HOLD BUSH AND CHENEY ACCOUNTABLE

RIGHT WING: NOTHING BUT HATE

Right-wing philosophy is a cancer on this country. Right-wingers have impeded social progress at every turn. They tried to derail the New Deal and positive reforms such as Social Security, unemployment insurance, banking regulation, and a basic safety net for the majority of us. They fought tooth and nail against civil rights legislation. They have blocked attempts at regulating gun ownership and we see the carnage constantly from any nut getting easy access to a gun to kill lots and lots of people. They cling to a superstitious religious belief that should have gone the way of bleeding with leeches. In this column Tim Rutten looks at the wave of hate crimes committed by right-wing cretins The column is at www.latimes.com:

The United States' extreme right wing inhabits a shadow world, and the delusional nature of its core beliefs -- anti-Semitism, white supremacy and a rat's nest of economic and constitutional conspiracy theories -- makes tracing causality within its ranks a dicey proposition. Still, it's clear that something is stirring this peculiarly American cesspool in ways that haven't occurred since the mid-1990s, when an upsurge in activity among so-called militia groups culminated in the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, the deadliest terrorist incident on American soil until 9/11.

Rumors that the new Obama administration secretly planned to seize people's firearms surged through the Internet, which nowadays links extremists like a kind of fevered nervous system, and fueled a run on gun stores that stock assault weapons. In April, incidents of violence began to crop up: Three Pittsburgh police officers were killed by a 23-year-old man who feared his guns were about to be seized. The alleged killer frequented white-supremacist websites and frequently railed to his friends about "Jewish control" of the banks and media. Shortly afterward, a Florida National Guard soldier shot two deputy sheriffs to death, allegedly because he was "severely disturbed" by Obama's election. He too was a frequent reader of far-right-wing websites.

April 15, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


THE HATE TALKERS

The fall of Don Imus this past week was stunning in some ways. What Imus said about the Rutgers women's basketball team was contemptible, but he has said contemptible things before. What he said probably wasn't worse than what many pundits on the right have been saying for years. Ann Coulter has spewed out hate and venom for a long time, but continues to show up on TV. Limbaugh, the gasbag who pioneered the degenerate nature of talk radio, has been openly racist on many occasions. Bill O'Reilly is almost psychopathic and hypocritical beyond belief. This commentary by Phoenix Woman is at www.firedoglake.com:

First and foremost, we have the man who was the direct beneficiary of the overturning in 1987 of the wicked and secular-humanistic Fairness Doctrine, the father of right-wing gab radio and the spiritual ancestor of FOX News, Rush Limbaugh! The man who once told an African-American caller to "take the bone out of your nose" is still sharing his heartwarming observations on the races with us all; on a recent show in February, Mister Talent On Loan From God took issue with a Reuters report on a University of Chicago study that found that "a majority of young blacks feel alienated from today's government" when he commented: "Why would that be? The government's been taking care of them their whole lives." And in August of last year, he famously explained to viewers of the CBS reality show Survivor that blacks were bad swimmers and that Hispanics would do anything to win.

But of course Rush, pioneer in right-wing ethical standards-setting that he is, is not quite cutting-edge any more. For the past few years, FOX News' Bill O'Reilly has been leading the way in bringing conservative morality to America, particularly through our TV screens. Watch O'Reilly show us the wise, well-informed compassion he brings to everything he does, as he informs the female mayor of Virginia Beach, Virginia that her true career lies in baking pies. Career counseling was never so much fun — or so well grounded in bedrock Republican morality! O'Reilly also shows his expertise as a travel agent and defender of Christmas from the Jews Hollywood liberals, exhorting a Jewish caller to his show to "go to Israel" rather than remain in the US. And who could forget his expert snap diagnosis of the mental state of kidnapping victim Shawn Hornbeck?

THE RECKLESS SUB-PRIME LENDERS

If any institution in the country needs strong regulation, it's probably businesses that deal in mortgage, lending, and other financial affairs. During the Reagan years we saw a deregulation mindset take hold in the savings and loan industry. It required a massive federal bailout a few years later because predators moved into the savings and loan industry. We've seen banks and credit card companies get almost anything they want from the federal government as they come up with complicated contracts that are totally one-sided and are frequently ticking time bombs for their customers. This author points out that the sub-prime lender crisis we're seeing now is mostly the fault of the lenders, but the stigma is being applied to borrowers who "never should have gotten loans in the first place." The article by Mark Winston Griffith is at www.truthout.org:

High priced mortgages that include funky gimmicks - like adjustable rates or no verification of borrower income - have resulted in record setting foreclosures and a rush by Wall Street to divest from the sub-prime market. Sub-prime loans comprise only 13% percent of outstanding mortgages, but they contribute to over 60% percent of foreclosures.

Some analysts suggest that sub-prime lenders are being punished for giving high-risk loans to borrowers in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods and communities of color, people, they say, who perhaps never should have received a loan in the first place. After all, their logic follows, not every American can handle the responsibility of credit and owning a home.

This is a convenient, yet misguided, conclusion to draw from the sub-prime mortgage debacle. In truth, sub-prime lending is just the latest example of how lenders have tarred entire segments of the population as credit unworthy through the mortgage industry's own discriminatory, irresponsible - and now reckless - behavior.

This recklessness begins with the way the sub-prime industry has built into it financial incentives that defer risk, and liability, along a long chain of sub-prime role players. This marks a sharp departure from the past, when loans were typically originated and held by a single bank that assumed any and all of the risk.