Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

It is dangerous and destructive to stereotype and discriminate against people for such things. I for one can speak out that many of my fellow Muslims are guilty of the most egregious Anti-Semitism and this is truly a sad unforgivable state of affairs.

It's poor quality, but it still works.

This is actually pretty shocking. And yet, not.

I could tell you stories...

This is one of the more common of the logical fallacies the right-wing often uses... two wrongs make a right, also known as:

Tu quoque: Tu quoque (pronounced /tuːˈkwoʊkwiː/, from Latin for "You, too" or "You, also") is a Latin term that describes a kind of logical fallacy. A tu quoque argument attempts to discredit the opponent's position by asserting his failure to act consistently in accordance with that position; it attempts to show that a criticism or objection applies equally to the person making it. It is considered an ad hominem argument, since it focuses on the party itself, rather than its positions

The right will go back 50yrs if need be to make such an "equivalent."

You-too version

This form of the argument is as follows:

A makes criticism P.
A is also guilty of P.
Therefore, P is dismissed.

This is an instance of the two wrongs make a right fallacy.

From Wikipedia: Tu quoque

We must always, always remeber: Republicans can never, never, ever INITIATE minority commentary in any context whatsoever. Period.

Why? Because the public in general, the media across the board and the left wing race baiters specifically, have long ago assigned conservatives, Republicans and any individual outside 'licensed' racial and cultural spokespersons as 'Guilty Parties.'

We all know this is true. So, Republicans initiating a comment containing a negative reference to Jews is, well, just plain stupid. It's ignorant. They are NOT allowed. They know that. Unless they are so dense as to be literally stupid. Same goes for Limbaugh refernce McNabb. It was stupid. Period.

Anyone else, though, it's okay.

Dear Professor
Please do not take this generalization as a slur of any kind. I grew up in Brooklyn NY in a middle class Catholic Family. I had a paper route in a local public housing project in he mid to late 60s. This project in the Sheepshead Bay section was about 40% Jewish and 40% Black. The Jews came pre and post war with nothing but their shirts on their back. They became tailors and butchers and candy store owners. They saved every penny. I recall one elderly Jewish lady who asked me to food shop for her because she was ill. She have me $8.16 cents and coupons for 3 different superkmarkets. Without the coupons her food would have been $8.77 cents. I asked her if it was worth walking to 3 stores to save a few cents. She told me that all she had was $8.16 and If I could figure a way of buying everything on her list for $8.16 then do it. Her son went to Medical School. Professor the Jewish Generation of World War 2 is perhaps one of the most amazing generations of people in Human History. From nothing they educated a very affluent and successful next generation. And they did it by pinching pennies. Something to be proud of.

@DaveMartin7777 - You are going too far on the tu quoque. By your own description, it doesn't apply here. I was quite clear that the remarks were stupid and misguided, but that I worry MORE about the remarks by the Sharptons and Jeremiah Wrights of the world. There's nothing "two wrongs make a right" about that position, they are both wrong.

Sen. Jim DeMint makes an anti-Semitic comment, but so did Al Sharpten (right-wing bogey man #1) and Jessie Jackson (right-wing bogey man #2)so it's ok because someone on the left said the same thing... even if it was years and years ago who cares, we can use it over and over again to infinity because it proves two wrongs make a right.

Therefore by canceling opposing forces and anti-matter/matter collisions Jim DeMint couldn't possibly have said anything anti-Semitic.

The "Sean Hannity" school of logic.

Certainly there's never been a reactionary commenter or religious figure on the right who's ever said anything bad about Jewish people. "God doesn't hear their prayers" is one of my favorites.

Say, those colored folks sure can dance. ("Meant as praise." That makes it OK, right?)

By the way: Republican County Chairs. You know, official representatives.

@DaveMartin7777 - DeMint didn't make any comments. Read my post and the linked article more carefully.

Yes Proffesor, my bad it was:

− Edwin O. Merwin Jr., Chairman, Bamberg County Republican Party, Denmark

−James S. Ulmer Jr., Chairman, Orangeburg County Republican Party, North

That's probably why you cited Sharpton AND Jackson (how many years ago?)... FOUR wrongs make a right.

Mr. Bouffant:

Well said. Doesn't this conversation suck? Why was it initated anyway?

Conservatives (and quite franfkly Libertarians) must NEVER intiate commentary about the diverse community. It's the rule in this historical timeframe.

See Professor? Stop this defense of (what?).

Like the WH cannot expect to win the Fox News war, you cannot win this battle either. It'dumb.

Yes Professor, my bad it was:

− Edwin O. Merwin Jr., Chairman, Bamberg County Republican Party, Denmark

−James S. Ulmer Jr., Chairman, Orangeburg County Republican Party, North

That's probably why you cited both Sharpton and Jackson.

Four wrongs make a right, but Democrats will be perpetually worse. Forever.

No matter how racist a Republcan there's always the right-wing trump card in the Tu quoque battle, Robert Byrd was in the KKK 60yrs ago!

That's no 'trump card.' In fact, that's nothing. The whole Democratic Party was in the bag for segregationists prior to LBJ. They were in the bag for the South prior to the end of the Civil War. Or wait, Nixon? Wait: When did the Dems finally become become firmly established in 'civil rights' movement?

Certainly inconvenient questions.

What crap.

Don't don’t stop being Jewish or Catholic or Atheist, or Black, White or Hispanic. Please, though, stop being a jerk if that fits. (If not, I’m totally apologetic to any and all who are offended. See?).

We expect the ‘other side’ to see the wisdom of our enlightened world view, but what good is that if we have absolutely no comprehension of THEIR vision. And, what good is it if our view is inherently flawed?

If you’re in the bag for a particular worldview – then God damn it! Say so right up-front. Let’s start there: Simple honesty.

2470144:

The southern states become Republican after Democratic President Lyndon Johnson convinced Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The South has never forgiven Democrats for supporting the African-American Civil Rights Movement and that's the dirty history of Republicans and racism.

That Al Sharpton speech is excellent. Thanks.

Poor defenseless republicans, it's never their fault. There is a mass media conspiracy to make them say racist things...oh I'm sorry, engage minorities, and then report on it in the most negative light possible. It's never their fault and besides....there are no racists in America, and if there are, they're definitely liberals.

A couple of Right-wing dimwits make a truly distasteful, disrespectful anti-semetic remark.

"Jewish people get angry"

Right-wing dimwits point out Al Sharpton and Jesse Hackson "did it too" as a pathetic excuse for justification and an apology.

"Jewish people get happy"

What's more anti-semetic...the idiots who make the anti-semetic comments or the idiots who believe whole-heartedly that Jews would be stupid enough to forgive the anti-semetic comments with a embedded video af Al Sharpton?

The whole Democratic Party was in the bag for segregationists prior to LBJ

You're ignoring Humphrey at the '48 convention, and the fact that the Dixiecrats stormed out of the party, running then-D, later-R Sen. Strom Thurmond on a pro-lynching ticket. The process of Democrats embracing civil rights started before '64.

But yes, Democrats are aware that our party's history has an awful lot of bad in it. Happily, party leaders starting during the Roosevelt administration and carrying on through today have pushed the party toward an ever-more-progressive stance on racial equality. This culminated in our nominating and electing an African-American president this year.

So to sum up: yes, the Democrats' history on race relations is awful. But it's been getting better, which is all we can do.

The GOP, meanwhile, began as the party that fought slavery, and was abolitionist and pro-civil rights through the 1950s; Dwight Eisenhower deserves tons of credit for his work on integration. But starting in the '60s, the party embraced states' rights issues and racist voters who were being jettisoned by the Democrats. Nixon ran his '68 and '72 campaigns by focusing on white voters, and Reagan and Bush I both won in part by appealing to white racists. Today, the party plays footsie with birthers while simultaneously vilifying Latinos.

So, to sum up, the Republicans started out with a good history on civil rights. But they decided that they'd rather win elections than keep their souls.

Given that it's 2009, not 1949, I think I'll go with the party that is not racist today, even if they used to be. You see, it is actually now, not then.

You know, while holding no brief for Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, I didn't actually realize this story was about them.

"Well, I don't worry about that much, because people who use stereotypes in a misguided attempt at praise can be educated, and have no actual malice."

Really? Some would say "that's mighty white of you". Although you seem to think such 'praise' would have no actual malice.

But the point of your post is not simply to excuse the slur, it's to smear President Obama with guilt by association. Not really worthy of a law professor, is it, Mr. Jacobson?

So, get it on. Make a proffer. Show cause. Belly up to the bar and present any actual evidence you have that Barack Obama is anti-semitic. And leave the McCarthyism to those who aren't supposed to be teaching Cornell law students about due process.

So what your really saying is, it's all OK because they are republicans.

I think you need an outsider's pov here because there is just too much of the partisan in the comments.

First of all, the back-handed compliment should be taken perhaps with a grain of salt. I think it is not so much an anti-Semitic comment as it was an observation that by saving the pennies over time you do become more wealthy. I do not necessarily think that the authors of the comment ever intended it to be taken as being anti-Semitic.

What I am saying here is that even though there is a perception of Jews as penny-pinchers, which is an anti-Semitic perception, there are many of us who do in fact have to watch the pennies. The comment needs to be taken in that wider context of keeping an eye on the budget.... in other words watch out for the small stuff because if it is not watched you can get in big dollar difficulty....been there and done that.... those small items added up............

Second, I think that the Sharpton comments in particular were extremely anti-Semitic. Calling the Jews of the Crown district both Hymies and diamond merchants, in the correct context was race baiting and very inflammatory. My interest here is that there were two murders that resulted after the first lot of rioting when the accident happened. One of the murder victims was Rosenbaum who was an hasidic Jew from Melbourne, Australia (my home town). I certainly followed that story of the riot and how the man was murdered, just because he was a Jew. Sharpton, although not the murderer certainly inflamed the situation with his comments at the funeral of the boy who died as a result of a car accident. The initial riot was due to rumor mongering, especially when the driver of the car had been badly beaten and was removed from the scene by ambulance. Those present claimed that the children were not given fair treatment, yet the boy victim was still under the car!!

Either way, that episode and the one involving Freddie's Mart or whatever it was called, certainly Sharpton behaved in a way that helped to bring about more riots.

Jackson is not much better than Sharpton but has probably done more to bring about conciliation than Sharpton will every be able to achieve.