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    Liberals Disappointed that Pentagon Gunman Was Not a Right-Wing Extremist

    By Michael Wolraich on Fri, 03/05/2010 - 11:33am | Politics, Humor & Satire

    After their slam dunk with anti-tax kamikaze Andrew Joseph Stack, liberals hoped to rack up more political points with another right-wing act of terror. When the news broke of a gunman loose in Washington, breathless liberal bloggers and political email spammers burst into action.

    According to blog enthusiast cheneyMUSTdie, who subscribes to over 1500 blogs and frequently posts the same comment on each of them: "OMG TEH WINGNUTS ARE KILLING AGAIN!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!"

    The first sign that liberal hopes would go unfulfilled was the target of the attack. The gunman had attempted a frontal assault on the Pentagon, an atypical choice among right-wing terrorists.

    According to Dr. Hannibal Venkman, Professor of Psycho-Politics at Georgetown University,

    The selection of a high profile military institution, such as the Pentagon, would be very unusual for a conservative extremist. Conservatives tend to prefer nondescript bureaucratic offices in remote locations, accessible by van or light aircraft. The Pentagon is more popular among Islamic terrorists and the fictional masterminds of evil spy agencies.

    Typical of the new breed of domestic terrorist, the gunman, J. Patrick Bedell, published his heartfelt opinions on the Internet, carefully concealing his identity under the screen name "JPatrickBedell." Bedell had developed a revolutionary theory of "information currency" to prove that the apparent suicide by Colonel James Sabow in 1991 was in fact a CIA assassination to cover up its involvement in the drug trade. He continued:

    My desire for justice led me to violate what I think is one of the most unjust laws, cannabis prohibition, by growing 16 cannabis plants on my balcony in Irvine, CA from March 2006 to June 2006.

    According to Professor Venkman, civil disobedience through cannabis production is almost unheard of on the right. It is more commonly used by antiestablishment college students to "rationalize their pot habits."

    Some liberals have not given up. A progressive blogger at TeaFarty.com argued that the JPatrickBedell blog had been faked by "right-wing CIA-backed Teabaggers to cover up the cover up of Colonel Sabow's alleged suicide."

    Conservatives, for their part, reacted with relief. Right-wing blogger RedButNotInASocialistWay sighed, "I don't think that I could have gone to bat for yet another homicidal maniac so soon after the last one."

    Topics: 
    Politics
    Humor & Satire

    Comments

    I dig the direction you're going here, G, but I don't think the story really bears the satire out.  If you listen to this dude's manifesto, he's pretty solidly an anti-government libertarian.  It's all about private property rights are sacred above all else, central banking is the rool of all evil and how dare the government teach their socialist propaganda in schools.  The libertarian hatred for pot prohibition might seem like a Berkeley standby, but it's really just an overlap with the left based entirely on the same anti-government rhetoric.  BTW, these types are very common out here in California.  I know plenty of them, but they're anything but left-wing.  Neither was this guy.

    Manifesto can be heard here.

    Or maybe I'm just totally missing your humor here.  Bonus point for Dr. Venkman either way.

    "Back off man.  I'm a scientist."


    by DF on Fri, 03/05/2010 - 5:04pm

    I didn't know about the property rights claims when I wrote the post, so I accept the qualification, but I stand by the satire. In my research, I've been reading about the sheer joy that Rush Limbaugh evinces when writing, for instance, about blacks kids beating up on white kids, and the liberal response to possible right wing terrorism strikes me as an example of the same phenomenon--political vindication through exploitation of criminal acts.


    by Michael Wolraich on Fri, 03/05/2010 - 6:07pm

    Sure, and I dig that you're firing in that direction, but everything I've read about this guy screams libertarian nutbar.  Sadly, he fit the stereotype all too well - much as Joe Stack did.

    To that end, I think equating it with the actions of Limbaugh that you've described is a bit of a reach for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Limbaugh is entirely projecting politics onto the black kids/white kids scenario.  These men politicized their acts entirely on their own.  There is no need to caricature their acts as political in nature.  You can reach the conclusion that they were right-wing extremists without one whit of projection simply by taking them at their word.

    Now, that doesn't make them Republican or even conservative necessarily.  And people who want to paint the entire GOP with that brush are fine fodder for the pillory.  However, there seems to be a pattern over the last year, not entirely unlike the rash of this stuff we saw during the Clinton administration, that requires some scrutiny.  Think back to the widely panned DHS report warning of the same - panned, I'm sure you'll recall, most vocally by those who have been most active in fomenting this sort of thing.  It's a pattern that was predicted and one that we ignore, or laugh away, at a cost.


    by DF on Fri, 03/05/2010 - 6:27pm

    Yeah, I hear you. I've been having an email debate with a friend who has been making the same point, and I know the DHS report well. I don't have a coherent answer right now, but I'm chewing on it.

     


    by Michael Wolraich on Sat, 03/06/2010 - 11:57am

    Another thought I had was that, from the perspective of your current project, this type of thing seems to fit the mold.  Perhaps the timing was just arbitrary.  Maybe this guy could just as easily have gone off the reservation a couple of years ago.  And maybe Stack's timing had more to do with being audited than anything else.  But like Dr. C pointed out, it's a bit much to feel persecuted when you own your own plane (actually, two planes in Stack's case).

    It could be that these events, and other similar events like the shooting at the holocaust museum, are isolated incidents, but it does seem like there could be a patten to all this just like it seemed to be a pattern in the 90s.  Is it simply having Democrats in power?  I don't know, but all of this Tea Party stuff in the face of what is in fact a lower tax burden for most Americans sure makes me wonder.


    by DF on Sat, 03/06/2010 - 1:47pm

    This is what I'm wresting with. There's no question that the political context affects the right-wing media rhetoric and that the right-wing media rhetoric affects the behavior of individuals, but the violent incidents are so few and so particular that I think it's hard to conclude that any particular incident is connected to media rhetoric and the political context without concrete associations. The guy who shot the cop in Pittsburgh because he thought that Obama wanted to take his guns was a pretty clear cut case of media influence. Stack and Bedell, much less so. In my opinion, Van Brunn, the Holocaust museum shooter, is a counter example. The guy has been a violent paranoic for decades. His first terrorist action--an attempted abduction of Federal Reserve Board members--took place in 1981 under Reagan.


    by Michael Wolraich on Sat, 03/06/2010 - 11:48pm

    Yeah, it definitely becomes complicated when you consider these incidents individually.  Bedell seems to have been deeply disturbed, possibly even to the level of paranoid schizophrenia.  Stack's battle with paying his taxes went back decades.  Is there something about right now that pushed either of these guys over the edge?  That's difficult to say.


    by DF on Sun, 03/07/2010 - 3:30pm

    I don't know the details of the tax code or recent bills, but if Stack owned two planes isn't it possible he fit into one of those poor little rich kids who would actually be paying more taxes under Obama?


    by Nebton on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 8:51am

    I suppose it's possible.  I know neither enough about the current tax code nor his personal financial situation to make that determination.  However, I can say that all of the Tea Party rancor seems just a bit ironic given the facts.


    by DF on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 10:09pm