Those days seem long gone...... --- wrong again ... I don't trust that pos and never will as I know who he represents.
On Monday, February 29, 2016 at 1:12:43 PM UTC-6, KeithInTampa wrote: > > No. I have never trusted the SPLC, and have been quite vocal about the > evils of the SPLC and in particular Morris Dees. You used to agree; and > it was but one of many points that we saw eye to eye upon. > > Those days seem long gone...... > > On Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 2:09 PM, plainolamerican <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > > The SPLC is declaring good honest Americans as "Hate Groups" based on > their political motivations and financial motivations. The SPLC is more > dangerous today than they were twenty years ago, and they are no longer > trusted, even my elitist mainstream media. > --- > I've never trusted them ... and now you don't. Welcome to the 21st century. > > On Monday, February 29, 2016 at 1:06:35 PM UTC-6, KeithInTampa wrote: > > The SPLC is declaring good honest Americans as "Hate Groups" based on > their political motivations and financial motivations. The SPLC is more > dangerous today than they were twenty years ago, and they are no longer > trusted, even my elitist mainstream media. > > Southern Poverty Law Center's Lucrative 'Hate Group' Label > By Rosslyn Smith <http://www.americanthinker.com/rosslyn_smith> > Last week's shooting > <http://www.examiner.com/article/frc-shooting-and-hate-crimes> at the > headquarters of the Family Research Council (FRC) has placed the Southern > Poverty Law Center (SPLC) back into the news. The SPLC recently had placed > the FRC on its list of hate groups because the SPLC claims that in its > opposition to gay marriage, the FRC defames gays and lesbians. > > It should be noted that the not-for-profit SPLC ostensibly began its > mission to help those who had been victimized by civil rights violations by > filing suits on their behalf. In recent years, the SPLC greatly expanded > its definition of civil rights and hate groups to the point where any > organization that opposes the left's favored causes risks being labeled a > hate group by the SPLC. It has also moved away from suing on behalf of the > aggrieved to raising awareness of the presence of "hate groups." Most of > all, for the last 35 years, it has become a real fundraising dynamo. > > The labeling of opposing political views as hate by the SPLC has become so > egregious that at the end of a report on a solidarity march in the Swedish > city of Malmö by people protesting attacks on Jews by Islamists, William > Jacobson of Legal Insurrection > <http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/08/kippah-walk-in-malmo-in-solidarity-with-jews-persecuted-in-malmo/> > wonders: > > > *Bonus question*: Will pointing out the truth about Malmö land me on > SPLC's "hate map <http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map#s=NY>" > along with Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugs > <http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/>? > > Update: I just noticed that Danel Greenfields' Sultan Knish > <http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/> also is on SPLC's NY hate map. > > A growing consensus on the political right is to consider being labeled a > hate group by the SPLC a badge of honor. I agree that it is, but I take > issue with others about what is to be done. When I look at the entire > history of the SPLC, I don't think the recent trend of inflate the hate > <http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/2012/08/stop-calling-conservative-groups-hate-groups/> > is > as much about political correctness run completely amok in the age of Obama > as it is about the greed and self-aggrandizement of the founder of the SPLC > and the gullibility of the donor base. > > Yes, mock those who increasingly conflate disapproval of policy ideas with > hate. It is a silly idea. But mock even more those who continue to donate > to SPLC as dupes of pious-sounding con men. Make them doubt their > self-image as serious-thinking people by showing that they are being > manipulated by a shameless huckster whose principal agenda has always been > to become very wealthy. For if you understand that motivation, it is easy > to see why the definition of hate had to be expanded to include groups that > were considered very mainstream just a short time ago. > > SPLC founder Morris Dees is a lawyer, but he began his career as a direct > marketer, hawking everything from cookbooks to tractor seat cushions. > Indeed, the SPLC was a latecomer to the civil rights movement, as many of > the biggest legal and legislative battles had been won before the > organization was formed in 1971. > > Dees' first law partner, Millard Fuller > <http://www.secondclassjustice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Egerton-Poverty-Palace-July-1988.pdf>, > > had this to say of him and their legal and direct marketing business > ventures in the 1960s: > > Morris and I, from the first days of our partnership, shared the > overriding purpose of making a pile of money. ... We were not particular > about how we did it. We just wanted to be independently rich. During the > eight years we worked together we never wavered in that resolve. > > By the mid-60s, Morris was rich. He also became deeply interested in the > money side of leftist politics. The initial donor list of the SPLC > consisted of those who had contributed to McGovern's political campaign, > because Dees ran that campaign's direct mail operation and had requested > the mailing list as his fee. The Southern-born Dees knew that many of the > northern liberals on McGovern's donor list would get a vicarious thrill > from sending a check to the Alabama-based SPLC to fight the Ku Klux Klan > and other white supremacists. > > If appealing to some of these rather naive donors meant tarring other > Southerners as racist, bigoted hicks, so be it. Dees also raised money for > Jimmy Carter in 1976 and wanted to be attorney general, but he and Carter's > people had a falling out. After Carter left office, spokesman Jody Powell > made no bones about his disgust with Dees and the use of appeals in SPLC > mailings that were intentionally designed to play up to the stereotypes > "ignorant Yankee contributors" had about Southerners. > > It should also be noted that Millard Fuller took a different course from > his erstwhile partner's. After he sold out to Dees, Fuller donated the > money to charity and went on to found Habitat for Humanity. As > contributions to the SPLC kept increasing, so did Dees' salary. Within two > decades, he was among the most highly compensated of the heads of advocacy > groups, earning much more than the heads of more widely known organizations > such as the ACLU, the Children's Defense Fund, and the NAACP Legal Defense > and Educational Fund. That something was seriously rotten at SPLC was > noted along with the increases in Dees' salary. While the SPLC promoted > its pursuit of lawsuits related to civil rights, especially those > challenging the imposition of the death penalty on black offenders, > fundraising was pursued even more fervently. By 1989, an ecumenical guide > to charitable giving described the mission of the SPLC as > <http://www.secondclassjustice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Other-Side-Givers-Guide-1989.pdf> > "the > aggressive distribution of junk mail, soliciting funds for more junk mail." > > A decade later in *Harper's* magazine > <http://www.americanpatrol.com/SPLC/ChurchofMorrisDees001100.html>, a > feature titled "The Church of Morris Dees" noted: > > Today, the 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 results of one of the SPLC's most famous cases as detailed in that > article certainly might lead even the most credulous donor to think the aim > of the SPLC may have shifted a bit from helping victims of hate to greed > and self-aggrandizement. > > In 1987, Dees won a $7 million judgment against the United Klans of > America on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald, whose son was lynched by two > Klansmen. The UKA's total assets amounted to a warehouse whose sale netted > Mrs. Donald $51,875. According to a groundbreaking series of newspaper > stories in the Montgomery Advertiser, the SPLC, meanwhile, made $9 million > from fund-raising solicitations featuring the case, including one > containing a photo of Michael Donald's corpse. > > In what Dees must have seen as icing on the cake, his battles against the > fast fading and largely judgment-proof Klan even became the subject of a > 1991 made-for-TV movie that depicted him as a huge hero in the civil rights > movement. Again, the movie was used to feed the all-important fundraising > beast. > > The year 1998 saw Dees being inducted into the Direct Marketing > Association Hall of Fame > <http://www.the-dma.org/awards/hof/hofinductees.shtml#1998>, a move that > also should have alerted the SPLC donor base that just maybe the SPLC was > not quite as cash-strapped as it always represented itself in its frequent > solicitations. > > Dees' reputation has long been beyond tarnished inside much of the civil > rights bar. In 2007, Atlanta civil rights lawyer Stephen Bright was > invited by the University of Alabama Law School to present its Morris Dees > Justice Award. Here is what Bright wrote Dean > <http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001573>Kenneth C. Randall > <http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001573>: > <http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001573> > > I also received the law school's invitation to the presentation of the > "Morris Dees Justice Award," which you also mentioned in your letter as one > of the "great things" happening at the law school. I decline that > invitation for another reason. Morris Dees is a con man and fraud, as I and > others, such as U.S. Circuit Judge Cecil Poole, have observed and as has > been documented by John Egerton, Harper's, the Montgomery Advertiser in its > "Charity of Riches" series, and others. > > The positive contributions Dees has made to justice -- most undertaken > based upon calculations as to their publicity and fund raising potential -- > are far overshadowed by what Harper's described as his "flagrantly > misleading" solicitations for money. He has raised millions upon millions > of dollars with various schemes, never mentioning that he does not need the > money because he has $175 million and two "poverty palace" buildings in > Montgomery. He has taken advantage of naive, well-meaning people -- some of > moderate or low incomes -- who believe his pitches and give to his > $175-million operation. He has spent most of what they have sent him to > raise still more millions, pay high salaries, and promote himself. Because > he spends so much on fund raising, his operation spends $30 million a year > to accomplish less than what many other organizations accomplish on > shoestring budgets*.* > > The award does not recognize the work of others by associating them with > Dees; it promotes Dees by associating him with the honorees. Both the law > school and Skadden are diminished by being a part of another Dees scam. > > None of this has ever seemed to dent the SPLC's ability to raise money by > inflating the influence of what it calls hate groups. But by the late > 1980s, a different problem was starting to develop: the Klan was all but > dead, and few of the organizations labeled as white supremacists had more > than a handful of members. > > But this didn't stop SPLC from using such groups for their direct mailing > haul of shame. Still, the original donor base was aging. So during the > Clinton administration, the SPLC found Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh > a handy substitute for the Klan in its fundraising, despite failures to > link his actions to any of the small militia groups the SPLC had earlier > identified as hate groups. Eventually that appeal also ran its course, so > the SPLC needed to "inflate the hate" by identifying another group as the > boogieman for a new generation of naive souls eager to depart with their > money for a righteous-sounding cause. > > In 2010, Ken Silverstein, the author of the 2000 *Harper's* article, > noted that the SPLC had found a large new target > <http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/03/hbc-90006753>: those immigration > reform groups that supported almost anything more restrictive than amnesty > and de facto open borders. > > For the record, I am totally opposed to CIS's stance on immigration, as I > stated at the press conference. I accepted the invitation to speak on the > panel because it came from my friend Jerry Kammer <http://cis.org/Kammer>, > of whom I am a big admirer. > > I also agreed to the invitation because, much like CIS, I feel that the > Law Center is essentially a fraud and that it has a habit of casually > labeling organizations as "hate groups." (Which doesn't mean that some of > the groups it criticizes aren't reprehensible.) In doing so, the SPLC shuts > down debate, stifles free speech, and most of all, raises a pile of money, > very little of which is used on behalf of poor people. > > Silverstein's good friend Kammer <http://www.cis.org/immigration-splc> had > this to say about Dees' manipulative methods as he demolished the SPLC in > "Immigration and the SPLC: How the Southern Poverty Law Center Invented a > Smear, Served La Raza, Manipulated the Press, and Duped Its Donors." > > While Dees was raised a Southern Baptist, he suggested to some donors that > he had a more diverse background. For example, in a 1985 fundraising pitch > for funds to protect SPLC staff from threats of Klan violence, Dees made > conspicuous use of his middle name - Seligman, which he received in honor > of a family friend. A former SPLC attorney told The Progressive magazine > that Dees signed letters with his middle name in mailings to zip codes that > had many Jewish residents. The article was titled "How Morris Dees Got Rich > Fighting the Klan." A former SPLC employee told the Montgomery Advertiser > that the donor base was "anchored by wealthy Jewish contributors on the > East and West coasts." > <http://www.cis.org/immigration-splc#94> > > Attorney Tom Turnipseed, a former Dees associate, told Cox News Service, > "Morris loves to raise money. Some of his gimmicks are just so transparent, > but they're good." > <http://www.cis.org/immigration-splc#95> > > Turnipseed described a fundraising letter whose return envelope carried > "about six different stamps." The purpose of the ruse was to present the > appearance of an organization struggling to keep going. As Turnipseed > noted: "It was like they had to cobble them all together to come up with 35 > cents." > > After decades of claiming in his mailings that the SPLC was itself on the > verge of poverty, Dees raised a few eyebrows in 2010 when a sixty-photo > spread of his > <http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=DS&Dato=20100325&Kategori=LIFESTYLE04&Lopenr=3250804&Ref=PH>*objets > > d'art-*filled > <http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=DS&Dato=20100325&Kategori=LIFESTYLE04&Lopenr=3250804&Ref=PH> > home > <http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=DS&Dato=20100325&Kategori=LIFESTYLE04&Lopenr=3250804&Ref=PH>, > > complete with guest house, pool, and grounds, ran in his hometown > newspaper, the *Montgomery Advertiser*. As blogger Steve Sailer noted > <http://isteve.blogspot.com/2010/08/house-that-poverty-built.html>: > <http://isteve.blogspot.com/2010/08/house-that-poverty-built.html> > > This shiny thing-a-mabob with the #20 on it is described as "A poolside > rickshaw at the home of Morris Dees and Susan Starr in Montgomery, Ala," > because nothing screams *Equality! *like a fancy rickshaw. > > A look at the recent numbers > <http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4482> > reported > by SPLC is highly informative. With net assets of $238 million as of the > close of its last fiscal year, the SPLC is among the wealthiest of civil > rights and advocacy organizations. Despite this endowment, the SPLC often > implies that it is on the verge of cutting back operations vital to the > quest for equality and civil rights due to lack of funds. Yet it spends > almost 19% of its annual budget on fundraising each year despite the fact > its net assets are already an extremely healthy seven times annual > expenses. Note that this 19% figure is under cost allocation rules that > allow some solicitations to pass as program expenses because educational > material is included with the solicitation. > > Last year, the SPLC generated a surplus of $4.1 million on revenues of > $38.7 million. CEO J. Richard Cohen makes $299K/year, and editor in chief > of the SPLC Intelligence Report and Hatewatch blog Mark Potok makes > $150K/year. Chief Trial Counsel Morris Dees, age 74, makes $305K/year. I > wonder how many hours Dees spent on trial preparation compared to > fundraising. The title Dees carries is Chief Trial Counsel, yet his chief > bailiwick has always been direct mail marketing. > > As the SPLC publicizes the names of ever more hate groups to "raise > awareness" of intolerance and to tap into ever new sources of funds, its > donors should keep in mind a genuine larger truth. Heightened awareness > has never by itself helped the actual victims of anything, anywhere, at any > time. At best, it is entirely self-referential. At its worst, it serves > as a useful ploy to make a donor who hasn't done much in the way of due > diligence about an organization's finances feel good about sending money to > what appears to be a righteous cause. > > The SPLC has more than mastered the exercise of raising awareness. In his > 2000 article, Silverstein noted that during its then-29 years of existence, > the SPLC had carefully adjusted its operations to fit the needs and > self-image of its largely urban, white, and often Jewish donor base. > Causes that garnered favorable early media attention but which also risked > upsetting some donors, such as filing suits protesting the death penalty, > were dropped, even if that meant the mass resignation of staff attorneys. > Images of angry blacks and other minorities never appear in solicitations. > Nor do concrete issues related to race and poverty get much attention in > these appeals. Donors aren't called on to actually fight to improve > housing, improve inner-city schools, or end violence at the borders. > Everything is geared to the equal-opportunity and secular sin of being > intolerant of those who are different. According to Silverstein, the > payoff is also always the same -- the SPLC is all about making guilty white > donors feel good about themselves for being understanding by writing a > check to the wealthy and largely white SPLC. Actual attempts to help the > oppressed and downtrodden aren't just optional. They are almost superfluous. > > This is done with a tried-and-true formula Dees learned listening to > evangelical preachers as well as TV hucksters. Silverstein writes: > > No faith healing or infomercial would be complete without a moving > testimonial. The student from whose tears this white schoolteacher learned > her lesson is identified only as a child of color. "Which race," we are > assured, "does not matter." Nor apparently does the specific nature of "the > racist acts directed at him," nor the race of his schoolyard tormentors. > All that matters, in fact, is the race of the teacher and those expiating > tears. "I wept with him, feeling for once, the depth of his hurt," she > confides. "His tears washed away the film that had distorted my white > perspective of the world." Scales fallen from her eyes, what action does > this schoolteacher propose? What Gandhi-like disobedience will she > undertake in order to "reach real peace in the world"? She doesn't say but > instead speaks vaguely of acting out against "the pain." In the age of > Oprah and Clinton, empathy -- or the confession thereof -- is an end in > itself. > > What matters is that the targets feel they will become part of the > solution by writing a check to SPLC. The comparison to Jim and Tammy Faye > is really quite apt. The Bakkers always featured the power of the personal > testimonial as panacea. The SPLC wants the potential donor to identify > with the guilty white teacher. The idea behind Jim Bakker's testimonials > was to get potential donors to identify with the one giving the testimony > and not dwell on what actual changes must be made in one's life to truly > get closer to God. Solutions were left intentionally quite vague. And, of > course, both the SPLC and the PTL Club offer absolution for sins secular > and sacred in nature by means of sinners' dropping a nice fat check in the > mail. > > While the formula is timeless, the pitch itself was badly in need of > upgrading in the case of the SPLC. It's been two generations since the > civil rights battles of the 1950s and '60s. America elected a black man > president, and while few of the truly intractable social problems relating > to race have been solved, those problems are for serious people willing to > do real work -- not film flam artists writing empty prose for the crowd > that prides itself on self-described awareness. > > For some time now, the media culture has been suggesting that the battle > for gay marriage has its parallels with the civil rights battles. > Promoting gay marriage has certainly become a huge cause among the largely > secular, affluent coastal elites who make up much of the donor base of the > SPLC. It seems the perfect newly fashionable cause to adopt to attract a > new generation of marks. Thus, it shouldn't be surprising to anyone who > has followed the history of the SPLC that groups which promote traditional > values suddenly find themselves on the SPLC hate map. I guess it is also > not surprising that after so many warnings about its money-grubbing ways, > the SPLC still has an audience for its exaggerations, misrepresentations, > and outright distortions. As the man said, there is a sucker born every > minute. > > Perhaps if you personally know people who swear by the validity of the new > SPLC hate map you may want to nicely inform them they are now charter > members of the new secular version of the PTL Club > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_PTL_Club> and watch the reaction. If > they get angry, remind them that this is not the assessment of the > political right. The most damning quotes about Dees and the SPLC all come > from former associates on the political left. > > Last week's shooting > <http://www.examiner.com/article/frc-shooting-and-hate-crimes> at the > headquarters of the Family Research Council (FRC) has placed the Southern > Poverty Law Center (SPLC) back into the news. The SPLC recently had placed > the FRC on its list of hate groups because the SPLC claims that in its > opposition to gay marriage, the FRC defames gays and lesbians. > > It should be noted that the not-for-profit SPLC ostensibly began its > mission to help those who had been victimized by civil rights violations by > filing suits on their behalf. In recent years, the SPLC greatly expanded > its definition of civil rights and hate groups to the point where any > organization that opposes the left's favored causes risks being labeled a > hate group by the SPLC. It has also moved away from suing on behalf of the > aggrieved to raising awareness of the presence of "hate groups." Most of > all, for the last 35 years, it has become a real fundraising dynamo. > > The labeling of opposing political views as hate by the SPLC has become so > egregious that at the end of a report on a solidarity march in the Swedish > city of Malmö by people protesting attacks on Jews by Islamists, William > Jacobson of Legal Insurrection > <http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/08/kippah-walk-in-malmo-in-solidarity-with-jews-persecuted-in-malmo/> > wonders: > > *Bonus question*: Will pointing out the truth about Malmö land me on > SPLC's "hate map <http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map#s=NY>" > along with Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugs > <http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/>? > > Update: I just noticed that Danel Greenfields' Sultan Knish > <http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/> also is on SPLC's NY hate map. > > A growing consensus on the political right is to consider being labeled a > hate group by the SPLC a badge of honor. I agree that it is, but I take > issue with others about what is to be done. When I look at the entire > history of the SPLC, I don't think the recent trend of inflate the hate > <http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/2012/08/stop-calling-conservative-groups-hate-groups/> > is > as much about political correctness run completely amok in the age of Obama > as it is about the greed and self-aggrandizement of the founder of the SPLC > and the gullibility of the donor base. > > Yes, mock those who increasingly conflate disapproval of policy ideas with > hate. It is a silly idea. But mock even more those who continue to donate > to SPLC as dupes of pious-sounding con men. Make them doubt their > self-image as serious-thinking people by showing that they are being > manipulated by a shameless huckster whose principal agenda has always been > to become very wealthy. For if you understand that motivation, it is easy > to see why the definition of hate had to be expanded to include groups that > were considered very mainstream just a short time ago. > > SPLC founder Morris Dees is a lawyer, but he began his career as a direct > marketer, hawking everything from cookbooks to tractor seat cushions. > Indeed, the SPLC was a latecomer to the civil rights movement, as many of > the biggest legal and legislative battles had been won before the > organization was formed in 1971. > > Dees' first law partner, Millard Fuller > <http://www.secondclassjustice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Egerton-Poverty-Palace-July-1988.pdf>, > > had this to say of him and their legal and direct marketing business > ventures in the 1960s: > > Morris and I, from the first days of our partnership, shared the > overriding purpose of making a pile of money. ... We were not particular > about how we did it. We just wanted to be independently rich. During the > eight years we worked together we never wavered in that resolve. > > By the mid-60s, Morris was rich. He also became deeply interested in the > money side of leftist politics. The initial donor list of the SPLC > consisted of those who had contributed to McGovern's political campaign, > because Dees ran that campaign's direct mail operation and had requested > the mailing list as his fee. The Southern-born Dees knew that many of the > northern liberals on McGovern's donor list would get a vicarious thrill > from sending a check to the Alabama-based SPLC to fight the Ku Klux Klan > and other white supremacists. > > If appealing to some of these rather naive donors meant tarring other > Southerners as racist, bigoted hicks, so be it. Dees also raised money for > Jimmy Carter in 1976 and wanted to be attorney general, but he a > > ... -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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