Maybe this is what will be used to kick off a little race war in the US?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7017218.ece
Tea Party turns nasty: 'It's our country -- let's take it back'
They will proudly boast of how they have galvanised ordinary Americans
against runaway government spending, but a dark underbelly of xenophobia
has been exposed at the first national gathering of the Tea Party movement.
Here in the vast Gaylord resort in Nashville, where 600 members of the
conservative grassroots phenomenon that exploded in revolt against
President Obama's economic policies have gathered, it would be advisable
not to wear a T-shirt declaring "I am an illegal immigrant".
The anti-Government, anti-Establishment movement, which has splintered
in the past week with many boycotting this gathering, has billed itself
as a revolution born of the widespread disgust at Washington and the way
that the nation's politicians are bankrupting America's future.
With its raucous protests it has undeniably become a political force
that threatens to hand Democrats a disastrous midterm election night in
November. Voter anger against spending and debt, of which the Tea
Partiers are in the vanguard, played a significant role in the recent
loss of the late Edward Kennedy's Senate seat and could
Yet the speech that opened the Nashville event yesterday, an address
greeted with whoops and cheers from the mainly white audience, reflects
a movement that also appears to have a less attractive side to it.
Tom Tancredo, a former Republican congressman who ran for president in
2008 on an anti-illegal immigration platform, said of the voters who
elected Mr Obama: "They could not even spell the word 'vote' or say it
in English and they put a committed socialist ideologue in the White
House --- Barack Hussein Obama!"
Decrying America's multiculturalism, Mr Tancredo said that Republicans
and Democrats had voted for a black man because they felt they had to.
To a standing ovation, he shouted: "We really do have a culture to pass
on to our children: it's based on Judaeo-Christian values."
"This is our country," he declared. "Let's take it back!" He added, to
applause: "Cultures are not the same. Some are better. Ours is best!"
The crowd, some wearing recently purchased T-shirts saying "Keep the
change --- I'll keep my FREEDOM my GUNS and my MONEY", loved it.
Mr Tancredo's speech was followed by music from Lisa Mei Norton, who
sang among other songs one entitled /Where Were You Born?/, a reference
to the right-wing "birther" movement which believes that Mr Obama is not
a natural-born US citizen.
One featured speaker, a "Patriot Pastor" named Rick Scarborough, told
/The Times/ that he was not against legal immigrants "but God has
ordained that you are not a nation if you don't have borders". Standing
next to a pile of books entitled /Liberalism Kills Kids/, he added: "If
this country becomes 30 per cent Hispanic we will no longer be America.
We don't want to become like the UK where in places you have Sharia.
"English is our language. We are Americans. We're not
Hispanic-Americans, or African-Americans --- we are Americans."
He then invoked Winston Churchill when he referred to the inauguration
of Mr Obama. "A year ago we thought we had lost the war. A year later
they are reeling. I believe God has once again given America an
opportunity for a new beginning. Even in the darkest days of the
blitzkrieg, Churchill said 'no surrender'."
Sarah Palin, the Republican's 2008 vice-presidential nominee and former
Alaskan Governor, is due to speak tonight. She is attending in part
because it enhances her anti-Washington, outsider image --- and because
these are the type of people who will do anything for her.
Thomas Chanteloupe, a 45-year-old wearing a Sarah Palin badge, said
without prompting: "I'm the same age as Sarah Palin, we left high school
at the same time, we're both big Reagan fans, we both have three
children, we're both the middle children, and both our fathers were
high-school teachers and sports coaches."
That's Palin fever for you.