yes they are rising. hate crimes are on the increase from both the left and the right wing extremists. in a short period of time, we have seen the killing of US soldiers in arkansas during recruitment by a new islamic convert. also we have seen a very disturbing murder of a doctor in kansas by an anti-arbotion crusader, then there is the assault on the holocaust museum in DC by an extreme right wing white supremacist hater who has the ''reflections'' of the fox news/rush limbaugh doctrine in his mentality.

this is a guy who believes like rush and many of his worshippers listeners that the president of the US is evil, not born in the US and socialist.
he also believes that jews are children of satan, blacks are sub human and whites and whites alone matter.

this is a guy who fought against hitler, now a hitler worshipper. FBI reported sometime ago that recruitment into hate organisations is on the rise since the election of an african american president, dept of homeland security warned against rise in hate crimes (a document prepared during the bush administration) for which the republicans made her apologise.

the issue now is, with this guy following the doctrine of fox news/rush limbaugh, hatred of obama, believe he is muslim(as if that is a crime), yet attack his former pastor, believe he was not born in the US, etc . . . . is the extreme right nursing the seeds of hatred? is there an association between the listening to fox news and violence against minorities? could the likes of sean hannity have contributed in some way to this level of hatred whereby an 88 yr old man will want to kill somebody before dying? . . . . . . . this is serious

Where is this left wing act of terrorism that has happened? I am sorry, but trying to apportion equal blame in the sake of political equilibrium is just fucking stupid. These right wing nuts have no gumptions about killing anyone that disagrees with them.

the guy who killed soldiers in arkansas can be argued to be a left wing extremist. since he probably was against the war.

note that these people are primarily criminals. the issue of this thread is to figure out, through exchange of ideas, if these guys were influenced by political doctrines. like this guy in DC killings was obviously listening to rush and fox news. he believes obama was not born in US, He believes obama will take away his weapons etc these are stuff u hear only in fox news and the likes. but i'm not talking about cause and effect here. i'm talking about associations.

is the right wing extremism fed by right wing media spin masters?

That is a stretch. The guy was an idiotic right wing islamic convert. To be against the war in Iraq does not a left wing make. This guy is every bit a fundamentalist as the murder in Kansas and D.C.

Pres, its good that you want to hear opinions and see how other people feel about the topic. I am going to tell you how I feel about it.

The Dept of Homeland declassified a document recently and soon after it hit the internet . . . I will say it stayed on for about 30mins . . .and then they immediately recalled it and sealed it back up as a classified document. It was titled Domestic Extremism Lexicon. There were 52 classifications of extremism and each was given definition for how the law would interprete it. A particular one was called "Alternative Media". Here is the definition for it:

Alternative Media - A term used to describe various information sources that provide a forum for interpretation of events and issues that differ radically from those presented in mass media products and outlets.

In other words, if you make an independent analysis of a national event or issue that challenges or calls into question conclusions reached by the mainstream media, then you are an extremist.

In America, there are hundreds of statutes under the civil rights act of 1964, add to that the rights clause in the Constitution and you have a complex social system in which around every right there is also a movement and around every movement there is radicalism. To shut down radicalism is to silence democracy. I guess Napolitano suddenly realized her error and immediately recalled that lexicon. This is a prime testament that democracy is not a fix-it-all solution for society.

America is the model of democracy, we chastise other countries for silencing radicalism. . .we ourselves must not be seen shutting down the voice of radicalism. So I do not expect that the government will introduce any program to shutd won hate groups but I believe they will treat each episode as an incident and dispose of it as necessary within a legal context. This is what they have always done and will continue to do.

@negro ntns
is this not sad? i thought there was something called ethics? people should be responsible in doing thier business and should know of possible effects of their actions. when people hype up attacks on e.g the president, personal attacks, not just policy attack but statements like. . .he was not born here, he is a muslim(nothing wrong with this, but it can be used to muster hate), he is anti jews, he is socialist, facist, etc these things spark hatred. in a country already divided

imagine in nigeria, b/c of freedom of speech(if at all we have it there) someone starts braodcasts about the civil war, killing of ibos etc . . . . is it right? i know that the attack on northerners in onitsha some yrs back was b/c the trucks carrying the corpses of murdered igbos was driven right into the city center.

some statements in fox news are debatably inciting. and unfortunately so.

You mean like Sanusi Lamido saying that Igbos deserved the pogrom of the 60s because they laughed at Northern traders during the first coup?

i dont know about this statement but if he said it, it is a ''constitutional right'' of freedom of speech, but it is not the appropriate thing to say. these kind of things will lead to more spread of hate and mayhem.

this guy hated blacks and jews. reflected the mannerism of fox news/right wing listeners. you can watch the movie ''right america feeling wronged'' . i think you can find it on you-tube. these things can be inciting.

Well, you see. . .there you go! When we talk about freedom of speech we must be careful how we define it and for whom? You cannot define freedom of speech in Nigeria in the same manner it is defined in America and here is why. The historical roots in the two countries are not the same and the struggle for liberties and freedom emanated under different dimensions and aspirations. I will give an example.

In Nigeria, we were naturally free and never in bondage, we ceded our own rights to freedom. In America, everyone was in bondage and had to fight for freedom of rights. So the declaration of the right to exercise liberty and freedom and to live and enjoy life would indicate that at one time these people were prohibited from doing just that.

We are heading in the wrong direction if in Nigeria our own consitutuion emulates the design of the American constitution. I

Sorry there, hit wrong key in the middle of composition, I will continue here.
___________________________________________________________

It could be argued that our political and social system is decadent and highly intolerable of individual freedom of rights. Practically, yes this is true but ideally the antidote for that is something else other than an advocation for freedom of speech.

The style of rulership and government we inherited from Britain and which we continue to use is one that lacks trust between the ruler and the ruled. The colonial governors did not trust the people and so they installed instruments of control such as police force to respond brutally to oppositions and silence the voice of opponents. Isn't that the manner in which our own governors and Presidents have continued to rule us, almost 50 years after independence?

So to go back to Tunku's quote on Lamido's yukky mouth and what he said about Igbos, we must examine if this is truly freedom of speech or if it's hatred. You mentioned ethics. I am sure everyone got something in their mind to express but most people do no just open their mouth and say stuffs on the ground of rights of liberty. When you express your liberty you could very well be injuring another person's own right. So this is where common sense and wisdom comes in. There must be a balance in which individuals have the decorum and are principled in the interest of harmony and progress that they sacrifice the impulse of their own voice so that the tensions of hatred and conflicts are minimized. If Lamido has not demonstrated this wisdom or sense of ethical balance, then I must question why he is a national government that seeks national unity? Replace him with someone sensible enough and sympathetic to the well being of the population and the unity of the Federation.


On the issue of right wing extremists taking cue from Fox news and their syndicates to oppose Obama and spew fear and hatred. . .well, you know just as much as I do that America is a glorious place when it comes to money and materialism. . . in anything else, it is not the best place in the world to live in. What you have seen from the extremists is envy. If Obama was Christian and was white. . .the right wing extremists will still target him. It is double hard on him given his background. I must remind you of Clinton's own fight with militias and cults. . .David Koresh of Branch Davidian in Waco, and there was Randy Weaver of Ruby Ridge militia. . . both of which led to confrontation with FBI and paramilitary siege. . .and finally incited Timothy McVeigh to terrorize America. Yes, we can wonder why these people are doing this but America was founded on conflicts of interest and violence.

@pres-elect,

How can you call the anti-semitic guy a right wing nut? Isn't anti-setimism the exclusive preserve of you liberals?  That guy probaly sat under the teachings of Rev Wright than of Rush!  Was it not the same Rev who was accusing Jews recently?  The only guy you could try to connect to a right wing nutcase is the one who killed the abortion doctor.  But even that is a stretch.

As a conservative (which I assume you refer to as right wing), we do not believe that anyone should be deprived of his/her life without a trial by a jury of his/her peers.  In that light, both the Doctor and his killer are guilty of the same crime which we abhor! However, you can clearly make a case that while the Doctor's killer only took one life, the Doctor was probably responsible for taking lives in the hundreds!  I do not condone the action of any one of them, and I do hope both of them get what they deserve (though some might argue that the Doctor already got his)!!

thank you tayo D, typical fox news methodology. you picked one point which favours you and u embelish it and magnify it. the guy was anti-semitic, therefore he was liberal.
yeah, mr tayo D,
the extreme liberal actually made hateful statements against blacks.
the extreme liberal made hateful statements against minorities
the extreme liberal believes obama was not born in the US (then tayo you must be a hot liberal )
the extreme liberal joins the NA2I movt in america
the extreme liberal adores Hitler (whom he fought in WW2)

yes mr tayo D, i just have to agree, that guy did what he did to please Obama. he must have been a hot liberal who never missed sean hannity or Boss Limbaugh. these liberals self.

anyways, i guess the liberals had better cool down so that america will remain together.

Negro_Ntns:



On the issue of right wing extremists taking cue from Fox news and their syndicates to oppose Obama and spew fear and hatred. . .well, you know just as much as I do that America is a glorious place when it comes to money and materialism. . . in anything else, it is not the best place in the world to live in. What you have seen from the extremists is envy. If Obama was Christian and was white. . .the right wing extremists will still target him. It is double hard on him given his background. I must remind you of Clinton's own fight with militias and cults.

how true