In all honesty, myself and others saw this coming as far back as the 2008 Presidential campaign; certain elements of the press and blogosphere were attempting to establish the narrative that anybody who opposed Obama was likely a racist, if not a dangerous fringe militia type. It was a pretty transparent attempt to put the onus on the Illinois Democrat's critics to explain exactly why they weren't racist fringe wingnuts instead of dwelling on such niceties like Obama's lack of foreign policy or legislative experience or his long-standing association with a rogue's gallery of outspoken America-haters and criminals such as Jerimaih Wright, Tony Rezko or
William Ayers.
The sad part, as you can see, is that it was all too effective.
About a month into the administration,
CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli accused the Obama administration of rewarding bad behavior with the administration's Homeowner Affordibility and Stability Plan. While live on the air from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Santelli raised the possibility of a latter-day 'Tea Party' movement in Chicago, which is widely believed to be the genesis of the Tea Party movement's name.
A little over a month after Santelli's on-air remarks, on April 4th, 2009 Pittsburgh Police officers
Eric Kelly,
Paul Sciullo and
Stephen Mayhle were murdered in the line of duty while responding to a domestic disturbance call involving a mother and her adult son. The perpetrator, 22 year old Richard Poplawski was later found out to have been discharged from the Marine Corps before even completing boot camp and was a regular visitor to white-supremacist websites ranting about ZOG (neo-nazi shorthand for Zionist Occupation Government). After a 4-hour standoff, he eventually surrendered to police.
Curiously, the
Pittsburgh Post Gazette managed to slip this little aside in on the day of the shooting and standoff:
Mr. Poplawski had supported Republican candidate John McCain in the presidential election and had "very spirited debates" about Democratic candidate Barack Obama Wow- I know I'm about 18 months too late with this newsflash, but Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is about as moderate as they come for the Republicans....and some would say politicians in general. Maybe it's just me, but the underlying implication seems to be
'even supporters of moderate Republicans are unstable and potentially dangerous cop-killers'.
Also keep in mind that, the Pittsburgh shootings were the latest in a string of high profile mass-murders in the span of a few weeks. On March 21, 2009, convicted felon and child-rapist Lovelle Mixon shot and killed Oakland Police motorcycle patrolmen
Mark Dunakin and
John Hege during a routine traffic stop before fleeing to his sister's apartment and ambushing Oakland SWAT officers
Ervin Romans and
Daniel Sakai before Mixon himself was cut down by return fire. The day before the Pittsburgh shooting, a disgruntled Vietnamese immigrant named Jiverly Wong used a car to barricade the door of an American Civic Association Center in Binghampton, NY before
fatally shooting 13 people inside and turning the gun on himself.
Yet at no point did we hear about the political leanings of Mixon or Wong from the mainstream media. It was probably considered not relevant at the time, unlike speculation about Poplawski's political preferences.
Then, in April 2009, the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to law-enforcement againcies throughout the country warning about a rise in "rightwing extremist activity", broadly defining returning veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and US citicizens opposed to gun control, abortion and illegal immigration as potential extremists. The report drew criticism from conservative bloggers and the American Leigon and although the DHS claimed the work that went into compiling the report began in the last months of the Bush Administration, many of the report's key findings factored in the current recession and election of Obama as President.
The authors of the report seemed to be vindicated when Dr. George Tiller was gunned down in a Witchita, KS church on May 31st 2009 by an anti-abortion activist. The killing drew condemnation from the President, who issued a statement within hours. Attourney General Holder ordered US Marshalls to provide additional security at abortion clinics across the country the day of Dr. Tiller's murder. However, barely 24 hours later, Pvt. William Andrew Long of Conway, AR was shot and killed and Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula of Jacksonville, AR was wounded in a shooting targeting the US Army Recruiter's office in Little Rock, AR. The gunman, 24 year old Abdulhakim Muhammed, was a convert to Islam and had spent time in Yemen. As vindicated as proponents of the DHS report might've felt after the Tiller murder, they were remarkably silent after the Little Rock shootings.
And for the remainer of 2009 the Mainstream Media would only notice the Tea Parties long enough to remind us how dangerous and enigmatic they were and the DHS report failed to take into account the actions of terrorists like Nidal Malik Hasan or Umar Frouk Abdulmutallab while DHS secretary Napolitano assured us 'the system worked'.
So let us flip the calendar forward to 2010, where we've aleady had a few high profile acts of violence and we're not even through the month of Febuary. On January 4th 2010, a gunman opened fire inside of the Las Vegas, NV Federal Building, killing a security guard and wounding a US Marshall before being cut down by return fire. Now given how the racially diverse MSNBC personalities were assuring us it was only a matter of time before the racist, unhinged anti-government individuals that made up the Tea Party movement began lashing out in a murderous fashion- and what better place for them to lash out than a Federal building? Only, it turned out that the shooter, 66 year old Johnny Lee Wicks, was angry at his reduced Social Security benefits. Wicks, who was black, had earlier sued the Social Security Administration claiming racial discrimination and set his condo on fire before his Federal building rampage.
Then, on Febuary 12th, 2010, University of Alabama Huntsville biology professor Amy Bishop allegedly opened fire during a faculty meeting on campus, killing three of her colleagues and wounding three more. Perhaps even more disturbing about the shooting was the string of previous incidents involving Bishop, starting with the fatal shooting of her brother in 1986.
And last week, there was the case of Jospeh Stack III, who deliberately flew his single-engine aircraft into a building in Austin, TX housing an IRS field office after torching his own house and posting a lengthy online screed. Stack and one person in the office building were killed. And since the other two incidents were likely considered 'false-starts', the Mainstream Media has decided to go for the gusto and try and portray Jospeh Stack III as a regular attendee of the Tea Party rallies, cherry-picking his tirade for quotes that sound like something 'those gosh-darn teabaggers would say' when he seemed just as upset at the Catholic Church, GW Bush and the fact that obamacare didn't pass as he was at the IRS
Out of the three aforementioned high-profile acts of violence in 2010, I would have to say Professor Amy Bishop would come the closest to being politically motivated. Whether or not her murder spree at Huntsville was politically motivated is up for debate, but other bloggers and certain Boston area media outlets have done a yoeman's job in bringing to light several troubling aspects of Amy Bishop's past that would have most people in jail or unemployable for the rest of their days. In 1986, Bishop was arrested in Braintree, MA after fatally shooting her brother with a shotgun and brandishing it at employees of a nearby Ford dealership before she was arrested. Questions were raised about the case some 23 and a half years later when it was learned she was released to her mother's custody before she was booked. Bishop's mother was a Braintree town official and then-Norfolk County DA Bill Delahunt ruled the shooting accidental. The files from the case had gone missing until fairly recently and the current Norfolk County DA's office ruled that sufficent evidence existed in 1986 to charge Amy Bishop with assault with a deadly weapon.
Delahunt (D-MA) is now a US Congressman from Massachusett's 10th district, although this month he announced he's contemplating retirement. Although a spokesman from the tHugo Chavez-allied Democrat's office said such considerations are routine, it's pretty safe to say he wasn't so sure about calling it a career before Scott Brown stomped Martha Coakley in the January special election or the spoiled brat his office kicked lose some 20+ years ago killed again.
In 1993, Bishop and her husband James Anderson were considered 'persons of interest' by ATF and U.S. Postal inspectors when a Harvard Medical School Professor recieved in the mail two pipe bombs that failed to detonate. However, charges were never filed by the Feds due to lack of evidence.
In 2002, Bishop was arrested for assault and battery at a Peabody, MA IHOP when she found out another family dining in the resturant had the last booster seat. According to the Peabody Police report, an enraged Bishop let loose a profanity-laced tirade at the mother of the family with the booster seat before punching her in the head and shouting "I am Amy Bishop!". She was found guilty of misdemanor battery charges and sentenced to take anger-management classes, which she skipped out on.....
According to the Boston Herald, family sources indicated Bishop was a leftist 'obsessed with President Obama to the point of being off-putting' and certainly benefitted from preferntial treatment by the Braintree Police and Norfolk County DA's office. This begs the question that no matter how 'book-smart' Amy Bishop may have been, what the hell was she doing a free woman, let alone an assistant professor seeking tenure?
But the million dollar question is, if the tea party-people are as dangerous as the mainstream media has been advertising, wouldn't we have had more than one high-profile violent incident attributed to them by now? I mean....surely a dangeous and reactionary group that Newsweek and MSNBC has been describing would've lashed out violently at the object of their unjutified rage by now.....or would the press that's been breathlessly warning the rest of us what a dangerous and violent fringe movement it is have to stoop to creating nonexistant links?
[Hat tip to LoppyD and New Class Traitor for the detailed background info on Amy Bishop]
(Aliosha Marquez/AP)
(Natacha Pisarenko/AP)
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