My Real Politik

FOX's ACORN Scandal Not So Clear Cut

The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now(ACORN), while never having been convicted of a crime, has become the black sheep of community organizations, with most Democrats severing ties with the group and Congress voting unanimously to cut off all of ACORN's federal funding. This black label stamped on them by Fox News and other conservative pundits is really one of their own making.

A cursory search for ACORN paints a rather colorful picture of charity and corruption. Originally founded in 1970, ACORN has successfully lobbied for higher living wages in 13 major cities, has settled a number of class action lawsuits awarding millions of dollars to victims of predatory lending practices, played a major part in Katrina relief in the gulf states, and has lobbied for major education and gun control reform. Unfortunately, they've also been convicted in a number of voter registration fraud cases, a major embezzlement case, and generally preach a code of civil disobedience.

ACORN's political arm, which is a legally separate entity, has also come out in favor of largely progressive Democratic candidates.

Add to this the undercover videos broadcast on Fox News and you have an organization with good intentions, a lot of bad apples and a lot of Republican enemies.

Fox News deserves credit for bringing this issue into the spotlight.

Yet, there is a flip side to this coin.

The "Big Lie" of the Today's RED SCARE

I was too young to remember the Red Scare, but history has taught me quite a bit. As Communism grew in the 1940s, nearly half the worlds population had come under Communist rule. According to J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI:

"Communism is not a political party. It is a way of life. An evil and malignant way of life. It reveals a condition akin to disease, and spreads like an epidemic. And like an epidemic, a quarantine is necessary to keep it from infecting this nation."

A major propaganda campaign ensued followed by the Congressional establishment of the House Committee on Un-American Activities lead by Senator Joseph McCarthy. The term "commie" was thrown around like a scarlet letter damning people on the left and the right (including actor Ronald Reagan). Anti-communism became a landmark platform for the Republican party, which was championed by Senator Richard Nixon and then candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was a band of ten from the Hollywood "elite" that were the first to take a major stand against McCarthyism, followed by Edward R. Murrow. McCarthy cried foul, claiming that the "liberal media" were launching a smear campaign against him. Anti-communism also became linked to racism, and was used as a justification for the lynchings of inter-racial couples, blacks, Jews, and people of Asian decent. Hundreds of people were wrongly accused and forced out of their homes, excommunicated, arrested, and some were executed.

McCarthyism exposed the trappings of fear on the public, just as the internment of Asian Americans had during WWII.

We kid ourselves when we think that "this could never happen today." This trend began to resurface during the Bush administration and it continues today. People of Islamic decent will remember the tensions and the racial profiling that occurred shortly after the 9/11 attacks. People seem to have somehow forgotten that anyone protesting the Bush administration were segregated to "Free Speech Zones" that were miles away from the President. Being against the Iraq war had suddenly made one "un-American." Two individuals were even arrested for wearing anti-bush t-shirts to a Bush rally.

And yet it is only after all of these grievances, once a Democratic President had been elected do we now hear the cries of "socialism" and "communism" beginning to infiltrate the public psyche. Almost all of these accusations are utterly baseless.

The Networks Take on Obama on Letterman

This was an email sent to me by my good friend Adam Hare, who is also a reasoned conservative. Pretty interesting; perhaps we should make a daily roundup of these:    

Front Page:
Picture: Obama leaning in to Letterman as if to say something confidential. Words, 'I Was Black'
Caption: In a 'Late Show' appearance, President Obama gives his most irreverent answer yet on the question of whether some of the reaction to his health plan is driven by racism.

Front Page:
Picture: None
hyperlink: "Obama mixes policy, humor with Letterman"

Front of Politics Section
Picture: Obama with a wide smile, engaging Letterman, very candid.
Hyperlink: Obama talks race, health care on Letterman
Caption: “I was actually black before the election,” president tells CBS host.

CNN is clearly most neutral.

Revisiting The Siege

The Siege, released in 1998 is a poignant film that was extremely ahead of it's time- so much so that most people have forgotten about it. Written and Directed by Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond, Glory), after the US military captures a suspected terrorist, a wave of attacks on New York city lead the President to declare martial law.

Underneath this morbidly prophetic plot is a rather telling social commentary on nationalism, race, and the inherent reaction of a society living in fear.

As the army moves into the city, internment camps are set up that segregate all the Muslim citizens- akin to the Japanese camps of the 40s. The conflict is complicated by the fact that one of the main characters, an NYPD officer (played by Tony Shaloub) who is helping in the investigation, has a son who is detained there.

It also approaches the issue of torture, and whether or not torture is justified if it means potentially saving American lives.

Fueling the fire is an honest take on the conflict between Israel and Palestine, which is intimately related to the attacks on American soil.

Does all of this sound a little familiar? 

The movies is well acted by Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, and Bruce Willis. There's no real political angle towards the left or the right (unless you filter it through today's ideology- specifically as it relates to torture) but there is a great monologue that I'd like to bring to your attention. In this scene, US Army General Devereaux is about to order the torture of a detainee and Special Agent Hubbard is attempting to persuade him otherwise:

GENERAL DEVEREAUX: The time has come for one man to suffer in order to save hundreds of lives.
AGENT HUBBARD: One Man? What about two, huh? What about six? How about public executions?
GENERAL DEVEREAUX: Feel free to leave whenever you like, Agent Hubbard.
AGENT HUBBARD: Come on General, you've lost men, I've lost men, but you - you, you can't do this! What, what if they don't even want the sheik, have you considered that? What if what they really want is for us to herd our children into stadiums like we're doing? And put soldiers on the street and have Americans looking over their shoulders? Bend the law, shred the Constitution just a little bit? Because if we torture him, General, we do that and everything we have fought, and bled, and died for is over. And they've won. They've already won!

While this film was largely ignored by the Academy and reviews were luke warm, it has a rather important relevance now- it's one of the films that made me want to be a film maker. Hopefully, you'll pick it up. It's worth it.

Fox's O'Reilly supports the Public Option!?

According to the Huffington Post, in an bizarre turnaround, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly comes out in support of a public option. 

O'REILLY: I want, not for personally for me, but for working Americans, to have a option, that if they don't like their health insurance, if it's too expensive, they can't afford it, if the government can cobble together a cheaper insurance policy that gives the same benefits, I see that as a plus for the folks.

The notion is rather strange considering O'Reilly also claims that the Public Option is somehow no longer on the table. Considering the Public Option is a major part of four-out-of-five of the bills that made it through committee in Congress, I fail to see how it's off the table. The fact of the matter is the Public Option does not mean a government takeover as opponents touted- it simply means providing an affordable option for those that need it- just like medicare and medicaid.

This is not the first time I've noticed O'Reilly toning down his neo-con rhetoric in favor of a more reasoned conservative opinion. That's just fine in my book.

(Thanks to Daniel Loyd for linking to this!)

Jimmy Carter and the Racial Divide

"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man...And that racism inclination still exists. And I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply."

These were the words of Jimmy Carter in an interview with NBC's Brian Williams.

Many conservatives and Obama critics are outraged by this notion, citing that their differences with Obama are of a political nature and that race has nothing to do with it. For the most part, they have a right to be upset.  

This is the reality of a serious racial problem in America: people use the race card to express their intolerance of difference- be that difference of opinion, looks, creed, or politics. People use "racism" as a weapon- being called a racist is the scarlet A of our day and its been stitched by both sides of the isle (with quite a bit of history).

Conservatives played the race card only a few months earlier when Glen Beck and Sean Hannity alleged that "Obama was a racist" with a "deep seeded hatred for white people."

I honestly believe that socially Americans are capable of looking past race and Obama's election is strong evidence to that. The majority of Obama critics are not racists and to abuse the race card as a red herring muddles the debate to such an extent that it becomes just another form of Godwin's law.

And yet, it would be naive to presume that racism is dead in American. It is alive and well and I don't know of any way to convince you of this except to tell you to start talking to more people who have felt the sting of discrimination. As much as I'd like to believe we as a country are beyond racial discrimination, it exists in America and it affects people every day.

It's hard for a white person to really understand this. I realize that may sound hypocritical coming from a white person and that it's really not very convincing. I used to run discussion groups on race at the Pennsylvania State University and I've seen the racial tensions that people can carry around unknowingly. The majority of people would never willingly discriminate against someone because of race, but everyone passes judgment in some form or another and race is and always will be a factor. In sociology, we have a term for this type of discrimination, it's called disparate impact and it illustrates how discrimination can occur even though there is no intent to discriminate.

Racism is also alive in its purest form. If you don't believe me, spend some time around an Indian reservation and you will see racism first-hand. If you've never felt what it's like to have a room full of people look at you with disgust simply because of the color of your skin, then it's really hard to condole what that experience is like. All I can say is that I've experienced it for about five minutes and I can't imagine what it would be like to live a life like that. So to be defensive about the color of your skin is an understandable vice.

Of course racial tolerance has vastly improved since that days of "separate but equal." but that doesn't mean it's a non-issue. If that were true, people wouldn't care- it wouldn't rile up the press and the public in the way it does. This is a discussion that needs to be continually had, and had without baseless accusations.

I don't think anti-obama people are racists, but I do think there are racists that don't like Obama.

I will not condone President Carter's comments. However Carter said he also felt that because of President Obama's personal qualities, "he will be able to triumph over the racist attitude that is the basis for the negative environment that we see so vividly demonstrated in public affairs over recent days."

Let us all hope that he is right about that.

The Dirty Grass Roots

grass roots (also grassroots |ˈgrasˌroōts|)

•the most basic level of an activity or organization

•ordinary people regarded as the main body of an organization's membership

"A grass roots" slogan today has about as much authenticity as the "fun size" label on an over-priced minuscule piece of candy. Contextually the term "grass roots" has gone the way of the "independent film:" a term once used to symbolize the struggle that the common man goes through to get their message heard on a larger scale now being used by corporate interests to give the perception that they speak on behalf of anyone but themselves.

Senator Albert Jeremiah Beveridge of Indiana was the first to coin the phrase when he said of the Progressive Party in 1912, "This party has come from the grass roots. It has grown from the soil of people's hard necessities."

Conservatives who question the meaning behind Barack Obama's experience as a community organizer need look no further- this is what community organizers do- they promote grass roots campaigns. They are spread through word of mouth and are meant to represent local communal interests.

There is a difference between this understanding of the term and the way it is being used now. If a political organization backed by the corporate dollar orchestrates an idea and tries to gear up support for its agenda by using a media outlet to promote its events, that is not what grass roots traditionally means.

The most obvious examples of this abuse of terminology are the Tea Party protests backed by FreedomWorks (lead by former GOP Leader Dick Armey) and promoted by Fox News. However, many liberal groups have abused to term in the past, ACORN and Moveon.org are two examples that come to mind.

This is not to say that these movements are not movements- surely they are and they have a lot of support across the country. The Obama campaign could hardly be considered grass roots, but there was a grass roots flavor to it- you had local community organizers launching their own campaigns (Shepard Fairey's Hope poster is a great example). Likewise, the 9/12-Tea Party protesters have their own form of grass roots flavor.

The key is where the idea originates- does the movement begin with the people, or with a corporate/political interest? Are you making the kool-aid, or are you simply drinking it? If the answer is the later, then drop the notion that it is a grass roots campaign because it simply isn't.

Glen Beck is Seriously Losing Money

According to ColorofChange.org press release (an organization headed up by now resigned Van Jones), the ad boycots of Glen Beck's show on Fox are costing him almost $600,000 a week.

"According to the data collected, the amount of money spent by national advertisers on Beck’s program per week was at its highest at approximately $1,060,000, for the week ending August 2, 2009.  ColorOfChange.org launched their campaign at the end of that week and since then, 62 advertisers have distanced themselves from Beck. Data collected for the week ending September 6, 2009 shows Beck’s estimated ad revenue at $492,000, equal to a loss of $568,000."

The boycott was started by colorofchange.org which was outraged when Glen Beck claimed on Fox and Friends that Barack Obama is somehow a racist that hates white people. Coincidentally, after Van Jones (who spearheaded the boycott) was appointed as the Green Jobs czar by Obama, Glen Beck single handed launched a smear campaign that resulted in Van Jone's resignation mere days after his appointment.

With 26 advertisers pulling out of Beck's show, it sounds like Jones may have the last laugh.

"Hope vs. Hate"

The good people at you.arehated.com posted this story of Yosi Sergant, a spokesman for the National Endowment for the Arts that was asked to resign after Glen Beck cited their "United We Serve" campaign as Nazi propaganda. Sergant's friend Luke Wahl sums up the situation quite well:

"A dream was clouded, and an innocence that belief and dedication is all that one needs to make change was lost. Maybe forever. This is because Glenn Beck called the NEA's "United We Serve" plan Nazi propaganda, and Yosi, who spoke on behalf of the initiative, a chief exporter of the goods. He called my friend out by name, and in order to stifle the story, Yosi was asked to resign."

You can read the rest of the testimony (which I strongly suggest) here: Hope vs. Hate.

I am no fan of Glen Beck. However, my personal opinions aside, there is a line that is crossed when you libel someone's career and life for the sake of boosting ratings. The "anything Obama= Nazi" is the most ludicrous and disrespectful campaign ever to come out of a "accredited" news organization. It's one thing when the rantings and ravings of an ideologue are personally publicized- I'm sure all of us can remember seeing Bush/Nazi comparisons at anti-war protests. It's another thing when they are given the respect and power of a prime time television show.

The only thing more scary then Glen Beck would be a Cheney/Palin ticket (which, btw I imagine Beck would vote for).

It's the Media Stupid! Part 2

This is a compilation of MSNBC and Fox's news coverage directly following the President's 9/9/09 joint-congressional speech on Health Care Reform.
The inherent bias on both networks is so drastic here that it's almost laughable.
However, all kidding aside- if you get your news from one source, you're paradigm of the country is drastically altered. As Jim Morrison once said, "he who controls the media controls the world."