(The vandalized Obama campaign office in Vincennes, Indiana. Photo by Ray McCormick.)

Last week, NPR ran a segment I found pretty despicable. It wasn’t the story itself, although the subject matter was appalling; what I found despicable was one of the listener e-mails responding to the story.

Let me back up. NPR had a good story on the racism faced by some young Obama campaign workers. After running audio of some pretty racist white voters, Michele Noris interviewed Kevin Merida about his front page article for The Washington Post on the subject. You can read Merida’s article here and his online discussion on it here. Oh, and John Cole posted some pretty disturbing videos of some racist white voters here, and also explained how party identification in West Virginia can be highly misleading. All of it’s worth checking out, but here’s a sample from Merida’s piece:
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Karl Rove’s an extremely despicable figure, but it can be helpful to follow his spin because of his strong continuing influence in Republican circles and the MSM. He’s given many an interview and written many a piece attacking Obama at this point, and similar attacks will surely continue, but I’ve been most interested to watch his efforts to protect the brand of the GOP.

Consider his 5/8/08 editorial for the Wall Street Journal, “It’s Obama, Warts and All” (via Howard Kurtz). This section was particularly interesting:
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The “Hillary (for You and Me)” video received a strong reaction, and deservedly so. However, I do want to note yet again that it was apparently made by some Hillary Clinton supporters, not commissioned by the campaign itself. (Although how creator Gene Wang can call himself a marketing “expert” and produce that is beyond me. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s a nice guy, and perhaps is good at marketing overall, but dude, no offense, let someone else work on the whole “catchy tune” thing.)

But as I mentioned in one of the comment threads, there is worse. Oh yes, my pretties. Because I am a misanthropic bastard, for equal time or just increased sadism, via TBogg, here’s Michelle Malkin’s anti-Hillary song. As TBogg writes:

We already knew that she can’t jump, act, interview, demagogue, and do satire.

Now she tries her hand at singing and playing piano:

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Holy crap. The horror. The horror.

If you were on the fence, this may tip you over - with a painful crash.

I first saw this over at Skippy’s, who’s been forced to reconsider his choice. Meanwhile, Blue Gal, who also had it, wrote, “Betcha can’t watch the whooole thing. Click here. But I betcha. Even my friends who support…oh nevermind.”
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I’ve been compiling material for a post on Richard Cohen for a while now, mainly because he’s emblematic of a certain brand of thinking set of attitudes among the Village punditocracy. His column yesterday, “The Mendacity of Hope: What We Want to Believe About Obama” starts with a doozy:

John Edwards lied about the cost of his haircuts. Fred Thompson lied about lobbying for a pro-choice outfit. John McCain insists that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation.” Mitt Romney concocted the story about how his father marched with Martin Luther King Jr. And Rudy Giuliani is a one-man fib machine — everything from why he had to provide police protection for his then-mistress to the survivability rates for prostate cancer in Britain. Yet it is something Barack Obama said that bothers me most of all because Obama is a new kind of politician. He is supposed to be coolly authentic.

What the hell is he talking about when he says Edwards “lied about the cost of his haircuts”…? As Greg Sargent notes, both Steve Benen and Atrios have correctly called Cohen’s claim false, and Sargent has written Cohen for an explanation.

As it so happens, I’ve got a good idea of what Cohen means. He made the same ridiculous claim in his column on 7/24/07, “He Just Plays a Straight Shooter.” In that piece, Cohen starts by calling out Fred Thompson for lying about his lobbying for a “family-planning outfit.” Then, showing Broder-esque “balance,” Cohen writes:
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From Raw Story:

by Jim Swanson
Blue Herald exclusive

I used to have the utmost respect for Mr. Dobbs and his daily (here in the Western Time Zone) CNN newscast. He seemed to be very bi-partisan in his attempt at television journalism. I watched because he was giving honest commentary on things that I really get lathered up over: Immigration, politics in general and the overall “screwing” of the almost-non-existent middle class.

Please keep in mind that I’ve never been a “journalist” or network news “talking head”. But I have had my share of broadcast experience as a reporter, news anchor and disc jockey. And I think I have a pretty darn good “BullSh*t Meter”. Most of the time, I can smell it a mile away and this buzzer goes off and my family runs for cover. But I digress…..

Dobbs has had several chances in weeks past to clear himself of a “distinct odor” on my meter when I’ve caught him, on occasion, contradicting himself. But I’ll let that slide for now. That’s a different opinion article all together.

But Lou’s May 17th interview with Bay Buchanan on “Lou Dobbs Tonight” made big stink in my living room.

Bay is promoting her new book: “The Extreme Makeover of Hillary (Rodham) Clinton.” I have read that the book is VERY anti-Clinton.

Ms. Buchanan, almost immediately after being introduced, made sure it was known immediately that the book is, by all means, non-partisan. Yeah, right. And I am lead tenor at the New York Metropolitan Opera.

Bay Buchanan is a long time Republican, the sister of political wishy-washy nutcase Pat Buchanan, and managed Pat’s three campaigns for President of the United States.

So this means we are to believe that Ms. Buchanan has written a non-partisan book, during a Presidential election campaign about a Democratic front runner?

To make matters worse in this interview Dobbs never once mentioned the fact that Bay Buchanan was/is a Republican, or the sister of Pat Buchanan (I guess we’re all supposed to know that), and, by gosh, she now works as a senior adviser to Republican presidential hopeful Rep. Tom Tancredo (CO).

It was only near the end of the interview that on’screen text identified Buchanan as “Rep. Tancredo’s campaign manager,” without identifying Tancredo’s party or the fact that Tancredo is seeking the same office as Hillary Clinton.

Dobbs never once mentioned a word about this during the course of the interview. In my opinion, as a journalist who is not supposed to have any bias, he really screwed up.

Of course, I’ll never get the chance to ask Lou Dobbs about why he never mentioned this in the interview, but I’m beginning to think his answer to my question would be “I don’t recall”, which seems to be the “in vogue” answer to any meaningful question these days.

Shame on you Lou. You let me down…hard.

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by Jim Swanson

A judge ruled yesterday that the city of New York can no longer prevent the public from viewing intelligence documents that police used to create arrest policies for the 2004 Republican National Convention.

According to the City of New York, those papers should remain sealed, claiming it would possibly hurt the city’s fair trial rights, if they were opened. According to lawsuits that have been filed, the city violated the constitutional rights rights of more than 1,800 people who were arrested at the convention.

Judge James C. Francis IV made the ruling yesterday about information used by the New York City Police Department while the convention was in progress. The city is apparently considering an appeal, while the judge stayed his ruling for ten days.

Almost one third of the City’s 35,000 member police force was used to patrol and and protecet the city from any terrorism threats and cope with demonstrators whose numbers reached the tens of thousands during the 2004 convention.

The four day long Madison Square Garden gala saw more than 1,800 people arrested.

I like this guy so far……
“I’m not going to have the same amounts of resources as Sen. (Hillary Rodham) Clinton and Sen. (Barack) Obama,” he said of the leading Democratic candidates. “I’m a grass-roots candidate. My fundraising will be respectable. … I’m running to get the support of the voters, not the funders. This shouldn’t be a race about money or resources or rock star status.”

From Freenewsmexican.com

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Monday that U.S. foreign policy’s concentration on the Middle East cost the country progress on other important issues and that Latin America has been virtually ignored.

“My point is that Latin America is a very important part of the world,” Richardson said, adding that he would meet with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as part of a broader Latin American policy plan.

Calling President Bush’s recent trip to the region “a little late,” Richardson, who is Hispanic, said the U.S. needs to be “associated with policies of democratic populism in Latin America.”

“We’re not,” he said. “We have to pay more attention to Latin America by being there.”

The Democratic presidential candidate also told reporters he would meet with Iran and Syria.

“If you’re going to have peace in the Middle East, if you’re going to bring some kind of resolve, result to the Iraqi crisis, you’ve got to think regionally,” Richardson said. “You should meet with Iran and Syria. You don’t make peace with your friends. You make peace with your enemies.”

Richardson said he wanted to create a “new alliance for progress for Latin America,” including economic assistance, loans to help the energy entrepreneurs as well as education, health care and nutrition.

“I would shift the focus of our assistance to Latin America, which I think is most important because it’s our hemisphere,” said Richardson.

Richardson acknowledged he may lag in fundraising ability.

“I’m not going to have the same amounts of resources as Sen. (Hillary Rodham) Clinton and Sen. (Barack) Obama,” he said of the leading Democratic candidates. “I’m a grass-roots candidate. My fundraising will be respectable. … I’m running to get the support of the voters, not the funders. This shouldn’t be a race about money or resources or rock star status.”

Richardson was in Austin to receive accolades from the Republican-controlled Legislature, and said he hoped his support in the state House and Senate would translate to votes in the 2008 presidential primary in Texas.

“I had two unanimous resolutions endorsed by the Texas House and Senate, and I hope that’s the same for the vote in the Texas primary for president,” Richardson said.

He said he hopes Texas moves its primary up to Feb. 5, 2008. The Legislature is considering such a measure.

“It’s, I believe, good for Texas, because issues important to Texas _ agriculture, water, immigration, issues related to transportation _ would be front and center. In the past, Texas has been a flyover for presidential candidates in both parties, a place where you raise money,” he said. “So I hope this happens.”

Richardson was due to attend a fund raiser in San Antonio Monday evening, his campaign said.