Troy Dale West, who seems to have loaded up on Rush Limbaugh just before heading down to the Cracker Barrel in Morrow, Georgia, earlier this week:

The FBI is investigating as a possible hate crime an incident in which a woman was beaten to the ground in front of her child at the entrance to a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Morrow, Georgia, south of Atlanta.

Troy Dale West, of Poulan, Georgia, is facing battery and cruelty to children charges after the incident.

Troy Dale West Jr., of Poulan, Georgia, is facing charges including misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct after allegedly beating Army reservist Tashawnea Hill, 35, after the two had words at the entrance of the Morrow, Georgia, restaurant the evening of September 9.

Hill, an African-American, told police that West, 47, yelled racial epithets at her as the attack took place.

"He did punch me with a closed fist repeated times. My head is still hurting today. I have knots on my head," Hill told CNN Wednesday night, adding she also was kicked.

... Hill told police the incident started when she and her daughter were entering the restaurant at the same time West and his wife were exiting.

"The man slung open the door pretty hard and fast and I had to push my daughter out of the way," Hill told CNN affiliate WSB-TV. "I turned to the man and I just said, 'Excuse me sir, you need to watch yourself; you almost hit my daughter in the face.' And from there it just went downhill."

West, according to the police report, admitted striking Hill "after she spit on me and accused me of trying to hit her daughter with a door."

Appearing on CNN Wednesday night, Hill and her attorney, Kip Jones, denied that she spat on West. Jones said he saw surveillance video of the incident.

"At no point did Ms. Hill do anything to provoke the attack. She did not spit on Mr. West. She spoke to him. He attacked her," Jones said.

CNN's Rick Sanchez caught video of West's cousin sticking up for him:

I want you to take a look at this guy right here. Go ahead and put him up, Rog. There he is. That's Troy West. He's accused of beating and screaming racial slurs at a woman, a mom, when she asked him to be careful when he pushed the door and almost hit her child, her daughter, her 7-year-old.

This was at a Cracker Barrel restaurant just outside of Atlanta. Well, reporters have been flocking to West's hometown in southern Georgia talking to the locals there. And you're not going to believe what one man who says that he's West's cousin had to say.

This is going to startle you somewhat, take you back. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you asked me why he hit the woman, if you ask me, he was provoked. That's my -- I think he was. Now, it might not come out that way, but I have never known Troy to hit anybody.

QUESTION: But does that make it OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's everybody's own deal on that. I mean, I don't know what she done, but if a woman puts herself in a man's shoes, sometimes, I would say yes.

I'm sure the victim is happy to know that, because Barack Obama was elected president, America has solved the problem of racism. In fact, the only remaining real racism is the kind that brown people like Obama and Sonia Sotomayor have for white people.

At least, that's what we get told on Fox every day.