ANN ALTHOUSE: About those attempts to smear the Tea Party as racist.
Archive for 2010
March 25, 2010
DAN MITCHELL: My Big Fat Greek Budget.
25 EASTER BASKET TOYS for under $10.
NOT SO IMPRESSED with that whole “bromance” thing.
INSTAVISION: I talk with Jonah Goldberg about Tea Parties, Populism, And Why Some Conservative Pundits Identify More With Liberals. Plus, what we can learn about politics from Bugs Bunny. And we find out that Liberal Fascism is now in its 20th printing.
(Bumped).
MICHAEL WALSH on “threats” and political agitation.
UPDATE: Ann Althouse: “Clearly, those who are angry about the bill should limit themselves to speech and apply pressure to others in their movement not to cross the line into any kind of violence or damage to property. Any incident of that kind will be greatly magnified in the press and used to undermine the movement. But we should all be vigilant about the way the Democrats and their friends in the press are leveraging these stories for political purposes, exaggerating and failing to check facts. We should closely monitor the journalism, the rhetoric, and the leaps of logic. Hare’s remark ‘If this doesn’t get under control’ has a chilling generality to it. Dissent and protest should not ‘get under control.’ It should be free.” Indeed.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Another law professor, William Jacobson, remembers the blood libels over healthcare. Speaking of, you know, “extremist rhetoric.”
MARK STEYN ON Francois Houle and Ann Coulter: “Alliances between the state’s ideological commissars and street mobs are a familiar feature of certain kinds of societies, and I suppose Canada will soon get used to its membership of this unlovely club. . . . What a wretched embarrassment to a once free society.”
FROM ROGER SIMON, an open letter to Steny Hoyer. “You have reaped a whirlwind by subverting a democracy. Now you must deal with it.”
JOHN HINDERAKER: “In large part, the current focus on threats of violence is aimed at the tea partiers, just as they were accused, apparently falsely, of racism. It is not hard to understand the Democrats’ motives; the tea parties are the most vital force, and likely the most popular force, in American politics, so smearing them is mandatory. But anyone who has attended a tea party rally will consider laughable the idea that the movement somehow tends toward violence. . . . The fact is that, unlike conservatives, modern liberals have had little quarrel with political violence. This is best demonstrated by their support for card check legislation, the entire point of which it to abolish the secret ballot so that union goons can use the threat of violence to extend union power and thereby enrich the Democratic Party. . . . The beating of Kenneth Gladrey by union goons–more specifically, the lack of any interest in it by anyone in the Democratic Party, the media, or on the Left generally–shows how hypocritical the Democrats’ current pacifism is. If the day ever comes when conservative groups start hiring goons, we can take the liberals’ purported fears of violence more seriously.”
REMEMBERING WHEN G.O.P. Offices Were Vandalized: “An apparent mob of vandals attacked the North Carolina Republican Party headquarters, causing minor smoke damage, breaking windows and leaving vulgar messages, police said.” I don’t remember a national panic over this, or over the bullet-riddled Bush/Cheney headquarters.
Then there was this episode. And, of course, this: “A group of protestors stormed and then ransacked a Bush-Cheney headquarters building in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, according to Local 6 News.”
But those represented the righteous indignation of oppressed lefties, rather than the dangerous violence of nasty righties.
JAMES TARANTO: The Obamaklatura. “If you and Larry Summers both get sick and need a treatment that the Medicare Advisory Commission (dysphemistically known as the Death Panel) deems too expensive, what are the odds that you’ll find a way to get it anyway and he won’t? How about the other way around? In the Soviet Union, those privileged by political connections were called the nomenklatura. Here, we can call it the Obamaklatura.”
JOHN STOSSEL: Government Drunk With Power.
RADIO will never die.
March 24, 2010
STENY HOYER IS SUDDENLY WORRIED ABOUT PEOPLE WITH PITCHFORKS.
He was notably silent when it was President Obama making pitchfork threats, and when his political ally ACORN was busing mobs to executives’ homes. Man up, Steny. Or just, you know, shut up. You’re a hypocrite when it comes to thuggery, and you and your colleagues aren’t credible playing the victim.
CLAIMS OF SPITTING ON CONGRESSMAN? GO TO THE VIDEO: “There’s some higher resolution video below I hadn’t seen before. Unlike what was claimed during recent Tea Party protests in Washington, DC, it would appear Cleaver was simply walking close by in front of a protester. The protester’s hands were cupped as he was shouting. While it appears Cleaver may have experienced a spraying of sorts as a result of the yelling, it does not support a conclusion that he was intentionally spat upon, as claimed.”
Jim Treacher looked at the video and agrees:
Looks to me like that dude was yelling at him and maybe a drop of spittle flew at him. Which still sucks. Nobody likes to be yelled at, especially by some redneck who won’t just shut up and pay his taxes. But it’s not like somebody hocked a loogie in Cleaver’s face.
I know, I know. It doesn’t matter anyway because the Tea Parties are racist. I’m just providing… what’s it called? Oh yeah: Evidence.
Cleaver declined to press charges over this, which is a good thing because no arrests were made that day.
Incidentally, do you guys hear the “n-word” in there? Me neither. Maybe we’re just not listening hard enough.
Just a diversionary attack to distract the opposition. Wolf! Wolf!
Related: Black conservative Kevin Jackson on MSNBC.
Meanwhile, if it had to pass by a referendum among American voters, would spitting on Congressmen even be a crime?
UPDATE: Stephen Green emails: “If it had to pass by referendum…spitting on congressmen might be compulsory.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: A poll.
MORE: Cleaver weighs in:
But wait: when Rep. Emanuel Cleaver describes to Milloy being “spat” on, it sounds not like an intentional loogie, but like overenthusiastic yelling. He described it to Milloy as a man “who allowed saliva to hit my face,” which sounds unintentional, if not well-mannered.
Okay, I think we can put this one to bed.
JOHN STOSSEL ON JOURNALISM’S PARASITES: “Journalists shouldn’t get government funds. Using NPR and PBS as a defense reminds me of the child who killed his parents then pleaded for mercy because he was an orphan.”
A HISTORIC ANNIVERSARY that I had missed.
IT’S NOT A CAR, IT’S NOT A MOTORCYCLE, it’s an Electric Networked Vehicle.
ALSO GOOD FOR DISASTER PREP: Markdowns on camping and hiking goods.
INSTAVISION: I talk with Jonah Goldberg about Tea Parties, Populism, And Why Some Conservative Pundits Identify More With Liberals. Plus, what we can learn about politics from Bugs Bunny. And we find out that Liberal Fascism is now in its 20th printing.