Sunday, September 17, 2006

Why did Ney pick Padgett?

Why did corrupt Republican Rep. Bob Ney hand pick Joy Padgett to run for his post in Ohio's 18th district? Does she know Abramoff? Do they have the same political philosophy----take money for votes? People in the 18th district need to ask how Padgett, known for her dirty campaigns, got in such a good position to fill Ney's job. I'm just asking.

>>>Here are some other questions we should be asking ourselves---
Did George Allen vote to support the Iraq resolution to show his support for George W. Bush?
Can George Allen explain why he kept a noose and a confederate flag in his office?
How many times has George Allen used the term "macaca" to describe another human being?

Here is more on George Allen from Brendon Nyhan:

...First, there's the noose he hung from a tree in his law office, which suggests an approving attitude toward lynchings. In 2000, Allen and his Senate campaign manager disavowed any racial connotation, describing the noose as part of a collection of Western memorabilia that represented his law-and-order stance on criminal justice. Then, in February of this year, he tried to claim that it was "more of a lasso" and "has nothing to do with lynching." But reports on the matter that I have read all describe it as a noose, and Allen and his representatives appeared to refer to it as such all the way through 2004. And of course, if the noose "has nothing to do with lynching," why was it hung from a tree? The symbolism seems obvious. As the Richmond Times-Dispatch put it in 2000, the noose was "a reminder that [Allen] saw some justification in frontier justice." Official hangings carried out under the auspices of the law presumably used real gallows, not trees.

Allen also used to display a Confederate flag at his house, which he claims was part of a flag collection...

..A March 2005 report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes that, "as governor of Virginia, [Allen] signed a 'Confederate Heritage Month' proclamation while dubbing the NAACP an 'extremist group.'" Here's how the Washington Post described his actions in an article last year:

[I]n the late 1990s, former governor George Allen (R) issued a Confederate History Month proclamation, calling the Civil War "a four-year struggle for independence and sovereign rights." It was observed during April, the month in which the Civil War essentially began with the Confederates' attack on Fort Sumter, S.C., and ended with the Army of Northern Virginia's surrender at Appomattox. The declaration made no mention of slavery, angering many civil rights groups.

Allen also opposed the 1991 Civil Rights Act in Congress, and as a state delegate he opposed creating a holiday for Martin Luther King and voted against changing the racially offensive state song (though as governor he later signed legislation dropping the song).

Given all this, it's not surprising that Allen initially defended Trent Lott when he came under fire in 2002 for comments praising Strom Thurmond's presidential candidacy. Initially, Allen called Lott a "decent, honorable man" and said that it is "unacceptable to use the issue of race as a political weapon and try to pin the sins of the past on the leaders of the present." But when Lott's comments provoked a national outcry, Allen reversed field, saying that the "comment was offensive to many Americans, particularly those who have been personally touched by the viciousness of segregation." And after Lott resigned, he added, "This is a day that the United States Senate, with Trent Lott's resignation, has buried, graveyard-dead-and-gone, the days of discrimination and segregation," with an obvious eye toward leaving aside questions about his own past....

George Allen seems like he would have been a popular guy guy for the 17th century. The people of Viriginia have to ask themselves if they want this 17th century thinking man representing their state in the 21st century.