Monday, January 21, 2013

Race to the bottom, or at least six feet under

Early on in the Obama Administration one of the first of many retrenchments occurred when the Department of Homeland Security backed off research on the violence of right-wing groups as terrorism. Eventually only one person in DHS even monitored domestic terror groups.

So recently this happened.
West Point released a study which was written in November by the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center titled, “Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right” and the far right is upset. It’s important to note that underneath the title it says, “The views expressed in this report are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the Combating Terrorism Center, U.S. Military Academy, Department of Defense or U.S. government.” Included in the list of violent offenders are racists, anti-federalists and the anti-abortion movement (which really pisses off the far right).
Cue predictable conservative freak out at places like World News Daily who just cannot understand how people like this guy can be viewed as in any way violent.

Meanwhile in the field of conservative non-violence.
5 People Shot At 3 Different Gun Shows On Gun Appreciation Day
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

6 comments:

StonyPillow said...

Every time in our history enough people decided it was OK to engage or threaten to engage in violent resistance to the United States and its laws, the only response that’s worked has been to send in the troops, from the Whiskey Rebellion to the Civil War to the civil rights movement. The kooks are a clear and present danger to our country.

StonyPillow said...

And thanks for the link. It provides a link to the study itself, which looks like it will be required reading:

http://www.ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ChallengersFromtheSidelines.pdf

Might be convenient to save a copy for perusal before the wingnuts force them to take it down.

DrDick said...

Obviously little things, like the fact that the folks listed have committed more terrorist acts than everybody else combined since WWII, have no bearing on the analysis of national security. Besides, everybody knows that it is not really terrorism unless you are brown or of a Muslimy persuasion.

Anonymous said...

I'm more surprised that West Point even has a "Combating Terrorism Center".

Why does a school have that?

DrDick said...

Why does a school have that?

Because it is the US Army Military Academy intended to educate the future top officers?

pansypoo said...

newtown + the push for gun cntrol just ushed the secret service threat level to triple tilt.