What in the hell is the deal with the violent language and imagery which seems to seep and ooze out of the political right like a festering sore that never heals, abetted by our pathetic media apparatus?
I want you to look at this image I found at John Cole's Balloon Juice, originally from the AP:
Now, when you see that image of the New York City Police Officer and the Occupy Wall Street protestor, what kind of caption do you suppose it would earn?
Police officer subdues unruly protestor
Police fight back against ravaging mob of looters
Police come to blows to subdue meth-addled zombies...
Maybe the last one is over the top. But no more over the top, really, than the real caption:
An Occupy Wall Street protestor draws contact from a police officer near Zuccotti Park after being ordered to leave the longtime encampment in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011, in New York, after police ordered demonstrators to leave their encampment in Zuccotti Park. At about 1 a.m. Tuesday, police handed out notices from the park’s owner, Brookfield Office Properties, and the city saying that the park had to be cleared because it had become…
There were a couple of vague defenses of the publication in the comments of John's post -- something legal, maybe? -- but in general, most folks get it ("Abner Louima wasn't sodomized, he just drew contact with a plunger!" a better retort, nearly, than John's "Amadou Diallo wasn’t shot! He just drew contact with a lot of police bullets!").
What really got me going on this was the terrible even where shots were fired at the White House by a disturbed man with a rifle. That article in the link is a little old -- they found a bullet in ballistic glass and lodged in wall in the White House later. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The man in custody appears to be infatuated with the White House and maybe with President Obama.
Which almost unsurprisingly lead to this from the president of the Texas College Republicans, in a tweet:
At 2:29 p.m. ET, UT’s Lauren E. Pierce wrote: “Y’all as tempting as it may be, don’t shoot Obama. We need him to go down in history as the WORST president we’ve EVER had! #2012.”
You know what's tempting? For me to never, ever go to Texas ever again. They gave us George W. Bush, Rick Perry, and now Lauren E. Pierce. The only delight I can take in this story is that Ms. Pierce is likely having a fairly uncomfortable sit-down with the United States Secret Service right about now.
What is it about these people and violence, and then cowering behind the First Amendment?
Pierce, the president of the College Republicans at UT Austin, told ABC News the comment was a “joke” and that the “whole [shooting incident] was stupid.” Giggling, she said that an attempted assassination would “only make the situation worse.”
“Insofar as she’s a representative [of the College Republicans], maybe it shouldn’t be said, but she’s made a positive statement in a way, ” said Cassie Wright, the group’s vice president.
“I don’t really see anything wrong with it,” Wright added. “It’s just a personal comment, not representative of any group. Just freedom of speech, you know?”
What do you say to that?
I don't even know.
Of course, leave it to whatever is left of the "leadership" of the GOP to come out and stand tall when it really matters.
Hm, would someone in a leadership position -- unfettered by any campaign for president or any of that nonsense! -- say something with respect to the repression of actual First Amendment rights in New York City? Would they speak out in support of the Secret Service and the safety of our President and Commander in Chief, no matter who he was, what party he was affiliated with, and scold goofball twits and their ditzy, heinous "temptations"?
Or would she come out and suggest hanging former University of Pennsylvania football coach Jerry Sandusky "from the highest tree"? You betcha!
This is Republican leadership. Republicans of today, Republicans of tomorrow. Good luck, America. We're going to need it.
I asked a question at the beginning of this post.
You know what? Never mind. I think I know the answer.
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