In response to Fallen Morgan and others who question the designation of "hate group" when it is applied to those who simply have different opinions about immigration, I quite agree that mere differences of opinion do not constitute hate. I think that illegal immigration is an area in which reasonable people can disagree on a whole host of issues -- and disagree with justifiable passion -- without "hate" entering the picture.

I would even go so far as to say that those who may be particularly inclined toward sympathy and support for illegal aliens need to be very, VERY careful where they step. A hell of a lot of people in this country are stuggling badly to make ends meet. Regardless of the horrific conditions that lead to many illegals coming here, there can be little doubt that their presense is costing taxpayers a pretty heft chunk of change...paid to people who ARE breaking the law. It is NOT right, in my view, to condemn as "haters" those who simply oppose amnesty for illegal aliens or the provision of taxpayer-funded support for them.

However, where organizations like FAIR get into troulble is in their tactics that go well BEYOND merely passionate advocacy. An example has already been provided. When FAIR whips its followers into a frenzy by LYING about the consequences legislation, knowing that some of their adherents will take matters into their own hands, it is only fair for FAIR to face the real-world consequences of their activities. There are more than enough TRUE examples of harm from current policies regarding illegal aliens without making stuff up to fan the flames. And of course, once an organization like the SPLC has been doing tremendous work for half a century, I find it rather a stretch to think they would decide to abandon their hard-won credibiltity simply to take a poke as some obscure group like FAIR. Possible? sure. Likely? not at all.

"I personally think it's hateful to enforce laws..."

Hmmmm. I tucked this one into one of the small folds of my frontal lobe (unfortunately I lack sufficient gray matter to create a deeper fold...but I understand meditation can help me with that) and revisited it a few times throughout the day. I was trying to decide whether or not the author was being clever in narrowing his focus to the ENFORCEMENT of laws. A quick peek at his bio, however, led me to believe that he was opposed to the EXISTENCE and not merely the enforcement of laws.

As ihatethemall notes, there certainly seem to be a fair number of laws that the vast majority of people would agree are pretty much prerequisite to an acceptable quality of life. If someone is absolutely determined to harm my person or property -- regardless of the consequence to that person -- all the laws in the world won't protect me. So we bank on that "consequence" -- the penalty for breaking the laws against committing such harms -- as the foundation for an orderly society.

The wording here STILL troubles me...is the guy really OK with expending society's resources in the creation and periodic modification of the law...he just can't stand to see that law ENFORCED? Like, OK maintain a 1,000-page federal income tax code so long as there are no consequences for failing to pay your taxes? or dumping toxic waste into the drinking supply, or wrapping purtrid meat and selling it at the supermarket? or selling sugar pills to cancer victims in place of their chemotherapy medications?

Odd.

So it's a "hate group" because it is against illegal behavior. Hmmm...

They are here to stay, like everyone else should..

What "journalistic credibility"????

It isn't hate to simply have a differing opinion on immigration.

lol the first thing i thought when i read this is, "oh, i cannot wait to hear what keith olbermann will have to say about this."

Does anyone know why the smear defamation group SPLC has labeled FAIR as a hate group? I went to SPLC's website and they just list a bunch of organizations that FAIR has "ties" to, not any racist or violent action that FAIR has actually committed.

SPLC engages in McCarthy-like smear tactics nothing more.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC):

is an American non-profit legal organization, internationally known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against white supremacists and its tracking of organizations it calls hate groups.

The SPLC is based in Montgomery, Alabama, in the Southern United States. It was founded in 1971 as a civil rights law firm. Later, civil rights leader Julian Bond became its president. In addition to free legal service to the victims of discrimination and hate crimes, the Center publishes a quarterly Intelligence Report which investigates extremism and hate crimes in the United States.

In 1981 the Center began its "Klanwatch" (now "Hatewatch") project to monitor and track the activities of the KKK, which has been expanded to include seven other types of hate organizations

In 1989 the Center unveiled its Civil Rights Memorial designed by Maya Lin. The Center's "Teaching Tolerance" project was initiated in 1991, and its "Klanwatch" program has gradually expanded to include other "anti-hate" monitoring projects and a list of reported "hate groups" in the United States.

In October 1990, the SPLC won $12.5 million in damages against Tom Metzger and his White Aryan Resistance when a Portland, Oregon, jury held the neo-Nazi group liable in the beating death of an Ethiopian immigrant.

In May 1991 Harold Mansfield Jr, a black war veteran in the United States Navy, was murdered by a member of the neo-Nazi "Church of the Creator" (now called the Creativity Movement). SPLC represented the victim's family in a civil case winning a judgement of $1 million from the church in March 1994

In September 2000 the SPLC won a $6.3 million judgment against the Aryan Nations from an Idaho jury who awarded punitive and compensatory damages to a woman and her son who were attacked by Aryan Nations guards. The lawsuit stemmed from the July 1998 attack when security guards at the Aryan Nations compound in Idaho shot at Victoria Keenan and her son. Bullets struck their car several times then the car crashed and an Aryan Nations member held the Keenans at gunpoint

On April 20, 2007 a civil jury in Linden, Texas awarded $9 million in damages to Billy Ray Johnson, a mentally disabled black man, who was beaten and dumped along a desolate road by four white men in September 2003. The lawsuit was brought on Johnson's behalf by the SPLC. Four white males took Johnson to a party where he was knocked unconscious then dropped on his head, referred to as a nigger, and left in a ditch bleeding. Due to the event, "Johnson, 46, who suffered serious, permanent brain injuries from the attack, will require care for the rest of his life."

The SPLC filed suit in July 2007 on behalf of Jordan Gruver and his mother against the IKA in Kentucky where in July 2006, five Klansmen savagely beat Gruver at a Kentucky county fair. According to the lawsuit, five Klan members went to the Meade County Fairgrounds in Brandenburg, Kentucky, "to hand out business cards and flyers advertising a 'white-only' IKA function." Unprovoked, two members of the Klan started calling the 16-year-old boy of Panamanian descent a "spic". Subsequently the boy, (5-foot-3 and weighing 150 pounds) was beaten and kicked by the Klansmen (one of whom was 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds). As a result, the victim received "two cracked ribs, a broken left forearm, multiple cuts and bruises and jaw injuries requiring extensive dental repair."

[NOTE: SPLC does not accept any portion of the judgements it wins on behalf of victims of civil rights abuses.]

The SPLC also produces documentary films. Two have won Academy Awards for documentary short subject: Mighty Times: The Children's March, in 2005, and A Time for Justice, America's Civil Rights Movement in 1995. Five others have been nominated for Academy Awards.

Courage. Peace.

Wait, since when did CNN have credibility?

Let's see what happens if he actually shows up. Then we'll have a story...

rober novak needed a replacement and there he is. why is this surprising?

who died and left the southern poverty law center elvis?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_for_American_Immigration_Reform

I checked out the FAIR website, and the first thing I read is this: "The truth is that the House health reform bill (H.R. 3200) will allow illegal aliens to access taxpayer-funded health insurance benefits".

There is absolutely NO TRUTH to that statement. If you read the bill, section 246 is titled "NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS".

Perhaps Lou Dobbs should take a break from "journalism" and read HS 3200.

Your headline blows. He is not going to a hate rally. Besides, nobody watches him anyway.

I'll never understand how minimal government conservatives got enthralled with trying to use big government on immigration, as if the government wall will stop people from bettering themselves and as if they won't find another way in. The libertarians see the neocons as xenophobic on this topic but it does serve notice to note that Dobbs wife is hispanic.....a little odd that he would be so against immigration as a whole and he never gives any clean and clear example for Congress of what to do about the problem, just bitching and moaning. I could care less about skin color and all that crap, let's get serious for a second, if the SPLC cared about poverty, it would be educating the people on tolerance AND economic freedom....but no, they are like the ACLU and do a horrible job defending property rights and individual freedoms. If only people could wake up to Liberty and understand the root of prosperity and peace. Immigration does need to be reformed, but to the point where people from Mexico have the same quota as those who come in from Europe or Asia. It is truly sad to see so many people flying under the radar never bettering themselves because the government will arrest them if they try to better their family's lives.

Lou Dobbs is an asshole that lost his credibility by supporting the "birther movement" (even though his co-host systematically tore it apart when he was absent one day)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Ru7dnfSjI&feature=PlayList&p=17D5478109...

. . . but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a point in regards to immigration. If we don't have control of our border and who crosses that boarder . . . then we really don't have sovereignty, "uncontrolled" immigration is just not healthy for the US (or any country for that matter).

I think we should get rid of these so called "editorial" news people on television because they've completely raped journalistic integrity and have left the real journalists without jobs. I don't want someones opinion of the news i want someone to report the news. If they want to do this i say let them go to non news reporting networks like hbo or showtime or comedy central so i can laugh at them and then watch what's really happening in the world on the news.

hey Rico you didn't buy it in the first place, you stoleit at the point ofa gun...read your history. You took all of the southwest the same way Hitler took France and Poland etc.
Like the man said, "we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us"

Yeah these illegals are such a problem, I tried to get a job picking grapes and strawberries and there wasn't a job to be found. Then I went to a restaurant to try to get a job washing dishes and again nothing but Mexicans. These illegals have taken all the good jobs.

I've often wondered why Dobbs isn't on Fox. He would fit in really really well.

As it stands I do find it a bit insulting that millions of people are in line to legitimately come into the country and others just crap on that by sneaking in.

That's my only real problem with it, you essentially are slapping every one of those people in the face when you just waltz on in.

But whatever. People will be people, we should just buy Mexico and overhaul the place. Then people wouldn't be in so much of a hurry to flee here.

Maybe even sell it for a higher price than we bought it. I realize Ron White did a joke about that, but frankly it couldn't hurt ;).

He's in the wings, waiting to make the jump to Fox News so he can replace Glenn Beck when they finally have to can him for being insane.

Unimatrix,

Yes, I absolutely agree that the Southern Poverty Law Center is a truly remarkable and admirable organization. My understanding was that Dobbs would be speaking on behalf of a group designated by the SPLC as a hate group.

I hope I did not say anything that could be construed as being critical of THEIR work -- I would be SO embarrassed! To me, they are in that group of organizations like the ACLU and Amnesty International -- what is there not to love?

For folks who might be interested, they also happen to sponsor one of the world's best web sites -- tolerance.org (you'll never guess the nature of the primary subject...kidding).

A rich white Christian politician doing wrong? What kind of world do we live in?! Ohh...sarcasm's fun....but really, what's it matter? Immigration? Has no one watched tha SuperNews with tha Native Americans dealing with "immigrant crackers"? Whitey's just angry because someone's stepping on his turf. And isn't Dobbs a reporter? I thought their job was to report tha mood unbiasedly. But I guess that's because biased journalism sells more isn't it?

I have mixed feelings about Dobbs. Sometimes I think he is right on, other times, like with immigration, he does seem a bit xenophobic.

Dobbs did lose a great deal of my respect when he was taking the birther thing seriously.

As for the SPLC, they are a great American organization. I trust them.

I am with Dobbs on this one. Something must be done to address illegal immigration. The gov't shouldn't ignore the "problem", they should address it. Give them a soc sec number or don't. But do lead and make a decision, people are going to be pissed either way. Just blame it on Bush...

Just tossing this out there...but in order for Lou Dobbs to risk LOSING credibility wouldn't he have to possess a bit of that commodity at the outset? My recollection is that there was a point in the distant past when Mr. Dobbs was known primarily as one of the people who read the news on-camera.

At some point (I'm thinking 3-5 years, but it wasn't the kind of event I tend to diary), Mr. Dobbs decided to sacrifice his journalistic integrity as a "reporter" and become instead an editorialist. Whether he was asked to do so or volunteered do so doesn't really matter at this point. One way or the other, he agreed.

As often happens in such cases, he found fairly quickly that he very much preferred the feeling of BEING the news as compared with merely REPORTING it.

So in order to stay in the spotlight, he had to increase the shrillness of his opinions, which in turn increasingly nudged him toward the margins. He is a failed journalist, but he provides an excellent lesson to aspiring young journalists (or to older ones contemplating similar decisions)...

Though not a big Lou Dobbs fan, I do agree that illegal immigration is a problem. Illegals are targets for exploitation by the status that they put themselves in. I've never heard of FAIR but I am about research it.

I get a laugh really when I reads about these immigration Gestapo squads. Man we are here and we are going to continue to come here and raise our families and live our lives. Get used to it because there is nothing you can do to stop that. You probably are experiencing what the native Americans felt when they realized that the tide had shifted. The day may come when you guys will feel like you are living on reservations. To be completely honest about it, I enjoy reading your rants and sensing your anguish as you try to stop the inevitable.
Hispanic and Latino Americans accounted for almost half (1.4 million) of the national population growth of 2.9 million between July 1, 2005, and July 1, 2006.
A report in August 2008[36] from the U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2042 non-Hispanic whites will no longer make up the majority of the population.
Read it and weep my racist adversaries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States

Who isn't a hate group according to the SPLC?
God forbid we have immigration laws that are uphelp.
It is not hateful to enforce the laws of this country when it comes to immigration.

maybe the Southern Poor people should stop invoking that strong ignorant work HATE---- Just because a news reporter has an opinion that dont include gimme dont make him a Hater.