Trying To Trap A Freeman

In the immortal words of Adm. Akbar......



And that precisely what this is:

Dear Mr. Freeman,

My name is Ali Akbar. I’m a 26 year-old African-American small business owner and a tea party activist. I’m not writing to rake you over the coals in the way that many conservatives have done in the last 48 hours. Heck, I wrote a passionate open-letter refuting many of your claims already, but this is not that. This is an honest and standing invitation. I do believe that you are wrong in what you said about the tea party, but I would rather prove it to you than castigate you for your comments.

I also understand that your reflexive comments came from experience. You grew up in a different America than the one that I was blessed to be born into. We both grew up in the south, but I never saw ‘White Only’ signs. I’ve been called a name or two in my three decades, but racism has always been the exception in my life, not the rule, as it probably was in your youth. I understand your suspicion of conservative political movements. It is rooted in pain and fear and memory, and though I never saw the horrors of segregation that you did, we share that cultural heritage.


I’ve been a fan of yours all my life. From “Driving Miss Daisy” to “Lean on Me” to “The Shawshank Redemption,” I idolized you as a boy. Growing up without a father, you were one of the strong black men in my life who gave me a model to follow. Each of the characters you played had dignity and confidence. I tried to emulate the strength you projected. While many of my friends headed down the all-too-familiar path of drugs, unwed pregnancies and crime, I’ve striven to live a life with dignity, be an example for my brothers and make my mother proud.

My favorite of your movies was “The Power of One.” I must’ve watched it a hundred times, crying every time when your character Geel Piet was killed by the racist South African. Geel Piet was brave and heroic, even in the face of death, because he knew that the hate that killed him was a trifle in comparison to the love that PK’s anti-apartheid movement was spreading. It is with that spirit that I’m writing to you this morning.

I’ve attended dozens of tea party events. I’ve helped organize them, and I’ve even spoken at a few. The tea party is not what is often depicted in the news. It is people of all colors who are terribly concerned about the direction that America is heading. We don’t trust big government to make decisions for us. And we fear that the present administration’s spending is going to lead our country down a path to insolvency, much like what Greece is currently facing.

Yes, the Tea Bagger is actually named Akbar.

This is on par with high school kids cleaning up their parents house just hours before mom and dad arrive home from their long weekend, making sure that there are no empty beer cans and bottles of Jagermeister; no ash-trays filled with remnants of blunts, or stray pairs of lacy undergarments from any of the girls that got tipsy enough to dance on the coffee table. This is exactly what this is.

Of course, Morgan Freeman likely knows this and should speak out to this effect. Does Mr. Akbar actually think that one of the more intelligent and articulate humans on the planet is actually going to fall for such sophomoric pleading? I certainly hope he doesn't. If anything, he should arrive, completely unannnounced and unrecognizable - with hidden camera at the ready - to a Tea Bagger gathering in the near future to get a real sense of what an unsanitized conglomerate this reactionary lot truly is.

I'm certain that Mr. Akbar's intensions - at least deep down inside him somewhere - are well and good, but to see anyone within the African American community, regardless of socio-political stripe; where they live; or what they do for a living, be so blind to the verifiable incidences of unchecked racial animus within the Tea Bagger movement gives me great pause. Are they simply playing the role of ostrich in order to maintain a sense of moral superiority? Or is this something more sinister, that they see it and it doesn't bother them in the lease because it's "not happening to them"?

Regardless, the trap as been set and I'm sure that Morgan Freeman is all too aware of this. And once he doesn't show up, The Modern American Right are going to have their "he was too scared to show up" talking points at the ready. They really are that predictable.

How To Lose Votes

Remember when Herman Cain ( oh, wait, aren't we supposed to call him Herm or Herb now? ) said he would get no less than a third of the black vote?

Let's all watch as that vote magically disappears right before your eyes.



Yep, nothing like telling the black community that a majority of them lack higher brain functions and have no clue that conservative policies are what have kept them down for decades.

Of course, Cain attempts to offer the caveat that it's just 2/3 of blacks in America that suffer under the yolk of Democratic telekinetic suppression, but where is the data to back up this assertion? Oh, I see, Cain just made it up. It's his "anecdotal feedback machine" that he keeps hidden in his suit jacket.

The reality of this is that Cain just made a massive gaffe. All that has to happen now is for the Modern American Right to gin up enough spin to make this sound like a positive for the GOP field, and for Cain more specifically. I'm sure their will be some colorful chart used and Sean Hannity will utilize his own racial invective to back this up by having Eric Rush and Jesse Lee Peterson on as the "token black guys".

I bet Cain's foot tastes like Godfather's Deep Dish Pepperoni.

Apparently Safety Equals Loss Of Freedom

Rand Paul has been out of sight for some time - as the GOP field of Presidential contenders have been taking up a plurality of the news cycles - but that doesn't mean that he hasn't been using his canted philosophy and using it as a tool that could ultimately endanger people.

A senator who opposes federal regulation on philosophical grounds is single-handedly blocking legislation that would strengthen safety rules for oil and gas pipelines, a bill that even the pipeline industry and companies in his own state support.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s opposition to the bill hasn’t wavered even after a gas pipeline rupture last week shook people awake in three counties in his home state of Kentucky.

Paul, a tea party ally who shares with his father, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, a desire to shrink the role of the federal government, won’t discuss his role in stymieing the bill. But industry lobbyists, safety advocates and Senate aides said he is the only senator who is refusing to agree to procedures that would permit swift passage of the measure.

Officials familiar with Paul’s objections said he has told lobbyists and company officials that he’s not opposed to any specific part of the bill, just to the notion of additional federal regulation.

This is the same Rand Paul that is against energy saving lightbulbs and complains about how his toilet "doesn't work". This is what Modern Libertarianism looks like - sacrificing safety and efficiency in the name of a failed ideology that only worked in a fiction novel.

Living in the heart of what is known as Kentucky's Coal Fields, I have seen first-hand what happens when proper safety oversight is either rejected or is doesn't exist because of people like Rand "Accidents Happen" Paul. I saw what happened with safety regulations weren't followed properly at the Dotiki Mine in Webster County where one of my close friends was killed in a rock-fall.

Does Rand Paul care more about the companies rather than the people they employ? One would think so, but in the story above, the pipeline company agrees with the increase in safety regulation. So what are we to believe of Rand Paul and his alleged ideology if he won't even listen to the "job creators"?

Excuses In Favor Of Distance

The Modern American Right simply can't comprehend the very simple concept that they claim is one of the pillars of their ideology - accountability.

In light of the many "controversial" moments during the seemingly endless GOP Presidential debates, the Right is in full-on defense mode because some audience members booed an active duty member of the American Military because he is gay and he disagrees with Don't Ask Don't Tell.

For examples, check Breitbarts frothy-mouthed minions here, here, and here.

The rusty lynch-pin of their defense is that "it was just a couple of people", that this is something that not everyone in the Modern American Right would accept. And while the Right wants to paint this as a smear by Liberals/Progressive, the reality is that those that did cast aspersions at this soldier were largely ignored. They faced no backlash, even though Liberals/Progressives that merely questioned the need to invade and remain in Iraq were labeled as un-American traitors.

So it was with little surprise that I watched Fox"News" do their best to run . But what Megyn Kelly did was such a distortion of reality that I'm shocked that a time-space paradox didn't manifest itself right there in the studio with her:



Is Kelly attempting to excuse the actions of these people in order to push the narrative that there must be a specific amount of vitriol hurled by a set amount of persons toward a group of people that the Modern American Right allegedly champions before it becomes wrong? It would certainly appear that way. Moreover, her laughably flaccid claim that it wasn't the soldier that was being booed, that it was his question, falls completely flat when one considers how the Modern American Right spends countless hours decrying Liberals/Progressives questioning a particular mission of the American Military but offering support of the troop that is put in harms way.

I've seen and heard many disgusting and revealing aspects of Right Wing posturing, but this has got to be one of the worst. Not only do these people use members of the American Military as props, but they are more than willing to completely ignore real hatred that is leveled at them.

I'm wondering how long it's going to take the folks at Fox"News" or any lunatic fringe wingnut to piece together some conspiracy theory that it was actually Liberal/Progressive infiltrators at the debate that did this.

It's About What's Not There

In which we examine how the Modern American Right prefer conspiracy theory over verifiable facts:



So what else has Obama not talked about? After all, if he hasn't spoken about it, it certainly has to be true.

- Drinking the blood of a newborn child? Nope, hasn't talked about doing that.

- Confiscating and burning all the Bibles from every bedside table at every hotel in America? No, he hasn't mentioned that.

- Demanding that all high school students have a "chip" installed in their brains so they can be easily controlled via remote control? Definitely hasn't spoken to that affect.

You kind of see where this is going, I'm sure.

Wingnut Blogger Praises Socialism

In light of Ron Paul's insistence that a patient in a hospital be allowed to die as a result of an inability to pay for medical expenses, one would think that the Modern American Right would stand by their "individual responsibility" talking points.

Then again, embracing the concept of "I am my brother's keeper" can make you look like a caring and "compassionate conservative" if you find the to go along with it:

A Virginia marine who lost both of his legs and right arm in an IED blast in Afghanistan was welcomed home over the weekend.

J.B. Kerns, 21, returned to his hometown of Ararat, which is located in the southwestern part of the state, to a group of bikers who escorted the war hero home.

“Any young man that comes home in that condition, that’s what he needs. He needs to know people still care for him,” said one of the bikers welcoming him home.

“It feels real good to be home. It’s an honor to come from a town like this that gives such great support,” said Kerns. “You all don’t know what it means to me to know that everybody here is here for me.”

The community has raised more than $50,000 to help the family with medical bills.

( emphasis by Jim Hoft )

Anytime someone of opposing socio-political stripe suggests that the community come together to help another person, the Modern American Right ties themselves into knots while shrieking that such acts are "socialism".

Sure, soldiers returning home from "war" deserve our respect and our help, so why isn't this courtesy extended to others? Are they of lesser value to America because they exercised their free will and opted to not join the military? The answer is certainly they are of lesser value - unless they vote Republican, embrace Tea Bagger dogma, and are regular viewers of Fox"News"

Leave Her Alone: The Culture Of Victimhood Marches On

The Modern American Right are the perpetual victims in our socio-political society. It is with this in mind that we should not be surprised that Sarah Palin

has revealed that she is what the Right have called "thin skinned" in relation to a book about her written by one Joe McGinniss.

Sarah Palin’s family attorney John Tiemessen has written a letter to Maya Mavjee, the publisher of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, that Palin may sue her, the company, and the book’s author Joe McGinniss “for knowingly publishing false statements” in his book released last week, “The Rogue,” ABC News has learned.

The use of "unnamed sources" really isn't going to hold water. But so long as Palin's handlers can continue to convince people in America that she has been maliciously attacked any and every time someone even whispers her name, then that's what counts.

Fringe Right bloggers are already on the case since their best gal has been "hurt" over what is on par with what they have to say about Obama. But it's a poor defense to say that sloppy investigations that lead to equally sloppy tirades about Obama ( see every Right Wing book written about the Obama administration since Jan. 20th 2009 ) excuse McGinniss' sloppy investigations - if that's really what they are.

So is this what we should come to expect from a Palin presidency should she finally admitted she was in the race and actually won? Would she spend precious time in the White House complaining about everything anyone published about her and then threaten to sue? Considering how her handlers reacted to claims leveled at her during her brief stint as Alaska's Governor it's equally likely that she would either sue or just quit - like she did before.

Back At Last

After some personal struggles and self-impossed delays, I figure it's time to get back on the metaphorical horse.

Having intentionally stayed away from most things in the political realm these past couple of months, I've had plenty of time to consider several aspects of my life and how I function in the socio-political landscape.

So let's get to it