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The Right Hook, a weekly segment which covers the machinations of the right wing, from the Republican Party to the Tea Party Patriots, and beyond. By Chris Bennett

Sarah Palin kicked off her “America By Heart” book tour by kicking dust onto the legacies of Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush. When Fox’s Sean Hannity asked Palin if being a television personality diminished her electoral stature, the star of Sarah Palin’s Alaska dismissed Reagan as “an actor.” Palin also trashed the elder Bush and his wife Barbara as “blue bloods” who had harmed America. Agreed, but . . . Writing in Politico, MSNBC host and former congressman Joe Scarborough says Palin was perturbed by the elder Bush’s comment that Mitt Romney would make a good president in 2012 . Sarah Palin does not seem to have the ability to make a case for herself as president of anything without tearing down Republican stalwarts. While this may work to sell books and promote a budding family television enterprise, it does not work in Republican politics where the old guard still abides by Reagan’s “11th Commandment– Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republicans.”

Three defendants from New Mexico will be the first tried for violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. William Hatch of Fruitland, NM pled not guilty last week to a hate crime involving a mentally disabled Navajo man. According to Tim Korte writing in the Huffington Post, the law expands civil rights protections to Americans who suffer violence based on gender, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity. Hatch, along with Paul Beebe and Jesse Sanford, both of Farmington, NM, are accused of shaping a coat hanger into a swastika, heating it on a stove, and branding the symbol into the arm of the Native American man. The three men also shaved a swastika onto the back of their victim’s head, and used markers to write “KKK,” “White Power,” and to draw a pentagram on his body. According to Associated Press, each defendant could receive up to ten years in federal prison if convicted. Why do these kinds of crimes persist? Well, perhaps we have Rush Limbaugh to thank for perpetuating a culture of racism against non-whites. Lashing out at Barack Obama on Thanksgiving, the recovering opiate addict claimed that Natives had “scammed” the early Americans’ in their purchase of Manhattan Island. Limbaugh went on to suggest that present-day Americans were deserving of reparations because of the number of lung cancer deaths caused by the Native custom of smoking tobacco.

Tea Party Nation President Judson Phillips hosted the group’s weekly radio program and voiced support for the idea that only property owners in America have the right to vote. According to AlterNet.com, Judson explained his new, old vision of Civil Rights: He explained that the Founding Fathers put “certain restrictions” on the right to vote. “One of those was that you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense because . . . if you’re not a property owner, you know, I’m sorry but property owners have a little bit more of a vested interest in the community than non-property owners.” Other conservatives in favor of repealing the 17th Amendment are Supreme Court justice Anthony Scalia, and the secessionist governor of Texas, Rick Perry.

Republican Texas Representative Joe Barton has a new slide presentation he’d like everyone to see. According to the Washington Post, Barton has made the presentation to aid his campaign to be the new head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Barton’s slide show is all “death by PowerPoint” until the very last slide: it says “John Boehner is our Dwight Eisenhower in the battle against the Obama administration. Majority Leader Cantor is our Omar Bradley. I want to be George Patton– put anything in my sights and I will shoot it.” Although Joe Barton managed to avoid military service during the Vietnam War, he has no problem advocating gun violence as a solution to our country’s energy needs. And, though Barton has never worn a military uniform, he once stated during a congressional hearing that he had worked his way up to Civilization IV as a video-gamer.

The Right Hook – Reality Based News and Views