Help! Help! My right to oppress others is being oppressed!

A group of neo-Confederate lawyers wants people to self-identify on the 2010 Census as "Confederate Southern Americans”.

“A significant number of Southerners identifying themselves as Confederate Southern Americans on the Census form could finally spell the beginning of the end for the discrimination that has been running rampant, especially for the last 20 years or so, against all things Confederate, and for that matter against Southern heritage and identity in general,” SLRC executive director Roger McCredie said in a written statement.

He said this campaign could result in protections for “Confederate Southern Americans” much like those for other groups.

“In this age of honoring diversity, Southern/Confederate people are the last group in America that can be maligned, ridiculed and defamed with impunity,” said SLRC Board Chairman Neill H. Payne. “Using the Census to unite the Southern/Confederate community can be a significant first step to our obtaining rights and recognition that all American ethnic groups are entitled to.”

So... crackers are an ethnic group, then? And furthermore, separate from Caucasians elsewhere in the USA. Apparently Pennsylvania hillbillies are innately different from the Carolina variety.

And furthermore, the descendants of Confederates are apparently the victims of discrimination. (Because, you know, all that slavery, and Jim Crow, and lynching, and Bull Connor and Strom Thurmond and George Wallace and all that, that doesn't count.)

But who, exactly, is the SLRC? Well, the Southern Poverty Law Center has an article on the founders of the Southern Legal Resource Center (SLRC):

Since its incorporation in 1996 by Kirk Lyons (see biography, "In the Lyons Den," Summer 2000 edition, Intelligence Report) and two other men, the Southern Legal Resource Center has operated out of a nondescript duplex on a quiet street in Black Mountain, a historically liberal town near Asheville.

The SLRC replaced an earlier Lyons creation in Texas known as CAUSE, short for Canada, Australia, the United States, South Africa and Europe — the parts of the world where Lyons judged white majorities' rights under threat because of rising minority populations.

. . .

From the start, the SLRC was the creation of extremists. The core staff is made up of Lyons and his long-time partner and brother-in-law, Neill Payne, along with the two men's parents-in-law.

Both Lyons and Payne were married on the compound of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations in Idaho. The pastor presiding over their 1990 double wedding was Aryan boss Richard Butler, and their spouses were both daughters of Betty and Charles Tate, who now work at the SLRC. Betty Tate had been an Aryan Nations secretary, while her husband was a Butler aide; the couple's son is in prison for terrorist crimes. Louis Beam, a violently racist former Klan leader, was Lyons' best man at the ceremony.

The SLRC's board includes Lourie Salley III, who is executive director of the board and also a prominent member of the League of the South, a neo-Confederate hate group. (Salley's hobby, according to Aiken, S.C., City Attorney Richard Pierce, is refitting small planes as "Nazi German observation planes.")

. . .

For more than two years, Kirk Lyons has been a key player in an attempt to turn the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) from its original mission of defending the memory of Southern Civil War combatants to far-right political activism. He helped organize a major pro-Confederate flag rally in South Carolina in 2000, which in turn helped to boost Lyons' credentials within the 32,000-member SCV.

There's much more, including evidence of outright fraud and deception, and the article is seven years old- which means there's seven years not covered by its evidence.

So... a legal board founded and run by a white supremacist wants white decendants of Confederates to use the Census to advance his self-serving battle to preserve white power.

And he and his are the victims.

Let me be very blunt here: there is only one defining factor that splits southern white people in America from the rest. There is only one bit of heritage that both unifies the South and differentiates it from the rest of the Union. It is the "peculiar institution" that the first seven states of the Confederacy seceded to defend.

It is race-based chattel slavery.

Defending the memory of brave soldiers who fought for the South in the Civil War, putatively in defense of home and hearth against Union invasion, is one matter. Defending the culture that started that war by firing on the American flag- first on January 6, 1861 against the ship Star of the West, then on April 13 to force the surrender of Ft. Sumter, both in Charleston, SC- defending that culture is entirely different. That culture was built upon the belief in aristocracy and racial supremacy- and upon a contempt bordering on anathema for the entire concept that "all men are created equal."

That culture does not need to be celebrated, or preserved, or protected. It needs to be buried and washed away by the years.

But not forgotten. No, never forgotten- for the evils of the past can return, if we forget just how evil they were... even the undeniable evils of slavery and racial supremacy.

Why HCR Law Won't Make Anything Better

I have almost nothing to add to Dan Froomkin's reporting:

In the short run, companies are expected to keep doing what they've been doing, which means, among other things, jacking up their rates. "There's nothing to stop them from raising their premiums, and that's what they're going to do," said Angell, a supporter of "single-payer" health insurance.

. . .

"They also will continue to try to shift more and more of the cost of health care from them to the people that are enrolled in their plans," Potter said. That involves moving people currently in managed care, with its relatively modest co-pays, "out of those plans and into high-deductible plans that make people pay thousands of dollars before the company will pay a dime," Potter said. ... And for people who can't afford to pay the full deductible, that's a lot like not having insurance at all.

. . .

The new law requires companies to maintain a medical loss ratio of at least 80 to 85 percent.

But there are still ways to game even that limit. One is, paradoxically, to spend more on health care, either by offering more services or driving up costs. Insurance companies typically want to spend less on this stuff, but if the 80 percent slice gets bigger, so can the 20 percent slice. Another way, of course, is to label more and more company expenses as health care.

. . .

One provision she expects them to exploit is the one allowing companies to charge as much as 50 percent more for people who engage in unhealthy behaviors. "With anyone who's chronically ill, you can always find an unhealthy behavior," she said.

"So that's the new preexisting condition."

Angell also pointed out that there's been very little coverage of the fact that insurance companies will still be allowed to charge older people (over age 55) much more than younger people. Three times as much, to be precise.

As a result, people between ages 55 and 65 (when Medicare kicks in) who don't have enough income to pay high premiums will be left with two options: Not buying insurance and being hit with a fine; or paying premiums they can't afford.

. . .

"One thing in particular is they'll be trying to manipulate how regulations are written." The intent of the regulations is set forth in the law, but not spelled out; that job has been left to the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Potter said. "The industry will spend an enormous amount of money to try to influence how those regulations are written." . . . And each state legislature has to implement the regulations individually, including establishing their own regulations for the new health-insurance exchanges, where people not covered through their employers would be able to comparison shop for insurance at competitive rates.

. . .

"I think the worst-case scenario is they keep cheap customers in plans offered outside the exchanges, and leave the exchanges with high-cost customers, making it look like the exchanges are inefficient," Aaron said.

A lot of these dynamics would have been completely different if people had a so-called public option: A government-run insurance plan without the same toxic incentive structure. Then consumers would have had an alternative when private industry rates shoot up and services decline. But there is no such option in the new law.

Go read the whole thing, and understand why I feel that what passed in Congress has made nothing better- and some things worse.

Hutaree: Outlier, or Taste of the Future?

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

Sinclair Lewis didn't say it at all, apparently, but it is still a completely true statement. Even more true is Huey P. Long's version, "When Fascism comes to America, it will be called anti-Fascism!".

With these quotes, freshly researched, in my mind, I sit down to write something about the followers of "Captain Hutaree," alias David Brian Stone.

As most of you no doubt learned yesterday, Stone and seven of his followers were arrested yesterday on an indictment alleging a plot to spark the overthrow of the American government. (An eighth follower was tracked down and arrested today.)

The indictment alleges that killing a law enforcement official would be just the beginning: "As a consequence of this act, law enforcement officers from throughout the nation would be drawn to and gather in the Eastern District of Michigan for the funeral," the indictment said. "According to the plan, the Hutaree would then attack law enforcement vehicles during the funeral procession with improvised explosive devices with explosively formed projectiles."

Making Light goes into much, much more detail on the subject, even quoting broad sections of the federal indictment:

The HUTAREE’s enemies include state and local law enforcement, who are deemed “footsoldiers” of the Federal government, Federal law enforcement agencies and employees, participants in the “New World Order,” and anyone who does not share in the HUTAREE’s beliefs.

Since at least 2008, the HUTAREE has been meeting regularly to conduct military-style training in Lenawee County, located in the Eastern District of Michigan, and elsewhere. The purpose of this training has been to plan and prepare for the impending war with the HUTAREE’s enemies.

. . .

From on or about August 16, 2008, and continuing thereafter up to and including the date of the filing of this indictment, in the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, and elsewhere, the defendants … acting as a militia group known as the HUTAREE, did knowingly conspire, confederate, and agree with each other and other persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to levy war against the United States, to oppose by force the authority of the Government of the United States, and to prevent, hinder, and delay by force the execution of any United States law.

. . .

The general concept of operations provided that the HUTAREE would commit some violent act to draw the attention of law enforcement or government officials and which would prompt a response by law enforcement. Possible such acts which were discussed included killing a member of law enforcement after a traffic stop, killing a member of law enforcement and his or her family at home, ambushing a member of law enforcement in rural communities, luring a member of law enforcement with a false 911 emergency call and then killing him or her, and killing a member of law enforcement and then attacking the funeral procession motorcade with weapons of mass destruction. These acts would intimidate and demoralize law enforcement, diminishing their ranks and rendering them ineffective.

. . .

The general concept of operations further provided that, once such action was taken, HUTAREE members would then retreat to one of several “rally points” where the HUTAREE would wage war against the government and be prepared to defend in depth with trip-wired and command detonated anti-personnel Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), ambushes, and prepared fighting positions. It is believed by the HUTAREE that this engagement would then serve as a catalyst for a more wide-spread uprising against the Government.

And these cretins weren't just planning or training to kill cops as part of a crackpot scheme to trigger a mass theocratic revolution: they were actually trying to put that planning and training into action. Again quoting from the indictment (via Making Light):

e. On or about February 6, 2010, several conspirators attempted to travel to Kentucky to attend a summit of militia groups convened by DAVID BRIAN STONE. … The purpose of the summit of militia groups was to facilitate better communications, cooperation, and coordination between the various militias. In anticipation of the summit, DAVID BRIAN STONE … solicited a person he believed capable of manufacturing destructive devices to provide him with four anti-personnel Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) to take with them to the summit. Although weather conditions prevented them from reaching their destination, DAVID BRIAN STONE … identified law enforcement officers in a specific community near his residence, and one officer in particular, as potential targets of attack.

They were getting the weapons, and they had chosen the targets. It was just dumb luck- or excellent anti-terrorism work by the FBI- that Stone chose a government informant to approach for bombs and other explosive munitions.

After looking (exhaustively) through what's left online of the Hutaree websites, the Nielsen Haydens don't think much of their claims to defend Christ:

Are the Hutaree religious extremists or anti-government extremists? I’d say the latter. Their religious doctrine is barely there. They may talk a lot about Jesus, but their timing and plans appear to be driven by secular concerns.

David Neiwert agrees- because of what he saw in the 1990s, with the militia movement as it grew during Bill Clinton's presidency.

It very much reminds me of the Washington State Militia, the group whose bust and subsequent federal trial I covered in 1996-7. The WSM was a lot like the Michigan Militia in that it liked to sell itself as a civic-minded group whose main purpose was to defend citizens from government oppression and to perform various civic function. I'll never forget John Pitner, the WSM's "commander," telling reporters outside a meeting hall in Mount Vernon in January 1996 that he and his members had been heavily involved in sandbagging efforts to combat the floods that had hit local rivers the week before.

. . .

Pitner and six of his comrades were arrested in July 1996 and hit with a variety of charges, most notably for making pipe bombs. At the trial, it emerged that the FBI had videotaped many of the militiamen's meetings, and so both the trial audience and the jury got to hear Pitner and his cohorts planning various acts of violence, including bombing a local reporter's home and a nearby train tunnel.

Nothing has changed, except the name of the Democratic President.

And, just as with Ruby Ridge, JustUs Township, and the other militia nuts of the 1990s, the conservative movement is stumbling over themselves to defend the Hutaree.

The worst example of the above:

Last time I looked, wanting to start a civil war (insane as it is) was not a crime. Assuming they are crackpots, they still have the same constitutional rights as everyone else, and I hope for the sake of the rest of us that they are being respected.

So... apparently, treason- the attempted overthrow of the federal government by force of arms, in this case- is a constitutional right.

But is this really surprising at all? We've seen, time and again, the threatening signs of the teabaggers, such as, "WE COME UNARMED- THIS TIME," or, "IF BROWN CAN'T FIX IT, BROWNING CAN." We've seen certain of their members already busted for seeking a war with the federal government.

And, through it all, we've seen conservatives in general and certain elected Republicans in particular- John McCain, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin for examples- playing up both the rhetoric of rebellion and the paranoid beliefs that fuel the desire for rebellion.

And it should be most telling indeed about the true nature, and allegiance, of these militias that, during the administration of George W. Bush, they were almost totally SILENT. They sat, and waited, and relaxed... but now that a Democrat, as middle-of-the-road as they come, has taken over the Oval Office, it's right back to armed resistance and rebellion.

And, as Huey Long said, in the name of "anti-Fascism."

It is entirely possible- indeed probable- that the elected Republicans, and the conservative talking heads of radio and Fox News, don't intend to inspire an actual armed revolt against the federal government. They merely think that, by playing up the fear and paranoia of militia supporters, they themselves can regain control of that same government. Unfortunately, the more they use revolutionary rhetoric, the more they call on their followers to "defend the Constitution" or "uphold Judeao-Christian values", the more likely Hutaree-like terrorists are to pop up...

... and, of course, the more dependent Republicans will be upon them.

I conclude with a quote that really DOES come from Sinclair Lewis, from his book It Can't Happen Here, which I'm going to start reading in full... the excerpts I've glanced through thus far are all too applicable to the current political climate. Here's the quote:

He was an actor of genius. There was no more overwhelming actor on the stage, in the motion pictures, nor even in the pulpit. He would whirl arms, bang tables, glare from mad eyes, vomit Biblical wrath from a gaping mouth; but he would also coo like a nursing mother, beseech like an aching lover, and in between tricks would coldly and almost contemptuously jab his crowds with figures and facts — figures and facts that were inescapable even when, as often happened, they were entirely incorrect.

Lewis is describing his soon-to-be Fascist dictator of America here... but he could just as easily be describing Rush Limbaugh, or Sarah Palin, or Glenn Beck, or Michele Bachmann, or Sean Hannity, or John McCain. All ignore the facts, or else blatantly lie about them... but all of them play on the fear and hatred of their listeners to bring them to acts which, had they the truth at their disposal, they might otherwise not support.

And people like "Captain Hutaree" are listening... and taking action.

Yes, fascism can happen here in America. It is on the march now. It carries a cross, it wears the flag either as a pin or a patch... and it claims to be our only defense against dictatorship and destruction.

And, if we do not become more alert, it will be too late to stop it.