DHS report obsession: Conservatives continue to conflate themselves with violent extremists

[ck4829]

This has got to be the craziest thing ever in the history of American politics. The DHS authors a report on white supremacists and Army of God types, and the people in the conservative movement still think it's about them! What is really going on here?

I've read the report, and I bet many of you have as well. And even before the right wing heads started exploding, I knew that this report was not about your average conservative. This is just strange.

"Every passing day the Right continues to twist this innocuous report into evidence that the government intends to round-up conservatives and toss them into prison and use the “outrage” to seek the removal of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano:

The Internet-based Move America Forward is using their web site, email, and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to push for the removal of Secretary Napolitano. (BTW: This is the same group that took a photo of a peaceful area in Turkey and said it was Baghdad and the leader of this group is a known liar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Move_America_Forward#The_Guardian_reporter_dispute
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanie_Morgan#George_Soros
http://crooksandliars.com/2007/09/04/melanie-morgan-caught-lying
See?)

Gary Bauer, president of American Values, said an investigation is unlikely to go very far with Democrats in charge.

“It’s going to be very difficult to get anything done about this outrage," he said, "or about any other issue, unless some of the members of President Obama’s party begin to step up and hold his feet to the fire.”

(That's right, never mind an investigation about pre-9/11 wiretapping, what Jack Abramoff knew about the Iraq War before Congress even authorized war, the Yellowcake Forgeries, the Energy Task Force, etc., but let's investigate a report on right wing extremists!)

Dr. Janice Crouse, senior fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute, said the department is on a rampage against people with biblical views.

She said: “It’s astounding to me in a world where we are fighting extremism of all sorts from terrorists around the nation — including pirates in the seas — that Homeland Security would be concerned about people who are pro-life.”

(The Army of God is not pro-life.)

And here is FRC Action’s Tom McClusky complaining that the government is watching him instead of watching the real terrorists:

Blah, blah, blah.

Of course, DHS never deemed groups like FRC potential terrorist, despite their incessant cries of victimization. And, as a matter of fact, DHS also released a report on left-wing extremists that Greg Sargent posted several weeks ago and guess who it focused on? That’s right, radical animal rights activists and anarchists.

(And did the left complain about it?)

Never to be outdone when it comes to crying “victimization” or general right-wing lunacy, Janet Porter and a handful of allied organizations are placing an ad in various news outlets demanding Napolitano’s resignation:

The No Political Profiling Coalition (www.NoPoliticalProfiling.com) has begun placing full-page ads, the first in this week's Washington Times Weekly edition and the Times' Wednesday daily edition, demanding the removal of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for the DHS report "Rightwing Extremism."

The ad includes pictures of George Washington, Mother Teresa, Ronald Reagan and Pope Benedict XVI – all "right-wing extremists," according to Napolitano's Department of Home Land Security.

(What's that make Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph?)

Everything about this ad is either misleading or outright false, especially this claim:

Ignoring the real threats to our security from known Islamic jihad terrorist cells currently training terrorists on American soil, DHS, instead, has declared law-abiding citizens who express their First Amendment Rights as: “the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States” and has initiated domestic spying on them.

When actually, and from the report itself...

"DHS/I&A assesses that lone wolves and small terrorist cells embracing violent rightwing extremist ideology are the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States. Information from law enforcement and nongovernmental organizations indicates lone wolves and small terrorist cells have shown intent—and, in some cases, the capability—to commit violent acts."

http://rightwingwatch.org/content/dhs-report-why-right-willingly-conflating-itself-violent-extremists

Why are the leaders of the conservative movement basically calling themselves skinheads and neo-nazis?

[SpiralHawk]

1. The word 'conservative' should always be in quotes when referring to Republicons

Because, in fact, they are radical borrow-and-spend FAIL freaks who have driven the US economy, and environment, into the crapper.

That's a fact.

[dgibby]

2. Perhaps it's because they secretly admire the extreme right-wing.

The extreme right-wing acts out the fantasies of the less bold among them. I believe the only difference is degree of courage to act on conviction.

[get the red out]

5. I believe they do see these extremists as their own

When we look back in time we see "conservatives" acting like David Koresch was some kind of freedom fighter. And they have idolized those guys that form vigilante groups and go after people crossing the border from Mexico for years. It is part of their rhetoric. The 9 to 5 whackos cheer on the "courageous" exploits of these guys and pretend they are somehow fighting for "freedom" like arm-chair quarterbacks on a Sunday afternoon. They really don't want anybody messing with their team.

[gratuitous]

3. Wait; now they're against profiling?

Soooo confusing. I mean, the only difference I see between third world extremists and our own home-grown extremists is that ours have far less melanin . . . :think:

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. It is the same bizarre phenomenon as when anyone tries to take on

cults - such as People's Temple, Unification Church, FLDS, Branch Davidians - and mainstream religion defends them by claiming it is an attack on ALL religion, despite the known, recorded, documented criminal acts of the cultists.

They know, in their tiny hearts, they are different only in degree, not substance.

[get the red out]

6. Yes, and cults aren't about "freedom"

anymore than these skin-head guys are. We really need to wake up to the travesty of what cults are permitted to do to people in this so-called free country. Slavery and false imprisonment as well as rape are perfectly ok if it is done by a cult.