Notwithstanding that this flu business will end up being a smaller deal than the tone of the news would tell you, the wingnuts are in Full Freakout Mode over his thing:

1. Glenn Beck thinks that Obama is reacting to the swine flu outbreak too fast — fast enough to fully staff the DHS while we’re not looking!
2. Fred Thompson (when did he get a radio show?) thinks that the Obama Administration is reacting so fast, that it has to be political.  Thompson should be ashamed of himself.  People of his age are at greater risk for the flu.
3. And the Drug Addict himself thinks that the government is using this crisis to get us conditioned to taking orders.  So — can we get an Executive Order that makes sure that Rush does NOT get the evacuation notices during this year’s hurricane season?

A good rundown on the obstructionism over pandemic flu preparation is from John Nichols who makes this point:

Rove specifically complained that Obey’s proposal included “$462 million for the Centers for Disease Control, and $900 million for pandemic flu preparations.”

This was wrong, the political operative charged, because the health care sector added jobs in 2008.

As bizarre as that criticism may sound — especially now — Rove’s argument was picked up by House and Senate Republicans, who made it an essential message in their attacks on the legislation. Even as Rove and his compatriots argued that a stimulus bill should include initiatives designed to shore-up and maintain any recovery, they consistently, and loudly, objected to spending money to address the potentially devastating economic impact of a major public health emergency.

I want to be really clear about why I don’t think that these Threat Assessments are as threatening to run-of-the-mill wingnuts as they are so very eager to claim. Let’s start with what the US News and World Report wrote back in 2005 n the occasion of a SPLC report on right wing terror:

In the 10 years since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing killed 168 people, roughly 60 right-wing terrorist plots have been uncovered in the United States, according to an upcoming report by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project. The plots, all foiled by law enforcement, reportedly included violent plans by antigovernment militia groups, racist skinhead organizations, and Ku Klux Klan members to use various types of chemical bombs and other weapons.

The SPLC was writing this report to support efforts to get the BushCo DHS to work as hard to curb right-wing terror threats as they were for the left wing ones. The left wing treat report had been leaked earlier that year, and to date, no one knows if there really was a right wing one. But read the whole thing and take a good look at the types of actions that were stopped by law enforcement doing what we’d expect them to do.

In addition, the FBI publishes periodic reports on Domestic Terrorism (this one covers 2001-2005, there are probably more recent ones not released or residing in places I didn’t look). This document lists out a number of the preventions and incidents the FBI has been concerned with as well as some discussion of future expectations. Here are just a few of the kind of preventions and incidents (not including the Islamic terrorist-related incidents) that the DHS Threat Assessments are intended to red flag:

Continue reading →

I gather that the manufactured outrage of the day is over President Obama shaking the hand of Hugo Chavez. Last week’s manufactured outrage over the DHS Threat Assessments deserves abit more information — especially as the remarkable dishonesty around all of this is being used to not just work the refs but to also try to normalize the violent rhetoric that they so like bullying people with. This weekend’s reading brought up alot of good information contra the claims and talking points being proffered for this business, so this post is in two parts:

• Michael Savage has joined a lawsuit suing AG Holder and Secretary Napolitano — even though the assessment was commissioned and done by Bush-era staff.
• David Neiwert takes a long look at how vets get the attention of the FBI — it is by actually joining the violent extremist groups.  And the DOD is sharing info — “regarding Iraqi and Afghanistan war veterans whose involvement in white supremacy and/or militia sovereign citizen extremist groups poses a domestic terrorism threat”. Note that being a regular commenter over at Red State or something doesn’t count.
• And more on the vets angle — how come the purveyors of the outrage on this thing didn’t crank up the noise machine a year ago?
  

  The report, titled “White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11,” compiles statistics from hundreds of FBI cases from October 2001 to May 2008. It finds that U.S. military experience “is found throughout the white supremacist extremist movement.” It adds: “FBI reporting indicates extremist leaders have historically favored recruiting active and former military personnel for their knowledge of firearms, explosives, and tactical skills and their access to weapons and intelligence in preparation for an anticipated war against the federal government, Jews, and people of color.”

  And it’s not just veterans who are drawn to the cause. “FBI cases also document instances of active duty military personnel having volunteered their professional resources to white supremacist causes,” the report states. The FBI finds that “an estimated 19 veterans (approximately 9 percent of the 203) have verified or unverified service in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

  Full doc from Wikileaks

Next up, we take a look at the types of arrests and preventions the FBI has made for domestic terrorists — right and left.

And Shep Smith does real journalism again. I can’t find an embeddable video of this, but you can see it over at Crooks and Liars and you should watch the whole thing. What he reports is:

• There was a left-wing extremist report released in January, that we haven’t heard anyone whine about yet.  Any thoughts as to why?
• Both of these reports were commissioned by BushCo, and were released after Bush left.
• The current energy that conservatives are putting into this misses the point of these documents.

David Niewart points out that the current effort at working the refs here is about making the kind of violent rhetoric that conservatives are so fond of the new normal.  While we have our own example locally of a liberal making a violent threat in definite hyperbolic mode — and the local conservative rookie league never fail to bring that up as some kind of original sin.  While they NEVER disavow — much less acknowledge — the violence or violent rhetoric from their own.  They, apparently, are entitled to violent speech, and no one else should infringe on that entitlement.

But even the local example is not the lind of thing that law enforcement is looking at, which the pushers of this talking point certainly know.  The point is certainly to continue to inoculate the right from any accountability of what they say by embracing the worst of their fringe elements.  Personally, I am perfectly happy that law enforcement is watching groups like Aryan Nations or the known violent anti-abortion groups.  In the very same way I am perfectly OK with law enforcement monitoring the Bloods and the Crips.

But the real question here is this — now that FOX News itself has reported on the real scope of these DHS reports, do the wingnuts believe them and stand down on their current claims to victimization?  They are fair and balanced, after all.  Or does the irrepressible Tbogg have the real story here?

From driftglass — The Best Suicide Note Ever:

But wait! There’s more interesting riffs on this theme:
Been There, Done That

(Permanent) Minority Report

The Problem is Your Fucking O/S

I’m not sure if there will be more in this series, but these are just damn brilliant comments on the vaporware that is the Republican budget. Go see all of the covers — I can’t pick which is my favorite. Make sure to tell Driftglass how awesome these are.

Nemski highlighted the crazy question FoxNoise managed to ask President Obama last night, and now I’m reading that the New World Currency is the new right-wing stupidity:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2jfpHbIITo[/youtube]

And, of course, the Chinese are in this for something too — they are heavily invested in the dollar and heavily tied to it.    But count on the right wing to ignore the implications of the Chinese and Russians positioning on this thing to feed their total freakout mode. One world government is an oldie but goodie that is back now and apparently Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck are the Freakout Cheerleaders-in-Chief on this one.

So while they’re complaining about the fact that Obama is taking on too much (BTW, Tommywonk has a great post on this here.) and not focusing on the economy, here is what the GOP plans to do to help resolve the crisis:

“We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., an outspoken conservative who has participated on the GOP message teams. “Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”

Well, I’m sure this is what they got elected to do — to manipulate approval ratings. But the bright side is that this is clear and fair warning to the media that they are about to be rolled — again — by the usual GOP Lie Factory.

ps. Greg Sargent also rounds up a bunch of the reaction to this new bit of idiocy.

This comes via Steve Benen who points us to this delightful bit of business when columnist Dick Spotswood met with Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R) from California:

– Met with Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack from Riverside County’s Coachella Valley. While a social moderate, Sonny Bono’s widow is a solid conservative. Talked to her about Obama’s $780 billion stimulus legislation. She’s outraged that the plan has “$1 billion wasted on a magnetic-levitation train from L.A. to Sin City” – all at Nevada Sen. Harry Reid’s doing.

After expressing my doubt that the Las Vegas line was actually in the bill’s language, Bono Mack directs her staff to “get him the bill, it’s right there, show him.” A few minutes later, a staffer emerges with a copy and quietly says “it’s not in the bill.”

Of course it isn’t in the bill. And they’ve had the bill long enough to actually know what is in it by now. And so has the media, who keep on cranking out this stupid bit of business. what is in the bill is a pool of money for High Speed Rail. And there are a number designated corridors for HSR activity — and I guess you aren’t surprised by now that the “LA to Sin City” route isn’t there.

Frankly I don’t think that it matters any more if these people get to see legislation ahead of time. They won’t read it. They’ll just absorb their talking points of the day and watch FoxNoise to know what to say. Facts, of course, aren’t needed — especially since our liberal media won’t check on what they say.

Except the ones they add, of course.

Surprised? McClatchy reports that the GOP members of Congress are responsible for about 40% of the earmarks on the omnibus spending bill making its way through Congress. This is the one Mike Pence called for spending freezes on. John Ensign is on record in this article endorsing spending freezes. But John Ensign is all about his earmarks:

“The reason I’ve been opposed” to earmarks in the past “is that it’s often a way of buying votes, and it often makes the spending packages too big,” he said. “They’re just not going to buy my vote with anything.”

Read the whole thing. It is just crazy. They are supposed to be credible managers of money, how — exactly?

And it is from a repub, so mark this as a Red Letter Day. And show your kids — this is one of the very few times you’ll hear something truthful from these people.  You’ll have to sit through more whinging about the Fairness Doctrine in this video, but Steele is really correct about this (and I hope that his assessment gets into ALOT of campiagn commercials):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiKJ0r148Yw[/youtube]