MSNBC's Joe Scarborough's Lame Apology to Unite Blue

Not Accepted Joe by this Republican Longtime Unite Blue Member who Supports Democrats in 2014.  The fringe is in the Republican Party not Unite Blue!

Will someone explain to me why Joe Scarborough brought up the union movement and then Unite Blue as there is no correlation between the two?  Many of us in Unite Blue are current Republicans supporting Democrats in 2014 as GOP went too hard right embracing the hard right ideology, former Republicans especially women and veterans who have had it with the hard right attacks on both, independents, and Democrats who the GOP counts hard left but most I have met are not hard left yet we're all counted fringe by Joe Scarborough?   Who is feeding him that garbage about Unite Blue?

We come from all walks of life -- met a lot of former Republicans and also Republicans supporting Democrats, military, veterans, consultants, writers, senior citizens, young people, middle age, doctors, lawyers, and the list goes on and on as Unite Blue is a cross-section of America.  We come from all states including Red States who are joined together to try and bring some common sense back to Government because the GOP today has so little common sense it is hard to find.  Want stupid comments?  Look no further than the GOP and their candidates.

Former Congressman Scarborough's comments make zero sense to me and if this is an apology, I am missing something.  Scarborough talks about hateful remarks from Unite Blue people or unions but what about the hateful remarks about veterans, women, LBGT, poor and the list goes on from the right. When is the last time he went after the hard right for their nasty remarks?  Got news for Joe, the hard right was going after him long time before Unite Blue even came on the radar.  Did he say anything then?

This morning(Tuesday) Joe Scarborough attempted to explain his recent demeaning comments that offended so many passionate UniteBlue members.

"I brought it up on Friday... I brought up UniteBlue, and I could find people in UniteBlue who said some terrible things about me over the past two, three, four years, but that doesn't mean there aren't great people in the union movement, that doesn't mean there aren't great vets and great people in UniteBlue... Don't we at some point realize that there are some people who will try to associate them self [sic] with a bigger group and say hateful things that shouldn't be associated with the labor movement or UniteBlue?"

Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe, 5/27/2014.

From Unite Blue:  

While this was not the full-throated apology that thousands requested, this display of respect is a promising first step, and we will continue to call Joe Scarborough out when his commentary devolves into divisive and disparaging attacks.  ******

From Unite Blue:  This morning (Monday) UniteBlue delivered the following letter to MSNBC's president Phil Griffin and 15 executives directly responsible for Morning Joe. After giving them time to respond, we are releasing our request as an open letter:

Mr. Phil Griffin
President, MSNBC
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY

May 26, 2014 

Dear Mr. Griffin: 

Last Friday May 23, Joe Scarborough insulted thousands of honest, hardworking Americans who choose to organize under the banner of #UniteBlue, falsely alleging on MSNBC's Morning Joe show that "these people are on the fringes; they're freaks; they're hate mongers." 

Mr. Scarborough owes an apology to the mothers, fathers, retirees, veterans, soldiers, activists, professionals and all members of UniteBlue. Calling tens of thousands of good, decent people 'freaks' is a sweeping condemnation and makes him a hate monger. 

Half a million Tweets use #UniteBlue each month, more than #GOP or #TeaParty. Many of us are MSNBC viewers who were personally offended by these demeaning words and petty attacks. In response to the unprecedented outrage that resulted, Mr. Scarborough decided to double down instead of apologizing. This time he called each of us 'extremists,' and it's really deeply offensive. Your entire network is being poisoned thanks to this behavior. 

At this time, we are considering a number of petitions that have arisen calling for boycotts of Morning Joe and its sponsors. We have stood firmly against the promotion of hatred on the airwaves from others such as Rush Limbaugh, and cannot find any attempt on behalf of Joe Scarborough to move the political conversation forward meaningfully. 

We respectfully request that Mr. Scarborough personally and publicly apologize for his comments on air and offer the opportunity for a UniteBlue representative to explain who we are; real people who want a voice in our democracy.

That apology that links unions and Unite Blue together is not good enough for me.  I am not fringe and neither are the people I have met from Unite Blue.  In fact I left the fringe which has become the Republican Party of today.  The Republican Party I grew up with wouldn't have mounted a war against women over contraceptives.  Today's GOP disapproves of contraceptives and abortions but Viagara and pills like that are just fine for men.  Blame the rape victim when a woman gets raped and deny a morning after pill or an abortion as it was the woman's fault -- heard that a lot out of the hard right in Oklahoma and now nationwide.  How about domestic violence against spouses?  Simple explanation it's the woman's fault for not doing what her husband wants in their small minds.

Today's GOP attacks veterans refusing to pass the Veterans Job Bill while cutting the VA budget but expects veterans to line up to support them?  Not happening.  Cong Ryan's draconian budget cuts decimate social security and Medicare treating both like an entitlement when workers pay into social security and Medicare.  The list goes on and on of the hard right attacks on regular Americans including the school lunch program where they only want the summer lunch program in rural areas not cities.

Yet, the the same GOP in Congress and in States will bend over backwards for the wealthy.  They treat the poor like it is their fault they are poor.  How would the GOP and Scarborough like to work two jobs and still be below the poverty level with children they have a hard time feeding and keeping a roof over their heads because the minimum wage is so low yet Republicans in Congress refuse to raise the minimum wage.  GOP continues to give subsidies to farmers while cutting the SNAP program that feeds veterans, the poor, and children.

Then there is Oklahoma where the State Legislature passed and Governor signed into law that our cities are not allowed to have a higher minimum wage or give more sick and leave days.  That's Republican State Government at work while on the flip side their just gave another tax break to oil and gas when three of them -- Devon, Chesapeake, and Howard Hamm threw a hissy fit threatening to leave the state if they didn't get a 5% tax cut for three years on vertical drilling and agreeing to raise horizontal from 1% to 2% when it was to go back to 7% in 2015.  Once again Oklahoma residents got the shaft from the Republican dominated Government in favor of big oil because that is what the Chamber and ALEC wanted.

Mr. Scarborough I appreciate what your office did in 2000 to help us with the overseas military ballots that were tossed in Florida to get the information on who the military were -- then I went to the military locator thanks to a very good friend to find their location so they knew their ballots were tossed by county election officials like in Hillsborough County.

Today you have defamed me along with others who just want the best for all Americans not just the wealthy which separates us from today's Republican Party who are bought and paid for by the wealthy donors starting with the Koch's and Adelson plus the Karl Rove PACs including a dark money one who no one knows the donors.  Do you think it is right for people to keep their donating anonymous so no one knows where the money being spent in campaigns is from or that businesses are people? Defense Industry has had PACs for years for their workers so the Citizens United ruling makes no sense even today.  Why should the wealthy be able to give millions to buy elections because that is what the Koch's, Rove, and Adelson are doing?

Mr. Scarborough you have insulted our intelligence and that lame apology is a joke!  Think about who the extremists are today and you are going to find them in your own party.  If you cannot see it, take off the blinders!

Note:  Will be switching my registration to Democrat following the Oklahoma Primary -- want one last chance to vote against some Republicans running in the primary like State School Superintendent Janet Barrisi and Senator Jim Inhofe.

"Gun Appreciation Day" on Jan 19th Is Co-Sponsored By A White Nationalist Party

UPDATE at 4:45 p.m. 1/18:  Looks like some people endorsing the "Gun Appreciation Day" woke up and the A3P is no longer a sponsor.  It took Media Matters pointing out they were a white supremist group which means the organizers did not bother to check their sponsors.  I stand by what I said about the day and the fact that they didn't check out their groups says it all.  They would still be a sponsor without Media Matters IMHO!

*******

My jaw dropped when I followed the link on Twitter this morning and discovered that a White Nationalist Party Group, American Third Position Party (A3P), is helping sponsor Gun Appreciation Day.  Eric Erickson from Red State who is also a CNN contributor is also a sponsor.  When you do the research on the A3P, your jaw will drop to the floor as you will learn below.  Media Matters  discovered the connections and posted a short time ago along with the flyer of the event for people to sign up:

Gun Appreciation Day Is Sponsored By A White Nationalist Party
Blog ››› 1 hour and 56 minutes ago ››› ERIC HANANOKI 

Gun Appreciation Day, a prominent effort backed by conservative media outlets and activists to oppose new gun laws, has accepted the sponsorship of a white nationalist organization to promote and mobilize supporters for its January 19 event. 

Gun Appreciation Day (GAD) is partnering with the American Third Position (A3P), a political group that describes itself as representing "the unique political interests of white Americans." According to a party official, the organization is composed of "white nationalists." 

GAD's organizers ask supporters to visit "gun stores, gun counters, gun shows, and gun ranges to protest the Obama administration's post Sandy Hook assault on gun rights." The event has received significant media coverage and promotion in recent days. 

GAD lists A3P on its "sponsors" page along with its logo, motto ("Liberty. Sovereignty. Identity") and a link to American3rdPosition.com. Other sponsors include prominent conservative media outlets like RedState, the right-wing blog edited by CNN contributor Erick Erickson. The event's main page asks visitors to "Please Support Our Sponsors."  

The pro-gun event is teaming with A3P despite ample and easily found evidence of the group's fringe views. The first Google result for the group after its official website is the user-edited Wikipedia page for A3P, which currently states in its opening sentence that the group "promotes white supremacy." 

After reading that at Media Matters, decided to do my own checking into A3P and all I can say is that I will NEVER visit Red State again after deleting myself from their list of accounts.  Media Matters was 100% correct.  I am in shock that a white supremacist group is even recognized as a co-sponsor of Gun Appreciation Day which I already thought was despicable, but there it is right on the flyer for you to sign up.  While researching the A3P group I found this gem at the Southern Poverty Law Center in their research:

 It describes government policies that aim to encourage integration in schools and diversity in workplaces as “tyrannical and racist.” 

What words are we hearing out of the hard right Republicans like Rand Paul, Louie Gohmert, and others against Obama especially on gun control?  "Tyrannical or Tyranny"  Some on the hard right have gone so far as to call for his impeachment over the 23 Executive Orders which he had a right under the Constitution to sign, but that didn't stop Rand Paul and others from calling him a tyrant or the 'racist' comments those on the hard right make about the President on Fox News, Rush, Hannity, and from some Republicans who should know better but it gets good publicity and brings in the loons to support them.

The word 'tyrant' seems to have become a code word for Obama wanting common sense gun control which the vast majority of Americans support versus the hard right fringe who wants to own any firearm they want as they need to protect themselves from the 'tyrannical' federal government.  Word delusional comes to mind and the fact groups like the NRA, A3P, Stormfront and other hate groups are playing on that delusion is scary.  I would have never called the NRA a hate group in the past but it is today from the words coming out of LaPierre's mouth along with other NRA spokesman.  Don't know what else you call it with the NRA ad using Obama's daughters along with the way they attack this President with lies.  

NRA puts up an on-line ad about Obama's daughters having USSS protection asking if his daughters are better than ours - the right elected officials except for Chris Christie have remained pretty silent.  Former Congressman Joe Scarborough did not remain silent.

On Wednesday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, conservative host Joe Scarborough didn’t hold back in his disgust, though he was speechless for a few minutes before he let loose.

“What is wrong – what’s wrong with these peopl,e Mika?” he asked incredulously, repeating the phrase three times to his co-host. He was joined by panelist Mike Barnicle and co-host, Mika Brzezinski, who seemed to be feeling the same repulsion for the NRA ad. 

“That’s a real ad — that my friend is political pornography,” Barnicle said. 

In fact, the entire panel had nothing but harsh criticism for the NRA ad. Someone even said it was one of “the grossest things” he had ever seen in his life. Co-host Brzezinski called the NRA, “out of step and out of the mainstream” and “totally out of sync with what is going on in our society.” 

Scarborough then delivered a tongue-lashing to the rifle association, adding that the president’s children had no say in the decision when their father stepped forth and decided to run for president, calling it one of the most bone-crushing, sacrifices any husband or wife could ask of their family. He also said that the minute that decision is made, those children and their entire family had targets on their backs.

Joe went on to say:

“I am a conservative Republican who received the NRA’a highest ratings over four terms in Congress. I come to you this morning with a heavy heart and no easy answers. Still I have spent the last few days grasping for solutions and struggling for answers — while daring to question my own long-held beliefs on these subjects,” said Scarborough. 

“I knew that day that the ideologies of my past career were no longer relevant to the future that I want, that I demand for my children,” added Scarborough. “Friday changed everything. It must change everything.”

Joe Scarborough who is a conservative is the voice of reason in a sea of hard right extremists like Rand Paul and others who use the word 'tyrant' to describe this President or like the NRA who calls the President an 'elitist hypocrite who have taken over the Republican Party of today.  We need more like Joe to speak out like he did on Andrea Mitchell's show:

Joe Scarborough joined Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC after Obama's speech on Wednesday. He criticized Republicans for being what he said was out of touch with Americans, an assertion he has made before, as well as the NRA.

He laid out what he saw as the GOP's two choices in the House of Representatives. "They can either pass a comprehensive gun control package right now and shape it under Speaker Boehner, or they can wait two years when they lose the majority and have Nancy Pelosi write that bill," Scarborough said. "There are no other choices."

He went on to hammer Republicans for living in an "echo chamber" for the past year. Scarborough issued the same warning to his party immediately after the Newtown shooting. In December, he said "we will lose" if Republicans continued to defend Glocks and Bushmasters.

Former Rep Joe Scarborough, NJ Governor Christie, and General Colin Powell along with a few others are what is good about Republicans who are willing to roll up their sleeves to make it a better country and stand for Country over Party.

On the hard right is this group A3P which is all about making America a white nationalist Country where only white Europeans can reside.  That should scare everyone that this group is now on the national stage with a CNN pundit, Eric Erickson, to co-sponsor 'Gun Appreciation Day.' To celebrate guns on Martin Luther King's birthday is appalling in itself since he was assassinated by a gunman but to co-sponsor the event with this white supremacist group is beyond any words I would want to put in print.  Today's hard right seems to have no common sense or decency left with their actions/attacks against common sense gun control measures. I expected the hard right to be against any gun control but to align with AP3 for 'Gun Appreciation Day' has me stunned and apprehensive on what lies in the future.



If anyone wants to be frightened of a group who now has the national spotlight with being co-sponsors of 'Gun Appreciation Day,' look no further then the A3P.  Found their background from investigative research done at the Southern Poverty Law Center. This picture is of the AP3 table that was set up at a So Cal event.  Some of the details of AP3 uncoveered in investigative research are posted below.  For more details, please visit SPLC.   Mega thanks to the Southern Poverty Law Center for their fine investigative work over the years even if it is frightening like this one as it gives us an idea of what is happening:

American Third Position

American Third PositionFounded: 2009
Location:
Westminster, Calif.
Profiled Leadership:
Kevin MacDonald,
Profiled Leadership:
William Daniel JohnsonIdeology:
White Nationalist  

The American Third Position is a political party initially established by racist Southern California skinheads that aims to deport immigrants and return the United States to white rule. The group is now led by a coterie of prominent white nationalists, including corporate lawyer William D. Johnson, virulent anti-Semite Kevin MacDonald and white nationalist radio host James Edwards. David Duke’s former right-hand man, Jamie Kelso, helps with organizing. The party has big plans to run candidates nationwide.  

In Their Own Words  

“The American Third Position exists to represent the political interests of White Americans.” - American Third Position website 

“We want an America that is recognizable to us, one that we can feel comfortable in.” - American Third Position website  

“The initial basis of our own upstart organization is the racial nationalist movement. It has been in disarray for the last 20 years so there's not as large a base for us to draw on.” - American Third Position Chairman William Johnson, Feb. 20, 2010, interview on James Edwards’ “The Political Cesspool”

Background  

The American Third Position (A3P) was officially formed in October 2009, but its foundations were laid five months earlier. In May 2009, a racist skinhead group named Freedom 14 created the Golden State Party (GSP) in order to establish what was meant to be a respectable white nationalist political party. Members of Freedom 14, which organized via the hate Web forum Stormfront, were known for handing out anti-immigration fliers with white supremacist themes in Orange County, Calif.  

The Golden State Party’s mission statement began, “The Golden State Party exists to advance the political interests of European-Americans, to save from destruction our unique culture, to safeguard our identity,” and its policy statements carried strong white nationalist themes. Freedom 14 members handed out fliers promoting the GSP over the summer of 2009. But that effort fell apart in September of that year, when it was revealed that Tyler Cole, the chairman of the GSP, had previously been convicted of two felonies and had been using pseudonyms like “Eugene Cameron” and “Tim Robbins” to hide his criminal past.  

Embarrassed by the incident, Freedom 14 members decided to try for a fresh start. On Oct. 15, 2009, they held a meeting to form a party with a new name and new leadership. They elected racist corporate lawyer William Daniel Johnson as chairman of the newly renamed political party, American Third Position. Johnson had been advocating for the deportation of all non-white immigrants and U.S. citizens, including anyone with any “ascertainable trace of Negro blood,” since 1985, when he wrote a book arguing for a constitutional amendment to do just that. Johnson promoted his book far and wide, including at the 1986 Aryan Nations World Congress.  

The A3P holds all the same positions that the GSS did. Some paragraphs of the A3P policy statements are precisely the same as those on the old GSP website. The A3P wants all immigration to cease immediately and for all undocumented immigrants to be deported as soon as possible. Its members believe that whites deserve a nation of their own and that non-whites endanger white culture and society. To mitigate this threat, the party wants to offer financial incentives for recent immigrants to return to the countries where they came from.  

One of the group’s policy statements injects a touch of neo-segregationist language into an already racist platform. It describes government policies that aim to encourage integration in schools and diversity in workplaces as “tyrannical and racist.” To counter this, the party declares, “Parents have a right to choose where and with whom their children are schooled,” a line of reasoning also adopted by segregationists during the civil rights movement.  

Unlike most racist organizations, the A3P has a relatively capable cast of established white nationalists running the show. In early January 2010, it was revealed that Kevin MacDonald had become a director of the A3P. MacDonald is a notoriously anti-Semitic professor at California State University, Long Beach, who theorizes that Jews are genetically programmed to weaken the societies that they live in. In his 2004 book Understanding Jewish Influence: A Study in Ethnic Activism, MacDonald described Jews as “hostile toward American Christian culture” and claimed that they work aggressively to attack and subvert that culture. White supremacists regularly cite his works to provide “evidence” for their anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. 

On Jan. 21, 2010, the ATP’s website announced that James Edwards had become a director. Edwards is a board member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white nationalist group that decries race mixing and has described black people as “a retrograde species of humanity.” Edwards runs a radio show called “The Political Cesspool” that has interviewed a “Who’s Who” of the white nationalist movement as well as extremists of other stripes. Edwards has personally accused Jews of using pornography as a “subversive tool” against white people and is regarded as a young and promising leader among white nationalists.  

On March 6, 2010, Johnson and MacDonald attended a meeting of the Institute for Historical Review, a Holocaust-denial group that publishes an anti-Semitic journal. Tomislav Sunić, a former Croatian diplomat and professor, gave a speech at the meeting. Two weeks later, Sunić became the third director of the American Third Position. Sunić has spoken at several events put on by hate groups, including a leadership meeting of the Council of Conservative Citizens in 2008. He has been interviewed for former Klan leader David Duke’s Internet radio show and has written several books, one of which talks about how Jewish influence has shaped the U.S. and supposedly threatens its European heritage. Anti-diversity themes resound throughout his works.  

Don Wassall became a director on May 4, 2010. Wassall was once the leader of Council of Conservative Citizens chapters in Nevada and Pennsylvania. He has been active in the white supremacist movement for decades, running the American Nationalist Union and its newspaper The Nationalist Times since 1985. A subscription to the magazine is now included in the A3P membership package. Wassall was prominent in the Populist Party during its brief existence: during that time, he worked on both David Duke’s 1988 and Bo Gritz’s 1992 presidential campaigns.  

Rounding out the A3P’s white nationalist team is Jamie Kelso, who has in the past worked for David Duke and served as a moderator for Stormfront, the first major hate site on the Web. The A3P website does not mention Kelso’s official position, but he has described himself as the “executive assistant” to William Johnson. Kelso is a behind-the-scenes player at the A3P, but an influential one — he is responsible for bringing in Wassall as a director. 

The red and bold is mine as I wanted everyone to get a quick look at what this group A3P is all about and begin to realize that President Obama is up against the same types of hate as JFK was when he was President.  John Birchers, Minuteman, White Supremacist, and Neocons were against JFK and now we have those same groups rearing their ugly heads today.

NRA is fast becoming a member of those groups with statements they have been making recently about taking to the streets, the elitist President, wanting to give guns to school children, etc.  It is sick and preying on those who are on the irrational side to start with.  When the vast majority of the American want some gun control and over 90% now want background checks, these organizations like the NRA, A3P, and others are on the wrong side of history.  NRA leadership does not listen to the vast majority of their members today but plays to the extremist members which is frightening IMHO.

Time for Common Sense Americans to speak out and tell their members of Congress to vote for common sense gun control that was supported by Presidents Reagan, GHW Bush, Bill Clinton, GW Bush and now Barack Obama.  President George W. Bush could not believe the Assault Weapons Ban was going to be allowed to expire, but the NRA puppets masquerading as Congressmen let it expire at the request of the NRA.  Same group that opposed the ATF and USSS joining together.  The nomination of an ATF permanent Director by President Obama is the first step of righting the ATF ship after seven years without a director yet it is opposed by the gun lobby and some members of Congress as 'tyrannical' which leaves you stunned.  What is the NRA trying to hide that they don't want a strong ATF?

Today these five Presidents are called names for the hard right because they didn't believe ordinary citizens should be carrying guns meant for the military with large clips of ammo or armor piercing bullets.  They believe in the protection of all Americans.  The new gun control laws may not solve all the problems, but it would have saved those young children at Sandy Hook because the son would have been required to be reported by his psychiatrist which would have prohibited him buying big clips of ammunition or being in a home with all the weapons of his mother.  Same with the Aurora shooting or the one against Cong Giffords where both men were under care for mental health issues.

To find the information on your Senators/House Members to call/write them can be found at:

Congress.org for pertinent telephone numbers in DC  

Members of Congress with their websites/contact/webmail can be found at: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm or http://www.house.gov/representatives/

Time to make our voices heard.  I stand with President Obama on the common sense gun control laws, do you?