Marine reservist chases, assaults Greek Orthodox priest whom he mistook for an Arab terrorist.
Marine reservist chases, assaults Greek Orthodox priest whom he mistook for an Arab terrorist.
Alexios Marakis, a Greek Orthodox priest visiting the U.S., got lost in Tampa and tried to stop and ask directions from Marine reservist Jasen D. Bruce. But instead of offering help, “Bruce struck the priest on the head with a tire iron.” The reservist believed Marakis, who spoke limited English, was an Arab terrorist. Bruce chased the priest for three blocks, “and even called 911 to say that an Arabic man tried to rob him.” According to a news release:
“During the chase, the suspect called 911 and claimed an Arabic male attempted to rob him and he was going to take him into custody,” a Tampa Police Department news release states. “When officers arrived, the suspect claimed the man was a terrorist.”
Police arrested Bruce for “aggravated battery with a deadly weapon” and are investigating whether he committed a hate crime.
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CNBC Reporter: Keflezighi’s Marathon Win Was ‘Empty’ Because He Was An Immigrant Rather Than U.S.-Born
CNBC Reporter: Keflezighi’s Marathon Win Was ‘Empty’ Because He Was An Immigrant Rather Than U.S.-Born
On Sunday, U.S. media outlets reported that for the first time in 27 years, an American had won the New York City Marathon. Meb Keflezighi was born in Eritrea, “growing up in a hut with no electricity.” He and his family moved to Italy when he was 10 years old, and came to the United States two years later. Keflezighi “began running in junior high in San Diego, then went on to star at UCLA.” He said he it was with “big honor and pride” that he wore the USA jersey while running in the marathon. Watch a post-marathon interview with Keflezighi here:
However, CNBC Sports Business Reporter Darren Rovell doesn’t think Keflezighi deserves all this praise because when his mother gave birth to him, she wasn’t in the U.S. Rovell wrote a column yesterday saying that Keflezighi’s victory wasn’t “as good as it sounds” because Keflezighi is an immigrant, and this fact “takes away from the magnitude of the achievement the headline implies”:
Given our disappointing results, embracing Keflezighi is understandable. But Keflezighi’s country of origin is Eritrea, a small country in Africa. He is an American citizen thanks to taking a test and living in our country.
Nothing against Keflezighi, but he’s like a ringer who you hire to work a couple hours at your office so that you can win the executive softball league.
Around noon today, Rovell posted a “convoluted sort-of apology” clarifying yesterday’s piece, writing, “Let me be clear: Meb Keflezighi is an American and any suggestion otherwise is wrong.” He now granted Keflezighi’s win legitimacy only because the runner was “brought up through the American system”:
I said that Keflezighi’s win, the first by an American since 1982, wasn’t as big as it was being made out to be because there was a difference between being an American-born product and being an American citizen. Frankly I didn’t account for the fact that virtually all of Keflezighi’s running experience came as a US citizen. I never said he didn’t deserve to be called American. [...]
It turns out, Keflezighi moved to the United States in time to develop at every level in America. So Meb is in fact an American trained athlete and an American citizen and he should be celebrated as the American winner of the NYC Marathon. That makes a difference and makes him different from the “ringer” I accused him of being. Meb didn’t deserve that comparison and I apologize for that.
How long does someone have to be in the U.S. and go through the American “system” to be counted as legitimate? In today’s New York Times, academics who study race and sports note that there are still “undercurrents of nationalism and racism that are not often voiced” in sports. “There is this notion about innate physiological gifts that certain races presumably possess. Quite frankly, I think it feeds into deep-seated stereotypes,” said David Wiggins, a professor at George Mason University.
Yesterday, Keflezighi responded to the criticisms, saying, “I’ve had to deal with it. But, hey, I’ve been here 22 years. And the U.S.A. is a land of immigrants. A lot of people have come from different places.”
(HT: bustacap at DailyKos)
Arizona Republican National Committeeman tries to show solidarity with the ‘brown people’ in his city.
Arizona Republican National Committeeman tries to show solidarity with the ‘brown people’ in his city.
Arizona Republican National Committeeman Bruce Ash recently called in to the radio show of right-wing host Jon Justice — who has been called the “Rush Limbaugh of Tucson” — to take issue with local Democratic Party chairman Jeff Rogers’ opposition to a city ballot initiative. Ash said that Rogers doesn’t understand levels of crime in the city. To show how aware he is personally, Ash recounted some of his conversations with the city’s “brown people”:
I listen to the event and I heard the argument, and what was really truly amazing to me, Jon, was the pomposity that Jeff Rogers displayed. He sits in his little house in midtown with his kids who go to school, with his little job, and his job as the Democrat county chairman, and he is blind to all of the crime that is going on in this city.
It’s maybe not happening in his little neighborhood, but you ask any of the brown people who live on the South Side, or the West Side, or the South Central side of Tuscon, and they will tell you, in no uncertain terms, the fear they have getting in their car, walking in the street, and sometimes just sitting in their house.
Listen here:
The Arizona blog Rum, Romanism and Rebellion gives Ash the benefit of the doubt and says it might not have been blatant racism. However, the site says that Ash’s “sudden care for ‘brown people’ on the South Side” comes off as “good old fashioned patronizing and nothing more.” Huffington Post blogger Marlene Phillips also notes that crime statistics don’t support Ash’s claim that crime is higher in the city’s Hispanic neighborhoods. (HT: AMERICAblog)
Maryland NAACP protests city’s Halloween ‘lynching’ display.
Maryland NAACP protests city’s Halloween ‘lynching’ display.
The Parks and Recreation Department of the city of Frederick, MD recently decided to hang three dummies from a tree as part of its Halloween program. The dummies’ “overstuffed shirts, blue jeans and white, faceless heads” sparked concern from Frederick residents who complained that “the figures evoke images of lynchings.” According to one resident:
“It instantly reminded me of the pictures of the lynchings that happened in the ’20s and ’30s in the United States,” he said. “I found it very offensive as a white person.”
Guy Djoken, president of the Frederick County chapter of the NAACP, said “people are angry” about the display, noting that it’s a problem that they are “hanging on city property.” Djoken said he sent the mayor of Frederick, William Holtzinger, an email asking for their “immediate removal.” See Djoken’s comments here:
CNN’s Jane Velez-Mitchell goes after discriminatory hotel owner: Would you make me change my name too?
CNN’s Jane Velez-Mitchell goes after discriminatory hotel owner: Would you make me change my name too?
New Mexico hotel owner Larry Whitten is currently facing national criticism for demanding that his Hispanic employees change their names and stop speaking Spanish in his presence. Today on CNN, HLN host Jane Velez-Mitchell sharply went after Whitten, introducing herself as “Jane Velez-Mitchell. I hope you don’t mind if I keep using the word ‘Velez’ in my name.” She then went after him for asking his “Spanish” employees to anglicize their names:
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Did you, or did you not, tell someone who’s name is Martin (Mar-TEEN) to say that his name was “Martin,” or similar changes? [...]
WHITTEN: Yes, I asked Martin (Mar-TEEN) to change it to “Martin” to better understand it over the telephone.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You can’t understand Mar-TEEN? Do you know that the vast majority of people in the community where you have your hotel are Latino? So your customers, to a large extent, are going to be Latino. Now how do you treat the customers when they come in? Do you them also to change their names? Like if I came in, would Jane Velez-Mitchell — so you could better understand my name — would you ask me to change it?
WHITTEN: No, ma’am — [...]
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So the idea that you’re presupposing that people cannot understand Mar-TEEN, but they can understand Martin, really says a lot more about you, sir, than it does about your customers or anybody else.
Throughout the interview, as Velez-Mitchell pointed out, Whitten insisted on calling the employee by the anglicized pronunciation of “Martin.” Watch it:
Transcript: More »
Vitter dodges question about interracial marriage in Louisiana.
Vitter dodges question about interracial marriage in Louisiana.
Although both Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) have publicly condemned Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell for refusing to issue marriage licenses to interracial couples, Sen. David Vitter (R) has stayed noticeably silent. (ThinkProgress contacted his office, but we did not receive a response.) Blogger-activist Mike Stark caught up with Vitter and asked him about his position. “Have you commented? What did you have to say about it?” asked Stark. Vitter simply smiled, stepped into the elevator, and allowed the doors to close. Watch it:
Steele refuses to distance himself from Glenn Beck’s ‘racist’ attack on Obama.
Steele refuses to distance himself from Glenn Beck’s ‘racist’ attack on Obama.
In his interview with Univision yesterday, RNC Chairman Michael Steele was asked his reaction to Glenn Beck’s now-infamous racist diatribe against President Obama. Recall, Beck said Obama is a “racist” who “has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.” (Beck has been unable to clarify what he meant by “white culture.”) Steele refused to offer even the slightest hint of criticism or dissatisfaction with Beck’s comments. Instead, he repeatedly defended it as “one man’s opinion”:
RAMOS: For instance, when you hear commentators like Glenn Beck saying that for him President Barack Obama is a racist, with a deep seeded hatred for white people, how do you react?
STEELE: That’s one man’s opinion.
RAMOS: Yes, but…
STEELE: That’s one man’s opinion.
RAMOS: But should you defend Barack Obama against these types of comments? I don’t know, it’s just a question.
STEELE: No, no, look the reality of it is when I ran for the United States’ Senate and I was called an Uncle Tom by leading Democrats in the country, when I was called a slave by Steny Hoyer who is now the majority leader in the House no one came running to my defense and no one seemed to think that that was racists at the time.
Watch it (en español):
Following Beck’s racist attack on Obama, ColorOfChange.org initiated a successful campaign to convince advertisers to drop Beck’s show. Approximately 80 companies have since deserted the right-wing television entertainer.
Spurned couple responds: ‘If it wasn’t for interracial couples today, we wouldn’t have our president.’
Spurned couple responds: ‘If it wasn’t for interracial couples today, we wouldn’t have our president.’
Last week, Louisiana couple Beth and Terence McKay revealed that justice of the peace Keith Bardwell had recently refused to give them a marriage license because they are an interracial couple. “I don’t do interracial marriages because I don’t want to put children in a situation they didn’t bring on themselves,” Bardwell said. “In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer.” Today on CNN, the McKays responded to Bardwell:
TERENCE McKAY: He says the only reason he doesn’t marry interracial couple is dealing with — because of the offspring of the marriages. If it wasn’t for interracial couples today, we wouldn’t have our president. So, for him to take that outlook, that’s still 1800s or something.
Watch it:
Both Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) have said that Bardwell should resign, but Sen. David Vitter (R) has refused to join their calls. Bardwell has said he has no plans to step down. (HT: Raw Story)
Kristol: ‘Thank God Most Of The Workforce Isn’t Unionized’
Kristol: ‘Thank God Most Of The Workforce Isn’t Unionized’
Earlier this week, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh was dropped from an investor group that was trying to purchase NFL’s St. Louis Rams franchise. Limbaugh’s involvement with the group sparked a week of controversy due to his history of racially divisive commentary. African-American NFL players said they “wouldn’t play” for Limbaugh’s team while the head of the NFL’s players union said he opposed Limbaugh’s bid because sports are meant to reject “discrimination and hatred.”
On Fox News Sunday today, the “All-Stars” jumped to Limbaugh’s defense. NPR’s Juan Williams set up a false comparison, claiming that people don’t complain about MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann announcing football games even though he makes “divisive” statements about conservatives. The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol used the NFL player’s union’s opposition to Limbaugh to attack unions in general, saying “thank God most of the workforce isn’t unionized”:
KRISTOL: Thank God most of business isn’t a monopoly. Thank God most of the workforce isn’t unionized. Why could this happen? This could happen because all the NFL players are in one union. Because all the NFL owners are in one club and pressure can be put on them. Thank God there’s more diversity in this country in terms of different industries and different businesses. And people can be controversial and can still find places that are willing to have them.
Watch it:
Kristol’s attack on unionization ignores the fact that unions are good for the American economy since unions help workers secure higher wages and greater benefits. Additionally, the collective bargaining of unions give workers the ability to shape the conditions of their employment, as the NFL players union successfully demonstrated.
According to Dan Lebowitz, executive director of the Center for Sports and Society at Northeastern University, the NFL has 78 percent African-American players. Because the player’s union has leverage, that means the players won’t have to work for someone who said just two years ago, “the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
Louisiana justice of the peace denied marriage license to interracial couple, worried they might have children.
Louisiana justice of the peace denied marriage license to interracial couple, worried they might have children.
The AP reports that Louisiana justice of the peace Keith Bardwell has refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple because he believes that such marriages don’t usually last very long:
“I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house,” Bardwell said. “My main concern is for the children.”
Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.
“I don’t do interracial marriages because I don’t want to put children in a situation they didn’t bring on themselves,” Bardwell said. “In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer.”
If he does an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.
“I try to treat everyone equally,” he said.
The couple said they “will consult the U.S. Justice Department about filing a discrimination complaint.” (HT: Right Wing Watch)
Federal authorities investigating anti-Obama Nazi message on Massachusetts golf course.
Federal authorities investigating anti-Obama Nazi message on Massachusetts golf course.
The U.S. Secret Service and the FBI are investigating an incident at a Lakeville, Massachusetts golf course, in which vandals etched “I” above a swastika and “Obama” on the green. The Boston Herald reports that vandals used the heels of their shoes or cleats to scrape the message into the grass:
“We investigate these cases thoroughly,” said Steven Ricciardi, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Boston office. Authorities say the incident “likely constitutes a hate crime, whether the culprits meant it as a prank or not.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suggests that Limbaugh would not be welcome in the league.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suggests that Limbaugh would not be welcome in the league.
Today, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell essentially came out against Rush Limbaugh’s bid for the St. Louis Rams, saying that based on the hate radio host’s past rhetoric, Limbaugh didn’t live up to the “standard” of the League:
“I’ve said many times before, we’re all held to a high standard here,” Goodell said. Then he continued: “I would not want to see those comments coming from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL –- absolutely not.” [...]
“The comments Rush made specifically about Donovan, I disagree with very strongly,” Goodell said. “It’s a polarizing comment that we don’t think reflect accurately on the N.F.L. or our players. I obviously do not believe those comments are positive and they are divisive. That’s a negative thing for us, obviously.”
In 2003, ESPN fired Limbaugh for arguing that Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated within the sports press because the “media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.” In recent days, NFL players and the head of the union have also spoken out against the bid, and today, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said he would vote against Limbaugh, calling his past comments “inappropriate, incendiary and insensitive.”
Bar Owner With Racist Anti-Obama Sign: Obama’s A ‘Half-Breed’
Bar Owner With Racist Anti-Obama Sign: Obama’s A ‘Half-Breed’
The Georgia Peach Museum and Restaurant — which boasts that it is “the original Klan bar” on its website — caused a media firestorm last week when it put up a sign that read, “Obama’s plan for health care – [n-word] rig it.” The restaurant’s owner, Patrick Lanzo, told a local paper that his sign is “strictly about free speech,” and noted that he has in the past been a member of the NAACP and has marched on behalf of gay rights.
Yesterday, radio host Alan Colmes hosted Lanzo and gave him a chance to explain why he chose to use the n-word on his sign. When Colmes chided Lanzo for using the word to refer to Obama, an African American, the restaurant owner responded that Obama isn’t an African American but a “half breed”:
COLMES: No one’s questioning that you have the first amendment right to do it. That’s not the issue.
LANZO: You’re saying it’s not politically correct.
COLMES: It’s not a matter of being politically correct. It’s downright offensive, it’s downright insulting, it’s downright nasty and meanspirited towards a group of people who have been spending fighting for equality. Finally we get an African American president and you’re busy using the n-word to describe something he wants to do in terms of fixing health care.
LANZO: Well, see that would offend me, because I don’t look at Obama bein’ an African American. What’s wrong with him being a Black American? And he’s even a half-breed, he’s not a full black person.
COLMES: Well, again, the word half-breed is rather an insulting term.
Listen here:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution interviewed Lanzo inside his restaurant last week. They took this picture of him, where a “Whites Only” swimming pool sign sits underneath a portrait of Barack Obama:
Limbaugh: Michael Steele Is ‘Off-Message!’
Limbaugh: Michael Steele Is ‘Off-Message!’
In an interview with NBC’s Today Show, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh defiantly stated that he is “not the leader of the Republican Party.” “These people think they can discredit the Republican Party by making me the head of it,” he said. “All they’re doing is elevating me. It’s silly for them to talk about how I’m the leader of anything.”
Well, Limbaugh certainly wants to act like he is a leader of the Party. Just a few moments later, NBC’s Jamie Gangel told Limbaugh that he has a propensity to “scare Republican politicians,” particularly RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who backtracked earlier this year after calling Rush an “entertainer.” Limbaugh responded by instructing the GOP chairman on what he should be doing:
GANGEL: GOP Party Chairman Michael Steele, at his peril, he criticized you. He said you were just an entertainer. And he said you were “incendiary” and “divisive.”
LIMBAUGH: That’s right.
GANGEL: You went after him. I’ve never seen anyone apologize quite so quickly.
LIMBAUGH: Well, you’d have to ask him why he apologized. But, the reason I went after him is not because he said those things about me. It’s because he’s off-message! Michael Steele should be out there raising money and planning more ways to get people to vote for Republicans.
Watch it:
Also in the interview, Limbaugh is asked whether he was moved in any way by the election of the first black President. “Yeah, but I got over it pretty quickly,” said Limbaugh, who declared his desire to see Obama “fail” even before he was inaugurated. Limbaugh said he predicted Obama’s election would “exacerbate racial problems — and it has.” Indeed, Rush has done his part to make sure of that.
Head of NFL players union opposes Limbaugh’s bid: Sports are meant to reject ‘discrimination and hatred.’
Head of NFL players union opposes Limbaugh’s bid: Sports are meant to reject ‘discrimination and hatred.’
Since Rush Limbaugh came out and expressed interest in buying the St. Louis Rams, black NFL players have let it be known that they would never play for a team owned by the hate radio host. “He’s a jerk. … He could offer me whatever he wanted, I wouldn’t play for him,” said New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott. Now, NFL Players executive director DeMaurice Smith is also opposing Limbaugh’s bid. In an e-mail to the union’s executive committee yesterday, Smith wrote:
I’ve spoken to the Commissioner [Roger Goodell] and I understand that this ownership consideration is in the early stages. But sport in America is at its best when it unifies, gives all of us reason to cheer, and when it transcends. Our sport does exactly that when it overcomes division and rejects discrimination and hatred. [...]
I have asked our players to embrace their roles not only in the game of football but also as players and partners in the business of the NFL,” said Smith in the e-mail. “They risk everything to play this game, they understand that risk and they live with that risk and its consequences for the rest of their life. We also know that there is an ugly part of history and we will not risk going backwards, giving up, giving in or lying down to it.
Our men are strong and proud sons, fathers, spouses and I am proud when they stand up, understand this is their profession and speak with candor and blunt honesty about how they feel.
In 2003, ESPN fired Limbaugh from Sunday NFL Countdown for saying that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the “media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.”
Black NFL Players ‘Wouldn’t Play’ For Limbaugh’s Team: ‘He’s A Jerk’
Black NFL Players ‘Wouldn’t Play’ For Limbaugh’s Team: ‘He’s A Jerk’
Earlier this week, the media reported that hate radio host Rush Limbaugh is involved in a bid to purchase the National Football League’s St. Louis Rams franchise. Many sports media figures lambasted the idea of Limbaugh owning an NFL team, with one writer saying it “would definitely hurt” the Rams while another said his “head exploded after hearing this Limbaugh news” because he is “a pungent bowl of stark raving bigoted lunacy.”
Now, the players themselves are piling on. Specifically, many African-American players have explicitly stated that they would never play for a team that Rush Limbaugh owns. “All I know is from the last comment I heard, he said in (President) Obama’s America, white kids are getting beat up on the bus while black kids are chanting ‘right on,’” New York Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka told the New York Daily News, adding, “I don’t want anything to do with a team that he has any part of.” Other black players expressed similar sentiments:
[New York Jets linebacker Bart] Scott says players remember what Limbaugh said [about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donavan McNabb], and adds that the NFL would be wise not to allow the nationally syndicated host into the league.
“It’s an oxymoron that he criticized Donovan McNabb,” Scott said. “A lot of us took it as more of a racial-type thing. I can only imagine how his players would feel. I know I wouldn’t want to play for him. He’s a jerk. He’s an —. What he said (about McNabb) was inappropriate and insensitive, totally off-base. He could offer me whatever he wanted, I wouldn’t play for him. … I wouldn’t play for Rush Limbaugh. My principles are greater and I can’t be bought.”
Indeed, as CNN reported at the time, ESPN fired Limbaugh from Sunday NFL Countdown for “his statement that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.” But, of course, Limbaugh has a long sordid history with making racist remarks. Some of his more recent lowlights:
– “Look, let me put it to you this way: The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
– “We need segregated buses. … This is Obama’s America.”
– “President Obama is black. And I think he’s got a chip on his shoulder.”
– Democrats are interested in Darfur to secure black “voting bloc.”
– “Minorities never do anything for which they have to apologize.”
– Obama’s nomination for president “goes back to the fact that nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy.”
– Obama is a “halfrican-American.”
Advising the NFL to block Limbaugh’s pursuit of an NFL franchise, St. Louis Dispatch sports columnist Bryan Burwell wrote recently, “Dancing with Limbaugh is like dancing with a snake. Eventually, the snake will bite you. That’s his nature.”
Group marches for ‘white civil rights’ after Limbaugh hyped bus beating as a hate crime against whites.
Group marches for ‘white civil rights’ after Limbaugh hyped bus beating as a hate crime against whites.
Hate radio host Rush Limbaugh recently cast a fight between three Belleville, IL schoolchildren — the two attackers were black and the victim was white — as what happens to “white kids” in “Obama’s America.” Even though police said the bus fight was not racially motivated, Limbaugh insisted, “We need segregated buses.” On Saturday, members of white supremacist groups marched in Belleville holding signs echoing Limbaugh’s rhetoric that said, “It was a hate crime“:
While a police sniper watched from the roof of the police station, 22 members of white supremacist groups, shouted obscenities and made obscene hand gestures. One man, who had a crew cut and wore a black uniform, told the crowd of onlookers, “Wake up white America!”
“We were out there to denounce the violence,” said Belleville resident Jason Bonn, who is a corporal with the National Socialist Movement, a group with a name similar to the Nazi Party of Germany during World War II. Bonn’s group is “fighting for white civil rights.”
Several spectators “booed the white supremacist rally and shouted ‘Go home.’”
Beck Refuses To Define What He Meant By The Phrase ‘White Culture’: ‘Ummmmm, I Don’t Know’
Beck Refuses To Define What He Meant By The Phrase ‘White Culture’: ‘Ummmmm, I Don’t Know’
In July, Fox News’ radical host Glenn Beck called President Obama a “racist,” saying that he “has a deap-seated hatred for white people, or white culture” — a comment that sparked a successful advertising boycott of his Fox News program. This week in an interview with CBS News’ Katie Couric, Beck said he was “sorry” for the way he “phrased” the claim, but still contended that it’s a “serious question” as to whether Obama is a racist.
During the interview, Couric posed a question from a Twitter user who wanted to know what Beck meant by “white culture” in his attack on Obama. Beck responded by stuttering: “Ummmmm, I don’t know.” He then suggested that he had already answered the criticism on his website, and therefore didn’t want to “make news” by responding to Couric.
“Can you explain what you mean by the white culture?” Couric insisted, “because some people say that sounds kind of racist.” Beck complained that he shouldn’t be the “target” for “asking” if Obama is a racist. Then he turned snarky as Couric persisted with her line of questioning:
COURIC: People just want to know. What is white culture?
BECK: I’m going to see if I can play your game. People just want to know.
COURIC: You know, well, [Twitter questioner] Adrian wants to know.
BECK: That’s good for Adrian.
When Beck said that he’s “not going to get into your soundbite gotcha game,” Couric noted that the interview would be “completely unedited so if you felt like you wanted to explain it, you have all the time in the world.” But Beck still wouldn’t give an answer. Couric gave Beck a final opportunity to disavow his view that Obama is a “racist,” but Beck just dug in:
COURIC: But basically, you stand behind your assertion that in your view, President Obama is a racist.
BECK: I believe that Americans should ask themselves tough questions. Americans should turn over all the rocks and make their own decisions.
Watch it:
So what did Beck mean by “white culture”? A Google search of his website and a Lexis/Nexis search of the transcripts from his Fox News program found no evidence that Beck addressed its meaning.
Transcript: More »
Bush on visiting a prison ministry program: ‘Everyone was black, of course.’
Bush on visiting a prison ministry program: ‘Everyone was black, of course.’
In his new book, Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor, former Bush administration Matt Latimer describes a 2008 California GOP fundraiser he attended while working in the White House, where the President gave a speech to donors about his personal struggles with alcoholism. Bush then went on to make racially charged comments about his visit to a prison ministry program (p. 177):
He talked about his own failings with alcoholism as the reason he supported his faith-based initiative. “My philosophy is, find somebody who hurts and do something about it,” he said. “Don’t wait for government to tell you what to do.” He bluntly talked about his own situation. “I was beginning to love alcohol over my wife and kids. It got to a point when Billy Graham came into my life. But I was hardheaded and didn’t want to listen for a while. And then I stopped drinking overnight. I am a one-man faith-based initiative. Alcohol was competing for my affections. And it would have ruined me.”
He said things that could ruffle feathers, such as how he’d recently gone to a faith-based program run by “former drunks.” He said he went to see a prison ministry program, noting that ‘everyone was black, of course.” All eyes turned in search of the sole African American in the audience of donors. They wanted to see if he was offended.
Latimer adds that that the African-American man didn’t “appear to be” offended, and he defends Bush by saying that he “didn’t mean it in a derogatory way. He just liked making blunt observations to shock his audience.”
Steele claims ‘Dr. King would be disappointed in the political leadership of this country.’
Steele claims ‘Dr. King would be disappointed in the political leadership of this country.’
Yesterday, in an address at Philander Smith College, a historically black college in Little Rock, RNC Chairman Michael Steele implied that the late Martin Luther King Jr. would be disappointed with President Obama’s leadership. “Dr. King would be disappointed in the political leadership of this country for failing to address the least of us,” Steele said. A questioner approached the microphone and quickly turned the tables on Steele, asking whether his party was upholding King’s legacy by blocking health care:
QUESTION: In all seriousness, I’m curious what you think that Dr. King would think about your party’s current attempts to block universal health care? [applause] …
STEELE: It’s a great myth that we’re doing all this blocking. I wish we had that kind of control with the numbers, but we don’t. … As I’ve said to the president many times, “If that’s the bill you want, vote it up or down.”
Commenting on racism in our society, Steele told the audience, “What your generation will face is very subtle. It’s very quiet. It’s deceiving. But it is there. And you cannot be fooled into believing otherwise.” Watch it:
Dr. King once said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” In a 2006 op-ed in the Charlotte News & Observer, Richard Payne wrote, “Is there any doubt that King would have been on the forefront of arguments for payment of a living wage to the working poor, and that he would have advocated for universal health care?“
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