TODD HUFF FOSTERS RACIAL DIVISIONS IN BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD

Todd Huff, a Baltimore County Councilman, does not think the residents of Baltimore County are racially divided - enough.


This is why he is enthusiastically pushing for a statewide referendum on a bill - the DREAM Act - passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 2011. The DREAM Act would permit kids who complete high school in Maryland and are academically qualified, to attend a Maryland Community College, paying in-state tuition. This is fair, since these kids are already Maryland residents.


Mr. Todd Huff does not think so. He wants to forbid these - mostly Latino - high school students from attending college in Maryland, as Maryland residents - which they are. 


Mr. Todd Huff wants to send a message to these kids, many of them resident here for most of their lives, many of them with no memories of life in any other country. But never you mind all of that.


Mr. Huff, Councilman for District 3, wants to send them a racially explosive message: 


GO BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM. YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE.


The children Mr Huff and his GOP colleagues have targeted are the children of parents, who are not legally in the US.


We are talking about kids, here, like ones I know, who stayed in school, studied hard. Some of them have even applied for and were accepted at a state university and began to attend classes - only to be told that they could not continue because they are "ilegal."


If these kids should be blocked from going to college, where do we draw the next line? 


Should these kids not get medical care if they are sick? 


Should their little sisters and brothers not be allowed to go to K-12? 


Why is it good policy to tell bright Maryland residents they are not wanted here - except in low paying, menial, dead-end employment?


Why is it OK to racially divide the community like this? 


Mr Huff needs to meet these kids. 


Mr. Huff needs to tell them to their eager but now-disappointed faces, that he does not want them around - except maybe to trim his lawn. 


Shame on Mr Huff and on all other politicians and office holders, who believe in maintaining and enlarging the racial divide.   


SOURCE: 
Council Majority Supports Repeal of In-state Tuition for Illegal Immigrants - Towson, MD Patch

Ehrlich's running mate may be reachable at sissy12pants@aol.com

All of the top flight political minds we have are working overtime in Maryland. 


The election for governor is hardly 90 days away. 


Now is the moment for candidates to make the broadest appeal they can, while also working their loyal base.


So naturally, Robert Ehrlich has picked a running mate, whose husband either overuses or underthinks the send button on his e-mail.


This guy is reported in the media to have sent out a note explaining that a former employee's business success was due to minority set-aside programs. 


This guy also - it is alleged - sends out anonymous notes from an e-mail address he decided to call: 


sissy12pants@aol.com. 


He denies the sissy pants gambit but not the minority set-aside comment - directed at a Black man. 


(Source: Baltimore Sun on line:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-kane-lawsuit-20100717,0,7653905.story?page=1 )

Why 'o why do GOP candidates so often get fouled up in quasi-racial tantrums? 

They have had decades to break themselves of this habit but they just can't seem to stay away from this stuff. 

I registered Republican at age 18; it took me about 10 days to see the long-term problem with that. 

LESTER MADDOX WAS RIGHT, MARTIN LUTHER KING WAS WRONG: According to Kentucky GOP Senate Candidate Rand Paul

Asked by Rachel Maddow (MSNBC) if private businesses have the right to refuse service to Black people, Kentucky GOP Senate Candidate Rand Paul stated, "Yes." (NY Times, "Tea Party Pick Causes Uproar on Civil Rights," May 21, 2010) 

Embraced by the Tea Party in Kentucky and nationally, Paul won the GOP senate primary in KY. 

During the campaign, Rand Paul also stated:

- the mandatory retirement age for Social Security ought to be raised to 70

- the Americans with Disabilities Act (signed into law by President George H.W. Bush) is probably illegal.

So, according to GOP / Tea Party Candidate Rand Paul:

1. Americans ought to be required to work to age 70

2. businesses do not have to accommodate employees or customers with disabilities

3. Lester Maddox was right and Martin Luther King, Jr was wrong.

That's three strikes - in Kentucky and everywhere. 

MICHAEL STEELE: PLAYING THE ERASE CARD

Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, cannot bring himself to mention the name of Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993, Supreme Court Justice: 1967-91). 

Yet Steele wants to deflate the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Kagan was a law clerk to Marshall.

What to do? Well, why not link Kagan to comments Marshall made and simply not mention Marshall? That might work. 

So, on May 10, 2010, Steele posted a criticism of Kagan on the Republican National Committee website [text posted below], which criticized her for supporting "statements" that the US Constitution “as originally drafted and conceived, was ‘defective.’” 

Steele did not acknowledge that the "statements" endorsed by Kagan were those of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who spent a legal lifetime undermining the Constitutional provisions which enshrined human slavery in the United States.

Would anyone argue today that the US Constitution is not defective for its endorsement of human slavery?

Would anyone suggest that Justice Marshall was wrong in pointing this out?

Michael Steele's rhetorical slight of hand is both sad and provocative. 

Michael Steele's gambit provokes sadness. As a prominent citizen, an African American, he simply cannot publicly align his political party with the legacy of Thurgood Marshall. But nor can he dare to refute this legacy. 

Steele's sad solution is to allude to Kagan's second-hand critique of the slavery provisions in the US Constitution but without identifying her authority: Thurgood Marshall. To criticize Kagan as hostile to the US Constitution, Steele had to at least try to erase from public discourse the person who had asserted before Kagan, that the original Constitution was defective: Thurgood Marshall. 

Michael Steele's rhetorical slight of hand is provocative because he knows that the nomination of Elena Kagan represents the ethnic, racial and cultural diversity, which is reflected in the America of today. Michael Steele knows America is not the America of the GOP.

To his dubious credit, Michael Steele sees the GOP for what it can be for members of racial minorities, such as himself - a source of income for the individual, who is willing to be trotted out in public, as a Republican party representative. 

Because the broad concerns of non-white citizens receive no hearing in GOP circles, there is a rewarding personal a role for such as Michael Steele, and he has played it well, first in Maryland and now as titular head of the national GOP. 

In Maryland, Steele ran successfully for Lt. Governor, but only on the condition that he be paid $5,000 per month during the campaign. His condition was met. 

Now, as GOP Chairman, Steele draws a handsome salary and also charges for speaking around the country. If the concerns of minorities do not do well in GOP circles, Steel has at least found a way to do well for himself. But only by such ploys as erasing the legacy of Thurgood Marshall. 

Photo credit: tpmlivewire, May 10, 2010

_________________________

Here is the text of Michael Steele's statement:

Over the past year, the American people have been witness to President Obama's massive expansion of the federal government into our daily lives. To assure the American people, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, will need to demonstrate that she is committed to upholding the vision of our Founding Fathers, who wrote a Constitution meant to limit the power of government, not expand it.

The President has stated repeatedly that he wants a justice who will understand the effects of decisions on the lives of everyday Americans. But what Americans want is a justice who will stay true to the Constitution and defend the rights of all Americans, adhering to the rule of law instead of legislating from the bench. Given Kagan's opposition to allowing military recruiters access to her law school's campus, her endorsement of the liberal agenda and her support for statements suggesting that the Constitution "as originally drafted and conceived, was 'defective,'" you can expect Senate Republicans to respectfully raise serious and tough questions to ensure the American people can thoroughly and thoughtfully examine Kagan's qualifications and legal philosophy before she is confirmed to a lifetime appointment.