Wednesday Big Blue Smurf Blogging: What They Said

First of all, let me state quite clearly that I'm not whining. I have a good job, I like the work, I have awesome co-workers, and in general I'm very happy with it. But it largely eats my life. I'm not one of those Big Name Bloggers who is able to monitor the news and other blogs all day and come up with dozens of incisive posts every day. When I was out of work, no one offered to pay me to blog (though I did come fairly close to one gig), so instead I work for a giant multinational corporation that pays me a good salary.

What this means is that I'm usually not able to pick up on stories and issues that require more thought and preparation than one can reasonably handle between 5 and 6 in the morning.

Today, Former Congressman Dead Girl In Office is having the vapors over the DHS report on right-wing militia groups, screaming that the Obama Administration is "targeting veterans who fought for this country" because the report indicates that returning soldiers facing a crappy job market might be susceptible to the recruiting practices of militias and other such groups.

I'm not a big fan of government surveillance, no matter what letter the officials engaging in it have after their names. The notion of "pre-crime" just seems too, well, Philip K. Dick for my taste.

What bothers me most about the people out there right now talking about arming themselves to the teeth and revolution isn't that they're dissatisfied with the government; it's that their outrage is so highly selective.

I've been told that I'm a hypocrite because I haven't written about the Obama Administration's embrace of Bush-era secrecy and because I've mocked those who are up in arms about this DHS report. But frankly, I would rather link to those who DO have the time to explore these issues in detail, because with perhaps an hour or two at most every day to blog, I can't always do these complex topics justice. Today is one of those times. I am already late leaving the house for work, but before I leave I wanted to link to today's Big Blue Smurf Blogging honoree, Blue Girl, for pointing out that it isn't the left that takes up arms every time we lose elections, and that it wasn't liberals who blew up the Alfred R. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City fourteen years ago this Sunday.

The right likes to mock us for our marches and our puppets and tambourines and the preposterous Free Mumias and the Code Pinkers. God knows those tactics have not exactly been effective. But there's a big difference between marching in the streets to protest peacefully and amassing ever-bigger weaponry while spouting the rhetoric of actual destruction and murder.

And if Joe Scarborough can't tell the difference, he's even dumber than I thought.