Tag Archives: democratic

Threats Against Lawmakers After Health Care Vote

Bricks have been hurled through Democrats' windows, a propane line was cut at the home of a congressman's brother and lawmakers who voted for a federal health care bill have received phone threats in the days before and after passage of the sweeping legislation. Authorities are investigating incidents in Kansas, Virginia and other places, including Rochester, N.Y., where a brick tossed through the window of a county Democratic Party office had a note attached that said: ''Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice,'' roughly quoting the late Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee. The FBI and Capitol Police were briefing Democratic lawmakers on how to handle perceived security threats after at least 10 reported incidents, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Those who feel they are at risk will be ''getting attention from the proper authorities,'' Hoyer said, declining to say whether any are now receiving added security. Normally only those in leadership positions have personal security guards. The threats surprised an official with a think tank that monitors extremist groups. ''I think it is astounding that we are seeing this wave of vigilantism,'' said Mark Potok of the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center. In Virginia, authorities were investigating after someone cut a propane line leading to a grill at the Charlottesville home of U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello's brother. Perriello also said a threatening letter was sent to his brother's house. The home's address was posted online by tea party activists angry about the Virginia Democrat's vote in favor of the health care overhaul. They had mistaken the brother's address for that of the lawmaker. Potok compared the online posting of a public official's address to tactics used by hate groups. ''This is what neo Nazi leaders in America do today,'' Potok said. ''They post personal information about their enemies and sit back and wait for somebody else to act.'' In western New York, police are investigating after bricks were thrown through windows at two Democratic offices, but there have been no arrests. One was thrown through a window at Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter's district office in Niagara Falls early Friday. Slaughter, whose district stretches from Rochester to the Buffalo area, has been a key supporter of the health care reform bill passed by the House on Sunday. Sometime from late Saturday or Sunday in Rochester, N.Y., a brick was hurled at a wooden-framed glass door of the county Democratic Committee offices. The county party's spokesman, Sean Hart, said the glass ''only spider-webbed'' but didn't shatter, and the brick then appeared to have been picked up and thrown through the adjoining glass door. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/us/politics/AP-US-Health-Care-Threats.html?hp added by: current89

The next time somebody asks you why the Democrats did not try harder to get Republicans to help craft this Health Care bill, just play them this video.

That’s right. Some GOP asshole called Bart Stupak, who damn near derailed the entire bill in his desire to make sure it did not fund abortions , a “baby killer”. Does THAT seem like a party that is interested in calm reasonable negotiations? The Republicans decided from DAY ONE that they were not going to cooperate on this legislation, or really ANY of Obama’s legislation, because they want to cripple his presidency.

Conservative journalist David Frum admits that the GOP screwed up concerning the health care bill

I know you are feeling good about today, but I encourage you to read this and allow yourself to feel even better! Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s. It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections. But: (1) It’s a good bet that conservatives are over-optimistic about November – by then the economy will have improved and the immediate goodies in the healthcare bill will be reaching key voting blocs. (2) So what? Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this debacle now. So far, I think a lot of conservatives will agree with me. Now comes the hard lesson: A huge part of the blame for today’s disaster attaches to conservatives and Republicans ourselves. At the beginning of this process we made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obama’s Waterloo – just as healthcare was Clinton’s in 1994. Only, the hardliners overlooked a few key facts: Obama was elected with 53% of the vote, not Clinton’s 42%. The liberal block within the Democratic congressional caucus is bigger and stronger than it was in 1993-94. And of course the Democrats also remember their history, and also remember the consequences of their 1994 failure. This time, when we went for all the marbles, we ended with none. (You can read the rest of Frum’s article here ) I have made this point over and over again on this blog. The reason the Republicans fought so hard, and played so dirty, is because they knew that passing this bill would be extremely helpful to the Democrats in the long run. When they saw it getting closer and closer to passing the Republicans and the Teabaggers, became more and more horrified that after this was passed, without their support, they would be marginalized or even cease to exist. I don’t how long it will take before

Decision Makes School Chief Hated; Loved

Central Falls, Rhode Island (CNN) — Superintendent Frances Gallo combed the classrooms of embattled Central Falls High School. Teachers and students were gone for the day. Gallo was hunting for a particular item: an effigy of President Obama. She hoped the rumor of its existence wasn't true. Gallo had fired all the high school teachers just a month earlier, igniting an educational maelstrom in Rhode Island's smallest and poorest community while winning praise from the president. The teachers union lampooned her; hate mail flooded her inbox. For weeks, she'd prayed every morning for the soul of the man who wrote: “I wish cancer on your children and their children and that you live long enough to see them die.” It was one thing to take barbs from opponents — another thing altogether if the division was infecting classrooms. Teachers assured the superintendent that the school battle wasn't seeping into lesson plans. So, when CNN asked her about the rumor of the effigy, Gallo took it upon herself to get to the bottom of it. She entered the school in the dark of night Monday. She started her room-to-room sweep on the first floor. The first was clean, then the next and the next. Yet newspaper headlines about the controversy, Gallo says, were plastered nearly everywhere. What are the teachers doing? she thought. Most were local papers with banner headlines: “Teachers fired.” Others highlighted Obama's support of Gallo, an endorsement that turned an already tense situation into a firestorm. In this Democratic stronghold, teachers wondered: How could the president they supported turn his back on them? Some peeled Obama bumper stickers off their cars. Gallo knew Obama's endorsement would create further uproar. She just didn't know how bad it would get. She continued making her way through the school, clearing the first two floors. She was disheartened by the newspaper postings but relieved she hadn't found the offensive item. One floor to go. She climbed the steps and entered a classroom. There it was. “You couldn't miss it.” An Obama doll, about a foot tall, hung by its feet from the white board; the doll held a sign that said, “Fire Central Falls teachers,” she says. Recounting her discovery later, Gallo broke down in tears. A flood of emotions poured out, the raw toll of all that has transpired in recent weeks. When she confronted the teacher responsible, she says he responded that it was “a joke to him.” The teachers, she says, have “no idea the harm they're doing.” She thought of Obama's words: Students get only one shot at an education. “I've tried to explain this over and over again: The children here are very disturbed by the actions of their teachers, and they're torn apart because they also love them.” It's lonely being a voice for change. 'Miracles Happen Everyday' Central Falls is a town of more than 18,000 people — most of them Hispanic immigrants — living within 1.5 square miles. “Ripley's Believe It Or Not” once dubbed the town, about 10 minutes from Providence, the most densely populated in the nation. The school is an ornate brick building with decorative columns. A housing project backs up to the campus. A marquee outside the school reads: “Daily reflection on your efforts and outcomes will improve both.” Just a few blocks away, Gallo works from a modest building that looks as if it were once a home. A wall in the superintendent's office is decorated with Central Falls High T-shirts. “Don't talk trash … recycle it,” one says. Above her door is a sign: “Miracles Happen Everyday.” It keeps her grounded, she says, reminding her that “my kids are going to learn.” Gallo arrived in Central Falls in 2007, knowing a tough job loomed ahead. The school had already been designated one of the lowest-performing in Rhode Island. “I have never once looked away from a challenge or put children second,” she says. The school has been failing for the last seven years. Its graduation rate stands around 48 percent. Math proficiency is a paltry 7 percent. Reading scores have improved by 21 percentage points in the last two years, but still lag far behind with 55 percent able to read at grade level, according to school officials. Like the town's population, most of the 800 students at Central Falls are Hispanic. For many, English is a second language. Teachers say the population is so transient, the statistics are skewed: Dozens of students enroll as freshmen but move before their senior year. Those students get counted in the low graduation rate. It's a difficult environment in which to teach, teachers say, and they do their best. Gallo says union contracts, or “scar tissue,” are so thick and dense that instituting reform is difficult. Gallo says she didn't want to take the drastic measure of firing all 93 teachers, support staff and administrators. Yet her decision to do so instantly made her one of the boldest school administrators in the nation — loathed and loved, reviled and applauded. “I never anticipated this. Never,” Gallo says. On the wall behind her desk is a framed quotation: “Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.' ” added by: Crenshaw_Brothers

Rielle Hunter GQ Interview & Photos – CelebGlitz

In a tell-all interview with GQ Magazine , John Edwards’ mistress Rielle Hunter speaks out about her affair with former Democratic presidential hopeful. Here – Rielle Hunter GQ Interview & Photos . Continue reading

Sarah Palin’s favorite teabagger centerfold has decided that he wants to vote with the Democrats. Do you think that will be a problem?

At about 6pm the office of Scott Brown, the new Republican Senator from Massachusetts, put out a short press release saying he would be voting with the Democrats on a $15 billion (£9.7 billion) job creation Bill heavily promoted by President Obama. Two veteran Republican Senators went in search of Mr Brown and tried to change his mind. They failed. He took his newcomer’s seat in the back of the Senate chamber and waited for Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, to finish his pitch for the jobs Bill with a ritual taunt of Republicans who he assumed were “looking for ways not to vote for this”. Mr Brown then confounded Mr Reid by voting “yes” and told the instant throng of reporters that gathered round him as he emerged from the chamber: “I’m not from round here. I’m from Massachusetts”. What? The guy that the both the Republicans and teabaggers claim is a game changer and indicates the end of the Democratic party has voted with the Dems? Quick somebody check to see if Rush Limbaugh’s head has exploded (But then again how could we tell?) Un-surprisingly some of Brown’s more…shall we say….excitable supporters were very, very perturbed. This from Huffington Post . Over at Scott Brown’s Facebook page, the mood is much the same, probably because David Broder hasn’t written a column yet telling America that the jobs in this jobs bill are so much more awesome than the jobs that came before them because they are “bipartisan.” Some of Brown’s fans are giving him some support, but the lion’s share of comments read like “LYING LOW LIFE SCUM HYPOCRITE!” and “What a bummer dude. We didn’t need another Olympia Snowe,” and “BROWN, YOU JUST REMEMBER YOU DOUCHEBAG…WE ARE WATCHING YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! AND YOU FAILED AT THE FIRST CHANCE…YOU SCUM SUCKING ASS!!! GUESS MY 10-15 HOUR WORK DAYS WILL HELP PAY FOR THIS TOTAL BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!” Wow! And I thought people were pretty mad at ME yesterday! What I got was nothing compared to the vitriol aimed in this poor bastard’s direction. Well you know what comes next don’t you Senator Brown? Oh yes you do! You just wait until Sarah Palin can get that lazy Facebook ghostwriter back on the job, then my friend you are in for such a Facebook ass kicking you will not be able to walk straight for a month! Well that is if she and Todd can stop stressing about the Trig ear problem for a few minutes that is.

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Sarah Palin’s favorite teabagger centerfold has decided that he wants to vote with the Democrats. Do you think that will be a problem?

Obama details plan for uninsured before Healthcare Summit

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday laid out for the first time a detailed legislative proposal for overhauling health care. His plan sticks largely to the approach passed by the Senate with unified Democratic support, but it makes concessions to the House version, which was more expensive and would have covered more people. Mr. Obama’s proposal is the opening act to a week of high drama around health care that will culminate on Thursday, when the president convenes Democrats and Republicans at an all-day televised health care “summit” at Blair House. The White House is hoping the session can jump start the stalled health bill. “We view this as the opening bid for the health meeting,” Dan Pfeiffer, Mr. Obama’s communications director, told reporters Monday morning, adding, “We took our best shot at bridging the differences.” The bill is intended to achieve Mr. Obama’s broad goals of expanding coverage to the uninsured while driving down health premiums and imposing what the White House calls “common sense rules of the road” for insurers, including ending the unpopular practice of discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions. The measure is posted on the White House Web site. The White House projects that the bill would extend coverage to 31 million people who are currently uninsured, at a cost over 10 years of $950 billion — more than the $871 billion the Senate would have spent, but less than the $1.05 trillion for the version passed by the House. The administration estimates that its plan would reduce the federal deficit by $100 billion over the next 10 years — and about $1 trillion over the second decade — by cutting spending and reining in waste and fraud. Related: http://current.com/items/92196782_obama-shows-a-new-plan-for-healthcare.htm added by: 02

Project Runway: Girls Gone Wild

Project Runway is all about vision and delusion. The vision that making little clothes for little people is harder. The delusion that we care. The vision that little girls are pure. The delusion of tarting up a bunch of children. Last night’s Project Runway was a bit like smearing lipstick on a second grader or one of those shows where little JonBenet Ramseys twirl around in princess dresses trying to impress judges or like Jodi Foster in Taxi Driver but with better hair and worse clothing. It was like one of those. Pick a simile. The designers had to make an outfit for little girls between the ages of 5 and 8. They were each given a mini model and they were in turns cute, annoying, shy, loud, still, and squirmy. And because they needed something to keep the mature coat hangers busy, they were then given a surprise second look (!!!) for their big girl models. Fun. Well, not really because this challenge is one of the: Things We Hate Full-Tilt Lifetime Boogie : Really, a mommy and me challenge? This is ovary manipulation of the highest degree. This challenge was created so that the Midwestern moms targeted by the network could coo and aww and imagine that they were up there getting designed for by a bunch of hacks on a reality television program. These girls even melted Nina Garcia Fashion Director of Marie Claire Magazine. She actually smiled and it wasn’t her usual wince/grimace when she’s trying to not look like a huge bitch. It was a beaming that came directly from her uterus and snaked up her body pushing up the corners of her mouth. It was a horrible manipulation. Maya : What the fuck is going on with Maya. She was the only remaining designer not to show at the final runway show in Bryant Park last week, so we thought that meant she was going home for sure this week. No dice. Also, she was barely on this episode. Are they just trying to vanish her like it’s 1984 or something? Did she talk trash about Heidi and they’re going to erase her from the planet? And now we know she’s not in the final. How many weeks are we going to have to go carrying her bangs around like a backpack full of bricks? Listening to the Clients : Especially if they are little girls. Never do this. Ever. How many times do we have to teach this lesson? There are only four people you have to please and they never stand on the runway. They sit next to it in directors chairs stained with fake tanning solution and back sweat. Don’t make something for the girls, make something for the judges—every time! Seth Aaron Is Smart : Fucking asshole Seth Aaron. He has a daughter (how, how did that happen?!) so he knows what they like and made a purse, which his mini-model loved and made NGFDMCM’s lady parts twitch. We fucking hate him, but he is actually pretty good. His pair of designs looked like Gwen Stefani and her daughter, and that is a high compliment. He is going to do just enough right to get to the finals, isn’t he? God, he is Wendy Pepper with a penis. The Asshole Straight Guy : Nearly every season has had one, and Jeffrey Sebelia even won a season! You know the type, they are straight, abrasive, usually punk-rockish, and talk about their love of women and how it makes they design clothes for them, and it just pisses the rest of us off. This year we have two. Why can’t Seth Aaron Jingleheimer Schmidt and Logan Jesse. Why can’t we just have a bunch of girls and kooky gays? Straight guys have everything, just leave this for the girls and the gays! Bad Parenting : Don’t these girls have mothers? Where were they? They were just letting their impressionable young tots hang around with a bunch of absent-minded designers who want to exploit them for a win and a bunch of skinny models using them as props while teaching them sexy walks and the easiest way to barf up a baloney sandwich? Maybe these are all the kids of the producers and crew and they just all happen to have kids of about the same age, so they were really there behind the scenes. Anyway, I fear for these poor tykes. Things We Love Tim Gunn ‘s Peek : Every week, right after Tim hurries all the designers and their breathing mannequins out of the room for the runway show, he always opens the door to the workroom, peeks his head in, and looks around to make sure no one is in there. It’s like Tim is expecting to catch a stray designer hiding in the corner under a table quickly sewing the hem of a dress with an army of fairy helpers guiding the needle and thread. It’s so cute. And what if there was one? Would Grampa Gunn wing a Werther’s Original from his pocket and hit them in the head and tell them and their little fairies it’s time to go? Yellow : Both the ill-fated Jonathan and supremely ill-fated Maya used yellow this week. It was very cool. Why don’t we have more yellow clothing? Why don’t I have more yellow clothing? This needs to be corrected. Jay’s Outfit : Not the purple ruffley thing he made that made his 6-year-old look like a contestant on The Littlest Hooker , the one he wore while shopping at mood. It was a Kelly green sweater and shorts with some sort of printed sailboat pattern and probably topsiders (though we didn’t see the shoes closely). It was the most inappropriate getup we ever did see. He looked like he was dressed for a gay clam dig on Nantucket, but he was shopping in a fabric store in New York. It was so out of place it was amazing. The Boys : Last season the boys sucked and we thought it was some supreme Lifetime conspiracy to get all ladies to the end, which they did. Well, this year is the total opposite and the boys are kicking ass. Even if two of them are the horrible straight guys, we’re glad to have some penis power back in this competition. Maybe they’ve been taking the free lady vitamins that Lifetime put in their Atlas apartments and are somehow dodging the testosterone sensors at Parsons. Michael Kors Hates Kids : Of course he does, and it makes us love him even more. Lifetime Movies : God, they all suck. This week we had to watch commercials about Will Truman as a conman pretending to be a straight Rockefeller and marrying some lady so he could kidnap their kid. Also, Jill Scott is trying to win an Emmy for doing the TV version of Precious: A Television Drama Based on the Movie Precious Based on the Book by a Woman Who Wouldn’t Sell the Rights Unless Her Name was in the Title . They are so horrible, but we don’t want them to die. They’re like Sarah Jessica Parker’s little mole thingy. Her face isn’t be the same without it, and there is one fewer thing to pick on in the world. We miss that mole. “Bravo” : When congratulating a designer on a job well done, NGFDMCM said, “Bravo.” No, it’s Lifetime. Ha! That joke will never get old. In the end, Annoying Straight Man #1 took home the top prize for his little striped hoodie with watermelon pockets and a gorgeous black and white coat with a fucked-upedly fantastic collar that looked a bit like a fashion straight jacket for a couture S/M editorial shoot. The judges finally picked right and put Jay’s Barney purple tartlet creation and Jesse’s French-inspired preciousness in grey and red in the top as well. It was Tear up Weepy Janeane who was finally sent home for her boring blob of red and some other bullshit that she bought off etsy the night before and just passed off as her own. Bye-bye, dead weight, can’t you take Maya with you on your way out? Also horrible was Emilio’s Pepto Bismol poured in a shot glass and a champagne flute, Ben’s study in wilted lilacs, and Jonathan’s tissue explosion that he made with spare rolls from the Charmin Toilet off of the Brother Sewing Room. At least the last one had some yellow. Amy’s crazy “petal” pants—which looked like the three-eyed fish from The Simpsons —weren’t that bad. OK, yeah, they were. The petals weren’t finished and the colors were garish and the little girl looked like an orphan digging for trash in a alleyway right before Joseph Bologna shows up in a limo with a wonderful side part and puts her and four other girls in a band and lets them live in his mansion ( Rags to Riches , anyone?). Still, if Amy had made those petals in black, grey, and red and finished them, NGFDMCM and her estrogen-filled Easy-Bake Bun in the Oven would have climbed up onto the runway, thrown the kid out of the way and snatched them off the model’s body. But for Jonathan’s spot on Queen Tangerine impersonation, Suzanne Sugarbaker’s annoyance with little girls, and some other travesties, you have to go watch the videos. Don’t worry, we’ll babysit while you’re gone. We promise not to take LSD and put your baby in the microwave. Kors of the Matter Description : Jonathan finally show a little bit of personality with his funny German accent and his amazing Michael Kors impersonation. Vision : “Now is ze time on Schprockets ven vee make fun of Michael Kors.” Delusion : Sorry, kiddo, this isn’t as classic as Santino Rice doing Tim Gunn. Nice try. What Would Nina Say : “You know, my daughter does the most amazing impersonation of André Leon Talley eating Oreos.” Dramometer : 4 Under the Gunn Description : Tim goes to visit Amy, who is cutting out a bunch of frayed fabric to make some insane creation. Vision : Tim thinks this could be inspired, or clown clothes. Delusion : Oh, Gramps, the only thing that reeks more of clown clothes is the laundry room at Cirque du Soleil. What Would Nina Say : “If those pants were my child, I would have a late-term abortion.” Dramometer : 3 Suzanne’s Beauties Description : Our beloved Suzanne Sugarbaker is allergic to three things: subtlety, silence, and small children. Watch him try to deal with all three as the workroom is taken over by a bunch of howling banshees. Vision : This was exactly the producer’s vision of this challenge. Delusion : They are lucky that this is as messy as things got. We fully expected crying, and were sorely disappointed. What Would Nina Say : “Suzanne, you can babysit for me anytime.” Dramometer : 6 Runway Arrogance Description : Seth Aaron watches his design tromp and twirl its way to victory. Vision : This is what a girl wants, want a girl needs… Delusion : it makes us happy, but it won’t set us free of Seth Aaron. What Would Nina Say : “I could just eat you up! Yes I could!” Dramometer : 2 Caitlin the Hero Description : We do not like children any more than Michael Kors, but Amy’s model Caitlin is not afraid of bitchy old gay men who sell their wares at Marshalls. Oh hell no. She sticks up for her outfit right to Queen Tangerine’s face, and he gives her the scowl of disapproval. Vision : “I don’t care what you say old man, I like it!” Delusion : That a child would behave any other way. What Would Nina Say : See for yourself! Dramometer : 8

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Project Runway: Girls Gone Wild

Kamikaze Tax Rebel Joe Stack: Libtard or Wingnut?

Joe Stack , the bass-playing, tax-hating Austin divebomber who murdered at least one person yesterday, left a confusingly post-partisan populist suicide note, making it hard for pundits to assign blame for his actions to their political opponents. But they’re still trying. As soon as Stack’s suicide note was discovered online yesterday, the political calculations began: He hated Bush (so do liberals!). He hated taxes (so do Tea Partiers!). He hated religion, but he also thought we live under a totalitarian regime. He approvingly quoted Karl Marx, but he hated government bureaucrats. That’s quite an incoherent grab-bag of positions, often with mutually exclusive political implications, which isn’t really surprising seeing as how it was issued by someone who set his own house on fire and then piloted an airplane into a building. But since we’ve lately had a rash of sudden and random violence from politically motivated actors, from James von Brunn to Scott Roeder, the de rigeur (and sometimes justified) next step is to associate the murderer’s rantings with other law-abiding political partisans, and begin the laying of blame. Since Stack’s manifesto is so confusing, the initial moves yesterday as the event unfolded were preemptive: He’s not one of ours . Literally minutes after the note was discovered, CNN’s Rick Sanchez was on the air arguing that Stack’s condemnation of “presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies” should be taken with a grain of salt, because Stack also attacked “Obama’s policies” (though that’s not really true—he seems to support health care reform, and nothing about the tax system that Stack rails against is specifically associated with Obama). Time observed that the note “eerily reflected the angry populist sentiments that have swept the country in the past year,” obliquely referring to the teabaggers. Meanwhile, the right-wingers at Newsbusters started complaining that the “liberal media” was deliberately covering up Stack’s shout-out to Marx , which constituted “perhaps the most politically consequential lines in the entire note” and proved conclusively that he was no teabagger. Last night, Laura Ingraham warned Bill O’Reilly that “over the next few days, you will hear from the left and all the crazies that, you know, we talk about other networks and so forth trying to tie CPAC maybe, the Tea Party movement, all of this anger on the right that is out there…. I mean, you’re going to hear that. I don’t think it’s believable. The guy is obviously a total nut.” And this morning. Michelle Malkin launched a screed against the “furious left-wing bloggers” trying to link Stack to right-wing rage, arguing that “no law-abiding Tea Party group would ever condone what he did” (ignoring the question of how the law- breaking Tea Party groups feel about it). It’s all a tiresome little game, really. When someone who hates taxes and the government kills people, he’s a lone nut and anyone who says otherwise is a disingenuous liberal. When a Muslim who hates the war in Afghanistan kills people, he’s part of a sophisticated international terrorist conspiracy and anyone who says otherwise is a traitor . The same people who are so strenuously declaiming that anti-tax rhetoric and ideas had nothing to do with his crime were literally days ago shouting that the Alabama professor who shot up her tenure committee was a “‘ far-left political extremist who was ‘obsessed’ with President Obama ‘”—as though we are at risk of a rash of gun crimes from Harvard-educated lefties. Stack is one in a long, long line of people who have attempted to injure or kill IRS agents . People have hated tax collectors for as long as people have liked money. Honestly, his profile— a bass player in the Austin country-rock scene, graduate of the Milton Hershey School for troubled teens in Pennsylvania, and lover of jazz —doesn’t seem to align too well with the reactionary gun-toting revanchist types that show up at Tea Party rallies. He sounds a little like a hippie. And to the extent that his little screed seemed to take up opposing threads of the contemporary political debate, it’s silly to try to fit him into a caricature of either side. He was motivated by rage at his own failures, for which he blamed faceless bureaucrats. But he did hate the IRS, and he did hate taxes, and he did feel entitled to not have to pay them. Political partisans will always be able to find examples of violent extremism with which to tar their opponents. The balaclava-clad lefties who throw rocks at G5 meetings are ideological cousins of the American left, just as Timothey McVeigh and Eric Rudolph were ideological cousins of the teabaggers. The difference is that the Democratic Party establishment isn’t currently engaged in actively fomenting the sort of rage that motivates the fringe of their party. The problem isn’t that the right wing is creating Joe Stacks, or should be held responsible for inciting them. It’s impossible to know whether Stack would have done what he did absent a current environment of deluded anti-government hysteria on the right wing, but given the facts that his grievances go back to the Reagan era and that he seems to have been squeezed to despair by the recession, it’s likely that his rage transcended the Fox News-driven political dynamic. And there will always be people like him. The problem is that the GOP and Fox News are currently addressing their political messaging to people like him. They’re not creating or inciting the right-wing fringe so much as bringing it in from the cold.

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Kamikaze Tax Rebel Joe Stack: Libtard or Wingnut?

Bernanke Confirmed for Second Term as Fed Chief

WASHINGTON — Ben S. Bernanke has been confirmed for a second term as head of the Federal Reserve. The Senate voted 70-30 on Thursday to leave Mr

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Bernanke Confirmed for Second Term as Fed Chief