Day: April 20, 2010

Arizona And Hispanic Discrimination

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Arizona has had many problems with the constantly growing drug war conducted by the Mexican drug cartels along its borders, along with the illegal immigration influx, which led to the death of a rancher recently, supposedly by an illegal immigrant who escaped across the border.

It is understandable that the citizens of Arizona are alarmed about these matters, but that does not justify the new law about to be signed by Governor Jan Brewer, which allows racial profiling, the stopping of anyone by the police on pure whim, and the demand for proof of legal citizenship.

This is a denial of basic civil liberties, making everyone who looks at all Hispanic a marked person, who law enforcement has the right to question and intimidate just based upon appearance.

If this is not fought in the courts, it will spread across the country as a means to fight illegal immigration in an extremely discriminatory matter! How can Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl justify this in any shape or form? 🙁

Arizona is quickly, by this action, and the recent signed gun law that allows anyone to carry a hidden weapon without a permit, becoming a state that will carry a negative image that will match the horrible reputation that Mississippi and Alabama carried on the issue of civil rights in the 1960s! Is that what the good, fair minded citizens of Arizona want? 🙁

Civil Rights Pioneer Dorothy Height Passes Away At 98: A Truly Elegant Lady!

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Dorothy Height, often considered the Godmother of the Civil Rights movement, the only woman on the stage when Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have A Dream” speech in August, 1963, died peacefully this morning at age 98.

Involved in the fight for civil rights for 80 years, she was always in the forefront ever since the author was a young man, and she always impressed with her elegance, her wisdom, her dignity, and her humanity!

She headed the National Council of Negro Women for a long time, and was intimately committed to every civil rights cause for many decades, and demonstrated tremendous courage and foresight in all of her public appearances and activities!

Dorothy Height will go down as possibly the single most significant woman in the civil rights crusade, and did a great deal to promote the rights of women in general, whether African American, Caucasian, or any other race!

May she rest in peace and be always commemorated for her great contributions! 🙂

Free Speech Gone Amuck: Animal Cruelty Videos Declared Acceptable! :(

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The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, but lately, the concept has been distorted by the Supreme Court.

First, in January, in the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court, 5-4, declared corporations were persons who had the right to spend as much money on political campaigns as anyone, because that was freedom of speech. That decision has come under fire as allowing corporate intervention in campaigns without any limits, therefore manipulating and corrupting the political system. Legislation is being planned to modify this outrageous decision!

Now the Supreme Court today, by the astounding vote of 8-1, all but Samuel Alito, have decided that animal cruelty videos, such as dog fighting, is acceptable freedom of speech and it is not a crime to create or sell such videos!

It is hard to believe that all of the liberal justices went along with permitting abuse of animals as acceptable freedom of speech, and that Alito, a strong conservative, did the proper thing by opposing it, a sign of courage. For Alito to be separate from Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and John Roberts on a decision is rare, indeed, so he should be saluted on this particular case, although generally one is not very impressed by him overall.

Is the next case on freedom of speech to allow no prosecution of people who produce and sell videos showing abuse of women or children, or even the real life killing of unfortunate victims, what is called “snuff” videos?

Don’t we have the right to say that there are some limits on freedom of speech when it promotes disgusting, sick behavior that can cause the desire to reproduce it in real time by children and others who are introduced to such despicable conduct? 🙁

Senator John McCain Abandons Florida Governor Charlie Crist: Despicable! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

Senator John McCain is continuing to demonstrate that he has changed dramatically from the “maverick” he once claimed to be!

Always seen as a man of principle, he has now decided that with Governor Charlie Crist down in the polls in the Florida Republican Senate primary race with former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, he will abandon the man who had more effect on him winning the Florida Presidential primary in 2008 than anyone else, and therefore, promoted him for the GOP Presidential nomination!

Apparently, McCain does not believe in loyalty to those who endorsed and worked their heart out for him for President! He is running scared in his own primary against conservative J. D. Hayworth in Arizona, and realize that Hayworth is supported by the same Tea Party activists who are backing Rubio in Florida. He is out to save his own neck, and therefore is very willing to throw Crist overboard! This is disgraceful behavior! 🙁

The irony will be that McCain may very well lose his primary, and I suppose then he will back Hayworth for his Senate seat, huh? Meanwhile, it is likely that Charlie Crist will run as an independent, and have a decent shot at winning the Senate race in Florida in a three way race with Rubio and Kendrick Meek, the Democratic Congressman from Miami.

This attack on the part of the GOP establishment, including the total abandonment of Crist by the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, is a sign of just how far to the right the Republicans have gone, and it should be alarming to mainstream Republicans who know the tradition of the party as one which had outstanding moderate leaders throughout its history!

Any sympathy one might have for McCain in his tough Senate primary is now lost, as he deserves to be defeated by the very extremist movement which is destroying the mainstream tradition of the Republican Party!

True justice would be that McCain loses, and somehow, Charlie Crist triumphs in his Senate race as an independent! But were that to happen, would the GOP welcome Crist in their Senate caucus? That is hard to imagine, so it may be that he would caucus with the Democrats and give a final kick in the rear end to the party that abandoned him for a right wing extremist! Rubio condemned the Governor for accepting with thanks the economic stimulus that Florida so desperately needed in 2009, and cannot, unfortunately, count upon in 2010, and certainly not beyond, if it is left up to the Florida Republican party and its Tea Party followers, led by Marco Rubio.

It can be hoped that the Republicans in Florida  lose seats in the legislature after trying to destroy education in the state, and for Crist to win and ally with the Democrats and do what is good for the state of Florida in the future! Do not underestimate the potential of Charlie Crist!