Maryland Hate Groups Watch: Maryland Society of Patriots

In the 2011 legislative session, a new group, stemming from the Tea Party movement, made its presence know, particularly on the social issues of marriage equality and anti-discrimination protections based on gender identity.  The Maryland Society of Patriots, run by the apparent father and son team of defense attorney Bill and Sam Hale, claimed victory for defeating both measures, noting that the victories "reveal a distinct competitive advantage the GOP/Tea Party holds over their Democrat opponents and reinforce the notion that Republicans must embrace social conservatism to be successful in Maryland."

The Maryland Society of Patriots views "social issues" as presenting "a golden opportunity for Maryland Republicans to reach pro-life/pro-marriage Democrats and to draw sharp and meaningful contrast with Democrat ideology."  Failed U.S. Senate candidate for Maryland, Republican Eric Wargotz, thought the Society important enough to bless with a special visit.

At the hearing in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on HB 235, the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act, Sam Hale - seemingly unaware of the different between sexual orientation and gender identity - repeatedly conflated the two in his opposition testimony.  Ahead of the vote on marriage equality in the House of Delegates, the Society called for a referendum and volunteered to coordinate work between Society members and houses of worship.  It seems clear that the Society opposed HB 235 because of the Society's concern that homosexuality is a negative force in society.

We look forward to more nuttery from this father-son duo in the years to come.  Daddy Bill, whose given first name is Roger, apparently gave $150 to Republican Brian Murphy in the 2010 Maryland Governor's race, while son Sam only coughed up $15; however, Brian Murphy probably is ok with this, as Sam ran his failed campaign.  Sam also parlayed this into a failed bid to run the Maryland Republican Party, losing to well-known right winger, former Frederick County Senator Alex Mooney.

Maryland Hate Groups Watch: Save-A-Patriot

Save-A-Patriot is a Maryland group that's part of the tax protest movement, rising out of opposition to federal income taxes. Tax protesters generally believe that either the income tax laws are in some way invalid or that they do not apply to most citizens; therefore, they believe they have a legal and moral right not to pay taxes.  Tax protesters suspect that the government covers up the "truth" about the income tax in order to continue oppressing the people and taking their money and engage in a wide variety of tax evasion strategies that range from simple refusal to pay taxes to complicated schemes using onshore and offshore trusts in order to hide income from the government.  

Save-A-Patriot's leader, John Kotmair, has faced legal action numerous times for actions related to not paying taxes.  Other websites detail why Kotmair's theories as to why no one needs to pay taxes are bunk. Save-A-Patriot also perpetuates anti-semitism by "proving" that Jewish folx owe the Federal Reserve.  Although a federal court barred Kotmair from pushing his tax scheme in 2007, the Save-A-Patriot website is still up and running.

Maryland Hate Groups Watch: Help Save Maryland

Help Save Maryland calls itself a multi-ethnic, grassroots, citizens' organization dedicated to providing facts regarding illegal aliens who live and/or work in Maryland by fostering public awareness and education, supporting analyses and research, facilitating effective engagement by citizens in the Maryland legislative process, and providing helpful facts for citizens otherwise frustrated by Maryland policies that encourage illegal immigration. 

According to records from the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation, Help Save Maryland is chartered as a nonprofit out of Greenbelt.  These records list Robert Fireovid (formerly know as Bloksberg-Fireovid) as resident agent.  Mr. Fireovid works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is also linked to a group calling itself Citizens for a Steady State Economy, conveniently located at the same address in Greenbelt and seemingly interested in overpopulation.

Help Save Maryland's director, Brad Botwin, doesn't like illegal immigration.  Mr. Botwin works as an economist for the U.S. Department of Commerce.  He wants to put hot salsa in your tea cups to get you worked up about the illegals, who he blames for all the money government spends.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified Help Save Maryland as a nativist extremist group.  In 2007, when someone sets a day-labor center for immigrant workers  run by Casa de Maryland, on fire, Botwin told The Washington Post that the laborers may themselves have started the fire.  Later, in an apparently unrelated incident, Wesley James Queen pleaded guilty to making threatening telephone calls to Casa; Botwin claimed he had never heard of Queen and renounced violence, but never renounced his statement blaming the 2007 fire on immigrant workers.  Queen later apologized to Casa and blamed his actions on the Republican Party. Although Maryland Hate Groups Watch does not believe that the Republican Party is a hate group, we note that Botwin is a Republican Party donor.

Maryland Hate Groups Watch: Welcome

Hello, and welcome to Maryland Hate Groups Watch.  The Watch intends to monitor organizations in Maryland that have beliefs of practices that attack or malign an entire class or people, typically based on the characteristcs of the class of people (e.g., race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, disability).

We invite you to give us tips on groups we should feature here.

- Cathy Brennan, Editor

Maryland Hate Groups Watch