Original post below:
Spending the last hour doing searches into something written over at PUMA PAC, it is apparent that there is some concern about death threats from Barack Obama supporters against Hillary Clinton supporters.
For the record, I am a conservative that is backing John McCain. I was never a Hillary supporter and had much criticism for her up until about six months before the Democratic primaries ended where I developed a grudging respect for her ability to fight against the bias, the unfair news coverage and the general misogyny I saw leveled against her and her 18 million supporters. I might not agree with her policy stances, but that in no way takes away from the grudging admiration I came to have for her as a woman and a politician.
With that said...
There are number of Hillary Clinton supporters that refuse to vote for Barack Obama, some willing to sit out the election, others preparing to vote for John McCain and still others that continue their valiant battle to force a roll call vote in at the Democratic convention to be held in August, wanting her name to in nomination so the superdelegates actually have a choice to publicly state who they support.
All the Hillary supporters listed above are the subject of this post.
Many are reporting that they are receiving death threats from Barack Obama supporters and the list that PUMA PAC has published is still growing.
Senator Obama’s supporters asked Hillary Clinton to publicly distance herself from a long-time Hillraiser fundraiser and loyal supporter, Ricki Lieberman, who is working day and night to save our party from a landslide loss in November by highlighting the weaknesses of Obama the candidate. Senator Clinton promptly complied.
Perhaps we should ask Senator Obama to “distance” himself from his supporters who are threatening women who oppose him with death? What do YOU think HIS response will be?
THE OBAMA MOVEMENT’S CALL FOR DEATH TO WOMEN WHO OPPOSE HIM WATCH
So far, my list includes these women. If you have received threats of violence or death from Obama supporters because of your political activities or writing, or you know someone who has, please tell us in comments. Also send me an email at murphy@pumapac.org
* Riverdaughter of the Confluence
* Digby
* Diane at JSND
* Murphy at Puma PAC
* Paula Abeles
* Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee
* Patsy, Soldier For Hillary
* Sugar from PA
* IP from Puma PAC
* Heidi Li of the Denver Group
One of those names on the list is Representative Sheila Jackson, a Democrat that refused to "fall in line" and back Barack Obama after the primaries were over.
In looking further into this, I found many other references to these death threats.
For example, on the Hillary Clinton Forum, there is a thread titled, " I'm getting very disturbed by these death threats to Hillary supporters - should authorities be notified?"
In the following comments, there are people claiming they too have received death threats because of their continued support for Hillary and their opposition to Obama.
Doug Ross points out that there are others having the same problem.
Via Hillary's My Girl08:
One evening I received a phone call another death threat and then shortly after my son came in and yelled fire. Someone set my tree on fire. The fire department said the fire was arson.
I do not know if Senator Obama realizes that his followers are giving death threats to all sorts of people. I do not know if Senator Obama realizes that he needs to keep his cultists under control. I am not afraid of Death Threats I have faced several in my life including some of my own making. I also battled cancer and I am in the middle of battling Obesity. These threats only make me more determined to stop this man he is dangerous and I am not afraid.
It would be very easy for Barack Obama to get in front of this and simply, publicly denounce those types of threats and let the weight of it fall to only those making the threats.
I am still going through the variety of sites and have not seen other specific examples, so to any Hillary Clinton supporters that have received death threats or any threat for that matter, please either forward the email, with the complete header to wakeupamerica.spree@gmail.com or simply copy and paste everything into the comment section of this post and I will add them as an update to the original piece.
Secondly, if you have been threatened offline, please describe those threats in the comment section.
Last but not least.
If you receive a threat offline, report it to the authorities immediately to make sure there is a public record and if the threats are made online, you should immediately contact your local FBI office, either by Internet Form or a phone call, both of which you can find here at the FBI contact page.
Barack Obama cannot be held directly responsible for the acts of some unhinged supporter(s), but he does need to publicly denounce those types of threats and he needs to do it fast.
[Update] A reader emails:
Riverdaughter at the Confluence also posted today (on the July 17th thread that SM77 started) that Brad, who was the husband of a PUMA and was going to film a documentary, was accosted by an Obama supporter. Here is her post:
riverdaughter, on July 17th, 2008 at 7:13 pm Said:I just saw Brad about half an hour ago. He’s the independent filmmaker who shot Darragh and me in Princeton the other night. He said he was assaulted when he was in Princeton this afternoon. Some woman saw him talking to us and asked him what he has against Obama. He told her nothing, he just thought Hillary would have been better. But he’s not a PUMA. Then she deliberately knocked over his tripod and broke it and nearly broke the camera that was on it.
He was pissed.
Way to go, Barack. Train your thugs to beat up on poor defenseless camera equipment. Very expensive equipment BTW.
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