Obama Campaigner Attacked

[Bruce]

A neighborhood canvasser working for the Barack Obama campaign was allegedly attacked by a homeowner in Caledonia, Wisconsin. Caledonia is located south of Milwaukee.

Nancy Takehara, 58, of Chicago, was canvassing the neighborhood. She told police the man came out of his house, grabbed her by the neck, and pulled her hair. Takehara was not seriously injured.

Police are investigating and will make a recommendation to the Racine County district attorney whether to make charges.

WISN TV (ABC) VIDEO http://www.wisn.com/video/17761551/index.html

[Mosiah]

It's only going to get worse.

But HL says racism nuh exist nuh more.

[Bruce]

Hate Mail For Conservative African American Talk Show Host

James T. Harris, a part-time conservative talk show host on Milwaukee radio station WTMJ-AM, who is African American, appeared at a John McCain rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, a heavily Republican suburb of Milwaukee, and asked McCain to take on Barack Obama more directly.

Since then, Harris reports getting large amounts of hate mail.

The following story is by Tim Cuprisin, radio/TV columnist for the Milwaukee JOURNAL SENTINEL, which was posted October 15.
No national conversation for Mr. Harris

By Tim Cuprisin

Wednesday, Oct 15 2008, 02:51 PM


Part-time WTMJ-AM (620) talker James T. Harris pulled out of a live CNN interview this afternoon, accusing one of the other participants of personal attacks during a segment on African-American conservatives and the presidential race.

Harris has gotten a bit of national pub since calling on John McCain in a rally last week in Waukesha to take on Barack Obama more directly.
Here's the transcript of the CNN segment:

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, call it black on black backlash. Say that six times. An African-American radio show host who supports John McCain for president and isn't afraid to show it is getting bombarded with hate mail from black listeners.
Shelley Walcott from our affiliate WTMJ in Milwaukee reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES T. HARRIS, RADIO SHOW HOST, WTMJ: Hey, Sambo, maybe Massa McCain will let you shine his shoes since you did such a good job licking his boots, boy.

SHELLEY WALCOTT, WTMJ REPORTER: The hate mail started pouring in almost immediately after WTMJ radio show host, James T. Harris, addressed Senator John McCain at this Republican rally in Waukesha.

HARRIS: I believe that in the next coming debate it is absolutely vital that you take it to Obama, that you hit him where it hurts. I am begging you sir, I'm begging you, take it to him.

WALCOTT: The national media pounced.

HARRIS: I knew something was up when the "New York Times" and the "Washington Post" started asking me questions, and then CNN and then Fox. I'm like, oh, lord.

WALCOTT: The clip made heavy rotation on national talk shows, and
Harris says he has heard African-Americans across the country calling him an Uncle Tom, a sell out.

HARRIS: Most of the stuff that I got in -- in the e-mail I got -- how can a black man stand up, and say, well you know what? I happen to be an American of African decent, but I am a conservative.

WALCOTT: And he says he has no regrets.

HARRIS: I realize that I am speaking for millions of people, it just so happens in this racially-emotionally charged election that the people who look like me happen to be on the other side of the aisle.
(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk to James T. Harris about this. He joins us live from Milwaukee. We've also got Shelley Wynter with us here in Atlanta.
Great to have you both.

James, I want to start with you. It's been almost a week now, are you still getting hammered by the black community and getting all this hate mail?

HARRIS: Absolutely. How are you doing, Kyra?
I -- listen, this has been six days and I've lost like about 12 pounds, I feel great. This is like -- I'm going to kill you, Sambo diet.

PHILLIPS: But on a serious note, you've been getting some pretty vile e-mails and it's even stuff that has made your daughter cry.

HARRIS: Yes -- actually hundreds of e-mails a day. At first it was hot and heavy, but the good news is that the cavalry has arrived ever since the -- my appearance with CNN before, and that -- we won't talk about that. But people have been coming to my defense so now it is kind of like even with the hate mail, maybe a little bit more positive mail than hate mail.
So it is -- it's just sort of a crazy period of time, but obviously I struck a chord.

PHILLIPS: Well, Shelley, do you think it is unfair the way that James has been treated? And the fact that he has been getting such -- I mean, it is pretty cruel some of the e-mails. I have seen them.

SHELLEY WYNTER, TALK RADIO HOST, USTALKNETWORK.COM: Let me say this, Kyra, I am an African-American conservative as well. I just happen to support Barack Obama. I repudiate anybody that would call James out of his name because of his political views.

Where I think James has sold out -- I think James has sold out on his principles as a conservative. Actually, you know, James calls himself a conservative, but he supports the least conservative candidate that the Republican Party can put up for the presidency. That is first thing.
The second thing, he is supporting a candidate in John McCain who has voted for the least Republican and conservative administration that has ever walked the face of the earth, which is the Bush administration. We have had grown -- increase in spending, which is non-conservative, we've had an increase in government --

HARRIS: Stop, stop, stop.

WYNTER: -- which is non-conservative.
Can I finish talking, sir?

HARRIS: No you can't --

WYNTER: So we've had non -- we've had non --
HARRIS: Stop --

WYNTER: -- non-conservative administration, and here is a guy that has sold out his conservatism, not his race. I have no parts with that, because the fact of the matter is if your -- the same people that are calling him Uncle Tom and all of these names, are the same black people who say they don't vote for Barack Obama because he is black. So that is neither here nor there. But the fact is, this guy has sold out his conservatism.

PHILLIPS: I've got to give James a chance.
James, he's saying you sold out your conservatism. Please, lay it out, how you believe you have not done that. James, go ahead.

HARRIS: I am sick to death of the word sellout. And the guest just on used it about seven or eight times.
Listen, let me make this perfectly clear. I am not saying that Senator John McCain is a conservative. I am a conservative. Senator John McCain happens to be my candidate. And I have a better chance of pulling him over to my position, as a moderate Republican, than I do a liberal socialist. It's as simple as that. I would really appreciate it if people would just back up off of the name calling, because it gets nowhere in the dialogue.

WYNTER: What name calling?
OK. Let me say this --

PHILLIPS: Shelley, hold on -- Shelley --

WYNTER: Right now.

PHILLIPS: Shelley, Shelley, hold on --

WYNTER: OK, I'm sorry, Kyra. Go ahead.

PHILLIPS: Listen -- that is OK, just let James --

HARRIS: Kyra, Kyra --

PHILLIPS: Go ahead and make your point, James.

HARRIS: Listen, here is what I am telling you -- I am tired of coming on this station and getting this type of treatment. I told you before I came on, I am all for back and forth, I'm all for dialogue, but I'm not for name calling. You have never -- outside of calling someone a liberal , a socialist, what they are -- I don't call people who vote for Barack Obama names. That is their choice.
I am making my choice, as a free American, and I am sick to death of liberals coming on, bashing me because of my choice as a man.

WYNTER: First of all, sir --

HARRIS: -- I am a man that can make a choice and I am sick of tired and people bleeding all over my because of their insecurities. You are insecure, man. Don't tell me what I am.

WYNTER: First of all, sir --

HARRIS: No, well nothing -- I'm done.

WYNTER: Oh wow, he's leaving.

HARRIS: I'm done.

WYNTER: Well Kyra, let me say this --

HARRIS: (OFF-MIKE)

WYNTER: Well, let me say this. The fact of the matter is that the insult is leveled at me when you call me a liberal first of all. But second of all, let me say this to Mr. Harris, the fact of the matter is he is supporting the worst leader. That's -- we're looking for a leader now, the American people are looking for a leader. They're looking for a leader. We're looking for FDR, we're looking for Abraham Lincoln, we're looking for a Ronald Reagan, we're looking for John F. Kennedy. We don't care about party right now. This ship is not right.
And right now the only person that seems able to correct this ship is a leader like Barack Obama. Right now, government has failed us, Republicans and Democrats have failed us. So right now, I don't care what party affiliation you have, I don't care whether you're a liberal, a Democrat, a Republican, a conservative, right now I'm looking for a leader. And the campaign that John McCain has run to date has not been leadership quality.
So that is all I was trying to say to James Harris. If he wants to run away, he can.

PHILLIPS: Yes, I wish he would come back because I really wanted to talk about two things, and I wanted him to be able to respond and for us to have a smart, mature conversation about that issue of conservatism.
And now I do want to ask you a question about race, and I wish I could get James to weigh in on this, and I don't know if our folks there in Milwaukee can bring him back. I told him I wanted to talk about this issue as well as talk about it with you. Gerry McEntee, the union leader, older white male, came forward, gave this powerful speech to white union families, matter of fact we had to add in a number of bleeps.
I want you to listen to this speech he made to voters who were coming to him saying, we can't vote for a black man. So he came forward and said, this is crazy, let me tell you why. Lets' take a listen.

WYNTER: Sure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERALD MCENTEE, PRESIDENT, AFSCME: This doesn't even come out in code, it comes out like this -- I can't vote for him because he is a black man. He is not one of us. Well, sisters and brothers, when you hear that, you know what you ought to say? This is what I say, that is (EXPLETIVE DELETED). That is total, absolute (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: What do you make of that, Shelley?

WYNTER: Well, the fact of the matter is if we look historically, those union workers have not really historically ever voted for a Democratic candidate. So to now say that it is because he is black -- those union voters voted in 1980 voted for Ronald Reagan. So it wasn't because -- obviously it wasn't because Jimmy Carter was black. So I hesitate -- and one of the things that I have a problem with during this election -- I hesitate to point to race as the end all, be all for reasons why certain people won't vote for a certain candidate, particularly if historically union voters, the blue-collar voters, particularly white males, have not turned to the Democratic candidate historically.

We look at Ohio, we look at Pennsylvania, John Kerry didn't get a lot of these voters. Al Gore didn't get a lot of these voters. So, to say now that these voters are not supporting Barack Obama and this guy
-- I am not saying that Mr.McEntee is lying, I'm just that historically, the Democratic candidate did not get these voters. So I am a little less quick to say that it is because he is black.

PHILLIPS: Shelley Wynter, I appreciate your time. I wish James Harris would have stayed with us.

WYNTER: Well you know --

PHILLIPS: Might be able to --

WYNTER: Those insecure men with two earrings, they'll always run --

PHILLIPS: Oh, Shelley, Shelley, Shelley, shame on you.


Filed under: Presidential race, WTMJ-AM
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[Mosiah]

Conservative blacks are the worst kind. Yes, I said it!

[Hortical]

I concur with that statement. Moderate black republicans are OK, but the right wing conservatives behave like lap dogs.

[Islandman]

There are a number of fair minded conservative blacks. Colin Steele, JC Watts come to mind.

The media just gives spotlight hogs like this guy more attention than they deserve.

[Lazie]

I didn't like the fact that people attacked the man for what he said. They all claim this is the land of the free, suh why should he be attacked for his views.

Taking a step back though, he worded his question incorrectly. At the time many of the McCain\Palin supporters were making all kinds of comments about Barrack, encouraged by the words of McCain and Palin, and for him to ask that question ... at that time was simply stupid.

[Gamma]

sorry, but i don't think it wouldn't pass the fighting words test.

[HL]

...all i can do iz...