Simply said.

One of the things that has always perplexed me are the photos and other descriptions of white supremacists. Heck, or pictures of racists or jingoists of any stripe. Or of Tea-Party supporters, for that matter. And that is simple this: They don't look like they have much to be proud of... by themselves.

Acting Like The Racists That They Are

Yesterday in Tokyo a conference brought together far right groups from Europe and Japan in an effort to better coordinate and advance their agenda of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and denial of global warming. That excludes such things as Holocaust denial and refusal to recognize Japanese brutality during World War II.

Just to make sure they weren't ignored the Japanese and European delegations paid tribute to Japans war dead by visiting Yasukuni shrine where such Class A War Criminals as Tojo Hideki are enshrined. Yasukuni is dedicated to showing the Japanese Imperial Army has heroes rather than the brutal force it really was.
Sadakazu Tanigaki the leader of the Liberal Democratic party will visit Yasukuni on Sunday the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II. He is just following a long tradition of LDP leaders and party members paying tribute at the shrine. They are so blinded by their hatred, racism and utter denial they are incapable of seeing the harm these visits cause.

The British National Party member Adam Walker and France's most famous Holocaust-denier, Jean-Marie Le Pen, will be among a group of European delegates to visit the Yasukuni Shrine, which venerates the militarists who led Japan's brief but disastrous rampage across Asia.

"I realise that there are war veterans in the UK who will see this as an insult, especially on V-J day, but Yasukuni is dedicated to the souls of men who died fighting for their country," said Mr Walker. "It's easy to point fingers now but these people were doing what they thought was right at the time."

Jed Lewison at dKos has a new story up on the right wing faerie tales of Michelle Obama's recent statements:

Right-wing machine attacks Michelle for focusing on childhood obesity

The headline on Drudge Report was sinister, touching off racially paranoid fantasies in each of the 11 or so states where his site is still popular:

Increase intensity? Oh no! Michelle Obama is telling African Americans to band together to fight white people! Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck were right! She's coming to get us! They are coming to get us! And I'm scared!

...snip...

But there was still part of me that wanted to see her full, unsnipped remarks. I just had to see each and every one of her awful, wretched words. So I kept on digging until I found the transcript.

Actually, it turns out that the transcript was at my fingertips the whole time. It was sitting right there in my inbox from the White House Press Office. How nice of them to send me her hate speech.

...snip...

The first thing I noticed was that not only did Michelle tell African Americans to "increase intensity" but she also urged more "discipline." Those were truly frightening words to hear, given that the race war was finally upon us.

I kept on reading, hoping to gain insight into her battle plan.

And that's when it happened. After completing the next paragraph, I realized this wasn't a speech about race war. In fact, Michelle Obama was talking about the scourge of childhood obesity.

You can read the actual speech in Mr. Lewison's piece. It suffices to know that the right took a story about childhood obesity and tried to make it look like some radical and divisive speech.

Now... I am no expert on dog whistle politics, the art of targeting certain segments of the population with messages that they will get... But most of the time they aren't so blatant in whistling to these bases and it does not take a rocket scientist to view this within the scope of other recent non-factual stories running rampant in the right wingnutosphere these days. In example, Dave Weigal types out one massive tongue in cheek title and follows with the real story, of which I am only going to use the title and the last paragraph summary:

Michael Mukasey's secret plot to aid the New Black Panthers

The conservative narrative goes like this: Eric Holder's DOJ got into office and skunked a successful case against the racist fringe New Black Panther Party because it doesn't want to defend white voting rights. (If anyone has a bunch of examples of white voters being repressed in the Obama era, please, send 'em my way.) In several segments about the case, Glenn Beck has tied the Panthers to Bill Ayers, Charles Ogletree, and Van Jones as the latest "militant group" pulling the strings on Obama policies. A simple issue -- whether the Panthers should be prosecuted further for briefly showing off their nightsticks and glowering at voters outside of a mostly-black Philadelphia polling place -- has been conflated into a catch-all storyline that really makes no sense.

It does not make sense at all since the Bush DoJ was the group that stopped chasing this before Obama was even in office.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

But if you were looking for a real story to report on it is in the right wing echo machine... Because there is an ongoing theme of some pretty darn blatant dog whistles in their stories.

Fear the black man! They are radical! They are coming to get you!

[ed note - CM1]  Welcome MinistryOfTruth who has graciously accepted an invitation to post some material here. And enjoy! I know I do.

This must be seen across America. Stormfront.org, which was founded to support David Duke for senate by another KKK Grand Dragon, Don Black, has been promoting and contributing to Rand Paul's moneybombs. Palling around with WhiteSupremacists much?

That's a tweet from Don Black, head of the white supremacist group Stormfront. Wow.

~snip~

So, Trey Grayson should reject donations from Republicans who voted for the bailout........but it's okay for Rand Paul to accept donations from Stormfront? genuineGOPmom.blogspot.com

I will state this loudly and clearly. Over and over at the top of my Jewish lungs.

Rand Paul MUST return Neo-Nazi funds NOW and DENOUNCE Stormfront.org

But he can't. Democrats MUST turn 2010 into a referendum on Rand Paul. So, let's see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Hat-tip to Helen of DelphiForums, and to Wikipedia for the text. The following is a studied portrait of a TeaBagger neonazi by none other than Rod Serling, circa 1963. -- GH

Portrait of a bush-league Führer named Peter Vollmer, a sparse little man who feeds off his self-delusions and finds himself perpetually hungry for want of greatness in his diet. And like some goose-stepping predecessors, he searches for something to explain his hunger, and to rationalize why a world passes him by without saluting. That something he looks for and finds is in a sewer. In his own twisted and distorted lexicon he calls it faith, strength, truth. But in just a moment, Peter Vollmer will ply his trade on another kind of corner, a strange intersection in a shadowland called the Twilight Zone.

Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare - Chicago; Los Angeles; Miami, Florida; Vincennes, Indiana; Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry. He's alive. He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive.

The biggest danger to America today is the one presented by those who most loudly beat their chests to proclaim their patriotism, while trying to use it as a tool to spread hatred, fear, disillusionment and racism.

Posted with permission by Nicholas Benton, Owner/Editor of the http://www.fcnp.com/commentary/national.html

America has its first Afro-American president. But does that mean racism is a thing of the past? Not for still far too many in our land, and the regrettable incident in Cambridge earlier this month, and all the furor that has issued from it, is clear evidence.

Two strong speeches by Obama made just a year apart.

Promoted. Originally posted 2009-02-21 03:41:26 -0500. -- GH

This post is not about Sexism or Feminism, it is about my experience in talking about them.

I have had several conversations lately about how people engage in debate over sex / gender / body (SGB) identity issues.  I am launching a blog that supports dialogue on those issues and in the communities that they create.  As I frame the terms of the conversations and the goals of the site, I have begun to articulate my view on the structure of dialogue itself.

Simply put, I have been thinking about how we treat each other inside a conversation about SGB issues and identity. I noticed some patterns of how we seem argue with each other inside these conversations.  This post is not about something specific to SGB issues, advocates themselves or the conversations.  This is about how we speak to each other about those issues.  SGB issue conversations are not somehow different from other conversations.  I simply care about them more.  This applies to Racism, Classism, TG discrimination or any other conversation regarding society and individuals.

I will mostly use 1st person in this post, not because I think I'm 'right' or 'better' or anything.  It is just that I think that by making statements using the 3rd person (we/they/you), it is not as honest or intimate and is often a distraction.  As a reader, you may be left wondering who the subject is, whether to defend your own views and how I can claim to know other peoples thoughts & motives.  My writing tends to be more effective when I am describing my personal experience.

"The evil of bigotry gives way to the power of redemption!"

Man Asks Entire Town for Forgiveness for Racism

2.06.09: 48 Years Ago, He Attacked Future Rep. John Lewis; Now the Two Hug

Elwin Wilson and John Lewis Nearly half a century ago, in a very different America, Elwin Wilson and John Lewis met under a veil of violence and race-inspired hate. The men had not seen each other again until Tuesday when, with "Good Morning America's" help, Wilson approached Lewis again -- this time offering an apology and a chance to relieve a burden he'd carried for more than four decades.

A recent article in the journal Asia Times by one of their correspondents who calls himself Spengler, expresses an endemic racism in U.S. culture that is frequently overlooked. It is the racism orchestrated by "Wall Street" as opposed to "Main Street." The sneer that was crudely expressed Sarah Palin and the Republican smear campaign against Obama in the recent election. This is the sneer of the would-be puppet masters who consider themselves to be members of the elite or would-be elite in this country, and the hack writers who servie them.

Before turning directly to what Spengler had to say, a word about the other "racism" is in order. This is captured by the abusive use of the term "red neck," that ascribes racism to the poor working people of Appalachia and couples this with other disparaging remarks. It is all to easy to scorn the unthinking racism of working people who may look for scapegoats upon whom to misdirect their anger, as they face their own sometimes bleak lives, and forget about the sneering racism of the elite.

Bumped by carol. 2009-01-19 19:04:33 -0500

Fifty years ago today I was halfway through my sophomore year at WE Stebbins High, an almost completely segregated school in the almost completely segregated city of Dayton, Ohio, a town said at the time to be a southern city that happened to be north of the Mason Dixon line.

The school was "almost completely" segregated because it was located within a good Hail Mary pass of Wright Patterson AFB. I don't remember exactly the reasons but we were told that because the school received federal funds for students who were military dependents that it had to be integrated.

"Integration" was accomplished by the admission of two young Black kids, The boy was named Sam. I remember because we became friends for awhile until the transparent racist displeasure of my little Quaker Grandmother became thick enough to keep him from dropping by. She wasn't ready for a black president.

The last few weeks have been a roller coaster for this African-American Obama supporter.  Anticipation, stress, and fear—anxious, gut-twisting paranoia.  I made nervous jokes about lynchings, and watched while Obama-supporting white colleagues and fellow Americans continued to behave, paradoxically, in the blatantly yet (officially) invisibly racist fashion that I’ve become accustomed to. 

Hat-tip Chris Rodda for this story; his her piece is currently sitting at the top of the Recommended list over there. Please help get the traditional media to cover this story, and make sure they call it what it is: domestic terrorism.

Terrorists have struck on US soil again. All the bluff and bluster of "we're fighting them there so we won't have to fight them here" -- along with all the idiotic, illegal and unconstitutional surveillance, searches and seizures -- have finally been put to the test and found ridiculously wanting.

The attack was by domestic terrorists, the most insidious kind.

They struck, as if on some unholy jihad, against children.¹