This story was first mentioned here in a nicely written blog about the state of immigration in America.

I am going to take it a step further.  Luis Ramirez died a horrible death.  And the only reason he died was because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong last name and the wrong skin color.  The full AP story is here.

Ana Navarro, co-chairwoman of the Latino voter advisory committee for McCain, made the following comment in an NPR story posted this morning about the Latino vote:

"Let's be frank here: The immigration debate at times has been offensive and hurtful to Hispanics and immigrants. But John McCain has never once in his life engaged in negative, offensive rhetoric against any group," she says.

Ummm ....

"I hate the gooks," McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. "I will hate them as long as I live."

This will be a relatively short diary, one I will attempt to expand upon soon, but I just wanted people to be aware of the existence of the for-profit, Christian right/GOP front media conglomerate, Salem Communications. It's employee list reads like a who's who of some of the best known stars of the far right: Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt, Laura Ingraham and Dennis Miller. And it's founders, Stuart Epperson and Edward Atsinger III, have between them, donated $100,000 to the Bush presidential reelection campaign and $780,000 to the 2000 "California Defense of Marriage Act" (Proposition 22) ballot measure.

Beware these relatively unknown but well financed and influential propagandists for the far right!

Just got this in from RedState and the recommended that it be shared. I couldn't think of a better place to share it. Here's the email in full

With all the FOX news jabs on Obama, this topic has come up.  Everybody knows down deep that it is just unacceptable to have "Baby Mama" on national TV, and it's also unacceptable to repeatedly make the "Osama" mistake too.

Afterall, Obama is black because of biology.  Same with his given name.  Neither of these things has anything to do with who he is.  Abusing these things on National Television is wrong, and many are going to call it hate speech.

There is a very strong case for them being right, but I actually prefer to just characterize it as unacceptable and indefensible and call it good.

I've spent nearly a week trolling around on John McCain's blog,and what I found there seemed to be equal parts race-baitng, fearmongering, name calling, and unbridled stupidity. Here's a little sample from blogger Jon B. Stephens, a McCain supporter from Florida, after Barack's speech about how his uncle helped liberate a concentration camp in WWII.

Posted at 1:46AM on 5/28/08 by JonBStephens
Yesterday we heard about his uncle. Soon we'll hear about his aunt. Aunt Jemimah for his waffles!

This is just the tame stuff. Read on...

She's a well-heeled, older white woman of means.  She lives on the toney side of town and has a glamorous job as a broadcast journalist.   Unlike most New Yorkers, she probably shuns the subway, preferring cabs, the occasional bus or having a "car sent around" to pick her up.  She is not part of that nouveau riche set or the well-to-do, but she is comfortable.   She's lived in New York most of her adult life and bought her apartment ages ago, before it went condo.  

If you saw her ordering a latte at the trendy coffee shop down the street, you would not think there is anything remarkable about her.  You'd be right.  That's part of the horror.  The perfectly ordinary nature of this woman capable of saying the most hateful things... and laughing about it.    Ironically, it is her ordinariness that protects her and her kind.  

But I think things are starting to change...

Did HRC’s assassination comment cross the threshold of hate speech?

Well, OK. You knew that part already. But courtesy of Media Matters, please to enjoy his latest bit of Savagery.

Senator Kennedy's condition, which appeared from early indications to be doubtful, seems much more promising as of several hours later.  Reports that he himself made a phone call canceling a luncheon event are encouraging as is the report that he suffered "seizures" that may or may not have actually been stroke-related.  Clearly, whatever the events of this morning were, they do not at this moment appear to be life-threatening.

It is in this more positive moment that I wish to reflect on an aspect of this morning that truly saddened me even as my heart was warmed by news that suggested recovery.  I was heartened by the response of even some of the conservative media, as people like Pat Buchanan spent time praising the Senator for his decades of service to this country.  Unfortunately, this positive aspect was more than overbalanced by the outpouring of hatred on the part of the FReepers who, on their own website, expelled such atrocious levels of bile into cyberspace that their own moderators had to shut down and expunge entire threads.  

What makes people act this way?

The site: http://hillaryis44.blogspot.com/

In such a competitive Democratic election, it is expected that both sides have heated disagreements, but in the end for our countries sake, the importance of coming together to defeat John McCain in the Fall should be of our highest importance. Both Hillary and Obama have similar political standings, and no matter who ends up being the nominee for the Democrats, if you truly believe in either of their messages, you would vote for the winner against McCain who's policies match George W. Bush. No amount of bitterness or pettiness should hold our country back to continue the failed policies of a third Bush term.

It is important for us to act as adults. I preface this diary with the previous paragraph because I believe that because of this election there are people who have gone so far off the path, that they blindly support their candidate through hate and disingenuity, and in doing so, have hurt her case to the American people and could have the same effect in the Fall. These people come from Hillaryis44.org.

There is being quite a lot of shock posted on a recent statement that Mike Huckabee made here in Louisville a few hours ago at the NRA conference--namely, Huck made a comment on how a supposed sound was Barack Obama ducking in an attempt to keep from being shot at.

For some of us--especially those of us who have followed Huckabee's extensive links with the highly militaristic "Joel's Army"/"Joshua Generation" neopente dominionist movement--this is but the latest and one of the more blatant of his statements of this type, and probably not even the most extreme of them.

In today's special edition post, we give a bit of history on this.

I realize that the subject of Anti-Semitism is not an easy one to broach here. Many diaries have degenerated into flame-wars over Israel and our place in foreign policy. I don't wish to engange on that argument from either side. Rather, I want to call attention to the fact that a good group - Amnesty International - is involved in sponsoring graphic displays of anti-Semitism at our my campus.

I'm currently a political science major at UC Irvine. Every year that I have attended, the Muslim Student Union at my school puts on a huge display of anti-Jewish sentiment. I was unaware that Amnesty International sponsored the group until just recently. Although the MSU denies that its display is anti-Semitic, pictures don't lie. It goes well beyond a critique of Israeli policy and is nothing more than hate speech against Jews. Follow me over the fold for my photo/video diary about what has happened...

Geert Wilders, the anti-Muslim, anti-EU, Dutch politician today released "Fitna," a propaganda film condemning Islam as inherently violent and evil.

This is an update regarding the ongoing controversy regarding Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern's inflamatory anti-gay hate speech

I heard news that right-wing groups were organizing a pro-gay-hate rally in support of Rep. Sally Kern this week (more info here and here, so I started digging around a little bit online and guess what I found. . .

I've done a google search, and the infamous Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern (who says that there is an evil gay agenda where "they" are trying to turn kids gay starting at age 2) is quite outspoken about the "abomination" of homosexuality, but has not said one word about another dangerous ABOMINATION that the Holy Bible tells about...

i just couldn't take it anymore so i wrote a letter to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.

the MSM is making such a fuss over the Reverend Wright's comments and Mr. Obama being a member of Wright's congregation and giving mccain a pass.  i'm still wondering if this is because mccain is a rich white male or because mr. obama is perceived as dangerous because he's not a rich white male.

The text is below the fold.

http://youtube.com/...

per Drudge

calls him "trash"; "freak", "emissary of the devil", "white lover"
"Obama's got a white mama"

Not for the faint of heart.