It’s all the Tea Party’s fault
Here we go again. Something bad happened this week, so….fire up the Tea Party-bashing engine. My syndicated column today looks at the Left’s unhingedness over the Austin suicide pilot and the Amy Bishop campus massacre, which as I noted yesterday, reeks of the same craven political exploitation as the Kentucky census worker hoax. Since filing the column yesterday afternoon, there are even more examples to add to the pile. Allahpundit spotlights a Washington Post contributor and Time magazine piece both shoehorning the Tea Party movement into their suicide pilot coverage and commentary.
Damn the facts. There’s a crisis to exploit. You know, now would be a good time for a uniter-in-chief — an agent of hope and change in Washington — to call for civility and healing and a ceasefire on inflammatory attacks against peaceful Americans who had nothing to do with this attack. At 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, crickets chirp.
Latest development in the case: The suicide pilot’s wife plans to address the media today.
***
It’s all the Tea Party’s fault
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
Remember “Not Me?” He was the famous invisible cartoon gremlin in the newspaper cartoon strip “Family Circus.” Whenever toys were left on the floor or other school-age disasters struck, the kids in the cartoon pointed their fingers at “Not Me.” Today, “Tea Party” is the juvenile Left’s new “Not Me” – an all-purpose scapegoat for every crime and disaster.
On Thursday morning, a disturbed pilot flew a stolen small plane into an Austin, Texas, office complex that contained an Internal Revenue Service office. Several workers in the building were injured and Joseph Andrew Stack, the pilot, was killed in the crash. Local authorities suspect he set his house on fire – from which his wife and daughter escaped — before taking off on his deadly journey. Investigators found a Web posting identified as Stack’s “suicide manifesto” in which he railed against tax laws, inequity, government, and crony capitalism. He also targeted “puppet” George W. Bush and murderous health care insurers and the pharmaceutical industry.
The “manifesto” ended:
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
This nutball had deadly grudges that transcended partisan lines. But within minutes of the story breaking, a furious, left-wing blogger at the popular Daily Kos website – where countless Democrat leaders have guest-posted – fumed: “Teabagger terrorist attack on IRS building.” The article immediately cast blame on the anti-tax Tea Party movement: “After months of threats on the United States government, and government institutions, the Anti-Government forces known as the teabaggers have struck with their first 911 (sic) inspired terrorist attack.”
At the eponymous mega-website of Arianna Huffington, a 2,000-plus comment thread was filled with allusions to “teabaggers:”
I would bet he has a membership card to teabag nation and the Glenn Beck fan club !
Tea bag bomb
Good to see natural selection still works! Tea party Unite!
This guy sounds just like a teabagger.
Oh please. This has tea bags dripping all over it.
I hope teabaggers are proud!! …. Great opening day for CPAC [the Conservative Political Action Conference] isn’t it??
This guy sounds like a Tea Partier first class! Maybe that movement is more DANGEROUS to our freedoms than they let on! Be afraid America, BE VERY AFRAID!
He was a Tea Party Terrorist.
In the early aftermath of the suicide pilot’s attack, there was no evidence that Stack belonged to a Tea Party group. In any case, no law-abiding Tea Party group would ever condone what he did. But it didn’t stop the haters from immediately smearing advocates of limited government. And it’s just the latest in a long line of calculated attempts to paint the vast majority of peaceful Tea Party activists as terrorist threats to civil society.
This week, absurd liberal pundits and bloggers also tried to connect the tragic University of Alabama-Huntsville murders to the Tea Party movement. No matter that the alleged killer, Amy Bishop, was an Obama-worshiping academic who repeatedly got a soft-on-crime pass. Or that Democrat Rep. William Delahunt of Massachusetts was the former prosecutor involved in dropping charges against Bishop in the deadly shooting of her teenage brother. Or that liberal-dominated campus officials apparently looked the other way at Bishop’s several red-flag flashes of violence leading up to the U of A shootings.
Tea Party-bashers claimed that the murders were a manifestation of racist conservative influence on the American landscape. CNN commentator Roland Martin pointed out that all the victims were non-white and wrote: “One can imagine that as Amy Bishop continued to shoot, bomb and kill people with impunity, eventually this obsession (with Obama) might have played itself out with some horrific results.” [CORRECTION: This quote was not made by Martin. My syndicate editor caught it last night and removed it from the syndicate version of the column. I forgot to remove it from my blog version. I apologize to Martin and regret the error.] Reuters Foundation Fellow Jonathan Curiel picked up the theme: “The ‘results’ that the Tea Party movement envisions include less government — and less of Obama.”
Curiel bemoaned the rejection of a post-racial society by tying together the Alabama massacre and the rise of the Tea Party movement even more explicitly. Proof of anti-Obama bigotry he wrote could be found in “last week’s shooting in Alabama, where a disgruntled white professor murdered three minority professors; and the growing success of the Tea Party movement, which is overwhelmingly white and increasing vocal in its violent dislike of the nation’s first black president.
The same warped worldview blamed Tea Party conservatives for Kentucky census worker Bill Sparkman’s insurance-scam-inspired suicide and for Holocaust Museum shooter James Von Brunn’s rampage (despite his published rantings against Fox News).
The smear merchants, of course, are simply following Rahm Emanuel’s advice to exploit every crisis. Pointing fingers at the Tea Party gremlin demonizes the Left’s most potent political opponents. This is the blame-gamers’ ultimate agenda: Criminalizing dissent.
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Wesley Snipes hasn’t made any political contributions per Newsmeat.com
And all celebrities are Democrats. Almost all. Adam Sandler, at least a self employed/actor Adam Sandler of Manchester, NH contributes to Republicans.
Arnold Scharzenneger is split, 32% Dems, 65% Republicans, as far as political donations.
Like, totally!
It sounded to me like he was obsessing for the past 20 years over the fact that he couldn’t cheat on his taxes any more (Insert Democrats-don’t-pay-taxes joke here.) The tax code is a PITA, and is indeed a major reason that many small businesses either never start, or fail entirely. But many do start, some actually succeed.
He didn’t take any responsibility for his failed businesses. It was all somebody else’s fault.
I’m going to speculate pseudo-intellectually and state that liberals voted for Obama only so they could accuse everyone else of being racists. It is a foolproof way to claim the moral high ground. To them, he’s strictly a useful tool to further their own selfish political interests and to point their fingers at the opposition.
Now that I’ve insinuated that a broad group of people are racists, the pseudos may continue with their harmful, ludicrous accusations.
I give up. Just seems like Michelle goes over to Huff Po and finds commenters who figure he’s a tea party type, and Huffers check in here and see us deciding he’s a libtard – and there’s really nothing in his surreal diatribe to indicate he was anything but a loony toon – a lame brain – a freakin fountain of freakish Freudian foibles(Oo that was good) – psycho loco – a fart in the wind – a….
Geez. I guess he does sound like a libtard. Sorry, my bad.
Maybe he was also upset that he could not get the Tim Giethner treatment from the IRS
Stack seems pretty free-range; he hated the IRS and tried to cheat on his taxes, but he also castigates congress for bailing out banks and insurance companies while failing to pass healthcare reforms. From his manifesto:
This guy totally lost it. Like some people today, thanks to the MSM, instead of committing suicide, they want to go out with their moment of fame. That’s why we have so many murder-suicides now. Everyone wants to be on the news. So, instead of just shooting himself, leaving a note, he knew that playing 9/11, he would be all over the news networks. He seemed to be a man with a lot of built up anger inside, and just snapped.
What was that movie with Michael Douglas who was some kind of geek that flipped out? It’s been a while.
I should have said this earlier, but that is an excellent summary.
The Obama administration’s ultimate agenda is criminalizing dissent as they try to drive us full speed down The Road to Socialism USA.
Falling Down. I’d forgotten about that flick. Eerily similar to this guy. A divorced former defense engineer who gets unhinged about life and the system. Life imitates art?
On February 19th, 2010 at 4:10 pm, swede said:
He sounds a lot like Bill Ayers.
Except Bill Ayers didn’t kill himself in the process,
so I guess this guy sounds more like Ayers’ late girlfriend.
I’m glad you ended with that, and agree that he does sound like a libtard.
Just caught the issue of the misquote attributed to Roland S. Martin. You handled yourself properly, it was a mistake, it was corrected and you offered a public apology. That shows strong character.
Reading some of the comments on Martin’s facebook page was a huge disappointment. The hatred and racist comments are all over the top. I wonder if Roland S. Martin will pull those comments? It certainly reflects poorly on him and his audience.
Tea party folks are going to change America through the vote, not murder innocent people.
Murdering innocent humans is what the left does. It is called Moloch worship, or abortion.
On February 19th, 2010 at 7:30 pm, Leatherneck said:
Exactly. The way to end the IRS is not by flying a plane into a building. It is by electing a Congress, President, and state legislatures that will repeal the 16th Amendment and replace it with the Fair Tax.
Yup.
He hated big business, GWB, and capitalism. Sounds like a lefty to me.
Fact is, the Daily Kos, and the liberal freaks in the media trying to stir up the pot are about as relevant as my appendix. The American people are not fooled. But leftwing traitors continue to play the game. They have not learned the lessons of Virginia, Massachusetts, and NJ. Good. It will be a fun November.
That’s when I stopped watching him, up to that point I see now he had become a bad habit. He always panders for viewers, sides with the left more than not, most annoying doe not know when to stfu.
Ed Mahmoud are you the same Ed the weather guy from LGF fame??? I missed your reports and info when you got the boot. I was flounced too so you are in “good company” so to speak.
LGF was the first “right-wing” website I found when I became obsessed with politics. I loved it! I wasn’t able to get in to becoming a poster, but I enjoyed visiting the lizard lounge every day and reading the very clever and informative comments. The commenters were awesome! Then it started to change. It started getting very technical and nerdy. Then, the “host” started obsessing on certain subjects almost to the exclusion of other, more important things. I gave up and found MM. So glad I did!!! THIS is a QUALITY blog and the posters are the very BEST! I see no need to travel elsewhere!
Yet again more proof that the MSM are pathological liars. How is the Western press any different from that under the Soviet Union?
Here is the Sacbee idea of what this crash meant to them.
http://www.sacbee.com/babin/image_media/2550491.html
General Alexander Haig Died Today.
Yes, sad to see him go. Prayers and condolences to the family.
It doesn’t matter what the lamestream media are trying to sell. Americans do not trust them. The leftist lunatics, who are in power, and their followers, are losing all control. I believe most of them have a screw loose…..Stack and Bishop,both left wingers, not only had/have a screw loose, their screw fell out. Stack exhibited typical leftist/libs peculiarities—-a person filled with anger and hate, especially for America.
http://www.leftcoastrebel.com/2010/02/joe-stacks-internet-manifestosuicide_19.html
A great man, patriot, but more important a soldier.
Just a Common Soldier
He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast,
And he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past
Of a war that he had fought in and the deeds that he had done,
In his exploits with his buddies; they were heroes, every one.
And tho’ sometimes, to his neighbors, his tales became a joke,
All his Legion buddies listened, for they knew whereof he spoke.
But we’ll hear his tales no longer for old Bill has passed away,
And the world’s a little poorer, for a soldier died today.
He will not be mourned by many, just his children and his wife,
For he lived an ordinary and quite uneventful life.
Held a job and raised a family, quietly going his own way,
And the world won’t note his passing, though a soldier died today.
When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state,
While thousands note their passing and proclaim that they were great.
Papers tell their whole life stories, from the time that they were young,
But the passing of a soldier goes unnoticed and unsung.
Is the greatest contribution to the welfare of our land
A guy who breaks his promises and cons his fellow man?
Or the ordinary fellow who, in times of war and strife,
Goes off to serve his Country and offers up his life?
A politician’s stipend and the style in which he lives
Are sometimes disproportionate to the service that he gives.
While the ordinary soldier, who offered up his all,
Is paid off with a medal and perhaps, a pension small.
It’s so easy to forget them for it was so long ago,
That the old Bills of our Country went to battle, but we know
It was not the politicians, with their compromise and ploys,
Who won for us the freedom that our Country now enjoys.
Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand,
Would you want a politician with his ever-shifting stand?
Or would you prefer a soldier, who has sworn to defend
His home, his kin and Country and would fight until the end?
He was just a common soldier and his ranks are growing thin,
But his presence should remind us we may need his like again.
For when countries are in conflict, then we find the soldier’s part
Is to clean up all the troubles that the politicians start.
If we cannot do him honor while he’s here to hear the praise,
Then at least let’s give him homage at the ending of his days.
Perhaps just a simple headline in a paper that would say,
Our Country is in mourning, for a soldier died today.
Flyoverman #143: Perfect and Priceless.
RIP General Alexander Haig, you will not be forgotten.
GSP
That poem gave me goosebumps!! How beautiful and appropriate! As a side note…my husband said he remembers Haig so well because of the power-grab he tried in the WH when Reagan was shot. I told him that the MSM misrepresented what Haig said and he said, “Oh yeah! Back then, there was no FOX News to actually get the truth out.” No internet either. So the lie told by MSM was allowed to stand all these years, tarnishing a great man. Another example of the harm done by a biased media. God grant you eternal peace, good and faithful servant, Alexander Haig.
A loyal Patriot has passed, a grateful citizen mourns and prays…
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord,
And let perpetual Light shine upon him.
May his soul
And the souls of all the faithful departed
Through the Mercy of God
Rest in peace.
Amen.
Thinking of my Command Sergeant Major who died too young last fall. A Screaming Eagle, Vietnam Veteran, who served for almost 30 years.
STRIKE FIRST, STRIKE HARD, CSM.
Thanks, flyoverman. My Dad’s passing was 4 years ago, in a couple of days. He was a retired AF officer with 29 years in. I was looking for something nice to e-mail to my brother and sister. It fit the “bill” nicely. He didn’t tell his stories much. But, he did mention about getting shot at, and sharing his food with Japanese prisoners. We always lose something, in this country, when a vet dies.
I am surprised to find myself heartbroken over Gen. Haig. I didn’t know he meant that much to me.
I see some guy in San Diego stole a plane after a fight with his girlfriend. Fortunately, he landed at LA, after 2 attempts. He claimed he was going to crash into the ocean. It brings a question to mind. How many other disturbed people will try to steal planes and try a “9/11″ into some building somewhere, hoping it will put them in the news too?
Your father’s generation was the greatest. If he served in WWII he started off in the Army Air Corps. That is something!
That generation was the greatest. Most were born right after WW1, which was still fresh in everyone’s mind. They are all passing on daily now, and, I’m afraid, their sacrifice and devotion to duty will soon be forgotten except in a “pc acceptable” textbook. One soldier dies today, and it is headline news. Imagine when hundreds died every day.
Well said gray. I shared in another thread about 5 years ago my uncle handed me his 1911 .45 and said “I want you to have this”. Two days later, out of the blue he went to be with the Lord. The Colt was his side arm when he landed in the first wave at Normandy, and marched across Europe. He brought home a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. Per his request he was burried in his uniform and we placed his decorations on his chest. He was the last of that valliant generation in my family, including my dad and two other uncles. I share your concern that the monumental sacrifice they made with such selfless courage and dedication is being lost. As long as I have breath it won’t be. In my mind – the greatest generation by a long shot.
Needless to say, Uncle Will would not be impressed with out current CiC. In that one respect, I’m glad he was spared having to see this mess.
It’s not just the DU or Kos or HuffPo…naturallycurly.com political forum (of all places) took less than a half dozen posts to get to that point. The poster is a rabid (and I do mean RABID) Dem, bitter, angry black woman who despises me…and I do tend to egg her on at times.
With all due respect to those called “the greatest generation” (and great respect is indeed due them), the greatest generation doesn’t have to be in our past. We can be even greater in the future.
Glenn Beck said the same thing towards the end of his excellent CPAC keynote.
OT
Scott Brown raised 14 mil in final days compared to coakley’s 4 mil.
http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/massachusetts/Coakley-hit-fundraising-wall-in-MA-race
It is unfortunate, but the federal government is a danger to the health and wealth of productive Americans. The Tea Party movement has clearly identified the problem and has provided a set of recommended solutions none of which involve violence (unless you consider yelling at politicians and voting them out of office violent acts). .
It appears that violence and murder in defense of the environment is OK with the likes of Huffington, Kos, and Moveon.org posters but violence against a dictatorial socialistic government is out of bounds. Maybe these leftists ought to take a look at revolutionary history.
Another “Contract with America”? Perhaps.
graysonret: The importance of a Contract with America cannot be underestimated. Not only does it tell the voters what the politicians are about but it reminds each and every politician what is promised. This latter result may be more important than the first as we have all seen the Republican Party leadership drift far away from the Gingrich inspired “Contract with America”.
Also, I believe that the tea party movement scares the heck out of both parties because tea party participants are really the independents who have abandoned both parties because of their big government ways. No politician’s seat is a safe seat when the independents rise up in frustration.
The whole “Contract with/from America” meme seems redundant to me. What, after all is the constitution – especially the bill of rights? Conservatives should be talking about the “Contract with/from/by and for America” that was penned two hundred years ago – and which if correctly interpreted expounds small government, free enterprise strong defense and individual freedom.
I’m not sure why we need a new contract. The old one is pretty d**n good.
I’m not underestimating it at all. However, I will agree with Swede that a “contract” isn’t necessary. But, if the Republicans come out with one, I will look at it, and decide if it’s a con game for votes, or the real thing.
Did you see the Rasmussen poll that 73% agree that Washington is broken. A quote from the article “the gap between Americans who want to govern themselves and the politicians who want to rule over them may be as big today as the gap between the colonies and England during the 18th century.” from Rasmussen’s book, In Search of Self-Governance.
Needed emphasis. Sorry.
…thinking about CPAC 2010, and the topics of Self-Governance and U.S. sovereignty (vs. world government via the U.N. IPCC, as well as sovereignty vs. open borders)…
If you go back to CPAC 2008 and examine the speeches made by the Presidential candidates, look to see how often they mentioned “sovereign” or “sovereignty” in their speeches at CPAC:
Senator John McCain: 0
Former Governor Mitt Romney: 0
Congressman Ron Paul: 1
Former Governor Mike Huckabee: 5
Who said it?
Much bigger. Socialism reminds me of
“titan arum” (stink flower). Looks nice from a distance, but once you take a closer look, it stinks awfully.
Good analogy. Those of us who grew up during the cold war understood what socialism was about. As in your stink flower metaphor, it actually looks very good in principle (and on paper) but fails to comprehend human nature, motivation and propensity for corruption – so utterly fails in practice. The USSR collapsed under its own weight without a shot fired. I find it diffult to comprehend how anyone with a functioning brain could not see the present direction of our Government leading to the same ultimate consequences.
My concern is that a substantial portion of a new generation does not comprehend this historical reality, and again thinks socialism (now redesignated “progressivism”) looks like a good idea. Not to mention the presence of a liberal Ivy League president and admin who live in a world of idealistic theory rather than reality.
They are taught from day one in schools, that socialism is “good” for them. Once they found out that socialism wasn’t “good”, the liberals changed the name to “progressivism”,
Flyoverman #143 – thank you for that beautiful poem to our soldiers. I would have considered it a privilege
to serve under Gen Haig’s command.
Doesn’t make any sense why Amy Bishop is labeled in the teaparty crowd when she is described as a leftist extremist who is in love with Obama. How can she be a teabagger? I see her murdering spree as “entitlement gone wrong”. It didn’t go her way so she used violence. Something we need to be aware of. If the left doesn’t get their way they will get nasty.
Mike Huckabee did a brilliant thing.
He found a very effective way to promote the Fair Tax to an audience that normally watches CNN, CBS, etc. and who may have never heard of the Fair Tax Before.
Mike Huckabee got Michelle Obama to do an exclusive interview for his show, and took full advantage of the opportunity to speak to the increased viewing audience that likely included many Democrats. Huckabee opened his show with a monologue, prior to showing the video of the Michelle Obama interview.
And in that monologue to a captive audience,
he promoted the Fair Tax.
Brilliant!