Urgh

A brief link post—I got exposed to heavy second-hand smoke over the past 24 hours and it makes my head hurt when I work on the computer (unfortunately it was a situation where I couldn’t avoid it).
In light of my last And column on right-wing terrorism, Juan Cole points out the differences between white terrorists and non-white terrorists. Wired reports on one counter-terrorist expert who lost his job for looking at white terrorism.
Case in point: Ann Althouse argues the Sikh shooting obviously isn’t domestic terrorism. If this had been a Muslim shooting up a synagogue instead of white supremacist killing Sikhs, right-wingers would screech that anyone who said it wasn’t terrorism was gutlessly politically correct. More on right-wing terror here, here and here.
People who criticize the Tea Party as far right? So unfair! Support for the Confederate flag, objecting to Muslims working for state government, accusing Barack Obama of being a crack addict … that’s because the Tea Party respects the Constitution.
•Mitt Romney claims Barack Obama is trying to end Clinton’s welfare reform. Mitt Romney lies. And that’s not even getting into how Republicans routinely demonize the working poor as parasites for not paying millionaire-class taxes (and besides, they don’t deserve nice things!). So I’m doubtful the Romney/Ryan ticket has that much respect for anyone who got off welfare in the 1990s.
•But people who won’t vote for Romney have been brainwashed! Plus Obama does evil things like support insurance coverage for contraceptives! Fortunately, Democrats will find it a lot harder to vote in key states (and Republicans complain about expanding early voting in others).
•This Ruthless World responds to a proposal to divide the country.