The Black Liberal Boomer Blog

Jimmy Hoffa, president of the Teamsters Union, made an empassioned plea for people to vote the Democratic party in November 2012, stating that we need to "take out" the Republicans now in office--take them out via fair and free elections (with no voter suppresion tactics.

Of course Faux News, Andrew Breitbart, and others who make their bones by LYING about the facts, edited Hoffa's comments to make it appear as if he were calling for violence against Republicans. Not. As usual, they were just channeling what Republicans have actually said recently about what should happen if an election doesn't turn out the way they want: Sharron Angle and Allen West calling for "Second Amendment Remedies" and Sarah Palin with her "crosshairs" on her website that she said were actually surveyors' marks...

Here is what Mr. Hoffa actually said. Listen, decide for yourself, then make sure everyone you know is registered to vote. THAT is the Democratic and democratic way things are supposed to be done in America.

<img style="visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;" border=0 width=0 height=0 src="http://c.gigcount.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.11NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEzMTUzMjU2NTE2MTYmcHQ9MTMxNTMyNTY1OTM*MCZwPSZkPSZnPTImbz1iOTJiYjAxZTYzYjc*ZjE1YjY1MzZiMWZj/Yzg1ODU5ZCZvZj*w.gif" />

Jimmy Hoffa, president of the Teamsters Union, made an empassioned plea for people to vote the Democratic party in November 2012, stating that we need to "take out" the Republicans now in office--take them out via fair and free elections (with no voter suppresion tactics.

Of course Faux News, Andrew Breitbart, and others who make their bones by LYING about the facts, edited Hoffa's comments to make it appear as if he were calling for violence against Republicans. Not. As usual, they were just channeling what Republicans have actually said recently about what should happen if an election doesn't turn out the way they want: Sharron Angle and Allen West calling for "Second Amendment Remedies" and Sarah Palin with her "crosshairs" on her website that she said were actually surveyors' marks...

Here is what Mr. Hoffa actually said. Listen, decide for yourself, then make sure everyone you know is registered to vote. THAT is the Democratic and democratic way things are supposed to be done in America.

<img style="visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;" border=0 width=0 height=0 src="http://c.gigcount.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.11NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEzMTUzMjU2NTE2MTYmcHQ9MTMxNTMyNTY1OTM*MCZwPSZkPSZnPTImbz1iOTJiYjAxZTYzYjc*ZjE1YjY1MzZiMWZj/Yzg1ODU5ZCZvZj*w.gif" />

Continuing with the new far-right meme that everyone who is Muslim is a dangerous terrorist, America now has people who commit attempted murder of cab drivers who just happen to be Muslim. On Tuesday, August 24 2010, Ahmed H. Sharif, aged 43 and a resident of Queens, New York, picked up a fare. Mr. Sharif is a driver for Yellow Cab Company. His passenger, 21-year-old Michael Enright, a resident of the New York suburb of Brewster, asked Mr. Sharif if he was a Muslim and was he fasting for Ramadan. When Sharif said yes, Enright attacked him and slashed his neck with a folding hand tool.

THIS is the America the far-right, Faux News followers, and Palin supporters want? Who is next in their sights as they encourage their supporters to "reload" and stay "armed and dangerous" and "take America back"?

I've never been much of a supporter of the reparations argument, the one that says black folks are owed some serious back pay for what this country did to our ancestors during slavery days (and beyond, if we're being honest about this). It's not that I don't think the United States doesn't have a debt to pay, because I do. It's just that I know this is a losing argument and a losing strategy in a country run by assorted folks and powers that will never allow this to happen, so let's move on to something that can actually make a difference. And that has a chance of actually occurring before Jesus comes back.

So what does this have to do with Ground Zero? With Muslims wanting to build a mosque on the supposedly hallowed ground of where the 911 attack took place? Well, here's the thing; one of the favorite arguments I've heard put forward by whites who oppose reparations and who don't believe that white folks of today should bear any responsibility for the white folks of yesteryear is that today's white folks aren't the white folks of yesteryear, so why punish them?

And at least on the face of it, they have somewhat of a point. I believe it does get more complicated than that, but let's just stick to the basics for now. And the basics of this argument couldn't be any more clear: why punish me for something I didn't do? I may be white, but hey, it wasn't me, pal. I don't even own any rope, let alone a bullwhip.

Fair enough. So do you see where I'm going with this? I thought you might. Because, at least to most thinking people, it should be apparent that it was not the Muslim religion that hijacked those planes and flew them into the World Trade Center. It was a group of crazy fundamentalist hotheads who represented other fundamentalist hotheads like themselves acting like crazy fundamentalist hotheads.

To be sure, there are plenty more fundamentalist hotheads and crazies out there. Some of them are in the Tea Party. One of them is Sarah Palin. And, to be sure, some of them are Muslims. And Christians. And Jews. And Buddhists.

In short, no one religion owns the franchise on hot-headed patriotic lunacy. Because there are far too many in each religion to claim a sure winner.

Just like Jesus said, "The idiots ye shall have with you always."
Or something like that.