Leland Yee, California State Senator, Says He Was 'Threatened' By Palin Supporters

California State Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), the legislator behind recent actions to get a California State University to release the details of Sarah Palin's contract for an upcoming speaking engagement released a statement Tuesday, alleging that Palin supporters have unleashed a barrage of "racist, homophobic phone calls and faxes" on his office.

According to Yee, the threats included a variety of racial slurs, anti-gay rhetoric and violent imagery. He even received a death threat via fax.

"It is quite disturbing that such racist and homophobic sentiment still exists in our country," said Yee, according to the statement. "It is unfortunate acts like these that demonstrate why we must continue to be vigilant against hate and intolerance."

Yee has since forwarded to the threats to the California State Senate Sergeant-at-Arms for investigation.

Read the full release below (graphic language):

SACRAMENTO - The controversy surrounding an upcoming Sarah Palin event at California State University Stanislaus and calls for greater transparency from Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) has spurred several racist and homophobic phone calls to Yee's office and even a fax threatening the Senator's life.

An expletive-laden fax received yesterday in the Senator's San Francisco and Sacramento offices says, "To: JoBama Rectum Sniffer Fish Head Leland Yee" and then in all capital letters, "WERE YOU TO EXTRACT YOUR HEAD FROM TREASONOUS MARXIST NIG**R HUSSEIN OBAMA'S RECTUM, YOUR BRAIN WOULD STILL FUNCTION AT ITS PRESENT MUCH DIMINISHED LEVEL BUT AT LEAST THE NIG**R SH*T SMELL WOULD EVENTUALLY DISSIPATE."

The fax, which included a graphic of an American flag adorned pickup truck dragging a noose, also states "FIGHTING The Marxist Nig**r Thug Hussein Obama" and "Safeguard the Constitution, Death of all Domestic Marxists!"

Another fax received by the Senator's office with a similar graphic says, "NEW WEBSITE COMING SOON: lyeesucksobamasnig**ras*.com," as well as "JoBama. HE IS BRAVE ENOUGH TO KILL OUR UNBORN, JUST NOT BRAVE ENOUGH TO CALL OUR ENEMIES WHAT THEY ARE: Muslim Terrorists!" The fax also includes a rifle scope targeting a shirt with the communist hammer and sickle symbol dripping with blood.

One of the phone messages left after hours in Yee's office voicemail says, "You know, I heard that Senator Yee wants to nix Sarah Palin from speaking at Stanislaus State...Maybe we ought to have a homosexual with a long enough di*k to where he can stick it up his as* and fu*k himself while he is on stage giving a speech. That would be acceptable to Leland Yee. So, good thing you run in San Francisco 'cause you'd never make it anywhere else."

These and other messages have been forward to the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms to investigate.

"It is quite disturbing that such racist and homophobic sentiment still exists in our country," said Yee. "It is unfortunate acts like these that demonstrate why we must continue to be vigilant against hate and intolerance."

The hate messages come after Yee has demanded greater transparency of the CSU Stanislaus administration regarding an upcoming visit from the former Alaska governor. After the university claimed they had no documents or correspondence pertaining to the Palin visit, students testified that they found pages 4 through 9 of the Palin contract in the administration's dumpster, which show her visit requirements include a hotel suite, first class airfare or a private Lear jet, pre-screened questions, and "bendable straws."

The Attorney General has since launched a formal investigation and Californians Aware has filed a lawsuit.

Comments

[KayJay90]

12:21 PM on 05/12/2010

New information -- 151 internal emails recently released -- has intensified the attention of state legislative and judicial leaders toward campus president Hamid Shirvani of CSU Stanislaus, who is also the chairman of the CSU Stanislaus Foundation, who first promoted an invitation to Sarah Palin to speak there.

CSU Stanislaus Foundation contracted to have Sarah Palin be the keynote speaker at their CSU Stanislaus 50th Anniversary Gala, despite the objections of many learned, respected, long-tenured educators at CSU Stanislaus.

http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/05/fear-and-loathing-in-turlock-csu.html#dsq-comments

The layers of arrogance, obfuscation, incompetence, vilification, deceit in the Sarah Palin CSU Stanislaus speech contract, and the Foundation's use of professional shill-messaging consulting firms to shape public statements and the direction of blog commentary is appalling -- but not truly surprising.

These characteristics seem to precede Sarah Palin in every phase of her private and public life, and her post-political life as a novelist, interviewee, repetitive speechifier, and quasi-celebrity.

[onedakine]

11:55 AM on 04/30/2010

Has anyone noticed that the threats were sent on April 20th. Well that is Hitlers birthday. These people that sent the threats are no more Palin supporters than even Nancy Pelosi. These guys are white supremacists using this situation to their advantage. If the FBI wants to know who did this then they need to look no further than the folks that threatened all the Rabbis and newspapers in Reno and San Francisco in 2004. The voice one of the the threats played on the news sounded just like this guy:
Listen to the interview:
http://lunaticfringeusa.blogspot.com/2009/10/cold-shot-special.html

[silverlincoln]

09:30 PM on 04/29/2010

Ask SARAH PALIN how many threats she has received in the last 2 years.....

[Carlos Manuel]

09:41 AM on 04/27/2010

Any nude pics of Sarah out there?

[JoannainPA]

01:41 PM on 04/25/2010

Well, that’s no surprise. Sarah is the poster child for hate and intolerance. Her and her followers share a twisted world view based in hate, fear and intolerance for anyone who different then themselves. I have NEVER heard Sarah say anything of substance or value let alone anything civil. The 2008 campaign was going along nicely on both side until Failing,, bailing Palin and her nasty rhetoric. That woman is so offensive. She is NOT to be admired by anyone. She is exactly what the GOP stands for-fear, lies, hate, and one dimensional gut reacting. Shameful.

[musicpromo1]

02:52 AM on 04/24/2010

Sent by fax.. that's sounds about right as they use VHS to tape the beck show on the TV. And one more thing.....

Hibeam, no one likes ya sparky? what are you a Heman woman hater? I have not heard any use sparky? Expect in old our gang episodes.

[george dix]

04:28 PM on 04/23/2010

Here's the thing about Sara Palin
http://hubpages.com/_pnb00dttpgu/hub/Sara-Palin

[hibeam]

12:07 AM on 04/22/2010

Great news reporting. Politician gets nasty letter from nut job. We had no idea that kind of thing could happen in America. I guess there is a first for everything. I doubt it is a Palin supporter though, probably from the pope.

[hibeam]

11:37 PM on 04/21/2010

Hey bonehead. News flash for ya. 90% of us are Palin supporters now. No one likes ya sparky, you are the party of bankruptcy, illegal immigration and irresponsible handouts. Maybe your mom would still vote for ya, but she would have to hold her nose.

[PDinCA]

11:51 PM on 04/21/2010

Whom are you talking to? And what is this group of which 90% are Palin supporters?

[hibeam]

12:02 AM on 04/22/2010

I’m talking to voters who would rather check the box next to “the devil in hell”, than any democratic. We have had enough of bankruptcy, illegal immigrants and handouts. Time for adults to run things again.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

09:54 PM on 04/23/2010

PDinCA :
"Whom are you talking to? And what is this group of which 90% are Palin supporters?"

The group that is 90% Palin fans is the same group that was made up of 100% Palin fans last week.

And dropping as we speak.

[bosd]

04:20 PM on 05/06/2010

lol 90%? Who is this "us" you speak of?

[RobinSeattle]

11:13 PM on 04/21/2010

Ah yes, that's that legendary civility Republicans are famous for.

[Corneille]

01:48 PM on 04/21/2010

Who writes or edits the headlines here? Yesterday a few dozen gun nuts was a "swarm" today a Senator "says" he was threatened. It wasn't a swarm and the Senator was threatened. He didn't say he was threatened, he was threatened.

[tweets4twits]

02:07 PM on 04/21/2010

It is within the realm of possibility that the threats are staged by democrats... consider the following:

1.) Proper spelling and complete sentences

2.) A Fleish-Kincaid writing level above 5th grade

3.) Knowledge of basic political ideology, ie correctly identifies Hammer and Sickle as marxist symbol instead of swastika

4.) Use of the words "diminish" and dissipate" reveals he owns a dictionary and/or thesaurus and has likely only used the A through C sections as toilet paper so far.

5.) Neither fake bombs nor fake anthrax accompanied the threats

[elisevil]

06:03 PM on 04/21/2010

Great points! But there was a very recent poll of the tea party that demonstrated a surprisingly much higher education level than for the country as a whole-not that you could tell by their posters. Maybe someone who actually had earned a degree sent this well spelled and argumented hate-filled missive. Since the average Tea Party age level was unsurprisingly polled as much higher than for the U.S. as a whole, the writer would not have had the 'benefit' of those new-fangled word-processors or spell-check, yet would've had to write credible papers on god-forbid, a typewriter. In other words, the writer would need to both be able to spell and make a cogent argument. This super-educated Tea Partier would also be aware of several recent arrests of others that had made death threats and so, managed the self-restraint to resist including the fake anthrax and bombs as a self preservation move. This is one very smart hater.

[Susanmg]

06:59 PM on 04/21/2010

Good points. But even Palin's Facebook writer uses big words and actual grammar and PARAGRAPHS. So someone in the movement is fairly educated, if lacking in any common sense.

[derrickhoyle]

02:12 PM on 04/21/2010

It makes you wonder....

[Benjamin Abrahamse]

01:41 PM on 04/21/2010

I hope there is an investigation. So long as CSU is furloughing their faculty they shouldn't be spending ANY money on frivolities like high-paid guest speakers.

[Lilith Anderson]

02:38 PM on 04/21/2010

The "Private" foundation at the public university CSU Stanislaus should come under public scrutiny because they are house in Public Buildings on a campus operated by the State of California, and have access to use of phone lines, mailing services, internet and other infrastructure that is subsidized by California Tax Payers.

If they are a "Private" foundation, then they need to move off campus and pay for their own INFRASTRUCTURE not be housed on the dime of the taxpayers.

[Susanmg]

07:00 PM on 04/21/2010

The college's President is on their Board...they are not separate, nor should they be treated that way by the tax laws.

[ILoveTheUSofA]

01:32 PM on 04/21/2010

Imagine going through life with that mentality! You almost have to feel sorry for the person.

[KayJay90]

01:24 PM on 04/21/2010

Read the comments of Alaskan citizens who have watched Sarah Palin's power grow in Alaska and now in the lower-48, and who have tried to change the culture of corruption that Palin has entrenched in Alaskan law enforcement, legislature and the justice system.

------> about 3/4 down the page: http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/04/sarah-palins-fans-threaten-and-try-to.html?dsq=45826076#dsq-comments

They've been trying to warn the rest of us about Sarah Palin's utter ruthlessness and lack of morality and quest for power, but the MSM isn't listening. The right wing of American politics not only doesn't care, they're encouraging Palin.

Who's left, to speak up against this hate? Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, some of the writers here at HuffPo, some at Salon, The Nation, not a whole lot of others...

[tweets4twits]

12:28 PM on 04/21/2010

Who knew Ann Coulter still uses a fax machine?

[Lilith Anderson]

02:31 PM on 04/21/2010

Very cute.

[almost homeless]

04:37 PM on 04/21/2010

Good one!