Townhall Putsch
by digby
From Think Progress:
At the event, local news stations were interviewing an Israeli man who was praising the “fantastic” “national health care” in Israel. During his remarks, a woman yelled out, “Heil Hitler!” The man stopped, became visibly upset, and exclaimed, “Did you hear this? She say to a Jew, ‘Heil Hitler’! Hear? I’m a Jew! You’re telling me, ‘Heil Hitler’? Shame of you!” After he angrily confronts her, the woman mocks him by making a crying sound to imply he is a whining baby.
Aye yay yay. You can see the video at the link.
Meanwhile, we have others packing heat, intimidating opponents and members of the government.
Earlier CNN featured a former secret service agent who had this to say:
Former USSS officer: If the police have to go out and deal with these foolish gun nuts with exposed weapons in public crowds, they are being taken awy from activity that is much more important and that is to keep our president safe and to kep the public safe.
Rick Sanchez: In all your years as a Secret Service agent have you ever seen anything like this? Ten to twelve people yesterday were walking around this venue where the president was, walking outside, and they were packing. Have you ever seen a situation like that?
USSS: No, I’ve never seen or heard of anything like that. And I think it’s, you know, I think all of us should be concerned about this. What’s the next step? Are they going to ride around in pick-up trucks with automatic weapons? it would be like Somalia.
We’re a democratic country. And we should be better than this. And what’s the point? What’s the point of them carrying these things? It’s intimidation. Why hsould we tolerate that?
Sanchez: It’s free speech and their point is that “we’ve got a right to come out and show everybody that we’re for a constitution that gives us a right to bear arms.
USSS: It’s probably also not against the law to bring a can of gas and a match into an event. Is that a good idea? No.
Having exposed weapons at public events, and it’s not just presidential events, I would say this at any public event, particularly where people are disagreeing, it’s really a formula for disaster.
Why does the picture of a bunch of yahoos driving around in pick-up trucks with automatic weapons not sound all that far fetched to me? And when you add the gasbags shrieking about liberals being the enemy all day long, this doesn’t seem so far-fetched either.
Update: Some gun nut jackass on Hardball just said that “an armed society is a polite society.”
Nice little free speech you have there, Americans. Be a shame if something happened to it.
Update II: Apparently, even though it’s generally a bad idea for there to be guns around public officials in volatile situations, these gun toters are there protecting the citizenry from union thugs and it has made the events much more peaceful.
I’m sure it has. People would be out of their minds to challenge someone who’s carrying an automatic weapon. It’s an excellent way to keep people from speaking out.
As David Cross said on The Daily Show last night, these guys are saying “I let my gun do my talking for me.” And we all hear what it’s saying, loud and clear. No problemo.
Welcome to America, land of the free.
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