April 10, 2012

"The Zimmerman family is in hiding because of the threats that have been made against us..."

"... yet the DOJ has maintained an eerie silence on this matter. These threats are very public. If you haven’t been paying attention just do a Google search and you will find plenty. Since when can a group of people in the United States put a bounty on someone’s head, circulate Wanted posters publicly, and still be walking the streets?"

A letter from some unnamed relative of George Zimmerman to Attorney General Eric Holder.

Good lord, what an ugly place we are in right now. Who would have thought that in the last year of Obama's presidential term, the public mind would obsess over race at this level? I'm recalling the media coverage of election night, 2008, and the inauguration, when there was a rhapsody of closure and a feeling — some called it "hope" — that we had entered a new era of harmony. How did we get sucked into some nightmare parody of the past? If it's not Obama's fault, can he at least do something to yank us up out of this awful place? In 2009 or even 2011, he would have given a speech. He would have believed he could rescue us with a speech, perhaps because we kind of thought he could. Maybe no one believes anymore. There's a hope vacuum, and look what's moving in.

Posted by Ann Althouse at 8:10 AM
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206 comments:

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Ernst Stavro Blofeld said...

I doubt that this outcome is the result of conscious planning by Obama. In the electoral calculus an incumbent really doesn't want to see race riots on his watch. It's more that it's his default go-to mental pose. If there's a problem involving a minority it must be the result of a racist establishment, and of course everyone is waiting to hear what he has to say about that. (not so much in reality).

But it had the unexpected (to him) result of lashing his prestige to a bunch of race hustlers like Sharpton or the NBPP. He doesn't have an easy way to distance himself from them now.

4/10/12, 7:56 PM
Ernst Stavro Blofeld said...

I doubt that this outcome is the result of conscious planning by Obama. In the electoral calculus an incumbent really doesn't want to see race riots on his watch. It's more that it's his default go-to mental pose. If there's a problem involving a minority it must be the result of a racist establishment, and of course everyone is waiting to hear what he has to say about that. (not so much in reality).

But it had the unexpected (to him) result of lashing his prestige to a bunch of race hustlers like Sharpton or the NBPP. He doesn't have an easy way to distance himself from them now.

4/10/12, 7:57 PM
Kirk Parker said...

Leslyn,

Oh, you're upset because you think you can just unilaterally order people to stop talking?

Sorry: beclown yourself, and the mockery will linger for quite a while after you've left the room. Thurmond, indeed.

4/10/12, 8:19 PM
Martin said...

This is all just the inevitable consequence of having a community organizer as President. No surprise to anyone who has been paying attention since 2007.

4/10/12, 9:59 PM
Micha Elyi said...

Ann, give us, Hillary supporters from primary 2008 credit for seeing the real Obama.
pm317

Alas, pm317, Hillary Clinton is made of the same stuff as Obama - only feminist-flavored. Had she gotten elected instead of Obama, she would have gotten her man-hate on and acted much like Obama has. Don't believe it? Consider this: Hillary Clinton has never talked about equal rights for men and equal rights for only half the population is an oxymoron.

Meanwhile, turning from the hypothetical Hillary-world that was not realized and back to this one in which a black man is "The Man" (per Wanda Sykes), the race card is overdrawn and will now be refused at more and more of the best places. And the statute of limitations on Jim Crow has been reached.

4/11/12, 4:21 AM
leslyn said...

I take what I just said back. I still think the Civil War history, debate over the Civil Rights Act, etc is a distraction from the thread, but I couldn't let this quote from Andy Freeman go by:

"MLK was a Republican." 4/10/12 3:05 P.M.

From Snopes:
Thr end of King's "I Have a Dream" speech came from black pastor Archibald Carey, who delivered a 1952 address to the Republican National Convention. King's speech was delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on 28 August 1963. The resemblance of King's speech to Carey's "...occurs in their perorations: both speeches end with a recitation of the first verse of Samuel Francis Smith's popular patriotic hymn "America" (composed in 1832) and a listing of several American geographic locations from which the speakers exhort their listeners to "let freedom ring":

[Carey, 1952] We, Negro Americans, sing with all loyal Americans: My country 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, Land of the Pilgrim's pride From every mountainside Let freedom ring! That's exactly what we mean —from every mountain side, let freedom ring. Not only from the Green Mountains and White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire; not only from the Catskills of New York; but from the Ozarks in Arkansas, from the Stone Mountain in Georgia, from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia —let it ring not only for the minorities of the United States, but for . . . the disinherited of all the earth —may the Republican Party, under God, from every mountainside, LET FREEDOM RING!

[King, 1968] This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, Land of the Pilgrim's pride From every mountainside Let freedom ring! So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire! Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York! Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi! From every mountainside, let freedom ring!"

King riffed on the end of Carey's speech, but that didn't make King a Republican.

While I'm at it, the Civil Rights Act:
"...Dirksen delivered the needed votes to cut off the filibuster after Humphrey shamed him into doing so on Meet The Press. Before that, Dirksen had cold feet at best about taking on the issue at all. And those moderate Republicans who voted for the bill? Nearly all of them came from states like New York, Vermont, California, and in Dirksen's case, Illinois. Most of those states never elect Republicans to the Senate anymore, and that's no accident. The opposite is true of the states where the Democrats who led the filibuster came from -they never elect Democrats anymore, also not by accident." Also Snopes.

Finally Robert Byrd and the KKK:
"Despite being the only Senator to vote against both African American U.S. Supreme Court nominees (liberal Thurgood Marshall and conservative Clarence Thomas) and filibustering the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Byrd has since said joining the Klan was his "greatest mistake." The NAACP gave him a 100% rating on their issues during the 108th Congress." Wikipedia

Here ENDETH the lesson.

4/11/12, 8:04 AM
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