Dear progressive blogger or reader,
If you saw this headline somewhere and your soul jumped for joy, and you rushed to click on the link so that you could have one more piece of evidence to blog or share on Facebook, proving that the Tea Party are a bunch of uncivilized, violent brutes, then do the right thing, have some integrity, and reblog or share this article anyway even though it actually paints the Occupy group in a potentially bad light.
Love,
A Raving Tea Partier
PS: I used scare quotes for the word "progressive" above because I think most self-styled progressive programs and policies would actually just take us back to feudalism, which is pretty regressive-sounding to me.
Now the rest of you have to help me punk "the left" by linking to this article. I use scare quotes because I don't know what "left" or "right" have to do with anything. Whatever. Help me do this. This is going to be fun.
As you have likely heard by now, a man-- Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez-- was arrested yesterday for allegedly firing a semi-automatic rifle at the White House, where Secret Service found a bullet round in a White House window.
But here's the crazy part: The suspected White House shooter might have actually been one of these Occupy protesters! (For real this time. No tricks.) Could you imagine the howls from the mainstream media if he did have any possible connection with the Tea Party??? Because we're all terrorists, remember? Well it turns out that maybe someone has a wooden plank named Oscar to pluck out of their eye.
Now I should stress that we're not sure one way or the other. Some police are saying Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez might not be connected with the Occupy DC protests:
"In trying to determine why he traveled to the nation’s capital from the western part of the country, investigators also found no connection between him and the Occupy D.C. protest, according to three law enforcement officials familiar with the case."
And other police are saying that he might be:
Authorities suspect Ortega-Hernandez had been in the area for weeks, coming back and forth to the Washington Mall. Before the shooting, he was detained by local police at an abandoned house. U.S. Park police say Ortega may have spent time with Occupy D.C. protesters.
But the one thing you can be sure about, is if these stories were saying "Tea Party protest" and "Tea Party protesters" instead of "Occupy," most of the mainstream media and definitely a vast swath of the progressive blogosphere wouldn't be giving this guy-- nor the Tea Party-- the fair shake that I'm giving them both here on my blog today.
And even if it does turn out that he was at an Occupy protest or two, it's not fair to paint them all as terrorists or would-be assassins because of the actions of one deranged psycho. Gosh, I wish I could get this kind of treatment in return, but I know that I'm just going to be labeled a terrorist or a racist for pointing out that the government is broke.
Though I will admit, I do kind of judge all of the Occupy people for the actions of this particular man. That's just awful.
Wes Messamore,
Editor in Chief, THL
Articles | Author's Page
