Posted on 08/29/2004 7:32:41 AM PDT by Caoilfhionn
Obama isn't only afraid to debate Keyes; he was afraid to debate Steve Rauschenberger. Do you wonder why when Obama is under political fire the response usually comes from Rahm Emanuel or Don Rose? Or Axelrod? He's protected like a hothouse plant.
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
Suntimes Keyes offers radical ideas, most times he doesn't...
LOL!
GMTA!!!
And what plant might that be, Cannabis?
I was willing to forgive him for that but yesterday was a bit too much. In a pandering speech to farmers, he flip flopped on his previous call to abolish the Department of Agriculture. When a reporter pointed out the contradiction, he first denied that he ever called for aboltion that admitted that he had. His excuse as that things had changed because the DOE was now more "efficient" since Dubya took power.
No offense but think how Alan phrased it. Most of the 'reparations' would go to people who DON'T PAY TAXES anyway. Ergo they get squat.
Keyes is simply calling for a plan that would exempt the descendants of slaves from income taxes for at least a generation.
Tax exemption would give Blacks "a competitive edge in the labor market," because they would be "cheaper to hire than federal tax-paying employee" and allow Blacks to be compensated "for all those years when your labor was being exploited."
Reparations advocate Charles Ogletree, a law professor at Harvard University, applauded Keyes’ recent conversion.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Ogletree, whose views on affirmative action, as well as on reparations, have conflicted with those of Keyes in the past. “It captures the sentiments of many who are for reparations. It’s not nearly as comprehensive to address the magnitude of the matter, but it is consistent with issues in finding real solutions.”
To those NOT born and raised in Chi, for years-and-years they were known (unofficially of course) as the 'Slum-Times'. And not for political leaning or 'social issue pandering', but because they RARELY printed anything with a four syllable word (and three syllables were rare too). Their core readers couldn't pronounce or understand them and as we used to say on 'da sout side' -- "dats da trut".
Anyone with an IQ above a brick would read the Tribune or in the 'olden days' the Chicago American or the Chicago Daily News. Now only the Trib remains with 'big words' in it.
Plus take a look who writes for the Sun-Times now, Jesse Jackson. That should say it all.
Take it easy, Cao... Condor 51 means they already don't pay federal income tax. Also, Tom Roeser is a conservative columntist/activist from way back. ;-` Thanks for posting this! Why don't you go ahead and post the whole thing, so FReepers can more easily read it and that it's here for the record. I don't think there are any problems with the Sun-Times.
No, don't ignore the Sun-Times. Unlike the Chicago Tribune they are not utterly, monolithicly liberal.
As far as changing his mind, when times change, you should be allowed to change your position and not have people jump all over you for something you said 8 years before.
That's a lot different than 'flip flopping' which John Kerry does quite well, standing firm on both sides of every issue.
Keyes in 1996 had called the department an "expensive top-heavy bureaucracy that was not actually contributing to the good of the farmers." At that time, this was true. But he said Thursday things had changed under Republican leadership in Washington and he now favors keeping the department.
Democratic rival state Sen. Barack Obama's campaign called Keyes' statement "a dramatic flip-flop." So is that where you get the term, from Barack Obama's campaign spokesman, Robert Gibbs? Can I ask whose side you're on if you're literally quoting from Obama's campaign rhetoric? Where the heck is Obama himself? Can't he even talk for himself and his own campaign?
Keyes, speaking at Republican Day at the State Fair, also expressed support for tax breaks that encourage development of alternative fuels such as corn-based ethanol.
"Back then, the department imposed too much red tape on farmers and wasted money the government could not afford to spend," he said. He said that had changed under Republican leadership. Specifically, something happened within the Department of Agriculture in 1996, I am researching that now.
I don't consider that a 'flip flop' at all--it just shows me he's keeping himself informed as to what's going on.
A flip flop is throwing your medals and then saying you threw the ribbons and not the medals, lol.....and then maybe they were somebody else's medals....
The entire piece:
Make no mistake about it: GOP Senate candidate Alan Keyes' idea for reparations, which he outlined at the City Club of Chicago, is radical and free-market -- radical because it is free-market. Were President Bush to accept his plan, all blacks who can date their ancestry to slavery would be exempt from paying federal income taxes for several generations. The result: a massive infusion of economic power to a group historically disadvantaged, and in particular to black neighborhoods. Imagine it: Industries would fight to locate in areas that are now not exactly prime for economic development. Employees would get to keep 100 percent of their earnings. Employers would quickly recognize the opportunity to hire. Ownership would flourish -- not by subsidy, but by tax freedom.
The revolutionary plan is as conservative as it is beneficial. The condescending liberal who asked Keyes a question about his plan made a slighting reference to multimillionaire Oprah Winfrey; why add to her income in this way? Keyes turned the question around. Because of 400 years of slavery, segregation and discrimination -- including 100 years of slavery under the aegis of the U.S. government -- how many latent Oprah Winfreys were stifled because of the doors slammed in their faces? Thus the answer isn't that it's wrong to make Winfrey richer, it is to create more Winfreys, which freedom from the income tax assuredly would do.
Keyes made it plain that there are conservatives who oppose his plan. To them he asked: How many of you have urged tax breaks for giant corporations, saying that such breaks would invigorate the economy? How can you not see the benefit of my version of reparations? Gradually, conservatives are beginning to understand. Heretofore, they have understood reparations as taking money from someone's pocket and putting it in another's pocket. Not so the Keyes plan.
Is the black community biased against the GOP? Of course. Not a single African-American columnist or commentator has given it much mention, much less praise. The Chicago Defender blasted Keyes for not using the stale Democratic liberal mantra. Reason: Blacks were delivered to the Democratic Party by the enticement of Democrat pols who still profit by exploiting poverty, promising federal handouts that don't work. Nothing much has changed since old Bill Dawson with his wooden leg ruled the South Side. Sure, Dawson's dead, but the white establishment saw to it that a tag team of Dem opportunists took his place. The decision to sell the Rev. Jesse Jackson as a leader was made largely by the white media.
Now Jackson is old hat, Rev. Al Sharpton is an embarrassment and the white establishment has chosen Barack Obama. An average state senator with views that were outside the mainstream, he was given the extreme makeover by his adviser David Axelrod. Make no mistake: Obama is groomed to be the establishment's first black president, running in the future as veep, then on his own. The first step was to get him the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention. Did you listen carefully to the keynote? The speech was vanilla. That's the way the Democratic establishment wanted it.
Put Obama next to Keyes in a debate and see him wilt. Axelrod knows that Keyes has debated them all: Senators Orrin Hatch, Phil Gramm, John McCain, and no one said Keyes didn't belong in that company. Obama isn't willing to keep his earlier pledge to debate six times because Axelrod knows that his client wouldn't be on the ticket if Blair Hull hadn't hit his wife's shin to keep her from kicking him. It's one thing for Obama and Axelrod to play it safe; it's another for the black community -- and commentators -- to swallow the Axelrod playbook without the slightest murmur of independence.
Obama isn't only afraid to debate Keyes; he was afraid to debate Steve Rauschenberger. Do you wonder why when Obama is under political fire the response usually comes from Rahm Emanuel or Don Rose? Or Axelrod? He's protected like a hothouse plant.
Now understand I am against ANY form of reparations - period. However because I disagree with one point of his positions doesn't mean I won't support him. Especially when Keyes is firmly behind the 2nd Amendment is it's strictest sense as an 'individual right' and to own military 'type' weapons as 'we the people' are the militia. Including machine-guns, which took gonads for him to say, which btw are illegal to own/possess in IL under any condition.
Obama on the other hand would gladly have the cops coming into your home confiscating every weapon you have. Obama is dangerous, Obama is a communist - period.
sorry I didn't notice you did that.
I agree with you-Obama is a Communist, just like John Kerry. Incredibly dangerous if he were to get into office....
And I don't really agree that we should write off the Suntimes as a newspaper that's read totally by illiterates. Newspapers have a devoted following, although with the advent of the internet, I'll grant you that's probably shrinking.
I was just surprised and happy, I guess, that although they didn't print my letters to the editor, something changed as a result of my letters. So all of you who have hesitated to write; take heart--there is hope. Get the message out.
I have no idea where Captain Kirk might have gotten the phrase, but "a dramatic flip-flop" is hardly original or unusual phraseology, and "flip-flop" has been used quite a bit this campaign year.
It could well be that many people on both sides actually did feel it was "a dramatic flip-flop", in just those words.
Particularily Keyesters......
Do any of you know where there is a listing of 'endorsements' of Keyes for the Senate in IL?.. I've looked on his website and find no listing..... Usually a candidate will display the endorsements as a method of attracting voters and supporters....
Thanks
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