Obama on Letterman Sept. 21

Obama breaks out his funny. Here's a clip. I'll post full video when it's available:

Top 10 reasons Obama appeared on Letterman:

Obama on Meet the Press Sept. 20

Full Obama interview:

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Same Old Filthy Racism From GOP

Ah, yes. George Herbert reminds us that the GOP has not only exploited racist fears in others, but also perpetrated racism. Herbert asks if it's too much to ask the GOP leadership to denounce racism. Probably, yes. But we need to condemn it and call it what it is. This is just a small sampling:

More than three decades later we have Sherri Goforth, an aide to a Republican state senator in Tennessee sending out a mass e-mail of a cartoon showing dignified portraits of the first 43 presidents, and then representing the 44th — President Obama — as a spook, a cartoonish pair of white eyes against a black background.

When a gorilla escaped from a zoo in Columbia, S.C., a longtime Republican activist, Rusty DePass, described it on his Facebook page as one of Michelle Obama’s ancestors.

Among the posters at last weekend’s gathering of conservative protesters in Washington was one that said, “The zoo has an African lion and the White House has a lyin’ African.”

These are bits and pieces of an increasingly unrestrained manifestation of racism directed toward Mr. Obama that is being fed by hate-mongers on talk radio and is widely tolerated, if not encouraged, by Republican Party leaders. It’s disgusting, and it’s dangerous. But it’s the same old filthy racism that has been there all along and that has been exploited by the G.O.P. since the 1960s.

I have no patience with those who want to pretend that racism is not an out-and-out big deal in the United States, as it always has been. We may have made progress, and we may have a black president, but the scourge is still with us. And if you needed Jimmy Carter to remind you of that, then you’ve been wandering around with your eyes closed.

Glenn Beck, one of the moronic maestros of right-wing radio and TV, assures us that President Obama “has a deep-seated hatred for white people.” Some years ago, as the watchdog group Media Matters for America points out on its Web site, Beck said he’d like to beat Representative Charles Rangel “to death with a shovel.” More at NYT

Tim Wise is correct. Obama can't address racism but we can. We must.

Bill Cosby Speaks Out on Racism

First off, not everyone who protests Obama is a racist. Second off, much of the animosity toward Obama is based on race. Third, racists are being emboldened by the lack of outrage from the republicans. Most of the racism is coming from the right wing. Fourth, it doesn't seem to matter if we point out the racists. Everyone wants to deny it. So let's just ignore the idiots. They are a small but obnoxious and repulsive group but if we can ignore them, we diminish them. As Bill Cosby says in the video below what difference does it make that Rush Limbaugh is a racist idiot? He's always going to think what he's going to think:

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Gibbs reiterates, as he should, opposition to Obama isn't based on race. Obama has to stay above the race issue:

Bill Cosby chimes in and makes all kinds of sense:

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More from Cosby at The Root.

Obama Speaks on Race at Unity Conference

Obama, who just arrived back in town last night, spoke today at the minority journalists conference:

Swamp: "We are becoming a more diverse culture, and it's something that has to be acknowledged," he said. "I've also said that affirmative action is not going to be the long-term solution to the problems of race in American because, frankly, if you've got 50 percent of African-American or Latino kids dropping out of high school, it doesn't really matter what you do in terms of affirmative action. Those kids are not getting into college....There have been times where affirmative action has been viewed as a shortcut to solving some of these broader, long-term, structural problems."

Obama said minority children who come from wealthy homes should not be given greater consideration for college, for example, than "a poor white kid who has struggled more."

He also expressed reservations about making reparations to African Americans and other groups for past deeds. "The best reparations we can provide are good schools in the inner city and jobs for people that are unemployed," Obama said.

McCain declined an invitation to speak to the journalism group, which says it represents nearly 10,000 members of the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association.

Obama was also asked whether in his repeated efforts to denounce false rumors that he is a Muslim he has gone too far, thus hurting impressions of Muslim Americans, including some who believe he should visit a mosque, as he has done with churches and synagogues.

"This is a classic example of a no win situation, right?," he responded. "So, I try to correct something that is false, and then people say, well why are you correcting this thing in a way that isn't sufficiently, ah, well, let me put it this way: first of all, I have repeatedly on various occasions said, I am not a Muslim, but this whole strategy of suggesting that I am is indicative of anti-Muslim sentiment that we have to fight against. So, maybe you haven't see those quotes, but they're out there and I have said them on more than one occasion....I just don't like the idea of somebody falsely identifying my religion...If you were a Muslim and somebody consistently said that you were a Christian, I suspect that you would want to have that corrected because that's offensive to your faith. I think my credentials on supporting Muslim Americans are very strong."