Why Arab is Accepted as a Slur

Campbell Brown wonders why being called an Arab is a slur:

Woman at rally: I don't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's an Arab.

Sen. John McCain: No ma'am, no ma'am. He's a decent family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. That's what this campaign is all about. He's not, thank you.

'No bias, no bull'

Now, I commend Sen. McCain for correcting that woman, for setting the record straight. But I do have one question -- so what if he was?

So what if Obama was Arab or Muslim? So what if John McCain was Arab or Muslim? Would it matter?

When did that become a disqualifier for higher office in our country? When did Arab and Muslim become dirty words? The equivalent of dishonorable or radical?

Whenever this gets raised, the implication is that there is something wrong with being an Arab-American or a Muslim. And the media is complicit here, too. 

We've all been too quick to accept the idea that calling someone Muslim is a slur.

I'm glad the media is finally speaking out on all this hate mongering that's been going on. Whoever believes the media is on Obama's side or anyone's side is kidding themselves.

The media should've been fighting this a long while ago, not to support Obama but to be fair. Muslims have been unfairly smeared. 

The media seems to be firing back now in reaction to McCain Palin's thuggish supporters. Since they've come out of the closet, thanks to Palin, we can see more clearly how warped their thinking is.

The reason being called an Arab is accepted as a slur is because the McCain camp and the wingnut republican extremist have been fostering the notion that Arab = terrorist. The radical republicans believe that Islam is a bad religion. They figured if they could tie Obama to Islam then that makes Obama a bad person, a secret Muslim terrorist in the eyes of many. We have now taken for granted that whenever a republican calls someone an Arab they mean it as a slur.

Brown says:

I feel like I am stating the obvious here, but apparently it needs to be said: There is a difference between radical Muslims who support jihad against America and Muslims who want to practice their religion freely and have normal lives like anyone else.

But she's not stating the obvious. That's the whole ploy. While McCain and the radical republicans have been arguing against "radical Islam," what they're really against is Islam. But they won't say that out loud. You have to visit their websites and read their emails. 

Also, even if being Arab wasn't a slur, it wouldn't be an acceptable religion for a U.S. president because many Americans haven't benefited from our education system or a good upbringing. Many people grow up in families that foster hate. Being Arab or being something other than Christian is a little over many people's heads. 

McCain Renews Ayers Attack

I thought for a minute that McCain was going to take the high road since he called off his pit bull yesterday, after days of innuendo that Obama is a radical terrorist Muslim. Seems Palin was inciting too much hatred at her rallies. Her supporters are into that theme. Palin is so inspiring.  But McCain, eyes closed, has gone full bore down the dirty road. And we'll see about Palin because she'll be out on her own again today.

Politico:
McCAIN LAUNCHESAYERS WEB VIDEO – Politico's Andy Barr: 'John McCain's campaign released a new 90-second web [video] Thursday on Barack Obama's relationship with 1960s radical William Ayers. ... 'Barack Obama and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. Friends. They've worked together for years. But Obama tries to hide it. Why? Obama's friendship with terrorist Ayers isn't the issue. The issue is Barack Obama's judgment and candor. When Obama just says, 'This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood.' Americans say, 'Where's the truth, Barack?' Barack Obama. Too risky for America.'

EXCLUSIVE: A TV AD IS PLANNED.

McCAIN CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER NICOLLE WALLACE, during round of morning shows, SAYS OBAMA 'LIED.'

Nicolle, to ABC's Robin Roberts on 'Good Morning America': 'Nobody in America sitting around the kitchen table ... cares about a washed-up terrorist like Mr. Ayers, which he is. It's about telling the truth about your record. And if we can't trust Barack Obama to tell the truth about the guys in his neighborhood, who also happen to be domestic terrorists, who also happen to be people who have held events for him, how can we trust him to tell the truth about what he could do as president?'

Obama's Robert Gibbs: 'You heard a crazy answer right there from Nicolle. Let me address some of the things that Nicolle knowingly misstated, in another desperate and dishonest attack from the McCain campaign.'

WALLACE: 'Do I look desperate?'

WALLACE, on NBC's 'Today': 'The point is he lied when he first talked about his association.'

Obama's Bill BURTON, on Fox: 'Even after all these reports, at the end of the day, their paths crossed a couple times. Did he know about his past when he went over to his house? No. When he found out about the terrible past, did he say the actions were detestable and deplorable? Absolutely.'

Here's exactly why the McCain camp is taking the low road and McCain knows it, but lacks the wisdom or the integrity to do anything about it:

GRAND RAPIDS -- Following an unpopular president, supporting a costly war, and now facing a financial crisis at home, Sen. John McCain's race for the presidency should be in worse shape.

"What makes John McCain plausible is Barack Obama," news anchor Ray Suarez told a local crowd Wednesday.

The "pseudo controversies" about Obama's background are symbols for a "racial calculus" hard at work in U.S. politics.

Opinions about Obama's inexperience, his childhood in Indonesia, and the persistent but untrue rumors of him being Muslim are stand-ins for something his detractors cannot admit, Suarez said.

Particularly, "religion has become a proxy for race," he said.

Characterizing Obama as Muslim "is a way to confer otherness on him for those people who are uncomfortable saying they're against him because he's black."

Suarez spoke at Fountain Street Church as part of the Diversity lecture series. He is the senior correspondent for PBS's "News Hour with Jim Lehrer" and former host of NPR's "Talk of the Nation" program.

That's why Campbell Brown is wrong on this one. So is Glenn Beck.
More on this:

NYT: McCain may feel compelled to go back to his guilt-by-association theme. And this has me feeling very guilty about my associates.

The McCain folks have been obsessed with William Ayers, a neighbor of Obama’s who is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Back in the 1960s, Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, were leaders of the Weather Underground, an antiwar group whose penchant for violence was exceeded only by its haplessness. Ayers has since become an education expert and was named Chicago’s Citizen of the Year in 1997. He gave Obama a house party when Obama was running for the State Senate.

In my experience, most State Senate hopefuls are so thrilled at any sign of interest that they would happily attend a reception given by a homeless couple in their cardboard box. But even though Obama was 8 years old at the time the Weathermen were in the news, that house party puts all their misdeeds on his platter. Sarah Palin has been telling her increasingly scary rallies that he is somebody “who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists.”

Fox News, in a one-hour special on Obama’s associates hosted by Sean Hannity, came up with an “Internet journalist” named Andy Martin who has spent his life running bizarre political campaigns with occasional detours into the clink and filing lawsuits laced with paranoia and anti-Semitism. Based on this expertise, Martin deduced that Ayers was the puppet master of Obama’s rise in politics and that Obama’s community-organizer gig was actually training for “a radical overthrow of the government.”

To me, this Ayers line of attack seems like just preaching to the choir. It seems people inclined to think Obama is a terrorist Muslim will bite the bait. But really, how many stupid people are there in America? That's a scary question.

Campbell Brown Rants on Palin Sexism

Campbell Brown has found her voice. Stop the sexist treatment of Sarah Palin, she says to the McCain camp, who won't let Palin out of her bubble to speak to the media and the American people. Stop treating her like a "delicate flower that will wilt at any moment."
The irony: it really is sexism. Palin is a republican tool, being manipulated and exploited to win an election. Sadly, women who want to believe the Palin myth, have fallen for it. The men not so much. I think they know what Palin represents.

Palin's Road To Nowhere

The bridge debunked. Now the road.

Media Responds to GOP Attacks

They were like animals in the lead up to McCain's speech. Frankly, I've never seen anything like it and then McCain acts as if he's a uniter not a divider. Sounds familiar.
Anyway, the media was caught up in the GOP show, which cast stones at everyone who wasn't a republican. See the video they're hollering about here. Media responds:

Swamp: After several primetime speakers at this week's Republican National Convention unleashed a barrage of attacks on the news media for their coverage of vice-presidential nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, network news executives defended their coverage and dismissed the charges as a stale political strategy meant to distract viewers from legitimate election issues.

"It's a time-honored marketing ploy and, every time they bash the media, it means they're not talking about a vision or a plan," CNN president Jon Klein said. "But the best antidote to cynical marketing is solid reporting."

CNN had a dustup with the McCain campaign earlier this week after Campbell Brown's persistent questioning of McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds on Palin's foreign-policy experience as governor of Alaska prompted the campaign to cancel McCain's scheduled appearance on Larry King Live. (Bounds and CNN have since patched thing up.)

"America has been presented with a total unknown who might be a heartbeat away from the presidency," Klein said of Palin, "and Americans have every right to expect as much information as possible about this person so that they can make an informed choice. Certainly our critics are in favor of Americans making an informed choice, aren't they?" more