The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Mark Potok and the Hijacking of ‘Hate’

Posted on | April 19, 2010 | 45 Comments

It was 1997 and I was a columnist for the Rome (Ga.) News-Tribune when the latest copy of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Intelligence Report” arrived at the office. Looking for some local angle in the report — my editor’s mantra was “local, local, local” — I flipped to the map in the back where, with several symbols, the SPLC identified the location of various “hate” groups.

My eyes popped out of my head when I saw that one of the symbols was located squarely in our community, identifying a “patriot” group that the SPLC wished to portray as a menace to the public weal: A chapter of the John Birch Society!

It so happened that I actually knew the local JBS organizer. Gretna Fuller was the wife of a judge in neighboring Gordon County. A few years earlier, as sports editor of the Calhoun (Ga.) Times, I’d covered her son when he wrestled and played baseball for Gordon Central High. In addition to her activities with Birchers, Gretna was also an all-around conservative Republican, involved with Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum among other groups and a frequent contributor to our newspaper’s letters-to-the-editor column.

And here was the Southern Poverty Law Center identifying Gretna Fuller in the same category as dangerous groups like the Hammerskins and the Aryan Nations!

Think what you will about the John Birch Society, they’ve never been associated with crime or violence, and this SPLC “hate” map included several JBS chapters, denoted in the category of “patriot” groups. In the wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the SPLC had evidently begun casting a wide net to identify “patriot” organizations, creating the impression that there were Tim McVeigh wannabes lurking in every neighborhood. And among these alleged threats to society were harmless Republican moms like Gretna Fuller.

This startling discovery was my first real insight into the modus operandi of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and especially the role of Mark Potok in the transformation of the Montgomery-based center. Originally devoted to tracking violent neo-Nazi and Klan groups, in the 1990s the SPLC began expanding its purview to include all “extremists,” which has proved to be an amazingly flexible term. In 2003, for example, an SPLC report warned its readers of the dangers posed by such respectable conservative organizations as the American Entreprise Institute and the Bradley Foundation.

This shift in the SPLC’s mission coincided with the hiring of Potok, a journalist whose biography includes this important datum:

While at USA Today, he covered the 1993 siege in Waco, the rise of militias, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the trial of Timothy McVeigh.

Byron York has recently explained how the Clinton administration exploited the Oklahoma City bombing and, with the addition of Potok to its staff, the SPLC began doing the same thing. Longtime critics of Morris Dees and the SPLC says they have always exaggerated the “extremist” threat:

In 1994, the Montgomery Advertiser — the SPLC’s hometown newspaper — published a nine-day expose of Dees’ empire of hypocrisy, cynicism and greed. It said in an editorial that the Klan had become “a farce.” It also agreed with the criticism that the SPLC “focuses on the anti-Klan theme not because the Klan is a major threat, but because it plays well with liberal donors.” . . .
In 2009, liberal journalist Alexander Cockburn called Dees the “arch-salesman of hate-mongering.” Under a headline that labeled Dees the “King of the Hate Business,” he said Dees thrived by “selling the notion there’s a right resurgence out there in the hinterland with massed legions of haters, ready to march down Main Street draped in Klan robes, a copy of ‘Mein Kampf’ tucked under one arm and a Bible under the other.

It was with the addition of Potok to the SPLC’s staff, however, that Dees’ outfit began trying to connect this “massed legion of haters” to mainstream conservatism. This involves a deceptive technique that Laird Wilcox — a respected researcher of extremist movements — has called the “links and ties” method, using incidental associations between groups and individuals to create a false perception of shared ideology and purpose.

One of the big coups for the SPLC was smearing various Republican politicians, including Sen. Trent Lott, former Sen. George Allen, and former Rep. Bob Barr, for associating with the Council of Conservative Citizens. Once the media accepted the SPLC’s portrayal of the CCC as a dangerous “white supremacist” organization — a portrayal that CCC officials have always disputed — then the links-and-ties method meant that any association with that group could be construed as evidence of “white supremacist” sympathies.

No one has ever directly accused George Allen of being a white supremacist — which he most certainly is not — but the pretzel-logic of the links-and-ties method has the effect of making its targets guilty until proven innocent. 

Few people in mainstream journalism or politics undertakes a critical examination of the SPLC’s labels because to do so would be to risk the charge of defending a “hate” group — and then, through the magic of the links-and-ties method, you will be named in the next indictment.

Since the arrival of Potok at SPLC, the links-and-ties smears have multiplied to the point of transparent absurdity. A few years ago, the SPLC began smearing immigration-control groups in such a way that Michelle Malkin would qualify as a “white supremacist.” Jim Antle recently busted that smear:

Advocates of reduced immigration levels and stronger border security are high on the SPLC’s list of targets because of the obvious racial component of the immigration issue.
Locating cranks who have made ill-tempered remarks about immigrants is not terribly difficult work for highly trained members of the thought police. But Morris Dees’s marauders have not been content to stop there. In late 2007, the SPLC labeled the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) a hate group. This troubling designation by extension tarred organizations like CIS [the Center for Immigration Studies] and Roy Beck’s NumbersUSA—and quickly achieved its intended chilling effect on the immigration debate.
The SPLC’s smear became the centerpiece of the National Council of La Raza’s “Stop the Hate” campaign. “Hate” was loosely defined as any position that differed from La Raza’s advocacy of loose borders and amnesty for illegal immigrants. La Raza used the SPLC’s “findings” to try to silence its critics, and the mainstream media, always eager to portray conservatives as racists, cheerfully repeated the slur in its woefully biased coverage of the amnesty debate. Stop the Hate claimed its biggest scalp when Lou Dobbs stepped away from his microphone at CNN—by most accounts, a voluntary move, but one hastened by the network’s growing discomfort with the controversy surrounding Dobbs’s outspoken views on immigration.
FAIR, CIS, and NumbersUSA are far from hate groups. They are wonky, white-paper-generating organizations committed to nothing more controversial than cutting back immigration from its post-1965 high of 1 million new immigrants a year to the more traditional level of 300,000. They shy away from the more racially charged aspects of the debate, which reflects their roots in the wing of the immigration-restrictionist movement animated primarily by environmental and economic concerns rather than blood and soil.
But such facts cannot be allowed to get in the way of a good fundraising mailing—or a malicious attempt to drum certain viewpoints out of polite society. In its fevered writings about immigration reformers, the SPLC has concocted conspiracies so elaborate they would raise eyebrows within the John Birch Society.

It comes full-circle, you see? The SPLC’s fearmongering about the Right — where America is always just one Tea Party rally away from that dreaded moment when the brownshirts come goosestepping down Main Street — is at least as irresponsible as the Birchers’ fearmongering about the Left. Unlike the JBS, however, the SPLC is treated by mainstream journalists as respectable and authoritative. And among those abetting this smear operation is Geraldo Rivera:

Allahpundit summarizes this particular application of the links-and-ties method:

Militias are right-wing and angry and tea partiers are right-wing and angry, ergo tea partiers want to blow up the Murrah building. No need to directly accuse them of it, either. Just warn the public vaguely about the danger of “anti-government rhetoric” and let swing voters make the connection themselves.

Bill Clinton himself is now part of this smear, and Michelle Malkin has more on this shameless exploitation of tragedy.

One of the unintended consequences of the election of our post-racial president is that the “racist” smear has now become so ubiquitous that more and more people have begun to question the labels that liberals like Potok so blithely affix to their political adversaries. Ask the PUMAs like Hillbuzz how it felt, during the 2008 Democratic primaries, to be labeled “racist” for supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Courage is the indispensible virtue. At some point, conservatives have to stop being frightened by smear artists like Mark Potok. Remember: There are five A’s in “raaaacism.”

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Category: Racism, Tea Party, Terrorism

Comments

45 Responses to “Mark Potok and the Hijacking of ‘Hate’”

  1. smitty
    April 19th, 2010 @ 4:27 pm

    “Southern” is too regional.
    How about “Sentience Poverty Law Center”?

  2. smitty
    April 19th, 2010 @ 11:27 am

    “Southern” is too regional.
    How about “Sentience Poverty Law Center”?

  3. Adobe Walls
    April 19th, 2010 @ 4:54 pm

    I submit that using the SPLC’s broader definition of hate that they are in fact a dangerous extremist hate group. Something to keep in mind when conservatives return to the majority. Surely one of the many groups libeled by this dangerous and hateful organization has a case of some sort, that could force the SPLC to be more mindful of the truth.

  4. DavidL
    April 19th, 2010 @ 4:54 pm

    I note that over the week the National Socialist(a/k/a Nazi) had legal rally in Los Angeles. For their effort,the National Socialist got attacked by diverse mob. The LA Simes referred to the mob as “counter-protesters.”

    I hardly imagine that Morris Dees and Mark Potok would ever classify the mob, which attacked law abiding, albeit politically repugnent, citizens, as the criminals which they are.

    It would behoove our fine nation if we remembered that offending bigots and Dees and Potok is an honor and not a crime.

  5. Adobe Walls
    April 19th, 2010 @ 11:54 am

    I submit that using the SPLC’s broader definition of hate that they are in fact a dangerous extremist hate group. Something to keep in mind when conservatives return to the majority. Surely one of the many groups libeled by this dangerous and hateful organization has a case of some sort, that could force the SPLC to be more mindful of the truth.

  6. DavidL
    April 19th, 2010 @ 11:54 am

    I note that over the week the National Socialist(a/k/a Nazi) had legal rally in Los Angeles. For their effort,the National Socialist got attacked by diverse mob. The LA Simes referred to the mob as “counter-protesters.”

    I hardly imagine that Morris Dees and Mark Potok would ever classify the mob, which attacked law abiding, albeit politically repugnent, citizens, as the criminals which they are.

    It would behoove our fine nation if we remembered that offending bigots and Dees and Potok is an honor and not a crime.

  7. molonlabe28
    April 19th, 2010 @ 4:58 pm

    I recently saw this guy on television representing SPLC.

    He is as annoying as Morris Dees.

    The SPLC doesn’t care about poverty (you know, the portion of its name which described its mission).

    And it doesn’t care about real criminal organizations with hundreds of thousand of members (e.g. Crips, Bloods, Gangster Disciples, Vicelords, Latin Kings, MS – 13) which prey on minority communities.

    No, it spends it resources trying to tie conservative thinkers with the Klan through its third degree of separation methodologies.

    The Klan has not caused 1% of the harm to minority and low income communities that their resident criminal gangs have inflicted on them.

    But, black on black crime doesn’t make good airplay with the SPLC folks.

  8. molonlabe28
    April 19th, 2010 @ 11:58 am

    I recently saw this guy on television representing SPLC.

    He is as annoying as Morris Dees.

    The SPLC doesn’t care about poverty (you know, the portion of its name which described its mission).

    And it doesn’t care about real criminal organizations with hundreds of thousand of members (e.g. Crips, Bloods, Gangster Disciples, Vicelords, Latin Kings, MS – 13) which prey on minority communities.

    No, it spends it resources trying to tie conservative thinkers with the Klan through its third degree of separation methodologies.

    The Klan has not caused 1% of the harm to minority and low income communities that their resident criminal gangs have inflicted on them.

    But, black on black crime doesn’t make good airplay with the SPLC folks.

  9. paul
    April 19th, 2010 @ 6:10 pm

    Can you tell me how this group, http://cofcc.org/
    isn’t a hate group? They call New Orleans the
    “chocolate city.” Seems pretty hateful.

  10. paul
    April 19th, 2010 @ 1:10 pm

    Can you tell me how this group, http://cofcc.org/
    isn’t a hate group? They call New Orleans the
    “chocolate city.” Seems pretty hateful.

  11. Heidi Beirich
    April 19th, 2010 @ 6:28 pm

    Hi Stacy, Just as a point of fact, the SPLC has never listed or mapped antigovernment patriot groups with hate groups. We have also been clear that a “Patriot” listing does not imply the group is racist, as are many of the hate groups. The two lists, and for the time we did so, maps, were kept separate and were even published in different issues of the Intelligence Report.
    Best,
    Heidi Beirich, Ph.D.
    Director of Research
    Southern Poverty Law Center

  12. Heidi Beirich
    April 19th, 2010 @ 1:28 pm

    Hi Stacy, Just as a point of fact, the SPLC has never listed or mapped antigovernment patriot groups with hate groups. We have also been clear that a “Patriot” listing does not imply the group is racist, as are many of the hate groups. The two lists, and for the time we did so, maps, were kept separate and were even published in different issues of the Intelligence Report.
    Best,
    Heidi Beirich, Ph.D.
    Director of Research
    Southern Poverty Law Center

  13. cobra
    April 19th, 2010 @ 6:30 pm

    Many believe that SPLC and ACLU are representing foreign interests, of the communist persuasion.
    Clearly un-American or even anti-American.
    I think a RICO investigation should be applied to both.

  14. cobra
    April 19th, 2010 @ 1:30 pm

    Many believe that SPLC and ACLU are representing foreign interests, of the communist persuasion.
    Clearly un-American or even anti-American.
    I think a RICO investigation should be applied to both.

  15. Dave C
    April 19th, 2010 @ 7:00 pm

    Want to see what fleecing white guilty liberals will buy you? For Morris Dees..

    A very nice house.

    http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20100326/LIFESTYLE04/3260341/-1/lifestyle04/Mediterranean-living-Couple-s-renovated-showplace-reflects-owners-world-travels-varied-tastes

    http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=DS&Dato=20100325&Kategori=LIFESTYLE04&Lopenr=3250804&Ref=PH

  16. Dave C
    April 19th, 2010 @ 2:00 pm

    Want to see what fleecing white guilty liberals will buy you? For Morris Dees..

    A very nice house.

    http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20100326/LIFESTYLE04/3260341/-1/lifestyle04/Mediterranean-living-Couple-s-renovated-showplace-reflects-owners-world-travels-varied-tastes

    http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=DS&Dato=20100325&Kategori=LIFESTYLE04&Lopenr=3250804&Ref=PH

  17. JSF
    April 19th, 2010 @ 7:26 pm

    Can we just acknowledge that Mark Potok is a pedophile and let him defend it?

    Another title for this article should be:

    “We are all The Other Mccain now,”

    And if the SPLC was doing their job, why is the poverty rate in Urban cities with crime rates skyrocketing over business openings?

    Trust me, in Compton, South central , Anacostia and Detroit, there are no Conservative or republicans in office, imagine who the SPLC would have to blame that poverty on….

  18. JSF
    April 19th, 2010 @ 2:26 pm

    Can we just acknowledge that Mark Potok is a pedophile and let him defend it?

    Another title for this article should be:

    “We are all The Other Mccain now,”

    And if the SPLC was doing their job, why is the poverty rate in Urban cities with crime rates skyrocketing over business openings?

    Trust me, in Compton, South central , Anacostia and Detroit, there are no Conservative or republicans in office, imagine who the SPLC would have to blame that poverty on….

  19. Robert Stacy McCain
    April 19th, 2010 @ 8:17 pm

    Wow. Heidi Beirich, posting under her own name! Don’t forget, Heidi: Next time I’m in Montgomery, we’ve got to sing karaoke together.

    Summer Lovin’ — had me a blast!
    Summer Lovin’ — happened so fast!
    Met a girl, crazy for me . . .

    Talk about a viral YouTube video . . .

  20. Robert Stacy McCain
    April 19th, 2010 @ 3:17 pm

    Wow. Heidi Beirich, posting under her own name! Don’t forget, Heidi: Next time I’m in Montgomery, we’ve got to sing karaoke together.

    Summer Lovin’ — had me a blast!
    Summer Lovin’ — happened so fast!
    Met a girl, crazy for me . . .

    Talk about a viral YouTube video . . .

  21. JeffS
    April 19th, 2010 @ 9:08 pm

    How about “Sentience Poverty Law Center”?

    Try “Sanctimonious Poverty Law Center”, Smitty.

  22. JeffS
    April 19th, 2010 @ 4:08 pm

    How about “Sentience Poverty Law Center”?

    Try “Sanctimonious Poverty Law Center”, Smitty.

  23. Right-Wing Links (April 19, 2010)
    April 19th, 2010 @ 5:37 pm

    […] Mark Potok and the Hijacking of ‘Hate’ […]

  24. Americaneocon
    April 19th, 2010 @ 11:15 pm

    American Power tracked-back with, ‘Leftist Political Crisis Exploitation’.

  25. Americaneocon
    April 19th, 2010 @ 6:15 pm

    American Power tracked-back with, ‘Leftist Political Crisis Exploitation’.

  26. Old Rebel
    April 19th, 2010 @ 11:28 pm

    The way to strip the SPLC of its power to smear and silence is to chastise fake conservatives who quote the SPLC to smear those they disagree with.

    Just a suggestion …

  27. Old Rebel
    April 19th, 2010 @ 6:28 pm

    The way to strip the SPLC of its power to smear and silence is to chastise fake conservatives who quote the SPLC to smear those they disagree with.

    Just a suggestion …

  28. Old Rebel
    April 20th, 2010 @ 12:01 am

    So Dr. Beirich denies the SPLC equates so-called “hate” groups with Patriot groups? From the SPLC blog:

    Authorities around the country are reporting a worrying uptick in Patriot activities and propaganda. “This is the most significant growth we’ve seen in 10 to 12 years,” says one. “All it’s lacking is a spark. I think it’s only a matter of time before you see threats and violence.”

    A key difference this time is that the federal government — the entity that almost the entire radical right views as its primary enemy — is headed by a black man. That, coupled with high levels of non-white immigration and a decline in the percentage of whites overall in America, has helped to racialize the Patriot movement, which in the past was not primarily motivated by race hate.

    I guess this is just one of those instances when the left hand didn’t know what the far-left hand was doing.

  29. JeffS
    April 20th, 2010 @ 12:01 am

    We have also been clear that a “Patriot” listing does not imply the group is racist, as are many of the hate groups. The two lists, and for the time we did so, maps, were kept separate and were even published in different issues of the Intelligence Report.

    So why bother having a “Patriot” listing in the first place?

    Other than to smear them, I mean.

  30. Old Rebel
    April 19th, 2010 @ 7:01 pm

    So Dr. Beirich denies the SPLC equates so-called “hate” groups with Patriot groups? From the SPLC blog:

    Authorities around the country are reporting a worrying uptick in Patriot activities and propaganda. “This is the most significant growth we’ve seen in 10 to 12 years,” says one. “All it’s lacking is a spark. I think it’s only a matter of time before you see threats and violence.”

    A key difference this time is that the federal government — the entity that almost the entire radical right views as its primary enemy — is headed by a black man. That, coupled with high levels of non-white immigration and a decline in the percentage of whites overall in America, has helped to racialize the Patriot movement, which in the past was not primarily motivated by race hate.

    I guess this is just one of those instances when the left hand didn’t know what the far-left hand was doing.

  31. JeffS
    April 19th, 2010 @ 7:01 pm

    We have also been clear that a “Patriot” listing does not imply the group is racist, as are many of the hate groups. The two lists, and for the time we did so, maps, were kept separate and were even published in different issues of the Intelligence Report.

    So why bother having a “Patriot” listing in the first place?

    Other than to smear them, I mean.

  32. ernie1241
    April 20th, 2010 @ 1:40 am

    Your statement copied below is not entirely accurate:

    “Think what you will about the John Birch Society, they’ve never been associated with crime or violence.”

    If you use the standard dictionary definition of “crime” [i.e. “an offence against an individual or the state which is punishable by law] — then the JBS HAS been convicted of “crime” — and, in fact, it paid $400,000 to their victim, Chicago lawyer, Elmer Gertz, for a false and libelous article they published in the JBS magazine, American Opinion. $300,000 of that libel judgment was predicated upon a showing of “malice” by the JBS, i.e. “a reckless disregard for truth”

    In addition, many individual JBS members have been convicted of various crimes which one could argue were motivated by their belief in JBS ideology.

  33. ernie1241
    April 19th, 2010 @ 8:40 pm

    Your statement copied below is not entirely accurate:

    “Think what you will about the John Birch Society, they’ve never been associated with crime or violence.”

    If you use the standard dictionary definition of “crime” [i.e. “an offence against an individual or the state which is punishable by law] — then the JBS HAS been convicted of “crime” — and, in fact, it paid $400,000 to their victim, Chicago lawyer, Elmer Gertz, for a false and libelous article they published in the JBS magazine, American Opinion. $300,000 of that libel judgment was predicated upon a showing of “malice” by the JBS, i.e. “a reckless disregard for truth”

    In addition, many individual JBS members have been convicted of various crimes which one could argue were motivated by their belief in JBS ideology.

  34. JeffS
    April 20th, 2010 @ 4:24 am

    By your definition, ernie1241, many members of the Democratic and Republican parties ought to be tracked by the Sanctimonious Poverty Law Center since it first was created.

  35. JeffS
    April 19th, 2010 @ 11:24 pm

    By your definition, ernie1241, many members of the Democratic and Republican parties ought to be tracked by the Sanctimonious Poverty Law Center since it first was created.

  36. ernie1241
    April 20th, 2010 @ 5:44 am

    Reply to JeffS comment:

    What do you mean… “by your definition” ??

    I used a standard definition of “crime” from a dictionary. Do you prefer that we use some other source?

    Consequently, the statement from this article which I quoted (i.e. the JBS has “never been associated with crime or violence” simply is NOT factual.

    Incidentally, the Gertz libel litigation consumed 14 years!

    There were two separate jury trials, several appeals, and eventually the matter was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

    The punitive damages awarded to Mr. Gertz ($300,000) were awarded only after the jury asked the trial judge if the jury was authorized to increase the ratio of punitive vs. compensatory damages–because they were so incensed by the evidence of malice brought out during the trial. The Gertz case was a historic and precedent-setting decision which changed American libel law.

    Has either the Democratic or Republican Party committed any sort of comparable “crime” or “violence” for which it was convicted — or even brought to trial?

    Or perhaps your contention is that there is no place in our country for an organization (like SPLC) which monitors and reports on political extremists?

    If so, I suggest you review my report whose link is below.

    FBI FILES ON BIRCH SOCIETY:
    http://ernie1241.googlepages.com/jbs-1

    The above 88-page report reveals why J. Edgar Hoover and senior FBI officials within the Bureau’s Domestic Intelligence Division concluded in FBI memos that the JBS was “extremist”, “irrational” and “irresponsible”.

    In addition, virtually the entire conservative and anti-communist movements in our country made the same judgment about the JBS.

    JBS critics included such prominent conservatives as: Sen. Barry Goldwater, Sen. John Tower, Cong. Walter Judd, Russell Kirk, James Burnham, Eugene Lyons, Frank Meyer, the editors of the conservative newspaper, Human Events, Gen. Albert Wedemeyer, Col. William R. Kinter, William Loeb, George F. Will, Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley Jr., James J. Kilpatrick, Gov. George Romney, former FBI informant Herbert A. Philbrick, and numerous others.

    It is not often that prominent conservatives and their philosophical opponents agree on something — so perhaps you should review the history of this matter more carefully?

  37. ernie1241
    April 20th, 2010 @ 12:44 am

    Reply to JeffS comment:

    What do you mean… “by your definition” ??

    I used a standard definition of “crime” from a dictionary. Do you prefer that we use some other source?

    Consequently, the statement from this article which I quoted (i.e. the JBS has “never been associated with crime or violence” simply is NOT factual.

    Incidentally, the Gertz libel litigation consumed 14 years!

    There were two separate jury trials, several appeals, and eventually the matter was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

    The punitive damages awarded to Mr. Gertz ($300,000) were awarded only after the jury asked the trial judge if the jury was authorized to increase the ratio of punitive vs. compensatory damages–because they were so incensed by the evidence of malice brought out during the trial. The Gertz case was a historic and precedent-setting decision which changed American libel law.

    Has either the Democratic or Republican Party committed any sort of comparable “crime” or “violence” for which it was convicted — or even brought to trial?

    Or perhaps your contention is that there is no place in our country for an organization (like SPLC) which monitors and reports on political extremists?

    If so, I suggest you review my report whose link is below.

    FBI FILES ON BIRCH SOCIETY:
    http://ernie1241.googlepages.com/jbs-1

    The above 88-page report reveals why J. Edgar Hoover and senior FBI officials within the Bureau’s Domestic Intelligence Division concluded in FBI memos that the JBS was “extremist”, “irrational” and “irresponsible”.

    In addition, virtually the entire conservative and anti-communist movements in our country made the same judgment about the JBS.

    JBS critics included such prominent conservatives as: Sen. Barry Goldwater, Sen. John Tower, Cong. Walter Judd, Russell Kirk, James Burnham, Eugene Lyons, Frank Meyer, the editors of the conservative newspaper, Human Events, Gen. Albert Wedemeyer, Col. William R. Kinter, William Loeb, George F. Will, Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley Jr., James J. Kilpatrick, Gov. George Romney, former FBI informant Herbert A. Philbrick, and numerous others.

    It is not often that prominent conservatives and their philosophical opponents agree on something — so perhaps you should review the history of this matter more carefully?

  38. JeffS
    April 20th, 2010 @ 2:12 pm

    ernie, I’m simply following your logic. If a incident or a few individuals can get the John Birch Society on the Sanctimonious Poverty Law Center’s “Intelligence List”, so should other organizations.

    For example, Ted Kennedy’s little problem at Chappaquiddick. That ought to get the DNC at the top of the SPLC’s list. Same thing for the RNC, thanks to Watergate.

    And so on. See?

  39. JeffS
    April 20th, 2010 @ 9:12 am

    ernie, I’m simply following your logic. If a incident or a few individuals can get the John Birch Society on the Sanctimonious Poverty Law Center’s “Intelligence List”, so should other organizations.

    For example, Ted Kennedy’s little problem at Chappaquiddick. That ought to get the DNC at the top of the SPLC’s list. Same thing for the RNC, thanks to Watergate.

    And so on. See?

  40. George Boutwell
    April 20th, 2010 @ 5:26 pm

    Even honest liberals recognize what a fraud the SPLC, a socalled public interest law firm with a beaucoup-tens of millions in interest and who knows how many millions in endowment, which takes a measly five or six cases a year mostly on prisoners compaining about lack of kosher food or handicap ramps– besides the occasional big-direct-mail-fundarising opportunity type cases against toothless socalled klansmen and hooligans who’ve roughed up foreigners. Anyhow, here is an update from Ken Silverstein who wrote about “The Church of Morris Dees” for Harper’s years ago http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/03/hbc-90006753 I think the IRS should revoke their nonprofit status. Oh and audit the bogus form 990s to find out the true amount of income paid to morris dees who is probably hiding behind the front of one of the contractors receiving big direct mail expense payments from the splc

  41. George Boutwell
    April 20th, 2010 @ 12:26 pm

    Even honest liberals recognize what a fraud the SPLC, a socalled public interest law firm with a beaucoup-tens of millions in interest and who knows how many millions in endowment, which takes a measly five or six cases a year mostly on prisoners compaining about lack of kosher food or handicap ramps– besides the occasional big-direct-mail-fundarising opportunity type cases against toothless socalled klansmen and hooligans who’ve roughed up foreigners. Anyhow, here is an update from Ken Silverstein who wrote about “The Church of Morris Dees” for Harper’s years ago http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/03/hbc-90006753 I think the IRS should revoke their nonprofit status. Oh and audit the bogus form 990s to find out the true amount of income paid to morris dees who is probably hiding behind the front of one of the contractors receiving big direct mail expense payments from the splc

  42. George Boutwell
    April 20th, 2010 @ 5:29 pm

    Here is another neato keen legal idear for anybody to try out on these slanderers. Sue them for false light defamation, since they put all these religious people and flag wavers and patriots on the map with all the socalled haters, they’re conflating all these people with one another and damaging them severely. Out of the thousands of people defamed by the SPLC each year, sooner or later we will get a “man bites dog” case against them!~

  43. George Boutwell
    April 20th, 2010 @ 12:29 pm

    Here is another neato keen legal idear for anybody to try out on these slanderers. Sue them for false light defamation, since they put all these religious people and flag wavers and patriots on the map with all the socalled haters, they’re conflating all these people with one another and damaging them severely. Out of the thousands of people defamed by the SPLC each year, sooner or later we will get a “man bites dog” case against them!~

  44. Lipton T. Bagg
    April 20th, 2010 @ 8:39 pm

    If “FIBERALS” wants to see an example of what incites REAL violence, they need look no farther than Slick Willie – who it has been reported is responsible for ordering the murder of innocent women and children in Waco, Texas.

    I’m thinking Bill wished he had kept his mouth shut on this issue right about now…

    http://viewedfromtheright.blogspot.com/2010/04/fiberal-lies-exposed-slick-willie.html

    Fiberals – the other Yellow meat…

    -LTB

  45. Lipton T. Bagg
    April 20th, 2010 @ 3:39 pm

    If “FIBERALS” wants to see an example of what incites REAL violence, they need look no farther than Slick Willie – who it has been reported is responsible for ordering the murder of innocent women and children in Waco, Texas.

    I’m thinking Bill wished he had kept his mouth shut on this issue right about now…

    http://viewedfromtheright.blogspot.com/2010/04/fiberal-lies-exposed-slick-willie.html

    Fiberals – the other Yellow meat…

    -LTB