Y'knew it was coming - and now here it is. Fox News Paid Pundit and Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol has put out an add that attacks and defames Occupy Wall Street as Racist and Anti-Semitic.
So let's get this straight, Kristol is criticizing Pelosi, Obama and former Wall Street Prosecutor Elliot Spitzer for simply saying they agree with the frustrations that #OWS has expressed. None of them said they agree with Jew and Israel Bashing.
Spitzer: Is that the best Bill Kristol can do? Kristol, the Fox News commentator, founder of the Weekly Standard, and instigator of much of President George W. Bush’s foreign policy, is behind the “Emergency Committee for Israel,” an entity that’s leveling cheap, base, and demagogic attacks on those supporting Occupy Wall Street .
ECI is running a television ad on cable news networks and YouTube featuring President Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and me making statements supportive of OWS. My view, just to be clear, is that OWS has focused our attention on numerous economic issues that had somehow been lost because of the recent, single-minded focus on deficit reduction. The issues of joblessness, poverty, the growing plight of the middle class, and the inequitable distribution of wealth had all been essentially ignored. Several decades of misguided libertarian/neo-con policies bred not only the economic cataclysm of 2007-08 but also equally damaging long-term social problems.
Look, any broad group of people just might have a few wack-a-doodles in it. They might have someone whose a bit off-the-rails with wild opinions. It's possible. It happens.
But does that mean everyone who support the groups core ideas also supports the most extreme ideas among them?
Well, gee, maybe we should ask a few experts that question.. y'know Fox News Experts like Bill Kristol's good pal, Sean Hannity.
Before I get rolling, I do want to point out that at least one of the people featured in ECi's ad is actually an anti-semite whose been trolling the area long before #OWS actually appeared. And the #OWSers aren't too fond of him.
Now, there's a sign for ya.
Here's more from Justin Eliot at Slate.
To review: the Emergency Committee for Israel (which, it turns out, is funded by Wall Street) released an ad last week claiming that Occupy Wall Street is shot through with anti-Semitism, and demanding that Democrats condemn the protests. That attack has now been picked up by various pundits and GOP officials. The Republican National Committee started using the line against Democrats Wednesday. The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin inevitably piled on. Fox News is all over the story.
Exhibit A in the ad (watch it below) is a sign-bearing man who yells that “Jews control Wall Street!” Now, as I’ve previously reported, Occupy protesters have taken to surrounding the man, who gave his name to me recently as David Smith, with rebuttal signs, including one that reads, “Asshole —>”. Smith has been hanging around Zuccotti Park nearly every day for a couple of weeks.
But as Josh Nathan-Kazis reports at the Forward, Smith started carrying anti-Semitic signs around the financial district long before Occupy Wall Street existed:
...
During a trip to Zuccotti Park to observe the early stages of the protest on September 19, two days after activists first set up camp there, the Forward’s Nate Lavey and I watched as Smith entered the plaza with his cardboard sign, was confronted by one vocal passerby, and then was chased out of the occupied plaza by a shouting mob of activists. Police eventually intervened to separate him from the crowd.
He was chased out of the Park? Gee, doesn't sound like he's part of the movement to me. But then he's not the only one shown in the ECI clip.
One bigoted asshole, or even two or three, doesn't really define the heart, soul or direction of a movement. Any movement. And we've seen this happen before.
Let's recall when Comedian Janeane Garafalo accused the Tea Baggers of being "Straight-Up Racists"...
How did Fox News react to this? Well, let's see...
Griff Jenkins: What do you think of calling just honest protestors, Racist?
Garafalo: Because they're not just honest protestors - they were indeed motivated a lot by Racism. You saw some of those signs didn't you? And if they were upset about fiscal imprudence, where were they for the last 8 years?
Hannity: Wow, that's one angry Liberal if I ever saw one....
Yeah, Janeane is a really angry Liberal. Wonder how she got that way?
For those who either don't know, or are simply well paid not to know like Hannity, Jenkins and apparently Kristol - here are just a few of the signs Garafalo was talking about:
At the time I disagreed with Garofalo's conclusion, but over time I've come to reconsider. To me the question isn''t just are some of these comments and signs potentially racist or bigoted to be fair in both cases, clearly they were, the question is how did everyone else there react to those signs? Was it with scorn and derision - and a "We're not with Jerkwad!--->" Sign? Or was it with denial of their racist intent and even worse - an affirmative defense of their bigotry??
Do these examples represent a core tenent of the protest or are these outliers?
Let me put it this way - Where are the "Asshole---->" Signs in the Tea Party crowd?
I don't see any. None. Zip.
I also don't remember Sarah Palin denouncing or scolding any of her supporters when they screamed that Barack Obama was a "Terrorist" - Do you? To his credit John McCain did refute that Obama was "an Arab" - Once. But were those outliers or were they part of the core of their support?
Why don't we contrast and compare what else some Palin supporters, who are clearly simpatico with the Tea Party, had to say during the 2008 Election, hm?
Could these people not be the direct pre-cursor to the Tea Party? Here are some more examples of McCain/Palin supporters from the HBO Documentary "Right America: Feeling Wronged".
I aint voting for no Nigger.
Hmm, seems a bit cut and dried to me.
And whensome of their members were accused of Racist intent by the NAACP - how did the Tea Party Express respond? Did they denounce and disavow those comments and sentiments? Uhm... not really.
Yes, that's right Williams actually denied that ANYONE in the Tea Party could Possibly Be a Racist. And then he wrote a Ridiculous Racist Letter to the NAACP and got kicked out of the movement. Kinda.
Also with Occupy Wall Street, you now have the Marines, the Police the Nurses and Firefighters joining with them. Are they all racist and Anti-Semitic too?
When you invite 99% of the people to be apart of what your fighting for - you're bound to disagree with a percentage of those people, you're bound to find more than a few wack-jobs in the pack.
It doesn't mean you endorse them, simply because they endorse You.
Not until you defend them, come up with excuses for them and try to pretend they don't exist the way that Sarah Palin and the Tea Party did.
Occupy Wall Street will not do that, Bill.
The point of #OWS is financial, not racial. They want to give the control of this country back to the people of the country and take it away from the Bankers and their army of Lobbyists. That's a worthwhile goal and the majority of America agrees with it.
The few bigoted jerks who might try to infiltrate the movement don't necessarily represent it's core values and views.
Contrast that with the "Obama is a Muslim, Obama is a Nazi, Obama is the Anti-Christ, Obama is a Kenyan, Obama is a Marxist, Obama is a Communist, Obama is a Socialist, Obama Hates America..." strain coming from the Tea Party. Heck, now it's Coming from the GOP Candidates Themselves. The GOP Congress has shown that they're so viciously determined to take down President Obama they're clearly willing to let the nation's economy go completely down the tubes in the meantime. They would praise the French for their involvement in taking down Qaddafi before they would give credit to our own military, or our own President.
Just last week they voted against saving the jobs of Cops, Firefighters, Teachers and Nurses. Our First Responders. There's No Excuse for That. Being a bigot against Cops because they happen to be members of a Union is just as bad as being a bigot against a Jew. Being a bigot against a Liberal is just as bad as being a bigot against someone for being Black, or being Gay, or being Athiest (which coincidentally as a Liberal they just might be all of the above, or not!)
Whether these actions are driven by Racial Bigotry, Religious Bigotry or Partisan Bigotry - the end result is the same. The same knee-jerk, ignorant, absolutist positions we can see coming from Palin and Tea Party supporters in 2008 and 2009 are now coming from Congress and the GOP Presidential Candidates. Oh sure, it's cleaned up and dignified - but it's just as bigoted. It's still just as Wrong.
These days, I'm with Janeane - the entire GOP has become a pack of ignorant, bigoted Assholes. But it's not merely bigotry against Blacks. It's Bigotry against Effective Efficient Government! It's Bigotry against Democrats. It's Bigotry against Liberals, it's bigotry against Working Middle-Class Families who are trying to save their homes from foreclosure, or get Medical Care for their children when they have pre-existing conditions. Soldiers who wish to serve while being openly Gay. It's Bigotry against Cops because they happen to be members of a Union and are willing to stand up to have a decent wage, decent working conditions and a Pension. It's Bigotry against the 99% of America that isn't part of Wall Street, which thinks it can essentially Buy the Acquiescence and Subservience of the Rest of Us.
And for a very long time, they succeeded in exactly that. They think we're Chattle. Rubes. Serfs. "The Mob".
We think we're Americans. We think we're America. 99% of America.
That's the difference, and it's huge.
And by the way, isn't assuming that Wall Street is run by Jews and Israel - or that criticism of Wall Street is somehow an attack on Israel because "all the bankers are Jews" - isn't that a RACIST BIGOTED IDEA ITSELF?!!!
I seem to remember that Ohio Governor John Kasisch is from Wall Street (Lehman Brothers). So is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (Cantor Fitzgerald). Those two don't seem very Jewish to me.
I'm just saying.
Your serve Billy.
Vyan