Obama Refers to Black Americans as "a Mongrel People" on The View

Oh, great...

From The Hill article by Sam Youngman:

"President Obama waded into the national race debate in an unlikely setting and with an unusual choice of words: telling daytime talk show hosts that African-Americans are 'sort of a mongrel people.'

"The president appeared on ABC’s morning talk show “The View” Thursday, where he talked about the forced resignation of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod, his experience with race and his roots.

"When asked about his background, which includes a black father and white mother, Obama said of African-Americans: 'We are sort of a mongrel people.'

"'I mean we're all kinds of mixed up,' Obama said. 'That's actually true of white people as well, but we just know more about it.'

"The president's remarks were directed at the roots of all Americans. The definition of mongrel as an adjective is defined as 'of mixed breed, nature, or origin,' according to dictionary.com.

"Obama did not appear to be making an inflammatory remark with his statement and the audience appeared to receive it in the light-hearted manner that often accompanies interviews on morning talk shows."

Well, I'm glad Youngman gave us the dictionary.com definition of mongrel-- because I was confused. Of course dictionary.com wouldn't mention that white supremacists have been using the term "mongrel race" to refer (disparagingly) to Black Americans and other ethnic minorities for a hundred years or more. UPDATE: Donald Douglas noted that Wikipedia does mention this however-- "Among humans, mongrel and mongrelize are derogatory terms for the mixing of 'races', known as miscegenation." I think that Obama probably shouldn't use that phrase too much in the future. Just sayin'...

Also amusing was this line (probably the prize winner for most snort-worthy) from Obama's stint on daytime talk shows: "My hope is that I've tried to set a tone in the debate that says, 'Look, we can disagree without being disagreeable.'"

Obama said that and expected us to believe that he's sincere? Are you kidding me? I know he thinks we're all stupid children but...

So, let me compile a partial list, off the top of my head, as to exactly how Obama's attempted to set that non-disagreeable tone. Well, he arrogantly insulted the former president during his own inaugural address (an inauguration which included a benediction that referred to Asians as "yellow"). Obama has steadfastly refused to consider any other viewpoint except his own on the stimulus, economy in general, health care, unemployment, financial reform, the mislabeled Honduran "coup," etc. The White House asked citizens to flag "fishy" comments found on the internet and in blogs. Obama attempted to shut out Fox News from White House access, and accused them of not being a real news organization-- all the while giving preferential treatment to Huff Po. He called out Sarah Palin in all but name in a major speech before Congress, and he chastised the Supreme Court during a State of the Union address. He initially refused to meet Israel's Prime Minister. Obama's used children as shills in town halls while promoting his agendas (nothing like avoiding disagreeableness by stacking the deck with children of your campaign workers, I suppose). The OFA (Obama for America) promised to deliver "super-hero karate chops" to opponents of the Obama's health care "reforms."

As I said, that's just from off the top of my head. Just think what political debate would be like if Obama was adopting a more confrontational attitude toward his opponents...

White House is Predicting $1.47 Trillion Deficit for 2010

It's kind of amusing to watch Andrew Taylor of the AP try to spin this into good news-- or at least not dreadful news.

From the article:

"New estimates from the White House on Friday predict the budget deficit will reach a record $1.47 trillion this year. The government is borrowing 41 cents of every dollar it spends.

"That's actually a little better than the administration predicted in February.

"The new estimates paint a grim unemployment picture as the economy experiences a relatively jobless recovery. The unemployment rate, presently averaging 9.5 percent, would average 9 percent next year under the new estimates.

"The Office of Management and Budget report has ominous news for President Barack Obama should he seek re-election in 2012 — a still-high unemployment rate of 8.1 percent. That would be well above normal, which is closer to a rate of 5.5 percent to 6 percent. Private economists don't think the unemployment rate will drop to those levels until well into this decade."

[...]

"The gaping deficits are of increasing concern to voters. But Obama and Democrats controlling Congress are mostly taking a pass on deficit reduction this year as they await possible recommendations from Obama's deficit commission.

"While there's a slight improvement in the deficit for the current year compared to the administration's February forecast, next year's predicted $1.42 trillion worth , next year's predicted $1.42 trillion worth of red ink — that's 37 cents of borrowing for every dollar spent — is looking worse. It's about $150 billion more than previously predicted, because of still-slumping tax revenues."

Personally I find the line "But Obama and Democrats controlling Congress are mostly taking a pass on deficit reduction this year as they await possible recommendations from Obama's deficit commission" to be most amusing.

Hmm, I really wonder why the deficits are so huge? It wouldn't have anything to do with a $787 billion dollar political pay off... uh, I mean stimulus package, or that $1 trillion+ health insurance control... um, I mean refrom law-- for starters. Oh, what on Earth can we do to reduce the deficit? We'll have to wait from a partisan commission's recommendations on that... But we'll get back to at date TBD.

Geez...

Unconstitutional ObamaCare

Check out the opinion piece at The Wall Street Journal by J. Kenneth Blackwell and Kenneth A. Klukowski:

"The Justice Department announced last week that it would defend the new federal health-insurance mandate as an exercise of Congress's 'power to lay and collect taxes,' even though Barack Obama had insisted before the bill's passage that it was 'absolutely not a tax increase.' The truth is the mandate is not a tax—and if it were it would be unconstitutional.

"A tax is when the government takes money from individuals, puts it in the Treasury, and plans to spend it. With the health-insurance mandate, the government is not taking money from private individuals; rather, it is commanding them to give their money to another private entity, not to the Treasury. If individuals don't obey the mandate, they pay a penalty to the Treasury. But penalties aren't taxes. The mandate is legally separate from the penalty.

"Even if the Justice Department were to get the mandate considered a tax, it would be an unconstitutional one. Unlike states, the federal government has limited jurisdiction. Under the 10th Amendment, the federal government has only those powers enumerated by the Constitution, and all other powers are reserved to the people or the states. Every federal action must be authorized by a constitutional provision. If there is no such provision, then the action is unconstitutional. No provision of the Constitution authorizes the federal government to command people to buy insurance."

Read the whole thing. It's short and highly recommended.

As I have said before, demanding that citizens buy products and services from private enterprises regulated by the state for the social good of all fits the definition of fascist economic theory.

From the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics:

"Where socialism sought totalitarian control of a society’s economic processes through direct state operation of the means of production, fascism sought that control indirectly, through domination of nominally private owners. Where socialism nationalized property explicitly, fascism did so implicitly, by requiring owners to use their property in the 'national interest'—that is, as the autocratic authority conceived it. (Nevertheless, a few industries were operated by the state.) Where socialism abolished all market relations outright, fascism left the appearance of market relations while planning all economic activities. Where socialism abolished money and prices, fascism controlled the monetary system and set all prices and wages politically. In doing all this, fascism denatured the marketplace. Entrepreneurship was abolished. State ministries, rather than consumers, determined what was produced and under what conditions. [emphasis mine]"

This law must be repealed. No compromises.

Daily Caller: "Documents show media plotting to kill stories about Rev. Jeremiah Wright"

Not that this is a real surprise for anyone paying a modicum of attention...

From The Daily Caller article by Jonathan Strong (h/t Clifton B at Another Black Conservative):

"It was the moment of greatest peril for then-Sen. Barack Obama’s political career. In the heat of the presidential campaign, videos surfaced of Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, angrily denouncing whites, the U.S. government and America itself. Obama had once bragged of his closeness to Wright. Now the black nationalist preacher’s rhetoric was threatening to torpedo Obama’s campaign."

[...]

"Watching this all at home were members of Journolist, a listserv comprised of several hundred liberal journalists, as well as like-minded professors and activists. The tough questioning from the ABC anchors left many of them outraged. 'George [Stephanopoulos],' fumed Richard Kim of the Nation, is 'being a disgusting little rat snake.'

"Others went further. According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage."

[...]

"Thomas Schaller, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun as well as a political science professor, upped the ante from there. In a post with the subject header, 'why don’t we use the power of this list to do something about the debate?' Schaller proposed coordinating a 'smart statement expressing disgust' at the questions Gibson and Stephanopoulos had posed to Obama.
'It would create quite a stir, I bet, and be a warning against future behavior of the sort,' Schaller wrote.

"Tomasky approved. 'YES. A thousand times yes,' he exclaimed.

The members began collaborating on their open letter. Jonathan Stein of Mother Jones rejected an early draft, saying, 'I’d say too short. In my opinion, it doesn’t go far enough in highlighting the inanity of some of [Gibson's] and [Stephanopoulos’s] questions. And it doesn’t point out their factual inaccuracies …Our friends at Media Matters probably have tons of experience with this sort of thing, if we want their input.'

"Jared Bernstein, who would go on to be Vice President Joe Biden’s top economist when Obama took office, helped, too. The letter should be 'Short, punchy and solely focused on vapidity of gotcha,' Bernstein wrote."

[...]

"'Part of me doesn’t like this shit either,' agreed Spencer Ackerman, then of the Washington Independent. 'But what I like less is being governed by racists and warmongers and criminals.'
Ackerman went on:

"'I do not endorse a Popular Front, nor do I think you need to. It’s not necessary to jump to Wright-qua-Wright’s defense. What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger’s [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically.'

"'And I think this threads the needle. If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes *them* sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.'

[...]

"Several members of the list disagreed with Ackerman – but only on strategic grounds.

"'Spencer, you’re wrong,' wrote Mark Schmitt, now an editor at the American Prospect. 'Calling Fred Barnes a racist doesn’t further the argument, and not just because Juan Williams is his new black friend, but because that makes it all about character. The goal is to get to the point where you can contrast some _thing_ — Obama’s substantive agenda — with this crap.'"

So this our current fourth estate-- shilling for Obama, talking political strategy (which includes metaphorical assaults), doing their utmost to keep racists (I guess not counting people who would agree with Wright) out of the White House. Do we really want "facts" from these people informing our opinion?

Clifton B at Another Black Conservative had this astute reaction: "What is astounding is that none on the listsev objects to making up racism, they only object to whether or not the strategy will backfire on Obama. Given the racial tensions that already exist in this nation, I find it a particularly evil to add to that tension by making stuff up for political gain."

I highly recommend reading the entire article, and email links to The Daily Caller's article to anyone who doubts a Left-biased mainstream media.

NAACP Speaker and Probable Racial Separatist Zaki Baruti Defends Calling Kenneth Gladney an "Uncle Tom"

Zaki Baruti is the name of the man who called Kenneth Gladney an "Uncle Tom" during an NAACP rally in support of Gladney's attackers (my own post about this here). After this rally was recorded and posted on the internet by the NAACP, Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit posted the excerpt and it made its way through the blogosphere and onto the MSM's radar. Now with his fifteen minutes of fame in full swing, Zaki Baruti, aka Lavoy Reed, went on Fox News and was interviewed by Bill O'Reilly (video here). Once there, Baruti didn't disappoint and once again reaffirmed that it's okay to call black people beaten by SEIU attackers (one white and one black) an "Uncle Tom."

In the interview, Baruti said "I would say that most of the people would agree with that terminology of Uncle Tom being applied to him," and "I most definitely stand by the statement that was made with regards to Mr. Kenneth Gladney and stand very strongly with Rev. Elston McCowan [one of the defendants facing charges for attacking Gladney]." He then hawked his newsletter to the Fox News crowd. Classy...

Baruti's speech excerpt from the NAACP rally was this:

"Back in the day, we used to call someone like that, and I want to remind you, when uh... this incident occurred, I was really struck by a front page picture of this guy, which we called, a Negro. I mean that we call him a Negro in the fact that he works for not for our people but against our people. In the old days, we call him an Uncle Tom. I just gotta say that. Here he is, ironically the day after a young brother, a young man, I didn’t mean to call him a brother, but on the front page of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, ironically, he’s sitting in a wheelchair, and being kissed on the forehead, by a European. Now just imagine that as a poster's child picture, not working for our people.."

Although his unfocused, rambling speech and amateurish interview with O'Reilly may make it hard to believe, Baruti seems to have managed to make a career out of his racial activism. A small amount of research shows him to be an all too common, small-time racial activist. He is the "president/general" of The Universal African Peoples Organization (UAPO), an organization whose website boasts that they are "Develop[ing] programs to assist youth in preparing for the 21st [Century is the word presumably left off]." I guess they should get right on that-- I mean the 21st century is right around the corner. Their mission statement also says that they "are seeking at least 144,000 people who share our aspirations." When I was there the their web counter rang me up as #28,820 and I for one am not somebody that shares their aspirations-- so they still have a ways to go yet.

Baruti's resume posted at the website lists various standard Left-wing activist jobs-- student leader, political action chairperson, "Housing Activist," author (of two educational booklets), publisher of a newsletter, founder of an organization (the UAPO), co-chair of "Coalition Against Police Crimes And Repression," etc. Two of his boasts particularly caught my eye-- he was a "Delegate to African Anti-Zionism Movement - Tripoli, Libya 1989" and "Delegate to World Conference Against Racism - WCAR Durban, South Africa 2001." The second is the infamous Durban conference, a UN hosted meeting that basically devolved into a shameful, anti-Semitic rant. So, anyone care to bet that Baruti believes that Jews are trying rule the world and oppressing the black race?

Going by by the UAPO's published "Vision & Principles," Baruti's racial stances are pretty much standard racial separatism and racial collectivity, not unlike Ron Karenga, aka Ron Everett, the inventor of Kwanzaa (my Karenga/Kwanzaa posts are here: Part One and Part Two). In fact, the UAPO's platform reads to be rather similar to Karenga's "sevenfold path of blackness" as published in The Quotable Karenga.

According to Karenga the "sevenfold path of blackness is think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black." With that in mind, let's take a look at the UAPO's platform section of their "Visions & Principles" web page.

"We will improve the lives of our people when we do the following:

"1. Develop, support, and expand the growth of African-American businesses. Increase the number of African-American skilled professional. Gain our share of the tax dollars and services generated by national, state, and local businesses. End redlining of the African-American community. Develop international trade ventures. [In other words: "buy black."]

"2. We seek to the quantitative/qualitative number of African-Americans to elected public offices in proportion to our population at national, state, and local levels. We seek the passage of legislation that would directly enhance the quality of life for African-Americans. [In other words: "vote black."]

"3. Support the development and expansion of independent African-American schools. Support African centered curriculum in the public schools. Control local public school boards with Afrocentric thinking people. Increase the literacy rate and level within our community. ["Think black," "act black," and "talk black."]

"4. Institute community control of police departments and end racism within the judicial system. Support and expand educational, job training, and community-oriented programs within the penal institutions. Use community service programs as alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders.

"5. Develop greater emphasis on health care, knowledge, and accessibility. Support a universal assistance program responsible for providing a minimum standard of living to rebuild two parent and/or extended families. End homelessness. ["Live black."]

"6. Develop programs to assist youth in preparing for the 21st. We believe in the total equality and advancement of women within the private, public, and domestic sectors of our society. We also believe that all women should be respected and protected. ["Live black," again.]

"7. End all types of pollution, especially industrial, of Mother Earth, the water and air.

"8. Support and work diligently for the complete liberation of Africa, the Carribean [misspelling theirs] Islands, and other regions/countries in the world. Actively support the principles of non-interference in the affairs of other nations. ["Create black" in this case, black nations.]"

Karenga's antipathy for religion ("Jesus said, 'My blood will wash you white as snow'. Who wants to be white but sick 'Negroes', or worse yet-- washed that way by the blood of a dead Jew. You know if Nadinola bleaching cream couldn't do it, no dead Jew's blood is going to do it." page 28 of the The Quotable Karenga) is not shared by the UAPO whose motto is "One God! One Goal! One Destiny!" However Karenga's enthusiasm for racial separation and racial collectivity is evident throughout the UAPO's website. The Quotable Karenga says "There is no such thing as individualism, we're all Black," (page 1), " "If we could get a nigger to see how worthless, unimportant, and weak he is by himself, then we will have made a contribution," (page 2), "Individualism is a white desire; co-operation is a Black need," (page 5), and "Thinking Black is thinking collective minded," (page 5).

Quotes from Baruti's UAPO website, while not as inflammatory nor as blunt as Karenga, illustrate an agenda and mind-set likewise obsessed with collective racial identity."[W]e must unite based on their commonality which is 1) we are of African descent and 2) we are oppressed within America and throughout the world[ emphasis mine]," the UAPO declares. "Our goal is the liberation of our people spiritually, economically, politically, and culturally, whereby we will control our destiny," they say. "[T]he fulfillment of God’s will for us as people to have Freedom, Justice, and Equality, no matter where we reside and whereby we as a collective will fulfill our capacity to grow, develop, and expand to our greatest height of self-development [emphasis mine]." Candy-coated separatism.

Baruti considers Gladney outside the Black collective. This is why Baruti "didn’t mean to call him [Gladney] a brother," and "we call him a Negro in the fact that he works for not for our people but against our people."

In The Quotable Karenga Ron Karenga says "White people can't be Black peoples friend. A friend is your alter-ego and a reflection of yourself," (page 30). It is any wonder why Baruti can't stand seeing Gladney "sitting in a wheelchair, being kissed on the forehead, by a European."

Well, one has to wonder exactly what life experiences would drive Baruti to this separatist point of view. Karenga made it a point to blame racism and Whites for his separatist views. He writes: "We should not be blamed for talking separation. Racism in America has already decided this. We just want to be separate and powerful, not segregated and powerless" (page 18 of The Quotable Karenga).

Well, Baruti does have an encounter with racial discrimination that he describes (link is here). He writes: "DISCRIMINATION: The only personal instance of discrimination that has occurred to me happened in 1965 when I applied for a job with Union Electric. There were three positions available and I was the only Black of five finalists for these positions. However, I wasn't chosen. Thus, the slots were filled by the White applicants. Of course, I felt a twinge of racism, but being young, I did not pursue the issue."

So, Baruti didn't get a job once-- the obvious and only reason being that he is black... I guess. You know, I've been in a group of final candidates for a few jobs before... maybe the reason I didn't get the jobs was because I am married to a black woman. I mean, what other reason could there be?

At that same web page Baruti also says "meeting the leader of the Libyan Revolution, Muammar Qadafy, is a parallel to the other [greatest] personal achievement [publishing two booklets]." This trip was made possible by "being blessed with a 10-day, expense-paid trip to Libya, Africa."

So to recap, Kenneth Gladney is a black man reportedly beaten and called a "n*gger" by a white man and black man from the SEIU. The Missouri NAACP's response is to hold a rally for the two alleged attackers, a rally that demands the two be immediately exonerated. They invite Zaki Baruti, aka Lavoy Reed, the president/general of the UAPO, a group whose writings support racial separation, to speak so that Burati can call Gladney a "negro" and an "Uncle Tom."

The NAACP is building a community by supporting physical assaults and public name calling against those they decide do not belong. Does anyone else have a problem with this?

Iranian Woman Raped and Murdered by Basij Forces in Tabriz

From Persian2English.com ((h/t Anne Leary at Backyard Conservative):

"According to HRANA, Elnaz Babazadeh, a 26 year old woman was raped and murdered by Basij forces in the city of Tabriz (northwestern Iran) last week. According to the reports, Basij forces stopped Babazadeh in her car for not following the Iranian regime’s dress code. Elnaz resisted and ignored orders given by the Basij forces.

"Then the Basij forces who had initially stopped her jumped into her car and threatened her with a gun. Two other Basij members joined in and all together they beat and raped her. They murdered Babazadeh and dumped her body close to Emamiyeh cemetery.

"After local investigation was conducted by HRANA members in Tabriz, it was confirmed at Babazadeh’s funeral that the person who killed her was the son of a high-ranking Revolutionary Guards member.

"The intentions of the savage Basij members was to put a stop to the 'improper' way women in society dressed. Basij members believe this is their duty to God."

And Iran is a member of the UN's Women's Commission...

Background on the Basij can be found here:

"The Pasdaran was given the mandate of organizing a large people's militia, the Basij, in 1980. Islamic Revolution Guards (Vezarat-e Sepah Pasdaran-e Enqelab-e Islamic) is in charge of the paramilitary national Mobilization of the Oppressed (Baseej-e Mostazafan) Organisation. It is from Basij ranks that volunteers were drawn to launch "human wave" attacks against the Iraqis, particularly around Basra.

"The precise size of the Basij is an open question. Basij membership comprises mainly boys, old men, and those who recently finished their military service. Article 151 of the Constitution says the government is obligated to provide military-training facilities for everyone in the country, in accordance with the precepts of Islam under which all individuals should have the ability to take up arms in defense of their country

"Iranian officials frequently cite a figure of 20 million, but this appears to be an exaggeration based on revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's November 1979 decree creating the Basij. Khomeini said at the time that 'a country with 20 million youths must have 20 million riflemen or a military with 20 million soldiers; such a country will never be destroyed.' In a 1985 Iranian News Agency report, Hojjatoleslam Rahmani, head of the Basij forces of the Pasdaran, was quoted as stating that there were close to 3 million volunteers in the paramilitary force receiving training in some 11,000 centers.

[...]

"The Niruyeh Moghavemat Basij - the Mobilisation Resistance Force - was the strong right arm of Ayatollah Khomeini. Its volunteers were martyred in their tens of thousands in the Iran-Iraq war, and were given the role of moral police at home. The supreme leader's equally conservative successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been careful not to let any of Iran's overlapping security forces fall under the control of his elected rival.

"Ashura Brigades were reportedly created in 1993 after anti-government riots erupted in various Iranian cities. In 1998 they consisted of 17,000 Islamic militia men and women, and were composed of elements of the Revolutionary Guards and the Baseej volunteer militia.

"The Basij, or Baseej paramilitary volunteer forces, come under the control of the Revolutionary Guards. They have been active in monitoring the activities of citizens, enforcing the hijab and arresting women for violating the dress code, and seizing 'indecent' material and satellite dish antennae. In May 1999 the Minister of Islamic Culture and Guidance stated in public remarks that the Government might support an easing of the satellite ban. However, Supreme Leader Khamenei, who makes the ultimate determination on issues that involve radio and television broadcasting, quickly criticised any potential change as amounting to 'surrender' to Western culture, effectively ending any further debate of the idea. The 'Special Basijis' are not permitted to participate in political parties or groups, although other members of the Basij can belong to political associations if they are not on a Basij mission and do not use the name or resources of the Basij for the association. Basijis can participate in specialist or trade associations.

"Hezbollahi 'partisans of God' consist of religious zealots who consider themselves as preservers of the Revolution. They have been active in harassing government critics and intellectuals, have firebombed bookstores and disrupted meetings. They are said to gather at the invitation of the state-affiliated media and generally act without meaningful police restraint or fear of persecution."

NAACP to Vote on Declaration that Tea Party is Racist

Apparently the NAACP believes that espousing federal fiscal responsibility and respect for the Constitution is racist.

From ABC News story by Huma Khan (h/t Pat at And So it Goes in Shreveport):

"The nation's largest and oldest civil rights organization will vote on the resolution Tuesday during its annual convention in Kansas City, Mo.

[...]

"'We're deeply concerned about elements that are trying to move the country back, trying to reverse progress that we've made,' NAACP spokeswoman Leila McDowell told ABC News. 'We are asking that the law-abiding members of the Tea Party repudiate those racist elements, that they recognize the historic and present racist elements that are within the Tea Party movement.'

"The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in coordination with 170 other groups, including labor unions, is planning a protest march in Washington, D.C., Oct. 10 as the next step in building momentum against the Tea Party.

"The 'One Nation' march is designed as an antithesis to the Tea Party, and it's about 'pulling America together and back to work,' McDowell said."

So Leila McDowell is suggesting that "law-abiding" members (What Tea Party member is not "law-abiding?" Which Tea Party members have been arrested for violent political activities?)of the Tea Party essentially admit the "inherent racism" of their movement, "historic and present" (Historic? Just how old is the Tea Party movement? Less than 18 months, right? Did McDowell just cut & paste this statement from her standard "white guilt" NAACP press release kit?), and then step aside so that NAACP and Leftist political groups can continue in their "building momentum against the Tea Party." All in the name of... what?... good race relations, I guess.

Funny. The NAACP didn't seem to take exception when Kenneth Gladney was (at least) kicked while on the ground and called a n*gger by a White man from the SEIU. In fact, Missouri's branch of the NAACP held a rally in support of the White man and his co-defendant-- where they denounced Gladney as an "Uncle Tom" (video here). Apparently Blacks perceived as conservative don't deserve anything from the NAACP except insults and derision. That's good race relations for you...

By the way Ms. McDowell, perhaps you can explain to us all about this declaration at the Missouri NAACP rally. "I mean that we call him [Kenneth Gladney] a Negro in the fact that he works for not for our people but against our people. In the old days, we call him an Uncle Tom. I just gotta say that. Here he is, ironically the day after a young brother, a young man, I didn’t mean to call him a brother, but on the front page of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, ironically, he’s sitting in a wheelchair, and being kissed on the forehead, by a European. Now just imagine that as a poster's child picture, not working for our people.." Was this an example of "pulling America together and back to work"? Please, tell me.

And then, of course, there's the video of the Philadelphia New Black Panther Party leader King Samir Shibazz's shouted declaration that "I hate white people! All of them! Every last iota of a cracker, I hate him!" This is in addition to his more widely reported statement "You want freedom? You’re gonna have to kill some crackers! You’re gonna have to kill some of their babies!" (video here) Is a highly publicized NAACP condemnation of that forthcoming? None that I know of. But I guess statements like that don't qualify as "explicitly racist behavior" in the NAACP's book.

I am so tired of the racist Tea Party rhetoric. The evidence that the ABC article cites is the hotly debated "racial epithets thrown at members of Congress" issue (racial epithets heard by no one, including cameras' audios, except by the members of Congress in question), have "engaged in explicitly racist behavior" (no specific examples given), and "displayed signs and posters intended to degrade people of color generally and President Barack Obama specifically" (references to a few anti-Obama signs showing him as a monkey and a picture with someone holding a sign saying "undocumented worker" below a picture of Obama-- I didn't know the birther movement was inherently racist...). If the Tea Party engages in explicitly racist behavior (such as NBPP), why is it that there are only a few, highly contested examples of it?

Strange, huh?

UPDATE: Conservative pundits have responded to the NAACP's with various posts over at Big Government:

"I Condemn the NAACP: Get Back to Freedom" by R. Dozier Gray

"The NAACP should, in my opinion, be about freedom of thought, expression and existence for all people. Instead, NAACP seems desirous of only protecting thought and expression that agrees with them. I think that is wrongheaded."

"I Condemn the NAACP" by Maria Stroughter

"What saddens me is that this organization chooses to focus on imaginary slights, while real threats to this country exist in the form of New Black Panther members who have been caught on tape intimidating voters with billy clubs. Rather than condemning this behavior, it is largely ignored by the NAACP and a presidential administration that continues to refuse to prosecute such."

"Chicago Machine Democrats Deserve NAACP Condemnation, Not Tea Party" by Cedra Crenshaw

"As the NAACP prepares to condemn the tea party movement for phantom 'explicitly racist behavior', the Department of Justice and the NAACP overlook actual instances of explicitly racist behavior by the New Black Panther Party. Blatant disregard for actual racist behavior shows the NAACP to be nothing more than a tool of hard leftists; hard leftists who are intent on creating exploitable divisions."

"NAACP Is Not At All Serious: They’ve Missed the Real Issues" by LTC Allen West (USA, Ret.)

"This NAACP Resolution is consistent with the Obama administration tactic of demonizing and blaming someone else for your own failures and shortcomings, and not take responsibility and accountability."

"The Racism of the NAACP" by Jeff Dunetz

"Take for example this rant by SEIU Executive VP Gerry Hudson where he portrays African-American workers as easy dupes 'it doesn’t take a whole lot to argue African-American workers to another place,' and stereotypes those white workers are 'so f***ing rabidly racist.'"

"Essentially he is saying that the black people he represents are all weak-minded idiots and the whites are all racists. In the old days the NAACP would have blasted Mr. Hudson for his racist comments about Blacks and Whites. But these 'ain’t' the old days."

"Tea Party Preempts NAACP" by Bill Hennessy

"At midnight, the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition sent a resolution condemning the NAACP’s false and defamatory statement to the organization’s Washington bureau. We took this action because we will not stand for their lies.

"The Tea Party’s principles are simple and clear:

Smaller federal government
Lower taxes
Fiscal responsibility
National security
Federalism

"Those are precisely the tools to lift all Americans out of poverty. They’ve worked every time they’ve been tried. In America, we just haven’t tried them in awhile, due in large part to the NAACP’s advancement of socialism."

"Black Activists Condemn NAACP Resolution Against Tea Party Movement" by Bob Parks

"As the NAACP plans to use their group’s prestige to bash the tea party movement, members of the Project 21 black leadership network are urging delegates at the NAACP’s national convention not to turn the NAACP into a pawn for progressive political bosses.

"'As a frequent speaker at tea party rallies around the country, I can assure the NAACP that the tea party movement’s concerns are about President Obama’s policies and not his race,' said Project 21 fellow Deneen Borelli. 'I’m deeply concerned that the NAACP is being used as a political tool to do the dirty work of the progressive movement. Instead of criticizing tea parties, the NAACP would be better served denouncing the racist comments made by a member of the New Black Panther Party and their voter intimidation outside a Philadelphia polling place in the last presidential election.'"

UPDATE 2: The NAACP has, unsurprisingly, passed passed the resolution condemning the Tea Party.

According to KansasCity.com (h/t Jacobson at Legal Insurrection):

"Late this afternoon the NAACP passed a resolution calling on all people — including tea party leaders — to condemn racism within the tea party movement.

"Passed on the fourth day of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s annual convention in Kansas City, the resolution also urged people to oppose what it said was the tea party’s drive 'to push our country back to the pre-civil rights era.'"

According to Jacobson:

"As originally proposed, the resolution was to call upon 'all people of good will to repudiate the racism of the Tea Parties, and to stand in opposition to its drive to push our country back to the pre-civil rights era.'

"The NAACP shut down the video feed and barred cameras from its vote, but reportedly the resolution was scaled back slightly, to use the term 'racist elements in the Tea Parties.'

"Make no mistake, either under the original or the revised version, the NAACP has placed itself firmly within the Democratic smear machine which for two years has been attempting to portray all opposition to Obama's policies as racist.

"The purported basis for the resolution is that racist signs and epithets have been hurled at Tea Party rallies. I have addressed this before. While any such behavior should be, and has been, condemned, we are talking about a literal handful of incidents out of millions of people attending thousands of rallies carrying hundreds of thousands of signs.

"Moreover, the notion that the Tea Party movement stands for turning the country back to a pre-civil rights era is a gross and disgusting distortion, and an outright falsehood. A lie is a lie and the NAACP is lying."

[...]

"The target of the NAACP is not so much the Tea Party members, but other blacks. The NAACP seeks to isolate the Tea Party movement from a natural constituency, black social and economic conservatives. The resolution puts any black who associates with the Tea Parties at risk of being labeled an Uncle Tom or some of the other race-based epithets hurled at black conservatives by black liberals."

I'm very glad that Jacobson brings up the notion that the NAACP's actions are most directly directed at Black Americans and not so much at the Tea Party itself. By painting the Tea Party a racist group, the NAACP places even more pressure on Black Americans to conform to the NAACP's Leftist political agendas. This is the same strategy employed for many, many years by Black political leaders and activists.

The Obama Administration's Core

William Jacobson over at Legal Insurrection wrote an excellent post, "A Time to Choose Sides" on Sunday. Check it out. Prof. Jacobson usually writes good stuff, but he was dead-on in this post.

From Jacobson:

"Not to belabor the point made here hundreds of times, but over two thousand pages of Obamacare legislation will result in several thousand pages of regulations which will control the most intimate and important aspects of our lives; cap-and-trade legislation and regulations will control the means of production; financial regulation has devolved into social planning; and it goes on and on.

"We did not need to reach this point.

"What should have been a passing financial crisis has been used by the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress to achieve what -- in the famous words of Rahm Emanuel -- could not otherwise be achieved.

"Democrats took advantage of a crisis, and then doubled-down by massively increasing our national debt to advantage preferred political constituencies.

"The answer should have been to grow the pie, not to redistribute the slices, but that alternative is off the table with Democrats in control."

Jacobson has managed to put into concise language what so many Americans are feeling. Cutting through the layers of ugly partisan politics, the race-issue shield, and the media blitz, Jacobson precisely describes the core of the Obama Administration in this relatively short post. Very fine work.

UPDATE: Heh. It seems that Carol over at Carol's Closet was also impressed with Jacobson's post and wrote about it last night.

Missouri NAACP Calls Kenneth Gladney an "Uncle Tom"

You may remember Kenneth Gladney. He's the black man who was physically assaulted by SEIU members while selling "Don't Tread on Me" flags in front of Rep. Russ Carnahan's townhall meeting in Missouri (video here).

On May 5th the NAACP held a rally/press conference to support the accused attackers, Perry Molens and Elston McCowan, being brought to trial for the assault. During that rally this was said about Kenneth Gladney (h/t Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit video here):

"Back in the day, we used to call someone like that, and I want to remind you, when uh... this incident occurred, I was really struck by a front page picture of this guy, which we called, a Negro. I mean that we call him a Negro in the fact that he works for not for our people but against our people. In the old days, we call him an Uncle Tom. I just gotta say that. Here he is, ironically the day after a young brother, a young man, I didn’t mean to call him a brother, but on the front page of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, ironically, he’s sitting in a wheelchair, and being kissed on the forehead, by a European. Now just imagine that as a poster's child picture, not working for our people.."

In "the old days" they called him an Uncle Tom? That guy must not be reading too many comments and responses to people like John McWorter, Thomas Sowell, and Shelby Steele. Those guys are called Uncle Toms on a near daily basis... I guess the people hurling those insults apparently don't know that the NAACP's preferred, politically correct term is "negro." Live and learn.

The NAACP has been embarrassing itself before in a myriad of ways for past couple of decades, such as declaring that Hallmark's talking graduation cards say "black whore" instead of "black hole" despite the card's space theme (be sure to watch the video available at this link), but this whole incident really gets at a far more serious problem. Once again, we see an example of the wholesale ostracizing and dehumanization of people for the sin of being (or in Gladney's case being perceived as) a black conservative.

Fittingly, this comes on the heels of Michelle Malkin most recent posting some of the hate mail she's received-- which includes attacks on her race and gender. Ah yes, the Left's tolerance in this "post-racial" era is so inspiring...

UPDATE: Zaki Baruti, aka Lavoy Reed, is the name of the man who called Gladney an "Uncle Tom" an "accusation" he has repeated on national TV. My post about this and Baruti's organization here.

Krauthammer Slams Bolden's NASA Muslim Outreach Program

Most of us know about NASA administrator Charles Bolden's claim (video available at link) that NASA's new mission is to make Muslim nations feel good about their contributions to math and science.

During an interview on Al Jezeera English Bolden said this (as reported by Byron York at The Washington Examiner):

"When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator - [Obama] charged me with three things," Bolden said. "One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering."

Well there's been a lot of responses to this, but my favorite rebuttal is from Charles Krauthammer (h/t Gateway Pundit) who said this:

"This is a new of fatuousness. NASA was established to get America into space and to keep us there. This idea of ‘feel good about your past’ scientific achievements is the worst combination of group therapy, psycho-babble, imperial condescension and adolescent diplomacy. If I didn't know that Obama had told him this, I’d demand the firing of Charles Bolden."

Krauthammer hit the nail right on the head this time. The condescension implicit in Bolden's statement is astonishing. It really is. The phrase "adolescent diplomacy" (though a bit too polite in my opinion) is really a perfect term for the ridiculous political stance that the Obama administration has taken.

Lessons learned from Psych 101 "feel good" self-esteem classes should not be the basis for international diplomacy. Obama seems to be subjecting Muslim countries to the same programs designed to make underachieving students feel better...

Happy 4th of July!

Have a happy 4th of July everyone. Have fun and stay sane-- I guess that's decent generic advice for any day of the year...

Added New Link: Big Peace!

Just added Andrew Breitbart's newest site Big Peace to the Blog List. This site will apparently deal with national security issues and is edited by Hoover Institution Research Fellow Peter Schweizer.

Check it out!