Farewell Hero Cynthia McKinney...

Not that she's gone anywhere.  She's still with us.  She's just not a hero in my eyes anymore.

I wrote about McKinney a long time ago, back when I was under the spell of American Blackout, a documentary that made an apparently good case for African American voter disenfranchisement during the Bush elections.  

Reality is messier, and, with a stomach churning predictability, it appears the person doing the docu was conned, or at least presented with a very incomplete picture.  From comments in this review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/movies/22blac.html

designed to generate hatred

I thought we saw the end of Cynthia McKinney and her Black Panther supporters when she lost her re election. Well it looks like shes back and this time brought some kid to back her up. Ian Inaba is a 28 year old Berkley Liberal whose claim to fame is creating Eminems Bush bashing video Mosh in 2004. Now McKinney stars in Inabas newest independent documentary focusing on alleged voter disenfranchisement. A second recount of Floridas votes by the Miami Herald and a consortium of major news organizations confirmed that George W. Bush won the 2000 election. Also, investigations by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the U. S. Justice Departments Civil Rights Division found that no blacks were denied the right to vote in the 2000 election. During the 2004 election, Democratic Party operatives continued to perpetuate the myth that black voters were disenfranchised during the 2000 presidential election. If blacks had been denied the right to vote, then why did all of the Democratic Party senators, including John Kerry, John Edwards, Bob Graham and Bill Nelson refuse to support the filling of a voter fraud lawsuit by the Congressional Black Caucus? It is obvious that this poorly directed documentary is designed to generate hatred among black voters toward Republicans and should be avoided by all. Lets not even mention that this woman is also a racist. Check out youtube and find the video of her Black Panther supporters caught on tape spewing racist remarks.

– kams912,

I don't agree it was designed to generate "hatred", per se.  Bush junior was doing plenty to generate bad feeling all on his own.   But it does seem to have an agenda of radicalizing the left into believing things were worse than they were.  And I'm dubious about Democratic Operatives, though political operatives are certainly possible.

But it was the comment about the racist remarks that caught my attention.  Ever since conspiracy bilk master Richard Gage gave a speech in front of the notoriously anti Semite Nation of Islam, I've wondered about Ms. McKinney.  At the very least her failure to shut down the anti semite/Jew rhetoric of her ardent followers.  I'm more and more convinced McKinney is the Patriot/Militia/Tea Parties answer to an "alibi Jew" role to hide their deep hatred of black people. And it's known the far right makes strategic alliances with persons who share an extreme belief, in this case the mutual anti Semitism will make them over look that little African ancestry problem.

The racist remarks are true and can be heard here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S8rHANZtE4

The ADL was not impressed:

ADL Condemns Racist, Anti-Semitic Tirades At Rep. Cynthia Mckinney's Concession Speech

Atlanta, GA, August 9, 2006 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed outrage over the incident last evening in which members of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney's security entourage, including individuals associated with the New Black Panther Party, physically and verbally attacked members of the media, spewing racist and anti-Semitic epithets.

"It's astonishing that in a democratic election anti-Semitism still rears its ugly head. Once again some McKinney supporters have resorted to anti-Semitism and racist language and are blaming Jews for her loss to an African-American opponent," stated Shelley Rose, ADL's Southeast Region Associate Director. "The fact that she has frequently included The New Black Panther Party -- which is perhaps the largest organized anti-Semitic and racist Black hate group in America-- in her security entourage is extremely troubling." 

According to reports and video coverage, as McKinney arrived at her campaign headquarters late last night, Steve Muhammad, one of McKinney's security staff scuffled with the media and was accidentally struck by a news camera carried by a television photographer, receiving a cut on the right side of his head.  Muhammad then physically lashed out at the photographer. During the scuffle, another member of her entourage who wore a New Black Panther Party pin shouted expletives at the media, including calling them "crackers" --a derisive term for whites – and telling them, "You got what you damn wanted. You got your Uncle Tom, now go put your cameras on him," referring to Hank Johnson, the African American candidate who defeated Ms. McKinney. He continued to rant, "You ain't in Israel and this ain't no Lebanese people, so back up. Gonna get your Jewish [expletive]… (inaudible)…."

Following McKinney's concession speech, a reporter attempted to ask the Congresswoman why she thought she lost. The New Black Panther member interrupted, shouting, "Why do you think she lost? You wanna know what led to the loss? Israel. The Zionists. You. Put on your yarmulke and celebrate." 

"This incident is reminiscent of the 2002 campaign in which Rep. McKinney's father "blamed the J-E-W-S" for her defeat," said Ms. Rose. "Rep. McKinney did not distance herself from the anti-Semitic comments then, and her service in Congress has been clouded by a perception that she also harbors such feelings."

So, alas, I must put aside the good feelings I had about Ms. McKinney.  I must conclude her refusal to denounce these comments by her followers is a sign of her approval and/or indifference to anyone offended. 


This is unfortunate because her comments in the  wake of the 9/11 attacks were not unreasonable, especially to those of us wondering how quickly we were told Osama Bin Laden was behind the attacks, with no evidence this knowledge was being used to prevent the attacks.  In that information vacue McKinney's statments made more sense than, "Oops, we couldn't have predicted it":

September 11 attacks

McKinney gained national attention for remarks she made following the 2001 US attacks, charging that the United States had advance knowledge of the attacks and that US President George W. Bush may have been aware of the incipient attack and allowed them to happen,^[17] allegedly due to his father's business interests: "It is known that President Bush's father, through the Carlyle Group, had–at the time of the attacks–joint business interests with the bin Laden construction company and many defense industry holdings, the stocks of which have soared since September 11."[17

Now as true as these criticisms might be, one has to look at the body of McKinney's political career before and after the attacks, and conclude everything is not as it appears.

This also casts a different light on the Webster Tarpley/LaRouche/Fetzer/wq2rx//Kennebunkport Fiasco.   The short version is the people "attacked" were in on the con.   Indirect evidence of this surfaced early this year, one of the "victims" being interviewed by a man now confirmed to directly support racist politicians.

So, yeah, that was a thing.   Sad, disappointing, but life goes on.