I am disgusted to see Joseph Stack being transformed into a “freedom fighter” by Fox News, and his story thus being dutifully reported by the “liberal” mainstream media.
Why are media outlets publicizing the rants of this psychotic? I find it appalling that his deranged ramblings are being discussed at all. Responsible news outlets don’t publish suicide notes. They don’t publish ransom notes.
The frighteningly explicit framing of this by Fox News and Scott Brown, discussed elsewhere here, is just one example of how the rightwing is advancing a terrorist agenda.
The tragedy in Austin has far more in common with the 2001 murder of 7 co-workers by Michael McDermott. I don’t recall any elected officials or commentators eliciting sympathy for his “anger”, did I miss that?
Sorry, folks, but there is a violent rightwing agenda. The Teabaggers are leading the way. Violent incidents against women’s health clinics continue. Violent incidents against contraceptive providers continue. Now, a delusional psychotic who flies an airplane into a public building (killing at least one innocent worker) is being framed as a hero.
We do not need a debate about the contents of his rantings. We should not begin to explain this as “taxpayer anger”, even a little bit.
There are terrorists among us. They come from the right, not the left, and they are being encouraged by Fox News. These extremists are thugs. The ugly passions of this mob are being fanned by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Scott Brown, and their ilk.
It’s time we start saying so.
She shot up her colleagues over not getting tenure, not to make a political point. That being said, I’m a little uncomfortable pinning this act in Austin on anyone but the perpretrator himself.
My point is that the act in Austin is just that — the psychotic act of a disturbed individual. That’s why I think that the contents of his delusional rants are of no more interest than the similarly delusional rants of Michael McDermott, or — for that matter — the verbal diarrhea of the whackos familiar to frequent MBTA riders.
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p>In my view, the problem is the attempt by Fox News and the rightwing to turn this disturbed man into a “freedom fighter.”
that would better fit those subway denizens is logorrhea. It doesn’t so readily conjure up a particularly nauseating image.
… or equivocating about what she did?
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p>The difference between who this was handled by the Liberals and how Stack was handled by Conservatives with a mic. Insinuating otherwise is heading into ‘everything is equivalent’-land.
Which was clearly evident in 2006 when Pelosi sent me a thank you and an outline of the agenda. This included HR 1, a bogus terrorism bill. Bogus because “we” did 911. “We” then invaded two totally irrelevant countries. “We” then embarked upon the unrelenting path toward third world dictatorship.
Watch for far more Joe Stacks just like Ed and Elaine Brown before Joe.
Read the manifesto.
It’s about Fox News promoting Joe Stack as a “freedom fighter.”
Stack is a TeaBagger
“He’s yours!”
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p>”No, he’s yours!”
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p>”Yours and no backsies!”
Joe Stack is a delusional killer. I have no clue what his political beliefs are, nor do I care. I won’t read his manifesto, and when you encourage this discussion you essentially promote domestic terrorism.
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p>The attention given him in the media and here is essentially voyeuristic exploitation. In my view, the only appropriate response for someone like Scott Brown or any of the commentators is something along the lines of “My sympathies go to the victims of this terrible tragedy. Next question?”
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p>Period. End of story.
Stack’s actions do not necessarily nullify valid points to his manifesto, nor does his message having apparently been co-opted by right-wing talking heads with a lack of reading comprehension skills necessarily make his message a terribly right wing one itself.
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p>Personally, my belief is that his manifesto raises (or very well ought to raise) questions about a dilemma we find ourselves in: Namely, that of how the regressive tax regime in the midst of this recession makes making a living painful if not often impossible.
Your response demonstrates the behavior I write about. Oh, and nobody but you mentioned “Unabomber”.
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p>I have not and will not discuss the content of his logorrhea (thank you, kirth).
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p>You are, in essence, framing him as a freedom fighter.
I “frame” him as no such thing.
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p>What I do not do: rhetorically demolish and erase the man.
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p>Reminds me how folks were just leaping at the chance to trash Greg Levey.
If I my rhetoric is intended to “demolish” and “erase” anyone, it is you — not Joseph Stack. It seems clear enough from widely-established facts that Mr. Stack is either criminally insane or simply criminal; nobody disputes that he flew an airplane into a office building. I’ve written nothing more and nothing less about Joseph Stack beyond that essentially factual observation.
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p>My rhetoric is aimed at Fox Noise, Scott Brown, and folks like (apparently) you, who claim that this tragic episode — for example — “raises (or very well ought to raise) questions about a dilemma we find ourselves in: Namely, that of how the regressive tax regime in the midst of this recession makes making a living painful if not often impossible.”
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p>Wrong. Fail. The only questions this episode raises are along the lines of “Why are treatment options so limited for deeply disturbed persons like Joseph Stack and Amy Bishop?” or “How did the people who love them fail to recognize the disorders that made Joseph Stack and Amy Bishop so dangerous to themselves and others?”
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p>When you, instead, attempt to move the discussion to anything about things like “the regressive tax regime”, you cast Joseph Stack as a freedom fighter and in so doing promote his brand of domestic terrorism. You also abuse the grief and pain suffered by the loved ones of Joseph Stack and his victims — you attempt to exploit that grief to advance your own selfish political agenda.
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p>So let me be as clear as I know how to be: my attack is against your words and your rhetoric. I have nothing to say about Joseph Stack.
Folks like John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute?
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p>http://www.lewrockwell.com/ori…
and I believe we’re doing ourselves a disservice when, in our failure to see how tax regimes of the state – for instance – truly do push people to their breaking points, we permit even people like Whitehead to sound almost rational and reasonable. I can well understand your sense of outrage over what Stack had done – and you’re fully justified in it – but he wrote what he wrote, and its hitting a nerve with people whether you’re willing to face that fact or not.
You can find it, or what appears to be it, here.
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p>It doesn’t sound like the work of a “right winger” as the term is normally used:
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p>and:
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p>I think Andrew Sullivan has a better analysis:
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p>And he also makes a better point about Fox:
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that Stack doesn’t fit the classic Scott Roeder/Tim McVeigh/Eric Rudolph mold of the right-wing American terrorist. However, on the one hand, he was unquestionably engaged in terrorism: using violence against civilians in furtherance of a political agenda is precisely the definition of terrorism, and his “manifesto” is explicit about his hopes that his actions would touch off a populist revolution. And on the other hand, I took BrooklineTom to be addressing not Stack’s actual beliefs or intent, but the way the right-wing media has been portraying him, and I agree with him that that is an important issue.
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p>I was actually expecting the Becks, Limbaughs et al. to start in right away yelling that Stack’s reference to communism and condemnation of George W. Bush were proof positive that liberals were the real terrorists, but perhaps the fact that he attacked the IRS specifically overrides that in their minds.
Cosmo Boy, Senator Scott Brown and that again – the naked truth.
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p>Impeach Senator Scott Brown !
There better is a Hell for Joseph Stack the American Terrorist Murderer and now his daughter who is defended her evil father.
With any luck she will put a gun in her mouth and blow her brains ,,,, if she ever had any – clear the air of the Stack vermin from the earth.
Americans — of all political stripes — are better than this talk. And if they aren’t, then America’s very different than what it needs to be.
Here I think is a valid, appropriate, and politically astute way to handle this issue.
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p>Congress should put to a vote a statement honoring the service, dedication, and professionalism of IRS employees in general and the Vernon Hunter in particular. Force the GOP to officially go on the record – let them decide if they can support federal employees who work very hard at doing their jobs or they want to side with the anti-tax crazies.
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A Veitnam Veteran on Two Tours of Duty.
May you Rest In Peace and Thank You for your contribution to this country.
For cleaning up the thread.