A few days ago, we witnessed a pathetic Tea Tantrum crowd bullying a man with Parkinson's, all caught on video.
Now he's very, very sorry. That's commendable, but let's take a step back and consider the broader point. When people are stirred up, encouraged, cheered on by others (are you listening Republican Congress members?), they do things they might not ordinarily do... ever.
Previously, I posted a video of a man with Parkinson's disease getting verbally abused, right up in his face, by a bunch of vulgar Tea Tantrumers. They accused him of wanting "handouts" because he supports health care reform. They threw money at him, humiliated him, and harassed him.
Bob, the man with Parkinson's who was targeted by the Tea Partiers, sat down with ProgressOhio for an interview. He is 60 years old and was first diagnosed with Parkinsons 15 years ago. He has two masters degrees and a Ph.D. from Cornell. He taught at the University of Michigan and worked as a nuclear engineer.
Bob was able to have a $150,000 surgery that greatly increased his quality of life, thanks to Medicare and the Cleveland Clinic. He attended the event in Columbus because he believes in giving back and thinks everyone should have access to affordable health insurance and quality health care.
"Everyone take your own action."
He's right, and he is a hero.
H/t: Digby, who has a lot more "sickening behavior" to share with you.
Video shot by the Columbus Dispatch from today's Honk and Wave in Support of Health Care at Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy's district office contains a segment wherein the teabaggers mock and scorn an apparent Parkinson's victim telling him "he's in the wrong end of town to ask for handouts", calling him a communist and throwing money at him to "pay for his health care".
Yes, there it was, outside of Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy's district office, an unruly crowd adorned with bumper stickers (including a baby) and Palin for President tee shirts. And yes, one even threw dollar bills at a man with Parkinson's, and another shouted directly into his face.
How compassionate. How humane. How patriotic.
Note the man standing nearby, smiling serenely, rocking that very baby to the lullaby of cacophonous shrieks of "Obama's a communist!"
You know what they say, love the fetus, expose the child to crass, despicable behavior. Some role models.
The police chief in Maricopa County Arizona, Joe Arpaio, could be sanctioned by a federal judge after checking that the controversial sheriff's office shredded documents related to a lawsuit that accused him of racial discrimination.
District Judge of the United States, Murray Snow said there was enough evidence to punish Arpaio, known as "the toughest sheriff in U.S.
As conflicts between Maricopa County's Board of Supervisors and the sheriff and county attorney escalated in 2009, rank-and-file county employees were plunged into a yearlong emotional roller coaster. [...]
The grand jury is looking into allegations of abuse of power by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his chief deputy, David Hendershott, in their dealings with judges and county officials.
Now, as they wait to see what will happen, a cross-section of county employees spoke with The Arizona Republic [...] [R]unaway fears were such that they worried that Arpaio's deputies would come after them as well.
And how fearful were they?
Unsure what or whom to believe, many county workers quit talking about sensitive matters on the telephone or in e-mails, even when using their personal home computers.
Conversation in hallways and elevators stopped.
Some feared they would be arrested while pulling into the same parking garage where deputies took Supervisor Don Stapley into custody.
Others worried that even minor infractions - a chipped windshield, having a beer before driving home after work - would be an excuse for deputies to pull them over or arrest them.
One Superior Court judge moved meetings with her staff and other judges to the chamber restroom, believing it would be a less likely spot for a listening device.
Not enough for you?
One employee was so rattled she could barely speak.
Oh, it gets worse:
Isham told his wife to be careful. No U-turns. Never leave the kids in the car when returning videos. Who knows what they might call child endangerment?
Budget supervisor, Ryan Wimmer:
"Everything I do," he said, "I just assume it will be used against me."
Let's hope all of this will be used successfully against Sheriff Lunatic. This is beyond belief.
The Bush Administration’s FBI sent 18 agents in body armor to the home of a man who revealed details of the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program, according to a little-noticed account of the whistleblower published Thursday.
Thomas Tamm, a former Justice Department lawyer in the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, revealed details of the wiretapping program to the New York Times in 2004. In 2007, FBI agents raided his Potomac, Maryland home.
Tamm wasn’t there. His college-aged son, wife and young daughter were — but their father had never told them of his leak to the Times.
And what did the 18 agents do? Treat the family politely? Nah. Take care to avoid frightening a child out of her wits (are you listening "pro-lifers"?) with guns (that can kill children as well as adults)? Uh-uh. Act in the least bit respectful to their fellow Americans? No way:
“They asked me questions like ‘Are there any secret rooms or compartments in the house’?” Terry Tamm, his son, told Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff last December. “Or did we have a safe? They asked us if any New York Times reporters had been to the house. We had no idea why any of this was happening.”
Abrupt, surprise attack and intimidation are so much more fun. Who needs genteel foreplay? It's more important to scar kids for life and take as long as possible to do that, while brandishing deadly firearms:
“They were all wearing body armor, they were all well armed,” he told the audience, according to Wired. “They asked my kids if we had any secret rooms in the house … or whether I had any weapons. They were in my house for over seven hours.”
“I’m sure before that time my phone was listened to,” Tamm added. My wife “will never feel the same in my house … She really felt that her security had been victimized.”
But the ObamAdministration will come to the rescue... won't they?
After the 2007 raid, Justice Department prosecutors tried to convince Tamm to plead guilty to revealing classified information. He refused. To date, he’s had a criminal indictment hanging over his head — but authorities have yet to charge him with a crime. [...]
Now that President Obama has taken office, however, Tamm seems more likely to elude jail. Prosecutors told the Bush lawyer-cum-whistleblower last year that they’d delay a decision on whether to charge him until this year. It’s unknown whether the Justice Department will continue to pursue a criminal charge.
Dear ObamAdministration: Do the right thing. Love, Laffy
The Cheney Enigma Solved. Power is Virtue; Weakness is Evil. Lies on Behalf of Empire are Necessary Truths.[...]
Cheney and Rumsfeld -- and their "eager to prove his manhood" boy king, George W. Bush -- have a simple belief: if you have power, use it and use it without regard to its impact on the losers in life (the weaker ones). It's a simple view of the world that goes back to cave men. If you got a bigger cudgel, beat your competition for food and territory with it -- and make sure they don't get back up. [...]
Cheney [...] attack a newly elected President, scare Americans again about terror, and call in one of his daughters to back him up on TV. It was, however, not to assert power, but to try to put a halt to a perfect storm that was brewing that would put him and his loyalists still in the CIA and military -- and those that have left -- in jeopardy of prosecution on a variety of legal issues: including torture, murder, illegal actions, etc.
That was how we ended up with a bizarre television spectacle of a former alleged Vice-President (functioning as President on foreign policy) acting as if he were running against the man who had just a few months ago been elected President by an electoral landslide. [...]
From the days when Rumsfeld and Cheney ran the White House under Gerald Ford's brief presidency and presided over America's chaotic departure from Vietnam, Cheney apparently vowed to adopt the doctrine -- if given the chance: "If it's ours to seize, take it. The weak deserve what they get; that's why they are weak."
Ethics, Morality, Decency, Legality: these are all pusillanimous concepts fostered by weak-kneed "liberals" who don't understand the realities of the world. [...]
As for the past week, Cheney can now say with some degree of personal pride, "Mission Accomplished: I Dicked the Country Again!"
Please go read the whole thing. I cut it way down to its barest bones.
What a wonderful idea Fox!! A reality show about a facist, racist bully. Alert Lou Dobbs!!
HOLLYWOOD, California (CNN) -- Reality television featuring law enforcement officers on the beat is nothing new. A show featuring a lawman who makes jailed inmates wear pink underwear and uses actors to trick suspects, however, is a new twist.
Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- whose showy brand of justice has raised charges of discrimination and civil-rights abuses while making him a hero among fans of his tough-on-crime attitudes -- will star in "Smile: You're Under Arrest."
The show, which premiers this weekend on Fox Reality Channel, features Arpaio and other officers using elaborate ploys crafted by comedy writers and carried out by professional actors to arrest suspects with outstanding warrants.
(snip)
But Arpaio's critics aren't amused.
They say they fear the show will give the controversial sheriff positive publicity, ignoring what they call a darker side to his 16-year tenure as top lawman in the county that includes Phoenix.
"It's going to celebrate a sheriff that's frankly scaring this community, a sheriff that has seen violent crime increase significantly in his county, a sheriff that is racially profiling the Latino community, and I doubt that the show is going to reflect that," said Paco Fabian, spokesman for the immigrant-rights group America's Voice.
A state civil-rights panel is recommending that, because of racial-profiling complaints, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors end a contract with the federal government that allows the county Sheriff's Office to enforce immigrations laws.
The Arizona Civil Rights Advisory Board also is asking federal officials in Washington, D.C., to investigate the Sheriff's Office for possible civil-rights violations during the enforcement of immigration laws. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon made a similar request earlier this year.
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