[quote]The one photo the GOP does not want anyone to see was snapped at yesterday’s NAACP GOP Presidential Candidate Forum. The NAACP invited all 9 Republican candidates to the forum, but only one showed up: Tom Tancredo. All the Democratic Presidential hopefuls showed up for their forum.
The excuses given by the Republican campaigns mostly had to do with scheduling conflicts–just too busy to make it.
The resulting photo of Tancredo–standing on a stage of empty podiums–sums up the Republican party’s commitment to civil rights in America: the only Republican interested is the guy running to deny immigrant workers their rights.
One has to wonder why this photo was not the lead on every morning show and on the front pages of every morning newspaper in America.[/quote]
Uhhh…this might have had something to do with some of their decisions not to attend…
[url=http://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48635]NAACP chairman compares GOP to Nazis Bond delivers blistering partisan speech in North Carolina
Posted: February 2, 2006
[i]"Civil rights activist and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond delivered a blistering partisan speech at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina last night, equating the Republican Party with the Nazi Party and characterizing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her predecessor, Colin Powell, as tokens.
“The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side,” he charged.[/i][/url]
This might have had some influence on deicing how friendly and sincere this invite really was.
Kudo’s to Tancredo for his attendance. His main platformis on enforcing the laws on the books regarding illegal ‘immigration’. This platform is supported by a growing segment of the Black community as they view these illegals as being in direct competition for many of the same jobs.
Well, I have to say, I doesn’t surprise me that only one GOP candidate showed up.
And, TC, the GOP could have showed up in droves to try to prove the NAACP chairman’s statements wrong. Their refusal to show up only reinforces the image of racism among the GOP’s ranks.
I read the World Daily Report and the follow-up where they point out that the university refused to actually release the tape or transcript of Bond’s speech.
Bond is an individual. Like many civil rights activists, he may play up divisiveness, (and frankly he has reason to be pissed at the Republican Party after the whole cage-list disenfranchisement of black soldiers in recent the presidential elections). However, for one guy’s comments to excuse ignoring a forum held by an historic organization like the NAACP just doesn’t cut it. The press should have been all over this; instead, we have the usual focus on crap celebrity news and the token whinge about soldier body counts.
I think that you are a bit confused. Democrats try to get illegal aliens on the rolls and try to keep the Republican Party from disenfranchising felons as well as “encouraging” the homeless and other such groups to vote with free bus trips and, er, cigarettes and booze. It was Gore who tried to get military votes disqualified because he thought most of them would be voting Republican. I think that the “disenfranchisement” you are talking about is with regard to Black felons being purged from the books in Florida. And despite all the talk, no charges were ever raised against the GOP in Florida. This is serious. It would represent a total and complete infringement of the 14th amendment rights of Black citizens… Despite all the hew and cry… Nothing… No formal Dept of Justice investigation, why not? Please do not recycle idle chat as representing anything. It borders on slander and libel.
Looks like the only “racism” being shown is on behalf of the NAACP.[/quote]
With mainstream Republicans flocking to hear out GOPpers like Hal Turner and David Duke, I’m not sure I see your point. It wasn’t too long ago that the Republicans threw a big inaugural party for the Texas governor featuring Ted Nugent dressed up in the stars-and-bars screaming some sort of ethnic-cleansing nonsense. George Allen who blew his senate run in Virginia is one of many Republican stars who has maintained close ties to white-supremacy groups. Add in the Republican efforts in 2000 and 2004 to keep blacks from voting, and we’ve got a party that has strayed far away from the “party of Lincoln” into being the “party of George Lincoln Rockwell.”
But denial ain’t just a river in Egypt. If Republicans really cared about cleaning up their party and insisting that race politics were a big no-no, then we’d see it. Seems that the majority of southern Republicans liked it just as much as they did when they were (before) Dixiecrats and (before that) southern Democrats. The Dems took a step away from the brink in the 1940s with Harry Truman desegregating the military and then again in the early 1960s with the slew of legislation that wiped away the Jim Crow laws. Can Republicans do the same? I hope they can.
Why should the GOP candidates dignify such slanderous remarks by making an appearance? When the President of Iran declared that the Jews are the real Nazis and that their occupation of Palestine is the real holocaust, then promptly announced a holocaust denier conference to take place in Tehran, should the Jews have shown up to “prove him wrong?”
Failing to attend the NAACP conference in no way makes the GOP candidates racist, nor does showing up mean a candidate is not racist.
Republicans are usually opposed to affirmative action, which the NAACP supports. That’s a major ideological difference, enough to dissuade most Republicans from showing up at these events.
[quote=“spook”]So criticizing some ethnic interest group’s political agenda isn’t prima facie evidence of bigotry?
Is that a general moral principle or does it only apply in the kettle’s case?[/quote]
How’s the weather up on that cross?
And the last time I checked you were still calling anyone who supports Israel a “traitor,” which is ironic considering that several successive Administrations have been ardently pro-Israel. So how about getting off that cross, crawling back into your cave and pasting up some more Jerusalem Post clip outs. The “clues” are there spook, you just have to find them!
[quote=“gao_bo_han”][quote=“spook”]So criticizing some ethnic interest group’s political agenda isn’t prima facie evidence of bigotry?
Is that a general moral principle or does it only apply in the kettle’s case?[/quote]
How’s the weather up on that cross?
And the last time I checked you were still calling anyone who supports Israel a “traitor,” which is ironic considering that several successive Administrations have been ardently pro-Israel. So how about getting off that cross, crawling back into your cave and pasting up some more Jerusalem Post clip outs. The “clues” are there spook, you just have to find them![/quote]
So I take your answer as meaning that principle only applies in the kettle’s case.
Perhaps, also in the interests of fairness and accuracy, you’d like to support your accusation with some facts that I’ve accused anyone who supports Israel of being a traitor.
I’ll take the GOP claims that they are being discriminated against by the NAACP seriously the day the GOP actually has a track record that again warrants the ‘Party of Lincoln’ nickname. However with the Republikkkans’ current embracing of race baiting politics and attempts to block blacks from voting in elections, I can see why the NAACP might not be an easy crowd these days.
I may be wrong but I think the NAACP’s position is that the only motivation there can be for questioning affirmative action is racism. I don’t believe that’s true. I think a valid case can be made that ‘affirmative action’ is just a euphemism for two wrongs make a right and there are better ways for achieving racial equality than policies derived from logical fallacies.
