The Day Breaks

And the black helicopter crowd get their wish. Late last night and early this morning, the FBI, Homeland Security and the Joint Terrorism Task Force conducted raids in Washtenaw and Lenawee counties in Michigan aimed at Hutaree, a Christian-oriented militia. Neighbors said "it looks like an invasion." Helicopters patrolled the skies at night. The Free Republic bloggers linked to the militia movement claimed the FBI had warrants for militia leaders in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. Another blogger chimed in that the FBI was also moving for arrests of militiamen in East and West Texas. Local news stations only reported the outlines of the raid and said that the FBI had several sealed warrants. Other observers said that the target was a militia training camp.

Clearly, news of the raid has put the extreme right on alert. Freepers called the FBI "Holder's Goon Squad" and accused the agency of agitating violence throughout the country. Another right-wing blogger referred people to Hal Turner and the "Turner Diaries", which is a bible for the militia movement. This represented for them " the ominous rise of the secret police".

Meanwhile teabaggers are saying that "a revolution is something that has tradeoffs" and would be just kept in their back pocket.

Glenn Beck claims the government needs "the teabaggers to be nuts". He told his audience that the radicals in the Obama Administration remember when the FBI stimulated violence and now they are doing the same. He blamed the DCCC and the DNC for 'dangerously fanning the flames by suggesting that these incidents be used as a political weapon." He urged his audience to avoid violence and just pray for miracles.

The World Net Daily proclaimed that 55% of Americans believe their civil liberties are being threatened by the Obama Administration and that one in four Americans now censor their throughts.

The Free Republic has now turned against Sarah Palin for endorsing "McAmnesty", the RINO (Republican In Name Only). They quoted her saying that she agreed with McCain on the immigrant issue--what position he now takes I don't know. Freepers claim that an Immigration Bill will mean the end of "The Great American Experiment." They attacked Palin as someone who places loyalty over principle and acts like another normal politician.

Frank Rich has a persuasive op-ed in today's New York Times saying that it didn't matter whether it had been a healthreform bill, or immigration reform, or cap-and-trade the anger would have been the same. Rich says we are undergoing the "same kind of national existential reordering that rocked America in 1964" with the passage of the Civil Rights Act. He points to the demographic change ,which has been in the works for some time, but is being revealed everyday from the majority of non-white school students to the increase in non-white births. The older white population feels threatened by these tectonic shifts.

A Quinnipiac poll of teabaggers revealed that they mirror the demographics of those who voted for McCain-Palin in 2008 and that 90% of teabaggers identify with the Republican party. The dominant voting block for McCain was white males, who had little or no college education, and were over 50 years old.

The New York Times also did an in-depth piece of teabaggers, which inadvertantly showed that many were unemployed, received social security disability or were on social security. When President Obama went to Iowa City to discuss the healthcare legislation, I was struck that the most vociferous protestor was a while male , who was 62 and unemployed. He was struggling to support two teen-aged daughters. He could see no relationship to the healthcare bill and his station in life. Interestingly, Senator Sanders of Vermont had proposed that all those people aged 55 or over, who were unemployed, should be eligible for Social Security now. This simple manuever would defuse some of the current rage and anger.

Paul Krugman, whom I'm beginning to feel sorry for, patiently explains again today why the huge debt problem can be solved rather simply. Of course, it requires the increase in government revenues, hence a very modest increase in taxes. He cites the CBO report about the prospects for the American deficit in the year 2020. This report has been blarring on the Drudge Report and all the right-wing blogs. As Krugman points out, this forecast depends on the United States doing nothing about it and that his modest solution would still leave America with some of the lowest tax rates in the world. However, with the current political climate, the deficit issue will be exacerbated by polarization and the ideological conflict over our own social welfare system.