Ventura County Democratic Chairman Richard Carter sort of distanced himself from a racially tinged rant tweeted by his vice chairman Wednesday. However, Carter apparently wasn't so much offended by Atkins' sentiment that racism runs rampant through the Republican Party, he just didn't like the choice of words he used.
"The
only rebuke I have is to say that his comments do not represent the views of
the Ventura County Democratic Party," Carter said. "They were posted
on an individual's Twitter account."
Just like Anthony Weiner. Atkins lists his position with his party on his Twitter masthead, and sent the offensive comments from a state-sponsored political event.
Carter said Atkins won't face any censure, and suggested that other people corroborated Atkins' belief that Republicans used racial "code words" during a redistricting commission hearing.
Unfortunately for Carter, Twitter limits posts to 140 characters. If Atkins can do this much damage to his party in tiny posts, what can he do on the Daily Kos website where there is no limitation?
An anti-conservative tirade was posted earlier this year on Daily Kos entitled, "Shooting Black People for Sport" (emphasis added). It stated:
There's
nothing more complicated about hardcore conservatives than this. They believe wholeheartedly in their own
magnificence and self-reliance. They
believe that minorities are fundamentally subhuman. They want all aid to minority communities
eliminated. And then they would like nothing better than to use
minorities for target practice when social unrest develops.
The author of the screed is identified as David Atkins. He apparently came across some offensive anonymous comments at the end of a conservative blog and then immediately tried to hang it around the necks of conservatives as a whole, particularly the Tea Party. He continued in the same vein as his recent remarks about opponents to redistricting (again, emphasis added):
There
is no coming to terms with these people, or negotiating with them. In the end, we can share a country and
political system with them, but we cannot share a bipartisan future with
them. The only way forward is to defeat
and expose them for what they are: racist,
bloodthirsty lunatics with a profoundly warped sense of self-importance.
Chairman Carter distanced himself over the "KKK" and racism accusations. What does he do about the accusation that large swaths of American people are "bloodthirsty" and are itching for a chance to shoot minorities in the street?
Eric Ingemunson's commentary has been featured on Hannity, CNN, NBC, Inside Edition, and KFI's The John and Ken Show.
Eric was born and raised in Ventura County and currently resides in Moorpark. He earned a master's degree in Public Policy and Administration from California Lutheran University. As a conservative, Eric supports smaller government, less taxation, more individual freedom, the rule of law, and a strict adherence to the Constitution.
Because no conservative commentator anywhere has ever suggested shooting black people! How dare David say what he said! oh, wait, hang on--here's prominent conservative shock jock Neil Boortz just about a week ago:
"“We got too damn many urban thugs, yo, ruining the quality of life for everybody. And I’ll tell you what it’s going to take. You people, you are – you need to have a gun. You need to have training. You need to know how to use that gun… We need to see some dead thugs littering the landscape in Atlanta. We need more dead thugs in this city.”
http://clutchmagonline.com/2011/06/white-radio-host-encourages-shooting-urban-thugs-is-this-code-for-blacks/
And he's still on the air down in Atlanta. Goes to show that he must have a wide swath of listeners that really would like to use their second amendment rights to litter the streets of Atlanta with dead black people. Not that Ingemunson would know anything about that, right?
Cynthogenes, you are a perfect example of someone who hallucinates racism, probably because of some issues you haven't dealt with inside your own head.
Nowhere in the excerpt of Boortz's statement your presented did he refer to race. You saw his words and added your own.
He said something against "thugs" in the city in which he is based. Now, Cynthogenes, apparently you think only minorities can be thugs, because as soon as you read the word "thug" you thought "minority".
I don't think it's Boortz that has the race problem here, it's you.
So, let me see if I have this right. Cythogenes, by condemning what Neil Boortz said about littering the streets of Atlanta with dead thugs, is sympathetic to the plight of thugs? Never once did Boortz mention the word "black" in his commentary. It was Cythogenes himself who interjected this word into the discussion.
Conclusion: Cythogenes must think all black people are thugs. How sad.
" DavidOAtkins David Atkins
The Ayn Rand revival & end times hysteria among 60+ white people is last gasp of a thankfully dying world "
Here is a June 13th hate speech toward older people. I bet there is a huge plethora of statements that Mr. Atkins has made. Any one of them should force someone with an ounce of decency to remove him from his position representing the Democrats
Eric, listen to the audio of Neil Boortz. He said this on the radio. Listen to the way he says, "yo." Intentionally and obviously imitating African-American speech patterns.
Urban is becoming increasingly used as a euphemism for African-American. That's why you have phrases like "urban culture." That's why the music industry calls hip-hop stations "urban contemporary." Come on, man. If you can't see that "urban thug" is code for inner-city blacks--as if the "yo!" wasn't clear enough for you--you're the one who's hallucinating. Boortz knows he can't say, "go shoot black people." So he'll use the most explicit code he can get away with.
But if that wasn't clear enough for you, how about when Boortz said that the primary problem in New Orleans was "all the parasites" and that Katrina was a "glorified episode of putting out the garbage"? Presumably, Eric, you don't think those were racist comments as well, and I'm just hallucinating it all?
If you can't see the racism in Boortz' comments about urban thugs, parasites and Katrina victims, then...I really don't know what to say for you. Because a fortiori, you wouldn't be able to detect their smoother, more polished and less overt equivalents. Which also means that you have absolutely no business writing about something you're fundamentally unable or unwilling to see.
Here we go, more liberals who can't find outright racism now pick between lines to "expose the hidden CODE WORDS" for racism. Words like "Thug" automatically equal "Black" when combined with the word "Urban". Urban couldn't POSSIBLY equal "Hispanic"? Or maybe "White"? "Everybody knows" white thugs don't exist in the big city.
Also, related to Boortz, I see they still conveniently leave out context; Boortz was clearly outraged about violent carjackings happening in Atlanta.
Audio? I'll go you one better, here's the COMPLETE transcript, without the part Ed Schultz removed for his own bias;
"You know what? I, for one, am tired of putting up with this crap. And you want to know why I moved out of Atlanta and only spend a couple of weeks a year in this town? That’s one of the reasons. Carjackings, violence, people getting shot. It’s ridiculous. This city harbors an urban culture of violence. And I want you to look around. You drive into the city. The railroad overpass is on the downtown connector covered with graffiti. And that– That is just an advertisement for everybody coming into this town that we really don’t give a damn about those who would screw up our quality of life around here. We really just don’t care. We don’t care enough to paint over graffiti on the overpasses that come into our city, advertising welcome to Atlanta, here’s some of our finest graffiti, from some of our finest urban thugs and their little gang signs. And pick up the paper tomorrow morning. Read about all the carjackings. Read about the innocent people shot for the pure de-hell of it.
"This town is starting to look like a garbage heap. And we got too damn many urban thugs, yo, ruining the quality of life for everybody. And I’ll tell you what it’s gonna take. You people, you are – you need to have a gun. You need to have training. You need to know how to use that gun. You need to get a permit to carry that gun. And you do in fact need to carry that gun and we need to see some dead thugs littering the landscape in Atlanta. We need to see the next guy that tries to carjack you shot dead right where he stands. We need more dead thugs in this city. And let their — let their mommas — let their mommas say, “He was a good boy. He just fell in with the good crowd.” And then lock her ass up."
I'm afraid I'm going to have to side with Cynthogenes here. There's certainly a number of areas where racism is used as a means to rally folks to certain causes in this country because believe it or not, there's a lot of racist people. But there's also a lot of not racist people who get offended, and rightfully so, when someone who is racist starts calling for the murder of people of other ethnicities, be it in an obvious manner or in a more subtle manner as Cynthogenes has been pointing out. Its insane to suggest what that radio host is saying is not a verbal targeting of black people.
Now lets say your magical view of the universe is true and thugs are just any old thug, be they white, black, or green. The guy is still talking about shooting people. And why must these people die? Because they're ruining the quality of life... which means what? Are they not mowing their lawn regularly? This is some seriously psychotic stuff here. So even if you can't see the racial overtones which anyone with any sense of the current culture in this country can, then this guy is saying there should be the killing of people in Atlanta by armed vigilantes. And this guy is on the air with a radio show. People listen to this guy. So either this jump off the dead end is a surprise to his regular listeners and he'll apologize or get kicked off the air at some point over it, or its part of a pattern that they're used to and are accepting of. If its the latter, this means that a good number of his listeners are ok with advocacy for killing people for 'ruining the quality of life' (what ever that means).
I think this goes a lot further then one guy thinking other people are being racist and sharing his opinion of that. There are people who have media platforms that are advocating for murder. And yet you're in a tiff with this Atkins. Where are your priorities?
The foundation on which Tea Party stands is, "WE are the REAL victims here!" They feel sorry for themselves all the time, and they're really good at switching from bully to victim in the blink of an eye.
I was at the same redistricting meeting that Mr. Atkins attended, and I saw the veiled racism too. It wasn't ugly, it wasn't threatening, it was just tedious and pathetic.
There were plenty of people there to respectfully offer good concise feedback on issues relating directly to practical matters of boundaries and representation.
But one after another, the Tea Puppets got up and danced around the truth of their discomfort, making vague accusation about procedures, challenging the commissioners' sanity, and bleating about their "communities" as though they were going to be torn asunder by barbed wire and checkpoints.
I didn't find this as exasperating as Mr. Atkins did, but the whining was irritating and the sense of entitlement was pretty damned offensive.
Hello people!... you'll still have the same city council, you'll still pay the same sales taxes, and your neighbors will still be your neighbors. The only difference will be who you share your legislative reps with.
The performances at the meeting amounted to a confession that their political views are so rigid, and so out of touch, that they'll never be able to persuade a different mix of voters to support their candidates. Well say hello to democracy.
ur·ban
[ur-buhn] Show IPA
–adjective
1. of, pertaining to, or designating a city or town.
2. living in a city.
3. characteristic of or accustomed to cities; citified: He is an urban type.
It looks like Cynthogenes is among the ranks of race-baiting liberals, desperately searching for examples of racism in order to advance a political agenda. For these individuals manufacturing racism often involves a certain amount of creativity, since it can often be hard to find legitimate examples of the widespread racism that they claim exists among conservatives. Alas the emergence of so-called "code words", which liberals can conveniently interpret any way they wish. As an example, we are now treated to the absurd and unsubstantiated argument that use of the term "urban" somehow implies racial overtones.
Recently we were treated to tweets from VCDCC Vice Chair David Atkins who argued, incredibly, that conservatives also use ordinary words like "culture", "lifestyle", and "political interest" as racial code words. Interestingly enough, while making this argument Atkins himself engages in his own racial stereotypes by branding "old white people" from "lily-white" political districts as racists, while declaring that East Ventura County residents who use these offensive words should "just put on your white hood already".
It is truly amazing to witness the shifting arguments used by people like Cynthogenes and David Atkins, who go out of their way to twist the words of their political enemies in order to fit a pre-defined racial narrative. These ridiculous "code word" arguments are weak and intellectually dishonest, and are nothing more than cowardly attempts at character assassination for the purposes of shutting down civil debate. Furthermore, if David Atkins is on a quest to find bigots living in Ventura County he need only look in the mirror.
Good comments, Bubba. I too am shocked by David Atkins racist tirades on Twitter. I am not too surprised, however, having seen similar childish, hate-filled rants perpetrated by this imbecilic, buffoonish so-called leader/official of the Democrat Party in Ventura County.
Having seen the County's Dem leaders endorse what Atkins has said by their lack of action or even comment, this speaks to why this organization has been an abysmal failure in advancing Democratic candidates to elected office in the County. Their credibility and effectiveness is at an all-time low. I feel sorry for Jason Hodge. If he's looking for the VCDCC to help him get elected, I'm afraid he's in for a rude awakening.
41ahIy I think this is a real great blog.
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