It wasn't that long ago, well, last week actually, that Attorney General Eric Holder was accused of playing the so-called "race card" for complaining about being baggered by Congressman Louie Gohmert.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
A day after Attorney General Eric Holder said in a speech that he and President Obama have dealt with unprecedented levels of criticism, MSNBC's resident conservative mocked Holder for suggesting that racism is at play.
"Because of racism, I mean, Holder, that's what Holder suggested, the attorney general suggested yesterday, right?" Scarborough asked Politico's John Harris.
"There's no question," Harris said. "That's what he's trying to get at. I don't see any other reading of it."
And of course, as goes Scumborough, so goes
Faux News.
Fox News political analyst Brit Hume said that Holder and President Obama have "benefited politically enormously from the fact that they are African-American."
"To those two men, race has been both a shield and a sword that they have used effectively to defend themselves, and to attack others," Hume said.
Fox News contributor George Will said that liberals haven't had any new ideas in a few decades, so they accuse people of being racist.
"Look, liberalism has a kind of Tourette’s syndrome these days. Just constantly saying the word 'racism' and 'racist,'" he said. "There's a kind of intellectual poverty now. Liberalism hasn’t had a new idea since the 1960s — except Obamacare — and the country doesn’t like it. Foreign policy is a shambles, from Russia to Iran to Syria to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And the recovery is unprecedentedly bad."
As it turned out, Holder was
not talking about Racism - he was talking about excessive CRITICISM - most of which is completely unreasonable and unjustified, such as being asked to hand over info to congress that could damage ongoing investigations but wouldn't shed any more light on the already resolved
Fast and Furious situation that was started under President Bush and
Ended by Holder as soon as he heard about it. Holder actually didn't get into the
reasons and motives for that criticism, which would be speculative, as he later explained.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
"And if you don’t believe that, you look at the way -- and forget about me, forget about me -- you look at the way the attorney general of the United States was treated yesterday by a House committee," he continued. "That had nothing to do with me. Forget that. What attorney general has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment? What president has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment?”
Alberto Gonzales took a lot of heat from Congress, except that he
actually deserved it for trying to turn the DOJ into the
Karl Rove's White House Political Prosecutorial Wing. And also,
Torture. Even former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has made the same point as Holder when he
bitterly complained about Congress being "Rude" and "Insulting" when dealing with him in his recent book, so as Holder says it's "Not really about Him" at all.
If you look at the simple facts, the levels of political obstruction by the Right, their obsession with bogus "scandals", their multiple attempts to Sabotage the Nation simply to make the President look bad - Holder has a point. It's not about him, or the President personally, but something is clearly going on.
And then when you have Baseball Legend Hank Aaron essentially say the same thing, comparing the treatment that Holder and the President is receiving now to the types of threats and letters he received when he broke Babe Ruth's Homerun record...
All Hell Busted Lose. (h/t to KISS who are now in the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame, Finally!)
Talking Points via USA Today reports it like this:
According to USA Today, the Braves organization has received hundreds of letters, emails and phone calls since Aaron made his comments a week ago.
"Hank Aaron is a scumbag piece of (expletive) (racial slur)'' read an email from a man named Edward, according to USA Today.
Edward evidently used the racist epithet five times.
"My old man instilled in my mind from a young age, the only good (racial slur) is a dead (racial slur)," he wrote in closing.
One man called Aaron a "racist scumbag," while another vowed to never attend another Braves game until Aaron is fired from the team's front office. A man named David said he plans to burn Aaron's autobiography.
So just what was it that Hank Aaron said that got people so mad they started throwing the N-word (or something) around, threatening to boycott the Braves and burn books?
What could he have possibly said to set off this firestorm?
Aaron said he still has the racist, threatening letters he received as he closed in on Ruth's milestone to serve as a "reminder" that things aren't too different from when he pursued the record.
"If you think that, you are fooling yourself," Aaron said last week. "A lot of things have happened in this country, but we have so far to go. There's not a whole lot that has changed."
"We can talk about baseball. Talk about politics. Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he's treated," Aaron said.
If you look at the fact that this Congress has only passed a
fraction of the number of Bill passed by the "Do-Nothing Congress" of the 50's. This after several Congressmen and Senators held a
Confederate War Council on the day of Obama's initial inauguration and
Plotted that they would Obstruct Everything. When you look at their inability to get a jobs bill passed, while they complain endlessly about jobs and then claim that
good reports about job are all
"skewed" or "cooked". To them, the polls were "Skewed", the 2014 Election was "Skewed" and now the ObamaCare signup and approval numbers are "skewed". Nothing is as
they would like it to be.
Reality seems to have a pesky Liberal Bias. The idea of Impeaching Both Obama and Holder - for exactly
what I don't know, perhaps "Governing While Black"? - is commonly bandied about among the GOP. The idea that we need an
Armed Military Insurrection and Coup to take down the President is just as commonly discussed. With all this it's clear that
He's got a point.
Now, the claim, made by Scarborough and Hume is apparently that Obama and Holder have No Right to Complain about any of this crap [but somehow Gates, does I guess], and that if they do they are Playing the Race-Card because what else could they be saying? What else could it be that might justify the treatment they've received? Clearly, they presume, it must be "Racism". And how Dare they accuse so many people of such a thing?
Except that's not what they actually said - that is a presumption on the part of the GOP. Obama and Holder have not said that Congress is motivated primarily by Race - that's what Scarborough and Hume are saying, that Obama and Holder Must Be Primarily Motivated by Race, because isn't that true of all those Black Guys anyway?
Even when Hank Aaron said this - there's more than one way to look at it.
He added, "We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go in the country. The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts.
He's talking about the people
Holding this country back. The ones keeping it from moving forward, and
contrasting that those people used wear hoods, now they wear starched shirts. He doesn't specifically mention "Racists" other than too point out that the
Retrograde Caucus tends to have common cause both then and now. Even in this Aaron doesn't come out and say "The GOP is Full of Racist BIGOTS", and if he'd wanted to say that
he could have, but he didn't.
Today's average White "Racist" doesn't even think he's a racist, he thinks Black people are the Racists just for suspecting that ANY White Racists just might still exist, anywhere. THEY are the ones who constantly play the "Race Card", and that's just what Scarborough and Hume have done here.
And the irony is that in trying to disprove Aaron statement that things haven't moved as far forward as they should have since way back in 1973 when he received racists letters and death threats for breaking Babe Ruth's record people are now sending NEW RACISTS LETTERS to the Braves about him, which pretty much Proves that Aaron is Right!. You don't show that your NOT a racist, by writing letters that are exactly like a Racists.
Similarly Scarborough and Humes presumption that what Holder and Obama [and if all things were equal Gates, but his being White and Republican the fact he has said the exact same thing about Congress as Holder clearly doesn't COUNT] are complaining about Could Only Be Racism betrays their own obsession and hyper-sensitivity to the issue. Perhaps yes, they doth protest too much of the "Racism", because as a matter of fact - as I had already surmised - Holder wasn't even Talking About Racism.
Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday that when he was criticizing the way he was treated by congressional Republicans last week, he was not referring to race.
"I didn't say there was a racial component. I was very careful not to say that," he told the Huffington Post.
...
"I think what we have seen is kind of a breakdown in civility in Washington, D.C., and that becomes important because I think it has substantive impact," he said. "And that's essentially what I was decrying, the fact that we can't somehow separate whatever our personal feelings are and focus on our functions as members of the executive branch or as legislators. I think that I've done a pretty good job in doing that, but it's frustrating at times."
Yes, he was very careful not to make a false, unfounded accusation against a broad swath of people. Too bad he was alone in that.
All of this I think, is missing I the larger more important point. Oh, I think there is much bigotry afoot I just don't think it's simply Black and White bigotry.
Consider what Hume has to say about Liberals and just imagine if he was saying the exact same thing about - well - anyone. Let's try Black people first, just cuz..
Look, [Blacks have] a kind of Tourette’s syndrome these days. Just constantly saying the word 'racism' and 'racist,' and 'voting rights', and 'police bias' and 'stand your ground' and 'stop and frisk' and 'lazy men in the inner city' he said. "There's a kind of intellectual poverty now. [Blacks havent] had a new idea since the 1960s — except Obamacare — and the country doesn’t like it.",
Or Women...
Look, [Women have] a kind of Tourette’s syndrome these days. Just constantly saying the words 'WAR ON WOMEN' or 'REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM','" he said. "There's a kind of intellectual poverty now. [Women havent] had a new idea since the 1960s — except Obamacare — and the country doesn’t like it."
Or Gays...
Look, [Gays have] a kind of Tourette’s syndrome these days. Just constantly saying the words 'MARRIAGE EQUALITY' he said. "There's a kind of intellectual poverty now. [Gays haven't] had a new idea since the 1960s — except Obamacare — and the country doesn’t like it.",
So, what does that stuff sound like to you?
The center of bigotry, is to make wide pronouncements about individuals simply because of the demographic faction you choose to associate with them. Conservatives regularly use people like Alan West, Dr. Ben Carson, Alan Keyes and Herman Cain as their Racism Shields to prove they aren't "Anti-Black", but then exactly what ideology do all of those men expouse?
All of them, are Virulent Anti-Liberals. Which in the purest sense means, they're openly BIGOTS.
So it's seems that today's White Hoods, also come in Chocolate Brown. Black/White Racism has indeed moved forward, but Bigotry against Liberals... has not.
Vyan