Late to the party, I know, but now that I’ve officially been recognized as a “domestic terrorist,” I have a few thoughts about Homeland Security’s treatise on domestic terrorism and those darn right-wingers.
How nice to see someone in Washington still use the word “terrorists.” Granted, the word is persona non grata when referring to those few jihadists – the types who walk around with C-4 enemas while visiting preschools or crashing airliners into buildings of interest – but the word is quite apropos when labeling lower and middle class white people who have dire traits, like “opposing abortion” or being for “state’s rights.” I guess the bureaucracy is complete when the Founding Fathers would be labeled threats by the Audi and sniveling statist crowd. Powerline was surprised to know that the Constitution was such a subversive document.
The report itself reads like a bad term paper in a Juan Cole class. From what I’ve gazed, few facts and fewer statistics. The report is as anecdotal as a high school popularity contest. Broad doesn’t begin to describe it.
Why is Homeland Security concerned about right wing terrorism? Name the last great right-wing terrorist act in the U.S.? We’re talking about an isolated incident 15 years ago. The stigma and fear of crazy militia types lasts because Timothy McVeigh was much better at his work than the Unabomber.I’m not saying these situations shouldn’t be monitored, but releasing vague reports and describing anyone to the right of Chomsky as a threat will just ennoble the people you are purportedly trying not to ennoble. If Obama is seeking to revive the economy by further increasing gun sales to the survivalist sect, it will work.
No word on if Homeland security is keeping files on ANSWER protestors, radical environmental groups or the rest. Imagine the outcry, the lawyers, the sanctimony.
Of course, the left’s reaction is just desserts. Instapundit links to this thought from sock puppeteer Glen Greenwald.
When you cheer on a Surveillance State, you have no grounds to complain when it turns its eyes on you.
Yeah Republicans, when you wanted that Gorelick wall to fall down? This is what you get. When you wanted better communications between intelligence agencies, maybe the ability to listen to terrorists on their cell phones or to keep radical lawyers from suing telephone companies for trying to keep their customers alive, it’s all about reaping what you sow.
Whatever keeps Greenwald and his ilk warm in their beds at night. If it means further denying humanity to your political opposition, just keep that cognitive dissonance burning.
The report was lazy – maybe we protest too much – but it’s hard to take this for salt. It was far too broad to take seriously as anything informative, and to any abject follower of the news, the report said more about the Department and the person writing it than its supposed targets. But given its broadness, maybe that was the point. Just a shot in the dark against political enemies? Maybe a shot across the bow of the Tea Party movement? Why release it on April 14? If it was to get the right wing echo chamber talking about something other than April 15 it worked like a charm.
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I’m multi-tasking, JFN, sprinkling lit bits of this lunacy into my intro to Evan tomorrow.
Ask Evan if being labeled a “domestic terrorist” is worth it if you can get a free woodland hut to defecate and make mail bombs in.
Janet Reno…does she qualify as a domestic terrorist?
As to your question to why it was released on 14 April, it wasn’t supposed to be released at all as I understand it. The document was FOUO (For Official Use Only) which means it’s not mean for your or mine eyes. Someone leaked it…I’ll leave it to you to decide their motives for leaking.
Heh. I know why. It does read like one of my mushy brained nephews or nieces wrote for a term paper. I like how there is no empirical evidence to back it up. Just typical bigoted leftist gobbely gook.
Damn boy, you sure can write. I loved this bit (I still can’t work the HTML):I’m not saying these situations shouldn’t be monitored, but releasing vague reports and describing anyone to the right of Chomsky as a threat will just ennoble the people you are purportedly trying not to ennoble.
I have to admit, it does give me the slightest feeling of fear. I just don’t get it. They are the ones that are supposed to be all for free ideas and saying/doing whatever you want, and suddenly opposing abortion is radicalism.
I’m glad I live here, the Govs having a Tea Party on his front lawn.
We’re only three months into the Magic Teleprompter’s reign. That means this thing was either slapped out in that short period of time, or has been in preparation for much longer. In my experience, when you deal with the Federal bureaucracy, one thing you should not expect is speed. Or sympathy to a Republican administration, for that matter. So it wouldn’t surprise me that the mid-level GS-12 lifers started on this little gem last fall in gleeful anticipation of The Big Zero lifting the yoke of Bushitlerian oppression from their tenured shoulders.
Looks to me like it might have been leaked then by someone who was like, oh you gotta be kidding me. When I was in DC, W made a lot of Federal C-3 positions, career positions. There are hard core Conservatives in areas that see this stuff. That is what I think happened. I smelled a rat on our side. This just makes Obama look stupid.
Things like this are a cause for concern, as is BHO’s appointment of Rosa Brooks to the DOD. In the DOD she will most likely have access to all kinds of defense “secrets”, and the ability to pass these “secrets” to her former boss, George Soros, whom we all know as the world’s quintessential liberal puppetmaster.
…you might be a redn^H^H^H^Hterrorist
Yeah I saw that appointment of Rosa Brooks.
Since I am a Catholic priest, and thus belong to an anti-abortion organization, does this mean I and my Church are going to be under the microscope for the next 4 years? I can’t wait for Them to bust me for preaching against abortion!