Tuesday Obama defense!

I've been busy today.

I woke up pitifully early (6:30 am Alaska time) and started scanning the sites.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was this post on Americablog:

Clinton surrogate says Obama is really from Somalia

...Tubbs Jones is saying this in order to accomplish several Republican messaging goals:

1. Suggest that Obama is un-American (he's from "over there," and a very black over there to boot).
2. Remind people that Obama is black.
3. Reinforce the hate emails alleging, falsely, that Obama is Mulsim.
4. Remind people that Obama is from a country that viciously killed American troops in the 1990s.

This is the sixth time, at least, I believe, that the Clinton's and their surrogates have launched racist attacks on Obama. It's not just abominable on its face, it's absolutely astounding that the Clinton campaign is now using Republican hate-emails to create their talking points about Obama.

I was incensed and considering a) I was born and raised in Ohio b) I was one of the MoveOn.org folks who made phone calls in Ohio for the Dems in last year's elections, I decided to call the Congresswoman at the phone numbers that John Aravosis kindly posted.

The phone call made me crabby.

The campaign person answering the phone says that it was "unfortunate" that some "Obama fans" "chose" to interpret her words that way.

Excuse me?

I explained that I had the transcript in front of me and that if that twinkie could, please explain exactly how Rep Jones was NOT saying Somalia was Obama's native country.

I then said that "just because it comes out of the mouth of a black woman, doesn't stop it from being racist."

She didn't like that.

I know that being a white mom of a multi-racial child does not "entitle" me to any special knowledge in comparison with black folks. (though I do have the "pleasure" of occasionally being called some choice names by the "Deliverance" crowd) However, I'm a lot more likely to call "bullshit" when folks of color are exhibiting racism.