As TRMS examined last week, we've had a 2010 campaign season full of "macaca" moments, gaffes from Republican/Tea Party candidates that would've ended their chances in any normal election.
Threaten to obstruct and possibly shut down the government? Dude, that's so 1994. Now you have to threaten violent revolution to get some attention. The goal line has been moved (forgive the football metaphor; it's Sunday) to a place we've never seen it before, and it's kept a lot of candidates viable long after they normally would have been. To the GOP/Tea Party folks, none of those things have yet disqualified these candidates.
But despite being willing to tolerate any manner of political gaffe, they do have standards. Being Muslim, it seems, is a bridge too far.
A Tea Party Nation e-mail (requires login) sent late Saturday night in support of Lynne Torgerson, the Republican candidate in Minnesota's 5th district, went full negative against Rep. Keith Ellison, the Democratic incumbent.
Best to just let you read it, verbatim:
There are a lot of liberals who need to be retired this year, but there are few I can think of more deserving than Keith Ellison. Ellison is one of the most radical members of congress. He has a ZERO rating from the American Conservative Union. He is the only Muslim member of congress. He supports the Counsel for American Islamic Relations, HAMAS and has helped congress send millions of tax to terrorists in Gaza.
Good to know they have some standards, I guess.
Whether or not they can prove that Rep. Ellison has "helped congress send millions of tax" to Gaza, or whether the Congressman or the Council on American-Islamic Relations supports Hamas, that's besides the point. Because all Muslims are anti-American, right?
Right? Being a Muslim, per the Tea Party Nation, is now a disqualifying characteristic for being a member of Congress. Calling for the violent overthrow of government if, you know, that whole democracy thing doesn't go their way?
Now, that's American!
(Image: University of Minnesota-Morris.)
Update: As some of our commenters have noted, Tea Party Nation will be surprised to learn that Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) is also a Muslim.
Leave a Comment:
ugh.
But..but...but..bu..b Tparty not racist and never tells lies! They are not the old repub party, they are the new and improved repub party.
yeah, that was a totally different snake! i'm a brand new one! see; it even left their old skin behind it left outta here so fast; jumped right out of it!
The Tea Party was herded together by old toxic republicans. One old republican Dick Armey of Freedom Works and two Koch billionaire brothers. The Tea Party will only be different if they care about more than the richest people in the U.S. Since they have shown their allegiance to the GOP they won't help any Americans any differently any time soon.
OMG! That's really all I can say, is OMG!
Also, he's not the only Muslim member of congress; Andre Carson of Indiana is also a muslim.
Wow. Not only is that downright despicable of the Tea Party, but they're wrong about Keith Ellison being the only member of congress who is a Muslim. Andre Carson of Indiana is the second Muslim to serve in congress.
Jamil, you'd better watch it, the Tea Baggers will start calling you a Commie Socialist Liberal for disagreeing with their racism. That's OK, they called me a racist on Twitter for calling out Juan Williams (NervousJuan) as the Fox/Tea Bagger "Token Negro" they are going to use to try and prove they aren't racist. Still waiting for the one gal who harped on me to tell me who John Brown is.
Yeh, Juan is not black enough for the liberals, I guess. Liberals are all for human rights as long they vote democrat.
I guess not helping racists would be a start, Katy.
You're tiresome. The Republicans are quite open racists and the Democrats are fighting it. Of course, you hate minorities.
junglejim-2550431 banned, rereg of multiple accounter Robertxx. 7.1 and 7.2 included:
Don't call people Nazis. Very basic.
Irrelevant.
Kathy we liberals love Juan...he is the only voice of reason on FOX. Shame on PBS for letting him go and shame on you for the racist comment.
That comment was not racist! I was simply saying when African Americans are conservative or they don't tow the line for the liberal left, they are not supported. Juan is actually one of the few liberal points of view that I will watch on cable news. I don't always agree with him, but he isn't obnoxious.
This man didn't say anything wrong or hateful. We can't have a conservation in this country because of "political correctness". If people can't say what they feel, and especially in the way that he did, which was very honest and followed with his own self introspection, then how can we solve problems! He said absolutely nothing racist or hateful.
Shame on you guys for twisting the content of his message.
Kathy
I totally disagree with your statement that Juan Williams is liberal..that is only true if you are so far to the right of Atlia the Hun that he would seem centrist or 'liberal' to you.
He broke his contract and how do you feel about all of the women he has harrassed at work? More and more are coming out saying that management protected him & he is just like Bill OReilly.
He was not to say NPR while giving 'opinions' but I guess since technically HE did not say it but Bill did, it is ok?
That is like the Tparty guy with Rand Paul stomped that 23 yrs woman's head/neck/shoulder well she should apologize to him for scoffing his shoes???
Juan was used to trash NPR the one place Roger Ales/Murdoch & the Arab could not purchase..they are the last resource of hearing what is OUTSIDE of USA..Never was LIBERAL just gave info about Italy, GB, Eurpore damn it while we get CharlieSheen caught naked for news...& you wonder why this country sucks
That's the difference between me and you. I don't think this country sucks at all! I personally can't think of anywhere else I would rather live and work. You should lose the bad attitude and start seeing the glass half full. The world looks a lot brighter from that perspective.
It only looks better when one contemplates equal rights for all regardless of sexual orientation.
The majority of the Tea People have forgotten that there are 2 Muslims in Congress. Indiana's Andre Carson. Not to worry, Tea Party endorsed candidate Marvin Scott has been doing them proud by race and Muslim baiting. His campaign manager was forced to resign because of racist and islamophobic Twitter rants. He lost the Indianapolis Star's endorsement in an excoriating take-down. Michael Steele drove his bus right on by Scott. Here's a good synopsis (or just Google Marvin's craziness) From Indy Star -Oct. 22, 2010 Dan Carpenter: On Religion, Andre Carson and History
http://www.indystar.com/article/20101024/OPINION05/10240347/Dan-Carpenter-On-religion-Andr-Carson-and-history
This post is the worst spin on an email ever, junglejim-2550431
Karl Rove wants his signed book back.
Well ask if you can edit your post to make it make sense... ;-)
Jamil,
Apparently you can make money off of Islamophobia. USA Today ran a piece on "non profit" investigative agencies profiting from spreading anti-Muslim fear. I could not get the link to open. But probably a story worth checking into while you are on the topic.
Cheers.
Sort of sad when the only way people can find a job position in the States is working on the fear of Islam.
Considering how bad American Customer Service is, this too will be shipped to India.
How does Jamil make money off of Islamophobia? By calling it out?
ChrisE, I believe micro geek's comment was that some "non-profit" groups are profiting from Islamophobia, not Jamil.
Yes. I was simply bringing his attention to the USA Today story.
Thanks.
In my opinion this post isn't just spin, it's an out and out lie.
How is it a lie?
JungleJim you need to take lessons on what the word Liberal means. Root word "liber", the same as the word liberty. From the word "liberalis" meaning "of freedom".
Stop subscribing to the fear-mongering falsely pejorative definition of the word liberal spewed by FOX News talking heads and the Conservative movement. It makes you look embarrassingly uneducated to those of us who actually challenge ourselves and try to embrace knowledge, intellectualism and logic.
EVERYONE else is uneducated and inferior. That particular attitude from the democratic congress and this administration is what has strengthed the movement.
Most progressives support education at all levels...if that makes us elitist then we have to wear the badge of honor. But I know no one on the left would consider people on the right inferior unlike the right does to the left every day.
Is that right Randy? Have you read the posts here? According to many on this post, conservatives are all uneducated idiots! But, of course there is nothing inferior implied when someone is called that, is there?
Kathy:
If called that it is because 'conservatives' hate education..they claim only need guns, god & bible enouf said but no way for us to compete with Europe, China, India,etc
I have a question..listening to NPR where journalist spoke to young people graduating from university in Irland and asked what are their plans..Guess what they said..they put in for jobs in Austrial, Wales, India,etc while our college grads are sitting at home with parents playing games. why don't our kids get jobs out of country? Places like Germany has booming econo but no one will take our kids because our educations is below par to anyone else!
So when conservatives gush at people in Tparty on how dumb they are by not knowing ANYTHING well it is just sad.
So Tparty conservatives believe that educations is worthless and not to be funded so that makes only the 'rich' to afford teaching their kids..so read 'darkages' history when only the 'lords' of the castles owned the land and everyone else SERFS who could not read.
It's interesting how my post keep getting "collapsed by the community". Shows the open mindedness on the liberal side.
I have no idea what you are talking about with regard to education and conservatives thinking it is worthless. Where did you get that idea? I will say that money doesn't solve every problem. I also think your grammar was interesting when you were talking about "educations". Of course we all think education is important. The real question is how and who should pay for it! Whether it is the responsibility of the government or the individual. Nothing burns my arse more than the way our government uses our tax dollars to educate foreign nationals when they don't pay for American citizens. I'm not advocating paying for everyone's education past 12th grade though. I just think the other should stop.
In my long life, I have learned that we appreciate what we earn. Families must make it a priority in their own house. There are already plenty of resources for those that have needs.
It really said "and has helped congress send millions of tax to terrorists in Gaza." and it really capitalized Hamas? Because, you know of course, you can't send tax to anyone and if you could somehow do so then millions of them would be taxes. And Hamas isn't actually a true acronym.
Don't these right wing loons do any resear... oh. wait. What am I saying.
What is tax? Do you think the writer meant tacks?
With all the hate and racism against Muslims and Mexicans from the Republicans and tea partiers, it must feel a little more comfortable to be black in America. They are not getting all of the hate because of their race.
No one should be made to feel uncomfortable in this country.
randy, I am not in agreement with your statement. I would like those who believe it is OK to deny US citizens equal rights because of sexual orientation or gender identity to feel very uncomfortable. I would like those who want to deny a woman the right to choose whether to continue or terminate her pregnancy to feel very uncomfortable.
blacks are not excluded cuz they hate the President because he is black. Do you remember the protest of 'mosque' in NY and a black guy walked by with a knit hat & they thought he was muslim? the crowd of Tpartiers went to attack him a single black man with no weapons who had gotten off work & did not know what the fuss was about...well at least one person in the group did not have mob mentality and said that the crowd could not attack the man and walked him out of the white racist lynch mob before they could touch him So if you don't look like the party well you are not welcome to the party
Its sad when one witnesses the emergence of religious intolerance bordering on persecution in this once free society of ours. As if racism was not enough.
The ultra-right, new cons, wing nuts, Tea Partiers whipping up paranoia. Propaganda machines like the Fox News Channel, O'Reilly, Glenn Beck & Co up to their old tricks. The Republicans wagging their tails for these people to claw back to power. Remember the time when we were being set up by the very same mindset for Iraq invasion.
We can stand up to these forces of hate representing everything un-American & vote for sanity or come election time and we surrender to them , thus losing the essential goodness which made this nation great.
Think hard before you vote.
There is really only one thing that needs to be said about this, which is that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States" (US Constitution Article VI, para. 3).
True.
Indonesia: Buddhist Statue Draws Islamists' Ire
Arientha Primanita, Bilhuda Haryanto & Aidi Yursal
October 22, 2010
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/buddhist-statue-draws-islamists-ire/402844
Jakarta. Buddhists are the latest minority religious group to feel the heat, being at the center of a festering row over a large Buddha statue on the roof of a temple in the North Sumatran city of Tanjung Balai.
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The Forum for United Muslims, a local coalition of Muslim groups, has been agitating for the statue to be removed, holding repeated protests in May and June.
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Ismail said the Tanjung Balai case reflected the state's practice of bowing to the masses to the disadvantage of minorities.
This not only led to discrimination of minorities, "but the groups that exert the pressure will feel powerful," he said.
--
Muslims in non-Muslim majority countries need to start standing up for equal rights and religious rights (which are sorely and severely lacking) of non-Muslim minorities in Muslim-majority countries, and against Islamism there and here. That's when non-Muslims would trust them.
Here, for instance, Keith Elllison, Andre Carson and Barack Obama could come to aid of the Buddhist minority in Indonesia (Obama's childhood home) in some fashion, and help make sure that the Buddha statue stays put.
Tolerance, like respect, is a two-way street.
Intolerance abroad should not excuse intolerance at home. While what you described is despicable, just is the treatment of muslims here. Just sayin'.
Muslims in non-Muslim majority countries have enough people actually standing up for equal rights.
They shouldn't have to earn anyone's trust as there's no sane reason to distrust them.
Why do you mention Obama along the two Muslim Reps. in that context? As if you're nick name wouldn't make everything clear ...
You're references to known bigots and British newspapers (fear sells and the tabloids are complete worthless) doesn't prove anything, by the way. Next you'll find the Canadian right-wing tabloids supporting your views ...
You're clearly obsessed.
@Samuel Abram: 'Intolerance abroad should not excuse intolerance at home.'
We need to distinguish between Muslims and the ideology of Islamism. Muslims, as people, should not be treated any different from other people, but Islamism needs to kept off our shores as well as defeated abroad. If progressives and the left do not grasp this distinction, you are helping compromise the very freedoms that allow us to be liberals in free societies.
@ChrisE84: 'Muslims in non-Muslim majority countries have enough people actually standing up for equal rights.'
There are some but obviously there aren't enough. That's why the plight of non-Muslims in most Muslim countries is bad to horrendous. By and large, non-Muslims are at best second class citizens in most of the Muslim-majority countries today. By contrast, Muslims enjoy all sorts of freedoms and privileges in non-Muslim democracies.
'They shouldn't have to earn anyone's trust as there's no sane reason to distrust them.'
Not a question of trusting or distrusting Muslims. It is Islamist elements, not Muslim population as a whole, that present a serious menace to free socities, and it is that ideology that needs to be summarily defeated. Ramsey Yousef, the 9/11 terrorists, al-Awlaki, Nidal Hasan, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (underwear bomber), Faisal Shahzad are examples of Islamists and people affected by them.
'Why do you mention Obama along the two Muslim Reps. in that context?'
Duh. Can't you read? Indonesia was Obama's childhood home.
'As if you're nick name wouldn't make everything clear. You're references to known bigots and British newspapers'
Everything that's inconvenient is "tabloids" and "right wing." The political and social aspects of Islam are among most illiberal ideologies ever invented, and I oppose them as a secular liberal.
'You're clearly obsessed.'
I am not the issue. Islamism, radical Islam and Islamic Jihad and the threats they pose to free societies, non-Muslims as well as Muslims themselves are the issues.
It's really all over. The terrorists have won. America has abandoned its most fundamental values and constitutional principles. The hate-mongers have been snookered by bin Laden and are playing into his game plan like the gullible, cowardly fools that they are. The fact that they will be dominating the American political landscape for the foreseeable future is truly alarming.
Andre Carson is in Indiana, not Illinois
Rachel, the author of this article misspelled that kook's last name. It's TORGERSON, not TORGESON. She omitted the second R. I only pick this nit because Torgeson happens to be my last name and I was aghast when I read that I shared it with a right-wing bigot.
Whew!
By the way, I freakin' love you! Keep up your important work!
It's been fixed. Thanks for the correction!
To anyone that's a Nine Inch Nails fan: Tea Party = 'Year Zero'
Thank you NPR for the courage to do the right thing and fire Juan Williams for his Islamaphobic remarks. While some have tried to justify Mr. Williams’ remarks as simply relating his experience and not a condemnation of all Muslims, I disagree. It increases the alarmist and mistaken public rhetoric that abets bias against Muslims and responsible persons need to show that such hate speech has consequences. To state that Muslims on airplanes wear traditional dress to identify themselves “first and foremost as Muslims” and that this makes him nervous singles out all Muslims as potential terrorists and advocates that Muslims who wear such dress should not do so. It is like telling nuns not to wear habits because some are offended by the Catholic Church. This attitude would make these Muslims humiliated and angry since it forces them to dress differently to hide their faith, targets them all as possible terrorists that should be treated with suspicion, and ignores the reality that Muslim terrorists have not worn Islamic dress. As a Catholic, I support these Muslims and I advocate that anyone who becomes nervous when seeing Muslims in traditional dress reflect on their own attitudes and find a path to a more educated and mature mind-set.
Actually, Juan Williams did say that, jj.
He simply stated his feelings. Isn't the first step to acknowledge that real people have them? If they are unwarranted then the discussion will play out and all will be more educated about the issues. He wasn't condoning it. He was just acknowledging it and he went on to qualify his statement in that same conversation.
No, he didn't. You just repeat his excuse and the spin after he was fired. He actually called disagreement with his feelings political correctness while he's actually wrong.
And he was justifying O'Reilly's position which disproves that he didn't support bigotry. He explicitly supported it.
yep. Muhammed Ali, for example; terribly anti-/un-American.
so can Ellison sue TPN for libel in claiming he's supported terrorism or is their email considered a private communiqué?
It has to be untrue. Maybe he doesn't want to go there....
As the US has an extremely high standard because of the liberal interpretation of the First Amendment it is not easy to win even if you're right.
yes, i suppose, but when you're a Congressman and the allegation is supporting terrorism . . .; it's kinda like leveling a charge of treason.
Katy, no that was George Bush! Did you forget President Obama inherited the mess that Bush & Co. made after 8 years in power. You know two wars, financial melt down (oh, by the way ol' george never included the cost in the budget. . . opps that was to keep it out of the public view!)
You are showing your ignorance of YOUR government in action!
George didn't amass all the debt we have today. He didn't saddle us with the tremendous cost of this new healthcare bill either. In what year does Obama have to accept responsibility for his adminisrtation? How long does he get a pass....
Lets see...Wasnt it King george that signed the Tarp bill and supported the stimulus? How quickly you and the other neocon teabaggers forget, or is it simply a case of denial?
What tremendous cost? Why are you lying?
Know the truth! As of Sept 30th the Federal deficit is $122 billion less than when the Bush left office. Can't hide the facts unless you try real hard. Keep listening to Rachel, the only truth teller without fear.
I guess Katy also forgot the Medicare drug benefit that Bush passed, which is costing hundreds of billions over the next decade....especially because the bill PROHIBITED the government from negotiating for lower prices with Big Pharma. It was the no-bid contract redux, writ large with lots of zeroes in the cost.
I'm thinking that the water supply in the US must have been poisoned with insanity. How else could this insideous lack of common sense spread so quickly across a country that has always prided itself on it's freedoms....which the last time I check still included "freedom of religion." Our founding fathers must be turning over in their graves about what is going on in the country they founded on freedom and tolerance.
I'm an American living in Canada.....and I've always been proud to say I was an American. Not anymore. I'm still proud to be an American....I just don't say it anymore. But I am proud to live in Canada where the city I live in just elected a new mayor.....and he was elected on his platform....his plan for the city etc. Nothing radical there....but what some Americans might find the most astonishing about all of this??? He's a Muslim and it doesn't matter one bit to the majority of people here as long as he does the job he says he's going to do.
I'm proud right now to live in a country that practices tolerance and doesn't just pay lip service to it. But as an American, I'm thankful that there is still news media like Rachel Maddow that take the time to research the facts and tell it in such a way as to educate rather than sensationalize. I just hope that the majority of Americans are listening and the rest will stop "drinking the insanity."
On Juan Williams.
I wonder where were these defenders & champions of the First Amendment when:
Helen Thomas who devoted her entire life to journalism was shunted out of the White House Press Corps.
OR
When Octavia Nasr a 20 years veteran was fired by CNN.
Both for expressing their opinion.
Where were these voices of outrage who now stand up for Juan Williams?
They were not useful to the Republican party but Juan is.
No, but we know who he is....one liberal pov we watch! It is cutting you nose off to spite your face! We all know that he was persecuted for his affiliation with Fox and not for what he said. That is offensive.