Just kidding. You saw all that over the very loud yelling and impolitic signage at health care town halls, but when it comes to angry left-wing activists being arrested with Molotov cocktails outside the Republican National Convention, there's surprisingly little national interest.
This story begins at the RNC, where two Austin, Texas liberal activists were arrested for possession of unregistered firearms (Molotov cocktails). They were sentenced in May of 2009. Here's a look at the plan for political violence you likely never heard about:
A 23-year-old man from Austin, Texas, who was connected to a group that planned to disrupt the Republican National Convention (RNC) in September 2008, was sentenced today in federal court to possessing destructive devices. On May 14, in Minneapolis, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Michael Davis sentenced Bradley Neal Crowder to 24 months in prison and three years of supervised release on one count of possession of a destructive device. Crowder was indicted on Sept. 22, 2008,
and pleaded guilty on Jan. 8, 2009...On Aug. 28, 2008, Crowder and other members of the Austin Affinity Group traveled from Austin, Texas, to Minnesota. The group brought a rental trailer with them that contained 35 riot shields, made from stolen traffic barrels. The intended use of the shields was to help demonstrators block streets near
the Xcel Energy Center in order to prevent convention delegates from safely reaching the convention. St. Paul Police seized these shields on Aug. 31.According to trial testimony, McKay and Crowder, angered by the loss of the shields, purchased supplies for constructing Molotov cocktails at a St. Paul Wal-Mart on Aug. 31, including a gas can, motor oil and tampons. They also purchased gasoline at a gas station. They then manufactured the eight Molotov cocktails at an apartment on Dayton Avenue where they were staying.
During a FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation, authorities learned through an informant that McKay and Crowder had manufactured the Molotov cocktails. Crowder was arrested on Sept. 1 for disorderly conduct during an RNC demonstration.
During a conversation overheard by law enforcement through electronic surveillance on Sept. 2, McKay told an informant that he intended to throw the Molotov cocktails at police vehicles parked in a lot near the Dayton Avenue apartment. The parking lot was used as a checkpoint area for vehicles entering the security perimeter around the convention site. It was visibly patrolled by the U.S. Secret Service, various police agencies and the military.
This week, another member of the left-wing Austin activist group is facing charges for threatening the activist-turned-informant who told officials about Crowder's and McKay's plans for violence. Because there must be a price for workin' for The Man, I guess:
A Texas woman faces trial this month in Austin on charges she threatened to kill a government informant who infiltrated an Austin-based group that planned to bomb the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., last fall.
Katyanne Marie Kibby, 25, was indicted in June by a federal grand jury in Austin. She is accused of retaliating against Brandon Darby, the community activist-turned-informant who helped federal prosecutors win convictions against Bradley Neal Crowder, 24, and David Guy McKay, 23.
Prosecutors say the e-mail threat was made Jan. 10.
I look forward to an in-depth MSNBC report on this violent threat to the Republic right after they're done producing dishonest exposes on how Obama critics carrying legally registered firearms are fomenting a race war.
Just so we're clear: two left-wingers planned to bomb police cars outside the RNC, and their allies rallied behind them by threatening informants with violence, and we hear nary a word about it. Where is the widespread condemnation and discouragement of such violence in the name of anti-war, Bush-hating beliefs by our friends on the left? Where is the requisite orgy of self-examination and brow-furrowing about the future of a country populated by such people?
I am not one who thinks right-wing protesters are faultless and left-wing protesters are all violent and dangerous (though I do think the preponderance of nastiness and actual violent activism has occurred on the left lately, and their criticism of health care protesters is more than disingenuous). But is it so much to ask for a modicum of balance in the reporting of some of the unsavory elements of American political life? As it is, a handful of Nazi images on town hall posters (mostly held by single-payer advocating LaRouche activists and attributed to Republicans) warrant national soul-searching while Crowder and McKay warrant nada.
In other leftists-blowing-up-stuff news, Gateway Pundit points us to a Democratic strategist in Missouri who's being investigated in connection with a bombing in St. Louis that severely injured a 70-year-old attorney:
A federal search warrant obtained by the Post-Dispatch connects a former Democratic campaign strategist to a Clayton bombing last year that seriously injured an attorney.
About two months after the October bombing, federal law enforcement officials searched the downtown loft of Milton H. "Skip" Ohlsen III, seeking "evidence related to the planning, execution, and/or cover-up of the bombing in Clayton, Missouri, on October 16, 2008." Ohlsen in recent weeks has been at the center of a swirling political scandal that is threatening the political careers of at least two Missouri Democratic legislators.
The Clayton bombing injured attorney John L. Gillis of the Armstrong Teasdale firm. But investigators now believe Gillis was not the intended target of the bomb that exploded next to his car in the parking garage at 190 Carondelet Plaza.
Instead, as the Post-Dispatch first reported Monday evening on STLtoday.com, authorities suspect the bomb was intended for Richard J. Eisen, a former Husch Blackwell Sanders attorney. Eisen has led legal battles against Ohlsen and had an office in the Clayton building that was bombed...
Just a few things to keep in mind when you next hear about how right-wing town hall protesters are sure to bring about the ruin of this once-great country. Crowder and Ohlsen will have professorships long before that ever happens.
