On the Open Salon site, Clio Tarazi, writing as “Stellaa,” wrote this morning about witnessing an incident on the town square in Healdsburg, a wine country town about 70 miles north of San Francisco on US 101, where every Thursday at 6 pm some residents of the town gather for an hour-long peace vigil. Last night, she writes, a group of out-of-towners, possibly people on a wine country tour, began yelling insults at the demonstrators — some ten townspeople — then crossed the street and began screaming in their faces.

The vigil holders stood up to them … pulled away a woman who was the most aggressive, and they walked away shaking their heads and fists. Their faces were contorted from anger.

The bullies had this look on their face of having done something virtuous — a gleeful, high-five, we-kicked-their-butts look. I had my phone, but did not think of taking pictures of the brutish expressions on their faces. I cussed at them as they walked by and glared at them. There were not enough people on the square to shame them.

There was something grotesque about them calling the man holding the “Hiroshima, Never Again” sign all kinds of vulgar names in the name of patriotism and America.

The writer goes on to wonder whether this confrontation was an outgrowth of the protests against health care reform orchestrated by business interests and lobbying groups.

It will be interesting to see what happens during next week’s peace demonstration in Healdsburg.

It’s standard Republican operating procedure to call everything they don’t like “liberal” and to consider San Francisco the capital of the loony liberal universe, so this probably shouldn’t be too surprising: at least one Republican congressman has suggested that if Obama wants Guantanamo closed, he knows just where the US should put its dangerous inmates. “Alcatraz would be a good place to put these people,” suggested Florida Rep. C.W. Bill Young. (Courtesy SF Gate)

He’s probably not serious, so don’t go suggesting that you could think up plenty of places, like maybe Disney World or Clearwater (the latter being the world HQ of Scientology), that would be just as good. The people of Florida already suffer enough. They have to live in Florida.

Kudos to local journalist Brad Kava for publishing this first on the Examiner.com website: Freshman GOP congressman Joseph Cao — who became the first-ever Vietnamese-American elected to Congress when he defeated corrupt Democratic Rep. William Jefferson in the Louisiana 2d district — has condemned the anti-immigrant comments of San Francisco radio talker Michael Weiner.

Weiner, the former Alan Ginsburg groupie whose “Michael Savage” broadcasts are ranked third nationally among right-wing talk shows, is well known for inflammatory statements about immigrants, the disabled, gays and other minorities. Cao called his statements in a 2007 program “repulsive” and added, “I hope that the GOP will not tolerate those kinds of views and will not take those positions.”

Also: In today’s Boston Phoenix, Adam Reilly looks at hateful anti-Barack Obama statements by Weiner and other foamers.