Not-So Breitbart Just Keeps Turning Up...

...like a bad penny! Because when you don't have truth on your side, you fight by using lies.

Racial firestorm surrounds USDA employee's ouster

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that he would reconsider the department's decision to ask Shirley Sherrod to resign. Sherrod, the director of rural development in Georgia, was asked by department officials to leave her job on Monday after conservative bloggers posted an edited video of her saying that she initially didn't give a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years ago, when she was working for a nonprofit farm aid group.

Sherrod says the video distorted her full speech, which described how she came to realize the white farmer needed her help and which she says was intended to promote racial reconciliation.

...

The two-minute, 38-second clip posted Monday by BigGovernment.com was presented as evidence that the NAACP was hypocritical in its recent resolution condemning what it calls racist elements of the tea party movement. The website's owner, Andrew Breitbart, said the video shows the civil rights group condoning the same kind of racism it says it wants to erase. Biggovernment.com is the same outfit that gained fame last year after airing video of workers at the community group ACORN counseling actors posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend.

What I want to know, are the people who made this decision so stupid that they believe anything that comes out of Breitbart or any of his associates' mouths? Really? Because, if you have any sense you should never believe a liar. Once someone has lied to you, you can never believe anything they say ever again.

What progress we are making...

A hundred years ago, if you had told your average American that black people would have equal rights someday, they would have thought you quite mad. And if you had told them that a black man would be elected President of the United States, they'd have had you committed to a mental asylum for being completely off your rocker.

I hope that someday, whether it be a hundred years from now, or a thousand, that people look back on this age and consider it as barbaric as we consider the Medieval period. I hope that someday all people really are treated equally, and that there is no more hunger or homelessness in this world. It's a nice dream isn't it?

"What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books." --Sigmund Freud

Republicans are Racist Bastards (but we knew that)

Of course the Republicans are kicking and screaming over Sotomayor. It's not enough that she's a woman, but she's a Hispanic woman! The Republican reaction?

Republicans: Oh noes!!11!!1! The colored people are wanting equality again and are gaining important positions, even the Presidency! :'( Drat! Our evil scheme is coming undone...

So now they're saying that she's associated with an "extremist" group. Apparently if you're associated with a right-wing extremist group though it's not a problem, and how dare you say anything bad about them, especially if they're infiltrating our military. {/sarcasm}

At any rate, I hardly call the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund an extremist group. They're like the NAACP... but I suppose the Republicans don't have the cojones to call the NAACP an extremist group because they'd have Jesse Jackson protesting outside their offices. I guess the Hispanics are just a little too mellow for that.

Hispanic Rights Group at Center of Sotomayor Fight

Conservatives have called the group's stances on capital punishment and abortion rights, as well as its advocacy of affirmative action in worker discrimination cases, "extreme" and "shocking."...

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, used the word "extreme" to describe the PRLDEF's views on capital punishment and race...

So, what it boils down to is that this group supports rights for minorities and women, the enemies of the rich, white guys in the Republican party. Since the Republicans have no leg to stand on and nothing of substance to run on (and no brains I dare say either) they have to paint their enemies with the "terrorist brush." They basically have equated PRLDEF with extremists and terrorists in their opposition to Sotomayor. They did the same thing with Obama, so I suppose it should come no surprise to anyone that they should go as far as to paint Sotomayor with that same brush as well.

Racism in the 21st Century

Down here in south Texas we have a radio station (well, probably more than one) where the DJs are ignorant, stupid bastards. They play decent music some of the time, but I don't think I'll be listening to them any more. I think they must listen to right-wing talk radio in their off time, because back during the election they were allowing people on the air to propagate all the lies about Obama that were going around at the time, like he was Muslim and wasn't a citizen, etc. This isn't supposed to be a right-wing talk radio. It's supposed to play music from the "80's, 90's and today" but the DJs seem to like to inject their own political and religious persuations into what's supposed to just be music.

Now don't ask me why I continued to listen to the station after that. I guess because there just aren't any other stations that play music I like. Well from now on I'll go with the radio off before I listen to their stupid asses. The reason? Yesterday I read about some minority children that were asked by a private pool to leave. It sounded like they knew how many children there were, but when the members using the pool saw they were black and hispanic, they pulled their children out of the pool and went and complained. The people who ran the pool then refunded their money and asked them to never come back. They tried to say they didn't have the capacity to deal with that many kids. WHAT? You have got to be kidding me. I'm sure they knew how many kids were involved when they arranged for them to come. I'm sure the question was asked, "how many kids do you have?" I'll bet what wasn't asked was "what color are the kids?"

Now you may ask why I'm mad at the radio station? The DJs (who are white) dismissed this as being "overblown" and that there's no racism in the 21st century. Excuse me? I'm from western North Carolina, where there are still Klan up in the mountains. So what the fuck ever. You want to be so stupid and ignorant and think that, you can bite my ass. I know for a fact that country clubs discriminate against minorities, and find ways around laws so they don't have to accept minorities into them. So again, whatever. The DJs here are ignorant assholes and I pray they never know what it's like to be discriminated against. People are so quick to forget history. My mother, yes, my mother, went to a segregated school. She'll be sixty this year. That's not even very old. It wasn't even that long ago they were lynching black people in the south, in my mother's lifetime! And these DJs have the temerity, the cojones to dare to say that it's magically all gone? Fuck them.

You see, racism isn't gone. It's swept under the rug and that makes it more dangerous, because if we deny there's a problem, then there's never any justice. I believe there's an old adage, that sunlight is the best disinfectant. In 1955, when my mother was five years old, a fourteen year old boy by the name of Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman. His mother insisted on an open casket, so that the world might see the brutality of the killing. If we just sweep it all under the rug, if we don't take a stand and say, no, it's not right what you're doing, then we are just as guilty as the people who perpetrate the crime, whether it's discriminating from a job or beating someone or telling a group of elementary aged students they can't swim in the same pool as the rich white kids.

The greater crime here isn't the fact that the private pool kicked the poor minority kids out. The greater crime here is the ignorance that says there's not a problem.

Racism and the Grand Old Party

Okay, so not all Republicans are racist obviously. But for some strange reason, racists seem to flock to the party like geese to Canada in the summer. So it really comes as no surprise to me that a long time Republican activist, Rusty DePass of South Carolina, made the comment a few days ago that an escaped gorilla was one of Michelle Obama's ancestors. He then tried to cover his ass by saying that the First Lady had said herself that we were all descended from apes. Remember they hate evolution too. No one has found where the First Lady said this either, and I doubt that she said anything like it. And at any rate, in this case, this has nothing to do with evolution, but rather with a long standing tradition that black people are just one step above being a monkey, and are obviously not human.

This isn't the first time that rude, racist comments have been said, if you recall former Senator George Allen of Virginia, called a democrat volunteer of Indian descent "macaca" a clearly racist pejorative. He claimed he didn't know what it meant. Yeah right. At any rate, it destroyed his political career on the national stage. In the end he lost his seat, but not because he's a racist. Indeed, he was narrowly defeated by Webb who held a mere one third of one percent (0.3%) more votes than Allen. All of those people who voted for Allen didn't care that he was a racist, probably because most of them were racist as well.

Many people act like racism isn't a problem any more, that it's something that was a problem a long time ago but isn't now. Usually this view is espoused by the ones who are racist. They don't want a spotlight shown on their beliefs, so it serves them well if most people think that it really isn't a problem. Where I grew up in the south out in the countryside, there are still Klan. I knew plenty of people in high school who were virulently racist, and would say terrible things, like "the only good n____ is a dead n____." And they'd get away with saying things like that because the administration was probably racist too. I also recall a kid on the bus who told this other kid that there were probably black people in his family tree, and I remember the other kid getting really angry, and saying that there "ain't no n____ in my family!". He threatened to beat the kid up if he didn't take back the statement that he could have ancestors that were black. That was in the 90s, it hasn't been that long ago. These are things that I saw and heard first hand, so I know good and well the reality of it. And those people are still there, most of them have had a few children now, and are passing their hate on to them.

Right-Wing Extremists a danger? Really?

What was that a few months back, when the Justice Department caught hell for warning about right wing wackos? What was that? Oh yeah, looks like they were correct in their reasoning, obviously, as anyone with half a brain would realize. I wonder who was pissed about that assessment? Could it be the right-wing wackos who seem to always be ranting at the top of their lungs? Quite a few people owe Janet Napolitano an apology.

Alleged gunman charged in museum shooting

By BRETT ZONGKER and CALVIN WOODWARD

Security Guard Dies After DC Museum Shooting

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An 88-year-old white supremacist has been charged with murder for killing the security guard who had opened the door to let him into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum, officials said Thursday...

In his car, officers found a notebook with a handwritten note saying, "You want my weapons - this is how you'll get them. The Holocaust is a lie. Obama was created by Jews," according to a court affidavit...

This guy, James von Brunn, who murdered the guard, he was also ranting online about how Obama wasn't born here, following the usual right-wing diatribe bullshit. You know, just like what Faux News was saying. Same shit. I know where he gets his news from.

By the way, Stephen T. Johns and the other guards who stopped this ignorant, poor excuse for a human being, are heroes. If it hadn't been for them, countless other innocent people would have died.

Oh, and James von Brunn isn't alone. Just look at the white supremacist forums if you dare. I came across one by accident in a Google search of his name. They're lauding him as a hero. I don't know how such sorry excuses for life can sleep at night. They obviously have no empathy and no conscience. That's the mark of a serial killer, the mark of a despot. People who would kill other human beings and not feel any remorse whatsoever, I don't even have any words for that sorta crap.

They Don't Hate us for our Freedom

They hate us for our Corporatocracy, and the endless greed that goes with it.

Study: Poverty fueling Muslim tension with West

By DAVID STRINGER
Associated Press Writer
May 7, 1:51 PM EDT

LONDON (AP) -- Joblessness and poverty are a more potent source of tension between Muslims and wider European and U.S. society than religious differences, one of the first major studies of Muslim integration since the Sept. 11 terror attacks claimed on Thursday.

Attacks by Islamic extremists on the United States, and European capitals like Madrid and London, have sparked debate about whether a failure of Muslims to integrate into Western society has fueled extremism and created divisions between communities.

But a study of around 10,000 people in 27 countries by the Gallup polling company claims non-Muslims - including the public and lawmakers - have misunderstood the attitudes of Muslims in the West, stifling attempts to promote better understanding. Muslims in the West are more patriotic, more tolerant and more likely to reject violence than the rest of Western society believes they are, the study claims...

The study found that only 10 percent of British Muslims consider themselves integrated into British society, compared to 46 percent of French Muslims and 35 percent of German Muslims. Mogahed, an Egyptian-American Muslim, said unemployment and access to education were key factors in isolating Muslims in the West.

The study found that 38 percent of British Muslims said they had a job, lower than the figure for the British general public - 62 percent - and lower than Muslims in Germany or France, where 53 percent and 45 percent respectively said they were employed. Mogahed said that Muslims, particularly in Britain and France, feel marginalized because they have more difficulty finding jobs than non-Muslims, and typically have lower incomes.

"Economic integration may become more precarious in light of the current financial crisis affecting Europe," she said. Another key finding of the study was that that Muslims don't prioritize their faith over patriotism, Mogahed said.

The study found that 77 percent of British Muslims feel a strong sense of British identity, compared to 50 percent of the country's non-Muslims. In France, around half of Muslims and non-Muslims say they feel a strong sense of patriotism...

And this just goes into Muslims who live in the west. They're discriminated against and people assume that they're really terrorists in disguise. I once knew a girl, she was Muslim and had a small child who was about three. All of them were American Citizens. Her family ran a convenience store and one day she told me that this older man came into the store, and when he saw her in her headscarf and the child, he pointed at the toddler and said something to the effect of "He'll grow up to be a terrorist too." I was appalled that someone would assume that because of one's religious persuasions that that automatically makes them a terrorist. Excuse me, but the kid's three. You don't even know if he'll have strong religious beliefs when he grows up. It's absolute, unadulterated ignorance and racism/ethnocentrism, and there's no excuse for it. How can you talk about a toddler like that? How cruel and stupid do you have to be? Is it any wonder that they don't feel integrated into society?

I mean, if you see an Irish Catholic, do you call his kid a terrorist because of the IRA? They blew people up over religion. Do you automatically assume such a thing? Or does it really have more to do with race as to why Muslims get hated on? After all, the Irish guy is white. And don't try that whole "the Koran is different than the Bible" argument, because that's bullshit. Both books are full of barbarity and god righteously ordering the smiting of this or that group of people. Indeed, a portion of the Koran is a retelling of the Bible with the names spelled differently, but no one has a problem with the Bible. Even the Bible says that you should kill unbelievers. Where's the outrage over that?

"If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again." Deuteronomy 13:6-11

Indeed, Christianity itself has historically been a violent religion. Just look at the Inquisition or the pogroms against Jews.

People forget that there are crazies in all walks of life, and while religious convictions (of any type) can fuel that, there are plenty of people who are just plain fucking crazy, and religion has nothing to do with it. Luckily, I think the majority of people, regardless of their religion are basically good people.

When society starts demonizing an entire group of people because of their religion or ethnicity, bad things follow. All one must do is look at history to see this.

Civil War over Slave Gay Marriage

Because tearing the country apart over giving legal rights to other people is... is... wait. That's exactly what happened during the Civil War in the 19th century. Our ancestors tore this country apart over slavery, with half the country wishing to deny blacks the right to be free, to be considered human, instead of 3/5^ths of a person.

Fast forward 144 years and we have black people in DC up in arms, clamoring to deny others of their legal rights. They should be ashamed of themselves. This is a nation of laws, not a nation of religion. You don't like it, don't marry someone of the same sex. This isn't about what your sky god thinks or what you think he thinks. This is about same sex couples having legal rights provided by our secular government. If you don't like it, move to Saudi Arabia. Let me know how that whole theocracy thing works out for you, k?

Barry Warns of "Civil War" Over Gay Marriage

D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), the only council member to vote against the bill today to legalize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, predicted today there could be a "civil war" in the District if the Council decides to take up a broader gay marriage bill later this year.

"All hell is going to break lose," Barry said while speaking to reporters. "We may have a civil war. The black community is just adamant against this."

Barry made his remarks a few hours after a group of same-sex marriage opponents, led by black ministers, caused uproar in the Wilson Building after the Council voted 12 to 1 to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. They caused such a ruckus that security guards and police had to clear the hallway. The protesters shouted that council members who voted for the bill will face retribution at the polls.

Although he has been a longtime supporter of gay rights, Barry said he voted against the bill to satisfy his constituents in Southeast Washington.

"What you've got to understand is 98 percent of my constituents are black and we don't have but a handful of openly gay residents," Barry said. "Secondly, at least 70 percent of those who express themselves to me about this are opposed to anything dealing with this issue. The ministers think it is a sin, and I have to be sensitive to that."

But Barry said he disagrees with the ministers' antics today at the Wilson Building, saying the chaos "sets the movement back."

Oh, and by the way, the great irony of this, is that the Bible supports slavery too. Maybe those black people in DC should go back to being slaves since the Bible says it's okay. {/snark}

"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ." Ephesians 6:5

"All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered." 1 Timothy 6:1

BTW, I never thought I would quote the Catholic Encyclopedia in any seriousness, but you know, there is a time and a place for everything.

..."according to Greek law and usage, the slave was in a complete subjection to the will of his master, possessing no rights, even that of marriage."

So, there you have it. It is true. Humanity learns nothing from history.

Tom Tancredo and the Broken Window: A Tale from UNC-CH

Tancredo got run off from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, by a small, broken window pane. Apparently some students protested the fact that a Nazi-style club called "Youth for Western Civilization" invited him to come and give what amounts to a hate speech against illegal immigrants and their children receiving in-state tuition. You can see the video on the link to their site there. It's mostly boring, but worth watching I suppose, if only to see the persecution complex these people have.

Tancredo is an ass. He believes that immigrants should give up their culture, language and identity if they want to come live here and that they should forget their native language and speak English. Tom Tancredo, tu es un grand imbécile. Anyway, what makes this stupid and ironic, is that the first generation of his ancestors probably didn't do so. He isn't Native American, so I really don't know what his problem is. We are a nation of immigrants. Some of mine came here before there were laws concerning immigration, in 1638. The first generation of immigrants often don't learn the language, and they usually don't fully assimilate. It is possible, but not likely, unless they have means. The poor are typically disadvantaged in this area. They usually don't have the resources to spend on classes to learn English, nor do they have the time when they work to support themselves. The poor probably don't even have an education in their own language, so to expect them to learn English is a stretch, unless you're going to fund it, and help them with it. Now the second generation of immigrants are usually more at home here. Often by the third or fourth generation, they have no ties to the original country. As my father used to tell me, have some patience, things take time.


What this all boils down to is an underlying hatred of dark skinned people, or people of other religions. It used to be the Irish Catholics (no Irish need apply) that caught all sorts of discrimination when they immigrated here in the late 19th century, now it's mostly Catholic Hispanics from central and south America.

I am a firm supporter of education, and these people have already risked life itself in search of what we take for granted every day. I truly believe that this world would be a better place if people would put themselves into the shoes of others, if only for a moment, to think about the struggles they must have faced. To imagine for a moment, the shoe on the other foot. If a university wants to allow them to apply as residents because they have lived in the state for more than a year or for scholarships, they should let them. It should be up to the university, not up to racist demagogues.

Now, the protesters perhaps weren't as effective as they could have been. I'm assuming the window was broken on accident. It was reported that someone hit on it with their hand too hard, not that they threw anything through it. As much as it pains us, we have to let even racists bastards speak. Packing the room in silence wearing all black and carrying small signs would have gone further in my opinion.

As for the person who took the video comparing this to Kristallnacht. Shame on you, sir! Some stupid college student accidentally breaking a ten inch square window does not even begin to compare to thirty thousand Jews being rounded up and taken to concentration camps and having their property confiscated. And it's even more ironic that this person's organization promoting western "culture" rings of the rhetoric of the Hitler Youth. And their logo, an arm in black and white holding what looks like a war hammer, struck me as familiar in style and design. One of the Hitler Youth's flags was an eagle holding a hammer, also in black and white. Go figure. If that's the style they're going for, they've accomplished it.

As an aside, I'm from North Carolina. They don't mess around with racists down in Chapel Hill. Those of us from that area remember the race riots, and the Greensboro massacre. There's a ton of KKK and Christian Identity around there, who are violent and hate immigrants and blacks. All it takes is a single word to act as a spark to set everyone off. It's like screaming "FIRE" in a crowded theater. Tancredo should go and think hard on what he says. He should truly re-examine his life. I have an idea that he doesn't really believe what he says all that much, except that it wins him support and followers from the haters. If he truly was willing to fight for what he says he believes, a broken window wouldn't have deterred him.