I am pleased to announce that I've joined the good people over at The Swash Zone as a guest poster.
Please go read today's most excellent post by (O)CT(O)PUS on the shocking number of rightwing domestic terrorist groups in this country.
Secretary Nepolitano was forced to apologize for warning about the terrorist killing that occured in Washington DC yesterday and the terrorist killing that occured in Kansas last week.
More domestic terrorism here.
Napolitano was prescient in putting out the warning, and those who demanded an apology are now shown to have been bullies or woefully out of touch with the reality of terrorism and rightwing terrorist groups in America.
Also from Think Progress:
Though some conservatives have concluded that the recent string of right-wing violence has “vindicated” the DHS report, many others agree with Peters. Michelle Malkin, who led the charge against the DHS report, approvingly linked to a milblogger that called Smith and Herridge “pathetic” for reconsidering the report. Malkin’s Hot Air colleague, Ed Morrissey, defends the criticism of the report by claiming that it didn’t “mention anti-semitism at all.”
Go read The Swash Zone.
30 comments:
Don't forget the third terrorist killing of recent history: the Muslim terrorist who killed the army recruiter in Arkansas.
It is hard to find a common political/religious thread between these three.
I have it linked in my post. You must have missed it.
"More domestic terrorism here."
Dmarks: "It is hard to find a common political/religious thread between these three."
Actually, the common threads are easy to find: Anger, Intolerance, delusional thinking, sociopathy ... and a callous disregard for human life.
You are right, Octo. I just meant that you won't find these three liking the same political web sites.
So regardless of what the righties would have us believe, it isn't just "ragheads" that use terror for some twisted ideology.
Correction, "Weekly Standard".
Shaw,
I follow the good folks at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
They tract on a state-by-state basis the number of radical, rightwing extremist and hate groups in the USA.
Their numbers are truly stunning.
Thanks to many factors, including a bad recession courtesy of George Bush, the hate rhetoric by bloviators like O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, Savage and Coulter, and the election of the first African American president in our history, the "angry, white male" subset, is seething and truly out of their minds.
About Dr. George Tiller's killer, I was taken aback that he wasn't charged as a domestic terrorist in addition to a murderer. If anyone met the definition of a domestic terrorist, it is Tiller's murderer.
The kooks and the lunatics are on the march. Let's hope local, state and Federal law enforcement is awake and on their game. If not, it will be up to us to protect ourselves from their psychotic behavior.
Blogger Christopher said...
Shaw,
I follow the good folks at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Once again, backing up facts with another group of idealistic lawyers that distort facts to their own gain.
I love how much you hate talk show hosts whose opinions you cannot control and who you've probably never listened to in your life.
If Tiller's murderer is charged as a domestic terrorist, I am fine with that. Just remember, there are plenty in your party that can easily be marked as terrorists for the seditious and hateful things that they say and conduct on a daily basis.
bluepitbull,
What is "my party?" Define?
I'm very patient so take your time.
I think there are wackos on both sides and they come out in droves. Currently I believe it's the right's turn maybe because we have a dem President. Whatever the reason it's despicable. Whenever these left and right wackos go on their rampages they should be condemned. I believe Octo and I both wrote posts a little while back on Ubers. They fit into this category perfectly.
I'm sorry but I do not have a blog or website. I am a conservative and a Christian. I did vote for Ronald Reagan. I am pro-life. I own several guns. I voted for proposition 8 in California to protect the traditional definition of marriage. I pay far too much in taxes.
I never thought this country would consider someone like me to be a possible threat or an enemy of the state. ONLY because of my politics which are the same as about a few less that the amount of people that voted for Barack Obama and did so under the promise of "Hope and Change" and who were cheated. I am fearful about this country's ability to survive four years of this current administration. And I am fearful that my children and grand children will NEVER be able to see the greatness that this country once held in the world.
Hm. Hates Jews, thinks 9/11 was a Bush plot, wants to kill neocons. Sounds exactly like President Obama's spiritual advisor.
To be fair, the president has disavowed that spiritual advisor.
Christopher said...
bluepitbull,
What is "my party?" Define?
I'm very patient so take your time.
Oh, I see you fashion yourself an independent. Since you are patient, please tell me what makes yours an independent opinion?
For Frank Looper and any other commenter who is feeling persecuted, I left a comment in the post above this one which, I believe, helps shed some light on the subject.
Dear Frank Looper,
Where the heck did you get the idea this post is about you?
Your comment is a perfect example of a conservative who willfully misreads and misunderstands what rightwing EXTREMISM is.
The discussion is about EXTREMISTS--people who advocate death and destruction to those whose ideology they disagree with, people like Tiller and Von Brunn, Timothy McVeigh, etc.
How you made the leap from reading about those criminals to talking about yourself, only you can answer--but it sounds an awful lot like self-pity.
Nowhere in the discussion are mainstream conservatives mentioned as terrorists--that's ususally what the Right resorts to when talking about Mr. Obama.
But the fact that you believe Mr. Obama has destroyed this country and what it stands for since taking office less than 5 months ago is a symptom of the gross mendacity that has been infecting our nation for the lasts 20 years and of which a good deal of uninformed and fearful people on the Right promote.
The fact that you place no blame on the previous administration that handed Mr. Obama two wars, a wrecked economy, a national reputation disgraced in the eyes of the world, and a deeply divided country shows your dishonesty and complete lack of any acquaintance with the facts.
The great British statesman William Gladstone once said this:
“Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.”
Frank Looper, you are a perfect example of what he stated.
(O)CT(O)PUS said..."who is feeling persecuted"
You seem to make light of what I said.
What part of my comment is not correct?
Shaw Kenawe said...
Dear Frank Looper,
" Where the heck did you get the idea this post is about you?"
Pardon me, I made a mistake, I thought for one minute that I was still in America and I was able to say what was on my mind.
I guess that I was wrong.
Frank,
You have a deep seated persecution complex.
No one is denying you the right to say what you want.
I CHALLENGED your statements where you set yourself up as a victim and where you interpreted WRONGLY that this post was about mainstream conservatives.
Again, you willfully misread and misunderstand and continue to play the victim.
I did not delete your comments. I tried to point out that it is YOU who put yourself in the company of extremists.
Mainstream conservatives are not the subject of this post.
If you can read and comprehend that statement, you will, at some point, understand why I say you're acting like a victim.
bluepitbull,
Chris is an Independent, or NON-AFFILIATED registered voter.
Do you not know what that means?
It has nothing to do with his OPINION.
Here is what is posted on his blog:
"I am now a registered Independent."
IOW, he votes for the CANDIDATE, not the PARTY.
Shaw said: "The discussion is about EXTREMISTS....Nowhere in the discussion are mainstream conservatives mentioned as terrorists"
Yet, in your post here, you link to (and laud) Octopus' "most excellent post" (your term) which happens to tar many mainstream groups with the "domestic terrorism" and "hate groups" labels alongside actual terrorist groups.
Since that link was an important part of your post that you supported, mainstream conservatives ARE being mentioned as terrorists here. (a large number of nonviolent groups and even a group that gets lumped in with terrorists for doing nothing but publishing cartoons).
Mostly said: "So regardless of what the righties would have us believe, it isn't just "ragheads" that use terror for some twisted ideology."
Since the "righties" have tended to make a big deal over Bill Ayers the terrorist without calling him a "raghead", the "have us believe" does not fit reality.
Frank Looper said...
"(O)CT(O)PUS said..."who is feeling persecuted"
You seem to make light of what I said."
My intent is not to belittle or make light of what you said, but merely to point you in the direction of an article that discusses scapegoating, conspiricism, and apocalypticism in the abstract. Sometimes background knowledge helps us understand innermost feelings within a larger context. No slight intended.
dmarks,
I stand by 8PUS's assessment of the groups he has listed on his post over at The Swash Zone.
Just after 9/11 Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell-who was honored by President Bush when he died--blamed 9/11 on homosexuals, pro-choicers, and feminists, which is about a extremist as it gets.
Both of them have ministries which hundreds of thousands of conservative Christians support and promote.
When two prominent Christians blame a catastrophe on certain groups they hate, that fits my definition of extremists--and those statements that Falwell made and with which Robertson agreed are no different from the paranoid ranting of the murderer, Von Brunn, who eventually acted on his hatreds.
John McCain's pastor Hagee--another Christian extremist and hate monger--blamed homosexuals for Hurrican Katrina and retracted it only when pressure was brought on him.
Pastor Hagee, again, has a following of hundreds of thousands of Christians. And he is an extremist who promotes hatred and fear toward groups of Americans he doesn't like.
Dmarks: "Yet, in your post here, you link to (and laud) Octopus' "most excellent post" (your term) which happens to tar many mainstream groups with the "domestic terrorism" and "hate groups" labels alongside actual terrorist groups."
In addition to Shaw's comment immediately above, I add the following:
If your definition of "orderly and Constitutional change" means changing the law to deprive women of their reproductive health care rights, returning them to the days of back-room abortion butchers, forcing them to bear dead babies against their will, forcing them to delay life-saving chemotherapy just because they are pregnant, turning our gay brothers and sisters into second-class citizens, denying our gay brothers and sisters the same equal protection under law as enjoyed by other classes of citizens, forcing school prayers on people who do not want it, using public tax money to finance religious education in violation of the anti-establishment provision, imposing a religious doctrine over others and thereby oppressing persons of other faiths ... if this is your definition of "orderly and Constitutional change" then those groups on the list BELONG on the list.
Shaw: Do you even stand by the cartoonist being on the list? IF you think that cartoonists belong on a list with violent terrorists, images of the cartoon riots of a few years ago come to mind. Now, as then. It's just CARTOONS.
Frank said: "Pardon me, I made a mistake, I thought for one minute that I was still in America and I was able to say what was on my mind."
Actually, you are in Shaw's blog. It's not your place. Blogger and Shaw can delete you at will, and if they do it is STILL America, because they are controlling their own forum.
You are free to make your own blog, too. The whole idea that people controlling their own blog somehow violates the First Amendment is rather tiresome.
"IF you think that cartoonists belong on a list with violent terrorists, images of the cartoon riots of a few years ago come to mind. Now, as then. It's just CARTOONS."
You know just as well as I that there are limits in this Land of the Free to free speech.
You know you can be arrested for saying something about a bomb in an airport or on a airplane. You can be arrested, or certainly detained if you stand in the halls of Congress and say you want to kill some Congressperson, certain kinds of pornography (depicting children) are illegal.
So we do not live in a limitlessly free speech country.
I would say that cartoons that encourage people to commit crimes or violence against groups of people are reprehensible. Should they be banned?
Well, David Letterman just got a heap of strong criticism thrown at him for a tasteless JOKE (which is not real, is it?).
It's just a joke.
dmarks: None of the groups listed in the blog post you object to are mainstream. All of them are lunatic fringe.
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