White extremists lash out over election of first black president

[Richard Tafoya]

LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-klan23-2008nov23,0,7570102.story

Nearly two weeks ago, the leader of a cell based in this backwoods town -- once known as the Klan capital of the nation -- was charged with second-degree murder for allegedly shooting to death an aspiring member who tried to back out of an initiation ceremony.

Late last month, two alleged skinheads with ties to a notoriously violent Klan chapter in Kentucky were charged in a bizarre plot to kill 88 black students and then decapitate an additional 14 students -- and then assassinate Obama by shooting him from a speeding car while wearing white tuxedos and top hats.

"We've seen everything from cross burnings on lawns of interracial couples to effigies of Obama hanging from nooses to unpleasant exchanges in schoolyards," said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Montgomery, Ala. "I think we're in a worrying situation right now, a perfect storm of conditions coming together that could easily favor the continued growth of these groups."

...

"There is a tremendous backlash" to Obama's election, said Richard Barrett, the leader of the Nationalist Movement, a white supremacist group based in Learned, Miss. "My focus is to try to keep it peaceful. But many people look at the flag of the Republic of New Africa that will be hoisted over the White House as an act of war." The FBI, which tracks hate crimes in the nation, has no figures yet for 2008. But already, based on local media reports, some experts are calling the rise in hate incidents surprising and unprecedented.

"The rhetoric right now is just about out of control," said Brian Levin, director of Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino. "When you get this depth of hatred, it usually is the smoke before the fire."

In the small Louisiana town of Angie, 58-year-old Judy Robinson decided to place an Obama sign outside her home a few weeks before the Nov. 4 presidential election. The morning after Halloween, she awoke to find the words "KKK" and "white power" spray painted around her yard.

"I thought all that KKK stuff was in the past," said Robinson, a black home healthcare worker. "But now I look at people and think, 'Could he be Klan?' Suddenly I'm feeling like my town is hostile territory."

[Murrican]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081115/ap_on_el_pr/obama_threats

Old story. We all want this President to have more security than any other... Too much depends on him. people are afraid to talk about assassination, but it's top of mind. I, for one, was happy to see the shields around at Grant Field. And want to see a less public President, a low profile on Inauguration Day -- with lots on video screens and little in the way of public access except, by surrogates, such as jackson Bowne and/or Bruce Springsteen singing from the steps of the Capitol, or better, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial...

What are your fears? If you have none, read up on November 22, 1963... the day we all died inside.

Obama has more threats than other presidents-elect
By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press

Sat Nov 15, 12:05 am ET

WASHINGTON – Threats against a new president historically spike right after an election, but from Maine to Idaho law enforcement officials are seeing more against Barack Obama than ever before. The Secret Service would not comment or provide the number of cases they are investigating. But since the Nov. 4 election, law enforcement officials have seen more potentially threatening writings, Internet postings and other activity directed at Obama than has been seen with any past president-elect, said officials aware of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue of a president's security is so sensitive.

Earlier this week, the Secret Service looked into the case of a sign posted on a tree in Vay, Idaho, with Obama's name and the offer of a "free public hanging." In North Carolina, civil rights officials complained of threatening racist graffiti targeting Obama found in a tunnel near the North Carolina State University campus.

And in a Maine convenience store, an Associated Press reporter saw a sign inviting customers to join a betting pool on when Obama might fall victim to an assassin. The sign solicited $1 entries into "The Osama Obama Shotgun Pool," saying the money would go to the person picking the date closest to when Obama was attacked. "Let's hope we have a winner," said the sign, since taken down.

In the security world, anything "new" can trigger hostility, said Joseph Funk, a former Secret Service agent-turned security consultant who oversaw a private protection detail for Obama before the Secret Service began guarding the candidate in early 2007.

Obama, of course, will be the country's first black president, and Funk said that new element, not just race itself, is probably responsible for a spike in anti-Obama postings and activity. "Anytime you're going to have something that's new, you're going to have increased chatter," he said.

The Secret Service also has cautioned the public not to assume that any threats against Obama are due to racism.

The service investigates threats in a wide range. There are "stated threats" and equally dangerous or lesser incidents considered of "unusual interest" — such as people motivated by obsessions or infatuations or lower-level gestures such as effigies of a candidate or an elected president. The service has said it does not have the luxury of discounting anything until agents have investigated the potential danger.

[Richard Tafoya]

The primary thrust of the article I posted is that white supremacists are using the Obama election as a catalyst to ramp up activities against non-whites in many areas of the country.

Give it a read.

[Murrican]

Are they "white" (racist term) extremists, or just "extremists"?

Or "racists extremists"?

Same as the issue with ientifying "terrorists" as "Islamic" or not.

These terrorists do not represent the "white race" if there were such a "race"... These maroons may be white-skinned, or any variation on it, or not. They may come from any number of "pure" or mixed backgrounds. It doesn't matter. race doesn't matter. That's been proven in many ways, many times. My colour is irrelevant. Or should be.

What we do know is they are "racists" and "terrorists" and we should keep it at that...

[db44]

But many people look at the flag of the Republic of New Africa that will be hoisted over the White House as an act of war."

But fly the flag of the Confederate Army over a capital and it's okey dokey.

[Murrican]

But fly the flag of the Confederate Army over a capital and it's okey dokey.

Was that ever right, or did folks just not want to rock a stabilizing (post-Civil-War) boat?

Symbols are meaningful, as is symbolism.

The Obama economic team announcements today and his words in presenting them, spoke volumes, symbolically and literally. The hair-trigger effect on the stock market from the cabinet whispers on Friday and today show the emotion driving this economy and country's future right now. Fortunately, we have an intelligent, stirring orator in Obama at exactly the moment we need that stir...

Look at the verbal and symbolic back and forth between Neil Young's 'Southern Man', Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Sweet Home Alabama' and then Young's retort 'Walk On'... in the early 70s to see how emotional, expressed extremes can both seem mainstream to different audiences in the same country.

When is an extremist an extremist?