Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell Forgot About Slavery in Proclamation of Confederate History Month

I don't think he actually forgot. There is a tradition by some on the Right to leave slavery out as a core reason for the Civil War simply because they don't hold the view that Slavery was very important.

Nikki Giovanni gets to the point....


McDonnell knew exactly what he was doing. It wasn't an innocent mistake. It was classic Southern Strategy stuff. But when he started to notice a backlash... he tried to make amends.
Unfortunately, I don't see this as having much of an impact nationally. Stupid voters will still vote overwhelmingly Republican in the next two major election cycles, no matter what. If anything, this dust up makes McDonnell look like a more appealing candidate for White Conservatives if he has any national political ambitions. But stories like this do serve to show the mindset of those on the Right who are in leadership.

Like I mentioned on my Republican media page a year ago (see sidebar) there is this desire by some on the Right to re-establish some sort of new Confederacy in this Country... if not a physical one... definitely an ideological one.

Nice Huffpost commentary

Right Wing Threats of Violence Grow As Republicans Embrace Fringe

Those on the radical extremist fringe are no longer stuck on the margins, as Republican politicians break their necks to embrace them as part of the mainstream. There are only a small handful of progressive commentators pointing this out.

Media Matters Makes Connection Between Fox News and Threats to Pelosi

Progressive commentators should be more aggressive at making the connection between the venom from Fox and the increase in Domestic terror threats.

New University of Washington Survey Shows that Race Is Influence for Many Tea Party Supporters

Results from a University of Washington Survey on the Tea Party Movement shows that Race isn't the non-factor that some in the mainstream media have been suggesting.

"The tea party is not just about politics and size of government. The data suggests it may also be about race,"said Christopher Parker, a UW assistant professor of political science who directed the survey.

It found that those who are racially resentful, who believe the U.S. government has done too much to support blacks, are 36 percent more likely to support the tea party than those who are not.

Indeed, strong support for the tea party movement results in a 45 percent decline in support for health care reform compared with those who oppose the tea party. "While it's clear that the tea party in one sense is about limited government, it's also clear from the data that people who want limited government don't want certain services for certain kinds of people. Those services include health care," Parker said.

He directed the Multi-State Survey of Race and Politics, a broad look at race relations and politics in contemporary America. The survey reached 1,015 residents of Nevada, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia and California. All were battleground states in the 2008 presidential election with the exception of California, which was included in the survey to represent the West Coast. See summary of report.

I have believed from the beginning that race was part of the health care debate. Many who didn't support Health Care reform held their position partly because they believed that the provisions of reform would disproportionately benefit the poor in this Country.... and by extension (since a large proportion of the poor are minorities) would benefit Blacks and Hispanics. To many whites, especially whites in the South, this was just unacceptable.

The information coming out now appears to support what I had believed all along.

This also backs up the argument I made last year about the role racial prejudice was playing in the Republican's anti-Obama campaign (of which the Tea Party plays a central role). Also see post from the Daily Kos. James Carville of all people tried to suggest that race was not an issue behind the anti-Obama campaign. The Carville report has since been shot down repeatedly by other surveys, reports and commentaries. The report was nonsense from the beginning.

President Obama Signs New START Treaty with Russia

Both Sides of The Loop: April 4, 2010

Check out the Both Sides of the Loop podcast. In this edition of Both Sides of The Loop Marvin King and Lenny McAllister discuss the March employment figures, black unemployment and why Artur Davis of Alabama didn't support health care reform.

Why Artur Davis Voted Against Health Care Reform

Now that the dust is starting to settle from the historic passage of health care reform, it is time to take an in-depth look at the health care reform vote and the intriguing vote of one Congressional Black Caucus member, Artur Davis of Alabama who did not support the legislation.

I ran some simple analysis and discovered regional support for health care reform in the U.S. House looked something like this:

New England- 95 percent support
Mid-Atlantic- 68 percent support
West- 65 percent support
Midwest- 51 percent support
Mountain West- 50 percent support
South- 31 percent support
Plains- 26 percent support

Read the rest at The Loop.

April 4, 1968

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Vintage Vandross

The great Luther Vandross from the mid 1970's, when he was with the group "Luther".

Classics "The Second Time Around" and "Funky Music" (David Bowie).