Along the Rio Grande, Riding Shotgun with Racists

Couple weeks ago, Frederick County, Maryland, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins announced he was going on a “border tour” to get a “first hand look” at the refugees from Central America - many of them unaccompanied children - who have been crossing from Mexico into the US by the thousands in recent weeks.

Now the gullible sheriff is back home in Maryland, offering interviews and soon, we surmise, he will be heading to D.C to share around his new knowledge.

According to the Associated Press, Sheriff Jenkins’  “fact finding mission” was being sponsored by a group known for fact-free screeds against immigrants:  the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

Too bad Sheriff Jenkins does not pick his sponsors better than this.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, FAIR was founded by John Tanton, a prominent figure in our contemporary nativist, i.e., Tea Party movement.

John Tanton carries a lot of weight with the Tea Party crowd and for good reason. He has complained long and loud about a supposed “Latin Onslaught” heading into the United States. In his own crude words, Tanton frets about the Hispanic birth rate in the US, which compares unfavorably, Tanton says, to the birth rate of White Americans.

According to John Tanton, here’s the problem:

“those with their pants up are going to get caught by those with their pants down!”

Apart from the blatant racism espoused by its founder John Tanton, the Southern Poverty Law Center reports that FAIR:

“has long been marked by anti-Latino and anti-Catholic attitudes”

“has mixed this bigotry with a fondness for eugenics, the idea of breeding better humans”

“has accepted $1.2 million from an infamous, racist eugenics foundation” (That would be the Pioneer Fund, which according to the New York Times, has promoted theories affirming the genetic superiority of whites.”) (Sourced below.)

The Southern Poverty Law Center adds that FAIR:

“has employed officials in key positions who are also members of white supremacist groups.”

“has promoted racist conspiracy theories about Mexico's secret designs on the American Southwest”

Now that he’s back home, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins of Frederick County, MD needs to answer a couple questions:

Sheriff Jenkins, are you in agreement with the FAIR nonsense about immigrants or did you merely want free airfare to the Rio Grande?

Sheriff Jenkins, did you take vacation days for your FAIR junket to Texas or did you bill all this as official, salary-based anti-immigrant “fact finding” to the taxpayers of Frederick County?

SOURCES:

The Anti-Immigration Crusader, NY Times April 17, 2011

FAIR - The Action Arm: Southern Poverty Law Center, Feb 2009

Frederick County, MD Sheriff Joins Border Tour

Wall Street Journal Extremely Right - Romney Extremely Wrong

The Obama spending binge that Mitt Romney constantly complains about?

It never happened. 

Obama the Big Spender is a Romney cum Tea Party fantasy.

The Wall Street Journal - even the Wall Street Journal - knows better than to back up Romney on this one.

There simply has never been an Obama federal  “debt and spending inferno,” as Romney claims.

Here is what Rex Nutting of MarketWatch has to say:

Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree.

As would-be president Mitt Romney tells it: “I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno.”

Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true.

But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.

Etc.

SOURCE:


Obama spending binge never happened - Rex Nutting - MarketWatch

A CALL FOR TRANSPARENCY BY MPPI, WHICH IS ANYTHING BUT TRANSPARENT

Is it OK to use one's media megaphone to do a favor for your boss?


Happens all the time. Case in point:


A Baltimore Sun columnist, Marta H. Mossburg, in a column today (Dec 7 2010) invited the public to attend a conference in Annapolis, sponsored by her other employer, the Maryland Public Policy Institute. 


Interesting that the conference is to focus on "transparency" when the Maryland Public Policy Institute is anything but transparent about its own funding. 


According to the MPPI website today, Robert Ehrlich sits on the MPPI board. Does this right-wing millionaire put money into MPPI - so it can bash the Democratic majority Maryland legislature?


Here are some questions that are not likely to be addressed by the MMPI-sponsored transparency conference - or in any other venue run by MPPI:   

Who gives the biggest dollars to MPPI?


Why does MPPI push only right wing and libertarian solutions to fiscal matters?


Why does MPPI hire people, such as Ms. Mossburg, with no discernible qualifications to propose economic solutions to Maryland's budgetary challenges?


In its call for transparency, why does MPPI ignore the lack of transparency in the private sector, of, say, "Tea Party" front outfits who are, rumor has it, wholly funded by right wing billionaires?