Sunday, March 28, 2010

U.S. Congresswoman's life is threatened (via a letter) over her support for health care reform

U.S. Representative Kathy Dahlkemper says she has received "threatening communication" she believes is tied to her vote in support of health care reform.

Click here to read the full story: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/dahlkemper-turns-over-to-authorities-threatening-letter-charging-she-will-never-sleep-through-night.php

Here's an excerpt from another story, talking about why Republicans are so visibly angry =

The current surge of anger — and the accompanying rise in right-wing extremism — predates the entire health care debate. The first signs were the shrieks of “traitor” and “off with his head” at Palin rallies as Obama’s election became more likely in October 2008. Those passions have spiraled ever since — from Gov. Rick Perry’s kowtowing to secessionists at a Tea Party rally in Texas to the gratuitous brandishing of assault weapons at Obama health care rallies last summer to “You lie!” piercing the president’s address to Congress last fall like an ominous shot.

Did you know...?

Demographics are avatars of a change bigger than any bill contemplated by Obama or Congress. The week before the health care vote, The Times reported that births to Asian, black and Hispanic women accounted for 48 percent of all births in America in the 12 months ending in July 2008. By 2012, the next presidential election year, non-Hispanic white births will be in the minority. The Tea Party movement is virtually all white. The Republicans haven’t had a single African-American in the Senate or the House since 2003 and have had only three in total since 1935. Their anxieties about a rapidly changing America are well-grounded.

After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, some responsible leaders in both parties spoke out to try to put a lid on the resistance and violence. The arch-segregationist Russell of Georgia, concerned about what might happen in his own backyard, declared flatly that the law is “now on the books.” Yet no Republican or conservative leader of stature has taken on Palin, Perry, Boehner or any of the others who have been stoking these fires for a good 17 months now. Last week McCain even endorsed Palin’s “reload” rhetoric.

Are these politicians so frightened of offending anyone in the Tea Party-Glenn Beck base that they would rather fall silent than call out its extremist elements and their enablers? Seemingly so, and if G.O.P. leaders of all stripes, from Romney to Mitch McConnell to Olympia Snowe to Lindsey Graham, are afraid of these forces, that’s the strongest possible indicator that the rest of us have reason to fear them too.

1 comment:

bob d said...

The radical right has hi-jacked the republican party. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush had some critical words for Republicans in a recent speech, saying the GOP needed to become more than the "old white guy party" and the "party of no." And "it's more than just old white men who say NO, it has teabaggers, gaybaggers, white supremacists, birthers, deathers, tenthers, and every other unstable personality type. What a rockin' party!!http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:95ec266b244de718b80c652a08af06fa:17aecd838ff0c489557a159bae0d460d/Jeb-Bush-GOP-Must-Be-More-Than-The-Old-White-Guy-Party-Party-Of-No