"A black sheriff?!": The Official Topic of Obama and New Era American Politics

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Because Republican overspending is always justified as long as it is used against commies, a-rabs, and illegal aliens.

[Phoenix Dark]

All men are created equal, but the playing field isn't equal for all men.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

in b4 "bubububu a black man won the presidency"

[close]

[Dickie Dee]

I literally erupted into a John McEnroe-inspired battle cry of, "You cannot be serious!" when I read JayDubya's reply. He is the best Internet troll ever.

Being an internet troll implies that you are a joke character, not just an intentionally ignorant fool whose beliefs are a joke.

[Dickie Dee]

Ta-Nehisi Coates nailin' it, just fucking nailin' it.

The NAACP Is Right, Cont.
Jul 16 2010, 1:00 PM ET |  Comment

Dave notes the following ridiculous statement from Tea Party Patriot leadership:

The NAACP has long history of liberalism and racism. If you are a conservative -- including a conservative African-American -- there is no room for you at the NAACP. If you have opinions that differ from the NAACP and the liberal establishment, and if you are African-American, you are an "Uncle Tom," a "negro," "not black enough" and "against our people."

Citing his own posts, Dave asserts:

When I said the NAACP's move would backfire, I meant things like this would happen. I didn't mean they were wrong to go down that road. It's just that they should know that calling out a group for "racism" is pointless -- whoever's been targeted will simply claim to have been attacked unfairly and had his free speech threatened.Remember what happened when Eric Holder said that America had been a "nation of cowards" in discussing race. Boom: Backlash. Anger. Debate over why he said it, but not what he meant. A year and change later we have a ridiculous national debate over whether Holder's department hates white people because it won't draw and quarter the New Black Panther Party. This stuff is what he meant, of course. But saying it isn't actually starting the debate. It's pretty obvious that the NAACP failed here.

One way of looking at the Tea Party Patriot statement on the facts. It is true that NAACP is fairly liberal. It is also true that Michael Steele is arguably the most prominent black conservative in America. He is also--among many other things--a member of the NAACP, and thus presumably part of a racist group.

To the extent that the NAACP has, as Dave says, "failed," it is because the arbiters of facts have ceded ground, and reporters and writers dutifully, and uncritically, dispense the notion that an organization which helped birth modern America has "a long history of...racism." But it also fails because there is very little pushback on this notion from "sensible" liberal writers. (I don't include Dave among them, mind you.) Instead we're getting calls for the president to condemn the NAACP, essentially, for being the NAACP.

Dave concedes that the NAACP has a case, but concludes that they're wrong for making it. But they're only wrong for making it because the broader society, evidently, believes that objecting to a call for literacy tests is, in fact, just as racist as a call for literacy tests. This inversion, this crime against sound logic, is at the heart of American white supremacy, and at the heart of a country that has nurtured white supremacy all these sad glorious years.

It is the Founders claiming all men are created equal while building a democracy on property in human beings. It is Confederates crying tyranny, while erecting a country based on tyranny. It is Sherman discriminating against black soldiers, while claiming that his superiors are discriminating against whites. It's Ben Tillman justifying racial terrorism, by claiming that he's actually fighting against terrorism. It is George Wallace defending a system built on bombing children in churches, and then asserting that the upholders of that system are "the greatest people to ever trod this earth."


Those who employ racism are not in the habit of confessing their nature--inversion is their cloak. Cutting out the cancer means confronting that inversion, means not wallowing in on-the-other-handism, in post-racialism, means seeing this as more than some kind of political game. Someone has, indeed, failed here. It is not the NAACP.

A Final Thought
Jul 16 2010, 3:25 PM ET |  Comment

Here is former head and current spokesperson for the Tea Party Express Mark Williams satirically responding to the NAACP:

Dear Mr. Lincoln

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don't cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the 'tea party movement'.

The tea party position to "end the bailouts" for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn't that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.

And the ridiculous idea of "reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government." What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government "stop the out of control spending." Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government "stop raising our taxes." That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely

Precious Ben Jealous, Tom's Nephew
NAACP Head Colored Person

Williams has since taken the original down and posted a half-hearted justification. Mark Williams is the same man who has denounced Barack Obama as "Indonesian Muslim" and a "welfare thug." If Mark Williams is not a racist, then there are no racists in American society--a position which many, some liberals among them, no doubt find plausible.

It's been asked in comments, a few times, what good has come of the NAACP's resolution. I would not endeavor to speak for anyone but myself when I say that I owe the NAACP a debt of gratitude. I have, in my writing, a tendency to become theoretically cute, and overly enamored with my own fair-mindedness. Such vanity has lately been manifested in the form of phrases like "it's worth saying"  and "it strikes me that..." or "respectfully..."

When engaging your adversaries, that approach has its place. But it's worth saying that there are other approaches and other places. Among them--respectfully administering the occasional reminder as to the precise nature of the motherfuckers you are dealing with. It strikes me that this is a most appropriate role for the nation's oldest civil rights organization.

[Brehvolution]

Williams was kicked out of the tea party for that blog post.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/07/18/2010-07-18_tea_party_express_leader_mark_williams_expelled_over_colored_people_letter.html

[Oblivion]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/sarah-palin-calls-on-peaceful-muslims-to-refudiate-ground-zero-mosque.php#more

[Phoenix Dark]

REFUDIATE UR TWEET MOSLEMS

[Boogie]

"refudiate"?

 

[Eric P]

no left wing, no anger at the left wing, no shoot outs
ergo, obama's fault

[Boogie]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/18/BAG71EG92P.DTL&tsp=1

smh

Good shoot by the officers, glad none of them were seriously hurt.

[Mandark]

Are JD's posts about racial politics in America actually worse than his other posts, or does it just seem that way to me because of the subject matter?

[Phoenix Dark]

Nah he's just keeping FoC's memory alive

[The Fake Shemp]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/sarah-palin-calls-on-peaceful-muslims-to-refudiate-ground-zero-mosque.php#more

Seriously, white America, knock it the fuck off. pls refudiate

[AdmiralViscen]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/18/BAG71EG92P.DTL&tsp=1

smh

This never would have happened if it wasn't for that mega-mosque!

[AdmiralViscen]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/19/alvin-greene-speech-video_n_650676.html

They have really groomed Alvin Greene into a political superstar

[Eric P]

Nah he's just keeping FoC's memory alive

Callandor ain't got nothing on me, though he clearly had good taste in fantasy novels.

Atlas Shrugged?

[The Fake Shemp]

[Dickie Dee]

 

[The Fake Shemp]

Republicans.

"We need to balance the budget!"

[Oblivion]

lol @ Eric P

Republicans.

"We need to balance the budget!"

Saw that whole thing yesterday. Gregory (for once) did a halfway decent job as a moderator.

[The Fake Shemp]

I wish the press would push these guys all the time, Democrats and Republicans alike.

[The Fake Shemp]

Have you read that Top Secret America article over at the WaPost?

... that sounds like a total clusterfuck of monumental proportions. We are flushing so much fucking money down the toilet.

[The Fake Shemp]

We'd save so much money if streamlined security organizations, got rid of the Air Force (and absorb various elements into other arms of the military), stop fighting ground wars in other countries, created a single-payer heath care system, etc.

Y'know, shit that politicians will never do.

Sending aid to a shit hole like Haiti is a drop in the bucket compare to the amount of money we waste.

[Eric P]

... that sounds like a total clusterfuck of monumental proportions. We are flushing so much fucking money down the terrorlet.

fixed to reflect accuracy

[The Fake Shemp]

Heh, true.

It amazes me that conservatives get up in arms about spending tax money on things that actually matter, like extending unemployment benefits, building infrastructure, health care, etc.

... but absolutely flushing money down the toilet on defense spending and foreign wars is a-okay. Our government spending is out of control, but nobody wants to address that.

[The Fake Shemp]

And before JayDubya gets all huffy, it's on both sides of the aisles: like millions of dollars spent on fucking signs to tell people that the road work is courtesy of the stimulus act.

[Oblivion]

Fixing the budget deficit means fixing defense/SS/medicare or raising taxes.  I'm with Willco that any politician not talking about those four things needs to fuck off.

The thing about the deficit is that the repubs have done a great job in convincing the Joe the Plumbers of the world that the only reason it goes up is because of spending. People should understand that you also get deficits by having tax cuts, since by definition, that's money that the government's not receiving.

[The Fake Shemp]

The obvious answer is to cut taxes for small businesses and large corporations, so they can employ more people and we can collect more taxes from the new hires. /smug

[Oblivion]

Chris Matthews just destroyed Mike Pence on the Bush tax cuts and the deficit.

Also,

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/node/38454

Monica Crowley does a pretty decent job handling McConnell. And hell, John King was pretty tough on Mark Williams the other day.

When did cable news show hosts suddenly start acting like...REAL journalists?

[Boogie]

On that Washington Post project (before having completed reading it, however):

I don't think the growth of the Intelligence apparatus is, on its own, outrageous.

In fact, I think strengthening of the Intelligence and law enforcement apparatus is the proper response to international terrorism.  That is to say, if you had this growth of "Top Secret America" without the costly wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, I don't think there would be room for alarm or bitching.

The wars were the wrong response to terrorism, intelligence is the right one.  Of course, it being America, it's still prone to go overboard even with the right response.

[The Fake Shemp]

Even without the wars, Boogie, this is a colossal waste of money. Why do we have TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY ORGANIZATIONS handling all this work, many of it redundant and so clandestine that the entire system is incapable of working properly?

So, yes, if you're spending a ludicrous amount of money on a system that is so out-of-control that it is incapable of doing its job, then it is a waste of money.

I don't think anyone is for NOT strengthening law enforcement and intelligence agencies, but this is just insane.

[Phoenix Dark]

Fixing the budget deficit means fixing defense/SS/medicare or raising taxes.  I'm with Willco that any politician not talking about those four things needs to fuck off.

Fixing defense? What are you, a pacifist Iranian sympathizer?
Fixing social security? Sure, lets raise the retirement age to 70
Fixing medicare? You mean setting up a death panel for seniors?

[Oblivion]

On the Ed Show, it said there were 3,200 agencies, including both government and private.

[Phoenix Dark]

Intelligence needs to be beefed up. While there are many agencies, many are understaffed. Especially in the area of cyber-security for instance, where China and other nations are rapidly outpacing the US. I was listening to NPR this morning and they were saying agencies are literally desperate for qualified hackers/security people to play offense and defense for online systems.

I'd rather see money spent on intelligence than bombing brown people.

[The Fake Shemp]

Intelligence needs to be beefed up. While there are many agencies, many are understaffed. Especially in the area of cyber-security for instance, where China and other nations are rapidly outpacing the US. I was listening to NPR this morning and they were saying agencies are literally desperate for qualified hackers/security people to play offense and defense for online systems.

I'd rather see money spent on intelligence than bombing brown people.

[The Fake Shemp]

Maurice, we just had a WaPost article today cite 854,000 employees with top secret clearance, multiple organizations doing the same tasks, constructing large buildings for said agencies, employing security detail for staff, etc.

But clearly, the story you heard on NPR where we need more hackers for cyber-security means we need more intelligence people in general.

[Phoenix Dark]

David Broder writes for the Washington Post. Clearly NPR is a more respectable source of material, Federman

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/07/19/2010-07-19_dem_congressman_rep_walt_minnick_rejects_tea_party_endorsement_after_mark_willia.html

A Congressman (Democratic) rejects the endorsement from tea baggers.  Not that I think this will be a trend this election season but hopefully it means that teabagging rallies will be phased out in the future, especially as the GOP wagons circle for 2012.

[Boogie]

Intelligence needs to be beefed up. While there are many agencies, many are understaffed. Especially in the area of cyber-security for instance, where China and other nations are rapidly outpacing the US. I was listening to NPR this morning and they were saying agencies are literally desperate for qualified hackers/security people to play offense and defense for online systems.

I'd rather see money spent on intelligence than bombing brown people.

In no way does the American intelligence apparatus need "beefing up".

Do intelligence resources need to be better managed?  Absolutely.

But the United States has the largest intelligence infrastructure in the history of the world.  To suggest it needs "beefing up" in 2010 is absurd.

[Boogie]

Finished reading the main article now.

The main problem I get from the article (and it's not new, as it was something that was apparent in my studies in university) is overlap of intelligence.  Every arm of the Defence Department having its own intelligence services (which are warranted, as far as it goes), but gradual expansion and mission creep leads each individual agency/service to want to develop a more complete intelligence capability, and thus leading to overlap.

The very concept of the position of Director of National Intelligence is redundant/overlap.  Its entire existence is simply replicating the authority and power that the Director of Central Intelligence was supposed to have, but never has, ever since the creation of the CIA.

I still see quite a bit of overblown hysteria and theatrics in the project though.  That video intro, for example.  Calling the intelligence community a "fourth branch" of government?  C'mon.  It's bureaucratic largesse, not a sinister secret cabal.

[The Fake Shemp]

I don't think it's depicted as sinister, but it's a bit disingenuous to say that it has appropriate checks and balances like the rest of our branches, hence the comment.

It's not just the overlap, but the egregious abuse of tax payer money - like the SCIF rooms, needless security detail, etc.

The amount of money we're spending to erect or complete buildings for redundant agencies is out-of-control. That's what people are upset about. The cost of it all, not that there is some kind of shadow government or anything. And that's completely warranted, in my opinion. The series is pretty much trying to document the cost and size of the intelligence community; I'm not sure where how you pulled that opinion from the package.

This doesn't even address private agencies that are being contracted to do the same exact thing.

[Brehvolution]

This is on the back page of my local paper today:

 

[The Fake Shemp]

Not only has Benjamin Jealous come out and condemn the New Black Panthers, which is an affiliation of like twelve people, but the NBP are not part of the NAACP. I don't understand what that has to do with the NAACP.

[Brehvolution]

I like how he says in the second paragraph that "and exhaustive search on media reportage turns up no mention of sign like that" yet a simple google search shows hundreds of them.

 

[The Fake Shemp]

"I used the Google!"

[Phoenix Dark]

[youtube=560,345]nkdGGKPHwnk[/youtube]

This has become the most bizarre story of the year lol.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/naacp_backs_off_we_were_snookered.php

I love how the right is praising the woman they were smearing just a few hours ago, and have pivoted to attacking the NAACP again. "Aha, the NAACP didn't host a racist speaker...but they did throw her under the bus without knowing the full story! Just like the black panthers!"

[Cheebs]

I am still confused how the conservative media has gotten so rilled up about the black panthers lately.

[Phoenix Dark]

I hate throwing the r word around, but I'm truly shocked at just how racist conservatives have shifted this month. It started with the NBPP case and Drudge labeling it as racial preference. It shifted to the NAACP and Michelle Obama telling black folk to raise their "intensity" - of course without explaining the speech was about getting in shape. Then it turned into a full blown war against the NAACP, tying them and Obama to the NBPP. And it culminated with the outrageous video of the USDA worker being edited to oblivion. The lie has been exposed and the right has simply moved on as if nothing happened.

If Obama didn't have her fired asap, the right would have spent the entire fucking day wondering why he didn't have her fired. Instead he did, and they criticize him for firing an innocent woman now that all the facts are out.

This has been one of the most disgusting stories I've witnessed in a long fucking time, and it's clearly not over. The economy is shit and November is near, what better time to make Obama the scary black man.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I listen to conservative talk radio while I'm out and about for the job.  Its a more raw version of their TV shows.  Basically their whole thing is that ever since the NBPP case was dismissed, the right has been crying foul and proclaiming their is a double standard, or in the words of Sean Hannity, a "two tiered" law system.  The right has trying to make connections of the NBPP to the NAACP.  It's a matter of time before they link the NBPP to Obama, suggesting that there is an anti-white cabal in power.

The Shirley Sherrod thing reminds me of the political jiu-jitsu in Nixonland.  The opposition gets the ruling power to crumble on something but the opposition complains regardless of the outcome.  The GOP is just fucking with the Democrats at this point because the Democrats act like they've already lost the midterm elections and assume the position (ie, a tucked tail between the legs) in spite of the election being three months away.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Conservative talk radio is entertaining enough.  Except Glenn Beck who is thoroughly boring 9 times out of 10.

Beats listening to the same Ke$ha or Lady Gaga shit that has been overplayed to death.

[Brehvolution]

Lithium
Raw Dog
Liquid Metal

[Brehvolution]

I believe it's channel 27, but if that ends up to be Octane then it's 21.

[Phoenix Dark]

Remember when Eric Holder said the US is a nation of cowards on race and everyone got mad? Yeaaah

[Brehvolution]

The thing that make me chuckle a bit is the reply from the tea party/right over the NAACP allegations is basically "tit for tat". The NAACP asked them to denounce the TP's racist elements, instead, they point to a 2008 video and are bu...bu...bu.. NBPP! 

Attack attack attack.... never defend

[The Fake Shemp]

That's because the Tea Party honestly views itself as a victim of a cruel, socialist government that may or may not hate white people. But probably does. Most likely. Not trying to race bait or anything, but the guy in charge is black. And maybe he wants revenge? Not being racist, just a thought.

[Phoenix Dark]

That's how race issues are handled in the US. Remember when the Imus shit storm was happening and Fox news instead decided to focus on how prevalent the n-word is in rap music? Whenever a charge of racism is brought, someone in the conservative media attempts to deflect it back.

Yup Willco is right. It's entirely built on a bigoted, victim mentality. "I worked hard for mine, now the government wants to give it to those people at my expense. Like reparations!"
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/07/the-case-against-the-naacp/59793/
posted again

[Phoenix Dark]

Coates with another great article on this bullshit

More disturbingly, this is what happens when you treat the arrest of a black man, in his home, as something that can be fixed over beers. This is what happens when you silently ascent to the notion that racism and its victims are somehow equally wrong. The ground, itself, is rigged with a narrative of inversion that goes back centuries. When you treat the two side as equals, expect not just more of the same. Expect worse.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/07/on-lacking-all-conviction/60134/

Obama is boxed in on race. He's no longer a candidate who can give a speech on race and have the media swoon over him. He's the president, and using his bully pulpit to discuss race in an election year is never a good idea. He's avoided nearly every racial issue, with the one exception being the embarrassing Gates situation - not only Obama's disappointingly dumb comment, but the beer-gate nonsense afterwards.

I don't expect Obama to come out and denounce the tea party, or for the White House to demand Steve King resign for racist comments. But I do expect some backbone in cases like this. Especially for an administration quite familiar with the tactic of edited, distorted videos that create deceptive narratives.

[The Fake Shemp]

There are not big enough for this.

[Eric P]

BLACK POWER ICE CREAM

http://www.therightperspective.org/2010/07/17/obama-visits-black-power-ice-cream/

I'm not a racist.  i eat all the flavors in Neapolitan

[Brehvolution]

That has to be a troll site to troll righties.