The town hall meetings

A bit of reporting on what they look like. I'm sticking with my original story: They look like the Roe v. Wade protests of the 1980s, but with a racialized twist.

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Like I said, set really basic, sensible, First Amendment-compliant ground rules for the town hall meetings, give the teabaggers a line in the sand and drag away the ones who won't behave like adults. If that means you drag away a few hundred or they get all pissy and start rioting, so be it.

Treat them like DFHs, take them downtown, book them for disorderly conduct and let them spend the night in jail. And keep doing it until they learn or all of them have a criminal record.

Or to put it another way:

Sorry, I didn't accept this bullshit wet-diaper behavior from the regressive left at UW-Madison in the 80s and we don't need to accept it now. They fucking lost, they told us to eat it for eight fucking years as their boy did his damnedest to fuck over everyone outside his little circle, so they can man up, accept it, and piss and moan over beers like the good little losers they are. And if they can't behave like reasonable adults, fuck 'em. Shotguns with rock salt, fire hoses, dogs, and tear gas - give 'em both barrels. And make sure you catch it all on video so someone can put a techno beat underneath it for the feel-good hit of the summer.

FUCK. THEM.

Ok, I feel better now...

PS: Greg, DM me your address on Twitter if you want a postcard from lovely Varberg, Sweden. I have three left, including the one with the moose. :)

FUCK. THEM.

Well said.

Believe me, I'd rather sit down and have a rational discussion with an actual fiscal conservative and hash out some real ideas. But it's not going to happen because dialogue and consensus are not in the modern GOP playbook. It's all shouting and mayhem and death threats, like some fat antisocial adolescent's revenge fantasy mixed with Ayn Rand outtakes and Fight Club salted with Birth of a Nation.

You cannot reason with a mob. And the GOP has this fantasy that liberals are just a pack of limp-wristed pansies that'll wet themselves over a few near riots. The Dems might be; it remains to be seen if someone can grow enough spine to spank these overgrown toddlers. A lot depends on the individual legislators and the willingness of the cops to treat rioters the same regardless of political affiliation. Think of that dilemma: do I bust the skulls of some protesting assholes or do I throw in with the Obama-haters? I can only hope the natural police inclination to exert power against loudmouths wins out.

And not that I want violence. But believe me, these dumb fuckers and their back-bench master will not rest until there's blood. They have no ideas, no mandate - nothing - so they resort to the only attack they know - violence.

And if they start it, we need to finish it. Ideally, treating them like entitled whiny-ass college agitators will work, charge them with disorderly conduct and simply drag them away for booking. My guess is that will fly for about 10 minutes before the mob goes rabid - these douchebags have less self-control than your average two-year-old - so the cops need to be ready with standard crowd-control gear. Horses, shields, tear gas, riot guns, and the rest. If it comes to that, I'll be glued to the set with a bucket of popcorn and a frosty mug.

But as much as I'd love to get my schadenfreude on, I'd much prefer that the Republicans would turn it down a notch and get back to regrouping their party and putting what's left of the literate adults with all their teeth back in charge. Whatever passes for an Eisenhower these days. But with the current crop of bozos, Fox News, and the Grand Obese Poobah Rush Limbaugh, it ain't gonna happen. So I hope the Dems take a lesson from Chicago '68 and crack some goddamn skulls. Dirty fucking teabaggers.

Are you getting the full story, instead of a piece edited to give a particular angle? Do these news stories tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

And Randy Arthur? Note how the reporter said nothing about who roughed him up and which side they were on. Nothing on what, if anything, Mr. Arthur did to get roughed up; though I suspect it was because he simply wouldn't take no for an answer.

Relying on news reports for information on events is a lot like relying on second or third hand sources. Such can be useful when done well, but first hand sources properly utilized work a whole lot better.