On 7 April 2009, the so-called Department of Homeland Security, the entity set to become our very own KGB, issued Assessment IA-0257-09, entitled Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.  The assessment was never meant for public consumption but was leaked and posted on the internet by the Drudge Report.  I almost dismissed the document as more of the same old government fluff, but as I read it, the hair on the back of my neck began to stand on end and I became imbued with a creeping feeling of dread the likes of which I had not experienced since serving with the Army in Iraq.  Within the pages of this assessment lie myriad examples of just how out-of-touch with mainstream America the federal government has become.

In this blog, I will briefly describe and provide commentary on a few of the most startling sections.

1. On Page 2 in the section titled Key Findings, the government says “rightwing extremists have capitalized on the election of the first African American president and are focusing their efforts to recruit new members…”

First of all, the attempt to play the “race card” is old and tired and frankly ridiculous.  Mainstream America doesn’t care about the president’s race.  What we do care about is the fact that he is a Marxist with extreme socialist and communist ideologies that are in direct contradiction to the U.S. Constitution. We love the president’s race.  We just don’t like HIM.

2. Also on Page 2 in the section titled Key Findings, the government says, “the possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of MILITARY VETERANS facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of TERRORIST groups or lone wolf EXTREMISTS capable of carrying out VIOLENT ATTACKS.”

Excuse me, but I am a returning military veteran.  You have just told me that I am damaged goods and that I should be perceived as a threat to national security.  You are telling communities that I am dangerous and some sort of  raging lunatic.  You are also saying I am a victim.  I am not a victim.  I am not a threat.  I am a man who served my country proudly and honorably, with the integrity expected of me.  Now you are inciting the nation to treat me with suspicion and fear.  To whomever is responsible for this OFFICIAL attack on my person and my service, you may promptly kiss my ass.

3. According to the same paragraph, “Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a
single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

The rejection of federal authority authority in favor of state or local is EXTREMIST now?  This nation was founded upon the principles of states’ rights.  YOU are the extremist in this situation as you are twisting and ignoring the U.S. Constitution.  Also, we have the right to oppose abortion without being labeled as extremists.  National Right to Life is a single-issue group.  Are they now extremists?  No, they are not.

4. On page 4 in the section title “Economic Hardship and Extremism” the government says, “end times prophecies could motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition, and weapons. These teachings also have been linked with the radicalization of domestic extremist individuals and groups in the past, such as violent Christian Identity organizations and extremist members of the militia movement.

So if I believe in the book of Revelations in the Bible, I am an extremist? If I’ve studied the book of Daniel in the Bible I am an extremist?  If I am a Christian, Jew or Muslim, I am an extremist?  The government is flirting with a very common concept to which most Communist governments have clung: the abolishing of religion and the adoption of government-enforced atheism.

This report attacks the very beliefs of mainstream American by labeling conservative issues as “extremist.” What could have prompted such an outrageous display of fear on the part of the federal government?  And what does the government mean on page 8?  It says, “DHS/I&A will be working with its state and local partners over the next several months to ascertain with greater regional specificity the rise in rightwing extremist activity in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the political, economic, and social factors that drive rightwing extremist radicalization.”

Is the government going to direct law enforcement to begin pulling over drivers with pro-life bumper stickers?  Is the government going to conduct surveillance on war veterans returning from Iraq?  Is the government reading this blog right now and tracking down its source?  Is the government going to “investigate” churches that preach end-time prophecy?

To the low-level analysts who churned out this piece of garbage and their bureaucratic overlords at the so-called Department of Homeland Security:  we know this is an attempt to label mainstream Americans as extremists; to label liberty-loving Americans as terrorists; to label war vets as damaged; to label people of faith as threats to the government.  We also know that it will not be your last attempt.  But know that we are watching you and we will expose your subversive agenda every chance we get.  And in the next congressional elections, we are going to comprehensively replace your sponsors and protectors who are so arrogantly and flagrantly abusing the Constitution.  We DO overthrow the government….every time we go to the polls and vote against those like you, who are the real threat to the security and safety of These United States of America. May God have mercy on this nation.

Okay, I’ve put off writing about his for far too long.  Perhaps I thought I would awaken and discover that the election of Barak Obama to the office of President of the United States was just some hideous nightmare, a phantasm sent to cajole me into being more politically active.  But no such luck.  Unfortunately for the U.S. and for the world, this nightmare is real.  And it has only just begun.  With the majority of his chosen ones falling away because of personal scandal, criminal activities and a sheer terror of future association with this already-failed administration, the nature of his poor judgment is becoming ever clearer.

A month ago, I returned from a year-long deployment to Iraq and it seems that I have never really come home because I no longer recognize the culture of my country.  Apparently, this nation has lost its collective mind.  The people of the United States elected Obama, an admitted Marxist, in a rush of adoration and blind devotion unseen since the days of Adolph Hitler.  With little to no political experience, this unqualified and dangerous man was enthroned by a leftist media and an uninformed, impassioned throng of mindless voters.  I really wish the Founding Fathers had included some sort of provision that would protect the people from themselves when they decide to elect, at best a moron, at worst a slimey Marxist with a clear socialist agenda.

The so-called stimulus bill is nothing more than a leftist attempt to fund this once great nation’s decline into socialism.  They are lying to us and unabashedly so.  No one seems to care that Nancy Pelosi, another liberal genius of our day, promised to post the bill on the internet, and then renegged on that promise.  Where is the media?  Were it a republican administration that broke such a promise, it would be on our televisions night and day.  But the media is silent.  Quietly serving its master, the liberal left.

Thank God we will be able to replace the congress and in four years, replace the disgraced and failed president Obama is destined to become.  I say that, because I believe that the upcoming four years filled with erosion of civil liberties, increased taxes and the bankrupting of America’s soul, will be a much needed slap in the face for the people of the United States.  It will take years, perhaps decades to repair the damage.  Let’s just hope that we are still resilient enough to do it.

With the dissolution of Serbia’s government, once again the people of the infamous nation have the opportunity to align themselves with a progressive West which, in a way that defies logic, is still interested in salvaging the floundering statelet. With the recognition of Kosova by Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary, surely Serbia is seeing the proverbial handwriting on the wall. Maybe there is an inkling of possibility that Serbia will reject nationalism based on hatred and will embrace healthy nationalism based upon ideals of equality and inclusion in the world community. A good start for the Serbians who live in the nation of Kosova would be cessation of law-breaking and violence in and around Mitrovica. Serbians have already murdered a French peace keeper, but thankfully KFOR is now squelching further violence . A good start for Beograd would be for the government to stop orchestrating and encouraging violence in Mitrovica. The independence of Kosova is a fait accompli and peace would be in the best interests of everyone involved. So once again Serbia finds itself teetering on the edge of an abyss. Let’s hope they choose wisely this time.

    I read an article recently that dubbed Kosova as a failed state.  In light of Serbian PM Kostunica’s resignation and dissolution of the Serbian government, the only failed state I see in the Balkans today is Serbia.  But if one takes an honest look at Serbia and its recent history it becomes clear that this unstable nation has been in the throes of failure for at least a decade.  From 1996 when Kosovar Albanians began defending themselves against unspeakable brutality meted out by Serbian authorities, through NATO’s merciful halting of the ethnic cleansing and genocide orchestrated and executed by Slobodan Milosevic and his bloodthirsty regime, to the present crisis within its government, Serbia has been galloping toward an inevitable demise.

Now with a once-again dysfunctional government and a nation of weary people flailing about with no direction and only blind hostility to galvanize them, Serbia has turned to a backward and hilariously farcical “democratic” Russia for help.  Russia has been more than happy to trade a few words of solidarity for control over Serbia’s few resources (oil and minerals) and amazingly the Serbian government fell for Russia’s hype again.  With an eye toward Georgia, Russia will posture and rattle its rusted sabers over Kosova’s independence and in reality do nothing as the West turns a blind eye to Abkhazia’s secession from Georgia and eventual union with Russia (a deal worked out long before Kosova was recognized as independent by the world).

The only hope for Serbia is an awakening among her people and the acceptance of a relationship with the rest of Europe, a Europe that is desperately trying to pull Serbia back from the brink of isolation and offer friendship and prosperity.  Even as the government of the country of Kosova looks to the future and is striving for reform and inclusion in the international community, Serbia continues along its path of destructive isolationism and hatred.  Serbians are demonstrating against the governments of the very nations that welcomed them and in which they are living.  They are destroying embassies and causing mayhem.  The world is tired of these antics and Serbia is losing what little credibility it has left.

Yugoslavia is dead and buried.  The rest of the Balkans have moved on.  Only Serbia is still living in the past.

Is Kosovo Serbia? We ask a historian

This article appeared in the Guardian on Tuesday February 26 2008 on p3 of the Comment & features section. It was last updated at 00:01 on February 26 2008.

“Kosovo is Serbia”, “Ask any historian” read the unlikely placards, waved by angry Serb demonstrators in Brussels on Sunday. This is rather flattering for historians: we don’t often get asked to adjudicate. It does not, however, follow that any historian would agree, not least because historians do not use this sort of eternal present tense.

History, for the Serbs, started in the early 7th century, when they settled in the Balkans. Their power base was outside Kosovo, which they fully conquered in the early 13th, so the claim that Kosovo was the “cradle” of the Serbs is untrue.

What is true is that they ruled Kosovo for about 250 years, until the final Ottoman takeover in the mid-15th century. Churches and monasteries remain from that period, but there is no more continuity between the medieval Serbian state and today’s Serbia than there is between the Byzantine Empire and Greece.

Kosovo remained Ottoman territory until it was conquered by Serbian forces in 1912. Serbs would say “liberated”; but even their own estimates put the Orthodox Serb population at less than 25%. The majority population was Albanian, and did not welcome Serb rule, so “conquered” seems the right word.

But legally, Kosovo was not incorporated into the Serbian kingdom in 1912; it remained occupied territory until some time after 1918. Then, finally, it was incorporated, not into a Serbian state, but into a Yugoslav one. And with one big interruption (the second world war) it remained part of some sort of Yugoslav state until June 2006.

Until the destruction of the old federal Yugoslavia by Milosevic, Kosovo had a dual status. It was called a part of Serbia; but it was also called a unit of the federation. In all practical ways, the latter sense prevailed: Kosovo had its own parliament and government, and was directly represented at the federal level, alongside Serbia. It was, in fact, one of the eight units of the federal system.

Almost all the other units have now become independent states. Historically, the independence of Kosovo just completes that process. Therefore, Kosovo has become an ex-Yugoslav state, as any historian could tell you.

· Noel Malcolm is a senior research fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He is the author of Kosovo: A Short History

The peace-loving people of Serbia are once again showing how peaceful they are by committing acts of unprovoked violence around the world. It wasn’t enough that drunken rioters burned down the U.S. Embassy and destroyed their own shops and business establishments, now their kinsmen in other countries are destroying things as well. What is with these people? Is it in their DNA to be violent and destructive and murderous? Or do they really care about Kosova at all and are simply using the occasion of Kosova’s independence to get drunk, steal and destroy? Why were there no riots and demonstrations when their god Slobodon was on a murder spree all around the Balkans? With trepidation I have come to the conclusion that Serbians in general are barbaric and possess an inherent inability to behave reasonably or to control primal urges of violence. They should be sequestered from the the rest of the world so that they will turn their aggression inward and consume one another, ridding the world of an entire nation of terrorists. Furthermore, if the Orthodoxy has any sense of decency, it will immediately condemn the Serbian Orthodox so-called Church for sanctioning murder and violence. They should be banned from calling themselves Christians.

I almost choked on my own vomit when I read this quote about Kosova’s independence by Serbian PM Kostunica: “It has to be legally annulled the same moment that it is illegally proclaimed by convicted terrorists,” Kostunica said, referring to Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. Terrorists? How dare this subhuman member of a regime of murderers dare call anyone a terrorist?! Once again, Serbians are attempting to portray themselves as victims when in fact THEY are the terrorists who committed genocide against the Albanians of Kosova. Mr. Kostunica, you are a liar and a murderer. You are part of a nation of blood-thirsty killers that sent its terrorists out into the Balkans on a campaign of mayhem, rape and murder. Are you wondering why so many nations are in favor of Kosova’s merciful independence from your nation of hate? It is because the people of those nations remember what you really are. You and your people are monsters, Mr. Kostunica, guilty of state-sponsored terrorism. You, sir, may go to hell.

To all the blind folks out there whining about terroritorial integrity and the violation of Serbia’s rights, please allow me to remind you that in 1999 the Serbian government was murdering Albanians to the tune of about 12,000. Men, boys, women, children, elderly, mentally handicapped…everyone was a target. Remember the mass graves in Racak? Remember the dead boys thrown into shallow graves like yesterday’s trash? Well you need to remember these attrocities the next time you start whining about this usurpation of Serbia’s sovereignty. You are damned right it is being usurped. And it should be…Serbia should carved up between the rest of the Balkan nations and forever erased from the memory of the world.

The people of Serbia are faced with a very clear choice: submit to Czar Putin’s Russia or embrace the European Union. This choice is one of great gravity and the repercussions of choosing wrongly will be felt for many generations to come. It is critical that Serbian’s remove their upper appendages from the recesses of their lower orifices and choose the path that will lead to freedom, societal and economic stability and quality of life. The people of Serbia must think clearly, free of the judgment-clouding fog of hate and radical nationalism. A good start would be to let go of this notion that Kosovo belongs to Serbia. Just because Serbians were part of the coalition that lost the Balkans to the Ottomans does not make Kosovo the “spiritual heartland” of Serbia. Let’s address Serbian spirituality. It is beyond my comprehension why the Serbian government continues to perpetrate the ruse that Serbia is a Christian state and is such a bastion of the teachings of Christ. All one must do is remember the genocide in Bosnia and Kosovo and it will become quite clear the principles of Christianity are lost on the Serbian government. Kosovo is not a part of Serbia and hey, government guys listen up! According to recent polls, only 20% of your people consider Kosovo the most important issue faced by Serbians today! But very soon the Kosovo issue will be moot anyway as the state will have international recognition.

The people of Serbia have issues much more important than Kosovo. In an apparent loss of sanity, certain radical factions of the Serbian government (as well as some moderates) are leading Serbia’s people into a bizarre marriage with Russia. Just as Europe looks to the future and improves the quality of life of those who join her union, the newest czar of Russia is rocketing into the past, dragging the people of Russia back into the abyss of government control, deadly conspiracy and a black vacuum where the seeds of human rights and democracy so briefly attempted to grow. And it would seem Serbia has decided to hitch a ride on this express train to hell. Serbians, you had better enjoy the freedoms that you have now because you will certainly not have them when you become Russia’s pawn. Your right to dissent against the government — gone. Your right to a free press — gone. Your right to hold elections free of corruption and rigging — gone. Your chance to expand your economy — gone. Your relationship with the rest of the free world — gone. It defies logic. Let’s see, shall I align myself with successful countries with strong economies? No! Instead I think I’ll hook up with a failed communist state in the throes of economic turmoil, with an evil, conniving dictatorial leader who imprisons his opponents and murders his detractors! Serbia, wake up before it is too late. Reject failure and embrace progress. Do the lives of your progeny mean anything to you?

Hello!  I am Sam and this is my first blog.  I’m a Soldier in the United States Army and I’m preparing to deploy to Iraq.  Presently I’m at a training facility.  I have many interests so the subject matter of future posts may seem schizophrenic at times.  I hope to use this forum to project my thoughts and ramblings into the cosmos…well, at least into cyberspace .    So to anyone interested, stop by now and then to hear about my views on life, the universe and everything.