(via Balloon Juice)
It's starting. Both Reps. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and Louise Slaughter had their local district offices vandalized shortly after they voted yes on the health care bill. But WHAM reports a much more disturbing update.
Last Thursday she received a chilling recorded message at her campaign office. "Assassinate is the word they used... toward the children of lawmakers who voted yes."
Do you see how fucking sick these people are now? They are advocating violence towards the CHILDREN of Congressmen that voted for health care. Let that sink in. I fear all this is coming to a head, and that the epithets hurled at our Congressmen this weekend was only the beginning.
And yes, I squarely place the blame on Fox News and right-wing talk radio for fanning the flames of this violent mood in this country.
Balloon Juice notes that a teabagging blogger has actually taken credit for inspiring the vandalism. It's an Alabama blog called "Sipsey Street Irregulars". His excuse to every sane person's charge that this can lead to violence is this:
Breaking windows is, by definition, violence to property. It is not violence to people.
"I’m advocating broken windows. I’m advocating vandalism," says Mike Vanderboegh. We spoke to him by phone from his home in Pinson, Alabama.
Vanderboegh is referring to his blog called Sipsey Street Irregulars. He says his invitation to "break windows...break them now" is behind the incident in Rochester and at least two others in Tucson and Kansas. The message to Democrats should be clear.
....
Vanderboegh denies his blog advocates anything but vandalism. "How ambiguous is it if I say break windows? Am I saying kill people, absolutely not."
We're dealing with a pretty sick puppy here. And as Balloon Juice's mistermix noted, the guy is actually on Social Security disability to boot. Now, he claims he's not responsible for any death threats, just the vandalism.
For any lawyers out there, if this guy is openly calling for vandalism of Congressional offices, isn't he breaking some law? Say, the Patriot Act?
USA PATRIOT 802c:
DOMESTIC TERRORISM DEFINED- Section 2331 of title 18, United States Code, is amended—
`(5) the term `domestic terrorism’ means activities that—
`(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
`(B) appear to be intended—
`(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
`(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
`(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
`(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.’.
IANAL, so someone help clarify this. Is this guy breaking the law? Can you openly call for an illegal activity like vandalism, and when it happens and then you even openly brag about being the inspiration for it happening, isn't there some kind of law against that? (And if there isn't, shouldn't there be one?) And does Secret Service get involved when death threats are made to Congressmen and their families, or is that strictly an FBI matter?