Release The Media Hounds

"Talk to you later, Buckwheat."  - Louisiana state Representative Carla Blanchard Dartez, a Democrat, thanking a black veteran of the civil rights campaigns of the 1960s for her help in a reelection campaign.

If this remark had been made by a Republican, the media would have already gone berserk.

HOUMA, La. (AP) — A white state lawmaker in a runoff election called a black civil-rights veteran who had helped her campaign "Buckwheat," prompting the NAACP to urge voters to kick her out of office.

Rep. Carla Blanchard Dartez, a Democrat, acknowledged that she ended a Thursday night conversation with Hazel Boykin by saying, "Talk to you later, Buckwheat." Dartez had been thanking Boykin for driving voters to the polls.

Buckwheat, a black child character in the "Little Rascals" comedies of the 1930s and '40s, is viewed as a racial stereotype.

Boykin, 75, helped desegregate restaurants and the parish school system in the 1960s. Her son, Jerome, is president of the Terrebonne Parish chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"I've never had no one talk to me that way and I considered it a racial slur," Hazel Boykin said. "I know the meaning of it, it's just like the N-word."

Jerome Boykin said Monday he planned to ask voters to cast ballots against Dartez, who faces Republican Joe Harrison in Saturday's runoff.

Dartez will not withdraw from the race and she has apologized. This article on the incident has another little tidbit:

Earlier this month, Lenny Dartez was indicted on charges of allegedly harboring illegal aliens through his construction business.

Lenny Dartez is the husband of Carla Dartez. He is also a member of the Louisiana Democratic Party's central committee. He is also a very unequal opportunity employer according to Federal investigators:

The investigation began earlier this year when federal agents responded to a tip that illegal immigrants were allegedly working for Lenny Dartez and living in a group of mobile homes in Amelia, according to court documents.

The agents detained five Trinidad nationals in May, three of them on their way to work in a van registered to Winston Service Contractors. Most of the workers had traveled to the U.S. on tourist visas, court documents said.

Morrison told agents that all of the men had provided Social Security numbers, but a former office worker alleged that Lenny Dartez and Morrison knew the immigrants were illegal and processed their payroll information separately from other employees, according to the documents.

The indictment states that the Trinidadian employees had not been reported to the state and federal departments of labor or revenue. Immigration removal proceedings have begun against the five workers, but federal agents have filed court documents to hold one of the immigrants to secure his testimony.

One is forced to ask a question here. Were there not enough American workers, black or white to do the work? Or is it just cheaper to hire illegals, cook the books and ignore the Americans who need the jobs? I rather suspect the latter, don't you? That indicates an appalling contempt for the constituency of the Democratic party, does it not?

Again, if this was a Republican, the press would be relentlessly savaging this Democratic "power couple".

Look! It’s Halley’s Comet!

Oh, no. It isn't. It's food prices heading for the moon. The Telegraph reports that food prices in Britain are screaming toward the stratosphere at a rate not seen in the past 14 years. The reason? Grain shortages and high fuel costs.

Increased wheat, dairy, meat and vegetable prices mean food factories are having to pay six per cent more for their raw ingredients than a year ago - the highest annual rate since 1993, said the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

The surging costs will be passed on to consumers, who are experiencing the highest food bills for years and could end up paying almost £1,000 extra on their annual food bill than a year ago.

Families are already struggling to cope with the effects of the credit crunch. Petrol prices exceed £1 for a litre of unleaded fuel, while mortgage payments and credit card fees are also rising.

Now the price of groceries is increasing as weekly staples shoot up in price in supermarkets. The cost of a pint of milk has reached an all-time high of 33½p and sliced bread costs a record £1.20 in big stores, a far cry from the 9p loaf that was available 15 years ago.

The company that makes Hovis said yesterday that it was raising prices by a further 4p a loaf, on top of the 12p by which they had risen in recent months, as it attempts to recover soaring wheat costs.

What is not mentioned in the article is the diversion of food into fuel production. That has a serious negative impact on the global food supply. While the west may pay higher prices at the market, the third world is going to pay a more personal cost. We'll shell out a few more dollars, pounds or euros, grumble and go home.

They will have to bury their higher price.