Tea Party Trouble
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$2.50 25,000 Blue Chip Readers VOL. 42, NO. 8 An Independent Journal of Commentary APRIL 25, 2010 State’s Rifle Ready Militia? Tea Party Trouble By Frosty Troy It was an incredible evening – ABC, lets and notes that he draws inspi- CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox, MSNBC and as- ration from the white supremacist sorted bloggers were giving Oklahoma thriller The Turner Diaries, domestic the worst black eye since the Okies terrorist Timothy McVeigh’s inspira- headed for California. tion for the Murrah Federal Building The Associated Press broke the attack that killed 168 people – includ- story: legislation could soon be intro- ing 19 children – and injured hun- duced in the Oklahoma Legislature to dreds more. create an armed anti-federal govern- Despite his extremism, Berry has ment militia. met with U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, The face of Republican State Sen. and other members of the Oklahoma Randy Brogdon, a candidate for gover- Republican delegation, and counts nor, was plastered all over television them as “rock solid.” and the blogs, plus his speech to a Re- Brogdon, whose states’ rights reso- publican meeting in Tulsa. lution was reportedly drafted by cor- Joining Brogdon was state GOP porate lobbyists opposed to health Rep. Charles Key, one of the leading reform, has been endorsed by the lob- wingnuts in the Oklahoma House of byist-run Tea Party Express and has Representatives. appeared on Fox News, Alex Jones’ ra- To his credit, Republican State Sen. dio show, and at a Glenn Beck rally. Steve Russell told reporters he doubt- On MSNBC Brogdon kept referring ed such a militia would be created by to the Second Amendment rather the Legislature. than answer the direct question on The Associated Press reported that whether he favored creating an armed Oklahoma Tea Party leaders, “frus- militia. trated by recent political setbacks,” Tea Party members frequently in- were working with rightwing Repub- voke Murrah bombing, carried out by licans in the Legislature to create a – Steve Hill a decorated ex-soldier who believed new “volunteer militia to help defend each other. cals.” the federal government was an enemy against what they believe are improp- “The Second Amendment deals di- “If the intent is to create a militia force responsible for killing Ameri- er federal infringements on state sov- rectly with the right of an individual to for disaster relief, we have the Nation- cans in Waco and Ruby Ridge. ereignty.” keep and bear arms to protect them- al Guard,” said Sen. Russell, a retired McVeigh also believed that deadly Brogdon and Key said they have met selves from an overreaching federal Army lieutenant colonel. “Anything force – including the bombing of a fed- with tea party leaders, such as J.W. government.” beyond that purpose should be viewed eral building – was necessary to resist Berry of the Tulsa-based OKforTea Brogdon has since said his com- with great concern and caution.” the federal government’s “unwarrant- group, but subsequently denied they ments were misrepesented. He even News of the state-sponsored mili- ed” intrusions. were planning to author the legisla- denied using the term “milita” in the tia movement arrived just before the What better way to commemorate tion. AP interview, but the AP reported it 15th anniversary of the April 19, 1995 McVeigh’s victims than to organize a Even so, Brogdon said: “The found- has him on tape using it five times. Oklahoma City bombing. group McVeigh would stand in line to ing fathers were not referring to a tur- Key demanded a retraction. The AP Berry, the Tea Party leader who first join? key shoot or a quail hunt. They really says it is standing by its stories. solicited support for the militia, has Some on the Far Right think it would weren’t even talking about us having Critics say the Tea Party militia idea posted on-line rants against Presi- be a good idea to create a volunteer the ability to protect ourselves against could “throw fuel in the fire of radi- dent Obama – the “Muslim President” militia – a group of armed citizens to and a “reincarnation of Pol Pot” who enforce the rules as they think they is trying to imprison Americans for should be enforced. resisting health reform. Brogdon’s rhetoric can’t help but One ominous posting from Berry fuel such thinking: He said Congress says that his militia should “launch and Obama [he never uses the title a thousand guerrilla attacks on the “president”] have been passing “un- plans that these people have to ruin constitutional laws” such as “Obam- us and our country.” acare” and must be stopped. Both Berry and Brogdon are on far He also sponsored the rightwing right media outlets, spewing propa- anti-health reform “state sovereignty” ganda to fuel their conspiracy theo- resolution in the Legislature. ries. If elected governor, he said he would Berry cites conservative news out- See MILITIA Page 19 Observations A Good Bill It didn’t make page one, but Sen. escape without paying taxes. It’s why Debbe Leftwich’s SB 2153 greatly ex- The Observer is accused of being anti- panding Oklahoma’s mental health big oil, a label we proudly wear. courts is wending its way through the Most egregious is General Electric, Legislature. which generated $10.3 billion in pre- Given the state’s deplorable fiscal tax income, but ended up owing noth- condition, it won’t be implemented ing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a until funds are available. tax benefit of $1.1 billion. The potential is not only to save Big Oil giant ExxonMobil, which lives but millions of dollars every last year reported a record $45.2 bil- year in state spending on corrections, lion profit, paid the most taxes of any healthcare and public assistance. corporation, but none of it went to the Currently, only 14 Oklahoma coun- IRS. ties have access to mental health ExxonMobil tries to limit the tax courts, but Leftwich said the results pain with the help of 20 wholly owned have been significant. subsidiaries domiciled in the Baha- The Oklahoma City Democrat said mas, Bermuda and the Cayman Is- in those counties, there has been a lands that [legally] shelter the cash 79% drop in unemployment for those flow from operations in the likes of completing the program. Within a Angola, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi. year of graduating, arrests fell by 92% No wonder that of $15 billion in in- mitment was an unreasonable and for the two separate initiatives in the and days spent in jail were reduced by come taxes last year, ExxonMobil paid unnecessary risk to taxpayers given fiscal 2010 budget. 90%. none of it to Uncle Sam, and has tens the $1 billion dollars in contractual What does Obama mean by evi- “When you look at the bigger pic- of billions in earnings permanently penalties the agency faced at the time dence-based? What is medically accu- ture, you can see how expanding men- reinvested overseas. – and the agency’s 35-year failure rate and age appropriate? And when is tal health courts would dramatically Big corporations’ tax shelter prac- to develop a permanent radioactive it appropriate to shift messages from reduce spending and increase person- tices similar to ExxonMobil’s shift a waste storage site. delay of sex to contraceptives? al productivity,” Leftwich said. $100 billion annual tax burden onto At the time DOE officials signed the Given that America leads the west- More than 12,600 offenders held by U.S. taxpayers. In fact, in 2008, the contracts in late 2008, the govern- ern world in teen pregnancy, Obama’s the Department of Corrections have Government Accountability Office ment faced – and still faces – scores of genuflection to the Right will have a mental health problem, including found that two out of every three Unit- lawsuits by nuclear utilities seeking predictable consequences. 79% of all women offenders and 46% ed States corporations paid no fed- compensation because the govern- of male offenders. eral income taxes from 1998 through ment has not stored their spent fuel For years Oklahoma has operated a 2005. as promised. Busybodies revolving door. In fact, even today the By the way, you will never read this Instead, the utilities must store it state’s largest mental hospital is the in the Daily Disappointment – one on their own sites. When DOE officials The busybody bipartisan bunch at Oklahoma County jail with more than more reason why The Observer ex- signed the deals, the government had the Capitol keeps legislating in Okla- 270 mentally ill inmates. ists. already paid $565 million in damages homa bedrooms – three more bills are It is a sad commentary when busi- and faced $790 million in judgments now law, thanks to the insipid pen of ness and political leaders hold a on appeal. Gov. Brad Henry. much ballyhooed news conference at Nuke Rebuke The Department of Energy is more SB 1890, by Rep. Dan Sullivan and the Capitol to plead for highway mon- than a decade behind schedule in ful- Sen. Todd Lamb, forbids an abortion ey but none has uttered a peep about President Obama is joined by a filling its contractual obligations to based solely on the sex of the child. the mentally ill. handful of Oklahoma Republican leg- remove and permanently dispose of Not a single case could be cited. Oklahoma currently leads the na- islators promoting nuclear energy. highly radioactive spent fuel from the “In many countries, it is culturally tion in the percentage of seriously Now, if they could only find someplace nation’s 104 nuclear power reactors.