Joe Stack: The Tea Party’s (first) Martyr?
February 18th, 2010Here’s the manifesto by the pilot who plowed into the IRS building in Austin, Texas today:
If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.
While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.
Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? 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.
And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!

As the band prepares to come off a year-and-a-half hiatus, we have dusted off the official site and given it some new features. Check it out 
If Fred Tripp had known he was going to die that day he would have said more. He would have done more, whatever the time and space would have allowed, perhaps joining his wife of a quarter century in the shower one last time before dressing and heading downstairs to hug his teenaged son and daughter and offer them a final bit of advice that might carry them into adulthood.
Here I am talking to KGO’s Rosie and Brett about the leaked McChrystal report and what President Obama might want to do about it.
Although being born in 1959 technically makes me a boomer, I’m not a real one. For me Woodstock was a
I had a song pop into my head from out of nowhere a few days back. It was “I am a Camera” by Gentle Giant. Don’t look for it on YouTube or even iTunes, for that matter. It’s not there. I have it on LP. 
Here’s what golf great Tiger Woods said recently during the Inauguration festivities: