It's not the 60's anymore

Yet another reason I hate Georgia: As if the abundance of ignorant white folks isn't torture enough, GA lends itself quite well to black scare-mongering. You'd think there was a march every week, yeesh...

Thousands of demonstrators streamed down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive chanting, singing and marching Saturday in support of extending the 40-year-old Voting Rights Act. Organizers said they hope the "Keep the Vote Alive" march will pressure Congress and President Bush to extend key provisions of the landmark law, which expires in 2007.

"Forty years later, we're still marching for the right to vote," said U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who participated in the civil rights struggles that helped secure passage of the law in 1965. "Don't give up, don't give in. Keep the faith, keep your eyes on the prize."

What an impressive stream of cliches!

The current state of black politics shows exactly what happens when a good thing is left sitting too long and it gets moldy. Take Georgia itself for example: Almost every day on the local news, I hear stories about corruption & incompetance at all levels of Georgia government, and I cringe when the face shown on the screen ends up being another high-powered black who's overstayed their usefulness. Inmates in metro Atlanta area jails are just walking out, streets are caving in, bribes are being made, all kinds of things just plain fall apart, yet it usually seems to get swept aside when it involves a black official. Why? Because there's a mentality being endorsed here that blacks cannot be held responsible, for fear of stirring racist sentiment -- it's considered "good enough" that they're black, even if they're incompetant.

Thanks to racial gerrymandering, there's crazy-shaped districts designed to ensure a black candidate -- any black candidate -- wins. But obviously nothing is without its tradeoffs, so they end up being untouchable. All they have to do to stay in power is scream about being persecuted whenever anyone criticizes them: "It's a vast white conspiracy! I was framed!"

Of course, if I said this in public I'd be called a "sellout", as if thinking results are more important than emotion means you're carrying water for Whitey. How does that make sense at all? They see hate around every corner and rush to shield even the sleaziest of politician types out of some notion of "racial solidarity", yet have the NERVE to call ME the self-hating negro?

Listen here: prejudice still exists, of course, but if you think that the US in 2005 is no better than an era when we were beaten to death by angry mobs simply for attempting to vote & arrested for so much as drinking from the wrong water fountain, you are delusional. These days, open racism is offensive, and much of what were racial issues in the past are now more based on class than anything. The most important thing for minorities to place emphasis on is economic self-sufficiency, get on it.

Oh yeah, it wouldn't be race-baiting without Jesse Jackson...

Activists also used the rally to protest Georgia's recently passed voter identification law, which critics call the most restrictive in the country.

If that bill is approved by the Department of Justice, Jackson warned on Friday, it could "spread like a virus" to other states. Rainbow/PUSH is among a list of objectors that have urged the Department of Justice not to approve the law.

I hope it does actually. Vote fraud isn't cool...

Has the sky fallen?

When it comes to the "intelligent design" garbage, Rick "bible up the arse" Santorum makes more sense than President Bush???

A leading Republican senator allied with the religious right differed on Thursday with President Bush's support for teaching an alternative to the theory of evolution known as "intelligent design."

Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, a possible 2008 presidential contender who faces a tough re-election fight next year in Pennsylvania, said intelligent design, which is backed by many religious conservatives, lacked scientific credibility and should not be taught in science classes...."I think I would probably tailor that a little more than what the president has suggested," Santorum, the third-ranking Republican member of the U.S. Senate, told National Public Radio. "I'm not comfortable with intelligent design being taught in the science classroom."

I'm shocked...

Deja vu

Rhenquist has been hospitalized yet again:

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, was taken to the hospital with a fever on Thursday, the second emergency treatment for the 80-year-old ailing justice in two months. Rehnquist, who has cancer, had been taken by ambulance to Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., in July and admitted for observation and tests.

I understand him being offended at all the "when is he quiting" buzz, but this is ridiculous. Step down already, I don't care if it creates more trouble w/ another court appointment, expiring on the bench isn't worth it to anyone but historians.

You did your job, thank you, go home.

Big Brother Without Borders

Apparently not being a US resident isn't enough to escape US law:

Marc Emery, Canada's most prominent pro-marijuana activist, is facing the possibility of life imprisonment in the United States for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet to U.S. customers.

In a stunning development, RCMP officers arrested the self-proclaimed “Prince of Pot” in Halifax yesterday after a U.S. federal grand jury indicted him on charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.

The charges stem from Mr. Emery's lucrative sale of marijuana seeds, an activity he has carried on from his Vancouver base with minimal legal penalty for 10 years.


But of course, this being a "War on Drugs" thing, the footsoldiers of our government have to mug for the cameras...

Special Agent Rodney Benson of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency said Mr. Emery, 47, has distributed millions of cannabis seeds to U.S. customers over the years, earning as much as $3-million annually. “I am pleased to announce that he is out of business as of today,” Mr. Benson told a Seattle news conference. “His overblown arrogance and abuse of the rule of law will no longer be on display. Like other drugs, marijuana harms the innocents.”

Oh, really Rodney? How many cases of stoned guys beatng the hell out of their wife/girlfriend/children have YOU heard about? Take a smoke and think about that one...

It makes your soul burn slow...

Tim West dishes out a well deserved Ether towards the Libertarian (non)Party.

I'm not going to quote it, that'd be an insult. Read the whole thing.

What's in a name?

The military of Mauritania, taking advantage of their president's attendance at King Fahd's funeral, shows us that even the serious things in life can be chuckle-inducing:

A group of army officers in Mauritania has announced the overthrow of President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya.

The group identified itself as the Military Council for Justice and Democracy and announced the coup in a statement run by the state news agency on Wednesday.

“The armed forces and security forces have unanimously decided to put an end to the totalitarian practices of the deposed regime under which our people have suffered much over the last several years,” the statement said. The group said it would exercise power for two years to allow time to put in place democratic institutions.

LOL @ that name....
It's like having a group called "Porn-Stars for Abstinence".

Other information, some hinting that this could be more important than it looks at first, is available here.

Sports: the big mirror

The opinions people hold on sports can tell you a lot about them as a person. For a benign example, take a view of my own:
My favorite basketball player currently is Ben Wallace, a player that rarely scores but excels at defense & rebounding, things that don't attract much attention in popular culture, since most people almost unfailingly enjoy the flashy superstars that do the abundance of shooting. This suggests that I would value modesty and a blue-collar work ethic more than most folks.

Another example would be President Bush on baseball. During his State of the Union address, he found steroid use in the pros to be such an important issue that it warranted government attention. Now, regardless of whether this was appropriate (I obviously feel it was not), such a statement would at least give off a sense one cares about "playing fair" -- that is, when not said by a politician...

Watch what he says when one of his former players tests positive for steroids:

"Rafael Palmeiro is a friend. He testified in public and I believe him," Bush said, referring to Palmeiro's denials under oath to a congressional committee on March 17. "He's the kind of person that's going to stand up in front of the klieg lights and say he didn't use steroids, and I believe him. Still do."

This shows instead that he is a hypocrite that immediately goes into denial when one of his friends screws up.

As goes sports, so goes the nation unfortunately...

....and nothing changes

The King of Saudi Arabia finally passed on:

King Fahd, the country's absolute monarch since 1983 until he was debilitated by a 1995 stroke, died early Monday after nearly two months in a Riyadh hospital at the age of 84.

The mechanism of succession moved quickly along tracks laid down long before: Abdullah, 81, stepped in as king, while Fahd's brother, Defence Minister Prince Sultan, 77, took up the position of crown prince and next in line to the throne.

Since he was pretty much dead 10 years ago, I have no idea why this is being played up as some earth-shattering event.

Let's take another hit...

On Howard Dean's goofyness, that is. This latest departure from reality, concerning the Kelo ruling, is being passed around joint style:

“The president and his right-wing Supreme Court think it is ‘okay’ to have the government take your house if they feel like putting a hotel where your house is,” Dean said, not mentioning that until he nominated John Roberts to the Supreme Court this week, Bush had not appointed anyone to the high court."

Funny he says this, since it was actually the right-wingers on the bench that opposed it, w/ the liberal bloc ruling into favor of the government handing over your property to whoever they think they can get more tax money out of.

I envision a sub-40 Senate minority if the Dems don't tell him to shut up and raise money. He's not running for another office now, why the campaign-style rhetoric?