Idaho Kids chant Assassinate Obama

Kids chant Assassinate Obama – 236.com – The Feed

Yup, that’s the state where I grew up, all right.  Red State Refugee isn’t just a tag line, it’s a badge of honor!

Racists for Obama

[Quick promotional note before I get started.  I will be appearing in Nashville, Tennessee at the Millennium State Park at 3pm for a speaking engagement.  It's my first visit to Tennessee, yet I'll be hanging out with two natives whom I already know.  Then it's an early morning flight back to Portland to watch election returns. -- "R"R]

I’m your standard-issue, stereotypically demographically average straight married middle-class white guy.  (If I were Christian and liked Bud more than bud, I’d be a complete cliché.)  I’m a racist and I voted for Barack Obama.

Whoa, wait a second?  A racist?  Me?

Sure.  You too.  You’re a racist.

Let me explain.  I’m not talking about that hateful KKK-style drag-a-guy-behind-a-pickup-truck racist.  I’m talking about an almost unavoidable natural human prejudice about others based on race, particularly growing up in America, where race colors nearly every issue.  And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that Barack Obama’s race is one of the reasons I voted for him.

My racism is subtle, but distinct.  When I watch boxing matches between two unknown fighters, I tend to think the darker of the two will likely win (but not mixed-martial arts, where I bet on the guy with the most messed-up ears).  There’s really no logical reason to prejudge like that.  If I’m cut off in traffic, I seem to be angrier if the offending driver is Asian.  That’s not right, but I feel angry even as I’m offending my rational self by feeling angry.  I tend to think Native Americans are really spiritual, that Hispanics have strong families and volatile men, and that Jews… well, I don’t really have a Jewish prejudice, because I grew up in Idaho and Jews may as well have been Martians.

I’ve had many discussions with many people of many races about this.  One friend told me there’s a difference between racism and seeing things racially.  Racism is thinking black people are inferior; racialism is thinking black people are different.  It was a long conversation that meandered around a discussion of choosing the last guy for your pickup basketball team, both unknown, same height, build, but one’s black and one’s white – who do you pick and why?  I say the black guy because, all other things being equal and knowing nothing of either’s background, odds are the black guy more likely grew up in a city playing tougher competition.  There was talk of culture, Jim Crow, and diversity and before too long, we had to roll another joint…

But I digress.  Of Barack Obama’s race, I don’t think my voting for him is this white guilt the right-wing likes to talk about.  I didn’t vote for Obama because I felt guilty about my oppressor ancestors bringing conquest, genocide, slavery, and abuse upon the indigenous peoples of three continents.

I voted for him because for him to get to this point he’s got to be damn good.  Do you think Barack Obama would’ve gotten this nomination if he was a C student at Harvard, even if his daddy was the president once?  No, he doesn’t only have to get A’s at Harvard, he’s got to be the smartest guy in his class.  Given two equally successful guys, one black, one white, like the basketball court, I’ll pick the black guy because my prejudice tells me he overcame more to get there.

While white politicians have to be caught in major sex scandals to go down in flames (see Jack Ryan, John Edwards), black politicians need only be suggestively propositioned by an actress in a campaign ad to lose an election (see Harold Ford Jr.)  Obama is so scandal-free that the best mud the righties have on him is that a couple of people he knows did or said bad things years ago.  How cool can this guy be?  That’s another of my prejudices, that black guys are naturally “cooler”.

Chris Rock recently said, “George W. Bush is such a bad president he made it tough for a white guy to run for president.  ’Ah, give me a black man, a white woman, whatever…’”  It’s a racist idea, but maybe having 43 white guys in a row running the country isn’t a great idea, either.  Obama’s race, both black and white, plus being raised overseas, briefly living in poverty, having foreign relatives, born of a Muslim and an Atheist yet a practicing Christian, wow, what a truly American idea and what a fresh perspective in the White House!  

I would have voted for any Democratic nominee, but I’m especially proud to be alive this day and to have cast my ballot for America’s first African-American president.  That’s racist, isn’t it?  Shouldn’t I just be proud to cast a vote for the next president?

“Keep The N*gger Out Of Office”

“Keep The N*gger Out Of Office” – October 8, 2008
OCTOBER 8–Angered by a delay in the receipt of his voter registration card, a Louisiana man today threatened election officials, claiming that he urgently needed to cast a ballot to “keep the nigger out of office,” according to police. Wade Williams, 75, was arrested this morning on a felony terrorizing charge after allegedly calling the Registrar of Voters and warning that he would come to the state office and empty his shotgun unless he got his registration card. Using profanity and racial slurs, Williams told a state official “about needing to vote to ‘keep the nigger out of office,” according to an Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office affidavit, a copy of which you’ll find here. Though the document does not name the candidate to which Williams is so violently opposed, it seems likely he was referring to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. After being arrested at his Monroe home, Williams was booked into the Ouachita Correctional Center, where the below mug shot was snapped. En route to the jail, he “continued his ‘tirade’ about niggers and also stated that he had a shotgun, but had it hidden at his residence,” reported Lt. Michael Judd.

Sat, Oct 4: Don’t take my word for it…

I’m starting a new feature here at The Writ.  Following my show I’m going to post some of my notes and links that I mentioned so you don’t have to take my word for it.  I’m just the messenger:

Today’s British Slang Introduction of Stevie:

“Our man from across the pond, working the phones in our Nation’s capital, a man who’ll never fanny around before quaffing a pint of Guiness with a Liverpudlian and unafraid to knock up Glaswegian who’s taken a kip in front of the Telly, one of the few immigrant workers who still wants to work for an American Dollar, our own Stevie Webb!”

Sarah Palin made raped women pay for their “rape kit”.

CNN’s Jessica Yellin claimed to have found no evidence in city records that Sarah Palin was aware that sexual assault victims were being billed for forensic testing. However, recently released budget documents show that Sarah Palin directly shifted the cost of the rape kits from the police department to the victims in her budget for fiscal year 2000. If what a former city council member told CNN is true, that “Palin would review each department’s budget line by line,” then she either knew about the funding shift and approved it or was negligent in her role as state executive.

It is a fact that under Sarah Palin’s administration, Wasilla cut funds that had previously paid for the medical exams and began charging victims or their health insurers the $500 to $1200 fees. Although Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella wrote USA Today that the GOP vice presidential nominee “does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test…To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice,” the evidence from Wasilla’s budget records says otherwise.

Wouldn’t oppose an “evidence-gathering test” is word parsing to say “I’m not against DNA tests to catch rapists, I’m just against giving women pills to abort their rapist’s baby.”

Government won’t test your produce for pesticides anymore.

WASHINGTON—The Bush administration has abruptly halted a government program that tests the levels of pesticides in fruits, vegetables and field crops, arguing that the $8 million-a-year program is too expensive—a decision critics say could make it harder to protect consumers from toxins in their food.

Data from the 18-year-old Agricultural Chemical Usage Program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture were collected until this year, and the Environmental Protection Agency used the data to set safe levels of pesticides in food.

The program was launched in 1990 to answer congressional concerns over the use of the chemical daminozide, or Alar, on apples. But now USDA contends the program is too expensive.

It would cost about one thousandth of one percent of the Wall Street bailout bill we just passed in order to test our food crops for dangerous pesticides… and that’s too expensive.

Arkansas City, KS Mayor “Smellishus Poon” defends drag blackface skit... then apologizes:

Arkansas City Mayor Mel Kuhn won the weekend fundraiser, in which he appeared in dark makeup and used a vulgar reference to female genitalia as his character name. The fundraiser was for Court Appointed Special Advocates, which supports foster children.

Kuhn told the [Arkansas City Traveler] newspaper that his makeup didn’t constitute blackface and that he did not really manage to carry out the character as a black woman; he said it ended up being more like a gypsy.

“I can’t do a black accent,” he said.

Oh, well, in that case it wasn’t offensive at all!  Everybody knows it’s OK to denigrate the Roma people (they love it when you call them “Gypsies”).

Liberal Media Bias against Palin/McCain:

The multinational corporations that run the mainstream media — GE (NBC), Time Warner (CNN), Walt Disney (ABC), News Corporation (FOX), and Viacom (CBS) — stand to benefit hugely under a McCain presidency. The centerpiece of Sen. McCain’s economic plan — actually, the whole plan— is large tax cuts for corporations. It would deliver $1.44 billion in tax cuts to the five largest media companies, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

You don’t get to be the mainstream media without drinking deeply from the main stream of GOP deregulation and irresponsible tax slashing.

Marijuana Minute: Most people think War on Drugs is a failure, and texting or drinking drivers are worse drivers than cannabis smokers.

Zogby International
Three in four likely voters (76%) believe the U.S. war on drugs is failing, a sentiment that cuts across the political spectrum – including the vast majority of Democrats (86%), political independents (81%), and most Republicans (61%). There is also a strong belief that the anti-drug effort is failing among those who intend to vote for Barack Obama (89%) for president, as well as most supporters of John McCain (61%).

When asked what they believe is the single best way to combat international drug trafficking and illicit use, 27% of likely voters said legalizing some drugs would be the best approach — 34% of Obama supporters and 20% of McCain backers agreed.

Texting drivers more dangerous than drunks: study
Sending text messages from your mobile phone while driving is more dangerous than climbing behind the wheel under the influence of drink or drugs, a study by Britain’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has found.

The reaction times of people texting as they drove fell by 35 percent, while those who had consumed the legal limit of alcohol, or taken cannabis, fell by 21 percent and 12 percent respectively, according to the study.

Obama effigy at Oregon Christian college

Obama effigy found in Oregon shows ugly side of Northwest
Officials at George Fox University in Newberg, Ore., (a school founded more than a century ago by Quakers) said they found a life-size cardboard cutout of Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama “attached by fishing line to a tree.” A sign, reading “Act Six reject,” was taped to the effigy.

The cutout was found Tuesday morning and immediately taken down. University President Robin Baker is set to address undergraduates at 11:15 a.m. today.

“We will not tolerate such displays and condemn it in the strongest terms,” Baker said in a press statement Wednesday. “George Fox University is committed to becoming a place that more broadly represents the Kingdom of God – a place where students from diverse backgrounds come together to live out the teachings of Jesus in our world.”

Still in the same press statement, George Fox University said:

“University administrators do not know who put the cutout up or its intended meaning. The university requests that any information about the cutout be shared with the university’s Office of Student Life.”

Administrators don’t know what it means? Please.

The school’s Act Six program provides scholarships to student leaders from urban Portland. Many, but not all, are students of color, according the university’s release.

Ah, those good ol’ Christian values.  This wasn’t an effigy hung at one of those godless state universities like Oregon State or that bastion of liberalism University of Oregon.  This is li’l ol’ George Fox, chock full of good li’l Christian boys and girls.

Yes, of course the hanger of the effigy doesn’t represent most Christians, it’s obviously the work of a disturbed individual.  But next time one of my Christian relatives (one of whom graduated with a divinity degree from George Fox) sends me an email forward of a Muslim protest in London, with signs that say “Death to those who slander Islam!” and the subject line of “So much for ‘religion of peace’”, I now have a great blog post to forward to them.

Keith Tucker’s answer to the New Yorker Obama cover

Flippin’ genius – I thought about a similar drawing, but have no artistic skillz… –”R”R

Courtesy of Keith Tucker and What Now Toons.

Pin at the GOP state convention in Texas: “If Obama is President… will we still call it the White House?”

Pin at the GOP state convention in Texas: “If Obama is President… will we still call it the White House?”

I think so… but when George W. Bush was selected, I stopped calling the occupant “President”.

“An Inadequate Black Male”

It’s settled.  The Democratic Party of Michigan and the Democratic Party of Florida have put forth compromises to seat their delegations at a half-vote each.  The proposals have passed.  Now the number needed for nomination is 2118.  Senator Obama is 68 delegates shy of that.  There are 86 delegates remaining in the primaries.  If just twenty-three or so superdelegates pledge for Obama on Monday, Tuesday could be the day that Obama officially captures the nomination.

If so, it would be a painfully delicious irony, given the racial tone to this campaign season.  For all the claims that Barack Obama has a problem with “hard-working, white Americans”, he opens up his campaign with a surprise win in Iowa – not exactly an African-American voting base there – and this Tuesday, Montana, with a 0.4% black population*, a state he’s expected to win, will clinch the nomination for the first black president.

Judging by the video above, there are just some people who can’t reconcile the change.  To call Barack Obama “an inadequate black male” really cuts right to it, doesn’t it?  Harvard law, community organizer, state senator, New York Times bestseller (twice), US senator, damn, how much worse would he be beating Clinton if he were “adequate”?

Harriet Christian of New York (oh, my non-existent sky wizard, the surname is just too precious, like icing on the cake!) now says she’s going to vote for McCain.  That’s what all her fighting to not be treated as a second-class citizen has come down to: relegating young women to true second-class citizenship if her President McCain got one or two more Alitos on the Supreme Court.

I really do think we are on the brink of some transformative years.  Same-sex unions are being recognized, racism isn’t playing as big a role in politics, the people are clamoring for peace and economic security, and things have gotten bad enough – fiscally, environmentally, militarily – that we’ve been shaken out of our torpor.  Maybe that was the designed role for George W. Bush: the incompetent ex-drunk who ran our country off the rails enough to shake us back to our foundations.

One more thing – about the level of emotion in the meeting.  I heard many of the news anchors and read many of the blogs saying, “get control of the hearing” and “oh, such hooting, hissing, and hollering” and “could you believe the level of anger?”, to which I say, “Great!”

I always love watching the Parliament Q&A with the Prime Minister in England on C-SPAN.  Openly guffawing and shouting each other down, I love it!  That’s what I think our politics needs more of, believe it or not, is some attitude from the public.  I loved seeing people, even or especially the Hillary supporters, protesting and fighting, even though I thought they were dead wrong.  It felt vibrant, like people actually cared about politics.

Continue Reading…

Hillary Clinton Raises RFK’s Assassination To Explain Why She Stays In Race

Clinton Kennedy Assassination Reference: Raises Bobby’s Death To Explain Why She Stays In Race – Politics on The Huffington Post
Hillary Clinton’s argument for staying in the race took a disturbing turn today. While meeting with the editorial board of South Dakota’s Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, she raised the specter of assassination while discussing why she would stay in the race:

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it.”

What’s the emoticon for stunned outrage and disbelief?

Just last week we had Huckabee making the joke about Obama ducking because there was a gun aimed at him.  Now Hillary is staying in as the backup candidate in case Obama’s assassinated.

How long will it be before some drunken deluded racist five-toothed wingnut of the “no college education, below $50,000 per year, hard working white Hillary Clinton” supporter variety figures out that the only way his candidate wins is if Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson have their say?

Superdelegates (Ron Wyden, I’M SHOUTING AT YOU), END THIS!

Hillary Clinton’s Core Demographic in Kentucky

Again, explain to me why these people are going to pick a woman over a war hero in the general election?  Can’t you just hear these same people saying in October, “Well, when we’re at war with them al Qaedas, we’ve got to go with a man as Commander-in-Chief, a man who knows war.  I’m not sexist or anything, I just don’t think it’s the right time for a woman president.”

Screw the ignorant white racist vote, Democrats!  Let the GOP have that vote, they usually get it anyway.  Remake the electoral map – take the South with energized black voters, take the West with educated white latte sippers, keep California and the Northeast and surprise us in the Midwest with throngs of young voters.  Let the GOP have the votes of the poor white working-class coal-mining rust belt victims of the Republican economic policies.