"There is not one instance they can cite asevidence where any of these right-wing groups have done anything," RushLimbaugh told his listeners.
A year later, we know that Limbaugh was wrong(again). Up in northern Michigan, the Hutareemilitants were collecting weapons and ammunitionand allegedly plotting theassassination of law enforcement officers with the same kind of roadside bombsand projectiles used by terrorists in Iraqand Afghanistan.The difference is that those groups claim to be Muslim; the violent extremistsover here prefer to be known as Christian.
We also know that the recent outbreak of windowsmashing against Democrats in the aftermath of the passage of health carereform can be traced to a militia activist from Alabama. He justified urging those attackson his Web site as a warning that America is on the brink of massviolence. It is a theme he has promoted for more than a decade, dating back tothe militia movement of the Clintonyears, when he authored a pamphlet titled "Strategy and Tactics for aMilitia Civil War."
Disturbing Activities Planned
Now, nobody is likely to apologize to HomelandSecurity Secretary Janet Napolitano, the actual victim of a smear by those whoclaimed she was trying to intimidate those who call themselves conservative.But while the Hutaree conspiracy charges are very troubling, as was thewindow-smashing spree, there are still more disturbing signals from the farright.
One of the men arrested in the Hutaree group usedthe screen name "Pale Horse" when he posted material on militia Websites. Having attached himself to the Hutaree and other militia outfits, he wasapparently obsessed with gruesome child murders and serial killing. Under hispseudonym, Pale Horse circulated a YouTube video last year that advocated anarmed militia march on Washington:
"A peaceful demonstration of at least amillionhey, if we can get 10 million, even betterbut at least 1 million armedmilitia men marching on Washington.A peaceful demonstration. No shooting, no one gets hurt. Just a demonstration.The only difference from any typical demonstration is we will all bearmed."
Now Pale Horse's planor something very similarmayactually occur on April 19, the anniversary of the first shots fired at Lexington and Concord and,perhaps not coincidentally, of the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building by TimothyMcVeigh.
Militia Web sites are currently promoting a"Restore the Constitution rally" at two locations in northern Virginia where themarchers can legally carry firearms. They plan to "muster" at FortHunt National Park, about 12 miles south of the nation's capital, and thentravel in "small convoys" to a park near Reagan National Airport,just over the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. This will let them "stepup to the edge" with their weapons, as the organizers put it.
Although the militia marchers are acting withintheir rights, their intentions seem not terribly far from those of the windowsmashers. Among them, there may well be groups and lone nuts whose seditiousplans resemble those of the Hutaree. As the militias enact Pale Horse'sfantasy, they appear determined to intimidate every American who disagrees withtheir interpretation of the Constitution and their rancorous hatred of thepresident and the Democratic Party.
So, perhaps Napolitano can take some satisfactionfrom the fresh evidence that her critics were wrong and that the report onright-wing extremism was, if anything, too mild. Neither she nor any otherofficial in government should be deterred from exposing the extremists whothreaten public security and constitutional democracy, regardless of ideology.
%uFFFD 2010Creators.com
