Meanwhile, Republicans are basing fund-raising efforts on stirring up anger and on their tacit endorsement of violence against elected officials.

You've got 30 years of steadily dumber "from my cold dead hands" rhetoric to go with your 30 year asset-stripping boondoggle to bring you to your present state of nascent revolt.

Bad idea - rise above - don't whine, don't descend into the pit. Everyon knows who's right and who's wrong. "Mommy, he called me a name" won't get you much respect. The Dems are winners right now - strut your stuff, don't whine. Smile smugly - it'll drive 'em crazy and win you more bucks and more votes.

am 63 yrs old. heard this type of rhetoric by the disloyal opposition twice before. once was the run-up to dallas and once was the run-up to oklahoma city.

saw boehner's complete remarks. he spent more time justifying anger than he did decrying violence. typical. teapublican.

They are not heroes, and the threats of violence are not the real attack. That will come in November, when the Democrats who rammed health care through find out just how much anger there is out here.

Democrats were angry at Bush, and that mobilized them to support Obama and take control of Congress. Conservatives see this administration destroying the country, and you can bet we will be mobilized in the coming elections.

"It is understandable that Democrats would want this opposition to their power grab to be reduced to absurdity, a spasm of racism and homophobia instead of organized conservative idealism."

Oh, no, Mr. Bozell, we think its both and the same.

It seems like a matter of simply doing the math to compare the momentum.

Which party raised more $$ after the HCR bill passed, the one who ran a 'Fire Pelosi' fund-raising campaign or the one who ran no fund-raising campaign until now?

Uh, that would be the Democrats. A far from perfect party, I'll grant you that...but really now, consider the alternative. Bachmann? Boehner? Bunning? I'm only on the Bs here, people, and it ain't pretty.

These are tough times, my friends. Nonetheless, if you still have a few coins to rub together, I encourage you to contact these folks to share some love:

http://www.actblue.com/

For months the Republicans have been saying "the American people don't want this health care bill." I have seen no polls that indicated that, nor any good evidence from them or even a plan for health care. A few people believe the Republicans because they think no one would say something untrue on TV or radio! These same people, however, don't like Congressmen being spat at, or serious threatening words against anyone or yelling "you lie" in the halls of Congress. The Republicans do not fool these people.

There are other people who love to fight. That's what we saw on the Mall last week. People without the common sense to recognize the seriousness of their behavior. One I heard was definitely against education and ready to "take on"
those who want to help people. This small number will not help the Republicans in the fall. They are the violent ones who don't care much about the topic, they just want to fight and insult. They have already hurt the Republicans. Some of the Republicans think that this group is their "American people" and are rushed out on the Capital balcony to show their support.

I posted this on a previous thread, but want to get my thoughts on this one as well. I noticed here that Brent Bozell's comments seem to reflect that same Republican misunderstanding of the American people . His last sentence is
of importance in reading the Republican thoughts. He thinks that the Democratic Party is trying to " ruin the Republican image — as if that isn’t at the top of the liberal media’s To-Do list every day" Incredible! Republican's are reuining their reputation all by themselves. Democrats are trying to get something done for this country. it is the Republicans who have actually said (Sen. Mc Connell+ others) that their goal is to prevent any part of President Obama's program to come into law.

In the fall the American people will speak.

How many arrests were there of Tea partiers over the weekend in DC? The answer is ZERO. Fact is that there are people in this country who are sick and tired of paying for other people to be lazy. You get your benefits off my hard work and enough is enough. Time to be responsible for yourself. Our motto is live free or die - well pretty soon it will be hands off my paycheck - if you want the money get your own! No one gives you a job - you either make one or earn one. My family came to this country with nothing and managed to do pretty well - it is called work ethic - get some and then you won't need the rest of us paying for everything for you.

1. Wow, Rep. Boehner actually making some sense. In sharp contrast to the Republicans who essentially say, "Oh we don't encourage violence, but the anger is 100% legitimate and understandable." There is a world of difference between not encouraging violence or threats but then expressing sympathy and actually saying that they are not acceptable in our politics.

2. The way this has all gone down I am beginning to wonder if, should violence occur, various politicians and pundits could be criminally prosecuted for incitement of violence. It might be a stretch with politicians. But if pundits implicitly are encouraging radical elements to do everything possible to act against various politicians and continually demonize opponents there might be a case there.

3. I don't get Bozell's comment: the issue is death threats, destruction of property, and ugly rallies filled with hateful speech. He calls this conservative idealism? Either he wants to change the subject entirely or he has a frightening vision of what "Conservative Idealism" is or ought to be.

This is a Bunch of Made Up Garbage right out of the Saul Alinsky Playbook. Come up with all these false accusations and it will take the attention off the Scam they just passed in Congress. In the meantime a REAL bullet was fired into Eric Cantors office and nothing is mentioned on SEIU controlled MessNBC.

A cursory look at our past history from the "Know Nothings" in the 1800's to the KKK, John Birch Society and today's "Tea Baggers" plus the "uber right" media reveals a pretty constant pattern of ignorance, bigotry, intolerance, isolation and fear mongering.

To paraphrase Joe Mc Carthy, "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Repubican Party?" Shamefully, I have to state yes, at least up until 2000. We face danger and threats to our way of life and 234 years of our Democracy. These danger and threats come from within.

All that remains to be done by these self-appointed "patriots" is to bug all our phones, start Orwell's "Thought Police" and build camps for those of us who not only disagree with these tactics, but fight them. All they need to post at the entrance is the 21st Century ultra right wing equivalent to "Arbeit Macht Frei".

My apologies to our Jewish brothers and sisters for this reference, but this is how it all started in Nazi Germany in the 1920's. Ignore history? Then we'll repeat it, God forbid!

I gave $10. It's good to see the Dems learning their lesson and fighting back. Hopefully the joy of victory will help them keep it up.

This fevered opposition is most likely a product of our disinvestment in education over the past three decades. People now believe whatever they want and the facts be damned. It's the Fox News way of seeing the world -- a flat-earth world view based on blind "faith" for credulous people. And the rage comes from all that stoking of hate and racial fear and paranoia that Fox and others such as Limbaugh are so adept at. They've got nothing substantive to offer so they fall back on fear-mongering, hate, and insecurity. Ever actually listen to Limbaugh? He and his listeners are absolutely obsessed with race and racism. He sees the world through some kind of weird racial interpretive framework, and his listeners eat it up.

Please forgive the lengthiness of this story:

Ten men go out for beer. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. He said, "Since you are all such good customers, I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80."

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men -- the paying customers?

How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share"? They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay!

And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings). The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings). The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four
continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He
pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"

"That's true!!"shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only $2 ? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important.

They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up any more. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Dan G, there will be arrests now. Such behavior is criminal and you should recognize it and move on, not justify it. The FBI is investigating these incidents, I expect arrests, prosecutions and convictions. If you don't then we know you are on the side of the law breakers. Does that really sound like you and your POLITICS aside, is that who you want to be? I suspect not. My guess is your one of those people who support the death penalty and who is firmly law and order. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

I love the hypocrisy. Apparently, liberals forget all of the hate speech at anti-war rallies.

The left has failed in its mission to get Americans behind this rotten bill. Having lost the debate, it has moved on to labeling all dissenters as violent racists. That is tolerance? Please.

These "Teahadist" really need to be held accountable as well as the congressmen / women who encouraged them from the balcony of the Capital itself. (I for one, have NEVER seen any member of congress ever do this before from the actual building)

If the Tea Partiers were so interested in upholding the Constitution and keeping the country out of debt, where were they when the US spent a trillion dollars on Iraq? (A contrived war built on the fictitious premise that Iraq had WMDs that they planned to use on the US, and a war that has killed thousands of US soldiers and injured many thousands more.) I sure am glad that they can wave the flag as upholders of what is virtuous.

It would be nice if some rational, civil Republican/conservative leaders (if there are any left? Ron Paul? Colin Powell? David Brooks?) could voice some objection about the lunatic right-wing fringe who have been reportedly yelling racial and homophobic slurs at Democratic Congressmen, and now according to the NY Times, have made violent threats against Democrats who voted for the Health Care Bill. Maybe something sensible could be said about these extreme right-wing talk shows, like they should tone it down a little? I made the mistake a few weeks ago of trying to blog on a conservative web site and after expressing moderate, tactful opinions, I was called a "commie queer" (although my remarks had nothing to do with economics or homosexuality), and other people were referred to as "homos" and "pro-homo".
These Tea-Party people are angry? Has it occurred to any of these people that many independents and liberals are a little angry too? I'm an independent and I respect basic conservative values, but I'm a little angry that for 8 years, the most powerful position in the world was given by these people to an incompetent who took the country, through a nonstop series of unforeseen and poorly addressed catastrophes, from Clinton's relative peace, prosperity and federal surplus to this multi-dimensional nightmare we are in today, and that Obama and the Democrats have so far done a fair job of saving us from while they've been attacked venomously. President Obama is OUR president, ALL of us, and he means well, however much some of us may disagree with him. I think we should remember that, try to help him, and be CONSTRUCTIVELY critical.

Given what it finally devolved to (no thanks to the Republicans), I can't be sure this Health Care Bill will be an improvement overall for our country or not, though I believe it's probably better than nothing. As for the Prez and the Democrats who, it's claimed, may have risked re-election because of their vote due to the greed and racist inflamed crazies, I say God bless the Dems for the courage of doing what they thought was right at their own risk. We used to admire that kind of thing in this country.
As for the Republicans, they think the moral thing to do is to enthusiastically pour trillions of taxpayer dollars into unnecessarily killing people (Iraq), but be "fiscally responsible" and resolutely refuse to spend a dime to save the lives and financial survival of millions of Americans. Their "Christianity" seems to me to no longer have anything to do with the charitable teachings of the Prince of Peace.

What makes you think that people who are unemployed are lazy and don't want to work??? Please give me some examples. I don't know what the period is for unemployment benefits, but I know it's not very long. Do you think people quit jobs and go on unemployment and then get another job when that runs out?? Haven't you paid any attention to the unemployment numbers??

You must be in one of the lucky families who have never had a financial problem. Most families have had someone without a job for awhile. I guess you are against medicare and social security too. If you are against them, which falls in with your attitudes, after you collect the amount of money you have contributed to Social Security, then you should refuse it from that point onward. You certainly don't want other people's money! Did you send your children to public schools..........

So go the howls of immigrant exploiters, like my friend's landlady who had been charging a street peddler $2000 per month rent for space to show his wares in front of her building until the building inspector found there was no permit for the commercial use of the area adjacent to the sidewalk. (The City is cracking down after deadly fires in illegally subdivided buildings.) She blames the peddler for the fine she has to pay, and the peddler is now without livelihood, as a newly minted citizen who just brought in his wife and children.

My comment at 1:37pm was actually directed at Dan G. # 9 and any other who feel the same way.

Brent Bozell is a liar and he is also aiding and abetting terrorists. These threats against Dem lawmakers were real and these tea party people are violent extremists.

And also: apology NOT accepted from any GOP Congressperson. The only thing I will accept is the removal of these treasonists -- either at the ballot box or by expulsion.