I'd like to think that was written by a DUer...

when he said things very similar to what the SC shooter said.

The GOP embracing racism in order to secure the racist vote has to be paid back with open derision....mass media, do your duty.

Read this in DailyKos...thanks for posting it here...

Brinsley.

It was clearly determined that the inflammatory speech that preceded Brinsley's hateful actions could not possibly have anything to do with what he did, whatever he himself may have said. Instead, mental illness was to blame.

It's a handy conclusion when it's a defensive argument and there's a cause to be protected; it's not when it's not defensive and in making it there's a cause to be advanced.

I agree to a large extent with the OP. I thought the defense of Brinsley was wrong-headed and self-serving.

Then again, I also find that some arguments made are a bit wrong. Take the "it wasn't race, it was an assault on Xianity." If that argument is sincerely made, I think it's a good thing: Then what's really important wasn't skin color but religion, and that helps obscure the racial divisions separating us and encouraging the hatred. And that's the real problem, people who insist on dividing and subdividing and making the divisions paramount while what unites us is trivial or less important. I'll take reasonable unity without victory over exultant victory without unity any day.

The racists pick up on these remarks (criminals, thugs) and already know that they are minorities. They need to be called out on that sort of code language that can arguably incite violence. I remember a would be shooter going out of his way to shoot progressives at the Tides Foundation after watching the Glenn Beck show. At that time nobody knew what the Tides Foundation was.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/30/AR2010073003254.html