"You'll Have To Take My Cascade From My Cold, Dead Hands"

Erick Erickson over at Red State is all in a lather:

At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?

At some point soon, it will happen. It’ll be over an innocuous issue. But the rage is building. It’s not a partisan issue. […] Were I in Washington State, I’d be cleaning my gun right about now waiting to protect my property from the coming riots or the government apparatchiks coming to enforce nonsensical legislation.

OMG! Time to brake out the fire arms, Mabel! Lock down the cat! The gov'ment be tryin' to take away our..........dishwasher detergent.

That's right. dishwasher detergent.  Evidently the Washington State legislature is committing a treasonable offense because they want to regulate how much phosphate gets into the ecosystem through household dishwasher detergent.

From Matthew Yglesias:

I think it’s safe to say that we’re not going to see violence in the streets over this one. I see three likely possibilities. One is that people moan and get over it. Another is that America’s entrepreneurial business sector develops a detergent that does a better job of cleaning dishes while complying with this regulation, and then this kind of rule spreads rapidly. A third is that there’s a backlash and the rule is repealed. Riots seem....... unlikely.

But recall that it used to be considered beyond-the-pale for liberal bloggers to sometimes use naughty words. You see, though, that the minute conservatives lose power they go back to 1990s-style incitements to violence.

Out of context, all of this is hysterically funny. With context, not so much.

The number of hate groups operating in the United States continued to rise in 2008 and has grown by 54% since 2000 — an increase fueled last year by immigration fears, a failing economy and the successful campaign of Barack Obama.

The (Southern Poverty Law Center) identified 926 hate groups active in 2008, up more than 4% from the 888 groups in 2007 and far above the 602 groups documented in 2000. A list and interactive, state-by-state map of these groups can be viewed here.

As in recent years, hate groups were animated by fears of Latino immigration. This rise in hate groups has coincided with a 40% growth in hate crimes against Latinos between 2003 and 2007, according to FBI statistics. But two additional factors were introduced to the volatile hate movement in 2008: the faltering economy and the Obama campaign.

Several white supremacists have been arrested while allegedly plotting to kill Obama, and following the election he received more threats than any previous president-elect. Scores of racially charged incidents — beatings, effigy burnings, racist graffiti, threats and intimidation — were reported across the country after the election. Extremists are also exploiting the economic crisis, spreading propaganda that blames minorities and immigrants for the subprime mortgage meltdown. Tough economic times historically provide fertile ground for extremist movements.