McHate

finally, someone in the media has openly denounced mccain's fear mongering and the hate that it has nurtured for the past few months. in this video clip, keith olberman sets them straight. neither senator mccain nor gov. palin have ever reprimanded these hostile crowds. in fact, they defend them vigorously and are flat-out unapologetic. what decent republican wouldn't want to distance themselves from this?

i find it interesting that these flare ups aren't necessarily happening in the south, a place that somehow contains all of the racism in the country as well as our collective racist history, as far as most americans are concerned. that would be convenient if it were true but of course, it's not. no one is absolved. every state carries its fair share of bile on this topic -- especially in the north -- and none of them are dealing with any of it. the incidents that keith olberman refers to in the video above aren't happening deep in the heart of dixie -- they're happening in pennsylvania and ohio. the last time i checked, both of those states were above the mason-dixon line. but not really.

will everyone return to their politically correct behavior after the election, so everything can get back to normal? or will anything ever really be normal again, now that we all know that so much venom is festering just beneath the surface in the american serfdom against people of color? truth be told, there has never been any such thing as "back to normal" for so many of us. we have always known that the hate was there. we see it and we live through it in the most ordinary mundane moments of our everyday lives.

do you really think that this recession is affecting anyone in the ghetto? the poor, the underclass? do you think their lives have changed because the economy is tanking?

my favorite quote from this clip: senator mccain! your supporters at your events are calling obama a terrorist and traitor and are calling for him to be killed. and yet you keep bringing back these same rabid right wing nuts to deliberately stir these crowds into frenzies and then you take offense when somebody who remembers the violence of our political past calls you on it. you, sir, are responsible for a phalanx of individuals who are shouting fire in a crowded theater. there are some things to respect and honor about you senator mccain but on this, you are not only a fraud, sir, but you are tacitly inciting lunatics to violence.

well said.

home-grown terrorists

okay. i'm going to say it.

i don't understand how anyone in this country can go on about the threat of domestic terrorism and how wrong it is and not make any mention whatsoever of the klu klux klan -- defined by any real dictionary as a domestic terrorist organization -- and the way that they tortured, lynched, raped, murdered, bombed, assassinated and massacred african-americans and native americans and asian americans and many others for hundreds of years with scant interference from the state or federal government. as a matter of fact, the KKK is still very much alive and well, and they're still at it. so many in their ranks are guilty as sin itself, and they're completely and utterly free -- and in some communities, they are celebrated heroes. evidently, the federal government doesn't care about justice for the crimes committed against african americans.

that's right, mrs. carolyn bryant -- the accuser that got emmett till killed -- i'm talking to you. everybody knows where you live and that your children are protecting you at gunpoint. why do you suppose the federal/state/local officials won't come and get you and put you in prison where you belong? you make me sick. but i digress...

what about congressmen who are members of the klu klux klan or who are klan sympathizers? if it's true that "once a terrorist, always a terrorist" rule applies to ayers, does it also apply to membership with the KKK?  because if it does, there are millions of americans out there who are palling around with terrorists and who probably don't even know it.

here's a bright shining example of what i mean: robert byrd, a senior congressman from west virginia and a democrat, joined the KKK at the age of 24 and was unanimously elected exalted cyclops and kleagle (recruiter). he remained active in the klan for years and was proud to be counted amongst its ranks.  (see? i didn't even have to mention racist/segregationist/bigoted ol' strom, or the lovely daughter that came along after he raped the family's black maid.)

of course senator byrd is very sorry about his involvement with the KKK now. he's all set to apologize for it for the rest of his life -- because according to him, he'll never be able to apologize enough. here's what he had to say then about african-americans in the military in a 1945 letter to mississippi senator theodore bilbo:

"I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

charming.

if obama is guilty of crossing paths with ayers -- because a crossing of paths is all their relationship has amounted to, really -- is it so farfetched to accuse politicians of associating with terrorists by mingling and socializing with the klan members in their midst?

and hey -- what about the secessionists? we all know about the racist militia groups and how they've grown exponentially in recent months. what about the fact that todd "the first dude" palin was a member of the alaskan independence party until as recently as 2002? yes, they're the ones that were seriously thinking about breaking away from the US and joining canada a few years ago. how patriotic is that?

but the fact that gov. palin refuses to see the national "home grown" terrorists in her midst -- even when she's probably married to one of them (and is one, actually) -- isn't the the kicker.

the kicker is that she would "read" an article in the new york times about obama and ayers (you and i both know one of her minions signed off on that one -- she wouldn't touch the times with someone else's hand), cherry pick her way through the facts, twist all of it into a hot steaming pile of jingoistic rhetoric and feed those half-truths to a seething crowd of republicans who are so full of fear that they are foaming-at-the-mouth ready to accept any reason to take a stand against obama. even if it's an outright lie.

the truth is, obama doesn't pal around with ayers -- or any other terrorist. they haven't spoken to each other since 2003. and what about the other politicians -- both democrat and republican, by the way -- that have worked with ayers over the years? why isn't anyone mentioning any of them?

so many in the republican party seem convinced that he's an arab, a terrorist, and that he's muslim -- when in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. with every gathering, they are becoming increasingly agitated and violent. and racist. senator john lewis was right when he compared senator mccain to george wallace and the birmingham church bombers. he and palin are inciting a riot. God only knows which "good american" will take it upon themselves to show their patriotism with an act of violence towards obama, their percieved enemy.

here's the CNN report on the "terrorist" scare that gov. palin created.



...and here she is, taking the new york times article in question totally out of context.



and finally, CNN's truth squad debunks everything that gov. palin has said. we now know that obama doesn't pal around with terrorists.



now, how many "good americans" saw this report and ignored it because gov. palin said otherwise?

perhaps the real question that should be asked is, will the federal government step in and put an end to the mccain/palin race baiting and hate mongering? or are they going to keep this up until something bad happens?

What happened yesterday?

it was my turn to stay late. i hadn't eaten any lunch. i knew they'd buy dinner if i stayed after 7pm and it was already well after 5:30pm so i wasn't going to sweat it. sushi, i remember thinking. we should order from yama. i've had their salmon sashimi and it was really quite good. everyone was drifting into evening work mode. all quiet on the midtown east side front.

suddenly, there was a beep and then one of those distorted, abrubt, way too loud what-in-the-world-did-he-just-say announcements by the building management to stay inside. and then someone said excitedly, look out the window. and there was a horde of people out in the middle of the street, moving uptown en masse like well-dressed bison, on lexington avenue. some people were just standing there. some people were moving fast. there were businessmen in filthy expensive suits directing emergency vehicles through the confusion. women in office-to-evening outfits were kicking off their high heels and -- not running -- sprinting. there was fear in the street. you could feel it.

everyone had their cellphones out. everyone was taking pictures. everyone was making little movies.

except me, of course. i didn't charge my photo/video capable palm last night so my battery was dead. no matter. no one else could use their cell phones, either. someone was crying softly at the other end of the hall. i heard this white girl copywriter speak up like a sister and say, loud: i'm not going to die for this job! that's when i remembered: didn't they tell everyone that they could go back into the second tower on 9/11? i thought, who says we're safe in here? what do they know?

why were there people just standing there in the middle of the street?


(this was in front of the public library on fifth -- a few avenue blocks away, but still...!)


pandemonium everywhere. crazy. everyone was looking down lexington avenue at something that we couldn't see because we were looking onto the street. even the people who were running were looking over their shoulders in a freak-out panic, the way they do in horror movies, to see if the monster was gaining on them. wrong angle, to be sure -- but we caught all their reactions. and some people got really scared. i don't think i was scared. but it did freak me out.

stephen stood next to me and blurted, "it looks like invasion of the body snatchers!"

everyone jumped on the internet for information. someone scrambled to make their transistor radio work. i was glad that i had flat shoes on, so i could walk the 100 or so blocks to my place in west harlem. at least i didn't live in new jersey or long island. i'd need a boat to take me home.

all of a sudden, it felt like 9/11 all over again. it certainly looked like it.

it was a transistor explosion at lexington and 43rd. it spewed fire, asphalt, bricks, raw sewage, water and filth so high into the air, and it just kept going and going, the smoke kept rolling, the brown murky water flowing down the street, the asbestos filling the air like yankee smog, the billowing, rolling, stench. and everyone in the street, standing there, taking pictures and making movies.



i didn't stick around for act two. my coworker (the one who said she wasn't going to die for her job) and i walked west, then all the way up past lincoln center to fairway, where we got some comfort food and took the bus home from riverside drive.

somewhere along the way, i asked her if she'd ever been on a farm and she said yes. i said, you know how if you don't drive farm animals into the barn, they won't go -- even if it's raining hard? they'll just stand there in the muck and get soaked. that's what these people looked like. human cows, just standing there. she couldn't stop laughing at that one.

i couldn't laugh. i was wired, i was starving and i was way too relieved that i wasn't a cow.