March 25, 2010 02:16 AM UTC

Seriously, Folks. This is Embarassing...For ALL Americans

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• by: Colorado Pols

So spending the last year telling whoever will listen that ‘the guvmint’ wants to kill Grandma with evil health care reform and you, patriotic American, ‘must resist’–never seemed like a responsible thing to encourage, did it? Sure enough, as MSNBC reports:

At least 10 House Democrats are receiving access to increased security after receiving threats linked to their votes on the health care overhaul bill signed into law on Tuesday.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said at a Capitol Hill press conference that he is concerned by a rash of at least four incidents of vandalism targeting lawmakers who voted to approve the legislation, which did not receive any Republican votes.

Reps. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and Betsey Markey, D-Colo., are among the lawmakers who have received threatening calls.

Anne Caprara, the chief of staff for Markey, confirmed that the representative’s D.C. office has received at least two threatening calls. On Saturday, a man who spoke to the office’s health care legislative assistant warned that “[you] better hope I don’t run into you in a dark alley with a knife, a club or a gun.” [Pols emphasis]

Concern about possible violence also escalated Wednesday after a severed gas line at the home of a Democratic lawmaker’s brother was discovered.

The slashed gas line leading to a propane tank at the home of Bo Perriello was found Tuesday, one day after Tea Party activists posted the address online and suggested that opponents of the reform bill should “express their thanks” to Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va.

The FBI is working with local officials to investigate the incident.

Conservative activists in Virginia posted the home address of Perriello’s older brother – believing it to be the congressman’s address – when suggesting in Web postings that those who disagreed with the Democratic lawmaker’s vote should “drop by” to make their opposition clear.

Tea Party activists apparently mistakenly posted the home address of the brother of a Congressman. What if they accidentally posted the address of just some guy with the same name? In Colorado, if your last name is “Markey,” does that potentially put you at risk?

Look, we understand that there are plenty of people who aren’t happy about health care reform. But this…this is out of control. Period. And it’s the sort of thing that should have everyone who stoked the rage of these Tea Party protesters in the last year crapping their pants–nothing alienates the radicalism-averse American public like political violence.