Limbaugh shucks and jives


Rush Limbaugh said:

“Let me ask you a question — when it comes to Syria, have you ever heard Obama talk about regime change as an objective?” he asked. “You have not, have you? You have not. And they’re reinforcing that today. No. In fact, this operation — Bush had ‘shock and awe.’ We’re looking at ‘shuck and jive’ here. That’s what I’m going to name this. The Obama operation in Syria — Operation: Shuck and jive — because that’s what this is. ‘No, we don’t do shock and awe because that’s too big. That’s too mean. No, no, no.”

Subtle, Rush. Very subtle. To anyone with southern roots, “shucking and jiving” is simply non-too subtle racist code. To someone like Palin, it is ignorance. She picked it up somewhere. However, America discussed the use of the term when she said it and enough was said in the public forum to determine that it really was an expression that needed to be avoided.

Make no mistake. When Limbaugh says “shucking and jiving” he knows exactly what he is doing.

Missouri State Fair: Racism or par for the course?

obama mask


Washingtonpost.com:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A clown wearing a President Barack Obama mask appeared at a Missouri State Fair rodeo this weekend and the announcer asked the enthusiastic spectators if they wanted to see “Obama run down by a bull.”

The antics led the state’s second highest-ranking official, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, to denounce the performance in a tweet Sunday. He said it was “disrespectful” to the president.

“We are better than this,” the Republican tweeted.

State Fair officials said the show in Sedalia was “inappropriate” and “does not reflect the opinions or standards” of the fair. “We strive to be a family friendly event and regret that Saturday’s rodeo badly missed that mark,” they said in a statement Sunday.

It wasn’t clear if any action will be taken against the performers.

Perry Beam, who was among the spectators, said “everybody screamed” and “just went wild” as the announcer talked about having the bull run down the clown with the Obama mask.

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The 6 Jurors revealed…well, sort of

Washingtonpost.com:

MIAMI — Three jurors in George Zimmerman’s second-degree murder trial initially favored convicting him of that offense or manslaughter, but the six-woman jury ultimately voted to acquit him after more closely examining the law, a juror in the case said Monday.

Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year, but the jury also was allowed to consider manslaughter.

The woman, known as Juror B37, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that when the jury began deliberations Friday, they took an initial vote. Three jurors— including B37 — were in favor of acquittal, two supported manslaughter and one backed second-degree murder. She said the jury started going through all the evidence, listening to tapes multiple times.

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Sarah Palin: “Shuck and jive” Shtick?

Politico.com:

Sarah Palin used what some consider a racially derogatory term in a posting on Facebook on Wednesday that said President Barack Obama’s “shuck and jive shtick” lies must end regarding last month’s attack at a U.S. post in Benghazi, Libya.

“Why the lies? Why the cover up? Why the dissembling about the cause of the murder of our ambassador on the anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil? We deserve answers to this. President Obama’s shuck and jive shtick with these Benghazi lies must end,” the former GOP Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate wrote. (on Facebook)

Oh dear God, tell me she didn’t just say “shuck and jive” in reference to the President.  I have known since I was 6 years old that “shuck and jive”  is an incredibly racist remark.  Why would she do that?  Why would she start hurling racist expressions at a sitting president of the United States?  This is further proof that  Sarah Palin was totally unfit to serve as Vice President (I will now say any elected office.) and that racism is very much a part of the attacks on President Obama with some people, including Sarah Palin. 

Despite the fact that Palin is no longer running for office or in office, she still is a party fair haired child.  She is simply an embarrassment.  What was she thinking?  is she truly this ignorant?  Palin owes President Obama a written and verbal public apology. 

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What is the Tea Party Fund?

What is the Tea Party Fund?  According to their website:

The Tea Party Fund is a SUPER PAC working to develop a grassroots army to fight the left in 2012. Our core goals include the defeat of Barack Obama and success in 7 out of 10 targeted Senate seats.

Why do we care?   This fellow had a profile spot on the website. 

From insidenova.com:

The FBI took down an alleged white supremacist in the parking lot of the Bull Run Plaza shopping center Tuesday after they say he paid an undercover agent to illegally modify his AK-47 assault rifle.

Douglas Howard Story, 48, of Manassas is charged with making a firearm in violation of the National Firearms Act and is accused of making threats online to the president and others, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Peter Carr said.

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Racism comes to the NCAA Foul Line SMU Style

From loope21.com:

Kansas State coach Frank Martin always makes it a point to recruit a Latino high school ball player from overseas every year.

Martin, who is Cuban, knows that the islands of Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and countless others have talent that many U.S. coaches pass over.

But when he brings these players to the states, the last thing he’d ever expect was the treatment one of his players received at the foul line in the school’s opening game of the NCAA Tournament yesterday.

Freshman point guard Angel Rodriguez, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, was at the foul-line when the Southern Mississippi University {sic} band began chanting “Where’s your green card?”

Holy cow!  Are college students from University of Southern Mississippi   really this rude and ignorant?   Puerto Ricans are American citizens.  They don’t need green cards.  Even if they did, who is really that  rude? 

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Patricia Zengerle: Analysis: Race issues beset Obama’s “post-racial” presidency

Continuing similar themes from last week:

 

From Reuters: (In its entirety)

Analysis: Race issues beset Obama’s “post-racial” presidency

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON | Wed Jul 21, 2010 6:12pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Many supporters of Barack Obama hoped his election as America’s first black president might herald an era of post-racial politics, but race has been an issue his administration just can’t seem to avoid.

Division and tension between black and white Americans has cropped up repeatedly over Obama’s 18 months in office, hurting his popularity and distracting from his political agenda.

The issue surfaced this week when the Agriculture Department pushed a black official to resign after allegations she discriminated against a white farmer, only to apologize a day later for acting too quickly and without the facts.

Some said the White House was too eager to prove to its critics on the right that it does not favor blacks.

“The Obama administration lost some political capital because they acted without thinking things through,” said Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University.

Obama and race relations have often grabbed headlines.

Last July — in the heat of the White House fight for its healthcare overhaul — when Obama was subjected to scathing criticism for saying police had “acted stupidly” when they arrested Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates, who is black, on charges he was breaking into his own home.

More recently, the Justice Department dismissed voter intimidation charges against the New Black Panther Party, prompting criticism from conservative groups who said the black president was unwilling to prosecute fellow blacks for civil rights violations.

“When the right-wing noise machine starts promoting another alleged scandal, you shouldn’t suspect that it’s fake — you should presume that it’s fake, until further evidence becomes available,” columnist Paul Krugman wrote in The New York Times.

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More on NAACP Condemnation of Racism

I am actually horrified at Phillip Dennis’ rhetoric, starting the the double quarter-pounder and Rosie O’Donnell and finishing with him telling Hilary Shelton his organization is simply irrelevant and an extortion group. The sad thing is, I don’t even think Phillip Dennis realizes how inappropropriate he is.

How does someone tell the oldest civil rights organization that it is no longer relevant?

Phillip Dennis just made the NAACP’s case. Case closed.

Tom Hanks Steps in a Racial Hornet’s Nest

Tom Hanks has set off a firestorm over racism that is impacting the new HBO miniseries, “The Pacific.” Listen to both videos:

Not smart, Tom. not smart. Maybe in 30 years he could say that but there are far too many people from that era still alive to say WWII was  racist. I thought we were at war with Japan because they bombed Pearl Harbor. I think most Americans thought the same. Was there racism, if you want to call it that, because we were at war with Japan? Of course. Caricatures developed immediately of our enemies in both war theatres.  Terms were used like Kraut, Japs, zipperheads, etc.  I don’t know if you can actually call it racism when you are at war with someone. I think it might take on a different term.  War words? 

Much of WWII involved racism. Racism is easy. When one has difficulty verbalizing why they hate another human being, racism is far easier than rational thought. And let’s face it, it is pretty difficult to kill someone, a lot of someones without a little hate being brought into the mix. However, WWII did not start because Americans hate the Japanese for racial reasons. Racial stereotyping certainly developed. However, in a world where the Chinese and Koreans were being killed and tortured it is pretty difficult to evoke racism.

It is also very difficult to paint Americans as racist when 6 million Jews were being annihilated across the Atlantic for racist reasons, even though they were the same race as their executioner. Go figure. Perhaps racism is definitely the wrong word.

Tom Hanks needs to reword his remarks. The “Greatest Generation” doesn’t need to go out of this world being called racist. The was lots of racism back then. I have my father’s letters lamenting that an Indian soldier could not go into a bar and buy a drink in 1945. There was no mention that our troops were segregated. I questioned my mother who didn’t have an answer. We have races of people being herded into concentration camps and killed then incinerated because they were ethnically different in the eyes of their captors. We have political enemies facing the same fate. We have women of similar racial background being pressed into prostitution because of their national difference. The world was turned upside down. Some of that same hatred lives on. Getting into whether something is or is not racist really helps nothing. The best thing to do is simply move on. Hanks has put his foot in it. He also discusses terrorism. He doesn’t want to go there either.

Tom Hanks has been a wonderful spokes person for the ‘Greatest Generation.’  I hope they don’t fire him and that he alters his message just a little bit since he has so many people upset.

KKK Killings Live on in America

From Yahoo News:

COVINGTON, La. – A Louisiana man accused of helping his father hide the body of a Ku Klux Klan recruit pleaded guilty Thursday to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to three years in prison, according to a prosecutor’s spokesman.

Prosecutors believe Shane Foster, 21, also helped his father clean the camp site in rural St. Tammany Parish in southeastern Louisiana where Cynthia Lynch, 43, was shot to death in November 2008, district attorney’s office spokesman Rick Wood said.

Foster’s father, Raymond Foster, 45, is set for trial April 5 on a second-degree murder charge.

What on earth?  What year is this?  Cynthia Lynch, 43, was shot to death in November of 2008.  Her crime?  She was trying to leave an initiation ritual and head for home.  She had hooked up with the Louisiana KKK group run by Raymond Foster via the Internet.  She was described as a troubled woman who was trying to fit in somewhere.  That probably fits the description of many people who are attracked to the KKK.  Just a group of misfits.

All too often groups like this are blown off.  Do-gooders try to tell us that the KKK is irrelevant nowadays and that any concerns about this organizaton are  simply an over-reaction.  This killing doesn’t sound like an over-reaction to me. 

Do these sentences sound a little on the lean side?  If you shoot someone to death, why is that second degree murder?  Another female, Danielle Jones, pleaded guilty to being an accessory.  She spent a year in jail.  Is Louisiana soft on crime or is it just soft on KKK krime?  How much a part of the south is the KKK in 2010?

KKK Pictures

Just in case anyone forgets who the Klan hates, here is a pretty good reminder.  🙄

Creative Loafing Atlanta presents: The Georgia Knight Riders and Knights of the Ku Klux Klan rallied for a crowd of more than 500 on Feb. 20 in the town of Nahunta, Ga.
These good ole boys are all pleased with themselves.

The “I Have a Dream” Speech–Has the Dream Come True?

How far have we come since that speech was given by Dr. Martin Luther King almost 47 years ago?  Has Dr. King’s dream been fulfilled or even come close?  Has prejudice been stamped out or is it seething right beneath the surface?  The term ‘racism’ is still thrown about, perhaps more than it was during Dr. King’s day.  Has it become a catch all? 

Stop! Doesn’t having an African-American president satisfy the dream?   We no longer have segregation.  Or do we?  Is there invisible segregation and if so, whose fault is it?  Perhaps we don’t even want to answer these questions.  Perhaps they make us as uncomfortable as discussing what Harry Reid meant by ‘Negro dialect.’

Finally, could the door to equality have ever been opened through the legislative process?  Was it necessary for the Courts  to open the door?   I remember seeing “Impeach Earl Warren” signs as a kid.  Were those the forerunners of the expression’ Judicial activism?’

For those of us who missed the speech in August, 1963…

Full Text of “I have a Dream”

Reprint of The Pointlessness of the Racism Debate

Reprint of The Pointlessness of the Racism Debate by Lincoln Mitchell
Huffington Post

The question of whether or not some of the attacks on President Obama are racist is not likely to end anytime soon. There is little that can be done to persuade some supporters of President Obama that comparing the African American president to a witch doctor is not racist, or that the disrespect shown to Obama during his address to congress on health care would not have been on display if the president had been white. Similarly, critics of the president will continue to insist that this is simply all about the issues and that race has nothing to do with it.

Part of the difficulty is that on issues of race, there is a deep, but usually unspoken disagreement which runs through most of America. A substantial proportion of Americans see racism as something that is firmly in the past. This originates both from justifiable pride in how far we have come in this area, but unfortunately also prevents many people from recognizing or confronting the racism that still persists. Another large group of Americans sees racism as an ongoing problem which is less acute than a generation or two ago, but has certainly not gone away. The tension between these two views is apparent whenever a racial incident occurs; and it seems like half the country cries racism while the other half accuses the first half of playing the race card.

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Racist and Redneck: Divisive Words Surface…

And have the potential of biting a 17-term congressman in the butt.

The Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha saga continues. He can’t seem to quit putting his foot in his mouth. The Democratic congressman first got in hot water last week by explaining “There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area.”

Quite understandably, his constituents from Western PA didn’t think much of this description. Rep. Murtha tried to clarify his statement by explaining that the older folks weren’t really racist, just redneck.

That should have reassured those constituents in question. {{sarcasm button on}} Still, Murtha predicts an Obama win in Pennsylvania.

According to ABC news,

The 17-term Democratic congressman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a story posted Wednesday on its Web site: “There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area.”
Murtha said it has taken time for many Pennsylvania voters to come around to embracing a black presidential candidate, but that Obama should still win the state, though not in a runaway.

Witch-Hunt in Prince William

Nativist Letiecq Attempts to Intimidate Numerous Members of PWC Community

Just days after Help Save Manassas was classified as “an extremist organization that employs hateful rhetoric” by the Anti-Defamation League, the man responsible for earning this classification for his followers has sunk to a new low.

A private email I wrote eleven days ago found its way to Greg Letiecq, who has posted a new thread on his blog intending to intimidate and persecute, not only me, but everyone who was on the email list.

In it, I questioned the judgment of Gainesville District Supervisor John Stirrup, who tomorrow will ask his fellow Supervisors to vote to approve his appointment of Robert Duecaster to the Prince William County Strategic Goals Task Force. I have made no secret of my feelings about Duecaster’s racist writings, or his infamous outbursts before our Board of Supervisors (see previous thread). But now Letiecq is trying to intimidate and defame those who received the email (many of whom did not respond).

Supervisor Stirrup’s apparent trust in Duecaster — the only man in this county who has personally threatened the Board of Supervisors with more hatred and rage than Letiecq himself — is just one symptom of the toxicification of Prince William County at the hands of Letiecq, his blog, and his extremist organization. The Center for American Progress has documented how intimidation and incitement of racial conflict are common methods of attack for anti-immigrant organizations.

The persecution began last year, targeting the Hispanic community, though often worded to focus on “illegal” immigrants rather than the Hispanic community in general. But it did not stop when many members of the Hispanic community left the county. It did not stop when our county’s Citizen Satisfaction Survey revealed that both the Hispanic and the African American communities have lost trust in county government and the police force.

For more than a year, Letiecq has been targeting anyone who dares to oppose his relentless attempts to dominate our county government by exploiting his influence over Supervisor Stirrup and Chairman Corey Stewart. Now, he is not only targeting those who criticize him, he is targeting anyone who associates with his critics, or thinks about joining them.

Letiecq has made a habit of attacking me. But he knows I am not intimidated. He knows I will stand up to him.

Many of the those who received my personal email have not criticized Letiecq or taken any action to challenge his greed for power. By publishing their names without permission and “identifying” them, he has violated their privacy in a despicable attempt to make them appear guilty of some infraction, and bully them into silence.

I for one am not afraid of Greg Letiecq’s Neo-McCarthyism. And I am not afraid to say I oppose the appointment of Robert Duecaster to our county’s Strategic Goals Task Force. But more importantly, I oppose the persecution tactics Letiecq has employed to unduly influence this county government, its leaders, and its citizens.

P.S. Question for Greg Letiecq: Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?

BVBL Strives for High Standard?

Greg L said on 19 Aug 2008 at 12:37 am:
Monticup, I understand your frustration and outrage, but try to refrain from characterizing all illegal aliens as nascent criminals. Some are, but it would appear that they’re a pretty small minority. With somewhere around 12 million illegal aliens in the US by conservative estimates, if they were all predisposed to criminal behavior we’d be far worse off than we are. There are about 300,000 illegal aliens in Virginia, and we certainly don’t have a crime explosion that such numbers would create.

A big problem however is that of those 300,000 we have no idea who they are. Among them are certainly some of the worst folks you could imagine from both a crime and a national security perspective. In order to ensure these bad actors aren’t present, the lawful deportation of as many illegal aliens as possible is a way to ensure we remove those who pose the most significant threat as well as (perhaps more significantly) discourage other bad actors from unlawfully entering the country.

If we cannot control our borders, we are no longer a sovereign nation, and our democracy is in grave peril. As we seek to do so, we have to be certain that what we ask for is reasoned and responsible. We can’t do that very well by saying all illegal aliens are invariably rapists and murderers without undermining our arguments. There’s enough provable and unambiguous data out there to support our arguments without stretching so much, and in ways that can become counterproductive.

We have to maintain a higher standard than anyone else, and while it might not be fair, that’s just how it is. Let’s do our best to be better than those arguing the other side.

Acutally, it’s almost refreshing to see Mr. Leteicq make this kind of statement. It’s in sharp contrast to his infamous ‘Dog for Sale’ thread. Apparently he is coming to the realization that in order to be considered a rational voice in the immigration debate he can no longer permit the previously employed rhetoric and mischaracterizations of all ‘illegals’ as being rapists, murderers etc… To what extent this transformation is a result of our efforts might never be known but I feel confident that we have contributed to forming the terms of this discussion. Congratulations to everyone for their continued participation.