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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: one_less who wrote (134969)	7/25/2013 8:46:07 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 149317

As always you are painting with an overly broad brush. There were at one time about 400,000 slave owners in the US. There are over a billion black people in the world. Today there are more slaves in chains performing forced labor than ever in history. The USA is one place that sort of thing is not tolerated, where affirmative action is popular and where racial discrimination is legally and culturally actionable. I was only talking obout blacks in the US. And the right never ever wants to discuss what 300+ years of slavery and discrimination might have done to an entire race. The majority of black Americas are not living in Chicago projects. And your point is? My neighbor rode with me to the high school where my daughter attends for the past two years. He graduated and is now in basic training for the Air Force Reserves. He has three jobs waiting for him when he gets home. He takes care of his mother (Immigrant from Kenya) and sister (absent father). He is one of the nicest people I have ever known. And this is germane to the discussion..........why? Every student in America takes more than one class in American history, celebrates Martin Luther King day and has many opportunities to engage in discussions about the history of slavery in the world. Dozens of popular mainstream movies have highlighted the history and modeled the way for a better society. People on the left and right have open discussions on this all the time. Do we still have hateful people who belittle those different than themselves? Yes. Its called groupism and it is not limited to the right wing. I see it as much on this thread as anywhere. You seem to be running the conversation on a different track. Thanks for the input though.

To: one_less who wrote (134969)	7/26/2013 11:12:19 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 149317

In which the Colorado Secretary of State bills taxpayers $122K for defense against $2,800 fine By Laura Conaway - Fri Jul 26, 2013 10:37 AM EDT Last year, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler got fined about $2,800 for using state money to pay for a trip to a Republican lawyers conference. You can argue whether Gessler's fine was a big deal or small one, his just deserts or (as Gessler's office says) the result of a witch hunt by a liberal group. In any case, he was fined about $2,800. Yesterday, the citizens of Colorado got a look at the legal bills -- paid by Colorado taxpayers -- for Gessler's defense. The bills go on, item after item, with a 24 percent discount (pdf) for the secretary of state, and sent directly to his office, under "Bill to: Colorado Department of State." The great ColoradoPols totaled the damage this way: Gessler was found to have "breached the public trust for private gain," and fined the maximum amount–roughly $2,800. That's $122,000 billed to taxpayers to protect Gessler from a $2,800 fine. An awfully bad return on investment, don't you think? If you're keeping track at home, the defense-to-fine ration is about 43:1, rounding down. Just for fun -- because anything this expensive ought to be fun -- my colleague Steve Benen charted the amount taxpayers have spent defending Gessler and the amount of the fine. Click for bigger. You can find the full set of legal bills on Colorado Ethics Watch, where they note that Gessler's defense cost twice the entire legal budget of the state ethics commission. As Gessler fought the charge, the commission spent $63,869 prosecuting the case and responding to Gessler's legal motions. Gessler, we should note, is considering a run for governor next year (also: ColoradoPols calls him the honey badger).