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An Open Letter To U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx

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Even Matthew Shepard’s
Murderer
Apologized

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Dear Representative Foxx,

It’s been ten years, seven months, and fifteen days since the night Matthew Shepard was savagely beaten, tortured, pistol-whipped so badly his skull was crushed, and, yes, robbed, and tied to a fence for eighteen hours in freezing temperatures, during which he sank into a coma before dying five days later. It is four weeks to the day since you stood on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and delivered your now infamous speech to your fellow Congressmen, constituents, the media, and, yes, watching from the House gallery, Matthew Shepard’s mother.

On that hallowed floor, Dr. Foxx, you said, and I quote, “The hate crimes bill that’s called the Matthew Shepard Bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn’t because he was gay. This – the bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it’s really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.”

Facts, Representative Foxx, are facts. They’re not malleable. They don’t change based on your opinion or that of your sources. They are “pragmatic truths”. And they can’t be cherry-picked to flesh-out a version of events that suit one’s purpose. Dr. Foxx, when you stood in front of your country and the world, on that Wednesday afternoon two weeks ago, however, that’s exactly what you did.

You may believe you have apologized, but you have not. You simply apologized for your choice of words. You apologized for semantics. You did not, however, apologize for the fact that you maligned the memory of a twenty-one year old, five-foot four-inch boy who weighted barely more than one hundred pounds. You did not apologize for getting the facts wrong. You added your voice to a lie. And that is unacceptable.

It is unacceptable to millions of Americans, some of whom, in North Carolina, you represent directly. It is unacceptable to millions of people around the world who hold the memory, and the very idea of what Matthew Shepard represents, in our hearts. It is unacceptable to me. And it is unacceptable to the nearly two thousand people, some of whom are your constituents, who very quickly after you spoke those now infamous, horrific words, joined a group dedicated to securing your resignation.

Representative Foxx, after reading your public statements, your voting history, and seeing the very manner in which you serve the people of North Carolina and this country, we do not believe that you understand the gravity of your actions, or the gravity of your office. You may be the elected representative of the Fifth District in North Carolina, but you are a United States Congresswoman. And as a United States Congresswoman, when you speak, America hears not the Representative from the Fifth District of North Carolina, America hears a United States Congresswoman.

We know you sent a letter of apology to Judy Shepard, and said, “If I said anything that offended her, I certainly apologize for it and know that she’s hurting, and I would never do anything to add to that.” But, Representative Foxx, you did. And you wounded millions of Americans with your uninformed and ugly rhetoric, you violated the trust placed in an elected official of The United States, and you violated the memory of Matthew Shepard. Saying “if” demonstrated, in yet one more poorly chosen word, your lack of understanding of the pain you have caused victims of hate crimes, their families, friends, and loved ones. Saying “if” demonstrated your lack of understanding of the significance of your office.

How can you deny facts, so many facts, not set the record straight, not say you were wrong? Even Russell Henderson, one of Matthew Shepard’s murderers, in the very ABC News 20/20 article you based your statement on, apologized. Dr. Foxx, we need a real apology, a real statement that says you understand the facts of the Matthew Shepard murder, and the reason it was, in fact, a hate crime. And we need you to understand that hate crimes are real crimes, far worse than isolated murders and violent attacks. As a lawmaker, you need to understand the difference between a crime and a hate crime.

A hate crime, in the words of conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, “is really two crimes — one against the individual and another against the group to which he belongs. By that definition, Shepard’s murder may be viewed as a terrorist act against all gays, who would have felt more fearful as a result.”

Perhaps, Dr. Foxx, not having been part of an oppressed minority, it is difficult for you to understand what it’s like to feel the fear of others who have suffered, knowing that, you, too, might one day befall the same fate, merely for the color of your skin, or your heritage, or for simply how you appear. What could possibly be worse than not supporting the idea of protecting those who need protection the most? Isn’t that what America stands for? Isn’t that the reason we, over the course of more than two centuries, have many times gone to war? How can you not support something so simple and so human as wanting to ensure all Americans feel free from the danger and harm that hatred can bring?

Representative Foxx, I invite you to reexamine your comments about Matthew Shepard. We need you to correct the record, apologize for the hurt and pain caused by not only your words, but by your position on the murder of Matthew Shepard and by your position on hate crimes. Apologize, and tell the truth: Matthew Shepard’s murder was a hate crime. If you feel these requests are too unimportant, then, Representative Foxx, you should consider the needs of the people of North Carolina and America, and let someone else, anyone who has the temerity for truth, take your place. Because, if you cannot realize that your understanding of the Matthew Shepard murder was wrong, that your words and your response were hurtful, and that your position on hate crimes is hateful, you may still be qualified to “hold office,” but you are in no way qualified to represent any part of this great country.

Sincerely,

David Badash
Founder,
FireFoxx

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News

Mark Robinson Scandal Could Bring Trump Down in ‘Reverse Coattails’ Effect: Expert

Published

11 hours ago

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September 19, 2024

By

Thursday’s bombshell revelations about North Carolina Republican Mark Robinson could not only doom his gubernatorial candidacy, but Donald Trump’s campaign as well, according to one of the most respected political experts.

According to CNN, Robinson, the current Lt. Governor who is the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee, “made a series of inflammatory comments on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago, in which he referred to himself as a ‘black NAZI!’ and expressed support for reinstating slavery.”

CNN’s KFile also reveals that Robinson, a far-right Christian nationalist who has targeted the LGBTQ community, “said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography, a review of archived messages found in which he also referred to himself as a ‘perv.'”

On the website Nude Africa, “Robinson discussed his affinity for transgender pornography.”

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“I like watching tranny on girl porn! That’s f*cking hot! It takes the man out while leaving the man in!” Robinson wrote, according to CNN. “And yeah I’m a ‘perv’ too!”

The article also notes that “CNN is reporting only a small portion of Robinson’s comments on the website given their graphic nature.”

Professor of politics Larry Sabato, the highly-respected political scientist and political analyst and founder and director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and Sabato’s Crystal Ball says his team has held an “emergency session” to review the report and is moving its prediction for governor of North Carolina from “Lean Democratic” to “Likely Democratic”:

“The Crystal Ball team has just met in emergency session, and in the fastest rating change in our history, we are moving NC GOVERNOR from Lean D to LIKELY D.”

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Sabato adds, “Our Crystal Ball rating for NC Governor has been Lean D. Mark Robinson (R) was going to lose even before this new story. The question is whether Robinson brings down the top of the ticket (Donald Trump) with him. Those 16 electoral votes could be the whole election.”

Asked on social media, “What kind of drag can the Gov race have on the Presidential race in NC?” Sabato replied: “Reverse coattails. It happens from time to time. Can dampen a party’s turnout.”

Trump also vociferously and enthusiastically endorsed Robinson. The Harris campaign was quick to post video of that endorsement after the scandal broke.

Political analysts have been saying North Carolina is a critical state given the current Electoral map.

“There are really only three states that will decide the presidential election: Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia,” Politico reported Thursday morning. “If Vice President Kamala Harris can’t carry Pennsylvania, her only hope is on a Southern strategy. Harris must win either Georgia or North Carolina. She has no other path to the White House.”

And if Trump “wins the East Coast trio of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, he will go back to the White House,” Politico added.

Watch the video above or at this link.

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Donald Trump Just Made One of His Most Racist Attacks Yet – and the Media Is Ignoring It

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September 19, 2024

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For the most part, the mainstream media has largely (though not entirely) stopped holding Donald Trump accountable by reporting just how much more extreme he is becoming, just how much more racist and divisive he has grown.

At his Wednesday rally in Long Island – the largely purple neighbor to New York City and one that has many right-wing staunchly conservative areas – the former president continued to push his attacks on immigrants. And not just undocumented immigrants, but all immigrants – or at least, non-European immigrants.

Political strategists have been questioning why Trump is campaigning in states he is all but guaranteed to lose (New York, California) and states he is all but guaranteed to win (Florida), but here’s just a small portion of what the ex-president told Long Islanders just 48 days before Election Day (full video.)

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“For every New Yorker being terrorized by this wave of migrant crime, and I’ve been talking about migrant crime for five years. I said, if you let them in, it’s going to be hell. They are vicious, violent criminals that are being led into our country, their people that their countries, who are very smart, they don’t want them. That’s why, all over the world, a lot of people coming from jails, out of the Congo in Africa.”

“‘Where do you come from?’ ‘The Congo,'” Trump said, mimicking a pretend conversation.

“‘Where in the Congo?’ ‘We come from jail.’ ‘What did you do?’ ‘We will not tell you’.”

“They’re coming from the Congo. They’re coming from Africa. They’re coming from the Middle East. They’re coming from all over the world, Asia, lot of it coming from Asia, and what’s happening to our country is we’re just destroying the fabric of life in our country, and we’re not going to take it any longer. And you got to get rid of these people. Give me a shot. You will have a safe New York within three months. Three months.”

Trump continued:

“For every New Yorker being terrorized by this wave of migrant crime, November 5 will be your Liberation Day. It’s going to be liberation because you are living like hell. You’re living a life like hell.”

(There is no “wave of migrant crime,” crime is largely way down.)

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After talking about “MS-13,” Trump added:

“They’re coming in by the millions. Not by the hundreds. They’re coming in by the millions. Think of it, probably 21 million people. That’s probably a low number. We can do all of this and more, but patriotic New Yorkers must get your asses out to vote,” Trump urged, before launching into another pretend conversation.

“‘Harry, get up. Harry, Harry, get your fat ass out of the couch. You’re going to vote for Trump today. Harry, get up. Harry, come on. Let’s go. Let’s go, Harry.'”

Watch a portion of those remarks below or at this link.

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OPINION

Yes, Republicans Are Lying — and They’re Not Going to Stop: ‘Enjoy It’

Published

15 hours ago

on

September 19, 2024

By

This week, a Christian podcaster offered up what might be seen as a permission slip – or a “get out of jail free card” – for Republicans who have been lying to the American people: “enjoy it.”

“It’s okay to use deception in service of defeating the left. It’s not sinning in order to do good. It’s being righteously shrewd in order to do good. It’s also okay to enjoy it. Lighten up.”


Those are the words of Josh Daws, whose bio at Founders Ministries says he is “dedicated to helping Christians navigate the complex and rapidly changing cultural landscape through his biblically-based cultural analysis.”

Daws “strives to provide insightful and thought-provoking commentary on current events and cultural trends on his podcast and Twitter. He hopes to be a valuable resource for those looking to engage with culture in a meaningful and informed way.”

The tweet has been viewed well over a half-million times in just 48 hours, and it seems to sum up where the right and the far-right are at this moment in time – ethics be damned, the ends justify the means.

When a reporter for Politico on Wednesday confronted Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, the U.S. Senator for Ohio who has been spreading racist and dangerous lies about his own constituents – immigrants from Haiti legally living and working in the city of Springfield – falsely claiming they are stealing pets and eating them, he dug in his heels.

Donald Trump during the debate had lied, saying infamously off the Haitian immigrants, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating, the pets of the people that live there.”

The reporter reminded Vance that the Haitian immigrants, whom he has been calling “illegal migrants,” are in the United States under a 1990 law signed by President George H.W. Bush, “so they are here legally.”

The freshman junior senator made clear he did not care.

“Well, if Kamala Harris waves the wand illegally and says these people are now here legally, I’m still going to call them an illegal alien. An illegal action from Kamala Harris does not make an alien legal. That is not how this works,” declared the defiant Vance, who holds a law degree from Yale and knows that they are, in fact, here legally and the Biden Administration’s decision to grant them protection means they are not, as he claimed, “illegal.”

In short, Senator Vance was lying, and lying to a crowd, however small, who ate it up, cheering, applauding, and at times nodding in agreement.

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“This is just shocking,” declared former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, now a professor of political science. “Mr. Vance is blatantly calling a legal action illegal. I’ve studied my whole life how democracies break down. This is how it happens folks. I hope he really doesn’t believe this. Politicians say a lot of crazy things during elections. I fear he might.”

Senator Vance has been lying since Monday of last week, when he first promoted the racist “pet-eating” lie.

“Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” Vance asked on social media, referring of course to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for President, who has never been the “border czar.”

Vance, or his staff, according to a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday, knew he was lying, or at least knew after his remarks were posted. They remain up to this day, never corrected or removed.

Over the weekend, Senator Vance, now infamously, told CNN, effectively, that he is willing to lie to promote his agenda.

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance told host Dana Bash.

“You just said that you’re ‘creating’ a story,” Bash responded, as The New Republic reported. “You just said that this is a story that you created.”

“Yes!” Vance replied, before twisting his own words in a nonsensical defense.

“We are creat—we are creating … Dana,” Vance said. “It comes from firsthand accounts from my constituents. I say that we’re ‘creating a story’ meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it.”

The New Republic’s Greg Sergeant added, “JD Vance is also claiming that because of Haitians, communicable diseases in Springfield have ‘skyrocketed.’ I talked to the health commissioner in Clark County, where Springfield is located. Vance’s claim is nonsense.”

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Republicans outright lying have making headlines of late.

“The Real Reason Trump and Vance Are Spreading Lies About Haitians” (The Atlantic)

“How J.D. Vance Became Trump’s Pet Liar” (New York Magazine‘s Intelligencer)

“How the Trump Campaign Ran With Rumors About Pet-Eating Migrants—After Being Told They Weren’t True” (Wall Street Journal)

“One of the Republican Convention’s Weirdest Lies” (New York Times)

“The Grand Old Party of Liars” (The Nation)

There is, 0f course, Donald Trump, who lies so often the media stopped bothering to keep up. Questions have been flowing about his lies of late that are so off-the-wall and so provably-false, his grasp of reality is being called into question.

Wednesday night, in a rare on-camera, in-studio Fox News interview, Trump, (still talking about last week’s debate,) falsely claimed the ABC News moderators corrected him, “I think nine times, or eleven times.”

The right-wing New York Post reported Trump was fact-checked five times, not nine, not eleven.

CNN reported Trump made 33 false statements during the debate, Harris just one.

But it was Trump’s next remark, also false, that has many calling into question not just his moral character, but his mental health.

“And the audience was, they went crazy.”

There was no audience at that debate.

The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols remarked: “How is it that Trump hallucinated an audience being present during the debate and we’ve just moved on as if this isn’t a sign of a serious mental problem? Biden – wisely – agreed to step aside for far less than that.”

On Wednesday, journalist and SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile wrote at Substack, “Why MAGA views blatant lying as a righteous and important act.”

Signorile highlighted this recent lie by Donald Trump: “Think of it. Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child. And many of these childs 15 years later say, ‘What the hell happened? Who did this to me?'”

Signorile noted Trump’s claims were “so deranged and kooky—as if there are hospitals in schools or kids are being transferred to hospitals in the middle of the day from their classrooms—that many of us thought it was a clear example of Trump’s continued cognitive decline. He did, after all, say ‘many of these childs’ instead of ‘children,’ and that was more evidence of his faltering mental acuity.”

But.

“But Trump repeated the claim again days later at a rally, continuing to push something that was deemed false even by his staunchest supporters,” Signorile continued. “And that is a real tell.”

He explains, “the goal of the lying by Trump and his running mate JD Vance,” is “to hijack discussion and redirect it to issues they want to talk about, even if it means they are exposed as having told a lie.”

Signorile says, “the MAGA masses are perfectly fine with that strategy. They don’t care about the lies being exposed because the lies are a means to an end.”

As for Daws’ s defense of using “deception in service of defeating the left,” attorney Andrew L. Seidel writes, “I often speak about Christian Nationalism as a permission structure. For instance, CN gave the insurrectionists the moral and mental license they needed for the treasonous assault on our democracy on January 6th. Here is that permission structure laid out explicitly.”

SiriusXM host John Fugelsang remarked, “I have never read a purer distillation of MAGA Christianity than ‘thou shalt bear false witness.'”

Others have remarked simply, “Romans 3:8.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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