Does Holocaust Museum Shooting Vindicate DHS Report?
Back in early April, the Department of Homeland Security released a report warning that the ranks of right wing extremist groups might swell. There was nothing especially controversial about the memo, which was put together under the supervision of a Bush appointee. It was the sort of threat assessment certain government agencies are supposed to provide; and DHS had prepared a similar memo about the threat of left wing extremists just three months beforehand.
But that didn't stop conservatives and Republicans from turning on the outrage. The story drove cable news coverage for days, and inspired elected officials like Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) to stand before Congress and denounce the report.
"The Homeland Security Secretary [Janet Napolitano]," said Bachmann, "has redefined pro-life gun owning veterans who like smaller government and who believe America should secure our border against invasion from illegal aliens are labeled the domestic right wing extremists."
Napolitano was ultimately compelled to apologize for the memo. But she probably shouldn't have since subsequent events have vindicated the original warnings.
Let's take stock of what's happened in the months since President Obama was elected just over six months ago, and in the weeks since the DHS story broke. In November, the New York Times reported that "gun owning" Americans -- responding to rumors that the incoming administration would confiscate their weapons -- had embarked on a shopping binge and were hoarding guns and ammunition. By the time Obama was inaugurated, the climate of fear on the far right had grown hotter. In February, MSN's moneyblog noted that the surge in sales had led, unsurprisingly, to a surge in gun stock prices.
Then on Sunday May 31 of this year, George Tiller--a Witchita doctor who provided late term abortions--was murdered while attending church services, allegedly by a right wing anti-abortion zealot named Scott Roeder.
And today, a white supremacist, Obama birth certificate conspiracy theorist--and World War II veteran--named James W. von Brunn entered the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with a shotgun and opened fire, killing one guard.
Of course, the plural of anecdote isn't data--but this is just the sort of violent extremism the DHS report warned about.
The possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks....Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.
All of this seems to indicate that the DHS report was actually prescient; its critics refuted. Indeed, one of the chief sources of that criticism was Fox News--which led the charge against Napolitano in the media. And today a Fox anchor acknowledged that it's time to look at the DHS report in a new light.
It remains to be seen what the report's more high-profile critics have to say.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Of COURSE Napolitano shouldn't have apologized for that report. I thought it was a mistake for her to do it then, and obviously in light of recent events I think it was a mistake right now. I just can never quite wrap my brain around what it is that makes Democrats feel so much need to apologize for saying truthful things (I'm thinking also of the Dick Durbin episode a few years back).
I mean jeez, clarify, correct, but by golly don't backtrack when you know that what you're saying is reality. If the opposition party wants to complain about you for that, then let 'em. They'll complain about you for something or other, so you might as well stand up for principle.
June 10, 2009 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
psyclone,
I couldn't agree more, and I remember that Durbin episode, I almost threw something at the television.
Democrats seem to trip over themseles trying to be first in front of the cameras to apologize, and the Republicans love making them do it.
June 10, 2009 6:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I pray that we don't have the number of events that probably would be necessary to "vindicate" the report in the eyes of the likes of Michele Bachmann.
Politicians have every right to go on camera, in front of microphone, on the radio, and say stuff that is just wrong. Everyone does. But it's up to the media to question statements like this:
at the time that they are uttered, or when they're reported on (as you people here at TPM do). The media has completely fallen down in fulfilling that responsibility.
June 10, 2009 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Co-sign, kitty.
June 10, 2009 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
agreed.
June 10, 2009 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd recommend people call Michelle Bachmann's office to ask for a statement and an apology to Napolitano.
* Washington Office
o 107 Cannon HOB
o Washington, DC 20515
o Phone: (202) 225-2331
o Fax: (202) 225-6475
* Woodbury Office
o 6043 Hudson Rd, Suite 330
o Woodbury, MN 55125
o Phone: 651-731-5400
o Fax: 651-731-6650
* St. Cloud/Waite Park Office
o 110 2nd Street S, Suite 232
o Waite Park, MN 56387
o Phone: 320-253-5931
o Fax: 320-240-6905
June 10, 2009 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't forget religious leaders praying for Obama to die, and refs within.
The lunatic fringe are on the rise.
June 10, 2009 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Looks like the link didn't work: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/matyra/2009/06/imprecatory-prayer--praying-fo.php#comments
June 10, 2009 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the link. It was interesting reading.
Can you imagine the 24/7 coverage if a black minister had said he was praying for Bush to do?
Can you?
I haven't heard anything about this outside of TPM.
June 10, 2009 5:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, I can't.
This stuff has to go mainstream though.
What happens the next time and the next? What if these domestic terrorists actually organize, instead of just a lone 88-yr-old guy going on a rampage?
June 10, 2009 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The lunatic fringe are on the rise."
It may well be that those diametrically opposed fringes are both reacting like cornered critters: As the middle readjusts and includes more of us, the fringes become desperate to survive.
It may be a sign those fringes are fading, not growing, and like any cornered beast, they have reached their most desperate condition.
Wishful thinking, maybe, but this spate of violence from the right seems to be good evidence that the most encapsulated members of that fringe now feel compelled to act out what they once only pondered and pontificated over too many beers, in the company of ignorant fellows.
Beware the cornered beast. It is most dangerous when it's survival is imminently threatened.
June 11, 2009 7:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good point.
June 11, 2009 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The lunatic fringe are on the rise."
It may well be that those diametrically opposed fringes are both reacting like cornered critters
Could you do me a favor?
I'd like to find some evidence of the "lunatic fringe" that is diametrically opposed to the one that is demonstrably on the right.
And of their reacting like cornered critters.
I mean, if the Spartacists League, or Young Communists of America were advocating insurrection - I am absolutely sure that I would have heard about it.
Whether via Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Fox News - there's no way the media wouldn't be screaming it from the rooftops.
(Note: a 2 paragraph rant about ANSWER in the Investor's Business Daily does not count, in my eyes. They're part of that fringe we're talking about. Bonus points if you can find something critical about the far left in Mother Jones.)
June 11, 2009 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Kenga, you assume I am talking domestically, which is wrong.
Think global. We may be the most recent harbor of the fascist ship of state (think "W", not BO)but the left wing violentsia still flourish in other ports of call.
The poles "we" imagine are left and right are really very closely positioned, back to back, on a circle. Violent left-wing anarchists are not much different from violent right wing wingnuts.
It's the violence that identifies them, not their politics. Ghandi and King were right, crossing the line from civil disobedience into violent disorder unifies them in one profane encapsulation.
From the left, as one who has always espoused enlightened anarchy, let me emphasize that the majority needs to achieve that enlightenment before anarchy can succeed without destructive chaos.
June 11, 2009 8:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was thinking domestically, and I suspect that while you were speaking of the entire human race, you would also have trouble coming up with an analog to the violent right in the US.
FBI may have designated Earth First! a terrorist organization, but it should be remembered their assaults on life have been few(if any) and their opponents have spilled blood.
I can think of some "left" organizations, and a couple nations that ostensibly fit.
Sendero Luminoso, Myanmar, North Korea, FARC. Others I am unaware of or can't bring to mind right now.
I would say, however, that the right has a decisive and insurmountable lead in movement-sanctified violence.
Peru and Colombia have stymied their left movements(such as they are). Myanmar and North Korea are isolated and have little influence other than the iron grip on their own peoples.
I can't as easily condemn all violence - there is a difference between killing(to take it to an extreme) to protect a child and killing to predate the same child. A gigantic difference. And if you have in your hands the means to keep that child from harm and you decline - surely you would not argue that your hands are clean of whatever ill is inflicted?
As one who has long though I might prefer communal anarchism myself - let me suggest you not hold your breath waiting for non-violence to spread. I rather doubt you need the advice.
I don't think I agree with suggesting that anarchism is a leftish tendency, though - it rather jumps the rails on that whole continuum.
June 15, 2009 8:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know, I saw that when it was posted and you bringing it up again has the same affect on me. I am just speechless. My mind is boggled. How can he say that? I am not a Christian but I still try to refrain from screaming nasty names every time I hear anything about Rush Limbaugh. And this MINISTER is PRAYING for a tragedy? Just amazing.
June 10, 2009 11:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...by their fruits ye shall know them."
June 11, 2009 7:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Obviously this validates the report from DHS. Anyone with half a lick of sense knew the report was valid when issued. Why we have to dance around the sensibilities of a bunch of lunatic crazed right wing fanatics I'll never know. It's time to quit acting like it's okay to be an armed and violent "conservative". All my life we have been served up hyperbolic exaggerations about the dangers of the left wing based on two or three completely unrelated incidents that happened many decades ago. Meanwhile, right wing extremists have been allowed to do whatever they please and this is the result.
June 10, 2009 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
oleeb,
I think you should apologize for your post.
June 10, 2009 6:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm afraid I just can't do that John! I' not a Congressional Democrat and thus, have too much self respect to apologize for speaking the truth! :)
June 10, 2009 6:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
oleeb,
heh, truly :-)
June 10, 2009 7:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Get ready to hear a lot of this "Obama's class warfare is fomenting social unrest".
June 10, 2009 6:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why are the damn Democrats so slow to react to everything. It's as though every event, every opportunity catches them off-guard.
They could easily be out in front of this idea by pinning the responsibility where it belongs: on right-wing hate groups ("ignorance" groups) incited by the likes of Dimbaulb, Beck, Malkin, Coulter, Manatee, and so on.
But they don't. They try to play "smallball," hoping no one will catch them out for having the balls to express an opinion.
I really don't expect the Democrats to hold power for too long. So what we will about Republicans--they're mean as dirt and willing to lock arms and move as a single force (even as they bludgeon one another in doing it).
Sorry for the mixed metaphors.
June 10, 2009 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Say what we will," that is.
June 10, 2009 6:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
The sad truth is that by and large, and on the whole, most of our elected Democratic "leaders" in Washington are a bunch of calculating, scheming political cowards. They'd rather hide and hope for re-election than stand for anything.
June 10, 2009 6:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't forget to include the descriptive adjective "center-right".
June 11, 2009 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fuck yes it vindicates the DHS report. Dead doctors, dead guards at national museums, what's next? Anyone going to the shopping mall soon?
It's all Obama's fault. Asshole had to be smarter than all the other fucks running for the job. Damn him.
A negro in the White House with an evil Jew as his chief of staff, well goddamn...there's bound to be bloodshed. And now a Latina judge...how can you expect a white man not to give full rein to his rage at being a second-class citizen in this new, Brown America?
Will someone (by which I mean ALL of us) tell FOX to fuck off and die? Nicely, of course. I'd hate to upset their sensibilities, such as they are. They're not helping and their culpability is mounting, "if you will" (H/T Dick Cheney)
June 10, 2009 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dead soldiers in front of Army Recruiting stations....oh wait, that doesn't fit the profile does it?
June 10, 2009 9:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure it does, but it certainly doesn't vindicate your lame rants against "the left" or your obsessive compulsion to protect the right, at every juncture nomater ho transparent your favoritism.
The real point here is that there are crazy people, whose ignorance and prejudices compel them to commit unholy acts in the name of holy beings.
And it isn't just a Christian thing, extremists from sects of every stripe seem bent on exacting ther personal form of violent retribution all over the world, from Ireland to Sri Lanka to Columbia to Kansas.
June 11, 2009 7:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
It was a right wing Muslim that shot the two guys. Not much difference between them and our right wing, is there?
June 11, 2009 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry dude - it fits a different profile, warned about in a different DHS report.
Try to pay attention.
June 11, 2009 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
What I want to know is why all of the Repub "leaders" hate Jewish people so much that they haven't all been on TV apologizing to America. We all know if they opposed this shooting they would be on TV telling us how sorry they are, but have you seen all of them there? Neither have I. Perhaps they just hate America in general.
June 10, 2009 6:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hoppy,
the Repubs will be all over TV protecting the right wing rabble rousers, just as they did when the DHS Report came out.
June 10, 2009 7:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's not forget about the rightwing lunatic who murdered three Pittsburgh policeman because he was afraid of the Obama gun grab. This is a real trend, and it's frightening.
See here.
June 10, 2009 6:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was about to mention the same thing. It seems it's on. There are a lot of loons out there armed to the gills and they're all paranoid. And they take their marching orders from politicians like Bachmann and Gingrich, and "comedians" like Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage and the crier Beck.
And now we have pastors wishing for the President's death. What would have happened if the Rev. Wright had said this about Bush?????
How much outcry would there be? How much coverage?
Like I said...It's on.
June 10, 2009 7:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
These gunheads are self-fulfilling all their most dire prophesies.
And the NRA and ammunition manufacturers are glad to fment that fulfillment, for fun and profit. No matter how incendiary the situation, their wealth is the only thing that really matters to them, and subtly nudging knuckle-dragging cliff-dwellers over the edge of that precipice assures that income flow will not be staunched easily or quickly.
As usual, most of this social violence starts as "the love of money", not ideological ideals.
Profane money-grubbers sitting in their wood-paneled boardrooms are glad to see us at each others' throats, because it insures their continued profitability.
And the MSM is glad to help, because their best advertisers are, in essence, the public face of those smoke-filled rooms.
June 11, 2009 8:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
No way Bachmann will apologize. Moderate or clam up and lay low, maybe. But it's her meal ticket.
The right is furiously calculating how to lay this at the feet of others. That's the nature of the beast.
Good on Shepard Smith for speaking to FOX viewers. I seriously doubt O'Reilly or Hannity will have the balls. And Limbaugh...it's his meal ticket, too.
June 10, 2009 7:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whether the DHS' report about rightwing terrorism has been vindicated is still somewhat up in the air.
I can, however, say recent events support DHS concerns.
June 10, 2009 8:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
In '08, 17 year old high school football star, Jamiel Shaw jr., who was a great student, much loved son and big brother, being scouted by Stanford and Rutgers, was shot to death, three houses down from his home (he was walking home from school) by a racist, illegal alien gang banger (who along with the rest of his gang, wear a tattoo on the backs of their necks, "KB", which stands for, "kill blacks"), because, Jamiel was black.
The MSM didn't report on that, nor did they report on the fact that Jamiel's family, was trying to get the Los Angeles city government to overturn a special order that denied police the ability to check the immigration status of criminals arrested. The Shaw family were threatened and the assistant district attorney attempted to blackmail them, because they wouldn't back down. Los Angeles mayor, Antonio Villaragosa, harassed the family when they were gathering signatures for a petition for the ballot. The same mayor who believes it's "hateful" to ask illegals to provide ID, sent an armed SWAT team, with a helicopter, as well as police to harass the family, the same day he left for the democratic national convention.
So, all this wasn't reported, it was a hate crime, as have all the murders of innocent citizens, majority of them black, by illegal alien gang bangers in LA, in their attempt to ethnically cleanse Los Angeles. The ACLU doesn't care, nor does the SPLC. Josh Marshall doesn't care, nor does the HuffPo, after all, far leftist elites loooove cheap foreign labor, and talking about their dirty little secret might waken the general population up to the fact that the left has once again embraced slavery.
The left, or "progressives" (laughable, as a better description would be regressive) are the ones perpetuating hate, they've been doing it for years. Frankly, I'm surprised that the TPM anti-semites weren't cheering and high fiving over the targeting of the holocaust museum. They have zero credibility whatsoever.
June 10, 2009 9:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dad, I told you no more than ten minutes on the computer until your dementia meds get refilled.
June 11, 2009 6:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
tersan,
hahahahahahha, good one. :-)
June 11, 2009 8:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's nice.
Would you care to tell us what KB refers to in the native language of these "illegal alien gang bangers"?
Unless you're trying to tell me they've begun learning English to integrate, to such a degree that they're having acronyms in English permanently inked onto their bodies?
June 11, 2009 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think this is less "crazy" than terrorist -- politically motivated violence.
Why does the rightwing coddle these terrorists??
Sadly, I should update my list:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/observer2/2009/04/domestic-terrorist-sympathizer.php
June 10, 2009 10:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
The irony has left me feeling a little disoriented.
The DHS memo definitely reads like an echo of "Bin Laden Determined to Strike".
Do you think we can blame Obama's BHS and justice department for not acting more forcefully to prevent these attacks?
Did the history of these two men, who became killers, justify pre-emptive arrest and/or detention?
Perhaps if Obama would have allowed the use of enhanced interegation techniques, we could have convinced either of these killers to reveal the ticking time-bomb within. . .
Seriously, I'm glad that our goverment has begun to pay some small respect to the rule of law and the value of civil liberties. But the price of living in a free society is that terrorism will happen.
June 11, 2009 2:41 AM | Reply | Permalink