Georgia students fight for school’s first desegregated prom

Scenes from a post-racial America, specifically in Rochelle, Georgia:

Stephanie and Keela are white and Mareshia and Quanesha are black. They're seniors at Wilcox County High School, a school that has never held an integrated prom during its existence.

"There's a white prom and there's an integrated prom," said Keela.

The rule is strictly enforced, any race other than Caucasian wouldn't dare to attend the white prom.

"They would probably have the police come out there and escort them off the premises," said Keela.

That was the case just last year as a biracial student was turned away by police. It's been that way for as long as anyone can remember and it doesn't stop at prom. Homecoming is also segregated. Normally, there would be a court for each race, but for the first time the school decided to elect only one homecoming court, Quanesha won. But there were still two separate dances.

[…]

There will still be two proms this year. Neither proms are financed by or allowed to take place at Wilcox County High School. The students said that when they pushed for one prom, the school offered a resolution to permit an integrated prom that would allow all students to attend but not stop segregated proms.

Well, that’s odd. I just checked, and indeed, I didn’t somehow wake up in the early 1900s this morning.

Luckily, the students are paving the way for progress, though they’re finding it much harder than it should be in 20-fucking-13 to get a government-sponsored, publicly funded institution to drop the whole segregation thing [EDIT: 04/07/13 12:32 PM ET – I just realized my error: The proms aren’t school-sponsored, but are private-funded events organized by the community, instead, which is the only reason this shit is legal]:

So the girls are taking matters into their own hands.

"If we don't change it nobody else will," said Keela.

They're part of a group of students organizing a prom for everyone to attend, called the "Integrated Prom", but everyone is not fond of the idea.

"I put up posters for the "Integrated Prom" and we've had people ripping them down at the school," said Keela.

The group says they will continue to make progress even though there doesn't seem to be much motivation to change.

"We need to stick with the tradition," Quanesha said mockingly. "This is a traditional thing we don't need to change and stuff like that, but why? No one can answer my question.

"Exactly," responded Keela. "They think nothing's broken so don't fix it."

It remains to be seen whether the people of Wilcox County will remain steadfast in their pro-segregationist beliefs now that the media and Internet are about to bring a little more scrutiny upon their bigoted heads than they’re used to.

The world is a disturbing place sometimes.

(via Wonkette)

Daily Blend: 04/02/13

Dr. Deandre Poole

So, I guess that should read “exemplary teacher ^[pictured] threatened by student after asking class to step on piece of paper with Jesus’s name in harmless exercise on cultural sensitivity”. And he’s been receiving death threats from those ever-lovin’ Christians, of course.

I was in kinda-sorta-loose agreement with Sam Harris right until he says “[t]here is no such thing as Islamophobia” and that “[it] is a term of propaganda”. Now that’s how you shipwreck an argument, folks. (If he wants to contest the conflation of genuine criticism with bigotry, he should stress that ‘Islamophobia’ only applies to the latter, not that it isn’t actually a thing.)

Reality: Hoaxer dude calls domestic violence counseling line with phony abuse story, repeatedly refuses offered assistance to find free shelter or contact authorities. MRAs: “Abused man ‘denied help’”!

Public Policy Polling does conspiracy theories, reveals an average 10–15% of Americans are effin’ nuts. Not sure why “Bush lied about Iraqi WMDs” is counted as a myth, though.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

And finally, it’s getting almost impossible to tell when Vox Day is being either seriously or facetiously stupid.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Jon Stewart

A sad reminder that liberals/progressives can be racist idiots, too.

Is there any climate-change-denialist argument (read: lie) that doesn’t invariably boil down to blatantly cherry-picking data?
(via @BadAstronomer)

While reading this breathtaking(ly bizarre and repugnant) homage to North Korea, try to keep in mind that it is not from The Onion.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

And finally, Jon Stewart ^[pictured] to take three-month hiatus from The Daily Show (which will be babysat by John Oliver) to direct his first feature film.
(via @ebertchicago)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Pres. Barack Obama

The blogging vibe has forsaken me today, so here’s a quick link dump for y’all.

President Obama ^[pictured] enacts whistleblower protection law – then adds signing statement that he’ll ignore any protections that prevent him from targeting whistleblowers. You can’t make this shit up.

Creeping Creationism in Colorado.

Meanwhile, the ugly and pseudo-historical Creationist branch of racism contaminates Texas schools.

Oh, look, it’s a new report about the Catholic Church covering up clerical child abuse for Bill Donohue to splutter in denial about.
(via Friendly Atheist)

Today’s argument against banning assault rifles^*: There aren’t that many people being slaughtered by them, and besides, we already tried it once and it really didn’t work, so fuck it, amirite?
(via The Agitator)

Proof that there is an Intelligent Designer, and that it’s totally wasted.
(via @radleybalko)

And finally, random adorable photo time:
(via @EmergencyPuppy)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

* Because the linguistic pedant in me refuses to use the term “assault weapons”.

Daily Blend: Monday, January 07, 2013

James Dobson

Most Transparent Administration In History^TM allowed to continue hiding every single detail about its drone war.

Dishonest like a Breitbart acolyte arguing against gun control.

Looks like the design & technology community also has its issues with subconscious bigotry … and knee-jerk twits who perpetuate it.
(via @pzmyers)

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson ^[pictured] laments: “Nearly everything I have stood for these past 35 years went down to defeat.” Coincidentally, my causes are only getting better!

Research indicates crime rates may be directly influenced by … leaded gasoline? First I’ve heard of this; while certain hazards increase risks of congenital defects, can they really have such a clear effect on complex adult behaviors decades later?

And finally, this is even more tragic than what’s happened to the History Channel:

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

On Al Stefanelli’s “Atheist Cult” tirade

Al Stefanelli

As some of you may be aware (and not just because I mentioned it in last night’s Daily Blend), atheist journalist/activist Al Stefanelli recently made a video wherein he launched a veritable Gish Gallop’s worth of attacks and smears against several writers involved with Freethought Blogs (where he briefly resided), Atheism Plus, and the social-justice-oriented atheosphere in general, accusing them of being “radical extremists” out on a witch-hunt against White men and who give other, “real” activists a bad name and so on and so forth. It’s a remarkably dreary and absurd rant, and given that even my SIWOTI syndrome only goes so far, I was content to link to Ed Brayton’s excellent debunking and leave it at that (I found his comparison to the rhetoric from religious-Right cranks particularly fitting).

However, Stefanelli himself was apparently dissatisfied that I supposedly misunderstood his argument, and additionally claimed that I hadn’t even watched the video (an amusing assumption, considering that while I did skip past some of the more lengthy segments devoted to explaining in mind-numbing detail exactly why certain bloggers he disagrees with are like a “cult”, I did sit through the majority of it and understood his arguments perfectly).

But let it never be said that I’m not one to rise to such an easy challenge (even if it entails spending hours of my own freaking birthday typing down some weird rant about how myself and my allies are something like the bastard child of Jim Jones and Pol Pot of godless social justice). And so, I took the liberty of transcribing every painful second of Stefanelli’s tirade, below, in the hopes of sparing anyone else from sitting through the wretched thing:

Daily Blend: Friday, December 28, 2012

Al Stefanelli

Ed Brayton eviscerates Al Stefanelli ^[pictured] for his ridiculous rant about Freethought Blogs being an “atheist cult” for radical feminists who hate White men and so on. And imagine, the guy considers himself an ally. Mind, meet boggle.

Relatedly, it seems that Ophelia Benson must really be doing good work discrediting these twits.

2012 was quite a year for the “fast-growing” men’s rights movement, wasn’t it? (Well, no.)

College student learns despairingly many people are turtle-hating assholes. Though, I wonder how many hit it accidentally after swerving to avoid it.

Behold: The Ted Nugent countdown clock. (A possible third option: Carted off to a nuthouse.)
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

And finally, here, have some astoundingly (if hauntingly) beautiful photos of what several prominent cities would look like with every single light bulb burned out:
(via @DiscoveryCanada)

“Darkened” San Francisco (by Thierry Cohen)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Thursday, December 13, 2012

PZ Myers

If crap like this doesn’t convince you that the U.S. criminal justice system is an absolutely hideous farce, nothing will.
(via @ggreenwald)

I can’t wait for the usual dolts to quote-mine PZ Myers’s ^[pictured] (discomforting but incontrovertible) assertion that “[i]f you’re white, you’re racist”.

Meanwhile, the man must be damn near a saint if harmless, sex-positive jokes are the blackest dirt the anti-Freethought Blogs ilk can dig up on him.

And finally, here’s your amazing wildlife video of the day:
(via @DiscoveryCanada)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Monday, December 03, 2012 – Sleepless edition

Rick Santorum

The fun thing about trying to forcibly rearrange your sleep schedule is that for a few days, you effectively have no sleep schedule. Oy.

Owners of Mississippi’s only abortion clinic go to court in hopes of preventing its demise.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

Unbelievable: House Oversight Committee flacks lecture vaccine-advocating scientists about all the usual anti-vaccination myths and delusions. Where’s that basic science litmus test for elective office?
(via @BadAstronomer)

Meanwhile, climate change denialists lie their asses off in yet another garbage-packed opinion letter that gets just about every single thing wrong.

Wow: Freethought Blogs’ Ashley Miller was just disowned by her redneck father for dating a Black man. ’Scuse me while I go check my calender.
(via @jennifurret)

And finally, the only thing remotely surprising about Rick Santorum ^[pictured] joining the WorldNetDaily is that it took this long.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Québec mayor channels French-Canada’s embarrassing tribalism

Mayor Jean Tremblay

I generally try to avoid talking about local politics because A) they’re usually a lethal bore, and B) I don’t pay enough attention to regional happenings to develop much of an opinion, anyway. But one thing about the cultural climate here that’s been driving me up the wall over the last few years is the steadily growing undercurrent of tribalistic thinking that reduces any discussion about immigration to a reactionary debate about “us (true citizens) vs. them (filthy minorities)”. There’s something peculiar about living in a universal-healthcare-receiving, gay-equality-espousing liberal quasi-utopia where people still complain about all those foreign savages taking our jobs and how they should just return to their hellholes and leave our precious traditions alone. It’s like Arizona, if the Republicans were Left-wingers.

As a perfect representation of this phenomenon, I’ll let Mayor Jean Tremblay from the local town of Saguenay illustrate just what I’m talking about. Here he is just this past August, reacting to Parti Québécois (a quasi-separatist Québec-first political party) then-candidate Djemila Benhabib’s proposal for a truly secular Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms that prohibits the display of religious symbols on government property (sound familiar, U.S.ians?):

“What shocks me, is to see us, the gentle French-Canadians, being told how to behave by someone from Algeria whose name we can’t even pronounce,” Tremblay said.

Told that Benhabib has been in Quebec 15 years, Tremblay laid out the perceived threat posed by “them.”

“They are quietly, and with nice language, eating away (at our traditions),” Tremblay said. “They quietly start by removing the prayer in city hall, then they’ll remove our religious objects, then they’ll take away the crosses in cities and after that they’ll go into the schools ...

“They’ll do away with our religion and culture everywhere, and you won’t notice.”

Not so much “latent” xenophobia as “blatant”. As in, “So blatant, you’d think it were a parody of discriminatory bigotry if it didn’t actually represent a virulent mentality espoused by a prominent faction of the population.”

But Tremblay wasn’t done making a ridiculous scene over an obvious non-issue. He’s now upset that the Québec Human Rights Tribunal ordered the Saguenay city council to stop wasting time with sectarian prayers before meetings and to take down a crucifix from the chamber wall, and is determined to keep shaking his little fists at those darned secularists for casting symbols of religious oppression out of the government:

NYPD’s stop-and-frisk: more rare, still racist, mostly useless

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) has a new report on the statistics of New York City police’s practice of stopping and searching anyone they feel is acting suspiciously, and this little paragraph reaffirms everything that’s already known about the injustice and prejudice inherent to such a program:

The latest stop-and-frisk report shows that the NYPD stopped and interrogated New Yorkers 105,988 times between July 1 and Sept. 30. About 89 percent of those encounters did not result in arrests or tickets. About 86 percent of those stopped were black or Latino. Whites were around 10 percent of people stopped.

And yet, the number of (mostly innocent) people being accused of acting like possible criminals has actually been going down by 30% over the past year.

And of course, that’s not mentioning how the program is completely at odds with the Fourth Amendment, as I doubt any court could mangle the meaning of “probable cause” enough to apply it to cops who think someone’s sidewalk gait or white-knuckle cellphone grip indicates they’re out to deal drugs or launch an illegal knife-throwing enterprise. But then, that’s one part of the Constitution that everyone in power seems to have forgotten about these last few years.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Why is a diminished White establishment such a scary thought?

(via Political Irony)

Daily Blend: Wednesday, November 07, 2012 – The Re-linkening

Consider this a continuation of my previous “wrap-up” post as the dust continues to settle. There’s plenty of good and a smidgeon of bad, so hold onto your butts:

The good —

LGBT: Last night was a major win for equality with same-sex marriage passing by popular vote in three states (and a constitutional ban failing in a fourth), the election of the first-ever openly lesbian senator, and the fall of anti-gay candidates everywhere like flies.

Meanwhile, in the schadenfreude department, Sen. Scott “racist” Brown (R-MA) and Rep. Joe “deadbeat dad” Walsh (R-IL) are both kicked out.

Oh, and Troy, Michigan’s notoriously homophobic mayor, Janice Daniels, is also out on her bigoted ass.
(via Joe. My. God.)

New Hampshire: I wonder how many men feel discomfited now that both state senators, both representatives, and the governor are all women?

Florida: The Sunshine State did particularly well, with voters turning down abortion restrictions, killing a ban on Obamacare’s health insurance mandate, and preventing taxpayer money from going to churches and religious schools. Upholding abortion rights, healthcare reform and secularism all in one – not to shabby for a state renowned for its zaniness.

More good Floridian news: Rep. Allen West (R) will soon be Rep. no longer, possibly as a result of all that crazy shit he’s always spewing.

Atheism: While the only openly atheist Congressperson, Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), lost his seat after decades of serving the progressive community, candidate Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), rumored to be both an atheist and bisexual, is winning, though her opponent isn’t conceding yet.

Drug Laws: Massachusetts approves medicinal marijuana, though a similar initiative fails in Arkansas.

So, all in all, I guess this means those polls weren’t skewed against Republicans after all.
(via Joe. My. God.)

And finally, we can safely say that yes, FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver is (probably) a witch. (Or just very good with statistical analysis. Either way.)

Preacher gives typical anti-gay speech … or not

Pastor Phil Snider of Brentwood Christian Church in Springfield, Missouri attended a city council hearing back in August to rail against the city’s anti-discrimination law for including protections for LGBT folk. It’s all the same crap we’ve heard ten million times before – fear-mongering about special rights and the end of society as we know it and so on … until he appears to realize just how unoriginal he sounds. And what happens next makes the entire three-minute video entirely and epically worth it:

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

REV. PHIL SNIDER: Good evening. My name is the Rev. Dr. Phil Snider. I was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, and I stand before you this evening in support of this ordnance.

I worry about the future of our city. Any accurate reading of the Bible should make it clear that gay rights goes against the plain truth of the Word of God. As one preacher warns, Man and over stepping the boundary lines God has drawn by making special rights for gays and lesbians has taken another step in the direction of inviting the judgement of God upon our land. This step of gay rights is but another stepping stone toward the immorality and lawlessness that would be characteristic of the last days.

This ordnance represents a denial of all that we believe in and no-one should force it on us. It’s not that we don’t care about homosexuals, but it’s that our rights will be taken away, and un-Christian views will be forced on us and our children, for we will be forced to go against our personal morals.

Outside government agents are endeavoring to disturb God’s established order. It is not inline with the Bible. Do not let people lead you astray.

The liberals leading this movement do not believe the Bible any longer. But every good, substantial, Bible-believing, intelligent, orthodox Christian can read the word of God and know what is happening is not of God.

When you run into conflict with God’s established order, you have trouble. You do not produce harmony. You produce destruction and trouble and our city is in the greatest danger than it is ever been in its history.

The reason is that we’ve gotten away from the Bible of our forefathers. You see the right of segregation – I’m sorry, hold on.

The right … of segregation is clearly established by the holy scriptures … both by precept and example …

[One minute]

I’m sorry. I’ve brought the wrong notes with me this evening. I’ve borrowed my argument from the wrong century. It turns out what I have been reading to you this whole time is direct quotes from White preachers from the 1950s and the 1960s, all in support of racial segregation.

All I have done is simply take out the phrase “racial integration” and substituted it with the phrase “gay rights”. I guess the arguments I’ve been hearing around Springfield lately sounded so similar to these that I got them confused. I hope you will not make the same mistake. I hope you will stand on the right side of history. Thank you.

(To be honest, his introduction kinda gave away the punch for me, but your mileage may vary.)

You know what? I’m perfectly fine with him being a preacher. It’s not ideal, perhaps, but it beats the ever-loving hell out of the parasitic charlatans we have to deal with on a much more regular basis. Our world could do with a few less Pat Robertsons and a few more Rev. Sniders.

(via @BadAstronomer)

Daily Blend: Monday, October 15, 2012

My new baby

I’m finally the owner of a laptop that isn’t brought to its knees by launching MS Paint. Goodbye, Acer Aspire One – hello, Lenovo ThinkPad T410 ^[pictured]!

The enemy of Romney’s enemy is his friend, until they become his enemy, before they re-become his friend.

How good is your color vision? Take this test to find out. (I got a 7 – relatively sure my monitor screwed me …)
(via @jennifurret)

In which Cracked.com points out that snipers are math prodigies and submarine fights are won by boring the enemy to death (contra what Hollywood would have you believe).

And finally, how could anyone possibly think the far-Right is a refuge for bigoted assholes? Just ask anti-abortion crackpot Randall Terry:

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

‘The Daily Show’ dismantles the Right’s anti-Obama “bombshell”

If there’s anything that’s more predictable and satisfying than seeing the far-Right flame out over yet another failed attempt at discrediting President Obama or other prominent Leftists with “explosive” videos that invariably turn out to be complete duds, I’ve yet to experience it. Here’s Jon Stewart & co. of The Daily Show taking a rather amused look at the recently (re-)revealed video that purports to show a 2007-era then-Senator Obama (D-IL) at his class-warfare-est – when all he does is reiterate what everyone else was already saying at the time (including one then-President Bush).

Part 1:

Non-U.S. readers: Click here to learn how to enable Comedy Central videos (Firefox only)

Part 2:

Non-U.S. readers: Click here to learn how to enable Comedy Central videos (Firefox only)

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

[VIDEO 1: “Oh the Spew-Hannity”]

JON STEWART: Just a short time ago, Barack Obama and Gov. Romney wrapped up their first debate – if they had their first debate. I don’t know. It was scheduled. The show was obviously taped before that debate, and who knows if they even had the debate after what happened with yesterday’s bombshell: Full-day, Drudge-con-1, blue-siren-alert, Obama race video. Hannity had the exclusive:

SEAN HANNITY (10/02/12): Tonight, you will hear from Barack Obama like you have never heard from him before. […] A video has been uncovered from a campaign event in 2007 of then-Candidate Obama. […] It contains some of the most divisive class warfare and racially charged rhetoric ever used by Barack Obama.

STEWART: “Casually tossing out words like ‘cracker’, ‘honky’, “White trash”, ‘[?]’. SPF-45-wearing-mother—!”

And even though, as it turned out, the video-in-question had been widely covered when the event occurred back in 2007, that doesn’t matter! ’Cause – I’ll let Hannity’s guest, Tucker Carlson, explain:

TUCKER CARLSON (03/02/12): People say, “This has already been reported.” Well, actually, it hasn’t been reported, and I know, because I reported on it the first time.

Beat.

STEWART: So, let’s see some of the highlights of this explosive video.

CHRIS ROCK (during comedy routine): Cracker ass cracker! I’ll put my foot in the crack of your ass, cracker-ass cracker! I wish that cracker would’ve said some [shit] to me, saltine-ased, mother[fucking] cracker!

STEWART: Obviously, that’s just Chris Rock, one of his fine comedy skits on racial relations in America. I showed that in lieu of the Obama tape, because the Obama tape is far more explosive. In it, Barack Obama discusses how the events of Hurricane Katrina and that regions entrenched poverty has a racial component and advocates for concerted effort to rebuild the area, including these grenades:

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL) (06/05/07): We don’t need to build more highways out in the suburbs if we have people in the cities right now who wanna work, but have no way to get into those jobs. […] We should be investing in minority-owned businesses in our neighborhoods so people don’t have to travel from miles away.

JON STEWART: It is a volatile point-of-view, first expressed by this notorious Black liberation theologist speaking from New Orleans in 2005:

FMR. PRES. GEORGE BUSH (09/16/05): There’s also some deep, persistent poverty in this region as well. That poverty has history in roots of racial discrimination. […] When the streets are rebuilt, there should be many new businesses, including minority-owned businesses along those streets.

STEWART: “You see, what I’m trying to say is this: We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock, you see, won’t get landed on again. Hehehehehe.”

So, despite the fact that what Barack Obama was was saying in that speech kind of echoed the sentiments of other, more acceptable mainstream politicians of that era, and despite the fact that what Barack Obama was saying in that speech was echoed in his own speech that he gave in 2007 that actually aired live on CNN, Obama’s real crime here was not the content and the message, but the rhythm. Ooh, the rhythm. The rhythm is gonna get you.

HANNITY: You notice a change in the way he delivers this speech before a predominately African-American audience? […]

CARLSON: They speak a different language. Different cadences, different accents, different gestures. I mean, the falseness here is overwhelming. […]

HANNITY: We’ve got the accent, we’ve got anger, we’ve got ra— “They-don’t-care-as-much-about-you”.

STEWART: “We’ve got jive talk! We’ve got ‘No Justice, No Peace’! We’ve got ‘by any means necessary’! We’ve got ‘Say it out loud, I’m Black and I’m proud’! All this and more on K-Tel’s Now That’s What I Call Race-Baiting.”

By the way, if you actually do believe that a candidate speaking “Black” before Black voters disqualifies them from being president, I have unearthed a video that just might turn this entire presidential race upside-down.

MITT ROMNEY (01/21/08): What's happenin’, got some bling-bling here too, look at that. […] Who let the dogs out, who, who?

STEWART: “Who let the dogs out?” Did you know Mitt Romney was one of the original Baha Men? Not the band, he just keeps his money in Baja.

All right, here’s what’s crazy about this. If I’m not mistaken, Sean Hannity, you believe this president to be what?:

HANNITY (01/13/12): He’s the worst President we’ve had in my lifetime.

HANNITY (07/18/11): He is the worst President on record.

HANNITY (04/06/10): […] a worse President than Jimmy Carter.

HANNITY (04/06/12): This is the worst President America has ever had.

STEWART: The worst! Ever! In your lifetime! On record! Ever, ever, ever, ever! And on the eve of the first presidential debate, the best, most explosive critique that you could deliver of the worst president we have ever had in this country, is treating us to some reanimated bull[shit] video already been seen, as though it were the Rodney King tape in reverse.

---

[VIDEO 2: “The Great Black American Panel”]

STEWART: For more, we’re joined by our Great Black American Panel: Senior Black Commentator Larry Wilmore, Senior Black Correspondent Wyatt Cenac, Junior Black Correspondent Jessica Williams. Watching that Hannity piece, it’s almost unbelievable to see such naked race-baiting on television. Black people talk weird? What is that?

WYATT CENAC: It’s some bull[shit]!

JESSICA WILLIAMS: Yeah! [Fuck] Hannity! Your October Surprise is that the President is Black?

LARRY WILMORE: They are some desperate mother[fuck]ers.

STEWART: Um … What about this attempt to portray a relatively middle of the road left-of-center technocrat as some kind of angry Black radical?

CENAC: It’s some bull[shit]!

WILLIAMS: Yeah! [Fuck] Hannity!

WILMORE: They are some desperate mother[fuckers].

STEWART: Ah, that’s the same thing you said. Do you not want to talk about this?

CENAC: No, Jon, we love being part of your Great Black American Black Panel of Blacks. Black.

STEWART: Would it be better to have this discussion without the White guy moderating?

WILMORE: [all three nod their heads] No, Jon, this is your show. [points for Jon to leave] You should stay here and moderate this Black discussion.

STEWART: All right, I’ll be over here, it’s fine, I’ll read. [puts on headphones] You guys can just talk amongst yourselves. It’s fine. [starts reading Philip Roth’s ‘Portnoy’s Complaint’]

WILLIAMS: Can he hear us?

CENAC: I don’t know, let’s see. Jon, I’ve been siphoning gas from your car!

STEWART: [removes headphones; tinny music is heard] What? Did you call me?

CENAC: Nope. Not at all.

Jon puts his headphones back on and returns to his book.

WILMORE: He can’t hear.

WILLIAMS: OK. So, how do you feel? Does it make you angry?

CENAC: It’s not really angry as much as it’s depressing. I mean, this is the same dog-whistle stuff they've been pulling all the time, like, it’s, you know, ACORN and Shirley Sherrod and Common at the White House. It’s the same stuff.

WILMORE: Was he listening to ‘Fiddler on the Roof’?

WILLIAMS: You know, seriously, I cannot believe that they say [shit] like that out loud sometimes. I mean, it’s just desperate.

WILMORE: Yeah, I can. Look, when you’ve got no rational argument, okay, you have to bypass that part of the brain that processes rational arguments, right? You just stick the probe straight into the medulla, you know, the reptile brain. And you just jolt it with enough coded language and racial imagery to trigger the fear response.

WILLIAMS: By the way, is there a reason Jon can’t hear this conversation?

WILMORE: Nah … please.

CENAC: We just want more airtime. Speaking of, should we probably …?

WILMORE: Yeah, wake him up.

Wyatt throws ball of paper at Jon and accidentally misses. Jon pretends to jump in surprise and tries to keep a straight face at the mishap.

STEWART: Hey, what’s up? So, uh … [tinny music lasts a couple seconds too long before being silenced] So, thanks. You guys done rappin’ and jammin’?

WILMORE: Yes, Jon, we’re done rapping and jamming.

WILLIAMS: It’s all good.

STEWART: All right! Hey, I think it’s informative when we can discuss these things with a panel of people directly affected by them. Just wondering, how do you think your conversation will be seen by people who read the Drudge Report and watch Hannity?

CENAC: I don’t know, let’s run it through the old Drudgity Cam and see how it plays.

STEWART: Oh, right, the lens they filter all their information through. I forgot we had one of those. Can you cue that up?

Cenac, Williams & Wilmore look through ‘Drudge Report’-style frame.

CENAC: We’re in your front yard and we’re still mad about slavery!

WILMORE: Yeah, bitches! We’re gonna buy crack with the food stamps you’re payin’ fo’!

WILLIAMS: And then, we’re gonna rape your White babies!

CENAC & WILMORE: Hey, whoa!

WILLIAMS: What?

CENAC: Calm down!

WILMORE: It’s too much!

WILLIAMS: I’m sorry, this is my first Black Panel, you guys, I’m really excited.

WILMORE: It’s too much!

JESSICA WILLIAMS: It’s really nice to be here.

A general tip, folks: When the people behind a video they claim will totally shock everyone with hitherto unrevealed information about a given public figure decide the best person to make the revelation is Sean Hannity, you might wanna let up on the hype just a bit lest you end up with yet another batch of singed eyebrows.

Fail Quote: Rightists flame out with racism and incompetence

John Hawkins is a blogger at Right Wing News, Townhall and Pajamas Media. He’s featured on the official Romney campaign website. But most of all, he’s a loathsome far-Right crank:

A white woman voting for Barack Obama is like a black woman voting for the KKK.

— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) October 3, 2012

Because if there’s one thing that stands out in the Obama administration’s track record, it’s the oppression of White people.

Better yet, what is it that made him draw this conclusion? It’s the far-Right’s latest anti-Obama “bombshell” video revealing how then-Senator Obama (D-IL) supposedly went all Angry Black Man^TM mode and stuff by criticizing the federal government’s clusterfuck-ish response to Hurricane Katrina back in 2007, as did everyone else. And if people seem a little nonplussed at all the hype, that’s partially because the same people who did said hyping today also covered Obama’s remarks back when he first made them five years ago.

It would be terrifying that these people are the main opposition force in the United States today if they weren’t so terminally and delightfully incompetent.

(via @BuzzFeedAndrew; RT: @radleybalko)