Lis­ten:
MP3 One Seg­ment
RealAu­dio
NB: This RealAu­dio stream con­tains FTRs 271 and 272 in sequence. Each is a 30-minute broadcast.

1. This broad­cast opens with dis­cus­sion of for­mer Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Duke has recently been active in Rus­sia, where he is mar­ket­ing an anti-Semitic tract. (“Ex-Klansman David Duke Sets His Sights on Russ­ian Big­ots” by John Daniszewski; Los Ange­les Times; 1/6/2001; p. A2.)

2. With an intro­duc­tion writ­ten by a for­mer min­is­ter in the gov­ern­ment of Boris Yeltsin, the book is on sale in a store imme­di­ately adja­cent to the Duma (the Russ­ian par­lia­ment.) (Idem.)

3. The bulk of the broad­cast deals with Attor­ney General-designate John Ashcroft’s liaisons with ele­ments of the neo-Confederate move­ment, as well as his sup­port for a white suprema­cist accused of plot­ting to mur­der an FBI agent and a fed­eral witness.

4. Ashcroft has expressed sup­port for Con­fed­er­ate gen­er­als Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jack­son and Con­fed­er­ate pres­i­dent Jef­fer­son Davis. (“Unseemly Alliances” by Bob Her­bert; New York Times; 1/18/2001; p. A31.)

5. The peri­od­i­cal in which he expressed this sup­port (South­ern Quar­terly Par­ti­san Review) has also endorsed David Duke. (Idem.)

6. If Ashcroft becomes the top law-enforcement offi­cial in the United States, it could lead to a pro­lif­er­a­tion of peo­ple with views like David Duke’s. (Hence, the title of this broadcast.)

7. In addi­tion to going to bat for the likes of Lee, Jack­son, Davis and Duke, the South­ern Par­ti­san has attacked Abra­ham Lin­coln and endorsed his assas­si­na­tion. (“Set­ting the Record Straight: Attor­ney Gen­eral Praised White Suprema­cist Mag­a­zine;” Media Advi­sory issued by Fair­ness and Accu­racy in Report­ing.)

8. In addi­tion, South­ern Par­ti­san has endorsed slav­ery and attacked Jews, Ital­ians, Irish, Puerto Ricans, Cuban-Americans, East­ern Euro­peans, fem­i­nists and gays. (Idem.)

9. One of the bet­ter pub­li­cized aspects of the con­tro­versy sur­round­ing Ashcroft’s nom­i­na­tion con­cerns his crit­i­cism of Judge Ron­nie White (an African-American) as “pro-criminal.” (“Ashcroft Unfair in His Crit­i­cism, Judge Says” by Zachary Coile and Louis Freed­berg; San Fran­cisco Chron­i­cle; 1/19/2001; pp. A1-A19.)

10. This crit­i­cism is grotesque in light of the fact that Ashcroft him­self has been very vocal in sup­port of an ultra-rightist accused of plot­ting to mur­der an FBI agent and a fed­eral wit­ness. (“Why Did Ashcroft Try to Help Dr. Sell?” by Joe Cona­son; New York Observer; 1/18/2001; p. 5.)

11. Con­victed of defraud­ing Med­ic­aid, Dr. Charles T. Sell allegedly plot­ted to mur­der the FBI agent who arrested him and a fed­eral wit­ness. (Idem.)

12. Sell counts both Ashcroft, and the white-supremacist Con­ser­v­a­tive Cit­i­zens’ Coun­cil among his sup­port­ers. (Idem.)

13. The lat­ter is an overtly racist and pro-fascist group that regards African-Americans to be infe­rior, glo­ri­fies the Con­fed­er­ate States of the Amer­i­can Civil War. The CCC inter­faces with a num­ber of fas­cist orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the National Alliance. The CCC has enjoyed the sup­port of promi­nent repub­li­cans, such as Sen­ate Major­ity Leader Trent Lott. (Idem.)