Black Arizona Republican Forced to Resign After Tea Party Threats

Forer District Chairman Anthony Miller

The sole black Republican district chairman in Arizona resigned just hours after the assassination attempt on Gabrielle Giffords citing threats from Tea Party members and fear for his family’s safety.

Citing “constant verbal attacks” and other forms of intimidation District Chairman Anthony Miller resigned, along with several others active in the local party.

We have all been hearing about how the language of the Republicans and Tea Baggers isn’t really threatening…

That doesn’t hold much water when lifelong Republicans, afraid for their lives, are being blackmailed and threatened out of office.

Gabrielle Giffords’ Arizona shooting prompts resignations

Miller, a 43-year-old Ahwatukee Foothills resident and former campaign worker for U.S. Sen. John McCain, was re-elected to a second one-year term last month. He said constant verbal attacks after that election and Internet blog posts by some local members with Tea Party ties made him worry about his family’s safety.

In an e-mail sent a few hours after Saturday’s massacre in Tucson that killed six and injured 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Miller told state Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen he was quitting: “Today my wife of 20 yrs ask (sic) me do I think that my PCs (Precinct Committee members) will shoot at our home? So with this being said I am stepping down from LD20GOP Chairman…I will make a full statement on Monday.”

Pullen was in Washington, D.C. and not available for comment, an employee in his office said. State party spokesman Matt Roberts said he could not discuss details of the district’s disputes but, “Anthony has been a good Republican and was really involved in LD20.”

The newly-elected Dist. 20 Republican secretary, Sophia Johnson of Ahwatukee, first vice chairman Roger Dickinson of Tempe and Jeff Kolb, the former district spokesman from Ahwatukee, also quit. “This singular focus on ‘getting’ Anthony (Miller) was one of the main reasons I chose to resign,” Kolb said in an e-mail to another party activist. Kolb confirmed the contents of the e-mail to the Republic…

Miller said when he was a member of McCain’s campaign staff last year has been criticized by the more conservative party members who supported Republican opponent J.D. Hayworth. The first and only African-American to hold the party’s precinct chairmanship, Miller said he has been called “McCain’s boy,” and during the campaign saw a critic form his hand in the shape of a gun and point it at him.

“I wasn’t going to resign but decided to quit after what happened Saturday,” Miller said. “I love the Republican Party but I don’t want to take a bullet for anyone.”

Arizona – “The Mecca of Prejudice and Bigotry”

A Map Published by Palin's "Reload" Campaign, felt by Many to Encourage Assassination

The Pima County Sheriff, among others –  blames the assassination attempt on Giffords, resulting in 6 dead and 18 wounded on the heated political rhetoric employed by conservatives. This was not the first time gunfire has been directed against Rep. Giffords. Police report that her office was shot at, and vandalized during the Health Care Debate. Police now are looking for at least one other “person of interest” in connection with the murders. Police have not commented on what role, if any, the person may have played.

After the same type of “guns” and “kill the liberals” rhetoric led to the bombing of the Murrah Building by Timothy McVeigh, the Anthrax attacks on liberal news people and elected officials, dozens of mailings of “powdered substances” to government officials, and the plot by whack-jobs to assassinate President Obama…

It is very difficult to give any credence to the claim that the right wingers don’t know what they are doing.

This is nothing more than Domestic Terrorism, and should be treated by Law Enforcement and the Courts as such.

Shooting throws spotlight on state of U.S. political rhetoric

The tenor of American political rhetoric became a centerpiece in the national debate over Saturday’s attack by a gunman in Tucson, Arizona, that killed six people and left local Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords with a bullet wound to the brain.

Public leaders and others expressed sorrow about “a tragedy for the entire country,” as President Obama put it — a total of 18 people allegedly shot by 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner.

But officials also voiced dismay Saturday over the possibility that highly polarized rhetoric in the conservative hotbed of Arizona may have played a role in the assassination attempt of the Democratic congresswoman, who was targeted during a meet-and-greet with constituents in a shopping center. A federal judge, a girl age 9, and four other people died in the mass killing.

While not stating a motive for the shootings, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik in Tucson used a nationally televised press conference to condemn the tone of political discourse in his state. He charged that public debate is now “vitriolic rhetoric,” which has rendered Arizona “the mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”

Dupnik suggested that such rhetoric can have deadly consequences.

“We need to do some soul searching,” Dupnik told reporters. “It’s the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business.

Faux News Begins to Tumble

Looks like the various efforts to fight Faux News propaganda are getting some traction…

Or is it just that the Faux News audience is dying off? Meaning our national IQ might rise again!

Turning off Fox: GOP ‘News’ Channel’s Ratings Are Down 21% Overall, 26% in Younger Demo

In year-to-year comparisons, the GOP’s Fox channel lost 21 percent of its overall viewership as well as over a quarter of younger viewers versus the same period last year.

According to TV Newser:

[The] network was down -21% in Total Viewers and down -26% in younger viewers compared to Sept. 2009 (Total Day, Mon-Sun)…

“The O’Reilly Factor” was the top program in cable news[*], averaging more than 2.8 million Total Viewers and 680,000 A250-54 demo viewers, but the show was down -12% (Total Viewers) and -21% (demo) compared to Sept. 09. “Hannity,” “Glenn Beck,” “Special Report” and “On the Record” rounded out the top five — but all shows were also down double digits compared to Sept. ’09.

Overall, FNC was the fourth most-watched network on cable, behind entertainment juggernauts USA and TNT, and sports leader ESPN, which has seen a boost from its coverage of “Monday Night Football.”

MSNBC experienced a slight uptick in ratings. The GE-owned channel remains the top rated legitimate news channel.*

Of course, one ratings report does not make a trend, and the next report on Fox will likely show a bump up reflecting millions of conservatives tuning into Fox to hear GOP spin on the midterm elections….

A more remote possibility is that millions of Fox viewers have simply died off. As recently as 2008, the average age of Fox viewers was 65 years old. If theaverage is 65, that means hundreds of thousands of the network’s demographics were in much higher age brackets. Or were. But 21 percent is an enormous number to lose to viewer mortality.

Or here’s a hopeful alternative: Maybe the drop in audience is a result of viewers rejecting Fox’s barrage of race-baiting stories this summer — the nasty series of lies and smears against African Americans that the network covered incessantly in a concerted effort to gin up fear and hatred among the GOP-tea bagger base. Just last week, for example, the network’s star demagogue Glenn Beck did a story about a college-era trip to Africa by Chris Coons, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Delaware, with the too-clever-by-half title, “Coons in Africa.” Despite his high ratings, Beck produces relatively little revenue Fox because 296 of the channel’s advertisers have boycotted his show in the 14 months since he called Pres. Obama a racist.

White Folks Have Gone Stark Raving Bonkers!

Great article over at The Voice!

About 12:01 on the afternoon of January 20, 2009, the white American mind began to unravel.

White America Has Lost Its Mind

It had been a pretty good run up to that point. The brains of white folks had been humming along cogently for near on 400 years on this continent, with little sign that any serious trouble was brewing. White people, after all, had managed to invent a spiffy new form of self-government so that all white men (and, eventually, women) could have a say in how white people were taxed and governed. White minds had also nearly universally occupied just about every branch of that government and, for more than two centuries, had kept sole possession of the leadership of its executive branch (whose parsonage, after all, is called the White House).

But when that streak was broken—and, for the first time, a non-white president accepted the oath of office—white America rapidly began to lose its grip.

As with other forms of dementia, the signs weren’t obvious at first. After the 2008 election, when former House majority leaderTom DeLay suggested that instead of a formal inauguration, Barack Obama should “have a nice little chicken dinner, and we’ll save the $125 million,” black folks didn’t miss the implication. References to chicken, particularly of the fried variety, have long served as a kind of code when white folks referred to black people and their gustatory preferences—and weren’t many of us already accustomed to older white politicians making such gaffes? But who among us sensed that it was a harbinger that an entire nation was plunging into madness?

Who didn’t chuckle, after all, the first time they heard that white people had doubts that Barack Obama had even been born in the United States and was therefore ineligible to be president? It sounded like one of those Internet stories in which some (usually white) writer does his best to prove something everyone knows to be true is actually the exact opposite. And you go along with it for a few paragraphs to see how long the writer can convince you that what you know is right is actually wrong.

Seemed like that, didn’t it? After all, what was the beef? Obama’s father was Kenyan, and the kid was born in Hawaii—which is barely a part of the United States to begin with (only a state in 1959!). His mother was white, and after the Kenyan guy left, she married an Indonesian guy, so little Barack lived in Jakarta for a while before coming back to Hawaii to be brought up largely by his white grandparents. . . . And that’s it? Come on, this was after-school-special material, the kind of thing that brings a tear to your eye because little half-Kenyan/half-white Barry made good, not the stuff of conspiracy novels.

But the more you shook your head at it, the more it seemed to have taken root deep in the lizard part of the white nervous system. Obama is not an American. He says he’s Christian, but he has a Muslim-sounding name. He’s not black, he’s not white. . . . Is . . . is he even human?

Republicans Kissing Hate’s Rear End

Here are a group of supposedly “mainstream” Republicans kissing the Hayta’s asses at the “Value Voters Summit”…

Fanning the Flames – The New Tea Party = The Old KKK

The Tea Party has become the new KKK.

GRITtv: Islamophobia Back with a Vengeance, 9 Y…, posted with vodpod

Why Bin Lauden Won the War

It has become obvious to members of the intelligentsia what has been obvious to some of us for a very long time…

Bin Lauden, and Al Quada have won the “War of Terrorism”.

It started with the entirely unnecessary and illegitimate invasion of Iraq, and has gone steadily downhill since then.

The objective of international terrorism to to fool larger enemies into giving up their freedom, and into becoming frozen by fear. We had an entire presidential administration under the Bushit which used that fear to shred our Constitution and Laws. Today’s Republican Party, serving as little more than Faux New’s sock puppet, and the Tea Party’s legitimacy – revels in promoting fear for political gain. When you see the Tea Bagger clowns marching down our streets to protest the building of a Muslim Religious Center near the site of the WTC Buildings…

If you haven’t figured it our yet – Bin Lauden won.

Back during the bad old days of the Bushit Administration I argued that the best response to the downing of the 110 Story WTC Buildings…

Was to build 200 story buildings on the same spot.

But the chicken littles won that argument…

Just like Bin Lauden has won the war.

Ted Koppel hits one out of the park with this one – finally pointing out what should have been obvious.

Ted Koppel: Nine years after 9/11, let’s stop fulfilling bin Laden’s goals

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, succeeded far beyond anything Osama bin Laden could possibly have envisioned. This is not just because they resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths, nor only because they struck at the heart of American financial and military power. Those outcomes were only the bait; it would remain for the United States to spring the trap.

The goal of any organized terrorist attack is to goad a vastly more powerful enemy into an excessive response. And over the past nine years, the United States has blundered into the 9/11 snare with one overreaction after another. Bin Laden deserves to be the object of our hostility, national anguish and contempt, and he deserves to be taken seriously as a canny tactician. But much of what he has achieved we have done, and continue to do, to ourselves. Bin Laden does not deserve that we, even inadvertently, fulfill so many of his unimagined dreams.

It did not have to be this way. The Bush administration’s initial response was just about right. The calibrated combination of CIA operatives, special forces and air power broke the Taliban in Afghanistan and sent bin Laden and the remnants of al-Qaeda scurrying across the border into Pakistan. The American reaction was quick, powerful and effective — a clear warning to any organization contemplating another terrorist attack against the United States. This is the point at which President George W. Bush should have declared “mission accomplished,” with the caveat that unspecified U.S. agencies and branches of the military would continue the hunt for al-Qaeda’s leader. The world would have understood, and most Americans would probably have been satisfied.

Guide For Tea Baggers to Avoid Non-Whites In DC

For the Glenn Beck Klan Rally in DC, it is especially important that the Tea Baggers avoid contact with black folks and other minorities while visiting the city. Unfortunately, this threatens to temporarily turn some nice areas of the city into  low rent districts until the unwelcome Tea Baggers can be herded out of town. I have put together this handy map, based on a Tea Baggers “travel guide” and a few hints from an area native,  so the visitors can be aware of the dangers they may face. The “Anti-Christ” area includes the Mormon Temple and an area traditionally with a higher Jewish population. We can’t have any Tea Baggers running into anyone with an IQ above room temperature!

Safe Areas for Tea Baggers!

The ethnic makeup of the DC Metro Area is substantially different from Tea Bagger home towns – in 2006

• White : 51.7%
• Black : 26.3%
• Asian : 8.4%
• Hispanic : 11.6%
• Mixed and Other : 2.0%

As such, it is not entirely possible to avoid non-white people! Even in Fairfax and Loudon Counties, two of the wealthiest counties in the nation, the non-white population tends to hover around 20%! And no – there ain’t no Motel 6 in McLean.

Advice handed out to Tea Baggers by a local Tea Bagger includes -

Safety and Mores

DC’s population includes refugees from every country, as the families of embassy staffs of third world countries tend to stay in DC whenever a revolution in their homeland means that anyone in their family would be in danger if they went back. Most taxi drivers and many waiters/waitresses (especially in local coffee shops like the Bread and Chocolate chain) are immigrants, frequently from east Africa or Arab countries. As a rule, African immigrants do not like for you to assume they are African Americans and especially do not like for you to guess they are from a neighboring country (e.g. Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia) with whom they may have political or military tensions. It’s rare to meet anyone who gets really offended, but you can still be aware of the issue.

Many parts of DC are safe beyond the areas I will list here, but why chance it if you don’t know where you are?

If you are on the subway stay on the Red line between Union Station and Shady Grove, Maryland. If you are on the Blue or Orange line do not go past Eastern Market (Capitol Hill) toward the Potomac Avenue stop and beyond; stay in NW DC and points in Virginia. Do not use the Green line or the Yellow line. These rules are even more important at night. There is of course nothing wrong with many other areas; but you don’t know where you are, so you should not explore them.

If on foot or in a cab or bus, stay in Bethesda, Arlington (preferably north Arlington), Crystal City, Falls Church, Annandale, or Alexandria, or in DC only in northwest DC west (i.e. larger street numbers) of 14th or 16th streets, or if on Capitol Hill only in SE Capitol Hill (zip 20003) between 1st and 8th Streets, not farther out than 8th (e.g. 9th, 10th etc). (Or stay on the Mall and at the various monuments.) Again there are many other lovely places, from the Catholic University of America to Silver Spring, Maryland. But you don’t know where you are so you cannot go, especially at night, unless you take me with you.

Brietbart NAACP Shirley Sherrod Story Explodes!

Brietbart and Faux News’ lies have cost this poor woman her job. The tape of Shirley Sherrod speaking before the NAACP was manipulated. Here, in this CNN interview a few hours ago, the wife of the white farmer who supposedly was mistreated by Mrs. Sherrod calls her a dear friend without whose help, they would have lost their farm.

Breitbart’s Sherrod/NAACP story disintegrates |…, posted with vodpod

I repeat my call for the DOJ to criminally charge Mr. Brietbart, and anyone participating in this criminal conspiracy,defamation, and  assault such as Faux News against Mrs. Sherrod, and prosecute them to the fullest extent of Federal law.

More of That Tea Bagger Hyperbole

North Iowa Tea Party displays billboard comparing Obama to Hitler.

To the old Disney Tune…

R – a – c-i-s-m-T-E-A.

Party!

More Racism From Faux News’ Megyn Kelly

Another racist tirade from Megyn Kelly -

Here specifically are the problems with Megyn’s rant.

1. The case against the New Black Panthers was dropped on January 8, 2009 – that’s nearly two weeks BEFORE President Obama was sworn in

From the testimony of Thomas Perez, head of the Civil Rights Division, before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in May:

This means that the case was downgraded to a civil case 11 days before Obama was inaugurated, 26 days before Eric Holder became attorney general, and about nine months before Thomas Perez was confirmed as head of the Civil Rights Division.

2. Adams accuses two Obama period Justice Department appointees of killing the case and making a policy decision not to prosecute cases against black people -

Adams also said that Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes declared, “Never bring another lawsuit against a black or other national minority, apparently no matter what they do.” But according to the Raben Group, a progressive PR firm Fernades worked for prior to the Justice Department, she didn’t leave her job with them until June 22, 2009, more than six months after the criminal case against the NBPP members was dropped.

Further – As Media Matters demonstrated, Adams himself readily acknowledged that he was not present for the meetings and conversations that he pointed to as evidence supporting his allegations. More from Media Matters -

Reality: Adams’ accusations don’t stand up to the facts

• Adams is a long-time right-wing activist, who is known for filing an ethics complaint against Hugh Rodham that was subsequently dismissed, served as a Bush poll watcher in Florida 2004, and reportedly volunteered for a Republican group that trains lawyers to fight “racially tinged battles over voting rights”;
• Adams was hired to the Justice Department in 2005 by Bradley Schlozman, who was found by the Department of Justice Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility to have improperly considered political affiliation when hiring career attorneys — the former head of the DOJ voting rights section reportedly said that Adams was “exhibit A of the type of people hired by Schlozman”;
• Adams has admitted that he does not have first-hand knowledge of the events, conversations, and decisions that he is citing to advance his accusations;
• The Bush administration’s Justice Department — not the Obama administration — made the decision not to pursue criminal charges against members of the New Black Panther Party for alleged voter intimidation at a polling center in Philadelphia in 2008;
• The Obama administration successfully obtained default judgment against Samir Shabazz, a member of the New Black Panther Party carrying a nightstick outside the Philadelphia polling center on Election Day 2008;
• The Bush administration DOJ chose not to pursue similar charges against members of the Minutemen, one of whom allegedly carried a weapon while harassing Hispanic voters in Arizona in 2006;
• No voters have come forward to claim that they were intimidated from voting on account of the New Black Panthers standing outside the polling center in 2008;
• The Republican vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which is currently investigating the Justice Department’s decision, has called that investigation “very small potatoes” full of “overheated rhetoric filled with insinuations and unsubstantiated charges,” and said it has not “served the interests of the commission”; she further said that DOJ has given a “plausible argument” for not pursuing additional charges in the case.

Now, as to Megyn’s “discomfort”, she’s acting like a woman spurned – which brigs up the question as to whether she has some “personal” interest…

I mean, would the uhhhh… black  Playa who just traded her in on a better model – please introduce her to somebody?

Shabazz… Was that you, brother?

President Obama’s Accomplishments

Why does the right hate President Obama so much?

I mean other than that “color” issue…

The simple fact is, President Obama has accomplished more, in a shorter time than any President since Roosevelt. Handed a country that had been screwed into virtual economic collapse by conservative stupidity, greed, and avarice – he has steadfastly moved the dime forward.

Scary shit for Rethugs and conservatives. A President who actually leaves the country a better place than when he took office.

18 Months into office the catcalls and howls about “accomplishment” are nothing more than political posturing. It took a lot longer than 18 months for Rethugs to drive the country into the dumpster. And it is a fact of life it takes a hell of a lot longer to unscrew something than it took to screw it up in the first place.

The reason all those Rethugs running for office are shouting all those coded, and not so coded racist comments is the brutal fact that not a single conservative policy initiative during the entire 8 year Bushit Administration fully supported in lockstep by a Rethugly majority Congress and Senate…

Was a success.

History repeats itself for conservatives in that when you have failed when elected to positions of power…

Run on race, and the always dependable racism of a segment of the American populace, and the fears of another.

A coalition of bigots and cowards.

Rachel Maddow: Obama getting a lot done, posted with vodpod

Tea Baggers Hit The Wall

Tea Baggers Hit The Wall

Tea Party Support Slips

A new poll from the Washington Post and ABC shows that support for the tea party movement appears to be slipping, reports the Right Now blog:

• The percentage who hold an unfavorable view of the movement rose from 39% in March to 50%.
• The decline is particularly sharp among 18- to 29-year-olds, whose views shifted from a positive 43%-38% to a negative 27%-60%.
• 45% of white Southerners have an unfavorable view, up from 30%.

BT Thinks they made their move too soon!

If The Tea Party Was Black…

Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black” – Tim Wise

Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure – the ones who are driving the action – we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins.

So let’s begin.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

Taking on the Bigots

About time some of the MSM start asking the tough questions. Here, Kos founder Markos Moulitsas slams Tancredo – pointing out he served in the Military, whereas Tancredo dodged the Vietnam War draft!

more about “Former GOP congressman Tom Tancredo, …“, posted with vodpod