Sorry, Right-Wing Talkers. Loughner's Rampage Was A Clear Act of Political Terrorism Directed At ...

[Hissyspit]

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/sorry-right-wing-talkers-loughners-r

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January 17, 2011 10:00 AM

Sorry, right-wing talkers. Loughner's rampage was a clear act of political terrorism directed at a liberal 'government' target

By David Neiwert

- snip -

The running line is that liberals who dared point out that vicious right-wing rhetoric directed at people like Giffords played a role in this "jumped to conclusions" before "the evidence was in". We think they may want to look in the mirror -- because as the evidence comes in, it's looking more and more like those liberals were right all along.

- snip -

Let's review just the facts we already had in hand, even before this weekend:

-- Loughner self-identifies as a terrorist. (See the videos he left behind; in our version, the page in which he identifies himself as a "terrorist" is at the 1:00 mark).

- snip -

Actually, as we explained to Jennifer Rubin, not only is it violent, the violence is well documented, as has been the role of right-wing extremist rhetoric in inspiring the violence. We document 19 cases of extremist domestic-terror violence just in the past two and a half years; this does not even begin to take into account the litany of criminal violent threats against liberals in the past year.

- snip -


One of Loughner's friends, a fellow named Zach Osler, says that the internet movie Zeitgeist “poured gasoline on his fire” and had “a profound impact on Jared Loughner's mindset and how he views the world that he lives in.”

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[GSLevel9]

1. that articles a stretch... period. nt

[Johnny2X2X]

2. a List please

I'd really like the list of those 19 incidents. I am always debating Conservatives online and that list will be useful.

[Omaha Steve]

4. This one I think

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/terror-arizona-just-another-isolated

Snip

Just in the past two and a half years, here's the record of "isolated incidents" amassed so far:

-- July 2008: A gunman named Jim David Adkisson, agitated at how "liberals" are "destroying America," walks into a Unitarian Church and opens fire, killing two churchgoers and wounding four others.

-- October 2008: Two neo-Nazis are arrested in Tennessee in a plot to murder dozens of African-Americans, culminating in the assassination of President Obama.

-- December 2008: A pair of "Patriot" movement radicals -- the father-son team of Bruce and Joshua Turnidge, who wanted "to attack the political infrastructure" -- threaten a bank in Woodburn, Oregon, with a bomb in the hopes of extorting money that would end their financial difficulties, for which they blamed the government. Instead, the bomb goes off and kills two police officers. The men eventually are convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.

-- December 2008: In Belfast, Maine, police discover the makings of a nuclear "dirty bomb" in the basement of a white supremacist shot dead by his wife. The man, who was independently wealthy, reportedly was agitated about the election of President Obama and was crafting a plan to set off the bomb.

-- January 2009: A white supremacist named Keith Luke embarks on a killing rampage in Brockton, Mass., raping and wounding a black woman and killing her sister, then killing a homeless man before being captured by police as he is en route to a Jewish community center.

-- February 2009: A Marine named Kody Brittingham is arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate President Obama. Brittingham also collected white-supremacist material.

-- April 2009: A white supremacist named Richard Poplawski opens fire on three Pittsburgh police officers who come to his house on a domestic-violence call and kills all three, because he believed President Obama intended to take away the guns of white citizens like himself. Poplawski is currently awaiting trial.

-- April 2009: Another gunman in Okaloosa County, Florida, similarly fearful of Obama's purported gun-grabbing plans, kills two deputies when they come to arrest him in a domestic-violence matter, then is killed himself in a shootout with police.

-- May 2009: A "sovereign citizen" named Scott Roeder walks into a church in Wichita, Kansas, and assassinates abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.

-- June 2009: A Holocaust denier and right-wing tax protester named James Von Brunn opens fire at the Holocaust Museum, killing a security guard.

-- February 2010: An angry tax protester named Joseph Ray Stack flies an airplane into the building housing IRS offices in Austin, Texas. (Media are reluctant to label this one "domestic terrorism" too.)

-- March 2010: Seven militiamen from the Hutaree Militia in Michigan and Ohio are arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate local police officers with the intent of sparking a new civil war.

-- March 2010: An anti-government extremist named John Patrick Bedell walks into the Pentagon and opens fire, wounding two officers before he is himself shot dead.

-- May 2010: A "sovereign citizen" from Georgia is arrested in Tennessee and charged with plotting the violent takeover of a local county courthouse.

-- May 2010: A still-unidentified white man walks into a Jacksonville, Fla., mosque and sets it afire, simultaneously setting off a pipe bomb.

-- May 2010: Two "sovereign citizens" named Jerry and Joe Kane gun down two police officers who pull them over for a traffic violation, and then wound two more officers in a shootout in which both of them are eventually killed.

-- July 2010: An agitated right-winger and convict named Byron Williams loads up on weapons and drives to the Bay Area intent on attacking the offices of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, but is intercepted by state patrolmen and engages them in a shootout and armed standoff in which two officers and Williams are wounded.

-- September 2010: A Concord, N.C., man is arrested and charged with plotting to blow up a North Carolina abortion clinic. The man, 26-year--old Justin Carl Moose, referred to himself as the "Christian counterpart to (Osama) bin Laden” in a taped undercover meeting with a federal informant.

The Giffords shooting brings the tally to 19 total cases of domestic-terrorism inspired by right-wing extremism in the past couple of years. Oh, excuse me: I meant to say "isolated incidents". Because that is how each of these cases was treated -- and how they continue to be reported by the mainstream media, particularly at Fox, which generally does not report on them at all.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. Thanks

I actually listed just a handful of these and some other threats in a thread on a site I frequent. That list and confronting them with common sense actually made several staunch and intelligent Conservatives concede the point to me that there are a lot more violent extremists on the Right and that maybe the Rhetoric on the Right shares some blame.

[NuclearDem]

3. Except that Loughner was neither a right-wing or left-wing terrorist

He was just a nut obsessed with conspiracy theories who had a bone to pick with Giffords.

Could be he'd never even SEEN the crosshairs map...or maybe he obsessed over it. Whatever the case, it seems like he was a mentally-disturbed individual who had some insane ideas.

[Motown_Johnny]

6. having a mental illness does not mean you can't also be a RWer

in fact it may help





More to the point, the OP says it was directed against a liberal. It does not say it was perpetrated by a conservative, you are making that leap.

[NuclearDem]

7. I thought left-wingers had made that leap already...

[Motown_Johnny]

13. some have, some haven't. I was speaking directly to the OP

any your inaccurate response to it

[Stargazer99]

8. when he muttered about the gold standard

it told me RWer because that is what I hear from the right wing not the left wing
He is a RW with that language as I hear it from the RW constantly. Keep kidding yourself

[Johnny2X2X]

9. Oh come on now

Yeah, he was a Anti Immigration, Anti Government, Pro English Speaking, Pro Gold Standard, Ayn Rand fanatic, Gun Nut LIBERAL who happened to shoot up a room full of Democrats after he targeted a Democratic Congress Woman. Typical bleeding heart liberal. ;^)

If you've ever read Ayn Rand or Nietsche for that matter you could see their influence in his rants. He believed he was superior.

[Statistical]

11. He was also anti-war (called them illegal) and anti-Bush.

He believed the government was controlling people via language and grammar.
He began writing Giffords when she failed to answer the questions "What use is government if words have no meaning?"
He was anti capitalist and believe that corporations were controlling people.
He was anti federal reserve and believed the govt controlled people though currency. He advocated creating his own currency.
He believed he could avoid govt brainwashing through waking sleepwalking.
He thought students at his college would never understand the internal universe because they couldn't see the external universe.
He was (according to close friends) profoundly influenced by the movie Zeitgeist (an off the charts conspiracy everything wacko movie).

His belief ranged all over the map and can't be placed in any neat box. It is typical of schizophrenics. They make up their own reality. To pretend he is a RWer is to simply pick up on one or two facts and disregard the dozens of other signs.

[Motown_Johnny]

14. Isn't Ron Paul anti-war, calling them illegal?

and as for being anti-Bush, they guy is crazy but even crazy people can see what a piece of crap Bush was/is.

[Statistical]

10. Delete

[Upton]

12. I'm still waiting to see the evidence..

and Giffords is considered a Blue Dog, not a "liberal"..

This is a mental health issue. Why do so many people keep trying to make this into something it's not?