Is Sarah Palin More Dangerous than the Average Guy in the Hood?

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Is Sarah Palin More Dangerous than the Average Guy in the

Hood?

Date: January 15th, 2011

Name: Caroline Miniscule

Subject: Is Sarah Palin more dangerous than the average guy in the hood?

Comment: I don't think so.

"If you read all the information that is coming out about the loon who attempted to murder Giffords, you find out he was mentally unstable for some time. He could just have easily been set off by watching a WWF wrestling commercial, that shows steroid-pumped guys stomping people on the ground, breaking chairs over peoplels' backs, and so on. Or he could have been lstening to rap music which disses women and advocates the killing of police officers."

Writer's response:

Caroline,

You're either being disingenuous or you're incredibly naive. The fiscal conservatives (the corporatists) are using their army, the social conservatives (social bigots), to gain control over this country by any means necessary - and that includes insurrection. So by failing to speak out against this tactic Obama is allowing these factions to insert fascist rhetoric into the national debate, a tactic designed to both desensitize the American people to the thought of political violence, and to provide the GOP with plausible deniability.

You indicated that the "loon" who committed the shooting was mentally unstable so he could have gone after anyone. But he didn't. He was stopped by a police officer on the way to commit his crime who he could have killed, but he didn't. He passed by several locations closer to his home where he could have killed people, but he didn't. He went directly to a Democratic function to commit this crime.

Yes, he was unstable, but that's exactly who the corporatists are trying to incite with their inflammatory rhetoric to commit their crimes. Just since your comment California  governor, Jerry Brown, has been threatened with a specific day that he's going to be killed, and in Spokane, Washington a bomb was planted along the path of the Martin Luther King Day parade route. Coincident? I don't think so.

I'd also like to take a moment to debunk the myth being widely spread by the corporate media that merely mentioning the Nazis in response to what's currently going on in America is irresponsible and beyond the pale. That's total nonsense and is in direct contradiction to another adage that states that a crazy person is one who does the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. Thus, the corporate media is literally asking us to embrace insanity.

Demanding that we never mention Nazi tactics in relation to current conditions in this country not only demands that we totally ignore the experience that we gained from the most horrific period in world history, but also assume that there will never be another group comparable to the Nazis in the future.

So what if the comparison is valid and some contemporary faction in the nation is, in fact, comparable to the Nazis? What should we do, simply ignore them just to adhere to some arbitrary maxim? I'm sure they'd love that. Thus, on its face, the adage is a stupid rule of thumb  - and the only reason we've accepted it is because we're being reprogrammed out of our common sense, and our ability to be independent thinkers.

So we should actually be asking ourselves the following: 1). Who's promoting this nonsense? 2). What is their motive? And 3), what methods are they using to get us to so sheepishly buy into it?

But let me save you the trouble by answering those questions for you. It's being promoted by international corporatists in order to completely takeover the United States political system. They are systemically reprogramming us by destroying our educational system, and then using their corporatemedia to whisper in our ear from the time we wake up in the morning until the second we go to bed at night - and not only through the news media, but through televison programming, commercials, the entertainment media, our politicians, and even our brainwashed peers.

Less than a week after the FCC approved the Comcast takerover of MSNBC Keith Olbermann, one of the strongest advocates of progressive views left in broadcasting was fired. Could this be the beginning of the FOXification of MSNBC under Comcast?

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Clear evidence of the insidious impact that the corporate media has had on our thinking is, I was told by many in response to my previous article, President Obama's Flowery Arizona Speech, that it would have been inappropriate for the president to voice political views at a memorial service. That's another adage that's mysteriously crept into our collective psyche. How did it get there?  It's certainly not a part of our history.

During the memorial services for the children killed in the Alabama church-place bombing Dr. Martin Luther King's said,"These children - unoffending, innocent, and beautiful - were the victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity."  I'd call that a pretty forceful political indictment.

So in answer to the question posed, yes, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and many others are very much more dangerous than the average guy in the hood, and  President Obama's reluctance to speak out against them is clear evidence of that. 

*

Eric L. Wattree

wattree.blogspot.com

Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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President Obama's Flowery Arizona Speech

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE 

President Obama's Flowery Arizona Speech 

It is indeed interesting to see how all of a sudden the corporate media and the GOP have come together to praise the president's Arizona speech - even FOX News. After two years of calling him a communist, a friend to terrorists, a fraud, and a liar, the GOP has finally found a reason to praise him. The reason they're praising him, however, is because, yet again, he's allowed GOP criminals off the hook.

Now the GOP says this is no time for partisan politics, but when have we ever known any situation in the past, regardless of its gravity, that the GOP considered beyond partisan politics? They didn't consider the threatened collapse of the world's financial system above partisan politics, neither do they consider the loss of homes and the unemployment of millions of American citizen above partisan politics - and we still have Republicans riding 9/11 for political gain nine years after the fact.

So the true reason that Republicans want to hold the Arizona shooting up as being above partisan politics is because they know full well that they're guilty of creating the inflamed political environment that led directly to the tragedy taking place. Thus, what there's actually no time for is flowery sentimental speeches in lieu of decisive action.

This tragedy should be used to weed out a national cancer. That would be the greatest tribute that we could pay to it's victims. But President Obama's speech - as touching as it was - was an attempt to treat that cancer with an over-the-counter antiseptic, when what we need is radical surgery.

The president needs to recognize that the GOP is run by corporatists. These very same people are responsible for killing over a million Iraqi citizens, so they could care less about flowery speeches, nor, do they care about the life of one 9-year-old little girl. They have a corporate and political agenda to promote, so the life of one little girl is meaningless to them. They look upon her death as merely collateral damage. So the minute this uproar subsides it will be business as usual.

But President Obama doesn't seem to recognize that. He insists on adding sugar to strychnine so it won't taste so bad going down, then bringing us together in a rousing chorus of Kumbaya to ensure it's administered in a civil manner. He seems to be completely oblivious to the fact that the poison is still going to kill us in the end.

It's beginning to look like President Obama's not going to see the light until these people are goosestepping through Times Square - and I'm saying that as a moderate progressive. Recently elected GOP local chairman, Anthony Miller, on the other hand, could see the writing on the wall. He saw it so clearly, in fact, that he resigned his post - and he was in the GOP inner circle. So why can't the president see the light?

According to The Arizona Republic, Anthony Miller, "a 43-year-old Ahwatukee Foothills resident and former campaign worker for U.S. Sen. John McCain, was re-elected to a second one-year term last month. He said constant verbal attacks after that election and internet blog posts by some local members with Tea Party ties made him worry about his family's safety." The article goes on to say, "Miller told state Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen he was quitting: 'Today my wife of 20 yrs ask (sic) me do I think that my PCs (Precinct Committee members) will shoot at our home? So with this being said I am stepping down from LD20GOP Chairman...I will make a full statement on Monday.'" Three other party officials also resigned.

In addition, The Telegraph reported as far back as November 2008 that "The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin's attacks. Michelle Obama, the future First Lady, was so upset that she turned to her friend and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett and said: 'Why would they try to make people hate us?"' The article indicated that, "[Palin's] attacks provoked a near lynch mob atmosphere at her rallies, with supporters yelling "terrorist" and "kill him" until the McCain campaign ordered her to tone down the rhetoric" (Sarah Palin blamed by the US Secret Service over death threats against Barack Obama ).

So wake up, Mr. President. Part of being an effective leader is knowing when the time for talking is over and it's time to take decisive action - and being an apologists for domestic enemies of the state doesn't meet that test. You're inaction is allowing fascist rhetoric to become a routine part of the political debate, and that's not a good thing. This nation needs to confront the issue of inflammatory and insurrectionist rhetoric head on.

This kind of behavior simply cannot be tolerated in a free society. While the United States Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech, along with that freedom comes responsibility. Thus, nowhere in the Constitution does it guarantee the right to be criminally negligent.

At times like this I wish you'd spent more time in the 'hood. Then you would have immediately recognized these people as classic bullies, and understand that appeasement is not going to work. The more you give a bully, the more emboldened they become - ask Neville Chamberlain. So stop making excuses for these people and step up to the plate, because the very last thing we need in this recklessly hostile environment is a president trying to be a nice guy - and you can ask Jimmy Carter about that one.

Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Should Black People Try to Own the Rights to the Word Nigga?

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Should Black People Try to Own the Rights to the Word Nigga?

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While I generally refrain from the frivolous use of what has come to be called "the N-word," I only do it in deference to the sensibilities of Black people who have made the abolishment of "The N-word" (I feel silly even writing it) a major issue in their lives. Personally, I find the effort totally superficial and silly, since if you refer to "the N-word", you might as well say it. After all, it's not the word that's disparaging, it's just a word, it's the concept that it describes that's vulgar.
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If your child said, "F you, dad," are you going to give him a pass because he didn't actually say the word?  Of course not - you're going to come down on him like a ton of bricks, because you know what he meant. The same is true of "the N-word" - we can start referring to it as grapefruit, but in the final analysis, it still means nigga. So, when we say "N-Word," it's just another silly way of sublimating an issue that needs to be addressed head on.
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Thus, by trying to abolish a word - which has never been accomplished, to my knowledge, in the entire history of mankind - you only serve to give the word more power. By trying to demand that the word is never used, you're not only acknowledging a unique association with the word, but you're giving your enemies a more powerful weapon to use against you. First, your effort alone tells your enemy that it's use is painful to you, so do you think that's going to make your enemy less likely to use that weapon, or more likely? More likely, of course. When have you ever heard of an enemy refraining from use a weapon because it hurts the other side's feelings? Never! And secondly, now that you've told him that you don't like the word, you've made it even more potent as a weapon. Because now when he uses the word against you, he's not only saying to hell with you, but also, to hell with your sensibilities, and your campaign to abolish the word, so the insult is magnified.

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A more constructive way of approaching this problem is to first define exactly what a nigga is, then teach your children to live above that definition. That way you turn a negative into a positive.

My definition of a nigga is any person of any race, creed, or color, who takes pride in his or her ignorance, and/or stupidity. After I had a working definition, I made sure that my kids understood that definition, then taught them to carry themselves in a way where they wouldn't associate the word with who and what they are as individuals. In short, if you're not a nigga, the word should be meaningless to you.
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I taught my son, for example, that there might come a time in his life where some racist might point at him and tell his son, "See that guy over there, that's a nigga." But while warning him that he should be prepared for such a event, I also used it as an opportunity to instruct him on why it's important for him to always strive for excellence.  I taught him that he should always carry himself in such a way where if that should happen, he should make sure that he's invested enough in himself where the racist's son will look at him, and then look back at his dad, and say, "Daddy, I want to be a nigga when I grow up." I assure you, that's what the sons of racists all over America are saying right now, after seeing the grace, dignity, and intelligence of Barack Obama - that's what's driving Rush Limbaugh, and many others, crazy.

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That's the way you fight negative aspersions - you don't put all your energy into saying don't call me names, you invest your energy into making the names they call you both remote, and irrelevant to who, and what you represent. So if a racist calls Barack Obama a nigga, he now has to prove that he's superior to our president - and if he's sittin' in a beat-up pickup truck with a pack of Marlboro's rolled up in his t-shirt sleeve, he's going to find that an extremely daunting task.
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I adopted that philosophy quite by accident early in life. The only reason that I'm sitting here with the ability to write this article today is one night, as a high school dropout, I was talking to my mother about the dreams that I had for myself in life, when my step-father - a drunk, a gambler, and philanderer - started laughing, and said, "Nigga, all you gon ever be is just another nigga standin' on the corner dealin' drugs - until you get your brains blown out."
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He did more for me with that one remark than all of the counseling and juvenile facilities combined. He was a big hulk of a guy, so at 16 I still wasn't able to kick his ass, as I truly wanted to, but with that remark he planted a seed that spawned one of the primary philosophies in my life - never let anyone else define you or your capabilities. And just as importantly, always use negativity as a slingshot to enhance who you are.
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It's a gross waste of time putting all of your energies into a campaign begging people to be nice and not call you a nigga, because it's a campaign that's dead on arrival. A much more productive use of your time and energy is in initiating a campaign against being a nigga. I mean, wouldn't your time be better served in trying to get young men to pull up their pants, straighten their caps, educate themselves, and become responsible fathers? I think it would.

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Common sense should tell you that if a person hates you, the most valuable weapon in his arsenal is what you've told him causes you the most pain. But the only way a word can cause you pain, is if you embrace it. Thus, if you're not a nigga, why do you feel that you own the rights to who can use the word?
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So, as much as I want to accommodate the sensibilities of my brothers and sisters in this matter, as a writer, words are the tools of my trade, and I have absolutely no intention of giving away any of my tools - especially one as graphically expressive as the word nigga. Because the fact is, there's a lot of niggas in this world - both Black and White. If you're a White man who's not supporting your kids, you're a nigga. If you're a forty-year-old Black man walking around in untied tennis shoes, with your cap on sideways, calling women bitches and whoes, and your kids wouldn't recognize you if they passed you on the street, you're a nigga. If you're a preacher who's pimpin' your flock, and preachin' a sermon that you're not livin', you're a nigga. If you're a politician who's putting your career ahead of the people you're suppose to be representing, you're a nigga. And finally, if you're a president or vice president who lied a nation who trusted you into a senseless war for profit, you-are-a-nigga.
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So there are far to many niggas walking around here to be talking about abolishing the word. Words are to thoughts what notes are to music. Would you have asked John Coltrane to go through his entire career without playing B flat, or a painter to never use the color blue? In the same way, by abolishing words, you also abolish a writer's ability to fully express his thoughts. How could I have related the thoughts that I just have without using the word nigga?
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And finally, here's a question directed exclusively at Black people - and please, answer it honestly. Is there any way that I could write a perfectly accurate portrait of Clarence Thomas without using the word nigga? Sure, I could manage to crank something out, but without the word nigga, an indispensable element of his character would be missing.
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Thomas sat perfectly mute through the wholesale disenfranchisement of Black voters during the 2000 Bush v. Gore debacle. He never uttered a word. Then after the 2008 election of President Barack Obama, he took the virtually unprecedented action of lobbying his colleagues to accept a case challenging the constitutional legitimacy of the first Black man to ever be elected President of the United States. There's only one word appropriate for such cultural treachery, and that word is nigga - and we all know it.
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Black people refer to Thomas as a nigga in private all the time, because in the Black vernacular the word has an entirely different meaning. So, the word does have its place - in fact, the doctrine of political correctness, along with the word's racial associations, prevent us from using it enough. Perhaps if we'd used the word nigga more liberally relative to previous acts of cultural treachery, Clarence Thomas might have avoided becoming its poster child.

Well, in any event, so much for my little excursion into the realm of raw truth. I'm sure I won't be applauded for my stance - even though I'm just as certain that many of you secretly agree with me. But as we all know, hypocrisy trumps truth in polite society, so I should have known better than to even broach the subject. But I just can't seem to smooth out those rough edges - you know, that overwhelming need to call a hat a hat. I guess it's a throwback to the street in me - but at least I'm not dealing drugs.
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And speaking of which (the irony of ironies), my son that I was telling you about, he grew up to become a federal agent with the DEA (the Drug Enforcement Administration). And while we're on the subject, I went by my mother's house one day about ten years after my step-father made the remark about my dealing drugs. Naturally, he and his friends were in the garage drinking, laughing, cursing, and gambling. When I walked through the door one of his friends said, "My man! I want to be just like you when I grow up." Then without even looking up from his cards, my step-father said, "Man, you ain't gon never grow up enough to be like him . . . you have to be born that way."
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I guess that was his way of apologizing.

Eric L. Wattree

wattree.blogspot.com

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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A Footnote to Posterity

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE A Footnote to Posterity . As I watched the second presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, my mind drifted off to when I once watched the landing of the Space Shuttle. All the drama of the mission was over, and the space walk had been completed successfully. Now all that was left to complete a perfect mission was to bring the bird in for a landing. . As the shuttle grew larger over the horizon, I remember being overwhelmed with pride over this marvel of engineering, and for the thousands of ordinary people who had come together to accomplish its mission. Then as the dot over the horizon grew larger, the sound of unabridged competence suddenly crackled forth as the commander of this magnificent vessel spoke to ground control: "Landing gear down, and all systems online. Glide path and descent, five by five." Then after several seconds of awestruck silence as we watched the majestic bird descend, the commander's voice chimed in once again, with that matter-of-fact tone as though he was pulling his car into the driveway. "Thirty seconds to touchdown." Then as I watched in slack-jawed awe, the commander brought the bird in, for a picture perfect landing. . As impressed as I was over the feat of engineering that went into the space shuttle and its mission, I found myself even more fascinated by what must have gone into building the kind of man with the competence, intelligence, and cool professionalism that could command such a vessel--and I had that very same feeling as I watched the cool professionalism of Barack Obama's performance last night. I felt privileged to bear witness to the very best this nation has to offer. . During this election cycle, some of the world's most experienced politicians have thrown everything, including the kitchen sink, at Sen. Obama, and he handled it with a cool professionalism that has rarely, if ever, been seen in the political arena before. While his opponents sling mud in desperation, he remains firm and steady, and stays right on point. . That, is the key to his success. While his opponents have promised and preached sermons about what they will be as president, for all intent and purposes, Barack Obama has very quietly, become the president–and it is for precisely that reason, that John McCain had already lost the debate the moment he stepped on stage. . Due to his many gaffs, awkward moments, and demonstrations of bad judgment contrasted with Sen. Obama's invariably steady and solid control, many Americans no longer see Sen. McCain as Barack Obama's opponent. They see him as a boorish and disrespectful pest, harassing the next president of the United States–and they resent it. . That explains why at this point the McCain campaign is scratching its head at their slide in the polls. They've all but given up on trying to win by addressing the issues. They've even decided, for some unfathomable reason, to publicly announced that from this point forward their game plan is to play in the mud. It's a desperate move, because they just can't figure out why after slinging some of their most tried-and-true mud, none of it seems to stick--and why, in spite of their most unconscionable efforts, their poll numbers continue to head towards Dixie. . What they fail to understand is, a lie needs help. In order for them to call Obama a Muslim terrorist who likes to "pal around" with a Bill Ayres--who they describe as a domestic terrorist--and make it stick, the lie needs to be assisted by an American public who wants to believe it–but in their effort to smear Barack Obama, they simply don't have that support. . McCain's primary problem is, the American people have gotten to know Barack Obama. With all of the publicity he's gotten over the past two years, they've learned more about Obama in just two years than they have about McCain in his twenty-six years in the public eye. And beyond that, they like Obama, which is not always the case with John McCain. . McCain also has another serious problem–he's a walking contradiction. While he's telling the American people that he tried to protect them from the current financial crisis before it happened, the only person he's documented as ever trying to protect is convicted felon Charles Keating. He desperately tried to protect him from public accountability after Keating was responsible for the collapse of Lincoln Savings and Loan, under conditions identical to our current crisis. In that case, more than 21,000 investors, mostly elderly, lost their life's savings, totaling $285 million. And even after getting a pass on that as a result of his status as a "war hero," McCain continues to be one of the senate's most prolific deregulators. . And beyond that, many consider legislation authored by Phil Gramm, McCain's chief economic advisor, the one component that was indispensable to the current financial crisis. It was also recently revealed that Rick Davis, chairman of McCain's campaign committee, was being paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac, right up until their financial bailout. So his words don't past the sniff test. He's either lying, or has extremely bad judgment in choosing his staff. . So while McCain is talking out of both sides of his mouth, George Bush is hiding out in the White House, Cheney is secluded in his "secret location," and Sarah Palin is avoiding reporters while slinging mud from a script, Barack Obama has quietly taken on a role of national leadership. While it is not his intent to usurp anyone's authority, at this point, all official authority has been abdicated, so he's using the campaign as a vehicle to step into the vacuum in order to reassure the American people who are desperate for some kind of leadership. . Even at his young age, Obama has stepped in as a sort of elder statesman to assure the people that while we are indeed undergoing a crisis, it is a manageable crisis, and together, we will see it through. . So absolutely, John McCain was fighting a losing battle when he first stepped up on that stage–and to make things even worse, yet again, he showed atrociously bad judgment by referring to Sen. Obama as "that one." The man has an invariable penchant for digging holes and jumping in. Even sitting in my den, I could feel the entire nation wince as he said it, because what America knew, and was obviously lost on John McCain, was that we were witnessing a footnote in history, casually dismissing, the next President of the United States. . Eric L. Wattree wattree.blogspot.com I take great pride in being the product of adversity, because having simply survived provides me with unassailable credentials.

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