Throwback Thursday Presents - Mike Steele In The Hour Of Chaos

Former head of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, is trying to give Reince Priebus the business for not standing up to the racist bigotry of Donald Trump.  But there was a time when Steele was the head of the RNC, and had his own problems with a racist entertainer.  How did that turn out?  Well, Pepperidge Farms remembers, and so do I.

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Part 2 of an ongoing series, "Mike Steele In The Hour of Chaos"... heh...

(This was the second of three pieces I wrote on Steele)

Pardon me, but I'm having way too much fun enjoying the Republican Party's circular firing squad open fire on each other. In a brief moment of leadership, RNC Chairman tried to wander off the plantation and actually declare that he, not Rush Limbaugh, is the de facto leader of the Republican Party. In an interview with DL Hughley (on Hughley's CNN show - which has been bad, from little I've seen... but this particular episode featured Public Enemy's Chuck D), Steele seemed to have grown a pair when he said:

"I'm the de facto leader of the Republican Party..."

He went on to say that Limbaugh's show is "incendiary" and "ugly", and that Rush was a mere entertainer.

Well, Rush didn't take it too well that one of his boys got downright uppity. Rush responded by saying this:

"So I am an entertainer and I have 20 million listeners because of my great song and dance routine... Michael Steele, you are head of the Republican National Committee. You are not head of the Republican party. Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans have nothing to do with the Republican National Committee...and when you call them asking for money, they hang up on you."

...my sentiments exactly...

Here is Steele's first chance to assert himself as the leader of the Republican Party, in name and in deed. Here is his chance to begin to reclaim the party, and rescue it from the neanderthals, the miscreants, the racists, and the troglodytes. Here is his chance to prove that the Republican Party is ready for a change, and ready to act in the best interests of the country, and not rely on petty partisan crapola. RNC Chairman Michael Steele, the floor is yours.

My intent was not to go after Rush – I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh,” Steele said in a telephone interview. “I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. … There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.”

Oh Mikey... Epic Fail on your part... falling on your face like that...

Steele goes on to say:

“I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking... It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of people … want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not."

“I’m not going to engage these guys and sit back and provide them the popcorn for a fight between me and Rush Limbaugh ...No such thing is going to happen. … I wasn’t trying to slam him or anything.”

“He brings a very important message to the American people to wake up and pay attention to what the administration is doing ...Number two, there are those out there who want to look at what he’s saying as incendiary and divisive and ugly. That’s what I was trying to say. It didn’t come out that way. … He does what he does best, which is provoke: He provokes thought, he provokes the left. And they’re clearly the ones who are most excited about him.”

Asked if he planned to apologize, Steele said: “I wasn’t trying to offend anybody. So, yeah, if he’s offended, I’d say: Look, I’m not in the business of hurting people’s feelings here. … My job is to try to bring us all together.”

And there it is. When Steele dares to wander too far from the plantation, we can count on Rush to execute his St. Ronald of Reagan Pimp Hand, to get Steele back into line. Make that money for Big Daddy Rush, Mikey... make that money. And don't let Rush catch you on some reckless eyeballin'... the GOPimp Hand will be back to remind you of your place.

Now... dance, boy.

"I Want My Country Back" - Revisiting What Got Us Here

I wrote this back in 2009.  It's not that difficult to see where Dylann Roof got some of his ideas.  And my prayers continue to go out to all of the Emanuel AME Church family and community.

Now, let's fire up the Shut'cher Gobbige Mowf Wayback Machine...

It's the next great Battle Cry of the Stupid Conservative.

Sean Hannity

Glenn Beck

Katy Abrams (circled)

What do all of these people have in common? They, and others like them, have been complaining as loudly as they can that because of Barack Obama's Presidency and his daring to reform health care, he is transforming America in ways that make them sick. They have all been grabbing open mikes and shrieking into them that "This is not the America I grew up in!" These folks have corrupted legitimate town-hall discussions that the Democratic Party members are trying to sponsor. The very idea of health care reform for people who can't afford health care is so ghastly, so unimaginable, so downright heinous that it's just... just... it's just unamerican, that's what it is. At least, that's what the people who utter these sentiments would have you believe.

This post isn't about the merits of health care, or the pluses and minuses of the Single Payer Option. This post is about hatred. Violent, intense hatred that is bubbling its way to the surface... hatred that is formed in a cauldron of ignorance, boiling into a witches' brew of potential violence and unrest, being stirred by witches straight out of Shakespearean lore. What is it that have their collective panties in a huge bunch? Is it health care? Is it war? Is it the economy? None of the above, my friends. The thing that has angered up the blood of these people... the thing that has some white people feeling like America is being snatched from them (the irony of them complaining about America being taken from them is so rich that it oughta be poured on pancakes and served with cheese eggs and sausage or bacon... now I'm all hungry... but I digress)... the common denominator that has all of these people showing up at health care rallies carrying GUNS...














...to these rallies... the common denominator is an African-American President of the United States.

These people want us to believe that they're being good, patriotic citizens who are exercising their rights to free speech. To them, I say "Shet'cher gobbige mowf!" The fact is that I don't care who you are, or where you're from, you bring a gun as a SHOW OF FORCE. You bring a gun if you feel SERIOUSLY THREATENED, and not just because a liberal President wants to make sure that an unemployed person won't go bankrupt because they have to go to the doctor. The person on the right was carrying a sign quoting Thomas Jefferson. The quote is pictured here:









Now, on the surface, a quote from Thomas Jefferson is downright patriotic. But the ominous undertone of this sign is getting everyone's attention. You see, this quote is very popular among the right-wing militias. It was also on a t-shirt worn by Timothy McVeigh. Some things may be coincidence. This, however, isn't one of them. A man coming to protest health care sponsored by the President by carrying a gun and a sign with a slogan favored by a domestic terrorist? Sheer coincidence? Right, and I have some oceanfront property in Chicago that I'm willing to unload, cheap.

Back to the original point here, these people are angry that a Black man has gotten way past uppity to the point where he is taking America away from them. These people lament about the America they grew up in... you mean the America with attack dogs and firehoses turned on Black people, Black churches bombed with horrifying regularity, lynchings being as commonplace as church meetings? You mean the America where women were seen at their best when they were barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen? The election of President Obama appears to be the crowning moment of privileged white people's tenuous grip on America. They want to go back to the days of "Pleasantville" and "Andy Griffith", and they want ALL of us to believe that America was better then.

Ask Emmit Till about that America. Ask Malcolm X. Ask Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Ask the four little girls who were attending church in Alabama. Ask the thousands who became the "Strange Fruit" that Billie Holliday sang about.

What's that? You CAN'T? Gee, I wonder why. After all, they were just as much a part of "that America" as the images of "Happy Days" and drive-thru diners. The horrors of violence for the sake of keeping the status quo is just about as American as apple pie.

It seems that the election of President Obama has gotten these racists to be bolder about their racism. It began to rear its ugly head during the campaign (there are plenty of videos of Palin/McCain supporters spewing their ugliness in the form of "kill him" and "terrorist"). And as Obama continues to move forward in his Presidency, the cute little whispers by the neo-cons have become all-out rallying cries. They feel that the President isn't a U.S. citizen. They feel that he is secretly a Muslim... or a practitioner of Liberation Theology. "Their America" now has a Black man as a commander-in-chief, and they are scared. They are angry. And as these rallies (again, HEALTH CARE REFORM rallies) demonstrate just how mad they are. Mad enough to accuse the President of ushering in a terrible wave of socialism. Mad enough to say "Heil Hitler" to a Jewish man who was supporting Israel's nationalized health care. Mad enough to shout that their country is being taken away.

Mad enough to carry loaded weapons to a health care rally.

Now, when Bush was President, the Left gave him a lot of "Hitler" grief. But I think that the difference between the Left and the Right is that the Right has more elected officials and serious media sponsors to support, promote, and disseminate the dangerous propaganda that's polluting political discourse. When you have elected officials, people like Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity, and industry lobbyists all working together to undermine the efforts of the President and paint him as an enemy of the people or some sort of exotic foreign outsider causing trouble, things can only get worse. Very tragically worse.

Just think... with the last administration, people got arrested for wearing ANTI-BUSH T-SHIRTS. Now, you have protesters coming into the picture armed and ready for a fight... even if they have to be the ones that start it.

Let's Ban A.P. History! (Or, The Perils Of Whitewashing American History)

On a Facebook discussion about Oklahoma looking to ban A.P. History, a person suggested that every country has blood on its hands, as a precursor to the old-fashioned "American Exceptionalism" argument.  I then said, jokingly, "Is this the part where we should be thankful for the horrors of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade?"  

She responded with this:

// Ty, are you personally better off because your ancestors where brought here in a slave ship? That's only for you to answer. I know I'm better off because my ancestors escaped disease, tyranny and persecution from their homeland. However we got here, we are here now.

I think the real question is today; Are you personally better off than your relatives in the home of your ancestors? What would your answer be? //

And this was my answer:

I'm going to attempt to answer this as objectively as possible, without snark or sarcasm.

Your phrase about your ancestors ESCAPING disease, tyranny, and disease should tell you about the fundamental differences in our perspectives, and why the study of REAL, unbiased history is important. Your ancestors ESCAPED tyranny. MINE were brought INTO tyranny. Everything in this country that my ancestors and forefathers have, we fought for, tooth and nail, and shed blood, sweat, and tears.

As a Black man and as a Christian, I am often confronted with the over-simplification of being "thankful" for slavery. Pet Negro Apologists like Jesse Lee Peterson try to minimize the horrors that my ancestors were subjected to in the belly of the slave ships. They want the white Conservatives that they are trying to appease to believe that it was simply a "mere inconvenience" that our people were stuffed into the hulls of slave ships, because after all, they got a free cruise out of the deal. You think I'm exaggerating, but I've heard Black conservatives say terrifyingly similar things.

Then you say "However we got here, we are here now" which completely whitewashes (no pun intended) how we GOT here. Part of "however we got here" included the slavemasters, the government, and even the Pope using the faith that I profess (Christianity) as a tool of subjugation and dehumanization. Would you tell the Native Americans "we are here now" when they were here before ANY of us? "However we got here" included a United States Supreme Court justice say, from the bench, that a Black man does not have any rights that white people are obligated to recognize. "However we got here" includes a long and bloody history of lynchings for such crimes as looking at white women and voting. "However we got here" included the bombing of a Black church, killing four little girls. "However we got here" included the assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and scores of others. "However we got here" included segregated facilities. "However we got here" included firehoses and police dogs turned on Black people for fighting for HUMAN RIGHTS. "However we got here" included the obliteration of prosperous Black communities like Rosewood and Black Wall Street (something that, when I was in school, wasn't taught).

Then you ask if I am better off that my relatives in the home of my ancestors. This is a question that attempts to over-simplify the historical significance, and it attempts to say (at least to me) that the ends justified the means. Oh, we have a Black President now, so sorry about that whole Jim Crow thing... we good, right? Hey, we have Colin Powell and Condeleeza Rice! That makes up for the midnight rides of the Ku Klux Klan, right? Going back to the Native Americans, would you ask them if they are better off now than they were before we (collectively) took their homeland and wiped out their people? You're basically asking if the recipients of genocide would be better off as a RESULT of that genocide.

And to answer your question, I don't know if I would be better off than my relatives in Africa... because I don't know who my "people" are. A lot of us don't have the luxury of tracing our genealogy back to when they graced this country's shore. That's because back then, a lot of us were treated as cargo. As property. As objects. As inventory. Remember, families were broken up if a slave master wanted a young buck male for field work, but another master wanted a "little nigger wench" to warm his bed at night.

This... ALL of this is why people are upset that conservatives want to rewrite American History to emphasize just how great the founding fathers were, and to ignore the bloodshed and sacrifices that it took to get us to this point. If we want to learn about American History, we need to learn all of it, and learn it ACCURATELY. When conservatives want to act as if this country was founded as a Christian one (which it wasn't, and can be proven both historically and Biblically), we owe it to EVERY drop of blood dropped to assure that EVERY story gets told CORRECTLY, warts and all. There's no direct lineage from Moses to Jesus Christ to St. Ronald of Reagan, despite what Republicans try to tell us. If we can celebrate D-Day, and think solemnly of Pearl Harbor and 9/11, then we can also celebrate EVERY nation's contribution to this country, and how people from different backgrounds succeeded not BECAUSE of America, but IN SPITE of her.

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tl;dr:  Every vote counts, because if you don't vote, you let the winners write the history books, and write you right out of them, because 'Murika.

Happy MLK Day, Dinesh D'Souza...

Dinesh D'Souza is a reprehensible toad, a liar, a propaganda specialist, and a convicted felon, convicted of voter fraud.

I may be a convicted felon, and it may be due to voter fraud, but I still know what's best for 'Murika...

 Today, we honor the legacy and memory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  D'Souza, who couldn't resist an opportunity to try to co-opt the legacy of Dr. King, posted a picture to his Facebook page, with the caption saying:

How I wish we had a Martin Luther King today instead of thugs and scam-artists like Sharpton, Jackson, Holder—and Obama.

The legacy of Dr. King is something that I hold near and dear.  I refused to let this piece of tripe pass without offering my humble opinion.  On his wall, I posted:

Oh no you don't. Dr. King fought AGAINST some of the things that your ilk look to preserve. Remember that before Dr. King was assassinated, he was lending his support to PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS in Memphis, Tennessee. So, are you going to tell me that you and your type are suddenly in favor of worker rights and public sector unions? You and your ilk love to cherry-pick your favorite part of Dr. King's iconic "I Have A Dream Speech", just so that you can bastardize your favorite part about the "content of one's character." It's too bad that you are so manipulative and short-sighted in your quest to claim Dr. King as one of your own that you fail to listen to the ENTIRE speech, as well as other brilliant speeches and writings by the eminent Dr. King.

Do you think that Dr. King would be in favor of the suppression of voter rights that took place after the decimation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965? Do you think that Dr. King would support the idea of the wealthy not paying their fair share of income taxes? Do you think that Dr. King would march in support of robbing the public sector of basic social services? Do you think that Dr. King would villainize the poor as "moochers and takers"? For the love of God, stop it. You make me sick.

And does someone who is now known as a CONVICTED FELON for VOTER FRAUD really want to throw stones about who may or may not be a SCAM ARTIST?! Instead of trying to co-opt the legacy of Dr. King for your own self-serving needs, you should be spending time thanking God that you're not posting from a prison cell while waiting for Fleece Johnson to trade you for a pack of cigarettes.

I won't let any Republican/conservative try to co-opt the legacy of Dr. King, just to claim that he was one of their very own.  Not on my watch.