Repoohblicans: Are They Racists?

[BLUSH]

Why don't they want our president talking to school kids?


Racism Behind The Calls To Boycott Obama's Speech To Kids

By Robert Paul Reyes
September 06,2009

This has been the summer of the town hall meeting trolls. This Astroturf movement has been whipping up hysteria -- warning that health care reform is the first step in Obama's master plan to set up a socialist government.

These right-wing nutjobs have a vendetta against Obama, they depict the president as a socialist who is against Mom, apple pie and democracy.

Obama is a wonky intellectual who speaks in calm and measured tones, and I find it difficult to understand how anybody could possibly mistake him for a dangerous radical.

But I guess I'm not a racist who sees only Obama's black skin, and overlooks his eloquence, intelligence and bipartisan spirit.

Now these same conservative crazies are apoplectic over Obama's plan to speak to schoolchildren this coming Tuesday.

- snip -

Conservatives didn't mind when President George HW Bush and President Reagan addressed our schoolchildren, but they are in a tizzy over Obama's speech to students.

Obama is the President of the United States for God's sake, why all the controversy and paranoia over his speech to students? The birthers, tea baggers, pro-life zealots, gun nuts, Palin sycophants, and town hall meeting trolls have managed to convince many Republicans that Obama is a dangerous radical with a secret agenda to indoctrinate our children into socialism.

If Obama weren't black none of the crazy accusations that have been hurled at him would stick. Unfortunately it's very easy for some of these ignorant conservatives to believe that a black president is trying to undermine our democracy.

http://newsblaze.com/story/20090906101551reye.nb/topstory.html

[gratuitous]

1. Yes

This has been another edition of extremely short answers to obvious questions; anonymous chickenshit "unrecommends" notwithstanding.

[Iggo]

42. Yes.

Signed: Nonymous

[BLUSH]

43. So there's three?

Anonymous

Nonymous

Pusillanimous


;)

[Iggo]

45. Nice.

B-)

[BLUSH]

54. :)

:)

[MajorChode]

69. No

You don't have to be a racist to be a Republican...

but it's a great start.

[BLUSH]

74. What's wrong with this picture?

Nothing but if you have to even ask, "you might be a Republican."

:)

[ShortnFiery]

2. The Study Guides with the President's address were OPTIONAL.

Even the C-SPAN journal's moderator had to make this clear. :eyes:

[TxRider]

68. This isn't racism, just political tit for tat...

We did after all go so far as to have a congressional investigation when Bush I spoke to kids at school.

[BLUSH]

76. So it's just a wardrobe malfunction, eh?

nt

[YOY]

3. Not all Republican are racists. But all racists are Republicans.

At least those I have had the displeasure of meeting.

Honestly...if they just went back to Greed as a central motivation and could actually deliver...I'd think them a legitimate party.

[tjwash]

5. I know plenty of dems that are racist turds.

Some more overt about it than others.

[BLUSH]

7. Which party is up in arms over President Obama's speaking to school children?

The same party that had no problem when Presidents Reagan and Bush did the same thing.

Hmmm? What could be the difference this time?

[Lilyeye]

24. Exactly. My PUMA cousin is an example of this.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

23. I'm not sure

Had a guy at my workplace tell me the day after the election, "I voted for the ni**er, because I'd be afraid if that broad got in".

I'm dead serious.

[BLUSH]

27. Racism & Sexism in one stroke!

"the ni**er" (referring to Obama)

"that broad" (referring to Hillary Clinton)

Welcome to the 21st century?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

46. He was referring to Palin

This was the day after the general election.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

35. I know a lot of strong union democrats that are racist as hell.

[imdjh]

38. I know a lot of suburban progressive organic Subaru drivers who are racist.

and urban ones oo

[BlooInBloo]

65. I would have gone the other way on that, actually.

[aikoaiko]

4. They want a popular Democratic President to fail - that is all.

This would have happened the same way if Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, or Bill Richardson had been elected by such a wide margin and proposed health care reform. And it would have been worse if Denniss Kucinich had been elected.

edited to add: There is most certainly some racism mixed in from some folks, but its not the primary motivation.

[endarkenment]

6. nope if you cannot see this for what it is you are blind

there certainly would have been unending attacks on Clinton and Edwards, but the meme would not have been 'not one of us (wink wink nod nod)'. Stop apologizing for the racists. Wake up. Open your eyes.

[aikoaiko]

11. Then show me -- where is this "not one of us" meme?

Granted, I don't watch or read new or newsy shows all day, so I may have missed it.

On the other hand, if this is so prevalent then I'm sure it will be easy for you to show me the use of this meme.

[BLUSH]

13. It's not overt racism ... it's masked racism ...

Republican hysteria over a speech exhorting students to stay in school and study.

Republican hysteria over Obama taking a one-week vacation (when Bush took off a whole month).

What's next? Republican hysteria over Obama calling to congratulate the World Series winner?

[endarkenment]

16. It started with Osama-Obama

then he was a muslim
with a crazy preacher
barack Hussein obama (osama)
he pals around with terrorists
he's a communist
he's a socialist
acorn
he wasn't born here
he can't produce his birf certificate
the AF-1 call letters are NI66ER
he dared to call that cop's stupid arrest of Gates 'stupid'
he was only elected because THEY all voted for him
HE IS NOT ONE OF US
why?


yeah, what racism.

[BLUSH]

18. you forgot fascist and Nazi

"Fascism is a more apt analogy with Obama at the helm. "

- Rush Limbaugh

[neoconn]

50. That quote you just mentioned

was released into the sewer and became boilerplate point for the "Racist One's"

"You can smell'em if you sniff long enough"
Adam K (A friend of mine)

[Lilyeye]

53. You should also add

he's a spook
his daughter is a ghetto trash thug
his wife should pose for national geographic

Oh I forgot...its not about racism :eyes:

[BLUSH]

57. Don't forget the bogus "whitey" quote attributed to Michelle Obama.

nt

[Hansel]

31. Asking Obama to show his birth certicate to prove he is a legimate president.

Asking for more documentation when he releases his birth certificate.

Constant innuendos that he can't be trusted. He's a socialist. He's a community organizer (code for he organizes in black neighborhoods.) He's going to indoctrinate our children. He only won because of ACORN's voter fraud (prominently black organization working in the inner cities). He's a Muslim. He's an Afro-Leninist.

Seek out and watch some of the videos interviewing people standing in line for Palin rallies. That's a huge eye opener. Go back and look at some of Fineman's reporting on things being said in these rallies. Hang him. The N word. Overt racism. These are the Tea Baggers and are still following Palin.

400% increase in threats on his life. Bringing guns to town halls and outwardly advocating sedition. Buying up bullets and weapons.

Read some of the signs at town hall meetings. Listen for the racist dog whistles.

Barrack the Magic Negro played over and over by Rush Limbaugh. Obsession over a black man running for president by the media. Can he win? Will America accept a black president? Glenn Beck saying he hates white people and is a racist.

It's pretty easy to see that this isn't the usual hating of Democrats. This is something very different.

[aikoaiko]

33. I can't deny that some of that has clear racist underpinings, but your list is a good example of ...

..lumping things together and saying its all racist. I don't really see the racist undertones of the birth certificate claims, community organizer, muslim (when did religion become a race?), buying guns and ammo, or dog whistles.

On the other things, yes, clearly racist.

On the other hand, this all looks very much like the character assassination of Bill Clinton. Tearing away at every little minor issue or nonissue until something catches hold.

Is racism involved, sure. But its the message they hate. The philosophy of using government to help people that they hate more than anything. If a Obama talked like Rush, they would love him. I'm sure there are racist Republicans who are unhappy at the thought of Michael Steele leading the Republican party, but you don't see them going after him because he is "on message".

At least thats the way I see it.

[bettyellen]

81. you had people yelling "kill the n645456 at Palin rallies getting loud applause.....

and the birth certificate stuff is totally about him not being "one of us". Absolutely has racist underpinnings.

[BLUSH]

36. Keith Olbermann is addressing this right now on Countdown

nt

[EFerrari]

49. Palin used it at her Klan rallies. When Frank Schaeffer gave DU

an interview, I asked him how coded her speech was and his answer was "very coded". He specifically referenced "not one of us" = not white.

[Pangolin2]

10. Correct, it is a small component.

Some people are so thin-skinned, they attribute every less than worshipful comment to racism.
(Now watch somebody accuse me of racism for making the observation)

[Hansel]

32. Wrong. It is a big component.

It's not about being thin-skinned. It's more about being awake.

[BLUSH]

12. re "that is all" and "it's not the primary movitation"

No I doubt there would have been anything like the outrage we're seeing now had it been Clinton or Edwards or Kucinich making this speech.

[aikoaiko]

21. well, maybe, but I think the prospect of a popular Democrat in the WH with both House of Congress

was what really sent shivers down their spines.

[Dogtown]

80. I think you're missing the point

We need to distinguish between the cynical Republican politicians that USE racist innuendo and triggers and the vulnerable racist Republican rank and file that are responding to the tactic.


The politicos are using variants of the "welfare queen" meme to block health care reform, for example. Their base actually *hears* them saying "lazy ni**ers" and become hysterical. It's a long used and successful tactic for whipping up the masses.


Wilson did NOT act spontaneously during President Obama's speech; he shouted out knowing that it would resonate with his constituents. It was orchestrated. Just look at the "comments" attached to the polls on this event. I remember one trog celebrating the irritation he felt he saw in "that Kenyan". I *KNOW* that was a less-offensive term than what he wanted to say.

Failing to address the racism is just one more example of us trying not to be seen as non-confrontational. It's our weakness and they've successfully employed it for years. Our hallowed halls of DU are currently filled with activists trying to urge us to that failed course once again.

[BLUSH]

82. "that Kenyan"

Has everyone forgotten from last year's election:

"THAT ONE!"

(Ring a bell?)

[Dogtown]

83. It's incessant, isn't it?

Yet the apologists (and those fools that fall under their spell) would have us ignore it. *Of course* they want us to ignore it; if we call them out for it, they might have to stop.

[BLUSH]

85. Karma ... That One ... WON! :)

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

They launched an outright coup in 1998........

They also made a child molesting cult leader out to be a victim of the gub'ment and a mass murdering bomber out to be a disgruntled, slightly misguided patriot.

Don't tell me how low they will go, we've already seen it for years.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

25. Delete/dupe

Dupe

[treestar]

15. I don't think they would have objected to the school speech

Clinton could have done it and they would have complained, Hillary or DK, etc., same, they would have complained about indoctrination in the pundit class.

But individuals would not have bothered with calling the school or keeping their kids home.

They are deeply upset about a black man being elected. In their minds, it was just not possible - they could claim not to be racists and be secure that since whites are the largest group, and blacks a minority, that no black could ever get elected, merely because no black guy with any white competition could possibly be the best person for the job.

This is not supposed t ohappen, per their view, never. That is has is what sends them over the edge.

Granted the level of political discourse has gotten worse, and Carter or Clinton could not have dreamed of the enmity that would go to a Dem President at this time, but there is an extra layer of hysteria there which the white Dem candidates wouldn't have raised. Even DK, who is far closer to "socialism" than Obama.

[BLUSH]

58. this is what he's really angry about it ...

[L0oniX]

8. Yes ..they are much more racist than Dems by far.

This is why they come off as being stupid for what they protest. It's not that they are all stupid, it's that they won't come right out and say that they hate Obama because of his race.

[Subdivisions]

9. Yes. n/t

[Romulox]

14. I heard Arlen Specter magically transformed when he switched the letter behind his name.

Hard to know how to deal with Robert Byrd under this whole theory, however.

[BLUSH]

19. He started out as a Democrat

In the 60s he became a Republican. Then last year he went back to being a Democrat.

He chooses whichever affiliation he thinks will win him re-election.

[Romulox]

20. But "Hey Presto!" he's a racist, then not a racist, then a racist, then not?

Then there's the Robert Byrd exception, which is as easy to decipher as the Larry Bird exception. :shrug:

[BLUSH]

22. Robert Byrd was a racist

But he changed ... for the better.

For most Republicans, that's change they can't believe in.

As Trent Lott would say, things would have been better off had we had more Thurmonds than Byrds.

[Romulox]

28. Robert Byrd changed his stripes when it was no longer politically acceptable to be an overt racist.

Full stop.

"For most Republicans, that's change they can't believe in. "

Unless they change the letter after their name, you mean?

[BLUSH]

30. Racist Democrats switched parties ... they joined the GOP.

They began leaving the party when President Truman embraced civil rights and they left in droves when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

To name just a few:

Strom Thurmond
Floyd Spence
Albert Watson
Ronald Reagan
Elizabeth Dole
Jesse Helms
Phil Gramm
Jeane Kirkpatrick
William Bennett
Roy Moore
David Duke
Rick Perry
Richard Shelby

[Trav1u]

17. it's a sickness

Yes they are, they can't help themselves.

[deaniac21]

26. Any disagreement with the President is obviously racist and

should be treated as such. Open, overt and absolute racism.

[Rebubula]

63. Ummm...

...did you forget the Sarcasm thingy or do you really mean that anyone that disagrees with President Obama is a racist?

[hfojvt]

29. that's a terrible cartoon.

Pooh, although he IS a bear of very little brain, is also quite genuinely genial and sometimes even thoughtful and profound. (See, for example "The Tao of Pooh"). It was Rabbit who concocted a plan to get Tigger lost in the Forest so he could be humbled and 'unbounced'. It was Rabbit who concocted a plan to kidnap Roo so that Kanga and Roo would leave the Thousand Acre Wood. Rabbit, in case you forgot, HAS BRAIN.

It was Pooh, on the other hand who built a "House at Pooh Corner" for the homeless EOR, and it was Pooh who took Piglet into his home when Owl's home was destroyed by a windstorm and Owl moved into Piglet's home. And, after some controversy when Tigger accidentally knocked EOR into the river, this exchange happened.

'"Tigger is all right really," said Piglet lazily.
"Of course he is," said Christopher Robin.
"Everybody is really," said Pooh. "That's what I think," said Pooh. "But I don't suppose I'm right," he said.
"Of course you are," said Christopher Robin.'


In the view of Pooh, there are NO 'others'. Not so in the world of Mr. Reyes as he looks and strains to find racism in 'others'. The others, you see, are not like us, they are not 'all right, really'. They are racists.

And how do you know they are racists? Why because these conservatives didn't mind when a conservative President spoke to school kids. Thus, the only reason they are getting upset when a non-conservative President does it is because the non-conservative President is black. Otherwise, logically, they should have objected to the conservative Presidents :crazy:

"Conservatives didn't mind when President George HW Bush and President Reagan addressed our schoolchildren, but they are in a tizzy over Obama's speech to students."

Talk about lack of Brain. That line is just dumb. Who would expect them to complain when THEIR guy gives a speech? Oof-da.

[calimary]

34. The answer is YES. And make 'em deny it.

But it's something that NEEDS to be said.

And make 'em deny it. Turn it all around on them so the angle to the story is whether they're racist or not and how extremely?

[TorchTheWitch]

37. not everything is about race

This is more about his being a Dem than being black. For some, yes, it is about his being black, but for the most part it's because he's a Dem. They'd be doing the same to any Dem that won the office. Conservatives didn't mind when Poopy Bush and Raygun made similar speaches to school kids because those two were THEIRS - fellow conservatives. They didn't mind just because they were white guys. Repukes believe Obama is a "dangerous radical with a secret agenda to indoctrinate our children into socialism" because he's a Democrat, not because he's a black guy.

[imdjh]

39. it's probably fungible nt

[BLUSH]

40. Do you really think the GOP would be going THIS NUTS

if Joe Biden or Dennis Kucinich or Chris Dodd were president?

Yes, they would go after any Democrat.

But this is way beyond anything we've ever seen before.

This is soooooo overboard.

Really.

[Raineyb]

59. You do us no favors by putting your head in the sand. n/t

[jimlup]

41. Yes! They are racist.

Think about it. If you're younger than 50 you might not fully appreciate this but take it from those of us who remember:

They are absolutely racist! And they are essentially freaked out by the whole idea of a black president.

[Skittles]

44. YES

yeah they were bad with Clinton but this over the top, homicidal foaming at the mouth over Obama is RACISM

[Unrepentant Fenian]

47. Another vote for "HELL YES!".

[A R S]

48. Yes, They Are

It may be veiled racism, but its racism nonetheless.

[neoconn]

51. There is a huge population of Obama nay sayers

that are indeed racist. I wouldn't pin it on all. But overtly and secretly its in their soul.

The tactics and the sheer mob mentality that was displayed at events during the elections was just the tip. The ramblings are only getting louder and more vicious. The rise in supremacy groups, the chatter that is heard on tapped lines and the utter garbage that spews from faux news sends a chill down my spine.

[Raine]

52. Yes, ABSOLUTELY nt

[lilwunder]

55. Really???

Is this for real? I mean, aren't we smarter than this? Don't you think that we should embrace our ability to share our views with logic, rationality and tact rather than sounding like a two year old???

Seriously? This kind of thread saddens me, you guys are sounding no better than the people you are against, you are actually sounding WORSE. You are supposed to be using your minds, stop acting like idiots, or go join their side if you want to keep acting like it.

[Raineyb]

60. When I see racist behavior I call it what it is. What benefit do you get by pretending not to see

it?

[Raine]

61. "Seriously" in a word YES

and you're an idiot if you think you're fooling anyone as to which side you're really on. I always seem to be an asshole magnet but I guess they have to attach themselves to someone. :silly:

[BLUSH]

56. GOP Senator from Georgia wants "humility" from Obama

GOP Senator from Georgia wants "humility" from Obama

by Joe Sudbay
9/08/2009

Humility? Really?

First, Saxby Chambliss should look around. He's only got 39 GOP Senate colleagues these days. He used to have a lot more. The Republicans have lost their majority and are a shrinking party. If Obama didn't make them relevant by his futile attempts at bipartisanship -- and if CNN's Dana Bash and her ilk didn't fawn over the Republicans -- the GOP Senate caucus wouldn't matter. And, they shouldn't matter, so this is absurd:

"What you're seeing is folks on my side anxious to see what the president has to say tomorrow night," Chambliss said. "I think he's gonna have to express some humility based on what we've seen around the country this August and that's not his inclination."

Let's be real. Folks on the GOP side don't care what Obama says, they're going to oppose it anyway. But, Republicans are never held accountable for their intransigence.

More importantly, it's not hard to figure that Chambliss really meant Obama is "uppity." He just said it in code.

http://www.americablog.com/2009/09/gop-senator-from-georgia-wants-humility.html

[BLUSH]

62. Wilson Brings "Town Hall" To Congress

[BlooInBloo]

64. Everyone knows it. Many prefer to lie about it.

[BLUSH]

66. Ron Reagan is addressing the issue on Hardball right now

He and another guest have used the word UNMASKED.

[BlooInBloo]

67. They weren't masked in the first place. Only unacknowledged by others...

Describing it as "unmasking" is just a defense for prior refusal to acknowledge what everybody already knew, but was unwilling to admit.

Possibly it has gotten to the point where large numbers of white folks can't with the remotest plausibility maintain their enabling cover for the out-and-out racists.

Or possibly we'll continue to hear more of the same "oversensitive", "it's just a joke", "reverse racist" that we've heard for the last 30 years.

Time will tell.

[BLUSH]

70. I think by masked they meant using other issues to "mask" their racism

That is the birth certificate, speech to school children, death panel arguments are "masking" the real reason they're so angry.

Forty years ago they would have just come out and said it. (Or worn it.)

[LaPera]

71. No, Brer Rabbit, Little Black Sambo, Amos & Andy & Limbaugh satirizing

Black people are just funny....no harm meant, no one really gets hurt or really believes the stereotypes.

If one listens to the wonderfully candid Pat Buchanan, one will understand how the lying filthy hypocritical republicans think, and believe, really believe that this land is only the white mans country and belongs to them, to do as they please, they believe they are the lord & masters of this land, that they are ones that built this land & civilized this land all by themselves and it belongs to only them, that god gave and blessed this country to the white Christian (men) the richer the more entitlement to be respected for....everyone else are guests, less than human in many cases, they are simply not equal and should just shut the fuck up, they deserve nothing this country has to offer only working for what the republican corporate masters want to pay them.....The lying slimy Republicans whole ideology & agenda is filled with hate, based on racism & greed.

[Ardent15]

72. Is the sky blue? nt

[BLUSH]

73. Racism in the House Chamber?

Racism in the House Chamber?

By Richard Cohen | September 10, 2009

All presidents get vilified. It’s part of the job. White House aide Van Jones stepped down last week amid controversy over the fact that, among other things, he once signed a petition declaring that the administration of George W. Bush "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war." Bill Clinton was accused of running drugs through Arkansas’s obscure Mena Airport, among many, many other things.

But when the fringe starts pushing into the center, then attention must be paid. In general, the Republicans in the House treated Obama disrespectfully, and some of them treated him with contempt. When opposition to a piece of legislation turns swiftly into disdain for the man -- when policy becomes personal -- a columnist is permitted to wonder why. He is permitted, furthermore, to wonder if some of Obama’s more hateful critics are not expressing a repressed bigotry -- the feeling that the man up on the dais cannot really be the president of the United States. After all, he does not look like one.

It would be an awful thing if genuine criticism was labeled racist and therefore muffled. But the disrespect shown Obama seems so disproportionate to the issue -- health-care reform -- that I just have to wonder. Wilson later apologized for his outburst, but he cannot take it back. It was, as has been said of another incident, a teachable moment. I hope he and other Republicans learn from it.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/09/racisim_in_the_house_chamber.html

[BLUSH]

75. Joe Wilson a member of neo-Confederate SCV

Obama heckler Joe Wilson a member of neo-Confederate SCV, fought to keep Dixie flag flying in South Carolina

By David Neiwert Thursday Sep 10, 2009

Looking into the background of Rep. Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, after his heckling of President Obama last night, I came across this:

Joe also has been a member of the Columbia World Affairs Council, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Sinclair Lodge 154, Jamil Temple, Woodmen of the World, Sons of Confederate Veterans, ....

This is an organization that, as the SPLC has detailed assiduously, has been taken over in the past decade by radical neo-Confederates who favor secession and defend slavery as a benign institution. Leading the takeover is a radical racist named Kirk Lyons, who's been an important legal figure on the far right for some years.*

- snip -

Joe Wilson, as a state legislator, was one of only seven Republicans to go against their own party and vote to keep the Dixie Rebel flag flying over the South Carolina capitol:

The flag came down that year after Republicans in both houses went for a compromise that would put it on Statehouse grounds at the Confederate Soldier’s monument. The “Magnificent Seven” of Senators who voted to keep the flag up included current Congressman Joe Wilson (who I served with in the 218th Infantry Brigade of the National Guard.)

A clearer picture of why this congressman might so virulently breach protocol and loudly interrupt an African-American president's speech to Congress by calling him a liar does start to emerge, doesn't it?

So inquiring minds want to know:

Is Joe Wilson still a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans?

rest of article;

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/obama-heckler-joe-wilson-member-neo

[TheKentuckian]

77. It is amazing that it is such a leap in many minds

that an organization that is openly anti-gay, sexist to the point of actively supporting a wage gap, pro-poverty, xenophobic, promotes exploiting undocumented workers while always seeking to punish them for existing, proudly theocratic, and that runs minorities away with much gusto would also be racist is well beyond my understanding.

Yeah, its a fucking cosmic mystery that they are nearly exclusively old, very bitter, super stupid, and lily white. Shit, many of them used to even be fairly comfortable with liberal ideology until it spilled over to the "negras". A good deal of the general hate of liberals is because of pushing civil rights.

Certainly, every Republican isn't a racist, every racist isn't Republican BUT most racist are indeed Republicans. Sure, they'll accept an Uncle Ruckus or two like Thomas or Steele but they damn well better stay on point or they'll run them off and straight up declare "reverse racism" just like they did with Powell.

Get real and listen to their "leaders" like The Drugster, Mancow, and Beck while observing how they eat it up and if you are honest you will have to admit that something doesn't add up with these folks.

[BLUSH]

78. re:

"an organization that is openly anti-gay, sexist to the point of actively supporting a wage gap, pro-poverty, xenophobic"

And they claim they are the persecuted ones.

[butterfly77]

79. Kick &Recommended..

[helderheid]

84. I don't know if all Republicans are racist, but I dare say all racists are Republicans.

[BLUSH]

86. Today's March On DC

One man (in his 60s I would say) is on CNN explaining how this is the FIRST time in his life he has participated in a protest. It's a comment we are hearing from a lot of the protesters.

So after an illegal war in Iraq, after a president trampling the Constitution, after rendition and torture and domestic spying ... only now they feel compelled to march?

I wonder what it could be that finally got them so engaged. (Or is that outraged)?


:think:

[BLUSH]

87. Boy, Oh, Boy

By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: September 12, 2009

The normally nonchalant Barack Obama looked nonplussed, as Nancy Pelosi glowered behind.

Surrounded by middle-aged white guys — a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men’s club — Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” at a president who didn’t.

But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!

The outburst was unexpected from a milquetoast Republican backbencher from South Carolina who had attracted little media attention. Now it has made him an overnight right-wing hero, inspiring “You lie!” bumper stickers and T-shirts.

The congressman, we learned, belonged to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, led a 2000 campaign to keep the Confederate flag waving above South Carolina’s state Capitol and denounced as a “smear” the true claim of a black woman that she was the daughter of Strom Thurmond, the ’48 segregationist candidate for president. Wilson clearly did not like being lectured and even rebuked by the brainy black president presiding over the majestic chamber.

I’ve been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer — the frantic efforts to paint our first black president as the Other, a foreigner, socialist, fascist, Marxist, racist, Commie, Nazi; a cad who would snuff old people; a snake who would indoctrinate kids — had much to do with race.

rest of article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/opinion/13dowd.html