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Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 11:38:30 am PST
Man. This is just classic. The Washington Times reports that “tea party leader” Dale Robertson is warning the GOP that the teabaggers are “turning their guns” on Republicans who aren’t far enough to the right.
A founder of the Tea Party movement said Wednesday he had a warning for Republican leaders: Back conservative candidates or else other states will suffer the same backlash that toppled Florida’s Republican Party chairman this week.
“We are turning our guns on anyone who doesn’t support constitutional conservative candidates,” said Dale Robertson, who operates TeaParty.org out of Houston and helped start the movement nearly two years ago.
He declined to say which states are next on the Tea Party’s hit list. He said party leaders in those states would be warned privately, but the movement’s wrath “will be very clear publicly” if they don’t listen.
“If they continue to do things like they did in Florida, it’s not going to be good for them,” Mr. Robertson said. “If they don’t get that and their party chairmen don’t get that, they are going to be ostracized.”
If the name “Dale Robertson” sounds familiar, it’s because we featured him just last Monday, for showing up at the February 2009 tea party in Houston with this sign:
The Washington Times doesn’t mention this little embarrassing incident, of course.
These are the people who think they have the GOP by the short and curlies. And the sad, pathetic fact is that … they do.
(Hat tip: KT.)
UPDATE at 1/6/10 4:36:09 pm:
I’ve received several emails full of insults from people saying that Dale Robertson is not a leader of a tea party organization, but in fact was kicked out of the rally at which this picture was taken. Apparently I was supposed to know this, somehow.
I suggest these people save their insults for the Washington Times — because I quoted their article citing Robertson as a founder of TeaParty.org.
... McVeigh couldn't have met Snell -- he was imprisoned even before McVeigh joined the Army -- but McVeigh certainly would have known his name. Snell was a celebrity; the Militia of Montana December 1994 newsletter called him "a patriot to be executed by The Beast," and warned he would be executed "unless we act now!!!" Also famous was the date set for his execution: April 19, 1995.
That Snell was to be put to death on April 19 was a jaw-dropper for anyone in the movement. This was their most sacred day -- the 1993 anniversary of the Waco fire, the beginning of the 1992 federal agent assault at Ruby Ridge [not factually accurate on date], the 1775 start of the Revolutionary War and "the shot heard 'round the world." The April 19th date had been dubbed "Militia Day" since the year before, and there were already calls made by several militia groups for demonstrations or other actions. ...
... As a paramilitary organization, CSA working with another terrorist group called The Order, which was robbing banks and had killed a radio talk show host critical of them. The FBI broke up The Order, and on April 19, 1985 -- exactly ten years before the Oklahoma City bombing -- a small army of 300 lawmen swooped down on CSA to arrest founder Jim Ellison and members of The Order hiding on the property. After a tense two-day standoff, Ellison and the others surrendered.
Anti-government conspiracy theories seem clearly to have played a role in April 2009, in Pittsburgh, when a young man named Richard Poplawski allegedly gunned down three Pittsburgh Police Bureau officers responding to a 911 domestic disturbance call at his residence.
The longer I do this crime blogging thing, the more I try to shy away both from editorializing and from fear-mongering. But I can't help but feel we'll hear from more Richard Poplawskis in the years to come. There are changes happening in the world that they, to say the least, don't like very much. After all, prior to 9/11/01, the worst modern act of terrorism committed on American soil was committed by Americans. And one of those Americans, Tim McVeigh, happened to have pages from The Turner Diaries with him when he was arrested.
I'm just saying: while we were searching for the key to eliminating Al Qaeda, guys like Richard Poplawski didn't go anywhere. Hell, they may have even multiplied. Just remember that.
Richard Andrew Poplawski was a young man convinced the nation was secretly controlled by a cabal that would eradicate freedom of speech, take away his guns and use the military to enslave the citizenry. ...
...Mr. Poplawski's view of guns and personal freedom took a turn toward the fringes of American politics. With Mr. Perkovic, he appeared to share a belief that the government was controlled from unseen forces, that troops were being shipped home from the Mideast to police the citizenry here, and that Jews secretly ran the country.
"We recently discovered that 30 states had declared sovereignty," said Mr. Perkovic, who lives in Lawrenceville. "One of his concerns was why were these major events in America not being reported to the public."
Believing most media were covering up important events, Mr. Poplawski turned to a far-right conspiracy Web site run by Alex Jones, a self-described documentarian with roots going back to the extremist militia movement of the early 1990s.
Around the same time, he joined Florida-based Stormfront, which has long been a clearinghouse Web site for far-right groups. He posted photographs of his tattoo, an eagle spread across his chest.
"I was considering gettin' life runes on the outside of my calfs," he wrote. Life runes are a common symbol among white supremacists, notably followers of The National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group linked to an array of violent organizations. ...
VPC Executive Director on The Huffington Post
The Tea Party, Gun Lobby & Anti-Government Rhetoric
April 15, 2010—Fifteen years after former National Rifle Association (NRA) member Timothy McVeigh--motivated by his fear and hatred of the federal government--bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the NRA and other members of the gun lobby are once again embracing and validating similar anti-government rhetoric according to a new study released today by my organization, the Violence Policy Center (VPC).
LEARN MORE>
April 15, 2010—Fifteen years ago former National Rifle Association (NRA) member Timothy McVeigh--motivated by his fear and hatred of the federal government--bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Today, the NRA and other members of the gun lobby are again embracing and validating anti-government rhetoric according to the new 21-page Violence Policy Center (VPC) study Lessons Unlearned: The Gun Lobby and the Siren Song of Anti-Government Rhetoric.
LEARN MORE>
April 15, 2010—With the election of Barack Obama, the NRA has once again embraced the paranoid language and anti-government rhetoric that defined the organization in the early 1990s. Alleged cop-killer Richard Poplawski is one gun owner who took the NRA's paranoid language at its word.
WATCH THE VIDEO>
