But It's Not About Racism (The GOP Convention Edition)

Isn't it great to live in the land of post-racial sentiment after we've elected a black man into the Oval Office? Anyone screaming 'racism' is obviously not in touch with the pulse of the American electorate and is simply using the race card as an instrument of division and hate... wait, what?

"...Zoraida Fonalledas, the chairwoman of the Committee on Permanent Organization—took her turn at the main-stage lectern [at the GOP Convention in Tampa Bay]. As she began speaking in her accented English, some in the crowd started shouting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” 

The chanting carried on for nearly a minute while most of the other delegates and the media stood by in stunned silence. The Puerto Rican correspondent turned to me and asked, “Is this happening?”... None of us could quite believe what we were seeing: A sea of twentysomething bowties and cowboy hats morphing into frat bros apparently shrieking over (or at) a Latina."

But surely they were chanting because they were proud of their "big tent" and cheering, not jeering the Republican latina woman at their own convention, right? ...Right?

But the Republicans keep telling me that it was Obama who has done absolutely nothing for immigrants (even though the woman was Puerto Rican and therefore an American citizen) in this country, except to throw them a bone with his obvious politicization of young immigrants who are here through no fault of their own, at least according to Romney surrogate John Sununu.

“If Obama really was serious about that, he wouldn’t have been such a phony in doing that, and he would have done it four years ago. This presidency, by doing something late and politically, defined both his incompetence and his insincerity,” Sununu said after answering questions in Spanish with the Hispanic press. 

During the GOP primary, Romney vowed to veto the DREAM Act, which would implement a stronger version of what Obama did through executive order, but since winning the nomination, he’s tacked to the middle and avoided striking the hard-line tone on immigration that made him one of the most conservative candidates on the issue in the GOP field. 

Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and an immigration adviser to Romney, is the author of Arizona’s of infamous immigration law and took up a suit brought by 10 immigration enforcement agents against the new Obama policy last week.

Hold on. Do you mean to tell me that, try as they might, the Republican Party really isn't that into people of color? I find that hard to believe.

Two attendees at the Republican National Convention were thrown out of the convention center in Tampa on Tuesday after throwing nuts at a black CNN camerawoman and saying, "this is how we feed the animals."

CNN reported that multiple witnesses saw it happen, and police immediately removed the two people from the premises.

Oh, come on! What's next?! Is some frothy guy going to step behind the convention podium and blatantly lie about the Presdient in a clear attempt to rile up the fringiest of the fringe with some dumbass welfare claim even though a large number of white people are help by that program as well?

"This summer he showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waiving the work requirement for welfare," Santorum said Tuesday in a speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. "I helped write the welfare reform bill; we made the law crystal clear -- no president can waive the work requirement. But as with his refusal to enforce our immigration laws, President Obama rules like he is above the law." 

PolitiFact checked a Romney campaign ad's claim that Obama ended welfare work requirements earlier this month, rating it Pants On Fire. In reality, the Obama administration has said it will consider proposals from states that are aimed at finding better ways of getting welfare recipients into jobs. FactCheck.org and the Washington Post Fact Checker have also said the claim is false.

Fuck. Me.

If you haven't noticed, it's been all dog whistles, all the time. Accusations of "gutting welfare requirements" taking a play out of the welfare queen Reagan playbook. Romney making a little "joke" about not having to show his birth certificate - yet the reaction wasn't laughter, but cheers. Delegates at the GOP convention booing and chanting "USA" when an Hispanic woman speaks. Other conventioneers thrown out after assaulting a black CNN cameraperson and calling her an "animal." And yet when it's brought up, it's the DEMOCRATS who are accused of using the RACE CARD?! If it acts like a racist and it smells like a racist...

ADDING... And let's not forget that scumbag South Carolina state representative Alan Clemmons responding positively to a racially tinged email regarding their bullshit voter ID law.  But hey, it's those Democrats playing that damned race card because you know, black man in the White House, new era of enlightenment, post racial land of the free, home of blah, blah, blah...

(Cross-posted at ABLC)

More Like This, Please

I have a feeling this is only the first in what will be a long line of debunking Mitt Romney, Karl Rove, the Koch Brothers and the GOP in general over the next six months.


(Via Upworthy) 

 Here's the debunkification.

Presidential Campaign Season...

...starts early in New York City.

This billboard is on display on the Manhattan bound side of the 59th Street Bridge.



The picture on the left side of the billboard is of President Obama shaking hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas showing proof positive that Obama is anti-Israel. You know... sort of like this:



(Billboard photo sent to me by avid reader, Nowhere Man)

Seriously?

RNC: "As President Obama prepares to wing into Manhattan's theater district on Air Force One to take in a Broadway show, GM is preparing to file bankruptcy and families across America continue to struggle to pay their bills," the GOP said. "Have a great Saturday evening -- even if you're not jetting off somewhere at taxpayer expense."

I'm waiting for them to figure out the cost of security and gas every time President Obama decides to go out to lunch for a burger.

Hey, douchebags, he's the fucking President. Security is what is required especially in light of right wing extremism and domestic terrorism. I'm too lazy to do it, but it's only a matter of time before someone exposes this latest hypocrisy and finds a story of former President Bush taking Air Force One to a rodeo and tractor pull or some monster truck rally. Besides the fact that the RNC got their facts wrong again (as usual):

The president and first lady Michelle Obama flew to New York from Washington on what a White House press pool report called a Gulfstream-type plane, rather than one of the larger craft that serve as Air Force One, Politico reported.

The Obamas also reportedly paid for their own tickets and dinner. When the hypocrites figure out how much taxpayer money was spent on Bush's 900 vacation days with Air Force One flying to Crawford, TX practically every weekend, then maybe they'll see a little perspective. Until then, they should remember that Obama is president, he won the election and unless they have something of substance to say, they should just shut the fuck up.

O-BAM!-A

Morning Joke™ Off The Rails

Scarborough, Buchanan and TIME's Washington bureau chief Jay Carney are sitting around in DC waiting for the Chimp in Chief's latest poo flinging, talking about the negative ads released today by the RNC and the McCain campaign associating Ayers and Rezko to Obama. Nothing new, right? Then I heard this (paraphrasing):

Carney: I don't think the ads are going to work because people are scared to death about the economy.

Buchanan: McCain missed an opportunity because the market is tanking after this $700 billion bailout and he should have voted against it. He could've been "in the catbird seat" if he had voted against bailing out Wall Street.

Scarborough: Well, why did he vote for it?

Wait for it... Ready?


Buchanan: Because he's an "ESTABLISHMENT GUY." He voted with the majority.

Mika from the studio: Wait, I'm confused. I THOUGHT HE WAS A MAVERICK!

Carney: Well... he's a maverick within the establishment... he's on the edges of the establishment.

Time For Offense...

... from the Obama camp. The Rude One makes a great point in his post yesterday about McCain's heinous "sex" ad and that it's time to pull the ol' switcharoo on McCain.

... dear Obama campaign, you have to use the word "lie." You wanna make an ad about the Bridge to Nowhere? Call McCain and Palin's assertions "lies." People don't give a fuck about "exaggerations" or "misleading statements." That's lawyer talk.

... You want the best route? Here it is: emasculate John McCain. Use Palin to cut his nuts off. Constantly say shit like, "Am I running against John McCain or Sarah Palin?" or "If the Republicans wanted her to be president, they should have nominated her" or "Maybe Republicans are used to a vice president that runs the show" or whatever. Make McCain have to defend himself. Turn him into Palin's bitch. It'll make him insane. And if there's one thing that Republicans hate most about women, it's the perception of the castrating bitch telling men what to do (see all the shit about Hillary Clinton).

I'm all for it. How about you?

[Updated 4:55pm to add pic]

Straight Talk Goes Out The Window

Andrea Mitchell started to vindicate herself yesterday when taking on the GOP surrogates for McThuselah and stating the obvious - that McCain's new ad criticizing Obama for not visiting the troops because he couldn't bring cameras, or that he couldn't find time to visit them but found time to go to the gym is "literally not true", a kinder way of saying that the Maverick is a fucking liar.

I ripped Mitchell in the past for dumb remarks she's made towards Barack Obama, so I must give her kudos for acting like a journalist in this case. I suppose that even she can't let some of the McCain gaffes and specious lies go without calling them out for what they are - a betrayal of "straight talk" and "respectful campaigning," my friends.



Later in the day, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow took a look at McCain's record of how he supposedly supports the troops.



Hopefully as we get closer to the election, the reporting of John McCain will stray away from the St. Barbecue style that it has been to this point and will concentrate more on the gaffes, hypocrisy and inanity of some of his statements.

(H/T Jason Linkins, HuffPo)

UPDATE (7/30/08 10:45pm): More Andrea Mitchell -

MITCHELL: Did he make a bad call deciding not to go to Ramstein? He had every right to go to Ramstein, to visit the troops in Landstuhl. He had already been to visit the troops in Iraq. Without cameras, without an entourage. And he got-his people, rather-got so backed off by warnings from the Pentagon. Now please be careful, don’t bring your military aide, because he’s now a political aide. The Pentagon was way too aggressive probably in that. And they got so nervous: oh this is going to look political. And they were damned if they did or damned if they didn’t. Let me just finish what I was saying…just this one point…there was never any intention-let me be absolutely clear about this-the entourage was never going to go. There was never an intention to make this political. But by tacking it on to the tail end of a political-the political leg of the trip, they opened themselves up they feared to the criticism, and if they’d gone, they’d be criticized and not going, they were criticized and the McCain commercial on this subject is completely wrong! Factually wrong.