Dec 08 2010
The Right Hook – 12/08/10
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
Discussions of the Dream Act have inspired a new barrage of anti-immigrant rhetoric among conservative pundits on Fox News. The Dream Act, or Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act is a piece of federal legislation first proposed in 2001. The Dream Act was recently re-introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. This bill would provide undocumented students who arrived in the U.S. as minors with a path to conditional permanent residency if they complete two years in the military or two years of higher education at a four year institution. However, sowing fear in the media is William Gheen, president of the anti-immigrant Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee (ALI-PAC). The Southern Poverty Law Center lists ALIPAC as a “nativist extremist group.” Gheen on Fox & Friends recently stated that passage of the Dream Act would “displace and replace” American “students,” “workers,” and “voters,” and Americans could “kiss the borders of the United States good-bye.” Gheen also said the bill would “nullify” the “Tea Party movement,” and would result in the “displaced and replaced” “political influence of Fox network viewers.” Now, that Dream Act is starting to sound like a good candidate for fast-track legislation!
Congress has approved $1.5 Billion to settle discrimination claims by African-American farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Known as Pigford II, the claims stem from years of well-documented discrimination by the USDA against African-American farmers. A USDA study looked at crop payments, disaster payment programs, and Commodity Credit Corporation loans in the 1990’s. The study found that 97 percent of disaster payments went to white farmers while less than 1 percent went to black farmers. The federal government’s action to redress years of institutional racism with Pigford II has sparked a conservative fit and use of the R-word: Reparations. On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh stated that “[Pigford II] could become the number one political story of next year because this is corruption right out in front of everybody’s eyes. The left is celebrating the fact that it found a creative way to pass reparations.” Counter to the right wing idea that legislation favoring African-Americans is somehow a form of reparations for slavery is the reality that Pigford has a history of bi-partisan support. The first law which allowed black farmers to sue the USDA was passed under Speaker Newt Gingrich. And in 2009, Republican Representative Chuck Grassley introduced a bill allowing access to unlimited funds to pay for successful claims for black farmers. Caught up in the spirit of justice, Grassley said “It is time to make these claimants right, and move forward into a new era of civil rights at the Department of Agriculture.”
Another devotee of Glenn Beck pled guilty this week to gun charges. Kenneth B. Kimbley, Jr. was arrested last July on charges related to a grenade-making operation in his mobile home in Spirit Lake, Idaho. According to the Spokesman-Review newspaper, Kimbley discussed bombing local bridges with an undercover FBI agent. Kimbley also made threatening statements regarding President Barack Obama. Kimbley described to investigators the booby traps he built around his property and said he was the leader of the Brotherhood of American Patriots militia. Investigators also seized 20,000 rounds of ammunition and several firearms from his property. Kimbley’s public defender, Kim Deater said that Kimbley had made “no threats to harm anyone at any time.” “In fact,” said the public defender, “everything said by Mr. Kimbley is not different than what his idol, TV commentator Glenn Beck typically states on the air and is protected free speech.” Note to attorney Deater: Kimbley was not arrested for making speeches, but homemade hand grenades.
This is the Right Hook– Reality Based News and Views.
One Response to “The Right Hook – 12/08/10”
The most ironic (read: “hypocritical”) thing about the Southern Poverty Law Center is that NOT ONE of its top ten, highest paid executives is a minority, and certainly not an immigrant.
http://wp.me/pCLYZ-67
In fact, according to the SPLC’s hometown newspaper, the Montgomery Advertiser, despite being located LITERALLY in the back yard of Dr. Martin Luther King’s home church, the SPLC has NEVER hired a person of color to a highly paid position of power.
Some “experts”