The New Jim Crow – The Conservative “Race War”

The present blooming fantasy of white victimization has roots in the peculiar violent institutions of the 19th-century American South. In the distant mirror of history, it’s easy to spot the irony and the guilt: even before the Civil War began, whites worried that their slaves would rise up and repay their masters in kind — filch the fruit of their labor, rape them, and beat them, sometimes to death. As soon as the balance of power shifted and news of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse circulated throughout the former slave states, those fears ran amok. 

A common recruiting method of white supremacist groups is to play on their potential member’s percieved “victimization” by minorities. Ergo – that they are failures in life because black/brown/yellow/green folks were “given” jobs or opportunity over them because of race. As I have said before the conservative side of the American political spectrum has absorbed a lot of ideas from the racist right, and mainstreamed them into conservative mantra and consciousness.

The narrative is pretty much laid out in the video below -

One of the most flagrant results of this was the perversion of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division under the Bushit Administration as a vehicle to track down and prosecute incidences of “reverse discrimination. That is, discrimination against whites by minorities. The problem being that after 8 years and spending hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money…

Only one verifiable case was ever found by said lawyers. This despite over 13,000 cases of classical discrimination being filed a year by minorities.

Reality and logic play no part in this from a group of folks who believe the presence of two, self styled “Black Panthers” at a Pennsylvania polling place during the 2008 Presidential Election was enough to sway voters across the country to vote for a black man – and that such constituted a “massive” level of voting fraud…

Despite consistent and massive efforts by Republicans in 2000 and 2004 for limit minority voting though denying the availability of voting machines, and “erasing” large number of minority voters from the rolls in Florida based on “faulty” data.

The right wing’s “racial services machine” though the “7 Sisters”, a group of right wing foundations which pour hundreds of millions of dollars a year into conservative think tanks and causes – supports this sort of racial narrative to the tune of an estimated $100 million a year. These groups have funded the publication of books by folks such as Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray “The Bell Curve”, Sowell’s contributions to  Townhall, WorldNetDaily,OneNewsNow and the Jewish World Review,  Dinesh D’Souza whose book “The End of Racism“ oddly enough inadvertently makes the case for racism’s continued existence, and Jared Taylor’s “The Color of Crime” using faulty logic and fake statistics to make the case for black on white crime. Fox News advances these narratives though such commentators as Sean Hannity, and as of late Bill O’Reilly.

Black conservatives are well funded to support the narrative that whites are under attack by “Speakers Bureaus” such as Project 21, and trusty, safe black conservatives like Sowell, whose recent article fully supported the existence of a “war” by black folks against white folks based on anecdotal evidence…

The problem being, just like the “New Black Panther Party” (having nothing to do with the original Black Panthers and consisting of perhaps 50 members nationwide) controversy, and the “Reverse Discrimination Controversy” – there is no statistical evidence to support that in any way that whites are being targeted by roving gangs of black or brown folks attacking white folks in any numbers beyond random.

Conversely – spending $100 million a year in investing in racist narratives…

Totally deconstructs the idea that racism is no longer a factor in American life.

The “white victimization” industry promoted by right wing media, and their well paid quasi scientific cohorts has very real consequences.

These cases are similar to the hue and cry raised over the “Central Park Jogger” case in the 90′s – where gangs of black youth, supposedly “wilding” were convicted of the brutal beating and rape of a woman jogging in Central Park. The tragedy of the victim was compounded by the fact that the courts convicted 5 innocent kids of the crime, adding additional victims to the carnage - who had been convicted largely due to the media hype, and assumption of guilt by the media and police who beat “confessions” out of the youths…

And of course, most recently the Trayvon Martin murder.

In Conservative Media, A “Race War” Rages

It was near midnight on April 14 when the Chevy Cavalier carrying Dave Forster and Marjon Rostami rolled to a stop at a red light in Norfolk, Va. As the pair waited, one of a crowd of teenagers on the sidewalk threw a rock at the passenger seat window, prompting Forster to get out of the car and confront the aggressor.

That’s when the beating began.

Faux News Calls Nazi Party… “A Civil Rights Group”

Faux News is at it again – this time classifying the American Nazi Party as a Civil Rights Group…

Fox Affiliate Calls Neo-Nazis ‘Civil Rights Group’

 When the National Socialist Movement started patrolling the streets of Sanford, Florida, in response to the uproar overTrayvon Martin’s death, many media outletsmentioned the fact that the NSM is made up of neo-Nazis. But not Fox News’ Orlando affiliate, which described the organization as a “civil rights group,” Think Progress reports. Little Green Footballs was the first to make note, pointing to an article on MyFoxOrlando with the headline, “Civil rights group patrolling Sanford,” as well as to a news broadcast in which a reporter says, “There’s another civil rights group in town” when referring to the NSM (which uses a swastika in its logo).

The MyFoxOrlando article was later removed, but Little Green Footballs has a screenshot. It was reportedly first replaced by an article with the headline, “White rights group patrolling Sanford,” which was also taken down (see a screenshot of that headline here) before finally being replaced with the current headline, “Neo-Nazi group patrolling Sanford.” Also troubling is the nature of the video broadcast, which ThinkProgress calls “shockingly uncritical” of the group. The reporter did not question any of leader Jeff Schoep’s claims (including, Little Green Footballs notes, his claim that the NSM is not a hate group) nor did she mention the organization’s Nazi ties.

In the event you are wondering about that “Hate Group” designation by the ADL and SPLC – the Group’s website may be found here.

Gloria Cain to Stand By Her Man…and…Let Cain be Cain

Unlike most candidates, Herman Cain has kept his family firmly out of the limelight. Considering the current political tone – that may, or may not prove to be a good idea. In any event, having her show up on Faux on the Susteren show should (hopefully) be a safe bet, with Greta lobbing softballs.

Cain’s Wife to Break Silence on Fox

America will get its first good look at Gloria Cain soon: The campaign, beset bysexual harassment allegations, is setting up a debut interview for her with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News later this week, a source tellsPolitico. Until now, Mrs. Cain’s been conspicuously absent from the campaign—prompting occasional media questions. “You will meet my wife publicly in an exclusive interview that we are currently planning and anticipating,” Herman told Fox News. “But you won’t see my family out on the campaign trail on a day-to-day basis.”

The campaign has repeatedly denied requests to interview Gloria Cain, CNN notes, but those close to her describe her as an avid church-goer who’s intensely devoted to her husband. She stayed home to raise the kids while Cain was CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, but has been a teacher and librarian as well. “They know each other instinctively to the point they don’t need to double-check with each other,” one friend said. “They’re a united front.”

In the meantime, Eugene Robinson, over as WasPo eviscerates Cain -

Let Herman be gone

Let Herman be Herman...Indeed.

…Cain’s policy positions range from the ignorant to the unworkable to the just plain goofy — and yet he is running first or second in most polls for the Republican presidential nomination. He trumpets his utter lack of government experience as a selling point and boasts of not knowing foreign leaders’ names. If through some bizarre series of events he were actually elected president, the result would surely be an unmitigated disaster.

It’s not yet clear whether this remote possibility has been made even more unlikely by reports — first published Sunday night by Politico — that Cain faced allegations of sexual harassment from two female employees when he headed the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

After some initial fumbling by Cain’s campaign, in which aides attempted to issue non-denial denials, the candidate himself went on Fox News to declare that “I have never sexually harassed anyone.” He acknowledged having been “falsely accused” of harassment when he was at the restaurant association, but he said the accusations were “totally baseless and totally false.”

He did not specifically deny the Politico story, however, which reported that the two women both left the association after being given financial settlements and signing agreements not to discuss their allegations. “If the restaurant association did a settlement, I wasn’t even aware of it,” Cain said Monday on Fox.

Nor has Cain, to this point, dealt with the reported substance of the allegations. According to Politico, this includes language that the women felt was inappropriate and made them uncomfortable; and, in one instance, a purported suggestion that one of the women accompany Cain to his hotel suite.

Far-right blowhards immediately played the race card. “Liberals are terrified of Herman Cain,” pundit Ann Coulter said. “He is a strong, conservative black man. . . . They are terrified of strong, conservative black men.” Rush Limbaugh said Cain was being sullied by attackers wielding the “ugliest racial stereotypes.”

Interesting to hear those two acknowledging the powerful role that race still plays in our society — the first step, intellectually, toward concluding that there’s a continuing need for race-based affirmative action. That’s what they meant, right?

Um, no. I’m quite sure that the far right’s quickness to compare Cain to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — and to call Cain’s present difficulties a second“high-tech lynching” — is just another salvo in the intraparty war Republicans are having…

Faux News Hammers Cain for Sexual Harassment

Liberal press?

I don’t think so. This is fratricide within the Republican Party with Karl Rove’s fingerprints all over it. Faux News even jumped on this one to bring Cain down a peg or two – and possibly destroy his campaign.

Cain has gone in a few hours this morning from “it didn’t happen” to “I was falsely accused!”.

I think Mr. Lawn Jockey Cain got a bit too much traction, and was too full of himself… So he had to be reminded exactly what his value to the Republican Party is.

ACORN’s Guerrilla Campaign for OWS… Or Just More Faux News Lies?

Over a year after the conservatives managed to shut down much of the operational infrastructure of ACORN through the smears and lies of James O’Keefe, Andrew Brietbart, and Tea Baggers in Congress…

The group has (supposedly) reappeared – working with Occupy Wall Street.

At the time of ACORN’s disbanding, the group’s director warned that the group wouldn’t be disappearing, but breaking up into smaller regional units. The Rehugs may indeed regret forcing the group underground, and to go Guerrilla.

ACORN has the ground game, and organizational moxy to assist the Occupy Wall Street Movement to turn in to an even more extensive major force. The right wing’s greatest nightmare.

Now – the article below is a Faux News article, and considering that Faux News are the same people who broadcast edited and fake videos of the ACORN Pimp, and broadcast highly edited and prejudicial video attacking Shirly Sherrod – you have to take much of what they say with a grain of salt. Ergo – Faux News doesn’t have the journalistic integrity not to be lying either about the money, how the organization works, or what the organization does. That is, after all, what they do…Lie. And the one proven entity, based on track record,  not to tell the truth relative to ACORN, OWS, or any community organization is Faux.

So…Is there a connection between former ACORN people and OWS? Probably. It isn’t out of the universe of possibility that folks who supported what ACORN was doing at the community service level to also be attracted to OWS. Is one of the community groups that spun out of ACORN providing support to OWS? It certainly is in the realm of the possible – and perfectly legitimate. But to prove that anything illegitimate is going on takes a bit more than just wild eyed prevarication by an organization, such as Faux News, whose reputation has already been deeply sullied by their own lies – about the same folks.

EXCLUSIVE: ACORN Playing Behind Scenes Role in ‘Occupy’ Movement

The former New York office for ACORN, the disbanded community activist group, is playing a key role in the self-proclaimed “leaderless” Occupy Wall Street movement, organizing “guerrilla” protest events and hiring door-to-door canvassers to collect money under the banner of various causes while spending it on protest-related activities, sources tell FoxNews.com.

The former director of New York ACORN, Jon Kest, and his top aides are now busy working at protest events for New York Communities for Change (NYCC). That organization was created in late 2009 when some ACORN offices disbanded and reorganized under new names after undercover video exposes prompted Congress to cut off federal funds.

NYCC’s connection to ACORN isn’t a tenuous one: It works from the former ACORN offices in Brooklyn, uses old ACORN office stationery, employs much of the old ACORN staff and, according to several sources, engages in some of the old organization’s controversial techniques to raise money, interest and awareness for the protests.

Sources said NYCC has hired about 100 former ACORN-affiliated staff members from other cities – paying some of them $100 a day – to attend and support Occupy Wall Street. Dozens of New York homeless people recruited from shelters are also being paid to support the protests, at the rate of $10 an hour, the sources said.

At least some of those hired are being used as door-to-door canvassers to collect money that’s used to support the protests.

Steve Jobs Called Out Rupert Murdoch, and Faux News

Steve was right on this one as well…

This one changed America for the Better

This One Has Destroyed Our Nation

Steve Jobs Called Fox News a ‘Destructive Force’ in Our Society’

Rupert Murdoch must have imagined Steve Jobs would be a feisty dinner guest. Even still, the News Corp. chairman couldn’t have foreseen that, in one night at the mogul’s Carmel, California ranch, Jobs would call his tech people incompetent, get a guy fired, and say that Fox News was literally destroying the world.

Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the Apple co-founder says Jobs railed against the conservative news channel and tried to convince Murdoch to shut it down. His comments came at the 2010 iteration of News Corp.’s annual management retreat. Isaacson writes:

In return for speaking at the retreat, Jobs got Murdoch to hear him out on Fox News, which he believed was destructive, harmful to the nation, and a blot on Murdoch’s reputation.

“You’re blowing it with Fox News,” Jobs told him over dinner. “The axis today is not liberal and conservative, the axis is conservative-destructive, and you’ve cast your lot with the destructive people. Fox has become a destructive force in our society. You can be better, and this is going to be your legacy if you’re not careful.” Jobs said he thought Murdoch did not really like how far Fox has gone. “Rupert’s a builder, not a tearer-downer,” he said…

Murdoch later said he was used to people like Jobs complaining about Fox. “He’s got sort of a left wing view on this,” he said. Jobs asked him to have his folks make a reel of Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck shows - he thought they were more destructive than Bill O’Reilly – and Murdoch agreed to do so.

Olbermann Lambastes Faux News

On Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World” segment last night…

“The whorehouse that is Faux News!” between the segment on another Republican caught with his knickers down… and Herman Cain.

 

Pat Buchanan Lets His Racist Flag Fly

Pat Buchanan is David Duke without the robes…

Where did Herman Cain get that “plantation” talk? While kissing Buchanan’s ass.

Twelve Pretty Racist Or Just Crazy Quotes From Pat Buchanan’s New Book

On the segregation era:

Perhaps some of us misremember the past. But the racial, religious, cultural, social, political, and economic divides today seem greater than they seemed even in the segregation cities some of us grew up in.Back then, black and white lived apart, went to different schools and churches, played on different playgrounds, and went to different restaurants, bars, theaters, and soda fountains. But we shared a country and a culture. We were one nation. We were Americans.

From the chapter “‘The White Party’”:

What the above points to is a strategy from which Republicans will recoil, a strategy to increase the GOP share of the white Christian vote and increase the turnout of that vote by specific appeals to social, cultural, and moral issues, and for equal justice for the emerging white minority. If the GOP is not the party of New Haven firefighter Frank Ricci and Cambridge cop James Crowley, it has no future. And although Howard Dean disparages the Republicans as the “white party,” why should Republicans be ashamed to represent the progeny of the men who founded, built, and defended America since her birth as a nation?From the chapter, “Equality or Freedom?”:

Not until the 1960s did courts begin to use the Fourteenth Amendment to impose a concept of equality that the authors of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, The Federalist Papers, and the Gettysburg Address never believed in. Before the 1960s, equality meant every citizen enjoyed the same constitutional rights and the equal protection of existing laws. Nothing in the Constitution or federal law mandated social, racial, or gender equality.

Fear of a Brown America – Pat Buchanan and “Suicide of a Superpower”.

Pat Buchanan slouches back into bigotry, with an extremely friendly interview from soul-bigot Sean Hannity…

Pat gets into his racial theories here, with “The end of white America” -

O’Reilly vs Tavis Smiley and Cornel West

Cornel West and Tavis Smiley have a tete a tete over poverty, Occupy Wall Street, and jobs…

OReilly’s 9% “addiction” number is questionable – when he ties it to poverty.

Lot of rich junkies in this country.

Faux New’s Geraldo Rivera Gets Run Out of Occupy Wall Street on a Rail

What is the difference between the Tea Party and the Occupy protesters? For one thing, Occupy is not a holly owned subsidiary of Faux News.

Here Occupy protesters run Faux News talking head Geraldo Rivera out of town on a metaphorical rail…

Faux Sports Show Cancelled After Segment on Asian Students at USC

This one is really bad.  Talk about “buyer’s remorse”, Prop 209 as planned, eliminated most Hispanic and Black students from California Universities…

It also coincidentally eliminated about 1/2 of the white kids, resulting in the schools being 50% or more Asian. All those white parents who voted for Prop 209 thinking their kid would have a better chance at getting in to an elite college…

Got screwed.

That really worked out for Ward Connerly – now didn’t it?

So having a Faux News guy bitter towards Asian kids, instead of the result of conservative racial prejudice…

Is no big surprise.

It’s the nonwhite guy’s fault!

Fox Sports Cancels ‘The College Experiment’ For ‘Clearly Inappropriate’ Segment Mocking Asian Students At USC (VIDEO)

Fox Sports canceled a show that aired a segment that mocked Asian students who were filmed on the University of Southern California campus.

Fox Sports Network spokesman Lou D’Ermilio said in a statement that last week’s segment was “clearly offensive” and that the show “The College Experiment” would be cancelled effective immediately.

D’Ermilio says the video was removed as soon as the network became aware of it.

Duke Nukem of the Tea Bagger Set – New Video Game

This one should cause no end of conservative whining. An outfit called Stavingeyes Advergaming has come up with a “battle the zombies” game where the Zombies (gasp!) are Faux News commentators and Tea Baggers.

The Game, “Tea Party Zombies Must Die” is free, and I am sure will be on the “guilty pleasures” list of many progressives and moderates who have had it up to their eyes with the ever squalling right wing. I am sure this will get 24 x 7 coverage on Faux as conservatives complain that the game is encouraging violence against their ilk. The hole in that argument is that the last dozen or so times in the last 25 years any nutcase has actually tried to harm an elected official, news commentator, or public figure (remember the Anthrax Terrorist Attacks and Gabby Giffords) the targets have been real live  ”Liberals”, and the attackers have been folks steeped in the violent right wing mythology promoted by Faux and their right wingdizzie bretheren.

Seems Progressives, unlike their right wing counterparts – know the difference between political fantasy, and real life.

New ‘Tea Party Zombie’ game allows players to kill off conservative leaders, Fox News anchors

If tea party opponents are really aiming for political civility, the latest online video game from Brooklyn-based StarvingEyes Advergaming won’t do much to further their cause.

Although it isn’t exactly James Hoffa saying “Let’s take these son of a bitches out,” a new video game called “Tea Party Zombies Must Die” has surfaced on the Internet.

The objective of the game is to destroy zombies made in the likenesses of conservative figures including Bill O’Reilly, Brit Hume, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, the Koch brothers and Glenn Beck.

The game also offers players an opportunity to shoot up the headquarters of Fox News, and of the right-wing “Americans for Prosperity” organization.

Americans for Prosperity spokeswoman Jennifer Ridgely declined to comment on the game and StarvingEyes Advergaming did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller’s request for comment.

 

FBI Looks Deeper Into Murdoch’s Empire

There appears to be more than one rat running around inside Newscorp. I will get interested when they get into Faux News, and some of Murdoch’s American holdings…

FBI widens its US inquiry into News Corp beyond 9/11 hacking

The American authorities have widened their investigation into Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to look into allegations of wrongdoing at the company beyond the claim that News of the World journalists attempted to hack the phones of 9/11 victims.

It was reported this weekend that FBI investigators, who are checking damaging claims that reporters at the now-defunct Sunday tabloid asked a New York-based private detective to access the voicemails of those killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks, have so far found no evidence that attempts were made to eavesdrop on the messages.

The Wall Street Journal, which is owned by News Corp, said US agencies were now examining whether there were further claims of misconduct at the company’s American subsidiaries that merit further investigation. The move comes as MPs in Westminster prepare to consider tomorrow the release of new documents related to hacking, which one former minister described as “dynamite”

The American authorities have widened their investigation into Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to look into allegations of wrongdoing at the company beyond the claim that News of the World journalists attempted to hack the phones of 9/11 victims.

It was reported this weekend that FBI investigators, who are checking damaging claims that reporters at the now-defunct Sunday tabloid asked a New York-based private detective to access the voicemails of those killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks, have so far found no evidence that attempts were made to eavesdrop on the messages.

The Wall Street Journal, which is owned by News Corp, said US agencies were now examining whether there were further claims of misconduct at the company’s American subsidiaries that merit further investigation. The move comes as MPs in Westminster prepare to consider tomorrow the release of new documents related to hacking, which one former minister described as “dynamite”.

The widened US inquiry, said to be at “an early stage”, will look at past claims against News Corp companies, including a lawsuit brought by Floorgraphics, an advertising company, which alleged computer hacking on the part of its Murdoch-owned competitor.

A New Jersey senator wrote to the US Attorney General’s office last month asking for an inquiry into News Corp’s behaviour in the US, citing the case of Floorgraphics, whose founders claimed their Murdoch-owned rival, News America, threatened to destroy their company when they rejected a takeover bid. A jury was told that 11 breaches of Floorgraphics’ password-protected website in 2004 were traced back to an address registered to a News America office and that sensitive information could have been accessed.

News Corp, which ended the lawsuit after agreeing to buy Floorgraphics for $29.5m (£18m), denied any claim that it threatened the company and said it condemned the hacking, suggesting it may have been carried out without its knowledge by an employee. News Corp is now facing questions about its US operations, including whether American corruption laws were broken if it is proven that NOTW journalists made payments to British police officers.

The developments came ahead of a potentially difficult week for Mr Murdoch’s son, James, as the Commons’ media select committee meets tomorrow to discuss further submissions arising from his testimony last month.

Did Faux News Also Tap Phones in America? New Allegations…

The real question about the Rupert Murdoch media empire is whether the News of the World phone hacking scandal was a “one off” crime by a few bad folks…

Or whether it was the sort of illicit activity supported and promoted throughout the media empire by the senior management.

This report is about claims by a former Faux News Executive who claims that Faux News secretly financed, organized, and operated the same sort of back room secret operation committing illicit and illegal invasions of personal privacy through phone tapping, hacking, and other nefarious methods.

Of course about now, you have to figure most of the staff of this operation are on fast flights to Siberia for extended “vacations”…

But there still should be enough tracks here for sophisticated cyber-sleuths to check the veracity of the accusations.

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News ran ‘black ops’ department, former executive claims

Dan Cooper, who helped launch Fox News as managing editor in 1996, said that a “brain room” carried out “counter intelligence” on the channel’s enemies from its New York headquarters.

He was threatened after it found out he spoke to a reporter, he claimed.

Another former senior executive said the channel ran a spying network on staff, reading their emails and making them “feel they were being watched”.

The channel, which has come under pressure amid allegations that outlets owned by Mr Murdoch might have attempted to hack the voicemail messages of September 11 victims, firmly denies all the allegations.

Mr Cooper, who left Fox News soon after its launch, provided a quote for a 1997 article about Roger Ailes, Fox News’s president, by the journalist David Brock in New York magazine.

The quote was not going to be attributed to him, but he alleges that before the article was published, Mr Cooper’s agent received a telephone call from Mr Ailes threatening to withdraw Fox’s business from all his clients.

“There are only two possible ways Ailes found out,” Mr Cooper said. “Either Brock told him or they got hold of Brock’s phone records and saw I spoke to him.”

He first alleged that the records were obtained by researchers in the “brain room” in 2005 in an article on his website about the launch of the channel.

“Most people thought it was simply the research department of Fox News,” he wrote. “I knew it also housed a counter intelligence and black ops office. So accessing phone records was easy pie.”

Mr Cooper said yesterday that he helped to design the high-security unit. “It was staffed by 15 researchers and had a guard at the door. No one working there would engage in conversation.”…

Another former Fox News senior executive, who did not wish to be named, said staff were forced to operate under conditions reminiscent of “Russia at the height of the Soviet era”.

“There is a paranoid atmosphere and they feel they are being watched,” said the former executive. “I have no doubt they are spying on emails to ensure no one is leaking to outside media.

“There is a unit of spies that reports up to the boss about who was talking to whom. A lot of people are scared that they’re going to get sidelined or even that they’re going to get killed.”…