That small crackling sound you hear is thousands of teeny, tiny heads exploding over at LGF 1.0. Why? Because Janet Napolitano just shot down Charlie’s entire “violent right-wing extremists are everywhere” meme. Recent Murders Don’t Sway Napolitano on DHS Report.
Hat tip – gclaghorn
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she doesn’t think the recent murder of Dr. George Tiller, a late-term abortion provider, and the shooting of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum vindicate a controversial Department of Homeland Security report issued to law enforcement about rising right-wing extremism.
The shootings were not evidence of growing violent political extremism in the United States, Napolitano said at a Thursday press briefing in Washington. “I don’t look at those murders as anything other than terrible crimes and tragedies,” Napolitano said. Stepping up her criticism of the report, Napolitano added, “I do think, as I’ve said before, that the so-called right-wing extremist report was not a well-produced product. It could and should have been done better. We’ve already taken steps within the department to improve that situation.” She did not elaborate.
Released in April, the report from the department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis warned law enforcement that white-power militias and other right-wing extremist groups might exploit the economic downturn and the election of the nation’s first African-American president. Conservative groups immediately denounced the report, contending it insufficiently distinguished mainstream political opinions on the right from incitements to violence.
Napolitano added a limited defense of the report for placing a warning about so-called “lone wolf” attacks — in which assailants who might be motivated by political extremism to commit acts of violence without detectable signs of supporting networks that can alert law enforcement to an impending crime — within an economic context. “The right-wing report correctly identified that the circumstances in the United States now, the down economy and the like, historically are the types of circumstances that can give rise to this type of activity,” she said. “That’s why it was pointing that out for local law enforcement.”
Sheesh, didn’t she get Charlie’s memo?
Seriously, though, the highlighted part really is the crux of the matter. Nobody denies that there are always kooks, losers, yahoos, and violent nutcases out there on all ends of the political spectrum. Charles – with his spate of posts about loner nutcases killing illegal immigrants notwithstanding – hasn’t made his case at all. There is no evidence of any vast right-wing conspiracy out there. There’s no evidence of a concerted effort by “conservatives” to recruit terrorists because America now “has a black President.” Indeed, the whole reason why conservatives were so offended by the report is exactly what the article said – there is a WORLD of difference between mainstream pro-lifers, and loner nutcases who shoot abortion doctors. There’s a WORLD of difference between people who think we should end illegal immigration, and nutcases who shoot illegal immigrants. There’s a WORLD of difference between people who grumble about paying their taxes, and people who plot to blow up IRS offices.
The fact that Charles is either too stupid or too blinkered by ideology and a penchant for yellow journalism to recognise this shows again why LGF 1.0 is fast sliding into the oblivion of irrelevancy.
