Racism Rears Its Ugly Head In Xenophobic Alabama-- Meet Mo Brooks

Last summer we looked at the story of a once powerful dead congressman from Pascagoula, Mississippi, William M. Colmer, a virulent racist who was elected as a New Deal Democrat. Soon after getting to Washington, Colmer figured to his horror that the New Deal programs would not just help white people but blacks as well, and quickly turned into one of the most reactionary members of Congress.

In 1932, Colmer won a primary against Robert Hall, and that turned out to be a very good year for Democrats. Congressional Republicans lost 101 seats in the House that year. Colmer was elected with 94.5% of the vote. He was swept into office as a New Deal Democrat but, like we saw, soon figured out that the New Deal not only helped whites, which he was fine with, but helped blacks… which he was very much not fine with. The Mississippi Democrat made opposing racial equality his life's work-- and, alas, that lasted an awful long time. He finally died in 1980 at age 90.

By all accounts he was a disgusting political figure and in no ways-- except the for "D" next to his name-- a Democrat. He was a blight on the party brand, just the way Blue Dogs, New Dems and corporate shills are today. Even though "Democrat" Colmer endorsed Nixon against JFK, Humphrey and McGovern and endorsed Goldwater against LBJ, the idiot House Democrats-- nearly as pathetic and worthless back then as they are today-- allowed him to retain the Rules Committee chairmanship, putting him in a position to slow down desegregation and other progressive policy for years. When he finally retired in 1972, his administrative assistant, Trent Lott-- another pile of racist dogcrap-- ran for his House seat and won… as a Republican-- the first elected there since 1873.

Maybe we should have looked at Colmer again Thursday in the discussion about what's wrong with American white people. He symbolizes the primitive tribalism and reflexive racism that dominates the South entirely and has spread northward as well. But what reminded me of Colmer today was another ugly racist wing-nut from the area, Mo Brooks (R-AL). Brooks told Fox's Geraldo Rivera that he literally wants to deport all 11 million undocumented Latinos and Asians in America. And he wasn't talking about Romney's "self-deportation" scheme. Brooks has been running round his deep red (R+17) northern Alabama congressional district stirring up racial hatred-- he's the 'War on Whites" guy-- and suggesting Obama be thrown in prison... or, at least, impeached. "At some point," he drawled menacingly, "you have to evaluate whether the president’s conduct aids or abets, encourages, or entices foreigners to unlawfully cross into the United States of America. That has a five-year in-jail penalty associated with it." The Democrats didn't bother running a candidate against Brooks this cycle. Brooks beat Independent Mark Bray-- who had said he would caucus with the Republicans if elected-- 115,212 (74.8%) to 38,830 (25.2%). In 2012, Obama took just over a third of the vote in this KKK heartland district that butts up against Tennessee's southern border and includes Huntsville, Decatur, Florence and the incredibly backward region where Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee all meet. The AL-05 voters back Brooks' extremist, racist, politicized approach to immigration policy. Don't get the idea this isn't an accurate look at what's going on in the Deep South in regard to how these fearful, hate-filled people view immigrants.

The far-reaching scope of President Obama's immigration plan unveiled Thursday night exceeded the expectations of U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, who described the president as acting like a "petulant child."

"I expected the president to consider each of the individual parts of what he proposed tonight but even I was surprised at how far the president went with everything-- including the kitchen sink-- in order to appease the open borders wing of the Democratic Party," said Brooks, R-Huntsville. "It's astonishing."

In an interview with AL.com following the speech, Brooks said Obama's plan is "declaring open borders" to those who want to enter the country.

"It is astonishing the magnitude of economic damage President Obama is willing to inflict on the average American family in order to appease the open borders wing of the Democratic Party," Brooks said.

"In effect, the president is declaring open borders for all past illegal aliens, which will in turn encourage open borders for all foreigners who want to come to America with the exception of people the president says he can identify as criminals or terrorists."

In response, Brooks ticked off a list of possible actions Congress could take-- including consideration of filing articles of impeachment against Obama.

Brooks also repeated a GOP concern that allowing those who entered the country illegally will create a Democratic voting bloc.

"It's brazen," Brooks said. "He's acting like a petulant child who is upset with the American people because they disagree with the worthiness of his public policies. He doesn't want the American people in future elections determining the outcome of those elections. Rather, he wants to import millions of foreigners who he hopes will tip the balance of future election in the Democratic Party's favor."

Addressing specific points of Obama's speech:

Brooks on Obama's plan to strengthen border security: "That's bunk. The president's plan effectively eliminates security at the border by establishing a policy of amnesty for everyone except for known criminals and terrorists who violate our border security laws."

Brooks on the plan to return newly undocumented people back to their homeland: "That's today. The policy he's establishing, sometime in the near future, he'll give amnesty to those folks, too. We just don't know when."

Not to be outdone by Brooks-- after all, this is his territory-- Texas' silliest congressman was busy trying to incite violence, warning his backward, well-armed constituents that the Democrats are inciting violence. "Civil disobedience comes from the left,” said Louie Gohmert. "They’re the ones that loot and shoot up and shoot up stores and do all kinds of things like that. If you look at the conservative gatherings, we even pick up our own trash. But it could be that this president is doing all he can to get conservatives who remember the country when presidents didn’t exceed their bounds and wish we would go back to those days, it may be enough to make them that angry. But I hope not, I hope there’s no violence." Sure Louie hopes there's no violence. You believe him?

Racist Fanatic William Colmer Has A Minority Majority School In Pascagoula Named After Him-- Plus Hawaii Update

The William M. Colmer Middle School is in Pascagoula, Mississippi. 46% of the students are African-Americans and 15% are Hispanic. 79% of the students are eligible for a free or reduced-price lunch program, somewhat higher than the average for Mississippi (71%). The school is named for Representative William M. Colmer who died on September 9, 1980 (age 90) and is buried at Machpelah Cemetery right their in Pascagoula. The students can walk over to the cemetery and visit their school's namesake. Perhaps they should read a little about the 20-terms congressman from Mississippi's Gulf Coast first though.

Colmer won a primary against Robert Hall in 1932, and that turned out to be a very good year for Democrats. Congressional Republicans lost 101 seats in the House that year. Colmer was elected with 94.5% of the vote-- the lowest percentage of any of Mississippi's 7 Members of Congress. He was swept into office as a New Deal Democrat but soon figured out that the New Deal not only helped whites, which he was fine with, but helped blacks… which he was very much not fine with. As time went by, he turned increasingly more reactionary and made opposing racial equality his life's work.

By all accounts he was a disgusting political figure and in no ways-- except the for "D" next to his name-- a Democrat. He was a blight on the party brand, just the way Blue Dogs, New Dems and corporate shills like Israel, Emanuel, Wasserman Schultz, Crowley and Hoyer are today. Even though Colmer endorsed Nixon against JFK, Humphrey and McGovern and endorsed Goldwater against LBJ, the idiot House Democrats allowed him to retain the Rules Committee chairmanship, putting him in a position to slow down desegregation for years. When he finally retired in 1972, his administrative assistant, Trent Lott-- another pile of racist dogcrap-- ran for his House seat and won… as a Republican-- the first elected there since 1873.

I didn't share this Colmer info with you just as another random example of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, although he was obviously that. I shared it because Karoli seemed so worked up Saturday about a Democratic judicial candidate in Connecticut, Anna Zubkova, whose husband, Rob Freeman, is a very public racist. "If whites had a voice in the government," he wrote, "there might not have been an Iraq war. There might not have been all these horrible trade agreements that are impoverishing everyone. We might have more fuel efficient cars, or more mass transit. Who knows what might have been?" I guess Debbie Wasserman Schultz would call it being part of her twisted conception of a "big tent party."


DREADFUL RESULTS IN HAWAII LAST NIGHT

Voter participation through absentee ballots was high, up over 12% since 2012. But that was the only good news there was yesterday. And although none of the candidates are as bad as William Colmer, it was a good night for the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. As expected, progressive Governor Neil Abercrombie was defeated by centrist David Ige in a huge landslide, 143,835 (67%) to 67,368 (32%). Ige will face Republican Duke Aiona and extreme right-wing ex-Democrat (now Independent) Mufi Hannemann in November. It will be a tough race for him.

With all 113 precincts counted in the first congressional district, the race to replace Hanabusa was won by Mark Takai, a reactionary claiming to have seen the light and miraculously "turned" progressive.

• Mark Takai- 48,510 (45%)
• Donna Mercado Kim- 30,979 (29%)
• Stanley Chang- 11,023 (10%)
• Ikaika Anderson- 7,269 (7%)
• Will Espero- 4,166 (4%)
• Joey Manahan- 3,941 (4%)
• Kathryn Xian- 2,786 (3%)

The Congressional Progressive Caucus undercut progressive Stanley Chang at the last minute by making his endorsement into a dual endorsement of him and conservative homophobe and militarist Takai. The strategy, one of the key players told me, was to stop Donna Kim, an even worse reactionary. Although Takai and Kim have been allies in the legislature and although, when asked, she said if she couldn't win she would like to see Takai win, 2 Japanese-American Progressive Caucus members claimed they could guide Takai in a progressive direction. The last time I heard such a patently spurious argument was when another Progressive Caucus member wanted to endorse Republican-turned-fake-Dem Patrick Murphy in 2012, telling me he could guide Murphy. Murphy did win-- and immediately joined the GOP-leaning, Wall Street-owned and operated New Dems. Murphy has amassed one of the worst voting records of any Democrat in Congress-- a dismal ProgressivePunch crucial vote score of 48.17-- and has worked consistently to undermine progressive values and principles inside the caucus. This cycle he is already the 3rd biggest recipient-- $801,750-- of shady cash from the Financial Sector, right after crooked conservative sell-outs Joe Crowley and Jim Himes.

Even worse news is the still undetermined U.S. Senate race, where corrupt New Dem Colleen Hanabusa has come close to unseating progressive champion Brian Schatz. There are 2 rural precincts on the Big Island that couldn't vote because of Hurricane Iselle-- polling sites at Hawaii Paradise Community Center and Keone-opoko Elementary School-- so it will be some days before the election is decided. Democrats there will vote by absentee ballot. Right now, as best I can tell, the 245 of 247 precincts have given Schatz the tiniest of leads-- 105,794 (49.38%) to 104,008 (48.55%). He's leading her by 1,786 votes and it's a real stretch seeing her make up that kind of a lead in just two precincts.

As of the July 20 reporting deadline, Schatz had raised $4,914,576, spent $3,937,606 and was sitting on $976,970. Hanabusa had raised $2,876,245, spent $2,408,572 and was sitting on $522,566. She wrote herself a check for $117,000 out of the personal bribes she and her crooked husband have taken from developers and other shady operators who have financed her sleazy career. Conservative Democratic group EMILY's List put another $697,920 into independent expenditures on Hanabusa's behalf, including a $75,000 push this week. Environmental and progressive groups spent $591,353 to bolster Schatz.

Again, Hanabusa isn't as bad as Colmer. But this is 2014, not 1950 and she's about as bad as you can be and still legitimately call yourself a Democrat today. Yesterday was a terrible day for Hawaii. At least EMILY's List failed-- and failed miserably-- to foist Donna Mercado Kim on Hawaii. They have become the single most destructive player inside the Democratic Party coalition, almost never a force for progressive politics-- almost always a force for reactionary thinking, a real corrupt, money-based pillar of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.


UPDATE: Who Are The Voters In The 2 Precincts?

The voters in the remaining precincts aren't exactly off the grid but many tend to be anti-establishment, anti-war, anti-GMO, pro-marijuana legalization, and anti-geothermal-- not exactly Hanabusa's crowd, no matter how you slice it or dice it. And she would have to beat Schatz in the two precincts on the Big Island by a 2-1 margin to take the lead, which isn't likely, no matter how much more money EMILY's List throws into her campaign. This post should give you a better idea about who the 8,000 people are who haven't voted yet. Excerpt: "In our district (Puna), Dennis got 60% of the caucus vote. On our island (Hawaii), 50%. In our state (Hawaii), 33%." Probably not admirers of militarist and corporate shill Colleen Hanabusa.