Comments on: Alan Keyes for Reparations?!

By: Diggers Realm

Diggers Realm — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 09:01:37 +0000

Asshat Of The Week: Alan Keyes This week we have a "Republican" as the Asshat Of The Week. Here are just a few reasons I have chosen him. Reparations Keyes once referred to reparations as "an insult to our slave ancestors" (more here). Then reversed...

By: Christy Horne

Christy Horne — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 16:08:48 +0000

A lot of still extant corporations directly benefitted from the slave trade, including New York Life, AIG, J.P. Morgan Chase Manhattan Bank, Aetna, and FleetBoston. This talk of reparations isn't going to go away. If the government is smart, they'll plan some form of community-based reparations sooner rather than later, apologize again, and be done with it.

By: Ford Prefect

Ford Prefect — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 04:17:52 +0000

Alan Keyes seems genuine, a rare and difficult approach for a
politician. He appears to ignore "political correctness" and speak his
real mind. There is some precedent for slavery reparations in the
Exodus from Egypt, when the Egyptians were shaken down for gold,
etc., when the slaves left Egypt. Since so much time has elapsed,
however, I think a more rational reparation would be from the
Southern States which had the segregationist laws, "Colored Sit in
the Rear," and legalized discrimination. Those states would they pay
those who suffered under those laws.

By: Ford Prefect

Ford Prefect — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 04:16:20 +0000

Alan Keyes seems genuine
Alan Keyes seems genuine, a rare and difficult approach for a politician. He appears to ignore "political correctness" and speak his real mind. There is some precedent for slavery reparations in the Exodus from Egypt, when the Egyptians were shaken...

By: Ford Prefect

Ford Prefect — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 04:16:07 +0000

By: Ford Prefect

Ford Prefect — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 04:14:37 +0000

By: Christy Horne

Christy Horne — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 19:48:24 +0000

Here's a quote from Keyes re Obama's stance on abortion:

"I would still be picking cotton if the country's moral principles had not been shaped by the Declaration of Independence," Keyes said. He said Obama "has broken and rejected those principles â he has taken the slaveholder's position."

Obama, who has been basking in national celebrity since delivering the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention, suggested Keyes is outside the moderate mainstream of state Republicans.

Asked specifically about the phrase "slaveholder's position," Obama said Keyes "should look to members of his own party to see if that's appropriate if he's going to use that kind of language."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,128477,00.html

By: Charles Jackson

Charles Jackson — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 20:21:21 +0000

Nice try Ambassador. In the quest for political swagger, and payola, what Mr. Keys seems to be saying is that "Negros are still for sale - and that he can buy their vote, if he offers them stuff." Illinois voters should reject this cynical nonsense, and say to Alan Keys, "Go back and tell your master that we don't need your payoff. If they want to give the black community something as reparations, think about Grants for Higher Education.

By: carpeicthus

carpeicthus — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 13:47:55 +0000

Can you point me to a phase when he had his mind to begin with?

By: La Shawn Barber's Corner

La Shawn Barber's Corner — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 13:02:24 +0000

Alan Keyes, Disgruntled Token?
Either Alan Keyes has lost his mind, or he's getting back at The Man. You may have heard of The Man. He's responsible for all that ails the black community.

Keyes is now a slave reparations proponent. A commenter at Ramblings' Journal suggested (...

By: Teri

Teri — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 03:54:26 +0000

If I'm reading this right, Keyes proposes to exempt people from federal income tax, but not from social security tax. Then he says that such employees would be "cheaper to hire than federal tax-paying employees". That is not correct; the federal income tax withholding does not change the employer's cost at all; it comes straight out of the pocket of the employee. The only way that it would be cheaper to hire such employees would be if they were willing to work for lower gross wages to get the same net wages - and then, bingo, we are right back where we started from, with "African-Americans of slave heritage" being paid lower wages than whites doing the same job. If he has been accurately quoted, then he has completely lost his mind.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Tue, 17 Aug 2004 15:10:13 +0000

If his purpose is to demonstrate that a Republican can race-pander with the worst of 'em, I have to concede that Bush has already proven that with some of his efforts aimed at Latinos.

By: KipEsquire

KipEsquire — Tue, 17 Aug 2004 14:51:56 +0000

We already have a reparations program in this country -- it's called Affirmative Action.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Tue, 17 Aug 2004 14:03:27 +0000

Spoons calls Keyes a "racist nutjob bastard" and endorses Obama for the Senate. I haven't researched Keyes' family tree and, absent information to the contrary, presume that his parents were married. Otherwise, I must concur. A self-made man, perhaps?