In the wake of White House moves to implement some gun control by using executive orders, the antigovernment “Patriot” right has exploded with fury, claiming that virtually any regulation amounts to an infringement of the Constitution or even a prelude to a national “gun grab” by federal forces hoping to disarm citizens once and for all.

These and similar claims have come from nearly every corner of the radical right. But one of the most noteworthy recent responses comes from the Oath Keepers, a group of conspiracy-minded current and former members of law enforcement and the military who believe a tyrannical and gun-hating “New World Order” is planned by global elites. Vowing to fight any legislation to ban “assault weapons,” the Oath Keepers have announced rallies at state houses across the nation on Friday with the aim of sending a message to lawmakers that the “they will be held accountable if they choose to dishonor” their oath to the Constitution. ( continue to full post… )

The past few weeks have seen a plethora of over-the-top reactions and a flurry of right-wing freak-outs over new proposals regarding gun control in the wake of the horrific shooting deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in which a lone gunman armed with an semi-automatic rifle shot and killed 20 children and seven adults, including himself.

One of the reactions is the organization of Gun Appreciation Day (GAD), an event scheduled for tomorrow and organized by Political Media, which calls itself a “Republican New Media consulting firm.” GAD has been touted in conservative media outlets and across the extreme-right blogosphere, encouraging supporters to attend local gun shows and go to local shooting ranges and gun stores in support of the Second Amendment.  The website wants to “put the fear of God” into politicians who “infringe” on the Second Amendment and hopes that you’ll donate money to help combat “Big Media and the liberals’ dirty tricks.” ( continue to full post… )

With last weekend’s mass killing at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin fresh in the public’s memory, the usual players on the conspiracy scene have begun crafting wild, alternative narratives of what really happened.

The theory has started to spread that the attack was orchestrated by some dark sector of the federal government in order to justify rolling back gun rights. This idea, of course, has long been used by the antigovernment right to explain acts of domestic terrorism: Oklahoma City, for example, and even the jihadist attack on the Twin Towers in 2001. The Wisconsin version has appeared on dozens of right-wing blogs and appears to be gaining traction.

Infowars, the conspiracist website maintained by Alex Jones, seems to have led the charge. In an article published earlier this week after neo-Nazi Wade Michael Page killed six people in Oak Creek, Wis., writer Kurt Nimmo accused the federal government – and, ludicrously, the Southern Poverty Law Center – of somehow being tied to the shootings. The proof? Only dubious claims pulled from Page’s life story. The alleged skinhead gunman was in a psychological operations unit in the Army during the 1990s. ( continue to full post… )

Attention, students and lovers of learning: If you’ve been seeking an education with a “moral and nationalist perspective,” unencumbered by government censorship and “political correctness,” your search is finally over. The Roger Sherman Institute (RSI), a new and unusual institute of higher learning that presents a “‘spin’ on America” that “is distinctly nationalist, patriotic, biblical, and constitutional,” this week marked its “inaugural semester,” opening its virtual doors to aspiring scholars everywhere.

Founded in 2012 by an encyclopedia salesman, a movie stuntman, and a building inspector, RSI doesn’t teach “theoretical physics, double-entry accounting, or Freudian voodoo.” Instead, it offers courses on conspiracy theories, farm science and aquaculture, and “the sociotheosphere, where you can learn about historical battles between dominant religions and government.”

RSI was named after Roger Sherman, a Connecticut lawyer who served in the U.S. Senate in the 1790s and signed both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. According to the school’s website, Sherman was “a man of impeccable moral fibre” with an “absolute hatred of paper money,” who “walked to the beat of a vastly different drummer than those who occupy modern Wall Street and Washington, D.C.” ( continue to full post… )

LeRoy M. Schweitzer, the one-time leader of the Montana Freeman and a dean in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement, has died of apparent natural causes in the federal “Supermax” prison in Florence, Colo. The 73-year-old Schweitzer was serving a 22-year federal prison sentence related to crimes prosecuted after the longest police-standoff siege in U.S. history.

In 1996, he led a heavily armed antigovernment group called the Montana Freemen before he was arrested that March 25 in an FBI ruse on a piece of land he called “Justus Township.” His arrest prompted 16 other members of the Freeman group, who believed the government had no authority over them, to barricade themselves in a 960-acre ranch compound in Jordan, Mont. They held FBI agents at bay for 81 days before finally surrendering without firing a shot. ( continue to full post… )

RENO, Nev. — Organizations in the conservative “liberty” and “freedom” movements seem to be sorting out bed partners, and there was new evidence of that at the Liberty Political Action Conference (LPAC) held here over the weekend.

For the ultra-conservative and conspiracy-oriented John Birch Society (JBS), which co-sponsored LPAC 2011, the timing of the event couldn’t have been worse. Word surfaced just before the Reno conference that JBS wouldn’t be invited back to next year’s rival Conservative Political Action Conference, which is one of the country’s most important annual gatherings of the political right. ( continue to full post… )

We Are Change (WAC) is an organization that likes to quote Martin Luther King Jr., Einstein, Gandhi and others talking about the evils of war. It describes itself as a nonviolent “citizens based grassroots peace and social justice movement” and reacted angrily this year when the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described it as part of the antigovernment “Patriot” movement, which is obsessed with alleged government conspiracies. Its leader, Luke Rudkowski, complained at the time that the SPLC said nothing of WAC’s alleged “raising money for 9/11 first responders, toy drives during the holidays, clothing drives and feeding the homeless.”

But WAC’s Los Angeles chieftain, at least, may not be quite the pacifistic type that Rudkowski likes to showcase. This past May, Bruno Ernst Bruhwiler was charged with four criminal counts related to making threats, according to the Los Angeles Superior Court’s website. Three of the counts were for making threats (Rudkowski says that Bruhwiler was charged with making “terroristic” threats), including against an “executive officer” (apparently a law enforcement or court official) carrying out his duties. The fourth count is for “willful disobedience” of a court order. ( continue to full post… )

The Forces of Freedom are ready for war.

Last week, about 100 self-described “Patriots” and “strict Constitutionalists” gathered in a hotel ballroom in Valley Forge, Pa., for the American Policy Center’s Freedom Action National Conference. United by rage at a federal government they believe is undermining state sovereignty in collusion with the “New World Order,” they are determined to take back the country for the people.

The conference, organized by APC founder and president Tom DeWeese, featured a parade of Patriot movement heroes. Each outlined a theory on the roots of the alleged sovereignty crisis, offered a solution, and encouraged the audience to take action before time ran out.

Most proposed nominally peaceful options such as jury nullification, local government coordination, or outreach through alternative media. But none dismissed the possibility – even the probability – of violence. ( continue to full post… )

Sharpen your pencil and summon your muse, it’s time for the annual “Redneck Poetry Contest.”

That’s right. The call has gone out for the best redneck rhymin’ around. And according to the entry form received by the Hatewatch staff, the winning poet will take home a “brand new wood-fired deep-fry cooker suitable for everything from turkeys to [T]winkies.”

But before you start, a word of warning: If last year’s winner is any indication, the competition will be stiff. That charming entry pulled off the hat trick by smearing blacks and Latinos and threatening castration — an incredible feat achieved in only 28 words. Here’s the winning entry:

“In Texas we’re flooded with Beaners

“That’re no good even for cleaners

“They’re nothin’ but lackies

“And worse than the blackies

“So now we cut off their wieners!”

The entry form offers little information about the organizer. But it asks would-be poets to send their entries to one Bob Livingston at P.O. Box 3623, Hueytown, Ala., 35023. That address provides an interesting glimpse of the possible organizer and some of the favorite conspiracy theories and topics of the antigovernment “Patriot” movement. The listed post office box is also offered as a means to contact Personal Liberty Digest, a website where someone identified as Bob Livingston has warned that vaccines are useless and dangerous and has written about the Bilderberg Group, a favorite target for the Patriot movement and other far-right conspiracy theorists.

“These are the New World Order folks,” Liberty Digest’s Livingston writes. ( continue to full post… )

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Whether it’s suggesting President Obama is a secret Muslim from Kenya or a dictator eager to pull the plug on grandma, it seems there’s no conspiracy theory too outrageous for the antigovernment “Patriot” movement.

That is, until Cliff Kincaid apparently crossed the line today.

Kincaid, who has built a reputation within the movement with conspiracy-mongering columns savaging liberals, gave a speech at a conference where he described Marxist and other radical-left elements within the Catholic Church that are apparently working to push forward a sinister Obama agenda.

Kincaid was careful to say he was not bashing the entire church, noting he was speaking as a Catholic. That caveat, however, was apparently not enough for his colleague and fellow speaker at the conference, Jerome Corsi.

Corsi, another big name in the Patriot movement, said he used Kincaid’s research in his book “The Obama Nation.” Nevertheless, Corsi had strong words for Kincaid when it was his turn to speak at the Jericho March & Conference, a gathering that mixed the religious right with some Patriot movement speakers. “I am a Catholic. I take exception with much of what he said,” Corsi said.

He stopped short of accusing Kincaid of bashing the church in the speech, which touched on Marxism in the church, the so-called “New World Order” and, apparently, Obama’s role in it. But Corsi certainly wasn’t pleased by what he heard. “It is unfair to represent the Catholic Church as communist. It is not,” Corsi said. “And Cliff, I take exception.”

As editor of Accuracy in Media’s “AIM Report” and founder and president of America’s Survival, Kincaid’s sights have been set on liberals and global institutions. But he has lately focused on elements within the Catholic Church. America’s Survival, which bills itself as a United Nations watchdog, has published reports about Marxism infiltrating the church, the Vatican’s “Quest for a World Political Authority” and yet another report looking at the Vatican’s role in the New World Order.

For Kincaid, it’s about accurately describing the progressive movement.

“The real danger in this movement is that it is not secular,” he said. “It is religiously based.”

The two men spoke at the Jericho March Conference, which brought about 75 to 100 attendees to an event whose stated goal includes “merging prayer and patriotism.” Insight USA, an organization headed by Christian activist Faye Hardin, hosted the event.

The attendees, who appeared to be mostly 55 or older and predominantly white and female, could pick up copies of the U.S. Constitution and religious paraphernalia at various tables. Free publications from Accuracy in Media and America’s Survival were also available.

But a copy of a report from America’s Survival about the Vatican’s role in the New World Order – including some 300 footnotes – could only be yours for $10.