Not long after posting some information about my new book, Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters, I got a strange email, possibly from the KKK.

Standing on a street corner and shouting in abstract terms about how various demographics are going to be punished ... is legal. Protected speech.

Every disgusting thing the KKK says about black people, Jews, atheists, gay people and whoever else isn't sufficiently white and right ... is legal. They're allowed to say it, and we're allowed to think they're insane.

Saying "God hates America! God damns America!" is not only legal but liable to get played on national television for way longer than it should be. (Lying about foreign intelligence to get Congress to declare war on a foreign country is apparently not as big of a deal. Huh.)

Suggesting that the Holocaust was a good thing AND God-ordained is legal. In this country, anyway. In most of Europe, suggesting something that goes against modern thought, at least as concerns the Holocaust, is a great way to go breaking the law.

We owe these and other facts of life in America to Brandenburg v. Ohio, a court case settled on this date in 1969. It established the "imminent lawless action" test for protected speech.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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TPM is all over this:

Back in February, there was a brief to-do when it was claimed that the KKK had endorsed Barack Obama for President. The "story" fell apart when it was shown that the source was the Daily Squib, a satirical UK faux news source with a mission (and a credibility) somewhere between the National Enquirer and The Onion.

Then yesterday, a video popped up on YouTube which purports to show a Ku Klux Klan spokesman endorsing John McCain for President. Is it a fake? A fraud? A hoax? Take a look:

Surprisingly, this might not be a hoax at all. There are a number of lines of evidence that suggest that this video could be the real deal.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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This is getting good. Scary how a false story gets propelled into news... Here's the time line:

-- On February 7, 2008 the UK based comedy satire site The Daily Squib posts a joke article titled: Ku Klux Klan Endorses Obama. This joke post becomes an "internet rumor" which is pretty quickly sourced and debunked by Snopes.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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Welcome to NEPA. Pronounced "Enn Ee Pee Ay", a place where Interstates 80 and 81 meet and where The Office calls its fictional home.

Northeast Pennsylvania is going to be ground zero for the PA Primary. Clinton was at Scranton High School on Monday, and her connection to the area (her father, descended from English and Welsh coal miners, was Scranton born) is still apparent.

But I want to address Geraldine Ferraro. And how her statements remind me of another politician with Italian ancestry.

More on the flip...

I remember vividly when Tiger won his fist golf tournament.  Despite the fact that a lot of African Americans that I knew did not care about golf at time, they left everything they were doing to see history in the making.  They did this not just to support Tiger, but also to reserve a memorial for their children’s upbringing.   Too often, the media and textbooks helps to remind Blacks that they are actually low and insignificant, but every other moment, someone steps up to the plate to remind us that we are actually as good as everyone else, if not better.  This is what Tiger meant for a brief moment until he said that he was not Black in a nation that has a law which says that one drop or 0.1% of Black blood in an individual makes him Black.  Tiger is 50% Black, but says he is Cablasian.  

I have relocated to the United States for a while now, and I now live in Atlanta, Georgia.  It is a place that prides itself as the heart of the South in American history.  From an African American point of view, the southern heritage represents slavery, segregation, inhumanity, lynching, social restriction, political stagnation, and ultimately, the spirit of ignorance, destitute, and rejection.  The Americans of Europeans descent see it as a time and systems of supremacy, exploitation of free labor for underserved gain, and the convenience of a controlled dependant and consuming class without power.  

Fascism does not spring up fully formed overnight, like Athena from the head of her father Zeus. Its architects build the foundation slowly, then they begin to invite people in, one at a time, then in groups of tens, then hundreds, then millions. At first, it is a radical fringe group. A hate movement that no one would admit to being affiliated with. Then, it is a right wing party. Then, it is a player. Then----

When does it become fascism?

This is all conjecture. Let it be known right now. This is not an investigative report.  That said ...

Where have all the Klansmen gone? And, the skin-heads? How about those Neo-Nazis? I mean, weren't we hearing about all of these groups as recently as the 90's:

Three white men with suspected ties to the Ku Klux Klan chained James Byrd Jr. (a Black hitchhiker) to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him to his death.

Don't get me wrong. I'd be happy to know that none of this nonsense is going on anymore. But, just because we're not hearing anything - does that mean everything is ok?

Right before YearlyKos, O'Reilly was going after this community like never before. One of his craziest attacks was  in this exchange with Diane Brady of Business Week Magazine where he compared us to the KKK:

"...this is hate of the worst order. It's like the Ku Klux Klan. It's like the Nazi party."

Many of you know where I'm going with this and I don't think I'm making that big of a jump. More on the flip.

The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).  This is Title XXI of the Social Security Act and is jointly financed by the Federal and State governments and administered by the States...SCHIP provides a capped amount of funds to States on a matching basis for Federal fiscal years (FY) 1998 through 2007. Federal payments under title XXI to States are based on State expenditures under approved plans effective on or after October 1, 1997. (emphasis mine)

SCHIP expires at the end of 2007 so Congress renewed it.  Even though SCHIP is a successful health insurance program for millions of children from working, low income families, The Decider had vowed to veto it and promptly did so.

Redneck Timmy's Dad thought The Decider was right and Timmy wrote him to tell him so.  Follow me down under for the conversation...

Rocky Mountain News' Saturday history column

The column, written by a Denver historian, talks about someone who blamed legal and illegal immigration for the woes of Colorado...much like Tom Tancredo and several other Republicans running for president are doing now.

You can't build a movement on a philosophy that ultimately consumes its members.

This is the lesson that has been lost on The Imperial Klans of America, who have set up shop in the tiny Western Kentucky city of Dawson Springs. The group, which claims at least 23 chapters in 17 states, has taken over a 28-acre compound. The group is led by Ronald Edwards, 47, who earns money with painting and contracting jobs. He lives on the group's property with a girlfriend and two young children.

I'm one of those people who watched Bill Maher's "Real Time" and heard the two black panelists asking the question: How come none of the national media have picked up on this story?

So, I've been watching it trickle into national consciousness, culminating in yesterday's massive non- violent protests (and the scum-sucking Klansmen and Kewpie Dolls from Hell™ of the Rightie blogosphere proving that Jim Crow is alive, well, and running the "Party of Lincoln"