James Von Brunn: another right wing nut acting out
This time in New York, at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., where an Obama-hating anti-Semite white supremacist shot an (African-American) security guard to death as former Defense Secretary William Cohen and his wife Janet Langhart Cohen watched (or heard.) The interracial couple were preparing to enjoy a reading of her play about racial tolerance, in which Anne Frank has a theoretical dialogue with Emmett Till. Go figure. The attacker is named James Von Brunn. I'll bet you can take a good guess what's on his radio dial and reading list... His former wife had this to say about him:
The ex-wife of the racist who stormed the U.S. Holocaust Museum described him as an abusive alcoholic whose hatred against Jews and blacks "ate him alive like a cancer."
"It's all he would talk about," the ex-wife said of James von Brunn, 89, who was wounded in a firefight with museum guards.
"When I questioned him, he would get very angry and abusive."
..."He would talk about what the world would become in 20 or 30 years - that most of the country would be governed by black governors and that the Jewish people owned the media," the ex-wife said.
"That's why I divorced him - because he was eaten alive with a cancer with this matter."
Von Brunn is also apparently part of the Obama "Birther" movement: the wingnuts who question Barack Obama's citizenship ... still ... (led by their godfather, Rush Limbaugh) He even wrote a book about his ... um ... complaints... And his writings further reveal him to be adamantly pro-Bush and pro-Sarah Palin:
The gunman was identified by law enforcement officials as James W. von Brunn, who embraces various conspiracy theories involving Jews, blacks and other minority groups and at one point waged a personal war with the federal government.
... Officials and others who track conspiracy theorists have long been familiar with Mr. von Brunn, whose latest address is believed to be in Eastern Maryland, in part because he maintains a Web site. (Wednesday night, only an archived version of the site was available.) He has claimed variously to be a member of Mensa, the high-I.Q. society; to have played varsity football at a Midwestern college, where he earned a degree in journalism; to have been a PT boat commander in World War II; and to be a painter and an author.
Mr. von Brunn has also claimed to have been victimized by a court system run by Jews and blacks.
Before Wednesday, he was best known to law enforcement officials for having walked into the Washington headquarters of the Federal Reserve System on Dec. 7, 1981, with a bag slung over the shoulder of his trench coat. A guard chased him to the second floor, where the Fed’s board was meeting, and found a revolver, a hunting knife and a sawed-off shotgun in the bag.
Mr. von Brunn, who lived in Lebanon, N.H., at the time, told the police he wanted to take board members hostage to focus news media attention on their responsibility for high interest rates and the nation’s economic difficulties. He was convicted in 1983 and served several years in prison on attempted kidnapping, burglary, assault and weapons charges.
Hm ... guns ... anti-government paranoia ... federal reserve conspiracy theories ... white supremacist movement... hey, remember back when the righties got all hot and bothered about this?
The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in "rightwing extremist activity," saying the economic recession, the election of America's first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.
A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines "rightwing extremism in the United States" as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.
"It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration," the warning says.
(U//LES) Rightwing extremists are harnessing this historical election as a recruitment tool. Many rightwing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use. Rightwing extremists are increasingly galvanized by these concerns and leverage them as drivers for recruitment. From the 2008 election timeframe to the present, rightwing extremists have capitalized on related racial and political prejudices in expanded propaganda campaigns, thereby reaching out to a wider audience of potential sympathizers.
(U) Exploiting Economic Downturn
(U//FOUO) Rightwing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and home foreclosures. Anti-Semitic extremists attribute these losses to a deliberate conspiracy conducted by a cabal of Jewish “financial elites.” These “accusatory” tactics are employed to draw new recruits into rightwing extremist groups and further radicalize those already subscribing to extremist beliefs. DHS/I&A assesses this trend is likely to accelerate if the economy is perceived to worsen.
Sounds about right ... Thanks, Michelle! BTW Ms. Malkin is strangely silent on Von Brunn today, preferring to devote her entire site to stupid posters opposing "Obamacare." UPDATE: Malkin did post about the shooting after all. But she claims, nonsensically, that Von Brunn was NOT, I repeat NOT ... a right winger. And this link-friend of Michelle's takes it one step further ...
Let's give the last word to the one good thing Fox News has going for it: Shep Smith, who reveals that the winger extremists are starting to creep him out, too...
As the right wing nuts react... Meanwhile, Irregular Times keeps tabs on the equally scaryFReepers...
