Sweet Jesus, Sarah Palin May Be Running for Senate This Year
Mark Begich, Alaska's lone Democratic senator, is up for re-election this year, and if the political winds are to be believed, his opponent may be someone very, very familiar.
Mother Jones' Andy Kroll noted yesterday that a possible Sarah Palin candidacy for senator is getting a boost from Dan Backer, the high-powered Tea Party attorney who just struck a blow for unlimited campaign donations in the Supreme Court's recent McCutcheon v. FEC ruling:
In an email headlined "Palin for Senate" recently blasted out by a PAC called the Tea Party Leadership Fund, Backer writes, "Sarah's the proven leader we need." He goes on, "She has a better grasp on world politics, and she knows what it means to cherish and protect our American freedoms far better than THE MAN WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE LEADING THE FREE WORLD." Backer slams incumbent Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) for spending "too much time in Washington, DC, begging the Obama administration for favors rather than representing the good people of Alaska." Palin supporters need to act quick, Backer warns: The window for her to get into the race "has almost closed." And so Backer asks recipients to sign a petition and gather enough signatures to "to push Sarah Palin over the top in a critical run for Alaska's Senate seat in 2014."
In an interview, Backer said almost 100,000 people had signed the Palin for Senate petition. If Palin did enter the race,he said the Tea Party Leadership PAC would bolster her candidacy with direct mail and radio ads. "Nobody's going to be a greater agent for change than Sarah Palin from Alaska," Backer told me. "She will bring something to the race and she will disrupt the Senate. And disruption is good." Kroll points out that the email—which asks readers for an immediate donation to the PAC—could just be a cynical use of Palin's name to generate funds for other uses. But he adds that Palin did show interest in the seat on Sean Hannity's show last year, and with the Democrats' thin Senate majority depending on races like this one, it's thought her star power could give Republicans a needed win—in Alaska, and in the war to mobilize a nationwide voting base.
Not that anybody knows if Palin could actually flip the race. Her negative polling in Alaska is truly abysmal these days. But if nothing else, her mere specter could force Dems to toss more money at Alaska in an effort to hold Begich's seat—a race that's already costing them more than they probably hoped.
As for Palin? There's a weak field of four candidates on the GOP side now, the primary's not until August, and her Amazing America show is going gangbusters on the Sportsman Channel, complete with a Murka-lovin' Nickelback tribute band doing the theme song. Whether she runs or not, expect a summer of national fear and loathing, and a pile of money to fall on Maison Sarah. http://gawker.com/sweet-jesus-sarah-palin-may-be-running-for-senate-this-1563405764
Why it's so sad when conservatives try to play the underdog
Pundits and billionaires on the right have appropriated the language of social oppression. It's not a good fit.
By Ryan Cooper | May 9, 2014
An artistic rendition of a Koch brother struggling under the jackboot of a tree-hugger. (Thinkstock)
Jeffrey Toobin once described .. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/25/090525fa_fact_toobin?currentPage=all .. the career of John Roberts, the conservative chief justice of the Supreme Court, this way: "In every major case since he became the nation's 17th chief justice, Roberts has sided with the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over the legislative, and the corporate defendant over the individual plaintiff."
This is a raw expression of one of the most basic forms of conservatism: The defense of incumbent holders of wealth and power. Of course, it doesn't account for the whole of American conservatism, but it's no secret that conservatives are the most outspoken defenders of the 1 percent, from the Wall Street Journal editorial board to the vast bulk of the Republican contingent in Congress http://theweek.com/article/index/257296/dave-camps-tax-plan-tells-us-a-lot-about-the-post-obama-gop .
The rise of the social justice movement has thus presented a persistent rhetorical problem for conservatives. Members of this movement have made a compelling case that the powerful have rigged society against certain groups: minorities, women, the poor, transgender folks, and so on. That rhetorical strength has been a great source of temptation for conservatives, who would strongly like to cast themselves as heroic underdogs fighting against a vile and oppressive regime.
We saw this tendency at work this week, when Bill Nye the Science Guy was on CNN's defibrillated new version of Crossfire. Nye kept emphasizing that conservatives are simply unwilling to accept the scientific conclusions on climate change, which predict highly alarming consequences if we stay on our current emissions path. In response, host S.E. Cupp accused him of trying to "bully...anyone who dares question" the science.
And thus we see the problem with Cupp's analysis as well. Accusations of bullying only make sense if there is an insanely wealthy cabal of climate scientists oppressing someone unjustly. But Nye is simply correct in his description of almost total unanimity .. http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus .. on questions of climate change. In particular, he's right to say that more global warming means more extreme weather .. https://theweek.com/article/index/259361/how-to-talk-to-a-climate-change-contrarian-if-you-must , the fact of which conservatives are constantly trying to fudge.
Cupp isn't being bullied; she's wrong on the facts, and appropriating social justice rhetoric in the most ham-fisted way to put that position out of reach of criticism.
It's ludicrous, and people shouldn't stand for it. But more than that, it's just kind of sad. Just consider the bizarre spectacle of billionaire Charles Koch, who has whined piteously .. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303978304579475860515021286 .. about a bunch of powerless leftists calling him names. You would think conservatives would be more comfortable being on the side with all the power and money, instead of trying to be something they're not.
Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.
Attorney General Eric Holder took a swipe Saturday at Chief Justice John Roberts's jurisprudence on the issue of race, arguing that forcing the government to be entirely color-blind isn't the way to heal America's racial ills.
Speaking at commencement exercises for historically-black Morgan State University in Baltimore, Holder alluded to high-profile controversies over racial comments by figures like rancher Clive Bundy and L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling, but said that it's a mistake to think that America's most serious racial problems stem from repugnant public statements. The attorney general argued that it's more important to end policies that perpetuate racial differences than to dwell on occasional spurts of racist rhetoric.
"Chief Justice John Roberts has argued that the path to ending racial discrimination is to give less consideration to the issue of race altogether. This presupposes that racial discrimination is at a sufficiently low ebb that it doesn’t need to be actively confronted. In its most obvious forms, it might be. But discrimination does not always come in the form of a hateful epithet or a Jim Crow-like statute," Holder declared. "And so we must continue to take account of racial inequality, especially in its less obvious forms, and actively discuss ways to combat it."
Holder was referring to Roberts's plurality opinion in 2007 case which overturned the Seattle public school system's use of race to improve diversity. "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race," the chief justice wrote.
The attorney general made clear again Saturday that he prefers the formulation Justice Sonia Sotomayor offered in her dissent from a Supreme Court ruling last month on Michigan's affirmative action ban.
"We must not 'wish away, rather than confront, the racial inequality that exists in our society. …The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race," Holder said, quoting Sotomayor rephrasing Roberts.
On the issue of racist talk versus policies with a disparate racial impact, the attorney general told the Morgan State graduates: "Policies that disenfranchise specific groups are more pernicious than hateful rants. Proposals that feed uncertainty, question the desire of a people to work, and relegate particular Americans to economic despair are more malignant than intolerant public statements, no matter how many eyebrows the outbursts might raise. And a criminal justice system that treats groups of people differently–and punishes them unequally–has a much more negative impact than misguided words that we can reject out of hand."
Those whom the gods love die young: are they trying to tell me something? Due to an inexplicable discontinuity in space-time, on Sunday I turned 50. I have petitioned the relevant authorities, but there's nothing they can do.
So I will use the occasion to try to explain the alien world from which I came. To understand how and why we are now governed as we are, you need to know something of that strange place.
I was born into the third tier of the dominant class: those without land or capital, but with salaries high enough to send their children to private schools. My preparatory school, which I attended from the age of eight, was a hard place, still Victorian in tone. We boarded, and saw our parents every few weeks. We were addressed only by our surnames and caned for misdemeanours. Discipline was rigid, pastoral care almost non-existent. But it was also strangely lost.
A few decades earlier, the role of such schools was clear: they broke boys' attachment to their families and re-attached them to the institutions – the colonial service, the government, the armed forces – through which the British ruling class projected its power. Every year they released into the world a cadre of kamikazes, young men fanatically devoted to their caste and culture.
By the time I was eight those institutions had either collapsed (in the case of colonial service), fallen into other hands (government), or were no longer a primary means by which British power was asserted (the armed forces). Such schools remained good at breaking attachments, less good at creating them.
But the old forms and the old thinking persisted. The school chaplain used to recite a prayer that began "let us now praise famous men". Most of those he named were heroes of colonial conquest or territorial wars. Some, such as Douglas Haig and Herbert Kitchener, were by then widely regarded as war criminals. Our dormitories were named after the same people. The history we were taught revolved around topics such as Gordon of Khartoum, Stanley and Livingstone and the Black Hole of Calcutta. In geography, the maps still showed much of the globe coloured red.
My second boarding school was a kinder, more liberal place. But we remained as detached from the rest of society as Carthusian monks .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthusian . The world, when we were released into it, was unrecognisable. It bore no relationship to our learning or experience. The result was cognitive dissonance: a highly uncomfortable state from which human beings will do almost anything to escape. There were two principal means. One – the more painful – was to question everything you held to be true. This process took me years: in fact, it has not ended. It was, at first, highly disruptive to my peace of mind and sense of self.
The other, as US Republicans did during the Bush presidency, is to create your own reality. If the world does not fit your worldview, you either shore up your worldview with selectivity and denial, or (if you have power) you try to bend the world to fit the shape it takes in your mind. Much of the effort of conservative columnists and editors, and of certain politicians and historians, appears to be devoted to these tasks.
In the Origins of Totalitarianism .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Totalitarianism , Hannah Arendt explains that the nobles of pre-revolutionary France "did not regard themselves as representative of the nation, but as a separate ruling caste which might have much more in common with a foreign people of the same society and condition than with its compatriots".
Last year the former Republican staffer Mike Lofgren wrote something very similar .. http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/revolt-of-the-rich/ .. about the dominant classes of the US: "the rich elites of this country have far more in common with their counterparts in London, Paris, and Tokyo than with their fellow American citizens … the rich disconnect themselves from the civic life of the nation and from any concern about its well being except as a place to extract loot. Our plutocracy now lives like the British in colonial India: in the place and ruling it, but not of it."
Secession from the concerns and norms of the rest of society characterises any well established elite. Our own ruling caste, schooled separately, brought up to believe in justifying fairytales, lives in a world of its own, from which it can project power without understanding or even noticing the consequences. A removal from the life of the rest of the nation is no barrier to the desire to dominate it. In fact, it appears to be associated with a powerful sense of entitlement.
So if you have wondered how the current government can blithely engage in the wholesale transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich, how its frontbench can rock with laughter as it truncates the livelihoods of the poorest people of this country, why it commits troops to ever more pointless post-colonial wars, here, I think, is part of the answer. Many of those who govern us do not in their hearts belong here. They belong to a different culture, a different world, which knows as little of its own acts as it knows of those who suffer them.
Twitter: @georgemonbiot. A fully referenced version of this article can be found at Monbiot.com
Welcome to the Highlights of the Wolfeboro NH Police Commission meeting from 5/15/14. Background: While at a local restaurant in down town, Commissioner Robert Copeland was asked if he watched a news program the chronicle. His answer according to Jane O'Toole who was also at the restaurant heard him state: "NO, because whenever I do I'll have to see that F#%$@#$ N@$%^!." This meeting was attended by towns people who voiced their opinions on the matter and called for the commissioners resignation.
.. huge kudos to Wolfeboro's, Jane O’Toole .. i read she is a relative newcomer to the town, so it took guts .. and to the other good folks there .. not to all ..
"Initially, the comments drew a fair share of shoulder shrugging from some of those you’d expect to be outraged..
of course .. the high school student did an excellent job in the video, too, well, all the speakers did .. "old enfeebled" white men .. yeah, and scared, i guess .. Copeland squirmed, that's a start .. seems, maybe, he hasn't resigned, yet ..
New Study Ranks 50 States By Gun Sense And Gun Deaths -- Gun Extremists Arrive in 5-4-3-2-1
Photo by Alex Grichenko
by Leslie Salzillo Fri Jun 20, 2014 at 02:33 PM PDT
A good study that shows which states are doing their part to decrease gun violence/gun deaths, and which states are doing little - to nothing.
Washington, DC — States with weak gun violence prevention laws and higher rates of gun ownership have the highest overall gun death rates in the nation, according to a Violence Policy Center (VPC) analysis of new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Meanwhile, states with the lowest overall gun death rates have lower rates of gun ownership and some of the strongest gun violence prevention laws in the nation. However, even in these states the human toll of gun violence remains unacceptably high and far exceeds the gun death rate in most Western industrialized nations.
The VPC analysis is based on data newly released this week and refers to overall gun death rates in 2011, the most recent year for which data is available.
The five states with the highest per capita gun death rates in 2011 were Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska, Wyoming, and Montana. Each of these states has extremely lax gun violence prevention laws as well as a higher rate of gun ownership. The state with the lowest gun death rate in the nation was Rhode Island, followed by Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey. Each of these states has strong gun violence prevention laws and has a lower rate of gun ownership.
“Gun violence is preventable, and states can pass effective laws that will dramatically reduce gun death and injury,” states VPC Executive Director Josh Sugarmann. “Our analysis also shows that states with weak gun violence prevention laws and easy access to guns pay a severe price with gun death rates far above the national average.”
“Lawmakers in every state should roll up their sleeves and pass stronger legislation to prevent needless deaths from gun violence,"states Sue Hornik, executive director of States United to Prevent Gun Violence, a national umbrella group for state gun violence prevention organizations. “The safety of our families and communities is at stake.”
A table of the states with the five highest gun death rates and the five lowest gun death rates is below.
The nationwide gun death rate was 10.38 per 100,000. The total number of Americans killed by gunfire rose to 32,351 in 2011 from 31,672 in 2010.
America’s gun death rates — both nationwide and in the states — dwarf those of most other Western industrialized nations. The gun death rate in the United Kingdom in 2011 was 0.23 per 100,000 while in Australia it was 0.86 per 100,000.
States with the Five Highest Gun Death Rates (Rank State Household Gun Ownership Gun Death Rate Per 100,000)
States with the Five Lowest Gun Death Rates (Rank State Household Gun Ownership Gun Death Rate Per 100,000)
50 Rhode Island 13.3 percent 3.14 49 Hawaii 9.7 percent 3.56 48 Massachusetts 12.8 percent 3.84 47 New York 18.1 percent 5.11 46 New Jersey 11.3 percent 5.46 For a list of gun death rates in all 50 states, Visit Here [ http://www.vpc.org/fadeathchart14.htm ].
State gun death rates are calculated by dividing the number of gun deaths by the total state population and multiplying the result by 100,000 to obtain the rate per 100,000, which is the standard and accepted method for comparing fatal levels of gun violence. The VPC defined states with “weak” gun violence prevention laws as those that add little or nothing to federal law and have permissive laws governing the open or concealed carrying of firearms in public.
States with “strong” gun violence prevention laws were defined as those that add significant state regulation that is absent from federal law, such as restricting access to particularly hazardous and deadly types of firearms (for example, assault weapons), setting minimum safety standards for firearms and/or requiring a permit to purchase a firearm, and restricting the open and concealed carrying of firearms in public.
State gun ownership rates were obtained from the September 2005 Pediatrics article “Prevalence of Household Firearms and Firearm-Storage Practices in the 50 States and the District of Columbia: Findings From the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2002,” which is the most recent comprehensive published data available on state gun ownership.
The above information was compiled and released with permission by:
The Violence Policy Center [ http://www.vpc.org/ ] (www.vpc.org) is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury. Follow the Violence Policy Center on Facebook and follow @VPCinfo on Twitter.
States United to Prevent Gun Violence [ http://www.ceasefireusa.org/ ] (www.supgv.org) is a national non-profit organization working to support state-based gun violence prevention groups and help build new state-led organizations. States United believes that all Americans deserve to live in a country free from the fear, threat, and devastation caused by gun violence.
Florida Extends 'Stand Your Ground' To Cover Warning Shots
This undated family photo provided by Lincoln B. Alexander shows, Marissa Alexander in her car in Tampa, Fla. Alexander had never been arrested before she fired a bullet at a wall one day in 2010 to scare off her husband when she felt he was threatening her. Nobody got hurt, but this month a northeast Florida judge was bound by state law to sentence her to 20 years in prison. (AP Photo/Lincoln B. Alexander)
By Andres Jauregui Posted: 06/22/2014 9:40 am EDT Updated: 06/22/2014 11:59 pm EDT
Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law Friday an extension of the state's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law, which would cover warning shots.
"The new law, as it stands now, allows you to claim immunity from prosecution if you used or threatened deadly force," Attorney Anthony Rickman told WTVT. "The problem was that under Florida's Stand Your Ground laws, as it was originally, it only allowed you to use that defense if you used actual deadly force."
"Bullets have to go somewhere," Jason Collazo told WTVT. "It's going to endanger people whether they're firing into the air, into the ground, at a tree, they don't know if that surface is going to ricochet, so it's just not well thought out."
Asked if any similar incidents had occurred in Florida, Evers cited a student who was expelled in his district.
"Two kids were sitting down reading a book and there was a picture of a Wild Wild West show and one person has a gun," he told [id.] the Herald in April. "One student tells another student that he's got a cap gun at home that's the same as the one in the picture. The teacher sent him to the principal and he was expelled."
Alex Jones Minion Dan Bidondi Is Now Running for Public Office… Seriously
Chez Pazienza on June 26, 2014
The great thing about America is that almost anybody can run for public office. The frightening thing about America is that almost anybody can run for public office.
You’d think some or all of this would preclude you from even being able to file the paperwork necessary to become a candidate for office, since you’d be laughed out of the room the second you walked in.
But alas, not everyone knows Dan Bidondi like we know Dan Bidondi.
Yes, it’s with a giddy and grateful genuflection before the comedy gods that I bring you the news that Dan Bidondi — InfoWars enforcer, unofficial Daily Banter mascot, and somehow perfectly round individual — is running for state senate in his home state of Rhode Island.
Behold…
“Providence” indeed, given that he made it with mere seconds to “spear.”
Now certainly it would be easy to take this seriously and point out how terrifying the thought of someone who believes the utter beaver-shit insanity that Bidondi does being even a candidate for office. We’ve written more than a few times about the dangers the conspiracy theorist set pose when its views actually manage to infect and influence the realm of those who create public policy. But fuck it, the comedic value here is just too great to deny. This is oodles of terrific material potentially for the next five months, so there’s no way I’m going to argue with that.
In fact, I’m going to go on record right now in saying that The Daily Banter officially endorses Dan Bidondi for the 16th district of the Rhode Island State Senate.
Bidondi ’14: Yes We Kan
Copyright 2014 The Daily Banter (emphasis in original)
Cliven Bundy Must Be Held Accountable For Standoff, Officials Say
BUNKERVILLE, NV - APRIL 24: Rancher Cliven Bundy speaks during a news conference near his ranch on April 24, 2014 in Bunkerville, Nevada. The Bureau of Land Management and Bundy have been locked in a dispute for a couple of decades over grazing rights on public lands. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)
By MARTIN GRIFFITH Posted: 07/06/2014 3:49 pm EDT Updated: 07/06/2014 3:59 pm EDT
RENO, Nev. (AP) — U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials say they agree with a Nevada sheriff's position that rancher Cliven Bundy must be held accountable for his role in an April standoff between his supporters and the federal agency.
Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said Bundy crossed the line when he allowed states' rights supporters, including self-proclaimed militia members, onto his property to aim guns at police.
"If you step over that line, there are consequences to those actions," Gillespie told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "And I believe they stepped over that line. No doubt about it. They need to be held accountable for it."
Bureau spokeswoman Celia Boddington, in a statement released Saturday to The Associated Press, said the agency continues to pursue the matter "aggressively through the legal system."
"There is an ongoing investigation and we are working diligently to ensure that those who broke the law are held accountable," she said, declining to elaborate.
The FBI declined comment Saturday on its investigation. Bundy did not respond to a request for comment.
The Bureau of Land Management says Bundy owes over $1 million in fees and penalties for trespassing on federal property without a permit over 20 years. Bundy, who says his ancestors have operated a ranch in the area since the late 1800s, refuses to acknowledge federal authority on public lands.
A federal judge in Las Vegas first ordered Bundy in 1998 to remove "trespass cattle" from land the bureau declared a refuge for the endangered desert tortoise. Bureau officials obtained court orders last year allowing the roundup.
Boddington disputed Gillespie's contention the agency mishandled the roundup of Bundy's cattle 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
The bureau backed down during the showdown with Bundy and his armed supporters, citing safety concerns, and released some 380 Bundy cattle collected during a weeklong operation from a vast arid range half the size of the state of Delaware.
Gillespie blamed the bureau for escalating the conflict and ignoring his advice to delay the roundup after he had a confrontational meeting with Bundy's children a few weeks before it began.
"I came back from that saying, 'This is not the time to do this,' " the sheriff told the Review-Journal. "They said, 'We do this all the time. We know what we're doing. We hear what you're saying, but we're moving forward.'"
Tensions further escalated early in the roundup after a video showed one of Bundy's sons being stunned with a Taser. The video drew militia members and others to Bundy's ranch.
Bundy was not a hardened criminal, Gillespie told the newspaper. He was a rancher who stopped paying his fees, the sheriff said, and that was not worth risking violence.
But Boddington said the bureau planned and conducted the roundup in "full coordination" with Gillespie and his office.
"It is unfortunate that the sheriff is now attempting to rewrite the details of what occurred, including his claims that the BLM did not share accurate information," she said. "The sheriff encouraged the operation and promised to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us as we enforced two recent federal court orders."
"Sadly, he backed out of his commitment shortly before the operation — and after months of joint planning — leaving the BLM and the National Park Service to handle the crowd control that the sheriff previously committed to handling," she added.
An Independence Day parade in Norfolk, Nebraska included a float depicting President Obama's presidential library as an outhouse, sparking outcry from residents as well as the state's Democratic Party.
The float, which did not identify its sponsor, featured an overall-clad dummy standing in front of an outhouse. Nailed to the structure were wooden signs reading "Obama Presidential Library" [ https://twitter.com/csgazette/statuses/485793402391248896 ]:
“I’m angry and I’m scared,” Glory Kathurima, a Norfolk resident who is originally from Kenya, told the Journal Star. “This float was not just political; this was absolutely a racial statement.”
Kathurima says she wrote to the town's mayor as well as the Chamber of Commerce expressing her concerns with the float.
State party officials offered similar criticism.
“We have seen many times when Nebraskans disapproved of the President, but this clearly crosses the line.” Nebraska Democratic Party executive director Dan Marvin said in a Saturday statement. “There is a level of respect for the office of the Presidency which should not be crossed. It's beyond disappointing the City of Norfolk, it’s officials, and citizens would allow such a thing.”
Rick Konopasek, a member of the Norfolk parade committee, defended the float, comparing it to a political cartoon and noting that multiple parade judges awarded it an "honorable mention."
During the Norfolk, Neb. Independence Day parade on Friday, one float depicted President Obama's presidential library as an outhouse, spurring state Democrats to denounce the float and the message it sent.
The float featured a wooden outhouse on the back of a flatbed truck, with signs reading, "Obama Presidential Library." A dummy in overalls was attached to the float.
The sponsor of the float is unknown, and the Norfolk parade committee member Rick Konopasek said there were few restrictions on what floats could enter the parade.
The Nebraska State Democratic Party condemned the float, calling it one of the “worst shows of racism and disrespect for the office of the presidency that Nebraska has ever seen," according to the World-Herald.
Here, then, are nearly two dozen claims that have been uttered in defense of Bundy by Fox personalities, other right-wing pundits and Bundy himself. (A good deal of them, alas, come from Sean Hannity.)
For each claim, we’ve offered a bit of a fact-check or truthful context afterward.
1. “The BLM’s actions lacked proportionality .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuGRv-2rXlU#t=436 .” (Sean Hannity) The Bureau of Land Management simply arrived to take cattle, per a court order. They didn’t show up with guns drawn and they never even entered Bundy’s property. They did, however, carry arms for a good reason: They had received intelligence that Bundy and his crew might cause trouble. There is nothing “disproportionate” about being prepared.
2. “The BLM pointed guns at children .. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/04/19/msnbcs_chris_hayes_vs_cliven_bundy_supporter_nv_assemblywoman_michele_fiore.html .” The Republican Nevada Assemblywoman Michelle Fiore has been saying this during her 15 minutes of fame, including on “All In With Chris Hayes” on MSNBC last week. There has been no evidence offered that the BLM “pointed guns at children.” Bundy’s teenage son attempted to assault officers and kicked a police dog and resisted arrest, and so they used a taser on him, as well they should have.
3. “The Feds are going to ‘cause another Waco’ .. http://www.newshounds.us/is_fox_news_trying_to_start_a_range_war_04102014 .” (Cliven Bundy, et al.) The feds are trying to avoid another Waco. The U.S. government did not “cause Waco” but rather botched the response; they could have waited it out more patiently to avoid the loss of life of innocent children. And this is exactly why the feds have not pressed the issue (yet) with Bundy, and why the BLM stood down. advertisement
4. “Since when does the government send armed officers to collect a debt? .. http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/04/15/napolitano-nevada-ranch-standoff-%E2%80%98-last-straw%E2%80%99-obama-admin-big-gov%E2%80%99t ” (Hannity) Many repossession and foreclosure actions often involve a sheriff or other armed officials, and confiscation of property is an ordinary means by which a government resolves a debt. For example, if you accumulate 20 years of unpaid parking tickets, a court will order that your car be booted and towed until you pay. And if you point a rifle at the cop or otherwise assault him, you might get shot (or tased).
5. “Nobody has seen any bill for $1.1 million. It doesn’t exist .. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/04/19/msnbcs_chris_hayes_vs_cliven_bundy_supporter_nv_assemblywoman_michele_fiore.html .” (Michelle Fiore, R-Nevada Assembly, on MSNBC) Bundy says he has “never been sent a bill” but also says he never opens mail from the U.S. government because he does not recognize the U.S. government’s existence. A court has ordered him to pay a debt of $1.1 million in accumulated fines and fees for having put greater than his allowed quota of cattle on federally protected tortoise habitat.
6. “The BLM provoked, escalated this controversy .. http://www.examiner.com/article/gop-rep-accuses-obama-s-blm-of-acting-illegally-bundy-ranch-case .” Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, made this accusation, as have numerous others. If an armed resistance is put up against an asset seizure by law enforcement officials who are acting under a court order, the provocation is exclusively the work of those who have chosen to threaten the lawmen with violence.
7. “The land is not being used — it’s not like they want to build a school, road or hospital on it .. http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/2014/04/22/cliven-bundy-takes-nevada-ranch-rhetoric .” (Hannity) How federal land is used is determined by federal law. A citizen does not get to decide for himself whether the land should remain vacant or grazed, or whether something should be built on it.
8. “Harry Reid and his son have a financial motive to remove Bundy’s cows .. http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/04/14/spurious-cattle-conspiracy-dodges-facts-but-sti/198880 .” (Bob Massi, Fox News legal correspondent) There is no evidence at all that Harry Reid or his son have any financial or political interest in what is going on. Don’t believe everything you hear on Fox News, especially when the reporter qualifies it, as Massi did here, by saying, “We don’t really know if it’s true.”
9. “The BLM killed cattle and put the corpses in a mass grave .. http://video.foxnews.com/v/3472916374001/exclusive-did-feds-kill-ranchers-cows-dig-mass-grave/#sp=show-clips .” There is no evidence that the BLM euthanized Bundy’s cattle except some photos and footage of dubious pedigree being aired nightly on Fox News. That said, it is possible that a cow or two could have died during the roundup. Cattle are occasionally killed in large roundups. Now, if there was a mass euthanizing of cattle, the BLM should be forced to explain that.
10. “The sheriff is the only man with arresting power in Clark county .. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/bundy-ranch-constitutional-sheriffs-oath-keepers .” Bundy has made this claim in his nightly appearance on the Sean Hannity show, and it has long been a favorite talking point of Tea Partyers, especially in the West. But it is false. Federal officers have arresting power where federal land is trespassed or where federal law has otherwise been broken. The BLM does have an obligation under federal regulations to seek the cooperation of local law enforcement to resolve certain disputes. But in this case, the sheriff refused to help out.
11. “People should not die over a few cows eating free government grass .. about:blank .” (Hannity) That’s true, which is why Bundy and his militia members should not have chosen to point guns at federal officials and escalate the situation. Now, those militia members could find themselves getting shot or even killed. Such is the consequence of pointing rifles at lawmen trying to do their job.
12. “How could a cow possibly eat $1.1 million of grass? .. http://www.mofopolitics.com/2014/04/16/stetsy-bundy-would-ya/ ” (Bundy’s daughter, Stetsy Bundy) Cows can easily eat a million bucks worth of grass but that’s neither here nor there. Grazing fees are not assessed by weighing the amount of tonnage that a cow eats. It is a per-animal-unit, per-month fee, and it adds up over 20 years. Furthermore, Bundy’s liability is as much for fines for illegal trespass as it is for fees.
13. “What’s wrong with Bundy’s cows simply cutting the grass for free? .. http://tiny.cc/xyldjx ” (Hannity) A trespass is not forgiven simply because the trespasser believes he is performing a service for the owner. Furthermore, “cutting grass” is not depriving the owner of a nuisance but rather taking a valuable resource (edible grass) from the owner.
14. “Bundy has rights to the land because his ancestors worked the land prior to formation of BLM .. http://www.newshounds.us/cliven_bundy_lied_about_his_family_s_ancestral_rights_and_fox_news_let_him_04222014 .” Bundy has made this argument himself and others have echoed it, but even if Bundy’s ancestors did work the land (and we only have his word that they did, and he is notoriously dishonest), as of the passage of the Taylor Act in 1934 they would have had to pay grazing fees. And it was never private land. The parcel that Bundy is trespassing has been owned by the U.S. government ever since it was purchased and/or won from Mexico or Spain.
15. “This is all predicated on a tortoise that is not even endangered .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuGRv-2rXlU .” (Hannity) The decision as to whether the tortoise is endangered and whether it can withstand grazing, and how much, is one for biologists to make and can be challenged in court by anyone that disagrees with it, in which case the government must show that it is using valid science.
16. “Grazing more cattle on federal land will keep beef prices down .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=armAcbEO1PE#t=17 .” Sean Hannity made this idiotic remark two nights ago. If the government wants to centrally control the market for beef (as it sometimes does with other commodities) it is a policy decision to be made by Congress and the Department of Agriculture, not Mr. Bundy or Sean Hannity.
18. “The feds should simply put a lien on Bundy’s property .. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/04/19/msnbcs_chris_hayes_vs_cliven_bundy_supporter_nv_assemblywoman_michele_fiore.html .” (Fiore, Hannity et al) Yes, they can and they should (and likely have already, since it’s been going on 20 years), and this would mean that when his cows arrive at market, the proceeds would go directly to the government. But realized that the collection of the past due amount is only one issue — the other is that Bundy continues to run his cows on land that is closed to grazing, and a lien won’t accomplish that.
20. “Peaceful protesters were relocated miles away from entrance to the Bundy ranch, and denied their First Amendment Rights.” (Brian Sandoval, GOP governor of Nevada) When law enforcement needs to operate in a tense situation, they are within their rights to move protesters to an area safely away from the action. This is for their own protection, and it is especially appropriate where some of the protesters bring weapons.
22. “If the cattle were illegal immigrants, the Justice Department would be running guns to them and Homeland Security would be giving them free phones .. http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/04/dana-loesch-if-bundy-trespass-cows-were-illegal-aliens-theyd-get-ebt-cards-obama-phones-video/ .” (Dana Loesch) Even if this were true (and it isn’t), cattle are not illegal immigrants. Nor does this silly hypothetical scenario bear in any way on the fact that Bundy and his thugs have broken the law by ignoring several court orders, and interfering with law enforcement in many ways.
Eric Stern lives in Helena, Montana. He was senior counsel to Brian Schweitzer, former Governor. Follow him on Twitter at @_ericstern.
Father and son target kids in a confederacy of hate
USA Today/July 16, 2001 By Tara McKelvey
West Palm Beach, Fla. -- Twelve-year-old Derek Black won first place this year in a local science fair, and he carries around an encyclopedic knowledge of frogs, snakes, fish and the Web.
With red hair past his shoulders and slightly crooked front teeth, he looks like the typical tech-savvy preteen he is. Yet the thing that makes his father proudest is that Derek runs a Web site for kids -- promoting white supremacy and racial hate.
''Couldn't ask for anything more,'' says Don Black, who keeps a framed photo of Derek dressed in a Confederate soldier's uniform above his desk in his home office.
In 1995, Black, 47, created what is believed to be the Web's first hate site, Stormfront.org. Today he boasts that it has become the most visited white supremacist site on the Net. Derek runs the site's children's section, working closely with his dad.
More than 5,000 unduplicated visitors come to Stormfront daily, and several hundred a day (344,000 in 2 years) have visited the children's pages, where puzzles and games are mixed with animated Confederate flags, sound files of white-pride songs, an inflammatory article about Martin Luther King Jr. and a personal statement from Derek, asking visitors to stop sending him hate mail.
''I get a lot of people who think I'm just a pawn in this horrible game of lies,'' says Derek, who has been home-schooled since third grade by his mother, Chloe, the ex-wife of David Duke, former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
''One person said, 'Don't listen to what your father says. Go turn on the Discovery Channel. Find out what the real world is like.' Why would I turn on the TV to find out what the real world is like?''
Marketing hate to youngsters
A database compiled by researchers at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the international Jewish human rights organization, now lists 2,500-plus extremist and hate sites -- many run by a new breed of activists, better-educated and more technologically proficient than their predecessors.
''Put aside your prejudices about who's in the hate movement,'' says David Friedman, director of the Washington, D.C., office of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). ''If you're looking for people in white sheets, you won't find them. These are sophisticated bigots who have thought very carefully about the best ways to proselytize people to their hate.''
These new racist entrepreneurs have also tapped into a sophisticated marketing strategy. Just as fashion editors and e-book publishers have started reaching out to elementary school children and teens -- a prime, impressionable and coveted demographic -- so have hate groups.
White supremacists have recently started using the Net to target very young children by using Pokémon figures and ''simple, basic language,'' says Mark Weitzman, director of the Wiesenthal Center's Task Force Against Hate. Other groups are using jazzed-up graphics and music to reach teens.
Of the 2,500 hate Web sites, 44 have sections designed for children, teens and parents, Weitzman says; another 110 sites peddle hate music and merchandise to preteens and teens. While the number of sites may be small, child psychologists and others monitoring their activity are alarmed about their reach and influence.
''The number of people involved in these movements is not the only important factor,'' says Weitzman. ''Sometimes when the numbers are low, members think the only way they can get their message across is through an act of domestic terrorism or extreme violence.''
''If you have a susceptible child who is angry and depressed, the sites could push a child towards certain behavior,'' adds psychiatrist Sirgay Sanger, director of the Early Care Center, a children's clinic in New York. ''It's the first step toward throwing a rock.''
Civil liberty advocates point out that the messages, however objectionable they may be, are protected by the Constitution. ''There's going to be all different kinds of speech on the Internet, some we love and some we find repulsive,'' says Shari Steele of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. ''The best thing to do with speech you don't agree with is to speak out against it.''
'A laid-back guy'
Don Black is 6-foot-3, muscular, with dark brown hair with specks of gray and a reserved manner. He's known as a ''laid-back guy,'' according to Bill Rothchild, director of the Palm Beach region of the ADL. ''He has a fairly low profile in Palm Beach County.''
But in Huntsville, Ala., in 1970, Black, then 17, started a local chapter of the White Youth Alliance, an organization run by a relatively obscure Louisiana State University student: David Duke. In 1980, Black succeeded Duke as Klan leader. Several months later, Black began planning an armed invasion of a Caribbean island.
The following year, with a group of white-supremacist buddies, he tried to invade the Caribbean island of Dominica to establish a base for their movement. Black spent two years in a federal penitentiary for attacking a friendly nation; the minimum-security facility was ''where the term 'Club Fed' originated,'' he says. ''You can't leave, but it's about as good as you can get.''
That's where he learned about computers, taking a course through a local college. ''Unfortunately,'' he says, ''I had to leave'' before getting a degree. Although Don Black has tried to protect his son (the only child still at home) from the realities of having a white supremacist father, hackers have tried to break into their Web site, and the family has received bomb threats.
Don Black says he's never shied away from political activity -- and getting Derek involved in the Web site is an example. Both father and son are proud of the traffic they get. Stormfront.org is No. 28,409 in traffic rankings tracked by Alexa Internet (which offers free tracking services), while the ADL's anti-hate site is No. 59,570.
One of the primary ways hate groups reach out to teens is with skinhead music, says Jordan Kessler, director of an Internet monitoring unit for the ADL. ''This is a language kids understand, a band of cool-looking young guys blasting out music. One label, Resistance Records, sold ''close to $1 million'' in merchandise last year, mostly online, says CEO Erich Gliebe of Cleveland. Items include a Nazi parade flag and a CD entitled War Songs of the 3rd Reich, Vol. 3.
''We believe people can potentially be affected by what they hear and see on a Web site,'' says the ADL's Rothchild, who encourages parents to use filtering software to block hate sites.
A diverse Palm Beach
Palm Beach may be known for grand hotels, oceanfront mansions and polo clubs, but the Black family lives in a working-class neighborhood. Guatemalan immigrants live a few houses away, and a condominium complex across the street is filled with Jewish retirees.
Black runs a moderately successful consulting business. ''Mostly people don't care (about your views) as long as you don't cause them to get publicity,'' he says.
Still, he is not oblivious to how he may be perceived. ''People say, 'You're teaching your son Satan,' '' he says. But ''I think anyone who is critical of me for instilling in my son my worldview has lost track of how a society should function.''
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