Just A Little Circle of Friends...Part II

The entirety of the White Supremacy/Neo-Nazi Movement has a history of avarice, lewdness, and abject depravity despite its' public claims of family and, sometimes Christian, values and morality. Additionally, the movement has been decimated time and again by its' own hypocrisy.


Amid the many reports of David Duke's sexual exploits with the ladies there were also rumors and accusations of homosexual activity. Tom Metzger, one of the most vocal and well recognized members of the extremist set spoke of Duke's close relationship with the Reverend James Warner, a Christian Identity anti-Semite who ran the New Christian Crusade Church out of St. Bernard Parrish in Louisiana.

Metzger claimed, " Duke ran with Warner and Warner took him on a tour of Hollywood gay bars in the 70’s. I personally think Duke is a closet Bi sexual for many reasons. So I am not shocked when I hear of a right winger being popped a some sex charge."

Metzger isn't the only one who has made such a claim against Duke. Warner was an active member of the American Nazi Party and has been shunned by many over the years for what some claim is his homosexual activities as well as being a transvestite.

This sort of thing is not unusual within the movement. Generally speaking, hundreds of people over the last few decades have been known homosexuals, pedophiles, or, for them even worse, Jews. Yet heads have been turned, evidence swept under the rug, and their stated believes compromised, at the very least. Only when it becomes public knowledge do they take the steps necessary to cast out or castigate the "unwanted" in their midst. Such is the way of the very needy hate-monger.

Among themselves they speculate and even laugh about what they know to be true of others sharing their table of hate. Matthais Koehl was well known among those in the NSWPP as a homosexual and speculation ran wild about the late Dr. William Luther Pierce.


The Dr. in front of William Luther Pierce was earned through a doctorate in physics conferred upon him in 1962. Upon this distinction, Pierce accepted and assistant professorship at Oregon State University and joined the John Birch Society which seems to have served as a conduit for many white supremacists and right-wing militants and extremists.

As the John Birch Society did not take up what Pierce believed most pressing - the question of the Jew - it quickly lost its' appeal to the professor and he moved on and began communicating with George Lincoln Rockwell, the Commander of the American Nazi Party. This ideology was much more in line with Pierces' Hitlerian belief system. After all, he had been raised by Southern Aristocracy in an era that ingrained racism and anti-Semitism into the souls of many people.

In 1965, Pierce and his wife moved to Connecticut where he spent a year as a senior research scientist. This wasn't particularly satisfying and he finally quit. That would be the last real paying job that Pierce would ever have.

He took a non-paying position editing "The National Socialist World" for Rockwell's group. Apparently, Dr. Pierce enjoyed being with his ideological peers and his academic prowess would soon lead him on a journey that would become his life's work.


In 1967, George Lincoln Rockwell was assassinated by one of his own and William Luther Pierce moved up the ladder.

Matthais Koehl declared that Rockwell had named him as his hand-picked successor in the event of his death and he began referring to himself as "Deputy Commander Koehl," a title that no one had ever heard prior to the highly controversial Rockwell assassination.

On the night of the murder it was rumored and later pretty much confirmed that Pierce and Robert Lloyd, the second in command broke into Rockwell's safe and destroyed his political testament.

At this point, Pierce, Koehl, and Lloyd now shared equally in the total ownership of the NSWPP and the handwriting was on the wall. The ideological differences between Pierce and Koehl heralded the chasm that was soon to develop.

Koehl won the majority of the votes of those present in Arlington immediately following Rockwell's death. However, just as members across the U.S. were shocked and outraged over the murder of their leader, many were stunned by Koehl's ascent to the top. Koehl's reputation preceded him.

Pierce was a quiet, seemingly reserved, and somewhat quirky individual who maintained social distance from most of the others. This often gained him the reputation of being aloof or "untouchable." Such is often the case with those who roam the halls of academia.

While there were rumors about Pierce's sexual proclivities, he was respected by many of the more erudite or learned within the party for his insight and writing skills. As was the case with most who worked toward the cause of white revolution, Pierce was always armed. He was well-known for being somewhat of a physical wimp so it can only be concluded that he compensated with his mental acuity and an equalizer.

It wasn't long before Koehl began to shut Pierce out. He banned Pierce from the party and a tense stand-off of armed "friends" ensued as Lloyd and others chose their sides. Eventually, Pierce moved on taking Lloyd and other loyalists with him.

Dr. William Luther Pierce was not only smart but confident and cagey as well. He knew what it would take to build an organization that could impact American policy, politics, and power-brokers and to catapult his zest for racial revolution into the mainstream.

First it would take numbers - like-minded individuals who could be groomed and schooled to recruit large numbers of white youth into whatever organization he built.

It would require a massive program of education and indoctrination of American minds - which meant media - all kinds of media.

It would have to entail running political candidates and being successful in endorsing and placing more white nationalists in high offices around the country.

It would necessitate militancy and deception to create the revolution that he envisioned.

But, most importantly, it would take money - and lots of that.

In 1968, the country was in turmoil. Tensions were at an all-time high as frustrations over the Viet-Nam War boiled over and Civil Rights were being bitterly fought for. U.S. citizens were sharply divided over the issues. Everyone had a deep-rooted opinion and the chasm of right versus left became even more profound.

Racial segregationist and former Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, had thrown his hat into the ring of Presidential hopefuls and the lines of prejudice were etched permanently in the minds and hearts of generations to come.


Pierce, with an agenda, joined his friend, Willis Carto, who had just founded the Youth For Wallace group and who had a bankroll to boot.

For Carto, just a few years Pierces' senior, race was destiny. Heavily influenced in his younger years by Francis Parker Yockey, a paranoid and fragmented fascist and Nazi sympathizer who demonized the Jews.

Willis Carto, always somewhat of a shadowy figure, also knew what it would take to influence public opinion. Like Pierce, he did a short stint in the John Birch Society where it is reported that he stole their membership list, (it must have been a fetish.)

As the battle over Civil Rights was being played out in this country, there were those still embroiled in the pseudoscience of eugenics, struggling to prove racial superiority and to further their beliefs in the production of the master race.


In August 1935, Wickliffe Preston Draper traveled to Berlin to attend the International Congress for the Scientific Investigation of Population Problems. Draper was a strict segregationist and major supporter of eugenics. Accordingly, during his trip, as reported on Wikipedia, "Presiding over the conference was Wilhelm Frick, the Reichminister of the Interior. (Frick was hanged in 1946 for his crimes against humanity.) At the conference, Draper's travel companion Dr. Clarence Campbell delivered an oration that concluded with the words: "The difference between the Jew and the Aryan is as unsurmountable [sic] as that between black and white. … Germany has set a pattern which other nations must follow. … To that great leader, Adolf Hitler." Three years later, when Draper paid to print and disseminate a book titled White America, a personal copy was delivered to Reichminister Frick.

"In 1937, Draper founded the Pioneer Fund, a foundation intended to give scholarships to descendants of White colonial-era families, and to support research into "race betterment" through eugenics. The scholarships were never given, but the first project of the Fund was to distribute two documentary films from Nazi Germany depicting their claimed success with eugenics (though years before the Holocaust and its eventual public disclosure, Germany's eugenic policies were still very controversial for their far-reaching scope and often coercive public policies). The Pioneer Fund was headed by the controversial eugenicist Harry H. Laughlin, known especially for his role in the establishment of restrictive immigration laws and paving the way for national programs of compulsory sterilization of the mentally ill and mentally retarded."

The Pioneer Fund has been a controversial foundation awarding grants and funds to a consortium of extremists for the last several decades. One of the reicpients of Draper's early beneficence was none other than Willis Carto.

Many of Draper's donations were successfully made under the radar and did not come to public light until decades later. During the 1960's he made contributions to various groups advocating the repatriation of African-Americans as well as to the Mississippi State Soverignty Commission to support racial segreation.


The Youth for Wallace group attracted the attention of many prominent individuals just as the George Wallace campaign was becoming the breeding ground for future racist and extremists in our political system. William Pierce's mother hadn't raised any dummy and he knew that traveling in the circles of such notable individuals could do nothing but help him in his endeavors.

Willis Carto was already making himself well-known and ingratiating himself to some very heavy hitters. Recognizing that being a conservative is much more acceptable than being a Nazi or a racist or an anti-Semite, Carto tried to foist another of his groups, the Liberty Lobby, off on mainstream America as nothing more than a conservative political organization. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
In October of 1966, journalists, Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson, published a series of stories that reported the findings of a former employee, Jeremy Horne. "Horne said he had discovered a box of correspondence between Carto and numerous government officials establishing the Joint Council of Repatriation (JCR), a forerunner organization to the Liberty Lobby. The JCR stated that their fundamental purpose was to "repatriate" blacks "back to Africa". Ex-Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Tom Brady and various members of the White Citizens' Councils who had worked to established the JCL, also contributed to the founding of the Liberty Lobby. Other correspondence referred to U.S. Congressional support for the emerging Liberty Lobby, such as from South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond Califfornia Congressman James Utt."

The White Citizens Council was nothing more than a suit and tie rendition of the Ku Klux Klan wielding political and economical clout throughout the South. It later metamophosed into what is now known as the Council of Conservative Citizens of which we will have much more to say in the coming installments.
Willis Carto has gone on to become one of the most prominent figures in promoting anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the world today and is worthy of a complete expose on his life alone. This is something that will be undertaken in the near future.


Dr. William Luther Pierce knew that Carto was the vehicle through which to advance his own program - his own pathway to a white tomorrow. The contacts and the funds which came with being aligned with Carto were valuable, but the membership lists in Carto's possession were pure gold and it wasn't long before Pierce had precisely those in his hands.

Not only are there strange bedfellows in politics, but there are even stranger associations within the neo-Nazi subculture the relevenacy of which will not be lost on the reader in Part III. While the ideology is aberrant and the innerworkings often violent, the truth lies on the money trail.

To be continued...

Just A Little Circle of Friends...

Just A Little Circle of Friends...
(Forty Years of Deception Still Alive and Well)
By Nicole Nichols
March 25, 2009

Old adages such as "Birds of a feather flock together, " or "You are judged by the company you keep" often have been proven to have exceptions, yet they still hold true in many situations and maybe more so in the White Supremacy Movement.

I have written countless articles chronicling the sleazy side of the neo-Nazi's in the United States and have often noted what appears to be a disproportionate propensity toward domestic violence, child abuse or neglect, adultery, promiscuity, and pornography. Additionally, I have frequently pointed out the lack of loyalty to each other among members of this group.

A few years ago, I started asking questions and pointing out what I believed to be some rather interesting relationships among a certain group of people, all operating together, to further an agenda of hate, bigotry, anti-Semitism, and genocide. As the years have passed, those relationships have become even more suspect in the mind of this writer. As is evidenced and well chronicled, the White Supremacy Movement has largely been factionalized for the last forty years. Yet there are many commonalities between the factions. Indeed, the ties often cross ideological lines and move into the realms of religion, revisionism, and politics. Because these groups pose a danger to the very fabric of American society, it behooves us to know where their support base is and who really finances racism, anti-Semitism, and bigotry in the United States and abroad. It is also important that the hypocrisy and deception of those leading the movement be explored and exposed to all who hold an interest in knowing the truth. In order to bring this all into perspective, a little history of these people must be told. As we move through the tawdry and violent world of hate we will demonstrate the true nature of those leaders from the past as well as those attempting to weave their way into the mainstream today.


In 1974, twenty-four-year old David Duke formed the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and was running roughshod in Louisiana. Needing money for many of his white power endeavors, Duke published a book under the name of Dorothy Vanderbilt entitled "Finders Keepers." It was a women's self-help book giving advice on vaginal exercises, fellatio, and anal sex.

Also in 1974, he had married Chloe Hardin with whom he had two children. Chloe was active in Duke's Klan group but after ten years together, Hardin divorced Duke and moved to Florida where she met and married one of David's Klan buddies, Don Black who is now the Stormfront guru.

As a teen, Duke began communicating with Dr. William Luther Pierce, founder of the infamous National Alliance and author of the "Turner Diaries." For many years the Alliance was considered the largest and most formidable hate group in America. It spawned numerous future leaders of racist and anti-Semitic groups nationwide.

David Duke was somewhat of an anomaly within the movement at that time. With his proclamation that he was going to change the face of the Klan, he was able to recruit others such as Louis Beam, Don Black, and Tom Metzger into this radicalization from sheets to suits.

While Duke believed in the rhetoric he was spewing, he was unable to control his own ego and appetites. He had found a way to appease his own need for recognition and his penchant for a lavish lifestyle - he became a professional racist - a con man.

Membership lists are the lifeblood of white supremacist organizations. These rosters are necessary to building, maintaining and financing their groups and their activities. Because of the unsavory nature of the beliefs and the endeavors of such groups, members generally prefer to remain anonymous and they rely upon the leaders to maintain their privacy.

Duke knew the importance of these lists and he set out to build his own database of like-minded people and potential contributors - by any means necessary.

Now, Duke wasn't above unscrupulous behaviors. After all, he had expenses to meet and an agenda. In 1972, he was arrested for pocketing $500 in contributions that were meant for the campaign coffers of George Wallace so stealing and selling membership lists was no big deal. Stealing the membership from the National Alliance was easy.

By the latter half of the 1970's, his womanizing had become legendary. The Rev. Johnny Lee Clary, former Kluxer and bodyguard to Duke turned anti-racist, related to one reporter how Duke would wave the Bible around preaching Christian values and then take a members' wife to bed.

Never mind that Duke was the married father of two, Tom Metzger, a long-time racist leader, spoke of how Duke would arrive at various events and begin hitting on women. "We used to tell people, 'When Duke comes to town make sure your wife is safely locked up and don't let him near your daughter,'" said Metzger.

John Maginnis, author of "Cross to Bear," a profile of David Duke, recounted the story of a legislative aide who had lunch with Duke. "He started explaining to me that blonde, blue-eyed, Scandinavian looking people were God's chosen people, that they were made in his image. He said that God didn't want to dilute this perfection so we should only mate with others of our kind. He then asked me if I wanted to mate with him. It was the weirdest come-on line I've ever heard."

One of Duke's former girlfriends, Lori Eden, a swimsuit and lingerie model who owned and operated her own adult website, claimed that at one point in their relationship she believed herself to be pregnant. Duke, who is a strong pro-life advocate, offered to take her to Paris where they could get the "abortion pill" which was not legal in this country. According to Eden, Duke said he had been through this kind of thing before and feared that the publicity would ruin him politically.

David Duke didn't work. He ran his political campaigns, the proceeds of which he lived off of. He duped his supporters into believing that their contributions were helping him save the white race. And he lived large - nose job, chin implant, houses, babe on each arm, limos to the casinos and money to burn - other people's money. According to those close enough to know, a typical day for Duke would find him sleeping late, checking the mail for money, playing golf, going to the gym, and then heading for the casino at night.

Eventually, it all caught up with him, however. In 2003, Duke was sentenced to a short stint in federal prison for raising funds under false pretenses (mail fraud) and lying on his tax forms.


Vince Breeding - real name, Bruce Alan Breeding - was Duke's right hand man for a number of years. To those who knew of his background this should have seemed like a strange union - at least on the surface. While Duke favored the clean-cut image with impeccable dress and spouted Christian values, Breeding was playing guitar in a black metal band called Acheron that was Satanic to the core. The leader of the group was Vincent Crowley, reported an ordained "priest" in Anton LaVey's Church of Satan. He moonlighted in a striptease club in the Tampa Bay area.

In 1994, Breeding joined Dr. Pierce's National Alliance and became very active in promulgating their message of racism and anti-Semitism. He produced an underground radio show out of Tampa on which he broadcast Dr. Pierce's American Dissident Voices 24/7. When his radio signal began to interfere with the broadcasts of other local radio stations, citizens in the area started to complain to which he often responded with threats of violence and promises to never cease. Eventually, he was shut down.

Vince Breeding was certainly no Mr. Nice Guy. His associations alone were cause for many to raise their eyebrows and keep him at arms length. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that during 1997, while Breeding was organizing events featuring Holocaust denier David Irving and the chameleonic David Duke he was sharing an apartment with Todd Vanbiber, another member of Pierce's National Alliance.

In January of 1996, Vanbiber and friend, Brian Pickett, robbed the Barnett Bank in Tampa. A month later they robbed the New Milford Savings and Loan in Danbury, Conn. After the Danbury robbery they paid Dr. Pierce a visit where they donated $1000.00 of their booty to the cause and purchased $700.00 in books from the Alliance.

In April of 1997, as he was assembling an 8-inch pipe bomb, capped at both ends, it blew up in Vanbiber's face causing serious injury. When the ATF searched his storage unit, they found several weapons, ammunition, and munitions manufacturing guides.

According to the authorities, "fourteen bombs were to be placed along two major routes in the Florida tourist capital: Interstate 4, the major access highway to Walt Disney World, and U.S. Highway 441."

Several of the bombs had already been fully assembled. Some had been prepared with timing devices, batteries, timers, and clocks. They had initially planned the bombing for April 19, the second anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing before a change in plans.

While Breeding was not officially implicated in his roommate's bombing escapade, he was busily setting up websites to further the National Alliance's bid for new recruits.

As Breeding maintained his membership in the National Alliance and worked dilligently to bolster their rank and file, his relationship with David Duke began to blossom. In 1999, Breeding launched the Nationalist News Service which operated out of Don Black's internet group, Stormfront.

The National Alliance was big and becoming bigger. Their Resistance Records enterprise was becoming a cash cow for the N.A. and Dr. Pierce, and the envy of other hate groups around the world. When Vince Breeding stole the mailing list of the white power music organization, his relationship with Dr. Pierce was severed instantly. We can only speculate as to who enticed Breeding into such an act.

Once he had burned that bridge he and the membership list traveled to Louisiana where he moved in with Duke and became his lackey. Actually, they suited each other quite well. Both had a penchant for money and life in the fast lane. Both were unprincipled. And both had honed their ability to con and scam their way through life.

After numerous name changes, Duke's organization settled on being known as the European American Unity and Rights Organization or EURO. Breeding, using the name of Vince Edwards, ran Duke's website and enhanced Duke's presence on the web. Both maintained their ties with Duke's other acolyte, Don Black, who had already built an amazing white power base on the internet.



Shortly after David Duke was sentenced to 15 months in prison, in 2003, a bombshell was dropped on the white nationalist community when it was revealed that Vince Breeding, a.k.a. Vince Edwards, a.k.a. Bruce Allen Breeding, was also "Vince the Munkay" who was anything but a white supremacist.

Vince the "Munkay" traipsed around at a party in sunglasses and a furry, floor length coat proclaiming, "You will learn to respect the dark powers of the Munkay," while promoting his "Xsite" magazine and website.


Both the rag and the site advertised "Ebony Escorts" as well as mother-daughter sex acts, and gay, lesbian and bisexual dating services.

As Breeding's alter-ego, "The Munkay" came to light one could only wonder how much about all of this was known to Pierce, Duke, Black, et.al. They knew. To think otherwise is inconceivable denial.

During Duke's incarceration, Don Black managed to keep him at the forefront with his Stormfront website. Periodic updates were always available as well as nauseating lamentations about the unjust system that kept him from his followers.


Black grew up during a time of civil unrest and turmoil in this country and he chose to become a movement in his own right. During his high school years he decided that his high school was the perfect place to recruit others into his efforts to save the white race from what was surely to be its extinction. He began by handing out flyers and newspapers containing information on the dire straits of his people. Of course, school administrators determined that this was unacceptable and banned all political propaganda from school grounds.

This was a challenge to Black. He knew he had to get creative so he garnered a mailing list of students and began sending his message through the mail. By the time he was a Junior, he had set his eye on the political machine. He knew where he was going. Politics - that's where he could do the most good to keep his beloved South and his country to stay segregated along racial lines.

J.D. Stoner, a staunch segregationist and leader of the National States' Rights Party was running for Governor of Georgia and Don Black decided to help in his campaign.

Now, Black was in training in the National Socialist Youth Movement which was a branch of the National Socialist White People's Party. For those unfamiliar, the NSWPP had been formerly called the American Nazi Party until George Lincoln Rockwell changed the name shortly before his assassination.


Robert Lloyd was the second in command of the NSWPP and, by many accounts, he had been Rockwell's pick as his successor over the current leader at the time, Matt Koehl. (Koehl now heads up a neo-Nazi outfit known as "The New Order." He was also a member of Stoner's National States' Rights Party). It's important to note that Robert Lloyd and William Luther Pierce were tight and rumor has it that Lloyd and Pierce broke into the safe of Rockwell and destroyed his political testament.

Knowing that they had a young, eager-beaver in the Stoner campaign, Robert Lloyd instructed Don Black to steal the membership list of the National States' Rights Party from Stoners' office, no doubt assuring him that such a deed would ingratiate him to the powers that be. Black was only too happy to accommodate.

What the 16-year-old didn't plan on was the vehemence with which Stoners' followers protected his files. As Don was lifting the roster out of the office, he was met with a .38- caliber hollow point to the chest. The gun was fired by Jerry Ray, brother of James Earl Ray. Jerry Ray beat the charges by claiming that he believed Black to be reaching for a weapon and fired in self-defense. Of course, it didn't help that Black was is in the process of committing a serious crime.

After college, Don Black hooked up with David Duke and began helping in the recruitment process as well as in Duke's political campaigns. The charlatanistic Duke schooled the young man in his beliefs that supremacy should be promoted as nationalism and that sheets should be traded for suits. The public persona was, of course, to always be quite different than the private.

In 1981, Don Black, along with nine other white supremacists tried their hands at becoming mercenaries. They were caught in the middle of trying to execute a planned coup that they dubbed "Operation Red Dog." The men were to leave out of a New Orleans marina and stage an offensive take-over of the small island of Dominica. They would do this with eight machine guns, ten shotguns, five rifles, ten handguns, ten pounds of dynamite, 5,496 rounds of ammunition, and a large Nazi flag.

When arrested, they were charged with "seeking to create a drug, gambling, and offshore banking empire on the island republic." Black made the following statement before being sentenced to three years in prison for violation of the U.S. Neutrality Act:

"What we were doing was in the best interest of the United States and its security in the hemisphere and we feel betrayed by our government."

Our federal prisons' rehabilitation services were made available to Mr. Black during his time there and he certainly put them to use. In some ways, you could say that that those services created a monster. Black immersed himself in computer programming classes and upon his release he knew he had a future.

First, he ran for a U.S. Senate seat - quite unsuccessfully. He also married the former Chole Duke - David Duke's ex-wife.

Black started experimenting with the internet. He quickly realized the potential the World Wide Web held for recruiting and networking with like-minded people the world over. The sheer anonymity that the net offered was compelling. His experimentation led to his creation of Stormfront in 1995. Stormfront has served as an umbrella and clearing house under which people from various hate groups and supremacy persuasions have been able to congregate, share information, and publish ideas for the last fourteen years. It has also served as a money-making enterprise for Don Black.

While Black left the Klan, he did not leave Duke or his organization. Quite the contrary. Through Stormfront, Black has provided a venue and a forum from which Duke can mentor and influence others in his endeavors.

It is important for the reader that we pause at this juncture and reflect upon a few pertinent truisms that might not be evident at this point. The three individuals profiled so far have some obvious commonalities.

All three have been extremely influential in the movement for decades. All three became involved in racist and anti-Semitic activities at a very young age. All three have made their livelihoods from the movement and illicit exploits. All three possess many of the same character flaws - amorality, criminal minds, and disloyalty. What may not be as evident is their recruitment and the influence of others sharing membership in certain groups.

Throughout the discussion thus far one name emerges time and time again - that of Dr. William Luther Pierce and his organization, the National Alliance. Accordingly, as is still the case today, cross-participation in various groups was not unheard of. As we progress through this look at our little circle of friends the reader is asked to keep in mind the names of certain individuals and organizations so as to be able to make the connections between them.

While names and acronyms such as the National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP) or the National States' Rights Party (NSRP) may be confusing or even alien to the reader, it is important to grasp the scope of the ties that one has to the other.

Regardless of how baseless or unfounded the beliefs of the racist right seem to mainstream Americans, the truth is that many of the followers deeply buy into the rhetoric spewed by the leaders of these organizations. As you have seen, so far, membership lists are among the coveted assets of these groups largely because of the financial benefits. But, hate, to people like Pierce and Duke and Black is also a business. It is their job - their way of making a living.

Book sales, white-power music sales, speaking engagements, and member donations all help them to line the pockets of their organizations and themselves. But, there's more...much more. Political ties and palm-greasings are important and very necessary as well as friends in very high places.

As we move on to a few other note-worthy individuals, please note the not-so-complex web of companions that has suckered in the unsuspecting and the implications for the future that such pernicious bedfellows holds for all of us.

To Be Continued...

COMING SOON...

JUST A LITTLE CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

Are we judged by the compay we keep? Do birds of a feather really flock together? Within the realm of the White Nationalist Movement lurks "just a little circle of friends" who when we really look at who they are and how they are connected might very well expose the underbelly of that movement that no one wants to admit - especially those who share the ideological bent of white supremacy. From David Duke to John Nugent - connect the dots. The expose will arrive on March 27th.

JUST IN...

A source close to the case claims that Bill White is having some sort of a meltdown and has been placed on suicide watch. More as it becomes available...

TOO MUCH TURNER OR JUST ANOTHER LOOSE CANNON?

We have all wondered how Hal Turner gets away with what he publishes and says on the internet - especially considering that others have been arrested for similar or lesser offenses. As I was reading this story, especially the words of Adkisson, I couldn't help but think "here is a Hal Turner follower."

Doesn't he sound like someone on a steady diet of 'Turneristic' thought? Watch nutjob Hal try to take credit for the actions of this loose cannon.

TO ORIGINAL STORY

Tenn. church shooter hoped to inspire more terror

By DUNCAN MANSFIELD
The Associated Press


KNOXVILLE - An unemployed truck driver seething over liberalism told police he opened fire in a church last year because it harbored gays and multiracial families and he hoped others would follow his example.

Prosecutors opened their case file Thursday on Jim David Adkisson, 58, who pleaded guilty a month ago to killing two people and wounding six others at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville. The file includes interviews with investigators and a suicide note Adkisson left in his car.

Now serving a life sentence, Adkisson told police during an hourlong interrogation three hours after the July 27 shooting that he was unemployed, depressed and ready to take his anger out on what he called "an ultra-liberal" church that "never met a pervert they just didn't embrace."

"They just glory (in) these weirdos and sickos and homos," he said in an interview recorded by investigators.

He also railed against the Unitarian Universalist Church: "That ain't a church, that's a (expletive) cult," Adkisson said.

The Knoxville church said in a statement Thursday that the congregation was still healing and that many hoped Adkisson would also "be healed of whatever motivated his actions."

Adkisson walked into the church, pulled a sawed-off shotgun from a guitar case and fired into a congregation of about 230 people watching a children's musical performance.

He expected police would kill him. Instead, church members wrestled him to the ground.

Recorded calls to Knox County's 911 Center proved the panic and rapid response by church members. Just four minutes after the first 911, a police officer reports Adkisson is in custody.

Shortly after a woman caller told dispatchers of the attack, a man calling from the church reported that worshipers had disarmed the attacker and weren't about to let him go.

"They may beat him to death, but they've got him," the caller said.

Adkisson left a four-page suicide note in his SUV in the church parking lot. In it, he described the attack as "a hate crime," "a political protest" and "a symbolic killing."

He railed against extending constitutional rights to terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, about the news media being "the propaganda wing of the Democrat (sic) Party" and how he would like to kill every major Democrat in Congress. But he said they were inaccessible and decided to go after "the foot soldiers, the (expletive) liberals that vote in these traitorous people."

Adkisson concluded, "I'd like to encourage other like-minded people to do what I've done. If life ain't worth living anymore don't just kill yourself. Do something for your country before you go. Go kill liberals."

Adkisson told police he had never attended the church. But his fifth wife, Liza Alexander, who divorced him in 2000, had attended the church and convinced him to work as a counselor at Unitarian youth camps.

"I was in a marriage and I loved this woman, but she was just ... I'd never been around somebody that liberal in my life," he said.

Before she divorced him, Alexander got a protection order, claiming Adkisson threatened "to blow my brains out and then blow his own brains out," according to file documents.

Catherine Murray, who was friends with the couple, told police Adkisson had drug and alcohol problems and "basically was afraid of anybody or anything that was not like him."

Adkisson had worked a series of industrial jobs, including as a pipe worker at a Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear plant and on the Saturn Corp. auto assembly line, until 2006.

He complained in his suicide note and later in his interview with police that he was always being laid off and his prospects were growing slim as he got older. Again, he blamed liberals and Democrats.

He entered the church with 50 shotgun cartridges. He told police he planned to kill every adult in the sanctuary, but would spare the children because they also were "victims."

"I regret that I have but one life to give for my country," said Adkisson, an Air Force veteran. "I hope I start a movement."

Adkisson told interrogators he was "crazy" and depressed but had never been diagnosed. His lawyer has said Adkisson rebuffed attempts to pursue an insanity defense.

"I just did what I did today," Adkisson said. "See if you'd met me in a bar ... on a street, you'd say, 'Well, that's a nice fellow.' And I am."

No Trial Date - But New Judge Possible

For those of you wondering...

Bill White has asked for a new judge. The ruling will take place on April 2nd but no trial date has been set.

TO FULL ARTICLE

Okay - Weigh In on the Latest

This controversial proposal has outraged a number of people. Where did all of this get started?

TO ORIGINAL SOURCE

Pelosi: Administration Will Not Force Veterans to Use Private Insurance to Pay for Treatment of Combat-Related Injuries
1 hr 24 mins ago

To: POLITICAL EDITORS


Contact: Brendan Daly, Nadeam Elshami, or Drew Hammill, all of the Office of the Speaker of the House, +1-202-226-7616


WASHINGTON, March 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced this afternoon that the Obama Administration would not proceed with a proposal that could have forced veterans to use their private insurance to pay for the treatment of combat-related injuries.


Pelosi made the announcement at a meeting she and House Democrats hosted this afternoon in the Capitol with leaders of veterans' service organizations, who greeted the news with a standing ovation. Below are the Speaker's remarks.


"Good afternoon and thank you all very much for coming. Thank you for your leadership, for your service to our country, for your generosity of spirit to America's heroes, for helping us make better policy to honor the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, both when they are in active duty and when they come home. As you know, in the military, the expression is: 'On the battlefield, we leave no soldier behind.' And when they come home, working with you, we will leave no veteran behind.


"Particular to today's meeting and a subject of some conversation, I'm pleased to announce that we have some good news. Over the past several days, President Obama has listened to the genuine concerns expressed by veterans' leaders and veterans' service organizations regarding the option of billing service connected to veterans' insurance companies.


"Based on the respect that President Obama has for our nation's veterans and the principled concerns expressed by veterans' leaders, the President has made the decision that the combat-wounded veterans should not be billed through their insurance policies for combat-related injuries. [Applause.]


"I want to thank all of you, our friends came to me from the American Legion and many of you expressed your views on this subject. You had a great champion, of course, in Chet Edwards, who is Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on veterans; the Chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, Bob Filner; the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Skelton, who is here; and the man who writes the budget, and he was never going to put this in the budget, I know, John Spratt.


"I want to thank them and you for making this important change. But it wasn't just the Chairmen inside the Congress, it was our Members as well. Mr. Brad Ellsworth is here, John Hall, Tim Walz, Jim Marshall, Glenn Nye, Vic Snyder; they and so many other Members, Gene Taylor. They and many members of the Armed Services and Veterans' Affairs Committees and Mr. Edwards, Appropriations Committee on Veterans Issues worked hard to make this clear so that this issue is now behind us.


"We have important work to do. Because of you, we have been able to have the biggest increases in veterans' benefits in the history of the VA. We did that a couple years ago as soon as we took the majority. And last year, we even did one better and now, working together under the leadership of President Obama, in the budget we have even more dramatic increases to meet the needs of America's heroes.


"So thank you all for the role that you are playing in this, and we look forward to this discussion today. Thank you all very much for joining us."


SOURCE Office of the Speaker of the House

SHEETS, POINTY HATS, AND AN INSANITY PLEA

PHOTO AND INITIAL REPORT FOUND HERE

This is rich...

Last November 43-year-old Cynthia Lynch went to Louisiana to join the Klan. Apparently, after a clandestine meeting in the bayou, she didn't like what she saw, felt uncomfortable, or simply changed her mind. Of course, this begs the question - "What the hell was she thinking in the first place." Well...they shot her - killed her and left her body. Now one of the defendants in the case is pleading "Not guilty by reason of insanity."

One can only wonder if the defense might not be able to make the case. After all, no sane person joins a group that wears sheets and pointy hats, burns crosses, and calls themselves a "Christian organization."


TO ORIGINAL SOURCE

COVINGTON, La. (AP) - The defense in the case of a man facing an obstruction of justice charge in last November's death of a would-be Ku Klux Klan member from Oklahoma is seeking a hearing to determine his mental condition.

The motion for such a hearing for Shane Foster is set to be heard April 21 in state district court in Covington.

Foster is the son of Raymond Foster, who faces a second-degree murder charge in the case.

The victim was 43-year-old Cynthia Lynch of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Authorities said she was recruited over the Internet to join a small Klan faction. She is believed to have been shot in November after a disagreement with Raymond Foster, who has pleaded not guilty. Shane Foster has entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

Neo-Nazi's, Dirty Bombs, and an Angry Wife

This is Amber Cummings. She shot her husband a couple of months ago, you may remember reading about it here. It seems that there was a lot more going on in that house than Amber being abused. There is a breif mention of this in some mainstream media, but this article gives more details.

TO ORIGINAL SOURCE
Maine neo-Nazi prepared "dirty bomb"?
Submitted by WW4 Report on Sat, 03/14/2009 - 04:43.
Trust fund millionaire James G. Cummings, a neo-Nazi sympathizer from Maine who was slain by his wife Amber in December, allegedly had the radioactive components necessary to construct a "dirty bomb," a newly released threat analysis report states. The man, allegedly furious over the election of Barack Obama, purchased radioactive materials over the Internet.

"According to an FBI field intelligence report from the Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center posted online by WikiLeaks, an organization that posts leaked documents, an investigation into the case revealed that radioactive materials were removed from Cummings' home after his shooting death on Dec. 9," reported the Bangor Daily News March 10.

"Amber indicated James was very upset with Barack Obama being elected President," reported the Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center. "She indicated James had been in contact with 'white supremacist group[s].' Amber also indicated James mixed chemicals in the kitchen sink at their residence and had mentioned 'dirty bombs.'"

"Also found was literature on how to build 'dirty bombs' and information about cesium-137, strontium-90 and cobalt-60, radioactive materials," said the Bangor Daily. "The FBI report also stated there was evidence linking James Cummings to white supremacist groups. This would seem to confirm observations by local tradesmen who worked at the Cummings home that he was an ardent admirer of Adolf Hitler and had a collection of Nazi memorabilia around the house, including a prominently displayed flag with swastika. Cummings claimed to have pieces of Hitler's personal silverware and place settings, painter Mike Robbins said a few days after the shooting."

The story of the first attempt at constructing a "dirty bomb" in the United States was not carried by any mainstream press outside of Maine. (RawStory, March 9)

Remember all the hype about an al-Qaeda "dirty bomb" that saturated the media a few short years ago—and turned out to be a dirty lie? Yet this one seems to be going down the Memory Hole. We're also reminded how, despite all the hoopla about ethnic profiling, the media didn't recall that the last time there was a conspiracy for a terrorist attack on the New York subways it didn't come from Muslims, but from a neo-Nazi redneck named Larry Wayne Harris who planned to kill hundreds of thousands by unleashing bubonic plague toxins. He was a fat, middle-aged white guy and he was from the Midwest, not the Mideast.

Women Protected By Hate Crime Laws? You Tell Me

I found this article by Denise Marie Santiago at the Democrat and Chronicle.Domestic violence, and violence against women, is a mahor problem in this contry and around the world, for certain. However, the issue here is "hate crime." Attacks on homeless people are at an all time high and some groups have been suggesting covering the homeless under hate crimes legislation, as well.

The question that I have here is how many groups of people should be protected by hate crime laws, and how effective is hate crime sentencing enhancement?

March 6, 2009


Violence against women is a form of hate crime


The recent stories about the beheading, the burning and the beating of women have me thinking that a group trying to make violence against women hate crimes is on to something.

Because, really, what else is there to explain that kind of torture but loathing and intimidation? Not much, in my mind.

There's the Buffalo man who is accused of repeatedly stabbing his wife with a hunting knife, before decapitating her just days after she filed for divorce.

According to The Buffalo News, Muzzammil Hassan — who moved to Rochester from Pakistan to attend college in the '80s and formerly worked for Kodak — had a history of abusing both his first and second wives before allegedly killing the third.

I was thinking about that case after reading this week that more than 100,000 young women in India die in fires each year and that domestic abuse is suspected in many of those deaths, according to a study published in a British medical journal and reported by the Associated Press. Young women were three times more likely than men their age to die in fires, according to the U.S.-based researchers who ran the study.

Then there's the high-profile case of celebrities Chris Brown and Rihanna, whose bruised and swollen face has made the rounds on the Internet and on TV.

Brown, just 19, was charged Thursday in Los Angeles with two felony counts of assault and criminal threats for allegedly beating up his 21-year-old girlfriend. Police said that Brown punched, bit and choked Rihanna until she lost consciousness, and he threatened to kill her when she pretended to summon police.

The clincher is that the two celebrities reportedly are back together, which has people questioning the example they're setting for today's young people.

Bad ones, if you ask me.

But Catherine Mazzotta, who heads the local Alternatives for Battered Women, cautioned against making judgments.

Domestic violence is about control, she said, and there are many reasons victims stay with abusers: religion, children, or excuses that seem to make sense.

"Looking from the outside, it may not look very complicated," she said, "but from the inside, it's very complicated."

The lesson from Brown and Rihanna's situation?

"You will be affected by this issue regardless of who you are," Mazzotta said. "The highest risk factor for being affected by domestic violence is that you're female."

That brings me round to the group that recently gathered in Albany on the hate crime issue.

"We believe that these vicious, violent crimes against women, including rape, murder and the recent beheading of the woman in Buffalo, are because they are women," a Suffolk County state legislator told the Democrat and Chronicle's Albany bureau.

Assemblywoman Patricia Eddington announced last week that she was sponsoring legislation that would require police to consider violent acts against women as possible hate crimes.

Gender is now mentioned as a factor to be considered in hate crimes law, but it's rarely used when women are victims, say women's groups.

We don't need to look around the world, around the country or even to Buffalo to see the effects of domestic violence. It was a factor in nearly a dozen local killings last year, says a local domestic violence consortium.

I'm for legislation that would give law enforcement more avenues to prosecute those cases and to protect women.

To contact Alternatives for Battered Women, call (585) 232-7353.

A REAL IMAGE PROBLEM

Now I gotta tell ya...I'm not a Republican and I am certainly no Limbaugh fan, so all of the current machinations taking place are just pleasing the hell out of me. First there is Micaheal Steele...

TO ORIGINAL SOURCE


March 8, 2009
New Chairman Boos G.O.P. When He’s Not Cheerleading
By JODI KANTOR
None of the guests seemed to be complaining, yet Michael Steele stood at a Fifth Avenue fund-raiser in New York on Wednesday evening and defended his month-old tenure as chairman of the Republican National Committee. His glasses had been askew since he pleaded his case on television that morning, and now he threw up his arms in admission.

Yes, some of his problems in the job were “self-inflicted,” he said, “but I do things to get a reaction.”

There is no wondering which things he meant. Since taking office, Mr. Steele has joyfully gone to war with his own party, often live on television.

Most chairmen wave the party flag; Mr. Steele smiles and shreds it. A man of constantly colliding analogies, he compares Republicans to drunks in need of a 12-step program and to the mentally ill. He has insulted Rush Limbaugh and moderate Republican senators alike, and he has promised a “hip-hop makeover” that would attract even “one-armed midgets” to his party.

Mr. Steele is the party’s first African-American chairman, his election a response to a history-making Democratic president. But now his performance is raising questions: Does he have a strategy, or is he simply saying whatever comes to mind? Republican moderates have staked hopes of reform on him, betting that his race and frank style will foster a new image of the party, but is this what they expected?

“I’m trying to move an elephant that’s become mired in its own muck,” Mr. Steele said in an interview last week in his sunlit Capitol Hill office, pausing whenever he appeared on the giant television close by his desk.

“You can say, ‘He’s crazy, he’s running off at the mouth,’ ” he said. “Or you can say, ‘It kind of makes sense, and I get it.’ ”

Since he became chairman, Mr. Steele, 50, has shown some of the same impulses that have governed and sometimes sabotaged him from an early age. He has at times rejected his own environment — becoming a Republican when everyone he knew was a Democrat, leaving jobs after short stints and attacking those who helped make him successful.

He has often been a victim of his own impetuousness. He worked his way through law school at night and won a job at a top firm, but he failed the Maryland bar exam because, he says, he took it on a whim. He is a born actor, a high-school musical ham whose instinct to perform can undermine his credibility (in the interview, he said he would accept Stephen Colbert’s recent challenge of a hip-hop duel).

Even those who applaud Mr. Steele’s vision of a more inclusive Republican Party wonder if he can execute it. “Does he have the mettle to wage that type of fight?” asked Benjamin T. Jealous, the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Mr. Steele says that he does, but that he is entirely willing to risk failure. “I always found it interesting that people would cast aspersions on failure, as if it were a bad thing,” he said.

For decades, top Republican officials have looked at Mr. Steele and seen the promise of minority votes. He was recruited in the 1980s by Lee Atwater, a strategist who was the first of many excited by the charismatic, black Roman Catholic.

Outside politics, Mr. Steele struggled. He tried the priesthood but left as a novice. Later he practiced law for seven years in Washington (after passing the Pennsylvania state bar, he said), then started a consulting firm that made so little money that he almost lost his home.

But in the weak Maryland Republican Party, in a state that is 30 percent black, Mr. Steele was an instant hero. (The moment she saw him, said Joyce Terhes, the former state party chairwoman, she knew he was a keeper.) He zoomed from volunteer to state chairman to running mate in a race for governor.

Before the 2002 election, The Baltimore Sun published an editorial saying that because of his lack of experience, Mr. Steele brought “little to the team but the color of his skin,” outraging him and his supporters.

When Mr. Steele became lieutenant governor, he found himself among the highest-ranking black Republicans in the country, instantly embraced by President George W. Bush and his allies. Speaking to black groups, he was often the only Republican in the room, and in some Republican gatherings, the only African-American.

More than other black Republicans, “he has this unique capacity to connect with black audiences in a pretty soulful way,” said the talk show host Tavis Smiley. When Mr. Steele ran for the Senate in 2006, Russell Simmons, the hip-hop music executive and a Democrat, went to Maryland to endorse him.

Running in an unpopular year and state for Republicans, Mr. Steele tried to shed ties to his party. He called the “R” in Republican a “scarlet letter” and omitted his affiliation from advertisements: instead he talked about his love for puppies, his mother and the music of Frank Sinatra. On Election Day, campaign workers passed out sample ballots that listed him as a Democrat.

Still, Mr. Steele lost by almost 10 points, attracting only a quarter of the black vote. (He is still dogged by finance questions, like a $40,000 payment to a defunct company owned by his sister. He has said the payment was legitimate and that he is cooperating with a federal investigation.)

But among Republicans watching the rise of Barack Obama, Mr. Steele seemed more popular than ever. In early 2007, when Mr. Steele walked into a conservative forum on minority outreach, “you would have thought that he’d won,” said Doug Heye, his former spokesman.

Two years later, Mr. Steele ran for party spokesman as much as party chairman. He promised to bring wholesale reform and to present a new face of the party: black, engaging and funny.

He was something of a celebrity candidate — a paid Fox News contributor endorsed by Sean Hannity who served as a surrogate for Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign and originated the “Drill, baby, drill” chant that rang through Republican rallies.

His prospects improved further when two white candidates ran into race-related problems — one distributed a song calling Mr. Obama a “magic negro,” another had been a member of an all-white country club — and stoked Republicans’ fears about appearing narrow-minded.

Still, Mr. Steele won the post only on a sixth ballot.

“We have an image problem,” said Saul Anuzis, one of the losing candidates, “and that’s why people see a glimmer of opportunity with Michael Steele, not only because of his color.”

“He exudes enthusiasm,” Mr. Anuzis said. “That almost cavalier approach may turn some people off,” but during Mr. Steele’s recent television appearances, “I think a lot of the country was nodding their head saying, ‘Exactly.’ ”

The tactics that served Mr. Steele in his rise — calling out his party, using slang to connect with voters — may, however, hurt him as chairman. He has quickly become a target of late-night talk show hosts. And last week, after calling Mr. Limbaugh’s radio show “incendiary” and “ugly,” he provoked heckling not only from him but also from gleeful Democrats. (Mr. Steele apologized, delighting Democrats further.)

Even Mr. Steele’s pledge to recruit black voters is in question. Raynard Jackson, a Republican consultant, said that he and fellow African-Americans are glad about Mr. Steele’s election but uneasy about its timing. It looks too much like “let’s get a black person out there and let him attack the first black president,” Mr. Jackson said.

Last week, Ada Fisher, one of a handful of black Republican National Committee members and a persistent critic of Mr. Steele’s, called on him to resign, arguing in an e-mail message to the entire committee that he “makes us frankly appear to many blacks as quite foolish.”

But barring a mass revolt by members, which so far seems unlikely, Mr. Steele — who has never managed a large organization or won a race for public office on his own — has a two-year term in which to build a new operation, raise hundreds of millions of dollars and win enough races to reverse the Democratic tide.

About 70 staff members have already resigned or been fired, said Curt Anderson, a consultant Mr. Steele hired to assist him, while transition teams figure out how to restructure virtually every aspect of operations.

And as tempestuous as the past month has been, Mr. Steele said in the interview, Republicans should get ready for more. “I’m very spontaneous,” he said, comparing working with him to riding a roller coaster without knowing when the next dip or curve might come.

“Be prepared; you have no idea,” he said. “Just buckle up and get ready to go.”

___________________

Next you have the antics of Rush Limbaugh...

TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE


It wasn't a fight I went looking for. On March 3, the popular radio host Mark Levin opened his show with an outburst (he always opens his show with an outburst): "There are people who have somehow claimed the conservative mantle … You don't even know who they are … They're so irrelevant … It's time to name names …! The Canadian David Frum: where did this a-hole come from? … In the foxhole with other conservatives, you know what this jerk does? He keeps shooting us in the back … Hey, Frum: you're a putz."

Now, of course, Mark Levin knows perfectly well where I come from. We've known each other for years, had dinner together. I'm a conservative Republican, have been all my adult life. I volunteered for the Reagan campaign in 1980. I've attended every Republican convention since 1988. I was president of the Federalist Society chapter at my law school, worked on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal and wrote speeches for President Bush—not the "Read My Lips" Bush, the "Axis of Evil" Bush. I served on the Giuliani campaign in 2008 and voted for John McCain in November. I supported the Iraq War and (although I feel kind of silly about it in retrospect) the impeachment of Bill Clinton. I could go on, but you get the idea.


Reinventing the GOP
Republicans face a daunting challenge in re-making and re-marketing their party. Who will shape that effort? Newsweek spoke to four leading Republicans:

Newt Gingrich: It's Not About The Base
Eric Cantor: It’s All About Jobs
Mark Sanford: Build From The Local Level
Paul Ryan: Let The Idea People Lead
I mention all this not because I expect you to be fascinated with my life story, but to establish some bona fides. In the conservative world, we have a tendency to dismiss unwelcome realities. When one of us looks up and murmurs, "Hey, guys, there seems to be an avalanche heading our way," the others tend to shrug and say, he's a "squish" or a RINO—Republican in Name Only.

Levin had been provoked by a blog entry I'd posted the day before on my site, NewMajority.com. Here's what I wrote: President Obama and Rush Limbaugh do not agree on much, but they share at least one thing: Both wish to see Rush anointed as the leader of the Republican party.

Here's Rahm Emanuel on Face the Nation yesterday: "the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican party." What a great endorsement for Rush! … But what about the rest of the party? Here's the duel that Obama and Limbaugh are jointly arranging:

On the one side, the president of the United States: soft-spoken and conciliatory, never angry, always invoking the recession and its victims. This president invokes the language of "responsibility," and in his own life seems to epitomize that ideal: He is physically honed and disciplined, his worst vice an occasional cigarette. He is at the same time an apparently devoted husband and father. Unsurprisingly, women voters trust and admire him.

And for the leader of the Republicans? A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as "losers." With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence—exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we're cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers cheering Rush's every rancorous word—we'll be seeing them rebroadcast for a long time.

Rush knows what he is doing. The worse conservatives do, the more important Rush becomes as leader of the ardent remnant. The better conservatives succeed, the more we become a broad national governing coalition, the more Rush will be sidelined.

But do the rest of us understand what we are doing to ourselves by accepting this leadership? Rush is to the Republicanism of the 2000s what Jesse Jackson was to the Democratic party in the 1980s. He plays an important role in our coalition, and of course he and his supporters have to be treated with respect. But he cannot be allowed to be the public face of the enterprise—and we have to find ways of assuring the public that he is just one Republican voice among many, and very far from the most important.

_____________________________________________

Can anyone say "Implode!" I'm just cracking up.

Mississippi Racism Still Burning?

The Southern Poverty Law Center posted this article on its blog a couple of days ago. We don't talk very much about Barrett because, for the most part, he stays pretty low-profile and he's just this quirky little guy who raises his head every once in awhile. Every once in awhile he gets a media shot - when everyone else has turned them down. However, we do talk about the Mississippi legislature, the racist Haley Barbour, and the racism that is often still apparent within that state. Any thoughts on Barrett or the obvious acceptance of his ideology?

TO ORIGINAL SOURCE


Mississippi Legislature Honors Event Hosted By White Supremacist

Posted By Sonia Scherr On March 3, 2009 @ 1:25 pm In White Supremacist | 6 Comments


The Mississippi Legislature has voted once again to honor an occasion organized by a staunch white supremacist.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate [1] approved resolutions last week designating March 2 “The Spirit of America Day” to commemorate the achievements of standout male high school athletes in Mississippi. What the resolutions fail to mention is that “The Spirit of America Day” events are hosted by [2] Richard Barrett, an attorney in Learned, Miss., and the head of the Nationalist Movement, a white supremacist organization that advocates striking down civil rights laws and organizes white power events nationwide.

He’s also chairman of the board of America’s Foundation, the Mississippi sports organization that’s sponsoring “The Spirit of America Day.” The day involves bringing the chosen students to the Mississippi capital of Jackson for an awards ceremony and other activities. This year, seven teenagers were selected on the basis of their athleticism, leadership and citizenship.

“The endeavors of these individual students to be productive and contributing members of society provide the model example for other students to pattern themselves after, in efforts of becoming notable and model citizens for future generations to come,” states the [3] resolution adopted by the House.

That resolution passed on a voice vote even after Democratic Rep. Robert Johnson told his fellow representatives that Barrett was “an avowed racist,” according to the Associated Press. “He’s not ashamed of it; he doesn’t apologize for it,” Johnson said.

Some lawmakers seemed to feel that the resolution was acceptable because it honored the students rather than Barrett. “I’m not concerned about this individual,” Democratic Rep. Joe Warren told the AP. “I’m concerned about these young people being honored by this.”

The resolution is expected to be reconsidered this week; some lawmakers have suggested omitting the “The Spirit of America Day” references from the resolution as a way to avoid helping Barrett while still commending the teenagers.

Nonetheless, Barrett sounded pleased about the resolutions’ passage in an interview with the AP on Friday. “I think that’s a good lesson of how patriotism and Americanism depend on majority rule,” he said. “It’s a great lesson in democracy that we’re learning.”

This isn’t the first time lawmakers have hailed “The Spirit of America Day,” now in its 39th year. “The Mississippi government’s repeated recognition of him [Barrett] would be a comical Ground Hog Day parody but for the vitriol of his bigotry,” Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, told Hatewatch.

Barrett, 65, has long denigrated minorities. In his 1982 autobiography, The Commission, he called for resettling non-white Americans to “Puerto Rico, Mexico, Israel, the Orient and Africa,” according to the Anti-Defamation League. He also argued that “the Negro race … possess[es] no creativity of its own [and] pulls the vitality away from civilization.” And he favored sterilization and abortions of those deemed “unfit.”

Never one to miss an opportunity to exploit racial tension, [4] Barrett marched on Martin Luther King Day last year in Jena, La., to deride King and the six black teenagers subjected to unusually harsh prosecutions for an attack on a white student. Nationalist Movement members and supporters chanted slogans such as, “If it ain’t white, it ain’t right.”

Last fall, he planned a Louisville rally in support of James Forde Seale, who was convicted of facilitating the Klan murder of two black teenagers. (The conviction was later overturned on a technicality by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.)

Barrett has also campaigned on behalf of other 1960s-era racist killers. After Byron de la Beckwith was convicted in 1994 of assassinating civil rights leader Medgar Evers, Barrett circulated a petition and led a march seeking a pardon from the Mississippi governor. In 2004, Barrett tried to sponsor a booth at the Mississippi State Fair backing Edgar Ray Killen, the former Klan leader who was found guilty of manslaughter in connection with the deaths of three civil rights workers.

Although he suggested to the AP that he doesn’t share his racist views at “Spirit of America” events, the day isn’t Barrett’s only youth outreach effort. Barrett invited skinheads to his home in December 1988 for a weekend of paramilitary training, according to the ADL. The few teenagers who attended tried to hit a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. during target practice, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported.

Despite criticizing the violence encouraged by certain extremist groups, Barrett currently runs an online forum for skinheads, where last week he referred to Obama as “Chimpanzee-in-Chief.” His racist message is a hit with the young men who post there. ”No matter how many laws you pass a white woman will always be the ultimate prize and target of black men,” reads one recent post. “Long live you my brave brothers and thank God for this forum and the wise words of Richard Barrett.”