by Teh Nutroots | We'll let Fox News tell the tale.
Federal agents have disrupted a plot to assassinate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate dozens of black students in Tennessee, the ATF said Monday....[T]hey broke up plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.
A source in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told FOX News that the two skinheads, who were picked up in Crockett County, Tenn., were plotting to shoot 88 black students and decapitate 14 others described as non-whites. The source said officials believe the suspects were planning to attempt an assassination against Obama.
The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community....
The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of West Helena, Ark., are being held without bond. Agents seized a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols from the men when they were arrested. Authorities alleged the two men were preparing to break into a gun shop to steal more....
According to the affidavit, the two suspects met over the Internet a month ago through a mutual friend. Both claimed to have "very strong beliefs and views regarding 'white power' and 'skinhead' views." (Fox News)
IndyStar.com adds:
Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of ATF’s Nashville field office...said authorities took the threats very seriously.
“They seemed determined to do it,” Cavanaugh said. “Even if they were just to try it, it would be a trail of tears around the South.”
The Smoking Gun has more.
While I am relieved that these lunatics were stopped, I am having a hard time reigning in my disgust and anger at the GOP and the McCain campaign for doing all they can to incite this sort of craziness. Do they think they can contain it? They can't contain it.
Whatever good intentions they may assert--and I'm not interested in hearing the rationalizations--these people are trying to win an election by reframing the facts in a way intended to incite hatred. They know perfectly goddam well that Barack Obama is a moderate Democrat with centrist inclinations---that he doesn't share Wright's views--that his entire history and his published writings refute the absurd claims that he was in any way influenced by Ayers...that he is not an Arab, not a Muslim, and not the dangerous radical they won't to pass him off as to the more gullible and less informed segments of their base.
With the first African American in history running for president, I stand amazed that they would be so irresponsible and so blind to the nation's interests.
I'll repeat that: they know that they are distorting the facts and that the narrative they are fostering is scaring some of the less stable members of their party. That's NOT the way to "energize" the base. If McCain wins by scaring or angering the base, what will he have won? That's not the change he wants, is it?
The thought of what could have happened if this plot hadn't been foiled should sicken every sane citizen of this country.
If members of the right are still in denial about the smouldering craziness onto which they're pouring out their rhetoric (e.g., in robo-calls or in this), or about their ability to control the mad dogs in the pack for whom their dog whistles are designed, they had better pause and take stock of where we are.
Time to dial it back and retract while there's time. A lot more than the power trip of getting to be in charge depends on it. Everyone needs to take a step back and consider what is at stake. It's more than just the presidency or the economy.
McCain is better than that. Bush is better than that---I remember that after 911 he took a stand against people who were taking out their anger on American Muslims. All sane Republicans are better than that.
Time for both campaigns to drop the divisiveness.
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