10.29.2010

When will we stop the false-equivalency and admit the right wing has become increasingly violent? When someone dies?

The American media have been playing the "both sides are equally radical" card since the 2009 Town Hall fiasco. Every time someone on the right says something outrageous, they go looking for a similar quote from the left, often not finding it. So they do the next best thing: try to compare two actions that are not equal, but in an effort to appear non-partisan, equate them anyway.

False equivalency.

Recently, Howard Fineman published a piece on Huffington Post trying to equate an assault with a comedienne making a barbed quote.
Even though [Arianna Huffington is] backing Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity," and even though I now work for her, I had dismissed the event this Saturday on the Mall as self-indulgent, time-wasting comedy.

Until now.

The reason is that I watched two videos: one, of a thug named Tim Profitt pressing his shoe onto Lauren Valle's skull; the other, of Joy Behar calling Sharron Angle a bitch who's going to hell.

That was enough.
Seriously Howard? Joy Behar making a rude comment is exactly the same as an assault where someone gets thrown to the ground and stomped on by a group of men because of her views?

Really? That's the same?

The left has taken heat over the recent firing of Juan Williams from NPR, saying that they're stifling his freedom of speech. What's been ignored in NPR's ham-fisted handling of the dismissal is that he wasn't fired for the content of his comments per se, but because he had repeatedly violated NPR standards prohibiting analysts from engaging in partisan discussion.

"Infringement of free speech", the nabobs of the right cry, completely misunderstanding the meaning of the first amendment it's protection of speech.

However it's become plainly obvious that this has moved beyond words; the right has gotten violent. Consider the following:

1) Tim Profitt's curbstomp assault on a protester at a Rand Paul rally.

2) Charles Wilson, sentenced to prison for threatening to kill Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), was, according to his relatives, "was under the spell that Glenn Beck cast".
What happened later with Charlie is something I think I can understand. He became basically housebound due to illness and his small world became even smaller. His brother got him a computer and he was able to stay connected with family. And he watched television and found Glenn Beck.
3) 72-year-old Victor Philips was arrested for allegedly assaulting a 23-year-old activist protesting about 40 feet from the entrance to Dino Rossi's Republican campaign office in Washington state.

4) Richard Poplawski, the man accused of gunning down three Pittsburgh police officiers, was a big fan of FOX News host/right-wing cult leader Glenn Beck.

5) The white supremacist charged with the deadly shooting at the national Holocaust museum last year originally wanted to kill White House senior adviser David Axelrod, Time magazine reported Thursday.

James von Brunn, who died in January in a prison hospital awaiting trial, reportedly viewed Axelrod as a priority target who was easier to reach than President Obama.

"Obama was created by Jews," he wrote, according to Time. "Obama does what his Jew owners tell him to do." (Fox News)

6) Andrew Stack crashed his airplane into an Austin, TX, office building where nearly 200 employees of the Internal Revenue Service worked, leaving behind a rant against the government, big business and particularly the tax system.

7) The moderator and the organizer of an Illinois congressional debate who were criticized for not allowing the Pledge of Allegiance to be recited said they have received death threats and plan to go to law enforcement authorities to file complaints.

Each also blamed Fox News host Glenn Beck for stirring up opposition to their work by criticizing the incident and attacking them by name on his Fox News program, which they say has sparked an increase in hateful e-mails and phone calls since then.

"Our webmaster has stopped forwarding the e-mails to me because they have become so ugly," said Jan Czarnik, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Illinois, which sponsored the Oct. 20 forum in Evanston. "I am getting death threats and I am taking it to our local FBI. There are postings on Fox News' Facebook page that include threats on my life." (Media Matters)

8) Law enforcement authorities are investigating the discovery of a cut propane gas line at the Virginia home of Rep. Tom Perriello’s (D-Va.) brother, whose address was targeted by tea party activists angry at the congressman’s vote for the health care bill.

An aide to the congressman confirmed to POLITICO that a line to a propane tank behind his brother's home near Charlottesville had been sliced. (Politico)

Now, if we want to have this "both sides" argument, then show me 8 incidents of serious left-wing violence in the last 20 months. Show me, because these aren't the only 8, they're just the most prominent.

When are we going to stop pretending that both sides are equal? Does someone else have to die? How many? Right wing violence is out of control.

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