A Very Large Percentage Of American Jews Are Smart And Humane-- And Don't Vote For Republicans

A ballroom filled with aggressively right-wing Jews with "Make America Great Again" yarmulkas on, cheering loudly when America's very own would-be Hitler oozed how he would turn away refugees was horribly sickening to me. Most of my blood relatives are in Recife, Belém and Salvador in Brazil because, the U.S. turned them away as undesirables when they were fleeing for their lives from Czarist persecution. I wonder if pre-1932 Germany had anything like the Adelson Kapo Klub Konclave where Jews sat around cheering anti-Communism and law and order with yarmulkas embroidered with swastikas.

The interests of American Jews have long been allied with the Democratic Party. When the country was going all in for the corruption, narrow-minded bigotry and greed of the roaring twenties, Jewish voters were having done of it. Jews gave Warren G. Harding just 43% of their votes, splitting the rets between Socialist Eugene Debs (38%) and Democrat James Cox (19%). Almost all presidential candidates after Cox have gotten over 60% of the Jewish vote, exceptions being Jimmy Carter who still took a plurality in the 1980 three-way race and Mondale who only got 57% in his ill-fated attempt to prevent Reagan's reelection. The habit of Jewish voters giving landslide margins to Democrats began in a serious way in 1928 when Jews were among the first to recognize where Republican policies were taking the country. Jewish voters were all in for Al Smith (72%) against Herbert Hoover (28%) even before the Crash. And even Jewish Republican voters abandoned Hoover, whose share dropped from 28% to 18% when Roosevelt first ran. Jews gave Roosevelt 82% of their vote in 1932. That grew to 85% in 1936 and 90% in 1940 and 1944. That 90% of anti-Republicans didn't disappear with FDR. In 1948, Dewey (R) got 10% and Jews split their votes between Truman (75%) and the Progressive candidate, Henry Wallace (15%).

But America liked Ike and many Jewish voters did too, giving Adlai Stevenson just 64% in 1952 and 60% in 1956. After that, Jewish Americans have continued to support the Democrats ever since:

• 1960- Kennedy (82%), Nixon (18%)
• 1964- LBJ (90%), Goldwater (10%)
• 1968- Humphrey (81%), Nixon (17%)
• 1972- McGovern (65%), Nixon (35%)
• 1976- Carter (71%), Ford (27%)
• 1980- Carter (45%), Reagan (39%), Anderson (15%)
• 1984- Mondale- (57%), Reagan (31%)
• 1988- Dukakis- (64%), Bush (35%)
• 1992- Clinton (80%), Bush (11%), Perot (9%)
• 1996- Clinton (78%), Dole (16%)
• 2000- Gore (79%), Bush (19%)
• 2004- Kerry (76%), Bush (24%)
• 2008- Obama (78%), McCain (22%)
• 2012- Obama (69%), Romney (30%)
• 2016- Hillary (71%), Trumpanzee (24%)

None of that has prevented Republicans, over and over and over from trying to woo Jewish voters. But George H.W. Bush's 35% was a highhmark in recent years. In 2016, Trump tried too but only managed 24%, six points less than Romney got 4 years earlier. In 2020, Trump is going for it again-- and in a big way. Mob-affiliated far-right Israeli citizen Sheldon Adelson will help bankroll a ten-million dollar effort to persuade American Jews that fascism isn't as bad as they think it is.

Although the Kapos say they're "at the intersection of a very unique moment in time," this is basically what they say every four years-- and then, as you can see above, fail miserably.

This time they think because Trump openly supports the right-wing Likud agenda-- most American Jews don't-- the GOP will be rewarded with Jewish votes. Alex Isenstadt wrote that "At a time when Trump’s approval rating remains mired in the low-to-mid 40s, the offensive shows how Republicans are taking steps to contest any votes they can. Jews only account for about 2 percent of the U.S. population and have overwhelmingly supported Democrats in past elections. But GOP officials believe that siphoning off even a small portion the Jewish vote in a few battleground states could be critical in 2020. 'The Jewish vote will remain and largely loyal Democratic vote because of domestic issues largely, but if there was ever a cycle where Republicans could make inroads it is this cycle,' said Ari Fleischer, a former George W. Bush White House press secretary who now serves as an RJC board member. 'If you accept that there are sizeable Jewish populations in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, [and] Michigan, the Jewish vote-- if we can make additional inroads-- can be very helpful in putting you over the top. The White House knows that.' The administration is going all-in on the strategy. On Saturday, Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and three White House officials-- Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt, and Avi Berkowitz-- all made pilgrimages to the Venetian, where RJC (AKA- Adelson's Kapo Klub Konclave) members were gathered for the third day of their annual spring conference. Before a sea of supporters waving 'We are Jews for Trump' signs, the president accused Democrats of opposing Israel and 'advancing by far the most extreme, anti-Semitic agenda in history.'" Most Jews aren't poorly educated morons and they don't fall for Trump's ugly gaslighting. They know a fascist slob when they hear him.

Where do Jews live? Not in states Trump is likely to win. These are the states with over a quarter million Jews and each state's PVI:

• New York- 1,768,770 (8.9%)- D+12
• California- 1,182,990 (3.0%)- D+12
• Florida- 629,120 (3.0%)- R+2
• New Jersey- 545,450 (6.1%)- D+7
• Pennsylvania- 298,240 (2.3%)- [even]
• Illinois- 298,035 (2.3%)- D+7
• Massachusetts- 293,080 (4.3%)- D+12

The only other states where Jews make up over 2% of the population are Connecticut (D+6), Maryland (D+12) and Nevada (D+1).

The Jewish voters who have been most susceptible to Republican messaging are right-wing Russian immigrants and Hassidics who basically vote the way their rabbis tell them to. These Jews are already part of the 24% of Jews that backed Trump in 2016 and, with the exception of Pennsylvania, where a sizable community of right-wing Russians have settled-- they're primarily is blue states where they won't have a serious impact on the outcomes.

Prior to taking the stage, Trump met privately with Adelson and his wife, Miriam, who together gave over $120 million to Republican causes during the 2018 midterms. The 85-year-old Adelson, who’s been undergoing cancer treatment, hadn’t been expected to be in attendance. But those close to the billionaire said he was intent on making the Trump rally, and when he entered the auditorium on a motorized scooter and wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, he was greeted with a standing ovation.

Democrats are deeply skeptical that the GOP will succeed in making inroads with Jews. Since 1992, according to exit polling data, the Jewish vote has remained remarkably stable, with Democrats winning between 69 percent and 79 percent in each presidential election.

Halie Soifer, the executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said that recent polling her group had conducted showed that Jews remained confident in the Democratic Party’s posture on Israel and that they overwhelmingly disagreed with Trump on an array of domestic issues. And, she pointed out, Republicans had long vowed to make gains with Jewish voters only to fall short.

“This is not new. We’ve seen different iterations of this in previous elections either in midterm or presidential elections, and each time it’s kind of repackaged with a different narrative in an attempt by Republicans to chip away at the Jewish vote-- and every time it fails,” Soifer said. “And while the repackaging might make it look like there are different reasons behind it-- and certainly we are in a slightly different political context today than we have been in the past-- the result is the same.”

...To some Republicans, highlighting issues surrounding Israel and anti-Semitism goes beyond simply appealing to the Jewish vote. Among those making the rounds at the Venetian this week was Dan Conston, who, as the president of American Action Network and Congressional Leadership Fund, the main pro-House GOP outside groups, has been arguing to major donors that portraying Democrats as unwilling to confront anti-Semitic forces in their party will help to boost Republicans with the suburban voters who abandoned them in 2018.

Ahead of this week’s conference, the group released digital advertisements tying swing-district House Democrats to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who has come under fire for using tropes widely viewed as anti-Semitic. While some senior Democrats have rebuked Omar, she has retained her seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“It's appalling that Democrats have stood by and tolerated openly anti-Semitic commentary from their own members,” Conston said. “If Democrats continue to stand by and do nothing, we think suburban voters across America will find it similarly appalling next election.”

That Jewish Republicans have emerged as outspoken champions of Trump’s reelection bid represents something of a turnabout. The RJC was torn over the president during the tumultuous opening days of his tenure, and broke with Trump over his handling of the violence in Charlottesville, when he equated white supremacists with counter-protesters.

Yet many key Jewish Republicans are now firmly in the president’s corner. That includes Fred Zeidman, a longtime GOP giver [and notorious Kapo] who chairs a New York City-based investment banking firm. Zeidman, who backed Jeb Bush in the 2016 GOP primary, initially harbored concerns about Trump’s position on Israel and was rankled by the White House’s failure to mention Jews in its January 2017 statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

But Zeidman, who met with Trump early in his White House tenure to discuss Israel, said he no longer had any doubts about Trump. The president, he said, had been “incomparable” in terms of “how good he’s been to Israel.”

Zeidman, who helped to oversee Jewish outreach on the George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney presidential campaigns, recalled a recent conversation with Houston oilman Harold Hamm. During the Bush years, Zeidman told Hamm, he had a T-shirt quoting the late Israeli leader Shimon Peres as saying that “George W. Bush is the greatest president Israel has ever had.”

“I had,” Zeidman told the billionaire oilman, “to tear up my T-shirt.”

There are now 3.45 million Muslims living in the U.S. If the aggressive Republican Party outreach to Jewish voters this cycle is based on bigotry towards Muslims, that is not just certain to turn off many Jews, and it will super-charge Muslim voter participation in parts on Michigan, Texas, Florida, Virginia, Iowa, Pennsylvania and even Arkansas where they are large Muslim communities. And, by the way, if you're interested in helping with Ilhan Omar's (D-MN), reelection efforts against Trump and the Islamophobic bigots working overtime in their efforts to dehumanize her, you can click on the Blue America "Worthy Incumbents" thermometer on the right. There you will find the incumbents in the House who are doing the heavily lifting for the progressive agenda right now. No one needs the help more than Ilhan. Please consider contributing what you can to her campaign and to the campaigns of any of the other members who you feel have been doing an exceptionally good job this year.

Is There A Trumpist Split Between Ashkenazi And Sephardic Jews?

It's no secret that Señor Trumpanzee isn't charming the socks off any minority groups. He's in single digits among African-Americans and not only doing far worse than any other Republican ever among Hispanics, his hate-filled campaign has inspired tens of thousands of Hispanics to get citizenship so they could vote against him and hundreds of thousands more Hispanics that normal to register to vote for the first time, voting against Trump the main motivation. Asian-Americans have been similarly repulsed by Trump's racism and extremism and by turning the fastest growing American minority off to the GOP, he is putting down-ballot races in California, Nevada, New Jersey and Virginia in jeopardy. Even traditionally Republican-leaning conservative Filipinos have been alienated by Trumpanzee bigotry.

So, what about American Jews? Since 1916, when most Jews voted for Woodrow Wilson, the majority of Jews have been a dependable mainstay of the Democratic coalition. The waves of Ashkenazi Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe were extremely progressive and tended towards assimilation. Jews who prefer separation from non-Jews and who tend towards religious immersion and fanaticism also tend towards conservative politics. Something like 90% of Jews-- a group that has the highest percentage voter turnout of any ethnic group-- backed FDR, the same percentage of Jews that subsequently backed LBJ against Goldwater (who was himself of Jewish ancestry). Popular Republicans-- like Reagan-- have been able to garner around a third of the Jewish vote. George W. Bush was supported by 19% of Jews in 2000 and 24% of Jews in 2004. In 2008, Obama took 83% of Jews but just under 70% in 2012.

The other day Roland and I had a business/social dinner with a 28 year old realtor, our first in-person meeting with the guy. He seemed very much like a hipster and is an enthusiastic world traveler and a dedicated foodie. At dinner it also turned out that he is a dedicated and enthusiastic Trumpist, which came as a bit of a shock to me. He's a Sephardic Jew, his family having come here from Morocco. That reminded me of an old friend of mine I had been talking to earlier in the week, also a Sephardic Jew (from Morocco via Israel) who is not just a Trumpist but who insisted that "the Jews are overwhelmingly going to vote for Trump." Both he and the young realtor are into the outwards appearances of religion--keeping kosher or, at least, kosherish, observing Shabbos, going to Temple occasionally and socializing primarily with other relatively new Sephardic immigrants.

One of my Sephardic friends told me Hillary is "weak" and wouldn't be good for Israel. The other one told me he "heard" Hillary hates Jews. I don't want to ask where they get their misinformation but I hope they hear about the report from a court case yesterday in the New York Daily News on the top fella Trump hired to run his campaign, Steve Bannon. Bannon's ex-wife, Mary Louise Piccard, avowed in a court declaration, under penalty of perjury, "that Bannon didn't want their twin daughters attending the Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles because many Jewish students were enrolled at the elite institution."

"The biggest problem he had with Archer is the number of Jews that attend," Piccard said in her statement signed on June 27, 2007.

"He said that he doesn't like the way they raise their kids to be 'whiny brats' and that he didn't want the girls going to school with Jews," Piccard wrote.

"I told him that there are children who are Jewish at (a competing school), and he asked me what the percentage was. I told him that I didn't know because it wasn't an issue for me as I am not raising the girls to be either anti-Semitic or prejudiced against anyone," she wrote.

Unlike most Jews of European ancestry (Ashkenazi Jews) the Sephardic Jews are not especially progressive or educated or socialistically-oriented and their beliefs are generally lumped in with Orthodox Judaism. Several centuries ago, the Sephardic Jews of Spain and Portugal were considered the aristocrats of Judaism. That's a long time ago and is a very different ballgame from poorly educated Iraqi, Syrian, Yemenite and North African Jews. The Sephardic Jews from the very beginning of the split were more traditionalist and, one might say, socially backward, the split itself having come over polygamy, which the Sephardic Jews refused to give up, while the Ashkenazi Jews quickly jettisoned. The first Jews in America were Sephardic but the Sephardic community was quickly swamped by Ashkenazi Jews coming here from Germany, Poland, Russia. Ukraine and the rest of Eastern Europe. Post-Holocaust Israel was largely an Ashkenazi project as well but today the more conservative and socially backward Sephardic Jews are in the majority there. It's no coincidence that the socialist-oriented, forward-looking, idealistic and successful Israel of the country's first 3 decades is now a bitter, right-wing and increasingly backward apartheid country. And it's no coincidence that blue collar Sephardic Jews in America have tended to gravitate towards "the stupid party" and, lately, towards Hehr Trumpanzee.

This morning the Jewish Insider reported a poll showing that Florida's large and active Jewish voter base has made up it's mind on who it wants to see as president-- and it isn't Señor Trumpanzee. Jewish voters in the Sunshine State are backing Hillary against Trump 66-23%. She's up by 43 points-- and 71% of the state's Jewish voters have an unfavorable view of Trump.

The only group Trump is doing well is among Orthodox Jewish voters (6 percent of the Florida Jewish electorate). According to the poll, Trump leads Clinton 66-22 percent among Orthodox Jews. Among all non-Orthodox voters, Clinton leads Trump 77-22.

The Times of Israel is reporting today that even right-wing sociopath Sheldon Adelson-- who fancies himself the ambassador to the GOP from Israel's Likud Party-- is so irked at Trumpanzee that he hasn't spent a shekel on him yet. The toad-like Adelson is angry Trump hasn't visited Israel like he told him to and angry that Trump picked the neo-Nazi Pence as a running mate, instead of Adelson crony Newt Gingrich. Addison is spending his money on Senate and House races instead.

"Gonif" means thief, if your Yiddish is rusty

Why Most Jews Don't Seriously Consider Voting For Republicans

Not many Jews vote for right-wing political parties. Jewish families usually put a huge premium on education and equality and, let's face it, right-wing political parties couldn't exist without ignorance and bigotry. All through history, however, there have always been a minority of Jews steeped in the same kind of ignorance and prejudice that afflicts other communities. Even if Obama isn't terribly popular among Jews, the vast majority of them voted against Romney and his crackpot, extremist Party of Hatred. Most Jews-- at least outside of Israel-- have learned, and learned the hard way, that the kind of Hatred and Bigotry at the core of the Republican Party, and at the core of all fascist-oriented parties, sooner or later and always works out badly for the Jews. Obama's 70% support among Jewish voters was down 4% since he creamed McCain in 2008 but the 4% drop in the Jewish vote for Obama in the 2012 versus 2008 race is consistent with the modest percentage drop Obama experienced with several other constituencies-- including college graduates, whites, independents, voters under 30 and Catholics.

I bet you didn't know that Budapest has the second biggest synagogue in the world, the Dohány Street Synagogue, second only to Temple Emanu-El in New York City. At one point Jews made up 23% of Budapest's population. That point was just before the rise of fascism in the 20th Century, a time when the right-wing mayor of Vienna, Karl Lueger, nicknamed Hungary's capital Judapest. Before Hitler came to town, Hungary's homegrown fascist, Admiral Miklós Horthy, had a series of full fledged pogroms against Hungarian Jews on increasingly aggressive levels. By 1941 there were only 861,000 Jews left in Hungary, and there were massacres and widespread murders but it wasn't until German troops occupied Hungary that Horthy allowed deportation of Jews to German death camps. 437,402 Jews were deported by the Hungarians, 90% of whom died in German death camps, particularly Auschwitz. Winston Churchill was getting intelligence that led him to write to his Foreign Secretary that "There is no doubt that this persecution of Jews in Hungary and their expulsion from enemy territory is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world." Of the 861,000 Hungarian Jews in 1941, there were about 200,000 survivors by the time Horthy was saved from the Soviets by Americans, which allowed him to live out the rest of his life in luxury in Portugal (which was still a fascist dictatorship until 1974).

In case you're wondering why all the background on Hungarian Jews, there's been a little incident in Budapest recently. Hungary's third biggest political party is the Jobbik party, very much Hungary's Tea Party and widely considered neo-fascist, anti-Semitic and homophobic, although they describe themselves in a way that would make any Fox News viewer feel perfectly comfortable: "a principled, conservative and radically patriotic Christian party." The party got going in 2003 as a protest movement against-- believe it or not-- "the war against Christmas."

Earlier this month one of Jobbik's Parliamentary leaders, Márton Gyöngyösi, told the legislature it is time “to assess ... how many people of Jewish origin there are here, and especially in the Hungarian parliament and the Hungarian government, who represent a certain national security risk.”

Jeb Bush with Republican Jew counter Fred Malek

That's why Jews tend to shy away from right-wing parties. I mean have you heard anyone talk like that since... since... since Richard Nixon hired Fred Malek as his official "Jew counter." Malek, by the way, is still an extremely powerful Republican Party operative and was National Finance Committee co-chair for John McCain in 2008. This year he ran the American Action Network, a fascist-oriented SuperPAC, which had considerably more success than Karl Rove's various PACs, money laundering operations and scam outfits did. Malek's American Action Network spent $$11,660,232 ($4 million of which was contributed, ironically, by America's top Kapo group, the Republican Jewish Coalition) on behalf of a repulsive batch of right-wing hatemongers very much like himself who are trying to win congressional races. His 4 biggest efforts were to try to reelect fanatics Jeff Denham-- successfully smearing former astronaut Jose Hernandez with $2,508,581 in patently false ads-- Chip Cravaack ($1,668,529) and Daniel "Taliban Dan" Webster ($1,119,279) and to elect John Shimkus' horrifyingly corrupt chief of staff Rodney Davis against progressive champion David Gill ($1,482,562). Other miscreants whose campaigns Malek was funneling money to included Gambino Crime Family congressman Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm of Staten Island ($16,930), pro-rape Republican Richard Mourdock ($645,151), and deranged California wingnut Tony Strickland ($168,717), who lost.

NY-9 Used To Be So... So, You Know... Liberal

It's 1921 all over again! That was the last time a Republican won in NY-9. This time Brooklyn voters decided to send President Obama a message-- or a hodge podge of messages-- by electing an out-and-out fascist, Bob Turner, to Congress. He won 32,446 (54%) to 27,669 (46%)-- although Weprin won in the Queens part of the district 51-48%. Hordes of Orthodox and Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn gave Obama a big thumbs down. In the 2012 midterms 67,011 Democrats voted; more than double the number who voted yesterday. If Obama thinks he's going to motivate Democrats and left-leaning independents next year, I can't wait to hear what he has in mind.

When Republican fascists attacked Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal-- which brought prosperity and dignity to millions of American working families-- they often spat out the word "Jew" as part of their derogatory description. It was before Christian right apocalyptic mania merged with militarism and Big Oil dictates to tamp down the overt anti-Semitism that was standard GOP fare until the 1980s. Since then, Jewish refugees have been a special class, almost as cherished and encouraged-- unlike when they were turned away by the thousands in the direst time of need-- as the Cubans. America has been taking in a hefty share of Russian and Eastern European Jews, some secular but some from bizarre post-medieval cults, the Hasidim.

One of the ways I disappointed my atheist father was by insisting I-- like everyone else in the 'hood-- get bar mitzvah-ed. When I was 12, living near Kings Highway and 17th Street in what is now New York's 9th congressional district, he offered to take me on a tour of Europe-- and pointed out I wouldn't have to go to Hebrew school-- if I decided to forego the bar mitzvah. In what I think was the last really über-stupid decision of my life I opted for the bar mitzvah. The one positive thing to come out of that was an opportunity to make some bank. The neighborhood shul had good turnouts on Friday nights and Saturdays but Orthodox Jews go to shul every morning to pray and according to rabbinical traditions, God doesn't hear the prayers unless there are at least 10 men present-- 10 men over 13. The neighborhood shul couldn't count on more than 8 on any given morning. So once I was bar mitzvah-ed (i.e.- a man) I could be part of a minyon (the quorum of 10). They gave me and my friend Stuie Cohen $25 or $50 a week each (I can't remember exactly-- only that it was a princely sum) to show up every morning at 7 on our way to school and sit there while they prayed. On mornings when only 7 of them showed up they would count the Torah as the 10th man and on morning when only 6 of them showed up-- they were all very old and frail-- they made due with the Black janitor. One of the old guys assured me he was a Falasha, an Ethiopian Jew, but I sensed I was being deceived and one day the janitor told me his family was from Dothan, Alabama, not Addis Ababa (let alone Gondar). That's probably the last thing I remember about being Jewish, other than the immense pride I felt at the role Jews played in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. In my last year of high school James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner (an African American and two Jews) were my heroes after they were brutally murdered by the KKK in Mississippi.

I haven't had a lot of interaction with Hasidics. They're very anti-assimilation. I feel uncomfortable writing about them; they're an easy target for bigotry with their ritual clothing and clannish behavior. And their racism... racism that would make the murderers of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner proud-- racism that "shows," in the words of Brooklyn blogger Hasidic Rebel, "the mentality of those who, while living in America, have yet to learn the value of respect and dignity for all mankind."

Black slaves called themselves Israelites before Abraham Lincoln freed them, although they were wise enough to gravitate to the liberating message of Jesus even if they admired the Jews freeing themselves from Pharaoh's bondage. My limited experience with Hasidim makes me think that, except for their propensity towards non-violence and their non-aggressive nature (more like passive-aggressive), they'd be perfect for the KKK... if they'd cut the peyes, dye the robes white and ditch the beaver-skin hats for pillowcases.

If the rebbe says we all shop at Store A, they all shop at Store A. And if the rebbe says we all vote for the right-wing kook, they all vote for the right-wing kook. And yesterday they did. The Hasidim used to be working class and populist. Many still are. But in NY-9, there are lots of rich Hasidim living in McMansions. My sister says her old neighborhood, Manhattan Beach, is unrecognizable as Russian immigrants came in, bought up the properties and tore down the beautiful old character houses and replaced them with sterile McMansions with mezuzahs; and, this week, with Vote Bob Turner signs. NY-9 has been trending less Democratic of late. It's the only district in NYC that gave Kerry a bigger percentage of votes in 2004 than it gave Obama in 2008, something we saw all over the South but not much anywhere else. You can't blame it all on the Hasidim and the Orthodox Jews of course. There are 49,522 Jewish voters in the district, 29,123 Asian voters, 40,566 Hispanic voters, 35,265 Italian voters, and 26,238 Eastern European voters (some of whom are Jews). Jews vote in very high numbers. There aren't all that many Hasidim in NY-9 though, not as many as Orthodox Jews, who do not take orders from rabbis about who to vote for. And it should be remembered that progressives were also eager to send Obama a message. Sunday night PPP released data, though, that showed Obama sinking the party.

Republican Bob Turner is poised to pull a huge upset in the race to replace Anthony Weiner as the Congressman from New York's 9th Congressional District.  He leads Democrat David Weprin 47-41 with Socialist Workers candidate Christopher Hoeppner at 4% and 7% of voters remaining undecided.

Turner's winning in a heavily Democratic district for two reasons: a huge lead with independents and a large amount of crossover support.  He's ahead by 32 points at 58-26 with voters unaffiliated with either major party.  And he's winning 29% of the Democratic vote, holding Weprin under 60% with voters of his own party, while losing just 10% of Republican partisans.

...Weprin has been much maligned as a candidate but he actually has positive favorability numbers too with 39% of voters rating him positively and 36% negatively.  Over the last few years there have been very few races we polled where a candidate had a positive net favorability spread and still lost.  If Obama's approval in the district was even 40% Weprin would almost definitely be headed to Congress. He's getting dragged down by something bigger than himself.

The issue of Israel does appear to be having a major impact on this race.  A plurality of voters-- 37%-- said that Israel was 'very important' in determining their votes. Turner is winning those folks by an amazing 71-22 margin. With everyone who doesn't say Israel is a very important issue for them Weprin actually leads 52-36. Turner is in fact winning the Jewish vote by a 56-39 margin, very unusual for a Republican candidate.  This seems to be rooted in deep unhappiness with Obama on this issue- only 30% of voters overall approve of how he's handling Israel to 54% who disapprove and with Jewish voters his approval on Israel is 22% with 68 of voters disapproving. That has a lot to do with why Turner's in such a strong position.

Remember a couple weeks ago when Cuban-American fascist Marco Rubio claimed Social Security and Medicare had made Americans weaker? These very foreign residents of NY-9 are as in tune with America as Marco Rubio-- i.e., not at all. This is a district that was once the heartland of the New Deal. Sad what happened to it.

Fascism, Israel And American Jews-- But Just the Non-Einstein Types

Hard to say which Lieberman is the eviler twin

There are a lot of bad players in the stalled Israeli-Palestinian normalization talks but no one-- no, not even the kook in Iran-- is as culpable and reprehensible as Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of the neo-fascist Yisrael Beiteinu Party (which represents deranged and bigoted right-wing Soviet immigrants like Lieberman himself). The tiny splinter party-- which didn't find the Likud right-wing and crackpot enough-- has 15 seats (out of 120) in the Knesset. Lieberman has a checkered past, having been convicted of assaulting a 12 year old boy, involvement in stealing classified materials and a myriad of ongoing investigations and indictments based on a life of corruption one should always expect from any right-wing politician. One of his scams, in fact, was the mirror image of the scandal that helped end the freakshow career of sleazy Pennsylvania Republican, and former congressman, Curt Weldon. Like Weldon, Lieberman can't resist a bribe... ever. He claims the police have it in for him and swears up and down he's never taken any bribes. The decision of whether to indict him on the latest batch of charges-- corruption, bribery, breach of trust, fraud, money laundering, witness harassment, and obstruction of justice-- will come in late February.

Not all Jews are Albert Einstein. In fact, even if Jews make up a disproportionately large number of Nobel Prize laureates, there's no reason to believe that there aren't as many utterly stupid Jews as there are any other ethnic or religious group. There have always, for example, been Jews who have supported-- usually because of personal avarice and greed-- right-wing political parties regardless of the fact that the right-wing has been systematically exterminating Jews since the days of the Babylonian Captivity, the first Purim, the Roman Empire, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the guy in Germany who, according to the idiotic Godwin, you're not supposed to ever mention, etc. Not all Jews have been as politically savvy as British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who once remarked that "The Jews are a nervous people. Nineteen centuries of Christian love have taken a toll." Some voted for Hitler and some voted for Stalin-- two tragic mistakes. And some support Republicans in the U.S. today. Come to think of it... that's what got me writing about Avigdor Lieberman today. He certainly has far more supporters among a certain subset of American Jews (not the Einsteins or Disraelis of the current generation) than he has in Israel.

Recently a friend of mine, a self-styled (minor) Mossad agent based in Florida, told me how his parents and "all their friends," lifelong Democrats, had re-registered as Republicans and are looking forward to voting against Obama. Instinctually I figured his parents are just middle class Jews who aren't fans of "schvartzas" but he persuaded me that some of their best friends (and favorite servants)... etc. Then I remembered that his sister was in a terrible accident-- and is now in a vegetative state-- and that the family had come into tens of millions of dollars in settlements. Settlements they'd rather not pay taxes on. That may have something-- even a great deal-- to do with it but it's a different kind of settlements-- the ones in Israel, he claims-- that are motivating them.

Perhaps you read Robert Naiman's post on Obama, the UN and Israel yesterday. If not, it's worth going over. It's the kind of stuff that has driven some non-Einsten types American Jews-- especially ones with $10 million settlements-- crazy.

A key resolution on the Israel-Palestine conflict is now before the UN Security Council. Largely echoing stated US policy, the resolution embraces negotiations, endorses the creation of a Palestinian state, and demands an immediate halt to Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. But even though the resolution echoes US policy, President Obama is under pressure to veto the UN resolution from forces in Washington who want to protect the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

Can President Obama say no to this pressure? Yes, he can! Urge him to do so.

I keep forgetting to tell my Mossad friend in Florida to tell his parents that Lieberman is behind a new version of the Law of Return, making it applicable exclusively to born Jews, and Orthodox converts as well as their offspring rather than converts to mainline sects of Judaism (not to mention from other religions). Remind you of any Republican proposal going around these days?

I almost forgot... I was just re-reading Rick Pearlstein's riveting Nixonland and I chanced upon this passage regarding the difficulty Nixon was having in getting the CIA to break laws for him regarding harassing domestic political opponents:

Hearing of his lack of control of any lever of government always sent Richard Nixon into flights of rage. He started ranting about the IRS.

"We have the power but are we using it? To investigate contributors to Hubert Humphrey, contributors to Muskie, the Jews, you know, that are stealing everybody... He trailed off.

...The next week the president took it up with Haldeman: "Bob, please get me the names of the Jews, you know, the big Jewish contributors of the Democrats... Could we please investigate some of these cocksuckers?"

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the way Nixon was dealing with his violent anti-Semitism was by importing thousands and thousands of Eastern European Nazi war criminals into states like New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan to give the Republicans a political advantage over Jewish-backed Democrats.

Here's hoping the Weekly Standard thugs' attempts to kneecap J Street give it a deserved boost

Uncle Leo (Len Lesser) knows a thing or two about anti-Semitism.

by Ken

In the world of Jerry Seinfeld's TV Uncle Leo, there's hardly anything that's wrong in the world, from the most cosmic injustice down to an annoyance like a badly cooked burger, that can't be explained by anti-Semitism. I always wonder if non-Jews get the joke. The joke isn't that there's no such thing anymore as anti-Semitism. The joke is that among American Jews, there can't be many who don't have an Uncle Leo. Back in the days when I still attended occasional gatherings of my extended family, they were virtual conventions of Uncle Leos.

The compounding irony is that in our times an entire network of died-in-the-wool anti-Semites gets not just a free pass but official protection from the most powerful American Jewish organizations. Why? Because to those organizations, the only test applied to non-Jews is uncritical support for Israel -- and, really, not so much Israel as the Israeli Far Right.

One of the enduring shames for American Jews is the deep involvement of our own in the crackpot sham of neoconservatism, which was heavily populated by Jewish ex-liberals who lost, well, their minds. And one of their primary considerations in developing their delusional prescriptions for a new world order was uncritical protection for an aggressive, expansionist right-wing Israeli state. And who did they make common cause with? Many of the most poisonous demagogues of the American political and Crap Christian Right. I call them Anti-Semites for Israel.

There is, unfortunately, some crazy logic to the alliance, starting with the obvious fact that right-wing loons of a feather flock together. This is even more pointedly true in the case of the Jewish and Christian fundamentalists. Of course amone the Christian fundies, there's the overpowering consideration that the Holy Land has to be under Jewish control for the Rapture to happen. Their Jewish "allies" don't seem to realize that they will be at the top of the list of left-behinds when that great day comes. In an alliance of liars and hypocrites, it's not just your wallet you have to watch out for, it can be your place in eternity.

The heavy-hitting so-called "major organizations" of American Jewry (there actually is a Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations) view any questioning of any policy of a right-wing Israeli government as being beyond discussion, no matter how heatedly it may be debated within Israel. And those of us who view many policies of recent Israeli governments as not only morally unconscionable but a clear and present danger to the country's survival, well, we're obviously Israel-haters. (The scale of the arrogance and cretinousness of these self-imagined "defenders" of Israel can be shown by pointing to the most pathetically simple fact: that if Israel insists making permanent the borders of the "Greater Israel" created by the continued occupation of the conquered territories, as demographics turn Jews into a minority population within those borders, it can't any longer pretend to be a democracy.)

Those major Jewish organizations depend on AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) to enforce their views in the politcal sphere. Its mission is to support the people it considers to be "friends of Israel" and to put the fear of AIPAC in the hearts of those who show themselves to be non-"friends."

It took awhile, but eventually J Street came into being, an organization whose views don't make non-insane American Jews cringe. It's been a fascinating process as J Street has become a Washington presence -- certainly nowhere near the force that AIPAC is, but a group that is increasingly listened to in governmental circles, in good part because there are a lot of politicans who are tired of being held hostage by the pro-Likud lobby.

Here is the "About Us" statement on J Street's website:

J Street is the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement.

J Street was founded to promote meaningful American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. We support a new direction for American policy in the Middle East and a broad public and policy debate about the U.S. role in the region.

J Street represents Americans, primarily but not exclusively Jewish, who support Israel and its desire for security as the Jewish homeland, as well as the right of the Palestinians to a sovereign state of their own - two states living side-by-side in peace and security. We believe ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in the best interests of Israel, the United States, the Palestinians, and the region as a whole.

J Street supports diplomatic solutions over military ones, including in Iran; multilateral over unilateral approaches to conflict resolution; and dialogue over confrontation with a wide range of countries and actors when conflicts do arise. For more on our policy positions, click here.

J Street will advocate forcefully in the policy process, in Congress, in the media, and in the Jewish community to make sure public officials and community leaders clearly see the depth and breadth of support for our views on Middle East policy among voters and supporters in their states and districts. We seek to complement the work of existing organizations and individuals that share our agenda. In our lobbying and advocacy efforts, we will enlist individual supporters of other efforts as partners.

J Street is itself a 501(c)(4) organization and is part of the J Street family of organizations, which includes an independent, legally unconnected Political Action Committee, JStreetPAC and the J Street Education Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization.

Later this month (the 25th-28th), J Street is holding its first national conference, under the title "Driving Change, Securing Peace." It's shaping up to be a grand event, with an impressive roster of sponsors, participants, and speakers (including National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones). The American Jewish Right, clearly feeling the heat, and is mobilizing its formidable thug-allies.

They pounced on the error when organizers incorrectly listed New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand as attending the opening-night dinner, and Sen. Chuck Schumer as well. Senator Schumer's position is murky; apparently he had been on the list but withdrew -- this is one of those cases where he may not wish to offend either side, but for a pol with as keen a nose for power as his, it's clear that he's not going to risk offending those "major Jewish organizations." Ditto Senator Gillibrand, who understands that if she wishes to be elected to the Senate seat she was appointed to she can't either -- and understands well enough that she never in fact signed on for the event, as J Street has acknowledged. What's interesting is that somebody fed the story to Politico, which played it for maximum heat if not much light. Naturally the house organ of the neocons, Bumbling Bill Kristol's Weekly Standard has been banging the war drums.

J Street has been fighting back against what it calls the Swift Boating, however. Most recently, a call has gone out to members (and others) who live in districts whose members of Congress are on the Host Committee to thank them for their participation. (There's a tool on the webpage that will tell you whether you have a member on the committee.)

Which brings us back to the theory I floated in the head. Is it possible that the mugging by the neocon thugs could backfire? Are they perhaps helping put J Street's big event on the political map? Oh man, I'd love it.

#

Sarah Palin Jewish? Who Knew?

Believe me, when gay people hear that deranged Republican homophobes like Mitch McConnell, Ted Haggard, David Dreier, Lindsey Graham, Patrick McHenry, and Mark Foley are homosexuals, we cringe. We have enough image problems without people like them claiming alcoholism and perverted Catholic priests/rapists turned them into the messes they are. Similarly, Jews go through the same cringiness when it's revealed-- or shrilly, albeit, falsely, proclaimed-- that some self-loathing anti-Semite or world class villain is a Marrano or a secret Jew.

According to some (psychotics) Bush is a secret Jew; Tony Blair is a secret Jew; Dick Cheney is a secret Jew; Colin Powell, Hitler, Osama bin-Laden, Rev. Sun Myung Moon... all secret Jews. People who push that kind of crap are generally certifiably insane, in some cases, already certified insane. But what about all the Sarah Palin rumors? I mean above and beyond the annoying, sing song vocalizations and the love affair with Neiman Marcus... is Sarah Palin Jewish?

Short answer: maybe. Like so much about the Palin clan, her heritage is shrouded in mystery and controversy. There are two very different family trees for Sarah, one showing her mother and maternal grandparents as Jews and one showing them as Catholics. (It is indisputable that she was born and baptized Roman Catholic, raised as a Pentecostal Christian and is now in some bizarre satanic religious cult, involved in rooting out witches.)

Based on Jewish law, Judaism is passed down from mother to children. If your mom was Jewish, you're Jewish.

Sarah Palin's mother (Sally Sheigam) was of Lithuanian Jewish heritage and so were both of her mother's parents (Louise Sheigam and Shmuel Sheigam). Her maternal grandfather, Schmuel Sheigam, was a Lithuanian Jew born in 1912 in Vilkaviskis, Lithuania, 91.2 miles west of Vilnius. The Sheigam family immigrated to America, via Hamburg, Germany in 1915 because of WWI. The grandmother was originally named Gower. Her father Chuck Heath can be considered of Jewish blood because it is believed his mother, Beatrice Coleman, was of Jewish decent. Further information on Governor Palin's ancestors can easily be found in the vital records in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives in Vilnius.

The Archives holds birth, marriage, divorce, and death records for the Lithuanian Jewish community from 1851 until 1915 when the Jews were required to leave the country because of World War I. They are in 18th Century Cyrillic script and Yiddish Many of these records include the mother's maiden name and town of registration.

At Ellis Island Immigration Centre, the name was entered as Sheeran, a standard practice of the time when immigration officers were unable to understand non-English speaking immigrants. Sheeran is a common Irish name but members of the Sheigam family are buried in the Jewish cemetery at Budezeriai near Vilkaviskis in Lithuania.

I don't want this to be true-- anymore than I wanted it to be true that Larry Craig's foot tappin' in public toilets meant that he was gay. But, you know what? It doesn't matter in either case anyway. Larry Craig can barricade himself in his closet for as long as he likes and Sarah Palin can go on a witch hunting crusade to Kenya or whatever her cult tells her to do. My guess is that Sarah and Larry have about a roughly equal chance of ever being elected to anything (in the Lower 48). On the other hand, if they ever make a movie out of Michael Chabon's awesome Yiddish Policeman's Union, set in Sitka...

No More Excuses Available For Not Having A Republican Party Convention

The Republicans are going to try again. The ratings were so low last night-- like worse than when Rush Limbaugh had his cable TV show for a week and a half, that Nielsen decided not to publish the results. Meanwhile, Mark Sanford, everyone's first choice to replace Palin when she bows out of the race, has told CNN he doesn't want the job. Who would? They say they'll get their convention going today, "Who Is John McCain?" Night. They even have Bush speaking today (although via satellite, not in person)-- along with Holy Joe Lieberman and method actor Fred Thompson. (What happened to Rudy? They didn't approve of his new outfit?) So how's it going so far? Intrade now has a wagering proposition on whether Palin will be withdrawn as veep before election day. The bid/ask is now at 17/18-- not very attractive odds this morning. Worse yet, some of the very groups McCain had hoped to rally to his banner with her selection, are turning away from the GOP in greater numbers.

He has consolidated his support among hard-right evangelicals who would like to see the U.S. slow things down and get back into the 1950s... or 1350s. Right-wing Jews, always a tiny minority inside a tiny minority, on the other hand, are having some second thoughts. Ben Smith detects a backlash. "Some, on little evidence, paint her as a Buchanan acolyte; others accurately point out that she, unlike McCain, hails from the evangelical Christian wing of her party, which would like to see more overt displays of Christianity in the public square."

I don't personally know many Zionists who put Israel's well-being before America's the way Lieberman does. But I know one. And he knows many and he wrote to me this morning. We'll keep him anonymous by referring to him as "Eve." Eve, a severely brainwashed Fox News addict, is in contact with the whole network of Hillary supporters for McCain and with Zionists and self-proclaimed Mossad agents. "My Zionist friends and former Israeli intelligence community friends are (to my surprise) turning on McCain," he write to me this morning-- at 3:04 AM. (He's also a "recovering" drug addict.) He then shares an e-mail he asked me not to quote directly but claims that "the gist of the message is something you can use. I am astonished by this; this is a reflection of the entire community, this means that McCain picking Palin has caused him to lose both sides of the Jewish vote potentially!" Here's some commentary (cleaned up and made intelligible) from one of the supposed Mossad agents or ex-Mossad agent:

I am dismayed at McCain for picking a Woman with the credentials of Gov. Sarah Palin. Where was Her Background check?? Who screwed up???

Supposedly (she denies it) she was a backer of Pat Buchanan, a misreable Anti-Semite of the worst  order who respected the Monster Adolph Hitler of all people. When Buchanan went to Alaska she was wearing a Buchanan button (when he ran for President).

A point was brought up to me about several vacancies that will be happening on the Supreme Court in the next several Years. The Conservative supreme Court will overturn Roe vs Wade, which could very well deny a woman an abortion even through rape or incest.

Jews have never done well under extreme right wing governments anywhere. [I've been trying to explain this to Eve for 5 or 6 years but, like I said, he's addicted to Fox News and nothing penetrates. He's also a devoted follower of John Hagee.]

We, my friend, are caught in a dilemma. Who do we choose?? McCain has had cancer and survived. What would happen if for any reason Palin became President whose accomplishments include starting off the idederod Dog Race in Alaska. This is a TERRIBLE CHOICE FOR VP. With 5 children she could never handle the presidency and we would be in a terrible quandary.

The truth be told. What Biden has forgotten, she will NEVER know!!! As Governor of Alaska, she cannot handle her children, daughter Pregnent-Being forced to have the child-- what does the child have to say?? Does she want the baby?? Her Son has a record of drunk driving and who knows what else. I am telling you she cannot handle 5 kids and this!!

Of all the people he could have chosen, why her???. This brings up decision making? Is he (McCain) fit for the presidency? Let us see the developments and how the Republicans package her.

We must always question both parties, especially on the most recent developments. STAY TUNED.

This wasn't sent to Eve in secret code or anything and Eve's subject line was "Zionists and former Mossad agents turning against McCain because of Palin." But I think McCain has more to worry about than Zionists and the ex-Mossad agent community. USAToday just reported that two-thirds of Americans link him to the policies of the most detested president in American history.

They are "very" or "somewhat concerned" that John McCain "would pursue policies that are too similar to what George W. Bush has pursued" say 64% of those surveyed in the latest USA Today/Gallup Poll. Specifically, 47% fall in the "very concerned" category and 17% rate themselves "somewhat concerned."

Eventually these people are going to find out that his selection for a running mate, was a member of a fringe group of exrtremists advocating Alaskan secession, that despite her scripted anti-earmarks statements now that she's on the Straight Talk Express, she was a virtual earmark queen and an advocate for the Bridge To Nowhere that McCain has railed against in every speech he's made in the past 3 years.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor...

And now people are referring to her embarrassingly messy personal life as a White Trash soap opera and calling her-- h/t Jane-- Sarah Springer.


Although the McCain camp has started hiding Sarah from public view-- and even from far right supporters like an irrate lunatic fringe Phyllis Schafly (who threatens that McCain's lobbyists don't "understand where the votes are coming from")-- Us Weekly features the entire sordid Palin drama on the cover of the issue that hits checkout stands across America starting tomorrow. Cover above; poll below:



And there's a far more disturbing poll just out-- at least from McCain's POV. Diageo just measured the Obama bounce and is showing a 9 point differential. Obama bounced up to 48% after his speech (as of today) and McCain is back in the 30s. In fact McCain only has the support of 33% of self-described independents.

UPDATE

And-- you knew it was coming-- now the ultimate White Trash newspaper has a Palin "exclusive."

OBAMA MEETS THE FRESSERS

We talked about the perennial hand-wringing that comes every 4 years when a rumor sweeps through American Jewish communities in New York, Philly, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, South Florida, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Baltimore, Atlanta, etc that this will be the presidential election when the Jews forget what the right-wing did to their antecedents in Germany. Check the stats: it never happens, despite the high hopes from the Republicans and the nervousness from some Democrats. Jews are one of the most dependable Democratic electorates in the country.

This year the McCain surrogates in the GOP have upped the ante a notch by barraging Jews with lies about Obama's heritage and policies. This morning's CQPolitics reports that some Jews have been influenced by the false GOP rumors about Obama's supposed lack of support for Israel and "such canards as the persistent untruth that Obama is actually a Muslim who took his Senate oath on the Koran."

On June 20, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent who has not endorsed a presidential candidate, used a speech to a Jewish group in Boca Raton, Fla., to speak out against gossip and e-mail that call Obama a secret Muslim.

“I hope all of you will join me throughout this campaign in strongly speaking out against this fearmongering, no matter who you’ll be voting for,” the Associated Press quoted Bloomberg as telling the group. “This is wedge politics at its worst, and we’ve got to reject it-- loudly, clearly and unequivocally.”

We've been talking about how every year the Republicans concoct a score card that "proves" that whomever the Democrats nominate is "the most liberal." Kerry was in 2004 and, despite Obama's ranking at near the bottom of the progressive barrel, the McCain campaign lies everyday when they and their media shills on Fox repeat like a mantra that "Barack Obama is the most liberal senator." Although sometimes McCain is also claiming that Obama has supported Bush as much as he has-- also a McCain lie. The lobbyists who run the confused and double talking McCain campaign expect voters to believe that "the biggest liberal in the Senate is a solid supporter of George Bush." The straight talk: Obama is the 43rd most liberal member of the Senate-- and McCain is the 8th most right-wing member.

Meanwhile the yentas on Fairfax Blvd sighing about Obama don't seem worried about who's a conservative and who's a liberal. They're yammering about Israel, Ahmadinejad, Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan. Jewish public officials have been fanning out across the country assuring canasta games, fressers and 6 million other American Jews that Obama is "good for the Jews." Steve Cohen from Memphis was one of the first members of Congress to endorse Obama. Robert Wexler (D-FL) is the chairman of Obama's Florida campaign. Howard Berman (D-CA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are all out assuring their co-religionists that all the McCain lies are worthless tripe.

“In places like Florida, the more people see him and hear him, the better Obama does,” Wexler said. “I’m convinced that in the end he will outdo Kerry in Florida, where he got 74 percent.”

The surrogates’ message is that throughout his public career, Obama has been pro-Israel and wants to make an Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative a key part of his administration’s Middle East policy starting in 2009.

A potentially important milestone for Obama was his speech earlier this month to the annual Washington conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He was received enthusiastically, getting repeated standing ovations as he pledged support for the U.S.-Israel relationship, and assailed Iran and Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israel. His AIPAC reception outdid the response McCain got from the same audience.

McCain has his Jews too-- two of them: discredited warmonger Joe Lieberman and a genuine Virginia kapo, demented neo-fascist Congressman Eric Cantor. I expect a lot of noise between now and November-- and about a 75% turn-out for Obama among Jewish voters, a little more among the young, a little less among the elderly.

AMERICAN POLITICIANS HAVE A JEWISH PROBLEM

I went to speak at an informal Democratic club brunch in Los Angeles today. Even though I was fasting, it was very pleasant and enjoyable. After I was finished explaining why Rahm Emanuel is Satan and the other stuff I talk about when I get within earshot of 3 people, there was a discussion and several former Clinton backers-- all are now Obama supporters-- brought up that some of the old yentas on Fairfax Blvd are still not convinced that Obama's the one. "They say he's a Muslim," one woman told me. Another said that many don't believe he's strong enough on Israel.

I pointed out that Obama already went too far in placating the Zionist vote when he spoke at AIPAC and that anyone who still repeats those kinds of charges either is too dumb to understand a simple declarative sentence or-- more likely-- is a racist who find sit more comfortable to say that "Obama might not be strong on Israel" rather that "I hate schvartzes," the real reason for whatever small discontent we're seeing from the same small number of Jews we always see before election time. Polling, as we've been pointing out, shows that far more Democrats support Obama than Republicans support McCain and that Jews overwhelmingly support Obama, regardless of GOP propaganda efforts claiming the contrary.

Perhaps there will be some old fressers on Fairfax that will never vote for Obama until he wraps tefillin around himself, but by that time he'll start losing normal people-- including normal Jewish American Democrats.

Suppose Obama were to make a speech and say that "the thousands of housing units Israel is building on captured land were harming peace talks with the Palestinians?" Well, it would be true and obvious. But don't you think there would be an uproar on Fairfax Avenue? McCain would be putting out press releases and Fox would be predicting that Obama will bring on the end of Israel. Well those words were spoken today-- but not, unfortunately, by Obama. They came from the Bush Regime. Ah... finally something McCain can disagree with!

On the latest of her nearly monthly visits here to push along Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Ms. Rice was more explicit than usual in asserting that the construction is reducing confidence in the talks. The United States hopes to get the two sides to produce a peace framework by year’s end, but the Palestinians say the new housing is a big stumbling block.

Referring to the construction of what Israel considers Jerusalem neighborhoods but much of the world considers illegal settlements, Ms. Rice said, “I do believe, and the United States believes, that the actions and the announcements that are taking place are indeed having a negative effect on the atmosphere for the negotiation-- and that is not what we want.”

She stressed that any such building would not be considered permanent by the United States, saying, “The issue is to try to get back to a place where there is some confidence that this is not an effort to dictate or prejudge the final status outcome.”

I'm an American and I expect an American president to look out for the interests of the United States first and foremost. Rice was doing that for Bush today. McCain, Clinton and Obama weren't doing that when they prostrated themselves-- unseemingly-- before AIPAC recently. It made me want to puke.

There are always members of minority groups, Jews included, who support the right-wing, even if the right-wing puts them in ovens and kills them. Early on in Hitler's rise to power, he had a superstar clairvoyant, Erik Jan Hanussen, who helped him gain control of Germany. Hannusen, who was Jewish, used his inside Nazi knowledge to predict Germany's 9/11-- the staged Reichstag fire, which Hitler used the same way Bush used 9/11-- and which very much helped Chancellor Hitler consolidate dictatorial control over Germany. That same year Hanussen was murdered by some of Hitler's Sturmabteilung (aka- the SA).

McCAIN FALSELY CLAIMS TO HAVE FOUND A JEWISH DEMOCRATIC HILLARY SUPPORTER TO JOIN HIS TRAIN TO NOWHERE

Yesterday's Hill was trumpeting that McCain found a Jewish Hillary supporter to back him and then tried fluffing up the story about how Jews were crossing to the GOP-- something I've been hearing every 4 years since Nixon ran for president-- by trotting out Joe Lieberman and demented Virginia Republican kapo Eric Cantor. But the meat on McCain's triumphal press release was Florida developer, Stephen Muss. "Muss has given tens of thousands of dollars to help Democratic candidates in recent years, including $80,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics and CQ MoneyLine... Cantor said Muss would help bring more Jewish Democratic donors in South Florida over to McCain. 'He’s an influential player,' said Cantor. 'From my knowledge of his influence in South Florida, that’s significant.'”

Sure, just ask Ted Stevens, Conrad Burns, Slade Gorton, Rudy Giuiliani, Rudy Boschwitz, Robert Bennett, Frank Wolf-- a gaggle of far right Republicans this so-called Democrat has showered with thousands of dollars. Muss has a history of giving to both parties. In 2007 he made two political donations, $2,300 for Giuliani and $2,300 for Frank Lautenberg.

One would have to be pretty senile-- or totally racist-- to switch from Hillary Clinton to John McCain. I mean I can certainly imagine that some of the most passionate and bitterly disappointed Hillary fanatics unable to get over their confusion and deciding to sit this race out. My bet is that there could be at least 100 people like that, most of them in Florida. But vote for McCain? Why were they passionate about Hillary if they're going to vote for someone who has adamantly opposed every single great idea she's ever had who shares none of the ideas that have made people passionate about her.


Look, in the 1930s there were a handful of Jews who voted for the Nazis in Germany. There are African-Americans who were devoted to the Confederacy and who are devoted to the GOP. You've probably heard of Log Cabin Republicans, self-loathing gays who vote for the GOP. In fact the Nazi movement had its share of gay people-- until Hitler had them exterminated. And there were the 19% of Jews who voted for Bush in 2000 and that even rose by a few percentage points in 2004. In the 2006 congressional election 87% of Jewish voters went with the Democrats; 12% voted for the GOP candidates. "For decades, Republican operatives have been claiming that the Jewish vote was moving significantly to the right; in 2004, one key Jewish Republican leader even claimed that 35-40 percent of the Jewish vote would swing towards George W. Bush. Yet the Jewish vote has remained one of the most solidly Democratic demographics in America. Since the late 1920's, American Jews have voted overwhelmingly Democratic in federal elections-- and no amount of spin can change that simple fact."

But that won't stop McCain's spin machine from trying. And fools on the Hill from buying. I think Alexander Bolton, the conveyor of McCain's propaganda message could have found that Muss has been donating significant amounts of money to Republicans for years-- if he had bothered to look. It took me less than 60 seconds to find the information on the web. McCain is trying to drum up some nonsense about Obama not having as much fealty to Israel as he does to America. I, for one, wish it were so. McCain will keep trying and a people-- mostly racists who are looking for an excuse to vote for McCain without looking at themselves in the mirror and seeing a white sheet and hood-- may buy one or another lie. But as Democratic fundraisers are reporting, there may be Giuliani supporters (like Muss) who have switched to McCain, but there are no Clinton supporters going down the Dark Path.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people in the past couple of days and I have not spoken to anybody who was supporting Hillary Clinton and who has indicated any likelihood of supporting McCain,” said Steve Grossman, a former co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a former chairman of AIPAC, who raised tens of thousands of dollars for Clinton this election cycle.

ARE THERE ANY JEWISH REPUBLICANS?

Bloomberg at least was smart enough to realize that one sure bet in this presidential cycle coming up is that unless the Democrats decide to nominate Al Sharpton, there is no chance a Republican is going to be president. Americans have had enough. The party's over.

I often comment on how sick and self-loathing a gay person has to be-- how severely mentally and emotionally disturbed-- in order to somehow justify being part of the GOP, a party forever running on a platform that declares that gay men and women are somehow less than the rest of us. But there are gay Republicans, even above and beyond the loony bin known as the Log Cabin Republicans and above and beyond the predators like Mark Foley (R-FL) and Jim West (R-WA) and Larry Craig (R-ID) hiding behind anti-gay rhetoric to pursue a personal agenda of anti-social behavior, instead of a normal, healthy gay lifetsyle-- which the GOP is hysterical to nullify-- but a lifetstyle based on fear and shame and self-hatred, Gay the Republican Way, a lifetsyle that leads to molesting children (Foley and West) and seeking out relationships in public toilets (Craig). Yes, beyond this are gay Republicans whose politics are driven by greed and avarice and ditziness and ignorance. And, of course, there are gay racists and bigots too, who think by kicking someone perceived as slightly down the ladder of contempt they can find some kind of acceptance among the master class.

Formerly this kind of analysis would have worked perfectly well in discussing Jews who joined the party of Hatred and Bigotry as well. But things have changed. The evangelical psychopaths who have come to power inside the GOP have embraced Zionism. In fact, one of the most extreme nutcases in the whole fascist wing of the GOP, Eric Cantor (R-VA) is Jewish! A few weeks ago my friend Seymour asserted that there are good Republicans but when I asked him to name one he couldn't come up with one beyond Jacob Javits (RIP). I wish I could say there are no Jewish Republicans beyond Eric Cantor-- or even no Jewish evil Republicans beyond Eric Cantor. But that would be wishful thinking.

Now with Bloomberg switching-- party affiliation, not religious creed-- there is one less Jewish Republican (albeit of the not especially evil kind). I have to believe that if enough Jewish Republicans contemplated what their zionist evangelical "allies" had in mind for them, there might be considerably more ex-Republican Jews. In fact, I'd love to ask, Congressman Cantor-- he of the voting record so far right that even Hitler might look the other way for a few moments-- how he feels about this lovely story by J. Grant Swank, Jr., one of the allies, Bible Predicts Middle East Blood Flow. And just to be clear, that's Jew blood he's writing about, but just the stubborn ones who refuse to see the Light.

Prophecy continues to unfold. The Bible has warned about Middle East turmoil increasing "in the latter times."

In Ezekiel 36-39, God speaks of bringing Jews from around the world to Israel, not because they deserve their own land but to vindicate His holy name. They besmirched deity's holy name by repeatedly sinning over centuries; but God will not tolerate His holiness smeared without vindication, hence Jews gravitating to Israel "in the end times."

So look to the divine miracle: May 14, 1948, when Israel became a nation for the first time in centuries. Jews from all over the globe went to Israel, their homeland.

Ezekiel predicted Israel's flourishing: herds, flocks, fruitage, ruined cities rebuilt.

With Israel having settled in, however, biblical predictions go on to state that the enemies surrounding Israel attack Jews mercilessly. Blood flows like rivers.

Natural calamities come also upon Israel, convincing Jews and Gentiles alike that God is God and that His holiness must be recognized.

Far be it from me to try to convince these Bronze Age mentality primitives that their savage fairy tales are a waste of time. However, when the Founder Fathers' collective wisdom can be shunted aside by a mental pygmy like George Bush and the syncophants and Machiavellians-- Mayberry and otherwise-- around him, I have to at least start to worry. And I really do have to worry about someone like Eric Cantor for not worrying. Cantor is the only Republican in the House. In the Senate there's Arlen Specter and Lieberman and former Jew (I guess he already saw the light) Norm Coleman and Hawaii has the only Jewish Republican Governor, Linda Lingle.


UPDATE: WE'RE #1, WE'RE #1

A Jewish DWT correspondent sent us something today similar to what Adam, our former Art Director, sends every week or two:

HERITAGE STUDY

The Heritage Institute did a study showing that of all the distinct ethnic groups in the United
States, including those of English heritage, the Jewish community had the highest "community" score of any other group.

Jews ranked...

Number 1 in providing medical advancements that saved American's lives in the last 100 years.

Number 1 in authorship of both biographical and fictional materials.

Number 1 in per capita income.

Number 1 in the creative arts

Number 1 as educators, (grade school through college level)

Number 1 in the legal profession

Number 1 in the banking/investment banking business.

Number 1 in providing the most charity/philanthropy per capita.

Number 1 in journalist/media participation.

Number 9 in military service. (they made the top ten, out of 20 ranked ethnic groups)

Number 10 in athletics. The Jews squeaked into the last top spot with their participation in ice skating, tennis, track and baseball. (Rod Carew was allowed)

Number 1 in the lowest incidents of anti-social behavior. Jews commit the least amount of violent crime of any ethnic group. (The best neighbor to have is a Jew)

America has always honored Jews and that is why Jewish representation in Congress is at an all-time high and vastly exceeds their numbers in the population.

They didn't mention that the only Jewish Republican congressman is the Number 1 nut in the House of Representatives.