"In any discussion of the problems in our world today, racism must rank high. Not because we are soft-minded liberals obsessed with countless crimes throughout history induced by colour, religion, tribalism or chauvinism of one kind or another. But because the poison which we hoped and believed had been eradicated in our own time by the knowledge of the ultimate evil- the gas-chamber murders committed by the Nazis--is in fact still present, not in any one area of discrimination or racism, or in a restricted number of specific rulers or governments, but in all humankind. I call it "Inner Racism."-

Gitta Sereny, "The Healing Wound"

Tuesday, October 15, 2013




mrs hartzler, mr. huelskamp & mrs. lonegan’s anti-semitic son, steve




  

October 13, 2013

Vicki Jo is 53 today. Once the head of the Missouri Women’s Council- way back in 2005- she was dead agin the ERA and yet there she was championing second-rate citizenship for all Missouri’s women and is often quoted as stating she did not want women used to pass some liberal agenda. She is a good Christian from one of those evangelical communities too numerous and by my unfriendly lights too convoluted to mention.  


Here’s Vicki Jo with our old friend Joe “You Lie” Wilson at a meeting at her alma mater U. of Cent. MO discussing the defense budget in front of 80 people who wandered in to a hall that held over 1100.


She even penned a monograph called ” Running With God”, which could have been subtitled “With Jesus As My Campaign Manager”, which my local library for some reason does not stock. For over a decade Vicki Jo was a high school Home Economics teacher, a noble calling indeed. She had graduated with honors from the University of Missouri, a B.A in Education and an M.A. in Education from Central Missouri State. Ah, an Educator. Teaching the joys of making fudge on a sequestered home budget. I am not too old that I can still remember some controversy anent the teaching or inclusion of “home economics” at a time when some of the more vocal women right’s organizations took great offense at having this “pacifying and discriminatory” object lesson part and parcel of a young girl’s education then (in the 1960′s & 70′s). Anyway after more than 10 years of teaching there must be a wonderful subset of fudge-makers throughout the Christian hinterlands of Missouri. After her stint of domestic science she was rewarded with a seat in the State Assembly where she took a lead in adoption legislation and defending the sanctity of the only real marriage-that between a man and a woman. She was elected to the House of Representatives from the 4th District during the aberrational 2010 midterm election which saw the advent of the so-called Tea Party of which Vicki Jo is a proud member. She now is on the national stage. She toes the Tea Party agenda of basically Hating anythingObama. She has been quoted at a town hall meeting, ”I have doubts that it is really his real birth certificate, and I think a lot of Americans do, but they claim it is, so we are just going to go with that.” She has prattled on about her concerns over China, still campaigns successfully against allowing gay-marriage in her beloved state, and has voted to cut nearly $40 Billion from the Food Stamp Program while voting to give herself (and others) a considerable government subsidy for her family farm – over $800,000 so far and counting. I often wonder- no, I really do, how that fits in with her “good Christian” conscience. She has recently been featured in an ESQUIRE ! piece by a Charles Pierce entitled, “MEET THE MORONS WHO CAUSED THE SHUTDOWN”:

“Among other things, Vicky Hartzler apparently believes that the heathen Chinese are spying on us through our toasters. “And I am concerned, she is to have stated, they are shipping all the, I’m concerned about the microchips. That they are in many, many of the things that we own. And some of those are embedded, I believe, with, with detection and, uh, capabilities or tracking capabilities. She’d also rather the government not tolerate those “fringe religions” because the First Amendment says that Congress Shall Make No Law Unless Vicky Hartzler Thinks Your God Is Freaky.”

And more than anything Vicki Jo has made her rep as being one of the most ardent and vocally strident opponents of gay marriage. According to “Right Wing Watch”: “ She said legalizing gay marriage would open up the floodgates to polygamy and polyamory (which she called “some big name”), and then she just got wacky. “Why not allow an uncle to marry his niece? Why not allow a 50-year-old man to marry a 12-year-old girl if they love each other and are committed?” See, to Hartzler, marriage equality is just like incest and pedophilia.”  Just before the 2010 election the blog, “I Should Be Laughing”, a strong advocate for LGBT rights, headlined an article HATE HAS A NAME: VICKY HARTZLER (see Oct. 26, 2010). It began :

Vicky Hartzler is running in Missouri’s 4th Congressional District.
She opposes gay marriage; she opposes hate-crimes laws; she opposes the repeal of DADT.
Now, that doesn’t really make her much different than most Republicans running for office, so, why then, is Vicky Hartzler considered the most anti-gay political candidate in America?
In 2012, she won re-election with 60 percent of the vote.


In 1971 about the time Vicki Jo was helping out with the chores around the family farm after attending the Archie elementary school Morris Dees was helping to establish the SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER in Montgomery, Alabama.(www.splcenter.org) In its mission statement ( a curious phrase but nevertheless) it simply states” “The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded to ensure that the promises of the civil rights movement became a reality for all.” Over the years it has “shut down some of the nation’s most dangerous hate groups by winning crushing multi-million dollar jury verdicts on behalf of their victims.” In short it keeps tabs on our nation’s HATE and backs up its civility with action. Among its more recent actions :
10/03/2013 - As House Democrats introduced immigration reform legislation this week, the Southern Poverty Law Center urged lawmakers to protect the human and civil rights of vulnerable low-skill workers as they consider ways to bring 11 million immigrants out of the shadows.
10/01/2013 - The SPLC filed a federal lawsuit today against the town of Shannon, Miss., its mayor and its aldermen for unjustly denying a business license to a bar catering to the LGBT community.

09/26/2013 - For thousands of workers in poultry plants, a federal proposal to speed up processing lines will only bring more injuries and more pain.
 - The SPLC has reached an agreement with Florida’s Polk County School Board that will ensure children held at the Central County Jail receive an appropriate education vital to helping them return to their communities.
 - A federal judge denied a motion today by the Birmingham Police Department in Alabama to dismiss an SPLC lawsuit challenging the use of pepper spray on Birmingham public schoolchildren – a ruling that allows the case to move forward.

Get it? There’s over 40 years of case histories –
defending the defenseless and exposing the goings on of our country’s more despicable citizens and organizations. One of these American anomalies is the FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL which as the SPLC notes:

“ bills itself as “the leading voice for the family in our nation’s halls of power,” but its real specialty is defaming gays and lesbians. The FRC often makes false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science. The intention is to denigrate LGBT people in its battles against same-sex marriage, hate crimes laws, anti-bullying programs and the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. To make the case that the LGBT community is a threat to American society, the FRC employs a number of “policy experts” whose “research” has allowed the FRC to be extremely active politically in shaping public debate. Its research fellows and leaders often testify before Congress and appear in the mainstream media. It also works at the grassroots level, conducting outreach to pastors in an effort to “transform the culture.”  

There is a whole article on this group and its current leader, Tony Perkins (you can’t make this stuff up,) on their website if you would like to check it out. Remember, this is but one group out of many that the Center  includes in its “HateWatch”. So it was with malice toward none that we came across in the Congressional Record of Sept. 19 last this contribution to our nation’s dialogue by none other than Vicki Jo from Mo.:


THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER MUST STOP ITS RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE — (House of Representatives – September 19, 2013) [Page: H5665] GPO’s PDF — (Mrs. HARTZLER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.) Mrs. HARTZLER. I rise today to speak against the discriminatory practice of the Southern Poverty Law Center through the use of so-called “hatemapping” and its proliferation of intolerance. While the group claims to be dedicated to fighting hatred and bigotry, the Southern Poverty Law Center has, instead, placed itself at the forefront of Christian persecution and religious intolerance. Because of its misplaced hate mapping, on August 15 of last year, Floyd Lee Corkins entered the Family Research Council and shot and badly wounded Building Manager Leo Johnson, who stopped Corkins’ intended killing spree. The SPLC’s radical intolerance of traditional values is not only hyperpolarizing, but spurred on this violence. Spreading discrimination against those who believe in traditional Christian values is not, in fact, fighting hatred; rather, it is espousing further bigotry. Our country was founded on the principles of religious freedom. When the SPLC demonizes any group or person who remains steadfast in their religious convictions, it only increases the amount of intolerance in our society. So I ask my fellow Members to join me in fighting against religious intolerance in the world today by calling for an end to religious intolerance against all groups, including those with Christian beliefs.”

Accusing the SPLC of “spreading discrimination against those who believe in traditional Christian values” and standing up for the FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL because of their unquestionable stalwart Christian policies. Its funny (sort of) that this shooting incident became a truncheon to try to beat a “liberal” civil rights group with instead of another example of why we need more gun control. But it seems Vicki Jo does have allies or mentors or cronies as but two days before her impassioned public stance another voice from the T-Party heartland was heard from- on the same topic: AMERICA’S INHERENT FREEDOMS ARE BEING ATTACKED — (House of Representatives – September 17, 2013) 

- (Mr. HUELSKAMP asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. HUELSKAMP. Mr. Speaker, freedom of speech and religion and the recognition of the God-given dignity of every human life are core principles upon which America was founded, but these inherent freedoms are being attacked. The Southern Poverty Law Center is one of the worst offenders–targeting and persecuting Americans who stand up for their moral convictions. This group routinely attacks mainstream, pro-family organizations, slandering them with false accusations of hatred and bigotry. Motivated by their inflammatory rhetoric, a gunman burst into the Family Research Council’s lobby last year and shot a security guard, later admitting that the assault was inspired by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate list. We cannot let the beacon of freedom, known as America, become home to hate groups and other extremists, including those who slander their political opponents.”


Tim Huelskamp is from Kansas,
Rep. Tim speaking at a previous Values Voter Summit sponsored by the Family Research Council

practically a neighbor of Vicki Jo’s and like her has a family farm that has received over $1.1 million in government subsidies over the years and yet finds it in his Christian heart to cut billions from the Food Stamp program – because? American children should go hungry? Huelskamp is another one of those T-Party yahoos who somehow manage to appear on TV alot spewing forth utter nonsense and ill-disguised hate for the Presidency of Obama. Like Vicki Jo he too has some sort of degree in Education and even boasts a doctorate from American University (right after Harvard and Yale and Missouri I scratch American off my list for quality schools thanks to their illustrious alumni). Why ol’ Timmy even tried to instigate a constitutional amendment to “restore the Defense of Marriage” Act.

( BY Brian Tashman on Friday, 9/20/2013)



“Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), who bravely opposed federal aid to all those greedy Northeasterners affected by Hurricane Sandy, is now boasting about his support for a House GOP plan to kick four to six million people off the food stamp program. As Jonathan Chait details, the GOP’s draconian food stamp cuts were coupled with a push to preserve excessive subsidies for farmers and agribusinesses, which the GOP refused to cut as much as the Obama administration proposed. And, surprise surprise, Huelskamp’s family has greatly benefited from such government aidHuelskamp has been able to see a need for federal relief closer to his home. His brother’s farm received $1.6 million in federal subsidies from 1995 to 2011. The federal payouts included more than $30,000 for disaster subsidies. Huelskamp’s parents’ farm has also received subsidies. Politico reported in 2011 that the farm took in $1.1 million in federal farms subsidies from 1995 to 2009.While speaking to right-wing talk show host Steve Deace yesterday, Huelskamp had fun sticking it to all those whiney poors trying to receive food assistance for their families. Huelskamp pointed to Jason Greenslate, a California surfer who has been all over Fox News, as the face of American food stamp recipients. Media Matters points out that “labeling Greenslate a representative of SNAP recipients flies in the face of readily available data, which shows that the fraud and waste rate in the SNAP program is less than 1 percent and that 41 percent of food stamp recipients live ‘in a household with earnings.’” Huelskamp joked that his two kids always feel “starved” under his watch, but that with his vote to cut food assistance, he only “decided to starve a surfer by the name of Jason in California who has decided that he’s not going to get a job in life because he gets food stamps.” “Go pick up trash in a road ditch,” Huelskamp said, “you got to do something. There are 3.5-4 million American adults who are able-bodied, have no dependence and what do we require them to do to get a free check for food? Nothing.”

- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rep-huelskamp-whose-family-takes-government-farm-subsidies-mocks-food-stamp-recipients#sthash.4c1Y255


Both Tim and Vicki Jo have expressed outrage that the “anti-Christian” intolerance of the Southern Poverty Law Center had caused the wounding of a security guard at the FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL you would be hard pressed to find any statements from either concerning the murder of Dr. George Tiller while attending his church on Sunday morning (May 31, 2009) in Wichita, Kansas – the home state of Rep. Tim himself- . Dr. Tiller was shot in the head at close range because his killer probably knew that the notoriously-publicized “abortion doctor” wore body armor at the suggestion of the FBI because of all the threats on his life by Jesus loving patriots. The FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL was one of the prime sponsors of this year’s “Value Voters Conference” recently held in Washington, D.C. I don’t think its a stretch to state that most of all the Haters in Washington were there. I wonder if the breakfast buffet included lox and bagels and cream cheese. I should qualify that snarky comment by acknowledging that among the guest speakers at this years shindig was a guy named Mark Levin- from what I never understand a big-shot right-wing talk radio “personality” who heads some type of “non-profit” legal foundation (it once nominated Rush Limbaugh for a Nobel Peace Prize) that is funded by among others the Koch brothers, the Scaife family, the Olin Foundation, etc. -where the Haters get to put up their big bucks. Anyway I don’t know for certain if this guy is Jewish (please ha-shem, let him be a shabbos goy). Upon being introduced by the “2X Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Tony Perkins himself, he walked on stage and was offered a stool by Mr. Perkins and as he sat said to the assembled Christian-Family-Values-Crowd, “Can I get a drink?”, and then remembered where he was and immediately offered, “No, I don’t drink.”, and then launched into some claptrap about taking our country back which is always code for anti-immigration-Black-Jewish-Gay-Lesbian-fill in a minority -speak. I didn’t see Rep. Tim’s name on the speakers list nor did I notice Vicki Jo’s but a perusal of this all-star roster reads like a who’s who of ANTI-OBAMAcare. If I may, a brief aside: Huelskamp’s 1st Congressional District in Kansas was once represented by, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius’ father-in-law. Its her office of course who is responsible for implementing the Affordable Healthcare Act.


In America there’s always plenty of hate to go around. Pick a year, a place, take some darts and throw them at a map and I’ll show you where and when some horrific thing happened. The Tea Party thrives on this and its brother, FEAR. They now show up in their patriotic regalia and flags waving and in some places their shining guns and always they are armed and swathed with their CODED language of hate. You don’t have to listen too hard but I am always angered that our so-called “legit” media doesn’t question or point this out enough. This week there’s an election – a special election thanks to Governor Christie’s machinations- for U.S. Senator. Most people -who follow NJ politics, go ahead raise your hand- know that Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark is running. He’s running against a myopically glib Tea Party pol named STEVE LONEGAN.

For some reason this guy is making a race out of it both figuratively and literally. Anyway a few weeks back he made a few remarks- I saw on TV- that as far as I know were never followed up on and I wonder-as always-if its just my always present paranoia or did someone else pick up on LONEGAN’S words: 


“MAYOR BOOKER HAS BEEN ANOINTED BY HOLLYWOOD. THE HOLLYWOOD ELITE HAVE DESCENDED FROM THEIR PENTHOUSE APARTMENTS IN THE BEL AIR HOTEL FROM THE HEIGHTS OF HOLLYWOOD HILLS TO COME TO NEW JERSEY TO TELL US WHO OUR NEXT U.S. SENATOR WILL BE – THE THIRD U.S. SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA” 

Then he went on to let everyone know that Booker wanted to “ram Obamacare down everyone’s throat”. A curious and yet not too surprising an utterance. Everyone from Henry Ford to Marlon Brando from J.Lee Rankin to Liberty Lobby from Louis McFadden to Richard Nixon knows what a narrow-minded (and bigoted) fear-mongering pol means when he uses “Hollywood” in such a context. Nobody can convince me otherwise and STEVE LONEGAN CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SENATE FROM NEW JERSEY IS AN UNABASHED ANTI-SEMITE AND NO ONE HAS CALLED HIM ON IT – UNTIL NOW. Equating Mr. Booker with the two JEWISH WOMEN senators from California he showed off his TEA PARTY math and underlining thought.




  

His Mom NEVER had Food Stamps why should anybody else’s single Mom get theirs?

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

TRY CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY


Thirty-Nine Across

by SE 10/9/13

In this last Sunday's New York Times Magazine beginning on the page right after the traditional penultimate crossword page the heartless editors decided to place the so-called annual list of the "super-lawyers" - the top attorneys in the NY Metro area, including, as if it was a new reality game show, the rising stars. I have always thought this list which has been published in other print publications over the years to be just more hubris on the part of an already bloated and much too compensated profession; a paid advertisement which is open to any and all lawyers in the New York City area - mostly Manhattan, where the clients with money live and work- there must be a million lawyers give and take the thousands of politicians and in any case the list as constituted 
Inexcusable
this year adds an additional 120 pages to the paper's magazine section coming as it does right behind the life-sustaining Sunday crossword puzzle which this past Sunday made it most inconvenient and downright impracticable to fold the paper properly and in an appropriate and traditional compact and comforting manner in which I am most accustomed to so as to best meet the always anticipated challenge of the weekly puzzle. The added bulk made the folded page warp, made it quite gibbous as a matter of fact, impossible to fill in those boxes neatly so you had to open up the full page, the full two pages for the puzzle was on the verso necessitating the use of a table so the page would lie flat! Really, an inexcusable inconvenience. No wonder the Giants lost their fifth in a row. The set-up was all wrong. But there's something else: There's an additional 120 pages as I say, small type names and on almost every page is a lovely photo of selected partners and members of individual law firms- sometimes two to a page. Not every law firm mind you but those somewhat smaller ones seeking a bit more exposure - especially in such a classy showplace- to announce and show themselves. I am - as my irregular reader knows- an old grouch who spends most of his time with his trusty mutt, Willie the Sleeper, in a cabin in the woods in upstate New York waiting for his wife to return from her part-time minimum wage (UNION!) job at a local chain-grocery (and all this JOYFUL MOOCHER can say is thank God for SNAP)- being an artist of extraordinary depth and feeling does not pay the rent these days - and because I have so much or so little, depending on your outlook, TIME on my hands I tend to notice certain little things like these almost family-like portraits of smiling attorneys in their Armani-like finest white-shirted attire ( and the men are dressed nice, too) and what you notice or more to the point what you don't notice and upon further consideration of subject and place is that in the so-called most polyglotted, diverse, celebrated melting-pot metropolis that ever existed on this unfriendly planet a celebration  (of a sort) of what should be a honorable and a most aspired to profession suddenly in this context becomes such an obvious symbol of just how segregated (still) and apart we (us) are as a society, as a nation. Look on these lists and portraits and ask yourselves and myself and all why in all these pages you can find only three (3) photographs of law firms- among just the "super ones"- that include at least one African-American - and one photo that does include several brothers and sisters is a firm based in Brooklyn, all the the rest in Manhattan. Am I the only one who takes affront at this or thinks it bespeaks volumes? So pleased they all are with themselves. To paraphrase Joltin' Joe- ah, to be white and a lawyer in Manhattan. Better than pinstripes.