In the beginning (well, OK, just this April), there was the report:
The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in "rightwing extremist activity," saying the economic recession, the election of America's first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.
A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines "rightwing extremism in the United States" as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.
"It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration," the warning says.
And there was much wailing, and screeching, and gnashing of teeth, and biting the heads off live kittens from the usual suspects who yowled loudly about the unfairness of it all:
Veterans, Pro-Lifers Blast Gov't Report Labeling Them As Possible Rightwing Extremists
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
By Susan Jones, Senior Editor
(CNSNews.com) – Veterans and pro-life groups are among those protesting a Homeland Security report – apparently written by a career bureaucrat – that says current economic and political conditions may give rise to right-wing extremists.
And, lo, the echoes of shrieking outrage hadn't even stopped reverberating before it had in fact come to pass. And when the same thing inevitably happens in Canada, I'm betting the early media coverage will contain a sentence of the form, "While Blogging Tory co-founder Stephen Taylor admitted that the suspect was a member of his blogging aggregator, he insisted that they'd never actually met."
Really, would that surprise anyone?
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