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An Oklahoma City man who announced on Twitter that he would turn an April 15 tax protest into a bloodbath was hit with a federal charge of making interstate threats last week, in what appears to be first criminal prosecution to stem from posts on the microblogging site.
Daniel Knight Hayden, 52, was arrested by FBI agents who identified him as the Twitter user CitizenQuasar. In a series of tweets beginning April 11, CitizenQuasar vowed to start a “war” against the government on the steps of the Oklahoma City Capitol building, the site of that city’s version of the national “Tea Party” protests promoted by the conservative-leaning Fox News.
“START THE KILLING NOW! I am willing to be the FIRST DEATH!,” read a tweet at 8:01 PM that day. “After I am killed on the Capitol Steps, like a REAL man, the rest of you will REMEMBER ME!!!,” he added five minutes later. Then: “Send the cops around. I will cut their heads off the heads and throw the[m] on the State Capitol steps.”
Hayden’s MySpace page is a breathtaking gallery of right wing memes about the “New World Order,” gun control as Nazi fascism, and Barack Obama’s covert use of television hypnosis, among many others…
Hayden’s penultimate tweet at 12:49 AM on April 15 returned to the subject of his martyrdom. “Locked AND loaded for the Oklahoma State Capitol. Let’s see what happens.”
The FBI arrested him at his home later that day, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oklahoma City, which otherwise declined to comment on the case.
Warms the cockles of your heart to see a nutball truly deserving the title.
Maybe if you stopped calling them “teabaggers”, he wouldn’t have gone off the deep end.
The Republican party is searching for its identity.
And although their heart is in the right place, their message is horribly wrong.
They are pushing forward an anti-government and anti-taxation message — and their heart IS in the right place — but ultimately the message is one that cannot be widely embraced.
Government DOES serve a purpose.
If they altered their message to one that could get popular support — namely that government is needed but the federal government, like super bloated mismanaged large corporations, being the largest democratic government in the world cannot be the vehicle for our needs and these needs must be fulfilled by governments closer to the people (state, local) — they could be the majority party again in the future.
But they want to fail.
We need government to pave the roads, inspect the beef, monitor the water, to keep an eye on corporations.
And our federal government does suck, not because the intent isn’t good but because it is too big, too slow, can’t react and using it is like tossing money in a hole.
But the Republican party message will fail because they are trying to appeal with a message only the biggest dimwit flatheads would buy into and that anyone with an ounce of education would reject.
We NEED the country governed. What we need is for it to be done efficiently, responsively and as cost-effectively as possible.
The federal government largely will fail to do this because it is infinite spaghetti of stuffed shirts isolated from their purpose and the people they serve.
Well said #2. The news has been full of reports about people buying guns and ammo to the point some are in short supply or impossible to buy. People who run gun shows say business is the best its ever been, because of the fear that has been put out by Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, etc etc that Obama is out to get them and their arsenals, and those people are buying into all that crap with hook, line, & sinker. In local and national news reports I heard plenty of direct quotes of phrases from Fox News idiots like “I pray for my country” and “I fear for my country”, two of Glenn Beck’s favorite ones.
So we should not be totally surprised if a crackpot like this guy has surfaced. Fox News, Beck, and Limbaugh are creating many more like him every day and it’s just a matter of time until some of them snap and actually do something dangerous and stupid.
The Tea Bagger’s cry was “No Taxation
Without Representation” and comparing themselves to those who protested the British Stamp Tax in 1766 and the Tea Act in 1773.
In Colonial America, that tax was imposed and the colonies had no say. In America today, if you had no say then you either didn’t vote, were a felon and couldn’t vote, or are just a sore loser that didn’t like the vote. Whatever you are, you dishonor those who protested back then.
#2 & 3,
I agree with both of you. Good, well thought out posts.
We’ll miss Alfred1. He was a loony but a treat.
See mothers, this is why you don’t do blow when you’re pregnant.
#2 – You’re message is correct as far as it goes and was one of the messages at the tea parties. Eliminate waste and inefficiency, prioritize properly and our current tax load should be more than enough. TEA – Taxed Enough Already.
Extend the message to state and local governments also though. Waste and bloat is everywhere to one degree or another.
This Hayden guy is just a random whackjob – you’ll find them on both sides of every issue.
@Fusion, ggore
Thanks for the kind words.
“Well said #2. The news has been full of reports about people buying guns and ammo to the point some are in short supply or impossible to buy.”
Yeah, appeal to the fucking idiots. That’s one hell of a moronic plan to advance ideas.
That’s got a snowball’s chance in hell to work out for them.
Keep at it Fox News … maybe we can have another Oklahoma City type event instead of just one lone nut making threats.
Recipe for this teabagger:
Douse with water
Liberally apply taser
Do we know this guys DU ID? I was thinking I may have been entertained by him before.
What a whinny bitch
Wow! So this guy was a Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck brainwashed puppet of the fear agenda.
And here I was thinking he just listened to NOAGENDA a bit too much!
This is why you need to be careful who your Twitter followers are and what you post there.
I agree. “life is not worth living in Oklahoma.”
Farewell, sweet Alfred1, farewell.
I don’t see any difference between this guy and the folks who post similar messages on the Daily Kos and HuffPo.
Indeed, neither do I.
Well, except for the small fact that the folks who post such things on Kos and HuffPo don’t exist.
Silly F-U posts and wishing disease upon people are not the same thing as death threats.
May make more comments on the issue later, although I probably won’t bother, but I have to make a quick response-
#19, Li, what color is the sky in your world? Kos and Huffpo commenters froth at the mouth in just as deranged and threatening a manner as this guy on a REGULAR BASIS. It’s not just something that happens, it’s frakkin’ characteristic.
If Mr. Curry has any guns, I don’t want to know. Guns + Planes + Money => Curry Air Farce.
#18, benson and #20, bob
So, you guys read Huffington Post and the Daily Kos? Other than the occasional story link, I haven’t had the pleasure. What else do you two like about them?
Agree. A random whack-job who makes the organization look bad. Every group has one. The tea parties were about giving our voice and saying taxes our too high. Even some Obama voters didn’t expect the crazy bail outs to be this bad.
#4 Mr Fusion
Did you protest against the Iraq war?
If you had no say then you either didn’t vote, were a felon and couldn’t vote, or are just a sore loser that didn’t like the vote. Whatever you are, you dishonor to those who protect this country.
Works both ways doesn’t it Mr. Fusion
#24, Private Benjamin,
As a matter of fact I did. I wrote my Congressman and both Senators. The Congressman (R) voted for the war and has since been replaced. One Senator (R) replied with a reasoned (form) letter explaining his position and why he voted for the war. The other Senator (D) didn’t reply but also voted in favor of the war.
The protest against the war is NOT equivalent to the hypocritical comment that you make. The Tea Baggers held many signs complaining about “No Taxation Without Representation”. For Iraq I was representated. No, I don’t like the way they voted, BUT that was never the focus of my complaint and I accepted that they voted their conscience. Tea Baggers don’t understand that.
#25 Mr Fusion
Many war protesters had signs saying “Bush is Hitler.” Obviously Bush did not even have a mustache and he parts his hair differently, so not Hitler.
Are you suggesting that the right to petition the government should be limit to those who can make signs free of hyperbola and exaggeration to make their case? Or should it just be limited to those who agree with Mr. Fusion?
Are you suggesting that the right to petition the government should be limit[ed] to those who can make signs free of hyperbola and exaggeration to make their case?
I would be willing to restrict this right to private citizens only and ban organizations (businesses AND NGOs) from lobbying.
I am still stuck on “Arrested for Twittering”.
You really can’t start a social network for geeks… the press will not allow it.
Is Benjamin suggesting that the Republican party and FoxNews has been somehow disenfranchised from all political debate?
Because, seriously, I’ve never heard Limbaugh, Hannity, et al, as loud as I have these days. (And I mean “loud” as in decibel level, not in any measure of clarity.)
#30 You keep hammering that point, Alfie. Please. Keep beating that dead horse. Americans everywhere will thank you for proving what a bitter dead end the Republican party has become — and how radical and out of touch their “conservative” followers have become.
A rabid wingnut is a Democrat’s best friend. 🙂