Posted on 08/17/2004 5:58:48 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
One day after their first meeting, U.S. Senate hopefuls Barack Obama and Alan Keyes were back on the campaign trail again Monday.
Speaking at a news conference at the Hotel InterContinental in Chicago, Republican Keyes added to his now familiar talking points his stance on slavery reparations.
Prompted by a reporter's question, Keyes gave a brief tutorial on Roman history and said that in regard to reparations for slavery, the U.S. should do what the Romans did: "When a city had been devastated [in the Roman empire], for a certain length of time--a generation or two--they exempted the damaged city from taxation."
Keyes proposed that for a generation or two, African-Americans of slave heritage should be exempted from federal taxes--federal because slavery "was an egregious failure on the part of the federal establishment." In calling for the tax relief, Keyes appeared to be reaching out to capture the black vote, something that may prove difficult to do, particularly after his unwelcome reception at the Bud Billiken Day Parade Saturday...
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
It's on the table. You also left out that they were excluded as a class from engaging with the rest of society for some extended time.
You seem to have a narrow focus here. They are under the power of rats. This is an attempt to wake them up. It goes along with an education on personal responsibility Keyes is perfectly able to deliver. Mr. Keyes is taking a shot here at gaining the IL Senate seat. If you insist on taking the narrow focus, Mr Obama will educate you on taxes while you enjoy your role as his serf.
Alan Keyes said it was - see #504.
OMG! Keyes proposal is bizarre. The last slave died in the late 1920`s and the last slave owner has been dead for many years. The descendents of slaves weren't slaves themselves. People living today never owned slaves. My family has been here since the 1840`s. My family never owned slaves. I never owned slaves. This entire issue has been fabricated to squeeze more money out of the American taxpayer.
Since the 1960`s the American taxpayer has spent some $7,000,000,000,000 --- that's seven trillion dollars --- to fight poverty and help black Americans become full participants in the American dream. The poverty rate is about where it was in the 1960`s. Republicans helped Democrats pass the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. The feds instituted affirmative action and a racial quota system to assist blacks, women and other minorities in fully realizing the potential of the American dream. That's enough socialism for one century. Hell, that's enough socialism for one nations entire history!
Enough is enough!
I see you have found Keyes position on reparations. Good work!
I've seen stuff like that, too. I see people of every race pulling that kind of stuff - the usual way they do it is to have a live-in boyfriend who has a job, but they collect the welfare, food stamps, Section 8 housing, etc... so all the money their boyfriend makes is spent on "stuff"...
It's sickening, and that kind of fraud needs to be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible...
What you said.
I know what Alan Keyes says and other say but it's just my personal opinion that the real 'War Between the States' wasn't about slavery at all. That's another thread though.
Thanks, Chad. It's an old argument and is so silly I won't even go there again. LOL
Once you start them, the handouts will never cease.
Not confiscating someone's earned income is a handout!?! What planet are you from?
I really don't have a problem with playing the dems silly game. They want to buy votes by taking money out of my pocket. I much prefer Keyes idea of buying votes by NOT taking money out of my pocket.
Agreed. There are good points to be made on every side of the issue but it's not really pertinent now, imo.
I would rather not see them spent on reparations, either. I was trying to come up with something as ridiculous as Keyes's idea is.
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Keyes was sounding real good there for about a week - ping.
that dupe thread was pulled - we're over here now.
It was a joke. You said "I understand, reject, and stand opposed to his SPIN FOR IT!". So I said "John Kerry was in Viet Nam." In other news "the sun will rise in the east tomorrow." Sorry. It was too sophisticated for you I guess.
I think that is the problem. We see very little vocal disagreement.
Some lives, upon reaching some point just beyond maturity, hit a patch where they do something offside, peculiar, unintegrated with the body of their long-held and explicitly formulated beliefs. It usually bodes a downward slide. It is analogous to the sitcom's jumping the shark moment. Maybe we could call it the jumping Nat Branden moment...
I do believe this is where Mr. Keyes is. He consistently rejected carpetbagging, now he's running in Illinois. He's been a conservative of consistent principles, now he wants excuse slave descendants from taxation (for some while). This is two jumping moments. Perhaps his friends and fans should chip in and buy him a CAT scan, to rule out any organic contretemps.
My focus is on one thing - equality of treatment and justice for all of us who are alive today, regardless of what happened to our ancestors.
They are under the power of rats. This is an attempt to wake them up.
It's a flip-flop of principles, where Keyes has become one of those "extorting", as he so aptly put it...
It goes along with an education on personal responsibility Keyes is perfectly able to deliver.
Preach Personal Responsibility on the one hand, then advocate "handouts" on the other.
Mr. Keyes is taking a shot here at gaining the IL Senate seat. If you insist on taking the narrow focus, Mr Obama will educate you on taxes while you enjoy your role as his serf.
Oh, so we must blindly follow Keyes, even if he's being a dumbass, because it's either him or Obama. Great. One guy who wants to take our money away and give it to others, versus one guy who wants to take our money away and give it to someone else. Toucgh choice. Hmmm...
I found his FORMER position on Reparations.
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