Where's the (Fake) Conservative Outrage on This Threat Assessment?

When the Department of Homeland Security issued an intelligence assessment characterizing returning military vets as potential domestic terrorists, conservatives went ape...crap. Rep. John Boehner said the report was offensive and demanded that the DHS apologize to veterans. Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis said the DHS was "engaging in political and ideological profiling." Michelle Malkin said the report was "one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I'd ever read."

'Cause Tim McVeigh didn't exist, domestic militias are harmless and there's been no uptick in hate crimes across America.

Be that as it may...

If conservatives are so sensitive to "shoddy" threat assessments, where's the (fake) outrage over Virginia's Anti-terrorism Fusion Center's recently leaked report that the state's historically black colleges --- Virginia Union University, Virginia State University, Norfolk State University and Hampton University - form a "radicalization node" for extremists?

In addition to singling out historically black colleges and the Hampton Roads area as being "at risk" because of its "diverse military population" as well as being home to black colleges, the report from the Unit notes Richmond's history as the capital of the Confederacy and its sizable minority population make it a breeding ground for race-based extremist groups. You know. Scary dark-skinned people with guns!

The leaked report immediately set off a wave of anger with everybody in the state except conservatives. To be fair, the report painted with a pretty broad brush, and some 50 organizations to the left and the right of the political spectrum are mentioned in the assessment. But Virginia's HBCUs are specifically named, without explanation, as being ground zero for domestic terror activity.

Thankfully, Gov. Tim Kaine, at the urging of the ACLU, has launched an investigation into how the Fusion Center arrived at its conclusions.

No need to investigate why conservatives have been uniformly silent about the incident.

For more perspective, please visit That Minority Thing.com

Comments

[WarSkeptic]

Do you not see the irony of what you are writing?

You are criticising them for only caring about when they are spied on. Yet you seem to only care when you are spied on. I live in Missouri and our attorney general issued a report that basically said to harass people with Ron Paul bumper stickers. They were right to be upset about it

How about we stop the spying on and profiling all the political groups. Its clearly illegal

[Ohioan730]

HBCUs exist only because blacks were not permitted to attend white universities in the past. A short while ago, a white valedictorian graduated from Morehouse. There are many white students who attend HBCUs and are more than encouraged and welcomed. If they choose not to attend and diversify the student body, that's their business.

That said, any so-called attacks on blacks for whatever reason are widely accepted by us with a snicker and a resounding yawn. There is NOTHING new under the sun on that topic, trust me. Maybe that's the problem. "Race card" is the new smackdown term for anybody who complains about racism nowadays. I laugh at that one as well. The only reason I have a race card is because others have played theirs against me. When I defend myself, I'm "making a mountain out of a molehill". That's a huge crock. I will continue to cause butt hurt for bigots every chance I get no matter how many cards people accuse me of playing.

[frag1409]

Maybe a link to the actual report would be helpful so we could compare apples to apples.

I can't believe we're still playing the race card after the election of president Obama.

[IGNSTHMD]

Electing president Obama =/= reconsiliation for black people

reconsiliation for black people = reconsiliation for black people

talking about encrouching assumptions and preditory pragmatism =/= race card

an excuse to ostracize intellectualism and anti-materialism in blacks = race card

it is sad I have to point it out

the whole race card shuck and jive is like sayinging: you're black now live with it; I've gotten over you being a problem to acknowledge

A lot of the white people are making out like they treat all black people the way they would treat Obama, but there is a larger discussion to acknowledge; moral attonement and valuation are not a party theme they are real and can be attested to by observation of our daily lives.

the content of my character can be overlooked entirely if those judging me are so self absorbed they wont accept anything they don't already believe

[realpolitic]

John Ridley is usually a large part of the fake conservative outrage on any topic!

[Cinnamonape]

I'd like to see the full report's statement in context on these statements. How does it define a "radicalization node". It seems to me that - just reading the lengthier quote that the concern could be ATTACKS ON the Historically Black Colleges.

""In addition to singling out historically black colleges and the Hampton Roads area as being "at risk" because of its "diverse military population" as well as being home to black colleges, the report from the Unit notes Richmond's history as the capital of the Confederacy and its sizable minority population make it a breeding ground for race-based extremist groups. You know. Scary dark-skinned people with guns!"

Richmond and surrounding area is a hub by white supremacist groups who come there to undertake pro-Confederacy and racist "in your face" activities. Many of them live in area. And some have made threats and actually acted on them...directed at African Americans.

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=210#7

http://www.wtvr.com/global/story.asp?s=9505156&ClientType=Printable

http://abajournal.com/news/white_supremacist_escapes_sanction_for_internet_posts_about_troutman_sander/

[Rule Of Law]

I wish that Black People represented a challenge to this corrupt, old white rich guy run country! I wish it was the 60's and Huey and Angela were making the man shake in his boots! I wish to god somebody had the courage that those people showed to step up and say--enough!!!

[Dunque]

Rule - Pay attention. A black guy is running the country.

[Rule Of Law]

Like we used to say--if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem!

[Dunque]

Where's your fake liberal outrage over the Obama Administration deciding they just might revive the Guantanamo military commissions? Quote from the NY Times..."The more they look at it,” said one official, “the more commissions don’t look as bad as they did on Jan. 20.”

And this beauty..."Officials who work on the Guantánamo issue say administration lawyers have become concerned that they would face significant obstacles to trying some terrorism suspects in federal courts. " Hah! Really?!

[ShorelineCT]

Why do you think former Pres. Bush left these "enemy combatants" in legal limbo and stalled on resolving their cases, leaving the Obama Admin. to clean up this embarrassment to the US? Many of the one's left were perhaps tortured into confessing, and thus, their confessions can not be used in a US court of law. Many also got captured based on unreliable info from witnesses that are never going to be called to testify, etc. What is unjust is that the US has held these people soon long without charges. Pres. Bush was in charge up until Jan 19th, 2009!

[UNR]

I think you're analyzing the wording of the report wrong. Rereading this passage:

"In addition to singling out historically black colleges and the Hampton Roads area as being "at risk" because of its "diverse military population" as well as being home to black colleges, the report from the Unit notes Richmond's history as the capital of the Confederacy and its sizable minority population make it a breeding ground for race-based extremist groups. You know. Scary dark-skinned people with guns!"

This seems to be saying that it's RESENTMENT of the diverse military population and educated black youth that makes the area a breeding ground for WHITE extremist groups. It's not talking about scary dark-skinned folks with guns at all, but white ones. Just thought I'd point that out.

[billygore2000]

Timothy McVeigh didn't exist? Now that is news! By the way, Tim was a vet who returned from our first adventure in Iraq.

[mk20051]

Okay, what I don't understand is that Timothy McVeigh was a TERRORIST and no one had trouble with keeping him captive in their backyard. But all of these Republicans say that we can't close Guantanamo Bay because we can't try people in the US and we don't want them in our backyard. I guess that darker skinned terrorists are scarier....OOOH!!

[drgrph]

Let's see:
1. The report does not appear on a federal letterhead such as Dept of Homeland Security.
2. The report seems to indicate, admittedly by you, as across the political spectrum.
3. I haven't heard of the report, thus why is the media suppressing this information.

Hopefully this will give you a little insight as to why there might be no outrage among those of the conservative political persuasion.

If I might ask, though, why do you propose that historically black colleges are, well, black. I thought all institutions receiving federal dollars had to abide by federal law. So aren't these institutions integrated anyway? If not, then shame on them. If they are, then shame on you for trying to play the race card. Just because it worked for President Obama in the primaries doesn't make it right.

[IGNSTHMD]

what would it be if everyone who used the term race card had to file for it like you do a concealed weapon; or better yet what if every time someone says the words race card you had to pay $100 down on the national debt. Freedom of speech used to be something we needed to preserve the dialog of our nation now we sell our civil rights to the highest bidder (nationalism, national security, "patriotism") or just sell out to cash in on tommorows platitudes. real people do real things

[mizani7]

Let me educate you since i'm so sure you're questions about HBCU's are so genuine and intellectually honest.

There's a reason why they are called HISTORICALLY Black Colleges and Universities. Guess why? Because they were created for talented and intelligent black students who were not permitted into HWCU's. Now, just to be sure, white students are ABSOLUTELY allowed to attend HBCU's. I know that for a fact because i saw them there when i attended an HBCU (Howard U :)). Now, if white students opt not to attend to make the campuses more racially balanced, then that's their choice. But no laws are being broken and no one is being discriminated against.

And you absolutely cannot name one instance in which Obama played the race card in the election. I think that people like you think that his existence and success means he's playing the race card because, i don't know, maybe YOU can't see past his color. He DID make one of the most poignant speeches on race ever during his campaign, but even that was prompted by the right's use of the race card to try to portray him as a scary black male radical militant (which is absurd on its face).

And the reason there is no outrage by the right on this issue is because its not to their political advantage to fake it. Period. Lets be honest. Oftentimes the right's outrage is completely fact-free, so they don't need any damn letterhead to incite it.

[republicants]

Well said!

[Benton]

You should have thrown in the fact that Hampton for example has a higher percentage of white students then most historically white universities have of black students. Have you ever seen a recruiting brochure for Hampton? You would think that no blacks attended at all. Furthermore, in an effort to recruit more white students Hampton is very generous with it's scholarship packages and academic requirements in encouraging more white students to attend. Interestingly enough there were never any protests or outrage about that fact expressed the black student body at least while I was there. Not to mention the fact that the faculty is very diverse including large numbers of white Americans. Some people have very small worlds and therefore derive their distorted reality based on feelings, half witted stereotypes, the nonsense they glean from FOX news, and their equally ignorant friends and associates.

As an aside, many historically black colleges and universities are not even majority black do to integration and consolidation.

[GalenL]

"2. The report seems to indicate, admittedly by you, as across the political spectrum."

Not unlike the TWO reports on extremism (left and right wing) commissioned by the Bush administration, got to love how Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano only had to apologize for the one on right wing extremism. For that matter why would she be apologizing for reports put together by the previous administration. Oh right, the Republicans threw a hissy fit, about the one that would give them political advantage.

[Benton]

In 2005 Hampton University was 10% white. If it was 100% white it would still be an HBCU because it was created to education freed slaves who certainly were not permitted to attend the state colleges in Virginia all the way up into the 1960's even though their tax dollars paid for them.

[Shirley Fisk]

5/2/09
11:47am
Alexandria, VA

Free speech is now considered "radical" unless the speaker agrees with the Fusion Center?

How did they come up with that name, the "Fusion Center?" Sounds radical to me.

[toadicux]

Well it started out as Total Information Awareness led by Admiral Poindexter.

It caused a massive public outcry so they gave Poindexter an advisory post and changed the name to "Fusion Center" and went ahead with it anyway.

[damilitantone]

This news does not surprise me. Black folks are usually on somebody's enemies list. I got my handle "Da Militant One" from my days as a bank examiner for FDIC. You know how radical bank examiners can be. I was labeled for standing up to top management within the Corporation over issues ranging from the treatment of other examiners, unfair criticism of bank officials, and questionable revisions to examination processes involving bank reports. I had a chance to review my personel file before I left after 14 years and it was quite a dossier. However, when all was said and done it really didn't matter because no good deed ever goes unpunished. Better to be labeled a trouble maker for standing up for what's right than to remain silent and go quietly into the night.

[Trogenhorse]

How about the rage of the libral base? When prop 8 was on the ballot and people did not vote the way they thought was fair ( groups were split) this site was a buzz over how the AA community had let them down. Now the AA community - Universities at that are under attack and not a word from the large liberal community.
I would contend this is what's wrong with the way we think. Each community still left to fight on their own. Our boat is standing still will everyone paddles in a different direction.

[chaya]

I'm pretty sure that our GOP politicians and Christian Evangelist leaders have become so incredibly extremist themselves that they think the white militias--who ARE terrorists--are real heroes, putting their lives on the line to defend what the rest of them believe in their hearts. I'm not so sure they're even really that mad about the Oklahoma City bombing.

[CentralVA]

Chaya: I suggest you get out more, and meet some Republicans and evangelicals. You will find that whatever your ideological differences, they are not monsters who revel in the slaughter of children.

[cuchulain]

A very recent Pew Center study found that evangelicals were far more likely to be in favor of torture than non-believers. In fact, they found a direct correlation between the frequency of church going and the support for torture.

WWJD?

On issue after issue, evangelicals seem to be on the side of intolerance and violence, with rare exceptions. Why is that, when the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount is so obviously and clearly AGAINST everything the religious right stands for?

[dan-o]

What is so new about college campuses being a source for radicals?

[IGNSTHMD]

good point, but you should not let this empowered government program/ think tank off the hook for discrimination. I have read that the fusion center is a government monitoring device made to make our country safer from internal threats; it makes me uncomforatable when the defenders of this nation do shotty work and pass off convenience (that gives them a foothold on legal discrimination that jumps from profiling to labeling groups of people) as articulation of portentious organizations of information ie radicalization node... what is a radicalization node.