Politics Plus

Republican racists love profiling minorities, and I’m pleased that the Obama administration is holding to their opposition to it, despite Republican fear mongering.  Jan Brewer is going ballistic.

A US State Department report to the United Nations on human rights contained a reference to Arizona’s recent controversial illegal immigrant law and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is protesting it.  The State Department listed its opposition to the Arizona law as an example of upholding human rights in the US.

On Friday, Brewer demanded, in a letter [racist delinked] to Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton that the reference to Arizona and it’s new law be removed from the report.  The report is part of a UN review of human rights in which all member nations submit progress reports every four years.

Brewer wrote, “The idea of our own American government submitting the duly enacted laws of a state of the United States to ‘review’ by the United Nations is internationalism run amok and unconstitutional.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Examiner>

If Brewer does not want to be held up for the international disgrace that she and the Republican party deserve, she should not have violated international law, let alone our own Constitution in her attempt to deprive Latinos of their human rights.  That’s also what Rachel Maddow thinks:

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And I’ll take it one step further.  After Bush let New Orleans drown, the Republican government of Louisiana spent the federal relief money that was supposed to go to the areas hardest hit by Katrina and spent it on tourist areas, on oil companies, and everywhere except the poor parishes of New Orleans where it was needed most.  With their neighborhoods still devastated, black citizens cannot return home, and Republicans have a whiter state.  Jan Brewer and the Republican party did not have the benefit of a disaster to whiten their state, but they are so desperate to keep control of Arizona that they invented an immigration crisis to harass their Latino citizens into leaving.

The Republicans are always making a big deal about how they are the party of family values, but do they value your family?  If not, whose families do they value?

For decades, social conservatives have had a lot to say about the decline of “family values” in the United States, and they have a long list of people they like to blame, including gays and lesbians, Hollywood, the adult entertainment industry, feminists, rappers, the ACLU and abortion providers. As the Christian Right sees it, a major cultural war has been taking place in the U.S. — and the American family is being attacked by everyone from Larry Flynt and Planned Parenthood to 50 Cent and proponents of gay marriage.

Social conservatives are right about one thing: the American family is under attack, but not from cultural liberals. The greatest threat to the American family is economic stress — and the modern-day Republicans and social conservatives who preach family values are the ones who have done the most to imperil the American family. From union-busting and the outsourcing of jobs to developing countries and opposing universal health care, social conservatives have not only endangered the American middle class — they have also made it increasingly hard to raise a "traditional" family.

Economic Hardship Makes People Delay Marriage and Childbearing

Many Americans are well aware of the economic pressures families are facing in the United States, influencing their attitudes toward marriage and childbearing. During the summer of 2009, the Guttmacher Institute surveyed 947 fertile women (18–34 years of age) with annual incomes under $75,000. Guttmacher reported that because of the economic downturn, 44 percent of the women surveyed wanted “to reduce or delay their childbearing” — and 64 percent agreed with the following statement: “With the economy the way it is, I can’t afford to have a baby right now.” That 64 percent increased to 77 percent among the women who had annual household incomes under $25,000.

Meanwhile, physicians all over the U.S. have been reporting a sharp increase in the number of men inquiring about permanent sterilization. In 2009, Planned Parenthood reported that requests for vasectomies had increased by more than 30 percent at some of their clinics in Southern California, while Dr. Marc Goldstein of the Cornell Institute for Reproductive Medicine in New York City estimated that he was seeing a 48 percent increase in consultations for vasectomies. The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio has reported a 50 percent increase in the number of vasectomies performed in that facility… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Alternet>

If I were a young man today, I wouldn’t want to bring children into this world, not only because the Republican Recession, which the author covered quite adequately, but also, because of the social threat that Republicans represent.  Not only are we at risk for Republican terrorism, but also, Republicans have put us more at risk of attack by Al Qaeda, Islam’s version of the Tea Party, because they have made it so abundantly clear that they do not value Muslim families.  Were I not already retired, I would fear losing my job, because Republicans do not value unemployed families.  Were I not already receiving social security, I would fear that Republicans will privatize it, allowing Banksters to squander it, because Republicans do not value families they can no longer exploit.  It is also clear the Republicans do not value black or latino families, veterans’ families, or poor families.

However, to be honest, I must admit that there are families that Republicans do value;  the Astors, the Duponts, the Hiltons, the Rockefellers, the Bushes, the bin Ladens, the Sauds, and all the other multi-millionaires not listed.

I’ve been hearing suggestions of late that progressive media outlets should ignore the propaganda stories from Fox.  This morning I came across an excellent article by Randy Shaw who holds to that view.  I disagree.  We agree that the Republican party has driven the news cycle by circulating propaganda pieces through their captive media, Fox News and Right wing radio, keeping Democrats on the defensive instead of talking about their positive achievements and agenda.

Here is his introduction:

Since President Obama took office, the Republican Party’s agenda has dominated the public debate. Fox News and right-wing talk radio decide what’s news, and the traditional media either echoes the story or is criticized for not doing so, as occurred when the New York Times Public Editor chastised the paper for inadequately covering right-wing falsehoods about ACORN.

But progressive media has also allowed conservatives to set the terms of the debate. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann regularly devotes considerable time to rebutting Fox News lies, as do many progressive bloggers. This reactive approach ensures that fake stories like the nonexistent Ground Zero mosque control the news cycle, while stories confirming progressive policy successes get ignored.

In The Activist’s Handbook, I describe the importance of moving pro-actively, rather than fighting battles on opponents’ terms. The party that frames the debate usually wins, but progressives too often get sidetracked by responding to their opponents’ agendas rather than promoting their own.

So while progressives enjoy lampooning Sarah Palin, it’s striking how much time MSNBC and progressive bloggers spend talking about her. She becomes a perfect foil for getting progressives off-track, with she and her right-wing allies getting the last laugh… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Huffington Post>

To be fair, this is not his entire argument, so click through for several examples of what he means.

I agree that progressive media and blogs need to be pro-active, but being proactive without fighting back is a recipe for disaster.

I wish I could find a poll I once studied, but cannot because it’s buried within a mass of push-polls by Fox about Fox.  So from memory (this may be a bit off, bit it’s close), about 25% of Americans (who watch TV news) get their TV news exclusively from Fox.  About 20% get their TV News from sources that do not include Fox.  The remaining 55% get their TV news from from sources including Fox.  Therefore, approximately 80% of Americans who watch TV news hear the lies from the GOP Reichsministry of Propaganda.  Even some of the remaining 20% are exposed, because the traditional media usually just repeat the lies, sometimes with opposing sound bites, but rarely, if ever, offer sound analysis debunking the lies.  When people hear a lie often enough without challenge, they believe it.  That’s why, according to Pew, only 34% of Americans believe Obama is a Christian.

Let’s go back to 2004.  In one corner we had a Vietnam War hero.  In the other we had a draft dodger, who was AWOL for a large part of his National Guard service.  Out popped Fox and the swift boat campaign of lies.  The Kerry campaign ignored the lies until it was too late.  Bush got close enough to steal, with a little help from disenfranchising minorities and rigged voting machines, to steal the election and thousands of us felt the need to apologize to the rest of the world by posting pictures like the one above and to the right.  Disaster.

Why does it have to be an either/or choice?  Progressive media should debunk the lies, while being proactive about our own aganda.