Produced by HuffPost's Eyes & Ears Citizen Journalism Unit
Tea parties are proving very attractive to both white supremacists and the militia movement. At 11:15 on Friday, in an online Patriot Caucus discussion forum, David E. Parsons wrote a post called "Militia Training Videos," with links to videos by Mark Koernke, a leading figure in the American militia movement, and his followers.
One video linked to from the Patriot Caucus forum (embedded below) features militiamen emerging from a smoke-screened forest, armed with assault rifles, with the instructions: "Train as you will fight... So that you will fight as you have trained!!!"
Militants such as Koernke have referred to their cause as the Patriot Movement for years. Meanwhile, multiple tea party groups are springing up which refer to themselves as "militias." Eric Odom, executive director of American Liberty Alliance, created the Patriot Caucus website on which the militia recruitment post was made. He has yet to respond to a January 22 email informing him of the post. At time of publication, the post was still up.
But militants are not the only ones infiltrating the Tea Party movement. The white power movement views Tea Parties as opportunities to recruit as well as incite violence, as is evidenced by postings on the white power website Stormfront:
Whites Forward: "Go where our people are starting to stand up around symptoms of the problem, and INTERVENE to guide them. Just because these started as an anti-tax protest doesn't mean that they must be limited and can't be developed upward toward an explicitly racial mass struggle."
Scottish: "I think the "tea party" is a good way to meet people with potential. Most people at this event will be white people who are fed up with the direction of things and they are ready to hear how we got into this mess."
On Jan. 22 the Council of Conservative Citizens attended a Florida Tea Party, where members distributed two boxes of their newsletter and 250 Council business cards. The CofCC is the political face of the white power movement. Their mission statement declares that they "oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people."
Last November, neo-Nazi J.T. Ready started a fight by unfurling a Hitler flag at an Arizona Tea Party. In the recent documentary, "White Power USA", Ready describes the Tea Party movement as "the beginning of a really good awakening." White supremacists believe that they are only the tip of an iceberg, the visible aspect of a more universal hatred. The documentary suggests that white supremacists sees Tea Parties as "the best chance in decades to cross over into mainstream American politics."
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.isnt the tea party movment credited to GLENN BECK,PALIN, AND THAT GANG??...so..this is why Beck spends so much time showing film footage of 'HITLER"......he wants his "lemmings" to see "how a good conservitive american-teabagger" should behave..............its all becoming clearer to me now.......
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/25/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6140062.shtml
I didn't know he worked there ... but it seems to me Rascal Scooters has benefitted from Medicare purchasing beaucoup scooters for seniors. MediCare is a boon to medical device marketers ... seems to me they would support MORE government involvement in health care if they were only interested in making more money.
I assume you did not watch it.
Every time a poster on this site conflates all "conservatives" with racism, let alone Nazism, the people who control the right (fox news, rush limbaugh, matt drudge) celebrate. If the millions of working class people in this country who have seen their livelihoods decimated by neo-liberal policies (those candidate Obama referred to as "bitter") can be convinced that the "elite" coastal liberals think of them as nothing but ignorant and hateful caveman, this country will never be able to move forward.
If you don't want to see this country go the way of the Weimar Republic, it is of the greatest importance that you don't fall into the trap that the MSNBC/FOX paradigm feeds off.
There are genuine grievances in this country and name calling will only inflame them.
Instead we should be attempting to reach out to people who might be sympathetic to the Tea Party Movement. There is much we can all agree on, particularly the need to fix our financial system and end the criminally insane wars that are draining our economy.
DIVISION IS WHAT THE CORPORATIONS WANT.
But who is throwing around all the disdain and promoting divisiveness against people speaking their minds (to their elected representatives no less)?
This article is a prime example.
More balanced reporting would look like this:
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/25/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6140062.shtml
Isn't it amazing. People that don't have enough brains but to think they can exterminate groups of people in their lifetime.
Idiots.
Hey idiots! Listen up!
- you ain't gonna live long enough to make a difference. NEVER EVER EVER.
The country is way too diverse now so you ain't got a farts chance to do anything but make a fool out of yourself.
(crickets)....crap. forgot,....there's isn't a neo-noozi gonna be reading this site....
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-677419.html
I found an interesting chart linked below that shoots teabagger's premise right out of the water they say they are concerned about taxes and government spending but yet many vote Republican.
http://www.lafn.org/gvdc/Natl_Debt_Chart.html
Let me see them square this information with being fiscally conservative. LIARS!
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/25/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6140062.shtml
If so, why do they call themselves patriots? No response necessary. The questions are rhetorical.
After viewing it, I'm skeptical as to the origin of this video.
I mean seriously, haven't any of these people heard of miniDV?
I know this comment will be "moderated." So I guess this is directed at whoever might be doing the screening... maybe you'll look into these ideas yourself and pass the message on? either way, I'm just sort of "typing out loud" so bare with me...
I'm skeptical. I'm more and more convinced that our entire political paradigm is artificially managed and there is a good amount of scholarly work to back this up...
particularly books written by Anthony C. Sutton and Carrol Quigley.
You see, the guys in this video are designed to scare us and make liberals afraid to work towards anything that might be called "socialism" (i.e. for "the people"). At the same time the right wing media, for the most part, serves to "herd" the type of individuals who might be swayed by these ideas in a direction more equitable to their billionaire overlords.
Anyway, what I'm getting at is that the "news reality" we exist in is a long term project of the world's "old money", designed specifically to protect their estates.
Maybe I'm totally crazy... in fact I HOPE that is the case... but the more I study power, the more I become convinced.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6244851259954264539#
I wonder why.
Unions are more Patriotic than these crazy people. They also know how to talk to people all over with diverse opinions.
Apparently, by your comment, you should educate yourself about Unions.
The people who belong to Unions aren't happy with the state of the country, either. And they don't go to meetings or protests waving around guns and spouting off right wing talking points that make no sense and are usually full of lies.
Have you ever tried to talk rationally with a tea baggers? You'll just come away frustrated because they are closed minded. It really is useless.
Semper fi
Have YOU ever tried to talk with anyone involved with the Tea Party crowd? I have. Sometimes you get through. You'd be surprised, I think, by how many of these people are actually IN unions already, or by how many would seriously consider it.
Semper fi
We need accountability and transparency from the RULERS.
Mass grievances WILL be exploited if you give certain powerful people the chance.
Time is precious. All those lobbyists in DC fighting against the will of the people, are creating this situation... along with the feckless, and easily startled politicians who cave to their every whim.
Democracy is BROKEN. Vote with your WALLET.
Your SPENDING POWER is all you have left in this system.
FOOD is a POLITICAL ISSUE, stop eating corporate food.
STARVE THE CORPORATE BEAST before its TOO LATE.