ColorOfChange.org changing the color of democracy

Update (10/31/12) While speaking at a Romney rally in Florida, the state's Commissioner of Agriculture referenced the race-baiting "Obama phone" myth, marking the first time the topic was raised at an official GOP event. 

Conservative media outlets have been up in arms since the release of a video, in late September, that features a Black woman in Ohio enthusiastically declaring her support for President Obama. The woman is supportive of the President because of an FCC program that helps to provide phones to low-income individuals. After being featured on the right-wing site, The Drudge Report, the hashtag #ObamaPhone became very popular and filled with hateful tweets. Going one step further, the far-right group Tea Party Victory Fund has released this ad, using the same clip to exploit racial fears. 

The ad is a clear example of race-baiting. And the most effective way to defeat the influence of race-baiting is to do it together. ColorOfChange.org is dedicated to empowering the over 800,000 members of our organization, as well as our friends and family members to do exactly that.

In a politically telling move the Mitt Romney campaign has placed controversial Florida Representative Allen West at the head of a newly created Black Leadership Council. Tea Party conservatives adore West and he is known as the "movement's political avatar." For much of the rest of the country he is infamous for his outrageously offensive racial politics and shockingly bold language. West once described President Obama supporters as "threats to the gene pool."

Earlier this afternoon Talking Points Memo published Joe Walsh's flippant and dismissive response to ColorofChange Executive Director Rashad Robinson's statement decrying Mr. Walsh's infantalizing speech in which he referred to President Obama as "son." According to Walsh, "My first reaction was to laugh. I don't know who this group was and I would love to look them in the eyes and say, 'Get a life.'"

UPDATE: (08/09/12) Joe Walsh responds here.

In a video from a campaign event in Illinois this past weekend, Congressman Joe Walsh (R-IL) referred to the president of the United States as "son" and said that he was never ready to do his job.

A Tea Party group called Northeast Pennsylvania Spirit of 1776 sent an email Monday that fantasized about beating President Obama to death for being a "radical, socialist leader." As reported by ThinkProgress, the message describes a series of our country's founders savagely beating the 44th President as he arrives in heaven. The message concludes with a crass joke that refers to the often-repeated false claim that Barack Obama is Muslim.

A Texas Tea Party group plans to host an event featuring a man who has argued that poor people shouldn't be allowed to vote.

According to conservative columnist Matthew Vadum, “It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country...”

Check out the full Talking Points Memo report here. And check out ColorOfChange on the voter ID laws that threaten to disenfranchise millions of voters here.