I'm sure you've all heard about this unfolding story of a terrorist manhunt in Montana. The FBI is searching for Osama Mohammed Hussein - the former leader of a terrorist organization known as Project 7 that amassed a cache of machine guns and explosives in order to kill government officials - declare war on the National Guard - and plot the overthrow - explicitly plot the overthrow - of the US government.

Hussein was last seen 10 days ago - when he exchanged gunfire with sheriff's deputies and fled into the woods of Missoula County, Montana. He's believed to still be holed up there - likely plotting his next attack.

He previously told officers that he, “wasn't going to be taken down like last time,” which could mean that he's considering suicide attacks in the future.

Police found guns and ammunition packed into the engine compartment of Hussein's left-behind jeep - and police fear that Hussein stashed away gear, food, and more weapons like explosives in the woods to continue his terrorism while he's on the run. Police consider Osama Mohammed Hussein armed and extremely dangerous - and it's just a matter of time before he strikes again.

You've heard this story right??

I mean, the guy's been loose for ten days - he tried to kill several police officers - it's been wall to wall coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and, of course, Fox has devoted virtually every segment every day to it. A real, live, genuine, "you're not going to take me alive" terrorist is on the loose in the United States - and still hasn't been caught.

It's all over the news. Right?

Wait a second - I'm being told I got the guy's name wrong. Excuse me. It isn't Osama Mohammed Hussein… it's David Burgert... his name is David Burgert and he's a white guy - an American. And I was out of town last week for Netroots Nation and missed the news - say what? There wasn't wall-to-wall coverage of an at-large terrorist?

Ah, now I understand.

Since the terrorist is a white American with a familiar name - it's no big deal.

But you can bet if the explosive-toting, gun-slinging terrorist who's hell bent on the destruction of the United States government - and this guy is - and currently on the run from cops in Montana - and this guy is - was an ISLAMIC militant - then it would definitely be wall-to-wall, breaking news on every cable news network and plastered across the front-page of virtually every single American newspaper.

So why is that?

Why is our news media foaming at the mouth when it comes to stories about Islamic terrorists - but not white guy terrorists?

It's not because Muslims are a bigger threat.

In fact - between 1980 and 2005 - 94% of all the attempted or successful terrorist attacks on US soil were NOT carried out by Islamic radicals - but instead by non-Muslims - mostly white guys.

So then why the obsession?

I think, frankly, it's a side-effect of George W. Bush's decades-long War on Terror. He and Cheney had to gin up this irrational fear of “the other" to justify the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. And by "other" - I mean someone who doesn't look like the majority of other Americans - specifically someone who is not white and not "Judeo-Christian".

There's not a left or right bias in our news media today - it's a bias against people of minority races and religions. You see it in the media's decision to NOT report on stories about white terrorists - but to go nuts over stories about Arab terrorists.

And there are people who win big from this bias, who use it to advance their political careers. Like John McCain saying that the drought-induced wildfires eating his state right now are really because of illegal aliens from Mexico.

Or Congressman Peter King investigating Muslims in our prisons while ignoring issues of gangs and overcrowding in our prisons.

Or Herman Cain saying if he's elected President he would require Muslims to take a loyalty oath but he has no problem with Christians, Jews, or Mormons.

This is the sort of bias that our Founders were horrified by. It's the sort of bigotry that many of the early settlers in this country were fleeing from in Europe.

It's what President John Adams opposed when he opened the Treaty of Tripoli, ratified by the United States Senate and signed in 1797 - Adams was our second president - with the words:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Or, when Thomas Jefferson wrote...

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

The Founders understood religious intolerance and how dangerous it is - which is why the Establishment Clause in the Constitution makes Herman Cain's religious test for office illegal.

This kind of scapegoating and bigotry is fundamentally un-American. And it's time to call it out. And to start reporting on white Christian terrorists just as much as we do on terrorists of other races and other religions.

That's The Big Picture.