Oddly enough, when it comes to real-world, non-paranoid intrusions, Steele hasn't had much to say. Why do you suppose that is?

Because he doesn't live in the real world?

"I'm sure there was somebody in the room with a notepad and a camera taking snapshots and writing down names."

Dear Michael teh Stooooooopid,

That was the media representative from the RNC.

What? You didn't know that your had a media representative? Well, now you do---and its name is FOX....

Crazy now seems to run both deep and wide in the current remnants of the once proud Republican party.

"I'm sure there was somebody in the room with a notepad and a camera taking snapshots and writing down names."

And if not, they are scouring the CNN coverage as we speak. They probably even used hi-tech recording devices like Tivo.

Doughy pantload (Jonah Goldberg) had an op-ed out ridiculing the DHS etc. for targeting right-wing extremists. It was full of the typical fallacies his kind put out: the pretense that only right-wingers were spotlighted, the pretense by innuendo that teabaggers were included, shots against Obama and Kerry etc. but of course no admission that whole political spectrum was included, that Bush Admin started the ball rolling, etc.

Let's go on the message boards and flay him, OK?

"Steele spoke with Sean Hannity last night..."

There's your problem

"STEELE TRIES ON PARANOIA"

And it fits!

Oddly enough, when it comes to real-world, non-paranoid intrusions, Steele hasn't had much to say. Why do you suppose that is?

I think the crazies would answer -- in all sincerity -- that the difference is between law-abiding Real Americans and those who should be watched and who don't have anything to worry about if they don't do anything wrong.

Steele lost the 20th in NY State. By any reasonable standard, he should leave in disgrace over his failure to motivate GOP voters. Not that I'm eager to see him leave... not at all. Stick around awhile, Michael. Please.

All I can say is....Wow.

I confess I don't watch cable news much anymore, but I get the sense that the rift between reality and the Republican Universe, otherwise known as FOX News, seems to be getting wider by the week. Are other 'news' outlets on cable parroting this nonsense, or at least a watered down version of it?

That the leader of the RNC can throw around silly accusations in such a nonchalant manner tells us he's happy to lead the Republican party toward the "Rush Limbaugh/Palin approach, which borders on asinine...."

Don't forget, folks, in the Republican universe, it was Saddam Hussein who blew up the Murrah building, not Tim McVeigh, which means that right-wing radicals have never done any terrorist acts in the US and don't need to be monitored.

The fact that the rest of us recognize this as crazy talk doesn't matter.

If you are not breaking the law and have nothing to hide, why get upset even if you are being spyed upon?

That is what we said when our president was George W. Bush and why should we change our tune?

The United States is a great country and it seems we finally have a democrat president is who not afraid to use power. He has upheld the state secrets usage of George Bush. He has whitewashed the illegal spying that took place under George Bush.

Obama is demonstrating that he is really a republican at heart and not afraid to cover up torture. My admiration for Obama continues to grow as he continues to follow Bush's example of not worrying about his oath of office. Our country will need, in the future, the great Americans who have only followed their orders from the Bush administration.

God bless Obama - our country needs to have the wealthy and the powerful free from such trivialities as having to be hamstrung by laws.

"They've got their eye on the 3,000 Americans who assembled in Indiana last night, in Evansville, Indiana, to profess their continued effort to save the life of the unborn," Steele said, adding, "I'm sure there was somebody in the room with a notepad and a camera taking snapshots and writing down names."

I should hope so, since some members among them are certainly prone to violence and acts of terror. What the hell else do you call it when they bomb facilities and murder doctors and stalk their employees and threaten their children?

Fuck those people. When they stop acting like terrorists, we'll stop treating them as such. Until then, they can sleep in the bed they have made.

The only thing is, I'm not sure this is paranoia.

They got people at damn near every antiwar, environmental and socialist gathering.

Pure Kinsley gaffe.

It's the simple simon, time honored "everybody does it" dodge. Projection aside, when busted it enables the political miscreant(s) to shrug and casually restate the "obvious: "Everybody does it".

Republicans are so odd. Look up the term "projection," the basis of all psychological evaluation and testing. Every time a Republican has opened his or her mouth in the past decade, all they do is project their own personality traits, how they think and operate, onto any issue they comment about. Every time! We all do it, but for some reason, the present crop of Republicans seems to have no idea whatsoever how to keep their own dirty little secrets!

The childhood accusation "what you say is what you are" sums up projection pretty well ... think about that when you hear these people going on...

the question i have is: will the revelations about the NSA and DHS's awareness of right-wing wackos lead to any republicans suddenly finding problems with the PATRIOT Act or warrantless wiretaps? I'll go with "No"

actually, some republicans will have problems with the surveillance state. just not elected officials.

gets me thinking, if you buy sully's "long game" argument vis a visthe president and civil liberties, maybe Obama has to scare the Rs so they might see a downside to living in a surveillance state.

When I saw the promo for that - I knew - I just knew he would say something goofy...actually it seems to happen every time he opens his mouth. no Las Vegas odds on that one

"I'm sure there was somebody in the room [of antiabortion nuts] with a notepad and a camera taking snapshots and writing down names."

I sure as hell hope there was. Am I the only one who remembers the name Eric Rudolph?

The strategy of the wingnut mouthpieces is twofold: 1) whip up the hate until their followers start killing people, 2) pressure the gvmt not to pay attention.

Come on, everyone knows that they don't take pictures and write down names, they get the license plate numbers and then run them. No one notices and it is a lot faster.

I mean GWB did teach them something.

The nature of privacy has certainly changed - more from cell phones, facebook and its ilk than government surveillance. The new privacy is no privacy. It makes us all feel like celebrities.

Steele expects this sort of behavior because it's how the game is played by conservatives. Many years ago I attended an anti-nuke protest in Idaho. A trainload of warheads were passing through the state on the way to the Trident sub base in Washington. The state troopers were there video taping the event. I have no doubt that they took down vehicle licenses of attendees.

I was making my own photos and a friendly trooper came by to admire my camera. Of course he was also curious about what I was up to. I can't remember who the fellows in suits were, but I remember that they blanched when I took their photos.

What is sad is that with all here who know what's happening re: projection; with all the trained psychologists/psychiatrists and educated and aware people in positions of power and authority and the resources of media, whether mainstream or otherwise, there is no major story addressing this very fact. That fact that the insane mouthings of a Michael Steele, Pat Robertson, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Hannity, O'Reilly, Bachman(sp), Cheney, etc. are given equal standing with demonstrable fact is what is disconcerting. Would we give equal time/weight to Charles Manson's ravings from prison as to Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted him and earned a conviction? Well, I suppose Bush believers would, since Bugliosi has called for the trial of W on 1st degree murder charges. So, I guess I disproved my own point: when one's foundation of truth is challenged by another's facts, the facts are disregarded.

In the long run apparently the theory of projection fails the smell test of the MSM.

I rest my case: insanity and paranoia continue to win the day. Oliver North is God.

peace,
st john

AK Liberal: When you talked about a "trainload of warheads", I honestly thought you were referring to some pro-war types(people) who were going to the Trident missile base in WA to celebrate, or something...honestly, that is the image I had. I guess that would make me paranoid, too.

peace,
st john

Some of the republicans are too stupid. The report was about right wing extremists. Evidently they consider themselves right wing extremists, otherwise they would not have responded so vigorously to the contents of the report. They deserve whatever fallout they get from their actions because they branded themselves with this moniker. And about Steele, he is a disgrace to all Americans. He speaks before he thinks things through just to keep his face on the TV and his voice on the radio.

When your ideas have failed what do you have left but flogging all out victimhood. It is pathetic to watch our Manly men and women of wingnut persuasion to evolve into paranoid WATB's. Actually, I think evolve might be the wrong word.

wow, st john, i thought the same thing.

Notepads?

Snapshots?

Steele's surveillance state seems stuck in the 1960s.

In an era when solid state video cameras are the size of credit cards, minicam lenses fit anywhere, and people are texting and sending images from their phones on every corner, Steele has a very odd sense of how the Man will be doing the hypothetical oppression. Even without accessing the widely distributed public video cameras, or superspook satellites.

Seriously, notebooks? How 20th Century.

And, since abortion clinics have been frequently bombed, I'd kinda like law enforcement authorities to be keeping an eye on such protests.

Mister Steele, he makes me laugh.

"...when it comes to real-world, non-paranoid intrusions, Steele hasn't had much to say. Why do you suppose that is?..."

Because it is not what his audience wants to hear. His audience doesn't include you or me.

Government surveillance is the new cool. If the gubmint isn't watching you, then obviously you are irrelevant (from their perspective) imagine throwing a protest so meaningless that no one paid any attention to you? It's like increased security after 911, no functionary, no matter how small, wants to admit that they are so irrelevant that terrorists don't want to bother attacking them, so everyone gets more and more security.

Although it is a bit rich to complain about people watching you at an event you invite tv cameras to. I guess the gubmint isn't supposed to get cable?

The comment above about privacy being gone is spot on. But what it really means is not that privacy is gone, anything public was never really private. What's gone is the semblance of an abilty to control access to formerly remote places. Even five years ago, you could do something stupid away from the limelight and maybe have some whispers and hearsay about it. Now that's on YouTube, you might as well have done it in times square at noon. It's not a bad thing, I think it's a good thing.

Dear Republicans,

We told you so.

Sincerely,

The Non-32%

Steele knows about this kind of surveillance from personal experience. He was lieutenant governor in Maryland when the Maryland State Police spied on many many peaceful groups. The police activities included sending in an undercover spy to observe planning meetings for perfectly legal activities. It was so egregious the Maryland General Assembly this year had to pass a new law to try to stop such spying in the future.

How is it that a group of people who have loudly exclaimed that this is a center-right nation, that they are in the mainstream, suddenly feels that they should be recognized as potentially dangerous right-wing radicals?

Either they need to admit that this nation leans farther left than they admit and that modern conservatives are in reality a subversive fringe movement, or that they are suffering from paranoia by identifying with a dangerously violent group of sociopaths that are far kookier than even folks like Michael Steele are.

GOP 2001-2008: "If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about."

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