Apparently Glenn Beck was either forced, or decided, to tell the maniacs that form a large portion of his audience NOT TO KILL OTHER PEOPLE. So he’s preemptively washed his hands.

But let’s face the great lie of American history and the on-going threat to the nation’s first black President. If you were a progressive in the 1960s, or if you are just a progressive with a sense of history you know what the last two generations were like. John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, three iconic liberal figures — all gunned down. The current occupant of the office faces this:

Since Mr Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of In the President’s Secret Service.

In the first six plus months of the Obama Administration we’ve seen several murders committed by various right-wing extremists. A fringe group of nuts get media attention over an obvious fraud claiming Obama isn’t actually "an American" enabled by Lou Dobbs and others so it has become an article of faith among the Republican base. We’ve seen an entire broadcast network enable all manner of incitement to riot and shout down reasoned debate.

In April, when a report on the threat of right-wing violence was forthcoming it was stopped by the screams of conservative media. Only to see the reality of the murders of police, physicians and others who were at the right-place at the wrong time. So what do we get now from our media? Oh, those extremist on the right, they’re just like left-wing activists, following the long tradition of well, lying.

No they’re not.

Folks like Glenn Beck are sowing the winds, but it is the rest of us that will reap the whirlwind.