Just Shocked

Shocked, I tell you. I was shocked to discover that Republican party strategists are turning to wealthy individuals to mount candidacies for congressional races, because Republican fund-raising is lagging behind Democratic Party efforts. According to an article in the NY Times:

... Democrats, who have been closely monitoring the Republican millionaires, assert that the recruiting underscores the Republicans’ financial weakness since they lost control of Congress in 2006.

The most recent figures show that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has raised $56.6 million and has $29.2 million at its disposal. By contrast, the National Republican Congressional Committee has raised $40.7 million with a cash balance of $2.5 million.

That is a striking turnabout for the Republicans, who have outraised the Democrats by considerable margins for years. As recently as 2006, the Republican Congressional campaign committee raised $40 million more than its Democratic counterpart, $179.5 million to $139.9 million.

“National Republicans are in disarray, forcing them to recruit inexperienced and unprepared self-funders,” said Doug Thornell, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

I think the message is becoming clearer that the fractious principles and convenient morals of the Republican Party, and conservatism generally, are not those held by the majority of Americans. The citizenry is rediscovering that the Republicans were always about two things: protecting the interests of the wealthy, and providing a home for those elements that think calling people "chihuahuas" because they may be "Mexican" is somehow appropriate. The same elements that think slandering a religion because of the violent actions of a small minority is somehow serious discourse.



















The fact that fundraising is lagging is a clear sign that Americans are tiring of this type of message.

h/t Brew City Brawler

I Object (continued)

The continuing saga of Peter DiGuadio and the chattering chihuahuas. Capper at Whallah and the Brew City Brawler have taken up the slack and kept up the heat on some very objectionable blogging. Below are links to four additional posts.

Very interesting, indeed.

Blogger who called Mexicans "chihuahuas" stands by his words

Why does the Journal Sentinel's McIlheran link to a blogger who calls Mexicans "chihuahuas" part two

Why does the Journal Sentinel's McIlheran link to a blogger who calls Mexicans "chihuahuas"

Time For Some More Satire

I Object

Thanks to John Foust and here is a link to the offending comments by Peter DiGaudio that were referenced below in the post titled: McIlheran Likes it Caustic and Pungent.

The title of Peter's post was innocent enough: Texas Pizza Chain Accepting Pesos. Here's the text of the post.

This is wrong on so many levels.

Pizza lovers who don’t happen to have American currency on them can still purchase their favorite pies with Mexican pesos, thanks to a Texas-based restaurant chain.

Starting this week, Pizza Patrón outlets, which caters heavily to Mexicans, will offer the alternative form of payment.

“We’re trying to reach out to our core customer,” Antonio Swad, president of Pizza Patrón Inc., told the Dallas Morning News.

“We know they come back [from Mexico] and have pesos left over. We want to be a convenient place for them to spend their pesos.”

It’s believed no other food chain operating so far from the Mexican border is allowing customers to pay with foreign currency.

You’re in the United States. Embrace our culture. Learn our language. Use our money.

Or go back home.

Pretty standard nonsense from the charitably-challenged. Just commenting now on this subject I could provide a couple of reasons for this being a good thing. One, it's good business. And two, other places in the United States have been accepting international currencies for years ... and the dollar is accepted internationally.

But you see, it's not really a question of what constitutes good business practices, or a question of whether we want to be a good, international buddy. Nope, in the comment section we find out what it's really about. This is where Peter hits his stride.

I am sick of them shoving their fucking culture and theire fucking language down my throat.

I stood in Wal Mart yesterday and listen to a bunch of chattering chihuahuas speaking Mexican until I sick of listening to it and finally said, “You’re in America. Speak English or go back to wherever you came from” and walked away.

Either adopt our culture or language or get the fuck out of the U.S. My grandparents were immigrants and guess what? English was learned in their homes. It was the only acceptable language.

This is who McIlheran links to approvingly. Why does the Journal Sentinel employ this guy? He's not even a real journalist. Hell, I'd feel better (well, just a real, teeny weeny bit - microscopic really) if Jessica McBride were writing the columns.

His posts and columns are poorly researched, using either ultra right-wing conservative think tanks as his sources, or questionable news organizations like the Washington Times, which is run by Sun Myung Moon. Yep, that Moonies guy and humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent.

I don't have a problem with conservative columnists being employed by the local paper to provide views. That's as it should be. But the Journal Sentinel must be able to do better.

We Will Persevere

James Wigderson of Wigderson Library & Pub, doesn't get it.

I like James. He has a wonderful wife, cute kids, a beautiful mother and an always interesting father who keeps sending me the weirdest stuff imaginable via e-mail (keep it up, Bill ... I do look at every one of them). James' politics are diametrically opposed to mine, but we can talk. Sometimes it gets a little hot. Most often, though, humor defuses the tense situations and we come to an understanding.

However, in this instance, his defense of Jessica McBride, while expected and applauded (he is, after all, a friend of hers), is wrong on many levels.

The key point he misses in his lengthy and rambling defense is this: McBride should not have asked the question in the first place.

One would have thought a journalism lecturer (you know, a professional) would have known better than to write such an ill-advised and questionably bigoted statement. One would have thought she would have waited for more facts rather than making flippant remarks. If after the fact it had been determined that the people murdered were indeed gangsta rappers, then perhaps a story about the dangers inherent in that musical profession, with links to the Tupac shooting and other incidents might have been relevant.

But McBride didn't do that. That's the shame of McBride and the reason her exploits are exposed. The right would rather that their words were ignored, while they are allowed to attack with reckless abandon. Why do you think they are so against the Fairness Doctrine and so obsessed with "liberal" bias?

It's because they can't win the argument. And now that liberals have caught on to conservative tactics and are again winning the public opinion war, conservatives are fretting.

Fret away and never fear, the McBride, Fred Dooley, Peter DiGaudio and right-wing watch will continue unabated.

The Demise of the GOP

I've been saying the same thing myself. There are many honorable conservatives/Republicans. Unfortunately for them (I'm not terribly unhappy) their party has been hijacked by the wackjobs like Limbaugh, Coulter, Dobson and a seemingly vast number of rude, uncouth and vulgar conservative commenters that you can read regularly on local blogs. This in its entirety from the Anonymous Liberal.

In his column in the New York Times today, David Brooks explains the collapse of the Republican brand this way:

To put it bluntly, over the past several years, the G.O.P. has made ideological choices that offend conservatism’s Burkean roots. This may seem like an airy-fairy thing that does nothing more than provoke a few dissenting columns from William F. Buckley, George F. Will and Andrew Sullivan. But suburban, Midwestern and many business voters are dispositional conservatives more than creedal conservatives. They care about order, prudence and balanced budgets more than transformational leadership and perpetual tax cuts. It is among these groups that G.O.P. support is collapsing.

John Cole, a Republican-voter as recently as 2004, strongly dissents and offers a different explanation:

Like me. It had nothing to do with Burke, and everything to do with what the party had become. A bunch of bedwetting, loudmouth, corrupt, hypocritical, and incompetent boobs with a mean streak a mile long and no sense of fair play or proportion. . . .

Screw them. I got out. They can have their party. I will vote for Democrats and little L libertarians and isolationists until the crazy people aren’t running the GOP. The threat of higher taxes in the short term isn’t enough to keep me from voting out crazy people and voting for sane people with whom I merely disagree regarding policy. Hillarycare doesn’t scare me as much as Frank Gaffney having a line to the person with the nuclear football or Dobson and company crafting domestic policy.

I think Cole is much closer to the truth here than Brooks. I think the reason the Republican brand has suffered so much of late is because many people have become embarrassed by and no longer want to be associated with the party's public representatives; its most visible television personalities, radio hosts, writers, bloggers, and activists, are by in large, obnoxious, crazy, and embarrassing. It's a clown show. Intelligent conservatives cringe when they see people like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh on television spouting their toxic nonsense, but this toxic gasbag contingent has come to dominate the GOP. And while this stuff might be red meat to much of the Republican base, it's scaring away the more educated members of the party.

I know this because I know a number of people who, not so long ago, were very proud Republicans and were not at all embarrassed about saying so. And now they're all very disillusioned and quick to tell you that they're not that kind of Republican. The problem for the GOP is that it has allowed a bunch of rabid loons to take control of its messaging and they are tarnishing the brand with their relentless idiocy. As long as this continues, there will continue to be an exodus from the party of people like John Cole, who may not agree with the Democrats on everything, but are just sick and tired of the GOP clown show.

The More They Open Their Mouths ... the More Obvious Their Disdain for Humanity Becomes

For Jessica McBride, Charlie Sykes, Peter DiGaudio and all the other short-sighted right-wing individuals who think that David Ehrenstein’s op-ed about Barack Obama – the “Magic Negro” – now gives you license to expose your racist hearts with impunity (oooh, the naughty left said it first), here is a comment from a fellow anonymously named “Fabtemp” at Media Matters for America (you know, the scholarly site, not the blogsite authored by the woman named McBride who poses as a scholar). It's about Rush Limbaugh's new found playground word that he has claimed he will continue to use it until someone says it originated with him ... thereby, and only in his twisted mind, confirming that it's all about him.

Wow, Rush! Are you surprised that you found an LA Times editorialist who is only slightly less racist than you are?

The "Magic Negro" is a denigrating term for a two dimensional character so often used in film stories. He is never allowed to be a "real" person with fears, weaknesses, psychological complexities or even much of a personal history. He has counter parts in the "Magic Asian Master" and the "Magic Gay Man".

If you wish to see a form rebellion against the "Magic Negro", watch films in which Denzel Washington wanted to be a part. He's made a career out of avoiding playing the "Magic Negro", routinely choosing instead rather complex characters, some with extraordinary personal flaws like homophobia, alcoholism and even sublimated socipathology.

Ehrenstein, of course, confuses film story lines with real life. What he perceives to be some sort of "mystification" of Barack Obama is racist in its perception already. Obama is not an angry, black man shouting colorful speeches about civil rights. He's a polished son of academia who rose to the position of United States Senator - not social issue gadfly.

As Chris Rock would mock about what was so often coined about Colin Powell "What do you EXPECT the man to sound like???"

It's Ehrenstein who has the problem of seeing Barack Obama as "real", not the Dem voters supportive of his candidacy.

And here you come, Rush, gleefully happy that someone you think is "on the left" (BTW, Would that be because of Ehrenstein's previous columns, his paper or his surname? Perhaps all three?), legitimizing your repeat of "Magic Negro" like a three year old who has learned a new "bad word" to gain attention from his parents.

You and your grazing herd will never quite understand the CRITIQUE inherent in the creation of the "Magic Negro" character in story lines and how inherently OFFENSIVE a character he is. All you want is the legitimacy to scream what you think is an offensive, racism term - because you needed some "leftist" permission to do so.

So scream it all you want to your beer-swilling, dashboard fist pounding, insecure legions. Barack Obama and his supporters aren't paying attention to either YOU or the soft bigotry contained in Ehrenstein's column.

Those who pay attention to racist stereotypes in American media were already well aware that "Hollywood" ain't exactly a factory in which true social equality dreams are made. Only you people look to "Hollywood" as some representation of "liberal" thought.

Are you SURE it's not about the surnames, Rush?

How Can Anyone Be Okay With This?

In the words of a local conservative blogger (I'll keep his name out of this, no reason to pile on) who supports Bush policies every chance he gets ... "I'm okay with this." I wonder if he is really okay with THIS.

h/t This Modern World

At the Morgue.

We were asked to send the next of kin to whom the remains of my nephew, killed on Monday in a horrific explosion downtown, can be handed over. The young men of the family, as was customary, rose to go.

“NO!” cried his mother. “Isn’t my son enough?? Must we lose more of our youth?? You know there are unknowns who wait at the Morgue to either kill or kidnap the men who dare reach its doors. I will go.”

So we went, his mum, his other aunt and I.

I was praying all the way there.

I never thought a day would come when it was the women of the family, who would be safer on the roads. All the men are potential terrorists it seems, and are therefore to be cut down on sight. This is the logic of today, is it not? To kill evil before it even has a chance to take root.

When we got there, we were given his remains. And remains they were. From the waist down was all they could give us. “We identified him by the cell phone in his pants’ pocket. If you want the rest, you will just have to look for yourselves. We don’t know what he looks like.”

Now begins a horror that surpasses anything I could have possibly envisioned .We were led away, and before long a foul stench clogged my nose and I retched. With no more warning we came to a clearing that was probably an inside garden at one time; all round it were patios and rooms with large-pane windows to catch the evening breeze Baghdad is renowned for. But now it had become a slaughterhouse, only instead of cattle, all around were human bodies. On this side; complete bodies; on that side halves; and EVERYWHERE body parts.

We were asked what we were looking for, “ upper half” replied my companion, for I was rendered speechless. “Over there”. We looked for our boy’s broken body between tens of other boys’ remains’; with our bare hands sifting them and turning them.

We found him millennia later, took both parts home, and began the mourning ceremony.

Can Hollywood match our reality?? I doubt it.


"Inside Iraq" chronicles daily life in a war zone through the words of Iraqi journalists in McClatchy's Baghdad Bureau as they risk so much each day to survive. These are unedited first hand accounts of their experiences. Their complete names have been withheld for security reasons.

Hey, I Went to J-School

This is for my wing-nut friends who truly believe they are doing the job the MSM used to do (so they say). So, I thought I would do some investigative reporting on my own. Here's my scoop for Monday, February 5, 2007.


It's really, really cold outside.

It's a Crime to be Different

Tacit approval is being given to neocon bloggers, by talk radio and people like Jessica McBride, to pry into the private affairs of individuals like the fellow who made the intemperate remarks to the soldier. He and the company he worked for are now being "investigated" by some, including Peter DiGaudio (author of Texas Hold ‘em Blogger) and by a blog named, Euphoric Reality. This blog lists not only the name of the person who made the comment, but the names, ages, jobs held, etc. of other people associated with the company. There is much more information posted, so it is best to just jump over to the site using the link provided. They’re frightening in their disregard for others … scary in the delusion they are performing the job of the MSM … they are nothing more than vigilantes.

What is frightening is these people have no qualms about abusing technology to “out” their fellow citizens. None! These people who are being attacked have a right not only to privacy but to a presumption of innocence before guilt, whether citizens or legal aliens. They are being electronically raped before our eyes. One is being raped for engaging in a freedom of speech exercise (reprehensible though it was) and the others for being associated with him.

These bloggers, children really in their regard, remind me of this quote from George Orwell’s epic, 1984:

"Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it... All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals. It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children."

Be very frightened citizens. Be frightened of these self-proclaimed patriots. They are the real traitors to the American idea.


Oh, Jessica McBride provides another reason why she should not be teaching journalism. Regarding the issue examined above, she had this to say:

They raise a good question about the terminated employee. Who is it?

No Room for Hate

This is so wrong and F. James Sensenbrenner is partially to blame. Rather than come up with a legitimate plan to deal with the problem of illegal immigration, Sensenbrenner and his racist cohorts instead fueled the fires of bigotry for votes and now it’s getting out of control. A Texas pizzeria decides to accept pesos because 60% of its clientele is Mexican and suddenly they're hit with death threats.

The problem is national. Just the other day, here in Wisconsin, one local blogger referred to Mexicans as “chattering Chihuahuas” and said he told them off at a local Wal-Mart because they were not speaking English. This same blogger says he is not anti-immigration, but is anti-illegal immigration. Yet, he insulted a group of people without determining whether they were here legally or not (not that insulting anyone is okay).

Fortunately, not all conservatives react this way. James Wigderson, author of the blog Wigderson Library and Pub, rightly sees this as a problem and has no qualms exposing this behavior.

Let’s hope others everywhere have the same cojones.

It Could Happen To You

A blogger named Spocko has been shut down by his Internet provider ostensibly because ABC Radio complained. The reason why ABC Radio complained is because Spocko …

“… began spotlighting inflammatory rhetoric common to several talk radio hosts on KSFO, an ABC Radio-owned station in San Francisco. Spocko compiled a litany of examples on both his weblog, Spocko's Brain, and in numerous letters to corporations advertising on KSFO. He noted that KSFO hosts had claimed to have put "a bull's-eye" on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), advocated hanging various New York Times editors, called for the murder of millions of Muslims, and so on. This letter-writing campaign apparently got results, as major advertisers such as MasterCard, Bank of America, and Visa reportedly pulled their ads from the station.”

Listen to the YouTube piece below, which has been posted in support of Spocko and his right to call conservative blowhards on their evil machinations.

The reason that Spocko was shut down is because for these big corporations it is truly all about the advertising dollar. Wonder why the JournalSentinel has taken a decided turn to the right? Come on, don’t be so clueless. It’s because profits were dwindling and they decided to jump on the conservative bandwagon. Too bad it’s broken a spoke.

These blowhards and their cousins here in Wisconsin, Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling, Patrick McIlheran, Jessica McBride, etc., don't, fortunately, speak for all those with conservative beliefs. There are quite a few who are decent people. But, there are too many that go along for the ride and get caught up in the rhetoric. One recently referred to a group of Mexicans speaking their own language at a local Wal-Mart as "chattering chihuahuas." He has claimed he is only anti-illegal immigrant. How did he know these people were not here legally?

It's time for hateful conservative rhetoric to end.



More on this at Crooks and Liars.

Doing the Job of the MSM ... Hah!

There is a great article by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory about the utter lack of credibility possessed by the right-wing blogosphere. He writes:

Packs of right-wing bloggers spent the last several weeks trying to destroy the credibility of Associated Press's war reporting by claiming that one of its sources, an Iraqi policeman named Jamil Hussein, does not exist, that AP simply invented him. As it turns out -- and as AP itself had the great pleasure of reporting (and then rubbing in the face of its irresponsible, taunting accusers) -- the Iraqi Government, which previously denied it, now acknowledges that Jamil Hussein does exist and he is a police officer in Iraq, just as AP reported accurately.

Oops.

There is more to the story. It’s best just to link over there and follow up yourself. However, the main point I want to cover is that what Greenwald says is true nationally is also true here in our own little corner of the blogosphere. Not only do right-wing blogs insanely leap to erroneous conclusions on a regular basis, they are also, as Greenwald says:

… wrong over and over and over -- and not just in error, but embarrassingly so, because so frequently their claims are transparently, laughably absurd, and they spew the most righteous accusations without any sort of evidence at all. The New Republic has its Stephen Glass and The New York Times has its Jayson Blair. But those are one-off incidents. The right-wing blogosphere is driven by Jayson Blairs. They are exposed as frauds and gossip-mongerers on an almost weekly basis. The only thing that can compete with the consistency of their errors is the viciousness of their accusations and their pompous self-regard as "citizen journalists." (bf mine)

These right-wing bloggers love to piously masquerade around as "media watchdogs," keeping a watchful eye on the "MSM" and compelling them to adhere to facts. And ever since their involvement in the use by Dan Rather of fraudulent documents, and then heightened by Charles Johnson's oh-so-monumental observation that a Reuters photograph of Lebanon had been photoshopped to give the appearance of more smoke during an Israeli air strike on Beirut, the media has largely recited this storyline.But they are nothing of the sort. Nobody is less interested in media accuracy than they are. Correcting media mistakes is so plainly not their agenda. They are nothing more than hyper-partisan hysterics who jump on any innuendo or rumor or whispered suspicion as long as it promotes their rigid ideological views and political loyalties and hatreds.

Here in SE Wisconsin we have our own righties whose claim they are here to do the job of the MSM is so hilarious. Just recently, during the last election, they were fed a load of crap regarding some documents that mysteriously appeared supposedly indicting the Democrats for plotting dastardly deeds and, like sheep, they nodded their heads and repeated the story until … oh, oh, everyone discovered it was not true. Suddenly, sites like Texas Hold ‘em Blogger and most notoriously, Boots and Sabers, were sent scrambling to cover their butts.

Instead of accepting any blame, they blamed the source of their woes. For someone claiming to do the job of the MSM, there surely was a lack of confirmation that the blarney was true. Pomposity levels (and testosterone levels) dropped a little that day.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions. The beauty of blogging is it’s free and one is free to spew stupid things like the trash tossed about by Michele Malkin, InstaPundit and our own Jessica McBride.

Just don’t claim you was had when you’re had and expect sympathy … no one will accept your pleas of innocence.

Duped and Used

Saw the article first in the JS Online, then went to the humble folkbum to see if he had latched onto it. I then let it sink in a bit ... in the end, I decided (as others have also) two words apply to Owen at Boots and Sabers and Peter at Texas Hold'em Blogger, two of the loudest conservative bloggers.

Duped!

Used!

This is what happens when someone untrained in journalism attempts to be a journalist. Guys, you are bloggers, not reporters. You don't need to apologize to anyone. I would offer, however, the proverbial towel to wipe the egg off your face.