A Blog Version Of The Inside Of My Head. The place where politics, film, the media, music, pop culture, and random topics collide in an orgy of neo-philisophical randomness that would make your mother scream.
Here's an update from Middle Tennessee on a subject that David Neiwert has reported on for quite some time, and more in depth than just about anyone.
And while the Fox"Nation" group of conservative commenters are more interested in claiming that the SPLC is the real danger in America, it was the very first comment in regards to this video that typified what the "Patriot Movement" is all about:
I know alot of liberals, that are going to meet their maker, if this country falls apart, and that is coming quick. They've flapped their mouths, when they should have stayed quiet, now they've been exposed.
Many conservatives in America think that this is something new, a movement that blossomed due to the election of Barack Obama, but the reality is that these people have been around for quite some time. Anyone recall Timothy McVeigh? You know, the guy that Sean Hannity's fans think it's great to cheer.
Make no mistake, these are domestic terrorists - just don't expect conservatives to admit it. In all honestly, look for the entire modern conservative movement to ignore them, or even possibly embrace them.
For starters, Markos didn't call anyone a Nazi. That was Beck blatantly mischaracterizing a clearly worded statement that is grounded in well documented fact.
One would think by now that people would be on to Beck as nothing more than a carnival barker, a guy who's sole point is to get you to buy the useless crap he's selling.
This is the primary problem with the Tea Baggers - they lack that ability to think for themselves. It often seems like I'm repeating myself with these posts, but it bares repeating that Beck's revisionist history and complete lack of intellectual honesty are not only going to be his downfall, but the downfall of Tea Baggers across the country.
David Neiwert at Crooks And Liars has chronicled Beck's use of eliminationist rhetoric for quite some time, so to hear Beck claim the contrary is patently false.
Considering the mindset of the typical Tea Bagger, they can take what Beck says and twist it into something more sinister. Some may claim that you can't get more sinister than Beck, but rest assured that itispossible.
The SPLC has just released their annual study of "Hate Groups" and violence. The numbers don't paint a pretty picture for the "neo-patriots" in this county.
The radical right caught fire last year, as broad-based populist anger at political, demographic and economic changes in America ignited an explosion of new extremist groups and activism across the nation.
Hate groups stayed at record levels — almost 1,000 — despite the total collapse of the second largest neo-Nazi group in America. Furious anti-immigrant vigilante groups soared by nearly 80%, adding some 136 new groups during 2009. And, most remarkably of all, so-called "Patriot" groups — militias and other organizations that see the federal government as part of a plot to impose “one-world government” on liberty-loving Americans — came roaring back after years out of the limelight.
These "Patriot Groups" are described as such:
The Intelligence Project identified 512 "Patriot" groups that were active in 2009. Of these groups, 127 were militias, marked with an asterisk, and the remainder includes "common-law" courts, publishers, ministries and citizens' groups. Generally, Patriot groups define themselves as opposed to the "New World Order," engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines. Listing here does not imply that the groups themselves advocate or engage in violence or other criminal activities, or are racist. The list was compiled from field reports, Patriot publications, the Internet, law enforcement sources and news reports. Groups are identified by the city, county or region where they are located.
In just about every state, you're going to have two common denominators: The John Birch Society and The Oathkeepers. The later has already had a verifiable connection with the Tea Bagger movement.
It shouldn't be surprising then to note that since Obama took office there has been a massive jump in "patriot" groups.
But last year, as noted in the SPLC’s August report, "The Second Wave: Return of the Militias," a dramatic resurgence in the Patriot movement and its paramilitary wing, the militias, began. Now, the latest SPLC count finds that an astonishing 363 new Patriot groups appeared in 2009, with the totals going from 149 groups (including 42 militias) to 512 (127 of them militias) — a 244% jump.
But now, a new study is out that attempts to debunk all the information that has been put out about the Tea Baggers. And the way the study was conceived and compiled leaves me asking if this is in anyway reliable data.
Some members of the "tea party" have struck back at media bias against the grassroots political movement and critics who derisively dismiss the group as violent "hicks", opportunists, "teabaggers" or worse.
"We decided to learn what tea party leaders are up to in the old-fashioned way. We asked them. We met in person with leaders from 38 states, we collected survey data from 49 leaders," said Eric O'Keefe, chairman and CEO of the Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance, a nonprofit group that espouses free-market principles.
The group on Tuesday released a survey of its findings that revealed that tea party activists are neither "political junkies or crusty right-wing extremists." Almost half the respondents had never been involved with politics prior to 2009.
The Sam Adams Alliance is described as such:
The Sam Adams Alliance (SAM) is a non-profit organization based in Chicago, Illinois. The group describes itself as "raising awareness of free-market principles and policies while building capacity in marketing and public relations for like-minded individuals and organizations."
That's right, they are a PR/Marketing firm for "like-minded" individuals. That's like having Rush Limbaugh grading how well Sean Hannity is doing on both radio and television, as the two are linked. This is true in that members of the Sam Adams Alliance participated in the Chicago Tea Bagger shoutfest and one of their leaders, Erick O'Keefe, sits on the http://www.citizensincharge.org/about-us/cicf-board-of-directors/eric-okeefe for the Club For Growth. And when one looks at the connections between CFG and the Tea Baggers, this study ( highlighted by Fox"Nation" ) holds up to scrutiny. I'm leaning towards "hell no".
Here's SPLC's Mark Potok discussing the report.
Full credit to David Neiwert at Crooks And Liars who's been on this story for over a year.
A great deal has happened in just 11 short months. So much has happened, in fact, that it's hard to keep track of all the insanity coming from conservatives.
I had jokes with several of my friends prior to Obama's inauguration that this was going to be an interesting year for conservatives, as they hadn't had to face any form of reality for 8 years while they were in power. All that time in control of America and it's future and they squandered our surplus, tarnished our image abroad, let our middle class shrink and the lower class expand, abused the use of our military, and did far more to repress liberties and freedoms than at any time in our nations history.
Conservatives had the bully pulpit and used it to talk more about themselves, how great they were, what a fantastic job they were doing while ignoring the needs of the nation and creating a climate of fear within their base, because who knew if we would be attacked again. And now that these people find themselves removed from the reigns of power, a whole new class of conservative has been born. The fringe, once small and largely ignored by the establishment conservatives, have increased exponentially since Jan. 20th. They make up more of the conservative movement, and it's easy to tell.
The teabaggers have successfully split the modern GOP and any chances of making substantial gains in the 2010 midterms have been reduced significantly. This isn't to say that partial gains aren't attainable, but the literally flipping of power from Democratic to GOP is most certainly off the table. But Democrats face challenges themselves, so now is not the time to rest on one laurels.
Every aspect of the Obama administration has been criticized as radical, anti-American, and growing a government that was out to destroy everyone it could. This has lead to emboldening and radicalization of militias and former members of the military. This is clearly illustrated by blogger and author , David Neiwert who's been tracking this activity and how threats against government officials and the President have increased to unheard of levels.
If you ask the average conservative, they would have you believe that within 11 short months all of our liberties and rights have been removed, even though they can't name one that has disappeared. They would have you believe that Obama is guilty of treason, that they have always opposed government spending, that hoping and even praying that Obama fails in every aspect of his presidency is patriotic. Conservative hypocrisy has increased to such massive levels that it's almost hard to keep up.
While watching the Road Warrior and blogging this afternoon, I started seeing stories about a fantasy gaming-site that must have all the militia types in America creaming their collective knickers with joy.
David Neiwert @ Crooks And Liars even has the turtorial video for this wingnut version of Risk up for everyone to check out. It's a visual interpretation of the mouth-agape droolings and rantings of not just the tea-bagger set, but of people like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman - who actually have roles in the game along with other sychophants of the reactionary Right.
While alternate futures are no stranger to the gaming and literary world, the difference between the games and stories of others is that conservatives are actively trying to ensure that this game becomes reality. While the very idea that Obama is attempting to destroy America and recreate it in some Marxist, Fascist, Communist image is preposterous beyond belief there are a specific subset of people in this country that actually buy into this nonsensical line of thinking.
This game isn't so much a game to some, it's a training manual for those with masturbatory fantasies of revolution.
Recently, Fox"News" has been editing their b-roll footage in order to suppliment their primary message.
Media Matters has documented three examples of the editing process that not only skews the original message into an angle that they can work from, but completely removes the notion that they are a "fair and blanaced" - and apparently now "accurate" - news source.
As I was watching The O'Reilly Factor last night, I noticed that he was setting up a piece in order to call NBC some sort of sophomoric name that means little to anyone but himself.
In early march reports out of Sacramento California set a homeless camp featuring hundreds of people damaged by the recession. Was a very important situation
We all know that O'Reilly cares nothing about the homeless in America. And when there are reports on many of them being from the military, then there's room for multiple segments on the program for him to insist that this simly isn't true. More to the point, in O'Reilly's world, there is no homeless "problem, but the people are in a specific situation from their own poor choices. After showing footage from the Today show - as well as playing audio from NPR's Steve Inskeep - Bill offered this as his rationale that the media at large are "corrupt":
Guess what. [ The story's bogus. ] The Economist Magazine a British publication writes quote. The tent city had actually been around for close to a decade. There may have been out foreclosed home order to among its denizens but almost all the people there are problems that mental health drug abuse from both unquote.
After finding the Economist article online, I began to wonder exactly how O'Reilly determined that there were no homeless people moving into the pre-existing tent-city.
Kevin Johnson, a former basketball star and now Sacramento’s first black mayor, found himself on CNN speaking to national audiences, secure in the knowledge that he could not be blamed: in Sacramento, it is the city manager, not the mayor, who wields the main administrative power. Even the governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, dropped in for a surprise walk-through. After all this attention, action became inevitable.
The funny thing, though, is that the tent city had actually been around for close to a decade. There may have been a foreclosed homeowner or two among its denizens, but Justin Wandro, the office manager at nearby Loaves and Fishes, a food bank where the homeless can eat and shower, says that almost all of the people there have problems with mental health, drug abuse or both. Sacramento has about 1,400 homeless people in shelters, and another 1,200 or so on the streets, he says. For some reason, America notices only when they’re on Oprah, or from the middle class.
The Economist writer' intent appears to be to invalidate any claims made by any other media outlet that the tent city in Sacramento is a problem related to the economy. And by extention, the article invalidates all claims surrounding other shanty-towns across America.
So, how does this prove that the story is "bogus"? There is, in point of fact, a tent city in Sacramento that is growing. And in other parts of the nation, tent-cities are popping up.
David Neiwert @ Crooks & Liars examined the Economist article and O'Reilly's use of it:
if the writer was only able to find "one or two" foreclosed homeowners among the tent city residents, he wasn't trying very hard. Indeed, he likely wasn't looking at all; MSNBC's Chris Jansing (in the piece O'Reilly clips) was able to interview three of them for her piece. Indeed, a more honest journalistic effort -- such as that from the Los Angeles Times a couple of weeks ago -- makes clear that it's a complex story, but there's no question that the recession is a major driver in the very real expansion of California's homeless population.
Indeed, O'Reilly ( and his producers ) chose the Economist story in order to validate their reasoning that Fox"News" is the only source of credible information available.
O'Reilly's personl vendetta against NBC aside, various other Fox"News" programs have used editing in order to give their intended audience misinformation.
As the primary focus of this post was O'Reilly' blatant disregard for honesty, is should be pointed out that this has more to do with his unwillingness to admit that homelessness is a problem directly related to more than just the "drug and mental problems" that O'Reilly likes to pretend any and all people suffer from that he is intend on smearing.
He, as well as Fox"News", are more than willing to villify and denegrate the less-fortunate in America for their monthly salary. They choose not to address the issues of poverty, sexism, racism, bigotry, hate-crimes, corporate greed, and the struggle of the lower classes because they think if they demphasize them - or ignore them completely - that they simply won't exist.
Max Blumenthal, one of my favorite bloggers and journalists, girds his loins and heads out to a California gun-show.
Max's "Defend Frisco" t-shirt is classic.
If there is one thing that the reactionary, righ-wing population is good at - no matter what state you are in - is claiming that "liberals are going to take everything away".
After watching this video, you start to wonder why Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, Limbaugh and a host of other fringe conservatives are defending them. The preponderance of pro-WWII propoganda available for purchase tends to give off the air of - oh, what was that DHS report about......oh, yeah - right-wing extremism.
Indeed, in their minds, average Americans opposed to the Obama agenda would be herded into FEMA-run concentration camps by a volunteer army of glassy-eyed liberal college graduates. “When they start imprisoning Americans, and people start seeing that we’re the enemy, then that’ll make it hot,” predicted one Antioch-based young man sporting a button for former Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul. “People talk about a revolution,” the young man continued, “an armed revolution. I think police crackdowns on individuals will tip the scales.”
More than a few gun dealers and attendees echoed the young man’s seeming enthusiasm for armed revolt. One Contra Costa, California-based gun dealer named Rich predicted during an otherwise casual off-camera conversation that “some nut” would assassinate Obama within one year of any Democratic attempt at gun-control legislation. While the prospect of organized right-wing violence against the federal government seems far-fetched at this point, the paranoid rhetoric I documented suggests the militia movement that organized against President Bill Clinton’s policies during the 1990s could experience a dramatic resurgence by mobilizing resentment against Obama.
I have many friends that are gun collectors that labor under the notion that Obama and his administration are going to do all they can to repeal the 2nd Ammendment, which couldn't be further from the truth, but are no where near the same class of people featured in the video. This is why, from my perspective, conservative pundits, commentators, and talk-radio prattle-heads can't seperate the mental defectives from everyone else. These are two, completely divergent, groups. While one group enjoys collecting guns, going down to the firing range and popping-off a few dozen rounds after work, the other actively daydreams of popping-off a few hundred rounds into anyone that doesn't fit into their narrow view of America.
A peaceful demonstration of at least a million — hey, if we can 10 million, even better — but at least one million armed militia men marching on Washington. A peaceful demonstration. No shooting, no one gets hurt. Just a demonstration. The only difference from any typical demonstration is we will all be armed.
David Neiwert @ Crooks and Liars takes a look at this issue from the perspective of the "we're all gonna DIE!!!" prophecies of Glenn Beck.
Something that should be pointed out, and something that many of you probably already are thinking once you see this video, is that it is within these militia groups that your Right-Wing extremism is starting to come to a boil.
No one is saying that they shouldn't be allowed to protest, but they are wanting to do it AND be armed. One million people in the streets of DC with guns. That's more than our own Marine Corp force times 5. I agree with Neiwert, good luck getting a permit for that.
Ever since the release of the DHS report on Right-Wing extremism, conservatives are beside themselves that Janet Napolitano's department is actually doing what it is supposed to be doing.
Most, like Michelle Malkin, are pushing the notion that ANYONE with conservative beliefs are going to be targeted:
....the piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives. And the intent is clear. As the two spokespeople I talked with on the phone today made clear: They both pinpointed the recent “economic downturn” and the “general state of the economy” for stoking “rightwing extremism.” One of the spokespeople said he was told that the report has been in the works for a year. My b.s. detector went off the chart, and yours will, too, if you read through the entire report — which asserts with no evidence that an unquantified “resurgence in rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalizations activity” is due to home foreclosures, job losses, and…the historical presidential election.
Interesting that Malkin didn't cite her source, only that she "spoke" with someone.
So, I have a question for Malkin: Are you saying that mainstream conservatives are now right-wing extremists?
Because, you know, the report -- which in fact is perfectly accurate in every jot and tittle -- couldn't be more clear. It carefully delineates that the subject of its report is "rightwing extremists," "domestic rightwing terrorist and extremist groups," "terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks," "white supremacists," and similar very real threats described in similar language.
Nothing about conservatives. The word never appears in the report.
Because, you know, we always thought there was a difference between right-wing extremists and mainstream conservatives too. My new book, The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right, does explain that the distance between them has in fact shrunk considerably, thanks to the help of people like Malkin.
And now she's evidently intent on shrinking it further
Once again, I'm reminded of Ann Coulter's latest book about "liberal victimhood". Sad, isn't it.
Media Matters has a video compilation of some of the loudest and most paranoid voices from the Right.
Interesting that Dobson would say that these people don't exist.
The recent murder of 3 police officers in Pittsburg - by a man that thought the government was going to take his guns away - in Pennsylvania and the church shooting in Knoxville don't seem to gel with the good doctors "facts".
Something that Malkin, Dobbs, Hannity, and others may have conveniently forgotten there has already been an asessment on Left-wing extremism done by the DHS.
Amanda Terkel, blogger for Think Progress, was ambushed after she wrote about O'Reilly's comments directed toward a rape victim and his being offered to keynote a fundraiser for the foundation.
* as an interesting sidenote, you'll notice that for an additional $75 you could have your picture taken with O'Reilly and get your book signed. pathetic *
Amanda then became the latest victim of O'Reilly's selective, moral outrage and he sent his mouth-agape stalker - Jesse Waters - to ambush her while she was on vacation. But, the story doesn't end there:
Watters and his camera man accosted me at approximately 3:45 p.m. on Saturday, March 21, in Winchester, VA, which is a two-hour drive from Washington, DC. My friend and I were in this small town for a short weekend vacation and had told no one about where we were going. I can only infer that the two men staked out my apartment and then followed me for two hours. Looking back, my friend and I remember seeing their tan SUV following us for much of the trip.
The question I want to know is how did they find out where she lived?
It's a given that O'Reilly is quite frightened of a woman with an opinion that is unafraid to voice it. But when you use your "connections" to find out where a person lives and stalk them out of state in order to somehow prove that you are powerful, then perhaps the validity of your program and your career should be questioned.
David Neiwert @ crooksandliars reminds us that this isn't the first time that O'Reilly had made offensive comments about a victim and was asked to speak at a fundraiser that highlighted the plight of those victims:
No doubt O'Reilly is still reeling from the embarrassment of a previous case where his grotesquely insensitive remarks came back to haunt him: namely, the Shawn Hornbeck incident, in which O'Reilly first suggested that a boy who had been kept a captive of a child molester for years had somehow "wanted it." As it happened, he was scheduled to speak before a conference for the families of missing kids. The ensuing uproar didn't subside until his appearance was cancelled.
I was reading about the recent murder of Rev. Fred Winters of the First Baptist Church in Maryville, Illinois and started to think back to the Knoxville, TN church shooting and how that was motivated by lunatic-fringe writings from the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Bernard Goldberg:
Then, I read this piece from Dave Neiwert:
One of the more disturbing trends we've been observing is the return of far-right "Patriot" rhetoric about government oppression with the election of President Obama. Fueled in no small part by mainstream right-wing talkers proclaiming we're headed into "socialism" -- not to mention a "radical communist" who must be "stopped" or else America will "cease to exist" -- the overheated rhetoric has been gradually getting higher in volume, intensity, and frequency with each passing week.
The initial concern that this raises is the possibility of a new wave of citizen militias, particularly when you have mainstream pundits like Glenn Beck out there helping to promote the concept. As Glenn Greenwald observed, the "Patriots" are back with a vengeance.
At least for the time being, however, there isn't any evidence of new militias forming, though we may see numbers growing within the coming months within existing units, particularly as Fox News and radio pundits start fueling right-wing anxieties.
However, we are starting to see a trend that's even more disturbing: Military veterans voicing Patriot-movement beliefs, including threats of violent resistance to the Obama administration.
Here's the video referenced in his blog:
With all the "terrorist", "he's not American", "he's Muslim", ( et al ) rhetoric that has been not just tossed around about President Obama, but actively talked about in the media, it's no wonder that we are starting to see these "patriots" bubbling to the surface.
Another one, an active duty officer serving in Iraq, is continuing with the thouroughly debunkded myth that Obama is not an American citizen:
A United States soldier on active duty in Iraq called President Barack Obama an "impostor" Monday, saying he would not comply with the president's military commands until he saw irrefutable evidence Obama was born on American soil.
"As an active-duty Officer in the United States Army, I have grave concerns about the constitutional eligibility of Barack Hussein Obama to hold the Office of President of the United States," Lt. Scott Easterling wrote in a letter to attorney Orly Taitz.
Until the president - or "Mr." Obama, as Easterling writes - releases the original 'vault copy' to the public, Easterling said he would refuse to acknowledge Obama's military orders.
From church shootings to the increasingly violent rhetoric coming from members of our own military, it's becoming more and more evident that "patriotism" amongst that lunatic-fringe American ( not the pundits and prattle-heads they shower adoration upon ) are beginning to reflect their tendencies for domestic terrorism.
