Tuesday, February 04, 2014 5:47:31 AM
Rand Paul: Majority Rule Gave Us Jim Crow, Japanese Internment
By Luke Johnson
Posted: 01/17/2014 1:32 pm EST | Updated: 01/25/2014 4:01 pm EST
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) compared President Barack Obama winning elections to Jim Crow laws and Japanese internment on Thursday, arguing that they all grew out of "majority rule" thinking.
On the Fox News show "On The Record", host Greta Van Susteren asked him about Obama. "He is quoted back in January 23rd, 2009, right when he became president first term. He said, 'I won, so I think on that one I trump you.' I mean, this is sort of -- this has always been the viewpoint he has communicated to Republicans on the Hill," she said.
Paul responded, "Well, you know, the danger to majority rule, to him sort of thinking, the majority voted for me now I'm the majority, I can do whatever I want and that there are no rules that restrain me -- that's what gave us Jim Crow. That's what gave us the internment of the Japanese -- that the majority said, 'you don't have individual rights and individual rights don't come from your creator and they are not guaranteed by the constitution.' Just whatever the majority wants."
He went on, "There is a real danger to that viewpoint. It's consistent with the progressive viewpoint. It's been going on for 100 years. Progressives believe in majority rule, not constitutional rule. They don't believe that rights are inherent to the individual. They think your rights are whatever the government says they are, whatever the majority says."
But Paul's comment that Jim Crow grew out of majority rule does not jibe with history. Blacks were absolute majorities [ http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=963036&high=%20Gabriel%20CHin ] in Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina -- and made up more than 40 percent of the population in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Virginia -- during the 1880s, just after Jim Crow laws began. Presumably, if there was majority rule, then Jim Crow would not have been enacted.
Japanese internment began after then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order that the Supreme Court upheld in Korematsu v. United States.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/rand-paul-jim-crow_n_4617984.html [with embedded video, and comments]
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Conservative group calls to lynch Obama and make it a ‘national holiday’
This post from the right-wing Facebook page, America the Next Generation [ https://www.facebook.com/AmericaTheNextGeneration ; https://www.facebook.com/Americathenextgenerations ; https://www.facebook.com/AmericatheGOATgeneration ], got lots of comments and “likes” before they took it down.
[ http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/01/01/right-wing-facebook-page-obama-lynching/ ]
January 2, 2014
A conservative Facebook group this week suggested that the lynching of President Barack Obama should be made into a “national holiday.”
Earlier this week, Examiner.com’s Robert Sobel pointed out [ http://www.examiner.com/article/right-wing-facebook-page-promotes-national-holiday-for-hanging-president-obama ] that the Facebook group “America the next generation” had posted a photo of the president in a noose with the caption “The making of a National Holiday.” The image was apparently a composite of Obama’s head and a frame from the leaked video [ http://hisvorpal.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/saddam-hussein-hanging.jpg (next below)]
of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein being executed.
After some discussion between members of the “America the next generation” group and criticism from other Facebook users, the photo was eventually taken down. Some group members feared that lynching the president could make him into a “martyr.”
“OK by are own choice out of respect of our regular followers that requested us to remove the post with the noose around Obamas head,” the group wrote [ https://www.facebook.com/Americathenextgenerations/posts/563746233709565 (no longer available)] on New Year’s Eve. “[W]e did so out of Respect to them and we will take the high road!”
[...]
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/02/conservative-group-calls-to-make-obamas-lynching-a-national-holiday/ [with comments]
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Controversial online posts land La Marque fire captain on leave
February 1, 2014
http://www.khou.com/news/local/Controversial-online-posts-land-La-Marque-fire-captain-on-leave-243134081.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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On MLK Day, tone-deaf Sarah Palin says Obama plays the race card
Sarah Palin's Facebook post has attracted a deluge of criticism.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times / September 3, 2008)
By Robin Abcarian
January 20, 2014, 3:32 p.m.
Sarah Palin [ http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics/government/sarah-palin-PEPLT0007504.topic ], you have got to be joking.
Showing pure contempt for the ideals that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. [ http://www.latimes.com/topic/arts-culture/culture/martin-luther-king-jr.-PEHST001228.topic ] embraced, and on the day we have chosen as a nation to celebrate his life, the former Alaska governor chose to make a spectacle of herself on Facebook.
This is the entirety of her post [ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152172510828588&set=a.10150723283643588.424640.24718773587 ]:
“Happy MLK, Jr. Day!
“‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.’ – Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Mr. President, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and all who commit to ending any racial divide, no more playing the race card.”
Usually the comments under Palin’s Facebook statements are positive and encouraging. Today, however, there was a deluge of criticism:
“You just managed to singlehandedly embarrass the entire caucasian race....is there some way that we can like, excommunicate you from being a white person, because the rest of us are mortified and want nothing to do with you now,” said one.
“I can't believe this is real,” wrote another. “How horrible of Sarah Palin, though I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Beyond being horrific, this just seems like a PR nightmare for her and her team.”
There was some speculation [ http://www.usatoday.com/story/onpolitics/2014/01/20/sarah-palin-obama-race-mlk-dream-speech/4665031/ ] that her comments were an oblique response to this passage in a long, typically thoughtful New Yorker profile of President Obama [ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/01/27/140127fa_fact_remnick?currentPage=all (which I'll be posting in reply to this post)] by David Remnick:
"Obama’s election was one of the great markers in the black freedom struggle. In the electoral realm, ironically, the country may be more racially divided than it has been in a generation. Obama lost among white voters in 2012 by a margin greater than any victor in American history. The popular opposition to the Administration comes largely from older whites who feel threatened, underemployed, overlooked, and disdained in a globalized economy and in an increasingly diverse country. Obama’s drop in the polls in 2013 was especially grave among white voters. 'There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black President,' Obama said. 'Now, the flip side of it is there are some black folks and maybe some white folks who really like me and give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black President.' The latter group has been less in evidence of late."
You may hate everything that Obama stands for politically. But what he told Remnick is not “playing the race card.” That is a factual, informed observation.
I have no idea what Palin was trying to do here.
By smearing the president on MLK Day, she proves once again she’s fit for stirring the pot and not much else.
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-ra-on-mlk-day-tonedeaf-sarah-palin-says-obama-plays-the-race-card-20140120,0,3099194.story [with comments]
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Iowa GOP Posts Controversial Facebook Photo
01.24.14
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/24/iowa-gop-posts-controversial-facebook-photo.html [with comments]
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Civil Rights Group Condemns 'Race-Baiting' Cartoon Of Justice Department Nominee
[ http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/01/27/washington-times-runs-charged-caricature-to-sme/197766 ]
By Ryan J. Reilly
Posted: 01/30/2014 11:00 am EST | Updated: 01/30/2014 2:59 pm EST
WASHINGTON -- A prominent civil rights group has condemned a Washington Times political cartoon attacking President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, describing it on Thursday as "race-baiting."
The cartoon, which ran in the print edition of The Washington Times this week, "is reminiscent of the racist iconography of late 19th century America designed to dehumanize and stereotype African Americans who were only beginning to throw off the shackles of chattel slavery," Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights [ http://www.civilrights.org/ ; http://www.civilrights.org/press/2014/adegbile-cartoon.html ], said in a statement to The Huffington Post.
The cartoon [ http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/01/27/washington-times-runs-charged-caricature-to-sme/197766 (above)] features former NAACP Legal Defense Fund official Debo Adegbile, who was nominated [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/14/debo-adegbile-doj-civil-rights_n_4277392.html ] to the post by Obama back in November. Adegbile is pictured standing next to a puppet version of Mumia Abu Jamal, a convicted murder who was given what two appellate courts determined was an unconstitutional death sentence. The cartoon is a reference to Adegbile's work on Sesame Street as a child [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8-8x8hjUzQ ], and his legal representation of Jamal in his work for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
A Washington Times representative directed HuffPost to the paper's managing editor, who did not immediately respond to a phone call and email seeking comment.
“Until today, we’ve ignored the race-baiting and dog whistle politics that form the basis of opposition to Debo Adegbile’s nomination to head the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice," Henderson's statement continued. "We’ve disregarded the distortions about Adegbile’s efforts to ensure that all Americans can live and work free of discrimination and we’ve thoughtfully debunked the fearmongering around his work on death penalty cases like that of Mumia Abu Jamal."
But Henderson said the Washington Times caricature "is beyond the pale of acceptable mainstream debate" and called Adegbile "one of the preeminent civil rights lawyers of his generation."
"He’s the son of immigrants who worked his way through law school to defend American democracy in the U.S. Supreme Court. But to the Washington Times, Fox News, and others, he’s a buffoonish caricature and a ‘cop killer.’ The American Bar Association has debunked this lie, and wrapping it in racially charged rhetoric does not make it any more true," Henderson said.
Adegbile’s work on the Mumia Abu Jamal case has come under attack by conservatives and by the right-leaning National Fraternal Order of Police, the nation's largest law enforcement organization. But the head of the American Bar Association this month wrote [ http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/uncategorized/GAO/2014jan13_adegbile_noms_l.authcheckdam.pdf ] that Adegbile's work is "consistent with the finest tradition of this country’s legal profession and should be commended, not condemned." Adegible testified during his confirmation hearing earlier this month that he got involved in the case because of questions about how the jury had been instructed on the death penalty issue.
"This type of character assassination harkens back to the baseless and unrelenting attacks by Senator Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s McCarthy hearings, which led counsel Joseph Welch to ask Senator McCarthy, ‘Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?'" Henderson said. "'Have you left no sense of decency?’"
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/30/debo-adegbile-cartoon_n_4695090.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Former U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull Sent Hundreds Of Bigoted Emails Throughout Tenure
U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull is seen in this undated file photo provided by the United States District Court in Montana. Cebull, who was Montana's chief federal judge, retired following an investigation into an email he forwarded that included a racist joke involving President Barack Obama.
(AP Photo/United States District Court District of Montana, HO)
By MATT VOLZ
01/17/14 08:18 PM ET EST
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A former Montana judge who was investigated for forwarding a racist email involving President Barack Obama sent hundreds of other inappropriate messages from his federal email account, according to the findings of a judicial review panel released Friday.
Former U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull sent emails to personal and professional contacts that showed disdain for blacks, Indians, Hispanics, women, certain religious faiths, liberal political leaders, and some emails contained inappropriate jokes about sexual orientation, the Judicial Council of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found.
Many of the emails also related to pending issues that could have come before Cebull's court, such as immigration, gun control, civil rights, health care and environmental issues, the council found in its March 15, 2013, order.
The investigation looked at four years of Cebull's personal correspondence sent from his official email account. Investigators also reviewed his past cases and interviewed witnesses.
The investigation found no evidence of bias in Cebull's rulings or sentences, and the witnesses generally regarded him as a "good and honest trial lawyer, and an esteemed trial judge," according to the report.
The 9th Circuit council issued Cebull a public reprimand; ordered no new cases be assigned to him for 180 days; ordered him to complete training on judicial ethics, racial awareness and elimination of bias; and ordered him to issue a second public apology that would acknowledge "the breadth of his behavior."
The panel said impeachment was not warranted because Cebull did not violate federal or state law, though two of the judges on the council said they would have asked for his resignation.
But none of the sanctions took effect and the findings did not become public until Friday on the order of a national judicial review panel.
Cebull announced his resignation March 29, two weeks after the judicial council issued its order.
After Cebull retired May 3, the 9th Circuit council vacated its previous order and wrote a new one calling the complaints against Cebull "moot" because of his retirement.
The panel also omitted details from the original unpublished order about the other emails Cebull had sent.
That prompted Judge Theodore McKee, the chief judge of the 3rd U.S. Circuit, to file a petition with the national Judicial Conference's Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability, asking the committee to review the council's work and publish the original March 15 order.
Judge McKee argued that the 9th Circuit council's subsequent rulings inappropriately concealed its original findings.
The 9th Circuit Council told the national review panel in response that it sought only to disclose enough about the investigation to ensure the public knows the matter was taken seriously, and it did not intend to publish the original order.
The national committee ruled that Cebull's retirement only affected the sanctions, but the factual findings and legal conclusions of the investigation must still be published.
"The imperative of transparency of the complaint process compels publication of orders finding judicial misconduct," the national judicial panel wrote in its decision.
A phone number listed under Cebull's name was disconnected Friday, and an after-hours phone call to the U.S. District Court in Billings went unanswered.
Cebull himself and 10 others requested the misconduct investigation after The Great Falls Tribune reported Cebull forwarded an email in February 2012 that included a joke about bestiality and Obama's mother. Cebull apologized to Obama after the contents of the email were published.
He told the 9th Circuit panel that his "public shaming has been a life-altering experience" and that he was "acutely aware that each day in my court is the most important day in someone's life."
Cebull was nominated by former President George W. Bush and received his commission in 2001. He served as chief judge of the District of Montana from 2008 until 2013.
© 2014 Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/18/richard-cebull_n_4623151.html [with comments]
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The North Dakota town that thwarted a neo-Nazi takeover
Video [embedded]
Neo-Nazi Craig Cobb (centre) apparently imagined Leith would accept the new order. He was wrong.
Video by Anna Bressanin
By Jude Sheerin
BBC News, Leith, North Dakota
15 January 2014 Last updated at 14:31 ET
Bobby Harper remembers thinking there was something strange about his new neighbour in the tiny rural community of Leith, North Dakota [ http://www.leithnd.com/ ], when they first met.
It was a warm dusk in autumn 2012 on the sleepy town's main road, a gravel path that curls away through wheat fields to the vast Great Plains sky.
"He said, 'hey, do you have any land for sale?'" recalls Harper, the town's sole black resident. "And I said, 'no'.
"He wouldn't quite turn around, so I could see his face and I thought that was kind of strange."
Little did Harper or any other resident suspect, but the newcomer was Craig Cobb, a notorious neo-Nazi.
He had been quietly snapping up homes in the town since April that year, with the intention of turning it into a white separatists' enclave called Cobbsville.
For the barely 20 inhabitants of Leith, it was the beginning of a nightmare that is still not over.
Sherrill Harper (with husband Bobby) received a letter saying: "What are you doing 'married' to a Negro?"
Cobb, the son of a multi-millionaire businessman, was fleeing allegations of inciting hatred in Canada when he made his way over the border into North Dakota early in 2012.
The 62-year-old's plans for Leith were exposed in August last year by the Southern Poverty Law Center [ http://www.splcenter.org/ ], an Alabama-based civil rights organisation.
It published a report detailing his acquisition of about a dozen cheap plots of land in the town, which lies 50 miles (80km) south-west of the state capital, Bismarck.
Harper's wife, Sherrill, a 59-year-old homemaker, says: "I felt this was surreal. Leith, this little, teensy town. This man had these big plans to take it over.
"And because I was a white woman married to an African-American man, they wouldn't want us here."
After his scheme was exposed, Cobb began flying Nazi flags from his ramshackle, two-storey home.
Clockwise from left: Craig Cobb; A sign he put up in Leith; One of the flags he flew outside his home
In a part of the country where many people are of German and Russian ancestry, the swastika is something residents neither want to forget, nor especially be reminded of.
Cobb, meanwhile, began handing out property deeds to some of the American far-right's most prominent figures, urging them to settle in Leith and help him seize a voting majority.
In September, Sherrill Harper received a letter which urged her to join Cobb's movement. It said: "What are you doing 'married' to a Negro?"
Later that month, a small group of members of the National Socialist Movement, formerly the American Nazi Party, travelled to Leith at Cobb's invitation to stage a far-right jamboree.
They were greatly outnumbered by counter-demonstrators, many from the nearby Indian reservation.
National Socialist Movement: Founded in 1994, it is one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the US, with chapters in more than 30 states
Council of Conservative Citizens: Founded 1985, sprung from the pro-segregation movement in the southern states
American Freedom Party: Founded 2009, with origins in California. Has a racist agenda and is against immigration
Klan groups: Dating back to post-American Civil War era, they are active in most US states and may have more than 5,000 members
Bobby Harper, a 53-year-old welder, says: "Things were so in turmoil that we considered getting rid of the town, just letting Cobb take over."
But his wife adds: "I really believe he thought the people of Leith would roll over and play dead. And I think he was very surprised when that's not what happened."
The town's fight-back began with a website [ http://www.leithnd.com/ ] to publicise its predicament, along with a legal defence fund.
Gregory Bruce, who set up the portal, said: "The impact on Leith is it's pretty much destroyed everyone's peaceful life.
"It's caused them to feel very frightened by just one man. He's even threatened to bring [former] prisoners here from different states. It's a zoo. We call it a circus of freaks."
Self-proclaimed skinhead Kynan Dutton, 29, and his girlfriend Deborah Henderson, 33, answered Cobb's rallying call.
They moved to Leith in early October from the state of Oregon.
Deborah Henderson, the last remaining Cobb ally, recently moved out of Leith
Later that month, police were called to eject a drunken Dutton from a town-hall meeting after he launched into a racist, foul-mouthed rant.
Sherrill Harper remembers that scene - a recording of which shows Dutton making a Nazi salute and shouting: "Sieg heil" - as a turning point.
She says: "I thought, 'these are the kinds of people that are going to take over our town?' This is not what I wanted."
On 16 November, Cobb and Dutton swaggered through the town carrying shotguns and shouting obscenities. Alarmed residents called the police.
Both men are now in custody, each facing seven felony terrorism charges and, if convicted, between 10 and 35 years in prison.
On Wednesday, Cobb and Dutton pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
The town, meanwhile, hired a lawyer to issue citations forcing Cobb to upgrade his home, which has no running water or sewer.
His house has been declared legally unfit for habitation and two other properties he bought are earmarked for demolition.
Henderson was the last remaining Cobb ally in Leith until she recently left the town.
The BBC spoke to her shortly before she moved away.
As she stood sobbing outside Cobb's dilapidated home, where she was living with her three young daughters, she cut a lonely figure.
But then Henderson started praising the White Man's Bible, a stridently anti-Semitic, racist screed.
She told an anti-parable about a pioneer-era mother who finds a rattlesnake under her child's bed in their frontier log cabin.
When asked what the serpent might represent, she suggested: "Multiculturalism."
"I definitely like and support things that are good for the white race," she said.
Of her African-American neighbour: "I'm honestly thankful that there's only one. I know that sounds rude."
In a brief telephone interview from Mercer County jail in North Dakota, Cobb told the BBC he had moved to North Dakota because it was "one of the last Aryan bastions" in the US. The thinly populated state is 90% white, according to census data.
Cobb spent much of the interview discussing his belief that there is a conspiracy to breed the white race out of existence.
But he defended his vision for Leith as his "right to free associate", while arguing that the state is stopping him practising his "religion of racial awareness".
Tom Metzger, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard who was given a property in Leith by Cobb, says the attempted takeover of the town has failed.
The 75-year-old, of Warsaw, Indiana, told the BBC: "Craig got carried away.
"I warned him not to bring in the Hollywood-style Nazis, or everyone would go crazy. And that's exactly what's happened."
Still, the people of Leith are not complacent.
"Just because Cobb's in jail, this isn't over," says Sherrill Harper.
"I still pray his plans are defeated."
BBC © 2014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25646954
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Yes, Schools In The U.S. Still Bear The Names Of White Supremacists
Schools across the country still bear the names of controversial leaders, who at one point in their lives wanted to deny African Americans basic human rights. In this photo, members of the Fraternal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan participate in the 11th Annual Nathan Bedford Forrest Birthday march July 11, 2009 in Pulaski, Tenn.
01/23/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/15/white-supremacist-schools_n_4509352.html [with comments]
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Paul Ryan Accuses Obama Of 'Increasingly Lawless Presidency'
02/03/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/02/paul-ryan-obama-executive-orders_n_4713030.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Rep. Paul Broun Backs Impeaching Obama
Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) indicated at an event Saturday that he would support impeaching President Barack Obama if the issue came up for a vote in Congress.
Broun is running for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate race in Georgia. ...
[...]
02/03/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/paul-broun-impeach-obama_n_4716946.html [with comments]
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Man Pleads Guilty To Sending Obama Ricin-Tainted Letters
01/17/14
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/james-everett-dutschke-guilty_n_4619483.html [with comments]
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Another Ann Coulter Rant About Hispanics 'Wrecking The Country'
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 23: Ann Coulter, center, talks with Chris Plante, left, during his WMAL radio program on Wednesday October 23, 2013 in Washington, DC. Coulter is promoting her new book, 'Never Trust a Liberal Over 3-Especially a Republican'.
01/31/2014
Ann Coulter can’t stop raging against Hispanics.
The conservative pundit blasted House Republicans as "sell outs" in a column on Wednesday for crafting guidelines on immigration that would create a mechanism to grant legal status to undocumented immigrants, saying that the growing Latino population will “wreck the country [ http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2014-01-29.html ].”
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/31/ann-coulter-hispanic-vote_n_4702689.html [with comments]
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Republicans Blame Obama Over Immigration Reform
BRISTOW, VA -- OCTOBER 29: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal campaigns for Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli in Bristow, Virginia, on Tuesday, October 29, 2013.
(Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
By PHILIP ELLIOTT
02/03/14 03:28 AM ET EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are starting to lay the blame on President Barack Obama if an overhaul of the nation's broken immigration system fails to become law.
The GOP's emerging plan on immigration is to criticize Obama as an untrustworthy leader and his administration as an unreliable enforcer of any laws that might be passed. Perhaps realizing the odds of finding a consensus on immigration are long, the Republicans have started telling voters that if the GOP-led House doesn't take action this election year, it is Obama's fault.
"If the president had been serious about this the last five years, we'd be further along in this discussion," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, said Sunday.
House Republicans last week unveiled a road map for an overhaul of the nation's broken immigration system that calls for increased border security, better law enforcement within the U.S. and a pathway to legal status — but not citizenship — for millions of adults who live in America unlawfully. The proposal requires those here illegally to pay back taxes and fines.
But one of its backers, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, said distrust of Obama poisons interest among some in his Republican caucus.
"Here's the issue that all Republicans agree on: We don't trust the president to enforce the law," said Ryan, his party's vice presidential nominee in 2012.
Ryan said a plan that puts security first could only pass the House if lawmakers believe the administration would enforce it — an unlikely prospect given Republicans' deep opposition to Obama. The president's waivers for provisions in his 4-year-old health care law have increased suspicions among Republicans.
"This isn't a trust-but-verify, this is a verify-then-trust approach," Ryan said.
Asked whether immigration legislation would make its way to Obama for him to sign into law, Ryan said he was skeptical: "I really don't know the answer to that question. That is clearly in doubt."
The Senate last year passed a comprehensive, bipartisan bill that addressed border security, provided enforcement measures and offered a long and difficult path to citizenship for those living here illegally. The measure stalled in the GOP-led House, where leaders want to take a more piecemeal approach.
In the meantime, Republicans have started uniting behind a message that Obama won't hold up his end of the bargain.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said "there's a lot of distrust of this administration in implanting the law." And Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., last week warned that distrust of Obama would trump the desire to find a solution for the estimated 11 million people living in the United States illegally.
"We just don't think government will enforce the law anyway," Rubio said, recounting conversations he's had with fellow Republicans.
Immigration legislation is a dicey political question for the GOP. The party's conservative base opposes any measure that would create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living here illegally, but many in the party worry that failing to act could strengthen support among many voters for Democratic candidates.
In 2012, Obama won re-election with the backing of 71 percent of Hispanic voters and 73 percent of Asian voters. The issue is important to both voting blocs.
The White House, meanwhile, is trying to give Republicans a chance to hammer out their intra-party differences in the hopes they find a way to give legal standing to those here illegally.
"We ought to see a pathway to citizenship for people," White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said Sunday. "We don't want to have a permanent separation of classes or two permanent different classes of Americans in this country."
McDonough said the White House remains optimistic that legislation that includes citizenship could reach the president's desk: "We feel pretty good that we'll get a bill done this year."
Jindal spoke to CNN's "State of the Union." Ryan appeared on ABC's "This Week." Cantor was interviewed on CBS' "Face the Nation." McDonough appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" and CBS.
© 2014 Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/republicans-immigration-reform_n_4716289.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Laura Ingraham: English is “in decline” because of Mexican “jingoism”
[ http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/01/30/laura-ingraham-english-language-is-in-decline-a/197843 ]
The Fox News contributor and radio host seems to believe Mexican immigrants want to reconquer the U.S. southwest
Jan 30, 2014
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/30/laura_ingraham_english_is_in_decline_because_of_mexican_jingoism/ [with embedded audio, and comments]
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Trey Radel to resign from Congress
January 27th, 2014
Washington (CNN) - U.S. Rep. Trey Radel, the Florida Republican who pleaded guilty to cocaine possession last November, will resign from Congress on Monday, multiple GOP House leadership sources confirm to CNN.
One of those sources, who is close to Radel, says the first-term congressman will submit a letter of resignation to House Speaker John Boehner. The resignation decision was later confirmed by Radel's spokesman.
Radel was caught buying cocaine from an undercover federal agent in Washington and spent nearly a month in a substance abuse program in Florida.
[...]
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/27/trey-radel-to-resign-from-congress/ [with comments]
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Greg Fettig's Conspiracy Theories Went Too Far For Tea Party Group
A tea party activist who was working to oust Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell found himself ousted this week.
Win McNamee via Getty Images
By Jason Cherkis
Posted: 01/24/2014 2:00 pm EST | Updated: 01/24/2014 2:59 pm EST
WASHINGTON -- The United Kentucky Tea Party has parted ways with controversial activist Greg Fettig. The Louisville-based Courier-Journal first reported the news [ http://www.courier-journal.com/proart/20140123/news01/301230079/activist-bevinrace-gets-boot ] Thursday when a tea party spokesman said the group was "cutting ties" with Fettig, who had been working on its grassroots campaign against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Fettig was a prominent organizer in the campaign dubbed Unbridled Liberty, which is backing McConnell's tea party challenger Matt Bevin. But he came under scrutiny following a Huffington Post report [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/20/mitch-mcconnell-tea-party_n_4631923.html ] on Monday that highlighted conspiratorial views he expressed on social media and a podcast [ http://baldfacetruth.net/2014/01/14/if-i-had-opinions-they-would-be-my-own-facts-are-facts/ ] concerning President Barack Obama and the Department of Homeland Security. Fettig claimed that Obama is an "illegal president" who “is intent on collapsing and destroying the United States of America" and that Homeland Security is stockpiling hollow-point bullets to potentially use against Americans.
"The article you all published was not too complimentary, and there were things in there that we weren't happy about," United Kentucky Tea Party spokesman Scott Hofstra told HuffPost. "As a general rule, what he discussed were not issues we are centering our work around. Those things are not what are important in our lives. They are not Tea Party platform items, if you will."
Fettig had come up with the name "Unbridled Liberty" and launched an Unbridled Liberty super PAC. U.S. News & World Report profiled him [ http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/17/tea-party-sets-its-sights-on-mitch-mcconnell ] this month, noting his successful efforts to help Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock beat then-Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) in the 2012 GOP primary. (Mourdock lost the general election.)
Even if he is no longer a public voice in the campaign, Fettig told the Courier-Journal, the tea party push to oust McConnell will continue. “They can come after me and smear me and figuratively kill me off, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to kill the initiative. It’s going to go on,” he said.
He told HuffPost that the critical story brought him around 25,000 visitors to his podcast. The experience hasn't turned him off conservative activism. "I'm tea party, always will have been, always will be," he said. "I'm never going to stop fighting."
Fettig also suggested that his activism in Kentucky on Bevin's behalf is not over and that he'll just have to work outside the public eye for now. He said, "I'll be happy to tell you what I was up to," come primary election day.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/greg-fettig-tea-party_n_4660093.html [with comments]
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Republican Who Compared Political Correctness To Nazi Youth Challenges Rep. Louise Slaughter
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) faces a GOP challenge from Mark Assini.
01/24/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/mark-assini-louise-slaughter_n_4661105.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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The rapid decline of Dinesh D’Souza
Dinesh D'Souza
(Credit: CNN)
How the once-celebrated right-wing author managed to blow up his life and career in little more than two years
Elias Isquith
Friday, Jan 24, 2014 11:45 AM CST
Dinesh D’Souza, the right-wing author, pundit and filmmaker, was indicted [ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/23/conservative-commentator-author-dinesh-dsouza-indicted/ ] Thursday night for campaign finance fraud. According to the indictment, D’Souza, in support of his college friend’s challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, had attempted to circumvent the $5,000 limit for individual donations by having other friends of his donate, too, and then reimbursing them later. It may be the low point of D’Souza’s life and career.
We say “may be” rather than “definitely is” because of the simple fact that, for much of the past two years, D’Souza’s time on this planet has been filled with ignominy and failure. As the Daily Beast’s David Sessions notes [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/24/dinesh-d-souza-s-series-of-unfortunate-events.html ], D’Souza went from riding high on the success of his very profitable (and racist [ http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2012/09/dinesh-dsouzas-2016-obamas-america.html ]) “documentary” — “2016: Obama’s America [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016:_Obama's_America ]” — to being forced to resign [ ] as president of King’s College, an evangelical school in New York City after becoming engaged with one woman while he was still married to another.
Yet even “2016? would come to bring D’Souza trouble. David Sain, the producer of the film, ultimately sued D’Souza, claiming the pundit had done a poor job managing the movie’s finances and had also kept producers and other stakeholders in the dark when it was time to make decisions about distribution and marketing. The lawsuit was eventually tossed [ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/dinesh-dsouza-lawsuit-tossed-2016-383173 ] by a judge, but the blemish on what was previously an absolute success was yet another bump on D’Souza’s as of late very rocky road.
More from Sessions at the Daily Beast [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/24/dinesh-d-souza-s-series-of-unfortunate-events.html ]:
D’Souza’s departure from the King’s College was the symbolic end of his career [ http://www.newsweek.com/rise-and-fall-dinesh-dsouza-65269 ] in the institutional conservative movement, which had grown increasingly exasperated with his string of conspiratorial books that failed to live up to his reputation as a star of conservative scholarship. (One advanced the notion [ http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/220322/enemy-dsouza-knows-nro-symposium ] that America’s moral decadence led to 9/11; another launched the meme [ http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/roots-lunacy_508809.html ], which has long since become a political punch line, that Obama was a “Kenyan anti-colonialist.”) D’Souza’s tenure at the King’s College was fraught with conflict, as some faculty members viewed him as a name-brand hire who lacked appropriate academic credentials and who was more interested in his own money-making projects than in fundraising for the college.
The conflict came to a head in October, when the evangelical magazine World alleged that D’Souza had shared a hotel room with Denise Odie Joseph, a young woman who had written a fawning blog about about him, and introduced her as his fiancée despite still being married. The college had apparently been aware of D’Souza’s marital problems, but decided to end its relationship with him once news of the scandal engulfed the school.
Copyright © 2014 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/24/the_rapid_decline_of_dinesh_dsouza/ [with comments]
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Dinesh D’Souza Embarrasses Himself Further With Ridiculous Campaign Fraud Charges
By Margaret Hartmann and Joe Coscarelli
1/24/2014 at 8:26 AM
Dinesh D’Souza, the race-baiting [ http://gawker.com/inexplicably-prominent-conservative-thinker-has-thank-1472090499 ] conservative commentator and director of the fear-mongering hit “documentary” 2016: Obama's America, was indicted on Thursday [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/nyregion/dinesh-dsouza-is-charged-with-using-straw-donors-to-give-to-a-campaign.html ] for violating campaign-finance laws. D'Souza allegedly urged people to donate $20,000 to an unnamed 2012 Senate candidate (almost certainly Wendy Long, who failed miserably to unseat New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand), and then paid them back. Such arrangements are illegal.
D’Souza and Long (née Stone) are longtime friends dating back to their days as students at Dartmouth, where they helped launch a conservative newspaper [ http://www.cityandstateny.com/gop-senate-hopeful-helped-controversial-dartmouth-newspaper/ ], the Dartmouth Review, “that routinely courted controversy by mocking black, gay, Jewish and female students.” (The pair were forced to apologize [ http://www.buzzfeed.com/jacobfischler/dinesh-dsouza-and-wendy-long-once-had-to-apologize-for-a-hit ] when someone inserted a quote from Hitler’s Mein Kampf into the paper’s “statement of principles.”)
Now he's charged with making illegal donations, thus causing the campaign to file false documents to the FEC, charges that together carry a maximum sentence of seven years in prison [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/conservative-author-and-pundit-dinesh-dsouza-charged-in-campaign-finance-case/2014/01/23/69c67ee4-848a-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html ]. And the alleged wheeling and dealing was for naught: Gillibrand won over 70 percent of the vote anyway.
Once a leading influential figure on the right, D’Souza is a best-selling author and previously served as president of the evangelical King’s College [ http://nymag.com/news/features/kings-college-2011-8/ ] in Manhattan. But it all began unraveling when he showed up to a speech at a Baptist church with a younger woman [ http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/10/dinesh-dsouza-has-a-wife-and-a-girlfriend.html ] he introduced as his fiancée (not his wife Dixie, who also contributed $5,000 to Long’s campaign).
He was forced to resign from his King’s College gig, but delivered a classic George Costanza plea of ignorance [ http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/10/dinesh-dsouza-resigns-kings-college.html ] along the way. “The thing I will admit: I did not have any idea that it is seen as wrong in Christian circles to be engaged prior to being divorced even though separated,” he said. “That was a true error of judgment, but it was truly a case where I didn't know better.”
Recently, he appeared in an infomercial [non-YouTube version embedded, the same as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWJ-6VCoRVg (next below; with comment)] for an artificial Christmas tree [ http://www.christmashome.com/artificial-christmas-trees/ ]:
In his only comment so far on the indictment, D’Souza tweeted last night [ https://twitter.com/DineshDSouza/statuses/426506424081190912 ]:
Dinesh D'Souza
@DineshDSouza
Hollywood Reporter reports on my indictment http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/2016-obamas-america-filmmaker-indicted-673670
6:07 PM - 23 Jan 2014
'2016: Obama's America' Filmmaker Indicted for Violating Campaign...
Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, whose documentary 2016: Obama’s America took a critical look at President Barack Obama and was a surprise hit in 2012, will be arrested in New York on Friday...
Hollywood Reporter @THR
“Mr. D’Souza did not act with any corrupt or criminal intent whatsoever,” said his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, in the linked article. “He and the candidate have been friends since their college days, and at most, this was an act of misguided friendship by D’Souza.” So basically, he's going to try the Costanza defense again.
[NYT [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/nyregion/dinesh-dsouza-is-charged-with-using-straw-donors-to-give-to-a-campaign.html ]]
[WaPo [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/conservative-author-and-pundit-dinesh-dsouza-charged-in-campaign-finance-case/2014/01/23/69c67ee4-848a-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html ]]
Copyright © 2014, New York Media LLC
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/dsouza-indicted-on-campaign-fraud-charges.html [with comments]
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Govt: Senate candidate said D'Souza lied to her
Updated January 24, 2014, 1:48 p.m. ET
NEW YORK — A prosecutor says last year's Republican U.S. Senate candidate from New York told the government that a conservative scholar and author lied to her about the source of campaign donations.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Cohen made the disclosure Friday as Dinesh D'Souza (Dih-NEESH' duh-SOO'-zuh) pleaded not guilty to charges that he violated campaign finance laws.
The creator of the documentary "2016: Obama's America" was released after his Manhattan court appearance on $500,000 bond. His travel is restricted to the United States.
Cohen says he directed $20,000 in illegal contributions to be made to candidate Wendy Long. She lost to Democratic incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand (KEER'-stehn JIHL'-uh-brand).
Defense attorney Benjamin Brafman says there is not much disagreement over what happened, only whether or not the actions broke laws.
© 2014 Associated Press
http://online.wsj.com/article/APf145a407a9c34472b640a4088d1d6cc6.html [with comments]
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"This Is Like Nazi Germany": D'Souza Allies See Conspiracy Behind Indictment
January 24, 2014
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/01/24/this-is-like-nazi-germany-dsouza-allies-see-con/197729 [with embedded videos (including the YouTube next below), and comments]
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Emergency: Obama Has Launched Purge
Published on Jan 23, 2014 by TheAlexJonesChannel [ http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel ]
Emergency alert!!! This is it, we are in deep shit! If they get away with this they will come for all of us, that's how it works!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9P-xvoMZHY [with comments]
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Persecution Of Dissent: Filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza's Truth To Be Silenced
Published on Jan 27, 2014 by TheAlexJonesChannel [ http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel ]
Obama has unleashed a wave of persecution on his critics. The political persecution of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza for alleged and comparatively minor infractions are part of an accelerating purge being led by the Obama administration in the run-up to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid.
http://www.infowars.com/filmmaker-pleades-not-guilty-of-violating-federal-campaign-laws/
http://www.infowars.com/obama-launches-chilling-purge-against-political-enemies/
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeffrey-meyer/2014/01/26/face-nation-edits-out-senator-cruz-condemning-obama-s-abuse-power
http://www.dineshdsouza.com/
Follow Alex on TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/RealAlexJones
'Like' Alex on FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/AlexanderEmerickJones
http://www.infowars.com/
http://www.prisonplanet.com/
http://www.infowars.net/
http://www.prisonplanet.tv
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLUiWhIg3w8 [with comments]
--
(from slideshow at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/nun-gives-birth-baby-italy-francis_n_4619218.html ; http://www.theonion.com/articles/local-jew-feels-left-out-of-worldwide-jewish-consp,809/ )
===
this is part 2 of a multi-part post -- continues with my next post, a reply to this one
By Luke Johnson
Posted: 01/17/2014 1:32 pm EST | Updated: 01/25/2014 4:01 pm EST
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) compared President Barack Obama winning elections to Jim Crow laws and Japanese internment on Thursday, arguing that they all grew out of "majority rule" thinking.
On the Fox News show "On The Record", host Greta Van Susteren asked him about Obama. "He is quoted back in January 23rd, 2009, right when he became president first term. He said, 'I won, so I think on that one I trump you.' I mean, this is sort of -- this has always been the viewpoint he has communicated to Republicans on the Hill," she said.
Paul responded, "Well, you know, the danger to majority rule, to him sort of thinking, the majority voted for me now I'm the majority, I can do whatever I want and that there are no rules that restrain me -- that's what gave us Jim Crow. That's what gave us the internment of the Japanese -- that the majority said, 'you don't have individual rights and individual rights don't come from your creator and they are not guaranteed by the constitution.' Just whatever the majority wants."
He went on, "There is a real danger to that viewpoint. It's consistent with the progressive viewpoint. It's been going on for 100 years. Progressives believe in majority rule, not constitutional rule. They don't believe that rights are inherent to the individual. They think your rights are whatever the government says they are, whatever the majority says."
But Paul's comment that Jim Crow grew out of majority rule does not jibe with history. Blacks were absolute majorities [ http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=963036&high=%20Gabriel%20CHin ] in Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina -- and made up more than 40 percent of the population in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Virginia -- during the 1880s, just after Jim Crow laws began. Presumably, if there was majority rule, then Jim Crow would not have been enacted.
Japanese internment began after then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order that the Supreme Court upheld in Korematsu v. United States.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/rand-paul-jim-crow_n_4617984.html [with embedded video, and comments]
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Conservative group calls to lynch Obama and make it a ‘national holiday’
This post from the right-wing Facebook page, America the Next Generation [ https://www.facebook.com/AmericaTheNextGeneration ; https://www.facebook.com/Americathenextgenerations ; https://www.facebook.com/AmericatheGOATgeneration ], got lots of comments and “likes” before they took it down.
[ http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/01/01/right-wing-facebook-page-obama-lynching/ ]
January 2, 2014
A conservative Facebook group this week suggested that the lynching of President Barack Obama should be made into a “national holiday.”
Earlier this week, Examiner.com’s Robert Sobel pointed out [ http://www.examiner.com/article/right-wing-facebook-page-promotes-national-holiday-for-hanging-president-obama ] that the Facebook group “America the next generation” had posted a photo of the president in a noose with the caption “The making of a National Holiday.” The image was apparently a composite of Obama’s head and a frame from the leaked video [ http://hisvorpal.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/saddam-hussein-hanging.jpg (next below)]
of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein being executed.
After some discussion between members of the “America the next generation” group and criticism from other Facebook users, the photo was eventually taken down. Some group members feared that lynching the president could make him into a “martyr.”
“OK by are own choice out of respect of our regular followers that requested us to remove the post with the noose around Obamas head,” the group wrote [ https://www.facebook.com/Americathenextgenerations/posts/563746233709565 (no longer available)] on New Year’s Eve. “[W]e did so out of Respect to them and we will take the high road!”
[...]
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/02/conservative-group-calls-to-make-obamas-lynching-a-national-holiday/ [with comments]
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Controversial online posts land La Marque fire captain on leave
February 1, 2014
http://www.khou.com/news/local/Controversial-online-posts-land-La-Marque-fire-captain-on-leave-243134081.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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On MLK Day, tone-deaf Sarah Palin says Obama plays the race card
Sarah Palin's Facebook post has attracted a deluge of criticism.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times / September 3, 2008)
By Robin Abcarian
January 20, 2014, 3:32 p.m.
Sarah Palin [ http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics/government/sarah-palin-PEPLT0007504.topic ], you have got to be joking.
Showing pure contempt for the ideals that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. [ http://www.latimes.com/topic/arts-culture/culture/martin-luther-king-jr.-PEHST001228.topic ] embraced, and on the day we have chosen as a nation to celebrate his life, the former Alaska governor chose to make a spectacle of herself on Facebook.
This is the entirety of her post [ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152172510828588&set=a.10150723283643588.424640.24718773587 ]:
“Happy MLK, Jr. Day!
“‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.’ – Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Mr. President, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and all who commit to ending any racial divide, no more playing the race card.”
Usually the comments under Palin’s Facebook statements are positive and encouraging. Today, however, there was a deluge of criticism:
“You just managed to singlehandedly embarrass the entire caucasian race....is there some way that we can like, excommunicate you from being a white person, because the rest of us are mortified and want nothing to do with you now,” said one.
“I can't believe this is real,” wrote another. “How horrible of Sarah Palin, though I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Beyond being horrific, this just seems like a PR nightmare for her and her team.”
There was some speculation [ http://www.usatoday.com/story/onpolitics/2014/01/20/sarah-palin-obama-race-mlk-dream-speech/4665031/ ] that her comments were an oblique response to this passage in a long, typically thoughtful New Yorker profile of President Obama [ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/01/27/140127fa_fact_remnick?currentPage=all (which I'll be posting in reply to this post)] by David Remnick:
"Obama’s election was one of the great markers in the black freedom struggle. In the electoral realm, ironically, the country may be more racially divided than it has been in a generation. Obama lost among white voters in 2012 by a margin greater than any victor in American history. The popular opposition to the Administration comes largely from older whites who feel threatened, underemployed, overlooked, and disdained in a globalized economy and in an increasingly diverse country. Obama’s drop in the polls in 2013 was especially grave among white voters. 'There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black President,' Obama said. 'Now, the flip side of it is there are some black folks and maybe some white folks who really like me and give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black President.' The latter group has been less in evidence of late."
You may hate everything that Obama stands for politically. But what he told Remnick is not “playing the race card.” That is a factual, informed observation.
I have no idea what Palin was trying to do here.
By smearing the president on MLK Day, she proves once again she’s fit for stirring the pot and not much else.
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-ra-on-mlk-day-tonedeaf-sarah-palin-says-obama-plays-the-race-card-20140120,0,3099194.story [with comments]
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Iowa GOP Posts Controversial Facebook Photo
01.24.14
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/24/iowa-gop-posts-controversial-facebook-photo.html [with comments]
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Civil Rights Group Condemns 'Race-Baiting' Cartoon Of Justice Department Nominee
[ http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/01/27/washington-times-runs-charged-caricature-to-sme/197766 ]
By Ryan J. Reilly
Posted: 01/30/2014 11:00 am EST | Updated: 01/30/2014 2:59 pm EST
WASHINGTON -- A prominent civil rights group has condemned a Washington Times political cartoon attacking President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, describing it on Thursday as "race-baiting."
The cartoon, which ran in the print edition of The Washington Times this week, "is reminiscent of the racist iconography of late 19th century America designed to dehumanize and stereotype African Americans who were only beginning to throw off the shackles of chattel slavery," Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights [ http://www.civilrights.org/ ; http://www.civilrights.org/press/2014/adegbile-cartoon.html ], said in a statement to The Huffington Post.
The cartoon [ http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/01/27/washington-times-runs-charged-caricature-to-sme/197766 (above)] features former NAACP Legal Defense Fund official Debo Adegbile, who was nominated [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/14/debo-adegbile-doj-civil-rights_n_4277392.html ] to the post by Obama back in November. Adegbile is pictured standing next to a puppet version of Mumia Abu Jamal, a convicted murder who was given what two appellate courts determined was an unconstitutional death sentence. The cartoon is a reference to Adegbile's work on Sesame Street as a child [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8-8x8hjUzQ ], and his legal representation of Jamal in his work for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
A Washington Times representative directed HuffPost to the paper's managing editor, who did not immediately respond to a phone call and email seeking comment.
“Until today, we’ve ignored the race-baiting and dog whistle politics that form the basis of opposition to Debo Adegbile’s nomination to head the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice," Henderson's statement continued. "We’ve disregarded the distortions about Adegbile’s efforts to ensure that all Americans can live and work free of discrimination and we’ve thoughtfully debunked the fearmongering around his work on death penalty cases like that of Mumia Abu Jamal."
But Henderson said the Washington Times caricature "is beyond the pale of acceptable mainstream debate" and called Adegbile "one of the preeminent civil rights lawyers of his generation."
"He’s the son of immigrants who worked his way through law school to defend American democracy in the U.S. Supreme Court. But to the Washington Times, Fox News, and others, he’s a buffoonish caricature and a ‘cop killer.’ The American Bar Association has debunked this lie, and wrapping it in racially charged rhetoric does not make it any more true," Henderson said.
Adegbile’s work on the Mumia Abu Jamal case has come under attack by conservatives and by the right-leaning National Fraternal Order of Police, the nation's largest law enforcement organization. But the head of the American Bar Association this month wrote [ http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/uncategorized/GAO/2014jan13_adegbile_noms_l.authcheckdam.pdf ] that Adegbile's work is "consistent with the finest tradition of this country’s legal profession and should be commended, not condemned." Adegible testified during his confirmation hearing earlier this month that he got involved in the case because of questions about how the jury had been instructed on the death penalty issue.
"This type of character assassination harkens back to the baseless and unrelenting attacks by Senator Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s McCarthy hearings, which led counsel Joseph Welch to ask Senator McCarthy, ‘Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?'" Henderson said. "'Have you left no sense of decency?’"
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/30/debo-adegbile-cartoon_n_4695090.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Former U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull Sent Hundreds Of Bigoted Emails Throughout Tenure
U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull is seen in this undated file photo provided by the United States District Court in Montana. Cebull, who was Montana's chief federal judge, retired following an investigation into an email he forwarded that included a racist joke involving President Barack Obama.
(AP Photo/United States District Court District of Montana, HO)
By MATT VOLZ
01/17/14 08:18 PM ET EST
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A former Montana judge who was investigated for forwarding a racist email involving President Barack Obama sent hundreds of other inappropriate messages from his federal email account, according to the findings of a judicial review panel released Friday.
Former U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull sent emails to personal and professional contacts that showed disdain for blacks, Indians, Hispanics, women, certain religious faiths, liberal political leaders, and some emails contained inappropriate jokes about sexual orientation, the Judicial Council of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found.
Many of the emails also related to pending issues that could have come before Cebull's court, such as immigration, gun control, civil rights, health care and environmental issues, the council found in its March 15, 2013, order.
The investigation looked at four years of Cebull's personal correspondence sent from his official email account. Investigators also reviewed his past cases and interviewed witnesses.
The investigation found no evidence of bias in Cebull's rulings or sentences, and the witnesses generally regarded him as a "good and honest trial lawyer, and an esteemed trial judge," according to the report.
The 9th Circuit council issued Cebull a public reprimand; ordered no new cases be assigned to him for 180 days; ordered him to complete training on judicial ethics, racial awareness and elimination of bias; and ordered him to issue a second public apology that would acknowledge "the breadth of his behavior."
The panel said impeachment was not warranted because Cebull did not violate federal or state law, though two of the judges on the council said they would have asked for his resignation.
But none of the sanctions took effect and the findings did not become public until Friday on the order of a national judicial review panel.
Cebull announced his resignation March 29, two weeks after the judicial council issued its order.
After Cebull retired May 3, the 9th Circuit council vacated its previous order and wrote a new one calling the complaints against Cebull "moot" because of his retirement.
The panel also omitted details from the original unpublished order about the other emails Cebull had sent.
That prompted Judge Theodore McKee, the chief judge of the 3rd U.S. Circuit, to file a petition with the national Judicial Conference's Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability, asking the committee to review the council's work and publish the original March 15 order.
Judge McKee argued that the 9th Circuit council's subsequent rulings inappropriately concealed its original findings.
The 9th Circuit Council told the national review panel in response that it sought only to disclose enough about the investigation to ensure the public knows the matter was taken seriously, and it did not intend to publish the original order.
The national committee ruled that Cebull's retirement only affected the sanctions, but the factual findings and legal conclusions of the investigation must still be published.
"The imperative of transparency of the complaint process compels publication of orders finding judicial misconduct," the national judicial panel wrote in its decision.
A phone number listed under Cebull's name was disconnected Friday, and an after-hours phone call to the U.S. District Court in Billings went unanswered.
Cebull himself and 10 others requested the misconduct investigation after The Great Falls Tribune reported Cebull forwarded an email in February 2012 that included a joke about bestiality and Obama's mother. Cebull apologized to Obama after the contents of the email were published.
He told the 9th Circuit panel that his "public shaming has been a life-altering experience" and that he was "acutely aware that each day in my court is the most important day in someone's life."
Cebull was nominated by former President George W. Bush and received his commission in 2001. He served as chief judge of the District of Montana from 2008 until 2013.
© 2014 Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/18/richard-cebull_n_4623151.html [with comments]
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The North Dakota town that thwarted a neo-Nazi takeover
Video [embedded]
Neo-Nazi Craig Cobb (centre) apparently imagined Leith would accept the new order. He was wrong.
Video by Anna Bressanin
By Jude Sheerin
BBC News, Leith, North Dakota
15 January 2014 Last updated at 14:31 ET
Bobby Harper remembers thinking there was something strange about his new neighbour in the tiny rural community of Leith, North Dakota [ http://www.leithnd.com/ ], when they first met.
It was a warm dusk in autumn 2012 on the sleepy town's main road, a gravel path that curls away through wheat fields to the vast Great Plains sky.
"He said, 'hey, do you have any land for sale?'" recalls Harper, the town's sole black resident. "And I said, 'no'.
"He wouldn't quite turn around, so I could see his face and I thought that was kind of strange."
Little did Harper or any other resident suspect, but the newcomer was Craig Cobb, a notorious neo-Nazi.
He had been quietly snapping up homes in the town since April that year, with the intention of turning it into a white separatists' enclave called Cobbsville.
For the barely 20 inhabitants of Leith, it was the beginning of a nightmare that is still not over.
Sherrill Harper (with husband Bobby) received a letter saying: "What are you doing 'married' to a Negro?"
Cobb, the son of a multi-millionaire businessman, was fleeing allegations of inciting hatred in Canada when he made his way over the border into North Dakota early in 2012.
The 62-year-old's plans for Leith were exposed in August last year by the Southern Poverty Law Center [ http://www.splcenter.org/ ], an Alabama-based civil rights organisation.
It published a report detailing his acquisition of about a dozen cheap plots of land in the town, which lies 50 miles (80km) south-west of the state capital, Bismarck.
Harper's wife, Sherrill, a 59-year-old homemaker, says: "I felt this was surreal. Leith, this little, teensy town. This man had these big plans to take it over.
"And because I was a white woman married to an African-American man, they wouldn't want us here."
After his scheme was exposed, Cobb began flying Nazi flags from his ramshackle, two-storey home.
Clockwise from left: Craig Cobb; A sign he put up in Leith; One of the flags he flew outside his home
In a part of the country where many people are of German and Russian ancestry, the swastika is something residents neither want to forget, nor especially be reminded of.
Cobb, meanwhile, began handing out property deeds to some of the American far-right's most prominent figures, urging them to settle in Leith and help him seize a voting majority.
In September, Sherrill Harper received a letter which urged her to join Cobb's movement. It said: "What are you doing 'married' to a Negro?"
Later that month, a small group of members of the National Socialist Movement, formerly the American Nazi Party, travelled to Leith at Cobb's invitation to stage a far-right jamboree.
They were greatly outnumbered by counter-demonstrators, many from the nearby Indian reservation.
National Socialist Movement: Founded in 1994, it is one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the US, with chapters in more than 30 states
Council of Conservative Citizens: Founded 1985, sprung from the pro-segregation movement in the southern states
American Freedom Party: Founded 2009, with origins in California. Has a racist agenda and is against immigration
Klan groups: Dating back to post-American Civil War era, they are active in most US states and may have more than 5,000 members
Bobby Harper, a 53-year-old welder, says: "Things were so in turmoil that we considered getting rid of the town, just letting Cobb take over."
But his wife adds: "I really believe he thought the people of Leith would roll over and play dead. And I think he was very surprised when that's not what happened."
The town's fight-back began with a website [ http://www.leithnd.com/ ] to publicise its predicament, along with a legal defence fund.
Gregory Bruce, who set up the portal, said: "The impact on Leith is it's pretty much destroyed everyone's peaceful life.
"It's caused them to feel very frightened by just one man. He's even threatened to bring [former] prisoners here from different states. It's a zoo. We call it a circus of freaks."
Self-proclaimed skinhead Kynan Dutton, 29, and his girlfriend Deborah Henderson, 33, answered Cobb's rallying call.
They moved to Leith in early October from the state of Oregon.
Deborah Henderson, the last remaining Cobb ally, recently moved out of Leith
Later that month, police were called to eject a drunken Dutton from a town-hall meeting after he launched into a racist, foul-mouthed rant.
Sherrill Harper remembers that scene - a recording of which shows Dutton making a Nazi salute and shouting: "Sieg heil" - as a turning point.
She says: "I thought, 'these are the kinds of people that are going to take over our town?' This is not what I wanted."
On 16 November, Cobb and Dutton swaggered through the town carrying shotguns and shouting obscenities. Alarmed residents called the police.
Both men are now in custody, each facing seven felony terrorism charges and, if convicted, between 10 and 35 years in prison.
On Wednesday, Cobb and Dutton pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
The town, meanwhile, hired a lawyer to issue citations forcing Cobb to upgrade his home, which has no running water or sewer.
His house has been declared legally unfit for habitation and two other properties he bought are earmarked for demolition.
Henderson was the last remaining Cobb ally in Leith until she recently left the town.
The BBC spoke to her shortly before she moved away.
As she stood sobbing outside Cobb's dilapidated home, where she was living with her three young daughters, she cut a lonely figure.
But then Henderson started praising the White Man's Bible, a stridently anti-Semitic, racist screed.
She told an anti-parable about a pioneer-era mother who finds a rattlesnake under her child's bed in their frontier log cabin.
When asked what the serpent might represent, she suggested: "Multiculturalism."
"I definitely like and support things that are good for the white race," she said.
Of her African-American neighbour: "I'm honestly thankful that there's only one. I know that sounds rude."
In a brief telephone interview from Mercer County jail in North Dakota, Cobb told the BBC he had moved to North Dakota because it was "one of the last Aryan bastions" in the US. The thinly populated state is 90% white, according to census data.
Cobb spent much of the interview discussing his belief that there is a conspiracy to breed the white race out of existence.
But he defended his vision for Leith as his "right to free associate", while arguing that the state is stopping him practising his "religion of racial awareness".
Tom Metzger, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard who was given a property in Leith by Cobb, says the attempted takeover of the town has failed.
The 75-year-old, of Warsaw, Indiana, told the BBC: "Craig got carried away.
"I warned him not to bring in the Hollywood-style Nazis, or everyone would go crazy. And that's exactly what's happened."
Still, the people of Leith are not complacent.
"Just because Cobb's in jail, this isn't over," says Sherrill Harper.
"I still pray his plans are defeated."
BBC © 2014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25646954
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Yes, Schools In The U.S. Still Bear The Names Of White Supremacists
Schools across the country still bear the names of controversial leaders, who at one point in their lives wanted to deny African Americans basic human rights. In this photo, members of the Fraternal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan participate in the 11th Annual Nathan Bedford Forrest Birthday march July 11, 2009 in Pulaski, Tenn.
01/23/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/15/white-supremacist-schools_n_4509352.html [with comments]
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Paul Ryan Accuses Obama Of 'Increasingly Lawless Presidency'
02/03/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/02/paul-ryan-obama-executive-orders_n_4713030.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Rep. Paul Broun Backs Impeaching Obama
Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) indicated at an event Saturday that he would support impeaching President Barack Obama if the issue came up for a vote in Congress.
Broun is running for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate race in Georgia. ...
[...]
02/03/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/paul-broun-impeach-obama_n_4716946.html [with comments]
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Man Pleads Guilty To Sending Obama Ricin-Tainted Letters
01/17/14
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/james-everett-dutschke-guilty_n_4619483.html [with comments]
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Another Ann Coulter Rant About Hispanics 'Wrecking The Country'
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 23: Ann Coulter, center, talks with Chris Plante, left, during his WMAL radio program on Wednesday October 23, 2013 in Washington, DC. Coulter is promoting her new book, 'Never Trust a Liberal Over 3-Especially a Republican'.
01/31/2014
Ann Coulter can’t stop raging against Hispanics.
The conservative pundit blasted House Republicans as "sell outs" in a column on Wednesday for crafting guidelines on immigration that would create a mechanism to grant legal status to undocumented immigrants, saying that the growing Latino population will “wreck the country [ http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2014-01-29.html ].”
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/31/ann-coulter-hispanic-vote_n_4702689.html [with comments]
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Republicans Blame Obama Over Immigration Reform
BRISTOW, VA -- OCTOBER 29: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal campaigns for Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli in Bristow, Virginia, on Tuesday, October 29, 2013.
(Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
By PHILIP ELLIOTT
02/03/14 03:28 AM ET EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are starting to lay the blame on President Barack Obama if an overhaul of the nation's broken immigration system fails to become law.
The GOP's emerging plan on immigration is to criticize Obama as an untrustworthy leader and his administration as an unreliable enforcer of any laws that might be passed. Perhaps realizing the odds of finding a consensus on immigration are long, the Republicans have started telling voters that if the GOP-led House doesn't take action this election year, it is Obama's fault.
"If the president had been serious about this the last five years, we'd be further along in this discussion," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, said Sunday.
House Republicans last week unveiled a road map for an overhaul of the nation's broken immigration system that calls for increased border security, better law enforcement within the U.S. and a pathway to legal status — but not citizenship — for millions of adults who live in America unlawfully. The proposal requires those here illegally to pay back taxes and fines.
But one of its backers, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, said distrust of Obama poisons interest among some in his Republican caucus.
"Here's the issue that all Republicans agree on: We don't trust the president to enforce the law," said Ryan, his party's vice presidential nominee in 2012.
Ryan said a plan that puts security first could only pass the House if lawmakers believe the administration would enforce it — an unlikely prospect given Republicans' deep opposition to Obama. The president's waivers for provisions in his 4-year-old health care law have increased suspicions among Republicans.
"This isn't a trust-but-verify, this is a verify-then-trust approach," Ryan said.
Asked whether immigration legislation would make its way to Obama for him to sign into law, Ryan said he was skeptical: "I really don't know the answer to that question. That is clearly in doubt."
The Senate last year passed a comprehensive, bipartisan bill that addressed border security, provided enforcement measures and offered a long and difficult path to citizenship for those living here illegally. The measure stalled in the GOP-led House, where leaders want to take a more piecemeal approach.
In the meantime, Republicans have started uniting behind a message that Obama won't hold up his end of the bargain.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said "there's a lot of distrust of this administration in implanting the law." And Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., last week warned that distrust of Obama would trump the desire to find a solution for the estimated 11 million people living in the United States illegally.
"We just don't think government will enforce the law anyway," Rubio said, recounting conversations he's had with fellow Republicans.
Immigration legislation is a dicey political question for the GOP. The party's conservative base opposes any measure that would create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living here illegally, but many in the party worry that failing to act could strengthen support among many voters for Democratic candidates.
In 2012, Obama won re-election with the backing of 71 percent of Hispanic voters and 73 percent of Asian voters. The issue is important to both voting blocs.
The White House, meanwhile, is trying to give Republicans a chance to hammer out their intra-party differences in the hopes they find a way to give legal standing to those here illegally.
"We ought to see a pathway to citizenship for people," White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said Sunday. "We don't want to have a permanent separation of classes or two permanent different classes of Americans in this country."
McDonough said the White House remains optimistic that legislation that includes citizenship could reach the president's desk: "We feel pretty good that we'll get a bill done this year."
Jindal spoke to CNN's "State of the Union." Ryan appeared on ABC's "This Week." Cantor was interviewed on CBS' "Face the Nation." McDonough appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" and CBS.
© 2014 Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/republicans-immigration-reform_n_4716289.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Laura Ingraham: English is “in decline” because of Mexican “jingoism”
[ http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/01/30/laura-ingraham-english-language-is-in-decline-a/197843 ]
The Fox News contributor and radio host seems to believe Mexican immigrants want to reconquer the U.S. southwest
Jan 30, 2014
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/30/laura_ingraham_english_is_in_decline_because_of_mexican_jingoism/ [with embedded audio, and comments]
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Trey Radel to resign from Congress
January 27th, 2014
Washington (CNN) - U.S. Rep. Trey Radel, the Florida Republican who pleaded guilty to cocaine possession last November, will resign from Congress on Monday, multiple GOP House leadership sources confirm to CNN.
One of those sources, who is close to Radel, says the first-term congressman will submit a letter of resignation to House Speaker John Boehner. The resignation decision was later confirmed by Radel's spokesman.
Radel was caught buying cocaine from an undercover federal agent in Washington and spent nearly a month in a substance abuse program in Florida.
[...]
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/27/trey-radel-to-resign-from-congress/ [with comments]
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Greg Fettig's Conspiracy Theories Went Too Far For Tea Party Group
A tea party activist who was working to oust Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell found himself ousted this week.
Win McNamee via Getty Images
By Jason Cherkis
Posted: 01/24/2014 2:00 pm EST | Updated: 01/24/2014 2:59 pm EST
WASHINGTON -- The United Kentucky Tea Party has parted ways with controversial activist Greg Fettig. The Louisville-based Courier-Journal first reported the news [ http://www.courier-journal.com/proart/20140123/news01/301230079/activist-bevinrace-gets-boot ] Thursday when a tea party spokesman said the group was "cutting ties" with Fettig, who had been working on its grassroots campaign against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Fettig was a prominent organizer in the campaign dubbed Unbridled Liberty, which is backing McConnell's tea party challenger Matt Bevin. But he came under scrutiny following a Huffington Post report [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/20/mitch-mcconnell-tea-party_n_4631923.html ] on Monday that highlighted conspiratorial views he expressed on social media and a podcast [ http://baldfacetruth.net/2014/01/14/if-i-had-opinions-they-would-be-my-own-facts-are-facts/ ] concerning President Barack Obama and the Department of Homeland Security. Fettig claimed that Obama is an "illegal president" who “is intent on collapsing and destroying the United States of America" and that Homeland Security is stockpiling hollow-point bullets to potentially use against Americans.
"The article you all published was not too complimentary, and there were things in there that we weren't happy about," United Kentucky Tea Party spokesman Scott Hofstra told HuffPost. "As a general rule, what he discussed were not issues we are centering our work around. Those things are not what are important in our lives. They are not Tea Party platform items, if you will."
Fettig had come up with the name "Unbridled Liberty" and launched an Unbridled Liberty super PAC. U.S. News & World Report profiled him [ http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/17/tea-party-sets-its-sights-on-mitch-mcconnell ] this month, noting his successful efforts to help Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock beat then-Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) in the 2012 GOP primary. (Mourdock lost the general election.)
Even if he is no longer a public voice in the campaign, Fettig told the Courier-Journal, the tea party push to oust McConnell will continue. “They can come after me and smear me and figuratively kill me off, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to kill the initiative. It’s going to go on,” he said.
He told HuffPost that the critical story brought him around 25,000 visitors to his podcast. The experience hasn't turned him off conservative activism. "I'm tea party, always will have been, always will be," he said. "I'm never going to stop fighting."
Fettig also suggested that his activism in Kentucky on Bevin's behalf is not over and that he'll just have to work outside the public eye for now. He said, "I'll be happy to tell you what I was up to," come primary election day.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/greg-fettig-tea-party_n_4660093.html [with comments]
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Republican Who Compared Political Correctness To Nazi Youth Challenges Rep. Louise Slaughter
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) faces a GOP challenge from Mark Assini.
01/24/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/mark-assini-louise-slaughter_n_4661105.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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The rapid decline of Dinesh D’Souza
Dinesh D'Souza
(Credit: CNN)
How the once-celebrated right-wing author managed to blow up his life and career in little more than two years
Elias Isquith
Friday, Jan 24, 2014 11:45 AM CST
Dinesh D’Souza, the right-wing author, pundit and filmmaker, was indicted [ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/23/conservative-commentator-author-dinesh-dsouza-indicted/ ] Thursday night for campaign finance fraud. According to the indictment, D’Souza, in support of his college friend’s challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, had attempted to circumvent the $5,000 limit for individual donations by having other friends of his donate, too, and then reimbursing them later. It may be the low point of D’Souza’s life and career.
We say “may be” rather than “definitely is” because of the simple fact that, for much of the past two years, D’Souza’s time on this planet has been filled with ignominy and failure. As the Daily Beast’s David Sessions notes [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/24/dinesh-d-souza-s-series-of-unfortunate-events.html ], D’Souza went from riding high on the success of his very profitable (and racist [ http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2012/09/dinesh-dsouzas-2016-obamas-america.html ]) “documentary” — “2016: Obama’s America [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016:_Obama's_America ]” — to being forced to resign [ ] as president of King’s College, an evangelical school in New York City after becoming engaged with one woman while he was still married to another.
Yet even “2016? would come to bring D’Souza trouble. David Sain, the producer of the film, ultimately sued D’Souza, claiming the pundit had done a poor job managing the movie’s finances and had also kept producers and other stakeholders in the dark when it was time to make decisions about distribution and marketing. The lawsuit was eventually tossed [ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/dinesh-dsouza-lawsuit-tossed-2016-383173 ] by a judge, but the blemish on what was previously an absolute success was yet another bump on D’Souza’s as of late very rocky road.
More from Sessions at the Daily Beast [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/24/dinesh-d-souza-s-series-of-unfortunate-events.html ]:
D’Souza’s departure from the King’s College was the symbolic end of his career [ http://www.newsweek.com/rise-and-fall-dinesh-dsouza-65269 ] in the institutional conservative movement, which had grown increasingly exasperated with his string of conspiratorial books that failed to live up to his reputation as a star of conservative scholarship. (One advanced the notion [ http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/220322/enemy-dsouza-knows-nro-symposium ] that America’s moral decadence led to 9/11; another launched the meme [ http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/roots-lunacy_508809.html ], which has long since become a political punch line, that Obama was a “Kenyan anti-colonialist.”) D’Souza’s tenure at the King’s College was fraught with conflict, as some faculty members viewed him as a name-brand hire who lacked appropriate academic credentials and who was more interested in his own money-making projects than in fundraising for the college.
The conflict came to a head in October, when the evangelical magazine World alleged that D’Souza had shared a hotel room with Denise Odie Joseph, a young woman who had written a fawning blog about about him, and introduced her as his fiancée despite still being married. The college had apparently been aware of D’Souza’s marital problems, but decided to end its relationship with him once news of the scandal engulfed the school.
Copyright © 2014 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/24/the_rapid_decline_of_dinesh_dsouza/ [with comments]
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Dinesh D’Souza Embarrasses Himself Further With Ridiculous Campaign Fraud Charges
By Margaret Hartmann and Joe Coscarelli
1/24/2014 at 8:26 AM
Dinesh D’Souza, the race-baiting [ http://gawker.com/inexplicably-prominent-conservative-thinker-has-thank-1472090499 ] conservative commentator and director of the fear-mongering hit “documentary” 2016: Obama's America, was indicted on Thursday [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/nyregion/dinesh-dsouza-is-charged-with-using-straw-donors-to-give-to-a-campaign.html ] for violating campaign-finance laws. D'Souza allegedly urged people to donate $20,000 to an unnamed 2012 Senate candidate (almost certainly Wendy Long, who failed miserably to unseat New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand), and then paid them back. Such arrangements are illegal.
D’Souza and Long (née Stone) are longtime friends dating back to their days as students at Dartmouth, where they helped launch a conservative newspaper [ http://www.cityandstateny.com/gop-senate-hopeful-helped-controversial-dartmouth-newspaper/ ], the Dartmouth Review, “that routinely courted controversy by mocking black, gay, Jewish and female students.” (The pair were forced to apologize [ http://www.buzzfeed.com/jacobfischler/dinesh-dsouza-and-wendy-long-once-had-to-apologize-for-a-hit ] when someone inserted a quote from Hitler’s Mein Kampf into the paper’s “statement of principles.”)
Now he's charged with making illegal donations, thus causing the campaign to file false documents to the FEC, charges that together carry a maximum sentence of seven years in prison [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/conservative-author-and-pundit-dinesh-dsouza-charged-in-campaign-finance-case/2014/01/23/69c67ee4-848a-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html ]. And the alleged wheeling and dealing was for naught: Gillibrand won over 70 percent of the vote anyway.
Once a leading influential figure on the right, D’Souza is a best-selling author and previously served as president of the evangelical King’s College [ http://nymag.com/news/features/kings-college-2011-8/ ] in Manhattan. But it all began unraveling when he showed up to a speech at a Baptist church with a younger woman [ http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/10/dinesh-dsouza-has-a-wife-and-a-girlfriend.html ] he introduced as his fiancée (not his wife Dixie, who also contributed $5,000 to Long’s campaign).
He was forced to resign from his King’s College gig, but delivered a classic George Costanza plea of ignorance [ http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/10/dinesh-dsouza-resigns-kings-college.html ] along the way. “The thing I will admit: I did not have any idea that it is seen as wrong in Christian circles to be engaged prior to being divorced even though separated,” he said. “That was a true error of judgment, but it was truly a case where I didn't know better.”
Recently, he appeared in an infomercial [non-YouTube version embedded, the same as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWJ-6VCoRVg (next below; with comment)] for an artificial Christmas tree [ http://www.christmashome.com/artificial-christmas-trees/ ]:
In his only comment so far on the indictment, D’Souza tweeted last night [ https://twitter.com/DineshDSouza/statuses/426506424081190912 ]:
Dinesh D'Souza
@DineshDSouza
Hollywood Reporter reports on my indictment http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/2016-obamas-america-filmmaker-indicted-673670
6:07 PM - 23 Jan 2014
'2016: Obama's America' Filmmaker Indicted for Violating Campaign...
Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, whose documentary 2016: Obama’s America took a critical look at President Barack Obama and was a surprise hit in 2012, will be arrested in New York on Friday...
Hollywood Reporter @THR
“Mr. D’Souza did not act with any corrupt or criminal intent whatsoever,” said his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, in the linked article. “He and the candidate have been friends since their college days, and at most, this was an act of misguided friendship by D’Souza.” So basically, he's going to try the Costanza defense again.
[NYT [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/nyregion/dinesh-dsouza-is-charged-with-using-straw-donors-to-give-to-a-campaign.html ]]
[WaPo [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/conservative-author-and-pundit-dinesh-dsouza-charged-in-campaign-finance-case/2014/01/23/69c67ee4-848a-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html ]]
Copyright © 2014, New York Media LLC
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/dsouza-indicted-on-campaign-fraud-charges.html [with comments]
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Govt: Senate candidate said D'Souza lied to her
Updated January 24, 2014, 1:48 p.m. ET
NEW YORK — A prosecutor says last year's Republican U.S. Senate candidate from New York told the government that a conservative scholar and author lied to her about the source of campaign donations.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Cohen made the disclosure Friday as Dinesh D'Souza (Dih-NEESH' duh-SOO'-zuh) pleaded not guilty to charges that he violated campaign finance laws.
The creator of the documentary "2016: Obama's America" was released after his Manhattan court appearance on $500,000 bond. His travel is restricted to the United States.
Cohen says he directed $20,000 in illegal contributions to be made to candidate Wendy Long. She lost to Democratic incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand (KEER'-stehn JIHL'-uh-brand).
Defense attorney Benjamin Brafman says there is not much disagreement over what happened, only whether or not the actions broke laws.
© 2014 Associated Press
http://online.wsj.com/article/APf145a407a9c34472b640a4088d1d6cc6.html [with comments]
--
"This Is Like Nazi Germany": D'Souza Allies See Conspiracy Behind Indictment
January 24, 2014
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/01/24/this-is-like-nazi-germany-dsouza-allies-see-con/197729 [with embedded videos (including the YouTube next below), and comments]
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Emergency: Obama Has Launched Purge
Published on Jan 23, 2014 by TheAlexJonesChannel [ http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel ]
Emergency alert!!! This is it, we are in deep shit! If they get away with this they will come for all of us, that's how it works!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9P-xvoMZHY [with comments]
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Persecution Of Dissent: Filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza's Truth To Be Silenced
Published on Jan 27, 2014 by TheAlexJonesChannel [ http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel ]
Obama has unleashed a wave of persecution on his critics. The political persecution of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza for alleged and comparatively minor infractions are part of an accelerating purge being led by the Obama administration in the run-up to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid.
http://www.infowars.com/filmmaker-pleades-not-guilty-of-violating-federal-campaign-laws/
http://www.infowars.com/obama-launches-chilling-purge-against-political-enemies/
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeffrey-meyer/2014/01/26/face-nation-edits-out-senator-cruz-condemning-obama-s-abuse-power
http://www.dineshdsouza.com/
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https://twitter.com/RealAlexJones
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http://www.prisonplanet.tv
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLUiWhIg3w8 [with comments]
--
(from slideshow at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/nun-gives-birth-baby-italy-francis_n_4619218.html ; http://www.theonion.com/articles/local-jew-feels-left-out-of-worldwide-jewish-consp,809/ )
===
this is part 2 of a multi-part post -- continues with my next post, a reply to this one
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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