Republicans Claim the Moral Low-Ground; Top GOP Officials Admit Voter ID Laws Are a Front to Supress the Vote

A sign from a 2012 protest in Tampa, Florida

I suppose congratulations are in order for voting officials from the state of Arizona for finishing  counting the 2.2 million votes submitted state-wide. Sure they finished two weeks after the official date of the Tuesday November 6th election, but who's counting?

Well, according to an LA Times piece by Cindy Carcamo, the 600,000-plus Arizona citizens who's early votes and mail-in ballots were uncounted on the day they really counted. It certainly doesn't come as a surprise that a huge percentage of those people were Latino, African-American and Democrats.

But now it seems the truth of the rash of recent voter suppression laws has become too much of an ethical burden even for a handful of top Florida Republican officials to bear. A truly stunning article in the Palm Beach Post by Dara Kam and John Lantigua has literally blown the cover off the flimsy excuse that voter ID laws are meant to prevent voter fraud.

Both the former Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer and ex-governor Charlie Crist have gone on record with conscience-clearing admissions that as far back as 2009 leading Republican strategists were pushing for stricter voter ID laws with the express intent of suppressing minority voters.

According to ThinkProgress.org:
"Another GOP consultant, who did not want to be named, also confirmed that influential consultants to the Republican Party of Florida were intent on beating back Democratic turnout in early voting after 2008.
[...]A GOP consultant who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution said black voters were a concern. “I know that the cutting out of the Sunday before Election Day was one of their targets only because that’s a big day when the black churches organize themselves,” he said."

Keep in mind Republican attorneys general along with conservative activists are aggressively seeking to have the Supreme Court overturn the key provision of the landmark 1965 Voter Rights Act; and yes it is 2012.

Suppressing people's Constitutional right to freedom of expression...in the church?? 


   



 

Racist Tweets From NY High School Students Draw Outrage

A colorful voter participation Twitter message from "Britt D"

In the wake of Mitt Romney's defeat, dimwitted reactionary Twitter messages from the likes of  the perpetually-embittered increasingly-delusional Donald Trump (“Lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us.”), or
from the marginally-funny 2nd tier SNL alum Victoria Jackson ("Thanks a lot Christians, for not showing up. You disgust me.") were to be expected.


But a very different kind of trickle-down theory seems to have taken root via Twitter.

The months of coded language, attempts to marginalize and negatively portray segments of the population outside of the Republican base and conjure up fears based on the color of the President’s skin have also come home to roost in the halls of some US high schools.

According to the New York Daily News, the Website Jezebel.com first brought widespread media attention to a couple of disturbing Twitter messages written by two New York high school students in the wake of the re-election of President Obama. Sixteen year-old Ricky Catanzaro (no doubt the pride of Brooklyn’s Xaverian High School…) first posted the message “No nigger should run this country!" on his Twitter page known as Madhouse1245. 

While over in Suffolk County, Long Island, Lou LaDonna, a senior at West Islip High School took a slightly more poetic approach to his poet-election anti-Obama fervor when he posted, "When in doubt, kick the nigger out." on his Twitter page.

While scrolling through Sunday morning television news programs over brunch this morning I caught an interview with Jezebel.com editor-in-chief Jessica Coen, on CNNs Reliable Sources. I personally agree with her decision to publicize a series of these virulently racist tweets even though such words are protected by the first amendment of the US Constitution.  

Incredibly, when Jezebel.com posted the article about the racist Tweets about Obama, they received a flood of even more racist Tweets defending the rights of the kids to vent hate messages directed towards the President. Read a sample for yourself but don't expect coherent arguments about policy, proper spelling or a grasp of punctuation. Much of it is a mix of rage and ignorance, but it's important for Americans to see it and understand what's really going on in this country.

For many in this nation the divisive nature of the 2012 presidential campaign seems to have uncorked something unpleasant that’s not so easily poured back into the bottle.

Buchanan Blusters, Romney's Flustered - Republicans Blame Everyone

In the wake of bitter partisan post-election comments by Mitt Romney, Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh and a host of other conservatives still seething over the President's re-election, Republicans seem to have their eyes fixed on a bizarre determination to just burn the whole thing down. 

'Scorched Earth' is a name commonly associated with a ruthless and vindictive strategy of warfare that boils down to the idea that if you have to abandon territory to the enemy, you intentionally burn or destroy virtually anything that might be of use to a conquering foe. It's been used since before the ancient Roman and Carthaginian armies employed tactics like poisoning wells of drinking water, salting the earth so crops wouldn't grow or reducing buildings, roads and bridges to rubble so invading troops or foes couldn't make use of them.

During WWII Josef Stalin ordered Russian soldiers (and people) to burn thousands of acres of fertile wheat fields rather than leave the invading Nazi forces a food source to harvest and use to feed their hungry troops. More recently the Iraqi Army detonated hundreds of oil wells as Allied forces advanced towards Baghdad in the first Gulf War.

Cut to present day: Even after a clear majority of American voters issued an unquestioned and wholesale rejection of the Republican party's narrow-minded vision for the future of the country on November 6th, some of the most influential and controversial figures in the GOP  seem committed to a bizarre pathway towards total implosion.

Consider Maine Republican chairman Charlie Webster, who confided his paranoid suspicions of voter fraud (in a state that is 95.4% white) based on seeing African-Americans he didn't know at rural polls in Maine. Apparently unaware that only 1.3% of his state's population is African-American, Webster insisted some kind of mysterious influx of minorities swooped into the state just to vote fraudulently. Said Webster:

‘‘It doesn’t matter to me whether they’re black or Chinese or Indonesian. The issue isn’t that. The issue is that people have come into vote that no one had seen before,’’ 

His comments are actually pretty tame compared to erstwhile quasi-white supremacist Pat Buchanan, who shed the veil of his faux "staunch Constitutional patriotic historian" personae during an eye-opening interview on convicted Watergate bungler, er, uh burglar G. Gordon Liddy's radio show.
Consider this mournful on-air exchange between Pat and G. Gordon:

Buchanan: "White America died last night. Obama's reelection killed it. Our 200 plus year history as a Western nation is over. We're a Socialist Latin American country now. Venezuela without the oil."

Liddy: "With what you just said right there...You seem to imply that white people are better than other people. That's not really what you're saying is it?"

Buchanan: "Of course that's what I'm saying," Buchanan replied "Isn't it obvious? Anything worth doing on this Earth was done first by white people."

If I were Hillary Clinton I'd be signing my resignation as Secretary of State, cracking my knuckles and salivating in anticipation of the 2016 race for the White House. And then there's Mittens. 

Seemingly unable to grasp the idea that his comments are always recorded, Romney (apparently hell bent on cementing the perception of the conservative electorate as hopelessly out of touch with mainstream Americans...and reality) outraged members of his own party by offering up ludicrous excuses for his lop-sided loss suggesting to yet another private audience that Obama won the election by "promising gifts to blacks, Hispanics and young voters."

Even if such a lame horseshit excuse for being a crappy presidential candidate who couldn't connect with anyone who wasn't a white evangelical voter was true; Latinos and African-Americans represent about 29.8% of the US population according to the most recent US Census. So even if Obama had secretly promised everyone of us a Starbucks card, or a $20 or a job; does anyone with a goat's ass worth of sense believe 30% of the US population could be wooed by unspecified "gifts" to cast their votes for a candidate?

How could such a doddering simpleton reach a net worth of over $250 million? Seriously Mitt, we might not be in the top 1%, but we're not that cheap dude; Take a cue from Republican Governor Bobby Jindal and do us all a favor, take your head out of your ass, shut up and just go away. No one likes a sore loser. 

Despite the "malfunctioning" voting machines that cast a vote for you when someone selected Obama/Biden, despite your aversion to facts, despite the state of Florida's 3rd straight presidential election when the count still wasn't done hours after every other state had finished, despite the hundreds of millions funneled through Super Pacs financed by billionaires like Adleson and the Koch brothers...you lost. Fair and square. Get over it and move on; the nation has serious issues to address.

'Bucket of Chicken' Quip Lands Bradshaw in the Fryer

Whether or not he goes the way of Howard Cosell remains to be seen but Fox Sports football analyst and resident goofball Terry Bradshaw's latest on-air verbal gaffe was a titanic jaw-dropper; even by the almost non-existent standards to which he seems bound on live television.

On Sunday afternoon while the Fox Sports studio analysts were reviewing video highlights of former USC standout Reggie Bush's spectacular 18-yard touchdown run for the Miami Dolphins, Bradshaw (referring to the intensity of Bush's effort to reach the end-zone) quipped to ex-Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson; "Look at this Jimmy! Like he was chasing that bucket of chicken the wind was blowing the other day!"

Check out the 21-second clip for yourself.

As a former football player who played at both the Division I collegiate level and in the NFL who also worked as a television sports reporter and newspaper sports columnist, I can write with a reasonable level of authority on the subject of the various announcers, commentators and personalities who sit in front of the screen and call the game.

Fox anchor Curt Menefee, aside from analyst/former player Howie Long, is arguably the most balanced of the Fox bunch and the only other African-American on the set besides Michael Strahan. While he cringed noticeably, he yucked it up with the rest of the others; who seem to relish Bradshaw's folksy off-the-cuff and clearly off-color remarks. Almost like a class of high-school seniors who can't wait for the class clown to crack them up.

If some of the media reaction is any indication, Fox is moving quickly to reinforce Bradshaw's apologetic assertions that the comment was directed at Jimmy Johnson's love of fried chicken, rather than some kind of sly twist on the dead-horse stereotype of black people loving fried chicken.

Even Menefee is Tweeting denials that the comment had anything to do with the color of Bush's skin, but I think the fact the he's even denying that points to the context in which Bradshaw's comments are viewed by many people. Even though millions of people (including me) do love fried chicken, the reality of this nation's history is that there are deeply entrenched stereotypes that link African-Americans with certain types of food in ways that are viewed as racist when taken in certain contexts.

There are countless examples of 19th and early 20th century art work, graphic art/advertisements, posters, product labels and post cards depicting simplistic negro stereotypes with exaggerated physical features like bug eyes, grossly enormous lips, "pickaninnie" grins greedily feasting on slices of watermelon.

In the same way that Fuzzy Zoeller caused a media stir back in April of 1997 when he called golfer Tiger Woods (then 21 years-old and one of the top players on he tour) as "that little boy" and jokingly suggested Woods shouldn't serve fried chicken and collared greens at the next champions dinner (as winner of the Masters he selected the menu), Bradshaw tapped a vein that still threads through this country.

Having been raised in Maryland, I grew up a Washington Redskins fan and I was watching the Dallas Cowboys-Washington game on that Monday night back in September of 1983 when Howard Cosell referred to Redskin's wide receiver Alvin Garret as a "little monkey" after he caught a pass, I still remember being stunned. Like many Americans I knew about his relationship with Muhammad Ali and his past public support of black athletes; but when he referred to a black receiver as a monkey it sounded racist. Period.

It wasn't just the monkey comments either, during the game Cosell had made repeated references to the Redskin's other wide receiver Charlie Brown's extremely long arm as well; ascribing the player's long reach to an almost ape-like physicality that was clearly hinted at during the broadcast.

It eclipsed Cosell's years of experience and indeed his character, it made Cosell sound insensitive; even it's true he called his own grand kids and other players little monkeys, it still made him sound like a bigot and put him in the same light as Jimmy the Greek. What confuses me about men like this is they're media professionals with years of experience and hundreds of hours of live broadcast experience; how is it that they don't stop and think to themselves, "Maybe that's not the best way to phrase that?"

Bradshaw is the 2nd Hall of Fame-Super Bowl winning NFL quarterback/broadcaster to suffer a slip of the tongue that was perceived as racially insensitive. Back in fall of 2009 I blogged about ABC broadcaster Bob Griese after his stupid taco comment about race car driver Juan Pablo Montoya during a college football broadcast.

Like Bradshaw, I'm not going to judge the man's entire life based on one comment. But it offers insight into how even well-known media professionals used to being in front of the camera can permit subconscious prejudices to come to the surface. It reveals a lot about how deeply ingrained some behaviors and assumptions are in this nation.

So I'm not going to pretend I know that Terry Bradshaw is a "racist", but he hails from the deep south and it's not unreasonable to assume he's absorbed certain prejudices over the course of his life that might surface from time to time. This is America and he can think what he wants after all.

But let's be honest, does anyone really believe that if a white tight-end or a white running back was hustling into the end-zone for a touchdown that Terry Bradshaw would refer to fried chicken in discussing his efforts?