FOX News, Right-Wing Media Propagate Racism 2.0

Roger Ailes, president FOX News

Many people on the right like to think that with a black president in the White House, racism is dead. They even have prominent spokespeople like Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who beat their chest and say, "How can America be racist if a black person is the Tea Party's leading candidate for president?"

Racism exists in 2011, but in a different form from the racism that existed in the 1960s. Back then racism was blatant -- whites only lunch counters, segregated drinking fountains, and black people completely barred from high-level jobs.

However, because racism was out in the open, it was much easier to challenge by direct action such as protests, boycotts and marching. Forty years later we have made a lot of progress, but there are still many racial disparities. Structural racism exists, but in a more subtle and amorphous form.

Right wingers fail to see these disparities. So I ask them, if you think America doesn't have racial problems, let's look at this from a scatological approach. Let's analyze America by its by products.

And what do we have? An ineffective criminal justice system that is predominately black and brown, black unemployment at twice the unemployment rate of white people and consistent evidence of police brutality and extra judicial killings mainly focused on black people.

What we are dealing with in the 21st century is what I would call Racism 2.0. Racism 2.0 is much more difficult to analyze and fight. At times it is like boxing a ghost, an enemy you can't see or lay a finger on.

With Racism 2.0 we do not have blatantly segregated neighborhoods, but we have redlining, where black home buyers are steered into black neighborhoods, or given loans with higher interest rates than whites. There are also incidents where white homeowners refuse to sell their homes to people of color to make sure the neighborhood's complexion doesn't change.

Racism 2.0 is seen in white flight, where wealthy and middle-class whites move to the suburbs, ostensibly for better schools, but also to get away from the colored folks. It is also seen in public education where wealthier whites take their kids out of the state-funded school system and enroll them in private Christian academies. Then these same people refuse to vote for funding increases to public schools, because they claim they don't have children in the system.

And most importantly it's seen in the right-wing media, which is full of race-baiting stories. Last year, the White Right, as activist Tim Wise likes to call them, spent hours of air time running stories about the New Black Panther Party and alleged voter intimidation.

After months of hype, the story was eventually debunked when a Bush appointee said that the right-wing's accusations about the Justice Department's failure to look into incidents of vote intimidation against white people were false.

The main culprit of Racism 2.0 is FOX News. The brain child of Roger Alies, who cut his teeth running dirty tricks for Richard Nixon, FOX News is a primary distributor of neo-racist propaganda. With Barack Obama, a black man with a Muslim name, in the White House, FOX News has made its viewers feel they are under siege. FOX realizes that is audience is about 90 percent white (figures backed by Nielsen), and they make sure they fine tune their message to fit the tastes of their audience, who are scared about the nation's changing demographics.

But in 2011, it is politically incorrect to say that you don't like black people and even FOX realizes this. So instead they use a series of code words to imply animosity. These phrases include implying Obama is a Muslim, using his middle name, Hussein, and implying he has foreign values, as mentioned by Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee.

And then there are phrases that skate as close to outright racism as you can get. FOX commentator Eric Bolling recently said Obama should have been dealing with the tornado victims instead of "drinking 40s." (He was actually drinking Guinness while he was in Ireland.)

Now anyone familiar with urban media realizes that 40-ounce malt liquor is associated with inner city black people and was heavily marketed towards this group. It has also been embraced by the hip hop community.

And not surprisingly FOX News tried to turn rapper Common's appearance at a White House poetry reading into an example of Obama associating with a gangster and thug. By the way, Common is an intelligent rapper, who is also a vegetarian and has campaigned for gay rights and animals rights. He has also appeared on Sesame Street and in Gap ads. Yeah, real dangerous.

As the great comedian Dave Chappelle once said, "I am a connoisseur of racism." And I think that applies to black people in general, we know it when we see it, even it comes in version 2.0.

Corporate Cynicism, Personality Clashes End Olbermann’s MSNBC Career

Keith Olbermann

People familiar with the workings of Corporate America should not be surprised by the sudden departure of MSNBC star Keith Olbermann.

Olbermann's focus on liberal issues, and passionate denunciation of the Bush administration and its disastrous Iraq war, turned him into star and raised the network’s profile. MSNBC carved out a reputation as place where progressives could go to hear opinions that echoed their views and even beat CNN in the ratings. Buoyed by the success of Olbermann’s “Countdown,” the network later added similar voices such as Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell and Ed Shultz.

But cracks were beginning to appear in the Olbermann-MSNBC union. Olbermann himself is a prickly character, who had a history of clashing with networks chiefs and being fired from other cable channels. Things came to a head last year when he was suspended for making donations to Democratic politicians.

The suspension was odd, because the NBC’s policy was not clear. Olbermann said he was not aware of the ban on political donations, and other MSNBC hosts such as Joe Scarborough were only punished after Olbermann, even though they had done the same thing. But this foreshadowed things to come. Just like other corporations, MSNBC decided that they did not want to fire their problematic star, so they would just make life so difficult for him that he would not want to stay.

I am sure that MSNBC’s recent purchase by COMCAST had something to do with the hostility directed at Olbermann. COMCAST chairman Ed Snider also owns the Right Network which is trying to create another channel dedicated to conservative programming. The last thing he wanted was an employee, who had a reputation from mocking conservative icons like Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly.

MSNBC was always an oddity. It recently billed itself as a home for liberal voices, but it was still owned by corporate titan, GE, the same company that owns major defense contractors. This was the same station that fired Phil Donohue, also it’s top-rated star at the time, for his criticism of the Iraq War, back when they were trying to be conservative.

And although MSNBC promoted liberal talkers like Maddow and Olbermann, you had to believe that they didn’t want them to be too critical of right-wing politics. The network probably decided that Olbermann was too much of a wild card and decided to offload him before the new management started sending them angry memos. So much for progressive commentary on TV.

But, I am not worried, I get most of my information from the Internet, and I am sure Olbermann will turn up on another outlet. He has a following, who will stay with him, if he has a radio show, newspaper column, TV program or Internet production. The firing of Keith Olbermann shows me that there is little room for independent thought on network TV. And as for Maddow and co., I would suggest they start dusting off their resumes. Olbermann was first, but your next on the chopping block.

GOP Policies Will Create Feudalistic Society

Christine O'Donnell

We are entering the final leg of one of the craziest and most exhausting political seasons in history. This year the GOP has fielded the most extreme and unhinged candidates in recent memory. With her talk of refusing to pay for maternity care, Nevada senate candidate Sharon Angle, who beat out a woman who wanted people to barter chickens for healthcare, was the kookiest candidate on the block, but then along came Minnesota GOP senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, who dabbled in witchcraft, lied about her college education and also fudged her dad’s history as the official Bozo the Clown.

This would all be amusing, but there is something deadly serious about their message. It is clear from some of their statements that the GOP/Tea Bag candidates want a return to a form of government that seems to look at lot like feudalism. And by that, I mean they want a society where the landed gentry controls everything and the peasants eke out a living as dirt farmers.

More evidence of the GOP’s contempt for the poor can be seen in statements from Alaska GOP senate candidate Joe Miller, who recently called the minimum wage unconstitutional. Linda McMahon, a GOP senatorial candidate in Connecticut, has echoed Miller’s ideas. Miller is also against unemployment insurance, even though his wife used it after she quit her job,

Many of these current GOP candidates want to strip the government down to its most limited functions. They claim that federal and state workers control the government through their powerful unions. (God forbid that unions actually lobby for decent wages and benefits.) GOP candidates would do away with unions, worker rights and labor laws, allowing bosses (the landed gentry) to have all the power.

California GOP candidate Meg Whitman, former CEO of Ebay, wants to do away with about 40,000 state jobs in a bid to streamline government and make it more businesslike. But here is the dirty little secret. That work still needs to be done. Someone needs to arrest criminals, process government paperwork, write tickets or do the other mundane government tasks we take for granted.

And this is where the second part of the GOP’s plan to restore feudalism comes into play. Whitman has said that she plans to make government more efficient by turning these government jobs over to private firms. So what will probably happen is that a firm will take over the government contract for a couple of million, and then farm out the work of 10 people to two contractors. If the contract is worth $20,000 the owner will probably keep half, and split the rest among the contractors, who also don’t get benefits and can be fired at will.

However these contracts will probably end up going to companies with ties to the Whitman campaign or even companies that she owns. She is supposed to be a smart business woman, so I doubt if she would spend $140 million of her own money and not expect some kind of return. This kind of situation has happened before, under the George W. Bush administration which mastered the art of crony capitalism. After the Iraq war. massive no-bid contracts were given out to Halliburton, which was formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney. Halliburton also has contracts to supply and feed troops, jobs that used to be performed by the military at a lower cost.

If the GOP wins, it won’ t just stop at state contracts. Republicans have their eyes on other government services such as Medicare and Social Security. They may claim they want to make these programs more efficient, but its all about money. The plan to privatize Social Security, which Sharon Angle said she was for then against, has been called the next big heist. Wall Street stole trillions of dollars from working Americans through the Great Mortgage Crash, and now it has social security in it sights.

It will be the same scenario if the GOP gains power, they’ll push through legislation authorizing the privatization of Social Security. People will be encouraged to open private accounts, that means trillions of money for Wall Street, and more potential victims.

Wall Street will play on Americans’ greed, just like they did with the Housing Bubble. Sign up for this complicated savings plan, which you don’t understand, and you might get 50 percent more in your retirement account. What they won’t tell you is that you also might lose your shirt, and your broker gets a commission for every customer he steers towards a certain investment fund. (This has happened before.) Also, your broker is going to charge you monthly fees for watching your money. This has been tried before, under the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile and workers found they ended up getting less money because of broker fees. According to a 1995 article in the New York Times by Larry Rohter: “Even many middle-class (Chilean) workers who contributed regularly are finding that their private accounts - burdened with hidden fees that may have soaked up as much as a third of their original investment - are failing to deliver as much in benefits as they would have received if they had stayed in the old system.”

If history repeats itself, Wall Street will create another bubble that will explode, and the federal government will be forced to bail out the banks -- again. This has happened at least twice before, with the Savings and Loans crisis (total cost $124.6 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office), and the recent Toxic Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout, which bailed out banks drowning in the mortgage crisis to a tune of up to $700 billion.

This form of crony capitalism will create a new generation of robber barons (feudal lords) whose wealth is based on their proximity to the government. If you want to see how this ends, look at Russia which is now controlled by a few oligarchs who became fabulously wealthy after the fall of Communism. During this time, a handful of men became overnight billionaires because they were able to cut shady deals with their political friends.

One of the most controversial oligarchs is Roman Abramovich, a 43-year-old, worth about $11 billion and the 50th richest person in the world. Abramovich made his fortune after he bought Russia’s oil and gas company on the cheap during the post-communist Yeltsin era and resold it for a huge fortune, during the rush to privatization. (There’s that word again.). In Russia he is a controversial figure because he is seen to have defrauded the people, but in Britain he is a somewhat popular figure because of he is the benefactor of Chelsea Football Club.

If GOP politicians get elected they will enact polices that will create hundreds of Abramovichs. You have been warned.

Comments about Unemployed Reveal GOP's Contempt for the Poor

One of the things that has always baffled me about American politics is the blue-collar/middle class Republican. These are people who are a few paychecks away from the breadline, yet the still support GOP policies that lambaste the poor.

This is a classic case of bait and switch, because while the GOP needs the votes of working class Americans (and by that I mean anyone who works for a salary,) it's policies of tax cuts to the mega rich and kissing up to corporations end up hurting Average Joes.

To get working people to support the polices of the upper class, the GOP has a powerful array of weapons in it's arsenal, homophobia, race, religion and when those doesn't work you can always throw in the red scare (communism.) In addition, the GOP now has a whole network, FOX News, and talk radio dedicated to spreading it's propaganda.

But now the country is struggling to get out of the worst Depression since World War II. Millions of Americans are suffering from long-term unemployment. Before if you were laid off it would take three t0 six months to find employment, now we are looking at a year or more. It is not unusual to find Americans who have been out of work for up to two years.

And how does the GOP choose to respond to this economic crisis? By bashing the poor of course. According to GOP propaganda Americans are unemployed, because they're lazy, too choosy or just spoiled. Republicans seem to thinking the whopping amounts of money unemployed people make (about $200 per week) is enough for people to live high on the hog and quit searching for work. The GOP has stonewalled on a bill that would have extended unemployment benefits for millions of Americans. All of a sudden they are concerned about deficits, even though the Republican controlled Congress voted for Bush's wars and tax cuts, which inflated the deficit.

Now let's say an American worker made about $50,000 a year, which is an average mid-level salary, that works out to be about $4,000 per month. An unemployment check of $200 per weeks, works out to about $800 per month, less than a quarter of what that person would be making if they worked.

But GOP firebrands like Nevada senatorial candidate Sharron Angle are convinced that Americans prefer couch surfing, instead of making real money. Angle implies that extending unemployment makes Americans comfortable, in an interview with a Nevada political show she said, "I would have voted no, because the truth about it is that they keep extending these unemployment benefits to the point where people are afraid to go out and get a job because the job doesn't pay as much as the unemployment benefit does. And what we really need to do is put people back to work."

If Angle would actually talk to people on Planet Earth she might realize that finding a job is anything but easy. Statistics show there are about five applicants for every job. And even if workers are willing to drop their pay demands, they face resistance from employers. Age discrimination and degree discrimination are rife. (Many workers over the age of 50 have opted to take early retirement because they know that few employers want to hire an employee who is close to retirement.)

As someone who was unemployed for more than a year, I saw personal evidence of this. I sent out about 5,000 resumes and also applied for entry-level jobs. The problem is department stores at the mall are not going to hire a 40-something professional worker for a minimum-wage job, where his supervisor is going to be half his age.

Plus many of those companies would rather hire wet-behind-the-ear high school or college kids who will be happy to work for next to nothing, and won't have the balls to complain about labour abuse.

For those working class people who still cling to Conservative principles, I ask what more will it take to come to your senses? The GOP despises you. They use wedge issues to garner your votes, but side with corporations who are always looking for the bottom line, even if it means exporting American jobs to China, where they can pay less than a quarter of American wages.

Working class Republicans are like an abused wife who keeps going back to a husband who keeps giving her black eyes. But as Albert Einstein, the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The Democrats are not perfect, but at least they seem to be trying to do something about the situation, and they are not openly contemptuous of the poor.

Tea Party Seems to Be Headed for a "McVeigh Moment"

We hear daily reports of terrorism -- yes terrorism -- linked to the Tea Party. The last time I checked this included racial and sexual insults, bricks thrown through windows and spitting. The most recent event involves Rep.Tom Perriello (D-Va.). A Tea Party activist mistakenly published Perriello's brother's address and urged other Tea Baggers to drop by and pay him a visit. Perriello's brother later discovered a cut gas line at his home.

As much as I wish it won't happen, it seems that there is going to be a major, violent incident involving Tea Party activists. Democratic lawmakers have already been assaulted and their families have been targeted. (Even the Mafia doesn't do that.) I wonder when the Tea Party will have their Timothy McVeigh movement?

Older people will remember the political atmosphere of the mid-'90s which spawned the Militia Movement, a bunch of angry, blue-collar white men, who were frustrated with the political and economic system. (Sound familiar?) That movement ran into a wall on April, 19, 2005, when Timothy McVeigh, a disgruntled Gulf War vet, denoted a truck bomb in front of the Oklahoma City Federal Building.

That effectively marked the beginning of the end of the Militia Movement. The bombing killed 168 people, ordinary federal workers who had gone to work trying to make a decent living. It also killed 19 children, who were housed in the day care in the Murrah building's basement, and created 30 orphans. The defining image of the Oklahoma City bombing was a shaken firefighter pulling a dead infant from the building. The photo later received a Pulitzer Prize.

This kind of rage is not new to sections of this country. During the Civil Rights Movement children were often the victims of indiscriminate bombing, as portrayed in Spike Lee's "Four Little Girls," which detailed the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four girls during Sunday service. During the 1960s, black people jokingly called Birmingham, "Bombingham."

After the Oklahoma City bombing, public opinion turned against the Militia Movement, who were branded as baby killers - and no one wants to side with people like that. I hope and pray It doesn't come to that, but from recent events it seems just a matter of time before the Tea Party gets its McVeigh moment.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34934.html

poll by twiigs.com

Tea Bagger Hate Has Always Been in Plain View

Latest racial attacks are not surprising

Are people surprised that Tea Baggers directed spittle and insults at Democratic legislators? News reports say that Rep. John Lewis, a veteran of the Civil Rights movement, was called the n-word and Rep. Barney Frank was called a faggot. In another incident, Rep. Emanuel Carver was spat on.

It is only the natural progression of tension that have been building for the last 12 months. We saw this during the Town Hall rallies when flabby, ageing Americans almost came to blows over health care. Were those red-faced protesters at the Town Hall rallies actually happy with America's profit-driven health care system, which rewards executives for denying sick people treatment? Actually, many of those protesters were directed by PR companies and lobbyists, who were bankrolled by health insurance companies.

Tea Baggers, who seem to be mainly frustrated middle-aged white people have been whipped into a rage by AM radio and FOX News, the great miscommunicator. Before that there were books written by propagandist such as Ann Coulter which advocated the execution for liberals. FOX News also runs the nightly rantings of the deranged Glenn Beck, as he warns about plots to take away guns, ban fishing and destroy the government -- all the time offering no credible evidence

Tea Baggers are upset at the state of the economy, the shrinking middle class and the fact that neither of the parities seems to speak for them. The GOP, under President George W. Bush, enacted policies that left America awash in red ink. These findings are backed by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Writing in the Huffington Post Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) said, "The Bush tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations have led to the largest concentration of wealth since the Great Depression. His devastating and unnecessary war in Iraq was done without evidence linking the country to those who attacked us on Sept. 11, 2001. And the Medicare prescription drug act that Bush signed into law intentionally prohibited Medicare from negotiating prescription drug prices, costing us billions every year. Each of these programs was not paid for and exacerbated the deficit problems our country already faced."

The real problem is the lack of diversity in the American political system. Both parties tend to favor the corporate agenda, because they take money from the same companies. The Tea Party wants a more libertarian and fiscally responsible GOP, but that would never happen because they would never get elected. Liberals are unhappy at President Obama's agenda, because they think it's too centrist.

The GOP has struggled to maintain the votes of middle class and blue-collar Americans by sprinkling in wedge issues such as gay marriage, abortion and race. And that is where the Tea Bagger anger comes from. Yeah, the economy is in a mess, so it must be the fault of the black guy who has only been in charges for less than two years, forget about eight years of GOP policies. If the mortgage industry crashed it must because of bad loans given to blacks and Mexicans, not shady financing by Wall Street bankers. And the black guy int the White House only got their because of affirmative action and isn't a "real American."

When you have people like Sean Hannity, Beck and Rush Limbaugh throwing around racial epithets, it's not surprising that we have signs like "Monkey See, Monkey Do," "Obama's an illegal alien," and much worse at Tea Party rallies. The atmosphere around these rallies has been widely reported by the media, in spite of the fervent denials of members of the Tea Party.

If they actually studied the issues and watched real news stations, other than FOX News, Tea Baggers would figure out that the Democrats' policies are actually more in line with helping working people. According to an article by Tom Dickinson in Rolling Stone, "A recent poll found that only two percent of Tea Partyers are aware that the president enacted the largest middle-class tax cut in history. A staggering 44 percent, by contrast, believe that Obama has increased their taxes — and only 16 percent blame the current economic catastrophe on Bush, who ran up record deficits by slashing taxes for the wealthy."

Tea Party members are mad because they have been screwed over by the Republican party. They are just not bright enough to figure out where to direct their anger, and spit.

Supreme Court Decisions Puts Another Nail Into American Democracy

For years left-wing activist have been complaining about money being the biggest problem in American politics. Right now, we do not have an elective democracy. The American political system is controlled by money. Candidates are judged not on whether they are electable, but by how much money they can raise. Barack Obama's success was partially down to the fact that he was able to raise large amounts of money, and even out raise Sen. John McCain. (Usually it's Democrats who are unable to keep up with Republican fundraising efforts.)

Obama took money from Wall Street and health care insurance companies, which probably explains why he was hesitant to reign in the excesses of the banking industry, and the reason why we got a watered-down health care bill. This is how it works in American politics. The voters have an idea, then corporations give millions of dollars to lobbyists who kill that idea.

Unfortunately, it cost millions of dollars to run a campaign, so politicians are dependant on campaign donations to put together an effective political team. Flyers, political advertising and campaign workers aren't free.

The Supreme Court's recent decision is a slap in the face of American voters. They have lifted the restrictions on campaigns by corporations, claiming it restricts free speech. Now corporations are free to spend millions, if not billions, to influence a campaign. We do not have democracy now, but are living in the age of corpotracy. There used to be a veil of pretense, but now it's out in the open.

In a further indication of the motivation behind this, the five judges who voted in favor were the same judges who ruled in favor of George W. Bush during the Florida recount court case.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/21/supreme-court-rolls-back_n_431227.html

poll by twiigs.com

Journalist Says Religious Right Sowed the Seeds for American Fascism

Pat Robertson, one of the leading voices

in the American Evangelical movement

If you ever wondered where the Teabbaggers, deathers and other angry, white men came from, Chris Hedges has the answer. In his book, "American Fascists," he details how Conservative Christians could easily move the nation towards fascism. He also adds that the dire economic situation, which President Barack Obama inherited, has left a landscape full of angry, disenfranchised American workers.

Many of these workers, believe that these are the last days, and Barack Obama is the Anti-Christ. The Christian Right's apocalyptic fantasy appeals to them.

The Evangelical movement partnered with corporatists to produce the Bush administration, which moved America as close to fascism as we have ever come. The Bush government had many of the characteristics of a fascist regime. Authoritarian government, check; melding of the state and corporate interests, check; and accusing dissenters of being unpatriotic, check.

If the idea of a Christian-dominated authoritarian government doesn't frighten you, consider this. American Evangelicals motivated legislation in Uganda that called for the execution of gays. I can easily imagine an American Fascist party calling for the ejection of people from certain countries. Republican congressman J. Gresham Barett has already introduced legislation that calls for the expulsion of legal residents from countries linked with terrorism. And you also have right-wing commentators, such as Anne Coulter who have called for the execution of traitorous liberals.

The scary thing about this movement is the power of religion and how dangerous it can be when mixed with a far-right agenda. If a pastor stood up in church and told his congregation that God had instructed him to kill all the gays and Muslims, I am afraid that many people would follow his instructions.

poll by twiigs.com

Coulter Recylces Madrassa Lie

Some liberals like to watch FOX News, just to monitor what the loonies are saying. I don't even bother. There is no point in me filling my head with garbage. I have tried to watch FOX and it just gives me a headache. And this is an example, right-wing propagandist Anne Coulter was on FOX recently discussing the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound plane. She said claimed that Barack Obama had more leeway to implement racial profiling procedures because he was black and attended a madrassa.

The madrassa story was circulated by FOX in 2007, and debunked by real news organizations like CNN. So when a story has been proven to be false, and so-called media figures continue to repeat that lie, that is just plain malicious. But then Coulter did write a book called "Slander," so I assume she knows what she is talking about.

poll by twiigs.com

Romney Spokesman Doesn't Seem To Realiize That Hawaii is part of the U.S.

It's obvious that the GOP are desperate the days, but their attacks on President Barack Obama are getting increasingly ridiculous. Republicans have been trying to beat up on Obama because of his response (or lack of response) to the attempted bombing of an airplane in Detroit. Former Mitt Romney spokesman Kevin Madden attacked Obama for going to Hawaii for vacation, saying it seemed like "a foreign place."

Madden and other Republicans seem to have forgotten that Obama was born in Hawaii and the island has been part of the union since 1959. They also seemed to have forgotten that President George W. Bush, spent more time on vacation than any other president.

poll by twiigs.com

Former Hannity Associate Facing Charges, Threatened Journalist

The Republican party is currently trying to reform itself as minority friendly with the election of Michael Steel as chairman. (Whether that is a good or bad thing is a another column). But as I have mentioned before, there is still a troubling hard-core racist element in the party. You have the high-profile bigots like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck, but these media figures would not succeed unless there was support from them in the party.

Left-wing writer Max Blumenthal tells a disturbing story about Hal Turner, a Neo-Nazi radio show host, who was on the FBI payroll as an informer. Turner, a former member of the New Jersey Republican party, has a disturbing past, which includes close ties to Sean Hannity. Turner used to be a regular caller to Hannity's radio show, because he had been given him a special call in number. When Hannity made it to prime time on FOX News, he tried to distance himself from Turner. Turner also worked for Pat Buchanan when he ran for president in 1992.

Blumenthal says that Turner has made death threats to Democratic candidates and left-wing writers (including himself,) which is really disturbing since the FBI was paying him about $100,000 a year. Turner's federal trial was declared a mistrial, but he is facing charges in Brooklyn and Connecticut for inciting violence against state lawmakers.

http://www.alternet.org/story/144600/meet_the_fbi_operative_who_threatened_my_life,_and_the_gov.-elect_who_may_have_helped_him?page=2

poll by twiigs.com

Baptist Preacher Says He Wants Obama Tried, Executed

Pastor Wiley Drake used to pray for the death of President Barack Obama, but he has had a change of heart. Now he just wants Obama tried for treason and executed.

Drake made the decision to try Obama after watching a YouTube video from the Rev. Dr. David Manning, pastor of ATLAH World Missionary Church. Manning is a notorious ex-con turned preacher who has been running, trash-talking videos of Obama since 2008. Manning, who has a doctorate degree from a university he owns, has accused Obama of being "a long-legged mack daddy" among other things. Manning's videos have been barred from YouTube because of his homophobic comments.

Confirming Drake's status as a wingnut, he was also Alan Keyes' running mate. I didn't think anyone could make Alan Keyes look sane, but I stand corrected.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/27/obama-pardons-a-turkey-pastor-spares-a-president-coincidence/

poll by twiigs.com

Washington Times Writer Says Obama is Weak Because He is Half-Black (Yes, Really)

Here is something that you may have missed, since it came out a few days ago. But it is a stunning piece of blatant racism from the Washington Times. (Well, what do you expect from a newspaper owned by a cult leader?) '

Washington Times writer Wesley Pruden says the reason why President Barack Obama is so quick to bow to foreign leaders is because his father was a Kenyan and "he has no natural instinct or blood impulse for what the America of "the 57 states" is about." Pruden also criticizes Obama's mother for being "attracted to men of the Third World."

Essentially he is saying that Obama is weak, because he is half black. This is so shocking that it literally left me speechless. But it really shouldn't, in his book "Blinded By The Right," ex-conservative David Brock, founder of Media Matters, said that the Washington Times was riddled with white supremacists and people mad that the South lost the Civil War.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/17/pruden-obama-bows-the-nation-cringes/

poll by twiigs.com

Palin Fans Can't Recall What She Stands For

I don't know if this is funny or tragic, but here is footage of Palinites (is that what we are calling them?) who are so enamored with the former Alaska governor, that they can't actually remember what she stands for. It is truly frightening to think that people would vote for a candidate and not know their platform, which makes you wonder if Palin's popularity is solely based on her personality? The answer must be yes, because she has few political or economic accomplisments. The misinformation being regurgiated shows that too many people get their information from FOX News, which is like going to a fish market in search of a good steak.

poll by twiigs.com

FOX Helps Palin Inflate Her Crowd Numbers

Why anyone still considers FOX News anything other than a comedy channel is beyond me. In the month of November FOX has already been caught twice doctoring video to make conservative news events look like they drew bigger crowds. The latest incident involves them splicing video of a Sarah Palin campaign rally into a recent book signing. This is one of a long list of errors FOX News has committed such as having a producer rally the crowd at a Teabagger event, and mistakenly referring to disgraced Republican Mark Foley, who was caught sexually harassing undergage boys, as a Democrat.

poll by twiigs.com

Jon Stewart Skewers FOX News --- again

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Sean Hannity Apologizes to Jon
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It's a sad day in the world when some of the best fact-checking journalism comes from a comedy show. But "The Daily Show" continues to scoop the mainstream media, by pointing out the frequent flaws on FOX News. This time Jon Stewart points out that Sean Hannity ran a video of the Tea Party protest and tried to claim it was footage of Rep. Michelle Bachmann's anti-health care protests. Does it surprise anyone that FOX News runs lies? The station has a long history of running anti-Democrat stories, which were just plain inaccurate.

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Glenn Beck's PR Rep is a Dem

The Washington Post is reporting that Glen Beck's PR rep is Matt Hitzlik, is a long-time Democratic operative who worked on Hillary Clinton's senatorial campaign. PR is a business, and PR reps often have to take on clients that who don't agree with it. I think the real hypocrite here is Beck, who sends a check to a liberal, who belongs to a group he claims to despise. This goes to show that Beck's nightly conspiracy rants are all an act. It's all about the benjamins and he will do business with whoever makes him money. For all your Beck fans, do you think a man who makes $27 million really cares about what ordinary people are going through?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102704010.html

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The Black Elephant in the Room

By G.A. Afolabi

Potter Stewart, an associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, made this now famous remark in a case about pornography: "I know it when I see it." One could say that Black people could also use the same phrase when talking about racism. Most Black people have been dealing with racism since the day they came into the world and their parents were dealing with it long before they were born. We are experts on racism. The mercurial comedian Dave Chappelle once said he was a connoisseur of racism.

So for Black people it's obvious what is behind the white-hot (no pun intended) hatred directed at President Barack Obama, the first African-American to occupy the White House. Obama's election was a shining moment for America, a moment when many American believed we had moved beyond our national obsession with skin color. However some of the older members of the Black community, who have been battling racial injustice for the entire 20th century, probably knew that this monster would not disappear overnight. Many Black seniors, who lived through an age where leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were cut down by assassins, suggested that it was suicide for Obama to even consider running for president.

Like President Bill Clinton, Barack Obama was always going to face stiff opposition to his administration. During the Clinton years, a huge right-wing media machine had grown up and harnessed the frustrations of angry, white men. FOX News, spawned during the Clinton years, has swelled into a media titan that is the no. 1-rated cable news channel, even though it's parrots GOP talking points and makes no attempt live up to it's comically ironic "fair and balanced" motto. In addition, eight years of a Republican-led White House convinced many conservatives that they would be in power forever.

However, the level of disrespect towards President Obama is still, at times, shocking. From congressman shouting insults, a 400 percent increase in death threats, and Conservatives who cheer loudly whenever the country fails, we are seeing new levels of animosity. As former President Jimmy Carter said, much of this is racially motivated.

Some of it stems from apathy towards his progressive policies, but even Bill Clinton, who was despised by the Right, didn't face this level of hatred. No one ever accused Bill Clinton of being an illegal alien. Of course being a white male with an Anglo Saxon last name, there was no way that Bill Clinton could ever be a foreigner. Clinton was also never accused of being a Muslim or being in league with a terrorist. For all of Clinton's flaws, at least he was one of them; white, male, Protestant and a Southerner to boot. I suspect much of the animosity towards Clinton was based on his policies and the fact that he not a member of America's social elite. For many white people Barack Obama has too many factors working against him, he doesn't look like them, he has a "foreign-sounding" last name and his father was born a Muslim, but later became an atheist.

Just because we don't see anti-Obama protestors using the n-word it doesn't mean they are not racists. 21st century racism has morphed into a new beast which is not as blatant as it was in the 1960s. Describing how Republicans have adopted code words to mask racism, Lee Atwater, the GOP operative who came up with the infamous Willie Horton ad, said, "By 1968 you can't say “nigger” — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites."

The media has twisted itself into knots to avoid stating the obvious, that there are still many Americans who are uncomfortable with the idea of a Black man in charge of the country. Instead of looking at the obvious signs -- Obama as a witch doctor, puppets of Obama as a monkey, and signs saying Obama plans to institute white slavery, they still seem to be intent on denying the evidence staring them in the face. I think much of the media's hesitance to address this elephant in the room stems from the fact the blatant racism is now out of fashion. Many Americans are embarrassed that some of their fellow citizens still harbor bigoted views towards black people. To talk about it would be to admit that we have a problem, but like an embarrassing drunk uncle, it's easier to pretend it's not there.

Obama haters have been egged on by race baiters such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, who between them seem to come up with a new racial insult every week. Limbaugh has a two-decade history of making racial jokes, but some of his more recent moments of hilarity include claiming that in Barack Obama's America, "white kids get beaten up on the bus while Black kids cheer." (The police report from this incident stated that the assault had no racial implications.) Limbaugh later topped this by calling for a return to segregated buses.

Beck, who's conspiracy-laden show falls somewhere between pantomime and bad televangelism, is still smarting from losing more than 80 advertisers for calling the president, who is biracial and was raised by white grandparents, a racist, "who had a deep animosity towards white culture." Beck couldn't explain what "white culture" was when pressed by Katie Couric.

Liberals may laugh at this garbage, but many of the people who listen to Beck and Limbaugh believe that they are telling the gospel truth. Some of the marchers at the recent Tea Party rally in DC said they were "educated" by Glenn Beck. In an interview on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," Tea Party leader Mark Williams has described Obama as an "Indonesian Muslim Welfare Thug" and "racist in chief."

For Black people race baiting and hate speech, are all too familiar tactics. Most Black people have dealt with the same kind of problems whenever they have tried to break the color barrier at work, in housing or in education. They have faced people questioning their qualifications, hostile co-workers and neighbors, and out right threats of violence.

When I was a child, my parents would keep me inside when the local white supremacist group held its annual march through town. I remember getting harshly scolded because I wanted to go and play in the front yard. At the time I couldn't understand why my parents were so concerned for my safety. My nine-year-old mind could not comprehend that someone might try to kill me for simply existing. Maybe that is the tragedy of the black life experience, knowing that there are people who want to do harm to you for no doing of your own.

I remember some of the signs those white supremacists used to hold featured slogans such as "Go back to Africa." Interestingly enough those are the same kinds of comments you see on right-wing message boards and at the Tea Bag march, so 20 years on we're still dealing with the same BS. (You would think that they would have come up with some new insults by now.) One of my Facebook friends is a Black Conservative who was banned from a Sean Hannity web site because he complained about the hateful postings about Barack Obama. How much more evidence does the media need?

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