More About Batshit Crazy Brick-Throwers... And Hypocrisy.

On Friday, a Alabaman Tea Bag nutter and blogger by the name of Mike Vanderboegh issued a "call to arms" on his blog, asking all those who share his view that the Health Care Reform bill was bad to commit vandalism at Democratic offices across the nation in the name of....  freedom?
I quote:

"To all modern Sons of Liberty: THIS is your time. Break their windows.And if we do a proper job, if we break the windows of hundreds, thousands, of Democrat party headquarters across this country, we might just wake up enough of them to make defending ourselves at the muzzle of a rifle unnecessary.”

Mr. Vanderboegh's wish was enthusiastically granted by a few of the idiotic nutbags out there.

Local Democratic Party offices, and the district offices of House Democrats in several locations across the nation had windows and doors shattered at Vanderboegh's suggestion.  Members of Congress received death threats, and the FBI and Capitol police wound up offering extra protection to them.

Additionally, at the urging of Tea Bag nutcases, we have the attempted murder of Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello's brother and/or family by the cutting of a natural gas line his house... and the Obama bumper-sticker inspired intentional ramming of a car in which a 10-year old girl was a passenger.

To all of this, I have one thing to say.  WTF?
Funny how this proliferation of idiocy, violent rhetoric and violent behavior seems to coincide with election of an African-American President with a Muslim name.

But of course, that's just a coincidence, and has nothing to do with racism.  It's the fascists/communists/socialists (pick your own "ist") that have "taken over the country!"

Where were these "hateriots" when G.W. Bush and members of his administration were actually acting like fascists (yes, it's a rhetorical question).

Now to the example of hypocrisy I promised you:

The fellow mentioned above?  The loudmouthed, cowardly, "go throw a brick" Mike Vanderboegh, former "militiaman," who hates the "gummint?"  Just what does he DO for a living, anyway, that he has all this time to foment hatred and violence?

He sits on his ass in Pinson, Alabama, collecting government disability checks.

Batshit Crazies™ Advocating Deadly Force. We've Finally "Arrived," I Guess.

On St. Patrick's Day, the Redoubt Reporter covered the "Second Amendment/Constitutional Task Force" rally held at the Renee C. Henderson Auditorium at Kenai Central High School in Kenai (I've already voiced my thoughts on allowing people "palling around" with domestic terrorists to rally on Borough property).

These are the group of nutbags that drape themselves in the American flag while practicing sedition.

The usual "wingnut celebrities" were there, being "patriots" by railing against the government:
  

Bob Bird, who has been teaching his fractured fairy-tales version of government to kids in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District for decades;

Norm Olson, who was the founder and former leader of the Michigan Militia, inspiration for domestic terrorists and  mass murderers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols (until old Norm became too crazy even for the militia he founded).

But the star of the show was an apparently Awesome™  young man by the name of  Schaeffer Cox.

The 26 year-old is a leader of the Second Amendment Task Force in Alaska and a founder of yet another "Citizen's Militia" band of crazies in Fairbanks, the "Alaska Peacekeepers Militia."

Besides being a self-proclaimed expert on everything Constitutional (and more) Mr. Cox sounds to be pretty charismatic.  He ranted against the government, touted God's Law, and extolled the virtues of utilizing "force" against "The Evil.™".

Cox stated that there are several types of force: Monetary force and social force, as well as “violent, deadly force.” (emphasis mine).  According to the Redoubt Reporter, Cox had the crowd of 150 cheering and applauding at times.

What better way to whip up a bunch of gun-toting, pissed off nutcases than with catchy oration like this?

“I am not opposed to violent, bloody force. I know that is hard to say to a big group of people. It sounds kind of bad but that is something that we’ve got to reckon with. That is a duty that we have as an individual, as people who have families and friends.” (emphasis mine - and remember that emphasized part!)

So, as I read the article and his inflammatory verbiage, I found myself thinking...

"Who the hell IS this obnoxious kid?" and decided to find out.

Isn't The Google™ is a wonderful invention?

Through the use of this tool, I learned a number of things about the young Mr. Cox.

He's the son of a Southern Baptist Minister.  He's running a second time (as a Republican) for the District 7 seat in the Alaska State House from Fairbanks (and you thought the incumbent, Republican Mike Kelly was a jerk?), and Mr. Cox is obviously, completely, totally unfamiliar with the idea of humility.  

If you aren't sure he's Awesome™, all you have to do is ask him.

On young Shaeffer's Facebook page, he lists his interests as "Geopolitical Economics, Study of the Rise and Decline of Civilization, Study of the Old and New Testament, U.S. Monetary Policy," and his activities as "Racing Motorcycles, Sailing, Surfing, Ice Climbing, Scuba Diving, Hunting, Gun Collecting, Carpentry and High Altitude Mountaineering."  

WOW.

What?  Not impressed yet?  Well, then, how about this? 

According to Awesome™ Schaeffer:

"I've lived in Alaska eight years. I've climbed Mt. McKinley three times. I've worked commercial fishing two years. I graduated from high school two years early, and started a very successful construction business. My wife and I live in Fairbanks, and spend a lot of time on our sail boat in Sitka. I am running for State House in District 7."

Just Awesome™, dude!

But then... I learned a few other things about Mr. Cox.

Remember when I asked you to remember my emphasis on his quote just up the page?

On March 1st of this year, Mr. Cox was arrested by Alaska State Troopers.  No wonder he doesn't like them and wants us to have Sheriffs instead (ala Roscoe P. Coletrane, I suppose) on a charge of "felony assault with a weapon."

According to the charging documents, Awesome™ punched his wife during an argument.  

When she warned him to never do that again or she would "leave him and take their son with her," Cox  completely lost his shit and strangled her into near unconsciousness.

Yep, Awesome™ is certainly not opposed to the use of deadly force.

According to court records, Mr. Cox pleaded "guilty" to a criminal misdemeanor charge at arraignment on March 5... but the case was reopened today, and he was arraigned on a new criminal charge of Probation/Parole Violation... so there's more to come, I suppose

Hey - good luck with that House race, Awesome™!  As much of a douchenozzle as Mike Kelly might be, he'd have to screw up really, really badly to lose the primary to a dipshit like you.

h/t to Jenny Neyman (real, by-god journalist) of the Redoubt Reporter and Ink & Snow.

idiocracy

Matt here. Thought I'd share my latest creation: idiocracy is a video about the current return of paranoid politics. The music is idiocracy by the defunct metal band idiot and was pressed on CD before the movie Idiocracy was ever made.

It stars a certain Alaskan as well as Gen. Jack D. Ripper. Enjoy.

Tough Shit, Americans: Reality World™ and Bizarro World™. Where Does Lisa Murkowski Reside?

Though I can never improve on the case he makes, I must bring attention to Nobel Award-winning economist Paul Krugman's excellent commentary in the March 4 edition of the New York Times, entitled "Senator Bunning’s Universe."

You remember Senator Jim Bunning. He's the asshat who, using Senate rules, single-handedly held up the extension of unemployment benefits for 1.2 million Americans, and held up federal transportation funding, furloughing not only federal transportation workers, but other state and private workers employed on federal transportation projects.

During the floor debate, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) implored Bunning to think about those people in need, and Bunning's response was:

"Tough shit."

Eventually, Bunning relented, but not before unemployment benefits were interrupted for about 100,000 people.

Krugman doesn't just zero in on Bunning.  Though he calls it "Bunning's Universe," it's actually the universe in which most of the GOP reside these days.

And a strange universe it is.  For the sake of clarification, I'm going to refer to the GOP universe as "Bizarro World™," or BW™ for short.

The rest of us live in Reality World™.

In BW™:

Unemployment benefits merely encourage people to not work!

Yep.  You read that right. 

Unemployment benefits are for lazy people, who just want to suckle at the government teat!

I'm not making this up.

Aside from Asshat Bunning and his boorish petulance, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, Jon Kyle (R-AZ) defended Bunning's position with this statement: 

(unemployment relief) "doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work." (emphasis mine)

Let them eat cake!

As an aside: Remember Tom Delay, the GOP Poster Boy for political corruption?  He recently said the same thing.  This heartlessness is not a new thing with the GOP.  It's been going on for a while.

Fact:

In Alaska, the MAXIMUM weekly benefit amount is $370.

No reason to find a job, because (woohoo!) you'll be living high on the hog with that kinda dough!

Krugman also notes that Senator Kyle has announced the GOP plan to hold hostage the extension of unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for the jobless for the rest of the year.  Why? The GOP wants to eliminate the "estate tax" (many in the GOP refer to it as the "death" tax - because that sounds much scarier).

From Krugman commentary:

"Now, the House has already passed a bill that, by exempting the assets of couples up to $7 million, would leave 99.75 percent of estates tax-free. But that doesn’t seem to be enough for Mr. Kyl; he’s willing to hold up desperately needed aid to the unemployed on behalf of the remaining 0.25 percent. That’s a very clear statement of priorities." (emphasis mine)

So - As Krugman correctly points out, the disconnect between BW™ and Reality World™ is not only an intellectual one... it's a moral one, as well.  In spite of all their posturing, the fact is this:  the GOP really doesn't give a rat's ass about working-class Americans.

In BW™, the only people that matter are the rich (and corporations, since according to the SCOTUS, they're people, too).  Screw the rest.

Why am I ranting about this?

Because our own senior Senator from Alaska, "Lock-Step" Lisa Murkowski, also lives in Bizarro World™.  She'll be on board with every obstructionist scheme her party employs, but will be trotting back home to Alaska, claiming credit for everything good thing that happens... in spite of her effort to stop it.

Tea Partiers?  

Instead of screaming incoherently about "the gummint," try taking a look at who actually gives a damn about you.

With a few rare exceptions, it ain't the GOP.

h/t to Professor Krugman, Sam Stein at Huffington Post, and Eye On Annapolis for the image.