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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bentway who wrote (522042)	10/20/2009 12:07:04 PM
From: longnshort	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1583679

Justice concludes black voters need Democratic Party U.S. blocks N.C. city's nonpartisan vote By Ben Conery 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. 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. 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. 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." 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. In interviews in sleepy downtown Kinston - a place best known as a road sign on the way to the Carolina beaches - residents said partisan voting is largely unimportant because people are personally acquainted with their elected officials and are familiar with their views. "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. Mr. Cooke said his group does not take a position on this issue and would not disclose his personal stance, but expressed skepticism about the Justice Department's involvement. washingtontimes.com

To: bentway who wrote (522042)	10/20/2009 12:31:39 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1583679

"Are we talking rural areas?" Pretty much. That judge that wouldn't marry interracially and the pool that wouldn't let blacks swim didn't arise in a vacuum. Those are just two incidents that made the national news. Many southern whites feel integration and having to accept blacks as equals has been FORCED upon them. They AREN'T "past it". They follow the letter of the law, but violate the spirit whenever they find a way. Like our shorty here, they feel THEY are being discriminated against and forced to accept blacks as their equals, when they KNOW this is not true. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.......but there is so much evidence these days that their thinking is out of line. You would think they would get it.

To: bentway who wrote (522042)	10/20/2009 12:33:54 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1583679

You got to do this quiz....its for a good cause. The Nation gets 10 cents for every correct answer: OMG GOP WTF omggopwtf.com I got 5 out of 5 so the pressure is on........<g>