87%

So, how many articles have we read recently that claimed the President is losing African American support? No, not the support of Maxine Waters, Cornel West and Tavis Smiley – African Americans living in the real world.

I know, too many to count.

Take GOPolitico. For months they’ve promoted the line that the President is disproportionately losing Jewish support, much to the amusement of serious commentators – because the polls repeatedly contradicted their claims. (See here, here and here)

That didn’t work too well, so now they’re pushing the ‘African Americans Desert Obama’ line.

In a piece today they talk about the President’s “relationship with African-Americans (being) complicated from the beginning by questions about whether a mixed-race senator born in Hawaii was “authentically black” enough to win their support”.

Seriously, almost three years after he was elected, GOPolitico is still wondering if he’s black enough. (The author, who has written three similar pieces in the last month, is African American, so that’s okay).

The most critical quotes in the piece are from two ‘sources’ “speaking under condition of anonymity”. GOPolitico really do love their anonymous sources, especially when they give them quotes that neatly match their agenda. Whether they are real people or not, hey, who knows?

But if their thesis is true, that African-Americans are rising up against the President, how come they need to quote people anonymously? Surely if there was that much anger out there they could find someone other than Waters willing to lash out publicly?

The problem?

The President isn’t losing the support of African Americans living in the real world – in fact, that support is increasing.

GOPolitico and most other outlets – including supposedly ‘progressive’ ones – love quoting Gallup polls when their findings aren’t good for the President.

The latest Gallup poll? They’re not mentioning that much.

Why?

Because it shows that African American support for the President is up five points to 87%.

Link

Considering how the struggling economy has impacted on his figures across most groups, and bearing in mind how African Americans suffer disproportionately in terms of unemployment, that 87% figure is remarkable.

But still we’re told that Waters, West, Smiley and Co speak for African Americans. Well, clearly they don’t for 87% of them.

Just like that other media darling, Dan Choi, doesn’t speak for the entire gay community, most of whom appreciate the work this administration has done – and is trying to do – to promote equality.

That GOPolitico produces this kind of dishonesty is, of course, no surprise at all – it’s their area of expertise. But, as we all know, the Firebagger crew – especially at Salon – are relentlessly spreading the lie too. Rather than mentioning that 87%, they persist in claiming that Waters, West and Smiley speak for African Americans.

Of course, Salon’s Joan Walsh doesn’t have much time for that 87%:

April 2011

After all, only those who oppose the President represent the base, right?

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I see Gene Lyons at Salon has described Melissa Harris-Perry as “a left-wing Michele Bachmann, an attractive woman seeking fame and fortune by saying silly things on cable TV”. That was the level of his response to her thoughtful article on white ‘liberal’ racism. “A photo negative of KKK racial thought,” he wrote.

See the Reid Report on the article here

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And see this post by Flaming Emilia

‘jane hamsher’s running out of sheep’

Norbrook’s Blog: …. other people have examined Accountability Now, which Jane and Glenn Greenwald launched with great fanfare a few years ago. Ostensibly it was to recruit progressive candidates, but it seemed to end up putting money into Jane and Glenn’s pockets:

Accountability Now collected $113,695 in donations during 2009, as it reported to the FEC, and spent $169,992 that year on nine consultants … including Hamsher ($24,000) and PAC cofounder Glenn Greenwald ($24,000)….

But it’s not Jane’s only PAC. Although most of the scrutiny has been on Accountability Now, when you look at FDL Action PAC’s FEC summary, you see something very interesting:

Fire Dog Lake: $90,063 …. Commonsense Media: $9,920

Hmm… it looks like there’s about $100K of “synergy” going on ….

…. recently Jane had a little blow-up, right after OFA announced what the President had raised (“a staggering $47 million in the past three months”)….

FDL Action’s fundraising wasn’t quite as good:

No wonder she’s pissed! Apparently all the previous donors have been thoroughly shorn, and new sheep aren’t lining up….

Read the full superb post here

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Norbrook’s post is brilliantly timely in light of Hamsher and Dan Choi’s arrests today outside the White House (along with another 60 or so people who actually do care about the environment – but you won’t hear much about them). They were staging a laudable (in my humble opinion) demonstration urging President Obama to block a proposed pipeline that would bring oil from Canada’s oil sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries (the Keystone XL pipeline).

Choi tweeted this yesterday:

Okay, so now that he can’t attack the President any more on gay rights issues – without looking even sillier than usual – he’s discovered (true, somewhat belatedly) that he really, really cares about the planet. And if caring about it so much sees him end up in jail, thereby getting him some attention again (when, really, most had forgotten he existed), then that’s a cross he’d, um, have to bear. Mission accomplished, well done Dan.

Hamsher?

Well, you have to admire her purity on this one. She is so passionate and utterly sincere about the blocking of the Keystone XL pipeline she would never, ever have anything to do with anyone who supported it, right?

June 2011:

Dear friends,

…..Hillary Clinton’s State Department is holding up the Canadian-American Keystone XL pipeline … unnecessarily inhibiting billions in economic activity and hundreds of thousands of jobs from being created, the State Department is preventing a much-needed regional stimulus. Click here to tell the State Department to get out of the way of America’s job creators and issue the Keystone XL pipeline building permit!

Onward,

Grover Norquist

President

Americans for Tax Reform

Ah yes, Hamsher’s old buddy, the ‘tax pledge’ guy who makes Rick Perry seems like Mao Tse Tung, the one she collaborated with in opposition to President Obama (and his then Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel).

What? She can partner the lovely Grover on one issue, it doesn’t mean she agrees with him on everything?

Of course! Just like she can team up with President Obama when … oh, never mind.

Any way, those of you who might suggest that this….

…. might have had something to do with Hamsher’s heartfelt concerns about the Keystone XL pipeline – and you can be sure she lies awake at night worrying about it … even though she has a hard-hitting interview with Cenk Uygur the next day (“Jane, you’re, like, soooooooo great!” “I know Cenk – but you are too!”) …. shame on you.

Yes, she has been jailed, and she may well claim she was waterboarded while she was in there, and that will raise her sinking profile, and may even attract a few more dollars to her struggling PAC, but ….. shame on you.

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PS

Ooooops, $$$$$ are creating a strain between the Firebaggers.

John Aravosis has started selling these t-shirts on his “I HATE OBAMA SO MUCH I CAN’T EVEN FIND THE WORDS ” blog:

….and that’s made Hamsher’s peeps very, very angry:

Oh noes, the Firebaggers are eating each other alive …. after all, there are only so many $$$$ to go around 😉

A second PS:

Credit must go to Aravosis, having picked only white male models for the t-shirts he’s being trying to sell so far…

….. he chose a ‘non-white’ man for his ‘Proud Firebagger’ offering. Jeez, if he added a woman to the line-up we might even accuse him of being inclusive.

Thank you Tien Le for the link to Norbrook’s post 😉

“…the most pragmatic, quickest way to do the right thing”

BroadwayCarl: …. that idea grew to fruition with two tweets by Lt. Dan Choi: “. . . .sad that Barack Obama would have voted no” and “Obama: ‘I have plenty of gay friends. Some of them work for me. I just feel they are inferior to me, and they don’t deserve marriage.’”

That set me off in an ugly old cranky rant on “Tweeter”. I called Lt. Choi a self-made martyr and a media whore….

His crusade became about himself and his rising star on MSNBC, not the greater good. In my opinion, President Obama became the target of “his” movement, and he lost sight of the LGBT movement….

As you know, Lt. Choi, Rachel Maddow, and Michael Moore all have the opinion that Obama would have voted against the gay marriage bill in NY. This is simply, unequivocally false…..

….his positions on issues are not based on his religious beliefs or political scheming but the most pragmatic, quickest way to do the right thing for people of the United States. Thus, he has used and is using his executive powers to make it easier for unions to organize, to implement parts of the DREAM Act, and to obtain civil rights for LGBT’s. If Congress won’t get the job done, then Obama looks for other avenues.

….He is a complex man. And don’t you ever forget it.

Full post here

‘a president, not a governor’

Andrew Sullivan: There have been many times over the past two years when I have whacked the Obama administration on their “fierce urgency of whenever” on gay equality …  Here’s what they have done, and it ain’t nothing.

They have removed the ban on openly gay service members … Yes, Obama took his own sweet time …. What matters is: he got it done.

They ended the HIV travel ban …. it was repealed under Bush who admirably signed it into law. But Obama implemented it … Yes, it was a long, long time coming. But what matters is: he got it done.

They withdrew legal support for DOMA … this was in the presidential bound of authority. And Obama did the right thing in the end.

Some now want this president to be Andrew Cuomo … But the truth is that a governor is integral to this issue in a way a president can never be. Civil marriage has always been a state matter in the US. … by defending that norm, the Obama administration has a much stronger and more coherent case in knocking down DOMA than if it had echoed Clinton in declaring that the feds could dictate a national marriage strategy … Obama’s defense of federalism in this instance is not a regressive throw-back; it is a pragmatic strategy.

…Obama does not think of the presidency the way he thinks of a campaign. He knows he is president of all the people, including those who voted against him and those who conscientiously oppose marriage equality. He does not seek to divide as his predecessor did. By staying ever so slightly above on this issue, Obama is doing the right presidential thing – while presiding over what may well be the most seismic period for gay equality in history. I do not despise his restraint in his office. I wish more presidents exhibited it….

Full article here

Plenty of snark in the article – as usual from Sullivan – but he at least gives credit where it’s due. I’m guessing Choi and Co will now disown him. 😉

Thank you Loriah

a quick word

Hi everyone, sorry for going all preachy on you, but after some of the comments on the blog today – which I have since deleted, but should have deleted much earlier (and I sincerely apologize for that) – I really need to clarify a couple of things.

Needless to say, everyone’s entitled to their own views, but there are some views I just don’t want here.

Just as I block people trying to post racist abuse here every day, I will also block anyone trying to post homophobic comments or who attempt to denigrate the gay community in any way. There are endless sites where people can go to express those opinions, this isn’t one of them.

I know there’s huge anger with the Choi wing of the LGBT movement and suspicion about its true agenda – if I shared my true feelings about the guy you would be shellshocked by my vulgarity – but I’d guess every equal rights movement in history had its obnoxious characters. It didn’t make the cause any less just.

And we all know that Choi & Co represent no one but themselves and their attention-seeking egos, they just make the loudest noise – so, naturally, the MSM can’t get enough of them, to the point where you’d imagine they represented the entire movement. They don’t.

Meanwhile, the true voices of the LGBT movement get on with their work. Remember, the Human Rights Campaign (America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve LGBT equality) endorsed the President for 2012 – “The decision was made based on the President’s demonstrated commitment to LGBT equality and his record of accomplishment, from major legislative victories to critical administrative reforms.”

Choi and his cheerleaders want to create division and ill-will, that’s just how they work, so they paint the President and his supporters as homophobes in an attempt to widen those divisions. It’s their only hope of extending their 15 minutes of fame.

Rachel Maddow’s blatant Choi-like dishonesty last night heightened feelings even more today, but almost all of you refused to take the bait and simply restated your support for LGBT rights. And that’s what really drives Choi & Co crazy, when their own bigotry isn’t mirrored by supporters of President Obama.

So, for what it’s worth, this entirely insignificant speck in cyberspace supports – 100% – gay rights, and no amount of venom spewed by Choi & Co will ever change that.

So, just to repeat, if you want to post homophobic comments, this is most certainly not the place for you.

Thanks everyone.

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Thank you Proud of Obama 😉

‘the disillusionment addicts of the left’

Michael Grunwald (Time): There was a telling confrontation at last week’s Netroots Nation gathering …. a bisexual volunteer for President Obama reelection campaign approached the stage to hand a flyer to Dan Choi ….. Choi dramatically ripped up the flyer and declared that he wouldn’t support Obama.

And why should he? What has Obama ever done to help gays serve openly in the military? Other than repeal don’t-ask-don’t-tell, so that gays can serve openly in the military? Ah, “the professional left,” never happy unless it’s unhappy…..

With friends like these, who needs Republicans?….

…..the disillusionment addicts of the left have concocted a narrative of Obama-as-sellout that bears little resemblance to his actual presidency…

….It was a similar story in the epic fight over health care reform. Obama finally achieved the eternal progressive dream of universal coverage, overruling aides who wanted to settle for incremental improvements. But the left was mad because his plan didn’t include a “public option,” a brand-new progressive dream. Earth to the left: He didn’t have the votes for a public option. There was nothing he could have said or done to get the votes for a public option. He’s a politician, not a magician.

…But when you’re convinced the president just isn’t that into you, the facts are irrelevant…..

It’s easy for activists to complain about imperfect achievements like the stimulus or Obamacare, especially when they’re not among the 3 million Americans who would’ve been unemployed without the stimulus or the 50 million Americans who would’ve been uninsured without Obamacare. Complaining is what activists do….

……Presidents are supposed to make progress, whether progressives like it or not.

Full article here

Thank you Rita, brilliant article 😉

‘firebagger panel disconnected with reality’

Bob Cesca: Several members of the firebagger high command appeared on a panel at Netroots Nation to beat their myopic unrealistic mythological drum about how President Obama is the worst president ever, etc, etc.

…..it was Dan Choi, John Aravosis of AmericaBlog and, naturally, Jane Hamsher collectively lying about the president’s record on, among other things, LGBT rights.

Dan Choi appeared on Lawrence O’Donnell last night to repeat all of the hyperbolic silliness about how the president has broken all of his promises to the gay community – an accusation that simply is not true….

Here’s Aravosis during the panel: “…. We were told he’d be a fierce advocate, and he’s been not fierce at all and not much of an advocate.”

Not a fierce advocate? Not that into you? Horseshit. Utter horseshit. In addition to the Obama administration deciding not to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act because, in in the view of the Obama Justice Department, the law is unconstitutional, the president has also racked up the following LGBT achievements: see here

Check that out. That’s a long, long list for someone who “just isn’t that into” same-sex rights.

….Worse than Bush!

…..the firebaggers need to ditch this fiction about the president and embrace reality – or, better yet, people simply need to stop buying into their ridiculous whining, lying and undermining of a realistic progressive agenda.

Full post here

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It’s completely sublime how the real progessives, like Bob Cesca, are destroying the Firebaggers’ comical appearance at Netroots with plain old facts. Love it.

‘how dan choi hurts the lgbt movement’

Deaniac (The People’s View): At Netroots Nation, Dan Choi was approached by OFA volunteer Nick Tschida, an organizer at one of Minnesota’s legislative districts who is working hard against a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriages that will be up for a popular vote in 2012. So instead of giving this man kudos and shoring up support in favor of the effort to defeat the ban, Dan Choi insulted and humiliated the OFA volunteer by ripping up his Obama flyer and yelling at him. The problem? Nick Tschida mentioned that he wasn’t sure he supported full marriage equality.

….Someone like that deserves our gratitude, not the smug, condescending attitude that Dan Choi displayed. And if someone like that has to be nudged in the right direction on marriage equality, that is something those who claim to be leaders in the LGBT movement should be doing – and doing it with understanding, not humiliation.

….While Choi was badmouthing the President and his supporters, did he take a moment and flash through even a few of the accomplishments of this President for LGBT equality? As he sat on the panel, crassly titled “What to do when the President is not just that into you,” Choi provided every reason why not only the President but anyone who wants to make progress on major issues, including equality, should not be into people like these hotheads who beat up on those who support us.

….I am ashamed at the behavior of Dan Choi. And Nick, I apologize to you for Dan Choi’s behavior. I hope that you will continue to work for equality. Dan Choi does not represent gay activists. Dan Choi does not speak for me….

….Apparently, Dan Choi won’t vote for Obama if he does not endorse marriage equality. Fine. But I am here to tell you, Lt. Choi, that you cannot do worse damage to the LGBT rights movement than to help elect a Republican, which is where your rhetoric and scorched earth attitude, if successful, will lead. But I am also here to tell you that you will fail in that effort …. I will not let you hurt our movement and my brothers and sisters. You got yourself a challenge, buddy.

Read the full post here

Thank you sherijr

night everyone

Steve Benen: If you watch this clip you’ll see that President Obama, among his other talents, has the ability to make babies stop crying. (The look he gives the First Lady is priceless.)

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Wish the President luck, he has to spend a few hours on the course tomorrow with Rusty and Union-busting Kasich.

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Tally? You’re a legend 😉 And your mouth is waaaaaaay less potty than mine

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Donna? Thank you again for all the great videos. Jovie, Loriah, Suzanne and GGail (to name but a few), thank you too for all the brilliant links to news and articles written by smart people 😉

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Dan Choi’s poster at Netroots? No, no – a pro-Gaddafi supporter in ….. Sri Lanka:

*****

Goodnight fellow supporters of ‘The World Biggest Satan’, see you tomorrow 😉

so, choi claimed breitbart got a warm netroots welcome….