This undated photo obtained from a MySpace webpage shows Daniel Cowart, 20 of Bells, Tenn.
By ANDREW DeMILLO and WOODY BAIRD Shades of the region's racist past came creeping back this week just as the South could be poised to play a pivotal role in electing the nation's first black president.
An alleged plot by two young white supremacists to go on a killing spree and assassinate Barack Obama, though far-fetched by most accounts, may conjure images of the Jim Crow era for some. But it doesn't necessarily reflect the modern South, which in recent years has seen a huge influx of immigrants and transplants from other regions, as well as the empowerment of a black electorate that could decide the Nov. 4 election.
"These incidents, isolated though they are, serve as a reality check," said journalist John Seigenthaler, 81, who was U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy's administrative assistant and was attacked with the Freedom Riders during the Civil Rights era.
"Yes we've changed in significant ways, but there are those that haven't," said Seigenthaler, who also was editor and publisher of The Tennessean in Nashville and founded the First Amendment Center.
The alleged plot "should serve as a low voltage electric shock. We're a new South, but there are elements of the old South still under the surface."
Paul Schlesselman, 18, of Helena-West Helena, Ark., and Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., who are accused of dreaming up the plan to behead blacks across the country and assassinate Barack Obama while wearing white top hats and tuxedoes, were likely too disorganized to carry out the plot. They have a federal court hearing scheduled for Thursday morning in Memphis.
While authorities say the men had guns capable of creating carnage, documents show they never got close to getting off the ground. Skinhead Video
Among the blunders: They drew attention to themselves by etching swastikas on a car with sidewalk chalk, only knew each other for a month, couldn't even pull off a house robbery, and a friend ratted them out to authorities.


Comments: 16
Obama is not a native born American
Obama socializes with terrorists
Obama is "that person" using bigotry to put across his message
Obama supports attacking Pakistan
Obama was born in the Middle East
If you want more Don you will have to do a little research on what the media reports on McCain's campaign.
That being said, I fear that this country is not read, 100% ready, to have a black man as the POTUS. There are enough crazies out there, without having to label them as a member of any one political party, that DO NO wany a black man running this country and ARE crazy enough to try and take matters into their own hands to alleviate that situation.
I don't like Senator Obama politically, I don't agree with many of his political proposals, but I do NOT wish harm to be fall him because of his race.
If you want to call me wrong Charles show me something to prove it like a McCain campaign add that is not loaded with lies and bigotry about Obama and being an American citizen and his relationship with terrorists. Obama is an intelligent person and the only presidential candidate that talks on issues and not on McCain's involvement with corporate cons.
If you cannot, or will not direct me to where you have gathered your information, then it is merely conjecture on your part.
This same old knowhere nonsense is finished, either show something to back it up your claim or end it. Any further baiting will be deleted.
Unless I haven't read the post and your responses correctly I really don't understand them, I asked for clarification of the claims YOU have made in them. I have researched and failed to find any reference to killing Obama, nor anyone else, in any of the McCain statements that I can find on the Internet. I asked for further information, verifiable information, where you based your statements on, if for nothing more than to enlarge my knowledge and perhaps see your point of view, but without exception you've made wilder and wilder claims.
This forum is supposed to be for debate, not threats. Gather is for expressing opinions not for suppressing opposing points of view. You've never given me your definition of "neocon" despite me asking for several times. I ask for these things to better understand where you are coming from, but you, unfortunately, adamantly have declined the opportunity to do so. And on several occasions you have deleted my comments where I ask for a clarification, or an explanation of something you've posted.
Jack, I'm not, as you indicated, "baiting" you. I really want to know where you are coming from, where you get your information to establish your opinions. When I make a claim, such as where you said: "This is the kind of radical action McCain brings out with his lies about Obama." and am asked for a source I try to accommodate the person. But without fail, I can't get a straight answer out of you. I respect your right to express an opinion, something you have decided I don't have the same right to express my opinion.
I ask for further information, for clarification, for a source that I can also see what you have seen there, to learn and you respond with: "...either show something to back it up your claim or end it. Any further baiting will be deleted." That is an attitude that is hardly conducive to any exchange of ideas, opinions, or beliefs. If you accuse me of baiting you, when clearly I haven't, then you obstruct the free exchange of ideas, etc. I would like to ask Don and Pamela (the other respondents here on your post) if they think that I have baited you and where. If they do and point it out to me then I will apologize to you, but I really don't think that I have.