The heat under the pot.

What is wrong with America's right wing nutjobs?

First, we had the killing of Tiller and now we have an 88 year old pensioner walking into the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and opening fire, killing a security guard before being brought down himself by other security staff.

The man, identified by media outlets as James Von Brunn, an 88-year-old resident of Maryland with apparent ties to assorted racist hate and anti-government groups, was taken to hospital for emergency treatment. The security guard, Stephen Tyrone Johns, died at George Washington University Hospital.

Witnesses say that the suspect, who 25 years ago tried to kidnap the entire Federal Reserve Board, walked through the main entrance of the crowded museum, which is just four blocks from the White House, bearing a gun later identified as a rifle. The incident turned the Washington Mall, which is lined by museums and federal institutions, into a cacophony of sirens as police and emergency services converged on the museum. Some of those inside said the first they knew of the incident was hearing a security guard yelling at the man to put the gun down. The order was quickly followed, however, by the sound of five gunshots. Some were shots being returned by two security guards.

Now, it is only to be expected that Glenn Beck will attempt to distance himself - and the others who have been encouraging right wing rage ever since Obama's election - from any correlation between their actions and the actions of a couple of "lone gunmen".

But, even whilst trying to say this has nothing to do with the hate he spouts nightly, Beck simply can't stop himself from stirring the pot further.

Beck: What they're missing is: The pot in America is boiling. And this is just yet another warning to all Americans of things to come.

Beck has been speaking in utterly apocalyptic terms ever since Obama was elected. He has spoke of the need for militias, the socialist/fascist movement of Barack Obama, economic meltdown and God knows what else.

It is dangerous to allow people like Glenn Beck to spread far right conspiracy theories on mainstream TV because there are some people out there crazy enough to believe them.

Beck: This guy is a lone gunman nutjob. ... You're going to see a lot of nutjobs coming out of the woodwork now. There are two very important things that are happening here. First one: It's what I talked about two years ago, um, when I talked about the "Perfect Storm" -- I said that there is a storm formulating. And it is the economy, it is political correctness, it's corruption in Washington, it's militant Islam. It's all of these things.

I said when it comes onshore, there's going to be a "go go go" mentality. And that's what this is.

No-one is encouraging this "go go go" mentality more than Glenn Beck.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security reports about right-wing extremists. You remember that came out a few weeks ago? Left-wing bloggers and some in the media have blamed conservative hosts like me or Bill O'Reilly for just stirring the pot! I'm not stirring the pot. I'm pointing out the pot is boiling and there is trouble in America. Since when -- have you ever heard of 'don't blame the messenger'?

Glenn is not the messenger, he is the gas which is heating the boiling pot. There is a lot of hatred out there, but Beck and people like him are telling the haters that their country is being taken from them and that they have to "do something" to take their country back.

I find what is happening in the US to be deeply troubling. Ever since Obama was elected a group of right wing shock jocks have been openly wishing for him to fail and predicting that insurrection was about to take place.

Here, Shep Smith talks about the hatred spewing into Fox News' inbox.



The hatred is real and it is dangerous. And Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and others are inflaming that hatred because they can't accept that the rest of the nation made a different democratic choice than the one which they would have preferred.

Their behaviour is disgusting and, from the crap that Beck spouts here, they obviously have no intention of stepping back from the brink.

Tags: Holocaust museum, killing, Tiller, Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, right wing loons