i should have added: h/t Crooks & Liars. they just lack the hometown love for Lars that BlueOregon readers will have.

Dont's see where Lars said anything racist? Can someone help me with this? Do you see it?

you're kidding, right? keep repeating tired old cliches and out-of-context lines, and it's not racist? just good ol' politics?

nothing racist about showing Rev Wright 20,000 times, either, i guess.

How is that in itself......racist? I see people I know are not racist do this all the time. Never connected this as a racist act.

I do have to agree with Fred, here. Lars is smearing Michelle in exactly the same way as he smeared John Kerry. It's not specific to the color of her skin.

In fact, I'm nearly certain that if Michelle was the wife of Allen Keys, instead of Barack Obama, he'd be all in a huff about liberals distorting what she said. And, to be honest, I'm pretty sure that in that circumstance, there would be at least a few in the leftist blogosphere who would be doing exactly that.

The difference is that Lars has a massive empire of paid media to help him broadcast his deliberate smears. Leftist bloggers willing to sacrifice whatever semblance of honor they have don't have 50,000 Watt radio stations at their disposal, courtesy of corrupt plutocrats.

By the way, it it just me, or is Lars looking really, excessively, fat?

God bless Jonathan Alter, one of America's greatest pundits. He put the smack down on Larson big time, a true joy to watch him steamroll that guy. Why the hell is that joker Larson on the TV flapping his gums in the first place? He shouldn't be allowed to OWN a radio or TV, let alone broadcast on them. I want more of the brilliant, insightful and charming Nation editor, Katrina vanden Heuvel!

It is because I feel T.A. Barnhart positions are worth reading and learning from that I took the time to ask the question. So no argument here....T.A. Barnhart is cool....LOL

It is just when I see white people drop the race card I like to know why? I mean there are some people that I might not feel are racist....might even consider them valued friends. I might have to consider changing my opinion of them....LOL

Abrams, Mathews and Olbermann have latched onto the new leftward movement in the country, Olbermann a little ahead of the others. Not that they're great thinkers or committed ideologues, just wide awake opportunists, with a good sense of rhythm.

I watch at least Olbermann and Abrams daily and a lot of their rhetoric is pretty cringe inducing. Anyone remember Olbermann's comment about someone taking Hillary into a room and only "one of 'em comes out"?

Abrams consistently sounds like a wide eyed frat boy with saliva control issues, but still they're the best we have right now, and we get to see more of Dr. Maddow, and as mentioned above, the lovely (if too polite) Katrina vanden Heuvel, than anywhere else on the dial.....

Did anyone notice that Katrina didn't get to finish even one of her statements? Interrupted by one of the men in almost every case....

He never really got over his intense experience fighting in the War on Christmas.

And that's what we've been missing about Lars. A clear case of PTSD, from fighting too long with no discernable weapons except for the credulous ignorance of his audience.

Any opportunity to watch Lars Larson be accountable for his words is worth the price of admission.

Lars may not be racist, as according to the above posters, but he sure as hell is an antagonistic, narrow-minded, f**k-head, thank you very much.

i'd hate to think people believe that to be racist you have to call Michelle an "uppity nigra" or state "she needs to stay in her place" (which would also be sexist). that's just the most blatant aspects of racist behavior.

racist attitudes however are more subtle. they involve things like selecting a few words an African-American woman says, taking them out of context, putting them into a new context — the context you create to highlight how "bad" those words were — and then repeating your version of those words over and over and over. and that much more includes years of repeating things like this until listeners understand that blacks who attain something in this country don't deserve it, all them Mescuns gotta go back, and why are the women in the kitchen being silent and pregnant? it's a long-term project that allows them to never sound directly racist but they are, without doubt, racist to the core.

what they do is political, yes, but it's harms the progressive cause (for those commenting who are progressives and not trolls) to deny that it's also racist. racism is a tool hatemongers like Lars use because it helps both their politics and their ratings. this is not just a single example from a single set of words Michelle Obama spoke. you've got the Rev Wright thing, Obama in Kenyan garb, "he's a Muslim," "he went to a madrassa," omfg he's black!, and more more more.

if Lars is not being racist, then i guess we have to say the attacks on Hillary (Chris Matthews saying she's only where she is cuz she married Bill, and that's just the mildest one) were not sexist. the successful "-ists" in our society avoid being blatant. Lars is good at it, Bill O'Reilly is even better, but they are both racist, sexist, anti-American (unles the definition of being an American is being Lars or Billo) and neither seems to care much for the troublesome business of democracy.

Lars not a racist? i guess i've simply missed how he's built bridges between divided people so effectively.

You'd think at this point, McCain supporters would be wanting to keep wives out of the race.

The right wing would be going after that quote regardless of what Democratic candidate or spouse said it.

It's partly about controlling the discourse, in the same league as using "the troops" symbolically as hostages to control criticism of the occupation of Iraq.

I don't doubt that if I had time or access to go through Lars' back shows or transcripts I'd find racism & ethnocentrism of various sorts, but this is patriotism baiting.

Buckman resident shows his or her usual insight. Jo Ann Bowman's piece was about a pattern, pretty clearly not just "one bad day" another red herring thrown out at the time. Part of the point is that when you have a pattern of stuff that is pretty clear, it starts to shade stuff that's ambiguous worse, makes it harder to give the benefit of the doubt. Different people respond to those choices differently. Seems, though I don't know him, as if Fred S. is good at letting the ambiguous go, and probably has less stress as a result, which will be good for his health among other things, if true. People vary by personality in that way. Quickness or slowness to take offense isn't just about race and racism.

But for real trivializing of racism, look at Buckman's "if it's not the Nazis, it's not real racism" standard, apart from being sheer idiocy.

I think two things are being missed here:

First, Alter said it was "bordeline racist" what he said. He did not call Lars a racist person, and agreed the statement itself was borderline.

But he's saying it's borderline, and it IS, because it is part of a pattern designed to label Michelle Obama as an "angry black woman." There is an element of uberpatriotism in this specific comment, but she said it MONTHS ago, and the resurrection of it is part of the package of conservative efforts to trump her up as someone alienated from the American (white) experience.

Don't believe they're doing it? Peruse some of the examples of the "angry black woman" meme being applied. Front page is a discussion on Fox, particularly Cal Thomas, pushing the very subject.

Secondly, the point of Abrams bringing it up was not to lambast Lars for what he said specifically, but that it was totally undercut by his lack of outrage over a very similar non-contextual statement by McCain. I think Alter knows Mrs. Obama, and was defending her on a personal level in raising racism charges against Lars. Abrams was calling Larson a hypocrite, instead.

bold off!

Buckman plays the Nazi card and wins!

seriously, though. to be better than the neocons we have to let Lars skate on being a racist after years of pushing low-level but putrid innuendo and selected "fact"?

no, some people are who they are. Lars has polluted the political dialog for too long, and it's good to see him and his ilk starting to get called on it.

I saw the video of this online and it was just too damn funny. After a long couple of weeks at work, it gave me a good laugh.

Lars, your shit stinks!

You folks are cracking me up. I am learning why Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson still have jobs.....LOL

No one has yet to point out where the race card comes in here. I do not see it as racist to dissagree with Michelle Obama. I know a lot of black people that dissagreed with her comment and I do not think any of them feel they are less black for doing so. Especially since I feel most can not wait to vote for her husband.

TA, just think. I know a couple black people that would judge you racist for using the word "niga" (nigga) I guess that makes it so.....LOL

disclaimer here. I do not feel TA is racist.

what the hell does any of this have to do with Michelle Obama? she's just material for Lars, devoid of personhood or meaning beyond a) the color of her skin & b) her utiliy to advance his politics & career. he is using the useful bits of her public appearances to promote his own views (and sell advertising).

Fred, tell me: what is racist? Lars didn't disagree with her comments -- he could give a rat's ass what she said. she said something useful to him, and given she's a black woman married to a prominent black man -- bingo! that's not racist? it's not like Lars & Michelle are engaged in a civil dialogue about what makes one proud of one's country.

i know a lot of what people that disagree with with John McCain, and not all of them are old or phony. your point?

TA, you are doing the same thing Lars is doing. Does that mean you hate white people? You have yet to show anything but your zeal in dissagreeing with Lars.

Racism to me is an evil and it is an evil I as well as many others have to confront or be preopared to confront every time we walk out of our homes and sometimes at home if our TV's or radio's is are on...LOL

I jumped into this because I find it amusing how white people are pulling the race card these days. Completely falling into some of Dr. Kings worse fears. What is ironic is some of the people that pull the race card the fastest still have family and friends they have yet call on the carpet for the evil they do. Lars is an easy target on this blog. Does not take much bravery to call Lars racist. What I would like to know TA, what do you do to all of the racist people you come accross? Do you call them out to or is Lars the only racist person you judge to be afflicted with this evil?......LOL

Have you ever met a black racist person? If so, have you called them out?

Fred, if you mean i'm taking a tiny part of what Lars has ever said and then using it to harm both an individual and wider group of people -- um, i don't think so. Lars' record is pretty clear. he uses all kinds of tactics to create fear and division and, most importantly, revenue streams.

"an evil" does not tell me anything about what racism is. i say that what Lars does is a form of racism. if i poke you enough times with a small pin, i can probably kill you. i don't have to stab you once with a knife to have the same effect.

i'm pretty fortunatly, Fred, not to have to deal with the kind of people who need to be called on things very much. much more than racism i have to speak against homophobic words: "that's so gay". i have confronted co-workers about their attituds regarding immigrants. i'm learning how to do this kind of thing without falling into a hostile dialog, but it isn't easy.

it also isn't very damn relevant. when i have a 3-hour daily talk show and national exposure, then you can compare me to Lars. but he's the one with the platform from which he spreads his bilious messages (ka-ching).

and interesting that you decided to get involved in this because some white people were confronting another white person about his hateful political dialog. would it have been all ok if insteand of Abrams and Alter it was an African-American commentator? is this something we whiteys are supposed to stay out of? i'm just astounded that with Lars' track record, you are defending him? my post was simply to be gleeful that his hate speech got a national smackdown, long deserved. i am hoping that more and more of his ilk get this kind of treatment. democracy doesn't do very well with hate-mongers being used to divide us and make lots and lots of money for corporations.

I am sure Abrams called the usual roll-a-dex Negros to appear on his show. Who knows why they did not show up. Maybe they are biding their time for an issue that will get them more air time. Regardless, I would have spoken up if I felt the need.....if I felt I had something to contribute. I have no problem confronting racist people and I am well aware that not all racist people are white. I do not tolerate people that are homophobic either and I think my history has shown that.

Peter, you find neither irony nor embarrassment in decreeing unto me that i must be more circumspect? can you supply us with the certification that gives you the right to make such statements?

sheesh.

T.A.,

Won't argue with you about Lars' overall mode of operating, but in this case I'm personally more interested in other aspects.

It seems to me that fundamentally the attack here is patriotism-baiting, trying to rope the Obamas into the "liberals hate America frame," and that it also involves a complicated form of sexism and misogyny, that's a bit hard to put my finger on.

Partly it's something like, "if Obama picked a woman like this as his life partner, that says something bad about him," with the bad aspects being not just the content of what she says, but her assertiveness and fullness of autonomy as a person and the equality of their marriage, sending a specifically coded message to those kinds of religious conservatives who see male "headship" of "the family" as a moral requirement -- from Promisekeepers to further right. Part of it is an effort to Hillary-ize Michelle Obama, to make her a target of vindictive hostility as an indirect way to hit at Barack.

None of that is in any way contradictory to what TJ has identified as the "angry black woman" meme -- the misogyny comes in not only because "safe" black people aren't supposed to be angry or critical, and "safe" women aren't either, and black women especially aren't. And it is true that in the past attacks on the quote about fully proud of the U.S. that was tied to representations of that as reflecting a covert black separatism or radical nationalism, and to pin those images on Barack Obama, where they clear are ridiculous. So it merged patriot-baiting with race-pride/black nationalism baiting.

In that sense, Lars here is using shorthand for which groundwork has already been laid. It's like the commercials where they show a long version for a week or two, then show a shorter version and rely on the viewers' memory to fill in the missing bits. So there is an implicit invocation of the older, more overtly racial vibe of those previous attacks on this quote.

But it still seems to me that the primary cultural/image work this is doing is the patriotism-baiting, the strong woman equal marriage attacking, and the Hillary-ization, to complement the more overtly racist work of things like the "baby mama" and "terrorist fist jab" idiocy.

I do agree with you that what Lars is doing is not innocuous or fair comment or addressing any substantial issue, but is about trying to create false images of an admirable black woman who will be an asset to Barack and to the country as "first lady," and to tear her down because of the political asset she can be in the campaign.