Yeah, it was satire, but not by much
ArchPundit
Fun discussions of the features of the sketch suspect at a white power site
In fact, they look nothing alike….
ArchPundit
Hate Groups Evolution as they Become Marginalized
Via Peoria Pundit
White supremacist groups have been on the decline in the Midwest lately, with key leaders jailed or stepping down and membership in disarray. But experts warn the hate movement could actually become more violent under those circumstances, as angry “lone wolf” extremists take matters into their own hands.
McDermott is one of the few solid reporters left at the Post-Dispatch–or perhaps more correctly stated, one of the few hard news reporters left at the Post-Dispatch who is allowed to write worthwhile articles. I’m betting being outside of the mind numbing daily drag of the St. Louis based editorial team allows him to avoid inane supervision.
It’s a good overview of the state of hate groups. The one criticism I have is the same thesis has been bandied about since at least the murder of Denver Talk Show Host Alan Berg. It doesn’t make it wrong, it just means it lacks the historical context that this has been theorized for many years. The other critique of it that I’ve heard is that entirely depends if you are a black man in the South in 2005 or in 1955. I’ve got a feeling hate groups were a little more troubling at the time if you hit that demographic.
But the general trend appears to be true, as the groups become more marginalized the people in them have less to lose and violence like this is likely.
In Saint Louis, a rather bizarre radio station used to run two white supremacist radio shows. About two to three weeks ago, both of those shows were cancelled with one an idiot affiliated with the National Alliance and the other affiliated with the Council of Conservative Citizens–in fact the CEO of the CofCC, Gordon Baum, was the co-host of that show.
My run-in with the other co-host can be found here. That POS was a school board member here in St. Louis up until 1993.
Earl Holt is too much of a drunken ass to ever kill anyone (sue me Earl–I’d love to have you under oath).
While it’s true they are generally becoming more marginalized, it’s also true they aren’t so marginalized to not have connections to ‘mainstream’ politicians. As I pointed out the other day, Hailey Barbour has attended fundraisers by the CofCC for segregationist academy busing and let’s not forget David Duke who got about 60% of the white vote in a US Senate race in 1990 and did pretty well in later races. He now is active with the hate group Stormfront
Durbin on Meet the Press
If you get this later in the day–remember they replay it on CNBC. He’ll be on the show taking on McConnell over Social Security. Given the polling data of the last week, I imagine Dick will be the relaxed one. And this kind of setting is perfect for him and why I was so happy he became Whip.
Never, Ever Use an Agnew Line Like That
And the natural comparison it draws…ummm…there are times when the Governor shows incredible political skills–and then other times you want to ask him where he gets the good crack.
If it had been Thompson, they’d be having a beer and Chambers would be wilting (no offense to Chambersw, but pretty much everyone wilted). Even the sarcastic Edgar had a way of easing tension and not exaggerating it.
But an Agnew line?
New Ads!
Despite that I hadn’t mentioned his bill (or perhaps because) Jeff Trigg has placed a new ad supporting his initiative to reduce the barriers to non-established parties in the State of Illinois. His initiative would reduce signatures required to get on the ballot amonst other things. I was planning to voice support before, so by buying an ad, he puts me in the awkward stance of announcing my support as he buys the ad, but it’s still a good bill.
Allowing more parties on the ballot only increases potential participation in democracy and that is a good thing. Help Jeff out. Click on the ad in the upper right.
Two other ads–get your bracket manager Illini fans! and True Blue liberal is selling rubber bracelets to let you declare your political affilliation. Go for it!
Stealing Bill’s Hale Material Now
Sources indicate a Chicago Police Sketch Artist has been threatened by two associates of the World Church of the Creator. The sketches released seemed to indicate a darker skin tone than they felt was fair.
“The Police Sketch Artist is clearly trained by the Jewish Media which is trying to give credit for our work to those people. We simply will not stand for any suggestion we are not pure white Aryans,” said sketch one associate. “This is just another attempt to marginalize the white man in today’s society and we will not stand for it. We demand credit for our work and if the sketch artist doesn’t watch out, we’ll kill his family too.”
Police investigators who accompanied reporters to the quickly scheduled press conference looked at each other, shrugged, and placed both men under arrest. Bond is set at $10,000,000. The judge informed the defendants their insurance cards are not valid for bond in a criminal case.
Why Is It Acceptable for Charter Cable to Lie To Me
Given Eric has been going off on grocery stores, I’ve been thinking about my testy relationship with the cable company. If Charter was simply incompetent I wouldn’t mind much, but the customer service reps actually lie to me with some regularity. The best example was when I requested an episode be put on the VOD schedule as Showtime had it listed, I was told that they didn’t decide what Showtime put on and sent me to complain to a web site that was a ticket broker. I’ll assume the ticket broker was a mistake and not a lie, but it’s hard to spin the claim that they weren’t allowed to include a show, when the show was supposed to be included other than lying and making up an answer to get rid of the customer.
Last night I was informed that if a signal was sent to the wrong box it would fry the digital box. Of course, this is absurd as sending a packet of information doesn’t send enough power to the box to fry it (perhaps screw up the settings but they can remote reset).
Is it really easier for cable companies to just make up an answer than try and fix the problem? The only way this makes sense is if everyone has given up and just tolerates it–other than those that switched to a satellite dish. But how does Charter make money?
Oh, wait, they lost like $2 Billion. IT’s quite a comeback strategery they have too!
Only an idiot would think that I would do this
As Austin Mayor points out….really?
Both Hale’s parents have come to his defense with unintended black comedy:
Hale’s mother:
“Why does everybody think that it’s Matt?” And Austin offers up a pretty good reason
Her defense is that Hale isn’t dumb. Yeah, that’s why he not only threatened a judge who ruled in his favor, but was married to an Episcopalian.
And, of course, the “he was under surveillance” line is a bit weak.
It’s certainly true the police should investigate all avenues of possibllities, but when a guy says he wants a judge dead–believe him.
Just Retire
This and the white N******s line means someone has gone past his expiration date.
Yeah, it’ll probably be a Republican pick-up as an open seat, but the guy wasn’t that great for those that remember his efforts to block environmental legislation as Senate Majority Leader.
More Coal Than You Can Stand
Ralph points out some rather bizarre rantings from Jim Muir in the Southern that really resembles pouting more than anything.
Here’s Muir’s thesis:
As The Candidate you will remember the many times Obama traipsed through Southern Illinois in his bid to become a U.S. senator. In fact, I remember last April when The Candidate Obama, accompanied by The Elected Official Dick Durbin, visited the Southern Illinois University Coal Research Park in Carterville and made promise after promise about his commitment to help Southern Illinois residents secure jobs by doing all he could to revive the dying coal industry.
Yes, it was quite a day for The Candidate Obama in Carterville, the marching bands, smiling hangers-on and glad-handing politicians.
But sadly, that was then and this is now. In other words, that was The Candidate Obama, and now The Elected Official Obama seems to have forgotten that April day last year.
Muir’s either confused or wasn’t paying attention. Let’s look back to an AP Story on April 15th of 2004.
Obama and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who traveled with his fellow Democrat, also criticized pending U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules that they said would favor Western-mined coal, with its relatively low sulfur content, over higher-sulfur varieties mined in the East and Midwest.
Ryan’s campaign manager, Jason Miller, said Ryan also wants the proposal changed “so that there is no advantage given to Western coal over Illinois coal.”
The EPA has received several similar comments about the proposal, said spokeswoman Bonnie Piper. A final decision will be made on the rules after the public comment period ends April 30, she said.
Now, if the good Mr. Muir had been paying attention back in April he might have noticed that Barack Obama is doing exactly what he promised to do, and he seemed to be in agreement with Jack Ryan on the issue of Clear Skies and its effects on the use of Southern Illinois coal.
The entire thesis that the Clear Skies initiative will help Southern Illinois coal is very, very wrong. Barack Obama pointed this out in April and he’s held a consistent position since. One could disagree and make an argument that the Clear Skies Initiative will not be bad for coal, but that is an argument over the merits of Obama’s argument–not one over whether he lied. Obama didn’t lie and has held a perfectly consistent position.
Now, Muir does get Obama on one fact—Illinois doesn’t have one of the highest rates of asthma in the nation.
Muir gets upset that Obama mentioned his daughter who has asthma
But, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics Center for Child Research the number of people afflicted by asthma is almost exclusively determined by genetic issues such as small lung volume, low birth weight, repeated childhood infections and exposure to toxins like chemicals in cigarettes while in the mother’s womb.
But what Obama has said on this is quite specific. On February 25th, in a State Journal Register story, Obama said
“I’ve got a 5-year-old daughter who’s got asthma,” he said. “Every bit of evidence out there shows that although pollutants may not cause asthma, they are certainly an important trigger.”
Obama’s statement is perfectly consistent with the Centers for Disease Control’s statements on asthma triggers.
But Muir wasn’t done, he decided to get a dig in on Chicago:
It might seem if The Elected Official Obama is concerned about his daughter’s asthma the logical thing to do would be to keep her out of Washington and move her out of Chicago — perhaps to Southern Illinois where we have Clear Skies.
Illinois overall ~11%
Using CDC data
Using self-report data which is higher for a variety of methodogical reasons.
Chicago 21.2%
Rural counties 21.2%
One may argue that both higher than should be considered accurate, but there is no reason to think one is disproportionately affected by over self-reporting. IOW, the rate appears damn close.
Adding to that, is that Southern Illinois has several air quality problems related to high mold counts, some of the worst allergy conditions in the nation, and several areas have air pollution problems from the Saint Louis Metropolitan area.
The worst monitored county in St. Louis’ air quality region is Jersey County.
That natural conditions make asthma more difficult in Southern Illinois, should be a reason to take air pollution especially serious.
Jim Muir: a columnist in need of a good editor.