narus.info PRISM/US-984XN

The violence, once just hinted at, is now underway. These fake “protests,” which are actually attempts to completely shut down meetings between Congress members and constituents, targeted exclusively at Democratic members, are getting plenty of coverage in the news media due to the spectacular video that they generate. This in turn brings out more crazies for the next event, because of a lynch mob or circus-type effect. It’s eerily similar to the mobs that used to attack nonviolent protesters at sit-ins in the South in the 1950s and 1960s. People with a predilection for right-wing craziness, including violence, are drawn like moths to a flame, and they cannot resist acting out unless there is some countervailing force there to restrain them. Absolutely the only thing that can stop these mobs from shutting down the meetings is for supporters of democracy to show up in at least equally large numbers. Mark my words, there is no substitute for doing this. Nothing else will work, period.

UPDATE:  Not scary enough for you?  Try reading this account, complete with photos, of a screaming mob going after an 80 year old Congressman. Or this account by an organizer of the Tampa event, which nearly ended in violence. Afterwards they received a nice e-mail from the right-wingers who are running around Democratic districts mostly unchallenged by anyone:

WAR IS COMING
YOUR THUG PRICK BASTARD SHOULD HAVE KEPT HIS FUCKING COMMUNIST MOUTH SHUT.

This isn’t the beginning of the end; it’s more like an official surrender spelled out in advance. The Fuehrer has decided he can fight on two fronts, against the Americans and the Russians at the same time. We know how that worked out.

This is actually on Roll Call and therefore behind a subscription wall, but hopefully more detail later will be available.

This is a very serious and apparently very real charge.

The popularity of the birther conspiracy theory keeps rising, directly in contradiction to the total lack of evidence and support. Millions of people apparently are not willing to let reality get in the way of a fairy tale that appeals to them. This is incredibly destructive to the Republican Party’s chances in the next national election. Look at the numbers from this poll commissioned by kos last week:

Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?

Yes No Not sure
Dem 93 4 3
Rep 42 28 30
Ind 83 8 9

Northeast 93 4 3
South 47 23 30
Midwest 90 6 4
West 87 7 6

Look at the Independent breakdown and compare it to the Republican breakdown. This is a malignant tumor in the Republican Party and if they don’t convincingly remove it, they’ve lost virtually all of the independent vote, without which they cannot when an election. A recent series of polls shows results like these: some 30 percent of Americans identify themselves as “Democrats,” 20 percent (yes, twenty percent) as Republicans, and 42 percent as “Independents.” Among those, there are slightly more “Democrat leaning” than “Republican leaning.” Do not look for the corporate media, who still insists this is a “center-right country,” to point this out. They will do whatever they can to avoid the subject.