D.C. Democratic Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton made a shocking comment about Associate Justice Clarence Thomas this week, stating that ” We’ve got someone who proposes to be African-American on the court.” It is a shocking insult directed at Thomas and it is unworthy of Norton. It also seems to suggest that someone cannot be a true African-American if they are conservative.
The comment came in response to a question on whether President Obama would select a black nominee to replace Justice Stevens. Norton reportedly responded “We’re not sure this president is ever going to nominate another African-American to the court. [Barack Obama]’s African-American. We’ve got someone who proposes to be African-American on the court.”
One can only imagine the response if a white member said about Stevens that “we got someone who proposes to be white on the court.” There is no question that Thomas is a lightning rod for liberals, but this comment should be roundly condemned by liberals and immediately retracted by Norton. One can certainly disagree with Thomas’ writing, as I do, while preserving civility and, yes, respect in the debate. Thomas is a person with an amazing personal story. Clarence Thomas was raised in Pin Point, Georgia — a poor black town without a sewage system or paved roads. His father was a farm worker and his mother was a domestic worker who spoke Gullah as a first language. While liberals were quick to celebrate the life of Justice Sotomayor for growing up in the projects and achieving so much in her life, they appear unwilling to credit Thomas with his own amazing and difficult life, including being left homeless as a child.
It is particularly disappointing from a former Georgetown law professor. I have great respect for Delegate Norton, though we were on different sides in the D.C. Vote controversy. However, this is only the latest personal attack on Thomas that is entirely out of line.
For the story, click here
Ms. Norton’s comment was arrogant and rude. With regard to Justice Thomas, I have no idea how intelligent he is. But my opinion based upon the record he has created on the Supreme Court is that he is relatively unimaginative, lacking in intellectual curiosity, satisfied with whatever line Justice Scalia is pursuing from time to time and content to put in his time and collect his pension in due course. I do not believe that he aspires to, nor expects, inclusion among the historical giants of the Court.
“When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.” –Thomas Jefferson to Charles Hammond, 1821. ME 15:332
Sage, hell they ought to call him the Oracle of Monticello.
“The monopoly of a single bank is certainly an evil. The multiplication of them was intended to cure it; but it multiplied an influence of the same character with the first, and completed the supplanting the precious metals by a paper circulation. Between such parties the less we meddle the better.” –Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1802. ME 10:323
“If treasury bills are emitted on a tax appropriated for their redemption in fifteen years, and (to insure preference in the first moments of competition) bearing an interest of six per cent, there is no one who would not take them in preference to the bank paper now afloat, on a principle of patriotism as well as interest; and they would be withdrawn from circulation into private hoards to a considerable amount. Their credit once established, others might be emitted, bottomed also on a tax, but not bearing interest; and if ever their credit faltered, open public loans, on which these bills alone should be received as specie. These, operating as a sinking fund, would reduce the quantity in circulation, so as to maintain that in an equilibrium with specie. It is not easy to estimate the obstacles which, in the beginning, we should encounter in ousting the banks from their possession of the circulation; but a steady and judicious alternation of emissions and loans would reduce them in time.” –Thomas Jefferson to John W. Eppes, 1813. ME 13:275
“Bank paper must be suppressed, and the circulating medium must be restored to the nation to whom it belongs. It is the only fund on which they can rely for loans; it is the only resource which can never fail them, and it is an abundant one for every necessary purpose. Treasury bills, bottomed on taxes, bearing or not bearing interest, as may be found necessary, thrown into circulation will take the place of so much gold and silver, which last, when crowded, will find an efflux into other countries, and thus keep the quantum of medium at its salutary level. Let banks continue if they please, but let them discount for cash alone or for treasury notes.” –Thomas Jefferson to John W. Eppes, 1813. ME 13:361
“[The] Bank of the United States… is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the principles and form of our Constitution… An institution like this, penetrating by its branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries. What an obstruction could not this bank of the United States, with all its branch banks, be in time of war! It might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile?” –Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1803. ME 10:437
“That we are overdone with banking institutions which have banished the precious metals and substituted a more fluctuating and unsafe medium, that these have withdrawn capital from useful improvements and employments to nourish idleness, that the wars of the world have swollen our commerce beyond the wholesome limits of exchanging our own productions for our own wants, and that, for the emolument of a small proportion of our society who prefer these demoralizing pursuits to labors useful to the whole, the peace of the whole is endangered and all our present difficulties produced, are evils more easily to be deplored than remedied.” –Thomas Jefferson to Abbe Salimankis, 1810. ME 12:379
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”
Thomas Jefferson, (Attributed)
3rd president of US (1743 – 1826)
I believe Jefferson was worried about banks issuing paper money. He thought paper money was a problem. He was in favor of silver and gold as a medium of exchange because it generally holds it value.
“Specie is the most perfect medium because it will preserve its own level; because, having intrinsic and universal value, it can never die in our hands, and it is the surest resource of reliance in time of war.” –Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1813. ME 13:430
“Paper is poverty,… it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.” –Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1788. ME 7:36
“Experience has proved to us that a dollar of silver disappears for every dollar of paper emitted.” –Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1791. ME 8:208
“It is a [disputed] question, whether the circulation of paper, rather than of specie, is a good or an evil… I believe it to be one of those cases where mercantile clamor will bear down reason, until it is corrected by ruin.” –Thomas Jefferson to John W. Eppes, 1813. ME 13:409
“The evils of this deluge of paper money are not to be removed until our citizens are generally and radically instructed in their cause and consequences, and silence by their authority the interested clamors and sophistry of speculating, shaving, and banking institutions. Till then, we must be content to return quoad hoc to the savage state, to recur to barter in the exchange of our property for want of a stable common measure of value, that now in use being less fixed than the beads and wampum of the Indian, and to deliver up our citizens, their property and their labor, passive victims to the swindling tricks of bankers and mountebankers.” –Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1819. ME 15:185
Seems Jefferson understood what a national bank would do to our currency. But then none here are probably in favor of a return to a gold standard in contravention of Jeffersons thoughts and wishes.
Buddha,
Could we get you to explain why corporations aren’t people and why it is corrosive to our republic to treat them that way to the SCOTUS?
Alternatively, if corporations are people as the SCOTUS suggests, why can’t they be held liable (i.e. the corporation, not the people who comprise or own it?) Why can’t, for example, a corporation that kills someone be put to death? (By which I mean have its assets sold off and its investors equity eliminated.)
Everything I’ve said stands untouched by your lack of understanding, James.
James:
“If you take all the workers out of corporations what is left? Just the buildings. The buildings can’t do anything. Therefore people do make up the corporations.”
******************
Corporations may only act through their human employees but they are,in no sense, “people.” They are soul-less, emotionless, creatures of statute and have as their sole purpose deriving profits. They are a useful tool in amalgamating capital and employing labor, but they answer only to their masters and can suffer no penalties save being de-animated by them. They resemble Dr. Frankenstein’s monster as they perform their duties in their mechanical, stumbling, unyielding way. People control these beasts of industry and when they don’t, the government must step in to regulate their excesses. I believe that’s what Buddha was saying, though he said it better himself.
Gyges,
It aint everyday within a blawg that a fella can find a use for a 1960s Sue Thompson song with James in the lyrics…as a musician, I know that you understand.
FFLEO,
Best response to James possible. Thank you.
Mespo:
If you take all the workers out of corporations what is left? Just the buildings. The buildings can’t do anything. Therefore people do make up the corporations.
Buddha:
Jefferson was also wrong about banks. People run banks. Your quote is exactly why we should have never passed healthcare. Borrowing money today that our “posterity” will have to pay back. Even Jefferson wouldn’t agree with the Obama government.
Oh Lordy, Got-all-muddy, Praise Baby Jebbus,!
The Lord hath spake to James, a true member of the *fleeced* flock shorn by millenia of lies, silly parables, and fantasies.
The trinity will be sangin’ this song to James as the father/son/holey ghost decends from Hebbin’ down to *its* faithful ‘sheepciple’.
James…James!…James…James! hold the ladder steady, its a’comin’ down to your ar, ar, ar, arms, its a’comin’ down to your arms…!
James:
“It is not unreasonable to believe that Jesus Christ rose from the grave. He said that his sheep will hear is voice. Anyone who can’t hear his voice probably is not part of the flock.”
***************
I was waiting for the predictable one true Scotsman fallacy in response to a logical challenge to the Resurrection. Shall I glean from this comment that you find it more likely that the physical laws of the universe were suspended on that day after Passover as opposed to the First Century biblical writers using allegorical devices to get their point across? If not, you’ve entered the world of homo credo; if yes, you remain mired in the world-of homo religioso.
Given you comment to Buddha that corporations are people too, I would have to conclude the latter, but who knows? Personally, I think corporations are penguins!
Buddha:
The fact that you acknowledge corporations are made of people kills your entire arguement. People have rights. Corporations do not pick politicians. People do!! I never vote for someone based on a political ad. If I did, it would still be me doing it and not the corporation. Jefferson was not greatest President. Had it not been for the Louisiana Purchase, he would have been a one termer. He couldn’t handle the impressment of American sailers anymore than Adams. His embrago was a disaster. You need to learn your History.
I don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead, but I’m damned certain the Flying Spaghetti Monster did.
James – I said it, so it must be true, right?
James:
you perceive the wind through your skin so you know it is there by sensory perception. Jesus is known by faith and some historical reference.
No James, that’s fascism when corporations pick the politicians. Free enterprise is not guaranteed in the Constitution any more than Jesus Is American is guaranteed in the Constitution or the ridiculous notion that one can circumvent the Constitution by belonging to a group of businessmen. Allowing a legal fiction abused by sociopaths to spend money on politicians makes as much sense as giving your toaster the right to vote and it’s far more dangerous to liberty than taking said toaster into the tub with you. Corporations aren’t just “people”, simple creature. They are a blind for criminal activity more often than not. Yes, even your “legitimate” corporations. They aren’t just people. They are “people” with a shield against liability. A get out of jail free card. You want them corporations to participate fully? Remove any shield against civil and criminal liability not afforded a natural citizen and start holding officers guilty of malfeasance and criminal activity accountable (as in they go to prison and their business are shuttered as penalty) the Free Speech argument might make sense. Otherwise? You’re just as full of shit as Justice Thomas and any other corporatist apologist. What Jeffferson said about banks in a letter to John Taylor rings true for corporations and campaign finance. “I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” [emphasis added] Add this to Jefferson’s well known dislike and mistrust of corporations and you have a picture that adds up to the smartest man to ever hold the Office of President of the United States, framer of the Constitution and primary author of the Declaration of Independence laughing in the face of the Citizens United SCOTUS and you as well.
Fascism is as fascism does, sport. And you are a fascist if you think corporations are the equivalent of a real person. Plain and simple. That’s a false equivalence and a lie no matter who spews it.
It’s nice to admit you’re a sheep. Saves me the trouble. One must be willing to be led to allow corporations to be their master. You are not a free man. You are a number.
Enjoy being an entry on a balance sheet. A pawn of others. Servile to the whims of people who value your life according to how much money you make them. Freedom means every man is a king but no man is your king. But you be a pawn if you like. Give away your freedoms. As the Italians say, “At the end of the game, the King and the pawn go in the same box.” The difference is in how they play the game.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
THAT is some well done trolling. I hope everyone’s taking notes.