A Tale Of Two Studies or The Rise Of Patriotic Violence

The SPLC has just released their annual study of "Hate Groups" and violence. The numbers don't paint a pretty picture for the "neo-patriots" in this county.

The radical right caught fire last year, as broad-based populist anger at political, demographic and economic changes in America ignited an explosion of new extremist groups and activism across the nation.

Hate groups stayed at record levels — almost 1,000 — despite the total collapse of the second largest neo-Nazi group in America. Furious anti-immigrant vigilante groups soared by nearly 80%, adding some 136 new groups during 2009. And, most remarkably of all, so-called "Patriot" groups — militias and other organizations that see the federal government as part of a plot to impose “one-world government” on liberty-loving Americans — came roaring back after years out of the limelight.

These "Patriot Groups" are described as such:

The Intelligence Project identified 512 "Patriot" groups that were active in 2009. Of these groups, 127 were militias, marked with an asterisk, and the remainder includes "common-law" courts, publishers, ministries and citizens' groups. Generally, Patriot groups define themselves as opposed to the "New World Order," engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines. Listing here does not imply that the groups themselves advocate or engage in violence or other criminal activities, or are racist. The list was compiled from field reports, Patriot publications, the Internet, law enforcement sources and news reports. Groups are identified by the city, county or region where they are located.

In just about every state, you're going to have two common denominators: The John Birch Society and The Oathkeepers. The later has already had a verifiable connection with the Tea Bagger movement.

It shouldn't be surprising then to note that since Obama took office there has been a massive jump in "patriot" groups.

But last year, as noted in the SPLC’s August report, "The Second Wave: Return of the Militias," a dramatic resurgence in the Patriot movement and its paramilitary wing, the militias, began. Now, the latest SPLC count finds that an astonishing 363 new Patriot groups appeared in 2009, with the totals going from 149 groups (including 42 militias) to 512 (127 of them militias) — a 244% jump.

But now, a new study is out that attempts to debunk all the information that has been put out about the Tea Baggers. And the way the study was conceived and compiled leaves me asking if this is in anyway reliable data.

Some members of the "tea party" have struck back at media bias against the grassroots political movement and critics who derisively dismiss the group as violent "hicks", opportunists, "teabaggers" or worse.

"We decided to learn what tea party leaders are up to in the old-fashioned way. We asked them. We met in person with leaders from 38 states, we collected survey data from 49 leaders," said Eric O'Keefe, chairman and CEO of the Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance, a nonprofit group that espouses free-market principles.

The group on Tuesday released a survey of its findings that revealed that tea party activists are neither "political junkies or crusty right-wing extremists." Almost half the respondents had never been involved with politics prior to 2009.

The Sam Adams Alliance is described as such:

The Sam Adams Alliance (SAM) is a non-profit organization based in Chicago, Illinois. The group describes itself as "raising awareness of free-market principles and policies while building capacity in marketing and public relations for like-minded individuals and organizations."

That's right, they are a PR/Marketing firm for "like-minded" individuals. That's like having Rush Limbaugh grading how well Sean Hannity is doing on both radio and television, as the two are linked. This is true in that members of the Sam Adams Alliance participated in the Chicago Tea Bagger shoutfest and one of their leaders, Erick O'Keefe, sits on the http://www.citizensincharge.org/about-us/cicf-board-of-directors/eric-okeefe for the Club For Growth. And when one looks at the connections between CFG and the Tea Baggers, this study ( highlighted by Fox"Nation" ) holds up to scrutiny. I'm leaning towards "hell no".

Here's SPLC's Mark Potok discussing the report.



Full credit to David Neiwert at Crooks And Liars who's been on this story for over a year.

Giving Voice To Right-Wing Extremism

The rabid, mouth-breathing followers of Ed Morrissey of HotAir and the reactionary, drooling, prattle-heads that are the collective commenting populous at Michelle Malkin's blog are, once again, calling for death of a person in government.

On December 19th, 2009 at 12:09 pm, southdakotaboy said:

What needs to be done is the people of Nebraska need to meet Nelson at his home in Nebraska at Christmas time. They need to bring rocks, torches, and signs. They then need to tell him that if he votes to break the next fillabuster for any reason he won’t have a home to come back to and that if he does come back they will use the rope to decorate a tree with him.

We need to get blunt with these traitors. They need to be put if free of their lives to remind them that they work for us or we reserve not only the right to vote them out but the right to kill them.

Anyone here know how to build a missile? We need to wipe out this congress and start over.

UltimateBob on December 19, 2009 at 11:46 AM

[…]

Praying the angel of death would come for Senator Bryd and perhaps a few other Senators. Praying for a massive spirit of choas and confusion to reign over the Senate. God sent a snow storm to try slowing this down, God bring the next wave to stop this. This bill is evil as are the people voting for it.

Godis2good on December 19, 2009 at 11:31 AM

[…]

After their trial for Treason, there will be plenty of room for RINOS, whether they are proud of not, on the Gallows.

Mussolini’s fate was piano wire.

blaque jacques on December 19, 2009 at 12:49 PM

And this from the people who used the term "Bush Derangement Syndrome".

Conservatives are actually validating the claims they were being labeled as - domestic terrorists. They are proving the DHS report on the potential of escalated Right-Wing extremism is on the rise.

But don't tell them that, because that would be fear-mongering.

Armed And Misleading

Having grown up in a family where using and owning guns was somewhat of a tradition ( I personally own two shotguns - one hand-made by my grandfather - and two rifles ) I can understand the sporting aspect of it as well as the "self-defense" side of it. However, I don't believe that everyone needs to own one.

I hold this belief for several reasons. I'll put aside the fact that felons have lost the right to own firearms are a part of their punishment by law, but some people don't have the training or the mental capacity to own firearms.

This didn't stop sellers at several gun-shows from allowing people that couldn't possibly pass background checks to buy guns.



New York City Mayor Micheal Bloomberg reports

Our investigators told the private sellers that they "probably couldn't pass a background check" -- and at that point, the seller should have sent them away. Because even private sellers are prohibited by federal law from selling to those who they have reason to suspect could not pass a background check.

Instead, 19 out of 30 private sellers made the sale.

Also, earlier in the year, Max Blumenthal attended gun shows in California and Nevada and showed how the reactionary Right, militia groups, and nazi "enthusiasts" are using these shows to not just pedal their wares, but push their ideological message.



So what is the answer to preventing some "lone-nut" from injuring or killing someone after they have purchased a gun illegally? What can be done to ensure that the hate-speech that is being literally channeled into our homes, our cars, and our places of employment each and every day doesn't trigger some unstable individual who has purchased a firearm illegally from injuring and killing someone? Is the answer to take away every gun from every home in the nation. Absolutely not. But there has to be some sort of reform to the process with which gun-shows operate. Because they are arming people who are potentially dangerous.

Hey Malkin, Fox, Townhall, et al. About Your Reaction To The DHS Memo

From WIRED

A man was arrested for making threats via Twitter about the Tea-Baggery in Oklahoma City.

An Oklahoma City man who announced on Twitter that he would turn an April 15 tax protest into a bloodbath was hit with a federal charge of making interstate threats last week, in what appears to be first criminal prosecution to stem from posts on the microblogging site.

Daniel Knight Hayden, 52, was arrested by FBI agents who identified him as the Twitter user CitizenQuasar. In a series of tweets beginning April 11, CitizenQuasar vowed to start a “war” against the government on the steps of the Oklahoma City Capitol building, the site of that city’s version of the national “Tea Party” protests promoted by the conservative-leaning Fox News.

“START THE KILLING NOW! I am willing to be the FIRST DEATH!,” read a tweet at 8:01 PM that day. “After I am killed on the Capitol Steps, like a REAL man, the rest of you will REMEMBER ME!!!,” he added five minutes later. Then: “Send the cops around. I will cut their heads off the heads and throw the[m] on the State Capitol steps.”

Hayden’s MySpace page is a breathtaking gallery of right wing memes about the “New World Order,” gun control as Nazi fascism, and Barack Obama’s covert use of television hypnosis, among many others.

Michelle Malkin had recently posted a letter from serveral Republican Senators requesting data on "right-wing extremism". I think that Daniel Hayden is pretty good "data-point" to start with.

Also interesting to note that Malkin equated "extremism" with "conservativism" and even attempted to joke that you "might be a radicalized rightwing extremist" is you attended one of the tea-bagging parties. Turns out that she was correct about the later.

On Fox"News", Hannity & James Dobson pounced on the report. And blogs such as Hot Air and Townhall are beside themselves that this report was even considered.

Hate to break it to you guys, but your batting average is pretty low this season. You might want to take a step back and evaluate the situation before you react.