The political degenerates at Fox have done it again!
MMF: Days after host Eric Bolling used scripted news teases and online graphics to portray hip-hop artist Common and the president of Gabon as a couple of the “hoods” that President Obama hosted in “the hizzy,” an image of Obama appeared onscreen during the Monday episode of Glenn Beck at the exact moment Beck asked, “Why would you get a gun?” [ READ MORE ]
Beck Asks, “Why Would You Get A Gun?” — Then Points To Pictures Of Obama, Sunstein
I say somebody ought to castrate this treasonous goon, his boss Ailes and the owner of Fox — Rupert Murdoch! Fox employees and Republicans in general have incited their imbecile, gun packing, racist anti-Obama audience — numerous times before. Here are some examples:
Elsewhere: The Union Busting, Police ‘Idioting’, racist, “All-White” government Ohio Governor — John Kasich, Took a Swipe at LeBron James
Following the Miami Heat’s loss in the NBA Finals Sunday night, Ohio’s Republican Governor John Kasich, on Monday issued a resolution proclaiming the NBA champion Dallas Mavericks “honorary Ohioans” since “the proud city of Cleveland and the entire state of Ohio share the excitement of Dallas Mavericks fans everywhere.”
“Nowitzki chose to resign with the Dallas Mavericks in the summer of 2010, forgoing free agency and keeping his talents in Dallas, thus remaining loyal to the team, city and fans for whom he played his entire career,” wrote Kasich.
James played his first seven NBA seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers before announcing last July in a highly publicized prime time television special that he would leave Cleveland to team up with a spate of other all-star players in Miami.
The move instantly soured James’ relationship with Cavaliers fans and pretty much everyone else in Ohio.
No word yet on how the Mavericks players and fans will take advantage of all of the “privileges and honors” that come with their new honorary citizenship.
[ By: Justine Sharrock ] Right-Wing Extremists Organize and Promote Violence on Facebook — Should the Feds Bust Them Or Leave Them Alone? — With all the concern about the lack of privacy on Facebook, one would think that the online social networking site would be the last place that paranoid, right-wing extremist groups would organize. But a wide range of groups, from patriot organizations to militias and even white supremacists, are using social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube to organize and even espouse illegal activities.
Take the American Resistance Movement, a network of militia groups that vows to take up arms against what it claims is an increasingly tyrannical government. Its Facebook pages and those of its members are filled with conspiratorial news about the New World Order and impending martial law, information about AK-47s, announcements for meetings, links to YouTube recruitment videos, and information about boycotts and elections.
Clicking through ARM’s profiles and walls offers an insider’s view of what these groups are all about. ARM member and Three Percenter Bradley Clifford, who ran the ARM online forum, suggested that I check out Facebook, MySpace and YouTube rather than ARM’s own Web site to “get a better picture” of the group. In fact, he eventually ended up taking down its Web site all together.
The photo pages are filled with shots of masked men holding machine guns, some with the U.S. flag tied around their lower faces. There are photos of AR-15s and AK-47s, Palin signs, eagles and hot chicks with guns. There are American flags, Don’t Tread on Me flags and Confederate flags. Images of the Founding Fathers sit next to those of Obama depicted as a socialist in front of the Russian flag. Favored Thomas Jefferson quotes like “The Tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants” and "When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny" litter posts and individual About Me sections.
Looking through pages for ARM as well as linked groups like Sons of Liberty, (a “peaceful” group whose mission states, “As John Locke said, it is not only the right, but the duty of the people to overthrow an oppressive government. In the future, if need be, the new ‘sons of liberty’ shall and will take back control of this nation.”) Three Per Centers, Right to Revolt and “White Fang Revolution,” linked YouTube videos range from footage of militia trainings, infomercials about the New World Order and hip hop videos promoting an armed revolution. There are tips on how to stockpile ammo and survival gear, and calls to impeach Obama and resist the New World Order.
It seems odd to see all this on Facebook, but in some ways it makes perfect sense. Any grassroots political movement from the Tea Parties to MoveOn to Obama’s election volunteers has to maximize social-networking sites to be successful. Likewise, right-wing extremist groups realize that the reach and efficiency these sites offer can’t be duplicated. They can reach members who are isolated in rural areas (or liberal pockets like San Francisco), link to like-minded organizations and quickly disseminate information far and wide.
It’s particularly essential for groups like ARM, which use the leaderless resistance model, in which organizations operate as a network of small dispersed independent yet interlinked groups and individuals, without one easily identifiable leader who can be easily targeted. It eliminates the weak link represented by a central leadership that has historically been targeted by the government and has proved vulnerable to internal disputes and struggles within movements. It allows individuals to take initiatives on a local level while still working together and sharing strategies and ideas. Popularized in 1962 by former Klansman turned Aryan Nationalist Louis Beam, it’s a structure that is used by a variety of groups, from the Earth Liberation Front to the Tea Party movement.
Social networking sites mimic the structure of these groups, making them the ideal way to communicate. The page itself becomes a sort of central command: it’s a meeting place, operating manual, source of information and inspiration, outreach tool and in essence becomes a sort of cyber leader in itself. The Xerox machine made pamphleting easier and telephones aided outreach, but social networking has influenced the very essence of organizations.
Social networking sites also encourage a greater level of cross-pollination and cooperation between different factions. “If you physically put these different factions in a room together, they would fight. Online they can sound off and vent instead of exchanging blows, and agree to put aside their difference. At public rallies you will find the whole spectrum invited to join together and show a strong presence in the real world. There is more willingness to work together,” explains Brian Marcus from the Anti-Defamation League.
Social networking sites work best for leaderless resistance models as opposed to hierarchies. The Oath Keepers, for example, which is rigidly led by its founder Stewart Rhodes, has disabled most of its Facebook page, since Rhodes couldn’t stop people from posting things like calls for armed resistance that contradicted his message and mission. Online, the group took on a life of its own and became greater than the founder and the official organization itself.
Many of the posts are benign—sharing news articles or announcements for meetings—but some cross the line into potentially illegal or dangerous territory. One member and frequent Facebook poster, active duty soldier Robert Hase, wrote on ARM’s wall that ARM “will resist and destroy Socialism, Fascism, Communism and terrorism. Foreign or domestic. I will never stop fighting the traitors. Wan’t [sic] to help me?”. Another member, Johnny Pernisco, posted, “…I will start war against to [sic] new world order till it over and our country will take america back to us as we the people.” The person behind Right to Revolt posted “The Founders knew we would one day lose our Republic. They also knew we would shed our blood & spill the blood of tyrants to restore it!” and earlier, “I’m beginning to feel an urge, more descriptively….a violent impulse! Totally unrelated I’m sure, but my trigger finger has been having muscle spasms as well! MUCH MUCH self control is being exhausted to keep myself within the confines of the law. What a pity that those we sent to DC to uphold the law, have so blatantly and frequently defecated on it!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Jered Bonneau, who used Facebook to draw people to his militia in Washington State, posted a detailed plan for a “mass stand-off” blockading state Capitols meant to incite police and federal officers to “fire the first shot…Letting other militias Amp up their guards. Sending an Alarm and muster throughout the nation.”
Bonneau has a network of allies in groups like the Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, Sons of Liberty across the country that he communicates with almost exclusively through Facebook. During the health care reform debates there were numerous tweets calling for Obama’s assasination. Solomon "Solly" Forell wrote, “"We’ll surely get over a bullet 2 Barack Obama‘s head!" Jay Martin, aka Thheee_Jay posted a series of tweets including, “You should be assassinated @BarackObama” and “If I lived in DC I’d shoot him myself. Point Blank. Dead Fucking Serious.” Most infamously, Daniel Knight Hayden tweeted threats “start the killing now” signaling his intent to wreak havoc at a Tax Day protest (some of which is still up on Twitter. Under the name CitizenQuasar, he tweeted:
•7:59 p.m. "The WAR wWIL start on the stepes of the Oklahoma State Capitol. I will cast the first stone. In the meantime, I await the police."
•8:01 p.m. "START THE KILLING NOW! I am wiling to be the FIRST DEATH! I Await the police. They will kill me in my home."
•8:06 p.m. "After I am killed on the Capitol Steps like REAL man, the rest of you will REMEMBER ME!!!"
•8:17 p.m. "I really don’ give a shit anymore. Send the cops around. I will cut their heads off the heads and throw the on the State Capitol steps."
Facebook has a policy against any posts that are “hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incite violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence…violates someone else’s rights or the law…or is used to “bully, intimidate, or harass any user.” If you violate those rules, your post can be deleted or you can get kicked off Facebook. “The goal of these policies is to strike a very delicate balance between giving people the freedom to express themselves,” explains spokesperson Andrew Noyes, and maintaining a safe and trusted environment.
But a simple search through various groups’ and individual’s sites makes it clear that Facebook can’t keep up. For example, it was only after CNET alerted them that Facebook disabled a month-old publicly open “Kill Obama” page with 122 members. One of its goals read, “"We are going to kill Obama. Ten of us will surround the capital, armed with sniper rifles. Mr. Hope And Change just made his last speech." There are enough pro-terrorism posts that Facebook has to “regularly” remove them, according to Noyes. In fact, they’ve set up a separate page to report that kind of thing. When asked whether they hand that information over to the FBI or DHS, Noyes refused to comment.
It’s unclear how much the federal government is using the information about these groups that is right there on the computer screen?which is a good or bad thing, depending on how you look at it. It’s a delicate balance between freedom of speech and privacy, versus the common sense to keep an eye on activity that is technically public and only one quick click away.
Right now, Facebook is a goldmine of information (that private businesses, at least, are gladly taking full advantage of). The Web site records and stores all user information through screenshots, documenting what people have viewed and entered on the site, even if it has been untagged or deleted. It seems an obvious source for the feds. But there are serious jurisdictional and constitutional limits to what they can do. For example, it is still unclear whether social networking sites legally constitute public or private information and whether it is fair game to go undercover on the sites.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told me they don’t monitor Facebook generally. “There are specific instances when you can and can’t monitor what someone is posting on Facebook or sending in emails,” he explained, “There has to be some type of criminal predicate.” Likewise, Paul Bresson at the FBI, which admits to looking at such sites in certain examples, explains, “There are First Amendment issues that we are aware of and must respect.”
Most social networking sites permit emergency access to information. MySpace, which stores current users’ information indefinitely, only requires a search warrant for any private messages, bulletins, or friends lists that are less than 181 days old. Twitter will only hand over information in response to legal process and has no guide for law enforcement procedures. According to a Department of Justice slide presentation on social networking sites obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Facebook is “often cooperative with emergency requests.”
The IRS searches the sites to see if you have side businesses you’re not reporting, but it has issued clear and strict guidelines that it can only use sites that don’t require logging on. The DOJ on the other hand trawls the sites, but has’t come up with an answer to whether it’s allowed to go “undercover” on the sites, taking on fake personas and friending people.
It’s not that the extremist groups are so naive as to think there isn’t a possibility of being monitored. ARM’s Facebook administrator posted that he “wants everyone to stay vigilant and careful about what you discuss to strangers, we are all living under the patriot act now and must act accordingly. remember it does the movement no good if you are sitting in a federal prison.”
“Facebook probably is monitored just as much as everything else — probably more so,” says Clifford. “That however, should not stop anyone from exercising their rights. If we just hide and not exercise those rights… we may wake up with none.”
Part of the point of posting calls for revolution on Facebook is because it is a public forum and anyone—including the federal government — can see it.
While much of the content posted on these sites could be unsubstantiated threats and rhetoric—calling for a revolution is very different from actually taking up arms—there is power in words. As Bill Bychowski, who posts about everything from getting Tea Partiers into Congress to the eugenics he thinks drives health care reform to stockpiling weapons, points out that Facebook messages also reach those running for office. “Mostly politicians are copying the [Facebookers'] phrases, using the terms "revolution", "don’t retreat, reload", "born again Americans", Global WAR-ming,”
says Bychoski. “They are paying attention.”
When our politicians’ response to these calls for an uprising is to co-opt them to win elections, instead of investigate potentially violent crimes, it’s time we all pay attention.
About The Author: Justine Sharrock — is a former Mother Jones staffer. She is the author of the book — Tortured: When Good Soldiers Do Bad Things (How Our Cowardly Leaders Abused Prisoners, American Soldiers, and Everything We’re Fighting For). Visit her website at: http://www.justinesharrock.com/ .
One comment in the Huffington Post stood out. It reads as follows: “Of all the footage from all the cities on all the media, I witnessed not a single black or latino person in whole crowd.Isn’t that odd.If they are actually protesting the things they claim to be, doesn’t it stand to reason at least SOME of them should be minorities?”
I didn’t see any either, despite watching eight hours of cable and broadcast news across several networks, including Fox News. No surprise — the GOP is overwhelmingly white and male. A shrinking congregation of BIGOTS, RACISTS and NEO-NAZIS.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson takes note: “That was and still is the GOP’s bread and butter constituency. They vote, are outspoken on issues, bully and badger party moderates and dissenters, and when fully aroused can inflame millions of voters around the emotional wedge issues; abortion, family values, anti-gay marriage and rights, and tax cuts. GOP presidents and aspiring presidents, Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr. and W. Bush, and McCain and legions of GOP governors, senators and congresspersons banked on these voters for victory and to seize and maintain regional and national political dominance. The strategy was simple; say and do as little as possible about civil rights, talk God, country and patriotism, use racially tinged code words and furiously court white males. The strategy worked like a political charm for four decades.”
Comically, some of these Tea-Baggers re-enacted the civil war, in yesterday’s proceedings — a war the confederate south lost to the north. Others roamed around chanting “Confederate Freedom Tunes” and waving a multitude of placards conveying violent smears, racist and awkward messages.
Among the messages: “The Audacity of the Dope,” “O Crap” and Obama as an acronym for “One Big Awful Mistake America.” Some messages were ugly (“Napolitano — Obama’s Gestapo Queen,” “Hang ‘Em High Traitors,” and a sign held by a young girl saying “Victim of Child Tax Abuse“). Others were funny (“Don’t Talk to Me! I Forgot My Teleprompter“). Certain ones had sinister overtones (“Tax Slavery Sucks,” and “Obama bin Lyin“). Then there was the guy holding a Cabbage Patch doll by its hair with the message: “My kid’s growth stunted by your stimulus.” “Hey Big Brother: Show us Your Real Birth Certificate,” said one sign in the rain-soaked crowd. “Blackbeard Obama, King of the Tax Pirates,” said another.
They cannot stomach the fact that a black man is occupying the white house. That’s what is itching them most. Obama’s win triggered a crescendo of lunatic racism.
Lone Star, Lone State? — The Governor of Texas threatened to secede: “Texas is a unique place,” he said. “When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that. “My hope is that America and Washington in particular pays attention,” he said. “We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we’re a pretty independent lot to boot.”
“The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in “rightwing extremist activity,” saying the economic recession, the election of America’s first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.
A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines ‘rightwing extremism in the United States’ as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.
The rightwing has responded as if the Department of Homeland Security had attacked mom, apple pie and our brave warriors. The usual suspects in talk radio and Fox News are accusing the Obama administration of besmirching the good name of our military personnel.
The nine-page document was not an attack on our soldiers who are conducting themselves with courage and honor in the senseless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The report clearly states that the return of a “few” disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of the white power movement. The vast majority of our veterans will return to their home towns and lead productive lives. We all know veterans in our neighborhood, workplace and places of worship who are pillars in the community.
But there are a few malcontents who might join white power militias, and use their military training to wreak havoc. The Dept. of Homeland Security is right to warn police departments throughout the country to beware of this small group of racist veterans.
The report wasn’t an attack on the military, talk radio or conservatism, it was a warning that racist groups always thrive in hard economic times.
The detailed statement wasn’t an attack on talk radio, but I won’t pull any punches in attacking talk radio. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mike Savage, Billy Cunningham, Mark Levine and the rest of the reactionary shock jocks pose more of a danger to this country than al Qaeda.
When al Qaeda releases a video Americans don’t take their vile rhetoric seriously, but when Limbaugh demonizes Obama, ostracizes homosexuals and eviscerates feminists, his legions of dittoheads are ready to burn down Planned Parenthood offices and to beat up on gays and lesbians.
Talk radio is a cancer that is infecting our airwaves, a cancer that needs to be excised. I believe in freedom of speech, but some radio stations syndicate only the rightwing nut jobs. For every intelligent and reasonable voice like Alan Colmes, there are a hundred Limbaugh wannabes. There needs to be a fair and balanced approach, we must demand that radio stations put more liberal voices on the air.
When more liberals are on the air we will see a precipitous drop in rightwing extremist activity. Peace and sanity will prevail and the Department of Homeland security won’t have to issue any warnings about extremist rightwing activity.
Southern Poverty Law Center: It was a stunning revelation: Illegal immigrants hold 5 million bad mortgages in the United States. Conservative commentators pounced on the statistic last October. Many of them were already blaming immigrants for the subprime mortgage mess. Now they had numerical proof, and from no less an authority than the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Just one problem: It wasn’t true.
Although HUD immediately debunked the bogus factoid, it nevertheless spread rapidly on popular blogs, syndicated radio shows and major cable networks.
This wasn’t the first time that immigrant bashers with virtual megaphones ignored the facts in spreading misinformation about the ongoing financial crisis. Unless media outlets of all stripes tighten their fact-checking standards, it won’t be the last.
As the nation’s housing crisis worsened last fall, right-wing radio hosts, bloggers and columnists became increasingly strident in blaming it on the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, a federal law aimed at spurring FDIC-insured banks to lend money to people living in lower-income communities.
They claimed the CRA forced lenders to make risky loans to non-whites including illegal immigrants, causing the mortgage meltdown. Never mind that there was ample credible evidence that, like the HUD statistic, this wasn’t true either.
The CRA falsehood easily jumped from the far-right fringe to more mainstream, presumably more credible conservative media outlets, illustrating how sloppy fact-checking or no fact-checking at all have become increasingly common in the midst of fierce competition among speed-obsessed media. [ READ MORE ]
The Republican noise machine failed to corrupt this year’s Presidential Election. Now some are behaving “funny,” while the hard-core right wingers like NEO-NAZI ‘Syphylis De-Brained’ Sean Hannity have just shifted to LOWER GEARS — throwing even more COMPOST with Insurgent Ferocity. Meanwhile, the sickest of them all, an assortment of Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, Anti-Semites, etc. are celebrating — hoping that a black man in the Oval Office would shock white America, possibly drive millions to their cause, and perhaps even set off a race war that, they hope, would ultimately end in Aryan victory.
During the campaign: Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, accused Mr. Obama of ‘palling around with terrorists.’
Now: “Barack Obama has been elected president,’ Ms. Palin said. ‘Let us, let us — let him — be able to kind of savor this moment, one, and not let the pettiness of maybe internal workings of the campaign erode any of the recognition of this historic moment that we’re in. And God bless Barack Obama and his beautiful family.‘
NOTE: Sarah, not too long ago you were inciting LYNCH MOBS to KILL OBAMA (see video below)
For those “McCain-Palin” nin-compoops who want to harm the President-Elect, here is something to think about:
A secret service agent in a convoy that took Obama to the gym
The first family in its bubble on election night and must be guarded like Fort Knox
In Grant Park — Obama was surrounded by three-inch thick bulletproof glass around the podium where he delivered his brilliant acceptance speech. There were arrests, just days before, by the FBI of white supremacists who were plotting to murder dozens plus Obama.
Obama’s New Ride — The “First Tank”
General Motors is believed to be putting the final touches on a new First TANK. This Super-Limo(below) will be a truck-based Cadillac. It will presumably replace the Cadillac that President Bush has used since 2005.
During the campaign: “You see, he believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that help us all make more of it,” McCain said of Obama. “Joe, in his plain-spoken way, said this sounded a lot like socialism. And a lot of Americans are thinking along those same lines. “At least in Europe, the socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are upfront about their objectives,” McCain added.
Now: Mr. McCain, of Arizona, referred to Mr. Obama’s victory Tuesday night as ‘a historic election‘ and hailed the ‘special pride‘ it held for African-Americans.
During the campaign: Attending an event with Mr. McCain in York, Pa., in August, Mr. Lieberman (The worst Democratic Traitor Ever) said the race was ‘between one candidate, John McCain, who has always put the country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate who has not.‘ Lieberman went further, lying that Mr. Obama ‘voted to cut off funding for our troops on the ground.‘
Now: Mr. Lieberman, who may lose his position as the chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, because of his support of McCain, released a statement congratulating Mr. Obama for ‘his historic and impressive victory.‘ It continued, ‘The American people are a people of extraordinary fairness.‘ … adding that he believes that ‘President-elect Obama — and, then, Senator Obama — is a genuine patriot and loves his country‘
NOTE: The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said in response to Lieberman ….F^7!#CK THAT!
During the campaign: Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota told Chris Matthews of MSNBC that, when it came to Mr. Obama, ‘I’m very concerned that he may have anti-American views.‘
Now: After narrowly escaping defeat because of those comments, she now says that she is ‘extremely grateful that we have an African-American who has won this year.‘ Ms. Bachmann, a Republican, called Mr. Obama’s victory, which included her state, ‘a tremendous signal we sent.‘
During the campaign: In May, George Bush gave a speech before the Knesset to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary, he indirectly criticized Obama by comparing U.S. diplomatic efforts to engage with foreign leaders as the equivalent of “appeasing the Nazis.”
Now: President Bush has hailed Mr. Obama’s victory, saying his arrival at the White House would be ‘a stirring sight.‘
Well, is Barack Obama still a Terrorist, ……you Mother&!!$$**F!!$%IN MORONS?
JIM RUTENBERG writing for the New York Times states: “There is a great tradition of paint-peeling political hyperbole during presidential campaign years. And there is an equally great tradition of backing off from it all afterward, though with varying degrees of deftness.” “But given the intensity of some of the charges that have been made in the past few months, and the historic nature of Mr. Obama’s election, the exercise this year has been particularly whiplash-inducing, with its extreme before-and-after contrasts.” — [READ MORE]
Notable Exceptions
Sean Hannity | Rush Limbaugh The sickest Morons on TV/RADIO — Rush “Fat” Limbaugh, Sean “Syphilis” Hannity, Laura “I used To Be A Man” Ingraham, Bill “Mealy-Mouth” O’Reilly ……and many more RIGHT-WING SCUM BAGS scattered all over America, are still vomiting garbage into their microphones with ANIMAL FEROCITY.
These RATS don’t give up!
They have intensified their obsessive irrationality — and are still calling President-elect Barack Obama a TERRORIST, among many other lies and innuendo.
The sick SYPHILIS infected Sean Hannity, of FOX News said yesterday: “I want Barack Obama to succeed.” … just a moment later, he was back parroting the failed campaign argument that Obama is a “mystery“? “I fear [this] is the guy that has these radical associations 20 years ago,” Hannity added, an odd way of demonstrating support for the new commander in chief.
Opening his first post-election rant against the president-elect, Limbaugh launched in with a certain relish. “The game,” he told his radio listeners, “has begun.”
What game Rush? Pill-Popping?
“The Obama recession is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen,” Limbaugh told his radio audience of 15 million to 20 million on Thursday. “Stocks are dying, which is a precursor of things to come. This is an Obama recession. Might turn into a depression.”
You mean the Bush Recession, you drug addicted, racist moron!