"Don't tread on me....tread on HER!!!"

I always thought the Tea Party's favorite musical was "1776." but apparently it's "Stomp":

An ugly scene took place outside the Kentucky Senatorial debate Monday night as what appeared to be a supporter of Republican candidate Rand Paul was captured by a local news affiliate literally stomping the head of a member of the progressive-activist organization MoveOn.org.

Actually, I hadn't initially planned to blog this, but in the spirit of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and their "ironic" rally on Saturday, the irony of this detail was just too much to pass up:

As you can see from the below video, shot at a different angle from the original footage, the victim's head gets pressed against the pavement as the boot comes down on her head, neck and shoulder. Photos at this website show that one of the men holding Lauren Valle down was wearing a "Don't Tread On Me" button.

I want to be clear: I truly believe that the overwhelming majority of people in the Tea Party Movement are a) opposed to violence and b) accepting of the First Amendment and the free speech rights of those who disagree with them. That said, it's rather alarming when the actual candidates like New York's Carl Paladino or Alaska's Joe Miller threaten and even handcuff journalists or when candidates like Stephen Broden of Texas endorse violence. In the case of this dispicable episode that took place in Kentucky, it was incumbent on Rand Paul to denounce it as qucikly and as unequivolently as possible.

This is a start:

"Violence of any kind has no place in our civil discourse and we urge supporters on all sides to be civil to one another as tensions rise heading toward this very important election," reads a statement from Paul's camp, which called the incident "incredibly unfortunate."

It's more than unfortunate. Mr. "Don't Tread on Me" and his co-conspirators must be arrested and prosecuted.

Programming note: Working a day shift and writing a story for the newspaper today, so blogging will be light.