Tags: Election 2008
Categories: Aharonium and Prolitics
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Xeni Jardin over at Boing Boing has an important post analyzing the dragging death murder of Brandon McClelland, 24, last month in Paris, Texas, an area of our country haunted by a legacy of lynchings going back over a hundred years. Please read it.

In light of the McCain campaign’s stinking “idiot wind” gusting over America’s racist dead enders, I also thought that a boing boing commenter’s insight was spot on:

This [murder of McClelland] must be viewed in light of the Ashley Todd incident this week. Todd made up a false story that a black man attacked her and carved a “B” in her face, ostensibly because she supports John McCain. In Paris, Texas, a hundred years ago, a charge like that would get a black man burned alive. Today it doesn’t go quite that far but you could see the shadow of the lynch mob forming in the darker corners of the right-wing blogosphere when the Todd story first circulated. — JWB

Nowadays I’m less concerned with these clowns than with last minute dirty tricks to scare Philadelphia seniors that a vote for Obama is a vote for a second Holocaust. Good grief. Their strategies are just so disgusting.

I’ve been in email conversation with a friend from Louisiana, a philosemite and born again Catholic who believes Obama is a “Muslem” [sic]. He’s a former Huckabee supporter, and I’m concerned for him and all of his like minded fellows who are so overwhelmed with rumours to instill fear, uncertainty, and doubt, that they’ve abandoned all trust in the media. Here’s the summary in his own words, after several lengthy exchanges of commentary and links sent in refutation of slander he’s heard:

That is the main problem: lies.  You don’t know who to believe.  Both parties have a degree in spreading them and there is not enough penality for telling them.  The media can be bought to spread their lie of choice, or conceal thereof.  That is the whole reason we had this banking/wall street debockle. Politics breeds them like flies.

For him it’s as if the long feared gnostic world of darkness has finally eclipsed the world of light. Obama may preach the need for change but oh my god, these folk are deathly afraid and distrutsful, and then also, dangerously manipulatable. It is so essential to reach out to them with love rather than with hate or condescension. I am confident we will win today, but if in my exuberance I am blinded to the enduring need to engage with these folks with respect, then it will all have been for nought. The seething domestic insurgents vying for their hate might eventually win it.

Tags: Election 2008,fear
Categories: Prolitics
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So far there is no indication that the recent near fatal beating of KATV anchorwoman Anne Pressly in Little Rock, Arkansas, might be politically motivated other than the fact that Pressly is a member of the media and appeared briefly in Oliver Stone’s just opened critical biopic ‘W.’ But given that the daily vitriol heaped upon liberals by McCain surrogates, advertisements, and right wing radio blowhards has already unhinged some to feel they have license for violence against the “enemy among us,” I wouldn’t be surprised if her attack was related somehow.

It was only three months ago, July 27th, that Jim Adkisson barged into a Knoxville, Tennessee Unitarian-Universalist Church with the intent to kill some liberals (and tragically killed two churchgoers). With the election only two weeks away, and supporters of McCain/Palin already beginning to wear the veil of victimhood and martyrdom, I will admit to some fear that the more militant among them will be inspired towards insurgency. It’s not as if the south doesn’t have a long history of fighting insurgent warfare. Normally, I’d consider this sort of associative thinking paranoid… but I guess that recent nearby expressions of hate, like Mike Lunsford’s antisemitic Halloween effigy of Obama, have me concerned.

I pray that Pressly recovers fully I pray for Pressly’s grieving family and that her attacker is caught and that our country soon turns a page for the better. Courage.

(In 1986, a deranged man attacked Dan Rather demanding of the CBS anchorman, “What’s the frequency!? Kenneth, what’s the frequency??!”)

Tags: Election 2008,fear
Categories: Prolitics
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“Is that a kippah on that anti-Obama effigy?” I couldn’t help but wonder while reading this article and watching this story that local Cincinnati station WKRC (Channel 12) aired yesterday about Fairfield, Ohio’s Mike Lunsford as reported on by Shawn Ley. (For those from out of town, Fairfield is a northern exurb of Cincinnati just north of the Hamilton County line.)

Lunsford adorned the tree in front of his house with an effigy of a ghost hung with a noose, (a presumably stolen) Obama sign hung upside down pinned to its chest with “Hussain” [sic] incorrectly spelled above, and a Star of David drawn on its head. Close observers will also note that the two “S”s in “Hussain” are written out in the style of the Schutzstaffel Nazi paramilitary force insignia popular among today’s suburban neo-Nazis. Considering this, I’m kind of surprised that nowhere in the report is this display described as anti-Jewish.

That unapologetic self-described racists like Mike Lunsford are now seeping out of the woodwork doesn’t surprise me. After all, there are consequences to McCain’s campaign stirring fears of Obama as a secret Muslim, pedophile, and terrorist abettor. McCain’s surrogate Rep. Michelle Bachmann call for an investigation of her fellow congressmen’s “pro-Americanism”, Palin’s careless (or calculated) reference to rural America as “real America,” and John McCain’s brother Joe’s description of North Virginia as a Communist Country: these are all statements that cast their opponents as a demonized Other, and embolden the right wing to further explore their most paranoid and primitive instincts under the guise of patriotism.

That Lunsford’s effigy has sparked outrage and is reported on with an air of concern is good, but I am still disappointed to read it described merely as an “anti-Obama display.” According to the report, neighbors describe it as “racist and offensive” and Vicki Crowe now knows that her neighbor is “anti-black.” Lunsford and his ilk might be disappointed that no one reported that his effigy is also antisemitic. I guess that’s where I step in to translate the hate.<groan>

Besides revealing Obama’s hidden secret Muslim identity with his scrawl of “Hussain,” the Star of David on the ghost’s head broadcasts the common trope of antisemitic white supremacist conspiracy theorists. Not familiar with it? Variations of it have circulated among hate groups for decades. The conspiracy has it that Jews will use blacks to overthrow white America in order to install their one world communist government. For these racists, Obama’s presidency is thus the realization of their long held fantasy. And by choosing a ghost to caricature Obama, Lunsford might also be trying to demean him with the racist epithet of “Spook.” By smearing Obama as Muslim AND Jewish AND black, Lunsford’s effigy of Obama scores something of a trifecta of hate.

From Shawn Ley’s article, “Racist Anti-Obama Display Hung From Tree in Fairfield”:

Mike Lunsford hung the ghost in his yard. He spoke to us off-camera, saying his views could hurt his employers business … but he says make no mistake: He doesn’t want an African American running the country.

Lunsford says he believes Barack Obama is not a “full blooded American.” And he says the United States is a white, Christian nation – and only with white Christians should be in power. With Lunsford not willing to share his views on-camera:

“It’s like whoa. He’s definitely anti-black.”

Vickie Crowe lives next door. She’s an Obama supporter.

“What did you think when you first saw that?” Vickie Crowe/neighbor: “Well actually my 5 year old son says Obama’s hanging upside down. He’s what? He’s hanging upside down. It’s the neighbor’s ghost. I took it as a little bit of a racist statement because my grandson’s mixed and it hurt a little bit.”

Mike Lunsford says he got the idea after an Obama supporter in New York put up this display of a Obama mannequin being chased by a figure of John McCain wearing Ku Klux Klan robes.

Another neighbor, Megan Sory says this symbol makes her more than uneasy it scares her. Megan Story/neighbor: “He’s been a really nice neighbor but it’s one of those you question and wonder, you know, if he’s that forward about something will he be forward enough to do something else, too. it is scary at times but we live in a scary world.”

Tags: antisemitism,Election 2008,racism,what's wrong with southwest ohio
Categories: Prolitics
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Hawaiian Governor Linda Lingle and Californian Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) debated each other this past evening while representing John McCain and Barack Obama respectively at A Presidential Candidates Forum: America in the World – Friends, Foes, and the Future. The debate between the two Jewish politicians was organized by The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and took place in the Amberley Room auditorium of the recently opened Mayerson JCC. According to JCRC, over 500 people came out to hear these two leaders speak, mostly an older 50+ crowd. The first two rows were reserved for senior citizens arriving from the Cedar Village assisted living community.

In order to see these great women butt heads I had to skip out on seeing Natalie Portman downtown at Fountain Square. Sure my heart beats a little faster hearing her call to vote early, but alas, I already got that done last week. But for all of those who went to see Portman and hear The Nationals perform, no worries, I have you covered. I recorded the entire debate which you can listen to here [m3u streaming link] or download (Part I, Part II), whichever you prefer.

The debate was emceed by Arna Poupko Fisher, JCRC President and moderated by Brian Jaffee, JCRC Director. The stage was set with three living room style comfy chairs; Lingle and Boxer sat at a 60° angle from each other, and Jaffee sat in the center. The first half hour was given over to opening remarks that each delivered from the podium. Afterward, Jaffee took the podium and presented questions delivered from the audience that had been written out on index cards handed out with pencils at the door. Disregarding the introductions and acknowledgments made by Fisher and Jaffee, the debate lasted around an hour and 15 minutes. Part I of the debate (linked above) contains the opening remarks of Lingle and Boxer and Part II contains their responses to the questions posed by the audience and to each other.

In Lingle’s opening remarks, I was struck by a tone that seemed to resonate with foreboding. To be fair, the perfectly measured pace of her statements adds a certain gravitas regardless of the point she makes. But I was still unnerved when she invoked the traditional response to the Holocaust, “Never Again,” raising the specter of a nuclear holocaust in Israel if Iran’s pursuit of nuclear power isn’t met with unqualified opposition.

My Jewish education only recognized the usage of the phrase “Never Again” as a declaration to all of humanity, i.e., never again would genocide be tolerated as a solution in human conflict. In this universal context, “Never again” justifies the intervention of the United Nation’s security council in actions that might prevent a genocide — anywhere.

But Lingle, and McCain, use the phrase “Never Again” in justification of an argument for U.S. military action against Iran (ostensibly in defense of Israel’s regional military hegemony). To hear the phrase used by a politician this way seems to be a fairly transparent manipulation of Holocaust fears. Even with the failures of the world to respond adequately or capably to the genocides of Rwanda and Darfur, I’m not willing to trade in the universal and moral appeal of “Never Again” for the justification of neocon foreign policy objectives. McCain and his surrogate obviously have no problem with taking advantage of the term so long as it holds currency for manipulating Jewish voters.

(To be absolutely clear, in no way am I arguing that the experience of the Holocaust does not partly justify the importance and historic necessity of the State of Israel as a sovereign refuge for the Jewish people. I am only saying that the simple phrase “Never Again” is a strong universal appeal against genocide. I’m opposed to seeing it appropriated for use in stoking Holocaust fears in precipitating a war with Iran.)

In contrast, Boxer made her points without any references to the Holocaust or a future Holocaust. Among  bona fides that included Obama’s high ranking pro-Israel scorefrom AIPAC, Boxer described the foreign policy sanctions against Iran that Obama authored in the Senate to prevent their acquisition of nuclear power.

Both Lingle and Boxer could teach McCain a thing or two about keeping his cool during a hot debate. Their parrying back and forth, clarifying the responsibility of the executive and legislative branches of for the last eight years of financial mismanagement, was intense. Listen for yourself and hear just how sharp a debater Barbara Boxer is. Lingle didn’t pull any punches either. As a liberal partisan, I’m pleased that Boxer got the last word though. Before I provide any more commentary I’m going to have to listen to it again myself.

In general, the “Presidential Forum” was special for having brought so many segments of the Jewish community together at a crucial moment. The last time I saw this togetherness was at the Israel at 60 gathering at Fountain Square in late April when the Idan Raichel Project performed. I’m really pleasantly surprised by the thoughtful and relevant activities being organized here in Cincinnati under the auspices of the Jewish Federation. On the fourth night of the holiday of Sukkot, I couldn’t be happier to see this diverse community gathered under one roof. Events like this help generate respect for our diversity and tolerance for our differences. Call me hopeful, but this can only lead to a more mature and attractive Jewish community in southwest Ohio.

Tags: Election 2008
Categories: Prolitics and Yiddishkeit
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