Coming Home To Roost

On the heels of the Breitbart character assassination, shouldn't credible news organizations start taking a longer look at FoxNews. Especially when these kinds of incidents keep happening?

The Tides Foundation, which prosecutors in California say was among the targets of the anti-government unemployed carpenter Byron Williams before he got into a chaotic shootout with several law enforcement officers Sunday, is also a favorite topic of Fox News host Glenn Beck.


Beginning in 2009 (and as recently as last week), Beck has repeatedly included the group -- along with ACORN, the SEIU and George Soros -- in his cabal of liberals and liberal organizations that are supposedly agents of President Obama's plan to spread Marxist and socialist ideas throughout the United States.


Of course, that doesn't mean that Beck necessarily inspired or influenced Williams' alleged plan to attack the Tides Foundation. But the group has been something of a whipping boy for Beck over the last year.


Williams was charged yesterday with allegedly opening fire on police officers on Interstate 580 in Oakland, California, while on his way to "start a revolution" by attacking members of the ACLU and the Tides Foundation. Williams was reportedly upset about "the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items," in the words of his mother. (Which, we have to admit, do sound like words Glenn Beck might say).

I just want to know how many more people have to be threatened or hurt or in some cases killed by folks echoing FoxNews propaganda before the media really starts reporting these stories.

Did You Hear About The Terrorist Attack In Arkansas?

There is no other way to describe this in a way that is factually accurate than to call it what it was, domestic terrorism...

In the final moments of their lives, West Memphis Police Department veterans Brandon Paudert and Bill Evans encountered Thursday an old white Plymouth Voyager minivan carrying 16-year-old Joe Kane and his 45-year-old father, Jerry R. Kane -- a man who unbeknownst to them harbored extreme anti-government views. He also had a record of previous trouble with police and a philosophy, which he credited to the Bible, of applying overwhelming violence to "conquer" foes.

Increasingly surreal revelations Friday about the Kanes gradually led to a late-evening confirmation by Arkansas State Police that Jerry Kane of Chester, Ohio, and Joe, of unknown residence, were indeed the dead suspects they believe killed Evans and Paudert -- the son of the town's chief of police.

The Kanes later wounded Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby and Deputy Chief W.A. Wren in the conclusive shootout at Walmart in which father and son were killed.

snip

In the YouTube video he said, "You have to kill them all. So what we're after here is not fighting, it's conquering. I don't want to have to kill anybody, but if they keep messing with me, that's what it's going to have to come out. That's what it's going to come down to, is I'm going to have to kill. And if I have to kill one, then I'm not going to be able to stop, I just know it."

snip

Material on the website promoting Kane's foreclosure-advising business displays classic rhetoric experts say is associated with anti-government groups. Topics discussed on the site include microchips inserted into people's bodies, plots involving the H1N1 vaccine and the contention that U.S. dollars don't constitute real money.

"It's a classic Patriot or Sovereign Citizen website,'' said Mark Potok, director of the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center.

In that YouTube clip about the "rogue" IRS agent, in which Jerry described his view of the proper use of violence, his son is shown laughing and offering to deal with the agent himself: "If you pay for the bat, I'll take care of the problem." Later, the son describes his view on violence: "They drew first blood. You are self-defending."

Im going to go out on a limb and say most folks didn't even hear about this incident. I mean after all it didn't happen in Times Square in New York City. It happened in middle America where all the "patriots" supposedly live. But I will say this much, people had better start paying attention. These crazy right wing extremists are only going to get worse especially with jack ass fearmongerers steadily fanning their flames.

Hopefully at some point the mainstream media will catch up and we won't be having to mourn the death of any more police officers at the hands of these assholes.

Who Does This Sound Like?

The California man who opened fire last night outside the Pentagon was a property rights extremist who railed against the government's ability to "confiscate the resources of their citizens to fund schemes that need only be justified by lies and deception," and wanted to "eliminate the role of the government in education."

In a recorded manifesto called "Directions To Freedom", the audio of which he posted online in 2006, John Patrick Bedell, of Hollister, California, praised private property as "the most successful basis for structuring society that humanity has ever known."

Bedell shot two police officers last night during the rampage, before being mortally wounded himself.

"Communist and socialist governments that abolished or disregarded private property," said Bedell in the recording, "created poverty, repression and murder on a truly enormous scale." But, he continued, "Even in the United States, however, there has been a continual erosion of protection of private property justified by the belief that government is an efficient instrument for the positive direction of society."

Bedell added: "Governments lack the profit and loss incentives that individuals and private organizations must use..."

And he warned: "When governments are able to confiscate the resources of their citizens to fund schemes that need only be justified by lies and deception enormous disasters can result."

Bedell also denounced the monetary system, a frequent bete noir of anti-government extremists. "When the government can control how private property is used," he said, "and especially when the government controls the monetary system that is use to exchange private property, the government has the mechanisms and the motivation to control individuals to the smallest detail."

Bedell even railed against the concept of public education. "Government control of the schools that shape minds is pervasive in today's world," he said. "The imperative to defend the freedom of conscience must lead us to eliminate the role of the government in education and leave parents and communities free to raise their children as they see fit." He denounced public education as "no more legitimate than a government-run church for universal religious training."

TPM

I wonder how many people are going to have to get hurt or killed before the mainstream media starts calling a spade a spade.

Another Crazy Tea Bagger

Spending time watching FoxNews and worshipping Sarah Palin leads to stockpiling weapons, gas masks, food, and medicine for the "coming armageddon" evidently.

Will the media ever point out how dangerous the teabaggers are? Or will they continue to act as if this is some legitimate political movement right up and until some other Gregory Girard actually decides to use their stock pile to "shoot people in their heads" before the police take notice of them?

Im pretty sure it will end up being the latter.

Blah Blah Blah

I don't think even fans of Sean Hannity believe much of what he says these days. Still there is nothing wrong with passing along evidence of his lies.




On another topic, I wonder how Hannity is going to explain palling around with a terrorist.

Uncommon Courage

If you are like me and watch "The Rachel Maddow Show" on a regular basis, then you probably are familiar with Princeton Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell. She is a frequent guests and she gives very informed and many times witty takes on racial issues as they relate to politics. Well today she has a very powerful, moving, courageous, and just about any other positive adjective you can think of post up at "The Nation" about the assassination of Dr George Tiller over the weekend. On Monday there Rachel had Dr. Susan Wicklund on TRMS who had this to say.

We have to get women to start standing behind us as providers. We need the 45 million women who have had abortions in this country Roe versus Wade to stand beside us as providers and clinics now and come out of your homes, come out of your comfort zone and talk about it. Make everyone know how common this is.

At the time I thought to myself that Dr. Wicklund was absolutely right, but what she was asking of many of these women might be too much for them to bear. Well Ms. Lacewell shows that there are women out there willing to tell their story in order to push back against the anti choice crowd.

Forty years ago my mother was part of the movement of individuals who helped desperate women find safe ways to terminate their pregnancies. This network provided safe houses, transportation, and follow-up support for women who had to cross state lines to obtain abortions. She was willing to risk her life and livelihood to protect women's reproductive choices.

Nearly twenty years ago my older sister was diagnosed with cancer during the second trimester of her pregnancy. Her religious commitments led her to refuse her doctor's advice to terminate. She risked her life to ensure that she would not have an abortion. She and my niece are both healthy.

When we were 14-year-old, high school freshmen my friend decided to have the baby of a boy she'd had sex with only once. It changed her life forever, but she graduated from school and made a life for herself and daughter. In my twenties I stood by dear friends who simply could not afford emotionally or financially to carry their pregnancies to term. Their decisions to seek abortions were difficult and painful, but they faced them courageously.

I'm a 35-year-old, educated, black, divorced mother. Like so many other women my age I have faced my own tough reproductive choices. I've had a child, an abortion, and hysterectomy. I love and respect women who have chosen many different paths. Their stories and my own are part of the reason that I am a committed supporter of reproductive rights.

The murder of George Tiller is personal to me. It is not just a matter of politics or policy. I am an aunt to three teenage girls and the mother to a daughter. It is critical to me that their health, safety, and choices are protected.

I HIGHLY recommend reading the full text of her post because it definitely deserves your attention. I can't imagine how much courage it took for Professor Harris-Lacewell to tell her story but I hope she is an inspiration to other women who have a similar story to tell.

Somethings Been Missing On Morning Joe

I have a love hate relationship with Morning Joe and no matter how frustrating it is to watch I still find myself watching it every weekday morning. Well the last two days it has been very apparent that Joe Scarborough and his yes men and women have gone out of their way to not talk about the assassination of Dr George Tiller by a crazy right to lifer. I thought it was pretty cowardly for them not to talk about it but I just chalked it up to the yellow streak in Scarborough's nature.

Turns out there is more to the story.

Maddow actually led with a headshot of Michael Griffin, the first abortion-doctor murderer, who killed Dr. David Gunn in Pensacola, Florida in 1993. She then moved on to copycat Shelley Shannon, who wrote letters of support for Griffin shortly before she shot George Tiller in both arms, an ominous foreboding of his murder 16 years later.Maddow could have called on a colleague with first-hand knowledge of the Griffin case -- Joe Scarborough, the folksy host of the network's Morning Joe and Griffin's pro-bono lawyer in 1993. A Voice cover story in 2008 examined in great detail Scarborough's role in the case, as well as the singular impact his exploitation of the abortion issue had in Scarborough's 1994 initial election to Congress. So what might his colleagues have learned about defending abortion-doc killers from Morning Joe?

Well....

Scarborough's hometown of Pensacola -- where his show once frequently originated -- was the site of the first two abortion murders, the second also occurring during his first run for Congress in 1994. A raw 30-year-old, Scarborough's surprising Republican win was principally funded by anti-abortion groups and he immediately went to Washington and voted against bills to protect abortion clinics, including one version sponsored by a Republican congressmen.

Griffin handwrote the Voice two long letters last year after we contacted him in prison, describing in depth his relationship with Scarborough. While Scarborough tried to minimize his ties in an interview, claiming he was merely doing "a favor for a friend" and briefly searching for a lawyer who'd take the case to trial, Griffin detailed Scarborough's efforts to stay on the case and work with the trail attorney.

So Scarborough himself has first hand experience with representing domestic terrorists, and for free no less. Of topic but I would say representing a cold blooded killer because he is a family friend is worse to me than "palling around" with Bill Ayers.

So the question is will any guest who goes on Morning Joe this week push the issue and bring up the murder or will they do like most of them always do and kiss Scarborough's ass?

Very Powerful

The son of one of the founders of the Right To Life movement, Frank Schaeffer appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show tonight and what he said in light of the assasination of Dr. George Tiller was very powerful. He not only took responsibility for his part in stirring up that kind of evil with his hateful rhetoric previously, he also called for others in the RTL movement to come forward and take responsibility as well. I could try to describe what he said but I wouldn't do it justice so instead just check out the video from the show.



The tail end of the segment where he talks about the rage that wingnuts are trying to gin up at President Obama I think is exactly spot on. And I can only hope that the people tasked with protecting him are paying attention and are leaving nothing to chance.

Will the Mainstream Media Stick Their Heads In The Sand Again.

News has just come in that George Tiller, a doctor who performed abortions in Kansas, was murdered today as he headed into church.

WICHITA - George Tiller, the Wichita doctor who became a national lightning rod in the debate over abortion, was shot to death this morning as he walked into church services.

Tiller, 67, was shot just after 10 a.m. at Reformation Lutheran Church at 7601 E. 13th, where he was a member of the congregation. Witnesses and a police source confirmed Tiller was the victim.

No information has been released about whether a suspect is in custody.

Homicide detectives and Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston have arrived at the church.

Members of the congregation who were inside the sanctuary at the time of the shooting were being kept inside the church by police, and those arriving were being ushered into the parking lot. Witnesses are being transported downtown for interviews and other members of the congregation are slowly being released from inside the sanctuary.

Tiller has long been a focal point of protest by abortion opponents because his clinic, Women's Health Care Services at 5701 E. Kellogg, is one of the few in the country where late-term abortions are performed.

Protesters blockaded Tiller's clinic during Operation Rescue's "Summer of Mercy" protests during the summer of 1991, and Tiller was shot by Rachelle Shannon at his clinic in 1993.

Now for some odd reason when a situation like this happens and its obvious that a right wing extremist was involved the mainstream media decides to leave that little bit of information out. They never seem to want to make the connection between extreme elements on the right wing of the country and domestic terrorism no matter how obvious it is. You saw it with the right wing cop killer in Pittsburgh and you saw it with the right wing cop killer in Florida. While the local coverage had tons of information about the perpetrators right wing extremist pasts the national mainstream media tended to avoid that subject all together.

And in the meantime people continue to lose their lives to these assholes.