Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

How fitting that on the day a supposed sighting of the KKK at Oberlin College was revealed to be nothing more than a woman wrapped in a blanket, the Southern Poverty Law Center released its latest scare tool, New Report: Radical antigovernment movement continues explosive growth:

The number of conspiracy-minded antigovernment “Patriot” groups on the American radical right reached an all-time high in 2012, the fourth consecutive year of powerful growth by a movement that is becoming increasingly militant as President Obama enters his second term and Congress debates gun control measures, according to a report issued today by the SPLC... “As in the period before the Oklahoma City bombing, we now are seeing ominous threats from those who believe that the government is poised to take their guns,”  wrote SPLC President Richard Cohen, a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Violent Extremism Working Group. In October 1994, the SPLC wrote to then-Attorney General Janet Reno about the growing threat of domestic extremism; the Oklahoma City federal building was bombed six months later in the country’s deadliest act of domestic terrorism.

This is the same nonsense SPLC peddles every year at this time.  Sooner or later, like a ghoulish broken clock, one of SPLC's predictions will come true, but in the meantime, the SPLC still has not made amends for its "hate map" being used by the guy who shot up the Family Research Council to acquire targets. The SPLC count is grossly exaggerated.  If there's a Neo-Nazi website which lists branches in every state, SPLC counts that as 50 groups, even if the groups are only names on a website. The SPLC has upped the number of "hate groups" in my home State of Rhode Island to 4, including the same supposed neo-Nazi and Klan groups which we repeatedly have pointed out do not exist. In 2011, SPLC listed just one hate group (the non-existent neo-Nazi group):

But now SPLC lists 4 groups, putting the non-existent Klan group back on the map:

The SPLC also lists some other groups in Rhode Island that have no obvious existence. OMG, hate groups in RI have quadrupled!  Send money! I did a radio interview for ABC News today.  I can't find the clip, but Sam at The Last Tradition heard it and emailed:

I heard you on WABC news update putting the Southern Poverty Law center in its place. Way to go!