Posted on 08/08/2005 10:26:19 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
A featured speaker at Saturday's civil rights march in Atlanta said the Bush administration and Republican Party leaders are "thieves" who "need to be locked up" for stealing the past two presidential elections and presiding over federal budget deficits and the war in Iraq.
"They all need to be locked up because they are all criminals and they are all thieves," said Judge Greg Mathis, the star of the syndicated television program "The Judge Mathis Show."
Mathis made his remarks to an enthusiastic crowd assembled in Atlanta to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Participants are launching a two-year campaign to extend and strengthen key aspects of the act when it expires in 2007.
"It is indeed criminal to steal an election and within two years run up a federal deficit of half-a-trillion dollars, send our young people over to Iraq to die for an unjust war. What they are doing is criminal," Mathis said to loud cheers.
The march was sponsored by the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and included leaders from the National Urban League, The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the NAACP, and the AFL-CIO.
Entertainer/activist Harry Belafonte also used charged rhetoric during the march when he referred to black members of the Bush administration as "black tyrants."
Mathis, whose speech drew the largest and most raucous reception from the crowd, also chastised the Supreme Court for its role in the 2000 presidential recount.
"[The] Supreme Court was an accomplice to the biggest election crime in history in 2000. And I call it a crime because indeed that is exactly what it was," he said to applause.
The Bush administration was equated with past policies of slavery and segregation and labeled "the enemy of our (black America's) progress" by Mathis.
"They shot and missed when they enslaved, segregated and oppressed our people. They shot and missed when they stole the past two presidential elections. They shot and missed when they denied our right to vote," Mathis said.
An extension and strengthening of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is imperative to ensure black Americans the right to vote, according to Mathis. "The enemy of democracy continues to attack voting rights here, while they try to fight for democracy in Iraq," he said.
'Intimidation and discrepancies'
Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California appeared at the march and noted that minorities may not have had full voting rights in the last two presidential elections.
"Some changes have to be made so we don't have a repeat of 2000 and 2004 where there was intimidation and discrepancies at the polls," Pelosi told Cybercast News Service during the voting rights march.
"In the state of Ohio, where they had fewer voting booths and long lines in minority neighborhoods and no lines and many voting booths in white neighborhoods, that the balance is not what it should have been," she added.
U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) echoed the accusation of many at the march that Bush was an illegitimate president.
"The last two elections were stolen. They were stolen and so we will not rest until we reclaim our democracy and this is what today is all about," Lee told the crowd gathered.
Lee also called the war in Iraq "unnecessary, immoral and illegal" and added "our nation was lied to in order to justify this invasion and occupation."
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) made it clear who the marchers were directing their anger at on Saturday.
"We are here to take on President Bush, [Vice President] Dick Cheney. We are here to take on [House Majority Leader] Tom DeLay. We are here to take on the new appointee to the Supreme Court, John Roberts," Waters said from the podium to cheers from the crowd.
'Cause Mother Earth so much pain'
Musician Stevie Wonder addressed the marchers demanding that the Voting Rights Act be extended and strengthened.
"Having to demand that we have a bill that will guarantee the voting rights of all American citizens forever is ridiculous," Wonder said. He also read the lyrics of an upcoming song to be released in September.
"At this time we have a choice to make. Father God is watching while we cause Mother Earth so much pain. It's such a shame. Not enough money for the young, the old, the poor, but for war there is always more," Wonder said.
The Bush administration was also targeted by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who declared that the president's "record against human rights, civil rights, economic rights, is absolutely terrible."
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said America was being ruled by the "Bush mentality," where "crony capitalism" was supreme.
Jesse Jackson said the Voting Rights Act extension is critical because "the same old enemies of civil rights and voting rights will always keep up their ugly activities.
"Race baiters and discriminators may go underground, but they never move out of town," Jackson said.
The organizers of Saturday's march want to strengthen and preserve Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which maintains that states with a discriminatory past must submit all changes in voting procedures to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval in order to ensure the changes do not have racially discriminatory effects or purposes.
While the Bush administration and House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) have indicated that they would support full reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act provisions in 2007, the organizers of Saturday's march believe they must begin acting now to ensure their goals.
"civil rights" eh? Seems that everyone attending in Atlanta was an anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-white, anti-Conservative, pro-terror activists! Racists spewing racism in the name of "civil rights"?! Disgusting animals!!!
Apologies to all Animals…
LLS
Tickets for the show are free but reservations are required by calling: 1-877-721-9813. Audience members must be 18 years or older and bring a photo I.D. for entry into the taping. Group
reservations, with a maximum of 15 people, can be accommodated.
To some degree they do. As far back as the administration of JFK (not the haughty French looking senator who by the way also served in Vietnam), there was a need to explain why policy mistakes were made, most notably the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Within short order (by academic standards), a theory was developed and called Groupthink. Here were really smart people from the best schools and they all liked each other and no one wanted to offend anyone by voicing disagreement.
What this really shows is that there was ideological intolerance as early as 45 years ago. Only now are we hearing about how JFK may have (read "probably") misused the IRS to shut down "right wing" think tanks.
I think that over the years, the need to have total unanimity has grown as the Democratic coalition has grown more fractious.
The irony is that this weakens the coalition still more.
Getting back to Nancy Pelosi et al., I think that they know when the DNC "leaked" bad polling information, but I do think that they honestly believed that the one indicator (America is headed in the wrong direction) was more important than the idea of security.
Plus they threw credibility out the window with some of the tactics.
The real thing that they believe is that they are good (even if they are corrupt) and we (who do not yield to their control) are bad.
Economic rights are the right for minorities to recieve government welfare.
The leftists will bring about the day when fire is indeed returned.
Sounds like it was a real Whacko Fest.
mark
I can't wait to see the fawning coverage the nework news gives this tonight.
Pelosi has a valid point. It is getting harder and harder for a key component of the RAT constituency to vote. Most stares will not allow a casket within 500 feet of a polling place!
Er, "states", not "Stares". Sorry about that, Chief!
The self-righteous lunacy of the left that any election they lose can only have been "stolen".
Pathetic bigot losers.
Someone should also tell Stevie that the Dems that care so much about the poor, didn't hesitate to give themselves a raise a few months ago.
Economic rights are the right for minorities to recieve government welfare.
***
That's what I thought. Amazing how these individuals take a government subsidy and turn it into a "right."
I think that the worst is the belief that freedom to them means freedom from.
It's the opposite of what freedom really is.
Sheesh, that was an all-star leftist kook line up! I'm surprised CNN didn't do a live remote and show the whole thing.
Criminalizing and race baiting politics is the first step toward the "Zimbabweization" of American politics. Both sides should avoid it when no indictable crime is present.
He must mean the right to max out six or more credit cards, then file for absolution via bankruptcy.
Gotta hold on to the base.
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