Hans Van Spakovsky Withdraws From FEC Nomination

From The Associated Press:

FEC nominee withdraws name
By The Associated Press
Friday, May 16, 2008

(05-16) 13:55 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

President Bush's contentious nominee for the Federal Election Commission has yanked his name from consideration, potentially ending a broader confirmation deadlock in the Senate.

Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department official who never had Democratic support to win confirmation, withdrew his nomination on Friday.

Bush "reluctantly accepted" von Spakovsky's request, the White House said.

Democrats have objected to von Spakovsky's tenure at Justice, where he oversaw voting rights matters. The standoff has held up other confirmations to the six-member FEC, which is without a quorum and has been unable to conduct business.

In a letter to Bush, von Spakovsky said the long-stalled process has been extremely hard on his family.

Hans has been a pet project over here at JJP. We noticed awhile ago what a danger it would be to have a PROFESSIONAL VOTER SUPPRESSOR AT THE FEC.

So, to everyone to worked together to STOP his appointment to the FEC, thank you.


Related Articles:

Hans Spakovsky Does Not Want You To Vote, But The Democrats Might Not Care

More on Spakovsky

Vote No On Spakovsky


Obama, Others Nix Deal on Spakovsky

Why I Support Barack Obama

John Conyers Moves To Block Vote Caging

Obama Puts Bush and McCain On Blast

via barackobama.com

"George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for..."

Tell me about it. Obama just nails both of these fools. The man is all up in their ish!

McCain Caught Contradicting Himself Again. This Time On Hamas

h/t jedreport

McCain is losing his bearings. And i'm not saying that because he's old. I'm saying it because he's wrong. I can't wait for his propped up, manufactured image of "honor" and integrity collapse under the weight of his own opportunism.

His position on torture, the religious right, campaign finance, the success of the war and now talking to Hamas.

All that's left is the shell of a leader.

This is going to be fun.

Rush Limbaugh: If Barack Obama were Caucasian...

So apparently the new tactic for Republican attacks on Obama is to question his intelligence in a racially tinged manner, thus implying that Barack Obama is receiving some kind of undue advantage due to his racial heritage.

Rush Limbaugh in commenting on an admittedly awkward moment in one of Obama's recent speeches said yesterday:

I am just telling you, if this guy were Dan Quayle -- if he -- can I channel Geraldine Ferraro? If Barack Obama were Caucasian, they would have taken this guy out on the basis of pure ignorance long ago.

Um. Right. Isn't Dan Quayle still active in the Republican party? Is Limbaugh really comparing Obama to Dan "Potatoe" Quayle, the man who said to the United Negro College Fund:

You take the United Negro College Fund model that what a waste it is to lose one's mind or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.

Or who said of human exploration on Mars:

Mars is essentially in the same orbit [as earth]....Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.

I mean, really. If anyone received an unfair advantage, it's Dan Quayle, born into a wealthy and well-connected publishing family. Barack Obama wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth and no one can say the Harvard Law-educated brother ain't got more than a couple of brain cells to rub together.


There's audio over at Media Matters. Grrr.

Mississippi State Senator Called "Ole Nigger" in Email

Really? Has it come to this? Highlights below and thanks to BlackPoliticsontheWeb.com and BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Blacks in the small, Mississippi Delta city of Greenwood are seething over a white city councilman's e-mail that referred to a black political leader, who is highly respected statewide, as an "ole nigger."
[...]
Since Sunday, when the e-mail -- exposed by one of the 15 whites who received it -- and its subsequent furor began attracting statewide national media attention, Greenwood and Leflore County, where it sits, has been bombarded by reactions in the city's newspapers and its talk radio stations.

The e-mail, which Jordan said "is shocking," was sent early last week by John Lee, one of the city's two white Republican councilmen. Since then, Lee has increasingly been scorned and heaped with disdain and contempt by the vast majority of Greenwood's African-American population, according to several residents who asked for anonymity before speaking with BlackAmericaWeb.com. Many blacks are also believed to hold an equal amount of contempt for the other white councilman, John Jennings, who continues to defend the embattled Lee.

In his e-mail, Lee alleged that he "had a long talk after the city council meeting ... with David Jordan. The ole nigger can't understand why the black's (sic) continue to shoot one another. I told him he needed to spend less time with the old people at the Voters League and more time with the young people about getting an education."

Lee's e-mail erroneously claims that Jordan missed an opportunity to help a "big black" who asked him for employment. In fact, according to an outraged Jordan, he had previously employed the young man during several election cycles.

The young man, Lee claimed, told Jordan that he is a rapper. "I told David he missed his chance. He should have told that black boy he should be in school getting his education in order to have a future." Jordan said the "black boy" is a 28-year-old man."

An outraged Jordan, who is also president of the Greenwood Voters League, the political engine which has propelled blacks to growing representation and power since the 1960s, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that "Lee's lying and fabricated a story" which has no factual foundation.

Dr. Boyce Watkins, Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Racist O'Reilly

Can someone please tell me why Racist O'Reilly is still on the air? Bill O'Reilly likes to cover up his own racism by accusing other people of racism such as his head-scratchingly infuriating and inaccurate comparison of Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos to David Duke, professional racist.

At the same time, he's been sending staffers to pressure the boss of Dr. Boyce Watkins, relentless and outspoken critic of Bill O'Racist, in order to silence him. It's not working. Here's Keith Olbermann calling Bill O'Reilly the Worst yesterday after the attacks on Dr. Watkins (O'Reilly is the 3rd segment in this short clip).



Over at BlackProf, Dr. Watkins goes into more detail. I especially enjoyed this section:

In reference to my many “lies” to smear O’Reilly, Keith Olbermann asked Bill one simple question: “If that’s what Watkins said, where are the lies?” In naming Bill O’Reilly “The Worst Person in the World” for his attacks on me and the chancellor, Olbermann quoted my reference to O’Reilly’s statement about wanting to have a “lynching party” on Michelle Obama. O’Reilly speaks of lynching the potential First Lady of the United States, and then has the nerve to call others racist and unpatriotic.

Given my training in finance, I learned one thing about living in a capitalist democracy: money makes people move. O’Reilly also understands this. Money makes good people do bad things and gives bad people an excuse to do good things. Money is the reason Fox News exists, and why this form of “capitalism gone wild” has destroyed the integrity of American journalism. Money is the