DownWithTyranny!: How Low Will A Deranged Republican Sink? How About Slaughtering A Pet Cat For "Politics"?

The picture below is gruesome. Please do NOT scroll down if an explicit photo of a tortured, brutalized cat is going to upset you

I've always been more of a dog lover than a cat lover. I go for a walk every day and bring dried duck breast to feed Gabby, Murphy, Licorice and Louie, the neighborhood dogs. I always bring a couple of extra pieces in case I run into any other dogs. And I'm allergic to cats. But I was horrified yesterday at a note I got from Blue America-backed Arkansas Democrat Ken Aden about the ritual slaughter of his campaign manager's family cat. It made me sick. And it was a lot worse than Romney strapping Seamus to the roof of his car.

Aden has been making a great deal of headway against GOP plutocrat Steve Womack in Arkansas's most Republican district. So much so that Womack is starting to get worried. The press has been covering Aden's race, something that is pretty new for a Democratic challenger. So this weekend, when his campaign manager, Jacob Burris, got home from a long day on the trail, he found something pretty horrible: The family cat had been slaughtered, with the word "liberal" painted on the pet's corpse.

The Russellville Police Department is investigating, and a report will be made to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Monday morning.

Jacob Burris, who has served as Aden's campaign manager since late October, arrived home with his family Sunday evening, and his four children discovered the gruesome scene as they exited the family vehicle to enter their home.

The family pet, an adult, mixed-breed Siamese cat, had one side of its head bashed in to the point the cat's eyeball was barely hanging from its socket. The perpetrators scrawled "liberal" across the cat's body and left it on the doorstep of Burris' house.

"To kill a child's pet is just unconscionable," Aden said Monday morning. "As a former combat soldier, I've seen the best of humanity and the worst of humanity. Whoever did this is definitely part of the worst of humanity," he said.

"It is one thing to engage in civil political discourse, and for Republicans and Democrats to disagree with each other, which is an expected part of the political process. Taking it to this level is beyond unacceptable," Aden said.

While the campaign between Aden and incumbent Congressman Steve Womack has heated up in recent months, Aden said they did not believe the Womack campaign to be responsible. "Although we have certainly disagreed and engaged in a great deal of civil discourse, I do not believe in any way that Congressman Womack or his campaign had anything to do with this incident," Aden said. He noted that, before Christmas, KRUM Radio, a station owned by Womack's father, actually promoted a toy drive held by Aden's campaign for children in the Third District. "We suspect this is the action of a rogue individual or group of individuals who are the type of folks that stoop to the lowest common denominator instead of engaging in civil political discourse," Aden said. "It is unfortunate this has occurred, and we will await the results of the police and federal investigations," Aden said.

Was it politically motivated: I got this heartbreaking photo from Blue Arkansas:

There’s no doubting this was political. There’s no doubting it’s another hideous example of right wing terrorism. Personally I would hope that leaders on the right-- Steve Womack, the Arkansas Republican Party, etc.-- would step up and condemn this as strongly as possible. I would also hope that Steve Womack’s father, owner of a local radio station, would stop giving out the names, phone numbers, and addresses of members of the Aden team or anyone else for that matter on his radio program when ranting about Aden. The elder Womack has done that several times and Aden’s former press secretary got a death threat in the mail soon after her name was mentioned on the program. Clearly there is someone out there that doesn’t need anymore of that kind of information, much less inspiration to act on their hatred. I also hope that the Aden campaign will do whatever they can to up the security at some of their events, for the time being at least. Aden has said he’s going to put out a press release on the matter soon, and we’ll be following this and any developments related to it closely.