Posts by Russell Brown
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Reading down the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence's incredible Insurrection Timeline of the past two years, it's staggering to ponder that this is merely the haul from one week in November:
November 3, 2010—James Patock, 66, of Pima County, Arizona, is arrested on the National Mall in the District of Columbia after law enforcement authorities find a .223 caliber rifle, a .243 caliber rifle barrel, a .22 caliber rifle, a .357 caliber pistol, several boxes of ammunition, and propane tanks wired to four car batteries in his truck and trailer. Patock former neighbor in Arizona reported that, "He hated the president. He hated everything. He said if he got a chance he would shoot the president." Patock tells authorities he is a member of the National Rifle Association.
November 4, 2010—On his radio show, conservative host Glenn Beck fantasizes about President Obama being decapitated during a trip to India, saying, "If anybody thinks he was a Muslim over here, well God forbid, they think he was a Muslim over there because he left his religion for Christianity, death sentence, behead him.” Beck then tells his listeners that "God forbid" this should happen, as there would be a "New World Order" overnight in the United States.
November 4, 2010—Fox News host Bill O'Reilly fantasizes about killing a Washington Post reporter while on the air, saying, "Does sharia law say we can behead Dana Milbank?" O'Reilly also tells co-host Megyn Kelly, "I think you and I should go and beat him up."
November 9, 2010—U.S. Representative-Elect Allen West of Florida's 22nd Congressional District hires conservative radio talk show host Joyce Kaufman as his Chief of Staff. On July 3, Kaufman told a crowd of Tea Party supporters, “I am convinced that the most important thing the Founding Fathers did to ensure me my First Amendments rights was they gave me a Second Amendment. And if ballots don’t work, bullets will."
November 9, 2010—Concealed handgun permit holder George Thomas Lee, 69, of Walhalla, South Carolina, is arrested on the town's main street for disseminating and promoting obscenity by bearing signs "laden with expletives and taking aim at U.S. foreign policy, President Barack Obama, blacks in general, Jews and the nation of Israel." Officers also seize literature from Lee that details "the most expedient means of killing law enforcement officers." The November 9 arrest follows an October 19 arrest for assault after Lee kicked and swung his signs at a group of girls between the ages of 12 and 14.
November 10, 2010—Public schools in Broward County, Florida, go into lockdown after an email threat is received by WFTL 850 AM. The email is sent to conservative radio host Joyce Kaufman in response to remarks she made at a Tea Party event in July ("If ballots don't work, bullets will"). The email expresses support for her view of the Second Amendment and says that to further "their cause...something big will happen at a government building in Broward County, maybe a post office maybe even a school." A phone call is then received at the station, allegedly from the emailer's wife, warning that he is preparing to go to a Pembroke Pines school and open fire.
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Veteran wingnut-watcher Roy Edroso is great value as usual in noting that the response of quite a few people on the political right to Giffords being shot has been to declare they they are the real victims.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Neil Morrison,
As for Kos, how quickly things change. Back in 2008 it was him who was accusing Giffords of selling out the constitution and deserving a bullseye. Glad we all now think that’s not a good thing to be alleging. All accept for Lougher that is.
Good grief, Neil. The actual line that you had to read right down to the bottom of a long blog post to find is: "Not all of these people will get or even deserve primaries, but this vote certainly puts a bulls eye on their district." That's it.
Are you really drawing an equivalence between that and the extraordinary gun-fetish material generated by certain others?
I'd say you were drawing a long bow but you might accuse me of encouraging arrow crime.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to BenWilson,
Yes! Totally. I don’t really care that much but I’d rather we won, and more importantly, I would like the whole tournament to go well, for there to be great matches between all teams, upsets, courageous performances, new stars, friendships made, cultures experienced, goods purchased in massive quantities, sold-out stadiums, infrastructure that doesn’t collapse, parties that never stop, heated debates, a feeling of excitement that drags even the most dour stay-at-home out to stick their hands in the air.
I further propose that in the midst of all this, two people fall in a glorious love.
It’s a lot to ask, but I urge you to get a whole slab of that Harden Up. Oh, and send a tanker of it to the All Blacks.
I’ll keep a pallet. But only for emergencies, mind.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Simon Grigg,
Perhaps Mr. Ailes needs one of his “intellectuals” to calmly explain to him the gulf between a targeted district and the rhetoric and imagery of assassination.
Or between a bullseye and a rifle sight.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Kumara Republic,
To me, Loughner increasingly seems to come across as the Alex Jones tinfoil-hatter type.
Yup -- including 9/11 truthing. Although it's a resemblance Jones is keen to play down. He has the same talking points as James B kindly offered upthread: "the gunman was a left-wing high school dropout who liked to smoke marijuana and read Karl Marx literature."
But check out the comments under that post. Jones' loyal followers aren't exactly unsympathetic to Loughner's worldview.
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Auckland is going to be flooded with foreigners in a party mood. I’m actually looking forward to that.
Me too!
I really liked having the Lions fans around, and this will be bigger than that.
I won’t make a cent from it, but it seems cool all the same. I’d like those foreigners to come away with positive experiences to speak of. It’s a matter of pride far more than a matter of economics.
It's actually nice to see someone say that.
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Man, Loughner may have been genuinely mentally ill, but he was hoovering up the wingnut rhetoric. Now it’s obsessing on the Constitution:
College officials did not respond to questions about McGahee’s account on Sunday. After about three weeks of class, McGahee said, there was a final confrontation: Loughner arrived and pointed to a copy of the U.S. Constitution on the wall.
” ‘You’re violating my First Amendment right of free speech,’ ” McGahee recalled him saying."That’s when I went to go get the dean.” A college official came, and Loughner was removed permanently from the class.
He was not suspended from the school for another few weeks, until college officials discovered Sept. 29 that he had posted a video on YouTube calling the college “unconstitutional.” After that, Loughner agreed to withdraw.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to James George,
As for the health vote well I dunno about others but I was always taught that legislation which forced citizens to buy something from a private corporation (rather than a socialised co-op where citizens had input and profits weren’t hived off for the good of a few) is the sort of thing fascist governments such as Hitler’s and Mussolini’s did.
Or to take a less deranged example, the sort of thing they do in the Netherlands.
The US healthcare reforms are flawed, but invoking Hitler to describe them is precisely the sort of lunatic rhetoric we've been talking about. Congratulations.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Or be paid back, as the case may be. I’m looking at you, Dunedin.
Yeah, will they ever manage to pay for their stadium? But in Auckand the RWC has also provided a significant impetus for investment in transport infrastructure, which is good.