Growing Hate Groups Blame Obama, Economy

A cross and swastika are burned at an event called Hated and Proud in Nebraska in July 2008. (Photo credit: Southern Poverty Law Center / CNN)

By Stephanie Chen
 
Feb. 26, 2009

Don Black said he despises Barack Obama. And he said he believes illegal aliens undermine the economic fabric of the United States.

Black, a 55-year-old former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, isn’t the only person who holds such firm beliefs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which Thursday released its annual hate group report.

The center’s report, “The Year in Hate,” found the number of hate groups grew by 54 percent since 2000. The study identified 926 hate groups — defined as groups with beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people — active in 2008. That’s a 4 percent jump, adding 38 more than the year before.

What makes this year’s report different is that hate groups have found two more things to be angry about — the nation’s first African-American president and an economy that is hemorrhaging jobs. For the past decade, Latino immigration has fueled the growth of hate groups. 

“We fear these conditions will favor the growth of these groups in the future,” said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project. “In the long arch of history, we are definitely moving forward, but these kinds of events can produce backlashes.”

Black claims the number of registered members and readers on his white nationalist Web site [Stormfront.org] surged to unprecedented levels in recent months.

On the day after Obama’s historic election, more than 2,000 people joined his Web site, a remarkable increase from the approximately 80 new members a day he was getting, Black said. His Web site, which was started in 1995, is one of the oldest and largest hate group sites. The site received so many hits that it crashed after election results were announced. The site boasts 110,000 registered members today, Black said. …

Hate groups cited by the law center include white nationalists as well as neo-Confederates, neo-Nazis, skinheads, Klansmen and black separatists. Skinheads and Klansman saw an increase in membership, while neo-Nazi groups saw a slight decline, according to the law center’s report. …

Obama serves as a “visual aid” that is helping respark a sense of purpose in current supporters and lure new members, said neo-Nazi David Duke, the former Klan leader who was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in the 1980s. Duke said he fears “the white European-American” heritage will soon be destroyed. He added that his Web site sees around 40,000 unique visitors a day, up from 15,000 a day before Obama won the election.

Racist anger toward Obama was evident even before he became president. Two weeks before Obama won, authorities said they foiled a skinhead plot to assassinate him. The two suspects, based in Tennessee, also apparently planned to shoot and decapitate dozens of African-Americans, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said.

Police say a man in Brockton, Massachusetts, allegedly targeted minorities after President Obama’s inauguration. They say the man raped a woman, killed her sister and another man after several months of researching white supremacist groups on the Internet.

White supremacist groups have gained traction, a reversal from the decline the groups experienced since 2000, according to the law center report. One of the smaller Ku Klux Klan groups, the United Northern and Southern Knights, more than doubled its chapters, widening its geographic reach from eight to 24 states, according to the report.

The image of a black man in the White House angers white racists, who fear nonwhites gaining too much power, said Jack Glaser, associate professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley.

But racist fears can also be more mundane and personal: Nonwhites in the White House could lead to nonwhites in their neighborhoods, which could lead to interracial dating, a great taboo among hate groups.

“Obama poses a large cultural threat to white racists,” Glaser said. “This may explain some of the uptick in hate groups.”

Immigrants are another target of hate groups, according to the report. In a deteriorating economy, illegal immigrants have been blamed by hate groups for allegedly taking subprime loans, according to the report.

Scapegoating occurs most often in times of economic distress, according to experts studying hate crimes. From the Holocaust in Europe to abuses against Irish Catholic immigrants in the 1830s in the United States, people are most likely to lash out against others when they feel vulnerable or need to displace their economic frustrations on others, psychologists say.

In the city of Detroit, Michigan, where the weak economy has taken a particularly devastating toll, Jeff Schoep serves as the commander for the National Socialist Movement, one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the United States.

Schoep said he has seen membership grow by 40 percent in recent months, mostly because of the dire economic circumstances. It is the “most dramatic growth” he has seen since he joined the movement in the mid-1990s. The group does not reveal membership numbers to the media, he said. …

The FBI’s uniform crime report found 7,163 hate crime incidents in 2005. However, a special report by the government that same year said the number could be 10 times higher because many of the crimes aren’t reported.

The most recent FBI statistics in 2007 saw a slight uptick in hate crimes to 7,624.

More commonly, members of hate groups engage in vandalism [rather than violent crimes] such as an incident in Los Angeles, California, this month where vandals slashed tires and sprayed the word “Nazi” on two cars and a house, according to the center. The attack occurred in a neighborhood with signs displaying support for Obama.

Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who studied the issue of hate crimes, said … individuals in a hate group may sometimes transplant their own personal rage onto a particular group that has no real connection to the cause of that rage, he said. …

Related reports on this site

Bachmann Conspiracy Nation (Feb. 20, 2010)

Condemning Beck and Bachmann (Nov. 19, 2009)

Bachmann Rebuked for Nazi Image (Nov. 12, 2009)

Bachmann Heads Teabaggers (Sept. 13, 2009)

Economy and Obama Volatile Mix (April 16, 2009)

Obama Racist Backlash (Nov. 16, 2008)

Recommended reading

“The Killing Fields of the Deep South: The Market for Cotton and the Lynching of Blacks, 1882-1930” by E. M. Beck and Stewart E. Tolnay (American Sociological Review, Vol. 55, August 1990: 526-539)

Note: The authors found that lynchings of blacks in the Deep South from 1882 to 1930 were more frequent in years when the price of cotton was declining and inflationary pressure was increasing. Mob violence against southern blacks responded to economic conditions affecting the financial fortunes of southern whites, especially marginal white farmers. In the current economic crisis (2008-2009), this finding has implications for racially motivated crimes involving displaced aggression by economically marginalized whites against minorities or other scapegoats for economic hardship.

Obama, Gates and Crowley: Everybody Screwed Up!

James Shott
Annuit Coeptis Political News
July 24, 2009

Excerpts

There is plenty to criticize in the strange case of the arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates at his home by Cambridge, Mass. police. …

Mr. Gates is a black man and was offended to be questioned by police about being in his own home. Many of us might have felt the same in those circumstances. But Mr. Gates had a chip on his shoulder, and began accusing the police of racism. … That was Screw-up #1.

Screw-up #2 came when police Sgt. Joseph Crowley failed to leave the scene after being satisfied that Mr. Gates was not committing a crime. … The Sergeant should know that it is not against the law for people in their own home to be less than polite to police, even rude and vulgar. …

President Barack Obama committed Screw-up #3 when responding to a question about the incident at the end of a press conference he said that the Cambridge police acted “stupidly” when they arrested someone they knew was in his own home. Why would the President of the United States comment on so insignificant an event? …

Mr. Gates owes the police an apology for being a rude and stupid, and playing the race card.

Sgt. Crowley owes Mr. Gates an apology for not having better sense than to improperly and unnecessarily escalate the situation by arresting Mr. Gates because the Sergeant was offended by Mr. Gates language.

President Obama owes the Cambridge police an apology for his ham-handed insult; and he owes the American people an apology for behaving like a dope.

Now, let’s move on.

Full story

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Iraq Withdrawal Plan Gains G.O.P. Support

By Peter Baker

February 27, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Obama won crucial backing on Thursday for his Iraq military withdrawal plan from leading Congressional Republicans, including Senator John McCain, the party’s presidential nominee, who spent much of last year debating the war with Mr. Obama.

As the president prepared to fly to Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Friday to announce that he would pull combat forces out by August 2010 while leaving behind a residual force of 35,000 to 50,000 troops, he reassured Congressional leaders from both parties that his plan would not jeopardize hard-won stability in Iraq.

But Republicans emerged from a meeting Thursday evening more supportive than several leading Democrats, who complained earlier in the day that the president was still leaving behind too many American forces.

Mr. McCain said during the private White House meeting that he thought the withdrawal plan was thoughtful and well prepared, according to several people who were in the room. His spokeswoman, Brooke Buchanan, confirmed by e-mail on Thursday night that Mr. McCain is “supportive of the plan.”

The convergence of Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain on Iraq would have seemed highly improbable just a few months ago, when they clashed harshly on the future of the American mission there. Mr. McCain accused Mr. Obama of being naïve and opposed his withdrawal plans. At one point, Mr. McCain said Mr. Obama “would rather lose a war than lose a campaign.” …

Mr. McCain’s views were echoed by other Republicans briefed in the State Dining Room by Mr. Obama, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Obama team told two dozen lawmakers from both parties that at least 90,000 of the 142,000 troops in Iraq would be withdrawn by August 2010 — 19 months after the president’s inauguration, or three months longer than the time frame he had outlined as a candidate.

Most withdrawals will take place next year to allow commanders to keep as many forces as possible through parliamentary elections in December. Mr. Gates and Admiral Mullen told the lawmakers that Gen. David H. Petraeus, the Middle East commander, and Gen. Ray Odierno, the Iraq commander, were comfortable with the plan, according to people in the room. …

Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, and other senior Republicans were … generally supportive, while advocating flexibility to preserve the security gains since President Bush sent more troops two years ago, according to Congressional aides.

But even before the session, Democrats criticized the size of the residual force, even though Mr. Obama said consistently during the campaign that he would leave troops behind to continue training Iraqi soldiers, hunting terrorists and protecting Americans in Iraq. …

Another person briefed on the session said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House speaker, was particularly upset. She kicked off the public criticism on Wednesday by saying she did not understand “the justification” for 50,000 troops. …

——

Security Developments in Iraq

Security developments in Iraq on Feb. 27, 2009, as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A U.S. soldier died on Thursday from combat wounds received while on patrol in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb near the home of a police officer wounded one policeman and one civilian on Thursday in central Mosul, 240 miles, north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb wounded two army officers in western Mosul, police said.

Security developments in Iraq on Feb. 26, 2009, as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 10 people wounded, including eight students, when a roadside bomb exploded on Thursday morning near an Iraqi army patrol on a road to Baghdad University in southern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol, wounding six people, including two policemen, on Wednesday evening in the Ilaam district of southern Baghdad, police said.

Security developments in Iraq on Feb. 25, 2009, as reported by Reuters.

KIRKUK – Gunmen killed a prominent businessman after riddling him with bullets in his car in the northern city of Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, on Tuesday night, police said.

RASHAD – Gunmen kidnapped four people, including three employees of Iraq’s state-run Northern Oil Company, in the town of Rashad, 25 miles southwest of Kirkuk, on Wednesday, police said.

Security developments in Iraq on Feb. 24, 2009, as reported by Reuters.

MOSUL – Amir al-Lihaibi, who was a candidate in Jan. 31 provincial elections for the secular Iraqi National List, was wounded on Monday by a bomb attached to his car in Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Three policemen were wounded on Monday when militants threw a grenade at their checkpoint in southern Mosul, police said.

——

U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq
 
As of Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009, at least 4,251 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. …

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 31,089 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department’s weekly tally.

Latest identifications:

• Army 1st Lt. William E. Emmert, 36, Lincoln, Tenn., killed by gunfire while participating in a local Iraqi police function in Mosul. He was assigned to the 269th Military Police Company, 117th Military Police Battalion, Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Three Army soldiers died Feb. 23, 2009 in Balad when insurgents attacked their unit with small-arms fire. All were assigned to the 5th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Killed were:

• Cpl. Micheal B. Alleman, 31, Logan, Utah
• Cpl. Michael L. Mayne, 21, Burlington Flats, N.Y.
• Cpl. Zachary R. Nordmeyer, 21, Indianapolis

Remember Their Sacrifice

Related links

Iraq Casualties

Afghanistan Casualties

Afghan men shout anti-U.S. slogans during a demonstration against coalition forces in Ghazni, southwest of Kabul, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2009. (Photo credit: Rahmat Nikzad / AP)

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Andy Birkey at the Minnesota Independent reports:

“The DCCC is after me again!” read a fund-raising e-mail Rep. Michele Bachmann sent to supporters Monday afternoon. It’s the first time Bachmann has acknowledged — at least implicitly — the uproar her comments on KTLK two weeks ago caused among progressive, and even a few conservative, blogs and media outlets (“Bachmann lashes out at critics,” Feb. 24, 2009).

Full text of Bachmann’s fund-raising e-mail: 

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is after me again — mailing nationwide to raise $50,000 by Wednesday to use against me and other principled Members of Congress who are standing up to runaway spending in Washington.

DCCC Attacks Bachmann

The text of their email — sent to thousands of their liberal supporters — and signed by one of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s political masterminds — is reprinted for you below.

Contribute Now and Show Them You Won’t Be Silenced!

They just don’t get it, do they?

President Obama wasn’t in office a full month before he pushed through Congress a $792-billion spending bill cleverly packaged as a so-called “economic stimulus” package. But, the facts are startlingly clear: This was about spending on liberal policy agenda items, not about stimulating the economy.

From the Los Angeles Times to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), respected news sources and independent analysts said that the money they were spending would come long after the economic recovery has begun; that the bill’s priorities were skewed in favor of programs that have little to no stimulative value.

Commentators across the nation pointed to provisions of the bill that literally stripped away restrictions that Congress passed only months earlier to keep ACORN from getting billions in federal funding.

And, Republicans offered alternatives to redirect spending to shovel-ready transportation projects that are proven to create jobs and to small business and family tax relief with a history of getting an economy going. Our alternative would have created twice the jobs at half the cost.

The Democrats rejected these commonsense proposals and pushed through their profligate spending. And, as a result, government spending on this recession has reached $9.7 trillion in the last year, placing an incredible burden not only on today’s taxpayers, but on taxpayers for generations.

The Democrats claim they just want the “rich” to pay their fair share. But, we all know their definition of rich includes more and more middle class Americans each year. Just ask any struggling family farmer who worries about the cost of the death tax. Or ask any middle class family that suddenly realizes it has to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).

The Democrats’ wealth redistribution scheme can’t continue on this runaway path. Sooner or later, they’ll be coming after you too.

And, because I dare to say so, they’re targeting all their resources to defeat me. They’ll stop at nothing to take your voice away in Congress.

Please send what you can today. I need you to show them that we will not be silenced. Click here to make a secure donation:

I want to help, Michele!

Thank you for your generous support and your prayers.

Sincerely,

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann

The story was also reported by Bob Collins on “News Cut” at MPR:

There’s a seemingly endless political loop playing. Rep. Michele Bachmann says something controversial on one of her national media appearances. The Democrats send out a news release pointing out her statements and asking for cash. Rep. Bachmann counters with a fundraising e-mail letter (“Bachmann: ‘Democrats … will be coming after you, too’,” Feb. 23, 2009).

In response, reader Izzy Stone commented as follows: 

Don’t you find it curious that not one single local MSM outlet has done a story on Bachmann’s latest round of lies? It’s all been simply linking to what blogs have uncovered. Not one media outlet — including MPR — has engaged Bachmann in a discussion or interview about her falsehoods. Not one single political reporter has written a story asking Bachmann about the lies she put out on a local radio station–lies that have been repeatedly disproven by bloggers everywhere, as well as by Keith Olbermann. The Strib ran an unedited press release from Bachmann’s office that went unchallenged. That was in the Bloghouse — again, reporting on what blogs reported. There was no interview with Bachmann.

Everyone wrings their hands as newspapers and other traditional media go down the tubes. Everyone wonders “Who will do original reporting?” if all we have left are blogs. Well, this is a perfect example of “Who needs the MSM?” They have been MIA on this story — like virtually every other story on Bachmann — while first local blogs, then national blogs, then the national media (MSNBC) picked up this story and ran with it. Eventually, when the story goes viral and becomes too big nationally to ignore, the local media offers up a link to the weeks-old story on the blogs.

It’s no longer blogs linking to original reporting of newspapers, because there is none when it comes to Bachmann. It’s newspapers linking to blogs because that’s the only place you’ll find original local reporting when it comes to Minnesota’s most dishonest member of Congress.

Bill Prendergast responds in a comment to the DB blog post “Why Did the Legacy Media Fail to Cover Michele Bachmann’s Latest Controversy?”:

The commenter quoted in this Dump Bachmann article makes the point that Bob Collins and other local media regularly fail to make.

Yeah, there’s an “endless loop” like Collins reports. MB says something outrageous (by that he means, “patently false”), yeah the out of state media report it, yeah the Democrats try to raise funds on the basis of the fact that she’s a liar and a nut. The part of “the loop” that Collins failed to report is the part where “local Minnesota media fail to report Bachmann’s lies and smears to Minnesotans” (unless the national, out-of-state media “go first.”)

That’s the commenter’s point, and it’s become one of the most important parts of the Michele Bachmann story. Why won’t local professional media, with their wide access to the print and broadcast audiences — do regular reports on the lies of a local politician who regularly lies?

That’s been the problem with MB’s career for *eight years.* It’s not as if the lies are hard to track down; she broadcasts them on talk radio. It’s not as if “it’s not news,” a politician caught red-handed lying about any important matter is always news — all the more so when the politician is representing *our* state in national government.

I ask the same question I’ve been asking for years now: why can’t the Star Tribune, the Pioneer Press, the St. Cloud Times do the same thing that we do here at Dump Bachmann nearly every day? Expose the obvious, broadcasted lies that are the foundation of this notorious nut’s career? She’s *hurt* the people of Minnesota since she’s been in office — planting conspiracy theories, hatemongering, holding up the state’s bonding bill, representing the banks instead of the families facing foreclosures in her district, smearing people as if that were the goal of politics.

Somebody tell me, finally — *why* are the local professional journalists, editors and publishers afraid to publish what is obviously a major news story? A *nationally recognized* Minnesota news story, now that Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and CNN have exposed her time and time again as a nut and a liar?

Bill Prendergast | 02.26.09 – 12:18 am

Cross-posted on “Bachmann Watch” at St. Cloud Times Online.

——

Update

The St. Cloud State University Chronicle has published a stinging editorial:

Why Michele Bachmann, Can’t You Just Keep Your Mouth Shut?

University Chronicle
Feb. 23, 2009

Why does it have to happen again and again? Believe it or not readers, we loathe writing about the woman in our editorials. But we consider it our job, nay, our unavoidable patriotic duty to provide commentary whenever our most remarkably daft representative lets her toxic speech contaminate the airwaves and bring utter humiliation upon the inhabitants of Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District.

On this occasion, Bachmann was on KTLK’s morning radio program The Chris Baker Show when she made several unacceptable statements.

Among the things she said:

• $5 billion in the stimulus bill will be going to ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) who she said is “under federal indictment for voter fraud.”
• The stimulus bill contains provisions that say “your doctor will no longer be able to make your health care decisions with you.”
• Democrat districts will be getting most of the money from the Republican funded districts; “the have-nots will be Republican districts that are left pouring money into Washington, D.C., to be redistributed out to the Democrat districts, which will suck up all of the money.”

All of these statements are completely false.

Her most recent oral exhibition that became national news is nowhere near as offensive as previous statements, such as her McCarthyesque accusations about Barack Obama and other members of Congress being “un-American.” To provide a list of all of her offenses would too lengthy to print, and pointless since her lunacy is well documented.

Bachmann is now viewed by many across the nation and in the news media as a blathering clown, known for the same type comedic shtick that popularized Paris Hilton in “The Simple Life,” whose remarkably ignorant statements once provided a temporary moment of bliss in our stressful lives. One wonders whether just as with Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson, Bachmann is in fact mentally ill or just in desperate need of attention.

Of course, all of her slanderous prattle would be fine, indeed funny, if Bachmann were elected Supreme Jester of Minnesota’s 6th District. However, Michele Bachmann is an elected representative in the United States Congress where her duties involve important matters of legislation that do not entail, contrary to her repeated actions, acting like a circus animal.

Possibly the hardest thing to comprehend surrounding Bachmann is how she was still re-elected after her recurrent demonstrations of ineptitude that plagued both her first congressional term and her reelection campaign. What this says about voters in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District is hardly flattering.

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Blast Kills 4 U.S. Troops, Afghan Civilian

 
Feb. 24, 2009

KABUL – Four U.S. soldiers and an Afghan civilian working for them were killed in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb, the U.S. military said. …

Some 38,000 U.S. troops are currently serving in Afghanistan alongside another 30,000 from 40 other mostly NATO nations. …

President Barack Obama last week ordered 17,000 more U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan to reinforce mainly British, Canadian and Dutch forces in south of the country who are locked in a stalemate with the Taliban insurgents there.

Commanders predict violence will rise in Afghanistan this year as the new troops venture into new areas of the south and try to enforce security ahead of presidential polls on August 20.

——

U.S. Soldier, Interpreter Die in Iraq Police Attack

Feb. 24, 2009

BAGHDAD – Officials say an American soldier has died after an attack on U.S. troops in northern Iraq.

They say two policemen opened fire on U.S. soldiers visiting an Iraqi police station. An Iraqi interpreter was also killed. Three Americans were wounded.

It was the fourth such shooting in the Mosul area in just over a year purportedly involving Iraqi security forces, raising concerns about infiltration among the police ranks in an area considered the last urban stronghold of Sunni insurgents.

Attackers flee in car

A police spokesman says the attackers fled the area in a car. A manhunt is under way.

The U.S. military confirmed that one interpreter was killed while four U.S. soldiers and another interpreter were wounded by small-arms fire as they were holding a meeting at an Iraqi police station about 2 p.m. in Mosul. …

The latest attack comes just over two weeks after a suicide car bomber struck a U.S. patrol in Mosul, killing four American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter in the deadliest single attack against U.S. forces in nine months.

With violence unrelenting in Mosul, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a new military offensive dubbed Operation New Hope aimed at rooting out al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgents in the city and the surrounding Ninevah province.

Several previous operations have failed to quell the violence in the volatile area, where insurgents remain active and ethnic tensions between Kurds and mainly Sunni Arabs have been on the rise.

Other attacks on Americans by Iraqi security forces

On Nov. 25, two U.S. troops — a Marine and a soldier on a transition team working with the Iraqis — were killed when a gunman in an Iraqi army uniform opened fire while they were distributing aid southwest of Mosul.

An Iraqi soldier also ambushed U.S. soldiers in a courtyard of an Iraqi military base in a dangerous Sunni Arab neighborhood in Mosul on Nov. 12, killing two Americans and wounding six before he died in the subsequent gunbattle.

And in December 2007, an Iraqi soldier also allegedly shot and killed a U.S. captain and a sergeant during a joint operation in Mosul.

The most recent attack in Mosul comes a day after three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter were killed during fighting in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.

At least 4,250 members of the U.S. military who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

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3 U.S. Soldiers, Interpreter Killed in Iraq

Feb. 23, 2009

BAGHDAD – Three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter were killed Monday during fighting north of Baghdad, the military said.

The four deaths occurred during combat in Diyala province, an area northeast of Baghdad that continues to be volatile despite an overall drop in violence nationwide.

The attack came two weeks after a suicide car bomber struck a U.S. patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing four American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter in the deadliest single attack against U.S. forces in nine months.

At least 4,250 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. …

President Barack Obama, who campaigned on a promise to end the war in Iraq, is expected to announce further troop withdrawals in the coming weeks after his recent announcement that he is sending thousands more combat forces to Afghanistan. …

[In other violence reported Monday], gunmen ambushed an Iraqi army checkpoint Monday in western Baghdad, killing three soldiers and wounding eight other people, according to police.

Also Monday, a roadside bombing apparently targeting a police patrol in central Baghdad killed at least two civilians and wounded six, said police and hospital officials. …

——

Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Feb. 23, 2009, as reported by Reuters:

TIKRIT – Three U.S. soldiers and their interpreter died as a result of combat operations in Diyala province, the U.S. military said. It gave no further details.

MASHRU’ – A car bomb killed one person and wounded another in the village of Mashru’, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

JURF AL-SAKHAR – Police found the body of a leader of a neighborhood guard unit in Jurf al-Sakhar, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, police said. The man had been handcuffed and shot in the head.

BAGHDAD – Two soldiers and one civilian were killed and four people were wounded when gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint in the Ghaziliya neighborhood of western Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – Two people were killed and six wounded, including two policemen, when a bomb blew up as a police convoy was passing the Agriculture Ministry in the center of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – Seven people were wounded, including three policemen, when a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in the district of Karrada in Baghdad, police said.

Following are security developments in Iraq on Feb. 22, 2009, as reported by Reuters:

MOSUL – Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and two were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in western Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – Four people were wounded by a roadside bomb in the Bayaa neighborhood of Baghdad, police said.

BAAJ – An explosion killed five Iraqi soldiers late on Saturday as they entered a deserted home in the town of Baaj, 235 miles northwest of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Five Iraqi soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in southern Mosul, police said.

MOSUL – A woman was wounded in central Mosul when gunmen threw several grenades at a police patrol.

SAMARRA – A bomb attached to a vehicle wounded a neighborhood guard leader in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

TIKRIT – The head of a local office of the Sunni Arab Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) was targeted by a roadside bomb in central Tikrit, 100 miles north of Baghdad, police and the IIP said. Both Jamal Shaiban and his driver were lightly wounded.

BAGHDAD – Two coordinated roadside bombs wounded four people on Saturday in the Mansour district of western Baghdad, police said.

——

U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq
 
As of Monday, Feb. 23, 2009, at least 4,250 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. …

The latest deaths reported by the military:

• Three soldiers were killed Monday during combat operations in Diyala province.

The latest identification reported by the military:

• Army Staff Sgt. Mark C. Baum, 32, Telford, Pa., died Feb. 21, 2009 in Baghdad of wounds from small-arms fire in Mushada. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 111th Infantry Regiment, 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

Remember Their Sacrifice

Related links

Iraq Casualties

Afghanistan Casualties

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Minnesota U.S. Senate Recount Trial — Live Coverage

Live streaming video of the trial to decide the winner of the Coleman-Franken contest for U.S. Senate, courtesy of The UpTake

[Note: Mute button at bottom left corner of TheUptake feed]

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U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), criticizing the economic stimulus plan on KTLK radio in the Twin Cities with her trademark gloom-and-doom histrionics, foresees a “national rationing board,” claims “your doctor will no longer be able to make your health care decisions with you,” and catastrophizes that “we’re running out of rich people in this country.”

NEWSROOM
Wall Street vs. Main Street
Aired February 20, 2009 – 15:00 ET

Rick Sanchez, CNN anchor

RICK SANCHEZ: Now, Michele Bachmann, if you haven’t heard of her, she’s a congresswoman from the state of Minnesota — back into this argument about rich and poor in this country, a comment that she made about this while she was being interviewed the other day on a radio station. Now, mind you, she is on the Financial Services Committee. She’s talked about patriotism before. This time, she goes on a radio show. She criticizes the stimulus plan. Not quite sure, though, what she is talking about in a couple of instances, and then separates Americans according to rich and poor.

Here it is from KTLK.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, KTLK)

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN, R-MINNESOTA: If you think, ACORN, this is a group that is under federal indictment for voter fraud.

CHRIS BAKER, KTLK: Unbelievable.

BACHMANN: ACORN, they have received a total of $53 million in direct federal grants since 1994. You know how much they’re getting under this bill?

BAKER: Like $4 billion, I have heard.

BACHMANN: Five billion dollars [...] for ACORN. Now, that’s a plus-up. I don’t see ACORN sacrificing in economic hard times. So, now we will have a national rationing board? And your doctor will no longer be able to make your health care decisions with you. I don’t know where they’re going to go to get all this money, because we’re running out of rich people in this country.

BAKER: Yes, we are. We are running out of rich people.

BACHMANN: Under Obama, big evil is now anyone with a joint income of $100,000 or more.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: “We’re running out of rich people.”

Patricia Murphy is good enough to join us now. She is the editor of CitizenJanePolitics.com.

Let’s go through these one at a time. The first thing she said is about ACORN. [...]

“ACORN,’ she says, “is a group under federal indictment for voter fraud.” And then she says, “You know how much they’re getting under this bill? Five billion dollars.”

Murph, is ACORN mentioned anywhere in the stimulus package?

PATRICIA MURPHY, EDITOR, CITIZENJANEPOLITICS.COM: ACORN is not mentioned in the stimulus package.

There are a couple of things we can talk about here. ACORN is not under indictment. They are federal investigation. And then what she’s talking about, this money, the $5 billion, that is something that’s money for neighborhood stabilization.

What that means is that groups can go in, buy distressed homes or abandoned homes and fix them up, so that the neighborhood doesn’t deteriorate.

SANCHEZ: Any group?

MURPHY: Well, states, cities, towns are the usually ones who used to get that. Now Congress has said that nonprofits can apply for that money. ACORN is a nonprofit and they certainly will apply for that money. But they are not getting all of it. They probably will get some of it, though.

SANCHEZ: Yes, just like anybody else might be able to get some of it.

But to blatantly say ACORN is getting $5 billion, if we were to ask you as a reporter to fact-check that, you would say true or false?

MURPHY: False.

SANCHEZ: Thank you.

Let’s check this one now. “So, now we will have a national rationing board, and your doctor will no longer be able to make your health care decisions with you.” She said that. She was on the record. Would you fact-check that for us?

MURPHY: What she’s talking about here — this is a little complicated, but it is a process that the federal government does called comparative effectiveness research.

That’s when the government collects data on medical procedures and medical devices to see which ones are most effective. Congress tripled the funding for that research in the stimulus bill.

What that has done, though, has raised conservatives’ concerns that this is a precursor to nationalization of health care. Once you have the federal government poking around in data, they say that that will lead to the government deciding what you can and cannot have your doctor do.

That’s not true, but it could lead to the decisions about whether the government will and won’t reimburse.

SANCHEZ: It could. But to say your doctor will no longer be able to make your health care decisions with you, stretch?

MURPHY: False. False.

SANCHEZ: OK.

MURPHY: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Two for two.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: Look at this one. This is interesting.

“I don’t know where they’re going to get all this money, because we’re running out of rich people in this country.”

You know, this sounds very Marie Antoinette-ish to me. And I was always taught — learned from a friend a long time ago — you don’t go around talking about rich people, because one guy’s rich is another guy’s poor. It’s a relative term.

Should any politician, no less a congressman or congresswoman who is on a Financial Services Committee, be making statements like this? And is it good for either party? She happens to be a Republican. But, if she were a Democrat, is that a good strategy for any party?

MURPHY: Well, the problem with what she’s talking about, the strategy behind it is not accurate.

What she’s talking about when she talks about Barack Obama, the big evil, $100,000 combined, what she’s talking about is Obama’s plans to increase taxes or to let the Bush tax cuts expire for the highest-income earners, $250,000. But it’s just not accurate what she’s saying.

And when you parse all of these statements, politics is really in the eye of the beholder. And if you’re not – if you don’t trust who’s putting in the policy, if you don’t trust what they’re going to do, that’s basically what she’s saying. But it’s not accurate.

SANCHEZ: But you can’t make it up.

MURPHY: You can’t make it up.

SANCHEZ: Thanks, Murph. We always appreciate having you on.

MURPHY: Thanks.

——

File: “I may not always get my words right”

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Students Present Research at State Capitol in St. Paul  

Minnesota private college students present their scholarly research in the Capitol rotunda.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (Feb. 20, 2009) — Sarah Moore and Angela Rodgers, students at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., presented their research on “The Personality Profile of President Barack Obama: Leadership Implications” at the 6th annual Minnesota Private Colleges Scholars at the Capitol event, Feb. 19, in the State Capitol rotunda, St. Paul, Minn.

Moore is a senior psychology major from Grosse Point Woods, Mich. Rodgers is a junior sociology major from Rogers, Minn. Their research was conducted in the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics, directed by College of St. Benedict / St. John’s University associate professor of psychology Aubrey Immelman, Ph.D.

Sarah Moore and Angela Rodgers in the Capitol rotunda.

Summary of Research Results 

The profile reveals that Barack Obama is ambitious and confident; modestly dominant and self-asserting; accommodating, cooperative, and agreeable; somewhat outgoing and congenial; and relatively conscientious. The combination of ambitious and accommodating patterns in Obama’s profile suggests a “confident conciliator” personality composite.

Leaders with this personality prototype, though self-assured and ambitious, are characteristically gracious, considerate, and benevolent. They are energetic, charming, and agreeable, with a special talent for settling differences and a preference for mediation and compromise over force or coercion as a strategy for resolving conflict. They are driven primarily by a need for achievement, but also have substantial affiliation needs and a modest need for power.

The study offers an empirically based framework for anticipating Obama’s performance as chief executive. The following general predictions regarding Obama’s likely leadership style can be inferred from his personality profile:

• Ambitious, self-assured, gracious, considerate
• Preference for mediation and compromise over force or coercion as a strategy for resolving conflict
• High need for achievement; moderate need for affiliation; low need for power
• More pragmatic than ideological
• More task- than relationship oriented
• Likely to act as a strong advocate in his administration, using his powers of persuasion to advance his policy vision
• Preference for gathering information from a variety of sources rather than relying solely on advisors and administration officials
• In dealing with members of Congress, may show preference for avoiding unnecessary conflict by trying to remain above the fray in heated, highly divisive debates
• Preference for articulating and defending his policies in person rather than relying on staff and administration officials to speak for him

Gov. Tim Pawlenty at the 2007 Private
Colleges Scholars at the Capitol event

RELATED REPORTS

Obama Set to Change Course 

Barack Obama: A Question of Toughness 

A Key to Success for Obama?

Photo credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

2/14/2010 Update

Book review: ‘Inside Obama’s Brain,’ by Sasha Abamsky (Steven Levingston, Washington Post, Feb. 14, 2010) — Sasha Abramsky promises us a glimpse in “Inside Obama’s Brain.” He tells us right away what his book is not: It’s not a biography, not political history, not inside-the-Beltway prattle. It is, he says, “a psychological profile writ large.” … By the end of the book, Abramsky admits he hasn’t discovered any one thing that explains the question he set out to answer: “What makes Barack Obama tick?” Obama, he realizes, is — guess what? — “a powerfully driven man, ambitious, intelligent, and charming.”

——

IRAQ UPDATE

Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Feb. 21, 2009, as reported by Reuters. 

BAGHDAD – A U.S. soldier died during a combat patrol near Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

KIRKUK – A roadside bomb wounded an Iraqi soldier when it struck a patrol southwest of Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb wounded an Iraqi soldier on patrol in southeastern Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

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Bush’s ‘Icy Smile’ Enraged Iraqi Shoe Thrower

Journalist tells court he aimed to express ‘the hatred we have for this man’

Supporters and relatives of Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who gained cult status for throwing his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush, wave as he is taken away from court in a Humvee in Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo credit: Khalid Mohammed / AP)

The Associated Press and Reuters via MSNBC.com 
Feb. 19, 2009

BAGHDAD – An Iraqi reporter who hurled his shoes at George W. Bush said in the past he had videotaped himself practicing the Arab insult to use against the president whose “icy smile” had filled him with uncontrollable rage.

At the start of his trial in Baghdad on charges of assaulting a foreign leader, Muntadhar al-Zeidi said he recorded his shoe-throwing training two years ago and had hoped to accost Bush in Jordan but this did not take place.

Al-Zeidi, who was hailed across the Middle East by critics of the Iraq invasion and who also called Bush a “dog,” told the court he had acknowledged making a training film under interrogation after his arrest at a Baghdad news conference. …

But al-Zeidi, whose unusual protest overshadowed Bush’s final visit to Iraq in December, insisted he had not planned to attack Bush this time.

Instead, he said Bush’s smile as he talked about achievements in Iraq had made him think of “the killing of more than a million Iraqis, the disrespect for the sanctity of the mosques and houses, the rapes of women,” and enraged him. …

“Suddenly I saw no one in the room but Bush. I felt the blood of innocents was running under his feet while he was smiling coldly as if he had come to write off Iraq with a farewell meal.”

‘The prime murderer’

Al-Zeidi added: “After more than a million Iraqis killed, after all the economic and social destruction … I felt that this person is the killer of the people, the prime murderer. I was enraged and threw my shoes at him.”

At the time, al-Zeidi shouted at Bush that the shoe-throwing was a “goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog.”

The trial had barely begun at Iraq’s Central Criminal Court in the heavily fortified Green Zone before the judges postponed proceedings until March 12 so it could be determined if Bush was truly on an “official” visit to Iraq as a head of state. …

The reporter for an Iraqi television station based in Cairo became a hero in much of the Middle East and his protest was played by television stations around the world.

Sectarian warfare

Bush, whose support of Israel and decision to invade Iraq in 2003 to oust Saddam Hussein made him passionately disliked in the region, nimbly ducked out of the way of the first shoe and made light of the incident. The second shoe also missed the American president.

The invasion plunged Iraq into six years of sectarian warfare and insurgency that killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Al-Zeidi was transformed into a cult figure across the Muslim world where thousands hailed him as a hero and demanded his release for what they considered a justified act of patriotism.

Haider Ahmed, a government employee, called al-Zeidi a patriot. “He allowed us to hold our heads high,” he said. …

Al-Zeidi himself said he could not be charged with assaulting a visiting head of state when that leader was also the chief of an occupation force. “How can he be a guest in an area that they themselves run?” he said.

“I did not intend to kill U.S. President Bush. But I wanted to express what is inside of me and what is inside all Iraqis, from north to south and east to west, the hatred we have for this man.”

Video

Statue honors shoe-thrower (NBC Nightly News, Feb. 19, 2009) — The Iraqi journalist on trial for throwing his shoes at former President George W. Bush has become a hero in the Arab world. NBC’s Kianne Sadeq reports. (02:01)

——

Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq as reported by Reuters.

Feb. 20, 2009

BAGHDAD – An Iraqi soldier was shot and wounded by sniper fire in Baghdad’s western district of Mansour, police said.

BAGHDAD – A woman and two children were killed on Thursday in two explosions outside a home near Abu Ghraib, on Baghdad’s western outskirts, the U.S. military statement said. Two men were injured.

Feb. 19, 2009

BALAD RUZ – Four Iraqi soldiers were killed and two were wounded by a roadside bomb in the town Balad Ruz, 55 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said.

GARMA – A roadside bomb near a police station killed a policeman and wounded one person in the town of Garma, 20 miles northwest of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – A policeman was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in western Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed the owner of a shop in western Mosul, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed a man and stole his car in central Mosul, police said.

MOSUL – A policeman was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in western Mosul, police said.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb wounded a civilian when it exploded near a police patrol in Mosul, police said.

BAGHDAD – Eight people were wounded by a roadside bomb in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – Three people were wounded by a roadside bomb in the Karradat Mariam area of central Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – A car bomb killed one policeman and wounded seven people, including two police, in southern Mosul, police said.

MOSUL – An off-duty Iraqi soldier was shot dead in central Mosul, police said.

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‘Countdown’ with Keith Olbermann

Keith Olbermann 
February 18, 2009

Bach in the Saddle:  We already knew some Republicans are taking credit in their home districts for the stimulus money coming their way – even though they voted against it. But in our third story tonight, that’s almost laudable compared to what other Congressional Republicans are saying about the stim. Basically, it’s the American version of the Russian Revolution. Let me warn you: You are going to hear excerpts from what may be the craziest interview in American political history. And if I use the terms “craziest” … “Republican” … and Congress … Who else could I be talking about other than Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann. …

Video

Bachmann strikes (out) again (MSNBC, Feb. 18, 2009) — Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., took a new stand against President Barack Obama when she claimed the stimulus bill was just a payoff for those who supported him throughout the election. The Nation’s Chris Hayes discusses. (07:14) 

Money quote

Olbermann: “Is she (a) dumb, (b) crazy, or perhaps (c) the perpetrator of the most brilliantly disguised, brilliant political strategy in world history?”

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Bachmann: “We’re running out of rich people in this country”

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