BEWARE THE Center for New Community. They are Liars.

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Reply to Gheen #1 ALI-PAC, DONORS, AND AMERICAN RENAISSANCE

Dear Mr. Gheen:

Thank you for the reply. In your first of several posts, you state that, “The attack was yours and it is up to you to support your claims.� I agree with you that the report was ours, and the contentions in the report are thoroughly documented. We support all of our claims. You’ve now had numerous opportunities to point out errors or defamatory remarks, yet you never do.

It’s nice to know that you’ve conceded that there is nothing defamatory in our report on ALI-PAC. Thus far, you’ve conceded both the substance of the report and most of the points in my response.

You’ve threatened us three times now. Each time you’ve been asked to produce any evidence of defamatory remarks. Yet you still haven’t done so. Each time you do this, it damages your credibility and the credibility of your organization.

You do raise a few issues in your various posts that I would like to address. To allow you an opportunity to respond to each of them, I will divide them into sections and post them separately.

ALI-PAC Donors

Once again, you start your email by trying to change the subject. You state that “the diversity of our supporters is a fact. Just look around here.� Just look around where? You may have difficulty with this, but I don’t automatically believe everything I read on the Internet.

So 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. You can claim it all you want, but can you prove it?

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, your statement about the diversity of your donors is completely irrelevant to your claim of defamation. You wrote me because you claimed you were defamed, so why not stick to the subject? It is a transparent attempt to try and divert attention away from the substance of our report by injecting a completely different subject.

Since you keep coming back to the issue, we also believe that those allegedly diverse supporters of yours deserve to have a complete picture of what they’re supporting.

And since you brought up your supporters, again, let’s examine them, again, shall we?

ALI-PAC Donors and American Renaissance

You start by saying that “It is impossible for me to research or judge the hearts and minds of everyone that contributes to our organization.� Guess what? You don’t have to do the research. We’ve done it for you! (Wasn’t that considerate of us?)

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. The same 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, Bell criticized Canadian MP Steven Fletcher for apologizing after he referred to Japanese soldiers from the World War II as "Japs" and "bastards." [1] 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.[2] Since our last email, it been further confirmed that the person who made those comments is the same person who contributed to ALI-PAC.

This is the second time now that you’ve been alerted to white nationalism amongst your donors.

By my math, that means that roughly 17% of your 2005 budget (as of the last FEC filing date) comes from someone who has participated with a white nationalist group, made disparaging ethnic remarks, and supported internment camps.

This is your single largest donor, not some $5 or $10 contributor.
Now that you’ve been presented the evidence, if you want to salvage any credibility you might have had, you have a choice to make. 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.
Doing nothing is a tacit selection of b. or c.

In case you’re leaning towards option c, let me tell you a little bit about American Renaissance.

American Renaissance

Founded as a modest newsletter in 1990, American Renaissance has grown into an important address for white nationalist ideas and a center of influence upon the larger anti-immigrant movement. From the beginning its tone has remained reasoned and scholarly, and its leadership has purposefully kept it free from overt anti-Semitism and militia-style conspiracy mongering. Yet AR’s aims are as dangerous to the ideals of social equality and multi-racial democracy as any old-style Klansman elected to political office. After its principals organized a corporation, the New Century Foundation, that was granted non-profit status by the IRS in 1994, AR began sponsoring conferences as well as publishing the newsletter. Jared Taylor, now living in Virginia, founded the newsletter while living in California and remains president of the parent corporation.

American Renaissance first described itself as a “literate, undeceived journal of race, immigration and the decline of civility.� It claimed that “White people� had lost their voice and that the United States was in danger of losing its “national and cultural core.� During the first years of publication, AR published articles focused on issues such as crime, welfare and so-called reverse racism. Although buttressed by explicitly racist argumentation, these articles fell within the existing parameters of conservative discourse. After several years of publication, however, the newsletter began promoting the tenets of “scientific� racism. Accordingly, newsletter articles increasingly attributed racial differences in social standing, intelligence measurement and achievement to biology and genetics.

In the mid-1990s, American Renaissance opened up an internal dialogue about the nature and prospects of American white nationalism. All participants agreed that the United States was founded and should remain a white republicâ€â€

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Reply to Gheen #2: ALI-PAC and Legal Immigrants

Dear Mr. Gheen:

In your response, you attempt to show that our report was incorrect by your assertion that “You will not find one statement by me or this organization that takes issue with LEGAL immigrants.�

Wrong again, Mr. Gheen. Please allow me to direct your attention to page 3 of our report. It states,

“By emphasizing “illegal� immigration to the United States, both in name and mission, ALI-PAC seeks to associate itself with order, security, and the rule of law. But even the organization’s name is something of a misnomer. A version of the organization’s platform, available until June 2005 on its website, states that “ALIPAC supports those that legally immigrate, but we also support a ‘time out’ or reduction of legal immigration levels until our borders are secured.�

Like the majority of anti-immigrant groups, ALI-PAC is clearly concerned not only with undocumented immigrants but all immigrants.

While it may be a cute euphemism, calling for an immigration “time out� is a plea for the end of ALL immigration (for the foreseeable future). Your platform would “take issue� with them by eliminating them. If ALI-PACs platform, as stated when we wrote the report, was adopted today, there would be NO new immigrants. Period. That makes you anti-immigration. You can’t have it both ways.

Your latest “platform� also states that many of your supporters believe that, “Congress should make English the official language of America!� This has absolutely nothing to do with the documentation status of immigrants. It has everything to do with making government less accessible to those who don’t speak English – including documented immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, etc. Or is it that you’re suggesting that you stand for “legal immigrants as long as they speak English?� Are you planning on changing the name of the organization to “Americans for Legal English-Speaking Immigration PAC?�

You see, that makes not one, but two statements that take issue with “LEGAL immigrants.�

Moreover, many of the articles posted to your website fail to distinguish between documented and undocumented immigrants. Articles posted on your website blame IMMIGRANTS for crime, drugs, gangs, disease, economic problems, etc.

Then you claim that “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.�

First, yes it is possible for an organization to take xenophobic positions no matter what the composition of the membership. Many of the articles and other posts on your website often fail to distinguish between documented and undocumented immigrants. There are a multitude of expressions of xenophobia on your website.

Second, your argument is based on faulty logic. The Nazis got support from even a few Jews, but that didn’t make them any less anti-Semitic. There were some slaves that actually fought on the side of the Confederacy, but that didn't make the defense of the institution of slavery any less morally reprehensible.

Third, prove it. Even if we accept the premise of your assertion, (which we don’t) let’s see what level of support you have from Latinos and African-Americans. I’ve asked you to provide numbers once before, so I’ll ask you again. Could you please provide supporting evidence for this assertion?

Sincerely,

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

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Reply to Gheen #3: ALI-PAC and La Reconquista

Dear Mr. Gheen:

In another response, you write that “Burghart's website claims they are tracking Nazis and the KKK. For them to even focus on us is a complete lie and insult.� If you took the time to read the material at www.buildingdemocracy.org, it states clearly that we track anti-immigrant activity along with other forms of bigotry. If you examine our archives, we’ve been writing about anti-immigrant activity for a decade now. Before you get insulted and call us liars again, I suggest you examine those facts.

You also ask, “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.�

Are you suggesting that because we’ve been tracking the anti-immigrant movement for the last decade that we’re more familiar with the conspiracy theories put forward by your movement than you?

You write, “find one piece of evidence that I support some conspiracy theory?� By continuing to speak about la Reconquista, and by allowing articles about la Reconquista to appear on your website, you’re supporting the racist conspiracy theory. Words have meaning.

You stated, “I did say that in my opinion Reconquista and Aztlan is real.�

Now you want to plead ignorance? Are you suggesting that when you stated that “Reconquista and Aztlan is real� that you had no idea that there was a racist conspiracy theory being promoted around the anti-immigration movement with the exact same name? Are you suggesting that you just made the term up after watching a video of some rally?

Any student of history knows that the term “reconquista� is most commonly used to describe the military re-conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by Christian rulers, conducted from 718 to 1492, following the Moorish conquest of the Iberian Visigothic kingdom. A simple Google search would have also given you that information. Yet somehow, all by yourself, you decided that the term applied to people protesting at an anti-immigration event? Is that what you’re asking us to believe?

Are you suggesting that you’ve never heard or read the term used by other anti-immigration leaders?

Perhaps you weren’t in the conference room in Las Vegas when Barbara Coe spoke. As we noted in our report,

Coe is an avid supporter of the Reconquista conspiracy theory and vehemently anti-Latino. She commented in typical fashion during her Los Vegas presentation: “We are suffering robbery, rape, and murder of law-abiding citizens at the hands of illegal barbarians who are cutting off heads and appendages of blind, white, disabled gringos.� She added, speaking of the United States: “This is a New World Order regime and Third World people will easily accept this tyranny. These people are traitors. They are a malignancy destroying the host.�

Coe helped to lead the petition drive for California’s infamous Proposition 187, and she has stated elsewhere that “The goals of the Mexican government� include the conquest of “all the southwestern states for Mexico as the ‘NATION OF AZTLAN,� the “Take over & control the United States government� and to “Establish communism in the United States.�
Remember, that’s who you were proud of sharing the stage with in Vegas.

Then there’s your friend Jim Gilchrist, who is also prone to hysterical remarks about immigrants and to conspiracy mongering, as evidenced by these remarks,

“From what I have seen in videos, to me there is a clear and present danger of insurrection, sedition and succession by those who buy into the fact that this really is Mexico’s territory and doesn’t belong to the United States and should be taken back.�

Gilchrist's words are a succinct statement of the so-called Reconquista conspiracy theory which holds that Mexico is quietly infiltrating a fifth-column of revolutionaries into the United States with the purpose of territorial conquest.

So you’ve never read the websites of organizations like American Patrol, The Social Contract, V-DARE (who published an article by you), the California Coalition for Immigration Reform or any of the other website that express this conspiracy theory?

But surely you’ve read the Reconquista conspiracy theories published on your own website? Go ahead, do a quick search.

You go on to note that, “the Aztlan movement is what I meant.� If that is true, then why do you distinguish between La Reconquista and Aztlan three paragraphs earlier?

Lastly, you may want to note that the most mainstream of the anti-immigration organizations, the Center for Immigration Studies, calls La Reconquista conspiracy a bunch of nonsense.

To be sure, a few activists call for the reconquista (the reconquest of the Southwest by Mexico), but none of the serious policies advocated by Mexican-American organizations and leaders translate into territorial or separatist claims… they are not some fifth column effort to return the southwestern U.S. to Mexico. (http://www.cis.org/articles/cantigny/skerry.html )

You claim that “la Reconquista and Atzlan is real� because you’ve seen it. I’ve seen people who believe in UFOs, but that doesn’t make UFOs any more real. Your statement indicates how far you are willing to go to try and scare people about immigrants.

Does this mean you’ll be denouncing the Reconquista conspiracy theory publicly? Will you be removing references to la Reconquista from the ALI-PAC website? Will you be publicly challenging Barbara Coe or Glenn Spencer or anyone else who uses them to stop spewing racially charged conspiracy theories? Or were you being disingenuous, again?
Sincerely,

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

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Reply to Gheen #4: ALI-PAC and V-DARE

Dear Mr. Gheen:

After all your bluster about the diversity of your friends and contributors, perhaps you’d like to explain to them why you chose to write an article for a white nationalist website like V-DARE?

Just in case you’d forgotten that, too, you can find the article here - http://www.vdare.com/misc/gheen_050216_jimrob.htm

Perhaps you’re not familiar with V-DARE? Here’s a little background.

V-DARE/ Center for American Unity

Founded in the late 1990s by anti-immigrant author Peter Brimelow, the Center for American Unity is primarily an internet-based venue for collecting anti-immigrant, and white nationalist columns from a variety of movement activists and authors. The most visible project of the Center is the V-DARE website (www.vdare.com) which publishes writings of white nationalists such as Sam Francis, Jared Taylor, Brenda Walker, Chilton Williamson, and many others.

In response to an anonymous query asking how V-DARE responds to charges that it is an “anti-immigrant white supremacist website,� Peter Brimelow answers, with the inimitable arrogance of someone who has spent much of his life working in the rarified air of high finance journalism:

Our response is as follows: yawn. Notoriously, the modern definition of “racist� is “someone who is winning an argument with a liberal [libertarian/ neoconservative].� “White supremacist� is merely the version of the same smear that the entrenched Sierra Club staff apparently used in what, by a process akin to biblical scholarship, we deduce to have been a memo circulated to their Establishment media mouthpieces, who credulously reproduced it in tellingly similar pieces under their own bylines.

But then it is small wonder that Brimelow can dismiss charges of racism with a yawn when later in the same piece of apologia he writes

As we have noted before, VDARE.COM is obviously not a “White Supremacistâ€? site, if for no other reason than that it publishes non-whites. We do publish writers who could fairly be described as “white nationalists,â€? in that they explicitly defend the interests of American whitesâ€â€

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Reply to Gheen #5: ALI-PAC and “the Race!�

Dear Mr. Gheen:

Frantically trying to change the subject again, you state, “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.�

Wow. This statement is almost as priceless as your “some of my best friends are…� gaff from your first email.

Guess what? I have checked them out.

Once again, you’ve demonstrated just how much your ideology blinds you to reality.

For the record, the term “La Raza� doesn’t mean “The Race!�

The term “La Raza� as used by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) actually has its origins in early 20th century Latin American literature, and translates into English most closely as "the people," or, according to some scholars, "the Hispanic people of the New World."

The term was coined by Mexican scholar José Vasconcelos to reflect the fact that the people of Latin America are a mixture of many of the world's races, cultures, and religions - Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans; Arabs and Jews; "old world" and "new world." Subsequent scholars built on this idea, pointing out that no other area of the world had experienced such a mix of race and culture.

Some people (including you) have mistranslated "La Raza" to mean "The Race," implying that it is a term meant to exclude others. In fact, the full term coined by Vasconcelos, "La Raza Cósmica," meaning the "cosmic people," was developed to reflect not purity but the mixture inherent in the Hispanic people. This is clearly an inclusive concept, meaning that Hispanics share with all other peoples of the world a common heritage and destiny, and that Latinos provide an example of a world in which traditional concepts of race can be transcended.

Let’s not forget, though, NCLR was not the issue when you emailed me. The issue was the report on ALI-PAC and how the Center for New Community had supposedly defamed you. NCLR has nothing to do with that argument. Once again, you’ve thrown in a red-herring, deliberately trying to shift to another topic when your original contention has been left thread-bare.

But if you still insist on pursuing this tangent, you defend American Renaissance and V-DARE, I’ll defend NCLR. We’ll see which group the American public find more palatable.

Sincerely,

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

[Bootsie]

This diatribe is not addressed to me but I'm going to reply to one part of it. In fact, it's just the one part that I actually really READ because the rest appears to be malarkey.

I, and MOST members of ALIPAC, believe that English should be the official language of our nation and, if LEGAL immigrants want to come to America, they should use our language. If you really espouse using EVERY LANGUAGE OF EVERY IMMIGRANT THAT COMES TO OUR COUNTRY, you must be living in La La Land. This is NOT racist. This is AMERICAN. PERIOD. You can dance around that racist claim until the cows come home but it just won't wash with me. This, Mr. Burghart, is AMERICA. My ancestors who came to American in the late 1600's were French Huguenots. They came here, they ASSIMILATED and they did NOT SPEAK FRENCH. They came here to avail themselves of the opportunities offered in America and, because they were grateful for those opportunities, it was IMPORTANT to them to become functioning members of American society. This country would be a MESS if everyone who had ever come here LEGALLY from other countries refused to speak our language and EXPECTED, as the Mexicans appear to do, US to tailor everything written in our country to THEIR language.

I have never seen any OTHER immigrant come here and expect us to provide everything for them in THEIR languages or to TEACH their CULTURES in our SCHOOLS. I am PROUD of my heritage and I intend to pass that on to my children and grandchildren. I will not sit back silently and watch my country dissolve into a country where 40 different languages are spoken. I will not sit back silently and acquiesce to the demands of the Hispanics that THEIR language be OUR language. I will continue the fight to have English declared as our OFFICIAL LANGUAGE because that is what it is.

I believe I speak for most members of ALIPAC when I say we welcome LEGAL immigrants who come to our country for the RIGHT REASONS. That would include ASSIMILATION. So, if being an AMERICAN is being a RACIST, then I guess I'm one.

[Bootsie]

This, Mr. Burghart, is one of our contributing members. You will note where he is from and you may also note how well he speaks our language:


vicente
ALIPAC Apprentice 2



Joined: Jul 04, 2005
Posts: 119
Location: Medellin, Colombia, South America
Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 3:17 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bootsie :

Thanks for your reply and kind message.

Have a nice thanksgiving you all Americans !!

We don't have a Thanksgiving here in Colombia. But I can understand the spirit of the Feast. It is a miracle to be alive and in good health and spirits !!

We are not dead as long as we struggle for a good cause. For something noble, good and beneficial for many people or for all mankind.

I am sure that this "Sinking of the Andean FTA" is beneficial for both Americans and for Latin Americans, specially for the Andeans. For us it is like a salvation.

Actually it looks more like a delay until talks are resumed perhaps during January of 2006.

As elections approach in all the countries involved : USA, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, then things will become more difficult for Mr George Bush and the other 3 presidents.

The opposition of the peoples is going to be hard and strong.

A recent gallup poll showed that Colombians in Big Cities are strongly opposed 50% to 42% to the Andean FTA. In rural areas which were not polled the opposition is even bigger because peasants would be the first victims of the pact.

The opposition has been growing and it will continue growing as Congress elections approach in Colombia during the first half of the year 2006. There are also presidential elections.

The US elections will take place in November of 2006, the full House will be renewed and a third of the US Senate.

If there are negative events in the Andean Countries with respect to the Andean FTA during the first semester then the American People and the US Congress might become more negative for approval of the Pact.

I am not a fanatic or extremist. Perhaps one day in the distant future we have a FAIR TRADE AGREEMENT between America and the Andeans. And that would be wonderful and great !.

But 2005 was not the time for FAIRNESS, JUSTICE, SOUNDNESS AND RATIONALITY. Only an idiotic and unfair treaty was proposed.

As I said before many congratulations for your thanksgiving and a warmth greeting to all Americans around the globe.


Vicente Duque

[gearhead]

The mission of the Center for New Community is to revitalize community toward democracy, justice and racial equality - because everyone matters.

The Center believes that the faith community must be especially intent on developing and living out new relationships that lead to ongoing acts of community- building and organizing to address contemporary social, economic and racial justice problems.

Toward that end -- from the Great Plains to the Great Lakes, from the rolling prairies to the southern mountains, in village, small town and city alike-- the work of the Center for New Community is being seeded and rooted.

What does this mean ?

......... toward intent on developing building and organizing to address ongoing acts that lead to seeding and rooting

Then we're going to press forward building together progressive movement by which we can accomplish our goal of intending to develop a policy toward seeking a strategy of overall planning of combining our efforts while maintaining positive momentum to realize the gaining of ground on our destination for instituting..... for at leat 10 years.

[Bootsie]

Gibberish, gearhead!!! GIBBERISH.

[naturalglenn]

Hey, remember everyone that this guy is getting more of his schtick read here than anywhere else or he wouldn't write, alot like my poetry, but with a different agenda.

Much of what he is saying and accusing can be answered simply by....

SO WHAT! Woo hoo were nationalists!

As far as I can tell on the forum no one is a racist except those that have written here casting aspersions there is no proof. Cast away!! It's only fishin.

So to help Mr. Burghart let's all tell him about our make-up. Last time I checked I was a LEGAL US CITIZEN. It's all I care about. Assimilating would be nice but it isn't required. Don't be surprised though that if you don't assimilate, I won't be inviting you to any of my parties. I detest exclusivity, and no one in the American hyphen club need bother waiting for an invitation.

UNITY MADE AMERICA, NOT DIVERSITY! love glenn