Sometimes,
"I wished I'd never taken the blue pill..."
('The Matrix' ad-lib)

If they'll vote for Obama I'll almost forgive those particular flapping racist jaws. Almost. Nah, it will only be self-interest voting, so I won't forgive the spew, but I'll take the vote and run.

And I think I see this. Some of my son's neighborhood redneck friends have parents with McTongue signs in their yards. But when here, when they see my Obama stuff everywhere, several have said slightly anti-McCain things (economy mainly) or even "hey that Obama guy's pretty cool" type remarks, which gives me hope. If only they'll vote with those thoughts in mind.

You know this is one of the silver linings to all these racist nutjobs we see at McCain/Palin rallies. They give people a good look at what could be their inner racism, and that might be enough to scare them into thinking with their minds and not their "fears". This election could become a referendum on the two evil R words - Republicans and Racism.

Nate's got a similar story headling fivethirtyeight.com right now, to wit:

So a canvasser goes to a woman's door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she's planning to vote for. She isn't sure, has to ask her husband who she's voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, "We're votin' for the n***er!"

Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: "We're voting for the n***er."

God Bless America.

What is boils down to is that these people are embarrassed NOT to be racist. Talk about irony.

BBQ media is obsessing over the Bradley effect so that if McCain is successful in voter supression tactic and other voter fraud they can fall back on the "Bradley effect" in order to explain it away.

Even racists are divided -- it's the violent racists we have to worry about actually acting out in a dangerous, physically violent way we have to worry about.

Sorry about repeating myself in that last sentence, but I guess it shows how much I actually AM worrying about that violent racist group.

I worry about how much I worry about worrying.

An interesting video about the McCain family in Mississippi:
http://online.wsj.com/video/the-legacy-of-the-mccain-name/14167AA7-92C8-49FD-96FF-6851A7F08276.html

Hmmmm.... bigots shamefacedly walking into the polling station and voting for "That One." Must be difficult for 'em -- after all, a racist has a reputation to keep up. You wouldn't want to be the only racist on the block who voted for that Moozlum furrener "B. Hussein," would you?

Anyhow, I think we all must have noticed that some people who put down entire racial groups nonetheless treat individuals from those groups decently. Such people are not systemic or refined thinkers, so this "cognitive dissonance" is not surprising. I don't mean to sound like Dr. Pangloss from Candide here, but at least it means that all but the worst of the worst can change, given time and good experiences. Uneducated people learn mostly by means of personal experience--which sometimes means sorrow is their only schoolmaster, unfortunately, but one shouldn't give up on them. So "Bigots for Barack" -- bring it on!

O/T, but can anyone help me understand how Louisiana and Mississippi are SOLID Republican states - after all that they have endured in the wake of Katrina??

Harry Shearer talks a lot on HuffPo about how the country has forgotten about New Orleans. It seems that Louisiana has forgotten how they can help themselves.

I have a friend who said her family has lived in NC all their lives, and although they are Democrats, and voting for Obama, they think nothing of making racist remarks and dropping the N-word, and they don't consider themselves racist. It's sort of an "it is what it is" situation, in some places.

This is a real hoot:

Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/portrayal_of_obama_as_elitist

Leeroy, you got it. Many of my son's white friends hang out with Hispanic-Americans and African-Americans and don't think anything about race in the normal course of "hanging out". They don't mention race as a factor. A new kid shows up that I'd heard of and he turns out to be non-white but that was never mentioned--a good thing that didn't used to be years ago. But my son explained to me why they also use the n-word (and I only caught him doing it once--talk about getting the Really Bad Mom's Stink-Eye and Lecture--he also said it when he was about 4 and got the firm-but-gentler lecture). These kids consider people who act like the stereotype built by the racists over the centuries to be n-words, no matter what race they are (but that particular word usually only comes out concerning black people--others are for other ethnicities). They know not to say it in front of me but I hear conversations come from my front porch where they are relegated to take their cigarettes (or whatever) and beer--slobs that they are. So I asked, and that's what my son said. It's like doublethink or something. This generation of kids (at least here in rural NC) doesn't think of it as evil like mine does, just as another insult upon someone acting stereotypically stupid--if that makes sense. It's scary in its own right but different than the spewing McCain screechers.

People like Bachmann and Palin are constipation to the body politic. (McCain himself is just a little shit in my book.)

Its fairly common knowledge that a little exercise takes care of this ailment.
America, lets show some common sense on Nov 4th, EXERCISE your vote, lets send the strongest message possible to the bigots and fear mongers.

To torture the comparison… The internet is one hell of a laxative for our body politic… see there…I feel better already… ;)

LFOD - Louisiana, with the help of a very white sounding disaster named Katrina, conveniently had itself purged of much of the black population who were left with no homes and little government help, too little too late at that--and that help in some cases conveniently permeated with formaldehyde. I realize many whites were also effected but sometimes people can't connect one dot to another. Racism runs deep.

Miss.? Who knows there.

Hey guys, for anyone who cares, Im back! I've been in Florida on the gulf coast since last saturday. The amount of political ads down there on TV was pretty amazing compared to back home here in Kentucky. I saw dozens of Obama ads there and maybe 1 or 2 McCain ads the whole week.

Ill post a link to a gallery with pictures from my trip as soon as I get the chance. I've got several hundred to go through and organize.

Good to be back to the focus group here. Ontopic: I overheard a lot of policial dicussion as restarunts down there, but I never heard someone mention race.

On another note.. while out garage sale shopping this morning in Atlanta’s suburb and Newt country I ran into a little old rednecky typical southern "lady".
What was interesting is that while she clearly professed to be against...
Immigrants as dirty...
having her taxes raised...
anything not white...

And that Obama is a MUSLIM!

She was probably going to vote for him as McCain is full of it and she thinks Palin is a joke!!!

Truth I swear...rofl

I am so glad you wrote that Bob. I thought the very same thing yesterday..Yeah..reverse Bradley. . Like it.

@JM! Has it really been a week? Glad to hear some parts of FL sounds more civilized than things are around here.

*jealously wanting to see beach pics*

What's this "sign me in for 2 weeks" shit on the Typekey? It remembers me for about 2 hours.

Another one: Son said today another neighborhood guy (that's 2 in as many days), regular working guy/mid-20s/passively racist/redneck pickup/the works, had been saying all along when he did speak of it, that he'd vote for McCain. Last night he was somewhat drunk (as usual) and said McCain was starting to sound like so much bullshit that he was voting for Obama. But the odds of his actually voting are the unknown factor. My son hates to and will not talk politics (and IS voting for Obama--only I know this) but he seems to be a magnet for others in making political confessions.

I think there is a better chance for a neck to get behind the curtain and vote for Obama than someone who says they WILL vote for Obama and then doesn't. But really, eeeeeeeeeeeh it's not important.