Here's a sign that some conservative activism really has gotten out of hand: A Republican candidate for Congress went campaigning by shooting a gun at a target with the incumbent Dem Congresswoman's initials written next to it.
Robert Lowry, a businessman running against Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), stopped by a local Republican event that was held at a shooting range. Lowry stepped up to show his marksmanship, and fired at a human silhouette target -- with the letters "DWS" written next to the head.
Lowry later told the Sun-Sentinel that he did not know who wrote the letters next to the target, but that he did know they were there when he started shooting. After further questioning, he admitted it "was a mistake" to shoot at the target.
Florida's 20th District is a safe Democratic seat, which voted for Barack Obama by a margin of 63%-36%, and re-elected Wasserman Schultz by 76%-23% in 2008.
Late Update: It should also be noted that human-style targets were common at this event: "Though most of the targets of gunfire were standard gun-range fare -- large silhouettes of a human figure -- a few shooters used large color posters instead. They depicted a menacing figure, adorned in a kaffiyeh, the kind of headdress worn by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The person in the picture was holding a rocket-propelled grenade."
(Via Political Wire.)

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GTFOOH
October 9, 2009 3:10 PM
What a douch-bag
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JNagarya
October 9, 2009 5:53 PM in reply to GTFOOH
So there's no question about it:
Republicans are terrorists.
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Unmitigated Audacity
October 9, 2009 3:14 PM
Debbie's my Rep. While she is too wimpy by half on a lot of issues of concern to me, she will have no trouble routing this wackadoodle in the 2010 election.
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Matt Jones
October 9, 2009 3:21 PM
Well, it's an improvement on at least one front - they apparently were able to keep their impulses somewhat in check. I didn't see anything about a target featuring Obama in a kaffiyeh holding a watermelon, and you KNOW there were more than a handful there that wouldn't mind shooting at that...
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neesy08
October 9, 2009 4:10 PM in reply to Matt Jones
obama? why not a member of the gop? they think alike
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Winston Smith
October 9, 2009 3:39 PM
Hmmm...he could get his poll numbers up to the magic 29% with stunt like that.
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BluGrass
October 9, 2009 3:55 PM
I'm all for Democrats owning guns if they want, but any fool can see that letting Republicans own guns is like letting Jeffrey Dahmer own a sausage-maker.
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goethean
October 9, 2009 3:56 PM
Sounds like there's some blue eye-shadow in our future.
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billp
October 9, 2009 5:40 PM
Give Lowry a break. He's simply following the marching orders of the RNC and executing the current GOP Playbook:
1. Use apocalyptic rhetoric that exacerbates fear, bigotry and extremism among the uneducated and intolerant.
2. Counter any liberal criticism of your inflammatory calls for action by saying they can't take a joke.
3. Keep turning up the heat and act surprised when somebody finally heeds your calls for extreme action.
4. Be sure to maintain you were only speaking/acting figuratively and you are being unfairly blamed when violence occurs.
5. Keep your celebrations behind closed doors.
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paulw
October 9, 2009 8:37 PM
If he were black or muslim, he'd be in supermax confinement by now.
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Nancy Irving
October 10, 2009 2:29 PM
Republicans should not be allowed to own guns.
Most localities have laws against letting mentally unstable persons own guns.
At this point, membership in the GOP is prima facie evidence of mental instability.
QED.
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