Posted on 11/11/2004 8:13:32 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
In a rare gesture of transparency, a majority of the eight commissioners on the United States Commission on Civil Rights voted in 2002 to put the agency's staff reports on the Internet as soon as they are completed. That way, the public can read them before the commissioners hold public hearings to discuss the staff's findings.
The latest report - an assessment of President Bush's civil rights record - was put on the agency's Web site last September. But at the commission's October meeting, less than a month before the election, the commissioners declined to discuss it. Objecting to the timing of the report, the four commissioners appointed by President Bush and the Congressional Republican leadership managed to put off any discussion until the postelection meeting, scheduled for today.
The commission owes the public a spirited debate, especially if, as the report indicates, the apparent aim of the Bush administration is to break with long-established civil rights tactics and priorities. This question takes on a new urgency with the appointment of the White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, as the next attorney general because Mr. Gonzales was deeply involved in the formulation of administration policy on these issues in the first term.
The report, which is still available online, is a scathing 166-page assessment of an administration that has, at best, neglected core civil rights issues. It cites numerous examples of administration attempts to replace affirmative action with "race neutral" alternatives, to focus on voter fraud rather than the more insidious problem of voter disenfranchisement, and to recast taxpayers' support for religious institutions as a civil right for people of faith, rather than as a constitutional issue involving the separation of church and state.
In the most telling research into the way that Mr. Bush uses talk of civil rights to promote his own agenda, the report says that of Mr. Bush's public statements on civil rights, only 17 percent have outlined plans of action. Of those, it says, more than half pertained to "faith-based initiatives." It criticizes the president for using the language of civil rights - terms like "remove barriers" and "equal access" - to frame his case.
Earlier this year, the conservative commissioners simply voted down, without explanation, a staff report on language barriers in federal programs. Such disdain - for the very issues the commissioners are supposed to examine - deprives Americans of the dialogue they need and deserve. It is our hope that the conservative commissioners will engage with the issues and their fellow commissioners at today's meeting. In any case, Americans can judge the civil rights report themselves at www.usccr.gov.
WOW. What a steaming load.
Why don't they just change the name of their paper to "Bush Bashing Times?"
I completely forgot about her! January 2005, Mary Frances Berry, the hateful woman who refused to seat President Bush's appointment to the Comission will be looking for work.
See ya, Mary. Unless she comes up with some new rule claiming the Chair cannot be ceded on odd years, or some crap like that.
Anyone know if Peter Kirasnow can replace her, or is it a tenure-based thing?
Let's not give her any ideas...
One hatchet job that didn't get out, I see. Any progress in the direction of self-reliance and/or merit-based hiring, educational opportunities, etc.. is seen as a setback for civil rights. Rather pathetic. (no pun intended)
Why would an informed person even bother reading this fact-free tripe? What a waste of freaking neurons!
I watched Don King tonight and he didn't seem to feel this way.
Considering that the Commission On Civil Rights is run by a long time Friend of Bill's and Jesse Jackson and has very strong Democratic backing. I'd say you're about dead on target, elizabetty.
Jack.
Is Hairy Mary Berry still on that thing! She is one butt ugly hag, and a downright witch with a capital B when it comes to her politics. There are few people in the US government who I despise more than Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton. She is one of them.
"... to focus on voter fraud rather than the more insidious problem of voter disenfranchisement"
Uhh, isn't voter fraud a textbook example of voter disenfranshisement? Isn't one person's vote being disenfranchised for every fraudulent ballot cast the other way?
Looks like the Slimes has just declared war on Alberto Gonzales.
Free votes.
Hey, don't put anything past her, she will figure a way, or some other way to make sure that she is the 'victim' for not being re-appointed. President Bush will become the new 'republican racist' who removes 'honorable,[anti-white] hard-working [ordering others to do the work] minorities' from their jobs!
The Times is just mad because that woman, I cannot remember her name, is about to be term limited OUT of the commission...she's the chairperson with the Annie Lennox/Grace Jones haircut.
Marian Frances Berry. She refused to relinquish her chairmanship. I think Cartman had a song about her, though for some reason he referred to her as Kyle's Mom.
The Old Gray Whore says:
The report, which is still available online, is a scathing 166-page assessment of an administration that has, at best, neglected core civil rights issues. It cites numerous examples of administration attempts to replace affirmative action with "race neutral" alternatives, to focus on voter fraud rather than the more insidious problem of voter disenfranchisement, and to recast taxpayers' support for religious institutions as a civil right for people of faith, rather than as a constitutional issue involving the separation of church and state.
Re-read that a phrase at a time. The NYT agenda screams at you. Omygosh, affirmative action (race preference) is being replaced for race nuetral alternatives.... and this is a BAD THING?
Orwell was right, the path to tyranny is through semantic trickery. Doubleplus ungood indeed.
Ain't equality a bitch...."DEAL WITH IT!"
Ain't equality a bitch...."DEAL WITH IT!"
Sorry about the double!..
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