White supremacist gangs find a home Southern CA

By GottaLaff

(via)

This morning I opened my L.A. Times, grabbed a cup of coffee, and then nearly choked when I saw this report about an area here in SoCal, not terribly far from where I live:

Residents in Hemet have long known that there is a skinhead element in their city.

They said they have occasionally seen groups of tattooed young men with shaved heads in combat boots and fatigues protesting against illegal immigration.

This is the second time in a week there have been reports of white supremacists rearing their ugly heads in the region.

But authorities now are investigating something far more serious: whether white supremacists are behind a series of attacks on Police Department facilities in the Riverside County city. [...]

Experts who study hate groups said Hemet and surrounding communities are particularly fertile ground for white supremacists. They estimated that there are at least a dozen groups operating in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino:

"There is a significant concentration of hate groups in the Inland Empire, unlike anywhere else in the nation, from the National Socialist Movement to the Hammerskins to" the Comrades of our Racist Struggle, he said.

Remember when the GOP came down on Janet Napolitano for her DHS report about the security risks posed by extremist groups?

Yeah, me too.

Anyone gotten wind of any apologies yet?

VIDEO: FBI raids counties tied to Michigan militia group

By GottaLaff

Remember that Department of Homeland Security report that warned us about extremists?

So do I:

The violent right, however, is a particularly difficult problem for law enforcement. Since the early 1990s, the movement's theorists have promulgated the concept of the "unorganized resistance" conducted by "lone wolves." It's a tactic meant to prevent believers from joining organizations that undercover law enforcement agents might infiltrate. Adherents are urged to keep to themselves, to use the Internet to inform themselves and to avoid rallies where they might be photographed. They're also urged to act on their own.

At the same time, American extremists have the benefit of our lax gun laws. In most countries, would-be terrorists need to join groups in order to secure arms. Here, they can buy them by the carload at a nearby gun store. The NRA is the lone wolves' best friend.

All my previous posts on the report can be found here.

With that in mind, check out the not-Muslim, not-foreigners who are being raided:

The FBI conducted raids Saturday night in Washtenaw County and Lenawee County in an investigation involving members of Hutaree, a Christian-oriented militia group based in Lenawee County, AnnArbor.com has learned.

Other areas have been raided, too, but it is not clear if they are related. The Department of Homeland Security and the Joint Terrorism Task Force are all involved in the raids, and several arrests have been made.



Not a very comforting report, is it?

Once again, we are reminded of the 1990s, Waco, and Tim McVeigh. The climate is unsettling, and the language used by Tea Baggers, Republicans, and even our own Congress members is not helping. Nor are the attacks, both physical and verbal.

We need to hang on to reason and conversation. A lot of citizens are feeling very threatened, whether it's their fear of becoming a white minority, or genuine concerns about financial burdens, taxes, health care, the list goes on.

Whatever the issues are, violence is not the answer. The media and our government officials need to step forward and take the lead in strong denunciation of the irrational actions and words that have become all too prevalent of late.

Hatred and the far right

By GottaLaff

Nightmare, indeed:

We're not talking here about mere conservative Republicans. This is the lunatic right, for whom the election of Barack Obama was much more than a political defeat: It was a racial and existential nightmare. If he can succeed, if no catastrophe or deprivation of rights ensues, then these people have feared and plotted and hated in vain. [...]

Still, it's clear that something is stirring this peculiarly American cesspool in ways that haven't occurred since the mid-1990s, when an upsurge in activity among so-called militia groups culminated in the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, the deadliest terrorist incident on American soil until 9/11.

Rumors that the new Obama administration secretly planned to seize people's firearms surged through the Internet, which nowadays links extremists like a kind of fevered nervous system, and fueled a run on gun stores that stock assault weapons. [...]

The violent right, however, is a particularly difficult problem for law enforcement. Since the early 1990s, the movement's theorists have promulgated the concept of the "unorganized resistance" conducted by "lone wolves." It's a tactic meant to prevent believers from joining organizations that undercover law enforcement agents might infiltrate. Adherents are urged to keep to themselves, to use the Internet to inform themselves and to avoid rallies where they might be photographed. They're also urged to act on their own.

At the same time, American extremists have the benefit of our lax gun laws. In most countries, would-be terrorists need to join groups in order to secure arms. Here, they can buy them by the carload at a nearby gun store. The NRA is the lone wolves' best friend.

Two months ago, the Republican National Committee and many conservative commentators went into paroxysms of rage over a report by the Department of Homeland Security drawing attention to the potential terrorist threat of resurgent right-wing extremism. The department ended up apologizing for noting the extremist underground's attempts to recruit returning military personnel. (All three of the men involved in the Oklahoma City bombing met and developed their convictions while serving in the Army.) As the body count mounts, the department may want to reconsider that apology.

Hate means never having to say you're sorry.

VIDEO proves Joe Scarborough et al. wrong, Scarborough just gets worse

By GottaLaff



Apparently feeling a tad red-faced in light of the above video, Joe Scarborough got a little testy:

...Scarborough lashed out at Paul Krugman, and doubled down on his unjustified criticism of the DHS report from April.

On Krugman, Scarborough said:

"As somebody that has to sort through a lot of hate mail, a lot of hate email, a lot of viciousness. Paul Krugman's name is attached to a lot of those emails. They use Paul Krugman as their shield for their left-wing hate. This is because Paul Krugman, like a lot of extremists on the right, they only see their side. They have a closed-minded world view. Paul Krugman uses this tragedy, uses this death to try to knock down his opponents on the right."

Scarborough can't (or won't) address the substance of Krugman's claims, so he finds it easier to equate the Nobel laureate with right-wing blowhards. As for the DHS report, Scarborough added:

"What upset most of us [about the document was] the fact not that they were targeting right-wingers, it's that they were targeting veterans."

Scarborough can keep saying that, but it doesn't make it true. [...]

It would never happen, but instead of lashing out, Scarborough should either avoid the subject altogether, or apologize for his insulting behavior.

He's such a class act. Always so level-headed and sensible, able to see the other side, flexible, and so charismatic. He relies on facts and has our best interests at heart. We must stop criticizing him right now.

That was dripping with sarcasm, in case by some crazy chance you didn't notice.

DHS Urged To Expedite Updated Report On Right Wing Extremism

By GottaLaff

Original posts about the DHS report and reaction here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Someone owes Janet Napolitano an apology:

Recent incidents of extremist violence claiming the lives of abortion provider George Tiller and a security guard at the Holocaust Museum have prompted calls for the Department of Homeland Security to accelerate the release of an updated report on right-wing extremism. [...]

[T]he findings of the original study have been proven prescient, specifically in its warnings about violent acts from anti-abortion zealots and anti-Semites. Now, demands for that follow-up have grown more urgent.

On Thursday, the judicial advocacy organization, People for the American Way, faxed a letter to Napolitano calling on the Department of Homeland Security Chief to "expedite the approval of the 'Rightwing Extremism' report and release a final version as soon as possible." [...]

A researcher on right-wing organizations noted that the security onus was on DHS to act fast. "The threat of right-wing violence is only increasing," said the source, "and Americans could be put at risk if DHS takes too long to issue a new report or waters the old one down."

Indeed, in the wake of the shooting of a Holocaust Museum security guard by white supremacist James Von Brunn, the original DHS report is getting a more favorable review. Even some critics of the study, who claimed that it compared conservatives and returning veterans to domestic terrorists, acknowledged that their initial reactions may have been hasty and overblown. That said -- and this is important -- the report was never formally pulled, according to a DHS official.

H/t: Charyl

Video- Fox Reporter: We Should Look At DHS Report Fox Trashed In New Light

Dumbasses. The guard from the museum has died. Via TPM.