Is Palin a bigot ?

Sarah Palin quoted an anti-semite, Westbrook Pegler, in her speech at the Republican convention.

Her speech referred to "a writer," when she spoke of small towns. The writer was Pegler, who talked hopefully of the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt, and of Bobby Kennedy. Pegler, who loved small towns where there were no Jews, few Blacks.

This puts her recent comments about Barrak Obama in a different perspective. It puts her linking Obama (when he was 8 years old) to a Viet Nam "terrorist" (an old hippie now a prof at the University of Illinois active in education) in a different perspective. She is fanning the flames of extremism not just for political gain, but because she quotes anti-semites and says of Obama "This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America," (them's who's different than us) should not lead this country.

Is Sarah Palin a bigot with a pretty smile? We don't need that nastiness with a one-in-five chance at being president (McCain is old, he has had cancer, and Republicans are hiding his health records). We have problems to solve.

We need Obama to give tax breaks to the middle class, not just the rich who own seven hosues like McCain. We need Obama to craft a health care policy that is fair to all Americans, not just those who have jobs with the decreasing number of employers providing insurance. We need Obama to lead America back to its feet economically, an America ready to become again the powerful nation that reflects the American people.

Imus and the hypocrites

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: I don’t care if Don Imus lost his job. I don’t like Don Imus, nor any of the breed. They have lowered the intelligence of America. While I support their right to speak, I support the right of CBS and MSNBC to pull the plug from the loudspeaker.

Is that clear?

According to one of dozens of stories, this one in the Miami Herald (read it here), Black leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton met with the president of CBS and helped get Don Imus fired for his calling a women's basketball team “nappy headed hos,” with Jackson calling the firing a “victory for public decency,” and Sharpton coming out against “commercialized racism and sexism.”

Now, let’s point out another seemingly glaring bit of the obvious. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are hypocrites. And so is every single commentator, black or white, left or right, who has clamored for the head of Don Imus while at the same time remaining silent about the violence, racism and sexism in popular Black culture.


“Nappy headed hos?” Disgusting. Racist and sexist. But the fact is, you can listen to far worse stopped at any intersection in Portland or Eugene or Salem or Bend as some bass-addled teen next you in a slammed Civic or Evo shakes the tarmac with Rap. The river of violent, denigrating, misogynist profanity coming from Rap is a far worse commercialization of racism and sexism than a two-second comment from Don Imus.

It would be far more potent for the leaders of the Black community, even tired old pols like Sharpton and Jackson, to join Bill Cosby in his disgust over the loss of another generation of young black men and women to stereotypical rage. And the right wing should remember the value of providing education and opportunity to every American, especially the underprivileged.

Here’s praying for the opportunity to vote for Barak Obama.