Knoxville church shooter's manifesto leaves no doubt: murders were political terror against liberals
By David Neiwert Wednesday Feb 11, 2009 11:00am
[I'm cross-posting this from Orcinus, where Sara Robinson, my longtime cohort, put this up. See dday for more.]
-- by Sara
Progressives around the country can breathe a little easier today: James Adkisson has been sentenced to life behind bars for the deaths of Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger, the Unitarian Universalist martyrs who died during his assault on their church in Knoxville, TN last July.
Many of us intuited at the time that Adkisson's rampage was exactly the kind of rancid fruit that would inevitably take root in an American countryside thickly composted with two decades of hate radio bullshit, freshly turned and watered with growing middle-class frustration over the failing economy. That suspicion that was verified in the days that followed, when police searched Adkisson's apartment and found it filled with books and newsletters penned by Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and other right-wing hate talkers.
But Monday, Adkisson told us himself -- in his own words -- just how central right-wing eliminationism was in driving him to his shooting spree. Shortly after he was sentenced Monday, he released a four-page handwritten "manifesto" -- which he'd intended to be his suicide note -- to the Knoxville News (the full .pdf can be downloaded here). In it, he unleashes the full measure of his hatred for liberals -- and encourages other would-be right-wing warriors to take up arms and follow him into battle.
Some choice excerpts:
"Know this if nothing else: This was a hate crime. I hate the damn left-wing liberals. There is a vast left-wing conspiracy in this country & these liberals are working together to attack every decent & honorable institution in the nation, trying to turn this country into a communist state. Shame on them....
"This was a symbolic killing. Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg's book. I'd like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I know those people were inaccessible to me. I couldn't get to the generals & high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chickenshit liberals that vote in these traitorous people. Someone had to get the ball rolling. I volunteered. I hope others do the same. It's the only way we can rid America of this cancerous pestilence."
"I thought I'd do something good for this Country Kill Democrats til the cops kill me....Liberals are a pest like termites. Millions of them Each little bite contributes to the downfall of this great nation. The only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is to kill them in the streets. Kill them where they gather. I'd like to encourage other like minded people to do what I've done. If life aint worth living anymore don't just kill yourself. do something for your Country before you go. Go Kill Liberals.
No doubt this manifesto is being blogged, mailed, twittered, and otherwise littered across the far-right infosphere today, and Adkisson will likely emerge from this as a new hero of the extreme right wing. (He's obviously articulate and literate, which means we may expect more of these bilious rants coming out of his cell in the years ahead.) It also seems likely that, probably sooner rather than later, other victims of our curdled economy will accept his charge, pick up their guns, and attempt to follow him into battle.
Nicely done, Messrs. Hannity, Goldberg, Limbaugh, Savage and O'Reilly -- and all your lesser brethren who keep the hate speech spewing 24/7/365 across every field and into every shop in the country. There is no more debate to be had, no more doubt about it: What you did in the name of "entertainment," and for the sake of the almighty ratings, raised and animated a monster like Jim Adkisson, gave him a list of targets ("the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg's book"), and was directly responsible for the deaths of two brave and decent people. Adkisson was clearly angry and crazy -- but his "manifesto" draws the clearest, brightest line possible between the media he consumed and his actions that terrible Sunday morning.
Progressives should take three lessons away from Knoxville:
One: we are no longer safe, not even in our own houses of worship. It's ironic that progressives -- the subgroup of Americans who were most determined not to abandon reason and succumb to overblown fears of Islamic terrorism in the wake of 9/11 -- now have good, serious reasons to fear real domestic terrorism against themselves.
Two: A significant part of this country's media infrastructure is thoroughly devoted to inciting people to commit horrific acts of violence against us -- and now, we know for a fact that people are acting on those incitements. It's time to start taking this far more seriously. What goes out across our airwaves these days isn't all that different from what went out over Radio Rwanda a decade ago, spurring that country to genocide. At this point, it's only a difference of degree.
Three: The right wing has, as usual, grossly underestimated our courage and our commitment. The members of Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist quickly and effectively disarmed and captured this man within seconds after he opened fire. Adkisson expected fear; what we got was determined resistance. It's why he's still alive today, and why more UUs aren't dead by his hand. The TVUUA congregation should be our enduring example of liberal grace under fire.
Adkisson's "manifesto" should end any doubts we ever had about how virulent and dangerous hate talk is, or whether or not that talk will eventually translate into action.
Update: My friend Ogre pointed out something that gave me a "D'oh!" moment. Among Adkisson's ranting was a clear statement: "This was an act of political protest." Which means that it was, by definition and his own admission, an act of domestic terrorism.
Our radio hate talkers incited a man to commit an act of terrorism. Just sit a minute and take that in. And the next time you hear them foaming on about how liberals are "soft on terrorism," reflect on the fact that they'd better hope to hell we don't get any more serious about it -- because if we do, their asses are going to be the first ones in the dockets.
[Closing note from Dave: My forthcoming book -- The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right -- discusses this wellsprings of this phenomenon in depth. It's due out in May.]
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I'm ashamed to be a part of the human race. Today is another one of them.
First off he's right. There is a vast left-wing conspiracy in this country! It's called the Constitution of the United States of America. Those liberals took the country away from an authoritarian monarchy, then they took slavery away from the slavers, then they took child labor away from the sweat shops, then they took the 80 hr work week away from the corporations, etc. etc. If that's not a vast left-wing conspiracy I don't know what is.
And secondly why aren't O'Reilly and Hannity in jail facing accessory charges yet? I think this makes VERY clear that they are indeed accessories for inciting Adkisson's attack.
facing accessory charges yet?
Probably for the same reason Michael Reagan isn't facing any charges for threatening to kill the guy who dared question the "official" story of 9/11.
Worse than that, Reagan is still on the air even after multiple official complaints to the FCC.
his very liberal and very decent relative, Ron Reagan Jr. is on the air to balance out against the stupidity of the little boy St. Ronnie called "schmuck".
they are just as guilty as Adkisson and should be jailed just like Adkisson (I like to say drawn, hung, and quartered), but just jailing or hanging would do. Isn't there a law against inciting people to violence. I sure would like to see some justice in this USA. How do people like Hannity, Limpball, and Orally get away with these criminal acts?
these people(i use the term loosely) are criminally inciting murder.
are only the mouthpieces of Rupert Murdoch and other Corporate Criminals. Put THEM in jail, they are responsible for this by hiring crazed morons like O'Riley, Hannity, Coulter, Blitzer and so on and so on.
Of course the moronic puppets should also be put away. But don't loose sight of the REAL culprits!
..they'll claim Freedom of the Press or one of those other liberal ideas in the Bill of Rights.
Is anyone talking about Bullet Control yet?
Want to own a gun? OK. It should be the bullets we regulate!
Fortunately for the evil anti American haters in this country MOST progressives
are peaceful and non violent. Some of us are veterans and union
members who STILL remain peaceful under fire. I advocate peace,
but I want to remind any evil anti American haters how lucky they are.
Lucky!
Don't let your luck run out.
Mess with the wrong progressive and you'll be wearing your ass for a hat!
Good advice! They seem to forget that it WAS American progressives who defeated the most powerful military force in the world a little over 200 years ago, defeated pro-slavery forces 144 years ago, and defeated fascists 64 years ago. Do they really want to go down that road?
I was at the library yesterday and picked up a book on the 30s and
40s. It showed pictures of bloody men and women beaten by strike
breakers. It also showed members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
Check out the film Harlan County USA. The shit you're talking about was STILL going on in the 70's in Kentuky. Be forewarned though that this film is graphic and heart wrenching!
Yes I saw that movie...capitalism is SO good to the working man!!!
The first time I saw it was at a critical film appreciation seminar back in '88 and I had to walk out before the film was quite over because it upset me so much as a working person. I was able to get through it a few years ago when I first found that free on-line copy from Information Clearing House. But my teeth did probably take it hard from all the grinding and clenched jaw.
That sounds painful and somewhat unattractive.
...it's surprisingly common apparel on the web.
...towns(mainly the ones that that crazy bitch Palin was referring to) in this Nation, is worse than a Holocaust denier.
And happening a lot in other small towns that she wasn't referring to also. Heard last week that there are a couple of nut cases in my area stock piling ammo because America is going to turn into a "Road Warrior" like hellhole. Now this is in rural VT where it's not the least bit unusual for a great many people to have a hundred or 200 rounds for each of their 20 or 30 firearms. But from the rumor these clowns are buying up a 1000 round case a week and have been since November!
I heard on the news just last week that the one thing that is selling big right now is guns and ammo. That sends a chill down my spine.
Reading his words put a lot more fear into me than any terrorist talk ever has. I'm talking about the fear the terrorist stuff we have heard since 9-11. This is a real man with a real weapon with a warped mind living right here in this country out in the open. At least he was until he went to jail.
I have to ask, would he have done this anyway were it not for talk radio and BillO, Hannity, etc? I mean what kind of people did he hang around with and things like that. Have any of these right wingers on radio or tv ever said conservatives should go out and kill liberals? I don't know because I don't listen to them.
Do they just get their listeners so worked up that the weak minded ones come up with this stuff on their own? I know I'm asking a lot of questions but I'm trying my best to be objective.
...is Obama call out Limbaugh and Hannity and their ilk - NOT in a condemning or accusatory or preachy way - but to simply say "it might behoove a lot more inocent people for you all to say that our political differences can be resolved peacefully and acts of terrorism are not the answer, NOT because I think any of you bear responsibility for what your listeners and viewers do, but because, apparently, some of your viewers and listeners really need to hear it, and it would carry much more weight for it come from you than from me or anyone on the left."
Of course, were Obama to say something like that, I suspect the answer those cretins would supply would not be in the spirit of the message, and would probably make things worse. I have, in the past, assumed (or at least hoped) these buffoons were just charlatans and showmen playing for a base with hate in their hearts and probably laughing all the way to the bank. Now, I think they're all truly unwell. The wise crack "Conservatism is a disease" seems more true with each passing day.
Conservatives are simply overgrown children who have never learned to discern between fact and opinion. They live entirely in a fear-based reality bubble where they see monsters of every form waiting to attack them, when in reality THEY are the monsters which should be feared!
Conservatism IS a disease. A disease of the mind.
The tiger has stripes that fade into the background. This makes the worried man see tigers everywhere.
Yes - re-Thugs are mentally ill - not just this guy - but most of them. Probably the entire 23%. My husband heard an interview with a psychiatrist on NPR and he said one in five people in the US is a sociopath. Sorry - I've tried to source this and have been unable to. If you want to find it - try with the little bit I gave you.
They're sociopaths. Know your enemy - these ARE dangerous people.
Re-thug-lics -- the party of immature, voraciously rapacious, depraved, despotic, doughy white, cowardly, angry troglodytes, bigots, racists, perverts, xenophobes, pedophiles, murderers, war criminals, homophobes, misogynists, self-righteous hypocrites, self-hating women, fetid wombs, preeminent whiners and consummate chronic liars.
What did I leave out?
*
I'm listening to it on my MP3 right now. Can't remember the author's name right now, but it a very good read. It will hold your attention, and is not the least bit dry.
Having worked in a mental health clinic, and in this country's public schools, I can relate to much she is saying in the book.
Martha Stout.
what you left out, Trittydi, is that you were referring to liberals. The comments on this page are hateful, vile, and hypocritical, and yet, well...never mind, why waste the time and energy. Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Or are you playing the devil's advocate to make a point?
I'll be curious to see what kind of coverage this gets in the "mainstream" corporate propaganda media. Like NONE, I expect.
Were a liberal to go mad and target religious conservatives, the media would run the story forever. Once again IOKIYAR.
If it gets a lot of coverage, isn't there a risk it will stir up more loonies and copy cats?
The real risk is that unchallenged and ongoing right wing hate speech will combine with hard economic times to squeeze more nutjobs like this man out of the woodwork...
www.plainsradio.com
Go to the forums and read some of their posts. These people own guns and they are talking crazy.
The mindset is already out there. Media coverage chastising the enablers (Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter and others), condoning the hate-filled rhetoric they are using to incite these acts of violence against progressives is what is needed, right now. Unfortunatly that ain't gonna happen.
You can bet Olbermann will be on it. I'd love to hear him go to town on those wingnut gasbags.
Snip - "WASHINGTON (CNN) — Police arrested a man near the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday after he drove up to one of the building’s barricades with a rifle in his vehicle and told officers that he had a delivery for President Obama, a Senate spokesman said."
http://wjnoblog.com/2009/02/gunman-i-have-a-d...
I wondered if the man was black or white and could not tell from the article.
*
Funny how Limbaugh et al are mute when it comes to the right wing wackos who go on shooting sprees...
...I suspect their replies will consist of threatening emails & vocie mails fabricated by members of their respective staffs, so they can go on the air and read them and play them and say "Ya see? YA SEE? THIS is the sort of dangerous lunatic ramblings that liberalism creates! I'm persecuted for my freedom of speech and one day someone's gonna kill me for it. Where's the media to condemn THEM? Where is the tirade to stop THEM? Ohhhhhh, they're all silent, because it's ME. But WE know better, don't we friends? We know the our voices will never be silenced, our patriotism will never be questioned, our love for this country will never fade!"
And then another shooting spree. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
..surprised if Limpbag and Manatee go on and on about Second Amendment gun rights.
Why is it always manifestos with these far-right-wing ranters?
Isn't Manifesto an extreme left wing word itself (as in the Communist Manifesto)?
http://www.intelliot.com/blog/wp-content/uplo...
loving practitioners unite.
Maybe all right-wingers have manifestos, but not all manifestos are from right-wingers.
Maybe they think it sounds official. I would think they'd find it foreign sounding (you know, like forners.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaYvzUGsvrE
"Maybe they think it sounds official. I would think they'd find it foreign sounding (you know, like forners.)"
He's a Fournier:
http://www.raw-tcsd.com/ACooper.SP.1016.jpg
your liberal, left-wing prison.
bitch.
Or he'll be the victim of "jungle fever" every night.
That's Aryan.
This is a myth of course, because it refers to a group of languages, the best example of which today is Farsi (Iran.)
Arian was the name of a Christian heresy started by one Arius in the 4th century, and anathemized by the First Council of Nicea 325.
(just kidding) :)
The Masons?
Isn't Aryan the name of one of the Prussian Blue Girls?
This delusional murderer is the fruits of the labor of Bernard Goldberg, Michael "Savage" Weiner, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and all the other right wing propagandists that are poisoning the minds of large sections of the American populace with racial and political hatred.
Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.
Are they creating these warped brains or were the brains already warped and they are just feeding into them, because that is the only audience they have?
Ever lived in Knoxville?
Actually I did, two times. Once as a kid and then for a short time when I was married to my first husband. Of course as a kid I didn't know from shit, but the second time I lived there I lived in an area with people of all races and never saw anything but friendship among the neighbors at the apt building where we lived near the University.
I think this guy would have been a hero if he shot the UT football coach. Remember this is the home of Insta-Pundit.
We lived at Sequoia Square apts. It was a lovely place at that time but that was many years ago.
Gay Street?
The street sign was autocorrected to read Homosexual Street.
ProgressivePeach had a good rant about East Tennessee hating liberals last week.
IMO, reverse the media consolidation allowed and encouraged over the past 8 to 10 years. The media was so scared to go against anything the previous administration said because all of the time they were being allowed to become larger, and with this kill all diverse opinions.
The pestilence is the hate. Hate has no color, no ideology. It doesn't care who lives or dies, who stands on top or who falls to the ground. Like fire, it only lives to consume.
When you live on hate, you live on borrowed time. Hate needs a constant source of fuel. If you can't find it sustenance from without, it'll take what it needs from you.
The sad and most dangerous part about hate is that it keeps one oblivious to the rot that's consuming them.
While there exist people like Hannity and O'Reilly, there will always be a steady meal for hate.
Thanks!
Mr. Neiwert wrote, "Adkisson was clearly angry and crazy." He was definitely angry, but certainly not "crazy". George W. Bush was not crazy, just your run-of-the-mill sadistic, dry drunk coward. Adkisson and his enablers are simply evil, hateful people. Calling someone crazy can be used as an excuse for their actions. There is NO excuse for Rush, Sean, Ann, Bill O' and their hate spewing bunch. They helped Adkisson pull the trigger.
Like clockwork; Church shootings, doctors getting car bombed.
In the words of a noted 20th century asshole:
"Here we go again."
Feel free to copy and distribute, but please don't link directly to it.
therefore, bush did not make us safe
arrest him as a coconspirator
...Is YOUR America right there, Mr. Hannity. Congratulations, you, Orally and Savage, on your one true legacy.
Are there any right wing radio people who don't try to get people riled up to the point of doing something like this? If there are, this would be a good time to bring them some attention. I am sure there are some republicans who would enjoy a right wing show without all the ugliness.
Ain't no such animal.
Reasoned discourse, of whatever political stripe, does not bring the ratings to the yard. There is no obligation felt by the media companies to be responsible with the airwaves. That's what happened when Reagan de-regulated them - the MSM no longer function under any rules that require fact-checking, investigation, or discretion. They are free to put anything on the air they like, bounded only by an increasingly weak FCC and egged on by corporate owners like Murdoch, who are enthusiastic wingnuts themselves.
The only thing that gets their attention is ratings. Fox's has shown a dip, so we can hope that people are getting sick of the crap. We can hope, but I wouldn't bet on it. It's time for the government to step back in, as it is with so much of American industry.
We are running all around the world trying to find and kill people who hate Americans and then we find out we have some right here at home. Maybe someone should be on the job trying to root these out too.
I wonder if this nutjob will ever realize that what he calls freedom is actually fascism, and that all his peers are either willfully ignorant or incredibly stupid.
I think a reasonable argument could be made that O'Reilly, Goldberg, Savage, whoever did not intend this, but I believe it's there responsibility to denounce Adkisson's intentions and opinions now.
Here's O'Reilly's email:
oreilly@foxnews.com
A thoroughly disgusting stroll through Weiner's and Goldberg's sites turned up no contact email.
And even after that stroll through hell you don't think they intend these kind of responses to their dog whistles?
Of course they intend for violence. They just want others to do for them, just like Bin Laden, Bush, etc.
Kind of like all of them continually insisting that all Muslims renounce their extremists. Ya know, maybe all of the video preachers should be beaten over the head with insistence that they immediately renounce the acts of the self proclaimed Christian, eh?
That's not an accurate parallel. The guy quoted Bernie Goldberg. He reiterated things he read from Weiner and O'Reilly.
For the sake of dissuading others who would get the same interpretation, it is O'Reilly's responsibility.
That is a false equivalence, and I expect it will be exactly how O'Reilly/Hannity/Weiner/Coulter try to deflect responsibility.
Things like this go down everyday in America. These kinds of things should be expected to happen when a nation lacks a mental health system. The ONLY reason this is national news; is becuase, it serves the interests of the aristocratic elite to divide the sheep into herds; and, have the herds at each others throats.
So, the Radio Rwanda connection is incidental, chuck?
By the way, why does this nation lack a mental health system?
Because people in need of such help are really lazy, free-loading ballast that needs to be chucked overboard. Why should godfearin' Merkins pay one cent to keep them sane, productive members of society? That's Commie talk!
Or haven't you been listening to Rush?
God no,
Worse band EVER!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7DFsBcVMDA
What is it with republicans and their adjectives?
It needs to be said again: Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger are martyrs in the precise meaning of the word. They were killed for their beliefs, and their beliefs alone.
And Bernard Goldberg is morally obliged to answer for his being named in Adkisson's document. I won't be holding my breath though; blue is not my colour.
Bernard Goldberg? Morally obliged? AHAHAHAHA!!!
The combination of Goldberg with moral obligation - that's rich! Blobfish wouldn't know moral obligation if it gave him a reacharound.
None of these vicious hatemongers will ever, EVER, take responsibility for this kind of thing. They will always claim they were "misunderstood" and that what they do is "important" and necessary, even as the body count rises.
lent me a copy of Bernie Goldberg's "100 People". It's awful. I couldn't get past the first few pages. Chapter after chapter of juvenile rants and name calling. His chapter on Al Franken is embarrassingly bad-7th grade locker room taunts by a 3rd rate hack.
You should hear him try to talk about his numbnuts "ideas". The last time Jon Stewart had him on, he eviscerated the little twerp. He's a pathetic dweeb who obviously got picked on in school, and is now out to punish the whole world for his sense of inadequacy. Since it's exactly that kind of mind the right-wing targets for its foot soldiers, he drank the Kool-Aid eagerly.
"...the Unitarian Universalist martyrs who died during his assault on their church in Knoxville, TN last July"
martyrs my ass. they were people who ran afoul of an out of control, hateful, right wing, nutbar, who murdered them in cold blood, no more no less. murder victims, not martyrs.
it's rhetoric like "martyrdom" that sows the seeds of hatred.
look at the middle east if you want to see the result of finger pointing "who's martyr is best" games gone wild.
I tend to agree with you. Those two people didn't give their lives for a cause, their lives were taken from them by a lunatic. They had no say in how their lives would end.
No 72 Virgins...
And 72 headaches.
72 excedrins is an overdose.
it 72 raisins?
Martyr - a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle.
But they didn't sacrifice their lives for a liberal cause. Their lives were taken from them because they were liberals. They had no say in the taking of their lives.
If I walk out my front door and some loonie shoots me because I am wearing an Obama sweatshirt, I'm not a martyr, I'm a victim of a lunatic with a gun and a fu*ked up mind. I didn't walk out of my front door to give my life for the liberal cause, I went out to get my mail.
that O'Reilly will deny that the shooter was encouraged by him or his book, but since he mentioned Goldberg's 100+ in his handwritten note, I cannot believe that he got knowledge of the book from anywhere else than O'Reilly's Hate Show.
Also note references to 'secular', 'progressives', 'they want America to lose', moveon.org', code pink'and 'Osama Hussein Obama' comes straight from Coulter on Fox.
Remember the episodes of relentless witch-hunting experienced by some relatively harmless rock musicians: Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Marilyn Manson, etc.? The blaming of horribly antisocial acts of some misguided young people on the musicians they happened to listen to? This blame was laid by crackpot right-wing zealots, shock jocks and fear-mongering TV pundits.
Well, those very same propangandizing finger-pointers have a lot more direct responsibility for this atrocity, than those persecuted musicians do in the cases of teen suicides or school shootings.
And have learned to keep politics out of polite company here, but my girlfriend hasn't. At a pub the other day she got into with an obvious fan of fascist radio, at one point I really thought he was going to become physically violent. My girlfriend was simply poking polite little holes in every argument he put forth.
Violence will be the end result of right wing radio. I guarantee it.
All succesful twentieth Century assasinations were by intolerant right-wingers killing progressives because they are mentally incapable of dealing with other viewpoints. King, X, Kennedy, Kennedy
Reminder; Reagan and Ford assasinations were not succesful.
Here in Cambridge MA, it's very liberal- radical right wingers are out there, but they stay under their rocks.
Though I'm not sure of his party affiliation? This is a so-called stones throw away ain't it? :-)
One never knows... enjoy today!
[ http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_new... ]
Go Sox!
in america today? to not be scared of the bogeymen in a city's urban, low education/income areas, but of your neighbor who may be a conservative? i would have never thought so until now. now that we know that the reason that he went out and shot up a church was because he was so fueled by hate of liberals and progressives and that he is now ADVOCATING their extermination i am. yeah i live in a progressive city, but louisville is an island of blue in an ocean of red.
i haven't read closely through this thread, but i really hope no one advocates the reinstitution of the fairness doctrine. it wouldn't do any good. what you need to do is to pressure the fcc to actually enforce what it claimed was it's priority: decency. make citations of the indecent comments that the right wing is making that are deliberately inflammatory and send them in force like what the ptc right wing council does. what those blowhards say day in, day out during the family hours is infinitely more harmful than the fractional display of a partially covered breast after it ever was.
for dozens of years. You are correct. The fairness doctrine is not workable in todays uncivil world. Who decides what is liberal and what is conservative? The result would be to avoid any discussion at all. The answer is to break up all the big corporate owners and insist that owners must live in or near the community served with limits on ownership in any specific community. Diversity in ownership would work far better than the fairness doctrine. It's something the corporate gridlock would have more trouble getting around.
Nothing extraordinary about this killer/fuck-up. Seems like the usual addled, logic-impaired, fact-free conservative mind to me.
Thanks Dave and Sara, this is one of the many damaging results of the Wingnuts Jihad on Liberals and Progressives. Another terrifying result is the eroding of America's rights and freedoms by the extremist Republican Party with collaboration of the Religious Right. The steady lies, fear mongering and evil Republican propaganda from Fox News and Wingnut Talking heads is splitting friend against friend, neighbor against neighbor and should be continually exposed as such.
You couldn't be more right. My entire family are BillO-watching, BillO book-reading Reps...
And you have no idea how many times in a day I can be told I'll "grow out of" my liberal viewpoints, and how I am so wrong.
*sigh*
I was really hoping my family is sane, but even after showing them this letter, they're offering responses of the, "He's got a good point, but what he did about it was horrible" type of responses.
When were we ever safe?
I grew up in the United Liberal Church of Atlanta, now the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, the only integrated church in Atlanta in the 50's. MLK Jr spoke from our pulpit. Whitney Young was a member. Our youth group met regularly with the Ebenezer Baptist Church youth group, whose advisor was Coretta Scott King.
Following the Birmingham Church bombing (Sept 15, 1963) threats were made that if the Ebenezer Church youth group were to meet with our youth group at the United Liberal Church the following Sunday there would be violence. The two churches agreed to hold the meeting regardless, and the fathers stood guard outside the church.
That's only one incident.
We have never been safe.
I have a .45 in my desk drawer, a loaded 20-guage in the bedroom, and a sawed-off on my boat. Police are fine, but they always show up AFTER the crime...Some nutcase decides he doesn't like me because I am a "liberal" or because I am Jewish, or because my wife is a Latina, or he wants my wallet or whatever is in my cash register, I will take care of myself, thank you.
That makes 2 of us....
with convenient political excuses to use in his own defence. Brainwashed? Naw, just going to conveniently use the media as his scapegoat.
I understand the fear and anger that many are expressing in this thread. But I also want to draw attention to something that's getting lost in the shuffle.
I urge you to read the first paragraph of the shooter's manifesto:
"I guess you're wondering why I did this. Well let me explain in detail. Over the years I've had some good jobs but I always got laid off. Now I'm 58 years old and I can't get a decent job..."
Now look at the state of our economy...how many others out there are on the edge just waiting to get pushed over by the fact that they have no job and therefore, no dignity? And with no dignity, as the shooter states, why go on living?
No doubt this will be just the beginning of these tragedies.
It is caused by drugs. People cook their brains and become chronically unemployable. Eventually, the little green bugs, the messiah, or Bill O'rielly convinces them through secret psycho-symantic messages that it is time to write a manefesto and kill people. Death is the only way to get rid of the tracking device that the FBI, CIA, or mothership anally inplanted in their skull. Blah... blah... blah... happens everyday.
Why are people here acting like this is a big deal; when it is not?
Which drugs are those?
The full .pdf paints a more vivid picture and deserves inclusion.
Any honest person knows, the true reason behind this action, the others were mere enablers...
I find it sadly ironic... and yes it's a shame to humanity! :-(
"Lack of money is the root of all evil."
[George Bernard Shaw]
regulator of the money is the Federal Reserve. Another PRIVATE corporation. I urge those who haven't to investigate just what the federal reserve is and how it works. If you tire of reading there is plenty on Google video etc. This is the very root of the problems we face today. If you are not aware of what is happening here I assure you you will be shocked and angered. Why is no one talking about this ROOT
"So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?"
[Ayn Rand]
Fuck 'em. It's time to arm ourselves.
I have 2 arms.
And 2 legs.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4d...
Terrorists are brown. He can't possibly be one.
Every instance of deregulation has resulted in disaster. It was only a matter of time before the stupid hands-off-the-free-market government policy resulted in people being outright killed. You allow television and radio stations free rein in what they are allowed to call "news", allow them to run for the easiest, filthiest money by courting and inciting the easiest emotions - hate and fear - well, what the fuck did they think we were going to get?
Humans are ape descendants with brain cancer, and in this country, a great many worship a god who is no better than a kid with an ant farm, a bully who pulls the wings off flies, a thug. Their leaders are bloated, hateful, cowardly screamers with no capacity to take responsibility for their toxic actions.
Socialism? Whatever. What's clear is that we have to take some control back from the media companies, or this shit will never stop. First step is re-regulating the news departments of the major media outlets. I don't know how it ever became legal to go on the air and spew bigotry and hatred, inciting people to commit crimes and mayhem, but excuse me, it's got to stop. If I can't stand on a street corner and yell at people to go shoot these people or drown those people, then why should it be okay for some blowhard pussy who hides in a TV studio or radio booth?
Interesting that this guy hates Liberals so much, yet it is because of the "Liberals" that he is being allowed to live his life out in prison or not to be executed in the most painful and gross way possible. Personally I think he should just get a 49-cent bullet in the head and we should be spared the expense of supporting him, but then I am not a "liberal" as some.
I doubt if even the looniest of the right wing nuts will openly embrace this guy. He's a murderer and a terrorist. And tempting as it is to blame O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, et al I can't. That makes about as much sense as blaming Saddam Hussein for 9/11.
reading radio talk show hosts their rights than protecting Americans I shudder.... Well I guess I didn't choose my words very carefully.
...claim some responsibility for the twisted freak that he is?
I also respectfully disagree with your comparison of this situation to the one with Saddam. I believe laying some blame on those talk radio goons actually makes more sense than your example. There is no evidence that Saddam was responsible for 9/11. In fact, we know he wasn't. On the contrary, the literature of The Big Giant Head, Hannity SucksAss, and Limpballs was littering Adkisson's apartment, so we have at least a circumstantial idea of what shaped his thinking. More than we had on Saddam.
Of course, there are a millions of knuckleheads who listen to their drivel and HAVEN'T shot up a church. At the end of the day Addy obviously is responsible for his own actions.
This is treasonous what he did. I thought treason had a punishment? What happened to it?
I also wanted to add that Martyrs are killed by the state usually, which is what makes them martyrs. These two individuals (rip) were victims of someone with very serious issues.
It's not "Radio Rwanda" that right-wing smear looks like, it's "Radio-Television Libre Mille Collines," sometimes called "Radio Mille Collines" or just RTLMC for short, and fortunately, the loner with the tragic firepower to reason ratio is still a loner, though how far he is from getting company is a major point to investigate.
Rwanda in 1994 was very different. Perhaps Adkisson feels he is there, but the majority identified (by their official papers) as Hutus were the vast numerical majority in Rwanda in 1994, and their targets, the ethnic minority Tutsis and moderate politicians and people who intermarried, were a small minority.
Also, the RTLMC broadcasts were far less subtle and far more relentless than even Limbaugh, Hannity, and Savage-Weiner. They called for people in specific areas to carry out specific attacks. It's a difference in degree (i.e. that not all right wing haters on the radio are that knucklehead who told his lesteners to shoot ATF agents in the head because they're wearing body armor - charming...) but also in kind.
Sure, Michael Doctor Savage Wiener, or whatever he calls himself, does call for the nuclear annihilation of Iran, but his listeners don't have access to nukes. RTLMF told its listeners to exterminate the cockroaches, code it had established for attacking neighbors with machetes, which that nation of farmers was well-supplied with.
I don't kid myself that we're free of headcases with guns, but at the same time, our police will generally arrest or kill those headcases when they rampage, whereas in Rwanda, the police were nonexistent, and the army listened to the radio.
True, however this is how civil wars are started. We now have proof that rightwing hate-radio is directly responsible for inciting violence.
Well there you have it. The first in what is going to end up being a long line of rightwing domestic terrorists, targetting what they consider the "scum of the earth", us liberals, progressives, lefties, pinkos, whatever you want to call us.
Well guess what, this 10 year veteran of the military and qualified marksman will stand up and clearly state I'M LEFT AND I'M PROUD!
However I will fight you with peace and love, because our way is the way of nonviolence. Every liberal or progressive that you kill will erode your cause and lead to your defeat. Because at the end of the day, WE have the moral highground.
You can join us or you can fight us, but know this: WE WILL PREVAIL!
Rush, Hannity, Coulter, O'Reilly, your days of spewing your hate and venom are numbered.
"However I will fight you with peace and love,"
Yeah, make us gag.
Because fighting with hate and violence works so well.
If all the right had to fear was 'peace and love' W would still be running the show.....
huh? I believe it was the ballot, not the bullet, that out Obama in office and the GOP to the curb.
The surviving family members need to file a civil suit against Hannity, Limbo, O'Reilly, etc. Preponderance of the evidence is the only burden of proof.
not so long ago for C&L. My views haven't changed much since then. I don't hate James Adkisson, not even now with his manifesto. It changes nothing I didn't already know. He's a sad, frustrated, delusional man who was goaded into blaming the wrong people for his misfortune by another sad and pathetic group of hatemongers with delusions of adequacy. The people he attacked showed enormous courage and restraint and presence of mind, and even after, admirable compassion for Adkisson. It made me so very, very proud to be a born and bred Unitarian.
I take no pleasure or satisfaction that Adkisson will spend the rest of his life in prison. American prisons are notoriously horrible places that foster far more violence and hatred than anywhere else in our society. Adkisson will only have his misconceptions justified there, not confronted, not dealt with rationally or humanely. No, I take no pleasure at all knowing he will spend the rest of his life in hell.
Mr Adkisson is a symptom, not a cause. The root cause of all the less violent Adkissons still living among us lies with the hatemongers. Those who make their fortunes advocating hitting liberals in the head with baseball bats and publishing lists of liberals who should be killed. Until we address those people, and the medium in which they are allowed to thrive, the Adkissons of our country will continue to listen, stewing in their misbegotton frustration and ignornace, until another one pops to the surface of the tarpit with a rifle in his hand.
I'm proud to be a Unitarian, and I so hope that the fellowship in Knoxville, if they haven't already decided to do so, will send regular visitors to see and talk to Mr Adkisson, and with him, to show the compassion and humanity on which the church was founded, until he either is parolled or dies. He's a lost soul. I feel nothing but pity for him. It will be more, I'm sure, than what Hannity, Goldberg, Limbaugh, Savage, Coulter or O'Reilly will do.
It's a battle-tested tactic of the economic elites everywhere that the best way to deflect the natural anger of the "have-nots" against the "haves" is to sow artificial factions within the underclass so that they turn against one another and leave the economic elites alone. Howard Zinn writes about how in early colonial America, the poor white indentured servants would often run off with the slaves and plot against the property owners until the property owners figured out that if they gave the white indentured servants a little more status and privileges than the slaves, then they would not see one another as natural allies in a class war.
I know this might seem hopelessly pollyannish, but nonnymouse's post above makes me think that many in the liberal community have the right instincts about the sources of anger among the extreme right-wing of America. These are not people with money--they are the dispossessed, the left-behind, the out-of-work or underemployed. They are non-people, properly speaking, and have gravitated toward right-wing hate radio because this anger, however misdirected, resonates profoundly with their personal suffering.
Maybe we can't reach sociopaths, but isn't it possible to do a better job of reaching out to the vast majority of these people? "What's the Matter with Kansas" and "Deer-Hunting with Jesus" explains exactly why the left-wing PR in white poor strongholds is so abysmal. Because liberals prefer to stick to our relatively comfortable lives in urban areas and avoid talking to these guys wherever possible. I have these people in my family, and I can attest to how difficult it is to see them once a year and listen to their ignorant rants. But what if we all tried to make one hard-core right-wing friend and listen to what they have to say rather than argue against them? Wouldn't that start to make a difference?
had been found to have been listening to rap music I am sure that the right-wing would already be mobilized to ban it.
Try reading the comments on one of the MSM websites: ABC, CNN, etc. Unfortunately this country is full of people who listen to the bile spread by Limbaugh, Savage, Hannity, et al. and spew it at the earliest opportunity. Or the recent statistic that only 39% of Americans 'believe' in evolution. We've become a nation of mouth breathers. I'm not encouraged that so many say they like Pres. Obama; they are instinctively following the zeitgiest, not thinking about why they like him. As soon as some charismatic demagogue challenges him (fortunately the Republicans seem to be mighty short of them just now) they will follow blindly.
...in Cambridge MA. We celebrate diversity, and have amongst our members athiests, Jews, Christians,Buddists, pagans, many gay and transgendered folks. Point is- we don't preach hatred of anybody- but rather peace and acceptance of the amazing diversity of the human species...
This right wing psychopath clearly wanted to kill many people- He CLEARLY has severe mental illness, and should have been hospitalised in a psychiatric facility long ago.
Given the level of his venom, and his desire to be recognised, and the fact he concidered suicide, i'd wager to say his hatred of liberals is just an outward extension of his own self hatred.
"I'm protesting the major News outlets, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, PBS for being the propaganda wing of the Democrat Party. It's criminal what they're getting away with. They're traitous (sic)! They must be stopped."
notice which "major News outlet" was not included on Adkisson's list?
*
is that I know many on the left(including me) that don't find these outlets even a bit liberal. As a matter of fact they look like the corporate puppets they are. The idea of the "liberal media" is the most obvious example of brain washing known to man.
Just think, if this murderer had went to FOX or any of the other right wing media outlets before he decided to shoot people, he probably would have been hired.
Interesting how Sarah Palin was not willing to lable the Planned Parenthood building shooter/bombers or Federal Building bombers as terrorists- I guess if the killers are Christians and American, it's not terrorism.
Adkisson will likely emerge from this as a new hero of the extreme right wing.
He'll also likely be a hero within whatever prison he's placed in, as a lot of guards and cops are right-wingers too. He'll probably be fraternizing with the right-wing white power gangs that are rife in the US prison system, the kind who occasionally murder black and hispanic prisoners. So this guy may get to add more kills to his record, only he won't be punished for any murders he commits there. Maybe he can even help guards target people to be killed by denying them needed medication, something US prisons are notorious for.
Alot of guards and cops are right-wingers, I don't think so.
There are cops in my family, and they are as pro union,anti Republican as they come. The Republican NRA types think everyone should have cop killing , armor piercing bullets-and most police aren't particulaly happy aboput that.
Republicans couldn't give a sh*t about cops, and most policemen know this.
.
Sad but true...
And if you don't believe Rush's, Hannity's, O'Reilly's daily tirades bear a major responsibility, have a look at the doco "Shake Hands With The Devil" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX1CD2nx-a0) about what led to the genocide in Rwanda.
The daily beat of the propaganda drum—that certain people are different, that they are evil, that they're not like the rest of us (Americans)—was what doused the country in petrol, and all it took was a spark to do the rest.
People like Rush and Goldberg and Coulter know they're being provocative to make a buck and sell books, but they're creating monsters.
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