Minutemen

Meet Lou Barletta: America's Anti-Immigrant Mayor Heads to Congress

Submitted by Miranda Blue on Thursday, 11/11/2010 3:53 pm

Following last Tuesday's election, RWW will bring you our list of the "The Ten Scariest Republicans Heading to Congress." Our sixth candidate profile is on Lou Barletta, America’s anti-immigrant mayor:

Those disappointed to see anti-immigrant zealot Tom Tancredo off the national political stage will find a similar one-issue firebrand in Pennsylvania congressman-elect Lou Barletta.

Barletta rose to national prominence as the mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, a small working class city that in 2006 enacted some of the most draconian anti-immigrant measures in the country. Hazleton’s law put tough penalties on individuals and businesses who knowingly or unknowingly did business with undocumented immigrants—it revoked for five years the business license of any business caught employing an undocumented immigrant, and slapped landlords renting to undocumented immigrants with a $1,000-a-day fine. The law also declared English the official language of Hazleton, and prohibited city officials from translating documents without permission.

When the law passed, Barletta told the Washington Post, “I will get rid of the illegal people. It's this simple: They must leave." On the day the city passed the measure, Barletta wore a bulletproof vest to illustrate his concern over crimes he said were being committed by undocumented immigrants. Statistics, however, showed that undocumented immigrants were hardly responsible for a crime wave in Hazelton: the city’s data showed that of 8,575 felonies committed in the city between 2000 and 2007, 20 had been linked to undocumented immigrants. Later, forced to admit that he had no proof of an illegal immigrant-caused crime wave, or proof that illegal immigrants were crowding Hazleton’s schools and hospitals, or even any idea how many illegal immigrants were in Hazelton, Barletta responded, “The people in my city don’t need numbers.”

After the law took effect, businesses catering to Latino residents that had revitalized Hazleton’s downtown area saw a sharp drop in business, and Latino residents reported increased hostility from white residents.

A federal judge struck down Barletta’s law in 2007, writing, "The genius of our Constitution is that it provides rights even to those who evoke the least sympathy from the general public. Hazleton, in its zeal to control the presence of a group deemed undesirable, violated the rights of such people, as well as others within the community." An appeals court this year upheld the ruling.

Although Barletta claimed to be defending “the legal taxpayer of any race,” he admitted that he found inspiration for the law from the website of self-described “proud nationalist” Jim Turner, who pushed a similar measure in San Bernardino, California to prevent the state from becoming, as he put it, a “Third World Cesspool.”

As copy-cat laws started to pop up in towns around the country, Barletta became a hero to anti-immigrant and nativist groups. When he ran for Congress in 2008, Barletta’s campaign received $10,920 from the Minuteman PAC, the political spending arm of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a vigilante border-patrol group that the Southern Poverty Law Center calls “nativist extremist.” It was the largest donation the Minuteman PAC made to a candidate that year.

In 2009, Barletta drew fire for speaking at a conference hosted by The American Cause, a group that had earlier that year released a report urging the Republican Party to not “pander to pro-amnesty Hispanics and swing voters,” and instead to put anti-immigrant policies at the forefront of the party’s strategy. The report was authored by several anti-immigrant advocates, many who had clear records of dabbling in white supremacy. The executive director of the group, and main author of the report, had even been charged with a hate crime against an African American woman. The immigrants’ rights group America’s Voice described the 2009 conference as “a forum for white nationalists to forge ties with ‘mainstream’ media commentators and conservative leaders.”

Although Barletta frames most of his politics through the lens of illegal immigration, he has also embraced Tea Party talking points on social issues, the environment, and the scope of government. In a candidates’ debate, he said his first action as a member of Congress would be to vote to repeal health care reform. He says the Affordable Care Act brought about “nationalized health care” and said it would put “life-affecting health decisions in the hands of bureaucrats,” and echoed the false claim raised by many in the Tea Party that health care reform “will take $500 billion out of Medicare." He told a forum in Pocono, "We're afraid of our government. We're afraid of what our government is going to do” and claimed on his campaign website that President Obama and Democrats in Congress are “spending our country into servitude.”

In terms of government spending, Barletta took particular issue with the comparatively miniscule $1.1 million that was spent to send members of Congress and their staffers to last year’s climate summit in Copenhagen. He claims to be a climate change skeptic, saying, “You know there's arguments on both sides. I'm not convinced that there's scientific evidence that proves that. I believe there's some that can also argue the opposite.”

When Obama created a panel to distribute recovery funds from BP’s $20 billion escrow account after the Gulf oil spill, Barletta said, “It’s exactly what the people of the Gulf don’t need – more bureaucracy.”

Barletta’s record as mayor of Hazleton doesn’t speak well, however, for his future as a fiscal problem solver: his budget for Hazleton last year hikes taxes and fees, and called for laying off government workers—including a number of police officers. As Barletta leaves office, Hazleton has the highest rate of unemployment in Pennsylvania. Despite raising taxes as Mayor of Hazleton, Barletta has signed Americans for Tax Reform’s pledge to never raise taxes in Washington.

Barletta opposes marriage equality, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, and abortion rights. He has also embraced right-wing conspiracy theories about government-run “death panels” and the imminent risk of human cloning, stating on his website, “I will oppose the efforts of some to increase or expand the protection or establishment of legal euthanasia, abortion, and human cloning. As Congress begins to tackle the issues of Medicare and health care reform, I will never support a program that results in rationing of life-saving procedures to those covered under those programs.”

In his predictably hostile response to the planned Islamic community center in lower Manhattan, he advanced the popular right-wing pseudo-historical theory of Muslim “victory mosques.”

While Barletta, it seems, will be a reliable vote for the Republican Party’s far-right wing, he’s already emerging as a leader on anti-immigrant zealotry. Two days after the election, he went on Fox News to accuse Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of attempting to buy Hispanic votes by introducing the DREAM Act. Watch:
 

 

 

 

 

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 3/29/2010 5:51 pm
  • The RNC spent nearly $2,000 at a bondage-themed nightclub, the RNC says Chairman Michael Steele had nothing to do with it, and Concerned Women for America is outraged over the whole thing.

  • When the Minutemen urged activists to come to the border "locked, loaded, and ready," they apparently were alarmed when activists took that literally.

  • Americans United is distinctly unimpressed with Liberty Counsel's "Adopt a Liberal" cards.

  • Could you stand seven hours of Glenn Beck? Me either, but Will Bunch sat through Beck's recent rally.

  • CREW has filed a complaint with the FTC and IRS against Sean Hannity, his Freedom Concerts, the Freedom Alliance and Lt. Col. Oliver North for engaging in illegal and deceptive marketing practices.

  • Finally, if you ever needed proof that the GOP now works for Fox News, you need look no further.

"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death": Liberty Counsel Issues A Call to Revolution (Nonviolently, Of Course)

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 3/26/2010 1:44 pm

To say that the Right has completely and totally lost their collective minds over the passage of health care reform would be something of an understatement.

So far this week we've seen it compared to Pearl Harbor and 9/11 while right-wing activists have called those to voted for the legislation traitors who should be shot or killed by God.

And now comes the Liberty Counsel comparing March 23, 2010, the day President Obama signed the legislation into law, to March 23, 1775, the day Patrick Henry delivered his famous "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech calling the nation to revolution:

President Obama said he was not concerned about the process but about the end result. In other words, the end justifies the means.

Responding to similar arbitrary abuses of power by the King of Great Britain that threatened life and liberty 235 years to the day, on March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry delivered his fiery speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses at St. John’s Church in Richmond. In part, Henry intoned, “If we wish to be free…, we must fight!” Reaching the crescendo of his speech, he declared, “Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.” Henry then concluded, “The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable – and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.”

Henry’s speech is credited with convincing the Virginia House of Burgesses to commit troops to the Revolutionary War. His “Liberty or Death” slogan was soon emblazoned on the Culpepper Flag, which became the flag of his first regiment of the 100 minutemen.

Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, said: “What a difference 235 years makes in American history. The threat to life and liberty has come full circle. Like then, the American people love life and liberty and hate arbitrary abuse of power. Then, like now, powerful leaders stirred up the people to realize they must be vigilant to defend their freedom. There has not been a day in the presidency of Barack Obama in which the people have been free of strife and discord. The Declaration of Independence says that the people are willing to suffer many abuses, but there comes a time when it is their right – it is their duty – to push back. That time is now. The people must channel their anger through nonviolent means to change the leadership and the direction of America.”

I love how Liberty extensively quotes Henry's call to arms and revolt against tyranny and relates it directly to President Obama as a "threat to life and liberty," only to then say activists must find "nonviolent means" to topple our government.

Anti-Immigration Groups Going Out of Business?

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 3/25/2010 11:26 am

Today, the American for Legal Immigration PAC sent out an email desperately seeking a meger $30,000 in donations to keep the organization afloat, saying it needed $11,000 in the next six days to avoid a potential shutdown, which is what has reportedly happened to the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps:

Only six days remain for us to reach our minimum safe fund raising goal of $30,000. While ALIPAC has never failed to reach our goals, the last few funds drives have been like pulling teeth.

If you want to see Americans for Legal Immigration PAC continue our mission as one of the largest national organizations in America fighting against illegal immigration and against Amnesty on your behalf, then please get your donation on the way now!

Due to many factors, including the bad economy and shifting interests, over 40 smaller groups and organizations in our coalition have folded in the the last year.

Today, we say farewell to ALIPAC's ally known as the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps headed up by Chris Simcox and Carmen Mercer. Citing a lack of adequate funding, the group has sent out a national release announcing their permanent closure.

This leaves ALIPAC as the only major national group formed since 2004 to still be in operation.

We need a very strong response to THIS EMAIL request to make sure ALIPAC does not join the growing organizational casualty list.

We only have SIX DAYS LEFT to raise almost $11,000. Should we fail to reach our minimum operations budget, we will use your donations to keep the main site operational as long as possible during a phased out shutdown.

This was the first we had heard about the Minutemen shutting down, but it looks like that is indeed the case:

The Arizona-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps that was a border watch group comprised of private citizens has decided to disband.

Minuteman president, Carmen Mercer, says she and the board's two other directors voted to dissolve the group after a five-year run over concerns that her recent "call to action" would attract the wrong people to the Arizona-Mexico border.

Mercer sent an e-mail on March 16 urging members to come to the border "locked, loaded and ready." She proposed changing the group's rules to allow members to track illegal immigrants and drug smugglers instead of just reporting the activity to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 6/15/2009 5:26 pm
  • Our condolences to John Amato on the loss of his father.

  • Our best wishes and congratulations to Jeremy and his husband.

  • Emily Douglas at RH Reality Check points to NPR's Nina Totenberg setting the record straight on Sonia Sotomayor's temperament.

  • Think Progress notes that the Right is blaming President Obama for the election conflict in Iran while praising President Bush's policies for leading to reform.

  • The Southern Poverty Law Center covers the arrest of leader of Minutemen American Defense (MAD) who was charged with two counts of first-degree murder Friday for her alleged role in the May 30 slayings of a Latino man and his 9-year-old daughter in Pima County, Ariz..

  • So, is America like England in the 1930s or Germany in the 1930s? Media Matters reports that the Washington Times can't seem to make up its mind.

  • As TPM says, maybe Rep. Michelle Bachmann is just waiting for God to tell her to run for Governor.

  • Finally, a lesson from Steve Benen in how not to apologize for racist remarks.

The Sad State of the Anti-Immigration Movement

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 8/26/2008 1:48 pm

Earlier this month, it was announced that Bob Barr, Tom Tancredo, Alan Keyes, and Chuck Baldwin would be joining together for an anti-immigration press conference organized by the Minuteman during the Democratic Convention in an attempt to inject the issue back into the presidential campaign.

So how did it go?    

A rally by the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps featuring Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr drew just a few dozen people.

Held at a Denver park a few miles away from the Democratic National Convention, the rally was more of a picnic, where even some counter-protesters shouting obscenities at the anti-illegal immigration activists failed to stir much emotion.

…

Even Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican who launched a short-lived presidential bid earlier this year largely based on his call for an immigration overhaul, showed up late to the rally wearing a golf shirt and loafers and started his remarks by quipping, "I'm like yesterday's news."

Tancredo added, though, that the public interest in immigration issues has been understated by the media and even his own political party.

"I don't care how many times people tell me this issue is no longer important, that voters don't care about it anymore, it's still out there," Tancredo said.

Maybe so, but many of the anti-illegal immigration activists seemed unconvinced the topic would influence this fall's campaigns.

After independent presidential candidate Alan Keyes addressed the group, he was surrounded by supporters — who asked about abortion.

Minutemen organizers insisted the rally was a success, and that the immigration debate hasn't faded.

The reason nobody showed up, said Minuteman President Chris Simcox, was because the media, the Republicans, and the Democrats are colluding to keep the issue out of the campaign and away from the public eye. But Simcox is undaunted:

"This is a national movement," said Minuteman President Chris Simcox, who said membership was either holding steady or increasing across the country. "This is just the beginning."

Vigilante: 'Deport Them All'

Submitted by Anonymous on Thursday, 7/10/2008 5:55 pm

In case you thought the anti-immigrant fever of 2006 had broken, restrictionist think tanks are still promoting restriction, states are still passing immigrant crackdowns, and  there are still plenty of hard-core cranks across the country. A story from CBS 13 in Sacramento, California featured one man ennobled by his passion for confronting day laborers with a trailer-mounted billboard saying “DEPORT THEM ALL.”

[Davi Rodriguez] drives the sign up and down the streets of Sacramento where day laborers wait for work, sometimes videotaping the reactions and uploading them to YouTube. Workers we talked to say they feel harassed, and they're losing jobs.

(The CBS 13 site has video of the report.)

Harassment of day laborers is a common tactic of local anti-immigrant vigilantes. Rodriguez’s billboard directed viewers to go to the website of Save Our State, the group that wrote the blueprint for local immigration crackdowns in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and dozens of other cities. Two years ago, Save Our State founder Joseph Turner described his method of “saving” California from becoming a “Third World cesspool”:

"With as little as five people you can shut down a day-laborer center," says Mr. Turner, because employers will be too intimidated to stop and hire them. Contractors have been deterred from hiring from these sites during the protests and in several days that followed. Home Depot declines to comment on Mr. Turner.

As Turner explained then in another interview, this is all a way of expressing himself as a “proud nationalist”:

"I believe this country is superior and I believe our culture is superior to all others," he declared.

He sees illegal immigrants as the pre-eminent threat to that culture.

Even Liberty U. Turned off by Clinic Videotaping

Submitted by Anonymous on Thursday, 2/21/2008 5:51 pm

Borrowing a page from the Minutemen, anti-abortion protesters in Lynchburg, Virginia are videotaping women at a reproductive health clinic, with the intention of turning them in:

Planned Parenthood, which has centers in Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Roanoke and Blacksburg, called the behavior “intimidating and harassing.”  …

“Our signs have a clear message that we’re not using violent means (to express our opinions). We’re opposed to violence,” organizer Kevin Giedd said, referencing the small placards held by participants that read “Pray to End Abortion.” …

At the start of the 40 days, Giedd notified both Planned Parenthood and the Lynchburg Police Department of his plans. He in turn received from the police a copy of the city’s demonstration laws. None of those rules specifically prohibit the videotaping of people, he noted.

Giedd, the most frequent face at the vigil post near the corner of Langhorne and Tate Springs roads, acknowledged he had been videotaping people visiting the center. He had specifically focused on those driving cars with Liberty University stickers, he said, with the intention of turning the tapes over to the school for further investigation.

According to the report from the Lynchburg News & Advance, local police seemed unsure whether Giedd’s vigilante tactics were legal. Interestingly, although the protest is part of the national “40 Days for Life” anti-abortion campaign, the Lynchburg clinic does not provide abortions—only services such as birth control and treatment for STDs.

And although Giedd stated that his intentions were to turn over the tapes to his alma mater, Liberty University—the fundamentalist school with a strict code of behavior that was founded by the late Jerry Falwell—even the college felt he was stepping over the line:

LU administrators said they were unaware of Giedd’s actions and would not look into any tapes that were submitted.

“We have no interest in pursuing some tape dropped into our mail or plopped in our laps of a LU car at Planned Parenthood,” said Barry N. Moore, the vice president of university relations. “We don’t have any interest in tracking down license plates or anything else from things like this.”

Although the violent clinic blockades of the 1980s and 1990s fell out of style after the murders of several abortion providers, the most aggressive anti-abortion activists have hardly given up. Giedd’s “outing” tactics are reminiscent of the efforts by former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline to obtain the medical records of women who visited one clinic. Kline’s obsession resulted in voters turning him out of office, although he continues his efforts as a Johnson County prosecutor.

Anti-Immigrant Spokesmen Can’t Seem to Shake Fringe

Submitted by Anonymous on Monday, 2/4/2008 7:03 pm

“[O]n the pro-control side, the pro-borders side, the kooks and the racists are at the fringes,” said Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies on CNN’s Glenn Beck show last week. “They're nuts, you know, living in their mother's basements.”

Krikorian, fellow guest Jim Gilchrist, and host Mike Brooks were complaining that the California Department of Transportation is moving the adopt-a-highway sign of the San Diego Minutemen to a less prominent area. But if these anti-immigrant commentators wanted to make the point that the anti-immigrant fringe is not part of their side of the debate, perhaps they would have been more convincing had they not been defending one of the most militant and radical vigilante groups in the country.

San Diego Minutemen protestOn this blog we’ve seen the San Diego Minutemen:

A profile of the San Diego Minutemen by the Southern Poverty Law Center notes that the group was disowned for extremism by both major national Minutemen factions—including the Minuteman Project, founded by Gilchrist. But on CNN, Gilchrist said the dispute over SDMM was a matter of “those opposed to immigration law enforcement.”

CNN’s panel—composed of three anti-immigrant activists—was timely evidence for the importance of a new project from the National Council of La Raza to stop the increasing appearance of hate groups and extremists as “experts” in the immigration debate. Indeed, Gilchrist is listed on the site as a “suspect spokesperson,” a self-proclaimed vigilante featured as an immigration expert, and Glenn Beck is named as one of the prominent media hosts of extremism.

Huckabee Out-Tancredoing Himself

Submitted by Anonymous on Thursday, 1/17/2008 6:09 pm

“We're going to win South Carolina,” said a confident Mike Huckabee last week, even as he saw his solid lead in the polls dissipating. Perhaps hoping to broaden his base beyond those looking to elect pastor-in-chief, Huckabee is once again repositioning himself further to the right on immigration.

Huckabee’s first rightward stab on immigration last month caused quite a bit of confusion. He adopted a plan from the anti-immigrant Center for Immigration Studies and announced the endorsement of Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minutemen. Dozens of anti-immigrant activists soon denounced Gilchrist’s endorsement—Chris Simcox, the other Minutemen co-founder, called Huckabee’s plan “duplicitous.”

Last week, Huckabee made another attempt by convincing Gilchrist that he supported a constitutional amendment to end birthright citizenship. This, too, was met with confusion, as Huckabee quickly denied that he would push such an amendment, but left open the claim that he would advocate a fringe interpretation that simply writes it out of the Constitution.

Now Huckabee has signed a “no amnesty” pledge from another right-wing group, Numbers USA (through its advocacy arm Americans for Better Immigration). From the Washington Times:

The pledge, offered by immigration control advocacy group Numbers USA, commits Mr. Huckabee to oppose a new path to citizenship for current illegal aliens and to cut the number of illegal aliens already in the country through attrition by law enforcement — something Mr. Huckabee said he will achieve through his nine-point immigration plan. …

yesterday's pledge — signed at a press conference with Numbers USA Executive Director Roy Beck — was an effort to provide answers. It's a major reversal from less than two months ago, when Mr. Beck told The Washington Times that Mr. Huckabee was "an absolute disaster" on immigration during his time as governor. Americans for Better Immigration, another group Mr. Beck runs, has rated Mr. Huckabee's record as "poor." …

But Mr. Beck yesterday said Mr. Huckabee has made a number of key promises going forward, including to not grant illegal aliens long-term legal status; to reject a guaranteed right of return for those who go home voluntarily under his nine-point plan; and to not increase green cards as a way of allowing them to come back more quickly.

"Probably, this is the strongest no-amnesty, attrition plan of any of the candidates," Mr. Beck said.

And as part of a tag-team effort, Gilchrist is back defending his endorsement, similarly promising that Huckabee supports “no amnesty whatsoever.”

These efforts may help Huckabee in South Carolina against John McCain, who continues to take heat for supporting comprehensive immigration reform in the past. But they are still not enough to convince William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, who has been a leading anti-immigrant critic of Huckabee. Gheen has launched an attempt to draft Lou Dobbs, the CNN host with some far-right views on immigration, as a candidate. The dim possibility of a Dobbs candidacy was talked about back in November, but Gheen said his group is prepared to “camp outside his office” to make it happen.

More Nativist Than Thou

Submitted by Anonymous on Tuesday, 1/8/2008 6:35 pm

Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minutemen, got into some hot water with his fellow anti-immigrant vigilantes after he endorsed Mike Huckabee for president last month. Minuteman Civil Defense Corps leader Chris Simcox rushed to repudiate Gilchrist, as did another Minuteman splinter group, the Patriots Border Alliance. Dozens more groups, from local vigilante outfits to sideshow acts like Mothers Against Illegal Aliens, piled on in a joint letter to “denounce” the endorsement. And Jerome Corsi, who co-authored a book with Gilchrist, seemingly tried to trick the latter into reversing his support for Huckabee.

Perhaps it’s easy for anti-immigrant activists to be picky in a Republican field competing to “out-Tancredo” each other, and despite Huckabee coming out with an immigration plan restrictive enough to attract Gilchrist—one that gives undocumented immigrants 120 days to exit the country—other activists latched on to the candidate’s feel-good rhetoric, such as his statement that “We’re a better country than to punish children for what their parents did.”

But, as if to prove himself wrong, Huckabee is now reaching for a fringe proposal that targets immigrant children in particular, according to Gilchrist.

Apparently spooked by the backlash of his Huckabee endorsement, Gilchrist caught up with the candidate and pinned him down on some red-meat anti-immigrant positions, reports the Washington Times. Along with making the pardon of right-wing folk heroes Ramos and Compean his “first act as president,” Huckabee promised to put an end to birthright citizenship, by hook or by crook, Gilchrist said.

The Huckabee Stool

Submitted by Anonymous on Friday, 12/21/2007 7:51 pm

It’s hard work building a right-wing coalition. Mike Huckabee has been hammering away at the religious-right base, making explicit appeals based on his faith and reminding them that he is one of them. He’s signed Grover Norquist’s tax pledge and embraced the “FairTax” to shore up support from the economic right. He’s even gotten an endorsement from the co-founder of the anti-immigrant vigilante group the Minutemen. But all that may not be enough when you have Pat Robertson come around telling your people to vote for Giuliani because terrorism is supposed to be the most important issue.

It seems there’s one more faction Huckabee needs to pander to: the foreign-policy hardliners. That would explain Huckabee’s plans for this weekend: The former pastor will spend the Sunday before Christmas speaking at two services at the Cornerstone megachurch in San Antonio, home of Armageddon advocate John Hagee, who believes “that the United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West.”

For a closer look at Hagee, check out Max Blumenthal’s report from the Christians United for Israel conference this past summer. Or, if you’re wondering what Huckabee might be expected to discuss at Cornerstone, watch this typical sermon, which aired Wednesday on TBN:

Get the Flash Player to see this video clip.

Right now, the State Department is in Israel putting pressure on Israel to give concessions to the terrorist armies that are camped on her borders--to give up more land for peace. Joel 3:2 says, “Any nation that tries to get Israel to divide my land, I will bring it into judgment.”

I want those of you in the State Department and in government in Washington to hear this: If America does not stop pressuring Israel to give up land, I believe that God will bring this nation into judgment, because I believe what this book says. And if God brings this nation into judgment, He will very likely release the terrorists that you've already let get here through the ridiculous immigration policy you refuse to stop, and this nation is going to go through a bloodbath that you have permitted because of what you have done. You have disobeyed the law of God, and now, we as a nation are going to pay a price for that.

Huckabee Endorsement Continues to Inspire Minutemen Infighting, Break-Ups

Submitted by Anonymous on Wednesday, 12/19/2007 6:59 pm

After Minutemen co-founder Jim Gilchrist endorsed Mike Huckabee last week, other anti-immigrant border vigilantes rushed to repudiate their erstwhile comrade. Chris Simcox, who split with Gilchrist in 2005, dismissed the latter’s influence and criticized Huckabee’s “duplicitous” immigration program. The leader of another Minutemen splinter group called the endorsement “disturbing.”

A variety of anti-immigrant groups also came out of the woodwork to pile on Gilchrist in a letter distributed by Americans for Legal Immigration: “We denounce Jim Gilchrist's solo endorsement of a pro-amnesty and Open Borders candidate for President. Mr. Gilchrist does NOT speak for us!” Signatories included representatives of a number of local Minutemen franchises, a FAIR front group, Mothers Against Illegal Aliens, Save Our State, California Coalition for Immigration Reform, and many more.

This week, Gilchrist is facing heavy pressure from WorldNetDaily reporter Jerome Corsi, the premier advocate of the “North American Union” conspiracy theory. Corsi’s approach, rather than simply denouncing Gilchrist, was to confront him with the claim that Huckabee’s immigration program contained some element making it unacceptable to them. In response, Gilchrist “backtracked” on his endorsement, according to a Corsi article titled “Minuteman reconsiders Huckabee endorsement.”

The only problem with Corsi’s friendlier approach—helping Gilchrist along with his retraction of the endorsement—is that Gilchrist denies it:

But Gilchrist says Corsi's article is not accurate. "I am holding firm. I am endorsing Governor Mike Huckabee for president. I'm not wavering or waffling," he states.

And as for the WorldNetDaily report? "I have to say that Mr. Corsi really made me feel like he was interrogating me like a police investigator or a prosecuting attorney, rather than interviewing me," Gilchrist asserts. "He kept insisting that I was waffling -- and I did not say that; he kept saying that. And apparently he had an agenda."

But Corsi says he sticks by his story. "If Jim can't keep his story straight from one day to the other, ... I'll be happy to play back [for him] the recordings I made of him each day and Jim can listen to himself saying that he was going to reconsider the endorsement of Huckabee," he says.

What’s strangest about this exchange between Corsi and Gilchrist—with misunderstandings, hurt feelings, agendas—is that the two know each other very well. They wrote a book together on the Minutemen last year. Now, sadly, it seems they are no longer on speaking terms: Corsi’s latest article, which accuses Gilchrist of going soft, ends with the poignant line, “Gilchrist declined to comment.”

Update: Other Border Vigilantes Dismiss Huckabee-Endorsing Minuteman

Submitted by Anonymous on Thursday, 12/13/2007 2:25 pm

Yesterday we wrote that Minuteman co-founder Jim Gilchrist’s endorsement of Mike Huckabee might be more of a hand up for the struggling anti-immigrant activist than for the cresting presidential candidate, given Gilchrist’s troubles maintaining leadership of his own group, much less a movement.

Sure enough, other anti-immigrant groups are rushing to dispute Gilchrist’s relevance. Chris Simcox, who split with Gilchrist’s Minuteman Project in 2005 to form the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, rushed out a mass e-mail dissing his rival:

No National Minuteman Group has endorsed Mike Huckabee. One individual Minuteman has personally endorsed him. For the sake of clarity, it is important to note that the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), the nation's largest Minuteman organization, is a 501(C)4 non-profit organization and cannot and does not endorse any candidate for public office. MCDC is not associated with Mr. Jim Gilchrist, who today endorsed Mike Huckabee for president. Jim Gilchrist’s erstwhile Minuteman Project is itself an organization which by its own representations as a non-profit civic group cannot legally endorse candidates. It does not have any volunteers who observe illegal border activity. It has no border fence building projects. Jim Gilchrist here speaks only for Jim Gilchrist, he does not speak for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, nor is he nationally representative of most patriots in the "Minuteman movement" – who under no circumstances could ignore the failed record nor endorse the duplicitous “plan” recently rolled out by candidate Mike Huckabee. The national media needs to recognize that Jim Gilchrist’s endorsement is his own personal statement, nothing more.

Another splinter group, the Patriots Border Alliance, called the endorsement “at best disturbing.” Group leader Bob Wright said, “[Huckabee’s] past rhetoric about the goals of Minutemen everywhere has been vicious — parroting the tired and discredited foolishness that an American citizen's desire to see the law enforced is somehow racist or xenophobic." A group called Americans for Legal Immigration also sent a mass e-mail warning against Huckabee.

Huckabee Embraces Washed-Up Minutemen Leader

Submitted by Anonymous on Wednesday, 12/12/2007 7:35 pm

While Tom Tancredo continues his efforts to push the Republican presidential race further and further towards anti-immigrant extremism, it’s important to remember that the candidates who are following his lead are the ones with a chance of winning the party’s nomination. Rudy Giuliani is attacking Mitt Romney over his landscapers, and Romney is running an ad in Iowa attacking Huckabee over past support of education programs for undocumented immigrants.

Not to be outdone, Huckabee apparently borrowed his immigration platform from an anti-immigrant group, the Center for Immigration Studies. And this week he announced a surprising endorsement: Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minutemen border vigilante movement. Lest anyone forget that Huckabee is the far-right candidate who’s “not angry about it,” the former governor said at the press conference, "I'm not angry at anyone. I'm angry at the government. I'm not angry immigrants want to come here."

Huckabee and Gilchrist in IowaGilchrist, whose Minuteman Project split from Chris Simcox’s Minuteman Civil Defense Corps back in 2005, has been struggling since his own board ousted him over alleged financial mismanagement, and the extent to which he remains an influence over the fractious Minuteman phenomenon is unclear.

So while Gilchrist may give Huckabee some kind of anti-immigrant credibility among the right-wing base, it may be that Huckabee is giving a much greater boost to Gilchrist. Huckabee, whose “nice guy” persona contrasts starkly with the armed-and-dangerous image of the Minutemen, even went out of his way to apologize for perceiving the vigilantes as fringe activists:

"There are times when I, probably in the early days of the Minuteman, I thought, 'What are these guys doing . . . what are they about?' " he told Gilchrist during their press conference in Iowa. "I confess, I owe you an apology for even questioning why in the world you guys would do it. As all of us have seen, the federal government has failed to secure the borders -- they failed to bring a policy that is good for everybody involved."

With such generous pandering in play in this election cycle, anti-immigrant activists and groups are likely to stick around. Indeed, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (like the Center for Immigration Studies, part of John Tanton’s network of anti-immigrant “grassroots” groups) is planning to bring right-wing radio talkers to Iowa just days before the caucuses, as the group releases a report purporting to show “rapidly escalating costs resulting from illegal immigration” in the overwhelmingly white state.

Handily, the Southern Poverty Law Center has just published an article on FAIR’s connections to racist hate groups. Now, if we could only get it into the hands of Republican presidential candidates …

(Image from Noam Scheiber at The New Republic.)

"A Gathering of Eagles"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 12/4/2007 5:42 pm

Pass the Salt Ministries (yes, you read that right) has big news for right-wing activists in Ohio -  a bevy of second and third-tier Religious Right leaders will be gracing their fair state later this month for "A Gathering of Eagles":  

"A Gathering of Eagles" is taking place in Coshocton, Ohio on December 14-15 as some of America's finest Christian leaders are gathering for a Leadership Summit and Biblical Worldview Conference. Dr. Alan Keyes is confirmed as the keyniote [sic] speaker and will be joined by the likes of Rev. Flip Benham, Chaplain E. Ray Moore Jr. , Rev. Rick Scarborough, Peter Labarbera, and Pastor Ernie Sanders and others. This NON-POLITICAL event is designed to educate Christians about the great moral issues facing this country. Learn the truth from the front lines in the cultural war regarding issues such as The Gay Agenda, Abortion, Individual Liberty, Hate Crime Legislation, and the religion of Secular Humanism.

This doesn’t really sound like a “non-political” event at all.  In fact, it sounds likes a distinctly political event designed to rally right-wing voters heading into the Republican primaries and general election.  After all, Rick Scarborough has endorsed Mike Huckabee and is currently in the midst of an “all out effort to move Values Voters to vote their values on Election Day '08” while Alan Keyes is currently running for President (though you’d be forgiven for not knowing that.)

As for Pass the Salt, it is the brainchild of Dave Daubenmire:  

[A] veteran 25 year high school football coach, [Daubenmire] was spurred to action when attacked and eventually sued by the ACLU in the late 1990’s for alledgedly [sic] mixing prayer with his coaching. After a two year battle for his 1st Amendment rights and a determination to not back down, the ACLU relented and offered coach an out of court settlement. God honored his stand and the ACLU backed off. Coach’s courageous stand, an inspiration to Americans everywhere, demonstrated that the ACLU can be defeated. As a result of the experience, Coach heard the call to move out of coaching a high school team, to the job of coaching God’s team.

Of course, the claim that ACLU “relented and offered coach an out of court settlement” is accurate only if you ignore the fact that Daubenmire was ordered to stop leading religious activities at school and the school board agreed to pay an estimated $18,000 settlement.

Minuteman Border Fence Halts Border Crossing—by Cows

Submitted by Anonymous on Thursday, 11/8/2007 6:17 pm

This summer, we noted that the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps’ project to build their own fence along with U.S.-Mexico border was falling short of promises, while contributors raised questions about where all the money went. One major donor sued the anti-immigrant vigilante group, and a number of the group’s officials and state coordinators challenged MCDC leader Chris Simcox’s financial management, only to have Simcox fire them all.

Now CNN has picked up the story, sending a reporter down to look for the much-vaunted high-tech “Israeli-style” fence, and finding little more than a cattle guard on one ranch and a short stretch of mesh wire on another.

Israeli-style?

The Minutemen quickly responded to the negative press—with a fundraising e-mail:

It's not news that the Minutemen have critics and are under constant assault from the liberal media and open border alliance organizations. But in spite of all this, the Minutemen press on! Giving leadership and hope to America since our patriots sounded the first national call in 2005 to Secure Our Borders NOW, our committed and courageous Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteers are showing that good people CAN make a difference in the defense of our nation’s security, sovereignty, safety and prosperity.

According to the MCDC, the vigilante group is only trying to do a job the “feckless federal government” won’t do, but its complaint sounds more like the criticism of its own fence:

[The government] is long on talk and short on performance, selling the American people short as it has for decades. The Feds are stalling, wasting time, putting up inferior fencing at vast expense on delayed timelines—all in the hopes that the people of this country will be won over by their political grandstanding and public relations.

He Ain't Fringy, He's My Brother

Submitted by Anonymous on Monday, 10/22/2007 5:31 pm

No doubt there were a handful of people scattered among the audience at the Values Voter Summit who supported Alan Keyes for president, or were at least aware that he is a candidate, so it must have ruffled one or two feathers when the M.C. boasted several times that “all 9 major Republican candidates” were speaking. Third-time GOP presidential candidate Keyes, who has appeared at two debates which the frontrunners skipped, was not invited.

Most of Keyes’s erstwhile friends have been silent, but one man has spoken out: Gordon Klingenschmitt, a.k.a. “Chaps,” the discharged Navy chaplain who has gone on tour with Keyes on Rick Scarborough’s “70 Weeks to Save America,” claiming that he was prohibited him from praying in the name of Jesus (though in reality he was discharged for violating rules against wearing his uniform at political or partisan events). “Some of you know I've endorsed Ambassador Alan Keyes for president, because I believe he's the most Christ-like candidate we have in the Republican primary,” Klingenschmitt writes.

Alan bears the political scars to prove his deep commitment to the cause of righteousness and freedom in America. Nobody can dispute his decades-long sacrifice of personal fortune and reputation to fight tirelessly beside pro-life protestors, pro-marriage families, Minutemen border guards, Ten-Commandments judges, tax-cut conservatives, strict Constitutionalists and, yes, chaplains who pray in Jesus' name.

So why did the Family Research Council, or FRC, intentionally exclude Alan Keyes from their "open invitation to all candidates, even Democrats" event this weekend in Washington, D.C.? While giving the prime-time speaking slot to Mitt Romney, FRC not only excluded Alan Keyes from the speaker's podium, even after repeated requests to include him, they didn't even list him as a choice in their straw poll. …

Was Alan's schedule already booked? No, he flew across the country from California to Washington ready to speak at FRC anytime this weekend.

Minuteman Factions Launch Competing Border Vigils

Submitted by Anonymous on Monday, 10/1/2007 5:56 pm

Would the real anti-immigrant vigilante group please stand up?

This summer we noted the apparent meltdown of both factions of the national Minuteman movement, anti-immigrant vigilantes that rose to stardom during an armed “border vigil” in 2005. Back then, disagreements about funding caused the group to split, with Chris Simcox heading the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) and Jim Gilchrist heading the Minuteman Project. More recently, Simcox faced criticism over dubious financial management, with his own volunteer leaders complaining that promised money wasn’t arriving and his IRS filings showing revenue mostly going towards “personnel services.” When several of his officers and 14 state coordinators demanded a meeting with Simcox to address their concerns, he promptly fired them all for insubordination.

Meanwhile, Gilchrist’s smaller outfit had its own trouble: The ostensible board ousted Gilchrist over money management. Gilchrist sued to regain the group’s paltry assets, and, giving up, started a new group called Jim Gilchrist’s Minuteman Project.

On Saturday, the ex-Minutemen who were booted from MCDC by Simcox assembled a “border vigil” near Palominas, Arizona, calling themselves the Patriots’ Border Alliance. Joining them is Gilchrist of the Minuteman Project.. Coincidentally, the defectors’ 30-day project, called “Operation Allied Minutemen,” began just one day after MCDC’s own 30-day “vigil,” “Operation Secure America.”

In response, reports the Washington Times, Simcox reiterated his claim that members of this new faction were terminated from MCDC for "purposefully undermining the national operations" of the organization, and that others "failed in their roles as national directors ... fixated on a conspiracy theory that our finances are not in order, and voluntarily tucked their tails between their legs and quit."

Mr. Simcox also said that while the PBA's operational procedures are in violation of county ordinances in Arizona, "We wish them luck. We continue with our extremely successful mission of ensuring our borders are secured."

As the two bickering Minutemen factions compete for the scarce media coverage of their events—a far cry from the circus of 2005—we can only imagine the scene on the border:

After Anti-Immigrant Group Protests Church, Mayor Sends Security Bill--to the Church

Submitted by Anonymous on Thursday, 9/20/2007 10:28 am

While efforts by the Right to build a religious coalition on immigration never panned out, anti-immigrant activists in California have been steadily building their own version of a relationship with the religious community. Activists with the San Diego Minuteman group spent their summer staging over-the-top protests at an area Catholic church accused of offering breakfast to day-laborers. And now, in Simi Valley, activists protested another church, this time for sheltering an undocumented mother and her U.S.-born son, in a reenactment of Elvira Arellano’s stand-off with authorities last year.

Activists with Save Our State reportedly planned on making a “citizen’s arrest” of the Simi Valley mother, reports the Ventura County Star. "I'm here because I'm for the movement for the illegals to go home,” explained one protester. The protest apparently became violent, as one anti-immigrant protester allegedly pepper-sprayed a pro-immigrant counter-protester, and several neo-Nazis showed up to hold their own mini-rally. The group “Mothers Against Illegal Aliens” also apparently made an appearance.

Protesters in Simi Valley

(Photo: Ventura County Star.)

But the confrontation took its strangest twist after the protest. The city of Simi Valley sent a bill for almost $40,000 to the United Church of Christ to cover increased police presence. Although the church did not plan the protest—it was organized by Save Our State, a group that inspired cities like Hazleton, Pennsylvania to pass their own anti-immigrant ordinances to fend off a “Third World cesspool”—and although the church did not call for any police presence, Simi Valley Mayor Paul Miller blames the church for “harboring an illegal immigrant” and “any potential violence as a result.”

Simi Valley apparently want to send a message: that they are on the side of Save Our State.

The City Council made it clear it doesn't want Liliana in a Simi Valley church.

"This city is not going to be known as sanctuary city,'" Miller said.

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Minutemen Posts Archive

Meet Lou Barletta: America's Anti-Immigrant Mayor Heads to Congress
SUBMITTED BY: Miranda Blue, Thursday 11/11/2010, 3:53pm
Following last Tuesday's election, RWW will bring you our list of the "The Ten Scariest Republicans Heading to Congress." Our sixth candidate profile is on Lou Barletta, America’s anti-immigrant mayor: Those disappointed to see anti-immigrant zealot Tom Tancredo off the national political stage will find a similar one-issue firebrand in Pennsylvania congressman-elect Lou Barletta. Barletta rose to national prominence as the mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, a small working class city that in 2006 enacted some of the most draconian anti-immigrant measures in the country.... MORE >
Right Wing Round-Up
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Monday 03/29/2010, 5:51pm
The RNC spent nearly $2,000 at a bondage-themed nightclub, the RNC says Chairman Michael Steele had nothing to do with it, and Concerned Women for America is outraged over the whole thing. When the Minutemen urged activists to come to the border "locked, loaded, and ready," they apparently were alarmed when activists took that literally. Americans United is distinctly unimpressed with Liberty Counsel's "Adopt a Liberal" cards. Could you stand seven hours of Glenn Beck? Me either, but Will Bunch sat through Beck's recent rally. CREW has filed a... MORE >
"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death": Liberty Counsel Issues A Call to Revolution (Nonviolently, Of Course)
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Friday 03/26/2010, 1:44pm
To say that the Right has completely and totally lost their collective minds over the passage of health care reform would be something of an understatement. So far this week we've seen it compared to Pearl Harbor and 9/11 while right-wing activists have called those to voted for the legislation traitors who should be shot or killed by God. And now comes the Liberty Counsel comparing March 23, 2010, the day President Obama signed the legislation into law, to March 23, 1775, the day Patrick Henry delivered his famous "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech calling the nation to... MORE >
Anti-Immigration Groups Going Out of Business?
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 03/25/2010, 11:26am
Today, the American for Legal Immigration PAC sent out an email desperately seeking a meger $30,000 in donations to keep the organization afloat, saying it needed $11,000 in the next six days to avoid a potential shutdown, which is what has reportedly happened to the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps: Only six days remain for us to reach our minimum safe fund raising goal of $30,000. While ALIPAC has never failed to reach our goals, the last few funds drives have been like pulling teeth. If you want to see Americans for Legal Immigration PAC continue our mission as one of the largest national... MORE >
Right Wing Round-Up
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Monday 06/15/2009, 5:26pm
Our condolences to John Amato on the loss of his father.Our best wishes and congratulations to Jeremy and his husband.Emily Douglas at RH Reality Check points to NPR's Nina Totenberg setting the record straight on Sonia Sotomayor's temperament.Think Progress notes that the Right is blaming President Obama for the election conflict in Iran while praising President Bush's policies for leading to reform.The Southern Poverty Law Center covers the arrest of leader of Minutemen American Defense (MAD) who was charged with two counts of first-degree murder Friday for her alleged role in the May 30... MORE >
The Sad State of the Anti-Immigration Movement
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 08/26/2008, 1:48pm
Earlier this month, it was announced that Bob Barr, Tom Tancredo, Alan Keyes, and Chuck Baldwin would be joining together for an anti-immigration press conference organized by the Minuteman during the Democratic Convention in an attempt to inject the issue back into the presidential campaign. So how did it go?     A rally by the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps featuring Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr drew just a few dozen people. Held at a Denver park a few miles away from the Democratic National Convention, the rally was more of a picnic, where even... MORE >
Vigilante: 'Deport Them All'
, Thursday 07/10/2008, 5:55pm
In case you thought the anti-immigrant fever of 2006 had broken, restrictionist think tanks are still promoting restriction, states are still passing immigrant crackdowns, and  there are still plenty of hard-core cranks across the country. A story from CBS 13 in Sacramento, California featured one man ennobled by his passion for confronting day laborers with a trailer-mounted billboard saying “DEPORT THEM ALL.” [Davi Rodriguez] drives the sign up and down the streets of Sacramento where day laborers wait for work, sometimes videotaping the reactions and... MORE >
Even Liberty U. Turned off by Clinic Videotaping
, Thursday 02/21/2008, 5:51pm
Borrowing a page from the Minutemen, anti-abortion protesters in Lynchburg, Virginia are videotaping women at a reproductive health clinic, with the intention of turning them in: Planned Parenthood, which has centers in Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Roanoke and Blacksburg, called the behavior “intimidating and harassing.”  … “Our signs have a clear message that we’re not using violent means (to express our opinions). We’re opposed to violence,” organizer Kevin Giedd said, referencing the small placards held by participants... MORE >