This morning's news from Austin, Texas, was startling. A Piper PA-28 crashed into an office building full of IRS workers.
Click here to read the entire AP article.The FBI tentatively identified the pilot as Joseph A. Stack, 53. Law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still going on, said that before taking off, Stack apparently set fire to his house and posted a long anti-government screed on the Web. It was dated Thursday and signed "Joe Stack (1956-2010)."
In it, the author cited run-ins he had with the IRS and ranted about the tax agency, government bailouts and corporate America's "thugs and plunderers."
Now let's see how long it will be before Mr. Stack's malevolent spirit is raised from the dead, to be crafted into a heroic, martyr-like figure by elements of the anti-tax, anti-government right-wing fringe. Yes, I'm saying it's likely we'll soon be hearing how the poor man just couldn't help himself; he didn't really want to hurt other people, etc.
Will we see Fox News covering a big-ass tea party, thrown down in Stack's honor? If so, then let's see how many Republicans will show a reluctance to cast this man's hateful last act in a bad light.
Whether an airplane-flying, death-wishing attacker is a Christian anti-American, or a Muslim anti-American, or an atheist anti-American, how much difference does it really make to the victims of the attack?
Moreover, how is one deliberate crashing of an airplane into an office building full of innocent people a criminal act, and the other an act of war?
Today's news from Austin has created a perfect storm of an opportunity for the most impatient power hungry conservatives, politicians and pundits, alike, to flaunt their true colors. I'm guessing some of them just won't be able to resist it.
Like, what will Sarah Palin write on her hands about all this?
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Updates (Feb. 22):
For a couple of stories that discuss the Stack as hero/martyr angle, click here and here.
5 comments:
I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.
"The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed."
Joe Stack (1956-2010)
02/18/2010
Sounds like a liberal to everyone but you.
Anyone expecting to make his nut in Austin in computer engineering these days is like a guy expecting to be a successful Gold Rush 49er in 1870. Delusions of entitlement, fer sure.
Anonymous (3:12 a.m.),
Well, watching your "everyone" (meaning some self-styled right-wing propagandists) contorting themselves into pretzels, in order to push away from Stack, is amusing me.
We'll see how it plays out. I still say Stack will eventually be cast as a martyr by the likes of the "birthers," as well as the sort of right-wingers who have turned blind eyes toward the murdering of doctors who perform abortions, etc.
We live in a society of ticking bombs. Some of them wear postal uniforms, some military and some just look like high school dropouts. This guy blended perfectly in the Austin TX music scene.
We've met the enemy and he is us.
You are committing the same mistake many liberals are making when you write off tea partiers as "right wingers". The movement is largely one driven by a dislike for big government and a belief that our elected leaders have violated the public trust one too many times. If you think it's about right wingers, the Dems will lose big. Similarly, if the Pubs think the tea partiers are right wingers and that this is just the usual political shift, then the Pubs will find themselves being voted out in a few years. It's time to clean house, left and right.
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