Posted on 08/15/2009 6:40:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
An expert in anti-government militia groups warns of another domestic terrorism attack like the bombing in Oklahoma City 14 years ago.
Angry protesters are showing up at town hall meetings across the United States, some of them saying their country is unrecognizable as they rail against illegal immigrants.
Conservative websites, and even Fox News's Glenn Beck, are drawing parallels between Barack Obama and Adolf Hitler, claiming the president's political agenda amounts to a similar brand of murderous fascism.
It's a summer of seething discontent in the United States, with a deeply polarized populace going head-to-head across an ideological divide that has found its boiling point in an unlikely issue -- public health-care insurance, something Canada and many other democracies around the world take for granted.
"None of this really has anything to do with health care," Eric Boehlert, senior fellow at Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog, said yesterday. "If there was another stimulus package, we'd be seeing the same thing from the very same people. This is just what happens to be on the table right now, but these are the teabag protesters, and they're talking about tyranny, they're talking about taxes, they're talking about their dislike of Obama. Health care is just a proxy."
One Democratic politician recently went further.
"Some of the rhetoric that we're hearing is eerily reminiscent of the kind of things that drove Tim McVeigh to bomb the federal building in Oklahoma," Brian Baird, a congressman from Washington state, said last week after cancelling his own town halls due to what he described as the "lynch mob" mentality.
Baird was roundly attacked by the right for making the comment. But a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center says militia groups with axes to grind against the government are regrouping throughout the U.S., fuelled in part by their distaste for Obama and his policies.
The civil rights organization says that among other theories, some of the militia members -- who are opposed to paying taxes and rail against any government involvement in their lives -- are convinced there's a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest.
Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told the law centre's researchers that militia group growth is at a 10-year high.
"All it's lacking is a spark," McEntire said in the report, adding he feared it was just a matter of time before another domestic terrorist attack happened.
Boehlert points the finger at right-wing news organizations for fuelling much of the populist rage.
"This does all tie back to the militia movement of the early 1990s, when Bill Clinton was elected," he said.
"But the right-wing media wasn't nearly as well-organized then as it is now. And even Rush Limbaugh wasn't calling Clinton a Nazi back then. "There's been a breakdown of any kind of standards in terms of decency, especially from Fox News. They have fashioned themselves as the opposition to the Obama White House, but at the same time they've come loose from any traditional moorings of journalistic ethics."
Many of the charges coming from right-wing media organizations about Obama's expensive health-care reform plans are fabrications, Boehlert said.
"When you're telling people that Obama plans to start up death squads that will kill your grandparents, well of course people are going to be pissed off, even though it's completely untrue."
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said he was optimistic Obama would be able to quell the discontent and dispel the many myths surrounding health-care reform.
But others believe much of the anger is truly about Obama's race, with his liberal politics simply serving as a convenient excuse for those who resent his presidency.
Whatever...
“Eric Boehlert, senior fellow at Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog”
You can see who this clown was going to for his information. Yep, this guy is a looney tune and has no clue to what is really going on.
I don't believe we'll even need to be conscious to put an end to that nonsense.
ROTFL! I stopped reading at "Media Matters." That's when all credibility just dissolved. What the hell is a "senior fellow" doing working for Hillary's website? This crap is hilarious.
Hey battle buddy. Doesn’t finding all this stuff wear and tear on your soul? I personally thank you for keeping us all informed, but is this messing with your head? I’m not kidding....I find lately that all this goofy misinformation you uncover to be incredibly depressing. I pray it isn’t getting you down. Keep the faith. Hooah!
Anybody who gets their information from Media Matters and the Southern Poverty Law Center is bound to be a wacko!
I always “consider the source” as the old saying goes: Of course Media Matters for America, a Democrat Rep. from Washington State and some BATF agent are going to see 10,000 Timothy McVeighs when they watch the townhall “angry mobs” and the Tea Parties. If you’re taking heavy flak, you’re over the target.
That is insulting to dogs....to put this jerks name with ‘media watchDOG”...I hope PETA protests!
Not all, but this guy is.
First, McVeigh was a fall guy for Middle Eastern terrorists. Anyone who reads Jayna Davis’ book “The Third Terrorist” which is meticulously researched by her (a respected investigative reporter) will be unable to deny it.
Secondly, it isn’t militias who are in disagreement with HR3200 at these Town Hall events. It is normal, common citizens, and some of them are actually liberals who still have a brain cell left in their heads.
Oooooooohhhhh...it’s the MILITIAS...wait...wait...we don’t want to leave out the skinheads, the Klan and, of course, the right wing knuckle-dragging nut jobs who are just slavering for an opportunity to do violence against the President.
What a moron, and everyone on the left who is pushing this. Brian Baird was just looking for an excuse to not face his constituents because he isn’t even man enough to strap on a pair of stones that he doesn’t have anyway.
Pathetic. Folks, if any violence is planned or occurs targeting any liberal politician including the President, I will guarantee it will come from the left and not the right.
I just had this idea of a funny prank to pull on this Media Matters jerk who is so so so terrified of the Militias.
...sneak up to his house, about 4 or 5 guys in camuflage and wearing signs around their neck “ Mileesha “ and ring the doorbell. And when he answers..honk those clown horns!
No real conservative would bomb anything that meant killing innocent people.
This is all just more horse crap rhetoric from the Obamaites.
The last place anyone should look for advice is Canada. It is nothing but a pimple on the butt of North America.
The pResident of the USA sides with a race-baiter-hater socialist professor over the entire police force, calls them stupid while admitting he doesn't know the facts, and there's doubt that he's a flipping whitey-hating racist? Sorry Charlie...that dog don't hunt. He's a racist.
The Latino assessment in my family? "That guy is bad!"...
Says it for me, folks...
LOL! Yes, whatever. Maybe the racists will change their minds when they find out we've already bought all the ammo!
IF there is anyone left out there who doesn’t see Barak Hussein Obama as a racist then the blindness is self inflicted. Nobody can sit in a cesspool of racism like “reverend” Wright’s so-called ‘church’ for 20 long years and not be a racist. Wright is so hateful towards white men and Jews that I’m amazed he wasn’t arrested dozens of times for spewing hate speech and inciting blacks to hate whites and Jews. Of course obama’s calling his grandmother “a typical white person” was all I needed to hear. But then his prejudiced condemning of the Cambridge Police Officer as a racist before any facts were released should have been the final proof for anyone who cares about it. Hussein Obama has a chip on his shoulder bigger than his ears, and that chip is directed squarely at white people. The election of Barak Hussein Obama to the Presidency of the United States was the single greatest blunder ever made by the American people, EVER. We wanted to show that racism is over, Obama wants to show that it’s just begun.
“but these are the teabag protesters”
Ah, there’s that smirking term again.
Again, hypocrisy as they “support” homosexuals but use them to insult enemies.
“and they’re talking about tyranny, they’re talking about taxes, they’re talking about their dislike of Obama. Health care is just a proxy.”
Damn right - it’s the “last straw”. I think it’s just coming to a head and this is the last straw. They’re angry (FINALLY - don’t like that these people finally blow their tops after decades of nice-nice?) and so while they’re at it, they mention their disgust with the other communist nonsense.
Well put! BTTT...
Again, notice the leading words in the lead : Obama is “accused” of fascism ; racism against him is “cited”.It’s like listening to old Radio Moscow.
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