LEFT-WING ANTISEMITISM

I don't "have issues" with christians, Snood. I take issue with the image of the god of the old testament, whom i consider to be portrayed as puerile, murderously violent, ego-maniacal, racist and just generally vicious (vicious as in afllicted with vice). Add to that the general tone of misogyny, racism and bigotry, and the murders and child abuse and incest retailed therein, and you don't come up with a very pretty picture.

If there is an antagonism toward christianity, it can likely be chalked up to the unfettered lunacy of people like Pat Robertson, and attempts to push religious doctrins such as "intelligent design" down the throats of the public. When there was a big flap over the Judge in Alabama who had the "ten commandments" posted in a court building, many right-wing christians were not even aware that there are several different versions of the "ten commandments." Many fundamentalists have been alienating the public for years. What you call antangonism toward christianity might be better described as resentment toward conservative, pushing christians.

Setanta wrote:

If there is an antagonism toward christianity, it can likely be chalked up to the unfettered lunacy of people like Pat Robertson, and attempts to push religious doctrins such as "intelligent design" down the throats of the public. When there was a big flap over the Judge in Alabama who had the "ten commandments" posted in a court building, many right-wing christians were not even aware that there are several different versions of the "ten commandments." Many fundamentalists have been alienating the public for years. What you call antangonism toward christianity might be better described as resentment toward conservative, pushing christians.

I am no fan of Pat Robertson and folks like that whom I consider to be religious hustlers. I think they are giving most common ordinary religious folks a disservice by their involvement in politics. However, they have every right to do it as much as the Jesse Jacksons and others like him do. Also, remember Al Gore shouting in a black church, trying to sound like a black preacher quoting scripture to turn on his followers. That was humorous, yet no criticism from the press, yet if a Republican does it, we always hear about it.

But anyway, my take is that the antagonism toward Jews is partially an effect of antagonism toward some religious views, those that stem from the Bible most specifically. Not huge and among everybody, but more especially among extreme leftists.

I didn't realize that Karl Rove is a Jew.

But really, it seems that few Americans realize that Israel is a great ally. It is our only real friend in the ME, a democracy, and a source of important intelligence on happenings in its area. Some have said that Israel's bang for the buck on our behalf is tantamount to the 100,000 or so military personnel we have in Germany.

Those supporting Israel have influence, and their actions have mostly been for the good of the country. I doubt that we would rather have people beholden to the Arab dictatorships.

I agree Pat Robertson's statements were pretty bizarre. How about Jesse Jackson claiming a conspiracy to keep blacks from voting when no evidence backs up his claims. That strikes me as demagoguery at the worst. But how about was it Farrakhan, the Islamic leader also involved in politics claiming the government blew up the levees in New Orleans? And need I mention some things said by Al Sharpton? If the press really want somebody not on the fringe from the black community, why don't they go talk to J. C. Watts or Michael Steele, or Condi or Colin Powell or people like that who have actually been legitimate political leaders, that are credible sensible and accomplished people, not the wannabes out on the fringe? Why do they even report what those types are doing? Have they ever won an election to deserve any attention? Same with Pat Robertson. I would ignore the guy.

How about Jesse Jackson claiming a conspiracy to keep blacks from voting when no evidence backs up his claims. That strikes me as demagoguery at the worst.

For the past five years, the Bush Administration has used the Justice Department, Civil Rights Division - the institutional guarantor of the Voting Rights Act - to legitimize a series of Republican power grabs in the South. Central to these power grabs has been violations of the Voting Rights Act - i.e. the suppression or dilution of African American votes. For instance, in a series of recent preclearance (Section 5) cases, Bush appointees in the Civil Rights Division have overruled career lawyers when their decisions stood in the way of white Republican political objectives. Although a majority of career lawyers rejected Republican backed redistricting plans in Mississippi and Texas, political appointees overruled them and precleared the plans. The Texas and Mississippi redistricting plans have since been implemented, to the tremendous benefit of the GOP. (The Supreme Court has recently agreed to hear a series of cases in which Democrats, blacks, and Latinos argue that the Texas redistricting plan and the manner in which it was implemented violate the Voting Rights Act.) Political appointees also overruled career attorneys when they rejected the 2005 Georgia Voter ID law - passed by the Republican majority in the state legislature - as retrogressive. A federal appeals court later struck down the law, arguing that it would reduce blacks' access to the franchise. African Americans in Texas, Mississippi, and Georgia vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party.

The Bush Justice Department's subversion of the preclearance process has been paralleled by a steep decline in voting rights enforcement. In the five years since Mr. Bush assumed office, the Civil Rights Division has brought suit in only three cases under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act - the provision that prohibits states and municipalities from enacting voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in a covered language minority group - all of them in 2005. This drop in Section 2 enforcement comes at a time when Republican "voter integrity" initiatives, aimed at purging African Americans from the voter rolls and intimidating blacks at the polls, are on the rise. In one of the three voting rights cases that the Bush Justice Department has brought in the last five years, it has inverted the voting rights universe by seeking to protect white voters from blacks - in Mississippi no less. In February 2005, the DOJ sued the black leadership of the Noxubee County, Mississippi Democratic Party claiming that they had conspired to deprive white county voters of their rights under the Voting Rights Act. Nearly all of the whites in the county are Republicans and all of the blacks Democrats. The case resulted in a consent degree between the black Democratic leadership of the County and the Justice Department. The Noxubee County case was the first in history in which the Justice Department used the Voting Rights Act to protect white voters against blacks.

Dissatisfied with the turn in voting and civil rights enforcement under President Bush, fully 20% of the career attorneys in the Civil Rights Division - people who consider themselves non-partisan stewards of the Voting Rights Act - have quit their jobs in the past year.

What the Bush Administration is doing is not new. Since 1981, the Republican Party has adopted a strategy of suppressing the black vote in closely contested states in order to win elected office. The political calculus is simple: For the past forty years, blacks have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in statewide and presidential elections, and Democrats have required high black turnout to win closely contested elections, particularly in the South. One way to ensure Republican victories in closely contested states, then, is to suppress the black vote. Thus, for the past twenty-five years, Republican Party functionaries and Republican Departments of Justice have administered "vote integrity" and "vote security" initiatives aimed at purging blacks from the rolls and intimidating those that come to the polls. More recently, the Bush 2000 and 2004 campaigns have worked with Republican Secretaries of State - Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 are the most noteworthy examples - to create voting system crises where large numbers of newly registered blacks are anticipated at the polls. The results have been a lack of voting machines in high turnout precincts resulting in long lines that act as a disincentive to vote, understaffed election helplines that lead to busy signals for voters and election workers, arbitrary election administration rulings that disqualify prospective black voters, and a number of other preventable problems that disproportionately effect new black voters. Once in office, the Bush Administration simply enlisted the Justice Department, Civil Rights Division in this ongoing campaign.

This and previous Administrations have been able to systematically subvert and circumvent the Voting Rights Act in its present form. It costs Mr. Bush little, then, to endorse reauthorization without amendment. In fact, it makes an Administration that has been consistently hostile to black voting rights appear supportive of those rights.

African Americans should demand far more than simple reauthorization. We need to look seriously at how the VRA can be amended to prevent the voter suppression and dilution strategies used by Republicans for the past twenty-five years. A number of suggestions for amendment have been offered up and we would do well to explore their worth. For instance, Heather Gerken of Harvard University has suggested that Section 5 be amended to require judicial review of preclearance rulings by the Civil Rights Division. Mandatory judicial review, she suggests, would place a check on any Administration's attempts to use the preclearance process to further its own political ends. The Sentencing Project has argued that Congress needs to amend the VRA to outlaw felon disfranchisement. Currently, 13% of African American males are prevented from voting by state laws denying the vote to convicted felons who have served their time. Such an amendment would be equally beneficial to white ex-felons, several million of whom are denied the vote by state felon disfranchisement laws. There is no dearth of information on how to plug the holes in voting rights enforcement, only the will to do so.

African Americans, and indeed all Americans concerned with the integrity of our democracy, must demand that our representatives in Congress find a way to plug the gaping holes in current statute and enforcement. Reauthorization without strengthening amendments will only open the door to continued voter suppression and dilution. Mr. Bush, no doubt, is keenly aware of this fact.

I do not subscribe to conspiracy theories and other accusations that are much ado about nothing.

I will keep posting information as I check it from time to time, and some of you can keep explaining it away if you are hellbent on doing so no matter what is revealed.

I do not subscribe to conspiracy theories and other accusations that are much ado about nothing. I scanned through your links and did not see anything concrete in any of them to indicate fraud, beyond speculation and innuendo. If you have something specific that has been proven, please try again if you wish. I recall the accusations of hindering voting in Florida was officially investigated and nothing was found. I do recall an effort by the Democrats to not count legitimate military votes.

Your post is disgraceful. You are in denial about the methods of the Bulshevik administration to subvert the democratic political process and you ignore plain and simple facts because they undermine your political positions. That is called hypocrisy.

As to the 2000 election, I call you on your bull$hit Your recollection is typically, false. Many overseas military ballots were post marked after the date of the election and legally were not to be counted. The Gore/Lieberman team decided not to contest them.

If you state such again you are lying

Considering J. C. Watts must be fully aware of what his father stood for, perhaps you should consider why J. C. Watts believes what he does today. The Democratic Party is not the same party it once was. The Democrats are deathly afraid that many more blacks will discover this, that the party of today does not in fact stand for the same things they stand for, as J. C. Watts apparently has.

JC Watts? Haven't you heard? He admitted that a prime reason he was leaving the House of Representatives was because blacks were making no headway with the GOP in Congress. He is a token black the GOP likes to parade out along with Rice, Powell and Blackburn of Ohio to make it look like the GOP is not the party of race-baiting and racism.

Provide proof that even one legal voter was denied or blocked from voting. I don't want propaganda or opinion based on vague accusations.