TN-09: Racist and anti-Semitic ads from... a Democrat??

Ugh, this is disgusting. Tomorrow, on August 7, Tennessee will hold its primaries, and in Tennessee's 9th Congressional district, where Memphis is located, it's gotten ugly. This is the seat that used to belong to Harold Ford, Jr. (D), until he gave it up for a Senate run where the GOP ran that ad with the white woman going, "Harold, call me!" (Harold is black.) Well, when he gave up that seat, it went to fellow Democrat Steve Cohen, who is a white Jew.

And it seems that's become an issue.

In Congress, he's been pretty awesome. He's MUCH more progressive than Ford ever was, scoring a 96.28% progressive rating on Progressive Punch. But it seems certain folks in Memphis do not want them to be represented by anyone other than an African-American. So enter Nikki Tinker ("D"), who's challenging him in the primary. Cohen had already beaten her in a 15-candidate field in the 2006 primary.

Well, Tinker's people (so she can claim deniability) started in fine force back in February, unleashing this beyond disgusting flyer onto Memphis.



And then you get stupid racists spewing shit like this.

"He's not black and he can't represent me, that's just the bottom line," said Rev. Robert Poindexter of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church.

But now it's gotten even worse. This week began with Tinker herself releasing this ad associating Cohen with the KKK.



The local Memphis Commercial-Appeal denounced the ad. (In case you're wondering why he voted that way, RealClearPolitics provides the backstory. It's basically a jurisdiction issue.)

But that wasn't bad enough. Tinker then released this ad just today, and it has drawn so much negative reaction from all over the country, that her campaign has already removed it from YouTube. But we still have the transcript.

CHILD'S VOICE: "Now I lay me down to sleep..."
ANNCR: "Who is the real Steve Cohen anyway?"
CHILD'S VOICE: "I pray the Lord my soul to keep..."
ANNCR: "While he's in our churches, clapping his hands and tapping his feet..."
CHILD'S VOICE: "If I should die before I wake..."
ANNCR: "He is the only senator who thought our kids shouldn't be allowed to pray in school."
CHILD'S VOICE: I pray the Lord my soul to take.
ANNCR: "Congressman, sometimes apologies just aren't enough."
TINKER: "I'm Nikki Tinker, and I approve this message."

The announcer's voice specifically stressed "our" in that ad. That's about as blatant as an anti-Semitic dog whistle you're ever going to hear on TV. For this disgusting ad, Keith Olbermann tonight named Tinker today's Worst Person in the World.



EMILY's List, which had actually endorsed Tinker over Cohen, despite his perfect pro-choice record, back in May, condemned the ad too, as if that's really going to matter less than 24 hours before voting ends. Of course, they could have done what NOW and NARAL did, which was endorse Cohen over a truly despicable person in the first place.

Oh, but that's only half the story. It gets worse. Much worse.

Steve Cohen forcibly removed a cameraman from his house who had barged in uninvited to Cohen's hastily-called news conference at Cohen's house to address the religion-baiting ad... and the cameraman is allegedly pressing 'assault' charges. (Video from the local Memphis Fox affiliate is available here.) The cameraman is an Armenian-American activist and documentary filmmaker who has been stalking Cohen all week; he's not officially affiliated with the Tinker camp, but Armenian groups have given more than $30K to the Tinker campaign because of Cohen's opposition to the bill to call the World War I-era slaughter of Armenians genocide (and thus infuriate Turkey).

Small legalistic note: there's a big difference between some sorehead pressing charges, and the county DA actually following through on them (which I guess we'll find out about that tomorrow). The video shows Cohen escorting the guy out the door with hand firmly on his arm and giving him a shove out the door for good measure; since the cameraman was essentially trespassing, this isn't likely to amount to anything.

Now, it turns out that filmmaker Peter Mursurlian is actually a Republican operative who used to work for former California Congressman Carlos Moorhead (R) of Pasadena. Also, none of the other Tennessee Democrats are co-sponsoring the resolution either, but none of them have been targeted the way Cohen has been.

I wonder why.

Update: Steve Cohen ended up CRUSHING Tinker 79%-19%. Hopefully this is an end to her political career.

Also, it turns out that Tinker supports abstinence-only education, which is hardly a platform of someone who's supposedly "pro-choice". Way to go, EMILY's List.

Real Bigotry: Ann Coulter at it Again with Anti-Semitic Statements

The following is an article from Rabbi Levi Brackman about a statement from Ann Coulter, an embarrassment to the left, the right, and this country in general. If you want to learn more about the rabbi visit Levi Brackman.Com
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Ann Coulter’s Wakeup Call to Jews

Written by Rabbi Levi Brackman
Friday, 19 October 2007
Were Ann Coulter’s recent remarks on a recent TV show about Jews anti-Semitic? Coulter said "We just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws." No matter how she may explain this away as a Jew I find this statement offensive and disturbingly telling.
But you may ask and who is Ann Coulter to offend us? She is but a shallow political pundit who is not taken seriously by anyone? Right? No, wrong. She is a best selling author who is quoted by people on the conservative right as if she is the author of the Bible. Her words have influence and they reflect the thinking of many of her political and religious ilk.
What many Christians do not understand about Jews is that for the last two thousand years others have tried to “perfect” us against our will. In many instances this has been done by force and millions of us have been killed in this “perfecting” process. We Jews have suffered terribly from “pious” Christians who felt the need to make us “better Jews.” The long litany of expulsions, pogroms and inquisitions of Jews in Christian lands are the legacy of Christians trying to perfect Jews. The founder of Protestantism Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 – February 18, 1546) is just one example of a person holding such an ideology. He wrote a book entitled, “On the Jews and their Lies” describing the Jews in extremely unforgiving terms and giving detailed recommendations for a pogrom against them and their permanent oppression and expulsion. Simultaneously, however, he also preached, “We want to treat them [the Jews] with Christian love and to pray for them, so that they might become converted and would receive the Lord."Clearly this is one side of the same coin that we Jews are sensitive to. Many Christians would like to see us Jews convert to Christianity. They see us as stubbornly refusing to except their savior as our god. Many also see this as an affront to their religion and to Jesus. Fortunately today in America there is a separation between church and state which does not allow the other belligerent side of Ann Coulter and Martin Luther’s ideology rear its ugly head against us.We thankfully live in a country which allows us to protest when people like Ann Coulter say these types of demeaning and bigoted things in public. However, this must be a wakeup call for the Political Right in this country. Over the last eight years the evangelical Christians have become almost synonymous with rightwing Conservative politics. This is unhealthy for any democracy. History has clearly shown that when religious leaders gain political power there is always bloodshed. The Middle East today is a prime example of this phenomenon. One of America’s greatest successes is that freedom of worship is granted to all. This fact allows all people to compete on an equal playing field which then drives creativity and thus economic growth. Unfortunately people like Ann Coulter and other rightwing demagogues with religious agendas have considerable power in the Republican Party today and they therefore have influence over U.S. elected officials. This does not bode well for the future of the United States. Those who read my columns regularly know that I am neither a liberal nor a conservative, I am a realist. We must all start being realistic about the damaging effect of a growing bigoted religious influence in American politics and for obvious reasons we Jews must be the first to sound the alarm bells about this growing danger. I thank Ann Coulter for this wakeup call.
(First published by Ynetnews.com)