A history of violence

Teens charged in fatal beating of Mexican immigrant

This just chilled me.  I fail to understand that level of hatred and brutality, and how people like this even still exist.

...Also, I'm almost afraid of what position Lou Dobbs will take.

Backed into a corner

When I heard the story about the Muslim women being denied seats behind Obama, I was seething. But not entirely for the reason you might think.

I absolutely DO NOT condone the treatment that the two women received. It was a regrettable error in judgement. HOWEVER, I understand exactly why it was done. Obama is backed into a corner - he would have been fucked if they'd sat behind him just as much as he was fucked because they were refused the spot (moreso for the former, probably).

We are looking at a man who has had to open up a website in the midst of his campaign in order to combat the lies and completely false smears that have plagued him from the right. If you can tell me that you honestly believe that a shot of him with those women behind him wouldn't have been plastered all over Faux News and been pasted into those ridiculous "Obama is a Muslim" emails and twisted every which way, then you're a moron.

That said, it's still really unfortunate that the ladies in question were shunned the way they were, and it sends a really shitty message.

I have also, from the start, taken the stance when I've seen those silly e-mails that falsely state Obama's religion as Islam that I had more of a problem with the insinuation that being a Muslim is something bad than the fact that it's just simply not the guy's religion. These willfully ignorant assclowns who buy into this shit seem to believe that all Muslims are terrorists, not at all taking into account that those who perpetrate terrorism are fringe extremists - fundamentalists. So by their "rationale," all Christians shoot doctors and blow up clinics. Um, no. Stereotyping is such an ugly, ugly thing.

Still, I must admit, I've taken the position - and it seems like most have, that the importance of the "what's wrong with being a Muslim" argument is overshadowed by "here are the facts, look at that and let's get him into office." I guess that's really just playing to peoples' prejudice to achieve the ends that we as Democrats want out of 2008, but things are bad and I just don't think I can stand what would effectively end up as another term of Bush. What I'm saying is, let's tackle this one thing at a time. I don't know. I feel guilty.

I just want to see him in the White House so bad it hurts.

Mehwidge

I was going to post a link to "The California Supreme Court's attack on marriage," an ugly little piece written by the Family Reseach Council's President*, but why? It made me outrageously mad (The Tatie says I should choose to be amused at the stupidity, but it's hard to laugh at hate speech), so why link it to upset other people. However, if you need a little red hot anger to spice up your evening, it should be easy to find.

Instead, how about some adorable little old ladies getting married?! Found it by way of Newscoma.

*I prefer Asshole-in-Chief

Republicans: Not Warm and/or Fuzzy

A couple of months ago Jack Cafferty cited an article (I can't remember what publication, and I'm not really having any luck googling it***) that basically stated that the Republican nominee would have a hard time getting tough if Obama ended up being the Democratic nominee because they were going to have to really be careful not to say things that would be perceived as being racist. Republicans are not historically known for being warm and fuzzy toward other races or civil rights, so I think there's a good point to be found there.

I don't like that this country hasn't progressed enough for race not even to be a factor, but I'm also not bothered that Republicans/McCain may either a) have to tread lightly against my guy or b) fuck up and say the wrong thing (I think McCain will be extra careful not to do it, but I see it as highly likely that people within the party will end up making huge missteps - whether intentional or not - as far as things that aren't ok to say . . . like I said, not exactly warm and fuzzy with people who look differently/love differently/feel differently/believe differently) if it's going to help those swing voters turn blue.

I found an article today that went into this a bit:

Race issue may prove tricky for McCain campaign

***UPDATED 8:09 p.m.***

I found it! Cafferty paraphrased:

The Republicans are the party of Macaca and Katrina and race relations aren't their long suit. And it could prove awkward for them to get aggressive in a campaign against a black candidate.

The op-ed piece, "Who's Afraid of Barack Obama?" by Frank Rich ran in The New York Times back in December.

It really only touched on the above point I was trying to make, but still...

Way to go, Board of Education!

Metro's Board of Education has extended their policy against discrimination of employees to include sexual orientation, and is apparently one of the few school systems in Tennessee to make such an inclusion.

Metro BOE updates policy to protect GLBT people