Speak up, take action: Everybody Blog About Pigford Day
One of the last things I talked about with Andrew Breitbart before he left this earth too soon last year was the persistent, poisonous scourge of identity politics and racial demagoguery. Those of you who followed his work knew about his passionate pursuit of the truth in the Pigford farmers’ settlement scandal. Last week, the Fishwrap of Record finally got around to acknowledging the racially-driven racket. Today, Lee Stranahan at Breitbart.com is leading Everybody Blog About Pigford Day:
Andrew knew that the Pigford scandal was something that was too big to just be covered by conservative media so when I suggested going on the road to do interviews with some key figures in the story, Breitbart took a leap of faith that a guy he’d just met who wrote for HuffPo and had done work for MoveOn would report the story honestly. Andrew had checked out the work I’d done on the John Edwards affair and could see I placed a higher value on truth than staying in lockstep with liberal messaging but still, it was a risk on his part and an example of his dedication to the truth.
A funny thing happened on the road, though; I stopped being a liberal.Such is the transformative power of the farmers’ settlement story, which lays bare the moral bankruptcy of the left by showing their pretense of altruistic concern on race issues is really just a way to buy votes and line the pockets of lawyers and fraudsters. Knowing what I knew about Pigford, it was impossible to maintain any respect for President Barack Obama and his cohorts in corruption.
People talk about how tireless Andrew was on this story but very few actually saw what that meant firsthand –the late night strategy sessions, the constant batting back and forth of information and the amount of time Breitbart spent on the phone talking to the actual black farmers that were the source of the some of the most important leads on the story. Anyone who knew him well will tell you Andrew Breitbart really cared about these hard working men and their stories of betrayal at the hands of the USDA.When we lost Andrew, very few of the posthumous accolades mentioned that he had absolutely nailed the Pigford story. The Breitbart News team knew we’d gotten it right but for a long time there was cold comfort in that.
The New York Times didn’t just validate the facts of the story, however. The front page placement of their Pigford exposé proved correct Andrew’s instinct that this was a major story, worthy of deep investigation.
As I said last week in tribute to Andrew, our social media/new media outlets are not just for correcting false narratives, but for exposing suppressed narratives. Every blog post, every Facebook comment, every tweet from a user whether he/she has 5 followers or 500,000 makes a difference.
Speak up.
***
Breitbart: May 1st is Everybody Blog About Pigford Day.
National Review: Pigford forever
Unsurprisingly, this cash bonanza spawned a cottage industry of mountebanks and small-time frauds, including a few who toured the churches of the rural South recruiting “farmers” to stake their claims in lieu of reparations. And the number of claims exploded. Some claimants were as young as four years old; others had their forms filled out by lawyers just to “keep the line moving.” There were many reports of duplicative, even identical forms written in the same hand. In some towns, the number of claimants exceeded the number of farms there operated — by individuals of any race. The Times quotes several USDA employees whose job was to process — and ultimately rubber-stamp — these claims. “You couldn’t have designed it worse if you had tried,” one says of the process. “You knew it was wrong,” says another, “but what could you do? Who is going to listen to you?” “Basically, it was a rip-off of the American taxpayers,” says a third.
But as the Times reports in great depth, instead of closing the spigot, in 2010 the Obama administration did not just acquiesce to, it spearheaded the expansion of, the Pigford con on the taxpayer’s dime, and saw to it that not just black Americans, but any woman, Hispanic, or Native American who could so much as gesture at discrimination had access to a billion-dollar pool of easy money.
It did this over the objections of career lawyers in the Justice Department. It did this by dubiously tapping a Justice Department fund reserved for court-ordered, not politically dispensed, payouts. And it did this, in most cases, under evidentiary standards even looser than the ones governing the original settlement.
…At a minimum, a congressional investigation is needed, as is congressional intervention in the continued administration of the payouts. Representative Steve King (R., Iowa) has long called for such measures, and it is time his calls are heeded. It is shame, to the tune of billions in taxpayers’ dollars, that it has taken this long for the mainstream media and its readers to catch up to the reality of Pigford. But now that they have, perhaps they can be shamed into helping put an end to it.
Interview with key Pigford lawyer, Othello Cross:
Warner Todd Huston: Pigford Across the Media.
Michele Bachmann’s 2011 Pigford press conference
The Coddling of College Hate Crime Hoaxers
RAAAAAAAAAAAACIST!
The Coddling of College Hate Crime Hoaxers
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2013
American college campuses are the most fertile grounds for fake hate. They’re marinated in identity politics and packed with self-indulgent, tenured radicals suspended in the 1960s. In the name of enlightenment and tolerance, these institutions of higher learning breed a corrosive culture of left-wing self-victimization. Take my alma mater, Oberlin College. Please.
This week, the famously “progressive” college in Ohio made international headlines when it shut down classes after a series of purported hate crimes. According to the Oberlin Review (a student newspaper I once wrote for), anti-black and anti-gay vandalism/”hate speech” have plagued the campus since Feb. 9.
“‘Whites Only’ was written above a water fountain, ‘N*gger Oven’ was written inside the elevator, and ‘No N*ggers’ was written on a bathroom door” at one dormitory, according to the publication.
Swastikas and epithets were drawn on posters around the school. Activists implied the incidents were tied to Black History Month. The final straw? A menacing presence on campus who allegedly donned a “KKK hood” and robe near the segregated black dormitory known as “Afrikan Heritage House.”
Oberlin President Marvin Krislov and three college deans ostentatiously published an “open letter” announcing the administration’s decision to “suspend formal classes and non-essential activities.” The campus body immediately jumped to conclusions and indulged in collective grievance-mongering. The New York Times, Black Entertainment Television and The Associated Press all piled on with angst-ridden coverage of the puzzling crimes at one of the first U.S. colleges to admit blacks and women.
Oberlin alumna Lena Dunham, a cable TV celebrity who starred in a pro-Obama ad likening her vote for him to losing her virginity, took to Twitter to rally her fellow “Obies.” The Associated Press dutifully reported Dunham’s plea as news: “Hey, Obies, remember the beautiful, inclusive and downright revolutionary history of the place you call home. Protect each other.”
But what the AP public relations team for Dunham and the Oberlin mau-mau-ers didn’t report is the rest of the story. While Blame Righty propagandists bemoaned the frightening persistence of white supremacy in the tiny town of Oberlin, city police told a local reporter that eyewitnesses saw no one in KKK garb — but instead saw a pedestrian wearing a blanket. Yes, the dreaded Assault Blanket of Phantom Bias.
Moreover, after arresting two students involved in the spate of hate messages left around campus, police say “it is unclear if they were motivated by racial hatred or — as has been suggested — were attempting a commentary on free speech.”
Color me unsurprised. The truth is that Oberlin has been a hotbed of dubious hate crime claims, dating back to the late 1980s and 1990s, when I was a student on campus. In 1988, giant signs reading “White Supremacy Rules (Kill All N*ggers)” and “White Supremacy Rules, (F*uck (slashed out and replaced with ‘Kill’) All Minorities)” were hung anonymously at the Student Union building. It has long been suspected that minority students themselves were responsible.
In 1993, a memorial arch on campus dedicated to Oberlin missionaries who died in the Boxer Rebellion was defaced with anti-Asian graffiti. The venomous messages — “Death to Ch*nks Memorial” and “Dead ch*nks, good ch*nks” — led to a paroxysm of protests, administration self-flagellation and sanctimonious resolutions condemning bigotry. But the hate crime was concocted by an Asian-American Oberlin student engaged in the twisted pursuit of raising awareness about hate by faking it, Tawana Brawley-style.
Segregated dorms, segregated graduations and segregated academic departments foster paranoid and selective race-consciousness. While I was on campus, one Asian-American student accused a library worker of racism after the poor staffer asked the grievance-mongering student to lower the blinds where she was studying. Call the Department of Justice!
A black student accused an ice cream shop owner of racism after he told the student she was not allowed to sit at an outside table because she hadn’t purchased any items from his store. Alert the U.N. Commission on Human Rights!
In 2006, I went back to Oberlin to confront the campus with the hate crime hoax phenomenon. As I told students back then, liberals see racism where it doesn’t exist, fabricate it when they can’t find it and ignore it within their own ranks. I documented case after case of phony racism by students and faculty, from Ole Miss to Arizona State to Claremont McKenna, and contrasted it with the vitriolic prejudice that tolerant lefties have for minorities who stray from the political plantation. (You can watch the speech on C-SPAN here.)
The response from “students of color”? They took offense, of course, and characterized my speech as self-hating hate. Just as their coddling faculty and college elders have taught them to do.
I repeat: Mix identity politics, multicultural studies, cowardly administrators and biased media — and you’ve got a toxic recipe for opportunistic hate crime hoaxes. Welcome to high-priced, higher mis-education, made and manufactured in the U.S.A.
***
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Classes resumed Tuesday at Oberlin College amid a report that two students are under investigation for their possible involvement in a string of hate-related graffiti found on campus over the last month.
The Associated Press reported that Oberlin police Chief Thomas Miller said the two are under investigation and are facing college disciplinary action, but that no criminal charges have been filed.
It wasn’t clear, he told AP, whether the incidents were meant as pranks or were driven by bigotry.
Oberlin College: Still manufacturing hate crimes hoaxes after all these years
My crazy alma mater is at it again.
Back in the 1990s, race-obsessed nutballs at Oberlin College in Ohio cooked up a horrid hate crime hoax. Asian-American students claimed that a phantom racist had spray-painted anti-Asian racial epithets on a campus landmark rock. Turned out that it was a warped Asian-American student who perpetrated the dirty deed. Whoops. Never mind.
Student newspapers were filled with complaints about imaginary racism. One Asian-American student accused a library worker of racism after the poor staffer asked the grievance-mongering student to lower the blinds where she was studying. A black student accused an ice cream shop owner of racism after he told the student she was not allowed to sit at an outside table because she hadn’t purchased any items from his store.
In 2006, I went back to Oberlin to confront the campus with the hate crime hoax phenomenon.
When conservative alumna Michelle Malkin, OC ’92, returned Wednesday to deliver her lecture “ Exposing Liberals Unhinged” to an overflowing crowd in West Lecture Hall, C-SPAN and Safety and Security stood by and pamphlets on civil discourse were handed out.
Delivering the first lecture in the Ronald Reagan Political Lectureship Series, Malkin spoke about how “liberals see racism where it doesn’t exist, fabricate it when they can’t find it, and ignore it within their own ranks.”
The lecture series is sponsored by Steven Shapiro, OC ’83. The Alumni Association and the Young America Foundation, a group that promotes conservative causes on college campuses, also contributedfunding to this particular event. The Oberlin College Republicans were also responsible for bringing the speaker to campus.
College senior Barry Garrett, president of the OC Republicans, introduced the syndicated columnist, blogger, Fox News contributor and former Competitive Institute Fellow as the obvious choice to start off what he described as a “sorely needed series” that would seek to “shatter political homogeneity.”
Malkin, who is perhaps best known for defending Japanese internment in WWII, drew her lecture from the chapter entitled “One Sick Gook” in her new book, Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild. Malkin took the chapter name from hate mail she receives, and she said that the chapter “exposes the dirty little secret of liberal bigotry.”
Reading from her notes, bodyguard standing in front of her, Malkin recounted tales of Oberlin students seeing racism in situations that to her were not racist at all.
So, as soon as I read the fresh reports this week about a purported racist in a “KKK” hood lurking on Oberlin’s campus and reports of bigoted graffiti/vandalism, the fake hate crime alarm bells went off.
And so it goes. The “KKK” hood appears to have been a student in a blanket and it is not clear if the “hate speech” was of malicious intent or meant to be a purposely provocative exercise of free speech by sympathetic students:
According to college newspaper The Oberlin Review, the vandalism began on 9 February, with the defacing of Black History Month and Year of the Queer posters.
This was followed three days later with a note found in the Multicultural Resource Center that read “Nigger + Faggot Center”. A “Whites Only” notice was written above a water fountain and a swastika was drawn on a window, the college newspaper also reported.
The final straw for college staff came with Monday’s reported sighting of a suspect in KKK robes.
A joint statement from faculty including college president Marvin Krislov and dean of students Eric Estes said it involved “a person wearing a hood and robe resembling a KKK outfit” and that police were investigating.
The statement read: “This event, in addition to the series of other hate-related incidents on campus, has precipitated our decision to suspend formal classes and non-essential activities for today.”
Instead, students and staff were encouraged to “gather for a series of discussions of the challenging issues that have faced our community in recent weeks”.
Lt Mike McCloskey of Oberlin police told the Guardian on Monday that officers were still following up the KKK sighting, but suggested that the only witness may have been mistaken.
“Officers checked the area and were unable to locate anybody. College security later saw a student wrapped in a blanket.”
McCloskey suggested that the apparent missighting may have been an innocent mistake. He also indicated that those responsible for the racist vandalism had now been caught and were being dealt with.
“My understanding is that the individuals are college students and they have been identified. They are no longer on campus. The college is dealing with it internally, and we have been working in co-operation with the college.”
He added: “Charges could be happening, depending on prosecutors’ review. Our case file has been forwarded to prosecutors.”
Two students are thought to be behind the vandalism, but it is unclear if they were motivated by racial hatred, or – as has been suggested – were attempting a commentary on free speech.
Nothing has changed. The self-victimization/manufactured racism impulse at Oberlin — and at so many higher mis-education institutions across the country — is as strong and poisonous as ever.
***
Related: Rod Dreher comments…
They shut the college down and are forcing everyone to go to a day of political re-education and communal shrieking because of Linus Van Pelt.
It costs over $50,000 per year to attend this pants-wetting academy.
***
The nation laughs at Oberlin: Assault Blanket? Lib pants-wetting over Oberlin ‘racial incident’; Lena Dunham frets; Update: History of hoaxes
***
My previous hate crime hoax coverage:
Hate crime hoaxer of the month: Sharmeka Moffitt
Blame Righty: A condensed history
Not again: Another act of Democrat vandalism falsely blamed on Tea Party
How the Left fakes the hate: A primer
The most convoluted Tea Party=RAAACIST smear ever
Unhinged update: Left-wing hate-crime hoaxer pleads guilty in Denver
Another racial hoax crime with the New Black Panther Party seal of approval
Busted: She made it all up
Why that McCain volunteer’s “mutilation” story smells awfully weird; Update: Police to administer polygraph; conflicting evidence at scene; Update: Hoaxer confesses
Fertile ground for fake hate
The left fakes the hate at GWU
Hate crime hoax at Ole Miss
Colleges perfect milieu for hate crime hoaxes
Unhinged: The Mugshot Collection [scroll down to Kerri Dunn]
Another hate crime hoax
Crimes of the phantoms
Tawana Brawley goes to college
Muslim “hate crimes”
Myth of the Muslim hate crime epidemic
MLK’s unfinished legacy and the fight for school choice
In so many ways, the dream is still far from reality. I’ve said before that one of the areas of American life where Martin Luther King’s vision remains unfulfilled is public education. Teachers’ unions and government school protectionists have stood in the schoolhouse door, blocking innovation, competition, and parental choice — leaving minority children and their families to languish in some of the country’s worst schools.
School choice is a civil rights issue, if not the civil rights issue of the 21st century in America.
Americans of all backgrounds, colors, and political parties will unite across the country next week to mark National School Choice Week. Watch:
National School Choice Week provides an unprecedented opportunity, every January, to shine a spotlight on the need for effective education options for all children.
Planned by a diverse and nonpartisan coalition of individuals and organizations, National School Choice Week features special events and activities that highlight support for school choice programs and proposals. The effort is a collaboration of more than 200 partner organizations, which each use the week to advance their own messages of educational opportunity while uniting with like-minded organizations across the country.
National School Choice Week believes that parents should be empowered to choose the best educational environments for their children and supports a variety of school choice options — from encouraging increased access to great public schools, to public charter schools, magnet schools, virtual schools, private schools, homeschooling and more.
NSCW is sponsoring a whistle-stop tour across the country to raise awareness about parental choice and academic excellence. Help spread the word and become a part of the movement!
“Just as whistle-stop tours were used to promote civil rights like women’s suffrage to the end of racial segregation, the National School Choice Week ‘Special’ will draw attention to the great civil rights fight of the 21st century: school choice for all Americans regardless of their race, income, zip code or learning ability,” said Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week.
Throughout the tour, thousands of concerned citizens are expected to rally at special events that will feature speeches by students who are succeeding in school choice programs, parents, national education reform leaders and elected officials. The tour includes major whistle-stop events in the following cities:
– Los Angeles, CA (Friday, Jan. 25)
– Albuquerque, NM (Saturday, Jan. 26)
– Topeka, KS (Monday, Jan. 28)
– Kansas City, MO (Monday, Jan. 28)
– Chicago, IL (Tuesday, Jan. 29)
– Milwaukee, WI (Wednesday, Jan. 30)
– South Bend, IN (Wednesday, Jan. 30)
– Toledo, OH (Thursday, Jan. 31)
– Cleveland, OH (Thursday, Jan. 31)
– Erie, PA (Thursday, Jan. 31)
– Buffalo, NY (Friday, Feb. 1)
– Rochester, NY (Friday, Feb. 1)
– Albany, NY (Friday, Feb. 1)
– New York, NY (Saturday, Feb. 2)
Beyond the whistle-stop tour, National School Choice Week 2013 will feature more than 3,500 events organized by students, parents and community leaders across all 50 states.
The Week focuses on six educational choices designed to help children secure the education that is right for them. Those choices include: high-performing traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, private schools, digital learning and home schooling.
“These are the kinds of educational options we want for all children,” Campanella said.
“School choice helped open the door to a brighter future for my son, Gabriel,” said Valerie Evans, a school choice mom. “School choice is a lifesaver for my child and ensures he will be in a safe environment first and foremost. It means he can now be educated in an environment that is not only safe, but he will get the education he needs and deserves. Without a quality education from grade school, he won’t have the foundation he needs to get into college, graduate and be a success.”
MLK’s unfinished legacy and the fight for school choice
In so many ways, the dream is still far from reality. I’ve said before that one of the areas of American life where Martin Luther King’s vision remains unfulfilled is public education. Teachers’ unions and government school protectionists have stood in the schoolhouse door, blocking innovation, competition, and parental choice — leaving minority children and their families to languish in some of the country’s worst schools.
School choice is a civil rights issue, if not the civil rights issue of the 21st century in America.
Americans of all backgrounds, colors, and political parties will unite across the country next week to mark National School Choice Week. Watch:
National School Choice Week provides an unprecedented opportunity, every January, to shine a spotlight on the need for effective education options for all children.
Planned by a diverse and nonpartisan coalition of individuals and organizations, National School Choice Week features special events and activities that highlight support for school choice programs and proposals. The effort is a collaboration of more than 200 partner organizations, which each use the week to advance their own messages of educational opportunity while uniting with like-minded organizations across the country.
National School Choice Week believes that parents should be empowered to choose the best educational environments for their children and supports a variety of school choice options — from encouraging increased access to great public schools, to public charter schools, magnet schools, virtual schools, private schools, homeschooling and more.
NSCW is sponsoring a whistle-stop tour across the country to raise awareness about parental choice and academic excellence. Help spread the word and become a part of the movement!
“Just as whistle-stop tours were used to promote civil rights like women’s suffrage to the end of racial segregation, the National School Choice Week ‘Special’ will draw attention to the great civil rights fight of the 21st century: school choice for all Americans regardless of their race, income, zip code or learning ability,” said Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week.
Throughout the tour, thousands of concerned citizens are expected to rally at special events that will feature speeches by students who are succeeding in school choice programs, parents, national education reform leaders and elected officials. The tour includes major whistle-stop events in the following cities:
– Los Angeles, CA (Friday, Jan. 25)
– Albuquerque, NM (Saturday, Jan. 26)
– Topeka, KS (Monday, Jan. 28)
– Kansas City, MO (Monday, Jan. 28)
– Chicago, IL (Tuesday, Jan. 29)
– Milwaukee, WI (Wednesday, Jan. 30)
– South Bend, IN (Wednesday, Jan. 30)
– Toledo, OH (Thursday, Jan. 31)
– Cleveland, OH (Thursday, Jan. 31)
– Erie, PA (Thursday, Jan. 31)
– Buffalo, NY (Friday, Feb. 1)
– Rochester, NY (Friday, Feb. 1)
– Albany, NY (Friday, Feb. 1)
– New York, NY (Saturday, Feb. 2)
Beyond the whistle-stop tour, National School Choice Week 2013 will feature more than 3,500 events organized by students, parents and community leaders across all 50 states.
The Week focuses on six educational choices designed to help children secure the education that is right for them. Those choices include: high-performing traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, private schools, digital learning and home schooling.
“These are the kinds of educational options we want for all children,” Campanella said.
“School choice helped open the door to a brighter future for my son, Gabriel,” said Valerie Evans, a school choice mom. “School choice is a lifesaver for my child and ensures he will be in a safe environment first and foremost. It means he can now be educated in an environment that is not only safe, but he will get the education he needs and deserves. Without a quality education from grade school, he won’t have the foundation he needs to get into college, graduate and be a success.”
Hate crime hoaxer of the month: Sharmeka Moffitt
My shocked face is getting quite a work out today. Meet Sharmeka Moffitt, heir to the Tawana Brawley/Crystal Mangum hate crime hoax throne.
Via The Franklin Sun:
Two days after multiple law enforcement agencies began an investigation into the attack and burning of a Winnsboro woman at Civitan Park, authorities now believe the wounds were self-inflicted.
According to Winnsboro Police Chief Lester Thomas, evidenced gathered at the scene of the incident shows 20-year-old Sharmeka Moffitt’s initial claims that she was attacked and set on fire turned out to be false claims made up by Moffitt. “This is a case in which the investigators had to pursue the facts that were presented,” Thomas said. “It’s been a very disturbing case for everyone involved.”
On Sunday, officers responded to a 911 call around 8 p.m. near the walking trail at Civitan Park to find Moffitt with burns covering her body. It was less than a minute from the time the call from Moffitt came into the 911 center that officers from the Winnsboro Police Department and the Franklin Parish Sheriff’s Office were on the scene at the park located on Hwy. 15.
Moffitt could not identify the race of her attackers, but said three men wearing “T-shirt hoodies” doused her in a flammable liquid and set her on fire at the park. The responding officers found no suspects or vehicles at the park where the attack allegedly occurred….State Police arrived by helicopter with its crime lab team to gather evidence shortly after Moffitt was taken for medical assistance. Law enforcement officials gathered evidence from the scene all night, finishing its scaling of the crime scene by Monday morning.
After analyzing the evidence at the State Police Crime Lab, it was discovered Moffitt’s fingerprints were on the cigarette lighter and the lighter fluid recovered near the wooded area around the crime scene.
“There is more physical evidence along those lines that back this up,” Thomas said.
The Monroe Morning Star adds:
Police have announced that they believe Sharmeka Moffitt fabricated a story about being attacked and burned Sunday night at Civitan Park in Winnsboro by three men who wrote “KKK” on the hood of her car.
Franklin Parish Sheriff Kevin Cobb said during a press conference at the Franklin Parish Courthouse this afternoon that all forensic evidence pointed toward Moffitt concocting the story and setting herself on fire.
“Basically we had to follow the facts,” Cobb said. “This was a disturbing case for all involved. All indications show this was a self-inflicted situation.”
Russell Simmons’ Global Grind is also reporting the new revelations and asks: “[W]hy would someone do something so horrible?”
Longtime readers know it’s not an isolated phenomenon — and neither is the knee-jerk impulse to blame conservatives/the Tea Party/Fox News for numerous incidents that turned out to be completely manufactured.
As Twitchy pointed out, liberals rushed to blame the Sharmeka Moffitt case on Mitt Romney and the Tea Party.
We’re sure all those who fraudulently convicted the Right will get around to retracting and apologizing just as soon as smear merchant Andrew Sullivan gets around to retracting his false accusation that conservatives were responsible for the suicide insurance hoax of that Kentucky census worker.
***
FLASHBACK:
March 26, 2010
How the Left fakes the hate: A primer
The MSM never takes a break from whitewashing leftist intolerance, death threats, and extremism — and engaging in selective reporting (or rather, non-reporting) of the long history of leftists’ manufacturing of hatred for political gain. My syndicated column fills in the missing context. In related developments, Glenn Reynolds takes a look at a new dubious report of rock-throwing. Erick Erickson shreds Josh Marshall’s specious incitement accusations. Patterico reports on the latest Twitter death threats against the Palin family. (Here’s a reminder about the one a Toronto Star columnist posted about me, which was laughed off by her editor and ignored by her colleagues). Here’s Mary Katharine Ham’s reminder that 7 of the 10 violent incidents during the summer town hall protests were brought to you by Obama-bots and union thugs. And in case you need a quick refresher on the routine liberal ugliness that will never be decried by the civility police, see here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here here. For starters. See also: Unhinged.
How the Left fakes the hate: A primer
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
If you can’t stand the heat, manufacture a hate crime epidemic.
After years of covering racial hoaxes on college campuses and victim sob stories in the public arena, I’ve encountered countless opportunists who live by that demented mindset. At best, the fakers are desperately seeking 15 minutes of infamy. At worst, their aim is the criminalization of political dissent.
Upon decimating the deliberative process to hand President Obama a health care “reform” victory, unpopular Beltway Democrats and their media water-carriers now claim there’s a Tea Party epidemic of racism, harassment, and violence against them. On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a tepid, obligatory statement against smearing all conservatives as national security threats. But her lieutenants had already emptied their tar buckets. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Chris Van Hollen blamed Republican leaders of “stoking the flames.” Democrat House Whip James Clyburn accused the GOP of “aiding and abetting” what he called “terrorism.”
Yet, the claims that Tea Party activists shouted “nigger” at black House Democrats remain uncorroborated. The coffin reportedly left outside Missouri Democrat Rep. Russ Carnahan’s home was used in a prayer vigil by pro-life activists in St. Louis protesting the phony Demcare abortion funding ban in President Obama’s deal-cutting executive order. Videotape of a supposed intentional spitting incident targeting Missouri Democrat Rep. Emanuel Cleaver at the Capitol shows no such thing. Cleaver himself backed off the claim a few days later. He described his heckler to the Washington Post in more passive terms as “the man who allowed his saliva to hit my face.” Slovenliness = terrorism!
The FBI is now investigating the most serious allegation – that Tea Party activists in Virginia are somehow responsible for a cut gas line at the home of Democrat Rep. Tom Perriello’s brother. But instead of waiting for the outcome of that probe, liberal pundits have enshrined the claim as conclusive evidence of the Tea Party reign of terror.
Need more reasons to treat the latest Democrat hysteria with a grain of salt the size of their gargantuan health care bill? Remember:
*In November 2009, Kentucky Census worker Bill Sparkman was found dead in a secluded rural cemetery with the word “Fed” scrawled on his chest with a rope around his neck. The Atlantic Monthly, the Huffington Post, and liberal media hosts stampeded over themselves to blame Fox News, conservative blogs, Republicans, and right-wing radio. Federal, state, and local authorities discovered that Sparkman had killed himself and deliberately concocted a hate crime hoax as part of an insurance scam to benefit his surviving son.
*In mid-October 2008, news outlets from Scranton, Pa., to ABC News, to the Associated Press and MSNBC reported that someone at a Sarah Palin rally shouted “Kill him” when Barack Obama’s name was mentioned. In fact, the Secret Service (which was at the event in full force) couldn’t find a single person to corroborate the story – other than the local reporter for the Scranton Times-Tribune who made an international incident out of the claim. Agent Bill Slavoski “said he was in the audience, along with an undisclosed number of additional secret service agents and other law enforcement officers and not one heard the comment,” the paper reported in a red-faced follow-up. Maybe the shouter is hiding with Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman’s real killer.
*In late October 2008, a gaggle of liberal blogs spread the rumor that a Republican supporter of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s had shouted that Barack Obama was “a nigger” during a campaign rally in Iowa. Video and first-hand accounts showed that the protester did not shout “he’s a nigger,” but “he’s a redistributor.” A lefty activist at the “progressive” Daily Kos blog confirmed the truth – but to this day, the crisis-manufacturing smear lies uncorrected and unretracted across the Internet.
*In September 2009, supporters of Colorado Democrat Rep. John Salazar falsely accused a town hall protester of hurling a death threat at the congressman. Liberal blogs again disseminated the angry Tea Party mob narrative. A week later, the local press quietly reported that Grand Junction police had investigated the incident – and determined the claim was “unfounded.” A police spokeswoman revealed that “[p]eople who witnessed the interaction between the man who made the complaint and the suspect confirmed they never heard any direct threats made regarding Congressman Salazar; the witnesses included a Grand Junction cop “in close proximity when the interaction took place.”
*In late August 2009, as lawmakers faced citizen revolts at health care town halls nationwide, the Colorado Democratic Party decried a vandalism attack at its Denver headquarters. A hammer-wielding thug smashed 11 windows and caused $11,000 in property damage. The perpetrator, Maurice Schwenkler, turned out to be a far Left nutball/transgender activist/single-payer anarchist who had worked for a SEIU-tied 527 group and canvassed for a Democrat candidate. Nevertheless, State Democrat Party chair Pat Waak continued to blame “people opposed to health care” for the attack.
Then, as now, being a Democrat Party official means never having to say you’re sorry for smearing conservative dissent.
E-mail of the day
My e-mail box has been overflowing with all kinds of oozy hatred and bigotry, but I just had to share this one today.
Giggle:
haywood@haywoodgalbreath.com
11:00 AM (3 minutes ago)
It must be a real hard! Having to be a person of color! Wanting to live like and be accepted by white America! Lucifer is smiling at you and all others who are willing to sell their souls for the American dream and being accepted! In the end I would say may God have mercy upon your soul! But unless you give your soul back to him! There will be no mercy! –The GoldenEagle HG-
-Iconic history making American-African Photo /Journalist Haywood Galbreath-
Time for a 2nd revised edition of the Liberal Racial Code Words Handbook: Chair!
My column last week unveiled my “Condensed Liberal Handbook of Racial Code Words”.
It’s a living, breathing document. The first entry in the 2nd Revised Edition?
“CHAIR!”
Seriously, read this.
The progs go to superhuman lengths to divine racism where there is none, and to ignore it when it’s seeping like raw sewage from the trash mouths of the Left.
The Condensed Liberal Handbook of Racial Code Words
The Condensed Liberal Handbook of Racial Code Words
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2012
Thumper the Rabbit’s parents always taught him, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.” If the left’s self-appointed Omniscient Diviners of True Meaning have their way, conservatives in the public square won’t be left with anything at all to say. Ever.
It’s a treacherous business exercising your freedom of speech in the age of Obama. As a public service, I present to you: “The 2012 Condensed Liberal Handbook of Racial Code Words.” Decoder rings, activate!
–Angry. On the campaign trail this summer, President Obama has become — in the words of the mainstream Associated Press — more “aggressive.” But don’t you dare call him “angry.” According to MSNBC host Toure, that’s racist!
“You notice he said ‘anger’ twice,” Toure fumed in response to a speech last week by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. “He’s really trying to use racial coding and access some really deep stereotypes about the angry black man.” Or maybe Romney is just accurately describing the singular temperament of the growling, finger-jabbing, failure-plagued demagogue-in-chief. It’s about the past four years, not 400 years. Sheesh.
–Chicago. The Obamas and their core team of astroturfers, pay-for-play schemers and powerbrokers hail from the Windy City. This is a simple geographic fact. But in progressive of pallor Chris Matthews’ world, it’s an insidious dog whistle. The frothing cable TV host attacked Republicans this week who have the gall to remind voters of the ruthless Chicago way.
“(T)hey keep saying Chicago, by the way. Have you noticed?” Matthews sputtered. “That sends that message: This guy’s helping the poor people in the bad neighborhoods and screwing us in the ‘burbs.”
Actually, it’s a pointed reminder that the radical redistribution politics of Chicago-on-the-Potomac have done little to alleviate the suffering of impoverished Americans in violence-plagued, job-hungry inner cities everywhere. Racist!
–Constitution. Fox News contributor Juan Williams, who proudly calls himself a “real reporter,” has apparently added real telepathist to his curriculum vitae. Earlier this year, he read the minds of Republicans and conservatives whom he accuses of deep-seated bigotry when they show any public reverence for our founding principles, documents and leaders.
“The language of GOP racial politics is heavy on euphemisms that allow the speaker to deny any responsibility for the racial content of his message,” Williams wrote. “References to a lack of respect for the ‘Founding Fathers’ and the ‘Constitution’ also make certain ears perk up by demonizing anyone supposedly threatening core ‘old-fashioned American values.’”
So, if you ever find yourself wanting to hum the “Schoolhouse Rock” version of the Preamble, heed these three words: Stop the hate!
–Experienced. A significant population of American voters believes that qualifications actually matter when running for the highest office in the land. Chilling, isn’t it? They might as well sport KKK hoods. In the judgment of one Basil Smikle of The Century Foundation, “experienced” is a dreaded “racial code word.”
Intoned Smikle: “Experienced? Does it really mean the time that he spent in the Senate, or does it mean, ‘Well, does that guy have the same kind of experience in life that I have?’ … What does inexperience really mean?”
Maybe it just means what critics meant it to mean: “Does this guy have experience beyond the measly 304 days he served when the U.S. Senate was in session before he announced his first presidential bid?” I know: Racist!
–Food Stamp President. At the dawn of the modern federal food stamp program, one in 50 Americans was enrolled. This year, one in seven Americans is on the food stamp rolls. The majority of them are white. Obama’s loosening of eligibility requirements combined with the stagnant economy fueled the rise in dependency. “Food stamp president” is pithy shorthand for the very real entitlement explosion.
Democrats fumed when former GOP candidate Newt Gingrich bestowed the title on Obama and decried its purportedly racist implications. But who are the racists? As Gingrich scolded the aforementioned race troll Chris Matthews last week: “Why do you assume food stamp refers to blacks? What kind of racist thinking do you have? You’re being a racist because you assume they’re black!” Time to find a new code word.
–Golf. This one’s a gobsmacker. Beltway barnacle Lawrence O’Donnell appeared on cable TV to decry Republicans who mention Obama’s frequent golf outings. He singled out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s convention speech Wednesday night, which joked that Obama “was working to earn a spot on the PGA tour.” The warped racial radar of pasty Lawrence O interpreted this golf joke as “Obama equals Tiger Woods equals RACISM.”
Huh? “These people reach for every single possible racial double entendre they can find in every one of these speeches.” O’Donnell expertly explained. “Things are getting lower and lower by the day,” host Martin Bashir agreed.
I’d say this is all Greek to me. But that’s probably racist, too.
–Holding down the fort. Obama’s State Department diversity officer now advises us, based on admittedly dubious history, that “holding down the fort” is an anti-Native American idiom that has no place in U.S. discourse. Example: “I know you guys have been holding down the fort.” Oops, that was Obama at a Tampa rally in 2008. Next…
–Kitchen cabinet. Radio talk-show host Mark Thompson jumped on Romney for using this phrase — coined to describe Andrew Jackson’s administration in the 1800s — at the NAACP convention in July. Romney was referring to a close member of his staff during his tenure as Massachusetts governor.
“To talk about being in the kitchen and not talk about an African-American actually being in your cabinet is really not a good metaphor to use with African-Americans,” Thompson blasted. Is it racist to ask: Huh?
–Obamacare. Left-wing Daily Beast columnist Michael Tomasky accused Romney of “race-baiting” by wielding the term “Obamacare.” The Beltway shorthand for this behemoth federal spending program exposes Romney as a “spineless, disingenuous, supercilious, race-mongering pyromaniac” because it is a “heavily loaded word,” Tomasky railed.
How then to explain the use of the Bull Connor-channeling epithet by none other than the Obama campaign, which peddles “I like Obamacare” T-shirts on its website? Logic is racist.
–Privileged. Stay with me here. Washington Post writer Jonathan Capehart has a problem with Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry calling Obama “privileged.” Spotlighting his elite education is tantamount to racial bigotry because it insinuates that “he took the place of someone else through affirmative action, that someone else being someone white.”
And here I thought it was a simple description of an out-of-touch academic whose crony Chicago ties of all colors gifted him with access, money and power that the vast majority of Americans don’t have.
–Professor. Several progressive black intellectuals excoriated 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin for this statement: “They know we’re at war, and to win that war we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern.”
“Professor,” professor Charles Ogletree said, was code for “uppity.” This translation service is available only to credentialed Ivy League eggheads. A saner criticism would be that Obama was never a professor of law, but an untenured lecturer. Racist? Tell that to Hillary Clinton, whose 2008 campaign made that very point.
–You people. Asked last month whether her husband would release more tax returns, Ann Romney told a pack of reporters: “We’ve given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and about how, you know, how we live our life.”
A chorus of faux-ragers from the Huffington Post to NBC’s Andrea Mitchell hammered Mrs. Romney for her double-whammy sandwich of elitism and racism. Apparently, “you people” is the verbal equivalent of putting black people back in chains. One little, teeny-tiny problem: ABC News admitted: “Our ruling after reviewing the original audio is that she did not include the ‘you.’”
In other words, it was manufactured out of whole cloth. Give the dog-trombone media another black mark for ridiculous bias denial. “Black mark”? I know: Raaaaaaaaaaacist!
Black like us: The race clownery of Obama-Biden
Is there anything more ridiculous than white Democrats talking down and talking black to voters — while whitewashing the devastating effects of their economic policies on those voters? Is there anything more poisonous than stoking racial grievances by shamelessly likening your political opponents to slavemasters — while presiding over a culture of dependency that chains future generations to massive debt?
Joe Biden isn’t a BFD. He’s a BFE: Big F’n Embarrassment. The result of Biden’s White House-approved racial tension inflammation yesterday?
This: New Black Panther Party threatens Republican National Convention…”Our feet will be on your necks.”
And for your listening pleasure via Fingers Malloy: It’s the “Back in Chains Blues.”
***
Black like us: The race clownery of Obama-Biden
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2012
Looks like Vice President Joe Biden has been taking extracurricular Democratic jive-talking lessons. The results of condescending liberals’ cynical racial pandering attempts are, as always, seismically cringe-inducing.
At a campaign event in Danville, Va., the gaffetastic veep dropped his g’s and picked up a bizarre twang in front of an audience of black voters. Middle-Class Joe swapped his Home Depot apron for an A.M.E. preacher’s robe and sermonized about the big, bad GOP.
Romney’s “gonna let the big banks once again write their own rules,” Biden shouted. “Unnnn-chain Wall Street,” he exclaimed with pulpit bravado. “They’re gonna put y’all back in chains,” the pasty Delaware wheeler-dealer faux-drawled. Extra-emphasis on the “y’all.”
Yes, Biden is rattling chains like an extra in “Roots.” This is the same politician of pallor who cracked jokes about Indians who work in 7-Elevens and who referred to his now-boss as “clean” and “articulate.” Yet, Biden’s demagoguery was met with approving hoots and hollers. Or rather, hollas.
Naturally, the defiant Obama campaign backed up Biden and gave a shout-out of its own. Welcome to the new tone — and the same old slime. Prevaricating spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter (last seen defending the phony, indefensible Romney-killed-a-steelworker’s-wife ad run by Obama Super PAC Priorities USA) chimed in after Biden’s speech. “We have no problem with those comments,” she told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. Biden “was using a metaphor” with which the president agrees.
Timing matters. Biden’s race-baiting came after a weekend clogged with divisive jabs at GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s announcement of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate.
Democratic Rep. Donna Christensen, the non-voting delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands to the U.S. House of Representatives, tweeted: “Wait a minute! Are there black people in Va? Guess just not w Romney Ryan! At least not seeing us. We know who’s got our back & we have his.” Left-wing actress Mia Farrow watched the announcement and derided a “whole bunch of white people.” They were joined by countless “progressive” social media users who mocked the GOP’s “white guy, white guy 2012!!!” Sirius XM radio host Dave Rubin — himself the color of discount Charmin toilet paper — called Romney-Ryan “the whitest ticket since the KKK voted for their box social chairperson.”
Gotta love post-racial America!
The poisonous slavery allusion echoed the former pastor of Biden’s boss. Rev. Jeremiah Wright, you may recall, used the same “chains” imagery to justify his “God Damn America” diatribe. “America,” he inveighed in Obama’s old Chicago-based Trinity United Church, put blacks in “chains … and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America’? No, no, no. Not God bless America; God damn America!”
Biden’s stunt also echoes Hillary Clinton’s infamous black church minstrel performances in which she unleashed a mortifying Southern-spiced-with-street accent to show her street solidarity: “For the last five years, we’ve had No. Power. At. All. And that makes a big difference, because when you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation. An’ yew know what ah’m talkin’ about.” At an event with race-hustler Al Sharpton, she poured it on thicker: “I’m afraid I’m gonna lift up the rug, and I’m goin’ to see so much stuff uh-nder thar. … You know, what is it about us always havin’ to clean up after people? … But this is not just goin’ to be pickin’ up socks off the floor. This is goin’ to be cleanin’ up the government.”
At least the only thing she manufactured was her patronizing dialect. Remember candidate Barack Obama’s 2007 Selma, Ala., speech? To court black voters, Obama claimed that President Kennedy had sponsored the airlift in Africa responsible for bringing his family to the U.S. and asserted that Selma’s 1965 Bloody Sunday demonstration brought his parents together and led to his birth. Of course, JFK didn’t take office until two years after Obama’s father arrived in the U.S., and the president was born four years before Bloody Sunday.
Obama-Biden 2012: Never let facts, civility or scruples get in the way of a racist racial pander.
Romney tells NAACP Obama made it worse for them ‘in almost every way’
**Written by Doug Powers
President Obama won’t be speaking at the NAACP’s annual convention this election year, but tomorrow Joe Biden will address the group. It will be Plugs’ job to remind everyone that not only were the walls too thin when he was a kid, but to convince the audience that the candidate who spoke to them this morning has been the one in charge of the economy for the past few years.
From The Hill:
Mitt Romney told the NAACP on Wednesday that President Obama has made it worse for African-Americans “in almost every way.”
“If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, then a chronically bad economy would be equally bad for everyone,” Romney told the nation’s leading civil rights group at their national convention in Houston, Texas. “Instead, it’s worse for African-Americans in almost every way. The unemployment rate, the duration of unemployment, average income and median family wealth are all worse for the black community.”
While Obama carried the black vote in a landslide in 2008 and leads Romney 92 to 2 percent among black voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday, Romney hopes his economic pitch will resonate with a group that has been disproportionately affected by the economic downturn. He’s made a similar appeal to other voting blocs, such as Hispanics and women.
Romney on Wednesday delivered an aggressive speech to a potentially-hostile audience. He acknowledged the historic nature of Obama’s 2008 campaign, in which he became the country’s first black president, but also made the case for his own candidacy.
It was nice to see Romney not give into the temptation to leave out things he knew would be surefire boo-bird magnets and subsequent MSM takeaways, such as this pledge to repeal Obamacare:
Full address below (text here). Yes, there was some applause (specifically during Romney’s promise to support traditional family and marriage), and a standing ovation at the end, but those parts will undoubtedly end up on the cutting room floor before tonight’s network newscasts get rolling:
(video h/t Weasel Zippers)
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe