WASHINGTON - U.S. Capitol Police have arrested a dozen anti-abortion activists outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office after a massive protest against the Democrats' health care bill.

The charges ranged from unlawful conduct to disorderly conduct and unlawful entry in the incident, which happened around 2:15 p.m. EST Thursday outside a second-floor suite in the Cannon House Office Building, Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said.

Pelosi's aides said the suite is hers. The speaker also has offices in the Capitol, which is harder to enter to stage a protest.

It was unclear whether the group attended the Tea Party protest that ended around that time. But the speaker's staff said those arrested were objecting to language in the health care overhaul that they said would allow federally subsidized abortions.

November 6, 2009
Pelosi's office trashed; priest + 11 arrested

The above is a shot of the wild scene outside Nancy Pelosi's office yesterday afternoon, as described in The Hill last night...

Conservative protesters chanting "Kill that bill!" stormed the Capitol on Thursday as Republicans launched a last-ditch effort against the Democrats' healthcare bill.

The protesters from around the country entered House office buildings after attending the "House Call" rally on healthcare, largely the brainchild of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)....

It is unclear how many people attended the event, thought the protesters appeared to number in the thousands. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) estimated 10k attended.

Our own Bethany's parents even attended the House Call rally! Attendees were encouraged to take a page from the 2k page healthcare bill to their congressperson's office and demand s/he explain it. At Pelosi's office, though, people crumpled theirs and trashed it...

Look closely at that still shot. Code Pink counter-demonstrators were standing to the left outside Pelosi's office door, but staging his own personal sit-in inside was Fr. Norman Weslin, who we last saw being arrested at Notre Dame.

And whoops, he did it again, leaving Pelosi's office and laying down in the hall, where he was again arrested...

According to the Associated Press:

U.S. Capitol Police have arrested a dozen anti-abortion activists outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office after a massive protest against the Democrats' health care bill.

The charges ranged from unlawful conduct to disorderly conduct and unlawful entry in the incident, which happened around 2:15 p.m. EST Thursday....

Was this Randall Terry's doing? Yep.

This shit is scaring me the Right is getting angrier and more violent. I think it is a matter of time before they go to far.

Oh FSM we can hope so!

I've said it before and I'll say it again.. I WANT the right wing to go off the deep end. Not in violance or anything, just getting more and more "Crazy" I WANT there to be things like this, things that hopefully show America how crazy these people are.

Hell, I'd bet money that even if the national guard were called in, they'd just start screaming about persecution and government abuse. Some of them may even try to draw parallels to the police being used against protesters in the 60s, completely missing the irony.

Too far? Anti abortion terrorists are already responsible for at least a dozen arson and bombing attacks against abortion clinics in the US, as well as several in Canada and Australia. A number of people have been killed in these attacks. Compared to that trashing an office just really means the Capitol Police are a bunch of idiots.

Given that said craziness may well involve a rapidly escalating body count...

Oh well. At least they passed something. Hopefully it will help improve the disgrace that is US health care.

Don't celebrate just yet. We have to wait on the Senate now. In the meantime, listen to the otherworldly shrieks of evil harpie Michelle Bachmann and her cobbled-together lurching zombie horde, led by Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

You got a point. They cross the right lines with offical backing the GOP could even be shut down correct?

Senate worries me. The House had a bigger margin than the Senate and it was a squeaker, hopefully Reid will borrow someones nut sack and hold Lieberman's feet to the fire and get a vote.

Honestly the only question on the Senate side is whether it will go filibuster or not. Reid certainly has 50 votes (which means Biden puts him over the top at 51) so the only question is the procedural vote on cloture. I think its entirely possibly Reid has the muscle to get his wavering Dems to vote for cloture if they are allowed to go off the reservation on the main bill. The alternative is he forces an actual filibuster which could hurt the Republicans even more now that the house has passed a bill (it would simply make them look even more blatantly obstructionist).

What I'm most worried about is that Reid will offer seats at the conference committee in return for cloture votes because THAT is where the real meat of this boondoggle will take place.

Honestly the only question on the Senate side is whether it will go filibuster or not. Reid certainly has 50 votes (which means Biden puts him over the top at 51) so the only question is the procedural vote on cloture. I think its entirely possibly Reid has the muscle to get his wavering Dems to vote for cloture if they are allowed to go off the reservation on the main bill. The alternative is he forces an actual filibuster which could hurt the Republicans even more now that the house has passed a bill (it would simply make them look even more blatantly obstructionist).

Agreed. Everyone acts like they need 60 votes to stop a Republican fillibuster, but no one asks what a fillibuster would do to the image of the Republicans. I'm not so sure a Republican fillibuster wouldn't blow up in their faces (especially Lieberman's face) and end up strengthening the chance for a stronger health bill.

With people parading around rifles in Obama's public appearances to "send a message", and I wonder how your President feels about this, and the impression that the Republicans or at least the fringe far-right nuts, are getting even fringer and far-righter and nuttier... is the fear of another Timothy McVeigh-style bombing justified?