When they have a club in their hands, no one is more sadistic. When the club is removed, no one is more whiney.

You know, people were telling these guys during the rule of the malassministration of the deserting coward that all the stomping on the Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta was a bad idea, but idiots like Goldberg and Malkin would not listen.

Now, a black man is coming for them, and they're all afeared!

Idiots.

It seems they could have tamped down much of this furor by simply referring to them as fringe extremist elements or some other generic term. Anyone the document is for will know what they mean.

So the next time al queda attacks us we will be caught off guard again because the FBI will have been too busy monitoring a handful of white secessionists holed up in a shack somewhere in Montana? Great.

Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning

HA HA! Good one, Glenn.

You see a parallel to this bizarre paranoia in the letters section of today's Salon article, "America is not a Christian Nation."

On the preposterous claim of certain Christians that they are a discriminated-against minority in the U.S., I wrote,

this has long been a tactic of the right--to scream and gnash their teeth about the "liberal" tyranny (look at the moronic teabaggers, who are protesting against the BUSH tax policy currently in place, but are too ignorant to know that), even when, as during the Clinton and much of the Bush administrations, they are in power.

after which a delightful poster wrote:

. . . thanks to the left we only have one religion its called Liberalism. The leaders of the religion of liberalism are running the country presently. So it is no wonder that they disavow it.

Large government and control is their deity and they honor it as their life’s ambition. The end result is always a larger God by any means. It is in direct opposition to Christianity so it is only fitting to demonize Christianity along with any other political opposition. The end game for Liberalism is absence of any opposition.

I thanked him/her for proving my point.

B-but - but - but we're white!

We don't want to destroy the country; we just want to slap it around about a bit when it pisses us off, which it does ON PURPOSE because it keeps doing that thing it knows we HATE.

But only because we love it so.

You're cool with McVeigh? The Unibomber? The Anthrax Mailer Guy? Terrorism is cool, as long as its domestic and politically motivated, you're all thumbs up?

Just as long as we keep a very specific group of foreign terrorists under wraps at all costs, anything goes in the homeland?

Hell, you're probably out "fertilizer" shopping right now, amirite? Its the patriotic thing to do.

libritarians who were consistently lambasting the Bush Administrations power grabs.

I agree with the broad strokes, Glenn, but this feels in some way like an indictment of government monitoring of potentially dangerous groups. Before the PATRIOT Act, before Bush's warrantless wiretapping, before the DHS, we were still monitoring right wing extremists such as the KKK, militia groups, and other anti-government groups. That was part of the civil rights movement, actually, to turn the apparatus of the state around so that it was protecting civil rights and prosecuting individuals who engaged in purposeful acts of discrimination and violence against minorities. Today, the FBI maintains a key role in protecting civil rights, and I think that is perfectly acceptable.

Yes, the reach of the federal government is actually scary at this point, but we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Thank you for the article, Glenn! I enjoyed reading this article before all of those so-called "Tea Parties" tomorrow on tax day. Frankly, you are right. When the right attacked everyone who supported the elements of surveillance government (patriot act, etc), it was during the 8 years when Bush and them were in power. Now that the tables have turned, it's not exactly fun being the ones targeted. They are definitely reaping in a creation that they themselves created. In my opinion, I just don't understand the hysteria that wingnuts have either. Geez, you didn't see us on the left going to such extremes as these guys! Oh no! I must buy a gun quickly before they go! (like there is a shortage of guns anyway) It's like the world is ending for them. Calm down, please. We on the left have been through 8 years of this. I think you guys will survive all of the same.

Of course not - they are all sickos who should burn in hell but you have to assess the relative threats. I'll take everything the crazy hillbillys have to offer if it means not having to endure another 911.

It's a little "messy".

Apparently, though, the Right has forgotten these lessons and instead is now embracing a newfound and quite devotion to Terrorist Rights. To borrow from Sarah Palin, they are apparently more worried about whether the Timothy McVeighs of the world can plan their next violent attack without interference from the Police than they are in having the Government us all Safe. What kind of twisted, warped priorities are those?

And, 2nd para. "intellectual" [gag] should precede Goldberg.

Adios. I'm off to buy an AR15 while I still can.

But the political faction screetching about the dangers of the DHS is the same one that spent the last eight years vastly expanding the domestic Surveillance State and federal police powers in every area.

completely agree, but feel a big conflicted.

first, because i'm glad somebody is raising a ruckus.

second, because i only wish more of the dems in congress would be so hypocritical - ie i'd like them to screech about the dangers of the DHS some of the time. even if only when the other party was in the whitehouse.

sad days when i'm glad for a little hypocrisy.

DHS -- and the still-creepy phrase "homeland security" -- is George Bush's creation.

did i dream it, or did the idea of the DHS (including the original bill) come from democrats in congress? will go look it up....