11708: Sarah Palin And MLK.

MLK Day would not be complete without color commentary from Sarah Palin.

10757: More Adland Political Conservatism.

Memo to political conservative Carl Warner, who whined there’s a dearth of non-Democrats in the advertising industry: Adweek published an unapologetic interview with veteran adman Jim Ferguson, who just finished a year-long stint as official creative director for Mitt Romney. Not saying the ad game is full of Republicans and Tea Party enthusiasts—but the figure is probably closer to 47 percent than you think.

10659: Conservative Cluelessness…?

Anonymous comments left at the Carl Warner post insist there is an anti-Republican bias at work in the advertising industry.

The person claims that in the past decade, “I can think of maybe six, tops, people I’ve encountered through the years who were professed conservatives. … I’ve been in two creative sessions at two separate, unrelated agencies in the last few weeks where the entire room spent their downtime bashing Republicans and professing their own hipper, more liberal street cred. … Again, spent downtime, break time, stopping work to snack and eat and at the same time discuss how Republicans are bad and horrible because of XYZ and Democrats are so much better and more open-minded because of ABC.”

Gee, the words almost mirror the trials and tribulations experienced by racial and ethnic minorities in the business. It’s easy to imagine dialogue such as, “I can think of maybe six, tops, people I’ve encountered through the years who were Black. … I’ve been in two creative sessions at two separate, unrelated agencies in the last few weeks where the entire room spent their downtime bashing Blacks. … Again, spent downtime, break time, stopping work to snack and eat and at the same time discuss how Blacks are bad and horrible because of XYZ and Whites are so much better and more open-minded because of ABC.”

Yet it all begs the question: Is there a dearth of political conservatism on Madison Avenue?

In 1963, The Journal of Higher Education published “The Right to Fail: Creativity versus Conservatism” by Albert J. Sullivan. In the essay, Sullivan spotlighted the tension between two processes—creativity and conservatism—pulling in different directions. The author wrote, “The one process, toward change, we may characterize as creativity; the other process, resisting change, as conservatism.”

Sullivan’s observations certainly apply to the advertising industry, where writers and art directors (representing creativity) routinely square off with account people (representing conservatism). And conservative creative people are often deemed losers, while creative account people are deemed annoying losers.

Generational components could also be at play. Winston Churchill is quoted as having said something along the lines of, “If you’re not a liberal at twenty, you have no heart; if you’re not a conservative at forty, you have no brain.” No need to delve deeper on the implications here, except to note that adpeople have been known to make decisions on work with an eye towards having to pay mortgages and meet other financial obligations associated with life stages.

The items above sorta fly in the face of the contention that conservatives are minorities within advertising agencies. Indeed, they appear to be well represented in our ranks. And if the notion is further elevated to politics—specifically, Democrats and Republicans—it stands to reason that the parties are adequately represented too. Granted, Republican creative directors and Democratic account directors might be oddballs, but it’s a safe bet they exist as well.

In the event that anti-Republicanism is a problem on Madison Avenue, look forward to activists taking action. High schools and colleges will be scoured for young GOP and Tea Party enthusiasts. Political intern programs will be launched. The One Club will introduce “Where Are All The Republicans?” Kat Gordon will invent the “1% Conference” to salute the One Percent among us. And ADCOLOR® will award a special trophy to Black Republicans.

10285: Tea Party’s Revisionist History.

From The Huffington Post…

Tea Party Groups In Tennessee Demand Textbooks Overlook U.S. Founder’s Slave-Owning History

By Trymaine Lee

A little more than a year after the conservative-led state board of education in Texas approved massive changes to its school textbooks to put slavery in a more positive light, a group of Tea Party activists in Tennessee has renewed its push to whitewash school textbooks. The group is seeking to remove references to slavery and mentions of the country’s founders being slave owners.

According to reports, Hal Rounds, the Fayette County attorney and spokesman for the group, said during a recent news conference that there has been “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.”

“The thing we need to focus on about the founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn’t existed, to everybody—not all equally instantly—and it was their progress that we need to look at,” Rounds said, according to The Commercial Appeal.

During the news conference more than two dozen Tea Party activists handed out material that said, “Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States. We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government.”

And that further teaching would also include that “the Constitution created a Republic, not a Democracy.”

The group demanded, as they had in January of last year, that Tennessee lawmakers change state laws governing school curricula. The group called for textbook selection criteria to include: “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”

The latest push comes a year after the Texas Board of Education approved revisions to its social studies curriculum that would put a conservative twist on history through revised textbooks and teaching standards.

The Texas revisions include the exploration of the positive aspects of American slavery, lifting the stature of Jefferson S. Davis to that of Abraham Lincoln, and amendments to teach the value of the separation of church and state were voted down by the conservative cadre. Among other controversial amendments that have been approved is the study of the “unintended consequences” of affirmative action.

The board approved more than 100 amendments affecting social studies, economics and history classes for Texas’s 4.8 million students.

The influence of the amended textbooks will likely reach far beyond the state of Texas. The state is one of the largest purchasers of textbooks, and many other states adopt Texas’s books and standards.

The curriculum changes were pushed through by a majority bloc of conservative Republicans on the Texas school board, who have said the changes were made to add balance to what they believe was a left-leaning and already-skewed reflection of American history.

“There is some method to the madness besides vindicating white privilege and making white students feel as though they are superior and privileged and that that it is the natural order of things,” Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas State NAACP, told The Crisis magazine last year about this time. “The agenda being pushed and the ultimate impact intended is to make young people automatically identify with one political party.”

A number of groups, including the NAACP, the Texas League of United Latin American Citizens and the Texas Association of Black Personnel in Higher Education have joined forces to beat back the measures, which they said would have a negative impact on minority children.

The groups sought a federal review of the state’s public education and have raised claims that the Texas State Board of Education has violated federal civil rights laws. In a formal complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education, the groups charge that the new curriculum was devised to “discriminate.”

The measures went as far as to replace instances of the trans-Atlantic slave trade with “Atlantic triangular trade.”

“It is going to be extremely psychologically harmful to African-American young people because they are marginalized in the curriculum,” Bledsoe said. “It will require them to be taught things such as the benevolence of slavery and the problems with affirmative action rather than the good and the bad.”

“They voted down a motion that requires students to be taught about the terrorism brought about by the Ku Klux Klan and what they did to ethnic and racial minorities, but they turn around and pass a provision that requires the teaching of the violence of the Black Panther Party.”

10168: Joe Walsh Too Crazy, Too Racist…?

From The Chicago Tribune…

After racially charged remarks, Walsh says he’s not ‘critical of minorities’

Opposition group says congressman is ‘too crazy to be in office’

By Katherine Skiba, Chicago Tribune reporter

WASHINGTON — After taking heat for racially charged remarks, Rep. Joe Walsh issued a statement Friday asserting he was “in no way critical of minorities,” while an opposition group that had videotaped and distributed his remarks stepped up its attack.

The war of words erupted after Walsh, speaking May 26 at the Schaumburg Central Library, said the Democratic Party wants the Hispanic vote and they “want Hispanics to be dependent on government just like they got African-Americans dependent on government. That’s their game.”

In an apparent reference to African-Americans, Walsh went on to say that the Rev. Jesse Jackson would be “out of work if they weren’t dependent on government.”

He was captured on video by an organizer from CREDO SuperPac, which is targeting tea party lawmakers such as Walsh for defeat. The group opened an office in Elk Grove Village in April with four full-time organizers, said Becky Bond, president of the political action committee.

Talking about Walsh, Bond said recently: “He’s too crazy to be in office.” She doubled down in an interview Friday, remarking: “Joe Walsh is not only too crazy to be in Congress, but he’s too racist.”

Bond, speaking from San Francisco, said the political action committee was set up by a mobile phone company, CREDO Mobile, which funds issue advocacy with its revenue. Its causes include blocking the Keystone XL pipeline, defending Planned Parenthood and halting climate change, she said.

It’s doing battle against eight Republican lawmakers across the country and will target two more, she said.

Walsh, a freshman from McHenry known for lobbing verbal hand grenades, issued a statement late Friday headlined, “Walsh Reaffirms His Statement on Government Dependency & Growth.”

It began: “While my remarks last week were very direct and critical, they were in no way critical of minorities. They were, however, critical of Democratic policies that want to see Americans dependent on big government.”

He is running against Democrat Tammy Duckworth in the 8th Congressional District in Chicago’s north and northwest suburbs. She is a former assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Duckworth’s campaign manager, Kaitlin Fahey, said Friday, “His remarks were not only offensive, they are especially irresponsible coming from a sitting member of Congress, and quite simply, residents here in the 8th District deserve better than that.”

Jackson told the Associated Press on Thursday that Walsh was showing bias against the poor and ignoring the fact that most government aid recipients are not black. “For the rich, it’s called a subsidy. For the poor, it is welfare,” he said.

10166: Tea Party Animal.

From The Associated Press…

Walsh: Democrats made blacks ‘dependent on government’

By The Associated Press

U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh told a crowd at a recent town hall meeting that the Democratic Party’s “game” is to make Latinos dependent on government just like “they got African-Americans dependent upon government.”

The tea party-backed Republican, who has a reputation for eyebrow-raising comments and is up for re-election this year, also said that the Rev. Jesse Jackson would be out of work if blacks “weren’t so dependent upon government.”

In response, Tammy Duckworth, the Democrat running against Walsh in a newly drawn suburban Chicago congressional district, called the first-term congressman’s remarks offensive and irresponsible. Jackson added that the comments were meant to “incite and polarize.”

Walsh’s remarks, which he made Saturday, also circulated on several political websites and drew thousands of comments.

Walsh spokesman Christian Morgan said Thursday that the candidate was not being critical of blacks, but was trying to make a larger point about the increased dependence on government in the country and the difference between his views and Duckworth’s opinions.

“He believes there’s a certain amount of people in this country, because of Democratic policies, that have become dependent on government,” Morgan said.

Walsh has made a number of contentious comments since winning an upset victory in his suburban Chicago district in 2010 as part of a Republican surge in Illinois. His video lecture of President Barack Obama for spending like “a drunken sailor” helped make him a rising tea-party star.

But he faces a tough re-election fight against Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran, in a diverse district redrawn by Democrats last year to favor their party. More than 12 percent of the people living in Illinois' 8th Congressional District are Asian and 22 percent are Hispanic.

His latest statements were videotaped by an anti-tea party group at one of Walsh’s regular town hall meetings. The video shows the congressman appearing to get agitated as he shouts about all the people who “want handouts” and the Democrats’ plan to create even more government dependency.

“That’s their game,” he told an audience of a few dozen before making the remarks about blacks, Hispanics and Jackson.

On Thursday, Jackson told The Associated Press that Walsh’s comments were nothing more than a political tactic designed to “incite and polarize.” Jackson said his life’s work has been to “gain for all vulnerable Americans equal protection under the law.”

Further, he said, Walsh ignores the fact that the majority of people receiving government aid are not black and that the congressman is demonstrating a bias against the poor in favor of the wealthy.

“For the rich, it’s called a subsidy. For the poor, it is welfare,” Jackson said.

Duckworth suggested in a statement that Walsh’s comments were the latest in a growing list of racially insensitive statements.

“Congressman Walsh’s remarks are not only offensive, they are especially irresponsible coming from a sitting member of Congress,” she said.

9586: Remembering Herman Cain.

“…So it boiled down to family first,” explained former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain on his decision to suspend his campaign. Right. If the man had put family first, he might still be a contender versus just inspiring a Top Ten List.

Top Ten Things Herman Cain Will Do Now

10. Spend more time with the estranged family.

9. Dancing With The Stars 2012.


8. Call Rick Perry to say, “Yo, I suspended my campaign—and almost matched your “Oops” moment with my Libya blubbering—but I’m still trouncing your ass!”

7. Resume the search for Nicole’s real killer.


6. Take on the Tea Party by starting the Pizza Party.

5. Relaunch his campaign to become President—of the National Restaurant Association.


4. Call Michele Bachmann to say, “I could help you in the polls, if you know what I’m saying.”


3. Present his global Booty Call Map.


2. Turn Women for Herman Cain into a dating site.

1. Hang out with his mentors, Bill Clinton and Tiger Woods.

9175: Judging a Kook By Its Cover.

Supporters of Rep. Michele Bachmann were upset with the portrait selected for a recent Newsweek cover; however, the image appears to be totally fair and balanced based on a survey of other photos.

9031: Michele Bachmann On Black Farmers.

From The New York Daily News…

Michele Bachmann calls black farmer settlement a magnet for fraud

The Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb.—Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann pointed to one program in particular Monday when talking about wasteful government spending: a multibillion dollar settlement paid to black farmers, who claim the federal government discriminated against them for decades in awarding loans and other aid.

The issue came up after Bachmann and Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa toured flooded areas along the Missouri River. During a news conference, they fielded a question about whether farmers affected by the flooding also should be worried by proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture cuts.

The two responded by criticizing a 1999 settlement in what is known as the Pigford case, after the original plaintiff, North Carolina farmer Timothy Pigford. Late last year, President Barack Obama signed legislation authorizing a new, nearly $1.2 billion settlement for people who were denied payments in the earlier one because they missed deadlines for filing.

King has likened the Pigford settlement to “modern-day reparations” for African-Americans. He said Monday a large percentage of the settlement “was just paid out in fraudulent claims” and criticized the Obama administration’s plan to resolve separate lawsuits filed by Hispanic and female farmers.

“That’s another at least $1.3 billion,” King said “I’d like to apply that money to the people that are under water right now.”

Bachmann seconded King’s criticism, saying, “When money is diverted to inefficient projects, like the Pigford project, where there seems to be proof-positive of fraud, we can’t afford $2 billion in potentially fraudulent claims when that money can be used to benefit the people along the Mississippi River and the Missouri River.”

John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association, which represented black farmers in the Pigford settlement, called the criticism unfair.

“Why continue to take from those people who haven’t taken part in federal programs equally and give to another group of farmers who have taken part in federal programs?” Boyd asked. “I think taking resources from a group of people who have been historically denied any relief at the Department of Agriculture is a bad idea. For the flood victims that deserve redress ... they should provide those people with relief, too.”

Boyd said he and others worked to put anti-fraud provisions in the legislation signed last year. They require each claim of discrimination to be judged individually to determine its merit - a process that Boyd said has not yet even begun.

“We worked with Republicans … to get those issues addressed,” he said. “Even after we got them addressed, Ms. Bachmann and Mr. King have continued to look at black farmers in a very negative way.

“I think it’s bad for the American people. I think if Ms. Bachmann wants to be president of the United States, she should treat all people fairly.”

Bachmann’s criticism wasn’t limited to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Minnesota congresswoman also took a swipe at the president, who has not visited areas of Iowa, Nebraska or other states flooded by the river.

“The devastation is beyond what people can imagine,” Bachmann said. “Surely this is worthy of a presidential visit to come see this level of devastation in western Iowa.”

Heavy rain and a large snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains have poured water into the Missouri, flooding more than 500,000 acres in seven states. The high water is expected to linger through August, putting pressure on levees that protect homes, cities and farms.

”This flood that we have seems to have disappeared from the minds of people from across the country,” King said. “If you’re not here to see it … you don’t hear very much about it.”

8123: Witches, Warlocks And Other Demons.

Post-election coverage in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell blamed a lack of support from the GOP for her crushing defeat in Delaware. Guess the American people didn’t have to resort to witchcraft to make the dimwit disappear.

• Former President George W. Bush said one of the “most disgusting moments” of his presidency came when Kanye West insisted Bush didn’t care about Black people during a telethon for the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Um, don’t look for West to apologize like he did with Taylor Swift.

• San Francisco passed legislation that will limit toy giveaways in children’s fast food meals containing excessive calories, fat and sodium. In other words, Mickey D’s Happy Meals will be less happy. Although no less unhealthy.

8086: Open Mic Madness.

Crazy talk in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas, is in the news again, now insisting that the recently passed healthcare law is unconstitutional. Maybe she’ll leave a message on President Obama’s voicemail.

• Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell said she regrets making a campaign ad where she declared, “I’m not a witch.” Unfortunately, she doesn’t have the magical ability to make it disappear.

• NPR analyst Juan Williams was fired after making comments about Muslims on Bill O’Reilly’s TV show. “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country,” said Williams. “But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.” No word on how Williams reacts when confronted by O’Donnell the Witch or Ginni Thomas the Nutcase.

• The NAACP released a report raising concerns about racism within Tea Party groups. The report argues that Tea Party groups “have given platform to anti-Semites, racists and bigots.” At this point, these folks make Alice in Wonderland’s tea party look downright tame.

7953: American Classics.

A story involving the conservative Tea Party is embellished by an American Apparel ad. God bless America.

7952: Not-So-Wise Crackers.

Mouthing off with a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• The president of a Montana Tea Party group was booted for making anti-gay comments on Facebook. The moron appeared to condone hanging gays while responding to a comment left by another moron. Time to add another Teapartytracker.org entry.

• Rock icon Morrissey sparked controversy by declaring Chinese people are “a subspecies” for their lack of animal-protection laws. Time to add over 1.3 billion people to the list of Morrissey haters.

• The U.S. smoking rate has hovered around 20 percent since 2005, after a 40-year decline. Morrissey and the ex-president of a Montana Tea Party group think smokers are a subspecies who should be hanged.

7946: Labor Day Pains.

Taking the day off with a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• The NAACP and other liberal organizations have launched Teapartytracker.org to monitor “racism and other forms of extremism within the Tea Party movement.” The Website goes on to announce, “We call on the Tea Party to repudiate extremists among their ranks and join in civil dialogue with all Americans.” If Website workers are being paid, the project could reverse unemployment figures.

• Borders reported 2Q losses, with revenue falling 12 percent. The bookseller announced plans to add a wider range of merchandise to boost sales. Hmmm… sales are down, so the solution is to sell more stuff? Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble posted a 1Q loss on legal expenses related to fighting the takeover attempts of a major shareholder. These guys should spend more time in the business books section learning about the fundamentals of sales and marketing.

• News reports are clarifying that JetBlue Airways did not fire the flight attendant who went nuts and bailed out of a standing airplane. The flight attendant’s lawyer announced that his client resigned. Somebody should push the moron and his lawyer out of a flying jet.

7930: White Fright Takes Flight.

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

White fright simmers in summer of anxiety

One crucial element of the American subconscious is about to become explicit and highly volatile. It is the realization that a white United States is within thinkable distance of a moment when it will no longer be the majority. This awareness already exists in places like New York and Texas and California, and there have been projections of when different nonwhite populations will collectively outnumber the former white majority. But it also exerts a strong subliminal effect in states like Alaska that have an overwhelming white preponderance.

Until recently, the tendency has been to think of this rather than to speak of it—or to speak of it delicately, lest the hard-won ideal of diversity be imperiled. But nobody with any feeling for the zeitgeist can avoid noticing the symptoms of white unease.

For example, so strong is the moral stature of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement that even the white right pretends to emulate it. Thus, I find that it is really quite rare to hear slurs against President Obama that are based purely on the color of his skin.

But it is increasingly common to hear allegations that Obama is foreign-born or a Muslim. And these insinuations are perfectly emblematic of the two main fears of the old majority: that it will be submerged by an influx from beyond the borders and that it will be challenged in its traditional ways and faiths by an alien and largely Third World religion.

This summer, then, has been the perfect register of the new anxiety, beginning with the fracas over Arizona’s immigration law, gaining in intensity with the proposal by some Republicans to amend the 14th Amendment so as to denaturalize “anchor babies,” cresting with the row over the “ground zero” mosque, and culminating with Glenn Beck, a quasi-educated Mormon broadcaster calling for a Christian religious revival from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

At the last Tea Party rally I attended, earlier this year at the Washington Monument, I stood behind signs that read: “We left our guns at home—this time” and “We invoke the First Amendment today—the Second Amendment tomorrow.” But Beck’s event was tepid by comparison: a call to sink to the knees rather than rise from them. The overall effect was large, vague, moist and undirected: the “Waterworld” of white self-pity.

The Washington Post quoted Linda Adams, a Beck supporter from Colorado, who said, “We want our country to get back to its original roots.” She also told the paper that “her ancestors were on the Mayflower and fought in the American Revolution.” She was upset that some schools no longer require students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Well, the U.S. population is simply not going to be replenished by Puritan pilgrims from England, and the original Pledge of Allegiance was fine with most people as a statement of national unity, until its “original intent” was compromised by a late insertion of the words “under God” in the McCarthyite 1950s. But one still sees what she means and can feel sympathy with the pulse of nostalgia.

In a curious and confused way, some white people are starting almost to think like a minority, even like a persecuted one.

What does it take to believe that Christianity is an endangered religion in the U.S. or that the name of Jesus is insufficiently spoken or appreciated? Who wakes up believing that there is no appreciation for our veterans and our armed forces and that without a noisy speech from former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, their sacrifice would be scorned?

It’s not unfair to say that such grievances are purely and simply imaginary, which in turn leads one to ask what the real ones can be. The clue, surely, is furnished by the remainder of the speeches, which deny racial feeling so monotonously and vehemently as to draw attention.

Saturday’s rally was quite largely confined to expressions of pathos and insecurity, voiced in a sickly and pious tone. The emotions that underlay it, however, may not be uttered that way indefinitely.

New York Times Syndicate

7851: Tea Party Pours Black Support.

From The Sacramento Bee…

Black activists defend tea party against charges of racism

By Kathleen Hennessey

WASHINGTON—A group of black political activists on Wednesday defended the tea party movement against accusations of racism and claimed its critics were using race to shore up support for President Barack Obama and his policies.

The news conference, organized by the group Tea Party Express, was a response to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which three weeks ago condemned as racist signs and slurs at tea party rallies. The move revived infighting within the Tea Party movement and led to the departure of Mark Williams, a Tea Party Express leader who had written a blog post describing “coloreds” as lazy. Williams, a longtime Tea Party Express spokesman known for incendiary comments, said the post was satirical.

“No matter his intent, Mark’s response to the NAACP’s claims were unwise and proved to be counterproductive,” said William Owens, a spokesman for the Sacramento, Calif.-based Tea Party Express.

The group’s slow response to Williams’ post should “by no means should be interpreted as racist … but was borne out of loyalty to a friend but not in defense of his words.”

The concession was a rare one in series of attacks on the civil rights institution, the president and his policies.

Speakers described the NAACP as irrelevant and silent on the issues most important to African-Americans. The group is trying to scare blacks into supporting Democrats, charged Niger Innis, spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality, saying the NAACP “racial terror” tactic was borrowed from the Ku Klux Klan.

“The same terror that was employed by whites in hoods is now being employed by blacks and whites in suits,” Innis said.

Alfonzo Rachel, a commentator for the conservative PJTV website, said the NAACP was made up of the “same kind of people who would rat out a runaway slave.”

Representatives for the NAACP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“What America does not realize is that we don’t have two parties anymore. We have ideologies. We have socialism, and we have liberalism. We have unrighteousness; we have anti-God policies; we have ‘Destroy America.’ That’s what the D is for in Democrat Party,” said Mary Baker, founder of Conservative Moms for America.

Alan Keyes, the 2004 Republican nominee for Senate in Illinois and frequent presidential candidate, said Obama and the Democrats had tried to sell blacks “the phony promise of socialism and government largesse. It simply means that we should all become slaves on the government plantation.”

The group said they did not believe black lawmakers’ claims that tea party protesters had shouted racial epithets at a rally in March. They said many protest signs often described as racist were misunderstood or taken out of context.

Tea Party Express is run by GOP political consultant Sal Russo and supports fiscally conservative candidates through the country. It has organized cross-country tours of tea party rallies and has run ads supporting Republican candidates in Nevada, Alaska and Massachusetts.

7812: Sex And Politics.

What would the Tea Party think of this call to patriots?

7793: Tea Party Express Leader Expelled.

[The NAACP took heat for branding the Tea Party as racist. However, a Tea Party leader responded with a blog post that pretty much confirmed the accusations.]

From The New York Daily News…

Tea Party Express leader Mark Williams kicked out over ‘Colored People’ letter

By Helen Kennedy, Daily News Staff Writer

Mark Williams, the flamethrower leading the battle against the Ground Zero mosque, was kicked out of the National Tea Party Federation Saturday for a racist blog post.

He shrugged off the diss, calling it “grandstanding” from a “minor player on the fringe.”

A California radio host and leader of the Tea Party Express, Williams had labeled the Manhattan boro president a “Jewish Uncle Tom” and President Obama an “Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug.”

But when he posted a satirical letter supposedly from “the Colored People” to President Lincoln praising slavery, that apparently crossed the line.

The federation, an umbrella organization that claims to represent 85 Tea Party groups, kicked out Williams’ group when it wouldn’t fire him.

“We have expelled Tea Party Express and Mark Williams from the National Tea Party Federation because of the letter that he wrote,” federation spokesman David Webb said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

He called the letter — written after the NAACP called on Tea Party leaders to oust racists from their ranks — “clearly offensive.”

In the voice of slaves, Williams wrote: “Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house.

“We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!”

He went on to say blacks don’t want taxes cut because “how will we Colored People ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn?”

In a press release, the National Tea Party Federation says it ordered the Tea Party Express to kick Williams out and say so “prominently” on their Website. They did not.

Williams’ response: who’s the National Tea Party Federation anyway?

“There are internal political dramas amongst the various self-anointed tea party ‘leaders’ and some of the minor players on the fringes see the Tea Party Express and Mark Williams as tickets to a booking on Face the Nation,” he said.

”There is no tea party leadership; every tea partier is a tea party leader.”

The federation says it represents more than a million activists in 85 groups.

Williams’ Tea Party Express is one of the most influential in the conservative movement. It has reportedly raised $2.3 million this year, helped elect Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts and organized a rally in Nevada that featured a rare Sarah Palin speech.

Williams stepped down as chairman last month to concentrate on leading the fight against the proposed Lower Manhattan mosque, which he called a monument to the 9/11 attackers to “worship the terrorists’ monkey-god.”

He called Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who backs building the mosque, a “Jewish Uncle Tom who would have turned rat on Anne Frank.”