faboo mama

I just read Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment on Ferraro’s remarks. Some highlights:

And when this despicable statement — ugly in its overtones, laughable in its weak grip of facts, and moronic in the historical context — when it floats outward from the Clinton Campaign like a poison cloud, what do the advisors have their candidate do?

Do they have Senator Clinton herself compare the remark to Al Campanis talking on Nightline… on Jackie Robinson day… about how blacks lacked the necessities to become baseball executives, while she points out that Barock Obama has not gotten his 1600 delegates as part of some kind of Affirmative Action plan?
[snip]

No.
Somebody tells her that simply disagreeing with and rejecting the remarks is sufficient.
And she should then call, “regrettable”, words that should make any Democrat retch.
And that she should then try to twist them, first into some pox-on-both-your-houses plea to ’stick to the issues,’ and then to let her campaign manager try to bend them beyond all recognition, into Senator Obama’s fault.
And thus these advisers give Congresswoman Ferraro nearly a week in which to send Senator Clinton’s campaign back into the vocabulary… of David Duke.

“Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let’s address reality and the problems we’re facing in this world, you’re accused of being racist, so you have to shut up.
“Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white.
“How’s that?”

And…

This, Senator Clinton, is your campaign, and it is your name.
Grab the reins back from whoever has led you to this precipice, before it is too late.
Voluntarily or inadvertently, you are still awash in this filth.
Your only reaction has been to disagree, reject, and to call it regrettable.
Her only reaction has been to brand herself as the victim, resign from your committee, and insist she will continue to speak.
Unless you say something definitive, Senator, the former Congresswoman is speaking with your approval.
You must remedy this.
And you must… reject… and denounce… Geraldine Ferraro.

Yay. Keith spoke up. Rockin’!

Yet, as I read this I got pissed. Not only does it echo my previous post, but this little rant is bullshit, in that the media is complicit. As I posted to the New Hole “blog”:

Now, if only the other chatterboxes at MSNBC could see this point. I get that you all are about ratings and this drama only bumps them, but there should be repercussions. Schuster says something stupid and he’s suspended for two weeks. Buchanan says something stupid/racist almost every other time he’s on the air and he hasn’t beensuspended.

I get indignation. I get this. Heck, I posted something similar on my own blog earlier today…but it’s a little hard to take when you watch the same channel and see that MSNBC/NBC/GE as a whole is involved in this charade. That the people who are supposed to be bringing us unfiltered facts are spinning for their own benefit.

I don’t expect this comment, like so many of my others, to be approved, while the racist/sexist/xenophobic comments of the smaller brained users are approved. Still, I want you all to see that there are people watching and listening. You’re not absolved from this disgusting political climate we dwell in. You, yourselves are also “awash in this filth”.

Then I moseyed on over to Booman Tribune where there’s a post on the comment. Still upset, I posted:

I just read the Special Comment. Yeah, it was good, blah, blah, blah…didn’t say anything I didn’t post on my own blog earlier to day. Still, I’m mad. At MSNBC. At the media in general. This is their doing.

I know there are bigots. Bigots know that with a 24 hr. new cycle and so many 24 hr. news stations, that their bullshit will get amplified, spun, dissected and misdirected. They know that in a month, these pundits will act as if the whole thing was just a misunderstanding and that attacking that person (especially if they’re white) will become out of bounds. That’s why someone like Ferraro feels she can speak that way. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear,some time in late April, their pundits picking up the ball and running away with it, while chastising anyone (especially if they’re black) who dares insults Ferraro.

This is such a steaming load, ya know…When the people of Pennsylvania vote…we’re going to hear about this again. But the facts will be so twisted, it will be back to CrazyLand on TV. If Obama loses whites by anything more than 30%, those same pundits will ask, “Are white voters tired of the Obama campaign injecting race into these contests? Is this a reaction to Ferraro being drummed off the Clinton campaign.” No one’s going to remember Olbermann’s fucking Special Comment. No one’s going respond with the facts. They’ll pretend that the Obama campaign called for Obama’s head and that Clinton graciously responded.

Bleeech.

Liza responded clearly with the reason why I was mad:

It pisses me off that it take a white guy on a cable news show for people like us to be vindicated, but if it is a black woman pointing the obvious, she is just being a divisive and ‘reverse racist’ bitch.

OMG…someone in the liberal blogosphere who gets it! My reply:

I’ve been called that…I’ve gotten the doe eyes, “What racism?”…it’s enough to make me puke. And yes:

It pisses me off that it take a white guy on a cable news show for people like us to be vindicated

That is precisely why I’m steamed. I’ve sat here looking at accepted racism in the liberal blogosphere, had these morons tell me that I’m “being overly-sensitive” or that “maybe the person is having a bad day” or any other such bullshit, but let some white guy on TV tell them that something has crossed a line and it’s like blinders falling off.

And now, all those racists Democrats, and there’s no pretending that they don’t exist, have cover thanks to Ferraro and Clinton. I don’t ever want to hear another Clinton supporter who defended Ferraro’s remarks whine about sexism, real or perceived.

But I’m even more disgusted by people like Tubbs-Jones, Rangel, and Jackson Lee who just sat there and did nothing, said nothing. They could have stood up publicly and said, “This is not right, nor acceptable.”

They said nothing.

I’m an utterly disgusted with Democrats today.

I am done. I wrote a letter to the DNC today about this.

I would like to register my disappointment in the ugly turn the Democratic party has taken these past few weeks. I dmit freely to being an Obama supporter, though Dodd was my first choice.

The only reason I turned to Obama after Iowa was because of the race-baiting tactics from the Clinton’s campaign between July 2007 and Jan. 4, 2008.

That entire time, the party leaders were silent. They stood by why a fellow Senator and Democrat used right-wing talking points, to denigrate a candidate. As a black female, as a Muslim woman, Sen. Clinton’s antics were something I expect from someone like George Allen or Trent Lott.

I had hoped that after news reports mentioned that Bill Clinton has been “talked to” about his Southern Strategy, that we had seen the last of the race-baiting from the Clinton’s. I was wrong.

Geraldine Ferraro’s comments from last month and these past few days were not only out of bounds as Democrats,
but also as a functioning member of society. It pains me that the party I was raised in accepts these sorts of remarks.

I’ve sat here for the past 3 days, wondering when a party leader would step in an speak up on behalf of the most loyal bloc of the Democratic party. There was nothing. I sat here the last day searching elected officials websites and local papers throughout this country, looking for something from some elected offical denouncing Ferraro’s remarks, chastising the Clinton’s for not taking a harder stance on her outdated and factually incorrect statements. The silence is deafening.

I receive a lot of requests for money from you guys. When I had money, I gave freely. I volunteer my time and energy to get Democrats elected. I make phone calls, I blog, I email. This is all going to stop as of today. Because today, I am not proud to call myself a Democrat. Today, I am ashamed, as a black person in the United States, to associate with a party where racist statements are simply “disagreed” with.

There’ll probably no more energy expended by me on behalf of the Democratic Party. I will continue to do what I can to get Sen. Obama in the White House. If the party decides to give the nomination to Clinton, then I will sit this year out. We Democrats are faced with the historic option of voting for a woman or a non-white male, come November. I’m unwilling to step into the gutter to vote for the former.

Well, no need to worry about the coded racist signals, the Clinton campaign has been sending. According to susanhu (a Clinton supporter), who posted this diary at MyDD, assures everyone that…it’s actually Obama’s fault. Actually, I think it’s important for the title to be posted as it should give you a clue as to how these so-called liberals think:

Yep, that’s what the bit…she wrote.

Let’s move on to the gossipy, shrill and breathless intro:

Obama’s campaign is orchestrating the trumped-up racism brouhaha (see the Obama campaign memo that Taylor Marsh acquired).

Obama wants to guilt-trip every black voter into voting for him. He needs black voters in South Carolina, a state he desperately needs to win to stay viable after his New Hampshire loss. (Pundits say if Obama loses South Carolina, he’s finished. So far, he’s behind Clinton in the polls.) That’s what is behind Michael Eric Dyson flapping his gums on every talk show and that Obama campaign memo that gives Obama-ites talking points to promote this fabricated issue.

Yep, this would be the same MyDD where the front page post Obama’s Dog Whistle Politics was found. susanhu, posted this screed also on No Quarter, the blog of former CIA analyst, Clinton supporter and robust Obama-basher, Larry Johnson.

That’s what is behind Michael Eric Dyson flapping his gums…

Nah, let’s save susanhu’s unveiled racism for another day.

Did you click the link for the memo? It takes you to Taylor Marsh’s website. Now, I’m sorry, but all my years in the blogosphere has given me an even bigger dose of skepticism than I already had. The “memo” Marsh posts is allegedly from the Obama campaign’s secretary. There’s no proof there, except her name is at the bottom. But even if the memo is from the press secretary so the fuck what? What do they have? A memo to the press pointing out Clinton’s racist remarks.

AND?

It’s a fucking campaign. Campaigns highlight the words of their opponents. Or is Obama not allowed to do that because he’s black?

It’s funny to me the same people who wanted DINO Jim Webb in the Senate, who were pulling out hair and wetting their fucking pants because of George Allen’s macaca moment are now completely accepting of racism. Allen’s explanation for using that term had less holes than Marsh’s and susanhu’s post combined.

But you know what? When you scroll down to comments both at Marsh’s site and at MyDD, you can actually hear the sigh of relief from The White People.

Oh and those of us who have witnessed the racism from the Clinton camp? According to susanhu, who knows black people, she gives us bullshit lines and some of them fully wrapped in racism:

(For a while, it seemed that Obama would avoid Al Sharpton-esque B.S., but the New Hampshire results shook him badly. His deflation was written all over his face and in his body language. It’s a sad mark of decline to see such a smart, highly educated man resort to such tactics. Further, it harms the fight against real racism.)

See, in the white, liberal blogosphere, real racism, is when Republicans do it. Other than that, those people hide behind their so-called “progressiveness”, rampant ignorance, and almost contagious stupidity of, “Whaaa? I had no idea that calling you ‘nigger’ would offend you.”

Now, I read the beginning of it, thinking, “Well, I lost the bet.” See, me and some other bloggers had a bet that a diary like this would be posted some time this weekend. It was obvious that the Clinton campaign was going to do it soon if you checked the comment sections of news and media sites. And throughout the blogosphere, you read the same thing from Clinton supporters. Yes, we knew that the Clinton campaign would dispatch a few people to write something to make all the words coming from the Clinton campaign look like it’s Obama’s fault. So it’s even more hysterical when susanhu writes an incredibly factless and racist intro to her diary, then all of a sudden gives us this quotes and facts. The same quotes and facts that have been floated throughout the comment sections and blogs. LOL…I can so totally work in the Clinton campaign now.

Taylor Marsh writes one of the most delusional lines I’ve ever read:

Using the race card against Hillary Clinton is laughable.

If Clinton’s campaign uses racist code words and gets called on it, that’s “using the race card”? How? Or is it laughable because there are some white people out there who actually think that Clintons “helped black people” despite the fact that that isn’t true? Or maybe because she’s a white Democrat and as some white Democrats like to lie to themselves, “they don’t have a racist bone in their bodies”?

But you know what, none of that matters. The liberal blogosphere is absolutely relieved to see that it is Obama’s fault.

Everyone who’s pointed out these dog whistles of the Clinton campaign are imagining things. And, susanhu also says that everyone who’s noticed the dog whistles are just Obama surrogates. Apparently in susanhu’s world, black people can’t think for themselves, and so we’re actually being directed by the Obama campaign. And if anyone knows black people, it’s susanhu, Clinton surrogate.

I know dog whistle politics. We’ve watched the GOP hone it to a science, that’s no longer a “dog whistle”, but rather an air raid siren when they use their code words to signal the religious right, racists and money people. We know this.

Yet, it’s very rare that you hear people refer to it as such. Sure, the liberal blogosphere can recognize the dog whistle to the religious right, but on other such things they tend to be tone deaf and willfully at that. That was why it was laughable to me to log on to MyDD and see the title Obama’s Dog Whistle Politics? and see people having a Serious Discussion about this. To recap my post from yesterday, Jesse Jackson Jr., national co-chair of the Obama presidential campaign said this:

(transcript from TPM)
We saw something very clever in the last week of this campaign coming out of Iowa, going into New Hampshire, we saw a sensitivity factor. Something that Mrs. Clinton has not been able to do with voters that she tried in New Hampshire.

Not in response to voters — not in response to Katrina, not in response to other issues that have devastated the American people, the war in Iraq, we saw tears in response to her appearance. So her appearance brought her to tears, but not hurricane Katrina.

Were supposed to be worried that the Obama campaign my engaging Black people. As I said in my post yesterday:

IMO, no matter what Jackson Jr. said, it would be called a “dog whistle” by someone in the blogosphere simply because he is a Black man defending another a Black man. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see people (especially in the liberal blogosphere) hollering for Obama to distance himself from the remarks for various reasons I’m going to be too nice to mention.

The reason I say this is that I’ve been searching for a post called Clinton’s Dog Whistle Politics? in the liberal blogosphere and I’m just not finding it. I most certainly haven’t found it on MyDD. Why should I expect it? Well, as we’ve seen these last 4 months, especially in the last 3 weeks, from the Clinton campaign, they are most certainly not above their own brand of dog whistle politics.

UPDATE 01.07.08: I logged on to BooMan Tribune this morning and coincidentally enough, there just happens to be a post titledTeam Clinton’s Anti-Black Dog Whistle.

I’m not even going to touch Sen. Joe Biden’s “he’s articulate and clean” line, instead I’ll go with Bill Shaheen said about a month ago:

“It’ll be, ‘When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?’ ” Shaheen told the Post. “There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It’s hard to overcome.”

Did you sell them to anyone? Maybe it’s just me, because I certainly don’t remember anyone, let alone anyone advising a presidential campaign, asking that of our self-admitted cokehead president. Do you? Nah…why? Because apparently in Shaheen’s world, only Black people sell drugs. When was the last time? From what I understand, Sen. Obama addressed his drug use in his books and it seems it’s been a long time since he last did drugs. Meanwhile, judging from our current president’s actions and behaviors, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did a line before boarding Air Force One the other day. But I’m wondering if Shaheen had these same concerns in Bush’s run in 2000 and 2004. A quick Google search shows he didn’t.

Is that dog whistle politics?

Sen. Bob Kerrey managed to bizarrely bring up Sen. Obama’s middle name in an interview. I saw bizarrely as I can’t think of one situation where a politician’s middle name has been so abused. Not only that, but Kerrey repeated a debunked lie created by the Clinton campaign Kerrey said:

[That] he liked “the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim.” Later, in explaining his remarks, Kerrey threw another jab by saying he wasn’t troubled by the fact that Obama “spent a little bit of time in a secular madrassa.”

Kerrey, clearly decided to go for the xenophobic, I-Hate-Muslims group with this one. Anyone with more than two brain cells knows that Hussein isn’t necessarily a name of a Muslim. The reason I added the clip is that not only was CNN debunk the “secular madrassa” smear, but when Kerrey spoke in this interview, he got into the “he’s so articulate” zone. So that was a three-fer.

Is that dog whistle politics?

Two days after Kerrey made his remarks, Mark Penn, the Clinton campaign strategist dropped in another drug reference on Hardball:

Chris Matthews: These comments that are coming out of your campaign from different directions — and I’m not sure how they’re coming, nobody does — but going after his perhaps youthful drug use, which he admitted in his book, and going after comments he made as a kindergarten student, at the age of 5 … do you think those are appropriate shots at the opponent or are they below the belt?

Penn: Well, I think we’ve made clear that the issue related to cocaine use is not something that the campaign was in any way raising … I think that’s been made clear. I think this kindergarten thing was a joke after Senator —

Joe Trippi: He just did it again! He just did it again!

Penn: This kindergarten thing after what the senator did …

Trippi: Unbelievable … He just literally —

Penn: Excuse me.

Trippi: No, no, no, Mark, excuse me. This guy’s been filibustering this thing. He just said “cocaine” again. It’s like —

Penn: I think you’re saying “cocaine,” I don’t know. I think you’re saying it.

Trippi: You just did, and I think there’s something wrong …

Is that dog whistle politics?

Then Pres. Bill Clinton got into the act, repeatedly calling Obama “kid” last week, despite the fact that the Senator is the same exact age Bill Clinton was when he first ran for president. The intonation and mere dismissal of the Senator’s campaign when Bill Clinton derisively said “This is the biggest fairytale I’ve ever seen.” riled up Black America. That kind of coded racism, doesn’t belong in our political discourse and surely shouldn’t be coming from a former president. At least not in public. And most definitely not from a Democrat.

Is that dog whistle politics?

And today, we have Andrew Cuomo who has given us “shuck and jive” while speaking about Clinton’s win over Obama in NH.

”It’s not a TV crazed race. Frankly you can’t buy your way into it,” Cuomo said. “You can’t shuck and jive at a press conference,” he added. “All those moves you can make with the press don’t work when you’re in someone’s living room.”

Fine. Let’s take his staff’s statment at face value that isn’t isn’t about Obama, but about Clinton. But then Politico talked to Cuomo after these remarks:

“Barack Obama is a beautiful symbol. He’s a powerful speaker. He’s a charismatic figure. And what he has to say is important for the Democrats,” Cuomo says in the interview, with the New York Post’s Fred Dicker.

“It was never about Obama in the first place,” Cuomo told me of the use of the phrase, which he said he was using “as a synonym for ‘bob and weave.’”

Is that dog whistle politics?

We got a drug dealing reference.
We got a Muslim reference* along with a “he’s so articulate” smear.
We got a “boy” reference.
We got “shuck and jive” and “a beautiful symbol”.

As Black people in this country, we’ve grown up with these smears and denigrations. We’ve had to deal with being insulted because there are way too many White people who think that all Black people use and/or sell drugs. There are way too many White people who think that Black people are children. There are way too many White people who think “you’re so articulate” is a compliment. And Lord knows that I’ve been used a symbol by White people who think that having this articulate Black woman on board means that they aren’t racist, meanwhile dismissing my contributions or suggestions and taking full credit when they get implemented and work.

Let’s put it this way…when you got Donna Brazile offended, you crossed a line:

BLITZER: Were you surprised to hear the former President going at it like that?

DONNA BRAZILE: I can understand his frustration at this moment, but, look, he shouldn’t take out all his pain on Barack Obama. It’s time that they regroup, figure out what Hillary needs to do to get her campaign back on track. It sounds like sour grapes coming from the former Commander-in-Chief, someone that many Democrats hold in high esteem. For him to go after Obama using “fairy tale,” calling him a “kid,” as he did last week, it’s an insult. And I tell you, as an African-American, I find his words and his tone to be very depressing.

BLITZER: You know, as I said earlier, you have campaign staffers who are supposed to do that kind of talking, whether a Terry McAuliffe or any of the other top people in the campaign, but for the former President to be doing that, it does underscore a certain frustration.

BLITZER: But tell me why, as an African-American, Donna, you feel that the President’s comments weren’t appropriate?

BRAZILE: Well, first of all, if Bill Bennett had said some of the things Bill Clinton is saying about Barack Obama, I would have called Bill Bennett out of his name and said that Bill Bennett should shut his mouth because he is not speaking in the right tone. I think his tone, I think calling Barack Obama a “kid,” he’s a United States Senator, he’s experienced, the people of Illinois elected him, and regardless of what kind of items on his resume, this is a man who has worked all his life. He has proven, he’s been a college professor, I don’t have to give Barack Obama a resume, I’m not for anyone at this point. But I think, for Bill Clinton to go out of his way to become a distraction to Hillary Clinton, and to launch the kind of attacks on Obama is just out of character for Bill Clinton. I think it’s time that he helps Hillary talk about her message and not go down this road.

She’s right, of course, but to hear the small portion of the liberal blogosphere that’s actually talking about it tell it, none of this is a big deal and it’s all being blown out of proportion. Here we have White people saying these things that are code words. Yet, I don’t see a post on any liberal blog asking about the Clinton’s dog whistle politics. Instead a quick look through the liberal blogosphere has many people excusing all the above statements. They say, “Well, I didn’t know it was racist.” or “I don’t know why it’s a smear.” I’ve been emailed and told that I’m being overly sensitive or that I’m racist.

As rikyrah over at Jack and Jill Politics said:

I’ll keep on repeating this:

When ‘Isolated Incidents’ cease being ISOLATED & INCIDENTAL

They form a PATTERN.

Accept what the PATTERN tells you.

Exactly.

So tell me liberal bloggers…Is any of this dog whistle politics?

Or is it different when a white liberal does it?

*As a Muslim, I’m totallly offended that these liberals think it’s acceptable to use my religion as a smear.

OMG…I wasn’t going to blog about this, but I just checked my inbox. Let me just say, to everyone who keeps emailing and messaging me asking if I’m going back to DailyKos the answer is a flat out no. It’s the same reason you’ll never find me at FireDogLake. Blackface is not acceptable to me. Not in any way, shape or form. And since people like that aren’t really interested in reducing their own innate racism, I’m no longer interested in trying to teach them anything.

Miss Laura used the excuse that people had to put up with homophobic remarks (none of which I saw personally, so I don’t even know if that’s true), so racism in that respect is totally okay. That’s such an incredible bullshit POV, as black people on that blog have to deal with racism there almost every day and I don’t recall ever seeing any black person posting offensive homosexual stereotype stuff.

So, no. I will not be posting on DailyKos ever again even under an assumed name. That ain’t my style. And if you ever think of using blackface to make a point, here’s a handy chart from ebogjonson that let’s you know when it’s okay.

There’s no two ways about it. Short story: Bigot, pissed off that Obama had dickhead McClurkin on his stupid little gospel tour decided to post a diary that was incredibly racist. Only a fucking racist would actively search out those images AND type that shit. That should be grounds for autobanning. But, there were people actively uprating the bigot’s comments and the diary. The admins didn’t do one damn thing to stop it except for minor tsking. Now, keep in mind that back in July, some bigotted asshat did a diary that insulted Jews. That diary was taken down immediately by the admins and that person was banned. Nevermind, apparently the diarist lost his ability to comment for a bit. The very next day there was a diary from him entitled “Apology”. He apologized for the images. I’m guessing it’s because they were copyrighted, which is an instant bannable offense, unlike racism which is just simply ignored if you’ve been there along time. In that “apology” diary, he pretty much defended his previous racist diary and was condescending, “I’m sorry you got offended by that.” Naturally, there were the moronic imbeciles who posted, “I thought it as satire!” Right, here’s the words (I’m linking to k/o’s diary because he made the same arguement and has the links):

I Sho’s Don’t Think No Bad ‘Bout Obama! I Sho’s Don’t!
by HarveyMilk
Fri Oct 26, 2007 at 11:22:48 PM PDT

I’m sah glad Obama done included us all, I kicked up a storm in Ms. Getty’s flour bin! I sho’s am happy Mr. Obama done decided that we all count!

When we decided we wanted to be included, Mr. Obama done went outta his way to have someone like us be up on the stage. He white and plenty gay. Well gay, even! Praise be!

We sho’s am happy, Mr. Obama! We’d name our kids after you, iffin’ we had any.

You too good to us. Too good!

Real soon now, they’ll be no difference. Not a difference at’al

He had a image of a man in blackface in this shit. And that’s supposed to be satirical. Yeah fucking right.

Needless to say, the mere fact that he was back (if you click the link you’ll see he’s still commenting), in my mind, means that the site admins decided to stand by this guy and let his racism go. Me:

And yes, I find a little more than ironic

That people who allowed this bigot to remain here and people who uprated his comments, have no problem hanging McClurkin around Obama’s neck. They say it’s “indefensible” that McClurkin did what was expected of him. They call Obama a “homophobic bigot”. Using that logic, what does that make them? They let this guy stay here. They uprated his comments.

Fucking. Useless. Hypocrites.

So, when MissLaura (not responding to me) says that there’s no double standard…: