Here we go again. Once again, a right-wing radio host or TV host has found a way to say something extremely stupid. Once again, one of the "good Americans" thought it was a bright idea to make a dumbass comment. Neal Boortz, who happens to be a repeat offender in this category, made a comment that could be classified as racially insensitive at best. Where is the right-wing outrage? Where is it? Why hasn't Sean Hannity offered Boortz a chance to come on his show to explain himself? I mean Hannity was the one accusing DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of playing the dreaded race card. Why is Ed Schultz doing what Sean Hannity should be doing? Why hasn't this story received more attention? Don't answer those questions. Like you, I already know the answers.
On Tuesday, conservative radio host Neal Boortz had this to say about the crime in Atlanta, Georgia.
You know what? I, for one, am tired of putting up with this crap. And you want to know why I moved out of Atlanta and only spend a couple of weeks a year in this town? That's one of the reasons. Carjackings, violence, people getting shot. It's ridiculous. This city harbors an urban culture of violence. And I want you to look around. You drive into the city. The railroad overpass is on the downtown connector covered with graffiti. And that-- That is just an advertisement for everybody coming into this town that we really don't give a damn about those who would screw up our quality of life around here. We really just don't care. We don't care enough to paint over graffiti on the overpasses that come into our city, advertising welcome to Atlanta, here's some of our finest graffiti, from some of our finest urban thugs and their little gang signs. And pick up the paper tomorrow morning. Read about all the carjackings. Read about the innocent people shot for the pure de-hell of it.
Ok. Maybe a bit over the top, but I can understand his frustration. I live in Savannah, Georgia. I'm about four hours away from Atlanta and the crime here is pretty bad. I've seen the gang-related graffiti. I've read about people being shot and assaulted and raped for no logical reason other than the attacker wanted to do it. So, I understand his frustration at reading about this and seeing it on the news. Then he made this statement on the same issue.
This town is starting to look like a garbage heap. And we got too damn many urban thugs, yo, ruining the quality of life for everybody. And I'll tell you what it's gonna take. You people, you are - you need to have a gun. You need to have training. You need to know how to use that gun. You need to get a permit to carry that gun. And you do in fact need to carry that gun and we need to see some dead thugs littering the landscape in Atlanta. We need to see the next guy that tries to carjack you shot dead right where he stands. We need more dead thugs in this city. And let their -- let their mommas -- let their mommas say, "He was a good boy. He just fell in with the good crowd." And then lock her ass up.
Here's the big question that Ed Schultz has done a great job asking. Hell, everybody should be asking this question. What does an "urban thug" look like? What are physical attributes of these "urban thugs?" I'll get a little bit "gangsta" and call them "urban thugz." Who are these people? Neal Boortz did not explain to anybody who these people are or what they looked like. What he did do was tell the people of Atlanta that they need to get a gun, learn how to use it, get a permit to carry it, and go kill these "urban thugs." This man told his listeners that, in his own words, "We need to see some dead thugs littering the landscape in Atlanta." I'm curious as to find out who these thugs are. I took the liberty of checking out the racial demographics of the city of Atlanta and 54% of the population is African American. I guess we know who the "urban thugs" are now. The part that really gets me is the last sentence. "And then lock her ass up." This guy is suggesting that the police in Atlanta arrest the grieving mother of one of the "urban thugs" who were killed. For what logical reason could that possibly be considered as an acceptable action? Because her pinhead son or daughter went out and decided to be a gangster, she should be arrested? It's completely stupid. Perhaps that isn't what he meant. I would love to be proven wrong. However, I believe the democrats should use this and hang it over the heads of every republican in Congress. Democrats should be condemning his comments and asking republicans not to go onto any show that he has anything to do with. They won't.
Neal Boortz has been on Fox "News" before. Democrats should be condemning Fox for ever having him on and requesting that they never do it again. They should also be asking their republican counterparts to not go onto Fox as well. I mean this is what they do, right? When the Anthony Weiner "scandal" broke, they were and still are calling for democrats to return the money that Anthony Weiner gave them. Democrats should be calling on anybody who associates with him to either condemn his words, or admit that they agree with them. This is what the right-wing does and it works. It appears that the democrats are too damned stupid to try this tactic out and they have been given many chances to try it out. They can start with governor Nathan Deal (R-GA.) He received an endorsement from Boortz. He should come out today and state firmly that Neal Boortz was wrong. If he doesn't, we should assume he agrees with him. This is the game the right-wing wants to play. We should play along with them. We have far more examples of racism and hate speech from the right than they have from our side. It's time we hold their feet to the flames. However, I know it won't happen. It seems to me that a lot of democrats in the media and in Congress are afraid of being called "race-baiters" and stuff of the sort. So, they excuse comments like the ones Neal Boortz made.
When Sarah Palin put cross-hairs over Gabrielle Giffords' district and repeatedly told her mindless sheep "Don't Retreat. Reload," any criticism of that was condemned by the right. Then, Gabrielle Giffords actually got shot and any reference to the targetboard on Palin's website that happened to stay up at least an hour after the shooting was considered as slander and maybe even an attempt to call for violence against Sarah Palin. So, because the democrats didn't want to be demonized, they backed off. Guess what? They still got demonized. Just like with Anthony Weiner. You toss him under the bus and hope that the story will go away. It didn't. He resigned and they figured that was the end of it. It wasn't. It's time to use this issue with Boortz against them. The democrats had many opportunities to expose the right-wing and their hypocrisy and they just turn away. I don't know why the hell i'm even writing about this. Neal Boortz won't apologize or even explain what an "urban thug" looks like. The democrats won't do what I suggested they do. This will blow over and we'll move along. Then, another liberal will make a comment about the right-wing and they'll call it race-baiting and the liberal will stand down. Business as usual, eh? Conservatives saying racist and hateful things and getting away with it. Liberals calling it out, getting trashed, and walking away from it. You have the Boortz issue now. For the love of everything that is good in this life we live, USE IT!!!!