During the debate on Monday, Juan Williams asked Newt Gingrich several questions about Gingrich’s recent statements about food stamps and lazy Negroes, statements which served as a racial dog-whistle bullhorn to scrounge up votes in the upcoming South Carolina primary.
Gingrich’s response to Williams, as well as the response of the raucous (mostly white) South Carolina debate crowd aptly exemplifies why Black Republicans are a dying breed:
It’s the reliance on such “facts and data” that allows Gingrich to sleep at night after publicly dubbing Barack Obama “the food stamp president.”
During an exchange with Fox News analyst Juan Williams during a debate in South Carolina on Jan. 16, Gingrich defended previous statements that poor kids lack a strong work ethic, that they should be put to work as janitors (child labor laws be damned), and that black Americans should “demand jobs, not food stamps.”
“Can’t you see that this is viewed, at a minimum, as insulting to all Americans, but particularly to black Americans?” Williams asked.
“No,” Gingrich responded, to roaring applause and rolling laughter. “I don’t see that.”
“It sounds as if you’re speaking to belittle people,” Williams added later in the exchange.
“Well, first of all, Juan,” Gingrich said, “the fact is, more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history.”
I’ve talked about the difference between racism and assumption of privilege before, but every now and again somebody managed to do both at the same time, like Newt Gingrich. And every now and again, people like Gingrich get called out on it.
At a town hall event meant to appeal to Latino voters at a Mexican restaurant in Manchester, an African-American man confronted Gingrich about recent comments he made that have drawn the ire of the NACCP and other civil rights leader. Gingrich controversially said last week, “I’m prepared, if the NAACP invites me, I’ll go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.”
Now, that was bad enough, but the reality is Gingrich’s assumption that the majority of SNAP recipients are African-American males is also completely and totally wrong. The largest plurality are white children, as a matter of fact. And only 8% of people on SNAP received additional federal welfare benefits, while 4% recieved additional state benefits. That’s it.
Today, someone called Newt on it, a black small business owner who took offense at Gingrich assuming all black people take food stamps.
Seeing as Newt Gingrich’s prospects are predictably fading as the Iowa caucuses draw nigh, it might be beside the point to highlight one of the stupidest things said on the Republican debate stage thus far (in a very wide field). But I’m sure no one here will mind kicking Newt and his Death Star-sized head a bit while he’s down.
During the debate last Thursday, Gingrich said that as president he would be willing to “abolish” federal judges, and subpoena justices who make “unpopular” (with Congress or him, one is left to wonder) decisions to appear before Congress and account for themselves, since the courts have become “grotesquely dictatorial and far too powerful.”
(And, apparently, the decisions they write explaining exactly why they reasoned the way they did are hard to read.)
I was gobsmacked (and so was our own asiangrrlMN, who at this point threw in the towel on her live blog of the debate, which I kind of wish I had done, too). Was Newt really saying, as the GOP’s self-titled “Big Thinker,” that he does not believe in an independent judiciary?
Newt’s baaaaaaack, and stomping hard on all the 90′s era dog whistles:
Only one problem, Newtie. You’re lying out your ass.
Each of Gingrich’s claims about food stamps is so ridiculous — especially for a self-styled policy wonk — that we wondered whether he was really intending to be serious. (By publication time, we did not receive answers to several queries made to his press staff.) But the transcript makes it sound like he wasn’t joking, so we’ll assume he wasn’t. For being so ridiculously wrong in so many ways, we rate his statement Pants on Fire.
I have two things to say, and then I must away to my lawyering hole.
Watch this clip:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c |
| Mosque-Erade | |
And then read this article [reposted in full from truthout.org]:
Posted in Culture Critic, Fox News Fvckery, Legal Shenanigans, Political Shenanigans
Tagged asshats, Asshats on the Right, die in a fire, Fox News, Ground Zero mosque, Islam, Jon Stewart, legal mumbo jumbo, mosque, Muslims, Newt Gingrich is an asshat, religion, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, The Daily Show
Big news, SYTYCD fans! Ellen DeGeneres is going to dance Alex Wong’s part of that awesome Nappy/Tabs hip hop number with Twitch! Did you just crap your pants? Because I did. Just a little.
I must admit, I have given up on this season. I’ve got way too much crap going on and the show is boring. It was boring last season too. If it doesn’t get its shit together, I’m going to quit SYTYCD forever. (Just kidding! I didn’t mean it! Sorry, Cat!)
But this season has seriously sucked. After Alex Wong got injured (and by the way I totally, know a nurse who treated him for his injuries, and said nurse — he knows who he is ::angry glare:: — didn’t even get a picture!)
I guess that might have been unethical or whatever, but who cares about ethics? Certainly not me! (Oh wait… I hope the State Bar of California isn’t reading this.)
After Alex was eliminated (I have friends who attended that show and everybody in the audience was weeping, apparently), I figured I’d keep watching for Billy Bell. Then he got injured and I was all, “Fuck this noise. I can get my SYTYCD fix by watching clips on YouTube.”
But, the SYTYCD finale is tonight! And I, for one, will be watching because I want to see Ellen shoop shoop ba doop with Twitch! Aw yeah!
Yes, it’s happening: On tonight’s So You Think You Can Dance finale, include Ellen DeGeneres will recreate injured contestant Alex Wong‘s hip-hop routine with tWitch. As first reported by Perez Hilton [Asshat] (and now confirmed by Fox and DeGeneres’ publicist), Ellen taped the performance last night with tWitch after rehearsing for a month. The routine, to “Outta Your Mind” by Lil Jon featuring LMFAO, is considered to be the finest hip-hop routine ever performed on the show, and featured Wong working with his shrink (tWitch) to overcome his ballet baggage so he could hit hard on the Tabitha and Napoleon-choreographed number.
DeGeneres responded to a fan’s prediction that she’d be Wong’s sub with the following Twitter tease last night: “I like it! I wonder if it WILL happen?” This afternoon she followed up with: “#SYTYCD finale tonight. Broke my heart when Alex had to drop out. Tonight, I do something and I hope it makes him smile.”
[videos after the jump!]
