Let’s start with the facts; on election day 2008 in outside a polling station based in a housing project in Philadelphia two guys in rather in your face paramilitary looking gear stood around trying to look fierce and got caught on tape saying some mean stuff about white people. This was, as it should be, investigated by the local and Federal authorities for possible voter intimidation. It was decided by the Justice Department of President Bush and the local authorities that while these guys were assholes they did not do anything that could be successfully prosecuted and the case was dropped. All of this happened before President Obama ever took office.

Now this little non-story has become a cause célèbre for the Conservative Right. There has been the usual conservative fumbling; at the start they did not acknowledge that the decision to drop the investigation was made by the Bush DOJ not the Obama DOJ. Still it has not gone away. The folks at Faux News, with the help of total scumbags of the Andrew Breitbart, have latched on to the meme of “them scary Black folks are coming for you!” and aren’t going to let it go.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

On Friday seven Republican members of the Senate Judiciary committee decided to weigh in. They wrote a letter to the Chair Leahy asking for an investigation of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, under the charge that it was being politicized. I know, take a minute to wipe the coffee off your screen. This is the classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.

I’m against excessive and illegal immigration (see * below) during this time of high unemployment, but the Arizona anti-illegal immigration bill waiting on Governor Brewer’s desk is a wrong way to go about the fight, because the bill is unconstitutional and will quickly be thrown out in the courts. What Representative Pearce should’ve done is craft a bill of undoubted constitutionality, and one that explicitly reassures those worried about racial profiling. That would not have been hard to do, as I’ll show, because much of the bill is constitutional and would effectively discourage illegal immigration.

Yesterday, for the fifth day in a row, the UK broadcast of Glenn Beck’s TV show was forced to run without any advertisements. This is thanks to efforts by StopBeck.com to pressure companies advertising on Beck’s UK broadcast.

It’s an amazing milestone in the larger effort to push advertisers away from Glenn Beck, which started last July. And at the same time, we’ve reached another important milestone — over 100 companies have now stopped their ads from appearing on Beck’s show.

Suggested sequel to “The Christmas Sweater” — you’ll cry tears of joy when it’s over!

Rev. Tillard speaks out against Glenn Beck

Last night, Glenn Beck performed “The Christmas Sweater” — a stage play that was broadcast live in theaters across the country — inside NYU’s Skirball Center. As he performed, ministers and people of faith from across New York City gathered outside the event with NYU students and ColorOfChange members, condemning Beck’s attempt to cloak himself in Christian values while continuing his race baiting and fear mongering on TV and the radio. Reverends Conrad Tillard, Donna Schaper, and Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou spoke and led the gathering in song, as Beck’s supporters — many of them bussed in from out of town — lined up outside his show.

This comes just days after the Harlem Gospel Choir canceled their participation in Beck’s show.

NYU’s Washington Square News covered the event:

Church groups were upset at Beck’s use of Christian imagery and Christmas as a way to disseminate what they call his largely hateful message. They believe the way Beck addresses women, people of color and immigrants is incompatible with the Christian ethic.

“It is outside Biblical narrative,” said Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, senior minister at Lemuel Haynes Congregational Church. “We are a small church saying we are opposed to constant racist language.”

A few weeks ago, Rupert Murdoch said that Glenn Beck was right when he called Obama a racist, and since then he has been dodging questions about what exactly he meant. Through one of his staff, Murdoch issued a brief statement saying that he doesn’t believe Obama is a racist, but not explaining what he meant when he said he agreed with Beck. I wrote Murdoch an open letter asking for an explanation, and more than 135,000 people have signed petitions to Murdoch with the same message: Murdoch should either say clearly that he meant what he said and that he stands by Beck; or he should acknowledge there’s a problem with what Beck said and take responsibility for stopping the continued race-baiting at News Corp and Fox. But Murdoch has refused to respond.

Yesterday, Rupert Murdoch spoke at the Federal Trade Commission as part of a conference on the future of journalism. ColorOfChange organizers and others in the audience confronted Murdoch about his comments and asked for an explanation, but as you can see, Murdoch made a quick, silent exit:

The Harlem Gospel Choir just cancelled their performance as part of Glenn Beck’s “The Christmas Sweater,” a live performance that’s scheduled to be broadcast in movie theaters across the country this Thursday.

Rupert Murdoch is now trying to backpedal after saying in an interview with Sky News that Glenn Beck was right when he called President Obama a “racist.” Now that he’s been called out and the spotlight is squarely on him, Murdoch says he doesn’t agree with Beck, but he won’t explain what he meant or denounce Beck’s rhetoric either.

We can’t let Murdoch have it both ways — he can stand by the fact that he supports Glenn Beck’s race-baiting; or he can tell us why he doesn’t and what he’s going to do about it.

We’re launching a petition demanding that Murdoch put an end to Fox’s race-baiting, or admit he agrees with it.

Great news today in our campaign against Glenn Beck. We’re announcing that nineteen more of Beck’s advertisers have stopped supporting his show. That number includes two British companies who just announced that they’ve pulled their ads from the UK broadcast of Beck’s show after hearing from customers.

Two companies–Waitrose (the British supermarket chain) and Metropolitan Talent Management–pulled their ads not only from Beck’s show, but from Fox News in general.

Over 280,000 of us have now called on advertisers to stop supporting Beck’s show. We are keeping Beck isolated and making sure that he continues to be a financial liability for Fox. Eventually, Fox will have to explain why they are continuing to give Beck’s race-baiting and fear-mongering a platform even as it hurts their bottom line.

Our campaign to hold Glenn Beck accountable for his race-baiting and fear-mongering has been a great success, with 62 advertisers making it clear that they don’t want their brands linked to Beck’s vile rhetoric. Up until now, however, there’s been a question of what the real consequences are for Beck and for Fox, especially as Beck’s ratings have soared. It’s starting to become clear.

Today, we’re announcing that Glenn Beck’s show has lost over 50% of its advertising dollars since just before our campaign started.