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DNC Donor Arrested for Threatening Rep. Cantor, Media Warns of 'Tea Party' Violence
NLPC ^ | March 30, 2010 | Alana Goodman

Posted on 3/31/2010, 12:37:16 AM by jazusamo

A Democratic National Committee donor was arrested on Monday for death threats that he reportedly made toward Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), but many journalists are still blaming the conservative "tea party" movement for allegedly fomenting political violence.

Philadelphia Norman Leboon, 33, was charged for posting a YouTube video in which he threatened to kill Cantor and his family, just days after a bullet was fired through the window of Cantor’s Richmond campaign office by an unknown gunman.

"You receive my bullets in your office, remember they will be placed in your heads. You and your children are Lucifer's abominations," Leboon reportedly said in the video. According to Federal Election Commission filings, Leboon is a Barack Obama supporter, who donated $505 to the Democratic National Committee in June, 2008.

But despite the fact that no tea partiers have been charged with committing violent acts related to the recent Congressional health care vote, many news outlets and commentators have maintained that conservatives pose a serious physical threat to Democratic politicians.

Some noteworthy examples:

1. In a CBS News article titled "Palin Refuses to Back Down from Gun Rhetoric," it was reported that "Former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is refusing to back down from her provocative rhetoric from the past week, which some say is encouraging violence against Democratic lawmakers who supported the health care reform bill." The article was referring to Palin’s Facebook posting about NCAA basketball last Sunday, in which she used terms like "target" "crosshairs" and "reload."

"To the teams that desire making it this far next year: Gear up! In the battle, set your sights on next season's targets!" wrote Palin in one excerpt.

2. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson wrote Tuesday that the idea that political violence exists on both the Right and the Left is "simply not true."

"It is dishonest for right-wing commentators to insist on an equivalence that does not exist," wrote Robinson. "The danger of political violence in this country comes overwhelmingly from one direction -- the right, not the left. The vitriolic, anti-government hate speech that is spewed on talk radio every day -- and, quite regularly, at Tea Party rallies -- is calibrated not to inform but to incite."

Robinson also asserted that "for the most part, far-left violence in this country has gone the way of the leisure suit and the AMC Gremlin."

3. In a New York Times editorial last Friday titled "Lawmakers Head Warily for Home," the paper warned of the danger Democrat politicians allegedly face from tea partiers. "A critical issue for Republicans is how far they will go in sidling up to the Tea Party and its more extremist protestors," wrote the Times. "The nation does not need more home-district fracases like those of last summer when zealots strutted with sidearms."

4. On the Huffington Post last Saturday, columnist Sherman Yellen compared tea partiers to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. "[W]ith the threats from Republican Congressmen, the bulls-eye targeting of Sarah Palin of the Democrats she disagrees with, and the racist and homophobic curses from the Tea Party ringing in our ears after the passage of the health care bill, I suggest that we take a look backwards at the sad story of Timothy James McVeigh and see the McVeighism that is festering," wrote Yellen.

5. Last Friday, New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow wrote that Republican politicians should denounce the alleged violence directed at Democrats from tea partiers. "The far-right extremists have gone into conniptions. The bullying, threats, and acts of violence following the passage of health care reform have been shocking," wrote Blow. "[N]ow the anemic Republican establishment, covetous of the Tea Party’s passion, is moving to absorb it, not admonish it. Instead of jettisoning the radical language, rabid bigotry and rising violence, the Republicans justify it.

While these media outlets and columnists gave much coverage to potential for violence from the Right, it remains to be seen whether they will give equivalent press time to the threat from the Left.

Alana Goodman is NLPC's Capitol Hill Reporter.

Related:

AFL-CIO's Trumka Denounces Town Meeting 'Mobs,' Ignores His Own



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Politics/Elections; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: 111th; cantor; cbsnews; deceit; democrats; enemedia; leboon; liberalmedia; nlpc; nytimes; teaparty; washingtonpost

1 posted on 3/31/2010, 12:37:16 AM by jazusamo
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To: jazusamo

Let’s not forget the inflammatory language and overblown charges against the “Extremist Christian Militia” in Michigan. Despite the indictments, I have yet to see one scrap of proof that any, repeat, any crime was committed by any of those people.

It’s the seriousness of the charge, not the quality of the evidence...


2 posted on 3/31/2010, 12:39:40 AM by Bean Counter (I keeps mah feathers numbered, for just such an emergency...)
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To: jazusamo
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson wrote Tuesday that the idea that political violence exists on both the Right and the Left is “simply not true.&rdquop>

I agree.
Most of the violence comes from the loony left.

3 posted on 3/31/2010, 12:41:06 AM by SmokingJoe
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To: Bean Counter

Yes, and there’s no evidence I’ve seen that they’re truly Christians but the enemedia would have everyone believe it.


4 posted on 3/31/2010, 12:42:15 AM by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: jazusamo

Honestly all of the “right Wing” extemism and harmful tactics that the MSM are touting as fact is a joke and a large majority of people know this. Majority of people are tea parties at heart. The people get it. MSM looks stupid. I believe that.


5 posted on 3/31/2010, 12:56:19 AM by GoCards ("We eat therefore we hunt...")
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To: jazusamo
I bring you Norman Leboon (D) PA.


6 posted on 3/31/2010, 1:05:29 AM by VeniVidiVici (Alfred E. Neuman for President! Oh, wait a minute ...)
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To: VeniVidiVici

Wow! From the article it sounded like he’s no mental giant and his pic bears that out.


7 posted on 3/31/2010, 1:13:17 AM by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: Bean Counter
WE are not backing the militia. Several reasons ~ (1) They are accused of being into bombs (in one case by the ex-wife of the leader) just like the Weather Underground. Then, (2) They are accused of being into targeting police officers just like the Weather Underground.

This is more like a Bill Ayers operation than anything Conservatives would be in. Fur shur we wouldn't waste time shooting our own eh!?

8 posted on 3/31/2010, 1:14:49 AM by muawiyah ("Git Out The Way")
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To: Bean Counter
Just heard tonight the Feds had an informant, or an undercover in the group. But what do I know, they were only planning to kill as many police officers as possible. Why do you think they are going to lay out the case for you to be satisfied? That will come out in trial. As a staunch conservative police officer, I am often puzzled by some of the posts on this site.
9 posted on 3/31/2010, 1:15:29 AM by squidward
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To: jazusamo
While these media outlets and columnists gave much coverage to potential for violence from the Right, it remains to be seen whether they will give equivalent press time to the threat from the Left.

They won't. The press are proven, established liars.

10 posted on 3/31/2010, 1:33:06 AM by sionnsar (IranAzadi|5yst3m 0wn3d-it's N0t Y0ur5:SONY|Remember Neda Agha-Soltan|TV--it's NOT news you can trust)
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To: squidward

I agree with you completely, that the facts will come out at trial. As a Police Officer, I’m amazed that you are so willing to jump on the band wagon on condemning this group over what everyone seems to agree are “accusations”.

There is nothing I can think of that is more inflammatory than to accuse someone of killing a police officer. Here in Washington State we have had eight officers killed in the line of duty in the last six months, so please don’t think I am taking anyone’s side in advocating anything like that.

What also amazes me is the number of posts I have seen right here at FreeRepublic in the last year alone, questioning the motives of the Obama Administration, his Justice Department and especially those of Eric Holder. We have all questioned a number of decisions by Justice, but we are all going to just take their word on this one??

Where is the evidence of one single crime??

What the hell is “seditious conspiracy”?? Please explain the legal difference between that phrase and “Conspiracy to commit sedition”.

While you’re at it, show me the underlying crime of sedition in all of this. Tell me how come we charge people with “Murder” and “Conspiracy to commit murder” and not “murderous conspiracy”.

For as many people here who claim to be so well educated on both the Law and the Constitution, we are certainly in a rush to accept the unproven charges against this group simply because they have been accused of plotting to “kill cops”. If I were an up and coming FBI SAIC in charge of Southern Michigan, and had been chosen for this assignment specifically because I “fit in so well with the Community” (read: the local Muslim Community), and were looking for a way to make a name for myself in a demonstrably pro-muslim Obama Justice Department, I might find a loud-mouth in a local “Christian Extremist Militia” to be an attractive target. It is not tinfoil hat paranoia to see how easily one could drum up charges against one dumbass with a big mouth in a local militia with a Christian focus.

Tell me, have you heard that the informant may have been named “Wahlid” and been affiliated with the local Michigan branch of Cair (Council on American-Islamic Relations)??!! Figure that into your personal calculus in all of this.

Do you really believe it would take a militia as well organized and outfitted as this group obviously is, to plan an operation like this?? Do you really believe they would advertise a dress rehearsal for an operation like that along with their regularly scheduled exercise on April 24th?? Their website had that announcement up for several days preceding the raid, and that date is reported to be the expected “action” that precipitated the raid.

Have you heard that the FBI SAIC may have made the Hadj?? Figure that into your odds, too.

I am not, repeat, NOT taking the side of anyone who advocates and/or kills a police officer. I am also not going to buy these very serious allegations, without some iota of proof. No, I do not expect them to lay out the case, but when the US Justice Department charges these people with a “crime of violence while in possession of a firearm”, I expect to know what that underlying crime was, and there has not been a hint of what really happened.

I am saying that everyone needs to calm the (biden) down and start listening to what you all are saying based on the flimsiest of evidence and an indictment that is as full of holes as a piece of Swiss cheese on the ham sandwich indictments that were unsealed this morning.


11 posted on 3/31/2010, 1:59:32 AM by Bean Counter (I keeps mah feathers numbered, for just such an emergency...)
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To: jazusamo

That can’t be true — it doesn’t fit the template.


12 posted on 3/31/2010, 5:36:05 AM by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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