Today, we’re releasing our annual report on the number of active hate and extremist groups in our nation. The figures are alarming, and I’m deeply worried about what this means for our country.
This sign was photographed at a recent demonstration in Washington D.C.
We’ve documented a 244 percent increase in the number of conspiracy–minded, anti–government “Patriot” groups in a single year. Militias — the paramilitary arm of the “Patriot” movement — were a major part of the increase. Like other extremists, “Patriot” groups have been fueled by anger over immigration, the troubled economy and an array of initiatives by President Obama.
This extraordinary growth is cause for real concern. During its 1990s heyday, the “Patriot” movement produced an enormous amount of violence, most dramatically the Oklahoma City bombing that left 168 people dead.
Racist hate groups are at record levels — rising from 926 in 2008 to 932 in 2009. The increase caps a decade in which the number of neo–Nazi, racist skinhead and other hate groups surged by more than 50 percent. We’ve also seen a sharp increase in “nativist extremist” groups — vigilante organizations that actually confront or harass suspected immigrants.
These three strands of the radical right — the hate groups, the “nativist extremist” groups, and the “Patriot” organizations — are the most volatile elements on the American political landscape. Taken together, their numbers increased by more than 40 percent, rising from 1,248 groups to 1,753.
There are already signs of a resurgence of radical–right violence like the kind we witnessed in the 1990s. Right–wing extremists have murdered six law enforcement officers since Obama’s inauguration. Racist skinheads and others have been arrested in alleged plots to assassinate the president. Most recently, a number of individuals with antigovernment, survivalist or racist views have been arrested in a series of bomb cases. And, tragically, a man furious with the government crashed his plane into an IRS building.
With your help, we’ll continue to track and expose these groups’ activities and provide law enforcement with the information they need to keep our communities safe. Thank you, once again, for your commitment to stand with us as we fight the hate that threatens to divide us.
Sincerely,
Morris Dees Founder, Southern Poverty Law Center
P.S. SPLC President Richard Cohen and Intelligence Project Director Mark Potok will host an interactive webcast and take your questions on this and other SPLC work on March 17th. We’ll contact you soon with details. Also, please visit our updated Hate Map to find out what groups are active in your state.
You can donate to the Southern Poverty Law Center online.
A new study from the Southern Poverty Law Center finds that the number of militias and extremist anti-government groups has increased in the past year. Heidi Bierich of the Southern Poverty Law Center talks about the dangers of these hate groups. [ SEE VIDEO BELOW ]
NOTE:Report echoes SPLC’s call for change in military hate group policy — The SPLC has long pointed out the dangers of extremism in the military, and in December SPLC President Richard Cohen wrote to the independent review board examining the Ft. Hood massacre about the need to amend Department of Defense regulations that have inadvertently permitted members of the military to participate in white supremacist activity. The review board has come to the same conclusion in its report, saying that in order to weed out extremists of all kinds from the military, hate group participation policy must be changed. [ READ MORE ]
Elsewhere, in an interview over the weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi implied that members of Congress should worry more about passing health reform for the American people than about keeping their jobs. Radio host Rush Limbaugh commented on the Speaker’s statements, calling her Mullah Nancy bin Pelosi.
In the New Yorker, Sam Tanenhaus, in his review of Palin’s book — “Going Rogue,” writes: “….Palin, though notoriously ill-travelled outside the United States, did journey far to the first of the four colleges she attended, in Hawaii. She and a friend who went with her lasted only one semester. “Hawaii was a little too perfect,” Palin writes. “Perpetual sunshine isn’t necessarily conducive to serious academics for eighteen-year-old Alaska girls.” Perhaps not.
But Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, gave a different account to [Scott] Conroy and [Shushannah] Walshe [authors of 'Sarah From Alaska']. According to him, the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders made her uncomfortable: “They were a minority type thing and it wasn’t glamorous, so she came home.” In any case, Palin reports that she much preferred her last stop, the University of Idaho, “because it was much like Alaska yet still ‘Outside.’” [ READ MORE ] [ REFERENCES: PALIN QUESTION OF THE DAY | HUFFINGTON POST ]
Why Idaho? — The retirement home of Mark Furman, the former LAPD detective whose racism literally unhooked O.J. Simpson from the jaws of justice, and of Bruce Willis — the macho Republican movie actor who harbors the delusion that the United States should invade Colombia to end drug trafficking. When 27 year old Ashton Kutcher stole Bruce’s wife, 40 year old Demi Moore, “tough guy” Willis bought a house next door to the couple. It is also rumored that Demi Moore’s daughter (with Willis), Rumer Willis had a crush on her Stepdad Ashton Kutcher. Talk about deviance in Idaho, John McClane!
Idaho is a tiny little (96 percent white) pacific north west state with a stinking racist culture. With Ruby Ridge to the north of Sandpoint (The birthplace of Sarah Palin) and the former Aryan Nations to the south, Idahoans are sandwiched in between the most filthy elements of racism in the United States — propped by gun-sucking Republican politicians — from top to bottom.
Idaho is state where bigots and “frightened” right-wingers go to retire — to keep safe from leprosy, pedophiles, Spanish and rampant godlessness; far away from blacks, liberals and “diseased” immigrants. It is a state where “white folks” home-school their children to avoid the “corrupting effects” of liberalism and homosexuality.
From the 1970s until 2001, the Aryan Nations had its headquarters in a 20 acre (81,000 square meters) compound at Hayden Lake, Idaho. In September 2000 the Southern Poverty Law Center won a $6.3 million judgment against the Aryan Nations from an Idaho jury who awarded punitive and compensatory damages to Victoria Keenan and her son, Jason, who were attacked by Aryan Nations guards in 1999. Bullets struck the Keenan’s car several times then the car crashed and an Aryan member held the Keenans at gunpoint. As a result of the judgment, Richard Butler turned over the 20-acre compound to the Keenans, who then sold the property to a philanthropist, who subsequently donated it to North Idaho College, which designated the land as a “peace park.”
Apparently Sarah Palin couldn’t stand the “smell” of Hawaii and its racially diverse peoples, hence the move to Idaho, to mingle comfortably with REAL AMERICANS.
MediaMatters: For years, Lou Dobbs has been one of the most dangerous hosts on cable news. He benefits enormously from the legitimacy of the CNN brand, which provides him with an unparalleled platform from which to mainstream the hate speech and racially charged conspiracy theories normally relegated to Fox News and other conservative news outlets. Dobbs calls himself an “advocacy journalist,” but he doesn’t even live up to that ambiguous standard. Good journalism enhances the discussion of serious topics, but Dobbs helps to undermine and debase that discussion, routinely infusing it with misinformation and fear. And when it comes to issues like immigration, he has more in common with birther Orly Taitz than with Anderson Cooper. [ READ MORE ]
Hispanic group to CNN: Rein in Dobbs: One of the country’s leading Hispanic organizations is launching a campaign designed to pressure CNN to rein in host Lou Dobbs.
The organization behind the campaign, Democracia Ahora, is kicking off the effort Friday with the release of a report based on interviews with 100 Hispanic leaders about the impact of Dobbs’ evening show.
The results of the report are not surprising – 90 percent of the interviewees believe Dobbs is helping create a negative image of Hispanics, with his frequent criticisms of illegal immigration.
But Democracia Ahora is hoping the report inspires a grassroots movement aimed at executives at CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, to draw attention to what the group calls “frequent negative portrayals of Hispanics on the Lou Dobbs show.” It is using its release to start a national campaign, “Enough is Enough!” that will be carried out through a Web site, www.TellCNNEnoughisEnough.com, that goes live Friday. [ READ MORE ] [ You may also take action at: DropDobbs.com ]
Dobbs thanks FAIR (a hate-group) for hosting “great town hall event” on “amnesty”
MediaMatters REPORT: CNN’s Lou Dobbs problem and the immigration debate — In light of Lou Dobbs’ reported plans to help lead the upcoming lobbying campaign of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) — an organization designated a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center — Media Matters for America reviews some of the most egregious conspiracy theories, hate speech, and undisclosed conflicts of interest in Dobbs’ immigration reporting. [ READ MORE ]
Dobbs suggests Media Matters is “hate group” for calling attention to his FAIR ties
Also, the Southern Poverty Law Center has joined the campaign calling on Dobbs’ Advertisers to Dump Him. The avuncular CNN host has a long history of stirring up hate against Latino immigrants by reporting wildly inaccurate information and sneeringly focusing on the immigration issue day after day on CNN. Click here for details
Senate Republicans – who espouse virtually the same views as that of their influential talk show brethren — minus the most incendiary language – have failed to denounce their hate and ultra-nationalist demagoguery. Implicit in their arguments is that the decisions by white male Supreme Court Justices have always been fair and infallible, while the continued attempts to right the nation’s wrongs – by activists or judges – constitute bias and even racism. By opposing her these past two months with inflammatory rhetoric, they have gravely poisoned relations with this expanding demographic group, ironically ensuring that the GOP will be remanded to the status of minority party for at least the next generation. Regardless of what obstacles are put in her way, Sonia Sotomayor will be the next Supreme Court Justice. If there are to be any casualties, it will be the GOP, not her.
By: Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez Nine years into the new millennium and conservatives and Republicans — with straight faces – insist that it is they that should define the nation’s racial debate and that it is their views that are fair and objective and part of the U.S. mainstream. Nowhere is this fallacy more evident than in their incomprehensible opposition to Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In their upside-down world, extreme conservatives, including the entire right wing talk show universe, have gone from defending racial supremacy – from opposing integration and the precepts of “equality and justice for all” to abrogating for themselves the right to give meaning to the very words and terms of this debate. Interestingly, Senate Republicans – who espouse virtually the same views as that of their influential talk show brethren — minus the most incendiary language – have failed to denounce their hate and ultra-nationalist demagoguery.
For instance, Sen. Jeff Sessions’ questioning of Sotomayor regarding her supposed biases, and the Republican demand that she be neutral, is mind-boggling. Lest we forget (aside from his own documented extreme racial views), it is “objectivity” that permitted the U.S. Supreme Court for nearly 200 years to uphold legal segregation and discrimination. Implicit in their arguments is that the decisions by white male Supreme Court Justices have always been fair and infallible, while the continued attempts to right the nation’s wrongs – by activists or judges – constitute bias and even racism.
In addition to a history refresher course, many of these Republicans and conservatives are in need of an English dictionary. They also need to pay a visit to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website to learn who the racists are and what kinds of supremacist ideologies they espouse and carry out.
None of those that have denounced Sotomayor as a “racist” – such as Newt Gingrich – are in line to win a Nobel Peace Prize for their work on race relations any time soon. And yet, more incredible is that the mainstream media continually turn to extremist talking heads for their opinions on the topic, virtually granting them an imprimatur of impartiality and fairness.
The Republican conservative effort to keep Sotomayor off the bench seems like a bizarre murder-suicide plot. Regardless of what obstacles are put in her way, she will be the next Supreme Court Justice. If there are to be any casualties, it will be the GOP, not her. She is a twice-Senate-confirmed moderate judge with 17 years of judicial experience, not the flaming radical they project her to be. She is Boricua or Puerto Rican – part of a demographic (Latino/Latina) that is both growing and has the potential to lean either Democratic or Republican.
What GOP leaders haven’t figured out is that, symbolically, Sotomayor represents this generation’s Jackie Robinson. If they had wanted to broaden their political tent, they could have celebrated her nomination, thereby projecting a welcoming party. Instead, they have questioned her impartiality and more importantly, her integrity. By opposing her these past two months with inflammatory rhetoric, they have gravely poisoned relations with this expanding demographic group, ironically ensuring that the GOP will be remanded to the status of minority party for at least the next generation.
GOP leaders have the right to oppose her; the problem is that they have failed to do so respectfully and have failed to denounce the dehumanizing views of their extreme right wing brethren. Many Republicans/conservatives have not simply defamed her, they have also unjustifiably denigrated both the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) – respected civil rights organizations she has associated with as a professional.
In the case of the NCLR, the anti-immigrant ex-Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo has likened it to the KKK. This is both bizarre and beyond intellectually dishonest.
This attempt by extreme conservatives to redefine the meaning of terms such as “racists” either reveals an Orwellian strategy to upend the meaning of words, or it reveals complete political illiteracy and/or lunacy. The consequence is that the GOP continues to send off the message that it is the party of the past, the party of greed, permanent war, hate, intolerance and racial supremacy. Also, because many conservatives equate illegal alien with Mexican (or Latino) and who view both as vermin and subhuman – the GOP already has a huge [recruitment] problem among these groups.
The failure of its leaders to disassociate from those extreme views means that this is the way the GOP will be perceived, long after Sotomayor dons her new Supreme Court robes.
————————————————————————————————————————————————- Rodriguez columns appear at New America Media approximately the 1st and 15th of the month.
Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com
This sign was photographed at a recent demonstration in Washington D.C.
