Vandals Attack Democratic Offices Around The Country

Vandals Attack Dem Offices Nationwide

TPM Muckraker

Justin Elliott | March 23, 2010, 1:00PM

Vandals smashed doors and windows at four Democratic offices around the country in the days surrounding the landmark House health care vote Sunday night, and a right-wing blogger in Alabama is taking credit for starting a so-called “window war.”

Here are the reports we’ve seen from around the country on the mini-epidemic of brick-throwing:

• Early on the morning of March 19, someone threw a brick through the window of Rep. Louise Slaughter’s office in Niagara Falls, New York, doing $350 of damage, the Buffalo News reported. Slaughter (D-NY) briefly attracted the ire of conservatives over the “Slaughter Solution,” a procedural maneuver that was considered (but, ultimately, not used) to pass health reform.
• Also in Slaughter’s district, a brick was thrown through the glass doors of the Monroe County Democratic Committee office in Rochester, NY, over the weekend, the Democrat and Chronicle reported. A note attached to the brick bore the Barry Goldwater quote, “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice,” a spokesman for the committee told the newspaper.
• In the early hours of the morning on Monday just after the House health care vote, someone smashed the glass front door of the Tucson office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), the Arizona Daily Star reported. “The perpetrator likely had to hop the gated fence to get access to the door, since it’s not viewable from the parking lot,” the paper reported.
• On Friday night or Saturday morning, a brick bearing unspecified “anti-Obama and anti-health care messages” was thrown through a floor-to-ceiling window at the Sedgwick County Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, CNN and the Kansas City Start reported.

Pinson, Alabama-based blogger Mike Vanderboegh has been tracking the breaking of windows at Dem offices after issuing a call Friday: “To all modern Sons of Liberty: THIS is your time. Break their windows. Break them NOW.”

It’s far from clear whether Vanderboegh’s call to arms has anything to do with the incidents around the country.

The Kansas City Star identifies Vanderboegh as a former leader of the Alabama Constitutional Militia.

His blog, Sipsey Street Irregulars, identifies with the so-called “Three Percenter” doctrine: “During the American Revolution, the active forces in the field against the King’s tyranny never amounted to more than 3% of the colonists.”

The March 19 post says:

They will send the Internal Revenue Service and other federal police to do this in thousands of small Wacos, if that is what it takes to force us to submit. This arrogant elite pretends that this oppression is for our own good, while everyone else understands that this is about their selfish, insatiable appetite for control over our liberty, our money, our property and our lives.

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Health Care Bill Passed! Progressives Ecstatic! Well, not All of them Apparently!

Here’s one who is. And one who isn’t.

Both articles from TruthDig

Yes, They Made History

Posted on Mar 22, 2010

White House / Pete Souza

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and senior staff react in the Roosevelt Room of the White House as the House passes the health care reform bill.

By E.J. Dionne

WASHINGTON—Yes, we did.

Finally, President Obama can use those words. The passage of health care reform provided the first piece of incontestable evidence that Washington has changed.

Congress is, indeed, capable of carrying through fundamental social reform. No longer will the United States be the outlier among wealthy nations in leaving so many of its citizens without basic health coverage.

In approving the most sweeping piece of social legislation since the mid-1960s, Democrats proved that they can govern, even under challenging circumstances and in the face of significant internal divisions.

The Health Care Hindenburg Has Landed

Posted on Mar 22, 2010

AP / Charles Dharapak

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, accompanies President Barack Obama as they arrive at Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport before the congressman decided to switch his vote and help pass a health care reform bill he had staunchly opposed.

By Chris Hedges

Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s decision to vote “yes” in Sunday’s House action on the health care bill, although he had sworn to oppose the legislation unless there was a public option, is a perfect example of why I would never be a politician. I respect Kucinich. As politicians go, he is about as good as they get, but he is still a politician. He has to run for office. He has to raise money. He has to placate the Democratic machine or risk retaliation and defeat. And so he signed on to a bill that will do nothing to ameliorate the suffering of many Americans, will force tens of millions of people to fork over a lot of money for a defective product and, in the end, will add to the ranks of our uninsured.

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F-35? Israel shows extraordinary “chutzpah” at AIPAC confab

The Pro-Israel Lobby’s Plan to Storm Congress
TIME
By Michael Scherer / Washington Monday, Mar. 22, 2010

Most days, lobbyist Steve Aserkoff focuses on directly shaping the opinions of his assigned target audience — 14 U.S. Senators and 65 members of the House. But on Sunday, the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) operative faced a different challenge: Preparing a conference room filled with several dozen grassroots Zionists, most of whom had never been to Capitol Hill before, to swarm the legislature in a mass lobbying effort.

“We are going to the Hill to ask for three particular things,” Aserkoff told the group, between PowerPoint slides listing talking points and showing maps of the Capitol complex. “The Capitol Police are not TSA, so do not disrobe when you enter those buildings.”

(1) “The United States needs to lead the international community in imposing crippling sanctions on Iran without delay”

(2) The second lobbying priority identified for AIPAC delegates was to reaffirm the U.S.-Israeli relationship, and pressure the Obama Administration to avoid airing disagreements publically

(3) The third “ask” that AIPAC supporters will make of Congress on Tuesday is to once again pass the $3 billion in U.S. aid provided annually to Israel. “It’s a very tough ask this year,” Aserkoff admitted, noting the U.S. domestic budgetary and economic challenges. Among other major purchases, the Israeli government has announced plans to replace its aging fleet of F-16 fighter jets with new, American-made F-35 fighters, a major cost that Israel hopes will be substantially born for by American taxpayers.

 This is the one that raises the hair on my neck

Israel has been salivating over the F-35 Lightning II since they talked with Robert Gates about it some time ago. Their are several countries in line, most of which have contributed to the project, but it is Israel who is first, even though they haven’t contributed to the effort.

The following is attributed to absoluteastronomy.com

At the expense of being more detectable by radar, many more missiles, bombs and fuel tanks can be attached on four wing pylons and two near wingtip positions. The two wingtip locations can only carry AIM-9X Sidewinder. The other pylons can carry the AIM-120 AMRAAM, Storm Shadow

Storm Shadow is an Anglo-French air-launched cruise missile, manufactured by MBDA and used by France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Greece. Storm Shadow is the British name for the weapon; in French service it is called SCALP EG…

, AGM-158 Joint Air to Surface Stand-off Missile
AGM-158 JASSM
The AGM-158 JASSM is a low observable standoff cruise missile developed in the United States.- Overview :…

(JASSM) cruise missiles, guided bombs, 480-gallon and 600-gallon fuel tanks. An air-to-air load of eight AIM-120s and two AIM-9s is conceivable using internal and external weapons stations, as well as a configuration of six 2,000 lb bombs, two AIM-120s and two AIM-9s. With its payload capability, the F-35 can carry more air to air and air to ground weapons than legacy fighters it is to replace as well as the F-22 Raptor
F-22 Raptor
The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is a fifth-generation fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology. It was designed primarily as an air superiority fighter, but has additional capabilities that include ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence roles…

. Solid-state lasers were being developed as optional weapons for the F-35 as of 2002.

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Britain expels Israeli diplomat over Dubai passport row

BBC
23rd March, 2010

The UK is to expel an Israeli diplomat over the use of 12 forged British passports linked to the murder of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

Mr Mabhouh was killed by electric shock, tests have confirmed

Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the Commons there were “compelling reasons” to believe Israel was responsible for the passport “misuse”.

He said: “The government takes this matter extremely seriously. Such misuse of British passports is intolerable.”

Israel says there is no proof it was behind the killing in Dubai in January.

But Mr Milband said it was “highly likely” the Israeli secret service Mossad was involved and the fact that Israel was a close ally added “insult to injury”.

Original article

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