And So It Begins

"Small Plane Crashes Into Building," reads the headline in the NYT. Little is known yet, but let me make a quick (and possibly completely wrong) prediction: after investigation, the pilot will turn out to be a radical right-wing teabagger, acting on the advice of Beck, Palin and Limbaugh. I have been wondering at what point these idiots' ravings will be construed as sedition and incitement to rebel. Since legal agencies have not, to my knowledge, investigated them, I have been been content to let it go even though by my own judgment, that line has been crossed repeatedly.

From CNN,

"If you're reading this, you're no doubt asking yourself, 'Why did this have to happen?' " the message says. "The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time."

In the lengthy, rambling message, the writer rails against the government and, particularly, the IRS. See text of the note (PDF)

Followup, 12:42 PM: "AUSTIN, Texas — Police in Austin, Texas, say the crash of a small plane into a building that houses the Internal Revenue Service is an isolated incident and "there is no cause for concern" about terrorism." There may be "no cause for concern" about further acts of terrorism, but if they're trying to argue that this wasn't an act terrorism, color me amusedly unconvinced.

I did go read Stack's (alleged) statement, and it doesn't strike me as rigidly right wing. There's a lot of ranting against issues that people from both sides of the political spectrum are angry about. I have noted before that many of the core issues of concern and anger are similar throughout the US, but that the major differences between the right and the left are in proposed policies to deal with those issues. All that said, violence as an act of political statement, i.e. terrorism, has been espoused by only one faction.

And that would be the teapartiers.

Followup, 1:20 PM: Joseph Andrew Stack now has a Facebook group "celebrating" his achievement. "Finally an American man took a stand against our tyrannical government that no longer follows the constitution and is turned its back on its founding fathers and the beliefs this country was founded on." Every member of this group (143, as of this writing) should be quietly investigated and put under surveillance. If you want to see the quintessence of the tea party membership in all of its raw ignorance, incoherence, rage and hatred, read some of the comments.

Followup, 5:39 PM: As best as I can tell, the Facebook group has been taken down. The link above takes me to my FB home page. I wanted to reiterate my statement above, "it doesn't strike me as rigidly right wing," regarding his screed. It's a lot to read, but Michael Tomasky has done a nice job of distilling it in his analysis.