statements may assume."
Naturally, Republicans disagree with Pelosi. Pete Sessions (R-TX), head of the National Republican Congressional Committee responded to Pelosi's comments…..
“Speaker Pelosi is right that the American people are upset, but it is her own words that continue to fuel voter frustration in America," Sessions said in a statement sent to POLITICO. "No longer content with criticizing concerned citizens for being ‘un-American,’ the Speaker is now likening genuine opposition to assassination. Such insulting rhetoric not only undermines the credibility of her office, but it underscores the desperate attempt by her party to divert attention away from a failing agenda."
Abortion doctor George Tiller experienced firsthand the "genuine opposition" Sessions refers to here. Tiller was assassinated while attending church. Tiller was murdered by a man genuinely opposed to legal abortion rights for women. Scott Roeder, the assassin, I'm sure, was frustrated that America elected a president who favors keeping abortion legal in the U.S. The assassination came after 4 months of heated and wildly irrational rhetoric from extreme conservatives over all things Obama.
Yet the Republican response from Sessions to Pelosi's honest and emotional assessment of today's thuggishly heated rhetoric aimed at all things Obama….is to blame the Speaker, herself, and the words she speaks as the reason for conservatives' "frustration." Sessions is saying that if there is any heated rhetoric, Nancy Pelosi fueled that rhetoric by the words she spoke.
What words? Pelosi and Steny Hoyer (D-MD) co-wrote these words in USA Today in August….
"These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades,"
Pete Sessions, as most Republicans are prone to do now, describes Pelosi's, "Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American"…as…"No longer content with criticizing concerned citizens for being ‘un-American,’ the Speaker is now likening genuine opposition to assassination."
Numerous examples of planned conservative disruptions at town halls, with all the ugliness, intimidation and hatred displayed there, are translated by Republicans, like Sessions, as only "concerned citizens", who, if angry and frustrated, were made that way by what Nancy Pelosi says.
Those "concerned citizens" very purpose in attending primarily Democratic town hall meetings was to "drown out opposing views." Many buster-uppers followed a shared playbook explaining how to bust-up a town hall. Many buster-uppers who traveled to Democratic representative's town halls came from other voting districts. The plan from the beginning was to raise hell and disrupt. To Sessions, that's what "concerned citizens" do. Everyone has seen the town hall videos…..there's no question that drowning others out, intimidating and disrupting was the "concerned citizens" goal from the beginning.
For Pelosi to recall the 1970's when domestic political violence seemed like a weekly occurrence….and for Pelosi to warn that 70's violence was also accompanied with heated and hateful rhetoric…simply a fact,…. is to Republicans like Sessions "likening genuine opposition to assassination."
Nancy Pelosi did not accuse the people using the heated rhetoric of being assassins themselves. She said…."some of the ears that it is falling on are not as balanced as the person making the statements may assume." Like Scott Roeder, or the guy who killed three cops in Pittsburgh because he'd heard that Obama was coming for his guns, or the guy who shot up the Holocaust Museum.
Perhaps….THAT'S the goal of people like Pete Sessions. Perhaps, Republicans want unhinged, hateful, lying rhetoric-spewing buster-uppers to be heard by citizens who are "not as balanced" as those spewing the rhetoric or throwing a tantrum.
Perhaps Republicans, conservatives….while never stating so explicitly….want national breakouts of political violence by dangerous lone-wolf, conservative nutcases.
All this time I've been thinking that the nonsense I've been hearing and seeing from conservatives since Obama's inauguration were all just attempts to "grab" those headlines, those teevee video bytes.
Is it possible that what's really going on with all the hateful language, all the displays of firearms, all the Obama-is-Hitler posters, all the thuggish intimidation,…..is a dog-whistle call to the "not as balanced" in the hope that random political acts of violence,….if nothing else works,….will bring down Obama's presidency?
{ 39 comments… read them below or add one }
No incidence of right-wing violence at any of the townhall meetings. There has only been left-wing violence on display at them.
No incidents of violence at any of the Tea Party rallies, including the massive rally in D.C., where there were no arrests made (as opposed to the 239 arrests made at a similar D.C. anti-war rally during the Bush years). The 9/12 rally was entirely peaceful.
You mention Tiller, but leave out the left-wing nuts who killed the soldiers at the recruiting station, or any of the other numerous acts of violence by the left against recruiting stations, not to mention the racist/socialist who shot up the Holocaust museum, or the way conservative events have been busted up on college campuses, or the violence of the left-wing enviro groups. There are 50 acts of violence in the U.S. by the left for every one by the right.
Keep making it up as you go along, Rev, just like Nancy Pelosi does. Keep pushing that phony narrative. We are not fooled.
It seems like violence is always part of the left's plan.
And remember when dissent was the highest form of patriotism? Now that the roles are reversed any dissent is treated as "un-american" and "violent" when neither characterization could be farther from the truth.
She seems to be referring to the killings of Milk and Moscone. I believe they were killed by a former city employee who wanted his job back. Maybe we should outlaw bureaucratic jobs instead of squealching free speech. Or maybe she's just a shameless liar.
Hell yes creating the possibilty and even better manufacturing and sensationalizing a little violence is part of the plan. What better way is there to create an atmosphere of division,discontent and fear? Once that is accomplished the next step is to curb dissent in the name of public safety and protecting "democracy".
Wow. My loving admirers, in four short comments, have developed the framework for a whole new conspiracy theory.
I'm sure the chapters will be filled in for me, but it looks like the outline goes like this: Obama and Pelosi have purposely schemed together to say stuff that realy, realy pisses off the conservatives. Even the legislation Obama and Pelosi advance….it's only for the purpose of really frosting the conservatives' cookies….hell, Pelosi and Obama don't even believe in the legislation.
Then, in a classic "see what you made me do" moment, if a hate, intimidation, or even violent event happens and is perpetrated by conservatives, Obama and Pelosi are to blame…they made the conservatives mad.
But the theory is even more sinister. Obama and Pelosi want the acts of violence by angry conservatives to happen so they can militarize the country, arrest all the conservatives and put them in Glenn Beck's internment centers while simultaneously turning the country into an Islamic state, outlawing Christianity and capitalism in the process.
Anyone want to fill in the other chapters for me?
King
Progressive violence is sometimes necessary to raise the awareness of critical issues or to prevent hate speech or reactionary ideas that harm the advancement of democracy. All other violence is a product or the consequence of reactionary behavior. But I think you already knew that
I have a question. Why when a lib is faced with the truth do the begin making the most irrational arguement and just start making stuff up? This is something I will never understand. How do you have a rational conversation?
Hey Rev, you're aware that the Democrat politicians Pelosi referred to were killed by another Democrat politician, right? One Democrat politician shot two others and killed them, that's what happened. Pelosi surely knows this, demonstrating once more that she's a liar. If you knew that and you chose to spread more of this stuff without that disclosure, you're a liar too.
Plus, I'm aware of two instances of violence at health care events this summer. In one, SEIU union guys, about 6 of them, beat up Kenneth Gladney. Gladney, you may know, is black. So that was political violence, possibly even racial violence. Kind of a two-for-one there. The other, some Obama drone bit off a guy's finger. Literally bit off his finger. So that was political violence, but it was also cannibalism. Political, racial violence and cannibalism…by liberals…wow…
Good points, You Lie, and it makes me wonder if maybe we're misreading Pelosi's statement about "some of the ears it is falling on are not as balanced." Keeping in mind the Obama lemmings' propensity for violence, the statement could be a thinly veiled threat.
The Gladney incident is bogus.
http://tinyurl.com/nanoa3
So they didn't beat him (Gladney) up? Looks like maybe there's some post-beating shenanigans taking place but nobody's denying the beating, I notice…
Pathetic.
Good point, jimmy james. I'd like to add that the pinky finger is the smallest and least useful of the five so biting off pinkies is fair game as well.
@ DA king
No evidence of voilence at the town hall meetings. I guess you mean there were no assaults, deaths or other bodily injuries. I beleive that intimidation, threats and assaulting the other 90% of the people at the town right to peacefully assemble doesn't count as violence in your book.
I still will ask you what is your plan to bend the curve in healthcare cost increase? I do not beleive that I have ever seen that plan. I am pretty sure that your plan will have as major component Tort reform. Unfortunately if there are any cost reductions from this "reform" it is not passed down to the end consumer. Please show me your plan, estimated cost, estimated cost savings documented by a neutral third party that will come any where close to the savings of any of the plans now on the House floor and we can talk.
Right now the conservative/Libertarian branch of the political system is still the party of no. Show me a workable plan for health care reform and I would be more than willing to peacefully discuss the merits of both plans. We might not agree in the end but both sides will be heard.
Thanks for reading this and hopefully responding.
Hey Chris,Any workable plan will not make it past Pelosi or Reed because they will not allow it.There have been plenty of plans that have been put up for a vote in committe or proposed only to be put down by the enlightened members of the current majority of progressives.As for violence Mile and Mosconi were as mentioned killed by fellow progressives.Get real with the facts-you will wake up some day and understand that progressives are leading us all down a road that you will regret as much as some of us know is destructive.WAKE UP. If there was so much violence in the opposition then there would have been MASS arrests at the teabag,teaparty or whatever they call themselves.Heck they didnt even leave trash on the ground there but dont let the facts get in the way of a whopper-let folks like the rev and the unions tell you how to think.WAKE UP before its too late.
I realize this will fall on deaf ears…but….Pelosi was speaking of the hateful rhetoric that led to violence in the San Francisco area carried out against gays in the 70's. If you do some research you'll understand a little better the truth of what Pelosi was saying. Pelosi was making the obvious-to-non-morons connection of hateful and unhinged rhetoric to violence. As I said…I realize none of this will matter to folks who have their minds made up.
Secondly, while violence may not have occured at the 9-12 event, many signs, poster, teeshirts, etc…at the 9-12 event implied threats of violence. One example of many: "we came unarmed, this time." Couple the implications of violence from the 9-12 posters, etc. with the semi-automatic assault weapon and handgun carrying outside a presidential townhall…then add the violence by right wing fanatics that has already taken place…..cop killer in Pittsburgh scared that Obama was going to take his guns,….Scott Roeder, abortion doctor assassin….the old John Bircher at the Holocaust Museum…..put that all together and there's only one conclusion a reality-based person can come to.
Thirdly…..the Gladney reference was humorous. Have you seen the video? Talk about a very poor bit of acting.
Fourth….the guy who had his little finger bitten off (a right winger) had punched the biter in the mouth previous to the dismemberment.
Summarizing: anyone who cannot acknowledge the violence and potential for violence now being bred in the fever swamps of today's radical conservative movement either isn't paying attention…or is paying attention and believes the hateful and unhinged rhetoric, guns and threats of violence are justified….because America elected a black Democratic president.
Think for just one moment…..all of this crazed behavior by conservatives is said to have been caused because Democrats want to pass a national health care reform bill.
Here's a tidbit from the killer of Milk and Moscone….
"There are thousands upon thousands of frustrated, angry people waiting to unleash a fury that can and will eradicate the malignancies which blight our city. I am not going to be forced out of San Francisco by splinter groups of radicals, social deviates, incorrigibles."
Sounds like many of today's conservatives, doesn't it?
So was she referring to Milk and Moscone or not, Reverend? You're arguing out of both sides of the face, again.
So, did a Democrat politician kill two other Democrat politicians in the 70s or not?
Did Obama supporters beat up Gladney or not?
Did an Obama supporter bite off a guy's finger or not?
You lie!,
Don't expect anything rational from the Reverend. It's not in his playbook. Look at him making excuses for act after act of actual left-wing violence at the same time he condemns potential right-wing violence. He's lost it.
And let's not forget the anti-abortion activist who was killed by the pro-choicer less than two weeks ago.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/11/michigan.shooting/index.html
The Reverend can only see out of one eye. The other eye is blind.
Pelosi may have been referring to Milk and Moscone, bu that's not the point. The point is she was right. I don't care what affiliation Milk's killer was…..that's his statement in the quote in my last comment….that's what a 2009 conservative base member sounds like. Angry, threatening, intolerant and prone to violence.
In Milk's day the heated rhetoric that preceded violence was over homosexuality, today it's still over homosexuality but now there's more…..the increase of Hispanic Americans, a Supreme Latina, a black progressive president. But it's the same heated, hateful rhetoric, the same intolerance and I'll guran-goddamn-tee ya' that there will more acts of violence as a result.
Protesting a specific issue with a rebuttal is one thing. Some TeaBaggers and Twelvers have been acting like tinhorn enforcers, speaking an incoherent message, using intidimidation and fear with guns, racism, Nazism, communism, socialism and what have you.
There's no solutions offered, no ideas, no nothing…..they just hate Obama.
King: Agree.
Rev: So, did a Democrat politician kill two other Democrat politicians in the 70s or not?
Did Obama supporters beat up Gladney or not?
Did an Obama supporter bite off a guy's finger or not?
(I copied and pasted above.)
It doesn't matter how wrong Pelosi was, the point is she was right!
By the way, Rev:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090915/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_patriot_act – Patriot Act, extended.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/obama-administration-guantanamo-detainees-have-more-rights-than-bagram-detainees-who-have-none.html – Bagram, 'worse' than Guantanamo.
Shouldn't you be calling for impeachment or calling someone a traitor or saying something like "no blood for oil" or "speak truth to power" or something? Changity-change-change.
Rev says, "that's what a 2009 conservative base member sounds like. Angry, threatening, intolerant and prone to violence."
That's what a conservative sounds like in the Rev's fevered imagination. Meanwhile, the lion's share of the violence comes from the left.
"..the lion's share of the violence comes from the left."
Not lately.
You lie!,
Obama is continuing the rendition and wiretapping programs as well. Strange how the Reverend isn't calling for Obama to be put in the slammer, like he did Bush.
Rev,
Yes, lately. Add 'em up.
Yes, rendition, wiretapping and other Patriot Act gems, Bagram 'worse' than Guant'mo, by the way, Guant'mo staying open past January 2009 (take it to the bank)…and not a Republican to blame anywhere in the era of the Democrat president and his 60-Democrat Senate and 250-Democrat House of Representatives.
But Rev and other Olbermann-wannabes will try, no doubt. A pathetic bunch.
I have previously posted about the misguided acceptance of Bush era "state secrets" and "American gulags"…by the Obama administration. Undoubtedly, I will be posting again on this reprehensible practice.
It's odd, though, that only NOW are these unAmerican practices being scrutinized, and condemned by oh-so-patriotic wingnuts.
No, I'm good w/ rendition and wiretapping of foreign national terror suspects. Foreign national terror suspects don't have constitutional rights. Remember? I'm also good w/ Gitmo and Bagram. Again, foreign national terror suspects don't have…you get it…
I'm also not the one who claimed these were the Nazi-like tactics of a despot hell-bent on destroying the Constitution. You and your ilk did, and you presented this argument as a rationale for voting for Barack Obama. And it turns out that all that was once 'Nazi,' 'torture,' etc is now…Obama…
By the way, when you use words like 'wingnut' to address substance- and fact-based observations raised by people with whom you disagree, supposed 'wingnuts' like me are convinced you don't have much else to say. Which is not a surprise.
You lie….I've got a lot to say. And what I say is usually based on facts and data.
For example….if you based your understanding on facts and data, you would know that the Boumedienne case declared ALL detainees have basic habeas rights. You would also know that declaring a person an "enemy combatant" does not have any meaning when it comes to refusing basic habeas rights.
Additionally, if you based your comprehension on facts, you would know that Obama ended Bush/Cheney's torture campaign….and he promised to close Guantanomo. Those are facts.
When I use the word "wingnut"….I'm using it to help illustrate the factless approach some conservatives, like you, take to each and every political issue.
The wingnuttery that is produced as a result of a factless approach to all things is witnessed in your childish grasp of the Bush/Cheney blanket and illegal wiretapping of Americans. The feds are still vacuuming up all electronic communications of all Americans and running those communications through special filtering software. It's not just, as you say, "foreign terror suspects". How naive.
And I wonder if you would be for rendition if someone close to you was, you know, taken in the middle of the night and you never heard from them again. Would you be for that? You know, to keep us all safe?
Rev says, "I've got a lot to say. And what I say is usually based on facts and data."
I don't know if that's the funniest thing I've ever heard, but it's close.
Here's a fact for you. You are still sticking up for the very terrorists who are trying to kill us. What a patriot.
Btw, that "illegal wiretapping" has been ruled legal by the courts, and Obama continues to do it, along with the other activites You Lie! pointed out. Where's your call for impeachment ? Where's your call for putting Obama in prison ? No, instead you prattle on about how great Obama is, and how he fixed those crazy wingnut policies. Whatever.
What the feds are doing is scooping up e-mail and running it through filtering software to find phrases like 'terrorist bomb plot' and such, that might help them identify terrorists, which THEY HAVE DONE SEVERAL TIMES. Several plots have been stopped. I guess the Rev is fine with terrorists blowing up innocent Americans, so long as we don't spy on the terrorists, because, you know, foreign terrorists have rights. Maybe we should let KSM go because we didn't read him his miranda rights. Yeah, that's the ticket. The country be damned.
If the Rev can give me even one example of an innocent American being taken in the middle of the night and never heard from again, maybe I'll have a change of heart.
You sure can shovel it.
Rev:
Boumediene declared "ALL detainees have basic habeas rights." Yet Gitmo's still open and Bagram, reportedly, is 'worse.' And Gitmo's gonna stay open come January. That is a promise that will go unfulfilled. Book it. October starts Thursday, you think they're going to shut that thing down in three months with sub-50% approval ratings.
As King points out, wiretapping is still happening. Rendition is still happening. Billions are still being spent to keep Americans in Iraq and will be for the duration of President Obama's term (singular, note). Patriot Act. The list goes on.
You, my friend, are the naif. You believed the things Obama promised, you believed he was different. Now it's clear that he's not different, and adoption of the Bush war policies is essentially acknowledgment that Bush got all these things right. You are a cynical hack for whom partisanship apparently trumps patriotism. If any of the crap you write related to these issues was rooted in any degree of principle whatsoever, you would say the same things about Obama that you have about Bush and Cheney.
But you will not.
King, Reverend has already pointed out that they're erasing our memories. We wouldn't know if they took our wives or children in the night.
You Lie!,
Did you hear the latest ? The Obama administration has cited the Iraq Authorization For The Use of Military Force (AUMF) as it's authority to keep the Gitmo prisoners detained indefinitely without trial, just like Bush did, even though Obama railed against that on the campaign trail last year. The One's previous talkiing points were just that, all talk. It's a different ballgame when you're actually the President and responsible for America's security.
larry, I think the Rev's tin foil hat is supposed to stop the memory wipe.
You lie…lies.
"If any of the crap you write related to these issues was rooted in any degree of principle whatsoever, you would say the same things about Obama that you have about Bush and Cheney."
I've criticized Obama for the very things you say.
Now, tell me this, you conservative critters……if Bush/Cheney did the right thing, you know, keeping us all safe from boogeymen, why would you criticize Obama for doing likewise?
Finally….the only reason that Obama may have difficulty closing Guantanomo is because of the whining conservative babies who shake in their boots thinking about bad criminals being imprisoned on U.S soil. What a bunch of scared bunnies. Brave patriots…my ass.
Rev:
I'm pleased that Obama finds himself on the same side of all these issues these days as Dick Cheney. Let that sink in: Dick. Cheney. My objection is to the cynical way he played fools like you to get to where he is. Very destructive, very reckless.
Re: Gitmo. 60 Democrat senators, 250 Democrat house members. Stop whining about Republicans. It's pathetic.