don't worry, when ryamney steals the election they'll all calm down like they did during the bush junta.

White leftist groups are commonly referred to as "terrorists". See: "eco-terrorist".

NYT put a fine bit up yesterday in their "Room for Debate", with a half-dozen contributors each examining the scene since Obama's Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano shredded that 2009 domestic terrorism report.

Among the contributors, Southern Poverty Law Center's Mark Potok asks,"how aggressively do the American people want their government to investigate domestic hate groups for activity that is largely neither terrorism nor criminal, but rather constitutionally protected free speech?” A retired FBI agent suggests it might be more productive to fight mental illness instead of just bumping up monitoring the political fringes. Author Matt Kennard rues the military having shredded its regulations against enlisting people with hate group ties. http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/201…

Good Morning Charles,
That number seems quite large but then one must quibble with the definition of "violent group". Two, three? I believe they work in "shadows" anyway. So, it would be most difficult to ascertain exact numbers and other information on them. Sure there is cause for concern but I remain convinced that they do not pose a mortal threat to the country. Our domestic security agencies (FBI etc.) also have monitors.

On the other hand, beginning with 9/11 and subsequent to that the Ft. Hood massacre, the attack on Army recruiters in Arkansas among other incidents did involve radicalized Muslims. My understanding is there are roughly 5-7 million Muslims in the USA, a distinct religious minority. Alas, that minority does have a connection. Maybe if 9/11 had not happened there wouldn't be a "national discourse" that focuses largely on Muslims. That incident still reverberates for better or for worse nearly 11 years later.

Personally, I find the title of your posting a bit of a stretch and alarmist. Clearly, the major media (not SLOG) has an obligation NOT to say "Thousands of Terrorist Groups Operating in America..." in its headlines. Especially, if they qualify it "Muslim Terrorists". That would be shocking indeed.
Words in this case DO have ramifications.

For the record, I find it contemptable that these "hate" groups abound regardless of race, ethnicity, political or religious orientation. They're all monsters.

The only catch is the vast majority of these SPLC-defined "terrorist groups" haven't actually committed acts of violence or, um, terrorism. But hey, if Morris Dees says they're terrorists, I guess they have to be, because he's in charge of defining such things, right?

It is like the people who blame Illegals for everything.

Well, what about the Legals who threw stones at a bike rider in Ballard?

@6 Be careful who you are attributing. The SPLC calls them "hate groups". Charles conflated that with terrorist groups.

Even the hate groups who have a proactive violent agenda (proactive versus, for example, waiting for the race war to start, but not actively promoting members to start it) have for the most part learned to operate within the protections of the First Amendment. They rarely plot organized attacks, because they know that will get them shut down. Instead, they hope to inspire individuals in a way that gives them plausible deniability.

It's not a great state of affairs, but it weakens their impact (just as a scattered Al Qaeda whose best hope is to inspire unconnected individuals to action is weaker than an Al Qaeda who can train for, fund, amd plan large scale attacks). I suspect the type of investigation changes to contain the respective groups; monitoring certain profiles of indviduals connected to such groups (such as those with mental illness) is probably
more fruitful than monitoring group leaders for organized plots.

A terrorist is defined by action, not ideology. You're making the same categorical error GW Bush did.

Sigh. I see little point in discussing this topic with you, Charles, because you simply aren't open to influence.

The key here is mental illness and access to ridiculous high-power rapid-fire weapons, not ideology. Fortunately, most white supremacists, and most gun nuts, are too cowardly or incompetent to actually go into action.

Another one struck today in College Station, TX. Killed a cop and wounded some unknown number of other people shooting out of a house with an automatic weapon.

@17- "Final Warning:"

You promise?

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b243/s…

There are thousands of black and hispanic terrorist groups out there as well. Luckily, they mostly just kill each other.