Oh dear. And it's only 6:30 there!

Have people mentioned the tape of the schoolbus, when a couple of black students beat up a white student? At first, the police chief said the attack was racially motivated, but it not turns out it wasn't. Anyway, the far-right is taking this and running with it.

Here are two posts by conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan about this:

"A Couple of Bullies"

After some hysterical race-war rhetoric from the tea-party right, the truth emerges:

A student on a Belleville West High School bus was beaten for his choice of seat, not because he was white, according to a witness and police. "The incident appears now to be more about a couple of bullies on a bus dictating where people sit," said Belleville Police Capt. Don Sax, who originally said Monday's attack may have been racially motivated. D'Vante Lott, 16, said he was on the bus and witnessed the attack by the two black students. The victim walked onto the bus, looking for an open seat, but students kept turning him down, as D'Vante said happened often with this student. But Monday, the victim apparently tired of asking for a seat, D'Vante said, moved one student's book-bag off a seat, and just sat down.

The police chief himself said he jumped to a conclusion. Now what does Malkin do in response?

She refuses to remove or correct the post that says baldly that the attack was racial and her correction amounts to:

The police are backing off the racial motive claims. Given the explosive consequences of candor about such matters, this is not surprising.

No: one police chief said he had jumped to the wrong conclusion. But Malkin insists that the real reason was racial and the the chief is bowing to political correctness. Every time I think the far right won't go there, they do. The race-baiting now going on as a way to build resentment of Obama is pretty amazing.

They Don't Even Disguise The Race-Baiting Any More

Limbaugh echoes Malkin:

"In Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, 'Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on... I wonder if Obama's going to come to come to the defense of the assailants the way he did his friend Skip Gates up there at Harvard."

I'm sorry but this is outrageous. The story was a classic schoolbus bully incident; it could happen anywhere any time and has happened everywhere at all times with kids of all races, backgrounds and religions. To infer both that it was racially motivated and that this is somehow connected to having a black president is repulsive. I know that is almost de trop with Limbaugh, but sometimes you have to regain a little shock. This man is spewing incendiary racial hatred. He is conjuring up images of lonely whites being besieged by angry violent blacks ... based on an incident that had nothing to do with race at all. And why, by the way, does someone immediately go to the racial angle when looking at such a tape?

These people are going off the deep end entirely: open panic at a black president is morphing into the conscious fanning of racial polarization, via Gates or ACORN or Van Jones or a schoolbus in Saint Louis. What we're seeing is the Jeremiah Wright moment repeated and repeated. The far right is seizing any racial story to fan white fears of black power in order to destroy Obama. And the far right now controls the entire right.

Do they understand how irresonsible this is? How recklessly dangerous to a society's cohesion and calm? Or is that what they need and thrive on?

Oh dear. And it's only 6:30 there!

and round trip, the drive is almost an hour.

Oh dear.

But now I am home, and can take Beth's advice.

YAY

YAY! Also: Big Brother 2 hour finale.

I can combine the two, even!

So apparently I am having a couple of morose days for the first time since my trip. By god, this sucks. I want the happy back. Explains why I beat the shit out of the pool tonight and last. Effects lasted a couple hours. Too bad they closed 12 minutes ago. I'd like to run away a little more.

I can combine the two, even!

It's the only way to do it, really. Be warned: Julie Chen is apparently wearing a Snuggie.

Boo, Sara.

definite boo, Sara