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.

Need I say, these are exactly the same BLOOD-CUDDLING NEO-KLAN LYNCH MOBS who patronized the McCain-Palin campaign last year.

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.

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

The TEA-PARTIES Captured In Video

Obama Is A Kenyan Out To Destroy America

Fox News brings the crazy: Reporter calls for “fighting the fascism” in the US

CNN’s Roesgen grills tea party protestor who calls Obama a “fascist,” says
protest “highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox”

U.S. Steeped In Tea-Bag Hype

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.”

FREEDUMB Rick Perry — President of Texas?

GOP Tea-Baggage

Protesting Obama

Extreme Right-Wing Threat

Taxing The Truth

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

References:

1. Comprehensive Tea-Party Coverage By The Huffington Post
2. Obama Is Just Not Their Cup of Tea — Alan Keyes, railed against the “orgy of selfishness,” the “orgy of debt” and “the scourge of immigration.”

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

There are now 926 hate groups in this country.

Take a second, and consider that number. It represents an increase of more than 50 percent since 2000. And by “hate groups,” I don’t mean guys in their bathrobes who go online and pretend their followers are legion. No, I mean actual Klan cells, Neo-Nazi sects, gay-bashing “churches,” cliques of black separatists, white nationalists, nativists, racist skinheads and other merchants of venom who meet, plot and recruit in all 48 contiguous states. (Alaska and Hawaii have no known hate groups.) Nine hundred twenty-six of them. The number is a record.

   The National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi sect marches last fall in Jefferson City, Mo.

We learn all this from the Southern Poverty Law Center (www.splcenter.org) in Montgomery, Ala., which has, since its founding in 1971, become a leading authority on the business of hate. According to the latest issue of Intelligence Report, the center’s quarterly magazine, that business is booming.

And maybe you wonder how this can be. How can hate enjoy such phenomenal growth in a nation where a Jew serves as senator from Connecticut, a Muslim serves as representative from Minnesota, a Hispanic is governor of New Mexico and a black man is president? The answer is that we are a nation where a Jew serves as senator from Connecticut, a Muslim serves as representative from Minnesota, a Hispanic is governor of New Mexico and a black man is president. Because if those things strike you as signs of progress, well, they are signs of apocalypse to those who believe only white, male Christians are fit to lead.

But that’s not the only reason for the increase. The center also cites the debate over illegal immigration that has dominated much of this decade. Though former President George W. Bush offered thoughtful, moderate leadership on the issue, he was drowned out by demagogic extremists competing to see which could most effectively scapegoat undocumented workers. They, too, bear responsibility here.

Finally, there is the economy. When things get tough, people become more receptive to the idea that their miseries are all the fault of some alien other. So the stock market, too, is implicated. Hate rises when the Dow falls.

I imagine the center’s findings land like cold water in the faces of those who took Barack Obama’s ascension to the presidency as proof that the nation was finally cured of the sickness of hate. The truth, I’m afraid, is more nuanced than that.

   FOX News – Merchants of Venom

Maybe it helps to think in terms of alcoholism, a disease that can, with treatment, be contained, controlled, put into remission ? but never cured. Even when you have years of sobriety under your belt, the germ of it lurks in your bloodstream. Which is why alcoholics do not call themselves cured. Rather, they say they are recovering.

Hate is something like that, a fact some of us have never quite understood. Such folks are convinced that there is a goal line out there somewhere, which, once crossed, will allow the nation to declare itself cured. And once cured, we’ll never have to grapple with hatred again.

But it doesn’t work that way.

In a nation so deeply riven by culture, race and religion, there is always a temptation to hate somebody, to blame some group of others for the job you lost, the crime committed against you, the fear and uncertainty you feel. There is a simplicity and a seductiveness to it that are all too easily mistaken for righteousness.

So there is no “cure” for a nation’s hate. There is only an ongoing process of getting better, not unlike the alcoholic who must daily earn his sobriety anew. This explosion of hate is a reminder of what happens when we forget that, when we are undeservedly sanguine about how enlightened we’ve become.

It is said that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. Well, that’s the going rate for tolerance, too.

———————————————————————————————————————————————

[Enlarge] About The Author: Leonard Pitts, Jr. is a nationally-syndicated columnist and winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. He was originally hired by the Miami Herald to critique music, but within a few years he received his own column in which he dealt extensively with race, politics, and culture. He lives in Bowie, Maryland. He has won awards for his writing from the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and was first nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1993, eventually claiming the honor in 2004. He is also the author of the bestselling book Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood. Pitts gained national recognition for his widely-circulated column of September 12, 2001, “We’ll Go Forward From This Moment,” in which he described the toughness of the American spirit even in the face of such a horrible attack. In June 2007, Pitts was the subject of a campaign of death threats and harassment by neo-Nazis angry at a column he wrote about two whites raped and murdered in Knoxville, Tennessee. In his column addressing the murders, Pitts stated “for the crackpots, incendiaries and flat-out racists who have chosen this tragedy upon which to take an obscene and ludicrous stand. I have four words for them and any other white Americans who feel themselves similarly victimized. Cry me a river.” More death threats were made in April 2008 before his appearance at the University of Puget Sound. ——————————————————————————————————————————————— | Read More About Leonard Pitts Jr. | Visit his website at www.leonardpittsjr.com.

“A federal judge has ordered the Santa Rosa County School District to stop promoting religion and prayer in the classroom and at school events.

U.S. District Court Judge Casey Rodgers ruled Friday after school officials admitted allegations in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Rodgers’ order prohibits employees from:

•    Promoting prayer at school-sponsored events, including graduation.

•    Planning or financing religious baccalaureate services.

•    Promoting religious beliefs to students in class or during school-sponsored events and activities.

•    Holding school-sponsored events at churches.”

http://www.pnj.com/article/20090113/NEWS01/901130315/1006/NEWS01

The news chronicles the failures of humankind, and it’s hard not to feel depressed after reading the morning newspaper. But every once in a while there’s an article that gives me hope that we are evolving into more enlightened human beings.

Principals and teachers are held in high regard by their students, and school officials can use their influence for good or evil. In this case Pace High School Principal Frank Lay used his authority to attempt to indoctrinate his young charges into his Christian faith.

I can hear millions of Christians saying “what’s wrong with that“? I would ask these fine Christians what if a Muslim principal or a Wiccan teacher spread his or her faith to schoolchildren?

When I try to convince people of faith that promoting the Christian faith at school is an abomination, they respond that atheists don’t have to participate during a school prayer. Would they have the same perspective if their children had to sit still while their Wiccan teacher cast spells for world peace?

God bless Judge Rodgers for his ruling, and thank God that we can look forward to President Barack Obama appointing federal judges who share Judge Rogers enlightened views.

————————————————————————————

George W. Bush failed to live up to his promise to be a “uniter and not a divider,” his disastrous decision to invade Iraq, and his economic policies that favor the wealthy have polarized this country like never before.

John McCain and Sarah Palin are doing little to unite this country, in fact they continue the GOP tradition of trying to win elections by pitting one section of America against another.

“As a proud resident of Oakton, Va. , I can tell you that the Democrats have just come in from the District of Columbia and moved in to northern Virginia. And that’s really what you see there. But the rest of the state, real Virginia, if you will, I think will be very responsive to McCain’s message.” — McCain senior adviser, Nancy Pfotenhauer

Pfotenhauer, is a proud resident of the heavily Democratic northern region of Virginia, and I’m a proud resident of Central Virginia, the “real Virginia” according to her. I agree with her that the overwhelmingly Republican residents of Central Virginia are hardworking and patriotic. The county that I live in has less than a one percent Hispanic population, but the fine folks here have made this Latino from San Francisco feel right at home. I’ve visited northern Virginia on many occasions, and I can testify that that region of the state with its large Hispanic population is just as patriotic and hardworking as any other part of the commonwealth.

“Northern Virginia, Arlington and Alexandria are communist country.” — Joe McCain (John McCain’s brother)

When I first heard Joe McCain’s comments a few days ago, I couldn’t believe that someone could be so ignorant as to portray northern Virginia as “communist.” But now we have the spectacle of John McCain making the ludicrous charge that Obama’s economic policies are “socialist.” How low will John McCain sink in a desperate attempt to win the election?

“This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America.” — Sarah Palin referring to Barack Obama before an overwhelmingly white audience

When Palin uttered this ridiculous comment, it was a none too subliminal reminder that Obama is black. Palin is portraying Obama as a black man who palls around with terrorists and is probably a Muslim. Instead of reaching out to African Americans Palin is writing them off, and playing the race card to appeal to working class whites. Palin is implying that black folks don’t think like whites, they are different, scary and unreliable.

No wonder some yahoos at McCain/Palin rallies scream “terrorist” and “kill him” when Obama’s name is mentioned, Palin and McCain have convinced them that Obama is a Muslim socialist who palls around with terrorists.

“We believe, we believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, pro-America areas of this great nation.” — Sarah Palin

There are no red states and blue states, there is only the UNITED states of America. Our great nation isn’t divided into pro-American and anti-American regions, my birthplace of liberal San Francisco, Ca., is just as pro-American as the small conservative town in Virginia where I now live.

After eight years of the politics of division, it’s time we elect Barack Obama — a statesman who is truly a uniter and not a divider. Obama has run a civil campaign, he transcends race and political parties, and he’s the only one who can bring us together at this critical juncture in our history.

References:

CNN: Palin’s “Palling Around With Terrorists” Claim Is False

More Racism at a Palin Rally in PA

Bill Maher: Sarah Palin is a ‘Category 5′ Moron

The need for real diplomacy with Iran

By JustForeignPolicy.org

Notes: