And your cognitive response to my post is ??? On Nov 25, 9:09 am, Tommy News <[email protected]> wrote: > 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_milit... > >> -- > >> 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 seehttp://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 seehttp://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > > * Visit our other community athttp://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.
