Right-Wing Christians Put Out Their Top-10 Favorite Racist Attacks on Obama (VIDEO)

 Right-Wing Christians Put Out Their Top-10 Favorite Racist Attacks on Obama (VIDEO)

November 24, 2013 | Filed under: Barack Obama,Racial Issues,Videos | Posted by: Mindy Fischer

The outright hatred for President Obama by right-wing groups who call themselves Christians and Patriots is just astounding. This website called “Americans Who Hate Obama” is one of many that proudly displays their racism and bigotry. Americans Who Hate Obama has put out a video with their top 10 favorite racist attacks on Obama.
This video proudly features things like calling the Obamas monkeys, terrorist Muslims, non-Americans, incompetent, and fried chicken and watermelon devouring negros.
It also features many unbelievably offensive slurs and signs. One says, “Send Obama back to the jungles of Kenya.” Another reads, “Don’t Re-Nig in 2012.” A girl shows off her new t-shirt that says, “Obama is my Slave.”
But, perhaps the most disturbing things in this clip are the pictures of nooses, including one with Obama literally hanging by a noose.

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Ex-Generals Say President Obama Must be Forced to Resign

Ex-Generals Say President Obama Must be Forced to Resign

By: Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Monday, November, 25th, 2013, 7:46 am

Traitors Paul E. Vallely and Charles Jones

World Net Daily yesterday celebrated the idea that the time has come for the U.S. military to step in and force Obama to resign, a poll showing that 79 percent (822 votes) feel that the military should “Court martial our commander in chief for treason against our nation and its defense.” And WND managed to do it without ever once mentioning that the whole idea of a military coup – which is what they’re talking about – is unconstitutional. Or that there is something inherently creepy and banana republic-like about ex-generals keeping an eye on a twice legally elected president:

After one of them called for the “forced resignations” of President Obama and congressional leaders in response to multiple grievances, including the alleged political purge of hundreds of senior military officers, two retired U.S. generals are creating a citizens’ commission to scrutinize Obama administration actions on national security and economic issues.
“America’s Provisional Leadership Council” will look at major concerns, as outlined by Army Gen. Paul E. Vallely and Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles Jones, in an eight-point paper titled “The Americans Project.”
…
In calling for the forced resignations of Obama and the leadership of Congress, Vallely outlined suggestions for nationwide rallies and said a peaceful “civil uprising is still not out of question.”

You might be interested to know that Vallely, an Islamophobe, is senior military analyst for Fox News and that Jones, an apparently VERY angry old white man, wrote an open letter in support of birther Orly Taitz, claiming that the president was “possibly [a] citizen of Kenya.”
We are told that “In their paper, Vallely and Jones call for adherence to the Constitution with strict congressional oversight of all executive actions.”
What a great idea for saving our Constitution! Except…
NOTHING in the United States Constitution provides for using force to terminate a presidency. NOTHING. Yet the claim made here is that this would be done in order to protect the Constitution. Yes, protect the Constitution by violating it.
Interesting concept. Something that would make sense only to a tea party mind.
It’s kinda funny too, in a way, in that these generals are angry at Obama for “forcing resignations.” Did they forget their oath? Did they forget that the U.S. president is the “commander-in-chief”?

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States….
ARTICLE II, SECTION 2, CLAUSE 1

Did they forget that the president was legally elected according to the Constitution and that neither a military coup nor leading a civilian uprising would not be in accord with the Constitution they swore to uphold?

“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.” (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).

This is Vallely back in 2010 telling a bunch of Republicans in Virginia City, Montana, about his plans:


Perhaps he doesn’t remember the significance of the oaths he is talking about here? Is it possible he does not see that violating the Constitution does not protect the Constitution?

The current crop of leaders, he said, must face a “demand resignation” process, which he explained requires massive grassroots protests and social networking which he envisions can be undertaken through his organization. And example of a “forced resignation,” he said, was that of President Richard Nixon.
“Our federal government continues down the path of destroying America,” Vallely said. “Americans must now stand up and put America back on the right track.”
…
Vallely and Jones in their paper say “The Americans” leadership has developed workable solutions to “help solve and fix what has without question stunted our nation’s ability to clearly, legally and peacefully function as a constitutional republic.”

Never mind that Nixon – who, unlike Obama, actually did something wrong – was not forced to resign – he chose to resign rather than face impeachment.
Vallely, if he really cares about this country, should be pointing the finger at the tea party anarchists in the House of Representatives, at the Citizens United ruling, and at a host of other problems that can be laid at the door of Republican ideology and governance from 2001-2008.
Republicans really can’t get over the fact that Americans have rejected them – twice, and that their brief tea party resurgence in 2010 did not imply that President Obama relinquish his role as president to a small band of lunatics in the House of Representatives. It did not alter Democratic control of the Senate. The Constitution did not change in 2010 from what it was in 2008. Barack Obama is still the president of the United States. He was re-elected president of the United States by 5 million votes in 2012.
Recent elections and polls show support for the Republican and tea parties to be at an all-time low. Deadly diseases are more popular than the Republicans in Congress.
What part of this do you treasonous clowns not get?
You can stomp your little feet if you want, sure. You can rant and rave, which is something you have shown us all you love to do. But you don’t get to shut down the government because you don’t like how America voted. How is that patriotic – or constitutional? And you certainly don’t get to impeach the president simply because you don’t like him, and what in the world gives you the idea that the military can remove a legally elected president because you don’t like the results of an election?
Don’t even pretend that you are doing this for us. What you want has nothing to do with what polls and elections show the American people want. Don’t even pretend you are doing this to protect the Constitution. Neither is true.
You are conservative reactionaries. You are doing this for yourselves, because you don’t like the fact that we as a culture have moved on, that the American people are no longer interested in what you have to offer. You ran our country into the ground and we aren’t going to let you do it again.
Not on our watches. Government OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people. It is no more government of, by, and for the military than it is of, by and for the corporations or of, by, and for God.
If you don’t like the results of the last election, win the next election if you can, a possibility that is daily – thanks to your own insane behavior and ideas and actions – becoming more remote.

Ex-Generals Say President Obama Must be Forced to Resign was written by Hrafnkell Haraldsson for PoliticusUSA.

© PoliticusUSA, Mon, Nov 25th, 2013 — All Rights Reserved
 

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Survey: Low IQ Leads To Racism And Extreme Conservatism

By Maeby Gever on November 24, 2013

 Studies correlate low IQ with rabidly racist and right-wing views.

Studies correlate low IQ with rabidly racist and right-wing views

Does talking to a Teabully leave you asking: What’s wrong with this person? Do Teabully posts and memes make you wonder if people, who believe those things, could be cray-cray?   Take heart! A 2012 Canadian study suggests conservatives with racist and extreme views just might be born that way.

Psychology Today featured psychologists Gordon Hodson and Michael A. Busseri’s findings in its April 22 issue. Hodson and Busseri work at Borck University in St. Catherine’s, Ontario, Canada. They concluded the following:

Lower intelligence in childhood  is predictive of greater racism in adulthood, with this effect being mediated (partially explained) through conservative ideology.

and

Poor abstract reasoning skills were related to homophobic attitudes which was mediated through authoritarianism and low levels of intergroup contact.

and

For those who lack a cognitive ability to grasp complexities of our world, strict-right wing ideologies may be more appealing.” and “people with less cognitive capacity will be attracted to simplifying ideologies.

According to University of Virginia psychologist Brian Nosek:

Reality is complicated and messy…Ideologies get rid of the messiness and impose a simpler solution. So, it may not be surprising that people with less cognitive capacity will be attracted to simplifying ideologies.

And the studies making the connections to low IQ and to the racists and far right wing views–that seem to be at the root of the views expressed by the GOP/Teabully party of today–go back to 1970 and to 1958. Psychological studies have also linked a Conservative political point of view to an authoritarian upbringing.


Psychological studies have longed linked the appeal to political points of view, such as Fascism, to an authoritarian upbringing.  For a refresher course on “Isms,” grab the free downloadable primer available at LiberalAmerica.org.

The current rise of the Christian Right embedding itself into the present GOP/Teabully Party is proof that there’s a link between authoritarianism and these political points of view. The “Christian Fundamentalist Nation,” of which Teabullies dream, has been referred to as an ideology that is:

A form of debilitating shortsightedness. It replaces reality with an idealized version that usually has too little to do with the real world to be workable.

We should be careful not to conclude all liberals are smart and all right-wing conservative/Teabully types are stupid.  And, we must also be careful not take IQ tests at face value. They’ve long been suspected of being culturally biased. But, the studies connecting low IQs to racist, homophobic, bigoted, and conservative thinking are there.

Conservative Teabully types will no doubt scream and stomp, yelling, “Liberal bias!” That, of course, wouldn’t be surprising. They deny facts and have very little interest in science. But, like the Affordable Care Act and other legislation about which John Boehner’s GOP/Teabully House of Representatives whines, why bother?  It’s too hard, and reading is for Liberals.
About the Author:
Maeby Gever (45 Articles)I am the voice of my human parents. Dad, 58, mom 56, both retired lawyers. Dad worked privately as a personal injury lawyer in the Philadelphia, PA area before retirement. He has a BA in Political Science, a Masters in Secondary Social Studies Education and he did some public school teaching before retiring again. Mom also has a BA in Political Science and she spent her entire 33 year career working as an attorney for a US Defense Department Agency located in Philadelphia, PA. She spent the last four years of her career as the Chief Counsel. She retired in April of this year. I have two human brothers, both Graduates of the George Washington University. My older human brother is working his way up in Airport Management at the Philadelphia International Airport. My younger human brother is a Peace Corps veteran.

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Christian Patriots Calling For Assassination Of Obama And A New Revolution

  

by: Mindy Fischer

 November 24, 2013

There are right-wing Christian groups popping up all over the country who are determined to remove or kill President Obama. They all seem to have a few things in common. First, they all believe that God is guiding them to do this. They all also believe that they have the right to start a revolution, and that they have a duty under the Constitution to forcefully remove Obama. And they all believe that they will be protected by their beloved 2nd Amendment.
The fact that all of these groups interconnect in some way, makes you wonder if this movement isn’t more organized than we originally thought.
Larry Klayman and his followers are so certain that they can remove or kill Obama and his administration, that he has already planned out and organized a second Constitutional Congress to take over. Klayman has organized what he calls, a “Second American Revolution.”
Klayman told WorldNetDaily that, “the tyrant evil fool in the White House will retire to his favorite golf course in Tehran.” He explained that after his Reclaim America Now group was done removing the “Mullah in Chief” at the White House, they were moving on to Philadelphia where,

“Delegates of the Tea Party and other patriots from all 50 states will deliberate, plan for the rest of the revolution, and elect a government in waiting, ethically and competent poised to take over the reigns (sic) of a real government responsible to the people.
I command you to join our forces. The time has come for action. The time is over for talk.”

Klayman has been telling anyone who would listen that he and his forces of millions would overthrow Obama by on November 19. He swore that the pressure of the millions demanding forceful removal of the POTUS, would cause Obama and his family to flee and leave the country.
Well, to spite all of the hate-filled rhetoric and promises, the big Reclaim America Now rally actually drew far less that millions. We could probably easier count them by the dozens.
But here’s the really concerning thing about this, Larry Klayman is not a lone lunatic for this cause. There are many people and organizations popping up all over the country with the sole intent of removing or killing President Obama. Most of them call themselves Christians and Patriots and they all believe that they have the legal right and duty under the 2nd Amendment to kill or violently remove Obama.
Another of these extremist Christian groups who supports forcibly removing the President is the “2 Million Bikers to D.C.” The group’s coordinator, Belinda Bee, spoke to the less-than-massive crowd at the rally at the White House on November 19.

“Our mission statement starts off with: We at the 2 Million Bikers to D.C. do believe in God, Country, Our Constitution, and Our Bill of Rights- as written. That means there should not be change. We don’t care about all of those Bill of Rights that came after the original. We are one nation under God, and without God, we are not Americans.”

Seriously, these people claim to be Christians, and absolutely freak out when anyone dare call them racists or sexist. But then they make this insane demand that only the original Bill of Rights should be recognized. This means that any Amendments that came after the original would be null and void. Yeah, no big deal there….except that it would remove Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, the ability to elect Senators, and bring back poll taxes. And ironically, it would also remove Presidential term limits. Third term for the Black Zulu Kenyan anyone??
The editor at WorldNetDaily, Joseph Farah, said he was so inspired by Larry Klayman’s rally on November 19, and he believes it will launch a whole anti-Obama movement. Farah is also a big supporter of the 2nd American Revolution, and the forceful overtaking of the government.
Farah wrote Friday,

“America is nearing the point of no return- a historic moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point. The only thing that can stop it is a massive outpouring of strength and force by the remnant of Americans who will dare, as America’s founders did, to sacrifice their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to preserve and restore liberty, morality, and common sense no matter the cost.
It’s time. The hour is late. Get mobilized. Be ready!”

The group Christian American Patriots Militia is another place for right-wing nut-jobs to congregate. The moderator of their Facebook page, Everest Wilhelmsen, wrote a frightening post on the day Klayman gathered at the White House. He called for the assassination of Obama outright. He wrote that we, “now have the authority to shoot Obama, i.e. to kill him.”
This group is calling for a violent removal of the President using deadly force. Whilhelmsen promised that Obama will be “dead within the month.” He also told his group that Christians have the right and duty to bear arms against any government having a design to reduce us under absolute Despotism.”

 

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Up Close With Small-Town White Male Rage

Up Close With Small-Town White Male Rage

By Michael Kimmel

 

Explaining the phenomenon of the bitter, scary men who feel left behind by economic and cultural change.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/PhotosbyAndy

November 20, 2013  |  

 

The following is an excerpt fromAngry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era, by Michael Kimmel (Nation Books, 2013). 

Who are the white supremacists? There has been no formal survey, for obvious reasons, but there are several noticeable patterns. Geographically, they come from America’s heartland—small towns, rural cities, swelling suburban sprawl outside larger Sunbelt cities. These aren’t the prosperous towns, but the single-story working-class exurbs that stretch for what feels like forever in the corridor between Long Beach and San Diego (not the San Fernando Valley), or along the southern tier of Pennsylvania, or spread all through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, across the vast high plains of eastern Washington and Oregon, through Idaho and Montana. There are plenty in the declining cities of the Rust Belt, in Dearborn and Flint, Buffalo and Milwaukee, in the bars that remain in the shadows of the hulking deserted factories that once were America’s manufacturing centers. And that doesn’t even touch the former states of the Confederacy, where flying the Confederate flag is a culturally approved symbol of “southern pride”—in the same way that wearing a swastika would be a symbol of German “heritage” (except it’s illegal in Germany to wear a swastika).
There’s a large rural component. Although “the spread of far-right groups over the last decade has not been limited to rural areas alone,” writes Osha Gray Davidson, “the social and economic unraveling of rural communities—especially in the midwest—has provided far-right groups with new audiences for their messages of hate. Some of these groups have enjoyed considerable success in their rural campaign.” For many farmers facing foreclosures, the Far Right promises to help them save their land have been appealing, offering farmers various schemes and legal maneuvers to help prevent foreclosures, blaming the farmers’ troubles on Jewish bankers and the one-world government. “As rural communities started to collapse,” Davidson writes, the Far Right “could be seen at farm auctions comforting families...confirming what rural people knew to be true: that their livelihoods, their families, their communities—their very lives—were falling apart.” In stark contrast to the government indifference encountered by rural Americans, a range of Far Right groups, most recently the militias, have seemingly provided support, community, and answers.
In that sense, the contemporary militias and other white supremacist groups are following in the footsteps of the Ku Klux Klan, the Posse Comitatus, and other Far Right patriot groups who recruited members in rural America throughout the 1980s. They tap into a long history of racial and ethnic paranoia in rural America, as well as an equally long tradition of collective local action and vigilante justice. There remains a widespread notion that “Jews, African-Americans, and other minority-group members ‘do not entirely belong,’” which may, in part, “be responsible for rural people’s easy acceptance of the far right’s agenda of hate,” writes Matthew Snipp. “The far right didn’t create bigotry in the Midwest; it didn’t need to,” Davidson concludes. “It merely had to tap into the existing undercurrent of prejudice once this had been inflamed by widespread economic failure and social discontent.”

And many have moved from their deindustrializing cities, foreclosed suburban tracts, and wasted farmlands to smaller rural areas because they seek the companionship of like-minded fellows, in relatively remote areas far from large numbers of nonwhites and Jews and where they can organize, train, and build protective fortresses. Many groups have established refuge in rural communities, where they can practice military tactics, stockpile food and weapons, hone their survivalist skills, and become self-sufficient in preparation for Armageddon, the final race war, or whatever cataclysm they envision. Think of it as the twenty-first-century version of postwar suburban “white flight”—but on steroids.

They’re certainly Christian, but not just any Christian—they’re evangelical Protestant, Pentacostalist, and members of radical sects that preach racial purity as the Word of Jesus. (Catholicism is certainly stocked with conservatives on social issues, but white supremacists tap into such a long and ignoble tradition of anti-Catholicism that they tend to have their own right-wing organizations, mostly fighting against women’s rights and gay rights.) Some belong to churches like the Christian Identity Church, which gained a foothold on the Far Right in the early 1980s. Christian Identity’s focus on racism and anti-Semitism provides the theological underpinnings to the shift from a more “traditional agrarian protest” to paramilitarism. It is from the Christian Identity movement that the Far Right gets its theological claims that Adam is the ancestor of the Caucasian race, whereas non-whites are pre-Adamic “mud people,” without souls, and Jews are the children of Satan. According to this doctrine, Jesus was not Jewish and not from the Middle East; actually, he was northern European, his Second Coming is close at hand, and followers can hasten the apocalypse. It is the birthright of Anglo-Saxons to establish God’s kingdom on earth; America’s and Britain’s “birthright is to be the wealthiest, most powerful nations on earth...able, by divine right, to dominate and colonize the world.”
A large proportion of the extreme right wing are military veterans. Several leaders served in Vietnam and were shocked at the national disgust that greeted them as they returned home after that debacle. “America’s failure to win that war was a truly profound blow,” writes William J. Gibson. “If Americans were no longer winners, then who were they?” Some veterans believed they were sold out by the government, caving in to effeminate cowardly protesters; they can no longer trust the government to fight for what is right. Bo Gritz, a former Green Beret in Vietnam, returned to Southeast Asia several times in clandestine missions to search for prisoners of war and was the real-life basis for the film "Rambo". He uses his military heroism to increase his credibility among potential recruits; one brochure describes him as “this country’s most decorated Vietnam veteran” who “killed some 400 Communists in his illustrious military career.” In 1993 Gritz began a traveling SPIKE (Specially Prepared Individuals for Key Events) training program, a rigorous survival course in paramilitary techniques.
Many of the younger guys are veterans of the first Gulf War, a war that they came to believe was fought for no moral principles at all, but simply to make America’s oil supply safer and to protect Israel from possible Arab attack. They feel they’ve been used, pawns in a larger political game, serving their country honorably only to be spit out and stepped on when they returned home to slashed veteran benefits, bureaucratic indifference to post-traumatic stress disorder, and general social contempt for having fought in the war in the first place. They believed they were entitled to be hailed as heroes, as had earlier generations of American veterans, not to be scorned as outcasts. Now a guy like Bo Gritz symbolizes “true” warrior-style masculinity, and reclaiming their manhood is the reward for signing up with the Far Right.
The Class Origins of Racial Politics
Perhaps what binds them all together, though, is class. Rural or small town, urban or suburban, the extreme Right is populated by downwardly mobile, lower-middle-class white men. All of the men I interviewed—all—fitted this class profile. When I compared with other ethnographies and other surveys, they all had the same profile as well.
In the United States, class is often a proxy for race. When politicians speak of the “urban poor,” we know it’s a code for black people. When they talk about “welfare queens,” we know the race of that woman driving the late-model Cadillac. In polite society, racism remains hidden behind a screen spelled CLASS.
On the extreme Right, by contrast, race is a proxy for class. Among the white supremacists, when they speak of race consciousness, defending white people, protesting for equal rights for white people, they actually don’t mean all white people. They don’t mean Wall Street bankers and lawyers, though they are pretty much entirely white and male. They don’t mean white male doctors, or lawyers, or architects, or even engineers. They don’t mean the legions of young white hipster guys, or computer geeks flocking to the Silicon Valley, or the legions of white preppies in their boat shoes and seersucker jackets “interning” at white-shoe law firms in major cities. Not at all. They mean middle- and working-class white people. Race consciousness is actually class consciousness without actually having to “see” class. “Race blindness” leads working-class people to turn right; if they did see class, they’d turn left and make common cause with different races in the same economic class.
That’s certainly what I found among them. Most are in their midthirties to early forties, educated at least through high school and often beyond. (The average age of the guys I talked with was thirty-six.) They are the sons of skilled workers in industries like textiles and tobacco, the sons of the owners of small farms, shops, and grocery stores. Buffeted by global political and economic forces, the sons have inherited little of their fathers’ legacies. The family farms have been lost to foreclosure, the small shops squeezed out by Walmarts and malls. These young men face a spiral of downward mobility and economic uncertainty. They complain that they are squeezed between the omnivorous jaws of global capital concentration and a federal bureaucracy that is at best indifferent to their plight and at worst complicit in their demise.
And they’re right. It is the lower middle class—that strata of independent farmers, small shopkeepers, craft and highly skilled workers, and small-scale entrepreneurs—that has been hit hardest by globalization. “Western industry has displaced traditional crafts—female as well as male—and large-scale multinational-controlled agriculture has downgraded the independent farmer to the status of hired hand,” writes journalist Barbara Ehrenreich. This has resulted in massive male displacement—migration, downward mobility. It has been felt the most not by the adult men who were the tradesmen, shopkeepers, and skilled workers, but by their sons, by the young men whose inheritance has been seemingly stolen from them. They feel entitled and deprived—and furious. These angry young men are the foot soldiers of the armies of rage that have sprung up around the world.
Printed with permission from Nation Books, a member of The Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2013.

Michael Kimmel is among the leading researchers and writers on men and masculinity in the world today. The author or editor of more than twenty volumes, his books include Changing Men: New Directions in Research on Men and Masculinity (1987), Men Confront Pornography (1990), The Politics of Manhood (1996), The Gender of Desire (2005) and The History of Men (2005).

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Anonymous Hacks Neo-Nazi Website, Finds Ron Paul Connection

November 18, 2013 | Filed under: Right wing hatred | Posted by: Kimberley Johnson

 

Internet hactivist group “Anonymous” broke into the white supremacist website America Third Position (A3P) and found more than they bargained for. In the document dump that consisted of private forum messages, emails, organizational notes and other personal information, they found connections with former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.
The documents revealed Paul held meetings with the group and regularly met with many A3P members, engaged in conference calls with their board of directors and participated in a “bridging tactic” between A3P and the Ron Paul Revolution. Not surprisingly, A3P is heavily involved in campaigning for Paul. Also revealed, Paul met with Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party — the UK fascist group with neo-Nazi roots.
Live Leaks reported:
“Other excerpts show A3P webmaster Jamie Kelso (whose email account was one hacked by the collective) coordinating meetings between Paul and other members of A3P such as corporate lawyer and chairman of the neo-Nazi group Paul (sic). ‘I’m going to go to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with Bill Johnson,’ reads an email to an A3P member dated January 2011. ‘Bill and I will be meeting with Ron and Ran Paul. I have a teleconference call with Bill (and Ron Paul) tonight. Much more later. Things are starting to happen (thanks to folks like you).’ In another passage, Kelso, a former Scientologist and account owner of other German Nazi forums, wrote: “I’ll be at CPAC from Feb. 9 to Feb 12. I’ll send back reports to you from personal meetings with Ron Paul, newly-elected Senator Rand Paul and many others. It’ll be here on WhiteNewsNow, a place that is really starting to get interesting because of the presence of folks like you. Birds of a feather flock together, and we are really gathering some quality here.”’
Paul denies the connection. Paul also denied authoring a series of racist newsletters, despite confirmation from his staff that he signed off on every detail.

---

Kimberley A. Johnson (BIO) is the author of The Virgin Diaries and an activist for women’s rights. Like her on Facebook, Twitter or follow her on FB HERE.

 

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Anti-Obama ‘Revolution’ Fizzles As Only About 100 People Attend

Author: Wes Williams November 19, 2013 5:22 pm

 

Radical Obama-hater Larry Klayman called for a revolution
to remove the president. That revolution started today,
and drew about 100 people. – From Right Wing Watch

What if you gave a revolution and (almost) nobody showed up? That’s the question that deranged Obama opponent Larry Klayman has to answer now.
In October, Klayman called upon “millions of Americans” to march on Washington, D.C. The goal? To remove “usurper” President Obama from office. Today, November 19, 2013, is the date Larry Klayman picked for his “revolution.” Did the millions he forecast to descend upon the city arrive in planes, trains, and automobiles? Are the Obama’s hastily packing and preparing to sneak out of the White House under cover of darkness? Hardly. Larry Klayman’s revolution was not quite what he predicted it would be. Right Wing Watch estimates that “no more than a hundred people” attended today’s event.

So, who is Larry Klayman?

In case his total lack of relevance has caused you to forget, Larry Klayman is a lawyer and founder of the groups Freedom Watch, and Judicial Watch. He is also a columnist at the unhinged anti-Obama site World Net Daily. Klayman has been on a personal anti-Obama jihad for some time. In 2012 he claimed that the president had been indicted by a “citizens’ grand jury.” It seems to be of little concern to Klayman that his citizens’ grand jury was not approved by the courts, and therefore is a total sham.

The revolution starts…now?

The right wing site BizPac Review proclaims “Over 40 groups converge on WH to ‘Reclaim America’; MSM ignores.” Over 40 groups? Let’s see…100 divided by 40 is… Apparently those groups didn’t get the memo that they were supposed to bring more than just their officers. And regarding the mainstream media “ignoring” the event? A few years ago I stood on the steps of the Capitol and watched a similar sized group protesting infant circumcision. The media didn’t cover that one, either.
Another site sympathetic to Klayman, FreedomOutpost.com, offers a list of 32 speakers who were scheduled for the event. The list includes former Congressman Bob Barr, Alan Keyes — the man who was beaten by President Obama for the U.S. Senate, anti-Muslim fanatic Pamela Geller, and singer Pat Boone. The site also offers a live video feed of the event. As of 2:30 PM EST the feed says “off air.” Instead of a live broadcast we are treated to a replay of 13:27 seconds of the event, which may have actually been the sum total of the whole affair.

Larry Klayman revolutionaries prepared to wait it out.

Larry Klayman originally said that his intent was to stay in Washington until the president resigns or is forced from power by the military. Those plans may have changed following the turnout in the high two figures. If Klayman and his group still plan on camping out until the president leaves office, they need to be settled in for the long haul, since that will occur on January 20, 2017. One word of advice to this tiny band of revolutionaries: there are squirrels in Washington, and this time of year, they are looking for nuts.
There are some images from the revolution you can see on Right Wing Watch.

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This Is How Right-Wing Media Start Their Inevitable Race-Baiting Of Certain Presidential Nominees

Blog ››› November 15, 2013 4:56 PM EST ››› SERGIO MUNOZ 

 

Immediately after President Barack Obama nominated the highly-qualified and widely respected Debo Adegbile to be the next assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice, right-wing media attacked this top lawyer of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund for purportedly being a "racialist."
Writing on an obscure right-wing blog, J. Christian Adams, a frequent Fox News guest who served in the highly politicized and disgraced Bush-era DOJ and "whose claim to fame as a federal lawyer seems to be his penchant for accusing black people of discriminating against whites," accused Adegbile of "racialis[m]" and the venerable NAACP Legal Defense Fund of a "radical racial agenda." From a November 14 post on Pajamas Media:

Adegbile hails from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, an organization that has pushed a radical racial agenda including attacks on election integrity measures, opposition to criminal background checks for hiring, and racial hiring quotas for state and local governments.
[...]
Adegbile's name was mentioned as a possible nominee to the federal bench.  Because of his advocacy for racialist policies, such a nomination would face serious confirmation difficulties.  But in Eric Holder's Justice Department, nakedly racialist policies are standard fare, and Adegbile will fit right in.
This is an an-your-face nomination.  This is the White House sending a message to Republicans and conservatives that the radical racial policies of the Justice Department will continue full speed ahead.
[...]
[I]n the Obama Justice Department, the law is not as important as the cause. And with Adegbile, the cause is racialist.

In another context, the venue and content of this thinly-veiled insinuation of so-called reverse racism could be easily ignored. Unfortunately, on the topic of executive and judicial nominees of the current president, Adams' attack is disturbingly similar to the same sort of race-baiting that jumps from little-read blogs to prominent right-wing platforms like Fox News, the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, and even the mouths of GOP congressmen engaged in the ongoing blanket filibustering of the president's diverse nominees.
Accusing select presidential nominees of racialism or anti-white bias is a tired page of right-wing media's playbook against those who litigate and uphold longstanding civil rights precedent, a body of law that tends to help most those systematically disadvantaged by racism. This rant has been directed with more or less subtlety at Labor Secretary Thomas Perez (who previously led the DOJ's Civil Rights Division), Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Attorney General Eric Holder.
Assumedly, these charges have some sort of salience with those unfamiliar with American history and basic civil rights law.
Beyond the name-calling and dog whistle politics, however, the substance of this alleged hostility to whites and the criticism of the nominees' qualifications is quite thin. Adams' substantive attack on Adegbile, for example, is basically limited to pointing out he was involved in the legal defense of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which the conservative Justices ultimately gutted in a bitterly split opinion. That is, Adegbile joins the line of famous and talented lawyers who have at one time lost a case before the Supreme Court, a long list that includes other such wild-eyed radicals as conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who didn't win 14.
In sum, Adegbile is a famous defender of civil rights. This is, apparently, a big problem for right-wing media.

 

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NC KKK mistakenly attempts recruiting drive in black Florida neighborhood

By David Edwards
Wednesday, November 13, 2013 13:32 EST

WFTV reported that residents of the New Smyrna Beach community were shocked over the last few days to find hundreds of fliers with the words “Our Race Is Our Nation” and a symbol of a hooded klansman. “You say this was a recruiting effort; however, your group targeted a predominately black neighborhood,” WFTV’s Ryan Hughes told KKK leader Robert Jones in a telephone interview.
“Well, we don’t have no way of judging where we’re putting the fliers at,” Jones explained.
He said that the group had not been successful at recruiting any new members in New Smyrna Beach, but intended to distribute about 600 fliers before the membership drive was over.
“Stay away from our neighborhood,” resident Ericka Blount recommended. “We live together here. All different races.”
Watch this video from WFTV, broadcast Nov. 13, 2013.

David Edwards

David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. His work can also be found at Crooks & Liars, and he's also been published at The BRAD BLOG. He came to Raw Story after working as a network manager for the state of North Carolina and as as engineer developing enterprise resource planning software. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidEdwards.

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On Racism, Cultural Racism & Systemic Racism ~ The KaDoh! Institute

November 12, 2013The Kadoh! Institute, Fact Kheck Krew, The Body PolitiK KrewRacism, Cultural Racism, Ku Klux Klan, Washington Post, Richard Cohen, Harry Belafonte, Governor Christie, New Jersey, David DukeThe Kadoh! Institute

Richard Cohen, Columnist for the Washington Post has penned the attached Opinion Column in the Washington Post.
In his column, Mr. Cohen carefully explains that,

Today’s GOP is not racist, as Harry Belafonte alleged about the tea party, but it is deeply troubled — about the expansion of government, about immigration, about secularism, about the mainstreaming of what used to be the avant-garde. People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all.
As with the Dixiecrats, the fight is not over a particular program — although Obamacare comes close — but about a tectonic shift of attitudes. I thank Dennis J. Goldford, professor of politics and international relations at Drake University in Des Moines, for leading me to a live performance on YouTube of Merle Haggard singing “Are the Good Times Really Over.” This chestnut, a lament for a lost America, has been viewed well more than 2 million times. It could be the tea party’s anthem.
For all his positions and religious beliefs, Christie is too Joisey for the tea party — too brash, as well. He would be wise to steer clear of Iowa lest he lose or, worse, follow Romney and take on the deeply conservative coloration of the state’s GOP. That might make him (barely) acceptable to Republican Iowans but anathema to the rest of us.”

So I took the time to register (thanks for making it easy Washington Post & Facebook!) and comment.
I linked in an article from the American Psychological Association which explains that Cultural Racism is indeed a “thing.”

For the record, I like Governor Christie.  I think he will be a nominee for the President.  I think he could make a race of the next election.  I do not like the party to which he belongs.
From the historical record, it’s quite possible the country will shift a bit rightward, as we typically don’t elect the same party to the Presidency 3 times in a row.
That has happened once in my lifetime, and President Bush then lost to then nominee, President Clinton.
The problem as I see it is that the calculus is changing.  When you have prominent columnists who are so blase about Cultural racism, it’s astounding.
When the prominent politicians kow-tow to Cultural Racists it’s worse than disheartening.  It’s threatening.
Out here in California we see you racists for what you are.  And that’s racists.  And I cannot vote in good conscious for a racist.   Period.
Sorry that you feel the “country isn’t your country anymore” or whatever alienation you feel.  Perhaps you missed out on some standard Americana in your upbringing.
This poem explains my upbringing here in California.

The California Kid
Hello, there
Nice to meet you
I am California Kid,
Standard issue
Raised to respect my elders
Take care of the disabled
Help the poor
Do unto others as you’d have done unto you
Live and let live
Respect the Constitution
Honor veterans in our midst
Celebrate mom, baseball & apple pie
Pay taxes as due (grumbling under breath)
Work hard, play hard
Oh yes, don’t be racist, or discriminate
Combine that all and you have me
Moderate of practicality
Mixed with synergy
Standard Issue
Here in Great Central Valley

Try not to be racist, that might help.
I would hope that Mr. Cohen would consider the cultural racism in the GOP, and revise his opinion.     But I do not know if he is an impartial journalist at heart, or a Conservative.
I do believe that the Cultural Racism is part and partial of Mr. Cohen due to his own words in the article.  Including the ending sentence as to why Governor Christie is unacceptable, even anethema to him.

That might make him (barely) acceptable to Republican Iowans but anathema to the rest of us.

Once again Mr. Cohen.  Cultural racism exists, and you in your own words embrace it, finding a candidate who doesn’t hold such values as “anathema.”
I will defend Mr.  Cohen’s right to express his racism verbally.  I will defend the rest of our right to counter his offensive language with our own free speech, and document the indemic racism in his “Opinion Column.”
And regulate as necessary to keep people free from physical harm from such racists.  You know, the KKK, Aryan Brotherhood and the like.
Afterall the GoP is the party that allowed David Duke (Grand Wizard of the KKK),  to run for Congress in their party, and Lousiana is the state that elected him to the House.
I do believe that racism is systemic in the GOP.  Sorry if you believe that is not true.
Good day.

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Classic! White Supremacist Turns Out To Be Partly Black!

Classic! White Supremacist Turns Out To Be Partly Black! (Video)

Posted by Progressive Populist  |  on November 11, 2013



A well-known white supremacist got some bad news delivered to him on national television, and his reaction was priceless!
Craig Cobb, who is behind the plot to turn a tiny North Dakota town into a haven for whites, agreed to submit to a DNA test as part of his appearance on The Trisha Show, which is doing a series on race in America.
Cobb was given the results of his test by the host of the show, Trisha Goddard. And as soon as she told Cobb that he is “86% European”, the audience knew what was coming next and begin to razz Cobb. And so did Shahrazad Ali, an author who was also a guest on the show, who begin to laugh uproariously.
Goddard continued, “14 percent Sub-Saharan African!”
Cobb recoiled in shock as the audience cheered and jeered and Ali continued to laugh at him. “You have a little black in you!” said Goddard who then stood up and said, “so there you go, bro!” and tried twice to fist-bump Cobb, but he refused both times.


And of course, displaying a classic case of cognitive dissonance, Cobb immediately wrote off the DNA test, saying it was “statistical noise”.
And afterwards, Cobb told MailOnline that he “agreed to the test because I assumed it was science.” Conversely, he said that it was a scientifically bankrupt procedure, the product of “craven and debased executives,” whose “goal is to shock.”
Yeah, and “denial” is more than just a river in Africa, where 14% of Cobb comes from.
At least he’ll have some s’plaining to do when he gets back to Leith, North Dakota.
Watch it below, from the Daily Mail.

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Jon Stewart Blasts Rand Paul For Plagiarizing Wikipedia

Posted: 11/08/2013 10:30 am EST  |  Updated: 11/08/2013 10:40 am EST

Rand Paul has had a tough last few weeks as he's addressed charges of plagiarism, seemingly against his better nature. And Jon Stewart was not about to let him off the hook for copying from Wikipedia, of all places.

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Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and the Tea Party's 2016 problem

By Bill Scher 10 hours ago The Week

.

View gallery

Frenemies.

As the New York Times detailed over the weekend, and as The Week's Matt Lewis predicted in July, a rivalry is brewing between Tea Party favorites Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. Each side is badmouthing the other, saying its rival is unelectable in the 2016 presidential race. Cruz reportedly trashed Paul as fatally linked to his extremist father, while Paul's aides call Cruz "the chief of the wacko birds."

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• Dick Cheney defends the tea party: 'These are Americans' Yahoo News

Intra-party scraps are nothing new, and often the survivor emerges stronger. Barack Obama went the full 12 rounds with Hillary Clinton, and came out the other end battle-hardened. But for conservative insurgents hoping to take over the Republican Party from inside, a Paul-Cruz throwdown is the absolute last thing that they need, because it risks knocking them both out of the ring.
SEE ALSO: Meet the 4 Marvel superheroes who will soon have their own Netflix shows
Many people assume that the right-wing ideologues in the Republican "base" dictate the outcome of their party's presidential primaries. That's not true. A movement conservative has not triumphed over an "establishment" candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1980.
There is a reason for that: Uncompromising conservatives tend to cling to their favorite candidates for too long, dividing their votes among several instead of consolidating their forces behind one. As the base splinters, the establishment's preferred (and always well-financed) choice is able to win early contests with relatively small pluralities. Party loyalty eventually kicks in, peeling off conservative votes and propelling the establishment pick to the finish line.

SEE ALSO: Which professions have the most psychopaths?

This is why Rush Limbuagh's 2008 tirades against John McCain could not make conservatives choose between Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, and Mitt Romney. Instead, McCain was able to take the pivotal South Carolina primary with a mere 33 percent of the vote. Nor could Limbaugh derail Romney in 2012. Conservatives fractured between Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, allowing Romney to win most contests with less than a majority.
Compare that to 1980, when Reagan was the only movement conservative facing off against a pack of establishment types. While George H.W. Bush was able to emerge as the most plausible alternative, Reagan was able to easily defeat him mano a mano.
SEE ALSO: Watch out, Chris Christie: It's a trap!
I wrote back in May that Rand Paul had a solid shot at the 2016 GOP nod, despite being anathema to the "national security" wing of the party, because the 1980 dynamic could be replicated. Polling at the time showed Paul consolidating conservatives, with the establishment camp splintering between Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Marco Rubio, former Gov. Jeb Bush, and others.

But that was before Ted Cruz became the Tea Party darling du jour, interrupting Paul's ascendency. Now it's pile-up at the top of polls. The most recent survey from Public Policy Polling shows an effective four-way tie between Paul, Cruz, Christie, and Bush. But take either Cruz or Paul out of the mix, and a four-way tie would become a Tea Party romp.

SEE ALSO: Advice for your wedding night (from 100 years ago)

Which raises a serious question for conservative insurgents: How bad do you want to remake the party?
Are you prepared to organize behind a single candidate, even if you have a few quibbles of tactical or substantive disagreement? Are you prepared to pressure anyone who might stand in that person's way to stand down and put their principles ahead of personal ambition?
SEE ALSO: He said he was leaving. She ignored him.
Or are you going throw away a rare moment of establishment weakness and repeat the same mistakes of the past? Are you going to give the establishment you loathe time to regroup and figure out to whom they should funnel their money to because you couldn't collectively decide whether Cruz or Paul would strip down government the most?
The establishment's favorite is always going to have plenty of money, and plenty of prominent surrogates in the media validating his presidential bona fides. Any insurgency is an uphill battle, and it can't be won with divided leadership. If the Tea Party wants to overcome money and elitism with people power, either some of its leaders will have to voluntarily check their egos at the door, or its followers will have to force them to.

SEE ALSO: Why Democrats think they can compete in the South

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Keeping Black Voters in Their Place

By THOMAS B. EDSALL

Published: November 5, 2013

The Republicans who now control the legislatures and governorships in the Deep South are using the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 to create a system of political apartheid.

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Thomas B. Edsall

No state demonstrates this better than Alabama, where in 2010 Republicans took over the State Senate and House for the first time since Reconstruction. This is a signal example of the decline of black power in the South.

Mike Hubbard, a Republican from Auburn, who is speaker of the Alabama House, engineered the 2010 takeover of the legislature. He was forthright in his 2012 book — “Storming the Statehouse: The Campaign That Liberated Alabama From 136 years of Democrat Rule” — about his techniques for displacing white Democratic incumbents:

“We needed to find our targets and the candidates to take them on, so I commissioned an in-depth study of voting patterns in various districts represented by white Democratic legislators across the state.”

Before the 2010 election, there were 60 Democrats in the Alabama State House, 34 of them white, 26 black. Now there are 36 Democrats, 26 of them black, 10 of them white. In the State Senate, the number of Democrats fell from 20 – 13 white, 7 black – to 11 Democrats, 4 white, 7 black.

Once Alabama Republicans gained control of the levers of power, they wasted no time using the results of the 2010 Census to reinforce their position of dominance. Newly drawn lines further corralled black voters into legislative districts with large African-American majorities, a tactic political professionals call “packing and stacking.” Redrawn district lines minimize the potential of coalitions between a minority of white voters and a solid core of black voters. Under these circumstances, white Republican voting blocs remain dominant.

At the core of this strategy is an unexpected twist: Republicans in Alabama and in many other states have gone out of their way to protect black legislative districts and black legislators from Republican or white Democratic challenges.

Have Republican legislators in the South become civil and voting rights champions? No. They are promoting the interests of African-American voters in order to enhance the ability of Republican officials whose real targets, white Democrats, are struggling to cope with the steady decline of loyal “Yellow Dog” supporters.

To achieve this goal, Republican state legislators purposely keep the influence of Democratic-leaning minorities to a minimum in districts with white majorities. Alabama is a state where 80 percent of whites voted Republican in the 2004 presidential elections; 90 percent did so in 2012.

“The most important part of the plan was to preserve minority districts,” said Jim McClendon, the Republican state representative from Springville who co-chaired the Alabama redistricting committee. In a phone interview, McClendon rejected suggestions that the Republican goal was to make it harder for white Democrats to win re-election to state legislative office: “No, not at all. The voters are making it tougher on white Democrats.”

Out of a total of 105 State House districts, 27 have black majorities, one of which is represented by a white Democrat. In those districts, the average percentage of black voters is 66.4 percent, far above the percentage election experts now consider critical if the goal is to insure that minorities have the ability “to elect their preferred candidates of choice,” as the Voting Rights Act puts it.

In a federal court challenge to the state’s Republican-drawn redistricting plan brought by the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, Theodore S. Arrington, a professor emeritus of political science from the University of North Carolina and an expert in election law, testified on Aug. 12 that 50 percent plus one vote would be enough in Alabama.

In redrawing the State Senate and House lines after the 2010 Census, the number of black “influence” districts – majority white districts with enough blacks so that minorities and a relatively small percentage of whites could together elect a Democrat – were kept to a minimum, and in some cases eliminated altogether.

Before redistricting, for example, there were five majority-white State Senate districts in which there were potentially enough blacks, Hispanics and other minorities to form an alliance with white Democrats to win in November. According to documents provided by James Blacksher, the plaintiffs’ lawyer in the federal court case brought by the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, these State Senate districts had an average percentage of minority voters of 35.9 before redistricting; after redistricting, the average percentage of minority voters in the five most integrated majority-white districts fell to 29.5. In other words, there was a significant decline in the number of majority-white state legislative districts in which minorities might have enough votes to form an alliance with still-Democratic whites.

McClendon, the Republican state representative from Springville, now plans to run in 2014 for State Senate in District 11. Before redistricting, the voting age population of that district was 65.5 percent white; after redistricting, it is 81.9 percent white, virtually guaranteeing a Republican victory.

In the State House districts with majority white populations, only two had minority populations exceeding 30 percent, 32.0 and 34.5 percent.

None of the 78 majority white State House districts falls into the racial “middle ground” with minority percentages in the 36 to 49 percent range. These are the kind of state districts most likely to produce biracial coalitions, and most likely to elect white Democrats, not only in the South but nationwide.

Arrington testified that the intent of Republican redistricting was to prevent blacks “from forming effective cross-race coalitions” both in elections and in the state legislature. “If you’re restricted to just 25 to 30 percent of the districts in the Legislature, and you have no ability to form coalitions with whites, then your ability to participate politically is restricted. It’s not participating equally in the political process,” he said.

Blacksher, the lawyer representing the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus in its suit, said in a phone interview that the Republicans’ goal is “to make all Democratic seats black, all Republican seats white.”

According to the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus,

“Republican lawmakers packed black voters into 27 House districts and eight Senate districts. The redistricting plans ‘purposely perpetuate and attempt to restore Alabama’s historical policy of segregating African Americans in party politics.’ ”

McClendon flatly denied such intent: “That wasn’t part of the plan,” he told me.

The Republican redistricting plan has had some unexpected consequences, with significant racial ramifications, one of which grows out of the state’s unusually strong restrictions on the powers of city and county officials. Alabama does not have home rule and requires instead that the state legislature approve virtually all local laws, including laws governing Jefferson County, which encompasses Birmingham.

The Alabama Legislative Black Caucus contends in a jurisdictional statement asking the Supreme Court to take up the case that

“The legislature enacted plans that place Jefferson County in 18 House districts, only 8 of them majority-black. All of the majority black districts lie entirely inside Jefferson County, but 6 of the 10 majority-white districts cross into 6 other counties. The 2012 Senate plan puts Jefferson County in 8 districts, 3 majority-black and 5 majority-white. All 3 of the majority-black Senate districts lie entirely inside Jefferson County, but all 5 of the majority-white districts cross the Jefferson County boundary to include parts of 11 other counties. Altogether, 155,279 non-residents vote for members of Jefferson County’s House delegation, and 428,101 people residing in other counties vote for members of the Jefferson County Senate delegation.”

The consequences are substantial, according to the statement:

“White legislators will continue being able to block local revenue bills, whose defeat has helped drive Jefferson County into bankruptcy and has closed Cooper Green Mercy Hospital for the poor.”

One solution would be for Congress to amend the Voting Rights Act to more explicitly address the political reality that African-Americans in the South are now mobilized and turn out in far higher percentages than was the case when the act was written in 1965.

Arrington testified before the Middle Alabama Federal District Court that because of increased turnout, blacks in Alabama are, in fact, able to elect politicians of their own choosing in districts that are 50 percent or less minority – that the 60-70 percent levels that civil rights leaders called for decades ago are no longer required.

Changes in African-American political mobilization actually offer much stronger potential for integrated politics than in the past, when black political representation required supermajorities of minority voters. The elections of Barack Obama to the presidency, of Cory Booker to the Senate in New Jersey and of Deval Patrick to governor in Massachusetts clearly show that such biracial alliances are now achievable.

Republicans, however, will do what they can to prevent pro-Democratic trends from emerging in regions they dominate. After successfully winning control of the South, Republicans will not let go of the reins. In that famously vicious political blood sport, redistricting, they will exploit their ability to deploy the cloak of civil rights to maintain and strengthen a politically advantageous segregation of the races.

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10 worst right-wing statements of the week — celebrity quack edition

Vaccine truther and Wall Street Journal "expert" Suzanne Somers has decided Obamacare is a socialist Ponzi scheme

By Janet Allon, AlterNet

Actress and comedienne Suzanne Somers (Credit: AP)

Some really crazy things came out of the mouths of the frothing right wing this week –
1. Suzanne Somers is still an idiot, and the WSJ prints her error-ridden Obamacare hitjob anyway.
While Thighmaster spokeswoman Suzanne Somers has matured since her hit TV show days, her plumpers and politics have pretty much ossified. Her enlightened take on the Affordable Care Act appeared in the Wall Street Journal this week, concluding that it’s “a greater Ponzi scheme than that pulled off by Bernie Madoff.” She wrote 535 hysterical words, in which Lenin came up in addition to Madoff, on the topic of this dreaded “socialized medicine.” By the next day, the Journal had published nearly a fifth as many words in corrections.
But it did not correct the “Ponzi scheme” assertion, which was based on flimsy anecdotes about relatives who had bad experiences with Canadian doctors, and how Somers is hearing on the news that everyone’s premium is doubling and tripling. (Any guesses as to which so-called news channel she watches?)
This piece of rocket science appeared in WSJ’s “The Experts” section, which bills itself as “an exclusive group of industry, academic and cultural thought leaders who weigh in on the latest debates.”
This will definitely be our go-to section for expert analysis henceforth.
2. John Stossel: Women, aka hypochondriacs, should pay more for health insurance.
Fox libertarian spokes-moustache John Stossel became rather mentally unbalanced about the fairness of the Affordable Care Act this week. It’s not fair, he whined, that under the law, men have to pay as much for health insurance as women because “Women go to the doctor much more often than men! Maybe they’re smarter or maybe they’re hypochondriacs. They live longer. Who knows?”
The point is, they’re women, dammit.
Another thing that has Stossel and a number of Republicans really irked is that men have to help pay for pregnancy and maternity coverage, when men can’t even get pregnant. It’s so unfair!
Look, everyone knows that women get pregnant all by themselves, and it’s their fault they got themselves into this fix, and they damn well better get themselves out of it. Hypochondriacs!
3. Concerned Women for America: Very worried that young people might get health insurance.

While women are making bank with this whole Obamacare Ponzi scheme, you know who is getting screwed? Young people, that’s who. Concerned Women for America is very very concerned about that; concerned that young people may actually choose to join a program that will help them afford health insurance.
Concerned Women don’t just get concerned about any old thing. They’re not losing any sleep about silly things like tens of thousands of children going hungry because of the massive food stamp cuts that just took effect. They only get concerned about important things, like how close Miley Cyrus’ butt got to Robin Thicke’s crotch at the VMA Awards.
In an interview this week with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Concerned spokeswoman Alison Howard sent out the alarm bells to “young subsidizers” who might sign up for a “government-run program that’s a complete fail.”
“Complete fail!” she said. So hip with that phrasing!
Then she told those same hip young people, who listen to CBN all the time, to “pray for our nation’s leaders, that they have wisdom and clarity to fix this very broken problem and help us completely heal as a country,” according to Right-Wing Watch.
This praying stuff will be good practice for when you get sick or hurt, and don’t have health insurance.
4. 27 GOP senators vote to disapprove of themselves.

At first glance, maybe this headline actually makes sense. About time these clowns disapproved of themselves for their heartless policies and shameless tactics. But, no, no. No such attack of conscience has hit the Republicans in Congress. What took place this week in the Senate may have set a new low on the moron scale—and these days, that is really saying something. All 27 Republican senators who voted recently to raise the debt ceiling, pay the nation’s bills, and reopen the government (and arguably do their jobs), voted this week in favor of a symbolic “resolution to disapprove” of that vote. All of them.

Apart from making no sense (but when has that stood in the way of Republican politics?) the vote was completely pointless, unless the point was to further illustrate their idiocy.
Actually, the point was as simple as it was hypocritical. (Remember when John Kerry was given hell after saying he was for something before he was against it? At least some time passed in between.)  The point was simply to brazenly give these Republicans political cover, so that Tea Partiers and other right-wing crazies won’t try to unseat them.
5. Marsha Blackburn: Americans must be free to drink from red Solo cups.
Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn made some marvelously on-point comments during the congressional “yell at Kathleen Sebelius” hearing on the bumpy Obamacare roll-out this week.
“Some people like to drive a Ford, not a Ferrari … And some people like to drink out of a red Solo cup, not a crystal stem. You’re taking away their choice,” said Rep. Blackburn.
Blackburn has taken the lead as a defender of Americans’ rights to choose many important things this week, not just red Solo cups. From cheap shoes, clothing and plasticware to insurance plans that don’t cover much of anything, or kick you off when you get sick. Cause we’re Amurricans, damn it. And we’re free.
Yes, she’s a staunch defender of freedom and the rights of all Americans to choose. Except, of course, women’s right to choose whether to have a baby or get contraception. That’s the government’s job.
6. S.C. soup kitchen to atheists: No serving soup for you!
Everyone knows that religious belief and serving food to the poor are inextricably intertwined. Which is why it makes total sense that a group of avowed atheists,Upstate Atheists, were banned from helping out at the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen in South Carolina last week. Since they were not allowed in, they set up across the street to distribute food and other necessities like toothpaste and socks to the area’s poor. And they did this while not believing in god. What an abomination!
Upstate Atheists’ slogan is “Charity Beyond Belief,” but the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen wasn’t buying it, calling the atheists’ mission “counter to the mission of the soup kitchen.” The executive director then added, “They can have the devil there with them, but they better not come across the street.”
We did not know that the devil had branched out into the charity business. Clearly, a rebranding scheme.
7. Minn. Republican party posts, then deletes, unbelievably racist message.
The Chisago County, Minn. Republican party got caught with a deeply offensive Facebook post comparing abortion to slavery this week.
“Pro Choice. Against Slavery? Don’t buy one,” said the caption to a picture depicting a slave auction. MSNBC and radio Host Ed Schultz posted a screengrab of the photo on his Facebook page.
Unsurprisingly, outrage ensued, leading the party to delete the post and deny any responsibility for it. They said their page was made by a “large number of administrators,” who, we guess, aren’t vetted very well.
But they are very, very sorry, and sought to remind everyone that the Republican Party derives from the anti-slavery movement.
Today’s Republican Party always reminds us of abolitionists and Lincoln.
8. Nevada Rep.: ‘Would bring back slavery if constituents wanted it.’
Nevada Assemblyman Jim Wheeler did not get the Republican anti-slavery memo, as evidenced by comments Wheeler made to the Storey County Republican Party in August, according to the Associated Press, that came to light this week.
He said he’d bring back slavery if that was what his constituents wanted. There was a Youtube video of it that now appears to have been taken down. Perhaps someone thinks these comments make him look bad. Even racist. Which, of course, he is not. Why would you think that?
Because he did add that he would find it distasteful to bring back slavery, saying “I’d have to hold my nose … they’d probably have to hold a gun to my head, but yeah.”
That’s how dedicated this man is to public service. He’d be willing to override his own lack of bigotry to represent bigots.
9. Religious broadcasters: It’s simple. Miley Cyrus sold her soul to the devil.
Remember Miley Cyrus’ tongue at the VMA? Remind you of anyone? Someone with a forked tongue perhaps?
It’s a well-known fact that the devil has completely taken over the entertainment industry—Rick Santorum definitely thinks so—so it should not come as a surprise that there was a coded message in Cyrus’ infamous performance. She was announcing she’d sold her soul to the devil, said a pair of religious right broadcasters.
Broadcaster Rick Wiles and anti-rock music pastor Joe Schimmel confirmed this revelation on Wiles’ TruNews radio program this week.
“The American entertainment industry loves perverting the souls of innocent children, [and] they thrive on their wicked methods of defiling children and converting them into little citizens of Babylon. It is the work of the synagogue of Satan. Their latest poster child to recruit little Babylonians is Miley Cyrus,” Wiles said.
Wait, “synagogue”?
He also said he has seen an actual photo of Cyrus licking the ribs of a caped skeleton figure with red eyes and horns, according to Raw Story. An actual photo!
Schimmel agreed, as any reasonable person would. Cyrus, he said, has been “baptized into the Illuminati.” Her dance moves, he added, are demonstrations of “how to have sex with some satanic figure.”
Let us pray for the safe return of Miley Cyrus’ soul.
10. David Conn: Obama similar to Jim Jones.
It was a banner week on Wiles’ TruNews radio program. He also interviewed a very enlightening Jim Jones/Jonestown cult “expert.”
David Conn, the “expert,” is seeing the emergence of another Jim Jones-like figure in our midst—President Obama, who embodies “the re-emergence of the Jones Cult mentality on a grand national level.”
Let’s unpack that for a sec.
“First off, Jones captured the media and Obama captured the media,” Conn explained. Also they both had strange childhoods, and were yearning for father figures. Leaving the plane of reality altogether, Conn added, “Obama’s only father figure was a terribly nasty old man, a pornographer and a child molester and a cocaine user who was an avowed communist.”
Wiles knew just who he was talking about: Frank Marshall Davis. He’s the one who got Obama into cocaine.
Also, both of them, Jones and Obama, had a background of community organizing. Of course, Obama’s cult is Islam, so that’s a slight difference. But otherwise, it’s a no-brainer.
Here, have some more Kool-Aid.

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