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Janet Napolitano is probably getting some satisfaction from the fact that reality has proven the bulletin issued by her Homeland Security department last year -- warning that the nation was about to be hit by a fresh wave of right-wing extremism and its attendant violence -- all too prescient.

Especially the part where it warned that these extremists were working hard to recruit military veterans:

Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists. DHS/I&A is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.

At the time the bulletin was issued, the right-wing media put up a hue and cry claiming that DHS was smearing veterans as potential terrorist threats, and demanding Napolitano's head. And even though Napolitano rebutted their nonsense, the conventional-wisdom talking point out of the affair was that DHS had unfairly smeared folks in the military.

Now it's clear that the Pentagon is aware that it has a problem: From Stars and Stripes:

The Pentagon is cracking down on extremism in its ranks with a new set of rules restricting servicemembers from participating on the Web sites of supremacist groups.

A new Defense Department directive on dissident and political activity issued on November 27 — the first since 1996 — says servicemembers “must not actively advocate supremacist doctrine, ideology, or causes.” This includes writing blogs or posting on Web sites.

... Last July, Stars and Stripes reported that 130 members of newsaxon.org, a social networking Web site affiliated with the National Socialist Movement, had listed “military” as their job in “Facebook”-style user profiles. Swatsikas, Nazi symbolism and militant imagery emblazon the site.

...

Army and Defense Department officials said at the time that extremist activity was not considered “an Army-wide issue.” And there was confusion, Potok said, about what defined “active participation.” Previously, membership alone in an extremist group was not enough for disciplinary action, though banned activities included distributing materials and demonstrating.

“The one worry here is that enforcement of these regulations may be very uneven. It leaves the decision up to local commanders and we’ve really yet to see how that’s going to work,” Potok said. “The hope is that this clarifies that even advocacy of these kinds of ideas is not consistent with being in the military.”

The arrests of the Hutaree militia made clear that the concern was full grounded in reality. As Newsweek observed in its report on the rise of right-wing extremists:

The rambling rants of the Hutaree might seem funny, in a sick sort of way, but they are far from harmless. The FBI busted nine members last month for allegedly plotting to trigger an "uprising" against the government by assassinating a local police officer and then ambushing colleagues who attended the funeral by blowing up improvised explosive devices. They may have had some professional instruction: one of the men in the group, Michael Meeks, is a Persian Gulf War veteran who served four years in the Marines and was a decorated rifle expert, according to Marine Corps records. Another member, Kristopher Sickles, is an Army vet (discharged "under other than honorable conditions," according to prosecutors).

After all, as we explained at the time, the DHS report's assessment of the situation vis a vis veterans was if anything understated:

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I missed this article about the more than one billion dollars spent on the "virtual wall" that the former administration initiated for our southern border. Seems like this administration is ready to stop wasting more federal funds against an idea whose time hadn't come yet.

Homeland chief Janet Napolitano beat the Government Accountability Office report to the punch when she announced Tuesday that she's freezing funding for the Secure Border Initiative Network.

Homeland Security hired The Boeing Co. 3 1/2 years ago to build a string of towers along the 2,000-mile border. The towers were to integrate off-the-shelf products — cameras, radar, connections to ground sensors — so that Border Patrol agents could see who and what was coming across in real time.

Boeing made big promises about SBInet's capabilities.

"Ninety to 100 percent of all illegal crossers, this camera system was going to identify and characterize this threat," said Rich Stana, who wrote a report on the project last year for the GAO.

Boeing built a 28-mile test section in the Southern Arizona desert. It didn't work. The company regrouped, redesigned and redeployed one set of towers near the first set. It is building another section right now. The entire border was supposed to be covered a year ago, but after three years — and $1.4 billion — the system is still full of bugs.

"Well, it sort of works," Stana said.

It "sort of works." I'm sure that al Qaeda's nuclear-bomb carrying terrorists will be glad to hear that. The recent GAO report is here. I don't think it's half as damaging as it could have been. Maybe the sponsoring congressperson told them go to easy on the project.

Along with defects revealed by system testing, Border Patrol operators participating in an April 2009 user assessment identified a number of concerns. During the assessment, operators compared the performance of Block 1 capabilities to those of existing technologies. While Border Patrol agents noted that Block 1 offered functionality above existing technologies, it was not adequate for optimal effectiveness in detecting items of interest along the border. Users also raised concerns about the accuracy of Block 1’s radar, the range of its cameras, and the quality of its video. Officials attributed some of the identified problems to users’ insufficient familiarity with Block 1; however, Border Patrol officials reported that the participating agents had experience with the existing technologies and had received 2 days of training prior to the assessment. The Border Patrol thus maintained that the concerns generated should be considered operationally relevant.

Could that be any more clinically sterile? "Not adequate for optimal effectiveness in detecting items of interest." I guess that's the fancy way of saying "it sort of works." This was a billion dollar lemon that Boeing contractors oversold to the government, and propelled by congressmen interested in showing their dedication to homeland security, pushed for a really bad idea to be funded. This was always a dumb idea, trading off technology for promises of security.

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Above video is of the Diaper Dandy giving a presser after he got busted cheating on his wife with the DC Madam in 2007.)

Apparently David 'the Diaper' Vitter thinks we all have bad memories. Just to remind you, he's the Senator of Louisiana and a Mr. Family Values asshat who was caught in the DC Madam's phone book. It was also reported that he likes to wear diapers with his hooker buddies. Not that I'm against diapers mind you, but it doesn't get any creepier than how he uses them. Anyway, he now has come out and called Janet Napolitano "out of touch with reality."

Mr. Vitter's sharpest criticism was directed at Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and her comment after the failed Dec. 25 bombing of a U.S.-bound flight that "the system worked."

"Clearly, those initial comments were crazy," he said during an interview with The Washington Times' "America's Morning News" radio show. "Clearly, she was out of touch with reality."

Mr. Vitter, a conservative facing re-election this year, didn't call for Ms. Napolitano's resignation but said her comments have "eroded confidence" and the decision about whether she remains on the job belongs only to President Obama.

Ms. Napolitano has attempted to clarified her comments by saying she meant that officials were alerted immediately after the bombing attempt and security measure swiftly were put in place.

Still, Mr. Vitter wants Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to give a clearer explanation about who assigned a U.S. lawyer to alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and who authorized reading him Miranda rights.

What Janet said was clearly a mistake after the failed attack, but not a firing offense and for Vitter to say anything about another person's behavior is the old pot-kettle-black deal. I wonder why anyone in the media would ask him for a quote anyway. Ahhh, It was The Washington Times. My bad.

And you know, maybe in conservative-land we're all out of touch with reality because diapers and hookers is the norm for Congressman in the GOP.

Here's a collection of posts by angry, right wing conservatives who were freaking out when the DHS report was released. Obviously our soldiers aren't the focus of the report, but the right wing kooks needed to find something to attack it with because the report perfectly highlighted the issue at hand. And as we've seen so far, right-wing violence is up dramatically since President Obama was elected.

Limbaugh: Bring me the head of Janet Napolitano!

Pat Robertson urges his callers to crash Homeland Security hotline

Hannity: It's an insult to suggest that veterans are bias-crime victims

Conservatives are trying to whitewash far-right terrorists out of our memories There was Bill Bennett, that right-wing moral icon, telling John King's "State of the Union" panel yesterday on CNN that DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano's clear explanation wasn't good enough.

Is the DHS watching returning veterans? Only when they join far-right hate groups -- O'Reilly says the report was "unnecessary," cooked up by a bevy of myopic "far left" liberals freshly ensconced in their DHS offices.

Now watch the wingnut fun begin! Sotomayor, a child of the Bronx, has already been the focus of attacks from the librul media, so we can only speculate as to how much worse the right-wing assaults will be. She'll be seen as slightly to the left of Abbie Hoffman by the time they're done with her:

President Obama this morning will announce that U.S. appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York is his pick to replace retiring justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court, White House officials said.

The 10:15 a.m. announcement will be made at the White House, before Obama leaves Washington for a two-day trip to California and Las Vegas that will focus mostly on fundraising events.

The president finalized his deliberations at Camp David over the weekend, and notified his staff this morning.

Media Matters did a roundup of the Sotomayor attacks a few weeks back, including the hit job done by a New Republic writer:

Despite the glaring flaws, Rosen's assessment of Sotomayor was widely adopted by other media figures.

Mark Halperin, Time's conventional-wisdom maven, announced "Jeff Rosen Raises Warning Flags on Sotomayor" and described "Jeff" Rosen as "the New Republic's legal eagle." (What of Rosen's thin sourcing and dishonest quoting? Who cares! It's Jeff! He's a legal eagle!) The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder touted Rosen's piece as a reflection of "the respectable intellectual center." (Ambinder's colleague, Ta-Nehisi Coates responded: "You don't get to be the 'respectable intellectual center' and then practice your craft in the gossip-laden, ignorant muck. Not for long anyway.")

If the "respectable intellectual center" approached the prospect of a Sotomayor nomination by doctoring quotes in order to trash her intelligence, you might wonder what the disreputable fringe did. Well, National Review's John Derbyshire and Mark Hemmingway described her as "dumb and obnoxious," but they weren't really moving the ball forward in the anti-Sotomayor campaign; they were just interpreting Rosen's work.

Fox News' Andrew Napolitano told listeners on his radio show that Sotomayor "has a reputation for not being a very hard worker" -- like Rosen, citing anonymous law clerks to back up the claim.

Even David Letterman got in on the act. Here's Bob Somerby, describing Letterman's Sotomayor sketch:

Letterman's clip was openly racial/ethnic, a throwback to what once seemed to be an earlier day. With it, he gave viewers a throwback first impression of a sweaty, crazy, yelling jurist -- of a woman who graduated summa cum laude from Princeton in her real life, among other acts of distinction. But this astounding bad judgment by Big Humor Dave followed an act of grotesque judgment by the New Republic's Jeffrey Rosen. Rosen authored a gruesome post built on anonymous sources which -- let's be honest -- openly trafficked in racial stereotypes.

Dumb. Lazy. Temperamental. It's enough to make you wonder how she made it from the South Bronx to Princeton, Yale, and a federal judgeship. And remember: She didn't get there the George W. Bush way. You know many lazy, stupid people who win Princeton's highest academic prize?

Worst of all, there's no reason to think that the treatment Sonia Sotomayor received from the media over the past week will stop with her. The coverage of Sotomayor has clearly been built at least in part on gender and racial stereotypes, so we can probably expect similar coverage of other women and minorities who are mentioned as possible nominees.

Guess we'll have to sit tight and wait a while longer to find out for sure. Who do you like from this list, and why?

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is considering a list of more than six contenders for the Supreme Court that is dominated by women and Hispanics, one that includes judges and leaders from own his administration who have never donned a judicial robe.

Among those under consideration are Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Appeals Court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Pamela Wood. California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno is also under review by Obama.

Sources familiar with Obama's deliberations confirmed the names to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no candidates have been revealed by the White House. The confirmation amounts to the first time any name has been directly tied to Obama.

One official cautioned that Obama is considering other people who have not been publicly mentioned. And more names may be added as the administration considers a replacement for retiring Justice David Souter.

The video I selected has nothing to do with the Sunday shows, just one that I thought was cool. In truth, it's the same people having the same conversations with the bobbleheads this morning. Quite literally. With the media panic over the H1N1 or "swine" flu in overdrive, we are being treated to appearances by Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano, New HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Acting CDC Director Richard Besser on not one or two but FIVE of the morning shows. Will they be asked why we should be so scared of H1N1 when regular flu kills 20,000 a year without closing borders or mandating flu shots? Or the almost 15,000 people who died of AIDS? No? Well, then how about how Canadian pigs actually contracted swine flu from a farm worker? Not to be outdone, newly minted Democratic Senator Arlen Specter shows up on two shows and is a planned subject of at least one other. Considering the kind of Republican he was, I don't think we should anticipate such great shakes from him switching parties.

ABC's "This Week" — Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; acting CDC Director Richard Besser.

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa.; Besser; Sebelius; Napolitano.

NBC's "Meet the Press" — Sebelius; Napolitano; Besser; Specter.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Joe Klein, Kelly O'Donnell, Kathleen Parker, Howard Fineman. Topics: Will Arlen Specter provide Obama a reliable 60th vote in the Senate? Will the Republican Party adjust to regain national prominence? Meter Questions: Will Republicans genuinely reevaluate? YES: 4 NO: 8; With Specter joining the Dems, will health care pass? YES: 7 No: 5.

CNN's "State of the Union" — Leahy; House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va.; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney; Napolitano; Sebelius; Besser.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - This week on GPS, Fareed sits down for an exclusive interview with Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Pentagon. Gates is the guest for the hour and the discussion covers the world: the current crisis in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, global nuclear proliferation, and U.S. imperialism.

"Fox News Sunday" — Napolitano; Sebelius; Besser; Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and John Ensign, R-Nev.

What's catching your eye this morning?

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Keith Olbermann, on Countdown last night, brought the whammy down on the wingnut talking heads at Fox (and the rest of the conservative media as well) for their ongoing attempts to blame immigrants for the spread of the swine flu from Mexico:

Well, yes, you are a racist. Exactly how does that apply, though, to the people who the Centers for Disease Control confirmed actually carried the Swine Flu from Mexico to the U.S., a group of Catholic school students from New York City, who spent Spring Break in Cancun. Uncontrolled Catholic immigration, open borders for private school kids reckless?

Anyway, unswayed by the facts, the Republican echo chamber tried to stir the American melting pot with a classic recipe of hate and fear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought that this line, though, was very ironic, this morning in one of the articles I read about surveillance at the Mexican border. You thought we had an immigration problem, well now we might actually want to prevent the sick people from crossing over the border.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chaos in Mexico; from earthquakes to Swine Flu, will it mean more illegals heading for the U.S.

GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Does anybody wish maybe we could control the border just a little bit at this point.

SHEPPARD SMITH, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Everybody is e-mailing, going the illegals are bringing it across the border. Relax.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Tonight, Swine Flu spreads from Mexico to the United States. Is this the latest border crisis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The U.S. is not currently testing travelers from Mexico. But customs officials are wearing protective clothing.

MICHAEL SAVAGE, “THE SAVAGE NATION”: Illegal aliens are carriers of the new strain of Human Swine Avian Flu from Mexico. Is this a terrorist attack?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some, though, say the solution is to close the border.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now talk that we should even close the border?

BECK: If this is so important, why haven‘t we closed the border.

NEAL BOORTZ, “THE NEAL BOORTZ SHOW”: There‘s the bio-terrorism angle. What better way to sneak a virus in this country than to give it to Mexicans.

This kind of talk -- directly associating the targets of a "drive them out" campaign with disease -- is classic eliminationist rhetoric. It's not surprising that it's bubbling up out of Fox News' fetid cauldron, either.

Tom Allison at Media Matters put together a first-round look at some of the ugliness:

-- Savage declaring that Mexicans "are a perfect mule -- perfect mules for bringing this virus into America."

-- Michelle Malkin warning that the pandemic was the product of "uncontrolled immigration."

-- Beck warning that the pandemic will create a crush of people trying to flee north across our border.

And that's just scratching the surface. As Eric Ward at Imagine 2050 observes, some of the nativist right's more inflammatory figures were saying even uglier things.

Writes Nezua at The Sanctuary:

The stances of those who most vocally oppose immigration today are so predictable that one could paint a face on a septic-tainted soccer ball and paste up word balloons and rest well, knowing that The Nativist Lobby point of view on any immigration-related topic will end in "deport them all" and "seal the borders" if not "round them up" and other tired ideas. And nobody reading now needs a reminder of how throughout time, both Latin America as well as all immigrants have been slurred and painted with the brush of disease by those resistant to changing demographics.

The NCLR's blog points out that this fearmongering has real life-and-death consequences:

It's unfortunate, then, that certain individuals with an obvious axe to grind are shamelessly exploiting a public health emergency for their own purposes. It's not surprising that some are implying that all immigrants are a threat to our health-that's standard fare on the hate group circuit.

Ironically, the very act of attempting to demonize and stigmatize entire groups, and even entire countries, is likely to impede these and other critical steps that the authorities are taking to protect all Americans from the spread of the flu, for example:

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I guess veterans are the right wing's new favorite sacred cow. Having discovered, via the phony DHS domestic-terrorism controversy, that they can gleefully club liberals over the head with anything even remotely resembling a slight to the sacred honor of American veterans -- such slights, evidently, including insufficiently abject prostration -- Republicans are now wielding said club at every available opportunity.

Let's face it: the Right really hates that the folks in the military in fact love President Obama. And so propagating the notion that Democrats are "anti-military" is a big deal right now.

Last week, for instance, as the new federal hate-crimes bill was passing out of the House Judiciary Committee, Republican Rep. Tom Rooney of Florida tried to include veterans in the list of protections.

This was a classic right-wing twofer: Work to undermine the hate-crimes bill, and smear Democrats at the same time! Pretty, clever, eh?

Sure enough, after Glenn Beck coughed this one up Friday night, there was Sean Hannity last night, regurgitating Beck's stale hairball:

Hannity: Now, Congresswoman, including our soldiers in this bill would not belittle anybody. And I think you and Janet Napolitano need to revisit your opinion of our veterans.

Actually, Feeney's proposal would render the legislation moot and unconstitutional, because it would then be predicated on the idea of creating "protected classes." And, as has been already explained many times, hate-crimes bills aren't about creating "protected categories" -- they are strictly written to encompass the motives of the perpetrator:

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