Hate: Antigovernment extremists are on the rise—and on the march.(Barf)

Newsweek ^ | April 19, 2010 | Evan Thomas and Eve Conant

[VRW Conspirator]

Stewart Rhodes does not seem like an extremist. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and a former U.S. Army paratrooper and congressional staffer. He is not at all secretive. In February he was sitting at a table at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at a fancy downtown hotel in Washington, handing out fliers and selling T shirts for his organization, the Oath Keepers. Rhodes says he has 6,000 dues-paying members, active and retired police and military, who promise never to take orders to disarm U.S. citizens or herd them into concentration camps. Rhodes told a NEWSWEEK reporter, "We're not a militia." Oath Keepers do not run around the woods on the weekend shooting weapons or threatening the violent overthrow of the government. Their oath is to uphold the Constitution and defend the American people from dictatorship.

SUBSCRIBE Click Here to subscribe to NEWSWEEK and save up to 88% >> But by conjuring up the specter of revolution—or counterrevolution—is Rhodes adding to the threat of real violence? Oath Keepers are "a particularly worrisome example of the 'patriot' revival," according to Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors hate speech and extremist organizations. "Patriot" groups—described by the SPLC as outfits "that see the federal government as part of a plot to impose 'one-world government' on liberty-loving Americans"—are "roaring back" after years out of the limelight, according to Potok. Notorious in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the patriot groups seemed to fade away under the shadow of 9/11, but hard times and the nation's first African-American president seem to have brought about a revival—from 149 groups in 2008 to 512 (127 of them militias) in 2009, according to the SPLC.

It is easy to exaggerate the numbers of...

[VRW Conspirator]

I can guarantee you that, one way or another, we WILL remove the influence of socialism and socialists from our lives and its going to require some serious changes.

Unless there is a fundamental change, up to and including constitutional amendments, the socialist will prevail! I pray not. Margaret Thatcher called it the ratchet effect. The liberals take control and pull the laws and government to the left. Then the conservatives take control but do not undo the leftward shift but simply stop the shift.

When the Repubs get control of Congress, They cannot just cut taxes. They need to cut spending, more at cutting government. Things on my hot list are:
Eliminate the entire departments of Education and Commerce
End all goofy funding like public television, arts, etc.
Eliminate the income tax and replace it with the Fair Tax or some facsimile - Constitutional amendment
Genuinely reform health care - tort reform, more portability, etc.
The list goes on...