Thursday Open Thread

Filed in National by on April 22, 2010

Is it Thursday already? This week is really flying by fast. Frankly, I’m exhausted by all the chicken jokes. Who knew there were so many? Let’s open this open thread and you share what’s on your mind.

Michael Steele strikes again! This time with what we call a political gaffe, when a politician accidentally speaks the truth.

Why should an African-American vote Republican?

“You really don’t have a reason to, to be honest — we haven’t done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True,” Republican National Chairman Michael Steele told 200 DePaul University students Tuesday night.

…

“We have lost sight of the historic, integral link between the party and African-Americans,” Steele said. “This party was co-founded by blacks, among them Frederick Douglass. The Republican Party had a hand in forming the NAACP, and yet we have mistreated that relationship. People don’t walk away from parties, Their parties walk away from them.

“For the last 40-plus years we had a ‘Southern Strategy’ that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South. Well, guess what happened in 1992, folks, ‘Bubba’ went back home to the Democratic Party and voted for Bill Clinton.”

Republicans are doing nothing to bring African-Americans to their party right now. Their tea party protests often contain outright racists and they didn’t help themselves by declaring Civil Rights leaders liars. Now Republicans are busy working on alienating latino voters as well. Great job guys!

Iranian President Ahmadinejad has some cockamamie plan to evacuate Tehran to save people from a devastating earthquake there. An Iranian cleric has an explanation for why earthquakes happen in the first place.

In the best both-sides-of-every-issue newsmedia tradition, Reuters reports a different opinion on the best way to preserve Tehran:

Leading Friday prayers, the focal point of Iran’s religious week, Ayatollah Kazem Sadighi said better observance of Islamic rules on modesty would help ward off an earthquake. “Those women who dress inappropriately will tempt youngsters and it will finally lead major sins being committed and in that case the wrath of God will be sent upon us,” he said.

Isn’t always the woman’s fault?

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Opinionated chemist, troublemaker, blogger on national and Delaware politics.

Comments (9)

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  1. Unstable Isotope says:
    April 22, 2010 at 1:04 pm

    Greg Sargent explains that Steele’s gaffe is a BFD because it acknowledges the existence of a Southern strategy:

    But I think folks are missing the real news in what Steele said. The RNC chairman also appeared to acknowledge that the GOP has had a race-based “southern strategy” for four decades, which is decidedly not a historical interpretation many Republicans agree with.

    …

    I’m not sure this is an interpretation most Republicans would agree with. The standard line is that, yes, Nixon did employ a “southern strategy.” But most Republicans would strongly contest the idea that Reagan tried to use racial division for electoral gain, an idea advanced by liberals who point out that Reagan opened his 1980 presidential campaign in the town where Civil Rights workers were murdered.

    Similarly, many Republicans would reject the claim that Republican candidates like George H.W. Bush engaged in a race-based strategy with the Willie Horton ads, or that Bush the Younger or John McCain engaged in subtle race-based appeals.

    But here you have the chairman of the Republican National Committee saying, in effect, that liberals are right to have argued that Republicans have used race for political gain for the last four decades. Seems significant.

    Go read the whole post to get the bonus angry GOP response email.

  2. Unstable Isotope says:
    April 22, 2010 at 2:58 pm

    Harry Reid has filed for cloture on the Financial Reform bill. The vote could come as soon as Monday.

  3. MJ says:
    April 22, 2010 at 4:14 pm

    Something not political – Sir Elton John’s letter to Ryan White 20 years after Ryan’s death

  4. Unstable Isotope says:
    April 22, 2010 at 7:08 pm

    I’m seeing on the Twitter that Michelle Rollins is speaking to the 9/12 Patriots in Millsboro.

  5. Unstable Isotope says:
    April 22, 2010 at 7:34 pm

    According to the livetweeting of Rollins – Castle has renounced his “yes” vote on cap & trade. Does anyone know about this?

  6. anon says:
    April 22, 2010 at 7:37 pm

    List of candidate twitter accts – http://blogs.delawareonline.com/dialoguedelaware/2010/04/20/house-candidates-lining-up-twitter/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

  7. Jason330 says:
    April 22, 2010 at 8:18 pm

    Castle reminds me of the fat drug addled Elvis who could not remember the words to his songs. Istad of drugs Castle is addled by the DEGOP base.

  8. Brooke says:
    April 22, 2010 at 9:34 pm

    Thank you, MJ. Although I would quarrel with the ‘not political” tag. 😉

  9. MJ says:
    April 22, 2010 at 11:19 pm

    One person who went to that meeting said “they are a bunch of angry people.” Guess they want their country back.

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