Domestic terrorist

[rwarn17588]

Looks like some anti-IRS whackjob has crashed his plane into a big office building in Austin.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2010/02/18/austin_police_say_a_plane.html

The suspect's name is Joe Stack, from San Marcos. After reading his diatribe, there's little doubt he did it:

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2010/02/18/internet_note_posted_by_man_li.html?cxntcid=breaking_news

CNN's reporting that he set his own home on fire today, too.

[Conan71]

Why the FOTARD headline?  No more of a terrorist than someone who opens fire in a school yard.

More like a schizoid lone whack-a-doodle:

"Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a smile about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement

"Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed. Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare. Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months. This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive. Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY! After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.

"By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change. Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a love about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies."


Jeez that's a disjointed read.  I'm still trying to figure out what the whole issue was with the tax code, but I'm starting to think perhaps he was claiming independent contractor status or someone else was and he got socked big time for back SS tax is all I can figure.  Talk about a rambling, crazy read.  He makes comprehending Shadows a snap.

[rwarn17588]

Why the FOTARD headline? 

To get you to read it, silly. 

But, seriously, what's the difference between a terrorist and a criminal who wants to cause massive property damage and deaths in a spectacular way? I see no difference.

[custosnox]

Was it a desire to simply cause property damage and death, or a last ditch attempt to bring the nations eyes to a problem that he saw with this country that he couldn't seem to get anyone to see before?  Granted he seems to have strayed from reality long before, but he is correct that something in our system is broken and no one cares to see it.  While he has used an abhorred method in his attempt to bring this fact to light, one must stop to ask if this is more of a result of banging his head against the wall of bureaucracy.

[Conan71]

To get you to read it, silly. 

But, seriously, what's the difference between a terrorist and a criminal who wants to cause massive property damage and deaths in a spectacular way? I see no difference.

I had not gotten all the way to the end of his diatribe when I posted that.  His motives are definitely more along the lines of a Timothy McMonster after reading his spiel about spilling blood for freedom (paraphrasing).  Kind of weird there's a Waco connection too, if it turns out the plane actually came from there or was rented from there, etc.

They had some contradictory statements from officials in the story you posted (perhaps they interviewed investigators from different ends of the parking lot  ) and the copy editor selected the most sensationalistic headline available from the quotes. 

Be interesting to hear what we learn about this guy in the coming days.  Oddly enough, a plane crashed into a building out in Amarillo yesterday, though anti-government sentiment doesn't appear to have had anything to do with it.

[rwarn17588]

Was it a desire to simply cause property damage and death, or a last ditch attempt to bring the nations eyes to a problem that he saw with this country that he couldn't seem to get anyone to see before?  Granted he seems to have strayed from reality long before, but he is correct that something in our system is broken and no one cares to see it.  While he has used an abhorred method in his attempt to bring this fact to light, one must stop to ask if this is more of a result of banging his head against the wall of bureaucracy.

I'd say this is a result of insanity, paranoia and delusions of grandeur.

[dbacks fan]

JMO, It sounds as if he has been a contract worker all these years and wasn't paying attention to his taxes, himself or his accountant, hasn't paid or underpaid his taxes, and has been audited at least twice and fined for his neglect. (Just curious as to how a piano is justified as a business expense, was his new wife a piano teacher?)

Also just curious as to how long it will take for some talking head (Glenn Beck) to try and make a martyr out of this guy.

Sounds like he and his friends decided to see how far they could bend the rules and he got caught, and decided to go out in a blaze of glory. I feel more sadness for the people in the building than I do him.

[custosnox]

I'd say this is a result of insanity, paranoia and delusions of grandeur.

oh, that is so there as well, and I think this guy embarked on a crusade that had it's basis on misconceptions.  Once the first misconception was drawn, then to continue his crusade he had to follow that path, which could never be completely grounded in reality after this point.  My point is, however, that the amount of bureaucracy involved in the system makes trying to right a wrong (perceived or real) can be maddening.

[dbacks fan]

Boatload of undcoumented income......

"So now we come to the present. After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I'd never enter another accountant's office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.

When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order. I had taken all of the years information to Bill Ross, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting. Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl's unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, Ross knew all along this was missing and I didn't have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit. By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.

This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented). Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone. The end result is... well, just look around."

Seriuosly, sounds like he got caught again. Looks like his fault and his CPA.

[Conan71]

Unreal.  He's already being glorified with a fan page on Facebook:

The Joe "Take My Pound Of Flesh" Stack Anti-IRS Fan Page

Cut and paste into your "search" on FB when you are logged in.  No, I won't become a fan of this page.

[custosnox]

Unreal.  He's already being glorified with a fan page on Facebook:

The Joe "Take My Pound Of Flesh" Stack Anti-IRS Fan Page

Cut and paste into your "search" on FB when you are logged in.  No, I won't become a fan of this page.

I think I'll pass.  That is one thing to worry about, if this turns into some kind of radical movement

[Gaspar]

Why the FOTARD headline? 

I'm just glad, at least at this point, it looks like no one (except the Dufus) was killed. 

Has FOTARD been accounted for?

Oh, wait. . . He likes the IRS.

[buckeye]

Crazy man is right in saying that our legal code is depressingly convoluted and voluminous.  It's a shame that something as common as buying a house comes with signing documents so impenetrable we just make our mark hoping it turns out well for us like it has most other people.

No doubt we're squeezed by the government here and there.  If it gets to the point where most people are squeezed to sufficient discomfort, we get widespread crap like this.  I don't think we're anywhere near this point.

Most likely, this guy tried to pull some stuff early in his career that many get away with, but he didn't execute it very well.  Subsequent bad decisions and consistently irresponsible financial management delivered him to his "current" predicament.

Some of that rant is actually founded in some kind of rational complaint, but crazy people many times only have one thing that makes them crazy.  Otherwise, they're normal.

[dbacks fan]

Slightly off topic, but relevant, the TEA Party is gaining extremists in this article, a Tea Party member is calling for the hangning of a senator....

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/02/18/20100218tea-party-speaker-calls-for-hanging.html

Are we digressing to the Salem Witch Trials, or am I off base with my observations as to what's going on?

[we vs us]

Slightly off topic, but relevant, the TEA Party is gaining extremists in this article, a Tea Party member is calling for the hangning of a senator....

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/02/18/20100218tea-party-speaker-calls-for-hanging.html

Are we digressing to the Salem Witch Trials, or am I off base with my observations as to what's going on?

Crazy things are afoot.  Hard not to see it.

The weird thing about the Tea Party is that it isn't organized around a particular platform.  It's a bunch of college educated white guys angry at the status quo.  They are generally conservative but other than that there's not much more unifying them.  So it's hard to appease them . . . scratch that, it's hard to respond to their demands effectively because there are no demands.    

Another question:  is this actually terrorism?  It's a furious, crazy guy driving his plane into a building.  If you read his manifesto you'll find a lot of loose political ranting but nothing that really amounts to more than personal grievances.  So, if you suicide-plane yourself into an IRS building and you have nothing particular in mind other than personal vengeance, is it terrorism?