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Next entry: Food Saturdays: Still Winter Veggies Edition Previous entry: Replying to Jesse Bering, a guest post by Lindsay Beyerstein

Friday Genius Ten “Obama’s Knee Is A Citizen*” Edition

*Joke attributed to a Facebook friend.

So, this is perhaps the greatest thing that happened all week, and that’s in a week when Glenn Beck shut down his show.  Jack Cashill claimed that this photo of Obama with his grandparents was a fake one:

And that this much fuzzier one is the real one that the “fake” one was made from.  But as Media Matters noted, they forgot while creating the “real” picture to take out Obama’s knee.

Or replace Grandpa’s hand, for that matter.  Adam Serwer wonders what this bad photoshop job was supposed to prove anyway.  I think this is indicative a new period in the evolution, where the racist underpinnings of it are becoming more overt.  This is the phase where Birthers are going to start denying that Obama’s mother and maternal grandparents are actually related to him.  Previously, most attention has been paid to conspiracy theories around his father, and now they’re moving on to conspiracy theories regarding his mother.  They’re nipping at the edges of just saying this he faked his maternal line, with this picture, for instance, or Trump claiming there are no childhood pictures of Obama.  This is just a move in that direction.

In honor of this terrible attempt at faking evidence for a loony theory, today’s Genius Ten will be kicked off with one of my favorite Brooklyn bands.  Leave yours in comments, or comments about whatever you like.  Open thread.

Original song: “You’ll Disappear” by the Phenomenal Handclap Band

1) “Sun Hands” by the Local Natives
2) “The Mountain” by the Heartless Bastards
3) “In Your Heart” by A Place To Bury Strangers
4) “Cable TV” by Fol Chen
5) “Into The Groovey” by Ciccone Youth
6) “Listening Man” by The Bees
7) “The Hunchback” by Kurt Vile & The Violators
8) “Eraser” by No Age
9) “Be Brave” by The Strange Boys
10) “Run To Your Grave” by The Mae Shi

Videos and cat pics below the fold.


Ciccone Youth was actually Sonic Youth, and they did a bunch of covers of Madonna and other assorted weirdness under the name.

The Strange Boys are fun garage rock from Texas:

No Age:

Molly snoozing in my lap:

IMG_0832

Dusty enjoys a sunbeam:

IMG_0836

 

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Posted by Amanda Marcotte on 10:16 AM • (70) Comments

How can you understand the racists? You’d think they’d take comfort in the fact that Obama is half-white. In fact, since his father comes from East Africa, and most African-Americans are descended from West Africans, maybe Obama isn’t really “black” in the traditional American sense at all. I suppose if Obama were a Republican that is exactly the line they probably would take to comfort themselves.  Isn’t the reality that these people just love to create scary monsters and frighten each other? They are like 6th graders at summer camp.

Comment #1: jcnighs  on  04/08  at  10:54 AM

Adam Serwer wonders what this bad photoshop job was supposed to prove anyway.

Besides the fact that Jack Cashill, whoever he is, is a moron or perhaps delusional? I’d expect it’s intended to prove that Obama, though the crafty devil tries to pass as part-white (and therefore part ‘Murkin), is in fact 100% n*gger (of the Kenyan terr’rist variety).

You’d think they’d take comfort in the fact that Obama is half-white.

When one is a bitter failure in one’s own life, one tends to take that pessimistic “the mulatto’s half-black” view of things.

Comment #2: Gracchus.  on  04/08  at  12:13 PM

I can make a better fake than Cashill’s in just over 30 minutes with a squirming three-year-old in my lap:

http://doctorpsycho1960.blogspot.com/2011/04/we-hope-to-grow-whole-president.html

Comment #3: Dr. Psycho  on  04/08  at  12:17 PM

jcnighs @1, they do that also.  Doublethink is nothing new to them, after all.

Comment #4: Dr. Psycho  on  04/08  at  12:28 PM

Amazon has the new album by Those Darlins (high-energy girl garage rock) on sale for $3.99. I got it and it’s damn good. the new Dodo’s album is also quite good.

Spring is ALMOST here! It’s actually going to be in the sixties this weekend! I ordered some gardening stuff from Burpee this week and (inspired by your CSA blogging) I went ahead and got the half-share of our local commie farm. Socialist Potatoes, huzzah!

Comment #5: Mighty Ponygirl  on  04/08  at  12:29 PM

My God! Photographic PROOF that Obama goes around chopping hands off the elderly! Won’t someone PLEASE think of the grandparents? Wake Up, Amarica!!!1!! (/birther)

Comment #6: Mike Crichton  on  04/08  at  12:35 PM

Ugh, they couldn’t even hide their manipulations. You can’t just clone stamp your way to victory, that shit is so easy to spot and awful to look at; you need to blend in custom textures and do pixel by pixel painting at 400-800% zoom.

They didn’t even try to use cs5 new fill feature. Cheapskates or ignoramuses?

I wish the right would hire me to do their photomanips. I’d do a pro job on the surface and totally hide subversive subliminal messages in them.

Comment #7: R.T.  on  04/08  at  12:44 PM

I love how Amanda uses that really bad Photoshop of Obama removed from a picture of him and his grandparents to deflect our attention away from the very obvious fact that both of her cat pictures today are fakes.  The “Molly” one looks like something she found in someone else’s Flickr account (so indistinct it could be any dark-haired cat), and the “Dusty” picture looks far too professional, which proves that it must be a stock photo she got off some commercial image site (or maybe Lindsay Beyerstein took it for you).

Thought you were going to get away with it, didn’t you Amanda…? 

Well, I guess some of us are a little smarter than you give us credit for…

Comment #8: MikeEss  on  04/08  at  12:56 PM

American racists have envied Stalin on so many points.

Comment #9: Yamara  on  04/08  at  12:58 PM

It’s an ego thing. Because the more ridiculous crap you believe, the harder it is to go around to all of your former friends and say, “I’m sorry. I was stupid beyond belief, you were all right and I was wrong, and I recognize that for the foreseeable future I have no credibility giving my opinion about anything.”

Comment #10: paul  on  04/08  at  01:22 PM

On the music tip, since dead-enders are most rightfully dead to me: I can’t believe Wire is playing Austin as one of only nine North American dates tonight, and on top of that playing the improving-but-still-lowly Mohawk. As much as I want to hear Germ Ship, I have a feeling it’s going to be all 21st-century material:

(1) It COuld be the First Day by RIchie Havens
(2) Made a Fool of You by 999
(3) New Man Theme by Mr. Lif
(4) Happiness is a Worn Pun by Super Furry Animals
(5) Damn Right I Am Somebody by the JB’s
(6) The World Keep on Turning by Fleetwood Mac (the 60s version)
(7) Cousin Randy by Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears
(8) I’ve Been Waiting for You by The Pixies
(9) Mexican Blackbird by ZZ Top
(10) Gotta be a Change by Voices of East Harlem

Comment #11: norbizness  on  04/08  at  01:47 PM

Adam Serwer wonders what this bad photoshop job was supposed to prove anyway.

First Iran gets ahold of the terrible Photoshop technology.  Now the bloggers have it, too?  We live in dark, lawless days.

Comment #12: Zifnab25  on  04/08  at  02:07 PM

There’s an old joke that goes, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit”.

Seriously, though, why do they even bother? It isn’t as though these exiles from the reality-based community care about the facts anyway.

Comment #13: ookpik  on  04/08  at  02:45 PM

My theory the Birthers constitute two groups: sly racists and dupe racists.

The sly racists know it’s bullshit but produce lies and doctored “proof” to bamboozle the dupe racists.

Each is equally evil, because they have to be racists to play this game to begin and end with, racists desperate for a new way to call the President “n#gg*r” and get away with it in public.

Comment #14: judybrowni  on  04/08  at  03:10 PM

Dr. Pyscho, you know if a birther came across your photo they would probably just steal your pic instead of bothering to argue with you. Next thing you’d know your much better photoshopped pic would show up on websites as “proof”!

Comment #15: ArachneSable  on  04/08  at  04:10 PM

That picture purportedly dates to Obama’s missing years, when while supposedly attending Columbia he was living in Pakistan, his early madrassa programming being refreshed at Islamofascist training camp.

The only mystery left unsolved is why an elderly white couple would travel a third of the way around the world, if not to see a beloved grandchild. Miss Saigon would have been years in the future. Perhaps to see Cats?

Comment #16: Hector B.  on  04/08  at  04:16 PM

No, no! HERE is the real photo. Obama’s grandpa just can’t be trusted around a camera.

Comment #17: MissPrism  on  04/08  at  04:22 PM

@Comment #1: jcnighs on 04/08 at 09:54 AM

You’d think they’d take comfort in the fact that Obama is half-white.

Some of them are even more threatened by the fact that his mom’s white, than they would be if his parents were both black.

Comment #18: atheist  on  04/08  at  04:25 PM

We’ve obviously entered the Missing Commissar period of the delusional online right.

Comment #19: Ben Alpers  on  04/08  at  04:28 PM

Its a good visual for the level of proof they require to say their crazy thing while they will not take anything as proof of a birth in Hawaii.  It could be video of Obama’s mom giving birth to a young boy with an awesome view of Diamond Head outside the hospital window and it would still not do.

Comment #20: ewellone  on  04/08  at  04:32 PM

“Its a good visual for the level of proof they require to say their crazy thing while they will not take anything as proof of a birth in Hawaii.  It could be video of Obama’s mom giving birth to a young boy with an awesome view of Diamond Head outside the hospital window and it would still not do.”

More evidence, especially factual evidence, of Obama’s American birth is really more proof of hoe much of a Kenyan/Indonesian Mooslum he really is!

Here a tip for you <strike>wingnuts</strike> <strike>Tea Baggers</strike> Patriotic Tea Party Members:  The more those liberals try to tell you that 2+2 does not equal 5, the more strongly you must defend the truth, even with your life, if necessary! 

Even scientists disagree on whether 2+2=3, or 2+2=4, or 2+2=5 (do a search on the google to see what I mean).  Some conservative climate scientists and Megan McArdle agree that 2+2 is a “quantum number”, which has no actual value until used in a calculation.

The real answer is always “The value of 2+2 is whatever God wants it to be.”  If God does not personally whisper a different value into your ear, then you must follow the word of God’s chosen representatives on earth, the Republican Party (especially Paul Ryan), Glenn Beck, or Michelle Bachmann.

Remember that the next time some marxist hippie tries to argue with you on the internal net tubes…

Comment #21: MikeEss  on  04/08  at  05:05 PM

I am not photoshop guru but the stone pattern on the right is the real giveaway, not the barely visible knee.

Comment #22: Bruce Godfrey  on  04/08  at  05:37 PM

lol.. they made that fake very fake on purpose just to cause an uproar.

Comment #23: eduwarrior  on  04/08  at  06:14 PM

“I Give Up” mix:

1. “Marijuana in Your Brain”, Lords of Acid
2. “Itchycoo Park”, Small Faces
3. “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It”, REM
4. “This Party Took A Turn For The Douche”, Garfunkel and Oates
5. “Slip-Sliding Away”, Paul Simon
6. “Comfortably Numb”, Pink Floyd
7. “Stay (Faraway, So Close)”, U2
8. “Zombie”, the Cranberries
9. “Castles Made of Sand”, Jimi Hendrix
10. “If You Don’t Know Me By Now”, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes

Comment #24: BrianX  on  04/08  at  07:02 PM

“lol.. they made that fake very fake on purpose just to cause an uproar.”

...no, it was the Democrats who made it (of course!), specifically Hillary Clinton (seems the Hildabeast isn’t very proficient with Photoshop), to attack Obama during the primaries, but it never got used ‘cause it looked so bad.  They just now released it to make the Birthers and the Tea Party people look stupid.  But it’s going to bounce back on them, just you wait and see!

(...I’m waiting for a Reichwing/libertarian troll to come along and agree with me…Poe’s Law, baby!...)

Comment #25: MikeEss  on  04/08  at  07:14 PM

There is something seriously wrong with that stone wall.

Also how did the Obama conspiracy take a blurry, out-of-focus photo, and manage to put it into crisp, sharp focus after adding Obama? They obviously have some magical Photoshop. Probably a pact with the devil. [/sarcasm]

(Photoshop can do some crazy shit, but it can’t fix focus.)

Comment #26: snowmentality  on  04/08  at  08:31 PM

This is totally the B’s (Barack’s) Knees! grin

Keep the hate coming you racist right-wing fuckers, say goodbye to relevance!

Comment #27: Albert Cirrus  on  04/08  at  11:49 PM

So, now the teabaggers want to primary John Boehner because he abandoned defunding Planned Parenthood.

I normally don’t say this, but: LOL!

Comment #28: Ben D.  on  04/09  at  01:13 AM

Dr. Pyscho, you know if a birther came across your photo they would probably just steal your pic instead of bothering to argue with you. Next thing you’d know your much better photoshopped pic would show up on websites as “proof”!

Ditto. Perhaps you should take down the original and put back up a watermarked version? If the wingnuts can’t even do basic photoshopping properly, chances are they can’t figure out how to remove a watermark.

Comment #29: Mike Crichton  on  04/09  at  01:51 AM

That disembodied knee is creepy as hell.

Comment #30: mariposa  on  04/09  at  02:27 AM

...no, it was the Democrats who made it (of course!), specifically Hillary Clinton…to attack Obama during the primaries…I’m waiting for a Reichwing/libertarian troll to come along and agree with me…

Thanks Mike. You’re almost like my set-up man.

Or perhaps my own personal Haley Barbour: so ignorant of history and so intent on whitewashing racism within his community that he’s just a low hanging fruit for someone like me to pluck.

Obviously, republicans should own their own racism just like democrats own Jim Crow. But its worth noting that Birtherism did begin on the left, specifically with Hillary Clinton partisans during the primary, as Mike himself seems to be either creepily aware of (whistling in the dark) or complateely unaware of (foot in the mouth).

John Avalon provides the smoking gun: [url=“http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-02-08/the-secret-history-of-the-birthers/#”]“The ‘Birthers’ Began on the Left”
[/url]

Comment #31: Manju  on  04/09  at  03:09 AM

Oops. The link didn’t take:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-02-08/the-secret-history-of-the-birthers/#

Comment #32: Manju  on  04/09  at  03:12 AM

Manju, you seem to have this weird idea that that is even slightly relevant. The issue isn’t who said it, it’s who’s saying it.

Comment #33: weirdnoise  on  04/09  at  03:28 AM

Look, 46% of Mississippi Republicans think interracial marriage should be illegal, more than think that it should be legal.  Betcha there’s a high overlap between that 46% and people who think the President was not born in the U.S.  He’s the product of a relationship that they don’t view as legitimate, and that was actually grounds for extrajudicial murder not all that long ago. 

It’s difficult to understate just how profound a challenge Barack Obama presents to some people’s concept of what it means to be American.

Comment #34: jeevmon  on  04/09  at  08:36 AM

Manju, you seem to have this weird idea that that is even slightly relevant. The issue isn’t who said it, it’s who’s saying it.

The roots of a racist meme are not even “slightly relevant” to the current use of the meme? Is it “weird idea” to reference the institutionalization of slavery within the American Constitution when discussing Jim Crow?

I can’t see any justification for this framework other than to ignore racism emanting from ones own identity group. I guess this impulse isn’t restricted to neo-confederates.

Comment #35: Manju  on  04/09  at  09:34 AM

Manny, go away. Birtherism is a right wing obsession (pushed by WorldNetDaily and my right wing family) just as Democrats are the<I>real racists is your obsession.

Comment #36: Tyro  on  04/09  at  10:01 AM

We need to invent some sort of law like the Godwin Law that says that anybody who brings up the “Democrats are the real racists because _____” crap immediately loses the debate.

Comment #37: Albert Cirrus  on  04/09  at  10:57 AM

“That disembodied knee is creepy as hell.”

I think the photoshopper thought people would think it was a shadow or something which makes it even more racist because they think black people are just shadowy or something.

Comment #38: Albert Cirrus  on  04/09  at  11:02 AM

The real answer is always “The value of 2+2 is whatever God wants it to be.”

Mike was later found beaten to death by a bunch of Platonists…

Comment #39: Phoenician in a time of Romans  on  04/09  at  06:17 PM

“I think the photoshopper thought people would think it was a shadow or something which makes it even more racist because they think black people are just shadowy or something.”

Yeah, I’m always walking into black people, they’re so shadowy they’re practically invisible. Unless they’re smiling, of course. *utter sarcasm*

That knee really scares me, though. There’s just something about random body parts where they shouldn’t be that creeps me the f**k out. Like a picture of just one eye and nothing else, or a photo I saw once with a hand on someone’s shoulder, seemingly from nowhere… *shudder* But I digress.

Comment #40: mariposa  on  04/09  at  08:32 PM

Alright, I dont know if anyone else has noticed but Obamas grandpas right (our right) testicle is really hanging low and making itself real prominent in that photo. Just didnt know if anyone else noticed. You can continue with your broadcast day now.

Comment #41: Bean Slap  on  04/09  at  09:19 PM

OMG manju I had to link to the birther origins a couple of days ago on a post about trump (gauging the sincerity of wing nuts). Some dumfuks (cough * Dan, crissa, blue jean,triplanetary) though I was a birther simply because I wrote this seemingly non-presumptive (for liberals and not teabaggers) claim; “I read a Mother Jones article that said that birthirism was started by the Democrats.” Holy shit did some real jackal witless types go apeshit on me for that! Luckily though the majority didnt and actually acted like liberals rather than T-baggers. This was, BTW even after posting links that supported the claim, one of which was the one you linked to. The Mother Jones article couldnt be found online though only via their subscription.

Comment #42: Bean Slap  on  04/09  at  10:00 PM

#33,
Yeah whose saying it now is def the Repubs but I find it an interesting tid bit in regards to its theory of origins. Perhaps initially it wasnt truly a racist basis but the Repubs made it into one, regardless it is interesting.

Comment #43: Bean Slap  on  04/09  at  10:04 PM

Proof positive it’s a fake, here’s the original:
http://i1041.photobucket.com/albums/b419/oldfeminist/dusty.jpg

Comment #44: oldfeminist  on  04/09  at  11:53 PM

Bean slap, testicles hang lower as you get older.  The left is usually lower than the right. 

Maybe you haven’t spent much time around older men?

Comment #45: oldfeminist  on  04/10  at  12:10 AM

“The left is usually lower than the right.”

And the “right nut” is a birther. grin

Comment #46: Albert Cirrus  on  04/10  at  01:19 AM

#45,
“Maybe you haven’t spent much time around older men?”

Is that a joke? I’m in my mid-20’s; of course I havent spent much time seeing naken old mens testicles?I’m just saying, why even wear underwear? Didnt know you were such an expert.

How does this image fit in with your left sags lower for old men theory? The guy is 33 and its his right testicle we see on the nutto Jason Hatch the MRA.

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2004/09/14/b_5_gallery__381x550.jpg

Cirrus,
I’m pretty sure the right nut is a teabagger.

Comment #47: Bean Slap  on  04/10  at  04:56 AM

#44,
Well looks like another case solved!

Comment #48: Bean Slap  on  04/10  at  04:59 AM

Yeah whose saying it now is def the Repubs but I find it an interesting tid bit in regards to its theory of origins. Perhaps initially it wasnt truly a racist basis but the Repubs made it into one, regardless it is interesting.

It was truly racist when the Clinton Dems were deploying it, Bean Slap. Theses original Birthers were part of the Larry Johnson crew at “No Quarter”, a popular liberal blog originally known for Bush hatred (Bush fascism, etc). This crew was up to no good.

Johnson was at the center of the racially incendiary “Whitey Tape” incident.  Right before Obama was about to clinch the nomination, Johnson wrote a blog post alleging that Republican Party operatives had a tape of Michelle Obama saying the word “whitey” at Rev Wright’s church. Farrakhan was involved somehow. It was an attempt to derail Obama’s inevitable nomination for the benefit of Senator Clinton, of whom Johnson was a rabid supporter.

The MO was eerily similar to the Clinton campaign’s NH co-chair’s smear. Billy Shaheen alleged that republicans were going to smear Obama as a drug-dealer. Notice the similar double-smear, against first Obama but also the Repubs. And notice the subtle racial nature. Both Bush and President Clinton were alleged to have taken drugs, but no one accused them of dealing. A black male runs for Prez, and the Clinton campaign goes there. If there is any doubt what this effort was about, the Clinton’s at the time were making an issue of Obama’s position on revising crack-cocaine sentencing guidelines. I assume folks here know how Nixon’s Southern Strategy worked, so I won’t bother to explain further.

At the time, 3 Clinton staffers were caught spreading the Obama “secret Muslim” smear. Fmr Senator Bob Kerrey, while endorsing Clinton, was also spreading it by using phrases like “Islamic Manchurian candidate”. So, there was a lot going on here. It wasn’t innocent.

Comment #49: Manju  on  04/10  at  12:51 PM

#47

Shit, I missed the better joke.  It was late at night and I was tired, so “And the “right nut” is a birther” was all I could think of.

I really dropped the ball. grin

Comment #50: Albert Cirrus  on  04/10  at  01:15 PM

Is that a joke? I’m in my mid-20’s; of course I havent spent much time seeing naken old mens testicles?

Oooh, oooh, oooh - something I can finally help with!

Let me just undo this belt…

Comment #51: Phoenician in a time of Romans  on  04/10  at  02:14 PM

Let me just undo this belt…

INCOMING!

Comment #52: MaryL  on  04/10  at  02:59 PM

On advice of a number of people, I have now taken down my original faked picture and replaced it with one which discreetly contains my signature.

Comment #53: Dr. Psycho  on  04/10  at  03:45 PM

Jeez, bean slap, you really don’t know much do you?  Batman is showing, not a testicle, but photo proof that he “dresses right”.  Are you familiar with this term?  As to grandpa, that might be a testicle.  Again, it might be that he dresses left.  Most men do.  If I need to spell this out for you, just ask.

Comment #54: Older  on  04/10  at  03:50 PM

INCOMING!  Or, uh, out-going . . .  (My husband said FORTHCOMING!)

Comment #55: Older  on  04/10  at  03:51 PM

Ben D @28 re Teabaggers primarying John Boehner: From your keyboard to Allah’s inbox.

Albert @37, you choose: Should it be Cirrus’s Law or Manju’s Law?

Bean Slap @47, most nursing home caregivers are in their mid 20s, and that’s a job that provides plenty of opportunities for seeing old men’s testicles, far more than most people would ever want or need….

Comment #56: Dr. Psycho  on  04/10  at  03:57 PM

#56

I don’t want my name associated with it.  I was thinking maybe the name of the Democrat most used when the law should be invoked: The Robert Byrd Law.

Comment #57: Albert Cirrus  on  04/11  at  08:09 AM

About the only way this could be funnier would be if the “original” had the “Free trial edition” watermark across it.

Comment #58: Left_Wing_Fox  on  04/11  at  12:56 PM

#45, “Maybe you haven’t spent much time around older men?”

Is that a joke? I’m in my mid-20’s; of course I havent spent much time seeing naken old mens testicles?I’m just saying, why even wear underwear? Didnt know you were such an expert.

I can’t tell over the web how old you are, and even if I did, no, it’s not a joke.

Maybe you don’t have a grandpa or other older male relatives around, to observe but a trip to the mall or the beach or the MVA will reveal this secret knowledge.  They don’t have to be naked.  Sitting on a bench like Obama’s grandfather with legs spread wide is a common old guy pose and one that often does reveal a stray orchid.

Comment #59: oldfeminist  on  04/11  at  02:27 PM

I don’t want my name associated with it.  I was thinking maybe the name of the Democrat most used when the law should be invoked The Robert Byrd Law.

I’ve noticed this viewpoint: invoking the name of Robert Byrd when discussing American racism is tantamount to using Hitler in all political discussions. Obviously the comparison fails since Byrd is a central figure in Jim Crow. So to ban him from a discussion of racism is as absurd as not invoking Hitler when discussing anti-Semitism in Germany.

I suspect the other justification for banning Byrd is rooted in the belief that he’s an outlier, since the rest of his peers migrated to the republican party. The Strom Thurmond argument. I think this was the first lefty denialist narrative I debunked here at Pandagon, so I won’t bother to do it again. Suffice to say, Strom is the real outlier. Almost to a man, the most powerful segregationists in the land remained within the more liberal party.

Finally, there is the idea that Byrd repeatedly apologized for his racist views, therefore it is unfair to continue to tar him and his political allies. So, did Byrd repent or not? I can document everything I will say on this matter, so feel free to ask, but here is the summary:

By his own account, Byrd did not realize he was wrong until 1982, when his grandson was killed. It was only then that he realized “black people love their grandsons too.” He made this public in 2005. There was an earlier indication of regret in the late 90’s, but I’m not sure if that had to do with the Klan or with segregation as a whole. Indeed, it is his regret over being a member of the Klan that liberals conflate with apologizing for racism.

But apologizing for being in the Klan is not tantamount to apologizing for being a segregationist. After all, Byrd expressed regret for the klan as early as the 1950s, when he ran for the House. Why? Because, even in the south, the KKK was no longer respectable, mostly due to lynching. Even more problematically, Byrd was whitewashing the Klan in 2005 (claiming they did not advocate violence against blacks).

Any way you cut it, this means Senate dems made an unrepentant segregationist their senate majority leader. Perhaps it will be appropriate to ask RWingers to stop invoking Byrd once LWingers own this racist action.

Comment #60: Manju  on  04/11  at  07:05 PM

#59,
Ugggggh oldfeminist, I’m not staring at my grandpas junk!!!!I’m not staring at any old guys genitals. Cooties, cooties….in my happy place now, in my happy place now!!!!

Comment #61: Bean Slap  on  04/11  at  09:36 PM

#54,
Underwear wouldve been nice old. And no how in the world do male ballet dancers do it? Its awkward and a bit nauseating-I mean, its not only an up close and personal but its an MRAs up close and personal. I totally regret coming here and reading the replys while I’m eating dinner.

Comment #62: Bean Slap  on  04/11  at  09:38 PM

Of course, being racists, they can’t see far enough past Obama’s dark skin to see how goddamn much he looks like his Grandpa Dunham.

That’s the true sickness here - they simply CANNOT look past race, even in the face of powerful resemblance.

Comment #63: Ms Kate  on  04/11  at  10:47 PM

Quite right, Manju.  No one may criticise anyone else before they’ve laid out the list of all the sins and crimes inflicted against others by them, their ancestors, or anyone else who has ever been in their club.

So, when can we expect to see your laundry list of crimes?  Hmm?

Comment #64: ckitching  on  04/12  at  01:27 AM

Ckitching,

I didn’t say Dems need to own Byrd before criticizing Thurmond (though it doesn’t hurt). I said Dems need to acknowledge what they did with Byrd before demanding the Right Wing drop the issue.

There was a 60 minutes piece yesterday about the murder of a black man by a Klansman in Mississippi in the 1960s. The murderer is still alive and many in the town know he did it. His son spoke about the attitude of the locals:

“Here’s a guy, goes on livin’ his normal life, enjoyin’ life. But they feel as though we’re doin’ somethin’ wrong by sayin’ somethin’ about the murder. In other words, ‘You should be quiet about that. That was in the past.’ Well, it’s still in my present, and in my future. I have to look at this every day,”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/07/60minutes/main20051850.shtml?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

Commentators here inform me that bringing up the Democrats role in Birtherism in a post about…well, Birtherism…is tantamount to invoking Hitler, despite the fact that the conspiracy actually started on the left. They tell me that bringing up the name of Robert Byrd should not be allowed. Anyone who does “immediately loses the debate”. But those commentators have not even acknowledges the southern strategy played against President Obama by members of his own party. They have not demonstrated any awareness that Robert Byrd rose to the level of Senate Majority Leader as an unrepentant segregationist. As late as 2005 he was telling us his Klan chapter did not preach violence. Liberals chose this man, who once took to the senate floor to inform us that black brains were smaller than white ones, and put him into the line of succession before he even repented those words.

Why should RWingers shut up before this is even acknowledged? Why do commentators on Pandagon sound like people from rural Mississippi?

Comment #65: Manju  on  04/12  at  04:20 AM

“Obviously the comparison fails since Byrd is a central figure in Jim Crow.”

That’s not the point.  If they wanted to go into a fair deep historical debate about Byrd and his connections to the Klan and Jim Crow, that would be different.  But Republicans and conservatives don’t do that, this is what they see:

Klan=racist
Byrd=Klan
Byrd=Democrat
Democrat=Klan
Democrat=liberal
liberal=Klan
liberal=racist

And to them that’s a fair argument when it’s really stupid.  The Robert Byrd Law applies when Republicans and conservatives project their racist attitudes on modern Democrats and liberals.  And this isn’t so much about Robert Byrd because criticism of him individually from when he was in the Klan is fair as well as other Dixiecrat southerners, but criticism of liberals and Democrats as a whole are off limits to accusations of racism.  That’s why people who invoke the law lose because it is almost ideologically impossible to be a racist and a liberal.  It also goes beyond Robert Byrd and Jim Crow to to other “liberals are the real racists” debates.  I think the most relevant is the conservative concern trolling over “black genocide” because of abortion.

Comment #66: Albert Cirrus  on  04/12  at  10:26 AM

Bean Slap:  “how in the world do male ballet dancers do it?”

It’s called a dance belt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_belt

Comment #67: oldfeminist  on  04/12  at  01:57 PM

Bean Slap, male ballet dancers use a dance belt.

Comment #68: oldfeminist  on  04/12  at  02:00 PM

Reading a couple of the links, the fuzziness seems to come from the fact that the “original” photo was posted as a Youtube video.  Of course, the clone stamp is still a dead giveaway—not to mention the knee!

Comment #69: sacundim  on  04/12  at  02:29 PM

Another giveaway: the fact that the picture is off center.  I know some people take bad pictures, but usually they aren’t ones people share.

Comment #70: Albert Cirrus  on  04/12  at  07:16 PM
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