Wednesday, April 15, 2009

IT DEPENDS ON WHAT THE DEFINITIONS OF "PROFESSIONAL POLITICIAN" AND "POST-PARTISAN" ARE
(Plus: How much crazy is Glenn Reynolds cheering on in Knoxville?)


Glenn Reynolds, in his second disingenuous Murdoch-published propaganda piece shilling for the tea parties, this one in The Wall Street Journal (emphasis mine):

Likewise, I spoke to an organizer for the Knoxville tea party who said that no "professional politicians" were going to be allowed to speak, and he made a big point of saying that the protest wasn't an anti-Obama protest, it was an anti-establishment protest. I've heard similar things from tea-party organizers in other cities, too. Though critics will probably try to write the tea parties off as partisan publicity stunts, they're really a post-partisan expression of outrage.

From the Knoxville News:

Absher will be joined at the Tax Day Tea Party by Ryan Turberville, chairman of the Tennessee Young Republicans, University of Tennessee professor and News Sentinel columnist Dr. Harold Black and Knox County Commissioner and WIVK talk-radio host Mike Hammond, all of whom will speak at the rally.

Knoxville's most famous blogger, UT professor and Instapundit.com host, Glenn Reynolds, will broadcast the proceedings over the Internet on Pajama TV. State Rep. Ryan Haynes, R-Knoxville, will send a written statement to be read at the event.


(Yeah, yeah, I know -- clearly Hammond has two jobs, so he can say he's not a "professional politician." Well, one of those jobs is in government, and if it pays any salary at all, he ain't an amateur.)

And I'm sure the list of suggested protest signs on the Knoxville tea party's Web site includes

CHAINS you can believe in

and

Spare Us Your "Change"!

for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with Barack Obama.

And I'm sure this list of "A Few of Our Favorite Websites" on the Knoxville party site is provided in a totally post-partisan, non-Republican spirit:

http://www.americanthinker.com/
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
http://www.nationalreview.com/
http://www.humanevents.com/index.php
http://www.newsmax.com/
http://townhall.com/
http://www.heritage.org/
http://michellemalkin.com/
http://www.the912project.com/ (Glenn Beck's 912 Porject)
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/ (Glenn Reynolds, UT Professor of Law)
http://www.resistnet.com (Patriotic Resistance)
http://www.thepoliticalclass.com/
http://topconservativesontwitter.org/ (TCOT, or Top Conservatives on Twitter)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/ (Go ahead, read the President's budget here...)


****

By the way -- and maybe this descent into lunacy is the "post-partisan" stuff Reynolds is talking about -- the Knoxville party will have a very special speaker conducting a very special ceremony:

Re-Oathing

Mr. Stewart Rhodes, National Director and founder of the Oath Keepers, will be speaking at the Knoxville Tax Day Tea Party on April 15th. We will also be conducting the FIRST public oath reaffirmation in the nation during the event. Be part of history! Stand with active-duty military, veterans, law enforcement officers and fellow Americans and reaffirm, or take for the first time, the oath to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. The ceremony will be filmed for the Oath Keepers website. Individual statements, which will be filmed on-site, are encouraged and appreciated.


What does Mr. Rhodes believe? From his site:

OATH KEEPERS: ORDERS WE WILL NOT OBEY

Click text above to read full length version.

1. We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.

2. We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people

3. We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as "unlawful enemy combatants" or to subject them to military tribunal.

4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a "state of emergency" on a state.

5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.

6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.

7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.

8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to "keep the peace" or to "maintain control."

9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.

10.We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.


Paranoid? Who, us?

I haven't read much of the site, but one of the most recent posts is a fist-shaking rant against (among others) the Federal Reserve Act and (as usurpers of our national sovereignty) the UN, the IMF, and the World Bank. ("At first they worked slowly and deliberately in the shadows....")

Enjoy the day, Glenn!

Oh, and did I mention that the bottom of the Knoxville tea party's links page asks scientists to sign a global warming denialist petition?

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