As Barack Obama tried to convince voters that he could relate to their economic privations, he prepared to send his family off to a five-star resort in Spain for a little R&R — as so many Americans do these days.  Of course, the State Department has had a long-standing warning to African-Americans about racism in Spain … or at least it did.  ABC News notes the strange, coincidental timing of State’s flushing the warning down the memory hole just as the First Lady and one of their daughters embark to the 60-room reservation:

Just before her arrival, the State Department removed from its website a warning to African Americans about racism against blacks among Spanish police. The paragraph, in a section called Safety and Security (which also has information about terror group ETA and the 2004 Madrid bombings), was only removed days ago after calls from Spanish media, a State Department official tells ABC News.

The warning can still be found on versions of the department’s Bureau of Consular Affair’s Country Specific Information report for Spain and Andorra that are cached online from last week.

“We have received isolated reports that racial prejudice may have contributed to the arrest or detention of some African-Americans travelling in Spain. Recently, two African-American U.S. Government employees were questioned by police in Barcelona for no apparent reason. One was detained and suffered physical injuries in the process,” the report said before the language was removed.

The State Department told ABC that they should have removed the warning late last year … but they just got around to it.  What a coinky-dink!  How fortunate for the Spaniards that Michelle Obama chose to spend her five-star vacation in their backyard, or the Obama administration may never have quit calling their police racists.

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