Supreme Court Justices Received Poison Cookies

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor told a conference last week that the Justices had received poisoned cookies. She said there was enough arsenic in the cookies to kill all nine Justices. Fortunately, the Supreme Court staff intercepted the cookies and had them analyzed -- no one was hurt.

The cookies had come from a 60 year old woman in Connecticut. Last month she was sentenced to 15 years in prison. It turns out she had sent 14 different letters to different federal officials. All of the threatening letters contained either baked goods or candy that was laced with rat poison.

Last week, police in California arrested a man for sending government officials and some liberal celebrities threatening letters containing a suspicious white powder. The powder was later found to be harmless.

What makes these people think this kind of thing is appropriate? The answer is pretty obvious. It is an outgrowth of the vicious talk from the right-wing pundits. How many times have we heard wingnuts like Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh say liberals should be killed? Far too many times.

And they are not alone. A few days ago, Glen Beck asked a new congressman who happens to be muslim, to prove that he's not an enemy of the United States. This is outrageous behavior to decent people, but it must be OK for the major media outlets because they keep giving these people a forum for their hate-speech. Fox News, with its duo of Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, seems to think this kind of behavior is perfectly normal.

It might not be so bad if it was only the media talking heads, but many right-wing Republicans use the same kind of hate-speech in their campaigns. Even the president has said those who don't agree with him are traitors, and people who want the terrorists to win.

With America being bombarded with this hate-speech daily by the president and many other right-wingers, should we be surprised that some people will take them at their word, and commit violence against those they have been told are enemies?

I have nothing against hard-fought campaigns -- even dirty ones. But there is a line which should not be crossed. Labeling your countrymen who you disagree with as traitors or terrorists is over the line. Saying these people should be beaten or killed is over the line.

So far we have been lucky, but it is time to call these nuts out for their hate-speech, and make it clear that this behavior cannot be tolerated in a free society.

They are not only responsible for their own actions, but also the actions of their followers. It needs to stop before someone is killed.