Clifton at Another Black Conservative catches WaPo's Jonathan Capehart doing some heavy-handed editing to Joseph Andrew Stack's suicide/rant/manifesto. Surprise, surprise, an omission here, an omission there, and a mad man's words just might make him appear to be a Tea Party enthusiast. And a an unsuspecting reader might think Stack's politics were in line with Janet Napolitano's "far right wing extremists," like maybe, returning warriors and retired vets.
If you missed the big story of Joseph Andrew Stack flying his small plan into a 7-story office building in Austin, Texas this week, killing himself and one other, wounding many, while attempting to take down the IRS offices there, you can read that story here.
Here's what Jonathan Capehart said:
There's no information yet on whether he was involved in any anti-government groups or whether he was a lone wolf. But after reading his 34-paragraph screed, I am struck by how his alienation is similar to that we're hearing from the extreme elements of the Tea Party movement.
When you sit a a big important news desk, at an elite newspaper like the Washington Post, and you can't make the latest sensational story what you want it to be, what do you do? Well, maybe you leave out the inconvenient parts. That's what JonathanCapehart appears to have done in his reporting on the suicide pilot's last words.
Capehart kind/sorta covers himself by saying "here are excepts I was able to snag before the FBI took Stack's site down," but of course, the complete manifesto is all over the Internet.
You can read it here. The text in green text below are quotes from Stack that Capehart omitted.
Stack seemed to be suicidal mainly because of the IRS. Everything led back to taxes. He was distressed that religious organizations get tax breaks not available to the individual taxpayer, and he called the Catholic Church "
vulgar" and "
corrupt," and he referred to "
the monsters of organized religion," making a "
mockery of people who earn an honest living." "
The inquisition is still alive and well today in this country."
Stack railed about GM receiving government assistance, and Capehart printed that, but Stack's diatribe against health care was curiously omitted...because this is no Tea Party position:
Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.
Tea Partiers like their health insurance. They want government to stay the heck away from it until the critical issues can be fixed - like tort reform and buying private insurance in the open marketplace, or across state lines. Tea Partiers want to retain their choices and promote competition among private insurers - never government-directed insurers, and they want the lawsuit scams to stop for the good of physicians, hospitals and patients.
Capehart omits Stack's remarks on patriotism - the "
incredible stupidity of the American public; ...you know, all that "
crap about their "freedom...." When was the last time you heard Tea Partiers characterize freedom as "crap?"
Capehart ignores that as an 18-year-old college student, Stack was broke...was
living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge). But most college students are broke, and by the time a student reaches his 50's, chances are it will be a fond memory, not a battlecry. At the time he was living off peanut butter and bread, Stack met an elderly widow, who's husband's pension was raided by management and unions. The widow ate "cat food" to survive! Stack decided at the tender age of 18 he would never trust "big business."
Tea Party afficianados don't hate big business, because they know from big business comes small business, the lifeblood of America, and they would likely wear their "broke" stories as a badge of honor.
Capehart skips over Stack's comments about having a new wife and "
a boatload of undocumented income," which led to a newly hired, but dishonest accountant. Over and over, Stack talks about the government stealing from the middle class - but that is not a Tea Party position. Tea Partiers want everyone to pay their fair share and not one penny more - no matter how much you have, or do not have. Everyone should be vested in our country, and no one should be penalized because of what they have, or do not have.
Then Capehart skips over Stack's stark disdain of G.W. Bush:
The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government.
And somewhere in this, Stack says "v
iolence not only is the answer, it is the only answer." Again, not a Tea Party position, but it would be
a position of CNN and the Huffington Post.
At the end of Stack's rant, he closed with these two quotes, both of which Capehart omitted.
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
How can we ignore that the communist creed quoted by Stark sounds noble, is intended to be a noble statement - but was left out of Capehart's analysis. Why? Because it is decidedly unAmerican, and decidedly unTeaParty-ish.
The capitalist "creed," however, accuses every American of gullibly serving up taxes to the tax masters, without knowing we are doing so, while others greedily feed out of our trough. Among those actually paying taxes, there is no gullibility, and that's why Tea Partiers want smaller government. But one thing you won't find among the general Tea Party population, is the mindset that violence is the only answer, including racking up a body count, his and those around him, or those who loved him, as the only way to make America set up and take notice. Both are a part of Stack's manifesto.
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