There is a political climate in America which profits greatly from organized, institutionalized racially based, race baiting campaigns running unchallenged and unchecked.
It actually gets worse than this however:
Until such a time that the right rises up and challenges this completely false "platform" we will continue to lose. This movement is growing in power at every level of our political system, and has been evident since the 2007-8 presidential campaign season. The latest and maybe worst example of it is the runoff election between incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) and conservative state Sen. Chris McDaniel. In The UK Mail Online it was "claimed that supporters of conservative McDaniel had connections to the Ku Klux Klan and that McDaniel had a 'racist agenda.'They also warned that black Democrats 'could lose food stamps, housing assistance, student loans, early breakfast and lunch programs and disaster assistance' if he were to become the Republican U.S. Senate nominee."
A series of three racially charged radio ads that ran in rural Mississippi on Election Day played a role in driving black Democrats to vote in a Republican primary run-off election. MailOnline has exclusively obtained audio of the ads.
They were broadcast 48 times in a 12-hour period Tuesday on WMGO-AM radio in the town of Canton, and urged black Mississippians to cross party lines and support GOP Sen. Thad Cochran in his smash-mouth contest against tea party insurgent Chris McDaniel.
Each carried a required acknowledgement stating that it was 'paid for by Citizens for Progress.' Clerks at the office of Mississippi's secretary of state told MailOnline that no such group is registered there as a political committee.
The Federal Election Commission also lacks any registration from a group with that name.
Politics in America's Deep South is historically a full-contact sport replete with its own tradition of dirty tricks, but the radio ads indicate a level of race-baiting that is rarely seen in twenty-first century U.S. politics.
They claimed that supporters of conservative McDaniel had connections to the Ku Klux Klan and that McDaniel had a 'racist agenda.' They also warned that black Democrats 'could lose food stamps, housing assistance, student loans, early breakfast and lunch programs and disaster assistance' if he were to become the Republican U.S. Senate nominee.
'Vote against the tea party. Vote Thad Cochran,' one ad said. 'If the tea party, with their racist ideas, win, we will be sent back to the '50s and '60s.'
MailOnline has learned that 'Citizens for Progress' is tied to a longtime Democratic political operative who was paid $44,000 to run racially explosive 'robocalls' in the same race.
A political action committee founded by former Republican National Committee chair and former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour made those payments.
The calls were placed in predominantly black and Democratic regions of the state during the final days before Tuesday's runoff, according to a political operative in Mississippi.
Mitzi Bickers, an Atlanta pastor and former president of the Atlanta school board, used the same nonexistent group name – 'Citizens for Progress' – in a 2013 campaign for a local sales tax proposal.
After it was reported that Bickers filed a fraudulent financial disclosure report related to the campaign, she resigned her post as a senior adviser to Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed.
The political 'super PAC' that paid her to run the robocalls is called Mississippi Conservatives, according to National Review.
Haley Barbour, the former governor, founded the PAC, which is now run by Henry Barbour, his nephew.
Read more here
Audio of these ads:
Mitzi Bickers is certainly no stranger to controversy and race baiting political campaigns. She has an established record here in Atlanta, GA for conflict of interest violations and fraud as reported by National Review.
Meet what appears to be one of the keys to Thad Cochran’s black-turnout operation, Mitzi Bickers.
She is, from all appearances, something of a renaissance woman: She is not only the pastor of Atlanta’s Emmanuel Baptist Church but also a former president of the Atlanta school board, a former construction-company executive, and a Democratic staffer and political strategist with a checkered past. Last year, she left her job as a senior adviser to Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed after news surfaced that she had filed a fraudulent financial-disclosure statement.
In a bizarre turn of events, it seems that Bickers was in the middle of a bitterly contested Republican Senate primary. Two Atlanta-based entities affiliated with Bickers, The Bickers Group and the Pirouette Company, were paid thousands of dollars to make robo-calls on Senator Cochran’s behalf by a super PAC that backed Cochran in his bid for reelection. Documents filed with the Federal Election Commission show that Mississippi Conservatives, the political-action committee run by former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour’s nephew Henry, paid the groups a total of $44,000 for get-out-the-vote “phone services.”
... Though not a Mississippi native, Bickers is no stranger to get-out-the-vote efforts. She has worked in Atlanta politics for years and, as a campaign operative for Kasim Reed, who came from behind to win the city’s mayoralty in 2009, Bickers, who is African American and openly gay, worked to get black voters to the polls. Reed won by just over 700 votes and, in the wake of his victory, the former executive director of the Georgia Democratic party called Bickers “the most well-known and well-respected” political operative in the state when it comes to turning out the vote.
Though the content of the robo-calls Bickers placed on Cochran’s behalf is unknown — Henry Barbour says he never heard the final calls, and that her efforts were “far more” about making live calls than robo-calls — it makes sense that the Barbour clan would reach out to her in an election that required Cochran and his allies to execute a near-perfect voter-turnout strategy, particularly among Democrats and African Americans. Henry Barbour says Bickers was referred to him by a local Mississippi mayor. Like Henry’s uncle Haley, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and the force that loomed over Cochran’s reelection effort, Bickers is a hardened, southern politician who has learned how to win political grudge matches in a city and a state with a reputation for corruption and double dealing.
The Cochran supporters’ arrangement with Bickers is especially notable, given the role of racial politicking generally and of one sketchy robo-call in particular that raised the ire of tea-party voters as the race drew to a close. Near the end of the runoff campaign, a recording came to light — it was first reported by investigative reporter Charles Johnson – of a racially tinged call that urged voters to combat the Tea Party by casting a ballot for Cochran. It accused the Tea Party of “disrespectful treatment of the country’s first African-American president.” The Cochran campaign has denied any connection to the call, and Barbour says the call was not from the Mississippi Conservatives PAC or from Bickers. He believes, he says, that Bickers placed two automated calls to African-American households.
As Atlanta's WSB-TV reported in 2013
ATLANTA — A top aide to Atlanta’s Mayor Kasim Reed changed her financial disclosure statement after Channel 2 Action News raised questions about its accuracy.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Richard Belcher uncovered evidence that Mitzi Bickers was deeply involved in several political campaigns last year. Until Belcher started digging, Bickers had disclosed nothing about that work.
Bickers is a former Atlanta school board member and a well-known figure in local politics. A disclosure form for her position is required and states it is submitted under penalty of perjury. In other words, failing to tell the truth could result in criminal prosecution.
Bickers failed to mention her affiliation with a company that did half-a-million dollars in campaign work.
Bickers worked on Mayor Reed’s campaign in 2009 before taking a job as his director of human services. Last year, she took unpaid leave from her city job to work for Pirouette Companies.
So desperate is the GOP to hold on to power and punish the Tea Party, that they actually hired this proven fraud (Bickers) to perpetuate lies about McDaniel. This is taking race baiting and building a false climate and perception of racism where none exists to a whole NEW level. Until now, there have been no serious challenges have ever been brought against such tactics, and very little nation-wide coverage of this level of corruption, false allegations and outright lies. While such dirty politics have mostly been limited to Democrats accusations and campaigns to slander without recourse or accountability their political opponents, it has now moved over into the dirty arena of GOP against Tea Party and other conservatives. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has lead the way with this effort to crush any opponent, but this is definitely a new low
Chris McDaniel vows to fight on and challenge this latest horrible new level as reported by Breitbart
HATTIESBURG, Mississippi — Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) survived the most intense challenge he’s ever faced in his 41-year political career, winning a runoff against conservative state Sen. Chris McDaniel.
The Associated Press called the race for Cochran, who is up 6,880 votes with 99.9 percent of precincts reporting.
A source close to McDaniel told Breitbart News that he is considering legal challenges over ballots. Democrats who voted for Cochran on Tuesday but voted three weeks ago in the Democratic primary in the state were not allowed to vote in Tuesday’s election.
Election results indicate Cochran's late appeal to Democratic voters paid off, with the incumbent senator picking up sizable vote totals in precincts with heavily black populations. Partisanship in Mississippi is largely polarized on racial lines, and Cochran allies paid key Democratic operatives to help turn out the vote.
... The campaign has been one of the nastiest in recent memory, after a blogger—Clayton Kelly—was arrested back in May for entering the nursing home and photographing Cochran’s wife Rose. Cochran’s team—which sat on evidence for three weeks before approaching police about the incident—seized on the issue, providing Cochran a moment of sympathy heading into the primary. three other conservative activists—including one key Tea Party leader—have also been charged in connection with Kelly’s alleged activities.
During the campaign, Cochran's relationship with his longtime executive assistant came under scrutiny. Cochran lives in the basement apartment of a house she owns and lives in, and she accompanied him on dozens of taxpayer-funded trips overseas. DC authorities are investigating whether Webber filed required paperwork to rent the apartment commercially to Cochran, and Cleta Mitchell, a high-profile conservative lawyer representing the Tea Party Patriots, has alleged that the duo ran afoul of campaign finance rules when Cochran's campaign paid Webber to use the house as a venue for fundraisers.
Attorney Mark Mayfield "vice chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party, was one of three men charged with conspiring with Clayton Kelly to photograph U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran's bedridden wife in her nursing home to use in a political video against Cochran in the Republican Senate primary against state Sen. Chris McDaniel." as reported by the Clarion Ledger was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound Friday at his Ridgeland home.
Ridgeland police said they received a 911 call at 9:03 a.m. from a woman who said her husband had just shot himself.
Officers responded to the home on Cherry Laurel Lane in the Bridgewater subdivision at 9:07 a.m. and were directed by Mayfield's wife to a storage room in the garage.
Officers found Mayfield lying on the floor with a single gunshot wound to his head, according to a Ridgeland Police Department statement. Police found a "large caliber revolver" near the body. "The death is classified as a death investigation-pending, due to an awaiting autopsy to be performed at an undetermined time."
Ridgeland Police Lt. John Neal said an initial investigation at the scene did not reveal any indication of foul play. The only other person at the residence at the time of the gunshot was Mayfield's wife.
"Today my husband, Mark Mayfield, took his own life. Mark was my husband for 31 years and a wonderful dad to our two sons, William and Owen," Robin Mayfield said Friday afternoon.
"Mark had absolutely no history of any mental illness or depression. He was actively involved in his community and church and was liked and loved by all who knew him. He had no harsh words for anyone, even the people who used him for political gain. The pain we are feeling is indescribable. We appreciate the prayers and support from everyone."
And so we lose more ground every day, in a climate where anything goes in the race to keep the status quo in the hands of the political "elite" in either major party. The scummiest tactics of all are now running unchecked in BOTH parties as we spin closer to a socialist oligarchy with each election cycle.
Or have I been eating paint chips again?
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