Nice friends you got there.

Republicans, if you spend two and a half decades sucking up to the wacko religious right, be prepared to reap the whirlwind.

Norm Olson, senior adviser to the Michigan militia and pastor of a strong right-to-life church in Wolverine, said Tuesday he had put together an unarmed coalition of state militias that were prepared to storm the Florida hospice where Terri Schiavo has been left to die, and take her to a safe house. Olson said he needed only the OK from Schiavo's father, Robert Schindler, either directly or through his attorney David Gibbs, to put the plan, called "Operation Resurrection," into action on Sunday. But Olson said Gibbs contacted the FBI instead of passing his message on to Schindler. [...]

Olson said that last Thursday he phoned Gibbs' secretary with a message that he had organized 1,500 to 2,000 militia members from Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia and Michigan, who were ready to remove Schiavo from the hospice and take her in a convoy to a safe house. [...]

"We would have overwhelmed the local law enforcement," Olson said, adding the militias would not have been armed.

Sure, and if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you. Those guys don't go anywhere without guns. And just in case you had any doubt whether these folks are legitimately nuts:

"We the people are the final judges, not the black-robed demons. I do not believe that 70 percent of the American people thought it was wrong for government to get involved. They turned around when they believed Terri Schiavo's was a lost cause and wanted to be on the winning side. America has lost hope because, where there's life there's hope, but it is the black-robed devils who are deciding who lives and dies."

These are your allies, Republicans. They aren't the fringe of your party, they are the carefully cultivated cornerstone of your electoral coalition. I've been screaming for years that if you empowered these lunatics, we would all come to regret it. The pro-life death threats have already begun and rest assured, this is just their opening salvo. It has been interesting watching the various folks on the right suddenly grow dismayed, as if this sort of behavior hasn't always been the way these clowns react to everything. Well, you people brought them, you people have to dance with them. I'm going out back to get drunk.

(via AmericaBlog)