A SUPREME DISGRACE

THE SUPREME DISGRACE - NO WOMEN AND NO PEOPLE OF COLOR. SO, HOW CAN THEY RULE EFFECTIVELY ON CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUES?


Yes, it is a supreme disgrace that the Democrats had no spine and as a result, America will have to endure John Roberts and Samuel Alito on the Bench for at least the next 20 years. Expect to see full attempts to roll back everything to pre 1960s when the good ol' days weren't that good for people of ethnicity, women and religious groups.

What's pissing me off is that Sen. Ted Kennedy is now crying into his beer in an essay published in WaPo today regarding the reich-wing tilt of the Supreme Court. He basically says they lied to get on the bench by promising not to bring their anti-civil rights ideology to the job if confirmed. While Roberts really didn't leave a paper trail to get "Borked" on, Alito did, and I personally believed when they should have filibustered his behind, all the Democrats caved in at the memory of Martha Ann Baumgardner (aka Mrs. Sam Alito)fled the room in tears because she didn't like how Sen. Russ Feingold was questioning her hubby about his qualifications for the job. If more democrats had spoken up like Feingold did, and if they didn't have to be dragged to vote cloture (hello, Sen. Barack Obama), you wouldn't have Alito on the Bench, and Roberts would have been neutralized to an extent.

From the Last Chance Democracy Cafe:

The confirmation process became broken because the Bush administration learned the wrong lesson from the failed Bork nomination and decided it could still nominate extremists as long as their views were hidden. To that end, it insisted that the Senate confine its inquiry largely to its nominees’ personal qualities.

The administration’s tactics succeeded in turning the confirmation hearings for Roberts and Alito into a sham. Many Republican senators used their time to praise, rather than probe, the nominees. Coached by the administration, the nominees declined to answer critical questions. When pressed on issues such as civil rights and executive power, Roberts and Alito responded with earnest assurances that they would not bring an ideological agenda to the bench.

After confirmation, we saw an entirely different Roberts and Alito — both partisans ready and willing to tilt the court away from the mainstream. They voted together in 91 percent of all cases and 88 percent of non-unanimous cases — more than any other two justices.

Yeah, they will be on the bench because of their willingness to lie, and the willingness of Joe Lieberman and other Vichy Dems to provide them cover for their lies because they're too chicken to call them on their crap.

Who's Missing from this Picture?

WHO'S MISSING FROM THIS PICTURE?

Try most of the Black and Latino Caucus Members who supported or sponsored the renewal of provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

Thank you, Nancy Pelosi, Mel Watt and Dennis Hastert for playing. We will have some lovely parting gifts for you in November.

WHY THE GOP GETS NO LOVE FROM BLACK PEOPLE

"GEORGE BUSH DOESN'T CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE..."

Those seven words uttered by Kanye West in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, almost got that brotha lynched by the press. You don't say that about the President of the United States. Even if it's the truth, and he is a walking embarassment everywhere he goes. I wince when I see him abroad in Europe and his behavior at the G8 Summit reminded me of a spoiled, petulant child whose parents have not taught him about the importance of boundaries.

But what's more important is why George Bush and the GOP continues to try and court African-Americans into their base. Their history with Blacks have not shown that we would be welcomed amongst their ranks; just token representation and photo ops. J. C. Watts finally got the memo on that, and former representative Gary Franks hasn't been seen nor heard from since he got tossed out on his arse back in the day. Watts left Congress because he knew Tom DeLay wasn't going to allow him to be anything in the GOP caucus except water boy totin' for Massa.

Yet my friend, who is the Minister of Intelligence, wrote a very insightful piece that expresses more clearly than I could ever say, why George Bush won't get any love from Blacks, except those who are in the "2% Negroes for Rent" crowd. Here's an excerpt:

That the GOP's top elected official thinks that "looking" at black people is testament to some sort of committment to civil rights explains why, as a recent New York Times article points out, that party's efforts to woo black voters has been a long-term failure of colossal proportions. Bush, as we all know by now, is of the belief that leadership is composed mostly of being photographed in the presence of certain people or giant signs trumpeting the triumphant slogan du jour. Remember that the man spent more time in his first term being seen surrounded by black children than a public school teacher on the south side of Chicago. (Notice he doesn't do that any more? Probably because after hurricane Katrina, you couldn't gather a crowd of black kids that close to Bush without one of them wanting to cut him.)

So in his speech before the NAACP (which was delivered in a strange shouting mode, sort of a lame impersonation of a black preacher), Bush treated the group to a brief review of the history of American discrimination against blacks. He made the inevitable, and by now completely pointless, reference to Republicans as the "Party of Lincoln." He bragged about increases in college grants and his efforts to fight what he famously refers to as "the soft bigotry of low expectations" -- those efforts being standardized testing and school vouchers.

And since the "2% Negroes for Rent" consists of Condi Rice, Colin Powell, the now disgraced petty thief Claude Allen,"Stepin' Fetchit" whiz kid HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, Ohio Secretary of State (and Diebold voting thief) Kenneth Blackwell, the illusional candidate for Pennsylvania governor Lynn Swann, and the equally illusional Maryland Lt. Goveror Michael "those kids threw Oreos at me" Steele", we should pay them no mind, because they don't have one, and they sold their souls to the devil years ago when intervention would have been useful.

Until they put away the hood and burning cross, and as long as GeeDubya is the leader of the GOP with his simple good ol' boy ways that has fast become a global embarassment, the GOP will never get any love from African-Americans until they make a conscious decision to stop perpetratin' the funk and come at us on the real.