Conservatidiot of the Day: James von Brunn

The latest surge in murders committed by right-wing extremists continued today as die-hard white supremacist James von Brunn, an 88-year-old neo-Nazi from Maryland who frequented the racist online forum stormfront.org, went on a shooting spree at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. The story can be found here.

Von Brunn, by the way, is the administrator of Holy Western Empire, a website he refers to as a "hard-hitting expose of the JEW CONSPIRACY to destroy the white gene pool." Von Brunn also spent six years in prison after he kidnapped several members of the National Reserve Board of Governors and held them at gunpoint in what he referred to as a "nonviolent citizen's arrest" (the reasons for this arrest are unclear). On his website, Von Brunn attacks the "Jew judge" that sentenced him, and refers to the jury which convicted him as a "Negro jury." And, as if the crazy train hadn't gone off the rails already, he is an author, having written the wonderfully titled manifesto Kill the Best Gentiles!, a manuscript complete with racist, anti-semitic rantings which Von Brunn claims White families should read to protect their children. You can read the first six chapters on his website.

And yet, conservatives who decried the recent report by the Department of Homeland Security that claimed right-wing extremist groups are a threat to national security are probably still in denial that people such as James von Brunn are actually capable of inflicting harm. No, they have a right to do and say and think whatever they want as long as they don't hurt anyone. Except, of course, they are hurting people; in fact, these right-wing extremists are even killing people in the name of their political beliefs.

Let's count down the number of murders committed at the hands of right-wing extremists since Barack Obama was elected President:

• Security Guard at Holocaust Museum; murdered by James von Brunn, a white supremacist
• Dr. George Tiller, an abortion doctor in Witchita, KS; murdered by Scott Roeder, a right-wing anti-choice extremist who had previously attempted to bomb abortion clinics
• Four members of the Wood family in Frederick, MD; murdered by Christopher Wood, who was $450k in debt and blamed his struggles on President Obama
• Three Pittsburgh, PA police officers; murdered by a Richard Poplawski, who feared the Obama administration was going to take his guns away

And those are only four incidents off the top of my head which have occurred since the DHS report was released two months ago.

Makes you feel safer knowing these right-wing nutjobs are allowed to do and say and think whatever they want, doesn't it? Because they never, ever kill... no, they're just exercising their first amendment rights, like good little Americans, and the evil Janet Napolitano is to blame for inciting hatred and politically-motivated attacks on right-wingers.