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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (89415)	12/6/2004 6:56:15 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793964

Left may sneer, but face it: Minorities follow bunglers on right Arizona Republic Dec. 5, 2004 12:00 AM I don't know if conservatives are smart enough to make their Republican Party a more comfortable place for minorities. I've seen them do so many blockheaded things regarding race over the years that they seem almost as inept and bungling at race relations as modern-day liberals. And what an indictment that is. I thought you couldn't get stupider at Big Tent-ism than the Illinois Republicans who recognized the obvious voter appeal of Democratic Senate candidate Barack Obama, a Black man, by importing media gadfly Alan Keyes from Maryland. Because - get this! - he too is a Black man. Wow! Wouldn't you have just loved to have been at the meeting of Illinois GOP bigwigs when they came up with that idea? And in terms of pure unctuousness, it would be hard to top the 2000 Republican convention in Philadelphia. The multi-culti choreography made it seem as though the convention was being held at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. If I never see another puffy White guy "dance" to Motown music, I'll die happy. The only thing that could possibly save Republicans as attractive political partners for minorities, it seemed, were the broad concepts they espouse. Even if Republicans themselves often tread clumsily on the notions of traditional, family-friendly values, for example, the fact that they hold high such a concept might eventually begin attracting many like-minded Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities. The same goes for the GOP fondness for a strong national defense. Republicans more or less owned that issue this election, you might have noticed. In fact, they owned both the "values" and defense ground in 2004. And, as has been widely noted, the number of minority voters favoring George W. Bush increased considerably this year. A correlation? Ya think? On Election Day, Arizona Republic reporters hit the streets looking for meaning among voters. Among the people they found was attorney Dustin C. Jones, a Black man: "People trust in Bush, his character. It came down to security." And they found Manuel Molera, a construction-development consultant who is Hispanic: "We need someone with good morals." Both men voted for Bush. They didn't vote for him, I suspect, because of his eloquence or his debating skills or even necessarily because they judge him a good president overall. But they trusted him to advance that which they value. In Arizona and nationally, 44 percent of Hispanics voted for Bush - an increase of 10 percent over 2000. Among Black voters, Bush improved just incrementally, but in the death-match battleground states of Ohio and Florida - where both major candidates needed every vote they could get - Bush did far better among Blacks than he did elsewhere. I don't know if that is a pattern destined to continue. I don't know if Republicans won't do something to bollix up their appeal to minorities. They have before. But I do know that there is an attitude among some sectors of the left - not all, certainly - that sneers at the very issues that prompted so many minority voters toward Bush this year. And I think those liberals may do more to push minorities toward the GOP than anything the GOP ever does by itself. When liberals rail about religious hayseeds who supposedly put Bush over the top with their obsession with moral issues, just who do they think those voters were? They weren't all White Southern Baptists in ill-fitting blue suits and white socks. A huge percentage of them were the minority voters that Democrats so often get accused of taking for granted. All that sneering over values-voters is telling minorities something about Democrats that I really don't think Democrats want them to be hearing. But there is a drift among some liberals - and, again, I stress the some - that is worse than that. You read about it in national stories about editorial cartoonists and liberal talk-show hosts. And perhaps you read about it two weeks ago in a column I wrote. There are some on the left who are so full of themselves as paragons of moral virtue that they actually believe they have the right to denigrate a minority - employing the most contemptible racist language - if he dares to do what 44 percent of Arizona Hispanics did on Nov. 2. That is to say, support George Bush. Quibble with the specifics if you must (you can find one quibbler elsewhere on these pages), but I had the odd experience last week of hearing two different university professors - in separate venues - argue that it is OK to call Secretary of State Colin Powell an "Uncle Tom" because he works for Bush. Both these professors can fairly be described as Caucasian Gentlemen of the Left. It's not that I simply think these fellows are judgmentally wrong. I think they have gone bonkers. But the real judgment - the only one that counts - will be that of minority voters themselves, who react to such appalling arrogance. With their feet. Doug MacEachern can be reached at doug.maceachern@arizonarepublic.com or at (602) 444-8883.

To: LindyBill who wrote (89415)	12/6/2004 1:47:34 PM
From: Neeka	Respond to of 793964

Now the IRC have two things to mourn. They lost their Palestinian founder, and brother of Yassar last Wednesday to, of all things, stomach cancer. M Arafat's brother Fathi dies of cancer CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Fathi Arafat, the brother of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and founder of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, died Wednesday. He was 67. Arafat died at 5.20 pm at the Palestine Hospital in suburban Cairo, where he had been receiving treatment for stomach cancer, said Mae Arif, spokeswoman for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Arafat, a physician, was the hospital's director. In New York City, Arafat's nephew, Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, mourned his death. "He was not only an uncle but he was a friend, a personal friend I think," al-Kidwa said. Arafat had been suffering from stomach cancer for about four years and has had two operations in the past three years. Last month, a hospital official said the cancer had spread throughout his body. Arafat quit his position as chairman of the Palestinian Red Crescent three years ago, but has served as honourable chairman. The Red Crescent is the Muslim version of the Red Cross. He was also a senior member of Fatah, the Palestinian Liberation Organization's political movement. Arafat is survived by his wife, Nadia, and two grown children. His funeral will be held Friday at Cairo's Armed Forces mosque and he will be buried in Egypt, according to his relatives. His brother, Yasser Arafat, 75, died Nov. 11 in Paris and was buried at his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. brunei-online.com