Reps. Steve King, Michele Bachmann: Right Wing Racism, Examples

I'm not usually a fan of the Ed Show on MSNBC, but a private exchange recently caused me to be curious enough to take a closer look at 'Big Ed', a tv and radio commentator from this part of the country.

His recent programming the week of June 12, 2011 had three very clear examples of what appears to me to be clearly the right wing propaganda machine operating to gin up racist fears and hatred, promoting misunderstanding between individuals and groups of individuals by making completely and totally false claims.  Claims that appear intended to do only that, and nothing more useful or constructive.  This is hateful, and should be broadly condemned across the political spectrum.  I will address those sequentially, beginning with the allegations made by Congressman Steve King.

The first clip below is from the same dishonest, hypocritical conservative congressman who empathizes with suicide bomber domestic terrorists, now spreading lies and disinformation about the nature of court awards to black farmers.  These are farmers who were found, by full legal process, to have been discriminated against on the basis of race by an agency of the federal government of the United States, which you can read about here and here.  Per the pdf of the report from the Congressional Research Service:

"Summary 

On April 14, 1999, Judge Paul L. Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia approved a settlement agreement and consent decree in Pigford v. Glickman, a class action discrimination suit between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and black farmers. The suit claimed that the agency had discriminated against black farmers on the basis of race and failed to investigate or properly respond to complaints from 1983 to 1997. The deadline for submitting a claim as a class member was September 12, 2000."

Quoting again from the Congressional Research Service, even the USDA's own independent study found and agreed that there was clear evidence of this discrimination:

"USDA-Commissioned Study
In 1994, the USDA commissioned D. J. Miller & Associates, a consulting firm, to analyze the
treatment of minorities and women in Farm Service Agency (FSA) programs and payments. The study examined conditions from 1990 to 1995 and looked primarily at crop payments and disaster payment programs and Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) loans. The final report found that from 1990 to 1995, minority participation in FSA programs was very low and minorities received less than their fair share of USDA money for crop payments, disaster payments, and loans."

Note the dates involved here; this is clearly about recent practices, not something which took place in the 19th century or earlier.  This is CLEARLY about modern discrimination, and not about any kind of slavery reparations - particularly as it also focuses on discrimination against women, including CAUCASIAN women.  The class action suit also addressed discrimination against OTHER minorities, including Native Americans. 

The assertion that this is ONLY discrimination against black farmers is ludicrous.

So, look closely, pay attention, to the lying, racist statements made on the floor of Congress by Iowa Representative Steve King shown in this video clip:

IF the good Congressman had bothered to read the document prepared by the Congressional Research Service, he would have understood the cause for the discrepancies in the number of claims being reported for payment of discrimination compensation.  Those higher numbers are clearly accounted for, and the process for proving that a potential recipient properly qualified to receive the money is described.

Congressman King's assertion about widespread fraud is bogus, it is a lie, it is totally bullshit, and it has been debunked long ago, which you can read the Snopes debunking HERE and the FactCheck.org debunking of that claim of fraud HERE.

Congressman King appears here to be a bald-faced liar, a racist bigot, and fr too profoundly incompetent to be proposing amendments on the floor of the House of Representatives on behalf of the citizens of the United States and especially the citizens of Iowa.

Unfortunately, his unfounded claims of fraud and slavery reparations are themes that are widely circulated on the right, including but by no means limited to figures like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, who delight in making claims that black people are trying to get money from the rest of us to which they are not legitimately entitled, that black people hate white people, and that black people are a threat in other ways to the rest of us in this country who are not black.

Facts and fact checking are the enemies of these voices of bigotry on the right.  The Tea Partiers and other conservatives decry being tarred with the brush of racism; well - here's just one example of why they are, and fairly so.

And it is not as if this is the only time that Congressman King has run his mouth spewing bigotry and racism.
It is a pattern with him.

So, who else do we see peddling this racism?  Bachmann likes to repeat and repeat lies, and to promote hatred, frear and paranoia. She repeats such misstatements so frequently that it cannot be excused as simple error.  It appears to clearly be deliberate, and she does it because it has an appeal to her base. 

Apparently the Religious Right doesn't care too much about that part of the ten commandments that direct us not to lie.