Suitable For Framing (Or Being Framed!)

Hat tip to http://tcoverride.blogspot.com/.

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Canada Asks 'How Did Napolitano Get Her Job?'

From The National Post Of Canada ~ Can someone please tell us how U. S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano got her job? She appears to be about as knowledgeable about border issues as a late-night radio call-in yahoo.

In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Ms. Napolitano attempted to justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that "suspected or known terrorists" have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border, including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack.

All the 9/11 terrorists, of course, entered the United States directly from overseas. The notion that some arrived via Canada is a myth that briefly popped up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and was then quickly debunked.

Informed of her error, Ms. Napolitano blustered: "I can't talk to that. I can talk about the future. And here's the future. The future is we have borders."

Just what does that mean, exactly?

Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Napolitano equated Canada's border to Mexico's, suggesting they deserved the same treatment. Mexico is engulfed in a drug war that left more than 5,000 dead last year, and which is spawning a spillover kidnapping epidemic in Arizona. So many Mexicans enter the United States illegally that a multi-billion-dollar barrier has been built from Texas to California to keep them out.

In Canada, on the other hand, the main problem is congestion resulting from cross-border trade. Not quite the same thing, is it?

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ALG Acts On 'Witch hunt' Homeland Security Memo

Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today filed a Freedom of Information request demanding all documents related to the drafting of the controversial “right-wing extremism” memo.

“The American people have a right to know why the Department of Homeland Security is drafting political documents, by what process these documents were drafted, who was responsible for writing them, and who authorized it,” said Wilson.

Wilson believes that the memo “deliberately and unjustly targets mainstream political constituencies and unjustly labels their beliefs as 'extremist.'”

“The American people are not the enemy,” Wilson declared. “The only thing extreme is a government agency using the power of law to create boogeymen.”

In defining “rightwing extremism,” the Department of Homeland Security memo targets “groups, movements, and adherents… that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority” and “groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

Said Wilson, “The memo describes beliefs held by millions, I believe a vast majority, of Americans as 'extremist,' and promises to work with 'its state and local partners over the next several months' to determine the extent and factors driving this purported 'rise.'”

“It is apparent that DHS is monitoring political speech and thought, whether on the Internet or via other forms of communications,” said Wilson.

Wilson says that the memo makes the accusations all the more chilling by not saying which groups are being investigated. “What is so disturbing, and why Americans across the country should be alarmed, is that the memo does not mention any specifics as to what groups or individuals are currently being investigated.”

Wilson notes that in similar memos, the names of terrorist organizations are often listed with specificity.

“It is unclear what, exactly, the Department is actually investigating in this case. It lists numerous potential motivations, mostly ideological, for violent acts, but does not illuminate on any actual planned attacks or any groups known to be planning attacks, or any groups with histories of perpetrating attacks that are currently conducting any types of operational recruitment, meeting, or planning attacks,” said Wilson.

“Which is, by definition, a witch hunt,” Wilson concluded.

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Senators Blast Napolitano 'Extremism' Report

Oklahoma's two U. S. senators and five others today blasted Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and the department's report on "Rightwing Extremism."

Senators Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn joined David Vitter (R-La.), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in sending a letter to Napolitano expressing serious concerns about the release of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report entitled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”

“I was shocked to learn that this report classifies the brave men and women returning home from combat and operational deployments around the globe, who have been honorably defending our country, as potential terrorists,” Inhofe said.

“As a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I am especially proud of our soldiers returning home and I find it extremely regretful that they have been subjected to such an insult by this report. Furthermore, I find it reprehensible that within this report Americans who hold certain beliefs regarding issues such as immigration, the Second Amendment, and abortion fall under the report’s broad generalization of rightwing extremists, and are therefore considered a potential threat. I believe this report to be very offensive to many Americans.”

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Russell Rips Napolitano Indictment Of Vets

Senator Steve Russell, a retired Army Colonel and veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, has authored Senate Resolution 42 which demands that President Obama’s Administration retract a Department of Homeland Security report that suggests returning veterans could be a threat to the country.

Russell said the report should be withdrawn and an apology issued to America’s returning war veterans.

The department's office of intelligence and analysis distributed the report to state and local law enforcement agencies April 7. The office regularly publishes intelligence analyses of domestic and international threats to the nation's borders and infrastructure.

The report drew sharp criticism from Republican lawmakers, conservatives and veterans groups, who said it unfairly targets returning military veterans and gun rights advocates without citing specific threats.

The report said the return of military veterans facing challenges with reintegrating into their communities "could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks."

"To characterize men and women returning home after defending our country as potential terrorists is offensive and unacceptable," House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement. "The Department of Homeland Security owes our veterans an apology."

A footnote in the report, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," said that while there is no specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are planning acts of violence, such acts could come from unnamed "rightwing extremists" concerned about illegal immigration, abortion, increasing federal power and restrictions on firearms -- and singled out returning war veterans as susceptible to recruitment.

“To suggest that we would terrorize the very nation we risked our lives for should give all Americans pause,” said Russell, Oklahoma City Republican.

“Yesterday afternoon I participated in a rally with thousands of good, law-abiding, God-fearing Oklahomans who voiced their concerns about the Federal government’s expenditures of our hard-earned dollars,” said Russell, referring to the Tea Party rally that was held on the steps of the State Capitol. “According to the Department of Homeland Security report, these people would also be considered threats to the national security.

“It is vital that we take a stand and express, in our constitutional right to peaceful assembly and our extreme displeasure and disagreement with the Administration on this important matter,” Russell continued.

“Taken at face value, this report from our Department of Homeland Security would qualify the vast majority of Oklahomans as threats to our national security,” Russell added. “If upholding traditional American values such as the sanctity of life, the right to bear arms and defending your country is extremist, then I stand so accused,” Russell concluded.

Senate Resolution 42 further states that the Oklahoma State Senate supports America’s military veterans, who have risked their lives preserving the nation instead of attacking it, and believes that the traditional American values under attack by the Obama Administration should be respected and revered by the federal government.

The resolution will likely be heard in the Senate on Wednesday.

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Noted Quote: 'Trying to demonize political dissent'

“We recognize that many conservative gun owners will feel threatened by this Obama administration report,” said Citizens Committee For The Right To Keep And Bear Arms Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “It appears that DHS under Janet Napolitano is trying to demonize political dissent.”

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Napolitano Seeks To Remove Foot From Mouth

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano today sought to douse anger among conservatives and veterans groups like the American Legion over a report from her department warning of a rising threat of right-wing extremism.

"We are on the lookout for criminal and terrorist activity but we do not -- nor will we ever -- monitor ideology or political beliefs," Napolitano said in a statement amid charges that the department had done just that.

American Legion chief David Rehbein on Tuesday blasted the report as "incomplete, and, I fear, politically-biased" and took special aim at its warning that returning veterans having difficulties reintegrating society could be recruited by right-wing groups for possible terrorist attacks.

In a letter to Napolitano, Rehbein underlined the document's mention of Oklahoma City bombing author Timothy McVeigh's US Army background and called it "as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam."

"The American Legion is well aware and horrified at the pain inflicted during the Oklahoma City bombing, but Timothy McVeigh was only one of more than 42 million veterans who have worn this nation's uniform during wartime," said Rehbein, who group comprises some 2.6 million members.

Napolitano said she accepted Rehbein's request for a meeting and stressed: "I will tell him face-to-face that we honor veterans at DHS and employ thousands across the department, up to and including the deputy secretary."

The report said that fears of possible new restrictions on firearms, as well as troubled veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, "could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks."

Rehbein said the accusation, levelled in an April 7 document designed for local law enforcement officials, was "without any statistical evidence."

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