JewsOnFirst.org Pwns Pastor John Hagee; Greenwald Nails Joe Lieberman
(Christian) Zionism: yr doin it wrong:
I’m with Glenn: Serious Centrist™ Joe Lieberman is totally getting a whiteboy pass from the media for appearing at an event sponsored by this anti-Semitic extremist.
Sphere: Related Content“Constraint is Intolerable”
Andrew Bacevich, reviewing Jane Mayer’s new book The Dark Side:
That fear should trump concern for due process and indeed justice qualifies as a recurring phenomenon in American history. In 1919, government-stoked paranoia about radicalism produced the Red Scare. After Pearl Harbor, hysteria mixed with racism led to the confinement of some 110,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps. The onset of the Cold War triggered another panic, anxieties about a new communist threat giving rise to McCarthyism. In this sense, the response evoked by 9/11 looks a bit like déjà vu all over again: Frightened Americans, more worried about their own safety than someone else’s civil liberties, allowed senior government officials to exploit a climate of fear.
Although Mayer does not dwell on this historical context, her account suggests implicitly that the present period differs in at least one crucial respect. Whereas the earlier departures from the rule of law represented momentary if egregious lapses in democratic practice, the abuses orchestrated from within the Bush administration suggest that democracy itself is fast becoming something of a sham. From Mayer, we learn that in George W. Bush’s Washington, the decisions that matter are made in secret by a handful of presidential appointees committed to the proposition that nothing should inhibit the exercise of executive power. The Congress, the judiciary, the bureaucracy, the “interagency process” — all of these constitute impediments that threaten to constrain the president. In a national security crisis, constraint is intolerable. Much the same applies to the media and, by extension, to the American people: The public’s right to know extends no further than whatever the White House wishes to make known.
h/t Laura Rozen
Sphere: Related ContentMalkin keeps it classy
She called Obama’s campaign the “Jive Talk Express” not only on her blog, but as a title for her nationally syndicated column. So much for the post-racial campaign.
h/t raw story
Sphere: Related Content21st Century Law Enforcement at its Finest
Because the presumption of innocence is, like, so September 10th, dude:
The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups.Law enforcement officials say the proposed policy would help them do exactly what Congress demanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: Root out terrorists before they strike.
Yes, we all know just how successful the doctrine of prevention has worked out so far–hey, how is that crusade to forcefully spread democracy across the Middle East going?
Currently, FBI agents need specific reasons — like evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated — to investigate U.S. citizens and legal residents. The new policy, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press, would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious.Among the factors that could make someone subject of an investigation is travel to regions of the world known for terrorist activity, access to weapons or military training, along with the person’s race or ethnicity.[...]
Critics say the presumption of innocence is lost in the proposal. The FBI will be allowed to begin investigations simply “by assuming that everyone’s a suspect, and then you weed out the innocent,” said Caroline Fredrickson of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Oh, come on. Who needs actual, y’know, specific ‘evidence‘ that illegal activity is occurring, when everybody knows that those swarthy Arabmuslimdarkies (especially the ones who dare to rack up frequent flyer mileage) have pure, undistilled terror flowing through their steely veins 24/7? (What? ‘IRA’ stands for ‘Indo-Republican Army’. Srsly.)
Also see I Need To Calm Down, Threat Level, and, representing the silly side of Blogtopia’s *cough* main street, Tammy “everybody knows” Bruce and Allahpundit, who wonders if we should “[b]e on the lookout for English-speaking caucasians with light-colored eyes“.
Sphere: Related ContentRalph Nader Deals Race Card Against Obama, Reminds Apathetic Media and Public That He’s Still the #1 3rd Party Spoiler (Fnck Bob Barr!)
Honourary soul brotha Ralph Nader was utterly shocked when Illinois State University president (and alleged POC) Al Bowman declined to sip from the third party pimp cup - photo by Andrew Benning
Re: “talking white” - what Shark-Fu said:
Black is not a monolith and we do not all think, act, talk, eat, pray, fuck, sing, dance, vote or manifest anger the exact same motherfucking way.
You goddamn fucking right.
Also see Liss, Steve M, and Ta-Nehisi Coates for more on Nader’s racist dumbfuckery.
Sphere: Related ContentSo, Can We Count On Your Vote?
Occasionally, morbid curiosity drives me to check out what people are saying on the white supremacist web sites. I don’t know why, really; it’s not like there’s ever anything new. Mostly there’s a lot of pseudo-scientific and pseudo-religious justification for their arguments that white people are superior. Some even keep it relatively clean; you know, because what good is a racist movement if it’s not family friendly?
But it’s been a while since I took a jaunt to our friendly internet racists, and to be honest, I’m not sure I could have handled what I would have seen. I’m still not exactly sure what to make of this.
Sphere: Related ContentBeyond Unacceptable (UPDATED)
For some reason, I simply didn’t see this coming. Maybe I should have, but not being much of a watcher of Fox News, my understanding of the channel was that its success as a catapult for right wing narratives stems from it’s veneer of respectability.
Again, forgive me for being wrong, I don’t actually watch the thing.
Sphere: Related ContentHow to Parse Words, by Geraldine Ferraro
In an pretty crappy op-ed piece for the Boston Globe titled “Healing the wounds of Democrats’ sexism” (where, ironically enough, she doesn’t point out an examples of sexism on the campaign but demands that a study be undertaken to explore the issue), race-baiter and Hillary supporter Geraldine Ferraro has this to say on the thoughts of Reagan Democrats (ie: the white, working class folk voting for Hillary) concerning racism:
…If you’re white you can’t open your mouth without being accused of being racist. They see Obama’s playing the race card throughout the campaign and no one calling him for it as frightening. They’re not upset with Obama because he’s black; they’re upset because they don’t expect to be treated fairly because they’re white. It’s not racism that is driving them, it’s racial resentment.
Racism and racial resentment… Well slap my monkey silly, I didn’t know there was a difference between the two! And how exactly do these Reagan Democrats think they are going to be treated unfairly for being white? Will an Obama administration round up all the white folk, throw them into ghettos, pay dick for the education of their children, and not care about the chemicals polluting their environment? Haha! Who am I kidding? That’s all silly talk. Of course none of that ever happens, and if it did and it were discussed, we would never accuse those pointing out these issues as being guilty of racism just for pointing out racism!
Sphere: Related ContentPeople Can Change
Senator Byrd has endorsed Obama.
Cutting Off Your Nose To Spite Your Face
There is a line that separates support and obsession. That same line acts as the boundary between activism, and self destructive action. This line is etched in anger, and what ultimately decides which side you are on is your ability to control that anger.
Sphere: Related ContentYou know, I was just thinking that America is entering a post-racist future…
Here’s a screenshot of No Quarter’s front page as of this minute:
RedState.com: Yes, they’re really that stupid
Concerning the Washington Post article on racism that Obama campaign workers have encountered on the trail (which Kyle, and every other living creature in the blogosphere, has already commented on), journalistically I thought it was a solid article. It stuck to the facts, didn’t straddle the line and become a subjective opinion piece, and it didn’t make any broad, sweeping assumptions.
But RedState, however…
Sphere: Related ContentCalling a Spade a Spade
Yesterday Matt posted a video that had moved me deeply, and I think cut to the heart of the matter not just in how much more work there is left to be done in regards to race relations in this country, but also in the political struggles that face minority and women politicians as they struggle to etch a name for themselves.
Focusing on the political side of things, as I tend to do, it is highly significant that we see the high-wire act that Obama’s campaign has had to maintain because of his ethnicity, and we caught a glimpse of the lack of trust that is still harbored against him among the same African American demographic that is too easily counted as in the bag for the Democratic party’s likely nominee.
Sphere: Related ContentPost Race Era? Once Again, My Black Ass.
Contra Barack Obama and Frank Rich, the reaction to the Sean Bell verdict shows that Americans still have a long way to go to “[transcend] the racial and cultural rifts that [have] divided them for centuries”, says Max Blumenthal.
Sphere: Related ContentHere we go again. And it’s a good thing.
It seems odd that we’ve suddenly become obsessed with the issues of racism and sexism again.
For the first time in history we have two serious contenders (in the Democratic Party of course; had it been within the Republican Party all different kinds of hell would be breaking loose) for the presidency of the United States who break the mold of white male candidates. Come January of 2009, either an African-American man or a white woman will be sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office.
So why are we suddenly obsessed with racism and sexism again, accusing members of our own party of harboring deep-seated prejudices that are anathema to our core principles?
Sphere: Related Content“An Act of Criminal International Misogyny”
Via Feminist Peace Network, The Nation recently published a blistering speech from former UN AIDS envoy (and current co-director of AIDS-Free World) Stephen Lewis that highlights the lackluster, indifferent international response to endemic rape and sexual violence against women in the Congo.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Real Reason Wright Won’t Go Away
Over the weekend, Rev. Jeremiah Wright engaged in two very high profile events, one being a Bill Moyers interview that received little more than a whisper in the political press and blogs, and a more mercurial speech delivered to the NAACP.
It is interesting to note that there seems to be the slightest shift in attitude towards Wright. Not exactly a watershed moment where America comes to welcome him with open arms; indeed many aren’t, and I won’t expect them to. But for some, reading in comments to news items and blogs, and reading some bloggers who have been quick to condemn the man when the youtube hit piece went viral, I’ve noticed a slight walking back of some of the criticism he’s faced. And there will likely be more.
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