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Writing at National Review Online, Abigail Thernstrom argues that the attention on the alleged voter intimidation case involving members of the New Black Panther Party is unwarranted.
The more I learned about the Black Panther case, however, the more doubtful I became that this was the egregious example of voter intimidation that it first appeared to be. When the Commission decided to make the Philadelphia incident the subject of its annual civil-rights law-enforcement report — the major report we work on throughout the year — I could not support that decision. Whatever the facts turned out to be, I felt, the incident was not of sufficient importance to be the primary focus of our yearlong project. If this small and isolated incident were truly the single most important civil-rights issue in America today, we would have much to celebrate.
Click here to read more.
LFC // Jul 27, 2010 at 2:50 pm
“But, but, but … SCARY BROWN PEOPLE!” –A Whole Host of Right-Wingnut Talking Heads
Elvis Elvisberg // Jul 27, 2010 at 5:27 pm
She will be hounded out of the GOP and the VRWC as a RINO.
andydp // Jul 27, 2010 at 6:05 pm
The GOP was searching for “massive voter fraud” they claimed was rampant. When they couldn’t find it, despite the new ID protections they enacted, they jumped on this as some sort of “proof” the election was “stolen”.
busboy33 // Jul 27, 2010 at 7:47 pm
You beat me to it Elvis.
I give it a week before we find out from anonymous sources she’s a pot-smoking socialist lesbian.
heap // Jul 27, 2010 at 10:22 pm
when she is RINO’d out of existence, you should poach her, David.
DeepSouthPopulist // Jul 27, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Anyone believe Holder drops this if it was the same facts in reverse with two Klansman?
Madeline // Jul 27, 2010 at 11:35 pm
Anyone believe Holder drops this if it was the same facts in reverse with two Klansman?
Yes.
Elvis Elvisberg // Jul 28, 2010 at 4:55 am
Ditto, Madeline.
You should read the article at the link, DSP. Thernstrom writes, “The Panthers are a tiny fringe group — a handful of racist nuts. The KKK was a serious criminal conspiracy that terrorized millions of black Americans”.
To say nothing of the fact that, after hundreds of hours of testimony, we have discovered ZERO (0) people who felt intimidated to exercise their right to vote by these two loons. Also, “this section of the act has been litigated so rarely that there are no clear legal standards at all,” and ” there have been only three successful prosecutions of voter intimidation under Section 11 (b).”
There is only one reason why this nothing incident has taken on such a life of its own: conservatives think that black people are scary.
busboy33 // Jul 28, 2010 at 9:30 am
@Elvis:
“we have discovered ZERO (0) people who felt intimidated to exercise their right to vote by these two loons”
That is sort of important. Nobody is questioning that the two jagoffs we engaged in various acts of jagoffing, but there doesn’t seem to be an actual problem.
I mean, aside from the black psuedo-militant talking some racist crap outside the black polling station. Bad? Sure. Denial of Constitutional Rights? I haven’t see it yet.
(btw, black dude with a stick = weapon, but people upset over healthcare bringing loaded weapons to meetings with government employees = good old fashioned free speech. Balck Panter dude should show up at a polling station with a musket wearing a tri-corner hat throwing tea bags all over the place — the Right’s head will explode)
WillyP // Jul 28, 2010 at 9:58 am
i hope Frum is happy with his chorus of left-liberals. shows his conservative credentials better than anything else..
pampl // Jul 28, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Left-liberals including such people as Thernstrom and Reagan appointee Holder. Apparently believing in non-partisan facts means you’re a socialist pinko.
heap // Jul 28, 2010 at 9:56 pm
go with the assumption it is true – frum has created an outlet to project conservative ideology, and found a way to do it in such a way that those politically opposed are inclined to listen.
i’m not even going to argue if it’s true or not, as i don’t know.
i do know….even if true, it isn’t a bad thing, however. you’d think it’d be a goal, not something to attempt to disparage somebody with.
balconesfault // Jul 29, 2010 at 6:22 am
Anyone believe Holder drops this if it was the same facts in reverse with two Klansman?
Two Klansmen, standing armed outside a polling place in an almost all-white rural precinct in Alabama? And the cops came after Obama observers complained, and shooshed them away? And the Klansmen left?
Not only do I believe that Holder would have handled it the same way (gotten an injunction against the clearly armed Klansman from displaying weapons near polling places in the future) … but I believe that the NRO and Fox would be railing afterwards about the Obama Justice Department’s obvious anti-white and anti-Second Amendment attitudes displayed by that unjust persecution.
In fact, I fully expect that by now the guy would be a regular feature on the “Joe the Plumber”/Carrie Prejean speech circuit, and very possibly have his own syndicated talk-show.
busboy33 // Jul 29, 2010 at 3:29 pm
@DSP:
Why WOULDN’T you think Holder would handle cases with similar facts in a similar manner?
Does he have a history of over-zealously prosecuting Whites and turning a blind eye toward blacks? Or is it just presumed that the Brothers are looking out for each other?
Turn the situation around — two Klansmen (btw, the NBPP and the KKK are slightly different, but fine) standing around, nobody says they’re intimidated, cops come, they leave. White AG says “don’t do that again and stay the hell away from polling centers with weapons. Idiot.”
You come to FrumForum and some liberal pipes in with “Oh sure, if AG Ashcroft was faced with two black men, do you think he’d turn such a blind eye!?!”
I’m guessing your response would be “see, this is the kind of baseless accusations of racism that Conservatives suffer under. There’s no reason to think that, and the only reason to even think that is because YOU are actually the racist, not AG Ashcroft!”
And you’d probably be right.
What makes the current situation different?
Elvis Elvisberg // Feb 16, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Elvis Elvisberg // Feb 16, 2011 at 2:02 pm
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