Beck Pushes 'Racist' Obama Charge Further

White elites too often succumb to 'Village People populism'

(NEWSER) - A nation bored by dreary, knotty debates about health care found relief in another National Conversation on Race. “This one,” as Frank Rich writes in the New York Times of last week’s ballyhooed Beer Summit, “ended with a burp,” but the hangover could last well over 30 years. Census counters say the US will become a white-minority country by 2042—a prospect fueling hysteria among the Lou Dobbs and Glenn Becks of the world. More»

(NEWSER) - Glenn Beck today called President Obama “a racist,” Politico reports. The Fox News commentator accused the president of having a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture” during a discussion of the Skip Gates scandal on a Fox show. When his interlocutor pointed out that Obama is surrounded by whites in his administration, Beck backpedaled a bit—and then surged forward. More»

'Wimp' columnist climbs into the mud with 'pig' radio host

(NEWSER) - Going so far as to call him a “pig,” Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell has launched a full-on war of words with Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh called Mitchell a "racist nutball" and ridiculed her and other “drive-by journalists” for saying Sarah Palin and John McCain should restrain supporters at their rallies, some of whom have shouted "kill him" and "terrorist." More»

Now he says he didn't really mean it, and just wanted to get 'people to think'

(NEWSER) - Glenn Beck is back in the news, this time over comments that are rankling plenty of conservatives. On Friday, Beck made a bold statement: That Newt Gingrich and Barack Obama are basically the same progressive guy, so if you're a member of the Tea Party and support Gingrich, there's only one explanation: You must be racist. "If you’ve got a big government progressive [in Gingrich] or a big government progressive in Obama, one in Newt Gingrich, one in Obama, ask yourself this, Tea Party: Is it about Obama’s race? Because that’s what it appears to be to me," he told Fox News. More»

Norman Rockwell work includes racial epithet

(NEWSER) - The nation's first black president has hung a painting with the N-word outside the Oval Office, in a nod to the civil rights movement, reports Politico. President Obama last month had Norman Rockwell's "The Problem We All Live With" installed in the White House; the painting shows a black child, 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, en route to her newly integrated New Orleans school as the wall behind her shows graffiti including the racial epithet and "KKK," as well as a splattered tomato. More»