Growing Number of Threats Target Federal Lawmakers

[Elmore Furth]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ranging from vulgar language to talk of murder, threats against senators and representatives nearly tripled in recent months as the health care overhaul sparked public anger, The Washington Post reported.

House and Senate lawmakers reported 42 threats from January to March, compared with 15 in the last three months of 2009, Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance W. Gainer said in a story posted on the newspaper's Web site late Thursday. Nearly all the threats, including at least three that led to arrests, appeared to come from people who opposed the health care bill Democrats championed and President Barack Obama signed into law last month.

Most of the threats were aimed at members of the House, said Gainer, the former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police.

''The incidents ranged from very vulgar to serious threats, including death threats,'' he said. ''The ability to carry them out is another question and part of an investigation to determine what, if any, appropriate steps to take.''


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/08/us/politics/AP-US-Congress-Threats.html?_r=1&ref=us

[protest_dude]

1. If anybody did this to Bush they would be in Gitmo, not heroes on FOX nt

[BumRushDaShow]

2. They are blowing their wad

just like what happened during the 2008 election season. But like then, they are doing it too soon and their incoherent rants will fall on deaf ears when Nov. comes around.

[No Elephants]

3. Don't forget that stray bullet that almost entered the office of the firm Cantor hires in connection

with campaigning and misleadingly mischaracterized as "his" campaign office.

Because, Heaven knows, it's lousy journalism to say anything negative about the right without hastily adding "both sides," even when you know damn well only one side is ginning up violence and therefore adding bs about "both sides" makes you a damned liar.

Joe Scarborough, Pat Buchanan and others who followed your lying lead, I'm talking to you.

P.S. Even Democratic talking heads have been cowed into tossing in a mention of the violence of the left in the Sixties and Seventies. Can anyone name me violence done then to anyone for voting in Congress one way, rather than the other? If not, these comparison, too, are bogus. Blowing up a toilet in the Pentagon to protest a war, ala Ayers, is just not comparable to terrorizing elected officials into voting your way.

And that violence came from the bottom up, not from the top down. I refer you to the Chicago Democratic National Convention and Kent State.

[NecklyTyler]

4. Hate Radio talk hosts are fueling this and they are intentionality doing so

Beck, Limbaugh, Savage, and their willing accomplices down at FOX News are pouring gasoline on the fire. Then when an 'event' occurs, they spin it like it was the fault of the Democratic lawmakers.

A little Fairness Doctrine would go a long way in rolling back this situation

[denverbill]

5. So do you think if a Congressman or Senator is actually killed, Limbaugh et al will finally tame it?

What is it going to take before these assholes finally give up their ridiculous hyperbolic rhetoric? Personally I don't think the hate-mongers will ever give it up willingly. It's probably going to take someone in Congress dying before Congress realizes that hate-radio has got to be dealt with.

[my2sense]

6. How long before they start targeting

minorities/liberals/gays instead of law makers? Unfortunately, I imagine that is the next step in this foolishness pushed by the Republicans TeaKlanners along with radio Rwanda (Rush, Beck, etc).

[EFerrari]

7. Radio Rwepublican already does that and when someone gets killed

they'll blame the health insurance bill and Democrats.

These people have been framing the debate since the Civil War.

[kpete]

8. Anger over health-care reform spurs rise (nearly 3-fold increase)in threats against Congress members

Source: Washington Post

Anger over health-care reform spurs rise in threats against Congress members

By Sari Horwitz and Ben Pershing
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, April 9, 2010

Anger over the health-care overhaul has led to a nearly threefold increase in recent months in the number of serious threats against members of Congress, federal law enforcement officials said.

The lawmakers reported 42 threats in the first three months of this year, compared with 15 in the last three months of 2009, said Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance W. Gainer, who had information about threats involving both chambers.

"The incidents ranged from very vulgar to serious threats, including death threats," Gainer said. "The ability to carry them out is another question and part of an investigation to determine what, if any, appropriate steps to take."

Nearly all of the recent threats appear to come from opponents of the health-care overhaul, said Gainer, who also served four years as chief of the U.S. Capitol Police. And, he said, there have been "significantly more" threats against House members than against senators.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/08/AR2010040805476.html?hpid=topnews

[Enrique]

9. and none of those poor fools even knows why he's angry

they're all pawns in Dick Armey's game and none of them knows it.

[sharesunited]

10. They apparently would like to convert to a parliamentary form of government.

Can be dissolved at any time by a no confidence vote.

Why do they insist they support the Constitution?

[Gormy Cuss]

11. So at what point will Homeland Security start identifying and rounding up the spirtual leaders of

these terrorists -- you know, like the people behind such "grass roots" groups as the tea baggers?

(for anyone who takes this literally, I really don't think that should happen but those who whip up people into such a frenzy should be taken to task for their actions.)

[EFerrari]

12. Several posters have said, in the last few days, that they don't remember

a time when the rhetoric was ratcheted up so high.

I do. Twice. Before Dallas and before Memphis. The difference was, it wasn't amplified 24/7 on cable. But it's the same vibe.

[Gormy Cuss]

13. I think it's pretty similar to the level of rhetoric in the late '60s.

When some people were pretty "uppity" about wanting civil rights. I remember 1967-68 as a scary period.

[EFerrari]

14. I'm just old enough to remember the vibe before Dallas.

Even in my non-English speaking household, I remember my grandmother and mother worrying about that trip. The threat must have been airborne if I picked it up because I was only 6.

[RamboLiberal]

15. It was also ratcheted up high at time of Oklahoma City

And Clinton was right to blame Limbaugh and his ilk.

That's one reason why I'm glad Rachel Maddow is running special on this April 19th. What happened there has unfortunately been overshadowed by 9-11 and it's time we're reminded of that terrible day and what a RW hater like McVeigh chose to do.

[EFerrari]

16. I missed most of that due to being solo with kids under five, work and school.

We need to work the whole week preceding that day to try to keep people calm and focused. I don't trust these Palin lunatics or the people who profit from them.

[Odin2005]

17. Domestic Terrorists.

:grr:

[sabra]

18. Lawmakers reporting more threats of violence

Source: WP/AP

WASHINGTON -- The number of serious threats, including death threats, against members of Congress jumped in the past three months during the heated debate over the new health care law.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the target of phone attacks that brought an arrest this week, said in an interview Thursday the 24/7 nature of news and commentary can provoke an emotional response that leads people to act before they can check their own behavior or the truth of what they've heard.

"We all have a responsibility, when we make our appeal to the public, to understand that sometimes these fall on ears of people who can't cope with that kind of information," she said.

Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance W. Gainer, who monitors security in the House and the Senate, said lawmakers reported 42 incidents in the first three months of this year, nearly three times the 15 cases during the same time last year.

...

In an e-mail to the campaign of Stephen Cohen, D-Tenn., one person wrote: "If our tea parties had hoods, we would burn your (expletive) on a cross an the White House front lawn."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/09/AR2010040903860.html

[SpiralHawk]

19. "Thanks a pantload, Republicon Teabaggers." - George Washington (American)

"You republicon teabaggers make a mockery out of everything that is good, decent, noble and worthwhile in America. Shame on the pack of you, and especially your overpaid Chickenhawk propaganda pimps -- Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity & O'Reilly -- who take dirty money to exhort you to debase yourselves. Ptooey."

- George Washington (American)

[louis-t]

20. This is going to get much worse before it gets better.

Someone is going to get killed, even that won't stop repugs and teabaggers from threatening people, and now that they've found out that intimidation works (Bart Stupak), it's time for them to turn it up a notch. Sick.