Mr. President, What Took You So Long To Speak About Your Faith?

President Barack Obama recently spoke about his faith (in the face of a large number of Americans who ridiculously believe he is a Muslim.

Some things leave me puzzled as I look at some recent comments made by President Obama regarding his faith in an Associated Press story.

We've been listening to these morons who claim the president is a Muslim (many of these nuts are the same ones who talk about him sitting in Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church for so many years ... his Christian church):

President Barack Obama, in a rare discussion about his religious beliefs, described himself on Tuesday as a "Christian by choice" who arrived at his faith in adulthood because "the precepts of Jesus Christ" helped him envision the kind of life he wanted to lead.

Obama talked about his beliefs when he was asked, "Why are you a Christian." The question was posed by a woman at a backyard conversation here, part of a series of meetings Obama is holding to talk informally with Americans.

Some conservatives and political opponents have questioned Obama's Christian faith. In fact, a Pew Research Center poll in August found that 18 percent of people wrongly believe Obama is Muslim – up from 11 percent who said so in March 2009. Just 34 percent said they thought Obama is Christian.

Mr. President, what took you so long to come out so strongly with this in the face of all this garbage from these idiot birthers and anti-Muslim, anti-Arab idiots?

Mr. President, Dennis Green Said It Best ... They Are Who We Thought They Were

U.S. President Barack Obama

Today, we're pleased to have as a guest, former National Football League coach Dennis Green, who is here with us to discuss President Obama's recent comments about Fox News.

Apparently, the president is FINALLY realizing Fox News is an inverted newspaper (bits and pieces of objective journalism surrounded by page after page of opinion with a clear lean in bias).

INTERVIEWER: Coach Green, President Obama recently made some pretty strong comments about Fox News during a Rolling Stone interview. As part of that interview, the president said that Fox News "has a very clear, undeniable point of view" that "is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth" of this country. Coach Green, we wanted to know your thoughts about what the president had to say and your thoughts in general about Fox News.

GREEN: (stated angrily) THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE!

INTERVIEWER: Meaning ... they're biased?

GREEN: (stated angrily) THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE!

INTERVIEWER: Gotcha. You've had opportunities during the last year to call out Fox News a little more strongly for what many people feel is its blatant pro-Republican bias. But you...

GREEN: WE LET 'EM OFF THE HOOK!

INTERVIEWER: Fox News has come under some fire, but the network is still highly rated among cable news networks and ...

GREEN: IF YOU WANT TO CROWN THEM THEN CROWN THEIR ASS ... BUT THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE ... AND WE LET 'EM OFF THE HOOK!

INTERVIEWER: Coach Green ... uh ... coach .... (Green leaves the room)

I guess this all came to me as I read through accounts of what the president supposedly said in Rolling Stone.

I thought of Dennis Green and, yes, this is obviously total satire.

Here is what I read from Media Matters for America:

In a recent Rolling Stone interview, President Obama said Fox News is part of the tradition of using the press "very intentionally to promote their viewpoints" because Fox "has a very clear, undeniable point of view" that "is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth" of the country. Indeed, Fox has a long history of actively promoting the Republican agenda and of opposing economic positions which economists say would stimulate growth.
DISCLOSURE: I do like Dennis Green and a part of me feels bad that he was a fine coach remembered more for his famous rant than for his success as a college and pro coach.

For old time's sake:

Hat Tip To Crooks And Liars For Showing What Bill O'Reilly Didn't From His Interview With Jon Stewart

Crooks and Liars has put together a nice video to show some of what conservative Fox News host Bill O'Reilly didn't show on his right-wing television program as he interviewed Comedy Central's Jon Stewart.



Stewart kind of whips O'Reilly good in several of these clips. It's not surprising that O'Reilly aired mostly what was favorable to him.

Good work by David Neiwert.

Crooks and Liars:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/what-bill-oreilly-edited-out-his-int

Glad To See President Obama Challenged

I watched this video after it essentially went viral (through the online news media, blogs and video) today.

In the video, President Obama is challenged by a woman about things that he has done and things that he has not done during his nearly two years as president.

While I have challenged people who have absurd expectations of President Obama after such a brief time in office, I do thing it is good to keep the president on his toes and to challenge him.

He took a little while to get warmed up, with his answer, but then he ultimately spoke about some of the progress he feels has been made during the nearly two years that he has been president.

More people should challenge President Obama, but more people should also realize that going back to what we experienced during George W. Bush's presidency is not the answer.

But, if the country does vote Barack Obama out of office, then that will be what it will be for our nation.

Our democracy has survived so much already. Heck, we survived eight years of G.W. Bush.

Spare Me Comparisons of Bill Maher's Use Of "Nigger" To Dr. Laura's

I've been more than a little amused of late reading blogs referencing Bill Maher's use of the word "nigger" on CNN's Larry King Live.

I have been saddened (though not surprised) that while people correctly point out that he did in fact use the word "nigger" on CNN - they generally miserably fail to explain (simply embedding the clip into a blog or article does not count) the full context of Maher's use of the word.

For some of our brothers and sisters on the right, this is the smoking gun - a liberal using the word "nigger" and no death threats coming from those of us who are considered to be to the left of the political middle. Many of these critics have blasted King for not challenging Maher for his use of the word, and thus (in the minds of our friends on the right and far right), validating the idea that the mainstream media has a liberal bias.

It's absurdly laughable and a pitiful one-dimensional argument.

Such a hysterical reaction to Maher's dropping of the so-called "N-bomb" is little more than a betrayal of common sense. It also conveniently ignores the difference between Maher's use of "nigger" and Laura Schlessinger's multiple uses of the so-called "N-word" as she viciously verbally attacked a caller seeking help.

Look, a knife can be used to slice cheese or it can be used to murder someone. The dangers or benefits of a knife are defined by its usage and its user.

In my estimation, the same principle holds true for the use of the word "nigger."

Maher did not use the word to attack. He merely used it to say that (in his opinion) people are using code words to substitute for "nigger" as that is a word that has long since become too toxic for most mainstream Americans.

Those who try to portray liberals as hypocrites for not attacking Maher are foolish, and, furthermore, ignorant for not making a minimal attempt to at least add context to the use of the word.

Ines Sainz Is Playin' Y'all ... And Big Time

Ines Sainz is shown here interacting with a National Football League player in an interesting way that I doubt you'd see very many male reporters do. Be honest, would you imagine many male reporters doing something like this to an NFL football player? Come on, now.


CAUTION: Some people are not going to like some points I am going to make in this blog. So, you have been warned and should proceed with caution.


I've been quite intrigued by this whole issue of Ines Sainz and alleged sexual harassment that took place in the locker room of the New York Jets.

It's a challenging issue because women sports reporters clearly have to face some challenges that men might not have to face. When men and women are side by side, as sports reporters, men are often more likely to get the benefit of the doubt and the respect of others in the business - coaches, players, administrators, fans, other media, etc.

For women in the locker room (for the life of me I still struggle with the concept of reporters going into the locker room), it's even more challenging.

Sex and sex appeal are the elephants in the room. Sainz looks good ... REAL GOOD! Not gonna lie. And, that is part of the point here. Hear me out. As far as this situation is concerned, we can all stick our heads in the sand and pretend it's supposed to be a professional environment - just like the bakery, the newspaper office or the insurance agent office. A football locker room is not like a grocery store or behind the counter at McDonalds.

It's different - IT'S VERY DIFFERENT. I know that statement is not exactly politically correct, but it's real.

There are women reporters who have earned their stripes in the business and who conduct themselves in a completely professional way. Erin Andrews looks good ... REAL GOOD. BUT, she also is very well respected and succeeds with her talent (looks I am sure have helped her too, but she has the game to go with the looks).

Here is an excerpt from a Web site called Opposing Views about the incident involving Sainz, who now seems to be enjoying the attention (duh ... what do you think she is in this for ... just saying ...):

Sainz clearly has a history of playing up to her looks and sex appeal, rather than her knowledge and professionalism as a reporter. The skimpy outfits in the pictures above show this much. This is not the case of acting as if a rape victim was “asking for it” that the media was making it out to be. This is a case of putting on bait, and then acting like you’re shocked when the animals jump on it. The animals shouldn't have jumped, but you should have seen their reaction coming when you put on the bait.

There is a huge difference between being an attractive reporter who dresses in a classy, professional manner while being a legitimate newsperson, and what Sainz has shown a history of being. She is the same woman who at one time rode on the shoulders of Indianapolis Colts players during a segment. She’s done another segment where she measured the biceps of a bunch of players around her. She’s built an entire career on flirting and being completely unprofessional with the athletes she’s covering.

And now, she’s furthering her career because of the coverage she received from this harassment allegation. It’s sickening. The same way she has completely spit on the efforts of all of the legitimate female reporters who have worked long and hard to demand respect in the sports arena with her half-hearted plays on her sex appeal throughout her career, she’s now making the same mockery of women reporters being mistreated in sports.

There's not necessarily anything wrong with someone enjoying their sex appeal. What concerns me is the damage it does to women who want to be thought of as real reporters - not as "the woman" reporter or, worse, the "sexy woman reporter."

Hopefully Sainz is thinking about how difficult she is making it for women who have made great progress in earning respect in a male dominated world of sports.

No one deserves to truly be sexually harassed.

I know women, specifically women reporters, will rush (and are rushing) to defend Sainz. I can understand why. I really can understand why. But, this kind of behavior does more harm to their cause than good.

No woman should be sexually harassed (anywhere) or in and around athletics. I would have been the first male reporter to come to her aid. But, she seems to be enjoying the attention here. Just saying...

From CBS:

On "The Early Show," Tara Sullivan, a sports columnist for The Record, a New Jersey newspaper, and Lauren Streib, a reporter for The Daily Beast website, discussed issues surrounding Sainz's attire and the way women of the press are treated in men's locker rooms.

Streib said it's about dressing appropriately.

"I personally have never been in an locker room, but in newsrooms, when you're in interviews with sources, you have to dress the part. I think when it becomes distracting, and I don't want to blame her and I, you know, I'm not personally involved in the situation, but when it becomes distracting, then you question, 'Is she dressed appropriately?"'

This piece I am writing is not meant as an excuse in any way, shape or form for players who may have engaged in inappropriate behavior (that still is under investigation). Players need to behave professional, but based on her history I think she got what she wanted out of it, and played those who sympathize with her for suckers. Reporters also need to behave (and dress) appropriately.

Something about her reaction to it all that just makes me a bit less sympathetic to those who think this is a big deal even though she doesn't seem overly troubled by it all (she has been doing interviews all over the place and Tweeting about this situation).

I repeat what I said a little earlier ... y'all are gettin' played by Ines Sainz. I am not badmouthing her, but she is doing her thing and, frankly, getting what I think she wants out of it: attention.

I will adapt a quote from the late great rapper 2Pac: Ines, I ain't mad atcha ... I got nothing but love for ya ... do ya thang girl!

Fox News Host Neil Cavuto Exploits 9/11 To Cheap Shot President Obama

Leave it to a Fox News host, in this case Neil Cavuto, to use a 9/11 anniversary to interrupt first lady Michelle Obama's speech and unleash a puzzling cheap shot at President Obama.

Could Bush Heisman Controversy Lead To Black Athlete Movement Against NCAA?

Reggie Bush, shown here playing for the University of Southern California, could be losing his Heisman Trophy due to allegedly accepting illegal benefits, according to the NCAA. Could this start a movement by black athletes against the NCAA? Dr. Boyce Watkins seems to be hopeful.

Thanks to the considerable power of Facebook, I ran across an opinion piece written by Dr. Boyce Watkins regarding the current controversy surrounding Reggie Bush and his perhaps temporary retention of "his" Heisman Trophy.

For those who don't know, Bush is in the middle of a controversy for allegedly violating NCAA rules regarding illegal benefits. Here is an account of some of the trouble dogging Bush. The University of Southern California, where Bush played his college football, has all but made him disappear from anything related to USC. At this point, from a USC perspective, the only traces of Bush are mostly in the memories of those who watched him play back in the day.

Recently, however, Bush has been back in the spotlight as USC returned its Heisman Trophy (from the Bush era) and there is a rumor that the Heisman people are ready to snatch back Reggie's version of the trophy.

That brings me to this, from Watkins, who had strong opinions on the issue:

When I read about the possibility that Reggie Bush may have his Heisman Trophy taken, I became irritated beyond imagination. "Here we go again," I thought. "Another self-righteous group of hoity-toity NCAA administrators making value judgments about the character of black male athletes."

If they can’t defeat them on the field, the game is then to create artificially contrived mechanisms for evaluating the worth of the athlete from a morality standpoint. The problem for the NCAA, however, is that when it comes to ethics, they have no room to claim the moral high ground. In fact, you might say they are crooks.

So, officials allegedly want to take Reggie Bush’s Heisman because he might have violated a set of rules that represent nothing less than a complete double standard that places athletes and their families (many of whom are black) at the bottom of an artificial caste system which puts coaches at the top (most of whom are white)? Can we say “apartheid” anyone? Are you trying to say that Reggie Bush wasn’t worth millions of dollars to USC and the NCAA in television deals, ticket sales, jersey sales and the like? Yea, I thought so.

Watkins is an outspoken critic of the NCAA and what he sees as its unwillingness to share revenues with the student-athletes.

In this piece, however, Watkins takes it another major step with his call for, in essence, a boycott as could be read in his headline, "Black Athletes Should Ignore The Heisman."

Here is more from the piece:

Why in the world have we somehow been convinced that black athletes (white ones too) and their families are not deserving of a slice of the massive revenue that athletes earn for their universities? Did anyone watch USC football games to see anyone other than Reggie Bush and the other athletes on the field? If that’s not the case, then why in the world has he been chastised like a runaway slave for simply getting a mere fraction of the money that he deserves? Even China has a more equitable system of wealth distribution than the NCAA, who has made an art form out of turning the false into something that we all believe to be real. That long list of rules and regulations created by the NCAA is designed to control athletes so they themselves can get wealthy from athlete labor. We know that.

There is some truth to what Watkins has to say about student-athletes not being able to share in revenue they generate.

Sharing that revenue, I believe, is a complicated situation even though I do not necessarily disagree that student-athletes should be able to taste a little more of the revenue. BUT, how to get that done is VERY complicated and not as easy as a lot of people think.

The bottom line is that these student-athletes are not going to risk their position by going against the NCAA. They see their position as valuable. For the student-athletes, right now at least, the benefits of the NCAA outweigh any perceived exploitation.

Just saying ...

Until that changes, no boycott will have any legs.

Dr. Boyce Watkins:
http://newsone.com/newsone-original/boycewatkins/dr-boyce-black-athletes-should-ignore-the-heisman-trophy/

Yahoo Sports:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ys-bushheisman090710

More on Reggie Bush:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2010-09-08-heisman-bush-young_N.htm

ESPN:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&page=wojciechowski/100721&sportCat=ncf

Tucker Carlson = Psychological Test Case

Fox News (including far-right commentator ... most are on Fox News ... Tucker Carlson) struggles to see the racism at Tea Party. I did an Internet search and found this in a few seconds.

Tucker Carlson, the bow-tie wearing right-wing flamethrower from Fox News infamy, took this recent shot at the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

Carlson, like many conservatives, have had a busy summer of hatred toward groups of people of color (SB 1070, hostility toward Hispanics and Latinos, being against the Muslim center in New York near Ground Zero, Tea Party bigotry, fanning the flames of the absurd claim President Obama of being a Muslim, as if there is something wrong with it, ... and on and on it goes).

Fox News, of course, continues to try and position the Tea Party as being targeted by mean black people.

This week, Carlson is taking the baton and continuing that fight by saying the NAACP is "totally discredited, some would say pathetic" as he continues the attack on black institutions:



Right wingers are using a scorched-earth policy of attacking people of color to strengthen their base with conservative whites.

Tucker Carlson calling anyone or any group discredited and pathetic is the height of psychological projection. Tucker, listen to Michael Jackson's old song and start with "The Man in the Mirror."

Media Matters for America:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201009060005

Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife, Hide Your Husband ...

This is the video so many people have been talking about. No matter how many times I watch it the clip still makes me laugh (not the alleged crime, of course, but Antoine Dodson's reaction).



Wow. That is quite the neighborhood. I watched the last part of this clip for the first time, in the last hour, and got a whiff of somebody planning vigilante justice.

Beck's "I Have A Scheme" Speech Excerpts

Glenn Beck could just as well have said to his supporters, "Me at last, me at last, thank God almighty ... it's me at last."

Glenn Beck, the far-right Fox News freak, held Beckstock this past weekend in Washington D.C. and delivered words that can best be characterized as "I Have A Scheme" for what it was worth when everything was said and done.

Here is how Beck might have closed his speech as he attempted to hijack the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. over the weekend for his own nefarious, self-promoting purposes:

When all of God's children...
White ones and gently tanned ones...
Filthy rich and very rich ...
Conservative and far-right extremist...
Will be able to join hands and sing unto me in the words of that old right-wing spiritual ...
Me at last...
Me at last...
Thank God Almighty ...
It's me at last!

Yes, I am being satirical ... slightly

In The Shadow Of Beckstock, The Rev. Jesse Jackson Leads Important March In Detroit

The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks to a crowd in this photo.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was in Detroit (where I was born and raised) over the weekend to march for awareness about issues of great importance.

Sadly, however, the march is not getting near enough attention as much of the nation focused on Beckstock, a production led by Fox News right-wing extremist and fearmonger specialist Glenn Beck. Beck's production, a scheme to grab attention, raise money (I'm sure Goldline is happy) and increase his fame, is a disgrace to everything Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for and died for more than four decades ago. Beck's disgraceful attempts to capitalize on the works and deeds of Dr. King are perhaps overshadowed only by his stunning ignorance of what Dr. King really stood for as he rallied millions.

Beckstock, or "I Have A Scheme" as some people have called his rally in Washington D.C., grabbed all the headlines while the Rev. Jackson marched in Detroit on important issues.

Here is an excerpt from the Detroit News:

The chants of thousands of people demanding jobs filled the air downtown as UAW President Bob King and the Rev. Jesse Jackson led the crowd to Grand Circus Park.

The UAW and Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition announced the Rebuild America: Jobs Justice Peace kickoff today at the downtown park.

Jackson said the focus of the initiative is to ensure policy makers put people first when making decisions. The initiative calls for a moratorium on home foreclosures, a push for job creation and for ending armed conflicts overseas.

"Detroit and Michigan are ground zero of the urban crisis," Jackson said. "It's time to enact real change for working families and all America."

About 30 percent of Detroit is unemployed, Jackson said. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., also said Detroit was chosen as the kickoff site for the campaign because it is at the heart of the nation's economic fight.

It's great to see the Rev. Jackson marching on such an important issue in Detroit, a place where the message will have a strong impact. It might come as a shock to some people, but Rev. Jackson is about more than race issues. But, that is something you would never know listening and watching the mainstream media and far-right propagandists who seek to demonize him.

Here are some photos from the rally led by the Rev. Jackson as posted by the Detroit Free Press.

The sensationalism of Glenn Beck, promoted by the Republican party communication's team, Fox News, sells better than a march in Detroit for jobs and other forms of economic empowerment.

So Won't The Real Glenn Beck Please Stand Up, Please Stand Up, Please Stand Up...

Here's how Eminem might say it:

So won't the real Glenn Beck please stand up, please stand up, please stand up ...



Once again, we see the two faces of Glenn Beck, as he stands in Washington D.C. in front of tens of thousands of morons who actually follow him.

More psycho talk from Glenn Beck.

Also, who are the "dark dudes coming our way" Mr. Beck?

A Note From Color Of Change Regarding Crazy Glenn Beck

Dear friends,

Many of us already know that Fox News is biased -- but it's actually much worse than that. For years they have used lies, distortions, and race-baiting to divide this country. Recently, it's gotten downright dangerous. Earlier this summer, a heavily armed man got into a gun fight with police after he was pulled over on his way to kill people at the Tides Foundation^[1] -- an obscure non-profit that Glenn Beck regularly demonizes on his Fox News TV show.^[2]

Fox News is bad news for America -- and it spreads, and is legitimized, partly through TVs in public places.

That's why I've joined the TurnOffFox campaign -- the first part of a larger campaign to diminish the influence of Fox. It's about educating people about Fox and getting it turned off in stores, restaurants, and other public places.

Will you join me? It takes just a moment to declare your own household "Fox free", and at the same time appeal to public establishments in your community to stop playing Fox. And you'll get a FREE Turn Off Fox sticker when you do. Click here:

http://colorofchange.org/turnofffox/?id=1651-835564

No other news organization that's considered legitimate consistently wages smear campaigns based on lies and race-baiting. But for years Fox News has done exactly that, and the pattern has only gotten worse since Barack Obama entered national politics.

Here are just a few examples:

-- A frequent Fox guest, Jesse Lee Peterson, said that the majority of Black people have poor moral character, and cited "what they did to the dome" after Hurricane Katrina as evidence.^[3] Peterson has also used his platform on Fox to claim that 90% of Black people are racists -- against Whites.^[4]

-- In a case of naked race-baiting, Fox host Glenn Beck called President Obama a "racist" who had a "deep-seated hatred for White people or the White culture."^[5] Earlier that week, Beck claimed that the President's health insurance reform proposals were a form of "reparations" designed to "settle old racial scores."^[6]

-- Fox host John Stossel argued that the public accommodations section of the Civil Rights Act -- which prevents businesses from discriminating based on race, sex, and other factors -- should be repealed.^[7]

-- Fox News hosts Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity were the first to air deceptively edited and incomplete video of Shirley Sherrod's remarks to the NAACP.^[8] The video made it seem like Sherrod was confessing to using her position at the USDA to discriminate against White farmers, when she was really talking about the importance of overcoming prejudice. Sherrod lost her job over this misrepresentation, which Fox enthusiastically repeated without seeking the facts. Fox has since tried to pretend it had nothing to do with this smear -- but Fox is the number one reason these kinds of distortions and smears have any part in our national dialogue.

The examples above aren't even a tenth of Fox's vicious lies and smears, and over the years they've just gotten more brazen.

The goal of Turn Off Fox is to reduce the number of public TVs showing Fox News, while spreading the word about Fox's poison (and how it works) to those who don't know.

Signing up for the campaign is just the first step. We make it easy for you to tell us about businesses playing Fox. If you're willing to talk with them, we'll provide you with straightforward materials that explain why they shouldn't be a party to what Fox is doing. And if there are businesses you know that want to tell the world they would never play Fox, you can help them declare themselves a "Fox-free zone."

As businesses Turn off Fox and stand up as Fox Free, and as we encourage our friends and family to do the same, we'll help make clear, to people across the country, what Fox is about. And we'll reduce their ability to do harm.

Please join me in signing up for the TurnOffFox campaign:

http://colorofchange.org/turnofffox/?id=1651-835564

Thanks.

References

1. http://bit.ly/a5F7kW
2. http://mediamatters.org/research/201007290032
3. http://mediamatters.org/research/200510030005
4. http://bit.ly/c060C0
5. http://mediamatters.org/research/200907300019
6. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907230040
7. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201005200033
8. http://mediamatters.org/blog/201007200060

Glenn Beck Is Not Martin Luther King Jr.

This is a message I recently ran across:

Did you know that Glenn Beck is planning a rally to take place on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous 'I Have a Dream Speech'? What's more, Beck's rally is being held at the same location where King gave his speech in 1963 and will feature guests like Sarah Palin!

I just signed a pledge to stand with Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of a just, diverse and equal society. We cannot let Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin destroy and distort King's vision. As King once said: 'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter'.

We can't become silent. Sign the pledge: glennbeckisnotmartinlutherkingjr.com

Beck has every right to do this and we have every right to protest it.

Note To Those Following Glenn Beck: Beware Of False Prophets

"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."

-Matthew 7:15

Listen closely to the end of this video and then reflect upon the passage above:

Paladino Engages In Dangerous And Disgraceful Stereotyping Of Welfare Recipients

Maybe Taylor was more clairvoyant than we all knew.

Sadly, there are thousands of people who will vote for this far-right Republican extremist, Carl Paladino, running to become governor of New York. It's stuff like this, what you will read below, that makes you wonder about the direction that some of the most extreme of the GOP seem to want to take this country.

Screw it, lets just get right to the excerpt ... roll it:

Republican candidate for governor Carl Paladino said he would transform some New York prisons into dormitories for welfare recipients, where they would work in state-sponsored jobs, get employment training and take lessons in “personal hygiene.”

Paladino, a wealthy Buffalo real estate developer popular with many tea party activists, is competing for the Republican nomination with former U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio. The primary is Sept. 14.

Paladino first described the idea in June at a meeting of The Journal News of White Plains and spoke about it again this week with The Associated Press.

Throughout his campaign, Paladino has criticized New York’s rich menu of social service benefits, which he says encourages illegal immigrants and needy people to live in the state. He has promised a 20 percent reduction in the state budget and a 10 percent income tax cut if elected.

This is the kind of negative stereotyping we're hearing and seeing from far too many people on the far right extreme of the political spectrum.

Notice how he links being a welfare recipient to all of these negative characteristics? He seems to see people on welfare as lazy, unmotivated and having poor hygiene. He wants to put their asses in "dormitories," get them "employment training" and get them "state-sponsored jobs." He wants to put them in dormitories? Hmm... I am guessing these will not be your college dormitories. I wonder ... is that similar to the way we wanted to put Japanese Americans in "resort communities" during World War II? The implications of what this man is saying is chilling and is beyond offensive.

I thought Republicans were all about government getting out of the lives of Americans? This GOPer wants to tell these Americans how they should live while putting them down as being lazy, as moochers, as dirty and so on and so forth.

Fortunately, even some Republicans are criticizing him (though I suspect not enough to spark any significant change).

How do people of conscience vote for a man of this nature? Actually, I don't want to know.

Fox News Called Out For What It Is: A Mouthpiece For Republican Party

Fox News has always been bias (as I've written here numerous times ... obviously), but Nathan Daschle (Democratic Governors Association) is correct in that now the network is just flat out funding the Republican efforts (specifically the Republican Governors Association) to defeat Democrats.

Again, Fox News is not even faking their far-right bias. The network is disgraceful as proven by its incredible silence.

Strangely enough, News Corp/Fox News is actually paying the Republicans for the rights to promote the GOP.

Eric Boehlert, of Media Matters, is right on the money with his analysis.

Media Matters To Take On Fox News For Its $1 Million Support of Republican Governors

Sarah Palin Is OK With 'Nigger' But Not With 'Retarded' ... Apparently

Sarah Palin seems to be OK with the word "nigger" but is not so cool with people saying the word "retarded" because it is offensive line "nigger" is to people. Huh?

Former half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin continues to prove why a person would have to be a fool to think of this person as a legitimate candidate for the presidency of the United States of America.

There are people of color in America. We're not all white people, Sarah.

Lets face it, Palin symbolically spit in the face of black Americans recently with her absurd rush to defend the disgraced Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who viciously attacked a black female guest on her radio program who called in for help to set off a racial powder keg after she used the so-called N-word like 11 times during a verbal tirade on the air.

This is what Mediaite had on its Web site:

From her twitter feed last night:

Dr.Laura:don’t retreat…reload! (Steps aside bc her 1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence”isn’t American,not fair”)

Dr.Laura=even more powerful & effective w/out the shackles, so watch out Constitutional obstructionists. And b thankful 4 her voice,America!

Palin, posing as a constitutional scholar misleadingly advising us on the first amendment, rushes to the defense of Dr. Laura, who uttered "nigger" the way most humans use the word "the" in conversation. Palin didn't seem to have much of a problem with Dr. Laura dropping "nigger" left and right. Interestingly enough, Palin's defense of Dr. Laura is even more bizarre considering these words Schlessinger offered when Palin was named the vice presidential nominee:

This also is from Mediaite:

Via Joan Walsh at Salon who dug this up from Dr. Laura’s blog in Sept 2008:

I’m stunned – couldn’t the Republican Party find one competent female with adult children to run for Vice President with McCain? I realize his advisors probably didn’t want a “mature” woman, as the Democrats keep harping on his age. But really, what kind of role model is a woman whose fifth child was recently born with a serious issue, Down Syndrome, and then goes back to the job of Governor within days of the birth?

That Dr. Laura is quite the sweetheart, eh? Sarah sure knows how to pick 'em, huh?

It just goes to show that, for Palin, far-right politics trumps all else - even family.

You may recall that Palin had a fit and called for Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff, to be fired for his use of the word "retarded" in a negative way a while ago.

From CBS:

At an August strategy session of liberal groups and White House aides, the Wall Street Journal recently reported, Emanuel told liberals they were "F-ing retarded" for planning to air attack ads against conservative Democrats opposed to health care reform.

Obviously, not good on Emanuel's part in this kind of a politically correct climate. Once upon a time, it might have been OK to use that word in that context, but not anymore (not in his kind of a high-profile position).

Palin, of course, launched a political nuclear war to score points for her side.

"Just as we'd be appalled if any public figure of Rahm's stature ever used the 'N-word' or other such inappropriate language, Rahm's slur on all God's children with cognitive and developmental disabilities – and the people who love them – is unacceptable, and it's heartbreaking," Palin wrote.

"Heartbreaking," to Palin, is saying "retarded" in a way she sees as hurtful, but it's not apparently "heartbreaking" for "nigger" to be used in a way that is hurtful - if you're Sarah Palin.

Now, not to say Dr. Laura is a person of Rahm Emanuel's stature (spare me that argument Dr. Laura/Palin defenders), but it is kind of interesting to see Palin rush to the defense of someone using "retarded" which she seemed to put in the category of the so-called N-word.

BUT, when Dr. Laura used the N-word so often she sounded like a record on a player that was skipping, Palin did not seem to be quite so offended.

She told Dr. Laura, "don't retreat...reload." It seems that, in Palin's world, saying "retarded" is so horribly wrong and an offense worthy of termination, but "nigger" is no big deal and people who use it shouldn't back down, and instead would be advised to "don't retreat...reload."

CBS:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-6166034-503544.html

Mediate:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/sarah-palin-apparently-prefers-n-word-to-retard/
http://www.mediaite.com/online/sarah-palin-supports-dr-laura-in-n-word-controversy-wants-her-to-reload/