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Bush Intel Machine Turns on Wingers

The Missouri Information Analysis Center is "a "fusion center," combining resources from the federal Department of Homeland Security and other agencies, in particular local agencies. It collects intelligence from both the local agencies and the Department of Homeland Security and uses these combined sources to analyze threats and better combat terrorism and other criminal activity." In other words, its a living symbol of the post 9/12 world, domestic spying institutionalized and functioning.

The MIAC issued a report in early March to law enforcement officers across Missouri. The reports title: The Modern Militia Movement; its a rather scathing indictment of far right activists and operators in the United States.

Of course, the wing nuts completely freaked....

The report itself deserves your full attention. You can find it here. Pages 1-8 provide a laundry list of crimes and plots the militia have been involved in since the 90's, with 60 plots identified since September 11, 2001 alone!. This report makes these people actually sound really dangerous, and the entire Missouri state government is falling over themselves to issue apologies and retract the report!MORE

In the wake of news that the Pittsburgh cop killer had an irrational, politically-motivated fear that guns were about to be banned, a look back at how Fox news has fueled paranoia the possibility of a gun ban by the Obama Administration.
(Needless to say, President Obama has repeatedly expressed his support for the Second Amendment and opposes a ban on firefarms in the United States.)

Story punches reporters in the face, goes unnoticed

He just believed in our right to bear arms. He believe that hard economic times were going to put forth gun bans and that sort of thing. He basically believed in what our forefathers had put before us, and was being distorted by the Zionist-controlled government, and he didn’t believe in that.

He just basically told me he didn’t like the Zionist control over our government, he didn’t like that there was about to be military policing, he didn’t believe in the fact that there was about to be a gun ban. He didn’t like anything that was going on in the political forefront, and he was basically very politically active, and he didn’t agree with what was going on right now in the United States of America.

Dude just stood there and told reporters -- twice, and matter-of-factly both times -- that his friend who just killed three cops was motivated "by the Zionist-controlled government," and was upset, "that there was about to be military policing," and by "the fact that there was about to be a gun ban."
Zionist-controlled government. Was about to be military policing. The fact that there was about to be a gun ban.
Not a single one of these reporters says, "Hey, wait a minute. What?!?"
Guy says, "Zionist-controlled government," and the reporter's follow-up? "Did he have a lot of guns?"
Second reporter was even worse! He believed there was a Zionist-controlled government. That there would be military policing. That there would be a gun ban.
Follow-up: So there was never anything that made you think there could be a situation like this?
Are you kidding me? Everything that guy just told you should have been an indicator that there could be a situation like this!MORe

No one is trying to silence right-wing fearmongers -- but it is time to stand up to them

You have to wonder if right-wingers will ever get it: Difference isn't a threat.
They were mewling like wounded hyenas this weekend after some of us pointed out that there was a direct connection between the irresponsible fearmongering in which they've been indulging since Barack Obama was elected and Saturday's tragedy in Pittsburgh.
Michelle Malkin, for example, whined to her cultlike audience that liberals were being mean to them: "You killed these police officers. It’s all your fault."

...
This is a familiar refrain that comes up every time anyone raises a socially damning issue like this one: We're trying to oppress them, to silence their voices, by pointing out how morally and ethically bankrupt they are.
Actually, we're just pointing out how bankrupt they are. No one here has said anything about silencing their voices -- we just want them to face up to the consequences of their irresponsible rhetoric. It's called culpability: They obviously are not criminally culpable, nor likely even civilly culpable. But they are morally and ethically culpable.
We do have serious differences of opinion here. We strongly believe that there's a clear, common-sense connection between the paranoiac fearmongering that has passed for right-wing rhetoric since well before Obama's election (and has become acute since) and violence like that in Pittsburgh, or in Knoxville: horrifying tragedies, in which the sources of the criminal's unambiguous motives are that very same hysterical fearmongering -- whether it's about the evil socialists, stinking immigrants, or conspiring gun-grabbers who've taken over the country since Election Day.
And yes, Glenn Beck deserves some mention here. As the video above demonstrates, his fearmongering on the gun issue is noteworthy in itself. I'm sure we all remember the time he speculated that these shooters were just ordinary citizens frustrated by "the system" and "political correctness." Or more recently, when he sneered at Missouri law-enforcement efforts to distribute intelligence about right-wing extremists:MORE

Dave Neiwart Decade

How is that “orderly revolution” going, Michelle? How about that laundry soap rebellion, Erick? This is what Glenn Beck’s citizen army looks like. People like Michelle Malkin fantasize about citizens rising up against the (Democratic) state. They stoke their followers’ paranoia with bullshit that, mostly, they know is bullshit, for ratings and a shot at political traction. Did they expect the American revolution?

In response to John’s famous Peak Wingnut post I pointed out that political irrelevance will hardly stifle rightwing victimology but feed it like CO2, manure and sunlight. I tend to call the relevant phenomenon ‘toxic victim syndrome’, or TVS. The feeling that one is a powerless victim has a corrosive psychological effect. It exempts self-appointed victims from normal moral standards. It justifies (in one’s own mind) an endless list of behaviors that an ordinary person would never consider.MORE

Announcing 'The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right'