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This lady is the one who sounds daffy. I wonder what commentary she would have written had her vehicle, home or whatever been targeted for displaying an Obama sticker. I bet she would be singing a whole new tune. :rolleyes:
Posted on Friday, April 3, 2009
Commentary: Militia report makes right–wingers see red
By Mary Sanchez | The Kansas City Star
I think they protest too much.
The right–wingers, that is. They're barking mad in response to the latest perceived encroachment by government on their right to entertain daffy conspiracy theories.
The offense? Some midlevel desk jockeys in the Missouri Highway Patrol dared to pen an 8–page report about the history of militia movements.
You know, the One World Order nutcases. The people who think the federal tax code is unconstitutional, and that FEMA is readying concentration camps to warehouse patriots such as themselves when martial law is ordered. (This will occur after the race war erupts in the United States and the government comes to take everyone's guns and ammo away.)
The report was sent to the Missouri Information Analysis Center, a "fusion center" set up after 9–11 to help local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to collaborate on domestic security issues. For the most part, the report simply recounted recent cases of militia–type terrorism that law enforcement personnel would find relevant: a foiled plot to attack a federal building in Texas, a case in Kentucky where a militia member shot at a police deputy's car, and a plot in Idaho to kill a federal judge.
In other words, the kind of issues you want your police to be familiar with.
The problem was the report went a tad too far. It mentioned that militia members "most commonly associate with third party political groups." And then it mentioned Libertarians and former presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr.
Conservative talk radio and TV went bonkers, making it sound as if displaying a bumper sticker for a third party candidate would get a person hauled in for questioning. Republican politicians followed suit, shaking their fists, calling for firings because the report also noted that abortion and immigration are issues that have inspired wingnut violence in the past.
"Under the guidance of the present director ... the Department of Public Safety has taken on the new and sinister role of political profiling," fulminated Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican. Kinder knows he can't deny that pro–lifers have committed acts of terrorism and murder, or for that matter that right–wing militia groups have done so as well in the name of the harebrained ideas mentioned above. What bugs him is that the report didn't mention Islamic terrorists or eco–terrorists – i.e., terrorist groups that have "nothing in common" with militias, the subject of the Highway Patrol report.
The most pertinent lines of the report are rarely mentioned by those outraged by it: "Due to the current economic and political situation, a lush environment for militia activity has been created. Unemployment rates are high, as well as cost of living expenses."
Disgruntled folks abound these days. Can't quite figure out how the nation slid into the economic freefall we're experiencing. Do we blame the banks? The unions? Immigrants? Hard times push the unstable to deeper depths of despair.
Law enforcement agencies would be negligent if they were not paying close attention to the way hate groups' messages can alter the public mood. That doesn't mean they are about to imprison anyone who questions government, or who supports a cause championed by less than savory characters.
Not that long ago, most policing agencies had only a tenuous understanding of white supremacy groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Not surprisingly, law enforcement largely missed the rise of the militia movement in the 1990s.
That is, no one paid much attention until one day in 1995 when a young man stoked with anti–government paranoia drove a rented U–Haul packed with combustible fertilizer up to a federal building in Oklahoma City.
Under pressure, the Missouri Highway Patrol has withdrawn the militia report. We should hope, however, that law enforcement will never be caught unaware again. And if it takes poking around the edges of legitimate causes to guard against such dangers, so be it.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star. Readers may write to her at: Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108-1413, or via e-mail at [email protected]
Posted on Friday, April 3, 2009
Commentary: Militia report makes right–wingers see red
By Mary Sanchez | The Kansas City Star
I think they protest too much.
The right–wingers, that is. They're barking mad in response to the latest perceived encroachment by government on their right to entertain daffy conspiracy theories.
The offense? Some midlevel desk jockeys in the Missouri Highway Patrol dared to pen an 8–page report about the history of militia movements.
You know, the One World Order nutcases. The people who think the federal tax code is unconstitutional, and that FEMA is readying concentration camps to warehouse patriots such as themselves when martial law is ordered. (This will occur after the race war erupts in the United States and the government comes to take everyone's guns and ammo away.)
The report was sent to the Missouri Information Analysis Center, a "fusion center" set up after 9–11 to help local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to collaborate on domestic security issues. For the most part, the report simply recounted recent cases of militia–type terrorism that law enforcement personnel would find relevant: a foiled plot to attack a federal building in Texas, a case in Kentucky where a militia member shot at a police deputy's car, and a plot in Idaho to kill a federal judge.
In other words, the kind of issues you want your police to be familiar with.
The problem was the report went a tad too far. It mentioned that militia members "most commonly associate with third party political groups." And then it mentioned Libertarians and former presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr.
Conservative talk radio and TV went bonkers, making it sound as if displaying a bumper sticker for a third party candidate would get a person hauled in for questioning. Republican politicians followed suit, shaking their fists, calling for firings because the report also noted that abortion and immigration are issues that have inspired wingnut violence in the past.
"Under the guidance of the present director ... the Department of Public Safety has taken on the new and sinister role of political profiling," fulminated Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican. Kinder knows he can't deny that pro–lifers have committed acts of terrorism and murder, or for that matter that right–wing militia groups have done so as well in the name of the harebrained ideas mentioned above. What bugs him is that the report didn't mention Islamic terrorists or eco–terrorists – i.e., terrorist groups that have "nothing in common" with militias, the subject of the Highway Patrol report.
The most pertinent lines of the report are rarely mentioned by those outraged by it: "Due to the current economic and political situation, a lush environment for militia activity has been created. Unemployment rates are high, as well as cost of living expenses."
Disgruntled folks abound these days. Can't quite figure out how the nation slid into the economic freefall we're experiencing. Do we blame the banks? The unions? Immigrants? Hard times push the unstable to deeper depths of despair.
Law enforcement agencies would be negligent if they were not paying close attention to the way hate groups' messages can alter the public mood. That doesn't mean they are about to imprison anyone who questions government, or who supports a cause championed by less than savory characters.
Not that long ago, most policing agencies had only a tenuous understanding of white supremacy groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Not surprisingly, law enforcement largely missed the rise of the militia movement in the 1990s.
That is, no one paid much attention until one day in 1995 when a young man stoked with anti–government paranoia drove a rented U–Haul packed with combustible fertilizer up to a federal building in Oklahoma City.
Under pressure, the Missouri Highway Patrol has withdrawn the militia report. We should hope, however, that law enforcement will never be caught unaware again. And if it takes poking around the edges of legitimate causes to guard against such dangers, so be it.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star. Readers may write to her at: Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108-1413, or via e-mail at [email protected]
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