Palin & Huckabee want to slash NPR's funding for firing Juan Williams over racist anti-Muslim remark

Here's what Palin and Huckabee are saying:

"NPR defends 1st Amendment Right, but will fire u if u exercise it," Palin tweeted. "Juan Williams: u got taste of Left's hypocrisy, they screwed up firing you."

Huckabee went further in his criticism, calling on Congress to pull funding from NPR.

“NPR has discredited itself as a forum for free speech and a protection of the First Amendment rights of all and has solidified itself as the purveyor of politically correct pabulum and protector of views that lean left,” Huckabee said.

“It is time for the taxpayers to start making cuts to federal spending, and I encourage the new Congress to start with NPR,” he added.

Off topic, but doesn't anyone else think that Palin probably wrote like that even before she discovered the Internet?

Here is what Williams said, on FOX, no less, that got him fired:

“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot,” Williams said on the "The O'Reilly Factor" Monday. “But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Not to be confused with the woman who wears a cross around her neck.

I get that a lot of people had "Muslim panic" in the period immediately following 9/11. It wasn't right, but I wouldn't be surprised if most people had it to some degree. But it's been almost ten years - time to get over it. And then to suggest that people "in Muslim garb" somehow identify themselves as Muslims "first," simply because of the way they dress... what should they be wearing, and how should they self-identify? As Cubs fans?). I don't dress the way I do because I'm Amurikan. You just dress according to local custom, the way you're brought up - and in the US, that involves pants and a shirt, in Saudi Arabia, it doesn't.

So if I don't put on "Muslim garb" when visiting Saudi Arabia, I'm flaunting my American-ness, and have a radical American agenda? And finally, the notion that even if one sees oneself as "Muslim first," that somehow makes that person more suspect?

I suspect a lot of Americans have had a similar experience post-9/11 - getting onto a plane and getting a bit nervous about who's on the plane with them. But Williams sounds like he's trying to justify it, rather than admitting that it's a bit of an over-reaction - and his justification, that their clothing shows they have some Muslim agenda - is just downright weird. That's what got him into trouble. Read More......

Angela Merkel turns on foreigners with attack on multiculturalism

It's not as though we haven't seen our own culture wars in the US, but in light of the recent poll in Germany, Merkel's attack is even more troubling. Outside of pure politics, why would Merkel make this such a big issue? There's a serious xenophobia issue in Germany that needs to be addressed. After all, it was only a few months ago when the country was worked into an irrational frenzy over the Greeks. Who will the scapegoat be tomorrow?

Chancellor Angela Merkel has branded Germany's attempts to build a multicultural society an "utter failure" in an unprecedented speech designed to revive her own and her conservative party's flagging popularity and regain the initiative in an increasingly hostile public debate about immigration.

Ms Merkel, who normally scrupulously avoids courting xenophobic opinion, bluntly told a meeting of young members of her ruling Christian Democratic party that the "Multikulti" notion of people from different cultural backgrounds living happily side by side simply did not work.

"This approach has failed, utterly failed," she told applauding young conservatives gathered at a conference in Potsdam outside Berlin on Saturday. Instead she urged Germany's 16 million immigrants to do more to integrate into society and to learn German.

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The new face of racism in America

From Glenn Greenwald via Twitter, a tweet for the ages. Worse than you could imagine. Keka's Blog at Salon:

I saw it. But I couldn’t believe it.

There I was, in a fast food drive through, behind a man whose back window decal, in small white letters, sent me a message that sent a chill down my spine—just as he’d hoped it would, no doubt. It said:

THIS COUNTRY WAS BUILT BY WHITE MEN WITH GUNS

Click through for Keka's writing and seriously grotesque images. Amazing that stuff this bad is still with us.

Keka describes herself as "a former reporter for both the Chicago Sun Times and Arizona Daily Star, published author and optioned screenwriter who spent 8 years on the Hopi reservation as wife of a Hopi artist, and over 20 years as a teacher and administrator." An accomplished woman. I presume the car decal was in Arizona — a state known far more for wealthy snowbirds than backwoods types.

I do want to add one comment. One of the generation-arching discussions from about 1965 until now is "hate speech." The phase "politically correct" — thrown around so carelessly today — actually has a meaning. It refers to the desire to ban hate speech, especially racist speech (images, incitements and pseudo-science), from university campuses.

In other words, "politically correct" means The things I'm forced to say because they won't let me talk like a racist. This is what the Right is defending when they oppose "political correctness." At the level of the masses, this is what freedom means to them. (At the level of Money, freedom means the right to move capital across borders for any purpose, whether the masses are hurt or not.)

And since Reagan, the Right has fought against being "PC". It's entirely possible that in the not-young generations, racism is as bad as it was in the 40s and 50s, but it's been tamped down by social restriction, even when those restrictions have been resisted. It's not gone, just unexposed. (There are stories about Palin, for example, making comments about Obama's defeat of Hillary, overheard by waitstaff at dinners, that are rather raw; and also rather unverifiable.)

So perhaps what we're seeing in these images is not just outliers and corner-cases, but as Keka suggests, something that's always been there, re-emerging now because it once more has permission to stick its ugly head into the light. And not to put too fine a point on it — this is what the Billionaires' Coup is funding.

Food for thought.

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Berlusconi at it again with what he thinks is humorous

Why does anyone like this guy?

Days after Berlusconi told a youth rally an apparent joke about Adolf Hitler, he emerged from his Rome residence on 29 September to regale supporters with a joke about a Jew who charges fellow Jews money to hide in his basement from the Nazis, without telling them the war is over.

As the video of the encounter was posted on the internet, a second candid video, dating from earlier this year, also appeared.

In it, Berlusconi, filmed during a visit to L'Aquila, tells a joke poking fun at the physical appearance of Rosy Bindi, an grey haired, bespectacled opposition politician.

The punchline featured the oath 'Porco Dio', which roughly translates as 'Pig God'. It is considered one of the most blasphemous phrases in Italian, to the extent that a contestant on Italy's celebrity Big Brother was ejected for saying it in 2006.

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Alfonse D'Amato calls out racist on Fox News

Forget about the tired old "let's privatize everything" story and check out D'Amato teeing off on the racist. I never thought of D'Amato as being someone who would take such a hard line so it's surprising. (The response to the racist starts almost five minutes in.) It makes you wonder how far left in the GOP he would be if he was still in the Senate. Read More......

GOP SC state senator says slavery photo is evidence of how far SC has come

Yeah, because now they only pretend to treat black people like slaves. Read More......

Bundesbank board member quits following racist remarks

It's about time. His desk should have been cleared the day after he made his remarks. BBC:

Mr Sarrazin, in his book entitled Germany Abolishes Itself, says that Muslim immigrants are a drain on German society.

"Most of the cultural and economic problems are concentrated in a group of the five to six million immigrants from Muslim countries," he stated in the book.

The issue has proved divisive in Germany, with right-wing groups claiming his views vindicate their own stances.

But advocates of improving integration say he has made it harder to hold an objective debate by polarising opinion and obscuring the facts.

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German Bundesbank votes to sack racist board member

It's not quite final, but almost. Some more background on the events that led to the vote here. If Sarrazin was in the US, he'd already be on Fox News and preparing his speech for the next Teabagger rally.

The board of Germany's Bundesbank said on Thursday it had voted unanimously to seek the dismissal of board member Thilo Sarrazin, who has sparked uproar with his comments about Muslim immigrants and race.

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Rachel Maddow on White-washing Civil Rights

I recently wrote about "White-washing Civil Rights" — the attempt by Movement Conservatism to take the moral high ground away from progressives and Dems by muddying their race cred.

And progressives have considerable race cred. Unlike any other issue (Social Security, for example), the morals of swinging strange black fruit from trees is, well, black-and-white. You can spin Social Security as "socialist"; you can't spin race-murder as anything but race-murder.

Enter the Big Lie.

And right on time, comes Haley Barbour, climbing the Beckian tree to reshout the Beckian Lie. Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson are on it. This is a thing of beauty:



As I wrote earlier, this Big Lie has legs. And Robinson's right — this isn't an attempt to get black votes; that's beyond their reach with this argument.

No, it's an attempt to give beleaguered white suburbanites — from the out-there racist to the not-at-all racist — a balm to soothe their conscience, or a lie to tell their neighbors, when they vote Republican.

"I'm not racist; I'm actually expanding the Civil Rights movement to white people. Son of Lee Atwater just said so." Amazing how that works.

GP

(By the way, we don't have to be strategy-blind. There are many ways to use the lizard brain, which they have so carefully nourished, to our advantage. Start by considering this VoteVets ad.) Read More......

'Beck is attacking the enemy at the foundations of their power ... race as a trump card'

I'm going to call this strategy "White-washing Civil Rights". I'm also going to call it brilliant.

I normally don't quote anonymous posters on conservative message boards. I quote this one though, because:

1. The race-strategy analysis is correct, and
   
2. Beck has confirmed, via Twitter, that this poster is "The ONLY guy to actually get it!"

Here's the part of the post that deals with Civil Rights (h/t Ben Smith at Politico; my emphasis):

Beck is attacking the enemy at the foundations of their power, their claim to race as a permanent trump card, their claim to the Civil Rights movement as a permanent model to constantly be transforming a perpetually unjust society.

He is nuking out the foundations of the opposition’s moral preeminence...

I've read the whole post, and it's standard stuff — some obvious accurate perceptions, and many "permanent victim" errors of fact. A sample of both:

Beck sees correctly that the Conservative movement had only limited success because it was good at level 1 [elections], for a while, weak on level 2 [institutions], and barely touched level 3. Talk Radio and the Tea Party are level 3 [cultural] phenomena, popular outbreaks, which are blowing back into politics.

Yes, Virginia, Tea Partiers are culture warriors (interesting image, given the slow-footed visuals); and No, Virginia, Movement Conservatism has definitely not failed to build institutions.

In fact, they own the post-Reagan world precisely because of those institutions — Heritage Foundation, AEI, Federalist Society, Fox News, to name just a few. Hell, even Opus Dei and the Coors Beer kingdom (which I like to call "Twins for Jesus").

So, no link. Ride the Google if you want. I'd rather let their people finance their clicks.

But the race point, I think, is spot on; and we should be taking notes to counter it. The Big Lie technique has two aspects — saying the lie a bazillion times, and picking the right lie to say.

It's called the "Big Lie" because you pick the most outlandish one, the one no one would think any sane person would dare utter. You also pick the one that can do the most damage.

And Beck and the poster are right. Democrats will have the moral high ground forever because of race, and Repubs will always be Macaca'd with it — partly because it's their history, and partly because they can't stop smearing themselves.

But Beck has thrown down on the step of the Lincoln Memorial, on the very anniversary of "I have a dream." He want to take away race as a permanent issue, and he's said so.

Why? Precisely because, if there's any issue on which Movement Conservatism is evil, it's this one. There's no way to re-spin hanging blacks from trees, except by white-washing the bad guys with the Big Lie.

White-washing Civil Rights. This one has legs.

More in a bit — game on.

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Seattle shop clerk attacked and called a terrorist

The Teabagger call to violence continues.

Writing the court, a Seattle detective said Stainbrook entered the 7-11 store in at 362 Denny Way. The clerk was standing near a coffee machine when Stainbrook accosted him.

"For unknown reasons a person threw change on the floor near the victim's feet then punched the victim on the left side of the head," the detective said.

"After the suspect struck (the clerk) with his fist he said, 'You're not even American, you're Al-Qaeda. Go back to your country.'"

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Orrin Hatch comes out in favor of not-a-mosque that isn't at Ground Zero

Via Huff Post Hill:

In an interview with Salt Lake City's Fox 13 News, the Utah senator expressed his unequivocal support for the planned community center several blocks from Ground Zero. "And there's a huge, I think, lack of support throughout the country for Islam to build that mosque there," Hatch said, "but that should not make a difference if they decide to do it. I'd be the first to stand up for their rights." Do the 1,2,3, E and R trains, which pass near Ground Zero and contain ads for Dallas BBQ's Texas-sized margaritas (complete with a test tube shot of liquor) also desecrate that hallowed ground?

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Krugman: Why there will be no 'hyper-inflation'

This isn't news-news, but today the Professor gives a great simple answer to hyper-inflation freaks. There are two types of these:

The Big Boys, who will actually benefit if the lie is believed,
The loudmouth in the next cubicle, or four bar stools away.

The first type has skin in the game; we're ignoring him, since he's willfully ignorant.

Instead, this little piece tells you what to say to the loudmouth.

Krugman's answer? If you "print money" (stimulate) in a supply-driven recession — one in which there are buyers but no supply — you do get inflation.

But if you "print money" (stimulate) in a demand-driven recession — i.e., sellers but no demand — you can't inflate the economy until there's a recovery. By definition, if no one buys, there can be no price moves, generally speaking.

I'll boil it down for the loudmouth below. Here's Krugman at the source (my emphasis):

[M]any economists these days reject out of hand the Keynesian model, preferring to believe that a fall in supply rather than a fall in demand is what causes recessions. But there are clear implications of these rival approaches. If the slump reflects some kind of supply shock, the monetary and fiscal policies followed since the beginning of 2008 would have the effects predicted in a supply-constrained world: large expansion of the monetary base should have led to high inflation, large budget deficits should have driven interest rates way up. And as you may recall, a lot of people did make exactly that prediction. A Keynesian approach, on the other hand, said that inflation would fall and interest rates stay low as long as the economy remained depressed. Guess what happened?

And for good measure he adds a nice picture of not–hyper-inflation, no red line shooting to the sky:



So the next time the loudmouth complains about "printing money" and "driving us into debt forever" — ignore the possibility that he just doesn't want "those" people to get "his" money.

Just ask him calmly, "Why are we in a recession? Is it because there's not enough stuff to buy, or because people are too poor (or unwilling) to buy it?"

If he says the latter, ask, "How can prices go up when no one is buying?"

Ahem.

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German Bundesbank board member releases book, still employed

Berlin, we have a problem. Considering the not-so-distant history in Germany, this can't be tolerated.

In Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab, or Germany is Digging its Own Grave, Sarrazin argues that most of the country's immigrants cannot be integrated into society and contribute nothing to it.

He also blames foreigners – mainly Germany's Muslim population – for "dumbing down" society. He says that the rate at which Muslim women are reproducing means that Germans may soon become "strangers in their own country".

The book is already a bestseller and has prompted comparisons to Geert Wilders, the head of the Dutch far-right Freedom party.

The former Berlin finance senator said he wrote the book to outline his own fears that his grandchildren will grow up in a country where "their lives are measured out by the muezzin's calls to prayer".

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Taliban says mosque controversy is helping them recruit terrorists

ThinkProgress citing Newsweek:

Newsweek reveals the most concrete evidence yet that this campaign is serving to bolster support for Islamic radicalism abroad. In an interview with the magazine, a Taliban operative going by the name Zabihullah said that, by “preventing this mosque from being built, America is doing us a big favor.” He goes on to explain that the anti-mosque campaign is providing the Taliban with “with more recruits, donations, and popular support.” Another Taliban official expects that the anti-mosque campaign will provoke a “new wave of terrorist trainees from the West,” similar to suspected Times Square car bomber Faisal Shahzad. Zabihullah concludes, the “more mosques you stop, the more jihadis we will get”:

Taliban officials know it’s sacrilegious to hope a mosque will not be built, but that’s exactly what they’re wishing for: the success of the fiery campaign to block the proposed Islamic cultural center and prayer room near the site of the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan. “By preventing this mosque from being built, America is doing us a big favor,” Taliban operative Zabihullah tells NEWSWEEK. (Like many Afghans, he uses a single name.) “It’s providing us with more recruits, donations, and popular support.” [...]

Taliban officials say they’re looking forward to a new wave of terrorist trainees from the West like this year’s Times Square car bomber. “I expect we will soon be receiving more American Muslims like Faisal Shahzad who are looking for help in how to express their rage,” says a Taliban official who was a senior minister when the group ruled Afghanistan and who remains active in the insurgency. As an indication of the anger that is growing among some Muslims in the West, this official, who requested anonymity for security reasons, mentions the arrest of three Canadian Muslims in Ontario last week on charges of plotting to build and detonate improvised explosive devices. (A fourth individual was arrested in Ottawa last Friday in connection with the case.) The Ground Zero furor will likely add to that anger. “The more mosques you stop, the more jihadis we will get,” Zabihullah predicts.

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The Shock Doctrine in New Orleans

Five years ago there were reports that New Orleans, black and destroyed, would be rebuilt to white-guy specs.

In a way, it was kind of obvious; a great opportunity for Bush and his friends to race-swap a city just asking to be a white theme park.

Opportunity, say Hello to power and money. Here's Rachel Maddow talking about New Orleans housing, rebuilt to ... white-guy specs. She doesn't say "shock doctrine" but she could have. The phrases "George Bush" and "by design" come up around the 7:00 mark. (Sadly, Obama's name comes up too.)



Thanks, Rachel, for shining the light. Note that this doesn't happen without corrupt local politicians, blacks included.

Race-swapping in New Orleans is a long-term project; these guys will take two decades to do it. We're just seeing the score at the end of the first quarter. Looks like 14–3 to me.

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German Bundesbank board member sounds off on Jews and Muslims

Creepy. If this guy has his job by the end of the day on Monday there's a problem.

German government officials and immigrant leaders are condemning remarks by a board member of Germany's federal bank as racist and anti-Semitic.

Thilo Sarrazin of the German Bundesbank came under fire Sunday for telling the weekly newspaper Welt am Sonntag that "all Jews share the same gene." He also said Muslim immigrants in Germany were not willing or capable of integrating into the country's mainstream society.

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Mississippi middle school only allows white students to be class president

Where else besides the land of Dixie? Any time Mississippi wants to leave the union, please go.

If you’re black and a student at one public middle school in Mississippi, you can’t run for president – only whites need apply.

Nettleton Middle School in Nettleton, Miss., has segregated its elected class positions by race, according to a memo sent home with children at the school last week that was obtained by NBC News.

NOTE FROM JOHN: You really have to read this story. It's incredible. Yes, the policy was put in place 30 years to ensure that black kids were guaranteed a seat on the student council. Only problem, black kids still weren't allowed to be class president. So the school kept the policy, in writing, and no one thought it was a problem that in 2010 the written school policy was that only white kids could be class president.

I'm sorry, but the principal of that school should be under a Justice Department investigation, as should any and every teacher who was involved in these elections. What kind of a racist pig hands out a piece of paper saying that only white kids can be class president, and doesn't sense a problem with that?

Seriously f'd up state, Mississippi. Read More......

NY cab driver stabbed by passenger who asks 'are you Muslim?'

No one saw that one coming.

Police say the passenger asked the driver, "Are you Muslim?" When the driver said yes the passenger pulled a knife and slashed him in the throat, arm and lip.

I'm looking forward to ADL's and the Weisenthal Center's statements on this.

As Peter Daou explains, hate breeds violence. Especially right-wing hate. Read More......

Countdown: Worst Persons mixed bag

I'm not sure I'd class this as fun, but at least it's light.

Countdown's first Worst Person on Friday was the guy who laid off a 68-year-old cancer surgeon, then marched him out of the hospital he worked at his whole life, marched him out like a criminal. (Those of you in high-tech know this drill; the beast can't ever be too careful.)

The second Worst is a serial paint-huffer. Anyone else see Rev. Jim in all those mugshots?

And the third, and most Worst, Ted Nugent. I didn't know he was such a racist, but hey, you learn. The cherry at the center? He's a speaker at Rev. Glenn's "I have a (white guy's) dream" MLK–counter-event on August 28 at the Lincoln Memorial. (As they say, when the movie's well cast, it's half directed.)



Enjoy,

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