Alabama's NBC13 has prepared a special report, "Dramatic rise in grass roots militia groups." It's but one of many increasing media efforts associating those of us who believe in the Framer's vision of the Second Amendment with domestic terrorists, along with the insulting proposition that opposition to the current president's policies is a manifestation of racism.
Reporter Gina Redmond relies heavily on hysteria from the Southern Poverty Law Center's Mark Potok, who ultimately concedes it's not groups he cites that are to blame, but individuals who go off the deep end. Well, gee, Mark, if that's the case, are you saying we need to sound the alarm about...Obama supporters like Dr. Anthrax?
The answer, of course, is making that stretch is patently offensive and ridiculous, and anybody stooping to that level in order to advance their cause/raise funds ought to be ashamed of themselves. As Potok should be for the conflation he's doing with patriotic groups and haters.
Fortunately, Mike Vanderboegh is on hand to offer a distinction. And he offers further commentary here.
Go ahead and watch the video, and I'll come around with some follow-up commentary on the other side.
At the start of this column, I said this is "one of many." Regular readers will recall similar efforts, chronicled in "Oath Keepers founder plays 'Hardball'" and "'Conservative' Bill O'Reilly supports gun confiscation in emergencies." And the pace is picking up at other outlets.
For instance, Mother Jones gives us more conflation in "The Tea Party's Military Wing."
Speaking of tea parties, we have this unbelievable exchange, unsurprisingly from MSNBC as reported by NewsBusters: "Ratigan Goes Nuts: Accuses Tea Party Organizer of Including People who Want to 'Kill Blacks and Jews'."
And while ABC tempers its language, the sentiment is the same: "Dobbs, Beck, Palin, Bachmann Share Blame For Rise in Right-Wing Extremism, Says Activist Group."
Which "activist group"? Why Mark Potok's Southern Poverty Law Center, of course, making hay out of its latest "intelligence report," which naturally bears an hysterical title "Rage on the Right: The Year in Hate and Extremism," and does exactly what it purports to decry: It paints people with negative stereotypes based on groups the author is prejudiced against. You know, it spreads hate. All under the guise of "Teaching Tolerance." That and "Donate Now."
Hey, I see some friends of mine there, some nice, salt of the earth people...Gun Owners of America, Oath Keepers, the Second Amendment March...maybe if I hang around them some more and continue to grow the Gun Rights Examiner column threat, I can make next year's list.
A guy can dream, can't he?
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Comments
Great piece David. There is one fact that these people ignore. People are a lot smarter than the arrogant narcissits of the left give them credit for. The panic they try to inspire only reveals what a real political threat intelligent, invormed, armed individuals pose to tyrants. November will help settle this war of innuendo and defamation. Kick them all out!
harper's had this to say about SPLC...
"The Center earns more from its vast investment portfolio than it spends on its core mission, which has led Millard Farmer, a death-penalty lawyer in Georgia, to once describe Morris Dees, the SPLC's head, as 'the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of the civil rights movement' (adding, 'I don't mean to malign Jim and Tammy Faye')."
harpers.org/archive/2007/03/sb-this-week-in-1172847076
I don't live far away from the core group of these whack jobs who call themselves the SPLC. They tehmeselves are one of the biggest underground hate groups in the country and I am continually surprised to see national media constantly recognizing them as different just because their NAME makes them sound legit.
This is a continuation of the obama supporters theme: if you don't agree, you are a racist, hater, gun toting radical. I heard the interview on the radio and almost laughed out loud. These SPLC folk are SO far left. They are a danger in that the lib media gives them air time to spew their radical views. The left plays the race card faster than a Vegas poker dealer. I do not support obama nor the left's socialist agenda. But that doesn't make me a racist nor do I want to kill people who don't resemble me. But for me, it's too late. Janet Nap has already labeled me an extremist because I'm ex-military.
"So...if she weighs the same as a duck...then she's made of wood..."
Perhaps we should start asking Potok when the armbands are due to arrive. At the present rate of hysteria the shipment should be pretty large.
When we decided as a society that all violence was a bad thing we set about ensuring our own destruction. There simply are some things men should not be able to say about another without expecting to have a mudhole stomped in his ass. I regret that I am alone in recognizing this truth, but the fact is, when men like Potok, or Matthews can hire their fighting done by attorneys instead of having to face those they have maligned in and honorable and physical confrontation, they have no incentive to refrain from engaging is demonizing anybody at all, because the funds raised by advertising dollars or contributions from people just as immoral as are they will pay the attorney fees with a hefty balance left over. They win, even if they lose. But an asswhipping can't be transferred for profit to your lawyer.
Remember that the leftist moonbats can't back up their assumptions with facts, so they resort to name calling like six year olds. That being said, the freedom of speech does not give them a right to arbitrarily defame the character of a person or group of persons. I think we should start suing them for slander.
Of course, Bush II played this same tune, too ("Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists"). False dichotomy, Dipstick. Statists of "either side" don't like it when people are able to see beyond the smoke and mirrors.
When CNN covers this stuff, all 22,000 of their viewers (per a recent Nielsen report) get miss-informed. Big deal!
The bottom line is that when the Brady Bunch, VPC, or SPLC get coverage in the Lame Stream Media, their loony tune viewpoint turns off moderate viewers and leaves the media with the tinfoil hat and Birkenstock wearing set. And those people were never going to like us anyway.
Bill O'Reily's comments were a lot more disturbing and harmful to our cause IMHO.
Morris Dees has personally been to "the Mother Ship" with Louis Farrakhan. He is a loon to most thinking people.
It doesn't bother me that he and Farrakhan make all of these baseless charges, "consider the source."
When your head hits the pillow tonight remember to thank the Lord that you're not in the 3rd world dying of AIDS, and/or that you're not one of the mental midgets of the SPLC.
Anyone who believes the SPLC represents the impoverished or the law, as we know it is being duped.
The SPLC's sole reason for existence is to create civil unrest thereby facilitating the overthrow of our political/economic system. To do this, it poses as civil rights and poor peoples advocate. SPLC uses lies and propaganda. It labels those who oppose its goals as racist and dangerous.
If that is not clear enough, they are a Communist Group supported by contributions from the same.
SPLC, turn over your list of contributors!!!
The Second Amendment is not our "cause" but rather our right.
citizenjohn says:
The Second Amendment is not our "cause" but rather our right.
The Second Amendment is not our right. Our right pre-existed the Second Amendment, the Constitution of the United States, and the Federal Government it established. Go back and re-read Jefferson's words in "The Declaration of Independence" and SCOTUS's ruling in "US v Cruikshank". The Second Amendment merely refers to that pre-existing right and forbids, as in "shall not", said government from "infringing" upon it.
Our cause is to get the various national, state, and local governments to respect and abide by that prohibition the way the founders intended and give up their infringement of our right, hopefully by peaceful means, but by force if it becomes necessary, as Jefferson said was also our right and our duty.
This is about character assassination by communists bent upon achieving their goals, and organized and informed people who stand in their way.
Don't worry, we're not going to get out of this without a fight. The sad thing is it will be a fight with our own government over our rights.... which they wish to remove from us....
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