Discriminations

George Will gets to the point. How will AA be justified if widespread prejudice cannot be proved to exist? How can AA be preserved when a Latino majority in southwestern states uses it to discriminate against white, black and asian minorities? If no group is a majority, and each group can point to some past history of bias, how can the government decide which group gets a preference and which does not?

Shelby Steele?

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Shelby Steele is actually showing his face in PUBLIC?!?

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Shelby Steele, the author of "A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win"

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ROTFLMAO!!!

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Perhaps that's why Amazon.com cut the list price so sharply. I especially love the recent consummer comments. http://www.amazon.com/Bound-Man-Excited-About-Obama/dp/1416559175

Personally, I think the leaves of that book could be used to help house-break the new Obama puppy since its entire premise has been completely debunked.

George Will is equally silly. Accusing the Democrats of using race "identity politics" and "race-conscious" policies while saying nothing about the GOP's continued use of the "southern strategy" and the right wing's embarrassing war on Hispanic Americans is disingenuous at best. The truth is evident. As of now, there are ZERO Republican Congressmen from New England.

And McCain's support?

>>>""Historically, race is a voting divide," said Blease Graham, a political science professor at USC. "There's no question about that."

In South Carolina, 71 percent of white voters backed Republican nominee John McCain, exit polls show.

Of the 11 states that left the Union before or during the Civil War, white voters in only four states gave a higher percentage of their vote to McCain."

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2007403/

With apologies to Roger Clegg, we all know how retreats in the South turn out.

Iraqi Terrorist? Come on.

Ward Connerly? LOL.

>>>"Based on available information from the 990 forms filed by Connerly with the IRS, between 1997 and 2006, Connerly has lined his own pockets with over $7.6 million from his two tax exempt, non-profit organizations; American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI), 501(c) 3, and American Civil Rights Coalition (ACRC), 501(c) 4.

This includes over $500,000 in salary from 2004 to mid-2006 and $2.2 million in payments that Connerly paid himself just for "speaking fees and interviews."

Connerly's excessive compensation levels from his tax-exempt, non-profit organizations have raised questions in Congress about their propriety.

Even conservatives are on to Connerly's profiteering. The most recent issue of The American Conservative revealed:

In 1998, 22 percent of his nonprofits' revenue was paid to Connerly in salary or to his firm. By 2001, Connerly's salary and the fees charged by Connerly and Associates ate up 49 percent of the nonprofits' combined revenue. Most of the money paid to the firm was listed on tax forms as "speaking fees." In 2006, when Connerly took up a concrete goal in political activism-ending Michigan's affirmative-action policies-the cut of nonprofit revenue paid to him and his firm rose to 66 percent of total receipts, nearly $1.6 million.

As The American Conservative writes, "An IRS spokesman said that he could not comment on a case under investigation."

http://www.bigmoneyconnerly.org/node/1395

John, I have a dream.

I have a dream that the Obama Justice Department launches a SWEEPING investigation, intensively examining every penny this charlatan has pocketed while standing on the necks of women and minorities in this country.

I have a dream that the Obama Justice Department let slip the vicious dogs of inquiry on both Connerly's racial ponzi scheme, and his collaborative minions who craft deceptive ballot initiatives in an attempt to set this country back decades.

I have a dream that Ward Connerly will be indicted, shackled and frog-marched into custody; perp walked before flash bulbs and television cameras for turning racial hate in America into his own personal financial gain.

And if anybody out there thinks that we on the righteous left can't possibly hope for that to happen, I've got three words for you--

Yes we can.

--Cobra

Sigh. It never takes more than a few lines to recognize a cobra post, but forever to scroll it unread to its conclusion.

The concluding paragraph of IowaHawk's (David Burge's) essay of Nov. 6th is quite memorable.

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2008/11/election-analysis-america-can-take-pride-in-this-historic-inspirational-disaster.html

Cobra, relax. Obama won. And while I don't like his economic policies - a matter of disagreement that has absolutely nothing to with race or any other ism - I admire greatly his intelligence and his communication skills. And reasonable people like me desperately want to see him succeed, and will support him in doing so. It strikes me that your focus ought to be on the way forward now that Obama has been elected as opposed to showering vitriol on Ward Connerly.

Note that there is a benefit and burden to Obama's election. He won it because in many respects he transcended race. And to succeed he will continue to have to do so. And without any negativity, I can't think of any greater threat in the last few years to affirmative action than Obama's election. I find it hard to believe, for example, that an Obama administration will permit UCLA to continue discriminate against poor and heavily burdened Vietnamese immigrants merely so it can have the "right" number of black folks show up on their campus. If we really want to move to a post-racial world - and Obama's election shows it is possible - he didn't just win convincingly - he raised mega - mega millions from the so-called "white" establishment - then let's get on with the business of doing so. This is not an easy pill to swallow for affirmative action advocates, but it does remind me of my own experience in highly competitive athletics years ago - it is often harder to deal with success than it is with defeat, and one of the consequences of political success here is that it will be increasingly challenging to engage in policies that accentuate victimhood.

Tweet! 15-yard penalty on Cobra for excessive celebration and showing up the opponent after scoring a touchdown!

On a more serious note, show a little class. You should be reveling in victory not looking for revenge. If you were really concerned about individuals taking advantage of the positions they hold then you should include Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton on the list of people who should be investigated.

Cobra, what is it in that Ward Connerly quote that enrages you so?

"one of the consequences of political success here is that it will be increasingly challenging to engage in policies that accentuate victimhood."

This has been the case for two decades. Somehow the grievance industry finds a way. Based on past experience, the accusations of racism will become three times louder and ten times more incoherent. In this respect Cobra is ahead of his time.

Cobra, there you go again, confusing venom (not surprising, from someone who chooses a venomous snake as his Nom de Blog) with analysis.

I am leaving this comment up, but with serious reservations and with a renewed warning to delete any similar future spleen-venting. You are welcome to post such long rants on your own blog, and I will happily allow you to link to them in comments here. But I have no interest, and less willingness, to continue to provide a platform (indeed, to pay for that platform) for you to reveal your biases (colorblind equality = racism, etc.) here in long, rambling, ad hominem, link-filled rants.

Finally, let me say that Ward Connerly is not simply someone I admire from afar (though I do that most of the year). He is also someone I am proud to call a friend, which makes him someone I admire close-up as well. I am not familiar with his finances, but I have never heard of any donor who believes he has taken advantage of his position. I will add that my own opinion is that even if all the scurrilous attacks on him for enriching himself were true, he still would have been underpaid. No one has done more the principle of colorblind equality, and that service is invaluable.

Ward Connerly has more courage and conviction in his little finger than someone who doesn't even sign his name to what he writes.

Blacks voted overwhelmingly for Obama on the basis of his skin color and theirs. To then expect those same supporters to not expect preferential treatment is to misunderstand politics as usual. For Obama to become a change agent he would have to support "colorblindness" in the tradition of Martin Luther King. Watch his stance on affirmative action and his appointments to key civil rights posts to get the full measure of the "business as usual" political hack.