The Latest KuKluxagram™

I’ll be with our torrid and tempestuous tale of tantalizing and tittilating torpor and taxonomy in a Texas terabyte … or, a terasecond.

but first, just so’s you know, about the FISA bill:

i. The Blackmail Preamble

Bush has been illegally wiretapping EVERYBODY since before 9-11. Given the overt hacking of the Democratic Senators’ e-mail a couple years back, why is it STOOOPID to raise the point that What Bush Wants, Bush Gets, and illegally obtained blackmail material isn’t beyond him? Jeebus, people. A couple of commentators have pointed out that the new FISA “victory” “compromise” bill that Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi are crowing about actually gives the White House MORE than it asked for.*

AS IT DOES. So WHY are the Congressional Democrats behaving so WEIRDLY?

[* Never mind that warrantless wiretapping is clearly unconstitutional, no matter what Congress says, except, of course to Scalia. And, if Scalia, then, too, Clarence "Me Too" Thomas;

"Constitution? ConstiTUTION?!!?? We don' got to show you no steeenking Constitution!"

-- from the imaginary movie, Treasure of the Madre de Dios, dir. John Huston, 1942]

How else do you explain this, UNLESS it’s blackmail? But, instead we chase our tails excoriating the congressional leadership. Gee. Sounds positively Rovian, don’t it?

[ See "How To Find Uranus" (September 21, 2007) for details.]

OK.

ii. The KuKluxagram™ Spreads Across The Land

For several weeks now, friends have been emailing me a new/old viral smear that’s making the rounds, which “proves” that illegal aliens cause all crimes, suck up all social services and raped your daughter.

My friends Bill Eagle at St. Helens Update, and Becky at Preemptive Karma have sent me slightly different copies, and other variants have been arriving from other places, or I’d think it were a merely Oregonian slur. What I found would make it seem to make it a PURELY Oregonian slur, but the story’s far more convoluted than that.

I thought I’d see about tracking it down. Or, rather, I thought I’d see where it came from before I dissected the email itself.

But that is a tortuous tale of astonishing twists and turns, so I think we’d better start by “fisking” the viral KuKluxagram™ that came from your KuKlux Granny, who got it from somebody in her church, who got it from somebody who knows where. (Who knows WHERE these things have been?)

All of us have experienced it. Some friend or relative sends along a “great! hilarious!” email that was painstakingly hand-crafted on demonic loom, the warp and woof of which is all warped and woofie.

All right: here’s the viral email, which has been used to prove all KINDS of things. The first instance begins with “LOOKS LIKE CONGRESS IS SELLING US OUT!! WHAT DO YOU THINK????” and another instance just uses the Iraq War (as if that were meaningful in any way, since the one has NOTHING to do with the other, except that illegal aliens can join the Army and get killed with the promise of citizenship if they don’t) “WHAT COSTS MORE PER YEAR THAN THE IRAQ WAR?”

I have sprayed it with Lysol®, and baked it at nearly 1000° Fahrenheit in a glass kiln, so it’s all right to view now:

PART 3:

You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much?  Read this:

Boy, am I confused.  I have been hammered with the propaganda that it is the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us. I now find that to be RIDICULOUS. I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. (sic)

I have included the URL’s for verification of all the following facts.

1.  $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.

Verify at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77

[This is an "estimate" from someone who can't tell the difference between 11 and 22. How good an estimate do you suppose this is? This statistic actually comes from a rabidly anti-immigrant website oxymoronically named "FAIR" in an astroturf attempt to hijack Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting's acronym. The very first sentence? "Although the United States’ welfare rolls are already swollen, every year we import more people who wind up on public assistance: immigrants." Who said the welfare rolls are "swollen"? Who even GETS welfare any more, since it was gutted by Gingrich/Clinton?]

2.  $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.

verify at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

[Yeah, the "Center for Immigration Studies" is a piece of work, all right:

... According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), CIS was founded in 1985 “as a think tank to support the more activist work of the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).”  CIS describes itself as “independent” and “nonpartisan,” but its studies, reports, and media releases consistently support its restrictionist agenda…”

CIS is one of several anti-immigration groups exposed in a Wall Street Journal article (“Borderline Republicans” June 14, 2004), “In fact, CIS, FAIR, NumbersUSA, Project-USA and more than a half-dozen similar groups that Republicans have become disturbingly comfy with, were founded or funded (or both) by John Tanton, a retired doctor in Michigan. In addition to trying to stop immigration to the U.S., appropriate population-control measures for Dr. Tanton and his network include promoting China’s one-child policy, sterilizing Third World women and wider use of RU-486.”

The mastermind of the groups, John Tanton, was exposed by the Intelligence Report published by the SPCL, “The Puppeteer,” (June 12, 2002) written by Rick Swartz. In an interview with SPLC, Swartz said: “The (Tanton) blueprint envisaged creating a whole array of organizations that serve the overall ideological and political battle plan to halt immigration. …They camouflage the links between these organizations, their true origins, so that they appear to have arisen spontaneously. But in fact they have the same creator, Tanton.”

These statistics, twisted and cooked, are worthless if anyone bothers checking the "evidence."]

3.  $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

[Center for Immigration Studies again. See above. See HERE.]

4.  $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html

[Welcome to the racist Klan point! Half of all illegal aliens are Latino. Many of THEM speak English. The other half, from all over the world (Europeans, Asians, Africans, Canadians, Australians, etc.), generally speak English. So, the racist hidden agenda is exposed to the light of day. This isn't about "illegal aliens." This is about "Mexicans." Don't you doubt it for a second, pilgrim.]

oh, by the by, the LINK DOESN’T WORK. “PAGE NOT FOUND”

5.  $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

LINK DOESN’T WORK. “PAGE NOT FOUND” Notice that this whole chunk of “authority” on how evil Mexicans are comes from a SINGLE CNN show — probably an episode of Lou Dobbs.

6.  $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

LINK DOESN’T WORK. “PAGE NOT FOUND” Notice that this whole chunk of “authority” on how evil Mexicans are comes from a SINGLE CNN show — probably an episode of Lou Dobbs.

7.  30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

LINK DOESN’T WORK. “PAGE NOT FOUND”

[And Federal prisoners account for 4.7% of all prisoners in the USA. So, according to their statistics, illegal aliens account for 1.35% of all US prisoners. (Hint, there are  more, but they only gave us the federal prisoners.)]

8.  $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
Verify at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

And I quote: “The requested object does not exist on this server. The link you followed is either outdated, inaccurate, or the server has been instructed not to let you have it.”

9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

LINK DOESN’T WORK. “PAGE NOT FOUND” Notice that this whole chunk of “authority” on how evil Mexicans are comes from a SINGLE CNN show — probably an episode of Lou Dobbs.

But the EMPLOYERS who hired the illegals are responsible for this figure.; Period. How is it that they blame the Mexicans?

10.  The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that’s two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US .
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

Ahh, Brown Skin = criminal. Gee. That’s not racist.

LINK DOESN’T WORK. “PAGE NOT FOUND” Notice that this whole chunk of “authority” on how evil Mexicans are comes from a SINGLE CNN show — probably an episode of Lou Dobbs.

11.  During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border; also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries*.  Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border.
Verify at: Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht

* Yeah, they got pictures of al Qaeda patches left on the border. I kid you not.

And, the drugs would be smuggled in, whether “illegal” immigrants made it or not. The dope smuggling has NOTHING intrinsic to relate it, other than the same smugglers in many cases. Again, they seem to be saying: All Mexicans are dope fiends.

from the MAJORITY report of Texas GOP Congressman Michael McCail’s Homeland Security Committee in 2006. According to ontheissues.org:

Voted YES on building a fence along the Mexican border.

Within 18 months, achieves operational control over U.S. land and maritime borders, including:

1. systematic border surveillance through more effective use of personnel and technology; and
2. physical infrastructure enhancements to prevent unlawful border entry

Defines “operational control” as the prevention of all unlawful U.S. entries, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, narcotics, and other contraband.

[Stance =] It is obvious there is no more defining issue in our Nation today than stopping illegal immigration …

Rated 100% by U.S. B[order] C[ontrol -- an organization], indicating a sealed-border stance.
McCaul scores 100% by USBC on immigration issues

The report is a 4.4 megabyte 38-page .pdf of xenophobic agit prop, but not what one would call “authoritative.”

Homework assignment … do the rest yourself. I’ve made my point. “illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries” — If they ain’t Mexicans, them’s Terrorists! Where did the Grand Imperial Wizard put those robes? They ought to be with the whips and … oh, here they are! Never mind!

12.  The National Policy Institute, “estimated that the total cost of mass deportation of illegal aliens would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of  between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.”
Verify at: http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf

What the hell does this have to do with the price of cheese? It’s a number literally thrown in in Dream Time.

Er, National Policy Institute? Wikipedia:

“On April 8, 2008, the SPLC’s Mark Potok condemned the National Policy Institute as a “white supremacist” organization, and wrote that its report, The State of White America-2007, “paints ‘a statistical and narrative portrait of the war on white America,’ in the website’s words. Nicholas Stix’s introduction to the article describes the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling outlawing school segregation as ‘arguably the worse [sic] decision in the Court’s 216 year history.’ He claims later civil rights legislation was unconstitutional. ‘[I]ntegration and the civil rights movement led directly to the destruction of great cities,’ he concludes.””

So, the “white supremacist” organization has estimated the cost of deporting Mexicans? Gee, that’s sensitive, Granny.

13.  In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.
Verify at: http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm

Home of talk show host Jeff Rense, with the worst hair style in the world. About whom more below.

14.  “The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States “
Verify at: http://www.drdsk.com/articles.html

See: Mexicans are not only dope fiends, but SEX fiends as well! Happy happy. Joy joy.The link goes to the “Violent Crimes Institute.”

You might want to take a little peek HERE, explaining that the “study” was conducted by a lone “criminal profiler” (without any seeming statistical expertise or recognized methodology), and not a “Violent Crimes Institute,” which implies a somewhat larger, er, um, organization. And you might want to read THIS statement on the partisan report (above) of the GOP Homeland Security members, which contains this:

Other assertions, such as those concerning the number of illegal aliens and the quantity of drugs entering the United States, are stated as “fact” when in reality they are extrapolations of assumptions. We were particularly troubled by your claim that there is an unusually high percentage of sexual offenders among the illegal immigrant population. The only basis cited for this assertion is a “study” by an organization called the “Violent Crimes Institute.” From what we have been able to discern, the “Violent Crimes Institute” is a one-person affair, and this “study” appears unscientific and was not peer-reviewed… (emphasis added)

And, finally, you might want to read “The Big Lie,” here.

The total cost is a whopping $338.3 BILLION DOLLARS a year.

If this doesn’t bother you then just delete the message, but on the other hand, if it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, then forward it.

Snopes is provided for doubters:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/bankofamerica.asp

SEND THIS TO ALL YOU KNOW. THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES NEEDS TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION, UNLESS THEY DON’T MIND SHARING THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY WITH ILLEGAL ALIENS WHO DIDN’T PAY A DIME. (sic) LET US SHOW OUR LEADERS IN WASHINGTON ‘PEOPLE POWER’ AND THE POWER OF THE INTERNET. IT DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU ARE REPUBLICAN, DEMOCRAT OR INDEPENDENT! KEEP IT GOING.

Here’s another variant ending:

The total cost is a whopping $338.3 BILLION DOLLARS a year.

Are we THAT stupid?………. If this doesn’t bother you then just delete the message.

And here’s another variant beginning:

.

We received this earlier today. This message may have circulated earlier. I have not reviewed the sources for the alleged statements. Verification of given sources is a time consuming task. I have decided to use my limited energy/time with other computer tasks. You have received this message as I believe this message may be of interest to you.

Please no flaming!*

(* He/She means “debating” and/or “disagreeing.”)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Subject: Check this out!

WONDER WHY YOU DON’T HEAR MUCH ABOUT THIS IN THE DEBATES. NONE OF THE PEOPLE THAT RUN THE DEBATES (TV NEWORKS), WHO ASK THE QUESTIONS WILL ALLOW THIS TYPE INFORMATION (sic) TO GET OUT TO THE PUBLIC.

THE DEMOCRATS AND THE REPUBLICANS GO HIDE WHEN THESE QUESTIONS ARE ASKED, WHY?

WHAT COSTS MORE PER YEAR THAN THE IRAQ WAR?

Answer:  Illegal Aliens Cause Massive Cuts For US Seniors

I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them.

I have included the URL’s for verification of the following facts:

Dot Dot Dot.

After awhile, you can almost spot the shop that cobbled together this python boot of a stinkfoot message. One of the givaways is “Snopes.com.”

I have received several of these over time, and they USED to just include the line “This has been checked out with Snopes,” but too many people were CHECKING Snopes, evidently, because it’s been changed to

Snopes is provided for doubters:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/bankofamerica.asp

And, they USUALLY have some pretty sophisticated graphics. This “viral” network operates under the surface, pushing ugly agendas that the GOP won’t officially align itself with, but which pushes their agenda, ANYWAY. Clearly, this relies heavily on the “anti-immigrant” rage that’s been whipped up by CNN’s Lou Dobbs, blaming, in essence, slaves for slavery.*

[* When you have no legal standing, no rights, no redress, and have to take whatever you're offered in the way of pay and lodging, what does that make you? Free or a slave? I watched it in Los Angeles for 15 years, and trust me, kiddies, it's slavery. No "illegal" Mexican (since that's what we're clearly talking about here) ever held a gun on an American employer and forced him to lay off American workers and hire illegals. The CRIME lays with the employer and not the employee! But you'll note that there's not a word about those who EMPLOY the Mexicans that our little racist chain-mailers seem to feel so "victimized" by.]

Which brings up my favorite point in this racist slur: the Snopes article “confirms” that Bank of America is issuing … CREDIT CARDS to illegal aliens (read: Mexicans) at 22% interest.

And that’s AIDING THEM? Are you kidding me?

22% interest is loan sharking! (Oh, you pay 22% interest? Did you know that before the bankers quietly got the usury laws repealed starting in the early 1970s, that kind of loan rate was “usury” and was a felony? Oh.)

So, bright Klan boyz, how does it work that fucking somebody over for 22% interest is “helping” them? How does it harm Real Amerikans? Good grief you’re stupid sometimes.

But that wasn’t the point. The intended targets of the KuKluxagrams™ are being played a classic racist card: fear of the Other. The Jews who are controlling all the banking and … ooops. Wrong country. I MEAN, the MEXICANS who are taking all the jobs, raping your daughters and living off welfare.

Creepy darned Mexicans!

Where’d we put our Klan robes?

There is ZERO DOUBT that this is a racist “wedge issue” that was cooked up by the same slimeballs who came up with all the anti-gay “save marriage” campaigns in 2004 to energize their base. It hasn’t ever really caught on — although Tom Tancredo ran in the GOP primary EXCLUSIVELY on Kill the Niggers! …. whoops! I mean, let’s deport those awful Mexicans! er, he means, “Illegal Aliens.”

Yeah.

Hard to focus the hate. Easy to just hate. (Ever notice how “communist” slips out every so often? Generations were trained to hate “communists” (without ever actually knowing what that was), and now, with no commies, the hate is diffuse … free-form. It needs a place to coalesce. Oh, I know: Fags! Liberals! Mexicans!

Problem solved.

• And here’s that little love letter posted on Feb 27, 2008.
• And here it is on a lovely site called JihadChat.com on June 14, 2008.
• And here it is anonymously plagiarized in the New Iberian (LA).

iii. The Secret Origins of the KuKluxagram™

And, of course, if you don’t agree, just delete it.

Don’t argue. Don’t be “unpleasant,” not like the racist aider and abettor who’s passed this along to you. Just like Rush Limbaugh: we only listen to “Happy Slander.”

I tracked down the first appearance (or the first time I could find) to a conspiracy theory/UFO radio host, JeffRense.com on December 4, 2007.

I won’t go into a lot of detail, except to say that it’s pretty easy to track something like this back upstream simply by following the links, and all Roads lead back to Rense:

Illegal Aliens Cause Massive Cuts For US Seniors (Dec. 4, 2007)

http://rense.com/general79/seniors.htm

Which is a place called “educate yourself” reprinting the article, with citation of its original. December 4, 2007 seems to be the poison pen letter’s “birthday.” And, it’s neither about how bad Congress is, OR about how bad the War in Iraq is. The smear was born to make a strange argument about how old people should hate Mexicans. It has proven highly adaptable to all manner of scapegoating in the intervening months.

Let’s start at the beginning, Jeff Rense has the worst hairdo in the history of the world:

Jeff Rense

Or else he is wearing a dead sea otter as a hat.

According to Wikipedia:

Jeff Rense is an American conspiracy theorist and radio talk-show host of the Jeff Rense Program, broadcast on US satellite radio via Genesis Communications Network (GCN) and Internet radio.

Rense’s radio program and website, Rense.com, cover subjects such as UFO reporting, paranormal phenomena, Anti-Zionist conspiracy theories, tracking of new diseases & possible resultant pandemics, environmental concerns (see chemtrails), possible evidence of advanced ancient technology, geopolitical developments and emergent energy technologies, complementary and alternative medicine among other subjects….

Er, yes. It gets worse:

… Jeff Rense is an interesting guy, wouldn’t you say? He’s almost a “legend,” and is even listed on a government site as the number one purveyor of “misinformation.” That’s quite an accomplishment in a world where “conspiracy theories” are mostly ignored and/or ridiculed. You could even say that it’s very good PR to get on such a list.

My curiosity about Jeff Rense began to grow when I realized that he has maintained a large Internet presence for over a decade, and despite this, there is virtually no information on him other than that which one finds on his website. How has Jeff Rense managed to keep information about himself off the world wide web all these years? That’s an interesting question…

But we have no way of knowing WHO wrote the anti-Mexican Kukluxagram™. Rense has posted articles without author attibution on at least one occasion, that occasion being when he posted a piece by the aforementioned author, and then took it down rather than credit her. Her report is well worth reading, whether it is fact or purest fiction. I cannot explain further.

Patsy Smullin does remember Jeff Rense, and in two different telephone conversations I had with her over the past few days, she confirmed that he did have a position at her television station for a brief time as a reporter and news anchor. Smullin stressed that Jeff Rense, or “a guy calling himself Jeff Rense” (her words), was employed at KOBI (an NBC affiliate) from June 1983 to May 1984, and she is not aware of him working at any other station in the state of Oregon either prior to his employment at KOBI-TV or afterward. [I would think if he'd worked at other stations previous to his KOBI position, these would be listed on his job application or resume when given to KOBI-TV.]

Patsy had more to say. She revealed that in her experience as Jeff Rense’s employer (and this is a direct quote), “He was not known for his honesty.” Think about it. Patsy Smullin was Rense’s employer some twenty-odd years ago. After all this tiime, the characteristic that has remained clearly in her memory is that “he was not known for his honesty”. What does that say to you? According to Ms. Smullin, at that time Jeff was also involved in several court battles with other people. One wonders if it has anything to do with him not being known for his honesty?

When asked if she could elaborate on the comment she’d made regarding Rense not being known for his honesty, her response was: “Sure. He was a compulsive liar.” Also, when questioned as to the claim that Jeff anchored and produced “5000 newscasts,” Patsy Smullin laughed heartily and stated, “This is absolutely false. He never did that here.” Okay, if not at KOBI-TV, then where? Perhaps Jeff Rense will reveal this to us all at some point so we can check it out….

But the story sort of goes into, well, ODD territory at the end, and that has to be taken into account as well. Mr. Rense may only be guilty of really really really really really questionable taste in coiffure. But something smells funny here.

… Appearances can be very deceiving, especially when some so-called “patriots” choose to hide behind microphones in undisclosed locations, behind wigs and a couple of re-touched, photo-shopped cartoon pictures of themselves, and when all they choose to disclose is a limited amount of extremely vague babble about their alleged past accomplishments, achievements, or experience designed solely to “create a legend”.

And then, when we discover, with a minimum of investigation, that their claims do not hold up, that it is all completely manipulated, twisted, exaggerated, amplified and contorted facts designed to present a false front, we are entitled to question everything else. Why do people tell lies, whether overtly or by omission? Some do it because of mental issues, some do it for profit, and some do it just because they can.

Bottom line: Jeff Rense has falsely accused WING TV of trading in lies, deception, duplicity, innuendo, disinformation and trickery. Jeff Rense better start looking in the mirror, because I see a so-called “patriot” that needs to come clean about a few things, someone who is “not known for his honesty”.

Because there, in all its satanic little glory is the “Old People are hurt by Illegal Immigrants” story. There is nothing on the page to suggest that the author was NOT Jeff Rense.

click to go to original page.

Most of the links match the links in the original letter. Including this damning one:

13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm

Emphasis added.

It’s sad, because Granny didn’t KNOW she was furthering a racist, xenophobic agenda attached to some of the ugliest elements of the American psyche. And it’s hard to hold Granny accountable, except: She had every chance to check these lies, and didn’t lift a finger to do so. That’s a crime, too.

And that’s how the racists dance on the internet into your grannie’s computer in this two thousand and eighth year of Our Lord, Anno Domini.

Oy vey.

Courage.

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