Rowdy's Roundup: Neo-Nazis, Torture, Hate Crime, Gaza, and more

Prowling the Blogosphere...

White supremacists in Montana are trying to improve their public image by claiming that today's neo-Nazis are "educated and idealistic" and "elite."  Casey Sanchez on SPLC explains why there's not enough lipstick in the world to prettify that pig.

Over at Salon, Joe Conason examines the (not unexpected) foot stomping tantrums conservative pols and pundits are throwing over Democrat Al Franken's Minnesota Senate victory.  And he deftly puts paid to their tired "S'not fair! He cheated!" arguments.  (If they can even be called arguments.)    
 
Think Progress reports that Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is opposing Eric Holder's nomination as U.S. Attorney General because Holder doesn't support torturing prisoners.  (And you know how GOPers love those enhanced interrogation techniques.)  Speaking of torture, a Gitmo whistleblower has been spilling his guts on the BBC.  Crooks and Liars has video - and folks, it ain't pretty.

In Greenville, South Carolina, a 20-year-old gay man was leaving a bar when Stephen Andrew Moller called him a faggot and hit him in the face so hard that his brain separated from its stem.  Sean Kennedy died, and now his attacker is about to be released from prison - after serving only eight months!  Bilerico Project has details.  (South Carolinians don't believe in hate crimes laws, preferring to let their right-wing God sort these things out.)

Police officers in New Orleans started off the New Year by shooting an African American man in the back twelve times.  22-year-old Adolph Grimes III had joined his family to celebrate New Year's Eve with his fiancé and their 17-month-old son when he was gunned down.  Family members are calling the incident murder.  NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley is refusing to answer question.  Andrew McLemore at Raw Story has the rundown.

Fox News hauls out a discredited terrorism expert to smear Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison.  Neocon trash machine Steve Emerson implies that Ellison is "in cahoots" with terrorists, then he lobs rockets at the New York Times, CNN, and the rest of the (sigh) LIBERAL MEDIA.  Ali Frick delivers the goods.  And there's more at News Hounds.  (continued...)   

Arianna Huffington wonders why the media is more interested in Blago than in unraveling the bailout mystery:  Like most good mysteries, this one has a huge cast of characters -- like the Dickensianly named Neel Kashkari, the young Goldman banker put in charge of the bailout at the Treasury Department, the sharp-tongued Barney Frank, and the earnest and increasingly bewildered Hank Paulson, who started off the bailout process by romantically getting down on one knee in front of Nancy Pelosi and proposing to make the whole thing official.  (And while you're down there, Hank dear...)  But what we know is clearly dwarfed by what we don't know, because at every point in this story, the government has chosen to draw the curtains.  (The bailout farce just isn't sexy enough for media moguls who control the flow of information in this country.)

The always dependable BooMan has posted a thoughtful and succinct primer placing the current Gaza conflict into recent historical context.  (Highly recommended.)  And Talyor Marsh explains why Israel is losing its PR battle:  After all these years the Israelis still don't get that their cause depends on keeping hearts and minds invested on their side, which as the 21st century dawns plays out violently on a very old grudge match, now flying under the banner of Bush's "war on terror," that is wearing everyone's patience to a nub.