At Comic Con this weekend, FOX News rolled out the latest in its line of boogeymen action figures, The New & Improved Black Panther Party. It was an instant collector’s item, because there are so few in existence, and the original model was so closely monitored by the government in the 1960’s that interest was killed off. Read more »

In a tumultuous month of racial discourse — the pro-slavery sentiments of the Tea Party Express leader, the smearing of Shirley Sherrod, the faux-troversy over “New Black Panthers,” the ratcheting of anti-immigrant rancor– a refrain of outrage has become the norm. That this outrage has consistently been coming from white conservatives seems indicative of a crest in a country that has lived under slavery as long as it hasn’t.

This white backlash has been metastasizing over decades and has worn many mantles, argues Leonard Zeskind, author of the engrossing book, Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream. Zeskind has spent many years following the movements’ leaders and attending gatherings, developing a unique insight into the membership, mindsets, and resources comprising a diaspora of Klansmen and Holocaust deniers, anti-immigration forces and militia men, executives in offices and everyday Americans.

Stressing a chasm of cultural difference between Middle America and the Coasts, Zeskind explained to me in this sit-down interview that many of the mainstream mouthpieces bemoaning the disenfranchised white man are hardly influential, but rather pandering to an existent culture ingrained with separatism. Read more »

Awash in the revelations that BP has been manipulating press pictures to make their response look more urgent, the original photo of their Command Center has been located, revealing other priorities BP seems to have besides cleaning up their image. Read more »

After failing reviews by Consumer Reports about the iPhone 4’s “death grip” reception issues, Apple has called a press conference tomorrow to announce the new patch that will be shipped to customers to negate the problems from the blocked antennae.

This is a screengrab of the company’s website to be posted tomorrow in conjunction with the Apple press conference, wherein Apple is expected to announce an immediate solution to their loyal customers, who once brought the company back from the brink of oblivion:

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How desperate is FOX that they picked up and revived the “New Black Panther Party” story from election day 2008?  And how sad is it that the mainstream media has again taken the bait and legitimized an allegation just because FOX cried about it long enough.

“21st century Willie Horton”: Right-wing race-baiting and the phony New Black Panthers scandal

via Media Matters