In an opinion piece posted at USA Today, Glenn Reynolds successfully argues for fairness and equality. Politicians and government employees – even retired employees – across the United States are exempted from some laws, or are granted special privileges not afforded the common man.
Pinch me, I must be dreaming. I wish I could take credit for this but I can’t. This is all the doing of New York Post columnist Michael Walsh. It seems he has friends in high places. Just file this under the heading three hours of great radio that you will not want to miss. Read more
Want to know what will get the kids out to the polls? Promise them the government will pay off their college loans. Free, free money. The Nanny State continued. Read more
The Department of Homeland Security has your number and you could very well be a dangerous radical … especially if you are a returning veteran or oppose abortion or illegal immigration. Michelle Malkin has all the details and so does Glenn Reynolds, who links to one of my new favorite bloggers. Make sure you read both.
Michelle’s is really the best blog post with the best analysis. I am sure those folks on the left who jumped on George Bush’s Patriot Act which never targeted American citizens will be even more outraged at this targeting of citizens expressing their First Amendment rights. Right?
Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.
But this is my favorite.
(U) Disgruntled Military Veterans
(U//FOUO) DHS/I&A assesses that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists—including lone wolves or small terrorist cells—to carry out violence. The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.
Make sure you go to Michelle’s blog. Even once conservative talk show host Mike Smerconish warns the Tea Party folks … don’t turn into those racist, xenophobes we know you are.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB0JGhARV1M
Let’s keep it classy you radicals.
The Tea Parties planned in Connecticut and around the country have finally caught the attention of the MSM. And why not? They were supposed to fade away after the first round in March. They were supposed to be just a flash in the pan … a momentary blip on the radar screen … a small group of angry right wing nuts that would disappear as soon as they worked off their frustrations with Hope n’ Change. But they haven’t and they won’t.
So now they are under assault. CNN, MSNBC and their ilk in the newspapers are trying to frame them as either Republican run demonstrations (the invisible hand of the “Right Wing Conspiracy”) or a controlled media event by Fox News. Or dismiss them entirely as in this Cavuto smackdown:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDmIp47_zFQ
Today Glenn Reynolds has an column in the NY Post concerning the grass roots nature of the tea party and how it is joined by Democrats and Republicans, libertarians and liberalatarians who have had enough.
Then organizers — really, just people discussing things on Twitter, blogs and chatboards — decided that Tax Day, April 15, would be the perfect day for a coordinated national day of protest. Online lists of protests (such as taxdayteaparty.com) predict 300 to 500 marches on Wednesday all across the country.
Now that the movement looks likely to be big and successful, various established groups (mostly on the right, though a lefty counterpart will march this weekend) are getting involved. But its genesis and enthusiasm are pure grassroots: a lot of people who’ve had enough, brought together by the power of the Web.
No doubt they’ll be dismissed by chin-pullers in the Big Media (the same folks who sent more reporters than there were protesters to a staged ACORN protest over AIG bonuses), but these Tea Party protests aren’t the same old rituals with the same old marchers.
These aren’t the usual semiprofessional protesters who attend antiwar and pro-union marches. These are people with real jobs; most have never attended a protest march before. They represent a kind of energy that our politics hasn’t seen lately, and an influx of new activists.
For more on Tea Party push back from the left just scroll through Glenn’s site.
For more information on Connecticut’s Tea Parties click here.
Update: (Steve) Smears and more smears concerning the Tea Parties scheduled around the country for April 15. I thought they were all for peaceful protests? They are, except when it does not fit their own agenda. In that case they lie about them and even imply we are racists, since there are so few people of color at Tea Parties.
It’s always about race. … need to throw a race card to change the subject and scare people away.