When I was reading up on the Jake Knotts story it occurred to me that I was wrong to worry that the forces of globalization and mass commodified culture had obliterated the Southeast’s aboriginal racist cracker subculture. It seems to be remarkably resilient and adaptive right here in the early 21st century. Reading Knotts’ rant against Nikki Haley he seems to be grasping for some version of Haley as the stalking horse of the global jihad. Only her parents weren’t Muslim, just brown skinned and Sikh. So, in his mind I guess, sort of close, but no cigar.
So instead his scare tactic is that her Turban-wearing father is writing letters talking about how great Haley is and sending them to the side of the planet where the brown people live.
As Knotts told listeners last night, “We’re at war over there.”
We noted last night that a top supporter of South Carolina Gov. candidate Andre Bauer called frontrunner Nikki Haley (who is the child of Sikh immigrants from the Punjab) a “raghead”. But now the audio has surfaced. And the whole thing turns out to have been much more over the top and nutty than first reported.
Not only did state Sen. Jake Knotts refer to Haley as a “f#!king raghead” he also went on a tear about her being a crypto-Sikh pretending to be Christian and part of some wild conspiracy theory about Haley being a stalking horse for turban-wearing foreigners trying to undermine South Carolina’s God-fearing culture. Read More
Up to this point, Nikki Haley’s opponents in the South Carolina governors race have remained more or less publicly silent on the affair allegations. No more. Andre Bauer, the state’s current Lt. Gov. is challenging Haley to take a polygraph test to prove she’s innocent of the affair allegations.
This latest development may come in response to charges that too much class and dignity remained in the state’s gubernatorial primary. Read More
Jon Stewart debunks Glenn Beck’s claim that he alone aired Israeli flotilla raid footage. Watch.
So what happens to all the oil in the Gulf if there’s a big hurricane? Brian Beutler has the story.
Nikki Haley: If I’m elected governor and then proof of marital infidelity emerges, I’ll resign.
On a talk show tonight in South Carolina, State Senator Jake Knotts told listeners “we already have one raghead in the White House, we don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion.” Obama is … well, Obama and “raghead” number two is gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley, who is the child of Sikh immigrants from the Punjab. Knotts later released a statement saying that his comment had clearly been meant in “jest,” which I guess counts as exculpatory in those parts.
The last we’d heard from Knotts was last September when he accused unnamed forces behind disgraced Governor Mark Sanford of spreading rumors that Knotts’ favored candidate for governor, current Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, is gay.
Bauer, you may remember from yesterday’s big developments. On Wednesday morning he fired lobbyist Larry Marchant from his campaign, shortly before Marchant came forward to say that he’d had a one-night-stand with Haley back in 2008 at a school choice convention in St. Lake City.
All caught up?
Okay, earlier we were speculating about the “giant shears” BP used to cut that pipe this morning. And I even wondered if they might need to contract with a giant squid to operate a pair of scissors 5,000 feet under water. Alas, the reality seems more prosaic. TPM Reader MS sends in a video of what one of these things looks like — albeit, in this case a hydraulic shears being used on land. Video after the jump … Read More
Skocpol Responds to Reich on what Obama should do …
I like Bob Reich and consider him a friend, but he is nuts. [see article Skocpol is responding to here] There is a reason why the right, including Sarah Palin, is calling for Obama to “take charge” of the BP disaster, including fixing the leaking pipe. This is a problem that cannot be solved, and probably will not be for many months.