June 11, 2009

6/11: Political Killings

As they did after the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller, liberal bloggers are portraying yesterday's murder at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as evidence that the DHS was right to publish its controversial report about "rightwing extremism." Barbara Morrill asks: "With the second rightwing political shooting in as many weeks, will the conservative media apologize for their 'outrage' at the Department of Homeland Security report on 'rightwing extremism'?" Conservative bloggers, on the other hand, are denying that yesterday's crime vindicates the DHS report. Matthew Vadum declares: "None of this changes the fact that [DHS Sec. Janet] Napolitano's politically motivated directive was wrong then and remains wrong now."

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Liberal bloggers (McCarter, Uygur, Aravosis) continue to demand that Congress pass a health care reform bill that includes a public option. Matthew Yglesias is disappointed (but not surprised) that the A.M.A. has announced its opposition to the creation of a public plan, while Yuval Levin is cheered by the news. Meanwhile, lefty bloggers (digby, Scarecrow) are criticizing Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) after he declared that he is "frankly not terribly interested" in the views of the Health Care for America Now coalition, which supports a public option.
• Conservative bloggers (Lane, Badeaux, Allahpundit) are criticizing the Obama admin. after it announced "that some detainees captured and held abroad have been read Miranda rights to preserve evidence for a potential prosecution."
• Liberal blogger Jane Hamsher and conservative blogger Erick Erickson continue to urge their readers to call members of Congress and tell them to vote against the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act.

HOLOCAUST MUSEUM SHOOTING: A Growing Trend?

Liberal bloggers believe that yesterday's crime vindicates the DHS memo about "rightwing extremism":

• Daily Kos' BarbinMD: "With the second rightwing political shooting in as many weeks, will the conservative media apologize for their 'outrage' at the Department of Homeland Security report on 'rightwing extremism'?"
• Think Progress' Matthew Yglesias: "Following up on the assassination of George Tiller, we appear to have a new outbreak of right-wing domestic terrorism as white supremacist James Von Brunn goes on a shooting spree at the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Not a great deal more to say about this right now, but I hope that everyone who mau-maued the Department of Homeland Security for expressing concern about this kind of thing feels appropriately ashamed of themselves."
• The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen: "The Republican hysteria over the DHS report -- which was, by the way, initiated by a [George W.] Bush administration official -- was always based more on a partisan scheme than reality, but the incessant complaints look especially misguided today."
• AMERICAblog's John Aravosis: "So, this would be the second act of domestic terror committed by someone specifically mentioned in the DHS report that the agency pulled after the GOP and the religious right criticized them. First was the abortion doctor killer (DHS warned that far right extremist might use abortion to rally their crazies) and second is a former member of the US military tied with extremist hate ideology (again, the DHS report warned about former military being recruited by far-right anti-govt hate groups). The Obama administration made a big mistake pulling this report only weeks before two acts of domestic terror, practically predicted in the report. They were right, and they caved. Will the report now be revived?"
• Balloon Juice's DougJ: "How many acts of right-wing terrorism have to occur before DHS is allowed to start keeping track of it? I really don't get the conservative reaction to the original DHS pronouncement. No one is trying to lump angry Red State commenters in with honest-to-God terrorists...except, weirdly enough, the Red State commenters themselves."
• The Reality-Based Community's Mark Kleiman: "Should Blue Blogistan kick the crap out of buffoons like Ed Morrissey and Michelle Malkin for claiming that vigilance against right-wing extremism amounted to 'smear[ing] half the country' and that the report was a 'hit job' and a 'sweeping indictment of conservatives'? Why not? Should the Democrats shamelessly exploit this tragedy to make Republicans on Capitol Hill (e.g., [Jim] Inhofe, [Tom] Coburn, [David] Vitter, [Sam] Brownback, [Jim] DeMint, [Richard] Burr, and [Lisa] Murkowski pay a price for having called that report 'absurd and offensive'? You betcha. I suggest a resolution: (1) Denouncing domestic terrorism in general and the killings of Tiller and Johns in particular; (2) Commending DHS for being alert to the threat; and (3) asking all federal law enforcement agencies to take the necessary steps to detect and prevent such plots. The wingnuts are free to vote against it."

The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan: "That DHS report doesn't look so iffy any more, does it?"

Meanwhile, several liberal bloggers (Marshall, Aravosis) are observing that the suspected shooter subscribes to the right-wing conspiracy theory that Obama isn't a natural-born U.S. citizen.

HOLOCAUST MUSEUM SHOOTING II: Vindication? What Vindication?

Conservative bloggers are pushing back against the argument that yesterday's crime vindicates the DHS report about "rightwing extremism":

• Michelle Malkin: "[The] shooter wasn't 'left' or 'right,' just plain loony."
• Hot Air's Morrissey: "[O]ur criticism was that the DHS report didn't focus on known, specific threats, instead making generalized threats about abortion opponents and other vague and broad generalizations about conservative issues. In fact, it never mentioned Holocaust denial at all, nor did it mention anti-semitism at all [see Update V below], either; those terms don't appear at all in the report. And despite being well-known as a threat since the 1980s, the DHS never bothered to identify von Brunn or his organization as a specific threat in the report -- which, again, was the heart of our criticism."
• AmSpec Blog's Vadum: "None of this changes the fact that Napolitano's politically motivated directive was wrong then and remains wrong now. As I wrote in an article called 'Thoughtcrime Redux', it was a malicious un-American smear calculated to ridicule and intimidate opponents of the left's policy goals. It goes without saying that police need to be on guard against right-wing extremists, left-wing extremists, and anyone planning to carry out violent attacks. But police should not be on guard against or investigating individuals and groups solely because they don't happen to agree with the Obama administration or the Democratic majority in Congress."
• RedState's Erick Erickson: "If the right were to blame for the tragedy at the Holocaust Museum, Markos Moulitsas, Keith Olbermann, [Senate Maj. Leader] Harry Reid, and Barack Obama must be positively scrubbing the blood off their hands after the tragic murder of Pvt. [William] Long in Arkansas last week and wounding of Pvt. Quentin Ezeagwula. I'm surprised leftwing bloggers can type with all the blood on their hands. Kos and the lunatic gunman today and the lunatic gunman who killed Pvt. Long share more in common [than] the rest of us -- their world view is centered on contempt for what this nation stands for and are consumed with an abiding hatred of George W. Bush and the 'neocons.'"

Meanwhile, Hot Air's Allahpundit criticizes Obama's statement about the murder: "Guy who attended Jeremiah 'Them Jews' Wright's church for 20 years: We must be vigilant about anti-semitism. [...] 'Remaining vigilant' evidently doesn't include periodically checking your church bulletin for Hamas screeds or challenging the right of Holocaust-deniers who pine publicly for Israel to be wiped off the map to possess nuclear power."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The Working NRA Majority

Open Left's Chris Bowers:

"[O]utside of the 60-vote rule in the Senate, the NRA is emerging as the right-wing's top weapon against progressive legislation. Earlier this year, Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn succeeded in attaching a concealed weapons amendment to the credit card legislation. Now, the D.C. Voting rights bill has been stalled indefinitely because the Senate attached a measure to the bill stripping current D.C. gun laws, and also preventing D.C. lawmakers from passing gun control legislation in the future. So, while Republicans remain discredited and unpopular, their machinery is still able to prevent, or modify, progressive legislation from passing into law. Apropos, two people were shot at the D.C. Holocaust Museum today.

With this success, it is worth wondering what other legislation Republicans will attempt to kill via gun related amendments. The NRA is more than a single-issue advocacy group, it is the centerpiece of the entire right-wing policy infrastructure. Already, it is expanding into other areas beyond guns, working to block credit card reform and D.C. voting equality. Given that it still has a working majority in Congress, Republicans could theoretically use it to block, or at least modify, almost any legislation they wish."

LEST WE FORGET: Elderly Man Skipping Work Uses 'Dead Grandson' Excuse Again

From The Onion:

"SARATOGA, FL -- Arousing the suspicions of his boss, senior fry-cook Harold Mason, 72, cited the death of yet another grandchild in order to leave work early Thursday. Records showed that Mason has already missed 12 days of work this year, six of which were marked as sick days, and the remainder as funeral services for his late grandchildren, Johnny, Timmy, Susie, Bobby, Ricky, Johnny, and Harold, Jr. 'I'm beginning to think he just likes taking a long weekend,' said manager Jason Holmes, adding that the Korean War veteran's decedents have a way of dying on inventory days. 'I don't know who he spends his time off with, anyway. His wife died last year on his birthday.' Holmes went on to say that if Mason doesn't start taking his job at Sonic seriously, he will probably be demoted back to roller-skate waiter."

Posted by Ian Faerstein at June 11, 2009 12:37 PM