PhotOh! Billboards of hate against President Obama

By GottaLaff

My pal John over at the Daily Beast sent me a link to what freedom of speech means to some people via a post by John Avlon.

I'm including samples of the handiwork, but please go here for the rest:

As the leaked GOP PowerPoint prompts outrage, its scare tactics are field-tested on America's highways. John Avlon—author of Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America, [...] on the grassroots campaign to poison the president.

[T]ake a tour of just one dozen examples of what happens when Obama Derangement Syndrome imposes itself on roadside America. Warning: Wingnuttery Ahead.

This classic from on U.S. 63 near West Plains, Missouri.

This sign appeared in Henderson, North Carolina—the hometown of PBS’ Charlie Rose—until public outcry led the owner to take it down in October ’08. Obama won the state.

Wheat Ridge, Colorado

[This] appears to have been endorsed by the Lafayette County Republican Central Committee—cause nothing says patriotism like overturning democratic elections with an armed insurrection.

Meet the Tea Party's Military Wing

By GottaLaff

Back in October 2009, I posted a Special Comment by 42bkdodgr about Pat Buchanan and the Oath Keepers:

The organization is made up of ex-Army paratroopers and police officers who repledge themselves to defend the Constitution, even if it means disobeying orders. Stewart Rhodes, the organization founder, says the reason for the type of membership, is “my focus is on the guys with the guns”.

Mother Jones picks up where 42bkdodgr left off:

[A] small group of fellow soldiers at the Fort Drum Army base in upstate New York are angry about the recent direction of the federal government. In the belief that it is already starting to turn on its citizens, they are preparing for the day the feds will find some pretext to declare martial law. Their conspiracy-minded rhetoric mirrors that of a recently established group called Oath Keepers. [...] [T]he group encourages active duty soldiers to stay anonymous—they identify themselves as Oath Keepers and subscribe to the group's tenets. But Pray and his pals take the rhetoric a step further: They are actively stockpiling weapons, running drills, and outlining a plan of action for the day "the shit hits the fan"—the day they will be forced to go AWOL to their "fortified bunker," and if it becomes necessary, to turn their guns against fellow soldiers. "I'm willing to fight to the death," Pray tells reporter Justine Sharrock in her new profile of Oath Keepers and its founder.

They also have a lengthy piece here called "Oath Keepers and the Age of Treason"...

Glenn Beck loves them. Tea Partiers court them. Congressmen listen to them. Meet the fast-growing "patriot" group that's recruiting soldiers to resist the Obama administration.

And they provide a slide show of who is connected to this lovely group. Here are the thumbnails, and each has accompanying text that is quite revelatory:

(click on image to enlarge)

Disturbing, to say the least.

H/t: Gr8RDH

Reinventing theTea Partiers: No more Obama as Hitler, Joker signs

By GottaLaff

Wearing wigs and three-cornered hats, Bill O'Connor and Ruger Rusnak share a quiet word at the national Tea Party convention in Nashville on Friday.
(Stephen Crowley, The New York Times )

Yeah, they wouldn't want to look, you know, crazy:

But at the inaugural National Tea Party Convention here this weekend, gone were the placards that protesters carried last year with Mr. Obama’s face wearing a Hitler mustache or superimposed on the Joker. Gone, really, were any placards, unless you count the poster of Sarah Palin in her signature red jacket that hung from one of the wrought-iron balconies of the Opryland Hotel and Convention Center.

Organizers said that anyone “looking too crazy” would have been tossed out. They had a goal that turned out to be shared by pretty much everyone here: to turn the Tea Party into a serious political force, rather than the angry fringe group they say it had been branded as.

"They say it had been branded as." Had been branded? When a group of so-called revolutionaries dress up like loons, carry hostile, hateful signs, lie, fear-monger, and scream their way through town hall meetings, they kinda invited that whole "branding" thing.

Poor them. They've been unfairly branded.

Angry fringe is exactly what they are. It's a little late to shake off that label, although it's just swell of them to try to tone it down. Good for them! Wow. Putting that toothpaste back in the tube. Magic!

In fact, you can see how successful they were at that if you watched Palin's "serious political" speech last night. Not angry fringe-y at all. No, she's her usual knowledgeable, rational self, full of constructive ideas, compassionate, wise, and not at all snide or nasty. In fact, CliffNotes McTelePalmer was as well-prepared as she's always been.

Nope, the Tea Tantrumers don't look "too crazy" any more. They've completely reinvented themselves.

Glenn Beck: "The Fringe Groups Hate My Guts"

By GottaLaff

What the Beck?

FNC's Glenn Beck is featured today in a Q&A on WashingtonPost.com. [...]:

Anybody who thinks that I'm pushing fringe groups to violence should read my e-mail. The fringe groups hate my guts. The fringe groups think I'm a government stooge. What people need to keep in mind is that some people in the fringe groups are CRAZY. If you want to target Fox News, feel free, but it's misguided.

Again, is Frank Rich responsible for the Muslim killing the service personel in Arkansas? He's talked about how bad our soldiers are? No, he's not.

Are the New York Times responsible for ELF? They talk all the time about how bad global warming is and how "someone has to do something" and are they responsible? No.

The only ones responsible are the ones who pick up a gun or a torch and act in an inhuman sort of way.