Jack & Jill Politics

Good Morning, Everyone :)

1 Mar 2012 08:41 PM

 Romney’s Favorability Ditch

David A. Graham thinks he can climb out of it. Andrew Rugg doesn’t:

Romney’s current 17-point gap between his unfavorable and favorable rating spells trouble. Americans aren’t likely to vote for someone they don’t like personally. But can Mitt Romney change his fortunes and make himself more likable? All the TV ads in the world aren’t likely to do the trick. George W. Bush in 2000 was the most successful in increasing his favorability. He gained five points between March 2000 (57 percent) and late October 2000 (62 percent) in Pew’s polling. The largest overall change occurred in 1992, when George H.W. Bush lost 14 points between March and October. Even if Mitt was able to “pull a George W. Bush” he would end the general election with a favorable rating of 37 percent. Based on the historical data alone, it seems highly unlikely that he could get elected with those numbers

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/03/dont-count-the-gop-out.html

if this doesn’t make you smile, I gotta wonder about you.

I Feel Amazed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MDPfT6Bc4Y&feature=player_embedded

Thursday, March 1, 2012

(Non)Racist Federal Judge Says that “Mutt” Barack Obama’s Mother Had Sex With a Dog

“Normally I don’t send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine.

“A little boy said to his mother; ‘Mommy, how come I’m black and you’re white?’” the email joke reads. “His mother replied, ‘Don’t even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you’re lucky you don’t bark!’”

And folks wonder why black people don’t trust the police and the courts?

The news media have caught the vapors over Chief U.S District Judge Richard Cebill’s suggestion that President Barack Obama’s now deceased mother was a lustful white woman who was so drunk that she had sex with a dog and conceived the country’s first black President. Some have dressed this “joke” up by using the language of “bestiality” to describe the implied sex act, an effort at humor which suggests that sex across the colorline is akin to coitus between different animal species. Let’s be clear: Cebill found it funny to argue that Ann Dunham was such a drunken wanton slut that she would allow a dog to put his penis inside of her vagina to the point of orgasm, and said canine would ejaculate and conceive President Barack Obama.

Despicable. And let’s not make prettier this ugliness in order to make it slightly more palatable.

As I alluded to regarding the high school students who made a Youtube video rant disparaging black people, much of the real action in regards to white supremacy in the colorblind age is in “the backstage.” Emails, private jokes, humor, comedy, social media, and the Internet are at present some of the primary terrain(s) upon which post-civil rights era white racism is circulated. As one of modernity’s greatest inventions, white supremacy is adept at using technology to advance itself–radio, postcards, magazines, film and TV have all been vehicles for teaching, learning, and reinforcing the notion of a racial hierarchy in which whites are dominant and non-whites are naturally subordinate.

The defense, “I was just kidding” is one of the first layers of white victimology and deflection that colorblind racists deploy in the Age of Obama. As an object lesson in this strategy, and the twisted logic that reactionary conservative white supremacists use to run away from their bile–as opposed to owning it (a move that I respect)–Cebill stated the following in defense of his misogynistic attack on Barack Obama’s mother:

……………………………………

Apparently, racism is secondary to political intent. Cebill does not realize that his brand of conservatism is inseparable from white racism. This is not a surprise. As Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul have demonstrated, racist appeals are expected from the Tea Party GOP in the 2012 election cycle, and racism is inseparable from “normal” politics for the reactionary populist Right. Nevertheless, this pattern ought to remain troubling for decent minded and reasonable citizens.

He is in good company. There are many United States Justices and Judges who have openly shared their white supremacist bonafides and disdain for non-whites. For example, my favorite is Justice Taney’s decision in the Dredd Scott decision where he observed:

http://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/2012/03/nonracist-federal-judge-says-that-mutt.html

Anti-Obama judge to face misconduct review

By Steve Benen -  Fri Mar 2, 2012 8:40 AM EST.

U.S. District Chief Judge Richard Cebull, Montana’s chief federal judge, admitted this week he sent a racist email attacking President Obama and his mother from his courthouse chambers. Yesterday, the story took an even more serious turn.

The Judicial Council of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals opened a misconduct review of Montana’s chief federal District Court judge for forwarding a racially charged email about President Obama from his courthouse computer.

Judge Richard F. Cebull asked for the review as calls mounted Thursday for his immediate resignation. Legal ethics experts predicted the incident would result in a public admonishment.

The judge also sent a letter to the president, saying, “I sincerely and profusely apologize to you and your family for the email I forwarded…. Please forgive me.”

The next question is whether this will be sufficient.

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas), chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, called on Cebull to resign. Gonzalez, along with the chairs of the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, issued a joint statement condemning the judge for the incident.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), the chair of the CBC, added, “An apology alone is not acceptable.”

What’s more, Common Cause, which filed a formal complaint with the 9th Circuit, has called for Cebull’s ouster, and the Montana Human Rights Network has begun collecting signatures urging the judge to resign.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/02/10560845-anti-obama-judge-to-face-misconduct-review

This right here:  “As one of modernity’s greatest inventions, white supremacy is adept at
using technology to advance itself–radio, postcards, magazines, film
and TV have all been vehicles for teaching, learning, and reinforcing
the notion of a racial hierarchy in which whites are dominant and
non-whites are naturally subordinate.

Yesterday, I vented about the President not having the vertebrate fortitude to come against these kinds of racial slurring and insults.  To the extent that he’s the president, and I’m just an ordinary guy, it’s much a do.

To the extent, though, that the president has pre-empted himself from engaging in racial “stuff”, I do challenge Black journalists to make use of their TV and mainstream media opportunities to demand the honor and respect due to African Americans. 

If nothing else, acknowledge the rather obvious fact that the President is merely a proxy for people’s racism. 

President Obama has made his statement on race.  And really, so have Black journalists. White people are used to us talking about race and, more often than not, those who do are accused of playing the ‘race card’ or being ‘race pimps’. It’s only when other white people like Tim Wise talk about it, that white people actually listen.

Hi Shazza.    CLAP, CLAP, CLAP!

Voter issues:

Hacked DC School Board E-Voting Elects Bender President
Yes, that Bender. The one on the left. A University of Michigan team got him elected to the Washington DC school board in 2010 by hacking the district’s electronic absentee ballot system…

http://gizmodo.com/5889838/hacked-dc-school-board-e+voting-elects-bender-president

Are You Serious? Really?

by BooMan

Fri Mar 2nd, 2012 at 09:40:11 AM EST

I know for a fact that Assrocket lived through the Bush years and yet he writes this:

WHY CAN’T THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION MAKE ITS CASE WITHOUT DISSEMINATING HATE?

Have we ever had an administration like Barack Obama’s? An administration that tries to benefit from pitting Americans against one another? An administration that uses its billion-dollar slush fund, not to mention the resources of the Executive Branch, to demonize private citizens who disagree with its policies? An administration that uses hate as an instrument of domestic politics? I don’t believe that there is any precedent in American history for the mean-spiritedness that now emanates from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Does anyone else remember Joe Wilson? Does anyone remember Karl Rove’s election strategy for the 2002 and 2004 elections? Didn’t that have something to do with demonizing private citizens who disagreed with the war in Iraq and using hate as an instrument of domestic politics? The Obama administration picks on two rich billionaires (the Koch brothers) who, more than anyone else, are responsible for destroying the public’s awareness of the seriousness of climate change, and this is in any way comparable to questioning the patriotism of a hundred million people?

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh is picking on one lonely Georgetown law student for speaking her mind about birth control and women’s health. He calls he a slut and a prostitute and asks her to post videos of her sexual encounters on the internet so he can watch them. Rush Limbaugh may not be the president, but he is the leader of the Republican Party. And this is what the right always does to private citizens who speak up. Remember the granite countertops?

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/3/2/94011/51551

This is about Andrew Breitbart’s death and Shirley Sherrod.  It’s the logical conclusion, really, but TNC presents it so well.   Good read…

On Making Yourself Right
By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Mar 2 2012, 11:32 AM ET 13
 
In the mid-1960s, SNCC, one of the most important of civil rights groups of its era, began to split at the seams. Since its inception, the group had committed itself to the eradication of white supremacy strictly through the twin pillars of nonviolence and integration. SNCC members, like their fellow activists throughout the South, endured threats, beatings, bombings and shootings, all of which they greeted with Bible verses and song. The tactic ultimately succeeded by cutting through centuries of hate and access a basic sense of human decency, and revulsion at the sight of cruelty.
 
Read more….
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/03/on-making-yourself-right/253889/
 

How a Racist Email Reveals the Grand Old Party Has Become a Petty Affair
By Kai Wright
Friday, March 2 2012
It’s no great insight to point out it’s a tough election year for the Republican Party. The presumed front-runner is uninspiring at best; his rotating cast of challengers are wildly off-putting to wide swaths of the electorate. But for all the hours of analysis spent sussing out how the GOP arrived in this place, a federal judge in Montana offered this week what is perhaps the most succinct explanation.
 
On Wednesday, District Court Judge Richard Cebull admitted to sending around an email that jokes about President Obama being the mongrel child of a white mom’s drunken night of misbehaving. Some things can’t be paraphrased, so here’s the joke itself, courtesy of USA Today:
 
“A little boy said to his mother; ‘Mommy, how come I’m black and you’re white?’ ” the e-mail joke reads. “His mother replied, ‘Don’t even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you’re lucky you don’t bark!’ “
 
Ok, we’ve already established that Barack and Michelle Obama make some white people very crazy. As Akiba Solomon wrote, one tires of having to learn the names and lives of each of “bumblef@#k politician” who makes a childish remark about the Obamas. But in this case, Cebull’s gross joke is less significant than his explanation for it.
 
“I can obviously understand why people would be offended,” Cebull has acknowledged. Rather than obfuscate on the racist content, he offered this explanation for why he’d forward something he knew to be offensive: “I didn’t send it as racist, although that’s what it is. I sent it out because it’s anti-Obama.”
 
And there you have it. His response illuminates the tragic story of today’s Republican Party: It stands for nothing. The formerly Grand Old Party has devolved into a small, petty affair defined by a thoughtless defense of greed, the cynical deployment of xenophobia and a blind hatred of Barack Obama.
 
We’ve seen all three ideas, such that they are, on the main stage of the GOP primary, too. Mitt Romney’s slippery positioning and repositioning of himself rightly creeps out many movement conservatives. But the real issue is that there remains no larger idea, no defining set of principles governing his life of both public and private work.
 
Frank Rich wrote recently that Romney does in fact have an animating core, but it’s one he’s horrified about revealing—being a member and funder of the Mormon Church. Perhaps that’s true. I’d add that the only core idea Romney has in fact articulated is greed. His signature achievement in life is amassing personal wealth for himself and for his colleagues at Bain Capital. Or, at least that’s the achievement he seems most proud of. Sure, he’s tried—failingly—to argue that he was creating jobs at Bain. But his wealth remains the most significant item on his resume. As he said last weekend, after the “couple of Cadillacs” gaffe:
 
“If people think there’s something wrong with being successful in America, then they’d better vote for the other guy,” Romney said. “Because I’ve been extraordinarily successful, and I want to use that success and that know-how to help the American people.”
 
We’ll skip past the long debate of whether wealth-creation through moving money around is either sustainable for the economy at large or terribly relevant to the needs of working families. The point here is that it speaks volumes about today’s Republican “establishment” that Romney’s the best candidate it could produce in 2012. The party and its leaders appear to be out of ideas that go beyond making sure government doesn’t get in the way of a small number of individuals amassing personal fortunes.
 
Meanwhile, the far right of the party lurches between the craven self-promotion of people like Sarah Palin and the deeply felt but deeply troubling ideas of people like Rick Santorum. The point isn’t that their views are too “radical”; the mainstream news media’s obsession with moderation isn’t actually shared by many Americans. Rather, it’s the substance of their radicalism that’s the problem. They promote a politics of fear and division, and they’re proud of it. From faith to race to sexuality—and certainly where all those sticky issues meet—the conservative movement inside the GOP doesn’t actually stand for anything. It stands firmly, loudly and frighteningly against letting people who think, live and look differently from themselves into the public square.
 
These two faltering sides of the Republican Party today are unified by one thin thought: hatred of President Obama. Some of that hate is driven by racism, to be sure. But I think Cebull’s onto something in his painfully honest guilty plea for his ridiculously racist joke. It’s also because they don’t have much else to talk about.
 
http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/03/how_a_racist_email_reveals_the_grand_old_party_has_become_a_small_petty_affair.html

Federal judge who sent racist Obama e-mail requests review
By John Adams, USA TODAY
HELENA, Mont. – Several human rights groups and congressional leaders called on Montana U.S.. District Judge Richard Cebull to step down Thursday in light of the racist e-mail about President Obama  the federal judge forwarded to several friends.
Read the article…
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-03-01/montana-judge-racist-email-obama/53325420/1

It’s only when other white people like Tim Wise talk about it, that white people actually listen.

No they don’t. They (which doesn’t include all white people, by the way) just dismiss him as a purveyor of “white guilt”.

Ooops, duplicate… and things were going so well…

The president called this girl today. I think that’s funny, because I’ve never once read any reporting about the president calling any of the dozens of Af Ams who’ve had to confront hate crimes (which are up significantly since the president’s 2008 campaign) in the last few years, including the Staten Island Sudanese kid who was chased on election night by bat-wielding degenerates screaming ‘Obama!’ while looking for African Americans to try to assault.

 That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk about it.