Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, speaks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, March 16, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES – Tags: POLITICS HEALTH) – RTR3F2WE

The GOP Presidential Primary has degenerated into the Hate Olympics. In the words of segregationist George Wallace, the top candidates are now trying to “out-nigger” each other. Today, the new niggers are the Muslims and the immigrants. Candidates are rewarded for displaying the most acrimony towards the new niggers.

For instance, Donald Trump catapulted to the top of the field by bashing Mexican immigrants. As reported on NPR, he stated that:

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.”

Ever since he uttered that racist and hateful statement, he has been leading on all of the major polls. His campaign is fueled by bigotry, sexism, nastiness and mean spirited attitudes. Instead being hurt by his sexist insults directed towards women news analysts and women politicians, grunting GOP Neanderthals continue to flock to Trump like sheep.

In order to compete with Trump, Dr. Ben Carson is placating the GOP’s xenophobic, blood thirsty vampires by throwing them a new food source to devour, Muslims. As religious scholar Reza Aslan noted on CNN and as stated on the AP,

Carson’s campaign reported strong fundraising and more than 100,000 new Facebook friends in the 24 hours after he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.”

 

His campaign manager Barry Bennett told The Associated Press on Monday: “While the left wing is huffing and puffing over it, Republican primary voters are with us at least 80-20.”

 

“People in Iowa particularly, are like, ‘Yeah! We’re not going to vote for a Muslim either,” Bennett said. “I don’t mind the hubbub. It’s not hurting us, that’s for sure.”

Like sex, hate sells. Despite his soft spoken nature and gentle image, Dr. Carson is now pandering to hate and bigotry. Similar to Donald Trump, Dr. Carson is catering to racist birthers. He is shining the shoes of right wing imbeciles who suffer from cognitive dissonance. Contrary to all of the evidence, those fools continue to believe that Obama is an uncover Muslim from Kenya. Like Mantan in Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, Dr. Carson is tap dancing to the tune of those who bigots.

Even brash and outspoken Trump remained silent when a member of his audience falsely said that the Obama is a Muslim. Trump remained silent because he realizes that you cannot win the Hate Olympics by speaking out against the haters. To win, one appease them. The haters are not governed by logic and reason. They are governed by enmity towards those who are different.

Islamophobia is illogical. Islamophobia relies on hasty generalizations. Terrorists and radical fundamentalists are only a small minority of the Muslim population. It is wrong to condemn and discriminate against an entire religion based on the extremist actions of a few of its purported adherents. Most American Muslims are law abiding, patriotic citizens who love American democratic values. They proudly serve in America’s military and in Congress.  Islamophobia is analogous to racial profiling and anti-Semitism.

For example, just because some black people sell drugs and kill people, one should not assume that most black people do. The negative actions of a few do not justify stopping and frisking thousands innocent, law abiding black people. It does not justify an employer refusing to hire or appoint black people. Similarly, the actions of small segment of the Muslim population does not justify discrimination against innocent Muslims. As an African American, Dr. Carson should understand that. Moreover, many Muslims such Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Muhammad Ali, Mos Def and myself are African Americans. By discriminating against Muslims, he is also discriminating against his own black people.

Dr. Carson and others cloak their grotesque animus under the beautiful red, white and blue robes of patriotism. A true patriot believes in upholding and protecting the U.S. Constitution. Article 6 of the Constitution states that:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. (Emphasis added)

By supporting a religious test for the Presidency, Dr. Carson is shredding on the very Constitution that he professes to love. He is trashing the noble ideals of American democracy. If he made the same rancorous statements about Jews, Baptists, Catholics, Methodists and any other religious group, he would have been forced to withdraw from the campaign. Sadly, due to media programming, animosity towards Muslims is widely accepted in this society.

Unfortunately, reason and logic do not matter win you are striving to win the Hate Olympics by out-niggering your opponents. Dr. Carson will never win that contest. In the eyes of many of the Islamophobes, Dr. Carson is just another nigger. A black man will never be able out-nigger a white man.

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History is something that I honestly thirst for. Due to my love of learning, understanding how history actually happens is a desire of mine. To be honest, I don’t want to learn only the good about the past; I also require that I learned the horrible situations that occurred. In short, I have a love for history because I intend to understand the full scope of humanity.

Still, there are plenty of us that want history to be one sided. There are those that want to see America as the blissful land of free enterprise and an abundance of opportunities. Also, there are those that don’t want to see Black America is a great race put in dire situations that most others would struggle within. In addition, there are those that want to paint broad strokes of stereotypes on anything that isn’t “American born”. Thus, there are those that don’t want to tell the whole story unless it is from their perspective.

Oklahoma is Anti AP U.S. History

Oklahoma, home of the Sooners and Garth Brooks, decided that having AP U.S. History courses is plain unconstitutional (or whatever). As NYmag.com noted in their article, there is an explanation for it:

This week in things we wish were just a Colbert Report sketch, an Oklahoma legislative committee overwhelmingly approved a bill that would cut funding for the teaching of Advanced Placement U.S. History. The 11 Republicans who approved the measure over the objections of four Democrats weren’t trying to win over Oklahoma’s lazy high-school juniors. Tulsa World reports that Representative Dan Fisher, who introduced the bill, lamented during Monday’s hearing that the new AP U.S. History framework emphasizes “what is bad about America” and doesn’t teach “American exceptionalism.” It’s a complaint that’s been spreading among mostly conservative state legislatures in recent months and has some calling for a ban on all AP courses.

Earlier this month, the Georgia state Senate introduced a resolution that rejects a new version of the AP U.S. History course for presenting a “radically revisionist view of American history” and minimizing “discussion of America’s Founding Fathers, the principles of the Declaration of Independence, [and] the religious influences on our nation’s history.” It says that if theCollege Board does not revise the test, Georgia will cut funding for the course. The exam has also sparked controversy in Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Colorado, where students in Jefferson County protested last fall when a school-board member said the course should be modified to promote “patriotism” and discourage “civil disorder, social strife, or disregard of the law.” [1]

And all of that above is quite the mouthful. Oklahoma is basically saying that they don’t want AP U.S. History because they feel it focuses on the negative instead of the positive. Yet, if one wants to be correct, no history should be overly positive or negative unless it is told purely in accuracy. In short, Oklahoma wants to do away with AP U.S. History due to the lack of rose-colored shades attached to the course.

AP U.S. History Needed More Propaganda

Yet, I am wondering whether or not people actually realize the problem in all this. You see, a state (and others as well) want to determine what a person CHOOSES to learn about in school. AP courses are voluntary for the sake of acquiring college credit. So, no one has to TAKE the course anyway. Still, there are states hell-bent on eliminating an option the majority of the students probably won’t take up anyway? With the given facts, it would seem that the elephant in the room wears a golden rope necklace with the word “propaganda” on it.

There, I said it: this is nothing but a move of propaganda. Brainwashing seems to be in full effect.

The problem is that too many of us don’t understand how propaganda works. If people are as aware as they should be, then this would bother the hell out of them. A state determining WHAT someone learns is an important step in information control. If there is a control of information, there is a control of learning. If there is a control of learning, there is a control of beliefs and actions. Thus, it is easy to control the minds of the masses by controlling what they know and believe.

The impending doom can become tantamount to less free will and more groupthink type of living. Why deter freedom of speech when that speech is already predetermined? There won’t be any evolutions due to revolution because our true problems will never bear any resolution. They don’t want you to think; they want you to follow. And playing “follow the leader” is much easier when everything around you is under control.

AP U.S. History Epilogue

It should be plain to see why this Oklahoma situation is problematic. Not agreeing with what is being taught is one thing. Controlling the existence of a voluntary high school course of academia is another. Yet, the bigger plan is taking control of what is/isn’t learned. From there, building a society of complacency and acceptance becomes much easier. If you don’t know the history, unliving it and avoiding it becomes null and void.

This is nothing short of a control system.

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No matter though, Drudge knows his readers are idiots and will believe anything he says. So he can lie. Lie and make millions while they die from not having health insurance. Drudge doesn’t care because he is a sick individual, you really can’t even call him a human being. He’s a money loving, greedy amoeba. He can afford a Cadillac health plan, his readers can’t. But that won’t prevent them from spreading his lies to anyone that will listen to them. “Hey, Matt Drudge knows what’s good for us!”

Matt Drudge

This is what Alan Grayson, a true Democrat, meant when he said that the Republicans health care plan is simply this…”Die quickly.” They have no ideas because they don’t want to have any ideas. They want insurance companies, who have given millions to their campaigns, to prosper and make as much money as possible. The hell with the people. As long as millionaires can buy their own health care and politicians get it through the government, the people can just die.

Yes in these final days, as enrollment surges towards the six million mark, the Republicans and their allies will continue to spread lies. Drudge has his marching orders as they all do. March in lock step and try to defeat Obamacare. This is why I continue to bang my head against a fucking wall when I hear fellow Democrats talking about “fixing Obamacare.” This is a losing strategy come November as it plays right into the hands of the Republicans. It allows them to control the talking points and the course of the argument. The health care system needed fixing and Obamacare is the fix. Period.

Republicans like Drudge have no problem telling lies but Democrats seem to have a problem stating the truth, which is on their side. Republicans use Obamacare to push their radical anti-women agenda. They call “Hobby Lobby” and their contraception battle, a fight for “religious freedom.” When of course it’s about pushing one religious view on all of us. They don’t want women to have access to contraception yet when they get pregnant they also don’t want them to be allowed to have an abortion. When they have the child and can’t afford it, Republicans want to call these women nasty names and take away any safety nets…including access to health coverage!

It is a sick cycle of lies, and deceit that is uniquely American. Of course so many Republican voters think these rich, greedy parasites are looking out for them. Parasites like Drudge. A professional con artist who can afford a mansion while his followers can’t afford a simple visit to the doctor or even food.

My hatred for him and his kind go beyond words and into a very dark place. A place that someone who is from a more civilized, caring nation would never understand. Like I said, uniquely American.

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Just one look at Issa and you can see what a greasy individual he is. A former car thief (which I guess is a resume booster for a Republican vying for office) who was personally responsible for the recall election of Grey Davis in California, which gave us Gov. Terminator and a state that was run into the ground. Why more people, well actually anybody in the media doesn’t ever bring up this fact is beyond me. I’m ashamed to live in the state where this bum got elected, even though the people that elected him are obviously the same people who got all hot and bothered about an action movie star being the Governor.

If you watched the scene of Issa turning off Rep. Elijah Cummings microphone during the latest of Issa’s bullshit hearings on the fake I.R.S. scandal then you could see how vile this man is. Instead of calling witnesses like the former head of the I.R.S., a Republican who was appointed by George W. Bush, he calls people like Lois Lerner, the former head of the tax exempt division who has taken the fifth because she knows a bug like Issa will do whatever he can to help incriminate her even when there is no incriminating to be done. When Lerner does take the fifth Issa uses that opportunity to just ask loaded question after loaded question, with no end in sight.

It’s all about grand standing for Issa. The I.R.S. targeted both left and right wing political groups, which is their ABSOLUTE RIGHT, since no political organization has tax exempt status and should be paying their fair share when they are putting money and influence behind candidates. To target groups with names that have TEA PARTY or PROGRESSIVE in them is perfectly fine and even the smart way to go about finding these organizations who are trying to cheat the government.

Issa must know this but he doesn’t care. He wants his daily witch hunt that he tries to tie into the White House whenever he can. Even though the Republican head of the I.R.S. that he won’t call to testify has said that the White House had ZERO knowledge of any of this. You see once a crook always a crook and Issa’s DNA is simply that, to be a thief, a dishonest swindler. He is all grown up now but you can’t take the criminal out of the man. Not this man. He believes that dishonesty and bullying pays off. Always has for him and always will. Only now he is playing the game at a much higher level and we all paying for it.

Cummings is a true gentleman. How he didn’t punch Issa right in the face amazes me. Issa did something that has never been done before. To shut off the microphone of any colleague would be a disgrace but to do it to someone like Cummings, with his history and cashe is revolting. Issa should be reprimanded by others in his party including Boehner. But since they are as classless as him nothing will happen.  Issa will continue to go on holding his pointless hearings until he is no longer able to. That will only be when Americans vote Republicans out of power in Congress. When Nancy Pelosi takes back the gavel.

Then and only then will Darryl Issa’s microphone be silenced for good.

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That is probably a good thing. It should help his approval numbers. It should help get the center and center left on his side as there was nothing “offensive” about the speech. It was the kind of speech that “independents” and “moderates” would like because they really couldn’t disagree with anything that was said.

It didn’t look good when the Republicans stood silent after the President talked about issues such as extending unemployment benefits, or raising the minimum wage, or the ACA. Obama’s team did a good job in bringing in real people who have benefited and would benefit from these policies.

And yet. There I was, seemingly alone with maybe just the great David Corn of “Mother Jones” at my side. I felt, and Corn reiterated these feelings on MSNBC, that Obama should have been more fiery and confrontational towards the party of “NO.”

I know what you are thinking. Obama isn’t that kind of President, that kind of person, and you are right. But after being stonewalled by the R’s and having a low approval rating because of it, I think it’s very important for him to draw the line in the sand and to SHOW the American people the differences between him, and the R’s. The difference between the Democrats and the Republicans in Congress. They aren’t all under one umbrella. Especially with November looming ahead.

My fear is that nothing will get done and Americans will blame everyone equally, just as they have in the past. A “get rid of the bums” spells tragedy for the Democrats trying to hold onto the Senate. If the R’s win the Senate, and hold the House, Obama might as well retire two years early.

But hey, I don’t wanna be a Debbie downer. The consensus is that Obama did a great job. So let’s see what happens.

The other story is what happened after the SOTU. In a way it makes my point about Obama wasting time trying to work with R’s. In an interview with Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas was in full wing nut mode. Either that or he was drunk, maybe both. After saying the President was against the military because he brought our troops home he went into the usual wing nut default mode of “Benghazi, Benghazi.”

What was particularly ironic is that crazy Tim, accused Maddow of being a “cheerleader” for Obama and he said that she would be “jumping and screaming” if Benghazi happened under Bush. He of course failed to mention the eight U.S. Embassy bombings under Bush and how silent his party was after those atrocities.

To be honest, Huelskamp is an easy interview. He is so nutty and deranged that he makes himself look bad no matter who is doing the interview. He could probably benefit from the mental health care that is provided under Obamacare. The real point is, how can Obama possibly think a guy like this will work with him on anything?

Then there is Rep. Michael Grimm of Staten Island. I know that borough of NYC because I grew up there. I knew govones  like Grimm personally. There are a lot of them on Staten Island. Grimm was being interviewed by Michael Scotto of NY1 news when he cut the interview short because Scotto asked him a question he didn’t like. After Scotto was finished, Grimm is seen coming towards him like a real tough guy wanna be, and we hear him telling Scotto that he will throw Scotto off the fucking balcony if he does that to him again and that he would break him in half like a boy.

There is no doubt that if a Democrat did this the R’s would be calling for their resignation the next day. How this loser became a Congressman shows the intelligence of the average voter on Staten Island in that district.  He is the prime example of a thug who listened to talk radio and Rush Limbaugh, had some money and got himself a cushy job in Congress.

Does Obama hope he can work with a guy like this over the next year?

So to recap. The President was Presidential. He was the adult in the room once again. He showed poise, hope and vision.

Republicans were running around yelling psychotic things and threatening reporters lives.

Will Americans recognize and appreciate the difference come November?

[Originally posted at America The NOT So Beautiful]

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The Republican National Committee passed a resolution Friday renouncing “unconstitutional” National Security Agency surveillance programs.

 

The resolution, affirmed by a voice vote at the GOP’s winter meeting, was a remarkable move from many of the same party activists who vigorously defended controversial surveillance programs during George W. Bush’s administration.

 

Sorry, but spying is only reserved for white presidents only.

The GOP’s official governing body called upon Republican lawmakers “to immediately take action to halt current unconstitutional surveillance programs and provide a full public accounting of the NSA’s data collection programs.”

 

A page-long resolution also called for “a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying.” This committee would then make suggestions for reform beyond what President Barack Obama suggested a week ago. The committee also wants to “hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance.”

 

Sponsors of the measure worry that the program called PRISM targets U.S. citizens and suggest that the NSA is leading “the largest surveillance effort ever launched by a democratic government against its own citizens.”

Clearly this play is in line with the Sen Rand Paul wing of the Republican party. And if you ask me, it could be a signal that the party is at least for now willing to shy away from Gov. Chris Christie. But then again, it could be more of the same from the anti-Obama playbook we’ve come to get get used to. After all, where was all this concern about spying and upholding the U.S. Constitution when Dubya was POTUS and NSA spying began in 2001? Yeah, that’s what a bankruptcy of ideas gets you: hypocrisy.

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If you listen to the noise, what you’ll hear is that the IRS egregiously “targeted” Tea Party groups attempting to gain tax exemptions by registering as 501c(4) nonprofit organizations. What you’re not hearing — aside from an opportunity to bash President Obama — is the real reason why they’re exploiting what I refuse to see as a scandal. But today, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee spoke to the real issues (video below). That would be, the lack of evidence to support the idea of a grand conspiracy with ties to the White House. The truth not being heard and promoted by the mainstream media, is that given the current statute, there’s nothing wrong with scrutiny of groups who allegedly act in the interest of “Social Welfare”. Last night on The Last Word, Lawrence O’Donnell broke this all down.

Tea Party groups have quickly lined up this week to tell reporters about receiving intrusive questions from the Internal Revenue Service after applying for tax-exempt status. But some of those same groups have close ties to Republican politics. That reality underlines what a growing number of good government advocates and others are saying: The problem isn’t too much scrutiny from the IRS, it’s too little.

Karen Kenney, the coordinator for the San Fernando Valley Patriots, told The Washington Post this week that after applying for nonprofit status, her group received “pretty much a proctology exam through your earlobe.”

But that (very) up-close look may have made sense: Kenney is active in Republican politics in southern California. She ran in 2010 for an internal GOP position, and has spoken at least twicesince 2011 at the San Fernando Valley Republican club, in her capacity as a local Tea Party leader.

Kenney didn’t respond to a request for comment, but it’s not just her. The president of the Greater Phoenix Tea Party, Chris Rossiter, told Politico that after applying, his group received an inquiry from the IRS with 35 questions, and he described a phone conversation he said the group’s founder had with an IRS agent.

That founder was Kelly Townsend, who last year was elected as a Republican to the Arizona statehouse. A post on the Tea Party group’s website congratulated Townsend on her win.

In spite of what Republicans and other members of the “Obama Hate Machine” may say, there’s no evidence pf criminal wrong-doing on the part of the IRS that can be linked to Obama. But hey, don’t tell that to the noisemakers with nothing substantive to offer by way of policy to fix this slow-crawling economy. Leave it to them, everything is Obama’s fault; and this IRS scandal is yet another example of his heavy hand of government that’s akin to tyranny. The real truth is that while this is promoted, Republicans are continuing to do everything to screw “we the people”.

What the media and others are calling a scandal, I call bullshit. Hell, last time I checked, “Scandal” is the name of a very popular show on television. This Benghazi, IRS scandal, and the AP phone record thing? As much as the media — and right-wing knuckle-draggers — say they are, and would like them to be, those aren’t scandals. Yep, call me when Barack’s semen is found on a dress that doesn’t belong to Michelle. Until then, have a hot cup of STFU and miss me with this nonsense. What we really need to be talking about is more economic stimulus and job creation. But I’m sure doing so is antithetical to the interest of Republicans and Tea Party groups who are only interested in “social welfare” and not politics.

Listen to Rep. Doggett below:

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One would think that a political party beholden to corporate slave-masters would be supportive of an idea to privatize America’s oldest government-run and owned public utility company. I mean, anything to help cut down on that ever-growing deficit that has quadrupled at least fifty times thanks to president Obama’s unchecked access to the people’s checkbook, right? But of course we’ve seen this play before. If you’ve been remotely paying attention to anything, you’ll know that any Republican idea supported by Obama automatically becomes a bad idea. That said, it’s really funny to see our Republican friends in Washington showing a more altruistic side. Yep, who knew it existed, or was capable of such.

This from Huffington PosT:

WASHINGTON — In a political role reversal, Republicans are blasting President Barack Obama’s plan to consider selling the Tennessee Valley Authority, an icon of the New Deal long targeted by conservatives as an example of government overreach.

Obama’s 2014 budget proposal calls for a strategic review of the TVA, the nation’s largest public utility with 9 million customers in seven states from Virginia to Mississippi.

Selling the U.S-owned power company could reduce the federal deficit by at least $25 billion and “help put the nation on a sustainable fiscal path,” Obama says in a budget document.

Not so fast, say GOP lawmakers in the region.

“It’s one more bad idea in a budget full of bad ideas,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a longtime TVA champion.

“There is no assurance that selling TVA to a profit-making entity would reduce electric bills in the Tennessee Valley, and it could lead to higher electricity rates” for customers in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, Alexander said.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., vowed to “carefully study any proposals to restructure TVA” to ensure it continues to deliver affordable electricity throughout the region.

Privatizing TVA has been proposed before “and been determined to be a very bad idea,” added Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn.

Administration officials emphasized that privatization was just one option being considered. Sale of the agency has been discussed by prior administrations, but nothing has happened.

[…] President Dwight Eisenhower called TVA “creeping socialism,” while President Ronald Reagan criticized it as an example of big government. Republicans from Barry Goldwater to Newt Gingrich have pointed to the TVA as an example of where the private sector could provide services more cheaply and effectively than bureaucrats.

Republican antipathy for the TVA led many in the Southeast to assume that any proposal to sell TVA would come from the GOP – not a Democratic president fresh off winning a second term. (source)

Now I can’t speak to whether privatizing the TVA is a good or nad idea. To be honest, I haven’t done my homework on the subject. For all I know, the Republicans might be right. Yes, selling the TVA may result in my black ass paying more than I do now for the electricity to type up posts that you consume for free. Like I said, I have no earthly idea whether that’s true or not, but I do know that I feel like I’m being played by MLGW (Memphis Light Gas & Water) on the regular — yes, they’re known to jack folks around here, but I digress.

What I do know, however, is that it’s pretty hypocritical for my Republican friends to suddenly embrace the very “socialism” they’ve despised. Ever since Obama placed his hand on a Bible and pledged to be that dude, that has been the running meme in political circles. Yes, Obama is a socialist from Kenya who pals around with terrorists on occasion — yes, that’s what we’ve been told. But the minute he proposes to go the free market route by proposing to sell the TVA — you know, like all true capitalists? — my Republican friends are upset. But like I said before, we’ve seen this since Obama has been the HNIC. That said, maybe Democrats opposed to Obama’s proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare should push for him to privatize said programs instead. I know we’ve been circulating petitions urging him to forgo said proposed cuts.

But, maybe we should encourage him to do what George W. Bush couldn’t do; that is, privatize Social Security. Surely if he does, Republicans would be opposed; and the program will survive as it is without having to be on the table as far as budget cuts are concerned. Besides, it’s not like anyone is serious about the deficit. If they were, they’d be talking about creating jobs, creating demand, and stimulating the economy. If they were, there’d be no talk of cuts to programs or austerity.

You know, sort of like what the New Deal was about?

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However, I suppose for Trayvon’s relatives and supporters, though bittersweet, the small victory today came with the denial of his killer, George Zimmerman’s petition to delay the start of the trial. That said, as it stands now, the trial is scheduled to begin on June 19th, 2013 as planned; and, I think for many in the interest of justice for Trayvon, the day cannot get here any faster.

But of course where there’s good news, one can always expect the bad to come with it. As fate would have it, as it applies to the relatives of Trayvon, into their lives steps a former executive director of South Carolina’s Republican Party, Todd Kincannon. Apparently, while watching last Sunday’s Super Bowl game between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers, Kincannon felt the need to tweet: “This Super Bowl sucks more dick than adult Trayvon Martin would have for drug money.” After coming under fire, Kincannon defended this racist tweet by suggesting that it was just a joke.

This from Raw Story:

Former South Carolina GOP executive director Todd Kincannon on Monday defended a series of provocative, racially-charged tweets he sent out during the Super Bowl.

Kincannon told HuffPost Live that mocking the death of Trayvon Martin and “the poors” during Hurricane Katrina was just “high-profile trolling.” He said he didn’t understand why the killing of Trayvon was political and insisted joking about the Florida teen’s demise was fair because of all the people who said “insensitive things” about his killer, George Zimmerman.

“I think it is time for a conversation in this country about why a conservative isn’t allowed to state an opinion that other people happen to disagree with, without having death threats and being threatened with all kinds of various ridiculous things,” he continued. “This is real problem we have. People talk about political discourse in this country — you might think what I said was tasteless, you’re welcome to. But should I get death threats as a result of it?”

Okay, sp let me get this right: it was perfectly fine to be a racist because of the many insensitive things folks have said about George Zimmerman? Maybe I’m wrong — and yes, I’ve heard and read many negative opinions of Zimmerman — but isn’t using them as justification to be racist pure bullshit? I mean, did this asshole just get a whiff of the pixie dust from the South Carolina redneck racist fairy only after Trayvon was killed? I’m sorry, but my inner “cracker please!” meter went smooth the fuck off after I read the above justification today. And of course the fact that this troglodyte-backwoods-hick happens to live in Tea Party douche central, doesn’t help his case any. He can say what he wants, but the truth is he is as racist as the Tea Party and the rest of his knuckle-dragging right-wing cohorts. But hey, this is the mindset of many in the Republican party.

Sadly, this is who they are, and what they have become. Unfortunately for them, even if they have 1000 meetings at the homes of former slave-owning plantation owners to attempt to figure out how best to attract minorities, they’ll never get it. Why? Because like one of their own recently said as a matter of opinion that borders eerily on fact, they are indeed the party of stupid; and, Kincannon’s tweets and subsequent statements serve as evidence of that. Need more proof? This is what he tweeted during the power outage as football fans waited for the game to resume: “It hasn’t been this dark in the Superdome since all those poors occupied it after Hurricane Katrina.” Yep, he’s no comedian, he is what he is: a racist idiot. Yep, and you can expect to see, read, or hear more racist comments and tweets like this once the trial starts. Why? Because they can’t help it.

Kincanon is correct when he said doesn’t deserve death threats as a result of his tweet — yes, violence or his death solves nothing. However, one thing I am sure of as far as Kincannon, is that it’s quite possible that he too would shoot and kill an unarmed black teen wearing a hoodie that’s armed with a bottle of ice tea and a pack of Skittles. Why? Because plain and simple, as a white man, he is a racist coward.

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According to the Rutgers Institute for Women’s Leadership, as of 2009 women made up 15.5 percent of officers, averaged across the four military branches. And currently, some 80 percent of generals in the Army have combat experience. Spending time on the front lines is, even if unofficially, a critical stepping stone for those looking to advance their career. One need look no further than the recent attention given to Chuck Hagel’s time as a “grunt” in the Vietnam War to see how such experience stands out when it comes to nominations to higher posts.

The value given to combat experience is understandable. The more leaders can identify with the actual jobs of the people they lead, the better they can consider the front-line point of view when making decisions, budgeting resources and implementing strategy. If you’ve actually worn the shoes of the people in your organization’s most dangerous job, you’re better equipped to lead them. As a result, one hopes that allowing more women to take on combat roles will clear the way for more women in the military’s top brass. (source)

Thankfully, because of the Pentagon’s decision this week, for many, the glass ceiling has been broken. The move is being touted as being one that will strengthen the country. And according to outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta it is “the responsibility of every citizen to protect the nation.” Panetta also added that “If they can meet the qualifications for the job,then they should have the right to serve.” And to that, I say Amen. But of course, not everyone agrees with this assertion. Case in point, take what columnist David Frumm had to say on CNN’s OutFront program on Thursday night as he argued against the idea of women in combat.

The people we are likely to meet on the next battlefield are people who use rape and sexual abuse as real tools of politics. In Iranian prisons, rape is a frequent practice. Women are raped before they are executed. In Iran, in Pakistan, in Afghanistan rape is a conscious tool of subjugation and it is something women will be exposed to. In the name of equal opportunity they will face unequal risk.

I don’t know how you may feel about women in combat, but I’d like to think that if you’re not, you at least believe that women should be protected from rape as expressed by Frumm. Which is quite peculiar, because the risk of a woman in the military being raped by enlisted male personnel is higher than that for civilians. That said, isn’t it ironic that Frumm’s point of view comes at a time when Republicans are blocking attempts to renew the Violence Against Women Act? I mean, if Frumm is truly interested in protecting women, at least he’d be consistent when it comes to the re-authorization of the aforementioned law languishing in Congress as we speak, no? And why? Because Republican lawmakers are opposed to Democrats’ support of the law being used to cover Native American women, and female undocumented immigrants.

But hey, per the following from the leading conservative editorial board National Review, at least our conservative brothers and sisters are consistent. After all, it would be quite hypocritical of them to support any legislation intended to protect women from domestic violence and rape, all the while supporting a new “feminist friendly” policy to benefit women in the military, right? To do differently would call into question the DNA if the GOP. Which is silly because as bad as they polled with women recently, one would think they;d “get it.”

The Obama administration has doubled down on its social-transformation agenda, unilaterally deciding to overturn longstanding policy and integrate women into combat roles in the military. Give the administration this much: Unlike the question of gay marriage, the issue of women in combat was never something that Barack Obama felt obliged to pretend to be against until it was politically safe to evolve on the matter. As a candidate in 2008, he signaled his intention to change the rules if elected president.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta draped his announcement in the all-too-familiar language of “diversity,” but the U.S. military is neither a social-justice project nor a laboratory for feminist innovation: Its job is to secure the national-security interests of the United States, and neither Secretary Panetta nor the president nor any member of the administration has offered a single serious argument that this measure will increase our armed forces’ ability to do their job with maximum effectiveness. On the contrary, there are many reasons to believe it will accomplish the opposite.

The administration has promised that there will be no reduction of physical standards to accommodate women in combat roles, but that promise almost certainly is false — and Senator McCain, who has endorsed the move, should know better than to pretend otherwise. The political mandate to integrate women into the military had disastrous consequences for standards at West Point, as Walter Williams documented the last time we had this debate. The use of “gender-specific” physical standards meant that female candidates were given passing marks on tests when underperforming their male counterparts on such common benchmarks as push-ups, sit-ups, and running 1.5 miles.

This repeats the experience of similar civilian agencies, such as police and fire departments, in which standards have been lowered under the guise of revising them for professional relevance. One particularly comical feature of these developments has been the authorities’ insistence that they are acting independently of political pressure while simultaneously acknowledging that they are motivated by the fear of litigation brought by feminist groups. The ideological absurdity at play here is hard to exaggerate: When members of the Los Angeles city council demanded hiring quotas for the LAPD and a consequent relaxation of standards, they argued that concerns about physical difference could be overcome by implementing a “feminist approach to policing.” We pray that we may be spared a feminist approach to national security.

[…] There are immutable differences between men and women, and they are on display every day from the classroom to the corporate office. In most environments, the accommodation of these differences is benign or even salubrious. But the theater of combat is a very different sort of environment. It is true that we have had women in dangerous front-line roles for a decade now, thanks to an act of poor judgment by the Bush administration. But door-to-door combat is a very different thing from flying a helicopter. To believe that soldiers, officers, and policymakers will react identically to female casualties — or to videos of female troops being tortured by al-Qaeda — is to deny human nature. But denying human nature is of course at the center of the feminist agenda.

I imagine that much of this sexist rhetoric is very similar to racist views expressed by those opposed to the racial desegregation of the U.S. military. That said, it’s not by accident that today’s Republican party recently held a meeting to discuss minority outreach at their winter retreat, at a onetime plantation — yes, they’re consistent. Uh huh. apparently it’s perfectly okay for women to be victims of violence and rape by Americans, but on the off-chance that they fall into the hands of the enemy? Well, for that, they shouldn’t be allowed on the front lines.

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