Death Talkers

[WilliamPitt]

A band of Michigan Militia Wolverines, a paramilitary organization, pictured in the 1990s. (Photo: Mark Peterson / Corbis)

Death Talkers
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Columnist

Friday 12 June 2009

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

- "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Report, 07 April 2009

The much-maligned DHS report on the rise of right-wing extremism in America, released last April by Secretary Napolitano to conservative cries of outrage, appears to have been pretty much on the button.

Three days before the report was made public, three Pittsburgh police officers were shot to death by a right-wing gun-ownership extremist who believed President Obama was coming for his guns. One month after the report was made public, an anti-choice zealot named Scott Roeder gunned down Dr. George Tiller in the vestibule of Tiller's church in Kansas while his wife sang in the choir. On Wednesday, a security guard was shot and killed at the Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC, by James W. von Brunn, a right-wing conspiracy theorist who filled pages on his blog with screeds about a Jewish world conspiracy and, you guessed it, Obama's so-called "false" birth certificate.

Where is all this fear, hatred and violence gaining its inspiration? I can think of a few examples.

Last March, Fox News personality Sean Hannity ran a poll on his web site asking readers what kind of revolution they'd prefer: military coup, armed rebellion or war for secession? "#3 seems most realistic," opined Hannity, "since it does present an opportunity for more homogeneous states to sort of capitalize on their homogeneity. However, it would likely lead to mass migrations of the minority partisans out of the rebel states. Of course, that may be fine with those states. Yet it seems that the ultimate paradox in any rebellion for freedom from within is that the ultimate goal is to impose the will of the rebels on everyone else through force. It seems the very foundation of representative democracy is ****tered if we accept that we exchange the power of ideas for the power of the sword upon each other. Nevertheless, I am still very interested in your own preferred form of revolt."

A month later, conservative radio host Glenn Beck accused President Obama of lifting the ban on embryonic stem cell research in order to begin genetic development of a new master race. "So here you have Barack Obama," said Beck, "going in and spending the money on embryonic stem cell research, and then some, fundamentally changing - remember, those great progressive doctors are the ones who brought us eugenics. It was the progressive movement and it was science. Let's put science truly in her place. If evolution is right, why don't we just help out evolution? That was the idea. And sane people agreed with it! And it was from America. Progressive movement in America. Eugenics. In case you don't know what eugenics led us to: the Final Solution. A master race! A perfect person. The stuff that we are facing is absolutely frightening. So I guess I have to put my name on yes, I hope Barack Obama fails. But I just want his policies to fail; I want America to wake up."

Newt Gingrich claimed recently the United States is surrounded by "paganism." Mike Huckabee claimed recently the California Appeals Court decision to uphold the Prop. 8 ban on same-sex marriage was "a miracle from God's hands." Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has accused the Obama administration of actively seeking to destroy the country by aiding terrorism and embracing socialism. The list goes on.

A pertinent section of the April DHS report:

Rightwing extremists are harnessing this historical election as a recruitment tool. Many rightwing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use. Rightwing extremists are increasingly galvanized by these concerns and leverage them as drivers for recruitment. From the 2008 election timeframe to the present, rightwing extremists have capitalized on related racial and political prejudices in expanded propaganda campaigns, thereby reaching out to a wider audience of potential sympathizers.

The rest: http://www.truthout.org/061209J

[MindPilot]

1. Is it time for a class-action suit against the major media companies?

They were complicit in the stolen election of 2000; they were complicit in the WMD lies to take us into Iraq, and now they are beyond complicit. I believe the media companies should bear some liability for providing a platform from which the "deathtalkers" can incite violence.

[live love laugh]

14. yes. nt

[chrisa]

2. BWAHAHAHAHA. Nice name!

Wolvereens!!!11!!!!1!

[WilliamPitt]

4. Right?

I think I saw that movie.



:eyes:

[cascadiance]

11. Yesterday inspires today...

-->

And note, there's going to be a remake of this movie in 2010 too...



http://www.beyondhollywood.com/plot-details-from-red-dawn-reboot/

Other remakes coming up mentioned here...

http://www.cracked.com/article_16665_5-upcoming-remakes-80s-movies-that-must-be-stopped.html



And their #1 remake was "Top Gun"... What they neglect to mention as another reason not to remake it, is that since it was made, we've discovered that the real life person who's life experience this film was based on is none other than the biggest criminal we've had in congress! Randy Duke Cunningham! Do we really need another remake inspired by such a criminal? What are they going to do, talk to him more while he's in prison to get more notes to update this movie?

[argyl]

16. Oooh. That's one scary looking cubicle weinie. Five minutes in the wilderness

and he's gasping like a beached whale.

[chrisa]

18. Oh my god.

That Superbad picture is just hillarious.

While I will admit that Red Dawn is one of my guilty pleasure movies, partly for its action, but mostly for the camp factor.

[Swamp Rat]

3. ALL ABOReD!!1

[Catshrink]

7. Swampie!!!

:hi:

[intaglio]

13. Yay!

Good to see you

[byronius]

5. Clinton galvanized them; Obama seems to discombobulate them.

Just hopin', I guess. But Obama's race seems to make them so angry they can't even keep their heads on straight.

Which I truly enjoy.

[Gman2]

6. It's all boiling down to white america seeing the demographic shift as their

final solution. They hate birth control. They want all the brown people out, to not pollute the gene pool. They dont wnat any stem cell research, but cant stop it all, without being insane. They want no abortions. They dont want alternative lifestyles. They want the poor and minorities to wither, thru bad health or poverty. They want to use nukes to turn away browns. Look at the nuke assessements for the new century. These folks are nazis. Tehy are our neighbors and they are nazi's. And they will be just as dangerous, if they ever wrest control away again. Roves perpetual right wing state, will be childsplay, if they ever again taste power. I dont play with them ANYMORE. Racist, homophobes, poor/minority haters. They get no pass from me, no matter the venue. No matter how many, or how tough. I am a monster, and the more of us become, the less chance of unleashing a new and improved Hitler on the earth. Particularly, cuz there are many that feel that a war is the only sure cure for depression. And these ghouls would think NOTHING about picking a victim, to allow us to bomb our way back to prosperity. The REALLY dangerous thing, is the white knuckle hold on American Exceptionalism. Any proofs that America is just another country on the planet, as is becoming day by day more apparent, proves to them that our pagan pres and other insults against God, are CAUSING our national comeupance. Hold on, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

[undeterred]

8. Its a small subset of white America

Its people who took the primacy of the white male as an unquestioned given- to them it seems obvious that the white male is entitled to be in charge.

And to everyone else it has become obvious that the more we diversify and balance the distribution of power, the better it is for everyone.

No wonder they want Obama to fail so badly that they will define any outcome as failure. He is living proof that their thesis is all wrong.

[Gman2]

10. Why are they Soto Hater? Cuz, she is living proof, that if you give an honest chance

to those that rethugs consider a waste of education etc, they can succeed, beyond a racists wildest dreams. Same with Obama. Why call him elitist? They want to know how he got those damn breaks in life. He certainly didnt get there on his own. Look at the firefighter case. If there are no minority candidates, for whatever reason, the white guys should be able to sue, to be bejobbed. Then, especially in a depression, it is a simple task, to limit opportunity to legacy males. These FUCKS are Dixiecrats, with a healthy portion of torture doctor.

[jmondine]

9. Damn straight

Off to the greatest page

[Robyn66]

12. HEY WILL!!!

I have always been against censorship in an almost rabid way until now.

Hannity, Limbaugh, O'Riely, Coulter, Beck, Savage and the rest of their ilk are shouting "Fire" in a crowded theater with the violence they are inciting.

How many times to we have to see books by the aforementioned authors in an assailant's possession before there are at least civil penalties levied against them? And what is worse, is where are the American people? There should be thousands calling the stations that host this hate, and refusing to buy products from sponsors who support them while this garbage is on the air!

There is an extremely unstable element out there. They have always been here, and I live in an area where there are A LOT OF THEM! I can see them getting twitchy. They call themselves things like "Free Stater's" or hide behind things like "Christian Exodus" (if you want to really be horrified take a look at this!) http://christianexodus.org/ They are savvy enough to know calling themselves the KKK or white supremacists calls negative attention to them so they call themselves things that don't raise the radar to much so they can worm their way into local government and start to dismantle things.

I have heard such a person who is a right wing "CHRISTIAN" say "I don't need a police department because I have an ak47"

These people are not disorganized nut job who would be set off by just anything. These people are intelligent, (some of them ) educated, many of them have money and they are fanatical. They believe the only place they see the truth is Fox news and the only people who tell them the truth are the hate speakers. Women belong in the home, there should be no birth control its a sin to report to the police if your husband beats the shit out of you.

I KNOW these people, I see what is going on and frankly, it scares me. Then you see these clowns putting a show on that THEY probably don't even believe because they enjoy playing the character and they have NO CLUE about the undercurrent murmuring and building in this country.

I could honestly see the people I am referring to mowing down half the town because we are a lost cause. We are going to hell according to their ultra right belief system. One of their kids told my daughter she had a black heart because she didn't believe the same way. I tell my older daughter to keep her liberal views to herself.

This is so much more than "Hannity is an asshole." This threat needs to be taken VERY seriously. And the majority of us who voted for Obama and wanted to see change in our country need to do whatever we can to make it clear that if we can't hold them criminally responsible we can hold them MORALLY RESPONSIBLE!!!

You Rock Will!!!
Robyn

[cascadiance]

15. Part of the problem is that they've been protected in recent years more than they should be!

With the right wing being given dominant voice and freedom in our society, and basically, as demonstrated by the Bush administration, given the ability to flout their hate, intimidation, and criminality over others with impunity, with the time of transition now, I think we're entering in a more dangerous period BECAUSE we've not been holding these people accountable for the actions in recent decades. We've been fed the line to suspect people because they are Muslim, or they are a person of color in a poor part of town, not because of clear actions of wrongdoing, which at times are "conveneniently ignored" if the person doesn't fit the "targeted" groups of people for retribution/prosecution.

Maybe back before the 80's, we'd still have many right wingers' mentality out there, but they'd know when they went to far when we'd penalize them for certain actions, so though they didn't like the system then, they weren't afraid of being thrown in prison when they knew the rules and what to expect when they broke them (or didn't break them).

Now with so many of these folks now feeling we're entering an era where they suddenly might be called out for doing the hateful things they've been doing in recent years, and not knowing what the newer penalties will be for their actions, I think that heightens their rejection of the system that much more, and doing it in a violent way too for many individuals that are more on the edge than others already.

This is why Obama, our justice department, our congress, and our courts MUST be clear and consistent about holding people to account for breaking our laws and punishing them, so we reestablish the rule of law, so that we don't fuel these folks thinking that they are going to take turns and being the object of dogmatic power with the shift away from Republican "rule". At least if we are consistent and prosecute people (both Democrats and Republicans) by the rule of law, and if we don't reward "buddies" for their contributions and lobbying activity (i.e. that spy for AIPAC quietly getting a reduced sentence recently), we'll reduce the chance of violent actions from many sections of our society today.

"Moving forward" by necessity must be moving to a system of the rule of laws, where everyone knows that wherever they are on the economic or political ladder, they will do OK if they obey the laws, not just play by some invented "rules" by those in power. Not doing so is the fuel for armed conflict "moving forward"...

[bertman]

17. I saw a t-shirt today that read: Politicians LOVE dis-armed peasants.

I couldn't agree more. And what bothers me the most about what's going on now is that so few of us on the left seem to realize that WE need to be armed and ready. Most of us seem to be so naive that we just assume that the police or national guard or someone will protect us if the right wing idiots start shooting us in droves. I'm skeptical that the police or any other group are going to side with us Lefties in a firefight.

I'm not advocating that we all go out and buy AK47's and 20,000 rounds of ammo, but having a firearm or two and ammo might make the difference in being a victim or a survivor. Teach yourself the basic rules of gun safety and marksmanship, fire your weapon, and keep it in good working order.

Before the Nazis took over in Germany they used violent tactics to cow their opponents, including killing the leaders and brutalizing any who organized against them.


Recommend.

[aikoaiko]

19. I see your point, but even if there were no Hannity, Oreilly, Beck, Gingrich, etc...

...I think all the violence would have happened anyway. These extremists who actually commit violence think the aforementioned are pussies. They've been eating and drinking this stuff for decades. They have their own media -- their own "thinkers". People like Beck and Fox pundits are the Disney version of the real thing.