Frightened, angry, petty little brownshirts

That's Bush supporters in a nutshell. As it becomes more and more difficult to justify their support for this clusterfuck of a president, they're getting even nastier (if such a thing is possible).

I donated to an organization that's purchasing body armor for U.S. troops in Iraq. In return they sent me a bumper sticker that reads, "How did your ribbon magnet support the troops? This bumper sticker bought them body armor."

And I'm afraid to put it on the car.

There's nothing offensive there, nothing anti-American, nothing unpatriotic. Except that it potentially might cause a Bush supporter to have to think about the war, and think about his/her support for that war, and when Bush supporters have their little reality challenged, they can get very nasty indeed, especially as the affable doofus mask comes off of their president and the gargoyle inside begins to emerge -- and his utter ineptitude and venality become more difficult to spin into something positive.

I've heard plenty of anecdotal stories of cars with Kerry stickers being keyed, of being tailgated with antiwar stickers, of angry parking lot confrontations.

But here's a documented one:

ATLANTA--RuthE Levy, Georgia State Senate Candidate for the 32nd District, was shocked when she found first one, and then another, of her family’s two cars vandalized in recent weeks, Atlanta Progressive News has learned. Levy, an Air Force Veteran, grandmother, and Middle School Teacher, is an outspoken progressive vying to represent parts of somewhat-conservative Cobb County and Sandy Springs, Georgia.

Levy suspects her Leftist bumper stickers–Kerry 2004, and Proud to Be a Democrat–may have played a role in motivating the incidents. While she cannot confirm the motive at this time, she says she’s been explicitly harassed in her neighborhood before.

"The very night before David [RuthE’s husband] put a bumper sticker on his car, ‘Proud to be a Democrat’," Levy said.

"We got a security camera after the first incident [in January], because I was afraid whoever it was, was going to do it again," Levy told Atlanta Progressive News. "And sure enough about 2 weeks later, I came out on a Monday morning at 6am to go to school, and there was my husband’s car station wagon covered in black paint."

Levy identified the culprit to police, who later admitted to the crime, she said, and they are working on a warrant to arrest the "bad neighborhood youth," who she estimates to be 18 or 19 years old.

"The car said ‘fuck you’s’ all over it," Levy said.

"That’s why we had his car taken care of first because it was definitely readable. It was not nice, definitely not nice. After the second incident I went inside and woke up my husband."

The second incident of vandalism came on the heels of harassment the night before.

"The night before we were at a restaurant in East Cobb less than 2 miles from where we lived and while we were sitting these someone left us a nasty note, ‘How could you be so stupid as to put a bumper sticker on your car that proves that you’re stupid?’ That was pretty clear," Levy said.

"I’ll tell you, all these years, it wasn’t until Kerry in 2004 that I actually had a courage to put a bumper sticker on my car, and I have been stopped and harassed. One day I was driving on a Saturday morning on my way to Temple. A guy honked at me. I thought something wrong so I get out of my car, and he said how could you be so stupid as to vote for Kerry. It was upsetting for me on my Sabbath for that kind of thing to happen," Levy said. Levy is an observant Reform Jew.

The security cameras cost Levy and her family about $350, she said. "The neighbors were very happy [when we got them] because they were worried something would happen to them. They were all afraid this kid would come back and do something to their car."

Think about that. "Proud to be a Democrat", the sticker says. Now, there's an argument to be made that being "proud" to be a Democrat these days IS stupid, given the way the party has caved in to everything that a 39% approval rated president wants. But I don't think that's what these particular vandals had in mind. Today, simply identifying yourself as being Not Of The President's Party is a trigger for violence.

You can say all you want that this is "just kids pulling a prank." But it's a specifically targeted prank, echoing a sentiment that these kids learned from somewhere -- probably their parents. If these kids think that being of a different party from their beloved president is such a terrible thing, perhaps they should show their support for him -- by enlisting to fight in Iraq. Maybe we can still get them there in time for this.