Tea Party Patriots

Tea Partiers Get Set For Hectic Final Push Against Health-Care Reform

Zachary Roth | November 2, 2009, 4:07PM

Declaring that "this is our battle of Trenton," Tea Party activists are gearing up for a last stand against the health-care reform effort they see as putting the country on a glide-path to socialism.

With the House set to vote on reform as early as this week, Tea Party Patriot leaders yesterday sent out a lengthy email to volunteers -- forwarded to TPMmuckraker -- announcing "It's Make or Break Time with Health Care," and laying out a frenetic schedule of direct lobbying activities for the next few days, including phone calls and in-person visits to members of both houses of Congress.

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Bill Sparkman

KY Police: Speculation About Sparkman Death Has Hampered Probe

Zachary Roth | October 28, 2009, 10:00AM

Bill Sparkman

Are investigators edging away from the idea that Census Bureau worker Bill Sparkman was killed in an act of anti-government violence?

Kentucky police have been largely silent for weeks now on the probe of Sparkman's case, in which the part-time Census worker was found dead in a rural area of the state, blindfolded and gagged, with a rope around his neck and the word "Fed" written on his naked chest.

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Right-wing extremism

Tea Partier Uses Army Email Address To Call For "Civil Disobedience"

Zachary Roth | October 23, 2009, 4:31PM

A Tea Party activist today used a U.S. military email address to call for "civil disobedience" in opposition to the policies of the Obama administration.

In a message sent this morning to fellow members of the Tea Party Patriots, who had been discussing movement strategy, Richard A. Correa Sr., who identifies himself as a retired sergeant, wrote:

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David McKalip

In Tea Party Civil War, McKalip Appears To Ditch Former Comrades In Favor Of GOP Consultants

Zachary Roth | October 21, 2009, 4:13PM

Tea-Partiers, and Dr. David McKalip (inset)

In a bitter internecine feud that is creating serious divisions in the Tea Party movement, David McKalip -- the Florida doctor and health-care reform foe who got in hot water this summer after forwarding a racist picture showing President Obama as a witch doctor -- appears to have sided with a group run by GOP consultants, rather than with his former grassroots allies.

In an email to fellow members of the Tea Party Patriots, sent yesterday and obtained by TPMmuckraker, Texas-based activist Gerald Merits wrote that he has been "approached by a neurosurgeon very active in the movement in Florida asking for me to get involved with the Tea Party Express because the Tea Party Patriots just don't seem to get it."

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Barack Obama

Feds: Indicted Man Had Been Warned About Threatening Emails

Zachary Roth | October 19, 2009, 10:00AM

President Barack Obama speaks at a Human Rights Campaign event.

We're getting a few more details on John Gimbel, the California man we told you about Friday, who's been charged for sending a racist, profanity-filled email that called for the death of President Obama and for the words "Fed shit" to be written on his chest -- an apparent reference to the recent death of a Census Bureau worker in what seems to have been an act of anti-government violence.

This wasn't the first such email Gimbel has sent, say the Feds. He fired off a similar one earlier last month, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Secret Service, and reported by the AP.

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Barack Obama

Indicted Man Threatened To Kill President And Scrawl "Fed ..." On His Chest

Zachary Roth | October 16, 2009, 12:57PM

President Barack Obama speaks at a Human Rights Campaign event.

In the latest unhinged threat on Barack Obama's life, a California man has been indicted by a federal grand jury after allegedly writing a deranged and racist email screed that urged recipients to "kill the 'president,'" and seemed to invoke the recent death of a Census Bureau worker in an apparent act of anti-government violence.

On September 28th, according to the indictment filed by prosecutors and examined by TPMmuckraker, John Gimbel of Crescent City sent an email whose subject line read:

Operation kill big-[epithet]-rig: kill the 'president' [epithet], then write 'fed shit' on his chest with a felt tip.

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Barack Obama

"Slimy Thug For Hire" Behind Horton Ad Back With Impeach Obama Campaign

Zachary Roth | October 9, 2009, 4:18PM

Conservative activist Floyd Brown

It was only a matter of time...

The far right has already called Obama a socialist, a communist, and a fascist, among other names, and has compared him to Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin. So it should come as no surprise that the organized Impeach Obama movement is now underway -- with a longtime conservative flamethrower at the helm.

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American Police Force

APF Deal Let Shady Firm Provide Law Enforcement For Hardin

Zachary Roth | October 5, 2009, 4:57PM

The news that a mysterious private security contractor has been hired to take control of a prison in the tiny Montana town of Hardin has set off some outlandish conspiracy theories -- like the notion that the deal represents the first wave of President Obama's plan to "have all major cities locked down" by the end of October.

But one related concern -- that the contractor, now calling itself the American Private Police Force, could take over law enforcement duties for Hardin -- turns out not to be far-fetched at all. Indeed, the agreement that APPF -- at the time known simply as American Police Force (APF) -- signed with city's economic development arm, the Two Rivers Authority (TRA), specifically provides for that possibility.

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American Police Force

Hardin Official Fights 'Outlandish' APF Rumors

Zachary Roth | October 2, 2009, 5:32PM

A Hardin Montana official is trying to quell rumors that the town is "becoming a police state, having private paramilitary security forces, building gates at the town entrances, taking residents to the detention center that refuse to get swine flu shots, registering your firearms, and blocking off our main street," among other fears.

In a statement, Al Peterson of the city's economic development agency, the Two Rivers Authority (TRA), responds to fears stoked by Hardin's deal with American Police Force, a mysterious private security contractor, to provide prisoners for an empty prison in town.

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American Police Force

Montana Town Reassures Public On APF: "There Are No Commandos In The Streets"

Zachary Roth | October 1, 2009, 2:13PM

Fear and paranoia are running so high over Hardin, Montana's decision to put a shady private security contractor in charge of a local prison that the town agency behind the deal has posted a message on its website saying that "there are no commandos in the streets," and seeking to knock down other outlandish rumors.

A message on the website of the Two Rivers Authority, Hardin's economic development arm, reads:

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Bill Sparkman

Sparkman's Son: "He Didn't Do This To Himself"

Zachary Roth | September 29, 2009, 3:33PM

Bill Sparkman

The Associated Press has tracked down the son of the Bill Sparkman, the Census Bureau worker found dead earlier this month in rural Kentucky. And Josh Sparkman, 19, has no doubt his father was murdered.

"I look at it as disrespectful to be still throwing suicide and accident around," he said. "He didn't do this to himself. That's dishonorable. My dad was a good man. No person on this planet is going to fight cancer like he did, then turn around and kill himself a year or so later."

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Bill Sparkman

Witness: Sparkman Was Bound, Gagged, And Naked When Found

Zachary Roth | September 28, 2009, 2:25PM

Bill Sparkman

When Census worker Bill Sparkman was found dead earlier this month, he was naked and gagged, with duct tape over his eyes. Duct tape also bound Sparkman's hands and feet.

That's according to the man who found him, Jerry Weaver, who spoke to the AP over the weekend. Weaver, who lives in Ohio, was in Clay County, Kentucky for a family reunion, and was visiting some family graves with his wife and daughter when he found Sparkman's body on September 12th.

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FBI

Coroner Confirms "Fed" Written On Sparkman's Chest

Zachary Roth | September 25, 2009, 9:28AM

Bill Sparkman

The local coroner has confirmed that the word "Fed" had been written on Bill Sparkman's chest when he was found dead earlier this month.

Jim Trosper, the Clay County coroner, confirmed the information to TPMmuckraker moments ago, adding that the word appeared to have been written in felt tip marker. He declined to give additional details.

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FBI

FBI: Sparkman Was Found Touching Ground, Not Hanging From Tree

Zachary Roth | September 24, 2009, 5:48PM

Bill Sparkman

Bill Sparkman, the Census worker found dead in Kentucky recently was not found hanging from a tree, according to an FBI spokesman. Rather, David Beyer told TPMmuckraker, Sparkman's feet were planted on the ground. A rope around Sparkman's neck was attached to a tree.

An anonymously sourced AP report said that Sparkman was hanging from a tree, and that he had the word "Fed" scrawled on his chest.

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Census Bureau

Dead Census Worker Was Warned To "Be Careful" In Rural Kentucky

Zachary Roth | September 24, 2009, 4:48PM

Bill Sparkman was warned about the danger of going into rural parts of Kentucky to conduct Census interviews, a retired state trooper who knew him told TPMmuckraker.

Gilbert Acciardo, who ran an after-school program at a southeastern Kentucky high-school where Sparkman was a substitute teacher, said that when Sparkman -- a Florida native -- first started doing the Census work, "I said, you're going into rural Kentucky, isolated areas. Be careful over there -- people may not understand that you're there to gather statistics."

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Bill Sparkman

Census Worker Found Dead In Kentucky -- What Do We Know?

Zachary Roth | September 24, 2009, 2:54PM

Over the last 24 hours, we've been tracking a gruesome story developing involving the death of a Kentucky Census Bureau worker. The potential political implications of what happened are already generating a lot of attention around the internet -- so it's worth taking a moment to lay out what we know.

On September 12th, the body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year old part-time Census worker and teacher was found in a remote area of the Daniel Boone National Forest, in Clay County, in rural southeast Kentucky. Sparkman reportedly had died on the morning of the day before.

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Media

The Right-Wing Extremist Writer Behind Glenn Beck's Worldview

Zachary Roth | September 16, 2009, 12:09PM

Glenn Beck

We weren't aware that Glenn Beck's unique brand of conservative messianic zeal and conspiracy-minded racial paranoia required any particular intellectual underpinning.

But a fascinating article in Salon reveals that a book by a Mormon "historian" deemed too extreme even by the modern conservative movement -- which argues that the U.S. constitution is based primarily on natural law -- has played a major role in Beck's "thinking."

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Barack Obama

Tea Party Group: Obama Is Both Goebbels And Mengele

Zachary Roth | September 4, 2009, 12:58PM

So as you may have heard, the Tea Partiers are set to get back in the news next weekend with a big "March on Washington" to protest health-care reform, the bailout, climate-change legislation, and all those other intolerable encroachments on freedom that the Obama administration is planning.

The Tea Party Patriots -- which, along with the corporate-backed FreedomWorks, is the prime organizer of the march -- have worked hard to portray their movement as a reasonable, principled, non-violent opposition. Among the confirmed speakers for the rally are GOP lawmakers who are leaders of the conservative movement like Jim DeMint, Mike Pence, and Marsha Blackburn.

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Pat Buchanan

MSNBC Promoting Buchanan's Hitler-Sympathizing Column

Zachary Roth | September 3, 2009, 11:34AM

It's one thing for a national cable network to feature a Nazi sympathizer as a political analyst, and refuse to answer questions about it. It's another for that network to actively promote that person's apologies for Hitler.

But that's what MSNBC is doing.

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Media

Buchanan: Hitler Didn't Want War -- MSNBC Mum On Employing Hitler Sympathizer

Zachary Roth | September 2, 2009, 5:44PM

Pat Buchanan

Usually, historical revisionist arguments of the "Hitler Was Actually A Man Of Peace" variety are confined to the kind of poorly designed and little-read white supremacist and neo-Nazi websites that Holocaust Museum shooting suspect James Von Brunn patronized.

But that doesn't account for the mainstream media's token Hitler sympathizer, Pat Buchanan. To mark the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland, Buchanan, a frequent commentator on MSNBC, has written a syndicated column entitled "Did Hitler Want War?"

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Bob McDonnell

In Thesis, McDonnell Slammed Gays, Unwed Mothers, No-Fault Divorce

Eric Kleefeld and Zachary Roth | August 31, 2009, 4:04PM

VA gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell

The Washington Post yesterday reported on the masters thesis of Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell. As the paper noted, McDonnell argued, among other things, that working women and feminists are "detrimental" to the family; that government policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators;" and that the court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples was "illogical," because at the time non-marital sex was itself a crime.

Now we've taken our own look at the thesis -- written for Regent University in 1989, when McDonnell was already a married man of 34 years old. And it looks like the Post left out some other excerpts that might also give readers some pause.

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