Phony “Civil Rights” Group Dishes Out Hate for “Hate Groups”

December 4, 2010 10:59


Southern Poverty Law Center is  a “slime machine” that has targeted the Eagle Forum, the Heritage Foundation, Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Rep. Steve King (R-IA), and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).

By Cliff Kincaid

In a story about the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) accusing conservative Christian groups like the Family Research Council of “hate,” The Washington Post described the SPLC as a “civil rights organization.” But The Social Contract, a public policy journal, investigated the SPLC in a recent issue and found that it used “ritual defamation” as a weapon “to advance a far-left agenda and a device to raise more money from gullible liberals to add to its $200 million slush fund.”

The SPLC is  a “slime machine” that has also targeted the Eagle Forum, the Heritage Foundation, Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Rep. Steve King (R-IA), and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), The Social Contract says.

The “slush fund” reference is to the $200 million in “reserve funds” that its directors have invested “in hedge funds and offshore bank accounts in places like the Cayman Islands,” The Social Contract claims.

While the group claims to find political extremists on the right (and once labeled this writer a member of a sinister group of “Patriots” for writing critically of the United Nations, President Obama, and the homosexual lobby, among other things), it is the SPLC that has an agenda far outside the mainstream. The group’s “Teaching tolerance” project even ran an article praising unrepentant Communist terrorist bomber Bill Ayers as a “civil rights organizer, radical anti-Vietnam War activist, teacher and author.” An “editor’s note” goes so far as to say that Ayers “has became a highly respected figure in the field of multicultural education.”

In fact, his past is finally catching up with him, as law enforcement authorities investigate his possible role in the 1970 bombing murder of a San Francisco policeman, and his former employer, the University of Illinois, rejected his request for “professor emeritus” status because he and his wife Bernardine Dohrn had dedicated a book in part to the assassin of Robert F. Kennedy.

Since RFK was opposed to the Vietnam War and was in fact the leading anti-war candidate at the time, this makes the claim of Ayers being an “anti-Vietnam War activist” a total lie. Ayers favored the war but wanted the communist North Vietnamese to win. They did, with the help of Ayers and a liberal Congress cutting off aid to non-Communist South Vietnam.

While the Post and other liberal media treat the SPLC with respect it does not deserve, the Social Contract has carried a series of articles exposing the SPLC, including one by a left-winger, Ken Silverstein, who notes that the group’s headquarters has become known as the “Poverty Palace.” Silverstein quoted one authentic civil rights leader as calling one of the leaders of the SPLC a fraud and a con man.

One of the articles, by Kevin Lamb, examined the SPLC’s close cooperation with the major media, which are not surprisingly anxious for sensational stories about alleged right-wing extremists and “haters.”

Also, not surprisingly, the SPLC is a source of “authoritative” information for the George Soros-funded Media Matters group, which specializes in smearing media organizations opposed to the Obama Administration agenda. Media Matters is run by a former conservative turned homosexual activist by the name of David Brock, and his apparent grudge against his former colleagues, who rejected his lifestyle, seems to motivate his animus.

While Media Matters will undoubtedly continue to cite the SPLC as a credible source, a far more serious matter is that somebody in the FBI has recommended the organization.

As noted by journalist Phil Kent, who did a YouTube video on the problem, the FBI has listed the SPLC as a credible source of information on “hate crimes.” Inexplicably, the page still exists, despite the discrediting of the group by The Social Contract.

Kent points out that the SPLC, as part of its “Teaching Tolerance” project, ran an “activity” for students called “Thanksgiving Mourning,” promoting the United American Indians of New England as a resource. Its site calls for the freedom from prison of convicted killer Leonard Peltier, who murdered two FBI agents.

Killing FBI agents sounds like something that could be considered hateful. Perhaps the FBI ought to take notice of the real agenda of the SPLC.

Now under scrutiny for targeting the well-respected Family Research Council (FRC) as a “hate group,” SPLC President Richard Cohen and SPLC’s “Intelligence Project Director” Mark Potok have scheduled a live webcast for the media on December 7 at 2:00 p.m. EST to try to defend their smear tactics. Perhaps the liberal media are getting tired of the SPLC routine and need to hear some justification for continuing to use their smears disguised as “news.”

Potok has already appeared on the Chris Matthews Hardball show on the hard-left MSNBC television network to publicize his false attacks on the FRC.

The latest stunt from the SPLC was apparently designed to try to prevent Congress from considering the views of conservative Christians as the Senate takes up the gays-in-the-military matter.


Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at cliff.kincaid@aim.org. Mr. Kincaid is a regular contributor to usACTIONnews.com

Editor’s note:

The SPLC did a ‘report‘ in the spring of 2010 that claimed right wing extremists were on the rise an basically branded anyone worried about the economy, the debt, illegal immigration or any left wing agenda item as a a hate group or militia comparable to the Branch Dividians. The ‘research’ for the claim is a rise in web sites dedicated to these issues. Of course during the time they say the rise of right wing groups happened there is a rise in all types of web sites including left wing hate smearers like the SPLC.

The internet is continuing to grow so yes there will probably be even more of these ‘right wing extremists’ objecting to the liberal agenda as time goes on but there will be a corresponding increase in Soros funded and non Soros funded radical leftist groups also.

But the SPLC ‘report’ was picked up by media everywhere (even the UK Guardian ) and reported as factual news just as they planned. That is the real purpose of the SPLC, to promote leftist propaganda and attempt to paint anyone who disagrees with their agenda as ‘extremists’ and ‘haters’.

Writing at RenewAmerica, J. Matt Barber explains the corruption at SPLC:

Alas, “power corrupts,” as it goes, and the SPLC, having amassed tremendous power and wealth over the years, has regrettably become corrupt to its core. By way of an ever-escalating wave of “us-versus-them” money-grubbing schemes, Today’s SPLC has morphed into a far-left political activist outfit, famous for promoting a panoply of extreme liberal causes.

Ken Silverstein, writing for Harper’s Magazine, addressed this untoward metamorphosis in 2000: “Today’s SPLC spends most of its time — and money — on a relentless fund-raising campaign, peddling memberships in the church of tolerance with all the zeal of a circuit rider passing the collection plate. ‘He’s the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of the civil rights movement,’ renowned anti-death-penalty lawyer Millard Farmer says of Dees, his former associate, ‘though I don’t mean to malign Jim and Tammy Faye.’

“The American Institute of Philanthropy gives the Center one of the worst ratings of any group it monitors,” continued Silverstein. “Morris Dees doesn’t need your financial support. The SPLC is already the wealthiest civil rights group in America, though [its fundraising literature] quite naturally omits that fact. … ‘Morris and I…shared the overriding purpose of making a pile of money,’ recalls Dees’s business partner, a lawyer named Millard Fuller (not to be confused with Millard Farmer). ‘We were not particular about how we did it; we just wanted to be independently rich.'” (You say Fuller. I say Farmer. The two Millards say “call the whole thing off.”)

So, what happens when a dragon slayer — paid per dragon head — runs out of real dragons to slay? Well, he invents new ones, of course. Gotta keep those sprinklers-a-sprinklin.’ (According to Harper’s, “Dees bought a 200-acre estate appointed with tennis courts, a pool, and stables.” SPLC’s 2008 Form-990 shows net assets of over 219 million at the beginning of that year. Yup, there’s a spate to be made in the hate trade.)

One of SPLC’s ‘hate’ groups, Oathkeepers,  points out that the SPLC has joined the Department of Homeland Security in a ‘Working Group’ called Countering violent Extremism. John Cohen, President and CEO of SPLC is listed as a member and Laurie Wood, Analyst, Southern Poverty Law Center/Instructor, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center is listed as an ‘expert in subject matter’.  The members of the group also include three from Muslim organizations but we don’t see any conservatives.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) which has been determined by the courts to be a terrorist support group proudly points out on their Facebook page that its Michigan members ‘participated a Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Working Group meeting with law enforcement officials and community advocates in Dearborn, Mich.'[ibid].

So we have the Southern Poverty Law Center, also known as The Church of Morris Dees, which calls groups and individuals like the Family Research Council, Eagle Forum, the Heritage Foundation, Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Rep. Steve King (R-IA), and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) ‘right wing extremists’ and the Council on American-Islamic Relations which the FBI has proven to be linked to a terrorist organization teaming up with the US Department of Homeland Security to determine what groups in America should be categorized as ‘extremist’ and potentially violent.
Now you can see why the DHS came out with its Rightwing Extremism report in April of 2009  that warned of potential violence by people against illegal immigration and gun control, and returning military veterans. Now that’s change.

~ Editor

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