I got a little incensed when I read that the new, improved Dem-led Homeland Security octopus had singled out veterans as potential terrorists. Then I discovered the report was commissioned while Bush was in office and it only suggests that a small percentage of vets might be so disaffected.
And, of course, I recalled Timothy McVeigh, the wacko who the Army didn’t trust to allow to be a Green Beret. LGF, who I admire for his pro-Israel stance, has a sensible take on this report which seems to be roiling the never-very-placid waters of the rightwing blogosphere. He thinks the upset is way overdone. Includes a link to a PDF of the report itself and points to other, hardly leftwing bloggers, who agree. Makes sense. I’m convinced. Except for one thing. The report should have been aimed at extremism, not just "rightwing extremism." The obvious political bias is what caused the trouble.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
As I found by reading the document’s second page, it’s clearly influenced by the Obama administration, no matter who commissioned it. So, I don’t see any reason to let a single person, bureaucrat or otherwise, off the hook for what amounts ridiculously broad and therefore useless generalizations.
Besides that, of course, the shoddiness and ineptness of what is purported to be intelligence analysis should make you reject it out of hand as unacceptable even for government work. If you truly believe that their heart is in the right place.
It reads to me like the usual government blowhardism, except for the “rightwing” part, which–despite McVeigh and the abortion clinic bombings and shootings of past decades–is what you’d expect from a liberal administration. But it seems to have generated a lot of unnecessary conservative paranoia. The feds can’t be bumbling and incompetent and still frightening at the same time.
You really believe that they can’t be bumbling and frightening at the same time? You’ve seen the movie Frankenstein, right?
I don’t fear federal ninjas sneaking into my home at night to remove my guns, Dick. I fear the federal steamroller that flattens everything in it’s ignorant path. That’s not paranoia — check out that lead paint / childrens’ books tempest. The feds are quite clearly morons, and they hand their idiocy down to the police? Call me when Barney Fife III detains you for having a Bircher tract in the car. That’s how these people operate.
Can we at least agree that the Bush commissioning had nothing to do with what was ultimately produced? Because it quite clearly did not. I personally expect the Department of HOMELAND Security to be looking at everything, right, left and middle. I don’t expect them to be so imprecise as to name every veteran or every federalist as the usual suspects. Too easy, and I demand more. I’d hope others would, too.
Always nice to have you back, Scott, even when you’re hot and bothered. Movies ain’t real, you know? Cops don’t bother me because I always call them sir when they stop me for anything. I gave up demanding anything from government years ago. I just pay the taxes they say I owe and go about my business and try to stay out of their way. They can’t even keep the herds of deer off my suburban lawn, much less enforce half the laws already on their books. I trust in their basic incompetence to guarantee my freedom. It’s working so far.
Always nice to have you back, Scott, even when you’re hot and bothered. Movies ain’t real, you know? Cops don’t bother me because I always call them sir when they stop me for anything. I gave up demanding anything from government years ago. I just pay the taxes they say I owe and go about my business and try to stay out of their way. They can’t even keep the herds of deer off my suburban lawn, much less enforce half the laws already on their books. I trust in their basic incompetence to guarantee my freedom. It’s working so far.
“I trust in their basic incompetence to guarantee my freedom.”
Truer words have yet to be said. Absolutely right.
“I trust in their basic incompetence to guarantee my freedom.”
Truer words have yet to be said. Absolutely right.
It isn’t a popular opinion. I’m always amazed how fast people can switch from denouncing the dunderhead bureaucrats to being afraid of their machinations.
It isn’t a popular opinion. I’m always amazed how fast people can switch from denouncing the dunderhead bureaucrats to being afraid of their machinations.