Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Sedition and other sundries....

First, news that the Teabagger "rally" in Washington DC last November cost taxpayers $13600, for the sound, staging and equipment, thoughtfully paid for out of taxpayer-funded allowances by Michele Bachmann (MN), Tod Akin (MO), Tom Price (GA) and Steve King (IA). This, for a group that is supposedly not aligned with the GOP, and odd for a group railing about taxpayer money being wasted on such idiotic things like health care!

Second, we find that even the nutjob teabaggers have their limits on crazy -- a California teabag group has rescinded an offer to foreign-born birther leader Orly Taitz to speak at their event, after receiving calls from candidates concerned with being too attached to the crazy that is Orly.

Third, it's kind of hard for the Teabaggers to argue that they aren't bigots and racists when one of their leaders is, well, a bigot and a racist. If the label fits, well, you know the rest....

Then, we get into the meat of this post, and an update on Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, the birther Army physician facing court martial for refusing to obey orders, stemming from his belief that Obama is not the legitimate President because of his "questionable" birth.

A discussion via facebook comments between a friend of mine and I compared the questions surrounding George W. Bush's military service and the questions surrounding Barrack Obama's place of birth. The thing that struck me is that while the questions surrounding Bush's service were fierce for a short time, they quickly lost steam thanks to the controversy surrounding Rathergate, and the Democratic leadership never really ran with it on their own.

This is not the case with the birther "movement" -- Republican senators and other state elected officials, pandering to the birthers and teabaggers, continue to raise questions about Obama's birth. The media, having taken a look at the controversy, has seemed to accept the legitimacy of Obama's American birth, but that hasn't killed speculation from the RW.

Getting back to Lakin, we find out today that he's getting some support from the GOP establishment. Let's not kid ourselves, this is a military officer, disobeying lawful orders from his commander in chief, getting aid and comfort from the GOP establishment. This is not pro-military, this is not pro-America, this is not pro-democracy. This is enabling far rightwing lunacy and bigotry, and giving it legitimacy by mainstreaming its support.

Which brings me to a great blog entry by Sara Robinson entitled "None Dare Call It Sedition" -- if you have a while to read this piece, I'd suggest you do so, because it pretty much screams out what many of us have thought for a while.

Coming from the Left, and having been called unAmerican, anti-America, anti-democracy, and any other red-baiting slur for 8 years under Bush and Company, having been told to "love it or leave it", having been told to "put America first!" and to be "country before party!" I have to wonder -- had the Left under Bush organised itself half as well as the Teabaggers, had we talked about "defending the constitution from a tyrannical regime" with guns and militias -- how soon would we have been visited by DHS agents and shipped off to Gitmo?

Just a point to ponder, because Ms. Robinson dares call it what it is -- sedition, and these militia folks a walking a mighty fine line, a walk being tolerated much more than the miles-away line the Left walked under Bush.

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