Must Reads

Steve Benen: When The 'Water's Edge' Standard Disappears

Sudeep Reddy: Palin Responds to Real Time Economics and We Respond

Ryan Grim: George Bush Book 'Decision Points' Lifted Passages From Advisers' Books

Joe Wilson: George Bush's Deception Points

Aaron Sorkin: Bumper-Sticker Patriotism Is No Way to Honor Our Veterans

Paul Krugman: The Hijacked Commission

Tanya Somanader: Gingrey Ignores Promise To Reduce Government Waste By Fighting For Defense Program The DoD Doesn’t Want

Christopher Brauchli: Sharia Returns to Oklahoma

Mark Morford: Dear Tea Party: You Will Now Get Yours

William Greider: Obama Without Tears

Anthony Weiner Targeted

Breaking news from MSNBC reports that Rep. Anthony Weiner's Queens, New York office was targeted.

David Shuster: "Law enforcement officials say a package with white  powder was sent to Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner's Queen[s] office.  One source says a preliminary reviews shows a letter in part complaining about the health care legislation. New York's Police Department and an FBI spokesman are only confirming that they are responding to the scene."


Adding... And yet, Eric Cantor continues to be a dick, blaming the Democrats and accusing them of politicizing the issue.  Please show me where angry rhetoric by Democratic political leaders akin to "You lie!" or "Baby killer!" has been used to raise campaign money.

The Rude Pundit Gets It

Last week I wrote briefly on the attacks coming Jimmy Carter's way because he dared mention the possibility that some might be opposed to President Obama because of racism. GASP!

The Rude One is on the same track and puts it better than I ever could.

...The election of a black president, who embraced the word "liberal," both confirms their suspicions and undermines them in a way that they can't deal with. Indeed, right now they can't even allow Obama to accomplish what he wants to do because, if he's right and he succeeds, their entire worldview crumbles. Conservatives in power, who watched George W. Bush get nearly everything he wanted and it turned to shit, have staked their last chance at regaining power on making Obama into that nigger who wants to hurt the white people. Fuck him and his nigger-loving accomplices.

What Carter was reacting to, among other things, was the yell of "You lie" from Representative Joe Wilson at President Obama. That yell was the barbaric scream of impotence from an exiled warrior; implicit with it was that no black man was going to tell him how the world runs, especially when it comes to Hispanics. Jimmy Carter knows what he's seeing. He listened to it for most of his life. He knows stupid fucking rednecks wearing their suit jacket collars high when he sees 'em.

Read his whole post.

But It's Not About Racism (The Jimmy Carter Edition) - UPDATED

This past Tuesday, former President Jimmy Carter, an old white Southern man who would probably know racism when he sees it, commented that the Joe "YOU LIE!" Wilson outburst, as well as the teabagger 9/12 demonstrations, was based in part on racial politics.

"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American," Carter told NBC News. "I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that shares the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans."

"That racism inclination still exists, and I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of belief among many white people -- not just in the South but around the country -- that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply," Carter said.

No sooner had he made that comment, the attack dogs were on the cable chatter stations to debate whether Carter was right in his assessment. Matt Lauer interviewed Michael Eric Dyson and Frank Luntz (Frank FUCKING Luntz!) as if there were equal sides to this debate. Conspicuously absent from the piece was any video or images of the racists signs being carried at the 9/12 protests. Dyson was also on Morning Joke™ where MENSA member Maria "Why Isn't 45 Year Old Anthony Weiner On Medicare If It's So Good?" Bartiromo tried to dismiss racism on the grounds that President Obama once enjoyed a 70% approval rating. Dyson astutely breaks down the arguments, but of course on the Morning Joke™ set, it falls of deaf ears.

The whole point of these most recent morning interviews was to discredit Carter's valuation, just as they attacked him for his Palestine book. They try refuting Carter's argument with no facts or images to bolster their non-racial argument from the teabaggers in DC. They discredit him and thereby try to show that race has little or nothing to do with the 9/12 marchers in Washington on Saturday who were soooo angry at the government "spending its tax dollars" that they showed up bearing signs with Obama dressed as a witch doctor with a bone through his nose, or telling him to go back to Kenya and take his "arrogent" wife with him (Arrogant... perhaps they meant "uppity"?) or calling him a "Muslim Marxist" as though no freedom of religion existed in this country, let alone probably not knowing the definition of Marxism. To them it's just another thing to repeat that they heard from "their hero, Glenn Beck."

Anyone who refuses to believe that race is not only an issue, but the main issue for the upswell in opposition is purposely ignoring what is plainly visible; the deep seated feeling that they really are racist but can't admit it. Where were these protesters when former President Bush bailed out financial institutions with $700 billion? President Obama continues the Bush policy and all of a sudden it's socialism? But you bring a sign like this to your protest?



I'd like to know how many 9/12 teabaggers "protesting the government spending" are A) Democrats and B) voted for Obama? I have more respect for David Duke than some I do for some of these teabaggers or Glenn Beck. At least Duke admits to being a racist and is proud of it.

UPDATE (9/17/09, 6:45am): Keith Olbermann takes on the race issue and backs it up with examples.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Quote of the Day

If you saw a woman struck by a car, would you call an ambulance right away? Or would you first ask for her papers to make sure she was not an illegal immigrant? - E.J. Dionne on the prospect of Rep. Joe Wilson and other GOP members spreading the health care coverage for illegal aliens lie.

Puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

Plame Testifies

Valerie Plame, whose covert CIA operative status was compromised by Bush Administration officials, testified today before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

BREITBART.COM:
Plame said she had no role in sending her husband on a CIA fact- finding trip to Niger. Wilson said in a newspaper column that his trip debunked the administration's prewar intelligence that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Africa.

"I did not recommend him. I did not suggest him. There was no nepotism involved. I did not have the authority," she said.

That conflicts with senior officials at the CIA and State Department, who testified during Libby's trial that Plame recommended Wilson for the trip.

This is a horse of a different color after constantly hearing that Plame herself send Joe Wilson on the "junket" to Niger. I wonder who to believe..

Other wingnuts like FOX puke John Gibson had his own far-fetched theory: "There was a cabal inside the CIA working against the president's policy and they wanted to hide behind their secret status while they did what was essentially an anti-war political hitjob."