From the Restore Fairness blog-

Guest Blogger: Jackie Mahendra from America's Voice.

While the mainstream media has been largely absent, Latina Lista has been busy covering the dramatic trial of the two men charged with the hate crime killing of immigrant Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah, Pa. It turns out the 2008 murder was, indeed, a hate crime. 

A federal grand jury has convicted the two Pennsylvania men, in a verdict that many argue was long overdue.

On July 14, 2008, Ramirez was beaten to death by a group of teenagers who yelled racial epithets throughout the killing.  A retired Philadelphia police officer said she heard one of the defendants yell to Mr. Ramirez’s friends, “Tell your [expletive] Mexican friends to get the [expletive] out of Shenandoah or you’ll be [expletive] laying next to him.”  Defendants were reported to have yelled, “Go back to Mexico” as they beat him to death.

Despite the evidence, an all-white jury found two of the defendants “not guilty” of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation last year, to cheers in the courtroom and the astonishment of the Latino community.  The Federal government took up the case and finally justice was served.

Yet, two years after Ramirez' gruesome murder, we continue to see egregious examples of race-baiting and immigrant bashing for political gain. This campaign season, a number of candidates are running race-baiting campaign ads that demonize immigrants. They use extreme, anti-immigrant rhetoric instead of offering real solutions to our immigration crisis.  Republican Senate candidates David Vitter (R-LA) and Sharron Angle of Nevada are both running anti-immigrant ads that paint Latinos as dangerous criminals, freeloaders, and the enemies of "real" Americans.  

The FBI reports that hate crimes against Latinos rose 32% between 2003 and 2008 (the last year for which data is available), and groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center have documented a correlation between anti-immigrant rhetoric and anti-Latino violence.

According to Lynn Tramonte, Deputy Director of America’s Voice:

Hateful campaign ads and rhetoric that demonize immigrants have no place in America today.  It’s as if some politicians think there is no cost for immigrant-bashing.  Well they are wrong.  This type of rhetoric creates a climate where violent crimes are committed against human beings simply because of the color of their skin.  Yesterday’s verdict in the Luis Ramirez murder is just, but it’s not nearly enough.  Politicians and pundits must stop using immigrants as scapegoats and instead use their microphones to spread a message of tolerance, humanity, and the need for common sense immigration reform.

In light of this tragic case, we believe it’s time for politicians and pundits to end the hateful rhetoric and immigrant bashing that has created a hostile climate for Latinos and encouraged hate crimes like the murder of Mr. Ramirez. Luis Ramirez lost his life because of the unaccountable, incendiary, and out-of-control immigration debate in this country.

Politicians who stoke racial fears and hatred need to realize that their rhetoric has severe -- but not unforeseen-- consequences.

The ruling on Luis Ramirez' murder should serve as a wake-up call to those who refuse to end the politics of division and fear.

Photo courtesy of americasvoiceonline.org

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We already knew David Vitter doesn’t know when to close his zipper. Apparently he doesn’t know when to close his mouth, either.

Vitter told the New Orleans Tea Party yesterday that he supports birther lawsuits against the President of the United States, and it’s caught on video:

This comes on the heels of last month’s news that Vitter has knowingly employed a woman-beater as his legislative aide for women’s issues for two years, until the news was made public just a few weeks ago. Brent Furer pled guilty in 2008 to stabbing his girlfriend with a knife and had an active arrest warrant for drunk driving – his fourth. Vitter knew all of this but didn’t care. In other words, Furer was a violent, wanted criminal but Senator Vitter looked the other way and kept paying him with your tax dollars.

In the above clip, Vitter said “We need to fight the Obama agenda at the ballot box, starting this fall.” The Obama agenda includes following the law which, of course, is not a part of the Vitter agenda. As we learned in 2007, the “family values” candidate Vitter has a taste for cheating on his family by hiring illegal prostitutes and making them wear diapers.

Rep. Charlie Melancon is the Democratic nominee against Vitter this fall.

By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium Blogger

The conservative videographer who donned a pimp suit to embarrass the anti-poverty group ACORN was arrested in New Orleans, LA for allegedly conspiring to bug the office of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.

It’s not clear why Landrieu was targeted, but many suspect that she was singled out because she played a pivotal role in advancing health care reform.

Filmmaker James O’Keefe and three other men have been charged with been charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, according to Justin Elliott of TPM Muckraker. At RH Reality Check, Rachel Larris notes that, if convicted, the four could face up to 10 years in prison.

Like chum in the conservative shark tank

Landrieu, a conservative Democrat, negotiated an extra $100 million in Medicaid funds for Louisiana in exchange for allowing the health care bill to come to the senate floor. Accepting health care for the poor in the interest of health reform was like chum in the conservative shark tank.

Rush Limbaugh called her the most expensive prostitute of all time. “She may be easy, but she’s not cheap,” crowed Glenn Beck. It got so bad that Democrats call on Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) was called upon to denounce the chorus of conservatives attacking his fellow Louisiana senator as a prostitute. (Correction: Vitter did not call Landrieu a prostitute.)

O’Keefe must have realized that an exposé of Mary Landrieu would be a hot commodity.

“This is Watergate meets YouTube,” said Mother Jones Washington Bureau Chief David Corn said on MSNBC’s Hardball last night.

Health care reform in limbo

The arrests could not have come at a better time for the Democrats. Health care reform is in limbo as congressional leaders plan their next move after losing their filibuster-proof majority. The bugging scandal is deflecting attention from tense internal negotiations.

Brian Beutler of TPMDC reports that the House Democrats are converging on a strategy to get reform done: The House will pass the Senate bill and the Senate will fix it through budget reconciliation.

The Republican counter-strategy

While the Democrats agonize over what to do next, that senate Republicans are honing strategies to thwart any Democratic attempt to pass health care reform through budget reconciliation, as Dave Weigel reports in the Washington Independent. The reconciliation process allows both sides to vote on unlimited number of amendments. GOP leadership is hinting that if Dems take the reconciliation route, they will be forced to vote on every politically embarrassing amendment the opposition can dream up.

The stakes are high. In the American Prospect, Paul Starr reminds progressives that there’s till a lot worth fighting for, even without a public option. For all its faults, the Senate bill would still cover 30 million uninsured Americans, expand Medicaid, end discrimination based on preexisting conditions, and set up exchanges designed to keep rising insurance premiums in check.

A memo for reform

Finally, our sources tell us that Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly is making quite a stir on Capitol Hill with his memo advising the House Democratic caucus on the need to forge ahead with health care reform. In 1994, conservative commentator William Kristol wrote a health care memo to Republicans that became the backbone of their anti-reform strategy, even up to the present day. Benen hopes his memo will be a useful counterweight for Democrats. Benen warns the Democrats that it’s far riskier to fail than to pass reform that doesn’t please everyone.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

We have been waiting on this news for a long while -- at least since June, and as far back as May -- but now it's official: Democratic Congressman Charlie Melancon will challenge Louisiana's scandal-ridden GOP Senator David Vitter in 2010.

Melancon clearly isn't going to be running as a liberal -- he cites his 100 percent rating from the NRA, his business experience, and his work as an advocate for the state's sugar industry -- but he isn't shying away from his party affiliation, either. Indeed, Melancon is the type of Southern Democrat we haven't seen in some time -- moderate to conservative, yes, but also proud to be a Democrat. Back in 2004, before many other Democrats in the region were willing to make the plunge, Melancon ran and won in a toughly fought contest to succeed Billy Tauzin in the House, a race not many predicted he would be able to win (particularly considering that his competition was Tauzin's eponymous son). No doubt this will be a tough race for Melancon. But with all of Vitter's problems during his first term in office, this just might be the type of contest the Democrats might be able to sneak away with in 2010.

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Hookerlover David Vitter is having a pretty rough week.  And the week didn't even feature the sleaziness of soliciting prostitutes and cheating on his wife and children or the cowardice of turning constituents away from a town hall event in favor of stacking the audience with Teabaggers.

First, Vitter came off like a Senator Strangelove in declaring that he wanted to import prescription drugs from Canada specifically to destroy Canada's health care system.  Got that?  Yeah, me neither.

Second, Vitter came off like a mindless partisan zombie by attacking Democratic Congressman Charlie Melancon for taking the exact same position on legislation as Vitter did:

Vitter compared his stance on health care to that of his likely future opponent, U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville.

Melancon voted against certain amendments in the health-care bill that Vitter plans to support, such as a provision requiring all members of Congress to enroll in the proposed government-run program, Vitter said.

But Melancon then voted against the entire package, something Vitter said he would be likely to do with a senate version.

Vitter "took swipes" at Congressman Melancon for not supporting amendments to legislation that both Vitter and Melancon are planning on voting against anyway.  Vitter must work awfully hard to make this little sense.

Third, the Louisiana Democratic Party has filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee against Vitter for using public funds for events that were more political than official in nature, which would violate Senate standards.  By using public funds for events at which Vitter politically attacked a likely political opponent (Congressman Melancon):

Senator Vitter has likely violated 31 U.S.C. § § 1301(a) and has engaged in activity that reflects poorly upon the United States Senate.

Said Louisiana Democratic Party Spokesman Kevin Franck:

Once again David Vitter has given into the temptation to cross an ethical and legal boundary.

Hookerlover David Vitter does seem to have a recurring problem resisting temptations that cross ethical and legal boundaries, doesn't he?

For daily news and analysis on the U.S. Senate races around the country, regularly read Senate Guru.

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