“The government always uses the some isolated incident in the past to scare us into surrendering our rights in the future. Should we just roll over and take it because some whacko like McVeigh decided to declare war on the government years ago? He was a total nut, a freak, not representative of the right wing at all.”
What rights are they taking away? This is a notice to look for patterns, or a reminder really to local law enforcement as many local PDs can get lazy like any other government entity. They’re advised to look out for erratic statements in arrests, large and unusual purchases or thefts of chemicals, equipment, etc that can be used for bombings, etc. No rights are being trounced here, just an advisement of prudent foresight and proactive measures.
If we built a new large base in Saudi Arabia, a small bombing occurred against a US military base overseas and then some arab whack job came on TV to renew a declaration of war against the US, advisories like this one would go out to all local PDs just the same since it is based on past history, in this case, the 1992 to 1997 time frame preceeding Al-Quaeda’s actions and 9/11.
If the Obama administration actually infringes on rights not already ceded by the Patriot Act (can’t blame Obama for that one), let me know. Until then, this thread is full of paranoid nonsense.
“No rights are being trounced here, just an advisement of prudent foresight and proactive measures.”
You make it all seem so reasonable, but what you are forgetting is that the nuts they are on the lookout for are what the government has labelled as “rightwing extremists” as though these white supremacists and violent antigovernment idiots are somehow more likely to be rightwing than leftwing. They are only crazies; they don’t deserve a political label.
These labels are dangerous because they help to convince the public that those of a certain political orientation (i.e., “rightwing”) are more likely to be dangerous than other political orientations, and thus are deserving of being investigated, locked away, shot, etc...I’m convinced this is the left’s plot—lock up all the real patriots in America, the rightwing, under the guise of national security.