Look At Who's Voting In This Election

A Letter From NAACP President Benjamin Jealous Regarding Tea Party Extremism

Here is a letter sent out by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People:

Just moments ago, the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR) released a report documenting specific examples of Tea Party leaders and Tea Party-associated organizations providing platforms for anti-Semites, racists and other bigots.

The report serves as a reminder: There is a very active presence of racists in America's public political discourse, and there is a very real threat of moving backward if we do not stand up and speak out.

Please take a moment to read more from the report:

http://action.naacp.org/TeaPartyReport

To be clear: Whether we agree with their policy positions or not, we at the NAACP believe the majority of Tea Party supporters are sincere, principled people of basic good will. We have no problem with their expression of political views in our great democracy.

We do, however, have a problem when prominent Tea Party members have direct ties to organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, and are allowed to use Tea Party events to spread their hateful messages. Moreover, we have a problem when Tea Party members call civil rights heroes vicious slurs or repeatedly and publicly deny the President's place of birth and his status as an American citizen.

Most importantly, we have a problem when regular Tea Party members stand silent as those who share the Tea Party name push a racist agenda. A great man once warned, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

We in the NAACP refuse to tolerate silence.

Last summer, after months of waiting for accountability, we publicly called on Tea Party leaders to repudiate those who would use the Tea Party platform to espouse racism or call for violence against any group in our society.

We are pleased that in response, Tea Party leaders took a few steps in the right direction. They expelled a leader who repeatedly made racist comments. They fired another who suggested gay people should be killed. Still, as this report shows, much remains to be done.

For more than one hundred years, the NAACP has stood sentinel against racism and hate violence in the United States. We know that we have a moral obligation, summarized succinctly in our nation's pledge of allegiance, to oppose those who would seek to tear the United States apart by espousing hatred or calling for violence against any group in our country.

We are One Nation. That is why we came together on October 2nd for a truly diverse March on Washington that spoke to this nation's greatest values. That is why we will continue to fight for hope, not hate.

I commend the research done by the IREHR. Their report proves why our work is more important than ever. I encourage you to read this comprehensive effort. It delves deeper into the specific evidence that prompted the NAACP's call on the Tea Party to act responsibly than any prior study:

http://action.naacp.org/TeaPartyReport

Today, America stands at a choice point in its historic march towards making our nation's pledge real. In one direction, there is the possibility of a real debate between people of good will about the options for moving our nation forward. In the other, there is a place filled with vicious hate, threats, and lies that can only take us backward.

Thank you for standing up for civil rights for all. Thank you for calling for the most basic civility in America's great town square. Thank you for insisting that America moves ever forward, never backward.

Yours in the struggle,

Ben Jealous
President and CEO
NAACP

Breitbart Attacks Again: This Time Goes After Spooner Family In Sherrod Case

The depths that right-wing extremist commentator Andrew Breitbart will plummet to, in an effort to defend himself, knows no limit.

After being exposed as a disgusting man willing to ruin an innocent woman's reputation to take a shot at the NAACP, black people, liberals and President Obama, Breitbart proceeded to viciously smear Shirley Sherrod.

The backlash has already started and Breitbart has been able to do something kind of amazing: he is on the defensive and the offensive at the same time. On CNN, speaking with the network's John King, Breitbart appeared to go on the attack against the white farmer and his wife (Roger and Eloise Spooner) in an effort to save himself. One can imagine Breitbart, had he been on the Titanic, would enthusiastically knock over small children, women, people of color and old people to save himself - every scoundrel for himself.

Back to Breitbart's appearance on CNN, as documented by Think Progress:



Speaking with CNN’s John King, right-wing provocateur Andrew Breitbart challenged Eloise Spooner’s “purported” story, accusing King of trusting Sherrod “that the ‘farmer’s wife’ is the farmer’s wife”:

You tell me as a reporter how CNN put on a person today who purported to be the farmer’s wife? What did you do to find out whether or not that was the actual farmer’s wife? I mean, if you’re going to accuse me of a falsehood, tell me where you’ve confirmed that had this incident happened 24 years ago. [...]

You’re going off of her word that the farmer’s wife is the farmer’s wife?

When you're losing an argument, like Breitbart frequently does, he resorts to trying to smear the innocent. First it was Shirley Sherrod, an innocent woman he viciously mischaracterized and attempted to portray as a racist against a white farmer, and now, as the white farmer has praised Sherrod, Breitbart is attacking the Spooners and CNN.

It's to divert attention from his own failures and many faults. Breitbart has sacrificed his human decency (after checking out his dreadful Web sites, a writer sanitarium for the conservatively insane ... it's clear he never had any journalistic credibility) for a pathetic tea bagger cause and fame.

It was not enough to smear Shirley Sherrod.

Now he is smearing the Spooner family.

Is Bill O'Reilly Playing The So-Called Race Card?

Once again, Fox News far-right commentator Bill O'Reilly showed his true colors as he used his platform to again demonize and attack NBC and use racial politics to inflame conservative whites who are the Tea Party. Notice how O'Reilly cherry picks an NBC interview asking about that has a question regarding race in the Tea Party movement (a very legitimate issue). O'Reilly takes the question and spins it as NBC using race to strengthen the liberal strength among minority groups. It also plays into that old stereotype that O'Reilly buys into that blacks are not that smart and so easily influenced by white liberal leaders with sinister intentions.

What you will read below also shows that O'Reilly and Fox News clearly are in the corner of the Tea Party movement and are willing to go to great lengths to defend it to anyone who will listen.

Read how O'Reilly starts the segment with his mini soliloquy and then starts with what he sees as an inflammatory question.

Here is an excerpt from a recent O'Reilly Talking Points Memo:

For now, the liberal media and the left-wing establishment in general greatly fear the Tea Party movement. And so, led by NBC News, the media is trying to brand the Tea Party people as racist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY O'DONNELL, NBC NEWS: There aren't a lot of African-American men at these events.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

O'DONNELL: Have you ever felt uncomfortable?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No. These are my people. Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Now, the NBC News reporter Kelly O'Donnell's question was legitimate. But coming on the heels of NBC's unrelenting racial attacks on the Tea Party, the question also illuminates the left-wing media strategy.

By the way, with 95 percent of African-Americans voting for Barack Obama, you would not expect them to sign up in great numbers for the Tea Party, would you?

Going forward, the Tea Party movement will face some challenges. Will it become a legitimate third party, or will it stay as an anti-Obama protest group? Or will it expand its passion into other areas?

There is no Tea Party leader. Sarah Palin comes closest, but she doesn't want the designation. So it will be interesting to see just how the Tea Party evolves.

But for now, these folks are scaring liberal America big time.

First of all, I find it funny that Fox News would accuse another network of unrelenting racial attacks when it has been doing that against President Obama since he was Sen. Obama, candidate for the presidency. Even in the last few days, Fox News has been working tirelessly to convince white Americans that President Obama is playing racial politics with the immigration legislation in Arizona. How can Fox News legitimately accuse any other network of playing racial politics without cleaning up its own racial backyard? Will Bill O'Reilly condemn his own network for its relentless racial attacks on black people. Why did Bill O'Reilly never speak out about racism on Fox News Web sites?

Next, the Tea Party people are not scaring liberals. To the contrary, I think some on the left are probably quietly liking the Tea Party protests for exposing the extremism in our midst. In fact, part of the reason that liberals are working to expose the Tea Party people is because of the anger of the movement and how the movement really only came to life shortly after President Obama was elected.

Is Bill O'Reilly playing the so-called "race card" when he says that liberals are trying to portray the almost exclusively white tea party people as racist? Is he playing to white racial anxiety?

Now, no one is saying that all tea party people are racist. Some are, but obviously not all are racist. BUT, far too many excuse the racism in their midst and make excuses for it.

Where were the (fiscally-conservative and anti-big government) Tea Party protests when George W. Bush was president?

There is nothing wrong with the angle that the NBC reporter took and it's difficult to tell if it was just one small part of a larger series of interviews that might have been conducted. It's just obvious that the Tea Party protesters are overwhelmingly white (whether that is a good thing or a bad thing). After Bill O'Reilly hosted that Wall Street Journal reporter (James Taranto) on to spew his racial garbage, it hardly seems that Bill O'Reilly can legitimately come back and accuse anyone competitor of launching a racial attack.

Harris Poll Shows Just How Nutty Those On The Far Right Are With President Obama

A still fairly recent release of a Harris poll that put into sharp focus how ignorant some Republicans are when it comes to their views on President Barack Obama. Some of the revelations in the poll show the depth of the hatred that some close-minded Republicans have for this president. And, that hatred started long before he was president and long before he became the official nominee for the presidency in 2008. The hatred started before this nation knew much of anything about Barack Obama.

The findings of the Harris poll continue to reflect the hatred that exists in the dark hearts of some of these Republicans. Below are summaries of the Harris poll results as compiled by Media Matters for America.

According to the Harris poll, conducted of 2,320 adults between March 1 and March 8, a majority of Republicans believe President Obama:

• is a socialist (67 percent);
• wants to take away Americans' right to own guns (61 percent);
• is Muslim (57 percent);
• wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one-world government (51 percent); and
  
• has done many things that are unconstitutional (51 percent).

It goes on:

• large minorities also believe Obama was not born in the United States and is therefore ineligible for the presidency (45 percent);
• many believe he is a racist (42 percent);
• and many believe he is doing many things Hitler did (38 percent)

There is your Republican party (still believing in thoroughly vetted and debunked garbage. It basically shows that everyday Republicans and tea baggers are like storm troopers from the Star Wars movies. They operate like robots taking their marching orders from right-wing extremists like Roger Ailes, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.

Nigger, Faggot Among Words Used By Tea Party People To Describe Democrats

Eugene "Bull" Connor would have been proud of some of the language being used by Tea Party protesters fighting against health care reform.

Tea Party protesters, using racist and homophobic language to attack men like Rep. John Lewis (pictured) and Rep. Barney Frank (among others), went on an attack that was regretfully reminiscent of the Jim Crow era in the United States of America (a chapter many in this country thought was long gone). Rep. Lewis was called a "nigger" by members of the crowd while Rep. Frank was called a "faggot" by Tea Party protesters. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver was spat on by a protester. Sadly, this was 2010 and not 1910. This was not 1957 when the Little Rock Nine were attacked as they did their part to desegregate Little Rock Central High School (where they were viciously confronted by racist protesters). This was 2010 with a distinguished civil rights leader like Rep. Lewis treated in a way that was a chilling and painful reminder of the hatred of the Jim Crow era.

Here is an excerpt from a Huffington Post story:

A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) had been spat on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a hero of the civil rights movement, was called a 'ni--er.' And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was called a "faggot," as protestors shouted at him with deliberately lisp-y screams. Frank, approached in the halls after the president's speech, shrugged off the incident.

But Clyburn was downright incredulous, saying he had not witnessed such treatment since he was leading civil rights protests in South Carolina in the 1960s.

"It was absolutely shocking to me," Clyburn said, in response to a question from the Huffington Post. "Last Monday, this past Monday, I stayed home to meet on the campus of Claflin University where fifty years ago as of last Monday... I led the first demonstrations in South Carolina, the sit ins... And quite frankly I heard some things today I have not heard since that day. I heard people saying things that I have not heard since March 15, 1960 when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus."

This is sadly indicative of the hatred coming from some on the far right who have simply come unhinged since the election of President Obama, the first black man to be elected president of the United States of America.

Rep. Lewis had this to say about the racial slurs he was subjected to after leaving a health care reform meeting on Capitol Hill.

Civil rights icon and veteran Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, said anti-health care bill protesters Saturday repeatedly yelled the "N" word at him as he left a heath care meeting and walked to the Capitol.

"I haven't seen heard anything like this in more than 40 years, maybe 45." Lewis said. "Since the march from Selma to Montgomery really."

"Yeah, but it's okay," Lewis added. "I've faced this before. So, it reminded me of the 60's. There's a lot of downright hate and anger and people are just being downright mean."

Rep. Lewis truly is a civil rights icon who has fought for justice before and will continue the fight. I doubt it was accidental that these Tea Party people went after him knowing what he represents as far as civil rights. That is what makes it all the more disturbing.

It's a shame more conservatives (some have been forced to) are not stepping forward to condemn these kinds of racist attacks.

UPDATE: For those of you who wonder why I am always so critical of RNC Chairman Michael Steele, this is a good example. Appearing on Meet the Press, Steele referred to protesters who made racist and homophobic statements as: "a handful of people who just got stupid." That is disgracefully inadequate on the part of Michael Steele, but I doubt it is the first time he has been thought of as inadequate.

Tim Wise Asks When Are Republican Leaders Going To Stand Up To Extremists

Author and speaker Tim Wise, billed by CNN’s Don Lemon as an anti-racism activist, calls out mainstream Republicans for not standing up to the lunatics (like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh) who have hijacked the party and taken it to the heights of bigotry, intolerance and (in some cases or to some extent at least) racism. These protests that have come up since President Obama stepped into the White House have been intriguing to me and to a lot of other people who wonder where these “patriots” were when George W. Bush was in office and freedoms were taking a hit, wars were being started, deficits were mounting and lives were being lost. Wise, truly a dynamic and well-researched speaker, had an interesting conversation with Lemon about the topic of race as related to several current issues in this country.

Here is what Crooks and Liars had as a transcript from the show:

LEMON: OK. So we are going to continue our discussion now over the health care rallies and the tone of what’s going on in the country. Tim Wise joins us. He’s frequent here on the show. The author of “Between Barack and a Hard Place” and among the most prominent anti- racist activist in the country. Thank you, sir. Always good to see you.

TIM WISE, AUTHOR “BETWEEN Barack AND A HARD PLACE”: You, too.

LEMON: You heard the chairman from Florida say no, it is not race.

WISE: I did.

LEMON: It does a disservice. You heard David Sirota say it is the elephant in the room.

WISE: Right. Well like I said in the show before, it is the background noise of a lot of the opposition, not all of it but a lot of it. You know, when you have someone like Glenn Beck saying as he did about a month ago that the health care debate isn’t really about that. It is just reparations for black people, where you have Rush Limbaugh yesterday on the air saying first that community service is the first step towards fascism, which is bizarre even for him.

And then almost immediately after that saying one of the problems with America is too much multiculturalism. You wouldn’t say that unless you are trying to stoke white racial resentment. And so when you say those things, I want to know when are Republican leaders going to condemn that kind of rhetoric because that is where race is being interjected. It is interjected by us, it’s interested by the leading talk show hosts in this country.

LEMON: I mean, but is it knowingly or is it maybe unwittingly they’re doing it and maybe they don’t realize they are doing it.

WISE: Well, two things, it may be either or but it doesn’t matter. I mean, racism needs to be evaluated based on outcome. If you do something which has a predictable consequence, you have to be accountable for that consequence. So for example, when Glenn Beck lied and said that Van Jones was involved in the Los Angeles riots which was not true. That is a very clear, as David said, dog whistle politic moment.

You’re saying that because you know that the L.A. riots are viewed as this racialized rebellion and it scares white folks to death. So you say that about this man. It isn’t true. Glenn Beck had to know that wasn’t true. That is a way to scare white folks. Where race comes in, it is old fashion but it’s white racial resentment that they are trying to whip up.

LEMON: But you know, it is very – it is smart if you want to get your message out. So listen, as we’ve been saying, it’s the elephant in the room. Let’s talk about this Congressman Wilson thing.

WISE: Yes.

LEMON: One person wrote me on Twitter and said I think (INAUDIBLE) if it is not racism then I don’t know what it is, self-indulgence, selfishness, egotism or all the traits pure lack of thought. And then one person says I’m with Ron Reagan and Bill Maher. If Obama’s skin color was closer to his mom’s, talking about Joe Wilson, he would not have shouted out. And I have to tell you -

WISE: I believe that.

LEMON: I have to tell you, for the first time – last night I was watching “Real Time” with Bill Maher and I was like finally someone is talking about this. Finally is talking about this.

WISE: Right.

LEMON: Do you think that Joe Wilson would have done that to a president who was of another color?

WISE: No, I don’t.

LEMON: He may have done the same thing if it was a woman president.

WISE: I don’t know but I know here is a guy who is an avowed neo confederate who says Strom Thurman and (INAUDIBLE) segregation was his hero. There is some racial stuff going on, I hate to say it, with this congress person and it makes me wonder with that kind of background. It makes me wonder.

LEMON: But isn’t it – what is behind – I think that the thing that we are not getting to is what allows him to be – to feel that is OK to say it.

WISE: Right.

LEMON: Isn’t that what it is?

WISE: I think it is what David was talking about.There is a large segment of the American population, particularly a sizable amount of white folks, frankly, and in the Republican Party who do not view him as legitimate, the Berger phenomenon. Let’s be honest. If this man’s name was Oshanasi or O’Malley and I made a birth certificate that said he was born in County Court Ireland in 1961, nobody would care or believe it. But if you say he is from Africa, he has an African daddy. He is from Kenya. People will believe that.

They want to point him as a foreign outsider out to destroy America. And that kind of over the top rhetoric isn’t just about political disagreement, it is about an attack on his identity and his American- ness. Because some people simply can’t accept that we are not the only folks in this country, we are not the standard anymore for what an American is. It is a multiculture nation.

LEMON: I hear African-Americans all the time are used to when talking about President Bush and they would say not my president. That is not right, either.

WISE: Oh, it is not right. It’s not right. You know, I was at rallies where occasionally people had signs that would compare President Bush to Hitler. But you know, what, it wasn’t the leading spokespeople on the left doing that. It wasn’t our talk show hosts, it wasn’t our authors and our columnists and our commentators, it was folks on the streets. It is not right. But it is not equivalent. That is coming from the very top of the conservative mouthpiece community.

LEMON: Hey, listen, I got to go. Do you think this is good for us so because now we can examine and talk about it? It is out there.

WISE: Oh, I think so. It is bringing some things out of the woodwork. If we address it honestly, we can move forward but if we continue to stay in denial I don’t think we will.

LEMON: Denial, it is not just a river, right? Thank you. Tim Wise, it’s always good to have you on. Appreciate it.

Wise has helped shed light on these tea-bagger protests. Looking at some of the vile and disgusting racism we’ve seen from the images of these events you see anger from the far right (beyond the normal political partisanship). As Wise points out, there were nuts saying negative things about President Bush, but such sentiments were not coming from people in such prominent right-wing positions (like Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, Sean Hannity and others) of influence or organizations of influence (like Fox News). These are people with tremendous platforms and loud megaphones. These idiotic statements are, in essence, endorsed by high-profile conservatives and, in some cases, high-profile Republican politicians (who have, as an example, helped keep the birther issue alive by not denouncing it).

As a side note: Republicans who have stood up to Limbaugh have usually come back on their knees to beg for Rush’s forgiveness.

Perhaps normal Republicans are paralyzed by fear.

Diversity-Resistant Tea Bagger Protests Not Seen That Way On Fox

Fox News, blindly supporting the tea bagger movement, produced a comment from right-wing and biased reporter Griff Jenkins (reporting for unstable and extremist conservative Glenn Beck) who may need his eyes examined again. In a sea of white faces and anti-Obama signs, Jenkins nonetheless tried to convince his audience that what people were actually seeing (a sea of angry far-right faces with no visible faces of color that could be seen) protesting the election of a black president (masking their motives as outrage over spending). Jenkins hopped down to the road and interviewed a few people (and carefully framed his questions) to prove that these protests were not as biased, hate-driven and partisan as know they are in reality.

Here is what Jenkins said as documented by News Hounds: “They are old, they’re black, they’re white, they’re male, they’re female, they’re farmers, they’re miners, they’re doctors…”

Uh, OK … Not sure Jenkins showed us much proof of any black people (never mind a significant number of black people were present).

News Hounds:
http://www.newshounds.us/2009/09/13/griff_jenkins_again_touts_diversity_of_tea_party_protest_but_only_white_faces_visible.php

Michelle Malkin An Advocate For Bone-Headed Tea Party Movement

Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin was talking with George Stephanopoulos about these moronic and sparsely-attended tea parties we’ve seen sprouting up since President Obama has been in office. Malkin, as a far-right extremist, has been feeling the tea parties (a gathering of mostly far-right nuts who are using taxes as a way of attacking President Obama). Much like the birther morons, who are cloaking their racism with this birth certificate nonsense, the tea party bobbleheads are driving the Republican brand into extinction.

From Think Progress:

This morning, right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin joined the ABC roundtable on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Asked what the conservative opposition strategy is going to be this coming month while Congress is in recess, Malkin said there is a growing “tea party movement — these counterinsurgencies amongst taxpayer rights groups” — that is fomenting opposition to Obama’s health care plan.

Malkin claimed the Obama administration has “vastly underestimated just how grassroots this movement is.” Lawmakers are going to face “townhalls-gone-wild,” she added.

The term “counter-insurgencies” does reveal the mentality of conservatives in opposition to Obama. Like Bill Kristol has said, the right wing is bluntly stating that it is going “for the kill.” Malkin has previously declare her hope that Obama fails.

Malkin has had a prejudice against President Obama from the beginning and it makes me wonder what her prejudice is truly based on. I am not sure it’s as obvious as her followers would like to believe. The administration vastly underestimated the high degree of hatred that is being felt by a number of people on the far right still struggling to come to grips with the first black president and what some people have described as the “browning of America” with the growing Latino population and the growing number of people who are biracial.

Let these birther and tea bagging nuts have their little townhalls so people can see just how extreme the right wing is going these days and how out of touch Republicans are becoming with blacks and Latinos (it will get worse with Latinos as Republicans continue to beat up on U.S. Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor).

I doubt the Obama Administration is too concerned about the diversity-challenged and intellect-challenged tea party movement.