With Dobbs scheduled as keynote speaker, National Tea Party Convention fast becoming Birther-Palooza

As we noted last week, WorldNetDaily editor and Birther-King Joseph Farah is scheduled to speak at July's National Tea Party Unity Convention in Las Vegas.

The gathering is fast shaping up to be more of a “Birther-Palooza” than unity conference.

Farah will now be joined in Vegas by Birther conspiracy theory promoting radio host and former CNN anchor, Lou Dobbs. According to a press release posted on the convention's website, Dobbs will keynote the gathering (emphasis added):

The National Tea Party Convention, today, announced that award winning journalist, TV and radio personality, Lou Dobbs, will join the convention delegates and share his vast insights and perspectives as a keynote speaker. Bringing his political and financial knowledge and commentary to bear, Lou Dobbs will offer the delegates a direct and reasoned defense of American exceptionalism while dealing with issues of trade, jobs, politics and the challenges facing America in the 21st century.

[...]

Judson Philips, Founder and President of Tea Party Nation said, "Lou Dobbs is an electrifying personality who says what's on his mind and backs it up with his knowledge and experience throughout his journalistic career. He is hard hitting and will bring a unique perspective to the convention that will hold people's attention while also challenging their thinking."

Of course, this is not the first conference Dobbs has lent his “electrifying personality” to. Just last fall, he spoke at a gathering organized by a group identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “hate group.” As I wrote last September:

On September 15 and 16, Dobbs is scheduled to appear at the “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” rally and legislative advocacy event in the nation's capital being thrown by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). These anti-immigrant zealots must be pleased as heavily spiked punch to have Dobbs helping out again this year, just as they were with his participation last year when it bragged in a press release that the CNN host's “prominence will add to the visibility and stature of [the] event.”

[...]

So what exactly is FAIR, other than a conveniently misleading acronym?

Well, for starters, the group was founded 30 years ago by John Tanton, who remains on its board to this day and happens to have a well-documented history of making racist statements and espousing racist beliefs.

In 2001, Tanton reportedly praised the work of a notorious Nazi sympathizer, saying his work should form “a guidepost to what we must follow again this time.” Back in the mid-1980s, he authored memos, which the nonpartisan Southern Poverty Law Center said were meant for “colleagues who met at retreats to discuss immigration.” According to news reports, the memos, in part, “raised questions about the 'reproductive powers' of the races, suggesting: 'perhaps this is the first instance in which those with the pants up are going to get caught by those with their pants down!' ”

The memos are all the more chilling when coupled with the fact that according to FAIR's publicly available IRS disclosure forms, the organization has received at least $1.2 million from the Pioneer Fund, a foundation that supports the work of white supremacists, eugenicists, and others who seek to prove that genetic differences exist between races.

[...]

FAIR also has a long history of producing racially charged television commercials that have attacked both Republicans and Democrats -- ads which have been described in newspaper editorials as “racially tinged” and “trash” that “incite hate,” “play upon stereotypical racial fears,” and “are full of half-truths and lies.”

It's easy to understand why the SPLC has designated FAIR a "hate group."