Tea Party Update
Gordonskene reports on the Santa Monica Tea Party where he ran into members of the John Birch Society:
Seems the JBS is alive and well and kicking up all sort of under-the-radar dust. This time it’s not communism but EU World domination and of course government meddling in private lives (read: guns, taxes, far-right ideology and oh yes, massive funding from people like the Koch family). So, you roll all those things together and its the same old Leopard of the 50’s and 60’s, only with new Millennium spots. So I stumbled across a news item from 1965, a review of a new film put out by the Society in an effort to drum up support.
Seems after over 50 years of being around, the John Birch Society is still around and paranoid as ever.
Sam Stein wrote on post-tea party fallout for the GOP on Huffpost:
While the anti-tax sentiment of the protests may have been sincere, the images pulled from the events have often been offensive, embarrassing, or politically problematic.
It is a development that has tripped up the GOP before. The rallies outside McCain-Palin events included some of the same bile that was seen at the tea parties: charges of fascism, terrorism and other malicious criticisms leveled at Barack Obama. And it did the Republican ticket little good in its efforts to bring moderate voters to the cause.
Sinfonian recounted his speech at a Pensacola Tea Party, and a video of the whole thing. Pretty awesome.
I enjoyed the part when I asked, “How many here make less than $250,000 a year?” and there’s a big cheer … then it goes quiet again when I tell them they’ll pay less in taxes under the Obama plan. That’s about when the murmuring started …
My favorite part, though, is as I continue to gripe about the years from 2000 to 2008 (yeah, it’s ‘01 to ‘09, but you have to “speak to your audience,” y’know), and then I hit them with “place the blame where it belongs: squarely on the Republican Party and the Bush administration,” they pretty much lost their shit at that point. That was fun.
Rush Limbaugh Isn’t Racist, He Just Sounds That Way
Since the election of Barack Obama four months ago, one man has emerged from the ruined right standing tall. That man is conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. He has enjoyed a big boost in ratings since Obama’s election much to the guile of the GOP. Limbaugh is a man who cannot get enough of the spotlight. He is no stranger to controversy and attacks anyone he believes is getting too much media attention. This was the case in October of 2006 when he stated that Michael J. Fox was “exaggerating the effects” of his Parkinson’s disease. On January 16th of this year he caused a stir by saying “I hope he fails” referring to Barack Obama. He later attempted to retract the comment by saying that he hoped Obama’s policies fail and not the man himself.
One of Limbaugh’s biggest fans is Andrew Klavan, the contributing editor of City Journal magazine. Mr. Klavan was recently published in a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece where he stated “I listen to Limbaugh every chance I get, and I have never heard the man utter a single racist, hateful or stupid word.” As if that wasn’t enough, Klavan went further and challenged “liberals” to: “Listen to the show. Not for five minutes but for several hours: an hour a day for several days. Consider what he has to say — the real policy material under the jokes and teasing bluster. Do what your intellectual keepers do not want you to do and keep an open mind.” Read more
Touchstones
“He entered upon the canvass with a reputation confined to his own state. He closes it with his name a household word wherever the principles he holds are honored and with the respect of his opponents in all sections of the country.” Joseph Medill, writing of Abraham Lincoln, 1858.
Those of us who grew up among the vast prairies, rolling hills, and city streets of Illinois are steeped in Abraham Lincoln. As school kids we visited his New Salem and Springfield homes, and stood quietly in the solace of his tomb. We joined thousands over the years who rubbed the nose of his likeness outside that last resting place, shining it as though to keep his spirit alive and vibrant. We did not know then of his ambivalence about the rights of slaves, only that he freed them and preserved the union. We still go to the Lincoln Memorial and are deeply moved. We are of him; he was of us. Read more
Obama and the Environment
I looked over the Energy Plan at barackobama.com today, and I can’t help but feel hot and cold about it.
His plan unquestionably aims to give assistance to middle class and low income households, which is certainly imperative at this point in time….and a exhilarating change from the current administration. However, being someone who is legitimately concerned for the environment, I have to put my foot down and say that his plan does not dis-include practices that may be highly detrimental to this planet, and contains propositions calling for relatively unsustainable energy procurement and management. The following is my summary of his Energy Plan, approached and illuminated by the way of an ecological eye… and with commentary, of course. Read more
White Nationalists Prepare to Oppose Obama Administration
The Republican Party is in disarray after its loss to Barack Obama, and on the sidelines white nationalists are skillfully preparing political attacks on the new American president.
Since the weeks leading up to the most significant elections ever to take place in the United States, federal law enforcement agencies, the media and human rights organizations have paid close attention to threats made against Presidential-Elect Barack Obama. Some of these threats have been made by individuals with ties to the neo-Nazi movement in the United States.
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Saddleback or Brokeback? The President-elect’s Penchant for Preachers.
For Barack Obama to wander from the progressive United Church of Christ to the conservative Saddleback Church, from a prophetic pastor to a placid one in such a short period is a stunning religious-political journey on many levels. This is a journey from a historic church rooted in the abolitionist movement and fundamentally committed to civil and human rights—including gay rights—to a church with little visible connection—save a few recent forays—to the perils of human oppression. Read more
Hate Crimes and Hate Group Activity Rising
Last week I asked our readers if they thought hate crimes were increasing. I posted the poll on a whim; we’d been writing a lot about hate crimes at Imagine 2050 and felt that there was something deeper and more menacing behind the recent spree of attacks. As of this writing 63% of you thought that hate crimes were increasing, and there is mounting evidence that you were right. We already know there has been a steady increase in crimes against Latinos since 2003, as reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center. This has been attributed to anti-immigrant rhetoric that has gone mainstream thanks to groups like Federation for American Immigration Reform, anti-immigrant politicians and TV commentators, such as Lou Dobbs. And there is a very strong link between the communities where anti-immigrant groups are active and hate crime incidents. Read more
Fight for Citizenship Should Engage Blacks and Gays
California’s recently passed Proposition 8, a constitutional measure, now defines “marriage as between a man and woman” and eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry. Many people, either in error or racist intent, have attempted to argue that Proposition 8 passed because of the large black voter turnout for President-Elect Barack Obama.
The real truth, devoid of bigotry, according to Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, is that new voters for Obama overwhelmingly voted to defeat the measure. New black voters were stronger supporters of gay rights than the “more experienced voters” that the mainstream LGBT leaders were focusing on for support. Read more
There is no Promised Land without Black America
The emerging new black leadership owes black America tangible change. Across the blogosphere, in newsprint and on television and radio pundits are breathlessly hailing the rise of the Joshua Generation.
While initially used by the Barack Obama campaign as a title of a program that reach out to potential young evangelicals and Catholic voters it is now used to distinguish a growing group of young black leaders from those that participated in the 1960s Civil Rights movement. In short while the biblical figure of Moses (i.e. Martin Luther King, et al) led people out of captivity it was Joshua (i.e. new black leadership) who finally got everyone out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land.
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Questioning Obama’s Campaign Tactics
With the presidential election wrapping up in less than a week a change will certainly be a-coming. Whatever the results of Tuesday’s election may be, the lives of countless Americans will be forever changed.
The lives of people like Joe the Plumber and Bill Ayers will go back to relative obscurity, at least beyond their close circle of friends and associates. This may be a good thing or a bad thing, but I must warn you, be prepared for a resurgence in the future. This year’s election has seen unprecedented things many of which will be studied. The successes and failures of Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s campaigns will be studied closely and will help form new strategies for future elections. Read more
Response to Obama Murder Plot Says Much about Belonging
I was a 6th grader at Clara Barton Elementary School in 1976. The school bus I rode everyday was a multi-racial smorgasbord of young kids who were excited to get to school so that we could shoot marbles or show off our newest toy before class started. It was on one of those days, on my way to school, that I was told something that changed my life forever.
On a Monday morning one of my school mates whispered that the previous weekend neo-Nazis protested against Jews and blacks in one of the parks that we passed along our way to school and that it had been in the paper. No one really talked about it much, and I’m sure that the conversation quickly turned to our favorite television shows, but from that day forward this park took on a sinister form in my mind. Read more
White Nationalists Running Scared from the Left and the Right
By Melissa Nalani Ross
In the course of my research I was recently flipping through the latest Citizens Informer, the hate newsletter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) – an organization “advocating against minorities and racial integration” – expecting the usual fare of bigotry against non-whites. From issue to issue, I’m never particularly taken aback anymore by the masquerade of polished rhetoric used to rationalize their racism. Senator Barack Obama has been fodder for most of their attacks as of late, so I was expecting more of the same.
To my surprise, however, in Joel T. LeFevre’s “Editor’s Note,” he not only questioned Obama as a worthy candidate for president, but also Governor Sarah Palin’s competence as a potential vice president. His rejection of her capability was in no way tied to a lack of foreign policy experience, her stance on the economy or the war in Iraq. It was simply based on the fact that she is a woman. In his explanation of the CofCC’s viewpoint on Palin and women in leadership, LeFevre states,
The traditional role of the man as head of household and in general leadership is now widely considered “archaic.” We do not accept this view, and regard it as further eroding the basis and continuity of our culture and civilization . . . Read more
Questioning McCain’s ‘guilt by association’ Logic
There has been a lot of buzz in the news about Barack Obama’s ties with UIC professor Bill Ayers. Due in large part to the assertions of John McCain’s campaign, the Obama-Ayers ties that were touched upon in the Democratic primary race were not only brought up in the last few weeks, but have intensified so much that McCain recently released a political ad discussing the subject.
The ad, endorsed by McCain, questions Obama’s loyalties to America due to his ties with Ayers, saying at the end, “Barack Obama, too risky for America.” This attempt to use Obama’s political ties to undermine his overall campaign is interesting because Obama is not the first, and certainly won’t be the last, politician to have questionable political affiliations. Read more
A Record Breaking Moment
Now that the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain have dwindled down to less than four weeks, the American public’s attention towards each of these candidates has intensified.
There has been an increase of interest in politics for a variety of different reasons. Exciting candidates, lack of an incumbent, and the desire for change are among the top reasons many people have been interested in this election. This year there have been record numbers of people that have campaign coverage such as convention speeches and debates. Read more
The Discrimination of Lowered Expectations
By Nora Flanagan
As a teacher, I often encounter the supposedly subtle indicators of bias in the form of differentiated expectations for various groups of students, followed in my head by the screaming subtext.
“He’s very well spoken…[for a black kid.]”
“Her writing is exceptional…[for an immigrant.]”
“Her mother is very involved in her education…[for someone from the projects.]”
These are the most stinging kind of backhanded compliments. You do something well, but only because we don’t expect your kind to excel in that area. We are pleasantly surprised when a Muslim in a burqa speaks her mind, but a woman of Puerto Rican descent is living up to her stereotype by the same behavior. We file people into infinitely complex levels of predictions and benchmarks, not realizing that in doing so, we collectively hold a group back to the minimal expectations we allow for them, both individually and collectively. Read more
Dr. Corbin: You are race-baiting and fear-mongering
By Junaid M. Afeef
Attorney, Community Organizer, Writer
*Originally Posted on An American Muslim Journal
Will there be race riots in America if Barack Obama loses the election?
One self-described Christian news source reports:
“A political scientist at a Christian college in New York City warns that if Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama loses the election on November 4, race riots could break out in large U.S. cities.”
I find this notion totally absurd. This “political scientist” is Dr. David Corbin. Dr. Corbin is an adjunct assistant professor of politics at The King’s College. Dr. Corbin received undergraduate and graduate degrees from University of New Hampshire. He received a PhD in Political Science from Boston University. Corbin has an interesting history leading up to his most recent absurd statement. Read more
Sarah Palin - The Woman That Only Thinks of Herself
Sarah Palin is an interesting person. She reminds me of the kind of football mom you question under your breath before you decide to date her son. The kind of mom that sticks up for her kids when a teacher disrespects one of her daughters. (I’ll never forget the day my mom walked into my 8th principal’s office to share some words with my 8th grade basketball coach; and that’s putting it read more
Do I Disappoint you?
Last night, John McCain spoke to his Republican base of 20,000 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Many of these supporters will be his staunchest allies in his push for the presidency this fall.
Sen. McCain’s speech came exactly one week after Barack Obama spoke at Invesco Field in Denver, Colorado in front of 76,000+ onlookers. Statistics have been since released revealing that approximately 38 million people watched Obama’s acceptance speech last Thursday.
read moreThe Good, the Bad, and the McCain Campaign
I was on a plane to NYC when I heard the news. John McCain chose a woman as his Vice Presidential pick. My boyfriend turned to look at me with a little bit of panic in his eyes. He was afraid that McCain had performed some master stroke of genius and was going to lock down the Hillary Clinton women. As he watched the CNN ticker roll, he gave me a play by play.
“She has five kids!” “She has a son in the army!” “She has a kid with Down Syndrome!” I think he imagined millions of mini-vans, tires squealing, as soccer moms from all over America rushed polling stations on election day to vote for their sister in Alaska. Read more
Did You Believe Obama’s Speech?
Last week, Barack Obama officially became the Democratic presidential nominee. But his path hasn’t been easy; especially the last month. His die hard fans began to question his character and his politics. They began to wonder the substance behind his rhetoric, and with good reason. You can only bounce around a stage and chant “Change” for so long before somebody starts to ask for the ideas behind the popular catch phrase.
So after listening to read more
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