Tea Party!

[Grallon]

So when's the next civil war ?  Now that would make for a fine diversion ! 



So what are these fools protesting again ?  The government governing ?  They remind me of a sick man who's protesting because the doctor is actually trying to fix him rather than pumping him full of drugs




G.

[KRonn]

What the Repubs and/or right wingers risk now is doing to Obama what was done to Bush with being overly vehement, finding fault with everything he does - that kind of stuff. That's happening somewhat and it's annoying. Just clouds the actual issues with nasty or uber partisanship.

[Valmy]

He said when Texas entered the union in 1845 it was with the understanding it could pull out.

Ok what the fuck Perry?  That is a total and complete fantasy story.

[Valmy]

What the Repubs and/or right wingers risk now is doing to Obama what was done to Bush with being overly vehement, finding fault with everything he does - that kind of stuff. That's happening somewhat and it's annoying. Just clouds the actual issues with nasty or uber partisanship.

You think?  That is exactly what it is.  I just get tired of the same garbage and then they act like they are the Sons of Liberty acting on principals...the only principal here is that they lost an election.  Talk about secession because of lost elections?  Hello?  This is from the fucking Governor of the State for godsake.

[Savonarola]

America is saved!

Anger boils among Michigan militia members

Bancroft -- The coordinator of the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia is a postman. The corpsman of the Lenawee Volunteer Militia works in the paint and hardware department at Wal-Mart. He earns $11.25 an hour. His son, the major, works in a group home for the developmentally disabled. He earns $9.50 an hour. Their comrade, the commander, was laid-off from his job at a vitamin store. He earns nothing.

"Am I angry?" asked the unemployed commander, with a semi-automatic rifle strapped across his pectorals. "Yeah, it sets you off a little bit."

Come to a Michigan Militia picnic and you realize the commander is not alone. The farm where they rallied was chockfull of people like him, people boiling on the back burner, struggling to make ends meet, carrying around a knapsack of resentment for a government that they claim has taken almost everything from them and given nothing in return.

"Liberty," says the commander, 33, whose Christian name is Matthew Savino, of Adrian. "You cannot take my liberty. Eventually a man draws a line in the sand."

And so, more than 100 people like Savino converged on the farm of Frank Stasa, who militia literature says "kicked Hitler's a--."

The militia held its annual field day on Stasa's farm, about a 20-minute car-drive west of Flint, and threw in a tea party and tax revolt for good measure. The militia's party included hamburgers, sausages, soda pop and a .50 caliber carbine rifle and a firing range. Kids were admitted free.

With the economic meltdown, the complaints of the militiamen are beginning to sound less like paranoia and more like the topic of Manhattan cocktail parties: a socialized economy, a ballooning debt and wars on two fronts.

"What are we leaving the children?" asked Rob Soldenski, a 49-year-old unemployed delivery driver from Warren. "A legacy of debt and an infringement on their civil liberties. We got to push back when the time to push comes."

"I've seen a 35 percent reduction in pay," said his ex-wife Cyn Soldenski, who brought along their 7-year-old daughter Tessa. "I bought a house 18 months ago. The interest rate is going to reset and I'm so far underwater I'm going to drown. We've got to take the stupid government and throw it out."

If you listen to this group you begin to realize that they cannot take over the world; they probably couldn't take over their brother's trailer payments. They are a restless and frustrated group: a hodgepodge of ex-farmers, ex-military, ex-truck drivers, ex-factory workers, wipers of other people's bottoms. Many are firmly among the state's 20 percent unemployed or underemployed.

They turn to the Bill of Rights, though most people here could not recite those 10 amendments. They prepare for a war to defend them. No one can say -- not even the militia members themselves -- how many people sympathize with their movement.

"OK, you work all day long and you sell your liberty to survive," said Mike Slomkowski, 50, a former factory worker who now teaches firearm training. "They take your work away. You've now put a man in a corner. The government worries about him being idle and so they begin to crowd his liberty. Here is where you have a problem."

The militia is not alone in placing their faith in the gun and bullet. Consider that there is a national shortage of ammunition, blamed in part on the election of Barack Obama. The NRA has warned its millions of members that the Obama Administration wants to restrict gun ownership and tax ammunition. FBI firearm background checks have increased more than 30 percent since he was elected president.

Still, the picnic goers railed about George W. Bush, too. In fact they believe there is little difference between a Democrat and a Republican. Bush, Clinton, Obama. Stick them in a bag. Shake it up. And the same rapacious thing crawls out: a creature from a smoke-filled backroom.

"They're all the same thing," Cyn Soldenski said. "Corporate tools."

Ever since the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995, the Michigan Militia has been branded a hate group of fringe crazies. But the militiamen at Stasa's farm were quick to point out that Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the perpetrators of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 people, were not Michigan Militia members but rather curiosity seekers. Naturally, the militia blames the media for this misconception.

"The press has given the militia a bad name," said Jim Gulliksen, 59, the Wal-Mart worker from Adrian.

"Untrue," said this reporter. "Timothy McVeigh gave the militia a bad name."

"OK, he kind of gave the militia a bad name," retorted Gulliksen. "But the people in the militia hated him. They didn't want him. He came to one or two meetings before we told him to get out of here."

McVeigh notwithstanding, the militia provides a release valve for a frustrated class, said Lee Miracle, a postal worker from Sterling Heights, and coordinator of the picnic's shooting range.

"In the end, I hope we're mitigating anger by teaching people to shoot," Miracle said. "Hey, I work at the post office. The boss asks why I go out to the range every month. I tell him: 'You want me to go to the range every month.' It blows off steam."

[KRonn]

Wow, after the various and numerous left wing groups protesting everything, all the hate and nastiness spewed, we finally have regular people protesting govt business as usual and all the anger that has caused, and Languish can't handle it! You all should be protesting too! This may be against Obama for some, but in large part it's also non-partisan protesting by angry and concerned taxpayers. About frigging time!!

Um...finally?  You act like this has never happened before.  It is the 90s all over again.  Business as usual.  Where were these guys when we were running up huge deficits and bullshit before?  Oh right they didn't care because the Republicans were in power.  But in 1993 they were FURIOUS at out of control spending and taxes.  It is amazing how outrage over spending goes away as soon as red controls the Congress.

And yes I have never given leftists shit before on this board.

The economic meltdown and the focusing on bail outs, then the pork laden bills passed by Congress had to have a big impact. It did to me. I knew it was going on before but didn't pay such close attention to it, as when the bailout bills received the scrutiny that probably all of Congress's spending should receive. All of that was under such intensive reporting, scrutiny, that it had to have annoyed a lot of people who finally got fed up. We all talked about this stuff on these forums. So yeah, this has been going on all along, and a few Congress members have tried to change it - McCain for one, and others Dems and Repubs. I do agree that it is disingenuous for some of these Repubs to be bashing Obama and the Dems for it, as they're part of the problem. The saving grace for them may be to point to what they feel is the heavy over spending, apart from economic stim, as I've mentioned and as we've been talking about on the forums here for a while. And the Repubs will try to make political hay out of that. They're just as politically corrupt.

[Valmy]

Those militia guys, for all their insanity and paranoia, at least understand to not trust the current two party system to effect real changes in the way Congress operates.

[Valmy]

The economic meltdown and the focusing on bail outs, then the pork laden bills passed by Congress had to have a big impact. It did to me. I knew it was going on before but didn't pay such close attention to it, as when the bailout bills received the scrutiny that probably all of Congress's spending should receive.

What?  Where were you during the Energy bill controversy several years back?

[Malthus]

Those militia guys, for all their insanity and paranoia, at least understand to not trust the current two party system to effect real changes in the way Congress operates.

Though looking at it another way, one imagines that under any system you could name many of these guys would still be on unemployment, collecting guns and bitching about the fat-cat "guv'ment". 

[saskganesh]

it's interesting that hardworking "regular" people are apparently, never, ever, "leftists."

on a more substantial note, this is the first time I have ever read of a national shortage of ammunition.

[Valmy]

Though looking at it another way, one imagines that under any system you could name many of these guys would still be on unemployment, collecting guns and bitching about the fat-cat "guv'ment". 

Yeah I do not really see what they are expecting the Government to do.

[grumbler]

Neither do slaves.

Ask a lawyer, and find out the truth:  all humans have rights.

[Valmy]

it's interesting that hardworking "regular" people are apparently, never, ever, "leftists."

on a more substantial note, this is the first time I have ever read of a national shortage of ammunition.

My father and I cleaned and restored his old shot gun and replaced the ammo and everything last month...nobody mentioned anything about an ammo shortage.  There is a huge gun show coming this weekend...

I think the weapon industry is just fine.  This is just shit people are making up to fuel the Republican come back.  Sort of like how tax burdens are swelling when taxes have not even gone up.

[schaksen]

Though looking at it another way, one imagines that under any system you could name many of these guys would still be on unemployment, collecting guns and bitching about the fat-cat "guv'ment". 

Ironically not under communism

[Ed Anger]

it's interesting that hardworking "regular" people are apparently, never, ever, "leftists."

on a more substantial note, this is the first time I have ever read of a national shortage of ammunition.

There is a conspiracy e-mail going around that the shortage is intentional. I just laugh when I get one.

Also, leftists at best are basket weavers.