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Thursday, July 24, 2008
On McCain’s Local Rep Joe Deters: HamCo GOP denounces racist ramblings of Deters’ friend
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Photo courtesy of here.
This week, CityBeat featured an article by Kevin Osborne blasting McCain’s local representative Joe Deters. As we reported last week, Deters refused to deny his lunch dates with Jim Schifrin, the author of The Whistleblower, a newsletter filled with racist language. He also refused to denounce the newsletter for calling Cincinnati’s first directly elected African American mayor a “gay darkie.” But now, even Alex Triantafilou, chair of the Hamilton County GOP, has taken a firm stance against the language exhibited by Schifrin and tacitly endorsed by Joe Deters.
Last week, we caught up with Triantafilou and asked for comment on The Whistleblower. He promised to respond to our concerns via email:
Shortly after our original report on Deters’ relationship with Schifrin, The Whistleblower flaunted the Deters connection more, which we wrote about in this item. If you follow the link, you will see the graphic to that story is a bumper-sticker linking the GOP with the KKK. When Triantafilou first responded to our question about whether he would repudiate the racism in the Whistleblower, and what he thought about public officials fraternizing openly with the likes of Schifrin, he instead gave commentary on The Beacon’s choice of visual aids.
“This website has a graphic that compares MY Republican Party with the KKK. The graphic shows the GOP & KKK as interchangeable,” wrote Triantafilou. “I don’t reply to people that compare my organization to the hate filled, race mongering of the Ku Klux Klan.”
We continued to correspond with Triantafilou, realizing we both shared a distaste for hate-filled race-mongering—a trait shared by both the KKK and The Whistleblower.
“The last time I saw the Whistleblower, it was calling me names (RINO, etc.) and even ridiculed me for being a co-host of the NAACP Convention by putting me in blackface and comparing me to Al Jolson...I wasn’t thrilled...and certainly not amused,” said Triantafilou. “I strongly supported the NAACP convention and regularly attended. I was not happy about being attacked… I reject racism wherever it is...and I have a life of experiences that teaches me to repudiate racism everywhere.”
When we asked to confirm specifically whether Triantafilou would repudiate the language used by Schifrin at The Whistleblower, he agreed—and in so doing he has become the second Hamilton County Republican to denounce The Whistleblower. The first was Greg Hartman, who you can see repudiating the language of Deters’ lunch companion here.
We have been sending inquiries to other area leaders, and we will continue to post updates as they become available.
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24 Jul 2008 at 08:28 pm | #
I can’t believe I missed it when originally posted but the graphic where the GOP is suggested to be synonymous with the KKK is, IMHO, a far greater slur than I’ve seen in my recent examination of the Whistleblower’s work. (I went through the last week or so before I got too bored to continue.) The only humor I find beyond the pale is the stuff that mocks woman, especially their appearance. Maybe I have an old-fashioned chivalric streak but those are the ones I don’t like. But stuff like “gay darkie” for whatever reason just seems like harsh locker room humor to me. If anyone can find something as heinous as suggesting a political party that consistently receives the support of around half the population is synonymous with a group generally considered a domestic terrorist organization, I liked to see it.
24 Jul 2008 at 08:49 pm | #
Uh, you do realize that graphic was accompanying a story where REPUBLICAN Joe Deters, a regional campaign chair for REPUBLICAN John McCain, refused to denounce the BLATANT RACISM in the Whistleblower, a REPUBLICAN oriented tip-sheet. So the theme of the day involved Republicans, and racism. Get it?
24 Jul 2008 at 08:50 pm | #
So, if any Republicans have a problem with comparing the GOP to the KKK, then maybe those same Republicans should speak out against Joe Deters and his associates.
24 Jul 2008 at 11:12 pm | #
The Dean of Cincinnati says:
24 Jul 2008 at 08:50 pm | #
So, if any Republicans have a problem with comparing the GOP to the KKK, then maybe those same Republicans should speak out against Joe Deters and his associates.
And you’re ABSOLUTELY right, Dean...but GOOD LUCK with that one.....
24 Jul 2008 at 11:23 pm | #
I think this issue might be the most important topic the Dean has raised since I started reading his blog. Thank God, someone is calling out the GOP for their association with this type of trash on the internet.
Please take this to the Cunningham programming also - he is worse than the Blower because he reached more people and is far more persuasive with his illfounded logic.
25 Jul 2008 at 03:47 am | #
Dean,
Let’s stipilate the WB is over the top with its rhetoric.
However,the WB is MILD compared to the Mallory controlled Nate Livingston blog. If you go after Nate with similar zeal, I might buy your attacks on Mr. Kane.
I’ve studied both blogs and the WB is infinately more entertaining and more responsible than Nate’s hate mongering for the Mallory klan.
The hatchet job Nate did on Yates is just a recent example of Mallory attacks via their secret attack dog.
25 Jul 2008 at 08:45 am | #
h8ball, i’m fairly certain that the dean did go after Nate Livingston just in the last month or two. it was about his attack on Yates and all the talk about people being gay and weird stuff like that.
25 Jul 2008 at 09:09 am | #
Whenever Jason discusses racism all you have to remember is that it is his belief that a black person cannot be racist against white people. At that point he has no credibility and you can go on with you life.
25 Jul 2008 at 09:18 am | #
Dean, in fact the KKK-GOP slur accompanied a story in which a Republican , Greg Hartmann, denounced the language in the Whistleblower (just like you wanted). Did I miss something and was Joe Deters named official dictatorial leader of the Republican party? He is one guy and if you hadn’t heard the Republican party received over 50 million votes in the last presidential election. In fact, of the three Republicans politians you spoke with, two denounced the language. I think the fact that Joe Deters may have some association with a site that does exhibit a somewhat hostile attitude toward African-Americans is troubling and I will be interested to see how this thing resolves itself. (But hopefully, you’ll never see me acting as willfully naive as some commenters claim to be about the probable wide-spread connections between harsh political satirists and controversy-avoiding politicians across the political spectrum---as h8ball points out above.) But finally, for many people their political party is a large part of their identity (not as large a part as one’s ethnicity--but still not a trivial part either) and for you to associate the KKK’s reputation of murderous cruelty with law-abiding political party members reveals a near total absence of the social sensitivity you call on others to live by.
25 Jul 2008 at 09:48 am | #
help44,
You are playing really loosey goosey with your terms, and you know it. I believe Black people can be prejudiced and biased. But this is not a position that I invented or one that is unique to me.
Many scholars and cultural critics contend that there is a difference between prejudice towards an ethnic group when the one exhibiting that prejudice is a member of the group in power. That group’s cultural power can bring a weight to acts of prejudice that members of the minority group cannot access.
Thus, one way to create a simple system for delineating this discrepancy is to sharpen our terms. This thinking will claim that “racism,” as a term, denotes not only prejudice towards another group, but when said prejudice comes from a member of the group in power. Accordingly, using these definitions, white people in America can be racist, while other ethnicities can be prejudiced.
I oppose both prejudice and racism, thusly defined.
Related
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/caleb/racism.html
http://www.guilford.edu/about_guilford/services_and_administration/multicultural/racism.html
http://www.newspiritucc.org/RacismTermsDefinitions.dsp
http://www.euroamerican.org/library/definitions_racism.asp
http://academic.udayton.edu/race/2008ElectionandRacism/RaceandRacism/racism02.htm
http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/prosecution/rrpbcrbook.html
25 Jul 2008 at 09:49 am | #
Close. He was named a chair of the John McCain for president campaign.
25 Jul 2008 at 12:31 pm | #
For someone claiming that they haven’t read the ‘blower’, (today sic), the ‘culture of corruption’ misleader sure knew all about the racist rhetoric !
The ‘blower’ was O.K. for the Republican Party until the ‘Beacon’ put them on tape, PERIOD !
You did not hear one party misleader, local news rag, denounce the ‘blower’ until they were called on the you-tube carpet !
They are the ‘HATE’ party, PERIOD !
The KKK association seems to fit the goose-step boots !
Once again, it’s XXX judge Tryintofoolyou !
.
25 Jul 2008 at 12:52 pm | #
trey, he is not just some random member of the GOP, he is a chair for their presidential campaign and he holds a public office in a state where many African Americans were disenfranchised by the Republican Party’s antics last presidential election. Not to mention Florida 2000.
25 Jul 2008 at 01:34 pm | #
Justin, there are serious criminal penalties for doing such a thing. I haven’t heard of any convictions. If you are charging Republicans with being the watchdogs against voter fraud, then praise the Lord they are guilty as charged.
I’m confused. Now does that mean racism is the good version of prejudice since it requires the “racist” group to at least have the know-how and wherewithal to achieve power?
25 Jul 2008 at 02:50 pm | #
trey, crimes happen all the time that go unpunished. It would take a real opposition party to prosecute these criminal acts, but the spineless Democrats don’t qualify as a real opposition party and they’re too busy trying to knock independents off of the ballot.
Many of these things were documented by the media and other organizations. It happened in Florida and it happened in Ohio. According to BBC reporter Greg Palast, he discovered caging lists and Republicans were sending certified mali to African American soldiers who were in Iraq and then using the returned my to challenge their right to vote.
We have the Conyers report ”What Went Wrong in Ohio” as well. The Republicans are not the watchdogs against voter fraud. They have simply tried to make it more difficult for poor people to vote.
25 Jul 2008 at 03:25 pm | #
Justin, it may be time for you to move on.
25 Jul 2008 at 05:36 pm | #
trey, it’s just so hard to let stolen elections go. It’s not like I was rooting for the Democrats, it’s just I’m kind of old fahioned in the sense that I think we should count all the votes. I know, you think disenfranchising black voters isn’t really a big deal and we should just “move on” and go have a laugh at the Whistleblower’s latest racist and sexist gags.
25 Jul 2008 at 05:49 pm | #
Have you gotten over kennedy/nixon yet? How about Chicago politics where the democrats perfected stealing elections?
I think trey is right move on.
25 Jul 2008 at 05:54 pm | #
No he was named a regional chair for Ohio. He is one of hundreds of people across the united states that hold that level of position. In addition he was named to the post by Mike Dewine not John McCain.
If you are looking at the organization chart for the campaign you would see
McCain
National CO-Chairs
RNC Chairs
State chairs
Regional Chairs
Deters is pretty far down the list of people in the campaign and unless I am mistaken this is an unpaid position.
I would say chances are good that john McCain cant pick Joe Deters out of a lineup.
25 Jul 2008 at 06:07 pm | #
As i said before you don’t believe that black people can be racist. Nothing loosey goosey about that. I also never claimed that you invented it or that it was unique to you- I merely pointed out that if you cant even agree to a definition of something discussing it with you is a waste of time. I think the more people understand that the less time they will waste worrying about it
25 Jul 2008 at 06:44 pm | #
I wasn’t alive during the Kennedy/Nixon election. It was over 40 years ago. I’m not a Democrat and wouldn’t have approved of any stolen election anyway. I’ve heard that Kennedy would’ve won anyway, but the point is we need to have clean elections for a change and pointing out the misdeeds of Democrats doesn’t make it OK when Republicans disenfranchise black voters. Too bad you and trey don’t see anything wrong with stolen elections.
And we get it, you don’t think McCain can pick Deter’s out of a line up, but Deter’s is representing the McCain campaign and he already caused controversy with his relationship with a race-baiter. It’s just more bad judgement from his campaign.
25 Jul 2008 at 08:12 pm | #
spirit38 In addition he was named to the post by Mike Dewine not John McCain.
Thanks, spirit38!
Justin, Dean - Suggest you ask DeWine to go on the record about the WB and Deters.
27 Jul 2008 at 05:19 pm | #
.
We think we discovered why XXX judge Trintofoolyou tried to DODGE the beacons questions ?
Seems you had his head a bobbling ?
.