(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Republicans officially announce that Republicans do not care about black people.

Worth noting: Klansman and stormfront.org wet dream Ron Paul not only attended, but, tellingly, said nothing about racial issues except that the war in Iraq needs to end.

Comments

[vagabond27.livejournal.com]

Well the good news is that none of them will be elected.

[ceramufary.livejournal.com]

I am so incredibly weirded out by the number of LIBERALS here in Arizona who seem to think that Ron Paul is somehow the answer to our prayers. *shudders* I mean, he says flat out that he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, and all the cute liberal kid talking to me about it could say to defend it was "No, really he's just saying it should be a state's rights issue, that each state should be able to make their own law." -- Leaving me so very confused. I mean, these are the same groups that have been totally up in arms about any OTHER candidate/sitting lawmaker who says the same thing, and somehow when Ron Paul says it, it's cool?

He gives me the willies. Here in Arizona, everybody fuckin' loves him, thinking he's somehow some kind of Goldwater Republican, a return to the "old values" of the conservative party. Me? Not buyin' it.

[goaltender.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...I see the Ron Paul Revolution signs all over street corners and the bridges over freeways here in Phoenix, but I haven't talked to anyone that knows who Ron Paul is. Most people I talk to are still loyal to John McCain (yech). I don't think Ron or John have a chance to steer the ship, so I'm not too worried about them.

A little off topic...I wish they would fine these bastards that leave their signs up months after an election.

[kafziel.livejournal.com]

Well, that is pretty much exactly what overturning Roe v. Wade would mean. Roe v. Wade says that the states cannot criminalize or outlaw abortion, as doing so runs afoul of the constitutional right to privacy. Overturning Roe would eliminate the constitutional impediment to anti-abortion law, and allow states to criminalize it again.

[ceramufary.livejournal.com]

I /know/ that's what it means -- and I'm personally against it, though I generally support states's rights. What bothers me is that they've decided that when Ron Paul says it, it's a good thing, even though they've said it was a bad thing in the past.

[mcfnord.livejournal.com]

he said "life begins at conception" which i guess i agree with but politically it means abortion is immoral and illegal.



some guys in hip-hop like him.

[goaltender.livejournal.com]

Oh snap! That's off the hizzy yo!

[goaltender.livejournal.com]

This really is ridiculous...not 1, not 2, but the four leading republican candidates can't be bothered to show up? Pathetic...maybe someone should tell them they only get the job if they convince people to vote for them...sorry, I forgot they can just steal the job.

That being said, last night John Edwards said, "...pretty soon we’re not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They’re all going to be in prison or dead. One of the two...” and, "...We cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem..." How's that for a sweeping generalization/stereotype. Meanwhile, there are more African American males in college than in prison.

We need a 'reset' button. Now.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Wasn't there a statistic that said 80% of black males in the US were involved on the receiving end of the criminal justice system in one way or another at any given time?

ie, con serving sentence, parole, probation, on trial, current suspect?

[goaltender.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about that statistic. I highly doubt the number was that high at any time, but I don't know.

Frankly, I feel like we're just picking at a scab, preventing it from healing.

[goaltender.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's: 80% of the people in the system are black/minorities.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Can't find info on the system. However, as of 2001, it's 64% of prisoners in state prisons are racial/ethnic minorities. For jail inmates across the board, an estimated 40% were black; 19%, Hispanic; 1% American Indian; 1% Asian; and 3% of more than one race/ethnicity.

(For reference: across the board, the US population is 12.1% black; 14.5% Hispanic; 0.8% American Indian; 4.3% Asian; and 1.9% of more than one race or ethnicity.)

[torrain.livejournal.com]

(Upon Googling for this: Black people constituted 49% of the murder victims in the United States in 2005, despite being only 12% of the population. Jesus.)

The one I've heard is that 32% of black males in the US are estimated to go to state or federal prison during their life if current incarceration rates continue. Across the board, it's 6.6%.

Only thing I can find that mentions being processed through the criminal justice system is Tom Ferrick Jr.
mentioning a study he did; fifteen years ago he found that 25% of poor young black men were awaiting trial, serving time in jail, on probation, or on parole. (Nothing on being a suspect; I guess it would be hard to get those numbers.)

Working off the latest information he could get, "about 20,000 black males between the ages of 15 and 29 are currently under criminal supervision", which is 30% of that group. He notes that he couldn't get an income statistics for them, though.

(The US, by the way, appears to have the highest incarceration rate per capita in the world.)

[torrain.livejournal.com]

> Meanwhile, there are more African American males in college than in prison.

Is this an improvement since the 2000 Justice Policy Institute report, or were their numbers faulty?

(Apologies for not being able to find a non-cached version of their report--Google's cached one is here.)

[goaltender.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of the Justice Policy Institute, so I checked out the link you provided (thanks!). Their organization is dedicated to finding alternative, working solutions to incarceration - a service that isn't needed if incarceration is low, so it would be in their best interest if those numbers are high. Doesn't mean their numbers are wrong, I'm just sayin'. Their researchers 'estimated' those numbers in 2000.

My comment was based on an article I read yesterday, which compares the Justice Department's statistics (802,000 black men incarcerated) vs. the Census Bureau's statistics (864,000 black men in college) in 2005. Now, these numbers come from government agencies, so they also make me a little leary, since I rarely see the government get anything right.

I kinda hope both of our figures are correct, since it means a positive trend over time. Hopefully the situation is getting better.

Article I refered to can be found here: http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Yjk3OGY3MDI4NjcyMGZjZjhjZTY2NDhmZTlkODhkMWI=

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Whoops, National Review alert.

You've just hit the Fox News Magazine. Just like Fox, nothing the National Review says can be trusted. Not even that they are the National Review. Since they are such untrustworthy bastards, get independent confirmation of *everything*, and source *that*, not NRO, unless you really enjoy getting caught repeating their lies.