To be an effective advocate for progressive causes and social issues, it is important that you know your opponents. Understanding their positions, especially those coming from smart people with whom you may disagree, will help you hone your position and strengthen your arguments.
With that in mind, Joey Novick and I travelled to Morris Township earlier today to have a conversation with Republican Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll. Carroll is a libertarian in the Ron Paul mode, and while most of his views are outside of what we may consider the mainstream, he is firmly entrenched in his principals. Our discussion included slavery, marriage equality, the voting rights act, anti-bullying legislation, medical marijuana, and what to do about Camden's crime and poverty. Some of Carroll's thoughts may be surprising or even shocking.
Reverend Reginald Jackson made quite a name for himself leading the charge against racial profiling by the state police. From the Black Church Source:
He is best known however for his leadership in the fight against racial profiling and reform of the New Jersey State Police which resulted in New Jersey passing legislation and signed by the governor making racial profiling a crime.
Today Governor Christie, a man who claims support from Rev. Jackson, will be campaigning for a strong advocate of racial profiling in Iowa, Congressman Steve King.
According to Steve King racial profiling is justifiable both for anti-terror, immigration and general law enforcement:
It's unfortunate many innocent people fit that profile... I suggest we score people according to a weight system and turn our focus in proportion to the degree of the score, that makes sense.
Yikes. Congressman King again justified racial profiling in the controversial Arizona Immigration law:
Profiling has always been an important component of legitimate law enforcement... it's not wrong to use race or indicators for the sake of identifying people who are violating the law.
The parts after about shoes and grooming are too wacky to even respond to.
Is Rev. Jackson OK with Christie campaigning for this Congressman?
Congressman King has also gone to say borderline racist things about President Obama:
REP. STEVE KING (R), IOWA: Figure this out, Madam Speaker. We have a very, very urban Senator Barack Obama who has decided to run for president, and what does he do? He introduces legislation to create a whole new Pigford claim.
KING: We have got to stand up at some point and say, we're not going to pay slavery reparations in the United States Congress. That war's been fought. That was over a century ago. That debt was paid for in blood, and it was paid for in the blood of a lot of Yankees especially.
And there's no reparations for the blood that paid for the sin of slavery. No one's filing that claim.
King also claimed the President "favors blacks by default."
When you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States -- I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam? I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the radical Islamists, the al-Qaida, the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11 because they will declare victory in this War on Terror. Additionally, his middle name (Hussein) does matter. It matters because they read a meaning into that in the rest of the world... They will be dancing in the streets if he's elected president. That has a chilling aspect on how difficult it will be to ever win this Global War on Terror."
Does Rev. Jackson think endorsing these views and campaigning for this man to stay a member of Congress, as Christie is doing today, is appropriate?
Update: The Assembly Appropriations Committee released the bill to the Assembly by a vote of 10-1-2.
When he's not pushing bad policy in Trenton, Assemblyman Merkt is an historian and amateur astronomy buff. An almost equally famous astronomer, Galileo Galilei, once was condemned and sentenced to house arrest by the Catholic church for theorizing that the Earth revolved around the sun.
Pope John Paul II formed a commission to study that controversy - one of the "dark pages" in the church's past. In 1992 the commission's report said that the mistakes of the judges who tried Galileo needed to be acknowledged:
This subjective error of judgment, so clear to us today, led them to a disciplinary measure from which Galileo had much to suffer. These mistakes must be frankly recognized, as you, Holy Father, have requested" (L'Osservatore Romano, November 1, 1992).
350 years after Galileo's death, Pope John Paul II apologized for their actions. The next year, he apologized for the church's role in the African slave trade, and later to Jews, women and other minorities. "Never again," he said.
What does this have to do with the good Assemblyman? One might think that Merkt - a convert to Catholicism - would understand the value of acknowledging the past and apologizing for New Jersey's mistakes.
"Who living today is guilty of slave holding and thus capable of apologizing for the offense?" asked Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris. "And who living today is a former slave and thus capable of accepting the apology? So how is a real apology even remotely possible, much less meaningful, given the long absence of both oppressor and victim?"
Merkt may not think the pope's historic apologies were meaningful either, but the rest of the world welcomed them as an important step towards reconciliation.
Slavery was a deeply painful scar on the conscience of American history and this apology would be an important symbol in healing division. Everyone who understands that there is no statue of limitations on morality should support Assemblyman Payne's bill.
As for Merkt - does he think the Vatican should take back its apology? Or is this an intellectually inconsistent attempt at race-mongering?
Lap of Luxury: You have recently inherited a lot of money from your dear old aunt who passed away. Along with the cash from her estate, you have also become the owner of a large and fertile tract of land near Charleston, S.C. You have determined that the most profitable course of action is to build a plantation for the purpose of growing cotton. You have also established that slave labor is the only way of running your plantation without catastrophic personal and financial ruin. However, your dear aunt also has two sisters who may veto your plans if not properly convinced, and then withhold your inheritance from you. Mrs. Chomko and Mrs. Rutzler, your aunts, must be persuaded that slave labor is the best choice, because they are from the North and aren't sure that they agree with slavery. Keep in mind that your aunts have moral as well as financial questions about your decision to use slave labor.
Your job: Create an advertisement that will convince your aunts that your idea is the best course of action.
First, create a list of the pros and cons of using slave labor. Then use the ideas from your list to create an advertisement that you plan to run in the newspaper, where your aunts will see it. You are hoping that your ad will be sufficiently persuasive that, upon seeing it, your aunts will give you the green light to begin building your new home.
Your advertisement must contain:
1. A catchy slogan (or name) for your plantation.
2. At least three reasons why slave labor is the best idea.
3. Reasons why your plantation won't be financially sound if it doesn't use slave labor.
4. Illustrations.
This assignment is so simple and so inoffensive that a sixth grader should be able to do it with no problem, right? Yeah, not if you actually know a little bit about South Carolina and history. Make the jump with me.
It seems Guttenberg Mayor David Delle Donna's wife, Anna, has gotten used to a certain lifestyle.
According to a federal indictment unsealed today that charges both of them with extortion and mail fraud charges, the first lady spent thousands in ill-gotten cash on cosmetic surgery, Atlantic City gambling trips and department store gift cards.
The indictment also says Anna Delle Donna, at 58 nine years her husband's senior, spent over $1,000 on a dog and "related accessories" and that both took liquor bottles from the town bar owner accused of paying the kickbacks.
In exchange for the cash, the indictment charges, the mayor helped the bar owner with problems she was having with police over security issues, "the improper storage and disposal of garbage," and her efforts to get a variance for construction on a piece of residential property.
Make the jump with me. There may be something more serious than garden-variety political corruption here. Take your pepto.
