The News

Soup Lines Growing Longer in California; Arab and Muslim Hate Still Pervasive in US and Canada

Soup Lines Growing Longer, Becoming More Common
Ngoc Nguyen reports from California on the growing occurrence of soup lines and free kitchens, and how people are being driven to them. “While people look to the Dow Jones fluctuations as economic indicators,” says St. Anthony Foundation spokesperson Francis Aviani, “we’re seeing it in people’s faces.” New America Media.

A Conservative Attack on McCain Prejudice
Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman talks with Evangelical figure and Republican activist Frank Schaeffer who claimed McCain is “deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate” and that he understands the “depths of hatred that [surround] the issue of race in this country.” AlterNet.

Arab and Muslim Hate Still Pervasive in US and Canada
Recent incidents involving claims that Barack Obama is a Muslim and derogatory comments by Benoît Dutrizac on a Canadian radio program highlight what Bahija Réghaï calls the “last bastion of acceptable prejudice.” According to Réghaï, these and many more recent examples (see the story about attack on Ohio Mosques) are not isolated incidents, but are “part of a pattern of representation and public discourse about Arabs and Muslims in North America…as blood-thirsty terrorists, irrational, dishonest, anti-Western, anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli, ignorant and rabid.” Countercurrents.

Lou Dobbs Airs More Bogus Stats About Immigrant Home Loan Defaults
San Diego radio host Roger Hedgecock was quoted recently on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight show claiming that we have “a situation where today HUD [Department of Housing and Urban Development] was talking about 5 million illegal alien home mortgage loans that have gone bad.” In fact, HUD released a report saying that “agency has no data showing the number of illegal immigrants holding foreclosed or bad mortgages.” Media Matters.

Posted at 8:45 AM, Oct 14, 2008 in News | Permalink | View Comments