In April of 2009, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a report, reportedly begun during the Bush Administration, warning of possible violence from right wing extremism.
The report did seem to make the distinction between right wing and right wing violent extremism. However, some commentators made the claim that the report did not do so enough. And while many moderate conservatives responded normally to a potentially very relevant report, many, more staunch, conservatives, were outraged.
For example, potential 2012 presidential candidate New Gingrich issued such a short response it was a tweet, labeling the report "outrageous," and calling for firings.
Hyper conservative blogger Michele Malkin called it a "hit job on conservatives" that was a "piece of crap." Malkin also scoffed at the claim that the report had been initiated under the Bush Administration, calling this "bs," because the report referenced events that had occurred since the autumn of 2008 -- perhaps confusing the idea of being initiated and/or worked on, with it being completed and the most pertinent recent information added.
It also seems that Malkin and others may have been confusing far right violent extremists, with right wing or far right wing politics; or, again, thought the report did not sufficiently make the distinction. Columnist Glenn Greenwald, while also somewhat questioning the seeming broad language of the report, also notes (and documents) how this seemingly shrill outcry stands in market contrast to past responses to potentially much more egregious uses and abuses of a potentially increasingly investigative Federal Government.
As for the marked differences between a simple and common political ideology (and not one which, unlike Glenn Beck is doing for its political counterpart ideology, anyone is labeling a "cancer," that needs to be "cut out" and "eradicated") and the specific concern of far right wing violent extremism, the following disturbing news might be an example of the type of distinction that the report was trying to make. Yesterday:
Nine members of the Christian militia group Hutaree have been indicted on multiple charges involving an alleged plot to attack police, including seditious conspiracy and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. Attorney in Michigan announced this morning.
Per CBS:
Prosecutors said David Stone [the alleged leader] had identified certain law enforcement officers near his home as potential targets. He and other members discussed setting off bombs at a police funeral, using a fake 911 call to lure an officer to his death, killing an officer after a traffic stop, or attacking the family of an officer, according to the indictment.
After such attacks, the group allegedly planned to retreat to "rally points" protected by trip-wired explosives for a violent standoff with the law.
"It is believed by the Hutaree that this engagement would then serve as a catalyst for a more widespread uprising against the government," the indictment said.
Also note that the Hutaree members were fearful of things like being put into "FEMA concentration camps." Anyone remember who hyped that up for days while pretending he was not hyping it up? Hint: It's the same guy who said that one of the two major political ideologies in America is a "cancer" that needs to be "cut out," and "eradicated," in the very same speech where he talked about how everyone's opinion needs to be respected.
In fact, leader David Stone's language about how "the federal government was coming down on them" was right out of this same guy's near constant playbook. He's a guy who has also implied and stated several times that Obama is coming after people, and that, first by "taking away the guns," this somehow parallels Germany yet no one is complaining.
(What actually parallels Germany a lot more closely, and more than a little ironically, is suggested here.)
Meanwhile, back when the DHS report was issued, the staunchly conservative site "Newsbusters" wrote a scathing condemnation of it, claiming, "its contents read like the paranoid accusations of liberal bloggers and leftwing shills on MSNBC and elsewhere."
Yet a little over a month ago, an American suicide bomber, in an under publicized incident of clear domestic terrorism, flew his airplane into a federal IRS building; amazingly and thankfully only killing one person, while wounding several others. While attempts were made by some to categorize this individual as leftist, his anti government screeds and calls for revolt seem to have the clear imprint of raving fomenter Glenn Beck all over them.
That would be two rather potentially chilling incidents of what appear at least to be acts of right wing extremism, both by a "lone" wolf, which the DHS report warns about, and by small "cells" which it warns about as well. And at least three incidents if one considers the Holocaust Museum shootings that occurred shortly after the report was issued last year. Yet, disturbing as that incident might have been, it does not seem to rise to the level of a suicide bomber flying an airplane into a federal building, or, perhaps even more chillingly, what Hutaree members were allegedly planning.
Perhaps, given these events, the far right (and highly hypocritical) screechers, once again, were wrong; and the DHS, initiated under Bush as the evidence seems to support, or not, was right.
And quite possibly, it has a lot to do with this talking head, among others right here, and the media's very non Fourth Estate like "response" and coverage therein.