Racist Republicans

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, (R)(acist) Georgia, is a hypocritical, ignorant racist asshole. How’s that for name calling Lynn? (Isn’t Lynn a GIRL’S name, btw?)  It makes me feel dirty to call you those names, does it make you feel dirty to use patently blatant racism, Lynn? Somehow I doubt it.

“Honestly, I’ve never paid that much attention to Michelle Obama,” Westmoreland said. “Just what little I’ve seen of her and Senator Barack] Obama, is that they’re a member of an elitist class…that thinks that they’re uppity.”

The 58-year-old, Atlanta-born congressman declined to elaborate further, though he did repeat one part of his comment when asked to clarify.

“Uppity, you said?” he was asked.

“Yeah, uppity,” Westmoreland replied.

The audio.

This is the same dumb, racist, hypocritical, sanctimonious, Republican who….well I will let [Wikipedia tell you…

As a U.S. congressman, Westmoreland cosponsored a bill to place the Ten Commandments in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Westmoreland also sponsored a bill that the Ten Commandments could be displayed in courthouses in a historical setting. In May 2006, political humorist Stephen Colbert interviewed Westmoreland for The Colbert Report show segment Better Know a District. The congressman was only able to name three of the Ten Commandments he sought to legally put in public display.

USA Today (from the link above) employs a teacher to tell us that this is a racist attack, as if ANYBODY paying the slightest attention to race relations and the code words used by racist Republicans like Lynn Westmoreland in this country for the last couple of hundred years has any doubt that .

Vanessa Beasley, who teaches political rhetoric at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, said “uppity” is a word that hits the ear of African-Americans in a negative way – evoking images of the pre-civil rights era, when powerful whites sometimes punished blacks who spoke up for themselves.

“It has very clear roots in the history of slavery in the South,” Beasley said. “The term ‘uppity’ has such a specific, contextual historic meaning. It is more evocative of a particular moment in history and particular set of fears that exist today within certain parts of the electorate.

In a moment of rage inducing hilarity, Westmoreland had his staff release the dictionary definition of Uppity to prove that he wasn’t speaking in racist code.  Riii-iiight.  Just like when Rep. Geoff Davis, (R)(acist) Kentucky, said of Obama:

“I’m going to tell you something: That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button.”

Just like when the corrupt Bushco appointee, U.S. Attorney of Colorado Troy Eid downplays the patently racist plot to assassinate Obama in Denver by four Good Ole Boys Tweakers, iow….white home grown terrorists, armed to the teeth and gunning to kill a black man running for President. Amonf the many many, “just imagine if” scenarios that point up the incredible racism in America….Imagine if it had been four black men armed to the teeth going after McCain. Do you think that would have been dismissed like this?

During U.S. Attorney of Colorado Troy Eid’s peculiar press conferenceTuesday night, he characterized the men as “just a bunch of meth heads,” framing his question-and-answer session with reporters more like an anti-drug campaign sloganeer than a chief law enforcement official: “You know, I don’t know, uh, bunch of meth heads get together, I don’t know what they do, I don’t get inside their brain. But we take them very seriously what they do. I have to just emphasize this is a group of people, there were a number of people, that are using meth. I don’t know how many of you know meth, anyone here not know about meth? This is a really terrible drug. People do all sorts of stupid things on meth.” He followed that response with: “There is no credible threat right now and there was no credible threat based on the evidence that we have to Senator Obama or anybody else related to what we know about this case.” Asked what the weapons could be for (not to mention the ammo, bullet-proof vest, wigs, fake I.D.s, etc.), Eid answered only, “You know, I don’t know what they were for and we’ll keep looking into that.” Eid went on to say, “You know, they didn’t, they didn’t reveal a plan. I think what you can see in the affidavit was, uh, a lot of racist rantings and a lot of dislike for the idea of Senator Obama as an African-American person of color being able to pursue that office.”

But Eid’s statement appears to be patently false. As reported by the Associated Press:

Johnson later told a federal agent that the men talked about assassinating Obama only because he was black, according to a federal arrest affidavit. Johnson said he also heard Adolf say that he wanted to kill Obama “on the day of his inauguration” and that he would “find high ground to set up and shoot Obama,” the affidavit said.

That’s not merely, as Eid called it, “the racist rantings of drug abusers.” Rather, coupled with the arsenal found, it shows motive, intent and a plan. And, to be clear, contrary to what Eid told the press, it was in the affidavit.

How would things have been different? well we have somewhat of an example…

One such follow-up, for a direct and exceedingly timely comparison, should’ve included: How does this not constitute a “true threat,” when, just last week, another man, Marc Harold Ramsey, an inmate already incarcerated at the Arapahoe County Jail in Colorado, was charged by Eid with sending a threatening letter to John McCain from behind bars?

snip

In bringing this charge against Ramsey, Eid made clear to the press, “A death threat is not a legitimate form of political expression.” Right. Unless you’re meth-addled racists with real rifles, scopes, rounds of ammunition, disguises, fake I.D.s and bullet-proof vests and a stated plan to murder the first African-American presidential candidate giving his acceptance speech on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech

Please read the article.

The American Racist double standard in action. Perpetrated to the point of assassination….AGAIN… by the….

BILL O’REILLY: (To John McCain)  But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you’re a part, and so am I……

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/…

That we are not supposed to talk about for fear of alienating the white, Christian, male power structure.

Disgusting.

Fighting this sort of political and cultural exclusionism….racism…is part of the reason that we are Liberals to begin with. I consider it a duty.

Last night at the convention, Senator Sam Brownback stated outright (sorry can’t find a transcript) that he believes in American Exceptionalism, an exceptionalism/exclusionism that obvious includes only CERTAIN Americans.  A couple of nights ago Palin delivered a mean-spirited sarcastic high school level speech specifically designed to reopen the Culture Wars. Culture Wars that are based in large part on racismThe Republicans can code it however they want, they are out of ideas and all they have left is hate. Hate and racism and whatever else they can spew to energize the rapidly shrinking racist, homophobic, xenophobic, fear-filled Republican Base so they can retain power and continue to ENFORCE Republican racism, to preserve their vision of America. An America designed to enrich and empower the white male Christian power structure and their token, cynical faux Hillary woman VP candidate.

Are Republicans racist? hmmmmmm:

At time when the Democratic Party made history by nominating Barack Obama, the first black presidential candidate of a major political party, only 36 of approximately 2,000 delegates gathered here at the Xcel Energy Center this week are African-American, the study by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The center, which tracks such data, said it is the lowest rate of black participation in 34 years.

The scarcity of black faces has been reflected at the speaker’s podium, where Michael Steele, an unsuccessful candidate for US Senate, has been the only African-American to have a prominent speaking role during the four-day event.

Is racism a factor in the election? In far more dangerous ways than we would like to think.

The race issue can come up in peculiar and jolting ways.After hearing that some union voters had openly wondered about Senator Obama’s possible “demise,” I asked Dan Hammersmith, president of Unite Here Local 748 in Grand Rapids, if workers were really talking about whether Mr. Obama could survive as president.

“That is a concern that I’ve heard, yes,” he said. “But I tell people, ‘Are we supposed to be afraid of that and not go ahead and try to do something different?’ ”

Over the weekend The Detroit Free Press ran a chart showing how people responded when asked if they agreed with the statement that “there are people who want to hurt Barack Obama because of his race and sometimes I fear for his safety.”

Fifty-seven percent agreed.

No, we cannot remain silent when the Republicans release their racist pack of hounds. The racist attacks, subtle and blatant will only escalate until the election. They will literally do anything they can to retain their power. If these racist attacks and attitudes are ignored, if we do not highlight them and condemn them them they will only grow, they will only become more prominent as they become more desperate. And it will only inspire more republican “low information voters”  to act oon the hateful racist rhetoric they spew in their last ditch attempt to keep America a country for white people, of white people, and by white people.

Fortunately their time is running out, if we defeat them now, if we elect Obama it is a CRUSHING blow to white American exceptionalism, to Republican Racism, to an antiquated system of action and thought that seeks to repress “others” by using political power and cultural pressure. …and at times, violence. Just one more reason why this is a watershed election in American and world history.

The one thing that Obama simply cannot do in this election is to appear angry, to be perceived as an “angry black man.” Taking on this sort of blatant racism has to be left, at least to some extent, up to his surrogates. That means you and me. Call it out and condemn it as loud as you can whenever and where ever you see it.

It is FAR past time to get these people out of any kind of power.