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Wal-Mart Fires Producer of Racist Ad in Tenn. Senate Race

Jon Ponder

Who knew the producer of the anti-Harold Ford racist ad that was paid for by Ken Mehlman and the Republican National Committee was named Terry Nelson — or that he worked for Wal-Mart? We all know it now, thanks to the fact that Wal-Mart forced Nelson to resign late on Friday.

They fired him to keep in good standing with their African-American customers, obviously, so while it doesn’t make Wal-Mart any less evil, it does keep the story alive into the weekend news cycle, for whatever that is worth:

In submitting his [forced] resignation, Terry Nelson said Wal-Mart had “come under political pressure from liberal special interest groups” as well as labor unions. “It’s unfortunate that this pressure has had an impact on Wal-Mart.”

In an interview, he said of the commercial that critics deemed racist: “There was no intention to offend anybody and it’s unfortunate if people took offense. That was certainly not what people planned for or hoped for.”

Of course not, Terry. You accidentally cast a white woman as the hootchy-mama who pouts as she says, “Harold, call me.”

Surprise! Saddam Death Penalty to be Announced Two Days before U.S. Elections

Jon Ponder
The timing of the verdict to complement the GOP’s new and highly effective GOTV “microtargeting” campaign is way too perfect.

You probably missed this story because it has barely been covered, but earlier this month the Iraqi court that is trying Saddam Hussein re-scheduled the dates for announcing its verdict — twice.

An earlier date was bumped to Oct. 16, only to be rescheduled for the current date: Nov. 5. Yup, two days before the U.S. midterm elections.

According to Media Matters, the court explained the first delay by saying it might need to hear more witnesses. The excuse for the second delay was a real howler: The court said it was having difficulty choosing between the death penalty and life imprisonment for Saddam.

As if! There’s no way they’ll give him life.

This is way too perfect. The sensationalism of the headline, “Saddam Is Going to Fry,” will be irresistable to the TV newsers. The verdict will be a strong second lead in the coverage of the elections’ final 48 hours. It will accrue as a win for the president and provide an updraft for Republicans as voting begins.

Not coincidentally, the new date puts the verdict midway into the 72 hours when Republicans deploy their new and highly successful Get Out The Vote strategy of “microtargeting” voters. This technique of calling likely fence-sitters with scary messages tailored to their fears — “the Democrats will let gays marry goats, burn the flag and/or take away your guns” — has been credited with giving Republicans their slim winning margins in the last two election cycles.

And here’s one last non-surprise: Your Liberal Media are pretending to be clueless that there could be any Rovian manipulation behind moving the verdict into the election’s news cycle. In fact, the delayed verdicts have barely made it onto the Old Media radar.

Cheney: Not Just Yes, But HELL Yes, We Water Board!

Trish

Every chance we get. AP:

The White House said Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney was not talking about a torture technique known as “water boarding” when he said dunking terrorism suspects in water during questioning was a “no-brainer.”

…Earlier, White House press secretary Tony Snow denied that Cheney had endorsed water boarding.

Asked to define a dunk in water, Snow said, “It’s a dunk in the water.”

“You know as a matter of common sense that the vice president of the United States is not going to be talking about water boarding. Never would, never does, never will,” Snow said. “You think Dick Cheney’s going to slip up on something like this? No, come on.”

In an interview Tuesday with WDAY of Fargo, North Dakota, Cheney was asked if “a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives.”

The vice president replied, “Well, it’s a no-brainer for me, but for a while there I was criticized as being the vice president for torture. We don’t torture. That’s not what we’re involved in.”

Peppered with questions about the remarks, Snow said Cheney did not interpret the question as referring to water boarding and the vice president did not make any comments about water boarding. He said the question put to Cheney was loosely worded.

The administration has repeatedly refused to say which techniques they believe are permitted under the new law. Asked to define a dunk in water, Snow said, “It’s a dunk in the water.”

Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in a statement, “What’s really a no-brainer is that no U.S. official, much less a vice president, should champion torture. Vice President Cheney’s advocacy of water boarding sets a new human rights low at a time when human rights is already scraping the bottom of the Bush administration barrel.”

NBC to Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Go Away

Trish

Does it never end? Now NBC is reportedly refusing to run ads for the documentary about the Dixie Chicks, “Shut Up and Sing.” Before we go on, view the trailer.

Looks good, right? I wish it were released a couple of weeks ago and in wide release instead of only heading to New York and L.A. theaters this weekend, but still.

The company distributing a new documentary about the Dixie Chicks has blasted the NBC and CW networks for allegedly refusing to accept a commercial spot for the film, which opens in four theaters Friday.

In a press release issued late Thursday, the Weinstein Co. said NBC rejected a spot for “Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing,” because the spot included material that “disparages President Bush.”

So who doesn’t? The point is, why is NBC refusing to comment on this?

The Weinstein Co. distributed a document from CW that referred to “concerns (that) we do not have appropriate programming in which to schedule this spot.”

…According to a source, the spot has been cleared for broadcast on CBS, MTV and on local NBC, CW, ABC and Fox affiliates in New York and Los Angeles, as well as on local cable systems, including local spots on Fox News and CNN.

Yeah, no appropriate programming. The network that gave us Must See TV, Saturday Night Live, and The West Wing finds an ad for a documentary about censorship and blacklisting “inappropriate” for its viewers.

There is also a blog associated with the film, called Shut Up and Post. PR readers need to go there and participate because it looks like it’s getting overrun with trolls. Check it out, and leave a note for our side.

Foley, Gannon Gay GOP Scandals Are Minor Compared with 1989 Call Boy Sex Ring with Ties Inside Bush White House

Jon Ponder

(Via BuzzFlash.net and The Law Party)

In a February 1989 raid on a gay escort service, the Secret Service showed up and confiscated key evidence. Law enforcement officials said that involvement of the Secret Service in a local operation was highly unusual and had never happened before.

Forget Mark Foley’s electronic dalliances with underage pages and the dozens of White House visits by gay GOP prostitute, Jeff “Bulldog” Gannon — the biggest gay Republican scandal to date was the uncovering in 1989 of multiple gay prostitution services that billed tens of thousands of dollars to credit cards belonging to powerful men inside the Bush and Reagan administrations — including top staffers, military officers and lobbyists. The scandal was revealed in late June 1989, and then just as quickly was swept under the rug and has barely been mentioned since.

If you think this sounds outlandish, consider the original source: The story was broken on June 29, 1989, by the ultraconservative Washington Times newspaper, which is of course owned by Korean rightwing cult leader, Rev. Sun Yung Moon. The lead reporter on the story was Paul M. Rodriguez, who is known for the rightwing slant of his reporting.

The article was edited by Wesley Pruden, then the Times’ managing editor, now its editor-in-chief. In it, Pruden, who makes on secret of his conservative, even neo-Confederate, views, made it clear that higher-ups in the Reagan and Bush administrations would be protected — the paper would only reveal the names of subordinates:

“There is no intention of publishing names or facts about the operation merely for titillation,” said [Pruden].

The Times ran the story above the fold, with a banner headline that read, “Homosexual prostitution inquiry ensnares VIPs with Reagan, Bush,” with the subheading, “‘Call boys’ took midnight tour of White House.”

Reading through the story (which we have transcribed, in part, below), it appears that the investigation into the call boy sex ring had begun about nine months earlier, arising from an attempted blackmail and charges of credit card fraud. Apparently the gay prostitutes routinely videotaped and photographed their encounters with their clients, especially those who had powerful positions in the government, which meant there was plenty of fodder for extorting money.

In February 1989, as Washington D.C. police were conducting a raid on an out-call center operated by several gay escort services in a residence on 34th Place NW, the Secret Service made a surprise appearance and confiscated some of the evidence, according to The Times:

Although the confiscated material was turned over to District police on the scene, witnesses and law enforcement agents say the Secret Service kept one box containing names and other information about high-level government officials who were clients of the male escort business.

District police officials say that, to their knowledge, this is the first time the Secret Service has ever become involved in such a raid in this area.

Initially, the Secret Service denied it was involved in the raid, but after a second raid of the 34th Place house on May 18 [1989], the agency acknowledged its involvement in the investigation.

Secret Service spokesman Bob Snow said the agency participated in the search and seizure operation because of its jurisdiction over credit card fraud. “We come into such operations usually at the request of a U.S. attorney … if the fraud involves $10,000 or more … We are not involved in any local prostitution investigation,” said Mr. Snow.

GOP lobbyist Craig Spence spent upwards of $20,000 per month on gay prostitutes.

The paper named Craig J. Spence as a central figure in the sex ring:

One of the ring’s big spending clients is Craig J. Spence, Washington socialite and international trade consultant, according to documents and interviews with operators and prostitutes who say they engaged in sexual activities with Mr. Spence.

Mr. Spence spent upwards of $20,000 a month for male prostitutes who provided sex to him and his friends, said to include military personnel who also acted as his “bodyguards.” It was Mr. Spence who arranged the nocturnal tour of the Reagan White House. Repeated attempts to reach Mr. Spence by telephone, fax machine and personal visits to his home, were unsuccessful.

Credit card vouchers confirm that Mr. Spence charged thousands of dollars on American Express and Visa cards, sometimes making $600 charges against his cards several times a day, drawn in behalf of an escort service called Professional Services Inc.

A few months after the story broke, Spence committed suicide, but in an interview with the Washington Times (which we have not yet located), he allegedly told the paper that he was given access to the White House that night by Donald Gregg, who was a top Bush adviser.

Other underlings named by the newspaper included Charles K. Dutcher, former associate director of presidential personnel in the Reagan administration; Paul R. Balach, Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole’s political personnel liaison to the White House; and Todd A. Blodgett, a former assistant to President Reagan.

[…]

Schwarzenegger Leads Angelides, 48% to 30%

Jon Ponder
Even in the Bay Area, the state’s most solidly Democratic stronghold, Schwarzenegger has pulled slightly ahead of his challenger.

California is about to make a huge mistake in reelecting Gov. Schwarzenegger. It’s like watching a train rushing headlong toward a bridge that has collapsed into a ravine:

State Treasurer Phil Angelides has failed to narrow Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s double-digit lead in the contest for governor, and Californians are leaning toward approval of all but one of the $43 billion in bond measures on the state’s Nov. 7 ballot, according to a poll released Wednesday…

In the race for governor, the poll found Schwarzenegger leading Angelides by 48 percent to 30 percent — statistically unchanged from the institute’s survey last month.

Angelides continues to suffer from lackluster support among Democrats despite his recent moves to spur enthusiasm among voters in his own party, according to the poll.

He has pledged to demand the return of California National Guard troops from the war in Iraq. He has hammered Schwarzenegger for supporting President Bush’s reelection in 2004. And he has run a TV ad telling viewers he was inspired to enter politics by the drive to dump another Republican president, Richard Nixon.

Yet the poll found that just 57 percent of Democrats back Angelides. Even in the Bay Area, the state’s most solidly Democratic stronghold, Schwarzenegger has pulled slightly ahead of his challenger.

By contrast, Schwarzenegger held 86 percent of the Republican vote. Independents, a crucial swing group, favored Schwarzenegger over Angelides by 43 percent to 24 percent.

NJ Supreme Court Issues Separate but Equal Ruling on Gay Marriage

Jon Ponder

Talk about a concept rendered quaint by the passage of time, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a ruling yesterday that instructs the state legislature to create marriage-like legal arrangement for same sex couples. The ruling sounds suspiciously like an order to create a “separate but equal” class for gay Americans:

[The] court gives New Jersey lawmakers six months to create the necessary statutes for same-sex partnerships that are legally equivalent to marriage. Legislators may choose whether the partnerships are called “marriage” — or “civil unions,” as in Vermont.

“The Legislature has played a major role, along with the courts, in ushering marriage into the modern era,” [Justice Barry T.] Albin wrote. “The great engine for social change in this country has always been the democratic process. Although courts can ensure equal treatment, they cannot guarantee social acceptance, which must come through the evolving ethos of a maturing society.”

In 1896, the Supreme Court legalized racial segregation via Plessy vs. Ferguson, which ruled that states that were predominantly bigoted toward African-Americans could prohibit them from using public facilities but that “equal” facilities had to be provided for them. Over the next five decades, states that had been in, or were sympathetic to, the Confederacy had no problem dealing with the “separate” part of the ruling, but never even came close to mustering “equal” schools and other public facilities to blacks. Plessy was overturned, starting with Brown vs. the Board of Education in the 1950s and was put to rest legally with the Civil Rights Act in the mid-1960s.

Let’s hope it won’t take 50 years for Americans to get past their prejudice and fears on the issue of gay marriage.

Schwarzenegger Severs Ties with GOP — For Now

Jon Ponder
As soon as Schwarzenegger is ensconced in Sacramento for his first full four-year term, he’ll revert to his old ways: Handing the state’s resources over to its financial elite.

The playbook for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reelection campaign has been clear from the outset:

  • Ensure that every public appearance is scripted and stage managed in order to prevent the gaffe-prone governor from having to make off-cuff-remarks (therefore only one debate)
  • Use the governor’s access to the national entertainment media to gain free publicity that is unavailable to his opponent, state Treasurer Phil Angelides (thus Schwarzenegger appears on Jay Leno’s show but Leno refuses to give Angelides equal time)
  • Run away from the Republican Party, of which the governor is one of the most popular figureheads (so terse and challenging letters from the governor to President Bush about environmental issues and the like are regularly released to the public)

As the popularity of President Bush and the GOP continues to tank in California, we’re seeing a special emphasis from the Schwarzenegger campaign on the latter point. He’s running as hard and fast away from his party as he can:

At tightly staged events this week in San Diego, Glendale and Oakland, Schwarzenegger has all but severed his Republican ties while playing up the value of bipartisan harmony.

He has also taken pains to widen his appeal beyond white Republican men, his most loyal supporters. At every stop, Schwarzenegger has surrounded himself with African Americans or Latinos and stuck to themes that resonate with Democrats, independents and women: the environment and education.

Hey, using black people as props certainly worked for then-candidate Bush in 2000. At the GOP convention that year, the stage was jammed with brown faces looking out on a sea of white faces on the convention floor. Americans fell for that in 2000, and it appears that Californians are falling for it 2006 as well.

The governor has been off the rightwing media radar but is planning at least one foray:

In what has become a rare nod to a conservative base that he once tended to assiduously, Schwarzenegger plans to appear Friday on “Hannity & Colmes,” a Fox News television show to be taped on the Midway, the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum.

But that is an exception. For months, the governor has kept a distance from his party, a move seen as a strategic necessity in a state where just a little more than a third of registered voters are Republican. He has avoided public events with other GOP candidates and refused to endorse the party’s staunchly conservative U.S. Senate nominee, former state Sen. Dick Mountjoy of Monrovia. And in an interview last week, Schwarzenegger sidestepped the question of how much he cares whether Republicans win other statewide races.

This distancing from his party is especially ironic since Gov. Schwarzenegger’s campaign team is comprised of former Bush White House political operatives. It is also a dodge. Everyone knows that as soon as he is ensconced in Sacramento for his first full four-year term, he’ll revert to his old ways: Handing the state’s resources over to its financial elite.

History Will Show that Republicans Played Race Card to Win the Senate in the 2006 Midterms

Jon Ponder


The Republican National Committee has released this ad against Rep. Harold Ford who is running for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee. The ad shows a young white woman who is depicting a party girl who says she met Ford at a party and closes her brief segment by asking the congresman to call her.

This all but ensures victory for the Republican, Bob Corker, who has a slight lead that is within the margin of error in the latest polling. The ad targets Southern swing voters who may be fiscally conservative but who are not comfortable with the idea of people dating outside their race. In a race as tight as this one, these squeamish voters can make a difference and, sadly, in this one they almost undoubtedly will.

It has happened before: Harvey Gantt was a successful architect, a civil rights pioneer who was the first African-American student at Clemson University and a former mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city — and my former hometown. He ran against Sen. Jesse Helms, the uber-racist, uber-homophobe in 1990.

To outsiders, Helms was a powerful and nasty champion of the entrenched Southern subjugation of African-Americans. To almost exactly 50 percent of us Tarheel voters, he was an embarrassing anachronism. In his (too) long career, Helms never won by more than just a sliver over 50 percent of the vote.

Helms achieved his slim victories by waiting until the final days of the campaign to unleash ads that were designed either to “empty the trailer parks” by scaring his yahoo followers about civil rights for blacks, to “empty the pews” to scare them about gays.

In 1990, the ad he released at the end of the campaign was very simple. It showed a pair of white hands wadding up a rejection letter, while the voice over says, “You needed that job and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota.”

This ad helped gain Helms his one of his largest margins of victory: 52.5 percent.

Update: Just heard on MSNBC that the RNC is replacing the ad. Sorry, Gops, that ship has sailed. If Ford loses by a slim margin, the responsibility lies with this racist ad.