And those contradictions... It's almost as if the Tea Party movement is some magic box that can be anything you want it to be. Or worse, it can be molded into anything that political players behind the scenes want it to be.
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| The People have Spok! And we're not giving him back until you meet our list of illogical demands. |
And with that in mind, I give you a Tea Party Nation piece by Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips on the recent WikiLeaks dump of diplomatic cables, something about which I myself have expressed ambivalence:
Some of the leaked documents identify people in Iraq and Afghanistan that have helped the United States. In some instances, their addresses are given or even GPS coordinates of their houses have been released.Never mind that Mr Assange is merely the face of the operation and not the operation itself. This Tea Partier, presumably someone who believes that government intrusion in our lives is generally a bad thing, wants the government (or someone working in support of the government) to go kill someone to send a message. Whiskey, tango, fu¢k!
If none of these people have been killed yet, it is only a matter of time.
And now, it is time to tell Assange that we expect him to die.
Some will scream, this is horrible.
No it isn’t.
First, Assange is not an American citizen. He is not entitled to any of the protections of the United States Constitution. He has aided and abetted our enemies. He is encouraging others to leak classified information.
Killing Assange sends a message. Under American law, there is a theory called deterrence. Why don’t I go out and kill someone I really don’t like? Ignoring all other issues, the simple fact that I would spend the rest of my life in prison is enough to convince me killing someone is a bad idea.
Killing Assange sends a message. You are not going to make cyber war on America, which is basically what has happened here.
There are some, even within this movement, who think the United States should have no secrets. That is lunacy. Our country has secrets for a very good reason. We need them. We cannot publish on the front page of USA Today that our diplomats think that the leader of a country is a fool, or that we have bugged their military headquarters or that certain members of the Taliban are actually providing us with information.
We have secrets and we have them for a reason.
Unfortunately, we do not have an American President right now or even people in top leadership in this country that are patriotic or even care about the country. After all, from Obama (releasing the number of nuclear weapons we have) to the Justice Department (allowing our classified interrogation methods to be released), they all support weakening this country.
Assange has nothing to worry about for the moment. But in two years, there will be another administration coming into office. Then, if I were Jullian Assange, I would be very worried.
Fortunately, cooler heads prevail among what I would hope are the true Tea Party thinkers, those who apply the less-intrusion principles more consistently. Bill Haney has this to say:
Hold on! Haven't we all believed, all along, that our government has been lying to us? Don't these documents prove that? All of this is right in line with what many of us have suspected for a long time, but now we have proof in black and white. Let's not threaten him nor celebrate him, but make every effort to root out the evil in our government and return it to the people. These revelations provide us the evidence that we need to overhaul those "public servants" and make them responsive to us.I'm not sure I'd vote for Bill Haney for national office, but he sounds like a far more sensible person than the founder of Tea Party Nation.
First, Assange is not an American citizen. He is not entitled to any of the protections of the United States Constitution...
ReplyDeleteKilling Assange sends a message.
No, but he is an Australian citizen. This Judson Phillips douchebag isn't an Australian citizen protected by the Australian constitution... what's stopping us from cornholing and shooting him at dawn?
Arbitrary summary execution of a citizen of an allied nation... these ass clowns would be funny if they didn't have such wide support in the US.
Shame, shame, shame, America. WTF is wrong with you?
Because of the nit-wit minds of the current American politicos (political companies), politics in America has become and incorporated institution. But the good part of folks like Assange is that at least now things are out in the open. Fear is the key here, the Wikileaks information has been able to generate fear of transparency in governments. But Assange is no hero or villian. He's a lazy journalist, like Sarah Palin. Saying anp publishing information that is easily accessible that is more self-servient than good. I question the Wikileaks material published though. It seems that within this newly-born nit-witted minds of American society, i.e. the Bitter-Twitters and opinionated cable news, it is the reaction to Wikileaks material which is substaniating its impact. Reaction, not proactive response. Orson Wells wrote some amazing fiction stories and novels that during his day was considered impossible and fantasy, but prophetic and ahead of his time many years later. He turned from zero to hero over a period of time because of the impact of his writing. Assange is no Orson Wells, but he is in his own right just trying to make a name for himself. I don't think it is fair to hate on him for that. The lazy factless and opinionated American media, nit-witted politicompanies--who can't seem to think anything through without saying something ignorant--and "I-Believe-Everything-I-Read-On-The-Internet" ppl have substaniated written words with their impetuous reaction to it. And as it seems, where there is ignorance and weak-mindedness, opportunistic politicompanies like the Teabaggers will jump into the limelight in Reality-TV fashion to fill the gaps and lack of knowledge with their proproganda--which is really an old office politics trick.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insight.
ReplyDeleteWithout any comment whatsoever on the illegality or moral turpitude of Wikileaks, here we have a founder of a major political party in the US advocating arbitrary and summary execution of a citizen of an allied nation.
This is exactly why these people must never be allowed authority over any armed force, least of all the most powerful military on Earth.
That these people hold any sway at all is pure madness.
The Tea Party, I believe, will be better served if they stick to their core principles, particularly fiscal conservatism. Yeah, there are some nutty ideas in the Tea Party movement, but that's true in other parts of the political spectrum (please note what I say about Democrats in the sidebar).
ReplyDeleteMr Phillips's views here are not so different from mainstream Republicans and some Democrats, and even some of the commentariat at ROK Drop, a popular K-blog, was talking this way a bit.
Anyway, I guess what I'm getting at is that, although this was one of my few Tea Party-related posts, I'm not trying to depict them as a bunch of nutters. They aren't. Nor is Judson Phillips specifically, to my knowledge. They are people who are passionate about getting the budget under control, and emotions sometimes get the best of them when it comes to Washington's hubris because of that.