More Proof the Right Wingers Are Short-Sighted and Not Very Bright
Back when the Bush Adminsitration was setting up its no fly lists and terrorist watch lists and warrantless wiretaps and habeas corpus-free judicial proceedings and all of its other activities, people like me were sounding the alarm that anyone could end up on these lists. Conservatives typically responded with a glib “if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.”
“Riiiiiight,” people like me would say. “Tell that to ‘twenty of the 37 members of the Peace Action Milwaukee group–including a priest and a nun’ who ended up on a no-fly list. Tell that to any lefties who ended up in the Energy Department’s 2001 report on “Left Wing Extremism: The Current Threat”. And then ask yourself,” people like me would continue saying to conservatives who just don’t listen to anyone but themselves, “who decides what constitutes ‘doing something wrong’? Less than 100 years ago, for example, a group of well-organized zealots decided drinking alcohol was ’something wrong’. About 50 years ago, Joe McCarthy had his 15 minutes of deciding what ‘doing something wrong’ is. You really don’t want to go down that road.”
And look who’s crying now: Michelle The case for Internment“Malkin.
They were very defensive — preemptively so — in asserting that it was not a politicized document and that DHS had done reports on “leftwing extremism” in the past. I have covered DHS for many years and am quite familiar with past assessments they and the FBI have done on animal rights terrorists and environmental terrorists. But those past reports have always been very specific in identifying the exact groups, causes, and targets of domestic terrorism, i.e., the ALF, ELF, and Stop Huntingdon wackos who have engaged in physical harassment, arson, vandalism, and worse against pharmaceutical companies, farms, labs, and university researchers.
By contrast, the piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives. And the intent is clear. As the two spokespeople I talked with on the phone today made clear: They both pinpointed the recent “economic downturn” and the “general state of the economy” for stoking “rightwing extremism.”
We tried to warn you, and you just wouldn’t listen.
Not that i disagree with what’s in the report: anyone who’s watched even a few minutes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Sean Hannity, with their calls for revolution, killing Michael Moore, killing liberals, etc etc, can see that the right is getting more unhinged than usual.
And for real-life examples, we have James Adkisson, who strolled into a Tennessee unitarian Church and opened fire because:
“Know this if nothing else: This was a hate crime. I hate the damn left-wing liberals. There is a vast left-wing conspiracy in this country & these liberals are working together to attack every decent & honorable institution in the nation, trying to turn this country into a communist state. Shame on them….
“This was a symbolic killing. Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg’s book. I’d like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I know those people were inaccessible to me. I couldn’t get to the generals & high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chickenshit liberals that vote in these traitorous people. Someone had to get the ball rolling. I volunteered. I hope others do the same. It’s the only way we can rid America of this cancerous pestilence.”
“I thought I’d do something good for this Country Kill Democrats til the cops kill me….Liberals are a pest like termites. Millions of them Each little bite contributes to the downfall of this great nation. The only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is to kill them in the streets. Kill them where they gather. I’d like to encourage other like minded people to do what I’ve done. If life aint worth living anymore don’t just kill yourself. do something for your Country before you go. Go Kill Liberals.
or James Cummings, US millionaire and neo-nazi who had the materials to make a dirty bomb, lost in the coverage:
Also found was literature on how to build “dirty bombs” and information about cesium-137, strontium-90 and cobalt-60, radioactive materials. The FBI report also stated there was evidence linking James Cummings to white supremacist groups. This would seem to confirm observations by local tradesmen who worked at the Cummings home that he was an ardent admirer of Adolf Hitler and had a collection of Nazi memorabilia around the house, including a prominently displayed flag with swastika. Cummings claimed to have pieces of Hitler’s personal silverware and place settings, painter Mike Robbins said a few days after the shooting.
An application for membership in the National Socialist Movement filled out by Cummings also was found in the residence, according to the report. Cummings’ wife, Amber B. Cummings, 31, told investigators that her husband spoke of “dirty bombs,” according to the report, and mixed chemicals in her kitchen sink. She allegedly told police that Cummings subjected her to years of mental, physical and sexual abuse. She also said that Cummings was “very upset” when Barack Obama was elected president.
Or Richard Poplawski from Pittsburgh:
Police Chief Nate Harper said the motive for the shooting isn’t clear, but friends said the gunman recently had been upset about losing his job and feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.
Richard Poplawski, 23, met officers at the doorway and shot two of them in the head immediately, Harper said. An officer who tried to help the two also was killed….
Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said Poplawski feared that President Barack Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he “wasn’t violently against Obama.”
Vire, 23, said Poplawski once had an Internet talk show but that it wasn’t successful. He said Poplawski owned an AK-47 rifle and several powerful handguns, including a .357 Magnum.
Obama has said he respects Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms, but that he favors “common sense” gun laws. Gun rights advocates interpret that as meaning he would approve some curbs on assault and concealed weapons.
Personally, I believe that threat is real. However, times have changed.
Thanks to the efforts of conservatives and wingnuts over the past 8 years, Obama has the power to lock you up forever, with no charges. We tried to warn you.
Thanks to the efforts of conservatives and wingnuts over the past 8 years, Obama has the power to tap your phones without a warrant. We tried to warn you.
Thanks to the efforts of conservatives and wingnuts over the past 8 years, Obama has the power to have you waterboarded if he wants to. We tried to warn you.
Over and over we tried to warn you. Bush will not be president forever. The Republicans will not have a permanent majority. Do you really want Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton empowered to lock you up with no recourse to the judicial system?
You made your bed, and now you can lie in it. Oh, and how does it feel to know that YOU’RE being watched now? Honestly, if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to be afraid of.
Sedition?
April 14th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
[...] What Brendan said. [...]
April 14th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Extremely well said, gotta Tweet it – no choice!
Vyan
April 14th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
[...] What Brendan said. [...]
April 14th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
[...] And Brendan Calling has some very related thoughts on this right-wing scandal du jour that are worth reading. [...]
April 14th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Brendan-
This is nothing to be celebrated. Sure, the Republicans get their comeuppance. Unfortunately, so do the liberals.
Yes we did! We voted in our guy, the guy who promised us change. The other guy would have continued the war in Iraq, wiretapping without a warrant and bailouts to Wall Street.
We’ve got a Democrat who has all the nasty little toys that Bush & Co. built. They’re not going to be used only on right wingers, but anybody who gets in the way. That’s what such tools are for.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:50 am
Alex… given all the bile you see me spew here about obama, do you really think I’ve forgotten all that?
of course I haven’t and his decision to continue these policies is as unsurprising as it is loathesome, as i’ve remarked several times before.
That said, it is delicious to see the conservatives get hoist on their own petard. I am celebrating (mocking really) their discomfort, not the fact that the discomfort occured. as i write, I and many others tried to warn them, and they wouldn’t listen.
April 15th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
[...] in Daily life, GOP, Government at 9:17 am by LeisureGuy Via Glenn Greenwald, this fine post: Back when the Bush Administration was setting up its no-fly lists and terrorist watch lists and [...]
April 17th, 2009 at 11:27 am
It only took Glenn Beck 30 years to catch up with Bertram Gross’s “Friendly Fascism” and then to act like he went up the mountain top and got the news first from the burning bush. Oh wait… is he even that old? It’s good to know that our media stars are so erudite and well read, isn’t it?
As for right wingers getting hoisted on their own petard, have no fear – they’ll fail to connect the dots and most assuredly won’t learn anything. They never do. But whatever the case about authoritarian types’ blinders to self awareness, in general Americans will continue to squabble with one another over a long dead, illusory right-left paradigm.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:31 pm
[...] Brendan Calling » Blog Archive » More Proof the Right Wingers Are Short-Sighted and Not Very Brigh… [...]
May 24th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
[...] bookmarks tagged shortsightedWicked Brendan Calling » Blog Archive » More Proof the … saved by 4 others envelopehead bookmarked on 05/24/09 | [...]