Claude Raines award in Guilford County, NC

The chairman of the Guilford County, NC, Republican Party has suddenly become aware — via a phone call from a reporter fo the local newspaper — that his organization’s website carried a link to a site called Islamexposed.com, dedicated to exposing al-Islam as “nothing more than a barbaric occult invented for savages by savages.” Naturally, the chairman was shocked — shocked! — and took the link down right away. “That’s not what we’re about.”

Well, of course they need to clean up their act now: they have to get ready for their annual Ronald Reagan dinner, with Ollie North as the invited speaker. (The link is broken; maybe that’s last year’s dinner. His foundation has a link on the site, as does Ralph Reed’s.)

Only those with long memories, as blogospheric memories go, will recall that the link to the Islamexposed site had been discovered by Media Whores Online, and referenced on this very site, a couple of months ago. As to the chairman’s shock, he ought to read his email; I sent him a polite note at the time, to which he didn’t reply. And he ought to talk to his webmaster, who had already posted a somewhat weaselly partial disclaimer shortly after the original link went up.

Guilford County isn’t the sticks; it’s the third-largest county in the state. And its Republican party has had up a link to what can fairly be called a hate site for at least six weeks, and only took it down when a reporter called. Anyone who thinks that the Republican Party purged itself of its reliance on bigotry when it demoted Trent Lott needs to think about that.

[MORE here.]

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com