by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Ali Frick, and Benjamin Armbruster

MEDIA

Hate Radio's Bigotry Against Hispanics

On Monday, hate radio king Rush Limbaugh appeared on Fox News for five minutes to discuss the presidential race and managed to make an offensive comment. Limbaugh called Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), who is Hispanic, a "shoe shine guy." Yesterday, Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, blasted Limbaugh for uttering "the same kind of nasty, bigoted, racist type comment that has become so prevalent in today's society, as practiced by Lou Dobbs, as practiced by [Sean] Hannity, [Bill] O'Reilly, [Michael] Savage." Racial slurs, particularly fueled against Hispanics, has found a home on right-wing radio, which claims 91 percent of radio airwaves. The nation's leading Hispanic advocacy group, National Council of La Raza, launched a campaign earlier this year decrying right-wing radio for its "rhetoric that demonizes immigrants and Hispanic Americans." "Talk like Savage's, or Limbaugh's or O'Reilly's, has become routine, even systematic, and certainly a big business. According to the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, the top five radio station owners that control 45 powerful, 50,000-watt or more radio stations broadcast 310 hours of nationally syndicated right-wing talk. But they broadcast only a total of five hours of countervailing talk," Salon reported. Yet these talkers are rarely held to account: For example, neither ABC, Time, nor Politico mentioned the offensive remarks when reporting on Limbaugh's TV commentary this week. Progressive radio host Mario Solis-Marich wrote Tuesday, "As a member of the largest minority ethnic group and a member of the media, I am continually puzzled and outraged by the idea that anyone can say anything about Latinos without fearing any consequence."

DEMAGOGUING IMMIGRATION: A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism found, "Thanks to energetic opposition from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage, immigration was the biggest topic, at 16%, on conservative talk radio in the second quarter" of last year -- when conservative radio led the effort to defeat congressional comprehensive immigration reform, largely by resorting to fear and hatred. Radio host Neal Boortz urged listeners to help defeat "this illegal alien amnesty bill" and "yank out the welcome mat." Speaking of undocumented immigrants he said, "Give 'em all a little nuclear waste and let 'em take it on down there to Mexico. Tell 'em...it'll heat tortillas." Michael Savage repeatedly exhorted listeners to "burn a Mexican flag" and to "tell them to go back to where they came from." CNN's Glenn Beck, who also has a radio show, took particular issue with Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) support for the immigration bill (though McCain has since changed positions), deriding the senator as "Juan McCain." Beck called McCain's support for the bill and the fact that his national director of Hispanic outreach was of Mexican background "an audacious slap in the face." 

A 'RACE WAR': Right-wing radio's discussion of immigration often veers away from policy to focus on race. Savage once warned his listeners, "The European-American, or the white person, is being erased from America's future...There is a racial element to the immigration invasion, at least I see it that way." Discussing a pro-immigrant parade in L.A., O'Reilly said, "So now, it's becoming a race war." O'Reilly also accused supporters of immigration -- "who hate America...because it's run primarily by white, Christian men" -- of seeking "to change the complexion...of America." These hatemongers have made clear their primary concern: maintaining a white majority. Just this year, Fox News's John Gibson gave "a big round of applause" on his radio show to the "non-Hispanic white women" who were having babies, which he said vindicated his call on "the dominant, or largest population sector, which is Caucasians," to "make more babies." "And what happens to white people?" Savage wondered. "That's the real question here. Will our brown brethren, who are so nationalistic and so anti-gringo and anti-Anglo, be as enlightened as the European-American is? I don't think so." 

HEALTH SCARE: Right-wing radio hosts have also -- wrongly -- claimed that illegal immigrants should be kept out of the United States because they bring strange diseases in. O'Reilly agreed with a caller into his radio show who said that illegal immigration "surpasses the impact of 9/11" because "each one of these people is a biological weapon." The caller claimed that that "illegals crossing the border" are bringing "tuberculosis, syphilis, leprosy." O'Reilly agreed, and said there was "an absolutely airtight case" that more Americans "have either been killed or injured, based upon the 11 million illegals who are here," than died on 9/11. (O'Reilly later insisted he "never said anything like that.") Last summer, CNN's Lou Dobbs repeatedly claimed that there were "7,000" cases of leprosy in the U.S. in the last three years, and suggested the cases were due to illegal immigrants. When confronted with a CBS analysis that found only 7,000 cases of leprosy in the last 30 years -- and an unknown number involving illegal immigrants -- Dobbs simply replied, "If we reported it, it's a fact."

VETERANS -- PENTAGON WARNS OF 'HARM' FROM WEBB'S EFFORT TO GIVE SOLDIERS BENEFITS AFTER SERVING 'ONLY' TWO YEARS: Currently, there are 56 senators, including 10 Republicans, who have joined Sen. Jim Webb's (D-VA) effort to dramatically expand educational benefits for returning veterans. The 21st Century GI Bill would pay a significant portion of college costs for all servicemembers, including national guard members, who served on active duty after Sept. 11, 2001. The Pentagon and the White House oppose the bill, out of an apparent fear "that too many will use it." In a press briefing yesterday, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell explained the administration's opposition, warning of the "harm" Webb's bill would do to troop retention and objecting to the generous benefits given after "only" two years of service. Instead, the Pentagon supports giving GI benefits after a full six years, meaning that, a soldier who participated in the invasion of Baghdad in April of 2003 and had remained in service ever since would be forced to wait a whole year before becoming eligible for full benefits. The New York Times's Bob Herbert recently pointed out that more robust educational benefits will only help the military fill its enlistment quotas with qualified Americans. VoteVets chairman Jon Soltz and Gen. Wesley Clark said recently, "it is morally reprehensible to fix the system so that civilian life is unappealing to service members, in an attempt to force them to re-up."  ETHICS -- FBI RAIDS OFFICE, HOME OF SPECIAL COUNSEL IN CORRUPTION INVESTIGATION: FBI agents raided the home and office of federal Special Counsel Scott Bloch yesterday, seizing computers and documents related to a corruption investigation. "Employees said the searches appeared focused on alleged obstruction of justice by Mr. Bloch during the course of an 2006 inquiry into his conduct in office," the Wall Street Journal reported. Bloch had been tasked with looking into whether former White House aide Karl Rove used government resources to help elect Republicans in 2006. But at the same time, Bloch has engaged in his own Rove-like behavior and has been under investigation since 2005. Steve Benen of The Carpetbagger Report describes the bizarre nature of the raid: "Only with the Bush gang is this set of circumstances even possible -- Bloch is ostensibly investigating the Justice Department for its political activities, and simultaneously the Justice Department sends the FBI to raid Bloch's office and home." CONGRESS -- HOUSE WILL SUBPOENA ADDINGTON, KEY ARCHITECT OF BUSH'S TORTURE PROGRAM: Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee voted to subpoena David Addington, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, to compel him to testify about the administration's interrogation programs. Addington has been a pivotal player in the torture program, personally watching and approving interrogations at Guantanamo Bay in 2002. Addington has said he will agree to testify if subpoenaed, but in yesterday's White House briefing, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino hedged, stating, "Look, the subpoena was just served. He said he would respond appropriately, and I'm sure he will." The AP also reports that former Office of Legal Counsel head John Yoo, author of several legal memos that sanctioned torture, has reversed course and agreed to testify before the committee as well, along with other architects of the administration's torture program, including former Pentagon official Douglas Feith and former attorney general John Ashcroft. Former CIA director George Tenet "is still in negotiations with the committee, according to House Judiciary Committee spokeswoman Melanie Roussell."

"The Bush administration has not found disaster recovery files for White House e-mails from a three-month time period in 2003…raising the possibility that messages sent before and after the invasion of Iraq may never be recovered." The White House claims a court proposal to search and preserve White House e-mail records would "yield marginal benefits at best, while imposing substantial burdens and disruptions."  A record-breaking 1.6 million voters cast ballots in Indiana’s Democratic and GOP contests yesterday. This figure "smashed the 1992 primary turnout of a little more than 1 million votes." North Carolina also reported "unprecedented" turnout. Today, the House is set to begin debating a sweeping housing rescue bill that "could see the government buy up $15 billion of abandoned homes." It would also help half a million homeowners facing foreclosure by offering "fresh spending, tax credits and a new government guarantee on many risky loans to bolster the national housing market." President Bush has threatened to veto the legislation. Anti-war Republican Rep. Walter Jones (NC-03) "comfortably defeated" a primary challenger in his conservative congressional district yesterday by a margin of 60-40 percent after facing stiff opposition "over his outspoken stance" against the Iraq war. Camp Lejuene, one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the country, is located in Jones's district. House Veterans Committee chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) "lashed out" at Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake yesterday during a hearing for having previously attempted to "cover up" veterans suicide data. "What we see is a pattern -- deny, deny, cover up, cover up," Filner said. In the "most specific assertions to date," lawyers for detainees at Guantanamo Bay say they believe that government agents have "monitored their conversations." One lawyer is so concerned that she said in an affidavit that she is "no longer accepting new clients of any type because she could not assure them of confidentiality." Yesterday, EPA Associate Deputy Administrator Jason Burnett -- dubbed "the John Yoo of the EPA" -- announced his departure from the agency. Burnett had been responsible for crafting legal arguments that promoted arsenic in drinking water, catered to industry on mercury regulations, overruled scientists on soot health standards, and defied the Supreme Court's decision on global warming. President Bush "sent the Senate a new slate of Federal Election Commission nominees" yesterday in an apparent effort "to break a Senate confirmation deadlock." But the move was "greeted coolly" by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) because Bush retained Hans von Spakovsky and removed David Mason, who clashed recently with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). And finally: Radar writes, "Looking to steal a car? Tucker Carlson's unlocked Volvo station wagon is available and probably in the parking lot at D.C. hub The Palm right now." Carlson recently told The Hill that he never locks his car, even though a woman once stalked him. He also once found a man "asleep and wrapped in newspaper in the back seat of his Volvo station wagon. 'I beat on the windows and made him get out,' he says."

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"The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $61.1 million to a Midwest multistate environmental partnership to develop new ways of capturing and storing greenhouse gases."

WASHINGTON: State's Office of African-American Children's Services, "once considered a national model in the way it tried to address the high number of black kids in the child-welfare system," has officially closed.

CALIFORNIA: "California's voter-created stem cell institute is expected to award $227 million in grants today."

INDIANA: At least 10 retired nuns were barred from voting in Tuesday's primary "because they lacked photo IDs required under a state law that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld last week."

THINK PROGRESS: Former Vice President Al Gore: It is "obscene" that President Bush has dismissed "George Washington's 200-plus year prohibition on torture."

ATTACKERMAN: The close relationship between the rise of private contracting in Iraq and the fall of quality oversight.

TALKING POINTS MEMO: Fox News's wealthy white males get their chuckles from discussing "downscale voters."

POLITICAL ANIMAL: Washington Post columnist and former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson disingenuously claims that there has been no conservative war against science.

"I hope that the military will realize they have to accept aid from everybody they can possibly accept it from."
-- First Lady Laura Bush, 5/5/08, on the Burmese government's response to the recent cyclone

VERSUS

"[T]he U.S. government was turning down many allies' offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for [Hurricane] Katrina's victims."
-- Washington Post, 4/29/07