"American Terrorism"

What would an average American citizen do if someone who disagreed with them posted their home address on a fringe type of blog that led to some lunatic coming to their house and cutting the gas line to the grill sitting on the deck?

Luckily, nobody was directly in harm's way but this incident is real and happened because a teabagger decided that it was acceptable behavior to incite his reader's. The address he posted was actually the brother of the man he wanted to get back at, Rep. Thomas Perriello of Virginia.

Mike Troxel posted the home address on his blog, thinking it was that of Rep. Perriello, with the sarcastic suggestion that other teabaggers should "stop by and say hi and express their thanks regarding his vote for health care". His opposition and the tone of his blog could be seen as questionable as to whether he meant no harm. The mistake has been referred to as collateral damage. Troxel also has refused to remove the address unless the Congressman supplies him with the correct address.

This type of behavior thrown at an average citizen would result in jail time and by all rights it should be the consequence for Troxel. The FBI and local authorities are investigating the incident (cutting of the propane gas line) and if they find that it was the result of Troxel's posting he could, and should) be prepared for the consequences.

What would it mean if an African American citizen were sent a noose? Rep. Clyburn has received at least one anonymous fax depicting a noose. Is that reference not supposed to be a racial threat of bodily harm? Considering America's history of lynching blacks, how could it be considered anything else?

Someone called the office of Rep. Louise Slaughter last week and vowed to send snipers to "kill the children of the members who voted yes". Law enforcement were dispatched as protection for her family, including grandchildren.

Rep. Bart Stupak had messages left on his home phone that said "You're dead; we know where you live, we'll get you". Stupak was actually a police officer before entering Congress and is not fazed much by the threats but says that his wife still can not answer the phone. "The messages are full of obscenities".

Rep. Driehaus of Ohio is outraged because his daughters have been pulled into the fray by a group called The Committee to Rethink Reform. This group has apparently been running ads against the Congressman while using pictures of his daughters in their ads. The group and the Cincinnati Enquirer have both apologized to Driehaus but the potential damage has already been done - Driehaus' children's pictures have been put out for any lunatic to see and now know what they look like and, roughly, where they live.

This was not long after Rep. John Boehner singled Driehaus out with the statement that "he may be a dead man". Boehner also commented that Driehaus "couldn't go home to the west side of Cincinnati" because "the Catholics would run him out". When you consider that the lunatic fringe of the right wing tend to get out of hand, Boehner could be held partially responsible if any harm should come to the Driehaus family.

It should be noted that The Committee to Rethink Reform apparently is a conservative group (Employment Policies Institute) that lean a bit too far right for many Americans. An excerpt from one of their member's research papers states;

Advocates of a higher minimum wage frequently portray the policy as a direct benefit to America's poor and low income families. This study casts doubt on that piece of conventional wisdom, as the authors find that "many low income families do not contain a low-wage worker." As a result, more than 85 percent of low-income families saw no direct monetary benefit from each of the three 70-cent wage increases.

This is not in sync with the majority of America's poor. I challenge the Employment Policies Institute to show evidence that any low income family does not contain a low wage worker.

Rep. Dennis Cardoza of California stated, "There are some folks that identified themselves as being members of the tea party who called, and my staff has gotten to know their names over time, and they have been very loud and very ugly", after getting threats to his physical safety.

Rep. Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota was forced to change his private cell phone number after an unnamed Republican made the number available to opponents of health care reform.

These examples are not the only physical threats received and they are not even a fraction of what is being done by teabaggers and other right wing extremists. Not all teabaggers are extremists, nor are all Republicans, but the lack of strong and deliberate statements against these acts by the Republican party has only helped to encourage unlawful behavior.

The Republican party has deliberately incited extremists within their base by spreading misinformation about the health care reform that was just signed into law, just as misinformation was deliberately put out concerning Obama's stance on abortion and the Executive Order he signed to strengthen limits on abortion funding. Pro-choice Americans pay taxes too but you don't see any of them threatening anyone's safety because their tax dollars are not allowing women a choice.

Glenn Beck told his listeners on Monday that Democrats who supported the bill would be remembered as "an enemy of the Republic" and "an enemy of the Constitution". If you take into account the type of people that follow Glenn Beck you would have sufficient reason to believe that he was also inciting violence with his statements on Monday. He did not bother to urge his viewers not to indulge in violence until Wednesday when he also told his followers that "radical supporters of the Obama administration are counting on such attacks to discredit their opposition". Beck said, "it's exactly what they want". What kind of lunatic would actually believe that anyone in their right mind would want to be threatened like this? Beck also stated," They are begging for it. You are being set up." If people were not certain before, they can now state with absolute certainty that Glenn Beck is a big part of the lunatic fringe, or wingnuts, as they are commonly referred to.

Sarah Palin has the cross hairs of a gun fixated on Democrat "targets" all over her Facebook page. That, in itself, gives her brand of wingnuts the idea to go shoot someone.

The Republican Party has a responsibility to speak out against the threats and vandalism as loudly as when they deliberately misinformed their base about what the reform would and would not do, but the speeches and statements denouncing the threats are a whimper compared to their rhetoric about policy. John McCain is still trumpeting health care reform as a "government takeover of healthcare", a fabricated scare tactic that has been debunked by every reasonable and responsible agency and news outlet in the U.S. John Boehner is still making the claim that we have the best health care system in the world but in reality we rank under Costa Rica...the third world country that Rush Limbaugh goes to for his medical care.

If health care reform is not worked on, the insured will still pay for the uninsured by way of $100 Tylenol or some other outrageously inflated price for hospital stays. Insurance companies that make gigantic profits because there is nothing to stop them from arbitrarily raising rates because they feel like it decide that they want more money and drop more people who have been priced out.

This legislation is not perfect but it is a start in the right direction. The responsible thing to do is try to improve on it together.