Why Is the Left In a Tizzy Over Tax Day? [UPDATE: Video of Crazed 'Winger]
By SusanUnPC on April 14, 2009 at 5:48 PM in 9/11, Bill of Rights, Homeland Security, Tax Day, Tax stimulus package, Terrorism
(Bumped up from this morning. And don’t miss the Boston Tea Party “Tax Day” plans just below this post. ALSO: Here’s another attack via HuffyPoop, “Teabagging: Redux Anti-Intellectualism.” Get that, you redneck hooligans?)
Hey, all you Tax Day people. You’re not part of some ‘winger cabal, are you? You’re not into some dangerous, extremist rightwing group that the Department of Homeland Security has targeted in its new PDF document, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment?” This report has been sent to police (!) around the nation. (See footnote at end.)
The left seems, oh yes, to be more orchestrated in its mocking opposition than are the grassroots Tax Day efforts that, sadly, Paul Krugman called “Astroturf” (as in fake grass roots) and to which he devoted a precious column. (I’m wondering if someone got to Paul; he used to take Obama’s ruinous economic stimulus plans to task, but his last two columns have fired straight at the heart of the GOP. Now, here’s some of what the left is saying:
- “Fox News is bankrolling and promoting the events.”
- MSNBC’s new dimwit anchor Ed Schultz says that Tax Day participants are “psychos.”
- Firedoglake writes “Corporate Lobbyists Raising Money For Tea Parties (rebutted by Houston TPS).
- MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews goes after the Tax Day people, calling them “poopers,” and is concerned that many are “full-mooners”:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Rachel Maddow mocks the anti-tax Tax Day protests, and oh is she so, so funny:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
………………
Footnote about the DHS report (PDF): Yes, there are some truly frightening crazies out there. But I wouldn’t call them rightwing. I’d call them crazy, violent, and racist.
And, yes, the election of an African-American president has doubtless infuriated the tiny groups of Stormfront types.
However, it is very important for the DHS, FBI, and Secret Service to distinguish between right-wing political types and those few extremists who’d wish to harm the president. Otherwise, they’re going to be wasting a lot of time on ordinary Americans who are simply opposed to Obama’s policies.
There is NO logical correlation between having “rightwing” views and plotting violence. I’d guesstimate that 99% of “rightwing” people would never imagine taking violent action and in fact are probably more inclined to be law-abiding than most citizens.
There’s only a correlation between the Stormfront-type racists and violence.
I think about the couple people I know who are involved in the Tax Day demonstrations — GOPMom and LatinaFreedomFighter. I’ve never received any communication from either that would remotely suggest a bent towards violence; they’re just wishing to be vocal about their deep concerns about Obama’s mammoth debt-inducing budget that will likely lead to hyperinflation and leave future generations with nearly impossible debts to repay, debts that also make us far too reliant on our main lender, China, who they don’t trust.
Neither one has ever exhibited anything remotely like “pscyhotic” or dangerous behavior. Michelle Malkin, who is far to my right in her thinking, has written an excellent takedown of this DHS report and its wild claims, in “Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real“:
[T]he piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives. And the intent is clear. As the two spokespeople I talked with on the phone today made clear: They both pinpointed the recent “economic downturn” and the “general state of the economy” for stoking “rightwing extremism.” One of the spokespeople said he was told that the report has been in the works for a year. My b.s. detector went off the chart, and yours will, too, if you read through the entire report — which asserts with no evidence that an unquantified “resurgence in rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalizations activity” is due to home foreclosures, job losses, and…the historical presidential election.
In Obama land, there are no coincidences. It is no coincidence that this report echoes Tea Party-bashing left-wing blogs (check this one out comparing the Tea Party movement to the Weather Underground!) and demonizes the very Americans who will be protesting in the thousands on Wednesday for the nationwide Tax Day Tea Party.
From the report, p.2:
Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.
From the report. p. 3:
(U//LES) Rightwing extremists are harnessing this historical election as a recruitment tool. Many rightwing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use. Rightwing extremists are increasingly galvanized by these concerns and leverage them as drivers for recruitment. From the 2008 election timeframe to the present, rightwing extremists have capitalized on related racial and political prejudices in expanded propaganda campaigns, thereby reaching out to a wider audience of potential sympathizers.
(U) Exploiting Economic Downturn
(U//FOUO) Rightwing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and home foreclosures. Anti-Semitic extremists attribute these losses to a deliberate conspiracy conducted by a cabal of Jewish “financial elites.” These “accusatory” tactics are employed to draw new recruits into rightwing extremist groups and further radicalize those already subscribing to extremist beliefs. DHS/I&A assesses this trend is likely to accelerate if the economy is perceived to worsen.
From the report, p. 5:
(U//FOUO) Over the past five years, various rightwing extremists, including militias and white supremacists, have adopted the immigration issue as a call to action, rallying point,
and recruiting tool. Debates over appropriate immigration levels and enforcement policy generally fall within the realm of protected political speech under the First Amendment, but in some cases, anti-immigration or strident pro-enforcement fervor has been directed against specific groups and has the potential to turn violent.And echoing the anti-military bigotry last seen in that disgusting Penn State University training video, there’s this on p. 7:
(U) Disgruntled Military Veterans
(U//FOUO) DHS/I&A assesses that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists—including lone wolves or small terrorist cells—to carry out violence. The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.
There’s no hackneyed left-wing stereotype of conservatives left behind in this DHS intelligence and analysis assessment. I asked both DHS spokespeople to tell me who, specifically, the report was accusing of “rightwing extremist chatter” and which “antigovernment” groups are being monitored as “extremists.” They say they’ll get back to me.
In the meantime, be aware of this from the report, p. 8:
(U//FOUO) DHS/I&A will be working with its state and local partners over the next several months to ascertain with greater regional specificity the rise in rightwing extremist activity in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the political, economic, and social factors that drive rightwing extremist radicalization.
Better make a few last-minute signs for the Tea Party. Obama’s DHS is watching:
Honk if you’re a radicalized rightwing extremist!
Guilty of rightwing extremist chatter
Anti-government, pro-freedom: Sue me
***
Previous: Missouri retracts report linking militias, 3rd party candidates.
***
Oh, I’m sure DHS will be issuing its report on self-proclaimed bank terrorists like Bruce Marks of NACA and criminal rackeeters harassing private citizens in their homes to “exploit the economic downturn” any day now.
Human beings have an inherent, necessary need to hone in on those who present a real threat to them. However, rational human beings have the logical capacity to DISCERN who is really an enemy who might do one harm, and those who simply disagree with one.
After 9/11, when more law enforcement resources (imho) should have been focused on monitoring the very few who exhibit true terrorist leanings, Attorneys General John Ashcroft and then Alberto Gonzales decided that “ecoterrorists” were the major threat to the nation, and ordered the FBI to go all out to find any reason possible to charge anyone they suspected to be an “ecoterrorist” and toss them in federal prison.
Now, the Obama administration is making the same mistake: Instead of logically worrying about the porous Mexican/U.S. and Canadian/U.S. borders that allow terrorists to cross into the U.S. easily, and to monitor recruitment of young men into terrorist cells in the Middle East and Southeast/Southwest Asia, they (and their willing blogger abetters) are going after ordinary Americans who simply wish to express their disgust with irresponsible spending. Townhall sums it up so well:
This is almost unbelievable. The message is simple: If you are a conservative, you might be dangerous…
A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines “rightwing extremism in the United States” as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.
“It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration,” the warning says.
… That’s right, when they say ‘extremism’ they are not talking about what we think of when we think of ‘extremists’ — they are actually talking about mainstream conservatives who actually oppose things like (gulp) abortion.
(Of course, this comes just in time for the Tea Parties …)
Think about the federal law enforcement manpower that will be expended tomorrow to photograph and watch participants at the Tax Day protests. And you just KNOW that the leftwing bloggers will write nasty, mocking reports on their findings after they’ve combed through every news report tomorrow for any crazy remark, even though it’s always possible to find at least one crazy person at any public event.
Remember too that, of late, Obama hasn’t been scoring well with the left, given his executive power grabs and destruction of freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. But Obama’s people know how to divert the lefties’ attention, and they’ve found a perfect foil in the Tax Day participants. And the lefties are all falling for it.
What say you?
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Read more at Memeorandum.com about the DHS report and tomorrow’s protests.
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UPDATE — Here’s one of the crazed extremists behind Tax Day:
– LatinaFreedomFighter‘s latest video. She’s attending the Phoenix, Arizona Tax Day event tomorrow. I hope the FBI keeps an eye on her! She’s clearly a ticking timebomb! Snort.
Here’s part of her insane and dangerous speech:
WTF! The American Revolution was in essence to do away from bowing down before Kings and the monarchy.
How ’bout hearing about Obama bowing to the Saudi King? Its true. Obama bowed from the waist in a greeting which is unseemly coming from the President of the United States. So, not only do we have a rookie as Pres, he acts like one too! …. Read all.
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
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