November 27, 2005

The media tripped all over itself in a feeding frenzy when it adopted the Minutemen Border watchers as heroes. Leading the way were Fox News Channel, its primetime star, Bill O’Reilly, LA (KFI) Talk hosts "John and Ken," and San Diego’s former mayor, Roger Hedgecock.

Joining the radio and TV talkers were politicians like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who called the Minutemen "fantastic," California State Senator and prospective congressional candidate, Bill Morrow and myriad little politicians and candidates like State Assemblymen Ray Haynes and Jay LeSeur.

Making these Minutemen-worshipping talkers and politicians look silly are words from the "belly of the beast," from Oceanside, California’s James Chase. He founded the Border Watch Federation (all of the USA) California Border Watch (California State) Formerly California Minutemen and United States Border Patrol Auxiliary.

Chase wrote an e-mail on November 21 to the Minutemen chat room: "I cannot continue in any way, shape or form in a relationship with Minuteman Civil Defense Corps or even Minuteman Project…"

He writes: "James Gilchrist (currently running for Congress in Orange County as the candidate of the racist-founded and based American Independent Party) wanted to skin Chris (Simcox, convicted of federal crimes in Arizona and founder of the border watchers national movement) alive…"

Chase is referring to the fact that Chris Simcox has been speaking around the country raising money for the fight against illegals then brags that his border watchers are all volunteers and bring their own resources to the struggle. Question: Where does the money Simcox raises go?

Chase: "… but then they (Gilchrist and Simcox) went to Washington and picked up the two DC crooks Mary Lewis and Connie Hair and the corruption machine was off and running." Chase and others are very critical of cocktail-party fundraisers who charge for their services and always turn up in political causes that are popular with the conservative white wing.

He continues with damning allegations: "Now Mary (Lewis) is even allowing the Nazi party into the campaign and they refuse to remove Ranch Rescue, Andy Ramirez and Cliff Linquist from their links."

When this writer and others make such observations of the movement being "Nazis," or comically deadly "Ranch Rescue," we are tagged as "the Treason Lobby." They are true American patriots and we are not; we are accused of name-calling, of emotional diatribes that we fall back on when we lose the argument. What will they say of one of their own, Chase?

Andy Ramirez is an unemployed Southern California wannabe politician who has hitched his alleged Mexican American background to such loser enterprises as anti-Mexican and anti-illegal alien California initiatives that have consistently failed to make the ballot. He made grandiose media announcements of thousands of people joining him on the Border. Twenty showed up.

Chase writes: "So you have an absolute CON man Andy (Ramirez) in your ranks sucking many thousands of dollars away from the cause."

More importantly, Chase writes: "You have murderers in your ranks. You have Nazi's, other anti-Jews, and anti-hispanic racists side by side with you. You are whom you run around with. Proud to be a Minuteman now? You may not be so proud in the future."

"I have standards of right, " he writes. In contrast, he continues: "…sending email and letter requests for money to all of our people, even to my grandchildren, sister-in-law, and distance English ex-step mother is just without all Class or regard for civility."

He concludes: "I am sad that some of you are so desperate, so gah gah, over what was a super lightning rod for anti-illegal immigration that you refuse to see that ethics and honesty is above all. May the Lord Open your eyes to see and your nostrils to smell the manure before us."

Need there be any doubt as to the sincerity of this missive, of the accusations? It speaks for itself. Will it be discussed on the "John and Ken" show in Los Angeles, or by Bill O’Reilly, by Fox News, by CNN’s Lou Dobbs, by Governor Arnold, or by San Diego’s KOGO talk show host and anti-illegal alien warrior, Roger Hedgecock, probably not.

If anyone doubts the authenticity of this missive and its views, here is the address Chase posted: James Lewis Chase Headquarters: Border Watch Federation (all of the USA) California Border Watch (California State) Formerly California Minutemen and United States Border Patrol Auxiliary 4225 Oceanside Blvd M182 Oceanside, CA 92056 760 945-5030 James@ChaseLaw.us www.BorderWatch.us

Following is some background on the above story that I wrote for OC Craigs List on November 1, 2005. By then, Politechs was quietly disappearing from open connection with Gilchrist's campaign and their public website vanished page by page over the first week in November.

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Jim Gilchrist’s New Friends

It’s no secret that Jim Gilchrist’s District 48 run for Congress is being orchestrated by Politechs, Inc., a political consulting firm recently relocated to Los Angeles from Alexandria, VA, where it was also known as Primer-Politechs.

From a left-wing point of view, this alliance of traditional conservatives and neo-cons is more than a little confusing.

With the move to L.A. came Mary Parker Lewis, President and CEO of Politechs, flush from overseeing talk show host Alan Keyes’ disastrous 2004 Illinois Senate campaign.  Keyes, a protégé of Jeanne Kirkpatrick, was outed as a neo-con^[1] by Harvard roommate William Kristol as early as 1988. 

Lewis, one-time president of Alan Keyes Enterprises, Inc., still does multiple duty as Chief of Staff for Keyes, Chief of Staff for Keyes’ Renew America initiative, and Executive Director of Keyes’ Declaration Foundation.  Lewis has to be commended for tenacity: she ran Keyes' failed 1996 and 2000 Presidential bids, along with the horrendous Senate race.  Lewis is long-steeped in neo-conservative schooling, starting with her education at Scripps College (of the Claremont Colleges) and Claremont Graduate School, bastions of Harry V. Jaffa’s brand of Straussian, neo-conservative politics.

Lewis brought along a couple of friends.  One is Connie Hair, now spokesperson for the Minuteman Project.  Hair, a former B-movie starlet and political consultant for Keyes, became a right-wing celeb when her arrival at Free Republic^[2] coincided with the 1999 demise of the Freepers into a viper-ridden cesspool.

Through Lewis, Gilchrist is at one degree of separation from Keyes.  And through Lewis, ^[3] Gilchrist is at the same remove from William Kristol, founder of the neo-conservative think thank Project for a New American Century (PNAC).  Kristol is Lewis’s former boss, as well as Keyes’ former roommate.  Lewis can provide Gilchrist with access to another one of her former bosses, former Secretary of Education and tsar of the failed war on drugs William Bennett, also a PNAC member.

Traditional Conservatives (like The Minutemen)

So what do all these neo-con connections mean to conservatives?  Traditional conservatives, following in the footsteps of Edmund Burke, support a limited role for federal government and historical precedent to guide present actions.  In that spirit and with an indefatigable faith in “American” values, they hope to roll back social welfare, affirmative action, and immigration, depending instead on bootstraps and assimilation.  Traditional conservatives point to the founding fathers, ever-increasing domestic productivity, and unfettered civil liberties.

The Neo-Cons and PNAC

The greater part of conservative side policy-makers have turned their backs on traditional conservatism and entered into an uneasy alliance with the far right fundamentalists to dominate U.S. domestic and foreign policy.  The neo-cons support a widely expanded role for the U.S. in the world, aggressively exporting American capitalism.  Little interested in democracy, neo-conservatives foster worldwide capitalism and believe the best way to protect U.S. interests is to expand, entrench, and protect U.S. corporations around the world.  Leo Strauss, through his students Allan Bloom and Jaffa, argued for an elitist hierarchy, in which initiates are privy to the real agenda and the rest of the citizenry is fed religion and lies, as necessary to forestall objection.  Defense of Israel is a hallmark of Straussian politics.

The contemporary manifestation of Straussian politics is encapsulated in the Project for a New American Century, a Washington DC think tank.  PNAC advocates for massive increases in defense spending and extending “defense” to overturning regimes potentially hostile to U.S. economic interests: to establish “an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.”  The first major initiative of PNAC was a 1998 position paper urging the invasion of Iraq. 

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) alerted the U.S. House to the dangers posed to traditional conservatives by neo-cons:

Since 9-11, protection of privacy, whether medical, personal or financial, has vanished. Free speech and the Fourth Amendment have been under constant attack. Higher welfare expenditures are endorsed by the leadership of both parties. Policing the world and nation-building issues are popular campaign targets, yet they are now standard operating procedures. There’s no sign that these programs will be slowed or reversed until either we are stopped by force overseas (which won’t be soon) or we go broke and can no longer afford these grandiose plans for a world empire (which will probably come sooner than later.)

None of this happened by accident or coincidence. Precise philosophic ideas prompted certain individuals to gain influence to implement these plans. The neoconservatives—a name they gave themselves—diligently worked their way into positions of power and influence. They documented their goals, strategy and moral justification for all they hoped to accomplish. Above all else, they were not and are not conservatives dedicated to limited, constitutional government.^[4]

Today the neo-cons are pushing a position called “Fortress America” that envisions a common border around Mexico, the U.S., and Canada, as reported by traditional conservative spokesperson Lou Dobbs.  Undoubtedly, good relations with NAFTA-partner and major oil supplier Mexico is high on the neo-con agenda.

Forgive this left-winger for being confused.

Gilchrist has, on one hand, has befriended the friends of the Mexican government and major U.S. corporations.  On the other hand, he continues to attack Mexicans in the U.S. and their corporate employers through the Minutemen.

Gilchrist’s Minuteman Project reportedly^[5] turned its finances and membership lists over to Politechs.  Since Politechs’ involvement with the Minutemen, Gilchrist has ceded oversight of the MMP to Gilchrist’s Minuteman partner Chris Simcox, and now makes only publicity appearances at the border.  (Meanwhile, Politechs is running Simcox around the cocktail circuit, which might explain why Simcox was in Vermont when the Minutemen opened their long-announced October campaign in Arizona.)  Since hooking up with Politechs, Gilchrist has endorsed the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus position to militarize the border, further eroding the posse comitatus prohibition against using federalized National Guard troops to enforce law within U.S. borders. 

Why does this reputedly traditional conservative now support the deployment of troops on American soil?  Are his new-found friends, who ordered the militarization of New Orleans instead of its rescue, and promise us military takeover if the avian flu hits our shores, collecting some payback?  How much further Gilchrist’s new friends will lead him toward the neo-cons remains to be seen.  With the Minuteman Project’s names and money firmly in their grasp, the neo-cons may discover that a defeated Gilchrist isn’t worth much.

Having not ceded my efforts in the immigration law enforcement arena over to any one group or person in entirety, I see myself as having not run afoul of whatever inferrence of misguidance this information is supposed expose. I believe many of us feel this way as well. All movements have infiltrators and associates with a differing agenda; this article is no less an example of that, since it, or you, don't spend a single word in effort to show that there might be a similar or more aggressive association of conspirators who work in the same covert manner to influence immigration matters in a way completely opposite to Minutemen philosophies.
But then, most of us are not really extremists as you mislead yourself or others to believe. But rather, we are moderates that have to spend some of our precious efforts wastefully to keep extremists on both sides from dominating the issue with an extreme agenda.
From the articles I have read authored by you, I can't help but point out that for a journalist, as I believe you wish to be classified, you paint a very single sided picture of the subjects reported. It is this very quality that extremists seek out and make liberal use of in their covert and overt program of propaganda dispersal. So you may want to check to see where the tools and information that conveniently find their way to your desk have been coming from. I wonder if you could still provide all of the same information so readily if you limited your collection of it to sources with no links to associates that have an agenda that mirrors the one you wrote about, but just in one more acceptable to your personal beliefs at the moment.

Re: unturd, Yet more evidence of the inbreeding, lack of education and general stupidity amongst the anti-immigrant ilk. Gee, if you wanted evidence of organizations that have promoted and allowed illegal immigration, look no further than the corporations like Tyson Chicken, Wal Mart, the agricultural growers association, the private cleaning firms, etc. that recruit and hire undocumented people to undermine union organizing and bamboozle the ignorant inbreeders like unturd into thinking its the immigrants fault, when it is actually the economic policies and structure that bring people to this country. While your at it, you might as well go after whoever supported the institution of NAFTA, which would include the many republicans which many of your ilk support. But these people have no balls when it comes to challenging the corporate entities of America that provide for their own comfortable mode of living and picking on people who are of a different culture.

It's all just too amusingly comical.

It appears to me that the same faces and names show up in so many of the hate groups who call themselves different names that I'm left with the impression that there's maybe 10 or 20 core white supremacists total, calling themselves different group names in an effort to appear as if they're some how significant.

Then when supposed splinters and factions spin off, it consists of one white guy, it looks to me, who got dissatisfied with something who then adopts a new name for his group -- which consists of one person; just him -- which then all the other 10 or 20 then "join" with the result being zero.

I get the impression that some 10 or 20 people created 10 or 20 groups, most of which the individuals self-proclaim themselves the creators and leaders of which are followers of all the other fake groups.

It's amusing. It's a way for every you-know-what to pretend he's the leader -- and to pretend that they're not white supremacists and that they don't "invite" each other on little hate rallies and stuff.

Just my impression on the phenomena, and only my opinions. What I see is nothing new. These people come and go in cycles but with the passage of the Civil Rights laws of the 1960's, they're simnply not relevent and wind up being comical.

Speaking of Wal-Mart and their hiring of illegal workers, I see in the news that they've been repeatedly fined but the fines are maybe less than a single percent of the money they save by hiring illegal workers. I've yet to see any news article showing where any of Wal-Mart's owers and operators have gone to prison.

Also in the news two weeks ago was a re-filing of a lawsuit by Wal-Mark workers who worked illegally. The RICO conspiracy allegations against Wal-Mart by the ex-employees in the initial filing were dismissed by the Judge as unevidenced and then when internal Wal-Mart memos were divulged wherein the owners and operators allegedly knew they were employing illegal workers came to light, the ex-employees re-filed, once again claiming specific RICO predicat act violations.

These are the people that should be targeted by _real_ anti-immigration kooks. What we're seeing are the actual illegal immigrants themselves being attacked, assaulted, harassed et al. instead.

And that, I think, speaks volumes about what these "SOSMM" a.k.a. et al. really stand for.

My opinions only and only my opinions.

how ironic Luca Zanna aka newamerican trying to sell his pathetic cd to Walmart.

It's damn amusing to see Chase try to distance himself from the Gilchrist Nazi association.

I mean, a Nazi is as a Nazi does, and one or more of Chase's "rogue" minuteklan members shot two migrants at the border near Tecate a few months ago.

I mean, do we need the _label_ "Nazi" to know a Nazi when we see one?

I don't.

But this is a good reprort, and a welcome development.

They aren't "leftist" sources. AG's just trying to impugn her sources, but, they are all mainstream. Ron Paul is a Republican.

Great article Leslie.

It really needs to get out there more that Gilchrist and the anti-immigrant racists are willing puppets for neocons.

hey idiot, feel free to provide concrete evidence that anyone associated with the MM project shot anyone. even the Mexican authorities admitted it was most likely smugglers or drug runners.

the sheer weight of lying and falsehoods on this site is truly mindnumbing.

no one associated with the MM has broken any laws or hurt anyone.

do you actually believe your own bullshit around here?

I seem to reall reading somewhere, "By their fruits ye shall know them." Now let me see... Where did I read that? Damned if I can remember but the same book also said, "Love your neighbors as yourself" and "What youi do unto the least of these, ye do also unto me."

What's in a name? The core ideologies, actions, and rhetoric is what's relevent, not the denials of these people's motivations. If they stand shoulder to shoulder with people waving Nazi flags and Confederate flags, screaming at American citizens to "go home" because they have brown skin, isn't that the fruits that we know them by? Isn't that the relevent evidence that expresses what it is these people abide by?

They can call themselves "Friends of the Border Patrol," "Save Our State," "National Alliance," or "Wonder Woman." It's all irrelevent. What they _do_ and what their _rhetoric_ is is what's relevent -- and telling.

If they didn't harbor Nazi and neo-fascist ideologies, why are they virtually indistinguishable from individuals who self-identify as such? If they're not racist hate mongers, why don't they walk away and create oir join legitimate anti immigration groups?

Also get a load of the responsibility that such people adopt. It's Republican in scope:

> smugglers or drug runners

See, it's never the racist hate mongers brandishing firearms and screaming death threats that are committing the beatings, assaults, and murder. It's always either someone else -- some shadow, sinister dark-skinned person, or it's exclaimed and justified with a glib, "Look what you made me do."

Funny how "smugglers or drug runners" for some reason felt the need to shoot pennyless border crossers, isn't it? These "smugglers or drug runners" must have wanted to steal their, um, er, well, must have been the lint in their pockets since that's all these poor people have.

It's comical. The absurdity of these groups and what they proclaim while denying their core ideologies is so absurd that it becomes farce. It would be laughable if people weren't being killed.

My opinions only and only my opinions.

Can you write any better AG? and do u have a better sources too? I am willing to read your perspective AG.

Come on, fresca, it's not polite to point fingers.
Particularly when you exhibit waxing symptoms of homicidal mania in relation to your perceived final solution to the 'Islam problem'.

I would think that you would find your true soulmates in the MM movement.

Blaming the victims of capital warfare instead of seeking common re-mediations such as enforcing labor codes towards the agri and manufacturing concerns that promote and facilitate the exploitation of these refugees of corrupt American cliental ( actually international banking parasites who have allegiance to no country ) nations are the real problem. We should demand to stop meddling in the affairs of other societies.
Elimination of the CIA and all their puppet terror organizations that assassinate labor leaders and progressive challengers would be a good start.

Jeez Chief,
You really know how to flatter a guy into performing better.
Well you see, in order to understand the messages that many of the posters here write, I have get in character first, and that often means closing my mind to facts, and believing for the moment that everything you hear from your chosen sources is gospel. I guess I need to jump back into my real self prior to responding from now on.
Now see?, the flattery thing is contagious....
All kidding aside, I was just pointing out Leslie's propensity towards propaganda, as opposed to balanced reporting. We all get that in plentiful supply from the major media now, and it really doesn't offer a reality check, since it is based on the same objectives that all propaganda is.
Leslie's report neglects in entirety, the presence of links to open borders, cheap labor, voter and policy influencing, and unequal law enforcement that left wing, liberal, or democratic associated groups have. I see no real value overall in perpetuating the habit of letting those on any side of an issue exclude the more moderate paticipants by battling solely over the extreme points with hyperbole and sensationalism.
How seriously can you take anyone who presents only one side of the argument?
the majority of us, and by that I mean the ones who want immigration law enforced, do not want our agenda represented by any extremist leaning proponents. This would include the commonly referred to KKK, MN, NA, or whatever else along those lines. Neither to we want to see an opposing view lending credibility to those Brown Beret, La Raza, Gente Unida, Anarchist types who fling projectiles and attack people. Leslie claims we are lending a movement power and credibility, yet there is no mention of that happening on the other end of the spectrum. You'd have to blind, stupid, or singlemindedly stubborn not to see it though. So her neglect is thereby empowering those with an extreme agenda by shielding that from the scrutiny that should follow a movements willingness to police themselves.
So we can continue to watch each other fall off of the side of a terribly unbalanced boat while those with a disruptive agenda bark out orders for crew and passengers to constantly change locations, or we can start listening and following only those who present us ALL of our options.

Here's a fact I didn't report, but should be mentioned--Gilchrist's American Independent Party was founded in 1968 by George Wallace, the same one who stood in front of the University of Alabama in 1963 to prevent Black students from enrolling. Wallace's 1968 running mate was Curtis LeMay, who advocated the use of nuclear weapons in warfare. That's Gilchrist's political legacy, and the legacy of those who support him.

As to my sources--Ayatollah, you got a problem with The Washington Post and Lou Dobbs? Or don't you like the Liberty Committee and Michael Corbin?

If you want a piece on the Brown Berets or whatever, go write it. That isn't what this is about--the piece above is about the political connections of a political candidate.

A Democrat was at the helm of this country when the nuclear program was employed as a weapon of warfare. But I won't be a useful tool of the powerful, and link every Democrat to this legacy
That same Democrat was at the helm again, when the policy of debt deferrence was so blatantly used against the next generations of Americans, and many in the world for that matter, as he slipped between the sheets with those conspirators who became overnight millionaires without lifting a finger, save for the one to sign on the dotted line and trade the relative financial equality of every Americans' future for one that bestowed indebtedness instead.
The legacy of all democrats by this association Leslie?

The problem with employing the wide brush in your painting effort is that it becomes a one-upmanship propaganda contest that ends up graffiti-ing the countryside and alienating those who grow weary of seeing any of it. Then they become dis-enfranchised, apathetic, and of little use to anyone but those who have been able to benefit from that for years.

Good grief. I hadn't known that Gilchrist had _PUBLICALLY_ signed on with the same ideologial ilk as George Wallace. That's just as telling as the rest of what's been exposed so far.

. . . among the other reasons why I'm not a Democrat.

So I won't speak for them, either, except to point out that the Dems weren't founded on the principles of George Wallace. That's a step or two up, in my book.

Within the Southern context in the 1960s, the Democrats were the party of Huey Long, and represented the working class -- the white working class. This narrow populism manifested itself as a demand for continued segregation, so that the white working class could enjoy the fruits of black labor and the benefits of black oppression. (Google the phrase "Strom Thurmond's black daughter")

Ultimately, as the Supreme Court decided that African Americans had rights (!!), the political winds shifted, and today, most of the "white supremacist" vote goes to the Republicans, with a fraction going to outright racists.

For a bunch of Christian Neo-Cons, they certainly have a lot Blacks and Jews working for them. They do have some skinhead looking guys on their canvassing crew, but they are rappers from Long Beach working for the group TEC-9. Many of the organizers are Latino, Jews women or a combination of the two. In fact, I meet more bigwigs when I'm wearing my kepa.

As for Mary Parker Lewis, if you met the woman you would laugh at the idea of her heading a vast, right-wing conspiracy (she has a hard time planning breakfast).

Mr. Gilchrist's new campaign manager with the funny German name lost family to the Nazis. If you call that man a NAZI, you better be holding a weapon.

If you people... Oh no! I just used the phrase "You People"! Anyway, If you spent as much time volunteering as you do online, you just might be able to help an underdog candidate win. Mr. Young needs help.

-ETJ

look at the website

I have respect for the speaking out Jim Chase is doing. He has more insight and information on Gilchrist than I do. Maybe more than Gilchrist himself has.

This speaking out isn't fun. This isn't funny. But to me, it's relief.

If you think the American Independent Party has a checkered past, founded by Gerouge Wallace, a segregationist, you're really going to flip your toupe over this revelation: THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY WAS FOUNDED AND DOMINATED BY SLAVE OWNERS FOR MOST OF ITS HISTORY.

The Democratic party was the party of the Southern Slaveowners, of the Confederacy and globalist free trade ideology.

That was further back in history. By that logic, couldn't the same be said of America itself?