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Rant against radical right-wing extemism (contd)

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synergy

Posted: Jul 31 2010, 07:18 AM

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'Birther' attorney Orly Taitz just won't give up on Obama

QUOTE

Posted on Friday, July 30, 2010

By Alan Riquelmy | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

COLUMBUS, Ga. � Orly Taitz, the so-called "birther" attorney who�s led charges across the country against President Barack Obama's legitimacy to hold office, continues to defy a federal court order to pay $20,000 in sanctions and to challenge the judicial system.

The California attorney/dentist/real estate agent has risen to the national stage with her arguments that Obama can't be the president because he wasn't born in America.

Two of her cases in Columbus challenging Obama's legitimacy to hold office were tossed out by U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land. Then her second client, Capt. Connie Rhodes, wrote a letter to the court in September 2009 claiming that Taitz exceeded her authority as an attorney and that she no longer wanted the California lawyer to represent her.

Taitz kept pushing the issue of Obama�s legitimacy with Land, who ultimately gave her a warning and then a time limit to explain why he shouldn�t levy a hefty fine against her. In October 2009, when Taitz did reply, though not to the judge�s specific command of why he shouldn�t sanction her, Land then issued $20,000 in sanctions against her.

Taitz appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, and the appeals court upheld Land�s sanctions in May.

She then forwarded U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas a brief for stay, in which she asked that the sanctions be reversed.

According to the Supreme Court�s website, that application was received July 8 and denied by Thomas on July 15.

On July 20, Taitz posted a motion requesting that she be allowed to verify that it is, in fact, Thomas� signature on the denial of her application. She�s also sent her request for stay to Justice Samuel Alito, though she said a clerk told her it had been returned because of a small technical issue.

�So, they�re playing a new game,� Taitz said Wednesday. �This cannot happen in the Supreme Court of the United States.�

Proper application

Columbus attorney William Mason, who taught law at Columbus State University, said Taitz raises issues that someone would bring up in a writ of certiorari. To Mason, �writ of certiorari� is the key component. Taitz�s filing is an application for stay.

�It�s not in the proper form or the proper time,� Mason said. �A writ of certiorari is a very formal document. You actually have to send it to a printer and send it in booklet form.�

In addition, the document would state on its cover, �Writ of certiorari.� Inside, it would state �Issues presented,� and it would explain in two or three pages how the appeals court erred, he said.

The Supreme Court gets around 8,000 such writs each year, and they examine about 80 a year, Mason added.

A request for stay is done under extraordinary circumstances once a case has been appealed properly by filing a writ of certiorari, which hasn�t happened. If it had, the issue should have been whether the court could sanction her $20,000. Instead, Mason said, Taitz appears to challenge the underlying argument that Obama can�t legitimately be president.

�There�s no logical way to address what she�s doing,� he said. �I have written certs to the U.S. Supreme Court. This is not how you do it.�

Read more: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2010/07/30/...l#ixzz0vCHexPWy

Read the complete story at ledger-enquirer.com

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/30/9840...l#ixzz0vGHyqvId

synergy

Posted: Aug 5 2010, 12:00 PM

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Militarization and the Authoritarian Right - By: Barry Eisler Wednesday August 4, 2010 12:15 pm | Firedoglake "The Seminal"

QUOTE

Yes, former Bush administration speechwriter and current Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen�s demand that "WikiLeaks Must Be Stopped" is, as his colleague Eva Rodriguez notes, "more than a little whacky." But it�s useful, too, because an infatuation with the notion of using the military in non-military operations, particularly domestic ones, is a key aspect of the modern American right and of the rightwing authoritarian personality. Examining Thiessen is a good way to understand both.

Thiessen lays out his premise in his first sentence: "WikiLeaks is not a news organization; it is a criminal enterprise." The premise is silly � unless the Washington Post for whom Thiessen writes and every other news organization that seeks and publishes leaks is a criminal enterprise, too (apparently Thiessen didn�t bother to read 18 USC 793, which he cites as the basis for his opinion about criminality, citing it instead just to sound authoritative). But as whacky as the premise is, it�s nothing compared to Thiessen�s conclusion.

Which is: that the government "employ not only law enforcement but also intelligence and military assets to bring [Wikileaks founder Julian] Assange to justice and put his criminal syndicate out of business." This notion � that crime should be fought with the military � is part of the creeping militarization of American society. You can see it, too, in rightist support for military tribunals to replace civilian courts in trying terror suspects; in the increasing militarization of our border with Mexico; in the numbers of soldiers deployed in American airports and train stations; and in then Vice President Cheney�s attempt to have the military supplant the FBI in arresting terror suspects on American soil.

Thiessen tried to back away from his authoritarian argument when Rodriguez called him on it, but his disavowal rings false. First, Thiessen claims that when he said "military," he only really meant the National Security Agency, because (after all!) the NSA is part of the Department of Defense. But the NSA, which specializes in signals intelligence, would logically fall under the "intelligence assets" Thiessen had already called for is his op-ed. If all Thiessen had in mind was the NSA, the call for "military assets" on top of "intelligence assets" would be redundant. Second, Thiessen claims he was also merely referring to the Defense Department�s Cyber Command. But if by "military assets" he meant only the NSA and the Cyber Command, why didn�t he just specify these two in the first place?

Regardless, the Cyber Command has on its website the following (style, grammar, and clarity-challenged) mission statement:

USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes, and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full-spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries.

This is one of the organizations Thiessen now wants to task with� law enforcement? That Thiessen believes it exculpatory to explain that he was merely calling for the use of the Cyber Command, in addition to the NSA and whatever other "military assets" he might have had in mind, to fight crime is as revealing as his argument itself.

In a probably futile attempt to forestall a barrage of partisan responses, I�ll emphasize that the policies and views I describe above don�t correlate neatly with either of America�s two major political parties. President Obama, for example, has (in addition to escalating the war in Afghanistan and privatizing the one in Iraq) deployed the National Guard to the Mexican border, has secretly deployed special forces to 75 countries, and favors military commissions to try some terror suspects (and indefinite detentions and assassination for others, including American citizens). But the notion that Obama is by any meaningful policy definition liberal is at this point as laughable as it is baseless, and the popular view of Obama as a progressive is testament to the astonishing power of certain brands to outlast the loss of their underlying substance.

Still, my sense is that Republicans argue for authoritarian policies out of conviction, while Democrats cave in to them out of cowardice. The distinction is interesting, though of course in the end the result is the same. Either way, if you believe tasking America�s military with investigating, pursuing, apprehending, holding, trying, and imprisoning criminal suspects and criminals is a profound and insidious threat to democracy, you�ll fight this excrescence wherever you find it.

synergy	Posted: Aug 18 2010, 06:13 AM
Advanced Member Group: Admin Posts: 96,824 Member No.: 3 Joined: 20-November 07	Another Completely Non-Conservative-Not-At-All-Right-Wing Domestic Terrorist Attacks Police Station North of Dallas, Texas - By: Blue Texan Tuesday August 17, 2010 6:00 pm \| Firedoglake

synergy

Posted: Aug 25 2010, 08:59 AM

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Charles And David Koch Exposed For Insidious Role In Crafting The Modern Right

QUOTE

By Lee Fang on Aug 23rd, 2010 at 8:00 pm | Think Progress

This morning, the New Yorker�s Jane Mayer published an explosive investigative piece detailing the role of the Koch family in orchestrating not only the Tea Party movement, but much of the modern right-wing infrastructure. The brothers David and Charles Koch, heirs to the oil and chemical conglomerate Koch Industries, have founded or funded dozens of conservative or libertarian publications, think tanks, and attack groups. Their father, Fred Koch, similarly fueled the paranoid right-wing movements of the fifties and sixties through his financing of the John Birch Society.

Mayer�s piece builds off the original reporting conducted by ThinkProgress since the very beginning of the Tea Party movement. Here�s a review of what we�ve reported:

� In April 2009, ThinkProgress revealed that Americans for Prosperity, a group founded by David Koch, was helping to plan dozens of the first national Tea Party rallies. Americans for Prosperity staffers organized events, from making reservations, to providing talking points and signs, to calling activists to encourage them to participate.

� In August 2009, ThinkProgress obtained an exclusive memo from a Tea Party group supported by Koch�s Americans for Prosperity. The memo outlined various ways for Tea Party activists to intimidate Democratic lawmakers and disrupt their town hall meetings on health reform. ThinkProgress published half a dozen articles exposing the role of Koch-funded groups like �Patients United� in encouraging opposition to health reform. For instance, in Virginia, a Koch-funded operative Ben Marchi assisted a birther who followed Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) around, yelling at him at town hall meetings.

� In May 2009, the Wonk Room published a detailed history of Tim Phillips, an astroturf lobbyist Koch appointed to run his Americans for Prosperity front. Phillips had served as a business partner to Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed.

� Writing in the Boston Globe, ThinkProgress commented on the similarities between David and Charles� Tea Party movement to their father�s efforts to attack President John Kennedy through the John Birch Society.

� The Wonk Room reported on thirty years of Koch Industry environmental front groups. The timeline showed how Koch tried desperately to smear the cap and trade system set up to address acid rain with a �grassroots� group without a single grassroots member.

� At Rep. Michele Bachmann�s (R-MN) �House Call� rally, ThinkProgress produced a video report exposing Koch for paying for dozens of buses for anti-health reform activists to reach DC. We also captured the picture of a large banner comparing health reform to the Holocaust.

� The Wonk Room investigated Koch Industries� role in the effort to repeal AB 32, the landmark California climate change clean energy law. The Wonk Room�s video report revealed how Koch Industries� reliance on high-carbon Canadian crude would become less profitable if similar laws like AB 32 are enacted around the country.

� ThinkProgress reported how a variety of right-wing fronts supported by the Koch family and its political deputies not only helped overturn nearly a hundred years in campaign finance law in the Supreme Court�s Citizens United ruling, but also is lobbying aggressively against the DISCLOSE Act, which would provide transparency into the campaign spending for plutocrats like the Koch family.

� The Wonk Room�s Brad Johnson reported extensively on the multiple climate-denying campaigns orchestrated by the Koch family. Johnson has lampooned some of the Koch family�s more ridiculous attempts at billionaire populism.

� ThinkProgress partnered with Climate Progress to investigate David Koch�s funding of the Smithsonian Institute. We spoke to the Smithsonian director, who continued to express gratitude to Koch, and whitewashed Koch�s role in distorting public knowledge of climate science. Similarly, we have long chronicled the �Swift Boat� style attack campaign conducted by Koch�s various anti-science fronts.

� The Wonk Room reported on how Koch-backed groups and media outlets spread the myth that the so-called �Climategate� e-mails showed that scientists had concealed climate data from the public.

Mayer�s article sheds light on many other ways in which the Koch family has intertwined its business interests with its investment in right-wing groups. She also exposes a serious conflict of interest with David Koch�s position as a board member to the National Cancer Institute, an honor granted to him by President Bush. Mayer notes that while David Koch has been �casting himself as a champion in the fight against cancer, Koch Industries has been lobbying to prevent the E.P.A. from classifying formaldehyde, which the company produces in great quantities, as a �known carcinogen� in humans.�

synergy	Posted: Oct 9 2010, 10:16 AM
Advanced Member Group: Admin Posts: 96,824 Member No.: 3 Joined: 20-November 07	The world of extreme militias - by Gaius Publius on 10/08/2010 11:39:00 PM \| AMERICAblog

synergy	Posted: Oct 19 2010, 05:16 AM
Advanced Member Group: Admin Posts: 96,824 Member No.: 3 Joined: 20-November 07	Joe Miller's brownshirts - By scarce \| Crooks and Liars "Video Cafe" \| October 18, 2010 06:13 AM Joe Miller: "If East Germany could [secure their border], we could" - By scarce \| Crooks and Liars "Video Cafe" \| October 18, 2010 02:06 PM

synergy

Posted: Oct 26 2010, 05:12 PM

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Right Wing Bloggers Rush to Smear Assault Victim of Rand Paul Supporters

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By: Blue Texan Tuesday October 26, 2010 10:30 am | Firedoglake

You know that woman who goaded those brownshirts patriotic, Teabagger supporters of Rand Paul into stomping on her head? She�s an unhinged, left-wing, MoveOn eco-moonbat.

Bitch had it coming.

~~~contd~~~

synergy	Posted: Oct 27 2010, 05:47 AM
Advanced Member Group: Admin Posts: 96,824 Member No.: 3 Joined: 20-November 07	On Beating Uppity Liberal Women: Afghanistan and Kentucky - Posted on October 27, 2010 by Juan Cole \| Informed Comment

synergy

Posted: Oct 29 2010, 09:09 PM

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Moore: Beck and O'Reilly called for violence against me

QUOTE

- By David | Crooks and Liars "Video Cafe" | October 29, 2010 10:36 AM

Years after Fox News' Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly fantasized about the death of Michael Moore, the filmmaker is finally speaking out.

Moore joined MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Thursday to discuss the recent news that a woman protesting Republican Senate candidate in Kentucky Rand Paul had her head stomped prior to a debate this week.

One Paul supporter is seen in video taken by Fox News channel 41 pushing MoveOn.org activist Lauren Valle to the ground. Tim Profitt, another Paul supporter, then is seen stomping on Valle's head and shoulder. She received a concussion and a sprain as a result of the altercation.

The Paul campaign condemned the attack but the next day the candidate downplayed it as "jockeying" and a "crowd control problem."

That same day, a full-page newspaper ad placed by the Paul campaign prominently displayed Profitt's name as one of the candidate's supporters.

In a Wednesday interview, Profitt called for Valle to apologize to him because he hurt his back in the scuffle.

The Kentucky Democratic Party released an ad Thursday using the head stomping incident to portray Paul in a negative light. They said that because of the ad's violent content, it would only be aired after 10 p.m.

"Do you agree with the Kentucky Democrats turning this brutal incident outside a campaign event into a broader metaphor for what's going on in politics?" Maddow asked Moore Thursday.

"It's not one of those figurative metaphors," Moore replied. "It's a literal one."

"It's so good to see Democrats just coming out and saying just exactly what's going on here, which is if you want to get a little taste of what is ahead after Tuesday, if they win, here you go," he added.

"As people take the side of the guy who stomped on this woman, is that mainstreaming violence?" Maddow asked.

"Yes," Moore replied. "That is exactly what's going on. We've been mainstreaming violence for the last nine years," Moore said. "When I was growing up you, it was like grab the hippie. If you were down south, it was grab the black guy. This young girl, what that represents, I think they're afraid of this younger generation, because the young kids, they're not the bigots their parents and grandparents were."

Moore also noted that Beck had once fantasized about killing him and that "Bill O'Reilly one night said he didn't believe in the death penalty except for Michael Moore."

The specific quote from Beck came in May of 2005, when he said:

Hang on, let me just tell you what I'm thinking. I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out -- is this wrong? I stopped wearing my What Would Jesus -- band -- Do, and I've lost all sense of right and wrong now. I used to be able to say, "Yeah, I'd kill Michael Moore," and then I'd see the little band: What Would Jesus Do? And then I'd realize, "Oh, you wouldn't kill Michael Moore. Or at least you wouldn't choke him to death." And you know, well, I'm not sure.

"You can become successful preaching violence and preaching hate," Moore summarized. "We're going to enter a very scary time.".

Naturally, the liberal filmmaker added a plea for viewers to get out and vote for Democrats.

"Boy, I'll tell you, if we don't get on the phones and call people, everybody should get out their address book and send a reminder to be sure and vote on Tuesday," he said. "'I'm going to vote and give the Democrats two more years.' That's what I would really ask your relatives who are on the fence, friends of yours. Say two years isn't enough time for the huge mess that was created. Let's give them two more years. Then we can deal with it if they haven't done the job they were sent there to do."

synergy

Posted: Dec 30 2010, 01:42 PM

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GEICO's R. Lee Ermey Uses a Toys4Tots/USO Event to Slam Obama

QUOTE

By karoli | Crooks and Liars | December 30, 2010 09:00 AM

Hey, Whoopi Goldberg and Dixie Chicks....Look what happens when the wingers slam the liberal black guy in the White House at a charity event, no less. That's right. Nothing. In fact, it takes over 2 weeks for it to even hit the public airwaves.

I'm not sure what makes me sicker -- what he said or the fact that the crowd (and all those Marines) cheered.

Whoopi Goldberg didn't fare quite so well in 2004 with Slimfast when she spoke at a Kerry fundraiser and mocked George W. Bush. And then there's the Dixie Chicks, pulled off the air after criticizing Bush and the Iraq war.

And of course, let's not forget DC Douglas, the GEICO voiceover guy who was fired after drunk-dialing FreedomWorks and letting them have a piece of his mind.

See, when you're a winger AND you're the corporate CEO, I guess it's totally ok to disrespect the office of the President of the United States and bash him at a fundraiser for little kids and military folks. Or not.

synergy

Posted: Jan 11 2011, 10:43 PM

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Build Your Own Joe Wilson Commemorative �You Lie� Assault Rifle!

QUOTE

By: Jim White Tuesday January 11, 2011 4:30 pm | Firedoglake

Screen capture from Palmetto State Armory website, showing Joe Wilson endorsing the assault rifle component made in honor of his outburst against President Obama.

As we learn on Huffington Post, Palmetto State Armory in South Carolina is �honoring� Joe Wilson for his disruption of Obama�s health care address to a Joint Session of Congress in September, 2009. From the website of the armory:

Palmetto State Armory would like to honor our esteemed congressman Joe Wilson with the release of our new �You Lie� AR-15 lower receiver. These lowers are the same great quality you have come to expect from Palmetto State Armory and feature �You Lie� as the first six digits of the serial number. Only 999 of these will be produced, get yours before they are gone!

These forged lowers are made using high quality 7075-T6 aluminum and are marked �MULTI� to accommodate most builds. Finish is Black Hardcoat Anodize.

What is a �lower reciever�? It�s a key component in assembling your own AR-15, one of the most popular semiautomatic rifles around.

Nope, right-wing rhetoric in response to the health care bill has nothing to do with violence and is not at all related to guns.

And look! If you go to the home page of Palmetto State Armory, you can listen to an endorsement by Glenn Beck!

Screenshot from front page of Palmetto State Armory website where you can push button to listen to Glenn Beck's radio ad for them.

synergy

Posted: Jan 21 2011, 01:26 PM

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A former neo-Nazi fesses up: White-supremacist rhetoric was a foundation of sand

QUOTE

Crooks and Liars
January 20, 2011 06:00 PM

A former neo-Nazi fesses up: White-supremacist rhetoric was a foundation of sand

By David Neiwert

If you want some insight into the culture behind the Spokane MLK Day parade bomb attack, read this fascinating bit of self-confession

I want to formally apologize for the image of hate that I helped bring upon this decent community. I could tell you I was ordered to do what I did and that I was young and dumb, manipulated and lied to, but it doesn't change the fact that it was still me. I wish I could take it back.

You don't have to forgive me and I don't blame you if you don't, but I need you, Coeur d'Alene, to know that I and so many before and after me are wrong. Hate is pointless, destructive to everyone involved, selfish, childish, and cowardly.

I'm sorry.

My name is Zach Beck and this is my story.

I was led to believe that without the white race, civilization as we know it would cease to exist. That the white race is the race of God and therefore it is the duty of the white race to bring forth His will, law, and word on Earth as it is in Heaven. That all non-whites are inferior to the white race and are subjected to our will, God's will. The proof of this? The Holy Bible. This is just a small piece of the foundation of the "white power" movement. I've spent the last 10 years eating, sleeping, talking, walking, thinking and believing this lie.

I was wrong.

I thought this was particularly noteworthy:

I grew up in California and Arizona playing an array of sports. While most kids tried to decide which party they wanted to go to that weekend, I was trying to decide between USC and UCLA. The first concert I attended was the Grateful Dead. My hair was long, my shirts were tie-dyed, and my friends were of every color and background. I dated girls of every race and lost my virginity to a black girl.

Two years later, he was a hardcore neo-Nazi and Aryan Brother. I remember seeing Beck in 2001 accompanying Richard Butler at the court hearings in Coeur d'Alene ordering the Aryan Nations compound be turned over, after the AN lost the property in a lawsuit over an assault by AN thugs. He was awfully baby-faced then, and I remember wondering how young guys like that got recruited into hate groups like the AN.

I also remember, incidentally, that Richard Butler periodically issued stern denunciations of violence as a tactic too.

The Zach Beck story is a reminder, perhaps, that young men can be extremely volatile at that age, especially when it comes to political ideology. People who know, say, a pot-smoking leftie in 2007 might be shocked at the wingnutty, paranoid young man they would encounter in 2011.

Just sayin'.
Tags: Aryan Nation, domestic terrorism, hate groups, neo-Nazis, Richard Butler, Right-wing extremism, Spokane, Zach Beck

synergy

Posted: Jan 21 2011, 07:22 PM

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FBI Has �Clarity� in Identity of Who Placed Spokane Bomb

QUOTE

y: Teddy Partridge Friday January 21, 2011 2:13 pm | Firedoglake "my FDL"

Backpack from attempted MLK Day bombing in Spokane, WA. (photo: FBI--detail)

The FBI announced today that while there�s �a lot of work ahead� they have achieved �clarity� in their investigation for a suspect in the bomb placed on Spokane�s Martin Luther King parade route on Monday.

Federal investigators indicated today that they have made progress in their efforts to identify the person or persons who left a bomb Monday along the route of the planned Martin Luther King Jr. march.

�We�ve obtained quite a bit of clarity� as to the identity of those believed to be responsible, said Frank Harrill, special agent in charge of the Spokane office of the FBI. �But we still have a lot of work ahead of us.�

The FBI continues to seek leads from the public in the case, which resulted in the re-routing of the King parade commemoration as well as the clearing of several city blocks and business closures while the bomb squad defused the bomb.

Earlier this week, investigators sent the bomb � which other security sources said could have been detonated by a remote triggering device � to the FBI lab in Quantico, Va.

Harrill has indicated that evidence from that analysis � which could take several days � may be needed before investigators levy charges against any potential suspects.

An anonymous official familiar with the case but not authorized to speak about the investigation yesterday provided a very scary off-the-record quote to the Associated Press:

�They haven�t seen anything like this in this country,� the official said. �This was the worst device, and most intentional device, I�ve ever seen.�

I marvel at the lack of attention to this case after America�s Legacy Media went wall-to-wall in November over the Portland �bomber� at our city�s Xmas tree lighting. Maybe we only need to wait for a suspect to be in custody before the current case in Spokane � where there was a real bomb with real, or even historic, lethality � gets that same kind of attention.

synergy

Posted: Mar 9 2011, 04:35 PM

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Spokane MLK Day bomb suspect tied to hate group

QUOTE

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press
4:08 pm EST Wed 09 Mar 2011

SPOKANE, Wash. � A man accused of leaving a sophisticated bomb along a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade route in Spokane is known to an organization that tracks hate groups.

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center tells The Associated Press that Kevin Harpham was a member of the white supremacist National Alliance in 2004. But Potok says his organization doesn't know when he joined or if he has left the group.

The 36-year-old Harpham is from the Colville area in northeastern Washington. He was arrested Wednesday and is expected to appear in federal court at 3:30 p.m. on charges of trying to use a weapon of mass destruction and possession of an unregistered explosive device.

It wasn't clear if Harpham has a lawyer.

The bomb was discovered before it went off and no one was injured.

synergy

Posted: Jun 22 2011, 06:32 PM

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We are talking about good old home grown American right wing extremism here not Muslim extremism.

Extremists finding fertile ground in Northwest US

QUOTE

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press � Wed Jun 22, 3:31 am ET

KALISPELL, Mont. � With its jagged peaks, glistening lakes and lush valleys, the Inland Northwest � stretching from eastern Washington to Montana's Glacier National Park � is a stunningly beautiful and remote part of the country.

It also is a cradle for sometimes-violent anti-government activity � a reputation most recently rekindled by the search for David Burgert. The former Kalispell militia leader is accused of opening fire on sheriff's deputies on a remote logging road in Lolo National Forest.

After a lull following the demise of the Idaho-based neo-Nazi Aryan Nations in 2000, anti-government and white supremacist groups and individuals may be reviving in the Inland Northwest. It's a mostly white, mostly rural area with few job opportunities and a history of extreme activists.

Experts say the number of radical right groups is growing across the country because of the poor state of the economy, rising immigration and fears that President Barack Obama's administration has an agenda to curtail individual liberties.

They include so-called patriot groups, which fear one-world government and don't accept the federal government's authority. And they like northwest Montana because there is no dominant major city with liberal politics. It also has a deep libertarian streak and live-and-let-live attitude, said Travis McAdam, executive director of the Helena-based Montana Human Rights Network, an anti-hate group.

"A lot of anti-government energy has been building up over the last couple of years," McAdam said.

Sometimes the energy boils over.

Burgert is accused of firing shots at Missoula County sheriff's deputies June 12 before he disappeared into the Lolo National Forest. Burgert is a longtime patriot activist who spent eight years in prison on weapons charges � he had a machine gun when he was arrested � and U.S. authorities charged him at the time with trying to spark a revolution. He was released in 2010.

"He harbors great animosity for law enforcement and government in general," Missoula County Sheriff Carl Ibsen said.

In January, an attempt was made in Spokane to bomb the city's Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. The bomb was found and disarmed before it could explode. The FBI called it an act of domestic terrorism that could have killed and injured many people.

White supremacist Kevin Harpham has been charged in the case and could face life in prison. His trial begins in August.

A patriot group called Flathead Liberty Bell held a convention just last weekend, featuring right-wing speakers and sale of survival gear for what organizers believe is a coming showdown with federal authorities. It was a flashback to the 1990s, when groups like the Militia of Montana regularly held such expos, McAdam said.

The number of hate groups and patriot groups, which do not all share beliefs and conduct, has been growing across the country since Obama was elected in 2008, according to an annual report by the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which tracks extremist groups and individuals.

"Montana is developing into a hotbed," said Mark Potok, director of the SPLC Intelligence Project.

SPLC's 2010 compilation of active hate groups found 1,002 nationwide, with no more than 12 in the Inland Northwest between Missoula and Spokane.

Area residents complain hate group activities here seem to draw more attention than they do in other regions of the country.

"We have a small population, so they get noticed more," said Travis Suzuki, a 22-year-old Missoula college student.

"We feel very safe around here," said Kalispell Mayor Tammi Fisher, who said there is no indication tourism has been hurt by the presence of these groups, or that government employees have been threatened.

A fast-growing city of 20,000 hemmed in by the Rocky Mountains and Flathead Lake, Kalispell has a strong tourist industry thanks to its lakes, golf courses and ski resorts, and it's a major gateway to Glacier National Park.

Montana developed a reputation as a place for violent extremists in the mid-1990s with the capture of "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski and a standoff involving a patriot group called the Montana Freemen.

The Unabomber was the FBI code name for Kaczynski, who engaged in a mail bombing spree that spanned nearly 20 years, killing three people. He was living near Lincoln, Mont., when he was arrested in 1996.

The Montana Freemen were a Christian Patriot group based outside the town of Jordan. Members expressed belief in individual sovereignty and in 1996 engaged in an 81-day armed standoff with the FBI before surrendering.

Some of the more well-known figures in the anti-government movement are re-emerging in the Kalispell area, according to news reports and the SPLC.

They include former Aryan Nations member Karl Gharst, who last year screened a movie, "Epic: The Story of the Waffen SS," at the Kalispell library. The showing drew 200 protesters.

White supremacist April Goede and her twin daughters � who once formed the racist pop singing group Prussian Blue � have moved to Kalispell.

Others include patriot leader and former Constitution Party vice presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin, who believes the U.S. is headed for a fight between big-government globalists and independent patriots; Stewart Rhodes, founder of Oath Keepers, which wants law enforcement officers and military personnel to sign an oath against a one-world government conspiracy; and Randy Weaver, whose standoff with federal marshals at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 kick-started the modern patriot movement.

Fisher said the Kalispell community does have its limits, as Gharst found out when he showed the pro-Nazi movie. But groups espousing their own views on government are tolerated.

"Montana has a live and let live mentality, and respect for each other's privacy and beliefs," the mayor said. "Sometimes that leads to people with beliefs outside the norm finding refuge in the Flathead Valley."

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