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Thread: The Spiral of Violence - Page 56







Post#1376 at 10-05-2010 07:45 PM by Silifi [at Green Bay, Wisconsin joined Jun 2007 #posts 1,741]
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Quote Originally Posted by Odin View Post
Islamophobes go nuts

This crap is getting out of hand.
Holy crap... I can't believe actual high ranking politicians are actually backing the insanity.

That bigots existed has never been a doubt in my mind, but that it could be so publicly declared by people in positions of power... I feel like this has never happened before in my life time.







Post#1377 at 10-05-2010 07:48 PM by Odin [at Moorhead, MN, USA joined Sep 2006 #posts 14,442]
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Quote Originally Posted by Silifi View Post
Holy crap... I can't believe actual high ranking politicians are actually backing the insanity.

That bigots existed has never been a doubt in my mind, but that it could be so publicly declared by people in positions of power... I feel like this has never happened before in my life time.
I am simply stunned. People don't believe me when I tell them that these wackos are very dangerous.
To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.

-Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism







Post#1378 at 10-06-2010 09:07 AM by KaiserD2 [at David Kaiser '47 joined Jul 2001 #posts 5,220]
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Quote Originally Posted by KaiserD2 View Post
Rose, may I have some more information on that? Was there actually anti-Japanese violence? My impression was that the internment owed a lot of California politicians and to genuine (if not accurate) military fears about sabotage, not that it was mob-driven like today's anti-Muslim riots. But I certainly could be wrong! Thanks;
Quote Originally Posted by Rose1992 View Post
Not exactly violent, but those that advocated for Japanese removal used similar rhetoric to justify it.
Rose, many years ago I saw a series of propaganda films from the Second World War. One was about the internment of the Japanese, and it was narrated by Milton Eisenhower, Ike's brother, a prominent academic. It was rather fascinating. First, he showed the places where the Japanese-Americans lived and their proximity to military installations. Then he said, in effect, look, every nation at war is doing this (which was true--even the British, who at times locked up German Jewish refugees, because they were Germans), and we're doing it much more humanely than everyone else! It didn't demonize the Japanese, really--it was more like a film on why people with a dangerous disease need to be quarantined. It may be part of the "Why We Fight" Series, which is readily available now, but I'm not sure.







Post#1379 at 10-06-2010 09:33 AM by The Grey Badger [at Albuquerque, NM joined Sep 2001 #posts 8,876]
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Also - if you read anything written between, say, 1900 and 1945, especially our of California, you'll hear an amazing amount about "the Yellow Peril" and stories of adult Japanese spies posing as high school students long before the war started -- it was absolutely virulent.







Post#1380 at 10-07-2010 07:04 PM by Odin [at Moorhead, MN, USA joined Sep 2006 #posts 14,442]
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Islamophobes go nuts over halal soup

Via Rachel Slajda at TPM: The anti-Islam wing of the conservative movement is setting its sights on Campbell's Canada's now year-old decision to release a line of Halal-certified soups and broths.

Pamela Geller, the blogger who is largely responsible for whipping up the "ground zero mosque" story (which also went unnoticed for nearly a year before it became a national controversy), has a post up on Campbell's titled, "M-M-M-M-M-Muslim Brotherhood Good?" She calls for a boycott of the company, and there is now a Facebook boycott group with over 2,000 members.


Halal foods, of course, are merely those that hew to basic Islamic dietary laws such as a ban on pork products.


Geller and her cohort have seized on the fact that the Campbell's Halal line is certified by the Islamic Society of North America, a large and mainstream Muslim umbrella group. It clearly denounces terrorism and has widespread support among non-Muslim religious and political leaders. But according to Geller, ISNA is "Hamas-linked." So if you buy Campbell's soup, you, too, are now Hamas-linked, and may be charged with material support for terrorism.


Also, we've reached out to Campbell's for comment on this, and we'll update this post if we hear back.

Facebook boycott of 2000? That is a massive EPIC FAIL by Facebook standards, LOL.
To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.

-Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism







Post#1381 at 10-07-2010 11:15 PM by Rose1992 [at Syracuse joined Sep 2008 #posts 1,833]
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Quote Originally Posted by Odin View Post
Islamophobes go nuts over halal soup




Facebook boycott of 2000? That is a massive EPIC FAIL by Facebook standards, LOL.
Why should they care? This sort of behavior probably embarrasses their grandchildren to no end.
Last edited by Rose1992; 10-07-2010 at 11:17 PM.







Post#1382 at 10-09-2010 03:03 PM by Odin [at Moorhead, MN, USA joined Sep 2006 #posts 14,442]
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The Tea Party: It’s Worse Than You Think

A debate has raged over the last 18 months as to whether the tea party movement is racist. Never mind that the inauguration of the first black president in January 2009 was followed in February by the first of the tea party “moments”—when CNBC’s Rick Santelli called for a Chicago tea party on national television from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Never mind that April 15 of 2009 saw the first nationally organized protest of the tea partyers in cities across the country. When the summer of 2009 arrived, all tea party guns (some real firearms were openly carried at Obama events) turned on President Barack Obama and his health insurance reform proposals. Obama was demonized with invective that included being called Hitler, Stalin and the Antichrist.

I propose to put this debate to rest. The tea party is racist. Its followers have deployed a brilliant strategy to deflect charges of racism by using a form of the legislative provision known as severability. Whenever a tea party group or person is “caught” with a racist sign, or saying explicitly racist comments, they simply “sever” that person from the movement by saying, “That person does not represent the tea party.” They get away with it because they claim the status of a “movement” with no structure, leadership or cohesive identity except allegiance to the three magic phrases: “Constitutional Republic,” “Founding Fathers” and “I want my country back!”



I submit that their defense, while clever, is inadequate. Racism virtually drips from their lips when they spew out their ridicule of President Obama. It lies just underneath the surface of all the signs imaging him as a native African, a Muslim or an animal. But, one might note, they never called Obama by a racial slur. They have never said they don’t like him because he is black. Well, they don’t have to say it—he is black. And to say, “I don’t like [black] Obama because he is black” would be redundant.



However, I will make my argument for their fundamentally racist opposition to Obama and their racist opposition to any and every government program that they perceive to be taking their hard-earned tax dollars and redistributing them to people of color. This racism is at the core of their opposition to health care reform that would subsidize premiums for people who cannot afford them or educational or tax credits to low-income persons and families or any of the myriad social programs meant to strengthen the general welfare of the nation. In their opinion, these monies are going to noncitizens who do not deserve the benefits and blessings of their dear USA, USA, USA.



I stumbled across my evidence through an e-mail alert I received for tea party “meet-ups” near where I live. When I noticed a tea party meet-up in south Orange County [Calif.] being held at a church, I couldn’t resist taking a closer look. Five clicks later I was enthralled by a document that I found both horrifying and revealing. The document was titled “The Non-Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment” and written by A.H. Ellett, a retired Utah Supreme Court justice.



Ironically, the tea party movement generally “supports with worshipful intensity the constitution of the United States,” according to historian Mark Lilla, but when its followers say “Constitution” they don’t mean the same U.S. Constitution that you and I mean. The recent issue for the tea party has been the repeal of the 14th Amendment. But repeal is just one small step compared to the giant leap that Justice Ellett makes in claiming that the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments (the so-called Reconstruction Amendments) were never legally (i.e. constitutionally) ratified in the first place. When the tea party folk say that they want their country back, I’m starting to understand just how far back they want it—back before the Civil War!


The goal of this retrogression is revealed in Ellett’s opening paragraph of his arguments specifically against the fact of the ratification of the 14th Amendment. He writes:
The validity, or should we say invalidity, of the Civil War Amendments is very important to reinstating the inalienable rights of free white Citizens in the United States of America. At every juncture where the government of the United States of America and/or the governments of the several States attempt to usurp inalienable rights, the Civil War Amendments are ultimately claimed to be the authority for such deprivations of rights.
His 200-page treatise is filled with sophist (not sophisticated) argument that hinges on whether the authors of the 14th Amendment used uppercase or lowercase when conferring C/citizenship and P/personhood on the newly freed slaves. He also warns the contemporary reader that his citations may make some uncomfortable but they are necessary to the truth of his argument. He warns and then continues:
Please remember that the following Authorities reflects the understanding of the Founding Fathers at the time the Constitution for the United States was adopted, and although they may not be “politically” correct today, the Authorities represents the law at the time the Fourteenth Amendment was (purportedly) adopted.


This is further clarified in Amy v. Smith: /60



“Free negroes and mulattoes are, almost everywhere, considered and treated as a degraded race of people; insomuch so, that, under the constitution and laws of the United States, they can not become citizens of the United States.”



Amy v. Smith, 1 Litt. Ky. R. 334.


In light of this, no person would be considered as a United States Citizen or a citizen of the United States; as the Constitution was framed to incorporate the common law, in opposition to international law.



· common law—one race governs;
· international law—all races govern.


The capitalization of the words “Person” and “Citizen” could mean only one thing, the denoting of only those of one race in compliance with the common law.



“According to the common law principle (upon which our Constitution was founded), only the race (family) of people forming the sovereignty to adopt the Constitution (We the People) are considered “Citizens.” All others born inside the Country and owing allegiance to “We the People” are natural born “Subjects.” Under principles of International Law, that is, inter-racial law (See definition in Webster’s Dictionary, [1828]), these “Subjects” (who, by special privilege, are licensed to become something or do something normally illegal under the common-law), are said to be “citizens” and “persons.”


… [B]ut only those of the white race could be recognized as national citizens under the Preamble to the Constitution for the United States of America and be treated as “Citizens” in any State they entered.
And finally he reaches the ultimate point of it all for the tea party. While party followers might like to disenfranchise all persons of color, they are really after one in particular, President Barack Obama. To wit, Justice Ellett continues:
Thus, only white State citizens held the privileges and immunities known to Article IV, Section 2, among the several States, and no State could confer that Constitutional protection on any other race. In consequence thereof, the “also” could not authorize a “non-white” to be an “Officer” of the United States government.
Thus, according to Justice Ellett, Obama cannot constitutionally be president of the United States.

So, what does this have to do with the tea party movement? One of the main thrusts of tea party groups across the country is to teach their “patriots” the truth about the Constitution of the United States. At this particular meet-up of the “South Orange County 912 - Tea Party Group” at the church, they were advertising No. 3 of 12 of the “Institute on the Constitution.”


This is the program written by John Eidsmoe, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, author and attorney. I got this far with just one click. The next click took me to a biography of Eidsmoe posted on the website citizensforaconstitutionalrepublic.com. It should be noted that an invitation to Eidsmoe to speak at a tea party rally in Wasau, Wis., was rescinded in April of this year. The invitation was withdrawn when it was revealed that Eidsmoe was known to teach that God ordained slavery and that the author had spoken before a variety of white supremacists groups (other than tea party groups, that is), such as the successor organization to the White Citizens’ Councils (now the Council of Conservative Citizens) and The League of the South.



So the tea party claims to be cleansed of racism because it withdrew the invitation. But it is not that the party didn’t know his views. Party followers invited him to teach and speak at the rally. He was disinvited because Eidsmoe’s proposed appearance exposed the racism at the core of the movement. Interestingly, the other tea party groups didn’t get the word because the curriculum written by Eidsmoe is being taught right now, right up the road in that old hotbed of the John Birch Society, Orange County. So if he was considered racist by tea party groups in April, why isn’t he still racist in October? He is, and they were and are.



My next click was on a button down the side of the page that said, “I Want My Country Back.” Alas, I thought, now I will get some understanding of what they mean when they say that. This is what took me to the link of Justice Ellett’s dissertation on “The Non-Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment.”



Or how are we to regard the role played by tea party leaders like Mark Williams, who was a major leader of the Tea Party Express (one of the leading groups in the National Tea Party Federation). It was Williams who called President Obama an “Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug.” It was Williams who said blacks don’t want taxes cut because “how will … Colored People ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn?”

After receiving so much leadership, education and inspiration from these leaders and “scholars,” the tea party movement cannot conveniently disavow the racism that is part and parcel of everything that motivates such leaders (and countless others lesser known). The philosophy regarding the Constitution essentially permeates the tea party movement. This element cannot be uninvited, disowned or dismissed. This constitutional philosophy has produced a code language that connects phrases such as “Citizen” (uppercase C), “Founding Fathers,” “Patriot” and “Constitutional Republic.” On their face they are fine, even noble, ideas. But underneath, when one connects the dots from the originally white “We the People” to a never-say-die Confederate mentality to a rabid tea party opposition to the first black president of the United States, there is no doubt that the tea party movement is racist at its core.



Finally, Patricia Williams said it best in a Guardian article in September when she reminded us of the unguarded words of Lee Atwater, former chair of the Republican Party, who explained the strategy of abstraction this way, “You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger.’ By 1968 you can’t say ‘nigger’—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced bussing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. … ‘We want to cut this’ is much more abstract than even the bussing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than ‘nigger, nigger’.”
To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.

-Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism







Post#1383 at 10-14-2010 10:12 PM by Odin [at Moorhead, MN, USA joined Sep 2006 #posts 14,442]
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Crowd hurls rocks, [Racial] epithets at Pa. school band.

This is in your neck of the woods, Chas.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Parade organizers apologized to a high school band after people in a predominantly White crowd threw rocks at the students and insulted them with rude comments and racial epithets.

Officials with the Manheim Farm Show parade visited marching band members from William Penn Senior High in York on Wednesday to say they were embarrassed and hoped the students would return for next year's event.


Seth Kensinger, vice president of the farm show, said the organization was appalled at how the students were abused at last week's parade.


"We went over to apologize because that's not how you treat people," said Kensinger, who did not witness the encounter.


The band consists of White, Black and Latino students. York City School District spokesman Jonathan Heintzman said Thursday that people in the crowd hit some of the students with small rocks and sprayed them with soda, directed derogatory comments to girls and used racial epithets. He said he was unsure exactly what was said but that no one was hurt.


It was the band's fourth year participating in the parade in neighboring Lancaster County, and Heintzman said no decision has been made on whether to go back next year.


"The few students and staff that I talked with, basically, had said they don't hold any ill will to the organizers of the parade," Heintzman said. "They can't control the crowd that attended their event."


York City School District Acting Superintendent Eric Holmes told the York Daily Record that the evening parade was poorly lit, so no one was able to identify the people who harassed the students.


"It's something we certainly never want our children to have to experience, but we're going to look at it as a learning opportunity," Holmes told the paper.


QueAujonea Wilson, a flute player, told the newspaper she saw an object fly past her. She called the situation "insane."


The Oct. 6 parade was part of Manheim's 57th annual farm show, which says it aims to "promote agriculture, crafts and competition in a friendly environment that encourages family values and cooperation." Event organizers tout a wholesome atmosphere that "creates the opportunity for neighbors to meet neighbors and old friends, which is something desperately needed in our society."


Manheim Borough Police Chief Barry Weidman said he did not witness the harassment but assumed the perpetrators were young people. His department had not received a complaint.


"We would have to have specifics," Weidman said. "Descriptions might be hard because some areas are dark. But if we had a location, possibly, along the parade route, things like that, there would be some avenues to check and see if we could get descriptions."
The jerks in that crowd are probably the same idiots that accuse the left of "using the race card".
To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.

-Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism







Post#1384 at 10-14-2010 10:24 PM by Wes84 [at joined Jun 2009 #posts 856]
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Quote Originally Posted by Odin View Post
Crowd hurls rocks, [Racial] epithets at Pa. school band.

This is in your neck of the woods, Chas.

The jerks in that crowd are probably the same idiots that accuse the left of "using the race card".
York, PA has been a hotbed for racial tensions over the years. The most notable of incidents were the 1969 race riots. Since then, the tensions have subsided some, but there is an uncomfortable feeling that remains between blacks and whites (as this incident seems to show).
Last edited by Wes84; 10-14-2010 at 10:31 PM.
Generation: Millennial (Gen Y)







Post#1385 at 10-14-2010 10:33 PM by Debol1990 [at joined Jul 2010 #posts 734]
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Quote Originally Posted by Odin View Post
Crowd hurls rocks, [Racial] epithets at Pa. school band.

This is in your neck of the woods, Chas.

The jerks in that crowd are probably the same idiots that accuse the left of "using the race card".
God, sometimes I wish Old time America (everything East of the Mississippi) would just go away. Full of outdated racial problems and an elitist attitude. Ill take the wide open beauty of the west over the stodgy tradition of the eastern seaboard any day of the week!







Post#1386 at 10-14-2010 11:30 PM by pbrower2a [at "Michigrim" joined May 2005 #posts 15,014]
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Quote Originally Posted by Debol1990 View Post
God, sometimes I wish Old time America (everything East of the Mississippi) would just go away. Full of outdated racial problems and an elitist attitude. Ill take the wide open beauty of the west over the stodgy tradition of the eastern seaboard any day of the week!

Oh come on -- the Great Lakes region, New York State, and New England are more civilized than you appreciate. Certainly better than Oklahoma!
The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" (or) even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered... in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by (those) who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern."


― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters







Post#1387 at 10-14-2010 11:32 PM by Chas'88 [at In between Pennsylvania & Pennsyltucky joined Nov 2008 #posts 9,432]
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Sadly enough Odin, it doesn't surprise me in the least. Since I was away at college, the Outlaw District two townships over have started waving the Rattlesnake flag instead of their traditional Confederate choice.

(The outlaw district is the area that back a few centuries is where all the outlaws from Philly would go to hideout and lay low, they usually stayed and settled there...)

I'll be honest, the small town I grew up in was noted for its KKK meetings in the area, they used to wave the Confederate flag right on main street right up until 2005, when the guy who owned the flag died. The KKK in town was always a weird hippie variety of it, more in favor of sit-ins and "peaceful protests": i.e. blocking the town's major intersection by sitting in the middle of it and passing out flyers promoting their cause. The High school only had four black kids who went to the school (since our school district is split between two counties, they were from the other county, which was being developed as fast as the farmers could sell off their land) when I went there. One of them woke up one morning to a cross burning right in the middle of their lawn when I was a junior I think. A week later the school was pushing "No Place for Hate" and a whole bunch of other bullshit pledging where most people were forced to sign a thing on the cafeteria wall. I refused to sign it because I believed that I didn't need to sign some stupid poster to challenge hatred and bigotry.

But these events in no way surprise me that they happen. Afterall, I live on the border of Pennsylvania and Pennsyltucky.

One thing I like to do to the bigots and racists I encounter: I love to remind the people that take them back a century or two, and they would've been on the other end of recieving those derogatory comments. Most of the people who do this belong to the following groups in my area: German, Irish, and Polish--mostly of the Catholic variety I might add; with the addition of some Scot-Irish decendents.

I like to remind them that their ancestors were the ones who had to deal with "Work Wanted; Irish need not apply", "We should be Anglifying them, not allowing them to Germanize us", "Immigrants go home", "You'll live on the borderlands between us and the Indians, and we don't care if you get scalped and murdered", and other such things. It's something that certainly shuts them up and humbles them fairly quickly.

~Chas'88
"There have always been people who say: "The war will be over someday." I say there's no guarantee the war will ever be over. Naturally a brief intermission is conceivable. Maybe the war needs a breather, a war can even break its neck, so to speak. But the kings and emperors, not to mention the pope, will always come to its help in adversity. ON the whole, I'd say this war has very little to worry about, it'll live to a ripe old age."







Post#1388 at 10-15-2010 12:01 AM by Odin [at Moorhead, MN, USA joined Sep 2006 #posts 14,442]
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Quote Originally Posted by Debol1990 View Post
God, sometimes I wish Old time America (everything East of the Mississippi) would just go away. Full of outdated racial problems and an elitist attitude. Ill take the wide open beauty of the west over the stodgy tradition of the eastern seaboard any day of the week!
You don't think there are racial problems on the West Coast? Oh, Wait, you are too young to remember the Rodney King travesty.
To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.

-Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism







Post#1389 at 10-15-2010 12:36 AM by pbrower2a [at "Michigrim" joined May 2005 #posts 15,014]
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Quote Originally Posted by Odin View Post
Oh, what a nasty site. Other gems include praise for Senator Joseph P. McCarthy, who is known to have exposed not even one Communist but tore to pieces the process that distinguishes our system from a Commie state with its show trials and purges.

Sure, it has its gems of stupidity -- like endorsing Sharron Angle as Senator from "Navada" (sic!) and Chalene Nightingale for Governor of "C.A." (sic!)
The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" (or) even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered... in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by (those) who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern."


― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters







Post#1390 at 10-15-2010 12:41 AM by Poodle [at Doghouse joined May 2010 #posts 1,269]
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Quote Originally Posted by Chas'88 View Post
Sadly enough Odin, it doesn't surprise me in the least. Since I was away at college, the Outlaw District two townships over have started waving the Rattlesnake flag instead of their traditional Confederate choice.

(The outlaw district is the area that back a few centuries is where all the outlaws from Philly would go to hideout and lay low, they usually stayed and settled there...)

I'll be honest, the small town I grew up in was noted for its KKK meetings in the area, they used to wave the Confederate flag right on main street right up until 2005, when the guy who owned the flag died. The KKK in town was always a weird hippie variety of it, more in favor of sit-ins and "peaceful protests": i.e. blocking the town's major intersection by sitting in the middle of it and passing out flyers promoting their cause. The High school only had four black kids who went to the school (since our school district is split between two counties, they were from the other county, which was being developed as fast as the farmers could sell off their land) when I went there. One of them woke up one morning to a cross burning right in the middle of their lawn when I was a junior I think. A week later the school was pushing "No Place for Hate" and a whole bunch of other bullshit pledging where most people were forced to sign a thing on the cafeteria wall. I refused to sign it because I believed that I didn't need to sign some stupid poster to challenge hatred and bigotry.

But these events in no way surprise me that they happen. Afterall, I live on the border of Pennsylvania and Pennsyltucky.

One thing I like to do to the bigots and racists I encounter: I love to remind the people that take them back a century or two, and they would've been on the other end of recieving those derogatory comments. Most of the people who do this belong to the following groups in my area: German, Irish, and Polish--mostly of the Catholic variety I might add; with the addition of some Scot-Irish decendents.

I like to remind them that their ancestors were the ones who had to deal with "Work Wanted; Irish need not apply", "We should be Anglifying them, not allowing them to Germanize us", "Immigrants go home", "You'll live on the borderlands between us and the Indians, and we don't care if you get scalped and murdered", and other such things. It's something that certainly shuts them up and humbles them fairly quickly.

~Chas'88
Webster County, MO. Edwin Hubble's hometown of Marshfield has it's open crazies, too.







Post#1391 at 10-31-2010 11:19 PM by Odin [at Moorhead, MN, USA joined Sep 2006 #posts 14,442]
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Right Wing Violence

Earlier this week, Tim Profitt, who was at the time the Bourbon County campaign coordinator for Kentucky GOP Senate nominee Rand Paul, stomped on a female MoveOn.org activist's head outside a debate between Paul and his Democratic opponent Jack Conway. Profitt threw the activist, Lauren Valle, to the ground and then smashed her head to the pavement with his foot. Valle was taken to the hospital where she was treated for a concussion and a sprained arm. Conway supporter Michael Grossman said a Paul supporter also assaulted him at the same event. Despite recently touting Profitt's endorsement, Paul distanced himself from the incident but refused to return Profitt's $2,000 campaign donation. Just two weeks prior, private security guards for Alaska GOP U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller physically restrained a local blogger who was trying to ask Miller questions during a campaign event. While this incident did not mirror the brutality of Profitt's attack, it -- along with the incident outside the Paul-Conway debate -- is emblematic of a wider pattern of violence coming from the right wing, or threats of violence, scattered throughout the past two years. Indeed, as progressive blogger Digby noted on Daily Kos, "The average American is frightened and confused while the rightwing is excited and overstimulated. The toxic combination of Bircerism, big money, xenophobia and social conservatism that defines the Tea Party is happening at a moment of maximum danger."

A VIOLENCE-THEMED TWO YEARS: President Obama's election and the Democrats' solidification of power in Congress in 2008 spawned a wide ranging right-wing backlash of violent intentions that has resulted in bloodshed. Indeed, shortly after Obama's inauguration, the Department of Homeland Security warned the right-wing groups may resort to violence to advance their goals. James von Brunn, the white supremacist who shot and killed a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. last year, reportedly also wanted to kill White House senior adviser David Axelrod. An anti-abortion crusader killed late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in May, 2009, while just last month, the FBI arrested a self-described "Christian counterpart to Osama bin Laden" for plotting to bomb an abortion clinic. Authorities arrested nine members of the "Hutaree militia" in March for plotting a violent uprising against the federal government. A Montana Tea Party leader recently advocated violence against gays. As part of the increasing Islamophobia over the past two years, one right-wing radio host said of the proposed Islamic community center in downtown Manhattan, "I hope somebody blows it up." Just last week, in the wake of the Fox News-led backlash over NPR's decision to fire contributor Juan Williams, NPR's headquarters in Washington, DC received a bomb threat. Today, the TriCity Herald reports that a supporter for Washington state GOP U.S. Senate candidate Dino Rossi attacked a woman protesting Rossi.

DEMOCRATS TARGETED: Democrats were the targets of violent threats during the heated health care reform debate last year. Rep. Betsy Markey (D-CO) received a phone call before the final vote threatening her life. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) received death threats via phone and fax. Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) told CNN that his office had received a fax showing a noose after he voted in favor of the health care reform bill. Just days after the final health care vote, the FBI arrested a California man for making threatening phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Another man was arrested for threatening Sen. Patty Murray's (D-WA) life because of her vote for health care reform. But other random acts of threats and actions have occurred outside the health care debate. A tea partier called for Murray's hanging at an event in February. In July, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) said he had to close a local office "after staff members discovered a bullet had shattered a window there." Just last week, an envelope containing "a plastic bag of white powder and two pieces of paper with swastikas written on them" was reportedly mailed to Grijalva's campaign office, which was later to be determined a benign substance.


REPUBLICANS ENCOURAGE ANGER: In addition to violent rhetoric coming from Florida House GOP candidate Allen West, on at least two separate instances throughout her campaign, GOP U.S. Senate candidate in Nevada, Sharrong Angle -- who has a real chance at defeating incumbent Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) -- suggested the possibility of an armed insurrection against the U.S. government. Saying that the purpose of the 2nd Amendment "was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government," Angle added, "if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies." Angle, who has refused to disavow those claims, even said recently that it's "possible" that the U.S. could be faced with a "revolutionary situation." Last week, GOP House candidate in Texas Stephen Broden said a violent overthrow of the government is "on the table."

GLENN BECK INSPIRED: In July, 45-year-old parolee Byron Williams opened fire on Highway Patrol officers in Oakland, California. After a brief shootout, police wounded Williams, who is now sitting in a California jail. Police caught Williams on his way to San Fransisco, where he hoped to "start a revolution" by killing workers at the American Civil Liberties Union and the Tides Foundation. According to a recent Media Matters report, Williams said that he was inspired by the fiery rhetoric of Fox News' self-described "Progressive Hunter" Glenn Beck. "I would have never started watching Fox News if it wasn't for the fact that Beck was on there. And it was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed that blew my mind," Williams said in an interview from jail. "I do enjoy Glenn Beck," Williams also says, "and the reason why I enjoy that is because...no other channell will speak about the same things that he's talking about, and if you go and investigate those things you'll find out that they're true." "Beck is going to deny everything about violent approach, deny everything about conspiracies," Williams said, adding," But he'll give you every reason to believe it. He's protecting himself, and you can't blame him for that. So, but I understand what he's doing." Yet at the same time, Beck continues to demonize the Tides Foundation and ramp up the violent rhetoric. Just yesterday, the Fox News host connected Obama and progressive financier George Soros to a "violent revolution" coming to "our shores." Citing former Alaska governor Sarah Palin as having invluence over Beck, Media Matters' founder and CEO David Brock said recently, "we're going to make a personal plea to her to stop this insanity."
Last edited by Odin; 10-31-2010 at 11:21 PM.
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Post#1392 at 11-09-2010 04:02 PM by Weave [at joined Feb 2010 #posts 909]
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Lefties call for violent revolution

I havent heard much complaint over Ted Ralls call for a violent revolution.

http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/lac...ent-revolution







Post#1393 at 11-09-2010 04:15 PM by Justin '77 [at Meh. joined Sep 2001 #posts 12,182]
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Quote Originally Posted by Weave View Post
I havent heard much complaint over Ted Ralls call for a violent revolution.
You're behind the times, man. I posted his stuff (direct from him, not as-filtered by people who want to make it all about Left/Right) right here over a week ago.

Here's the link.

And there's nothing to really complain about, as far as that goes. His point is a very true one -- political systems don't change in the interests of the people without those people making a credible threat of injury to the rulers. That's just the way things have always worked out.
"Qu'est-ce que c'est que cela, la loi ? On peut donc être dehors. Je ne comprends pas. Quant à moi, suis-je dans la loi ? suis-je hors la loi ? Je n'en sais rien. Mourir de faim, est-ce être dans la loi ?" -- Tellmarch

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is no doubt obvious, the cult of the experts is both self-serving, for those who propound it, and fraudulent." - Noam Chomsky







Post#1394 at 12-11-2010 03:52 PM by JDG 66 [at joined Aug 2010 #posts 2,106]
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Quote Originally Posted by Odin View Post

Profitt threw the activist, Lauren Valle, to the ground and then smashed her head to the pavement with his foot. Valle was taken to the hospital where she was treated for a concussion and a sprained arm...
-Looks like Valle took a sprint at now Senator-elect Paul, as a simple name search will show:

http://bigjournalism.com/dloesch/2010/10/28/what-the-media-and-the-left-wont-tell-you-about-lauren-valle/

The left loves full video and always pooh-poohs excerpts, which is why so many thought it odd that they ignored Lauren Valle’s actions leading up to the now-infamous scuffle.

Full video has emerged validating all the eyewitness accounts that Valle was lunging at Rand Paul, trying to shove a sign in his face and start trouble. It debunks the narrative that Valle was a simple protestor who just happened to be existing amongst all these angry conservatives...

The fact that conservatives condemned Tim Proffit sticking his foot on Valle’s shoulder shows, again, that the right polices their side. The left does not. They create standards that they expect everyone else to follow; I’ve still yet to see a single one of them condemn the attack of Kelly Owens, on camera by SEIU, Kenneth Gladney, Alle Bautsch, Bill Rice, John McCormack, the assault on NC tea partiers, I could go on. The left has yet to rise to the challenge and match the right in condemning violence such as the examples I’ve given here.

...Personally, I think Profitt overdid the security thing with the foot on the head, and should at least be charged with assault, but to pretend that the knockdown was unprovoked is silly.

Maybe for an encore, Valle can try the same maneuver on President Obama. I'd be interested to see the Secret Service's reaction...

OTOH, we've covered Kenneth Gladney on this thread, and I don't remember seeing you give him any sympathy when he was beaten by SEIU thugs (wearing matching T-shirts) for the provocation of selling pro-tea party stickers.

Still waiting.

Quote Originally Posted by Odin View Post
In July, 45-year-old parolee Byron Williams opened fire on Highway Patrol officers in Oakland, California. After a brief shootout, police wounded Williams, who is now sitting in a California jail...
-Strange, your response to this:


Quote Originally Posted by JustPassingThrough View Post

...was merely this:


Quote Originally Posted by Odin View Post
Paranoid Schizophrenia. NEXT!

...so taking your cue:

NEXT!

Quote Originally Posted by Odin View Post
Democrats were the targets of violent threats during the heated health care reform debate last year...
-Strange, you completely ignore the fact that the only politician to get death threats and have REAL violence directed against him was Congressman Cantor, an opponent of Obamacare. Your response?

Quote Originally Posted by Odin View Post
Looks like Cantor was lying his ass off.
...uh, the police disagreed with you.

You were WRONG.

Again.

Quote Originally Posted by Brian Rush View Post
Actually the Tea Party/Nazi comparison isn't ridiculous at all, provided one compares the Tea Party not to Nazi Germany the government with Hitler as dictator, but to the Nazi Party prior to 1933. There are a lot of points in common...
-Not really. The thugs in matching shirts who beat people up who disagree with them are the SEIU types. Again, your lack of sympathy for Kenneth Gladney is... revelaing.







Post#1395 at 01-08-2011 03:05 PM by TnT [at joined Feb 2005 #posts 2,005]
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Arizona Democratic Congresswoman Shot

"U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head outside a grocery store in Tucson while holding a public event, Arizona Public Media reported Saturday.

The Democrat, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting a "Congress on Your Corner" event at the Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.

At least nine other people, including members of her staff, were hurt. Giffords was transported to University Medical Center in Tucson. Her condition was not immediately known.

Giffords was talking to a couple when the suspect ran up firing indiscriminately and then ran off, Michaels said.

The suspect was tackled by a bystander and taken into custody. He was not injured. Witnesses described him as in his late teens or early 20s.

Giffords was first elected to represent Arizona's 8th District in 2006. The "Congress on Your Corner" events allow constituents to present their concerns directly to her."
" ... a man of notoriously vicious and intemperate disposition."







Post#1396 at 01-08-2011 03:13 PM by Odin [at Moorhead, MN, USA joined Sep 2006 #posts 14,442]
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Quote Originally Posted by TnT View Post
"U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head outside a grocery store in Tucson while holding a public event, Arizona Public Media reported Saturday.

The Democrat, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting a "Congress on Your Corner" event at the Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.

At least nine other people, including members of her staff, were hurt. Giffords was transported to University Medical Center in Tucson. Her condition was not immediately known.

Giffords was talking to a couple when the suspect ran up firing indiscriminately and then ran off, Michaels said.

The suspect was tackled by a bystander and taken into custody. He was not injured. Witnesses described him as in his late teens or early 20s.

Giffords was first elected to represent Arizona's 8th District in 2006. The "Congress on Your Corner" events allow constituents to present their concerns directly to her."
Can we call these RW loonies terrorists yet?
To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.

-Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism







Post#1397 at 01-08-2011 03:19 PM by Rose1992 [at Syracuse joined Sep 2008 #posts 1,833]
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People still don't know the affiliation of the suspect political or otherwise. Her district is right on the border so it could be a response from a Mexican drug cartel.

Just putting that out there before everyone thinks it's Tea Party.







Post#1398 at 01-08-2011 03:47 PM by Debol1990 [at joined Jul 2010 #posts 734]
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Congresswoman Giffords Shot in Tucson

Posted on another thread but pertains to this.

Could this be a spark? Assassination-crackdown- more violence- more crackdown?


Congresswoman Giffords Shot in Tucson

So far 6 dead including the congress woman 7 wounded. Still a developing story

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/us...er=rss&emc=rss







Post#1399 at 01-08-2011 03:51 PM by Xer H [at Chicago and Indiana joined Dec 2009 #posts 1,212]
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I'm waiting to learn more, but I've had a feeling that Mexico would boil over into Arizona or Texas any day now. It doesn't strike me as political, since what the Tea Party wants is exactly the type of politician she appeared to be -- one who listens to her constitutents. But, only time will tell. We didn't know what happened on 9/11 until well afterward.
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." —Albert Einstein

"The road to perdition has ever been accompanied by lip service to an ideal." —Albert Einstein

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” —Albert Einstein







Post#1400 at 01-08-2011 04:00 PM by disgruntledxer [at Seattle, WA joined Sep 2010 #posts 674]
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Quote Originally Posted by Xer H View Post
I'm waiting to learn more, but I've had a feeling that Mexico would boil over into Arizona or Texas any day now. It doesn't strike me as political, since what the Tea Party wants is exactly the type of politician she appeared to be -- one who listens to her constitutents. But, only time will tell. We didn't know what happened on 9/11 until well afterward.
It could be a violent response to her boarder control stance. If it is a right wing nut, immagrant nut, or another nut of a diffent sort, we can not have people assasinated. Regardless of budget concerns, security over ellected officials needs increased if we have to borrow, print, cut spending, or raise taxes.
Initially, the questions I ask when reviewing any saeculur event: What did the decision makers know about the cyclical time, when did they know it, and how did they act on that knowledge? Then I can ask the question, "what was their purpose?" I take extra special notice when reviewing events before Generations was released by Strauss-Howe.
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