Write to Marry Day!

Arguments in favor of California’s Proposition 8 are a fascinating study in hate apologetics.  Just as with the “life begins at conception” anti-choice movement or the pro-creationism lobby, from the start there is an intense pressure to hide the religious foundations beneath the nearest available logic-like substitute.  It comes down to an often hilarious yet very sobering look into the kind of people who think discrimination belongs in the California state constitution.

The favored defenses of institutionalized bigotry are:

Read More…

Posted under Culture, News, Politics, Religion, Sexuality

A plot to assassinate Obama was broken up by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. According to George Stephanopoulos’ Blog, the plot is not being treated as a serious threat:

An Obama aide tells ABC News that Secret Service headquarters “would be notified of anything that mentioned” Obama. But adds that “it never rose to any sort of serious level,” which explains why Obama’s personal detail was not notified.

Rather than explaining why the candidate’s detail was not notified, it raises questions about how seriously the government is pursuing these plots. Despite the FBI’s push to charge the Colorado Three, Troy Eid (a Rove Apppointee) dismissed the charges. This makes me wonder:

Is this administration — and particularly this Justice Department, as deeply compromised as it has become by the Bush White House’s crass politicization — capable of ensuring that true threats against Democratic figures like Obama are taken seriously and dealt with appropriately?

These men were found with firearms, and further investigation may lead to more charges. The Attorney General for Tennessee is Democrat Robert E. Cooper Jr, appointed in 2006. His office can be contacted here by phone.  It can’t hurt to encourage his office to take this threat with appropriate gravitas.

Posted under News, Politics

Via AP:

The ATF says it has broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree.

In court records unsealed Monday, agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target an unnamed but predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads.

No more details are available currently.  Lot’s of questions remain:

Are there any links between the neo-nazi’s and existing hate groups?  How many assasination plots are currently under investigation?  Would Sarah Palin consider these skinheads terrorists?

Posted under News, Politics

I received a chain letter recently, entitled “What if things were changed around …“, analyzing the insidious and implicit ways racism has shaped the race between Obama and McCain. However, limiting the comparison between these two candidates represents a terribly small spectrum in political discourse.  So below is the same comparison between Obama and Ralph Nader:

If Things Were Switched …

What if Obama hadn’t supported immunity for the Bush administration?

What if Nader’s top contributors had been Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Microsoft, JP Morgan, General Electric, and others?

What if Obama supported equal rights, instead of opposing gay marriage?

What if Nader proposed escalating U.S. war and occupation in Afghanistan?

What if Obama was demonized and criticized for demanding that the country could do better than George Bush and Al Gore?

What if Nader claimed to be a liberal while at the same time embracing the death penalty – even for those not guilty of murder?

What if Obama was a crusader against nuclear power and the corporate welfare nuclear energy industry?

What if Nader supported environmental degradation, such as the fallacious “Clean Coal” campaign?

What if Obama were white and had declared in a Black church, “Too many fathers also are missing… they have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men… You and I know how true this is in the African-American community.”

What if Nader had called for increasing George Bush’s federal faith-based funding, in violation of the separation of Church and State?

What if Obama wasn’t as eloquent, as good-looking, as athletic?

What if Nader had been allowed on the debate stage, alone – no wife, no children – a picture of professionalism and dedication to his life’s work that precluded having a family?

What if Obama had spent his life challenging, instead of joining, the political establishment in the U.S.?

What if Nader had used his office to support Joe Lieberman over anti-war Ned Lamont in 2006?

What if Obama was responsible for establishing standards for consumer protection, environmentalism, and civic life for the last 40+ years?

What if Nader’s political career was bolstered by folks like Tony Rezko and Richard Daley?

What if Obama had started the Citizen Advocacy Center, Citizens Utility Boards, Congress Accountability Project, Corporate Accountability Research Project, Disability Rights Center, Equal Justice Foundation, Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights, Center for Women’s Policy Studies, Clean Water Action Project, and many more?

What if Nader had broken a promise to reject private donors and campaign on public funding based on campaign finance reform?

What if Obama had taken on corporate interests in Washington,  and acknowledged the “one-sided class war” in this country, instead of being funded by huge corporate powers?

You could easily add to this list.  If this were a real democracy, do you really believe that the only two valid candidates would be members of the Democrat and Republican parties?

Racism is very real and degrades the fabric of our society.  But if racism was the only barrier to democratic leadership, surely Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney would be a much preferable candidate for progressive voters.  When our only real choice on election day is a candidate who embraces the escalation of foreign war and occupation, who has been bought and sold by corporations his entire career, who supports widespread use of the death penalty, who refuses to impeach or hold the Bush administration accountable; then maybe racism isn’t the biggest problem we face in this country today.

Educational Background:

Barack Obama:
Columbia University – B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard Law School- Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

vs.

Ralph Nader:
Princeton University – Magna Cum Laude in Public and International Affairs
Harvard Law School – Juris Doctor (J.D.)
University of Hartford - Professor of History and Government
American University Washington College of Law – Faculty Member
(Served in the U.S. Army)

Education isn’t everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world.

There has to be a reason that, in spite of the above, we are where we are today.  Racism is one of the keys.  Another is the fact that our politicians are bought and sold by corporate power, and money is everything.  Our government is up for grabs by the best spokesman who can convince us they offer change while maintaining the status quo at the same time.  Of course, there is a generous dosage of country-wide stupidity too.

Posted under Culture, Politics

The Weekly Standard is claiming no one ever said “Kill Him” in reference to Barack Obama.

If in point of fact that comment was directed at Ayers (tell me again whether McCain and Palin’s more ignorant supporters hold any difference between Ayers, Obama, liberals in general, or Democrats), it doesn’t explain this second remark (Times Tribune via Justice League):

There were no incendiary outbursts from the crowd about Mr. Obama during Mrs. Palin’s speech, as there have been during other recent McCain-Palin rallies.

However, someone did shout out, “Kill him!” during Republican congressional candidate Chris Hackett’s remarks before Mrs. Palin took the stage.

The outburst came during a round of booing from the crowd after Mr. Hackett said Mr. Obama should come to Pennsylvania and learn what the state’s values are.

The right is in full spin control mode on this.  Nothing upsets the right wing like being justifiably accused of terrorism (Orcinus).  John Leo writes:

A Huffington Post piece by one Jeffrey Feldman asked, “Is Palin Trying to Incite Violence against Obama?” ‘Two subheads in this piece were worse: “McCain Camps Talk ‘Character Assassination,’Supporters shout for real assassination” and “McCain Campaign Amplifies Violent Rhetoric. GOP Crowd Threaten Obama’s life.” Nothing like this happened. No crowd threatened Obama, or called for his assassination. Millbank’s article, the only primary source for “ugliness” at Palin’s speech did not report this, probably because these incendiary events occurred only in the minds of some liberal writers, not in the real world.

He uses the tried and true right wing method of tactical right wing bullshit: projection.  Thus far we have the Scranton threat, the Ayers-aimed threat, and the plot to assasinate Obama.  In the right wing world “Documented by the press” constitutes the imaginary.  Facts and Rationality fly out the window in the effort to make a point, which the Weekly Standard is only too happy to demonstrate with its attempt at balance:

The only nastiness I heard during the day was an outburst, apparently provoked by Obama supporters who wandered into the crowd outside just as I had to leave. I was too far away to hear the exact exchange, so I couldn’t write it up—although clearly such limitations don’t limit the MSMers who repeat the “kill him” myth—but others were closer and able to report on the friendly, tolerant rhetoric of the Left, whose members were calling McCain a “murderer.”

Obviously one can point out that in addition to calling Obama a murderer, the right has aggressively and falsely called him a baby killer.  But I don’t understand how calling a man a murderer, presumably for his role as a warmonger, is in any way equivalent to calling for a man’s assasination.

Its bullshit like this that feeds the fire of the violent right wing and seeks to muffle media coverage.

The question reporters ought to be asking to the campaign is why haven’t McCain and Palin made forceful statements against both the explicit violence and its implicit sources?  The Republicans should answer for relying on veiled nativist attacks and exploitation of eliminationist sentiment.

Posted under Politics

Barring another stolen election (ironic given the white noise being made about acorn), Barack Obama is heading towards a decisive victory in November.  The stakes are as high as the passion and personal investment being poured into both sides of this campaign.

While there has been much focus on both candidate’s pledges to fight foreign terrorism, right-wing domestic terrorism has remained off the campaign radar.  This is deeply problematic given the anticipated likelihood of an increase in anti-liberal, anti-gay, anti-women and anti-minority violence come November 5th.

The source of that violence comes from the level of legitimacy we afford the ignorant and hateful dehuminization of target groups.  The Republican party has straight up embraced the crazier elements in their ranks for fear of losing their last vital reserves of faithful supporters.  Faithful being an apt word to describe the sheer lack of knowledge or reason informing their tenous grasp of reality.

The following video comes by way of Majikthise and Dana Blankenhorn:

I think its safe to say this is not a group of voters the Obama campaign will win over.  It is however a group of people who should not be left to their insane notion that their ideas are even valid.  Leaving these views alone to fester leads to closed door decisions like the one to install a nativist on the Prince William County, Virginia Board of County Supervisors (Hatewatch).

The outpouring of hate is not hard to understand given the games the McCain campaign is playing (The Guardian):

The Republicans have played on those fears and prejudices extremely well over the past week or so, but with the escalating hatred and disturbing language that has been espoused by some of their supporters at recent Republican rallies it seems that even McCain – forced this weekend to backtrack and start telling people what a “decent, family man” Obama is – now realizes that they may have gone a step too far.

At the most recent rallies, Republican supporters have cried out “kill him!”, “bomb Obama!” and “terrorist” in reference to Obama. Shouts of “treason” and other racial epithets have also been hurled.

I don’t think there is any solid indication McCain’s campaign realizes they’ve gone to far.  I think they’ve simply locked up a section of the vote at the cost of future political stability, a price they are all too willing to pay.  So much so their slogan “Country First” takes on a whole new meaning.

What we need to do is smash the lies and reason-like-substitutes being pushed around as firmly as we can.  This level of willful ignorance and anger will only be exacerbated by a Democratic win.

Posted under Politics

Please take the time to watch the above video. It was taken at a McCain/Palin rally in Bethelem, PA. You can find similar videos of part one and part two of a rally in Strongsville, OH. They offer a glimpse into U.S. culture not covered by mainstream media (but should).

It would be impossible to deny that the vitriol of these supporters have not been increased by the recent shift of the McCain/Palin campaign to focus almost exclusively on Obama’s connection to Bill Ayers, the former Weatherman. Instead of even rhetorically addressing any issue or policy, the McCain/Palin campaign has gone for broke in their attempt to take the lead solely by making this association. Whether it works or not will likely decide the outcome of the race, but it has clearly exacerbated the overt hatred of these rally participants.

In the above video, Obama is being called a “Muslim” in a “terrorist cell”. In one of the videos from Ohio, a woman who refers to Obama as a “terrorist” has a child with her, who says, “You need gloves to touch him.” In another, a woman refuses to admit that she believes Obama is a terrorist, but he “has the bloodlines” for it. That such racism and repugnance exists in the United States is not a surprise; however, that it has revealed itself so publicly, so proudly, so defiantly in such a mainstream forum as a presidential campaign is especially disgusting. And very, very dangerous for the fabric of our society.

Particularly striking is the difference between rallies of the Democrat and Republican campaigns. Whereas one might be hesitant to proclaim fundamental differences between the people supporting either McCain or Obama, I have never seen participants of an Obama rally call for the death of McCain, or referring to him (or Republicans) as “terrorists”. Obama rally attendees do not refer to hecklers in their midst as “faggots”. Much can be criticized of Obama rallies (such as their lack of any real substance), but the sentiment is one of hope and positive change – raising Obama/Biden up as a turning point in U.S. politics. I believe that this sentiment is misplaced in the Democrat ticket, but the McCain/Palin platform has become about tearing down and demonizing their opponent. This is the current dichotomy of mainstream U.S. politics, and only one is going to win on election day. Despite either campaign being devoid of real solutions for national and global woes, one cannot help but desire that the campaign of hope beats out the campaign of hate.

Update (10/10 @ 10:45): Apparently even John McCain can’t control the hatred he’s stoked.  He’s being booed at his own rallies for suggesting Obama is “decent citizen”.  This can’t end well.

Posted under Culture, News, Politics

Last week, Louisiana state representative John LaBruzzo suggested that economic disparity and crisis might be lessened by the sterilization of the poor who, he must believe, are a burden on the U.S. economic system and should be scapegoated for a crisis of corporations.

LaBruzzo said he worries that people receiving government aid such as food stamps and publicly subsidized housing are reproducing at a faster rate than more affluent, better-educated people who presumably pay more tax revenue to the government. He said he is gathering statistics now.

Though it’s reported that the program LaBruzzo is considering might include vasectomies for men “to avoid charges of gender discrimination,” his primary target is women, to whom he would offer $1,000 to undergo tubal ligation. However:

It also could include tax incentives for college-educated, higher-income people to have more children, he said.

So it’s not fewer children he wants on behalf of North Americans, it’s less children born to poor women, primarily women of color. Bad economic policy is not an apt cover for this sort of discrimination.

Now, my point is not only to point fingers at this one guy. Taken from a response written by the Women’s Health and Justice Initiative and the New Orlean’s Women’s Health Clinic and posted at Elle, Phd, LaBruzzo’s plan is but one example of the injustices that spring from the overlapping ideologies and culturally integrated practices of: eugenics, reproductive violence, sterilization abuse, devaluation of poor women’s sexuality and motherhood (and fatherhood, I would add), and other classic -ism’s.

Even if sterilization is voluntary, POVERTY IS NOT! Poverty, economic insecurity, and lack of sustainable livelihood can cause a woman to consider this aggressive sterilization incentive a viable option.

LaBruzzo talks about poverty as though it were an infectious disease—a though poor people will eventually make everyone poor—rather than a condition people are condemned to by Louisiana’s lack of investment in education, employment, affordable housing, and quality health care programs, services, and resources…

We are basically witnessing a two front war against poor and working class black communities right now. On one hand, we have the Bush administration fighting to push an economic corporate welfare bailout plan to save Wall Street, and on the other, we have an elected official blaming the bodies and reproductive decisions of poor black women for the social conditions caused by corporate greed.

Read the whole thing.

Story via Womanist Musings.

Also, more on blaming people of color for the economic meltdown of late at Feministe.

Posted under Economy, Politics