Right-wing Anti-Americanism, Part One

What does the pathetic short film which stirred-up anti-American protests world-wide, that terrorist attack on the Libyan consulate in Benghazi which killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s recent attack on President Barack Obama’s response to the riots and assault, and this past week’s “Values Voter Summit” have in common? Answer: Right-wing extremist ideology running amok. (Due to the length of this article, I’ve divided this piece up into two parts).

This all started when what is reported to be an Egyptian born Coptic Christian Right-wing extremist living in the U.S. created a hateful anti-Muslim “film” (if you can call it that) which depicted the prophet (if you want to call him that) Mohammad as a bumbling idiot behaving in the most depraved manner imaginable. I’d provide a link to the video but the entire 15 odd minute video clip is so completely demented and clearly meant to be provocative that it is not worth watching. However, if you feel the need to watch this video clip you can easily search YouTube or Google and find it.  Needless to say, the obvious purpose of the film was to incite anger amongst the most extreme factions in the Muslim communities.  Soon after an Arabic translation of the film was released, anti-American protest broke-out. In Egypt, hours before the protests begun, the U.S. embassy in Cairo released a statement:

“The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”

Hours later, as protests in Egypt and attacks on Libyan consulate were still underway, Republican leader Mitt Romney condemned President Obama for the early morning statement made in Cairo, falsely claiming the statement was the presidents “first response” to the ongoing assaults on Americans abroad.  Romney stated in a press release: “It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”

While many politician and pundits criticized Romney for attacking the president of the United States for a response Obama had not yet made public, many in the Right-wing mainstream media continued to spread the bigger lie woven into Romney’s statement. Romney suggested that the Cairo statement, and thus the Obama Administration, was sympathizing with “those who waged the attacks”.  The next day, Romney went on the airways can continued the attack on Obama, claiming the Cairo statement was “akin to an apology”. The next day, Politifact.com pointed out Romney accused the President of the United States of “apologizing” five times in his brief statement. Romney called the Cairo statement an effort to “apologize for American values,” said it was “effectively apologizing for the right of free speech,” and described it as “what appeared to be an apology for American principles.”

Politifact determined that the Romney, the screeching Right-wing, and the Republicans were all engaged in a “pants on fire” lying campaign. More than ever before, lying has become an acceptable “family value” for religious Right-wingers of all strips (more on this at the end of the article). Numerous “apology experts” looked into Romney and his henchmen’s rhetoric to see if the Cairo statement and the Obama Administration were actually apologizing. Overwhelmingly the experts disagreed with the Right-wings attacks on the U.S. Embassy and the President of the United States. Here is just one of the comments made by the “apology experts”.  Again, I quote Politifact:

“Lauren Bloom, an attorney and business consultant who wrote The Art of the Apology, said that Romney is “once again allowing his emotional allergy to apology to interfere with his judgment.”

Bloom said that “if there’s anything more central to American values than respecting each individual’s right to worship as he or she pleases, I’d be hard-pressed to say what it might be. The statement that ‘respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy’ not only is true, but is as clear an expression of one of our most cherished values as I can imagine.”

She said the embassy statement is “not an apology — quite the contrary, it’s a confirmation that the American people recognize the right to worship freely and will not accept religious bullying in the name of free speech. To say that someone who deliberately insults others in the name of religion has acted wrongly isn’t an apology — it’s simply a recognition that those insults go too far.””

During the last few days, America’s Right-wing mainstream media, primarily Fox News and talk radio, have been scrupulously spreading this lie about the Cairo statement across our national airwaves. In blind support for Romney Fox has featured prominent anti-Muslim bigots. The most notorious Right-wing bigot featured nationally on Fox this week was Pamela Geller. Geller has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center (an organization that tracks hate groups) as the “anti-Muslim movement’s most visible and flamboyant figurehead…Geller has mingled comfortably with European racists and fascists, spoken favorably of South African racists, defended Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic and denied the existence of Serbian concentration camps”.

While fact-checkers and honest Americans condemned Romney’s attack on Obama and the Cairo embassy personal, Geller and Fox News doubled-down on their inciting rhetoric. This time, their intended audience was not Muslims extremists in the middle-east, rather the Right-wing extremists that follow Fox News across America.  Geller belligerently declared the Cairo embassy’s statement an example of president Obama “sanctioning the blasphemy laws under the Sharia. Under the Sharia, Islamic laws, you cannot insult or offend Islam. And Obama is submitting the United States to that”.

Of course Geller’s deranged comments on Fox News comments have proven by experts and fact-checkers to be completely baseless. But that doesn’t stop Fox “news” form promoting extremists propaganda. Unfortunately, since Obama’s election, Fox News has specialized in giving voice to demented, racist Right-wing bigots who are openly willing to promote false attacks on the president of the United States, provided they further the political agenda of their fascists leaning oligarchic overlords.

For years now, Right-wing extremist media, including Fox News, have continuously pushed the lie that Obama is a secret Muslim. Credible fact-checkers have looked into this deception have repeatedly ruled Fox News, Geller and company, and other racists shamelessly continue to spread yet another “pants on fire” lie.  Whether Christian, Muslim, or Jew, the truth never stops Right-wing religious extremist from spreading lies and fear in the interest of advancing their radical political agendas.

And that is the common thread between all the big events that have occurred in this past week. Yet this common thread was not highlighted by any in the mainstream media. Never once was the fact that religious Right-wing extremist ideology was woven into every one of the main events. Whether it was the film, the protests, the attack in Libya, Mitt Romney’s comments, or the so called “Values Voters Summit”, religious Right-wing extremist played a significant role in the story. In part two of this article, I will continue to expose the common thread with the Libyan attacks that killed a U.S. Ambassador, the recent so called “Values Voters Summit”, and Romney’s campaign strategy in the upcoming election.

Blame the Kid

Over the last few days, the saga a 15 year old girl, Jakadrien Turner, made national headlines. At 14, Jakadrien ran away from home after her parents split up and her grandfather passed away. Apparently, the stress of the two events was too much for this young girl to handle and she ran away from her home in Dallas and found herself in Houston.

The details of what happened next are still fuzzy; however, many in the blogosphere have already made up their minds as to what happened and who’s at fault. And predictably, the nation is split between those that are compassionate, understanding, and outraged at U.S. law enforcement, and those that want to paint the girl as a free-loading drug addict, welfare queen, from yet another broken Black family.

According to one CNN article, after Jakadrien went missing, Facebook postings indicated the girl started working at a DJ club under an assumed name. Clearly, the girl wanted to get away from her home and start making a life for herself as an adult. This story should sounds familiar to millions of American families.

The National Runaway Switchboard reports, “Between 1.6 and 2.8 million youth run away in a year. Youth aged 12-17 are at higher risk from homelessness than adults. 47% of runaway/homeless youth indicated that conflict between them and their parent or guardian was a major problem. Over 50% of the youth in shelters and on the streets reported that their parents either told them to leave or knew they were leaving but did not care. 80% of runaway and homeless girls reported having ever been sexually or physically abused,”

We don’t know if Jakadrien was ever subjected to any physical or sexual abuse at home, nor should we jump to that conclusion. I do know that since her disappearance her parents and grandparents desperately worked endlessly with the police to help find their child. We also know Jakadrien worked equally hard to hide from her folks, including changing her name in order to present herself as a 22 year old woman.

Even at age 45, I can remember back to when I was 14 years old and running away from home. I spent one night sleeping in the balcony of a local church. While there was some physical abuse in my family (in the name of “tough love”), it was never bad enough for me to want to completely run away at 14. However, by the time I was 18, I walked away from home and never looked back.

Believe it or not, there is a big difference between the brains of a 14 year old, a 18 year old, and a 21 year old. Recent studies on adolescent show teen brains are going through some of the greatest changes in their lives during this period. The following two paragraphs are from a report jointly conducted by Cornel University and ACT for Youth Upstate Center for Excellence:

“Until recently most scientists believed that the major “wiring” of the brain was completed by as early as three years of age and that the brain was fully mature by the age of 10 or 12. New findings show that the greatest changes to the parts of the brain that are responsible for functions such as self-control, judgment, emotions, and organization occur between puberty and adulthood. This may help to explain certain teenage behavior that adults can find mystifying, such as poor decision-making, recklessness, and emotional outbursts.

 … In a study conducted at Boston’s McLean Hospital, psychologist Deborah Yurgelun-Todd and colleagues showed pictures of people wearing fearful expressions to teenagers between the ages of 11 and 17 while the teens had their brains scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). She found that compared to adults the teens’ frontal lobes (the seat of goal-oriented rational thinking) are less active and their amygdala (a structure in the temporal lobe that is involved in discriminating fear and other emotions) is more active. The teens often misread facial expressions, with those under the age of 14 more often seeing sadness or anger or confusion instead of fear.”

From a growing mountain of studies on teens, and troubled teens in particular, we know that 14 year olds are not capable of making the same rational decisions as adults. That is why teenagers can’t be held legally responsible for contracts and why we have developed an entirely separate legal system for juveniles.

As stated earlier, what happened next in Jakadrien’s case is still a mystery. However, we do know that she was picked up for shoplifting and provided police with her false identity. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to Jakadrien, that name belonged to a 22 year old illegal immigrant from Colombia, who just so happened to have warrants out for her arrest.

Houston police then handed Jakadrien over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who fingerprinted Jakadrien but didn’t get a match. Nonetheless, Jakadrien, was then moved in mass with other ICE detainees through the system, and before she could bat her eyes found herself in Colombia.

Political Science professor at Northwestern University, Jacqueline Stevens explains  how quickly this can happen:

“Often in these situations they have these group hearings where they tell everybody you’re going to be deported… Everything is really quick, even if you understand English you wouldn’t understand what is going on. If she were in that situation as a 14-year-old she would be herded through like cattle and not have a chance to talk to the judge about her situation.”

Soon after Jakadrien found herself deported to Colombia, a country in which she didn’t speak the language and knew nothing of the culture.  However, this creative young kid in no time founds herself working in a Bogotá call center and partying with the locals. Next we know, Houston police finds her posting on Facebook, where she admits to smoking marijuana and being pregnant,  just Jakadrien turned 15 years old.

Now that Jakadrien has returned to the U.S, the blame game is on. In reviewing this article, I looked at the comment threads of both right-wing and left-wing leaning websites. The line between who is at fault by the two political sides are fairly distinctive. For the most part, the left-wing is blaming ICE and other law enforcement agencies for not doing their job. Essentially arguing that once ICE discovered the fingerprints didn’t match the 22 year old Colombian woman, they needed to follow up. Had they, they would have discovered the girl didn’t speak Spanish and was completely ignorant of the history and culture of Colombia.

On the other hand, the right-wing blames the child and her family. Researching this article, I’ve read dozens of comments which have called Jakadrien everything from a drug addict, thief and a whore, (Remember we are talking about a 14 year old girl) to those that claim her whole story was set up by her “lazy” “welfare” reliant grandmother (who just so happens to have a full time job). According to some right-wing theories, the family sent Jakadrien into the ICE system just to see if she would be deported, in order to then sue the U.S. government and sell books. The whole conspiracy theory can be found on dozens of sites, including some of the so called “liberal” news sites like MSNBC. Just check the comment thread on this link. You will have to open the hidden comments to find this conspiracy theory, along with other racist accusations and remarks.

Professor Jacqueline Stevens has actually studied the problem of the illegal detention and deportation of U.S. citizens and says in recent years the problem has increased. The following is an excerpt from an interview Stevens gave with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez of  DemocracyNow! Stevens provides us with the statistical data to better understand what happened to Jakadrien:

“I did research in the southern Arizona area to look at the rate at which people who had been detained in that area were found—had their deportation orders terminated by an immigration judge because they were determined to be U.S. citizens. And I found that between 2006 and 2008, 82 out of the over 8,000—the 8,007, I think—files that I considered showed these cases that were terminated because the people were found to be U.S. citizens. That area has 10 percent of the nation’s detainees. And so, I think it’s, you know, reasonable on the basis of that research and additional research, including interviews with immigration judges, ICE agents and people who have actually been deported, to extrapolate that figure. There was also a study that was done by the New York City Bar Association in 2009, and they found that 8 percent of the people that they interviewed in the Varick detention center appeared to be U.S. citizens. So, I think there’s a systemic problem in this country of ICE detaining and, in addition, deporting U.S. citizens”.

There are those that are quick to blame Jakadrien, her parents, and grandparents for this unfortunate ordeal. They seem to show no understanding of what it is like to raise a teenager. They are quick to attack her and her family, labeling them a bunch of lazy losers, who have fantastically designed this elaborate plan to deport their 14 year old daughter in order to push a book deal and sue the government. There is absolutely no basis for such angry race laden claims. However, that is how some will justify the governments failings in the case of Jakadrien Turner.

They will blame the parents because the kid ran away, even through millions of kids from all sorts of families (good or bad) run away. Even worse, they will blame the kid, whose brain is not even fully formed and may very well be running away from a bad family. They will blame her for shoplifting and lying about her name and age. And in doing so, they will be ignoring the facts that children actually lack “self-control, judgment and emotions” which explains “certain teenage behavior that adults can find mystifying, such as poor decision-making, recklessness, and emotional outbursts.”

In addition, those that wish to blame the kid will ignore that fact that, according to Professor Stevens, 10% of the nation’s immigration detainees are actually U.S. citizens, that can sometime languish in U.S. immigration prisons for months and in some cases years, we can see a “systemic problem in this country,”

Who is to blame? Unlike some, I will not put too much blame on a troubled 14 year old girl. Yes she ran away from home. At the time, her family was going through a divorce and death. In Jakadrien’s case, we have no evidence of the sexual or physical abuse in the family which is common in most runaways. We do know the family worked tirelessly to find their lost daughter. We also, in spite of the false and ugly accusations about the parents and grandparents, the family is not a lazy family that relies on welfare. To me, those accusations seem completely unfounded and appear to be racially motivated.

On the other hand, we also do not know why ICE did not follow-up and do a further background check on Jakadrien, after the prints didn’t match. It might be argued that this was just an isolated incident where one poor girl simply slipped through the cracks. However, considering Stevens’ evidence, deporting American citizens has become a systemic problem. Perhaps the one good thing to come out of Jakadrien’s story, other than she being returned to the U.S. is the fact that her story is highlighting ICE’s egregious deportion of American citizens.

Mike Vanderboegh: Right-Wing Threatens American’s

(Originally published at the Daily Censored for Project Censored).

Don’t look now, but the radical right-wing is planning an attack on your life. In fact, they are planning multiple attacks on U.S. government employees and liberal groups. And if you get caught in their cross-hairs, well you are just collateral damage.

That’s right, while all the attention is being made of Herman Cane’s sexual harassment cases and Occupy Wall Street violence (mostly coming from the police), right-wing extremists groups continue to plan assaults on U.S. courthouses and other government buildings, along with a host of liberal organizations that have only, in reality, a peripheral influence in American politics.

This week, four men from Georgia briefly made national headlines. This time, not because they executed Troy Davis, a black man who may have been innocent. Rather, because federal and state officials arrested more angry white men plotting to blow up U.S. government buildings.

According to an Associated Press article published in the Wall Street Journal, four members of a fringe Georgia militia group were arrested and charged with attempting to attain unregistered explosive devices and manufacturing ricin h, a deadly biological toxin. Government arrest records claim Frederick Thomas, 73; Dan Roberts, 67; Ray Adams, 65; and Samuel Crump, 68 had been plotting, along with an undercover agent, the assassinations of several undisclosed individuals in order to undermine the government. One member, Thomas, was recorded openly talking about “taken out” U.S. citizens.  During one road trip to Atlanta,  Thomas announced to the undercover agent, “We’d have to blow the whole building, like Timothy McVeigh.”

However, this is not an isolated incident. Just a few days earlier, the Associated Press reported on the conviction of another right-wing extremist from Georgia that was convicted in a Tennessee on federal firearms charges. Apparently, Darren Wesley Huff, 41, and fellow nut-wing “birther” concocted a plan to take over a Tennessee courthouse in order to force President Obama out of office. Huff is now facing up to five years in prison.

This is not just a Georgia phenomena, nor is it a recent event. I have been publishing articles on the rise of right-wing hate groups and extreme elements of the Tea Party for several years. I’ve also written about a follower of Glenn Beck that was intercepted by the California Highway Patrol, and ended up in a shooting-out on the freeway, not far from my home. Apparently Bryan William, 45, was headed to the liberal Tides Foundation and the local branch of the ACLU to massacre as many liberals as possible. According to his mother, Williams was “angry at leftwing politicians,” and  ”the way congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items.” Janice Williams went on, “eventually, I think we’re going to be caught up in a revolution.” But she said she had told her son many times that “he didn’t have to be on the front lines.”

Yet, many right-wing extremists have decided they now want to be on the front lines of what they have called the “second American revolution.” One Tea Party supporter/Alabama militia leader/Minute Man advocate/Fox News personality is Mike Vanderboegh. In the past, Vanderboegh has recommended to his followers to throw bricks into the office windows of Democrat Party members. Vanderboegh recommend this strategy back in 2006 during the immigration debate and then again in 2009 during the heath care debate.

Vanderboegh has moved on to being a novelist. His book, ”Absolved”, is the story of a group of men who form an underground militia after being subjected to “tyranny” and “slavery” by a mass of morally depraved left-wing thugs, that control the federal, state, and local government, and impose draconian gun control laws and gay marriage on Americans, in complete violation of the U.S. Constitution and the God. In chapter two, Vanderboegh describes those that opposed the left-wing thugs:

“They believed in God, this half of America, and it was the God of Abraham and Isaac, of Moses and David. They didn’t think that God was dead or irrelevant as many of their opponents did. They believed that almost 50 million abortions was state-sanctioned mass murder that put the German Nazis to shame. They believed that the Old and New Testaments were pretty explicit that homosexuality was an abomination, and they were universally certain that the federal government didn’t have the right to prohibit either their public prayers or the display of the Ten Commandments. Nor, come to that, could it lawfully demand that their sons’ Boy Scout troop leader be a member of the North American Man-Boy Love Association.”

Vanderboegh claims his book is “fictional but true” and describes the novel as ”a combination field manual, technical manual and call to arms for my beloved gunnies of the armed citizenry.” Vanderboegh takes the title of his book from a John Locke quote:

“Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.”

Like Vanderbeogh, many right-wing extremists believe Obamacare, which is helping to provided health care to millions of uninsured Americans, is somehow the equivalent to modern day slavery? And many of them, also members of militia groups, have been reading Vanderboegh’s “fictional but true” novel and covertly planning their assaults on Americans. According to MediaMatters.org, at least one of the four militia members from Georgia, Fredrick Thomas, had referred to Vanderbeogh’s novel as a field manual for their attempt at provoking a second American revolution. Media Matters quotes from the legal complaint:

“THOMAS also explained to the others present that he intended to model their actions on the plot of an online novel called Absolved. The plot of Absolved involves small groups of citizens attacking United States federal law enforcement representatives and federal judges. THOMAS expressed his belief that they should consider a number of assassinations on various government officials, and he particularly expressed a desire to kill Department of Justice (DOJ) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees.”

This week’s arrest of the four right-wingers in Georgia is just the latest in what has been become an horrific string of mostly thwarted attacks on U.S. citizens. In a recent, under reported story, on October 24, 2011, at 4:00 a.m, while nearly everyone was asleep, the Portland Maine’s Occupy Wall Street encampment was hit with a chemical bomb that failed to go off. According to witness, the bomb landed in the communal kitchen area. However, the detonator didn’t go off properly, and so, “There was no fire . . . We had a good 20 feet of thick smoke rolling out from under the table,”  Portland’s Chief of Police, Michael Sauschuck said, “This is certainly a very serious incident…somebody could have been seriously hurt and we’re treating it as such.” Other witnesses said just before the bombing they saw a silver car circling around and the passengers shouting, “Get a Job and You Communist.”

Sadly, as long as Fox News, right-wing talk radio, and bloggers promote asshat’s like Vanderboegh, the more likely we will see radical domestic terrorist attacks on American citizens. Yet, the right-wing continues to promote violent attacks on the U.S. government and the left-wing. The U.S. Constitution protects free-speech, to a limit. As we all know, you can’t falsely shout “fire” in a crowded theater. Nor, can one openly incite violence. Vanderboegh openly attempts to straddle the fence between inciting violence and protected free-speech. And as far as I am concerned, folks like Vanderbeogh should be relegated to obscurity, not promoted on Fox News.

Yes, the right-wing is actively planning to attack Americans. And as long as Fox News and right-wing talk radio continues to promote violent rhetoric, the greater American’s are in danger. The question is,  when will American conservatives and Republicans say to their own kin,  “enough is enough”?

Occupy Wall Street: Anti-Semitic Smears

Earlier this week, ThinkProgress, reported on “vulture capitalist” hedge fund manager Paul Singer’s financing journalists to write attack articles opposing the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. In addition, a campaign to infiltrate and sabotage the movement has now been documented. Those protecting the Wall Street criminals have proven they’re willing to say and do anything to undermine and diminish the 99 Percenters in the OWS movement.

However, goons of the financial elite have sunken to a new low. The right-wing is now attempting to label the OWS movement as anti-Semitic. According to MJ Rosenberg, writing in the Jewish Journal, The New York Times columnist David Brooks, was one of the first widely respected conservatives to suggest an anti-Semitic element to the movement. Essentially, Brooks accuses the magazine AdBusters, who helped promote the protest, as having an anti-Semitic bent due to an article it published back in 2004.  Here is what Brooks said in his column, dated October 10, 2011:

“Take the Occupy Wall Street movement. This uprising was sparked by the magazine AdBusters, previously best known for the 2004 essay, “Why Won’t Anyone Say They Are Jewish?” — an investigative report that identified some of the most influential Jews in America and their nefarious grip on policy. “

Actually, thanks to Brooks providing the link, we can all read the article and know exactly what the articles is about. To summarize, the article points out that 50 percent of the top 50 most influential neocons in the Bush Administration were not only Jews, but had ties to Israel’s far right Likud party. The article notes that while only 2 percent of the U.S. population is Jewish, 50 percent of Bush’s influential neocons were Jewish. The AdBusters article then asks, “If half the neocons were Palestinians would the U.S. have invaded Iraq?

AdBusters knew when they published the article that some folks would immediately start hurling charges of anti-Semitism at them: “Drawing attention to the Jewishness of the neocons is a tricky game. Anyone who does so can count on automatically being smeared as an anti-Semite…The point is simply that the neocons seem to have a special affinity for Israel that influence their political thinking and consequently American foreign policy in the Middle East.” Personally, I find this point to be very interesting and worthy of reporting. If half of Obama’s national security advisors were Muslims, or followers of a particular Christian orthodoxy, I would find that equally worth reporting.

MJ Rosenberg points out, “[a]n ugly old tradition is back: exploiting anti-Semitism to break the backs of popular movements that threaten the power.”

Rosenberg goes on to provide a brief history on the misuse of anti-Semitism: “Perhaps its most famous use was by the viciously anti-Semitic Czar Nicholas, whose supporters concocted the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” at the start of the 20th century to prevent Russians from joining socialist movements and other reform efforts that were fighting to get the czar to cede some power to an elected parliament.

The Protocols were a forged document purporting to show that a cabal of Jews met regularly to solidify their supposed control of the entire world. According to the Protocols, Jews were behind socialist and liberal movements but also ran the banks and Wall Street. (A modern version of this ridiculous theme was a staple on Glenn Beck’s television program that ran on Fox News until being canceled this summer.)”

Now we see a consorted effort by the right-wing to discredit the OWS movement by pinning the word anti-Semitism on the protesters. The tactics they are using to discredit the OWS movement are highly deceptive. Take for example this quote from an online blogger quoting Abe Greenwood:

“The Jew-hatred among protesters and sympathizers is diverse and unapologetic. It is, in fact, atmospheric. Tune in randomly to live television coverage of the spectacle and you’ll see—as I did—placards scapegoating Israel, Zionism, or “Hitler’s Banker.” Check out the continuous flurry of protest-supporting tweets and blog posts, and you’ll get more of the same.”

Well, I searched YouTube for a video clip of the “Hitler Banker” sign and found the guy shouting anti-Semitic comments amongst the OWS protesters. What Greenwood doesn’t say in his comment is that the OWS protesters had surrounded the Hitler Banker guy and were holding up handmade signs that read “He’s Not With Us”,with arrows pointing to the Hitler Banker guy. But what is more telling is, if you listen closely, you can hear all the actual OWS protesters are telling the Hitler Banker guy to “Go Away” and “Nobody wants your hate” I found stories about the Hitler Banker guy on a half dozen website and not one commented on or included the audio of the actually OWS protesters shouting out “Nobody want your hate.”

This video tells a starkly different story then the “unapologetic” “Jew-hatred” portrayed in the online article. When it comes to manuplating videos and stories, the right-wing has had a very seedy past recently. Taking events out of context in order to distort the facts and smear their political opponents, James O’Keefe and his buddy Andrew Breitbart of Big Government have been found in numbers legal investigations to have used “selectively”, “heavily” and “deceptively” edited videos in order to leave a “false impression” and to portray their political rivals in a bad light. Many Journalists have called O’Keefe deceptive videos “unethical” and Fred Barnes, of the conservative paper the Weekly Standard, has even called O’Keefe a “political hit job.”

This same unethical tactic is now being employed on the OWS movement. However, I don’t think this desperate tactic is not going to work this time. First of all, the OWS protesters are now onto the fact that the right-wing has infiltrated the crowds and are attempting to disrupt and discredit the movement. They know there are right-wing agent provocateurs in their midst That is why you see in the above video clip the protesters quickly making sure the video camera knew the Hitler Banker guy was not part of the movement and not welcome. It’s no coincidence that as soon as an idiot shows up with a racist sign, Glenn Beck TV shows up with a camera crew.

Second, there are plenty of liberal Jews amongst the protesters. After all, most American Jews are actually liberal progressives, not the neocons found in the Bush Administration. This year, Yom Kippur fell on the 21 day of the OWS protest. To celebrate, the night was filled with Jews and non Jews singing and dancing. Check out this video. There is not a single anti-Semitic image in the crowd.

The fact is, if you scour the official_statements by the OWS movement and look at the official Tweets you will not find a single shred of anti-Semitism. Nonetheless, I’m sure there are some corrupt right-wing nut bars spewing racist comments amongst the OWS activists in order to discredit the movement. I’m also sure that as soon as the provocateurs show their face, Glenn Beck or James O’Keefe will miraculously have their cameras in place. Unfortunately, it’s just the type of world we live in.

 

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/national/adl_urges_protest_organizers_condemn_anti_semitic_incidents

 

Something Stinks in Wisconsin

Bad Cheese by BrainlessTales.com

Something stinks in Wisconsin, and it’s not the cheese.  Once again a ultra right-wing Koch brothers astroturf group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), and the Republican Party are engaging in voter suppression, if not outright voter fraud.  AFP is one of the organizations that helped fund the phony Tea Party organizations.

Some might recall, during the primary elections earlier this month in Wisconsin the Republican Party placed six fake Democrats on the ballots in order to confuse voters.  Fortunately for the voters, the news of the phony candidates got out, made it to mainstream media outlets, and the Republicans plan was foiled. All six of the actual Democrats won their primary challenges and are now in a recall race against the Republican state Senators that voted for the bill stripping public employees of their free speech rights to collective bargaining.

Today,  POLITICO posted on their website a copy of an absentee ballots flier found over the weekend on the door handles in two heavily Democrat leaning districts. The fliers clearly state the ballots must be in the hands of the city clerk “before Aug. 11.” However, the actually election date is August 9. Anyone that sends in their ballot after the 9^th will not have their vote counted.

Of course, Republicans have been on a nationwide campaign to restrict lawful Americans from voting. In Wisconsin, the stink is especially repugnant.  State Representative Robin Vos, Republican co-chair of the powerful Legislative Joint Finance Committee, pushed through a bill that “enacting one of the most restrictive voter ID laws in the nation”, according to John Nichols in a recent article in the Nation titled “Rigging Elections”.

Nichols goes on to point out Vos connection to another Koch brothers funded organization the American Legislation Exchange Council (ALEC). “As ALEC’s chair for Wisconsin, Vos was doing what was expected of him. Enacting burdensome photo ID or proof of citizenship requirements has long been an ALEC priority. ALEC and its sponsors have an enduring mission to pass laws that would make it harder for millions of Americans to vote, impose barriers to direct democracy and let big money flow more freely into campaigns.”

In a final, disturbing piece of Wisconsin news this weekend, a fire broke out in the Wisconsin office of a Democratic advocacy group, We Are Wisconsin, supported by local labor groups. The fire started around 9:30 a.m. Saturday and completely destroyed the office, along with a warehouse and small apartment building. No one was injured.

While the fire is still under investigation and may only be a coincidence, one need only look back at the heath care debate to see the rights-wings willingness to use a concerted campaign of threats and violence to intimidate their political opponents.

One might remember Tea bagger and Patriot militia leader  Mike Vanderboegh  advocated breaking the windows  of members of congress the day before the Affordable Health Care Act was passed  and signed into law. Vanderboegh stated that if the rightwing breaks enough Democrat Party members windows, the Dems just might get the message, “and make defending ourselves at the muzzle of a rifle unnecessary… BREAK their windows. Break them Now.”

Again, while the investigation into the fire may lead to a simple electrical problem or accident, there is no reason why liberals and progressives should not feel under attack, both figuratively and potentially physically. Moderate Democrats need to come to the same realization.

The Republican party has been taken over by a group of libertarian billionaires that secretly fund dozens of right-wing extremists groups/thugs that are willing to use dirty tricks, fraud, and intimidation to gain and hold onto power.  The radical libertarian agenda aims to strip away the middle-class in order to attain their lasses-faire corporatocracy.  This is class warfare on a grand scale, and it is up to every American citizen, whether you’re from Wisconsin or liberal California, to stand-up to this radical right-wing assault on the middle-class, freedom, and democracy.

 

We are Wisconsin's burned out building

Right-Wing Calls for Provocateurs

Nelson/AP

Originally published in The Daily Censored for Project Censored.

Back in August, 2009, I published a small article titled “Goons With Guns” that linked to a memo from a Right-Wing Tea Party organization called Right Principles. The memo called for their supporters to disrupt and harass those that showed up to town hall meetings in support for health care reform. Here is a small excerpt from the memo, “… pack the hall… spread out … rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation…to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early….yell back and have someone else follow-up with a shout-out … to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda…stand up and shout and sit right back down.” The memo brags about how 30 protesters disrupted a town hall meeting with 150 people.

As a result, the debate over the health care bill heated up. Unions that planned on showing up to town hall meetings started receiving death threats from the angry Tea Party supporters. At the AFL-CIO office, an official described what he called a, “pretty direct threat” after the organization announced it was planning to attend an upcoming Democrat held town hall meetings. The message said, “I will be going to a local town hall this weekend, all you union members BEWARE!” an emailer wrote at 9:40 Saturday morning. “We will be waiting for you. Better make sure you have arrangements with your local ER. Today is the day when the goon meets the gun. See you there.”

Once again, the corporatists Tea Party thugs are up to their old tricks of intimidation, disruption, and disinformation. Yesterday, The Political Carnival revealed an memo from Tea Party Express leader and racist Right-Wing radio talk show personality Mark Williams. In the memo, Williams is encouraging his Tea Bagging buddies to act as impostors and provocateurs in order to disrupt and discredit the union supporters.  Here is the body of the memo, highlighted by The Political Carnival:

“(1) I signed up as an organizer (2) with any luck they will contact me and I will have an “in”  (3) in or not I will be there and am asking as many other people as can get there to come with, all of us in SEIU shirts (those who don’t have them we can possibly buy some from vendors likely to be there)  (4) we are going to target the many TV cameras and reporters looking for comments from the members there  (5) we will approach the cameras to make good pictures… signs under our shirts that say things like “screw the taxpayer!”  and “you OWE me!” to be pulled out for the camera (timing is important because the signs will be taken away from us) (6) we will echo those slogans in angry sounding tones to the cameras and the reporters.  (7) if I do get the ‘in’ I am going to do my darnedest to get podium access and take the mic to do that rant from there…with any luck and if I can manage the moments to build up to it, I can probably get a cheer out of the crowd for something extreme.”

The memo goes on:

“Our goal is to make the gathering look as greedy and goonish as we know that it is, ding their credibility with the media and exploit the lazy reporters who just want dramatic shots and outrageous quotes for headlines.  Even if it becomes known that we are plants the quotes and pictures will linger as defacto truth.”

Mark Williams’ goals are clear. While Williams claims he does not want to instigate violence. However, he believes his provocative actions might help expose the union supporters as goonish, thus dinging their credibility. This is the classic act of a provocateur.

Thus far, the protests in Wisconsin have been overwhelmingly peaceful . Yesterday, with over 70,000 supporters of the union’s right to collectively bargain were out in force. An additional hundred or so proponents of the Right-wing corporatocracy came out to peacefully counter demonstrate. As a result, Wisconsin proudly showed the world what the First Amendment looks like.

However, as the protesters build momentum, the opposition will become more desperate. What we are seeing in the repugnant thugs that follow Mark Williams is an overt plan to ramp up the rhetoric and provoke a confrontation. Once again, we witness the Right-wing use the dishonorable tactic of falsely setting up their opponents in order to discredit them. It is a shameful tactic, but one the supporters of the corporatocracy commonly use. With the Right-wing plotting to disrupt the peaceful protesters this week, we should not be surprised if things get ugly. The supporters of the middle class and worker’s rights must remain calm. They must not walk into the traps the Right-wing extremists are now setting.

Right-Wing Denounces Democracy

Free Egpyt fpif.org

Originally published at The Daily Censored for Project Censored.

Over the past 18 plus days, the world witnessed Egypt’s stunning move toward democracy. We watched as the brutal dictator Hosni Mubarak unleashed camel and horseback riding thugs to bash in the heads and disrupt peaceful protesters. We saw through the lies about foreign interference spread by Mubarak supporters and state owned television. We heard the false claims by Mubarak’s thugs of the looting and violent intentions of the pro-democracy supporters. Most of the world denounced the Mubarak administration and finally, to everyone’s amazement, we witnessed the peaceful overthrowing of a dictator by his own people.

Around the world, people joined in the celebration of this week’s historic events. However, back home in America, the screaming rightwing propaganda machine openly denounced the pro-democracy movement. Rush Limbaugh called the protesters, “leftists, feminists, socialists, communists, and environmentalists.” Limbaugh went on to label the Egyptian peace activists a, “classic rent-a-mob,” spurred on by community organizers.

Glenn Beck of Fox News went a little further by claiming the populist democratic uprising was part of a “The Coming Insurrection.” Beck declared, “When you take the Marxists and you combine them with the radical from Islam, when you combine those forces, which is exactly — we’ll show you this week — what is happening here, the whole world starts to implode.”

But why are so many of the leading spin-doctors in the rightwing alternative universe working so feverously to portray Egypt’s prodemocracy movement in a negative light? Doesn’t the delirious rightwingers on Fox News and talk radio want Americans to believe that they are the true defenders of liberty and the voice of freedom?  The answer is simple, the Right lies. The corporatists don’t want Americans to know their real goals. And so, the Right has created an elaborate propaganda machine, with Fox News as its flagship.

Consider, for example, a recent expose’ published by Media Matters on Fox News’ daily barrage of distortions. According to a former long time employee of Rupert Mudock, who remains anonymous due to a non-disclosure agreement, “I don’t think people would believe it’s as concocted as it is; that stuff is just made up….It is their M.O. to undermine the administration and to undermine Democrats…They’re a propaganda outfit but they call themselves news…. They say one thing and do another. They insist on maintaining this charade, this façade, that they’re balanced or that they’re not right-wing extreme propagandist,”

However, it doesn’t take a Fox News insider to tell you the channel acts as rightwing extreme propagandist. The question is, why does the rightwing just make stuff up? How far will they go? What are they attempting to accomplish? And perhaps more importantly, what are they attempting to cover-up?

This week, Chris Hedges writes in his recent article, The Language of Tyranny, at Truthdig, “The tactic of speaking in two languages is as old as empire itself. The ancient Greeks and the Romans did it. So did the Spanish conquistadors, the Ottomans, the French and later the British. Those who inhabit exploited zones on the peripheries of empire see and hear the truth. But the cries of those who are exploited are ignored or demonized. The rage they express does not resonate with those trapped in self-delusion, those who continue to trust in the ultimate goodness of empire…

Those who administer empire—elected officials, corporate managers, generals and the celebrity courtiers who disseminate the propaganda—become very wealthy. They make immense fortunes whether they deliver the nightly news, sit on the boards of corporations, or rise, lavished with corporate endorsements, within the vast industry of spectacle and entertainment. They all pay homage, even in moments defined as criticism, to the essential goodness of corporate power. They shut out all real debate. They ignore flagrant injustices and abuse. They peddle the illusions that keep us passive and amused. But as our society is reconfigured into an oligarchic system, with a permanent and vast underclass, along with a shrinking and unstable middle class, these illusions lose their power.”

Hedges’ highlights the fact that the administrators of empire are the disseminators of propaganda. Fox News has become the nation’s premier defender of the emerging corporate power structure. An oligarchic America designed to replace the principles of our Founding Fathers with the principles of the free market. And extreme Laissez-Faire ideology propped up by layer after layer of lies.

The administrators of empire will not only spread falsehoods, misinformation, willful distortions, and simply make stuff up, the hell spinners of corporate propaganda will personally attack anyone that stands in their way. Along with the Media Matters expose’ on the News Corporation insider, ThinkProgress released emails this week from a law firm representing the Chamber of Commerce that documented a “private spy company investigated the families and children of the Chamber’s political opponents. The apparent spearhead of this project was Aaron Barr, an executive at HB Gary. Barr circulated numerous emails and documents detailing information about political opponents’ children, spouses, and personal lives.”

In a separate set of emails from the law firm, ThinkProgess learned, “the Chamber hired the lobbying firm Hunton and Williams. Hunton And Williams’ attorney Richard Wyatt, who once represented Food Lion in its infamous lawsuit against ABC News, was hired by the Chamber in October of last year. To assist the Chamber, Wyatt and his associates, John Woods and Bob Quackenboss, solicited a set of private security firms — HB Gary Federal, Palantir, and Berico Technologies (collectively called Team Themis) — to develop tactics for damaging progressive groups and labor unions, in particular ThinkProgress, the labor coalition called Change to Win, the SEIU, US Chamber Watch, and StopTheChamber.com.”

What Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t want you to know is that they are pushing America into a great social experiment. A social experiment based on corporate rule that will make the age of the robber barons look like the good ol’ days. What the Right is covering up is their attempt to transform American into a corporatocracy. In the pursuit of this transformation, the rightwing nutcases are willing to lie, spy, sabotage, and even kill their fellow Americans to achieve their goals. The Right requires a vast underclass of citizens to fulfill their wet dreams. In their delusional minds, anyone that stands in their way simply becomes casualties of war. Even the family members of union members and groups like Change to Win and ThinkProgress.

The reason the leading blowhards of rightwing propaganda denounced the pro-democracy movement in Egypt is clear. A peaceful, populous pro-democracy uprising of the vast underclass has the administrators of empire pissing in their pants. They are absolutely frightened Americans, like the Egyptians, will rise up and demand their democratic rights. They are shaking in their boots over the thought of the liberal progressive movement uniting with the unemployed and disenfranchised. They are horrified by the prospect of a mass movement of Americans taken to the streets and calling for jobs. Real jobs with a living wage. They are scared of Americans demanding real corporate accountability and a fair tax system that restores Reagan era tax rates on the rich. But what petrifies them the most is the thought that Americans would rise up and demand real democracy. A democracy without the influences of corporate lobbyist. A democracy that empowers individuals, not big business. Now that is something that truly frightens the promoters of the corporate power structure.