Martin Luther King, Jr. is a personal hero of mine. He embodies everything Christianity means to me -- that there is no path to peace; peace is the path. He changed history with love and compassion, not hate and aggression. It's a lesson we too easily forget.
The pathetic truth is that conservatives seem to be willing to overlook the fact that she was blatently dishonest, and lied(aluminum tubes really only have one use). Not only did she lie, she did so to try and justify a war. It is pathetic that somebody who lies for the opposite of peace is seen as fulfilling King's dream. I don't care what her race is. As was mentioned earlier I will fulfill King's words and judge her by her character and not the color of her skin. She lied and has been dishonest in order to go to war.
Difference is the NAACP is about equal rights for black people while Evangelicals are about telling everybody else how to live. They're not matched causes. NAACP says blacks should be equal, Evangelicals say think like us or go to Hell. Not exactly even. If the D's and R's are pandering to those two groups, I'll take the NAACP every time. They just want to be treated right; they're not telling everybody else how to live.
basso: It is incredible to me that a self espoused social liberal like yourself would call out Barbara Boxer. If you said 'I agree with Boxer on social stuff, but I'm for Bush cause I'm all scared of terrorists,' that'd be one thing, but for you to whine about Barbara Boxer when she's the only Democrat showing spine on things that matter.... At best you're a fair weather friend to things you swear you care about. At worst you're as cynical as anyone in your party. Either way you're weak as hell. That was an unnecessary dig and it earned you my disrespect at least.
didn't realize your disrespect was something that needed to be earned, but i'm glad my efforts have paid off! i made the boxer comment because i think she's being incredibly small minded and petty in her opposition to rice. and rice's life certainly embodies much of what dr. king spoke about. did you read the opening graph? rice was a childhood friend of one of the little girls who was killed in the church bombing. for her to grow up to be secretary of state is remarkable. i personally think most liberals have forgotton about the concept of "loyal opposition" and a process that began w/ al gore's disgraceful, in the full meaning of that word, one that completely lacked grace, performance in the aftermath of the florida debacle, and continued w/ the DNP's full-tilt character assasination during the presidential race this year, has resulted in a party that is utterly devoid of any sense of fair play. knock yourself out- you , and your party clearly still do not "get it," and if the boxer rebellion continues to be the public face of the party, the democrats will only continue to be marginalized on the national political scene, and you'll wake up in four years asking "Hey, Wha' Happen?"
I strangely find myself agreeing with basso Rice has acheived a lot as far as what she has done, and though in my opinion she has been not very good for the US as an NSA; she at least put in the time and got the resume to put herself in that position. As I said months before, while it's somewhat annoying that somebody whose main attribute was loyalty in spite of truth is rewarded with a plum spot like SoS, now that the Dep't has been rendered irrelevant and foreign policy is made by Rumsfield, Cheney & co, she can't really do much harm sitting in her office in foggy bottom. EDIT; should add that I agree with part of his initial sentiment, not the silly red-baiting thing. Al Gore had a right to be upset, in any event his speech from last year about the environment and the rape thereof coupled with the Admin's enabling of it was one of the most powerful speeches I have ever heard, and it was not just rhetoric, it was backed by hard facts. He gets labelled as a disgrace by the same folks who touted the shameful Swift Boat Liars for months and months? Or who stood up and cheered Zell Miller's deliberately misleading hate filled missives? Basso, you've got no grounds, none, zero, rien, nada, to complain about character assassination when you were poring over maps of the Mekong delta for most of last year.
The irony absolutely drips off of this paragraph considering that the "process" you claim to despise began (in my eyes) during Ken Starr's witchhunt. In addition, the RNC was EASILY as guilty of "character assasination," particularly in this last election cycle. If the GOP had showed anything even remotely approaching "loyal opposition" during Clinton's presidency, I would be squarely on your side here, but it appears that you have a case of selective perception.
I'm not saying this to start an argument, but why does it seem like most of the powerful black people in America are Republicans? Is it just me? Is that kind of ironic?
Common sense! Republicans will always want a person of color to share their views to make it look like they are not against (racist isnt the word to use) but want said group to be apart of them. Bottom line, we all know they (Condi, Colin) are TOKEN. Hate to use that term but it is the truth. Colin Powell is leaving the administration in my opinion because he is kinda being asked to be blindly loyal to things he think is wrong. His loyalty wont let him say anything negative about the administration. He is gonna be the bigger man in all of this and quietly ease his way out. What happens is, you put 1 or 2 miniorities in high places to get yourself out of being label Racist. <----- Racist is truly the wrong word to use here, because they arent racist, but they do want to be seen as more tolerant to other races. Its the reason why at work, I keep my mouth closed when politics are talked about. I dont want my views to cost me my raise. Half the time I agree with my bosses to give of the essence's that I am "One of them" It helps my review every year. My father taught me, you have to play the game to get ahead in life. Just the way it is....
This is incredibly insulting to Condi and Colin. Just because they happen to be Republican doesn't mean they are "token" and don't deserve their places in the administration. Have you seen their resumes? They are REMARKABLE. It's funny how blacks have fought for equal opportunities in politics, yet when Republicans put them into high ranking positions, suddenly it doesn't really "count" since they're not "good blacks". Awful, awful, awful post, u851662. To say that Republicans simply put these people into their positions to avoid being called racist is about the most disgusting thing I've heard in a long while. You automatically assume that Condi and Colin aren't worthy of the positions? Not even worth debating. Simply disgusting.
I don't understand what Boxer did wrong. Condi is the one who was dishonest, and Boxer used only facts to point that out. Yet it is Boxer who should get the blame? Perhaps Condi's rise might be some of the embodiment of King's dream. But her actions are anything but the embodiment of King's dream. She lied, and she did so to go to war. That does not seem to follow the dream of a man who stood for non-violence. It is a strange time in politics when the person who lied and was dishonest is defended, while the person who pointed out her dishonesty is attacked as being vicious. It was not Boxer who impuned Rice's integrity. It was Rice's dishonesty that impuned her integrity. She made her bed, and now she has to lie in it. If her supporters can't take the facts about Rice being brought to the public, then the political world might be a little too rough and tumble for them.
She is being attacked because she was dishonest. She isn't being attacked because she is a black Republican. Remove the dishonesty and she won't be attacked. As for their Resume's they wouldn't exist without affirmitive action. That is sad that affirmitive action was needed. But it was Jimmy Carter's affirmitive action bid that Collin Powell started on the path he was on. He was chosen from the affirmitive action pool from Carter's presidency. It isn't disgusting that liberals are disgusted by Rices dishonesty. It might be disgusting that others want to attack a person for bringing up that dishonesty.
