Romney's Selling, Mainstream America Just Isn't Buying

Thurston Howell, III as played by actor Jim Backus

Let's just call it like it is; there's a growing sense pervading the collective 'culturegeist' of the American voter that we simply can't afford four years of a Romney presidency.

Even after his disastrous and possibly irreparable remarks about the "47%" (a group including retired veterans, retired workers living on pensions they earned, people working two jobs and members of the oft-forgotten long-term unemployed who can't find jobs because US companies are content to sit on huge cash reserves rather than expand hiring), Flipper found a way to seem even more like an affable-but-doddering scion of privilege totally alienated from mainstream Americans.

As detailed on numerous blogs and Websites including Salon.com, Marriott chairman Bill Marriott
(#298 on the Forbes 400 with a net worth of $1.6 billion) introduced the candidate at a recent fundraiser by relating a story of how he pulled his boat up to a crowded slip at a dock on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire and couldn't find anyone to help him. Mittens bravely stepped forward to tie up the line and secure the expensive craft of the head of one of the largest hotel chains in the world; and it's fair to observe, a fellow wealthy leader of the Mormon Church.

Nothing personal against Bill Marriott mind you, he's a decent enough man who's been generous with charitable support for organizations like the Boy Scouts of America for years. But during this time when millions of Americans are struggling to find jobs, stay out of debt, hold on to their homes and survive the ravages of an economic downturn that's decimated the middle class, offering up the public endorsement of yet another billionaire as a character endorsement does little to reassure voters who have no confidence Romney is remotely capable of identifying with the struggles of the bulk of the US population.

Increasingly, Mittens is perceived in the media more as a caricature to be lampooned; a walking symbol embodying the ultra-wealthy 1% who inhabits a different America than the rest of us. A man who comes off more Thurtson Howell, III from Gilligan's Island than seasoned business executive ready to lead the nation into long-term recovery based on some kind of suave corporate savvy and a decidedly non-specific agenda based on sketchy old Supply-Side economic theories that have never actually worked.

The media blame game isn't helping Mitt either. As much as some of the more extreme conservative media pundits would like to make the growing gap between Obama and Romney about abstract concepts like "liberal media bias" (or one of my favorite Sarah Palinisms, "the lame-stream media") the plain truth is the problem is simply Mitt Romney and his ultra-conservative budget-hawk VP candidate sidekick Congressman Paul Ryan. 

As Brian Knowlton observed on today's Caucus blog on the New York Times Website,  just this morning Ryan appeared on Fox News Sunday to complain about how 'Media Bias' is skewing the sagging poll numbers.

Of course his dip at the polls has nothing to do with, oh I don't know, Ryan having been the leader of one of the most unproductive and obstructive Congresses in modern history? Or his having quite recently been booed onstage at a recent AARP convention audience after telling them he wants to repeal the Healthcare Reform Act? And surely his dismal poll numbers are unrelated to his desire for draconian unrealistic cuts in government spending that would overwhelmingly affect the poor and middle-class?

The media, liberal or conservative, has nothing to do with Americans having already pegged Ryan as a heartless technocrat who's a one-trick political pony. Choosing him as a running mate was one of Romney's worst decisions of his campaign. It's not that Mittens isn't a nice guy or a decent family-man, but it's obvious he just isn't the kind of candidate for president at a time when America needs innovative ideas, the ability to connect with all Americans regardless of their income level and the courage to tell the American people things they might not want to hear.

Maybe it's just possible that Romney and his embattled campaign manager Stuart Stevens (check out Maureen Dowd's op-ed on Stevens and his role in the mismanagement of Romney's run) can change the tide at this Wednesday nights presidential debate but I wouldn't bet on it.

Okay enough politics and links for now, the Yankees just tied Toronto in the 5th, I've gotta head to the gym to be back in time for my weekly fix of HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire'; it's what television can be when it dares to combine excellent writing with a willingness to explore topics of substance. Sunday nights are all about Nucky.

Limbaugh Claims Poll Data is a Voter Suppression Tactic

"The mainstream media's efforts to suppress your vote is now at full speed. It's getting tiresome to me, but it is taking place now at full speed."

That's talk-show host and touchy professional grouch Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday trying to explain away Romney's trailing in the polls even though it's actually Republican state legislatures behind the REAL voter suppression efforts.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, at least 180 separate bills aimed at restricting the right to vote have been introduced by legislatures in 41 different states since the start of 2011. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a shadowy quasi-public/private think tank that I blogged about back in March of last year, actually drafts the language of right-wing legislation for GOP politicians has been very busy indeed; the implications for the basic tenets of Democracy are chilling.  

In one of the most perplexing political jabs of the campaign season, Limbaugh claims that two CBS/New York Times and Washington Post polls that show President Obama with significant leads in critical swing states are "..irresponsible. They are designed to do exactly what I have warned you to be vigilant about, and that is to depress you and suppress your vote. These two polls today are designed to convince everybody this election is over." The transcripts are on Limbaugh's own Website.

Let's review shall we? The same guy who advocates on behalf the Koch brother's Tea Party-backed True the Vote -the organization behind morally reprehensible voter-suppression tactics - is claiming that poll data taken by three of the most trustworthy news sources in the world are themselves, tactics to suppress the Republican vote. How crazy is that? Kevin Cirilli wrote an interesting piece on Limbaugh's kooky assertions on Politco.com.
 
If Rush Limbaugh were just another schmuck with a radio show, the baseless absurdity of his loony right-wing political theories would likely be dismissed as the rantings of just another small-minded man channeling his anger into a mic. But he's not.

Limbaugh is the anointed mouthpiece of all things Republican, so his latest effort to help salvage poor Flipper's imploding presidential campaign only served to further cement the perception of the GOP as hopelessly stuck in a detached ideological reality the majority of the country can't identify with let alone stomach.

If you think about it, it's kind of like the build-up to the invasion of Iraq under W back in 2002.

When Dick Cheney didn't like the intelligence he got from the CIA and MI-6 saying Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the 911 attacks; he simply instructed his staffers (none of whom were actually intelligence experts) to use inconclusive raw data to create their own intelligence conclusions about WMD's for W to use during his State of the Union address; Yellow Cake anyone?

But you have to admit Limbaugh's got moxie. Poll data isn't saying what you want? Smear it! It's like when Paul Ryan got all worked up when multiple fact-checking organizations called him out for blatant factual errors in his speech at the RNC. Rather than make loose accusations about poll data, perhaps Limbaugh should blame the current culture of the GOP which never seems to let facts stand in the way of the rigid convictions of it's own ideology.

Do you know who Catherine Engelbrecht is? The New York Times sure does. If you believe all American citizens legally registered to vote in this nation have the right to do so, you should too.

"Amish Terror" Ends with Samuel Mullet & 15 of His Followers Convicted of Hate Crimes

66-year old convicted Amish sect leader Samuel Mullet

Self-proclaimed Amish Bishop Samuel Mullet represents the rare exception to the tranquil image of the Amish as a peace-loving, deeply spiritual people opposed to violence in all forms.

A recent Federal court ruling will ensure that he and 15 of his followers, including three of his sons and his daughter, have become the first defendants in Ohio to be found guilty of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act founded in 2009.

The Matthew Shepard Act, as it's commonly known, was named for Shepard, who was tortured and killed in Wyoming in 1998 because he was targeted as a homosexual, and for James Byrd Jr.; an innocent African-American man who was famously tied to a truck by two known White Supremacists, dragged to his death and decapitated near Jasper, Texas in the same year. 

The perverse sickness of both cases shocked the world and drew widespread media coverage to the growing problem of hate crime violence in the United States. It's kind of interesting that the first people to be found guilty under the federal law enacted in the wake of such horrific crimes in Ohio are a group of Amish.

Even though the now-infamous forcible beard-cutting by Samuel Mullet and members of his strict, breakaway sect of Amish drew intense global media coverage, it runs contrary to the pacifist beliefs and devotion to a more simple and modest way of life of the vast majority of Amish and Mennonite communities in America. It's a pretty strange case, not just because the Amish way of life is so strange and mysterious to most Americans but also because it's a sobering reminder that hate comes in many forms.   

Locked Dumpsters in Girona: the Spectre of Poverty in Western Europe

Spanish citizens in Madrid protesting austerity measures. 

With 42 days until the 2012 election and just 8 days until the first presidential debate on October 3rd, both candidates are clearly seizing any media opportunity to sell their respective messages to the American people.

Even if it's a real stretch.

Case in point: Romney VP candidate Paul Ryan's lame effort to turn the widespread populist anger over the NFL replacement ref's blown call fiasco at the end of last night's Seattle v Green Bay game into an anti-Obama moment.

If you've got 52 seconds and don't mind a crappy political joke, give it a watch. Watch the crowd's reaction too, the joke lands like a sack of wet mice even though the self-satisfied smug expression on Ryan's face makes it clear he thinks he just dropped one of the funniest lines since Bill Clinton eviscerated the GOP during his speech at the DNC. He also appears to briefly pause, look down at a podium and actually read that sad excuse of a joke off of a piece of paper.  

Speaking of bad calls I watched the Seahawks/Packers game last night and as a former professional football player it was clearly an interception. Was it a clear error on the part of officials trying to interpret a tough call? Sure, but it had absolutely nothing to do with President Obama's budget advisers as Ryan struggled to suggest during his campaign appearance earlier today.

In light of today's UN meetings, topics like Iran's nuclear ambitions, sanctions against Iran, the possibility of the Syrian conflict spreading further into Iraq and the global Muslim outrage over the now-infamous video posted on Youtube that slandered Islam have dominated much of the recent media coverage - and the campaign's respective policy stances. 

But lately I haven't really seen the candidates weigh in on the growing economic problems over in Europe; problems also affecting millions of Americans as well. Suzanne Daley's eye-opening piece in Monday's New York Times put the spotlight on the growing numbers of Spanish citizens facing the reality of hunger as austerity measures slash salaries, government benefits, pensions and of course jobs.

Formerly-middle class people in Spain who used to have jobs are now being forced to search through dumpsters for food. Paralleling former members of America's middle class who now find themselves living in their cars as reported by Rolling Stone back in June. It's gotten so bad city officials in the Spanish city of Girona have resorted to putting padlocks on the dumpsters to prevent people from getting infections.

A truly sad indicator of the millions of people around the globe increasingly being pushed to the brink of survival. How much can they take though? As the BBC reports, today thousands of Spanish protesters are rallying around the capital in Madrid to protest the severity of the austerity measures. What's in store for the Spanish economy when 50% of its young people are unemployed?

It'd be interesting to see both presidential candidates share their ideas on what that means and how it will affect the next four years. Obama explored those themes with eloquence during his DNC speech but I'm not sure hungry Spanish citizens are on the agenda of the Romney campaign given his limited capacity to grasp the economic realities of the majority of the nation still trying to extricate themselves from the Great Recession.

Romney's campaign (to say nothing about his archaic views on the"47%") says a lot about the evolving cultural makeup of this nation and the growing gap between the privileged and the shrinking middle class. Given his inability to connect and recent polls in swing states, it's not looking good for him. How bad is it for Mittens?

Consider a just-released Zogby poll that shows Obama leading his opponent by a seven-point margin....among NASCAR fans. 42 days and we'll know the answer.   

What's the Deal with Allen West?

US Rep. Allen West (R) Florida, the new face of the far right?

This past week certainly represents one of the most pivotal moments in the 2012 presidential campaign, but there was also something sad and revealing about the nature of our society and who we are as a nation.

The implosion of Mittens' presidential aspirations in the wake of his shockingly elitist  comments caught on tape at a GOP fundraiser point not just to his inability to govern on behalf of all Americans; it was a stark reminder of the growing ideological and wealth gap that serves as the 21st century version of the Mason Dixon line.

As the GOP has reinvented itself as a virtual repository for a bizarre collection of right-wing fringe characters so far removed from the American mainstream they'd make Richard Nixon cringe, I'm fascinated with some of the people lauded as influential thinkers within the conservative ranks. Case in point, Republican House Rep Allen West who represents Florida's 22nd Congressional District.

West was a career military man who served with distinction in both Iraq wars until a controversial incident in which he personally interrogated a suspected terrorist (despite not being trained or authorized to do so by the Army) with a pistol landed him in hot water and ended his Army career.

He was selected as the first black Congressman elected in Florida since Reconstruction, joined the Congressional Black Caucus and is the new darling of the Tea Party, garnering media attention with his derisive public comments about, well, pretty much any Democrat; including the President whom he openly despises.

What I can't figure is the intensity of his hatred for opposing views. He's well-educated, a man of the world, a guy who's risked his life for his country fighting, yet he's been accused of being anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic and lately seems to have embraced a strange anti-Communist/Marxist schpeel; going so far as to publicly accuse the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (a progressive liberal block of Democratic Congressional members) of being Communist.

Watch for yourself as Allen invokes 50's-era guilt by association.

I respect his right to free speech and I admire diversity of thought and opinion within the ranks of African-American politicians; but whipping up 'Commie hysteria' in 2012? Marxism and Socialism are the major problems confronting the American people? Really? McCarthyism was a dead horse back in the 50's and performing ideological CPR on the carcass of an animal isn't providing realistic solutions for the problems facing Americans.
   

Journalist Steven Gray Examines the State of the Black Middle Class in America

Steven Gray, Time Magazine's last black correspondent

"It's the middle class stupid" might well be the underlying political catchphrase that summarizes the central domestic policy issue of the 2012 presidential race.

Given the sluggish rate of global recovery and massive shifts in the landscape of the changing American workplace, that 5-word variation on political strategist James Carville's infamous  and oft-repeated campaign theme for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential run (It's the economy stupid) might well be central to the 2016 presidential race too.

Even a cursory analysis from the themes, messages, speakers and soundbites from the recent Democratic and Republican party conventions suggests that the Obama campaign team seems to get it. Unfortunately (for the GOP anyway) it's a concept that clearly seems to be eluding the wavering Mitt Romney campaign; as evidenced by his insufferably dim-witted efforts to blindly attack the Obama administration foreign policy cred in the wake of the September 11th attack on the US embassy in Benghazi. It's all over the media so no need for me to kick that horse except to add that poor Willard is a walking train wreck when it comes to articulating his foreign policy positions and by virtue of his own self-implosion, is managing to make Bush junior look like Henry Kissinger at this point. 

While the alarming erosion of the middle class seems to warrant only tepid coverage and analysis from the bulk of main stream media, there are any number of media sources, NPR, PBS, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Salon.com and Mother Jones.com to name a few, that are consistently covering it with the sense of urgency it deserves and staying on top of the harsh truths of what's really happening in our nation. 

Case in point Steven Gray. Yesterday on the 'Tell Me More' show on NPR, most-excellent host Michel Martin had a really insightful interview with journalist Steven Gray (pictured above) about a recent article he wrote for Salon.com, "Can the Black Middle Class Survive?" an in-depth analysis of the devastating effects on African-American wealth and employment in the wake of the Great Recession; as well as a penetrating and honest look at his own experiences after being let go from his job as a correspondent at Time Magazine almost a year ago. Definitely worth a read.

There's no question that it's not just the black middle class under threat in 2012, but Gray offers a compelling mix of fact, opinion and insight into the particular challenges faced by college-educated African-American male professionals trying to reenter the workplace in the face of a persistent 14% unemployment rate (for blacks) and a work culture where we are often isolated among our peers and co-workers in ways the main stream media doesn't always examine.

My one constructive criticism of the article from an editorial standpoint is that it almost seemed as if it could have been two different pieces; I felt that his experiences with Time could have been an interesting article unto itself. He's a good writer who, like thousands of people across the nation of different races, is facing a changing (shrinking) 'print-centric' industry still struggling to re-define itself in the era of digital transformation; but that doesn't mean he doesn't have some legit concerns about how his race and age played into his departure from Time or how the lack of cultural diversity on the masthead or in editorial meetings will affect their content moving forward in terms of the kinds of stories they cover.

Give it a read for yourself, but one fact he shared struck me. After his contract with Time was not renewed, the magazine no longer has any black correspondents or editors. None. It's a theme that spirals out into many different job sectors and Steven Gray (a journalist with a solid resume) rightfully delves into what that means not just for African-American journalists and media professionals, but for America as well.

Atlanta Police Officers Cleared on Allegations of Racial Profiling of Tyler Perry

Filmmaker/DWB victim Tyler Perry

As an African-American man it's really sad that one of the things that I share in common with virtually every single black man in America is the degrading experience of having been stopped by white police officers for no other reason than being who I am. 

It's not easy to explain to someone who isn't black the range of emotions that fill your head when you see flashing police lights in your rear view mirror and you know you haven't done anything wrong; you know the officer is stopping you because of the color of your skin.  Reduced by law enforcement to a stereotype.

One of the interesting components of racial profiling in America is that we live in what many describe as a "post-racial" society. One of the central planks of the Republican party and thinkers on the right revolves around the loose assumption that "there is no racism anymore." One of the reasons I began this blog was to dispel that myth, not to "cry racism" at every turn; but to show different ways of how racism is interwoven into the threads of this society. To show how it warps perception and perpetuates fear. 

So I was disappointed to read this morning that a four-month internal affairs investigation cleared two Atlanta police officers for profiling filmmaker Tyler Perry back on February 24, 2012 after he left his studio in his white Porsche Panamera. Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson does a far better job than I could to offer an eloquent and concise summary of what it's like to be stopped by the police when you're a professional with a college degree and a nice car. Watch his comments in the video clip above.

Tyler Perry is the latest in a long list of black celebrities to be subjected to the humiliating and dehumanizing process of racial profiling; Sidney Poitier was stopped by Beverly Hills police in the 50's blocks from his own house.

I vividly recall when Earl Graves, Jr., the son of publisher Earl Graves, a clean-shaven Harvard grad raised in the upper middle class community of Scarsdale, New York was stopped by two white Metro-North police officers on the platform of Grand Central Station after he stepped of his early morning train wearing an expensive suit and carrying a briefcase on his way into work. Graves was 33 at the time and a vice-president of advertising and marketing for his father's Black Enterprise magazine; but to the police investigating an "anonymous report of a black man with a gun", he was just another 6'4" black guy. Not an individual but a possible perp.

The story got a lot of press in New York City and Metro-North apologized for the incident by taking out several full-page newspaper ads; but such reactions are the exception rather than the norm.

As I've mentioned in this blog many times, in the 1990's detailed studies of traffic stops by New Jersey state police on the NJ Turnpike showed that African-American drivers comprised a staggering 80% of traffic stops even though blacks made up only about 12% of the state's population. NJ State police training even taught officers to target and stop minority drivers as part of policy.

There are no public apologies for the thousands of innocent black and Hispanic drivers who are still stopped just for looking like they do. Some law enforcement personnel like Arizona's notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio brag about profiling drivers who fit a pre-conceived stereotype.

And so it continues. I'm personally affected by people like Tyler Perry or Earl Graves, Jr. because like them, I'm a tall black man when it comes to how some white police officers see me. They don't see my college degree, intellectual pursuits, professional accomplishments or the fact that I pay taxes and vote. They don't see my volunteering for charities or the fact that I have no criminal record. Sadly some white police officers, clearly not all, will see me only as a physically imposing black man; they see danger and fear.

I'm standing right in front of them but sometimes they don't see me at all.

Did CNN Give Itself Props for a June 25th Rolling Stone Story?

Mark Seliger's photo of Janis Adkins for Jeff Tietz's Rolling Stone Article

As much as any mainstream media brand, Rolling Stone Magazine has been unflinching and relentless when it comes hardcore journalism devoted to uncovering the myriad complex truths behind the economic collapse of 2008 and what greed is doing to the fabric our our nation.

Matt Taibbi's august 29th cover story exposing the real story behind Mitt Romney's troubling tenure at Bain Capital is just the latest in a series of hard-hitting exposes on the insatiable greed of Wall Street players and Big Banks that reveal how America's middle class had been systematically, intentionally and ruthlessly gutted with the help of complacent federal regulators like the SEC, soul-less Congressional legislators who represent a narrow-minded "Ayn Rand-ian" ideology rather than their constituents, and the billionaires bankrolling Romney's run for president.

While Taibbi's work is Pulitzer-worthy in my opinion, I was also particularly moved by a compelling human interest story in the June 25th issue of Rolling Stone by Jeff Tietz that looked closely at how some middle class Americans forced to live out of their vehicles were coping with the help of a program called Safe Parking that allows homeless people a safe lot where they can spend the night in their car, van or SUV; New Beginnings Counseling Center runs the program.

So I was kind of surprised when I saw a CNN report last Friday (September 7th) morning by reporter Kyung Lah that struck me as a more compact made-for-CNN retread of Tietz's Rolling Stone story, entitled "The Sharp, Sudden Decline of America's Middle Class". Don't get me wrong, I totally applaud CNN for devoting coverage to the plight of Americans displaced by the Great Recession and the realities of being homeless in the most prosperous nation in the world. But as a former television reporter myself, I felt like Ms. Lah should have at least given some kind of shout-out or recognition to Rolling Stone, or made some reference to the fact that Jeff Tietz had rolled up his sleeves and written an informative and emotionally wrenching piece 3 months before CNN ran their segment.

Watch the report for yourself. At different times last Friday both Ashleigh Banfield and Wolf Blitzer gave reporter Kyung Lah thanks from the anchor desk for her reporting. In fact, after the conclusion of the late morning segment, Ms. Banfield actually looked a little misty-eyed when she thanked Lah for the report in a subdued voice.

It's certainly not breaking news that CNN has been going through a series of personnel and programming shake-ups over the course of the last year as it's ratings have slipped to a 20-year low. Back in July, CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton (a 30-year CNN vet) announced his resignation effective at the end of the year to make room for "new thinking" in an effort to pump new life into the cable news channel started by media mogul Ted Turner.

I'm no media insider, but it seems to me if CNN wants to make it's product more relevant to a broader news audience, it needs to attract the kind of talent that can create that content. Parent company Time Warner is a media behemoth with deep pockets that can certainly afford to invest money in more cutting-edge content creators.

But trying to make your brand more like Jann Wenner's Rolling Stone (which has boosted it's own audience with hard-hitting coverage of how the economic collapse is affecting Americans) by using their content to develop CNN pieces for broadcast strikes me as rather unoriginal.

Look, I'm a blogger who writes about stuff I see in print or online - but I don't sell ad space on my little blog, it's just an outlet for me to practice my own version of "Citizen Journalism" and besides, I think I make a decent effort at crediting the writers and media sources who create the content that catches my eye.

Some CNN producer leafing through their June 25th copy of Rolling Stone then sending Kyung Lah out to California with a cameraman to do a piece that's clearly based on Jeff Tietz's work isn't plagiarism or anything; but it strikes me as lazy journalism given the scope of CNN's resources and their desire to make a genuine effort to recast their brand.

It's all about content creation, and you should either create it, credit it, or bring some kind of new or unique perspective to the story. While I'm still a CNN watcher, I just don't think Lah's CNN piece offered anything new and Jeff Tietz and Rolling Stone should've gotten credit somewhere rather than kind of making it seem like Lah had come up with the idea.

Just sayin'.

"1,000 Years of Darkness"? Chuck Norris: Portrait of a Tea Party Extremist

In the ideological, political and cultural sense, the Republican party has certainly come a hell of a long way since George H.W Bush first talked about his "1,000 Points of Light" and his idea for a unified society during his inauguration speech on January 20, 1989.

I'm not going to criticize Chuck Norris for expressing his political beliefs; this is America and everyone has the right to their own opinions. When I caught wind that Norris, a well-known former action-film star, had posted a short anti-Obama video on youtube with his wife, I wasn't surprised.

Between Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan's uninspiring appearances at the lackluster GOP convention in Tampa and Bill Clinton's amazing speech during last night's Democratic National Convention - it's clear that the Republicans are desperate to do anything to try and prevent President Obama from winning a second term.

I respect Chuck Norris, before I decided to blog about him I checked out his Wikipedia page and he's given a lot to charitable causes, carved out a career as an action star and is arguably a Hollywood icon in his own way. But he's also an outspoken evangelist Christian activist who believes in creation theory and campaigns for prayer inside public schools; he campaigned for Mike Huckabee in the 2008 Presidential race and endorsed Newt Gingrich during the Republican primaries.

This video is getting a lot of media buzz, but what's really sad is that in the end, Norris gets in front of the camera with his wife and doesn't say anything of substance. He doesn't spend one second talking about a specific issue that he's concerned about, or a policy that he disagrees with.

Instead, Norris clutches his wife's hand and essentially "Eastwoods" his way through the video, rambling earnestly about worn-out Tea Party rhetoric about the horrors of Obama's "socialism". He quotes Edmund Burke and Ronald Reagan, offering up baseless, irrational fear-mongering about the consequences of Obama being reelected leading America into "1,000 years of darkness."

About the only thing Norris manages to do in this laughable online video clip is to demonstrate a remarkable detachment from fact and reality. It's almost as if he's totally retreated into his own strange "John Wayne-like" netherworld where he no longer distinguishes between reality and fantasy; and has come to actually believe he IS the fictional action-hero he played so many times in movies and on television.

Norris' foray into political infomercials is so much more sad and pathetic than Clint Eastwood talking to a chair because he really looks like he means what he's saying. Like if Obama wins the election he and his wife (she's got those "crazy eyes" like Michelle Bachmann) are going to just pack up all their gear and move up into the hills and live "off the grid" in some kind of extravagant bomb shelter compound to ride out the Armaggedon of a presidential administration ruled by fact, reason and a sense that Americans don't have to be ruled by fear, ignorance, division and delusional ideas.

So no, I wasn't surprised by this video at all, in fact, how typical, when Americans need leadership and ideas, right-wing conservatives offer up fear and ignorance. Frankly Norris and his wife look like they're the ones locked into a "1,000 years of darkness." Did Dinesh D'Souza direct it?

Federal District Judge Blocks Republican Voter Suppression Law in Ohio

Federal District Judge Peter C. Economus seated far left

 

Despite Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted's best efforts to silence opposition to his attempts to sharply curtail voting hours in urban Ohio districts that tilt Democratic, on Friday Federal Judge Peter C. Economus ruled that all Ohio voters should have the right to cast their votes within three days of Election Day. 

Last Tuesday I blogged about Husted on the eve of his impending decision to fire two Board of Elections members from Montgomery County (Democrats Dennis Lieberman and Thomas Ritchie) who opposed Husted's overt attempt to severely limit voting hours despite Ohio's recent history of long lines at the polls for voters. Husted went ahead and fired both men in a heavy-handed control move more reminiscent of Stalin-era control tactics than a modern Democracy.

The story really didn't seem to pique all that much interest from the mainstream media during the long Labor Day holiday weekend that followed a flood of coverage of a rather lackluster Republican National Convention that got more notice for the blatant inaccuracies in Paul Ryan's speech and Clint Eastwood's bizzarre rambling dialog with an empty chair than it did for any visionary ideas for how presidential candidate Mitt Romney would lead the country.

You can't blame Americans for wanting a few moments of respite from the intense political coverage before it starts up again with the start of the Democratic National Convention. Too bad,  Ray Rivera offered up a nice summary of Judge Economus's substantive arguments on why the GOP-led Ohio initiative to suppress voter access to the polls violates the Constitution on the New York Times The Caucus blog.        

The Devil and Mitt Romney: Lessons from Stravinsky & Robert Johnson

The anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the RNC convention in Tampa really got me thinking about what's in store for this country, so I needed music to help me make some sense of it all.

As my recent blog post about punk rock will attest, my musical tastes run the gamut but nothing soothes my senses while writing quite like classical does; I'm partial to baroque choral arrangements when working at the keyboard.

A few days ago I listened to Igor Stravinsky's "The Soldier's Tale" for the first time on WWFM radio. The unusual piece is one of Stravinsky's (pictured left) more eclectic compositions, which is saying a lot for the Russian-born composer known for creating in a wide range of musical styles.

According to the Good-Music-Guide.com Website, Stravinsky's concert version of  "The Soldier's Tale"  is scored for just 7 musical instruments in a jazz-influenced style and interestingly features four characters with speaking parts; a princess, a soldier, the Devil and a narrator. The story is based on an old Russian folk tale about a soldier who decides to sell his soul to the Devil in exchange for a book that reveals things about the future.  

The Faustian origins of selling one's soul to the Devil (or a demon) in exchange for youth, knowledge, power, wealth or love resonate in American folklore as well. British guitarist Eric Clapton and the band Cream popularized the song "Crossroads", but it was written by influential Delta Blues master Robert Johnson as "Cross Roads Blues" in 1936 two years before his death.

One of only two known photos of Robert Johnson.

Blues fans are aware of the claims that Johnson, who died under mysterious circumstances at age 27 in relative obscurity, was said to have sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for his mastery of the Blues guitar; but there are many possible explanations for this popular explanation for his exceptional musical talent.

While Johnson was in many ways an enigma, interviews with many people who actually knew and played with him do shed some light on the origins of the Crossroads claims; that Johnson literally went down to a cross roads one night and met the Devil, who took Johnson's guitar, tuned it and gave it back to him along with an astounding ability to play.

As a spiritual person, I'm not in a position to say whether Johnson actually made a pact with Satan, but such stories probably have more to do with misunderstanding and Johnson's peculiar nature. In the late 19th and early 20th century, African-American musicians who played Blues often earned the  disapproval of the Baptist Church, and might be accused of having "sold his soul to the Devil"; owing more to the fact that Blues was associated with late night carousing in "juke joints" or little local bars where Blues musicians played live and alcohol (Johnson had a fondness for whiskey) smoking, dancing, casual sexual encounters and other behaviors perceived by more conservative "church folk" as "evil" were popular.

Another possibility stems from Johnson's relationship with Blues guitarist Ike Zimmerman. Ike was a black farmer born in Grady, Alabama in 1907 and he was not only an extremely gifted Blues player, he also taught a number of people to play; including Robert Johnson. Blues scholar Bruce Conforth interviewed Zimmerman's daughter who claims that Johnson (known to the Zimmermans as RL) was a diligent student who practiced frequently under Ike's tutelage during his lengthy stays with the family.

In order to play at night and not disturb anyone, the two of them would walk along a dirt path, pass a cross roads into a nearby white-owned graveyard known as the Beauregard Cemetery and sit on top of tombstones and play for hours; as it was quiet there and no one would disturb them. Neighbors who lived near the cemetery recall hearing them both playing at night and during the day and it's possible these accounts evolved into the stories of Johnson's guitar skill being mystical in origin.

During his all-too-brief life, Johnson traveled widely to various towns, hamlets and cities, some who knew him claim he was known to be in the habit of simply walking off and disappearing after playing onstage; and might not be seen for weeks or months. That may or may not be attributed to his love of whiskey; I worked as a bartender in New York for 6 years and knew many people prone to what's known as the "Irish Exit" - where some people get drunk and just leave the bar without telling their friends or anyone else; it's a habit of some drinkers.

According to Wikipedia, a widely-read article in 1966 by Pete Welding in Down Beat Magazine in which he related a story told to him by Blues guitarist Son House (who knew and played with Johnson), House alleged that he knew Johnson when he was younger and more of an average guitarist, but the next time he saw him play he had morphed into an exceptional player. House attributed that jump in skill to the "pact with the Devil" theory but as researchers discovered in later interviews, there was at least a 24 month period between the time House saw Johnson play; so it's quite possible during that time Johnson had been staying with Ike Zimmerman and mastering his technique so he was just a much better guitar player because of practice.

I strongly recommend you pick up a copy of "Searching for Robert Johnson: The Life and Legend of the King of the Delta Blues Players" by Peter Gurainick (1998). You can order a used copy for as low as $2.10 plus shipping from Amazon. It's a really informative read that gives fresh insight into Johnson's life and accounts of his peculiar, eccentric behavior; I tend to think it's those things, coupled with his short life and immense talent which serve as the fertile breeding ground for the stories of his supposed pact with the Devil.

Unfortunately there are tendencies, in my opinion, for historical achievements by people of African descent to be labeled as "mysterious" or attributed to other-worldly types of explanations because some people (sub-consciously or not) can find it hard to accept that a person of color was simply that gifted, or intelligent.

Take the ancient Egyptians for example, I read "Chariots of the Gods" when I was younger, I saw and enjoyed Roland Emmerich's 1994 Sci-Fi film "Stargate" ; there's a slew of oddball explanations that have become entrenched in popular culture as to how (and why) the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids, most having to do with extraterrestrials in spaceships coming down out of the sky to do it for them.

As someone who's fond of history, I think such theories tend to trivialize African history and their contributions to world culture. Some popular fiction entertainment (like Stargate) tends to function as a substitute to accepting the fact that ancient Egyptians had simply mastered complex concepts of advanced mathematics, science and engineering in the Nile River basin 3,150 years before Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth after Upper and Lower Egypt were united under the first Pharaoh Menes.

Back in 2009, I blogged about an Austrian scientist who determined that Cleopatra was in fact, of African descent; despite slews of films and television productions depicting her as a Caucasian female.

In a similar fashion, I think that illustrates the root causes of the stories of Satan bestowing magical guitar powers on Robert Johnson; the guy was just a prodigy, a highly-gifted guitar player. But for  some people, reckoning his skill with his dark skin and African-American features is hard. So they go with the Devil theory.

These things were on my mind as I watched bits and pieces of the Republican National Convention this week. Not because I think Mitt Romney is the Devil or anything, though the Mormon religion has some really strange origin theories that Willard avoids talking about in public.

As I watched speaker after speaker up on the stage in Tampa sharing their narrow-minded vision for America, I just kept thinking about all the billionaires who've poured hundreds of millions of dollars into his campaign and into Super PACs in an all out effort to defeat President Obama. Men like Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers don't shell out dough like that unless they expect to get something in return.

As Mitt smiles and waves next to Paul Ryan, I can't help but wonder; if Mitt does win, what happens to the 300 million Americans who aren't in the top 1% when all these billionaires come-a-calling to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to collect on their investment? Like the main character in Stravinsky's "The Soldier's Tale", it's all good and well when you get that coveted prize you wanted from the Devil; but what's in store for the soul of America when the Devil comes to collect?

By the way, ever wonder why Mitt never discusses his religion?

Countdown in Ohio: Will Jon Husted Really Fire Two Board of Elections Members for Standing Up for Voter's Rights?

Tonight millions of people across the nation are holding their breath as Hurricane Issac chugs towards New Orleans; threatening landfall on the Gulf coast on the eve of the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

But a potential storm is brewing in Ohio too.

Embattled Secretary of State Jon Husted (who just canceled a featured-speaker appearance at the True the Vote Ohio summit in the wake of increased media scrutiny over his voter suppression tactics) will have to decide whether to fire Democratic Montgomery County Board of Elections members Dennis Lieberman and Thomas Ritchie (pictured left).

Both men made an appearance on tonight's edition of Politics Nation with Al Sharpton and I was impressed by Lieberman's statement that, "I can find another job but I only have one conscience." in reference to the very real possibility that he will loose his job because of Republican efforts to suppress voter participation across the nation.

Lieberman and Ritchie (who also made an appearance on the Rachel Maddow Show) were suspended last week for defying Husted's order that early voting and weekend voting hours be curtailed; despite the fact that 197,000 Ohio voters cast their votes early or during evening and weekend hours during the 2008 election.

Between the flood of money from billionaires and Super Pacs, the constant stream of negative TV ads distorting President Obama's record and the voter suppression efforts, clearly there's a method to the Republican madness and it may just be the numbers. Earlier this evening Rachel Maddow and her guest, former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, discussed the startling fact that this election will likely be the last presidential election where a white demographic will have enough voters to be able generate a sufficient majority to elect a president.

By 2016 with the rapidly-expanding Hispanic and Asian populations changing the fabric of the nation, the traditional Republican demographic (as it now stands) just won't have the numbers to elect a president. That's a huge shift for this nation and it scares a lot of people on the Republican side.

Enough for them to start laying the foundation to be able to suppress voters in heavily-Democratic districts. If Jon Husted fires Dennis Lieberman and Thomas Ritchie tomorrow for simply supporting expanded hours for Ohio citizens to take part in the electoral process, a basic foundation of the United States reinforced by the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, the GOP may very well unleash a storm that could end up doing more damage to their own brand than simply loosing an election. 

GOP Efforts to Strip Voter Rights: Jim Crow Rides Again

Say hello to one of the faces of voter suppression in 2012. He's not some thug you'll find standing around the ballot box with a club trying to intimidate people attempting to exercise their Constitutional right to vote.

Nor is he some mafia hood like the kind gangster Al Capone sent to Cicero, Illinois in 1924  to physically beat voters into casting ballots for his hand-picked corrupt Republican candidate Joseph Z. Klenha.

The man pictured here is Jon Husted, the Secretary of State of Ohio and his name is popping up in the mainstream media after he led efforts to cut back the available hours for Ohio citizens to vote during the upcoming elections; including totally eliminating early voting and night and weekend voting hours.

Just so we're clear here, during the 2008 Presidential elections many voters in Ohio complained about facing waits as long as six hours to cast their ballots; the same year 48% of voters in Franklin County cast their votes early.

It's not like it's a big secret about why Republicans nationwide are going out of their way to make it more difficult to vote. The Franklin County Republican chairman Doug Preisse freely admitted the rule changes would restrict black voter turnout in an e-mail to the Columbus Dispatch. According to Priesse, a former primary adviser to Newt Gingrich, "...we shouldn't contort the voting process to accommodate the urban voter-turnout machine."

But Republicans should contort it to keep people from participating in the Democratic process? What has happened to the GOP? And when did they decide to turn America into a Banana Republic?

Have you heard of the organization called 'True the Vote'? Last night Rachel Maddow featured a spot on this right wing group openly dedicated to intimidating voters at polling stations. True the Vote claims it's training millions of members to simply show up at polls (mostly in places where minorities vote) like they did in Houston, Texas.

Yup, same Texas that had four cases of voter fraud in the last two general elections. Make no mistake this isn't a "black or Hispanic-thing"; this an "American-thing". All Americans should be very concerned at this kind of hijacking of people's right to vote; not just because it's immoral, illegal and a mockery of American values, it's a blatant violation of the most basic premise of Democracy.

The same sort of mindset who embrace abstract patriotic rhetoric to send US troops over to foreign lands to kill people in the name of "Democracy" are actively trying to obstruct the Democratic process here in America. Think about that. If you don't, you're just going to make it easier for the GOP to obstruct the votes of whichever demographic that disagrees with them.

"The sides are being divided now. It’s very obvious. So if you’re on the other side of the fence, you’re suddenly anti-American. Its breeding fear of being on the wrong side. Democracy’s a very fragile thing. You have to take care of democracy. As soon as you stop being responsible to it and allow it to turn into scare tactics, it’s no longer democracy, is it? It’s something else. It may be an inch away from totalitarianism."

SAM SHEPARD, The Village Voice, Nov. 12, 2004

Mainstream America Meets the Real Republican Party

Looks like the proverbial chicken of extremist GOP rhetoric is coming home to roost.

Frantic members of the GOP leadership, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, are tripping over themselves in an effort to distance themselves from Congressman Todd Akin's now infamous comments and paint him as some kind of rogue radical who strayed off the ranch. But with 76 days left before the 2012 Presidential election Americans of all stripes are getting a good look at one of the central planks of the GOP platform and a sense of just how archaic their views on woman's health really are; it's also becoming clear Akin isn't alone. Not by a long-shot.

In an article in yesterday's New York Times, Jonathan Weisman quoted Missouri GOP Committee member Sharon Barnes (pictured above) as not only agreeing with Akin that rape rarely results in pregnancy, she also said, "at that point if God has chosen to bless someone with a life you don't kill it."

Her views aren't that different than Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan's either. Ryan's name is next to the 200 other House members of the GOP who supported House Resolution #3, the 'No Taxpayer Money for Abortion Act' (sponsored by Representative Chris Smith of NJ) which sought to restrict exceptions on Federal funding for abortions for women in the case of rape or incest.

Ryan also supported House Resolution 212, the 'Sanctity of Human Life Act' which went even further and sought to ban abortion even in cases of rape; it was sponsored by Georgia Congressman Paul Broun; who also tried to de-fund the Voting Rights Act.

These views, while clearly way out of step with most Americans stance on abortion, have been a central theme of the GOP since the rise of the Tea Party in 2010. The right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has helped Republican state legislators from around the nation pass almost 1,000 anti-abortion bills around the nation.

Back on January 20th of this year when former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum was asked what a woman who was raped and became pregnant should do, the poster-boy for the pro-life movement argued that rather than have an abortion, she should be compelled by law to keep the baby and "make the best of a bad situation."  'American Exceptionalism' indeed.

Let's see how presidential hopeful Mitt Romney makes the best of this situation as he contemplates the grim reality of his going up against an incumbent after having chosen a loose-cannon running mate who's views are repugnant to the majority of American women and offensive to those of us who believe the government has no business dictating moral or medical choices for anyone.

Any political party that would place it's ideology over the victims of rape has no business running the nation in the 21st century. What are they thinking? Oh and speaking of chickens coming home to roost, Akin totally chickened out of an appearance on Piers Morgan on CNN. Check it out.

Chase Austin Tapped as A.J Foyt's Driver for 2013 Indy 500

Between GOP Missouri Rep. Todd Akin's comments about rape  and my last blog about Dinesh D'Souza's crazy ass I gotta switch gears, so lets talk auto racing. You wouldn't know it from most of my posts here but I'm a true gear-head who's loved fast cars since I was old enough to know that they were loud and went fast.

So when I read an Associated Press article about a young African-American race car driver prodigy named Chase Austin, I had to blog about it. That's Chase pictured in the box and I'm a bit jealous because he looks like the age I was when I was still playing with my prized Hot Wheels collection.

As reported by AP sports writer Rusty Miller, Austin, 22, has been racing different types of cars including go-carts, sprint cars, stock cars and Indy Lights, since he was 8-years old. He inked a development driver deal with the prestigious Hendricks Motorsports when he was just 14.

Austin caught Foyt's attention after Chris Miles, a principal with Starting Grid, Inc., (an organization that promotes minorities in racing motor sports) helped promote Austin as an Indy Lights driver for Willy T. Ribbs Racing. Racing legend A.J Foyt (himself a 4-time Indy 500 winner) recently tapped Austin to drive his A.J. Foyt Enterprises racing teams Indy car entry next year. If he can qualify for the race in 2013, he's poised to become just the third black driver to compete in the prestigious Indianapolis 500.

Willy T. Ribbs raced at Indy in 1991 and 1993 (backed in part by comedian Bill Cosby), and George Mack raced in 2002.

For guys and not a few women, race car drivers occupy a special place atop the apex of popular culture. You don't need to know a lot about cars or auto racing to recognize names like Jackie Stewart, Michael Schumacher, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt or even one of my childhood favorites, the mysterious animated Racer-X from the classic Japanese cartoon Speed Racer; which I watched religiously as a child. Was there anything cooler than the Mammoth Car?

Growing up I watched races like the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 but rarely saw people of color involved with the sport. Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton of England has emerged as one of the best drivers in the world in a sport where few people of color had any real presence until he came on the scene. But as Formula One broadens its reach past it's Euro-centric origins with drivers of many different nationalities and new Grand Prix races in places like Abu Dubai, China, Malaysia and Singapore, popular drivers like Hamilton have come to symbolize auto racing's efforts to diversify it's ranks.

There's little question the world of Indy racing recognizes it's own need to follow suit. Time will tell if Austin has the right stuff, but either way it's an exciting moment for auto racing and a special moment for American race fans. Kudos to A.J. Foyt for giving a young talented brother a chance too; that's big.

Somehow I doubt the mainstream media will fawn all over him the way they do Danica Patrick.

Dinesh D'Souza: The 'Sheriff Joe' of the Conservative Media Movement?

So I'm reading film reviews in the New York Times last Friday August 10th when I came upon a full-page ad for a film called "Obama's America: 2016". The cryptic subtitle read: "Love him, hate him, you don't know him - He is downsizing America."

Uh oh, I thought. I scroll down to check the credits and sure enough this cinematic masterpiece was co-written and co-directed by none other than right-wing writer Dinesh D'Souza (pictured above). For those of you who've been kind enough to follow my blog, you may recall that I wrote about D'Souza back on September 20, 2010 in the lead-up to the 2010 Presidential elections. [Read the blog to get the full story.] Disclaimer: it may be a bit self-serving to link to my own blog, but hey, you do what you gotta do.

Those of you who might not be familiar with D'Souza, don't let that bookish appearance fool you.
Ideologically, this guy is as far right as Ann Coulter and just as nutty as Michelle Bachmann. Two months before the 2010 Presidential election D'Souza penned a widely-panned Forbes Magazine article in which he tried to make the case that Obama, was somehow trying to radically re-shape US foreign policy in an effort to mirror the political views of his estranged Kenyan father.

Well, we've seen how that turned out. Bin Laden is dead, the war in Iraq is over, America has played a quiet but definitive role in the collapse of regimes in Egypt, Libya and soon, Syria; and US troops will soon wind down the war in Afghanistan.

D'Souza, born in India but raised in Arizona, has had nothing but contempt for African-Americans, Jews and homosexuals since he was offending people with his not-so cleverly disguised hate speech in college. Now it seems he's moved on to film.

It would take a psychiatrist to explain how a dark-skinned immigrant would allow himself to be used by American conservatives to bash minorities with pseudo-intellectual theories and baseless assumptions. It's almost like he's the 'Sheriff Joe Arpaio' of right-wing conservative media.

Speaking of media spotlight-loving unapologetic racists, the August 16th Rolling Stone article 'The Long Lawless Ride of Sheriff Joe' offers a really penetrating look into the life of notorious Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Like D'Souza, Arpaio has a long history of hating racial minorities in America, RS contributing editor Joe Hagan peels back the layers of this poster boy for intolerance with a must-read profile. Check it out.

The Republican Smear Job on Obama

After Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 Presidential election, Republican organizers conceded that his campaign had soundly beaten them to the punch when it came to using the Internet to galvanize massive support, communicate with the voter base and channel campaign contributions.   

It's certainly no secret the GOP has pulled out all the stops to make Obama a one-term president. The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision made a mockery of the Democratic process and opened up the spigots for unprecedented floods of cash to pour into the 2012 presidential race. Take a look at Tim Dickinson's article entitled  'Right Wing Billionaires Behind Mitt Romney' in the May 24, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone, it offers a frightening look at the kinds of money flowing into GOP Super Pacs from wealthy individuals.

While the Obama campaign uses it's massive e-mail outreach to communicate with supporters and coordinate volunteer efforts, it's apparent the GOP is actively using it's e-mail lists to fuel the Republican Smear Campaign. I trade e-mails with a Republican friend of mine out in California, last night he told me he's been receiving huge numbers of e-mails from right-wing organizations that are stirring up resentment for Obama by spreading claims that the President never went to Columbia.

Snopes.com offers ample proof the President DID in fact attend and graduate from Columbia. Despite the baseless GOP & Tea Party accusations, clowns like Donald Trump (pictured above) continue to sling the lie to the masses. Rather than supervise the crime in his own territory, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio continues to harass Hispanics and beat the dead horse of the Birther movement; continuing his own bizarre investigation into Obama's birth certificate. Makes you wonder if it's really about the deficit, policy or the skin color of the President for Republicans; regardless, Obama's opponents, misinformed voters who stay informed through Fox News, actually believe it's truth. Scary.

Separating Skinheads & Punks from Ignorant Neo-Nazi Posers

With all the mainstream media attention suddenly (and rightfully) being focused on 'Hatecore' music and the skinhead music scene where Wade M. Page was a recognized figure, it's worth noting that not all skinheads and punk rockers are neo-Nazis.

My high school classmate, trusty friend and business partner James Blackburn read my blogpost yesterday about Page and his neo-Nazi ex-girlfriend Misty Cook. Like me and many different members of our West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South class, James was a big fan of punk rock, heavy-metal and alternative music in the late 1980's.

Last night he reminded me via e-mail that within the punk rock scene in the 80's and 90's, the numbers of peaceful skinheads who oppose the neo-Nazi influence of more right-wing skinheads, far outnumbered their goose-stepping counterparts. People unfamiliar with the scene have often mistaken music-loving skinheads with neo-Nazi skins.

The skinhead music subculture that emerged in England in the late 1960's was racially diverse, a product of the unique merger of the Jamaican reggae, 'Rude Boy', Ska and British Mod music scenes. Only in the 1970's when high unemployment left millions of UK youth without jobs, did the rising white nationalist ideology espoused by angry right-wing extremist groups like the National Front and Blood and Honor begin to merge with a revived skinhead music scene. Media attention tended to focus on the violent 'white power' skinheads, and as the hardcore music movement spread to New York and other cities in the US; punks were often mistakenly branded as violent racists.  

As 'punk rock' in the US grew in popularity in the late 70's and early 80's, 'real' punks and skinheads  began pushing back against being wrongly lumped into the same basket as their extremist counterparts and various efforts to distinguish themselves emerged. For example, some peaceful skinheads began wearing blue or yellow shoelaces in their Doc Marten boots as opposed to the red or white shoelaces often worn by neo-Nazi skinheads.

Influential hardcore punk bands like the Dead Kennedys began to incorporate their ideological opposition to fascist punks with popular songs like 'Nazi Punks, Fuck Off' released in 1982 which mocked racist skins for their views and violent behavior at hardcore shows and became something of an unofficial anthem.

In 1987, Marcus Pacheco and Steven M started Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice, or SHARP as a movement to demonstrate that the skinhead and punk music scene was based on racial diversity and socio-political expression rather than hate and racism. James sent me the image of the SHARP patch above and told me that while he was attending art school in New York City in the 80's he often saw 'white power' skinhead toughs on the Lower East Side at places like CBGB's or over at the bars and head shops on St. Mark's Place trying to pick fights; but they usually ended up getting stomped on by SHARP-aligned skinheads violently opposed to racist skinheads.

I saw many hardcore shows at City Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey between 1985 and 1989 and the vast majority of people there to see bands were all about the energy of the music. Sure I saw a few 'white power' punks hanging around there, but as a 6-foot 7-inch, 260-pound black guy who played football, I was never intimidated by them.

I recall standing at the back bar of City Gardens one night waiting for the Ramones to go on stage and I saw this scraggly-looking white kid wearing a black t-shirt with a swastika on it. Having had a few beers, I walked over and asked him why he was wearing that shirt given the US and the Allies lost thousands of soldiers, airmen and sailors in their effort to destroy the Third Reich in WWII - he had no answer, he just looked kind of feeble and embarrassed and couldn't make eye contact with me. 

My older sister first took me along to punk shows in 1983-1984 in Washington, DC when we lived in Bethesda, Maryland. I remember going to see the influential DC punk band 9353 and how mind-opening it was to see Rastafarians, alongside punks and skinheads of all different races at places like the 9:30 Club and DC Space. It was my first introduction to a vibrant music scene based on social consciousness, alternative expressions of guitar and vocals; a culture that stood far outside the rigid confines of mainstream suburbia where I and many other alternative fans lived; and longed to escape.

Fringe 'Hatecore' assholes like Wade M. Page who try and use the scene to espouse their narrow-minded views of hate and violence are just blots on the radar, nasty splotches on the windshield rooted in ignorance and fear who will never co-opt the unique spirit and energy of this highly influential form of musical expression.

Wade Page's Murder of Innocent Sikhs: What are the Feds Doing About Neo-Nazis in the US?

As mainstream media begins to delve deeper into the facts about the troubled life of Wade M. Page (pictured left) the fact remains that his brutal unprovoked murder of six of innocent Sikh Americans in a Wisconsin temple clearly could have been prevented.

Could the signs have been any more clear? His membership in the Hammerskin Nation, close association with the neo-Nazi 'Hatecore' music scene, white supremacist ideology, and desire for 'Holy Racial War' (painfully grandiose neo-Nazi speak for murdering innocent people who don't look like them) was known to Federal authorities, ex-Army associates and former work supervisors. 

Disturbing details are emerging about Page's neo-Nazi nursing student ex-girlfriend Misty Cook too.

According to an article by John Eligon of the New York Times Frau Cook, 31, who was arrested and released on weapons possession charges on Sunday, not only works as a waitress at the Prime Table Family Restaurant less than a mile down the road from the Sikh Temple where the rampage took place; for 3 years she's also been an active member of a Hammerskin Nation support group called Crew 38.

Misty's no doe-eyed fringe member of the movement either. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch blog, she's active on the Crew 38 online forum under the name "LuLuRoman" and has an eye-popping 856 posts on their Website to her credit. The SPLC also claims she's linked to the Volksfront; a Skinhead group founded in 1994 inside the Oregon State Penitentiary by four inmates convicted of (drum-roll please..) hate crimes.

If he was 'indoctrinated' into the neo-Nazi movement during his less-than-distinguished stint in the US Army, why doesn't the Army or the Defense Department commit resources to keep closer track of discharged soldiers known to be associated with violent right wing extremist groups?

Were the Feds tracking Hammerskin Nation or Crew 38 members? It wasn't that long ago that Former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover called the Black Panther Party "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country" and poured massive resources into COINTELPRO; a vast law enforcement initiative of police harassment, assassination, surveillance, infiltration and other illegal tactics used to dismantle the Black Panther Party.

What's the FBI doing about the dozens of neo-Nazi groups across the nation today? Is it enough? Which groups are active in your state? Check out the SPLC list.

Ryan Seacrest Offers Useless Facebook Friend Stats in Lieu of Sports Analysis

Was Ryan Seacrest's on-air comparison of which Olympic athletes had the most Facebook followers on Sunday night meant as actual sports analysis?

Maybe it was some kind of clever commercial product placement to help Facebook try and bolster it's sagging stock price by showing advertisers that being able to show the number of friends you have on Facebook justifies it's initial $104 billion market capitalization?

If you didn't watch the Olympics broadcast on Sunday night, at some point during the coverage NBC cut away from track or gymnastics coverage and returned to Bob Costas on the set, who turned to his left and looked at the analysts chair next to him where Ryan Seacrest (pictured above) was seated.

Before I knew what was happening Seacrest was standing up offering analysis; but not about any of the events that had just taken place, or the athletes who'd competed in them. Instead Seacrest turned to a big color monitor with a Facebook logo on it and proceeded to launch into a comparison of which athletes had the most social media followers.

I had a WTF? moment, then quickly changed the channel. Nothing against Ryan Seacrest but watching him do post-event Olympic analysis was kind of like watching Katie Couric on the CBS Evening News in the same chair where Cronkite and Rather sat; you just felt there was just something awkward about it and it didn't quite work.

Seacrest sits at the top of the media food chain as a veteran radio personality and television producer. Okay so he's executive producer of Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Denise Richards: It's Complicated, it's not a crime to work with attention-seeking Kardashians or Charlie Sheen's ex is it?

He's certainly a veteran television host with shows like American Idol, the 2008 Superbowl pregame and halftime shows, E! news and the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards to his credits; but what's he doing offering Olympic sports analysis of any kind? He's never covered mainstream competitive sports on TV, he's not an Olympic medal winner - or even an athlete for that matter.

To be fair to NBC, broadcasting daily continuous coverage of the 2012 Olympics has to be an enormous undertaking. We can appreciate the need for the various athlete profiles, interviews and assorted "filler types" of pieces used to fill time between the transitions between different events.

Maybe Seacrest's out-of-place social media/Web metrics piece was just a klutzy way of NBC Universal trying to woo Seacrest's coveted American Idol demo; God knows there have been enough commercial promos for NBC's The Voice with Howard Stern. (Fifteen years ago the former self-crowned "King of All Media" would've mocked HIMSELF for doing that show) 

There are dozens of former Olympic athletes with personality, camera presence, media savvy and intricate knowledge of specific Olympic sports who would have made better (and more insightful) analysts than Seacrest.

On a Sunday night when Jamaican Usain Bolt outran a talent-rich field to set an Olympic record in the 100 and US gymnast McKayla Maroney fell on her second vault to take silver; I think NBC could have done better than Ryan Seacrest. I'd venture the sports-savvy American audience was probably expecting something a little more substantive than "which athlete has the most Facebook friends".