As Mexico’s drug violence spills into the U.S. and officials warn tourists of the danger, Mexican officials say more than 90 percent of all drug trafficking weapons are obtained from dealers and gun shows in the U.S. NBC News’ Mark Potter reports. — [ READ MORE ]

——————————————————————————————————————————————-

——————————————————————————————————————————————-

Punk Funk “Super-Freak” Rick James is rolling in his grave!

The right-wing nightmare has come to fruition!

—————————————————————–
Laughs: Steve Bell on George Bush: “Bush Resembles A Chimp!”
—————————————————————–

CNN: Obama travels rails to historic inauguration — President-elect Barack Obama is on his whistlestop tour from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., following the train route that his political hero Abraham Lincoln took to assume the presidency. CNN’s Political team is following Obama’s progress and reporting on the latest. [Full Story]

—————————————————————–

Millions of Americans look forward to the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, he represents the rich ethnic diversity of America. In a post racial America anyone with the drive, determination, intelligence and eloquence of Obama can achieve greatness in their realm of expertise.

The vast majority of Americans, Republicans and Democrats, look upon Barack’s triumph as a symbol of hope and progress. But there are a few Neanderthals who don’t like our democracy’s rainbow of diversity, they prefer the monochrome hues of the 1950′s.

These reactionaries are terrifed that in a few years our country will be less than 50 percent white. They focus most of their vitriol on the hardworking undocumented workers who come from Mexico and South America. But their hatred can’t overcome the deomographic trends, and their racism won’t stop progress.

They portray Hispanic undocumented workers are criminals who come to America only to take advantage of our liberal social welfare programs. This is a bald-faced lie, migrants are the embodiment of the Protestant work ethic, and they contribute to the greatness of our nation.

Right-wingers are always railing against the “illegal immigrants” who are flooding our country with drugs and violence. There are millions of Americans, of all political persuasions, who eagerly consume these illicit narcotics. Mexico and the United States are responsible for the drug problem that plagues both countries.

Mexico has a right to complain about the guns that are being smuggled into Mexico from the United States.

“One priority of Mr. Calderón’s government is to reduce the number of real guns in Mexico, the vast majority of which are smuggled into Mexico from the United States. That is likely to be high on the agenda when Mr. Calderón meets with President-elect Barack Obama on Monday in Washington.” — The New York Times

Mexico is in the middle of an epic battle with drug cartels that has taken the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, judges, politicians and civilians. And yet I don’t hear Mexican politicians blame our country for their predicament, and stereotype us as violence prone because we flood their country with lethal firearms.

The election of an African American president is not an aberration, it’s the beginning of a trend. We will elect politicians who look like the America of the 21st century: A multi-cultural and ethnically diverse democracy.

I look forward to the day in the near future when racists and reactionaries will be looked upon with disdain, and they will be in the same category as those who insist that the world is flat.

These racists are enamored with the past, but I thrilled with the present where we have an African American president, and I look forward to the future when the great majority of Americans will warmly embrace the undocumented workers who are part of the American landscape.

———————————————————————————
Reference: Arming the Drug Wars (by James Verini) — The U.S. has pledged more than $1 billion to help Mexico win its war on drugs. But even as the body count rises above 10,000, most of the guns that do the killing — Colt .38 Supers and big-bore Barrett rifles among them?keep pouring in from the U.S.
———————————————————————————

\

From Media Matters:

1. Guilty: Coulter’s latest book filled with falsehoods — Media Matters has examined a copy of Ann Coulter’s new book, Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America, and presents a sampling of the book’s numerous falsehoods. These falsehoods include her defense of claims made against Sen. John Kerry by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth; her assertion that “Fox News has never been caught promoting a fraud“; and her claim that President-elect Barack Obama was referring to Gov. Sarah Palin when he said “you know, you can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig.”

In the book which Media Matters obtained in advance of the book’s release, Coulter repeatedly misrepresents the sources she cites. She also makes numerous inflammatory and offensive comments in Guilty. [ Read More ]

2. Is NBC going to help Coulter sell this book? — NBC has repeatedly provided Ann Coulter a platform to spew her inflammatory rhetoric even as NBC-affiliated hosts and anchors have expressed disapproval of her statements or criticized the media for promoting her. Coulter’s latest book, Guilty, is rife with such inflammatory comments, including saying that the Democratic primaries were a contest of “Who’s the Biggest Pussy?“; calling children whose parents divorce “future strippers” in a chapter titled “Victim of a Crime? Thank a Single Mother“; and calling former White House press secretary Scott McClellan “retarded.” Nevertheless, Coulter has announced that she is scheduled to appear on Today on January 6. [ Read More ]

———————————————————————————————
| Pictures of Ann Coulter |
———————————————————————————————

Bill Clinton Responds To Ann Coulter

———————————————————————————————

From MediaMatters.ORG

As Media Matters for America has demonstrated time and again, Fox News’ Sean Hannity has been a prolific and influential purveyor of conservative misinformation.

But never has he so enthusiastically applied his talents for spreading misinformation as he did to the 2008 presidential race, focusing his energies primarily on President-elect Barack Obama. Day after day, Hannity devoted his two Fox News shows and his three-hour ABC Radio Networks program to “demonizing” the Democratic presidential candidates, starkly explaining in August: “That’s my job. … I led the ‘Stop Hillary Express.‘ By the way, now it’s the ‘Stop Obama Express.’ “Hannity’s “Stop Obama Express” promoted and embellished a vast array of misleading attacks and false claims about Obama.

Along the way, he uncritically adopted and promoted countless Republican talking points and played host to numerous credibility-challenged smear artists who painted Obama as a dangerous radical. When he was not going after Obama, Hannity attacked members of Obama’s family, as well as Sen. Hillary Clinton and other progressives, and denied all the while that he had unfairly attacked anyone.

Hannity’s attacks may have also influenced mainstream media coverage. ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos appeared on Hannity’s radio program on April 15, during which Hannity suggested to Stephanopoulos that he ask Obama at the Democratic presidential debate the following evening about his “association with Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist from the Weather Underground.” Stephanopoulos assured Hannity that he was “taking notes right now.” Stephanopoulos then did ask Obama at the debate to “explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won’t be a problem,” though he later denied that Hannity had exerted any influence on his questioning.

Because of the unending stream of falsehoods and character attacks that fueled the “Stop Obama Express,” and the countless other distortions he promoted throughout 2008, Sean Hannity is Media Matters for America’s “Misinformer of the Year.”

Among the myriad falsehoods and attacks that Hannity promoted throughout 2008, several found their way into regular rotation: Obama will “invade” Pakistan ……[READ MORE]

The “Propagandist Extortionist of the Year” bashes Obama

Hannity The SMEAR VIRUS Distorts Obama’s Past To Raise Racial Fears

Watch Hannity Call Obama Racist

| More “Bigot Hannity” Videos |

—————————————————-

References:

1. Sean Hannity: Misinformer of 2008 — From NewsHounds.US
2. Top 10 Obama Player Haters of 2008 — This election saw Barack Obama inspire millions of Americans to hope, believe and work for change. However, Obama also managed to inspire millions of haters, who expended an extreme amount of negative energy in taking down the President-elect.