Arson Suspected At Construction Site Of Tennessee Mosque Expansion
Arson Suspected At Construction Site Of Tennessee Mosque Expansion
For months, conservatives have led a hateful campaign against the expansion of a local Islamic center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This campaign has been endorsed by high-ranking Republicans such as the state’s Lt. Governor, Ron Ramsey, who last month, speaking to a group of Republicans in opposition to the mosque, wondered aloud whether Islam was a religion or a “cult” and fearmongered about the mosque trying to bring “Sharia law” to America. Earlier this year, Lou Ann Zelenik, a GOP congressional candidate in Tennessee, campaigned against the Murfreesboro mosque, arguing that it posed a threat to that state’s “moral and political foundation.”
Now, the local press reports that the police are investigating a case of arson that occurred at the construction site of the mosque Friday night:
Federal agents have been called in after someone poured flammable liquid on four pieces of construction equipment early today at the site of a planned new Islamic center and mosque just outside Murfreesboro. A CBS television affiliate is reporting that it is being investigated as arson. [...]
The center is planned offer a new place of prayer to replace the office suite that 250 local Muslim families have been using in a nearby office building.
Nashville CBS affiliate WTVF reports that police are investigating the arson as a hate crime. Members of the Muslim community are so paralyzed by fear, said spokeswoman Camie Ayash, that they are not joining the congregation at the local mosque during the current month of Ramadan. Watch it:
“Everyone in our community no longer feels safe,” Ayash said. “To set a fire that could have blown up equipment and, God forbid, spread and caused damage to the neighbors there. … We really feel like this is something that we and the neighbors don’t deserve.”
A local religious freedom group, Middle Tennesseans for Religious Freedom, plans to hold a “candlelight vigil in front of the Rutherford County Courthouse on Monday in response to the fire. “We simply cannot allow the actions of a few destructive individuals to go overlooked by Rutherford County residents,” said Claire Rogers, a spokesman for the group. “It’s truly a shame that we have reached this point, but it is up to us to ensure the intimidation goes no further.”
The incident at Murfreesboro should not be viewed in isolation. Among other recent Islamophobic hate incidents: a pipe bomb was set off at a Jacksonville mosque; a playground at an Arlington, Texas mosque was torched; a brick was thrown through a mosque window in Madera, California; a Nashville mosque was vandalized, among many others.
- Comments
- 496
Wallace To Beck: ‘Do You Have Any Credibility Talking About Reclaiming The Civil Rights Movement?’
Wallace To Beck: ‘Do You Have Any Credibility Talking About Reclaiming The Civil Rights Movement?’
Yesterday, right-wing “rodeo clown” Glenn Beck preached to reported 87,000 supporters at his “Restoring Honor” rally on the National Mall. Pitching the event as a “non-political” reclamation of the civil rights movement, Beck cultivated an air of revival and sold the crowd on “a religious brand of patriotism.” “America today turn’s back to God,” he proclaimed.
Today on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace waded into Beck’s psyche to try to clarify Beck’s true beliefs. Noting Beck’s claim that “divine providence” allowed him to reclaim the civil rights movement from “racial politics,” Wallace asked Beck about his previous declaration that President Obama was racist and wondered if he has any credibility “reclaiming the civil rights movement” because of that statement:
WALLACE: After that, do you have any credibility talking about reclaiming the civil rights movement?
BECK: …Now I’ve addressed this comment a million times and in fact I think I amended it this week that what I didn’t understand at the time was the influences on President Obama. And you know, the white culture, read his own books, he writes about the white culture and how he struggled with it, etc., etc.
Beck later said he regretted calling Obama a racist and that the real problem with the President is his alleged belief in “liberation theology.” When Wallace then noted that Beck called President Obama’s faith “a perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” and wondered who made him “the God Squad,” Beck called the President “demonic”:
WALLACE: You said recently that the reason that a growing number of Americans don’t think President Obama is a Christian is because they don’t recognize the faith that he is practicing and in fact you even called it a perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know I respect you and I say this affectionately but who made you the God Squad?
BECK: Oh, nobody made me the God Squad. The pope even said, this is Pope Benedict, that it is demonic not divine when theology crosses into the line of doing that which only the divine can do. He was speaking specifically about liberation theology.
Watch it:
Though Beck has indulged in tying President Obama to the Lucifer before, he insists he’s not a member of the “God Squad.” Noting that Beck is also not a “newsman,” “preacher,” or “politician,” Wallace finally asks Beck, “What are you?” In response, Beck offered a rambling response, calling himself a “concerned citizen” who “didn’t know his butt from his elbow” 15 years ago, and now “wants to figure out what the real truth is and inconsistencies bother me.”
Alaska GOP Senate Candidate Joe Miller Suggests Medicare And Social Security Are Unconstitutional
Alaska GOP Senate Candidate Joe Miller Suggests Medicare And Social Security Are Unconstitutional
Last month, Alaska GOP U.S. Senate candidate and Tea Party favorite Joe Miller said that unemployment benefits are unconstitutional. “The unemployment compensation benefits have gotten — first of all, it’s not constitutionally authorized,” he said, adding, “I think that’s the first thing that’s gotta be looked at.”
Today on CBS’ Face the Nation, Miller — who is currently ahead of incumbent Lisa Murkowski in the state’s U.S. Senate GOP primary — went a bit further. Host Bob Schieffer noted that Miller wants to privatize Social Security and phase out Medicare and wondered whether those positions were a bit extreme. But Miller didn’t think so, suggesting that the U.S. Constitution supports his view:
MILLER: Well, yeah I would suggest to you that if one thinks that the Constitution is extreme then you’d also think the Founders are extreme. We just simply want to get back to basics, restore essentially the constitutional foundation of the country and that means the federal government becoming less onerous, less involved than every basically item of our lives and what that means is there does have to be some transition. [...]
We have to look at all the options that are out there, including privatization [of Social Security]. It’s certainly something that Bush championed…it is basically part of the crisis of leadership in DC to not look at Social Security and understand that there has got to be a solution posed.
Watch it:
Miller’s views on global warming are also “very extreme.” Last week, he told a local Alaska newspaper that he does not believe that human activity is contributing to climate change (despite overwhelming evidence finding that it has). “We know the temperature change is part of the process of our existence,” he said, but “we haven’t heard there’s man-made global warming.”
Tea Partiers Rally Against Sign Bans — Except At Glenn Beck Rally
Tea Partiers Rally Against Sign Bans — Except At Glenn Beck Rally
Among the many regulations that Glenn Beck demanded for this morning’s “Restoring Honor” rally was a ban on any signs, political or otherwise. “Leave your signs at home guys,” a young woman tells us in an official promo video, “we really don’t want anything to deter from the peaceful message we’re trying to bring to Washington, okay?”
Beck’s no-sign demand drew little to no ire from those planning to attend the rally, including many Tea Party chapters and other political groups. However, conservative groups were not nearly as submissive when Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) made the same request for his town hall meetings earlier this month. Perriello’s attempt to keep out signs in order to “encourage an atmosphere of civility” was met with cries of censorship by the Rutherford Institute, acting on a complaint by the Jefferson Area Tea Party:
“Your sign ban amounts to an act of outright censorship that raises grave Constitutional concerns,” wrote Rutherford Institute founder and President John W. Whitehead in a letter to Perriello.
Perriello backed down after the outcry and decided to permit signs at future town halls.
For Beck and Tea Party groups — who persistently tout the wisdom of the Framers and the infallibility of the Constitution — the irony is palpable. A sign ban at an opponent’s town hall is a major threat to freedom of speech; a sign ban at a Beck rally is an important rule in order to keep the event on message.
Political Rally Or Not? We Report, You Decide
Political Rally Or Not? We Report, You Decide
For months, Glenn Beck has breathlessly insisted that today’s “Restoring Honor” rally was a completely non-political event. ThinkProgress attended the event and documented what we saw. Decide for yourself if Beck’s rally was non-political:
College Republican National Committee recruiting at the rally
Handout from Refounding America
Handout from The 1789 Project
Media Matters, Crooks and Liars, TPM, and the NAACP have more coverage of today’s rally.
Beck Rephrases His Claim President Is ‘Racist’: Meant To Say Obama Believes ‘America Is An Oppressor’
Beck Rephrases His Claim President Is ‘Racist’: Meant To Say Obama Believes ‘America Is An Oppressor’
Yesterday, “rodeo clown” Glenn Beck appeared on XM radio with African-American host Joe Madison. Beck seemed to be visiting the studio when Madison spotted him and asked him to come into the radio booth for an impromptu interview.
Immediately, Madison told Beck “I am so angry with you.” “Oh boy,” Beck responded, “Did I just walk into something I shouldn’t have walked into?” “Yes,” Madison said, pressing him on why he called Obama a racist:
MADISON: He’s not a racist?
BECK: What is he? [...] I’ve talked about this at length, and so I’m going to rehash it all. I’ve already said stupid comment, off the top of head. And I said just the other day, an ignorant comment. Now that I really understand how he grew up, where he grew up, what his influences were — it’s more of a liberation theology, a kind of attitude he has. That I immediately interpreted — because I didn’t understand him. His attitude is more of, like Bill Ayers — that America is an oppressor. And I just disagree with that.
[...]
MADISON: You do not believe President Obama is a racist?
BECK: I’ve said this before.
MADISON: A mistake? Was that a mistake?
BECK: Absolutely it was. And I’ve said that before. I misunderstood — this I just said the other day — I misunderstood his philosophy and his theology, which is liberation theology.
MADISON: Which was King’s philosophy. Big time.
BECK: Didn’t know that. I’ll talk to Alveda today about it.
MADISON: Oh, talk to his father. You know who you should talk to? Talk to Walter Fauntroy. Rev. Walter Fauntroy, who grew up with King. That was his philosophy — it was the theological philosophy of social justice.
BECK: Right. I am not a fan of social justice.
MADISON: That’s where we really part. I’m a big fan of social justice.
Listen here:
On July 28, 2009, Beck called Obama a “racist” with a “deep-seated hatred of white people.” The following day, Beck stood by the remarks: “I think the president is a racist.” In an interview with Katie Couric in September 2009, he said he was “sorry” for the way he “phrased” the claim, but he said it was a still a “tough question” that needed answering. Again in June 2010, Beck accused Obama of being racist, claiming Obama had not yet spoken directly to BP CEO Tony Hayward because he’s a “white CEO.”
In his address on race in March 2008 in Philadelphia, Obama said, “I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together. … This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story. … I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.”
Five Years Later, Bush Efforts To Block Medicaid Relief Have A Lasting Impact On The Gulf Coast
Five Years Later, Bush Efforts To Block Medicaid Relief Have A Lasting Impact On The Gulf Coast
This week, on the eve of the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a new study was released documenting the shocking psychological toll the storm had on children in the Gulf Coast. Researchers at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health found that more than 37 percent of children displaced by Katrina have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or behavioral and conduct disorders. These children were also five times more likely to experience emotional disturbances than kids not affected by the hurricane. “From the perspective of the Gulf’s most vulnerable children and families, the recovery from Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans has been a dismal failure,” said study researcher Dr. Irwin Redlener. Earlier studies that examined mental illness in adult survivors found very similar results: just under a third of respondents reported mental problems.
One way that many people could have received mental health care following the storm was through Medicaid. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Medicaid is the dominant source of funding for both children and adults with mental illness, comprising more than 50 percent of public mental health spending. However, the Bush administration — even after being roundly pilloried for the initial logistical response to Katrina — neutered emergency Medicaid relief for Gulf Coast residents in the months following the storm.
After Katrina, Senators from both parties wanted to enact a “Disaster Relief Medicaid” program, which would have temporarily extended Medicaid benefits to all low-income residents affected by the storm, even if they were above the minimum income requirements for enrollment. The same type of program was enacted after the September 11 terror attacks, but this time around, it met stiff resistance from the Bush administration.
The Journal of the American Medical Association outlined the battle in a 2006 article (subscription only):
[T]he pathway to assistance has proven to be bitterly contentious, reflecting a deep philosophical divide rather than party differences… The legislation met with immediate and fierce resistance on the part of the Bush Administration and its supporters, who sought to halt structural Medicaid improvements, at the very time that Congress, as part of the fiscal year 2006 budget process, was preparing to enact Medicaid spending reductions… Seeking to avert legislative establishment of a Medicaid disaster relief program, the Bush Administration devised an alternative that lacked the central elements of the Grassley-Baucus legislation. Predicated on the Health and Human Services Secretary’s powers under the demonstration provisions of the Social Security Act, the Bush Administration’s plan limited aid to 5 months, retained Medicaid’s exclusion of more than half of all poor adults (relying instead on establishing an uncompensated care fund for use by designated states, who in turn would be under no obligation to pay any specific physician or other health care provider), eliminated national coverage portability, and assumed continued financial contribution from affected states.
As one would expect, researchers looking into this issue have found that “having insurance was associated with continuing in mental health treatment.” The Bush administration’s cruel efforts to limit Medicaid assistance in the wake of the storm is having a lasting toll in the Gulf Coast today.
But even the optimal Medicaid Relief program, as was used after September 11, would only have been temporary, and a stronger safety net is needed for victims of this and future disasters. “Hurricane Katrina exposed a health care system incapable of withstanding the long-term impact of a major disaster,” the JAMA article says. “Through destruction and permanent displacement, Katrina illuminated the fundamental weaknesses inherent in the national approach to health care financing, as well as the extent to which these weaknesses can threaten recovery.”
REPORT: Glenn Beck’s Philosophy Is Opposed To Everything Martin Luther King, Jr. Stood For
REPORT: Glenn Beck’s Philosophy Is Opposed To Everything Martin Luther King, Jr. Stood For
Tomorrow, Fox News host and self-professed “rodeo clown” Glenn Beck will hold his “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington, D.C. Beck initially insisted that the rally has no political significance — despite it being located at the Lincoln Memorial and taking place on the 47th anniversary of the “I Have A Dream” speech. He has increasingly claimed to be taking up the mantle of the civil rights movement. Earlier in the week, Beck boasted that the rally will “reclaim the civil rights movement” and called the current civil rights community an “abomination.”
While Beck is practically fashioning himself after revered civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and trying to take up the mantle of the civil rights movement, he is ultimately unfit to command such a legacy. The Fox News host’s views and actions are diametrically opposed to everything the late social justice leader fought for:
KING believed that it was America’s collective responsibility to provide economic justice for all. In 1961, the civil rights leader addressed the AFL-CIO on his vision of the American Dream. King said that his vision of America’s promise was a country where “equality of opportunity, of privilege and property [are] widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few.” King helped launch a Poor People’s Campaign based around demanding that “President Lyndon Johnson and Congress help the poor get jobs, health care and decent homes.” The civil rights legend explained that poverty was a problem that couldn’t be solved without a “the nation spending billions of dollars — and undergoing a radical redistribution of economic power.” He spent the last days of his life campaigning on behalf of a living wage for striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.
BECK, on the other hand, has repeatedly insulted any government attempt to help the poor. The host has offensively claimed that “Big government never lifts anybody out of poverty. It creates slaves, people who are dependent on the scraps from the government, the handouts.” The pundit has declared that President Obama “really is a Marxist” because he “believes in the redistribution of wealth.” He argued in his book An Inconvenient Book that the reason the poor are poor and can’t be helped by the government is simply because they are “lazy.” Discussing the topic of rebuilding Katrina-ravaged New Orleans, Beck said we “shouldn’t spend a single dime” and that the residents should just “move out.” Discussing the topic of jobless Americans unable to find work receiving unemployment benefits, Beck said he would be “ashamed” to call some of them Americans.
KING championed using his faith to achieve social justice. King called himself an “advocator of the social gospel,” and saw Jesus’s teachings as commanding him to take part in progressive activism to achieve “social justice.” In a 1963 speech Western Michigan University, he said that he saw an “age of social justice” as the goal of his movement. When he spoke out against the Vietnam War at Riverside Church in 1967, he quoted the first epistle of Saint John to demand an end to the fighting: “Let us love one another, for love is God.”
BECK has derided social justice and attacked Christians who want to use their faith to achieve it. The Fox News host told his audience that when they hear the words “social justice” they should “run, and don’t listen to anyone who is telling you differently.” He also accused progressives of trying to “hijack churches” with a message of social justice. He even ignorantly claimed that civil rights demonstrators “weren’t crying out for social justice.”
KING believed in loving those who disagreed with him and engaging in thoughtful dialogue. One of the hallmarks of King’s philosophy and what separated him from many other African American leaders was his advocacy for maintaining thoughtful and respectful dialogue with those who disagreed with his goals. In 1957, the civil rights leader gave a sermon titled, “Loving Your Enemies.” King said that a man must “discover the element of good in his enemy, and everytime you begin to hate that person and think of hating that person, realize that there is some good there and look at those good points which will over-balance the bad points.” He practiced nonviolence and even asked civil rights demonstrators to not fight back when attacked by white racists. He demanded of his fellow demonstrators a “refusal to hate.”
BECK, on the other hand, has repeatedly attacked his political opponents with vicious and hateful language. He has compared president Obama to the Antichrist and said that it was “approaching treason” to elect a more progressive Congress. He has said he hates the 9/11 victims’ families and derided supporters of cap-and-trade as “greedy,” “wicked,” and “treasonous.” When interviewing Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the nation’s first elected Muslim congressman, Beck told him, “[W]hat I feel like saying is, ‘Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies’.” He also speculated that Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) wife must have been under the influence of a “date rape drug” to marry him.
It’s difficult to find two people whose philosophies are so distinctly different than Glenn Beck and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While King fought for all people to be able to live a decent life, championed a compassionate version of Christianity that sought to create a better world, and established dialogue with those who disagreed with him, Beck shows little compassion for those worse off, has derided the social gospel, and has viciously smeared and attacked his political opponents. As Media Matters writes, “Martin Luther King would have been on Glenn Beck’s chalkboard.”
(Big HT: Media Matters)
Health Insurers Are Backing Republicans With Campaign Donations By 8:1 Margin
Health Insurers Are Backing Republicans With Campaign Donations By 8:1 Margin
Insurers became the target of the White House’s attacks in the closing days of the health reform debate and so perhaps it’s no surprise that they’re “backing Republicans with campaign donations by an 8-to- 1 margin, favoring the party that’s promised to repeal President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul if it wins back Congress.” Bloomberg’s Drew Armstrong has the scoop:
WellPoint, along with Coventry Health Care Inc. and Humana Inc., gave Republican candidates $315,000 from May through July, according to U.S. Federal Election Commission records. That compares with $41,000 given to Democrats by the three companies as the parties near November elections that will determine who controls the U.S. House and Senate next year.
While Republicans aren’t likely to win the large majorities necessary to override a presidential veto and repeal the health law Obama signed in March, they may be able to slow or stall its implementation, said James Morone, a political science professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. At the same time, the turn to strongly favor Republicans may anger Democrats who had been receptive to insurers’ concerns, he said.
The Wonk Room explains why insurers are donating to Republicans, the party devoted to repealing the individual health insurance mandate.
NJ Education Commissioner Asked To Be Fired So He Could Receive Unemployment Benefits
NJ Education Commissioner Asked To Be Fired So He Could Receive Unemployment Benefits
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) today fired the state’s Education Commissioner Bret Schundler, after the state lost a $400 million Race To The Top grant due to an error made in the application process. Now, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports that Schundler specifically asked to be fired, instead of voluntarily resigning, so that he would be able to receive unemployment benefits:
Ousted state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler today said he asked Gov. Chris Christie to be fired from the work he considered his “life’s dream,” rather than resign, so he could receive unemployment benefits to pay his bills. “I asked if they would mind writing a termination letter, instead of a resignation letter, because I do have a mortgage to pay, and I do have a daughter who’s just started college,” he said in an interview this morning. “And I, frankly, will need the unemployment insurance benefits until I find another job. … And they said fine. They said sure.” [...]
Schundler’s financial disclosure form, released Thursday by the State Ethics Commission, show he and his wife had less than $5,000 in the bank.
Schundler’s case is particularly important because the Republican Party and conservative movement he belongs to have recently made the unemployed a frequent political punching bag. For months the party has fought every vote to extend unemployment benefits, despite double-digit unemployment rates across the country.
And to add insult to injury, major Republicans have derided the character of the recipients of unemployment benefits. NY GOP gubernatorial primary candidate Carl Paladino has suggested sending people receiving unemployment benefits to prison dorms, Nixon administration official and conservative pundit Ben Stein has complained that the unemployed are “unpleasant people…who do not know how to do a day’s work,” Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN) suggested the jobless are “sitting back and waiting” instead of looking for work, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has claimed “welfare” is making the persistently unemployed lazy.
Will The Libertarian Party Sell Out Its Principles To Win A Senate Seat?
Will The Libertarian Party Sell Out Its Principles To Win A Senate Seat?
In a stunning upset, Tea Party activist and Sarah Palin-endorsee Joe Miller appears to have upset incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in Tuesday’s Republican primary election. Though there are still around ten thousand absentee ballots yet to be counted, analysts agree it is unlikely Murkowski will be able to close her 1,668 vote deficit.
However, in a move reminiscent of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Gov. Charlie Crist (I-FL), Murkowski now appears to be considering a third-party run on the Libertarian Party ballot in the general election. Indeed, such a move could already be in the works; RedState’s Erick Erickson tweeted last night that “Lisa Murkowski has already gone to the Alaska Libertarian Party promising money in exchange for their spot on the general election ballot.”
Murkowski could only run on the Libertarian line if the current nominee, David Haase, were to step aside. In the meantime, the question remains: Will the Libertarian Party sell out its principles in order to win a seat in the United States Senate?
Here is a sample of issues highlighting the stark differences between Murkowski’s beliefs and the Libertarian Party platform:
Gay Marriage: Libertarians argue for repealing “any state or federal laws denying same-sex partners rights enjoyed by others,” and they “oppose any new laws or Constitutional amendments defining terms for personal, private relationships.” Sen. Murkowski voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage.
Civil Liberties: Libertarians oppose the PATRIOT Act and the REAL ID Act. Sen. Murkowski voted to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act and voted for the REAL ID Act.
Drugs: Libertarians argue we should repeal “all laws establishing criminal or civil penalties for the use of drugs” and “stop prosecuting accused non-violent drug offenders, and pardon those previously convicted.” Sen. Murkowski voted to reauthorize the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Corporations: Libertarians believe we ought to repeal “all anti-trust laws.” In addition, all “federal agencies whose primary function is to make or guarantee corporate loans must be abolished or privatized.” Sen. Murkowski voted for TARP and the Foreclosure Prevention Act that saved Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Foreign Policy: Libertarians believe that we “should return to the historic libertarian tradition of avoiding entangling alliances” and abstain “totally from foreign quarrels and imperialist adventures.” Sen. Murkowski voted for the US-India nuclear treaty and voted against on redeploying non-essential American troops out of Iraq.
Trade: Libertarians believe in “the right to unrestricted trade.” Sen Murkowski voted against the US-Chile Free Trade Agreement.
Welfare: Libertarians oppose “government-enforced charity such as welfare programs and subsidies.” Sen. Murkowski voted to extend unemployment benefits to those out of work.
The Libertarian Party, which also opposes police checkpoints for drunk drivers, has never held a seat in Congress, much less the Senate. Without a doubt, this Alaska race is the best chance they’ve ever had to win a Senate seat. Will the prospect of a sitting Libertarian senator be enough for the party to abandon the principles it stands for?
Anti-Gay Hate Group Funds Campaign To Remove Iowa Justices
Anti-Gay Hate Group Funds Campaign To Remove Iowa Justices
As right-wing groups prepare to spend $400 million on the upcoming election, an anti-gay group has formed in Iowa to oust three state supreme court justices who joined that court’s unanimous opinion endorsing marriage equality:
Vander Plaats, who lost in the June gubernatorial primary, announced this month the creation of Iowa for Freedom, which has rented office space and hired six full-time staff members. The group plans to act like any other political campaign, with mailers, phone calls and door-knocking, Vander Plaats said.
“We’ve got a campaign to get rid of these judges. What do you think of that?” he called out to a man in a gray trucker hat at the fair.
Although Vander Plaats wants his organization to appear like a grassroots effort, the group’s website indicates that it is funded by AFA Action, the political arm of the virulently anti-gay American Family Association. Besides selling paranoid anti-gay products, such as the DVD pictured above, the AFA has a long history of hateful and delusional views about gay people:
- Claiming Hitler was gay: During an AFA sponsored radio program, a senior AFA official claimed that “Hitler himself was an active homosexual. . . And Hitler discovered that he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders, but that homosexual solders basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whomever Hitler sent them after. So he surrounded himself, virtually all of the Stormtroopers, the Browshirts, were male homosexuals.”
- Claiming lesbians can’t be justices: Citing rumors that Justice Kagan may be gay, the AFA proclaimed all lesbians unqualified to sit on the Supreme Court because “[w]e cannot afford to have another sexually abnormal individual in a position of important civic responsibility.
- Claiming gay sex is terrorism: In a blog post entitled “Gay sex = domestic terrorism,”AFA’s Bryan Fischer claimed that gay servicemembers must continue to be expelled from the military because “the inescapable conclusion is that gay sex is a form of domestic terrorism.”
- Claiming gay sex is just like heroin: The AFA also believes that America must enact unconstitutional laws banning gay sex because both “homosexual behavior [and] intravenous drug abuse . . . pose the same kind of risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.”
- Claiming gay people cause Biblical plagues: AFA’s Maine director even attributes everything from graffiti to burglarized cars to crop failure and the absence of the sun to gay people. No word yet on whether plagues of frogs and locusts also follow in gay people’s wake.
Though outside groups such as the AFA (and former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich) are determined to impose their hateful vision upon Iowa’s judiciary, a bipartisan group of actual Iowans — led in part by former Republican Governor Terry Branstand’s chief of staff — has formed to counter the AFA. As that group’s website explains, “it is important for voters to make informed decisions during the upcoming judicial retention elections,” not decisions based on the AFA’s paranoid delusions.
Bush’s Aide Says Bush Memoir Will Spark ‘Serious Debate’ About Whether Bush Policies Caused The Financial Crisis
Bush’s Aide Says Bush Memoir Will Spark ‘Serious Debate’ About Whether Bush Policies Caused The Financial Crisis
Former President George W. Bush, after keeping a mostly low-profile since leaving office, “is about to step into the public arena again” ahead of the release of his memoir, which is scheduled to be published the week after the November midterm elections. Bush pushed back the publication of the memoir, so that it wouldn’t impair the GOP’s chances in the midterm elections. But lately, some Republicans have been looking back on the Bush years with some nostalgia. “I think a lot of people are looking back with a little more — with more fondness on President Bush’s administration,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). And according to one of Bush’s cabinet secretaries and close friends, the memoir will give the public a chance for “serious debate” over whether Bush’s economic policies helped push the country into an economic meltdown:
Former Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, a close family friend, said the publicity would give the public a chance to reassess Mr. Bush’s record. “Did we head into a tough period in the last six months in office? Sure,” Mr. Evans said. “Was it a result of policies in his administration? I think there will be serious debate about that. We’ll be debating about it a long time.”
Remember, it was the Bush administration that ignored “remarkably prescient warnings” regarding problems in the housing market, while actively pulling strings out of the regulatory framework and appointing regulators fundamentally disinterested in reining in Wall Street. Financial firms thus ran wild, buildings up a huge amount of systemic risk that eventually toppled the system, putting more than 8 million Americans out of work. And as The Wonk Room explains, even before the meltdown, the Bush economy was incredibly weak, across almost every economic indicator.
Mississippi Middle School Segregates Student Government Officers: Only Whites Can Run For President
Mississippi Middle School Segregates Student Government Officers: Only Whites Can Run For President
With the election of President Barack Obama, the country heralded the coming of an age in which an African-American could overcome significant historical prejudice to ascend to the presidency. But while the country celebrates this collective step forward, a Nettleton, Mississippi public school is taking a clear step back. According to Nettleton Middle School’s rules, children running for certain class officer posts must meet a specific race requirement: to be president, the child must be white.
A school memo, obtained by MixedandHappy and The Smoking Gun, was passed out to every 6th, 7th, and 8th grader to inform them of the breakdown. The upcoming elections are divided between offices delineated for black and white students. Of the 12 offices for which students can compete, “eight are earmarked for white students, while four are termed ‘black seats.” The presidency is reserved for white students across each grade, but a black student is permitted to be the 8th grade vice-president or reporter, the 7th grade treasurer, or the 6th grade reporter. So, along with a “B” average and “a good disciplinary status and moral character,” a child hoping to represent his or her class must be the right race:
According to Nettleton parent Brandy Springer, the school’s handbook also states that “other elections such as homecoming court operate in a similar fashion. Positions are not held by one girl and one boy but by four individuals; one black couple, the other white.”
The middle school “has about 400 students, and about 72 percent are white, according to a source familiar with the school board’s operation. The majority of the remaining students are black.” As MixedandHappy’s Suzy Richardson points out, it is unclear where this leaves any child of mixed race, Chinese, Asian, or Hispanic descent. It is also unclear why these policies don’t strike the school’s African-American principal as completely absurd. While she has not offered comment, the school’s superintendent Russell Taylor issued a statement yesterday saying “the origin of these processes, historical applications, compliance issues, as well as current implications and ramifications” are “under review.”
The “historical application” is undoubtedly rooted in the state’s history of segregation — a history Mississippians seem reticent to move beyond. Last year, actor Morgan Freeman finally succeeded in his 11-year campaign to get Charleston High School in Mississippi to integrate its prom. But while it was “quickly embraced by students,” the idea was “rejected by a group of white parents, who held a competing ‘private’ prom” in protest. And this year, it took a federal order to stop a southwestern Mississippi county from “segregating its schools” into “all-black classrooms” and “allowing white students to transfer to the county’s only majority-white school.”
A Nettleton school survey asks students if they feel “Nettleton Schools are preparing students for what they will face in the future.” If the class elections are setting the example, they are teaching that any future African-American presidents are just not allowed. (HT: Gawker)
Sharron Angle Won’t Disavow Claim That There Are ‘Domestic Enemies’ In Congress
Sharron Angle Won’t Disavow Claim That There Are ‘Domestic Enemies’ In Congress
Earlier this week, the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent reported that, in a 2009 interview, Nevada GOP U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle agreed with a radio host who said “we have domestic enemies” in Congress. “Yes. I think you’re right,” she said. Yesterday, another right-wing radio host in Nevada gave Angle a chance to retract those remarks, but she refused:
HEIDI HARRIS: He said that we have domestic enemies and he thinks some of them are in the walls of the Senate and Congress, and you agreed with him. Did you agree with him?
ANGLE: Well, we were talking about what’s going on in Congress, of course, and the policies that have come out of Congress, and those policies as we’ve all seen over the last 18 months have definitely hurt our country.
HARRIS: Yeah, well I agree with you by the way, but I wanted to make sure you got you a chance to clarify that, because I’ll tell you the truth, Sharron. I do think we actually do have folks in Congress who truly want to do us harm and see us change from the nation we are now.
ANGLE: There is no doubt that the policies that have been coming out in the last 18 months have injured us, and injured us most specifically here in Nevada.
Listen here:
Sargent notes of Angle’s new interview, “Given her previous statements — particularly her claim that the public may resort to ‘Second Amendment remedies’ if Congress continues on her current course — it’s perfectly reasonable to imagine that she very well might believe that there are ‘domestic enemies’ within Congress.”
But the GOP doesn’t seem to have a problem with Angle’s position. A National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson brushed aside yesterday’s interview. And as the Republican National Committee’s Doug Heye conceded this week, “We embrace whatever [a] candidate needs to do to win.”
Attacked Muslim Cab Driver Still Proud To Be A New Yorker: ‘I Feel Like I Belong Here’
Attacked Muslim Cab Driver Still Proud To Be A New Yorker: ‘I Feel Like I Belong Here’
The Muslim cab driver who was stabbed earlier this week in a likely hate crime met with Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday, telling the mayor that despite the hateful incident, he is still proud of New York and its multicultural tolerance. While he said he is haunted by the incident, the driver — Ahmed Sharif — told Bloomberg that he still believes “this is the city actually [for] all colors, races, religion, everyone“:
But the Bangladeshi immigrant said he’s still glad to be a New Yorker.
“I feel like I belong here,” he said. “This is the city actually [for] all colors, races, religion, everyone. We live here side by side peacefully.” [...]
“From my back, he attacked me,” Sharif said. “It still is very sad, and it shocked me. And sometimes, I feel very lonely and unsafe.”
Sharif’s stabbing comes in the midst of the ugly and emotional debate taking place in NYC over the proposed Park 51 Islamic community center near the site of Ground Zero. Asked during a press conference with Sharif if he believed the attack was related to the mosque debate, Bloomberg said he wasn’t sure. Appearing on the Daily Show later that day, Bloomberg scorned the hateful tone of the opposition to the mosque, saying, “This is plain and simple people trying to stir up things to get publicity and trying to polarize people so that they can get some votes.” Still, he defended the opposition’s right to speak out, saying free speech is “what’s great about America.”
REPORT: Conservative Groups Gearing Up To Spend $400 Million On Midterm Election
REPORT: Conservative Groups Gearing Up To Spend $400 Million On Midterm Election
In the wake of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, corporations and special interest groups now enjoy the ability to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. Now, with less than 10 weeks until November, it’s clear just how far conservative groups are willing to go to try to influence the midterm elections.
According to a new report from ThinkProgress, conservative organizations have committed (or already spent) $400 million to advance their conservative agenda at the ballot box this year. For comparison’s sake, this outside money alone is more than the Democratic campaign committees spent combined when they took back both houses of Congress in the last midterm election. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal notes that special interest groups have already spent three times as much in 2010 than they had in 2006.
Among the outside groups that plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars electing conservatives are some familiar faces and some new ones as well. While the NRA and the Chamber of Commerce have long supported conservative causes, the former plans to double its spending from $10 million in 2006 to $20 million now and the latter will triple its commitment to $75 million this year. Many new groups are also entering the scene in a big way, including Karl Rove’s American Crossroads group with $52 million and Norm Coleman’s American Action Network with $25 million.
Those conservative groups trying to use $400 million in outside spending to tip the midterm election include:
– Chamber of Commerce has pledged to spend $75 million
– American Crossroads has pledged to spend $52 million
– Americans for Prosperity has pledged to spend $45 million
– Republican State Leadership Committee has pledged to spend $40 million
– American Action Network has pledged to spend $25 million
– American Future Fund has pledged to spend up to $25 million
– Club for Growth has pledged to spend at least $24 million
– National Republican Trust PAC has pledged to spend at least $20 million
– An unnamed health insurance industry coalition has pledged to spend $20 million
– National Rifle Association has pledged to spend $20 million
– Faith and Freedom Coalition has pledged to spend $11 million
– FreedomWorks has pledged to spend $10 million
– Americans for Job Security has pledged to spend $10 million
– Susan B. Anthony List has pledged to spend $6 million
– Our Country Deserves Better (Tea Party Express) has already spent $5 million
– Tax Relief Coalition has already spent $4 million
– Republican Majority Campaign has pledged to spend $3 million
– Campaign for Working Families has pledged to spend $2 million
– Heritage Action for America has pledged to spend $1 million
– Financial Services Roundtable has already spent $0.5 million
– Family Research Council has raised $0.5 million
– Citizens United Political Victory Fund has pledged to spend $0.2 million
TOTAL: $399.2 million
Given the number of progressive accomplishments in the 111th Congress, including health care reform, the economic stimulus bill, and Wall Street reform, it’s no wonder that conservative groups are fighting tooth-and-nail to prevent a repeat next term. Chris LaCivita, a Republican strategist who has also been involved in many independent-expenditure campaigns, told Politico, “If there is a time for independent groups to step up, this is it. This is the year for independent groups to put up or shut up.” Indeed, with conservative special interest groups putting it all on the line this November, their $400 million pledge may even increase before long.
ThinkFast: August 27, 2010
ThinkFast: August 27, 2010
“We see Glenn Beck as a guy who is bringing revelations of understanding to the American people,” FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey said, commenting on this weekend’s “Restoring Honor” rally. “Glenn Beck is the instructional arm of the small-government movement and we are the action arm,” Armey added.
According to a CBS News Poll released yesterday, “nearly three in 10 Americans say they are supporters of the Tea Party.” While 56 percent of the Tea Party supporters identified as conservative, only 49 percent of them hold favorable opinions of Tea Party icon Sarah Palin, who earned only 23 percent in favorable opinion among the public overall.
An intoxicated man entered a New York mosque on Wednesday to call those gathered for evening prayer “terrorists” and to urinate on prayer rugs. While the man has been charged with criminal trespassing, New York police officials are not treating the incident as a hate crime.
Former President Jimmy Carter, on a private trip to North Korea, successfully won the release of Aijalon Gomes, an American who was imprisoned in the totalitarian country for illegal entry. Gomes is expected to be returned to his home in Boston, Massachusetts by Friday.
“Fire departments around the nation are cutting jobs, closing firehouses and increasingly resorting to ‘rolling brownouts’” as municipalities across the country face tough economic times. Cities like Philadelphia, Sacramento, and Baltimore now resort to shutting down their fire services several times a week.
At an event in Florida yesterday, Sarah Palin attacked Gov. Charlie Crist’s record on abortion, and also called President Barack Obama the most pro-abortion president ever. Palin recycled the misleading attacks that occurred during the health care reform debate, saying “The biggest advance of the abortion industry in America is the passage of Obamacare.”
The CIA “is making secret payments to multiple members of President Hamid Karzai’s administration” that are “designed to help the agency maintain a deep roster of allies within the presidential palace.” Some aides are informants while others are paid for future accessibility. The CIA continues payments despite the Obama administration’s concerns about corruption in the Afghan government.
John Podesta and Jake Caldwell warn that climate crises are triggering “widespread food-price volatility, disproportionately and relentlessly devastating the world’s poor.” They write that the U.S. must work with allies to “renew long-neglected investments in agriculture assistance across the developing world, targeting small farmers as the fundamental drivers of economic growth.”
“Gun-control supporters are expressing frustration with the White House and the Democratic-controlled Congress” for passing several gun-friendly laws, while refusing to consider most gun-control legislation. “The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which endorsed Obama in 2008, gave the president an “F” for his first year in office.”
And finally: A German court will soon decide whether to release details about a 2006 barbecue Chancellor Angela Merkel threw for former President Bush that reportedly cost 8.7 million euros. A German taxpayer was outraged by the price tag for the cook-out (which featured local wild boar) and sued the government under a freedom of information law for an exact breakdown of expenditures.
ThinkProgress is hiring! Details here.
Rick Scott Insists He Took ‘Responsibility’ For Largest Medicare Fraud In History
Rick Scott Insists He Took ‘Responsibility’ For Largest Medicare Fraud In History
Last night, during an appearance on CNN, Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott defended his stewardship of Columbia/HCA, a large for-profit hospital chain that pled guilty to 14 felonies and paid $1.7 billion in criminal and civil fines for defrauding Medicare. Scott explained that he invested his life savings in the business to “built the largest health provider in the world” and stressed that he “took responsibility for what went wrong”:
SCOTT: And what I tell people is, you know, when you’re in business, anything that goes wrong, you should take responsibility if you’re the CEO. I do. The difference is let’s think about where we are in the state. We have the highest unemployment on record. We have almost 50 percent of our home owns under water on their mortgages. We’re walking into a five-plus billion dollar deficit. Has any politician in the state taken responsibility for putting us in this position? No. What I tell people all the time is I’m a business person. I know, you know, you put up your money, you try to build your companies and you take responsibility for what goes wrong. I do. When I’m governor, I hope nothing goes wrong. If it does, I’ll show up, I’ll take responsibility and I’ll fix it.
Watch it:
Scott may certainly be sorry for what happened, but it seems that the only thing he took was “a $9.88 million severance package, along with 10 million shares of stock worth up to $300 million at the time” after he was ousted from the Columbia/HCA board in 1997. In fact, as the Wonk Room explains, during a deposition Scott gave in 2000 about his time as head of Columbia/HCA, “he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 75 times.”
Fox News Ignores Ken Mehlman’s Coming Out, Runs Zero Segments On Story
Fox News Ignores Ken Mehlman’s Coming Out, Runs Zero Segments On Story
When Judge Vaughn Walker struck down Proposition 8, Fox News barely mentioned the story and its most prominent conservative commentators ignored it entirely. Yesterday, after the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reported that former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman — who had orchestrated President Bush’s gay-bating 2004 re-election campaign — was coming out as gay, Fox News remained similarly mum and as of this posting has yet to run a single segment on the story.
A Wonk Room review of Critical Mention reveals that CNN mentioned the name “Mehlman” 19 times, MSNBC reported on it 12 times (searches for “gay” and “Ken” produced similar results, with Fox News stuck at 0):
It’s unclear why Fox News ignored the story, since some Republicans have embraced Mehlman’s coming out. The Wonk Room argues that Fox has a history of ignoring stories that undermine conservative causes.
Cross-posted from The Wonk Room.
Michael Clemente, senior vice president of News Editorial at Fox News, responded by pointing to the website's coverage of the story. “We reported it on Fox News.com," he said. "We don’t report every one of these public statements on television and have not for some time now.”
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll