Andy Young should know better, but when you lie down with dogs . . .

The civil rights leader Andrew Young, who was hired by Wal-Mart to improve its public image, resigned from that post last night after telling an African-American newspaper that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had “ripped off” urban communities for years, “selling us stale bread, and bad meat and wilted vegetables.”

In the interview, published yesterday in The Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly, Mr. Young said that Wal-Mart “should” displace mom-and-pop stores in urban neighborhoods.

“You see those are the people who have been overcharging us,” he said of the owners of the small stores, “and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs.”

To be fair, he did walk the statement back, but according to the article he merely tried to narrow it down to Atlanta's locality and distance the statement from his civil rights record.  But the "retraction" lacked an outright apology or denouncement of the offensive statement.

“It’s against everything I ever thought in my life,” Mr. Young said. “It never should have been said. I was speaking in the context of Atlanta, and that does not work in New York or Los Angeles.”

I almost expect this kind of glib, almost casual racism from Wingnuttistan, which is no more endearing than a Louis Farrakahn or David Duke screed, just more subtle.  I expect a lot better from someone who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and represented this nation to the world as our UN Ambassador.

My observations that the Malkinization of right wing discourse has long concealed an innate and thinly disguised prejudice which can't help but bubble to the surface despite best intentions is hardly new, and "reverse racism" on the left is not necessarily a different phenomenon.  "Yeah, but they do it too," is still a vestige of "separate but equal," and in no way absolves anyone's bad behavior.

Fighting fire with fire is no answer.  The "Melting Pot" represents the best and the worst of this nation.  We are a great and successful nation because of (and not despite) our diversity -- yet that diversity brings divergent groups into direct competition and conflict.

What you don't see is a universal, instinctive condemnation and suppression of such behavior unless committed by a public figure.  If xenophobia, prejudice and racial stereotyping are somehow an ingrained human condition, that we're predisposed to it, it still does not offer any excuse.  But I wonder if a concerted effort to completely eliminate it is indeed possible.  For some, such feelings are so ingrained they become manifest in disgusting ways that indicate an even deeper problem.

Supposing that such tendencies are "natural," whether learned or genetic (my bet is on learned), it's possible to analogize it to displays of sexual attraction.  A "wolf whistle" directed at an attractive young lady could be the equivalent of a racial slur, although one communicates desirability while the other quite the opposite.  Possibly a better comparison would be an unwanted sexual advance likened to racial profiling, both offensive to the recipient.  Sex and race preferences/discrimination are both illegal when considered in an employment situation, and unacceptable stereotyping is discouraged in social interaction whether bigoted in nature or a suggestion that "slutty" dress encourages sexual abuse.

However, no one would consider that the subtext of a drive-by "Yo, Baby!" at the construction site should justify calls to eliminate the underlying healthy sexual attraction manifested by the crude behavior.  There is nothing "healthy" about the subconscious source of bigotry.  It has absolutely no social benefit, as does procreation, and a casual display cannot be "laughed off," even in a social situation.

For the vast majority of people who understand that "no means no," and have no trouble resisting the urge to act out sexual desires, overt racism should be easily reduced to the unrepentant deviant or a thoughtless gaff, instantly recognized as beyond mere bad taste by the speaker him/herself, retracted and apologized for without prompting and with no absurd attempt at justification.

Just as "no means no," wrong is always wrong, period.

Read this, and the comments.  Decide for yourself.  I don't believe that running to get absolution from your hand-picked echo-chamber to excuse your overt racism addresses the underlying problem.

So here's the truth: something really evil came out of me recently. I just wanted to hurt him. I wanted to get under his skin and really make him mad. He'd really pissed me off.

So I lashed out and said I'd like to break his f**king Jew nose.

[snip]

Was it a moment in unmasking my own racism or anti-semitism? Or was it a moment about just trying to be mean and hurtful?

Talks, walks and acts like a duck . . .  Humorous that the implied question is whether he's an irredeemably horrible human, or just an ass, as if that makes it okay.  But I think there's more, much more underneath the rage.

Wiki:  Central to understanding individuals diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder is that they appear to experience a limited range of human emotions; however this should be regarded critically due to current lack of exploring emotional response in detail even in animals. This can explain the lack of empathy for the suffering of others, since they cannot experience emotion associated with either empathy or suffering. Risk-seeking behavior and substance abuse may be attempts to escape feeling empty or emotionally void. The rage exhibited by psychopaths and the anxiety associated with certain types of antisocial personality disorder may represent the limit of emotion experienced, or there may be physiological responses without analogy to emotion experienced by others.

There is no statute of limitations for aggravated arson in Illimois (where the offense was committed), a class 1 felony, or for concealment of such an act.  For over a score of years, the lack of empathy, or social responsibility, has enabled this admitted alcoholic to conceal a crime that is no less egregious than murder or rape.

While our antagonist ruminates on whether an overt act of racism makes him a racist, or merely indicative of an isolated outburst of hate (something he screams about as despicable in everyone with whom he disagrees), he misses his own admitted 25 year long culpability in a crime of the highest order.

I mean, you know, when it comes to race-hate, I've seen it. I can give you that young man's name--the young man who threw the molotov cocktail into that poor woman's apartment window. I know his name even now, some 25 years later, even though no one else does (well except one or two of my homies who I know reads this blog now and then).

Disgusting.  I knew Dean Esmay was the embodiment of a whole host of vial human tendencies, but now you can add felon to the list.  That he was a juvenile at the time of the arson may or may not protect him from criminal liability, but bears no excuse for this continued concealment of the perpetrator as a adult.  Morally reprehensible doesn't even begin to cover it.

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing' -- Someone very wise, but not Burke

Via Quaoar's KOS diary: quoting an LA Times story picked up by the Statesman (LA Times link not yet available).

In Fallujah, meanwhile, hundreds of newly recruited police officers failed to show up for work Sunday after insurgents disseminated pamphlets threatening officers who stayed on the job, according to police officials in the restive western city.

"We will kill all the policemen infidels," read the pamphlets, "whether or not they quit or are still in their jobs."

Fallujah Police Lt. Mohammed Alwan said that the force, which he estimated had increased to more than 2,000, has shrunk to only 100. Alwan said insurgents have killed dozens of policemen in their homes and also attacked family members in a weeks-long intimidation campaign.

A Fallujah police major, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that at least 1,400 policemen had left their jobs since Friday, 400 of them police officials above the rank of officer.

Marine Lt. Lawton King, who is stationed in Fallujah, called those figures "inaccurate and grossly exaggerated," saying that only 32 police officers had been assassinated since January and that "substantially fewer than the exaggerated 1,400" officers had failed to report for work.

This KOS diary by Farmbo reminded me of the story I saw in this morning's Toledo Blade, way before coffee had reached my brain.  It makes me want to remind every Ohio citizen voting for Democrats this fall to remember to bring your ID and proof of residency.  And it wouldn't hurt to "misplace" your Republican uncle's driver's license the day before the election, not that it would matter if he "looks" like a Republican.

BWC tried to keep $215M loss under wraps prior to '04 vote: "COLUMBUS - Less than a week before the 2004 presidential election, Jim Conrad, then head of the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, took steps to ensure that a $215 million investment loss in an offshore hedge-fund would not become public, documents obtained by The Blade show."

Between Governor Taft's appointees covering up the scandal that led to the conviction of Bush fundraiser Tom Noe in "Coingate," and the New York Times facilitating the Oval Office's suppression of the NSA wiretapping scandal -- both of which were known but not made public before the 2004 Presidential election -- Ohio Democrats have a lot to be angry about.

Add to all this the very idea that instead of appealing to integrity and honor, House GOP Leader John Boehner implored his fellow Ohio Congressman, Bob Ney, (affectionately known as Representative #1) to step down, "for the children."  His own.

House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) met with Ney last week to urge him to step aside, reminding him that with a son in college and a daughter nearing college age, he will need money, according to several congressional Republican aides.  If he lost his House seat for the party, Boehner is said to have cautioned, Ney could not expect a lucrative career on K Street to pay those tuition bills, along with the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees piling up.  [my emphasis]

The Ohio Attorney General has ruled that state Senator Joy Padgett is not precluded by the "sore loser" statute from running for Rep. Bob Ney's (R-OH) seat.

But that was no suprise to Ohio Democrats; Ohio's Attorney General is Jim Petro, who was Padgett's running mate in this year's gubernatorial election.

"The fix is in," Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Brian Rothenberg told me, who added that the party's lawyers would "probably take action" to halt Padgett's bid.

In France, you can't even get away with taking a Viagra before a silly bike race.  If they could prove that the Browns and the Cavaliers were "fixing" point spreads, or the Indians were throwing games, there'd be riots on Euclid Avenue.  Push some inconvenient voters in the wrong direction, undermine our very democracy, and it's just business as usual.

Of course, the last time we witnessed any serious Ohio activists challenging a Republican administration, both in Columbus and Washington DC, there were funerals at Kent State.

The incomparable Bob Somerby should always be consulted when thinking about a meta-story about media bias, and the Daily Howler seldom disappoints.

For forty-plus years, they’ve yelled “liberal bias”—going all the way back to a time when the complaint might have been justified (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 2/14/03). And now, at long last, just this week, Mike Allen has written a “news report” so perfectly awful that we can finally, definitively say it—after reading Allen’s “news report,” you’d really have to be out of your mind to believe in that tired old cry.

There is "bias" in the media -- but I wouldn't call it "liberal."  It's not necessarily conservative either.  There's an institutional bias in favor of covering the publication's own ass.

Without fear of exaggeration, the New York Times made decisions in the fall of 2004 that altered the course of world history.   Where does it say that it's ethical to withhold information that would influence an election?  News is news.  Like the Rush song says:

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

To be fair, if Ohio hadn't been stolen had gone Kerry's way, the Time's decision to sit on the NSA domestic spying story wouldn't have been as crucial.  As it turned out, publication of the story at the time they learned of this clearly unconstitutional invasion of Americans' liberties would have swept Kerry into office.

They admittedly sat on a story that would have would have erupted ten times worse than the firestorm already witnessed --  with calls for the heads of all involved.  Of course, that wouldn't change the current polarized political climate.  Santorum would still be calling journalists "traitors."  The difference being that he would likewise be charging that the President of the United States was a co-conspirator with those treasonist boogeymen.

This isn't just sour grapes.  With a Kerry presidency, and the certain allegations that he was aided and abetted in his election bid, the chances of wrenching Congress from the GOP's sticky fingers would be a pipe-dream instead of the very realistic chance of it happening that it is today.  It would have also doomed John Kerry to a one-term administration.

Timing is indeed everything.

Never let it be said that when I make an error of judgment, I can't be persuaded I was mistaken.  More importantly, be it known that I am all too willing to acknowledge that the proper thing to do is to publicly admit my blunder.

So, here goes:  I should never have given the Roviavellians in the White House even the slightest benefit of the doubt that they were not purposely politicizing the "liquid bomb threat."  At the risk of violating Drum's Law, I'll do a little "nutpicking" on myself and retract this otherwise rational and reserved assessment.  They knew about this kind of threat long ago, and went after granny's nailclippers instead of the obvious.

WASHINGTON - While the British terror suspects were hatching their plot, the Bush administration was quietly seeking permission to divert $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new homeland explosives detection technology.  [HT-Cloverdale]

They politicize EVERYTHING.  It's pathological.  The only thing that makes me certain that they were not in complete control of the timing of the British round up of the terrorist suspects planning to blow up trans-Atlantic flights with exploding Gatoraide bottles, is that the arrests and subsequent alerts did not happen Monday -- in time to affect the Lamont/Lieberman election -- as O'Reilly and Hannity desired.  Had our British cousins been more trusting of Dick Cheney's ability to restrain himself from using classified information to political advantage (prudently, they were not), the White House certainly would have exerted irresistable pressure for Scotland Yard to move up their time-table enough to assist Joe Lieberman (which you can't spell without "lie").

I came across a wonderfully written call to arms against the fear mongers at Black Sky Theory (wherein the GOP puts so many targets up in the air it's impossible to concentrate your outrage on a single atrocity, and the media tells us it's just dark out).

Brothers and sisters......they've got us afraid of fucking toothpaste.

And when I say "they", of course, I'm referring to the Bush Administration.  Fear is their tool, their weapon, their friend.  They are using fear to cower the populace.  They are engaging in terrorism against the American people. No, they aren't blowing up office buildings, but as noted above, that's not the objective of terrorism.  The objective of terrorism is to create fear among the civilian populace, and that is what they have done and that is what they continue to do.  When a suicide bomber blows up a candy store, he is engaging in high level terrorism from a low-level platform; when Bush, or Cheney, or Lieberman, or Hannity invoke boogeymen such as Osama bin Laden, or Ned Lamont, or Markos Moulitsas, they are engaging in low-level terrorism from a high-level platform.  The only valid metric by which we can compare the two is by calculating the number of people they frighten.  And many, many Americans are frightened enough to vote Republican.

Roosevelt said "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."  The fear-mongers in Washington and in the media are whipping up a fresh batch of fear every goddamn day. We have to take them on one frightened neighbor at a time.  Make an effort to ease the fear of a Republican voter today. Tell them it's going to be OK.  Remind them that America is strong.  We weren't afraid of the British in 1776, we weren't afraid of the Nazis in 1944, and we have nothing to fear but the fears that are implanted in us.  Some kid with a bottle of Sierra Mist is not coming to Minneapolis, or Indianapolis, or Gallapolis, or Kannapolis to kill us. Take them by the hand as you would a small child, and alleviate their fear.  Tell them to suck it up and be as brave as their fathers and mothers, their grandfathers and grandmothers.  Tell them to quit being such a bunch of fucking pussies.  Tell them "Fuck Fear!"  And remind them that millions of their fellow Americans, armed with pitchforks and torches, will protect them.

Ken Mehlman is all over Ohio, wound up like the little robot he is, already primed with his "Democrats are pussies" talking points at the ready painting 60% of Americans as defeatist weaklings.  Shrub himself let's loose with an LGF patented "Islamic-Fascist" quote, which insults Muslims and trivialized the danger posed by fascism (otherwise know as unbridled corporatism, or neoconservatism).  Meanwhile Lord Cheney of the Sith and his pet poodle spins the bedwetting meme that Connecticut just voted for Osama himself.

What cogent piece of reality brought me to the light?  There was, of course, the timing.  They knew this was coming for two weeks now -- and were just itching to let loose.  They're also primed with the watch-word that strikes fear into every independently minded voter when courting the Democratic Party instead of Republican orthodoxy, quickly sending them under their piss-stained matress -- Al Qaeda.

• I certainly looks like al Qaeda.
• It would have been spectacular (if you can characterize mass-murder that way), just like al Qaeda.
• It involved planes, al Qaeda has a thing for planes.
• Explosive Slurpies certainly count as "improvised," and al Qaeda loves them some IED's.
• The scale of the thing, and it's "sophistication" is just like al Qaeda -- except for the getting caught part.

If we had just caught the 38th number three guy in al Qaeda, don't you think Bush would have announced that loud and clear instead of all the conjecture and insinuation that al Qaeda might be, probably could, looks like they're responsible?  Has al Qaeda ever been reluctant to take credit?  But is it really al Qaeda?  Well, maybe.

I haven't decided which is worse, a still dangerous bin Laden led organization, or that their methods have been mimicked -- that al Qaeda is more a idea than an actual enemy to be defeated.  Apparently, the administration thinks that they'd rather go with the idea that they've thusfar failed to defeat our declared foe than admit they've created even more.  At least then they can claim a victory today.  You'd think they could just go with that, but no.

After two solid days of Demo-Bashing, his points having been etched in the now "so yesterday" Lieberaman/Lamont spin wars, the Kenny's (Mehlman as he helps out the increasingly irrelevant Blackwell) tell us, "instead of focusing on political attacks, we should focus on the fact that we are at war."  Sounds like someone got a new memo because the public ain't buying it  -- and he should take his own advice.

After all, these are the folks who see the population of Haifa living in their basements as an "opportunity" and the demolition of the entire state of Lebanon merely "birth pangs."

The fact is, with this crew they never give you a chance to give them the benefit of the doubt even when you want to.  On everything, they come out swinging for political advantage.  The last time I can remember when Bush acted like the leader of the Nation instead of leader of the Republican Party, his approval rating soared into the 90's (even though at the time I remarked that under the circumstances a trained monkey could have delivered his speech standing on top of that mass grave in Midtown Manhattan and gotten all of America behind him).  Since September of '01, it's been straight downhill. 

Now we're wallowing in the gutter with the administration hacks seizing each and every opportunity to turn tragedy and terror into a boon for the GOP.  If they spent half their energy fighting terrorists instead of liberals, we'd all feel a lot safer.  It's simply callous.

Keep this in mind about the Cheney administration as they head into the midterms.  They want you to be as afraid as they are.  And they're scared to death.

They aren't afaird of terrorists, don't be silly.  The administration's fortunes are completely intertwined with the continuation, not the defeat, of a terrorist threat.  They're afraid of answering for their crimes if they lose control of their Rubber-stamp Congress.  We desperately need a check on this White House to restore the balance where enemies were fought to quell our worst fears, instead exploiting those fears for political gain.

Where is the "tough on crime" crowd when this crap happens?

CLEVELAND — Election officials in Cuyahoga County have replaced seven of the 13 electronic voting machines assigned to a church in suburban Cleveland because the seals were not intact. Elections director Michael Vu says the seals were in place when the machines were sent to the North Olmsted church, but they were either completely or partially removed when checked at the polling place.

Tuesday’s special election is the county’s first since a slew of problems in the May primary that led to delayed results and an outside investigation.

(Via Suburban Guerrilla.)

The mainstream press will lead tomorrow's conventional wisdom that bloggers must die.  It doesn't matter if Lieberman wins or loses, online activists will be blamed for the loss or blamed for leading the Democratic Party off the cliff.  We're evil, period.

An exhausted Chris Bowers sums it up:

Wednesday will be the worst day of press for the progressive netroots in years.  If Lamont loses, we will be branded as ineffectual, irrelevant, extremist, and destructive.  If Ned Lamont wins, we will be branded as powerful, relevant, extremist, and destructive.

The days of wealthy board-room execs deciding the fate of the planet are not over, yet, but you are witnessing the very, very, very beginning of their demise.

Economic analysis can be a tedious chore, at least for me.  Number crunching was never my passion.  Fortunately Hale Stewart at BOPnews -- Complete Refutation of New GOP Economic Talking Points is more than willing to do my homework for me.

Raw Story is claiming it has obtained a copy of the GOP election playbook.  All of the points made therein are crap -- as in pure crap.  Assuming this is the true playbook, here are the basic rebuttals to the economic claims made therein.  This information is free to all to use.

If you only take away one fact from Stewart's analysis, here's the clincher:

Even using the Republicans incorrect figures, the economy is only creating about 158,000 jobs/month.  The economy has to create 150,000/month to keep up with population growth.  In other words - using their numbers - the rate of job growth still stinks.

Other quick points?