Month: April 2010

Who You Gonna Call?

by digby

Will Bunch reports:

A political climate that’s already more overheated than any time in a generation. Plans for a large-scale rally of firearms enthusiasts in the nation’s capital. A fast-growing group of (mostly ex-) military and cops that pledges to disobey “unconstitutional orders” from the president, and an “urgent” call from the group’s leader to flood Washington to “shout your oaths in the tyrant’s face” — on the 15th anniversary of the worst home-grown terror incident in U.S. history, the Oklahoma City bombing. What could possibly go wrong? The world will find out on April 19, now that the leader of the Oath Keepers — the alliance of mostly veterans and ex-cops that didn’t exist at the start of the Obama administration but now claims nearly 15,000 members — has issued that urgent call to all members to attend two politically charged events in or around Washington on that Monday, which organizers stress as the 235th anniversary of the first shots of the American Revolution. Stewart Rhodes, the Yale law school grad and ex-paratrooper who founded the Oath Keepers after working on Rep. Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign, sent out an email blast to members over the weekend urging them to attend either a Second Amendment March on the Capitol that’s slated to take place on Washington that day, or an open-carry rally in which many attendees will be bringing their firearms, to be held just across the Potomic River at Fort Hunt National Park.

There won’t be any trouble because it’s highly unlikely anyone would dream of standing around screaming and spitting on radical wingnuts who are armed to the teeth and trigger happy. But hey nobody’s saying you can’t protest these yahoos. It’s just that everybody knows that your right to protest is somewhat, shall we say —curtailed —by the possibility that one of them might shoot you in the head on the spot if you look at them sideways. I suspect most sane people get that loud and clear so dissent isn’t going to be a problem. Everyone will be very, very careful not to upset any of these fine patriots. Message sent and received.

God bless America and all the liberty and freedom it provides (as long as some nutbag with a loaded gun doesn’t get agitated and open fire in a crowd.)

You have to love this, though:

In an irony that event organizers don’t seem to be playing up, open-carry of weapons used to be banned at national parks before February of this year, when a longstanding ban was overturned in legislation signed by the man Rhodes alluded to as “a tyrant,” President Barack Obama.

Give ’em an inch and they’ll shoot you in the face.

Update: of course it’s always possible that these folks will start arguing amongst themselves about whether the biggest threat to America is health care or FEMA camps in which case — take cover.

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Blowing Bubbles

by digb

Greenspan emerges from his lair to defend capitalism, the Enlightenment, Ayn Rand and group think, all in one morning:

TAPPER: You’ll be testifying about the financial crisis on Wednesday before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. When you testified before Congress in October, you said that you finally saw a flaw in — in the way that you looked at markets, that markets cannot necessarily be trusted to completely police themselves. But isn’t it — isn’t it more than a flaw? Isn’t it an indictment of Ayn Rand and the view that laissez-faire capitalism can be expected to function properly, that markets can be trusted to police themselves? GREENSPAN: Not at all. I think that there is no alternative, if you want to have economic growth and higher standards of living, in a democratic society, to have competitive markets. And, indeed, if you merely look at the history since the Enlightenment of the 18th century, when all of those ideas surfaced and became applicable in public policy,we’ve had an explosion of economic growth, and especially in the developing countries, where hundreds of millions of people have been pulled out of poverty, of extreme poverty and starvation, basically because we have competitive markets. So it’s not the principle of competitive markets which really has no alternative which works. It is a strict application — as I presented in a Brookings paper fairly recently on a somewhat technical area, the major mistake was assuming what the nature of risk would be. And the reason it was missed is we have had no experience of the type of risks that arose following the default of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. That’s the critical mistake. And I made it. Everybody that I know who works in this business made it. And it means that basically we have to work our way back to understanding what went on. And as I argue, what we need is far more required capital for financial institutions than we’ve had.

You’ll notice that Greenspan talks about “competitive markets,” not Rand and laissez-faire as Tapper asked him. But that’s to be expected. The man is now pretending to be shocked, simply shocked at all the gambling that went on and literally has no answers other than raising capital requirements to prevent it from happening in the future. But that’s because he still doesn’t really believe that what happened was a result of greedy gamblers willingly blowing up the entire system as long as they get theirs. (Why, that doesn’t seem like the John Galt he knows at all…)

Tapper then brings up this op-ed in today’s NY Times by an investor who very well knew what was going on and made a bundle selling short. This fellow argues that it was obvious, he tried to tell people but that he finally just had to put his investors’ money into what he knew was coming: a reckoning.

Observing these trends in April 2005, Mr. Greenspan trumpeted the expansion of the subprime mortgage market. “Where once more-marginal applicants would simply have been denied credit,” he said, “lenders are now able to quite efficiently judge the risk posed by individual applicants and to price that risk appropriately.” Yet the tide was about to turn. By December 2005, subprime mortgages that had been issued just six months earlier were already showing atypically high delinquency rates. (It’s worth noting that even though most of these mortgages had a low two-year teaser rate, the borrowers still had early difficulty making payments.) The market for subprime mortgages and the derivatives thereof would not begin its spectacular collapse until roughly two years after Mr. Greenspan’s speech. But the signs were all there in 2005, when a bursting of the bubble would have had far less dire consequences, and when the government could have acted to minimize the fallout. Instead, our leaders in Washington either willfully or ignorantly aided and abetted the bubble. And even when the full extent of the financial crisis became painfully clear early in 2007, the Federal Reserve chairman, the Treasury secretary, the president and senior members of Congress repeatedly underestimated the severity of the problem, ultimately leaving themselves with only one policy tool — the epic and unfair taxpayer-financed bailouts. Now, in exchange for that extra year or two of consumer bliss we all enjoyed, our children and our children’s children will suffer terrible financial consequences.

Greenspan responded to Tapper’s question about the above by implying that there were only a very, very few people who knew more than he did as well as a few lucky duckies who simply made the right bet. He implies that this fellow was one of the latter or perhaps some sort of idiot savant and that he should be thrilled because he made a bunch of cash from the misfortune of others — and isn’t capitalism grand? It’s quite a little dance he does, but it reveals more about him than about anything else. In his mind, if “most people” think something, it’s perfectly reasonable to believe that it must be true. In other words market psychology trumps reality. And if that’s the case we just have to expect bubbles and when these bubbles pop, the country (and the world) will have to deal with it. Shame about the carnage.

*One other thing: nobody ever wants to address the political dimension but it pays to remember that Greenspan had been excoriated for raining on the parade back in 1991 and allegedly costing Bush senior the election. I think there was plenty of pressure (consensus?) to keep that bubble going through 2004 — and by that point they were all in.

Also, keep in mind that in the spring of 2005 when Greenspan made those comments they were in the middle of their failed push to privatize social security. There were a lot of reasons to keep that bubble going as long as possible. As it worked out it popped just before Bush and Greenspan left office leaving the Democrats holding the shreds of the exploded balloon. Funny how that works.

Update: Krugman notes that Greenspan is still not a mensch — meaning that he won’t take responsibility for what he helped cause. Yet another example of conservatism rotting from the head.

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Earthquake

by digby

We felt it here in Santa Monica, about 45 seconds of swaying back and forth. They’re saying it was a 6.9 in Baja, southeast of San Diego and Tijuana. The word is it was pretty deep so perhaps the damage was minimal. It was big one. Kind of nauseating, actually.

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Conservative Rot

by digby

Eric Alterman takes up the case of the Republican wife beaters (“if only you’d stop making me hit you…”) noting that the fundamental tenet of conservatism used to be personal responsibility which, judging by the epidemic of the blame the victim mentality among them, is clearly no longer part of the creed.

He mentions some of the most egregious examples such as the predictable Newtie and the whining newbie Ross Douthat, both of whom have blamed violent threats and perversion among conservatives on “liberal culture” in recent days. But this one was new to me:

Finally, and perhaps most shocking of all, was the reaction of conservative consigliore William Kristol to the terrorist atrocity that took place in Moscow this week, when two “female suicide bombers set off huge explosions in two subway stations in Moscow” killing more than three dozen people. Kristol, speaking to conservative radio host William Bennett, insisted that the Russians “in some ways have brought” the terrorism “on themselves” because “they’ve been pretty brutal in Chechnya.” Well, it just so happens that American soldiers have, sadly, been “pretty brutal” in more than a few places themselves. This kind of thing tends to be unavoidable in war. Does Kristol therefore think this relevant in the case of the purposeful murder of innocent civilians on say, September 11, 2001, as well?

I was fairly shocked to see they would go there too, but when I stopped to think about it, it really isn’t that surprising. After all, Kristol and the neoconmen have had no problem saying that it’s wrong when others torture, but it’s fine when we do it, so I think it’s really a matter of their abiding belief in “American Exceptionalism” which is best defined as “do as we say, not as we do.” When you think of it that way, “personal responsibility” is always something by which others must abide.

Alterman rightly notes that it’s exactly this kind of intellectual hypocrisy that’s infected the whole conservative enterprise:

To be fair to all of these conservatives, none of them exactly excused these horrific crimes. They merely sought to help the guilty evade responsibility for their actions. Conservatives used to laugh at liberals who concerned themselves with the social “environment” that allegedly led to criminal behavior. Now their most distinguished intellectuals have embraced exactly this same tactic and expanded it to crimes that are indefensible by almost any standards. It’s not only Tea Partiers and birthers that have sullied this once proud tradition—this fish is rotting from the head down.

He’s right about that. Newtie’s been dumping intellectual compost into the conservative movement for a long time but it’s really stinking up the place these days.

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Ersatz America

by digby

Some time back in an attempt to explain what I meant by “the Village” I wrote this:

The village is really “the village” an ersatz small town like something you’d see in Disneyland. And to those who argue that Versailles is the far better metaphor, I would just say that it is Versailles — a very particular part:

A Picturesque Little Village

Part of the grounds near the Trianon were chosen by Marie-Antoinette as the site of a lakeside village, a crucial feature of picturesque landscape gardens then so fashionable among Europe’s aristocracy. In 1783, Richard Mique built this amusement village where the queen played at being a shepherdess.

In 1784, Marie-Antoinette had a farm built, where she installed a farming couple from the Touraine region, along with their two children. They were charged with supplying the queen with eggs, butter, cream and cheese, for which they disposed of cows, goats, farmyard animals.

The Village is a metaphor for the faux “middle class values” that the wealthy, insular, privileged, hypocritical political celebrities (and their hangers-on and wannabes) present to the nation.

When I wrote that I never imagined that one day a villager would literally conjure up a fictional small town in South Carolina filled with wealthy, skeet shooting, Republican pals of hers to illustrate what average folks are thinking. But that’s exactly what Kathleen Parker did today:

Canteyville is a state of mind, a late-night invention born of spirited conversation at a sporting clay club in the state’s unfortunately dubbed “Midlands.” This particular Cantey — yet another Joe — is famous in certain circles. Most recently, that would be among the gun-toters so often feared and misunderstood by urban and coastal dwellers. Cantey’s fame stems primarily from his having been a six-time world-champion clay shooter. Before he was a shooter, he was a renowned thoroughbred racehorse trainer (including Belmont Stakes winner Temperence Hill). Before that, he was bound for the Juilliard School on a scholarship when an automobile accident ruined his trumpet lip.

Do you get the feeling that Kathleen ran short of time and decided to use that dusty outline for a romance novel as her column this week? “Joe” (naturally) sounds like quite the awesome southern hunk-o-rama.

She continues with the inevitable defensive trope about gun owners not being neanderthals (like anybody really thinks that) and continues with more turgid descriptions of the hot, hot man with whom she spent the week-end and whose adorable fake plantation she clearly covets:

The biographical sketch is meant as a reminder that not everyone with a gun rack in the back of his truck is a racist, gay-bashing, Confederate flag-waving redneck. That said, if anyone were entitled to take pride in the old battle flag, it would be Cantey, whose forebear James Cantey was a brigadier general in the Confederate army. A legislator in civilian life, he also served valiantly with the Palmetto Regiment in the Mexican-American War.

This is familiar history to locals, but not because Cantey ever mentions it. He isn’t the sort to toot his own horn, earlier talents notwithstanding. He is the sort to invite neighbors, clients, friends — and their canine companions — to open-air vittles on Wednesday and Sunday nights at his 1,500-acre Hermitage Farms just off Tickle Hill Road in Kershaw County. The scene: A long, winding road leads through a walled gate into a clearing with two structures. One is the clubhouse, featuring a kitchen and walls crammed with shooting awards. A large bison head presides…A city slicker happening upon this scene might imagine hearing the strains of “Dueling Banjos” from the movie “Deliverance.” Said slicker would be mistaken, as earlier bio confirms. The Southern sportsman is as likely to make an appearance at a black-tie dinner dance as at a Joe Cantey cookout, though he’d undoubtedly prefer the latter.

Oooh baby. What a man. One does wonder why this paragon then turns out to be dumb as a box of rocks, but this is Kathleen’s fantasy, not mine:

It is probably safe to say that this is not Obama country, even though plenty of Cantey’s clients and friends voted for the president. These days, most think Washington doesn’t have a clue. They think the Tea Partyers might.

The evening’s conversation circled recent events — health care, spending, etc. — which may be summarized as follows: “Do they have any idea up there what’s going on out here?” one fellow asked me. “Nope.” “Wasn’t Scott Brown a hint?” “Shoulda been.” Heads shake. Then it was my turn: “Do you guys see the November election as a big turnout day?” “You better believe it.”

There’s the deep insight into the thinking of the average American we’ve all been waiting for, eh?

Poor Kathleen has no idea that she’s a walking cliche:

There’s something grounding and instructive about sitting in the woods on a cool spring night, away from the green rooms and talk shows. It is important to touch the bare, unmarbled earth now and then, something too few inside Washington do often enough.

At the risk of sounding patronizing, the camo-boys at Canteyville are the “ordinary Americans” whom pundits and politicians love to invoke while utterly ignoring them. The resulting anger recently on display is not only political theater. And the conversation at Joe’s pavilion isn’t rare.

She actually wrote that. I swear I didn’t make it up. (“Joe’s pavilion!”)
I’m sure that conversation isn’t rare — among rich, white, conservative, southern Republicans playing at being good-old boys while basking in the admiration of the southern belles who think they’re hot as a pistol. In fact, I’ll be generous and say that many conservative Republicans are having that conversation. But contrary to Parker’s romantic view of what life is like outside the green room, there are actually a whole lot of Americans who aren’t white, conservative Republicans. And they actually are far more indicative of “salt-of-the-earth-hardworking-regular folks” since virtually none of them are wealthy southerners living on faux farms playing at being good old boys on the week-end.When these Villagers make one of their anthropological treks out into the country and come back with their report, the Real Americans they seek are always either white midwestern conservatives, white western conservatives or white Southern conservatives — usually rural, always “small town” and often sitting around a table eating and and complaining about how the world has gone to hell and a handbasket. It’s like they all set out to find Real America based on their memories of 1960s TV Mayberry — a world that never really existed and certainly doesn’t exist now except among wealthy land-owners trying to create a bucolic vacation spot to entertain their urban socialite friends.
Parker spent some time with some rich southern Republicans at a phony ranch, dressed up in hunting costumes pretending to be “jes folks” for a week-end and thinks she reached into the heart of the average American. Since she obviously loves these phonies, loves America and loves herself, she’s projected the attitudes of her rarified social class playing at being regular folks onto the entire country. Marie Antoinette would appreciate the effect. But she might just as well have gone on the Star Tours ride at Disneyland and reported back on what the people of the Moon of Endor think about health care, for how relevant this is to average citizens’ thinking beyond the hardcore Republican base (which long ago also proved to be putty in the hands of phony cowboys and ranchers.)
Her America is a nation that exists only in the Villagers’ and Disney Imagineers’ minds. But it ends up infecting the politics of this country because these people all reinforce each others’ fantasies when they get back to the “greenrooms and talkshows” and give a completely skewed impression of who “Real Americans” are and what “Real Americans” think. Oddly, it turns out they always think exactly the same way the villagers do. Go figure..

Cheap But Deadly

by digby

Howie says:

Hopefully by now you’ve seen this ad our friends at Donkey on the Edge, Steve Foster and Sean Hanish:

We’re trying to get a 30 second version of this up on TV in eastern Georgia. It costs just $25 to run the ad on Anderson Cooper’s CNN show in Vidalia or in Statesboro. It costs $175 for Augusta. Of course in Augusta we can use a secret weapon to reach people– HGTV’s “Property Virgins,” which only costs $60. And I think the Colbert Nation will love the ad in Savannah where it costs $45 to run. CNN’s “Situation Room” is a good deal in Statesboro and in Vidalia ($25) and will work in Savannah ($65) and Augusta ($70) too. We’d really appreciate it if you’d help us by contributing whatever you can to the Blue America PAC itself. And, let us know who else you’d like us to do a similar ad for by giving them a contribution with one cent added on. That one cent will count as a vote. So…vote her.

Blue America ran ads for months with very targeted cable buys Arkansas pointing out that Blanche Lincoln was a corporate clone on health care. We like to think we may have helped soften her up for Bill Halter in the Democratic parts of the state where a primary matters. Maybe we can do it for some of our primary candidates in other districts. Those of you who live in the districts can help us out by letting us know what you think are the best places to advertise our candidates on TV. We’re not allowed to ask them– it’s the law– so we’re asking you. Just respond in the comments or send me an email.

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FYI

by digby

Go ahead and give in to temptation. A little:

Easter eggs may be good for you, but only if you eat small ones made from cocoa-rich dark chocolate, according to the latest in a string of scientific studies to show potential health benefits of chocolate.

German researchers studied more than 19,300 people over a decade and found those who ate the most chocolate — an average of 7.5 grams a day — had lower blood pressure and a 39 percent lower risk of having a heart attack or stroke than those who ate the least amount of chocolate — an average of 1.7 grams a day.But, the difference between the two groups was just under six grams (6g) of chocolate a day, less than one small square of an average 100g bar, they wrote in a study in the European Heart Journal to be published on Wednesday.Brian Buijsse of the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Nuthetal, who led the study, said people should not use his work as an excuse to stuff themselves with chocolate.“Small amounts of chocolate may help to prevent heart disease, but only if it replaces other energy-dense food, such as snacks, in order to keep body weight stable,” he said.

I’m thinking two high quality dark chocolate bunny ears are a perfect serving.

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Saturday Night At The Movies

No explosions

By Dennis Hartley

Moment of Zen: Zoe Kazan in The Exploding Girl

Life is what happens to you
When you’re busy making other plans
-John Lennon

(Engage geek mode) Remember that episode of the original Star Trek series where the Enterprise is taken over by “time-accelerated” aliens, who “convert” Captain Kirk into their reality? Even though he is still standing right next to his crewmates, to their perception he has vanished into thin air; his futile attempts to communicate sounds like the buzzing of insects to them. Inversely, Kirk can actually still “see” them, except they are moving and speaking in slow motion. Sometimes I feel that we have evolved into a society of time-accelerated creatures who are terrified of digesting any deep contemplation of our existence that can’t be wrapped up in a sound bite or 140 characters.

That general impatience with “stillness” also seems to have become the meme in cinema. Don’t get me wrong; as a movie fan, I can appreciate all styles of filmmaking. Flash cutting and relentless “shaky cam” panning has its place (action thrillers, for example) but on occasion, “life” simply happens before you onscreen while you’re busy waiting for the “movie” to start (to paraphrase a great English poet). And sometimes, that’s enough.

Despite its provocative title, The Exploding Girl is one such film; life simply happens for a while…and eventually, the credits roll. Writer-director Bradley Rust Gray’s minimally scripted, no-budget meditation on echo boomers going through growing pains may not be visually showy or sport a hip mumblecore soundtrack, but nails the zeitgeist of young adulthood in much truer fashion than recent films like Juno or (500) Days of Summer.

The story centers around a college student named Ivy (Zoe Kazan) who comes home to New York City for summer break. Al (Mark Rendall), her best friend since childhood is also back in the neighborhood for summer vacation. Much to his chagrin, Al has discovered that his parents have rented out his room while he has been away at college, so he ends up crashing on the couch at Ivy’s family home. Ivy and Al hang out, go to the occasional party, get stoned, get up at the crack of noon-you know, the kinds of things you generally expect the college-aged to do when they’ve got some down time on their hands. Ivy spends a lot of her alone time with her cell phone glued to her ear, primarily to check in with her boyfriend (never more than a voice on the phone to us), who is spending his school break somewhere upstate. Following Zoe to a doctor’s appointment, we learn that she has to take medication for epilepsy. As long as she avoids stressful situations and stays away from alcohol, it appears to be a manageable condition. Ay, there’s the rub (and our primary dramatic conflict). What are some of the mitigating circumstances that could drive a young person headlong into to a fit of binge drinking? Yes, there are many; especially where affairs of the heart are concerned (OK-no spoilers).

As I have already inferred, the narrative is not particularly deep or complex, but there is a certain eloquence that results from the director’s decision to give each of his actors plenty of room to breathe and to let their actions (and most importantly, reactions) tell you everything you need to know about their characters. Kazan, a moon-faced pixie with beautifully expressive eyes, ostensibly carries the film (she has to-as she gets the lion’s share of available screen time). Rendall has a natural ease in front of the camera; although he might have been given a wee bit too much free reign in improvising his lines (because like, um, you know, it’s like, um, kinda like hard for me to like, um, imagine that, you know, someone would sort of like, script out this type of dialogue, you know?).

I gleaned the impression that Gray admires the films of John Cassavetes, particularly evident in some of the “guerilla-style” exterior shots, where the director appears to be nonplussed about incidental passers-by occasionally hogging the foreground while his actors continue to plough forward with the scene (albeit out of view). Although there isn’t a lot of fancy camerawork, the film is nicely shot (on high-def video, from the look of it) and excellent use is made of the NYC locales. One scene in particular, which is framed on a rooftop where Ivy and Al are watching the sun set over the city while flocks of domesticated pigeons return to their nearby roost, is quite lovely (and possibly is intended as homage to On the Waterfront, which was directed by Kazan’s grandfather, Elia-unless I’m over-analyzing it). Or maybe it’s just simply two people decelerating time.

Previous posts with related themes:

Medicine for Melancholy
Juno
(500) Days of Summer

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Free Markets For Thee

by digby

Here’s a little story about a handsome young conservative congressional candidate in Tennessee named Stephen Fincher who is attracting lots of attention from the national GOP, which is swooning over his corn pone appeal and ability to raise gobs of money. The local teabaggers also love him to death but just don’t know what to do about the fact that he collects 200k a year from the feds in farm subsidies:

“This effort is to try to get the Republican Party to try to give us more conservative candidates,” said David Nance, a Fincher supporter and the founder of the Gibson County Patriots, in Jackson, Tenn. “A few days ago, I was watching two candidates on one of the news channels, and basically they were kind of sparring over which one was the more conservative. Now that tells me that something’s working…”

Fincher’s supporters are drawn to his social conservatism, including his antiabortion stand, and his commitment to opposing new taxes (he signed the no-tax pledge of the group Americans for Tax Reform). He is more conservative than some of the other Republican candidates, but the filing deadline for the primary hasn’t passed yet.

“He is for the Constitution,” said Lucy Overstreet, an organizer with the Jackson Madison County TEA Party who is supporting Fincher. “He is for getting the budget balanced. He does not want this health care. He is right in line with the views we are holding true to.”

Nance, of the Gibson County Patriots, said, “I don’t see the agricultural subsidy thing as an issue at all,” adding: “If it were an issue, then we would never elect a farmer to Congress at all. Because basically, most farmers get agriculture subsidies. If they didn’t, they’d be broke, and we’d be buying our food from China.”

[…]

According to data compiled by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, Fincher and his wife, Lynn, received about $2.5 million in subsidies between 1995 and 2006. But Fincher said that without that money, his farm would have shut down years ago.

He also said the subsidies come with conditions, such as when he was required to spend thousands of dollars building an earthen terrace to control erosion. And without the money, he said, American farmers couldn’t compete with countries that subsidize fuel and fertilizer more generously than the United States.

“People are quick to say with their mouth full, ‘Well, the American farmer is on the dole,’ ” Fincher said. “But a loaf of bread is two bucks when it could be 10 bucks. I know what it is with the government in my business. We would be all for not having government in our business, but we need a fair system.”

Yeah, those free markets are a real bitch ain’t they?

There are some naysayers among the local teabaggers, but I have a feeling they’re going to come around all right once they hear that excellent explanation as to why an individual getting 200k a year from the federal government is fine — if they are a good old boy who really, really needs the money, that is. (It’s not like he’s one of those welfare queens or anything …) They’ll be fine with it. And those who aren’t are probably going to lose the argument among their peers.

Sometimes you just have to stand back in awe of conservatives. This guy doesn’t think anyone should have to pay taxes but he collects nearly a quarter of a million bucks from the treasury every year. You almost have to admire the cheek.

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Who Asked You?

by digby

Evidently, the Guardians of the free Republic see themselves as modern day Gandhis, peaceful patriots who simply demand that everyone do what they want within the next 60 days. Demanding that all 50 Governors step down in the next three days was simply a nice request, not a precursor to violence. Like their idol, Ron Paul, they just believe that the country must return to the halcyon days of 1933:

Actively recruiting across the country in the last few months and promoted on a Texas radio station, the Guardians of the free Republics believe the US government is a corporate imposter put in place by corrupt bankers as part of the New Deal in 1933.

In essence, their “plan” seeks a return to de jure, or original, governance, stripping Washington of its ability to tax citizens’ income and dismantling agencies such as the FBI. The Anti-Defamation League says “sovereign citizen” groups wage war against authority using “paper terrorism,” but rarely resort to violence.

[…]

So far, a number of Guardians have emerged. Kennedy, a Texas radio-show host, was interviewed for two hours on Friday by the FBI, but not arrested. Another “elder” listed is Tom Schaults, who runs clinics on “attorney repellant technology.” And a third is the owner of the Guardians website, Clive Boustred, whom Mother Jones describes as “a British-educated former South African soldier with an apparent knack for ‘anti-terrorist warfare.'”

The appearance of Mr. Boustred in the mix may give some clue to the assertion by the Guardians that they had an agreement with “the military” to support their quiet coup.

The Los Angeles Times writes that the “group’s philosophy mingles with the anti-Federal Reserve mantra espoused by followers of US Rep. Ron Paul of Texas as well as with anti-tax advocates.”

But while a return to constitutional ideals is what much of the conservative tea party movement is about, experts say the Guardians are a different animal altogether. They can be primarily traced to the anti-IRS Posse Comitatus movement of the 1980s, and their modern iteration is, if not non-partisan, anti-partisan.

Oh bullshit. They are far right all the way, just like the teabaggers, and they steep themselves in the same noxious wingnut water. Just because some of them have adopted some of the anti-capitalist sloganeering of the far left doesn’t mean they aren’t just your usual gun-toting patriot/goldbug/militia/new world order paranoids. These people have been around forever. They are activated by economic stress to some degree, but they only seem to really crawl out of the woodwork when someone other than a conservative Republican who promised to protect their gun rights and cut their taxes isn’t in charge.

What’s new is the internet organizing*, not some new merging of the left and right. That’s what makes this whole thing different than it’s been in the past — and potentially more lethal. There’s something about the online world that changes some people into rageoholics. Any of us who have been doing this for a while have seen the phenomenon. And when you combine that with hate radio and FOX news, there is some likelihood that a fair number of them will be moved to actual violence as their number of grievances add up and they are encouraged by their fellow sore losermen.

* that link leads to some intriguing information from Gavin at Sadly No. It’s certainly possible that the conservative establishment created a monster they can no longer control.

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