Guilt By Association

So the SPLC, joining the DHS, publishes another report about 'right-wing militia's' and all the nasty stuff they might do. Their statements paint quite a broad brush of correlations:

One federal agency estimates that 50 new militia training groups have sprung up in less than two years. Sales of guns and ammunition have skyrocketed amid fears of new gun control laws, much as they did in the 1990s.

They even include military and law enforcement who promise to do their job:

Oath Keepers, the military and police organization that was formed earlier this year and held its April muster on Lexington Green, may be a particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival.

Gun Control is on the radar:

One Oath Keeper is longtime militia hero Richard Mack, ... won a U.S. Supreme Court decision that weakened the Brady Bill gun control law in the 1990s.

At the same time, players like the National Rifle Association, which in the 1990s publicly attacked federal law enforcement agents as "jackbooted thugs," are back at it. Two months before the election last fall, firearms manufacturers joined forces to promote NRA membership in a national campaign ominously dubbed "Prepare for the Storm in 2008."

Tea Parties, the NRA, anti-illegal immigration, gun shows, Constitutionalism, etc. are being lumped together w/ KKK, neo-Nazi's, white supremacists and violent reactionaries in an attempt to demonize them all and reduce their influence. And all of it is intersparsed w/ correlations to racism at its core.

The partisanship displayed is so overt that even CNN questioned the report when they did a piece on it. it is clearly shown here:

At the Jacksonville, Fla., July tea party, some protesters carried signs that compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler.

"Bushitler" was the default insult for the previous 8 years. Why the uproar now? Oh, right.

This is the kind of rhetoric that we will continue to see. Count on it.