In Bob Schaffer's Defense ... (Colorado US Senate race)

In Bob Schaffer's Defense ...
08.06.08 -- Josh Marshall -- http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/207244.php

We've hit pretty hard over recent months on Colorado GOP senate candidate Bob Schaffer. First there were his ties to Jack Abramoff and his sweat shop enslaving pals in the Mariana Islands. Then he was tied to a felony trial where one of his old political handlers was convicted of defrauding the government. And the last we heard from him he was cutting an oil deal with the Iraqi Kurds that the State Department said endangered America. So it's been a solid campaign so far.

But today's news that his son was found to have a series of arguably racist statements and images on his site as well as a photo of Obama doctored to look like he's a member of the Taliban raises an interesting possibility (update: Jr.'s college is now apparently considering disciplinary action against him.)

The 'joke' on Schaffer's Facebook site that got the most attention was a poster which reads "Slavery Gets Shit Done" against a backdrop of the Egyptian pyramids.

Now, as you remember, back in April, unprompted, Schaffer touted the guest worker program in the Mariana Islands as a great model ...........

Explusion, and fined $100,000 for network clogging and another fine of $900,000 for general stupidity.

Hawkeye-X

This is ridiculous; his points of view, while disagreeable, are points of view that should be allowed to be aired, be it through Facebook, Myspace, or a blog.

Tell that to Hitler!

Hatred needs to be answered before it incites action.
Vigilance is required if we are to avoid the dangers of hatred.

I, for one, do not want to return to the political times when Dems were assassinated.

I do not want the USA to turn into an Argentina, where 30,000 liberals "disappeared" with the help of these Repukes!

George Bush Sr. May Face Charges: Conspiring to Kidnap and Murder Political Activists
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2459135

Italy: Judge issues 140 arrest warrants in "Plan Condor" case. Bush NOT YET indicted.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2528536

If we restrict speech that is "hateful" or "unpopular", we have tyranny of the majority, or of the ruling class.

Hitler was not a product of free speech ... he was a product of the Great Depression and hyperinflation in Germany.

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AOL Time Warner is facing a lawsuit that accuses AOL of allowing hate speech to be published in its Muslim chat rooms.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,2094323,00.htm

The plaintiff, Saad Noah, is alleging that the Internet Service Provider (ISP) allowed offensive comments, which were posted in the "Koran and Beliefs: Islam" chat rooms in 1998 and 1999, to go unsanctioned. Noah says he cancelled his AOL membership after repeatedly asking the company to address the issue.

The lawsuit, which has been filed in the US District Court of Alexandria, is seeking an injunction against AOL that would force the ISP to stop its members from posting offensive opinions. Noah's legal team is basing the case on the argument that a public chat room is a place of entertainment, which should thus be free of harassment under the US Civil Rights Act of 1964. ......

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About Morris Dees = http://www.kepplerspeakers.com/speakers/speakers.asp?1+EV+468

Civil rights and diversity speaker Morris Dees is the co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit group specializing in lawsuits involving civil rights violations, domestic terrorism, and hate-motivated crimes. Dees and his associates have successfully battled and dismantled a series of hate groups, including the Aryan Nation and Ku Klux Klan, and have secured huge criminal, civil, and financial judgments against them.

Morris Dees is a strong proponent of education about civil rights and the civil rights movement, and was instrumental in the creation of the Civil Rights Memorial in Mobile, Alabama. For his efforts as an attorney and activist, Dees was named the Trial Lawyer of the Year in 1987 by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and received the National Education Association’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Award in 1990.

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Civil rights attorney speaks about racism
Josh Rabon - http://media.www.dailygamecock.com/media/storage/paper247/news/2006/03/01/News/Morris.Dees.Scalawag.Or.Saint-1641952.shtml

Students, community members and hate group leaders gathered at the Koger Center on Monday night to hear Morris Dees, the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center. ......

August Kreis, the new head of the Aryan Nation, was in attendance and sat in one of the first rows of the auditorium. The Aryan Nation lost a $6.3 million lawsuit -- argued by Dees -- that drove the group into bankruptcy in 2000.

"There are some here who I certainly did not invite," Dees said. "August Kreis, who is head of the Aryan Nation, or what's left of it. The First Amendment protects his right to pass out whatever he may print, but take that with a large grain of salt."

much less infringe on the First Amendment.

and his upbringing by them

So do many corporations.

Free speech means the government cannot persecute you for your beliefs. It does not mean that specific institutions cannot develop their own standards of what is appropriate. For instance, if you come to my house and say that African Americans are less intellectually able than white Americans, I'm going to throw your ass out, and urge you not to return. That's not me "persecuting" your thoughts. That's me having a minimum expectation of decency for people who are in my residence. Universities, similarly, are able to develop their own standards for what they consider a "minimum level of decency." Since they are on the front lines of attempting to increase equitable treatment in society, they tend to take a dim view of speech that replicates conditions of oppression. If you don't like that, you had best get on some university boards, or go whine somewhere with David Horowitz. It's not a free speech issue.

I saw his Facebook page and I've seen much worse.

The College itself determines whether its own standards of decency have been violated. Their definition of hate speech or unacceptable speech prevails, not yours. So it's often a question of whether hate speech is hate speech or a "crude joke," and many people who perform such speech hide behind humor as an excuse to continue violating their host's standards.