Entries for This Week (July 25 - July 29)

Who Is Responsible For Glenn Beck's Incendiary Provocations?

Posted Yesterday at 8:54 PM
I've written about this before, but I'm very concerned that the Obama administration, the Democratic Party, and we Democrats do not take the hate rhetoric (of which there are quotes below) seriously enough. I remember how badly President Clinton was treated and how President Carter was mocked, but never, never have a President and his allies been portrayed as enemies of the State. I urge to you read the entire article from which the snippet below is taken. I did not realize how much racism, and we must call it what it is, runs amok in the hearts of a minority of people in this country. They believe trash talk from entertainers who are making a lot of money from their schtick, but they are, I believe, the ones who are working against the best interests of the United States when they instigate citizens to use violence against perceived domestic enemies. Someone has to take responsibility, but those media owners who are making money off their entertainers aren't doing it. The Rush Limbaughs and Glenn Becks aren't taking personal responsibility to quit manipulating ignorant or unhinged or ideologically radical people. The progressives are not up-in-arms about it as they should be. President Obama has so far ignored much of it. But, it will not go away. It will get louder and crazier. Who can think this is good for our country? Read the entire article here.  
            
    

Note that the radical right's media rhetoric is no longer even political in a partisan sense. Instead, it's purely revolutionary. It isn't, "We think taxes should be lower" or "Obama should be more hawkish overseas." It's, "There's an insidious and deadly plot afoot by Democrats and progressives to strip Americans of their freedom and this country of its greatness." Obama is now the incarnation of evil (the Antichrist?), and his driving hatred for America, as well as for democracy, runs so deep that he ran for president in order to destroy the United States from inside the Oval Office.
                                                                                                                                            

Affirmative Action Still Controversial In The 21st Century

Posted Tuesday at 1:05 AM
Here's something Virginia Democratic politics does not need--a controversy involving Senator Webb and the Virginia NAACP. It started last Friday when Jim Webb wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege, in which he argued that our current affirmative action programs are misguided. Here are some of his words from the op-ed:

    

Where should we go from here? Beyond our continuing obligation to assist those African-Americans still in need, government-directed diversity programs should end.

Nondiscrimination laws should be applied equally among all citizens, including those who happen to be white. The need for inclusiveness in our society is undeniable and irreversible, both in our markets and in our communities. Our government should be in the business of enabling opportunity for all, not in picking winners. It can do so by ensuring that artificial distinctions such as race do not determine outcomes.       
                                                                                                                                     

Not many senators would have broached this topic that has been verboten for most politicians. Some claim that bringing the issue of the federal government's diversity programs to the table was another of Senator Webb's courageous actions while others take the more cynical view that his opinions espoused in the op-ed were targeted at rural white voters in Southern Virginia whose votes he will need in his next election.

The executive director of the Virginia Conference of the NAACP, King Salim Khalfani, has had extremely harsh words for the senator. In a letter requesting a meeting with him, here is part of what the NAACP leader had to say:

     We vehemently disagree with your analysis and wonder if serving in the elite, rich United States Senate has skewed your vision of the world in which we live. Your opponent then and coming George Allen would not have had the gall to write about the “myth of white privilege” even though I am sure he feels that way. In African culture, it is said, when people show & tell you who they are. Believe them!” Your written word has spoken volumes for your belief system.

It appears that you and U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul are kith and kin. Do you really believe that affirmative action has hurt white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants or are you pandering to the divisive, conservative, Tea Bagger types whose votes you will need in 2012? The true beneficiaries of affirmative action programs are white, Anglo-Saxon women…overwhelmingly.
                                                                                                                                         

You can read the entire letter here at the bottom of the page.

There has been too much rancor around the topic of race in America lately. I hope that a meeting, should it occur, will include an honest dialogue sorely needed. I think and hope that that was Senator Webb's objective was as he broached the topic.

Republicans Hang Out with Andrew Breitbart. What Does That Say about Them?

Posted Monday at 12:35 PM
Check out the first name on the Republican National Committee fundraiser in California. As you recall, he is the infamous right-wing blogger propagandist who posted the incomplete footage of Shirley Sherrod speaking to the Georgia chapter of the NAACP so that he could incorrectly claim that she and the NAACP are racist. Sooooo, now he is on the program of an RNC event. These are the biased, crazy right-wing agenda-driven types who Republicans hang out with. Shame! It's not enough for us to know about it. We need to get this information out to voters just as investigative Internet site, Talking Points Memo, does everyday online. 

                           Republican invitiation guest andrew breitbart

Do-Nothing Republicans Want to Conduct Hearings, Not Govern, if They win in November

Posted Sunday at 7:20 PM

Intrade, the online trading exchange that allows people to trade based on the likelihood of future events of interest, currently is trading at a price of 55.1 that the Republicans will take the House in November elections. Read below quotes from Michele Bachmann to see what it will be like if/when the Republicans take the House:

    

"...I think that all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another. And expose all the nonsense that is going on. And it’s very important when we come back that we have constitutional conservative leadership because the American people’s patience is about this big."

Bachmann expressed her concern over the stake the government has in the private economy, which has grown (according to her--my words) since President Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States.

“So we have to make sure that we do what the people want us to do because one thing that you should is that the most dramatic story that’s happened in the last 18 months is that the federal government – before 18 months ago, the private economy was 100 percent held in private hands[.] (not true--my words) But today 65 percent of the economy is now held in government’s hands – either in direct ownership or in control (not true--my words) we’re talking about . So we got to unravel that and we got to get the private sector back to being private and the government back to being government.”

“This is the year – this is it,” Bachmann continued. “All of our chips are on November. If we don’t get it back and then starve the beast – the House, we have the power of the purse – so we can starve ObamaCare. We don’t have to fund any of these programs and that’s exactly what we need to do – defund all of this nonsense and then unwind it.” 
                                                                                                                                           

OK, Folks--this is Republican leadership, taking America backwards. If you don't want this, you can help do something about it. Don't sit back and let the election take place without you. When someone asks you to volunteer, or even it they don't, do something to help Democratic candidates. And, just as important, keep a positive attitude.  Our candidates are not perfect, but just consider the alternative--Michele Bachmann-like thinking. Remember how eight years of the George Bush administration devastated this country. None of us can afford to sit on the sidelines.