April 07, 2013 09:01 AM UTC

"Worst Regards"--Senate Dems Publish Hate Mail

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• by: Colorado Pols

Yesterday, we received a link to a web page put up by the Colorado Senate Majority Office. Titled "Worst Regards," it's a list of hateful and threatening emails that Colorado Democratic legislators have received during the debate over gun safety legislation at the state capitol. These are apparently not the emails that resulted in felony charges being filed against two people, but a large number of other such messages that, for whatever reason, did not rise to the level of investigation and charges.

I am going to stick a knife up your c*** and tear your heart out through there.

Safe to say, though, these aren't for the faint of heart, and reader discretion is advised. It's useful to remember that the legislators who received this hate mail didn't have a choice but to receive it. At best, it's another "unintended consequence" of the irrational and frequently untruthful campaign against Democrats over the gun safety bills that were signed into law last month–at least we hope it was not intended.

The Senate Democrats made a small mistake in the original release of these threat emails, however. As originally released, the full names and email addresses of the senders were "concealed" by rendering them on the site as black text on a black background. They were evidently notified that this was insufficient to conceal the identities of the senders, as the text could be read simply by highlighting it in any web browser. After a short period of downtime, a new version of the site appeared with all such personally identifying information changed to "xxxxx."

But not before we went to the "File" menu of our browser and clicked "Save Page." 

If you would like to read the original, unredacted version of this website, complete with the names and emails of individuals who have sent hateful, bigoted, and threatening messages to Colorado Democrats, please click here. Perhaps you have a message of your own to send them.

To be clear, you can't hold the Senate Majority responsible for our disclosure of these messages. They removed any personally identifying information in due diligence as soon as they became aware that their good faith, if perhaps a bit amateurish attempt to conceal the identities of these despicable senders of vile and threatening hate mails was not successful.

We are we publishing them? Because we are tired of legislators getting messages like these. We are tired of the double standard that subjects Democrats, in particular Democratic women, to minute fact-checking while Republican legislators tell wholesale lies with impunity. We increasingly blame our local media for the unfair and selectively low-information environment that has brought lowlifes like the people who wrote these emails out of the woodwork. And if the press won't do their jobs, we will do what we can to stop this.

Should any of our readers discover they know someone who sent one of these vile emails, we simply hope that you will have a talk with them. Everyone–legislators, media, community leaders and influentials, right down to every ordinary thinking member of the public–should be able to agree that such behavior has no place in our politics.