Perhaps I'm commiting the same sort of insane over-reaching that the right-wing nuts are when they claim that the NY Times is committing treason and its editors deserve execution. Perhaps I'm just coming to a logical conclusion. You decide.
When I read statements like this one:
Go hunt them down and do America a favor. Get their photo, street address, where their kids go to school, anything you can dig up, and send it to the link above. This is your chance to be famous - grab for the golden ring.
I find myself struggling to refrain from labelling these people terrorists. It's a word that gets bandied about with a bit too much cavalier these days, but I honestly can't think of a group more deserving of this label than the right-wing blogo-nuts who issued these threats.
If Hamas asked its members to hunt down the children of Israeli politicians, we would consider it nothing less than terrorism. If Al Qaeda issued an order for its members to collect target information about America's schoolchildren, it would be an imminent threat of the highest order.
Why, then, do we sit idly by while the right-wingnuts publicly demand that "revenge" be taken out against the families and workplaces of the NY Times' staff? It's one thing when they're chomping at thin air over charges of "treason," but it's quite another now that they've issued a threat of violence against innocent people.
This has gone a few steps too far, and I for one sincerely hope that the families, colleagues, and reporters themselves at the NY Times remain safe. But for all of the "liberals are treasonous terrorists" and "the NY Times is allied with Al Qaeda" talk that's been stoked by conservative pundits, politicians, and media personalities over the last few years, I'm afraid the rubber might be about to meet the road.
Let me remind you all that they have already openly declared that we are the enemy. If this sounds a bit too Osama-esque for you in light of the fact that they're now issuing orders to target children, then I suggest it's time to call a spade a spade. These people are terrorists.
