Crossposted at Brendan calling
“I’ve had four or five months of people sitting outside my home, going into my garden in San Francisco and angering my neighbors,” Pelosi said at a gathering sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.
Pelosi added that the squatters have engaged in decidedly non-neighborly behavior like hanging their clothes from the trees; moving in sofas, chairs and other “permanent living facilities”; and, oddly, building a large Buddha on the sidewalk in front of her home. “You can just imagine my neighbors’ reactions to all of this,” she said. “And if they were poor, and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they’d be arrested for loitering, but because they have ‘impeach Bush’ across their chest, it’s the First Amendment.”
Poor, poor, poor Nancy Pelosi, besieged by angry peasants who want to hold her to account. And to think, after all she’s done: taking impeachment off the table, letting right wing idiots like Steny Hoyer and Rahm Emmanuel call the shots in the House, folding on FISA, refusing to enforce subpoenas, REFUSING TO END THE FUCKING WAR LIKE SHE PROMISED. You’d figure people would be showering her with roses and jelly-beans. Not.
Could the contempt for ordinary Americans and those less-fortunate be any clearer? “And if they were poor, and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they’d be arrested for loitering”: What a truly remarkable statement from the Speaker of the House. It makes you almost forget there was a time when Democrats stood up for the poor and disenfranchised: the Speaker sounds more like Barbara Bush than the top official in the People’s House: “Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”
Yes, if they were simply “poor, and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they’d be arrested for loitering”, because that’s how you deal with those people, isn’t it? You have them arrested so the Beautiful People won’t have to look at them, or God forbid, smell their appalling body odor.
And even better account can be found at the Washington Post (thanks to a commenter at Huffington for mentioning it):
“We have to make responsible decisions in the Congress that are not driven by the dissatisfaction of anybody who wants the war to end tomorrow,” Pelosi told the gathering at the Sofitel, arranged by the Christian Science Monitor. Though crediting activists for their “passion,” Pelosi called it “a waste of time” for them to target Democrats. “They are advocates,” she said. “We are leaders.”
Actually, Nancy, you’re not really not doing much in the way of “leading” at all: what you’re doing is obstructing the wishes of your party’s base, angering your constituents, and breaking promises left and right. You’re giving away the farm to BushCo: that’s not leadership AT ALL.
You know who the real leaders are Nancy? It’s those dirty fucking hippies “advocates” camped out on your sidewalk. It’s the people like me who call your office every single day. It’s the bloggers and netroots who are indeed targeting the most worthless of the Democrats for primaries. They’re the leaders who are holding your feet to the fire and making a public example out of your treachery, and you don’t like that one bit, do you? Because you know how the game works: lead, follow, or get out of the way. So give them some respect: it’s not like YOU spent the summer in a ditch in Crawford Texas. It’s not like YOU have children fighting in Iraq. It’s not like YOU don’t have any health insurance. It’s not YOU who’s facing foreclosure.
So if you’re wondering why the Democrat Party (and I use that term deliberately) can’t seem to keep any of its 2006 promises, if you’re wondering why Karl Rove and Harriet Miers are walking free, if you’re wondering why the war goes on with no end in sight (when anyone who’s been paying attention knows Congress has the power of the purse), if you’re wondering why the President’s illegal spying shenanigans have been allowed to operate unimpeded, if you’re wondering why the Democrat-controlled Congress is on the verge of legalizing those same illegal wiretapping shenanigans, if you’re wondering why Congress is more interested in condemning a citizen’s advocacy group than passing meaningful legislation that reins in President 28%, you really don’t have to look much further than Nancy “I’m a LEADER” Pelosi.
You’re a leader in name only Nancy: a more accurate description would be “roadblock”.
Well said. The vast majority of these congresscritters have no clue anymore what it’s like to live a life outside of their privileged, fetid Beltway Bubble.
What if she was your next-door neighbor? Why do these neighbors and this neighborhood deserve this stuff?
the point is, it will be a cold day in hell before someone making my income would ever be one of her neighbors.
The point is that her neighbors have nothing to do with it – their homes, their privacy, their well-being are considered nothing more than collateral damage in the greater war on terrible representation, from the squatters’ perspective.
Man, that sounds familiar…
you are equating the situation that Pelosi’s neighbors are facing with the people in Iraq? wow.
A callous disregard for others with an eye toward accomplishing a mission that can not possibly be accomplished? I’d say there’s a bit of correlation there.
This kind of moronic SHIT is just stupid. Nancy isn’t there. She’s in Washington, but the protestors are TOO STUPID to realize it.
There is a public space and there is a private space. Just because you are on the public payroll does not allow people to camp in your front yard.
And the neighbors have rights, too.
If they were really harming those people, they would be arrested. You just don’t believe in protest. I guess, MLK had a callous disregard for Montgomery business people and their costumers.
I suppose if you consider the refusal to ride the bus to be a callous disregard for the Montgomery bus company and its customers then you might have a point…
The civil rights movement NEVER protested private homes. Bull Connor never had protestors at his house. People protested at the courthouse, they marched, but private homes were ALWAYS respected.
Only white protesters have that sense of entitlement that allows them to pull this sort of stunt. No one is being persuaded, only irritated. No one will be recruited to the movement because of this.
If the point of this is to end the war, then it is counter-productive. If the point of this is just to Act Out, then they are doing very well.
Enough is enough. We should be protesting congressional offices. We should be protesting in front of the American Enterprise Institute and Brookings. We should be protesting the offices of Exxon, Shell, and their trade association. We should be protesting the offices of Patton Boggs and the Rendon Group. But private homes are off limits.
There is a public zone where the politicians must be confronted. There is a private zone where they deserve, as any human being, a moment of privacy.
If you saw Newt Gingrich sitting at a table next to yours eating lunch, would you
Only a moron and a very rude and poorly behaved person would do ANY of 1, 2, or 3. The ONLY reasonable behavior is 4)
picket in front of the resturant!
The constitution doesn’t say they are off limits, and there were more than a few protests at the mansions of Southern Governors. Protesting at there little shacks didn’t stop them from protesting other venues. Your peevishness is silly and is nothing but faux populism, like the kind Nancy tries to represent when she brings up homeless people she fails to protect.
Just cut it out already and read some Thoreau and some Gandhi!
Gandhi’s followers inconvenienced train passengers by laying down in front of them, and King inconvenienced commuters with his march to Selma. Closing down a bridge for at-least a day. He also encouraged the Memphis garbage workers to strike, allowing garbage to pile up for months.
You don’t know me, you don’t know what I have read. Please show me where in My Experiments with Truth Ghandi wrote about protesting in front of someone’s home.
The Governor’s Mansion is no more a private home than the White House.
Were their civil rights demonstrations in front of John Stennis’ house? Either in Mississippi or Washington, DC? Of course not. Such things were not done.
Neither did the Free South Africa movement ever indulge in such tantrums. They demonstrated in front of the SA Embassy (or 100 feet from it, as was required by law.) They had a sit down demonstrated at Deak Perrera. They demonstrated in front of IBM. But they never demonstrated at anyone’s private home.
We need to draw lines. Our outrage does not justify outrageous behavior.
There are any number of bahaviors traditional protesters commonly engage in that can be construed as rude or outrages, but go blather on.
I suppose sitting at the Woolworths lunch counter wasn’t a violation to state law? Hmm, how did they get arrested then? How did King write his letters from jail if he never violated the law?
The sit down strike was at the Woolworth counter, not the private homes of Woolworth management. It is possible to be confrontational without being personal.
That is your completely arbitrary rule, you could set other arbitrary rules about not breaking laws. I don’t think protesting in front of the house violates her privacy. Like it or not a governers mansion is a politicians home, but set the goal post there.
The discrimination occurred at the lunch counter. So, having a sit-down strike at the lunch counter was perfectly sensible.
They did not have a sit-down strike in the kitchen of the home of the Woolworth’s manager. That would have been wrong, stupid and counter-productive. Yet, this is what many, such as yourself, are advocating. Ridiculous.
They did hold up commuters on the march to Selma. So I guess the commuters were hostages. They did allow garbage to pile up in Memphis, so I guess the people of Memphis were hostages.
These protesters are idiots, and they are childish. They are just pissing off civilians. It’s like a bunch of people taking hostages, and saying, “We will hold these hostages until you do what we want.”
It’s exactly the same. They are holding her neighborhood and her neighbors hostage.
Well King was holding the commuters on the Selma bridge hostage, and Gandhi was holding train passengers hostage.
If not, why not? You clearly see no difference between a public space and a private space. Pissing in public should be a RIGHT, god damn. FREE THE PISS!!!
holy and pure since you have no money.
i kiss your feet, Oh wise one.
yep, cuz that’s exactly what I said above.
It’s clear that you have no ability to debate this without attacking people with opposing viewpoints, so I’ll be bowing out now. Have fun.
what intolerable stuff are they getting? Free speech. What if Bull Conor were your neighbor, would blacks have no right to protest him, because you are going to be too damaged if you see it?
Look. Do we really need this kind of attack on Democrats? That’s what we got from the 2006 elections. Call it Bush Lite or Republican Lite, but that is what it is. It is what Hillary is running on. It is what Bill recommends.
However, as long as Pelosi’s hair dresser is not complaining, keep the vigil going if only for the Left, even though there’s no way Pelosi and the others are going take on Iraq or Iran. Keep it in Bush’s court until 2008 until a Democrat (Hillary) can get blamed for it.
I never thought I’d say this, but Pelosi bothers me more than Hillary now. Back in January, I had a very good opinion of Pelosi. Since then, she has made it clear that she has more contempt for her base than Hillary does.
With Hillary, I get the sense that her attitude to her base is partly ironic. But Pelosi has open disdain. And she comes from such a liberal district!
I really hope Cindy Sheehan gives her a run for her money. Pelosi is a very good representative of what is wrong with today’s Democratic Party.
If her district sees the kind of blithering moron camping out in front of Nancy’s house, they will be less liberal in a very short time.
There is nothing like a bunch of dirty protesters in front of YOUR house to convert your politics in a hurry. After all, her neighbors did not get elected speaker. They just bought a house.
yeah!
put all those dirty
protesters in a cage where they belong!
freedom’s on the march
NOt only thatl, but I’d play something tasty at 200 db 24/7.
Plus call the cops on these morons as often as possible.
Since you advocate free speech zones, why have you and your neocon friends strayed so far from freak republican? http://www.freerepublic.com
Nancy Pelosi and all politicians deserve a zone of privacy. It is NOT REASONABLE to camp out in front of her house. Can you imagine if you were a pol? That would be intolerable. After all, regardless of WHAT you believe, there are 1,000,000 nuts out there who believe that you are wrong, and many are armed.
We should have a zone of privacy behind which a person could be a normal person.
If these morons and blithering idiots who are camping out think that these childish and INCREDIBLY stupid tactics help, they are seriously incorrect.
That this particular protest is counterproductive is quite true.
The idea that she deserves a “zone of privacy” after her party, under her leadership, deprived us of a zone of privacy by caving to Bush on wiretapping is, however, the most egregious horseshit imaginable.
A million potentially armed nuts who believe she’s wrong? How many verifiably armed nuts are in Iraq shooting at the soldiers she abandoned for political convenience?
I’m not going to feel bad for Nancy Pelosi because a handful of people are annoying her and her neighbors. Seriously, cry me a fucking river.
I would rate this a four if it weren’t for the first sentence.
Wiretapping, last I checked, is not done by a bunch rude morons sitting in a front yard. What the fuck do the protestors have to do with wiretapping?
Try, TRY, to be pertinent. Protestors do not do wiretapping.
I sure as hell hope that you live next door to a famous person some day. That would be a fitting thing.
I’m being perfectly pertinent; it is you who are being almost comically obtuse.
My point, in a short sentence with small words is this: When Nancy Pelosi signed away our rights, she signed away her own.
I sure as hell hope that you live next door to a famous person some day.
I’m living right now without substantial parts of my Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eight Amendment rights. Once again, cry me a fucking river.
Let me try to orange your slivovitw with a trolley.
There – that’s at your level.
Your logic is right there with Rush.
And you still have your rights. Don’t be so self-indulgent. You’re just wallowing in self-pity. It is pretty pathetic. Next, you’ll be complaining about the food.
peacefull protest that hasn’t caused a disturbance, except in some elist assholes tranquil lifestyles, in four or five months?!
where’s her condemnation of the batshit crazy reichwing stalking of the frost’s…rumoured to have originated in mitch mcconnell’s office.
or the dittohead assault on votevets?
there are a hell of a lot of angry wingers out there, and they’re generally well armed, and a damn sight more dangerous than peaceful protesters in a public right-of-way.
bite me nancy…you can’t have it both ways…hypocrite.
you need rebooted DATA
toot sweet.
I’d also play music at 125 db 24/7.
Whatever her faults or assets, I tend to believe that if folks were camped out in front of my house for half a year or so then I might get a bit perturbed about it too. Out in Frisco I suppose there are limited options towards resolving the issue of squatters, but down round here we have this thing called Posted Property…
let’s get really, really real here… the country is going to hell in a turbo-charged handbasket, our constitution is in tatters, our foreign policy is a disaster, we have criminals occupying the white house continuing to push forward the silent coup of 12 december 2000, we torture, we secretly rendition and detain in black sites, we spy on citizens domestically, we have democrats in charge of BOTH houses of congress who are enabling the mess to continue, and the speaker of the house is annoyed about being INCONVENIENCED…! excuse the hell out of me… tough shit, madame speaker…
Three days after the election I had this desire to see an icepick in Nancy’s left eye.
Implimenting the recommendations of the whitewash 911 commission. That was in her thank you letter.
Fuck you Nancy.
with the folks camping out in Pelosi’s neighborhood.
Nancy Pelosi has been a miserable, cowardly failure as Speaker. But you won’t make her any better by acting like a moron.
I think protesting in front of someone’s home is way out of line. That is what the regional office is for.
sorry i’m late in the comments, after work responsibilities and all that.
I feel a little bad in retrospect about lobbing such a broadside, but you know, the tone of these comments just rubbed me so badly. and it’s not like there’s this record i can point to underneath and say “well, ok it was a bad day” (i’ve done that with people like pat murphy who’s generally been a good progressive voice with one or two exceptions).
and maybe someone like Hoyer deserves more of the blame for being such a sellout shit, but dammit when you’ve let so many people down in so many ways, you have no right to get all bitchy about justified anger.
You are elected Representative. It’s a job, it’s not a religion. You go to work IN WASHINGTON or AT YOUR OFFICE.
These fucking morons HAVE NO RIGHT to go to her house. Of course, she can’t arrest them: SPEAKER CALLS POLICE ON PROTESTORS – hoooo booy.
But the lines between the PUBLIC SPACE WHERE SHE WORKS and the private space where she, her neighbors, her kids her mother and everyone else lives should be off limits.
She did not join a religious order. She just got elected.
What do you feel about protestors camping in front of abortion doctors houses? How about people camping in front of the houses of people on the Sex Crimes list? Why not just put a FUCKING YELLOW STAR on her door?
One, abortion doctors are private citizens not politicians, two those kind of protest generally result death threats. The reason she would be rightfully scandalized over it, is that it violates free speech. Also if she cared about the homeless she would really do something to stop their abuse. I don’t see it happening.
I suspect you are a party enforcer, trying to get everyone to only engage in political action through the useless unreformable dems and the assinine two party dictatorship. I am disenfranchises, and I won’t go to the back of the bus, no more.
Reading the full post I agree with you that the tone of her comments was regrettable but I do think she and her neighbours have a right to be annoyed. What would your neighbours do if all those frustrated legislative aides started to camp outside your house protesting your phone calls.
It isn’t a function of all the things that Pelosi has let us down on it is a function both of manners and of choosing an effective protest. I get it as a parallel for the protest outside of GWB’s ranch but this is different for a number of reasons including that they are not protesting her being on vacation.
As I mentioned earlier I am not as upset with Pelosi herself as many in these parts are. I think she is doing the best she can with the caucus she has and the president we all have.
Well, after a period of time, they BOUGHT that land outside of Bush’s ranch. There were no neighbors who lived within ear/eye shot, so I don’t think its the same.
I agree with you about Pelosi. She is doing as well as possible under a very difficult situation. Many here seem to consider the Dems to have the whip hand. I do not. The majority is very thin, and depends on about 14-18 who won last cycle in Repukeliscum districts. We cannot lose those seats.
This would make me seriously crazy. I have a garden. It’s my garden, I paid for it. You have no right to go in it, outside of my invitation.
This thing where no one in public life has a private life reminds me of the scene in Dr. Zhivago where Zhivago is on the train with Strelnikov, the fanatical Red military leader. Zhivago asks about Strelnikov’s wife, Lara. Strelnikov says, “In Russia now, the private life is dead.”
Is that the case in the US? Is the private life dead? If so, gawd help us.
and since doing so would be illegal, then what you want bet she lied about it.
Dude, what property rights extremist planet are you from? This woman’s actions as Speaker of the House have contributed to thousands of deaths, and you’re worried about her inalienable right to her petunias? Oh sure, getting people maimed and killed is just her job, but people trampling on her immaculately manicured lawn is the freaking end of American civilization?
Talk about screwed up priorities.
Eh?
WHy not just shoot her and get it over with?
True, she is as evil as Hitler, and twice as ugly as Stalin, but still I contend that you guys should NOT shoot her.
protest is the same as shooting her? What the fuck planet are you on? Maybe I should ask about the drugs takin?
Would someone zero this jerk?
I really dislike your strategy of troll-rating for disagreement. It’s a violation of policy. You should not troll-rate because you disagree with people.
No I am troll-rating for personal attacks, and making strawman aguments, and for no supporting the constitution in any meaningful sense.
Yeah, I agree, personal attacks are very bad indeed.
Geez…
neocon is a political term, that describes a fair number of people who call themselves dems. Idiot is an insult.
Straight from the Limbaugh playbook. Excellent adaptation.
Hey, roll back some of those troll rating. I will do the same. We can disagree in a less nasty way.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
I have fixed two. I am waiting for your response. they went from troll to warning.
wow…it’s been over six months since we’ve had a rating war. I forgot they exist.
I hope you two can resolve your differences amicably.
You’re right that troll rating should not given out solely on the basis of disagreement. You’re wrong that they cannot be given out for perceived prickishness.
but I had concluded that.
Fine. Troll-rate for disagreement. However, note that this is not allowed.
I have noted that you have troll-rated about 6 people here. Most are just troll-rated because they disagree with you. That’s a violation of the posting rules.
I am referring to your rhetorical style.
This StrayRoots person has troll-rated about 15 comments here, in each case for disagreeing with him/her.
I thought that this sort of this was frowned upon.
Plus it is naughty, naughty, naughty.
Yeah I noticed that, how wanktastic of him.
Not nearly as wankerish as being opposed to protesting. Really, I am not going to take it anymore. Voting has accomplished nothing. It probably won’t accomplish anything in the future, given who the leading candidates are. Demonizing anti Iraq war protesters, is no different from demonizing civil rights protesters. The framers didn’t give rights only to fucking political parties! They gave rights to citizens.
What you’re talking about is invasion of privacy and trespass. I’ve been protesting since Vietnam.
Going to an elected official’s house is something entirely different.
Seeing that Nance really has no problem with arresting poor people for sleeping on the sidewalk it follows, doesn’t it, that if these picketers were entering her private property she would have them arrested. Just because she says they’re going into her garden doesn’t mean they actually are. You know, she’s said a lot of things lately that turn out not to be true or actually intended.
You clearly know NOTHING about politicians. She couldn’t have them arrested. Can you imagine the headlines? Obviously not. Politicians have very little power to deal with others. If she had them arrested, Rush Limbaugh would immediately take all the anti-Pelosi comments on this blog and make them himself. Most of the anti-Pelosi statements on this blog are “red-state ready (TM)” in fact.
So, what you’re really saying is that she’s a calculating coward, correct? Like the poor people she despises she could have the protestors arrested but it would look bad, right? It’s better to go all huffy puffy to a bunch of reporters, yes, instead of saying what you mean and doing what you say? Jesus, I’m confused, guy.
I wish I could use a rocket launcher against my nieghbors who insist on firing up all kinds of loud machinery at 8:00 every Sunday morning or who’s landscapers block my driveway and park on my lawn, but you know, in a civilised society there are certain things we tolerate as a consequence of the rights we’re supposedly afforded. So I cut them some slack. Im’ sure the soldiers who are freaked out and dying in the streets and deserts of Iraq are mighty grateful that SOMEONE is standing up for them instead of whining about their flower beds or the sensibilities of their neighbors.
One last question for you. Do you also oppose having group homes for the disabled and mentally challenged in your neighborhood? Seriously. Are they inconvenient too?
No, I don’t oppose group homes, unless they are poorly run and damage the property values.
However, just as in the Soviet Union, we have a choice. Either the private life is dead (your position) or humans deserve a private zone (my position). You have to decide: totalitarianism or simple courtesy.
over the top yet, again. Nobody is breaking into her house.
The area in front of her house and her neighborhood is not private. It is the street, or public space. When she leaves her house she is in public, same goes for her neighbors.