http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/25/death-panels-by-proxy/
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Meet the Soetoros
Indonesia
Left to Right: Lolo Soetoro, Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro,baby Maya Soetoro, and 9 year old Barry Soetoro
Left to Right: Lolo Soetoro, Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro,baby Maya Soetoro, and 9 year old Barry Soetoro
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The Race Card
The national debate over health care reform has careered into the bumpy terrain of race.
Former President Jimmy Carter, some black lawmakers and some newspaper columnists have begun to call President Obama's opponents racist -- or fueled by racism -- and they are asserting that race is the underlying cause of much of the criticism of the president.
Obama's opponents, in turn, are charging the president's supporters with playing the race card -- using the issue of race for political gain.
"What Democrats are trying to do is shame white independents, who voted for President Obama in 2008 but are now uneasy about his policies, into supporting these policies to prove they are not racist," said Republican pollster and strategist David E. Johnson, who worked on Bob Dole's 1988 presidential campaign.
But Democratic strategist Jehmu Greene told FOXNews.com that "shadowy right-wing groups" are the ones using the race card as way to scare white voters.
"No one wants to be called a racist," she said. "These right-wing groups are convincing people that Democrats and anyone who supports Obama will be called a racist if they speak out" in opposition. "They are trying to draw a racial line in the sand.
"They are playing the race card to oppose Obama's policies by preemptively saying that he is playing the race card."
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that the president does not believe the criticism of his policies are based on the color of his skin.
In the latest Rasmussen poll, only 12 percent of voters believe that most opponents of Obama's health care plan are racist, while 67 percent disagree and 21 percent are not sure.
Race reared its head in the debate shortly after South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" at Obama during his nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress last week. New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd wrote on Sunday that Wilson implied the word "boy" in his outburst. On Tuesday, in an interview with NBC, Carter said "an overwhelming portion" of those who demonstrate against Obama are doing so because he is black.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele fired back on Wednesday, saying Carter is "plain wrong" and calling the ex-president "ignorant." He also said the charge has destructive implications.
"I think it colors, if you look, this debate on health care, in a very unfortunate way," Steele said. "It diminishes real instances of racism that still exists in this country."
Steele called on Obama to "shut this part of the conversation down."
"If we're going to be having a conversation on health care and energy policy, we do not want to be tainted by race," he said. "The president has an opportunity to correct former President Carter and to move us beyond this particular ugly spot."
Johnson, the Republican strategist, told FOXNews.com that Democrats have been using the "shame tactic" since President Lyndon Johnson effectively employed it in 1964 against Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. He said Carter found success with the same tactic against President Gerald Ford in 1976, but it backfired on him in 1980 when he lost to Ronald Reagan.
Traditionally, the tactic fails, Johnson said, and Democrats are using it now at their peril.
"I think it's going to solidify more opposition to the health care debate because it's like pouring gasoline on fire," he said, adding that Democrats have already dismissed the town hall protesters during the congressional August recess as Nazis and now they're pulling the race card. "That's the bottom of the barrel."
That, he said, could lead to the Democrats losing control of Congress and ultimately the White House. Asked why Democrats would employ a tactic with a track record of failure, Johnson said, "It doesn't make sense. But they really don't have anything left in their arsenal."
Greene, the Democratic strategist, said she doesn't believe racism is the driving factor behind opposition to health care reform.
"I believe that there is a lot of organizing, a lot of money, a lot of marketing behind trying to create a race war to help defeat Obama's policies," she said.
And the losers, she said, are the American people.
"To create hate in people who feel they are being attacked because of their race is disastrous for democracy," she said, adding that both Republicans and Democrats will shore up their base of support as a result of the race controversy.
"This is going to drive more independents and less active voters out of the process because of how polarized it has become," she said.
Former President Jimmy Carter, some black lawmakers and some newspaper columnists have begun to call President Obama's opponents racist -- or fueled by racism -- and they are asserting that race is the underlying cause of much of the criticism of the president.
Obama's opponents, in turn, are charging the president's supporters with playing the race card -- using the issue of race for political gain.
"What Democrats are trying to do is shame white independents, who voted for President Obama in 2008 but are now uneasy about his policies, into supporting these policies to prove they are not racist," said Republican pollster and strategist David E. Johnson, who worked on Bob Dole's 1988 presidential campaign.
But Democratic strategist Jehmu Greene told FOXNews.com that "shadowy right-wing groups" are the ones using the race card as way to scare white voters.
"No one wants to be called a racist," she said. "These right-wing groups are convincing people that Democrats and anyone who supports Obama will be called a racist if they speak out" in opposition. "They are trying to draw a racial line in the sand.
"They are playing the race card to oppose Obama's policies by preemptively saying that he is playing the race card."
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that the president does not believe the criticism of his policies are based on the color of his skin.
In the latest Rasmussen poll, only 12 percent of voters believe that most opponents of Obama's health care plan are racist, while 67 percent disagree and 21 percent are not sure.
Race reared its head in the debate shortly after South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" at Obama during his nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress last week. New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd wrote on Sunday that Wilson implied the word "boy" in his outburst. On Tuesday, in an interview with NBC, Carter said "an overwhelming portion" of those who demonstrate against Obama are doing so because he is black.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele fired back on Wednesday, saying Carter is "plain wrong" and calling the ex-president "ignorant." He also said the charge has destructive implications.
"I think it colors, if you look, this debate on health care, in a very unfortunate way," Steele said. "It diminishes real instances of racism that still exists in this country."
Steele called on Obama to "shut this part of the conversation down."
"If we're going to be having a conversation on health care and energy policy, we do not want to be tainted by race," he said. "The president has an opportunity to correct former President Carter and to move us beyond this particular ugly spot."
Johnson, the Republican strategist, told FOXNews.com that Democrats have been using the "shame tactic" since President Lyndon Johnson effectively employed it in 1964 against Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. He said Carter found success with the same tactic against President Gerald Ford in 1976, but it backfired on him in 1980 when he lost to Ronald Reagan.
Traditionally, the tactic fails, Johnson said, and Democrats are using it now at their peril.
"I think it's going to solidify more opposition to the health care debate because it's like pouring gasoline on fire," he said, adding that Democrats have already dismissed the town hall protesters during the congressional August recess as Nazis and now they're pulling the race card. "That's the bottom of the barrel."
That, he said, could lead to the Democrats losing control of Congress and ultimately the White House. Asked why Democrats would employ a tactic with a track record of failure, Johnson said, "It doesn't make sense. But they really don't have anything left in their arsenal."
Greene, the Democratic strategist, said she doesn't believe racism is the driving factor behind opposition to health care reform.
"I believe that there is a lot of organizing, a lot of money, a lot of marketing behind trying to create a race war to help defeat Obama's policies," she said.
And the losers, she said, are the American people.
"To create hate in people who feel they are being attacked because of their race is disastrous for democracy," she said, adding that both Republicans and Democrats will shore up their base of support as a result of the race controversy.
"This is going to drive more independents and less active voters out of the process because of how polarized it has become," she said.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
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Saturday, September 5, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Leading Republican Demands That White House Fire 'Green Collar' Adviser
Leading Republican Demands That White House Fire 'Green Collar' Adviser
Updated 4:52 p.m.By Garance Franke-Ruta
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs offered few signs of support at his daily briefing Friday for embattled White House adviser Van Jones, saying only, "He continues to work for the administration."
Meanwhile, the chairman of the House Republican Conference, Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.), called on Jones to quit or be fired, saying, "His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate."
Jones, author of "The Green Collar Economy" and, since March, the special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), has faced withering criticism from conservatives for weeks over his activist background. Fox News host Glenn Beck has been a leading voice in the criticism. (Notably, Beck's advertisers are facing boycott calls from a group Jones helped found.)
The blog Gateway Pundit reported Thursday that Jones signed in 2004 a petition from 911Truth.org. The petition questioned whether Bush administration officials "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war."
On Thursday, Jones apologized for signing the petition.
"In recent days some in the news media have reported on past statements I made before I joined the administration -- some of which were made years ago. If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologize. As for the petition that was circulated today, I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever," he said in a statement issued by the CEQ.
It was his second apology of the week. On Wednesday, Jones apologized for labeling Republicans with a vulgarism in a February speech, saying that his comments were "clearly inappropriate."
Pence cited "recent revelations concerning the associations and statements of the president's green jobs czar" in calling for Jones's ouster.
Gibbs was asked about Jones at Friday's press briefing, and answered, "He continues to work in the administration, and I'll refer you to the statement that CEQ put out last night about this." Questioned further, the White House spokesman added, "I think, if you refer to the statement, he apologizes."
Pressed again about how the administration can "tolerate somebody who subscribes to a ... insane conspiracy theory as a senior adviser," Gibbs said, "It's not something that the president agrees with, and again I'd point you to the statement from CEQ."
On Friday, Sen. Christopher Bond (Mo.), the ranking Republican on the Green Jobs and the New Economy subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee -- which has oversight of the green jobs effort -- called for a congressional oversight hearing into Jones's "fitness" for his position.
In a letter to Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), the subcommittee's chair, Bond said he sought the hearing on Jones "to reassure the American people that their government is safe from his divisive, incendiary and ultimately counterproductive sentiments."
"I can imagine few sentiments more repulsive to our brave fighting soldiers and the victims of the 9/11 terror tragedy than to think the U.S. government deliberately allowed the events of 9/11 to occur," Bond wrote to Sanders.
On Friday, ABC News unearthed a Web posting of a January 2002 prospectus for "A New, Biweekly, Tabloid Newspaper Opposing the 'War on Terrorism'," which listed Jones as part of the organizing committee. The prospectus, which laid out plans for fundraising from foundations, said the paper would "track the development of the war at home and abroad, spotlighting the dire consequences of Bush's program for human beings and the earth" and act as "an entryway for new people into the peace and justice movement."
The video of Jones insulting Republicans was published on YouTube by the group DefendGlenn.com. That group is fighting a boycott of the Fox News host by activist group ColorofChange.org, which Jones helped found in 2005.
"He is now at the highest levels of power, and is targeting Glenn Beck for exposing his true agenda," the group said on YouTube in posting the video online.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
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