Immigration

Rand Paul: The Best Friend a White Supremacist Can Have

Written by MJ Olahafa

Dr. Rand Paul, ophthalmologist from Bowling Green, Kentucky, has accomplished a great many things in his life. Owning and operating his own ophthalmology clinic is impressive for one. Running and winning Senator in Kentucky with his first attempt in politics, also outstanding. But being featured on white supremacist websites left and right? Now THAT takes the cake!

The November 2nd elections are over and for those who won, it is now time to bask in the glory. Sarah Palin backed and Tea Party poster boy, Kentucky-elect Senator Rand Paul has been doing just that. And the pats on the back are coming from the most unsavory places. On November 3rd, an article congratulating Rand… Read more

Immigration

CAPS Seeds New Platform for Anti-Immigrant Voices

Written by Rebecca Poswolsky

Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) recently created a new blog site.  The website features several writers with controversial ties including Rick Oltman, Frosty Wooldridge, Michael Cutler and an overwhelming number of articles from Joe Guzzardi.  Among other anti-immigrant connections, CAPS is listed as a state contact on Federation for American Immigration Reform’s (FAIR) website, where it is misleadingly described as “an environmental activist organization that views immigration control as a key element of population stabilization.”

FAIR is a hate group founded by white nationalist John Tanton. Tanton has a history of advocating for racial eugenics, the pseudo-scientific study of racial supremacy.  CAPS has additional ties to white supremacy that… Read more

Politics

Dems Dither, Whiteness Realigns, Rich Win

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

The Democratic Party lost last week’s election in August of 2009, ignoring for the following fifteen months the ascendancy of the white “middle class” tea party that wielded its “non-partisan” clout to catapult conservatives to power in Congress and statehouses across the country.

The Party’s abysmal failure to create a counter-narrative to the tea party’s race-tinged agenda provided fertile ground for the “shellacking” that will, over the next two years, likely intensify the gridlock that is now the hallmark of American politics.  As eighteen-term Democratic Congressman James Oberstar—Chair of the powerful and porky House Transportation Committee—put it as he conceded in defeat, he “never saw it coming until it was too late.”  Neither… Read more

CIS Release New Memo

Written by admin

Anti-immigrant group Center for Immigration Studies released its latest memo titled, “Subsidizing Sanctuaries: The State Criminal Assistance Program by Jessica Vaughan and Ross Doubleday. The memo argues against providing federal grants to cities that are considered sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants.

Punitive Rules in Food Processing Endanger Workers and Consumers

Written by Carlos Rich

Talking with workers in food plants, mostly where turkeys and hogs are processed, I hear many disturbing stories.  Just a few months ago management at one of these plants fired a woman who had been working there for over six years because she was two minutes late to her desk. She was tardy because  a company trailer was blocking the road and the entrance to the plant parking lot.

Most of these processing plants rate their employees on a point system in which each point received equals a tiny infraction.  At many companies, workers can receive no more than ten points before they are fired.

If you are a as much as 30 seconds late… Read more

Politics

MSNBC Suspension of Olbermann Stinks

Written by Jill Garvey

It sure does suck to be a journalist these days. Just ask Keith Olbermann, who was suspended from his job on Thursday for making donations to political candidates as a private citizen. Olbermann’s $2,400 donations to three candidates is a drop in the bucket – actually it’s a drop in the ocean – of America’s screwed up political process. But that hasn’t stopped his bosses at MSNBC from punishing him.

One of today’s greatest American myths is the belief that media conglomerates are driven by journalistic integrity. Cable news networks like MSNBC are driven by profits. It’s why more Americans tune into Comedy Central every night  instead of a “real” news channel like CNN,… Read more

Politics

Cross-Post: Racism & Abuse in Leading Religious Right Org

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Originally published in Religion Dispatches Magazine by Sarah Posner. Sarah Posner, author of God’s Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters, is RD’s associate editor and covers politics for the site. Her work has appeared in The American Prospect, The Nation, Salon, The Washington Spectator, the religion blogs at the Washington Post and the Guardian, and other publications.

Just before this year’s Values Voter Summit, the progressive advocacy group People For the American Way called on Republican elected officials and candidates to condemn virulently anti-gay and anti-Muslim statements made by the American Family Association’s director of public policy, Bryan Fischer.

Fischer, who hosts a daily radio

… Read more

Politics

Cross-post: The Tea Party Republicans’ Malek Problem

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Chip Berlet, a researcher and author covering civil rights and civil liberties, posted the following article on Huffington Post November 3, 2010:

Fred V. Malek, is a key political strategist for the American Action Network which just spent some $7 million to unseat Congressional Democrats with votes from the Tea Partiers. Malek is in the midst of a renewed controversy stemming from an incident in 1988. Malek resigned his post at the Republican National Committee in September of that year after it was revealed that in 1971 he had compiled a political hit list of Jewish employees at a federal agency that his boss, President Richard M. Nixon, felt were not team players. Nixon thought

… Read more

Politics

Theocratic Third Party Flexes its Muscle during 2010 Election

Written by Eric Ward

While Americans around the country celebrated and mourned the election results of both Democratic and Republican party candidates.  The third largest political party in the United States was taking stock of all its hard work.  If you’re thinking of the Libertarian or Green Parties, you would be wrong. Those committed to an American democracy built on opportunity and inclusion would do well to take note of The Constitution Party in future elections.

Today the third largest party in America is The Constitution Party.  It’s vision of America calls for the political reversal of Constitutional Amendments that affirm the citizenship of African Americans, overturn the practice of chattel slavery, and guarantee the right of… Read more

Politics

US Immigration Reform PAC and Realignment of the Tanton Network

Written by Stephen Piggott

US Immigration Reform PAC is the main political action committee of the John Tanton Network, made up of organizations leading the movement to dehumanize immigrants. The Network was named for its most influential leader, white nationalist John Tanton. As the November 2 elections neared, the US Immigration Reform PAC, like thousands of other PACs across the country, announced its endorsement of candidates.

The PAC also announced that it will hire a new director, Jim Edwards. Edwards also works as a consultant for the Tanton group NumbersUSA. It is unclear at this time how big of a role Edwards will play in the PAC which is currently run by the wife of John… Read more