QUESTION du jour...When is shooting and killing people in cold blood while yelling "This is the start of a Revolution" NOT called terrorism? Answer..When it's carried out by homegrown right-wing radicals. To quote the Speaker of the House:
Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) was asked Tuesday if he considers the Las Vegas shootings on Sunday to be "an act of domestic terrorism."
"I -- I'm not sure how I'd describe it," he responded to reporters in the Capitol. "But clearly we had a couple of sick individuals who engaged in a horrific crime. And our hearts go out to those families, especially the families of those two officers who went down."
(TPM Blog)
Hmmm.."sick individuals"..We can all agree they were indeed that. But there are lots of things "sick individuals" might do as an outcome of their deranged way of thinking. And these things would in fact be highly individual. But the Millers actually were expressing themselves based on a strong identification with a particular brand of groupthink.
"The Millers spent years of frequenting right wing websites, posting support for right wing terrorists and spouting right wing propaganda. They were white supremacists and bought everything else the Tea Party is putting out there. They also spouted the propaganda to neighbors in the apartment complex they lived in, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Richard Mack, another right wing nut job who shares Cliven Bundy’s denial of U.S. legitimacy, confirmed that the Millers were Bundy supporters. MSNBC reports that Bundy’s son acknowledged that the Millers were at the ranch but, for reasons he didn’t state, were asked to leave."(Politicususa.com)
The picture here is so crystal clear anyone can see miles to the bottom. That is, anyone but the people who should be coming forward to condemn this vicious act of murder and terror. The only way to do that is to call it for what it is...domestic terrorism. This would send a signal to any others out there who may see this as an heroic act of self-sacrifice for a "cause" that the party who gave a home and a voice to this virulent anti-government and conspiracy theory movement recognizes and rejects such terrorist acts. The leaders of the Republican Party must take an active role in stopping the monster they helped create and nurture.
"In the aftermath, not one Republican or Tea Party politician has condemned this act of terror or the fascist and neo-Nazi ideologies from which it stems."
(Politicususa.com)
It's not that these politicians aren't very vocal or proactive when they think a description of a tragic event doesn't pass muster. They have conducted 13 hearings and over 50 official briefings on Benghazi primarily because they didn't care for the initial official reaction and wanted the word "terrorism" used immediately. Benghazi is 5,372 miles from my home in Michigan..very far away from American soil.
Unfortunately, what happened in Las Vegas unfolded right under our noses, in real time, with witnesses who never signed up for dangerous duty as they went about their daily business. Police officers are the "good guys with guns" and they couldn't prevent being targets for rabid idealogues who snapped because they allowed all the fear, all the hate, all the ugly rhetoric to crowd out all reason and all sense of proportional response. In their minds the "revolution" was here. After all, weren't "patriots" marching around on the Bundy ranch prepared to violently confront the government, flinging their women and children in front of them like pyrrhic sacrifices?
Wasn't Fox News lauding these "patriots" seemingly salivating at the prospect of another Waco or Ruby Ridge..pure ratings gold? Weren't US Senators Paul and Cruz, Texas Governor Rick Perry and GOP candidate Cain saying things like..
"Ted Cruz called the Bundy standoff the "the unfortunate and tragic culmination of the path that President Obama has set the federal government on.” He added that the reason he believed the story was "resonating" was that the Obama administration has put American liberty "under assault...we have seen our constitutional liberties eroded under the Obama administration."
(TheWire.com)
"Under assault"...that says it all. If our elected leaders are saying we are "under assault" by the very government they are part of..what response do they expect..especially from the very heavily armed Tea Party who express virulent distrust, disdain and pathological fear of any and all things "government."
If President Obama and his administration are the enemies of freedom then so are those who voted him in twice and express support for him. If hate and distrust for the government of the people is "patriotism" then those of us who do not partake of that philosophy are by definition "traitors" and we all know the fate of known traitors in 1776. It was the same fate as Alyn Beck, 41; Igor Soldo, 31 and Joseph Wilcox, 31.
Mr. Boehner has a responsibility to name this act of domestic terrorism for what it is. By doing so, he stops any official narrative connected to a major political party that may in any way embolden and encourage those who seek violent anarchy as a response to a fear being stoked by their own party leaders. It's time for the GOP to act on behalf of all the American people and stop pandering to the misguided and gullible minority no matter how loud they may squawk and saber-rattle. All it takes is a little courage..if Speaker Boehner needs some inspiration he can talk to any of our millions of US veterans..they live and breathe courage. Coming out to condemn senseless violence shouldn't be this hard.
Thanks to Meme GOP for the photo meme!
Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) was asked Tuesday if he considers the Las Vegas shootings on Sunday to be "an act of domestic terrorism."
"I -- I'm not sure how I'd describe it," he responded to reporters in the Capitol. "But clearly we had a couple of sick individuals who engaged in a horrific crime. And our hearts go out to those families, especially the families of those two officers who went down."
(TPM Blog)
Hmmm.."sick individuals"..We can all agree they were indeed that. But there are lots of things "sick individuals" might do as an outcome of their deranged way of thinking. And these things would in fact be highly individual. But the Millers actually were expressing themselves based on a strong identification with a particular brand of groupthink.
"The Millers spent years of frequenting right wing websites, posting support for right wing terrorists and spouting right wing propaganda. They were white supremacists and bought everything else the Tea Party is putting out there. They also spouted the propaganda to neighbors in the apartment complex they lived in, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Richard Mack, another right wing nut job who shares Cliven Bundy’s denial of U.S. legitimacy, confirmed that the Millers were Bundy supporters. MSNBC reports that Bundy’s son acknowledged that the Millers were at the ranch but, for reasons he didn’t state, were asked to leave."(Politicususa.com)
The picture here is so crystal clear anyone can see miles to the bottom. That is, anyone but the people who should be coming forward to condemn this vicious act of murder and terror. The only way to do that is to call it for what it is...domestic terrorism. This would send a signal to any others out there who may see this as an heroic act of self-sacrifice for a "cause" that the party who gave a home and a voice to this virulent anti-government and conspiracy theory movement recognizes and rejects such terrorist acts. The leaders of the Republican Party must take an active role in stopping the monster they helped create and nurture.
"In the aftermath, not one Republican or Tea Party politician has condemned this act of terror or the fascist and neo-Nazi ideologies from which it stems."
(Politicususa.com)
It's not that these politicians aren't very vocal or proactive when they think a description of a tragic event doesn't pass muster. They have conducted 13 hearings and over 50 official briefings on Benghazi primarily because they didn't care for the initial official reaction and wanted the word "terrorism" used immediately. Benghazi is 5,372 miles from my home in Michigan..very far away from American soil.
Unfortunately, what happened in Las Vegas unfolded right under our noses, in real time, with witnesses who never signed up for dangerous duty as they went about their daily business. Police officers are the "good guys with guns" and they couldn't prevent being targets for rabid idealogues who snapped because they allowed all the fear, all the hate, all the ugly rhetoric to crowd out all reason and all sense of proportional response. In their minds the "revolution" was here. After all, weren't "patriots" marching around on the Bundy ranch prepared to violently confront the government, flinging their women and children in front of them like pyrrhic sacrifices?
Wasn't Fox News lauding these "patriots" seemingly salivating at the prospect of another Waco or Ruby Ridge..pure ratings gold? Weren't US Senators Paul and Cruz, Texas Governor Rick Perry and GOP candidate Cain saying things like..
"Ted Cruz called the Bundy standoff the "the unfortunate and tragic culmination of the path that President Obama has set the federal government on.” He added that the reason he believed the story was "resonating" was that the Obama administration has put American liberty "under assault...we have seen our constitutional liberties eroded under the Obama administration."
(TheWire.com)
"Under assault"...that says it all. If our elected leaders are saying we are "under assault" by the very government they are part of..what response do they expect..especially from the very heavily armed Tea Party who express virulent distrust, disdain and pathological fear of any and all things "government."
If President Obama and his administration are the enemies of freedom then so are those who voted him in twice and express support for him. If hate and distrust for the government of the people is "patriotism" then those of us who do not partake of that philosophy are by definition "traitors" and we all know the fate of known traitors in 1776. It was the same fate as Alyn Beck, 41; Igor Soldo, 31 and Joseph Wilcox, 31.
Mr. Boehner has a responsibility to name this act of domestic terrorism for what it is. By doing so, he stops any official narrative connected to a major political party that may in any way embolden and encourage those who seek violent anarchy as a response to a fear being stoked by their own party leaders. It's time for the GOP to act on behalf of all the American people and stop pandering to the misguided and gullible minority no matter how loud they may squawk and saber-rattle. All it takes is a little courage..if Speaker Boehner needs some inspiration he can talk to any of our millions of US veterans..they live and breathe courage. Coming out to condemn senseless violence shouldn't be this hard.
Thanks to Meme GOP for the photo meme!
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