It's getting scary. Following his vote for the healthcare bill in November, Danville, VA "tea party" activists made plans to burn Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) and Nancy Pelosi in effigy, before public outrage convinced them to cancel. Now, we learn that in the last couple of days, "tea party activists" have been circulating what they thought was Perriello's home address on the internet, using blogs, Facebook, and twitter, and encouraging their followers to "drop by."
It turns out that they got it wrong -- they actually posted his brother's home address, subjecting his brother, his brother's wife, and their two young children to harassment and physical peril. (They're a little bit too dumb even to get thuggery right.) When confronted with this information, the leader of the Danville teaparty group responded:
Do you mean I posted his brother’s address on my Facebook? Oh well, collateral damage.
This is now very dangerous. The local teabaggers have whipped themselves into a real rage over health care reform -- for whatever reason, they can't really tell you (and I have engaged these folks in debate on Perriello's Facebook page, but they just don't have any arguments, any knowledge of the bill, just rage). Now, posting the Congressman's home information really sets us up for physical violence. I'm horrified, and very worried.
And it goes to show, once again, that they don't have any arguments on their side, just epithets, broken windows and thinly veiled threats. Look at the video linked by Digby that shows teabaggers at HCR protests, over and over again, unable to mention a single provision in the bill that they disagree with.
Let's all be on our guard. Meanwhile, you might throw some nickels in the direction of an outstanding and courageous congressman:
http://www.perrielloforcongress.com/