Category Archives: Radical Right

October 20, 2012 · 7:24 AM

Swastika Found On Obama Campaign Office In Colorado

Between the gun shots, swastika graffiti and Romney’s total lack of deference to the POTUS in the last debate,  it appears that some far-right fringe nut jobs seem to think it’s open season on President Obama.

I still have to wonder about the mindset of people who have no respect for the Office of the Presidency or the man holding that office.

Shame on all those who wish to do harm to our country and our POTUS in the name of hatred.

The Huffington Post

A swastika was found painted on the window of President Barack Obama’s campaign office in a Denver, Colo., suburb late Thursday.

The black Nazi symbol was found by building owners painted outside a window of the office, located in the Denver suburb of Conifer, 9News.com reported. The office opened recently in the Jefferson County hamlet.

The Jefferson County sheriff’s office did not immediately return a request for comment. 9News.com reports that Obama’s campaign has not commented on the incident, which comes a week after a shot was fired into a window of Obama’s Denver campaign office.

In 2009 during a Tea Party rally held to oppose the stimulus package on the day Obama signed the bill, a participant waved a sign bearing a swastika in the “O” of Obama’s name. The sign holder had a picture taken with conservative activist Michelle Malkin and was reportedly on stage when then-state Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry (R-Grand Junction) spoke.

The swastika incident occurs two weeks after an Obama supporter in Tulsa, Okla., who had an Obama sign on his lawn reported receiving  a death threat from a neighbor. Kyle Counts, a 27-year-old law student, told HuffPost that the neighbor engaged him an argument after seeing the sign and then yelled the threat, which was captured on video.

UPDATE: 7:55 p.m. — Scott Lorditch, a volunteer at the Conifer office, told The Huffington Post that when he arrived at the office on Friday, staffers told him the vandalism occurred overnight. Lorditch said that Obama lawn signs in front of the office were also shredded. He said that while he did not see the damaged signs, when he arrived the signs were no longer in front of the office.

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April 18, 2012 · 12:10 AM

THE SECRET SERVICE SAYS THEY ARE INVESTIGATING TED NUGENT’S THREATENING REMARKS TOWARD OBAMA

Lawrence O’Donnell (MSNBC’s The Last Word host) and his guests pointed out tonight that the GOP were “outraged” over Hillary Rosen’s comments about Ann Romney, but have remained silent over Ted Nugent’s outrageous innuendos about assassinating the President of the United States!  In my opinion this is just another example of the GOP’s faux outrage, which they conveniently use to gin up their “not very bright” base.

Think Progress 

Ted Nugent’s threatening remarks about President Obama at the annual National Rifle Association convention in St. Louis have earned him a follow-up conversation with the Secret Service.

On Sunday, the singer remarked that “if Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will be either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” The Secret Service, which investigates all threats against the President, confirmed to New York Magazine’s Daily Intel blog that they have in fact flagged Nugent’s comment. “We are aware of it, and we’ll conduct an appropriate follow up,” the agent told the magazine.

Nugent endorsed Mitt Romney — albeit reluctantly — via Twitter last month, and at least one Romney, middle son Tagg, was excited about the news. Watch the video of his remarks, courtesy of Right Wing Watch:

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June 20, 2011 · 5:37 AM

VIDEO: NH GOP Chairman Says U.S. Military Deaths Will Be ‘Completely In Vain’ If Obama Is Reelected

This rhetoric is becoming all too common.  I’m actually starting to ignore it, knowing that the people who continue such rhetoric are batshit crazy! 

Think Progress

New Hampshire Republicans caused a stir earlier this year when they elected Jack Kimball, a far right Tea Party politician, as the new party chairman. Since his election, Kimball’s extreme views have been eclipsed by Republicans in the legislature, who have spent the past monthsslashing funding for healthcare, education, and other radical right priorities. However, recent video from a local Republican event may thrust Kimball back into the national limelight.

Last week, Kimball and several legislators gathered in Greenfield, NH for a “Flag Day Picnic” with party activists. Explaining the sacrifices made by people in the military, Kimball warned ominously that all would be “completely in vain” if President Obama is reelected next year:

KIMBALL: Ladies and gentlemen, I’m looking at what has happened. All that we treasure lost: people, the loss of life, people who are psychologically and physiologically damaged for life, the sacrifices of the families that supported then. All of this. And I wonder what we did. Look at who we put in the White House. You think about that and we realize the profound responsibility that we have this time. In my view, if we reelect this man, all that all of the people fought and died for is completely in vain.

Watch it:

 

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October 20, 2010 · 6:37 PM

NAACP backs report that ties racist groups to tea party

Actually, this news comes as no surprise.  The good thing is that it’s all documented.

Washington Post

A new report, backed by the NAACP, has found what it says are efforts by white nationalist groups and militias to link themselves to the tea party movement, even as some tea party leaders have expelled members who have expressed racist sentiment.

The report, called Tea Party Nationalism, uses news articles, visits to white nationalist Web sites and observance of tea party functions to claim that tea party events have become a forum for extremists “hoping to push these (white) protesters toward a more self-conscious and ideological white supremacy.”

Its findings cite that members of groups such as the Council of Conservative Citizens, which opposes all efforts to “mix the races of mankind,” have become involved in tea party chapters, and that posters on the online white nationalist Web site Stormfront.org have written of “inflitrating” tea party events.   Continue reading…

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August 3, 2010 · 12:38 AM

Fox Airs Segment On How To Sue Obama Administration ‘If You Want To Do It Yourself’

I wonder if the executives at Fox News Channel even have a clue about how they appear to the “sane” world? 

Think Progress

Today, the judge in Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s challenge to the Affordable Care Act handed down a procedural ruling allowing the suit to move past the earliest stages of litigation. Because of this ruling, the meritless lawsuit will be resolved in the coming months, rather than waiting four years before it can be refiled.

While that frivolous challenge to the Affordable Care Act proceeds, the right is promoting yet another legal challenge to health reform which is no more likely to prevail. In a tactic better suited to late-night TV ads than to a “news” network, Fox News hosted attorney and Republican congressional candidate in Tennessee, Van Irion, last Friday night to discuss how you too can file a lawsuit against the Obama administration:

You’ve heard about states suing the federal government over health care, but what if you want to do it yourself? Turns out, you’re in luck. Our next guest is suing the feds and several top Democrats. … Tell us how can people join the lawsuit if they want to?

Watch it:

Of course, Irion’s challenge has virtually no chance of succeeding, as even ultraconservatives like Justice Antonin Scalia reject the constitutional arguments against health reform.  During the health care debate, Fox repeatedly touted Republican claims that eliminating frivolous health care litigation is the key to driving down costs nationwide.  Someone needs to tell Fox that tort reform starts at home.

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June 6, 2010 · 6:08 PM

Arizona Elementary School Will Whiten The Faces Of Its Own Students On A Mural Because Some Racists Yelled At It [UPDATE]

It appears there has been a good resolution to this story.  Giving in to bigotry and racism is not the answer.

Huffington Post

UPDATE: Good news. The gutless, carbound racists lost, and the mural is being restored to its “original theme.” Jeff Lane, the principal of Miller Valley Elementary School, and Kevin Kapp, the school superintendent, showed up at a protest today to apologize for giving in to whims of mentally deranged adults, spewing racial epithets at a painting:         

  

I am not a racist individual, but I will tell you depicting a black guy in the middle of that mural, based upon who’s President of the United States today and based upon the history of this community, when I grew up we had four black families – who I have been very good friends with for years – to depict the biggest picture on that building as a black person, I would have to ask the question, ‘Why?’

Yes. WHY DID SOMEONE PUT A BLACK PERSON ON A PAINTING? You “have” to “ask” the “question!”

Anyway, Steve Blair lost too, and I am delighted.

[Thanks to Moses Siregar III for the video. For more, visit his YouTube channel.]

———

Via Ken Layne at Wonkette, this is just the worst story in the world:

An Arizona elementary school mural featuring the faces of kids who attend the school has been the subject of constant daytime drive-by racist screaming, from adults, as well as a radio talk-show campaign (by an actual city councilman, who has an AM talk-radio show) to remove the black student’s face, and now the school principal has ordered the faces of the Latino and Black students to be changed to Caucasian skin.

F’ing hell. Read the rest of the details here. And here’s Richard Lawson’s reaction, at Gawker.

What can I say about this? We are talking about a bunch of mentally deranged adults, who have terrorized an elementary school, for daring to paint a mural featuring the faces of black and Latino children — actual black and Latino children who live in Arizona. And we’re also talking about a group of adults who have decided to send a stirring message to their students and the world: when a bunch of mentally deranged adults — and we are not talking about people who are particularly threatening, this is a bunch of utterly gutless mopes, yelling racial slurs from their cars, egged on by some pinhead city councilman cowering behind a radio microphone — threaten a bunch of children, the best thing to do is to accede to their psychotic, racist “demands.”

Seriously, educators of Prescott, Arizona, when some creep demands you whiten the faces of your own students on a mural, the correct response is to say, “No, we will not be doing anything of the sort.”

This story really should be blasted, far and wide. You cable news producers need to get this story in the mix with a quickness. And let me be clear to you all: there are no “two sides to this story.” This is not something you need to have a panel discussion about. CNN, I don’t want to see you plumbing the depths of your counterintuition on your website, or lending credence to the notion that the gutless mopes in their cars, shrieking racial slurs at the images of children have an interesting point of view that we should “hear out” because of the need to be “balanced.” This is your moment to decry, condemn, and brutalize these evil people.  Blast them to hell, or go jump in the Gulf of Mexico.

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May 20, 2010 · 7:00 AM

Rand Paul: ‘The Hard Part Of Believing In Freedom’ Is Opposing Ban On Whites-Only Lunch Counters

The freedom loving, strict constitutionalist Tea Party seems to fall short when it comes to others’ freedoms:

Think Progress

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is one of the greatest accomplishments of the 20th century, banning whites-only lunch counters and similar discrimination in hiring, promotions, hotels and restaurants. Yet, in a recent editorial board interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal, GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul explained why he believes that this landmark law should not apply to private business owners:

INTERVIEWER: Would you have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

PAUL: I like the Civil Rights Act in the sense that it ended discrimination in all public domains, and I’m all in favor of that.

INTERVIEWER: But?

PAUL: You had to ask me the “but.” I don’t like the idea of telling private business owners—I abhor racism. I think it’s a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant—but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership. But I absolutely think there should be no discrimination in anything that gets any public funding, and that’s most of what I think the Civil Rights Act was about in my mind.

Watch here:

 

After adding that he is also a fan of Dr. Martin Luther King, Paul dug in deeper, explaining that he he believes that in a “free society,” private lunch counters must be allowed to refuse service to Dr. King because of his race:

INTERVIEWER: But under your philosophy, it would be okay for Dr. King not to be served at the counter at Woolworths?

PAUL: I would not go to that Woolworth’s, and I would stand up in my community and say that it is abhorrent, um, but, the hard part—and this is the hard part about believing in freedom—is, if you believe in the First Amendment, for example—you have too, for example, most good defenders of the First Amendment will believe in abhorrent groups standing up and saying awful things. . . . It’s the same way with other behaviors. In a free society, we will tolerate boorish people, who have abhorrent behavior.

For the record, here is an example of the “boorish people” that Paul thinks a free society must tolerate:

lunch counter

In an interview with NPR today, Paul was asked three times about his position on the Civil Rights Act, but each time he dodged giving a declarative answer. “A lot of things that were actually in the bill I’m actually in favor of,” said Paul. Hinting at what he doesn’t “favor,” Paul added that “a lot of things can be handled locally.”

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April 9, 2010 · 9:45 AM

WaPo: Anger over health-care reform spurs rise in threats against Congress members

 

 

What is it about the angry Teabaggers and militia groups who just can’t accept the new Health Care Reform bill?  

Is this really about health care reform or is it something deeper than that?

One has to wonder with all the talk about confederate proclamations  from southern Governors and racist and homophobic attacks toward members of Congress. 

The hate messages sent to even more members of Congress have been non-stop since the passage of the bill.    Actual death threats  to members of Congress have heightened. 

Is this really about health care reform or is it something deeper than that?

Obama Derangement Syndrome: 

  • 67% believe Obama is a socialist.
  • 57% believe Obama is a Muslim.
  • 38% believe Obama is “doing many of the things that Hitler did.”
  • 24% believe Obama “may be the Antichrist

Anger over the health-care overhaul has led to a nearly threefold increase in recent months in the number of serious threats against members of Congress, federal law enforcement officials said.

The lawmakers reported 42 threats in the first three months of this year, compared with 15 in last three months of 2009, said Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance W. Gainer, who had information about threats involving both chambers.

“The incidents ranged from very vulgar to serious threats, including death threats,” Gainer said. “The ability to carry them out is another question and part of an investigation to determine what, if any, appropriate steps to take.”

Nearly all of the recent threats appear to come from opponents of the health-care overhaul, said Gainer, who also served four years as chief of the U.S. Capitol Police. And, he said, there have been “significantly more” threats against House members than against senators.

The threats, which have led to at least three arrests, have not abated since President Obama signed the measure into law March 23. The Capitol Police have contacted the FBI about such threats even more often since the law was signed, said Lindsay Godwin, an FBI spokeswoman.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) became the best-known of the recently targeted lawmakers Wednesday, when authorities accused a man in San Francisco of making dozens of threatening calls to her home and her husband’s office.

In response to the threats, Capitol officials have been working to ensure that the 454 Senate offices across the country are secure. Some of the offices, a quarter of which are in federal buildings, are receiving additional equipment to help with the screening of mail. In other instances, law enforcement officials are recommending new locks and surveillance cameras.

A few members have reacted to the threats by lowering their public profiles. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) canceled an event at a Youngstown community health center because he received a threatening letter, his spokeswoman told a local television station.

But most lawmakers haven’t altered their routines, devoting their two-week spring recess to the typical district meetings, town halls and campaign events.  

A day before Gregory L. Giusti was charged with threatening Pelosi, Charles A. Wilson was arrested near Yakima, Wash., and charged with “leaving expletive laden threatening messages” on multiple occasions at the office of Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), including a recorded message that said, “I want to kill you.”

On March 29, a Philadelphia man was charged with threatening in a YouTube video to kill Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and his family. Prosecutors say the suspect, Norman Leboon, has multiple personalities and is not competent to stand trial.

Some lawmakers say the real change in recent weeks has been that members aren’t keeping such incidents private anymore. “Normally, we don’t give publicity to this,” said Rep. Dan Lungren (Calif.), the ranking Republican on the House committee that oversees the Capitol Police.

 More>>>

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April 3, 2010 · 9:09 AM

Obama’s Dilemma With The Radical Right And Free Speech

Seen on another blog:

It is the fault of law enforcement, and eventually administration officials that this sort of thing is allowed to propagate. This BS will eventually inflame and motivate some wacko to attempt something.

Can you imagine this going on for long under the previous administration? That poor sap that made the “burning bush” got three years, even though, everyone knew it was meant as a joke. People want a warrior king, and Obama is allowing the “Obama is weak” meme to propagate.

At the risk of sounding like someone in the  Bush administration – I don’t think anyone anticipated the amount of vitriol that has manifested against the first Black president of the United States. 

Under the guise of patriotism, emerged a  hateful, oft-times racist,  politically incentivized group who, under the protection of the first amendment has had carte blanche to say and do anything they please about the POTUS.

Contrast that with the George W. Bush’s extreme crack-down on first amendment rights due to national security issues. 

People could not wear opposition t-shirts at Bush rallies. 

People could not wear t-shirts that showed the number of dead soldiers in Iraq during a Bush’s State of The Union speech.

Demonstrators at the Republican National Convention were shuffled to a “safe zone” –  dubbed, “Guntanamo on the Hudson” by the protesters.

 Journalists were fired for speaking out against Bush.

Military personnel who spoke out against Bush’s war policies were fired or investigated.

No one is suggesting that we relive those days of Bush’s total disregard for freedom of speech.  On the contrary.  First amendment rights are the cornerstone of our democracy.  Every citizen of this country is guaranteed that right.  My point is, George Bush stifled that right and was never questioned by the media for doing so.  Yet, conversely, the right wing militia, tea partiers, FOX News, hate talk radio invectives against Obama personally as well as his policies, flow freely through the airwaves. 

President Obama could never do what George W. Bush did.  First and foremost because he is a constitutional scholar and understands the right of free speech.  Secondly, if the first reason did not exist, the fact that he is Black, would elicit outcries that  free speech has been stifled by a racist president and his administration.

My concern is more about the right wing militia types as well as the gun-toting tea bagger types.  While claiming their right to “free speech”, one has to wonder about the nexus that connects free speech with threats to democracy.

The President and the Attorney General are between a rock and a hard place.  There is no precedent to rely on here.  He’s the first man of color in the office.  Enforcing threats to democracy  would be turned against Obama with a loud and massive right wing backlash and cry of “racism from the Obama administration”.

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