Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Tidbits from the Times: G.O.P. bid for Black votes fails and bat weilding racist gets 15
Well, although it was a day when the old Grey Lady announced it was laying off 150 people and trimming the size of the paper by 11%, thankfully there was space for a couple of good news stories, definitely fit to print.
Story 1: G.O.P's bid for Black Votes falters
Although I thought the Good Ol' Party had a chance with Black voters by appealing to the our conservative streak - in particular the gay marriage issue. But, then Katrina happened and we had to watch in horror as Black people died and Brownie did a "heck of a job" ignoring the crisis; and Bush's mama made that crazy statement while touring the refugee camps of houston "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."
Well, the same can't be said of the G.O.P. bid for Black votes. According to the article in today's New York Times.
Story 2: Bat-wielding racist gets 15 years for hate crimes
Story 1: G.O.P's bid for Black Votes falters
Although I thought the Good Ol' Party had a chance with Black voters by appealing to the our conservative streak - in particular the gay marriage issue. But, then Katrina happened and we had to watch in horror as Black people died and Brownie did a "heck of a job" ignoring the crisis; and Bush's mama made that crazy statement while touring the refugee camps of houston "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."
Well, the same can't be said of the G.O.P. bid for Black votes. According to the article in today's New York Times.
Mr. Mehlman’s much-publicized apology to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People seems to have done little to address the resentment that built up over what civil rights leaders view as decades of racial politics practiced or countenanced by Republicans. One example they point to is the first President Bush’s use of the escape of Willie Horton, a black convicted murderer, to portray his Democratic opponent in the 1988 election, Michael S. Dukakis, as soft on crime.
That perception of Republicans as insensitive to racial issues was fed again by the opposition mounted by some House conservatives to an extension of the Voting Rights Act. The House approved the extension last week.
Story 2: Bat-wielding racist gets 15 years for hate crimes
Nicholas Minucci, 20, who was convicted last month of a hate crime in the beating and robbery of a black man in Howard Beach last year, was sentenced to 15 years in jail today.
Mr. Minucci’s “words and actions and the very nature of the crime send out a deplorable message of intolerance and exclusion which impacts us all,” said Justice Richard L. Buchter, who could have sentenced Mr. Minucci to as few as 8 years, or as many as 25 years. “The fact that the crimes were committed as hate crimes makes them far more repugnant and deserving of an enhanced punishment.”
