right wing extremists

Since Barack Obama took the oath of office there has been a rise of anti-government extremists. It seems like we hear about some new group being arrested every couple of weeks. Now the FBI is warning about this growing threat:

Anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States, the FBI warned on Monday.

These extremists, sometimes known as "sovereign citizens," believe they can live outside any type of government authority, FBI agents said at a news conference.

The extremists may refuse to pay taxes, defy government environmental regulations and believe the United States went bankrupt by going off the gold standard.

Routine encounters with police can turn violent "at the drop of a hat," said Stuart McArthur, deputy assistant director in the FBI's counterterrorism division.

But the right seems to want to dismiss this threat. Here's how Drudge is pushing the headline right now:

Notice how he puts quotes around extremists, as to signify that that really isn't the meaning?

There was so much outrageous crap coming from the right wing extremists yesterday that I totally missed this one:

LIMBAUGH: Would you trust the money's gonna go to Haiti?

CALLER: No.

LIMBAUGH: But would you trust that your name is gonna end up on the mailing list for the Obama people to start asking you for campaign donations for him and other causes?

CALLER: Absolutely.

LIMBAUGH: Absolutely right.

CALLER: That's the point.

LIMBAUGH: Besides, we've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax.

This is the reason the world would have been better off if Limbaugh didn’t walk out of that hospital last month. So many acted like we should have compassion for him when he was down. Well you know what? Fuck him. Those of us, who wouldn’t have minded Limbaugh being fitted with a toe tag, remember the kind of man he is. He proved it again yesterday. He doesn’t give a shit about the lives of others, so why in the world should we care about his?

The Democrats, who were sent to office with a clear mandate last year, seem to forget who they should be representing – the majority that voted for them. Listening to talk radio I am starting to hear a lot of disgruntled Democratic constituents call in and voice their concern over the turn the health care debate has taken. Their message is simple – if they don’t get what they were promised on the campaign trail then they won’t vote again. That means all the work the Obama campaign did last year to get younger people involved in politics could be lost after only one election.

And this sentiment is limited to only the individuals. We are now seeing stronger pillars of the base air the same thing. Here’s the incoming president of the AFL-CIO saying that no public option would mean no support from the Democratic powerhouse that is the union.

I believe President Obama is making a grave error, one that George Bush made. He is putting to much faith in his political operatives. These people are the most powerful in Washington. They can get their own agenda pushed through by misguiding the President on public sentiment.

This same thing also happens in Congress. When we saw 2/3 of the public opposing the Iraq war, Republicans continued to say that the “people want us there”. They ignore public opinion, and I believe a lot of that comes from staffers pushing what they want.

Following the shooting at the Holocaust Museum this week the right has been in defense mode. They are trying everything to pain James Von Brunn as some lefty or just a plain old loon. The problem with that is he isn’t.

Just like in lefty liberal land there are extremes of right wing/neo-con land. James Von Brunn would far surpass even people like Rush Limbaugh on the right, just like Stalin would far surpass Dennis Kucinich on the left. Hence the names “right wing extremists” and “left wing extremists”. Both sides have people that just go too far.

I wanted to give this little lesson in political science to address this:

Weird, huh? What possible grievance could a Jew-hating 9/11 Truther who ranted about Bill O’Reilly and “neocons” have against a magazine owned by Rupert Murdoch and edited by Bill Kristol? Maybe he detected a leftward drift in the Standard’s editorial slant lately? You know how irascible those “right-wingers” can be, especially when they’re fed a steady diet of Fox News. Which, um, Von Brunn hated.

I guess he’s from the conservative-hating wing of conservatism. Big tent!

I have not seen one liberal blog or talking head say that Von Brunn is from the Republican or conservative movement. Instead they are addressing Von Brunn for  what he is – a far right extremist.

But this also goes back to the DHS report. At no point did that report say “Republicans” or “Conservatives”. It addressed far-right extremists like Von Brunn. But it was people like Michelle Malkin and Rush Limbaugh who decided to classify themselves as far-right extremists, not the left or the DHS report.

Yesterday a right wing extremist shoots and kills a doctor who provides abortions. Greg also reminds us that it wasn’t that long ago the right was in an uproar over a DHS report talking about right wing extremists:

One passage from the DHS report that provoked nonstop outrage said that right wing extremists “may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

Some on the right read this passage and decided it was a reference to them. Top conservative blogger Michelle Malkin warned that it meant you’re being targeted by Obama’s big brother government “if you are a member of an active conservative group that opposes abortion” or if you are active on other issues.

This wasn’t a fringe interpretation of the report, by the way. RNC chair Michael Steele for instance, blasted the report for labeling peaceful dissenters on issues “as terrorists.” Other Republican members of Congress sounded similar tones.

Maybe we need to take another look at that report now.

During the Bush years any dissent we showed on the left from the Bush policies was met with a fear of retribution from our government. The Pentagon even spent resources spying on protestors during the Bush years. This at a time when our nation was in two very deadly wars.

Well here we are with a Democratic President in the White House, and now the Department of Homeland Security is looking into the threats from right wing extremists.

The revelation came from a declassified report (pdf here) put out by DHS. Now the right is screaming about it.

Now let’s think. Our Department of Homeland Security is taking a look at groups of people, who are out stock piling weapons and ammunition and even hinting at the assassination of our President. But now the very people, who just a couple of years ago were calling for left wing protestors to be jailed, are now crying foul.

Cry me a fucking river you bunch of hypocrites. This is America – love it or leave it. Our side of the debate was told that repeatedly for the past eight years and now that the tide has turned, the right has got their panties in a bunch.

When the left was under this kind of government scrutiny. Wait. When we were under a stronger scrutiny, considering the fact that the military was watching us, we didn’t run and stock pile guns and ammos and talk about killing Bush. We went about our business and continued our protests.

And finally. How many left wing extremists went out and killed police officers because of their hatred for George Bush? Yeah – that’s what I thought.