Grayson NAILS IT! No Dems Allowed = No Blacks Allowed

(6 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

     There is a fine art to making a powerful point without making that point. Usually, the way to do this is by saying something and then immediately follow by saying “That is not why I’m saying”.

   With that in mind, I give you Congressmen Alan Grayson (Kick Ass-FL), who, in an interview with Anderson Cooper last night, made the point ( without making it ) that to turn away Obama voters from your doctors office is pretty much the same thing as hanging a sign that says “No Blacks Allowed”

GRAYSON:     Well, in fact, where he lives, in Mount Dora, which is in my district, many, many of the Democrats who live in Mount Dora happen to be African-Americans.

    So, by saying that he will not treat somebody who supported Obama, he’s saying that he’s not going to treat a large number of African-Americans in the community

crooksandliars.com

Bold text added by the diarist

    A short transcript and more below the fold

    Congressman Alan Grayson has filed a formal complaint with the Florida Department of Health and the Florida Medical board after a voter in his district sent him a picture of this — Pissed-off Florida urologist to Obama supporters: Go somewhere else.

crooksandliars.com

    Of course, the Urologist in question has certainly committed a violation of his professions ethics, but what really startles me is how Anderson Cooper is happy to play the “fair and balanced” canard to defend the indefensible, that of open discrimination against anybody.

    A short transcript from the interview, the whole of which can be read here at crooksandliars.com

   REP. ALAN GRAYSON: He’s a very confused individual. That much is obvious.

   But what he’s doing clearly is a violation of the ethics rules that you cited earlier, the Hippocratic oath, the rules of the AMA. And it’s at the expense of his patients and care. What he’s doing is no different from saying, “I will not treat a black person. I will not treat a Catholic.”

   I thought that we, as a country, has moved beyond that.

   COOPER: But wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

   I mean, I’m not taking a side. I’m not taking anybody’s side in this, but, just for accuracy’s sake, he has said nothing about race. And race is a protected category. I mean, there are — it is illegal to discriminate someone based on race. It is not illegal to say you don’t want to treat somebody because you don’t like their politics. Politics is not a protected class.

   GRAYSON: Well, in fact, where he lives, in Mount Dora, which is in my district, many, many of the Democrats who live in Mount Dora happen to be African-Americans.

   So, by saying that he will not treat somebody who supported Obama, he’s saying that he’s not going to treat a large number of African-Americans in the community.

   COOPER: Wait. So, you’re saying race is at the core of this? Come on. There is no evidence of that at all.

   GRAYSON: No, I’m saying — I’m saying that it shows very poor judgment. And the effect of this — the effect of this is to set us back as a country. That’s why I’m disgusted by it.

   COOPER: But, again, he’s not doing anything illegal.

   GRAYSON: Well, that remains to be seen. You know, he’s licensed. There are licensing authorities who are going to look into what he’s doing. And I hope that they will take action, because, frankly, I think a lot of people are disturbed just to go into his office. He’s turned his inner office, his reception area, into some shrine of right-wing nuttery.

    Anderson Cooper went on to say that Grayson’s words could be construed to be an act of partisanship. It is to laugh. As if discriminating against people based on their political affiliation wasn’t partisanship taken to the uttermost and discriminatory extreme!

    Mind you, this is also coming from CNN, the network that just hired RedState’s “Census workers should get off my porch or I’ll get my wife’s shotgun” resident idiot Erick Erickson, the network that cuts off Democrats who refute right wing lies while playing Devil’s advocate whenever a right winger isn’t there to defend their own b.s., and the network that just began promoting Tea Parties ala Fox News without informing their viewers who is really promoting and funding these astroturfed protests. There is more to complain about CNN becoming the New Right Wing Coke version of Fox News’s Classic Right Wing Coca Cola, but the fact that Alan Grayson cleverly brings up without bringing it up remains, which is that the overwhelming majority of Obama voters in Grayson’s district are African American, and thus, this doctor’s discrimination of Obama voters is also a de facto discrimination of African Americans. Not only is such discrimination unethical, it is most certainly illegal in some form or other.

   Of course, one could only imagine the right wing freak out if Democrats had posted “No McCain voters allowed” signs at Keith Olbermann’s recent free clinics, for instance.

   “Fair and Balanced” indeed. Because when only the truth is available, the only way to balance it is by presenting an outright lie, or it’s non-reality based equivalent.

   So, kudos to Alan Grayson for saying, or, not saying (heh) what the truth of the matter is, which is that an act of discrimination against Obama voters is also an act of discrimination against the African American community and other minorities that overwhelmingly support him.

   If you would like to show your support for Alan Grayson’s unabashed truth telling, please make a donation to him at our ActBlue page, and if you would like to make a matching donation to PeanutButterPAC on the same page it would be very appreciated, as those funds will be used to support Congressmen with Guts like Alan Grayson and other candidates who are challenging Republicans in this upcoming election cycle who may be the next group of Alan Grayson’s in the next Congress.

Peace

You can follow me on Twitter @JesseLaGreca

    Crossposted at ProgressiveElectorate.com and Daily Kos