Spinning

Some of the committed leftists and Democrats I know continue call Tea Partiers and critics of President Obama "racist." 

I wonder how they are going to spin this?

[H]ere's what you don't often see in the coverage of Tea Party rallies: Patriotic signs professing a love for country; mothers and fathers with their children; African-Americans proudly participating; and senior citizens bopping to a hip-hop rapper. ... It is important to show the colorful anger Americans might have against elected leaders and Washington. But people should also see the orange-vested Tea Party hospitality handlers who welcome you with colorful smiles.

There were a few signs that could be seen as offensive to African-Americans. But by and large, no one I spoke with or I heard from on stage said anything that was approaching racist.

Almost everyone I met was welcoming to this African-American television news producer.

Comments

[Milo]

Jon Voight made the interesting comment on the Mike Huckabee Fox Channel show that there has been no substantiaied proof of any actual racial bias taking place at tea party gatherings and no substantial proof that any tea party supporters or members were directly or indirectly involved in any violent or racial actions.
Heresay and propoganda can go both ways.
Without conviction of an actual supporter what the left is providing is then to be considerd, at least in my eyes, a lie perpetrated to slander those that oppose them.

[Peg]

My personal opinion, Milo, is that they do not have good, substantive arguments against what Tea Partiers main points are (smaller government, fiscal responsibility) - so - instead they resort to lies. With such awful attacks, they hope to drown out the Tea Party message, and allow it to not see the light of day.

It seems that, although the left is lapping it up, more on the right AND independents are not.

[jammen]

Peg, read this:

AP has the full scoop.

A reconstruction of the events shows that the conservative challenges largely sprang from a mislabeled video that was shot later in the day.

Breitbart posted two columns on his Web site saying the claims were fabricated. Both led with a 48-second YouTube video showing Lewis, Carson, other Congressional Black Caucus members and staffers leaving the Capitol. Some of the group were videotaping the booing crowd.

Breitbart asked why the epithet was not captured by the black lawmakers' cameras, and why nobody reacted as if they had heard the slur. He also questioned whether the epithets could have been shouted by liberals planted in the crowd.

But the 48-second video was shot as the group was leaving the Capitol — at least one hour after Lewis, D-Ga., and Carson walked to the Capitol, which is when they said the slurs were used.

Questioned about using a video on his Web site from the wrong moment, Breitbart stood by his claim that the lawmakers were lying.

"I'm not saying the video was conclusive proof," he said.

AP also reports that Rep. Heath Shuler – a Blue Dog Democrat from North Carolina, no raving lefty – says he heard the slurs too.

That's four congressmen vs. Breitbart and his tea-party bullies. Which story do you believe?

[Peg]

LOL - my title of this post is so apt! "Spinning" is exactly what you are doing, my friend, when you refer to tea party people as "bullies." They are just people expressing their Constitutionally derived rights to express themselves and protest.

Whether Breitbart posted a video that was contemporaneous with the moment when the slurs were purportedly made or not is irrelevant. What is relevant is that we have no conclusive proof that the slurs were actually made.

That there is no conclusive proof does not mean that they were not made. Perhaps they were; perhaps they were not. Unless someone comes up with conclusive proof (like a video with sound demonstrating that they were made) we will never know for certain. I am not one that says because the proof cannot be found that it is certain the slurs weren't made.

Of course, even if there was hard and fast evidence that a few people at this time did use epithets - it still does not mean that most or even many Tea Party people are racist, nor that there aren't black and other people of color concerned about the same issues, etc., etc.

Thus - so sorry. The AP does not have the "full scoop," Jammen.

[jammen]

A rational response from Tea Party leaders would have been: "we apologize for the actions of a few. We condemn their acts and in no way does it represent the Tea Party majority."

Instead we denial and silence.

Rachel Maddow had an African-American Tea Party activist on her show who acknowledged a small racist element in the movement, but said the majority are not.

It is petty on your part to insist that you need video proof that the slurs were made when four congressmen, including a conservative blue dog, state they were made.
You show your bias by unabashedly promoting conservative talking points without requiring "video proof".

[Peg]

Jammen - read what I wrote. You are flat out either having trouble understanding what my words mean - or - lying. I don't know which.

Not only did I not say "you need video proof that the slurs were made" - I said exactly the opposite. Go read it again.

I also said exactly what you say I "should" say: that even if there are a few who do and say what they ought not - it does not represent the group as a whole.

If you say something nasty, must I apologize myself for what you did? I think not.

Speaking of apologies - go read what I wrote again. If you do and you are honest - you will see that I did indeed write what you think I should ... sans an apology, which I do not believe is in order.