Stop Glenn Beck

Image by The Rocketeer via Flickr

Here's a letter that I recieved from colorofchange.org. I usually don't print this but I feel it's extremely important that we all do our part to stop people on all sides from playing racial politics for the sake of either ratings or to advance a policy.

Dear friends,
As you may know, right-wing talk show hosts have been bringing race-based fear mongering into the mainstream, but FOX's Glenn Beck just took it to another level. On Tuesday, Beck said:

This president has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seated hatred for white people... this guy is, I believe, a racist.

It's part of a larger argument Beck has been making: that President Obama wants to serve the needs of Black communities at White people's expense. This kind of talk stirs up fear, hate, and it can lead to violence.
I've joined ColorOfChange.org's effort to stop Glenn Beck. ColorOfChange is already putting calls into Beck's advertisers, asking them if they want to be associated with this kind of racist hate and fear-mongering. When the advertisers see that tens of thousands of us are behind that question, I believe they'll move their advertising dollars elsewhere, and his show and platform will be history. Will you take a stand and be counted, and invite your friends and family to do the same? It takes just a moment:
http://www.colorofchange.org/beck/?id=2188-143376
Glenn Beck is appealing to the worst in America. Of course, some Americans refuse to accept the fact that our president is Black or the idea that he could truly serve all Americans. But the only way these views fade away is if they're not reinforced by mainstream society. Instead, folks like Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Rush Limbaugh are exploiting racism and race-based fear to bump their ratings, stirring up racial discord in the process.
The dangers of these tactics are real. We saw the same dynamic during the presidential race: By the end, the McCain/Palin campaign was unable to control the violent energy whipped up by their race-baiting. It resulted in an unprecedented number of threats on Obama's life, a rise in the number of hate groups, and an increase in the number of threats and crimes against immigrants and Black people.
FOX has a horrible track record on pushing racist propaganda, but Glenn Beck appears to be taking the network to an even lower standard. He's trying to divide and distract America when we should be coming together and talking about issues that really matter--like health care and the economy. The good news is that we have the power to stop this. All major media is funded by advertising. And advertisers care more than anything what consumers think. If we want to change what's happening and put an end to folks like Glenn Beck having a platform, we can do it. It's up to us, and it can start now. Please join me:
http://www.colorofchange.org/beck/?id=2188-143376
Thanks.
Here are some links to more info:
"Beck: Obama has 'exposed himself as a guy' with 'a deep seated hatred for white people'"
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907280008

"Glenn Beck: Obama agenda driven by 'reparations' and desire to 'settle old racial scores'"
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907230040

"MSNBC's Deutsch encourages viewers to demand advertisers on Beck's show spend money elsewhere"
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907290037

"On Television and Radio, Talk of Obama's Citizenship"
http://...com/mb467j

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Free Republic & the Obama Children

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

There's an article from Chris Parry the Vancouver Sun that's heating up the blogsphere http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Conservative+Free+Republic+blog+free+speech+flap+after+racial+slurs+directed+Obama+children/1782375/story.html. I don't think I can do it justice so I'll just put up part of the article.
"A typical street whore." "A bunch of ghetto thugs." "Ghetto street trash." "Wonder when she will get her first abortion."
These are a small selection of some of the racially-charged comments posted to the conservative 'Free Republic' blog Thursday, aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama's 11-year-old daughter Malia after she was photographed wearing a t-shirt with a peace sign on the front.
The thread was accompanied by a photo of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that featured the caption, "To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds."
Though this may sound like the sort of thing one might read on an Aryan Nation or white power website, they actually appeared on what is commonly considered one of the prime online locations for U.S. Conservative grassroots political discussion and organizing - and for a short time, the comments seemed to have the okay of site administrators.
Moderators of the blog left the comments - and commenters - in place until a complaint was lodged by a writer doing research on the conservative movement, almost a full day later.
A note on the front of the blog reads, "Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government," but one comment on the thread read, "This disgusting display makes me more and more eager for the revolution," while another read, "I never actually wnated [sic] to be a pistol before but..."
After attention from other blogs, the thread was suppressed and placed under review, but before long it was returned to the site intact, and attracted a new series of racial slurs when the original complaint email was posted publicly to the site, with the sender's email address intact.
"The writer has a point," wrote site owner Jim Thompson sarcastically. "We should steer clear of Obama's children. They can't help it if their old man is an American-hating Marxist pig."
"I agree Jim," wrote commenter, by the nickname NoobRep. "The kids didn't pick their commie pinko pansy of a father. Nor did they choose to be put into the spotlight. But Obama/Soetoro is fair game and so is his witch of a wife."

The response from Free Republic? Blame the reporter & liberals. This is from a thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2290929/posts from the Free Republic's web site:

"Freepers, get the word out loud and wide. The Vancouver Sun "journalist" Chris Parry that defamed Jim Robinson and FreeRepublic is none other than radical left blogger "Hollywoodoz" at the Daily Kos. In addition to writting for the Vancouver Sun, Chris is a frustrated and failed internet entrepreneur, having launched many websites and blogs, all of which have virtually no traffic, following, or success. Chris also writes movie reviews, though these are pretty lame.
Chris Parry actually advocated attacking "negros" and blaming the republicans for it. See this post at the Daily Kos by "hollywoodoz", who is in reality, as proven below Chris Parry of the Vancouver Sun. See it here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/9/10324/92702 This spells BUSH, CHENEY, BROWN. Now if this is not grounds for losing your job at the Vancouver Sun, I don't know what is."

The blog then goes on to list a bunch of news media contacts so that they can make their case that they're being set up. In order to believe their excuses, you would have to believe that all of those racist quotes came from one person masquerading as many people. You'd also have to believe that they're really not racist people, even though they took the offending thread down & then put it back up.
Basically, they kept their offending conversation until they got busted for it. Then, they figured they'd put it back up once the smoke cleared except that they got busted again. It's unfortunate that some conservatives have gotten to the point where they can feel free to spew their racist vile. It's a trend I've been noticing for a couple of years now. Racism's bad enough. However, when you bring a person's young kids into the mix, you've completely crossed the line.

The Sotomayor Hearings

Image via Wikipedia

This week, the Senate Juditiary Committee will begin the confirmation hearings to appoint Judge Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here are the two things that you can basically expect:
1. A LOT of long winded speeches disguised as questions. Senators have a time limit & expect them to use ALL of it.
2. Republicans to try to tarnish Judge Sotomayor's reputation. This is the part I find funny. If you speak about how proud you are of your race, you are accused of being racist. If Justice Scalia decided to speak about how proud he is of being Italian, I wonder how many people would complain? Actually, a lot of people.
Racial politics is a blood sport. These hearings will just take it to another level. The republicans even have one of the white fire fighters who won an appeal on a case that Judge Sotomayor was judging testifying against her. That's the first time I've ever heard that being done.
Republicans will use these hearings as part of their Party of No strategy. They will twist every word that Judge Sotomayor has ever written or said to their advantage. Their reason is simple & twofold. First, it's payback to the democrats for all of the justices that George W. Bush nominated & the democrats tried to disgrace. Second, this is the republicans' only option because they don't have the votes to stop the judge's confirmation.
If you enjoy a lot of blowhards bickering with each other & destroying someone's reputation, then this is definitely your week. You hear Sotomayor explain "wise latina woman" so many times, it'll make your ears bleed. It'll keep the cable "news" networks busy & talking about something other than Michael Jackson FINALLY. It'll keep every so-called expert employeed for another week. In the end, though, she'll be nominated unless she didn't pay her social security taxes or something stupid like that. Personally, I think we'd all be better off with a steel cage grudge match between her & the republican senators. My money's on Sotomayor.

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