Stoopid Quotation of the Day

“What better way to sneak a virus into this country than to give it to Mexicans?”

–Neal Boortz, suggesting that terrorists are giving Mexicans Swine Flu as an act of bio-terrorism against the United States.

Wow. The logic fail here is amazing, but the racist, knee-jerk, let’s cynically blame it all on the brown folks and whip up even more anti-immigrant sentiment and terrorist paranoia is, sadly, par for the course for these cretins.

Sorry dude, but you are not “thinking loudly.” You’re not thinking at all.

See also: Virus Brings Swine-Hearted Lobby into Foreground

How to Make Racism Easier

Ok, I just saw this shit from one of my friends on Facebook:

AUSTIN — A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.”

The comments caused the Texas Democratic Party on Wednesday to demand an apology from state Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell. But a spokesman for Brown said her comments were only an attempt to overcome problems with identifying Asian names for voting purposes.

The exchange occurred late Tuesday as the House Elections Committee heard testimony from Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans.

Ko told the committee that people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent often have problems voting and other forms of identification because they may have a legal transliterated name and then a common English name that is used on their driver’s license on school registrations.

Umm, excuse me, but aren’t those people of Asian descent voting in the US also “Americans”? Maybe us “Americans” need to learn how to friggin’ deal with names that aren’t Anglo-Saxon, huh?

This just kills me:

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.

Brown later told Ko: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?

Oh come on. You don’t have to “learn Chinese” in order to “deal with” an Asian name (which I take to mean “recognize and pronounce correctly an Asian name”). Oh, and nice reducing all Asians to Chinese. And for the record, English is just as difficult a language to learn as Chinese. So, please take your racist bs disguised as concern elsewhere, thank you very much.

Oscar Grant Punched in Face before Being Shot

As this story unfolds, it gets uglier and uglier. It appears that another cop punched Oscar Grant in face, knocking him to the ground, before the final tragic episode where Grant was killed took place.

So now, all of you folks in comments that are, in effect, arguing that Grant got what he deserved because he didn’t play nice with the police, are you now going to claim that if Grant had just “taken it like a man” and just understood (or perhaps remembered is the better word) that police beat people down for little to no reason all the time he would still be alive today?

Yeah, you probably are.

As always, Color of Change is on it:

Dear ColorOfChange.org member,

It wasn’t just one cop attacking Oscar Grant on New Year’s Eve. A new video shows that before Grant was killed, officer Tony Pirone punched him in the face without cause, hitting him so hard that he dropped to the ground. Experts have called it criminal. So why has the District Attorney said he’s not pursuing charges?

It took two weeks and thousands of people speaking out before the DA charged Oscar Grant’s killer with murder. Clearly, it will take continued public pressure to see that justice is served throughout this case. This is a moment to demand accountability, and your voice is critical.

Please take a moment to click the link below. By adding your voice, you’ll help us publicly confront District Attorney Tom Orloff, and put pressure on California’s Attorney General to keep an eye on how Orloff handles the case. It only takes a second. And please ask your friends and family to do the same.

http://www.colorofchange.org/grant/

Don’t Let the Door Hitcha!

In just less than 24 hours, that fuckwit of a President, George W. Bush, will be gone! All I have to say is, “don’t let the door hitcha, punk ass!” I invite everyone to join me in…

(I almost posted Prince’s “1999,” a song which, I must admit, I still love, but the irony of posting a video by a now known homophobe on the eve of having to sit through that other homophobe, Rick Warren’s, invocation was too much to handle.)

Tomorrow, I’ll be throwing virtual shoes. And my aim is on point!

What You Should Be Reading – The Justice for Oscar Grant Edition

MattBastard: Under Siege: On Oscar Grant and Other Victims

Color of Change: Demand justice in the killing of Oscar Grant

Sign the pledge to demand justice for Oscar Grant.

Electronic Village: Justice for Oscar Grant: The Fight Continues

Jose L. Vilson: Before You Become President (Dear Barack Obama)

Keep It Trill: The New Open Season on Black Men: Is It Obama Related?

Womanist Musings: Oscar Grant, Police Violence, and the War on Black Men

Angry Black Bitch: Pondering Justice for Oscar Grant

Ding: We are All Oscar Grant (and Dymond Milburn, Michael Cho, Adolph Grimes…)

Changeseeker: Is Open Season Ever Going To Close?

Johannes Mehserle, Oscar Grant’s Killer, Is Arrested

Well, this is good news:

The BART police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man on an Oakland train platform and then refused to explain his actions to investigators was arrested Tuesday in Nevada on suspicion of murder, authorities said.

Johannes Mehserle, 27, of Lafayette was taken into custody in Douglas County, Nev., said Deputy Steve Velez of the Douglas County sheriff’s office. The arrest was also confirmed by David Chai, chief of staff to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.

Mehserle was arrested in the New Year’s Day shooting of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old supermarket worker from Hayward who was lying facedown after being pulled off a BART train by police investigating a fight. An Alameda County judge signed an arrest warrant alleging murder, and Mehserle surrendered without incident, authorities said.

Now let’s see if anything comes of it. And yes, you will have to excuse me for being cynical here.

New Video of Bart Shooting Is Clearest Yet

Thanks to my Good Friend without a Blog for the heads up. Via Photography is Not a Crime:

You know, I haven’t said much about this shooting other than it happened, it sickens me, and here’s what you can do about it, but this has really been upsetting the hell out me. I don’t give a shit if the cop quit his job. You don’t get to execute someone and just find yourself on the job market again. And I really don’t care if it was an accident or not. There was absolutely no need for him to pull out a gun, or anything else other than handcuffs, when Grant was obviously not going anywhere. This incident is symbolic of the attitude that black men are inherently a threat and must be put down at all costs. What the hell did this cop think? That Grant was going to all of the sudden summon his super-human negro strength ala Hancock and suddenly toss the cop with his knee on his neck a good 200 yards and go flying away? It really is just sick.

That said, people, the answer to these tragedies is not to go around burning everything down! Haven’t we learned that yet? And why on Earth did these fools attack an African hair braiding salon for chrissakes? What could make anyone think that the answer to the problems of police brutality, murder, and racism is to go and fuck up a black-owned business? That makes no sense. You’re anger at the situation is justified, but your reaction is not. You’re not looking much better than that cop right now. I’m just saying.