The anti-Muslim whirlwind continues to be reaped in the United States. For all that the Sarah Palins and Rudy Giuliani’s of the world think that the fight over the Park51 Islamic Center is confined to Manhattan the reality is that it is spreading and getting more and more violent. This weekend the site of new Islamic center outside Nashville was fire bombed. No one was hurt but some very expensive construction equipment was destroyed. Then when some of the members of the group building the mosque were looking at the site, they heard shots fired and reported it to local police.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

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The most impressive element of the current World Cup competition from a humanistic standpoint is the fervent commitment to stamping out international racism.

The appeal is all the more dramatic and meaningful in this year’s edition of the international football classic in that the host nation is South Africa, for all too many years the home of the racially oppressive system called apartheid.

Pictures of Nelson Mandela, the towering beacon of unity and fervent opponent of racism, are seen in evidence at the stadiums where the games are held throughout the nation.

Before the games begin player representatives of the competing national teams deliver statements condemning racism.

After that, in a show of unity, pictures are taken of both teams as the players that will shortly be locked in determined competition are shown posing together. The focus is on understanding and camaraderie as opposed to hate, bigotry and ignorance.

One morning last week after the final World Cup match of that day ended I turned on the radio. As I switched the dial I came to Rush Limbaugh and listened to him explain how Emma Lazarus’ inspiring words were never meant to be a symbol for the nation.

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When a person becomes convinced of a conspiracy, it is often impossible, short of total confirmation of the theory, to get them to give up on it. This is due to the nature of conspiracy theories. They are often based on the idea that all the facts are actually facts and are know able. Any trial lawyer will tell you that the facts are not always knowable, that even the most sober of people will edit their memories in the way that is favorable to their point of view. Sadly reality is not as neat and tight as we would like to pretend.

The fact that Hawaii is invoking the Act 100 clause of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) combined with the Republican Governor of that state saying that she has viewed the presidents birth certificate would be enough to kill the beast that is Birtherism. Sadly Birtherism is a hydra, when you cut off one head, two more grow back.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

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Defenders of the Arizona “Papers Please” law are quick to say that it is not racist. They don’t want it to be seen clearly that this is aimed at Latino immigrants and people from Mexico specifically. The problem is that they are defending the indefensible. The supposedly non-partisan and non-racist folks at FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform) who wrote the law points to the fact it does not single out any immigrant group.

The thing is that it does. There an estimated 12 million informal immigrants in the United States today. When many people hear that they think of a brown hoard of folks who speak Spanish and come from places like Mexico or Guatemala or Honduras. Just like most race based images they are wrong. At last estimate more than 10% of those 12 million are not brown skinned, they are not from places to our south, and they are actually from Europe.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

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Calgary gave American right-wing commentator Ann Coulter a mostly warm welcome last week with a scattering of protesters outnumbered by the nearly 1,000 people who paid to hear her speak.

Coulter would be expected to draw fewer protesters in Calgary because that is basically Conservative Party country and they are probably closer to her beliefs than any other group in the country. According to Shannon Montgomery of The Canadian Press , security personnel at the Red and White Club, a University of Calgary-owned venue, said that about 20 protesters broke a window while banging on the door during Coulter's speech.

They held signs. One of them said "Calgary is Cold to Coulter." A small child's sign read, "I don't have a camel or a flying carpet, can you lend me your broomstick?", a reference to a comment Coulter made earlier this week to a Muslim woman at a university in London, Ont.

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The rise of the Tea Party movement has been quite fast. In less than a year they have (with the help of Fox News and Freedom Works) become a force that many Republicans feel they need to court in order to win in November of the this year. But even with the organization and promotion help they received, there had to be a group that could be molded and promoted in the first place.

There is a lot of talk about the apparent racist aspect of the Tea Party participants. However if there was that big and cohesive a racist feeling in the nation, then various white power groups would have been a major force long before this. Instead of being a motivating factor I think that racism is a side symptom which Progressives are so tuned in to seeing that it obscures what might be the more functional roots of this movement.

"Originally posted at The Seminal

Let’s take a look at who the Tea Party members are. It is true they are overwhelmingly white, but they are also overwhelmingly male, and have attended college. They also tend to be from more rural parts of the nation and skew older. Basically, you can describe them as the conservative wing of the Baby Boomers.

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Crossposted at Daily Kos.com and docudharma.com

It's official. CNN is FOXlite

On Friday, the Southern Poverty Law Center called on CNN to fire Dobbs for trading in "racist conspiracy theories." And some of Dobbs' staff at CNN have told him and network executives that they are uncomfortable with his persistent focus on the story.

Klein defended Dobbs, saying that the host's treatment of the so-called "birther" movement has been "legitimate."

mediamatters.org

Does this guy even watch his own network? Or does he just prefer to let Dobbs's xenophobic McCarthyistic mania masquerade as objective journalism?

Though Klien has told Dobbs that the birther story is a dead end that has not stopped Dobbs from making it news. In this way, the story is kept alive and made more legit. Journalism FAIL.

Still, the claims about Mr. Obama's citizenship persist among a small but vocal group, essentially portraying Mr. Obama as a foreigner who has managed to conceal his origins for nearly five decades.

"It's racist," said Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC. "It's racist. Just call it for what it is."

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Cross posted at Blazing Indiscretions and The Peace Tree.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.

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