But if John Patrick Bedell or Joe Stack were named Ahmed, it's not unreasonable to wonder if the reaction would be less sensible. Indeed, Bedell been a Pakistani-born Muslim, would Liz Cheney and Rudy Giuliani be on the cable networks right now?But if John Patrick Bedell or Joe Stack were named Ahmed, it's not unreasonable to wonder if the reaction would be less sensible. Indeed, Bedell been a Pakistani-born Muslim, would Liz Cheney and Rudy Giuliani be on the cable networks right now?

Rhetorical I assume.

"(If) Bedell been a Pakistani-born Muslim,"

Eight long years of psychological conditioning, courtesy of Cheney and Co., have taught America to fear anyone Not Like Us.

MSNBC is reporting that he was a Truther. Do I see a trend developing?

Why is it that lone gunmen/assassins always are reported with their middle names (e.g., Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wilkes Booth, John Patrick Bedell)? Rather weird.

The DICK/Bu$h regime figured out that scaring people was even easier than lying to them, so naturally the right wing has adopted this strategy. Any opportunity to score political points in hopes of regaining power is welcomed.

On a related note, the power of the right wing to disseminate and stay on messages is really quite fascinating. Based on the fact that right wingers are authoritarian by nature and need to be dominated by authoritarian figures, I envision something along the lines of the insect race that attacked a future earth in the novel "Ender's Game" to be an apt analogy. In a nutshell, you had one main intelligence commanding the mindless insect drones, which were mere appendages of this said central command/intelligence.

Sound familiar?

Indeed, Bedell been a Pakistani-born Muslim, would Liz Cheney and Rudy Giuliani be on the cable networks right now?

Depends on the polling, and if there are any votes to be had thereby.

citizen_pain,

I wonder what the author would think of your analysis of the Buggers from Ender's Game, given that he's a very religious right winger.

Xenophobia is the bedrock of the GOP and the media is all to happy to stoke those sentiments.

All I think it shows is how well the Right does message discipline.

Publicizing attacks by government-hating white men undermines their message, so they stay quiet. And they ALL stay quiet.

Publicizing attacks by foreign brown men supports their message, so they turn the volume to 11 and leave it there. And they ALL do it.

Authoritarians are disciplined and unified. They LIKE being disciplined and unified; they think it is a virtue in and of itself. (It also quells the fear, which I think is their primary motivation, but that's another topic.)

I know that, as they say, of course Democrats are fractious and squabbling; otherwise they'd be Republicans. But I still think we're fighting with a hand tied behind our back, and we'd do well to adopt a little of the Right's methodology.

White Americans with guns who go crazy are unfortunate but they act alone. Muslims only attack in organized packs. Liberals can ignore this basic truth but then you wouldn't mind us ending up like France. Some of us are a little more aware.

I know this was all rhetorical, but, still, worth remembering that our right-wing has two connected goals right now: return to power, by any means they can think of, and justify their crimes against the Constitution and the People.

Thus, Muslims are the perfect target to help accomplish both those things.

Look, Dick Cheney should be in jail. He knows it. We know it. Hell, everyone in DC knows it. Cheney, Shrub, the lawyers who justified torture, and anyone else involved in the many crimes of Shrub's Administration. They should ALL be in jail.

And, if things fell a little differently at some point in the medium-term future, Dick might start to feel a bit uncomfortable. If Obama or a more progressive House decided to institute a real investigation, for instance.

So he and his soul-less daughter are doing anything and everything to cover up and justify his crimes, abetted by their pet-media.

That's all the muslim-paranoia is, or ever was. Cheney and his people desperately trying to avoid the orange jump-suit.

White guy in a suit? Sounds to me like a patriotic citizen worried about the government taking away his 2nd Amendment rights and forcing him to marry an aborted male fetus.

I think the line can be cut closer. If it's right wing violence, it's supposed to be perfectly justified. If it's not, it's an outrage.

Mike K.

You've obviously graduated pre cum-laude from the Bush/Weenie School of Institutionalized Parahnoia! Are you going to Disneyland now? Maybe you can host a show on Muslim pack hunters or something special like that! You're talented, that's for certain..

The thing I remember most about 9/11 was that no one knew who was responsible at first. I was on the street in DC that morning and I heard people say stuff ranging from radical vegetarians to anti-WTO anarchists to Tim McVeigh types. I didn't hear anyone say anything about it being out of the Mid-East.

After that, once we knew what happened, and who did it, the fear became much more long term, and is still very much with us. It wasn't a small group of nuts. 9/11 was part of a large multinational movement we didn't understand. We were all sure it would happen again, and bigger next time.

To be sure, there's going to be more "white guy terrorism." But each time feels like a one-off incident, just some crazy guy. Psychologically, it's very different, even if the reality of their potential to do damage is the same.

People don't assess risk rationally. We can't expect them to, or people wouldn't drive anywhere. We can only try and control the most pressing risks, wherever they come from.

That's right Mike K - it was just a lone gunman at Waco ...

To borrow from a pretty bad movie adaptation:

imagine Kyle MacLachlan saying "Fear is the mind killer". If you can't learn something from a pretty bad movie you're doomed. Oh yeah, we're all going to die too..

Neither of these "Patriot" terrorists survived. If they had, I'm sure they'd be facing military tribunals as terrorists.

or not.

Steve was too kind to point out something about all these homicidal white guys. Not only are they not named Ahmed; they're all on the political right. And that's why the Republicans are being calm and rational about these white guys. You wouldn't expect them to dump on their base, wouldja?

Not only are they not named Ahmed; they're all on the political right. And that's why the Republicans are being calm and rational about these white guys.

Well, yeah, but since there are no non-white people or people named Ahmed in the GOP, does it really matter?

(Cue indignant conservative yammering about Michael Steele or producing lone and much-flashed photo of Middle Eastern-looking guy at last Republican convention.)

Oh, Steve, Steve, I am surprised at your naivete.

The country's "calm" response to the plane flown into the IRS and now, assuredly, to this "lone gunman" has nothing to do with appropriateness.

What should be noted is how many public figures will justify this man's actions, just as was done with the guy with the plane in Texas.

This incident should be ringing alarm bells. We recently learned that rightwing hate groups, including militias have significantly increased in number, and we have now had our second terrorist attack in less than a month.

Given the rhetoric from the right, you can be sure this is only the beginning. "Conservatives want their country back," and they're not going to stop until they get it, whether they have to kill every last person to the left of Osama Bin Laden.

What's coming is going to make Ireland in the '70s and '80s look like a schoolyard brawl.

I think the line can be cut closer. If it's right wing violence, it's supposed to be perfectly justified. If it's not, it's an outrage.

If this statement's premise were even remotely accurate, you may have a point. However, Bedell thinks the government (that would be Republican George W. Bush's government) orchestrated 9/11 - not exactly a "right wing" point of view, and not a view any right-winger I know of has ever articulated. Joe Stack, our other recent domestic terrorist, did espouse an anti-government philosophy but also was a communist sympathizer who quoted the Communist manifesto at length - so Stack is, at best, ideologically incoherent. Therefore, the evidence is inconclusive.

I'm not saying they're left-wingers; rather that, their views are so incoherent as to preclude them from belonging to a particular ideology.

Steve's point's well-made. As for other discussions, please note that the guy is an inactive Democrat who last voted in 2005.

But that doesn't make him left or right by any objective measure. What he is is an anti-government guy with warped logic or mental illness, who chose a course of violence.

It is true that inflammatory rhetoric, that is or borders on the advocacy of eliminationism, can propel people with these illnesses or tendencies.

It's also true that talk radio and TV broadcast media has several people who use such rhetoric and almost all of them promote extreme rightwing political views.

There's a definite link, but it's often difficult to pinpoint it as causation.

KevinHayden raises a good point. The incessant crisis talk and calls for extreme action that goes on like a daily drumbeat on right wing talk radio and cable TV correlates directly with what these people feel they are doing. Namely, taking a kamikaze dive into the face of evil.

I mean, shoot ... Glenn Beck is out there several nights a week, talking conspiracy theories and urging his audience to go out and do something drastic, take action, before it is too late and the nation is destroyed forever. Wake up, America - right?

So it is small wonder some people are shooting cops, crashing airplanes into federal office buildings, or gunning down their ideological enemies in church. The people doing these acts believe they live in desperate times, and that they are in a personalized struggle against radical evil. And these people get constant, wall-to-wall reinforcement for their paranoia (and violent solutions) from the corporate media.

Why did they kill him when they could have water boarded him and gotten vital information?!?

Time to start the profiling: White guys in suits, up against the wall!

What we need is some fat, middle-aged, balding, white guys with shotguns, batons, and a war-wagon sporting a 50 caliber machine gun to go show them Pentagon boys how real murican men handle security.