Politico drags out the rotten red herrings. "Weekly Standard may have been shooter target"

[jefferson_dem]

Weekly Standard may have been shooter target

FBI agents visited the offices of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine yesterday after a shooting at the Holocaust Memorial Museum and told employees they'd found the magazine's address

A senior Standard staffer confirmed the visit but declined to discuss it in detail. An FBI spokeswoman, Katherine Schweit , also declined to comment on the investigation.

Two other sources said two FBI agents arrived shortly after 5:00 p.m. Thursday at the 17th Street offices of the magazine. They told staffers that they had found the address of the magazine on a piece of paper associated with the shooter, James von Brunn, and asked whether the Standard had received any threats.

The magazine is about a mile north of the Holocaust Museum, and there's no other indication that von Brunn had targeted it. Von Brunn's published rants included attacks on "neocons," and the Standard has been at the heart of the neoconservative movement.

The suggestion that the Standard may have been a target complicates any view of the racist shooter in contemporary left-right terms. Von Brunn's white supremacist roots put him under the rubric of a "right-wing extremist," but the substance of his views -- which included everything from believing that President Bush may have been in on the September 11 attacks to denying that President Obama is an American citizen -- are too far on the fringe to fit into conventional political classification.

The focus on the Standard, though, appears to be of a piece with his central motivation: Anti-Semitism. In one essay, Von Brunn attacked "JEWS-NEOCONS-BILL O’REILLY," and the suggestion that neoconservatism is a specifically Jewish conspiracy is common on the racist fringe.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0609/Weekly_Standard_may_have_been_shooter_target.html?showall

[redqueen]

1. So lame. He was only unhappy with them cause they weren't conservative enough.

[DrToast]

2. Let's be fair. The guy did appear to hate the government in general

[redqueen]

5. Does that somehow make him not a conservative?

That seems to be what this piece is attempting to imply...

[jefferson_dem]

6. He's a "teabagger" is all.

His message merely echos what we heard during their hatefests two months ago. The only difference is in method/mode of action...for now. And that's a very fine line.

[Mike Daniels]

9. I'd be careful of labeling him too much on the political spectrum

I've seen a few blog/magazine links on FR that are claiming that the guy was registered with the Maryland Democratic party. Now, granted Fred Phelps at one time was a registered Democrat and no-one with a brain is going to label Phelps as a liberal.

That said, while the guy may have been affiliated with a bunch of racist websites any indication that he was not a registered Republican is going to be used to muddy the waters. I don't agree with Michelle Malkin's stands in general but her claim that this guy was beyond right/left may be the safe way to go.

[tularetom]

3. Jeez, does it fucking matter?

If indeed the Weekly Standard was on his hit list it was only because it is heavily staffed by Jews. It has not one fucking iota to do with "contemporary left-right terms".

Actually the last paragraph seems to bear this out.

Shame on that rag politico for implying that this guy was anything other than a right wing racist anti semitic piece of shit.

But then, I guess that's their job.

[Cha]

4. It doesn't matter..he's still an American Domestic

Terrorist and Janet Napolatano was right.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

8. We can't possibly say that last part enough.

Napolitano was absolutely right and the longer we turn a blind eye to domestic nutjobs, the worse we will be for it.

[Cha]

11. Precisely! What's true is true and

those corporatewhoremedia types who want to keep hiding this need to be made aware they're not getting away with anything.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

15. To be fair, it ain't just the corporate media.

It's also the idea that Americans would be terrorists - a sort of jingoistic ideal that Americans can do no wrong when it comes to political discourse. That's just straight up denial on the part of most Americans.

[Cha]

18. Right..and where do they get

all their ideas from? Hate radio and faux..do they ever think for themselves?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

19. Fair enough point.

But where I take issue is with the thinking... I don't think they do it at all, frankly, with or without "assistance" from Limbaughs and Coulters. Even if you eliminated those elements, I still think there'd be a high level of denial and xenophobia.

[Cha]

20. Equally fair

enough point.

[yourguide]

7. He was also a birther

but of course they fail to mention that in the article as well.

From the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/11/us/AP-US-Holocaust-Museum-Shooting.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimes

The Homeland Security Department called the shooting a criminal incident and said it does not appear to have a connection to terrorism, according to a joint Homeland Security and FBI assessment issued Wednesday.

However, Persichini characterized the incident as ''domestic terrorism.''

The assessment, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, said von Brunn is associated with right-wing extremism.

Persichini said Thursday that authorities found many documents in von Brunn's vehicle and that any people or places named in them have been contacted or visited. He said he would not characterize it as a list.

[Sebastian Doyle]

12. Well, the birth certificate bullshit was started by the PUMAs

So the corporate whore media is probably trying to label that as a "left wing" movement, even though those shitheads never had one single fucking true Liberal and/or Progressive among them.

[jenmito]

13. Nah. At least MSNBC is calling the birthers "white supremacists" and said the guy

was a birther.

[Sebastian Doyle]

17. What's ironic here is that one of the leaders of the birther cult, "Dr" Orly Taitz....

...is Jewish. And other Likudist Jews have been involved in the PUMA/birther cult

Maybe that's what drove Looney Toons Von Brunn over the edge? The fact that he had to side with some Jews to hate a Black man. For a Nazi, that's a huge conflict!! :crazy:

[crimsonblue]

10. what a bullshit article...

The guy had the address written down... That is all. There were NO threats received by the WS, and there is absolutely nothing to indicate that they are or were a threat. You stay classy, Politico.

[leftynyc]

14. He hated Jews

Isn't that editor of that magazine Bill Kristol?

[Sebastian Doyle]

16. Yeah.... It's a Murdoch publication

But Kristol's the guy in charge, as far as I know. (I've never read the bullshit rag, so I can't be 100% sure)

[kenny blankenship]

21. Probably looking for a place to crash after his Big Day