Failing to Learn from History

A recent post at Sadly No! about the National Museum of the American Indian and its' alleged downplaying of genocide reveals more through the accompanying comments than the post itself, as the tired old memes of "that was a long time ago," "the Indians were violent, too!" and "why should we feel guilty?" are trucked out yet again. As I have mentioned before, many whites have such a violent aversion to acknowledging or even mentioning what Indians have suffered because the mere fact of our stubborn, continued existence is an uncomfortable reminder that the Western Hemisphere was "settled" through invasion, genocide, brutality and lawlessness. This is especially true in America, where many perhaps most whites are deeply, personally, emotionally invested in the cherished founding myths of our nation's history.

Couple of Things

1. The MSM regurgitates GOP talking points (in this case regarding reform of the FISA Court and reining in warrantless wiretapping) that are easily verifiably false. What a surprise, huh? Only this time, Congress pushes back. Hard. And the MSM (in this case Time) is pissed. Good.
2. The DNI unexpectedly and against his previously-stated opposition, releases a public summary of the NIE. And it shows that, shockingly enough, the Bush Administration and the Serious Foreign Policy Experts were absolutely, positively dead-wrong about Iran's quest for nukes. Why would the DNI do this? Not (apparently) pressure from Congress. My guess is that either he is in the Condi Rice camp and trying desperately to avert a disastrous preemptive strike on Iran by the Cheney or he is trying to CYA in case the Cheney attacks Iran anyway. Or both. And Bush and Cheney have apparently, since they learned of the report a year ago, been subtly shifting their rhetoric to justify an attack with or without Iranian nukes. Oh, and the Right-Wing Blogosphere despairs.

This Just In!

Right-wing, corporate media, Republic Party propaganda lapdogs are full of USDA Prime, Grade-A crap!
Film at eleven!

Most. Frightening. Thought. Evar.

Is the US Military taking its' marching orders from the Right Wing Blogosphere? Is there no portion of the Federal government that cannot be corrupted and politicized by the Bush Administration and its thuggery? Apparently not.

Wingnutosphere Seizes Moral High Ground...

...by attacking a 12 year old boy and his family. And, of course, as per usual, they are dead wrong.

UPDATE: Shockingly enough, Rush Limbaugh has joined in on dog-piling this boy who only recently emerged from a coma. It's a real profile in courage moment for the wingers. Plus, Rush managed to work in his slander against soldiers, too. What a guy!

UPDATE 2: First the car wreck, then the coma, now stalked by a rabid Michelle Malkin. Hasn't this kid suffered enough?

UPDATE 3: Apparently not; now they're going after his GRANDFATHER, too!

Pandagon Makes An Excellent Point

Why hasn't there been more coverage of the Jena Six in either the MSM or the (white) progressive blogosphere?

Wherein I Piss Off Liberals

See comments...


UPDATE: Creek Running North makes an excellent point that made me realize that I need to clarify my position. My problem is not with liberals who insist on supporting candidates that I find, frankly, to be pretty ludicrous. No, my problem is with liberals who either a) don't participate in electoral politics at all, content to sit in the cheap seats and chuck tomatoes; or b) cannot seem to grasp that the only point of an election is to WIN. It's not to "make a point"; it's not to "stimulate debate"; it's not to "take a stand." It's to pound the living crap out of the other guy. And to do that, inevitably, you're gonna have to support candidates who don't agree with you 100%. There's just no way around that. If you'd rather be right than win, stick to blogging. Ideological puritanism has no place in electoral politics, especially American electoral politics which are specifically Constitutionally rigged to require compromise. Could Abraham Lincoln have run on an explicitly abolitionist platform in 1860? Sure he could've; and he would've lost, and slavery would have stuck around for another generation (or more). Could FDR have run on a flat-out, anti-fascist platform in 1940? Sure, and he would've lost and Europe would likely still be run by the Nazis. Could JFK have run on a Civil Rights plank in 1960? Yep, and he would've lost (to, God help us, Nixon) and there would've been no Civil Rights Act of 1964, and no Voting Rights Act of 1965. Politics, to quote from Evita, is the "art of the possible." Sometimes, events come together in such a way that the IMpossible can be achieved, but your candidate has to first be in office to take advantage of it. Winners make history; losers whine about history.

UPDATE 2: Xanthippus sent this, which more or less tracks my views on the subject.

And the Crowd Goes Wild...

The Know-Nothing branch of the Right-Wing blogosphere demands Bush's impeachment for...that's right, not hating brown people enough.
Savor the irony.

Wampum, As Usual, Makes An Excellent Point...

...where IS the White Liberal Blogosphere on the Immigration reform debate? Shouldn't they be out front denouncing Bush for abandoning his previous principaled stand in favor of the "A" word for the corporate dream of a permanent peon underclass (i.e., "gastarbeiters," or "guest workers")? Why aren't they pointing out that corporate Republicans only support "gastarbeiters" because it gives them the best of both worlds: new workers to drive down wages, but who will never be able to vote for Democrats to do anything about it? Why isn't there more denunciation of Know Nothing Republicans like Tom Tancredo for his blatantly racist pandering?

UPDATE: Political Animal, at least, is paying attention. Kind of.

The Pot Calling the Kettle White

David Yeagley ("Comanche" "Patriot") takes umbrage at my post, saying:

Another complaint based on the contortion that I blamed the students of VA Tech for being shot.

Let's take another look at his article, shall we?

There were no heroic acts in the VA Tech incident, contrary to liberal media reports. Hiding behind a desk, or jumping out a window is not a heroic act!

You. Make. The. Call.

Good on You!

John Podheretz takes Derbyshire to task for his vicious, contemptible, cowardly attacks on the victims of the Virgina Tech shootings. Good job, Podheretz! Now, where are the rest of the conservatives?

Gonzales v. Carhart

Almost drowned out in the coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings comes news that the Supreme Court has upheld a Congressional ban ostensibly on a specific late-term abortion procedure. I freely confess that I haven't studied the decision much at all, but Alas, A Blog has a good round-up of opinion from the progressive blogosphere.

Suffer the Little Children

The TYC Scandal just keeps getting uglier, with a riot by juvenile inmates at the San Saba facility; revelations that official documents were altered, apparently as part of a cover-up; evidence that Perry's new TYC chief, Ed Owens, is already experienced in covering up sex scandals from his time at TDCJ; an internal email that shows "Special Master" Jay Kimbrough has adopted the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive strikes against the Media; and some excellent research from the Blogosphere that shows that evidence of abuse was known as early as 2004. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee has unanimously (and self-righteously) passed a bill to fire the entire TYC Board, a measure only necessary because our alleged Governor lacks the huevos to do it himself. But on the other side of the Capitol Building, Rep. Jessica Farrar places the blame where it truly belongs: a Legislature that has abandoned its constitutional, moral and ethical duties.
Why do scandals like the TYC fiasco happen? Because the government of Texas doesn't give a fat rat's ass about children. Children don't vote; more importantly, they don't donate money to politicians. And evidently, the people of Texas approve of this, because we keep electing this same impotent gang of craven morons, year after year after year.

Freedmen Kicked Out

The constitutional amendment to disenroll the Freedmen has apparently passed overwhelmingly, despite strong editorials against it. With the federal courts now involved, the Cherokee Nation faces the very real threat that the June Tribal elections will either be thrown out or not recognized by the BIA, leading to a cut off of vital funding. Principal Chief Chad Smith, one of the strongest backers of the amendment, began trying even before the vote to put a positive spin on what is clearly a race-based disenfranchisement of thousands of people with strong historical, cultural and in some cases blood ties to the Nation. I have a great fear that the end result of all this will be yet another blow to tribal sovereignty.

UPDATE: More reactions to the vote from around the Blogosphere. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here.

I AM SPARTACUS, Y'ALL

We few, we happy few, we band of Bloggers...

Just In Case...

...you were under the impression that only Conservatives can be bigoted, narrow-minded and clueless, comes this from John Aravosis at AmericaBlog. Some of the comments are very well thought-out, the ones that don't just consist of screaming obscenities at John, who is otherwise about as liberal as they get. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, being from the South, that football can sometimes be thicker than water, but John's arguments, especially that Indians have to "prove" that a particular image is offensive, is asinine. In case you aren't interested in scrolling through 400+ comments to find mine, my point was this: the question boils down to, who gets to decide whether depictions of Indians and Indian sacred artifacts are "offensive" or not? Indians or white people? We would never EVER in a million years tolerate these kind of depictions of ANY other racial or ethnic group or their use as "mascots," whether they were intended to "honor" them or not. Why then are Indians held to a different standard? Not far from my home, we have the Alvarado Indians and the Sq**w Valley Golf Course; does it matter what the intent of Alvarado ISD or the Sq**w Valley Country Club was? Alvarado is still using a stereotypical picture of an Indian in a feathered headdress as a good luck fetish for teenage football players and the Country Club is still using a sexual and racial epithet to encourage people to play golf.
Hat tip to Wampum.

UPDATE: Pandagon suggests this is a cyclical phenomenon, like a plague of locusts, perhaps.

UPDATE 2: And that's all folks...

UPDATE 3: Avarosis has disabled the link to his original post and has evidently been deleting comments left and right. Fortunately, Wampum has preserved the comments at her site.

Cherokee Around the Web, Part 2

My guest blog over at The Moderate Voice. I've been a little disappointed in some of the comments, which tend to follow the very predictable pattern of "Indians killed each other!" and "That was a long time ago!" After 500 years, you'd think white people could come up with better justifications for theft and genocide.

Welcome Back Crooks & Liars!

I certainly wasn't expecting company on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Don't mind the mess; I've been running a fever all afternoon. Special thanks to Mike/Blue Gal for the sweet linky lovin's!

Ninety-Nine Percent of the Internet is Crap

Normally, I don't write about inter-blogosphere "controversies," primarily because most of them are about as interesting and relevant as a gang of fourth-graders armed with slam books. However, this typically exhaustive and well-written piece from Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald demonstrates a point about the Right Wing Blogosphere that could easily be true of any conservative media or corporate media outlet: their shameless, blameless shilling for the Bush Administration.

The Mouse That Sued

And speaking of frivolous lawsuits, when a self-described "fifth tier blogger" began a letter-writing campaign to the sponsors of San Francisco talk radio KSFO, informing them of the violent, threatening, racist, eliminationist rhetoric being spewed on the airways, the Enchanted Lawyers of the Magic Kingdom were deployed to smack him with a happy "cease & desist" letter. This type of legal thuggery is known as a SLAP, or strategic lawsuit against the public interest, where giant corporations threaten uppity citizens with financial ruin, even though the threatened lawsuits clearly have no merit. This is a relatively small incident in the grand scheme of things, but it represents a growing threat: the ability of the wealthy and powerful to grind into paste any free speech they find annoying.