The Power Line Picks
FOR THE SENATE
FOR THE HOUSE
OPPORTUNISM KNOCKS IN MISSOURI
Add Rand Paul’s name to the list of opportunists seeking to exploit for political purposes the tragic shooting of young Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The race-hustlers populate the list, of course. So does President Obama who sees a topic in his supposed wheelhouse (but in reality a local matter) through which he can distract attention from his disastrous foreign policy.
Writing in Time Magazine, Paul sees the opportunity to score libertarian points while showing sympathy for the black community, to which he has been pandering for some time. Let’s start with the race pandering.
Paul uses the occasion of the Brown tragedy to say that “given the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, it is impossible for African-Americans not to feel like their government is particularly targeting them.” But Paul makes no attempt to show that the disparities in question — presumably pertaining to conviction rates — are the result of “government targeting,” as opposed to disparities in the commission of crimes. Blacks may feel targeted, but U.S. Senators shouldn’t lend credibility to that feeling by disparaging our justice system unless they provide meaningful analysis to back it up.
Here we see Mirengoff removing the humanity from people & reducing them to colors. (Half a point for "the black community.") Also: Christians may feel that there is a war on Christians &/or Xmas, homophobes may feel there's a homosexual agenda beyond the same rights for LGBT citizens as for other citizens, gullible reactionaries may feel any other bullshit made up to scare the marks by the professional grifters, but none of these lying assholes should lend credibility to that feeling by disparaging reality unless they provide meaningful analysis to back it up.Writing in Time Magazine, Paul sees the opportunity to score libertarian points while showing sympathy for the black community, to which he has been pandering for some time. Let’s start with the race pandering.
Paul uses the occasion of the Brown tragedy to say that “given the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, it is impossible for African-Americans not to feel like their government is particularly targeting them.” But Paul makes no attempt to show that the disparities in question — presumably pertaining to conviction rates — are the result of “government targeting,” as opposed to disparities in the commission of crimes. Blacks may feel targeted, but U.S. Senators shouldn’t lend credibility to that feeling by disparaging our justice system unless they provide meaningful analysis to back it up.
"Presumably pertaining to conviction rates." Or sentencing disparities, or the fact that more Eurotrash Americans than African Americans are found to have "contraband" when stopped & frisked for no legal or other reason. Well, it's not as if Mirengoff is an att'y. or anything & might be expected to know anything about legal issues.
Or as we are so often forced to say (Not that much force, we kind of like it.): "Christ, what an mother-fucking asshole."
"Christ, what a mother-fucking asshole."
ReplyDeleteThat about sums it up.
Rgds,
Tengrain
Legal Editor:
ReplyDeleteThe generic/default New Yorker cartoon caption seemed to need an extra compound-word for this particular case.