I just started laughing when I read this -

Wandering by the Washington Monthly this AM I just started laughing. In the South "Upitty" was always part of the racial slur "Uppity Nigger" - just go look at the interviews CBS, NBC, ABC did in the South in the 60's or any of that period's history and you will see that the second word always traveled with the first one. Its there and pardon the pun, its there in spades.

A few days ago U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland from Georgia's 3rd Congressional District called the Obamas "Uppity". When questioned later by the Atlanta Journal his representative said he had no idea it was a racist slur.

Really?!? Westmorland was born April 2, 1950 in Atlanta, Georgia. How could he not know that "Uppity" is a loaded term? Wikipedia has an entry covering the life and times of Rep. Westmoreland. From this entry some of the wonderful things he has done while being a member of Congress are:

"In 2005, Westmoreland received criticism for spreading a memo to fellow House members that consisted of auto-industry talking points, verbatim, even using the same font as the auto-industry document. An aide defended him, saying, "such behavior is standard practice.""

"As a U.S. congressman, Westmoreland cosponsored a bill to place the Ten Commandments in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Westmoreland also sponsored a bill that the Ten Commandments could be displayed in courthouses in a historical setting."

"Westmoreland led a group of congressmen who opposed the 2006 renewal of certain provisions in the Voting Rights Act that require nine Southern states and a number of counties (mostly in the South) to obtain Federal permission for certain changes to election law or changes in venue."

Thankfully, Steven Colbert has Westmoreland's number and shows him to be the buffoon he really is (the interview starts about 1:40 into the clip) -