LIMBAUGH IS IN TROUBLE BECAUSE HE IS BEING OPPOSED BY PROGRESSIVES

     After decades of counterrevolution the winds of change are now blowing from the Left.  It has been a dark age of thirty or so years and yet now the peoples of the world and the United States are starting to stir and manifest their great hidden power and potential sovereignty.

The recent and intensifying crisis of capitalism has underlined the necessity for a more rational form of society such as a left socialism. Of course sustainability is paramount. Can we achieve sustainability? With capitalism it seems impossible because capitalism demands the kind of growth that is not sustainable in a finite world with very real physical and chemical laws.

     Yet I write today to comment on one of those tired old conservative, reactionary racists Rush Limbaugh, is the center of a firestorm.  This man's career parallels the almost endless rein of conservative tyranny and he has profited beyond the dreams of Midas by appealing to what is worst in America, especially pandering to race hatred and hatred for women.

Today Limbaugh is still making millions with his Big Mouth Bubba routine but is in trouble because he wants to become a part owner of a football team and his long history of racist comments is rubbing many in football the wrong way.  Suffice it to say that he has compared professional football games to gang fighting between the crips and the bloods.  This guy is a Cape Girardeau Crcaker, I kid you not.  The fact that this man is currently the voice of the Republican Party just shows how weak that party really is.

  So Limbaugh is still cashing in on his backward comments but football players on the team he wants to buy are saying they will not play for Bubba Limbaugh.  Good for them!
Those players are progressive in my book.

Autonomous Self-Organized Progressive Neighborhood Watch Organizations Should be formed in All Working Class Districts

There are racist and anti-worker forces in society that are encouraging and supporting right wing vigilante groups, such as the so-called minuteman organizations. These organizations are armed and cannot be ignored by rational progressives.

Racist attacks on people of color or diversity continue to threaten the unity of all working people in the United States. We need neighborhood watch groups to foster worker solidarity and conduct anti-racist activities.

Defend the Hood! Form Progressive Neighborhood Watch Committees!

Defend the Barrio! Form Progressive Neighborhood Watch Committees!

Defend your neighborhood from racist and reactionary attacks!

Defend the election of 2008!

Is Clinton Expecting, Hoping for? a little Assassination?

It was weird today when Senator Clinton said some stuff about Obama and the assassination of 1968 Presidential Candidate, Senator Bobby Kennedy. It was not really "to the point" of anything she was discussing but she started blithering about the assassination of Kennedy and I was wondering if she was saying, " Vote for me or you'll be sorry when cracker America blows away Obama."

It will be a living hell if anyone takes out Obama, or should we say that it will be revealed, once again, that the so-called American democracy is the democracy of the bullet as well as the the democracy of the dollar. It will most importantly be revealed, once again, to be a racist regime and a racist politico-cultural order. I don't want to discourage electoral activity but it does look like the ballot is bought or the bullet is introduced to rectify those few moments when elected and popular leaders are actually placed in office, or close to office.

King and Kennedy were gunned down when they started criticizing the imperial nature of the United States. King and Kennedy were gunned down when they started leading class based struggles for justice, a class based struggle that cut across race and ethnicity. Because they would have won, yes, they were gunned down. Certainly King was and possibly Robert Kennedy. Certainly similar liberal values animated their supporters, genuine radical liberal or left liberal ideas.

Unfortunately, cracker America exists and it is a pretty ugly reality. I had an ugly illustration of just how racist our beloved nation can be. Talking to a relative he couldn't stop muttering about the posssible, he says likely, assassination of Obama and sort of chuckling.

Why would anyone chuckle about this, especially if they believe it? What is wrong with this country? You can bet the cracker chuckler won't get the answer because the cracker American is not going to ask the question. Cracker America is stuck on stupid and Hillary believes they always will be, so does my brother. I think they are wrong.

The old fashioned racists are largely dying out and yet they still make a lot of noise. Give them another few years to die off and the nation will be greatly improved. Meanwhile, I don't think we have to be so cynical as to accept the idea that no person of color can be elected to the White House.

Still, it raises the question, "Will American history continue to be the violent one we have come to expect? Will someone gun down Obama? What then? How long do we wait for a fair election or a decent candidate? What if they gun down another liberal candidate/leader? *

Of course we have to accept the unfortunate truth that any national figure, especially Presidential candidates are vulnerable to some sort of attack. This is part of the territory. It isn't any different with Obama than other candidates except that he may or may have not have some quite real domestic enemies with the will and intent to take him out whereas I suppose McCain and Clinton do not.

Of course, some progressive policies are overdue and a matter of almost universal consensus once we get beyond the Bush-Cheney rule of ecclesiastical madness. Senator McCain is likely to endorse or has already endorsed some progressive changes of this type. Senator McCain does not deny global warming, for example. That is a progressive change from the denizens of global warming denial in todays White House.

Of course when it comes to action regarding global warming
who knows what McCain or Obama will actually do if elected?

Senator Clinton's remarks about assassinations past and Obama in the same breathe cannot be cited as a call for his assassination but it may be looked upon as something of that nature by some souls twisted with the madness of racism. The savagery of white supremacy in the United States is not to be underestimated.

Threats of a racially motivated sort should not be accepted as a reason to run or not run for office. While I believe that homicidal white supremacist individuals still exist, I also believe that they are likely to be used by more affluent and powerful individuals and groups to achieve their political and economic goals.

Of course if Senator Clinton does speak for the American ruling elites, the ruling class so to speak then Obama is in immediate danger. It means that the Democratic Party and the two party tyranny has less to offer than some may have imagined. Don't mourn, organize the progressive caucus of your group or your extra-electoral progressive activities on your own.

Yeah, Hillary, we know. You, stupid, Cracker! I had to say it.

*I am not portraying Obama as a progressive leader. If he ends up being one I will be pleasantly surprised. Still, he has the support of many who do want progressive change. The Obama movement has some people or cadre that are fundamentally progressive or likely to become fundamentally progressive as their political experience deepens.

Reverend Jeremiah Wright is Right On

Sooner or later Senator Obama had to take a concrete position on something. He has been sitting on dozens of fences with an artfulness that charms most. White hysteria about his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright wouldn't go away. Then Reverend Jeremiah decided to preach the liberation gospel on the national stage.

White America went nuts and Reverend Jeremiah said something, something they generally won't even talk about! The media and now Obama make the Reverend out to be reprehensible and evil! What was it he said that was so condemnable? They almost never tell us. Yet condemnations come fast and furious. You hear that Jeremiah is a hater, Jeremiah is a lunatic.

I say Jeremiah Wright is a prophet for out times.

Now Senator Barrack Obama has repudiated Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Prime Minister Farrakhan he has clearly separated himself from progressive black nationalists and perhaps from all progressives who can think clearly about human rights, race, national oppression, white supremacy and so on and so forth.

The significance of this repudiation needs to be appreciated by progressives. He has finally drawn a line between himself and the black liberation struggle. He is a bantustan-like leader.

Senator Hillary Clinton says, "He did what he had to do." and that means to remain a viable candidate within the white supremacist Democratic Party. Senator Barrack Obama is not a Martin Luther King! He is not a progressive leader of in the civil rights, black liberation or social gospel tradition! He is a viable Democratic Party candidate. That should be his political obituary for all clear sighted progressives.

Of course progressives should be raising the consciousness of all Obama and Clinton supporters and prepare for the time when either betrays the progressive positions they sometimes seem to be taking. This is when a great radicalism of political activists could happen. We need to work with those who begin to see the Democratic Party for what it is. We all need each other to get the ruling elites and their world devouring system off of everyone's back.

Consider the true nature of Clinton and Obama. What class interests do they serve? Is it not, almost exclusively ruling class interests? Has either one pledged to level income and wealth in this society or the world? Has either one pledged to switch to renewable and noncarbon based forms of energy production? There are a handful of progressives in the Democratic Party. Obama and Clinton are not among them.

Love thy Democrat and hope they can move beyond the Democratic Party once the betrayals and hypocrisy of Obama or Clinton is clear. We should all be striving to see that radical, broad, revolutionary movements come out of this struggle because of the betrayals of progressive causes. Of course that is the social regulatory function of the Democratic Party, to prevent, hamper, smother, kill, mislead and otherwise destroy any genuine struggles of the people, of any sector of the oppressed for liberation.

Democrats agree that labor, ie. workers should have virtually no rights to strike and organize themselves. They are Taft Hartleylites. They agree that labor should be partially blinded and otherwise handicapped so that workers can barely elect trade union chapters anymore, let alone take over the society as human rights and ecological necessity suggest they must. Have Clinton or Obama proven to be exceptions?

Obama and Clinton keep on saying that they will pull out of Iraq but then you have other statements that seem to limit the withdrawal and leave the United States with military bases, the Green Zone and other military forces, private contractors, etc. in Iraq. So they are trying to pimp off the peace movement, neither is really for peace and justice unless you mean imperialist peace and justice.

Ultimately Clinton and Obama need to be held accountable for anything progressive they seem to be saying and yet do not do. Of course some are more naive than others. It doesn't mean that they are not just as progressive or revolutionary, maybe more so than someone who is a realist. Of course this is a cynical view about Obama, Clinton and most elected democrats at the national level. I hope it is not cynical about the prospects for social transformation and a sustainable life for humans on mother earth.

Of course Clinton and Obama are attacking not only Reverend Jeremiah but also "black liberation theology" which is a glistening gem of incalculable value in the treasure trove of America's progressive ideologies. Reverend Wright has smoked out Obama showing all who have eyes to see that he is not really a liberator, or a liberation ideology adherent but just another politician trying to get elected in order to serve the man and the system. He came to Reverend Wright as an organizer of the people but he left with a knife in the good Reverend's back. He condemned Reverend Wright because the good Reverend hates injustice like the prophets of old. But like the prophets of old he is condemned by
white Caesar and the black cracker sanhedrin alike. He repudiates Jesus and Barabas. He is a tool, an extraordinarily persuasive, articulate, willing tool.

What is a "cracker"? To me a "cracker is someone", oppressed by the ruling elites, who serves the interests of the ruling elites by attacking others who are oppressed by those same ruling elites. Typically the well known white cracker attacks workers of other races or nationalities as the problem in the struggle to survive when, of course it is the capitalist way of producing things that pits us against one another in a labor market controlled by a capitalist ruling class.

Some of us need to descend from out stratospheric levels of virtue or intellectualizing to communicate directly with these people on a personal and group basis, trying to educate them about how racism is a displacement of class antagonisms rather than a scientific or virtuous way of looking at people competing for the same jobs.

Since we are focused on progressive Chrisitanity and black liberation theology here it seems appropriate to talk about historic strategies for spreading a minority view. I just want to suggest that itinerate apostles, preaching a liberation gospel to those who have not heard it is evangelism, no? That is what Reverend Wright did! He brought the liberation gospel to the National Press Club and to Bill Moyer's Journal and other venues and he preached it to the heathen, the believers in the gospels of Caesar and Mars. Proof that he was preaching where preaching needed to be done is the great condemnation that has followed from those loyal to Caesar, from those loyal to the god of war, from those loyal to the white supremacist ruling elites that own and operate the United States.

I guess the powers-that-be do not like anyone pointing out that the United States is the greatest purveyor of war and terror in the world today. Senator Barrack Obama or Senator Hillary Clinton to run for President to stop this terror, to stop this warfare but instead they both
want to continue the charade that U. S. terror and war isn't happening and never did. They must think we are all a bunch of idiots. I hope we are not. Idiots, that is.

We need to get past the unjustified condemnations of Reverend Wright and look as what he is actually saying. I think you will find it is pretty right-on!

LA RAZA CLARIFIES ITS AIMS AND GOALS

I have reprinted a page from the National Council of La Raza web site because it is a powerful antidote to the disinformation being produced by the far right of the Republican party by self-proclaimed conservative ayatollahs. La Raza has learned that if you let these so-called "conservatives" define you then you are completely misrepresented by them to the public. So such clarification is not only essential, it is good education, progressive education. The Truth About NCLR: NCLR Answers Critics Full Text NCLR Information NCLR Q&A Annual Reports Financial Statements Charity Navigator Rating (offsite) Raza Development Fund NCLR's Position on Immigration Reform Questions and Answers About NCLR’s Immigration Position Access NCLR's Lobbying Reports Open Letter to the Public: Those familiar with the work of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) know that we are the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., and that we are an American institution committed to strengthening this great nation by promoting the advancement of Latino families. Our mission is to create opportunities and open the door to the American Dream for Latino and other families. We proudly represent nearly 300 Affiliates – community-based organizations providing a range of essential services to millions of Latinos and others in need. Since 1997, NCLR and its Affiliates have helped more than 22,000 low-income Hispanic families purchase their first homes. In addition, NCLR’s network of 115 charter schools provides quality education to more than 25,000 Latino children every year. The health clinics we help build and the lay health educators we train provided care and information about prevention and detection of serious illnesses to nearly 100,000 people in 2006. Our Affiliates are working every day to help Hispanic immigrants integrate fully into American society by providing English-language classes, civics courses, or naturalization assistance. NCLR is also among the most recognized organizations in the nonprofit sector. Our work in the health arena has been honored by the Surgeon General of the United States and by numerous professional organizations. Both our former President/CEO and the current Chair of our Board of Directors have earned the prestigious Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and The Nonprofit Times has recognized NCLR’s leadership with its coveted “Power and Influence Top 50” award, honoring the top 50 leaders shaping the nonprofit world. In addition, NCLR is featured alongside Habitat for Humanity and the Heritage Foundation in Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits, a book that analyzes the practices of 12 nonprofit organizations which have successfully created social change (released in October 2007). We recognize that some people might be confused about our organization’s name, our mission, and our work. Much of this is understandable. Compared to some of our venerable counterparts in the civil rights and advocacy community, we are a relatively young institution, representing Latinos, an historically disadvantaged and oft-misunderstood ethnic minority. We have a Spanish term in our name, “La Raza” (meaning “the people” or “community”), which is often mistranslated. Furthermore, we are engaged in some of the most controversial issues of our time, which we believe is essential if we are to stay true to our mission. As an advocacy organization engaged in the public arena, we know that some will disagree with our views. As Americans committed to basic civil rights, we respect anyone’s right to do so. But it is also clear that some critics are willfully distorting the facts and deliberately mischaracterizing our organization and our work. Recently, we have been the subject of a number of ad hominem attacks that we believe cross the line of civility in public discourse. At times, we have ignored these attacks, preferring to invest our precious time and resources in our work, believing that the quality of the work speaks for itself. At other times, we have responded in a civil fashion, through private correspondence or by requesting a meeting with a critic so we can discuss our differences. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to do this in every case, especially when our private requests for civil discussion are responded to with further unfounded attacks, often echoed in the media as if they were accurate, which they are not. So, today we are engaging in an unprecedented step to make sure that the record is as clear and accessible as we can possibly make it. We do so in the interest of full disclosure and in the spirit of complete transparency. We trust that, after reviewing all of these materials, readers will come to their own conclusions about the merits of these and similar attacks to which we have been subjected. Janet Murguía President and CEO National Council of La Raza NCLR Responds: A Point-by-Point Analysis The following are common misconceptions voiced about NCLR and our work. Please click on the links below for more information on NCLR’s response to each accusation. The Translation of Our Name: National Council of La Raza Support of Separatist Organizations Reconquista and Segregation Solely Hispanic-serving Programs Border Security and Immigration Full Disclosure of Our Lobbying Funds Earmark of Federal Funds 1. The Translation of Our Name: National Council of La Raza Many people incorrectly translate our name, “La Raza,” as “the race.” While it is true that one meaning of “raza” in Spanish is indeed “race,” in Spanish, as in English and any other language, words can and do have multiple meanings. As noted in several online dictionaries, “La Raza” means “the people” or “the community.” Translating our name as “the race” is not only inaccurate, it is factually incorrect. “Hispanic” is an ethnicity, not a race. As anyone who has ever met a Dominican American, Mexican American, or Spanish American can attest, Hispanics can be and are members of any and all races. The term “La Raza” has its origins in early 20th century Latin American literature and translates into English most closely as “the people,” or, according to some scholars, “the Hispanic people of the New World.” The term was coined by Mexican scholar José Vasconcelos to reflect the fact that the people of Latin America are a mixture of many of the world’s races, cultures, and religions. Mistranslating “La Raza” to mean “the race” implies that it is a term meant to exclude others. In fact, the full term coined by Vasconcelos, “La Raza Cósmica,” meaning the “cosmic people,” was developed to reflect not purity but the mixture inherent in the Hispanic people. This is an inclusive concept, meaning that Hispanics share with all other peoples of the world a common heritage and destiny. 2. Support of Separatist Organizations NCLR has never supported, and does not support, separatist organizations. Some critics have accused MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán or Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán) of being a separatist organization and denounced NCLR for being a “major funder” of the organization. The reality is that in 2003, NCLR provided one chapter of the organization (Georgetown University) with a $2,500 subgrant to support a conference of Latino students – mainly from the Southwest and West Coast – who were attending East Coast colleges but who could not afford to travel home for Thanksgiving. These Latino student groups hold mini-conferences with workshops and speakers, bringing together students who are often the first high school graduates and college attendees in their families. According to its mission statement, MEChA is a student organization whose primary objectives are educational – to help Latino students finish high school and go to college, and to support them while at institutions of higher education. NCLR freely acknowledges that some of the organization’s founding documents, e.g., Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, contain inappropriate rhetoric, and NCLR also acknowledges that rhetoric from some MEChA members has been extremist and inflammatory. In a June 2006 Los Angeles Times op-ed, journalist Gustavo Arellano noted that all of the MEChA members of his class graduated from college and have gone on to successful careers, a rarity at a time when only 12% of Latinos have a college degree. And to the group’s founding documents, Arellano also pointed out that “few members take these dated relics of the 1960s seriously, if they even bothered to read them.” NCLR has publicly and repeatedly disavowed this rhetoric as we have others that we believe are inappropriate, as we did when we criticized a pro-separatist Latino website for its racist and anti-Semitic views. We will continue, however, to support programs and activities that help more Hispanics enter and finish college. Throughout its history NCLR has supported numerous initiatives to oppose all forms of unlawful discrimination; for example: A series of campaigns in conjunction with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund calling on all Americans to be tolerant of diversity Joint initiatives with the National Urban League, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, and Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics to identify and denounce hate crimes and other acts of intolerance Educational seminars and roundtables to expose and explore the causes of discrimination against Afro-Latinos and Indigenous Latinos, including instances of discrimination perpetrated by fellow Hispanics Public service campaigns with the National Fair Housing Alliance, the Children’s Defense Fund, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and other partners to prevent housing discrimination against minorities, families with children, and individuals with disabilities 3. Reconquista and Segregation Another misconception about NCLR is that we support a “Reconquista,” or the right of Mexico to reclaim land in the southwestern United States. NCLR has not made and does not make any such claim; indeed, such a claim is so far outside of the mainstream of the Latino community that we find it incredible that our critics raise it as an issue. NCLR has never supported and does not endorse the notion of a “Reconquista” or “Aztlán.” Similarly, NCLR’s critics falsely claim that the statement “Por La Raza todo, Fuera de La Raza nada,” [“For the community everything, outside the community nothing”] is NCLR’s motto. NCLR unequivocally rejects this statement, which is not and has never been the motto of any Latino organization. NCLR’s work as a civil rights institution is about inclusion and participation in the American Dream, including extensive efforts to assist new immigrants in the process of fully integrating into American life. In fact, NCLR and its Affiliates work every day to provide English classes, support naturalization efforts, and provide other services that help integrate immigrants fully into American society. Many of these critics claim that NCLR supports dividing up sections or regions of this country by race or ethnic heritage. In particular, this claim was made by one outspoken critic of NCLR, Representative Charlie Norwood (R-GA), who unfortunately passed away on February 13, 2007. As the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights organization, NCLR has a long, proud, well-documented history of opposing segregation based on race or ethnicity. Toward that end, we have actively contributed to the enactment and enforcement of fair housing and other civil rights laws, and supported numerous measures to ensure that all Americans have the freedom to choose where to live. NCLR has also supported: Programs supporting gender pay equity and affirmative action for small and disadvantaged businesses and affirmative action in higher education; Rep. Norwood voted against gender pay equity and affirmative action. (See pages vii and viii for descriptions of legislation and page 6 for Norwood's votes.) Expanding coverage and toughening penalties in hate crimes legislation, in part because such crimes are often used to deter racial, ethnic, or religious minorities from living where they choose; Rep. Norwood opposed this legislation. (See page 2 for description of legislation and page 11 for Norwood's vote.) More funding for affordable housing and programs to combat housing discrimination; Rep. Norwood voted against more funding for these programs. (See page 3 for description of legislation and page 13 for Norwood's vote.) Removing barriers to voting for all Americans, regardless of race, ethnicity, or disability; Rep. Norwood opposed the recent extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 4. Solely Hispanic-serving Programs Critics also argue that NCLR’s programs only serve Hispanics. This is simply not true. NCLR and its programs are sanctioned by civil rights laws administered by independent agencies at the federal, state, and local level. We helped enact some of these laws, and we take them very seriously. For example, in 2006, as part of NCLR’s homeownership program, NCLR Affiliates served about 29,000 clients. Almost 20% were White and approximately 12% were African American. The program targets low-income neighborhoods that contain large Hispanic populations. NCLR Affiliates are some of the few institutions in many cities that offer their services in both English and Spanish. Due to the demographics of the neighborhoods served, and the type of services offered by NCLR Affiliates, collectively they tend to attract an Hispanic clientele, although not exclusively. We note that NCLR’s staff includes Americans from all racial and ethnic groups – White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American. We note further that NCLR’s bylaws, personnel policies, and institutional values contain explicit prohibitions against discrimination. 5. Border Security and Immigration Unfortunately, NCLR has been called an “open-borders advocate” and the “illegal alien lobby” numerous times. NCLR has repeatedly recognized the right of the United States, as a sovereign nation, to control its borders. Moreover, NCLR has supported numerous specific measures to strengthen border enforcement, provided that such enforcement is conducted fairly, humanely, and in a nondiscriminatory fashion. For example: NCLR helped draft and advocated for bipartisan legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate which included tough enforcement measures against unauthorized migration. NCLR’s President and CEO served on and endorsed the recommendations of the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future, an independent, bipartisan, blue ribbon commission chaired by former Rep. Lee Hamilton and former Senator Spencer Abraham, which recently released a set of recommendations on immigration reform, including more than a dozen new enforcement measures. In a major address in San Diego in 2005, NCLR President Janet Murguía stressed that any comprehensive immigration reform needed to include a strong, effective, and humane enforcement component. All of NCLR’s policy materials describing its positions and activities on the immigration debate are all available on its website. In particular, an Issue Brief, Immigration Reform: Comprehensive Solutions to Complex Problems can be found here. In addition, a set of FAQs related to NCLR’s position on immigration can be found here. 6. Full Disclosure of Our Lobbying Funds Information regarding NCLR’s lobbying expenses and activities is available and easily accessible to the public and updated twice a year. NCLR carries out its lobbying activities in strict compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including filing reports twice a year with the clerks of the U.S. House of Representatives** and the U.S. Senate. NCLR’s expenses for activities defined by law as lobbying, at the federal and state level, range from 1%-2% of its annual budget. Lobbying expenses are separately accounted for, consistent with nonprofit best practices, and are supported by unrestricted revenues such as Affiliate dues, registration fees, sponsorships for events, and other unrestricted funds. No public or foundation funds are used, directly or indirectly, to support any lobbying activity. In addition, consistent with nonprofit best practices, NCLR is subject to an annual audit by an independent auditor and publishes its financial information in its Annual Report, which is readily available to the public. **To access public records filed with the House of Representatives, you must visit the following: Office of the Clerk - U.S. House of Representatives B106 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC. 20515-6612 7. Earmark of Federal Funds Some critics have implied that federal funding earmarked to NCLR for housing and community development financing has been used, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, to advance our public policy efforts on immigration. This is simply inaccurate. Our housing and community development financing is carried out through our subsidiary, the Raza Development Fund (RDF). Established in 1999, the mission of RDF is to bring private capital and development assistance to local organizations serving Latino families in areas such as affordable housing, primary health care, and educational facilities. The RDF board of directors includes experts in housing and community programs as well as representatives from a number of prominent private financial institutions including Bank of America, State Farm Insurance Company, Citi, and JPMorgan Chase. In 1999, the Department of the Treasury certified RDF as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Today, RDF is by far the nation’s largest and most successful Latino CDFI. Since its inception, RDF has made more than $50 million in loans. About half of RDF’s capitalization comes from private financial institutions including State Farm Insurance Company, Bank of America, Allstate Insurance, and other sources. RDF uses these monies, along with other public and private funds, to finance charter schools, health clinics, day care centers, and other community facilities; affordable housing developments; and small businesses. RDF uses the funds appropriated by Congress under the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Fund for the sole purpose of supporting its lending activities. Moreover, RDF’s policy is that all earnings from its lending activities are to be reinvested in the fund for the sole purpose of advancing its mission. Thus, no federal funding earmarked to RDF has been retained by NCLR for any purpose; on the contrary, NCLR supports RDF by deploying considerable resources of its own to assist Latino-serving community-based organizations in developing community facilities and housing programs. Conclusion NCLR has published this extensive analysis because we trust readers to come to their own conclusions about the merits, or lack thereof, of our critics’ charges. View below what some other observers have concluded. Letter from Rep. Gutierrez (D-IL) in support of NCLR against Rep. Norwood's (R-GA) claims Letter to Rep. Norwood from Reverend Timothy McDonald, Chair of African American Ministers in Action, requesting that he apologize for recent remarks made about NCLR. Commentary by Janet Murguía: "Latinos Don't Have Secret Agenda" Michelle Malkin column: " 'The Race' Schools: Your Tax Dollars at Work" Janet Murguía's response to Michelle Malkin: "She's Wrong About My Group" "Dear Michelle Malkin: Study Spanish," a column by Mary Sanchez The Denver Post: “Hispanic Council Fighting Negative Perceptions of Purpose” Related Topics: Advocacy and Electoral Empowerment, Civil Rights and Justice, Community and Family Wealth-Building, Education, Employment and Economic Opportunities, Farmworkers, Health and Family Support, Immigration 

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Anti-Immigration Ring of Hate Regarding Minutemen Protesters in KCMO

What I have done is copy a story from an anti-immigration site (immigrationnewsdaily http://idexer.com/2008/02/03/protesters-march-on-minutemen-assembly.html) just to show the kind of overt racism, hatred and outright brutality evidenced by the comments on the web site.

Even if the MCDC makes an effort to proscribe racist language the broader anti-immigration movement is openly, open to bigotry and hate. Frances Semler can pose as a law-and-order
citizen without a racist bone in her body. Yet those openly sympathetic too her are often likely to be openly racist in their opinions as the following discussion among Semler sympathizers shows.

First, have excerpts of a story on the demonstration that took place against the MCDC regional meeting on February 1, 2008. The comments that follow the story excerpt are full of racist and sexist comments about people in the demonstration and particular individuals in the news story.

The following discussion includes references to Hispanics as "animals", in this case cabrones castrated goats. Likening people of a particular ethnic group as animals is not unusual for hate focused thinking directed against that group and individuals in that group. Many are familiar with the Nazis likening the Jews to vermin.

The celebration of the reported death of a Guatemalan pedestrian is really brutal and is characteristic of race hatred par excellence. Anti-immigrant hatred is being fanned by the quaint gardener from Clay County, Missouri. Anyone who knows anything about racism knows that it
can be felt, acted upon and justified among one group of people and completely denied around others. Corporate boardrooms are not lily white because of the natural superiority of white men.
Whether with a wink and a smile, an accountants pen or a brickbat racism and white supremacy
can advance even as it denies its own existence. Of course these Semler sympathizers are not
denying their own racism to themselves but seem to be conscious racists.




Protesters march on Minutemen assembly
KANSAS CITY (AP) - More than 200 demonstrators turned up to protest the opening here of an anti-illegal immigration group's first regional conference. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is holding a two-day conference in Kansas City in a show of solidarity with member Frances Semler, who attracted criticism from civil rights groups after she was appointed to a local parks board. On Friday, protesters marched several blocks and held a demonstration outside the group's meeting place shortly before the event was to begin... Miguel Sanchez, a protester from Kansas City, Kan., said the group didn't respect other people's dignity.
03 Feb 2008 @ 08:36 pm

16 comments
From Sick Of Working With Illegals - 03 Feb 2008 @ 09:39 pm
Well Mr. Sanchezz, it is a free country. and you and your putos from whatever hate Aztlan bullshizz you come from can shut the f*ck up. only in America is anything coming from the "majority" considered racist.




Imagine that ....

From cudzuqueen - 04 Feb 2008 @ 02:19 am
Respecting their dignity...rofl rofl rofl Where is their dignity while they are lying, cheating and stealing, which happens to be their middle name?

For example: Miguel Mentira Sanchez or Miguel Engaño Sanchez, and lastly, Miguel El Robar Sanchez....hmmmmm! Enough said!
From BW - 04 Feb 2008 @ 12:19 pm

From tickedoffchic - 04 Feb 2008 @ 04:19 am
That line got me, too. They don't respect their own dignity when they sneak across our borders. What dignity do they have when they demand free services? These sympathizers need to go and live in Mexico. Obviously, their allegiance lies south of the border.

From cudzuqueen - 04 Feb 2008 @ 04:43 am
In Reply to CabronRegulator: Forgive me this slight faux pas...I had too much fun pointing out their middle names.

From CabronRegulator - 04 Feb 2008 @ 04:46 am
Cudz .. when is Mexico going to cough up that Marine cabron " Laurean " .. that barbecued the female Marine in North Carolina ? He can only get a life sentence , but should be put in front of a military firing squad ..

Why ? .. are we allowing mf'ers in our military that have honor to other nations, especially Mexico ?

From CabronRegulator - 04 Feb 2008 @ 05:19 am
all these pendejos leaving Arizona and Oklahoma might not know it yet ... but Texas will be the worse place for these coccksuckers to be once that chickenshitt liar Perry gets out of office .. Texans are fed up also .. and highly armed .. armed armed armed armed armed armed armed armed

From CabronRegulator - 04 Feb 2008 @ 05:20 am
.. shits going to hit the fan in Texas ... again ...

From CabronRegulator - 04 Feb 2008 @ 05:23 am
a Guatemalan puto got run over on I-35 near Waco ... laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing

In Reply to CabronRegulator: Whatsa matta? Porker puta couldn't waddle fast enough? Maybe she just expected the world to stop for her? What a nasty hood ornament.

From tiredofit - 04 Feb 2008 @ 10:54 am
In Reply to CabronRegulator:

I hope the vehicle owner went to the nearest car wash to sanitize the car....rofl

as far as respect...they haven't "earned" it as yet...when you respect our laws and our culture and don't demand everything and shove your 3rd world cesspool culture down our throats then maybe you might get an ounce of my respect...till then please don't expect it...it ain't forthcoming...

From Ms.FedupAmerican - 04 Feb 2008 @ 08:38 am
In Reply to BW: Hope "it" didn't mess up their vehicle, that would be a shame.
From BW - 04 Feb 2008 @ 08:29 am

From Ms.FedupAmerican - 04 Feb 2008 @ 11:37 am
In Reply to tiredofit: So true !! usa usa in order to get respect you must give it as well

In Reply to tiredofit: Well, now it's too dam late, since they already pissed everybody off! They can shoulder this 'prejudice' they brought on themselves and go whine in a mudhut in mayheeco.

From CabronRegulator - 04 Feb 2008 @ 12:58 pm
In Reply to BW: Yep .. and they forgot to mention in the news that the puta was here " illegally " from Guatemala ..

MCDC; MINUTEMAN GROUPS IN A NUTSHELL

MCDC Minuteman Local Workshop Planned

[these comments are published in the hope that they will make a small contribution toward understanding and struggling for social justice.]

Well, if you haven't seen it the agenda for the the so-called Minuteman events of February 1^st and 2^nd here in the Kansas City area you can find it at www.minutemanhq.com. It is also directly below these comments.

Minuteman Civil Defense Corp (MCDC) will charge fees for both events and are selling merchandise.

The first day is at the historic Uptown Theater and is purportedly open to the public. The second day, they hope to carry on at a secret location. MCDC claims they have security concerns but they have not really been challenged to explain what they are.

This doesn't mean that the event is likely to be anything like the often announced “first only national convention”. Dos Mundos recently referred to the event as a “regional conference” suggesting that expectations are way down. National MCDC refers to the event as a “regional retreat”. When you think about it, it is something of a retreat. Yet, somehow the media takes MCDC claims of success and popularity at face value with little scrutiny. So the once ballyhooed national convention was uncritically reported as going to happen by the local media. Now Dos Mundos and others should be asking, “Where is the national conference now?” It may not be the the most important or sexy story but it is still the story, a story of faltering efforts and lower expectations. This story of faltering efforts also has the merit of conforming to the facts.

The workshop personnel listed suggests more of a local workshop with the national MinutemanHQ staff pulling triple duty as attendees, trainers and speakers. After firing a dozen or more chapter heads back in the Spring of 2007 Chris Simcox has had a relatively low profile. Simcox has had trouble speaking at a dozen or so public venues due to protests. He also continues to be engaged in a long term vendetta with his rival and former minuteman ally Jim Gilchrist. Gilchrist organizes under the name www.minutemanproject.com .

[This local KCMO workshop can be seen as an effort by Simcox to rally those MCDC folks who have not defected to the Gilchrist minuteman faction.]

Of course we have no firm idea as to how many folks might be sympathetic to this MCDC event. While anti-immigrant fervor may be a majority view in some isolated areas of the nation I think we can agree that the MCDC view is actually a minority view even within the Anglo or white community. Only something like twenty five percent of all Americans are disturbed about the current immigration situation. Yet politicians and the corporate media seem to be relatively

prone to exaggerate the amount of support anti-immigrant activists really have. Of course there are enough unhappy folk to makes fertile ground for groups like MCDC. MCDC has simple solutions and even simpler explanations for the difficult problems in a stunningly complex and interdependent world.

The first day's events will be drenched in both patriotic fervor and religious devotion. A fee will be charged according to the MCDC

website. Maybe they think they can create a state of collective passivity by saying the pledge of allegiance and offering up a prayer

to a presumably non-Catholic deity. Then Ed Hayes of Olathe will try to pick out the trouble makers in the audience. Chris Simcox will once again grind his organ and ultimately the entire MCDC staff will dance around the “little Prince” (ie. Simcox) spinning tales of disease ridden immigrant terrorists murdering and raping our young women. They will also condemning all who disagree with them as “traitors”. Moderat republicans, President Bush, Anarchists, La Raza, other minutemen leaders and groups, anyone not MCDC are and will be called “traitors”.

MCDC and other border patrol groups have a habit of “deputizing” themselves as volunteer cops while being very critical of actual border patrol efforts, officials and policies. When near the border, MCDC's location is apparently transmitted by the U.S. Border Patrol to the Mexican government. In short, while MCDC may be able to work sometimes and in some ways with some property owners and some law enforcement officials it is generally a sideshow unable to significantly influence the flow of those illegally entering the United States.

MCDC will put itself forward as having the answer to immigration problems. Indeed, MCDC try to persuade us that other problems are really just immigration problems. If we just deal with the “illegals” all will be well in America they say. It is a rather flimsy theory of how to improve our social health. Dividing our nation and fomenting

a sort of racial anti-immigrant hysteria seems like a very evil goal to me. Yet the written and spoken words of virtually all MCDC officials suggests either precisely such malevolence or a pathological level of gullibility.

MCDC members pretend they are members of a “border patrol”, a “civil defense corp” or a super-duper “neighborhood watch group”. When they go to the border they seem to be in something like hunting mode. Sometimes it seems silly to me and other times it seems pretty scary. Imagine a right-wing group like MCDC or a private contractor like Blackwater developing a surveillance capability and then turning it on the overwhelming majority of Americans so they can carry out a pogrom against undocumented workers and Hispanics in particular.

If not MCDC then their close friends in just about any other minuteman or border group seem like the kind of folk who would love to ethnically cleanse this or that part of the United States. You can bet their targets would broaden with time. After all, they think just about everyone is a traitor anyway! I think that while they are saying that they are loyal and patriotic they are really defining those terms racially and in terms of anglo-culture. They think that whites who don't want to ethnically cleanse America are traitors. When they say traitor more than a few mean “race traitor”.

It seems to me that any narrow nationalism is going to produce a lot of unnecessary pain and injustice.

All the MCDC efforts up to this point have very limited if any documented effect on immigration flow. I know of no peer reviewed study that establishes an actual increase in apprehension of border crossers due to MCDC interventions.

A very jaundiced framework for thinking about illegal immigration will be established by Chris Simcox and other MCDC leaders. Appealing to the Walter Mitty in everyone Simcox will convince a bunch of overweight men and women that they can become youthful rangers on the wild frontier bringing back an America familiar to Ward Cleaver and the BEAVE!.

While MCDC makes superficial criticisms of individual employers it seems to have lackluster employer boycotts and piecemeal employer watch projects. While there is some surveillance of those who are believed to be hiring undocumented workers, the overwhelming emphasis in MCDC rhetoric and propaganda is on demonizing Hispanic immigrants, anyone who disagrees with them and often rivals in the border patrol racket.

MCDC somehow fails to see that the entire migration situation is part and parcel of capitalist development and long term trends in the world economy. It is quite complicated, but the current situation starts with “Nixon goes to China” more than thirty years ago and the rapid development of huge economic changes throughout the world since that era. It doesn't make much sense to blame immigrants for NAFTA, the Superport and all that, does it?

Border patrol groups seem to be critical of NAFTA, and the movement of so much production abroad. Progressives are also concerned about such things. Only progressives don't see immigration as the primary concern of our time. Nor is immigration seen as the cause of itself. Something else has caused immigration on this scale. Those real world factors increasing immigration may far exceed the influence of immigrants on anything but they aren't convenient scapegoats.

Of course we scapegoat others at our peril in this interdependent world. The whole machine is disturbingly complex and there is more than one way to break it. More than one group could mess up our Rube Goldberg socioeconomic systems. Actually we are already ruining our planet and need to focus on undoing that unfolding catastrophe. Peace is, therefore, most practical.

Rather than turning on other citizens and persecuting immigrants we need to see that the problems of immigration do deserve a great deal more concern than we have given them. We are nonetheless unlikely to conclude that immigration policy is the focal point of world or national history. We need to look to the facts to determine what those factors are that cause this kind of immigration problem or immigration opportunity. I guess it could be looked at as an opportunity for some better Mexico and United States cooperation for the benefit of workers and small business in both nations.

If progressive labor and small business groups could have sovereignty over some of these immigration and trade matters we would get economic results more friendly to the average family in both the United States and Mexico. Perhaps our task should be to bring about progressive worker and small business unity so that we can address what are essentially class, not national issues. MCDC sees things more nationalistically. They deny the essential unity of the Mexican and United States working class. They oppose the unity of the working class nationally and internationally. They seek to direct one section of the working class to wage war upon another section of that same working class!

MCDC sees immigration as undermining national sovereignty. Sometimes MCDC types raise economic issues but they have no real database to substantiate their many economic and labor claims. Most MCDC and the border patrol movement trace job loss, lower wages , crime, and infectious disease to the flow of economic migrants into the United States.

Undocumented workers who get jobs are not always displacing other citizen workers. Of course some times they are. Much is said in this area with little empirical evidence to back up typically broad generalizations about the effect of immigrant labor on wages.

Of course labor has a point in seeking to avoid a race to the bottom in

terms of hourly wages, our U. S. wages and our Mexican wages. How do we improve the wages of both or perhaps abolish wage labor altogether. Just a wild idea? Or is it what we need in an era of substantial automation, mechanization and a wasteful economy that has to be reconfigured but also, largely shut down just to prevent a terminal global warming scenario. MCDC is stuck on enforcing more restrictive immigration laws as a panacea for America's problems.

It is a simple idea that is simply wrong.

People need useful nondestructive work whether they are officially employed or not. Surely there is plenty of work to be done if it is only
facilitated by reason and common interest.

MCDC has no coherent theory of history. It looks back to a short lived period when immigration was more restricted. The KKK apparently was able to get anti-immigrant legislation passed in the post WWI period. Obviously, MCDC follows in the KKK's footsteps as they seek to recreate a United States that reflects a terrible period of racial strife when lynchings swept the South and racial intolerance was a lash to every person of color. Hopefully MCDC will not get the widespread support the KKK once had.

Of course we already have Governor Blunt of Missouri sentencing poor children to death because he doesn't want to finance their health care anymore. I wonder how many kids can't get health care in Missouri now. Oklahoma has made itself a pariah to the civilized world by denying services to undocumented workers on an unprecedented scale. Even our favorite city, Kansas City has become infected with a peculiar variety of white supremacy, the Funkhouser-Semler tango.

MCDC and most border patrol groups have an cluster of beliefs that bias them against economic migrants. Economic migrants of the sort who have gone back and forth over the Mexican border for time immemorial are suddenly labeled “illegal”. While certain laws are broken entering the country illegally the MCDC seeks to overgeneralize and further characterize these economic migrants as “criminals” when we all know that more than 95% are just trying to make a couple bucks in a hard world.

So there is the escalation of the demonization of undocumented workers, first from labeling these migrants as “illegal”, and then another intensification of that demonization as the “illegal” immigrant becomes the “criminal” immigrant. MCDC types want to create a lot of new criminal laws to charge and further criminalize the immigrants who enter without appropriate documentation. They want to further criminalize undocumented workers and thus fulfill their view that they are dastardly criminals.

Then MCDC wants to paint undocumented economic migrants,
not only as criminals but also as invaders who want to steal the
Southwest United States back for Mexico! You have to look at their web site and materials to see that I am not kidding about this Aztlan conspiracy thing. It is as if many border patrol activists have no active bullshit detector.

Most unfortunately the economic migrant is finally said to be either a terrorist from an terrorist base in Mexico or some other such incredible and unsubstantiated story. Border patrol web sites, information conduits and leaders spin the tale that all immigrants need to be tarnished with the term “ terrorist suspect” if not immediately targeted as “terrorists”. So MCDC seeks to transform the discussion about economic migrants and American jobs into a Nativist crusade in the case of MCDC and a more openly white supremacist movement beyond the confines of MCDC.

Yes we can count on the wise heads of MCDC and the local Minuteklan to take us from “undocumented economic migrant” to “terrorist invader”. Juan Valdez is no longer picking coffee or cutting your lawn, he is Osama bin Valdez, scarry eh? Not very credible you would think, but they believe this stuff with considerable fanaticism.

Last but not least is the specter of infectious illegals slipping across the border bringing leprosy or tuberculosis to the United States. Lou Dobbs has been notorious for portraying undocumented migrants as “infectious agents”. But in an interview on Democracy Now (www.democracynow.org/2007/12/4/fact_checking_dobbs_cnn_anchor lou ) Dobbs was unable to substantiate his extreme claims about infectious immigrants.

Do-it-yourself border patrol culture continuously gossips about a combination of real and imagined outrages that stem from the evil of
undocumented migrant workers. The demonizing themes already mentioned are supplemented by a focus on crimes often actually committed by undocumented alien criminals. These crimes are ranted about and ruminated upon. The evil of illegal immigration is said to be behind the whole thing and of course it is in the obvious sense. I don't know how well most groups would fare if kept to this standard, ie. have no despicable criminals in the group. This sort of narrow focus and obvious bias can foster paranoia and hate. It seems like that is the product if not the purpose of criminalizing a whole group. It makes it easier to treat them as less than human.

In fact undocumented immigrants commit about the same number of crimes per thousand as the U. S. population. Yet if you look at the crimes the bad guys from any broad group you are going to get a really negative view of the broader group unless you keep your thinking cap on.

Border patrol types tell each other fantastic stories about Hispanics such as the so-called “Aztlan” conspiracy to steal the Southwestern U. S. , merge it with Mexico and expel United States citizens. While this sounds like the mother of all urban legends from the get go most border patrol activists are obsessed with the “terrorist invasion” to reconquer “Aztlan”. Ed Hayes of the local MCDC chapter has this whole Aztlan myth on his website www.kansasminutemen.com.

Who said it, “If you can get people to believe ridiculous things you can get them to do anything.” ? That is precisely my fear, misguided people doing foolish things.

MCDC money will be collected or will have already been collected in order to spread these twisted misunderstandings to the public by the mechanism of a lackadaisical and uncritical mass media, a media firmly controlled by more refined white supremacists. Only this time the whites that own and operate media empires, are people as unlike the Minutemen as you can get. Maybe the minuteman types should get involved with other working people, organized labor and such. Right now MCDC seems to be in the back pocket of eccentric Republican, Alan Keyes and Alan Keyes is no friend of labor. Of course Keyes is the one trounced by Obama when Obama ran for Senate.

Yes, look at their national website www.minutemanhq.com . MCDC is a project of Declaration Alliance, a front group for Alan Keyes Republicans. Somehow cult-like organizations, like the Declaration Alliance, are funneling their resources into promoting these big lies, lies meant to foment hatred and hysteria against Hispanic immigrants and anyone who disagrees with these self-appointed patriots.

Only MCDC initiates will be allowed to attend the second day's events at a secret, location.

It is interesting that they are apparently having some sort of workshop on sanctuary cities.

AGENDA FOR OPEN MEETING

Welcome to all to Kansas City – Richard Fatherley

Pledge of Allegiance – Richard Fatherley

Prayer – Missouri and Kansas Chaplin, Rev. Bill Cain

Ed Hayes – Welcome & Rules of Behavior during Meeting

Chris Simcox – What is MCDC?

Panel Q&A: Chris Simcox, Carmen Mercer, Al Garza, Ed Hayes

Meeting adjourned. Attendees invited to stay to watch border movie.

---

Saturday, February 2nd, 2008

For security purposes, the location of the workshop will be given to volunteers as they register.

The agenda for the workshops is as follows:

8:00 – Continental breakfast (provided by MCDC) & Introductory Comments by Chris Simcox, Carmen Mercer & Al Garza

8:30 – Effective state leadership

9:00 – Effective chapter leadership

9:30 – Sanctuary City Project & Dealing with sanctuary cities – Al Garza

10:00 – Accounting procedures – Carmen Mercer

10:30 – Volunteer Facilitator

11:00 – Day Labor Watches & Surveillance – Carmen Mercer

11:30 – Lunch (provided by MCDC)

12:30 – Rallies & Protests – Carmen Mercer

1:00 – IRS 990

1:30 – Working with local law enforcement

2:00 – Dealing with the media – Ed Hayes

2:30 – Reaching the community

3:00 – Working with local government & state legislative issues

3:30 – What to expect from MCDC National

4:00 – Q&A

Additional Contact Information

For more information, contact:

Locally (KC): Roger 816-289-6293

Roger 913-780-2547

Ed Hayes 913-620-0771

Nationally: Carolyn Crouch 254-623-4702

mcdc.rsvp@yahoo.com

2008-01-03 04:55:54

TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE STRUCTURE OF WHITE SUPREMACY

The history of white supremacy in the United States is not something I have studied in great detail. I hope with these few notes to simply indicate the direction of my own study as I try to get an overview of the white supremacy machine or white supremacy structure.

For one thing it is a structure or set of structures rooted in history, in historical experience and the historical oppression of different groups which were designated nonwhite and inferior. Native Americans are the dispossessed people, African Americans are the enslaved people, Mexicans or Hispanics are sometimes dispossessed sometimes economic migrants, Asians were once exploited for labor and then expelled . Whatever the differences in the historical oppression of these groups and subgroups by white society there is a real and still important history of such domination especially since it largely continues today and white supremacy is the driving force behind the new nativist movement.

Also there is largely a parallel development of white supremacy and the struggles against it with the struggles of the native americans being completely divorced from the struggles of anyone else on the continent except, perhaps, other native americans. Then the african slaves have a unique history of oppression and struggle as slaves in the colonies and the united states for something like four centuries. Most of us are somewhat familiar with the civil rights movement, the black liberation movement and the the struggle for integration and against Jim Crow. We are less informed about other groups and their struggles and the Mexican or Hispanic Americans have reminded me that there are things going on that I have not really understood. All these groups exist culturally in a sort of parallel universe and each universe interacts with white society in its own largely independent and unique way. White domination remains the common result. This goes for some Asian groups as well and we should not forget that many individuals in all these groups are very successful in United States society today.

So the segregated nature, the compartmentalized nature of white supremacy is an important
characteristic which reflects national or quasi-national histories of oppression and liberation struggle.

Various campaigns have been conducted against all of these oppressed nationalities. Expulsion from this or that community or expulsion from the nation is one sanction that has
been utilized at one time or another against oppressed nationalities int he United States.

WHAT ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY ?

What about white supremacy? Well, there is the ideology or are the ideologies of white supremacy on the one hand. We have nazisms and different sorts of kkk groups and even different kinds of minuteman organizations, each with a somewhat different white supremacist ideology.

Then there is the reality of the ruling elites being primarily white, which is a sort of operational definition for top-down ruling class white supremacy, the social reality of white supremacy and it can be suggested by the economic and political facts and other social facts which sees the predominance of political and economic power in the hands of whites. You could call this structural racism or national oppression or think of it as some sort of caste oppression. It seems to me that in the United States there is a substantial hegemony of Whites over Blacks and Whites over Hispanics.

The recent struggle in Kansas City over membership of a Kansas City Missouri park board appointee in the Nativist Minuteman Civil Defense Corps illustrates both aspects of white supremacy.

On the one hand be have the Funkhouser political machine, clearly white and clearly in power. One can almost hear the theme song to the original "Outer Limits" as one listens to the Mayor speak, "We control the horizontal. We control the vertical." On the other hand we have Semler who is part of an organization that is perhaps one or two steps removed from more obvious hate groups such as nazi or kkk groups. So we have a very controlling Mayor and an appointee who is not quite a nazi but definitely in a group that is so far to the right that it has to constantly try and remove overt white supremacists from its ranks.

I wonder if Funkhouser would have made the same First Amendment arguments about Semler if she was a member of a very openly racist organization? If Semler showed up at park board meetings with a swastika armband would he be more concerned. I don't know if anyone has put such a question to him. I wonder what former mayor Charlie Wheeler would have done?

Of course Funkhouser presented himself as something of an insurgent within the white political establishment. He also plays off of his position as purportedly someone who is primarily interested in crunching numbers though I must admit I haven't heard any real numbers from the current mayor in the news media. Of course that is sort of a funny combination in the first place, an insurgent accountant.

Being a member of the white community Mayor Funkhouser is he going to be perceived as a default representative of the white community. Yet as mayor it seems to me that he ought to be trying to embrace those outside his own eccentric clique. He appears to have failed in taking into account the views of others. In this case, most, if not every Hispanic has been offended by his apparent embrace of Francis Semler and the Minutemen Civil Defense Corp.

The fact is that Francis Semler and the Minuteman Civil Defense Corp are not as acceptable to most Hispanics as they are to Mayor Funkhouser and the white oriented talking heads of the local community. Anyone who researches the various Minuteman groups ends up running into a lot of overt hate speech, violence baiting, and overt white supremacist ideology. Frankly, I think many whites and blacks have also been deeply offended by the Mayor's stony indifference to those outside what sometimes looks like a narrow personality cult.

In the case of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corp the main thing you find out about the organization seems to be some sort of scandal about the way funds have been raised and spent without any accountability by its leader, Chris Simcox. Of course Funk came on as a white bread accountant who is supposed to fix the sidewalks and sewers of KCMO. He purportedly has a sort of no nonsense businesslike approach to things. Yet it seems that Mayor Funkhouser did no homework investigating the nature of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corp, otherwise wouldn't the prudent bean counter have been revolted by the poor accounting of the MCDC? It seems he has a low awareness of racism and white supremacy as a system of which he is a part. In short, when it comes to racism, he is a clueless white boy. Of course this aphasia for matters of race is also suggested by his effort to repudiate "politics".

The Mayor and his closest associates apparently eschewed "politics". They were going to run the mayor's office without politics. Part of this naive openness means they did little to vet appointees. Is Semler an appointee? I think she is and was given some limited vetting but I have no idea when the issue of her membership in the Minuteman Civil Defense Corp became known by the Mayor or his staff.

Anyway, the politics of race caught up with the city even if the Mayor somehow seems to tower above the situation as if he had nothing to do with it. So we have seen the La Raza convention of 2009 leave Kansas City, Missouri. Reportedly this means that from six to twenty millions of dollars will not be pumped into the local economy. Ouch!

The mayor has delivered a moving defense of Francis Semler's First Amendment rights and her right to associate with whomever she chooses. It is the closest thing to an emotional response we have seen at this point in the Mayor's tenure. To some extent I appreciate his argument and I do not see Frances Semler as some sort of ogre, but I don't know that her rights would be violated if the mayor chose to replace her. It seems to me that an appointee is something very similar to an employee. Sometimes they are the same. Other than being an uncompensated position it seems that any board member could be removed by the Mayor for any reason without violating the Constitution of the United States.

I have gotten the distinct impression that a he and a lot of other whites think of the whole dispute as an irrelevant and absurd drama foisted upon the mayor by unreasonable individuals in the local or national leadership of La Raza.

Furthermore, I have heard a lot of elite white opinion and a lot from Semler and the Mayor. Both have presented their point of view with some effectiveness. So folks like the RUCKUS commentators and La RAZA's other antagonists have representedn LA RAZA's position to the public. The views of La Raza have not been on television or highlighted in the local media. So I am including some facts that I got from the local newspaper Dos Mundos.

For example, an effort has been made to say La Raza leadership has made some sort of crazy or ill advised decision. Yet more than a few local organizations of considerable merit supported the withdrawal of the La Raza convention from Kansas City. They are Westside Clinic, Guadalupe Center, Mattie Rhodes Center, Westside Housing Organization, and Hispanic Economic Development Corporation. These organizations see the Minutemen as something worse than a Nativist neighborhood watch organization concerned about immigration issues. They see it as more akin the kkk or nazis, only this time the racism is focused on Hispanics.

I would have liked to see the La Raza convention in Kansas City. It doesn't mean that I, Kansas City or the mayor ever had a right to that convention. A local Hispanic newspaper, Dos Mundos reported October 25, 2007 in a story by Edie R.Lambert that, "Janet Murguia, a Kansas City, Kan., native and head of the NCLR: [said] 'This is a very sad day for me. The mayor has failed to take direct action and we hold him fully accountable … The Minuteman is a group that has undeniably sown division and intolerance wherever it has gone and whose members have harassed, intimidated and menaced human beings, often simply based on their appearance.' ”

So it was a sad day for all of us, yet there is an effort to paint Murgia as somehow taking a far out position. If anyone has to worry about looking far out it isn't Murgia, it is Funkhouser.

Some whites, like Funkhouser, see the Minuteman organizations as something less disturbing than those of us with a progressive political consciousness. Are they just insensitive beneficiaries of a white supremacist system that leaves them in a position to be satisfied and content with maintaining the status quo? That may be the material basis for their denying the violent and extremist taint of the Nativist movement. So white supremacy in power tends to be blind to ideological racism perhaps because it knows that at the end of the day the ideological extremists are only small potatoes compared to, well, the big potatoes like Mr. Potato head himself, Mark Funkhouser.

.

,