Racism
Judge Cebull in the News Again
Wed, 10/31/2012 - 12:09pm — Paul
In an election year case affecting minority voting rights, we can't have confidence that Judge Cebull's decision is unaffected by his own prejudices.
PFAW Foundation
Romney's Right Resorts to Racial Resentment
This week, on the eve of the first presidential debate, right-wing media, led by the Drudge Report, the Daily Caller, and Fox News, hyped a supposedly secret video that they dubbed “the other race speech.” Fox News propagandist Sean Hannity tried desperately to portray the video as “explosive” footage that the liberal media had deliberately hid from voters to protect Barack Obama. Religious Right leaders played their part, with Liberty Counsel’s ludicrous Matt Barber demanding, “Romney simply must make ad upon ad out of this devastating video exposing Obama as a white-hating racist.” Karl Rove, who with a cadre of right-wing billionaires has kept Republican hopes alive by funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into the election, piled on, saying Obama’s comments were designed to “stir up racial animosity” and called them “abhorrent.”
Of course, as it turned out, the video is neither news nor explosive. It is a 2007 campaign speech that had been well covered by mainstream media at the time. Ultimately what is newsworthy and offensive is not Obama’s 2007 speech, but the way that right-wing pundits, desperate to defeat him in November, have resorted to a brazen strategy of stoking racial resentment, and trying to create a distraction by accusing the president of doing the same thing. Not only is Mitt Romney unwilling to stand up to the extremists in his own party, as President Obama pointed out in last night’s debate, Romney and his campaign are fully engaged in destructive racial politicking. It’s worth noting the contrast with John McCain, who sometimes stood up to his party’s extremists; Romney cheers them on.
Some Romney backers are not even bothering to try to cloak the racial-resentment strategy. Right-wing blogger John Hawkins flat-out declared this week, “Barack Obama is an Anti-White Racist.” And he tweeted, “A white woman voting for Barack Obama is like a black woman voting for the KKK.” When Glenn Beck accused Obama of hating white people in 2009, the resulting uproar contributed to an exodus of advertisers from his show. But in 2012, with the election on the line, there’s been no sign that the Romney campaign is troubled by Hawkins’ claims: his pro-Romney writing is still featured on the official campaign website.
Hawkins isn’t alone. Earlier this year, American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer, told his radio listeners: “I believe that President Obama has a fundamental dislike, a fundamental distaste, nay I would even say he’s got what borders on a hatred for white people, and he is out to punish America and the white folks that make up the majority of the American population.”
Salon’s Joan Walsh has dissected the outrageous distortions of Obama’s speech by Hannity and Tucker Carlson in a post about “right-wing racial panic.” Romney officials said the campaign was not responsible for the recent “release” of the 2007 speech, but as Buzzfeed’s Zeke Miller points out, they did not distance themselves from it either. In fact a senior Romney advisor said that voters “have to look at that video and have to make up their mind on that individually.”
Indeed, the Romney campaign itself has made an appeal to racial resentment a centerpiece of its outreach to working-class white voters, who outside the South have been pretty equally divided between Romney and Obama. Exhibit A is the television ad campaign, pretty much universally acknowledged to be an outright lie, charging that Obama gutted welfare reform by getting rid of its work requirement. One ad shows glum white workers while claiming that thanks to Obama, people no longer have to work or train for a job; “they just send you your welfare check.” Later ads have repeated the same false charge.
Romney himself pushed the same point when, gloating to a Republican audience about having been booed when he told NAACP members that he would repeal “Obamacare.” Romney characterized those who disagreed with his speech as people who “want more free stuff” from the government. Journalist Adele Stan of AlterNet has chronicled various ways the Romney campaign is using racial resentment and racially coded language, including the welfare ads, statements such as John Sununu’s claim that Obama needs to learn how to be American, and the choice of “Keep America America” – one letter away from the KKK’s “Keep America American” – as a campaign slogan.
Divisive racial politics have a long history in America, of course. But there is also a more recent history: right-wing leaders have made the politics of racial resentment key to their attacks on President Obama throughout his presidency, as People For the American Way Foundation noted in its 2009 report, “Right Plays the Race Card.” And right-wing groups such as the National Organization for Marriage have made racial wedge issues a centerpiece of their anti-equality campaigns.After this week’s debate, Romney campaign co-chair Sununu described the president as “lazy” and “not that bright.”
Romney might get a bit of a bump out of this week’s debate, though the president’s prospects should be boosted by Friday’s good economic news. The longer President Obama's lead in the polls holds up, the more likely it is that we will see destructive racial politicking from the rabid right-wing.
Judge Cebull to Step Down from Full-Time Status
The U.S. Courts website posted an update this morning that Judge Richard Cebull, Chief U.S. District Judge for Montana, will take senior status in March of 2013. Cebull is currently the subject of a misconduct review by the Judicial Council of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Senior status is a form of semi-retirement where a judge vacates his or her seat and continues to hear some cases, but typically not a full caseload. The status provides a full salary for part-time work.
People For the American Way president Michael Keegan released the following statement:
“Judge Cebull should resign or retire, not take senior status. He used his official email account to send an incredibly disgusting and racist email. When asked why, he said he sent it because he opposes the President.
“Americans expect the courts to be fair, impartial, and open to all. Cebull clearly demonstrated that he does not have the temperament to serve as a federal judge, period.
“Cebull may hope that taking senior status before the misconduct review concludes will help him avoid sanction. But he should be held accountable by the 9th Circuit regardless of his status.
“Taking senior status is a half-measure that allows Cebull to continue hearing cases. That’s not appropriate. He should resign or retire immediately.”
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Mitt Romney and America’s “Anglo-Saxon Heritage"
Wed, 07/25/2012 - 2:56pm — Miranda Blue
Mitt Romney traveled to Europe last night, and flew right into a political mess. Romney’s campaign is running away fast from a comment made by one of the candidate’s foreign policy advisers to Britain’s The Telegraph:
One of his advisers told Britain’s Daily Telegraph on Tuesday that Romney is better positioned than President Obama to foster a strong relationship with the U.K. because of his "Anglo-Saxon" connection to the country. "We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels the relationship is special," the unnamed aide said of Romney. "The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have."
The accusation that President Obama doesn’t appreciate America’s “Anglo-Saxon heritage” is a barely veiled racist attack against the president, not to mention the millions of Americans who are not descended from ancient Britons. Newt Gingrich was getting at the same thing when he accused the president of having a “Kenyan, anti-colonial” worldview. Mike Huckabee was too when he said Obama grew up near “madrassas” rather than “going to Boy Scout meetings.”
Unsurprisingly, the Romney campaign is now denying that the words were ever said (though they won’t specify by whom they were not said, nor have they asked for a retraction). I hope they’re telling the truth: the comment was massively offensive, and shouldn’t be coming from anywhere near a major political campaign. But the Romney campaign’s denials aren’t really letting the candidate off the hook. That sort of comment calls for a strong rebuke, not just a tepid denial.
But I’m not holding my breath. After all, when another Romney surrogate, former George H.W. Bush chief of staff John Sununu said the president needs to "learn how to be an American" – another appeal to the popular right-wing idea that the president is some sort of foreign imposter – Sununu attempted to walk back his own comment, but the campaign was silent.
As it happens, Romney is in a similar situation with another of his foreign policy advisers, former Bush administration official John Bolton who went on anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney’s radio show yesterday to defend Rep. Michele Bachmann’s attacks on Muslim-Americans working for the U.S. government. Bolton’s comments set him apart from prominent Republicans including John McCain and John Boehner, who have rebuked Bachmann’s witch hunt. Yet Romney, who apparently will be only appearing for photo ops in London tomorrow, hasn’t said a word.
PFAW
Rep. Tom Reed's Racist Friends Ridicule His Opponent's Asian Ancestry (VIDEO)
Republican Congressman Tom Reed is running to represent the newly created 23rd district in upstate New York, which covers much of the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier. He has a strong ally in WYSL, a right-wing talk radio station near Rochester that broadcasts throughout much of the district. On the one hand, it’s great to have friends who run a big radio station:
But Reed’s radio buddies caused trouble for him on Friday when they repeatedly ridiculed the Asian ancestry of Reed’s opponent Nate Shinagawa, a Democratic county legislator and hospital administrator from Ithaca. Shinagawa is a third-generation Japanese America whose grandfather was interned in California during World War II, only to enlist in the Marines upon release.
But that stuff doesn’t matter to WYSL host Bill Nojay and owner Bob Savage. They think Shinagawa has a funny name and must not be from around these parts. Here’s what Nojay, Savage, and a producer had to say about Shinagawa last Friday:
Nojay: Now you should be impressed that I know how to pronounce Shinagawa. Shinagawa ready to face Reed. He’s the guy who won the Democrat primary. He hails from the People’s Republic.Producer: He’s gonna lose, just because of his name.Nojay: Now that’s not a particularly nice thing to say.Savage (in a stereotypical, derogatory Asian voice): Xenophobic. Xenophobic.
As the three go on talking about how “Shinagawa is going to lose” and “hasn’t done anything with his life,” a song begins playing in the background – it’s the 1963 hit song “Sukiyaki” by Japanese crooner Kyu Sakamoto. With the song mocking Shinagawa playing in the background, Nojay and his producer reveal just how tight they are with Reed:
Nojay: If I made a contribution to Reed’s campaign, I wonder if I can get a refund. He doesn’t need the money anymore … Whoop, I shouldn’t have said that. He’s gonna get mad at me.Producer: You’re gonna be getting a phone call.Nojay: Alright. Send money now to Tom Reed’s campaign, he’ll make good use of it. Reed’s a great candidate. He does need our help.
You can listen to their segment below. Note that Nojay’s comment about the “People’s Republic” refers to Ithaca and is one of the few things from the segment that isn’t racist. The “People’s Republic” moniker is a popular, if lame, trope of conservatives who like to put down various college towns – especially Berkeley – as being out of touch with real America.
Nojay isn’t just a right-wing talker on WYSL, he’s also a candidate in the GOP primary for a newly drawn seat in the New York Assembly. When he and Savage realized on Monday that not everyone was laughing along with their racist jokes, they decided to play dumb and deny everything. I’ll have more on their cowardly, and implausible, denials shortly, but it’s important not to lose focus on Reed.
Reed hasn’t just appeared multiple times on Nojay’s show. He (or his campaign) is apparently in close contact with Nojay, who used his show to solicit funds for Reed’s campaign. And he had praise heaped upon him at the same time his radio buddies were mocking his opponent’s Asian ancestry.
Reed can’t just excuse himself from this controversy. He has a responsibility to publicly call out his buddies and say that their racism has no place in American politics.
[Right Wing Watch is a project of People For the American Way, whose affiliated PAC has endorsed Shinagawa]
Foreigners Are Like Seasoning, Put in Too Much and You Ruin the Soup: John Derbyshire
White nationalist and former National Review columnist John Derbyshire has a new column on VDARE about this:
In the column, “On Immigration, Liberty, and Mating Choices,” Derbyshire tries to explain his Asian wife to his racist buddies:
VDARE.com contributors and readers all want the same thing: a rational immigration policy that preserves the historic white-European ethnic core of the American nation[.]I have signed on to it; I have for 12 years been writing in support of it; and yet … here am I with an Asian wife!What's up with that?
Derbyshire, after explaining that he’s not a “racial purist” and is “fine with miscegenation,” argues that the VDARE position on immigration (which he calls V1) is not compatible with untrammeled liberty – one that would enable the individual to move freely from country to country. However, he thinks it is likely compatible with the freedom to marry people of other races, so long as only a small percentage of whites actually do so:
Much as we love liberty, a liberty that would swamp our ethnic core, from which all our liberties derive—a liberty incompatible with V1—is not to be tolerated. So forget about that liberty.All right, let's try a different liberty: the liberty to marry whomsoever you want to marry. Might that be incompatible with V1?Yes, it theoretically might; though I don't, in present circumstances, think it is. It depends on your estimate of how wide, and how unsatisfied, is the desire of white Americans to marry people of other races. […]With all due allowances, though, marrying out doesn’t seem to be a huge enthusiasm among white Americans.
Derbyshire immigrants are like seasoning. A little bit makes your soup taste great, but put it too much, and it’ll be ruined:
In the end, it's a question of numbers. If, in some given decade, a thousand, or ten thousand, Chinese or Mexicans settle in the U.S.A., no-one should mind or care. If they were all to marry U.S. citizens, it's still no-one's business. It's not the thousand or the ten thousand that effects demographic revolution: it's the million and ten million. As the late great Enoch Powell used to say: "Numbers are of the essence."To put it slightly differently, it's how you salt your stew. A little salt actually improves the taste; but if the chef were to dump a whole box of salt in there, you'd have a reasonable complaint against the chef.
Quoting the “race-realist blogger” OneSTDV, Derbyshire argues that there’s little desire for overly seasoned soup:
‘Less than 1.5 percent of middle-class white women and about 3.0 percent of lower-class white women are sexually attracted to black men.’He added: ‘Whopping numbers, huh? Hide your daughters and girlfriends!’
Derbyshire’s argument, then, is that we must be racist at the macro level but provide at least some liberty at the micro level for “marrying out,” so long as it doesn’t affect the overall macro trend:
A crowd, a neighborhood, a race, a nation, is unfortunately not an individual, and in many life situations statistics—what baseball managers call “going with the percentages” —must be our guide.Mate selection is not one of those situations.
That, I suppose, is about the best argument a white nationalist can make to his buddies about his Asian wife. But it’s worth pointing out that Derbyshire’s own “mating choices” are in line with the thoroughly debunked racial theory of IQ famously set forth in the Bell Curve and promoted by VDARE and the affiliated – and more aggressively racist – Alternative Right:
The differences in average IQ among races has been fairly well-established, with Asians having the highest IQ scores, whites next, and blacks third. This order – Asians, whites, blacks – or the reverse order, can be seen in many aspects of life and society.
White Nationalist Leader Peter Brimelow Still Working for Dow Jones’ MarketWatch
On Tuesday I wrote about John Derbyshire’s firing from National Review over a racist screed he authored for another publication. I also noted that prominent white nationalist Peter Brimelow, of VDARE.com and Alternative Right, was rallying support for Derbyshire. Brimelow has posted an update on VDARE saying that he’s spoken with Derbyshire, who “has agreed to start a weekly column for us as soon as his health allows—maybe as soon as next week! Help us pay him as much as possible!”
Brimelow himself served as senior editor at National Review from 1993 until he was purged in 1998 for his white nationalist views. He then founded VDARE as safe-space of a different sort – one where racists, bigots, and hereditarians could meet and share their views. It’s no surprise then that Derbyshire, who was also purged for white nationalist views, would land at VDARE.
What is surprising is that Brimelow is still writing for Dow Jones’ MarketWatch, whose management knows full well about Brimelow’s other activities. You may recall that Brimelow made a controversial appearance in February at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Conference organizers preemptively distanced themselves from Brimelow, who spoke out against both illegal and legal immigration:
Brimelow participated on a panel discussion called "The failure of Multiculturalism: How the pursuit of diversity is weakening American Identity" at CPAC on Thursday. During the panel discussion, Brimelow and other panelists said immigration is polluting America. […]Brimelow, an immigrant from Great Britain, said he's opposed to not only illegal immigration, but legal immigration too. He said it is creating a "Spanish speaking underclass parallel to the African American underclass.""These are people who are completely dysfunctional. They're on welfare; they're not doing any kind of work - at least not legal work - and their children are having a terrible time. They're dropping out of school; there's an increase in teenage pregnancy," Brimelow said. […]California is "rapidly turning into hispanic slum." He said California used to be "paradise" but is now "totally overrun by barrios of illegal immigrants."
Following the panel, Mark Lacter of LA Observed and Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider both asked aloud why MarketWatch was employing a white nationalist organizer as a columnist. Both then reached out to MarketWatch about Brimelow and said they’d update their posts when they heard back. That was in February. As of today – there are no updates, and Brimelow is still writing twice weekly for MarketWatch:
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Brimelow’s MarketWatch column focuses on the stock market, gold prices and economic forecasting, and it must be said that Brimelow was once a full-time financial journalist. In fact, he was as an editor for years at Fortune, Forbes, Influence and the Financial Post and served as economic counsel for Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). But in the early 90s he transitioned from business to politics, serving as senior editor at National Review, and by the late 90s he was a professional white nationalist.
Once Brimelow made that transition, he lost legitimacy and found that previously open doors had been closed. National Review senior editor Ramesh Ponnuru wrote in 2007 that “Brimelow regularly whines about his justly stalled career.” Stalled, that is, with the exception of MarketWatch.
The question – already asked by Business Insider and LA Observed – remains: Why is Dow Jones’ MarketWatch employing a white nationalist? And not just any white nationalist, but a national racist organizer who is riding to the rescue of John Derbyshire, who was fired by the right-wing National Review for penning a “nasty and indefensible” column about why whites should avoid contact with blacks.
UPDATE: Ask MarketWatch directly at @MarketWatch
Purged White Nationalists Circle the Wagons at VDARE and Alternative Right
Former National Review contributing editor John Derbyshire has friends in low places. Derbyshire, who was fired for a racist article he wrote for Takimag, told Gawker that he plans to write for a series of white nationalist publications:
Will you continue at Taki's Magazine?Derbyshire: Haven't thought much about it. Yes, Takimag is very congenial. I'll probably try to write for other opposition-conservative outlets too, if they want me: VDARE, AltRight, American Renaissance, and so on. I know a lot of the proprietors there.
VDARE itself was founded by Peter Brimelow, who himself was a senior editor at National Review from 1993 to 1998. He was eventually purged for his explicitly racist views and founded VDARE to provide a forum for like-minded reactionaries.
Currently, VDARE is running a personal fundraising appeal from Brimelow concerning Derbyshire’s firing under the headline “Help VDARE.com Save Immigration Patriots From Living In “A State Of Constant Fear”!”:
I always hate closing VDARE.com during appeals. And it’s particularly frustrating now, with the continuing Two-Minute hate of John Derbyshire. Note that, as far as I can see, not one Establishment Conservative voice has been raised in his defense—indeed, many are joining in the Hate. These cowards are practically begging Obama to play the race card against them in this fall’s election. But our Spring Appeal is always critical to getting us through the cash drought in the summer. And it’s now more obvious that ever that VDARE.com must survive if voices like Derbyshire’s are to be heard. I was delighted to see that, in his remarkable Gawker interview posted last night, Derbyshire named VDARE.com as one of the sites he hopes to write for—if his health permits. […]John Derbyshire is merely the latest victim.Without betraying confidences, I hope that John Derbyshire will resume writing for us—he was prevented from doing so by NR’s current degenerate (and fearful) management.But we will need to pay him. We need to pay all our writers.
While Brimelow is best known for VDARE, he is also the driving force behind one of the other publications that Derbyshire mentioned – AltRight (short for Alternative Right). Brimelow announced the launch of Alternative Right in March, 2010:
Our friend Richard Spencer, until recently editor of Takimag, has launched his new webzine, Alternative Right. It features an excellent essay by Richard Hoste on the need for an “Alternative Right” here. You can donate to Alternative Right here. Alternative Right is currently a project of the VDARE Foundation and donations are tax-deductible.
Alternative Right often manages to make VDARE look moderate by comparison. Here, frequent contributor Colin Liddell says that European colonialism of Africa should be seen as a “vote of confidence” in the “Black man”:
So, what use does the global economic order have for Africa? Sadly, the Africans are terrible producers, lacking the precision, conscientiousness, group ethic, and self-sacrificing qualities needed to constitute a hard-working, reliable industrial population. Not to mention the issue of IQ! They are equally inept when it comes to consumption, and not only because of their proverbial penury and otherwise laudable penchant for reusing every piece of junk that comes their way. Even when they have money to burn, they seem more attracted to simple bling than to acquiring the wide variety of gizmos, gadgets, home appliances, bric-a-brac, and exotic interests that support vast export industries. [...]This is how 19th-century colonialism really should be seen—as a vote of confidence by Europeans in the capabilities and ultimate potential of the Black man.
And here, blogger Richard Hoste sets out the mission of Alternative Right:
We've known for a while through neuroscience and cross-adoption studies--if common sense wasn't enough--that individuals differ in their inherent capabilities. The races do, too, with whites and Asians on the top and blacks at the bottom. The Alternative Right takes it for granted that equality of opportunity means inequality of results for various classes, races, and the two sexes. Without ignoring the importance of culture, we see Western civilization as a unique product of the European gene pool. [...]For example, low-IQ Mexican immigration is the greatest threat to America. Anti-discrimination laws should be repealed not only because they're unconstitutional and infringe on the right to free association, but because whites have very good reasons for avoiding NAMs. Schools should stop wasting time trying to close achievement gaps. And not only do whites have nothing to feel guilty about, they are the best thing to ever happen to blacks. Even ignoring race, humanity will not move forward through equality or by raising up the really stupid to the level of just plain stupid.
It appears that John Derbyshire will fit right in.
John Derbyshire and National Review – What Took So Long?
Over the weekend, National Review editor Rich Lowry ended the magazine’s long relationship with contributing editor John Derbyshire (“Derb”) over a racist article he wrote for another publication:
His latest provocation, in a webzine, lurches from the politically incorrect to the nasty and indefensible. We never would have published it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it is by a National Review writer. Derb is effectively using our name to get more oxygen for views with which we’d never associate ourselves otherwise.
Lowry is certainly right to call Derbyshire’s piece “nasty and indefensible,” but I’m not so sure about his claim that National Review would never associate itself with such views. After all, they’ve been associated for years with people who hold such views, despite efforts to purge the magazine of so-called paleo-conservatives.
Here’s a taste of the article that got Derbyshire fired, which consisted of a list of suggested items for white and Asian parents to tell their teenage sons:
- (10a) Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally.
- (10b) Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods.
- (10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date (neglect of that one got me the closest I have ever gotten to death by gunshot).
- 10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.
- (10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.
- (10f) Do not settle in a district or municipality run by black politicians.(10g) Before voting for a black politician, scrutinize his/her character much more carefully than you would a white.
- (10h) Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway.
Back in February, Derbyshire appeared on the notorious CPAC panel on the “Failure of Multiculturalism,” which featured prominent white nationalist Peter Brimelow. Brimelow himself was a senior editor at National Review from 1993 until he was purged by William F. Buckley, Jr in 1998. He then went on to found VDARE.com, which he named after the first white child born in the Americas to English parents.
At CPAC, Derbyshire argued that society could avoid disaster and racial violence by accepting that some groups (e.g. blacks) are inherently inferior and other groups (e.g. whites) are inherently superior. Once society accepted this premise, Derbyshire argued, individuals would be happier and know their stations in life:
Imagine you are a member of a group that, in the generality, underachieves socially and economically: a black in the U.S.A., an Inuit in Canada, a Pacific Islander in New Zealand, even a Malay in Malaysia. If the Standard Model is true, the only possible explanation for your group's underachievement is malice on the part of other groups. Hence the rancor, resentment, rage, and division.If, on the other hand, group underachievement is a consequence of the laws of biology working on human populations, there is no blame to assign. The fact of group inequalities, even in societies that have striven mightily to remove them, is as natural and inevitable as individual inequality, which nobody minds very much. The only proper object of blame is Mother Nature; and she is capable of inflicting far worse things on us than mere statistical disparities between ancient inbred populations.Under a reigning philosophy of candor and realism, each of us can strive to be the best he can be, to play as best he can the hand he's been dealt, in liberty and equality under the law.
The CPAC speech, which was published verbatim on VDARE, is arguably even more offensive and racist than the one that got him fired, but it wasn’t as explicit. The National Review apparently tolerates racism so long as there’s a sheen of intellect or sophistication. Derbyshire made the mistake of being too honest about his extremist views, and Lowry was forced to act.
UPDATE: Peter Brimelow is currently running a fundraising appeal on VDARE that suggests that National Review editors knew about Derbyshire's racist inclinations and were keeping him on a short leash: "Without betraying confidences, I hope that John Derbyshire will resume writing for us—he was prevented from doing so by NR’s current degenerate (and fearful) management."
Three Montana Legislators Support Disgraced Federal Judge
Fri, 03/09/2012 - 6:11pm — Paul
Efforts to reframe Cebull as a victim of oppression show a lack of basic understanding about the American justice system.
PFAW Foundation
PFAW Calls on Federal Judge Who Sent Sexist and Racist Email to Resign
People For the American Way President Michael Keegan issued the following statement in response to reports that Judge Richard Cebull, Chief U.S. District Court judge for Montana used his official court email account to send a sexist and racist “joke” email about President Obama:
“Americans expect our courts to be fair, impartial, and open to all. The trust we have in our courts relies on knowing that our judges will approach all litigants – from billion-dollar corporations to individual citizens – with fair and open minds.
“Judge Cebull, by using his official email account to promote racism, misogyny and disrespect for the office of President of the United States, has shown that he does not have the temperament necessary to fulfill his duties as judge. He should resign immediately.”
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The Racist Email that Federal Judge Richard Cebull Sent to His ‘Buddies’ about President Obama’s Mom
By now you’ve probably heard the news that Judge Richard Cebull, Chief U.S. District Judge for Montana, sent a “joke” email from his courthouse chambers, using his official court email account, that compares African Americans to dogs. Here’s the punchline:
A little boy said to his mother, “Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white?”His mother replied, “Don't even go there, Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!”
The text of the email is bad enough, but it’s even worse when you see how the email appeared on Judge Cebull’s screen. Below you can see the email as it appeared on the web last September.
Judge Cebull, who was nominated by President Bush and has served since 2001, admits he read the email, knew it was racist and intended to pass it along to his “old buddies.” He has apologized “to anybody who is offended by it,” which isn’t really much of an apology. He should be apologizing for the substance, not the perception, of his act.
Judge Cebull gave this explanation to John S. Adams of the Great Falls Tribune, who broke the story:
"The only reason I can explain it to you is I am not a fan of our president, but this goes beyond not being a fan," Cebull said. "I didn't send it as racist, although that's what it is. I sent it out because it's anti-Obama." […]Cebull said he does not consider himself prejudiced against people of other races or ethnic backgrounds, and that his actions in his courtroom have demonstrated that.
It’s one thing to criticize President Obama’s policies or leadership or even his character. But to insult his mother and equate interracial sex with bestiality? That’s completely beyond the pale.
What is the psychology of a federal judge who, while sitting in his chambers checking his official email, reads an email like that and decides to pass it along? It begs the question of whether Judge Cebull can fairly hear cases involving discrimination, race, the President, and so on.
Here’s the full email:
CPAC: White Nationalism Shunned in 2011, Welcomed in 2012
How times have changed. Last year, white nationalist Jamie Kelso attended CPAC looking for European-American allies in his quest to keep America genetically pure and lily-white. However, his potential young recruits weren’t having any of it:
As Ed Morrissey reported on Hot Air:
A group of young attendees, and a few older conservatives as well, at first politely rebuff Kelso’s racist arguments, and then begin aggressively arguing with him in the hallway. Ron Paul supporters told him four times to take off his Campaign for Liberty button and paraphernalia.
The Daily Caller reported that Kelso “got an earful from some conservative activists who sent him packing” and “let him know that racism is not welcome in the conservative movement.” It was heartening to see young conservatives take a stand against the kind of bigotry that has no place in modern conservatism.
That was 2011. CPAC 2012 has revealed that the paleoconservatives are still firmly in control.
The conservative gay rights group, GOProud, was banned this year, but two prominent white nationalists were allowed to appear on a panel opposing multiculturalism.
And they were hardly sent packing. Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa fawned over Peter Brimelow, founder of the white nationalist site VDARE, saying, “I read your books!” Tomorrow, white nationalist Bob Vandervoort is scheduled to appear alongside two other Republican members of Congress.
Michael Keegan Speaks with Al Sharpton about White Nationalists at CPAC
Fri, 02/10/2012 - 10:25am — Miranda
On Wednesday, PFAW sent out an alert urging the GOP presidential candidates speaking at this week's Conservative Political Action Conference, to denounce the views of a white nationalist leader who had been invited to speak on a panel at the same event.
No GOP leaders have spoken up yet.
Last night, PFAW president Michael Keegan joined Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC's PoliticsNation to discuss why a figure like Peter Brimelow is welcomed to the premier event of the conservative movement:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
PFAW's researchers and bloggers will be monitoring the conference through Saturday...you can follow their reports over at Right Wing Watch.
PFAW
GOP Presidential Candidates Should Denounce Bigotry of White Nationalist Featured at CPAC
People For the American Way today called on GOP presidential candidates to speak out against the inclusion of a white nationalist leader this week at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference.
The conference—which will be addressed by Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and other GOP leaders— will be hosting Peter Brimelow, the founder of VDARE, a white nationalist website which frequently publishes the works of anti-Semitic and racist writers. Brimelow, an immigrant from Great Britain, has expressed fear of the loss of America’s white majority, blames non-white immigrants for social and economic problems and urges the Republican Party to give up on minority voters and focus on winning the white vote. He said that a New York City subway is the same as an Immigration and Naturalization Service waiting room, “an underworld that is not just teeming but also almost entirely colored.”
“It’s shocking that the CPAC would provide a platform for someone like Brimelow,” said Michael Keegan, President of People For the American Way. “Responsible GOP leaders should speak out against the bigotry and hatred that Brimelow and VDARE push on a regular basis. That’s doubly true of anyone who aspires to the presidency of the United States. Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum need to make it perfectly clear that they won’t be silent when they’re confronted with racism and anti-Semitism.”
VDARE has published the work of people like Robert Weissberg, who says that black and Hispanic students are responsible for problems in the American education system, Marcus Epstein, the Youth for Western Civilization leader who karate-chopped a black woman after calling her a n****r (and later pled guilty to assault), and J. Philippe Rushton of the eugenicist Pioneer Fund.
“The inclusion of Brimelow is all the more galling given the fact that another group, GOProud, was excluded from the conference simply for advocating equality for gay people,” said Keegan. “CPAC should make very clear that hatred has no place in our civic discourse.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center lists VDARE as a White Nationalist hate group and notes that “VDARE.com’s archives contain articles like ‘Freedom vs. Diversity,’ ‘Abolishing America,’ ‘Anarcho-Tyranny — Where Multiculturalism Leads’ and ‘Why Immigrants Kill.”
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Youth for Western Civilization: Apartheid Apologists
Last year at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the group Youth for Western Civilization hosted a panel with anti-immigrant activist Bay Buchanan, former congressman and presidential candidate Tom Tancredo (R-CO), former congressman Virgil Goode (R-VA) and Pennsylvania congressman Lou Barletta (R-PA) which focused on the purported persecution and marginalization of white Americans due to what Tancredo called “the cult of multiculturalism” that is a “dagger pointed at the heart of Western Civilization.” It appeared that Republican leaders and CPAC had no problem giving credence to an extremist group with ties to European neo-fascists whose founder, Marcus Epstein, was arrested and pled guilty to a hate crime after karate chopping a black woman on a street while calling her a “nigger,” in fact, Youth for Western Civilization is a co-sponsor of CPAC 2012.
On Monday, Youth for Western Civilization announced a new campaign called, “Stop the Boer Genocide,” which claims that black South Africans and the South African government have “orchestrated the systematic slaughter of the white community.”
The group paints a rosy picture of the Apartheid system that was in place between 1948 and 1994 where a tiny white elite controlled the government and economy and violently repressed the country’s black majority, praising the racist government for efforts “against rampant gambling and homosexuality stopped the spread of moral decay” and for “promoting the family” and “strong Christian values.”
Youth for Western Civilization called Nelson Mandela, the first president of a democratic South Africa who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his anti-Apartheid activism, a “terrorist” who “has far more in common with the thugs behind the Rwandan genocide than the heroic freedom fighter he is touted to be.” “At the hands of mobs led by the ANC and murderers like Nelson Mandela who are hell bent on the rape and murder of every white in South Africa,” the group writes, “the Afrikaners are at a crossroads.”
While there are legitimate concerns about racial violence in post-Apartheid South Africa, Youth for Western Civilization is accusing the South African government of pushing the “extermination” against whites and applauding the old Apartheid system, which the group claims “gave an honest chance to the black majority to help build a republic that respected all human rights.” With such blatant nostalgia for the violent racist system, why are Republicans and CPAC continuing to give this group a platform to spew their nostalgia for apartheid?
PFAWF to Lowe's: Catering to Hate Is Bad for Business, Bad for America
Lowe's Home Improvement's decision to pull advertising from TLC's "All-American Muslim" in the wake of an email campaign by a Florida-based right-wing hate group sets a dangerous precedent and emboldens bigots.
PFAW Report: How the Republican Party Came to Embrace Hate-Monger Bryan Fischer
Bryan Fischer is an extreme Religious Right commentator, spokesman for the American Family Association and talk-show host. He specializes in serving up a daily dose of vitriolic hate against gays and lesbians, non-Christians, progressives and virtually anyone who disagrees with his fanatical interpretation of the Constitution and the Bible.
The GOP’s Favorite Hate-Monger: How the Republican Party Came to Embrace Bryan Fischer
Meet Bryan Fischer, a Right Wing extremist who tirades against gays and lesbians, Muslims, progressives, members of the military and President Obama. Prominent Republican leaders and conservative activists increasingly lend undeserved credibility to him, reflecting the GOP’s embrace of the Right Wing’s escalating radicalism.
Why is the GOP keeping women and people of color off the bench?
To: Interested Parties
From: Marge Baker
Re: Why is the GOP keeping women and people of color off the bench?
Date: May 31, 2011
Last week, all Senate Republicans except Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski united to block Goodwin Liu, President Obama’s nominee to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, from getting an up or down confirmation vote.
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