Pat Robertson: Earthquake payback for Haiti's 'pact with the Devil'

Cross-posted from AlterNet

Every disaster that befalls a nation -- hurricanes, floods, terrorism, earthquakes -- constitutes God's punishment of a people gone astray, according to Pat Robertson, who famously blamed feminists for 9/11 and gays for Hurricanes Katrina and Andrew. In the case of Haiti's devastating earthquake, he blames an ostensible deal that black Haitians made with the Devil in order to win their emancipation and independence from the French colonials who enslaved them. So, in Haiti's case it might not be God who did the nation in, but rather the Devil calling in his chit. "True story," according to Robertson:

[S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French, uh you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the Devil. They said we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True Story. And so the Devil said "Okay, it's a deal." And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. That island is Hispaniola is one island. It's cut down the middle. On one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc.. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. Uh, they need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God and out of this tragedy. I'm optimistic something good may come.

Because, of course, black people couldn't possibly have the wherewithal to defeat their white oppressors without a little supernatural help -- and it sure wouldn't be coming from God, right?

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Suddenly "Negro" Is the Word on Everyone's Lips

Cross-posted from AlterNet

The week that began with a minor controversy about a dated racial term used to describe African-Americans, and ended with a major one that involved the use of the word by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The word is "Negro".

First, the census. After finding that more than 50,000 census respondents wrote in "Negro" as their racial identification on the 2000 census, the U.S. Census Bureau decided to include it as a check-off option in the section of the survey where respondents are asked to identify their race. Many cried foul, seeing it as a derogatory adjective that hearkened back to the segregationist era. Others argue that elderly blacks may not view it the same way, and that the terms "African-American" and "black" may not be embraced by those descended from cultures other than the African-descended one whose people were brought to the land of the free in chains.

When I was a little girl, "Negro" was the politically correct term for those otherwise known as "colored" people or described by white people by a range of epithets, the most egregious being what we now call "the 'N' word." As a white woman who grew up in a very segregated New Jersey, I'm hardly qualified to wax forth on the appropriateness of the Census Bureau's use of the word Negro. (For an excellent discussion on the subject, see Melissa Harris-Lacewell's discussion with Rachel Maddow [video].) But I can see why the census-takers chose to use it. Harry Reid, now -- that's another story entirely.

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Republican Hate Rally Pix

Fist


Dome & flag.


Kiss Mao Ass


Ken-ya Trust Obama


Fist


No Gov't Run Health Care


Cowards Fear Fox 1


Cowards Fear Fox 2


If Obama's Birth Certificate is Legal



Crowd.

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Meet the Press: Levin & McCaffrey call for end to DADT

Responding to President Obama's speech last night to the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT rights organization, Meet the Press host David Gregory asked his guests if the president will or should keep his promise to end the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy that prevents LGBT folks from serving openly in the military. (The policy has led to witch hunts of gay men and lesbians within the ranks.)

Here's your blogstress's insta-transcript:

DAVID GREGORY: Senator Levin, with the president live up to this pledge? Can he?

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-Mich): I think he will and he can, but it has to be done in the right way, which is to get a buy-in from the military, which I think is now possible. Other militaries in the West -- the British and other Western armies have ended this discriminatory policy. We can do it successfully, but it ought to be done with thoughtfulness, with care, and with a buy-in from the military.

GREGORY: Gen. Myers, is it time?

GEN. RICHARD MYERS (RET.), FORMER HEAD OF JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: I can't talk about whether it's time or not, but I think the process that Sen. Levin outlined is exactly right. The senior military leadership needs to be part of this, the Pentagon needs to be part of this --

GREGORY: --Do you have an opinion about whether it's time?

MYERS: Well, I think somebody said, I think Sen. Levin said -- gays can serve in the military; they just can't do so openly. And they do, and there are lots of 'em, and we're the beneficiary of all that.

[LEVIN ROLLS HIS EYES.]

I'll leave it to the current folks to decide whether it's time or not.

GEN. BARRY McCAFFREY (RET.): There's not question that it's time to change the policy. The key to it isn't buy-in from the military; it's for Congress to change the law. They ought to do so, and I'm confident that the military will move ahead on it.

LEVIN: I think we'll do that, but we'll need the support at least of some of the military.

McCAFFREY: I think that's right.

GREGORY: But does it have the political resolve to make [UNINTELLIGIBLE]

LEVIN: I think he does, and I think many of us do; I thought it was a mistake to begin with.

GREGORY: Congress, as well, as the resolve to change it?

LEVIN: I think we will gain that resolve. But we've made other changes in this country. The military are the ones that ended a discriminatory policy against African-Americans, and if they can end it here, it'd be great progress.

GREGORY: And, finally, Sen. Graham: on that question, do you think the military should end the policy?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.: Well, it's my belief that if you don't have buy-in from the military, that's a disservice to the people in the military. They should be included in this. I'm open-minded to what the military may suggest, but I can tell you I'm not going to make policy based on a campaign rally...

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Outside the HRC Dinner

Outside the Walter Washington Convention Center in our nation's capital, revelers arriving for the annual awards dinner of the Human Rights Campaign, which bills itself as "the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization," were greeted by members of Westboro Baptist Church -- also known as the home to the "God Hates Fags" crowd. Also on hand were members of Code Pink, the radical women's anti-war organization; Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry with a small band of followers and a giant photo of a dismembered fetus; and 100 or so LGBT activists who protested against HRC and Obama for being too passive in the march toward full equality.

Greetings, Earthlings (from the "God Hates Fags" crew of the Westboro Baptist Church).



I must not have the latest edition of the Bible. (Somehow missed this instruction.) More prophesy from Westboro Baptist.



Arguing the Bible with the Westboro Baptist android. Don't think anybody's mind got changed.



Can't we all get along?



Code Pink is peacefully annoyed with the president.




Randall Terry calls for homosexuals to stop killing babies -- wait, no, didn't anybody focus-group this? --



-- urges homosexuals to repent before a giant photograph of a dismembered fetus.



I prefer to smolder, actually...



Just because you're queer, it doesn't mean you love Obama -- or the Human Rights Campaign. LGBT advocates march in front of Convention Center.



Rick Warren has not been forgotten.



Close-up of Rick Warren sign.



No more Mr. Nice Guy.



Obama had promised to be a "fierce advocate" for LGBT rights. Evidently, some people think, "not so much."



From Davis, Calif., where they lead the Yolo County chapter of Marriage Equality USA, one married couple -- the second same-sex couple married in California in the months before Proposition 8 overturned marriage equality -- joyfully put their relationship in the face of their opponents. Together 35 years, Ellen Pontac...



...and Shelly Bailes...



...have at this guy, who stood above the crowd shouting through a bullhorn a call for repentance. "I used to be a homosexual," he crowed. But now he's cured.



Bullhorn guy's sign (partially blocked by Shelly and Ellen's).



Rainbow crowd moves in to block bullhorn guy with their signs and flags.



Shelly and Ellen show us what it's really all about.

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912 signage

Your blogstress spent the solemn occasion of the anniversary of the September 11th attacks observing right-wingers put their artistic skills into the service of hating the president of the United States. This sign-painting party took place at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill.




Just like arts & crafts class -- with a bit more rage.




So last month ago.



So that's the agenda!




But one envelope equals three liters of soda.




As opposed to those Christians who are all about atheism.




This image appeared on a series of signs by the same artist.



Somebody thinks his banana was taken.



And here I thought it was Bush who had that simian look.

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912 March

Kinda says it all.




Fashion statement.



Looks like they finally figured out what "teabagging" means.




Summertime has come and gone, my oh my.




Because God loves bullets. And guts.




Weary wing-nuts practice their Russian.



Were it not for the sign and the shirts, I could swear I saw these guys at the high-heeled race.




Stalin must be spinning in his grave.




Difference of opinion: He's Hitler, not Stalin, dammit!




Because, you know, they're all shady.



So nice I had to blog it twice.




So wholesome.



View from across the pool on the Capitol grounds. All those little dots across the water? Them's people. Lots and lots of angry white people.




Another view along the pool.





Obediently listening to the voices of the Astroturfers coming from the podium.




More around the Capitol grounds.



Pressed into service by his dad.



I didn't realize things had gotten this bad.



Because universal health care is a lot like the murder of innocents.



Nostalgic for the days when women could not vote.



Left their pashminas at home.




Amazing Grace.



The president as micro-organism.




The Tea Party aesthetic.




Marching up Pennsylvania Avenue.



The Culpeper militia flag in action.



Fixing up the militia flag for the big march.

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Remembering Teddy

Cross-posted from AlterNet

Photo Credit: Jocelyn Augustino

I remember thinking, he seems so much smaller in person. The year was 2003, and I stood directly behind Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on a makeshift stage constructed in front of the Department of Labor, at a rally for International Human Rights Day convened by the AFL-CIO.

I was on staff at the American Federation of Government Employees at the time, and was a member of the team that had put together the rally.

Those were dark days indeed for union workers. The Bush administration was in full throttle in its bid to take down the unions, and it had a special vendetta in its dark heart for unions representing government workers.

"We want this administration to stop being the most anti-worker, anti-labor administration that we have seen," Kennedy said.

Kennedy had just introduced the Employee Free Choice Act, a piece of legislation, yet to see the light of day, that continues to rankle the right. He dressed humbly, in a windbreaker that did little to stave off the bitter cold of a rainy December day in Washington, D.C.

"We have an agenda: the respect and dignity of workers in the United States," Kennedy told the crowd of 2,000 who gathered against the gloom. "As long as I have a voice and as long as I have a vote, I will be with you."

And he was. Today, the Employee Free Choice Act still contends for passage because of Kennedy. But that's just the politics. That day, his bond with regular people was apparent. On that stage, we had a full roster of workers from a range of unions -- parking attendants, hospital workers, airport screeners, Defense Department employees -- and Kennedy shook hands with all of them, and stuck around to hear their stories.

And that's just a glimpse of his commitment to working women and men. I hardly need to mention his commitment to health-care reform.

It's said that in exchange for his endorsement of Barack Obama for president, Kennedy exacted a promise from the young Illinois senator to make health care the centerpiece of his legislative agenda. And Kennedy didn't let Obama forget it. In his endorsement speech, Kennedy said, "With Barack Obama, we will break the old gridlock and finally make health care what it should be in America—a fundamental right for all, not just an expensive privilege for the few."

As I stood on that stage with Kennedy, the cold rain falling on me as we followed up the speeches with our motley rendition of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," I thought, this is bliss.

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Washington Post columnists say Hillary Clinton deserves a bottle of Mad Bitch beer

Cross-posted from The Huffington Post.

By now, you're likely familiar with the parade of racists, sexists, conspiracy theorists and hatemongers on the payrolls of mainstream media: CNN's Lou Dobbs advances the claims of unhinged birthers; FOX's Glenn Beck calls the president a racist; MSNBC pays as an analyst Pat Buchanan, who says slavery was good for black folks. Not to be left behind, ABC welcomed to its This Week roundtable right-winger Michelle Malkin, who has referred to the first lady as President Obama's "cron[y] of color," and is advancing the conspiracy theory that Democratic health-care reform is designed to euthanize old people.

Bottom line: hate sells.

Eager to bring eyeballs to its Web site, the Washington Post this week got in on the act, producing a video featuring two star columnists, Chris Cillizza (reportedly a nice guy) and Dana Milbank (reportedly not), that suggests at a future White House beer summit, Hillary Clinton be served a brew called Mad Bitch.

Once the video began circulating through the blogs, the Washington Post chickened out and pulled the video from its site -- without apology to viewers, and apparently without disciplinary action for the columnists and producer Gaby Bruna.

This should be a huge story -- two respected, important columnists for a major media outlet all but call the secretary of state a bitch -- but corporate media would have to be willing to critique two of their own were the story to get legs. Not likely to happen.

In fact, a day after the video was pulled, Chris Cillizza was featured on the roundtable of this Sunday's CNN show, State of the Union, and was not asked a single question about his role in Mad-Bitchgate.

If the presidential campaign of 2008 was the mainstream media's teachable moment, it seems the wrong lesson was learned. Instead of the corrective soul-searching one would hope for among executives and editors at major media outlets as their on-air figures grappled with their inner sexists and inner racists during prime time, media bigs seem to have reached the conclusion that hatred sells.

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