Being a strong believer in keeping an eye on your opposition, I subscribe to the Tea Party Nation's emails. They are usually pretty predictable, but today's missive was rather amusing and revealing. If you want to know your opposition it is a good idea to understand who they think their enemies really are and why.
The TPN announced their 2010 list of Liberal Hate Groups. As they explained:
While the Left loves to accuse the Tea Party and Conservatives to be members of hate groups, the simple fact is, there are a lot of liberal hate groups.
What, no attempt at all at rebuttal, just an immediate move to deflect and distract with counter allegations? Hmmm. So, who are the Top 5 Liberal HATE Groups?
- NAACP
- SEIU
- ACLU
- The Department of Homeland Security
- SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center)
To all those kossacks who are disappointed about DKos not making the list, there's always, next year.
In an effort to know and better understand the opposition, there's more on their rationales for their picks and some reality over the jump.
#5 The NAACP seems to have gotten this honor for hurting TPN's feelings by calling a number of their leaders and members racist. They don't seem to like that.
- NAACP. Earlier this year, the NAACP released a report called Tea Party Nationalism. The report, which was hilariously inaccurate, tried to claim the Tea Party was a racist group. The NAACP, and its members have repeatedly made claims such as calling the Tea Party the 21st Century version of the KKK. Shelia Jackson Lee, who is the NAACP resident hate monger, stated ... "all of those who wore sheets a long time ago have taken them off and wear Tea Party clothing." The NAACP has never repudiated her attacks or any of their other silly attacks. To the NAACP, anyone to the right of Karl Marx is a racist.
You can read the report with the link above, but there is an on-line user friendly site that allows you to more quickly access information. It contains discussions about who the leaders and their associates are in the Tea Party Movement; as well as, 3rd party poll data that certainly helps explain the racist signs they have at their rallies:
A striking difference over positive attitudes towards black people showed up in a multi-state poll, conducted in March 2010, by the University of Washington ... Of those who strongly disapproved of the Tea Party, 55% agreed with the statement that black people were "VERY hard working." Of those who strongly approved of the Tea Party, only 18% agreed with the statement that black people were "VERY hard working." This 24-point difference pointed at Tea Party supporters as more likely to have negative feelings about the work ethic of black people.
BTW Googling images for "tea party racist signs" I got 775,000 hits and you can take a look at them here. Warning: I don't recommend drinking coffee if you plan on going there and keeping your screen clean.
As for whether or not what Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said was inaccurate and hateful, there was a diary on this event by paradocs. But for me, if looks like a duck and quacks like a duck and polls like a duck, then I'm inclined to think there's a number of ducks among the chickens.
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#4. The SEIU was next up. According to the Tea Party Nation:
Andrew Stern, the former President of the Service Employees International Union famously said, "We prefer to use the power of persuasion, but if that does not work, we will use the persuasion of power."
The quote seems to come from an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled, "Share the Wealth" (12/2008) by Matthew Kaminski. Reading the article, what actually struck me was the gap between the joy then and now, but I'm an evil liberal, so the article sounded spot on to me. Stern is a fellow I'd like to meet. In addition, I have no idea what the title, "Share the Wealth," had to do with the content of the article, except perhaps as an obligatory dog whistle to warn that this was Godless Socialism, Damn Unionism stuff. With how often these whistles are used, I'm seriously beginning to wonder if there isn't some sort of astroturfing Pavlovian effort going on.
To support the claim that the "use of power" Stern mentioned was of the hateful sort, the Tea Party Nation offered these two incidents:
SEIU is a group that has not been shy in using violence against companies who refused their efforts to unionize and have not been shy about using violence against Tea Party members. In August 2009, SEIU thugs beat St. Louis Tea Party Member Kenneth Gladney. In March 2010, a major Tea Party event occurred in Searchlight Nevada. SEIU thugs came in and tried to cause violence against Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. The SEIU is Number 4 on our liberal hate group list.
The first instance: What's the story?
According to the St. Louis Activist Hub, the fight began between two men:
Kenneth Gladney, a man selling "Don’t Tread on Me" flags and buttons with faked photos of President Obama smoking marijuana, and Elston McCowan, a Reverend and an employee of ... (SEIU). The St. Louis Tea Party immediately alleged that McCowan and fellow SEIU member Perry Molens had assaulted Gladney. They embraced Gladney as a hero and claimed that because Gladney was a black man, the fight was a hate crime committed by "the Left."
But, you can decide what you think since there is video. The SEIU has a frame by frame video analysis of the confrontation. Media Matters also reviewed the incident and put out their analysis under the title, "Inventing tales of a union beating." Crooks and Liars provides background on the witnesses, and how Breitbart has been using this incident, as well.
The court case was supposed to occur this past October, but I can't find the result. Reverend McCowen was charged with a misdemeanor, but it probably got continued until after the election. My take on all this is that it was a pretty minor slap-push-slip-yelling match between the two, and unemployed, button vender Gladney is allowing himself to be used by his lawyer (his part-time, button vendor employer - yeah, interesting, huh?) to try to milk all the money they can from the event. Not a case of planned union thuggery in my book.
But on to hateful union thuggery case #2:
#2 was a bit harder to track down since it was referred to pretty generally, but I think I found it! It's about an egg or 2 thrown at a Tea Party Bus by someone. There is a video that is rather inconclusive - you decide. So, an egg or two being thrown at the side of a bus by possibly a union guy is:
"SEIU thugs came in and tried to cause violence against Americans exercising their First Amendment rights."
Can we talk hysterical, over-the-top false equivalency here? These ambiguous at best, alleged, minor incidents are their best grounds for the SEIU getting on their Top 5 Liberal Hate Groups list? Bahahahwahawa A little slap fest and a couple of eggs. Bahahawawa
More seriously. What I find particularly disturbing is that in each of these celebrated "hate" cases, that the Tea Party (and Brietbart) are using over, and hysterically over again, they have an AA man as their front and center guy. In the first, case, they actually wheeled Gadney onstage on Fox News in a wheelchair, and in the second, the unknown person holding an egg for the camera is another AA man. No one seems to know who he is. I don't know if this is some sort of odd coincidence, but after events here in the last couple of weeks, I'm just not too into coincidences. I don't know what I think about this, but it feels wrong. If anyone has any more insights, I'd like to hear them.
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#3. I love how they begin their accusations against the ACLU (a group that given what the TPN supposedly stands for, I would have expected them to love the ACLU!)
The ACLU can be called a hate group with a law license.... If you hate America, the ACLU loves you and if you love America, the ACLU hates you. They have sued to eliminate any reference to the Christian religion by schools or the government. They have no problem with Islamists. They have provided representation to terrorists at GITMO. Their litigation strategy has been to reveal as many American secrets as possible. ACLU chapters across the country have sent out letters to school boards this holiday season telling them what they can and cannot do in regard to school Christmas celebrations.... And of course the ACLU is famous for its litigation. It has either sued and been awarded attorney’s fees or extorted settlements from small cities, counties and school boards afraid of being bankrupted by their obscene fees. The ACLU is the number three liberal hate group.
They seem to be most angry with the ACLU for supporting the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights -- wasn't it the reason they were so outraged at the egg thrower? And, oddly for a group that supposedly distrusts government, they are angry about the ACLU fighting to expose governmental secrets, as well? Oh, and then, there's that War on Christmas in public schools thing and the use of courts and due process to get public entities to follow the law. Which if you wanted to limit and restrict government power, wouldn't you be in favor of that?
If you're actually for the Constitution, it would seem you'd love the ACLU. But if your real agenda is to establish a Christian theocracy, I can see how you just might hate the ACLU. Interesting.
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2. The DHS at second from the top took me by surprise. I certainly don't like the pat downs, but I don't think this crappy new procedure makes them a "Hate Group." Wonder what it was that ticked off the TPN so much?
DHS has become something of a joke ... DHS will not enforce border security. It makes Americans go through a joke of a security system when they want to fly. It invades their privacy while not going after terrorists. And then of course, there is the infamous report where DHS ignored pressing issues like illegal immigration and Islamic terror to put out a report warning about terror from "right wing extremists." The DHS Clown in Chief, Janet Napolitano borrowed a page from the Clinton administration to try and demonize conservatives with this idiotic report. The report was of course denounced by all concerned, but has never been repudiated. As late as September of this year, Tea Party activists were added to the Homeland Security list of terror threats. All of this is silly political posturing from the most corrupt regime in the history of this country.
my emphasis
Ah yes, they got their feelings hurt by another report. This time their feelings got hurt when the DHS wrote that there's an increased threat from:
"Anti-immgration: "Rightwing extremist groups’ frustration over a perceived lack of government action on illegal immigration has the potential to incite individuals or small groups toward violence. If such violence were to occur, it likely would be isolated, small-scale, and directed at specific immigration-related targets."
DHS Report excerpt from ThinkProgress
Given that TPN actually states that they are angry with the DHS because they will "not enforce border security" and they "ignored pressing issues like illegal immigration" as part of their condemnation of DHS as a hate group, um yeah, I can see how TPN might just attract and encourage "rightwing extremist group" folks who are frustrated over a perceived lack of government action on illegal immigration.
But interestingly, the report did NOT call the TPN itself a group to be feared, but rather that violence would probably be the result of a lone wolf scenarios.
TPN could have used the report as a helpful alert to watch for lone wolves, bent on violence, and they could have issued an unequivocal statement denouncing violent solutions. But interestingly, the TPN chose to embrace the report as pertaining to themselves, and make the DHS part of their hate list. Furthermore, when one of TPN's own candidates, Sharron Angle irresponsibly throws out the possibility of "second amendment solutions," it makes me wonder if the DHS didn't significantly pull their punch on this report.
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Last, we have their Number 1 Hate Group. SPLC (The Southern Poverty law Center
This group has made a cottage industry labeling any group to the right of Karl Marx a hate group ... Earlier this year, the SPLC released a report claiming "right wing extremists" were on the rise. Their definition of right wing extremists was anyone who was concerned about the economy, out of control spending, illegal immigration or the insane rise of liberal nut groups as someone akin to the Branch Dividians. More recently, the SPLC smeared as hate groups, respectable groups such as the Family Research Center, American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Liberty Counsel and others as hate groups for opposing repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and Homosexual Marriage. That makes the SPLC our number one liberal hate group.
my emphasis - Who are these rising, insane, liberal nut groups? I think I might like to join one. And, there they go again with Marx, again.
So, SPLC's sin seems to be, once again, reporting negatively on either them or people that the TPN considers to be their friends. Which in summary seems to include the following:
- People carrying overtly racist signs in public
- People who have been long term members of White Supremacy groups
- Anyone who is against the US being a Christian faith dominated nation
- Right wing, militia extremist folks, who may just be down with 2nd Amendment remedies
- The Anti-war on Christmas crew
- Respectable groups who just happen to be homophobic
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Looking at who the TPN thinks are hateful groups, and who they embrace as their friends, I'm really struck by how much it just makes TPN look like the new lipstick on the old pig called the culture wars.
Love to hear anyone else's take on this.