I recently posted this on another forum to which I belong. I guesstimate their membership to be about 97% conservative, wingbat Republican.
I'm just curious to see how different, if at all the commentary is to the article and my statements.
Growing hate groups blame Obama, economy
By Stephanie Chen
I don't get angry or pissed off as I'm sure many of you think a liberal to moderate Democrat like me would. Actually I try to stay out of most political forums because it makes my heart hurt. :frown1: That so many otherwise intelligent people could be misled by talk radio, conspiracy theories, fringe blogs, and alleged news sites is frightening to me.
I've even heard some of you mention stocking up on guns and the possibility of civil war. Why? To what end?
You all claim to be patriots; but a true patriot would never deliberately tear his country asunder for the things you have mentioned. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but if it comes to that it will be because of the conservative right, not the liberal left.
For what freedoms are you fighting? What is it that you feel you have lost because of President Obama's actions or inactions?
I am aware that there is a HUGE deficit and the current stimulus bill, which though signed by the President, was not written by him. While some of you have come up with one or two good ideas, I have yet to see any of you come up with an overall stimulus bill or alternative to such that is guaranteed to work better.
NAFTA and the outsourcing of jobs to India, Mexico, and Asia?
Yeah well I'm not a fan of that either. I never was, but guess what? NOT OBAMA's FAULT!
Since the election, well over 100,000 people have been laid off from various companies across the nation. Lay-offs of that magnitude are never decided overnight. Those companies were in trouble months if not years before President Obama even got the nomination.
Chris Rock told a joke on one of his specials a few years back and though vulgar, truer words were never spoken. He said, "There is nothing a white man with a nickel hates more than an 'N' word with a dime."
As to why I keep an eye on this and other politics forums, I believe in keeping my friends close and enemies closer.
Growing hate groups blame Obama, economy
By Stephanie Chen
(CNN) -- Don Black said he despises Barack Obama. And he said he believes illegal aliens undermine the economic fabric of the United States.
Black, a 55-year-old former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, isn't the only person who holds such firm beliefs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which Thursday released its annual hate group report. The center's report, "The Year in Hate," found the number of hate groups grew by 54 percent since 2000. The study identified 926 hate groups -- defined as groups with beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people -- active in 2008. That's a 4 percent jump, adding 38 more than the year before. What makes this year's report different is that hate groups have found two more things to be angry about -- the nation's first African-American president and an economy that is hemorrhaging jobs. For the past decade, Latino immigration has fueled the growth of hate groups.
Obama serves as a "visual aid" that is helping respark a sense of purpose in current supporters and lure new members, said neo-Nazi David Duke, the former Klan leader who was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in the 1980s. Duke said he fears "the white European-American" heritage will soon be destroyed. He added that his Web site sees around 40,000 unique visitors a day, up from 15,000 a day before Obama won the election. Racist anger toward Obama was evident even before he became president. Two weeks before Obama won, authorities said they foiled a skinhead plot to assassinate him. The two suspects, based in Tennessee, also apparently planned to shoot and decapitate dozens of African-Americans, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said. Police say a man in Brockton, Massachusetts, allegedly targeted minorities after President Obama's inauguration. They say the man raped a woman, killed her sister and another man after several months of researching white supremacist groups on the Internet.But racist fears can also be more mundane and personal: Nonwhites in the White House could lead to nonwhites in their neighborhoods, which could lead to interracial dating, a great taboo among hate groups."Obama poses a large cultural threat to white racists," Glaser said. "This may explain some of the uptick in hate groups." Scapegoating occurs most often in times of economic distress, according to experts studying hate crimes. From the Holocaust in Europe to abuses against Irish Catholic immigrants in the 1830s in the United States, people are most likely to lash out against others when they feel vulnerable or need to displace their economic frustrations on others, psychologists say.
I don't get angry or pissed off as I'm sure many of you think a liberal to moderate Democrat like me would. Actually I try to stay out of most political forums because it makes my heart hurt. :frown1: That so many otherwise intelligent people could be misled by talk radio, conspiracy theories, fringe blogs, and alleged news sites is frightening to me.
I've even heard some of you mention stocking up on guns and the possibility of civil war. Why? To what end?
For what freedoms are you fighting? What is it that you feel you have lost because of President Obama's actions or inactions?
I am aware that there is a HUGE deficit and the current stimulus bill, which though signed by the President, was not written by him. While some of you have come up with one or two good ideas, I have yet to see any of you come up with an overall stimulus bill or alternative to such that is guaranteed to work better.
NAFTA and the outsourcing of jobs to India, Mexico, and Asia?
Yeah well I'm not a fan of that either. I never was, but guess what? NOT OBAMA's FAULT!
The impetus for NAFTA actually began with President Ronald Regan, who campaigned on a North American common market. In 1984, Congress passed the Trade and Tariff Act. This is important because it gave the President "fast-track" authority to negotiate free trade agreements, while while only allowing Congress the ability to approve or disapprove, not change negotiating points. Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney agrees with Reagan to begin negotiations for the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which was signed in 1988, went into effect in 1989 and is now suspended due to NAFTA.
NAFTA was signed by U.S. President George H.W. Bush, Mexican President Salinas, and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1992. It was ratified by the legislatures of the three countries in 1993. The U.S. House approved it by 234 to 200 on November 17 and the Senate by 60 to 38 on November 20. It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on December 8, 1993 and entered force January 1,1994. Although it was started by President Bush, it was a priority of President Clinton's, and its passage is considered one of his first successes.
Chris Rock told a joke on one of his specials a few years back and though vulgar, truer words were never spoken. He said, "There is nothing a white man with a nickel hates more than an 'N' word with a dime."
As to why I keep an eye on this and other politics forums, I believe in keeping my friends close and enemies closer.
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