In Washington, DC, a white supremacist walked into the Holocaust Museum and started shooting, killing a guard, Tyrone Johns.
Gee, I guess that the DHS report warning about a potential upsurge in right wing terrorism was a bit more than some sort of PC Jihad.
I’m wondering how the hell this guy only served 6½ years when he attempted to hold members of the Federal Reserve hostage only 25 years ago.
I guess they had to keep space open for the “War on Drugs”
And in my own backyard, no less.
We now have confirmation that a number of banks, most notably Wells Fargo, specifically and disproportionately targeted blacks for high interest subprime mortgages:
As she describes it, Beth Jacobson and her fellow loan officers at Wells Fargo Bank “rode the stagecoach from hell” for a decade, systematically singling out blacks in Baltimore and suburban Maryland for high-interest subprime mortgages.
These loans, Baltimore officials have claimed in a federal lawsuit against Wells Fargo, tipped hundreds of homeowners into foreclosure and cost the city tens of millions of dollars in taxes and city services.
Wells Fargo, Ms. Jacobson said in an interview, saw the black community as fertile ground for subprime mortgages, as working-class blacks were hungry to be a part of the nation’s home-owning mania. Loan officers, she said, pushed customers who could have qualified for prime loans into subprime mortgages. Another loan officer stated in an affidavit filed last week that employees had referred to blacks as “mud people” and to subprime lending as “ghetto loans.”
I don’t know what bothers me more, that this happened, or that I am so unsurprised that this happened.
And it ain’t just Wells.
It appears that the only people in the United States who are lamer than Code Pink, the “New Black Panther” Party (NBPP), have once again put their foot in it.
They stationed some of their people outside a polling place in uniforms and one of them, Samir Shabazz, was carrying a baton and brandished it, and the Civil Rights division of the DoJ filed a civil suit against them for voter intimidation, which they have now dropped, after review by Obama appointees.
They took it to court, and got a default verdict, which is not surprising, since the NBPP doesn’t have the resources for lawyers, and a permanent injunction against Mr. Shabazz from being within 100 yards of a polling place with any sort of weapon.
The NBPP drops Shabazz like he was a Plutonium milkshake, and then issues a condemnation of any sort of voting suppression, and the DoJ drops the case.
Then some of the “professionals staff” in the Civil Rights Division complained to the Washington (Moonie) Times about this.
Why the Moonie Times? Because these were Bushies burrowed into the division, and they wanted to show that it was “those n*gg*rs” who were suppressing the vote, not the ‘Phants in Texas, Alabama, etc., who were doing so with back door poll taxes.
So, Bush and His Evil Minions™ purge the Civil Rights Division, burrow political hacks to replace them, try to show that the problem is black people trying to vote, and then complain to their mouthpiece when the adults come in and fix it.
Expect this to be wall to wall on Rush, Hannity, and O’Falafel tomorrow.
Damn!
Hopefully, the next initiative-petition campaign will be better run than the last one.
Or maybe he thinks that they only count 3/5ths.
His claim is that Barak Obama’s support is somehow not real, because he is polling much higher among black voters, which ignores the fact that Democratic Presidents always poll higher among black voters, because they know that the Republicans have become the party of bigotry and segregation.
Simply put, when you see one party as hating you and trying to do harm to you, any representative of an opposing party looks better.
But Byron York, in a perfect reflection of the Republican Party, wants to say that black Americans simply do not count, much like the Republican Party vote suppression apparatus says that black American votes simply should not be counted.
White supremacist wing nut Hal Turner has posted on his blog (no link to him, ever) that he has an advance copy of the Treasury’s bank stress tests, and that it shows that 16 out of the top 19 banks are already insolvent.
Were it from anyone else, I might be inclined to believe it, as it jibes with my sense of the state of the banking industry, but from him, I’d just as soon ignore it.
Only, I’m posting about it, which begs the question, “Why are you reading this?”
The answer is that I’m posting because a Treasury Department Spokesman formally denied Turner’s claims:
A U.S. Treasury spokesman said there’s no basis to a blog posting that buffeted financial stocks by saying that most of the nation’s largest banks are insolvent.
Andrew Williams, a Treasury spokesman, dismissed the report from Hal Turner of North Bergen, New Jersey, “particularly given we don’t have stress test results yet.” Turner has advocated violence against blacks, Jews and immigrants on his Web site and Internet radio show, according to the Anti- Defamation League, created in 1913 to monitor anti-Semitism.
Why is the US Department of the Treasury responding to what amounts to semi-literate scrawls on the wall of a bathroom stall?
I see three possibilities, in no particular order:
Honestly, none of these alternatives are particularly good ones, and if I had to place a bet, it would be on the last one, which would indicate that in less than 100 days, Mssrs. Geithner & Summers have completely pissed away their credibility, and they know it.
The Tedisco campaign is objecting to student ballots, in violation of the law and established court cases, and they are striking absentee ballots of voters with “Jewish” Names, who are assumed to be Democratic voters, and many of the folks have been registered in, and voting in, the district for decades:
The Democrats plan to argue in court, citing precedent, that the votes are valid so long as voters with multiple residences don’t cast ballots in multiple places. Garry even went one step further, holding up his yellow pad and showing the names of those challenged, suggesting that Walsh was also acting with regard to ethnicity.
“Cohen, Pollack, Rosegarten, Winakor—there’s a pattern: they’re Democrats and they’re Jewish,” he said.
If you think that Jews have a home in the Republican party, you are an idiot.
Α Δ Φ vs. Westboro Baptist Church
Α Δ Φ: 1
Westboro Baptist Church: 0
First, a definition: The Overton window is a theory first voiced in this form by Joe Overton, which states that ideas, can be classifies as being either inside of or outside of the bounds of conversation in a group. It further notes that this window is not fixed, but rather it moves, and through the application of resources over a long term, can be made to move significantly.
Ideas can generally be classified as unthinkable, radical, acceptable, sensible, or popular, with the latter generally moving toward policy.
Israeli elections are today, and it is likely that the racist Yisrael Beitenu party will be the 3rd largest party in the Knesset, displacing Labor to 4th place.*
What I think people don’t realize is how much of a shift this is in Israel’s Overton window.
If one were to suggest at a party an expulsion of Israel’s Arab population in 1966, or an expulsion of the Palestinians in the territories in 1968 at a party, the response would have been stunned silence, with people looking at the speaker like they had just admitted to eating children, and that person would be ostracized at the party, and not invited back.
In fact, it could be argued that this was the societal norm well into the 1st Intifada, and possibly up to some time after the Oslo accords were implemented, and the PLO returned to Israel.
Now, we have a party which endorses ethnic cleansing without the movement of people, by redrawing the Israeli border to excise most of its Israeli Arab citizenry, on a path to have the third highest number of seats in Parliament.
This idea has already moved from unthinkable to acceptable for discussion for much of the Israeli population, and the desired political outcome for over 10% of the population, and likely exceeds the vote totals of YB will get, because of the dynamics of the Israeli proportional representation system and the fact that their party leader, Avigdor Lieberman† is stridently secular.
Needless to say, this marks a significant change in Israeli society, and to my mind, this is a profoundly negative change, and I do not see its trajectory changing in the foreseeable future.
*Much of their anemic performance in recent elections has to do with the fact that “big L” Labor has largely abandoned the concerns of “small L” labor in favor of a new Thatcherite economic consensus, but that is another post.
†It seems to be a constant that politicians named Lieberman are complete asswhipes.
The Department of Justice’s report on Bradley Schlozman is absolutely scathing, saying that he:
But 2 weeks before the new administration, no charges will be filed.
So, we have a flat out statement that he committed perjury, you know the things that the Republicans went Jihad over with Bill Clinton when it was: (a) Arguable, depending on your definition of sex, and (b) Not related to his official duties.
Even so, because Bush and His Evil Minions™ have thoroughly polluted the Justice Department, so the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has declined to prosecute him.
If anyone out there lives in Kansas, how about filing a complaint with the disciplinary authorities there, because that is where he is practicing law. (more contact information at the link)
The bigots who want to leave the national Episcopal church because its to tolerant of “te gay”, have just lost one in court.
The California Supreme Court has ruled that the parish property they are on belongs to the national church, not them:
The state high court said it could resolve the St. James lawsuit by looking to property deeds, state law, the local church’s articles of incorporation and the national church’s canon and rules.
Although the deeds showed the local church owned the property, the parish had agreed to be part of the greater Episcopal Church of the United States and to be bound by that church’s rules, the court said.
The church added a section to a canon in 1979 that said parishes held property in trust for the greater church.
“The local church agreed and intended to be part of a larger entity and to be bound by the rules and governing documents of that greater entity,” Chin wrote.
Justice Joyce L. Kennard wrote separately to say that no secular institution would be permitted to take someone’s property that way.
Good for them.
On the reliably wankeriffic Washington Post editorial page, Richard Cohen is generally one of the more reliably wankeriffic. He’s not up to the truly delusional level of Krauthammer, but he consistently shows a lack of ability to think and even to understand what he just said. I have noted this in the past.
That being said, Richard Cohen gets one right today, because, unlike most of the time, he actually knows the people who are effected by a political event.
In this case, it is his sister, who is a lesbian and in a 19 year committed relationship, and a supporter of Barack Obama who traveled to volunteered for the campaign, has canceled her inauguration party because of his invitation to for bigot preacher Rick Warren to give the invocation.
It’s amazing how much more sane and thoughtful the pundits are when it’s them and theirs that are effected by an action…Kind of funny huh?
Cohen rightly castigates Obama on this, though, with typical aplomb, he buries his lede:
The conventional thing to say is that Obama has a preacher problem — first the volcanic Jeremiah Wright and now the transparently anti-gay Warren. But the real problem has nothing to do with ministers and everything to do with Obama’s inability or unwillingness to be a moral leader. Sooner or later, he just might have to stand for something.
Of course his point on Wright was that Barack Obama needed to leave his church because a publication edited by Wright’s daughter gave an award to Farrakhan, because black politicians are in lock step with everything done by their church….Something he would never suggest of a white politician.
That being said, this is a case of a stopped clock being right twice a day: Sooner or later Barack Obama has to stand for something.
Well, it looks like the right wing is going batsh%$ insane about Rick Warren giving the prayer at the convention too.
Debbie Schlussel (no link directly to her, she makes Michell Malkin look like Mother Theresa) is freaking out claiming that Rick Warren is a Syrian sympathiser, and she actually posts a picture of him getting or giving an an award from/to Bashir al Assad:
What’s next? Is this guy going to be caught on tape discussing a bribe with Blago?
In addition to being a virulently anti-gay, anti-abortion bigot, I forgot to mention that Obama’s choice to give the invocation at the inauguration also supports the assassination of foreign leaders:
HANNITY: Can you talk to rogue dictators? Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust, wants to wipe Israel off the map, is seeking nuclear weapons.
WARREN: Yes.
HANNITY: I think we need to take him out.
WARREN: Yes.
HANNITY: Am I advocating something dark, evil or something righteous?
WARREN: Well, actually, the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped. And I believe…
HANNITY: By force?
WARREN: Well, if necessary. In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers.
and views gay marriage marriages as being equivalent to incest, child rape and polygamy:
Rick Warren: But the issue to me is, I’m not opposed to that as much as I’m opposed to the redefinition of a 5,000-year definition of marriage. I’m opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage. I’m opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.
Steven Waldman: Do you think, though, that they are equivalent to having gays getting married?
Rick Warren: Oh I do.
BTW, while I’m sure I don’t have enough readers to get a comment to the effect that this was not Obama’s decision, but that of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, headed by Diane Feinstein.*
Well, the word is out that this was Obama’s pick:
A powerful Democratic friend contacted me this morning to let me know that they talked to the key players yesterday, and Diane Feinstein, chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, had nothing to do with the pick of Rick Warren as Obama’s invocation speaker at the inaugural. The decision was made by Obama himself, I’m told, and Feinstein just assumed that he had vetted it with his staff. Difi went along with Obama’s decision, not the other way around. If this is true, then our apologies to Senator Feinstein for suggesting that she was involved.
This has the ring of truth.
Feinstein made her statewide political career on reaching out to the gay community as mayor of San Francisco following the assassination of Moskone and Milk.
It’s one of the few things that she has never wavered on.
*Full disclosure, my great grandfather, Harry Goldman, and her grandfather, Sam Goldman were brothers.
OK, he didn’t use the word “uppity”, but considering his behavior, where he seems to make a living out of condemning things like Rap music (and getting the lyrics wrong in the process), his screeds against the Iraqi people on Billo’s show should come as no surprise.
But’s let’s read what he said (vid below):
WILLIAMS: But on a serious level, how many American lives have been sacrificed to the cause of liberating Iraq? How much money has been spent while they’re not spending their own profits from their oil? American money. So I just think it’s absolutely the act of an ingrate for them to behave in this way. Just unbelievable to me.
Them, huh….They should shut up and sing spirituals eat their falafel.
Yes, they are ingrates because they object to being invaded and conquered, which has created this reality:
And those numbers ignore the somewhere north of ½ million dead that are a result of the mess we made.
They should be grateful, because even though we took them prisoner and sold them as slaves across the oceans, their life is much better on the plantation …. they get purple fingers.
Could someone explain to me why Juan Williams isn’t excluded from polite society like David Duke?
Over a year ago, I called out Barack Obama for throwing gays under the bus with his gospel concert in South Carolina, when he let an anti-gay bigot (who’s also … you know gay … but all better now really … no … really … he’s all better now…) take the stage … scratch that take over the stage…
Well, I’m not stunned and amazed: He handled the McClurkin contraversy in the way most calculated to be hurtful, and now he
is having bigot Christo-Fascist* Rick Warren to give inaugural invocation.
The PFAW president describes himself as ‘Profoundly Disappointed’ by this development, and Atrios gives Obama the coveted Wanker of the Day award.
The good folks at Right Wing Watch have the scoop on just what this man has done and said, which includes:
I’m a bit disappointed, but I am far from surprised, I expected some sort of backhand to “te gay” as a demonstration of “bipartisanship.”
My gay friend who thinks that Obama sh%$s ice cream though….I don’t know how he’ll rationalize this.
If you are expecting a move on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in the military before the 2010 elections, you are sorely mistaken.
*I could also use the term “Talibaptist”….Your thoughts on which works better?
Brad Delong finds some graphs that show a big difference between the South and the rest of the nation.
As he aptly puts it, “The whites in the heartland of today’s Republican Party just do not vote–and do not think–like the rest of us do.”
Simply put, in the rest of the nation, the greater contact with black people in your daily lives, the less bigoted you are, and in the south, the he greater contact with black people in your daily lives, the more bigoted you are.
One of the founding principles of the United States is the melting point. At the core of the melting pot is the idea that once you know the other, you will accept the other.
Anything else is un-American, and should have no part in our public policy discourse.
In this case, it’s the right wing nuts of the Episcopal Church,
When I last heard about this, they had allied themselves to a Nigerian nutcase Bishop who wanted imprison and/or execute gays, in the hope of forming an affiliation with the Nigerian communion.
Now they want to form a parallel church, all because there has been a gay Bishop consecrated hundreds of miles away from them, and they feel the need to hate.
There are differing counts of how many congregations are willing to leave, but all indications are that the number is relatively small, and it will likely will remain small, unless the mainstream Episcopals feel compelled to make nice.
From a pragmatic perspective, making nice would allow the people who are arguing for bigotry to keep buildings and other assets accrued, and there are a lot of people who won’t go along with the bigots if it means losing their church and school buildings.
From a moral perspective, people who use their God as an excuse to hate should not be humored.
Gee, following a crushing electoral defeat, conservative windbag Kathleen Parker goes and blames it all on the what she sees as right wing medieval religious types:
As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.
….
To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn’t soon cometh.
Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth — as long as we’re setting ourselves free — is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.
….
So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners.
Ouch!!! Reading further it appears that her problem with the Religious right is that it is insular, nativist, and so is hostile and frightening to the majority of the population who are not a part of this. Well put
However, honesty forces me to note that her argument would be far more convincing if she hadn’t endorsed the idea of fear and hatred of those who don’t look like us using a right wing evangelical just this May:
“A full-blooded American.”
That’s how 24-year-old Josh Fry of West Virginia described his preference for John McCain over Barack Obama. His feelings aren’t racist, he explained. He would just be more comfortable with “someone who is a full-blooded American as president.”
…
Full-bloodedness is an old coin that’s gaining currency in the new American realm. Meaning: Politics may no longer be so much about race and gender as about heritage, core values, and made-in-America. Just as we once and still have a cultural divide in this country, we now have a patriot divide.
Maybe she’s just pro bigotry, and since it’s no longer acceptable, at least not in the Washington Post OP/Ed pages to call the President-Elect a n*gg*r (yet), she just needed someone else to hate.
It’s circular firing squad time, and unlike in 1964, there are no moderates left to target….
I’m going to get some popcorn.
*It was a typo, then I realized that I was funnier by accident than I was on purpose.
And quite honestly, any orgs that remain tied to him should be excluded from offices of political figures…..Here he calls Barack Obama an Uncle Tom on, of course, Fox news.
He may be the only person in Washington, DC more smarmily sanctimonious than Joe Lieberman.