The headline on this article may suprise some, who were under the impression that the Sons of Confederate Veterans always were a group of racist loons. Well, they weren't. Up until about five years ago at least, when a decades-long campaign by right-wingers came to a head...if any of this sequence sounds vaguely familiar, read on.

Short version: since the takeover membership in the SCV has fallen off a cliff. In the last year alone, according to the just-released Intelligence Report Fall '07 from the superb Southern Poverty Law Center, dues-paying membership has fallen from around 30,000 to 18,600. The people I defended all those years, the ones who lived up to the motto "Heritage Not Hate," were derided as "Grannies" by the neofascists one too many times and walked away.

And the guy who orchestrated this takeover, while remaining as far back in the shadows as he could manage,

He called them (snort) racists....

ELM SPRINGS, Tenn. - Apr. 17 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- The Sons of Confederate Veterans, one of the oldest veterans organizations in the United States, have publicly challenged NBC's "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno over comments he recently made on the program.

In his monologue to open the April 10, 2007 'Tonight Show," Leno stated in reference to Don Imus, the talk radio host recently fired because of racist comments made on his program: "They say [Imus] is still working on raising funds for his favorite charity, the sons of the Confederacy (sic)."

"Sadly, this is a predictable statement made by someone who obviously doesn't know better," Sons of Confederate Veteran's Commander in Chief Christopher Sullivan said in reaction to Leno's comment. "Even though he is in front of millions of Americans every night, Jay Leno is a product of the same media system that has systematically attempted to equate the Confederate soldier with racism."

I'm really sorry about that beverage, and your monitor. That keyboard on the other hand was really due for replacement anyway, don'tcha think?