It's been nearly a year since DHS released report on heightened risk of domestic extremist violence

[bigtree]

from Gabriel Winant at Salon: http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/03/25/threats_democrats_healthcare/


Some on the right never believed Obama had a right to govern, and threats over healthcare are the grim result

It's now been nearly a year since the Department of Homeland Security released its infamous report on the heightened risk of domestic extremist violence. It's also been almost that long that conservatives have griped that the report was a political smear job by a liberal-run department, unfairly singling out right-wingers and accusing them of being gun-waving, bomb-throwing extremists without any evidence.

Since the report's release last April, it's reemerged periodically as acts of domestic political violence have dominated the news: the killing of Dr. George Tiller, the Holocaust Museum shooting and the suicide attack on the Internal Revenue Service all come to mind, along with a general increase in white supremacist activity. Mainstream conservatives have strenuously denied any ideological overlap with this stuff, some going so far as to say that certain of these incidents belong on liberals' consciences. You can hardly blame them. A John McCain sticker on the car doesn't mean a white hood in the closet.

Still, sometimes the evidence accumulates in front of your nose. As the healthcare debate reached its climax in the past week or so, there’s been an extraordinary outpouring of nastiness from the right, much of it tinged with seething, tribal hatred. People at the tea party protest outside the Capitol flung hateful epithets at Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. And now that the bill has actually passed, there’s been an upswing of acts of intimidation -- in some cases, rather concrete -- against Democratic members of Congress.

Probably the most symbolically freighted incident thus far has happened to Rep. John Clyburn, D-S.C. An African-American and member of the Democratic leadership, Clyburn reported that his office had received a faxed image of a noose, and that his wife had been threatened over the phone. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., have both had district office windows smashed, as has the office of the Cincinnati Democratic Party. Slaughter, who as chair of the House Rules Committee has had her name associated with House floor procedures, also received a voicemail that used the word "snipers." Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., released a passel of menacing voicemails that he received from abortion opponents who believe he betrayed their cause. And in Virginia, after a tea party activist urged angry healthcare opponents to pay a visit to the house of Rep. Tom Perriello, and mistakenly released his brother’s address instead, someone severed the gas line at Perriello's brother’s house.

. . .what does seem apparent is that the proportion of opponents of the president and his agenda who think this isn’t some negligible fringe. It seems to constitute a major part of the popular opposition . . .

read more: http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/03/25/threats_democrats_healthcare/


related:

Media Matters: Right-wing blogs trivialize threats against Democrats: http://mediamatters.org/research/201003250028

[MindandSoul]

1. You are obviously right. . .I actually posted something about that yesterday

But it was just short summary of my thoughts, reminding everyone of that report and how it had been received as "non-sense" and "anti-patriotic!"

[Echo In Light]

2. And to think, all those times * played the 'color code' alert BS for nadda

Who'da thunk it may actually come in handy for determining the potential risk of rabid, armed, American RWers hell bent on killing librals!