Right wing think tank shocked to learn they harbored a racist blogger - Updated

A North Carolina based right wing "think" tank, The John Locke Foundation, was quick to disown Tara Servatius, their resident blogger for posting an insulting, racist graphic to illustrate her insulting, homophobic blog post on their website. She quit before they could dump her, but really, she just can't understand what all the fuss is about. She's very sorry if anyone was offended...

The image, which was no longer available on the Meck Deck site but could still be seen on a blog post by WRAL-TV reporter Laura Leslie, is a small and low-resolution depiction of the president's head crudely pasted onto a body clad in high-heeled boots and other garments suggestive of fetish wear. Between his spread legs is a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. [...]

"I am genuinely sorry my inclusion of the photo has caused controversy for the John Locke Foundation," Servatius wrote Thursday in an email in response to a question from The Associated Press. "If it has offended anyone, I sincerely apologize. It was meant to illustrate Obama's southern political strategy, nothing more. An honest reading of the piece itself shows there is nothing offensive in it."

Servatius found the image when searching online for an illustration of the president in drag, she said, to underscore her point about the strategy of appealing to young voters on the issue of gay marriage. She said she didn't think of the picture's racial implications.

If she or the Foundation had a shred of honesty, they wouldn't be riding on this wingnut gravy train. Her hateful mewling is still available on the Foundation's website, without the offensive graphic, but I'm not linking to her. Meanwhile, the Foundation's head honcho is just horrified:

"I'm embarrassed and angry today," Hood said in a statement. "The illustration associated with this blog entry was offensive and utterly inappropriate for our blog or for anyone else's."

Um, so is the post "offensive and utterly inappropriate for our blog or for anyone else's," but the same can be said for the majority of the content posted on the entire website. Which isn't surprising since The John Locke Foundation is a front group for local hatemonger Art Pope and supported by such "civic minded" Americans as the Koch brothers. They were basically a laughingstock, ignored by "serious people" until Mr. Pope came into his inheritance and essentially bought 80% of the Foundation. (Who says money can't buy respect?)

They bill themselves as a non-partisan think tank which can be alternately described as (classical) liberal, conservative and/or libertarian. However, their main agenda appears to be climate change denialism, shredding the social safety net with a sideline of anti-tax and privatization of public resource advocacy. A quick peek at their board of directors reveals ties to the Heritage Foundation and various vulture capitalist interests and industries.

In other words, they are another bunch of unadulterated, far fringe right scammers promoting a socially destructive agenda while operating as a tax dodging, non-profit 501(c)(3) research institute with too much money and a dysfunctional moral compass.

Updated: Can't bring myself to post the graphic, but you can see the vile photo here.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]