In the aftermath of the recent Sikh temple attack, a story resurfaced from 2009 about a DHS report warning of far-right domestic terrorist activity. As you may recall, the report incited a curious response from Congressional Republicans: It was not concern for their country or the safety of the American people, but outrage that the government was even looking at white supremacists, militant Christian fundamentalists, and violent anti-abortion groups - all constituencies with whom their party has significant associations - rather than keeping the focus exclusively on Muslims. Since that incident, there have been several terrorist attacks by precisely those groups, and several more thwarted, with no recognition of responsibility on the part of Republicans who demanded that DHS deemphasize or cease entirely their scrutiny of these threats. Now that right-wing domestic terror has evolved to kamikaze attacks on par with low-level al Qaeda operations, it's time the Republicans who have shielded these murderers apologize to the American people, the families of the victims, and tender their resignations.
Furthermore, while their responsibilities are less than those of elected officials, right-wing media blowhards bear a substantial amount of blame for having manufactured outrage against a fact-based national security threat assessment. The following conservative media commentators were a few of the more prominent in condemning the report and pooh-poohing the threat of right-wing domestic terrorism, and retractions coupled with apologies should be demanded from all of them:
Michelle Malkin: Condemned the report as an attempt to silence the Tea Party, and idiotically cited right-wing terrorist attacks that had occurred just prior to the report as evidence that the whole thing was an attempt to "exploit" those attacks rather than a response to the phenomenon they represented. You may remember Ms. Malkin as being one of the goosesteppers post-9/11 who effectively declared George W. Bush emperor and all possible acts of tyranny committed by his regime as the necessities of fighting the brown people kind of terrorism. She will not apologize for enabling mass-murder either then or now, of course, but the act of demanding such an apology is not vain.
Newt Gingrich: Denounced the report as a "smearing [of] veterans and conservatives..." and demanded that its author "should be fired." So the people calling for genocide shouldn't even be watched, but the people who dare to write reports about them should be fired. This piece of shit will never apologize either, and luckily has no office from which to resign, but he should at least be given a chance to rhetorically take responsibility.
Sean Hannity: In a show about the report, Hannity asked the following of his guest, referring to the President - because apparently Barack Obama gets personally involved in the work of analysts:
What do you think of that interpretation, especially coming from a guy that started his political career in the home of an unrepentant terrorist who bombed our Pentagon and Capitol and sat in Reverend Wright’s church for 20 years?” Hannity asked.
Surely a half-assed terrorist group from half a century ago that mainly targeted property and sent warnings before its bombings is equivalent to thousands of heavily-armed, heavily-funded right-wing radicals who openly call for extermination campaigns, a growing number of whom go on shooting rampages deliberately targeting random innocent people among minorities for death. Surely Obama's association with Bill Ayers is equivalent to the GOP deliberately shielding active genocidal terrorist groups from government scrutiny. Mr. Hannity, apologize to the victims whose suffering you have enabled and continue to belittle.
James Dobson: The infamous religious fundamentalist, speaking with Sean Hannity in the same program noted above, made the following claim:
There are no Timothy McVeighs out there right now. They’re making a big deal out of something that hasn’t happened and may not happen.
Apparently there were Timothy McVeighs out there - many of them - and thanks only to government agencies ignoring Republican interference in law enforcement were the worst of the plotted attacks thwarted, but even then some got through. Dobson should be asked to retract this statement in light of subsequent events and apologize for having contributed to the climate of hate that produced them. I doubt Jesus liked liars and terrorists, Mr. Dobson - stop being one, and stop promoting the other. It should be made clear to these people that their role in enabling if not promoting these attacks will be remembered, especially if the phenomenon continues to grow.
Then there are the key Nazi-sympathizer Republicans in Congress, provided with contact information so that you can send word demanding their resignations:
Michele Bachmann (R-MN): This particularly odious lunatic has openly called for overthrow of the US government and its replacement by some fervid, incoherent mishmash of militant Christian theocracy, plutocratic oligarchy, and vague racial hierarchy. She is so embarrassing even to her own party that some of the greybeards have tried to convince the current House leadership to remove her from national security committees where classified information is given, but of course they are ignored. There is no crazy too crazy for the Republican Party.
Except this is something beyond - she doesn't merely sympathize with terrorism, she directly enabled it by contributing to the pressure on DHS not to investigate terrorist threats. She should not be in Congress. She should not even be on the city council of a city in which she is the only resident. If she ever moves beyond rhetoric and puts into action the lunacy she regularly dishes out in words, she would belong in prison. Demand her immediate resignation, and in lieu of one contact House leaders to demand a psychiatric evaluation of her for fitness to hold office.
Bachmann contact info:
Washington D.C. Office
103 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2331
Fax: (202) 225-6475
Woodbury Office
6043 Hudson Rd, Suite 330
Woodbury, MN 55125
Phone: 651-731-5400
Fax: 651-731-6650
St. Cloud/Waite Park Office
110 2nd Street S, Suite 232
Waite Park, MN 56387
Phone: 320-253-5931
Fax: 320-240-6905
Email contact page:
http://bachmann.house.gov/...
Peter King (R-NY): An infamous bigot who has openly denounced American Muslims as overwhelmingly comprised of terrorists - which is ironic, given his own open and passionate support for the IRA - Peter King has since used his chairmanship of House committees to hold several hearings on the subject of Islamic fundamentalism in the United States. He has refused all requests to hold hearings on right-wing domestic terrorism no matter how extreme the threat becomes or how many bodies pile up because of it, and was instrumental in applying the pressure the led the DHS to dismantle its domestic-terror investigations.
Another irony is that the IRA has usually sought to avoid indiscriminate slaughter, and in most cases has called in warnings before its bombings so that people have a chance to escape. Its apologists have cited these facts in dismissing comparisons to groups like al Qaeda that deliberately target innocent people, and deliberately seek maximum numbers of deaths. But the right-wing domestic terrorist threat in the US has not operated like the IRA at all - from McVeigh through to the most recent monster, they have operated far more along the lines of al Qaeda, seeking to maximize body count. These are the people whom Peter King now represents in Congress rather than the people of New York - Nazi insurrectionists who want to kill most of them. Demand his resignation for his role in enabling the spate of terrorist attacks on America that have followed the suppression of government scrutiny, and also demand his apology to the families of the victims:
http://peteking.house.gov/...
Of course, the GOP in Congress all more or less participated in the choreographed freak show of condemning the report, so it's a matter of personal judgment who is most centrally responsible among them. John Boehner (R-OH) was vocal in his denunciations, clearly making him unfit for both of his current jobs - it is outrageous that a terrorist sympathizer would be in Congress at all, let alone Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Political differences are one thing - actively and deliberately obstructing vital national security work in order to protect terrorists because he is more loyal to them than to their victims is quite another. Demand his resignation from both capacities:
Office of the Speaker
H-232 The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-0600
Fax: (202) 225-5117
Electronic contact:
http://www.speaker.gov/...
Republicans draw Hitler mustaches on Barack Obama for refusing to pay them off with more
wealthfare at taxpayer expense, but meanwhile they create a safe harbor for actual Nazis plotting
and carrying out terrorist attacks against the American people. And their terrorist sympathies are unsurprising, given how they themselves have found they can only get their way through similar tactics - holding America hostage repeatedly since they took control of Congress, threatening to deliberately destroy our economy and government unless their demands are met without compromise, and trying to take away the voting rights of any group who routinely defies them. Police officers, women, and children have all been murdered in growing numbers by the people whom the GOP is defending, so at this point it needs to be made clear that these people and their political supporters are at war against America.
More and more the mask of American citizenship slips from the faces of GOP leaders and bloviators, and they are revealed as what they are: The bitter political poltergeists of America's defeated enemies - the losers of the Civil War and WW2. They're entitled to their bigotry and ignorance, but not to refight those wars, and certainly not to cripple our government with their treason. No more terrorists in Congress!