BEWARE THE Center for New Community. They are Liars.

[ALIPAC]

Thanks Legal and thanks for the spelling error tip off. I had a bit of Dyslexia as a child and my spelling has been a problem always. Especially when Im tired.

Devin Burghart could never handle me in a man to man debate.

The truth is on our side and the viewing audience favors our view.

W

[gearhead]

http://www.newcomm.org/index.php?option ... &Itemid=25

Delena Wilkerson (vice chair) Oak Park, IL

Delena S. Wilkerson, MA
Executive Director
delena@NFConline.org

http://www.nfconline.org/main/about/staff.htm

Nonprofit Financial Center’s mission is to strengthen the viability of communities by enhancing the financial stability and management capacity of the nonprofits, individuals, and organizations that support those communities. Established in 1980, NFC is Illinois’ oldest independent nonprofit lender and ranks among the top five management support organizations in the area.

The Vice Chair of Center for New Community is in the "business" of 501 C3s.

[Judy]

Pass the Fair Tax which eliminates the income tax including corporate income tax which will greatly reduce the incentive for corporate shareholders to approve contributions to these Flakey Tax-Exempt Profiteers who aid and abett illegal aliens, violate our laws, insult and attempt to discredit American Citizens, and are traitors working to end the United States.

Lets remove the "carrot" for their funding and shut them down.

The Fair Tax Legislation is HR 25.

Learn more at: http://www.fairtax.org

Lets Do IT!!

[Pokie]

good response ....

if ALIPAC is insignificant, then why is CNC creating all this fuss?
Who is CNC anyway?... another do-gooder operation who thinks it's alright for minorities to break our laws AND we must reward them...

What or who is more racist than an ethnic group (Mexicans and other Latinos) who take the liberty of calling themselves a race "La Raza" when they are an ethnic group made up of all kinds of races from S.America, Europe and Asia; but they act as if only "brown" skins matter to them..... IMO)

Did I not see racist T-shirts at Baldwin Park that made it clear that they are racists: "We are not Latinos, we are not Hispanics...we are Mexicans.... and in smaller print it says clearly "we are not white"..... so THEY ARE excluding any Latinos that that have euro-white blood flowing through them...

Why do these "do-gooders" practice discrimination in favor of Latinos? in overwhelming numbers.... when there are billions of people around the world who would love to have a chance at crossing into the US...

Somehow these aliens have been led to believe that as a minority they cannot possibly be racist, and that opposition to them must be racist.... (that does include Latino whites).... just look at some of the posts in their own forums at www.univision.com where they rave and rant against whites, jews, including Cuban and South American whites....and cheer for OBL and Hamas..... This attitude is exemplified by that "Latino" online newsletter www.hispanicvista.com ... especially Raoul Contreras' virulent anti-white rhetoric...... if a white guy were saying those things, he would be arrested forthwith..... (my ISP has been blocked since they dont have any more answers for me...)

CNC is probably profiting from this illegal human trade, or supported by those banks that are now giving risky loans to illegals using those pretend-Mexican IDs....and by corporations that circumvent the law by hiding behind "it's not our job to verify their legal status"... BS..



[/img]

[ALIPAC]

One of the key features of groups like these is that the DO NOT COME TO DEBATE THE ISSUE.

Their goal is to malign the messenger. In the absence of an ability to debate the issue, their main goal is to cast aspersions on their opposition.

W

[Bootsie]

This person just has completely ignored FACTS. IF, and that's a BIG IF, he had done ANY research on his accusations, he would see that there have been several occasions that William has BANNED someone from our site for making remarks that could be contrued as racist.

Frankly, I think we should give this "report" the credit it DESERVES--COMPLETE SILENCE. You have answered the charges, William, and I would just let them stew. This person does not WANT the facts. He is just a smear merchant and I don't believe his credibility extends any further than his own little narrow-minded group.

ALIPAC'S reputation defends itself. We should just stay above the fray and let him SPEW. He'll dig his own grave without any help from us.

[ALIPAC]

Thanks Bootsie.

Well, they released this months ago and not one American media source touched it. The only reporter to even mention it from a Spanish media source said they had deep concerns about the report as well.

I suppose if anything is ever brought up about it for real then i will ask some of our minority members and legal immigrants to issue a statement to sink this waste down to the bottom of the river.

W

[Bootsie]

I think that's an excellent idea, William. Also, you could maybe even pull together some of the threads that have been locked or removed (don't know whether you would have that or not) BECAUSE of racist remarks. That should lay this little assault to rest.

[newcomm]

Dear Mr. Gheen:

“Defamation� is a severe charge with very specific legal guidelines. If you seriously think that our report defamed you, let’s drop the posturing and get on with the legal proceedings. Have your attorney contact ours.

If you’re not serious, I suggest you stop throwing around such idle threats. It’s not good for your credibility.

Let me be clear, we will not be intimidated or silenced by such bullying.

When you called our office and ranted at our field director for nearly 45 minutes back in June, you repeatedly made threats and specious accusations. In the midst of that conversation, our field director politely asked you numerous times to point to any factual errors or inaccuracies in the report. He even offered to have our research staff print corrections if there were any errors. You couldn’t come up with any back then. It was apparent to our staff that you were emotional and just wanted to vent. Now, you’ve had months to scour the report, and yet you still haven’t given us any real factual errors or inaccuracies.

On Saturday, over four months after we released the report, you email me and assert that the Center for New Community has somehow defamed you. Yet you continue to be unable to provide even a single example of a defamatory remark in the report. You claim that you “can easily point out well over 10 lies, inaccuracies, and blatant mistakes� in the report. (1) And yet you never do.

You also inform me of your response to the CNC Special Report, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC: Xenophobia, Nativism, and Anti-Immigrant Hysteria. We’ve thoroughly gone over the response that you’ve posted on your website. In that response we find numerous Ad Hominem personal attacks (calling us “childish,� “liars,� “idiots� and “goons,� for instance), a plethora of unsubstantiated assertions, misleading statements, red-herrings, and a misreading of the CNC report, but no evidence of your claim of defamation.

Despite the lack of corroboration to your argument, I want to address the other points in your email to me.

You begin your letter by stating that “Many of my close friends are of a different race than I am and many of my good friends are naturalized citizens.� This old trope….

I’m speechless. That you would adapt a phrase that was historically used to downplay the racism of segregation when trying to convince me that you’re not racist is utterly mind-boggling. To borrow from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Mr. Gheen “doth protest too much; methinks."

Besides, the statement about your friends is a total non-sequitur. Nowhere in our report do we ever comment on the race, ethnicity or citizenship status of your friends. Moreover, nowhere in the report do we refer to you as a “racist.� We do not pretend to know what is in your heart. Your statement has nothing to do with the facts contained in our report.

We do, however, report that you have regurgitated racially-charged conspiracy theories about “La Reconquista� on several occasions. These are facts. Check the footnotes of the report for specific references.

If you’re truly concerned about people thinking that you’re a racist or xenophobe, you might want to consider staying clear of racist conspiracy theories. You also might want to avoid sharing a platform with racists or xenophobes.

Your email also makes a point of highlighting the diversity of ALI-PAC financial supporters. The supposed diversity of your contributors is completely unrelated to the positions put forward in the CNC report. Nowhere in the report do we discuss the diversity of your contributors.

What we do note in the report is that, “According to the its most recently available Federal Election Commission reports, ALI-PAC raised less than $2,000 in 2004, $800 of which was in the form of a loan from Gheen himself.� (2)

In response, on the ALI-PAC website you called us “idiots� and claimed that we “just cited our campaign reports END OF YEAR 2004. We had been in existance [sic] only since Sept. 11, 2004. Barely 3 months in existance [sic] as a new organization and you are holding up our first reports as some sign of our failure? The egg is on your face. You are childish and easily disproven [sic].� (3)

Your statement is demonstrably false. We were not holding up just the “first reports,� we relied on all FEC documents available at the time of publication. The CNC report accurately states this fact. Moreover, a simple visit to the FEC website will prove that your 2005 documents were filed after the report was released.

Try and spin all you want, but facts are facts. It appears as though your response from June was an attempt to mislead people into thinking that your had more support than you really did. I note that you failed to provide any supporting data for your claim. Financial statements, full contributor lists, etc. would have been sufficient proof, yet you fail to produce even a shred of evidence.

Now you want to continue misleading people, as you repeat the same assertion. But a glimpse at your 2005 FEC documents reveals that ALI-PAC still lacks a level of support that could possibly be considered significant.

In fact, according to the most recent information available from the FEC (as of November 20, 2005), ALI-PAC has raised just $7817.16 in 2005 thus far. That’s hardly a significant increase from the paltry sum raised in 2004, and it certainly doesn’t qualify your organization as having a “national profile� as you like to claim.

From the FEC documents, it’s impossible to determine the exact number of ALI-PAC supporters. But if each of the un-itemized donors contributed $25.00 to ALI-PAC, that would mean that ALI-PAC has a whopping 231 supporters. (4) If your declaration that you “have financial supporters in 44 states,� is accurate, that works out to around 5 supporters per state. (5)

That calculation of contributors is even smaller than the 864 website participants we gave you credit for in the report. Does that mean that the Center for New Community erred by overstating the size of your organization? Is that the “lie� that upset you? Or is that how you think we defamed you?

Back to the issue of diversity of your contributors: Unless you’re prepared to make the lists of all donors available, along with a racial/ethnic breakdown of each of the contributors, then there is no way to substantiate your claim. After you do that, then perhaps you’d like to tell us how you determined the racial / ethnic breakdown of your membership? Neither your online contribution form nor your volunteer forms request this information.

Again, let me emphasize that your statement about the diversity of your donors is a red-herring. It is a transparent attempt to try and divert attention away from the substance of our report by injecting a completely different subject. Nor is it at all relevant to your claim of defamation. It’s a nice try, but it simply won’t work.

But since you brought up your supporters, let’s examine them for a moment, shall we?

In 2005, you had a total of 4 itemized contributors (those who gave $200.00 or more). Your single largest supporter for 2005 (larger than all the other itemized contributors combined) was Kathryn K. Bell of Irving, Texas. She contributed $1500.00 on April 25, 2005. (6)

I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but Kathryn Bell, "An Angry Old Lady in TX" as she describes herself, is a participant on the website of white nationalist group, American Renaissance.

At the American Renaissance website on June 27, 2005, Kathryn Bell criticized Canadian MP Steven Fletcher for apologizing after he referred to Japanese soldiers from the World War II as "Japs" and "bastards." (7) Bell not only agreed with Fletcher’s original statement, she went so far as to defend the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. (8) When contacted in Texas, Kathryn K. Bell admitted sending ALI-PAC money but refused to comment on the American Renaissance post.

Could it be that 1/4 of your 2005 itemized donors are white nationalists?

At this point, if you’d like for anyone to take you seriously, I suppose you have a few options. You could:

a. Publicly return the money and denounce the involvement of all white nationalists in your organization and the anti-immigration movement as a whole, or
b. Admit that your statement that “We do not support nor allow racism on our website or within our organization� is disingenuous. And that your “policy� and “rules� regarding ALI-PAC and racism are insincere, or
c. Try and defend the white nationalist group, American Renaissance.

We look forward to any of these responses.

You then go on to claim that you “did not respond to your attack piece when it first came out because it is so off base I give it no credibility.� Then why respond now?

Your statement would also be an inaccuracy on your part, Mr. Gheen. Not only did you call the CNC headquarters, you also made posts about the report on the ALI-PAC website. Remember “Operation Kick Butt?� – That assault on the Center you pledged to wage that fizzled into nothingness. (9) We do. Clearly, those are all responses (well, I doubt you could really call Operation Kick Butt a response, since nothing happened. But the rest count).

On a number of occasions now, you’ve enjoyed commenting that “Not one single American press source ran your ‘report.’� Your statement is inaccurate, disconcerting, and irrelevant to the reason we released the report.

In the first place, you’re committing another argumentative fallacy. The issue of press accounts of the report has nothing to do with your claim of defamation. You’re, once again, attempting to change the subject to avoid the fact.

Secondly, several outlets picked up the story, including La Conexión, Que Pasa Triangle and Univision. (10) Once again, this is another inaccurate statement on your part. Or, is it that you don’t consider those media outlets “American?�

They’re published in North Carolina. The stories have Raleigh and Charlotte datelines. Are you honestly going to suggest that just because they’re written in Spanish that they’re not “American?� Are they part of La Reconquista, too?

Ironically, it was the perceived insignificance of ALI-PAC that contributed to a lack of press interest. We heard from journalists that ALI-PAC was “irrelevant,� “miniscule,� “laughable,� and “not worth valuable column inches� at the time. Far be it from us to elevate your little organization.

As much as you’d like to throw personal attacks our way, let’s not forget that the Center for New Community is not the organization at issue here. ALI-PAC was the subject of our report. Such attacks are an obvious sign of desperation.

It appears as though you misunderstand the purpose of reports like Americans for Legal Immigration PAC: Xenophobia, Nativism, and Anti-Immigrant Hysteria. We were asked to look into ALI-PAC, and we did. We publish reports like this to inform our constituencies about problems, not to see our names in print. We successfully let our constituencies know about your organization. We also made sure to provide copies of the report to members of the North Carolina legislature. Consider it a form of full disclosure.

I want to congratulate you, Mr. Gheen. In terms of nasty name calling, your little diatribe against the Center for New Community rates up there with snarling emails we’ve received from white power skinheads, anti-Semites, and Klansmen over the years. It will definitely be added to our collection.

You can call us all the names you want. You can threaten us all you want. It will not deter us from our mission of defending civil and human rights from emerging threats. Nor will it stop us from speaking the truth.

Sincerely,

Devin Burghart
Director, Building Democracy Initiative
Center for New Community
http://www.buildingdemocracy.org


Notes:

1 William Gheen, “BEWARE THE Center for New Community. They are liars.� ALI-PAC Website http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-12593.html (accessed November 21, 2005).

2 Center for New Community Special Report, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC: Xenophobia, Nativism, and Anti-Immigrant Hysteria, June 2005.

3. William Gheen, “BEWARE THE Center for New Community. They are liars.� ALI-PAC Website http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-12593.html (accessed November 21, 2005).

4. 4 itemized contributors gave a total of $2150.00. Dividing the remaining $5667.17 by the $25 donation mark works out to approximately 227 donors. 227 + 4 = 231 donors.

5. William Gheen, “BEWARE THE Center for New Community. They are liars.� ALI-PAC Website http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-12593.html (accessed November 21, 2005).

6. FEC Contribution Data, FEC Website - http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?25038844546 (accessed November 21, 2005).

7. American Renaissance Website - http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/20 ... ive_mp.php (accessed November 21, 2005).

8. Ibid.

9. William Gheen, “Get Ready ALIPAC! We are about to kick butt!� ALI-PAC Website. http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-5677-opera ... +kick+butt (Accessed November 21, 2005).

10. “Denuncian que organizacion anti-immigrante promueve xenofobia,� La Conexcion, June 28, 2005, pg. 12; “Denuncian a grupo antiimmigrante,� Que Pasa Triangle, June 29, 2005, pg. 1



-----Original Message-----
From: williamg@alipac.us [mailto:williamg@alipac.us]
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005 8:57 PM
To: web@buildingdemocracy.org
Subject: Your accusations of racism and xenophobia

To: Mr. Burghart:

You have falsely defamed me as a racist and xenophobe. Many of my close
friends are of a different race than I am and many of my good friends are
naturalized citizens.

My organization, ALIPAC, enjoys financial support from Latino, Black,
Asian, and North American Indian supporters as well as a slew of LEGAL
immigrants.

Your entire title of your report that I or ALIPAC are Xenophobic or Racist
is at the least inaccurate and at most a lie.

Our supporter Glenn has posted a copy of your email saying that you know
"the truth"? As you can clearly see, you do not know very much of the
truth at all. Check out this link and feel free to respond if you wish.

http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-58961.html#58961


You should withdraw your "report" as it is highly inaccurate.

We do not support nor allow racism on our website or within our
organization. It is clearly stated as policy in our rules even.

Your report failed to mention that fact.

Your organization should avoid false accusations of racism and xenophobia
like this. It destroys your credibility and ability to combat true racism.

William Gheen
President, ALIPAC

PS: I did not respond to your attack piece when it first came out because
it is so off base I give it no credibility. Neither did the national
press. Not one single American press source ran your "report"

PSS: Only two groups have attacked ALIPAC so far. Your group and the
Maoist International Movement. Do you feel comfortible sharing the attack
profile with the communists?

[ALIPAC]

Mr. Burghart:

You say "Again, let me emphasize that your statement about the diversity of your donors is a red-herring. It is a transparent attempt to try and divert attention away from the substance of our report by injecting a completely different subject. Nor is it at all relevant to your claim of defamation. It’s a nice try, but it simply won’t work. "

The diversity of our supporters is a fact. Just look around you here. Many of our supporters are from different races and many are LEGAL immigrants.

Your propaganda "report" that we are anti-immigrant is false. You will not find one statement by me or this organization that takes issue with LEGAL immigrants. In fact, we are not addressing immigrants as much as immigration (a broader concept) and our focus is illegal immigration.

It is impossible for us to be Xenophobic when we enjoy support from LEGAL immigrants and actively pursue both the involvement of LEGAL immigrants and Hispanics and Blacks in our organization.

Twist and turn as you may, you cannot find one shred of evidence to support your claim that we are indeed anti-immigrant or Xenophobic as your "Report" is titled. The attack was yours and it is up to you to support your claims. It is not incumbent upon me to prove or disprove your fraudulent charges.

Also, find one piece of evidence that I support some conspiracy theory?

I did say that in my opinion Reconquista and Aztlan is real. I made this in one small post here in the discussion groups after watching the fresh videos of large angry mobs screaming OBVIOUS racist material and screaming "It's our land and we are taking it back."

I simply thought these words described what we are seeing and hearing, a group of people that do not acknowledge the territorial claims of the Untied States of America.

Where is it that I have espoused or endorsed some broad conspiracy theory? I seek only to describe what we are seeing. If these words have some broader context spanning back into the debate over the last few decades then I missed it.

I have been to Aztlan.net and seen what they advocate. Therefore the Aztlan movement is what I meant.

Since your group is so worried about xenophobia and racism, why are you attacking groups like ALIPAC while ignoring the Brown Berets, Mechistas, and Aztlan.net?

They are making overtly racist statements that require very little research to obtain and there is NO REASON TO SPECULATE as your group has with ALIPAC.

I know who I am Mr. Burghart and I know that I'm not racist, I'm not anti-immigrant, and I'm certainly not Xenophobic and neither is my organization.

I make it abundantly clear on a regular basis that anyone with such motivations is unwelcome in our organization.

It is impossible for me to research or judge the hearts and minds of everyone that contributes to our organization. Regardless, our executive officers and the ALIPAC board decide how funds are spent so any racist out there that sends us money will be very disappointed when we occasionally support black and Hispanic candidates.

What you are really missing here is that ALIPAC never claimed to be as big as the NRA. You were just amazed at what we were able to accomplish and how high our media profile went when we were a fledgling organization.

We defeated the bill you support "instate tuition for illegal aliens" for two reasons. 1. Our side was right. and 2. Over 80% of the public supported our opposition position. This enabled us to grow rapidly and to bring down the bill and bring down the billboards.

We are still a small organization compared to many but we have experienced rapid growth in our first 14 months of operation.

Our web traffic and media profile dwarfs that of your organization and in only 14 months.

Some of your sources may feel that we are small, but you can ask those that have felt the brunt of our activism and they will tell you otherwise as their legislation crumbled beneath our organized efforts.

We have many more than 300 contributors now and we have just recently begun our first national fundraising efforts.

DID YOU HEAR THAT CLEARLY? WE HAVE RAISED ABOUT 15,000 online without launching an organized fundraiser before. Ambient contributions and few e-mails. Just imagine how much we might raise before November 2006!

We have intentionally focused on small donations because Ive made it clear from the beginning that I want this organization to be in the hands of average American citizens.

Tell the folks in your office that the reason I never retaliated against your "report" is that to do so would have given it much more exposure than if I had not.

I decided in the end that your report was so far off base, and so inaccurate that I need not waste my time with it. You are obviously trying to insert yourself into the illegal-immigration debate.

I suggest you go back to lecturing church groups about the perils of skin head punk rock music and get out of the immigration debate.

If you are looking for a new cause to generate funds for your job, I would suggest you go after the real racists like the WNs and the Aztlans and the Mecha's.

Hey, here's a tip for you. There is this big organization named "The Race!" perhaps you could go check them out instead of jumping at shadows.

You have maligned good people that care about their country and drawn conclusions based on very lose associations and a few degrees of separation.

We know where you get your funding from Lilly Pharma and if you should ever prove to be more than an annoyance, they will be hearing from many of us.

It's a damn shame that Americans can't gather and organize without attacks like yours.

Tell me Mr. Burghart, what do you suggest the 80+% of Americans that disagree with your views do to take action and organize? What is it and how is it they can engage in the political process without being called Xenophobic, Nativist, or anti-immigrant by you and your organization?

William Gheen
President, ALIPAC