Jillian Rayfield October 27, 2011, 5:55 AM 4300 69
There is no “Go” space in the anti-welfare board game “Obozo’s America,” but rest assured — you can still collect welfare benefits as you pass the “First Of The Month” space.
The game is called “OBOZO’S AMERICA: Why Bother Working for a Living?” with the tagline “The Most Timely and Original Board Game of the Decade!” The website describes it as “a fun fantasy board game based on the preposterous notion that a Marxist clown, running on the vague and shaky platform of hope and change, could become President of The United States.”
The object is to keep collecting benefits while avoiding the “Working Person’s Rut.” From the rather embarrassingly low-tech website:
Get your initial $1,000 cash grant at the First of the Month, then maneuver along Obozo’s Welfare Promenade. Get cash for your out-of-wedlock children. Draw from a stack of Welfare Benefit Cards. Get extra cash from Saturday Night crimes: Gambling, Armed Robbery, Drugs, and Prostitution. Play the lottery and the horses. Get your live-in a job on the Government Cakewalk. Experience the Jail Jaunt. Avoid landing on one of those dreaded “Get a Job” blocks forcing you onto the Working Person’s Rut (Somebody has to pay for Obozo’s Welfare Promenade). 50 Welfare Benefit Cards. 50 Working Person’s Burden Cards. Lots of funny money.
The site features the game’s mascot “Obozo The Marxist Clown” — who also graces the game’s fake currency — and boasts of the “welfare benefit cards” like “you lose perspective and apply for a job, but are denied it. Oboze says: Scream ‘racism’ until welfare lawyer gets you $1,000 settlement.”
In the Economy version of the game, you get “a stack of over a half-a-million dollars in play money (we’re talking serious welfare fraud here), 50 Welfare Benefit Cards, 50 Working Person’s Burden Cards, 30 Out-of-Wedlock Children.” The Deluxe version has a spill-proof surface and the out-of-wedlock children are easier to cut out of the paper they’re printed on.
The game was created by Ron Pramschufer and Bob Johnson, who run Hammerhead Enterprises in Maryland, and was originally released in 1980 as “Public Assistance: Why Bother Working for a Living?”
“We didn’t invent this game, government liberals did,” Johnson said then. “We just put it in a box.”
In a press release Wednesday, Johnson announced that the game was coming back, claiming it “was forced off the retail market in the 1980s by government officials working with the NAACP, NOW, and other welfare ‘rights’ groups.”
“We intended the game as a parody of government liberalism, with a special focus on the able-bodied loaferism, welfare fraud, and social chaos its domestic policies promote,” Johnson wrote in 2009. “Threatened by the game’s popularity, embarrassed liberals successfully implemented a nationwide government plan to ‘remove the game from the marketplace.’”
The game was entangled in a number of lawsuits after several government officials and the NAACP criticized it as racist and sexist for its depiction of “welfare queens” and other stereotypes. Pramschufer and Johnson first sued (sub req.) a New York City official who sent a letter to retailers urging them not to sell the game, saying “keeping this game off the shelves of your stores would be a genuine public service.” They lost the case and their ultimate appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court, but they also filed a suit against the NAACP and NOW, according to the AP (sub req.).
But in the 90s when they re-released the game — complete with a new “Criminal Justice” side of the board — and claimed it had been banned, the Attorney General of Maryland said there was never a ban on the game. “The state wouldn’t have had the authority to ban this game whatsoever,” then-AG Kathy Schultz said (sub req.), according to the Washington Times.
ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge temporarily blocked Florida's new law that requires welfare applicants to pass a drug test before receiving benefits on Monday, saying it may violate the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.
Judge Mary Scriven ruled in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of a 35-year-old Navy veteran and single father who sought the benefits while finishing his college degree, but refused to take the test. The judge said there was a good chance plaintiff Luis Lebron would succeed in his challenge to the law based on the Fourth Amendment, which protects individuals from being unfairly searched.
The drug test can reveal a host of private medical facts about the individual, Scriven wrote, adding that she found it "troubling" that the drug tests are not kept confidential like medical records. The results can also be shared with law enforcement officers and a drug abuse hotline.
"This potential interception of positive drug tests by law enforcement implicates a `far more substantial' invasion of privacy than in ordinary civil drug testing cases," Scriven said.
The judge also said Florida didn't show that the drug testing program meets criteria for exceptions to the Fourth Amendment.
The injunction will stay in place until the judge can hold a full hearing on the matter. She didn't say when that hearing will be scheduled.
More than two-dozen states have also proposed drug-testing recipients of welfare or other government assistance, but Florida was the first state to enact such a law in more than a decade. Should any of those states pass a law and face a court challenge, Scriven's ultimate ruling would likely serve as a legal precedent.
The law's proponents include Gov. Rick Scott, who said during his campaign the measure would save $77 million. It's unclear how he arrived at those figures. A spokesman for the Florida Department of Children and Families deferred all comments to the governor's office.
"Drug testing welfare recipients is just a common-sense way to ensure that welfare dollars are used to help children and get parents back to work," said Jackie Schutz, a spokeswoman for Scott. "The governor obviously disagrees with the decision and he will evaluate his options regarding when to appeal."
Earlier this year, Scott also ordered drug testing of new state workers and spot checks of existing state employees under him. But testing was suspended after the American Civil Liberties Union also challenged that policy in a separate lawsuit.
Nearly 1,600 applicants have refused to take the test since testing began in mid-July, but they aren't required to say why. Thirty-two applicants failed the test and more than 7,000 have passed, according to the Department of Children and Families. The majority of positives were for marijuana.
State officials said Monday that applicants previously denied benefits for testing positive or refusing the test could reapply immediately. The Department of Children and Families will also approve all pending applications that await drug test results.
Supporters had argued applicants skipped the test because they knew they would have tested positive for drugs. Applicants must pay $25 to $35 for the test and are reimbursed by the state if they pass. It's unclear if the state has saved money.
Under the Temporary Assistance For Needy Families program, the state gives $180 a month for one person or $364 for a family of four.
Those who test positive for drugs are ineligible for the cash assistance for one year, though passing a drug course can cut that period in half. If they fail a second time, they are ineligible for three years.
Lebron, who is the sole caretaker of his 4-year-old son, said he's "happy that the judge stood up for me and my rights and said the state can't act without a reason or suspicion."
The ACLU says Florida was the first to enact such a law since Michigan tried more than a decade ago. Michigan's random drug testing program for welfare recipients lasted five weeks in 1999 before it was halted by a judge, kicking off a four-year legal battle that ended with an appeals court ruling it unconstitutional.
Juan Varela was shot in the neck in his front yard in Phoenix, Ariz., last May by his neighbor Gary Kelley. Moments before killing Varela in front of his mother and brother, Kelley yelled, "Go back to Mexico or die!" Varela was not an illegal immigrant, but a fifth generation American of Mexican descent, said Carlos Galindo, the family's spokesperson in a phone interview.
In May 2009, 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul Flores were murdered by members of a Minuteman vigilante group. The child and her father were both American-born U.S. citizens. Leader Shawna Forde broke into the Flores home in Arivaca, Ariz., with two men she recruited to help her fund her splinter Minuteman organization. After the group shot and killed her father, Brisenia pleaded with the Forde and her accomplices, saying, "Please don't shoot me." One of the masked figures then shot her in the face at point blank range, her mother, the lone survivor, said in her testimony. Forde was convicted of first degree murder in February of 2011 and sentenced to death.
Last November, two Mexican nationals, cousins Alex Cauich and Jose Omar Cauich, were brutally assaulted by a group of white men while standing in front of a bar in San Francisco. Witnesses on the scene heard the assailants yelling "run like you ran across the border" during the incident. Last week, three men with connection to a white supremacist group were convicted in the assault. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who worked as a police officer in Arizona and California for more than twenty years, told The Huffington Post that he perceives this crime and others like it to be part of rising anti-Latino sentiments around the country.
Recent studies conducted by the National Institute of Justice, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the FBI and the Pew Research Center seem to show that these incidents were not isolated hate events, but part of a greater trend.
The preliminary findings of a congressionally-mandated study by the National Institute of Justice suggest that anti-Latino hate crimes rose disproportionally to other hate crimes between 2004 and 2008. The study estimates that in 2003 there were 426 hate crimes against Latinos, while in 2007 there were 595 nationally.
According to the same study, California and Texas saw the most anti-Latino hate crimes, as well as more dramatic increases of such incidents than other states. Data collected by the FBI also indicates a steady rise in anti-Latino hate crimes across the country from 2003 to 2007.
A report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit civil rights organization based in Montgomery, contends that the number of "radical right groups" in America -- including hate groups, "Patriot" groups and nativist groups -- increased in 2010 for the second year in a row.
Although recent studies indicate anti-Latino hate crimes have been on the rise over the last decade, many believe their numbers are even greater than those reported. Mark Potok, a spokesperson for the SPLC, said in an interview with The Huffington Post that, "one thing to understand is that Latinos, and in particular undocumented immigrants, are among the least likely to report hate crimes because they fear deportation."
RACE AND POLICY DEBATES
Many, including the family members of victims, associate a rise in anti-Latino hate crime and an increase in anti-Latino sentiments with the on-going, virulent immigration debate around the country.
Varela's family in Phoenix told The Huffington Post that they believe his murder was provoked by the heated controversy surrounding the passage of Arizona's S.B. 1070 law two weeks prior. According to Carlos Galindo, the family's spokesperson, Kelley's attorney admitted in court that his client was going to the Varela home on the day of Juan's murder in order to discuss the the family's attendance at an S.B. 1070 protest. Galindo also said the immigration debate created a dangerous environment for Latinos in his state.
"It's gone from a frustration with the federal government not doing their job, to a frustration with the immigrants and with Latinos in general," said Galindo. "People are encouraging this kind of demonization and this culture of hatred which results in violence," he added.
In 9-year old Brisenia's murder, the Associated Press reported that Shawna Forde was motivated to break into the Flores home because she "considered Raul Flores a drug smuggler and wanted to use his drug proceeds for a paramilitary organization to seal off the border to immigrants." According to CNN reports, no drugs were found in the Flores home.
Raul "Junior" and Brisenia Flores were killed by a minuteman group with ties to the White Nationalist Movement.
George Gascón, the San Francisco district attorney, said in an interview with The Huffington Post that he associates the brutal assault of the Cauich cousins and a "recent surge of anti-Latino hate crimes" in his city, with economic factors and the immigration debate. Gascón believes that immigration debates in Arizona, Utah, Georgia, South Carolina and now Alabama have been "fueled by race-based sentiments."
"It's going to take a lot of good people with a lot of good intentions on both sides of the debate to shift the dialogue away from race, and back to policy," Gascón said.
Mark Potok, the SPLC spokesman, believes that reporting around the immigration debate has led directly to a more hostile environment for Latinos in America because it "focuses a lot of negative attention around Latinos." He explained, "When leaders and politicians get press and promote stereotypes, it encourages others to hate Latinos as well -- so it helps to spread the poison... There are ways of having a debate about immigration without demonizing one group of people."
But while Potok also blames "nativist" groups like Minuteman organizations for spurring hatred against Latinos and immigrants, Howie Morgan, the national political director of the Minuteman Project said in a phone interview with The Huffington Post that his organization has never framed the debate in racial terms.
Shawna Forde, a former prostitute, beautician who has ties to a white supremacist group. Her involvement in a minuteman group that killed Raul "Junior" and Brisenia Flores. Forde is currently sitting on death row for the murder.
"We have never demonized Latinos. In fact, we have been demonized as racists by 'La Raza' -- which means 'The Race' by the way... When we have come across organizations in the Minuteman movement that align themselves with racism, we've thrown them out and repudiated their statements. We continue to make sure this not about race, but about policy. We are a pro-immigrant organization, and calling us racist is simply inaccurate," he told HuffPost. Morgan was referring to the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) which considers itself the "largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization" in the country.
But Gascón, thinks the Minutemen are ignoring an "elephant in the room."
"I'm glad the [Minuteman Project's] official stance is that it shouldn't be a race-based conversation," Gascon said in a phone intervew. "But the elephant in the room when you talk about immigration is that a very large number of immigrants come from Latin America. If you start talking about illegal immigration, what comes to mind? Do you think of someone from Eastern Europe or Asia or do you think of a Latino?"
According to a 2009 study, more Americans think that Hispanics are the targets of discrimination in American society than say the same about any other major racial or ethnic group. According to Mark Hugo Lopez, the associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization that seeks to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population, the PHC's studies found that, prior to 2009, African Americans were perceived to be the group most discriminated against.
Lopez also said that on average, Latinos are thinking about discrimination and immigration as bigger issues for their community than they did just a few years ago. In 2010, 61 percent of Latinos believed that discrimination against Hispanics is a "major problem," up from 54 percent in 2007. And in 2010, when asked to state the most important factor leading to discrimination, a "plurality of 36 percent cited immigration status as most important, up from a minority of 23 percent who said the same in 2007," reported Lopez.
In an interview with a local paper, Gilberto Esquivel, a member of the Riverside Human Relations Commission, said that the 50 percent increase in hate crimes against Latinos in California in 2010 was directly tied to the passage of the S.B. 1070 immigration law in Arizona. In Esquivel's county alone, the FBI documented 21 hate crimes in 2010, up from 12 in 2009.
Esquivel believes "anti-Latino and anti-immigrant remarks became more numerous and hateful on conservative talk radio, in newspaper letters to editors and on the Internet."
"The hate is there," Esquivel said. "[S.B. 1070] gives it legitimacy."
I see that my community okays a charter to allow immigrants (assuming illegal) to live and work in Dayton, Ohio.
Let's see! A town that allows immigrants (probably Hispanic decent) to live in the community. Probably some being illegal! A "concern citizen" gets the word to either Bill O'Reilly, Neal Boortz, Michael Savage, The Drudge Report or Michelle Malkin.
I'll bet you that the noise will travel and then you'll hear chants of a "librul gubmint" trying to be a "sanscery city" and the left wants our borders to be open for all the browner people to come and steal away the "privilege of our peoples!"
You know what I mean!
Against the grain, Dayton, Ohio, embraces immigrants
By Mariano Castillo, CNN
* Dayton wants to become a nationally recognized immigrant-friendly city
* The initiative comes at a time when states are passing tough immigration laws
* Immigrants are more likely to start businesses and create jobs, the city says
(CNN) -- At a time when the trend among state legislatures is to create tough immigration laws, one Ohio city is pinning its ambitions on an opposite track.
Dayton, with a population of about 140,000, wants to become the friendliest place for immigrants.
Immigrants, officials say, have opened businesses and created jobs in the city's economy, and they hope to reverse the region's economic slowdown by betting on immigrants.
The Dayton City Commission this week accepted the so-called "Welcome Dayton" plan, a framework for policies that could be implemented to make the city a more welcoming place.
The pro-immigrant sentiment in Dayton stands in contrast to a number of high profile laws at the state level targeting illegal immigrants, but it is not a perfect comparison.
The state laws are focused on combating illegal immigration. The city plan has nothing to do with illegal immigration, officials say, but rather with welcoming immigrants and treating all residents with respect.
"Critics conveniently connect the word 'immigrant' with the word 'illegal' when talking about the Welcome Dayton plan, but that's not what this initiative is all about," City Manager Tim Riordan said in a news release. "We have many good people from all nationalities coming here to invest in the community and to build a better life."
But at least a couple of the recommendations made in the Welcome Dayton plan appear to take undocumented immigrants into consideration.
The plan suggests the creation of a municipal identification card for Dayton residents who don't have any other form of ID. Such a card could presumably help undocumented residents who need identification to open bank accounts or apply for driver's licenses and other services.
Another item that could have an impact on those who are in the country illegally is a recommendation that police emphasize immigration status checks only for suspects of serious crimes. Such a policy could protect undocumented immigrants stopped for minor offenses from fearing deportation. It is an opposite approach from those states with laws that seek to have police check the immigration status of everyone they stop.
Other Dayton recommendations include improving the interpreter capabilities offered by the city and creating hiring incentives for government employees to learn a foreign language.
The Welcome Dayton plan also advocates seeking federal grants for English study for immigrants. It also recommends using city lobbyists to advocate for pro-immigrant laws at the state and federal level.
Many of these proposals would be controversial at the federal level, but opposition appeared to be minor in Dayton. At the public hearing where the plan was discussed, 10 members of the public stood up to address the commissioners about it. Nine of the 10 spoke in support of the measure, and the lone dissenter wasn't from Dayton, but from nearby Columbus.
The plan was approved unanimously.
Dayton Mayor Gary Leitzell declined to speak to CNN Saturday, and referred to a statement posted on his blog, which he read at the commission meeting.
"This plan is designed to enhance the potential of Dayton as a competitor in the global economy by attracting immigrants who bring new ideas, new perspective, and new talent to our work force," Leitzell said in the statement. "In order to reverse the decades-long trend of economic decline in this city, we need to think globally and recruit the very best from around the world."
Welcome Dayton was hatched from a study of housing conditions for Hispanic residents, which ultimately led to a multiagency, communitywide effort to draft the plan.
When the city asked its residents about the impact of immigrants, they learned that businesses had been started by immigrants. Houses were rehabilitated and underused buildings were reused and rejuvenated, the report found.
According to the city, immigrants are two times more likely than others to become entrepreneurs.
"History proves that closed minds and resistance to change only results in failure," Leitzell said. "To those citizens who are against the Welcome Dayton plan — instead of condemning something that you didn't participate in, volunteer to help us make it better."
A race-baiter who has a mission to destroy President Barack Obama and the Black community. The Drudge Report is a hub to conservatives who have issues with race, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, political and economic stands.
A rapper by the name of MrEBT makes a parody video that spoofs using a food stamp card, and here comes the racism.
Digital Hate: Report shows bigots' influence on Internet
Exposing bigotry on Facebook, YouTube and other social media
Bigots have ramped up sharply on Facebook, YouTube and other social media, with very anti-social aims -- including racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and Islamophobia -- according to a new report on the topic.
"They come for all the reasons everyone else does," Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said during a recent visit to South Florida. "For bigots, it's a way to reach the mainstream with its message."
Cooper was sharing the results of "Digital Hate," an annual report issued by the Los Angeles-based center.
The 13th annual report analyzes the spread of prejudice over blogs, message boards and other new media.
The rabbi was in South Florida to share the material with religious leaders, alerting them on what to watch for.
He plans to return in mid-April to brief law enforcement officers and political leaders, he said. And he has plenty to share.
The current report counts 14,000 sites, up from 11,500 just last year. They're run by everything from Klansmen to neo-Nazis to radical Muslims to Bulgarian, Japanese and other nationalist extremists.
And they're increasingly using otherwise legitimate sites like Twitter, MediaFire, even eBay. The report says "Arrahmah.com" uses the Flickr.com photo-sharing site to post free wallpapers, or desktop computer pictures, glorifying the three terrorists who bombed a nightclub in Bali in 2002.
They even spoof or imitate other sites, the Wiesenthal researchers have found. "Real Zionist News" looks like a Jewish newsfeed, but the articles instead say Jews control the White House and are attacking Christianity worldwide.
That's a standard theme of anti-Semites: that Jews control nations from behind the scenes. "800 Pound Gorilla," which uses the Wordpress blogging site, blames Jews for the terrorist attacks of 9-11. The site also denies the Holocaust and connects Kaballah with Freemasonry.
Bigots also have their own music stars. Alcoholocaust is best known for its black-hating and Jew-hating song "Joo Slaughter," posted on YouTube. People Haters produced "Day of the Rope," which adds gays to the death-wish list -- to a background of giggling children.
The "subculture of hate," as the Wiesenthal Center calls it, includes hate games. "Ethnic Cleansing" lets a player hunt blacks, Jews and Hispanics. And in an Iranian version of the old game "Snakes and Ladders," the snakes bear British and Israeli flags and Obama's face, the Wiesenthal report says.
Distortions even creep onto otherwise legitimate sites. Answering-christianity.com, which tries to persuade Christians to become Muslims, says the whole United States is the Antichrist. The site also argues that the 9-11 terrorist attack was an "inside terrorist job" of the U.S. and the Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.
The Wiesenthal report also notes a rise in online attacks against religious and ethnic communities.
"Bulgarian National Union" is an anti-immigrant, anti-gypsy and homophobic group, the Wiesenthal Center says. "Zaitokukai" focuses Japanese resentment against Koreans, Chinese and Christians in Japan. The group has grown almost purely through the web, Cooper says.
And the hate often goes beyond words. Several sites offer instructions for making poisons, explosives and cell phone detonators. "Black Tearful Days," a posting in December on several jihadist sites, has diagrams showing how to place bombs in a vest and an SUV.
"If you believe in religious freedom, you're committed to a world in which families should be able to go to prayers and return to their homes without fear of intimidation or violence," Cooper said.
Computers themselves become weapons. Members of a group based in Algeria, Turkey and Morocco say they hacked several Israeli websites, including jerusalemonline.com, the Wiesenthal report says. Reposting on the Al Qassam forum, they showed pictures and propaganda that they'd planted.
Cooper shares the "Digital Hate" report not only with local groups, but also the FBI and Homeland Security.
The group's website, wiesenthal.com, also sells the CD to the public for $20.
Finally, the Internet can police itself, the rabbi says. Social site managers can ban users who violate terms-of-service-agreements, which usually cover bigotry.
Once alerted, Facebook took down "Burn a Jew Day," "Kill a Jew Day" and "Kill a Jew Year." The site has also removed pages by Canadian neo-Nazi Kevin Goudreau. Each time, however, Goudreau simply starts another page -- more than 20 times thus far.
Cooper smiles. "Facebook is our biggest problem and our biggest ally."
Matt Drudge has cool new white supremacist fans!
The neo-confederate Council of Conservatives Citizens notes that the Drudge Report looks like their site these days
ThinkProgress and the Southern Poverty Law Center report that the neo-confederate CCC recently crowed on their website that Mr. Drudge's famous report looked remarkably like their own work.
"Drudge Report currently resembles CofCC.org," goes the headline.. (Heads up: link goes to neo-confederate white supremacist site!) "The extremely popular news aggregate Drudge Report appears to be the only major news outlet bringing up the astronomical amount of black crime taking place." And then there is the link to Drudge's list of all the "melees" and "chaos" that happened during a holiday weekend when lots of drunk revelers across the nation sometimes get rowdy (and are sometimes shot dead, by police officers).
So: Nice new friends you have made, Matt.
You know how every so often the lamestream media publishes or airs a bunch of stories about how influential and important Matt Drudge is? And it's proper "news" when he hires right-wing journalists to help him "cover" the elections or even when he simply promotes a friend's book? How come no one besides a couple commieliberalbloggers has actually said anything about Matt Drudge's impossible-to-ignore habit of blatant, shameless race-baiting, exactly?
Media Matters for America, a non-profit liberal media resource group has been gunning for Fox News over the past few years. With the first African American to be elected as president, Barack Obama and the network have been at odds over issues. And with that, comes the blatant disrespect and subtle racism to him.
The conservative network wasted no time trying to tie the high educated Obama with racial stereotypes of Black culture. Last year, the president stated that his interest in hip-hop music rappers like Nas and Lil' Wayne, the website Fox Nation post the president's love for gangster rappers. First Lady Michelle Obama host a poetry session at the White House and invites rapper Common. Common becomes a "cop killing" rapper. Three days after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Now as the president celebrates his birthday at the White House and invites Chris Rock and Jay-Z to the event, it's a "Hip-Hop BBQ".
Say what you will—Fox Nation knows how to keep things unique. We also love the url for the item:
http://nation.foxnews.com/president-obama/2011/08/05/obama-parties-chris-rock-jay-z-and-whoopi-while-rome-burn
Towards the end of a recent interview with Rolling Stone, President Obama was asked about his musical preferences, he replied:
My iPod now has about 2,000 songs, and it is a source of great pleasure to me. I am probably still more heavily weighted toward the music of my childhood than I am the new stuff. There's still a lot of Stevie Wonder, a lot of Bob Dylan, a lot of Rolling Stones, a lot of R&B, a lot of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Those are the old standards.
A lot of classical music. I'm not a big opera buff in terms of going to opera, but there are days where Maria Callas is exactly what I need.
Thanks to Reggie [Love, the president's personal aide], my rap palate has greatly improved. Jay-Z used to be sort of what predominated, but now I've got a little Nas and a little Lil Wayne and some other stuff, but I would not claim to be an expert. Malia and Sasha are now getting old enough to where they start hipping me to things. Music is still a great source of joy and occasional solace in the midst of what can be some difficult days.
Soul, folk, rock, R&B, jazz, "A lot of classical", and some rap; sounds like a fairly diverse musical palate. This represents the musical tastes of a number of Americans of the president's generation, especially those with school age children. Diversity is good, unless you are reading the Fox Nation website. According to Huffington Post, Fox Nation took this description and briefly posted the headline, "President of the United States Loves Gansta Rap" with photos of tattoo laden Nas and Lil' Wayne thrown in for "flava".
How does the president's acknowledgment of an appreciation for rap music become a love for "gangsta rap"?
This is not too subtle code language from conservative media that the "de-racialized" President Obama has an affinity for some element of African-American culture and this is something to fear. Here is another example in a long list of examples of how some elements in the media and politics continue to play to the fears of too many in America by fanning the flames of prejudice and racism.
Since his days as a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois Barack Obama has talked about equality and one America. During his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention he said that the greatness of this nation can be summed up in the declaration, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal... There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America." In his famous "race speech" in 2008 Senator Obama talked about continuing the long march, "of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America."
For too many in this country, this de-racialized race-neutral politics coming from a man of African decent is something to fear. Former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo opened the Tea Party convention by calling for a reinstatement of Jim Crow type literacy tests for voters and saying, "This is our country...Let's take it back." Who's country is it and Tancredo wants to take it back from whom?
Recently in an interview with National Review's Robert Costa former House speaker Newt Gingrich said,
"What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? ...This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president." Again, not so subtle code language playing to the fear of President Obama's Kenyan heritage and to the unfounded rhetoric of the "birther" movement. Actually, anti-colonial behavior is a good thing if you are a victim of colonialism.
According to Rep. Pete King (R-NY), President Barack Obama is "probably the most threatened president ever." Most of these threats are not because of health care reform, the stimulus bill, or the problems with Israel. There are still too many people in America that refuse to allow him to govern as the president; they will oppose him at every turn because he's an African-American who is the president .
Numerous cartoons have featured President Obama and/or first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys, terrorists, or Muslim suicide bombers. What are they afraid of? President Obama has called for change not Mau Mau revolution. He is working within the established structure, not working to overthrow it. The president loves gansta' rap? During the Henry Louis Gates arrest in Cambridge, President Obama said that the arresting officers "acted stupidly" not as NWA said, "F**k the Police".
The Fox Nation claim that the "President of the United States Loves Gansta' Rap" is a bit far fetched and nothing but a scare tactic. It's the latest example in a long line of contradictions that are grounded in a fear of the African-American influence in a fictitious "post-racial" America. Or as Public Enemy would say, "Fear of a Black Planet".
Dr. Wilmer Leon is the Producer/ Host of the nationally broadcast call-in talk radio program "Inside the Issues With Wilmer Leon," and a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email: wjl3us@yahoo.com.
Fox News and The Drudge Report caters to the worst of society. Subtle racism and misinformation creates the toxic environment that spawns in the conservatives who support the Tea Party let alone the entire Republican Party.
A Minnesota school district allowed a homecoming event called "Wigger Day," during which students wore clothes and behaved in a manner that "from their perspective, mimicked black culture," according to a federal a class action lawsuit filed against the district on Friday.
The suit alleges that despite student council voting on a "tropical theme" for homecoming in 2009, a group of approximately 60 students from the predominantly white school instead attended the event dressed for "Wigger Wednesday" in "oversized sports jerseys, low-slung pants, baseball hats cocked to the side and 'doo rags.'"
"Wigger is a pejorative slang term for a white person who emulates the mannerisms, language and fashions associated with African-American culture," the complaint explains.
Students also referred to the activity as "Wangsta Day" -- meaning "white gangsta" or "Red Winger gangsta" -- and created a Facebook group advocating for the event. (Warning: This Facebook link contains offensive language.)
The plaintiff, former Red Wing High School student Quera Pruitt, an African American, claims that the school's lack of intervention caused her "severe emotional distress including depression, loss of sleep, stress, crying, humiliation, anxiety, and shame." Pruitt filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Minnesota on behalf of an unnamed class of "all students who experienced discrimination as a result of Wigger Day." The complaint states the class could include more than 40 people.
Pruitt's attorney, Joshua Williams, says her family hoped the incident would be addressed following "Wigger Day" 2008. While it was never an officially-sanctioned school event, the family discovered "Wigger Wednesday" was something of a tradition.
After the 2009 incident, "[Pruitt's] mom came up to the school, attempted to reach out to the school board, the superintendent, and the principal, but Red Wing's response was essentially to sweep this under the rug and act like it didn't happen," Williams told The Huffington Post.
According to Williams, Pruitt became depressed, quit the cheerleading squad, left student council, skipped her senior prom and even considered dropping out of school.
Pruitt also declined to participate in the school's Martin Luther King Day ceremonies, considering the memorial a "farce." She graduated in 2010 and moved back to Little Rock, Ark.
Williams added that the school district has acknowledged that "Wigger Day" took place in 2007 and 2008, but neglected to prevent the event from happening in 2009.
Red Wing principal Beth Borgen and school district superintendent Karsten Anderson, both defendants in the suit, say the school is committed to creating a learning an environment free from discrimination.
According to a 2009 article on KARE-11, students participating in "Wigger Day" that year were immediately sent to change their clothes, but no additional punishment followed.
Williams, who is seeking $75,000 in damages for his client, did not know whether "Wigger Day" took place again in 2010.
A statement from Anderson obtained by HuffPost says the district "denies the allegations that it has created a racially hostile environment and looks forward to meeting these allegations in court."
Williams says that position is "symptomatic of Red Wing's response to 'Wigger Day' form the onset."
"The students shouldn't have felt empowered to hold 'Wigger Day' in 2009," Williams said. "These students were not disciplined, they were not counseled and they were not punished. This could have been a teachable moment."
The video has already gone viral, gaining thousands of views for the day.
White supremacist websites Niggermania and Chimpout, again!
The never ending conflict from these cowards with keyboards. Tom Shelly's racist shithole Niggermania is fuming up over the conservative agitator and gay activist Matt Drudge's link to a vicious beating at a McDonald's in Baltimore.
The attackers were teenagers, the victim was a transgendered.
The source of ire, Black teenagers, white woman.
A video of a vicious beating at a Baltimore County McDonald’s restaurant went viral Friday, garnering hundreds of thousands of views on websites and prompting the fast-food giant to issue a statement condemning the incident.
The video shows two women — one of them a 14-year-old girl — repeatedly kicking and punching the 22-year-old victim in the head, as an employee of the Rosedale restaurant and a patron try to intervene. Others can be heard laughing, and men are seen standing idly by.
Toward the end of the video, one of the suspects lands a punishing blow to the victim’s head, and she appears to have a seizure. A man’s voice tells the women to run because police are coming.
The three-minute clip was apparently first posted on YouTube, then taken down by administrators who said it violated the site’s policies. But it popped back up on other sites and was ultimately linked from the popular Drudge Report, which gave it top billing for much of the day.
Equality Maryland said the victim is a transgender woman and called on state Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler to step in and investigate the case as a hate crime. Police and prosecutors said they did not know whether the victim is a transgender woman. “It does appear that the victim was a transgender woman, and she was brutalized while people stood by and watched,” said Lisa Polyak, vice president of the board of directors for Equality Maryland, an advocacy organization that fought unsuccessfully in the past legislative session for greater protections for transgender individuals.
“There’s no excuse for that violence under any circumstances, but we would encourage police to investigate as a hate crime.”
The police report does not provide a motive, but quotes one of the suspects saying that the fight was “over using a bathroom.”
The Smoking Gun reports- The police report identifies the victim as 22-year-old Chrissy Lee Polis, who appears identical to Christopher Lee Polis, whose rap sheet includes convictions for disorderly conduct, property destruction, and prostitution, according to court records. Polis told police that she was walking to the restaurant’s bathroom when she “got into a verbal argument with two black females” who “began punching her in the face with their fists and pulling her hair.”
The video featured on the Drudge Report shows two black women beating a white woman at a McDonald’s restaurant in Baltimore County, Maryland.
Various persons look on as the assault occurs. The victim is on the floor as both women punch and stomp her.
After the 2 women are done with the assault, they leave the restaurant. Soon after they re-enter and assault the woman again, dragging her to the front of the restaurant.
Eventually the beaten woman appears to have a seizure near the doorway. Her whole body begins to shake as her arms flap against the wall and window door.
The Baltimore Sun reports the victim was 22-years-old. Her condition is not yet known.
The 2 women are ages 14 and 18-years-old. The 14-year-old has been arrested and charged as a juvenile, according to the Associated Press.
McDonald’s has responded to the video, saying it is working with authorities to find out what exactly happened.
The women who commit this act upon the victim should face harsh punishment. No matter what the victim did in her past, the actions of these young women is callous and destructive.
The Smoking Gun reports that a manager at the Rosedale McDonald’s said she was “not allowed to speak to a reporter." In a corporate statement this afternoon, McDonald’s said it was “shocked by the video from a Baltimore franchise,” and called the incident “unacceptable, disturbing and troubling.” The firm added, “We are working with the franchisee and the local authorities to investigate this matter.”
Mega blogger Arianna Huffington sold her popular liberal blog Huffington Post to AOL for $315 million. Started in 2005, the news site surpass the controversial conservative Drudge Report in 2009. It attracts many including myself to read the latest in politics, entertainment and media.
Arianna Huffington is also involved in her talk radio shows Left, Right and Center, Both Sides with Huffington and Matlin, and voice acting for Seth MacFarlane/Mike Henry's The Cleveland Show.
The new Arianna Huffington-run AOL news operation has fired scores of AOL business and finance freelancers, and is offering them the opportunity to work again—for free, according to reports from contributors. The popular liberal's controversial labor practices are triggering another uproar over AOL's multi-million-dollar acquisition of the Huffington Post, and have already spurred calls by journalists and union leaders for an "electronic" strike. Some of the canned freelancers are being offered staff jobs in the new operation, which is headed by Huffington, though numbers have not been revealed. All others have been told they can continue to write for free, reports the Business Insider. The Huffington Post has come under intense fire from its own unpaid freelancers, who complain that they helped create the operation that Huffington sold to AOL for $315 million. A Huffington Post-AOL spokesman denied "mass terminations" are underway, and said the changes are part of a strategy to "shift from relying on freelancers and contractors to investing in full-time staff." Many AOL workers are stunned by Huffington's power in the new set up. "I've never seen someone buy a company and then give the keys to the safe to the people who run that company," an AOL staffer tells the Guardian.
Newser and the Guardian (UK) contribute to the story.
Conservative activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles poised as a "pimp" and "prostitute" in an attempt to uncover wrongdoing at community housing group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). They generated mainstream coverage after they filmed several workers talking about illegal activities.
The roller coaster of stupidity in the name of conservatism. James O'Keefe, 25 along with three other men were arrested for attempting "bug" Louisiana Democratic senator Mary Landrieu's main office in New Orleans.
Perhaps the most disturbing thing in the media, investigative journalism. Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger with ties to Matt Drudge was promoting videos by O'Keefe and his former girlfriend Hannah Giles. The pair were convinced that the community organization group ACORN was responsible for Barack Obama's victory in 2008 through "voter fraud" and "illicit activities". They traveled to ten ACORN locations and managed to videotape a few of the workers talking about "how to created fake voter registrations", "smuggling El Salvadoran children for prostitution" and convinced a woman to "admit that she murdered her husband". They wanted to expose the liberal lies and shame the group.
The CEO of the community group Bertha Lewis slammed the pair, Fox News (which heavily promoted the pair) and the Republican Party for creating a "witch hunt" and slander of an organization that helps low income families find housing. ACORN is currently in the process of suing Breitbart, O'Keefe and Giles for restitution and unauthorized filming in a private business.
The impact of the videos affected the lawmakers and many broke ties to the group. The House of Representatives and Senate have voted unanimously to sever funding to the organization group. The U.S. Justice Department is fighting the repeal the decision made by Congress.
Since the videos were posted on YouTube, O'Keefe and Giles became internet sensations. Unfortunately, Ms. Giles image was tarnished in the matter and hasn't been featured in many of the filming by O'Keefe.
To make matters worse, this arrest has been buzzing across the internet. Many liberals are thrilled to see this person arrest, and conservative voice despair and anger to the actions. One prominent conservative activist, Michelle Malkin dismissed him and severed ties to O'Keefe. In one of her postings, Malkin stated:
"Let it be a lesson to aspiring young conservatives interested in investigative journalism: Know your limits! "Know the law. Don’t get carried away. And don’t become what you are targeting."
Details on the matter: Associated Press
Conservative ties bind 4 La. phone plot suspects
New Orleans (AP) - Four men accused of trying to tamper with Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu's office phones shared a common experience as young ideologues writing for conservative publications.
Federal authorities said two of the men posed as telephone workers with hard hats, tool belts and fluorescent vests and walked into Landrieu's office in a New Orleans federal building Monday. The others are accused of helping to organize the plan.
The most well-known suspect is James O'Keefe, 25, who posed as a pimp for a hidden-camera expose that damaged the reputation of the liberal community-organizing group ACORN and made him a conservative darling.
O'Keefe and suspect Joseph Basel, 24, formed their own conservative publications on their college campuses. A third suspect, Stan Dai, 24, was editor of his university's conservative paper and directed a program aimed at getting college students interested in the intelligence field after 9/11.
The fourth suspect, Robert Flanagan, 24, wrote for the New Orleans-based conservative Pelican Institute and had recently criticized Landrieu for voting in favor of health care legislation after securing a Medicaid provision helpful to her state.
O'Keefe was a featured speaker at a Pelican Institute luncheon days before his arrest, though institute president Kevin Kane said Wednesday that he had no idea what happened at Landrieu's office or what the four were doing there. Flanagan, son of the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, was a contract worker for the institute, mostly writing for its blog.
"Robert has done terrific work and I think very highly of him, and am very sorry to see him in this difficult situation," Kane said.
It's not yet clear whether the plan was a prank intended to be captured on camera or a more serious attempt at political espionage, as claimed by state Democrats who dubbed it "LouisianaWatergate."
Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan said Republicans once praised O'Keefe as an American hero, "yet today, in light of these deplorable and illegal attacks on the office of a United States senator by their champion, Republicans have not offered a single iota of disgust, a whisper of indignation or even a hint of outrage."
In October, Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, sponsored a resolution praising O'Keefe and the woman who posed as a prostitute, Hannah Giles, for their investigation of "fraudulent and illegal practices and misuse of taxpayer dollars" by ACORN. Thirty-one Republican congressmen signed on as co-sponsors.
In response to the arrests, Olson said that "if recent events conclude that any laws were broken in the incident in Sen. Landrieu's office — that is not something I condone."
A witness told authorities O'Keefe was sitting in the waiting area of Landrieu's office and appeared to record Basel and Flanagan on his cell phone when they arrived posing as phone workers. Landrieu, who was in Washington at the time, said in a statement that the plot was "unsettling" for her and her staff.
A federal law enforcement official said one of the suspects was picked up in a car a couple of blocks away with a listening device that could pick up transmissions. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not part of the FBI affidavit. Another official said Dai was the suspect arrested outside.
All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
"It was poor judgment," Flanagan's lawyer, Garrison Jordan, said. "I don't think there was any intent or motive to commit a crime."
O'Keefe, Basel and Dai returned to the courthouse carrying suitcases Wednesday morning for private appointments with the department that handles arrangements with defendants before trial. None would comment as they entered and exited the courthouse.
Flanagan, who was not with them, is the only suspect who lives in Louisiana. Basel is from Minnesota; O'Keefe, New Jersey; and Dai, the D.C.-Virginia area.
As O'Keefe left jail Tuesday with Dai and Basel, he said only "Veritas," Latin for truth.
As he got into a cab outside, O'Keefe said, "The truth shall set me free." His father, James O'Keefe, Jr., of Westwood, N.J., said he had not spoken to his son in several days and did not know he had traveled to New Orleans, let alone why he went to Landrieu's office.
"That would not be something that I can even imagine him doing," he said. "I think this is going to be blown out of proportion."
The allegations were quickly condemned by ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now. Its political affiliates have registered hundreds of thousands of voters in urban and other poor areas of the country.
O'Keefe's arrest "is further evidence of his disregard for the law in pursuit of his extremist agenda," ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis said in a statement. The organization's Twitter feed commented on the news: "Couldn't have happened to a more deserving soul."
Last year, O'Keefe used a hidden camera to record ACORN staffers who appeared to offer illegal tax advice and support the misuse of public funds and illegal trafficking in children.
The videos were first posted on biggovernment.com, a site run by conservative Andrew Breitbart. In the past, Breitbart has said O'Keefe — now a paid contributor to BigGovernment.com — is an independent filmmaker, not an employee.
In an e-mail to The Associated Press, Breitbart said: "We have no knowledge about or connection to any alleged acts and events involving James O'Keefe at Senator Mary Landrieu's office."
Dai is a former assistant director of a program at Trinity Washington University that taught students about careers in intelligence, university president Patricia McGuire said. It was part of a national effort to interest students at liberal arts colleges in careers in intelligence but did not teach spy craft, she said.
He was listed as a "freelance consultant" in a Junior Statesmen program at the Central Intelligence Agency where he appeared as a speaker.
O'Keefe and Basel were also active in conservative publications at their respective colleges, Rutgers University and the University of Minnesota-Morris. They gave a joint interview Jan. 14 to CampusReform.org, a Web site that supports college conservatives on student publications.
"I happen to call what I do shoe leather journalism and not advocacy journalism," O'Keefe was quoted as saying. "So, I would consider it just journalism."
___
Associated Press Writers Kevin McGill in New Orleans, Pete Yost in Washington, Justin Pritchard in Los Angeles and Ben Nuckols in Baltimore contributed to this report.
The demise of liberal Air America had more to do with its boring self than with conservative dominance.
By James Rainey
January 27, 2010
Air America went out of business last week and I'm ready to accept the significance of the radio network's demise -- the inevitable marginalization of those who support big government, illegal immigration and the homosexual agenda.
Yet the Drudge Report has been dropping further behind the Huffington Post, the conservative aggregator attracting well under half the liberal website's audience. Even a dummy can see what that means -- that this country has no appetite for gun rights, private property, the value of the unborn or the sanctity of the American flag.
And to repeat the obvious: Huge ticket sales for "Avatar" reveal the world's budding sympathy and respect for poor indigenous peoples. Bet on it.
There's nary a shift or shimmy in our culture that someone's not invoking as a political watershed. Television ratings, newspaper circulations, even movie box office all become mere signposts in the endless struggle of left vs. right -- at least if the people filling my in-box are any example.
Last week's shutdown of the nearly 6-year-old Air America radio network provided the most recent opportunity to heap mountainous meaning on a political molehill. That obscures the more telling lesson of what caused Air America to fail: Bad radio. Boring radio. Preachy radio.
The upstart network, founded by radio naifs, couldn't get any traction in a radio niche that conservatives effectively cornered two decades ago. Their sharp, populist approach had become the industry standard for owners of powerful AM outlets.
Conservatives began to carved out a formidable radio beachhead in the years following the abandonment of the FCC's Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters until 1987 to provide equal time to alternative points of view.
Talk radio had been something of a backwater before that time, with relatively few outlets on an AM dial once dominated by music. Those who set up camp built their audiences slowly, painstakingly, over many years, said Michael Harrison, editor and publisher of Talkers, a trade magazine about talk radio.
But that began to change when "The Rush Limbaugh Show" went up on 56 stations in 1988. Not everyone wanted gentle interviews and ideological balance. Limbaugh's slashing provocations and inflammatory pronouncements kept people listening. They told their friends.
As he built toward some 600 stations and an audience now estimated at 20 million, Limbaugh went from being an unknown to the standard. Program directors would clear space for lesser-known conservative talkers in the hope of mimicking anything like Limbaugh's success.
At the same time, corporate consolidations were putting radio programming decisions into fewer hands. And the people in charge tended to go with the tried and true.
Today, liberals seethe when they hear someone call Limbaugh a brilliant broadcaster who built his large audience through years of hard work and creativity. Conservatives become just as ornery when they're told that their radio dominance might represent something less than a political mandate.
Limbaugh and even his imitators continue to hold on to the stronger stations, with broader reach, where they put down roots years ago. Those bigger stations also tend to promote their programs more aggressively, helping cement conservative dominance in the talk venue.
"There is just a tremendous reluctance in management of these talk stations to try anything new right now," Harrison said. "Even in advertising sales, they're more accustomed to selling the conservative shows. They go with the path of least resistance."
From the time a couple of Democratic activists launched it in March 2004, Air America's biggest problem was that its operators treated it as a blunt political instrument, not a vehicle for entertainment. "Saturday Night Live" star Al Franken, comedian Janeane Garofalo and others seemed uncertain how to fill long hours of air time. They frittered away a lot of segments obsessing about the dominance of Limbaugh and his brethren.
"I'm a big fan of Rachel Maddow and Al Franken," said Stephanie Miller, one of the most popular liberal entertainers on AM radio, who appears in L.A. on KTLK (1150). "But they were both doing this to get to something else. To build radio you have to get radio people and build an audience."
Maddow has moved on to her own show on cable television's MSNBC, while Franken got himself elected to the U.S. Senate. Miller said she and other radio veterans, carried by other syndicates, welcome the chance to stumble or soar on their own, without having outsiders judge progressive radio solely through the lens of Air America.
Robin Bertolucci sits in a unique position in Los Angeles, as the program director of both the dominant conservative talk outlet, KFI-AM (640), and of liberal-oriented KTLK.
The liberal outlet's weekly cumulative audience of 207,000 is only about one-sixth the size of KFI's.
Bertolucci said liberal talkers can draw sizable audiences: "I don't think there is any barrier. It just takes the right, smart person. . . . People like me, we are shameless. We just want to get ratings."
While both friend and foe view Limbaugh as a titan who consumes or alters everything in his path, it's worth remembering that, in his morning slot at KFI (not unlike a lot of other markets), he pulls 3% or 4% of the L.A. radio audience.
It might not be a bad time to recalibrate on a few other media fronts, as well: For those who tell me about the growing power of the liberal Huffington Post, remember, an audience of 9 million unique users is substantial, but still a sliver of the vast Web pie. And those who tout the conservative Fox News Channel's huge lead on cable TV, please recognize the massive audience advantage the three nightly network news shows still enjoy -- their combined audience of 25 million dwarfs the 3 million who watch "Special Report" on Fox.
The caricature of the ideological mix on radio has been even more extreme. Many folks make their assessments of conservative dominance because they talk about only those talkers who are overtly political. But moderates and liberals pop up on many other platforms -- from National Public Radio to urban contemporary stations to morning shock programs.
"When you put it all together," Harrison said, "that's quite an audience people forget about. When people ask if conservatives dominate, I say they dominate in conservative talk radio. It makes tremendous money, gets tremendous buzz and plays a role in the political dialogue. But it's not this total domination of American thought and politics."
A throwback to last year. When the Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter switch parties, he dished some dirt on the tactics that Senate Republicans to obstruct President Barack Obama's agenda and focus on races in 2010 and 2012.
Republican Scott Brown, the new Massachusetts senator is being touted around as the future of GOP.
Republicans celebrate now, but the victory will be a reminder that you better get your act together. Democrats, now it's time to regroup. We can't allow the defeat down you! Best believe that the "tea party movement" is a thorn in the side. But it's best to line up a strategy.
Democrats lose the seat held by the late senator Ted Kennedy. The Democrats are now scrambling for a massive defensive. Republicans celebrate a strong victory. Scott Brown, now senator-elect, what's next?
President of The United States? Who knows, Drudge? Seriously, I think dude sees the same crystal ball I see!
Conservative activists are gloating now that Scott Brown may be the future of the once disgraced party. Republicans have channeled into the anger of the "angry white male". President Barack Obama ratings according to GALLUP is standing around 50% - 43%. The support among white voters is down significantly. Again, the conservative media, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin and Matt Drudge want the president to fail!
They'll line up a moderate Republican to defeat President Obama! And once again, the partisan gap increases. Independents are the key to election victories. Democrats, it's time to step your game up! What's the problem? If I voted for a decent health care reform, I wanted it with the public option! If one thing has taught me about politicians, they are destructive! And to make this clear, Republicans are no better. If they were better, then Senator John McCain and Sarah Palin would run this country.
I seriously believe the Republicans want to continue to push the "angry white male", "concern housewife", "the gun owner who is concerned that President Obama will take his gun", "angry banker who wants to rip me and millions of other off with high deductible loans and foreclose on my home" and follow the "angry guy on the radio who spouts off!"
CREDIBILITY MATTERS AND BELIEVE ME IN A MIDTERM ELECTION, DRUDGE IS EVEN MORE SLIMIER! Drudge uses the screen cap to promote the notion Republicans will take back Congress, again. Will it happen? Who knows?
What could be worse for the party in power? The president's polls, the Democrats trying to gather support for health care reform, or the fact that members of their party are retiring!
With prominent Democrat retirings, the Republicans want to seize opportunity to retake the Congress.
Senators Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut), Bryon Dorgan (D-North Dakota), Governor Bill Ritter (D-Colorado), Congressman Bart Gordon (D-Tennessee), Congressman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), Congressman Brian Baird (D-Washington), Congressman John Tanner (D-Tennessee), Congressman Dennis Moore (D-Kansas), and Robert Wexler (D-Florida) are leaving the political spotlight.
Congressman Parker Griffith of Alabama, is now a Republican. The congressman switched parties after criticizing the Democratic agenda in December 2009. More misfortunes trouble Democrats. The ailing Senator Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) is not appearing for role call, and Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut) is a thorn in the Democratic agenda.
The Democratic Party is fearing the political tidal wave of anger from supporters and critics. Right now, Republicans feel the momentum of the tea party protests, the resentment of government spending and the economic woes as a ticket to victory.
President Obama's job approvals are in the low 50s and some are in the high 40s. That's not good. Some of the problems do reside with reasonable concerns (federal spending, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, high unemployment, economic woes, and lack of interest), the sole reasons for Republican rage is basically racism. And it's so blatant, I even went as far to make a video criticizing the conservatives running around with this "Socialist" crap.
