These reads like someone who should be forced to go before Lieberman’s new citizenship board:
In the 1980s, King frequently traveled to Northern Ireland to meet with IRA members.[5] In 1982, speaking at a pro-IRA rally in Nassau County, New York, King said: “We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry.”[5][6] A Northern Irish judge ordered King ejected from the former’s courtroom, describing him as “an obvious collaborator with the IRA”.[5] He became involved with NORAID, an organization that the British, Irish and US governments accuse of financing IRA activities and providing them with weapons.[5][7][8][9] He was banned from appearing on British TV for his pro IRA views and refusing to condemn IRA activity in the UK.[5]
In 2000, he called then-presidential candidate George W. Bush a tool of “anti-Catholic bigoted forces.”[5]
He stopped supporting the IRA after being offended by Irish public opposition to the invasion of Iraq,[5] labelling it as begrudgery rather than suspicion of and opposition to the war.
In 2008, King spoke in defense of bail for a fugitive IRA member, Pól Brennan, who had escaped from prison in the UK and been detained in Texas 15 years later. The IRA member, who had broken out of prison during the Maze Prison escape and entered America illegally,[10] was being held without bail after his work permit expired; King said: “My experience dealing with (Irish) republicans is that they don’t jump bail in this country. They honor their commitments.”
That’s a lot of documented associations with bad guys! I know he’s an American Congressmen, but still.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Like they say. One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter.
TR
One man’s terrorist is another man’s douchebag.
Fuck this clown.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@TR:
Don’t shoot!. I am but a humble messenger.
Tom Hilton
In fairness to King, the IRA was never actually at war or threatening war with the United States, so they don’t really qualify.
Our homegrown militias, though–for example, the one those asshole Oklahoma state legislators were talking about forming to fight the Federal government–are clearly within the definition of groups fighting the United States.
micah616
Wait…are you saying that Peter King was pallin’ around with turrists? That’s unpossible. He’s not brown.
Midnight Marauder
Because of course he did.
Mumphrey
Answer: No.
Why, you ask? Well… Shut up, that’s why!
Violet
Is King a terrorist? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Anton Sirius
If we’re stripping people of their citizenship for giving aid and comfort to terrorists, then I demand we start with Dick Cheney.
socraticsilence
“In fairness to King, the IRA was never actually at war or threatening war with the United States, so they don’t really qualify.”
Normally, you be right, but normal this new America where we look to 24 for info, in this America I can cite Patriot Games- thus the IRA tried to kill Americans.
Mumphrey
You know, maybe this is kind of weird, but what really bothers me the most about conservatism in America is less the abhorrent things they say and do and believe–though they do bother me–than it is the amazing and brazen hypocrisy.
I mean, yeah, I do hate the homophobia and the way they tell the rest of us how to behave in our own bedrooms, and try to write laws to outlaw all kinds of consentual, harmless things that grown-up people do; but what makes it seem even worse somehow is that they’re diproportionally the ones who get caught having gay sex, or molesting their daughters, or paying whores for sex while wearing diapers.
Or they scream about deadbeat losers who leech off the taxes that hard-working (read: white) people pay, when red states in truth take more from the federal government than they pay in, while it’s the other way around for blue states (as a rule).
Or they rant about abortion, while working to exempt the Mariana Islands from workplace oversight, which leads not only to forced abortions, but also to businesses in the Northern Mariana Islands making workers (or slaves, if you like) get abortions after they’ve been raped. As Al Franken wrote, conservatives aren’t against abortion, they’re just against choice about abortion, whether it’s the choice to have an abortion or the choice not to.
It’s the same thing here. Sure, they’re all for coming down on perfectly blameless people who happen to know the wrong people–but only if they’re the wrong wrong people.
I don’t think they’d be nearly as loathesome if they were only not so two-faced about everything. I mean, it’s one thing to be wrong; we’re all wrong, sometimes. It’s that they give themselves the right to break their own rules at will, while withholding from us the right to break those same rules.
burnspbesq
I have a slightly different take here, because my ancestors came to this country as refugees from the English genocide of 1847-49.
Peter King is a dick in spite of his support for the Republican cause in Ulster, not because of it.
The Pale Scot
UP the RA!!
Leelee for Obama
@burnspbesq: As a former Long Islander, may I just tell you that Peter King is one of most obnoxious critters in the Congress. He was not my Critter, but LI is fairly small and you get to know these shitheads, even if they aren’t your Rep. His support for the IRA made me sick, and I am Irish as Paddy’s pig. I used to get the fund-raising calls all the time, ostensibly for camps for the poor kids in Northern Ireland to get them out of the line of fire. I used to donate through a group I trusted and tell the phone callers to stop shooting and blowing shit up and there wouldn’t be any line of fire to get the kids out of. They did not appreciate me. Wonder why?
There is something fucked up about a country where David Obey is retiring and Peter King will stay in Congress until he drools, or maybe longer.
Florida Cynic
A member of the GOP supporting a communist terrorist organization? That’s impossible! I mean, just a small amount of intellectual consistency would prove that . . .
Oh, wait. Never mind.
Svensker
@Leelee for Obama:
Hasn’t he always done that?
Leelee for Obama
@Svensker: Well, he does compete with Tweety in the spitting while he talks department. Is that an Irish guy thing? I never noticed guys in my family doing that, but still!
El Cid
I believe Oliver North, briber of Iranians and Latin American death squad buddy, is still an American citizen.
Comrade Kevin
@burnspbesq:
My parents came here from Ireland, and sorry, he is indeed a dick because of his support for the IRA. I have relatives in Northern Ireland now, who have had to put up with the IRA’s bombing campaign. They didn’t, and don’t, care who they blew up.
Fuck you.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Tom Hilton:
Excuse me? They were waging war and killing the citizens of the most loyal ally that the US has ever had, ever! You excuse them? WTF?
Peter J
So, he’s supporting an illegal alien? And he doesn’t seem to care very much about that special bond between the US and the UK.
The republicans should be looking into building a wall between the US and Northern Ireland.
burnspbesq
@Comrade Kevin:
And the Protestants are nothing but choirboys and Boy Scouts, right?
Fuck you right back.
Comrade Kevin
@burnspbesq:
Excuse me? Did I say that anywhere? No, I did not. You were the one making excuses for the IRA. I have made excuses for nobody.
Here is a collection of information about the history of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Just look at the number of innocent bystanders killed by terrorist groups on both sides.
Armchair IRA supporters like you, who can sit back in the USA and cheer them on with no consequences to you, make me sick.
Fuck off.
Corner Stone
@TR:
Why would a man need a douchebag?
Annamal
Yes because 150 year old atrocities are worth blowing up innocent people ( considering the very recent dire civil rights history in the States as well as your appalling treatment of the original inhabitants of your country I’d think you would be a little more circumspect in deciding who gets blown up over what).
Mumphrey
@Corner Stone:
Well, assuming the “other man” is a Republican, I’m sure he could find some need to fill…
Cynicor
As a CURRENT resident of Pete King’s district, let me just say sorry. We put up a really good fight in 2006, but couldn’t even dislodge him then.
He sends out his Congressional mailers every couple of months. He talks about his work against terrorism, but in EVERY case he uses the modifier “Islamic.”
It’s well beyond just his support for the IRA that makes him a dick. He was the only member of Congress brave enough to speak out against Michael Jackson after he died. He said that Baghdad was as safe as NYC. He also called for racial profiling at airports a few years back. Because someone who looks like Gerry Adams would never be a terrorist. That Republican candidate’s ad in Florida? Nothing new for King.
oklahomo
@Tom Hilton: Not only are they assholes but idiots. The last thing Oklahoma militias need is someone stirring them up on purpose, or making them think they are somehow legitimate in the public’s eyes. Google “Elohim City” if you’ve never heard of it. You’d think after the OKC bombing our lawmakers would realize that, but noooooo. Talk about playing with fire.
Andrew Pulrang
Yeah, but everyone knows terrorists are swarthy, crazy-talking A-rabs. The IRA guys are white, and sing lovely sentimental songs about their struggle, so that’s okay.
I’m reminded of a quote from “The West Wing”. The British Ambassador is explaining to Toby why a prominent IRA-linked politician must not be invited to a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the White House. He says something like, “A terrorist is a terrorist, even if he wears a green blazer and sings ‘Danny Boy’.”
I’m not making a profound statement here about how terrorism in general should be dealt with … the King example just proved that even on something as serious as terrorism, double standards and poorly hidden motives abound.
asiangrrlMN
No. SATSQ. Not brown? Doesn’t matter. Nothing to see here.
@Mumphrey: I’m with you. With the conservatives, it’s all about telling other people what to do, but thinking they are above it themselves. It’s a matter of control–they want to have it and they want not for the peons to have it. The sheer arrogance of their hypocrisy makes everything they say twice as unpalatable.
vaux-rien
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I don’t think he was making an excuse, just referring to the wording of Lieberman’s proposal. I think if this asshole were still advocating as strongly as he were in the 80s he’d be violating the patriot act anyway but Lieberman did make that distinction for his “deport them to limbo” program.
TuiMel
@Annamal:
This.
maus
@Peter J: It’s not illegal to be white, duh.
Also, I bet the same people who are somehow defending this also thought the actions in Waco were justified.
fucen tarmal
first of all, regardless of where your sympathies may lie, my travels and studies have told me that the best thing americans can do for both sides in northern ireland, is stay out of it…
well meaning and and otherwise, americans have prolonged and made more violent the conflicts. its the hole theory, time to stop digging.
i will say, the english record for atrocities around the globe isn’t as well known, or as instantly associated with brittish history and culture as it ought to be, however, can we as americans really say we aren’t trying to outrun our own legacy?
seriously, when do we stop being the ones who stole the red man’s land, and thought we owned the black man? when are germans no longer nazi’s? when will the russians stop being soviet? and when do you accept that, protestant descendants of the plantation of ulster have been there a pretty long fucking time. lets see someone advocate giving manhattan back(sober).
i am in part a descendant of both sides, (who happened to meet in america, and much to my personal benefit, tried to fuck out their differences) so i can’t see anyone who has the right to speak with such purity, especially here.
M. Bouffant
Is this like a death panel?
The Pale Scot
I have to dig out the BBC doc “Provos and put the clip up on utube.
The outbreak of violence was instigated by the prods; there a BBC doc “The Provos, The Loyalists and The Brits” that lays it out. the Catholics saw what Martin Luther was doing and started conducting peaceful marches. There is a clip that shows Ian Trimble standing next to a march and screaming that the marchers were advocating violence. A couple Catholics were shot down soon after. The IRA at time was mostly marxist eggheads waiting for the historical “dialectic” to come. They were thrown out on their asses and a new generation of “hard men” took over and started shooting and bombing themselves.
You can torrent the doc or watch it on Google
You’ll find that the Loyalists are the same Calvinist, fundamentalist cretins we have here.
Mayur
@The Pale Scot:
Now that is an amusing typo…
Tom Hilton
@Litlebritdifrnt: I don’t excuse the IRA, for whom I have a good deal of contempt. I’m just saying they don’t qualify, under the standards articulated by Lieberman, as a group whose members would be stripped of their citizenship under this law.