Luckiest Man in the World: 65 Year-Old Punched in the Face by Healthcare Reform Opponent

New: Finger Bitten Off at Healthcare Protest in CA...

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Via RAW STORY…

A 65-year-old man cheering healthcare reform in Miami was punched in the face and knocked to the ground by an opponent of a public health plan, according to a reporter at the scene. The rally took place outside a Great Miami Chamber of Commerce event where Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) was speaking.

“I’m amazed the way this has become such a politicized issue,” [the victim, Luis] Perrero told [Miami Herald’s Toulouse] Oloronippa. “It shows that people who are against the public option will resort to anything, including battery on a senior citizen to prevent healthcare reform.”

Perrero is right, and extremely lucky, that all he received was a punch in the face. As we’ve noted, on several occasions, we’ll consider it a great success if we can make it through this teabagging nightmare without someone getting killed.

Are there any grown-up Republicans left out there? Can anybody save that party (and the country along with it) from utter ruin?

UPDATE 9/3/09: Another man, this one in CA, is punched in face by anti-reformer who gets his finger bitten off in the bargain. Hope someone has good healthcare! [Hat-tip BRAD BLOG commenter Nunya]

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Luckiest Man in the World: 65 Year-Old Punched in the Face by Healthcare Reform Opponent

29 Comments

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29 Responses

  1. 7)
    Damail said on 9/3/2009 @ 11:13am PT: [Permalink]

    Whether we have righties throwing punches (Miami)or lefties throwing punches (St. Louis), or whether we have lefties biting fingers off, everybody needs to chill just a bit. Have an passionate debate, for crying out loud, without the violence. That goes for everybody.

  2. 8)
    Agent 99 said on 9/3/2009 @ 11:27am PT: [Permalink]

    There’s some maniac who has been banned here, and at many other blogs, who switches IP numbers and screen names as quickly as the armies of spammers. He comes in lately accusing me of being a follower of some person I never heard of… before it was accusing me of being a felon/CIA plant… and he just is having a ball here lately… and other places he finds me. My very own stalker!

    Now, he wants to make it look as though he’s been censored for the content of his comments… which is true insofar as he’s told lies, hijacked threads, and generally tried to think of ways to be as disagreeable about it as possible, but using more than one screen name and switching IPs to get around bans or moderation.

    Anyway, he goes in bursts of caffeine or speed where he does a bunch of different names and IPs, pooping all over Brad Blog and I just delete his stuff when I delete the spam that got past the filters because he’s been banned.

    Smear me all you want if you haven’t been banned.

  3. 9)
    FreedomOfInformationAct said on 9/3/2009 @ 11:54am PT: [Permalink]

    this is getting out of hand…er ah give that guy a hand….nope, it’s clintons fault.

    thank god these nutty right-wingers weren’t armed, somebody might have gotten shot!

    The “Intolerance” Party? GOP Strategists Worry Ideologues Are Bad For The Party’s Future
    Posted: 09- 2-09

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2..._n_274355.html

    Dan Savage: Bachmann and Beck actively trying to get Obama killed
    By David Edwards and Muriel Kane
    Published: September 2, 2009

    http://rawstory.com/08/news/200...-obama-killed/

  4. 10)
    gryphon said on 9/3/2009 @ 12:36pm PT: [Permalink]

    decades of media consolidation by the murdochs and scaifes have given us this.

    PANIC over reforming something that needs it.

    TERROR at the thought of kids having to listen to their president make a speech.

    OUTRAGE that government officials should be held accountable for just following orders, that broke the law.

    the fairness doctrine did something and now we know what, and why it was so important for them to kill it.

    they hated the media, so they bought it and made it worthless AND poisonous to consume.
    no one would ever believe it if it ever told the truth again.

    so now they OWN a giant broken impotent uber-lying-machine so incompetent it couldn’t even keep a black man from becoming president in maybe the most racist nation on the globe. their party is popular in about 5 states and shrinking and their leaders are mostly: confirmed bachelors or divorcees, talk show hosts or half term also ran governors…

    their ideas cannot survive on a level playing field with science and reason.
    violence is all they have left and they keep saying so.

    fairness doctrine
    revoke licenses
    FCC with teeth not a leash

    they are a perpetual minority party with the majority of the air time because they had the money and the cronies on the inside who had no problem smothering old man media in his bed. why air both sides of an issue? that’s for weaklings..

  5. Avatar photo
    14)
    Brad Friedman said on 9/3/2009 @ 2:29pm PT: [Permalink]

    Um, did you actually bother to read the story that I linked to on that RH?

    My guess is no. Or, you just don’t give a damn.

    And for Damail: Congrats on the moral equivalence there. No, “both sides” are not equally responsible here. And suggesting as much, doesn’t make it so. Sorry, sweetheart.

  6. 15)
    Damail said on 9/3/2009 @ 3:40pm PT: [Permalink]

    Once again, Friedman, you are utterly wrong. The left has a history of violence that washes all over its protests. Books like “Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild” documents that fact. And go call somebody else “sweetheart”. I’ve got one sweetheart in my life, and it ain’t you.

  7. 16)
    Damail said on 9/3/2009 @ 4:18pm PT: [Permalink]

    E.J. Dionne on CNN just got done pointing out what should be painfully obvious to anybody who is paying attention: These scuffles and shouting matches at the town hall meetings are anamolies. Most of the town hall meetings have exhibited passion, robust debate, and heartfelt questions being asked – from both supporters and opponents.

  8. 17)
    Big Dan said on 9/3/2009 @ 5:09pm PT: [Permalink]

    Damail: you present ridiculous arguments. Where is your proof that the “left” is as violent or has as much hate speech as the “right”?

    You take one snippet of Mike Malloy, and project the entire “left” has as much hate speech.

    Here’s an entire website, not one snippet, documenting rightwing hate speech:

    http://mediamatters.org/

    Please provide PROOF backing what you are saying, not just “saying it”.

  9. 21)
    Damail said on 9/3/2009 @ 5:34pm PT: [Permalink]

    “MICHELLE MALKIN!…”

    That’s right. Michelle Malkin. And her book provides full documentation about how the radical left – that’s more specific, you happy now, Dan? – is hate-filled and violent-prone.

    And I gave SEVERAL snippets of Mike Malloy, Randi Rhodes and Sam Seder, along with audio links to their swill.

  10. 27)
    BlueHawk said on 9/4/2009 @ 8:00am PT: [Permalink]

    Comment #22…Big Dan…

    I gotta disagree with you….Republicans do apologize…

    to Rush Limbaugh.

    When some GOPer dares to stray from the GOP talking points and lying propaganda . Limbaugh publicly spanks them and makes them apologize.

    They then quickly apologize and kiss Limbaugh’s ring.
    Like good little programmed automatons.

  11. 28)
    astroturf said on 9/25/2009 @ 11:57am PT: [Permalink]

    as for the lucky 65 yearold Im glad he is ok. but the rest of the retoric on this site is a bunch of crap. public radio is the only way real americans can get their point of view out its not only rep. or dems. its americans point of view. when our leaders lie to us we have only one recorse to tell the truth the only way we can. the majority in the house and senate will probably pass the socialistic big government leftist agenda. but in 2010 the dems will pay for it with their jobs. the GOP will take back the house and senate and repeal this crap and get it right. also three cheers for rep. joe wilson for calling the dems leader what he really is!!!

  12. 29)
    Pim said on 10/6/2009 @ 12:14am PT: [Permalink]

    well now that the truthful reports have come out…Strange how liberals are so quick to claim conservatives attack them..Each attack has been started by a liberal..lmao

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