halyard: blog 
hal sez........
kinston bows to obama admin.
Published October 20, 2009Views: 635
LOCAL NEWS: Kinston weakens to big government.
KINSTON, N.C. | Voters in this small city decided overwhelmingly last year to do away with the party affiliation of candidates in local elections, but the Obama administration recently overruled the electorate and decided that equal rights for black voters cannot be achieved without the Democratic Party.
The Justice Department's ruling, which affects races for City Council and mayor, went so far as to say partisan elections are needed so that black voters can elect their "candidates of choice" - identified by the department as those who are Democrats and almost exclusively black.
The department ruled that white voters in Kinston will vote for blacks only if they are Democrats and that therefore the city cannot get rid of party affiliations for local elections because that would violate black voters' right to elect the candidates they want.
Several federal and local politicians would like the city to challenge the decision in court. They say voter apathy is the largest barrier to black voters' election of candidates they prefer and that the Justice Department has gone too far in trying to influence election results here.
Stephen LaRoque, a former Republican state lawmaker who led the drive to end partisan local elections, called the Justice Department's decision "racial as well as partisan."
"On top of that, you have an unelected bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., overturning a valid election," he said. "That is un-American."
The decision, made by the same Justice official who ordered the dismissal of a voting rights case against members of the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia, has irritated other locals as well. They bristle at federal interference in this city of nearly 23,000 people, two-thirds of whom are black.
In interviews in sleepy downtown Kinston - a place best known as a road sign on the way to the Carolina beaches - residents said partisan voting is largely unimportant because people are personally acquainted with their elected officials and are familiar with their views.
"To begin with, 'nonpartisan elections' is a misconceived and deceiving statement because even though no party affiliation shows up on a ballot form, candidates still adhere to certain ideologies and people understand that, and are going to identify with who they feel has their best interest at heart," said William Cooke, president of the Kinston/Lenoir County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Mr. Cooke said his group does not take a position on this issue and would not disclose his personal stance, but expressed skepticism about the Justice Department's involvement.
Now the Obama Admin is micro managing small municipalities...What's next!?
Filed under: Politics
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GOLO member since August 29, 2007
October 21, 2009 8:33 a.m.
ditto
GOLO member since July 26, 2009
October 20, 2009 8:31 p.m.
Yeah he was talking about it when I was driving back to work during lunch...didn't get to hear it all but it was in the first hour of the program
GOLO member since January 11, 2009
October 20, 2009 4:57 p.m.
It's amazing how well Obama plays the race card. If you're against him, you're racist. If you're with him, you aren't racist.
October 20, 2009 4:53 p.m.
Wonder if WRAL is going to put this out?
GOLO member since July 2, 2007
October 20, 2009 4:50 p.m.
That's cuz they are all damocrats.
GOLO member since October 3, 2007
October 20, 2009 4:49 p.m.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/20/justice-dept-blocks-ncs-nonpartisan-vote/
So I'll ask all of you is this something that Obama et al dreamed up or are they just following a law that has been around since 1965?
GOLO member since July 12, 2007
October 20, 2009 4:30 p.m.
BTW, something else just occured to me. I'm pretty sure Kinston and/or Lenoir Co got stimulus $$. They have one of those signs over there on 70 somewhere. I guess if they did we know why they've got to toe the line.
GOLO member since August 29, 2007
October 20, 2009 4:19 p.m.
GOLO member since March 10, 2008
October 20, 2009 4:12 p.m.
GOLO member since July 2, 2007
October 20, 2009 4:11 p.m.
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