Tuesday, March 5, 2013

AP report on SPLC's latest lies. My response

I received this email from an AP reporter in Montgomery this morning:
Mike: This is Bob Johnson at the Associated Press in Montgomery. The Southern Poverty Law Center is at 11 a.m. issuing their annual report on dangerous groups and militias. I wante to see if maybe I could get some comments from you when it comes out. Looking for someone who can give the other side for the SPLC.
Bob Johnson
Here is the resulting story.
Now I had difficulty finding the report at first and asked Johnson to send it to me, He sent me a rough draft of his story. My responses are interspersed throughout.
-----Original Message-----
From: Johnson, Bob bjohnson@ap.org
To: GeorgeMason1776 GeorgeMason1776@aol.com
Sent: Tue, Mar 5, 2013 12:40 pm
Subject: Emailing story: BC-US--Extremist Groups, 1st Ld-Writethru
Here’s what we already have on the wire about the SPLC report. Please send me your comments and how you would like to be referred to in the story.
Researchers report dramatic rise in ‘patriot’ groups after school shooting sparks gun debate
By BOB JOHNSON, Associated Press
Dateline: MONTGOMERY, Ala.
President Barack Obama's administration and the gun control debate after the Connecticut school shooting have led to surging numbers of anti-government “patriot” groups, according to a civil rights group that tracks extremist groups.
The language used -- "anti-government 'patriot' groups -- is itself a lie. Only the wildest of anarchists are "anti-government." The Constitutional militia movement, of which I have been a leader for more than twenty years, is not "anti-government." We are pro-government, of the sort that the Founders would recognize -- small, of limited powers, reflecting the sentiments of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights that merely secure and codify natural, inalienable and God-given rights. In our view the present administration and its supporters inhabit a fundamentally alien world view to that of the Founders and ourselves -- they believe that the people serve the government whereas we believe that the government should serve the people. To the extent that the present administration continues to exhibit appetites for our liberty, property and lives we certainly oppose them, and organize with an eye to confront them if forced to, but we are NOT "anti-government." What we seek is not to coerce anyone to our point of view but merely to be left alone. Since the growing tyrannical appetites of the Obama administration (and others before it) as demonstrated by the so-called "Obamacare" law and the current rush to disarm the citizenry are evident for all to see, it is hardly an accident that people who they seek to victimize would object and organize themselves to resist.
The second part of the lie is to characterize a grab-bag of groups with contradictory aims and methods (even groups that consider each other as philosophical enemies) -- into one so-called movement. By conflating people and groups together as "extremists" with an alleged common purpose, SPLC gets to exaggerate, for the purposes of fund-raising, a threat which does not exist.
The Southern Poverty Law Center reported the rising numbers on Tuesday in its annual report on extremist groups.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. For the reasons set out above, there certainly is a rise in self-defense militias around the country, but the SPLC hasn't got a single clue as to how deep and broad that movement is because no one with any sense, after the experiences of the 1990s, is using the old paradigm of publicly-announced militia formations. Today's groups are small, quiet, made up of friends, relatives and neighbors on a local, even neighborhood, basis, and thus are immune to federal snitches, agents provocateur and even knowledge of the FBI or of SPLC. Actually, SPLC knows this but since it does not fit with their fund-raising strategy, they pretend an omniscience that simply does not exist.
The number of anti-government patriot groups, one category tracked by the center, rose dramatically over the past four years, from 149 groups in 2008 to 1,360 today, researchers reported. That was up about 7 percent from the 1,274 active in 2011.
This is a wild under-estimation.
The election and re-election of the nation's first black president and the rugged economy have fueled their growth, said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the SPLC. “The anger, angst, frustration, fear surrounding the economy have very much poured fuel on this fire,” Potok said.
This fits with the collectivist sociology theories of SPLC and its intellectual brethren but how does it explain the growth of black self-defense militias? There is certainly concern that the present untenable government spending and printing of money will collapse into social chaos, but Obama being half-black has nothing to do with the growth of the armed citizenry. This is one more example of how present-day so-called progressives are reflexively obsessed themselves with race (and why they feel it necessary to conflate true racist terrorist groups like the Klan and NeoNazis with groups like ourselves who believe that the Constitution extends to everyone regardless of race, creed, color or religion). In their obsession with race, SPLC and others would put a 1930s Nazi gauleiter of Lower Swabia in the shade. It is their ultimate weapon, when out-argued, to cry racism and point fingers.
On gun control, the debate following the Newtown, Conn., mass murder of schoolchildren has led to “a kind of white-hot rage unleashed on both the radical right and also within more mainstream political circles,” he said.
"White-hot rage"? I don't see it. The administration has declared its appetite for more of our property and liberty. It is natural to oppose this grab but we cannot afford "white-hot rage." We're lining up to flout their new laws with carefully considered armed civil disobedience. If we were motivated into a "white hot rage" professional liars like Potok could not walk the streets of Montgomery in safety.
In the week following the Dec. 14 school shooting, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it conducted more background checks for firearms sales and permits to carry than it has in any other one-week period since 1998.
Yes, certainly. And what do you conclude from this fact? Do the advocates of citizen disarmament believe that we are buying all these weapons and billions of rounds of ammunition merely to turn them in with the passage of the next law? We are not.
Some critics believe the SPLC is too broad in labeling hate and extremist groups, to the point of including legitimate political organizations that oppose illegal immigration, gun control, gay rights and other issues. The center's researchers say they use a variety of methods to track anti-government groups and compile their list from field reports, patriot publications, law enforcement sources and news reports. Potok said only active groups are included. “We are not just looking at one man and a computer,” he said.
The SPLC's symbiotic relationship with the militarized federal police agencies is a matter of record -- and it is a relationship which they profit from by numerous so-called "hate group seminars" that propagandize their world view to federal, state and local law enforcement. You may recall that SPLC defended the ATF at the time of the "Good O' Boys Roundup" scandal, when Alabama militia exposed their racist get-togethers which involved disgusting conduct such as the issuance of "nigger hunting licenses" and skits like one entitled "The Birth of the Black Race" which involved the "magical" appearance of a black baby doll from inside a watermelon. Disgusting stuff, but Morris Dee, in a story by Fox Butterfield in the New York Times, alleged that the Gadsden Minutemen's videotape was a forgery. It wasn't, as later proven by the FBI lab, but it WAS proof that SPLC is a willing handmaiden to government racists when it suits their agenda. Pretty ironic, huh?
The report states: “Generally, Patriot groups define themselves as opposed to the 'New World Order,' engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme anti-government doctrines.”
"Groundless conspiracy theorizing" such as the Fast and Furious scandal, for example? Under the SPLC definition of "extreme anti-government doctrines," the Founders would have made their list.
The FBI defines military extremists as anti-government groups often organized into paramilitary groups that follow a military-style rank hierarchy and typically engage in wilderness, survival, or other paramilitary training, according to a September 2011 FBI report on domestic terrorism.
Yeah, well under that definition local search and rescue teams are "military extremists."
Along with the rise of extremist groups, Potok said there have been several home-grown terrorist plots against government buildings and leaders in recent months. He compared the climate to time leading up to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
The propaganda of collectivists like SPLC is certainly the same, as is the government's militarized police actions, brought to fever pitch by the last three administrations and the so-called "war on terror." The only difference this time is that there will be no more free Wacos. SPLC and the administration know this and they are counting on SPLC's lying narrative to prepare the battlefield of a civil war they are apparently seeking in national and world opinion. The SPLC thus remains one of the most faithful lapdogs of federal tyranny.
The report cites several cases, including one centered on a Georgia Army base involving a group known as F.E.A.R. (Forever Enduring Always Ready). Federal prosecutors maintain that F.E.A.R. was led by active-duty soldiers at Ft. Stewart who also plotted bomb attacks in Savannah and aimed to poison apple crops in Washington state.
So far I haven't seen an updated story with my reaction in it.

10 comments:

David Forward said...

It's not surprising that one of, if not the most virulent hate organizations in the country -- the SPLC -- is embraced by the progressives as being the clarion guardian of identifying hate groups. It flows in their logic of projecting on ideological enemies their own biases and foibles.

Hence, everyone who is not a progressive is a racist even though they themselves look down on and enslave all minorities on plantations of their own design. They sic their hate minions -- the SPLC -- on any and all groups opposed to their collectivist goals in order to smear them falsely as hateful groups.

It's all political theater, but unfortunately theater that produces drama that results in real lives destroyed.

Anonymous said...

Mike, the fact that Bob Johnson didn't use any of your responses betrays his real motive for contacting you to begin with. Bob was hoping to get some sensational fodder to garnish his story with. Imagine Bob's disappointment when all he was able to extract was candid reasoning.
You also made clear a point that many don't understand, precisely because of the propaganda spread by folks like Mark Potok. No "patriot" I've ever known wants to "overthrow" the US government. On the contrary, as you said, we simply want the US government to remain constrained by the limits imposed on it by the Constitution. If the government is of the people and by the people, then how can the people overthrow themselves? Are our current "leaders" of the opinion that the government is an entity unto itself and separate from the people, with sovereignty over the people? It would seem that an alarming number of them do. The only folks who want to destroy the Founders intended vision of government are the "progressive", socialist, and Marxist scum who have for years been infiltrating our government to destroy it from within. The people have allowed this to happen. Eventually the people will have to correct this error. It is my hope this can be done in the voting booth - only fools and the ignorant crave violent solutions. Unfortunately, history has shown again and again that fools and the ignorant often get their way. This is why people who actually love this country hope for the best, while realistically preparing for the worst.

SDH said...

Well, I for one, even though we'd disagree on some of what you believe, am glad your're a spokesman for the cause.

SWIFT said...

The SPLC claims a rise in the numbers of militia, back in the 90's to the Brady Bill and assault weapons ban. That is NOT how I remember it. The rise in groups started after Ruby Ridge and became a steamroller after Waco. While I cannot in all honesty speak for the whole country, I can say Ruby Ridge and Waco were the driving force in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan, whose militias I visited or trained with. The assault weapons ban would more accurately be described as a "scramble" by patriots, to stockpile as many weapons as possible before the ban took effect. The main goal was to get as many as possible without a paper trail, but buy them anyway. The SPLC is full of shit and so are the neo-nazi agencies who give them credibility.

JudgementComes said...

Very well spoken Mike.

Especially the comment about search and rescue fitting the SPLC definitions of...what was it...anti-government extremist militias?

As ill as I know you are, and as weary as you must get, I am amazed at your concise responses.

Well done Mike.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORt_k7LjGDg&feature=player_embedded

Ron Paul with an AR15 all the way back in 1989 explaining why gun rights are essential.

How many weenie GOP types these days would appear in a video with an ar15 despite the public doing a 180 in the last two decades on the issue of AR rifles?

skybill said...

Hi Mike,
Started reading and got to this point not too far down...."---they believe that the people serve the government whereas we believe that the government should serve the people---" ...Buddy, do we have to say anything else???...The Defense rests (Period!!!)
BSBD,
III%,
God,Guns and Guts Keep America Free!!!!,
skybill-out

emtgene said...

Well said, Mike. The SPLC used to send out their magazine to all police departments to 'educate' the officers. I always threw it in the trash before the rookie officers could look at it and have their minds poisoned.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said:
quote:" Are our current "leaders" of the opinion that the government is an entity unto itself and separate from the people, with sovereignty over the people?"unquote

ummm..with all due respect, our current "leaders" only adhere to the rule of law in that regard. In other words..yes, they do. For your information, SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY has been the law of the land since the late 1700's.

quote:"The federal government and nearly every state have passed tort claims acts allowing them to be sued for the negligence, BUT NOT INTENTIONAL WRONGS" unquote

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_immunity_in_the_United_States

Political solutions notwithstanding, indeed, the USG DOES consider "the people serve them", as the 16th amendment is living proof. Just ask the IRS.

However, that's not to say I agree. In fact..fuck that shit.

btw, excellent responses Mike.

Paul X said...

'Only the wildest of anarchists are "anti-government."'

Confused anarchists, half-assed anarchists, maybe.

While anyone can be a panarchist, true anarchists MUST be panarchists. As long as some people want government, it is impossible for true anarchists to prevent them from having it because anarchists reject the initiation of violence. What true anarchists want is not the end of government, but the end of government coercion and violence against themselves only.
http://strike-the-root.com/panarchy-not-anarchy-is-answer