Sandy Hook

Sandy Hook

Friday, December 16, 2011

'White Only," a Revealing Poll and Some Good News


In a creative twist to "I'm not racist," an Ohio landlord defends the above sign she had hanging on the gate to her pool: "I'm not a bad person," said Jamie Hein of Cincinnati. “I don’t have any problem with race at all. It’s a historical sign.”  The sign is dated 1931 and from Alabama.

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission, however, found that Hein did indeed violate the Ohio Civil Rights Act by posting the sign. Hein has asked the commission to reconsider the decision: "I've never said anything to that child . . . . If I have to stick up for my white rights, I have to stick up for my white rights. It goes both ways."

Despite her lame attempts to hide her racism, Heim just might get her wish. Not every case is black and white. 

Hear ye, hear ye - what's in a poll?

A shout out to Congress, especially to those on the right side of the aisle (but Democrats don't have a hell of a lot to brag about):
Fifty percent of those surveyed by Pew said that they believe the 112th Congress has accomplished less than other Congresses – and of those saying this Congress has been unproductive, 40 percent say Republican leaders bear most of the blame. Thirty-two percent said leaders of both parties are equally at fault, and 23 percent said Democratic leaders are more to blame.
Republicans also do not fare well when it comes to the public’s perceptions of the GOP’s ability to work together with Democrats. Fifty-three percent of respondents in the Pew poll said the Republican Party is “more extreme” than the Democratic Party in its positions; 51 percent said that Democrats are more willing to work together with the other side; 41 percent viewed Democrats as better able to manage the government; and 45 percent called the Democratic Party “more honest and ethical.”
Some good news this week:

Besides the end to the Iraq war - welcome news to everyone except John McCain - we have the SEC finally doing what it should have done a long time ago:
The Securities and Exchange Commission has brought civil fraud charges against six former top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying they misled the government and taxpayers about risky subprime mortgages the mortgage giants held during the housing bust.

Those charged include the agencies' two former CEOs, Fannie's Daniel Mudd and Freddie's Richard Syron. They are the highest-profile individuals to be charged in connection with the 2008 financial crisis.

Mudd, 53, and Syron, 68, led the mortgage giants when the housing bubble burst in late 2006 and 2007. The four other top executives also worked for the companies during that time.

The case was filed in federal court in New York City.
Also long overdue, the Department of Justice has issued a report accusing Phoenix sheriff Joe Arpaio, Phoenix's answer to Adolf Hitler, of “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos” that “reaches the highest levels of the agency.”
The inquiry’s findings paint a picture of a department staffed by poorly trained deputies who target Latino drivers on the roadways and detain innocent Latinos in the community in their searches for illegal immigrants. The mistreatment, the government said, extends to the jails the department oversees, where Latino inmates who do not speak English are mistreated.
“The absence of clear policies and procedures to ensure effective and constitutional policing,” the report said, “along with the deviations from widely accepted policing and correctional practices, and the failure to implement meaningful oversight and accountability structures, have contributed to a chronic culture of disregard for basic legal and constitutional obligations.”
If  America's toughest sheriff refuses to enter into a court approved settlement agreement, he will get slapped with a lawsuit and his empire could lose millions of dollars in federal money.

I expressed my total loathing of this man back in August 2010:
Arpaio doesn't count sheep at night. He counts Latinos and three Latinos are three Latinos too many. His ego is bigger than his paunch, so even after a restless night's sleep with nightmares of brown men refusing to shine his patrol car, he still has the energy to do a cheap imitation of John Wayne for the media.
But Arpaio is no Grade B actor in a Grade B movie playing the part of the bad guy. He is the real thing - a malicious brute. He uses chain gangs, deliberately humiliates inmates by forcing them to wear pink underwear, houses prisoners in tents with temperatures of over 110 degrees, and, he makes sure medical care is only a dream.

To say that Arpaio is obsessed with immigration is to say that a ballet dancer is obsessed with staying fit and trim.

My idea of a suitable punishment for Arpaio is to dress him in pink undies, put him in a stockade out in the middle of the Sonoran Desert without benefit of food, water or toilet facilities until he's reduced to a pile of  dried up shriveled bones.

13 comments:

  1. FINRA and the SEC have been busy, busy, busy lately...at last...and I'm tickled!

    Now, do me a favor and take on SC's Nikki Haley.

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  2. Just what are "white rights"? And the signs OK because it was from 1931 and Alabama? This lady is whacko!

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  3. On the slight chance anyone had any doubts about her being a racist, Jamie Hein of Cincinnati spilled the beans when she said: "If I have to stick up for my white rights, I have to stick up for my white rights."

    Rights don't come in colors, but racists do.

    USA Today and Gallup had a poll out the other day with more-disturbing results. In 2008 swing states where Obama had an 8 percent advantage and Democrats enjoyed an 11 percent lead in party identification, Dems now are a statistically dicey 2 points ahead. Caving in is a bad political habit. Costly, too.

    Arpaio belongs in law enforcement the way a junkie belongs in pharmacy school. My only reservation about your prescription for comeupppance, L.P., is that it could make him a martyr to enough bigoted right-wing whack jobs that he might end up being vaulted to higher political office. Arpaio is of the same low-grade material as Republican governors in several states and would perversely make a perfect follow on to Jan Brewer.

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  4. My god, what scum. Can he be arrested for something?

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  5. @XE: Me thinks you're being far too polite. ;)

    @Nance: Maybe Haley will be next?

    @JC: Aren't all racists?

    @SW: She also claims that this "collectible" is on private property. I have a couple of "Whites Only" signs I've found here and there but I don't display them where everyone who passes by can see them - actually, they're tucked away. Apparently, some passer-by "collected" it for themselves.

    I'm not getting into this "caving" business. There are too many false facts flying around from both extremes and I'm finding the claim "he promised" not to always be true. Plus, as far as the presidential polls, I think it's still very early in the game; people do change their minds.

    Your response to my "comeuppance" for Arpaio is no doubt true. :(

    @Murr: "Scum" may also be too polite a term.

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  6. Signs like that only belong as part of a display in a civil rights museum.

    Well, unless you keep them tucked away as you have!

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  7. If she'd wanted to post the "whites only" sign, the freaking fence was the wrong place. Posting it under an awning (it is almost a century old, after all - the weather can't be doing it any good) with another sign giving context - yeah, that might work. Putting it out there on the fence where it's the first thing a black swimmer might encounter? Yeah, that's either racist, or criminally stupid: either way, it should be punished.

    And Arpaio? Yeah, about time that the rest of America learned what the left had already figured out....

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  8. @dmarks: Well, for awhile I did have mine hanging on the wall behind the toilet. . .

    @NC: I'm not sure the weather would harm this sign; they were made out of the same materials as license tags and were built to last. She knew damn well what she was doing.

    There was one report that Arpaio has announced his resignation but I haven't been able to verify it. There are plenty of calls for him to resign, however, but I think he's too pugnacious. We'll see.

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  9. Leslie: I trust your judgement as to where such a thing can be placed.

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  10. L.P. responded to my comment, in part, ". . .I'm finding the claim 'he promised' not to always be true."

    I wasn't just referring to the president. Democrats generally have a bad caving-in habit. The middle of last week I saw the "news" congressional Dems had about decided to drop the teeny, tiny tax increase on income above $1 million. While in the background a bunch of millionaires are telling them to go ahead and raise their taxes. I'm left wonder, what does it take for these toffee-spined lame brains to summon the political will to do what's obviously right and desperately needed?

    And yes, for his part Obama should've been on the phone pressing Democrats to stand firm on raising the million-plus income tax.

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  11. I'm thinking maybe Democratic leaders in the House and Senate must have told Obama something when he was running for president. Something like, "You don't tell us what to do and we won't tell you what to do". The dems disunity is at an all time high, and that means we have a one party dictatorship waiting to take power again.

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  12. @SW: I reread your first comment and I did misinterpret it. I apologize - had the other on my brain after a long, rather frustrating argument with a couple of folks on FB who were missing my point. Then I turn right around and miss yours. for the most part, the Democrats in Congress have shown themselves to be wet noodles.

    @Dave: It's all pretty discouraging and more than a little frightening, isn't it? I hope we the people will look for stronger candidates to replace the spineless ones but I doubt that anyone with a grain of sense would want to run for office these days.

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