Blowing Smoke - Michael Wolraich [178]
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“Half-black.” Coulter is the right-wing media celebrity version of a ten-year-old girl who tries to get kids to like her by saying the meanest things she can think of.
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As far as I can tell, the “Aryan Brethren Church” appears to be entirely made up.
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“Slammin’ and rammin.’” Michael Steele, an African American, is also one of the only prominent Republicans to support affirmative action, not to mention the use of the words slammin’ and rammin’. David Duke has called him a “radical Black racist.”
(David Duke, “GOP traitors appoint Black racist as Chairman of the Republican Party,” DavidDuke.com, 2 Feb. 2009, http://www.davidduke.com/general/gop-traitors-appoint-black-racist-as-chairman-of-the-republican-party_7443.html.)
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“UFO cult.” The word cult conveys the image of charismatic megalomaniac leaders like David Koresh or Jim Jones, but Dorothy Martin’s cult was a gang of misfits so desperate for orders from the aliens that they fell for every hoax that various juvenile pranksters played on them. The group also included two competing channelers. Dorothy Martin scribbled messages from an alien named Sananda, who was also Jesus Christ. A second participant channeled the voice of the Creator. Sometimes the Sananda and the Creator engaged in petty squabbles. For instance, while Sananda directed the group to avoid meat, the Creator encouraged them to “have some protein.” (Leon Festinger, Henry W. Riecken, Stanley Schachter, When Prophecy Fails, Kindle ed. [London: Pinter & Martin Ltd., 1956]: 1884.)
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Right-wing minority outreach still has some kinks to work out. For starters, white Republicans need to shake the habit of belittling the historical oppression of African Americans. Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), for example, said, “Far more black children, far more of the African-American community is being devastated by the [abortion] policies of today, than were being devastated by the policies of slavery.” (Eric Kleefeld, “GOP Rep. Franks: African-Americans ‘Devastated’ More by Abortion Today Than under Slavery,” Talking Points Memo, 26 Feb. 2010, http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/gop-rep-franks-african-americans-devastated-more-by-abortion-today-than-under-slavery-video.php.)
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Engdahl calls himself an “economic researcher, historian, and freelance journalist,” which sounds much better than “crackpot conspiracy theorist.” He covers diverse topics ranging from global warming (conspiracy to cover up “global freezing”) to the Gates Foundation (toxic vaccines to reduce third world population) to the Dalai Lama (brainwashed by Nazis). (F. William Engdahl, “Global Warming or Global Freezing: Is the Ice Really Melting?” FinancialSense.com, 24 Sep. 2009, http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/engdahl/2009/0924.html; F. William Engdahl, “Bill Gates talks about ‘vaccines to reduce population,’” FinancialSense.com, 4 Mar. 2010, http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/engdahl/2010/0304.html; F. William Engdahl, “Why Washington Plays ‘Tibet Roulette’ with China,” CCTV.com, 25 Apr. 2008, http://www.cctv.com/english/20080425/111113.shtml.)
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“Funding Father of the Right.” There is some irony in the contrast between the Republican big donor’s inherited wealth and the Democratic big donor’s rise from penniless student to global capitalist. Okay, maybe not that much irony.
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“Award winning journalist.” According to Poe’s LinkedIn profile, the Syracuse Press Club awarded him “Best Newspaper Column” when he served as the Events editor at the Syracuse New Times for less than a year in 1984. (“Richard Poe,” LinkedIn, retrieved 1 Apr. 2010, http://www.linkedin.com/pub/richard-poe/10/755/495.)
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“Jews who are not Jews.” In a subsequent book, The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party, Poe regurgitated Richard Engdahl’s Nazi accusation, calling Soros a “collaborator in fascist Hungary” who