Desipio Message Board

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/ernest_hancock_viper_militia_gun_obama_event.php

QuoteErnest Hancock, the online radio host who staged an interview with an assault rifle-wielding cohort at the Obama event in Arizona yesterday -- and was himself armed with a 9 millimeter pistol -- was a vocal supporter and friend of right-wing anti-government militia members who were convicted of conspiracy and weapons charges in the 90s.

And in an interview today with TPMmuckraker, Hancock said he still believes the Viper Militia case was "manufactured" by the same government that manufactured Waco and lied to its people about 9/11.

The federal government initially accused the Arizona Viper Militia of plotting to blow up federal buildings, which the twelve-member group cased on videotape.

In July 1996, after a grand jury indicted the suspects, federal agents "seized about 90 high-powered rifles and hundreds of pounds of a bomb-making compound from the shabby bungalow of a man whom officials identified as the ordnance specialist of a local paramilitary group," the New York Times reported at the time.

Hancock, who in recent years designed the famous "Ron Paul rEVOLution" graphic, was an oft-quoted defender of the militia members. The tapes of the government buildings, he said at the time, were purely "educational."

"They don't have criminal records," another press account quoted Hancock, who knew all twelve militia members, as saying. "They just like their guns. And in Arizona, gosh darn it, that's normal."

He designed the graphic. But did he pilot the zeppelin?

Quote from: Fork on August 19, 2009, 07:48:18 AM

Quote from: TDubbs on August 18, 2009, 03:02:55 PM

Quote from: Kermit, B. on August 18, 2009, 02:58:09 PM

Quote from: Fork on August 18, 2009, 02:48:21 PM

Quote from: *In a Nutsack on August 18, 2009, 02:42:18 PM

Quote from: Fork on August 18, 2009, 11:59:20 AM

Quote from: MAD on August 18, 2009, 10:56:42 AM
TJ's in a Conservative Fantasy World if he thinks that the scenario Hawk lays out would not result in a storm of vitriol from the right decrying Obama's "jack-booted thugs".

Along with sarcastic remarks about "Hope", "Change" and "Transparency".

These fucktards with the guns have to understand, this is a country where we have the opportunity for regime change every 4 years. The fact that we can change leaders without anyone dying is what makes us better than other countries.

You didn't like November's election? Work harder in 2012.

It's not my fault that the McCain 2000 was the Beatles and the McCain 2008 was Wings.

I've read two Fork posts today, and I agree with both of them.

So the more on-the-rag I am, the better I seem to guys like you?

If it means you're only posting 3-5 days a month, then yes.

That's only 631 posts a month, though.  How would he survive?

Same way I do now, feeding off the menstrual blood of little tools who have been forced into a life of celibacy by their own inadequacies.

Fork eats menstrual blood?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/health/policy/18plan.html

QuoteThe idea of a health cooperative has been pushed by Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota. It has drawn support from centrist Democrats and has intrigued some Republicans.

The government would offer start-up money, perhaps $6 billion, in loans and grants to help doctors, hospitals, businesses and other groups form nonprofit cooperative networks to provide health care and coverage.

The co-ops could be formed at the national, state or local level. Proponents say that a health co-op might need 25,000 members to be financially viable, and at least 500,000 members to negotiate effectively with health care providers.

Health care cooperatives could inject competition in some insurance markets around the country, economists and health policy experts said. But they would need time to buy sophisticated information technology and to negotiate contracts with doctors, hospitals and other health care providers.

Mr. Conrad's own state demonstrates the uncertainties surrounding cooperatives. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota dominates the state's private insurance market, collecting nearly 90 percent of premiums. As a nonprofit owned by its members, the company would hope to qualify as a co-op under federal legislation, said Paul von Ebers, its incoming president and chief executive.

So, Kent Conrad's plan to solve the health care crisis and foster competition could wind up shelling out government cash to the likes of regional near-monopoly behemoths like BCBS?

Brilliant.

And it's okay, because it's totally not socialism.

A decent read on the topic: http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_treatment/archive/2009/06/14/hacker.aspx

Quote from: Brownie on August 18, 2009, 02:55:28 PM
Interestingly, here in Chicago we have these things called "traffic reports." BC, as we all remember, even utilized them after his death march of a drive to Green Bay a few years ago.

Did he drive an '83 Caddy?

Bradley by the numbers...

.263/.392/.394/.786, 104 OPS+ on the season (364 PA)
.310/.425/.425/.850, 126 OPS+ since the break (108 PA)
.326/.426/.413/.839, 118 OPS+ in August (56 PA)
.394/.459/.515/.975, 154 OPS+ in the 2 hole (38 PA)

And, for Dave in particular...

.429/.444/.571/1.016 in 9 PA with the bases loaded, for a 161 OPS+ versus the rest of the league in the same split.

Quote from: oog on August 18, 2009, 10:16:30 AM

Quote from: Eli on August 18, 2009, 09:48:43 AM

Quote from: Dave B on August 18, 2009, 09:32:35 AM
Instead of swinging at a close pitch with a 3-1 count and the bases loaded to drive in runs, he'd rather spin in and take a walk. I saw it too many times this year. More concerned about drawing a walk. It did wonders for his batting average and RBI, didn't it?

If you're at the plate with the bases loaded and a 3-1 count, you shouldn't be looking at "swing at anything close."  A hitter should look for a ball in a certain spot and if the pitch isn't there, take it.  A walk means an RBI in that spot.  Swinging at "something close" usually results in an out.

And batting average?  Who cares?

At least Mark DeRosa had the guts to GIDP against Livan Hernandez in a similar situation.

You may be just a simple caveman, but you're the tops in my book.

Scoff at OBP as an unsexy stat all you want, Dave, but one of Bradley's best assets has turned out to be his eye at the plate. He should continue to do what he's best at, as that's his best chance at success.

Quote from: StewiesBandwagon on August 18, 2009, 12:43:42 AM

Quote from: Ghost of Dave Rosello on August 18, 2009, 12:31:51 AM
The guys at Wikipedia are having a hell of a time cleaning up Gregg's wikipedia page right now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Gregg

I got a few jabs in while I could.

Some are more clever than others...

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kevin_Gregg&diff=308625387&oldid=308625194
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kevin_Gregg&diff=308625731&oldid=308625685
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kevin_Gregg&diff=308628052&oldid=308627900

Either that, or everyone starts packing and the tensions on both sides continue to ratchet up until the Hegelian dynamic finally explodes in an inevitable Aufhebung of motorcycle marauders.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/2009/08/twelve-carry-guns----including-assault-rifle----outside-obama-event.php

QuoteAbout 12 people were carrying guns, including at least one semi-automatic assault rifle, outside a building where President Obama was speaking today.

No one was arrested outside the VFW National Convention in Phoenix, according to the Associated Press, where hundreds of people demonstrated both for and against health care reform. There are no reports that the 12 were part of an organized group.

The man spotted carrying the assault rifle and a pistol, who gave his name only as "Chris", was asked why he was armed. "Because I can do it," he said. "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms." You can watch the video from ArizonaCentral.com (go to about 1:30). He's being interviewed by a man who's also wearing a handgun.

Two police officers kept close by. Carrying guns, including the AR-15 assault rifle, is legal under Arizona law.

"If we need to intervene, we will intervene at that time," said Detective J. Oliver.

If this trend continues, eventually, someone's gonna cross a line.

Somewhere, an otherwise law-abiding citizen, carrying a gun at a Presidential event ("because I can"), will get too close for Secret Service comfort and be temporarily relieved of their firearm and/or freedom.

Further proof, of course, that Obama wants to take our guns.

The contradictions heightened.

Game. Set. Select.

When you have to look like a douche, but don't have time for flavor. Or alcohol.

Quote from: Weebs on August 16, 2009, 11:51:27 PM
The special effects were quite amazing, to the point where you tend to forget that what you're watching isn't even real.

Why do you insist on making it so easy for us?

Rick Perlstein, whose "Nixonland" is discussed (briefly) over in paperbacks, shakes the crazy tree...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/14/AR2009081401495_pf.html

QuoteSo the birthers, the anti-tax tea-partiers, the town hall hecklers -- these are "either" the genuine grass roots or evil conspirators staging scenes for YouTube? The quiver on the lips of the man pushing the wheelchair, the crazed risk of carrying a pistol around a president -- too heartfelt to be an act. The lockstep strangeness of the mad lies on the protesters' signs -- too uniform to be spontaneous. They are both. If you don't understand that any moment of genuine political change always produces both, you can't understand America, where the crazy tree blooms in every moment of liberal ascendancy, and where elites exploit the crazy for their own narrow interests.

...

Liberals are right to be vigilant about manufactured outrage, and particularly about how the mainstream media can too easily become that outrage's entry into the political debate. For the tactic represented by those fake Nixon letters was a long-term success. Conservatives have become adept at playing the media for suckers, getting inside the heads of editors and reporters, haunting them with the thought that maybe they are out-of-touch cosmopolitans and that their duty as tribunes of the people's voices means they should treat Obama's creation of "death panels" as just another justiciable political claim. If 1963 were 2009, the woman who assaulted Adlai Stevenson would be getting time on cable news to explain herself. That, not the paranoia itself, makes our present moment uniquely disturbing.

It used to be different. You never heard the late Walter Cronkite taking time on the evening news to "debunk" claims that a proposed mental health clinic in Alaska is actually a dumping ground for right-wing critics of the president's program, or giving the people who made those claims time to explain themselves on the air. The media didn't adjudicate the ever-present underbrush of American paranoia as a set of "conservative claims" to weigh, horse-race-style, against liberal claims. Back then, a more confident media unequivocally labeled the civic outrage represented by such discourse as "extremist" -- out of bounds.

The tree of crazy is an ever-present aspect of America's flora. Only now, it's being watered by misguided he-said-she-said reporting and taking over the forest. Latest word is that the enlightened and mild provision in the draft legislation to help elderly people who want living wills -- the one hysterics turned into the "death panel" canard -- is losing favor, according to the Wall Street Journal, because of "complaints over the provision."

Good thing our leaders weren't so cowardly in 1964, or we would never have passed a civil rights bill -- because of complaints over the provisions in it that would enslave whites.

I b lookng at u ChkGrsly