This fucking rube apparently forgot he’s supposed to say the code words “Washington elitest” instead of “uppity” as in “negro”:

Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland used the racially-tinged term “uppity” to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Thursday.

Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.

“Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity,” Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”

Previously, Westmoreland was famous for this classic exchange on the Colbert Report:

The Colbert Report - June 14, 2006 - Westmoreland - The funniest movie is here. Find it

But Barack can body surf without drowning hisself.

This will no doubt cause an immediate reaction amongst the kerner conspiracy theorists among the 101st fighting keyboarders, who all know black people can’t swim, let alone surf, and will be trying to use this to prove Obama is a Kenyan-born Islamunist Rooskie sleeper agent implanted into this country to destroy Exxon-Mobil’s quarterly profits.

Sandy Beach has great body surfing, if you can avoid getting clobbered by the body boarders because you’re a haole. Of course, Obama isn’t. . .

Somehow, this will be good news for McCain.

Via Memeorandum: Troops Deployed Abroad Give 6:1 to Obama

According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain’s haul.

Despite McCain’s status as a decorated veteran and a historically Republican bent among the military, members of the armed services overall — whether stationed overseas or at home — are also favoring Obama with their campaign contributions in 2008, by a $55,000 margin. Although 59 percent of federal contributions by military personnel has gone to Republicans this cycle, of money from the military to the presumed presidential nominees, 57 percent has gone to Obama.

This is, I am sure, somehow Good News for John McCain. But maybe, just maybe, 16 months sounds better and more realistic to these men and women than “it doesn’t matter how long we stay.”

So Barack Obama gives a speech in Berlin, and 200,000 enthusiastic people show up to hear his speech and cheer him.

International Herald Tribune: Obama gets pop star reception in Berlin

Senator Barack Obama stood before a sea of people here Thursday evening and issued a call for cooperation, imploring America and Europe to bridge differences and rekindle old alliances in an effort to restore global stability and better confront existing and unforeseen threats.

~~~

Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who is on a weeklong international tour, delivered his address at the base of the Victory Column in the Tiergarten, a sprawling park in the center of the city.

He looked out toward the Brandenburg Gate, where President Ronald Reagan implored the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down that wall” and end the Cold War, and spoke to crowd that the German News Agency DPA estimated at 200,000 people.

The response to Obama has been so warm that the coordinator for German-American relations in the Foreign Ministry here, Karsten Voigt, has tried to scale back expectations. He reminded Germans in interview after interview that Obama would have to support positions unpopular with the German public, like a stronger presence engaged in more fighting for the Bundeswehr, the German army, in Afghanistan.

First and foremost, Obama is popular because he is not Bush, who is wildly unpopular in Germany. Asked why they support Obama, his opposition to the Iraq War usually comes up first.

The excitement in Germany over Obama has grown steadily through the Democratic primaries, reaching its peak with his address herwe Thursday in the Tiergarten, Berlin’s equivalent of Central Park. Obama’s photograph was splashed across the front pages of German newspapers. Leaflets advertising the speech with quotes from Presisent John F. Kennedy — who came to this divided city at the height of the Cold War and urged those who did not believe in freedom: “Let them come to Berlin” — fluttered in the street.

Reaction from Grumpy McCain:

“”Well, I’d love to give a speech in Germany … a political speech or a speech that maybe the German people would be interested in. . . ” “But I would much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate for the office of the presidency.”

Or, shorter John McCain:

Hmmmmpph!

If I were Senator Greenscreenspeech, the last thing I would do is draw attention to Senator Obama’s speeches.

The White House calls Maliki and tells him to retract the third statement by an Iraqi official which essentially concurs with Obama’s time frame for withdrawal?

Senator Barack Obama arrived in Baghdad on Monday, meeting with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other senior Iraqi politicians, as an Iraqi spokesman said that the government was hopeful that foreign combat troops would withdraw in 2010.

Sixteen Months after taking office is about smack dab in the middle of 2010. Obama has always said he’d retain some flexibility in withdrawing troops based on conditions, and even the end of 2010 is a lot closer to Obama’s timeline for withdrawal Time Horizon for Aspirational Goal — several months — than it is to McCain’s non-timeline of 4-100 years.

Well, not really.

The leading ‘grafs:

Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday after a grueling marathon, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House.

~~~

The tally was based on public declarations from delegates as well as from another 15 who have confirmed their intentions to the AP. It also included 11 delegates Obama was guaranteed as long as he gained 30 percent of the vote in South Dakota and Montana later in the day. It takes 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination.

Politico reports a “tsunami of superdelegates” is rushing to back Obama, while the Fix, WaPo’s political blog, says Montana’s governor and two senators will announce for Obama after he wins today’s contest.

We’ll see what Hillary does next. . . .

TBogg:

I know that we’re all supposed to join hands and pull together for a greater more progressive tomorrow and yadda yadda yadda…. but when it comes to Hillary Clinton, fuck that noise. My contempt for her has reached the Lieberman line.

There is one thing that I truly believe in and that is fairness. You may not like the rules, but once you agree to them, you play by them. Hillary Clinton can’t even manage to do someting as simple as that.

The Lieberman Line — Classic.

Clintonista counterpoint:

Delegates should be thinking about one thing and one thing only and it’s not the rules.

Oh yes she did:

Clinton compares the Florida and Michigan fight to civil rights movement.

Hillary Clinton compared her effort to seat Florida and Michigan delegates to epic American struggles, including those to free the slaves and win the right to vote for blacks and women.

“This work to extend the franchise to all of our citizens is a core mission of the modern Democratic party,” she said. “From signing the Voting Rights Act and fighting racial discrimination at the ballot box to lowering the voting age so those old enough to fight and die in war would have the right to choose their commander in chief, to fighting for multi-lingual ballots so you can make your voice heard no matter what language you speak.”

Just appalling. There ought to a law similar to Godwin’s law when self-interested egomaniacs invoke the civil rights movement to further their own obsessive quests for power.

Call it “Sharpton’s Law,” or something.

Rocky!!! Rocky!!! Rocky!!!

Here’s hoping for the knockout …