Free Republic

Bedtime for me.

LA County won't do the trick for 73, I guess.

The Westside prevailed.

Could be a long night.

Cardinal Mahony gave a public endorsement of 73.

You are, as so often, right on the practical matters.

The Southland, and esp. LA County will settle the doubtful issues, and it just might be pro-73. An outside chance, and dependent utterly on the Latino Catholic voter.

Cheers,

Richard F.

It took me a while to make up my mind, too.

The diversity and affirmative action evidence was what made me decide.

As to what happens from here, I am hopeful that such converts to opposition as Ed Whalen will begin to turn the tide, and that the President will get tough talking advice from someone he trusts on the inside, and so, Miers will withdraw her name.

If this happens, I think the next nominee will have stellar credentials, and be fairly firmly conservative, but will not, alas, be my favorite, JRB.

I admire your honest and humble change of heart.

Hope your book sales are going well!

Cheers,

Richard F.

Harriet Miers shows no signs of lucidity of thought, and her appointment to the Supreme Court is an unacceptable danger.

She should withdraw her name as soon as possible, or, if she will not do so on her own, President Bush should ask her to do it.

Cheers,

Richard F.

Keyes has suggested that it might be better for the Senate to reject Harriet Miers.

Here are the last two paragraphs of his recent column on the controversy:

"Harriet Miers' promotion of quota-style affirmative action thus raises new doubts about her grasp of and adherence to the conservative judicial philosophy President Bush claims on her behalf. The White House has encouraged people to judge Miers on her record. But as we learn more about her actions, the gap between her apparent beliefs and any reasonable understanding of conservative philosophy grows ever larger.

I fear it has already become too large to be overcome by her performance in Senate hearings. Her actions speak so loudly it may be too difficult to lend credence to mere words. As the bard wrote, "words to the heat of deeds too cold breath give." President Bush has handed conservatives in the Senate a nomination that may be too hot to handle credibly. For their sake and his, it might be better if Harriet Miers takes action now to allow the president to offer a different choice."

Cheers,

Richard F.

Thank you for the post.

I had been inclined against Meirs before.

This settles it for me.

Cheers,

rdf

try www.declaration.net

rdf

Nice find.

This article's author actually knows something about what is old, and what new, in the Catholic Church of the last 30 years.

The Theology of the Body is a deeply important work, and not at all simply "tradtitional."

Long Live Benedict XVI!

Richard F.

Great post, and Kudos to the President for the broad outlines of his agenda, and its Lincolnian inspiration.

Cheers,

Richard F.

The link to the Coolidge paper is outstanding.

Thanks

Richard F.

Thanks for the ping.

Here is a bit on the issue from the textbook for high school students that we wrote for the Declaration Foundation

---

The astonishing drop in voter registration in Louisiana [at the end of the 19th Century] is a sign of the conscious and systematic reimposition of race-conscious law in the whole country but especially in the South. As an example of their national extent, it is interesting to note that the public schools in the District of Columbia were integrated from the end of the Civil War up to the Democratic administration of Woodrow Wilson. Under President Wilson, the District of Columbia, which was and is largely run by Congress, was as segregated as Georgia.[5]

[footnote 5]

This parenthetical remark understates the re-segregation undertaken by the Wilson Administration. In 1913 a number of federal agencies were officially segregated, including the Post Office Department and the Bureau of the Census. Workers who complained were fired. President Wilson himself wrote the editor of a religious journal, the Congregationalist, in September of 1913, defending his actions: “I would say that I do approve of the segregation that is being attempted in several of the departments.” (Wilson to Rev. H.A. Bridgman, Sept. 8, 1913, cited in Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, by Arthur S. Link.)

During these years, white labor found, or thought it found, a protection against black competition in laws that restricted blacks or segregated them in the workplace, requiring employers to construct separate entrances or separate toilet facilities, for example. Public schools and transportation were segregated, and black participation in the basic civic duties, not only voting, but also jury duty and public employment, were also sharply reduced, all by the power of state laws. The system of laws that produced this effect were termed the “Jim Crow” laws, named after a colloquial Southern expression for the black man.

FOR FURTHER READING AND RESEARCH

1) The more than fifty years from the triumph of Jim Crow to the successful modern Civil Rights movement offer a rich field for historical inquiry, but the details are too manifold for coverage in this book. We mentioned above the little-known fact that Democrat Woodrow Wilson oversaw, and approved, the de jure segregation of much of the federal government. Another Democrat, Harry S. Truman, made a dramatic move in the opposite direction, opening all the Armed Services of the United States to men of all races in 1948-9. Truman himself was moved by the sacrifice of black soldiers in the Second World War, and indignant at the treatment some of those men had received upon returning to their native land. Something of the same sentiment had moved the leaders of the Republican Party in the post bellum period. One wonders why there was not a similar sentiment after the First World War. The subject is discussed in, among other places, John Hope Franklin’s From Slavery to Freedom, chapters 24-5. Is the fact of military service, with the attendant risk of life for country, grounds or proof of aptness for citizenship?

---

Republican support for equal rights was not as strong in the early 20th Century as it had been in the 20 years after lincoln, but it was actual support, as against what Wilson and the Democrats did early in the Century. Calvin Coolidge was among the better GOP leaders in this regard.

Again, thanks for the ping.

Richard F.

The President's speech was outstanding, and this is the wisest commentary on it that I've seen.

Cheers,

Richard F.

Lookin' good...

Go Ward!

Cheers to all at FR in the New Year,

Richard F.

Well, I voted for W., and I thought the piece was charming.

It's no secret the man speaks, well, oddly, sometimes. And he is not a flawless statesman.

But, he has defended the nation and, in doing so, upheld free institutions everywhere. His re-election was a blessing.

Merry Christmas to you!

Richard F.

Thanks for posting a thoughtful article.

Too bad no one wants to comment on the content. Maybe they'll get around to it later.

Cheers,

Richard F.

Nice find. Thomas is a genuine "natural law" jurist, and he has the best understanding of the jurisprudence of the Founding.

The assaults on him from the left are telling.

They fear him more than Scalia because he is deeper and also more careful in his manner of writing and speaking.

It would be lovely to see him Chief Justice.

Cheers,

Richard F.

About MCRI, Connerly's initiative in Michigan, read this and be happy:

---

Affirmative action foes say effort on track
Michigan Civil Rights Initiative says petition deadline will be met
Thursday, November 25, 2004BY DAVE GERSHMAN
News Staff Reporter

The state petition drive and campaign to ban affirmative action in state
government and university admissions may have lost its high profile in
recent months, but it is still active and organizers say they expect to have
enough signatures by January to put the issue before Michigan voters.

The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative says it has more than half of the
nearly 318,000 signatures needed to place a question on the statewide ballot
in 2006.

Legal challenges and controversy forced the group to scrap its plan to place
the question on the November 2004 ballot, but it restarted its campaign in
July, using volunteers and paid signature gatherers.

Once enough signatures are gathered, the group will switch its focus from
the petition drive to a "grass-roots campaign" in support of banning racial
preferences, said Chetly Zarko, MCRI's spokesman.

The campaign started after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2003 to
uphold the University of Michigan Law School's consideration of race in
admissions. At the same time, the court struck down the U-M undergraduate
school's race-conscious policy as too formulaic, but allowed U-M to revise
its admissions policies to still consider race as a factor in increasing
campus diversity.

If the MCRI campaign is successful, Zarko said, it will force U-M to "solve
some real problems" instead of using affirmative action to boost diversity.
U-M should tackle the achievement gap between racial groups in the state's
K-12 schools, Zarko said. A University of California regent, Ward Connerly,
is one of the backers of MCRI, and his organization has helped fund the
campaign in Michigan. The University of California system has stopped using
affirmative action in its admissions.

"The University of California targeted 150 of the lowest performing schools,
sent guidance counselors and professors to try to help schools out," Zarko
said. "That program has had quite a bit of success. I would call that true
affirmative action."

Defenders of affirmative action in Michigan, however, say MCRI has waged a
misleading campaign. David Waymire, a spokesman for Citizens for a United
Michigan, a group of businesses and community leaders, said the MCRI does
not have a groundswell of support.

Waymire said the Michigan ballot question would have widespread effects. He
said it also would hurt programs for women, for example. It would force
schools to end programs for young girls to meet women working in
male-dominated careers, such as engineering, or to add boys to the programs.

"We have racism, we have sexism in our society," Waymire said. "Are we going
to take away all the tools we need to address this?"

The MCRI campaign restarted in July after a three-judge appeals court panel
ruled in its favor in a dispute about the language on its petitions. The
campaign can now essentially choose any 180-day period to gather all of
signatures, as long as it submits them to the state by July 2006, in time
for the November 2006 general election. Rather than wait any longer, Zarko
said, MCRI plans to submit in January 2005 or sooner.

Defenders of affirmative action, such as The Coalition to Defend Affirmative
Action & Integration and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary, or BAMN,
continue to challenge the wording of the MCRI petitions. BAMN has appealed
the appeals court's ruling to the state Supreme Court.

Zarko, however, said he is confident the Supreme Court will uphold the
decision of the appeals court. A spokeswoman for BAMN did not return phone
calls to comment.

A poll by Lansing-based EPIC/MRA, released in April, found 64 percent of
state voters would support the petition language being circulated by MCRI.

http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-11/110138100045770.xml

For a careful statistical review of this 44% figure, you would do well to check out this piece

http://www.vdare.com/sailer/041110_poll.htm

by Steve Sailer.

Delighted that Bush won, but not willing to buy the MSM's account of how and why,

Richard F.