Watch Lists Are Back - Get on One Today!

"Are you now or have you ever been an American citizen exercising First Amendment rights of speech, assembly and petition for redress of grievances?"

Because if you answer yes, don't be surprised when your congress critter has goons accost you at the next town hall.

Digby:

So this is it? Democrats are going to run on demanding tip money from the wealthy as their contribution to (unnecessary and counterproductive)"shared sacrifice." Very inspiring. I sure hope nobody asks about those Bush tax cuts expiring, though, because they have quite a bit of egg on their faces after promising that they were going to make sure they expired during the last two election cycles. But I'm sure this time they mean it.

Meanwhile at GOP Townhalls they're passing out "watch lists" with pictures of constituents who've asked questions in the past. This one's on behalf of Daniel Webster, the only marginally sane religious fanatic who beat Alan Grayson:

Each person featured in the watch list is a resident of Webster’s Florida district, several hundred miles from Griffin’s Arkansas district. This reporter was able to confirm that none of the persons featured in the watch list have attended town halls outside of Central Florida. In fact, they did not even attend Webster town halls on the same dates; their attendance was spread across several of Webster’s town halls from April through June.

Although the watch list insinuates that these Florida constituents are professional political operatives, only one works in politics as field organizers for Organize Now, a Florida-based community activist group, not high-level masterminds. A handout instructs attendees to demand that the media ask each of these activists barbed questions, such as whether each one worked for the 2008 Obama campaign. None did.

The watch list suggests that the media ask Reinaldo Vasquez, “Are you or have you ever been, a leader, or a member, or a supporter of OrganizeNow.org, OrganizeFlorida.org, or Moveon.org (sic) or any other Progressive Left group?”

It even suggests that the media ask armed-services veteran Ron Parsell (named in the handout as Don Parsell) about his military service. Parsell’s appearance at a spring town hall made local TV news when he identified himself as a veteran and asked Webster tough questions. The watch list suggests the following questions for Parsell: “Are you a military veteran who served in Viet Nam? If yes, what branch of the Services, what military unit and where specifically in Viet Nam did you serve?”

The "are you now or have you ever been" question format is a very nice touch. Kind of old school, homey.

You can see the flyers, here.

At least we aren't arguing about mosques this year.

Liberals aren't intimidated by thuggish bullshit like this. When they accost you, give it right back to them double. "And who they fuck are you to be asking? Reporter? Really? You look more like a transcriber to me. If you were a reporter, you'd be asking that asshole up front why she wants to destroy the economy in order to bring down the President of the United States."