The Southern Poverty Law Center: Better known as the Poverty Pimps

It is sobering to reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.

–Charles A. Beard

The Southern Poverty Law Center (aka poverty pimps) is a group of left wing radicals created by Morris Dees in 1971. Their sole purpose is to demonize groups they deem as racist by concocting "hate crimes" for one reason or another. According to Ken Silverstein, even though SPLC doesn't receive government funds, they get their money through direct mailing by hyping hate crimes, yet do virtually nothing for the "victims". [FN173]

On their website, they claim: "The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society."

Really? According to Millard Fuller,

"Morris Dees and I, from the first day of our partnership, shared one overriding purpose: to make a pile of money. We were not particular about how we did it; we just wanted to be independently rich. During the eight years we worked together we never wavered in that resolve."

So, their sole purpose is to separate wealthy liberals from their money, yet, do nothing to help those that they claim to be representing. It's noteworthy to add that the American Institute of Philanthropy has repeatedly given SPLC an 'F' rating for nearly a decade.

In a Baltimore Sun article, they characterized the SPLC in a not so flattering way,

“Its business is fund raising, and its success at raking in the cash is based on its ability to sell gullible people on the idea that present-day America is awash in white racism and anti-Semitism, which it will fight tooth-and-nail as the public interest law firm it purports to be.”

In 1994 the Montgomery Advertiser won a journalism award for a series of damaging investigative articles, titled, A complex man: Opportunist or Crusader?, exposing the unethical fund raising practices of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In 1979, Maureen Bass Dees accused Morris of having a homosexual encounter during their marriage and having sexual relationships with his daughter-in-law and his underage step daughter. According to the file, the primary cause of the breakup was due to his mistress, Vicki Booker McGaha, whom he had a permanent relationship with starting in 1977.

Want to see how well Morris Dees has done for himself all these years, helping the down trodden? Visit his residence.

In 2007, the SPLC presented itself to the public as a non partisan watchdog and publicly labeled the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) as a 'hate group'. However, they deliberately withheld the fact that they partnered with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and not one single person in the media investigated it. With the aid of their media allies, the "Stop the Hate" campaign gained steam and eventually gave FAIR the venomous label as a hate group by the SPLC, which gives credence to the allegations that they became NCLR's propaganda arm.

According to SPLC's most recent IRS Form 990, the top ten earners are,

Morris Dees — Founder and Chief Trial Counsel — $348,420
Richard Cohen — President/CEO — $344,490
Joseph Levin — Director and General Counsel — $189,166
Rhonda Brownstein — Legal Director — $179,806
Jeff Blancett — Former COO — $159,301
Teenie Hutchinson — Chief Financial Officer — $155,414
Mark Potok — Intelligence Director — $143,099
Wendy Via — Development Director — $140,428
Mary Bauer — Director Immigrant Justice — $141,484
Jennifer Holladay –Strategic Affairs — $137,900

Not listed is Michael Toohey, the SPLC’s current COO, because he only earns a paltry five figure salary of $89,975.

Continued...



Rather than being an organization that helps the down trodden and mistreated against 'hate groups', the SPLC has done nothing more than exploit the gullible through direct mailing tactics and much like sex, hate sells. According to Dees' former partner, they weren't above unethical practices and "We were not particular about how we did it..."

As one example of blatantly misleading its donors, the SPLC conducted a mailing campaign in 1995 stating that the, "strain on our current operating budget is the greatest in our 25-year history." However, they failed to mention that they were, and still are, the wealthiest 'civil rights' group in America with a bucket of $60 million during that time.

Their tactic is to smear anyone or any group that has a different point of view as racist hate mongers and their latest target is the Tea Party movement, by attempting to link it with domestic terrorism and militia groups. According to the SPLC:

The Patriot movement — largely comprised of white supremacists — was animated in the 1990s by a shared view of the federal government as the enemy and a belief the Federal Emergency Management Agency secretly runs concentration camps.

“The ‘tea parties’ and similar groups that have sprung up in recent months cannot fairly be considered extremist groups, but they are shot through with rich veins of radical ideas, conspiracy theories and racism,” Mark Potok, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, wrote in a piece titled “Rage On The Right: The Year In Hate And Extremism” from the group’s Spring 2010 edition of its Intelligence Report.

Read the rest at the Daily Caller

So, in other words, people that practice their First Amendment rights in regards to smaller government are considered by the SPLC as 'domestic terrorists'? Yet, the mealy mouthed Potok hasn't cited one piece of credible evidence, but, shoots off at the mouth with endless innuendo.