North Carolina Tea Party Works To Abolish School Integration

The Tea Party-backed Republican school board in Wake County, North Carolina, an area that has been known for successful integration, pledges to “say no to the social engineers!”

…critics accuse the new board of pursuing an ideological agenda aimed at nothing less than sounding the official death knell of government-sponsored integration in one of the last places to promote it. Without a diversity policy in place, they say, the county will inevitably slip into the pattern that defines most districts across the country, where schools in well-off neighborhoods are decent and those in poor, usually minority neighborhoods struggle.

The NAACP …

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee Orders State Workers To Stay Off Talk Radio

Governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island has ordered state workers not to appear on talk radio.  (h/t TALKERS)

Chafee will continue to talk to reporters from local stations and the nonprofit local NPR affiliate, Michael Trainor, a spokesperson for the governor, told the newspaper. Trainor explained that the governor wants to avoid “ratings-driven, for-profit programming.”

“We don’t think it is appropriate to use taxpayer resources” to pay state employees to appear on for-profit shows, he said.

Bill George, the program director for Providence talk radio station WHJJ pointed out to the Journal that “most media outlets, whether news …

Rep Joe Wilson “Honored” By “You Lie” On Assault Gun Component

A South Carolina gun company is “honoring” Joe Wilson by having the congressman’s phrase “you lie” — the one he shouted at President Obama during a State of the Union Address — etched into components of an assault rifle.

“Palmetto State Armory would like to honor our esteemed congressman Joe Wilson with the release of our new ‘You Lie’ AR-15 lower receiver,” reads a portion of the company’s website.

The page with this offer has since been removed.

The product “is neither endorsed nor affiliated with Joe Wilson or his campaign,” according to a line of text at the …

Golden Voice Doesn’t Mean Golden Life; Can Mean Reddened Scars

Celebrity isn’t always easy, especially when it’s thrust upon you with little warning. Formerly homeless Ted Williams had some non-golden words with his daughter, which cause the authorities to show up; and the daughter to comment upon a non-golden life. (h/t Mediaite)

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Williams claimed he calmly told his daughter “shut the hell up and let me speak to your mother.” In response, his daughter did indeed shut her mouth, and instead let her fists do the talking. The daughter also drops a few F-bombs in the interview as she described her father as …

Sarah Palin’s Statement On Arizona Tragedy Oddly Uses “Blood Libel”

Sarah Palin didn’t rush to make a statement about the Arizona tragedy, but finally she, or someone on her behalf, crafted a Facebook post. One particular line has Taegan Goddard wondering if she is using dog whistle politics to reach her base.

Palin states:

“But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.”

As Goddard notes:

The term “blood libel” usually refers to the false accusation that Jews use the blood of Christian children …

Poll: Over 1/4 Of Republicans Say Violence Against Government Can Be Justified

A new CBS poll…

…shows that while three in four Americans say violence against the government is never justified, 16 percent say it can be justified — the same percentage that said as much in April. Twenty-eight percent of Republicans said such violence can be justified, compared with 11 percent of Democrats and independents.

(h/t Daily Kos)…

Corporations Are People But Women Aren’t, According To Scalia

By Yashwanth Manjunath

Last week, ultra-conservative justice Antonin Scalia revealed his curious interpretation of the 14th Amendment. According to Scalia, when the 14th Amendment was passed following the Civil War, it was never intended to apply to women. Thus, women have no constitutionally-guaranteed protection against discrimination. Well that logic is certainly compelling, if you know nothing about constitutional law, or precedent, or Scalia’s history as one of the most hypocritical and dishonest Supreme Court justices ever.

When the the question of “corporate personhood” arose in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad (1886), the court made no …

On Tuesday’s Radio Show…

• Guest host Barry Weintraub fills in for Alan.…

George Packer: No Equivalency; David Frum: Talk May Not Have Caused This, But This Should Cause Talk

George Packer in the New Yorker makes a clear-cut case about the difference between the rhetoric of the left and the right, regardless of whether such rhetoric has anything to do with the actions of Jared Lee Loughner. (h/t Taegan Goddard)

In fact, there is no balance — none whatsoever. Only one side has made the rhetoric of armed revolt against an oppressive tyranny the guiding spirit of its grassroots movement and its midterm campaign. Only one side routinely invokes the Second Amendment as a form of swagger and intimidation, not-so-coyly conflating rights with threats. Only one side’s activists …

Both Sides Aren’t The Same

by Stuart Shapiro

I’ve been thinking of a post attacking the “both sides use dangerous rhetoric” meme that the right has been pushing so hard in the past few days but Kevin Drum and David Corn beat me to it.  Drum:

The big difference between right and left, as I and others have noted repeatedly, isn’t just in the amount of violent rhetoric, but its source. On the liberal side, it only occasionally comes from movement leaders. On the right, it regularly does. It comes from opinion leaders, political leaders, and media leaders, and the more heated they get, …

Limbaugh: Loughner “Has The Full Support” Of The “Democrat” Party

Rush Limbaugh, while blasting the politicization of the Arizona shootings as “beneath contempt,” is shamelessly doing just that. Limbaugh ranted about how Jared Lee Loughner “has the full support of a major political party” and that the “Democrat” Party “is looking for anybody but him to blame.” Jared understands, claims Limbaugh, that he’s got a sheriff and a political party “doing everything they can to make sure he’s not convicted of murder.”

By his own definition, Limbaugh is “beneath contempt.”

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