If You Never Build The Cylons, Caprica Never Gets Nuked

The Department of Homeland Security is worried about right-wing extremist groups, you say?

Wow! Listen to those howls of outrage from the right! Michelle Malkin calls it the "Obama hit job on conservatives" and Ed Morrissey calls it "excerable."

In one sense, I'm kind of tickled by the irony. So many right-wingers were so adamant that we needed a Department of Homeland Security and it's important to protect the country from enemies within as well as those from without. And now that someone has taken power who isn't a right-winger, the powerful force of this monster created under the Bush Administration has turned its eye on to those same people who apologized for the President who created it.

Now see -- this is why you don't make the government really powerful, right? Because one day you and your buddies might not be in control of it anymore and you'll have to defend yourself against the very weapons you used against your enemies!

Well, guys, if you haven't done anything wrong, then you don't have anything to hide, do you? No reason to be worried about a government you haven't been disloyal to, right?

Only the Department of Homeland Security is only kind of a leviathan of government power. In another sense, it is a hulking shibboleth -- potentially very powerful but really not much more than a layer of bureaucracy on top of what was there all along. In that sense, it's kind of a paper tiger.

And more importantly, they aren't looking at Fox News-sponsored Tea Parties. They aren't looking at legitimate political expression, and realistic conservatives understand this. They are focused on people who are willing to resort to violence. If you don't believe me, read the actual report for yourself. In the meantime, don't blow anything up, don't kill anyone, don't use the rhetoric of violence.

Liberals who objected to the Bush Administration were not arrested for expressing their political views. They were not investigated by the government on suspicion of conspiracy to commit treason because they engaged in peaceful protests, wore "I Only Sleep With Democrats" pins, or gave money to John Kerry's campaign. And you won't be, either. You know, for the right-wing equivalent of those things.

I hope this is the last I have to say about this issue. Put the Kool-Aid down. Go drink tea tomorrow and by all means send a bag or two along to your elected representatives along with a letter explaining how you feel about the state of affairs in the country now. Enjoy your bumper stickers. Move along.