Timothy McVeigh, Tea Party Crazies, Militia Gun Nuts, Fox Provocateurs.
part 1
Post-Hutaree: How Glenn Beck and Fox News spread the militia message
April 06, 2010 8:38 am ET
http://mediamatters.org/columns/201004060005
On TV and the radio, Beck rarely bothers to mention the militia movement by name. Instead, he's simply co-opted their rhetoric as his own. He's acted as a crucial transmitter, warning about Obama fronting his own private "army," and urging followers to "start food storage."
Not to mention these previous militia moments:
... And oh, by the way, at Tea Party Patriots: Official Home of the American Tea Party Movement, this was the headline that immediately went up after the first bulletins about the militia raids were posted:
http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/images/item/teapartycompound.jpg
That's right, some Tea Party leaders instinctively tagged the Hutaree compound as one of their own as it came under attack from federal law enforcement officials. And can you blame them? Today's right-wing, Obama-hating rhetoric -- as amplified by Glenn Beck and much of the GOP Noise Machine -- is indistinguishable from the militia message.
National Crackpot Day − April 19
http://suncoastpasco.tbo.com/content/2010/apr/17/pi-national-crackpot-day---april-19/
Monday is the 235th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, marking the start of the Revolutionary War on April 19, 1775. Regrettably, the date has become the nexus for right-wing nutcases who actually believe the American establishment - government, military, banks, corporations, et al. - will sit around and do nothing while they, the new Sons of Liberty, launch a second American Revolution.
Adding fuel to their beady little burning eyes, April 19 is an anniversary of sorts for two of their favorite martyrs, David Koresh and Timothy McVeigh. On April 19, 1993, 76 members of the Branch Davidian religious sect, including their leader Koresh, burned to death when fire destroyed their Waco, Texas, compound at the end of a 51-day siege by federal agents. Two years later, following his bombing of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, McVeigh said he chose the date, April 19, 1995, in retaliation for the government's actions at Waco and at the Randy Weaver family cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
Now we learn of an apocalyptic militia calling itself Hutaree that planned to kill cops and federal agents, possibly on April 19, before it was busted. Also on that date, another group plans an "open-carry," meaning armed, protest in the Washington, D.C., area. And the Tea Party Patriots' Web site, in a nearly incomprehensible screed, calls for an "Articles of Freedom Rally" on, what else, April 19:
The Internet posting declares: "We need at least 10% of the population 20 Million people (they're only off by 10 million) to show up for our Demands to hold any water! If you let people know and let's Change our constitution back the way it should be! CUT THE TYRANNY OUT!! THE MOB RULE!!...THEY HAVE GONE TOO FAR AND WE NEED THIS change\VICTORY or the next party in office might be OK,...? roll the dice.. This is the only way unless you want to all be a zombie in an 'Socialist' or worse government."
Sedition: Oklahoma Tea Party Leaders Ask State to Create Armed Voluntary Militia to Combat Federal Government
http://blog.buzzflash.com/contributors/3142
While Gerhart has a “Page” at the Freedom Works website, it appears that he hasn’t posted anything since September 30, 2009.
"Is it scary? It sure is": Oklahoma Tea Party leaders want an armed militia to combat the federal government Oklahoma Tea Party leaders are talking about creating a new volunteer militia to defend the state against encroaching federal government Coming on the heels of the arrests and indictments of the Hutaree militia group in Southern Michigan and given the fact that April 19 is the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing – the day that Tim McVeigh exploded a truckbomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building killing 168 people -- at first glance I thought the story I was reading had emanated from the fevered minds of the writers at The Onion -- one of the nation’s premier humor/satire publications where no issue is off limits. But I soon realized that this in fact was a serious news dispatch from two Associated Press writers, Sean Murphy and Tim Talley. According to Murphy and Talley, Oklahoma Tea Party leaders are so “frustrated by recent political setbacks” that they have been talking with state legislators about the possibility of creating “a new volunteer militia to help defend against what they believe are improper federal infringements on state sovereignty.” The AP report pointed out that “Tea party movement leaders say they've discussed the idea with several supportive lawmakers and hope to get legislation next year to recognize a new volunteer force. They say the unit would not resemble militia groups that have been raided for allegedly plotting attacks on law enforcement officers.”
"Is it scary? It sure is," said tea party leader Al Gerhart of Oklahoma City, co-founder of the Sooner Tea Party – which held its first open meeting for the general public in October of last year – and the head of an umbrella group of tea party factions called the Oklahoma Constitutional Alliance. "But when do the states stop rolling over for the federal government?"
Gerhart, a carpenter by trade, was a recent guest on Oklahoma Forum, “your source for meaningful discussion that informs, engages and connects each Oklahoman.” On November 8, 2009, at the Sooner Tea Party Blog – “limited government; individual freedom; personal responsibility” – Gerhart posted a piece titled “The Battle for the Republic Begins,” in which he maintained that “the power to stop Obama in his tracks” resides with the 10th Amendment to the Constitution.
While Gerhart has a “Page” at the Freedom Works website, it appears that he hasn’t posted anything since September 30, 2009.
"Have they heard of the Oklahoma City bombing?" said Joseph Thai, a constitutional law professor at the University of Oklahoma. Such actions could "throw fuel in the fire of radicals," he said.
“State Sen. Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso, a Republican candidate for governor who has appealed for tea party support, said supporters of a state militia have talked to him, and that he believes the citizen unit would be authorized under the Second Amendment to the Constitution,” AP reported. The founding fathers "were not referring to a turkey shoot or a quail hunt. They really weren't even talking about us having the ability to protect ourselves against each other," Brogdon said. "The Second Amendment deals directly with the right of an individual to keep and bear arms to protect themselves from an overreaching federal government."
Another Tea Party leader, J.W. Berry of the Tulsa-based OKforTea, helped initiatite the discussion through his newsletter under the subject "Buy more guns, more bullets."
"It's not a far-right crazy plan or anything like that," Berry said. "This would be done with the full cooperation of the state Legislature."
Audience cheers as Sean Hannity calls them "Tim McVeigh wannabes" [Update, w/ video]
April 1, 6:55 PMOakland Skepticism ExaminerTucker Phelps
http://www.examiner.com/x-21239-Oakland-Skepticism-Examiner~y2010m4d1-Audience-cheers-as-Sean-Hannity-calls-them-Tim-McVeigh-wannabes
Seven and a half minutes into their adulation of Reagan, Hannity says this.
HANNITY: See, can I add one thing? I think we won the debate.
DREIER: We did win the debate.
HANNITY: When you think about the vast majorities that they have in Congress and they had to bribe, backroom deals, corruption, that’s all because the tea party movement, the people — all these Tim McVeigh wannabes here.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: Guys, thank you for being here.
What in the holy hell? You would think he was being sarcastic, but at no point do they discuss anything remotely having to do with Conservative threats of violence or anything similar. It is completely out of the blue. He simply calls his audience "Tim McVeigh wannabe's", they cheer and cut to commercial.
Disgusting, inappropriate, untimely and extremely ignorant. It is bad enough of a thing for Hannity to say, but the fact that it is cheered is doubly upsetting. Given the recent arrest of the "Hutaree 8," an apocalyptic Christian militia organization planning to attack federal officials with improvised explosives, the surge in vandalism against Democratic offices, and the upcoming Second Amendment March - scheduled for the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing this April 19th. That act of terrorism was in turn performed on the anniversary of the final assault on the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas.
So what the hell was this? A joke? Sarcasm? Simple stupidity on a level not even Glenn Beck could manage?
If it wasn't a joke, but a sincere compliment given to American citizens, that is something far worse. Timothy McVeigh was a lone-wolf terrorist driven by resentment of the federal government, extreme libertarian political views and a fascination with organized Militia movements. He killed 168 people, including 19 children.
This is not a person to cheer. This is not a person to idolize. This is not a person to emulate.
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