I see "The Reverend Jackson" is in California raising hell and money. Whatever the outcome is on Prop 54, you can be sure he will make a buck out of it. Just like an old time Evangelical preacher with a tent.
Jesse Jackson in town to defeat Prop 54
By Katherine Corcoran
Mercury News - San Jose
Joining the legions of national figures weighing in on California's wild gubernatorial recall, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Sunday that his civil rights organization will work in the next two months on a ``double no'' campaign to defeat both the recall and Proposition 54, which would ban the collection of racial data in California.
Jackson, who appeared at a backyard fund-raiser in Oakland for the No on 54 campaign, said he would not comment on Gov. Gray Davis or any of the almost 200 candidates who have filed papers to replace him. Seeming to take a page from the Davis play book, he cast the recall not as a referendum on personalities or performance, but as an attempt by a small group of conservatives to thwart the democratic process.
``There is no malfeasance, corruption or treason,'' he said of the recall. ``This is an attempt to disrupt the government.''
Recall supporters said Jackson's involvement will have `zero impact'' on the campaign.
Jackson said his Rainbow PUSH organization will spend time between now and the Oct. 7 recall election on voter education, registration and turnout. He read prepared remarks to about 50 people gathered at the home of civil liberties lawyer Eva Patterson, one of several people heading a coalition of education, civil rights and health care groups fighting Proposition 54.
The measure, written by University of California Regent Ward Connerly, would prohibit the state from collecting data on a person's race, ethnicity, color or national origin, but would allow the use of racial classification in some instances, including police identifying suspects, prisons assigning prisoners, and in the case of ``medical research subjects and patients.''
Connerly argues that classifying people by race is an irrelevant and divisive practice, and should be eliminated to continue America's movement toward a colorblind society. But he supports the continued collection of racial data in the area of medical research, as some ethnic and racial groups suffer disproportionately high rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and infant mortality. Opponents call the measure an information ban and say the data is necessary to determine where racism and racial disparities impact on education, law enforcement and, in particular, health care. They have seized on the measure's potential impact on health care, saying epidemiological studies are based on a wide range of statistics, including birth and death certificates and law enforcement data. State agencies could no longer collect information on race and ethnicity if Proposition 54 passed.
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