Why There Are So Few Minority Conservatives, Part 176 | Oliver Willis

Why There Are So Few Minority Conservatives, Part 176 | Oliver Willis Oliver is right on -- Republican extremists, some call themselves Conservatives -- are too far to be of any real value to the improvement of the American condition.

RACIST COLLEGE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT ADAM LADUCA STEPS DOWN - CALLED KING A FRAUD

You know, the more I see stories like this, the less faith I have in America.  What bothers me about this story of Adam LaDuca is that he's 21 years old and so this racist view is a reflection of his parents.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The leader of a statewide group of college Republicans has been forced to resign after posting racially insensitive comments about Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on the Internet.

Adam LaDuca, 21, the former executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans, wrote on his Facebook page in late July that Obama has "a pair of lips so large he could float half of Cuba to the shores of Miami (and probably would.)"

LaDuca, who previously had called Martin Luther King Jr. a "pariah" and a "fraud," also wrote: "And man, if sayin' someone has large lips is a racial slur, then we're ALL in trouble."

The College Republicans asked LaDuca to resign after his remarks were publicized by the Pennsylvania Progressive, a blog written by a Democratic committeeman from Berks County. The group announced LaDuca's resignation on its Web site Friday.

John McCain Flip-Flops On The Confederate Flag - Watch

Watch this video that shows Sen. John McCain giving two opposing views on the Confederate Flag within just three days. Where does he stand today? Regardless of the answer, you can be sure it's going to be opposite one of the answers in this video!

Republicans Who Skipped Black Debate Took Money From Allegedly Racist Firms

This news is from a blog over at "Off The Bus", a Hull Post section devoted to news from non-journalist sources. Here's most of the post:

While the four top Republican presidential contenders missed the Sept 27 debate at Morgan State University in Baltimore organized to address minority issues, they were busy raking in cash from dozens of business and professional elites, including a top Wall Street banking firm that was sued that same week for racial discrimination.

All in all, it was a grand and enriching week for the four white males most likely to represent the Republicans in the 2008 presidential race. Among them, they amassed over $9 million while they were too "busy" to attend the debate at Morgan State.

The most egregious case is that of the banking house of Morgan Stanley that gave money to the three top Republican contenders during the same week of the minority debate. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) filed a civil rights complaint against Morgan Stanley and its mortgage lender subsidiary Saxon Capital three days before the debate. It was the first challenge against a Wall Street mortgage bundler that alleges redlining in minority communities throughout the United States under the Federal Fair Housing Act.

But Romney, McCain, Thompson and Giuliani weren't a bit inhibited from passing the hat at a company that saddled the gullible with sure-fail housing loans while bypassing qualified minority borrowers. While they didn't feel up to engaging black and Latino questioners at the debate, all but McCain eagerly vacuumed up a total of at least $40,000 that week from Morgan Stanley employees, according to campaign finance reports filed with the FEC (Morgan Stanley executives have given to McCain on other occasions.)

Meanwhile, those succulent sums came from an entity charged in the complaint with having "intentionally structured underwriting to deny homeownership to qualified African American, Latino, Pan-Pacific and Native American communities across the country," according to according to NCRC President & CEO John Taylor.

Ron Paul Searches Rank High On Technorati Again Today

The appearance of searches for Ron Paul blog posts has become a daily affair on Technorati.com, and today's no exception at all.

Many are writing about Paul's performance in Sunday's Republican Debate, which I did not see. Plus it seems that Fox News is at war with Ron Paul, blocking any positive news about his debate performance, or reporting that he won the post-debate poll Fox established.

Fred Thompson - "Can I Have A Round of Applause?"

Wow. I think the acting bug's really gotten to Senator and Presidential Candidate Fred Thompson. In this YouTube video that's below and I found over at Wonkette , he's begging for it. I can't remember seeing a Presidential candidate ask for it.

That's a sure sign of a lack of charisma. I used to think actors had it automatically, but now I'm thinking that it's a sign of how good the actor may be that we think he or she's got it.

Vernon Jordan Says Republicans Have Whites Only Sign Up

Well, the battle-lines are drawn both in Jena, LA, and in the 2008 Presidential Race. I've come to believe racism is both mental illness and un-American. Here's Vernon Jordan's take.

The candidates for the Republican party's presidential nod are building quite a track record--of snubbing prospective voters. This week the four leading candidates--Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain--added the PBS-sponsored debate at Baltimore's historically-black Morgan State University to their "I'll-pass" list. That list now includes the National Urban League, Univision, the Spanish-language television network, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. It's getting to be a long list.

But perhaps it's those of us who are dismayed by these displays of camapign cowardice that just don't get it.

Perhaps the GOP candidates are following the same script the Bush administration has used for governance: be irresponsible.

Or perhaps, they're developing a new paradigm for how a political party contests elections. Perhaps they want to test that you actually improve your chances of winning by snubbing entire groups of voters, and that in a nation whose voting pool is becoming more and more diverse, you make it clear you want just the votes of whites.

Republicans love to talk about Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, presidents whom they hold up as having met the tests of greatness. Is this what Abraham Lincoln would do? Is this what Ronald Reagan would do?

Republicans also used to talk about their welcoming all Americans into the party of the "big tent." But actions speak louder than words. The actions of the Republican candidates make it clear the big tent has a whites-only sign over the entrance.

Ron Paul Video Mashup Of 2008 Republican Fox Debate

To say that Congressman Ron Paul was effective on Wednesday is an understatement. He managed to establish the terms of debate in the campaign and capture the hearts of his fans on the Internet. This video shows -- amoung other things -- Congressman Paul's exchange with Arkansas Governor Mike Hukabee, the text of which is below the video.



MR. WALLACE: Congressman Paul -- (interrupted by cheers, applause) -- Congressman Paul, your position on the war is pretty simple: Get out. What about, though, trying to minimize the bloodbath that would certainly occur if we pull out in a hurry? What about protecting the thousands of Iraqis who have staked their lives in backing the U.S.? And would you leave troops in the region to take out any al Qaeda camps that are developed after we leave?
REP. PAUL: The people who say there will be a bloodbath are the ones who said it would be a cakewalk, it would be slam dunk, and that it would be paid for by oil. Why believe them? They've been wrong on everything they've said. Why not ask the people -- (interrupted by cheers) -- why not ask the people who advise not to go into the region and into the war? The war has not gone well one bit.

Yes, I would leave, I would leave completely. Why leave the troops in the region? The fact that we had troops in Saudi Arabia was one of the three reasons given for the attack on 9/11. So why leave them in the region? They don't want our troops on the Arabian Peninsula. We have no need for our national security to have troops on the Arabian Peninsula, and going into Iraq and Afghanistan and threatening Iran is the worst thing we can do for our national security.

I am less safe, the American people are less safe for this. It's the policy that is wrong. Tactical movements and shifting troops around and taking in 30 more and reducing by five, totally irrelevant. We need a new foreign policy that said we ought to mind our own business, bring our troops home, defend this country, defend -- (bell sounds) -- our borders --

MR. WALLACE: So if --
(Interrupted by cheers, applause.)

MR. WALLACE: So, Congressman Paul, and I'd like you to take 30 seconds to answer this, you're basically saying that we should take our marching orders from al Qaeda? If they want us off the Arabian Peninsula, we should leave? (Laughter.)

REP. PAUL: No! (Cheers, applause.) I'm saying -- (laughter) -- I'm saying we should take our marching orders from our Constitution. We should not go to war -- (cheers, applause) -- we should not go to war without a declaration. We should not go to war when it's an aggressive war. This is an aggressive invasion. We've committed the invasion of this war, and it's illegal under international law. That's where I take my marching orders, not from any enemy. (Cheers, boos.)

After a couple of other candidates had a crack at the question, Wallace let Huckabee get a little action.

MR. WALLACE: Governor Huckabee, the latest National Intelligence Estimate, which is out recently, says that even if we continue the troop surge -- and we're going to put it up on the screen -- Iraq's security will continue to improve modestly during the next six to 12 months, but levels of insurgent and sectarian violence will remain high, and the Iraqi government will continue to struggle to achieve national-level political reconciliation and improved governance.
Governor, if that's the best we can hope for, should we continue the surge?

MR. HUCKABEE: We have to continue the surge. And let me explain why, Chris. When I was a little kid, if I went into a store with my mother, she had a simple rule for me. If I picked something off the shelf of the store and I broke it, I bought it.

I learned don't pick something off the shelf I can't afford to buy.

Well, what we did in Iraq, we essentially broke it. It's our responsibility to do the best we can to try to fix it before we just turn away because something is at stake. Senator McCain made a great point, and let me make this clear. If there's anybody on this stage that understands the word honor, I've got to say Senator McCain understands that word -- (applause, cheers) -- because he has given his country a sacrifice the rest of us don't even comprehend. (Continued applause.)


Wait a minute, isn't this the famous Colin Powell Pottery Barn rule? Are we supposed to now call it the Mama Huckabee rule? Anyway, Huckabee continued...

And on this issue, when he says we can't leave until we've left with honor, I 100 percent agree with him because, Congressman, whether or not we should have gone to Iraq is a discussion that historians can have, but we're there. We bought it because we broke it. We've got a responsibility to the honor of this country and to the honor of every man and woman who has served in Iraq and ever served in our military to not leave them with anything less than the honor that they deserve. (Cheers, applause.)
MR. HUME: Go ahead. You wanted to respond? He just addressed you; you go ahead and respond. (Continued applause.)

REP. PAUL: The American people didn't go in. A few people advising this administration, a small number of people called the neoconservative hijacked our foreign policy. They're responsible, not the American people. They're not responsible. We shouldn't punish them. (Cheers, applause.)

MR. HUCKABEE: Congressman, we are one nation. We can't be divided. We have to be one nation under God. That means if we make a mistake, we make it as a single country, the United States of America, not the divided states of America. (Cheers.)

REP. PAUL: No. When we make a mistake -- (interrupted by applause) -- when we make a mistake, it is the obligation of the people through their representatives to correct the mistake, not to continue the mistake! (Cheers, applause.)

MR. HUCKABEE: And that's what we do on the floor of the --

REP. PAUL: No! We've dug a hole for ourselves and we dug a hole for our party!

We're losing elections and we're going down next year if we don't change it, and it has all to do with foreign policy, and we have to wake up to this fact.

MR. HUCKABEE: Even if we lose elections, we should not lose our honor, and that is more important to the Republican Party.

REP. PAUL: We're losing -- we've lost over -- (cheers, applause) -- we have lost -- we have lost 5,000 Americans killed in -- we've lost over 5,000 Americans over there in Afghanistan and Iraq and plus the civilians killed. How many more do you want to lose? How long are we going to be there? How long -- what do we have to pay to save face? That's all we're doing is saving face. It's time we came home!

MR. HUME: Okay, gentlemen. Gentlemen, thank you. (Cheers, applause.)

"Star Trek" Debate Question: NASA After Challenger - CNN/YouTube Debates

The Star Trek introduction forms the foundation for my newest CNN / YouTube Debate question.