Lost in the admiration of Obama’s stunning speech on race was the emerging MSM consensus on Jeremiah Wright: the preacher's comments were too political, the pundits tell us, too inflammatory, and uniquely out of bounds for a preacher–-an anomaly, something freakish in the history of the Christianity.  On CNN, a shocked Tony Perkins told us that Christianity makes us respect our government and respect authority.  This isn’t the religion of Christ or the prophets, of course; it’s the religion of Karl Rove, whose specialty is crucifying others, not getting crucified for others.  

So in the interest of marshaling a defense of the prophetic, I'm providing a sourceblog of "inflammatory," prophetic Christian quotes so that we can set the record straight on the history of Christianity in this country.   Feel free to comment in any way on this diary, but I’d love it if you could supply some good quotes in your comments, so that I can update the diary as a source for all of us to defend the prophetic voice of religion from getting snuffed out by the Karl Roves of the world.

This is a diary to set the record straight.  

Dear John,

I was your supporter in 2004, and I remember you coming to Georgia with a couple of Hootie and the Blowfish band members just before you dropped out of the race with Kerry–the comet’s tail still barely burning in your inspirational candidacy.  I remember how impressed I was and how moved I was when I heard you speak frankly about the history of race in the South and your participation in that history.  I had never heard a candidate speak so authoritatively and so honestly about the problem and politics of the racial divide in America, and you did it in the heart of Georgia!  You were the only candidate in 2004 to directly address the problem of funding schools through the property tax, and you were the only candidate to go to the South to directly challenge all of us on race.  You were  my candidate in 2004.  You were courageous and you were honest and you were hopeful (except, sadly, on the war).  

Fox's Sean Hannity interviews Paul of Tarsus, transcript below:

Mitt Romney is preparing to kick off his presidential campaign at the Henry Ford Museum.  This is not parody.  And of all of the places to begin a campaign, why kick it off at the museum honoring Ford unless you want to burnish your nativist credentials in the face of fundamentalist questions about Mormonism? Romney’s campaign will symbolically play the anti-immigration card even at the peril of being associated with anti-Semitism and Nazism.

From the AP story:

Romney will use The Henry Ford museum in suburban Detroit tomorrow as a backdrop for his presidential announcement.

The National Jewish Democratic Council say doing so goes against Romney's rhetoric of inclusiveness and understanding of all people.

The group noted Ford's history of anti-Semitism. Adolph Hitler bestowed Ford with the Grand Service Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle.

Call me a heartless bastard (really, I don’t mind), but should a horse’s death lead to more coverage than the death of a soldier or Iraqi citizen?  Have we ever received the amount of information about a soldier killed as we have about Barbaro–pages upon pages of the most intimate details of Barbaro’s tragic equine life, from birth until death?  Has the death of even one American soldier been compared to a national "horror. . . a vivid streak across our consciousness"?  What soldier’s death has been called "stunning," "gut-wrenching" or "life-changing" for an entire nation–the sort of death where "you know exactly where you were and what was happening when [it] occurred"?  What soldier’s death will have a "resounding effect that over the years will only grow larger and more phenomenal"?  Will any?  

There was no cartoon bounce for Bush this week in the world of editorial cartoons, with cartoonists lampooning Bush as Richard Nixon, an idiot lifeguard, a bizarro-world train engineer, and, of course, a mini cowboy.  

The top ten editorial cartoons of the week after the jump.

I have to admit, when I read this diary and the accompanying *Rolling Stone* article begging Gore to run, and don't forget this diary, and this diary, and this diary too, I start feeling swoony about the prospect of a Gore candidacy, just as I do whenever I read the giddily delusional Gore diaries that daily grace Dailykos.  He's a deeply committed, decent, moral person (as is Tipper), and he is the perfect President for these times--both idealistic and pragmatic, experienced but now free, wise and self-effacing.  Damn-it, he SHOULD be President!

But I sometimes wonder if we want a Gore candidacy because he's not running. Because let's face facts in the middle of our collective swooniness. . .

I’ve posted the ten most ass-backwards-lame cartoons from the last week after the jump.  To earn the ass-backwards-lame award, you have to deftly combine the unfunny with the hideously stupid in one cartoon.  These Bush apologists will amaze with their tenacity, their undying commitment to avoid anything smacking of self-criticism, their consummate skill at resourcefully seeking out the vicious Democrat who is causing the world’s disasters unbeknownst to thinking men and women everywhere.  You’ll admire the rigor, the creativity, and discipline of these cartoonists as they methodically sift through skyscraper-sized haystacks of truth to find one needle of delusion.  So kudos, most ass-backwards cartoonists, for doing the impossible: making the lie a hero and the truth a goat.  Welcome, Dailykossacks, to cartoon bizarro world.  Follow me to the "other side."

This week brought relief from the unremittingly dark cartoons of the last two weeks, providing us with some hilarious cartoons in the top ten.  Beginning this week, in honor of the kick-off for the 2008 Presidential campaign, in addition to bringing you the ten best political cartoons, I'll begin building a summary (with links) of each candidate's cartoons so you can see how your candidate was portrayed in the past week.  It's a ton of work, scanning over 300 cartoons, but I’ll keep it up as long as I’ve got more than twenty or thirty recs/readers.

See you after the jump:

Cartoonists gave a collective raspberry to W. for his performance this week.  In over 300 cartoons that I’ve sorted through over the past seven days, Bush has been drawn as General Custer surrounded by dead bodies; as a desperate and incompetentgambler; as a boy playing with real soldiers; as an egotistical politician putting Americans into coffins to preserve his legacy; as the captain of the Titanic; and the pilot of the Hindenberg.    

After the jump, the ten best and the five most ass-backwards-lame cartoons of the week, available at the click of a mouse.  Enjoy.  

I’ve scanned through about a hundred political cartoons to bring you five of the very best in roots humor from this past week.  Read, enjoy, and annoy Republican family and friends by forwarding these to them.

After all the press surrounding the deaths of Gerald Ford, Saddam Hussein, and James Brown, I thought we might pause and consider a death that has been overlooked in every "passing" "best of the 2006 obits" list.

In the hours before Michael Richards apologized on The Late Show with David Letterman for his racist implosion at a comedy club, an Iraqi comedian named Walid Hassan was found murdered in Baghdad–shot point-blank in the back and head.  Richards’ brand of humor was preferred by the MSM. Hassan’s was roots humor, and the world sorely needs more of it.

Well they did it, didn’t they?  The scenes of Saddam’s hanging have managed to make the murderer of tens of thousands look like a noble victim.