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August 6, 2011
Hypocritical Harrop
I alluded to it and Justin dealt more directly with Froma Harrop calling tea partiers "terrorists." Others in the "national" blogosphere have called attention to the hypocrisy of Harrop's comments given she is the chair of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, which runs the Civility Project, whose goal is to help all of us blogging rubes get more manners or something. When called to the carpet for her tea party terrorists hyperbole, Harrop defended herself on her personal blog (didn't know she had one...). Ed Morrissey covers it all. Harrop justified herself because, you know, she was just sooooo mad! Harrop:
Yes, I was angry, but I’m engaging in the defense of my country. I know the tea partiers say the same, but their behavior is that of a national wrecking crew. Most may be nice people who don’t know what they’re doing, but many a country has foundered on the passions of nice people.She then tries to support herself with a Wall Street Journal report on cyber-terrorism:As far as the facts are concerned, I stand my ground. Terrorism is not confined to physical attacks.
The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force. …Harrop then adds:“If you shut down our power grid, maybe well put a missile down one of your smokestacks,” said a military official.
Blowing up the U.S. economy to make a point would be an even more serious attack, in my book. And that’s what the tea party saboteurs were threatening. They are what they are.Morrissey rebuts her poor logic:
Does Harrop miss the point that the military was talking about actual sabotage, not policy changes and negotiation? The Pentagon sent a warning to other nations that an attack on our virtual infrastructure would be an act of war — explicitly and literally. The point wasn’t that rhetorical arguments are the equivalent of terrorism. For all of her syndicated reach, Harrop seems to have trouble reading for comprehension.Earlier, in her defense, Harrop had written:
I see incivility as not letting other people speak their piece. It’s not about offering strong opinions. If someone’s opinion is fact-based, then it is permissible in civil discourse. Of course, there are matters of delicacy, and I dispensed with all sweet talk in this particular column. And I did stoop to some ad hominem remarks, I’ll admit.So, basically, civil discourse is whatever Harrop says it is, especially if she agrees with you. Many commenters took Harrop to task for her skewed logic and hypocrisy. They were even civil in their discourse. But Harrop closed comments to the post.
Too bad for her, Morrissey preserved the comments for posterity's sake. Just another terrorist act, I suppose.
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The old "I'm not insulting you, I'm just stating the fact that you're an idiot" argument. Haven't seen that one since around 8th or 9th grade.
How is this woman the chair of anything? Her "talents" dictate that, at most, she should be ranting on her own personal livejournal to an apathetic audience of family members and 3 or 4 personal friends.
Posted by: Dan at August 6, 2011 11:19 AMThis insane hyberbole that is tolerated from the left but never from the right is getting sickening,especially when coming from nitwit Vice President Biden.
Posted by: joe bernstein at August 6, 2011 12:25 PMI got a newsflash for Harrop-if the Tea Party people were terrorists she might well have been lying dead in a parking lot.
THAT is terrorism-anything else is opinion,discourse,political activism,etc.
I remember when a rdio host named Alan Berg pissed some Aryan Nations fanatics-they put about 40 rounds in him.
A few years ago I said on another blog when Shana Kurland,local radical,called ICE agents terrorists that she needed to maybe meet some real terrorists.
The infamous "Rhody"then accused me of intending to cause serious harm to Ms.Kurland.That was the impetus for my dislike of that weasly turd.
The worst I'd wish on Shana Kurland is a meal of raw ground turkey.(I've had salmonella-it does get your attention).
She can't help herself while proving once again that "Liberalism is a mental disorder."
Posted by: dave at August 6, 2011 4:17 PMWait, aren't these "Tea Party Terrorists" elected US Representatives? Isn't the point of sending someone to the House to represent the will of the electorate? And aren't these Tea Party people getting elected because the voters are sick of the type of people that got us into the debt ceiling problem in the first place?
And I'm so sick of people saying the Tea Party and Republicans held the economy hostage. It takes two in a negotiation. The Tea Party simply wanted $4 trillion in cuts and no tax increases. The Democrats said no. So who was holding the economy hostage if it was the Democrats who were saying no?
Posted by: Patrick at August 6, 2011 8:29 PMThe Tea Party's holding Republicans hostage, too. Think Boehner doesn't rue the day he hopped in bed with these people?
Posted by: bella at August 7, 2011 12:26 AMBella - Without the tea party landslide taking back the house, nobody would even know who Boehner is.
Posted by: Dan at August 7, 2011 12:45 AMThe tea party as I understand it wants the country to stop spending itself into disaster. That doesn't seem like a terrible "terrorist" concept. It's a fact that we cannot afford Medicare in its current form for much longer.
Posted by: Doug Meisner at August 7, 2011 1:27 AMFroma Harrop, like so many members of Congress, needs to learn math, and stop whining about the fact that we won't be able to provide heart-lung transplants and $100,000 a year drug regimens for everyone on the planet.
I find her very self-righteous.
I wonder why bella cares one iota about any group holding the Republicans "hostage"?
Posted by: joe bernstein at August 7, 2011 7:49 PMShe usually sounds like a Chafee/Whitehouse rumpswab.
Fact is ,though,that although the Tea Party was a significant influence in the Republican sweep of the House,it doesn't mean they get to call the shots on their own.
Thanks to the two frothing at the mouth idiots,Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle,who were Tea Party candidates,two seats were lost in the Senate which could have easily been won by the regular Republican candidates.
One of them Harry Reid's seat.
Nice.
Rand Paul doesn't sound wrapped very tight a lot of the time.
And Michelle Bachmann and her terminally creepy husband are two of the biggest hypocrites imaginable on the issue of government handouts.
The Tea Party surely rates seats at the big table,but not the whole table.