Tea Party follower injures self in failed bombing

It's just a matter of time.

Sooner or later, a Tea Party cultist will blow up somebody you love. And the pundits will say they never saw it coming.

But when we see stories like this, we know what looms. In Plano, Texas, a man was critically injured when he tampered with a gas line in the middle of the night. Investigators believe he had attached a bomb to the gas pipe - and the bomb misfired, showering him with shrapnel.

Experts say that if the bomb had gone off the way it was planned, the entire neighborhood would have disappeared in a mushroom cloud.

Turns out the suspect is a Tea Party supporter who uploaded a paranoid rant to YouTube. In a speech seemingly inspired by right-wing talk radio propaganda, the man grumbled about having to pay taxes like everybody else and tore up an income tax form.

We got lucky - this time. But what about next time?

The Department of Homeland Security has already vowed not to investigate homegrown right-wing terrorists - even though far-right domestic terrorism poses a far greater threat than any other type. The DHS made this pledge because Republican officials told them to. Refusal to probe the biggest threat to America's domestic security renders the DHS worse than useless. All the DHS does now is try to close down peaceful events like Occupy marches - which is no surprise, because the DHS was designed to be Bush's personal army to deploy against dissidents.

It's just a matter of time.

But the Department of Homeland Security doesn't want to hear it.