WELL, SO MUCH FOR GUN CONTROL AND THE SMART GRID

I'm reading about the Justice Department memo justifying targeted killings of U.S. citizens believed to be Al Qaeda operatives, and I can't help noticing that the right is quite upset -- or at least is regarding this as a useful stick to beat President Obama with and is faking distress, despite the fact that the policy in question would have been met with right-wing hosannas under Bush/Cheney (or, for that matter, McCain/Palin or Romney/Ryan).

The wingers see a slippery slope that leads to the targeting of them, or at least of good, God-fearing heartlanders.

Here's Patterico, for instance:

... Obama is a liar and I do not trust him. So while I might be OK with what the memo proposes, there is no way for me to be sure he won't take it further, if he thinks it would benefit him politically. He doesn't consider himself constrained by little things like budget deadlines. Why would he pass an opportunity to kill a U.S. citizen outside the above guidelines if he thought he could justify it?

RELATED? Iowa farmers complain about drones monitoring their farms....

I bet U.S. citizens never thought drones would be conducting surveillance on farmers.

It's not like this guy thinks of himself as above the law or anything, does it?

And from the comments at Weasel Zippers:

Considering all the "official" documents floating around pointing at conservatives, and conservative Christians in particular, as dangerous groups, it frankly scares the hell out of me....

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Big Sis's DHS 9 page memo comes to mind on 'potenial' terrorists ..

"If you are a member of an active conservative group that opposes abortion, favors strict immigration enforcement, lobbies to protect Second Amendment rights, protests big government, advocates federalism, or represents veterans who believe in any of the above, the answer is: You."

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Any rural white person who is crazy enough to own a firearm must be an al Qaeda plant and therefore must be eliminated. Also, queue up the voter rolls--anyone ignorant enough to vote against Obama must be a terrorist.

This is being filed away by rank-and-file righties as even more evidence that Obama can't be trusted with power -- I actually think it's going to make even the seemingly less controversial gun-control measures he and other Democrats are proposing harder to pass. I think it's going to be a little more encouragement to people resisting electricity "smart meters," in part because of privacy concerns and fears that the Evil Government will try to control individuals' energy use (smart meter protests have been going on for a while in Naperville, Illinois). I'm sure this will be linked to Agenda 21 conspiracy theories, though I'm not in the mood right now to figure out how.

I don't think any of this is going to stop the drone strikes -- I can't really see righties and lefties banding together to do something upliftingly democratic and bipartisan like forcing a reconsideration of the policy via combined public pressure (when was the last time something like that happened in America?) -- there are too many people in office, from both parties, who like what's being done by the administration. Maybe it will threaten the appointment of John Brennan as CIA director, but I'm not sure about that. I think the most enduring effect, in addition to reinforcing the anger of lefty Obama skeptics, will be an increase in right-wing paranoia -- for no good reason.