The last refuge of scoundrels

[the_archfiend]

Well, it's happened. Now hosts of political debates are being targeted for being insufficiently patriotic by wingnuts, and this incident in the wake of a debate between Melissa Bean, Joe Walsh and Bill Scheurer makes my blood boil:

Criticism started flying around cyberspace over volunteer moderator Kathy Tate-Bradish's perceived lukewarm reaction when she was asked if the Pledge of Allegiance would be recited before the 8th Congressional District debate on Oct. 21.

Criticism? In cyberspace? Well, yeah; it's pretty much the norm. However, this isn't:

FBI spokesman Ross Rice confirmed Thursday that League of Women Voters Illinois Executive Director Jan Czarnik filed a report claiming she and Tate-Bradish have received Internet death threats. Czarnik triggered criticism after saying the pledge request was “phony patriotism” from a candidate's supporters.

“Her complaint has been received and is receiving due consideration,” Rice said.

Czarnik wrote the FBI that an Oct. 23 Daily Herald story on the debate she was quoted in was “turned into a cause celebre by Glenn Beck and Fox News.”

Since then, death threats have appeared on “right-wing websites,” said Czarnik, who provided printouts to the FBI. She also reported menacing posts on Fox News Channel's Facebook page and Beck's website, The Blaze.

Now what in the hell is going on here?

Look, if somebody feels insulted by a statement made by a moderator at an event where something as trifling as who represents them in Congress is under consideration, they're entitled to feel as angry as they want. They're even entitled to post as much insulting content they feel is necessary to calm their fevered imaginations down. 

What they are not entitled to is the ability to make death threats because a little stunt of theirs was not looked upon with favor by someone charged with preventing such stunts at a debate. Since Walsh's followers are apparently so miffed that they can't derail a debate with anything besides mob-rule tactics, here's something that neither they or "Weepy" Beck aren't going to like; namely, that the Pledge was authored by someone who they'd be terrified of:

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855–1931), a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist, and the cousin of socialist utopian novelist Edward Bellamy (1850–1898). The original "Pledge of Allegiance" was published in the September 8 issue of the popular children's magazine The Youth's Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The event was conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, in a campaign to sell flags to public schools and magazines to students, while instilling the idea of American nationalism in them.

That's right, folks: the guy who originally authored the Pledge belonged to a political tendency that's regular blackboard fodder for Weepy's conspiracy theories. Ah, the irony.

As for the rest of the idiots who demanded recitation of the Pledge, here's a thought for all of you: if this is your idea of patriotism, you need to get out of the sandbox and stop being the overgrown equivalent of a kindergarten bully.