Category: The Opposition

Forget South Africa! White nationalist lawyer murdered in Mississippi by black neighbor

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Note to readers!  I am not relating this to anything involving refugees (except maybe white ones)!  But, because I have written about the trouble on-going in South Africa, about the Brandon Huntley case, a white South African seeking refugee status in Canada, and most importantly because I have written about Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center and his recent campaign to ‘out’ racists, you should see this story from Mississippi.

Although the murder happened two days ago,  I haven’t seen it in the national news yet, have you?

From AP:

PEARL, Miss. — A white supremacist lawyer known for riding his bicycle around his quiet, rural neighborhood was stabbed and beaten to death by a black neighbor who had done yard work for him, police said today.

A preliminary autopsy showed Richard Barrett, 67, was stabbed multiple times in the neck and bashed in the head, Rankin County Sheriff Ronnie Pennington said. He had burns over 35 percent of his body, though investigators believe he was killed Wednesday night and his house set on fire Thursday to cover up his death.

Pennington did not disclose a motive but said neighbor Vincent McGee, 22, was charged with murder Thursday and deputies charged three other people in the case Friday. Albert Lewis, McGee’s stepfather, was charged with being an accessory after the fact, while Vicky and Michael Dent, who live nearby, are charged with being accessories after the fact and arson.

Barrett had founded an organization called the Nationalist Movement.

Then here is the most interesting part of this article as far as I’m concerned.  Check out who AP goes to as the expert—-Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center!  I just this week listened to him railing against the Patriot movement on the Laura Ingraham show where he charged that what he called their hate-filled language was going to cause violence.   Here is the big question, does the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate-filled language against certain white groups and its attacks on individuals cause violence on those they ‘out’ as racists?

If this weren’t such a horrible case, what Potok says here is funny.

Barrett traveled the country to promote anti-black and anti-immigrant views and founded a supremacist group called the Nationalist Movement. He had a knack for publicity but little real influence, one expert said. [AP–get another ‘expert’]

“Richard Barrett was a guy who ran around the country essentially pulling off publicity stunts,” said Mark Potok, who monitors hate groups for the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center. “He really never amounted to any kind of leader in the white supremacist movement.”

I don’t know if Barrett had any influence or not, but it looks like Potok is trying really hard to say he was just a bit player so therefore his murder couldn’t possibly be linked to any words coming from the SPLC.  Huh?

By the way, Potok says Barrett pulled off “publicity stunts”—I guess Potok knows full well how to spot those.

But, interestingly, in just a minute or two I found two places where the SPLC took Barrett pretty seriously—here on their website in an essay about how the nationalist movement was serious and in a lawsuit they participated in against him.  From the wikipedia page:

In 1987, the Nationalist Movement won a lawsuit in which the Southern Poverty Law Center alleged that it had violated the Civil Rights Act.

I bet a little research would turn up many such confrontations between the SPLC and Barrett or his organization.

Believe me, I am the last person who would point a finger at someone using words to make their argument.  I don’t believe the ‘words create violence’ theory being thrown around by the SPLC or Bill Clinton against Tea Partiers and Patriots or anyone, but what drives me insane is the hypocrisy of people like Potok who espouse the theory —but don’t you dare charge them with the same crime!

Oh, and on that hypocrisy thing.  Imagine if this was the murder of a black lawyer at the SPLC  by a white neighbor  in  a Southern town, the  mainstream media would have 24/7 coverage for a week or more and Potok would be parading from one news show to the next from morning till night with a sanctimonious I told you so attitude!

Andrew McCarthy: Amnesty International has crossed the Rubicon in unholy alliance with Jihadists

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is an excellent interview of Andrew McCarthy by Jamie Glazov at Frontpage magazine this morning.  McCarthy seeks to answer that throny question about how the Far Left has gotten in bed with Jihadists (who don’t respect women’s rights, gay rights, or a woman’s right to choose regarding abortion) and addresses the controversy at Amnesty International (AI) we first told you about here in February.

Here is a portion of what McCarthy says about AI:

People need to understand what Amnesty International is: a hard-left political organization. It is one of the bastions of what John Fonte calls transnational progressivism, and it’s agenda is a post-sovereign world theoretically governed by an abstraction AI calls “international humanitarian law” but, as a practical matter, ruled by the leftists who make up what this purported corpus of “law” means as they go along (just as they make up what “social justice” and other such abstractions mean to suit the exigencies of the moment).

This is not to say that AI is without authentic human rights activists. There are many people who are dawn to AI because of its admirable historic mission to pressure authoritarian governments that are serial human-rights violators. But as an institution, AI is a just another leftist hack, and the country it most chooses to pressure is the United States, for the American people’s great crimes of being free and self-determining and being uninterested in a post-sovereign order, and for pursuing our interests in the world, including our national security.

Moazzam Begg is a Taliban jihadist and former Gitmo detainee. The invaluable Tom Joscelyn (of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies) has done a great deal of work exposing him — such as in this Weekly Standard essay, which collects other Begg links. Much like CAIR, Begg has discovered that if you swaddle your Islamist activism in the rhetoric of human rights, and be sure to target the United States and Israel as the cause of the world’s problem, the hack leftist organizations will flock to you regardless of the atrocities you’re willing to commit or defend. Thus has AI made common cause with Begg and his British organization, “Cageprisoners.” That this should happen is not at all surprising to anyone who does a comparative study of leftist ideology and Islamist ideology — which is the subject of a book I’ve just finished, The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America, to be released by Encounter Books in late May.

Of course, the tie between AI and Begg is upsetting to individual, authentic human rights activists, both because it associates their cause with an ideology that rejects basic human freedoms (conscience, equality of the sexes, equality of Muslims and non-Muslims, sexual orientation, the ability to legislate irrespective of sharia dictates, etc.), and because it holds up the mirror to what AI really is (as opposed to the utopian vision of AI that caused them to gravitate to it in the first place).

[…..]

Simply stated, I think it demonstrates that AI and its wider movement are fraudulent. Maybe it was once about human rights. But now it is just about the international left’s campaign against human freedom.

Read the whole interview.  

The Far Left and Islamic supremacists have one thing in common—they both seek totalitarian control and the big question is, if they succeed in bringing down capitalism and western culture rooted in a Judeo-Christian ethic, then what?   My prediction on these pages in the past is that the Islamists will devour the Leftists.

Be sure to read Judy’s good post on the unholy alliance here in January.

I plan to get McCarthy’s book and am hoping he has a chapter on immigration which is one of several areas the Left is using to bring about their own (and our!) demise.

Fort Wayne, IN update: store owner punished in sign controversy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Regular readers may recall that we reported back in early March that a laundromat employee apparently disgusted by some unhygienic behavior (that has not been entirely spelled out) had posted a sign saying no Burmese were permitted in the store.  You can imagine the ruckus that caused!   I believe the sign wasn’t even up for a day but it has produced enormous controversy in the city with the highest Burmese population in the US.

By the way, readers should know that there are many ethnic groups of Burmese admitted to the US through the refugee program.  Some are Christian, a few are Buddhists and a growing number are Muslims, including the most recent controversial group the Rohingya.  To learn more about the Rohingya, visit our category on the subject of their resettlement here.

Back to the latest from Ft. Wayne.   When you read this story you can’t help but think that the offending business, Ricker’s Oil, was blackmailed into making a payment to the Burmese Advocacy Center that was larger than the fine it would have paid otherwise. 

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Ricker’s Oil donated $2,500 to Fort Wayne’s Burmese Advocacy Center (BAC), publicly apologized a second time, and promised to provide diversity training to all of its Fort Wayne employees, after an employee posted a ‘No Burmese Allowed’ sign outside its Calhoun Street laundromat.

The donation and training is part of a settlement announced in a press conference, Thursday afternoon.

The controversial sign was posted in March. The company’s president removed it immediately after it finding out and made a public apology via youtube.

Fort Wayne’s Metro Human Relations department filed a human rights complaint against the company, while dozens from the Fort Wayne Burmese community demanded more action from the City.

According to Metro Executive Director Gerald Foday, the $2,500 donation is in lieu of a $500 fine the company would’ve paid to the City for each day the violation occured.

As far as I know there was no apology from the leaders of the Burmese “community” or their ambulance chasing lawyer for the behavior of the few who did (spit, urinate, or whatever) in the laundromat.  It’s always the complaining racists who are at fault according to lawyer Proctor.

“You cannot say just because one or a handful of people did some conduct that that is what the Burmese do,” added Patrick Proctor, a board member at the BAC.

I told you everything you need to know about  Union lawyer Patrick Proctor, here.  He wasn’t even on the board of the BAC when the incident first occurred.

So what do you think, do you think Proctor helped calm the situation in Ft. Wayne or inflame it?   This is a prime example of the Alinsky-create-crisis-over-race stategy we have reported on many occasions.  It is more evidence that the Far Left uses refugees and immigrants to advance their political agenda.  Right now that agenda is to paint Americans as a bunch of redneck racists.  Will the Ricker’s “fine” produce better feelings in the community toward the refugees—NO! Just see the comments, a few of which are posted below, to see the fallout. 

How about if this issue had been dealt with in a less inflammatory way?  How about if the “leaders” of the Burmese community (without Proctor!) had mediated with Ricker’s and the Burmese had met the Ft. Wayne citizenry half way with a quiet apology that went something like this:  ‘We want to learn American ways because we want to live here peacefully, so we will work really hard to teach new immigrants and refugees American customs and laws.’  And, Ricker’s had said they would be sure their employees understood and had some initial patience (and were assured that they could call the police if disorderly behavior continues to occur).   How about if the political leaders in the city allowed for a public meeting to discuss the whole refugee program so the community understood the facts? Much of the problem with the program in most US cities is the secrecy that surrounds it.   Oh no, that won’t happen because that doesn’t fit the political agenda of people like Proctor.

So, here are some comments, you tell me if the episode and the “fine” (extortion!) and the lack of apology from the Burmese helped the situation in Ft. Wayne.

Diana said:

This is sad. Although the sign should not have been posted, it is the Burmese who do not learn and change when they come to our city. Hopefully, this whole experience is for the better and they learn hygiene and respect the law in our country. Seems like we have to take the burden and compromise but there is no change from these refugees. Ridiculous. If you do not like rules, cleanliness and the law we will pay you to get the heck out and go back to Burma any day.

Meaty:

what a crock…these people come into our country do not respect our values and yet we owe them!!!!

Sad Hoosier:

So no one has to answer questions about the “inappropriate behaviour” of the Burmese people? Give me a break. When will the City start supporting local businesses rather than throwing them under the bus as a scapegoat? Metro is a complete joke – Its so easy to throw the race card, completely impossible to defend against and absolutely destroys meaningful dialogue. And people wonder why others come across as xenophobic? Who stands up to support the working individual and business taxpayers?

Tom:

Now I hate the Burmese even more!

Good job Proctor, are you proud of your accomplishment?  Wow!  A whole $2500 and diversity training and more bad feelings toward the Burmese.

Roy Beck at NumbersUSA: Immigration has undercut environmental progress

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Thursday is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.  Roy Beck is the President of NumbersUSA and today he has a message for America about how the high levels of immigration (legal and illegal) have an unsustainable impact on our environment.  For the rapidly increasing numbers of immigrants we lose open space as we must provide land for schools, roads, housing, and as the population expands we will undoubtedly see a degradation of air and water quality as well.   As Beck points out in his message today, I too wonder why the leftwing Democrats don’t see that.

Sustainability was the big idea 40 years ago when much of the nation’s attention was drawn to the events and news of the first Earth Day. I was a cub newspaper reporter covering the events. And I remember well that an important theme in 1970 was that sustainability required the U.S. to begin to stabilize its population after having added the SECOND 100 million in just 55 years.

Well, now we’ve added the THIRD 100 million in less than the 40 years since that first Earth Day and we’re on pace to add the FOURTH 100 million even faster!

[….]

Nearly all of the population growth is caused by the increases in immigration that Congress ordered or allowed since 1970. For every restriction and cost that the government has put on us since then to improve environmental quality, it has negated part or all of the benefits by forcing high population growth through radically increased immigration numbers.

[…..]

Without all the increases in immigration, our communities would have around 250 million inhabitants right now, with little likelihood of ever going over 265 million.

Instead, because of a quadrupling in legal immigration numbers, we have more than 310 million inhabitants and are on a trajectory to cross 600 million well before the end of this century!

How the Sierra Club and to a lesser degree the Natural Resources Defense Council sold out the environment. 

I’ve written a lot of posts on the subject here, here, here and here for starters.  Readers need to know that the Sierra Club and NRDC * are part of the far left, pro-union, pro-open borders Apollo Alliance which is credited with drafting the stimulus bill to redistribute the wealth (as Van Jones would say) to an increasing number of the world’s poor while hiding behind a faux green jobs agenda.  Heck, one Apollo Alliance board member—John Podesta of the Center for American Progress— is a big open borders advocate and the CAP pushed for an airlift of 100,000 Iraqis to the US last year when we have no jobs let alone the mythical “green” ones.  And, would someone explain to me how all the immigrants Podesta is pushing won’t compete with the union workers supposedly represented by union leaders on the Apollo Board.

* I note that since I wrote my first post on the Apollo Alliance that Frances Beinecke, President of NRDC, has gotten off the Apollo board (I’m glad I had copied the board of directors list in that earlier post), and she doesn’t even mention her Apollo Alliance role in her bio, here.  I wonder why?

One more thing:  After I posted this, I searched NRDC’s website and found only one obscure mention of the Apollo Alliance in reference to an employee who had previously worked there.  Interesting—not proud of their earlier key role on the Board of the Apollo Alliance?

Muslims vs. McDonalds

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If I were a betting person I would put my money on the Muslims especially since you can be sure that CAIR is already on the scene.  CAIR is the Council on American Islamic Relations (aka the Muslim Mafia) and if I were a betting person, I’d bet CAIR is behind this.   An immigrant from Bangladesh was told she could not wear her head scarf while working at McDonald’s in Detroit. From UPI:

DETROIT, April 14 (UPI) — A Muslim woman in Michigan says she was turned down for a job at McDonald’s because she wears a headscarf or hijab.

Nasihah Barlaskar, 19, the daughter of immigrants from Bangladesh, has filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [many critics call the EEOC CAIR’s handmaiden-ed], the Detroit Free Press reported. She alleges she failed to get a job at a McDonald’s restaurant in Rochester Hills because of religious bias.

In an interview with the newspaper, Barlaskar said a manager asked her during a March 27 interview whether she was required to wear “that thing,” referring to her headscarf. She said she responded: “I do. Is that a problem?”

The manager told her she would not be able to wear the hijab on the job, she said.

Meanwhile other western countries are actually attempting to ban the hijab, most notably Canada, Belgium and France.  I haven’t followed the news that closely on the issue in those countries so I don’t know where it stands, but will report it here when I find out.

Just for your information, Bangladesh is a Muslim country that has been making the news lately for its attacks on Rohingya Muslims seeking refuge there.  Because Bangladesh is discriminating against its co-religionists we have begun resettling Rohingya to the US.   That is a whole other story that you can learn about in our Rohingya Reports category here.