We found WMDs! No, really, we have!

US government agents have uncovered a genuine weapon of mass destruction in the form of a chemical poison bomb. They also found 100 other bombs, bomb components, and chemical agents along with evidence this was all part of a well-developed plot. What's more, they caught the terrorists themselves.

So why haven't you heard about it? Why isn't the White House shouting it from the rafters? Why isn't this wall-to-wall on Fox News? Simple: Because the bombs weren't in Iraq, they were in Tyler, Texas and the terrorists aren't Muslin fanatics but American white supremacists.

It's not that the White House didn't take the threat seriously. It was, it's reported, one of the biggest investigations of domestic terrorism since the Oklahoma City bombing. They took it so seriously that updates were part of Bush's daily briefing. But when the culprits were nailed, there was no ballyhoo, no splashy announcements, John Ashcroft held no press conferences, nothing special was made of it, because there is simply no political mileage in domestic terrorism.

But it's also not that the DOJ actively concealed the news. There were press releases, the arrests were announced, the background of the investigation described. The national media simply failed to pick it up; more exactly, they ignored it. The result is that, as Democracy Now! noted on Friday, unless you live in east Texas you probably never about it.

Which together point up three things, some I expect more familiar than others:

- This is the most politicized Justice Department in our history, part of a team consciously advancing an ideological agenda.

- The major media are by and large lazy slugs who let the government (and in particular the White House) determine not only the play of the news but whether or not something is news at all.

- Perhaps most importantly, plain old patient police work has done and will do more to thwart such plots, whether domestic or international, than all our threats, bombings, invasions, and TRAITOR Acts combined.

Footnote: Just for fun, ask an acquaintance to name the biggest single act of terrorism (limiting "terrorism" to the usually-understood meaning under which governments need not apply) on US soil. They will instantly refer to "9/11." Now ask them what the second biggest such act was. See how long it takes them to come up with "Oklahoma City" - assuming they do.