stories about this Page guy from Washington Post, CNN and ABC News. How mainstream does he want?

Just for fun, I also tried searching "Kansas Terrorism" in Bing and CNN and the Kansas City Star came right up along with a lot of other stuff I'd have to sift through.

I agree that after 9-11 "terrorism" has been automatically associated with Muslims far too often. What with worldwide suicide bombings and killings "terrorism" has become almost synonymous with an insane wing of Islam. Perhaps it should stay that way at this point and the more appropriate "hate crime" be used for things like this.

And, btw, "hate crimes" have very specific definitions so adding, or changing, the charges from just a plain old crazy shooting murder is a little tricky. Especially when he ended up not killing any Jews after all.

Everyone agrees he is a hater but not everyone agrees that he can be successfully prosecuted for it. I suspect murder and manslaughter have harsher sentences anyway.

The point of the OP wasn’t whether or not the story was reported, but that it is being reported that the guy is mentally ill. Not that he was trying to inflict what is commonly defined as “Domestic Terrorism” by the FBI. Which defines that as:

"Domestic terrorism" means activities with the following three characteristics:
1. Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law;
2. Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination. or kidnapping; and
3. Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.

Lets review Page’s acts against the FBI’s definition:

Number 1 - Check. Killing people is pretty much dangerous to human life and violates state and federal law.
Number 2 - Check. Singling out Jewish people as a class is intended to intimidate a civilian population.
Number 3 - Check. WI is within the continental US borders.

The issue here is that shortly after the Boston Marathon bombings FOX and others were looking for Islamic terrorists and jihadists from the Middle East on whom they could pin the crimes. You know, some dark-skinned guys. In this instance with Page, a white guy gets a pass on being a terrorist. He must “just” be mentally ill. That’s not being consistent at all.

For example. The FOX opinion piece spends the entire time suggesting that the guy is mentally ill. Not that he’s a terrorist.

Check paragraph three:

As could be the case with Colorado shooter James Holmes, mental illness, combined with our broken mental health care system, may turn out to be the culprit in Wisconsin. This is apples to oranges on any day. The CO shooter hit a secular theater. Not Jewish organizations.

and the closing paragraph:

Wade Michael Page may have "hated" others and wanted them dead, but that hatred could turn out to be a sign of underlying mental illness. If so, his acting upon that hatred with horrible violence, may have been a moment of psychiatric significance having nothing to do with domestic terrorism and everything to do with the terrifying thoughts and feelings visited upon him by the demons inhabiting his own psyche.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/07/did-mental-illness-fuel-wisconsin-massacre-or-was-it-terrorism/

Well, if hating others and wanting them dead indicates an underlying mental illness then we’re going to need to seek treatment for a lot of Al Qaeda terrorists.

I think the basic point of the OP is that when right wingers who want to kill a select group of people because they perceive them as different, or they don’t believe the group shares their same values, or think that group has unjustified power over them or has wronged them in some way they’re just mentally ill haters. However, when Middle Eastern people want to kill US Citizens because they perceive the US has wronged them or the US is different and doesn’t share their values then they are terrorists.

On Edit:

Not consistent at all in the way the MSM reports these horrible events. It's so blatant too. Of course I wouldn't expect FOX to alienate their base. I just wish some of the other organizations who call themselves "News" organizations could do better.

criminal code? Unlike, say, murder, there is no agree upon worldwide definition.

The FBI can sit around and define things any way they want, but when a state or federal attorney files charges, they have to mention a crime. And, even if there should somewhere be a "terrorism" statute making it illegal, it has to be defined, and mental illness may be a defense.

"Terrorism" can have hundreds of definitions, depending on who you talk to, and the flip side of terror is "freedom fighting"-- again depending on which side you're talking to, if there are indeed sides involved.

Mental illness? That's an easy one-- who would dare call anyone running around preaching hate and calling for killing, or actually killing, sane and well adjusted? But, a lot of other crimes and non-criminal actions also fit-- we haven't fully worked out mental illness vs just being a bad guy.

So, anyway, I'm back to not liking the term "terrorism" and think it's primarily used as propaganda or simply for its effect.

So, anyway, I'm back to not liking the term "terrorism" and think it's primarily used as propaganda or simply for its effect. 

Cole is ticked off because they didn't use the word "terrorism," but rather than agitating to make the word be used more for non-Muslim issues I think he would be better served to try to get it used less for Muslim ones.

When a Muslim kid throws a hand grenade at American military forces which are attacking his village, that is not "terrorism," and Cole should be ranting against the government charging that kid as a terrorist rather than what word they used in Overland Park KS.

is that the killer was not charged with a hate crime. The problem is, this is a State prosecution and Kansas does not have a Hate Crime statute.

I would love for the state of Kansas to defer prosecution to the federal government ... then, it would be designated a Hate Crime; and with federal jurisdiction, the Federal government could act immediately on any wider connections that their investigation of the crimes will turn up.

And I suspect this coward will implicate others to try and save his a$$ ... just as he did before.