Arizona Senate Wises Up: Pearce's Latest Round Of Immigrant-bashing Bills Summarily Tossed

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

People tried to warn Russell Pearce, president of the Arizona Senate and the father of SB1070, that it might not be a good idea to push hard on yet another round of immigrant-bashing legislation while Arizona's economy continued to suffer and groan from the weight of his previous "landmark". And there were plenty of warning signs that Arizonans were waking up to the cold reality of what they had done to themselves.

But of course, Pearce being the extremist nutcase that he is, there was no persuading him to turn back. Which produced yesterday's stark repudiation by his fellow Republicans in the Senate:

The state Senate voted down a package of birthright-citizenship bills, with Republicans split over the measures and Democrats opposed.

Four other significant Senate immigration measures also failed. Those bills would have banned illegal immigrants from state universities, made it a crime for illegal immigrants to drive a vehicle in Arizona, required school districts to check the legal status of students, and required hospitals to check the legal status of patients.

The impetus for the bills' defeat, as it happens, came from the Arizona business community, whose leaders penned a letter to the Senate warning them that the bills were a horrendous idea:

A coalition of Arizona business groups delivered a letter to the Arizona State Senate Tuesday saying it would be unwise for the Legislature to pass additional immigration legislation, despite lack of action on the federal level.

Sixty CEOs - from a wide swath of industries and including heavyweights such as Doug Parker, Gerrit van Huisstede and Linda Hunt - signed the letter as legislators mull a new slate of immigration bills. Last year’s passage of Senate Bill 1070 created a firestorm of criticism and boycotts against the state. The CEO’s point to its “unintended consequences.”

The letter's reasoning was quite clear:

Arizona’s lawmakers and citizens are right to be concerned about illegal immigration. But we must acknowledge that when Arizona goes it alone on this issue, unintended consequences inevitably occur. Last year, boycotts were called against our state’s business community, adversely impacting our already-struggling economy and costing us jobs. Arizona-based businesses saw contracts cancelled or were turned away from bidding. “Sales outside of the state declined. Even a business which merely had ‘Arizona’ in its name felt the effects of the boycotts, compelling them to launch an educational campaign about their company’s roots in Brooklyn. It is an undeniable fact that each of our companies and our employees were impacted by the boycotts and the coincident negative image.

“Tourism, one of our state’s largest industries and employment centers, also suffered from negative perceptions after the passage of SB 1070. The fact Gov. Brewer directed $250,000 to repairing Arizona’s reputation strongly suggests these efforts – whether fair or unfair - are harmful to our image.

Pearce's main gopher, State Sen. Ron Gould, was typically petulant about the reversal:

On Twitter he provided the names of all the Republicans who voted against the bills and told his followers to “contact them."

Following the session he said that too many Republicans talk tough on the campaign trail but don’t deliver when it comes to votes.

He was especially pissy toward the business community:

Senator Gould was asked if that letter perhaps played a role to which he replied, “Well there’s some people who are bought and paid for by the Chamber of Commerce.”
When asked if he will try to introduce similar legislation next session he said, “Maybe we will put everybody through the same misery one more time.”

You'll note in the video above that the reporter talks to one of the signees -- a local small businessman. Unsurprisingly, he was inundated with hate mail and threatening phone calls.
Kos has more on the larger immigration picture around the nation.

James O'Keefe Won't Let Others Videotape Him

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

Hypocrisy, O'Keefe is thy middle name:

Conservative activist James O’Keefe, who has gained notoriety for his hidden-camera stings of NPR executives, ACORN employees, teacher unions, and CNN reporters, gave a speech to a New Jersey Tea Party group today. The Asbury Park Press reports that O’Keefe had only one condition: that his speech not be videotaped in any way. A representative for the Tea Party group told a photojournalist from the Press that she didn’t agree with O’Keefe’s order, but explained that “This is a guy that’s in trouble with the law, he’s got lawsuits up the gazoo for trying to help you with your freedom.”

ThinkProgress' George Zornick quotes O'Keefe's speech, wherein he says:

"It all goes back to one fundamental principle — and that is to make (the media and public officials) live up to their own book of rules. If you want to call out a hypocrite, the best way to do that is look at how he lives his life."

Quoth the guy who tried to lure a CNN reporter onto his Loooove Boat.

Bombing Libya: Airstrikes Open A Coalition War Against A Mad Dictator

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

I'm almost never in favor of going to war, but at least against Libya there is a real lifesaving component involved, and at least this time it's multilateral:

A coalition of American and European forces bombed Libyan targets by air and sea Saturday in the first phase of a military campaign to drive Moammar Gadhafi from power.

French warplanes fired the first shots in the broadest international military effort since the Iraq war, destroying government tanks and armored vehicles in the region of the rebels' eastern stronghold, Benghazi. Hours later, British and U.S. warships and submarines launched more than 110 Tomahawk missiles against Gadhafi's air defenses around the capital Tripoli and the western city of Misrata, which has been besieged by Gadhafi's forces, Pentagon officials said.

The aim of the operation, dubbed Odyssey Dawn, was to enforce a United Nations-sanctioned no-fly zone over Libya and stop Gadhafi from attacking overwhelmed rebel forces in the east.

"This is not an outcome the U.S. or any of our partners sought," President Barack Obama said from Brazil, where he is starting a five-day visit to Latin America. "We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy."

It doesn't hurt that this mission will prevent certain slaughter of his own people by a madman/dictator.

Libya is saying the airstrikes inflicted considerable damage:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bachmann Accuses Weiner Of Trading In 'Fiction' On Budget. His Retort: 'I Don't Think You Want To Go There'

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

There's something about Anthony Weiner that seems to really get under Sean Hannity's skin. Maybe it's the way he makes both Hannity and his guests look like utter buffoons. That might have something to do with it.

Such as when Michele Bachmann went on with Hannity and Weiner the other night, producing hilarious exchanges such as this one:

HANNITY: Here's my point, $3.7 billion, we have nearly $5 trillion now accumulated Obama debt, $5 trillion. You tell me how much you are willing to cut out of the budget?

WEINER: Well, let me ask you something. Is it accumulated Obama debt when President Bush left office, there was 700,000 job losses that month. There are more private sector jobs created under President Obama in his two years --

HANNITY: That's a lie.

WEINER: It is a fact.

HANNITY: Congressman, I know you are a Democrat and I know you're a bitter partisan. But in the month of February --

WEINER: No, I'm just a partisan.

HANNITY: Stop it. In the month of February our deficit --

WEINER: Don't call me names, Sean. It is almost St. Patrick's Day you are going to call me names?

HANNITY: Yes. Our deficit was $223,000 for the month. In 2007, if we are looking at real dollars and real money, we paid less in a year than we did for the month of February!

WEINER: Well, look, I will tell you this. The deficit right now comes from three places. One, unfunded wars, two, enormous numbers of jobs lost a tragedy that President Bush drove us into this cliff and three tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

HANNITY: Congresswoman Bachmann, you know, George Bush has been out of office for nearly 2-1/2 years he can't get over it. Barack Obama's budgets nearly $5 trillion in debt. He won't mention where he would cut. I'll ask you the same question --

WEINER: What do you mean he?

HANNITY: That would be you! Congresswoman, where would you cut?

BACHMANN: You know, Sean. I had no idea that Representative Weiner was such a reader of fiction. He's a huge fiction reader because that's all of his numbers. I wanted to mention --

WEINER: Bachmann, I don't think you want to go there. I don't think you want to go there, Bachmann.

Weiner later repeated that Bachmann's little bit of projection was "ironic". No kidding. After all, this is the congresswoman who's been running around (mostly on Fox) for the better part of a couple of weeks now claiming that there is $105 billion in health-care reform implementation "secretly" tucked into the budget -- even though it's one of the most publicly debunked bogus republican claim in awhile. The Washington Post's fact checker dismissed it as "bordering on the ridiculous", while PolitiFact dismantled it as well.

I also liked the parting shots that Weiner got in:

WEINER: I believe when there are millions of Americans not working because of the Bush decisions that we do have to take care of those people and that adds cost, no doubt about it.

HANNITY: Congressman, you're going to have to man-up. You have to sit at the table and put your pants on --

WEINER: Make it three on one or four on one next time, I'm ready for you.

HANNITY: You are a star. Just go look in the mirror.

WEINER: I love these balanced debates.

HANNITY: Yes, well, that's what it is.

BACHMANN: Tell me about it.

HANNITY: Tell me about it.

If Weiner keeps this up, they'll never let him back.

Another 'Isolated Incident': California Man Charged With Firebombing Planned Parenthood Center, Vandalizing Mosque

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

[Video from CBS 47]

We've been getting lots of confirmation lately that, contrary to the claims undergirding Rep. Peter King's Islamophobic witch-hunt hearing, the greatest domestic-terrorism threat to average Americans is not from homegrown Islamic radicals, but from the same singular source of domestic terrorism we've had to deal with for more than a generation: the radical right.

David Holthouse at Media Matters directs us to the most recent 'isolated incident':

Compared to the political theater of the King hearings, these busts of accused right-wing domestic terrorists received scant media attention. Even less publicized was the arrest, also on March 9, of another accused right-wing extremist who allegedly firebombed a Planned Parenthood clinic and vandalized an Islamic center in Madera, California.

The case of Donny Eugene Mower further illustrates the narrow-mindedness of Rep. King and his conservative media cheerleaders for focusing on Muslim domestic terrorists to the exclusion of all other violent extremists, including white supremacists, militia members and anti-abortion radicals.

According to the federal criminal complaint against Mower, he admitted to throwing a Molotov cocktail through the window of the Planned Parenthood clinic in the middle of the night last September 2. No one was injured, but the damage was extensive.

Mower left a note at the scene: "Murder our children? We have a 'choice' too. Let's see if you can burn as well as your victims." The note was signed "ANB," short for American Nationalist Brotherhood. The same entity had claimed responsibility for menacing letters posted outside the Madera Islamic Center.

The first of those messages appeared last August 18: "No temple for the God of terrorism at Ground Zero. ANB." At the time Fox News and others were feverishly manufacturing outrage at the supposed "Ground Zero mosque" in New York City.

Two days later, according to investigators, Mower threw a brick at the Islamic center, causing minor damage, and then returned his focus to the Planned Parenthood clinic, posting another threat: "Murdering children? That is your choice? Reap your reward. ANB."

On August 24, another message appeared at the Islamic center: "Wake up America. The enemy is here. ANB."

The ANB, like a number of hate groups, really is just an army of one -- Mower himself. He wrote a manifesto outlining his ideology:

ANB is AMERICAN nationalist, not white nationalist, black nationalist, or any other racist motivated group. The signs posted, the things to come, and yes even the brick, are not hate motivated, but rather messages. The (sic) are the voices of us who refuse to allow America to continue to be torn down brick by brick. Notice also, that the mosque was not the only target of choice. We are here to revive American pride, which has been dampened by a lot of things: The rise of Islam in America, despite 9/11; the sickening number of murdered children since 1973, hidden behind the guise of "abortion" or "choice"; the abomination of homosexuality being rewarded, while those who chose (sic) natural relationships are bigots. These and so many more are (sic) the hate crimes, they hit America with a sucker punch... isn't it time that someone hit back?

As Digby sez:

Sadly, the lack of attention to this problem -- or our blase acceptance of it --- has even led people like Bill Maher to speciously contend that homegrown Islamic terrorism presents a much greater threat than any other kind of homegrown terrorism. I honestly don't know why he thinks that. These are really the same kind of people except for the fact that they are being radicalized for similar purposes by Americans instead of foreigners.

There are reasons why these things crop up at times of great social transition and stress. And that's worth looking into and attempting to deal with. But those who are pretending that it's a"foreign problem" are coming to the point of being culpable. After all, when the department of Homeland Security merely noted the potential of a problem in their annual report, the right wing didn't distance itself from these radicals, it sprung into gear and basically shut the report down. Cui bono?

Here's our interactive map and listing of domestic-terrorism incidents involving right-wing extremists since July 2008. We're up to 24 now -- and still counting:

Fox Nuclear 'Experts' Sound Just Like J. Frank Parnell: 'Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, Indeed. You Hear The Most Outrageous Lies About It.'

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

Not only is Fox News now racing to promote the narrative that the meltdown the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, in the wake of this week's killer earthquake and tsunamis, is really nothing for anyone (and especially not Americans!) to worry about, but the other night on Hannity, one of their "experts" -- Jay Lehr of the Heartland Institute -- tried to claim that everything was working according to plan and no harm would come to anyone's health as a result of the radiation released.

HANNITY: How realistic is this threat?

LEHR: Sean, it's not at all realistic. I can tell you with the utmost confidence there will not be a health impact from anything that's going on at the Fukushima power plant.

Lehr was featured throughout Hannity's show, and he continued on in this vein -- minimizing the health effects of disasters like Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, and attacking a nuclear engineer for saying that there is at least some concern about fallout drift to the West Coast of the USA.

As Digby sez: "Call me nuts but that fellow doesn't sound all that trustworthy."

He reminds Digby of a movie character, Gen Buck Turgidson. He reminds me, on the other hand, of another character altogether. You remember J. Frank Parnell, don't you?

J. Frank Parnell: Ever been to Utah? Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, indeed. You hear the most outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody it's bad for you. Pernicious nonsense. Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too. When they canceled the project it almost did me in. One day my mind was full to bursting. The next day - nothing. Swept away. But I'll show them. I had a lobotomy in the end.

Otto: Lobotomy? Isn't that for loonies?

Parnell: Not at all. Friend of mine had one. Designer of the neutron bomb. You ever hear of the neutron bomb? Destroys people - leaves buildings standing. Fits in a suitcase. It's so small, no one knows it's there until - BLAMMO. Eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead. So immoral, working on the thing can drive you mad. That's what happened to this friend of mine. So he had a lobotomy. Now he's well again.

Schaeffer Cox And His Alaska Militia: The Classic Sovereign-citizen Saga, From Laughable To Lethal

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

The details about Schaeffer Cox, the Alaska militiaman arrested in a plot to kill and kidnap state troopers and local judges, are starting to emerge -- and they have a distinctly familiar ring to them. From the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner:

Details emerge in alleged plot to kill Alaska State Troopers judge
State court documents made available Friday detail the murders and kidnappings allegedly planned by Schaeffer Cox and militia followers as well as the secret FBI recordings that helped expose the plan.

The plan, which members of Cox’s Peacemakers Militia reportedly code-named “241” (two for one), was created as a potential retaliatory response to any attempt by law enforcement to arrest Cox, who had an outstanding bench warrant for not attending a trial over a misdemeanor weapons charge.

Under the plan, Cox and other militia members would kidnap two law enforcement officers or court officials for every militia member arrested. They would kill two officials in retaliation for every militia member killed in any conflict with authorities.

The document accuses the group of assembling an arsenal that included pineapple grenades allegedly stolen from Fort Wainwright, multiple tripod-mounted machine guns and “dozens of other high-powered assault rifles and pistols.” The court documents don’t say whether search warrants for the weapons were obtained, or if the weapons have been seized.

Most of the information in the charging documents come from private militia “command staff” meetings “lawfully recorded by the FBI through technological means available to them.”

Four of the five defendants accused of conspiring to murder and kidnap are described discussing the plan in a 17-page criminal complaint. Besides Cox, the co-defendants are Coleman Barney, 36, of the North Pole area and Salcha residents Lonnie Vernon, 55 his wife and Karen Vernon, 66.

It's abundantly clear that Cox is following the career of so many "sovereign citizens" before him -- from Gordon Kahl to Randy and Vicki Weaver to Jerry and Joe Kane: You start out as a laughable loony nutcase who believes in an alternative universe constructed of provably untrue conspiracy theories, and you end up a violent, extremist nutcase willing to gun down federal officers.

You can observe this gradual but inexorable career arc just in the videos Cox made before his arrest, including the above interview with a fundamentalist pastor made in January. In it, you can hear Cox's violent fantasies starting to bubble up, even as he claims to have 3,500 members in his Alaska militia organization:

COX: If there came a time where they were endangering my family, you bet I would kill those federal agents. And what kind of a father and husband would I be if I wouldn't? Would I sacrifice my family on the altar of submission to the wicked state? No, that would be despicable, we would highly criticize anybody who did that, stood by and watched in history. And we've got to reckon with the fact that that's our time right now.

Now, we have those agents -- with 3500 guys we have tremendous resources at our disposal. And we had those guys under 24-hour surveillance -- the six trouble-causers that came up from the federal government. And we could have had them killed within 20 minutes of giving the order. But we didn't because they had not yet done it.

Of course, you will notice that since Cox's arrest, those supposed 3500 militiamen have been pretty nonexistent on the scene, and none of the law-enforcement officers involved in his arrest have been subject to any kind of retaliation at all.

You can also hearing him make the usual disclaimers that they kick out any "violent" types from militias -- which, as always, are about as reliable as the Minutemen's similar disclaimers.

Dermot Cole at the News-Miner has more details on Cox's background:

Schaeffer Cox told a “National Collective Consciousness Call” in January that law enforcement officers and the court system in Fairbanks always treated him with “total respect” because they feared the firepower of his militia.

There is no independent verification of how big or small his group is, but he has repeatedly claimed he had 3,500 members under his command.

The 26-year-old Cox said he was treated like a foreign diplomat by the Alaska courts and didn’t have to follow the rules “because I am not of them.”

“They never make me take my hat off or say ‘your honor’ or stand up like that. I refer to them as the ‘alleged judge’ or ‘your administrativeness.’ And I don’t do anything. The police are always ‘oh yes sir, yes sir,’ very nice there.

“And they’re doing that because they know we’ve got ‘em outmanned and outgunned,” he said on the Jan. 6 conference call, a recording of which is posted on the American Underground Network website http://aunetwork.tv/.

He said he told an “alleged judge” last year he could give an order for his militia members to “stand down,” but he couldn’t guarantee they would listen if they thought the case against Cox was politically motivated.

“From one father to another father, I don’t want to put my influence to the test while the lives of you and your children are on the line,” he said he told the judge.

“I said if you want a bloody fight, if you want a war, then we’ve got one hell of a war with your name on it. But if you want peace, well then that’s what we want too,” Cox said.

Likewise, David Holthouse has the full rundown on Alaska's increasingly unhinged and violent "Patriot" movement scene:

As it stands, other Alaska militia leaders are rallying to Cox’s defense in regards to the firearms case, while making no mention of his other legal troubles. “Allow me to state that I am behind Schaeffer Cox 100 percent,” says Norm Olson, leader of the Kenai Peninsula-based Alaska Citizens Militia. “His [sovereign citizen] argument is valid. The court that is claiming jurisdiction is an ‘Admiralty Court’ constructed under statute laws of the corporation known as The State of Alaska. Schaeffer wants to be tried in a court of common law where he can face his accuser directly and try the law as well as the evidence before him. Mr. Cox is fully aware that a jury that is called to listen to the charges has the right and duty to try not only the evidence, but to judge the correctness of the law itself. Schaeffer is not unwilling to be tried, but he wants to plead his case before a common law court with a jury of his peers. Can he expect that in Alaska? Only time will tell.”

Before we get into Olson’s reference to Admiralty Courts and Common Law and other Sovereign Citizen gobbledygook, it’s worth airing his take on the militia movement in Alaska. After all, Olson’s a militia O.G.

Olson started the Michigan Militia in 1994 and helped turn that state into a hotbed of right-wing extremist activity in the mid-to-late 1990s. Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols attended a Michigan Militia meeting not long before the terrorist attack he carried out with Timothy McVeigh.

Asked to assess the current strength of the militia movement in Alaska, Olson offered this response: “Of course I cannot answer that question. To do so would risk compromising our operational objectives and resources. Suffice it to say that we are ‘nowhere and everywhere.’ I will say that any move against one of our units or members is actually a way of bringing central government abuses into the forefront of the community’s awareness. The ongoing persecution of Schaeffer Cox is a boon to our enlistment efforts.”

Here are some earlier clips of Cox in action. In these, you can see Cox cocoon himself in the sovereign-citizen alternative universe, and his rhetoric becomes increasingly violent and paranoid:



This is a story that has played itself out a number of times over the past twenty years -- I've witnessed a number of court hearings involving "sovereign citizens" trying to impose their fabricated "legal" system on the real world -- and it never has a happy outcome. Inevitably, as they become hardened in their belief that their legal fantasy is reality, there comes a confrontation with law enforcement. Often, both sides suffer harm -- but only one side loses.

In my first book, In God's Country: The Patriot Movement and the Pacific Northwest, I devoted most of the second chapter to describing the dynamics of this alternative universe:

The Patriot movement appears to operate in the mainstream world, but truthfully, it does not. Rather, its believers reside in a different universe -- one dominated by an evil government and a conspiracy to destroy America. Agents of the dark side lurk in every gathering, pawns embodied in every disbeliever. Proof of this hidden reality can be found in everyday news stories and ordinary documents, if only seen with the right eyes.

The alternative reality that becomes life in the Patriot movement is like a big quilt, a patchwork of factual items -- United Nations reports, government documents, news stories -- that are patched together with other less credible information -- black helicopter sightings, suggestions of troop movements, and the like. The thread that weaves them all together is a paranoid belief in the vast conspiracy; even if items don’t appear to fit together, the irrational fear driving the movement will overlook potential conflicts.

Everyone is free to make a contribution: a military-vehicle sighting here, an obscure document there. Believers are free to ignore some patches if they happen to disagree with any singular contribution, so long as the quilt itself hangs together as an all-encompassing blanket.

The dwellers in this otherworld can be found not just in the wilds of Montana among the most radical believers like the Freemen. They can be found seemingly everywhere in the Northwest: in suburban conference centers, in rural town halls, in small Bible study groups.

Step into one of the militias’ organizing meetings -- typically held in small community halls in rural areas and towns outlying urban centers -- and you will have walked into this world.

...

By challenging the mainstream view -- that the world is essentially a safe place, that the nation is, in general, functional, even if it has problems -- the Patriots persuade their followers to place themselves outside the rest of society. Simultaneously, they offer a social structure of their own, drawn together by a Patriot sensibility that informs every aspect of the followers’ lives: legal, religious, even business behavior becomes an expression of their beliefs.

This is how people are drawn into the alternative universe of the Patriots, a world in which the same events occur as those that befall the rest of us, but all are seen through a different lens. Anything that makes it into a newspaper or the evening broadcast -- say, flooding in the Cascades, or the arrival of U.S. troops in Bosnia -- may be just another story for most of us, but to a Patriot, these widely disparate events all are connected to the conspiracy. Believers tend to organize in small local groups. They all have similar-sounding names -- Concerned Citizens for Constitutional Law, Alliance for America, and the like. They play host to the touring Patriots, the local leaders nervously introducing their admired guests. These groups operate out of the public limelight, on a low-level communications system: a combination of mailings, faxes and even Internet postings all advertise the meetings locally and regionally. Rarely does an announcement make the local mainstream press.

Most of the Patriots’ real recruiting takes place before the meetings, by word of mouth. It usually works like this:

John, a Patriot, tells Joe, a co-worker at his plant who’s going through a divorce, that he can find out ``what’s really going on’’ by attending a militia meeting. The Patriots, Joe is told, have answers to the moral decay that’s behind the way men get screwed in divorce cases.

Joe attends. He thinks the New World Order theories might be possible. He buys a video tape, maybe a book. It all starts to fit together. So this is why he hasn’t been able to get ahead in the world economically, he tells himself. He attends another meeting. Pretty soon he’s getting ``Taking Aim’’ in the mail.

Joe tells his neighbor Sam about the Patriots. Sam is dubious, but he’s been having a hell of a time paying his taxes, and Joe passes on what he knows about the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve from the Patriot literature he’s read. Sam is intrigued. He reads some of Joe’s material. He goes to the next meeting with Joe. A month or two later, Sam starts drawing up papers to declare himself a ``sovereign citizen.’’

Sam goes to a picnic outing at his parents’ house. His older brother Jeff, an engineer at Boeing, asks Sam about the ``sovereign citizen’’ stuff. Sam explains. Jeff, too, is dubious, but he also happens to be a gun collector and sometime hunter, and he’s received mailings from the National Rifle Association that lead him to wonder if there isn’t something to this whole militia thing. When Sam starts talking about how the government is out of control, passing unconstitutional laws like the Brady Bill, Jeff tunes in. A month later, he, too, sits in on a Patriot town-hall meeting.

One by one it builds. Any of a number of vital issues -- land use, property rights, banking, economics, politics, gun control, abortion, education, welfare -- can serve as a drawing card. In many cases, they are deeply divisive, polarizing matters that the mainstream fails to adequately address.

Once recruits pass through any of these gateways into the Patriot universe, they are drawn further, inexorably. What once seemed like a screwed-up government has become monstrously, palpably evil. Then they learn about Patriot legal theories from people like the Freemen or from Schroder and DeMott:

* The Federal Reserve is bankrupt, a front for a phony system, run by private
corporations, of printing money that really only helps keep rich bankers awash in cash.

* The Internal Revenue Service is illegal. Federal taxes actually are strictly voluntary.

* You can exempt yourself from paying federal taxes by filing a statement declaring yourself a ``sovereign citizen.’’ This ostensibly frees you from obligation to the United States -- which Patriots say is just an illegal corporation based in Washington, D.C. -- by nullifying your participation in the federal citizenship status established by the 14th Amendment.

* This distinction, arguing that only the 14th Amendment extends federal citizenship to minorities, forms the basis for the Patriots’ contention that only white male Christian property owners enjoy full citizenship under the ``organic Constitution.’’

* In fact, the only valid U.S. Constitution is this ``organic Constitution’’ -- that is, the main body of the Constitution and the first ten amendments, or the Bill of Rights. Patriots believe the remaining amendments either should be repealed or were approved illegally anyway. In any case, they would end the prohibition of slavery (13th Amendment); equal protection under the law (14th Amendment); prohibitions against racial or ethnic discrimination (15th Amendment); the income tax (16th Amendment); direct election of Senators (17th Amendment); the vote for women (19th Amendment); and a host of other constitutional protections passed since the time of the Founders.

* Establishing ``sovereign citizenship,’’ or ``Quiet Title’’ (which similarly declares a person a ``freeman’’), exempts a person from the rules of ``equity courts,’’ which means you don’t have to pay for licenses, building permits, or traffic citations, not to mention taxes.

* The only real courts with power are the ``common law’’ courts comprised of sovereign citizens, which have the power to issue rulings and liens against public officials they deem to have overstepped their bounds. If these officials fail to uphold the common-law courts, they can be found guilty of treason, and threatened with the appropriate penalty: hanging.

It is at this end of the Patriot universe that much of its deeper agenda is revealed. When Patriots talk about ``restoring the Constitution,’’ what they often have in mind is a campaign to roll back protections embodied in a wide range of amendments, as well as establishing a reading of the Second Amendment radically different from the one traditionally accepted by the U.S. court system.

It also is at this end of the universe that the charges of divisiveness and racism often leveled at the Patriots take on some weight. Plainly, the constitutional rollbacks would return the American system to a time when racial justice was not a considered concept.

Not surprisingly, this is where the Patriots most closely resemble, and arguably are directly descended from, openly racist and anti-Semitic belief systems like those found in the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations, and the Posse Comitatus.

Most of these views are often dismissed by the mainstream legal profession as simple nonsense promoted by crackpots. And for the most part, the Patriots’ legal theories completely disintegrate when factually examined in the cold light of day. Nonetheless, the movement’s ranks continue to grow, and the mainstream courts, particularly in rural jurisdictions, now are faced with a sudden deluge of ``common law’’ documents that throw an already overburdened system into a tangle.

All the same, there is no law against being a crackpot. Otherwise, hundreds of Elvis sighters and UFO abductees would be rotting in prison cells alongside the Patriots, most of whom also are quite free to spread their conspiracy theories. The concern, rather, is what happens when the agenda of the Patriots, constructed out of an insular, paranoiac view of reality, tries to assert itself in the mainstream world. If their form of ``republic’’ comes to be, most of society’s current protections against racial injustice would vanish.

Believers’ attempts to effect this agenda is certain to come into real conflict with mainstream Americans. Moreover, when Patriots begin to threaten public officials with hanging and other kinds of bodily harm, the potential for violence enters into the picture.

``What is going on in our society when somebody can come up with an idea like this, and a package of materials like this, and attract 200 people to a community meeting?’’ wonders Ken Toole, director of the Montana Human Rights Network. Toole has attended many of the sessions.

``To me, it's almost like a canary in a coal mine, and it's very indicative of how negative and hostile we've become about ourselves -- that somehow these people have managed to objectify the government at all levels, blame it for all kinds of things, and look for a way to kind of focus that anger.’’

'Molon Labe!' Religious-right Warriors Led By Gen. Boykin Eye Their Modern-day Spartan Army

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

One of the more potentially nasty political coalitions on the Right is the on-again-off-again flirtation that goes on between the Patriot/militia movement -- which likes to cast itself itself as secular, but is riddled with deep (and often extremist) veins of fundamentalist Christianity -- and the Religious Right, which likes to cast itself as mainstream but is riddled throughout with veins of extremist right-wing paranoia.

It also gives creatures like Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin -- the modern-day General Ripper whose exploits range from the Waco disaster to Abu Ghraib, and who makes his living nowadays promoting the theory that Islamic radicals are secretly promoting Marxism, complete with appearances on the Glenn Beck show in support of his 'Islamic caliphate' theory -- plenty of opportunity to pitch their wares.

It also makes for some moments of high comedy, such as this exchange (via >Digby) that Kyle at Right Wing Watch happened to catch, with Focus on the Family's Tony Perkins egging Boykin on:

BOYKIN: We reflected on that, we also reflected on the fact that there was a famous battle at a place called Thermopylae where the Greek King Leonidas fought against the massive armies of Xerxes with 300 men. But as Tony pointed out in our discussions, they not only saved their homes, their villages, they saved democracy. They preserved democracy for all eternity, if we leverage that and take advantage of it.

And one of the great things that I like about that whole story is the fact that when Xerxes said to Leonidas, with his 300 men there, and Xerxes with his massive army said to him, 'Lay down your weapons,' Leonidas sent the message back, and said, 'Molon labe!' 'Come and take them!'

Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm at the point now where I am sayingady to say 'Molon labe!' to those in Washington, to those in the special interest groups that want to take my liberties, that want to rob my grandchildren of the ability to have the kind of America that I grew up in. I'm at the point where I'm saying, 'Molon labe!'

Because I will not be silent. I will not sit on the pews, confident in my salvation -- I know that I'm going to heaven, I know that I'm redeemed of my sins. But that's not enough.

Nevermind, of course, that these guys are promoting the movie version of Thermopylae, which has only a passing resemblance to the actual history -- namely, the reality that it was Sparta that was the great slaveholding society then (there is no evidence the Persians under Xerxes owned slaves) and the version of "democracy" they were preserving was not exactly one that preserved people's freedoms.

Of greater significance, though, is that "molon labe" has become the battle cry/slogan of the new militias, cropping up in all kinds of places -- including that incident in which that Glenn Beck fan was arrested while scoping out a supposed federal detention facility.

As I explained awhile back:

A common organizational theme popping up among the new militiamen -- you'll find it scattered throughout the above site -- is "Μολών Λaβέ" -- or "Molon labe," which is Greek for "Come and get them." As Wikipedia notes, it's the sentimental equivalent of "Over my dead body."

I have voted in Safety Joe's poll for the next friend's list he should make and I have suggested a state by state Μολών Λaβέ so that those who are near each other can prepare a response plan.

We grossly outnumber them - if we organize. How can 5, 10, 20, or even 30 cops stand down every Μολών Λaβέ patriot who bands together in defense of each other?

Talk is nice but now is the time for action. Organize with your geographically close Μολών Λaβέ friend and prepare a response plan.

Another glimpse into this mindset can be found at the MySpace website for Come and Take It Radio:

Join hosts Matt Conner and Erin Cassity as they proudly lead the way into the dark bleak abyss that will be the Obama Presidency as the drum beating leftys that have joined with us for the past eight years run off into the shadows to back pedal and support Obama's wars for the Elite. We will speak the truth that the true "Conservative" will be so desperately seeking in this new age of world governance. Everything from preserving our gun rights to how to prepare for the fun of the looming depression, these Texas Nationalists will cover in this Sunday evening show.

If you scroll around the site (recommended only for those with a shower handy), you'll find posts from likeminded souls, such as the white supremacist who posted this:


[Full-size version here.]

One website even offers all kinds of "Molon Labe" clothing items you can get -- such as these fine ladies' panties:

I wonder if this is what Jerry Boykin has in mind too. Purity of essence and all that.

Fox Talkers Seem To Be Hoping That The Wisconsin Protests Become Violent

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

One of the significant achievements of the Wisconsin protests is that this gathering of teachers and firefighters and public workers has been simultaneously forceful but peaceful.

This really is a surprise only for people who believe right-wing propaganda about the unions being populated by violent thugs. So that means it especially throws off the talkers at Fox News, who have been leading the right-wing media parade attempting to smear the protesters as violent thugs.

Notice how, in her interview on Thursday, the morning after the Republicans in the Senate rammed their union-bashing legislation through, Megyn Kelly tries to get Jesse Jackson to somehow hint at violence in the Wisconsin protests?

And Jackson simply wouldn't bite.

Let's hope it stays this way. Fuses are getting short in Madison, but it isn't the protesters who are losing their cools.

O'Reilly Thinks It's 'Insane' To See The Radical Right As A Serious Domestic-Terrorism Problem

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

Bill O'Reilly has been sneering all week at the notion that the threat of terrorism from the American radical right is, in terms of domestic terrorism, of greater significance than that from homegrown Islamic radicals -- even after the most recent case of domestic terrorism to hit the news this week involved the arrest of a neo-Nazi for the attempted Martin Luther King Day parade bombing in Spokane.

Of course, O'Reilly is in deep denial about this reality, as is Rep. Peter King, whose "Muslim radicalization" hearings have been the talk of Fox all week. Indeed, when Geraldo Rivera pointed it out to O'Reilly on his Fox show Friday, O'Reilly acted as though it was the first he'd heard of the matter. That's some knowledgeable insight on domestic terrorism, eh?

RIVERA: He's got a point. You know, I understand his point. His larger point, which I totally endorse, is that it is unfair, as you mention in your lead-in, to single out this one group.

O'REILLY: OK. Now, I didn't say it was unfair. I said some people, like you, crazy left wingers, think it is.

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: Can I tell -- it's not 126. That's Eric Holder's number of the people prosecuted for terrorism. But your audience has to know that of the 126, we're talking about 50 American citizens. The vast majority of the 50 American citizens are like the knuckleheads from Newberg, entrapped into doing terror with co-conspirators who are really FBI agents leading them down the primrose path.

O'REILLY: If you look -- if you look at the totality of the problem, in the world, not the United States, it is Muslim-jihad generated. Congressman Green has the nerve to foist upon the American public that the KKK should be equally looked at when the KKK hasn't had any -- any kind of impact on this country for decades. So you're saying to yourself...

RIVERA: I don't think so that's true. I think the KKK --

O'REILLY: Do you think the KKK has any influence in this country right now?

RIVERA: Let me -- let me tell you and your audience that January 17, the last act of attempted terror in the United States, that was a neo-Nazi, that guy in Spokane, Washington, who planted a weapon of mass destruction on the route of the Martin Luther King Day parade march. And that was terrorism. This was a neo-Nazi. And why wouldn't a hearing on domestic terror include a heinous act like that?

O'REILLY: Was he associated with a group?

RIVERA: Yes. He was a neo-Nazi, I forget -- which -- which of the...

O'REILLY: According to the Spokane police, he was a lone crazy nut.

RIVERA: That's not true. He is definitely a neo-Nazi. The National Alliance. I have a note. The National Alliance.

O'REILLY: The National Alliance.

Look, I'm not opposed to having hearings about these people, but to raise...

RIVERA: Peter King is a great guy.

O'REILLY: ... them to the equivalency of the jihad is insane.

Wanna know what's insane? The fact that we have 23 identifiable instances of serious right-wing domestic terrorism of the past two and a half years, and guys like O'Reilly can just whitewash it away:

Know what else is insane? That guys like O'Reilly can keep citing utterly discredited misinformation such as Frank Gaffney's utterly nonsensical claim that "85 percent of mosques" in America are radicalized -- and can simply get away with it -- because they're too big to care.

Yep, there's plenty of "insane" to go around on Fox.

Another 'Isolated Incident': Alaska Militiamen Arrested In Conspiracy To Kill State Troopers, Judges

Schaeffer Cox, center, with some of his fellow Alaska militiamen

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

Gee, I wonder if Bill O'Reilly is still so certain that the radical right isn't the country's most significant domestic-terrorism threat:

Five people in the Fairbanks area were arrested Thursday by state and federal law enforcement on charges connected with an alleged plot to kidnap or kill state troopers and a Fairbanks judge, according to the Alaska State Troopers.

Francis "Schaeffer" Cox, Lonnie Vernon, Karen Vernon, Coleman Barney and Michael Anderson are accused of conspiring to commit murder, kidnapping, and arson, as well as weapons misconduct, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence, according to trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters in a written statement late Thursday.

An investigation "revealed extensive plans to kidnap or kill Alaska state troopers and a Fairbanks judge," the statement said. The plans included "extensive surveillance" on the homes of two Fairbanks troopers, the statement said.

"Investigation also revealed that extensive surveillance on troopers in the Fairbanks area had occurred, specifically on the locations of the homes for two Alaska state troopers," the statement said. "Furthermore, Cox et. al. had acquired a large cache of weapons in order to carry out attacks against their targeted victims. Some of the weapons known to be in the cache are prohibited by state or federal law."

U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler said Lonnie Vernon, 55, was arrested for threatening to kill a federal judge. She said more information about federal charges would be released today Fairbanks Police Chief Loren Zager said the operation involved multiple police actions related to Fairbanks-area members of the "sovereign citizen" movement.

Of course, we were pointing out earlier this week how law enforcement officers are the first in line to be targeted by these extremists -- which is why conservative hysterics over disseminating intelligence about these extremists can be so harmful.

Clearly, the troopers in Alaska were well aware of the nature of the problem they had on their hands. Because it's been around awhile. Notably, in the more recent past, Cox and his pals were part of the militia faction that supported Joe Miller in his Palin-sponsored run for the Senate.

David Holthouse at Media Matters has more.

It appears Cox's issues with law enforcement first cropped up in a court hearing in December:

Schaeffer Cox appeared at the Fairbanks courthouse Wednesday morning as scheduled despite saying last week he would treat another court date "like an invitation to a Tupperware party."

However, Cox, the 26-year-old head of the Alaska Peacemakers Militia, did not address the issue of a trial date on a weapons charge as the hearing was intended to do. He instead attempted to serve criminal papers and a restraining order from a "de jure court" on District Court Judge Patrick Hammers.

He also told an Alaska State Trooper after the hearing the militia has the troopers "outmanmed, outgunned and we could probably have you all dead in one night." But Cox added he could not see himself shooting someone who lives in the same town as him.

About a half-dozen supporters and members of the militia accompanied Cox at the hearing. Initially, militia member Ken Thesing spoke for Cox, calling himself Cox's representative and "counsel before God."

Hammers identified himself as a judge at Cox' request, which was not enough to dissuade Cox in his belief that the Alaska court system is a for-profit corporation. Cox, who also refused to take off his trademark hat in the courtroom, insists the positions of the state judiciary were never actually filled and the court system is a "pre-processing company" with no jurisdiction over Alaskans.

"You're now being treated as a criminal engaged in criminal activity and you're being served in that manner," Cox said.

As with so many other cases where law enforcement is being targeted, "sovereign citizenship" ideology appears to be a significant component of Cox's belief system:

Cox, who is facing a misdemeanor weapons misconduct charge for not immediately letting a Fairbanks police officer know he was carrying a concealed weapon last March, has in recent weeks been advocating for the concept of "sovereign citizenship."

Cox claims he and all Americans are sovereigns, or kings and queens, and no one is required to obey laws unless not doing so would directly harm other sovereigns. Much of his claims center around the belief President Lincoln subverted the original Constitution and replaced it with a copy that incorporated the United States.

Much more on "sovereign citizens" here.

UPDATE: Reader ricky directs us to the following cartoon commentary:

Who'da Thunk? Evangelicals Denounce Glenn Beck As A "New Age" Mormon Because Of New Feel-good Book

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

Back when he was blaming President Obama for the fact that so many malinformed right-wingers believe that he is Muslim, Glenn Beck was fond of remarking that Obama's brand of Christianity is "a Christianity that many Americans just don't recognize," and "I don't know what that is, other than it's not Muslim, it's not Christian. It's a perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ as most Christians know it."

As Jon adroitly observed at the time, he was playing with fire: "Sadly for the Fox News host, as many of his Tea Bagging allies view his Mormon faith in precisely the same terms."

Of course, you'll recall that much of the thrust of Beck's work in the past year, particularly his big shindig on the Capitol Mall, was about marrying the Tea Partiers with the Religious Right. But we had to wonder how long it would be before his new "friends" on the evangelical set couldn't stomach his Mormonism any longer.

Well, now we know. From WorldNutDaily:

Christian author: Glenn Beck actually New Age 'anti-Christ'


A Christian author and national speaker has just released a video in which he flays radio and TV commentator Glenn Beck as a pagan, New Age "anti-Christ" who is deluding many believers away from the Bible's teachings and leading them toward Eastern mysticism.

Brannon Howse of Worldview Weekend in Collierville, Tenn., who was once a defender of Beck, is now blasting the popular Fox News host based on content of Beck's new book, "Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life," co-authored by psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow.

"Back in August of 2010, I tried warning folks that Glenn Beck was a pagan, New Age, universalistic Mormon, and indeed, he now has revealed his hand," Howse says in the video, which is based on a column he wrote earlier this year. "Beck's book is nothing less than a promotion of universalism, postmodernism and pagan spirituality, also known as the New Age movement."

I doubt that this will even slightly deter the intrepid Beck, who mostly tries to tamp down these kinds of controversies and pretend they didn't happen. At some point, he may have to actually confront these kinds of voices, but most likely he will try to spin it as vindication somehow that he was right all along. Or something.

But it's also a reminder of the pitfalls that await the presidential candidacy of Beck's fellow Mormon, Mitt Romney. This should be an interesting year ahead.

Tsunami Warnings: If Republican Budget Cutters Have Their Way, We Won't Get Them

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

[H/t Karoli]

Digby has a great point about tsunami warnings:

I'm sitting here now, six blocks from the beach in California, waiting for the wave to hit the west coast. Luckily it doesn't appear to be dangerous to us at this point.

The good news is that if the Republicans have their way, when one of these things does hit us in this earthquake zone, we won't have warning:

Thursday night's massive earthquake in Japan and the resulting tsunami warnings that have alarmed U.S. coasts, seem likely to ignite a debate over a previously little-discussed subsection of the spending bills currently being debated in Congress.

Tucked into the House Republican continuing resolution are provisions cutting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including the National Weather Service, as well as humanitarian and foreign aid.

Presented as part of a larger deficit reduction package, each cut could be pitched as tough-choice, belt-tightening on behalf of the GOP. But advocates for protecting those funds pointed to the crisis in Japan as evidence that without the money, disaster preparedness and relief would suffer.

"These are very closely related," National Weather Service Employees Organization President Dan Sobien told The Huffington Post with respect to the budget cuts and the tsunami. "The National Weather Service has the responsibility of warning about tsunami's also. It is true that there is no plan to not fund the tsunami buoys. Everyone knows you just can't do that. Still if those [House] cuts go through there will be furloughs at both of the tsunami warning centers that protect the whole country and, in fact, the whole world."

The House full-year continuing resolution, which has not passed the Senate, would indeed make steep cuts to several programs and functions that would serve in a response to natural disasters (not just tsunamis) home and abroad. According to Sobien, the bill cuts $126 million from the budget of the NWS. Since, however, the cuts are being enacted over a six-month period (the length of the continuing resolution) as opposed to over the course of a full year, the effect would be roughly double.

Just remember: When it comes to disaster preparedness and relief, Republicans are the folks who brought you the Hurricane Katrina fiasco.

Domestic Terrorism Of The Right-Wing Kind: Spokane Arrest Manifests Once Again Where The Threat Lies

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

Not that it'll ever happen, but boy, does Bill O'Reilly owe Mark Potok an apology.

One day after castigating Potok publicly on his Fox News show for contending that "our biggest domestic terror threat ... pretty clearly comes from the radical right in this country", Potok's point was pretty clearly substantiated by the arrest of 36-year-old Kevin Harpham for planting a backpack bomb along the parade route on Martin Luther King Day in Spokane.

Bill Morlin has more details at Hatewatch:

The emerging picture suggests 36-year-old Kevin William Harpham is a “lone wolf’’ with a military ordinance background and apparently increasingly extreme radical-right views that may have prompted the attempt to carry out a mass murder on the late civil rights leader’s birthday. He is also a man who has joined a neo-Nazi group, apparently posted to racial extremist websites and worried that the 9/11 attacks were actually a government conspiracy.

The domestic terrorism suspect faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted of the initial two charges he faces: attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and possession of an improvised explosive device. Other federal charges could come when a federal grand jury in Spokane reviews the case on March 22.

“This one is very serious,” federal defender Roger Peven said outside the courtroom, moments after he was appointed to represent Harpham.

The backpack bomb, reportedly containing shrapnel dipped in rat poison to enhance bleeding, was spotted moments before hundreds of people were to march by it. Authorities rerouted the parade immediately.

At some risk, a bomb squad defused the device and kept it intact — likely leading the FBI to capture a windfall of forensic evidence, possibly including fingerprints and DNA that could have identified Harpham as the suspect.

Of special note is the fact that Harpham appears to have been an admirer of Alex Jones' conspiracy theories:

On another Web site, Harpham posted that he watched the video “Loose Change” — popularized by the antigovernment “Patriot” group We Are Change — that the U.S. government was behind the attacks of Sept. 11.

Leading anti-Semites, including Christopher Bollyn, have suggested that Jews were responsible for 9/11.

On the “Loose Change” Facebook page, there are references to a “Zionist connection” and links to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion — a famous forgery that is a touchstone for the neo-Nazi right, including the late founder of the Aryan Nations, Richard Butler, who accuse Jews of plotting to control the world.

“I typically don’t buy into these conspiracies, then my friends told me to watch this video called ‘Loose Change,’” Harpham posted on another website forum devoted to steam automobiles.

“Some of the stuff was speculation but overall it changed my opinion greatly,’’ the Harpham posting said.

It's not coincidental that, as Alexander Zaitchik recently reported for Rolling Stone, Gabrielle Giffords' would-be assassin, Jared Loughner, was also an admirer of Loose Change.

Also worth remembering: Harpham happens to fit precisely the warning of the dangers inherent in rising right-wing extremism made two years ago by the Department of Homeland Security in its much-maligned bulletin for law enforcement -- specifically the key language in the report that upset all those conservatives:

DHS/I&A assesses that lone wolves and small terrorist cells embracing violent rightwing extremist ideology are the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States. Information from law enforcement and nongovernmental organizations indicates lone wolves and small terrorist cells have shown intent—and, in some cases, the capability—to commit violent acts.

[..] DHS/I&A has concluded that white supremacist lone wolves pose the most significant domestic terrorist threat because of their low profile and autonomy—separate from any formalized group—which hampers warning efforts.

[..] Similarly, recent state and municipal law enforcement reporting has warned of the dangers of rightwing extremists embracing the tactics of “leaderless resistance” and of lone wolves carrying out acts of violence.

... U//FOUO) Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists. DHS/I&A is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.

Of course, conservatives have been trying to whitewash away the existence of these radicals.

Unfortunately for them -- and the rest of us too -- the radicals won't let them do it for long.
In their eagerness to promote Peter King's dubious and nakedly Islamophobic hearings on homegrown Islamic-radical terrorism, O'Reilly and his Fox colleagues have openly sneered at suggestions that we ought to do the same for right-wing extremists and their mounting acts of violence. This case definitively underscores that need, embodied in the 22 cases we've documented over the past two and a half years:

Simultaneously, it's also not very clear that the Islamic radicals pose a serious threat in terms of domestic terrorist activity. Certainly, there's plenty of reasons to believe that the threat of homegrown Islamic terrorism is wildly overstated -- not least of which is the fact that, as Zaid Jilani at ThinkProgress reported, terrorism incidents in the USA have been coming from non-Muslim sources at nearly twice the rate as that of Muslims.

Indeed, it's probably overstated to the same degree that the danger of right-wing extremists is understated. Perhaps there needs to be some reassessment of our terrorism priorities here -- particularly in the media.

David Holthouse at Media Matters has more on the suspect. See the Spokesman Review's coverage of Hapham's court appearance, too. You can read the federal complaint here (application/pdf - 55.64 KB).

No, Rep. King, We Indeed Cannot Be In Denial

[Cross-posed at Crooks and Liars.]

Rep. Peter King, in his opening remarks this morning to kick off his congressional hearings on the "problem" of "Muslim radicalization":

This Committee cannot live in denial which is what some would have us do when they suggest that this hearing dilute its focus by investigating threats unrelated to Al Qaeda. The Department of Homeland Security and this committee were formed in response to the al Qaeda attacks of 9/11. There is no equivalency of threat between al Qaeda and neo-Nazis, environmental extremists or other isolated madmen. Only al Qaeda and its Islamist affiliates in this country are part of an international threat to our nation. Indeed by the Justice Department’s own record not one terror related case in the last two years involved neo-Nazis, environmental extremists, militias or anti-war groups.

How unfortunate for Rep. King that, just the day before -- and apparently before he could edit his opening remarks -- the FBI arrested a white supremacist for planting a backpack bomb along the parade route for Spokane's Martin Luther King Day celebration in January ... an act labeled by the FBI as an act of domestic terrorism.

He was reminded in short order by Democrat Bennie Thompson:



[H/t Karoli for the videos]

I want to reiterate, however, my belief that a hearing on the linkage between extreme ideology and violent action be a broad-based examination. Yesterday, the FBI made an arrest in a recent Martin Luther King Day bombing attempt. News reports identify the suspect as a member of the same white supremacist group that influenced Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. I urge you, Mr. Chairman, to hold a hearing examining the Homeland Security threat posed by anti-government and white supremacist groups.


As a committee on Homeland Security, our mission is to examine threats to this nation's security. A narrow focus that excludes known threats lacks clarity and may be myopic.

Indeed, as Zaid Jilani at ThinkProgress explains, not only was King embarrassingly wrong about right-wing domestic terrorist of recent vintage, he was wrong about the past year as well -- in which there were four terrorism incidents involving neo-Nazis. And that doesn't begin to count the militia cases, beginning with the Hutaree folks.

For what it's worth, American neo-Nazis are indeed frequently linked up with likeminded fascists in Europe and Australia, and yes, they are all outspoken in their desire to topple the United States government. Peter King may be living in denial, but the rest of us should know that neo-Nazism is indeed an international terrorist conspiracy to destroy America. In case you were wondering.

And as long as Rep. King is trotting out graphics, here's one for him to consider:

If We Need To Hold Hearings On Muslim Domestic Terrorists, Why Not The Same On Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists?

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

If you want to see conservatives get all twisted into knots, try asking them why, if it makes sense for Peter King to hold his Islamophobic hearings on the supposed threat of domestic terrorism from Muslim Americans, we shouldn't hold similar hearings examining why we're seeing a real surge in domestic terrorism by right-wing extremists.

Take, for example, Bill O'Reilly last night. He got all bent out of shape over Mark Potok's exchange with CNN's Suzanne Malveaux earlier this week:

MALVEAUX: If you can from your study of tracking radical groups, potentially hate groups, what do you think of this hearing? Is al Qaeda radicalizing Muslims? Is that our biggest homegrown terrorism threat right now?

POTOK: Well, I think it's not our biggest domestic terror threat. I think that pretty clearly comes from the radical right in this country. Although I would certainly not minimize the threat of jihadist terrorism in this country. Obviously, we have seen a fair amount of it.

Of course, O'Reilly deceptively edited out the last two sentences, and then replied:

O'REILLY: Are you kidding me? The radical right? The last terror act assigned to them was the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. I mean, think about what the guy just said.

Muslim terrorists have killed tens of thousands of people all over the world, correct?
How many people have the radical right killed?

Well, Bill, just to get you up to speed: There have been many, many more right-wing terrorist acts on American soil since 1995 -- including the bombing of the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, just for starters.

All told, there were over 60 major cases of right-wing domestic terrorism in the ten years after Oklahoma City.

Even more important, let's talk about just the past two and a half years:

We've documented, to date, 22 cases of domestic terrorism since July 2008 involving right-wing extremists of various stripes, all inflicting (or attempting to inflict) violence on a variety of "liberal" and government targets. Compare this to the Bipartisan Policy Center's report on homegrown Islamic-radical terrorism, which documented only seven incidents, all of which occurred in 2009.

Which not only raises the question, "Why not hold hearings to explore the growing radicalization of far-right extremists?", but a similarly pertinent: "Where are the media?"

This is especially the case, given that the SPLC recently released a fresh report finding that the number of hate groups in America, for the first time ever, now exceeds a thousand. This was a key point Potok discussed in his appearance on Cenk Uygur's MSNBC show.

Potok also had the audacity to point out that if a Muslim lawmaker were to hold hearings on right-wing fundamentalist Christians' roles in the radicalization of far-right extremists, the pitchforks would be out en masse.

Of course, Dana Perino disagrees, claiming (in the source of this week's biggest belly laugh): "If there was a hearing on radicalization amongst Christianity, there would have been no protesters". Yeah, those of us who remember the endless right-wing shrieking over the Department of Homeland Security's bulletin for law enforcement about the threat of increasing right-wing extremism -- they were insulting mainstream conservatives and veterans and calling them terrorists! -- got a good long laugh over that one.

Exhibit A that Potok was on the money was O'Reilly's outrage -- which bubbled up beyond his opening Talking Points Memo segment, attacking both Potok and Ezra Klein for bringing up Christian extremists (though frankly, Klein's remarks about "Christian kids" supposedly involved in school shootings as part of the domestic-terrorism picture was in fact off-base). But O'Reilly thought it was outrageous, just outrageous, that anyone would think the radical right still posed a significant terrorist threat to Americans, and had on both Alan Colmes and Monica Crowley to talk it over some more.



[H/t Karoli]

It is not to conservatives' credit that they so eagerly and adamantly try to whitewash away the existence of right-wing extremism -- even though such hysterics have demonstrably made law-enforcement officers less safe in the field, because it short-circuits the flow of needed intelligence.

And it's really shameful on O'Reilly's case, because one of the more vivid terrorist acts of the past couple of years committed by a right-wing extremist was the assassination of Dr. George Tiller by in Kansas -- a murder for which O'Reilly bore no small chunk of culpability.

But then, it has since become an article of faith among right-wingers that domestic terrorists who assassinate abortion providers are not terrorists at all. Sarah Palin, we recall, refused to acknowledge that abortion-clinic attacks were domestic terrorism.

Along similar lines, there was Palin this weekend, claiming that Gerald Loughner's lethal attack on Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona in January was in any way related to terrorism:



[H/t Digby]

PALIN: Why is the administration so naive in assuming the American public is going to accept a comment like P.J.'s that essentially equates a crazed maniac in Arizona, shooting Gabbie Giffords to this terrorist who tried to and was successful in gunning down our servicemen overseas as he did yell out Allahu Akbar?

O'Reilly and Crowley similarly dismissed such notions. But the reality is that Loughner's act was clearly terrorist in intent, and it's similarly clear that his twisted worldview came straight out of the radical right, including most notably the paranoid alternative universe of Alex Jones.


It seems that conservatives' mania for whitewashing away the existence of far-right domestic terrorism is reaching a fever pitch just at the same time that it's actually becoming resurgent -- and it never seems to occur to them that in doing so, they are creating cover and giving them implicit permission to proceed apace. Funny how that works.

BREAKING NEWS: Arrest Made In Spokane MLK Day Backpack-Bomb Case UPDATED

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

You all remember that "isolated event" on MLK Day in Spokane, where someone left a bomb in a backpack along the day's parade route, a bomb that would have been extremely lethal if it had not been discovered.

Well, there's been a break in the case:

A significant break in Martin Luther King Day backpack bomb investigation in Spokane occurred this morning when an FBI SWAT team executed a search warrant and reportedly made one arrest Wednesday morning in the small northeastern Washington town of Addy.

FBI officials weren’t immediately available for comment, but indicated the name of the suspect would be forthcoming in a news release.

The case has been investigated as a case of domestic terrorism.

Addy is a community in Stevens County, in the northeastern corner of Washington state, bordering Canada. The county has long been a hotbed of extremist and Christian Identity activity.

Of course, in Spokane, no one was calling this an "isolated event.

More details as they arrive.

UPDATE: The Spokesman-Review reports that the suspect is a 36-year-old Kevin Harpham from Stevens County:

An ex soldier with ties to the white supremacist movement has been taken into custody in connection with the planting of a backpack bomb along the planned route of the Martin Luther King Jr. March in downtown Spokane, authorities have confirmed.

Kevin William Harpham, 36, of Colville, could face life imprisonment on charges of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and possession of an unregistered explosive device, according to documents on file in U.S. District Court. An initial court appearance is scheduled for this afternoon.

Harpham was arrested this morning during a raid at his home near Addy, Wash. by dozens of federal agents who had been assembling in Spokane during the past few days.
The Southern Poverty Law Center confirmed that Harpham in 2004 was a member of the National Alliance, which is one of the most visible white supremacist organizations in the nation.

It was founded by the late William Pierce, who authored The Turner Diaries, a novel about a future race war. That book was believed to be the blue print behind the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh.

“What to me this arrest suggests is that the Martin Luther King Day attack is what it always looked like: A terror-mass murder attempt directed at black people and their sympathizers,” said Mark Potok, who is the director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project that tracks and investigates hate groups.

Methinks Bill O'Reilly owes Potok an apology.

NPR's Own Weak Knees Let Lying Bullies Like James O'Keefe Score Another Easy Victory

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

So James O'Keefe, the lying criminal scam artist whose deceptively edited videos -- along with a complicit media who swallowed them whole -- brought down ACORN has scored another scalp with his latest hit job targeting NPR: Not only has Ron Schiller, the fool caught on video being way too frank with strangers, stepped down in advance of his planned departure, but NPR CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation) is out, too.

Not a bad day's work for a lying criminal scam artist.

Naturally, Fox News was all over the story, with every one of its evening-show hosts -- O'Reilly, Hannity, and Van Susteren -- featuring segments on the video. Of course, there was only scant mention of the fact that O'Keefe was a lying criminal scam artist whose track record of deceptive editing was well-established. As Ellen at Newshounds puts it: "Who Cares If James O'Keefe Is A Lying Creep With A Criminal History? He Hates ACORN And NPR, So What's Not To Like If You're Fox News?"

But really, what can you expect from a news organization with such a sterling record of running like scared sheep whenever conservatives get out their Full Umbrage schtick and run at them and their federal funding with it? Sure enough, the first people to toss Schiller under the bus were his colleagues at NPR.

No doubt at Fox this will be spun as a defeat of a "liberal" media organ, except that NPR is anything but a liberal entity. They specialize in classic spineless-Beltway-liberal behavior -- hippie-bashing, conventional-wisdom genuflection, he-said-she-said 'balance' in its reporting and the-left-does-it-too false equivocation. It's why Juan Williams managed to hang on as long as he did, and why Mara Liasson is still there.

And in this case, it's pretty funny. As the WaPo's Stephen Stromberg noted, it's hard to see exactly what it is we're supposed to be outraged about.

After all, what has the Fox folks outraged were his comments about the Tea Party -- which actually were perfectly defensible renditions of cold fact. Are Greta and Byron really trying to pretend that there weren't Tea Partiers bringing loaded weapons out to public rallies? Really?

All in all, it's a classic one-day non-story. Hope the Fox reporters enjoy their bit of breathlessness.

Who knows what piece of recycled propaganda from lying criminal artists they'll treat as legitimate news next.

CNN Tries To Tackle White Anxiety -- By Treating White Nationalists As Credible Sources

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

[Louis C.K.answers CNN preemptively. Warning: NSFW.]

This was the headline yesterday at CNN:

Are whites racially oppressed?

"We went from being a privileged group to all of a sudden becoming whites, the new victims,'' says Charles Gallagher, a sociologist at La Salle University in Pennsylvania who researches white racial attitudes and was baffled to find that whites see themselves as a minority.

"You have this perception out there that whites are no longer in control or the majority. Whites are the new minority group."

Call it racial jujitsu: A growing number of white Americans are acting like a racially oppressed majority. They are adopting the language and protest tactics of an embattled minority group, scholars and commentators say.

Considering the racial angst that underlies so much of the Tea Party movement, this actually might have been an interesting and worthwhile subject to tackle. And it starts out promisingly, with quotes from smart people like Tim Wise, discussing the role of economic insecurity in these fears.

But then it devotes a great deal of space to the views of people like the Political Cesspool's James Edwards and VDare's Peter Brimelow -- hate-group leaders who are allowed to basically spew their venom as though their ideas were worth considering in the first place. And there's not a word devoted to discussing the hatefulness of the core ideology they promoted.

As Todd Gregory at Media Matters notes:

The most glaring problem with CNN's treatment of Brimelow and Edwards is that it presents the nature of their views as a he said/she said matter -- i.e., the Southern Poverty Law Center says they run hate groups, but they deny that. Any fair-minded look at their public statements would show that they espouse the view that minorities are inferior to white people.

Another important point about this treatment of white racial anxiety: It is completely unfair to white people who don't hold hateful views of minorities. If you are seeking perspective on "what white people think about race," you have committed journalistic malpractice by quoting people like Brimelow and Edwards. They can't be said to be in any way representative of what white people think.

Treating Brimelow and Edwards this way has the same effect as treating the New Black Panther Party as representative of black people. They're not. Plain and simple.

It's one thing to lend space to the views of racial hatemongers. It's quite another to do so without any kind of countering opinion. Yet the closes the CNN piece comes to doing that is to simply mention that the SPLC considers the subjects to be extremists -- as if that bit of proxy is all that's needed to explain to readers that no, really, white people are the opposite of being oppressed.

Gregory also observes:

Even if your goal is to accurately report on the views of people who hold "pro-White" views or sympathize with "white nationalists," setting up interviews with them and disseminating their message to a wider audience is the wrong way to go about it. People who are openly bigoted make plenty of statements about what they think, which could easily be quoted. Allowing them to offer fresh thoughts through your reporting presents them an opportunity to promote their views.

This is, of course, always a danger when it comes time to report on white supremacists of various stripes: In order for your readers to understand them, you have to present their views. But to do so without explaining to those same readers why these views are misbegotten and grounded in misconceptions, lies and pure bigotry is, in fact, profoundly irresponsible.