Politiks As Usual: In The News 7/11/11

Obama, GOP Plan Another Day Of Deficit-Reduction Talks

Plouffe Plays Down The Economy, Romney Says Get Rid Of Him

Ban On Affirmative Action In Michigan Struck Down

Cisco Vendor Fired For Writing Book Against Same-Sex Marriage

Tim Pawlenty: Bachmann's Congressional Accomplishments Are "Nonexistent"

Hollywood Celebrities Perform Fake PSA Encouraging Casual Sex Facebook Status

NY Archbishop Warns: 'Next Step Will Be Another Redefinition To Justify Multiple Partners..."

Politics vs. Reality

Sarah Palin On Cover Of Newsweek: 'I Can Win'

Angry Tea Party Stirring Up GOP Revolt 


The Great Madness Of 2004-2010

Politiks As Usual: In The News 1/24/11

Left Wing Climate Of Hate And Assassination

Colin Powell: Obama Still Has Work To Do

FBI: Woman Who Raised Stolen NY Baby Held In Conn.

Does The NFL Still Need The 'Rooney Rule'?

The Philadelphia Horror

The Fight To Give Educational Choices To Poor Dc Children

Skins: A New Low, Even For MTV; More Advertisers Pull Out

Rick Santorum: Why Would Obama Deny Human Rights To An Unborn Child

2nd Grade Teacher Suspended After Reports Of Classroom Sex

Gov. Robert Bentley Apologizes For Remarks On Christians

Former Rep. Bob Barr: Haiti Is Worse Now Than Under Duvalier; Show Me The Money, Haiti

Norm Coleman: GOP Outreach To Hispanics 'Tough Sell'

Politiks As Usual: In The News 8/3/09

Obama Administration May Create Military-Civilian Terror Prison

Clunker Car Rebates Will Stop Unless Senate Acts

Obama Joker Poster Popping Up In Los Angeles

Dear Abby, Is There Any 'Lifestyle' You Won't Embrace?

The Real Affirmative Action Babies

Obama's Science Czar Said A Born Baby 'Will Ultimately Develop Into A Human Being'

Pro-Family Forces Submit Challenges To Maine 'Gay Marriage'

Truce Between O'Reilly And Olbermann?

Here Comes The ACLU! Bible As Textbook Ignites Firestorm

Are Western Leaders Stupid Or Malicious In Letting Iran Go Nuclear?

Utah Court Upholds Mother's Rights Over Former Lesbian Partner

Jobless Graduate Sues NYC College For Tuition Fees

Rachel Maddow Pwnes Pat Buchanan

This one is too easy. But what's even funnier is that for all the GOP hysteria over Sotomayor, the woman may actually end up benefiting conservatives moreso than the Left. I mean, just look at her record.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 8/11/08

Barack Obama Hints At Possible New Affirmative Action Focus

Actor, Comedian Bernie Mac Dies At 50, Soul Legend Isaac Hayes Passes Away At 65

John Edwards Ex-Mistress Rejects DNA Test On Paternity

Aide: John McCain Eyeing Joe Lieberman As VP

Leftwing Group Plans Campaign To Intimidate Conservative Donors

Prominent UK Gay Activist Admits There Is No Gay Gene

Black Politics? You Mean Liberal Politics

Clintons Try To Prove They Want Obama To Win

Russia Pushes Deeper Into Georgia

NYTimes: Edwards Scandal Not Our Style, Unproven McCain Affair Is

John McCain Ignorantly Supports Ban On Affirmative Action

Boston Globe:

John McCain said yesterday that he supports a proposed ballot initiative in his home state that would prohibit affirmative action policies in state and local governments. A decade ago, he called a similar effort "divisive."

Over the years, McCain has consistently voiced his opposition to hiring quotas based on race. He has supported affirmative action in limited cases. For example, he voted to maintain a program that encourages the awarding of 10 percent of spending on highway construction to women and minorities.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," the Republican presidential candidate said he supports the effort to get a referendum on the ballot in Arizona that would end affirmative action.

This is where John McCain and I strongly disagree. As long as racism exists and there is discrimination in the workplace as well as within the walls of education, affirmative action remains a necessary to overcome class and racial ignorance. Statistics on the lack of diversity in corporate America and the news media especially back up the fact that minorities and women are not being given the same opportunities as their while, male counterparts. What's also needed is for politicians, in particular, to educate themselves about the difference between AA and quotas as many on the far Right, who fervently oppose AA, have exploited the issue by blurring the lines of its intent. Quotas, that is, forcing employers to hire folks strictly based on their race, is flat-out wrong. AA is about fairness and opportunity, not forced diversity that'll create resentment amongst candidates, much less place unqualified folks in positions they have no right being in.

In Major League Baseball, Commissioner Bud Selig instituted a policy not too long ago that mandates that baseball owners interview at least one minority when hiring managers, general managers and other executive posts, it's not a perfect solution, but it's a step in the right direction for a sport that has far more diversity on the playing field than within the walls of the higher-ups. Perhaps, instead of pandering to the Limbaugh Right, McCain should contact Selig to get an idea as to what AA is really about. Granted McCain isn't going to win the black vote no matter what he does, but considering his past history in voting against creating a holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. (which McCain later admitted was dumb on his part), there's no need to re-antagonizing a base that holds affirmative action dear, and rightfully so.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 7/28/08

Barack Wants A VP Who'll Say When He's Wrong

2nd Victim Dies In Tennessee Unitarian Church Shooting

The Ten Commandments For Classy Girls

Supporter Of Bill Clinton's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Gets Policy Abused By House

Sex Selective Abortions Happening On Wide Scale In United States

Obama's Trip: No Bounce, No Flags, No Wounded Soldiers

The Left's Answer To Rush Limbaugh: Black Talk Radio

House Approves Sweeping Effort To Help Housing

Iran Hangs 29 Drug Traffickers, Murderers, Rapists

Climate Cops?!?

Did John McCain Flip-Flop On Affirmative Action?

Bush Should Strip Sanctuary Cities Of Federal Funds

Where's The Right-Wing Outrage For Nikita Rau?

Far-right extremists like Michelle Malkin and LaShawn Barber love to throw hissyfits concerning their want to get rid of affirmative action (so much that you know that they're both just salivating waiting for the Supreme Court's upcoming decision concerning two cases involving AA). Their moans and groans are usually accompanied by any story they can find of a white person/corporate or educational entity supposedly "suffering" in the face that great, big monster known as the AA bogeyman (then too, especially in the case of Ms. Barber, we're reminded again and again about how Blacks have and continue to benefit so much from AA, which is a flat-out lie). But what happens when a "minority" becomes a "victim" of affirmative action due to, of all things, a quota meant to benefits whites? Not a single word so far from Malkin or LaShawn. Any wonder why it's so easy to paint them each as nothing but self-hating xenophobes?

A Brooklyn mother and father got the shock of their lives when school officials informed them their brilliant 11-year-old girl was denied admission to an elite public school - solely because she's of Indian descent.

"I feel bad because I would have gotten in if I was white," Nikita Rau lamented over her failed bid to attend the Mark Twain School, IS 239, in Coney Island, a magnet school for gifted students.

It turns out Mark Twain - unlike all but one other city public school - admits students according to racial quotas established in 1974 by a federal judge who ordered the school's desegregation.

Under those quotas - which originally were intended to boost minority enrollment - 60 percent of Mark Twain's student body is set aside for white students, while 40 percent is set aside for minorities.

"This country believes in racial equality, and we should not face this in America," said Nikita's dad, Dr. Anjan Rau, a Bay Ridge resident who emigrated from India in 1982. "I think it's morally wrong!

Harriet Miers supports Affirmative Action

So says this article from the Washington Post:

As president of the State Bar of Texas, Harriet Miers wrote that "our legal community must reflect our population as a whole," and under her leadership the organization embraced racial and gender set-asides and set numerical targets to achieve that goal.The S upreme Court nominee's words and actions from the early 1990s, when she held key leadership positions as president-elect and president of the state bar, provide the first window into her personal views on affirmative action, an area in which the Supreme Court is closely divided and where Miers could tip the court's balance.....To some conservatives, the types of policies pursued by the Texas bar association amount to reverse discrimination. ...

Miers, the first female president of the Texas bar, vowed in her first interview with the Texas Law Journal as president to "be inclusive of women and minorities." During her tenure, she championed the cause of increasing the number of female and minority lawyers in the bar's own leadership ranks and in law firms across the state, writing that "we are strongest capitalizing on the benefits of our diversity. "Miers was a believer in mentoring programs, but during her tenure she and the board of directors went further, passing a resolution urging Texas law firms to set a goal of hiring one qualified minority lawyer for every 10 new associates. The directors also reiterated support for a policy of setting aside a specific number of seats on the board for women and minorities..."Those are quotas," said Roger Clegg, the general counsel for the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative group opposed to affirmative action. The fact that Miers "did not create the quota systems but only perpetuated and endorsed it doesn't make it less disturbing," he said...

This should help Miers get more support from Democratic senators during her upcoming confirmation proceedings, but it'll obviously get right-wing conservatives already blasting the Miers pick even more riled at her.

What gets me most upset when I read about anyone who opposes affirmative action is that they always seem to dismiss 2 things in their reasonings: 1) how it benefits white women more than anyone else and 2) how it hasn't done anything to usurp advantages created by a white privilged society. Plus, critics continue to act like Blacks have made these huge gains via affrimative action, when that is so far from the truth as poverty, a lack of education, family dysfunction and crime continue to plague the Black community.

Affirmative action isn't "reverse discrimination", it promotes diversity and it makes sure that the same rules apply to everyone regardless of race or gender. The fact that white men still hold 95% of the managerial positions in this country (despite being only 43% of the population), further shows that AA is needed.

I'll be in full support of affirmative action as long as racism exists. The fact that she supports it as well makes me further know that I made the right choice in supporting Harriet Miers in the first place.

UPDATE: for purposes of N.Z. Bear's tracking:

I support the Miers nomination.