David Neiwert on Racism and the Right

A seminal post from David Neiwert subbing at Firedog on the relationship between extreme racism and the putative mainstream right. This beautiful and important piece of writing couldn't be more timely, coming hard on the heels of the immigration issue raising its controversial head. As JW says: It's more than must-read, it's a must-must-must-read and permanently bookmark.

Plamegate Touches Prez

From Raw Story: George Bush--the man who promised to punish the Plame leakers while doubting anyone would ever get to the bottom of it-- authorized the selective leaking of portions of the National Intelligence Estimate that were used in an attempt to discredit Ambassador Joe Wilson (husband of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame). This is all according to Scooter Libby who is claiming he had high level permission to smear Wilson with the secret info. Big news because it puts Wilson on Bush's radar, and shows that Scooter won't hesitate to implicate the president to save himself from jail time.

Hannity Embarrasses Self

With a little help from the brilliant and gutsy Mike Stark from Calling All Wingnuts. Listen to Mike counter the thin-skinned thug's desperate attempt to change the subject from Tom Delay. Hannity is reduced to cutting him off before launching into his stock Incoherent Monologue #3 in the hopes that people will forget he doesn't have the courage to let his caller respond. But only a cult member wouldn't notice--like his WMD dreams, it doesn't fly.

What is Wrong With These People?

Noted White House hand-maiden Hugh Hewitt recently said the following on CNN: HEWITT: "No, that's not right, because talk radio, when you look at Rush, at Sean, at myself, at Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, we all conduct ourselves appropriately on the air, or the FCC will smack -- smite -- smack us down.---So, I think what we have got is basically a monopoly on responsible new media on the center-right side, and talk radio is responsible new media, even though that fever swamp on the left, the Michael Moore-disease-ridden Democrats on the left, they don't want to admit that, so they won't. But, in fact, talk radio is quite responsible." Here's right wing talk show host Neil Boortz on Cynthia McKinney, the congresswoman involved in the incident on Capitol Hill: BOORTZ: For instance, or for goodness sakes, jump in and I'm gonna say -- I'm gonna start out with something controversial. I saw Cynthia McKinney's new hair-do. Have you seen it, Belinda? SKELTON: No. BOORTZ: She looks like a ghetto slut. Here's right wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh on the young black woman allegedly raped at Duke: LIMBAUGH: They're -- they're busy. They're busy. The Reverend Jackson is in New Orleans. He's leading a big march there tomorrow. The march is -- what is it called? The -- the march for the right to return a protected vote and reconstruction. He's trying to -- they got problems down in New Orleans. They don't have voter base, and Sharpton's working on a New Orleans deal, too. He's trying to figure out how he can get involved in the deal down there at Duke where the lacrosse team -- CALLER 1: Yeah. LIMBAUGH: -- uh, supposedly, you know, raped, some, uh, hos. A listen to the tape shows even Rush is disoriented and shocked by this unintended sharing of his real point of view. One can only hope that when and if the tide turns in 2006 and 2008, it will carry out this disease of right wing talk. They are even more dangerous to the future of the country than the administration they shill for. They've long since jettisoned any sense of decency, morality, or principle in favor of blind obedience to the Leader, and the country is sure to look back on them as the Roland Freislers of their time.