Wing Nut On 11/24/10, Keith In Tampa <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 7:38 PM, Tommy News <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Militias, Racists and Anti-Semites Found a Home in the Tea Party >> >> "We Are at War": How Militias, Racists and Anti-Semites Found a Home >> in the Tea Party >> In places like rural Montana, the Tea Party is working hand-in-glove >> with Patriot movement radicals -- many of whom have close ties to >> anti-government armed militias. >> November 21, 2010 | >> Photo Credit: A.M. Stan LIKE THIS ARTICLE ? >> Join our mailing list: >> Sign up to stay up to date on the latest headlines via email. >> Petitions by Change.org|Get Widget|Start a Petition ? Research >> support for this article was provided by The Investigative Fund at The >> Nation Institute. >> >> Maybe it's the gun-making kits that are being raffled off as door >> prizes. Or maybe it's the fact that nearly everyone inside this hall >> at the Ravalli County Fairground is packing heat. But most of all, >> it's the copy of Mein Kampf sitting there on the book table, with its >> black-and-white swastika, sandwiched between a survivalist how-to book >> on food storage and a copy of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. >> >> It is obvious: This is not your ordinary Tea Party gathering. >> >> Mind you, they don't explicitly call themselves Tea Partiers. Their >> official name is Celebrating Conservatism. But their mission statement >> is classic Tea Party -- "to restore our country, counties, and cities >> back to the Republic and the Constitution of the United States" -- and >> Celebrating Conservatism is listed as a member of the national Tea >> Party Patriots organization. Everyone in Hamilton, Montana -- the >> whole of Montana's Bitterroot Valley, for that matter -- knows them as >> the Tea Party's main presence in town. Once a month or so, the group >> holds a potluck dinner at the county fairgrounds that typically >> attracts a couple hundred people, which in a place like the Bitterroot >> is a sizeable presence. >> >> This night -- a September 14, 2010, potluck in the oversized metal >> shed that is the fairground's main hall -- is special because there is >> a high-profile guest: Larry Pratt, leader of Gun Owners of America. >> >> Pratt, like a lot of Celebrating Conservatism's speakers, has a long >> history with the far right. He is considered a godfather of the >> militia movement, a network of conspiracy-minded, armed paramilitary >> groups that exploded in the 1990s. Pratt addressed a pivotal three-day >> meeting of neo-Nazis and Christian Identity adherents in Estes Park, >> Colorado, in October 1992, convened in the wake of a shoot-out by >> federal agents in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, that had sent shock waves through >> the extreme right. That gathering is widely credited with birthing the >> movement's strategy of organizing citizen militias as a form of >> "leaderless resistance" to a looming "New World Order." Joining Pratt >> on the stage at Estes Park were Aryan Nations leaders Richard Butler >> and Louis Beam. (A few years later, Pratt became co-chair of Patrick >> Buchanan's 1996 GOP presidential campaign, but was dismissed once >> these Neo-Nazi ties surfaced in the national press.) >> >> Pratt is hardly the only controversial figure to address the group. In >> May 2010, at its convention on the University of Montana's Missoula >> campus, Celebrating Conservatism hosted tax protester Red Beckman, >> notorious for his open anti-Semitism and the author of a 1984 book >> that argues the Holocaust was a judgment upon Jews for worshiping >> Satan. At a Hamilton gathering in July 2009, a onetime Arizona sheriff >> named Richard Mack addressed the crowd; he'd made a career in the >> 1990s out of organizing militias and speaking on the national circuit >> of the anti-government Patriot movement. Mack's longtime Patriot >> movement confederate, Jack McLamb, spoke at the group's Hamilton >> gathering the following month. McLamb, a former police officer, >> recruits "soldier and lawmen" to the Patriot cause through a group >> called Police & Military Against a New World Order. >> >> Those events served notice that Celebrating Conservatism had embraced >> the Patriot movement cause. >> >> Celebrating Conservatism formed in December 2008 in reaction to the >> presidential election and slowly gained members that spring by >> associating itself with a variety of Tea Party events in Bitterroot. >> But locals only took real notice in September 2009, when the group >> held a gun rights rally in downtown Hamilton at which participants >> brandished firearms. Organizers followed up with a Celebration of >> Right to Bear Arms in March 2010, which featured a march of several >> hundred people along Hamilton's main drag. Anyone driving through town >> that day was greeted by a gauntlet of people packing weapons ranging >> from muzzle-loading muskets to a high-powered sniper-style .308 >> caliber rifle. >> >> >> Continued here: >> >> http://www.alternet.org/story/148946/%22we_are_at_war%22%3A_how_militias%2C_racists_and_anti-semites_found_a_home_in_the_tea_party_ >> -- >> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time. >> Have a great day, >> Tommy >> >> -- >> Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. >> For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum >> >> * Visit our other community at >> http://www.PoliticalForum.com/<http://www.politicalforum.com/> >> * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. >> * Read the latest breaking news, and more. > > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
-- Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time. Have a great day, Tommy -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
