Lowe's Home Improvement has succumbed to the pressures of right wing fringe groups and cancelled advertising on the TLC show "All American Muslim." The Florida Family Association (which obviously does not think much of Muslim families in their state) pressured the retail giant into pulling its ads and not re-instating them.
If you are not familiar with the show, here is a trailer.
The group said that the program was "propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values."
In other words, Lowe's fell victim to the same type of stereotyping and hate mongering that the show is trying to dispel. California Senator Ted Lieu stated,
"We want to raise awareness so that consumers will know during this holiday shopping season that Lowe's is engaging in religious discrimination."
"Lowe's is engaging in religious discrimination." Think about this when you need a piece of plywood or a new light fixture for your front porch.
And I say that the Florida Family Association is engaging in spreading the type of hatred and intolerance that gets people killed.
Lowe's is already on thin ice with progressives because of their lack of LGBT awareness. The Human Rights Campaign gives them a rating of 15 (on a scale of 0 to 100) compared to The Home Depot, which has an rating of 80. The rating is a measure of the level of support for LGBT persons in a company's policies.
I'll drive a little further to shop at Home Depot now, unless of course the toilet springs a leak and the bathroom is flooding and time is of the essence.
Here are some Home Depot employees from Sacramento at an event in Stockton, CA having some fun. Michael Jackson?
Be sure to vote in the poll to the left, it will only be open for a couple of days.
Is it desperation? Are their true colors being revealed? Are people really this hateful? It's about to drive me batty, but I guess that's OK, with Halloween just around the corner. It's just more of the divisive Republican politics. Par for the course.
I write about this to some extent in tomorrow's Western Tribune column, here's a tease..."This is the most deceitful presidential candidate I have ever seen..."
But since writing that column, more has risen to the surface. More what? You decide, but it's sure not the cream that's surfacing.
Let's start with an elected official, Michele Bachmann, Republican Representative from Minnesota. I am posting a video of her interview on Hardball with Chris Matthews. But before you watch, realize that a lot of what she says about Bill Ayers and Barack Obama are just the same old talking points that have been shown to be wrong.
She says liberals are anti-American, and is calling for "penetrating expose" of congress to determine which elected officials are "anti-American." She goes on and on, and on and on...and on and on. McCarthyism is alive and well.
Since this aired on Hardball, her opponent , El Tinklenberg has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations as a result. Let's hope he unseats her.
Sarah Palin was in North Carolina the other day:
We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe" -- here the audience interrupted Palin with applause and cheers -- "We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.
The "best" of America is in small towns, real America, pro-America, patriotic. The rest of us are, I guess, false America, anti-America, unpatriotic.
Cardiff, home of Knights of the Nordic Order, a Neo nazi Group.
Auburn (the Loveliest Village on the Plains) and Tuscaloosa, home of League of the South chapters, Neo-Confederate Groups.
Grove Hill, home of Master Klans of America, a KKK group.
Killen, home of National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a KKK group.
I could go on, there are 24 hate groups in our state, many of which are in small towns.
Sarah Palin was in North Carolina, where 28 hate groups are located. For instance, in High Shoals the Carolina Skinhead Alliance, a racist skinhead group, is headquartered. From the link above, you can find the hate groups in every state.
Are these the "patriotic, pro-Americans" in small towns of which she speaks so highly?
Democrats believe that there are patriotic Americans in all parts of the United States, urban areas as well as small towns, just as there a few bad apples, really bad apples, scattered here and there. And Barack Obama wants to bring people together, not divide them with false labels of "pro-" or "anti-American", "patriotic" or "unpatriotic".
And I keep getting emails about Obama being Muslim, or wanting to replace the National Anthem with the Coca Cola Theme song or some such nonsense. Are people really this stupid to believe this crap?
First of all, this country was founded on religious freedom, so what if Barack was a Muslim?Big deal. Second, if someone with a few Muslim roots and a Muslim sounding name is not to be believed when he says he is a Christian, then every bit of the evangelism and missionary work of Christians in foreign countries is worthless. Well there's "a whole nother" topic, best left for another day.
And please, verify the outlandish claims before sending them my way.
