Everyone agrees that a man’s finger was bitten off during a health care reform rally. But U.S. politics being what they are, the facts of who bit whom and who is at fault are hotly contested.
So far, mainstream media and liberal bloggers agree that a pro-reform rallyer was moving through or near a group of anti-reform rallyers to get to the pro-reform group when he was savagely attacked by an anti-reform rallyer, and that in the scuffle the pro-reform guy bit off the finger of the anti-reform guy. Chris Good at the Atlantic quotes from eyewitness accounts, one from the blog DrumsnWhistles (which is a bit slow to open, probably because it’s being slammed with hits):
The man in the orange shirt hit the pro-reform guy (I’m going to call him PR Guy just to keep the players straight). Hard. … He punched him in the face, knocked him to the ground and into that thruway. As you can see from the photo, cars drive straight through that without stopping. The pro-reform guy could have been run over. He got up, tried to get back up on the curb, but Orange Shirt guy was in his face. Finger in his face, PR Guy standing, steps up to the curb, and there’s a scuffle. Orange shirt seemed to have PR Guy in a hold, but again, I was across the street, so won’t state that as absolute fact. Next thing I see is PR Guy’s hat being tossed into the street, both yelling at one another, then Orange shirt walks away, PR Guy picks up hat and crosses to our side.
When he gets to our side, he tells a story in one sentence: “He punched me hard, straight in the face, so I bit his finger off.”
Honestly, I thought he was exaggerating. I guess he wasn’t.
This is the only photo I could find, which apparently is a shot of the anti-reform group taken from across the street by someone with the pro-reform group. The guy in the orange shirt is either the victim or the perpetrator, depending on who you believe. The pro-reform rally was sponsored by Moveon, which has issued a statement deploring violence.
Right-wing commentators are already in full-scale whiny victim mode, as if the pro-reform guy suddenly and without provocation leaped across the street and bit a finger off an innocent and peacefully protesting anti-reform guy. This from the alleged advocates of “personal responsibility.”
However, one rightie site is going with the story that it was the Moveon member who crossed the street and attacked a peaceful, minding-his-own-business anti-reform protester, and that it was the Moveon member who lost his finger. “Police reports concur that the Obama supporter moved across the street into the group of protesters,” says Politics Daily. However, the link anchored to the word “concur” went to a news story that said nothing of the sort.
Anyway, the Politics Daily headline is “Protester Bites off Finger of Obama Supporter at Health Care Rally,” which is the opposite of what the sources the article links to say happened. But some rightie bloggers are dutifully picking up the Politics Daily version of who bit whom and are complaining how everyone else is getting the facts wrong.
And have I saved a screen grab of the Politics Daily page for posterity? You betcha.
KTLA News of Los Angeles assures us the 65-year-old who lost his finger is being treated via Medicare.
I do not approve of biting people’s fingers off except in self-defense. However, I hope I live long enough to see the day when a right-winger actually takes responsibility for his own actions. I know; when pigs fly.
Update:
By tomorrow morning, if not already, there will be more separate and conflicting eyewitness reports of the incident than there were people present at the incident. However, I wanted to repeat this bit from an interview with the man who was bitten, who admits he threw the first punch. He said the PR guy (who was from Code Pink) had called him an idiot:
Although he did not plan to protest Wednesday, Rice said, he’s opposed to government involvement in general, except for mail service and the military.
“It doesn’t have any business in anybody’s healthcare,†he said.
Rice acknowledged he used the Medicare he gets as a senior when he went to the hospital Wednesday. He said it was the first time he used the program, to which he remains adamantly opposed.
“If I had any other options, I would not have used it, even though I pay for it,†he said.
And someone called him an idiot. Imagine.
OK, so, we’ve gone from finger-pointing to finger-biting.
This is just the beginning of the menu for what will be going on soon.
Appetizer: Clammed-up CIA, where lies are smothered in a broth of fine whine and herbs.
Salad: A mix of veggie opratives smothered in a bipartisan cover-up dressing.
Dinner: A choice of –
we’ll have ‘Road-kill Liberal.’ A fine stew of meat left over from those shot at rallies.
Dessert: A Torrist-misu – alchohol marinated fingers of brown people.
Salad:
I predict a headline in the near future wil be:
Republicans strongly object to President Obama breathing!
Do you not visit TPM? The Pro-Reform guy got punched in the face, bit the finger off the guy in retaliation then took off.
“Do you not visit TPM? The Pro-Reform guy got punched in the face, bit the finger off the guy in retaliation then took off.”
Isn’t that what I just said?
I had a Soylent Green joke all ready to go, and just couldn’t go through with it.
I mean, what sort of people are either one of those guys, with the face-punching and the finger-biting?
And yet… weighed against shootings at a Unitarian Church, a Democratic hq, or the Holocaust Museum, the Right really needs to stfu. As someone at Wonkette pointed out, the lost finger will only make it a little easier to pry the gun from the guy’s cold, dead hand.
Thanks again for running a great site, Maha!
A lot of conservatives think we liberals are all bark and no bite.
Think again.
Kidding aside, if/when I attend a rally, I will caution ‘my’ side to not antagonize any counter-demonstrators. And if there are any rational leaders ont he other side, I might suggest that there’s no benefit in anyone getting hurt – lets stay separated by mutual consent.
If the wingnuts are determined to have a confrontation, appeal to the cops to keep groups apart. This ties in to the ‘bigger asshole’ theory – don’t be the aggressor – but if you take a punch – have lunch.
Doug,
Lunch is too heavy after taking a punch. I like finger food…
Seriously, things are on the verge of getting out of control. I just wrote something about this on “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” I won’t repeat it here. I’m not proud of what I wrote. It’s more angry than what I usually write. But, it’s what I felt after I read about the incident here and on that site.
Ooops! It’s on “No More Mr. Nice Blog!” Maybe I shouldn’t have had that 2nd glass of wine…
cund gulag –
I read your other post and I agree – I’m not backing down. But as you said ‘Things are getting out of control.” Frankly. I’m concerned that something will set both sides off and there will be a full-blown riot with serious injuries. It won’t do anything to advance the cause, so let’s avoid it IF WE CAN.
Don’t let things get ‘out of control’ Be proactive – not reactive. Curb your own hotheads. (Sometimes that will be me.) But show up. Millions of people are counting on YOU to be the advocate of change.
drumsnwhistles has no credibility, at all.
The bloggers claims that the man in the orange shirt was the aggressor, victim, when he was only a bystander. The MoveOn.org goon attacked Bill Rice, a small 65-year-old retiree wearing green shorts and a khaki shirt.
The goon crossed the street, committed assault against a senior citizen, and them committed a felony (mayhem) by biting the guy’s finger off while he was trying to defend himself.
Looks like more anti-Obamacare protesters are going to be armed from now on, and with good reason.
Re “nonya” — I’ve already put this commenter in the sudden death filter to keep “it” from coming back. But I went ahead and approved this one comment for posting to illustrate what we’re up against.
“drumsnwhistles has no credibility, at all.
Translation: She says something righties don’t want to acknowledge is true. Therefore, they make their fallback argument — shoving their fingers in their ears, la la la I can’t hear you.
The goon crossed the street, committed assault against a senior citizen, and them committed a felony (mayhem) by biting the guy’s finger off while he was trying to defend himself.
No eyewitness or police reports say that, but Righties know the Truth, because they are Righties. Notice use of the word “goon.”
Looks like more anti-Obamacare protesters are going to be armed from now on, and with good reason.
Translation: The real goons, such as the commenter, want to use this as an excuse to commit more violence. And they want this because they are terrified and angry and stoked up by demagoguery, and I still say we’re going to be very, very lucky if no right-winger shows up at one of these demonstrations and opens fire on everybody.
Doug,
Believe me, I’m not advocating violence.
I”m not really sure yet what happened (thanks maha for scrubbing nonya). Regardless of who was at fault, where were the police? In Fayetteville, they were critical in keeping the peace. Our side had NO interest in violence, there’s was very interested.
If confronted, by nature, instinct and training, my inclination is to be a peacemaker. But, if that option is not there, if others near me are threatened, or I am, with my handicap I can no longer flee. So, left with no choice, I’ll try to give at least as good as I get.
I hate violence and will do anything to avoid it. But, the anger now seems to be approaching the boiling. Yes, it’s the job of the police to keep the peace. But it’s also ours – on both sides. Many on OUR side have been trained in peaceful resistance. How many on theirs? My guess is none.
Doug, let’s make a deal. You curb my ass, and I’ll curb yours. At least that’ll be two less assholes out there in any fracas. 🙂
“With good reason.”
And what’s been their reason up to now? Especially the already shooting and killing part?
Imbecility, moral weakness, and complete cowardice, that’s what. Qualities reflected in nonya’s comment.
My pinkie, my pinkie, my kingdom for a pinkie but I guess he has that terrible Medicare a “Single-payer health care insurance†what a hypocrite. Did the little pinkie cry “Wee-wee-wee!” all the way home? It real should have been his right pinky finger that would have been a better story. They are haters not debaters.
Verbal veces is flung all the time so this is no surprise.
Republican lobbyists must be gleeful at all the nonsense going on. Greed lives! The rank and file are suckers again! Or something like that.
But I look at what’s been going on for almost twenty years and it’s can be summarized with a brief sketch like this: Our country is something like a big two story house. A Democrat lives in one third of the house, an independent lives in another third and a right wing Republican lives in the last third. One day the house catches on fire. The Democrat is trying to put the fire out but he’s having trouble getting the other two to help. The Republican starts jumping and hollering and says he won’t help because the Democrat lives in one third of the house. The Democrat asks for help from the independent who helps for a couple of minutes while the Republican screams in his face about how bad Democrats are. The Democrat tries to be reasonable but the independent gives up because he’s tired of the Democrat and Republican arguing. The house is obviously in danger of burning down because it’s going to take at least two of them to put the fire out. The house burns down and the Republican gloats because he got his way.
Now obviously I’m exaggerating but there’s truth to the sketch. Barack Obama is a smart man but he needs to figure out how to break the cycle that’s been repeating itself for twenty years. You don’t figure it out by caving in to hollering and screaming.
“If I had any other options, I would not have used it, even though I pay for it,†he said.
HAHAHAHAHA! This isn’t just cognitive dissonance – it’s dissident cognizance. That’s when to you have some knowledge, but dissent against it.
What a dope… What a maroon…
Dissident cognizance — “That’s when to you have some knowledge, but dissent against it.”
Oh, that is brilliant, sir. Bravo.
So much for the right-wing meme. Bill Rice admits in an interview with CNN that he hit the other man in the face first, without the other man doing anything but yell at him.
Let’s see, we have “birf cirtifakut” hoaxes, “death panel” hoaxes, “black guy-mugged-me/backwards ‘B'” hoaxes. It’s all they’ve got. Are we certain the biter even exists?
In any case, I see an opportunity for the president here. Another round of beers in the WH gardens with Mr. Rice and Rahm Emanuel (in solidarity with his fingertipless brother man).
“So much for the right-wing meme. Bill Rice admits in an interview with CNN that he hit the other man in the face first, without the other man doing anything but yell at him.”
Righties will still think Rice’s punches were justified by the loss of his finger, even though the punches came first. The loss of the finger proved that Rice was right to punch the Code Pink/Moveon guy.
Maha said, “The loss of the finger proved that Rice was right to punch the Code Pink/Moveon guy.”
So that’s what they mean when they say the end justifies the means.
Ah, I see.
Effect ==> Cause.
Just another day in Wingnutland.
Some seniors revert to children, its part of the aging process (I guess he forgot to “Keep your hands to yourselfâ€). In the Neil Cavuto, interview he is a protestor but now they are trying to change the fact and say that he just innocent bystander. He makes two punches and (as usual) tries to shove something down someone’s throat and gets his pinkie bitten off, now they make him into a victim. Now the wingnuts have a new idol to worship, a new hero. Please, snore, snore.
All we have here is one side to the story, like many other immature men he just used physical violence because he was not able to articulate his position or use his brain to avoid one, never had the misfortune to be in a brawl myself, I only pity this man who felt the need to bunch his hand into someone’s mouth, so now all of you can claim he is something of a innocent victim. Walking away takes maturity some men have it others do not. What a pity.
He is trying to expand healthcare to everyone, so we do not have to pay the crazy prices for emergency room care, which all of us pay anyway. I agree with Montana, especially her pointing out that the old guy could have defused and controlled the situation by simply moving away but he seem very happy content with the attention and outcome. Could it be he wanted to be the new idol to be worship, a new hero whose poster will be going up in wingnuts closets around the country? Or it could be he just wanted others to claim he was a victim and be on TV (he was quick to run to “Fake Newsâ€).
We are already paying for emergency room care anyway for those without healthcare, it makes sense to me to cover everyone and not pay 10-20 times more for emergency room care. I agree with Montana, especially her pointing out that the old guy could have defused and controlled the situation by simply moving away but he seem very happy content with the attention and outcome. Could it be he wanted to be the new idol to be worship, a new hero whose poster will be going up in wingnuts closets around the country? Or it could be he just wanted others to claim he was a victim and be on TV (he was quick to run to “Fake Newsâ€).