IWA For Sunday 110407

Hey folks

It’s Sunday. You know what that means. It’s time for the IWA. OK, I have been doing this for ten years now. My words are out there. I have been debating and analyzing the hot topic issues on Dbs Discussion boards, Chat type sites, and now this Blog for the past year and a half. My words are, as I said, out there. ANYONE can see or read or in a couple of cases, HEAR what I have said.

My old friend Chief Rowley once told me, there are cameras, and mics EVERYWHERE. Always live your live like someone is watching, they probably are, and you will ALWAYS do and say the right thing.

Now you would think that someone in public life all day, everyday, would actually adhere to this philosophy. But more than not, they don’t. This weeks winner, PERFECT example. According to USA Today - Official regrets remarks on black voters

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chief of the Justice Department's voting rights division apologized Tuesday for saying that aging is not a problem with black voters because they die before they become elderly, unlike whites.

Still, some Democrats said they want him fired.

Probably should be. For Stupidity if nothing else.

“I want to apologize for the comments I made at the recent meeting of the National Latino Congreso about the impact of voter identification laws on elderly and minority voters,” said John Tanner, voting section chief of Justice's Civil Rights Division.

“My explanation of the data came across in a hurtful way, which I deeply regret,” he told the House subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties.

You think? Elderly voting is not as big an issue for minorities as it is for Whites. “They die sooner?”

That wasn't good enough for some Democrats, who accused Tanner of policymaking and analysis without facts to back it up. Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., last week called for Tanner's firing.

Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., said that in the 2004 presidential race, for example, the same percentage of eligible black voters as whites cast ballots in his state. But of those groups, more blacks over age 60 voted than whites in the same age group.

Tanner, who said he too is from Alabama, said he was unaware of those statistics.

“You engaged in an analysis without knowing the numbers,” Davis told Tanner. “If you are basing your conclusions on stereotypes rather than facts, then it suggests to some of us that someone else can do this job better than you can.”

That’s really not the point. Just the fact he said what he did, would lead one to believe that he is too ignorant to be in charge of making decisions that effect all people.

It is well documented that black Americans — particularly black males — have shorter life expectancies than whites. A black person born in 2004 had an average life expectancy of 73.1 years, about five years less than for whites, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

At issue are Tanner's remarks Oct. 5 before the National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles. Tanner addressed state laws that require photo identification for voting, saying that elderly voters disproportionately don't have the proper Ids.

“That's a shame, you know, creating problems for elderly persons just is not good under any circumstance,” Tanner said, according to video posted on YouTube. “Of course, that also ties into the racial aspect because our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way white people do. They die first.”

“There are inequities in health care. There are a variety of inequities in this country, and so anything that disproportionately impacts the elderly has the opposite impact on minorities. Just the math is such as that,” Tanner added.

Rep. John Conyers, chairman of the full House Judiciary Committee, said the comment demonstrates “a severe lack of appreciation of what the section's mission should be: that minority voters should not be disenfranchised.”

Conyers and other Democrats complained about Tanner's stewardship of the voting section, and subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said the hearing had been scheduled more than two months before Tanner made the comments. The proceedings, however, were postponed until the Justice Department could make Tanner available to testify, Nadler said.

Tanner has come under fire for clearing a Georgia law that requires voters to show government-issued photo IDs at the polls. It was upheld by a federal judge last month.

Opponents say photo ID laws will disenfranchise minorities, the poor and the elderly who don't have driver's licenses or other valid government-issued photo IDs. Supporters of such laws say they are needed to prevent voter fraud.

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider Indiana's photo ID law, which is similar to Georgia's, this term.

Now I have no problem whatsoever with having to show ID to PROVE you are eligible to vote. A US citizen ETC, but to say minorities die first so it’s not a big problem, was just asinine to say the least. Congratulations John Tanner, you ARE the Idiot of the Week.
Peter

Sources:
USA Today - Official regrets remarks on black voters