Monday, April 13, 2009

Tea Party terrorists?

Stephen Gordon has obtained a new report from the Department of Homeland Security issued just in time for Wednesday's Tea Party protests and entitled, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Environment Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment."

This DHS report warns of the terrorist threat from those who "are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."

Mark Krikorian, David Boaz and Antonin Scalia are urged to turn themselves in at the nearest FEMA detention center.

UPDATE: Michael Merritt:
It gives the impression, undeserved or not, that the Obama administration is becoming a left-wing incarnation of the Richard Nixon administration, with lists of political enemies and wiretaps at the headquarters of their opponents.
What's interesting is that the feds specify right-wing domestic terrorism as the likely result of the "economic and political environment." OK, why?

People are saying that Mexico is teetering on the verge of becoming a "failed state," and already the U.S.-Mexico border is plagued by narco-terror violence. What does DHS have to say about that? Why this apparent assumption that we are due for something like a Timothy McVeigh/Eric Rudolph scenario?

They're "fighting the last war," so to speak, expecting the immediate future to resemble the immediate past. Well, history repeats itself, but not usually in such a direct manner. I'd hate to think DHS was spending so much time checking out every fringe kook in Idaho that they ignored the continuing Al-Qaeda threat.

UPDATE II: Linked at Red State, by Dan Collins at Protein Wisdom, by Dave C. at Point of a Gun, by Chad at KURU Lounge, and coming soon to a right-wing extremist blog near you! (It's all funded by the right-wing billionaires, you know.)

9 comments:

  1. Not against immigration, but rather ILLEGAL immigration. Notice how they conveniently link the two.

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  2. You know it's a slow day for the folks at Homeland Security when they start labeling people who attend Tea Parties "terrorist". That revelation earned my first sheesh of the day.

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  3. Even more curious: on P. 5, the report mentions "white supremacists" who 'use the abortion issue' [to further their cause.]

    So Judie Brown is a closet Aryan Nation commando?

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  4. And that's hardly all.

    When you read "a prominent civil-rights organization reports...", you can licitly infer Morris Dees' outfit made the statement. Most of Dees' statements are not supported by any verifiable statistics, OR are supported by stats which use "feelings" and "perceptions" of the "aggrieved" party, rather than some objective standard (such as convictions.)

    One could ALSO read the report as a mirror-image of Emanuel's infamous 'crisis=opportunity' statement--IOW, we have a classic case of Lefty Projection. It's what THEY would do, except they say it's what their opponents would do.

    How can one actually give credence to a report which (not too subtly) refers to Pat Buchanan as a "radical right-wing" activist for his concern about offshoring of manufacturing? or his concern about illegal immigration?

    Or which ID's as "extremists" those who licitly and intelligently muse about the pros and cons of UN treaties such as "rights of the child" and LOST?

    (Are you sure that this 'report' is not a parody?)

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  5. Where is the DHS report on leftwing extremism, is my question.

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  6. You reap what you sow, right?
    When you guys had the chance to be the voices of reason against the standard wingnut posts fomenting everything from civil war to ousting the POTUS by any means( ala Allan Keyes) most of you stood by figuring you can make use of these idiots.
    Reminds me that the Right was very silent when the previous administration was keeping tabs on such nefarious elements like rappers and bookstore owners.
    You reap what you sow.
    You keep defending kooks like Michelle Bachman and Rush and all the other agitprop con men and now you want to deny the possibility that there might be some elements within the Tea Bagging parties that merit some scrutiny.
    I thought it was a clever attempt by the Right to imply that there might be some infiltrators at the protests.It will make it easier for you guys to try to dismiss the wackos among you. Of course the credibility gap will take care of any attempt to distance yourselves from your self-perpetuating irrelevance ( see the " book -burning" cries and " illegitimate POTUS" nonsense).
    I for one look forward to the videos of the kook convention this wednesday....

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  7. "Reminds me that the Right was very silent when the previous administration was keeping tabs on such nefarious elements like rappers and bookstore owners."

    Events that happened only in the left-wing fantasy land, not reality.

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  8. The Obama budget will mean higher energy costs for you and your family during these tough economic times...on top of the higher taxes and massive spending.

    During an editorial board with the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this year, Barack Obama gave us a preview of what we can expect:
    He said, "Under my plan ... electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket."

    To find out more, watch this video:

    http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/takeaction/index.cfm?ID=326

    If you feel strongly, please take action by signing a petition and letting your friends know.

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  9. Hey, if they are going to treat you like a terrorist anyway, why not at least act like one and chlorinate the left end of the gene pool?

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