Salon’s quote of the day, via Americablog:
“I still had a ham sandwich for lunch. And my mother made great pork chops.” — Virginia Sen. George Allen, explaining how news that his grandfather was Jewish is “just an interesting nuance to my background.”
Bigoted and clueless. What a combination.
Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Montana) wants to stop illegal immigration, but it seems he has no problem hiring illegal immigrants — or at least making stupid jokes about it.
A new video released this week by his Democratic challenger, Jon Tester, shows Burns, 71, joking to a crowd in June about how a “nice little Guatemalan man” fixing up his house might be an illegal immigrant. “Could I see your green card?” Burns tells the crowd he asked the man. “And Hugo, says, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Oh, gosh.’ ”
A Burns spokesman said the senator never really doubted the legal status of the handyman, Hugo Reyes. But it wasn’t the only time Burns — a critic of illegal immigration — has poked fun at the immigrants doing work around his house.
One week after the green-card crack, Burns recounted in a debate how after watching an interview on television of an illegal immigrant headed to Virginia for work, “I told my roofer, you better go out and get your help, or you won’t get my house roofed.”
Yep — he loves him some cheap labor, but no way will he support a path to citizenship for the people who roof his house or cut his grass or serve his food in the local restaurants. BTW, this is the same guy who criticized firefighters who were battling wildfires in Montana this summer and who charmingly referred to Arabs as “ragheads” in a speech seven years ago.
In a moment of unusual candor for a veteran senator fighting for his political life, Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) offered this blunt self-assessment a few months ago: “I can self-destruct in one sentence,” he told supporters. “Sometimes in one word.”
Bonus Foot In Mouth:
Also on tape are comments by Wisconsin GOP House candidate Paul R. Nelson, which critics have said are similarly racially insensitive. Nelson, who is running against Rep. Ron Kind (D), has called for racial profiling as a way to tighten airport security. When asked by a radio interviewer how to identify a Muslim male, Nelson said: “Well, you know, if he comes in wearing a turban and his name is Muhammad, that’s a good start.”
UPDATE: W is going to Virginia tomorrow to raise money for Allen. They deserve each other.
There’s been so much excitement going on here in Alabama lately that I haven’t been covering some of the national news, including the incredibly rude and racist remarks by Sen. George Allen (R-redneck). Seems Sen. Allen was so shocked to see a nonwhite face at one of his re-election rallies that he referred to S. R. Sidarth, an American of Indian descent who works for his opponent’s campaign, as ”macaca”, not once but twice. (He also told the Virginia native, “Welcome to America.”) “Macaca” is a racial slur used in North Africa, where (just by coincidence, I’m sure) Sen. Allen’s mother was raised. The Senator first wanted us to believe that he was trying, and failing twice, to say “mohawk”. Then he wanted us to believe that he made up a word on the spot that just happens to be the same as a racial slur used in North Africa. Now he’s letting his campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, speak for him:
To: GOP leaders/Allen campaign leadership
From: Dick Wadhams, Campaign Manager
Re: Notes on a tough week
August 19, 2006I think it is obvious that this past week was difficult one for Senator and Mrs. Allen and the campaign. It is very clear that the news media created what they call a “feeding frenzy”, with the Washington Post alone doing major stories on the same issue for 5 consecutive days.
Literally putting words into Senator Allen’s mouth that he did not say (by speculating, defining and attributing meanings and motives that simply are not true), the Webb campaign and the news media seeming worked hand-in-hand to create national news over something that did not warrant coverage in the first place.
Even after Senator Allen apologized to the Webb campaign staffer in specific, and to anyone who may have been offended in general, the news media continued to print and re-print the same speculations and inaccurate portrayals of Senator Allen’s comments. Never in modern times has a statewide officeholder and candidate been so vilified in a desperate attempt to revive a campaign that was fast-sinking - the Webb campaign.
Senator Allen has said that his comments were a mistake. Who among us has not made mistakes? In fact, how many of us could put in the hours of work, travel, meetings, campaigning, etc. that Senator Allen has over the years and make as few mistakes as he has?…
And on and on, ad nauseum. Never in modern times has a statewide officeholder and candidate been so vilified? Exaggerate much? And this was something that didn’t warrant coverage in the first place? Why, of course not! Senate candidates should be free to spew racist garbage whenever they want, without fear that their words may end up on the nightly news. Sen. Allen is the real victim here. Just ask him.
I think Sen. Allen and Mr. Wadhams should share this week’s W(hiny)A(ss)T(itty)B(aby) Award.
Hat tip to MyDD, via Democratic Underground.
Wheeler at Alablawg posted this morning that Larry Darby is planning to run for Congress in 2008. Darby is the white supremacist, Holocaust-denier, former-atheist-who-now-claims-he’s-found-Jesus who ran for Attorney General this year as a Democrat — and somehow managed to garner more than 43% of the primary vote. He thinks he’s going to run for Congress as a Democrat in ‘08, but I don’t see that happening.
Jim Spearman, director of the Alabama Democratic Party, said Darby would have to meet the principals of the Democratic Party to run as a Democrat. [Gee, ya think?]
“What he showed in this last campaign, he did not meet the principals of the Democratic Party,” Spearman said. “He would need to change some of his views. He has a few years to do that.”
He’d have to change more than “some of his views”. He’d have to change his entire belief system — and I don’t mean pretending to find Jesus for political gain. So, Jim, I wouldn’t hold your breath.
First, Larry Darby claimed to be a Democrat. Now he’s claiming to be a Christian.
Larry Darby, a former candidate for attorney general who lost in the Democratic primary but won most of North Alabama, said he is embracing Jesus as he crusades against “Judeo-Marxism.”
Darby, a Montgomery lawyer who received more votes in Huntsville than Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson, released a long written statement Friday saying that others in the atheist community had turned their backs on him.
“Contrary to expectation, many atheist member organizations or many groups that allegedly represent free thinkers were quick to jump on the Judeo-Marxist bandwagon and dis(a)ssociate themselves from me,” Darby wrote.
Okay, Larry, maybe you need to get clear on a few things before you say you follow Jesus. First, as Dan at Between the Links points out, Jesus was a Jew. And not just a Jew, but a rabbi as well. He certainly wasn’t an Aryan. Second, Jesus reached out to all manner of people who were considered inferior by Jewish custom: Samaritans, gentiles, women, tax collectors, shepherds, fishermen. He sent his disciples out to “all the nations”, and he didn’t exclude those populated by non-whites. Third, he preached love for God and neighbor and care for the poor and needy above all else. He never said a word about white superiority, capitalism, or hatred of gays. Finally, the early Christian community survived by selling all privately owned property and pooling resources. That system may not work today, but if we believe the Bible offers guidance on how to live, it could be considered the ideal to which we should aspire.
So don’t try to enlist Jesus in your battle against “Judeo-Marxism”. I don’t think he’s interested.
The New York Times has a disturbing story about white supremacist groups urging members to join the military in order to get training for the coming race war. Pressure on recruiters, particularly those for the Army, means they are willing to take applicants who would have been unacceptable in the past.
A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed “large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists” to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist and right-wing militia groups, estimated that the numbers could run into the thousands, citing interviews with Defense Department investigators and reports and postings on racist Web sites and magazines.
“We’ve got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad,” the group quoted a Defense Department investigator as saying in a report to be posted today on its Web site, www.splcenter.org. “That’s a problem.”
It certainly is a problem. The Times story focuses on future threats to the US from racist nuts who have learned to be effective warriors, but I wonder about the implications for the Iraqi people. I doubt the Aryan Nations or the National Alliance consider them to be “white”. They’re looking to our soldiers for protection, but people who talk of cleansing the US of the “alien races” certainly wouldn’t hesitate to practice a little “purification” in another country. Even fellow soldiers may not be safe.
An article in the National Alliance magazine Resistance urged skinheads to join the Army and insist on being assigned to light infantry units.
The Southern Poverty Law Center identified the author as Steven Barry, who it said was a former Special Forces officer who was the alliance’s “military unit coordinator.”
“Light infantry is your branch of choice because the coming race war and the ethnic cleansing to follow will be very much an infantryman’s war,” he wrote. “It will be house-to-house, neighborhood-by-neighborhood until your town or city is cleared and the alien races are driven into the countryside where they can be hunted down and ‘cleansed.’ ”
He concluded: “As a professional soldier, my goal is to fill the ranks of the United States Army with skinheads. As street brawlers, you will be useless in the coming race war. As trained infantrymen, you will join the ranks of the Aryan warrior brotherhood.”
I’d speculate that white supremacists make up only a small percentage of service people, but they have no business using my tax dollars to learn how to exterminate other human beings who happen to be non-white.
The report quotes Scott Barfield, a Defense Department investigator, saying, “Recruiters are knowingly allowing neo-Nazis and white supremacists to join the armed forces, and commanders don’t remove them from the military even after we positively identify them as extremists or gang members.”
I guess we’ll have to hope Rummy follows up on this. But given his attitude that you go to war with “the Army you have, not the Army you want”, I doubt he’ll bother.
NOT! Larry Darby and other white supremacists were heckled at a New Jersey gathering yesterday.
Larry Darby was the guest speaker at the National Vanguard New Jersey’s monthly meeting at the Juvenile Order of United Automechanics (JOUAM) Hall, the nationwide group’s local chapter headquarters. The National Vanguard, which describes itself as a white nationalist group, is a splinter group of the white supremacist organization, National Alliance.
…More than 20 people attended Saturday’s closed-door meeting with Darby, which began shortly after 6 p.m. Many National Vanguard members, who blocked their license plates with plywood to conceal their identity, hurried inside and refused to speak to a reporter.
Outside, protesters held placards and heckled people headed into the building. Some of those attending the meeting stopped and exchanged words with protesters, but discussions never became heated. A half dozen police officers stood outside of the hall to keep protesters at bay.
The demonstrators said they wanted to call attention to a hateful organization they say is tarnishing the image of Elmwood Park.
Once again, Alabama gets a national, and even international, black eye — yes, fellow citizens, the Jerusalem Post picked up the AP article about Larry and his racist, Holocaust-denying views. He’s still on the Alabama Democratic ticket as a candidate for Attorney General, but I hope that will change before the June 6 primary. If not, I guess we’ll get to see how many fringe kooks still vote Democratic in Alabama.
Larry Darby, formerly famous for being the go-to guy for the atheist viewpoint in Alabama, is running for Attorney General in the Democratic Primary. But it seems the party didn’t do a very good job vetting Larry’s views on white supremacy and the Holocaust. Let’s just say those views don’t fit well with the Democratic philosophy — or with the philosophy of decent human beings in general.
Larry Darby concedes his views are radical, but he said they should help him win wide support among Alabama voters as he tries to “reawaken white racial awareness” with his campaign against Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson.
The state Democratic chairman, Joe Turnham, said the party became aware of some of Darby’s views only days ago and was considering what to do about his candidacy.
“Any type of hatred toward groups of people, especially for political gain, is completely unacceptable in the Alabama Democratic Party,” said Turnham….
…”I am what the propagandists call a Holocaust denier, but I do not deny mass deaths that included some Jews,” Darby said. “There was no systematic extermination of Jews. There’s no evidence of that at all.”…
…It’s time to stop pushing down the white man. We’ve been discriminated against too long,” Darby said in the interview….
…Turnham said the party began an investigation last week after hearing about some of Darby’s comments in a television interview. While the party supports the free-speech rights of any candidate, Turnham said some of Darby’s views appear to be in “a realm of thought that is unacceptable.”
I support Darby’s right to free speech, but he shouldn’t expect funding and logistical support from a party that opposes just about everything he stands for. He’s planning to speak to a “pro-white” group in New Jersey this weekend. Perhaps when he gets home, he’ll be invited to find another party to sponsor his candidacy.
Blues Reader Paul passed along this article from Ha’aretz. It certainly demonstrates that wingnuts in the US don’t have a monopoly on smearing certain groups of people for political gain.
The state prosecutor on Tuesday ordered police to open a criminal investigation into Rabbi David Batzri, a prominent sage preaching Jewish mysticism, who is suspected of racist incitement.
Police will also investigate Batzri’s son, Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri.
The prosecution’s order came in the wake of comments made by the suspects during a conference held some two months ago in Jerusalem’s Pat neighborhood.
According to suspicions, the Batzris allegedly made the racist comments at the conference which was held to rally support against the establishment of a bilingual school for Jewish and Arab students in the heart of the Pat neighborhood.
Rabbi David Batzri said, “the establishment of such a school is a despicable and sinful act. An Arab cannot contaminate what is pure. It is forbidden to blend darkness and light. The nation of Israel is pure and the Arabs are a nation of donkeys. They are an evil disaster, an evil devil, and a nasty affliction.”
Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri said, “The Arabs are donkeys and beasts. They want to take our girls. They are endowed with true filthiness. There is pure and there is impure and they are impure….”
…Batzri also said the outbreak of bird flu in Israel is God’s punishment for calls in election ads to legalize gay marriages.
“The Bible says that God punishes depravity first through plagues against animals and then in people,” Batzri said in a religious edict quoted by his son.
Batzri said he hoped the deaths of hundreds of thousands of turkeys and chickens would help atone for what he called the sins of left-wing political parties, Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri told Reuters a week before the Knesset election.
The bird flu outbreak stemmed from far-left political parties “strengthening and encouraging homosexuality,” Batzri’s son quoted him as saying.
So Arabs are donkeys who want to take “our girls”, and gays are to blame for bird flu. Rabbi Batzri sounds a lot like J. B. Stoner, an old-line racist who ran for Senate in Georgia and went on TV back in the early 70’s to rail about jungle bunnies who were after our white women. No, I’m not kidding. My brother and I used to see the ads while we watched “Star Trek” reruns after school. He sat at a big desk with a huge Confederate flag hanging behind him. The station management would come on afterwards and apologize.
If Rabbi Batzri lived in the US, he’d have the same right to free speech that Stoner exercised. It sounds like Israeli law doesn’t give him that much latitude, and I think that’s unfortunate. If he’s tried and convicted, he will just become a martyr to his twisted cause. I’d prefer that Rabbi Batzri be as marginal to Israeli society as J. B. was to ours.
Stanley “Tookie” Williams was executed last night. I don’t know if he was innocent or guilty, and I don’t know if he’d really reformed or was doing his best to manipulate the system. None of this matters to me; I am simply opposed to the death penalty. I don’t believe the state should be in the business of killing. And given the growing body of evidence that innocent people (usually poor or black or both) have been routinely convicted and sent to death row, I would think the imposition of this ultimate punishment should give us all pause, whether or not we support it in theory. Even the Birmingham News, known for a pretty conservative editorial perspective, has come out in favor of a moratorium on executions in Alabama.
If you have a strong gag reflex, go read right-wing talk show host Neal Boortz’s comments over at No More Mr. Nice Blog. I don’t need any more evidence of racism at work here.