The unexamined life is worth a great deal to the opposition party's ability to hold the White House and both houses.

Rock on, GOP. Just keep doing what you're doing. Don't stop to think.

I think what I find most offensive is that these people don't understand why I'm offended.

Awesome. The best part will be when the RePugnantcans realize that no amount of bullshit about voter ID and other assorted dirty tricks will get them a win. There will be some interesting legislation introduced when they go full metal batshit. Will it be a bill that would force a certain number of minorities to vote Republican, the Un-Born Citizen Voting Rights Bill, or perhaps the Post-Mortem Republican Voters Defense Act?

I actually don't need to hear the lyrics after reading the title. Negro? Seriously? They really didn't know that was wrong?

I don't know what's worse: that the GOP doesn't know that "negro" is offensive in 2008, or that they don't care.

"I don't know what's worse: that the GOP doesn't know that "negro" is offensive in 2008, or that they don't care."

You're missing the heart of modern GOP racism. They think engaging in racial demogoguery proves how they're not racist, as in "The fact I'm willing to confront such raw racial sensitivities demonstrates how colorblind I am. A real racist would try and hide the way he feels."

Mike

I expect they also had a special minorities-outreach CD. It probably contained only 3/5 of the songs included on this one, which, needless to say, was sent only to carefully selected pale pink members.

Okay, so I've read the full story now. What really struck me is that there were 41 songs on the CD. How do you fit 41 songs on a CD? Well, unless you're The Minutemen. But they only accomplished that once (Double Nickels on the Dime).

Ms. Nelson's op-ed is spot on. As a former long time GOP staffer who this year supported and voted for PE Obama, I'm afraid, at least for the time being, all her good advice is simply closing the barn door after the horse has fled. And, of course knuckle heads like those two would be RNC chairs appear to want to burn down the barn rather than make it more attractive to the horse.

I actually don't need to hear the lyrics after reading the title. Negro? Seriously? They really didn't know that was wrong?

There _are_ ironic and sarcastic uses of "Negro," and even "Magic Negro," which gets used to talk about mystical African American literary and cinematic characters who uplift and spiritualize the white folks around them (like in _The Green Mile_ or _Bagger Vance_). I think it was David Ehrenstein who wrote about media reaction to Obama by using the "Magic Negro" terminology.

But conservatives don't get irony. They just figure that they should get a chance to say "Negro" too, because it gives them a little shiver to be Bad Like That.

I expect they also had a special minorities-outreach CD.

This fall, the Virginia Republicans had a minority outreach event in Northern Virginia, and the headliner was George "Macaca" Allen. No kidding.

To say that the people who are still sticking with the GOP Do Not Get It would be such a colossal understatement...

First time I heard the Majic Negro song I couln't believe it. They do "get it" though, they just don't care. They only like "real americans". The rethuglicants will be a fringe party for at least a generation if they keep this crap up.
Yipee! Keep it up.
They still don't realize that Humanity Won!

Godspeed Obama
Peace

So, Sister Nelson, Sister Rice, Brother Powell, Brother Keyes, and Brother Steele, explain to me again why I should support Republican politicians and policies.

Oh yeah, they're the party of murican family values.

Thanks, negroes.

... her party seems wholly disinterested in minority outreach.

No, no, no, no. It's uninterested, not disinterested.

Are we certain this isn't Dawson's and Saltsman's way of differentiating themselves from the two Negroes running for the same job? A direct appeal to the plentiful RNC troglodyte vote?

The term "magic Negro" in referenc to Obama was first used in early 2007 by a liberal l. A. Times columnist who wondered in print if Obama would be black enough. Shanklin and limbaugh's parody was a riff on what liberal blacks were already saying. Remember: before south Carolina, Hillary was leading among black voters and Jesse Jackson wanted to cut his balls off. Leave it to washington monthly to either be ignorant of the true story, or choose to ignore it.

Shanklin and limbaugh's parody was a riff on what liberal blacks were already saying. -- senor, @22:02

Being half-Polish and half-Jewish, I feel perfectly OK telling both Polack and semi-antisemitic jokes. Those are *mine* to tell because, when I tell them, there's a dose of love mixed into the ridicule. I have never felt comfortable telling jokes which make fun of Asians or Latinos or blacks, because I have not walked in any of *their* shoes. In fact, I don't even like to listen to them, unless they're told by a representative of the race that's being made the butt of the joke. When my -- Chinese -- stepdaughter-in-law tells a joke about Chinese eating habits, I enjoy it but I would never repeat it to someone else, Chinese or not.

Leave it to washington monthly to either be ignorant of the true story, or choose to ignore it.

Actually Ehrenstein and Limbaugh, while both using the term, were using it in opposite ways. Ehrenstein is deriding the racism of whites who need a a black man to be "ideal" in order to throw their support behind him while Limbaugh is actually deriding Obama and his supporters for believing a Black liberal could actually be, you know -- capable like he believes White conservatives are.

In other words, it's the stark difference between pointing out racism and being a racist ass oneself.

Leave it to ignorant wingnuts to either be unable to comprehend the nuances of language and meaning, or to choose to ignore them.

How are things going down South, anyway?

Saltsman's got what it takes. He's stupid, crass and he's got that unfathomable RepubCo sense of "humor" down pat.

A stone cold racist blockhead is what the RNC needs at a time like this. Go Chip.

Shanklin and limbaugh's parody was a riff on what liberal blacks were already saying.

I guess that's why Shanklin decided to do a "funny" Al Sharpton voice for the song. Of course, the entire point that David Ehrenstein was making was that WHITE liberals were thinking of Obama as a movie-style "Magic Negro," but why should Rush and Shanklin notice that little detail when they can pretend to be Stepin Fetchit for a few minutes instead?

Unfathomable. I find it so hard to conceive in the 21st century, that politicians can even pretend to justify such openly racist behavior. Where is the outcry from the right, or the left?

Wow, this is not cool. But that's why Sarah Palin is a front runner for the GOP. Afterall, she did hold rallies encouraging the attendants to yell, "KILL HIM."

Just before the elections, I saw Nancy Pfontenhaur on CNN, Larry King Live. A black radio talk show host said he asked Nancy what were John McCain's plans for minorities, he said she hung up the telephone on him. Apparently, this happen while they were on the airwaves.

I am beginning to believe this is why Boy George never rebuilt New Orleans.

Yet, with this type of behavior, the GOP can forget about the minority vote for a while, especially if this is what they meant by regrouping and changing their goals & ideals.

When I live in Mission Viejo Cali a few years ago, someone had destroyed a Menorah in Ladera Ranch...

"UNinterested," not "disinterested."

Republicans may be uninterested; they are NEVER disinterested.

The fact that these Republicans do not fathom how offensive this is is why they LOST the election. American is so much broader than their narrow racist agenda - and WE THE PEOPLE proved it on November 4, 2008.

I'm starting to think the Republicans are losing it. It's an open secret their "Southern Strategy" is essentially based on racism and much of Limbaugh's shtick from "get that bone out of your nose" to this magic negro bs is based on appealing to a demographic where racism and xenophobia are major motivators. Actually. and somewhat surprisingly, David Broder has a piece up in today's WAPO discussing the fatal nature of the GOP's dominance by the south. This is one strand of it.

Please. Bush is the most corrupt panderer ever on affirmative action and illegal migration, having actual made an agreement for open borders with Vicente Fox. Condi Rice, Powell, Alberto Gonzales.

http://www.watchingamerica.com/diewelt000007.shtml

In this conflict, George W. Bush, for once, has adopted a liberal position. Back in the summer of 2001, he and Mexican President Vincente Fox had reached an agreement on a policy of open borders, including wide-ranging legalization and dual citizenship. The INS – the then Immigration and Naturalization Service, now part of the Department of Homeland Security - objected vehemently, and in the aftermath of September 11th the plans of the two presidents were in any case, shelved.

Hate to say it, but there are now some elements for whom "black" has become as offensive as "Negro." It's either the cumbersome, often inaccurate term "African American" (which would accurately describe a white-skinned native of South Africa who emigrated here) or nothing. Jeez. I'm a progressive, but PC can only go so far.

"Desert loving in your eyes all the way
If I listen to your lies would you say
Im a man without conviction
Im a man who doesnt know
How to sell a contradiction
You come and go
You come and go"
Boy George and the Culture Club "Karma Chameleon"

The Republicans simply don't get it, do they? From
Haley Barbour's endorsement by the successor to the
White Citizens Council, to memberships in whites-only country clubs, to "satire" that's as funny as a root canal without anaesthetic...
How about a little satire of a satire?

Rush the fat queer dope fiend
Sends the maif for his fix....