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| Home Front: Politix |
| Feds Overrule Local Vote to End Partisan Politics |
| 2009-10-20 |
| KINSTON, N.C. | Voters in this small city decided overwhelmingly last year to do away with the party affiliation of candidates in local elections, but the Obama administration recently overruled the electorate and decided that equal rights for black voters cannot be achieved without the Democratic Party. Need I say more? The Justice Department's ruling, which affects races for City Council and mayor, went so far as to say partisan elections are needed so that black voters can elect their "candidates of choice" - identified by the department as those who are Democrats and almost exclusively black. The department ruled that white voters in Kinston will vote for blacks only if they are Democrats and that therefore the city cannot get rid of party affiliations for local elections because that would violate black voters' right to elect the candidates they want. Re-read that three more times. Either the department or the writer are morons. Or both. Several federal and local politicians would like the city to challenge the decision in court. They say voter apathy is the largest barrier to black voters' election of candidates they prefer and that the Justice Department has gone too far in trying to influence election results here. Why would black voters in Kinston be apathetic? Detroit and Chicago, sure, but Kinston? Stephen LaRoque, a former Republican state lawmaker who led the drive to end partisan local elections, called the Justice Department's decision "racial as well as partisan." "On top of that, you have an unelected bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., overturning a valid election," he said. "That is un-American." But so Obaman. The decision, made by the same Justice official who ordered the dismissal of a voting rights case against members of the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia, has irritated other locals as well. They bristle at federal interference in this city of nearly 23,000 people, two-thirds of whom are black. Much more at link, but you've got the idea. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #10 If this had been The Onion or Scrappleface, it would have been seen as an over-the-top, overly mean piece of satire. |
| Posted by: ExtremeModerate 2009-10-20 23:24 |
| #9 "The Justice Department's ruling, which affects races for City Council and mayor, went so far as to say partisan elections are needed so that black voters can elect their "candidates of choice" - identified by the department as those who are Democrats and almost exclusively black." Translation: The DemocRat-run federal gummint thanks black people are too stupid to vote for their own choice unless Daddy gummint labels the candidates for them so they don't screw up at the ballot box. Typical leftist bigotry. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-10-20 19:00 |
| #8 I wonder what would happen of the good folks of Kinston, N.C. told the Justice Department to F-k off and die... What will Justice do? Send in the FBI? Federal Troops? Siege ballot boxes and hold them? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-10-20 17:23 |
| #7 Wow -- This story is scarier to me than a lot of the national news topics! |
| Posted by: ExtremeModerate 2009-10-20 15:43 |
| #6 This is the same "Judge" that dismissed voter intimidation charges against the PA Black Panthers. Surprised? |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2009-10-20 14:44 |
| #5 Yes, the Justice Department is collaborating with the Democratic party machine to keep the local voters locked on the plantation -- ensuring the blacks vote along racial lines and the whites along party lines to the same result. The locals need to hire themselves an effective community organizer to ensure the will of the people, expressed overwhelmingly a year ago, is enforced. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-10-20 14:25 |
| #4 because that would violate black voters' right to elect the candidates they want. Correction The candidates the Demicratics shove in Black's faces and ORDER them to "Like" and vote for. (Or the EEEVIL republicans will kill you all by eliminating the freebies that the HONEST DEMOCRATS are trying to give you (Buy your vote) with.) (We know that you Blacks are too Lazy to research the candidates so we HONEST DEMOCRATS wii choose for you.) I wish I could say Snark, but it's too true. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-10-20 13:37 |
| #3 The city government of Phoenix used to be terribly corrupt until it adopted non-partisan "charter government", which means that candidates cannot officially run by party, and there are no party tickets. The party hacks hate it, because the candidates have to run on credentials instead of just affiliation. Just yesterday, it was suggested that FOX News should counterattack Obama by advocating that Chicago be federally, or by the State of Illinois, forced to have a charter government. If they did that, you could hear the screams of pain from the Democrats all the way in Peoria. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-10-20 10:31 |
| #2 president of the Kinston/Lenoir County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. And here I thought referring to blacks as 'colored' was racist. /sarc off This was never about equality, fairness, or justice. This was about power. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-10-20 07:44 |
| #1 I didn't go far enough. here's the rationale. Now I understand. "To begin with, 'nonpartisan elections' is a misconceived and deceiving statement because even though no party affiliation shows up on a ballot form, candidates still adhere to certain ideologies and people understand that, and are going to identify with who they feel has their best interest at heart," said William Cooke, president of the Kinston/Lenoir County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Some people can't tell the candidates apart without a label. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2009-10-20 06:26 |