Behind Obama Muslim myth stands the right wing: Two recently released polls show that an increasing number of Americans believe the falsehood that President Obama is a Muslim. According to the Pew Research Center, 60 percent of people who believe this false claim cite the media as the source of that information — and, indeed, the right-wing media have incessantly promoted this lie. [ READ MORE ]
John Oliver says Muslims are allowed to put a mosque near Ground Zero, just like Catholics can build a church next to a playground. And, “Osama Bin O’Reilly” says there isn’t a Muslim within a mile of Ground Zero! Cenk Uygur proves him very wrong.
1.Attention TV networks: Pam Geller is lying to your viewers — Right-wing blogger Pamela Geller has been a frequent guest on television news programs to discuss the controversy about the building of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero, a controversy that her group, Stop Islamization of America, has been largely responsible for driving. She has used these appearances as a platform to make outrageous, inflammatory, and false claims. [ READ MORE ]
If there is white racism, surely there must be black racism. If whites have, historically, enslaved and oppressed blacks, there has to be some remote island out in the Atlantic where Bobby Whitman is being forced to pick cotton and sing Barry Manilow songs while Tyrone Jackson stands over him with a whip and a tall glass of Country Time Lemonade. However, this Bizarro World of black supremacy only exists in the minds of Ultra Right talking heads and those who set their watches by the Glenn Beck Show. America’s search for black racists carried into the Civil Rights Era when Mike Wallace introduced America to Malcolm X via the documentary “The Hate that Hate Produced.” This frantic search for black supremacy continued into the 80′s and 90′s when black leaders such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, Minister Louis Farrakhan and Rev. Al Sharpton were labeled racists as well as entertainers such as the rap group, Public Enemy. We see the same trend continuing over the last year as Conservatives tried to link black racism to the Obama administration by their attacks on the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Even the Latino community was not spared as Supreme Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor was portrayed by the conservative media as a brown racist.
By: Paul Scott With the announcement of Rush Limbaugh’s failure to purchase part of the St Louis Rams football franchise, the Right went on a safari to track down the ever elusive, black racist. As usual, the race hunters came up empty. The best specimen that they could capture was Fox News Channel’s token black commentator, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill with a picture of former Black Liberation Army member, Assata Shakur on his website. Hardly, evidence of a violent plot to take over America by spear wielding black militants.
The reason why the Right Wingers have never been able to successfully cage a black racist is simple. They don’t exist.
Now this may be a hard pill to swallow for those who, wholeheartedly, believe in a warped version of the law of opposites.
If there is white racism, surely there must be black racism. If whites have, historically, enslaved and oppressed blacks, there has to be some remote island out in the Atlantic where Bobby Whitman is being forced to pick cotton and sing Barry Manilow songs while Tyrone Jackson stands over him with a whip and a tall glass of Country Time Lemonade.
However, this Bizarro World of black supremacy only exists in the minds of Ultra Right talking heads and those who set their watches by the Glenn Beck Show.
For years, the Right has used the charge of “reverse racism” to hide their collective fears that they are losing control of America. Oddly enough, many people who scream racism don’t have the foggiest idea what the word means. While the definition of “racism” may be a doctrine of racial superiority, the functional definition is the power of a group to exercise this doctrine over others. Therefore, as author Nelly Fuller wrote “the only form of functional racism that exists among the people of the known universe is white supremacy.”
The doctrine of white supremacy is so entrenched in this society that even an African American president of the United States is not exempt.
So, sorry folks, by this definition, African Americans cannot be racist. We can be a lot of things; prejudiced, bigots, etc but the one thing that we cannot be, for social and economic reasons, is racist.
It must be noted that in order to find a black racist apologists for white supremacy have had to reach back centuries.
In his book, “The Ice Man Inheritance: Prehistoric Sources of Western Man’s Racism, Sexism and Aggression,” Canadian author, Michael Bradley traces the foundation of the myth of black racism back centuries when the Bantu-speaking people conquered the Khoikhoi and the Saan. Because anthropologist CS Coon divided the Africans into two separate races, some have used this as evidence of “black supremacy.” However, Bradley also quotes anthropologist Ashley Montague as saying,” The modern conception of race owes its widespread diffusion to the white man. Wherever he has gone he has carried it with him.”
America’s search for black racists carried into the Civil Rights Era when Mike Wallace introduced America to Malcolm X via the documentary “The Hate that Hate Produced,” which, like future programs,confused reactionary racial rhetoric and calls for black self empowerment with black socio-economic supremacy.
This was also evident in the late 60′s and early 70′s, when those attempting to label the Black Panther Party as “racists” ignored the fact that Panther ideology was based on Marxism which downplayed race in order to organize the oppressed working class and also the fact that the party had many white supporters including celebrities such as Jane Fonda and Marlon Brando.
This frantic search for black supremacy continued into the 80′s and 90′s when black leaders such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, Minister Louis Farrakhan and Rev. Al Sharpton were labeled racists as well as entertainers such as the rap group, Public Enemy.
We see the same trend continuing over the last year as Conservatives tried to link black racism to the Obama administration by their attacks on the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Even the Latino community was not spared as Supreme Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor was portrayed by the conservative media as a brown racist.
So, it is not black racism that is the problem, it is conservative talk show hosts such as Sean Hannity, Mike Savage and Rush Limbaugh who spew their hate filled venom across the planet via their satellite powered pulpits, 24 hours a day.
If Limbaugh and his ilk want to see a real racist, they need to look no further than their own bathroom mirrors.
About The Author: Paul Scott is a self-syndicated columnist and author of the blog, No Warning Shots Fired.com. He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 or i...@nowarningshotsfired.com
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 ]
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.
———————————————————————————
Columnist – John Sammon Bill O’Reilly was on TV interviewing Patrick Wayne about his father, the late actor John Wayne. O’Reilly has done other pieces about “The Duke.”
Then, a second such interview appeared on another channel. Gee! I asked myself, why the sudden resurgent interest in John Wayne?
I think I know. The conservatives, hurting from recent election defeats, are going back to the “drawing board,” as they used to say, trotting out their (Right Wing) icons.
Even though he’s been dead for thirty years, John Wayne is the top, the Jesus Christ, of conservatism. Every white boy in the country over the age of forty including myself, George Bush and Bill O’Reilly, grew up watching and loving John Wayne.
American foreign policy, the way we deal with other countries, has been influenced by John Wayne, and the impact he made.
Wayne would swagger through the saloon doors and gun down or punch out the bad guys, never mind that the Old West portrayed in these comic book-like outings wasn’t anything like the real Old West, the guns of the 1870s being notoriously unreliable and inaccurate. Though Wayne always draws his gun faster than anyone else, it was Wyatt Earp, the real Wyatt Earp (whom Wayne once met), who said the gunman who took his time shooting was the most dangerous.
The actor who reportedly displayed the most quick-draw gun prowess was little Sammy Davis Jr. (he played the drums equally well).
But no matter. Wayne was an ideal, a sort of rough-neck Galahad, who also exhibited signs of being a bully. He was good looking and self assured, and huge (the bad guys in his films were half his size to give Wayne’s six-foot-four height extra stature).
Every white boy wanted to be like him. I even heard an African American once say he wanted to be John Wayne.
O’Reilly in particular, seems to hero-worship Wayne, and has often cited “The Shootist” as his favorite movie. The late Wally George, a vile, finger-pointing to-the-right-of-Genghis Kahn talk show host of the 1970s, displayed a portrait of The Duke on his set.
Wayne did have a pleasant aspect. He was a family man and loved his family. He was a hard worker and devoted everything to his craft, and he did make a few good movies (The Searchers). He was loyal to friends, and kept has-been buddies like Bruce Cabot in film work for years.
But there was an extremely ugly side to the man. Wayne was part of Senator “Bogus Tail Gunner” Joe McCarthy‘s movement of the 1950s, branding people who disagreed with the conservative credo as communist, or disloyal, or both. Some of his victims were in fact communist, but many were not. Much like the conservative extremism of today’s firebrands (O’Reilly, Karl Rove and Ann Coulter), Wayne was a promoter of political intolerance.
He once took out an ad in Daily Variety hinting strongly that anyone who didn’t vote an Academy Award for his movie The Alamo was in league with the communists. The movie, panned by critics, played loose with the historical facts and only got an award for best sound.
But most damning. For all his patriotic zeal and questioning others’ patriotism, Wayne, like the modern O’Reilly, and Karl Rove, Limbaugh and the rest, never served in the military.
Wayne never served in World War Two. He sat it out while other actors went and had their careers suffer because of it. Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda and even the older Clark Gable did their patriotic thing while Wayne remained behind in Hollywood, fighting the war on the screen. Wayne didn’t do anything illegal to stay out of the service (he had a family and children), but he didn’t do anything to get in either. His wife later said his arch-conservative Pro-Vietnam stance of the 1960s was a reflection of his missing World War Two, and the shame he felt for not having gone to the biggest event of the 20th century.
Everybody who could went into World War Two.
Except Duke.
Even old John Ford, the director and Wayne’s mentor, almost old enough to be Wayne’s father, was at the Battle of Midway Island. Ford tried to shame Wayne into joining, peppering him with letters from the front that said, “Duke, when are you gonna get in this (war)?
Wayne never did.
In fairness, he’d worked too hard struggling for years in B Westerns and was poised on the edge of major stardom when the war broke out. He wasn’t going to let a little thing like World War Two spoil it. Plus, with all the other stars out of town fighting the war, Wayne could cash in on the screen.
But he had to take Ford’s taunts about it for years afterwards.
It’s also pretty obvious Wayne didn’t like blacks. He wasn’t a card-carrying cross-burning Klansman, but he seemed to have the usual prejudice of his day, I’ll tolerate ‘em, as long as they don’t get uppity, and know their place, and don’t cause trouble.
To Wayne and other right-wingers, Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement were causing communist-inspired trouble.
On the 1962 set of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Wayne was taking a mercilious ribbing from Ford about missing the war, or the distinctive way Wayne walked, or a dozen other taunts, like, “I taught Duke to use toilet paper.” (Duke stayed loyal to Ford, the man who had made him a star, to the end, and never lost his temper with him).
But Duke was mad, furious. He needed a patsy he could slap around.
He picked a bit actor in the film, Woody Strode. Bad choice. Strode, a black, ex-football player from UCLA and the L.A.
Rams, was as athletically gifted as he was powerful. Duke by this time was a hard-drinking middle-aged fifty-year-old. When Strode attempted to help Wayne subdue some out-of-control horses during a stunt, Wayne roughly pushed him back.
Strode jumped down from a wagon and faced Wayne. Ford saw what was about to happen and ran up yelling, “Woody, don’t hit Duke. We need him!”
Strode, who would have cleaned Duke’s clock in a fight (he was seven years younger), came along at a time before blacks played action heroes in movies. He was playing (you guessed it), Wayne’s servant.
There isn’t a doubt in my mind that the men, white men, who have been running this country (Clinton excluded), grew up watching Wayne’s bravado and were influenced by it.
Our foreign policy over the past has been it’s them or us, good and bad, draw and shoot, and ask questions later.
Lyndon Johnson once said, “I’m not going to let a little piss-ant country (Vietnam) push us around.”
Disgraced former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told Bush and others “we have to attack Iraq, as a lesson to Arabs that we won’t tolerate it.” (Terror, though Iraq had no involvement with 9-11).
Our foreign policy reflects our love of John Wayne. George Bush grew up watching Wayne. He wanted to be Wayne too. Our foreign policy has been shaped by the Duke, who influenced not only Bush, but O’Reilly, Limbaugh and the rest, even Ann Coulter.
The Duke was given the highest civilian medal from Congress shortly before he died. The medal should be withdrawn because Wayne did what he loved (making movies), and got paid handsomely. Other actors, who went and served in World War Two, and whose careers suffered for it, never received such a medal. You shouldn’t get a medal for being a rich movie star, for not sacrificing anything, except to teach a whole generation of white boys (some of whom now run our government) to swagger and think themselves superior.
It’s unclear how Obama regards Wayne. Ironically, Obama is related by a distant ancestor to Wild Bill Hickok, the famous western marshal whom Wayne loosely portrayed in The Shootist.
Teenagers today seem only vaguely aware of Wayne.
What is clear is that now that conservatives have lost the election and over half the American people have turned against their policies and extreme rhetoric, the rightists will pick themselves up off the figurative saloon floor by promoting their pantheon of heroes, for solace, and to look for inspiration, and for the promise of a better day, by recollecting The Duke, Reagan, maybe even Barry Goldwater.
With the announcement of Rush Limbaugh’s failure to purchase part of the St Louis Rams football franchise, the Right went on a safari to track down the ever elusive, black racist. As usual, the race hunters came up empty. The best specimen that they could capture was Fox News Channel’s token black commentator, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill with a picture of former Black Liberation Army member, Assata Shakur on his website. Hardly, evidence of a violent plot to take over America by spear wielding black militants.
