Spokane Bomb Suspect Right Wing Ties

You have to ask yourself – why Cong. Pete King didn’t want to talk about the “other terrorists” in his hearings yesterday on “Muslim terrorism”…

Just another Tea Party Terrorist… Indeed.

In the event you think this scumbag was only targeting black folks – look at the mixed group of people at the Spokane Parade… And the number of little children in the video below.

Why are these guys a bigger threat? Because, you let a swarthy Middle Eastern dude with a beard walk into your average NRA Member owned gun shop, and ask for a pair of Glocks with spare 30 round clips…

That owner is 1) going to do a real background check, and 2) place his very first call ever to the FBI. And that’s if the owner doesn’t pull a gun on him, and hold him for the authorities.

Gomer here to the left, can walk in to the same gun shop, buy a pair of semi-automatic assault rifles, extended 45 round clips, the Glocks and clips…

And get free instruction and a kit on how to convert the rifles to full automatic, and directions on where he can but armor piercing rounds – because he’s one of “the boys”.

Fortunately, there aren’t too many of these all-American scumbags walking around… Just enough for 2-3 Mass Murders a year.

And how many times has the US been attacked by Middle-Eastern Terrorists since 9/11, again?

Spokane Suspect’s Neo-Nazi Ties Run Deep

The man arrested today in connection with the attempted Martin Luther King Day parade bombing in Spokane, Washington, appears to have longtime connections to the white supremacist movement.

Fostering Extremism and Hate

While the SPLC doesn’t regard the Tea Party Movement as a hate group – I think that is an exercise in semantics. Some pretty fine hair splitting, indeed.

In Arizona, “Hate Central” for the “movement”, Republican legislators have drafted an even more draconian gang-rape of the Constitution…

Number of U.S. hate groups on the rise, report says

The number of radical right groups in America — including hate groups, “Patriot” groups and nativist groups — increased in 2010 for the second year in a row, according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The organization’s quarterly publication, Intelligence Report, said the growth was “driven by resentment over the changing racial demographics of the country, frustration over the government’s handling of the economy, and the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and other demonizing propaganda aimed at various minorities.”

The SPLC documented 1,002 hate groups operating in the United States in 2010, a 7.5% increase from the year before. It was the first time that more than 1,000 hate groups were recorded since the organization started tracking them in the 1980s.

But the biggest growth was in so-called “Patriot” groups, which the organization described as conspiracy-minded groups that see the federal government as their primary enemy. There were 300 new groups like this, an increase of more than 60% from the year before, the report said. A lot of the growth in the Patriot groups came from an increase in the number of militias recorded.

There was also a smaller increase in the number of anti-immigrant vigilante groups, SPLC reported.

“We were expecting to see the winds out of their sails because of the mainstreaming (of some of the radical right’s ideas), but that hasn’t been the case,” said Mark Potok, director of SPLC’s Intelligence Project.

He cited developments in the past year such as the passing in Arizona of a restrictive immigration law as an example of extremist ideas being folded into the mainstream.

Politicians affiliated with the Tea Party movement have also co-opted some of the extremist groups’ agenda, ranging from attacking birthright citizenship to requiring special permission for federal agents to carry out operations without the local sheriff’s consent.

But, Potok pointed out, there is a difference between the Tea Party movement and the Patriot movement described in the report.

The Tea Party is not considered an extremist or hate group, “but there are some strains of extremism” in it, he said.

We Know What to Do With Labor Unions and Illegals! (some current Arizona Border Vigilantes)

On the organization’s website, there is a new map that includes a list of all the hate groups and extremist organizations operating in each state. The rise of the Patriot groups is especially notable because this is the subset of radical right groups most associated with violence.

“The real large criminal plots have come more from Patriot groups than the hate groups,” Potok said.

As an example, he noted a man with a long history of anti-government activities who was arrested in January in a car filled with explosives outisde a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan.

There was also a case of a neo-Nazi who was arrested in January as he headed for the Arizona border with a dozen homemade grenades, and another case where police discovered a plot to bomb a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane, Washington, he said.

CPAC’s Boy, Ron Paul and That White Supremacist Connection

Ron Paul, like much of the Tea Party has had a long and seedy connection with hate groups, and white supremacist organizations. Here, he invites one of the KKK friends to “testify” before Congress…

Ron Paul Invites Neo-Confederate Witness to Testify in Congress

Ron Paul With Dan Black, the Founder of Stormfront

This morning, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) hosted his first hearing as chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank. Paul wants to look at the institution’s impact on job creation and the unemployment rate. Paul, a vicious opponent of the Fed, in the past has called for its abolition.

One of the witnesses invited to testify was Thomas DiLorenzo, a longtime activist in the neo-Confederate hate group, League of the South (LOS). The LOS advocates for a second Southern secession and a society dominated by “Anglo-Celts” – that is, white people. LOS leaders have called slavery “God-ordained” and described segregation as necessary to the racial “integrity” of black and white alike. DiLorenzo also is an economics professor at Baltimore’s Loyola College.

According to the Washington Post, “when Paul opened up the hearing to questions from committee members, Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) directly took on DiLorenzo for his membership in the League of the South,” pointing to the designation of the LOS as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Clay also cited DiLorenzo’s many revisionist works about the Civil War and Lincoln, including “More Lies about the Civil War,” “In Defense of Sedition,” and “The First Dictator-President,” which examines “how Lincoln’s myth has corrupted America.”

“After reviewing your work and the so-called methods you employ, I still cannot understand you being invited to testify today on the unemployment crisis, but I do know that I have no questions for you,” Clay concluded.

A Confederate Flag Taken Down… By Neo-confederates

Apparently the guardians of the Southern Myth didn’t like a painting by Gainsville State College, located in Gainsville, Georgia by  Professor Stanley Bermudez. Seems Professor Bermudez made the mistake of painting what he felt when he saw the flag…

Neo-confederate and hate groups promptly voice their ire, intimidating the College to remove the flag from the Art Exhibit.

GSC professor teaches the importance of art as his own work comes under fire

“When I was growing up in South America, we had the freedom of expression in my country. But when Hugo Chávez came into power, he started manipulating that freedom. Everything from the media to art was being censored,” said Bermudez, who is from Venezuela.

“Anyone who made a negative comment about the government … was being attacked or repressed. I don’t agree with that kind of censorship.”

As an artist, Bermudez often takes to canvas to express his feelings and thoughts. One of his most recent works, “Heritage?,” illustrates what comes to his mind when he thinks of the Confederate flag.

The red flag, with the blue St. Andrew’s Cross emblazoned across the front adorned with white stars, was carried onto the battlefield by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. While some people argue that the flag represents Southern heritage and pride, other people — Bermudez included — see it in a less positive light.

Update on Spokane Domestic Terrorism Attack

An act of domestic terrorism which, if successful may have killed or injured dozens of people…

MLK Parade Pipe Bomb: Race Connection ‘Inescapable’, FBI Says

Federal investigators are looking at race as a possible motive in the attempted bombing of a Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane, Wash., as they hunt “armed and dangerous” suspects.

“I think the connection is virtually inescapable… that the device was planted and left there to target the marchers or bystanders,” Frank Harrill, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Spokane office, said late Tuesday.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 15 different “hate groups” operate in Washington state and six others just over the border in Idaho — including the white supremacist group Aryan Nations. The FBI said the men or women responsible are being considered “armed and dangerous.”

Whatever the motive, Spokane mayor Mary Verner said the attempted bombing was “unacceptable.”

“I was struck that on a day when we celebrate Dr. King, a champion of non-violence, we were faced with a significant violent threat,” Verner said Tuesday. “This is unacceptable in our community, or any community.”

Just half an hour before the Martin Luther King Day parade was scheduled to begin Monday, three workers spotted a suspicious package with visible wires on a bench, the FBI said.

Authorities rerouted the parade while officers from the Spokane Police Department‘s bomb disposal unit worked on the bomb.

“I saw the robot and when I saw the robot I told my girls to run and ‘Let’s get out of here,’” witness Lisa Ludeman told ABC News.

Harrill, the supervisory senior resident agent in Spokane, told ABC News that the backpack was “a viable device.”

“The potential for lethality was clear,” Harrill said Tuesday. The local bomb squad neutralized the device, he added.

 

An Outside Look At The Rise of Militia In The US – Russia TV

Why is it that Russia TV and Al Jazeera do a better job at reporting on the whack jobs in the US than the American MSM?

more about “CrossTalk: The Rise of the Militias“, posted with vodpod

Massive Growth in Domestic Anti-American Hate Groups

Anti-Government Groups Show Surge, Watchdog Warns

LOS ANGELES (March 2) — The number of American anti-government militia and “patriot” groups, largely dormant since their heyday in the mid-1990s, mushroomed at an “astonishing” rate last year, raising “grave concern” about the potential for future domestic terrorism, according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Re-re-re-invented Nazis

The nonprofit civil rights organization, which tracks the hate movement and anti-government groups, counted 512 militias and related groups in 2009, up from 149 groups the year before. And, it said, the movement has added a layer of racism largely absent a decade ago.

At the same time, the organization has observed a spike in what it calls “nativist extremist groups,” defined as those that “confront or harass suspected immigrants,” to 309 groups last year, up from 173 the year before.

Hate groups also grew slightly, from 926 to 932, continuing what the SPLC said was a trend that began around 2000, and rising 54 percent in the decade. The growth was “driven largely by an angry backlash against nonwhite immigration and, starting in the last year of that period, the economic meltdown and the climb to power of an African-American president.”

Faux News and Reverend Wright

Lacking a black boogeyman now that Van Jones has left the Administration, Faux News actually “ambushed” Reverend Jeremiah Wright at the airport -

Attempting to draw some sort of connection between Wright and President Obama’s speech, and the Health Care battle. Said Wright -

“I think the racists in the right wing are upset because the poor people are about to be helped.”

You got that right, Rev. It is, all about racism.

While the funding behind a lot of the demonstrations against Health Care Reform is coming from companies with a vested financial interest in keeping the current overpriced and underperforming system – the sort of vitriol we are seeing coming from the right-wing talking heads in the Media and the ground troops is driven by …

Racism.

In the strangely perverted nether-world occupied by small conservative minds, identifying their racism for what it is…

Is now racist. These words from Martin Luther King -

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.

Your Brain on Conservatism

This is the death of America…

This is an example of how certain belief sets are propagandized and engineered on an issue, in this case supporting racism -

This is the result of the frequent application of propaganda to misinform, and to form belief sets in the populace in direct opposition to plainly available evidence to the contrary -

This from a longer piece published as Fascist America, Are We There Yet?

From proto-fascism to the tipping point
According to Paxton, fascism unfolds in five stages. The first two are pretty solidly behind us — and the third should be of particular interest to progressives right now.

The Connection Between Town Hall Gun Crazies and Violent Militias

Rachel Maddow digs deeper on the background of the Town Hall Desperados, who turn out to be people with ties to a violent Militia, who practiced the same techniques and assembled the same sort of bombs as Timothy McVeigh in foiled plot to blow up Federal Buildings…

Here We Go Again – Angry White Men

No, today’s culture warriors are more reminiscent of another famous type in recent American politics: the Angry White Male. This was the archetype of the political force that rocked Bill Clinton’s presidency during the 1994 congressional midterm elections, in which Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and Senate. The catchphrase was based on the huge shift by white men to the Republican column in that election; just 39% voted for Democratic House candidates that year, a 10-point dip from the 1992 election. The anger was something more intangible, but also quite real: storm clouds of bile filling the conservative talk radio airwaves. Most memorably, perhaps, in the autumn of 1994, the Watergate-conspirator-turned-talk-radio-host G Gordon Liddy advised a listener worried about intrusions by federal agents to “shoot for the head”.

If It Quacks Like a Duck… Conservatism and Whining About Being Identified as Racist

This is one of two videos by conservative talk jock Alex Jones. Now, conservatives have dominated the radio air waves since shortly after Raygun killed the Fairness Doctrine, and the FCC began loosening rules on station ownership allowing radio stations to be consolidated as Right Wing propaganda outlets under a few owners. The ability to propagandize their talking points 24 x 7 over the airwaves without criticism, or offering up opposing viewpoints has been a foundation of the success of the Republican Party and the spread of conservatism.

That is beginning to change. And the fear is palpable among conservative commentators who have ramped up vitriolic, and often racist commentary in an attempt to rally the base listenership. This particular conservative, tries and make the rather weak point, that anyone calling conservative commentary “racist”, even when it is racist – is violating the First Amendment Rights and is dragging the country into a totalitarian state.

Your Brain on Racism – Birther Meltdown

Birther Whack-job extrodinaire Orly Taitz does a complete meltdown on MSNBC -

This is your brain on racism.

To give you a bit of background on some of these folks – here is a bit of background by Skeeter, over at The Skeeter Bites Reports -

But this particular conspiracy-theory movement is more sinister than most. The ‘Skeeter Bites Report has uncovered a wealth of evidence that the “Birther Movement” against the president is inextricably tied to white supremacists and other far-right extremists — and is profoundly marked by an absolute refusal among its practitioners to accept Obama as president because he is black, or because of an equally-false belief that he is a Muslim.

Talking Heads Stir Paranoia Among White Men

Listening to Glenn Beck and Michelle Maliken this week you would have to believe that every old white guy in the country has a bulls eye painted on his back. White victimization is a popular string among the racist set, where a long line of perceived disadvantages manufacture the justification for hate.

Bread Line Statue at Franlin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

The target audience for this currently is disaffected older white males, who are suffering from the recession/depression which was manufactured by failed conservative policies. Obviously, it is Beck and his kindred talking heads job to point the blame at Minorities – instead of squarely at folks like him who enabled the crippling of the nation’s economy.

Turns out there is some real pain out there to leverage racial hatred from -

Older white males hurt more by this recession

The Week in Right-Wing Hate

Right Wing tele-terrorists continue to stir the pot -