Associated Press
At Salon this morning, Jordan Michael Smith takes a walk down memory lane, reminding folks about one of the first Republican freak-outs of the Obama era.
When Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano released a report in April 2009 identifying right-wing extremists as a threat to the country, conservatives howled. The general sentiment was expressed by Michelle Malkin, who declared the report a "piece of crap ... propaganda ... an Obama hit job." Jonah Goldberg complained that the DHS report failed to stick "to the practice of describing these groups with more specificity and without the catchall, ideologically loaded descriptors."
Well, now that we have learned the murderer of six people at a Wisconsin Sikh temple was a well-known white supremacist, conservatives might want to consider reexamining their claims that terrorists don't exist on the right side of the political spectrum.
To be absolutely clear, no one has any idea whether Wade Michael Page, the alleged gunman in Oak Creek, could have been stopped with better monitoring of extremists from law enforcement. There's just no way to know, and it'd be irresponsible to start looking for someone other than the gunman to blame.
A look back to the spring of 2009, however, is nevertheless worthwhile. At the time, the Department of Homeland Security released reports about ideological extremists, alerting officials to potentially violent groups and organizations. Of particular interest, the DHS said some extremist groups may specifically target American military veterans for recruitment.
At first blush, the warnings seemed routine and uncontroversial -- the reports were even commissioned by the Bush administration, not Obama -- but the right was nevertheless outraged. Just three months into the president's term, there were even calls for Napolitano's ouster.
Three years later, with the benefit of hindsight, the apoplexy about the DHS warnings look quite foolish. We've seen far too many incidents involving violent radicals to deny the merit of the reports.
But here's the rub: a year ago, the Washington Post reported that Republican outrage from April 2009 was so intense, the Department of Homeland Security "stepped back ... from conducting its own intelligence and analysis of home-grown extremism." Agency officials didn't want to be attacked by Congress or the media for warnings about the violent fringe of American society, so they simply scaled back their own efforts, "cutting the number of personnel studying domestic terrorism."
Indeed, the Post reported at the time that the DHS unit responsible for the 2009 report was "effectively eviscerated," and much of its work related to white supremacists was "blocked," for no other reason than pushback from the right.
Given recent events, including the tragic violence in Oak Creek on Sunday, perhaps now would be a good time to revisit the DHS analysis and reconsider whether Republicans should exercise a heckler's veto over potential security threats.
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Is anyone else around here sick and tired of GOP/TP/Conservative outrage? It's always their trump card to stop anything good, sound, reasonable... And there is so much of it, one has to wonder why they haven't all died of apoplexy long ago.
The more they are "outraged" at any particular thing, the more certain you can be you have hit the target.
Everybody Knows that White Supremacists (AKA Nazis) are also God Fearing Christians. And, as such, are not subject to the usual laws of 'domestic terrorism'.
Pat Robertson is blaming this attack on atheists. If White Supremacists were atheists then the Repubs would be all for investigating them.
But to investigate a Christian? Well, that's just a war on Christmas.
As long as these "domestic terrorists" are actually "white, male, & Christian" the reich will surely not acknowledge their existence, at least not publicly! These are the ignorant people that they need to "vote" them into office - so why cut off your nose? A perfect example is the new "Black Panther Party" the right had their knickers twisted and inflamed because AG Holder wouldn't investigate that group - even though the Bush mis-administration did look and found nothing!
The silence and obstruction on the right about this guy is yet another nail in the coffin of "keeping Americans divided" so they can continue with their fascist usurpation of our democracy!
The Jesus’ relationship with God and the light is an interesting topic. Jesus had that direct one connection with the light and God. Jesus made that comment that two become one and this is what it is that one connection to the light. But what does this really mean? Well first of all, Jesus’ mind was connected to the light and knew of its true power. Jesus was at that level of connection that his mind was of a sort at infinity, where he could do things beyond what a normal person could do. Jesus had an insight to things around him and even to the point of seeing future events, but he could do much more to the point of healing people. Jesus commitment to God was such that even though he could see those events that would happen to himself that he would do as God wanted it to be. Now in these terms, Jesus was something very special and beyond to what we can typically attain as of yet, since we only reach a certain level of the light connection. But there is something more with Jesus and the light and that is upon his death Jesus himself became part of the light and exists in the light. And in this way, Jesus is really much than just a Savior where Jesus is also a guide and teacher. Jesus statements are really just a beginning to understanding our world and to find those better answers and solutions as time passes. Our only problem is those people who would like to stay in control and keep people blind in some falsehoods and man-made illusions.
Sorry Deb that Jebus stuff has caused more problems than it has solved.
Same story everywhere
If only you were (Jewish, Muslim,Hindu ,Buddhist,Rastafarian..or______)
all the worlds problems would be solved.
"Jesus statements are really just a beginning to understanding our world and to find those better answers and solutions as time passes. Our only problem is those people who would like to stay in control and keep people blind in some falsehoods and man-made illusions."
Well said, Deb. And I disagree with sick-n-effin-tired - it seems to me that kind of perspective doesn't preclude anyone from discovering that the world is big enough for all of us, whatever our religion.
Christianity got hijacked as a method of social control by Emperor Constantine, and the Good Christian Fathers were just fine with cutting their sails to fit the emperor's wind, so long as they then got the power to use their "religious freedom" to deny the freedom of everyone else and dumb them down with the destruction of things like the "pagan" Library of Alexandria. Sorry, organized Christianity has been nothing but a method of dumbing-down the sheep for the benefit of the rulers since the Council of Nicea at least.
You just helped me prove a point TcinLA by your statement and just as Jesus said about rich people and certain Religious Pharisees to watch out for them. Thus Jesus still does mean the truth just as the light is representative of the truth and it has been indeed these rich people in control and these false Religious Pharisees that are causing the problems in the world by deceiving and lies. The light is actually something very real in the world and does exist, as there has been many people who have experienced it. It is perhaps the time to stop theses people who dwell so much in craving power, corruption, arrogance, greed, hypocrisy, and deceiving to finally come to terms with their foolishness. America was founded in the freedoms and liberties of all people eventually and not just for a select few.
Sick-n-effin-tired: No, according to Jesus’ statement it is actually the acceptance of other people regardless of what religious faith they may have. It is only the religious extremist of hatred that want to twist the words of Jesus around. And problems will still exist, because of the complexity of how different people are and our very human nature, but we all can work together to make this a better world.
Here is a interesting thought suppose you knew of a treasure that belonged to you, why would you let some rich person and/or false religious pharisee take it from you? And that treasure is the light.
I'm sure our ever-vigilant, fearless and independent mainstream media will get right onto reporting the facts on how the the GOP's descent into an ever-deepening spiral of mass psychosis keeps the government from preempting ultra-right wing terrorism.
If we people on the left agree to call Nazis "ultra-leftists" the way the Freeps want, would it then be okay for government to keep an eye on them then? Because I'd just about be willing to make that devil's bargain at this point.
I would also point out that the "words" of the Michele Bachmanns and Peter Kings do not cause these reich-wing wackos to do what they do; they provide "mainstream" validation of their hate.
To all to you Righties out there: If it walks and talks like a duck.....
Oh, you know the rest.
Yeah, the Nazis weren't "on the radar" for the Geheimatstaatspolizei or Fools & Buffoons, Inc., because they were too busy coordinating all the local law enforcement agencies in the country to take down the deadly threat posed by all those Occupy demonstrators. You know, in an era of limited government resources, they have to keep their priorities straight.
/snark