"Veep"

Now that Donald trump is firmly on his way to becoming the republican nominee for president of these divided states of America, it might be time for him to start looking for a running mate.

Just in case any of Donald's peeps are reading this blog, I would like to make a few suggestions.

1. Charles Barkley-Pros: Charles would help Donald with the male African American vote. Chuck also has a high profile because of his past professional sporting life, and he spends a lot of time on ESPN, so this might help trump with the white male vote as well. Also, like the man that he would be running with, Charles is known for speaking his mind. Cons: Sometimes Charles tends to speak first and think later, and he is from a state (Alabama) that trump is already going to win, so it might not necessarily be a good strategic move for trump to pick Sir Charles.

2. Paula Deen-Pros: I think they have shared views about "the blacks". Trump will also more than likely be running against Hillary, so having a woman on his ticket will help with the female vote. Cons: Their shared views about "the blacks", and Paula Deen's age. (I know she is only 69, but she can't be healthy with all that fried food that she likes to cook.)

3. Clint Eastwood- Pros: This pick would reinforce trump's tough guy straight talking cred with his base, and it might help get him votes in California with all its electoral college votes. Cons: A real debate opponent might give Clint some problems. Just a few years ago we saw him struggle with a chair.

4. Sarah Palin-Pros: Nothing gets a certain type of republican fired up like the name Sarah Palin. Cons: It's Sarah Palin.

5. Caitlyn Jenner- Pros: Let's face it, this pick would help show America that republicans can be progressive when it comes to social issues. Also, Caitlyn dislikes Hillary and is a strong conservative. Cons: Trump supporters might give her a hard time when they campaign together in the bible belt, and trump's jealousy of her hair might prevent him from warming up to her.  

6.  Megyn Kelly- Pros: He would be showing FOX viewers that he values their vote, and he would be showing America that he is not as petty as he seemed earlier in the campaign season. Cons: He would spend too much time on the campaign trail trying to hit on her.     

7.  Peyton Manning- Pros: He is out of football now so he has some time on his hand. Also, he would definitely help in the swing state of Colorado. Cons: Peyton would probably want to be the one calling al the shots, and this would definitely not sit well with trump. ("Peyton, I am not one of your dumb offensive linemen".)

8. Stacey Dash- Pros: She is a black female, so trump could claim that his campaign is inclusive. Cons: She is Stacey Dash.

9. Ted Nugent- Pros: Ted would really fire up trump's base and get them to the polls. Cons: Ted would really fire up blacks folks and get them to the polls.

10. Donald Trump- Pros: No one loves trump as much as trump, and not choosing a running mate would send a signal to the country that he can do it all alone. Cons: The members of the  electoral college would choose one for him, and there is no telling who they would select.  

*Pic from washingtonpost.com

How low can she go?

OK, I get it right-wingnuts take a break from the personal responsibility meme long enough for Sarah Palin to blame Barack Obama for her son putting a beat down on his girlfriend.

Let's forget, for a minute, that Palin's son Track (yes, that's his name), was drunk, and that he never saw "a second" of actual combat before his alleged PTSD.

This is just more of Sarah Palin doing the unthinkable: Using her own children to score cheap political points and create sound bites for her fatuous base.

Instead of Palin denouncing domestic violence and the horror that comes with it, she blames the president for her son's cowardly actions.

Poor John McCain must be full of regret for introducing the country to Glen's former jump-off. I know his daughter is. Watching Palin endorse a man who said that her father was not a war hero had to have been hard. But she can take comfort in the fact that it was Sarah Palin. A woman who has become a national joke. And she is so much of a joke that it's hard to differentiate between her and the actual comedian who plays her on television.

Finally, did you hear the one about the James O'Keefe wannabe who tried to go undercover and film alleged scenes of Planned Parenthood selling body parts? Of course you did. Conservatives were all over it this past summer.

Well as it turns out it wasn't Planned Parenthood that was breaking the law. 

"HOUSTON — A county grand jury here that was investigating allegations of misconduct against Planned Parenthood has instead indicted two anti-abortion activists who made videos of the organization. 

In a statement, the Harris County district attorney, Devon Anderson, said Monday that the director of the Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden, had been indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs.

 

Another center employee, Sandra Merritt, was indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record.

 

The Center for Medical Progress had covertly shot videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the provision of body parts from aborted fetuses for research. Mr. Daleiden, 26, had posed as a biotechnology representative to infiltrate Planned Parenthood affiliates and surreptitiously record his attempts to procure tissue for research.

The activists have claimed that Planned Parenthood has engaged in the illegal sale of body parts — a charge the organization has firmly denied.

 

Ms. Anderson said in the statement that grand jurors had cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing. She did not specify in the statement what record or records were allegedly tampered with.

 

“We were called upon to investigate allegations of criminal conduct by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast,” Ms. Anderson said. “As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us. All the evidence uncovered in the course of this investigation was presented to the grand jury. I respect their decision on this difficult case.”

 

The case started in August, when Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican and an outspoken opponent of abortion and Planned Parenthood, asked the Harris County district attorney to open a criminal investigation into the organization. His request came after the release of an undercover video taped at a Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast office in Houston with a research official for the organization. Mr. Patrick said the video showed the group “discussing the gruesome and barbaric work of Planned Parenthood and what appears to be its profiteering from selling body parts from aborted babies.”' [Source]

 

Hi David, my name is Karma.  

 

*Pic from slate.com

 

Sarah gives a boost to "The Donald."

     I can't post tonight. I have some real life issues causing me to put in some overtime on the work front.

But I did see that Sarah Palin endorsed Donald trump. (She used that squirmish word again. The word is Skirmish, Sarah. S.K.I.R.M.I.S.H.)

I am curious to know your thoughts.

*Pic from cnn.com

Mr Selfie has a problem with hip-hop, and a donut shop's not so sweet promo.

Remember when Geraldo Rivera was at least a little bit relevant and what he said actually made sense at least fifty percent of the time?

Well, that was then, this is now.

"Fresh off coming in second on Celebrity Apprentice, Geraldo Rivera stopped by HuffPost Live today for a chat. But they did dive into politics as Rivera said he believes that “hip-hop has done more damage to black and brown people than racism in the last ten years.”

And it’s not just hip-hop, it’s fashion, because he challenged people to find “a Puerto Rican from the South Bronx or a black kid from Harlem who has succeeded in life… walking around with his pants around his ass and with visible tattoos.”

RELATED: Chicago Murders Prompt Geraldo Brag: ‘I Was Right About The Hoodie’
Rivera cited Russell Simmons as someone he likes, but someone who should also acknowledge that by encouraging this culture, he and others” have encouraged people to be so different from the mainstream that they can’t participate other than, you know, the racks in the garment center and those entry-level jobs.”

My goodness! Where should I begin?

Well, first of all, most of the people who listen to (and buy) hip- hop, are young suburban white males. So I am not even sure where  this clueless loof (that's a backwards fool) gets his facts.

First, Karl Malone, who fathered three children out of wedlock and abandoned his son (who calls him a "sperm donor") and left him to raise himself while he made millions in the NBA, has the unmitigated gall to lecture black folks about personal responsibility. And now this guy, who has had four failed marriages, took a nude and disgusting selfie of himself for the world to see, and lied to the country for ratings about Al Capone's vault has the nerve to lecture folks who love hip hop and blame the genre for problems among black youths.

Welcome to the no shame culture. Where Sarah Palin (yes, Sarah Palin) can look at a bunch of people and tell them to "get a job". Sarah Palin. A woman who hasn't worked since the day that John McCain chose her as his running mate.

She has the nerve to tell a bunch of hecklers having fun with her that they should be working.

If only everyone could get a job being Sarah Palin.

Finally, did you hear what happened to the Krispy Kreme donuts, people?

"Purveyor of sugary-sweet doughnuts Krispy Kreme is in hot water over its use of a not-so-innocent acronym. According to the Guardian, a UK branch of the chain had to delete promotional material for its Krispy Kreme Klub Wednesdays. The outlet posted a (now deleted) advertisement for the event on its Facebook page, listing it as "KKK Wednesdays," which mistakenly references the Ku Klux Klan.

The event was meant to part of the company's planned activities for school children on a week-long break. Unsurprisingly, the listing caused much uproar and the chain removed the post promptly earlier today. A spokesperson tells the Guardian, "Krispy Kreme apologizes unreservedly for the inappropriate name of a customer promotion at one of our stores," adding that the "promotion was never intended to cause offense." The Hull Daily Mail quotes another spokesperson as saying, "KKK Wednesdays would go ahead, but under a different name."

Perhaps the doughnut chain was unconsciously influenced by an intentional, bizarre KKK promotion: In July, residents of a neighborhood in South Carolina reported finding bags of candy on their streets that contained fliers asking them to join the KKK. In that case, handing out doughnuts seems like a serious upgrade?" [Source] 

No truth to the rumor that they were doing it to attract certain types of police officers to their stores.   






   









 

Brawlers.

I must confess that when I saw this headline: "Sarah Palin: I owe America A Global Apology" , I thought that the conservative Queen was referring to her recent shenanigans up in Alaska.


Of course I was wrong. Sarah was lamenting the fact that she and her running mate did not defeat Barack Obama.


"During an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Palin spoke about Obama's long-term strategy for defeating the Islamic State -- a militant group formerly known as ISIS or ISIL -- that he laid out in a speech Wednesday night.
"As I watched the speech last night, Sean, the thought going through my mind is, 'I owe America a global apology. Because John McCain, through all of this, John McCain should be our president,'"


Sarah, with all due respect, you should be "apologizing" to America and your fans for that brawl you and your family were involved in.


 "Since her ill-fated 2008 run for vice-president, Sarah Palin and her family have been a constant television presence, appearing in their own reality show and, more recently, on her very own Sarah Palin channel.


The most dramatic recent chapter in the Palin story appears, however, to be documented only by witness accounts – and an evolving police report. Alaska authorities are considering filing criminal charges related to a large fistfight said to involve multiple members of the family in the Overview neighbourhood of Anchorage last Saturday night.


Palin family members were present at a party where 20 people ended up in an alcohol-fuelled melee in the front yard, police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro told the Alaska Dispatch News.


Sarah Palin herself got in on the action, ABC News reported in an interview with a party attendee, who quoted the former governor as screaming at unknown combatants: “Do you know who I am?!”


Palin was the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee and currently is host of Amazing America with Sarah Palin on the Sportsman Channel. She and husband Todd are the parents of five children, at least two of whom were central protagonists in the weekend brawl, according to Alaska politics blogger Amanda Coyne, who wrote:

The owner of the house gets involved, and he probably wished he hadn’t. At this point, he’s up against nearly the whole Palin tribe: Palin women screaming. Palin men thumping their chests. Word is that [daughter] Bristol has a particularly strong right hook, which she employed repeatedly.  

The Anchorage police department confirmed on Thursday that a “verbal and physical altercation” had taken place outside the residence, where a party was being held in part to celebrate Todd Palin’s 50th birthday.


“We are still reviewing the case, along with our municipal attorney’s office to determine whether any charges will be filed,” Castro, the police spokeswoman, told the Alaska paper in an email.


“A preliminary investigation by police revealed that a party had been taking place at a nearby residence and a fight had broken out between multiple subjects outside of the residence,” she added."


Oh lawd! That white trash mojo is strong.


Thank goodness we didn't send these classless benighted hillbillies to Washington.


The good news for Sarah's fans is that she now has her own channel. And, for a small fee, they can watch her until their heart's content.


 "..in which the former vice presidential candidate reportedly screamed, 'Don’t you know who I am?”'


That's the problem Sarah; we know exactly who you are.

The "great awakening".

Did you know that we are on the verge of a  "great awakening" in America? I can't wait. I wonder how it will manifest itself.


Another reason why I am sad that I missed the CPAC convention is because I didn't get a chance to hear Sarah talk about it.


 "....working the statist agenda of Obama’s.” She cried, “This is a great awakening! The age of Obama is almost over!”


She was happy at how much more fired up people are this year, saying that despite the media dismissing Benghazi, the IRS, and Obama’s “dopey wobbling on the world stage,” “Americans aren’t quite as obedient as they thought we were.” In honor of Ted Cruz‘s big filibuster last year, Palin even did a little Dr. Seuss during her speech, starting out by saying, “I do not like this Uncle Sam. I do not like his health care scam.”' [Source]


Sarah, we know what you are really thinking:


I am Klan I am Klan
Klan I am.
That Klan I am That Klan I am!
I do not like that Klan I am


Do you like the powerful black man
I do not like him Klan I am
I do not like the powerful black man


Would you like him here or there
I would not like him anywhere
Would you like him in your bed
Would you like him then


Well maybe in my bed when I think of Glen.
Maybe I would like him then.....


Let me stop.


If Sarah Palin read all of Green Eggs and Ham, it will be the first book that she actually completed.


Finally, I see that the neocon with the barely ticking ticker is calling for not ruling out military action in the Ukraine.


I guess he wasn't satisfied with all the Americans and Iraqis whose death he caused in the last war. (A war, BTW, which seems to have no end)


"Former Vice President Dick Cheney told Face the Nation guest host Charlie Rose that the Obama administration should not have taken military options off the table in response to Russia’s invasion of the Crimean peninsula, and that Obama had a harder task in gathering allies after reversing course on attacks in Syria."


Now that he is closer to his date with the devil it's easy to call for military action where others will die.

The majority revolution.

I thought that the republican party was the party of Lincoln.  If it is, why were they carrying the confederate flag at that wingnut gathering in Washington, today?

Of course Sarah Palin was there, and so was the de facto leader of the republican party, Ted Cruz.

Sarah and Ted had some Harsh words for this administration. And Sarah, still the genius, wanted to know why there were barricades around the veteran's memorial in Washington. Pssst, Sarah, it's called a shutdown. The park is supposed to be closed. You can't pick and choose what you want to remain open when there is a government shutdown that you and your party initiated.

Larry Klayman, of a group laughably named Freedom Watch, was even tougher on the government than Sarah and Ted were:

"I call upon all of you to wage a second American nonviolent revolution, to use civil disobedience, and to demand that this president leave town, to get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up,”

There is a lot of talk of revolution these days. Mostly from poor uneducated white folks. These are the people who were told their entire lives that just being white was good enough. Now, though, they look around and see that the most powerful man in their country doesn't look like they do. Maybe, just maybe, the privileges that they thought they were afforded throughout their lives might not be there after all. Heck that would scare me too. (I see you "Joe the Plumber".)

Finally, I was at a legal conference recently, and while there I struck up a conversation with a gentleman who happens to be an African American Judge in our fine city.

We got to talking about crime and things such as stop and frisk, and he let me know in no uncertain terms that he was not immune from racial profiling.

"Hey man, when those cops pull me over they don't know that I am a sitting Judge. All they see is another black man in a nice car."

And it's not just a black man sitting in a car that has to worry about overly aggressive police officers, sadly, profiling can take many forms.

Anyway, I thought about that conversation when I read two stories from my local paper last week.

"NO ONE GOT PUNCHED in the face - this time - but YouTube has given the Philadelphia Police Department another black eye, proving once again that smartphones are a bully cop's worst nightmare.

Let's just hope that Officer Philip Nace doesn't land in the city's tourism department when the dust settles.

"Don't come to f---ing Philadelphia. Stay in Jersey."

That's one of Nace's rage-induced zingers that were recorded in a disturbing 16-minute YouTube video of a recent stop and frisk.
 

The video, dated Sept. 27, shows Nace, 46, and another police officer from North Philly's 25th District stopping two unidentified men, apparently after they said hello to a third man on the street.

"You don't say 'Hi' to strangers," Nace said as he confronts the two pedestrians. "Not in this neighborhood," his partner added.

The cops then push one of the men against their cruiser. The second man, who is videotaping the incident and starts to walk away, is ordered to put his phone in his pocket and get against the car for a frisk. The phone, however, continues recording, apparently on the hood of the car.

"Don't f---ing fight . . . we'll kick your ass, too," Nace said. He threatened the other man, saying he would "split your wig open."

Nace called one of the men a "f---ing dirty ass." When they protest that they haven't done anything wrong, he shouted: "Why don't you shut the f--- up! Everyone thinks they're a f---ing lawyer, and they don't know jack s---."
"You're jaywalking, by the way," the second officer later added, apparently in an attempt to justify the stop.

At one point, Nace told one of the men: "We don't want you here, anyway. All you do is weaken the f---ing country."

"How do I weaken the country? By working?" the man asked.
"No, freeloading," Nace said.

When the man said he's a server at a country club, Nace responded, "Server. Serving weed?"

The video is titled "Police unlawful harassment and racial profiling," but the race of the two pedestrians is unclear. Nace and his partner are white." [Source]

And then there was this poor guy:

"HERBERT Spellman gave nearly 20 years of his life to the Philadelphia Police Department, retiring in 2008 after a driver rear-ended his police cruiser, knocking him unconscious and sending him to the emergency room.

His body still hurts as a result of the injuries sustained in the crash. But Spellman's pride took a beating more recently.

On Sept. 10, walking to a bus stop in West Oak Lane, Spellman found himself on the other side of the police department's controversial stop-and-frisk policy, he said.

"Demeaning," "nasty," "ridiculous" and "illegal" are the words that come to his mind when he recounts the incident. They weren't police tactics he recognized from his time on the force.
 

"I'm walking, and the cops come up on an angle. Two officers jump out of the car and grab me by my shirt and pants," Spellman said. "I asked them why they stopped me, and the driver said, 'Why did you look at us and turn and walk away?' "

Spellman, 50, a married father of four, said the officers went through his wallet without his permission, forcefully frisked him and put him in the back of the police cruiser. He said they asked why he was "so far from home," accused him of being on drugs and told him to "shut the f--- up" when he asked why he was being stopped. His cellphone screen was shattered in the process.

"It demeans you. It made me feel like I was a piece of meat," Spellman said. "This is new to me: someone on you, manhandling you. Don't tell me to 'shut the f--- up.' The whole thing shouldn't have happened. I'm a grown man trying to catch the bus."

Spellman was not charged with a crime. He said he had left the ACT Academy Cyber Charter School, where his son was taking a computer class, so he could let his wife into their home in Olney. She had forgotten her key. He said he showed the officers his retired police ID, but it didn't help.

"I don't know what's going on with this police department, but it's terrible," he said.

Lt. Thomas Fournier of Internal Affairs confirmed that Spellman had filed a complaint with his office, but said he couldn't comment on the case.
The experience made Spellman realize what can happen to innocent civilians when they become suspects in the eyes of cops. Spellman, who is black, still doesn't know why he was targeted, but he couldn't help but notice that the two cops who stopped him and the four or five backup officers who arrived were white.

"I don't want to turn it into a racial issue, but that's what it felt like," Spellman said of racial profiling. "When my son leaves the house, I'm going to tell him to be more careful of cops than crooks. Me, being an injured officer with ID, and they're giving me that much trouble? I can't imagine someone without credentials." [Source]

Just keep those confederate flags off of our police cars.
 

  


 

Sarah is not laughing, but Adam certainly is.

I saw a little of  president Obama channeling his inner Richard Pryor last night. His timing was good, and his joke writers, as they do with most presidents, gave him some good material to work with. Of course some would argue that this is no time for folks in Washington to be telling jokes and having a gala. There are people suffering out here. And, as we all know, if you are not an air traveler they are not going to do anything for you.

Still, jokes aside, it was interesting to see a skirt chasing blowhard and a member of the highest court in the land treating each other as if they were going to go home together.

I know one person who is not a fan. That would be one Sarah Palin. She thinks that they are all a bunch of "ass- clowns".

"Sarah Palin,never one to shy away from the use of unconventional words, has embraced a new one — “a--clowns.”

Just hours after the yearly White House Correspondents’ Dinner ended Saturday night, the former vice presidential candidate unloaded a scathing critique of the black-tie party on Twitter in characteristically unusual language.

“That #WHCD was pathetic,” Palin tweeted. “The rest of America is out there working our asses off while these DC assclowns throw themselves a #nerdprom.”

Palin has never attended the famous gathering herself, but she has partaken in the related festivities in recent years." [Source]

Of course this is not news. Sarah, like most people in her party, is somewhat of a hypocrite.

"Obama peppered his speech with pop-culture references, beginning by calling attention to his new entrance music: DJ Khaled's "All I Do Is Win." "Rush Limbaugh warned you about this – second term, baby?" he said. "We're changing things around here a little bit."

Now that might have been the funniest joke of the night. Because the last time I checked things in Washington were pretty much the same.

Finally, here is something for all of you pro gun nuts folks to consider:

"Even al-Qaida gloats about what's possible under U.S. gun laws. In June 2011, a senior al-Qaida operative, Adam Gadahn, released a video message rallying people to take advantage of opportunities those laws provide.

"America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms," Gadahn says, explaining that "you can go down to a gun show at the local convention center" and buy a gun without a background check.

Then a faint smile crosses Gadahn's face. "So what are you waiting for?" he asks.

Under current laws, if a background check reveals that your name is on the national terrorism watch list, you're still free to walk out of a gun dealership with a firearm in your hands — as long as you don't have a criminal or mental health record.

Data from the Government Accountability Office show that between 2004 and 2010, people on terrorism watch lists tried to buy guns and explosives more than 1,400 times. They succeeded in more than 90 percent of those cases, or 1,321 times.

"It's absurd that we allow people to buy unlimited AK-47s, AR-15s and Uzis, even if we feel they are too dangerous to be allowed on a plane, even after they've gone through a security check," says Jon Lowy, a lawyer for the Brady Campaign, a gun control group." [Source]

Come on now Mr. Lowy! There you people go again taking us down that "slippery slope".  

"true enough to make me squirm"

Like most of you political junkies, I watched Game Change last night. And even though I expected the worse, I still wasn't prepared for what I say. Sarah Palin, ladies and gentlemen, is insane! It's no wonder that she made such an effort to discredit the movie. A movie, by the way, which is based on a book that was published by two well respected journalists. A book that was full of firsthand accounts from people who actually witnessed Sarah gone wild on the campaign trail.

If you still believe that the movie was a work of fiction, read what senior Palin advisor, Nicolle Wallace, had to say: 

 "While Sarah Palin has denounced the HBO docudrama "Game Change" about her rise to national stardom during the 2008 presidential campaign as a "false narrative," one of Palin's top advisers said today that the film was actually "true enough to make me squirm."

Wallace said in October that she based the mentally ill vice-presidential character in her fictional book, "It's Classified," off Palin. She told ABC News' Top Line in October that Palin "seemed deeply troubled" at times during the campaign and that some of her behaviors "concerned me."...

"They concerned a lot of people, and we did have discussions about whether it would be appropriate from someone who seemed to swing from so high to so low, when the pressure of the campaign as placed on her shoulders, would it be appropriate for somebody like that to have to endure the burdens of the vice presidency?" Wallace said in the October interview."

Why am I still talking about Sarah Palin? Because Sarah Palin is still talking.
And when Sarah talks----- because of her huge platform and many minions, it is dangerous for A-merry-ca.  

Lately she has jumped right into the FOX NEWS manufactured flap about the now deceased, law professor, Derrick Bell.  

"What we can glean from this is an understanding of why we are on the road that we are on. Again, it's based on what went into his thinking, being surrounded by radicals. You could hearken back to the days before the Civil War, when too many Americans believed that not all men were created equal. It was the Civil War that began the codification of the truth that here in America, yes, we are equal and we all have equal opportunities, not based on the color of our skin. You have equal opportunity to work hard and to succeed and to embrace the opportunities, the God-given opportunities, to develop resources and work extremely hard and as I say, to succeed. Now, it has taken all these years for many Americans to understand that the gravity, that mistake that took place before the Civil War and why the Civil War had to really start changing America. What Barack Obama seems to want to do is go back before those days when we were in different classes based on income, based on color of skin. Why are we allowing our country to move backwards instead of moving forward with the understanding that as our charters of liberty spell out for us, we are all created equally?"

Should a woman who is obviously mentally unstable be pontificating to millions of people about the dangers of an African American president taking us back to a pre Civil War A-merry-ca? My question is rhetorical. Of course not. After watching Game Change I think that we can all agree that Sarah Palin should be banished from the public stage forever. Sadly, as long as there is FOX NEWS and forums like it, she will always have a platform to spew her ignorance.   

David Graham does a good job of putting Sarah's pronouncements in its proper context for his article in The Atlantic.

"Incredibly, Palin seems incapable of uttering the word "slavery" when discussing the Civil War. Thankfully, she's not even flirting with the neo-Confederate belief that the war was about states' rights rather than slavery. But she doesn't mention slavery because it would clearly undermine her case: even the most hardcore Son of the Confederacy would see the absurdity of arguing that the first black president would like to return to the days of slavery.

At the same time, Palin manages to minimize the importance of the war itself. To hear her tell it, it was a revolution of thought, not unlike the Reformation or the Renaissance. It was not. The Civil War was a bloody conflict. More than a half a million Americans died. Only through that carnage was the liberation of slaves achieved, and it still took a century and many more lost lives for basic rights to be guaranteed for black Americans.

What Palin is expounding is a belief that has become common among conservatives. Almost all conservatives (like almost all liberals) agree that racial equality is the ideal toward which the United States ought to move. But many on the right have adopted the view that the only way to address racism is to pretend it does not exist. Thus, anyone who talks about race or acknowledges race or makes mention of the fraught American relationship with racism must by definition be a racist. Clearly, that makes Barack Obama and Derrick Bell racists. It also makes Juan Williams, a center-right commentator, a racist when he points out that Newt Gingrich is using "food stamps" as code for "black." [Source]

I was honestly hoping that I did my last Sarah Palin post awhile ago.

Unfortunately, she just won't go away.