Middle American Radicals Come of Age in Texas Attack
Over the next several days our nation’s political leaders and media pundits will spend countless hours dissecting the actions of American suicide bomber Joseph Stack. On Thursday Stack deliberately flew a small aircraft into an office building housing federal offices killing one person and wounding over a dozen individuals.
The media spectacle will go something like this. Conservative leaders, who have, since the election of the first Black president, stoked the flames of political paranoia, have all but abandoned a semblance of civil society will be quick to explain Stack’s crime as the act of a “lone lunatic”.
Tea Party factions will quickly distance themselves from the action at the same time attempting to justify this act of domestic terrorism as proof of an “out of control” Federal Government. Tea Party leaders will work overtime to claim that Stack’s suicide note proves that he was a “rabid left winger.” They will point to Stacks’ quoting of communist philosopher Karl Marx in his suicide note as proof. Read more
Cord Jefferson Gets it Wrong on Immigration and Black America
Let’s just say up front I am not sure when Cord Jefferson’s writing is tongue-in-cheek or trying to be serious. Recently, he blogged ‘In Defense of John Edwards’ and talks about why progressives do not have the right to be as upset with Edward’s actions as conservatives, which I am sure was written with tongue firmly planted in cheek. His latest blog in The Root, ‘How Illegal Immigration Hurts Black America’ Jefferson liberally mixes fact and fiction to weave his tale.
Jefferson brilliantly ignores his own sources or twists them like pretzels to craft his fictional piece so that it has the feel of legitimacy.
1. He conveniently ignores an entire paragraph in the referenced Washington Post article which explains why there is higher unemployment by young Blacks such as Dlonta Spriggs. “Traditionally the last hired and first fired, workers in Spriggs’s age group have taken the brunt of the difficult economy, with cost-conscious employers wiping out the very apprenticeship, internship and on-the-job-training programs that for generations gave young people a leg up in the work world or a second chance when they made mistakes. Moreover, this generation is being elbowed out of entry-level positions by older, more experienced job seekers on the unemployment rolls who willingly trade down just to put food on the table.” Read more
Racism, Anti-immigrant Sentiment, White Nationalism and Islamophobia, is this the GOP’s future?
The 37th annual Conservative Political Action Conference kicked off today in Washington DC. This year’s event is featuring big players in the conservative movement, but more concerning, the extreme right are also prominent. During my first eight hours at the event I heard examples of Islamophobia, anti-immigrant sentiment, anti-Semitism and some flat out racist and extremist comments coming from both speakers and attendees.
The first session I attended was entitled “Student Activist Workshop” was sponsored by the Leadership Institute and the Alliance Defense Fund, a group that defends students freedom on college campuses. The discussion centered around students’ concerns about religious and conservative groups being targeted on college campuses. As the discussion came to an end, the main speaker, Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund, finished his remarks with a bizarre Islamophobic rant – warning students that if they aren’t careful the United States will be taken over by Muslims like Western Europe has. While still trying to wrap my head around Lorence ’s bizarre statements, I headed to “They Want Us to Shut Up: Saving Freedom and the First Amendment,” a discussion featuring Dr. Kevin Roberts, Ronald Kessier, J.D. Hayworth and Doug Giles. Giles’s remarks during his part of the discussion were the most disturbing. He boasted about his two children and praised daughter Hannah Giles, who collaborated with James O’Keefe’s attacks on ACORN. Read more
Anti-immigrant Forces Target Struggling American Communities
Kobach
Tanton
The man at the heart of the most influential anti-immigrant network in the country, John Tanton, has created an empire of organizations consisting of lobbyists, lawyers, legislators, and “experts” who have infiltrated the very depths of social and political debate.
Lately, that has been no more apparent than in Arizona’s Maricopa County, where the Tanton Network’s favorite attorney, Kris Kobach, is busy working with notoriously brutal Sheriff Joe Arpaio. A Kansas attorney, professor, and politician with controversial associations, Kobach has a history of preying on vulnerable communities. Communities weakened, for example, by corruption or political division. Read more
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Authors
- Amy Mehta
- Amy Spicer
- Ana Turck
- Andrew Grant-Thomas
- Axel Fuentes
- Carlos Rich
- Charlotte Williams
- Chris Bober
- Cloee Cooper
- Eric Ward
- Garat Ibrahim
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- Glenn Hutchinson
- Guest Blogger
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- James E. Johnson
- Jessica Acee
- Jill Garvey
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- Katie Irwin
- Ken Brown
- MJ Olahafa
- Noah Chandler
- Rebecca Poswolsky
- Rev. David L. Ostendorf
- Sarah Viets
- Stephen Piggott
- Amy Mehta