House of Eratosthenes

The report, entitled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” is here. I’ve noticed a trend in how it is typically headlined: The event worthy of note is not the publication of the report, but rather the “reaction” from something called the “conservative blogosphere.” Conservatives are tweaked, angry, howling, spitting, sputtering, going apeshit, freaking out, and most importantly, spinning.

Michelle Malkin, typically offered as the example, reacts:

The “report” was one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I’d ever read out of DHS. I couldn’t believe it was real.

I spent the day chasing down DHS spokespeople, who have been tied up preparing for a very important homeland security event later today: The First Lady is coming to visit their Washington office. Priorities, you know.

Well, the press office got back to me and verified that the document is indeed for real.

They were very defensive — preemptively so — in asserting that it was not a politicized document…the piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives. And the intent is clear. As the two spokespeople I talked with on the phone today made clear: They both pinpointed the recent “economic downturn” and the “general state of the economy” for stoking “rightwing extremism.” One of the spokespeople said he was told that the report has been in the works for a year. My b.s. detector went off the chart, and yours will, too, if you read through the entire report — which asserts with no evidence that an unquantified “resurgence in rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalizations activity” is due to home foreclosures, job losses, and…the historical presidential election.

I skimmed through the left-wing blogs to find out what their reactions would be. Yglesias, ThinkProgress, Raw Story, Pandagon, Anonymous Liberal and Balloon Juice. A consistent and recurrent meme emerged: Troubling issues that arise from a government agency’s suggestion of terrorist motives on the part of free citizens “rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority” (p. 2) were left unexplored…even untouched. The subject matter turned, instead, to tit-for-tat, howzitfeel type of nonsense. Silly conservatives didn’t say a word when Bush was trampling on our civil liberties, why are they piping up now?

Awesome! The new administration was elected in on a glossy, glittery platform of “change.” And now it’s doing things that can only be defended by implying they’re the same as what the old crowd did. Some change.

If only it were true. The argument is defeated — as left-wing arguments usually are — through an exercise known as reading things. As Malkin says:

[T]hose past reports have always been very specific in identifying the exact groups, causes, and targets of domestic terrorism, i.e., the ALF, ELF, and Stop Huntingdon wackos who have engaged in physical harassment, arson, vandalism, and worse against pharmaceutical companies, farms, labs, and university researchers.

Don’t take her word for it, or mine. The report to which the liberal bloggers point with their “the other guy did it too” defense, “Left-Wing Extremism: The Current Threat,” is here. You won’t need to study long. The difference between the 2001 report and the one that just came out, is structural. The older report gives facts…and more facts…and more facts…dates…cities…statistics…the history behind each of the more pertinent groups, who founded them, why, what their methods are, what they’ve been caught doing, some intelligence suggesting who funds them. It even does a decent job of inspecting the possible dangers posed by right-wing extremist groups.

This month’s report from DHS boils down to one thing: “Hey, we’d better be worried about this stuff! You know how those tighty-righties are when they lose their jobs, especially when black people are elected President!” Yes, I’m putting words in their mouths, but not unfairly. Go on, read the piece-of-crap report and tell me if they’ve got a message that goes beyond that…or if they’ve produced any firm evidence to support such a message. It’s gossip. And that’s not my opinion; come up with a workable definition for “gossip” before you read the report, then read it. There’s nothing to back up any of what they’re saying here.

So you could fairly headline this entire thing as “left-wingers freak out about right-wingers and then accuse right-wingers of freaking out.”

As polished as the prose is, and as crisp as the computer fonts look, when you inspect it at the thought-level it has a look and feel that I have come to associate with subsequent organizational backpedaling and apology. Not that I’m terribly sure it’ll happen this time. This is a report put out by someone who spends lots of time with other people who think exactly the same things already, and can’t be told much of anything…which suggests his or her superiors are in the same mold. We know the guy at the top fits that profile too, so it’s doubtful anyone in a position that matters, will see the need to retract anything.

Of course perhaps their eyes could be opened by such kind, colorblind, all-inclusive, tolerant comments from lefty-blog-commenters as “Can’t wait to see the TSA, state police, NYPD profiling pasty White guys” (CParis, commenter 4, Yglesias link) and “Seriously, this [Glenn Beck] is a man who just needs to have a massive heart attack and die for the good of the country” (DTG in STL, Pandagon). Oh, you lefties! I’m so glad you’re in charge now, busily putting together that society that’ll work for everyone!

Maybe some peaceful and loving outbursts like that that would give the DHS report author a whole new perspective on things. I’m just not ready to bet a lot of money on it.

I notice right off that the 2001 report has an actual author cited on the front page. Someone who can be contacted and spoken with directly about the report. This new one was apparently prepared by some branch within the DHS. No real accountability, as though these reports just rise up out of a desk in the basement like Gumby coming up through the floor.

Then there’s the sickening implication of our returning troops being likely to join or form extremist groups. There’s a whole section of the report dedicated to that garbage, which sounds to me like a pretty good start for a movement to turn the public against our veterans all over again.

Then, of course, there’s the issue you mention of facts. 2001 report is heavy with them. Dates, names, events. Facts. Not a single one in the new report.
- Andy | 04/15/2009 @ 10:30
“Thanks to the efforts of conservatives and wingnuts over the past 8 years, Obama has the power to lock you up forever, with no charges. We tried to warn you.

Thanks to the efforts of conservatives and wingnuts over the past 8 years, Obama has the power to tap your phones without a warrant. We tried to warn you.

Thanks to the efforts of conservatives and wingnuts over the past 8 years, Obama has the power to have you waterboarded if he wants to. We tried to warn you.

Over and over we tried to warn you. Bush will not be president forever. The Republicans will not have a permanent majority. Do you really want Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton empowered to lock you up with no recourse to the judicial system?

You made your bed, and now you can lie in it. Oh, and how does it feel to know that YOU’RE being watched now? Honestly, if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to be afraid of.” brendancalling.com

Hehehehe, hoisted on your own fucking petard, I just love it. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch of hypocrites such as yourself.
- seatofpants | 04/15/2009 @ 13:18
And we tried to warn you before you dashed off to the polls to vote in some “change.”

Here it is three months past inauguration day, and it’s become a regular event: President “Change” does something everyone understands is a deplorably bad idea…He absolutely, positively must be defended, by something, somewhere, so what argument shall we use? Ah, here it is: The guy before him was doing something kinda like it!

Please enlighten me, since you’re obviously from that side of the aisle (the “we” in “we tried to warn you”): Is that your definition of “change”? The guy pisses in his boot over and over again, and he can only be defended with some red herring about how the guy that came before, was doing the same thing? That’s change?

I’m leaving unmentioned the part about how your argument is empty to begin with, because what this guy’s doing, is not the same as what the other guy was doing. I’ve already made that argument. You either didn’t read it, in which case there’s no point to reiterating it, or you did read it and immediately understood you’d better not directly take it on…which, again, means there’s no point in reiterating it.
- mkfreeberg | 04/15/2009 @ 13:24
Yeah, to that moron up the thread: waterboarding hasn’t been in use since 2003, and has been outlawed, as of 2006–under Bush, no less.

And Obama bin Biden have taken NSA wiretapping et al much further than Bush. Also, please see Project Echelon and Extraordinary Rendition for the Clinton Administration’s foray into civil rights violations–Aldrich Aames anyone?

Onto more important business: Powerline blog has an entry from this morning nicely “fisking” the report in question:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/04/023329.php
- sanskara | 04/15/2009 @ 16:31
When I saw this story yesterday my first impulses were to buy more guns and blog blatantly harsh attacks on Obama. Who in the fuck does he think he is?

Put me on the list as an extremist. I despise nearly everything about our government and the elected leeches running this overblown nanny state.

I think I may do a post of things I hate – democrats and their disgusting policies will probably score in the top 20.
- Daphne | 04/15/2009 @ 19:05
The only hope for the US is that all encompassing governments are always massively corrupt and inefficient. For example. Here in the People’s Republic of China when you purchase a new automobile you have to travel to six different governmental departments to get your license, license plates, inspection, and all the other stuff done that the DMV does in most US states. As the Obamanation of the US continues, the bloated government will become lazier. Thus, lots of stuff may be against the law but the officials will become to lazy to follow up. The average citizen in China actually is as free or freer than the average citizen in the US just because the government is so corrupt and inefficient.

More than that, maybe the left-wingers are actually afraid because they don’t know how to shoot.
- Fai Mao | 04/15/2009 @ 23:42
[…] House of Eratosthenes […]
- HOTAiR: Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real | Fire Janet Napolitano | 04/23/2009 @ 22:36
[…] the tools that could & would be used to do harm. For an example, look no further than that awesome little document put out by Janet Napolitano’s agency…remember that? How it called out targeted classes of — citizens? For special scrutiny, […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 01/24/2010 @ 08:34

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On That Homeland Security Right-Wing Extremist Group ReportWednesday, April 15th, 2009

On That Homeland Security Right-Wing Extremist Group Report
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009