Think Progress: Following Rep. Allen West’s (R-FL) tirade yesterday against Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), the Tea Party Republican told the Huffington Post that he had “just apologized” to his fellow Floridian this afternoon. Wasserman Schultz told CNN this afternoon, however, that reports of West apologizing to her were “absolutely untrue.” Watch it:

Here Is What Made Tea-Partier Allen West Freak Out

Playlist: ‘Colonel’ Allen West — A Butt-Licking Uncle-Tom

West’s spokeswoman Angela Sachitano called reports of the congressman’s apology “absolutely false.” In fact, West was “waiting on an apology from the Congresswoman,” said Sachitano, for a remark Wasserman Schultz made last year. The Huffington Post is standing by its initial report of West’s apology.

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Clearly this hoodlum Allen West has a “Women Problem.” The hullabaloo with Ms Wasserman isn’t the first time West has stirred up controversy with comments about women. Given his short time in office and his own accusations of sexism by political opponents, West has compiled a rather unimpressive record of associating with misogynists, stereotyping the role of women in society, and engaging in outright misogyny of his own: [ CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ]
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“Colonel” Allen West committed war crimes in Iraq, then got off easy. Military prosecutors clearly indicated that West routinely tortured prisoners in Iraq.

West has been listed right next two of the most well known torturers at Abu Ghraib, Lynddie England and Charles Graner.

Then, brainless Tea-Party morons elected him to Congress in 2010, after he was kicked off (“retired”) the military.

Ever since, this despicable uncle-tom has demonstrated clearly why he should be serving time in prison and not Congress.

This should be shocking news, but it’s not the first time war criminals have found a nice home in the brutal Republican Political machine.

As expected Fox came out in force to support their criminal UNCLE-TOM Allen West

Fox’s Bolling: Wasserman-Schultz “Drives A Machete Into Colonel Allen West’s Back As He Walks Off The House Floor”

“Filipino Anchor-Baby” Michelle Malkin: Wasserman-Schultz Is Nothing More Than “Alan Grayson In Heels … Anthony Weiner, Only An Octave Higher”

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Other Right-Wing Lies & Monstrosities
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A Climate of Deception: How Fox News Distorts the Climate Debate

Fox Distorts Clinton To Claim He Attacked Obama Over Default Crisis

On The Five, Tantaros Repeats Misleading Claim That Health Care Reform “Cut” $500 Billion From Medicare

Right-Wing Media Make False Claims About Obama’s Mother And Her Insurance Fight

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   [By: Dr. Boyce Watkins]
Herman Cain Plays the Race Card Against Barack Obama: It appears that Herman Cain, who is expected to be a black presidential candidate, has the race card locked and loaded for his sprint toward the White House.

Recently, Cain was asked about race during a New Hampshire campaign speech. When asked about this controversial topic, Cain had this to say:

“Now people are over this first black president thing,” he said. “But there are some people who will say, ‘I’m not going to vote for another black guy because this one didn’t work out. And my response is, ‘Well, what about those 43 white guys you put in there? How did they work out? Don’t condemn me because the first black one was bad.”

There was another interesting episode when Cain was asked on his radio show why he speaks so highly of the founding fathers, even though they owned slaves.

“They set the bar high when they said all men were created equal,” Cain said. “They could have set it where they were that day. They set it high so this nation could work up to that ideal.”

Herman Cain — A ‘Butt-Licking’ Uncle Tom

One thing that people can say about Herman Cain is that he was a successful businessman. As the CEO and part owner of Godfather’s Pizza, Cain has accumulated enough wealth and success to consider himself to be a serious candidate for the presidency. With that said, Cain also has a set of views that are reflective of the diversity of opinions within the African-American community, presenting an interesting contrast to those who want to put all black people into a nice, neat, little “liberal” box.

Let’s be clear, I don’t agree with Herman Cain. I have a difficult time appreciating any African American who panders for votes by effectively saying, “I stand with you in your disdain for the way black people behave. I assure you that I’m different from the rest of them.”

Such a divide-and-conquer political strategy has been used since we had the house negro/field negro divide during slavery (there is no faster route to the top of the political heap than by becoming a black Republican). Rather than using hatred toward President Obama as a weapon for his own political advancement, Cain might be more respectable if he simply stood on his own credentials (as his fellow conservative Colin Powell might do). Being a black conservative presidential candidate doesn’t mean you have to disrespect the first black president.

With that said, many of Cain’s views reflect a peculiar paradox within the black community: the fact that black people are actually incredibly conservative. When it comes to views on gay marriage, abortion, the separation of church and state, etc., African Americans have quite a few viewpoints that align more closely with the Republican right than with liberals who’ve come to “save us.” The problem for Republicans, however, is that they insist on advocating for programs that hurt the poor, which has a disproportionate impact on the African-American community. Their opposition to Affirmative Action and constant attacks on President Obama don’t help their cause very much either.

While the existence of men like Herman Cain represents a stomach-churning example of how the disease of racism continues to affect our society, the truth is that Cain also represents the very best of what America can possibly be. I won’t vote for Herman Cain, but I am glad that there are black politicians who allow African Americans to jump outside of predefined stereotypes given to us by the media and our political leaders. There’s no one way to be black, and both Herman Cain and President Obama reflect the diversity of the black experience in America.

House Negroes | Butt-Licking Uncle-Toms

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   [ By: Chauncey DeVega ]
Black History Month is Herman Cain Playing the Race Minstrel for CPAC — In the immortal words of Megatron in Transformers: The Movie, Herman Cain’s speech at CPAC really is bad comedy. As you know, I find black garbage pail kids (black conservatives) fascinating — not because of what they believe, but rather because of how they entertain and perform for their White Conservative masters.

When race minstrelsy was America’s most popular form of mass entertainment, black actors would often have to pretend to be white men, who then in turn would put on the cork to play the role of the “black” coon, Sambo, or Jumping Jim Crow. Adding insult to injury, in a truly perverse and twisted example of the power of American white supremacy black vaudevillians would often pretend to be white in order to denigrate black people for the pleasures of the white gaze.

Herman Cain at CPAC

Minstrel Show

Herman Cain–an ironic name if ever, and one more suited to a tragic figure in a Harlem Renaissance era novella–is not “blackening twice” as some race minstrels chose to do.

[ Unfortunately, the attendees at CPAC are not the butt of some type of joke where the white man wearing the cork is really a black man in secret. ]

Instead, Herman Cain’s shtick is a version of race minstrelsy where he performs “authentic negritude” as wish fulfillment for White Conservative fantasies. Like the fountain at Lourdes, Cain in his designated role as black Conservative mascot, absolves the White racial reactionaries at CPAC of their sins. This is a refined performance that Black Conservatives have perfected over many decades and centuries of practice.

Let’s consider the routine. First, Cain enters the stage to Motown music. Then Cain feigns swimming after rolling up his sleeves to show them his black skin and how he is a hardworking negro (not like those other ones). Cain bellows in a preacher affected voice and channels the folksy negro down home accent of his late grandpappy. In the money shot, Cain gives the obligatory “black folks who are not Republicans are on the plantation” speech to the joyous applause of his White benefactors. And he doubles down by legitimating any opposition to President Barack Obama as virtuous and patriotic regardless of the bigoted well-springs from which it may flow.

In total, CPAC is a carnival and a roadshow for reactionary Conservatives. It is only fitting that in the great tradition of the freak show, the human zoo, the boardwalk, and the great midway world’s fairs of the 19th and 20th centuries, that there is a Borneo man, a Venus Hottentot or a tribe of cannibals from deepest darkest Africa or Papua New Guinea on display. For CPAC and the White Conservative imagination, Herman Cain and his black and brown kin are that featured attraction.

We always need a monkey in the window, for he/she reminds us of our humanity while simultaneously reinforcing a sense of our own superiority.

Sadly, there are always folks who are willing to play that role because it pays so well.

Feeding The Animals: Re-visiting The ‘Canine‘ CPAC Carnival

References:

UPDATE:
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Why I Stand By My Criticism of Herman Cain — Even As Right-Wingers Attack Me: Chauncey DeVega responds to attacks from Breitbart and other right-wingers for his criticism of conservative presidential hopeful Herman Cain.
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   By: Melissa McEwan
[Trigger warning for violent rhetoric of many different stripes.]

Both sides are, in fact, not “just as bad,” when it comes to institutionally sanctioned violent and eliminationist rhetoric. An anonymous commenter at Daily Kos and the last Republican vice presidential nominee are not equivalent, no matter how many ridiculously irresponsible members of the media would have us believe otherwise.

There is, demonstrably, no leftist equivalent to Sarah Palin, former veep candidate and presumed future presidential candidate, who uses gun imagery (rifle sights) and language (“Don’t Retreat, RELOAD“) to exhort her followers to action.

There is no leftist equivalent to the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a group which was created from the mailing list of the old white supremacist White Citizens Councils and has been noted as becoming increasingly “radical and racist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which classifies the CCC as a hate group—and is nonetheless considered an acceptable association by prominent members of the Republican Party, including a a former senator and the last Republican presidential nominee.

There is no leftist equivalent to Glenn Beck, host of a long-running nationally syndicated radio show, former host of a show on CNN and current host of a show on Fox, best-selling author, DC rally organizer, and longtime user of eliminationist rhetoric, including equating universal healthcare to rape, joking about victims of forest fires being America-hating liberals, comparing Al Gore to Hitler, condoning the murder of Michael Moore, accusing Holocaust survivor George Soros of being a Nazi collaborator, joking about poisoning Nancy Pelosi, equating immigration reform with burning US citizens alive, publicly endorsing violent revolution, and winkingly telling his viewers not to get violent, all of which amounts to a speck on the tip of a very big iceberg.

Playlist: Glenn Beck – Fox News’ Fraudulent in-House Baboon

Playlist: Sarah ‘Death’ Palin — The ‘DISASTA’ From Alaska

There is no leftist equivalent to Ann Coulter, best-selling author and syndicated columnist, who has been a panelist on Fox’s Hannity 28 times and was on Hannity & Colmes an additional 18 times, who has been a guest multiple times on The O’Reilly Factor, Geraldo at Large, Larry King Live, Huckabee, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Hardball, and other cable news shows, has made appearances on The Tonight Show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Daily Show, and Real Time with Bill Maher, and has co-hosted The View, and has also said that a baseball bat is “the most effective way” to talk to liberals, as well as: “We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too.” And: “My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building.” And: “In [Clinton's] recurring nightmare of a presidency, we have a national debate about whether he ‘did it,’ even though all sentient people know he did. Otherwise there would be debates only about whether to impeach or assassinate.”

Playlist: Ann Coulter — Compost Throwing Psycho-Talker

There is no leftist equivalent to Bill O’Reilly, Fox News television show host, nationally syndicated radio show host, and best-selling author, who has appeared on The Tonight Show eleven times, The Late Show with David Letterman six times, The Daily Show six times, Live with Regis and Kelly five times, The View four times, Good Morning America three times, and Real Time with Bill Maher twice, among other national shows, and has lied about and stalked his critics, said that progressive bloggers should be dealt with “with a hand grenade,” said Air America hosts were traitors and should be “put in chains,” as well as: “And if Al Qaeda comes [to San Francisco] and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.”

Playlist: Bill O’Reilly (Osama Bin O’Reilly)

There is no leftist equivalent to Rush “I tell people don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus—living fossils—so we will never forget what these people stood for” Limbaugh, nationally syndicated radio show host and invitee to the Bush White House.

Playlist: Rush ‘FAT’ Limbaugh

There is no leftist equivalent to Pat “Hitler’s success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path” Buchanan, a regular MSNBC contributor and syndicated columnist.

There is no leftist equivalent to Michelle “In Defense of Internment: The Case for ‘Racial Profiling’ in World War II and the War on Terror” Malkin, a regular Fox panelist, best-selling author, and prominent conservative blogger.

There is no leftist equivalent to Pat “The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians” Robertson, host of The 700 Club, who was a guest on Fox’s Hannity & Colmes five times.

There is no leftist equivalent to Michael “Howard Dean should be arrested and hung for treason or put in a hole until the end of the Iraq war” Reagan, or Michael “Smallpox in a blanket, which the U.S. Army gave to the Cherokee Indians on their long march to the West, was nothing compared to what I’d like to see done to these people” Savage, both nationally syndicated radio show hosts.

There is no leftist equivalent to the Minutemen and other radical and eliminationist-spewing anti-immigration groups, some of whom have been subcontracted to work the border by the US government.

Playlist: American Anti-Immigrant Xenophobia

There is no leftist equivalent to radical and eliminationist-spewing anti-choice groups, who openly target doctors and call for their assassinations—and had a success just last year in the murder of Dr. George Tiller—and whose leaders get featured in whitewashing profiles in the Washington Post.

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

This is not an argument there is no hatred, no inappropriate and even violent rhetoric, among US leftists. There is.

This is evidence that, although violent rhetoric exists among US leftists, it is not remotely on the same scale, and, more importantly, not an institutionally endorsed tactic, as it is among US rightwingers.

This is a fact. It is not debatable.

And there is observably precious little integrity among conservatives in addressing this fact, in the wake of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Palin takes the absolute cake for audaciously asserting that her rifle sight imagery was really “a surveyor’s symbol,” and not even having the decency to sheepishly acquiesce that, even if that were true (and not evident bullshit), it’s understandable how a reasonable person could look at her “surveyor’s symbol” alongside the word “target” and get the wrong, ahem, idea. No, it’s all just a wall of total denial in the Palin camp, when she’s not whining about being a victim herself of people who have the temerity to actually hold her accountable for her carelessly casual violent rhetoric. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. And then it’s deny and play the martyr.

But it’s not like Palin’s ideological allies are covering themselves in glory, either. There’s no call for accountability, no call for reflection, not among conservatives. Just the usual game of deflection and projection, as they desperately try to find a way to make this liberals’ fault.

Bill Kristol took to the airwaves this morning to call criticism of Palin “a disgrace” and accuse liberals of “McCarthyism.” Commentators on Fox News, meanwhile, blame President Obama for not changing the tone in Washington, like he promised. Which would be hilarious, were that redirection of blame not a key part of conservatives’ strategy to dodge responsibility for the eliminationist rhetoric that certainly contributed to the tragic events of this weekend.

When, a few months ago, there was a spate of widely-publicized suicides of bullied teens, we had, briefly, a national conversation about the dangers of bullying. But in the wake of an ideologically-motivated assassination attempt of a sitting member of Congress, we aren’t having a national conversation about the dangers of violent rhetoric—because the conversation about bullying children was started by adults, and there are seemingly no responsible grown-ups to be found among conservatives anymore.

Faced with the overwhelming evidence of the violent rhetoric absolutely permeating the discourse emanating from their side of the aisle, conservatives adopt the approach of a petulant child—deny, obfuscate, and lash out defensively.

And engage in the most breathtaking disingenuous hypocrisy: Conservatives, who vociferously argue against the language and legislation of social justice, on the basis that it all “normalizes” marginalized people and their lives and cultures (it does!), are suddenly nothing but blinking, wide-eyed naïveté when it comes to their own violent rhetoric.

They have a great grasp of cultural anthropology when they want to complain about progressive ideas, inclusion, diversity, and equality. But when it comes to being accountable for their own ideas, their anthropological prowess magically disappears.

Only progressives “infect” the culture, but conservative hate speech exists in a void.

That’s what we’re meant to believe, anyway. But we know it is not true. This culture, this habit, of eliminationist rhetoric is not happening in a vacuum. It’s happening in a culture of widely-available guns (thanks to conservative policies), of underfunded and unavailable medical care, especially mental health care (thanks to conservative policies), of a widespread belief that government is the enemy of the people (thanks to conservative rhetoric), and of millions of increasingly desperate people (thanks to an economy totally fucked by conservative governance).

The shooting in Tucson was not an anomaly. It was an inevitability.

And as long as we continue to play this foolish game of “both sides are just as bad,” and rely on trusty old ablism to dismiss Jared Lee Loughner as a crackpot—dutifully ignoring that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators; carefully pretending that the existence of people with mental illness who are potentially dangerous somehow absolves us of responsibility for violent rhetoric, as opposed to serving to underline precisely why it’s irresponsible—it will be inevitable again.

Let’s get this straight: This shit doesn’t happen in a void. It happens in a culture rife with violent political rhetoric, and it’s time for conservatives to pull up their goddamn bootstraps and get to work doing the hard business of self-reflection.

This is one problem the invisible hand of the market can’t fix for them—unless, perhaps, it’s holding a mirror.

Playlist: Republican | Tea-Party Racism

[ More Playlists Here ]

About The Author(s): Melissa McEwan — is the founder and manager of the award-winning political and cultural group blog Shakesville, which she launched as Shakespeare’s Sister in October 2004 because George Bush was pissing her off. In addition to running Shakesville, she also contributes to The Guardian’s Comment is Free America and AlterNet. Melissa graduated from Loyola University Chicago with degrees in Sociology and Cultural Anthropology, with an emphasis on the political marginalization of gender-based groups. An active feminist and LGBTQI advocate, she has worked as a concept development and brand consultant and now writes full-time. She lives just outside Chicago with three cats, one dog, and a Scotsman, with whom she shares a love of all things geekdom, from Lord of the Rings to Lost. When she’s not blogging, she can usually be found at her piano or dancing like no one is watching to a Smiths’ tune.

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MediaMatters: For years, Rush Limbaugh has referred to first lady Michelle Obama as “Michelle, my belle.” But in recent months, Limbaugh has repeatedly called Obama “Michelle, my butt” and then acted as though he misspoke. [ READ MORE ]

Beck’s “America’s First Christmas“: Santa Beck gives Obama a “socialist mop“

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Irony: On Hannity, Malkin criticizes congressional Democrats as “radical extremists“

Morris agrees that Obama is a “socialist” who wants to “seize private property“

Napolitano asks if U.S. is “turning to Marxism,” cites Marx’s influence on regulatory system, Federal Reserve

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ASSHOLE UPDATE: The Right-Wing’s War on Christmas
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Morning Joe slams Kyl, DeMint for “judg[ing] Harry Reid’s faith”

Fox carries DeMint and Kyl’s water, asks if Democrats have declared “War on Christmas“

“Asshole” Steve Doocy: Some say passing temporary funding bill is a “good thing” because it expires “when more Republicans come in“

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