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We Get Letters
Now I see why Josh Marshall calls them "our domestic Falange."
From: [redacted]Charming.
Subject: You were afraid at the convention?
Date: September 2, 2004 5:59:23 PM EDT
To: myglesias@prospect.orgIt's too bad they didn't kick your ugly ass.
[redacted]
From: [redacted]There's nothing better than receiving threats of violence in your inbox. If anyone (especially one of my regular, and yet non-violent, critics from the right) has any insight into who sent these delightful individuals my way, I'd appreciate it.
Subject: you deserve an ass-whooping!
Date: September 2, 2004 5:45:22 PM EDT
To: myglesias@prospect.orgCheers,
[redacted]
UPDATE: As commenters have pointed out, Hugh Hewitt is (indirectly) responsible for this. In all fairness I've written some mock-fantasy stuff about beating up Republican convention-goers over the past few days, so this a bit of a goose/gander situation.
September 2, 2004 | Permalink
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Comments
We can't offer any incite because the appropriate information was redacted.
Posted by: Capt. Jean-Luc Pikachu | Sep 2, 2004 6:47:19 PM
That's bad & deplorable, but really.....those acts are about as cowardly as someone running to their web site to post what nasty curse words they were THINKING about some people.
Perhaps NOW would be a good time to consider putting forth cogent opinion and critique instead of adolescent trash talk. You never know when a face-to-face meeting will take place with someone who doesn't appreciate keyboard machismo.
Posted by: RW | Sep 2, 2004 6:49:56 PM
Matt, you might be actually frightened, so I don't mean to make light of this, but think about it. A few days in the hospital could make you a national celebrity, get a book contract with big advance, and a job at Time or CNN. You might think about walking with a friend who knows how to use a videocamera.
Just saying.
Posted by: bob mcmanus | Sep 2, 2004 6:52:08 PM
I have read over and over again that each "side" (right and left) have their own albatross of extremist crazies that do stuff like this. In times gone past the left had more than its share, what with the "SLA" and Weather Underground and many assorted less violent but no less extremist groups. Today, I'm not so sure. Noam Chomsky just doesn't fill the bill.
Conservatives that never got over the 60s still think of these types whenever they think of "liberals." That is the essence of what drives so-called conservativism today.
Don't look to your Republican friends to disavow this kind of hate mail. They will claim the left does it just as much if not more and smugly pretend to the moral high ground.
Posted by: Alan | Sep 2, 2004 6:53:09 PM
As a non-violent commentator from the right, I have no idea who wrote you that..unless it was one of the guys from the elevator or Starbucks who recognized himself in your blog about how you mentally told him to F*ck off.
But this is a bipartisan problem. You think the right doesn't get violent, annonymous hate mail? Most don't bother to give the publicity though..
You aren't still trying to portray yourself as a victim in need of sympathy..like with the convention terror you wrote about from last night..
Didn't think so...
Posted by: Steve_in_Corona | Sep 2, 2004 6:53:20 PM
Gee, that's REAL sad.
Try getting spit on, called a "fucking Zionazi" etc, while daring to show up at a pro-Israel counter rally to some standard "Palestinian Solidarity" crap being held in Berkeley. You got a bad email. Boo frickin hoo.
David
The kicker: I'm not Jewish, never had any Jewish relatives (and yes, I know this, the Church records go way back to medieval Switzerland. And the other part of the family, well, they've yet to find any WEST African Jews).
Posted by: David | Sep 2, 2004 6:54:26 PM
Well, I'd assume the first is either someone who's seen your ass, or a cretin. That may help a bit. I could readily attribute the second to a sweeping range of current GOP voters. We were handing out fortune cookies on the 4th of July parade, and the GOP HQ took one, wrapped, and threw it down a manhole. That act would be unimaginable to any of the Democrats I discussed it with. Some people are just different.
So, sorry I can't help you more.
Posted by: John Isbell | Sep 2, 2004 6:54:52 PM
It was Hugh Hewitt.
He made fun of you on his site.
This alerted the cretins who sent the letters.
Go kick Hugh's ass.
Or, better, imagine kicking Hugh's ass and write about it.
Posted by: MyGoodness | Sep 2, 2004 6:58:11 PM
"The kicker" in what way exactly?
Posted by: John Isbell | Sep 2, 2004 7:01:19 PM
you deserve an ass-whooping!
Who among us doesn't, really?
Posted by: alkali | Sep 2, 2004 7:09:02 PM
I cited your comment, so it's possible one followed a link from my site. I sincerely hope that was not the case--I don't think I wrote anything inflammatory in that way--but I extend my apologies if it was.
I think you deserve to be corrected, not beaten--I'd imagine you think the same of me--and it's entirely out of bounds to send you a threat of any kind.
My sympathies, and best wishes.
Posted by: Jon Henke | Sep 2, 2004 7:14:48 PM
Matt, I don't know who would do that, or what weapons they may have, but I'm sure, when we've made Iraq democratic, you will be safer.
Posted by: epistemology | Sep 2, 2004 7:35:28 PM
Anybody who thinks thuggery is restricted to one party is a cretin. Go read the archives in the StarTribune from July and you'll read a story of a Fourth of July Parade in a Minneapolis suburb in which a dog which was festooned with Buysh/Cheney material by it's owner was repeatedly kicked by an oh-so-civil Democrat. And really, it is unheard of for thugs belonging to labor unions to take a swing at somebody who has the temerity to deviate from the party line. Yes, yes, thuggery only resides among Republicans. Really.
Posted by: Will Allen | Sep 2, 2004 7:37:16 PM
"If anyone (especially one of my regular, and yet non-violent, critics from the right) has any insight into who sent these delightful individuals my way, I'd appreciate it."
I sent them all.
Seriously though, being a journalist puts you in the public eye, and you'd better grow a thicker skin. You sound like a pathetic whiner. And why would any right wing commentors know who sent them? You really think we are a big conspiracy all interconnected like?
Anyway, the guy said "Cheers", that means he isn't serious.
Posted by: Reg | Sep 2, 2004 7:39:43 PM
Actually, the Cheers may make him British, in which case he may really want to beat your ugly ass.
You know, these "Right wing thugs are scaring me" posts have been the most entertaining thing you've posted in a year.
Posted by: Reg | Sep 2, 2004 7:41:15 PM
Matt:
I would be careful. The GOP is under the control of those who do not believe in the two party system. Suppression of opposing views is part of the process we are undergoing. Right now the intimidation is verbal, but as they make progress, it may well become physical.
If that happens, the first to be affected will be the less prominent journalists who can effectively articulate opposing viewpoints. Someone like you.
There are historical precedents for political evolutions such as this. Italy in the 1920s and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.
Posted by: Brad | Sep 2, 2004 7:43:34 PM
Did Matthew really just blame Hugh Hewitt for some hate email he got?
Sheeesh.
Posted by: Kevin Gregory | Sep 2, 2004 7:47:51 PM
LOL Brad, if that was parody, it was *hilarious*
Posted by: Blixa | Sep 2, 2004 7:48:49 PM
Yeah, be careful. Keep feeding your overinflated ego.
As if you're important enough to beat up.
sheesh.
David
Posted by: David | Sep 2, 2004 7:50:04 PM
you deserve an ass-whooping!
Matt, I would be interested to hear you address this remark in the context of the is/ought distinction.
Posted by: Tom T. | Sep 2, 2004 7:51:32 PM
We were handing out fortune cookies on the 4th of July parade, and the GOP HQ took one, wrapped, and threw it down a manhole. That act would be unimaginable to any of the Democrats I discussed it with.
That's because many of us Democrats, more aware of the value of a dollar, would never turn down free food.
Posted by: Constantine | Sep 2, 2004 7:54:51 PM
To the person who mentioned Chomsky above: Chomsky has not advocated leftist violence in any form before.
Word is on campus (I go to MIT) that he staged a sit-in in our ROTC building when protesters threatened to burn it down in the 1960's.
Dude is a pacifist.
Posted by: Marc | Sep 2, 2004 7:57:46 PM
As far as generating a little heat, I just gotta say that I came back from Tapped and ole man Meyerson demonstrated a little fearlessness. A frigging pleasure to read. Whew! Hope you're watching, when he and Kuttner decide to kick, butts go concave.
Course, you are closer, could be that not a single Republican in the world speaks to these guys. Maybe you don't want that. Hey Matt, 50 million Dems, and a whole bunch of Europeans would remain available.
Posted by: bob mcmanus | Sep 2, 2004 8:05:20 PM
I was wondering where all the attack monkies were coming from. Did he link Hit & Run too? Because there's a lot of trolls there all of a sudden.
Posted by: some guy | Sep 2, 2004 8:06:00 PM
Milk this... for all its worth!
Posted by: Carleton | Sep 2, 2004 8:12:18 PM
