Dem Senator Destroys David Gregory's Case About Racism In Tea Party

If only...

Submitted by jdlybrand on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 4:52pm.

...Gregory and his ilk would crawl out from their insulated caves and see first hand what they're talking about., they might garner a little respect from folks like me. Truth is, they can't handle the truth.

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Didn't the president just say

Submitted by metaphorsbwithu on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 5:00pm.

Didn't the president just say that blacks don't watch Meet the Press?

Maybe Gregory should start asking about racism at NBC and in the MSM in general ... and the Democrat Party for that matter.

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I was listening to Boy

Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 5:09pm.

I was listening to Boy Blunder flapping his purple lips last week at some 'fire and brimstone' rally - probably with a bunch of paid attendees - and the whole thing sounded pretty racists, divisive, and incendiary to me......but, hell, I'm a racist bigoted hate-filled white conservative, so who am I to make any comments on it?????

And didn't Soetoro Hussein make some kind of a public commercial a couple of months ago, encouraging the 'blacks and asians and hispanics' to be sure and vote?? That sounds a little racist to me, but, like I said, I'm not really qualified to comment on it.............

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delete

Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 5:31pm.

delete

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imo

Submitted by TerryWest on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 5:39pm.

 It's the caucasian dominated main stream media and the democratic party themselves who have exploited and are continuing to manipulate the black & hispanic race, dictate their agenda, high jack their voice, and determine their direction.

At some point one has to ask, how's this self anointed overseer program working out for me?

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The Hack Strikes Again

Submitted by pbthinker on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 5:41pm.

When they appointed David Gregory to be the new host of Meet the Press,  I knew the fix was in.  He was little more than a partisan hack, when he was the White House Correspondent for NBC and now he's going to be asking the questions. 

I've seen rally after rally, been to a local one, read websites, and what they're saying is not true.  People that have been there know that so, if people like Gregory, are trying to paint it this way, you just know they have an agenda. 

Tea Parties are all about fiscal responsibility, reigning in the debt, not spending our children and grandchildren's future. It was all brought on when they passed the porkulus bill and just got stronger, as Obama pushed his extreme liberal agenda.  They can make it about race all they want, the problem is they're wrong.

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Confused

Submitted by xraynova on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 6:17pm.

 

"Instead, this report found Tea Party ranks to be permeated with concerns about race and national identity and other so-called social issues. ... Tea party organization have given platforms to anti-Semites, racists and bigots..."
 

You people who actually watch MTP... are you sure Gregory was talking about the Tea Party? That looks like he's reading an analysis of the Rainbow Coalition, or the naacp itself.

How could I have missed all those Tea Partiers using disparaging remarks about Hymietown?

How many Tea Partiers did I miss describing how they'd cross the street if they saw a black guy walking along toward them?

Did I just say "You People ?"  Good thing no blacks are watching MTP. 

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NAACP not credible

Submitted by Catherwood on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 6:21pm.

Gregory bases his assertions on a report by the NAACP?  His entire premise is based on the assumption that the NAACP is telling the unbiased truth which , of course, is not possible.  The NAACP will say anything, do anything to discredit the Tea Party.  It matters not whether what the NAACP says is the truth or not.  Its consintuents will lie, cheat, and fabricate any nonsense to further their agenda.  Gregory's dependence on the NAACP's veracity demonstrates what a low class, Dem hatchet man he is.

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Rubbish

Submitted by Anna on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 6:27pm.

This group is joined at the hip with the NAACP, and their intention is to destroy the tea party movement because it doesn't agree with their agenda!     From their website, I see that there are only four people that constitute the "institute" and one of them is the lifetime member of the NAACP who wrote up the resolution against "racism in the tea party" that the NAACP passed this year.  Read what he says from a recent trip to the UK where he talks about his conversations with the Brits about countering the tea party forces, and then read the speech that he wrote for an NAACP meeting about the tea party movement.

 

Bottom line - they have decided that the most effective way to counter the tea party movement is to poison it by calling it racist, nationalist and bigoted. 

 

  Excerpt from Leonard Zeskind's presentation to the NAACP National Convention - July 11, 2010   


Leonard Zeskind

I am going to talk briefly about the Tea Party phenomenon and why it is important for all of our branches to educate themselves and their communities about this dire threat.

The Tea Parties are a little bit like a poison apple--with three layers. At their center is a hard-core group of over 220,000 enrolled members of five national factions, and hundreds of thousands more that we have not yet counted but are signed up only with their local Tea Parties. At the next level is a larger less defined group of a couple of million activists who go to meetings, buy the literature and attend the many local and national protests. And finally there are the Tea Party sympathizers. These are people who say they agree with what they believe are the Tea Parties' goal. These rank at about 16% to 18% of voters, depending on which organization is doing the polling. That would mean somewhere between 17 million and 19 million adult American voters count themselves as Tea Party supporters.

This is an overwhelmingly white and solidly middle class slice of the population, slightly older and less troubled financially than the rest of us. Please, remember this point when some political pundit or the other tells you these are economically strapped Americans hitting out at scapegoats. These are not populists of any stripe. These are ultra-nationalists (or super patriots) who are defending their special pale-skinned privileges and power.

There are six national Tea Party factions: FreedomWorks Tea Party, headed up by Dick Armey--a man who needs no further introduction to this meeting. There is Tea Party Nation, which held the convention in Nashville last February where Sarah Palin of the "real Americans" spoke. There is 1776 Tea Party, the leadership of this group comes directly from the Minuteman Project, the anti-immigrant vigilante group. There is the Our Country Deserves Better PAC, responisble for organizing the cross-country Tea Party Express bus tours. There is also ResistNet which sponsors Tea Parties and Tea Party Patriots.

Now much of the media attention has been focused on FreedomWorks Tea Party, because it is headquartered in the DC area, and because Dick Armey was a big deal Republican. There are some who mistakenly speculate that this is an "Astroturf" phenomenon, that is a fake grassroots thing conjured up solely by Republican money and party officials.

But it is a real grass roots problem for us, and Dick Armey's FreedomWorks Tea Party is not one of the larger Tea Party groups. ResistNet and Tea Party Patriots are actually the largest of the six national factions.

The Tea Parties are not just about taxes and budgets. They are against everything we are for, beginning with President Barack Obama. From health care reform to immigration reform, from a jobs program to unemployment benefits to union check off. And, as Rand Paul the Republican candidate from Kentucky has shown us, they are also against federal civil rights legislation.

Indeed, major sections of the Tea Party movement are opposed to the Fourteenth Amendment and equality before the law (because the oppose birth-right citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants). And some--the followers of Texas Cong. Ron Paul among them--are even opposed to the Seventeenth Amendment and the direct election of United States Senators.

Now when polling was first started on the Tea Parties, one California poll showed that people of color were less likely than white people to know much about the Tea Parties. That was only natural, since the Tea Parties were recruiting at gun shows not at African American barbershops.

Now that the spitting, and name calling on Capitol Hill has occurred, we all know more about this problem. Nevertheless, there is much more to learn.

The Tea Parties say they want to "Take This Country Back." We have to ask, from whom do they want to take the country away? Who do they want to give it to?

Our response is to say: One Nation. One Dream.

http://www.irehr.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61:exc...

-------------------

 

IREHR in the UK

From the reaction of the audiences during my recent Searchlight-sponsored speaking tour of the United Kingdom, July 17-21, it appears that there is a high level of interest and concern about the influence of the Tea Parties on the political scene here in the United States.  During the weeklong series of events around England and Wales, I also had an opportunity to learn more about the successful organizing strategies of Hope Not Hate—the Searchlight campaign to counter the growing electoral influence of the British National Party (BNP).

The tour began in London at a Labour Friends of Searchlight conference. Early in the day, highly-regarded Labour MP John Cruddas encouraged the crowd to learn from one another, and declared that Labour “must create a party rooted in a culture of organizing.” Continuing the organizing thread, I used my keynote speech to discuss the organizing techniques utilized by the Right in the United States. From the Christian Coalition to the Tea Parties, the Right has adapted new organizing techniques to stymie progressive change. The conference concluded with a debate featuring four of the top contenders to become the new leader of the Labour Party.

After the conference, I had the opportunity to talk with three of Hope Not Hate’s newest organizers from the hugely successful campaign in Barking and Dagenham—the main electoral target of the BNP in 2010 where they thought they could take over the local council. The tireless efforts of Hope Not Hate organizers like Ellie, Sam, and David, combined with the hard work of the many dedicated volunteers, helped prevent all fifty-one candidates from the British National Party from getting elected.  David, Ellie, and Sam and I talked extensively about how the Hope Not Hate campaign has been able to move forward while still watching their backs.

After a day exploring London, I met back up with my guide for the week, Searchlight’s Matthew Collins. Before becoming a Searchlight staffer, Matthew risked his life for several years working undercover inside the BNP to provide valuable information to anti-fascists.  Over the course of the trip, Matthew and I spent hours talking about his organizing work with Searchlight and about his time among the fascists as he’s chronicled in a new book, due out this fall, Behind the Flags: The True Story of a Young Life Among the Nazis, Gun-Runners and Politicians of the British Far-Right.

The two of us traveled to Cardiff, Wales, then on to Birmingham, and up to Manchester, before returning to London. At each of these events, the vast majority of the attendees responded that they closely followed American politics and were concerned about the rise of the Tea Parties. In my presentations, I discussed the birth of the Tea Party movement, and the size, scope, and ideology of the national factions.

Back in London for the final event of the tour, we held a public meeting to discuss the Tea Party phenomenon in the council chambers of Unison—Britain’s biggest public sector trade union.  At the end of my presentation, there was tremendous interest in hearing about efforts to counter the rapid growth of the Tea Parties. We discussed the resolution passed by the NAACP condemning racism in the Tea Parties, and the NAACP delegates who held up “Hope Not Hate” signs on the convention floor.

After our last event of the tour, we went for a curry with Narmada Thiranagama, one of the trade unionists in the Searchlight delegation that visited the United States during the 2008 elections. I helped organize the delegation’s trip to Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. During the trip, we met with immigrant rights and trade union leaders, campaign strategists and local community organizers to give the delegation a real taste of the campaigning.  Speaking of tastes, Narmada and I even found time for a side-trip to Pat’s King of Steaks for some real Philly Cheese Steaks (none of that English-Only nonsense served up by Geno’s for us, thank you!).

Special thanks to Searchlight, Hope Not Hate, Unison, and the many people who came out to these events.  There is much that we have to learn from one another, and I look forward to continuing the conversation.

 http://www.irehr.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62:british-learn-about-tea-parties&catid=16:blog&Itemid=4


Leonard Zeskind is president of IREHR. For almost three decades, he has been a leading authority on white nationalist political and social movements. He is the author of Blood and Politics: The History of White Nationalism from the Margins to the Mainstream, published by Farrar Straus & Giroux in May 2009. He has written for The American Prospect, Rolling Stone, The Nation, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named him a Fellow in 1998 (one of its so-called “Genius Grants”). The Petra Foundation gave him a fellowship in 1992. He has testified before a Parliamentary Subcommittee in the United Kingdom, and given public lectures at universities in London and Berlin. Prior to 1982, he was a community activist and worked in industry for thirteen years: on an automobile assembly line, installing refrigerator motors in vending machines, and as a welder and first class fitter in steel fabrication plants. He is a lifetime member of the NAACP, and has served on the board of directors of the Petra Foundation and the Kansas City Jewish Community Relations Bureau.

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Au contraire!

Submitted by troglodyt on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 6:57pm.

Likely much to his surprise, both his Republican and Democrat guests on "Meet the Press" said they hadn't seen any evidence of that
  Judging from your transcript Bennet didn't talk about racism at all and wasn't really asked about it either. Add to that, that he didn't answer the question about whether he thinks the Tea Party is mainstream or not.   Buck, on the other hand, after giving the required answer, quickly dismissed the claim out of hand. This in return makes the following claim quite doubtful:   But I can tell you that if there are people that hold those views, they are quickly asked to leave meetings.   How can he be so sure of that if he hasn't seen one instance of racism and thereby doesn't know how the audience would react?

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I don't get David Gregory.

Submitted by samhermanmd on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 7:04pm.

He looks anesthetized or under heavy sedation.  His deadpan delivery is about as interesting as reading the tax tables.

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irehr

Submitted by Judith on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 7:24pm.

They want one nation but from all that is being said and written, it does not include us whites.  You cannot be African and American, pick...its either one or the other.  If they are so unhappy why don't they establish their own domain.  But, wait...who would develop all that we  (and they) have here in the US

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Who knew?

Submitted by Boudin on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 7:41pm.

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-CO):  I haven't seen a lot of that either, and I have had the opportunity to engage with people who are self-described tea party people, to have a serious conversation rather than just a bunch of slogans about how we are not going to become--you know, what, what we need to do so that we're not the first generation of Americans who leave less opportunity, not more, to our kids and our grandkids.
    This guy sounds sane to me, and claims to be a dimwit? Now maybe he is a nut-case, but he can fake it in a pinch.   David Gregory should be ashamed of this line of questioning, considering he could not offer any examples, only hear-say. But no-doubt, he considers it a missed opportunity?
 

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I would love to know, Mr. Gregory....

Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 8:01pm.

Exactly who are these anti-Semites, racists and bigots that have been given a platform by the Tea Party?

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mmmm

Submitted by 10ksnooker on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 8:12pm.

But the party of the KKK, who has made a race industry of calling others racists, is loaded with present and older racists.

I wonder why Democrats want to distract people so much from the truth.

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Inane claim

Submitted by Cool Arrow on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 8:28pm.

Here we have the NAACP claiming:

"Instead, this report found Tea Party ranks to be permeated with concerns about race and national identity"   Seriously?  An organization whose name promotes the ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE dares condemn another group because of what they SUSPECT?

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So, the story is Gregory = Idiot.

Submitted by LibertyAtStake on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 10:16pm.

And, the news, is, what, exactly?

 

http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/

"Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive"

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Racism for fun and profit

Submitted by ZuccoZoid on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 11:33pm.

What was once a genuine and noble struggle for civil rights has degenerated into a mafia-style business. Nice freedom of speech you got there pal, hate to see anything happen to it.

High profile politicians have openly called us thugs, racists and Nazis for simply believing the gov't has too much centralized power and takes too much of our money - in a recession, no less.Meanwhile they fly around in private luxury jets to scold us about energy consumption. We'll see how awake the citizens really are in November, or if it's all been just a lot of hot CO2.

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It was a trick Q

Submitted by bobbys on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 11:57pm.

It was a trick Q or a Loaded Q ... .

 

 Here is a  Part of what was sent to the NAACP.

 

>>>Now that the spitting, and name calling on Capitol Hill has occurred, we all know more about this problem. Nevertheless, there is much more to learn.

The Tea Parties say they want to "Take This Country Back." We have to ask, from whom do they want to take the country away? Who do they want to give it to?

Our response is to say: One Nation. One Dream.

 

Leonard Zeskind, author of Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nation<<<<.

 

 The spitting and name calling is a lie and unproven and if it was true was not tied into any particular person or group.

 

 David Gregoty asked, A Are you beating your Wife Q....

 

If you're senator, do you think these elements in the tea party need to be dealt with and need to be rebuffed?.    If he said they must be dealt with he would be admiting there are such groups .    If he said we need to rebuff them he would be admiting there are such groups in the Party.    Mr. Gregory is trying to play  "Gotcha" ..    Im surprised he did not ask What  newspapers he reads or what SG cases he disagree with or What Actors won the 1978 Oscars
 

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The late Senator Byrd's"klan

Submitted by Jer on Mon, 10/18/2010 - 1:27am.

The late Senator Byrd's"klan involvement" ended well over a half century ago--an association for which he profusely apologized for the rest of his life.

Jer

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David on Today show

Submitted by CoolShades on Mon, 10/18/2010 - 5:07am.

Stop it.  Stop it.  I can't take it anymore.  Everytime I see or hear David Gregory, I see him dancing like a girl on the Today Show: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8FYfo2-Xmc

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No, the line is...

Submitted by JanineC on Mon, 10/18/2010 - 4:03pm.

The line is "When did you stop beating your wife?"

What is irritating about the left is they constantly try to make people prove negatives (which cannot be done).  That is why they actually believe in guilty until proven innocent.  Just like when Axelrod was questioned about the WH claiming that foreign money was going into Republican campaigns.  When the anchor said, where is the proof?  Axelrod said "disprove it".  You can't disprove something!!  That is ridiculous...but that is how those lawyers think.  They are all manipulators.  You cannot prove a negative and they know it.  But they are hoping we are too dumb to know better.  Same goes for the fake racism charges.

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