An Appeal To Help A Hate Crime Victim

There are many terrible crimes that one person can perpetrate on another....and a hate crime is certainly one of them. When Ahmed Sharif was brutally stabbed by an intoxicated and belligerent young man last week, the very worst of humanity was shown to a cab driver who's only crime was his faith. That is not the United States that our founders envisioned and it is certainly not how the great majority of Americans feel about religious tolerance currently.

While most of us shook our heads at the news last week, and were grateful that Mr. Sharif was not killed in the act, the aftermath is still serious. Currently Mr. Sharif is out of work and the benefits afforded to him by the Taxi Worker Alliance does not go the distance for his wife and children..

CNN has more on this:

"Ahmed is a strong man, but mentally he has limits," said Bhairavi Desai of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. "The trauma he's experienced will last for a long time."

Desai spent time this weekend with Sharif. She said his most pressing worry is how he'll provide for his wife and four children -- including a 10-month-old --without a job. Sharif is receiving 2/3 of his salary, about $30,000 a year, in workers' compensation. Union members do not get health insurance or disability payments, Desai said.

"My guess is that he'll be unable to work for at least four months," Desai said. "He can't even pick up his baby because of the wounds to his arms. He can't turn his neck."

An assistance fund was set up for Ahmed and his family, but sadly not much has been contributed to it. Perhaps there hasn't been too much in the way of publicity other than the initial newscasts covering the story. Hopefully it is not due to a lack of compassion on the part of New Yorkers. Instead of simply lamenting about it, I have donated $10.00 dollars and would like all those that read to give the same, or even $5.00 to help out. If you can't cover that, ask someone else to contribute. America is bigger than this heinous act, and I for one believe we should prove it.

Donate here now.

Now Can We Take Right Wing Hate Seriously?

Today's news brings a sad story about an old, white-supremacist man that had so much hate in his frail heart that he decided to go to a holocaust museum in order to shoot and kill people. For James Von Brunn, this wasn't just a freak occurrence, he's been a noted anti-semite and white supremacist for quite some time.

The Sunday before last another long time right-winger by the name of Scott Roeder committed his final act of hate by shooting and killing a doctor who happened to be a rare provider of late-term abortions (for the health of the mother). Apparently Roeder had been going after the late Dr. Tiller for months if not years and maintained contacts with rightwing, reactionary groups that oppose abortion rights, by all means necessary we now know.

Now cowardly acts like that of Von Brunn and Roeder do not generally happen as frequently as once every other week, but it certainly goes to show that right-wing terrorists do exist and are a serious problem in our country. Unfortunately when Obama's Homeland Security Security Janet Napolitano released a report (pdf!) saying as much, Republicans came out of the woodwork to denounce her. For some odd reason, the onslaught was just too much for the Obama Administration and the report was tamped down and Napolitano even apologized, but the truthfulness of it was still there. If anyone needs to apologize, it would be the GOP talking heads that beat up on Napolitano and her report...but since we are talking about sniveling and cowardly pundits, the chances of that apology coming are about as good as Liz Cheney telling the truth about torture, so I won't be waiting around.

What The Hell Staten Island?

First off, I'd like to congratulate our fifth borough for electing Mike McMahon to Congress, adding yet another Democrat to caucus and making New York City's delegation completely blue. With that, why the hell did the island go for John McCain and Sarah "nutjob" Palin? I know Staten Islanders are generally more conservative, but registrations have moved significantly for Democrats and on top of that, voted for Gore. So what's going on here?

From The NY Times:

“You see that kind of voting there because Staten Island has a lot of Republicans and the people we used to call Reagan Democrats,” said John H. Mollenkopf, director of the Center for Urban Research at the City University of New York Graduate Center.

“You have a large group of Italian-Americans and German-Amercians, people from blue collar backgrounds,” Mr. Mollenkopf said. “And they are used to crossing party lines to vote for one way for one office and for another party for another office on the ballot.”

In fact, Staten Island, the smallest of the city’s boroughs, is vastly different from its counterparts. The island is physically separated from the rest of New York City; no subway runs from other parts of the city to the island and it is reachable by car only by a single bridge or a boat.

It is overall the most suburban of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also the whitest of the boroughs, with about 77 percent of its 477,000 residents being white. Hispanic Staten Islanders make up about 12 percent of the population and black residents make up about a tenth.

Yeah, yeah, the place is different, I get that. Yet is it just because there are more white people that determined the borough's vote? Indiana and Iowa went for Obama and Iowa is way more white than Staten Island. Perhaps it is the "Reagan Democrat" effect, or more bluntly a nastier side of the American electorate that thinks that they'll do better if only those that look like themselves get a leg up. That ugliness popped up on election night when a group of thugs attacked Ali Kamara for being a black muslim, mentioning Obama as they beat him. It may only be one incident, but can you imagine that happening in Manhattan? I think not.

McCain Campaign Pushed Todd's Incendiary Story

The fact that Ashley Todd beat herself up and carved a "B" on her face, only to lie to police and say that a black man sexually assaulted her partially due to her being a McCain volunteer is absolutely disgusting. Clearly this twenty-year old girl needs some serious help. There is a small chance she does not understand that something like this is an incitement for racially-motivated hate crimes. Not long ago in our country, African-Americans were lynched for stories like this, such as the tragic story of Emmett Till.

While Ashley was merely a volunteer, what makes this infinitely worse is that McCain's Pennsylvania Communications Director Peter Feldman actually spread the story around to the press. Feldman's behavior is atrocious especially because this was an on-going investigation until Todd confessed to the truth and that there was no corroboration of that facts. Anyone that dares to call themselves a Communications Director knows better than to whip up a racially-tinged story without having the facts. At least the local media came back to double-check the story (although not until after the put it on their website).

From TPM:

John Verrilli, the news director for KDKA in Pittsburgh, told TPM Election Central that McCain's Pennsylvania campaign communications director gave one of his reporters a detailed version of the attack that included a claim that the alleged attacker said, "You're with the McCain campaign? I'm going to teach you a lesson."

Verrilli also told TPM that the McCain spokesperson had claimed that the "B" stood for Barack. According to Verrilli, the spokesperson also told KDKA that Sarah Palin had called the victim of the alleged attack, who has since admitted the story was a hoax.

The KDKA reporter had called McCain's campaign office for details after seeing the story -- sans details -- teased on Drudge.

The McCain spokesperson's claims -- which came in the midst of extraordinary and heated conversations late yesterday between the McCain campaign, local TV stations, and the Obama camp, as the early version of the story rocketed around the political world -- is significant because it reveals a McCain official pushing a version of the story that was far more explosive than the available or confirmed facts permitted at the time.

So McCain's staffer Mr. Feldman acted without regard for the truth and was more reckless than uber hack Matt Drudge. He'll have to make Worst Person in the World for this one. That of course should be the least of his problems, because he really should be charged with a crime for such a racially-motivated maneuver.

McCain Volunteer Confesses To Carving A "B" On Her Face

I've heard a lot of sick shit in my life. Frankly people do strange things that befuddle the rest of humanity. What McCain volunteer Ashley Todd did two days ago ranks right up there at the top. With so many stories of McCain/Palin supporters' racist statements in the news, she tried to make it seem as if Obama supporters could do the same thing. So she beat herself up and carved a backwards letter "B" in her face. Sick and twisted? Oh hell yes, and so much more.

From KDKA Pittsburgh:

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Police tell KDKA that a campaign volunteer has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter B in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker.

Ashley Todd, 20, of Texas, initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car.

Police investigating the alleged attack, however, began to notice some inconsistencies in her story and administered a polygraph test.

Authorities, however, declined to release the results of that test.

Investigators did say that they received photos from the ATM machine and "the photographs were verified as not being the victim making the transaction."

This afternoon, a Pittsburgh police commander told KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin that Todd confessed to making up the story.

The girl is going to face charges, probably for lying to the police and whatnot, but this girl needs serious help. To mutilate yourself for John McCain shows clear indications of some hardcore mental problems. The fact that she claimed a black man sexually assaulted her isn't too surprising with all the race-baiting that is going on from the volunteer level to the top of the campaign. And because of this, even Fox News is signing off on the obituary of this godawful McCain/Palin campaign. Good riddance, eleven days and this will finally be over.

P.S.: Exactly what Meteor Blades says.

How Sweet Will This New Year (5769) Be?

In my culture/tradition/religion that is Judaism, we mark the turn of the Jewish (lunar) calendar with High Holiday services, well-wishings for a sweet new year and symbolize it by eating apples dipped in honey. Well I have my apples ready but a sweet new year is going to take much more than a bunch of carbohydrates in my system.

For those that know me (and the thousands that have walked by me in front of coffeeshops with wireless internet here in NYC) I have a 'controversial' bumper sticker on the front of my laptop that reads " Spiritual People Inspire Me -- Religious People Frighten Me." To say the least, it turns heads, amusing me when I look up to see people's reactions, or lack there of. Every once in a while I get some positive responses, people that come up to me and commend me for it. I've never received negative feedback but rarely have I opened this Macbook outside of New York or some other liberal city. In my opinion, I think a lot of people understand it to mean that I'm atheist, agnostic or something of the kind. The reason I put it up though is more of a critique of organized religion and the hate that fostered by too many religious "leaders" no matter what faith they ascribe to. I believe that one can be both religious and spiritual but there are plenty out there that only go with the former.

Over recent millenia, millions upon millions have died while believing that "God was on their side." Leaders, or potential leaders that talk in that manner have no business leading anything but their own narrow minds out the door and far away from public service. The only thing that comes from that divisive language is fear, violence and death.

Fear is what guides Danny Funderburk, the Mayor of Fort Mill when he sent a chain email along questioning if Obama is the anti-Christ. His excuse for peddling these lies was that he was curious about scripture relating to current events. That is the kind of news that makes me pray for the safety and sanity of Fort Mill's residents. The anti-Christ crap was disproved as fast as it was sprung, but the real issue here is the ignorance and hatred for blacks, Muslims and anyone that does not fit the norm of those that hold the majority of power in this country, that was what propagated the email in the first place.

So it's an email, just a bunch of 1's and 0's that come together to form a "question" about a candidate running for office. No big deal right? Wrong. Emails that show people's ignorance is just the beginning, just as Germans were taught to loathe the Jews amongst them in the 1920s. No one back then thought the ideas in the punditry and press of the time would manifest itself into violence, but hindsight shows us the horrific reality that ensued in the late 1930s and 1940s.

Yeah, the holocaust was the most gruesome events of the 20th century but that would never happen in America. We accept all cultures and religions, it even says so in our Constitution. There is no need to worry and no reason to compare the holocaust to the United States in 2008, right?

My answer to that question....is to use that reasoning of "it'll never happen here" to the Muslim community in Dayton, Ohio. On Friday night someone took it upon themselves to spray a toxic gas into a mosque full of congregants celebrating Ramadan. Young and old alike were coughing, wheezing and falling short of breath. Imagine if that happened at your church, synagogue or other house of worship. The pain of the irritant, the fear, the panic of the crowd and the feeling of helpness caused by fellow human beings that were propelled to act in this manner.

That was a religiously-motivated act. It was the result of a deluge of propaganda that tells Americans we are in a holy war against Islam. Listening to Rush, Hannity, Malkin, Prager and other right wing bigots for years on end has the ability to cause events like these. Messages of religion do not just come from priests, ministers, rabbis and Imams. In a country where there are a powerful few that wish to make us into a Christian nation, you do not have to hear the "word of the Lord" by stepping foot in a Church. Sure, you can find spiritual messages, but here in America today, they are drowned out by the cacophony of hate and ignorance that can be found on Fox News, some other cable shows and a multitude of Op-Ed pages around the country. It makes Muslims feel like an oppressed minority of our land of the free.

When I attend services tonight, at an interfaith service with my Protestant girlfriend, my laptop will be staying at home along with the bumper sticker. However, when I bite into that crisp, honey-dipped apple, my thoughts will be with the congregants of that mosque. There should be nothing controversial about that, yet for some strange reason far too many people in the religious right, people of my own faith and the right-wing pundits on TV disagree. So my prayers of a sweet new year will be directed at those who either directly or indirectly perpetrated the attack on them last Friday so that perhaps in the coming year we can reduce the ignorance that exists in our country and our world.

The Popularity of Hate

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate groups has been on the rise, and so have violent, race based crimes. Particularly evident is the rise in crimes and groups that are dedicated to stopping immigration from Latin America. For the most part the public image of groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform is quite professional but the ugliness lies below the surface. Take for instance the debate between the two aforementioned groups.

From The Houston Chronicle:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, in a report titled The Year in Hate, said it counted 888 hate groups in its latest tally, up from 844 in 2006 and 602 in 2000.

The most prominent of the organizations newly added to the list, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, vehemently rejected the "hate group" label, and questioned the law center's motives. FAIR said the center was using smear tactics to boost donations and stifle legitimate debate on immigration.

"Their banner may be 'Stop the hate' but it's really 'Stop the debate,'" said FAIR's president, Dan Stein. "Apparently you can't even articulate an argument for immigration reform without being smeared."

The law center's report contends there is a link between anti-immigrant activism and the significant rise in hate crimes against Latinos in recent years. According to the latest FBI statistics, 819 people were victimized by anti-Latino hate crimes in 2006, compared with 595 in 2003.

"The immigration debate has turned ugly and the result has been a growth in white supremacist hate groups and anti-Latino hate crime," said Mark Potok, director of the law center's Intelligence Project. "The majority of anti-Latino hate crimes are carried out by people who think they're attacking immigrants, and very likely undocumented immigrants."

People who fear immigrants is nothing new in this country. It has been going on since immigrants arrived at the shores in the early 17th century, particularly worsening in the 19th century. Regardless of what year it is, as long as people are taught to fear someone based on their country of origin or skin color, that fear is more than likely able to translate itself into anger and possibly violence. So as long as leaders put the fear out there, we will continue to see groups with misleading names like FAIR.

The Question The Republicans Will Never Answer

Okay, there are quite a few of them out there, but none as personal as this couple posted on YouTube. Their son was murdered by people with hate for those of who's sexual orientation happens to different from them. See, for the Republicans to answer a question dealing with the effects of the Christian Right's assault on gay people, it would be to detriment of their campaign to appeal to the base.

How would you answer this?

The video below has been submitted for the Republican CNN YouTube debates by a couple whose son was killed because he was gay.

We're Lynn and Pat Mulder of Auburndale, Florida. Our son Ryan was murdered in March because he was gay. We would like to ask the presidential candidates how will they work to promote the value of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender families.

Read more about the Mulder's here.

What a shame to see this evidence of hate in our country. Why people commit these crimes is both explainable (social science stuff) yet unfathomable at the same time. Being different from each other is one of the greatest attributes of our nation. Yet it still makes people act out in terrible ways.

So will Rudy, Huckabee, Thompson or Romney take this question? Nah, I doubt it. We wouldn't want to show the world how bigoted they are.

Elizabeth Edwards Slams Coulter

I love nothing more than to see Ann Coulter being put in her place (other than being completely ignored, so I will take this for now). Elizabeth Edwards did exactly that tonight on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. Chris invited her on to talk about the latest hateful spew she let loose on John Edwards. Unfortunately for her she was surprised with a live phone call from a woman who could be our next First Lady.

From RawStory:

"In the South, when somebody does something that displeases us, we like to ask them politley to stop doing it," said Edwards. "I'd like to ask Ann Coulter too. If she'd like to debate on issues, on positions -- we certainly disagree with nearly everything she said on your show today -- but it's quite another matter for these personal attacks."

(snip)

Although Coulter flippantly agreed to a debate, Edwards kept pushing back. "It did not start with [yesterday]. You had a column a couple years ago which made fun of the moment of Charlie Dean's death and suggessted that my husband had a bumper sticker on the back of his car that said, 'ask me about my dead son.' This is not legitimate political dialogue. It debases political dialogue. It draws people away from the process. We can't have a debate about the issues if you're using this type of language."

Coulter later questioned why the presidential candidate didn't phone in himself, to which Elizabeth had a ready answer. "I haven't talked to John about this call. I'm phoning in as a mother," she said to much applause. "I'm the mother of that boy who died. . . These young people behind you are the age of my children. You're asking them to particpate in a dialogue that's based on hatefullness and ugliness instead of on the issues and I don't think that's serving them or this country very well."

Elizabeth hits the nail right on Ann's head....well almost. Not only does this type of discourse have no place in politics, Ann has no place in legitimate political dialogue. Ann contributes nothing but hate and vindicativeness that only serves herself.

The fact that she was allowed to appear on Good Morning America and subsequently Hardball shows that the media is complicit with her game. Instead of having a thoughtful debate on the issues, the media gets to increase their ratings based on ridiculous drama while she gets to sell more books. Shame on Ann and any TV show that puts that troll on camera.

Hate Crimes Bill Being Fought By Religious Right

One would think that passing legislation that provides equal protection under the law from persecution would be a good thing to everyone. Originally, hate-crime law was introduced to heavily penalize criminals that attacked their victims based on race, ethnicity or religion. Nowadays, one in six hate crimes are against the victim's sexual orientation and there is nothing in the current law to protect them. So Congress has finally brought legislation with a clear shot at passing as opposed to years prior when the Republican leadership would abandon the bill. Why would they do that? Because of their religious wingnut friends.

From The Huffington Post:

Predictably, anti-gay extremist organizations are at it again. Marking a new low in politics, these groups have embraced the work of a known white supremacist filmmaker, callously invoked the Virginia Tech massacre, blatantly lied about the Congressional record and even used the name and image of Jesus Christ in vain -- all in order to block passage of a bill that does nothing but provide equal protection under the law for every American.

In an action alert to members nationwide, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, incredibly used the memory of the Virginia Tech massacre to rally his troops against the hate crimes bill, stating that its passage would provide "a homosexual would have more federal protection under the law than the 32 victims of last week's massacre."

The Traditional Values Coalition created and disseminated a fake transcript of last week's House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Hate Crimes bill to "prove" that the legislation would punish anti-gay thoughts. The falsified transcript doesn't even remotely resemble the official transcript of the proceeding. They even produced a "wanted poster" in which Jesus Christ, wearing a crown of thorns, is wanted for violating the proposed hate crimes bill. The poster states that Christ is "wanted for revealing the truth about homosexuality in 'The Bible' and encouraging his followers not to offend God by committing such behavior." Is abusing the image of Christ in order to divide and discriminate really the Christian way?

And that my friends is the insanity we have to deal with. These creatures of 'morality' are full of anger and hate for another group of god's children. They would rather see people be beaten and killed than love them as another human being. What kind of church would teach that crap?

Scumbags like Tony Perkins and James Dobson are absolutely revolting. For Perkins to use the death of the students at Virginia Tech is beyond belief. These religious wackos will stop at nothing to keep up their followers fear and hatred for the massive amount of humanity out there that does not look, talk or fuck like they do. Of course, I expect this from people like Perkins and Dobson, I did not however from members of the black clergy. How incredibly hypocritical can one be?

Be sure to counter-act these groups and write your Congressman today to have them support H.R. 1592.

Fox News Is Full Of Blind Hams

Most people can tell when they see a news parody coming a mile away. That isn't the case over that Fox Noise Network. A publication similar to The Onion did a spoof on a minor story up in Maine about a prank pulled on a group of Muslim student and the geniuses at Fox took them seriously. So serious in fact, that the buffoons on Fox and Friends featured it on their broadcast and went so far as to say, "We're not making this up." Not only are they idiots, they are lying idiots.

From ThinkProgress:

The backstory: Last week in the town of Lewiston, Maine, a group of Somalian Muslim middle school students were the subject of a cruel prank when their peers placed a ham steak next to them in order to personally offend the students. School officials filed a report because the students considered the act to be a hate/bias crime.

(snip)

On Tuesday, Fox & Friends reported these parody quotes and details as actual news. Poking fun at the students, hosts asked whether ham was “a hate crime…or lunch?” and showed screen shots of ham sandwiches, starving Somalians, belching, animal noises, and mock “reenactments” of the incident. Ironically, the hosts assured viewers several times, “We’re not making this up!”

In case you think this a harmless goof by Fox you would be wrong. In response to the show, the school in Maine received a deluge of emails and phone calls berating the principal for being too sensitive. The level of hate seen in Fox viewers knows no bounds. So when Fox screws up like they did this morning, it only furthers the hatred and enables it to be thrown around, carelessly hitting it's victims.