All supporters of the Minutemen, inside please.

[iconoclastic cat]

Poll question: All supporters of the Minutemen, inside please.

This pic was taken at a Minuteman rally July 30th. Notice the salutes and the rather retro flag to the right of the Confederate flag.



Here is a blog entry regarding this event:
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2005/08/minutemen-home-for-extremists_08.html

This is a recent Minutemen rally. And yes, that's a Nazi flag there, third from the right.

Well, I've been saying all along that the Minutemen's core demographic is constituted of right-wing extremists, including many outright racists.

At a recent anti-immigrant rally in Laguna Beach, the connection was made explicit.

The rally was held July 30. It apparently was a follow-up of sorts to a similar rally held in the same locale on July 16, in which a local anti-immigration activist decided to protest a local arts festival's financial support for a day labor center for undocument workers. This rally drew the participation of the Save Our State campaign (an ostensibly mainstream anti-immigration organization) and the Minutemen's Jim Gilchrist. It also drew a contingent of neo-Nazis.

A Live Journal account gives a quick overview of what occurred:
(more)

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Damn, I thought we DEFEATED the Nazis

[slutticus]

25. We defeated the Confederacy too...I guess they just forgot?

:shrug:

[Kraklen]

2. The minutemen are racists. They're supporters are either racist..

or delusional.

The same kind of people who support them are the same kind of people who think the Confederate flag isn't racist. They think it's a symbol of their proud Southern heritage. In the same way the swastika is a symbol of proud German heritage.

I don't know what you're expecting them to admit to.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Damn! They were in Laguna Beach and I missed it?

I would have stopped by to heckle them!

For the record, I never once doubted they were racists.

[AllieB]

4. That is really frightening

[iconoclastic cat]

31. Welcome, AllieB! Sorry that this had to be one of your first threads.

:hi:

[GracieM]

5. Is that really a Nazi flag?

I can't really tell. But the confederate flag is bad enough for me.

[Kraklen]

9. You think they're all waving hello?

[GracieM]

16. Holy crap! I didn't even notice the salutes

Who are these people? I think we're fighting the wrong war.

[Nabia2004]

21. makes my blood boil

first thing that comes to mind is kicking some racist Nazi ass.

[Ian David]

33. They're saying, "Hey, the sun is in my eyes."

Or maybe, "I'm drying the back of my hand in the air."

[jim3775]

11. Here's a closeup from the same blog post

[GracieM]

18. Wouldn't it be nice if

nazis and klansmen would kill each other off?

What the hell do neo-Nazis expect to achieve anymore? I don't get the hatred. Just don't get it...

[TankLV]

30. Umm - because they're the real core of the repuke party?

Amazing how many still refuse to recognize that.

[tex-wyo-dem]

6. Someone forward this to Lou Dobbs...n/t

[0007]

29. Why waste time with that schmuck?

[Wickerman]

7. Hell, the President of the org left, claiming racism

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/ts_more.php?id=66310_0_10_0_C

He came, he saw, he got fed-up.

Bill Parmley, who once spearheaded the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps’s effort in Texas, resigned Monday, citing a lack of firm bureaucratic structure and racist tendencies of the growing organization.

“I have built up 50 years of a reputation for myself in this county and have not let racism ever be an issue,” Parmley wrote in an e-mail sent to Minuteman leader Chris Simcox in Arizona and the local Goliad County Sheriff Robert De La Garza.

[Igel]

8. Sad, actually.

It's rather like the anarchists trashing storefronts during an anti-globalization protest. The RW used that to show that World Bank protests were just a bunch of violent extremists.

I don't blame the organizers for dissociating themselves from the group.

[Walt Starr]

10. Raising hand as one whose mind has been changed

Never ever ever going to support them again.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

12. Glad to hear that

It's a shame their scapegoating wasn't enough

[Kraklen]

14. No kidding.

Fool you once, shame on you.

Fool me. Shame on. Um.

[Walt Starr]

24. Everybody makes mistakes

Few will admit to them.

:hi:

I admit, I was fucking wrong about the Minutemen!

[jonnyblitz]

13. glad to hear that, also!!

:hi:

[Cleita]

26. Whew!

How does it feel to have seen the light? I knew these guys when I lived in Idaho and they are not a cool bunch.

[Pithlet]

42. Good on you, Walt Starr

:thumbsup:

[jonnyblitz]

15. thanks for posting this. I am glad now i took the time to provide

the link to show you there indeed WAS/IS support for them at DU when you didn't believe me this weekend. :hi:

[The White Tree]

17. How about we let the immigrants in and

throw these guys out.

Just a thought.
;-)

[DemonFighterLives]

19. Great trade

Some friendly hard working people for a bunch of hateful mean spirited as*holes.
I never liked their ideas from the get go and assumed a bunch of militia weirdos were involved.

[Cleita]

28. Actually, why don't we make them work at the jobs the

immigrants work at and see how long they last.

[Biased Liberal Media]

20. Eww. Looks like a KKK rally minus the hoods.

[livinginphotographs]

22. "White nationalists." *snort*

Well then what the hell are they doing in America?

[ulysses]

23. but...but...we have to secure our borders!

You never know what manner of vileness them Messicans might bring with them!

:freak:

[TankLV]

27. This just confirms what I've already believed about these racist yahoos.

Notice a lot of apologists springing up here to defend this filth, too! - Nice try - ain't gonna work!

[Ian David]

32. Use their full name: North American Minuteman Border Legionaires (NAMBLA)

I didn't support them, but I kind of encouraged them to go out and get their ignorant asses shot by our own border patrol.

[ulysses]

34. *SNARF*

:D

[GracieM]

35. The still support vote was a joke right?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

36. Probably not, unfortunately

[GracieM]

37. A lurker in the midst....

Will he/she admit to the vote?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

38. No because the people who troll here don't want a light shone on them

[GracieM]

39. The countdowns to deletion crack me up

everytime...

[Jack_DeLeon]

40. I support the right of people to defend thier property from tresspassers..

if they happen to own property along the border, or wherever I dont particularily care if they patrol it to keep unwanted people out.

However if some random ass cracker tries to stop and interrogate me out on the street about my citizenship then there will definately be trouble, for them.

Cause this Mexican here is a legal born in the USA American citizen, I know my rights, and I carry a .45 automatic.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

41. kick for the truth about these roaches

[AllieB]

43. Anyone who supports this militia cannot be a true Democrat

just my two cents from a newbie. Supporting this kind of racism is not a tenet of the Democratic Party.

[Warren DeMontague]

44. Wow. That's an attractive bunch of young people.

Now I've got that Pink Floyd song, Run Like Hell, stuck in my head.