"Rush"ing to Judgement in the West vs. Wasserman Schultz Showdown

On July 19, Congressman Allen West (R-FL) sent an email to Democratic Representative and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) in response to comments directed at him in a speech the Congresswoman made on the floor of the House of Representatives after West had departed the chamber. In the Young Turks' clip below, you can hear West's email as well as the comments by Wasserman Schultz which led to West's response.



As some of you can guess, I do not like Congressman West. However, it goes deeper than politics. Since bursting on the national scene, the Tea Party darling has shown himself to be a thin-skinned, bigoted bully with some anger issues.

You may be asking yourself why I'm blogging about the back and forth between West and Wasserman Schultz. It's just a disagreement between two politicians, right? One happens to be black and the other is white. Well, the reason I chose to write about this is because Rush Hudson Limbaugh III decided to weigh in with his "wit and wisdom":

Rush is truly one of a kind. It's amazing how many things he managed to get wrong in less than 7 minutes! Since this blog deals with race issues, I won't get into Rush's nonsense about death panels, decorum on the House floor, "left-wing women", etc.

In the "minds" of dittoheads like Rachel (the caller at the beginning of the clip), a white person is racist anytime they criticize a black conservative such as Congressman West. This is why I laugh when conservatives accuse liberals of playing the race card. Although Rush didn't come right out and accuse Wasserman Schultz of being a racist due to her comments toward West, it seems he agrees with the sentiment because he let Rachel completely off the hook when she threw out her baseless charge during her call.

I think Rush is dead wrong in saying there would be charges of racism if the situation was reversed. Black Democrats have been criticized without liberals crying out racism. For example, scores of white Republicans have directed criticism at President Obama. When they stick to policy issues in their disagreements with the president, I'm not hearing charges of racism from the left.  It's only when the criticism resorts to race-baiting tactics like accusing him of racism, questioning his place of birth, insinuating that he's not "one of us", etc. that me and other liberals raise our eyebrows. Now we will refer to them as hypocritical partisan hacks in a second because that's what you call someone who keeps their mouth shut when their side does something, but cries foul when the opposition does the same thing.

Although the West and Wasserman-Schultz disagreements have gotten personal, I don't see race as a factor. I think West and Wasserman-Schultz simply don't like each other.

Update: As a guest on Mark Levin's show, Congressman West played the race card when discussing the incident involving him and Wasserman Schultz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_DNoynQAP0

Cross Post By Sandy About Bill Maher's Tweeted Response to Kim Kardashian

The following was originally posted by Sandy (one of the contributors to Diversity Ink) on his blog Best Seat In the House on 7/8/11. He was kind enough to let me feature it over here as well.

Maher Comes Out With Race-Based Attack On Kim Kardashian

 Bill Maher was at his predictable worst as he used Twitter as a platform to issue what was, by his standards, a fairly standard distasteful attack of Kim Kardashian. One sort of expects that Maher will say tasteless things, but then there are comments that are even bad for his standards (such as his standards are).

It started when Kardashian Tweeted this in response to the verdict in the case of Casey Anthony (you can look it up on your own if you don't know about it):

“WHAT!!!!???!!!! CASEY ANTHONY FOUND NOT GUILTY!!!I am speechless!!!”

Maher, smelling blood in the water, responded as he Tweeted the following:

“Kim Kardashian is upset with Casey Anthony verdict? Ur father defended O.J.! Starting the Kardashian tradition of getting black men off.”

A few thoughts about the original comment and the response went through my head:

1. He has probably been looking for an opportunity to unload this kind of comment on the Kardashian women.

2. He perhaps has some underlying issues with the Kardashians and their relationships with black people.

3. He is tired of seeing the Kardashians with guys like Reggie Bush, Lamar Odom, etc... Maybe he wants to see them getting off more guys like Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki and Bill Mah ... nevermind

4. His comment smacks of racism (not that he cares one bit about what anyone things of him ... good, bad or indifferent ... this is how he makes his money).

Posted by Sandy Gholston at 8:42 PM on July 18, 2011.

 

I don't think Bill Maher's comments were racist. The tweet made me laugh out loud because his use of the term "get off" is a clever play on words. In order to be funny, humor usually has some basis in the truth. After all, Kim's father (the late Robert Kardashian) did help in getting O.J. off and Kim has a history of dating black men. Also, if Maher has a problem with the Kardashian sisters dating black men, he's being hypocritical because he has dated black women in the past.

Do you think Bill Maher's response to Kim Kardashian's tweet was racist?

The King of Queens: Arthur and Slavery

One reason I love syndication is it makes it easy for me to check out series I ignored when they originally aired. A show I've recently been getting into via reruns is The King of Queens starring Kevin James and Leah Remini as Doug and Carrie Heffernan. Although the entire cast of the long-running sitcom is solid, my favorite character is Arthur Spooner (played by Jerry Stiller). As Doug's irascible, scheming, basement-dwelling father-in-law, Stiller has the ability to steal every scene in which he appears. With his unique way of delivering lines and punctuating them with hilarious physical gestures, he can take something which isn't funny on paper and turn it into sitcom gold.

The player below contains scenes from the season 6 episode "Affidavit Justice". In the episode, the subplot deals with Arthur's discovery that his ancestors were slave owners and how he tries to make things right with Doug's best friend/co-worker Deacon Palmer (played by Victor Williams).

If you enjoy Jerry Stiller's work on The King of Queens, someone with the username ArthurSpoonerFan has a You Tube channel devoted to some of Arthur's best scenes from the show.