The way Rush Limbaugh tells it, one would expect that Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama looked something like this:

The 1968 Olympics

Or this:

By any means necessary

In an email to Politico’s John Martin and Mike Allen, Limbaugh wrote that Powell endorsed Obama purely on the basis of race, and not because Powell truly believes that Obama is the better candidate. Limbaugh, of course, overlooked the fact that Powell made a $2,300 dollar donation to the McCain campaign last year. Powell replied, “I really have been going back and forth between somebody I have the highest respect and regard for, John McCain, and somebody I was getting to know, Barack Obama. And it was only in the last couple of months that I settled on this.”

It says even more to the endorsement that Powell put his mouth where his money was not. Personally, I tend to think that a former four star general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Security Advisor, and Secretary of State can make up his own mind about who he’s going to vote for.

There is a saying in Ohio:

“The two most important people in Ohio are the governor and the quarterback for Ohio State.

And the governor is not number one.”

If that’s true, then Terrelle Pryor is the most important person in the state of Ohio. He is (regrettably for an Illini fan) an incredibly talented young quarterback whose collegiate and professional future seem very bright.

He is also black. Which, if you know anything about football, really shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. There is also another young, promising black American making headlines these days. You might have heard of him.

And the people at this McCain/Palin rally in Strongsville, OH seem like they’re willing to overlook the question of race in the former case, but not the latter.

There are plenty of reasons to vote for McCain (or so I’m told) but one of them is not “because Barack Obama is a one man terror cell,” or because “he’s got the bloodlines and the name [of a terrorist].”

Call me crazy, but does anyone think for one second that republicans would be insinuating that the democratic nominee is a terrorist if he wasn’t black, or if he didn’t have an unusual name?

What would happen if Terrelle Pryor’s mother had named him Terrelle “Hussein” Pryor?

No, Sarah Palin would be, “Ice Man,” I think.

Regardless, a Texas family with the last name Maverick has bone to pick the the McCain campaign. The Maverick Family, originally of San Antonio, has taken issue with McCain and Palin’s constant characterization of the senator as a “Maverick.” The word originated when one of the Maverick family’s ancestors opted against branding his cows, leading to unbranded livestock being referred to as “mavericks.” The term eventually came to mean someone who acted independently with no affiliation to a particular party or ideology. While the family has no bone to pick with the television show of same name, Mel Gibson, or Tom Cruise, they do seem peeved that McCain is running all over the place calling himself, “The Original Maverick.” He’s not, they are.

As a Republican candidate for President, you know you have issues when a family of Texas ranchers are pissed off at you. One has to wonder if he should have gone with a less overused campaign handle. Take a look at what other members of the political competition tried out:

Mitt “Viper” Romney
Mike “Jester” Gravel
Hillary “Wolf Man” Clinton

Frankly, I would be worried that all the constant allusions to his military service and use of the word “maverick” would just remind the electorate of this doozy.

Mission Accomplished

This week in the news, a 7th grade Florida teacher, a Mr. Greg Howard, sat his class down last month and asked them to ponder a question. Did they know what change stood for in regards to Senator Barack Obama’s campaign. The mostly white class then watched as this gentleman drifted over to the dry-erase board and wrote:

C ome
H elp
A
N (yeah, THAT N word)
G et
E lected.

Several students in the class reported Mr. Howard’s extremely racist joke, (which, remember, was delivered to SEVENTH GRADERS) and fortunately, the firm hand of justice stepped in and reprimanded him for his actions.

The penalty for doing something like this in a Florida Middle School? Suspension for 10 days without pay. Oh, and he also has to write a letter of apology to his students when he gets back.

I have an open letter I’d like to deliver to the state after learning of the disciplinary actions taken against Mr. Howard.

Edit: I beg everyone forgive the typo in the image. In my hurried excitement to make an image for The Lowdown, I neglected the ‘r’ in Florida. We cool?

Source: Fox News

Obama’s camp came out with at 13-minute documentary today detailing the investigation of an economics scandal Jon McCain was involved in 18 years ago. The video is available at keatingeconomics.com and now, blogs across the nation:

The video is compelling enough, and should give way to much commentary and analysis leading up to tomorrow’s debates. It’s no surprise that a supporter of G.W. Bush would be involved in a financial scandal, and I applaud the Obama campaign for having the balls to make this video less than a month before election day.

Watch it for yourself and think for yourself, too. Then feel free to comment.

“Why can’t we all just get along?”

Rodney King said that. He said that was after the cops who beat him 3/4 of the way to death were acquitted by an all-white jury. He said that while many of the black citizens of Los Angeles were dragging white truck drivers out of their cabs and beating them 3/4 of the way as well.

It’s a pretty simple question, right? But it’s a far more complex answer.

To underscore how complex and difficult an answer to King’s question may be to find, ponder this:

Today, the first black American to be a legitimate candidate for president will once again take the national stage in the first of a series of debates. It’s pretty amazing to think that this debate will take place at Ole Miss, a university that rioted when the feds tried to integrate it. Where, not five years ago, the mascot was a fucking slave owner named Colonel Rebel.

Col. Rebel

It’s a big step forward, no doubt. But tonight also highlights how fucking backward we still are. Guess who is showing up to the debate?

These guys:

The KKK is planning to show up and distribute literature and membership applications to the crowd in and around the debate tonight, according to Time magazine. And their idiotic ramblings may not fall on deaf ears. Many of the black students at Ole Miss (now 14% of the student body) have reported acts of racism or violence perpetrated against them by white students.

In essence, Barack Obama could be the President of the United States of America, but he would still get a beer can thrown at him if went to the wrong frat party at Ole Miss?

Why can’t we all just get along? It’s a long story, Rodney.

Source: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1844872,00.html?cnn=yes

http://www.cnn.com/?refresh=1

If you have been following the back and forth partisan politics of the 2008 Presidential Election, you probably found yourself reading a news story a few weeks ago about a Congressman from Georgia who referred to Barack and Michelle Obama as ‘uppity.’

Uppity.

Yeaaaaaaaah, uppity.

The best (and by best, I mean worst) part about the controversy surrounding Representative Westmoreland’s statement is that he claims to be ignorant of the FACT (yes, no debate here) that ‘uppity’ is an undoubtedly racially charged word. In fact, when asked to clarify his statement, he responded with a hearty “yeah, uppity.”

Not only does this cause me to question Westmoreland’s humanity, it also draws attention to how very little he knows about the history of his own state.

The first use of the word ‘uppity’ can be found in the Uncle Remus tales, a blatantly racist set of stories first featured in the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION (!!!!) in the 1880s. It was used to describe African-Americans (often by other African-Americans) that seemed to be striving to rise above what their critics believed to be their station in life.

Earlier, I said that the worst part about this whole situation was Westmoreland’s ignorance about the history of the word ‘uppity.’ Coming in at a close second is that most of the population of the United States didn’t know that ‘uppity’ had racial connotations either.

Luckily for me, I have the great fortune of a college education that includes an African American Studies course with Dr. James Anderson.

Although this personal tidbit may seem irrelevant, it seems to be the crux of the problem.

People in the United States today, yesterday and sadly, tomorrow, do not have a sufficient knowledge of the history of race relations. And the skies aren’t getting any sunnier.

Instead, many Americans have chosen to fight the racism that still exists by pretending that it doesn’t. As the international community saw with the rioting in France in 2005, this method isn’t exactly highly effective at dealing with cultural differences.

I honestly can’t tell you where exactly I’m going with all of this. I can tell you that claiming that racism is not still a real problem in the United States today is just as ignorant and unbelievable as anything Representative Westmoreland could possibly get caught saying.

On a lighter note…

Source: The Hill
Dictionary.com
Colbert Nation