Muslim is the New Black

The new wave of Islamophobia is embarrassing and frightening

It seems that some elements of the GOP always need to have a new enemy to hate. Almost 30 years ago, Richard Nixon used the Southern strategy to end the Democratic party’s stranglehold on the former Confederate states.

Black people have been a convenient whipping boy for the GOP over the last few decades, through code words such as “welfare queens” and “state rights.” Then after the growth of the gay rights movement and the rise of AIDS, gays become a convenient enemy for the newly invigorated fundamentalist wing of the Republican party.

But after 9-11, Muslims seem to have become public enemy no. 1. There were a few unfortunate incidents of anti-Muslim violence after 9-11, but it did not reach the level of hysteria we have seen in the past few months. The rhetoric coming from the Tea Party and the GOP is both embarrassing and frightening. Recently we have seen:

• A concerted effort from activists to prevent the construction of a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero. This has inspired race-baiting comments from presidential aspirants Newt Gingrich and pinup pundit Sarah Palin.
• Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, who declared that “Islam was not a religion, and more like a cult.”
• Evangelical churches and synagogues have hosted Brigette Gabriel, a speaker who says that Muslims “do not have souls,” and a Florida church held a “Burn a Koran” day.
• Pam Geller, an unhinged right-wing blogger who lies every time she opens her mouth, has spouted nonsensical claims such as President Barack Obama is a secret Muslim who cavorts with hookers, Muslims have infiltrated the government and military, and Muslims plan to introduce Sharia law.
• Several Christian groups have protested the proposed construction of new mosque around the country, even in supposedly liberal California. Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association said that he would like to see construction of all mosques cease.

Much of this new wave of Islamohobia is driven by fact-free propaganda spread through pseudo news outlets like FOX News and AM radio. A recent study by Media Matters showed that 75 percent of the guests on FOX News, the “fair and balanced network,” were opposed to construction of the mosque near Ground Zero. The Tea Party has also amplified this xenophobia. One of the current memes spreading through the right-wing media is the idea that Muslims want to secretly take over America by out-breeding good Christian folk.

In a recent New York Times article, Tea Bagger Diane Serfain says, “As a mother and a grandmother, I worry. I learned that in 20 years with the rate of the birth population, we will be overtaken by Islam, and their goal is to get people in Congress and the Supreme Court to see that Shariah is implemented.” This would take a few generations because according to a 2001 study by the City University of New York, Muslims make up 0.5 percent of the U.S. population.

Americans who are swallowing this garbage should stop and ask themselves, what do the people spreading these lies actuality know about Islam? Sarah Palin just left the country for the first time a few years ago, and barely understands English and Christianity, so is she really the best person to go turn to for advice about Islam? And as for Ramsey, a Methodist, who has spent his entire life in Tennessee which is 1 percent Muslim, has he even had a conversation with a real-life Muslim?

These Islamohobes also seem to forget that freedom of religion is one of the central tenets of this country and is enshrined in the constitution. A few years ago. Gen. (rtd.) Colin Powell criticized Islamophobes and said that many Muslims had given their lives for this country serving in the military. Recently President Obama declared that "I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country.”

The terrorists attacks on 9-11 also killed several hundred Muslims. Al-Qaeda kills indiscriminately, they do not care if their bombs rip into Muslims who happen to be in their way, which I am sure is one of their many violations of the Koran.

Islamic terrorists seem to be doing to their religion what the KKK,did to Christianity. Although the Klan claimed they were good Christian men fighting to protect women and the Southern way of life, anyone with half a brain knew they were as far from being Christian as a Satanist.

American Islamophobes are taking the worst parts of Islam to to stereotype a whole group of people. Christianity also has it’s own dark periods such as the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and the church-backed conquest of Africa and the Americas. Also many American clergyman, including Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, supported segregation and were against the Civil Rights movement. It would unfair to judge Christianity by these examples, although many black people have rejected the religion because of its ties to colonialism and white supremacy..

This hatred is not unfamiliar to black people. There was a time when “Christians” said we did not have souls. And many police officers still believe that black men are guilty until proven innocent, But in the age of Obama and Republican neocoons like Alan Keyes and Jesse Lee Patterson, you can get away with a lot more with anti-Muslim hatred.

Islamophobia is a new potent form of racism,because it is backed by religion, which always appeals to irrational thoughts, and many Muslims are well, foreign-looking. (However a visit to a mosque will tell you that Muslims come in every shade of color found on this planet.)

Unfortunately it is easy to demonize a small group of people, who practise a religion that most close-minded Americans know nothing about. And the War on Terror gives people all the more reason to be suspicious of Muslims and anyone who looks Middle Eastern. Americans can now hide their xenophobia behind patriotism, because hating minorities is as American as apple pie.

Senatorial Candidate Urges White People to 'Take Our Country Back'

The Tea Party loves to argue that they are not racist. They claim they are simple (literally) Americans who are unhappy with the direction the country is going. Although these same people seemed to be loudly silent when President George W. Bush was shredding the Bill of Rights, running up the deficit and pursing two questionable foreign wars.

But here is one more piece of glaring evidence that shows the true motivation of the Teabbagers. Consider Glenn Miller Jr., who is running for Senate in Missouri. Miller, a convicted felon and white supremacist, made headlines when several stations ran his racist ads, and then realized their error and pulled them.

Miller's ads are the standard racist garbage with talk about white people being outnumbered by the "coons and mud people," but what is revealing is his other choice of words. His call to action is for God-fearing white folks to "take our country back." Where have we heard that before?

You can check out the ad below and compare it to statements from Tea Partyers. You can't make this stuff up !

Tea Party message:

Right-Wing Violence Shows America Also Needs Mental Health, Education Reform

The recent violent health care protests and spate of terrorist threats aimed at Democratic politicians should prove one thing. Apart from overhauling health care, America needs to spend a lot more on mental health and education.

It seems obvious that many of these domestic terrorists were either mentally ill or simply not too bright. First it was the Hutaree, a bunch of gun-toting rednecks, who wanted to wage war against the government, and now it is Gregory Giusiti, who phoned in threats to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He bragged that his calls were untraceable because he was using Phone Jack, an Internet-based phone service. But the FBI tracked him down ... using his phone records.

Giusti's mother implies that he is not the sharpest tool in the shed and was affected by mass consumption of FOX News. (That product should really come with a government warning.) The Hutaree aren't much better. Apart from creating an imaginary name, these jokers also created a map and imagined areas of the country they wanted to take over, along with the imaginary names for these new regions. You almost want to say, "You and who's army?"

It is evident that there are many angry people in this country. They are upset about the economy, the loss of decent labor jobs and the nation's changing demographics. To these people, seeing a black man in the White House is rubbing salt into the wound. But combine that with possible mental health issues, poor education and rabble-rousing media, like FOX News, and it's a recipe for disaster.

When the economy is running well, the average American blue-collar worker, is happy to have his truck, his dip and his guns. But when that economy starts to falter, that same worker, starts to look for scapegoats for his economic situation. The greatest success of FOX News is that it manage to convince average white Americans, that the real enemies are liberals, gays, blacks, Mexicans and Arabs. Anyone apart from the real culprits, wealthy white males. Black and brown people weren't the ones who ran up the deficit, started two wars, laid you off and prepossessed your home. In fact most of them were Republicans, like George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/04/idiocy_a_key_tool_against_the_domestic_terrorists.php?ref=mp

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

Nobody Loves A Spitter

Shock Jock Tactics Are Leading GOP to Oblivion


There is an old trick that black people, and many other disenfranchised people, use. It's a combination of Jujitsu/non violence, where one person uses the other person's rage against them. And that is probably what helped the Democrats win the health care reform debate.

This tactic was used during the Civil Rights era. Civil Rights activists knew they were going into a dangerous environment where riled up white people were going to throw everything, but the kitchen sink, at them. They knew they could not beat Segregationists in a head on confrontation, so they turned the tables on their opponents.

The Civil Rights movement cast themselves as saint-like, non-violent protesters, who sat silently while they were clubbed, hosed, spat on and bitten by dogs. The Pro Segregation protesters came across looking like bullies, who were beating up on a bunch of defenseless students.

Those were the images beamed around the world. Angry, foaming at the mouth, white people haranguing defenseless black people. This was nothing new, Bayard Rustin, who was the architect of many of the Civil Rights movements tactics, had studied the writing of Mohandas Ghandi, who used the same techniques against the British in the fight for Indian independence. This was the reason why Rosa Parks, a saintly seamstress, was cast as the face of the Civil Rights movement. Police officers were not about to use their nightsticks on an middle-aged church lady.

The same thing happened during the Health Care debate. Somewhere along the lines, the Tea Party was cast as the party of angry, old white people, who yell at special needs people, spit on venerable congressmen and shout racial and sexual slurs. No one wants to be associated with that -- not even the Republican party. What people will remember from the Health Care debates is the threats, the slurs and the shouted insults. They will not remember the GOP offering any concrete alternative solutions. (Maybe, because they didn't offer any.)


David Frum, a Republican pundit, has said the Republican party needs to get away from what he calls "talk radio" tactics, fear, anger, hate and hyperbole. People like Rush Limbaugh makes their money by saying outrageous statements, so they can drive up their ratings and charge more in advertising. Frum said, "I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters – but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead. "

More often than not Conservative shock jocks don't believe in what they are saying, and half the time they don't bother to check if their statements are accurate. For example, Limbaugh said he would move to Costa Rica if health care reform passed. But Costa Rica has a nationalized health care system!

You can't govern like this. Letting shock jocks lead your party with exaggerated speaking points gets you nowhere. All it means is, you have a bunch of angry, ill-informed people repeating the same falsehoods, spitting and making you look bad.

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.

Crumbling Middle Class is Spawning Domestic Terrorism

Bush's $2.4 Trillion War Bill Wrecked The Economy

Sometimes I wish I was not always right. About two years ago when the American people finally came to the realization that George W. Bush had really screwed up the economy, I told a close friend that we would probably see an uptick in violence.

I suggested that white people, stripped of their homes, SUVs and Eddie Bauer clothing, would lash out violently. Unlike black and Latino, and maybe even Asian people, many white people are not used to being broke. Being broke is nothing new to people of color, most of us are only one generation from the projects. Many of us grew up in the ghetto, went to college and got out. We still have family members who live in shady neighborhoods. And who has hasn't had to send money to kinfolk who have fallen on hard times?

But with white people it is not necessarily the same. I am not saying that all white people are rich. But poverty is less common among whites. Although this is changing as the American nuclear family crumbles. Rising divorce rates and out of wedlock birth rates mean we are seeing more white families struggling with poverty as women try to raise children on single incomes. Statistically there are more white people on welfare than black people.

However for many white people, we are talking about two or three generations of middle-class incomes. Maybe some of their grandparents remember the Great Depression, but their parents went to college, or had white-collar jobs. There are kids who get brand new cars on their 18th birthdays, trust funds and college tuition paid for. I once worked with a lady who was surprised that most people went into debt to pay for college.

The Great Recession has decimated the middle class. In fact we are seeing many people tumbling out of the middle class and into poverty. When homes are foreclosed those families may end up homeless or in shelters. Unlike people of color, white people often don't have close social networks. Black people always know they can bunk on their mama's couch, until they get on their feet. But many middle class white people, are estranged from their families and find it difficult or darn near impossible to ask for help.

So it's not surprising we are seeing more case like Joe Stack, who crashed a plane into the IRS building in Austin, Tx. This is one of many recent cases of domestic terrorism from angry white men. And with FOX News, the Tea Party movement and people calling for the execution of the the first black president, I fear it's only going to get worse.

The worse thing about the Tea Baggers movement is that it misdirected anger. Tea Party protesters say they are mad at legislation like the banking bailout, because it overlooks the little guy, and yet they are throwing their weight behind the party which has an even more corporate-friendly agenda than the Democrats.

Unfortunately, the powers that be have always used race and religion to misdirect the anger of blue-collar white people. Tea Baggers are mad at Barack Obama, but they really should be directing their anger at George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, whose disastrous policies wrecked the economy. Bush signed the banking bailout and was an advocate of the same kind of deregulation that caused the financial crisis in the first place. (Obama took money from Wall Street so he really isn't that much better.) Consider this small fact, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the final cost of the Iraq War will be about $2.4 trillion! (Where were the Tea Baggers was Bush was pushing his bill through Congress?), while the Stimulus bill, cost about $780 billion. So if we had not invaded Iraq we could have sunk that money into the American economy and prevented the Great Recession from ever happening! By the way, Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist, Princeton professor, and Noble prize winner, also agrees with this idea.

poll by twiigs.com

Massachusetts Gun Nut is a Palin, Tea Party Fan

Right-wing Media, Politicians Urging Violent Revolt

On Thursday, I posted a story about Gregory Girard, a Massachusetts man who was arrested with a stockpile of weapons he had gathered in preparation for Armageddon.

Well it turns out that he is a fan of Sarah Palin and also supported the Tea Party's agenda. Girard was also a neo-racist, who believed that Obama was going to raise an army of an "army of inner city youths" who were going to impose martial law on all the God-fearing, gun-toting white folks. (And we all know who lives in the inner city.)

Girard also believed that Sarah Palin was some kind of Joan of Arc sent by God to lead America back to the light. You can read more of Girard's views on his blog, "Patriots for America."

This is not the first time the far right has been linked to political violence. Last August, Nancy Genovese, a Glenn Beck fan, was arrested for scoping out an Air Force base, while she had an assault rifle, a shot gun and 500 rounds of ammunition in her car. And in February 2009, James Adkisson, shot up a Tennessee Unitarian Church after reading Bernard Goldberg's "100 People Who are Screwing Up America." Adkisson also said that he wanted to kill every Democrat in Congress.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/man_charged_for_stockpiling_weapons_was_tea_partie.php?ref=mp

poll by twiigs.com

Surprise, Surprise A Racist Teabbager

The Teabbaggers have tried to strenously claim they are not racists, even though their rallies are a as devoid of brown faces as a J. Crew ad. But they seem to suffer the same problem as the Republican party who spawned them.

As much as they deny their problems with black people, the evidence keeps shooting them in the foot. Dale Robertson, a Teabbagers based out of Houston, is pictured with a sign that uses the N-word. On top of that, he didn't even spell the word correctly.

You can't make this stuff up. Teabbaggers responding by booting Robertson out of the party. Well, that is something.

http://washingtonindependent.com/73036/n-word-sign-dogs-would-be-tea-party-leader

poll by twiigs.com

Tea Baggers Are Mad At Someone, But They Are Not Sure Who

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

More Tea Baggers stormed DC on Friday on the behest of Rep. Michelle Bachmann. Yes, she of the reeducation camps. (Her husband also runs a business where he tries to turns gay people straight.)

The Tea Party movement insists its members are not racists, yet the march was about 90 percent white and they held up photos comparing health reform legislation to the Holocaust. (They even included banners featuring corpes stacked up in a death camp.) Some Tea Baggers had posters depicting Obama in a turban and as a sambo.

Not good. If there is one group of people you don't want to get pissed off its Jewish people, and the Holocaust is a very sore subject for them.

poll by twiigs.com

Tea Baggers Plan "Judgement Day"

Every time I watch the Tea Baggers they just seem to confirm how ignorant and uninformed they are. Here is a video from the Brad Blog, where blogger Brad Friedman interviews California Tea Baggers.

The thing that unites them is a hatred of Obama, although most of them can't explain why they hate him - at least not rationally. They are angry, but can't seem to focus their anger properly. They say they are against socialism, yet many of them voted for Bush who started all of these bailouts. And they are against higher taxes, but hate Obama, even though he has promised to cut taxes for people who make less than $250,000.

I doubt if people who make more than $250,000 are going to be out protesting with the Tea Baggers. I know several people who make that kind of money and they are not Tea Baggers. One of the Tea Baggers said he hated Obama because he was "Chicago politics." That is one of those political buzz words that really doesn't mean anything. It's a word they heard a million times on FOX and are now repeating. We really need to invest more in education in this country.

poll by twiigs.com

Foamers, Birthers and Tea baggers

Obama Haters Want to Re-fight the Civil War, Civil Rights Movement

By G.A. Afolabi

When America elected Sen. Barack Obama as president many people thought the monster of racism has finally be slain. But like a horror movie villain, racism is proving a hard creature to kill. Like South Africa, which is still struggling to overcome its racial past, America is not going to become Kumbayaland over night.

The events of the last few weeks show that there is still a lot of work to do when it comes to racial equality. The last two weeks saw parents pulling their kids out of school to avoid hearing the president's speech, Rep. Joe Wilson calling the president a liar during his speech to Congress, and thousands of right wingers marching on Washington holding signs with statements such as "Diversity is a Disease."

Race seems to be the elephant in the room that many Americans simply refuse to deal with. But as Sherlock Holmes said, when you have elimnated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Obama is not the first liberal president. Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson, all pursued liberal policies that encouraged government spending. Obama is not the first president to graduate from an Ivy League college or come from a law background. He is not the first president to have a gorgeous wife or young children in the White House. But the most evident factor that sets him apart from the previous 43 presidents is his race.

Obama's election has upset what many people thought was the natural order -- white people, mainly white men, in charge. The election of the nation's first African American president has also tapped into latent fears among White Americans about the changing nature of society. It's clear from some of the virulent hatred directed at Obama that many whites simply refuse to accept the idea that the most powerful man in the nation is Black. There was signs of this backlash during the 2008 Presidential campaign, where Gov. Sarah Palin whipped up angry mobs into a frenzy. Palin-led rallies, that produced death threats and accusations of Obama being everything from a Marxist to a Arab Muslim terrorist, saw the first emergence of "foamers", people so mad at the idea of a Black president that they are foaming at the mouth with rage. Attendees of pro-Palin rallies issued statements such as, "If he wins, the Blacks will take over." (Some of the protestors at the Tea-bagger march carried signs reading "Obama's Plan, White Slavery.")

But even after Obama's election it seems that a certain segment of the population has decided to not accept the natural order. In a democracy, the party that loses has to accept the winning party running the country for the next four years. But the far-right wing of the Republican party has spawned a movement of people who seem to believe that if they can't win the game, they are going to take the ball and go home. Since their candidate lost, they want to overturn the election or declare Obama illegitimate because he not really an American.

The noise from the right-wing media has been deafening since the presidential campaign, but also illuminating. Demagogues such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are turning frustrated White people, battered and bruised by a crumbling economy, into a frenzied mob. Beck has issued dire warnings about secret government detention camps -- without providing any information to back it up -- and has launched a crusade to rid the government of "secret Communists." He also said, "There is a coup going on ... it has been done under the guise of an election." (The twisted logic behind this statement is so erroneous, it would take an hour to point out all of the flaws. ) Also, conservatives from former Confederate states have threatened to start a second Civil War and Texas Gov. Ricky Perry flirted with the ideas of secession from the union.

If there was any doubt at the real anger behind birthers, deathers and the resurgent militia movement it can be cleared up when you look at the background of Rep. Joe Wilson, who became infamous for his heckling of the president. Wilson is a protege of the infamous Sen. Strom Thurmond, who made his reputation as segregationist in the Old South. Thurmond, ran for president on the pro-segregation ticket, but his reputation was severely dented when his half-Black daughter, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, came forward after his death. Wilson, ever the Southern gentleman, accused Thurmond's mixed-race daughter of lying about her parentage. (Her claim was later proven to be true.) I guess he simply couldn't believe that his mentor, who had built his reputation on hating Black people, could actually have Black people in his family. Wilson is also a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization that honors soldiers who fought in a war that was designed to keep Black people as chattel. Considering these facts, it's not difficult to imagine that the idea of Black person sitting in the White House and lecturing Congress, could cause people like Wilson to lose it. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd writes, "Wilson’s shocking disrespect for the office of the president — no Democrat ever shouted “liar” at W. when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq — convinced me: Some people just can’t believe a Black man is president and will never accept it."

Segregationists and modern-day racists base their ideas on the fallacy that Black people are intellectually inferior to white people and should never be allowed to be put in positions of authority. The hatred directed at Obama is not just political, it's racial. It comes from people who are scared about an inevitable future where white people will be the minority taking orders from a Black, Latino or Asian person.

These attitudes are excellenty highlighted in the documentary, "Right Nation: Feeling Wronged," directed by Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. In the movie, shot in 2008, Alexandra Pelosi interviews McCain-Palin supporters about their views on Candidate Obama. One Mississippi resident says that he is simply not ready for an African American president. So more than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and about 50 years after the Voting Rights Act, we still have large segments of this country who refuse to accept African Americans as full American citizens. In the words of Candidate Obama, "If not now, when?"

poll by twiigs.com