Did you catch the leaked unclassified Home Land Security report on Right-Wing Extremists? I think the hoopla (especially in the blogosphere) was a bit over the top considering the language in the document.

First of all, the document never says that all conservatives are Extremists. What it does say is that these Extremists come from the conservative camp. Conservatives took umbrage with that but I don’t think they should have. After all, the nature of an Extremist is that it takes a normal position (in this case the Right-Wing position) and pushes it to the Extreme.

Second of all, the document was viewed in a vacuum without noting that there is also a similar report in regard to Left-Wing Extremists. Not surprisingly, these Extremists are Left-Wing ideologists and attack from that end of the spectrum. I think Fox News aired that report.

Thirdly, if anyone should be marginally upset it’s the Extremists from both ends of the Spectrum. A Left-Wing Extremist can resort to physical attacks with weaponry just as much as a Right-Wing Extremist can resort to cyber-attacks with malicious code. But even if they get irked by this, they should realize that the report is a notification to local authorities on what to be on the lookout for.

I also note at least three side effects of having these reports in hand:  the data pool, if properly exposed to the report, is subsequently influenced; secondly, media coverage (if any) of the tea-parties (save on channels that skew conservative in their advertising revenue) was seriously slanted with an Extremist Eye to the Conservative Guys; thirdly, the blogosphere started doing some weird stuff like standing proudly behind Extremists in support of their freedom of speech.

In general, I think it was exceedingly bad form that these reports were leaked at all. They, no doubt, came from a previous administration but to have them show up now in the media’s hands is just really obnoxious.

And ironically enough, here’s me offering PDF downloads that affect the data pool:  Left Wing Extremists Report or Right Wing Extremists report.