Things are really getting ugly, and fast.

This is a sickening example mob rule, of the sort which I saw in Berkeley, and which typifies the left.

Nearly 40 protesters gathered Saturday at the home of the chief financial backer of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose ads criticize Democrat John Kerry's military record. (Via Glenn Reynolds.)

Kerry supporters chanted "Hey, hey, ho, ho, your stinkin' ad has got to go."

It's a hell of a way for Kerry's supporters to try to win an election.

More Americans need to realize that these tactics are alive and well.

And on the left.

It would be bad enough if the storm troopers consisted only of the lunatic fringe, but they don't. In Berkeley I saw that the respectable, mainstream politicians wink at this sort of thing, secretly enjoying the fact that they have behind them a dangerous mob who will do anything. Gives them a feeling of power.

Surely, John Kerry would condemn such home invasion tactics as being beyond the pale on politics, if not borderline terrorism....

Wouldn't he?

Uh oh! Wasn't there similar behavior at the president's home in Crawford, Texas by Max Cleland and Jim Rassman?

Yeah, there was, and the Kerry campaign was formally and officially behind it. A man in a wheelchair and a war buddy of Kerry aren't the same thing as 40 demonstrators, but is it the number of people that's the issue? While the Crawford ranch is more of a symbol of a residence than are most residences, harassing people by surrounding their homes crosses a line which has always separated civilized discourse from mob rule. It's no accident that Cleland and Rassman chose the president's personal residence as opposed to the White House (which is a place of business).

I think it was intended as a clear signal that home invasion is now to be considered mainstream (at least in the Democratic Party). Far from disparaging brown shirt tactics, Kerry is doing precisely the opposite.

Little wonder that personal intimidation of delegates is now also part of the plan:

a liberal Internet site [] lists delegates to the Republican National Convention and urges protesters to give them an unwelcome reception....

I honestly didn't think I would see this at the national level, by a leader of a major party.

Things look pretty damned bad.

While it's true that we still have the Second Amendment, in political discourse armed self defense is normally thought of as being the sort of thing that's a last resort.....