Tenth Anniversary in OK City

Today is the tenth anniversary of the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. 168 people lost their lives in an act of domestic terrorism. MSNBC recognizes that the radical right is still a threat, but there is no doubt that today most Americans feel more threatened by extremists in the Middle East.

MSNBC says that the Oklahoma City bombing split the radical right and that in the late 1990's the FBI cracked down on the "Common Law Court" movement. They neglected to trace links between the thinking of the "Common Law Court" movement and the congregants around Roy's Rock, and the protestors outside the Schiavo hospital room in Florida, and the participants in the "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith" conference in Washington, D.C. Those thinly veiled threats emanating from the mouths of Texas Congressmen Tom Delay and John Cornyn were addressed to somebody.

The mindset of the "Common Law Court" movement is still alive and well in Texas and Oklahoma and a lot of other states. It just went underground for a decade. It is already beginning to raise its head again and this time it has a lot more political clout.

For more information, I recommend Daniel Levitas' The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia-Movement and the Radical Right. Or, you could just listen to talk radio in Oklahoma and Texas.