Hate Talk Express

According to a report from the Los Angeles Times, noted conservative activist Grover Norquist:

termed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee "John Kerry with a tan."

I don't know whether Karl Rove's latest observation to Republicans about how to message on Obama is "Hate Talk" or just plain old fashioned delusion...

"Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."

For so many reasons, whether as an observation or a messaging strategy, this is just plain crazy.

June 23

The Next Right kicked off the attacks yesterday in a blog post by lagomorph, who attempts to suggest that by keeping tabs on the racism and hate speech in this campaign, Hate Talk Express is run by a bunch of communists. Wow, what an original line of attack from the right wing. (Private aside to Lagomorph, just to clarify, I'm not a communist.)

Lagomorph also helpfully points out that the reason Cal Thomas likes to talk about "angry black women" and Michelle Obama in the same breath is because, "he is merely commenting on observable facts." Of course it isn't racist. Thanks for clearing that up, Lago.

Noted conservative blogger Patrick Ruffini calls Barack Obama a "douche" in his latest post at new right-wing blog site The Next Right. He ends the piece, where he attacks Obama's graphic design team in a silly non sequitur, with the slam for the Obama campaign translating "Yes we can" into Latin.

And yes, that is an attempt at translating "Yes, we can" into Latin. What a douche.

The Associated Press today repeated unfounded smears against Michelle Obama in their daily news feed to small radio and newspapers.

The AP wrote:

The Obama campaign is trying to react quickly to reports againist Michelle Obama. She was quoted as saying that she had never been proud of America in her adult life. She has been trying to improve her image with appearance today on "The View". She is reported to have made remarks about whitey in a speech at a church in Chicago.

At Fight The Smears, the Obama campaign makes it clear that there is no tape of Michelle Obama:

No such tape exists. Michelle Obama has not spoken from the pulpit at Trinity and has not used that word.

From Trail Blazers blog:

While a number of speakers -- such as Railroad Commission chairman Michael Williams and Mike Huckabee -- have praised the advance of Barack Obama and what it means towards a colorblind society, at least one vendor hasn't gotten the message.

At the Republican state convention, a booth hosted by Republicanmarket was selling a pin Saturday that says: If Obama is President will we still call it the White House.

In a strange exchange between former Maryland Governor (and hoping to be Governor again someday) Bob Ehrlich and a caller on his radio talk show this week, the Governor seemed to imply, in agreeing with a caller, that should Obama get elected, we will get some sort of civil war between the Black Panthers and the KKK.

Here is a transcript of the exchange:

Dee (Female Caller): "I think that if he (Barack Obama) is elected President that you will have all these people coming out of the woodwork - the militants, the Muslims, the Black Panthers - and then on the white side you will have the Ku Klux Klan with the skinheads. I mean they will be empowered because they will be, all these people will be emboldened with all this hate. And I don’t see how that’s going to heal this county because, huh, this is what we’ll have to deal with. "

Gov. Ehrlich: "Dee, I wish I could clone you. I wish I could clone you (laughter). I know it’s illegal."

Racist Comments on the subject of "angry black women" June 16, 2006

MSNBC's Dan Abrams reported in his "Beat the Press" segment of his show "Verdict" that Fox News Commentator Cal Thomas said the following, as part of a discussion about Michelle Obama:

Look at the image of African American women who are on television: politically, you have Maxine Waters of California, a liberal democrat, she's always angry every time she gets on television. Cynthica McKinney, the former congresswoman from Georgia was another "angry black woman." And who are the black women you see on the local news at night in cities all over the country? They're usually angry about something.

Moewampum.com is a web site that advertises and sells racist T-shirts portraying Barack Obama as a monkey holding a banana, appearing similar to the children's storybook character Curious George.

Moe Wampum, Inc. is run by Gary Mittin and is registered as a 527 political organization. On June 11, 2008, ads featuring the racist monkey shirt appeared on The Raw Story, which later published an article about Moe Wampum. Ads also appeared on NewsBusters and Wonkette.