The KKK's NEW FAN: Former Univ of California Regent Ward Connerly!

Ward Connerly : "God Bless Them!"  (He's talking about the KKK!)

Ward Connerly, the Former University of California Regent best known for fighting against affirmative action, is at it again. This time he's backing Michigan's Proposition 2, an anti-affirmative action initiative. Which the KKK likes a lot.

Ward Connerly (clip on You-Tube here): If the Ku Klux Klan thinks that equality is right -- God Bless Them! Thank them for finally reaching the point where logic and reason are being applied, instead of hate.

Logic? Reason? Two things which Ward Connerly isn't acquainted with, if he thinks the KKK is backing the initiative because of "logic" and "reason" instead of hate, which is their whole organizational purpose.

While a UC regent, Mr Connerly tirelessly advocated for ending affirmative action here in California. And the results are in:

Casualties of Prop 209
Since California's Prop 209 went into effect, racial and ethnic minorities have become a larger part of the state's population, but one wouldn't know it by looking at the students in the University of California system... Black students accounted for 7.5 percent of the high school class of 2005, yet only make up 3 percent of the university student body. Immediately after Prop 209 took effect, black enrollment at the University of California Berkeley plummeted 50 percent and has never quite recovered... Moreover, the UC system added 8,000 students and a new campus in the last decade; however, black student enrollment declined by 36 students during this booming time.

Mr Connerly now works for the UN-aptly named American Civil Rights Institute. There he is amply rewarded for being a right-wing lapdog.

Ward Connerly, the former California regent who failed to topple affirmative action in that state with his notorious Proposition 209 (the "Racial Privacy Initiative") has resurfaced in Michigan with a new weapon, Proposition 2. The name has changed (to the "Michigan Civil Rights Initiative") but the intent is the same: to make it illegal to consider race or gender in hiring.

Here are some of the other things the KKK has been up to lately, besides approving of Proposition 2:

Minister receives KKK threat

Police step up patrols to protect a minister and his church after he receives a message of hate.
A racist flyer, showing an African-American man with a message saying, "A brain is a terrible thing to waste, that's why (expletive) don't have any," was delivered to Reverend Halaini Chan-Williams.

"The knights of the Ku Klux Klan are watching you, and we don't like what we see," the letter continued.

Sept, 2006
Mayor Virgil Penn said he fears for his family's safety after receiving a threatening letter with a Ku Klux Klan signature last week.

The letter, which appeared to be written in crayon, contained only one sentence: ``If you run again for office in the town of Bonita, La., you will `---' KKK.''

``I guess the three blank letters mean I will die,'' said Penn, Bonita's first black mayor. ``To be honest, I'm afraid, not so much for me, but for my family.''

Penn, 37, is married with two children, one of whom still lives at home. He has qualified to run in the Sept. 30 election against three opponents.

•  Sometimes

  you think, "I can't make this shit up".

  This is one of those times.

  by tiggers thotful spot on Sun Nov 05, 2006 at 10:31:03 PM PDT

•  He Could Be. He's a Real Asshole.

  --Bigtime.

  by Gooserock on Sun Nov 05, 2006 at 10:32:40 PM PDT

•  That soundbite was amazing

  It's too bad that Michigan's MSM are so pathetic: none of them has picked up on this. But they've done a bang-up job of protecting Tiger fans from scalped tickets. Ugh.

  by Dump Terry McAuliffe on Sun Nov 05, 2006 at 10:35:16 PM PDT

  •  You notice

    how conservatives are protected from the shark-feeding-frenzy destruction by the MSM?

    I mean, if Cynthia McKinney says something that when you take it out of context sounds a little "off", they crucify her.

    When Ward Connerly says "God Bless the KKK!" he gets to keep his $1 million salary and benefits of being in charge of the Wingnut Institute of Race Relations.

    Kerry botches a joke about Bush, and he has to apologize and cower. Bush makes a joke about (ha! ha!) not finding the WMDs for which 650,000 have now lost their lives, and he goes right along being President, no apology required.

    I hate the double standard! Connerly should be publicly humiliated over his statement.

    by tiggers thotful spot on Sun Nov 05, 2006 at 10:39:57 PM PDT

    •  Spot on

      The no-on-2 forces have made a big issue of "out-of-state" and "California" forces trying to force their agenda on Michiganders. Believe it or not, "out of state" is a major no-no in Michigan politics.

      by Dump Terry McAuliffe on Sun Nov 05, 2006 at 11:16:22 PM PDT

      •  I sort of

        wish that "out-of-state" could be a major no-no everywhere... we have our Prop 90 which is backed by another Wingnut, Howard Rich

        http://www.thenation.com/...

        You won't find Rich's name on any official political contribution records. The estimated $11 million to $14 million he's kicked in (so far) for state initiative campaigns in Arizona, California, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington comes through a cluster of organizations almost as obscure as he is...

        But if this is some cross between self-effacement and stealth, the measures he's bankrolling are mostly stealth. California's Proposition 90, the Protect Our Homes Initiative on the November ballot, is advertised as a way to stop state and local governments from seizing private property by eminent domain and delivering it to private developers.

        ...

        In fact Proposition 90, like similar measures in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Washington, is a Trojan horse. Its major target has nothing to do with Kelo or eminent domain. It's aimed at "takings"--the alleged depreciation of property values through land-use regulations for any purpose but health or safety...

        In effect, Proposition 90 and its siblings, which are opposed by a wide array of cities, counties and planning and environmental groups, would all but close the door to most future environmental and land-use controls...

        Of the roughly $3.7 million raised so far for Proposition 90, much of it to pay signature-gathering firms, only a small fraction comes from within California. The rest, some $3.4 million, has come from the Fund for Democracy, Montanans in Action, Club for Growth State Action, Colorado At Its Best and Americans for Limited Government. In Arizona, Rich's Fund for Democracy and Americans for Limited Government have so far kicked in $1.1 million. In Idaho, the total is $412,000. In Missouri, where the petitions were ruled invalid, the Rich groups spent $2.3 million on the effort. In Washington the total so far is $260,000. In Montana a state judge ruled that petitions for three Rich measures were gathered through "deceit, fraud and procedural noncompliance."

        by tiggers thotful spot on Sun Nov 05, 2006 at 11:20:25 PM PDT

        •  Prop 90, oh dear!

          You're surely aware of Oregon's Measure 37, and what has happened there. Prop 90 is at least as bad, if not worse.

          by Dump Terry McAuliffe on Sun Nov 05, 2006 at 11:22:59 PM PDT

          •  Yes

            I'm hoping the voters see through it, like they mostly did with Ahnold Gropenator's evil special election.

            But it's hard to know what will happen on Tuesday.

            Prop 87 was leading, but every third radio commercial I hear is sponsored by Chevron, and now Prop 87 is trailing. Propaganda works. Goebbels could have gotten a job with a PR firm.

            by tiggers thotful spot on Sun Nov 05, 2006 at 11:24:54 PM PDT

          •  Do you know if this applies to Michigan as well?

            In Michigan we have one of these "eminent domain" ballot measures, I believe it's Prop 5 if memory serves. Do you know if it is also about takings, and interfering with future environmental programs?

            by dconrad on Mon Nov 06, 2006 at 03:34:39 PM PDT

•  If I shrink my mind down to pea-brain level......

  can I be a racist-suck-up gop goof too?

  by Monique Radevu on Sun Nov 05, 2006 at 11:19:03 PM PDT

  •  It's a nice gig if you can get it

    I suggest reading my new book:

    

    by tiggers thotful spot on Sun Nov 05, 2006 at 11:21:52 PM PDT

    •  Ah, already have their Ventriloquism for Dummies!

      here's a link you might like...possible career for Dubya

      by Monique Radevu on Sun Nov 05, 2006 at 11:27:16 PM PDT

•  Connerly doesn't think the KKK is using logic

  But I don't think he even cares. He is apparently willing to ally himself with anyone who will support his quixotic quest to destroy affirmative action, and the fact that he would extend that even to the Klan just shows that he is devoid of values.

  Fortunately, I get the chance to vote against the MCRI here in Michigan tomorrow. Unfortunately, from prowling a few blogs here in Michigan a while back, I get the impression that there is pretty broad support for it, and I'm afraid it's going to pass. By the numbers:

  EPIC-MRA, Oct. 26-30 (Oct. 22-25) n=600
  In favor 49% (40%)
  Opposed 42% (44%)
  Undecided 9% (16%)

  EPIC-MRA is based in Lansing, MI. They polled 600 likely voters. These polls from last week seem to show the undecideds coming down solidly in favor of the ban. I did find a paper reporting a poll from this weekend, though, which shows better numbers:

  EPIC-MRA Nov. 3

  In favor 45%

  Opposed 40%

  No mention of the sample size, but it may very well be the same since it's the same org. This implies 15% undecided. I don't know how to read that, maybe this is asking the question a different way?

  Anyway, a great antidote to the KKK is Morris Dees and his fantastic Southern Poverty Law Center. They have an education program called Teaching Tolerance and a tolerance.org web site.

  These are the folks who basically finished off the national KKK by winning a massive court judgment against them. I post these links here as penance, since I have gotten solicitations from his org this year, but I ignored them because I decided to devote all available funds for giving to political campaigns this year.

  I'm really glad we posted the same thing yesterday, tigger, because I probably wouldn't have found your diary otherwise (I rarely have enough time to read more than a fraction of the stuff on here). But it has already become one of my favorites.

  by dconrad on Mon Nov 06, 2006 at 02:34:31 PM PDT