Living in a Land of Rising Right-Wing Hate

Thursday 01 April 2010

by: Glynn Wilson, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

Living in a Land of Rising Right-Wing Hate
(Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: beardymonsta, F. Montino)

Northeast Jefferson County east of Birmingham, Alabama, has long been known as a white-flight suburb and home to a crowd of racist rednecks, mostly good old boys and gals who work for the power company, the gas company, the phone company and in construction. Bordered by rural and mostly white Blount and St. Clair counties to the north and east, it has become the poor side of town. The money went south. The black migration from the city has in recent years about taken over what was at one time the largest, mostly white suburb in the country called Center Point, which was the halfway point between the industrial city of Birmingham and the countryside in the 1950's and 1960's.

Now that the citizens of the United States have elected the first African-American president in US history, however, there are racist, conservative activist groups popping up all over the place - and not just the Tea Party. One man has put his area on the map like no other.

Michael B. Vanderboegh of Pinson, Alabama, hit the national spotlight last week and is now under serious federal law enforcement scrutiny since calling for right-wing militia-style activists to toss bricks through the windows of Democrats on his SipseyStreetIrregulars blog, designed to appeal to the so-called Three Percenters, or three percent of American gun owners with the most radical view of the Second Amendment.

Vanderboegh may have been able to continue blogging in relative suburban obscurity, except that somebody decided to carry out his call to throw bricks in New York, Arizona and Kansas. One brick that crashed through the window of the Democratic Committee headquarters in Monroe County, New York, had a note attached with a quote from Barry Goldwater: "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice."

"I guess that guy's one of ours," Vanderboegh said in a telephone interview with a Montgomery newspaper. "Glad to know people read my blog."

Another brick slammed through the glass doors at the Democratic Committee's office in Rochester, New York, and another was thrown at the window of Rep. Louise Slaughter's district office in Niagara Falls. Reports of brick-throwing at Democratic offices were also reported last Monday in Arizona and Kansas.

Thanks in part to a new Southern Poverty Law Center report on the Rage of the Right, the guy's story, such as it is, has been repeated in The Washington Post, not once but twice, and MSNBC on National Public Radio and in hundreds of newspapers, thanks to the AP wire.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center's intelligence report on Vanderboegh, he has tried to portray himself as a moderate, first in the militia world and more recently in the anti-immigration movement.

"But he hasn't always sounded that way," according to the report. Back in the mid-1990's, he wrote a document entitled "Strategy and Tactics for a Militia Civil War," in which he discussed the utility of snipers using "violence carefully targeted and clearly defensive: war criminals, secret policemen, rats …"

As of November 1, the tiny group of Three Percenters gave itself another name - the Alabama Minuteman Surveillance Team - and the mission of making life miserable for any business that hires undocumented workers.

"We hereby put exploitative employers and crooked politicians on notice," Vanderboegh declared after ending the patrols and deciding to return to Alabama to concentrate on the situation there. "We intend to make it toxic for anyone doing public or private business to use illegals. If I were a politician in Alabama right now, I'd start getting REAL careful about who I accepted money from. Because we're fixin' to flip on the light switch."

Vanderboegh denied any suggestion of vigilantism, telling a Birmingham newspaper that all his group sought was enforcement of existing laws. He had similarly shrugged off criticism of the para-militarism of the militias back when he was associated with groups including the Alabama Constitutional Militia, the Tri-States Militia and the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment of the so-called Constitutional Militia.

Take note that was during the Clinton years. He seems to only have a problem with Democrats, not Republicans, an indication that his so-called "revolution" is not exactly as nonpartisan as he tries to claim.

On his blog and in other documents on the Web traced to him, Vanderboegh talks about President Barack Obama as a "tyrant," but he uttered not one word of criticism against President George W. Bush while his administration dismantled the Fourth Amendment against illegal searches and seizures by authorizing illegal spying on every American's email, Web browsing habits and phone calls.

Now that policy is about to trap Vanderboegh in a legal juggernaut, and he may get the chance he seeks to get arrested for the cause to tell his story to a larger audience. He openly seeks publicity on his site and writes that he fully expects to be arrested.

A spokesperson for US Attorney Joyce Vance's office in Birmingham said it would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation. The chief deputy for Jefferson County is referring all press calls to the public relations agent for the local office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has so far refused to return phone calls after interviewing Vanderboegh Tuesday.

While Vanderboegh tells TV reporters he's not a racist, a Google background search on Michael B. Vanderboegh shows he recently purchased this book from Amazon.com: "White Rage: The Extreme Right and American Politics," by Martin Durham.

This week, Vanderboegh claims he is getting death threats himself and said he called the FBI to turn in an Easter card he allegedly received in the mail with bird mess inside. He thought it might be anthrax, he says, so he claims he started taking antibiotics. Yet he continues right on blogging about his "hate," even after several police vehicles and a hazardous materials truck showed up to claim the Easter card, and he was not treated as a hero or a patriot.

"I must admit that I am starting to develop a healthy hate, one that I must guard against if I do not want to become the same kind of beast that collectivism apparently manufactures so easily out of these godless assholes," Vanderboegh writes. "Acting like bugs, they've just about got me convinced of their absolute lack of any humanity.

"As I have written before, when you can think of them as bugs, as they think of us, it makes it easier to kill them," he continues. "I am now to the point where I almost DO think of them as bugs. Like Zander to the Brain Bug in Starship Troopers, I want to scream, 'One day, somebody like me is going to kill you, and your whole fucking race!' Collectivism has finally convinced me that it is a race unto its own.

"They have also demonstrated that this is an existential war of extermination, one way or another. Them or us. I vote them," he writes. "They still have to shoot first. But it will be the last temporary advantage they get. There ain't no live and let live with bugs."

He signs his posts Mike III, for Three Percent of gun owners.

Also this week, the manager of a local wildlife refuge at Turkey Creek had to notify Vanderboegh that he would no longer be allowed to deliver history lessons to schoolchildren.

Taylor Steele, director of the Turkey Creek Nature Preserve for Birmingham Southern College, said in an interview that Vanderboegh would tell stories as part of the park's programs and seemed pretty well-versed in history.

"I had no idea what his political or social faction was," Steele said. "Of course, when that story broke, I told my volunteer that we deal with kids, and that we can't have that element being part of that education program."

As a result, Vanderboegh writes on his blog in a classic example of the white Southern racist playing the victim, "So, I'm fired from a job I never took a dime for. It was perfectly predictable and I am actually amazed the collectivist academics took so long.

"Still, it hurts," he says. "It hurts a lot."

One of Vanderboegh's documented links is to another group called the Oath Keepers, which tries to recruit police officers and members of the US military to join their anti-federal government, racist cause.

Writing on his blog about the FBI raids on militias in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana this week, where evidence suggests a group of right-wing radicals were planning to kill police officers and bomb their funerals, Vanderboegh calls it a "well thought out, perfectly targeted, craftily planned, brilliantly executed and impeccably timed" bit of public relations and "propaganda" on the part of the Obama administration, specifically designed to discredit him, his groups and their plans for 'revolution.'

"For the Imperial Feds, this was a propaganda coup of the tenth order of magnitude," he writes.

His advice to the "brotherhood" of white racists?

"My recommendation: Stand fast. Await word. But be ready if this turns into another Waco."

Not far from Pinson in the southern Appalachian foothills in the towns of Springville and Trussville, other right-wing groups of Vanderboegh's ilk also thrive, and some of them have the official imprimatur of elected officials running for higher office.

State Sen. Hank Erwin, who is running as a Republican for Alabama lieutenant governor, is taking part in a Tea Party protest in Montgomery Tuesday, according to his Facebook page, where he calls himself "very conservative."

But not long ago, he attended a meeting of another radical right-wing group that has sprung up in Northeast Jefferson County, a modern-day Ku Klux Klan without the white robes that is also connected to the Tea Party movement.

"There is a popular city in Alabama that is slowly but surely becoming recognized in the political atmosphere as a 'must' visit. The town is Trussville, and in the last six months it has been a breeding ground for political action groups," Erwin claims on his Website. "The most recent group to join in the trend is serving as a counterpart to the women's movement, as a number of men demonstrated their frustration with the current economic crisis at what hopes to be the first of many 'Conservative Patriots Club' meetings."

The formation of a men's club comes after the so-called success of a women's group known as the "Republican Women of Trussville," which last month generated "one of the largest Tea Parties in the state," Erwin claims, with nearly 2,000 in attendance.

Leading the first meeting for the Conservative Patriots Club was Springville resident Harold Mathews, a small plane dealer and owner of Mathew's Manor, a private wedding chapel at the corner of US Highway 11 and Old Springville Road, where meetings take place every first Tuesday of the month at 7 PM.

According to three sources who have been asked to attend these meetings, but refused, that is now the official meeting place for the group, a fact unbeknownst to the Southern Poverty Law Center. In fact, during a call to the center's public relations office Tuesday morning, the SPLC said it had never heard of the Conservative Patriots Club, and would not comment on Erwin's conservative activism, since it is a nonprofit organization prohibited from taking part in politics.

Mathews runs a conservative email list, and three weeks before the election of Obama as the first black president in US history, he sent me an email message containing a death threat.

"You ignorant Boob!" he wrote. "The Obama machine slanted it so bad … This is what happens stupid, when people can get great gifts and benefits from government, it bankrupts the government. Now, we have all our taxes paying welfare at a exorbitant amount to people who aren't even a citizen of this country giving health care away like it is candy. Where does it stop? I guess when government gets so big that it tells YOU and the rest of the Liberal News rags WHAT TO WRITE and how to WRITE.

"You guys do not get it. They are already telling you and you are so blind to the facts of what is going on that when you do see it, it will be too late to fix without a revolution!" he continued. "Well maybe a revolution is good now and again. I know just where to put my first Bullet!"

This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Comments

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Violence. The last refuge of

Thu, 04/01/2010 - 17:25 — Tom Camfield (not verified)

Violence. The last refuge of the dull-witted.

There's more to this story.

Thu, 04/01/2010 - 17:30 — Glynn Wilson (not verified)

There's more to this story. It will come out soon. Watch LocustFork.net...

As twisted, hate-filled and

Thu, 04/01/2010 - 18:35 — Anonymous (not verified)

As twisted, hate-filled and ignorant as these people are they may just be right about the need for revolution. The question is how will the sides be drawn?

The book tells us exactly

Thu, 04/01/2010 - 18:56 — Glynn Wilson (not verified)

The book tells us exactly what we wanted to know about the guy's politics. But that's not all. He goes after Democrats, particularly black ones...

That's why it is so

Thu, 04/01/2010 - 19:18 — Glynn Wilson (not verified)

That's why it is so controversial when the FBI spies on people's reading habits at libraries, because it tells the investigators nothing about the mindset of the person. Right...

So, Molly, why don't you

Thu, 04/01/2010 - 22:03 — Glynn Wilson (not verified)

So, Molly, why don't you come out and say it? You agree with Vanderboegh?

No, I don't advocate censorship. That is utterly ridiculous. He can read it, but when he advocates violence, that is a matter for investigation. Or don't you agree?

You are a liar and your real name is Eddie Curran. You never studied politics, and there's no university that would put that book on the reading list...

Martin Durham is an

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 01:36 — Anonymous (not verified)

Martin Durham is an academic, and “White Rage: The Extreme Right and American Politics" is a well researched scholarly book. I am not sure why you think purchasing this book provides evidence of Vanderboegh’s racism.

To make judgments about a person based on what he reads is akin to judging a person because of his name.

The book purchase as a

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 03:14 — Anonymous (not verified)

The book purchase as a singular point does not draw a line, but put into the context of the other words and actions, it does now point somewhere doesn't it?
We can call each other names, and we can debate which facts do or don't shed light on the true Vanderboegh, but what is your own motive for criminalizing him, or exonerating him?
Does he somehow love his country.. perhaps, but it would seem the kind of love that an abusive father shows his children. Beating them into submission, "for their own good". But good doesn't really have a part in this play does it? The statement, you reap what you sow, was not intended as a justification to deal out judgement as you see fit, but a warning to look deep into your own heart. What you plant there will come back to you.

I spent a portion of my childhood growing up in Louisiana. I remember even then wondering why the racism was so strong. Are these people not American? Just because of the shade of their skin? You have a case with undocumented workers fresh from the border, but these men, women, and children were born here. Most of their ancestors were drug from their villages and brought here unwillingly in chains. And now you want to tell the great-great-grandchildren that they shouldn't be here? Really?!
Perhaps it is repressed guilt buried deep in your family's genes. You don't want to look at a black family, especially a happy successful one, because it makes you feel ashamed...

..but you can't admit that, even to yourself, better to cover it up with white hot self-righteous anger.

you can always rationalize and come up with reasons to defend your judgements later.

"Violence is the last refuge

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 03:48 — Sander (not verified)

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

Isaac Asimov

My comment about the book

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 04:10 — Anonymous (not verified)

My comment about the book was speaking to a larger issue. It was not intended in any way to defend Vanderboegh.

Clearly, Vanderboegh is a vile man who advocates violence to intimidate anyone who is not in agreement with his anti-democratic, authoritarian, cruel worldview. There is no doubt in my mind that Vanderboegh is a racist thug.

I just don’t think the purchase of a book that objectively analyzes the history of rightwing hate in America is evidence of a person's racist beliefs.

"I just don’t think the

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 04:37 — Anonymous (not verified)

"I just don’t think the purchase of a book that objectively analyzes the history of rightwing hate in America is evidence of a person's racist beliefs."

With that, I completely agree.

If the secret "Fingerman" police ever looked at my reading list, I am sure they would be very confused..

..but haul me away nevertheless

Where is your support for a

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 07:12 — Glynn Wilson (not verified)

Where is your support for a journalist getting death threats from these violent racists?

To pick at one line in a very long report is not the way to support the Web Press and investigative journalism.

Is that the only line in the story you read?

Do you repudiate his actions, or do you consider him a scholar because he read the same book you read?

This story is not about the book. It is about the rise of right-wing hate in this country and the growing violence in the radical right aimed at president Obama and others.

I would like to see your comments on that issue. Who cares about the book? That is NOT the issue at hand!

Does this concern you ...

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 07:26 — Glynn Wilson (not verified)

Does this concern you ... maybe a little bit?

FBI Warns Extremist Letters to 30 Governors May Encourage Violence
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100402/D9EQTFN81.html

"On his blog and in other

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 10:29 — Mike Vanderboegh (not verified)

"On his blog and in other documents on the Web traced to him, Vanderboegh talks about President Barack Obama as a "tyrant," but he uttered not one word of criticism against President George W. Bush while his administration dismantled the Fourth Amendment against illegal searches and seizures by authorizing illegal spying on every American's email, Web browsing habits and phone calls."

False Statement. I want a retraction or I will sue your lying ass.

While Vanderboegh tells TV

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 10:31 — Mike Vanderboegh (not verified)

False statement. I do not have a credit card and I have never bought anything from Amazon.com. I do not own this book nor have I read a library copy. I want an immediate retraction or I'll sue your lying ass.

One of Vanderboegh's

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 10:35 — Mike Vanderboegh (not verified)

False statement. What is a "documented link"? I am not a member of Athkeepers.

Immediately retract this or I will sue your lying ass.

He had similarly shrugged

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 10:38 — Mike Vanderboegh (not verified)

He had similarly shrugged off criticism of the para-militarism of the militias back when he was associated with groups including the Alabama Constitutional Militia, the Tri-States Militia and the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment of the so-called Constitutional Militia.

Partially false statement. I was never "associated" with the Alabama Constitutional Militia. That was John Hassey's outfit.

Correct that immediately or I will sue you lying ass. I've always wanted to own a liberal blogger's house.

I didn't get through the

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 11:00 — Jack (not verified)

I didn't get through the first sentence before I found hate and racism, from this writer. Grow up and get a life. Get over yourself and let racism die.

Sue 'em, Mike!

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 12:00 — Jim (not verified)

Glynn Wilson is at BEST a

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 13:58 — Orygunner (not verified)

Glynn Wilson is at BEST a terrible journalist who doesn't know how to check facts. If he had, he would know that Mike Vanderboegh is one of the most ANTI-Racist people out there. It seems this "journalist" (and I use that term VERY loosely) doesn't know how to research properly, or even try to interview the person he's writing about.

There's plenty of other inconsistencies, but if you check Mike Vanderboegh's blog, you'll find his rebuttal against this biased "journalist."

So, Glynn--when you were a

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 21:46 — David Codrea (not verified)

So, Glynn--when you were a kid, was your ambition to grow up to be a liar and a bigot? Or just a subversive fool?

Afraid to talk to Vanderboegh on the phone? HAH!

Cowardly weed.

Lemme guess: "truthout" means that's where you throw it?

We're laughing at you, Glynn. You, personally.

Wow! Glad this is all just

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 21:48 — gr8guy (not verified)

Wow! Glad this is all just ur opinion here, Glynn... cause I SURE didnt read any fact.

Lemme double-check...

Oops sorry... No, Not a ONE!!

REPUBLICANS ARE ARGUING IN

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 22:48 — Anonymous (not verified)

REPUBLICANS ARE ARGUING IN BAD FAITH.

Accept it. It's nothing more than phony outrage to score political points. Peace talks have broken down. That's why we should take them at their word and see just how far they're willing to put their own necks on the line with these threats.

What would happen if the shoe was on the other foot? Repugs would DEMAND immediate action to put these TERRORISTS behind bars, AND SO SHOULD WE. If any Democrat wants my vote he'd better be ready to fight the TERRORIST threats with a few threats of his own. It's time to put bush's patriot act to work for us. This is no joke.

The F.B.I. claims all this TREASONOUS talk of violence could lead to, surprise, violence. A death threat IS violence and IS NOT protected by the First Amendment. Here's a solution for the F.B.I.: DO YOUR JOB and put these terrorists behind bars BEFORE they carry out their threats!

THESE PEOPLE ARE TRAITORS AND TERRORISTS. It's time to smoke 'em out and hold them accountable. These people have no more right to "free speach" that threatens the lives of American citizens than bin laden. I suspect they consider bin laden their hero. They have the same tactics and the same reasons for hating us. There aren't that many caves to hide in in Alabama.

All this TREASONOUS talk of a right-wing TERRORIST revolution will stop quicker than you think, once the TERRORISTS with the phony outrage realize we mean business. timothy mcveigh isn't any more of a martre than bin laden will be.

It's time to find out where right-wing sympathies lie. Are they with America or with the TERRORISTS? Plain and simple.

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 22:55 — Anonymous (not verified)

Regardless of whether this

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 23:31 — Anonymous (not verified)

Regardless of whether this dude is a hater or not (and I have no particular reason to believe or disbelieve the article), let's face it: The Bush years showed an extreme level of hate directed toward Bush from the left. "Kill Bush" was a common phrase, as were comparisons between Bush and Hitler. So it makes no sense for leftists to feel in any superior to those on the right, in the hate department.

What about the Oathkeepers

Fri, 04/02/2010 - 23:40 — Anonymous (not verified)

What about the Oathkeepers is "racist"? Can you back you slander up with any facts at all?

To 04:31 —

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 00:02 — Anonymous (not verified)

To 04:31 — Anonymous:

Comparisons between bush and hitler were apt. Where was the phrase "kill bush" uttered? You're a liar and you know it. The fact is that the left has NEVER resorted to the kind of terrorist tactics being used by the right at this very moment (not even 45 years ago - which, for some reason is the decade most right-wingers continue to live their lives in). The left has NEVER resorted to the tactics that were used by the right against the left in Germany in the 20s, 30s and 40s. The current right-wing terrorists look to the brown shirts for inspiration. Even loony vanderblow's cries to terrorize law abiding Democrats with window breaking sound suspiciously like kristallnacht. You can look it up, but I know you don't need to. You already know you're lying through your teeth. Part of the problem is that many of these current terrorist threats from the right are coming from people with their own TV and radio shows. Do you want to argue that the "vast left-wing" conspiracy had it's own shows fueling death threats against repug politicians during the bush years? I will need links and not just an automatic gainsaying response. PROVE IT.

Anybody who writes of a

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 00:30 — Abe (not verified)

Anybody who writes of a race of people as "bugs" and says they should be "exterminated" should be locked up immedietely before he becomes the next crazed shooter we should have seen coming. He is neither patriot nor true American, but a fascist. He needs serious psychological help.

AHAHAH!! I love how you guys

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 01:16 — Peter (not verified)

AHAHAH!!

I love how you guys throw the "racist" word in every direction. Its so stupid that its actually helping us!

Keep it up!

"The fact is that the left

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 08:29 — Anonymous (not verified)

"The fact is that the left has NEVER resorted to the kind of terrorist tactics being used by the right at this very moment (not even 45 years ago - which, for some reason is the decade most right-wingers continue to live their lives in). "

LIAR! You need to look through the history of the 1960's in the US and even worse in Europe. You need to look at the left-wing terrorists who attacked country after country in Africa, Europe, and the America's. You need to look at the Islamic terrorists, who are the darling of leftists everywhere.

All of the Islamic terrorist

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 08:51 — Anonymous (not verified)

All of the Islamic terrorist beliefs are right-wing. Name ONE prominant left-wing AMERICAN who considers Islamic terrorists their "darling". I can name you several instances of right-wingers actually CHEERING THEM ON! What did jerry falwell say on 9-11?

You're the LIAR! Give me AMERICAN examples of death threats against elected officials coming from the left, and try to come up with something a little more recent than right-wing mythology about what dick nixon thought was happening 45 years ago. I'm still waiting for your examples.

To 04:40 —

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 08:53 — Anonymous (not verified)

To 04:40 — Anonymous:

Check out:

"ladylibertyslamp dot wordpress dot com /2009/11/25/ oath-keepers-are-now-promoting-themselves-to-white-nationalists"

It wasn't that hard to find either. Apparently you didn't look. You can check out the links as well. I suspect you already have.

As if being a TRAITOR against your country wasn't enough.

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 08:59 — Anonymous (not verified)

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/left.pdf

And don't just retreat behind the "elected officials" screen.

Since you right-wingers are

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 09:09 — Anonymous (not verified)

Since you right-wingers are so fond of harping on about the 60s, how many prominant right-wing political leaders were MURDERED in the 60s? Without even trying, I can name THREE prominant left-wing politicians who were MURDERED in that decade, and they weren't MURDERED by Abbie Hoffman either!

To 13:59 — Anonymous:

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 09:15 — Anonymous (not verified)

To 13:59 — Anonymous: Apparently, I'm not supposed to "retreat behind the AMERICAN examples" screen either. ELECTED OFFICIALS being ASSASINATED is what changes politics and causes civil wars.

Also, if you want to prove your point, you might want to look BEYOND pamphlets written by other right-wingers such as yourself. I read your .pdf and noticed a pretty OBVIOUS bias. The Republican Party was recently insulted by the FACT that the F.B.I. is concerned about DOMESTIC RIGHT-WING TERRORISM.

To 05:02: Do a google search

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 11:31 — Anonymous (not verified)

To 05:02: Do a google search for the phrase, in quotes, "kill Bush" and plenty examples will come up that are at least as good as the examples in this article.

You say "comparisons between Bush and Hitler were apt" and that is your defense that this is not "hate"??? That's a bit self-serving I would say. Someone on the other side could just as easily say "comparisons between Obama and Hitler are apt". The fact is that neither Bush nor Obama has murdered 6 million Jews, which is the act for which Hitler is best known, so both comparisons are spurious. Get a clue here.

13:51: "Name ONE prominant

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 11:53 — Anonymous (not verified)

13:51:

"Name ONE prominant left-wing AMERICAN who considers Islamic terrorists their "darling"."

No one with a political career will publicly associate with known terrorists. (Oh--except for Obama, who was buddies with Ayers and Dohrn until they became too politically inconvenient.) However, there are many, many on the left who associate with known terrorist sympathizers. Obama, for example, associates with Rashad Hussain.

And then there's Che Guevara, another violent leftist who gets lots of sympathy from the left. Leftist violence and violent sympathies are everywhere.

This isn't just about

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 12:40 — Anonymous (not verified)

This isn't just about percieved personal threats against people you disagree with. If I kick your ass over a political argument, that doesn't make me a terrorist or a traitor against my country. Quite the contrary. If, however, YOU show up at the polls or at left-wing political rallies carrying weapons and shouting death threats (as right-wingers have been doing recently) to intimidate the democratic process, YOU ARE A TERRORIST AND A TRAITOR AGAINST YOUR COUNTRY. If I kick your ass I'm not undermining our democracy and trying to undo the will of the electorate. If YOU threaten the lives of elected officials and have a known history of carrying out these threats YOU ARE A TRAITOR AGAINST YOU COUNTRY AND A TERRORIST.

And, once gain, stick with AMERICAN examples. That's where we live. Stop using Cuba or the former Soviet Union to pretend they are examples of current left-wing AMERICAN thinking. It's a lie and you know it. The republican fears about "socialism" seem very selective. Public schools paid for by tax dollars are "socialism", but "private" schools funded by tax dollars aren't? Tax dollars funding health care directly by paying doctors is "socialism", but tax dollars diverted to the insurance industry, given to the oil industry, and given to private profiteering military contractors is NOT? That's called hypocricy. Google that.

By the way, you have to DO MORE than just a Google search. You have to LOOK AT THE CONTENT AND THE SOURCE.
The first two pages of "kill bush" Google links I looked at were ALL from RIGHT-WING sources.

Stop discussing PERCIEVED

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 12:53 — Anonymous (not verified)

Stop discussing PERCIEVED threats and start discussing REAL threats! There was more than just a "perception" that President (get over it) Kennedy was under threat (He was MURDERED). Martin Luther King wasn't just threatened (he was MURDERED). Robert Kennedy wasn't just threatened (He was MURDERED - AND BY A MUSLIM!) TREASON is the use of these tactics to overturn elections, which is EXACTLY what was done against President (get over it) Kennedy.

Putting words in people's mouths that they are SECRETLY communists and love che guevara isn't the same as quoting ACTUAL commentary made by REAL commentators with millions of worshippers actually calling for the MURDER of DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRESIDENTS - as mann coulter ACTUALLY DID. Her words were, "at this point the only thing we should be arguing, about PRESIDENT (get over it) Clinton, is whether he should be impeached or ASSASINATED". This wasn't a PERCIEVED threat about something she might have been SECRETLY thinking - like your fears of PRESIDENT (get over it) Obama. This wasn't anyone else putting words in her mouth or making stuff up, like YOU and all the birthers have to do about PRESIDENT (get over it) Obama. THIS WAS A REAL THREAT AGAINST A SITTING PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY A WELL-KNOWN RIGHT-WING PUNDIT with millions of worshippers hanging on her every word. timothy mcveigh was a RIGHT-WING HOMEGROWN TERRORIST who got his inspiration from other right-wing TERRORISTS like mann coulter. Rachel Maddow never said "kill bush". A bunch of hand-wringing righties are afraid she MIGHT BE THINKING IT.

I may be wrong, but I've got

Sat, 04/03/2010 - 18:59 — Texas Aggie (not verified)

I may be wrong, but I've got the idea that this guy is the one who is dependent on government payments for some sort of disability. It would be karmic if instead of being arrested for something that would make him a martyr to the tea bagger contingent, he were found to have been indulging in some sort of fraud in connection with his disability and arrested for that.

Let's not write off hate:

Sun, 04/04/2010 - 11:37 — Anonymous (not verified)

Let's not write off hate: hate violence, hate financial ruin, hate poverty, hate the press for never seeing the forest for the trees, and bringing a tabloid idiocy to a new "respectable" level. I admire the Baggers for being pissed off, I'd suggest anyone who isn't has something pathologically wrong with them. Why focus on lines that shouldn't be crossed as individuals? How many lines have been crossed and lies have we heard from our illustrious ruling class?

Someone send a sociologist,

Sun, 04/04/2010 - 11:39 — Anonymous (not verified)

Someone send a sociologist, a qualified historian and an antrhopolgist stat! Negative hatred is a powerful force to be exploited by power for their own ends, such is the fate of every declining empire.

Further research shows

Sun, 04/04/2010 - 11:43 — Glynn Wilson (not verified)

Further research shows Vanderboegh is quoted in the White Rage book as one of the nutcases full of, you guessed it, White Rage!

Who's the liar? Who's under investigation?

Michael B. Vanderboegh...

This sounds like Rwanda,

Sun, 04/04/2010 - 13:41 — Anonymous (not verified)

This sounds like Rwanda, where one group labeled the other "cockroaches" to dehumanize them and thus facilitate wholesale genocide. Reread the quote below to see how much it sounds like the rhetoric used to inflame Rwandans to murder their fellow citizens. This is very dangerous speech.

""I must admit that I am starting to develop a healthy hate, one that I must guard against if I do not want to become the same kind of beast that collectivism apparently manufactures so easily out of these godless assholes,' Vanderboegh writes.'Acting like bugs, they've just about got me convinced of their absolute lack of any humanity.

'As I have written before, when you can think of them as bugs, as they think of us, it makes it easier to kill them,' he continues. 'I am now to the point where I almost DO think of them as bugs. Like Zander to the Brain Bug in Starship Troopers, I want to scream, 'One day, somebody like me is going to kill you, and your whole fucking race!'"

The Weathermen killed police

Sun, 04/04/2010 - 15:00 — Anonymous (not verified)

The Weathermen killed police and wantonly destroyed property. This was actual violence in actual America. According to undercover operative Larry Grathwohl, they were planning ahead and discussing the best ways of killing millions of die-hard capitalists. (A logistical challenge, it seems.) That did not stop Obama from palling around with Ayers and Dhorn, and it seems most liberals have no issue with this. They think it's just fine. That counts as American leftist hate.

Obama's pastor of 20 years was quite outspoken about his hatred of America, which didn't seem to bother Obama a bit, nor are most Democrats offended. That counts as American leftist hate.

Che Guevara was not American, but many Americans on the left admire him. That counts as American leftist hate. It goes on and on.

It's funny how the Far Right

Sun, 04/04/2010 - 15:15 — MARINA GIPPS (not verified)

It's funny how the Far Right likes to play Lone Wolf... as if they are not part of the Corporate Media that funds them...

If it "goes on and on" I

Sun, 04/04/2010 - 16:57 — Anonymous (not verified)

If it "goes on and on" I would assume you would have led with some stronger arguments, and not just lies and quoted lies from mooselini's and mccain's failed election campaign.

-wanton destruction of property is called "vandalism". Karl Rove was engaged in the same thing at the same time (OVER 40 YEARS AGO). IT'S NOT POLITICAL ASSASINATION OR TREASON.

-Murder of police has been going on CONSTANTLY ever since there have been police. When nazis say f**ck the police they're "freedom fighters" to people like you. When black people in tough neighborhoods say the same thing, they're terrorists to people like you. If attacking the police is terrorism, then there is already so much terrorism in the U.S. that we should get out of the Middle-East and start defending our cops who can't defend themselves right now. It's time for Martial Law.

-Would it be possible for you to actually read one of my comments before replying. I know they're long because I take the time to PROVE my points, but, ONCE AGAIN, could you come up with something a little more modern than a handful of goofs attacking the police a few years after the right MURDERED AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT, another political leader because he probably would have become president, and a spiritual leader, peace activist and outspoken voice for equal rights?

-By your definition ALL right-wing media is run by TRAITORS because they have made marters of the TERRORISTS at ruby ridge and waco.

-Some so called "left-wing"

Sun, 04/04/2010 - 16:58 — Anonymous (not verified)

-Some so called "left-wing" psychos killed some cops over 40 years ago. Yet, I don't know ANYONE speaking for the left who consider them heroes. Yet, mann coulter called for the assasination of an AMERICAN PRESIDENT, gee gordon liddy gave a speech on just how to kill federal agents (COPS!!!), bill o'really called for a terrorist attack on an American city, jerry falwell and pat robertson said bin laden was doing God's work, jesse helms threatened a sitting PRESIDENT saying that he'd better stay away from his state or he'd probably be shot, and the current right-wing media is actually telling people that violence and intimidation that could overturn elections is a good thing. We're not talking about ancient history or some lone goofeballs. We're talking about an ORGANIZED GAMEPLAN among current political leaders who are acting like pro-terrorism cheerleaders.

-HITLER was not American either, but many Americans on the right admire him.

-According to The American Council on Foreign Relations "left-wing" terrorism has been nearly non-existent since the 60s (you know, the decade you can't stop talking about). On the other hand, RIGHT-WING terrorist organizations have over 10,000 hard core members and probably 100,000 sympathizers (such as yourself).

I LOL at you ignorant fools

Mon, 04/05/2010 - 09:06 — Orygunner (not verified)

I LOL at you ignorant fools that think believing in the rules set in the US Constitution and the ideals of Liberty and Freedom is treasonous...

I suppose the participants in the Boston Tea Party were also terrorists?

Sure, some of the beliefs leftover from time our nation was formed have been corrected, like abolishing slavery, womens' suffrage, civil rights... But the basic beliefs in limited government and individual liberty and freedom are what we believe in.

There's a very good reason that so many hate Bush, and now that so many hate Obama... Because people realize the GOVERNMENT has become REALLY screwed up, but think it's the OTHER party's fault, when it's BOTH parties that are raping and pillaging our rights, and pissing all over the US Constitution.

Orygunner: Could you give us

Mon, 04/05/2010 - 12:28 — Anonymous (not verified)

Orygunner: Could you give us a list of your proposals to end the problems you see?

Also, could you define "limited government" for us?

By the way, which

Mon, 04/05/2010 - 18:21 — Anonymous (not verified)

By the way, which "left-winger" was it who, just a few days ago, told his radio talk show listeners that he plans to use a shot gun on any census worker that comes near his house? I'll give you a hint: it was erick erickson. The same RIGHT-WINGER who said:

"At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?"

He also said, "I’d be cleaning my gun right about now," because Spokane County, Washington banned phosphates from dishwasher detergent.

This didn't happen in the 60s. It happened a few days ago. He still has a show and several listeners who take him seriously.

@Anonymous 17:28 Sure. Force

Tue, 04/06/2010 - 08:46 — Orygunner (not verified)

@Anonymous 17:28

Sure.

Force the Federal Government to follow the US Constitution.

Shrink the Federal Government to about 10% its current size and remove almost all federal regulations.

Return sovereignty to the States.

Pretty simple in concept but in execution it's going to be a real bitch... Once you give a government power, it doesn't want to let go.

Orygunner, Sure, the

Wed, 04/07/2010 - 09:33 — Anonymous (not verified)

Orygunner,

Sure, the LANGUAGE was simple. There were no details. Unless you just want this to sound like a mindless hypocritical slogan based on lies, THIS REQUIRES DETAILS.

Which parts of the U.S. Constitution would you restore? The biggest current threat to the Constitution from the government is with the Patriot Act and associated programs. It threatens 9 of the 10 original amendments in the Bill of Rights. I imagine you'd REPEAL THE PATRIOT ACT FIRST, RIGHT?

In getting rid of 90% of the federal government, what would you include? Which programs, SPECIFICALLY, would you cut. The defense budget (not including the TRILLIONS of dollars spent in Iraq and Afganistan, OR money for the CIA or Homeland Security), represents, BY FAR, the largest chunk of the federal budget. I suppose you’d get rid of that immediately, right?

By returning "sovereignty to the states" would you give it back to California who wanted to force car companies to decrease emissions? Or, is that an exception to your rule?

By removing regulations:

-Do you want to stop discussing if abortion should be illegal and allow people to LIVE THEIR OWN LIVES UNREGULATED?
-Would it now be ok to let gay people get married, or is that an exception to your rule?
-Would you like the government to stop inspecting bridges?
-Should we get off the backs of the poor mining companies and allow hundreds of mine workers to die, working for unregulated companies like what happened this week?
-Who would you like to clean up toxic waste? Without tax dollars we can’t afford it, and without regulation, companies wouldn't have to.

Would you continue to keep banks unregulated?

It's not simple. Talking about it VAGUELY is simple.

PROVIDE DETAILS, so we can implement your plan.

I await your details...

Orygunner? Are you still out

Thu, 04/08/2010 - 09:36 — Anonymous (not verified)

Orygunner? Are you still out there?

You don't need to spend all week on your manifesto. Since you considered the people threatening to remove our elected leaders through treasonous violence against the will of the electorate, to be protecting our "Liberty and Freedom", I assumed you'd want to share YOUR ideas about how to enact YOUR legislation.

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