After we heard about a slew of death threats against liberals (particularly unions) over the past week, FreedomWorks--a conservative group opposing Democratic health care reform--today released a handful of recorded messages, left on staff voicemail, that include some pretty nasty stuff and one clear death threat.
"What you people are doing is exactly what Hitler did in his day...and if I have to pick up a weapon again like I did when I went to Vietnam, to protect this Constitution, and our freedom to speak up, then I will, but you sir are scum of the earth to disrupt our democracy," the threatening caller said (recording here).
Two other calls included accusations of Naziism; another was about 45 seconds of heavy breathing. The group released 10 recordings in all, posted on its website here, along with a screed against liberal backers of health care reform. FreedomWorks suggests MoveOn.org and the AFL-CIO were responsible.
The liberal countereffort to conservative protests, FreedomWorks says,
has "included phone call blitzes from MoveOn.org and the AFL-CIO that
jammed FreedomWorks phone lines and filled up staff voice mail boxes.
Callers' consistently used profanity, vulgarity, ever-popular
references to 'Nazis' and 'brown-shirters,' racial slurs targeting an
African-American staffer, and even veiled threats of violence and
bodily harm."
In its release, FreedomWorks does not provide any link or evidence connecting the callers to those groups. When asked what led FreedomWorks that conclusion, spokesman Adam Brandon asserted that many of the callers have been "self identified as MoveON and as AFL-CIO," though none of the recorded messages posted online contain any reference to those groups.
FreedomWorks also mentions ACORN and the Democratic National Committee in its release, though without suggesting any link to the calls.
All four groups--ACORN, AFL-CIO, MoveOn.org, and the DNC--say they have never encouraged members, supporters or staff to call FreedomWorks.
FreedomWorks is one of the more prominent groups to that has organized
a presence at Democratic lawmaker's town-hall events this month,
encouraging non-members to show up as well by providing information on
its website. Its VP of public policy, Max Pappas, has appeared on TV to
debate health reform.
A cascade of threats have come down against liberals, especially the
Service Employees International Union, since the left has sought to turn
out their own people to town-hall events to balance the crowd and give some cover to Democratic lawmakers facing angry questions
and/or shouting from conservatives in the audience. A YouTube video of an SEIU member and a conservative fighting outside a town-hall event in Missouri appears to have sparked some of it.
The following threat was posted to liberal blog Newshounds over the
weekend, and forwarded to the AFL-CIO by a moderator for the site: "I
will be going to a local town hall this weekend, all you union members
BEWARE! We will be waiting for you. better make sure you have
arrangements with your local ER. today is the day when the goon meets
the gun. see you there".
SEIU received this voicemail message
threatening that "I suggest that you tell your people to calm down, act
like American citizens, and stop trying to repress people's First
Amendment rights, that or you all are gonna come up against the Second
Amendment. Stop the violence." On Twitter, a health reform opponent suggested his fellow protesters bring guns to town-halls if ACORN or SEIU members show up, issuing a call to "hurt them. Badly".
And this message was sent to the office of Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA).
ACORN spokesman Brian Kettenring said his group is "very concerned
about threats of violence" coming from the right, and that ACORN has
urged its members not to engage reform opponents.
you gotta love this thread in conservative thought that says whenever anything happens that makes these conservatives look like thugs, it's not conservatives, oh no. its actually liberals framing conservatives.
another example from the weekly standard: "It's possible that a neo-Nazi actually vandalized Rep. Scott's offices. But given the fact that the Nazi imagery so neatly dovetails with the left's smearing of health-care protesters as fascists, isn't it more likely that this act of vandalism was committed by one of Scott's supporters?"
Let's all jump on the false equivalency train!
All aboard!
Your post's headline, "Death Threats On Both Sides", plays right into the hands of the right-wing Astroturfers. It's not equivalent, a scant handful of possibly fake "threats" reported by FreedomWorks, and a big orchestrated effort to stifle with shout-downs and intimidation any intelligent discussion of health care reform. Your headline should be "Wingnuts Scramble to Report Handful Of 'Threats' As Cover For Their Program Of Intimidation". Okay, too long to fit -- but you get the idea. False equivocation is not good journalism.
I'm on MoveOn's mailing list, and I haven't gotten any word to make harrassing phone calls to anyone. I don't know who would be doing this - but it would have to be a lot of people to effectuate denial of service.... I think think this is a bs story.
Phew! Thank God we got that one balanced!
If FreedomWorks had a brain, they would have encouraged their followers to follow this plan. Instead, what they encouraged were at the least useless rants and worthless questions ("did you read the bill?") If FW were smart, they would have encouraged a small number of very sharp questions from those who are familiar with asking questions. Instead, they showed once again just how incompetent they are.
I'm going to keep my sanity! How?? By going with my own instincts and not falling for propaganda. I hear one thing and see something different. All I know is that power, money, and racism are driving the Healthcare Reform Agenda! This is what I know; it's happening now, today!!!! (1) Power….who has it and who wants it back? The RICH (they don’t want their taxes going up and they don’t want to lose the power they control on Capitol Hill.) So they use their resources for propaganda. (2) Money….who’s apt to lose more of it if Healthcare Reform passes? The insurance companies (also, they lose the power to tell us which doctors to use and what medical treatments will be covered.) Last but not least……(3) Racism, those who hate people of color can’t stand the fact that a black man is running the country and that he is respected by most of the world. Sad, isn’t it! POWER, MONEY, RACISM, is tearing our Country apart. Sure, Freedom of Speech is a privilege. I just hope that the world sees beyond the hatred shown by these rioters, propagandist and racists; because there are those of us that believe that there are still some good people in the USA.
a reformed health system can be great for the economy in improved productivity with less time lost to illness by staff, and less money spent on dramatic interventions that could have been caught earlier and treated cheaply. Also, an up to date system will mean fewer nasty cost surprises when you go for treatment. Here in Aussie, we pay 1.5 per cent of our taxable income every year and in return, everything is heavily subsidised and really good quality. if you want five star service, you can have that too, through additional private health insurance. healthcare costs are agreed between doctors, insurers and the government and so you know in advance what costs, if any, you are up for. An efficient health system benefits the average working person.
A small editorial point: I don't think that the cited example is, as cited, a "clear death threat." In fact, I think it's pretty clearly not.
When I first read it, I thought, because of the "but" before the final clause, that what this (certainly emotional, probably over the top, and perhaps less than well spoken) caller meant to convey is: "Don't accuse me of being anti-democratic for opposing the opposition to hearth care reform, because I fought in Vietnam to defend our democracy. I just oppose your tactics."
The part (in your ellipsis) about defending against enemies from within, however, decreases the likelihood that this is a sound interpretation.
So, all I'm saying is, if you want to make this case, you're burying (or, actually, deleting) the lede.
Thuggery aside - and there appears to have been plenty amongst otherwise legitimate protesters - I have a basic question that needs answering. Why is it "astroturfing" when a conservative group organizes protesters but "grassroots" when MoveOn and the Unions do the same?