TPMMuckraker Zachary Roth
Larry Deen
Gun-Rights Extremists Praise Operation Exodus Sheriff: 'This Will Save Lives!!!'
A training session for "Operation Exodus" volunteers
The Louisiana sheriff who plans to arm volunteers with a .50 caliber machine gun and other weapons, to maintain security in the event of a terrorist attack or man-made disaster, is being hailed as a hero by survivalists and other gun-rights enthusiasts.
"Awesome. Now there's a Sheriff who thinks outside the box. Good for him," writes one user at SurvivalistBoards.com (slogan: "Endure -- Adapt -- Overcome"), in reference to Bossier Parish Sheriff Larry Deen.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)Topics: Barack Obama, Bossier Parish, Guns, Larry Deen, Louisiana, Operation Exodus, Stockpiling Guns And Ammunition, War Wagon
John Patrick Bedell
Pentagon Shooter Worshipped Private Property Rights, Denounced Government 'Schemes' Like Public Education (AUDIO)
John Patrick Bedell
The California man who opened fire last night outside the Pentagon was a property rights extremist who railed against the government's ability to "confiscate the resources of their citizens to fund schemes that need only be justified by lies and deception," and wanted to "eliminate the role of the government in education."
In a recorded manifesto called "Directions To Freedom", the audio of which he posted online in 2006, John Patrick Bedell, of Hollister, California, praised private property as "the most successful basis for structuring society that humanity has ever known."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Topics: John Patrick Bedell, Militia Movement, Pentagon, Pentagon Metro Shooter, Property Rights, Registered Democrat, Right-wing extremism, Truther
Republican National Committee
GOPers Blast RNC 'Census' Mailers: 'Nothing Could Be More Wrong'
RNC Chairman Michael Steele
Two Congressional Republicans today blasted those RNC fundraising mailers that appear made to look like official Census Bureau communications. "Nothing could be more wrong," said one.
During a hearing of the House Oversight committee, which is looking into the mailers, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) declared: "I am obviously a member of the Republican Party. I have seen the Republican Party send out documents that say 'census.' I think it's wrong, I think it's deceptive, and I wish they wouldn't do it. I would hope our party would cease from doing that."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: Census, Census Bureau, Darrell Issa, Fundraising, Jason Chaffetz, Michael Steele, RNC Census Mailers, Republican National Committee
Larry Deen
Sheriff's Office Cites Islamic Terror 'Cells' In Bossier Parish
A training session for "Operation Exodus" volunteers
The office of the Louisiana sheriff who's forming a citizen militia to defend the parish in the event of a terrorist attack says it has information about possible Islamic terrorist activity in its midst.
"We understand, based on some intelligence that we've collected over the last year, year and a half, that there have been cells and people operating even within our parish that have been trained as terrorists or went overseas to be trained as terrorists," Ed Baswell, a spokesman for the Bossier Parrish Sheriff's Office, told TPMmuckraker this morning.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)Topics: Bossier Parrish, Ed Baswell, FBI, Larry Deen, Louisiana, Sheriff, War Wagon
Roy Ashburn
Sources: Family Values GOPer Was At Gay Club Before Drunk Driving Arrest
CA Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield)
A California Republican family values legislator who was arrested early Wednesday morning for drunk driving had recently left a gay club, sources tell a local news channel.
State senator Roy Ashburn was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol on Wednesday at 2am in Sacramento, after police saw the car he was driving swerving erratically. An unidentified male passenger was in the car with Ashburn.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)Topics: California, DUI, Faces, Gay Nightclub, Gay Rights, Hypocrisy, Latin Night, Roy Ashburn, Sacramento, State Legislature
Larry Deen
'Operation Exodus': Louisiana Sheriff Taps Locals For Emergency Security Plan
A training session for "Operation Exodus" volunteers
A Louisiana sheriff plans to arm volunteers with shotguns, riot shields, batons, and a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on a "war wagon," as part of "Operation Exodus," a program to provide security in the event of a terrorist attack or civic unrest. "It's a calling," he says.
The office of Sheriff Larry Deen of Bossier Parish, near Shreveport in the northwest part of the state, last month selected for the program 200 local residents -- mostly ex-law-enforcement personnel -- and began training them in "defensive techniques in the event of a struggle," reports the Shreveport Times. The plan calls for the new recruits to be sent to protect food from grocery stores, gas from gas stations, and other crucial local resources, should the situation demand it.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (20)Topics: Bossier Parish, Larry Deen, Louisiana, Militia Movement, Militias, Operation Exodus, Sheriff, Shreveport Times, Stockpiling Guns And Ammunition, Terrorism, War Wagon, White People
Kris Kobach
Arpaio Paying Right-Wing Lawyer Big Bucks For 'Immigration Enforcement Training'
Kris Kobach
The county sheriff's office run by Joe Arpaio is paying a prominent right-wing immigration lawyer between $250 and $300 per hour to train cops on how to enforce immigration laws, according to Arpaio's top deputy.
As we reported last month,the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office hired Kris Kobach -- who was John Ashcroft's top immigration adviser at DOJ, and specializes in crafting local laws designed to go after those who harbor illegal immigrants -- to train deputies in the finer points of immigration enforcement. In announcing the training program, Arpaio appeared to be thumbing his nose at the Justice Department, which recently limited his department's ability to make immigration arrests after numerous civil-rights complaints.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)Topics: Immigration, Joe Arpaio, Kris Kobach
Mark Meckler
Top Tea Party Leader Was Paid By GOP Biz Group's Campaign
Tea Party Patriots leader Mark Meckler
A top Tea Party leader who has publicly distanced his group from the GOP was recently paid by a campaign run by an influential California Republican business organization, to gather signatures for a ballot initiative that's long been a key goal of the state party.
Mark Meckler, one of two national spokespeople for the Tea Party Patriots, was recently paid $7,500 for "petition circulation management" by the "Citizen Power Campaign Supported by the Lincoln Club of Orange County," according to state disclosure records. Meckler's involvement with the campaign was first reported last month by the website Red County.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)Topics: Carly Fiorina, Citizen Power Campaign, Lincoln Club of Orange County, Mark Meckler, Steve Poizner, Tea Parties, Tea Party Patriots
Public Notice
Former Bush Admin. Spox Launches Non-Profit To Combat 'Over-Spending'
Gretchen Hamel, former Bush administration spokesperson
A former Bush administration PR specialist has launched a new non-profit designed to raise the alarm about what it sees as "over-spending" in Washington -- but is staying mum on how the group is being funded.
Public Notice launched late last month with a column on the website of US News and World Report, in which executive director Gretchen Hamel argued that "[b]ackroom deals, trillion-dollar deficits, pork-laden spending bills, and multibillion-dollar bailouts have left many Americans wondering if Washington can be trusted with their money." The group's sophisticated-looking website, Bankrupting America, adds that "unprecedented government spending and debt, corporate welfare, higher taxes, and poorly designed bureaucratic red tape are undermining economic progress," and contends that the stimulus bill has been a failure.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Topics: Gretchen Hamel, Public Notice
Chamber of Commerce
Microsoft Distances Itself From Chamber On Climate Change
Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft
Microsoft is distancing itself from the Chamber of Commerce's controversial opposition to progress on climate change.
The software company today posted the following statement on its "environmental sustainability" blog:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)Topics: Apple, Bill Gates, Chamber of Commerce, Global Warming, PG&E
Mark Meckler
Tea Party Leader Was Involved With GOP-Tied Political Firm
Tea Party Patriots leader Mark Meckler
Mark Meckler, a top Tea Party leader, has worked hard to position the movement as a grassroots uprising, independent of both political parties. But just a few years ago, Meckler was involved in an online political consulting firm with ties to the GOP -- a fact that could intensify the fears of some Tea Party activists that their movement is being hijacked by Republican political operatives.
Since last year, Meckler, a northern California lawyer, has emerged as one of two national leaders and spokespeople for the Tea Party Patriots, giving frequent interviews to national news outlets. Working closely with the Atlanta-based Jenny Beth Martin, Meckler has helped build TPP into perhaps the largest and most prominent of the various Tea Party factions. If the notoriously decentralized Tea Party movement can be said to have a spokesman, Meckler has as good a claim to the title as just about anyone.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)Topics: Jenny Beth Martin, Mark Meckler, Michael Steele, Republican National Committee, Tea Parties, Tea Party Express, Tea Party Patriots
Ed Martin
Tea Partiers Call Obama A Marxist And A Dictator ... Get Promoted On GOPer's Site
Members of a Tea Party event attended by Republican Congressional candidate Ed Martin
As the Republican Party becomes increasingly dominated by an implacably anti-Obama far-right fringe, it's becoming difficult for even mainstream GOPers to avoid endorsing the loonier rhetoric of the Tea Party wing.
Consider Ed Martin, a former chief of staff to Missouri governor Matt Blunt, who's mounted a strong bid to challenge Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO) in the fall. This weekend, Martin campaigned at a Tea Party rally at the Arch in St. Louis, and his campaign posted photographs of the event on his official website. Most of the pictures are unremarkable. But a few show people expressing sentiments that -- though perhaps not so unusual for a Tea Party event -- might raise some eyebrows when they're being promoted by a serious candidate for Congress.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barack Obama, Ed Martin, Right-wing extremism, Tea Parties
John Yoo
Yoo On Missing Emails: Leahy Is 'Chasing His Own Tail To Feed Left-Wing Conspiracy Theories'
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Yoo
In his op-ed on the OPR report that we just told you about, John Yoo also appears to claim ignorance on the subject of those missing emails, and accuses the Senate Judiciary committee chair of "chasing his own tail to feed left-wing conspiracy theories." But Yoo's bravado raises as many questions as it answers.
As we've detailed, OPR wrote that its probe was "hampered" by the fact that it didn't have access to many of Yoo's emails, and was told that they were missing and unrecoverable. Numerous observers, including the National Archives and Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), the Judiciary committee chair, have expressed concern about that omission, and asked for more information on what happened to the emails.
Topics: DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility, John Yoo, John Yoo Emails, Justice Department, Michael Mukasey, Pat Leahy, Torture
John Yoo
Yoo: OPR Probe Was A 'Farce'
John Yoo
John Yoo is celebrating the Justice Department's finding that his Torture Memos did not violate standards of professional conduct, while calling investigators from DOJ's internal ethics unit "incompetent" and "obviously biased," and describing their probe as a "farce."
In a Philadelphia Inquirer column -- his first public comments since the release of the Office of Professional Responsibility report -- Yoo accuses the OPR investigators of "the politicization of national security." He describes their probe as a "witch-hunt" against Bush administration lawyers, and asserts that "OPR's political bias was legion." As evidence, Yoo cites the fact that former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and his deputy had argued that there were errors in the report.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)Topics: DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility, John Yoo, Justice Department, Michael Mukasey, Torture
Inside TPM
-
Latest
-
Most Popular
All
TPMMuckraker
TPMDC
TPMLiveWire
-
McConnell: GOP Will Fight To Let ANY Employer Deny Birth Control Coverage
-
The Delicate Dance Of Disassociating Oneself From 'White Nationalist' Groups At CPAC
-
Judge Won't Toss Weapons Evidence In Schaeffer Cox Case
-
Women's Groups Broadly Support Birth Control Compromise
-
British Man Using 'Sovereign Citizen' Tactics To Get Out Of Weapons Smuggling Charges
-
White House Seeks To Mute Catholic Uproar Over Contraception Rule
-
The Conspiracy Videos In The Hutaree's Library
-
How Scalia Helped Obama Defend The Birth Control Rule
-
Oregon Senator Stung By Suit Over Combat Camp Cash
-
Dems Slam Romney For Inconsistencies On Birth Control
© 2011 TPM Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
