Right-wing extremism

Going To Extremes: The Obama Era's Top Ten Anti-Government Flare-Ups

Zachary Roth | April 1, 2010, 6:35PM

Clockwise from top left: David Stone, Sr., John Patrick Bedell, Joseph Stack and James von Brunn

The charges filed this week against nine members of the Hutaree Christian militia group have re-focused attention on the resurgence over the last year or so of the broader militia movement.

That resurgence has been driven in part, say experts, by the election of President Obama. But during the Obama era, threats of anti-government violence -- and even the real thing -- have become more widespread. In fact, with disaffected Americans from Massachusetts to California freaking out against the Feds en masse, it sometimes seems that going postal has become all the rage. Of course, in some cases, that anti-government animus long predates the election of our current president. But there seems to be something about the current climate that's contributing to the rash of incidents.

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Roundup

2009's Muckiest: Our Top Ten Most Popular Stories Of The Year

Justin Elliott | December 31, 2009, 3:19PM

It's been a dirty, scandalous, generally muck-drenched year here at TPMmuckraker.

2009 began with "black and bitter" and ends with Hooters. We'll always look back with fondness on Tom DeLay's tall tale of quadriplegic protesters and Mark Sanford's painfully awkward love e-mails ("I love ... the erotic beauty of you holding yourself"). And that's not even mentioning the ongoing sagas of John Murtha, Bernie Madoff, and John Ensign.

In past years, we've compiled grand lists of scandalized officials, but the Obama Administration isn't there yet.

We have our own favorite stories of the year, but more important are the posts that you, our readers, loved. So without further ado, here's our countdown of TPMmuckraker's top 10 most popular posts of the year.

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Faithful Word Baptist Church

Secret Service 'Aware Of' Gun-Toter And Pastor's Prayers For Obama To Die

Justin Elliott | August 31, 2009, 12:14PM

Faithful Word Baptist Church, Tempe, Arizona

Asked about pastor Steven Anderson and gun-toter Chris Broughton's repeated wishes for President Barack Obama to die, Special Agent Darrin Blackford of the Secret Service sends along this statement:

"We are aware of the situation and appropriate follow up will be conducted."

Broughton is the member of Anderson's Faithful Word Baptist Church who brought an AR-15 rifle and a hand gun to an Obama event in Phoenix earlier this month. Anderson later confirmed to TPMmuckraker that just 24 hours before that show of arms-bearing, Broughton attended the pastor's fiery sermon in which he prayed for "Obama to melt like a snail tonight" for being a "socialist devil, murderer, infanticide."

And yesterday, Broughton and Anderson took their statements even further, with the pastor saying he'd like Obama to die of brain cancer like Ted Kennedy, and Broughton for the first time publicly saying that he, too, would like the president to be dead.

No word on what form the Secret Service's follow up will take. And the agency would not comment on a CNN report that it interviewed Anderson.

Gun-Toters

Gun-Toter From Obama Event: I, Like My Pastor, Want The President To Die

Justin Elliott | August 31, 2009, 11:18AM

Pastor Steven Anderson and Chris Broughton

The violent anti-Obama sentiment coming out of central Arizona managed to get still more toxic over the weekend.

Chris Broughton, the man who brought an AR-15 rifle and a handgun to an Arizona Obama rally earlier this month, says he "concurs" with his fundamentalist pastor's prayer for President Obama "to die and go to hell."

And in an interview with a local TV station, pastor Steven Anderson himself elaborated on his statement to TPMmuckraker that he would prefer Obama to die of natural causes so "he's not some martyr."

"I don't want him to be a martyr, we don't need another holiday. I'd like to see him die, like Ted Kennedy, of brain cancer," Anderson now says.

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Gun-Toters

Pastor Of Gun-Toter At Obama Event Prayed For Obama To Die

Justin Elliott | August 27, 2009, 3:14PM

Pastor Steven Anderson and Chris Broughton

Chris Broughton, the man who brought an assault rifle and a handgun to the Obama event in Arizona last week, attended a fiery anti-Obama sermon the day before the event, in which Pastor Steven Anderson said he was going to "pray for Barack Obama to die and go to hell", Anderson confirmed to TPMmuckraker today.

Anderson also said Broughton had informed the pastor about his planned show of arms-bearing, but "he planned out the AR15 thing long before he heard that sermon," delivered Sunday August 16 at the fundamentalist Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, AZ.

This is the second example of the gun-toters at the Arizona Obama event tied to the violent fringes of American life.

"I don't obey Barack Obama. And I'd like Barack Obama to melt like a snail tonight," Anderson said in the sermon.

The sermon, which was titled "Why I Hate Barack Obama" and also contained virulent anti-gay themes, continued:

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