Ain’t a Damn Thing Funny
I get the feeling that Joe Carter and his fellow FRC cadres are starting to regret their pre-adolescent “pranks.” Shook ones…
Hear Me Tonight
Just a quick reminder for my friends and all those who find my ignorance of this anarchy maddening: I’ll be on RadioNation tonight discussing the anti-immigration movement with Laura Flanders and Roberto Lovato. So check out your local Air America affiliate at 8:30 pm ET.
At first I thought this statement was an excerpt from Cho’s video, then I read the comments section of my own blog:
Your ignorance of the danger this anarchy is to this country is maddening.
Joe Carter: A Racist’s Racist
FRC webmaster Joe Carter has a lot more in common with his Klan-happy boss than I thought. Combing through the archives of Carter’s blog, evangelicaloutpost, I discovered several bizarre racialist postings about the identity and mental aptitude of blacks that I would have instead expected to find on white nationalist websites like American Renaissance.
In one post by Carter, he suggests that blacks should not attempt to become lawyers because law is not one of their “natural talents.” They are genetically better suited for professions that require less mental rigor, he seems to say. For some odd reason I was unable to retrieve this post directly from Carter’s blog (probably because I use Firefox) but Panda’s Thumb has reprinted this portion, which I find pretty representative of a racialist perspective:
An Affirmative Mismatch:
Do Racial Preferences Limit Black Lawyers?One of the most pernicious lies in America is the one we allow teachers, parents, and relatives to tell children: “When you grow up, you can be anything you want to be.â€
Admittedly, it’s a well-intentioned fib, meant to encourage the young and prevent them from placing unnecessary limitations on themselves. The problem, though, is that it often works too well. Children, who lack experience of their own, tend to trust adults about what possibilities are open in the world. But ambition and hard work cannot always compensate for a lack of ability or aptitude. As much as I may dream of being a doctor or NFL linebacker, the fact that I am 5’10â€, 170 lbs, and faint at the sight of blood, prevents me from pursuing those occupations. Recognizing these limitations, though, can help us discover our natural talents. By realizing that not every pathway is open to us, we are able to find our true “calling.â€
As Nick Matzke at Panda’s Thumb writes, Carter “more or less says that the statistically lower average qualifications of prospective black law students is equatable with the fact that Carter is not NFL linebacker material because he is 5’10â€, 170 lbs. In short, it’s genetic.”
As with Carter’s post on black lawyers, I could not retrieve his post, “Is Colin Powell ‘Black’? A Christian View of Race and Identity (Part I),” directly from his archives, probably again because I use Firefox (original here). Instead, I pulled up a cached version in which he suggests that Colin Powell isn’t really black, a weird and obviously bigoted claim that I doubt Powell would agree with or appreciate it very much. It gets weirder from there.
Carter concludes his post on Powell by declaring that, “In the next part of this series, we’ll explore in more detail why we should be more willing to let go of racial classification in favor of recognizing distinctions based on culture.”
I’m sure the Council of Conservative Citizens would appreciate a reading of Carter’s series at one of their fundraisers. Tony Perkins has all the contacts Carter needs to arrange that.
Rally Round the Racist
Tony Perkins hasn’t changed much since the day he spoke at a fundraiser for the Council of Conservative Citizens, America’s largest and most prominent white supremacist group. Adele Stan reported on Perkins’ address before this year’s Reclaiming America for Christ conference, during which he recycled the tale of Phineas, a biblical reference white nationalists have traditionally employed to inveigh against racial miscegenation:
Lest any of the assembled miss the point, Perkins offered up the story of Phineas, grandson of Moses’ brother Aaron, from Numbers 25. Phineas was rewarded by God with an “everlasting priesthood†for killing an Israelite and his Midian lover because God had forbidden the mixing of the men of Israel with the women of that tribe.
The story is, essentially, the vindication of the criminalization of “miscegenation†— a sentiment consistent with Perkins’ past courting of such racist groups as the Ku Klux Klan and the Council of Conservative Citizens, America’s largest white supremacist organization, according to journalist Max Blumenthal. (Perkins bought, on behalf of political client Senator Woody Jenkins, a phone-bank list from former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.)
I want to welcome all the right-wingers drawn to my blog by the Family Research Council and other crybaby conservative websites. Because of the massive amount of spam comments I receive, I moderate every comment and approve them for publication. Consequently your comments may not appear immediately on the blog, but I assure you I am approving them as fast as I can. I especially appreciate those comments by low-level FRC cadres characterizing my response to their “prank” as simultaneously humorless and laughable. (The FRC should explain why its staffers continue to visit my blog so avidly if I am such a joke).
Reasonable people can disagree about my sense of humor — I confess I don’t think the FRC’s attempt to sabotage my writing merits a humorous response — but one thing is beyond debate: anyone who devotes their energy on a beautiful Friday afternoon to producing reams of apologia regarding Tony Perkins’ involvement with and activities on behalf of white supremacists, or who willfully ignores his recent espousal of white nationalist ideology, is either a racist himself or lacks any semblance of conscience. (Currently the FRC is devoting its energy and resources to blocking hate crimes legislation which would punish violence specifically targeting minorities. Officially the FRC is concerned that such legislation would also protect homosexuals from violence as well.)
It doesn’t surprise me that my revelation of Perkins’ past involvement with David Duke, his activities on behalf of the Council of Conservative Citizens, and his not-so-subtle invocation of a racist meme this year did not give the FRC’s supposedly idealistic employees pause. Before engaging in their attempt to suppress or sabotage my reporting on the web, they had to suppress what I reported in their own minds. To them, it didn’t matter what I reported at all. What mattered was that I reported it in the first place. Indeed, behind the FRC cadres’ pretensions of political conviction is a masochistic urge to defend their leader, whoever he is and regardless of what he’s done.
The FRC’s Director of Web Communications Joe Carter (hotlinked above) confessed that his attempt to sabotage my blog posts has everything to do with my reporting on Perkins’ confirmed links to white supremacist groups. On the blog For God’s Sake Shut Up!, Carter commented:
We tried to get Blumenthal to issue a correction after it was proven that he was misinformed about his facts (see here, for an example: http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=LH05F09) but he isn’t much interested in being honest. Blumenthal wants to be the next Michael Moore.
True, it’s not a prank between friends but we tried to keep it light-hearted. It’s a silly thing to do but it’s meant in a spirit of good-humor.
(The FRC’s “correction” contains no mention of Perkins’ speech at a Council of Conservative Citizens fundraiser for some reason. And I was never contacted by Carter or anyone else to issue a correction of facts confirmed years prior by members of the Louisiana media. There simply was nothing to correct.)
Erich Fromm explained the mentality of Perkins’ defenders and others like them in his 1941 book, Escape From Freedom. “If we do not see the unconscious suffering of the average automatized person, then we fail to see the danger that threatens our culture from its human basis: the readiness to accept any ideology and any leader, if only he promises excitement and offers a political structure and symbols which allegedly give meaning and order to an individual’s life.”
Today Perkins’ underlings have discovered excitement and meaning in their juvenile attempts to suppress my writing (next week they will likely return to emotionally satifying campaigns to demonize homosexuals and insufficiently submissive women). While the FRC’s official motive is a moral opposition to hotlinking (have they ever criticized right-wing bloggers for this common practice?), their true goal is to protect their Dear Leader from legitimate and confirmed reports of his racism.
Pranks as Suppression
Update: KKK paypal and friend of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, Tony Perkins, has orchestrated the hacking of this post. In doing so, he has drawn greater attention to his links to and ideological support for white supremacists. The photo of Christopher Hitchens posing with the Family Research Council’s Witherspoon Fellows was scrubbed from FRC’s site today out of fear that I would link to it again. Not only does the FRC want to suppress Perkins’ links to white supremacists, it wants to suppress its own association with Hitchens. This begs the question: who embarrasses Perkins more, the Klan or Christopher Hitchens?
I’ll have more later but in the meantime, check out the pathetic tale of Tony Perkins’ dismissal from the Baton Rouge Police Force.
Hear Me
On Tuesday I discussed the anti-immigration movement with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, highlighting the absorption of the anti-government militia movement into vigilante umbrella groups like the Minutemen.
On Saturday at 8:30 ET I will be on Air America’s RadioNation to discuss the same topic with Laura Flanders and one of my favorite political writers, Roberto Lovato.
Terror Schmerror
Anti-immigrant fanatic, Tyler Froatz, was caught stockpiling assault weapons, swords and explosives. It is not unreasonable to assume he was planning to engage in acts that would legally qualify as domestic terrorism. So far, Froatz’s case has not only been ignored by anti-immigrant media figures like Michelle Malkin and Lou Dobbs who habitually cast immigrant workers as disease-ridden criminals, but by the mainstream press as well. I guess domestic terror just isn’t as sexy as “Islamofascism:”
WASHINGTON — A northwest Washington man is due in court on Friday, two days after D.C. police officers helped U.S. park police execute a search warrant at his home, authorities said.
Police said they arrested Tyler J. Froatz Jr., 24, after he got into a shoving match with supporters at an immigration rally on Tuesday at Meridian Hill Park in Northwest.
Police said that at the rally Froatz displayed a sign that reads: “Being illegal is a crime.”
[...]
Court documents reveal that when Froatz was arrested, police found two knives on him, including a 12-inch blade, a flare gun and a stun gun.
Police said a search of Froatz’s vehicle and apartment turned up even more weapons.
Police said they collected more than a dozen rifles, detailed maps and even got a positive hit for explosives in Froatz’s vehicle.
Bushies on the Moon
On Talk2Action, Larry Zilliox of Investigative Research Specialists discloses another massive donation from the family of Sun Myung Moon to the Bush family. If the Rev is ultimately pardoned for tax fraud, we’ll know why:
As followers of Rev. Sun Myung Moon pray for a presidential pardon for their aging Messiah’s felony tax-fraud conviction in the 1980s, the latest tax filing of the Washington Times Foundation has become available. The return covers the months from April 2005 through March 2006 and shows a $100,000 contribution from the foundation to the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.
The Washington Times was founded by Moon and has been subsidized by Moon-controlled interests.
The only larger donation made by the foundation in that year was to another entity closely associated with Moon, the American Family Coalition, Inc. which received $219,000.
Why Hitchens Blabbers
In a recent discussion about religion with New York Magazine, Christopher Hitchens perfectly employed the principles outlined in Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language:”
New York Mag: Have you ever prayed in your life?
Christopher Hitchens: I probably once did pray for an erection, but not addressed to anyone in particular. Nor completely addressed to my cock. You’re too polite to ask if the prayer was answered.
NY Mag: Was it?
Hitchens: No. There was an answer, but I don’t think it was the result of the prayer. After all, if one was not a mammal, and could get erections on demand, there’d be no need for prayer in the first place.
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