Montgomery Skunks in Alabama; A Den of Charlatans Remains

Political Cesspool response to SPLC

by Winston Smith

The $outhern Poverty Law Center ($PLC) just can’t get enough of The Political Cesspool, and especially of our main man, James Edwards.  The latest edition of that rancid organization’s main publication, the hilariously titled Intelligence Report, did another feature-length hit piece on James.  And the report says far more about Morri$ Dee$ and Mark “The Pocket” Potok than it says about James. The piece also says much about the $PLC’s deluded supporters, as they seem to be content with seeing the same old tired buzz-words and worn-out demagogue phrases that the $PLC has deployed against us since March of 2006, when they did us the great service of adding our radio show to their laughable “Hate Watch List.”  Back then, $PLC she-reptile Heidi Beirich crowned The Political Cesspool “[the radio nexus of the hate movement,” a phrase the $PLC used again this year, saying, “[The Political Cesspool has become the primary radio nexus of hate in America.”  In their so-called coverage of our work over the past couple of years, $PLC writers have treated their supporters to a dazzling display of descriptive desolation by falling back on canned phrases like “raging anti-Semite” twice, ““Who’s Who” of the radical right” at least four times (twice in the same issue of Intelligence Report), five references to Holocaust™ denial, six references to White supremacism, six references to David Duke, ten references to the Ku Klux Klan and Klansmen, eleven references to neo-Nazis, and several other examples of intellectual infertility.  It also gives us a valuable clue as to the $PLC’s financial machinations.  Follow me on this: Everything the $PLC says, writes, and does is for one purpose only – to get donations and line their own pockets.  The $PLC would never mention James Edwards and The Political Cesspool if it didn’t result in an extra dollar in Morri$’s or Mark’s bank accounts.  But the fact that James is featured prominently in $PLC publications for Winter, Summer, and Fall of 2007 means that he’s pure money for the $PLC, which in turn means that James and The Political Cesspool have long and bright futures.  With all the money Morri$ and Mark apparently make off James, the last thing they would want is for him to go away and The Cesspool to go off the air.  Heck, they’d probably hire a security company to make certain nothing happened to James.Among charitable organizations, the $PLC is well known and widely known as the dregs, carrying the shameful stature of being among the worst of the worst.  Throughout the 1990’s and into this century, newspapers, magazines, other charitable organizations, and charity watchdog groups investigating the $PLC have registered assessments like:  

“Rather than being legitimate crusaders against alleged right-wing “hate” groups, SPLC and Dees have been shameless exploiters of the misfortunes of people they do almost nothing to help. . .”

“a wealthy civil rights organization essentially controlled by one man: Morris Dees,”

“Morris Dees doesn’t need your financial support” because “the SPLC is already the wealthiest ‘civil rights’ group in America”

“. . .the SPLC is little more than a direct mail outfit that has raised heaps of money hyping hate crimes—real and imagined—while doing virtually nothing for the victims.”

“the center [has one of the worst ratings of any group [monitored by the American Institute of Philanthropy, estimating that the SPLC could operate for 4.6 years without making another tax-exempt nickel from its investments or raising another tax-deductible cent from well-meaning ‘people like you’.”

“What is the Southern Poverty Law Center doing…? Mostly making money…In 1999 it spent $2.4 million on litigation and $5.7 million on fundraising, meanwhile taking in more than $44 million–$27 million from fundraising, the rest from investments…On the subject of ‘hate groups’ …No one has been more assiduous in inflating the profile of such groups than the center’s millionaire huckster, Morris Dees, who in 1999 began a begging letter, ‘Dear Friend, The danger presented by the Klan is greater now than at any time in the past ten years.”…With…a salary close to $300,000 putting him among the top 2 percent of Americans. . .”

“[Dees is a fraud who has milked a lot of very wonderful well-intentioned people. If it’s got headlines, Morris is there. . .”

Secretive as Swiss bankers, the $PLC bristles at the notion of accountability to donors.  Recently, the $PLC refused to participate in the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance’s evaluation, a non-partisan process that would have given donors, present and potential, a good idea of how Morri$ and Mark use the money sent them.  The Alliance reads the $PLC’s refusal as “a lack of commitment to transparency.”  (Look for the Better Business Bureau to be placed on the “Hate Watch List”.)  But then, one need only look at the $PLC’s lavish and imposing multi-multi-million dollar donor-financed castle-fortress in Montgomery to get an idea of how welcome the $PLC might welcome donor inquiries.

Very few windows, lots of reinforced concrete, reinforced steel garage doors, one narrow walkway leading to just one entrance. . .it doesn’t sound very inviting, does it?  And the good people of Montgomery hate it, because it brutally reflects the sun and blinds them.  Good neighbors the SPLC, eh?

(By the way, if you want to know how we at The Political Cesspool use the donations with which you good folks entrust us, I’ll tell you right now: every cent we receive goes directly to projects and to mission statement fulfillment.  Not one penny goes for salary, overhead, facilities, or perks.  No one on The Political Cesspool staff has an expense account; none of us receive so much as a penny for what we do here.  Unlike Morri$ Dee$ and Mark “The Pocket” Potock, we easily retain our honor and dignity, because we’re never at the pay window.  And yet, even with a quarterly budget that probably wouldn’t be enough to pay for Morri$’s and Mark’s monthly dinner bills, we still command attention sufficient for the $PLC to devote a considerable amount time and ink to us.)

With its well-established reputation for chicanery, hucksterism, and nefarity, one can’t help but marvel at the $PLC’s hypocrisy in assuming the moral authority to judge anyone.  And lest anyone think the $PLC’s depravity is merely organizational and can’t be helped, I invite you to read the divorce decree against Morri$ Dee$.  Then you decide if the $PLC’s venality is most likely an extension of his own abominable and congenital perversions.  All of this explains why you never hear or read of any politician praising the $PLC.  This also explains why the $PLC never hosts meetings, conventions, or conferences – no one who cared for their reputation would accept an invitation to participate in an $PLC event, because they would never want to be associated with Morri$ Dee$ and Mark “The Pocket” Potok.  No governor, mayor, senator, representative (with the possible exception of Barney Frank), or any elected official with aspirations to higher office would want to be seen walking through the door of an $PLC-sponsored event, nor would they want the existence of pictures or video tape of themselves standing next to Morri$ and Mark to be the albatross around their neck or the scarlet “$PLC” on their chest. Even today’s bought-and-sold amoral politicians have some standards.  

So, for us at the Political Cesspool, being the subject of any criticism by the $PLC is like being sprayed by a skunk.  The stench comes from them, and we can easily wash it off and be rid of it that day.  But tomorrow, the $PLC will still be skunks, stinking, reeking, and repulsive, able to keep company only with other skunks.

Winston Smith is a staff member of The Political Cesspool Radio Program.  He can be e-mailed here: winstonsmith_99@yahoo.com

For more http://www.thepoliticalcesspool.org

2007-10-10