Scapegoat in the Making – DHS Document

President Obama needs a scapegoat.  He is in the process of creating one with the help of Janet Napolitano.  George W. Bush worked for a while but Obama needs a handy underdog not unlike Hitler needing social unrest and the Jews.  The DHS document is a wake up call.  It smacks of the same sardonic mentality and underhanded efforts to stereotype veterans as were operative in the production of the Pennsylvania State University (video below).   The admittedly unsubstantiated document targets various conservative segments of the population that have legitimate grievances with the current administration.

Roger Hedgecock who first covered the story wrote,

“The report linked people holding conservative views on immigration, abortion, the U.N., the New World Order, etc., to dangerous and violent “militias” that Missouri law enforcement were instructed to be on guard against. Conservative opinions were demonized and made the subject of law enforcement scrutiny.”

Liberty Paper’s Stephen Gordon also early writing:

“Also targeted in the report are veterans, folks anticipating additional restrictions to their Second Amendment rights, and those concerned about the loss of U.S. sovereignty.

This report implies that one harboring these sorts of views is a racist as well as a potential terrorism suspect.”

Michelle Malkin called the document “one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I’d ever read out of DHS. I couldn’t believe it was real.”

Ed Morrisey calls it  “The execrable DHS report on “right-wing extremism”

The Anchoress thinks “DHS Documents picking a fight”

Jim Blazsik  has a Warning: If you are a pro-life conservative, you may be considered an enemy of the State.”

The “report”: Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment…. (PDF file here).  The report state it has no specific information that domestic rightwing terrorist are currently planning acts of violence but it say rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears. It points to returning veterans as possible perpetrators of violence.

Obama Calling America “Arrogant” Update

Update:

I’m sorry. I was in a hurry and didn’t do Obama’s comments justice.  In referring to America Obama said we’d “shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive…” Charles Krauthammer fills in the blanks for me with regards to a fuller history on the subject.

Commenting on President Barack Obama’s lack of grace in dissing his country on the world stage, Steven Forbes says, President Obama should take a day off. Go to Camp David. Watch some old tapes of Ronald Reagan, and learn what it’s like to be a real President.

Charles Krauthammer says more:

A New Age of the Spirit

President Obama seems a man flying in the face of the Holy Spirit and not prone to  be moved the Spirit, especially in areas of life, morality and the Natural Law…unless by “natural law” we  mean survival of the most well-positioned, power-hungry and powerful.

Modern Medieval writes: “It appears that Joachim of Fiore is still around and voting for Obama.”  “From the annals of strange stuff, I ran across this Italian article that has the mayor San Giovanni of Fiore inviting Barack Obama to his town in order to become an honorary citizen. Apparently, according to this article, Obama has invoked the 12th-century mystic and theologian Joachim of Fiore on no fewer than 3 occasions.”

In a Lenten sermon by P. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCAP – delivered  in the presence of Benedict XVI 3-29-2009 Joachim of Fiore  comes up again with regard to Obama  and what this Presisent could possibly be doing in Joachim’s corner:

The fact that the recently elected president of the United States referenced Joachim of Fiore three times during his electoral campaign has renewed interest in medieval monk’s teachings. Few of the people who talk about him, especially on the internet, know or care to know just what exactly this author said. Every idea of church or world renewal is offhandedly attributed to him, even the idea of a new Pentecost for the Church, which was invoked by John XXIII.

One thing is certain: whether or not it should be attributed to Joachim of Fiore, the idea of a third era of the Spirit that would follow on the era of the Old Testament Father and the New Testament Christ is false and heretical because it affects the very heart of the Trinitarian dogma. St. Gregory Nazianzen’s statement is entirely different. He makes a distinction between three phases in the revelation of the Trinity: in the Old Testament the Father fully revealed himself and the Son is promised and announced; in the New Testament the Son fully revealed himself and the Holy Spirit is promised and announced; in the time of the Church, the Holy Spirit is finally fully known and we rejoice in his presence.

The Church speaks with the voice of the Holy Spirit teaching and guiding through its Magisterium. In speaking of the Holy Spirit Cantalamessa says:

St. Ignatius suggested practical means to apply these criteria. One is this: when we are faced with two possible choices, it is useful to first consider one of them, as if we must follow it, and to stay in that state for a day or more; then we should evaluate how our heart reacts to that choice: is there peace, harmony with the rest of our own decisions; is there something inside of you that encourages you in that direction, or on the contrary has it left a haze of restlessness… Then repeat the process with the second hypothesis. All this should be done in an atmosphere of prayer, abandonment to God’s will, and openness to the Holy Spirit.

And in closing he says:

When everything is reduced to just the personal, private listening to the Spirit, the path is opened to a unstoppable process of division and subdivision, because everyone believe they are right. And the very division and multiplication of denominations and sects, often contrasting each other in their essential points, demonstrates that the same Spirit of truth in speaking cannot be in all, because otherwise he would be contradicting himself.

It is well known that this is the danger to which the protestant world is most exposed, having built the “interior testimony” of the Holy Spirit as the only criteria of truth, against every exterior, ecclesial testimony, other than that of the written Word.[10] Some extreme fringes will even go as far as to separate the interior guidance of the Spirit even from word of the Scriptures. We then have the various movements of “enthusiasts” or “enlightened” who have punctuated the history of the Church, whether catholic, orthodox or protestant. The most frequent result of this tendency, which concentrates all attention on the internal testimony of the Spirit, is that the Spirit slowly looses the capital letter and comes to coincide with the simple human spirit. That is what happened with rationalism.

Expansion of Human Embryo Experimentation.

Thoughts of the Great Unwashed point  here for a read on the label given Obama as the “abortion president”:

One of the most outspoken abortion opponents in Congress labeled President Obama the “abortion president” on Friday in response to news that Obama intended to sign an executive order Monday lifting restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., accused Obama of launching two attacks on pro-life measures. In addition to lifting President Bush’s stem cell restrictions, Obama intends to lift regulations from the Bush administration that allow health care providers and institutions to refuse to participate in abortions on grounds of conscience.

“Why does the president persist in the dehumanizing of nascent human life when better alternatives exist? Human embryo-destroying stem cell research is not only unethical, unworkable and unreliable- it is now, demonstrably unnecessary,” Smith said.Smith labeled Obama’s stem cell policy an expansion of “human embryo experimentation.”

Style vs. Substance

Seems Obama can make them swoooooon but they remember Limbaugh.

They Remember Limbaugh

You go, Guy!

Rick Tucker writing for TownHall.com says Obama’s address to Congress accrued kudos for a day.  Front pages  applauded his audacious plans.  By the weekend Barak was old news and lining garbage cans.  Rush on the other hand mouthed four words that are still lighting fires and making headlines.

The words, part if a diatribe decrying socialist plans for America, were that Rush wanted “Barack Obama to fail.  ” They were clearly and easily understood by people who understand context. That’s really all that matters.  People do understand what Limbaugh meant.  Some people just can’t stand that Limbaugh puts such a memorable stamp on it.

“Sleight of Hand” “Bang-bang Agenda”

Charles Krauthammer calls foul and unmasks the deception.

Obama to Congress:

“We are paying for past sins in three principal areas: energy, health care and education”

“The ‘day of reckoning’ has arrived.”

Krauthammer calls  Obama’s “sleight of hand” agenda (my emphasis):

“Amazing. As an explanation of our current economic difficulties, this is total fantasy. As a cure for rapidly growing joblessness, a massive destruction of wealth, a deepening worldwide recession, this is perhaps the greatest non sequitur ever foisted upon the American people.”

“Obama has come to redeem us with his far-seeing program of universal, heavily nationalized health care; a cap-and-trade tax on energy; and a major federalization of education with universal access to college as the goal.”

“At the very center of our economic near-depression is a credit bubble, a housing collapse and a systemic failure of the banking industry…List of causes of the collapse of the financial system does not include the absence of universal health care, let alone of computerized medical records. Nor the absence of an industry-killing cap-and-trade carbon levy. Nor the lack of college graduates.”

“Four months after winning the election, six weeks after his swearing-in, Obama has yet to unveil a plan to deal with the banking crisis.

“Obama sees the continuing financial crisis as usefully creating the psychological conditions – the sense of crisis bordering on fear-itself panic — for enacting his “Big Bang” agenda to federalize and/or socialize health care, education”

“….intellectually dishonest to the core...The fraudulent claim that they are both cause and cure is the rhetorical device by which an ambitious president intends to enact the most radical agenda of social transformation seen in our lifetime”