The Ku Klux Klan just sent us a press release. And boy, it's a doozy.Filled with ambiguous incitement and race hate. But bloody bizarre. And I thought you might be interested.

On August 7th, Pastor Thomas Robb, National Director of The Knights Party (aka Knights of the Ku Klux Klan) issued an invitation to presidential hopefuls, Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain to speak to their annual leadership conference over the week-end of August 29, 30 &31. While the invitation is sincere and an acceptance by the candidates would be welcome, Pastor Robb is confident that both candidates are more interested in pandering to ethnic minorities than addressing the issues of concern to White Christians.

The context of both invitations were similar in content and read as follows.

Dear Senator McCain:

Recently you have received and accepted invitations to speak to various groups regarding your qualifications to be President of the United States. In each of these meetings you would address issues that were of concern to the particular group you were speaking to.

On June 2nd you appeared before AIPAC - American-Israel Political Affairs Committee. On July 14th you appeared before National Council of La Raza. On July 16th you appeared before the NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

I am confident that each of these meetings produced positive results for your campaign. We would like to submit a similar invitation for you to speak to our group.

For the most part White people are ignored during election campaigns and, unfortunately after elections. The White population is generally ignored because of the persuasive attitude that it doesn't really matter as the white vote is always split down the middle and the block votes of other ethnic people always decides the election outcome.

That, however, is likely to change as more and more whites are feeling a sense of disenfranchisement and displacement. A white block vote may well be in the development. Only time will tell.

I would like to extend an invitation to you to come and speak to our national leadership conference taking place on August 29,30 & 31. I am confident that your appearance will create an exciting and lively discussion and can produce a national buzz for your campaign.

I assure you that this is a sincere invitation and you will be afforded the respect that is deserving any candidate for the highest office in the land.

Please contact me directly at 870-427-3414 and let me know of your acceptance of our invitation.

Sincerely,

Thomas Robb

We just called the number. Unsurprisingly, it was engaged. There's a fascinating old Mike Wallace interview with 50s klan leader Eldon Edwards on the University of Texas' website, if you're interested. I, personally, would be fascinated to attend the group's so-called "leadership conference" at the end of the month. But so far, no invitation.