Before they throw papa Joe under the bus 3 questions for Tom Rickets & family

UPDATE: See update below.

Before the Ricketts' family dismisses the racist super pac proposal I have some question for Tom Ricketts that I would love local media and Mayor Emanuel to ask (provided he takes their calls).  The questions are from the following passage in the New York Times article that exposed Tom Ricketts:

"The proposal was presented last week in Chicago to associates and family members of Mr. Ricketts, who is also the patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs."

• What Ricketts' family members were there when the proposal was presented?
• Were any of the Ricketts' family members that were present members of the Chicago Cubs ownership team?
• While Tom Ricketts' condemned the racist plan after it was revealed that his father and other family members considered it, are any members of the Cubs ownership team on board with Joe Ricketts super pac and its efforts to unseat President Obama?

It easy to dismiss this as a misguided attempt by Joe Ricketts, but the article talks about Ricketts family members.  Who are those family members and what are their roles with the Chicago Cubs?  Might Tom be involved?

UPDATE: According to the New York Times the proposal was presented to two of Joe Ricketts's sons, it should be pointed out that all of the Ricketts' children are in the ownership group of the Chicago Cubs so it is absolutely fair to say that members of the Chicago Cubs ownership group sought to attack President Obama.

"The president and general counsel of the Ending Spending Political Action Fund, Brian Baker, said through a spokesman that the plan was submitted to a group that included him and two of Mr. Ricketts’s sons at a meeting in Chicago last week. 'I was surprised and troubled by what I saw,' he said. 'It was not what we asked for.'"

The tendency that many progressives have to believe the worst about Obama is a big problem

The minute the Washington Post story broke that claimed Obama was putting Social Security cuts on the table I knew what I would see on the progressive blogosphere, hear on Ed Schultz, see on twitter, etc. The White House via Jay Carney went on the record and said:

"There is no news here. The President has always said that while social security is not a major driver of the deficit, we do need to strengthen the program and the President said in the State of the Union Address that he wanted to work with both parties to do so in a balanced way that preserves the promise of the program and doesn't slash benefits."

But the damage is already done. The biggest obstacle facing us in 2012 is our circular firing squad, led by those who choose to always believe the worse about the president, hell they even root for it.

Everytime someone polls re: Obama being a Muslim they give an illegitimate concern legitimacy. . .

. . .because it all boils down to framing.

When I see the media and its pundits wondering why polls show that a significant number of Americans and majority of Republicans believe that President Obama is either Muslim or too sympathetic to Muslims I laugh because all they need to do is look in the mirror.

Just merely polling whether or not people think the President is a Muslim gives this false concern legitimacy in the minds of some.

I wonder if many of the respondents to these polls wouldn't have given the idea a second thought until they were polled about it, especially the 33% of Republicans who responded that it "Probably wasn't true" to to a recent Newsweek poll. The same poll showed that only 7% of Republicans, yes 7 effing percent, believe it is definitely not true. Are you kidding me?

After the various poll results are published the media spends numerous hours of TV time and hundreds of column inches discussing the results which ends up reinforcing the irresponsible belief that Obama is Muslim and if he were there would be something wrong with it.

I think the media should hold itself accountable for advancing the "Obama is Muslim" meme.

The question shouldn't be "Do you think President Obama is Muslim?"

The question should be "Why is the media legitimizing a lie by polling about it?"