{"id":3680,"date":"2009-04-20T04:07:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-20T04:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=3680"},"modified":"2025-09-28T03:06:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T03:06:18","slug":"the-department-of-homeland-security-dhs-tags-tom-and-brigid-as-right-wing-extremists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=3680","title":{"rendered":"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tags Tom and Brigid as “right wing extremists”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read the nine page DHS report that got so much publicity last week. <\/p>\n

It was assinine, but then, these people are interested in suppressing us. With Brigid and I each having  been arrested four times for prolife non-violent civil disobedience (and with Brigid having 17 days of jailtime to her credit) we are the types who make the "extremist" list. <\/p>\n

The fact that I've been arrested eight times protesting our nuclear weapons and WMD's doesn't matter. For that I was, in the words of one Judge in Manhattan, practicing "Gandhi-like civil disobedience". I got "ACD'd" (adjourned contemplating dismissal) for that one, and with a smile. <\/p>\n

Do the same thing at an abortion "clinic" and it's a federal offence (FOCA), with a $10,000 fine and six months in jail for the first<\/span> offence. Justice is blind? How about that for a political<\/span> crime?<\/p>\n

But I digress. Here's a very good analysis of the DHS report by a right wing extremist lawyer on the right wing extremist website, National Review Online<\/strong>. Excerpts below the link; the whole article is not very long.<\/p>\n

DHS Wants to Know What You\u2019re Thinking by Andrew C. McCarthy on National Review Online<\/strong><\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

For eight years, we\u2019ve been treated to hysterical rhetoric from Democrats, including Barack Obama, about the scourge of \u201cdomestic spying.\u201d Now that the Obama administration is openly calling for domestic spying \u2014 the real thing, not the smear used against President Bush \u2014 they\u2019re suddenly silent.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in coordination with the FBI, has issued an intelligence assessment on what it calls \u201cRightwing Extremism.\u201d It is appalling. The nakedly political document announces itself as a \u201cfederal effort to influence domestic public opinion.\u201d It proceeds, in what it acknowledges is the absence of any \u201cspecific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence,\u201d to speculate that \u201crightwing\u201d political views might \u201cdrive\u201d such violence \u2014 violence, it further surmises, that might be abetted by military veterans returning home after putting their lives on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan. And for good measure, in violation of both FBI guidelines and congressional statutes, the Obama administration promises scrutiny of ordinary Americans\u2019 political views, speech, and assembly.<\/p>\n

The word \u201crightwing\u201d appears repeatedly in the assessment, which was issued by the same DHS component (the \u201cExtremism and Radicalization Branch\u201d) that, a year ago, suggested purging the terms \u201cjihadist\u201d and \u201cIslamofascist\u201d from our lexicon for fear of insulting moderate Muslims.<\/p>\n

>>>>>><\/p>\n

In short, the government uses the term as a caricature of the Right: noxious, non-conservative views thoughtlessly labeled \u201crightwing extremism\u201d to smear actual conservative values as a purported societal threat. As the report absurdly elaborates:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read the nine page DHS report that got so much publicity last week. It was assinine, but then, these people are interested in suppressing us. With Brigid and I each having  been arrested four times for prolife non-violent civil disobedience (and with Brigid having 17 days of jailtime to her credit) we are the types who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9146,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3680\/revisions\/9146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}