Apr 15 2009
What If Rightwing Extremism IS On The Rise?
Important Updates Below
One thing my former colleagues in the conservative movement better brace themselves for is the possibility the DHS report may be true, and in fact there are indication rightwing extremism is heating up.
One of the things a lot of us heard while debating this subject is that there is a lot of real concern with these groups right now. It is not “Obama trying to attack his opponents” concern (they are imploding so fast he has no need to worry). There are hints and whispers that there really are disturbing signals starting to show. I won’t go into it any further right now. But things could be going in a direction the conservatives suffering from Obama Derangement Syndrome may just not be aware of – or worse are not willing to admit is happening.
Update: Looks like the Freepers are getting their mental wake up call today:
Heads up: Hedgecock, who broke the DHS story is talking to DHS spokseman.Â
…
Bush ADMIN Report? In the works for a year
Why would Bush target right wing?
This my friends is someone trying to wake up from the throws of delusion – let’s see if they can pull it off:
Napolitano never saw it…never signed off.
Oops. What will the right wing conspiracy theorists do now? How can they connect Obama to this report? Stay tuned, I am sure some fictional fantasy will come out, just like it did with Obama’s birth certificate nonsense.
Hedgecock says, why target Vets, broad brush?
Smith says yes, its a broad brush. Things about assessment poorly written.
Well, because Vets weren’t targeted. Seems Hedgecock can’t let go of his alarmist theory which got him all this great traffic.
Why would Bush target right wing?why did he enact the patriot act?
ummm – lemme think
maybe because he was a rino? …because he sure as heck wasnt a conservativeÂ
And there we  have it folks! It was the evil President Bush who was behind targeting those devilish conservatives. He is in cahoots with Obama, probably placed McCain at the head of the GOP ticket to ensure Obama’s win. He also was responsible for losing the Iraq war until to the point he could wipe out conservatives in Congress. It is an evil plot that goes back to 9-11, where Bush plotted with Soros to set up the Democrat landslide of 2008. It’s all so damn clear now!
Ugh, am I glad I am out of that fevered swamp.
Update: Actually, I think people should be let in on a few more details known to conservative bloggers.
Update: The essence of the problem appears to be the conservatives cannot distinguish between leftwing nattering about conservatives and hard working protectors of this nation in DHS trying to stop any more attacks like OKC and the killing of 3 police in PA. Connecting DHS to the far left is the insult that went to far.
As my above link notes, the drama queens on the right have been told that the vagueness of the report (wherein specific groups were mentioned to ensure the focus was clear) was due to a request to remove those names from the report. If anyone was paying attention to the NSA-FISA debate over the last 6 years they would know that in order to monitor such groups requires significant evidence of potential risk. To monitor anyone in the US requires a FIS Court warrant. Get clue people. There are some scary reasons why this report came out the way it did. Bottom line, it was to alert law enforcement and only law enforcement. That has now gone bust with mainstream conservative folks crying its all about them.
When the left exposed our efforts to stop attacks on this nation I was on the forefront of objecting loudly to the smears against those trying to stop the attacks. I have not changed. Conservatives now feel they have the right to do the same thing they lambasted the NY Times and others for. If you believe the right is endowed with certain morale rights to insert themselves like this in stopping attacks, I would suggest you just moved into a fragile glass house.
The right has been notified about how they got this all wrong. The new DHS Director did not see or influence this report. They have been told by respectable sources. They have not admitted this to their readers or listeners. And now they are trying to hunt down names of people in order to pressure them publicly. This needs to end.
AJ, IF, and it is a MASSIVELY BIG IF, “If vague and sloppy wording leads readers or law enforcement officers to that conclusion, then apologies are in order.â€
So there is a massive amount of confusion and disagreement about the meaning of the report. That radical group of right-wing extremists, the American Legion, is demanding an apology about the report.
Where is the apology? Where is the re-written NON-vague, NON-sloppily worded report?
So what if it was not a “conspiracy”, and is just “vague and sloppy wording” that upsets so many people (whose views you dismiss out of hand)?
If these DHS heroes that you so endlessly and reflexively defend are even remotely professional and competent, they would NOT have released a report that contained “vague and sloppy wording”. If they are so hopelessly incompetent that they DID release such a badly written report, they should ALL be re-assigned to flipping burgers.
Am I correct in concluding you do not regard the Obama administration as a significant threat either to the security of the United States abroad (ala Jimmy Carter Redux) or to the system of economic liberty, severely limited government intrusion in the lives of citizens, and (ultimately) political liberty? Am I correct in concluding you do not consider Obama a radical leftist?
AJ, I was not making issue with the lack of names or examples in the paper other than contrived, inaccurate ones..but with the structure of the definition itself as they wrote it and how they were ascribing it.
The definition I posted was not my own interpretation…but a direct quote from the paper.
Cato,
You have been consistently all day!
Congrats
Terrence,
The cause of the confusion has been identified – some Feds asked the clarifying names be removed.
AJ, that’s a non-answer. What I’m trying to figure out is whether you basically support Obama’s program or not. You certainly didn’t support his election, but you seem to regard serious and principled opposition to his program and policies as somehow making one a rightwing nutjob. Something doesn’t compute. It’s almost as if you’ve done an Andrew Sullivan….
Cato,
It was a completely accurate answer. You just don’t like it – BFD.
Just another point here – the irony meter is pegged on this one. The conservative flame throwers are all upset about vagueness in a report that was made vague for good reasons, and this why they feel it is OK for them to sling vague and damning accusations at good people working to protect us.
Who says God doesn’t have a sense of ironic humor?
AJ,
Do you get it now? The movement has changed.
Being a “Conservative” is no longer about policies or political principles – those are just the window dressing. Really, it is about IDENTITY. Much of this identity, as is true of some leftist groups today, comes from a shared belief in their own victimization at the hands of “the left” (the definition of which changes depending on the needs at the moment).
By telling Conservatives that you don’t take this “threat” seriously, you challenge that sense of victimization and, therefore, identity. That, more than any deviation on policy, is the number 1 sin in the eyes of the movement.
Libarbarian,
I got it years ago. Which is why I am an independent for life.
I’m not sure I really understand your attachment to the DHS personnel. I’m sure most of them are doing the best they can under the circumstances, as they see things. I don’t impute any particular malicious intent to the average DHS employee. I think DHS employees are more like ‘ordinary’ government employees than they are like the military — that is, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them are members of public employee unions, are liberal Democrats, and (like all bureaucrats) are happy to increase their own power. I think they have biases which are perfectly understandable in light of those assumptions. I think that probably makes them less well disposed towards “conservatives” (anyone who does not support the current administration) than it does towards other citizens, but I don’t think they’re trying to subvert the country or actually attack conservatives. I don’t think it’s reasonable, however, to consider the DHS personnel in the same categorey as the uniformed service members (I’m a Vietnam era vet) who I think are generally fairly “conservative”.
The political leadership of DHS – and the tone set by Napolitano and her ilk – is an entirely different matter, however, is very different. I think that most of the outrage against the DHS report (at least mine is) is directed at this political leadership and the administration generally, whose intentions I do not trust at all.
I’ve usually enjoyed your blog, even when I’ve disagreed with you. In this case, I think you’ve gone as far off the track in the opposite direction as the people you’re reacting to.
Well Cato,
Now the Newt is calling for these fine people to be fired maybe you can grasp the depth of this mess.
It has been shown the political leadership HAD NOTHING to do with the contents.
Go lynch the DHS employees – its your conscience, not mine.
AJ, you don’t hear me calling for their heads or their jobs, and that hasn’t been the tone of my posts, so please don’t lump me with the profoundly flawed (even if he has flashes of brilliance) Newt Gingrich. I’m very concerned by the tone of the DHS leadership and I think that employees (in government and any other business) often reflect and say what they think their bosses want to hear. My opposition — pace libarbarian — is about principles and policies, not some victim identity, which that writer correctly identifies as originating on the left.
Cato,
Fine, your not with them. And neither am I.
The cause of the confusion has been identified – some Feds asked the clarifying names be removed.
Once those names came out, there really wasn’t any real point to releasing the report.
I’m opposed to abortion and belong to a “single issue” pro-life organization, I’m a veteran who is a little embittered toward the American public and how they sometimes treat veterans (there’s a story in this which I’ll share after this para), I’m opposed to Obama’s policies so far, I’m seriously debating whether or not to buy a rifle (in part because I’m worried about “gun control” legislation making it more difficult), I subscribe to a few so-called “conspiracy theories” regarding what happened in a few historical events . . . y’know, with a little selective ignorance of inconvenient truths, one could build a “narrative” describing me as a “right-wing militia extremist” for the purposes of a DHS report that doesn’t actually name names. (Not that these names aren’t available, anyway.)
As to why I’m a little embittered, set Condition This Ain’t No S***:
Last year, I was running in the neighborhood I grew up in. I was wearing an old USMC t-shirt. I finished my run in the neighborhood park.
Now, I’m in pretty good shape considering I’m 43, I stand up straight (Mom taught me that long before I shipped off to MCRD San Diego), and I keep my hair cropped very short because it doesn’t behave itself otherwise, so some folks think I’m still on active duty.
As I was doing my cool-down stretches, a little boy (probably 5 or 6 years old) came over and asked me, “Did you kill many babies in Iraq?”
I just smiled at him, and asked, “Did your mother tell you to ask me that?”
What I absolutely love about little kids is that, until they get taught how to lie by society (or, sadly, by their sperm and egg donors–people who teach their offspring to be dishonest don’t rate the honor of being called “parents”), they’re totally honest. The kid didn’t hesitate: he pointed at her and said, “Uh-huh, she did!”
The kid dropped a dime on his own mother! (Not that the bitch didn’t have it coming.)
I walked over and told her, in as conversational a tone as I could manage, “Just for the record, that was pathetically lame.” (Big smile on my face, I was trying real hard to not laugh in her face and leave her a scrap or two of her dignity.)
Her husband came over and tried to get in my face, but I had the wind gauge. I’m not a metrosexual who tries to conceal his every last bit of body odor–yes, I sweat when I go running, especially when I’m running for speed, nothing wrong with a little honest sweat, nobody ever drowned in sweat, and a shower takes it right off–so he turned an interesting shade of green and backed off.
But, yeah, it hurt. It hurt to see a mother teaching her child to become as misanthropic and nasty as she is. Lady, I don’t give a hoot in hell as to whatever freakin’ psychological problems and hangups about military people you have–they’re your problems, fixing them (or not) is your responsibility, no one else’s–but passing them on to your children is abusive.
And nobody seems to think that insulting veterans like that (which happens all too damn often) is wrong enough to chastise somebody over. I’m the only guy I know who does–everyone else just looks embarrassed and pretends they never heard it. Every time I do tell someone they’re in the wrong for insulting another veteran’s service (I don’t give a damn in my own case), I get a look of equal parts hatred and cluelessness.
So there’s the story of my bitterness, my clinging to religion and guns, et cetera.
Screw it.
“If this be treason, let us make the most of it.” — Patrick Henry
Cobalt,
The report was a notice to law enforcement, and there was a reason to get it out.
Cobalt,
Semper Fi! You do know we just minted ourselves a new Marine. Do you want him lined up against the conservative mob storming the gates? I sure don’t. I sweated Obama sending him out on a useless mission without sufficient back up. Now I fear he will be on the front lines stopping a lynch mob of his fellow citizens.
The best part about this whole report is it says on the bottom of the first page:
“This product contains Law Enforcement Sensitive (LES) information. No portion of the LES information
should be released to the media, the general public, or over non-secure Internet servers. Release of this information could adversely affect or jeopardize
investigative activities….It is to be controlled, stored, handled, transmitted, distributed, and disposed of in accordance with DHS policy relating to
FOUO information and is not to be released to the public, the media, or other personnel who do not have a valid need-to-know without prior approval of an authorized
DHS official. State and local homeland security officials may share this document with authorized security personnel without further approval from DHS.”
Are you all now going to go demand that all other threat assessments be released so that we can see who they believe to be a threat? I agree with my dad everyone who is flipping out over this document and blaming DHS is a drama queen.
Anyone who has been reading my oft criticized rants and raves at The Pink Flamingo know that I’ve been tracking “right wing hate” for several years. It is very, very real. One of the reasons I began blogging is because I was on the email list of someone who started off reasonable, and is now one of the top behind the scenes conservative “radicals”. I’ve been on this person’s email list for 10 years. It, he, and his associates have become increasingly more “hard-line” to the point where I am more than a little concerned about their direction.
I am now tracking some serious succession talk with these people. They are the ones who refused to vote for McCain, or voted for Obama to teach the GOP a lesson. They are hard-line anti-immigration, the ones who are involved in the John Tanton controlled organizations like FAIR, Numbers USA, etc. While 90% of them have not gone the hard-line Stormfront direction, they are heading into the CofCC – which works hand in glove with Stormfront.
Heck, all DHS had to do was copy and paste half the stuff I’ve written in the past three years and they could do a whole book on it. I currently have about 5000 pages printed from different far right web sites, many of them having now gone dark. The problem is no one believes me when I come up with the entangled alliances of these people.
I fear the far right more than I do the crazies of the far left. I think there are elements within the far right who are far more dangerous than we think they are. The bitter irony here is that the worst of them are being manipulated and herded into their anti-immigration mantra by one of the top supporters for forced abortion and abortion on demand. (I’m working on several articles).
My “storage blog” the Subway Canaries (http://www.thepinkflamingo.org/) is a mess right now, but if you wallow through it, I have a tremendous amount of information on far right extremism.
SJR
The Pink Flamingo
The report was a notice to law enforcement, and there was a reason to get it out.
I’ve talked to a couple of cops who work HLS-specific assignments. They universally panned the report–it’s one of those things that either will be ignored (because it contains nothing especially relevant) or it will be used by someone with a political axe to grind to justify surveillance on people they disagree with.
A supermajority of state and local LEOs and a simple majority of federal LEOs are extremely sensitive to constitutional liberties. Odds are that’s where the leak came from.