Ellen Gray, at Philadelphia Daily News, offers a hint of condemnation, but doesn't go far enough:
McVeigh's victims were silenced forever, but their killer, it turns out, lives on in 45 hours of audiotapes from interviews he gave for Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck's 2001 book, "American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing."It's more than that. It's evil.
The cable network has married the previously unreleased audio from the interviews with McVeigh to what MSNBC describes as "state-of-the-art computer re-creations" - resulting in footage that at times looks a bit too much like video-game animation for comfort.
I don't care where you fall on the use of re-enactments in news documentaries: There's something a bit cold about most computer animation and superimposing an impassive McVeigh-like mask on the face an actor only adds to the chilling effect of hearing the Oklahoma City bomber describe how he killed all those people and suggesting that victims' families need to "get over it."
But then graphics aren't the only aspect of MSNBC's presentation of "The McVeigh Tapes" that left me a little queasy.
In introducing the special, host Rachel Maddow can't resist an attempt to peg the Oklahoma City bombing to current events.
"Nine years after his execution, we are left worrying that Timothy McVeigh's voice from the grave echoes in a new rising tide of American anti-government extremism," she says.
You want to go there, Rachel? Really?
What happened in Oklahoma City wasn't some tea party - it was mass murder. Invoking the name McVeigh in the face of some angry rhetoric is (and we can only pray will remain) overkill.
13 comments:
She only needs to look at the Left for extremism and violence: your post Bloodthirsty Communist, the G20 protesters, the SEIU thugs beat Gadlfy, Seiu thugs beat Ken Hamidi, the so-called peace movement, which is rife with violence against property and people, including military personal. C'mon Rachel, try telling the truth for a change. Otherwise, the conclusion you draw make you--and your audience--look dumb.
Violence is the hallmark of the Left.
Trackback: http://republicanheretic.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/tea-party-vs-oklahoma-city
So, what's the broken record playing over here today?
"Violence is the hallmark of the Left."
Oh yeah. And Maddow is "evil". I'm starting to suspect that you and most of your commenters are really just a bunch of six-year-olds masquerading as adults trying to punk us all, Don. Now come on: where's Ashton?
Whether she is evil or not, Maddow is a liar, a propagandist, a demagogue.
She, the Dems and the left are trying to manufacture fear in the minds of the public by constantly repeating the false theme that the Tea Partiers are preaching hate and violence (clearly not supported by any evidence) and that McVeigh is analogous to the Tea Party movement.
McVeigh was an extremist, but he was motivated by Janet Reno's use of tanks on American civilians at Waco and the murder of other civilians at Ruby Ridge. He was not motivated by right wing rhetoric.
Pssssttt, Rachel, Here’s where the violence is. And try to remember, Lincoln was in the Republican Party, not the Democrat Party as you stated.
Violence is the hallmark of the Left.
April 3, 2009
Thousands of protesters gathered in London, England on April 1st and 2nd to demonstrate against an array of issues, largely anti-capitalist or pro-environmental in nature. A large underlying theme was anger with the effects of the economic downturn and a call for accountability and responsibility. While the majority of protesters were peaceful, a number of them took to smashing windows and throwing debris at police lines.
September 24, 2009
Anti-G20 protesters rampaged through the city centre of Pittsburgh tonight, smashing up shops and throwing rocks at police, as officers used tear gas and baton-charges in an attempt to bring them under control.
In riots which continued through evening rush hour, about 300 protesters were reported to have remained from an initial crowd of 2,000 in Bloomfield, Pittsburgh’s Little Italy
September 2, 2008
A mob of 200 anarchists marched through the streets of downtown St. Paul shouting, “Whose streets? Our streets.”
By the time they were through with their impromptu protest Monday afternoon, they were right.
A Minneapolis police car sat gutted after protesters smashed its windows as a horde of police finally caught up with them nearly two hours after the melee began.
Police were broadsided by the protest and opted to contain, rather than conclude, the unsanctioned demonstration-turned-riot.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said police arrested around 100 protesters throughout Monday afternoon, and media outlets reported more than 283 people had been arrested, including 129 on felonies, as of press of time.
February 26, 2010
Violent protest in Berkeley
“BERKELEY, Calif. – A late-night demonstration over budget cuts turned violent in Berkeley when protesters broke into a campus building, torched trash cans, smashed windows and threw rocks and bottles at police, authorities said Friday. Police arrested two people near the University of California, Berkeley campus, said Officer Andrew Frankel, a spokesman for the Berkeley Police Department,” the Associated Press reported.
Nov 6, 2009
State Worker Beat Up At SEIU Meeting
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― A state worker is recovering after a bloody brawl at a union hall. He says members of the local SEIU 1000 beat him up and sent him to the hospital all because he wanted to expose alleged corruption within the union.
Ken Hamidi is a state worker at the California Franchise Tax Board. Last night he walked into a union hall in Sacramento for an SEIU local 1000 meeting.
August 7, 2009
Kenneth Gladney, 38, a conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with "Don’t tread on me" printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was awaiting treatment for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face. Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack. (This unwarranted attack by SEIU thugs is on video.)
"It just seems there’s no freedom of speech without being attacked," he said.
March 21, 2009
Protest for Peace Turns Violent in SF, March 21, 2009
March 07, 2003
A college protest against a U.S.-led war in Iraq turned violent when students with an American flag were attacked and two Jewish students were harassed by anti-war demonstrators, reports the National Post.
April 4th, 2009
Peace activists protests of the NATO Summit in France and Germany have turned violent. There is burning, looting and police officers are working to keep the German and French protesters from joining each other across the border.
April 15, 2003
EU Summit Overshadowed by Violent EU Anti-War Protests
September 1, 2008
About 200 people from a group called Funk the War staged its own march during a mostly peaceful anti war protest. The group wore black clothes, covered their faces in bandannas and gas masks. Some of their members smashed the windows of cars and stores. They tipped over newspaper boxes, pulled a trash cans into the street, bent the rear view mirrors on a bus and flipped garbage bins. Ironically, one man considered the leader of the group carried a yellow flag with the motto "Don't Tread on Me." while they had no problem treading on others. While Funk the War was damaging property, another group of about 100 anarchists pushed a dumpster filled with trash and threw garbage in the streets and at cars. They also punctured the tire of a limousine and threw a board at the vehicle. Others hurled glass bottles at a bus.
"Violence is the hallmark of the Left."
Yawn:
April 4, 2009
Richard Poplawski, 23, met officers at the doorway and shot two of them in the head immediately, Harper said. An officer who tried to help the two also was killed.
Poplawski, armed with an assault rifle and two other guns, then held police at bay for four hours as the fallen officers were left bleeding nearby, their colleagues unable to reach them, according to police and witnesses. More than 100 rounds were fired by the SWAT teams and Poplawski, Harper said.
Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon," said Edward Perkovic, his best friend.
August 13, 2008
ust about two weeks ago, a man named Jim Adkisson walked into a Tennessee church and killed two churchgoers. Adkisson was motivated to attack what he called the "liberal movement." Adkisson was the reader of books by many right wing authors.
Last November, a man walked into the Clinton Campaign office in New Hampshire and demanded to speak to Senator Clinton about her mental health plan. A six hour hostage scenario ensued with no injuries.
Today a 51 year old man walked into Arkansas Democratic headquarters and shot and killed the state chairman, Bill Gwatney.
January 29, 2010
In a trial that never became the referendum on abortion that some abortion foes wanted, Scott Roeder, a 51-year-old airport shuttle driver, was convicted today of murdering George Tiller, one the nation's few physicians who performed late-term abortions.
Roeder also was convicted on two counts of aggravated assault for threatening to shoot church ushers Keith Martin and Gary Hoepner as he fled Reformation Lutheran Church after murdering Tiller.
Whether Roeder shot Tiller at point-blank range in the forehead at Tiller's church in Wichita last May was never at issue; Roeder had admitted it to reporters, in court filings and finally to a jury on Thursday. He also said he had been stalking Tiller since at least 1999.
March 29, 2010
In an indictment against the nine unsealed on Monday, the Justice Department said they were part of a group of apocalyptic Christian militants who were plotting to kill law enforcement officers in hopes of inciting an antigovernment uprising, the latest in a recent surge in right-wing militia activity.
The court filing said the group, which called itself the Hutaree, planned to kill an unidentified law enforcement officer and then bomb the funeral caravan using improvised explosive devices based on designs used against American troops by insurgents in Iraq.
February 18, 2010
Stack, an Austin, Texas man with tax problems, flew his personal airplane into the Internal Revenue Office Building in Austin. He killed one IRS employee and himself. His manifesto explained that the IRS forced him to violence after a tax code switch in the 1980s ruined his life. Stack’s violent attack on a federal institution is only the latest example of right-wing terrorism to afflict the United States in recent years.
Some have questioned Stack’s right-wing credentials. They point out a reference to communism in his manifesto. This is possible. Parsing the political leanings of an unhinged and suicidal man can be tricky and counterproductive. However, his anti-government leanings and attack on the Internal Revenue Service comes straight from the right-wing playbook.
I similarly believe that many in the right wing media are liars, propagandists and demagogues, Stogie. And by making these accusations without providing proof or examples (just as you did not) I similarly add nothing of substance to the discussion.
As I've said many times, the vast majority of tea partiers are indeed not preaching hate and violence but some are and simply stating that this is "clearly not supported by any evidence" does not make it any less true.
In order to dispute the meme of which you speak I've encouraged tea partiers to speak out against and confront those amongst you who propagate this line of thought but you could only be bothered to do so now that some idiots from the left are actively trying to infiltrate your movement in order to denigrate it.
McVeigh is not analogous to the tea party and he was indeed an extremist but if one takes the mentality and message of "If Brown can't stop it, a Browning can" to the extreme you will get a Timothy McVeigh. You can debate what his motivations were (I personally disagree with the government's actions at Waco and Ruby Ridge) but a lot of right wing rhetoric describes them and I would wager that McVeigh's views on culture, politics and religion were aligned more closely with the right in this country than the left.
As always, I'm not suggesting that the left isn't responsible for many acts of hate and violence in the world. I'm just pointing out the stupidity of the myopic worldview that one side of the ideological aisle is so much better/worse than the other and regardless of which side says it (and I hear it from both on a constant basis) they always sound like uninformed children when they do.
"I'm not suggesting that the left isn't responsible for many acts of hate and violence in the world. I'm just pointing out the stupidity of the myopic worldview that one side of the ideological aisle is so much better/worse than the other and regardless of which side says it (and I hear it from both on a constant basis) they always sound like uninformed children when they do."
Yawn.
That's exactly what I mean when I talk about uninformed children, Don. Thank you as always for illustrating my point.
Maddow did NOT equate the rank-and-file of the Tea Party movement to right-wing extremism, Ellen Gray did. Perhaps you missed the recent death threats and militia arrests? THAT is extreme. Peacefully protesting is not.
Spitting on congressmen is extreme. Holding a placard that says "keep your hands off my taxes" is not.
It says more about the modern Right that they see a comment about the "extreme" anti-government movement and think that it refers to the "mainstream" Right, than it does about the person saying it.
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