George Wallace Lives: Yet again Joe Conason gets it EXACTLY correct in his Salon.com article "The roots of Rand Paul's civil rights resentment." Link: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/2010/05/21/racial/index.html

It is oftentimes not the right wing ideological candidate that is the frightening aspect but it is the nature and the essence of those on the right to whom they appeal for votes. I was around during the George Wallace campaign in 1968. It was a frightening spectacle as the man who said segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever thought he had a shot at the presidency. Later he said he regretted his racist politics. But the die was cast and its offspring are seen even to this day most vividly in the tea party movement.

The PHENOMENALLY frightening thing is that the Republican party, a mainstream party, has now adopted this perversion of American politics and appeals to the basest part of the American psyche. Why is this happening?

The easy answer is that electing a black president shocked the extreme right into action. Now it is even more threatening to an aspect of American pre-Civil War history that everyone thought was dead. It's not. It lives.

The Founders brought to this land certain FABULOUS ideals of the Enlightenment. Unfortunately they also brought the vile institution of slavery with them. Like its cousin antisemitism, racism against blacks never truly dies. The embers flicker waiting for the right social circumstances to set them ablaze.

A world-wide recession, staggering unemployment, unbridled national debt, a planet drifting into climatic chaos, a catastrophic polluting of our oceans, the perceived existential threat of radical Islam and oil the prime mover of international politics, the stage is set, the players are organizing and we who elected Barack Obama and Barack Obama himself BETTER take notice. Barack Obama must forcefully emerge as the great leader for whom I THOUGHT I voted. Strong and effective White House leadership is the ONLY way, as I see it, to neutralize this threat.

Yet again, blacks, Jews and humanitarians of all colors and religious or non-religious beliefs MUST walk hand in hand. Each of our interests should be, as it always was, united as one. We cannot rest because those who wish us ill do not sleep. They are a defective part of our nation's DNA. Like a cancer it never dies and without vigilance, unity and effective leadership it will kill.

Rand Paul is an IDIOT. Just VENTING! Why doesn't Rand Paul and his family move down there to Venice Louisiana where the oil has come ashore and take DEEP breaths since he thinks BP is SO great and wants them to be left alone! Better still buy a house and live there. See how long before some kind of cancer develops in his WHOLE family-- JERK! Maybe when it hits home he would change his mind. Sanctimonious jerk.

The Continuing Saga:

The president needs to FIRE Secretary Salazar and make a clean sweep of the Department of the Interior. Secretary of the Interior Salazar’s testimony before Congress, like the Three Musketeers before him -- BP, Trans-Ocean and Halliburton -- was anemic. The administration needs to clean out from top to bottom this corrupt, ineffective but VITAL government regulatory agency. After the Katrina debacle by the Bush administration it SHOULD have been high on the agenda of the Obama administration.

Moreover, the president should state the TRUTH and state it emphatically eviscerating the companies who made the monstrous Gulf leak occur so it does not look like he too is in bed making love to the oil magnate snakes who are NOT his friends. In reality they would rather sink his presidency than support or continue it.

Some of the EXCELLENT things he and Democrats have done can be undone by this worse-than-Katrina catastrophe. A potentially excellent legacy is at stake IF the administration fails to get the upper hand on the spill containment and clean-up immediately. The Republicans could be getting a gift they do not deserve and DeMint’s Waterloo comment will take on new meaning.

The president’s second term, I believe, is at risk because of this devastating event. Moreover, the November elections, if Republicans win significant victories, will tie his hands to do anything else on his agenda if the public perceives that he is at fault for the ugly spill. Mr. President, I HOPE most of the electorate lays the blame at big oil BP, Trans-Ocean, and Halliburton’s feet but the Harry Truman sign still prevails "The Buck Stops Here” and, Mr. President, it stops with you.