Incertus - September 27, 2009 | 12:15 pm · Link

I clicked through to some of the wingnut sites via Memeorandum last night because I felt I hadn’t abused myself enough lately, and you can smell the fear there. It reminds me a little of the post Dr. Tiller murder with its “there’s no proof that this was a Beck-Bachmann-wingnut inspired murder” with a dose of “the Dems are doing an end zone dance over this” tossed in for good measure. They’re praying this is a case where a guy wandered into a meth lab, and not of some loon who bought into the mega-patriot talk.

Wilson Heath - September 27, 2009 | 12:18 pm · Link

I’ll go further back to Reagan. Government may not be the solution to all problems, but it isn’t the problem. The thing to remember is that the government is what we make it. If government is dysfunctional, it’s because we did something dumb in setting government to a problem, or more frequently these days, because it reflects some of our dysfunction. For example, the complete schizophrenia of fiscal policy, shown on the national level and on a smaller scale in California.

Government isn’t them. Government is us. That’s the design of the system.

MikeJ - September 27, 2009 | 12:22 pm · Link

and not of some loon who bought into the mega-patriot talk.

Wasn’t mcmegan taking bets that people carrying guns while proclaiming that “the tree of liberty must, etc, etc” were simply flaunting fashion accessories?

Perhaps she can pay off by donating to the Brady Campaign, named after another public servant who was never in any real danger according to her.

calipygian - September 27, 2009 | 12:23 pm · Link

Government isn’t them. Government is us. That’s the design of the system.

The Wingnuts have been spectacularly successful in portraying all non-DoD/non-intel service parts of the federal government (including the Marshalls Service and other armed agencies of the DoJ) as “them” and a delivery system of tax dollars to the undeserving “other”. It is deeply ingrained and I think a successful national health care program will go a long way to countering this, but there is a lot of work to be done.

Martin - September 27, 2009 | 12:25 pm · Link

Seems to me they should make more efforts to stop hurting or killing blacks, gays and federal workers.

Well, there are more than a few people inside academia that quietly blame Malkin for contributing to the suicide of the UCSC Chancellor a number of years back. If she and her readers didn’t take anything away from that tragedy, then there’s honestly no hope for them.

May the FBI kick all their doors in some day.

calipygian - September 27, 2009 | 12:26 pm · Link

@Mnemosyne:

Jesus, that’s horrible. Since when is it more dangerous to be a Department of Agriculture meat inspector than a Marine in Helmand province?

calipygian - September 27, 2009 | 12:30 pm · Link

@Brick Oven Bill:

If the Left is truly concerned about the radical fringe of American society becoming violent, they should urge the President to present his Birth Certificate. This would take 30 minutes and forever put aside the concerns of a significant percentage of American Citizens who are concerned about the Rule of Law. sit in diapers in playpens with the Fox News cranked to 11 while they eat their own feces and rail about Commie-Islamo-Social-Fascism.

Jesus BoB, you have any OTHER posts in your repetoir?

calipygian - September 27, 2009 | 12:32 pm · Link

And I have ZERO tolerance for “Rule of Law” arguments coming out of the mouths of right wing assholes after years of cheering Bush and Cheney conducting illegal surveillance.

Alien-Radio - September 27, 2009 | 12:35 pm · Link

Anti Government Terrorism should not be too broadly defined either, especially given the authoritarian streak in state security apparatus. poor, low information people are the ones suffering from the status quo, and it’s easy to brand them terrorists when they act out.

Thoughtcrime is a dangerous thing to legislate on.

calipygian - September 27, 2009 | 12:44 pm · Link

Not only was he a fed, he was Teh Ghey too!

On September 26th, 2009 at 4:57 pm, Mainah said: really not trying to prejudge anything here, but it sounds as if maybe this guy was enjoying some “private time” in the bed of his truck with someone, and that someone didnt like something that happened and got sick revenge. I would guess a DNA swab might be in order. Of course, it could be just about anything, but his clothes in the bed of his truck and tailgate down makes me wonder…

A million Daily Show/Colbert Report writer monkeys working 24/7 for a million years couldn’t make that shit up.

JR - September 27, 2009 | 12:47 pm · Link

You know, it used to be you had to do something seriously offensive, like register black people to vote or investigate church bombings, to get this kind of lynching. Now you just have to count people. Our domestic terrorists are really lowering their standards these days.

anonevent - September 27, 2009 | 12:48 pm · Link

BOB - as if. No one gets to kill another person just because they think the president is illigetimate. Period. That is why it would not help if Obama had some secret birth document. These people have no use for facts, just like we all know you don’t.

Demo Woman - September 27, 2009 | 12:57 pm · Link

In order to prove that Mohammed was not President Obama’s middle name, President Obama posted a copy of his birth certificate on his web site. He is the only candidate that did so. Now the Birthers don’t like the copy and want a new copy. The latest birther infomercial is sick.

MSM takes some of the blame for the hysteria surrounding a small percentage of our country.

Jen R - September 27, 2009 | 1:00 pm · Link

BOB, STFU.

Morbo - September 27, 2009 | 1:08 pm · Link

@calipygian: I would prefer to avoid looking at her comments on this type of post… The glibertarianism is likely to reach the threshold of pain.

Jason - September 27, 2009 | 1:08 pm · Link

@Brick Oven Bill:

It is very irresponsible for the President to allow these questions to remain hanging.

Oh I see what you did there. Cle-ver.

Demo Woman - September 27, 2009 | 1:13 pm · Link

I do think that Karen at the Moderate Voice is correct when she said Now, these details still do not tell us whether Starkman was killed because he was a Census worker, or whether he was killed because, in the course of doing his Census work, he happened to come upon an illegal activity. But they do make it crystal clear that Starkman’s killers wanted him to be found like that. Which means — obviously — that this was a message killing. It was a political statement — an act of terrorism.

BTW his name is Sparkman but her message is still strong.

asiangrrlMN - September 27, 2009 | 1:15 pm · Link

You know, I think I see the strategy of the right. Winning by sheer attrition of the opposition. I am tired and cranky and I just can’t deal with their shit today.

Martin - September 27, 2009 | 1:25 pm · Link

Roman Polanski was just arrested in Switzerland. I wonder if our tussle with the Swiss banks have had additional benefits.

Tim - September 27, 2009 | 1:32 pm · Link

Barack Obama, Michelle Bachman, and Terrorism

If the Left is truly concerned about the radical fringe of American society becoming violent, they should urge the President to present his Birth Certificate. This would take 30 minutes and forever put aside the concerns of a significant percentage of American Citizens who are concerned about the Rule of Law.

These concerns will not go away, and will likely grow louder, unless they are addressed.

There is nothing irresponsible about Michelle Bachman, and her active defense of the Constitution. It is very irresponsible for the President to allow these questions to remain hanging. He is the President of all Americans, not just his buddies.

You sir, are a complete tool. BO should not be required to take any actions that every other POTUS has not taken. I do not recall seeing a GWB birth cert released to everyone. Or one from Bill Clinton or any other President. In fact, the longer he desn’t do it, the more it makes the right-wing look like a bunch of out-of-touch assholes and I am OK with that.

Michelle Bachman’s marching orders to the lunatic fringe, that clearly includes yourself, are in fact contrary to the constitution. It is her that is inciting people to break the rule of law. It is her that is encouraging people to not pay taxes.

steve s - September 27, 2009 | 1:36 pm · Link

I just got a new (used) compy, about a week ago. I’m still getting all my programs, firefox addons etc installed and configured. Unfortunately, I just got exposed to some BOB birth certificate stuff in this thread and the wallop of stupidity was hard to take. Have to get to installing Cleek’s script again

http://ok-cleek.com/blogs/?p=2149

for those of you who don’t know about it.

Only problem is, it only hides the troll, not the endless troll-feeders.

NutellaonToast - September 27, 2009 | 1:40 pm · Link

@dmsilev: “My hat goes off to the few commenters on McMegan’s site fighting the good fight for sanity. Badly outnumbered by the wankers, they continue the struggle. Kudos.”

Some of us have been entirely too sucked into the vortex. Check my name-linky… It hurts.

JenJen - September 27, 2009 | 1:46 pm · Link

Oh good gawd, I could’ve done without reading McMeghan’s stupid opinion on this topic. So I see she’s taking the Malkin angle!

You know, a very dear friend of mine is an official with the Dept of Education, and you wouldn’t believe the letters he gets from loons about the Census just as a Constitutional issue included in curriculum.

Proving, once again, that Meghan has no earthly idea what she’s talking about. How many times do we have to go through this exercise?

The Grand Panjandrum - September 27, 2009 | 1:50 pm · Link

OT: Giants scored on this play, lead Bucs 14-0.

gnomedad - September 27, 2009 | 1:55 pm · Link

@asiangrrlMN:

You know, I think I see the strategy of the right. Winning by sheer attrition of the opposition. I am tired and cranky and I just can’t deal with their shit today.

Yeah, that’s about it. Keep flinging shit at the walls until the zookeepers get tired of hosing it down. Except I think it’s not so much a strategy as they just like doing it.

JenJen - September 27, 2009 | 2:08 pm · Link

@John S.:

Our old friend TallDave is over there, queering the thread as is his wont.

Oh, did that asshat used to comment over here, or something? This is one of my rare forays through he McMeghan comments section, and he’s a real stand-out!

dmsilev - September 27, 2009 | 2:08 pm · Link

@NutellaonToast: Yes, I saw your comments. I admire your tenacity; I used to do similar things a few years ago, but rapidly ran out of patience with the nonsense.

-dms

Surreal American - September 27, 2009 | 2:24 pm · Link

@Brick Oven Bill:

If the Left is truly concerned about the radical fringe of American society becoming violent, they should urge the President to present his Birth Certificate.

If President Obama does this merely to mitigate the impending violence you promise will happen, then the terrorists would win.

Fair is fair. If you keep repeating idiotic posts, I’m allowed to repeat my replies.

asiangrrlMN - September 27, 2009 | 2:30 pm · Link

@gnomedad: I agree. They do it because they love it. The attrition is just a happy bonus for them.

Still tired of their bullshit.

chris - September 27, 2009 | 2:35 pm · Link

Maybe McMegan can tell us whether the teabaggers are ok with Bachmann. That’s the more important question, isn’t it?

Alan - September 27, 2009 | 2:50 pm · Link

@RSA: I think that was Althouse’s take on the murder—that Starkman must have accidentally stumbled upon a meth lab, or something else criminal.

Of course it’s perfectly reasonable to expect criminal enterprises to taunt federal law enforcement authorities by lynching a census worker. Well, at least to RW hacks.

Chad N Freude - September 27, 2009 | 3:01 pm · Link

@Jason: Score!!

Nellcote - September 27, 2009 | 4:08 pm · Link

What happens when ultra-religious neocon Michele Bachmann co-hosts a town-hall meeting with anti-authority libertarian Ron Paul? Wingnut worlds collide. Maureen O’Connor reports.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/b.....hall-ever/

Pasquinade - September 27, 2009 | 4:32 pm · Link

Republicans On House Census Subcommittee Rebuke Bachmann’s Fearmongering As Illogical And Illegal

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has been bragging about the fact that she plans not to answer Census questions this year, which is a violation of federal law punishable with a fine up to $5,000. Bachmann has been mocked by Stephen Colbert and criticized harshly by the largest Minnesota newspaper for her conspiratorial stance.

Now, in the latest rebuke of her off-the-wall claims about the Census, three out of the four House Republicans on the subcommittee that oversees the Census have released a statement calling her boycott plan “llogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country”.

“Boycotting the constitutionally mandated Census is illogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country,” Reps. Patrick McHenry (N.C.), Lynn Westmoreland (Ga.) and John Mica (Fla.), members of the Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Achieves, said in a statement Wednesday.

Boots Day - September 27, 2009 | 5:08 pm · Link

Wow, when Patrick McHenry thinks you’re too far gone, you must really be off the hizzy.

Mika Brzezinski’s real americans don’t kill people : Galt Gone Wild - September 27, 2009 | 5:47 pm · Link

[...] The census worker murdered in KY seems like another one but Megan McArdle says so there’s no threat to census workers and it must be true. The Moderate Voice has an intersesting post on the tragic murder of a census worker in Clay County, Kentucky. The point is that anti-government terrorism should not be defined too narrowly. When Michelle Bachman says crazy things about census workers, her audience isn’t just official Tea Party members, it’s all kinds of weirdos and nuts. [...]

EscapeVelocity - September 27, 2009 | 6:32 pm · Link

To the OP,

You seem to be missing the regular and more numerous political violence on the Left.

Your plea for prosection would be more credible if you were serious about opposing political violence.

The terroist bombing plot targeting the GOP convention. Blowing up Star Bucks. Rioting at every WTO and G20/G8 meeting. Blowing up laboratories.

Perhaps if the Left, ditched their “No Enemies to the Left” policy and deradicalized Universities in which students are radicalized by New Left Radical Professors, then things wouldnt reach such a boiling point and stay there.

This is standard practice on the Left and has been since the 60s. They have created the political environment. The Right is a reaction to them and their tactics and strategies.

So perhaps a bit of reflection is in order, heh?

PS - The last bit of violence attributed to the Right was the vandalism of a Democrat politicians sign with a Swastika, which turned out to be a Leftwinger trying to villify Conservatives as hatefilled Nazis. Seems to me that he just proved the Left is full or violent radicals who stoop to such low brow tactics. Really, the Left needs to pull the beam out of its own eye, before getting whipped up into a violent frenzy over the mote in Conservatives eyes.

But alas…

steve s - September 27, 2009 | 8:53 pm · Link

I just learned that Megan McArdle grew up in Manhattan and lives in Washington DC.

That would explain why she says things like ‘teabaggers don’t dislike the census’. She has no firsthand knowledge of the retards she’s talking about.

Sentient Puddle - September 27, 2009 | 9:07 pm · Link

I read through the comments in McArdle’s thread yesterday, and it’s sort of mind-blowing. I don’t know if these guys are willingly performing mental gymnastics to rationalize the thought that this wasn’t a political murder, or if they’re really just wired like that.

That said, my favorite exchange. Starts out with this bit of nonsense:

However, the most likley explanation is that he was killed by someone that knew him (in homicides, this is usually the case) and the details that have everyone agitated were designed to mislead the investigation.

To which we get this great reply:

Sounds plausible. I know if I wanted to get away with murder I’d definitely want to stage it in with any eye toward attracting the scrutiny of federal investigators.

Which of course doesn’t seem to pass the smell test of the original poster:

Covering the motive might well be worth more than anything federal investigators bring to the show.

Right…

Ed Marshall - September 27, 2009 | 9:37 pm · Link

@EscapeVelocity:

The terroist bombing plot targeting the GOP convention.

consisted of a government snitch who encouraged a couple of kids to make molotov cocktails and then when they didn’t return the snitches calls to go bomb empty police cars, the police rousted them from bed where they had found some hippie girls to fornicate with instead of doing anything.

I don’t know why we get stuck with the animal rights people, but I don’t think any lab has ever been blown up. I remember someone from the ALF left a molotov cocktail on a doorstep where they thought a researcher lived. This one unexploded molotov led to the unanimous passage of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, funny I don’t remember a bunch of right wing bitching about thoughtcrime about it either.

On the other hand, anti-abortion terrorists alone have scored 41 bombings, 173 arsons, 91 attempted bombings or arsons, 619 bomb threats, 1264 incidents of vandalism, and 100 attacks with butyric acid.

Seriously, if Obama hasn’t riddled you morons with spies and agent provocateurs like the anti-war movement has had to put up I’m going to be seriously put out.

Sentient Puddle - September 27, 2009 | 9:43 pm · Link

@kay: Are we talking about the same case here? I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m referring to the death (and likely murder) of a census worker.

General Winfield Stuck - September 27, 2009 | 9:49 pm · Link

@EscapeVelocity:

When you escape and arrive at your Home Planet, please say hi to Malkin for me, and all the other crazy motherfuckers you run with.

kay - September 27, 2009 | 10:06 pm · Link

@General Winfield Stuck:

I’m afraid he was involved in assisting the feds in the criminal case. The voter fraud indictment must be based almost completely on witness testimony.
Then the “fed” makes sense to me, and the gruesome “warning” nature of the act makes sense, because 6 of the 7 pled not guilty and are presumably going to trial.
But. I don’t know. I do think the federal charges pending against small-town heavy-hitters changes the whole picture.

kay - September 27, 2009 | 10:31 pm · Link

@Sentient Puddle:

And, then, Sentient Puddle, the “targeted because census worker” doesn’t ring true to me, so I was looking for some other reason. Again, they knew him. He wasn’t a faceless “fed”. He lives there, and he has for a while, and he’s engaged in the community. There aren’t a lot of people. If you’re a boy scout leader and a teacher and a census worker you inevitably know a hell of a lot of locals.

EscapeVelocity - September 27, 2009 | 11:04 pm · Link

My post still stands.

And your leaping to smears still stands as well.

Look in the mirror folks.

pseudonymous in nc - September 28, 2009 | 12:55 am · Link

Read the Harper’s piece on the Daniel Boone National Forest. (If you’re not a subscriber, it’s worth the sub alone.) That part of the US is like the Af-Pak border: guns, drugs, illiteracy, poverty, tribalism, hatred of central government.

pseudonymous in nc - September 28, 2009 | 2:18 am · Link

@EscapeVelocity: go and book your monthly conjugal visit with Eric Rudolph, you piece of shit.

truculent and unreliable - September 28, 2009 | 9:41 am · Link

Speaking of con mental gymnastics, this was linked over at the Sadly, No! comments.

I think Riehl might have a mental illness.

binzinerator - September 28, 2009 | 7:20 pm · Link

@JR:

You know, it used to be you had to do something seriously offensive, like register black people to vote or investigate church bombings, to get this kind of lynching. Now you just have to count people.

It would seem to parallel the abstraction used in Ronald Reagan’s version of the GOP’s Southern strategy.

Lee Atwater described it like this:

“You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes… .”

It seems now even lynching-trigger events have been abstracted as well. Now the stand-ins are the actions of government agencies like the FDA, EPA, OSHAA, and now, the Census Bureau.

(I believe ACORN and unions are lumped in this as well.)

This is the legacy of modern conservatism. They’ve tried to hide the hate and bigotry of their base by shifting it to things tangential to the what they want to lash out at. And they’ve succeeded.

My theory is agencies like the Census Bureau do things that redneck fucktards perceive as 1) either resulting in benefits for people they hate or loss of privileges for themselves, or 2) protecting the kinds people they want to fuck over from being fucked over.

It’s gone to the next level beyond state’s rights and cutting taxes. With Norquist’s infamous quote about drowning the government in a bathtub the Right began to personify government—and fantasize about murdering it.

So the Census Bureau represents the worst of everything these shitlicking morons hate (and will be no doubt the eventual messenger of everything they hate), so counting people has become provocation enough.