Bad Deeds for 2/5/2010

Invoking ‘Literacy Test,’ Tea Party Opening Speaker Suggests Blacks be Kept From Voting – The opening night speaker at the Tea Party convention suggested a return to a “literacy test” to protect America from presidents like Obama — a segregation-era method employed by southern US states to keep blacks from voting.

In his speech Thursday to attendees, former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo invoked the loaded pre-civil rights era buzzword, saying that President Barack Obama was elected because “we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country.”

Southern states used literacy tests as part of an effort to deny suffrage to African American voters prior to Lyndon Johnson-era civil rights laws.

Michele Bachmann Says Obama ‘wants to annihilate us!’ (and other crazy stuff) – Michele Bachmann said in a fundraising letter which was sent out in late December, says, “Obama wants to use ACORN to radicalize America because he isn’t interested merely in defeating conservatives… …HE WANTS TO ANNIHILATE US! That’s the purpose behind ObamaCare, too.”

She also said in the letter, “What is happening in Washington right now is BIGGER than FDR’s New Deal or LBJ’s “Great Society”…and far more dangerous to our freedoms than both combined! Obama’s plans will do nothing less than socialize our economy and turn every citizen into a ward of the state.“

Also, “Obama is advancing a far-left agenda of … empowerment of radical community groups.”

Then she asks the reader to send money to the “ACU STRIKEFORCE.”

(Strikeforce? Sounds like she’s the one into annihilation. – JLV)
(And check out the comments at the bottom of the linked Minnesota newspaper article. Wow! – JLV)

Sen. Richard Shelby Blocks Obama Nominees, Trying to Get Air-Tanker Contract for His State – Saying that the Obama administration must change its approach to an Air Force refueling tanker contract, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, moved Thursday to block Senate approval of at least four White House nominees for top federal jobs Thursday.

A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said via e-mail that Shelby had placed a “blanket hold” on administration nominees, a move that could affect dozens of candidates awaiting confirmation for a variety of posts.

“He is holding up all of the president’s nominations,” the spokeswoman, Regan Lachapelle, said.

Comcast/NBC Wants to be the Next “To Big to Fail” – Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and NBC President Jeff Zucker testified in front of House and Senate subcommittees Thursday as regulators decide whether to allow the proposed merger of the two media giants. Comcast is the largest cable TV and residential high-speed Internet company in the nation. NBC is one of the largest content providers.

The House hearing opened with several politicians waxing poetic about how the merger is great for America. While nobody in the room cracked a smile, their enthusiasm is laughable. The only people who could believe that the largest media merger in a generation is good for the public are either: 1) on the receiving end of the massive campaign contributions from said media companies; 2) bending to the phalanx of industry lobbyists swarming Capitol Hill; or 3) hoodwinked believers in the “all regulation is bad” approach that brought us Enron and the financial meltdown.

Watch Senator Al Franken (who used to work for NBC) tear into the Comcast CEO at the link. It seems that the CEO was less than truthful with Senator Franken and Franken caught him at it.

More Dumb Than Bad: Members of Subversive Groups in South Carolina Must Register – Terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina’s Secretary of State and declare their intentions — or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.

The state’s “Subversive Activities Registration Act,” passed last year and now officially on the books, states that “every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States … shall register with the Secretary of State.”

There’s even a $5 filing fee.

By “subversive organization,” the law means “every corporation, society, association, camp, group, bund, political party, assembly, body or organization, composed of two or more persons, which directly or indirectly advocates, advises, teaches or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States [or] of this State.”

(While the intention of the law is apparently aimed at terrorists, it’s unclear in the law’s wording whether it can be applied to right-wing militias, or maybe the Tea Party, or people wanting their state to secede from the Union. _ JLV)

Tea Party Convention First-Day Hypocrisy – On the first day of the Tea Party convention, former congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) offered a fiery defense of Judeo-Christian faith, but there was no opening prayer. There was talk about traditional American values, but there was no Pledge of Allegiance to open the convention.
— nor was there an American flag in the convention hall. Oops!

New Senator Opens His Big Mouth Too Soon – When sworn into the U.S. Senate yesterday, Scott Brown said, “”The last stimulus bill didn’t create one new job.”

“It didn’t create one new job?” one reporter at the press conference repeated, incredulous.

“That’s correct. We lost another 85,000 jobs again, give or take, last month (January).”

The very next day, the unemployment figures for January were released, which showed a larger-than-expected decrease in unemployment. Oops!

Iran Seeking Ultimate Weapon of Mass Destruction 😉 – The United Nations Security Council met in an emergency session last night amid reports that Iran may be seeking to acquire a 2008 Toyota Camry. The Security Council’s latest concern was prompted by intelligence reports that Mr. Ahmadinejad himself had been quietly shopping for Toyota parts in recent weeks on the popular online site Craigslist.

Regards,

Jim