Our Country Has Disappeared

[bjorn_skurj]

Britons pour love on 'evil' healthcare system

[Gobias Industries]

The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare

 

A nice Op-Ed by the CEO of Whole Foods.

 

Besides being a plug for Whole Foods, his suggestions are a good start. If a public health program can't pass, might as well knock down all the shit that currently makes the private health programs cumbersome.

[Good Old Neon]

In which Rep. Michele Bachmann tries, and maybe even succeeds in eclipsing Sarah Palin-level craziness.

 

 

Michele Bachmann's Son Joins "Re-Education Camp"

 

The Star Tribune confirms what the blog Dump Bachmann has been reporting for weeks: Rep. Michele Bachmann's son Harrison has joined Teach For America, part of what the Minnesota Republican considers a dreaded government re-education camp program called AmeriCorps.

 

Back in April, Rep. Bachmann warned of the expansion of the program, designed to get young people involved in community service:

 

I believe when it's all said and done, this service that -- I believe that there's a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concern is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go and work in some of these politically correct forums. It's very concerning. It appears that there's a philosophical agenda behind all of this, and especially if young people are mandated to go into this.

 

She added, "As a parent, I would have a very, very difficult time seeing my children do this."

 

Star Tribune columnist Jon Tevlin writes that "when Bachmann issued her screed, her son might have already been accepted, and certainly would have applied. Ouch."

 

source - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/12/michele-bachmanns-son-joi_n_257498.html

 

Edit - This is the sort of indefensible, unconscionable bullshit that comes to mind when discussing how our country is disappearing – that incompetent fundamentalist, unrepentant, anti-intellectual morons such as Bachmann can get themselves elected, and that people actually fucking vote for them.

[Analogman]

That reminds me - I saw this in the news the other day.

 

Officials see rise in militia groups across U.S.

 

By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer Eileen Sullivan, Associated Press Writer – Wed Aug 12, 3:50 am ET

 

WASHINGTON – Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends.

 

The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.

 

Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told SPLC researchers that this is the most growth he's seen in more than a decade.

 

"All it's lacking is a spark," McEntire said in the report.

 

It's reminiscent of what was seen in the 1990s — right-wing militias, people ideologically against paying taxes and so-called "sovereign citizens" are popping up in large numbers, according to the report to be released Wednesday. The SPLC is a nonprofit civil rights group that, among other activities, investigates hate groups.

 

Last October, someone from the Ohio Militia posted a recruiting video on YouTube, billed as a "wake-up call" for America. It's been viewed more than 60,000 times.

 

"Things are bad, things are real bad, and it's going to be a lot worse," said the man on the video, who did not give his name. "Our country is in peril."

 

The man is holding an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, and he encourages viewers to buy one.

 

While anti-government sentiment has been on the rise over the last two years, there aren't as many threats and violent acts at this point as there were in the 1990s, according to the report. That movement bore the likes of Timothy McVeigh, who in 1995 blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City and killed 168 people.

 

But McEntire fears it's only a matter of time.

 

These militias are concentrated in the Midwest, Pacific Northwest and the Deep South, according to Mark Potok, an SPLC staff director who co-wrote the report. Recruiting videos and other outreach on the Internet are on the rise, he said, and researchers from his center found at least 50 new groups in the last few months.

 

The militia movement of the 1990s gained traction with growing concerns about gun control, environmental laws and anything perceived as liberal government meddling.

 

The spark for that movement came in 1992 with an FBI standoff with white separatist Randall Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Weaver's wife and son were killed by an FBI sniper. And in 1993, a 52-day standoff between federal agents and the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas, resulted in nearly 80 deaths. These events rallied more people who became convinced that the government would murder its own citizens to promote its liberal agenda.

 

Now officials are seeing a new generation of activists, according to the report. The law center spotlights Edward Koernke, a Michigan man who hosts an Internet radio show about militias. His father, Mark, was a major figure in the 1990s militia movement and served six years in prison for charges including assaulting police.

 

Last year, officials warned about an increase in activity from militias in a five-year threat projection by the Homeland Security Department.

 

"White supremacists and militias are more violent and thus more likely to conduct mass-casualty attacks on the scale of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing," the threat projection said.

 

A series of domestic terrorism incidents over the past year have not been directly tied to organized militias, but the rhetoric behind some of the crimes are similar with that of the militia movement. For instance, the man charged with the April killings of three Pittsburgh police officers posted some of his views online. Richard Andrew Poplawski wrote that U.S. troops could be used against American citizens, and he thinks a gun ban could be coming.

 

The FBI's assistant director for counterterrorism, Michael Heimbach, said that law enforcement officials need to identify people who go beyond hateful rhetoric and decide to commit violent acts and crimes. Heimbach said one of the bigger challenges is identifying the lone-wolf offenders.

 

One alleged example of a lone-wolf offender is the 88-year-old man charged in the June shooting death of a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

[PopTodd]

I just want to use this thread to say that Barney Frank is the man.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/18/frank.heath.care/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

[NightOfJoy]

My brother is a successful graduate of Americorps. He used his fluent Spanish language skills to counsel Mexican migrant workers of their rights regarding housing, wages, trouble with the law, etc. He drove all over Wisconsin visiting migrant camps. He's proud of the good work he did there and rightly so. Eff this bachmann broad, she's an insult to this country and what it stands for.

[Good Old Neon]

My brother is a successful graduate of Americorps. He used his fluent Spanish language skills to counsel Mexican migrant workers of their rights regarding housing, wages, trouble with the law, etc. He drove all over Wisconsin visiting migrant camps. He's proud of the good work he did there and rightly so. Eff this bachmann broad, she's an insult to this country and what it stands for.

 

Your brother is a socialist – is what he is. Duh, you need to read 1984, and then you need to read the bible through a lens that incorporates everything you’ve just gleaned from 1984, then, and only then, will you see Americorps for what it truly is, a re-education camp/socialist making factory.

 

Or, as is probably the case with Bachmann, you could just read the cliff notes to both, and then conflate the two in your mind’s own blender.

 

In any case, Death to Goldstein.

[Central Scrutinizer]

Your brother is a socialist – is what he is. Duh, you need to read 1984, and then you need to read the bible through a lens that incorporates everything you’ve just gleaned from 1984, then, and only then, will you see Americorps for what it truly is, a re-education camp/socialist making factory.

 

Or, as is probably the case with Bachmann, you could just read the cliff notes to both, and then conflate the two in your mind’s own blender.

 

In any case, Death to Goldstein.

doubleplusgood

[ThisIsNowhere]

I think it's both. It's kind of sad, really.

[ikol]

Frank is lucky that he's receiving all this criticism from batshit crazy people, because he tends to respond similarly to rational criticism and doesn't come off as well.

[Beltmann]

Frank is lucky that he's receiving all this criticism from batshit crazy people, because he tends to respond similarly to rational criticism and doesn't come off as well.

True. I said pretty much the same thing at a get-together tonight.