More Democratic Adventures in Public Speaking

From CNSNNews.com:

Celebrity activist Harry Belafonte referred to prominent African-American officials in the Bush administration as "black tyrants" at a weekend march, and he also compared the administration to Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. Belafonte, a featured speaker at Saturday's march in Atlanta commemorating the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act, previously ignited a political controversy in 2002 when he likened then-Secretary of State Colin Powell to a "house slave."

At Saturday's civil rights march, Belafonte said the Bush administration has been "rather dismal" for the lives of black Americans....Belafonte used a Hitler analogy when asked about what impact prominent blacks such as former Secretary of State Powell and current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had on the Bush administration's relations with minorities. "Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Color does not necessarily denote quality, content or value," Belafonte said in an exclusive interview with Cybercast News Service. "[If] a black is a tyrant, he is first and foremost a tyrant, then he incidentally is black. Bush is a tyrant and if he gathers around him black tyrants, they all have to be treated as they are being treated," he added. When asked specifically who was a "black tyrant" in the Bush administration, Belafonte responded to this reporter, "You." When this reporter noted that he was a Caucasian and attempted to ask another question, Belafonte abruptly ended the interview by saying, "That's it."

Notice how he belittles the African-American members of the Bush administration - "[c]olor does not necessarily denote quality, content or value". While I would agree with him that race has nothing to do with whether someone is competent for a job, I sincerely doubt that he intended to make an argument against affirmative action or other race-based preferences. Rather, he merely wanted to label them as "token" hires and downplay their rather impressive resumes. I would love to know the identity of the "black tyrants" in the administration and why they are "tyrants" in Belafonte's mind. However, Belafonte could not come up with a defensible explanation, so quickly ended the interview as soon as he realized it.

I guess that a little historical revisionism never hurts either. Hitler definitely did not have a lot of Jews, who held positions in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Jews were absolutely forbidden from being a member of the Nazi party. Jews were forbidden from holding political offices. As such, it is comical to suggest that the Nazis had many Jews in high positions within the Third Reich. However, let's think about this one even further... If Jews were "high up in the hierarchy", then how do you explain the fact that the Nazis passed law after law that prevented Jews from practicing most professions, owning businesses and owning property? Let's think about the acts of putting Jews in ghettos and, of course, eventually putting six million of them to death in the greatest act of attempted genocide ever carried out. Clearly, these Jews couldn't have been that powerful!

More lunacy from Dick Gregory:

Another prominent celebrity marcher at Saturday's civil rights march also employed Nazi analogies to the GOP and conservatives. Civil rights activist Dick Gregory mocked the existence of African-American conservatives in America. "They (black conservatives) have a right to exist, but why would I want to walk around with a swastika on my shirt after the way Hitler done messed it (the swastika symbol) up?" Gregory said in an interview with Cybercast News Service. (The swastika was an ancient symbol generally regarded an emblem of strength and luck before the Nazi Party adopted it in 1920.) .... Gregory trashed the United States, calling it "the most dishonest, ungodly, unspiritual nation that ever existed in the history of the planet. As we talk now, America is 5 percent of the world's population and consumes 96 percent of the world's hard drugs," Gregory said.

So, an African-American, who is a member of the Republican party, is entitled to "exist" (thanks for the clarification Gregory! I am sure that Condi Rice, Colin Powell, etc. will sleep easier with that knowledge) but clearly he cannot understand why any African-American would be a member of the GOP. Heaven forbid that someone with his skin color should have different political views! Can you imagine if a white Republican activist said something similar? He would be accused of being a member of the KKK (insert your favorite joke about Robert Byrd - Democratic Senator and former Klansman).

As for the drug remark, either Gregory must be responsible for a good portion of the 96% of the consumption of the "world's hard drugs" or his statistics are flawed. While I would not rule out the former, the latter is more likely of an explanation.

Gregory also accused President Bush of stealing the 2004 presidential election. "They didn't win, and I got that from the white press. At four o'clock [on Election Day 2004], that evening, the white press said from the exit polls that [Democratic presidential nominee John] Kerry had won by a landslide and then three hours later something funny happened," Gregory said of Bush's eventual election victory.

Evidently, the final vote tally doesn't matter to Gregory. Rather, he must think that we should rely on the exit polls to determine the winner of the popular vote...Of course, this moron merely meant to imply that President Bush must have pulled some strings or committed massive fraud to become the winner. After all, how could an exit poll (a small, random sample of voters during a specific time in the day) ever be wrong? I would love to see the evidence, if any, backing up this ludicrous claim. I guess when you can't win, then it must be because the other guy cheated - not because your candidate or his political ideas are found to be undesirable by a majority of the voters. Heaven forbid that you should be forced to re-evaluate either your choice of candidates or your party's political platform.

The Commissar's (i.e., The Politburo Ditkat) response is a must read:

There. It needed to be said. Harry Belafonte can run around calling Colin Powell and Condi Rice “house slaves” and “tyrants,” but people seem afraid to call the man what he is: an over-rated, sanctimonious prick who at some point got the idea that he was an intellectual and a statesman. Where he got the idea he was anything more than an aging actor is beyond me. He seems to have made another go at of it at a shindig down in Atlanta where every race-baiter worth his or her salt had gathered to claim that Bush and the Republicans were the second coming of Hitler. Perhaps those gathered need to be reminded about political party history in the United States, about which party was the party of slavery and which party used the filibuster to prevent civil rights legislation. And how’s this for completely lacking self-awarness? Jesse Jackson said: “Race baiters and discriminators may go underground, but they never move out of town.”

Well said (or shall I say, written).

For more, see Captain's Quarters, the Strata Sphere and La Shawn Barber.