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The absolutely venal Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, wasted no time in politicizing the shooting which occurred at their Washington office yesterday. A short time later the equally noxious hate group the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) joined in in condemning the SPLC.

via CNN

(CNN) -- Accusations of blame abounded Thursday, a day after a 28-year-old man who had volunteered for a center that serves gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people was taken into custody for allegedly shooting a building manager at the headquarters of a Christian conservative group.

"Let me be clear that Floyd Corkins was responsible for firing the shot yesterday," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told reporters in Washington about the suspect. "But Corkins was given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center that have been reckless in labeling organizations hate groups because they disagree with them on public policy."

Perkins said the SPLC "should be held accountable for their reckless use of terminology that is leading to the intimidation and what the FBI here has categorized as an act of domestic terrorism."

Mark Potok of ths SPLC responded by releasing this statement to Perkin's offensive claim:

Perkins’ accusation is outrageous. The SPLC has listed the FRC as a hate group since 2010 because it has knowingly spread false and denigrating propaganda about LGBT people — not, as some claim, because it opposes same-sex marriage. The FRC and its allies on the religious right are saying, in effect, that offering legitimate and fact-based criticism in a democratic society is tantamount to suggesting that the objects of criticism should be the targets of criminal violence.

Full statement below.

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After the continued fearmongering and Muslim bashing that we heard out of presidential candidates Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich during the recent presidential debate and with Rep. Peter King holding yet another hearing exploiting the fear of Muslims in the United States, MSNBC's Cenk Uygur talked to the SPLC's Mark Potok about whether this sort of hatred towards any other minority group would go unaccounted for in this day and age.

As they both rightfully noted and as Dave has reported on here continually, regardless of the fact that there are legitimate right wing hate groups that those in Congress and our politicians should be concerning themselves with, the media and the public in the United States both seem for the most part to just shrug at the bigotry being aimed at the Muslim community, largely as Potok explained, due to the fact that Americans wanted some sort of boogeyman after 9-11, and the Republicans have been more than happy to continue to exploit those fears for political gain.

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The Southern Poverty Center's Mark Potok joined MSNBC's Cenk Uygur to discuss Rep. Peter King's upcoming hearings on radical Islam and whether they're being motivated by King's well known bigotry against the Muslim community. As Cenk noted it's caused outrage from the Muslim community and their supporters who demonstrated in New York City's Times Square against the hearings.

As was pointed out during the segment, the Muslim community has been cooperating with the Justice Department to try to weed out radicals among their ranks, and in the mean time there's been an explosion of hate groups within the U.S. such as the Klan, Neo-Nazis, Black Separatists, White Nationalists, racist skinheads and Neo-Confederate groups. As this report by the SPLC shows, U.S. Hate Groups now top 1000:

The number of active hate groups in the United States topped 1,000 for the first time and the antigovernment “Patriot” movement expanded dramatically for the second straight year as the radical right showed continued explosive growth in 2010.

Several factors fueled the growth: resentment over the changing racial demographics of the country, frustration over the lagging economy, and the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and other demonizing propaganda aimed at minorities and the government.

The report is in the Spring 2011 issue of the SPLC’s quarterly investigative journal Intelligence Report. The Hate Map also contains a comprehensive, state-by-state listing of hate groups and their locations. Read on...

Rep. King seems determined to single out the Muslim churches to attack for political gain while ignoring the threat from these other groups. I guess that's not too surprising from someone who doesn't seem to mind "palling around with terrorists" himself as long as they're Irish Catholics.

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Keith Olbermann talked to the SPLC's Mark Potok about what the possible motivation behind the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Griffords may have been.

OLBERMANN: Loughner's Internet trail, does it tell us anything about his politics? Does that specific reference to the 8th District, the Congresswoman's district, does that step out of the incoherence or just part of the incoherence?

POTOK: Well you're right that reading through all of his materials or the materials that are purported to be his he sounds quite mad... out of his mind. But there is a thread through the material that really seems pretty clear and that thread has to do with seeing the government as an enemy. The books you mentioned, there's a theme that runs through all of them, particularly the Ayn Rand book; the idea of the individual against the state, but there are ideas, like the idea of the only legitimate currency being backed by gold instead of silver; that's a core idea of the radical right in this country.

The idea weirdly enough of controlling grammar, of somehow the government using grammar to control the people is an idea that exists on the radical right. There's a particular person, a man named David Wynn Miller who has plugged this idea for years. This man also talked quite a lot in these strange videos of his about what he called conscience dreaming but I think it's almost certainly meant to be conscious dreaming which is an idea that also has been kind of tossed around on the radical right, in particular by a kind of British conspiracy theorist by the name of David Icke. So a lot of these ideas, his burning of the flag, his talking about the government as treasonous and using mind control to control the rest of us and so on, these are all ideas or kind of shards of ideas that exist very much on the radical right.

And then of course as the Pima sheriff said so dramatically and so truly I think, you know you add those kinds of ideas to just the amazing level of vitriol out there on the air waves and also in addition to what the sheriff said, coming from politicians, and it is not entirely surprising, you know, that someone like this acts out.

Keith asked Mark Potok if in fact Jared Loughner is just one extremely disturbed individual, does that “exonerate those that put the cross-hairs on Ms. Giffords” and “those who use language demonizing liberals, or Democrats or just leaving the party out of it, people in office, incumbents, or does it simply underscore why such language, no matter what direction it's pointed in is so ill advised.”

POTOK: I think the latter. I think there's no exoneration for the people who talk about... who make these... who will repeat these kind of falsehoods on the air and in public squares all over this country. You know, the people who say it's not about health care, it's about the president wanting to kill your grandmother. It's not about immigration reform, it's about a secret plot on the part of Mexico to reconquer the Southwestern United States, and on and on and on.

Thank you Mark Potok for that. It's a sad day for Democracy as Keith Olbermann expressed in his special comment when one of our political parties has turned to terrorism as a political tactic, and that's exactly what the right wing and the Republicans have done while being given a free pass from our useless corporate media.

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Chris Matthews talked to the SPLC's Mark Potok and The Family Research Council's Tony Perkins about the recent designation of Perkin's FRC as a hate group for their anti-gay rhetoric.

From the SPLC's web site -- Active U.S. Hate Groups:

The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 932 active hate groups in the United States in 2009. Only organizations and their chapters known to be active during 2009 are included.

All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.

This list was compiled using hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports.

Hate group activities can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing. Websites appearing to be merely the work of a single individual, rather than the publication of a group, are not included in this list. Listing here does not imply a group advocates or engages in violence or other criminal activity.

Here's more from TPM -- Family Research Council Labeled 'Hate Group' By SPLC Over Anti-Gay Rhetoric:

The Family Research Council is perhaps the most prominent voice in conservative social politics and the hosts of an annual rite of passage for many Republicans who hope to run for president. And now, FRC is on the same Southern Poverty Law Center list of hate groups as the Ku Klux Klan.

The SPLC gave the Family Research Council the designation due to anti-gay speech from its leaders, which the SPLC says includes calls for gay men and lesbians to be imprisoned. Read on...

Perkins needless to say isn't happy about it. I say good for Mark Potok and the SPLC for putting these hate mongers in the type of company where they belong.

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As I already noted in my post about David Brooks recent white washing of the increase in Islamophobia, the Southern Poverty Law Center has a report out on the recent wave of hate crimes directed towards Muslims in the United States. Their spokesman and director of publications and information Mark Potok went on CNN to discuss that article.

He didn't get a chance to do it until near the end of the interview but he rightfully called out the Republican Party and the right wing of their party for fanning the flames on this issue and for their part in "pouring gasoline on this fire."

He's absolutely right and I'm wondering just how badly they and Fox News are going to be willing to keep this up in order to win the mid-term elections this year before they over-play their hand or if they already have. One of my co-workers is deeply religious and involved in his church and he's been following this stuff and is worried that it's going to reflect badly on his church since this wingnut in Florida is so over the top and made sure to point out to me that this pastor didn't represent all Christians.

I tried to explain to him that this was nothing but part of an ongoing strategy by Republicans and our corporate media to fan the flames of racism and hatred and to make sure everyone is afraid of the scary black man in the White House and that it's disgusting and of course doesn't mean that all religious groups or Christians should be tagged with this one crazy person's extremism.

The fact that he's viewing this from that stand point makes me wonder if they have indeed overplayed how the electorate is responding to this nonsense, and I'd love to know if anyone else has had any similar reactions from friends or family as well. People who are middle of the road, non-political and just very religious don't want to be painted as raving wingnuts who hate Muslims. I hope to hell there are a lot of others out there like my co-worker who are watching this stuff and feel like he does as well where it doesn't make him feel like he wants to go vote for Republicans because he's afraid of the scary Muslims, but is embarrassed by what's going on and worried that he or his church is going to get tagged with the extremism instead.

And for anyone that wants to pretend like Fox hasn't been ginning this up to help the Republicans make electoral gains for a long time now, Media Matters has this report.

TIMELINE: Nine months of the right's anti-Muslim bigotry:

Cheered on by Fox News and the rest of the right-wing media, conservative activists spent the past year engaged in an anti-Muslim campaign that included efforts to block the planned Islamic center in lower Manhattan and demonize the imam spearheading the project. The bigotry has culminated in a Florida pastor's now-"suspended" plans to burn Qurans on September 11 -- plans that the pastor has explicitly linked to the controversy over the Islamic center.

Go read the rest and share with anyone that thinks Fox is a credible "news" organization.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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Teabagger Mark Williams got terribly upset with Geraldo Rivera for a segment Fox aired just before they brought him on to ask whether the tea party movement should be worried about being painted as extremists.

Williams: Well as long as you keep helping them with hit pieces like the one you just ran. The tea party movement is a political movement based on...

Geraldo: Which hit piece was that Mark? Which hit piece was that?

Williams: ... based on the Constitution Geraldo. That piece mixing militias and Timothy McVeigh and the people who love their country and the Constitution. We are a human rights movement. America is the only society in the history of the world founded on the notion that governments exist to protect individual human rights and liberties. That's being taken away from this country. It's impossible for these people to be militias or to be racists.

Yeah right. This is coming from this guy -- Teabagger Mark Williams says: 'Obama is an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and a racist in chief' and tries to defend it!. Real sweetheart there. Williams goes on to lie and say that Congressman Lewis recanted his story that he was spat on. As Ellen at Newshounds points out, that's just the latest right wing conspiracy theory.

Maybe because it’s not true. Williams might have been thinking of Congressman Heath Shuler who has denied having heard the n-word at the protest on Capitol Hill the day health care reform legislation passed. But Cleaver has not recanted. In fact, here’s a video of him being spat on. (at about 1:15, found via Gawker.)

Williams then went off on a tirade, screaming at Geraldo.

Williams: We’re the ones who were egged, we were the ones who were physically attacked in some cases and our minority members received the most vile, hateful, racist emails. ...

What is it about America and the Constitution that frightens you, Geraldo? What is it about this country and engaged citizenry… what is it that frightens you?

Geraldo: You're going to be what frightens me.

Geraldo then runs to Mike Huckabee to get the tone of the show calmed down and the conversation away from crazy-ass Mark Williams. Yeah that's right. Mark Williams made Mike Huckabee look like the voice of reason in this segment. That takes some doing. The Newshounds article has more on Geraldo's lack of fact checking here.

So what set Williams off besides Geraldo daring to say that the tea party movement might not benefit from being associated with racists and militia groups?

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From GoLeftTV's Ring of Fire:

If you think that the Tea Partiers are just a bunch of misinformed Republicans who hate paying taxes, think again. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center who monitors the activities of extremist hate groups, the Tea Party is actually helping to strengthen the white supremacist movement in America, and has helped to re-energize some specific hate groups that were on the verge of extinction. Mike Papantonio talks about this with Mark Potok, editor of the SPLCs monthly Intelligence Report.

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Lawrence O'Donnell talks to the Southern Poverty Law Center's Mark Potok about John Boehner's response to the escalating threats to lawmakers:

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) Wednesday called disrespectful acts towards members of Congress "unacceptable" and urged health law opponents to speak with their votes instead.

“Violence and threats are unacceptable. That is not the American way," he said on Fox News. "Yes, I know there’s anger, but let’s take that anger and go out and register people to vote, go volunteer on a political campaign, and let’s do it the right way.”

Potok called John Boehner a "day late and a dollar short" and had some questions for the Minority Leader.

Potok: I would like to know where the so-called responsible leaders of the party were, you know, when Sarah Palin claimed that the President was setting up death panels to murder our grandparents. I’d like to know where they were when Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was suggesting that the President was setting up political re-education camps to turn our children into Marxist robots. You know, I’d like to know where they were when Steve King was suggesting that a person who flew a plane into an IRS building in Austin was essentially justified or had the IRS been eliminated this would never have been a problem.

I mean I just think we have heard an enormous amount of vitriol, defamatory, conspiracy theories and propaganda from people who are in a position to lead and to know better. So it just seems to me these people very largely have been trying to ride the tiger of this populist rebellion and in doing that they’ve come more and more to look like that tiger.

Potok also pointed out how troubling the date of April 19th is for the upcoming "Second Amendment March".

What may be most noteworthy about the march, however, is its date — April 19. That is the date of the first shots fired at Lexington in the Revolutionary War. And it is also the anniversary of the fiery end of the government siege in Waco and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

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August 12, 2009 News Corp