Dubious accusations of violence against union activists

Perhaps you've heard of Kenneth Gladney. He's the guy who claims that those wicked union thugs beat him up for daring to oppose Obama's evil socialist agenda (you know, stuff like ensuring that everyone can get health care). Thing is, there's a video of part of the confrontation, which calls Mr. Gladney's account into question:



Via Media Matters. Note that the guy lying on the ground at the beginning is not Gladney, but an SEIU member. Note too that Gladney doesn't appear to be hurt in the video, yet according to Crooks and Liars he showed up at a press conference in a wheelchair. Now sure, it's possible that one of the SEIU activists started the confrontation (since the video doesn't catch the beginning) but there's certainly no more reason to believe this than there is to believe that Gladney started it. I suspect less, because union activists know they're not going to be cut much slack. And even if it turns out that some SEIU person did start this, it's clear that Gladney wants to milk this for all it's worth, as do his fellow conservatives. And the wheelchair stunt suggests that he's not one to let the truth get in the way of a good story.

But it falls to Blaque to point out the most delicious irony. Gladney's right wing buddies are taking up a collection, because he doesn't have health insurance! You'd think that might make them reconsider their position...

More right wing craziness

Now they're inciting violence:

Based on the news that health care events are edging into violence, an anti-health care reform protester in New Mexico named Scott Oskay is calling on his hundreds of online followers to bring firearms to town halls, and to 'badly hurt' SEIU and ACORN counter protesters.

Not an isolated incident, either. They're calling SEIU and leaving threatening voicemails:

"I suggest you tell your people to calm down, act like American citizens, and stop trying to repress people's First Amendment rights," said Diana. "That, or y'all are gonna come up against the Second Amendment. Stop the violence."

Source. As a commenter there says, there's a pathological degree of projection in that statement; you can be assured that if SEIU, ACORN, or any left-leaning organization was actually getting violent, the crackdown would be huge. But when these brownshirts start uttering threats and urging others to "badly hurt" people, where's the response?

Lest anyone think I'm singling out the Americans unfairly, we have some pretty loopy folks up here too. For instance:

Recently, outspoken advocate, former Neepawa mayor, newspaper publisher and PC party member Ken Waddell figured out what he said was the reason for increased crime. He claimed that across the province, you can take crime stats maps and overlay them with an election map with a high degree of accuracy.

The low crime areas are in PC constituencies while the high crime areas are ruled by NDP.

“Is it only a coincidence?” he asks. “Could it be that the criminal element knows how to support the NDP and could it be that the NDP leadership knows not to go too hard on crime?”

Obviously this theory is about as crackpot as they come. In fact suggesting the NDP government is somehow in bed with the criminal element, who gets their gangster friends to vote NDP, with an organized push to stay soft on crime, would be slander if it wasn’t too ludicrous to ever be taken seriously.

From the Altona Red River Valley Echo. You know it's a crackpot theory when even a small town paper, owned by Sun Media no less, calls it for what it is.