TYT on Racism and the GOP

Some good stuff from TYT:

Fox News Host on Hip Hop murders:

Firefighters, New Haven, & 4 Judges

The case was white people who didn’t want to give raises to other white people!  This is not even a story – not really (not a good one, certainly).  Here’s how our tale goes:

The city council of New Haven, which is 100% white, decided to throw away their test.  This pisses off all the mostly white plaintiffs (one plaintiff was Hispanic).  The mostly-white plaintiffs sue the city.  The court examines the case, determines that no laws have been broken, and rules in favor of the all-white city council.  The city does not have to give out the raises. 

The case is appealled and this time a panel of judges rules in favor of the city council.  At this point, 4 out of 4 judges have reviewed the case and found that no laws were broken. 

Now as a result, one of the 4 judges is “clearly a racist”, as the story is told by Republican writers, talk-show hosts, and bloggers.  Every time the ball doesn’t bounce their way, they’re playing the Race Card.  “Oh, it’s so hard to be white.  A white man can’t get a break.” 

Republicans and their racism….all the time. 

 The question to the court is “Does this city have the legal right to change its test and/or deny promotions”. If someone doesn’t have that straight, they’re either aiming to distort the truth, or they’re confused.

The ruling by the court was that by the law – as its written by the legislators: the city of New Haven did not violate any statutes.

1. The city didn’t want to give them the promotion.
2. The plaintiffs sued and the court said:  No laws broken.  The city has the legal right to deny the promotion.
3. Next….In the appellate court, a 3-judge panel agreed with (1) the city and (2) the ruling by the first court.

This judge didn’t swoop in and deny promotions. The city pulled the test, the 1st court backed the city. Then a team of judges backed the 1st court, which backed the city. This is a non-story.  Republicans, you can go back to burning science books. 

Abigail Thernstrom seems to have mis-understood what the court was ruling on.  But as a member of the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute, it’s not surprising that she’s prattling on about how white people are losing power and other races are ruining America and how much better it was in the 50’s.

Diversity & Democrats

All in all – we do have 2 viable presidential candidates to illustrate that diversity is by and large accepted by the great majority of Democrats.  Turnout at elections has been record-setting.  So for the largest percentile, the Democratic voters appear to accept diversity.  The race for the highest office in the country is no longer limited only to white men.  Eventually, the conservatives will be dragged along with us – as they were with suffrage and desegregation. 

 

 In this discussion, the question is: Should Hillary discourage the votes of racists? 
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/05/21/ec.seg.gergen.cnn 

Church & State?

Girl, 6, thrown on fire for being ‘lowest class’

Want prayer in school, intelligent design, and other mergers of church & state?  Try Afghanistan where women aren’t allowed to read or go out after dark.  Try out India and enjoy that theocracy:

 http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/30/india.caste/index.html 

 A man [late teens], incensed that a 6-year-old girl chose to walk through a path reserved for upper caste villagers, pushed her into burning embers.

Hindus believe there are five main groups of people, four of which sprang from the body of the first man.  Dalits are considered so low in the social order that they don’t even rank among the four classes that make up the caste system.

“Dalits are seen to pollute higher caste people if they come in touch with them, hence the ‘untouchables,’. If a higher caste Hindu is touched by, or even had a Dalit’s shadow fall across them, they consider themselves to be polluted and have to go through a rigorous series of rituals to be cleansed.”

 

I’m happy I was born into your relatively nice life here, b/c I could have been born a Dalit. 

Teach your kids religion and faith at home, that’s YOUR job.  The state should not be teaching children about faith and spirituality.