After getting into two very in-depth threads earlier today about the limits of the First Amendment (and "free" speech versus "hate" speech), I decided to take a break from DKos for a bit this afternoon. I was getting too riled up and upset, especially since it's not like me to advocate for safety over censorship.
But I can't even get away when I'm trying to! Would you like to know why? Because of this article in The Colorado Independent:
The longstanding feud between hard-line abortion foes American Right to Life Action and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson came to a head in a Colorado Springs courtroom Thursday.
Rev. Bob Enyart, a pastor at Denver Bible Church who proudly refers to himself as "America’s most popular self-proclaimed right-wing, religious fanatic, homophobic, anti-choice talk show host" was sentenced to nine days in the city pokey after refusing to pay a $400 fine for trespassing on the Focus campus.
(snip)
The Enyarts and Scott are longtime fixtures on the national antiabortion protest scene and are loosely connected to violent militia groups. Focus spokeswoman Lisa Anderson asked the judge to consider the safety of ministry employees and visitors when handing down the sentences.
So let's sue the Right Wing Noise Machine. Those crazy fellas named above, who stormed into the Focus on the Family headquarters to protest because they actually think that Dr. James Dobson doesn't take a hard enough anti-abortion line, are products of one Bill O'Reilly. Didn't O'Reilly call Dr. George Tiller "Tiller the baby killer"?
Let's sue these right-wing hate motherfuckers then, and hit them where it hurts: their pocketbooks. Can we even do that? How do we stop this incendiary, hate-and-fear racket they got going on?
Just like Roseanne Barr said years ago, they can suck my dick. I am absolutely, 100% serious here. To say that the violence and the level of threats have gotten "out of hand" would be a supreme understatement; this is sheer madness. And right-wing media blowhards are peddling hatred and fear like it's going out of style, and that is just NOT OK! People are dying because batshit crazy nutjobs are the Republican party's bread and butter! The higher-ups (either in the MSM, or in the RNC) pander to their insane base, even though they KNOW their supporters are not playing with full decks, because it's the only goddamned support they can get!
When did this become alright? To say venomous, incitement-of-riot type of things on the air? When did this become socially acceptable?!
Hell, even Eric Cantor compared President Obama to Putin today! Yeah, because Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin are exactly the same! This is certainly not on the level that other jerks have steered the conversation recently (and, usually, Cantor is pretty benign in his language), but isn't it telling that this is one of the less-crazy statements I've heard lately coming from the Right Wing Noise Machine?
So if the government won't arrest these assholes for inciting a riot, then I say we should sue them. Class-action lawsuits all, and I'll bet we could easily get over a million signatures (or plaintiffs!) for each and every one of them. I am not even kidding, people. Laugh at me all you want, but I sincerely think that the current Republican, hate-filled climate are causing horrible events to happen in American society, such as:
- The Holocaust Museum shooting/killing
- The murder of Dr. George Tiller
- The arrest of that dude who withdrew $12,000 from his bank account and threatened to kill President Obama
- The shoot-out with the cops in Philly (was it Philly?) by the guy who thought Obama was going to take away his guns
- An unprecedented number of threats for the POTUS
- Increasingly violent talk on both RedState and the FreeRepublic
- A ton more stuff that I'm sure I'm forgetting, because I'm too upset to think of them presently
For example, this is just a small sample of the truly disgusting things that Ann Coulter has stated, in her illustrious "career":
I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East and sending liberals to Guantanamo.
-- December 21, 2005
I wouldn't kill an abortionist myself, but I wouldn't want to impose my moral values on others. No one is for shooting abortionists. But how will criminalizing men making difficult, often tragic, decisions be an effective means of achieving the goal of reducing the shootings of abortionists?
-- June 3, 2009
We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.
-- September 12, 2001
Not all Muslims may be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.
-- September 28, 2001
If Gore had been elected president, right now he would just be finding that last lesbian quadriplegic for the Special Forces team.
-- October 14, 2004
[Canadians] better hope the United States does not roll over one night and crush them. They are lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent.
-- November 30, 2004
Being nice to people is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity (as opposed to other religions whose tenets are more along the lines of 'kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and doesn't answer to the name Mohammed').
-- March 4, 2004
The Democrats are giving aid and comfort to the enemy for no purpose other than giving aid and comfort to the enemy. There is no plausible explanation for the Democrats' behavior other than that they long to see U.S. troops shot, humiliated, and driven from the field of battle. They fill the airwaves with treason, but when called to vote on withdrawing troops, disavow their own public statements. These people are not only traitors, they are gutless traitors.
-- November 23, 2005
I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word "faggot", so I — so kind of an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards.
-- March 2, 2007
No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws. ...That is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to live up to all the laws. What Christians believe -- this is just a statement of what the New Testament is -- is that that's why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don't believe our testament.
-- October 8, 2007
In the interest of not violating the FAQ any further, I'll give you guys links for the rest of the people I think encourage an MSM-sponsored, hate-filled, American dialogue that directly leads to violence:
Rush Limbaugh
Glenn Beck
Michele Bachmann
Sean Hannity
Bill O'Reilly
Newt Gingrich
Tom Tancredo
Alright, if I went on and on and on about who should be on the above list, then this diary would be hellishly long. But, seriously, attorneys out there, please tell me: aside from the Tiller family and the Johns family suing these bastards, do WE (the American public) have any cause or reason to sue these lying, scaredy-cat sacks of hardened birdshit?
Because I think they deserve it. Enough is ENOUGH! Fair is FAIR! Let's FIGHT BACK!
Or something.