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 ...
Actually not - what those "payments" come from atre treaties, constitutionally ratified by the senate etc... that specify in exchange for not waging war against the government, and allowing themselves to be cooped up on worthless land called reservations, the government agreed to pay x amount of dollars to each member of the tribe in perpetuity... However, those types of treaties are pretty rare...
The other "government payments" to indians are trusts set up by the government (because we indians are too stupid to manage our own money, according to them) to hold money paid by corporations for mineral and/or oil rights to reservation land. The money belongs to the tribes, but is collected and doled out by the feds - when they are not stealing it from us, that is...
I'd like sources to back this up - as a card-carrying indian, I'd like to know why I didn't get MY "indian money" at 18 also...
No slight taken - I agree on the above!
Actually, there are plenty of whites who own and operate casinos - Atlantic City and Nevada come to mind immediately - how come those areas can have casinos, but no one else can? If you want casinos, it's as simple as getting yor STATE laws changed, so you can be like vegas and Atlantic City.
Not really a good analogy, to be honest.
I knew Indians who did get their government money when they turned 18 --- but they had to be reservation Indians which isn't fair because if you weren't a reservation Indian, you couldn't get it.
And just to clarify, regarding the treaties - The treaties were agreements between what were at the time sovereign nations, rather than between The government and American Citizens (indians didn't become actual citizens until 1929 - something we earned by serving this country in such great numbers in various wars, but I digress)...
If you can show me a point in history where African-Americans had a sovereign nation here (excluding Philadelphia where "The bruthas and sistas are runnin this city!") in what became the United States, then I might agree with the analogy ;0)
Must be the trust accounts - the money that belongs to the tribe, and is administered by the feds (in exchange for the billions they steal out of the accounts)... I can think of no other program that does that.
So, in reality they are NOT getting "government money" (the government has no money, but that's another argument for another day) but rather getting money that rightfully belongs to them - it's theirs. It never belonged to the government, and it never came out of taxpayer's pockets...
MH KING put a response from Keyes on his website...
I have to stew over this. Is this disagreement enough for me to lose respect for him??
MHKING'S website is here : http://mhking.mu.nu/
The original post where he attacked me as having an "issue with the little brown people" (and that IS the exact quote) was in responce to a very harsh critism I posted that was solely against Mexican President Vicente Fox, who is neither "little" nor "brown-skinned" (he's of Irish and Spanish decent and I beleive over 6'4'. Luis may not want to apologize but quite frankly his remarks were race-baiting and had nothing to do with the issues I had raised about the corrupt people RUNNING the Mexican government, rather than the citizens trying to escape from it.
I suggest you read the original thread yourself, which you obviously haven't done. Of course Luis is Cuban.
I have sent a freepmail to Luis to see if we can reach a cease fire here. If I falsely accused him of endorsed Martinez, I will be the first to admit I jumped the gun on that one. I hope he'll do the same.
And "Deeply saddened."
:D
The Indians told me the money came from the federal government and it was over some kind of lands claims over ancesteral lands. The individual Indians never held title to that land though.
Ah, ok... It was a Treaty thing then, which most likely affected a specific tribe, and probably went throug the courts when one side or the other violated it.
They didn't --- but they also weren't over here by choice or allowed to get a paycheck for their work. I'm not in favor of reparations --- but there is an issue of something being taken from your ancestors --- and if you are owed --- land in the case of the Indians, labor in the case of the slaves.
I still don't see the comparisons, unless the affected black communities want equal treatment, in which case I will support them going to worthless land reservations, underfunded and useless federally-run healthcare and education, rampant illiteracy and alcoholism, lack of employment, and all the other fun stuff that comes with it...
Most of the Indians I knew who got their money just wasted it anyhow. One bought furniture and a used car which seemed smart enough. The bad thing I saw about it was they got handed that money when they turned 18 and not all were very responsible yet ---- like anyone at 18 might not be when handed a lump sum of money. At least Keyes idea would be money that someone worked for that they get to keep. Maybe he could extend it to all of us --- just get rid of the income tax for everyone.
That is the only way I would support the proposal.
(I originally spelled that as "Loose canon, fire at will!", which is funny on many levels. To me anyway :).)
"Loose cannon, fire at will!" = chuckle funny.
"Loose canon, fire at will!" = smile funny, and only for those of us who know a canon, when we see one.
That's what I'm thinking - especially since he knows full well such a plan would never pass.
That is nice of you.
I hate this bitterness, when in fact,
we are all on the same side --- and
we ought to all stand united against democrats.
Here is something kind of interesting about some Indians:
http://www.michigangaming.com/IndGame/IGNews-02.html
They seem to have made the most out of their worthless land reservations, and so forth.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.