More Online Blowback on TNGOP Equivalence

The Crone Speaks and Ben Smith spoke.

How Involved Were the Higher Levels of the McCain Campaign in the Race Baiting Hoax?

NBC's Brian Williams reports that the campaign "steered" reporters to the the Ashley Todd allegations that she was attacked, fondled, and mutilated by an African American Obama supporter:

The Pennsylvania GOP communications director even offered the information that the "B" gouged into Ashley Todd's face stood for "Barack."

McCain Volunteer Admits to Police that She Fabricated Assault Story of Black Obama Activist/Attacker

Wonkette and lots of other sources are broadcasting a Pittsburg TV station report today that a McCain campaign volunteer's charges that she was assaulted last night by an Obama activist in a "bad part of Pittsburg" are an elaborate hoax that included self-mutiliation.

Also, a Fox News VP declared the McCain/Palin campaign "over" if this proved to be a hoax, given the involvement of race-baiting by a representative of the campaign. Heck, both McCain and Palin even alled the fabricator without waiting to see whether the story played out as true first.


UPDATE: Josh Marshall weighs in as only he can:

To say this is a dark moment does not do justice to the deep awfulness of this stunt. It's the metaphoric pedal-to-the-medal for the sleazy sub-rosa campaign of racial fear-mongering that so far has failed to derail Obama's candidacy.

There are many questions to be asked about who pushed this story yesterday afternoon and last night. A lot of explaining.

UPDATE: CC's Mack believes that the fabricator was put up to the hoax by the campaign.

Another Palin Republican Expresses Assassination Wish at Mean Girl's Rally

During a speech yesterday calling upon Barack Obama to come to Pennsylvania and "learn what the state's values are," one of the attending Republicans yelled, "Kill him!" The Palin campaign did nothing to rebuke the screamer. You're a classy "dish," Sarah Palin.


UPDATE: Sarah Palin allows a supporter to yell, "Obama bin Laden," without comment in spite of the McCain campaign's recent tactics to have the Senator look like he's rejecting terrorist lies about Barack Obama:

Don't forget this guy in Florida, who puts on a uniform and fires off salutes to give his spit ball partisanship the weight it would otherwise not have:

UPDATE: County GOP takes down website calling for Barack Obama to be waterboarded.

Saxby's "Bomb Obama" Supporters

TPM points out that down-ticket races, like that of Georgia's Saxby Chambliss, are manifesting the Republican thugs who would like to take out Barack Obama:

Chambliss supporters waved "Saxby" signs and offered up a sustained "boos" when Martin mentioned Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

"Bomb Obama," one woman hollered.

The Latest Racism Spawned in Williamson County

What exactly are they putting in the water in Williamson County, Tennessee that spawns the kind of belligerent prejudice we have seen recently? There was the Williamson County Republicans blaming Nashville's entire Kurdish community for the crimes of two gang members. There was vandalism of a car owned by an African American family in Franklin, Tennessee with racist graffiti telling them to "go back to Africa."

And now comes news via the AP, that Mark Whitlock and Bob DeMoss from Franklin, Tennessee traveled to what conservatives are ironically calling a "Value Voters Summit" and "briskly" sold boxes of waffle mix with Barack Obama caricatured in a racially and culturally insensitive fashion:

[The waffle box drawing] plays off the old image of the pancake-mix icon Aunt Jemima, which has been widely criticized as a demeaning stereotype. Obama is portrayed with popping eyes and big, thick lips as he stares at a plate of waffles and smiles broadly.

Placing Obama in Arab-like headdress recalls the false rumor that he is a follower of Islam, though he is actually a Christian. On the back of the box, Obama is depicted in stereotypical Mexican dress, including a sombrero."

Are these Williamson County's best and brightest citizens? Are they typical of what make Williamson County "America's Greatest County"? Are these the kind of values that conservatives at the "Family" Research Council mean when they apply the label, "Value Voters"? Doesn't calling people who deal in racist stereotypes "value voters" amount to Orwellian doublethink ("up is down," "right is left," etc.)? How can they be said to have values properly called human?


UPDATE: Franklin, Tennessee's good ol' boys rationalize their prejudice and the false innuendo they advertise on their mix. It's even more despicable than the AP report let on:

UPDATE: No surprise here but both mix makers have strong conservative evangelical ties. Bob Demoss has collaborated with religious extremist and theocrat, Tim LaHaye. According to his blog, Mark Whitlock has worked with Focus on the Family, which is run by Christian rightwinger James Dobson, who prayed for the weather to impede this year's Democratic National Convention.

DeMoss was unapologetic at the Christianity Today blog:

Does [Obama] have Muslim roots or not? That's a legitimate question. That might offend somebody, but you know what, that's part of the political satire.

Sounds like a page out of the TNGOP playbook to me.


UPDATE: A post celebrating Lou Dobbs' promotion of Obama Waffles has been scrubbed at the obama waffles blog. Not only did the CNN show host buy a box, but he exclaimed that his wife would love it. The story has gone national, hitting newspapers around the country, which is probably more racist-alleging publicity than Lou wanted.

Three In Nashville: A SPLC Map Of Hate Groups In Tennessee

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were three active hate groups working in Nashville last year:

1. Council of Conservative Citizens: "a reincarnation of the White Citizens Councils that sprang up in the South in the 1950s and 1960s to oppose school desegregation. Like the League of the South, a neo-confederate group to which it has many links, the 15,000-member Council has tried without success to mask its white supremacist ideology to better promote a right-wing political agenda."
2. Nation of Islam: "typically opposes integration and racial intermarriage, and they want separate institutions -- or even a separate nation -- for blacks .... strongly anti-white and anti-Semitic, and ... asserts that blacks -- not Jews -- are the Biblical 'chosen people' of God."
3. National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan: "with its mystique and its long history of violence, is the most infamous -- and oldest -- of American hate groups. Although blacks have typically been the Klan's primary target, it also has attacked Jews, immigrants, homosexuals and, until recently, Catholics. Over the years since it was formed in December 1865, the Klan has typically seen itself as a Christian organization, although in modern times Klan groups are motivated by a variety of theological and political ideologies."

The SPLC has a map of hate groups in Tennessee. Plus it links to a list of hate incidents in the state. Worth a look.