Racist response to vote is not atypical, unfortunately
I was following the health care reform vote on Twitter and Facebook (I don’t have the news channels on my cable package, and CNN’s Website was lacking up-to-date information).
The big story is that just one Republican voted for passage. His name is Anh “Joseph Cao, who represents a district in Louisiana. He did so because he wanted to bring health care to his poor district, and because an amendment to the bill forbade federal coverage of abortion.
The tweets and status updates were as partisan as the person doing the posting. Which is what I expected. What I didn’t expect is something as blatantly racist as this character on Twitter. I’ll post a screen capture, in case the dumbass wises up and deletes it:
I’ve known Democrats who are racists (not that I don’t find a lot of their policies a bit paternalistic) and I’ve known Republicans who are no doubt offended by this clown, who later wrote that his isn’t a racist at all, but a legitimate response to someone who casts a vote with which he disagreed.
And there is too much of THAT coming out of the base of ALL political parties: ‘You are on the wrong side, and anything I say against you is justified.’ Just another reason I’m not a member of any of them.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
The only thing worse than this guy writing this is you blogging about it like it is some legitimate GOP opposition opinion. There are nutcases everywhere, Billy. I’m sure they appreciate you giving them a voice.
Trouble is, the GOP has fostered this kind of crap from ditto heads who can’t think for themselves. The GOP has sat silent while idiots bring assault rifles to Presidential speeches or birthers go un abated or people at “their” (should read Fox’s) teapartys compare Obama to Nazi or Hitler.
Yes this goes on with both parties but nothing like we have seen with Fox News, Hannity, and others from the right who have done nothing short of call for a overthrow of the US Government.
There are idiot rednecks and whatever out there that respond like this guy did but what the GOP is hoping for, IMO, is for someone like a McVeigh type person to blow up something and kill innocent people so people like Cheney and Hannity can say; “I told you so!”
Now that is sick.
Billy blogging about this is DEFINITELY NOT worse than the pinhead saying it. Come on Diane.
Sud – I think it is because most people reading that crap would discount it and not give that writer a second thought. Billy taking it seriously and posting it here in my opinion gives it legitimacy as a bonafide point of view.
Billy raising awareness about this crackpottery is not what gives it legitimacy. What gives it legitimacy is the mainstream Right’s inability to outwardly condemn them for saying it, then complaining when others aren’t inclined to brush it under the rug. If Conservatives don’t want to be associated with people like this, they need to actively dismiss them, not pretend as if they don’t exist.
Diane; It’s bionafide in that it is this clown’s POV. My point to the post was the illustrate the sorry state of discourse. If there’s a problem, but in on the table to deal with it. Ignoring it gives the haters more power.
Billy, first of all, whether you meant it or not, your post seemed to attribute this rant to the Republican side of the aisle, and that’s offensive. Secondly, you are wrong that ignoring it gives him power. On the contrary, your outrage and spotlighting his hatred has given him power. Like I said in my first post, there are nutcases out there, but the hate expressed by him is not mainstream nor accepted anywhere but in the lowest echelons of society. What will you blog about next- outrage over a fake e-mail from a long lost relative in Nigeria leaving you a billion dollars?
diane sez: “Billy, first of all, whether you meant it or not, your post seemed to attribute this rant to the Republican side of the aisle, and that’s offensive. ”
I say: Really diane? Offensive as calling the President of the United States a lair in the House of Congress while he is giving a speech? Republicans have lost their credibility long ago and the election last November proved that. The Republican Party has done nothing to redeem themselves and thinking Americans know this, not nut jobs who cry they want their America back at townhall meetings. Republicans both Congressmen and Senators foster this kind of stuff Bill posted and they do nothing do distance themselves from it other than step back and let it fester.
The Party of NO is no more until someone, anyone that runs the Republican Party steps up and calls this type of crap for what it is, crap. That hasn’t happened yet.
It’s one thing to disagree about policies, it’s another to foster hate among the ignorant masses.
Well as far as MHO is concerned the Republicans shot themselves in the foot last year in their presidential campaign. If they didn’t like the candidate that the Democrats put up then they should have gotten their act together and put up a viable candidate that could and would defeat the Democrats’s candidate. Its nobody’s fault but their own. And from the looks of their ambition since then they are doing no better. They don’t have a real leader with any credibility that can give them good, honest, reliable direction without slandering someone else. All they can do is rant and rave like the person that Billy posted here. Grow up and get your act together. Present a united positive front with a real leader and quit whimping like a spoiled brat that lost his toys.
“All they can do is rant and rave like the person that Billy posted here.” Really SD? That is all you see and hear? Who do you hang with anyway?
Obviously diane is ignoring my posts but since SD agrees to a point with me I shall answer her last question. Yes that is all we see and hear IF you watch Glen Beck, listen to Rush Limbaugh, or any FOX News program or even listen to some Republican members of Congress who have said some pretty weird stuff.
As for regular hard working Republicans, no, not at all do I hear this coming from everyday folks. It isn’t those folks that scare me and I even respect their opinions and can understand why they disagree with the Left. It’s your Party’s leaders and the people they are manipulating that scare me. I don’t watch Fox and I don’t listen to Limbaugh. They both have an off switch.
Why would anyone assume that the Twitterer (in question) is a conservative or Republican?
Could it not be a Democrat, wanting to make people think that the opinion was from a Republican?
Have we forgotten that cartoon of a dog at the PC keyboard, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog!”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog
Hey good point!
It didn’t go un-noticed that Emtronics and SD found a most vile and racist comment, attributed it to the sentiments of the Republican party, and then in the same breath complained about the rhetoric coming from the Republican party.
Gee, I don’t know. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that his name is “RightBloggerPat” instead of “LeftBloggerPat.” And c’mon, it’s not as if people are unaware of the Right’s love affair with racism.
postsiminan – Anyone can type any name into any field they want and be whoever they want to be on the internet. I can be the Queen of England today, and tomorrow start a post by “postsimian”. My point is what they call themselves is irrelevant, arbitrary, and attributing their comments to the right is as fair as attributing their comments to the left. Billy, the guy is an idiot, and this post reminds me of something i read on THIS blog….”Honey, I’ll be there in a minute… someone on the internet is WRONG”
Why don’t you look up his twitter account, Diane and Why fy. It’s protected, but you CAN access his blog “political byline.” Go back as far as you can. Look at his content and advertising. There is no way he’s a Leftie or Dem in disguise.
Brian G – I’d say the evidence speaks for itself.
In fact, Billy Dennis should be included in my last comment.
Emtronics said: “The GOP has sat silent while idiots bring assault rifles to Presidential speeches or birthers go un abated or people at “their” (should read Fox’s) teapartys compare Obama to Nazi or Hitler.”
How many times since 2001 did we hear George Bush, Dick Cheney, et al referred to as “Nazis?” Mathematicians are currently huddled around a supercomputer in a basement at MIT trying to find that yet-undiscovered number.
Regardless, use of the term from either side of the fence is an insult to anyone who served in WWII, lived through the Holocaust (or didn’t) or otherwise experienced what REAL Naziism is.
If you want to disarm a kook, ignore them. They thrive on attention; it validates them.
“Nazi” is an overstatement. “Fascist” is not.
Diane: Stop blaming the messenger. This blog has pointed out similar abuses coming from the left, including the Bush=Hitler nonsense.
I mentioned the nonsense regarding Cao because it was the most extreme of the reaction coming from the anti-HCR at the time. As soon as the vote was know, I suspected that there would be some in the debate who would go that route.
There’s too munch of this nonsense. And Super J is wrong: Ignoring the kooks doesn’t work. Remaining silent creates the impressing that mainstream Republicanism silently supports this position.
Wake up and smell the coffee diane. Your precious GOP is being taken over by crazies and gaining ‘legitimacy’ in the process. Yes normally you ignore the fringe but when the fringe grows and begins to silence the mainstream, then there is cause to be concerned and to act. The GOP is no longer the party of Goldwater (which you seem to lean towards).
Super J,
Yes it would be nice to ignore the Limbaughs, Becks, and Hannity’s of the world but curiously more n more people seem to be listening and making their political decisions from them. At some point you cannot stand blindly by and ignore them.
Whatever happened to Michael Moore, anyway? Five years ago, it seemed like he was singlehandedly going to change the course of American politics. Fast-forward to 2009, and he seems grossly – even pathetically – irrelevant, despite the fact that “his side” is now firmly in control.
There’s money in being a firebrand. Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck know this (as did Moore, George Soros, Barbara Streisand, Keith Olberman, the 9-11 Truthers and other various Foilhats during the last administration).
Limbaugh flat-out brags that his most significant growth was during the Clinton administration. That said, and even by the most generous of estimates (including his own), Limbaugh’s attracting far less than 1% of the population at any given moment.
The ONLY way to combat these people is to stay your own course, and deny them their source of power: attention. Let your own good example serve as the contrast to their bad one.
Brian G. asked “Why don’t you look up his twitter account, Diane and Why fy”
I would rather shoot a staple gun under my fingernails than waste one second of my life trying to understand this guys feelings.
Di, I realize your first reflex is deny or try to explain away any and all cognitive dissonance that threatens your political beliefs. There is an easy way to check out which “side” the “twitterer?” is on check out his stuff. That is the easy way to check out the theory that you and wi fi floated. It’s just being fair. The rant came from one side of the aisle and not the other. Sorry, but that’s the way it is.
We have achieved Godwin! Hey Reno – I’m actively dismissing that idiot. On the other hand, have y’all read the ugly stuff on left wing blogs about Michelle Malkin?
Y’know, if you had something approaching a basic reading and comprehension level, you might be aware that fascism is not a factor in calling Godwin’s Law. Nice try, Reading Rainbow.
Emtronics, why are you so angry about Beck, Limbaugh, and Fox when you don’t watch or listen? How do you even know what they are airing?
Who are the party leaders that scare you?
Why are you so preoccupied with Republicans when you have the White House and both houses of Congress? This is your time. This is your moment to glory in the wondrous things your party is accomplishing and herald those yet to come. Yet, instead, all you are capable of is your same, tired, eight-year old schtick, to wit: Bush, Cheney, lied about WMDs, war under false pretenses, Limbaugh, Beck, Fox, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!
Seriously, step up for a change and advance an argument for what your party is doing right rather than continuing to bitch and obsess about what Republicans did wrong for eight years and what they are trying to do now. A couple of ideas would be to engage in intellectual discourse advocating for Obama’s stimulus plan (how is it helping?) or Pelosi’s health care reform bill (how is it better than the Republican version?). Just trying to help. Until you lose those cheap-rhetoric training wheels, you are just a MoveOn/Daily Kos foot soldier spewing the party vitriol.
Obama, Reid, Pelosi, communism, socialism, government takeover, Olbermann, Maddow, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH! Pretty silly, huh?
You seem to have overlooked something: it doesn’t matter whether or not we listen to Limbaugh or Beck, et al. Other people listen to them and believe the crap their saying, and we have to deal with those people.
Anyway, nice try at the “let bygones be bygones” approach. There’s no way we’re going to forget about what the last administration did until they’re held accountable for it. That’s the catch. Put Cheney in jail, I’ll shut up about him.
With the exception of these, I do agree that we should do more to promote our positions rather than only tearing down the opposition.
Nontimendum, will you marry me?
Stop cruising my site like its some sort of pick up joint, ‘kay?
nontimendum: You are right. Everything you said about the WMDs not being found to the lies of Bush and Cheney is correct. Limbaugh, Beck, etc etc are using the ignorance of many to spur hatred and deceit. Bush and many others in his Administration should be tried for crimes against this country.
As for the Democrats. Yes they are in power but apparently they don’t have the balls to get anything done, like health care. It doesn’t have to be a huge mess with all kinds of conditions added. Nope, it could be very simple because the Dems have the votes to pass anything they wanted without a single REP needed. But, that apparently will never happen sadly.
But what you pass off as blah blah blah and silly, I take seriously when nuts out there on the fringe take what Limbaugh and that nut Beck say seriously and take into their own hands and try to do something stupid like blow up a building or whatever. These people aren’t main stream Republicans, they are just nuts that need very little pushing to justify their beliefs. I suppose that when we have an attack by domestic terrorists, you will blame Obama. Blah blah blah.
P.S. I am not angry at all with Limbaugh or Beck or Hannity or Fox News even though I believe they are spreading half truths and downright lies. I simply don’t listen and if I do, I take what they say with a grain of salt. (That includes Olbermann). Proof? Birthers……. Solicialism……Nazi’s……comparing health care bill to the Holocaust? That is a stretch.
I suppose that when we have an attack by domestic terrorists, you will blame Obama. In fact that has already happened, and yes the policies of Barrack Obama have his administration so cow-towed into political correctness that otherwise clever people overlooked a terrorist that was operating right under their nose.
Already happened? Oh, are you referring to the right-wing terrorists who shot up the holocaust museum and assassinated the abortion doctor? Or are you referring to the ones that killed the Census-taker down south? Y’know, there was a report released that warned of these kinds of things happening. You “patriots” on the right demanded an apology for it.
FAIL.
The census taker may have committed suicide and staged it to look like murder. Libs were quick to blame anti-gov’t types, but that was premature.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/12/insurance-probed-in-censu_n_356298.html
Okay, that didn’t work.
We have been attacked? My Lord when? I do remember several terrorists rings being broke up and some arrests but I don’t recall the bombing or anything. Maybe I should watch Fox News.
What a dolt.
You really haven’t heard? Members of the U.S. military were murdered in cold blood on American soil by an Islamic extremist who proclaimed he was commiting the act for Allah. You really should consume some news, any news, periodically, Fox or not.
If you are merely trying to be clever in denying that it was a terrorist attack by an Islamic extremist, your obtuseness is an insult to those who lost their lives.
The Ft. Hood attack reminds me of the sort of “lone wolf” terrorist attack perpetrated by Benjamin Smith, the World Church of the Creator member who went on a shooting spree. There is no doubt that WCOTC wants it’s members to do that sort of thing and preaches that people who do are heroes. But they want members to do all the work and planning on their own, leaving the church leaders immune to prosecution.
Looks like you caught this guy red-handed, Billy. Obviously, “RightBloggerPat” is an angry, conservative Republican. And a racist. But “RightBloggerPat” is probably just someone who likes to post his thoughts on twitter or any other blog that’ll have him. He’s a nobody.
More serious is the inflammatory, vitriolic rhetoric by Congressman Alan Grayson, D-Florida.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-usmvYOPfco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXkqCjlnOmY
Grayson’s speech is music to my ears. The way he makes conservatives bristle warms my heart. They know how to dish it out, yet cry about it when it’s slung back at ‘em. Beautiful music.
Let’s hear your thoughts on Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh, or the elected congressmen who espoused the “death panel” nonsense, David, since you’re so concerned about “inflammatory, vitriolic rhetoric.” Here’s your chance.
I figured you’d side with Congressman Grayson. Without knowing for sure, I hesitated to write that you would, but you’ve confirmed my suspicions.
It probably wasn’t difficult to figure out, was it?
Likewise, you’ve confirmed my suspicions by holding a double standard and refusing to criticize those who’ve made their careers on inflammatory, vitriolic rhetoric.
Bill and Emtronics – Don’t let the facts get in the way of your opinions. Oh, never mind- you didn’t.
postsimian,
Since you’re an admitted fan of Congressman Grayson and refusing to criticize, then you’re the one holding to a double standard.
That’s because a retort like his has been a long time coming, especially in the face of all the Republican BS that has been going on since the 2008 primaries. It’s about damn time someone took a stand against the GOP bullies. Not only that, but his comments are supported by the fact that the GOP is ferociously defending the status quo–a system in which people can’t afford insurance or have a pre-existing condition and are thereby denied insurance CAN fairly be described as “Don’t get sick; if you do, die quickly.”
All I’m hearing from you is an inability to come to terms with your party’s position on the issue by shying away from critical language. Instead of saying “yeah, we ought to do something about that,” you’re calling the other side offensive for having the balls to point it out.
So no, I’m not holding a double standard. Why? My guy’s statements are based in reality. Your guys’ statements are not (socialism, death panels, government takeover, et cetera, et al, ad infintum). The only legitimate concern anybody on the right has brought to the discussion is the question of how we’re going to pay for it. Even I have a longer list than that, but none of them preclude the necessity of reform.
The conversation here has degenerated into personal combat … which kind of proves my point.
Dispelling BS is more important than politeness.
No. No one ever changed my mind about anything by being a rude @$$hole. No one insulted me from being a liberal democrat into being a libertarian. They did so with facts and reason.
Lack of politeness is a character flaw, not a strategy.
Call it whatever you want. In the words of Thomas Jefferson,”ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.”
Disagreements are one thing. Disagreements can and ought to be polite. Hypocrisy, deception, hate-speech, incitement to violence and especially–ESPECIALLY–the refusal to take responsibility for the fruits of it–not so much. When people start going on about 9/11 conspiracies, birth certificates, death panels and (the latest trending topic among tea-baggers) armed revolution, the absolute LAST thing we should do is treat their viewpoint as a legitimate position. I’ll go so far as to say ridicule and mockery are the only conscionable responses to that kind of garbage.
You go ahead and try “facts and reason” with people who make every effort to disregard them.
“No one ever changed my mind about anything by being a rude @$$hole.”
“Lack of politeness is a character flaw, not a strategy.”
Perfect!
The Ft Hood attack and killings was a terrorist attack on this country? I thought it was just and isolated incident from a wacko who had a gun and opened fire. Of course people would believe it was a terrorist attacked coordinated by an outside organization simply because of the gunman’s name. Geez, using this logic, if his name was Mickey Mouse, it would have been Disney’s fault.
All indications are this was a terrorist attack by an Islamic extremist who thought he was carrying out the will of Allah. I suspect you know that. Your playing (I think) dumb is an insult to those who lost their lives. And you a veteran on Veteran’s Day.
Most people consider Fort Hood a terrorist act.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/november_2009/60_want_fort_hood_shooting_investigated_as_terrorist_act
@Emtronics – I have to agree with the righties on this one. If I’m not mistaken, motive plays a large part in whether or not something is considered terrorism rather than a mass shooting. If the intention is to make a political statement, it’s terrorism. The Virginia Tech massacre resulted in approximately two and a half times as many deaths with a comparable amount of injuries, but the motive was non-political. The Fort Hood shootings have every indication of being politically-motivated.
To reiterate, Columbine: not terrorism. Oklahoma City bombing: terrorism. Motive/intent are the key differences.
To say I am taking away from the deaths of those brave people who lost their lives at the hands of a nut is wrong. It was a terrible act done by a lone person who happens to be Muslim by faith. I don’t recall anywhere in print where this guy has actually said he done this crime in the name of anyone. Only place I have heard that this guy is a terrorist was on Bill O’Rielly’s TV Program. Yes in the sense that this guy instilled terror and killed, that makes him a terrorist but to equate this act as an organized and planned attack on the United States, like 9-11, is a stretch. That has of yet is to be seen.
This nuts motivation for doing this has yet to be determined. He simply good have snapped at the prospect of serving in Iraq or overseas.
Columbine was terrorism. I’ll bet if you asked any student/teacher who survived that ordeal, they will tell it was terrorism.
Clearly, any student/teacher who survived Columbine who calls it de facto terrorism does not know what qualifies an attack as “terrorism” versus “mass violence.”
“I don’t recall anywhere in print where this guy has actually said he done this crime in the name of anyone. ”
Great point, Emtronics! I mean, it’s not like he yelled ALLAHU AKBAR (God is great!) or nuthin as he planted a bullet between their eyes. Oh, wait. Never mind. Yes he did.
http://topics.npr.org/article/06aybeR64neSG
Grayson is a lefty loon hater so of course Reno likes him.
Keep crying, Vonny.
Vonster, Notimendum, GOPer, et al. Was Scott Roeder a terrorist? He was the man who killed Dr. George Tiller. He was motivated by his religion and obviously was making a political statement. Does he need to have said “God Be With You” in order to be considered a terrorist?
BTW, I think Hasan did commit an act of terrorism. But I don’t think that says anything more about Muslims in general than Roeder’s act says about Christians in general.
Sud – No one is suggesting the actions of Hasan is a reflection on Muslims in general. The question at hand is was it a terrorist act. A large majority of Americans agree that it was indeed, a terrorist act.
Ah hell forget it. GOPer is like Burger King, he’s gonna have it his way.
“A large majority of Americans agree that it was indeed, a terrorist act.”
It was a terrorist act in the same way any mental nut would go in and start shooting people. Will Bin Laden claim credit? Was this nut part of a bigger plot? I think this was just a guy that cracked. Sadly it’s happened before.
BTW, What large majority? Fox News watchers? That is the only place I have seen it called a terrorist act in the sense that they can blame Obama for it.
I’ll wait until the whole story comes out. You can’t fix stupid.
Emtronics,
Major Hasan didn’t “crack.” He knew what he was doing when he started shooting. It’s militant Islam, pure and simple. Billy is probably correct in comment #27, but the whole thing exposes the threat of militant Islam within our own country. Major Hasan isn’t the only capable of doing this. And we shouldn’t let PC get in the way of preventing the next attack.
Today I read that he was in contact with a radical Imam from Pakistan. The evidence keeps stacking against this guy: what he did was terrorism, but you’re correct in that Obama can’t be blamed for it. As I recall, he flipped on FISA and voted to keep the wiretapping program active. Anyone who tries nailing him on that is severely uninformed on the issue.
He inflicted terror on the people he was shooting at so it is terrorism in that respect. I would have been scared to shit if I was in the building when he started shooting.
If he was “right” in his head, then why are Army prosecutors saying he has to have a mental fitness test or whatever before they can try him? Also, isn’t every single Imam from Pakistan radical? I guess it sounds good.