Furious anti-government, anti-tax guy, Joe Stack, flew his plane into an IRS building in Austin. Killed an office worker. The media jumped on the angry act as something like a ‘Tea Party’ stand:

Alienated in Austin

There’s no information yet on whether he was involved in any anti-government groups or whether he was a lone wolf. But after reading his 34-paragraph screed, I am struck by how his alienation is similar to that we’re hearing from the extreme elements of the Tea Party movement.

More: Media Link Joseph Stack To ‘Tea Party’. I wasn’t buying the Stack/Teabagger connection until idiots started calling the violent ass a hero:

– Joe Stack is a “True American Hero“: Facebook Groups Support Domestic Terrorist
– Folk Hero Push For Andrew Joseph Stack

The latest fan? His daughter:

EXCLUSIVE: Texas Suicide Pilot’s Daughter Calls Dad a Hero, IRS Plane Attack ‘Inappropriate’

The daughter of the man who carried out a suicide plane attack against the IRS in Texas said she considered her father a hero for standing up to “the system” but said the attack that killed a government worker and injured 12 was “inappropriate” and “wrong.”

“His last actions, the suicide, the catastrophe that caused injuries and death, that was wrong,” Samantha Bell, Stack’s daughter from his first marriage, told “Good Morning America” in a morning television exclusive telephone interview that aired today. “But if nobody comes out and speaks up on behalf of injustice, then nothing will ever be accomplished. But I do not agree with his last action with what he did. But I do agree about the government.”

She doesn’t agree with “his last actions”? “The catastrophe”? Is she talking about Dad’s pre-meditated murder of an American veteran, Vernon Hunter?

Meet The Real Victim Of Last Week’s Terror Attack On IRS Building – Vietnam Vet, Vernon Hunter

Last week, Joseph Stack set his house on fire, drove to the airport, jumped in his plane and flew it into an IRS building in Austin, Texas. This deliberate, cowardly act of domestic terrorism resulted in injuring thirteen IRS workers and left one man dead — a veteran of the Vietnam War:

When Ken Hunter first heard about a plane crashing into his father’s office building in Austin, he said he hoped his dad, Vernon Hunter, wasn’t there.

After several attempts to reach his father, a 67-year-old IRS worker, he discovered his dad was missing.

In the hours that followed, Ken said he heard lots of talk about the pilot’s motivations and felt compelled to speak out on his father’s behalf.

“There was just too much going on about what the guy did and what he believed in, and enough’s enough,” he said. “They don’t need to talk about him. Talk about my dad. You know, some people are trying to make this guy out to be a hero, a patriot. My dad served two terms in Vietnam. This guy never served at all. My dad wasn’t responsible for his tax problems.”

Meanwhile, the Teabaggers would kill any attempt at healthcare reform, ever. Or any attempt to use the government to stimulate the economy while unemployment’s at 10% and the Great Recession drags on. Do they offer any solutions to these huge, national problems? No. Do they care that their actions will make things worse for others? No.

They’re angry, narcissistic little jerks. Heroes. Heroes. Heroes. Heroes. Heroes.

Mindless Bush supporters greased the skids for the Great Recession, and maybe now they reap the rewards. Chaos is unpredictable.

Mike Huckabee, the last Republican candidate standing against John McCain for the Republican presidential nod at the end of 2008, is just an outsider to all the current Conservative hub-bub.

Mike Huckabee rips CPAC

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee blasted the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Saturday as outdated, nearly corrupt and unrepresentative of the conservative movement.

Huckabee, a 2008 Republican presidential contender and potential 2012 candidate who had spoken at the conference for years, said the reason he blew it off this year was that the meeting has become dominated by libertarian activists.

“CPAC has becoming increasingly more libertarian and less Republican over the last years, one of the reasons I didn’t go this year” . .

Meaning that CPAC is ” . . less Republican” in the sense of ‘a lot less willing sit through the same old cob-webby Christian Huckabee spiel.’ Mike was once a convenient friend of the religio-political power cabal that turned the country inside out. He doesn’t understand why his message is no longer thrilling.

Huckabee said the rise of the tea party movement had “taken all of the oxygen out of the room,” rendering the venerable conference far less relevant than it had been in previous years.

“Where CPAC was historically the event, the tea parties are having their own events all over the country and a lot more truly grassroots people are getting involved because of the tea parties,” said the former governor.

So when grass-roots activism arises out of the sleepy Conservative wing, that’s not current, relevant? Sounds like a case for yesterday’s news, not today’s.

. . and it dawns on her what she just did . . and then . . it gets . . awkward . .

Here’s what was loaded on the teleprompter: “Energy”, “Budget cuts”, “Tax” and “Lift American Spirits”.

Would you like to replay the video or share the link to it with your friends?

Quote: “This is about the people, and it’s bigger than any one king or queen of a tea party, and it’s a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter.”

And she got paid over $100,000 to deliver that line because the tea partiers find her ugly and boring, riiighht . . .

Your United States Government is a football, and Republican Richard Shelby is taking it home. Right after he wrestles it away from all the other right-wing brats. Ahhh, such is public service.

Alabama Senator Shelby levied an across-the-board hold on all of the President’s appointments to the executive branch. Open positions in the government will languish until Shelby gets what he wants, which presumably includes hoppers full of black hair gel.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has put an extraordinary “blanket hold” on at least 70 nominations President Obama has sent to the Senate, according to multiple reports this evening.

Why? The liberal commie government that’s spending the hard-earned taxpayers’ money at a homicidal rate is ignoring Alabama projects:

The two programs Shelby wants to move forward or else:

- A $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers. From CongressDaily: “Northrop/EADS team would build the planes in Mobile, Ala., but has threatened to pull out of the competition unless the Air Force makes changes to a draft request for proposals.” Federal Times offers more details on the tanker deal, and also confirms its connection to the hold.

- An improvised explosive device testing lab for the FBI. From CongressDaily: “[Shelby] is frustrated that the Obama administration won’t build” the center, which Shelby earmarked $45 million for in 2008. The center is due to be based “at the Army’s Redstone Arsenal.”

How big a power-play is this?

While individual holds are not unusual, Gary Jacobson, a congressional expert at the University of California at San Diego, said he knew of no previous use of a blanket hold.

The Senate is always full of assholes, and yet it’s never been done before. Meanwhile, in a related note, the furious tea partiers opened their convention today. And the Republican leadership are there to signal that they will do the teabaggers will:

Tea party convention seeks to put power in motion

…”There’s a clear economic message that’s evolving out of this movement,” Republican strategist David Winston said. “Which direction, in terms of the political activism, does this go? I think we’ll get a sense of that from this convention.”

GOP officials are watching closely, though not participating publicly.

“The Republican Party has always been a grass-roots party, and we respect the healthy debate that is going on in the states,” said Republican National Committee spokesman LeRoy Coleman. “Republican principles of lower taxes, smaller government and less spending match those of tea party supporters and we will continue to work to make sure that tea party supporters recognize our candidates most closely match what they look for in elected officials.”

They say they despise the workings of big government, but they’re lying. They only hate it when it works for you.

As previously prattled about, common teabaggers from the Tea Party Patriots and the Tea Party Express are not all perfectly happy to be used as mammon-fodder for the likes of their college-educated GOP masterminds.

Nor are the few Tea Party Nation hoi polloi left excited about Judson Phillips’ money-grubbing device, the ‘Tea Party Convention.’

Slowly but surely, the news disseminated that the meeting was entirely a cash cow for the owner — yes, owner – of the sponsor of the event: Tea Party Nation, INC.

And, so, the event’s collapse is all but complete . .

National Tea Party Convention falls apart: Bachmann and Blackburn announce they are pulling out.

Initially, organizers of the National Tea Party Convention, set to take place in Nashville, TN next month, garnered significant press attention for featuring headliners like Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), WorldNetDaily founder Joseph Farah, and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. However, Tea Party loyalists began to balk at the expensive price of tickets and the fact that the venture is for-profit, saying that it smelled “scammy.” Now, both Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bachmann have decided to drop out. A statement from Bachmann’s communications director:

“Due to conflicting advice on whether Congresswoman Bachmann’s participation in the upcoming Tea Party Nation Convention would be in line with the Committee on Standards, Congresswoman Bachmann has decided not to participate in the event. There is uncertainty about how any proceeds from the event may be used, and we must err on the side of caution . . .

Or, in other words: “Procedural noberation begs twizzle of the parameters YOU’RE EMBARRASSING ME vis-a-vis latent potentials at this time.”

Which presents a monster problem for Governor Moosemeat. Two things wildly motivating for narcissists are glory and embarrassment. They’re opposite in directions, but equally off the charts in force. So, with the convention collapsing, she should have been off like a rocket by now.

Except, there’s that damn third factor: cash money. What to do? How will she manage to avoid the embarrassment of being the shiny object in a political grift while still keeping that mound of money she’s already spent?

Keep an eye out for her lawyers. I’m betting there’ll be a loophole, or an illness, or an act of god, something like that. She certainly won’t want to show up at CPAC as a side dish.

UPDATE: I got this one wrong.

PALIN: Oh, you betcha I’m going to be there. I’m going to speak there because there are people traveling from many miles away to hear what that tea party movement is all about and what that message is that should be received by our politicians in Washington. I’m honored to get to be there.

What, is it rebellious to play part in a debacle? Maybe the money’s just too damn good to pass up? She’s got me stumped. Wait — is she stoopid?

Tea Party Disputes Take Toll on Convention

A Tea Party convention billed as the coming together of the grass-roots groups that began sprouting up around the country a year ago is unraveling as sponsors and participants pull out to protest its expense and express concerns about “profiteering.”…

Philip Glass, the national director of the National Precinct Alliance, announced late Sunday that “amid growing controversy” around the convention, his organization would no longer participate. His group seeks to take over the Republican Party from the bottom by filling the ranks of local and state parties with grass-roots conservatives, and Mr. Glass had been scheduled to lead workshops on its strategy.

“We are very concerned about the appearance of T.P.N. profiteering and exploitation of the grass-roots movement,” he said in a statement. “We were under the impression that T.P.N. was a nonprofit organization like N.P.A., interested only in uniting and educating Tea Party activists on how to make a real difference in the political arena.”…

“When we look at the $500 price tag for the event and the fact that many of the original leaders in the group left over similar issues, it’s hard for us not to assume the worst,” Eric Odom, the executive director of the American Liberty Alliance and an organizer of the tax day rallies last April, wrote on the group’s Web site.

Sherry Phillips, who founded and runs Tea Party Nation with her husband, Judson, said Monday that it was a nonprofit group.

That would be a flat-out lie.

She declined to comment on Ms. Palin’s speaking fee.

“If there is any profit,” Ms. Phillips said, “the money will go toward furthering the cause of conservatism.”

It’s one of those profiting ‘non-profits’?

Don’t let anyone tell you that what happened Tuesday night, the Coakley loss, Scott Brown’s easy win in the Massachusetts Senate race, wasn’t a political bomb going off. That was a violent explosion, a complete disaster.

After all the epic machinations and manipulations necessary to pass the healthcare bill, — maybe single payer, but that’s a no-go, public option is the thing, naw it’s gone, now it’s saved, Lieberman just killed killed it, maybe Snowe is on board, no she’s not, how do we end-run Stupak, how can we get Ben Nelson on board, cut him some pork, when is the Senate vote scheduled? — the exotic trophy ’supermajority’ that was everything, that made the whole thing possible, disappeared, poof, overnight.

Unbelievable. I doubt I’ll ever see it again in my life. And I have no idea why no one thought of defending it until about ten days ago, when it was way, way too late.

And, for aural punctuation, accompanying the long faces on this side are the sounds of millions of political orgasms on the other. Sounds like these:
– A Blue State Turns BROWN!!!
– Revolutionary Victory: Republican Scott Brown wins Ted Kennedy’s Senate Seat
– The Scott Brown Election Is A Referendum On The Establishment
– Massachusetts Miracle: Election night liveblog; Update: BROWN WINS, COAKLEY CONCEDES
– Brown Wins! Dems Taste Tea, CNN, MSNBC Fun To Watch, Amnesty Toast

Anybody could’ve predicted the reaction and momentum swing if Coakley were to lose. So, Coakley could never lose. But it wasn’t even close.

Good lord, this is some sort of historic embarrassment. Why didn’t anybody seem to care?

The answer? The leader of the Democratic Party, the President, Barack Obama, wasn’t up to the task. Like it or not, he asked for the helm, so it’s his responsibility. Yeah, but we all know he’s too busy. His responsibility, though, doesn’t require he do the actual work: technically he hires the entire executive branch, and they execute his governmental responsibilities. So where was his political right-hand man, the heavy-hitter to do all this critical work? If Obama’s not looking out for his own healthcare legislation, someone else better be.

You’re thinking David Axelrod? You gotta be kidding me, forget it. He’s a p.r. guy, a gun for hire, a “specialist in urban politics.” I wouldn’t ever count on him to step outside the Obama bubble. No, what I’m talking about is a national political party animal, right out of the smoke-filled backrooms. A stone-grinder of Democratic politics first and last, his pockets crammed with wet knives, fresh lists and plenty of chits.

Where is the President’s Karl Rove? It all should have been left to him. But, right now, he doesn’t exist.

Rove was the political boss of the Bush years, the ‘genius’ who got the single worst President in history a second term. This is the sort of guy we need: someone who can look down the road a couple years (or a few weeks, please) and start pushing pawns and pulling levers in order to give the Democrats the edge. You know, so that we can finally manage to get something done.

Remember how you chafed at Karl’s ridiculous idea of the ‘Permanent Republican Majority‘? The silliness made him an American political legend:

President George W. Bush called him “the architect” of his reelection victory and he has been the president’s chief strategist from the beginning. But Karl Rove is much more than a political guru, he is the single most powerful policy advisor in the White House. Frontline and The Washington Post joined forces to trace the political history and modus operandi of the man who has been on the inside of every political and policy decision of the Bush administration, including the current battles on Social Security, taxes, and tort reform. For Rove — observers say — enactment of the Bush agenda is a way to win the biggest prize of all: a permanent Republican majority.

Well, how badly do you wish we’d had even one operator in the administration who’d managed to look ahead just one month? Who’d have taken immediate charge of the pathetic Coakley campaign? Dragged Obama to Massachusetts on four successive weekends to talk up the now-gone Senator Kennedy and healthcare reform and ‘I’m counting on you to do the right thing in Teddy’s name’? Karl Rove would have been on top of that long before the good Senator’s death.

The hard truth delivered this morning is that the Democratic leadership are still playing a 20th-century political game, one they’d forgotten Rove already trumped twice in the 21st. Because of it, they’re flat out incompetents. It’s true — what else can you say of the folks who produced this political provenance for the open seat: John F. Kennedy, (Kennedy friend) Ben Smith, Edward Kennedy . . . Scott Brown? Cosmo centerfolds everywhere, Bay State Senate seats are now in play.

Well, being incompetent won’t cut it any more. With majorities in both houses, riding high in the polls, anybody can do that work, that’s pretty easy. All of 365 days later, shocked and embarrassed, they’ll never have it easy again. Take a look at what’s in store:

First, the Republicans now have the momentum. Seeing a Dem getting her ass kicked in midnight blue Massachusetts has terrified every Democratic Representative and Senator in anticipation of 2010 and 2012. Forget any political capital being risked for good things — if a bill or issue isn’t going to pay off immediately in their states and districts, they’re a lot less likely to be interested.

Second, the Tea Partiers and Fox News aren’t just weirdos and racists any more, they’re the regular folks in America. They’re politically relevant, they’re what’s happening in America, they’re what’s just happened to Massachusetts. So now everybody will have to listen to them. And with more and more people listening, they’ll tee off on the administration and Democrats even more viciously than before. It’s Obama and his people that are out of touch — did you catch the President sadly coming around two days before the blowout? (And how clueless did that look? No way ‘Rove’ lets that happen.)

Third, the Democrats have to manage some serious calisthenics to save their historic healthcare reform legislation. Without which, the last half of 2009 is wiped out and the Republicans are handed an historic and bloody victory. That mess likely kills any chance of real reform for two decades. Terrific.

How could the Democratic leadership not see any of this coming? How badly do you figure we need our Karl Rove now?

“Crafted in sterling silver, quartz crystal and semi-precious gemstones, each comes with a silver chain so it can be worn as either a pendant or a pin. Flaunt your patriotism in fashion!”

Only $89.99. This one is Mother of Pearl. Courtesy of Tea Party Emporium, a ‘Silver Sponsor‘ of Tea Party Nation and the convention Sarah Palin will speak at.

More Tea Party Emporium:

The Boston Tea Party was the spark which ignited the American Revolution. Over two hundred years later, modern day Tea Parties have become the voice of a citizenry under siege by a political system gone insane.

Tea Party Emporium spotlights a product, this finely crafted piece of jewelry, which we believe to be the single unifying symbol of this movement, a TEA BAG®. Worn not just for its beauty, this TEA BAG® identifies your support for conservative/libertarian beliefs which our country is in such dire need…

. . and . . .

Tea Party Emporium was established by jewelry industry veterans, a family who has manufactured the world’s finest gold and diamond jewelry for over one hundred years. Today, inconspicuous, as opposed to conspicuous, consumption is very much in vogue. Affluence and the attainment of wealth seem to have fallen out of favor. What has not changed is appreciation for something beautiful. In that vein, and in the light of the current climate of a government hell bent on the largest redistribution of wealth in history, we designed a small, delicate piece of jewelry which we hope will galvanize feelings felt by millions of Americans.

All of the products we offer have a commonality of spirit; America’s distaste for Washington’s ambivalence and disregard of its most basic principals, No Taxation Without Representation!

We hope you appreciate our little shop.

Though she’s getting paid $125,000, Palin won’t ‘financially be gaining’ from it.

By that logic, any money that you get and spend can’t be ‘financial gain’. You get a billion dollars and buy the New York Yankees, no gain. If you bribe a cop, but he spends the money, there’s no crime.

Of course, she could have turned down the six-figure fee, and then she really wouldn’t ‘financially be gaining’. It’s Palin logic. Like ‘winners always quit.’

Grassroots activists or sheep to the slaughter? No one seems to know for sure, and only a few more seem to care.

So thoroughly cowed by corporate interests are right-wingers that they might just think it’s a good thing, volunteering their time and giving their hard-earned pay and pensions to greedy people so that they can buy houses and cars with it. America!

I posted earlier on the ‘Tea Party Express’: a group who collected over a million dollars worth of teabaggers’ money only to hand two-thirds of it to the Republican consulting firm — Russo, Marsh and Associates — that created it.

That created howls of protest from the ‘Tea Party Patriots’. But, earlier, the TPPs were wrenched by their own factious squabbling after criticism over their fiscal goings-on.

“Why are the financial records not public knowledge?” [Merits] asked. “Show me the money!”

Eventually a Tea Party Patriots loyalist couldn’t take it anymore. “Why are you intentionally trying to destroy this movement??” he demanded.

And so it continues. Conservative blogger Melissa Clouthier has an expose on the ‘hot’ tea party organization, ‘Tea Party Nation’. They’re the ones who scored Sarah Palin giving the keynote address at their February 4-6 convention.

She blew off the larger, far more prestigious Conservative Political Action Committee meeting in favor of the ‘Tea Party Nation’ convention, giving the movement some cache. All it cost TPN were Palin’s fee and expenses, around $125,000. Apparently, the venerated CPAC doesn’t operate by paying its speakers six-figure sums.

But the coup did excite the TPN people. Their scheduled venue, the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, was too small for a Palin sighting. We should move it, right?

Well, these decisions come down to only person. Because it turns out the ‘Tea Party Nation’ is Tea Party Nation, INC., a company with a single owner. And Judson Phillips wasn’t having any of that ‘move it’ talk, he had bigger plans.

Excited organizers found out October 22 that Sarah Palin had chosen to speak to the party. During the meeting, local activists urged Phillips to change the venue so more people could attend as the space was so limited at Opryland. At that point in November, he had 60 days to change the venue but was afraid if he changed it, Palin wouldn’t come speak to the gathering, says one person familiar with the meeting.

When Judson Phillips suggested the $550 convention fee, some members were so aghast they got up and left the meeting.

At one point, fisticuffs nearly broke out, emotions ran so high. Those who had been in the bottom-up organization felt betrayed because the event excluded so many average people and many of the volunteers themselves couldn’t even afford to attend. Philips and his few supporters saw an opportunity to make money.

This meeting prompted many long-time Tea Party members to quit…

The decision was made to keep the conference, small, expensive and exclusive.

Phillips’ intentions were abundantly clear to the people familiar with TPN:

Tami Killmarx said that she heard Phillips say more than once, “I want to make a million from this movement.”

Killmarx wasn’t the only volunteer who suspected Phillips intentions were to gain personally. Jerry Williams who ran security for the Tea Party Nation gatherings from the groups inception until August when he resigned, and was slated to handle security at the February 2010 convention, said, “We have a situation that’s like a natural disaster. [Likening the American political climate to a disaster.] You’ve always got people out there who want to make a buck on it. This is the same thing. There’s people out there who want to jump on this Tea Party thing for their own interests. They’re not really worried about the country or the people.”

Phillips fired Killmarx. And some others. Virtually anybody who questions Phillips and his motives gets the axe. One firing:

Due to the events of last Saturday and your indiscretion in relation to the National Tea Party Convention, it is apparent that your loyalties and interests are not compatible with those of Tea Party Nation. It is for this reason I am requesting your resignation from the TPN Advisory Board. I will give you 24 hours to remove yourself from the group before I remove it myself.

Continue Reading »

No wonder it’s taking over the Republican Party, it’s populated with the same narcissists. Glory seekers, political opportunists, greed merchants and the like. Welcome to ‘reform’, right-wing style:

Majority Of Tea Party Group’s Spending Went To GOP Firm That Created It
Zachary Roth | December 28, 2009, 6:15PM

The political action committee behind the Tea Party Express (TPE) — which already has been slammed as inauthentic and corporate-controlled by rival factions in the Tea Party movement — directed almost two thirds of its spending during a recent reporting period back to the Republican consulting firm that created the PAC in the first place.

Our Country Deserves Better (OCDB) spent around $1.33 million from July through November, according to FEC filings examined by TPMmuckraker. Of that sum, a total of $857,122 went to Sacramento-based GOP political consulting firm Russo, Marsh, and Associates, or people associated with it…

…one expert on political action committees told TPMmuckraker it was unusual for a PAC to direct so much spending back to the entity that created it. And the spending details raised hackles among members of the Tea Party Patriots, a rival faction of conservative activists who have denounced TPE as a creature of Republican political professionals that lacks grassroots authenticity. In an email to a Patriots group that was obtained by TPMmuckaker, one TPPer who had examined the filings asked, “What would the true grassroots people think if they knew their money is being spent in this manner?”

..earlier…

Party Foul! Tea Partiers Eat Their Own In Bitter Internal Feud
Zachary Roth | November 12, 2009, 5:08PM

…”How much money does TPP have? How much did we make in DC? Where are the financial statements? Do board members get paid and if so who? Who signs the checks? Where does our money go?”

Merits echoed that theme. “Why are the financial records not public knowledge?” he asked. “Show me the money!”

Eventually a Tea Party Patriots loyalist couldn’t take it anymore. “Why are you intentionally trying to destroy this movement??” he demanded.

Charges of lax book-keeping — and worse — appear to be breaking out across the Tea Party movement. In a separate email written Wednesday and obtained by TPMmuckraker, Matt Perdue, the president of a San Antonio Tea Party group, ripped into the group’s treasurer, her husband, and their supporters for conducting a “mass redirection campaign,” apparently to line their own pockets using Tea Party donations.

“Where has all this money gone?” asks Perdue. “If there is nothing wrong going on, why has there not been one single piece of paper produced to back up why people got checks, some for $3,000, $7,400+, $4,000, $10,400+??? Where is the documentation? Why isn’t the cash deposited like it should be? Why did it take more than two weeks to deposit cash from the meetings?”…

Some TPPers expressed concern that the acrimony could damage the movement if exposed. “Daily Kos and other left wing interest groups are going to love running with this story,” wrote one.

Merits appeared to share that concern. “This will go public if we let it drag on long enough and if you don’t think this will have a chilling effect on all Tea Party movements raising funds you are living in a world of fairy dust and gingerbread houses,” he wrote. “Read my previous emails. If this goes on long enough, we all go down – NOT just TPP and TPE – ALL OF US.”

Thanks to Zachary Roth and TPMMuckraker.