Right-Wing Terrorism

When will this nation have a serious discussion of right-wing terrorism?

As you've probably heard by now, a guy flew a plane into the IRS building in Austin, taking off from my town of Georgetown. According to CNN:

A message on a Web site registered to Joseph Andrew Stack appears to be a suicide note: "If you're reading this, you're no doubt asking yourself, 'Why did this have to happen?'" the message says. "The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time." In the long message, the writer rails against the government and, particularly, the Internal Revenue Service.

Oklahoma City. The killings in the Unitarian Church in Knoxville. The murder of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas. The IRS building in Austin. All of these acts are excused not only by the right-wingers but by the mainstream media as the acts of isolated extremists. We are unwilling to talk about what's actually happening--right-wing radio, blogs, and other media encouraging people to commit violent acts.

No doubt this guy is a lone whacko, but like the guy who shot up the Knoxville church, he is a lunatic empowered by right-wing hate.

But I'm sure Limbaugh, Beck, and the gang will again publicly distance themselves from these actions while privately rejoicing in glee.

Update: Here's the guy's entire letter, via the Austin American-Statesman website.And here's a piece of this bizarre twisted document:

We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse....

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

Update #2--The Times has a piece about how cable networks are unwilling to call this terrorism, asking the question "The subtext on cable news today is this: what is the definition of terrorism?"

The answer is fairly clear--it's terrorism if the actor has brown skin.