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Political Wrap-Up

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Howard Fischer, chief correspondent for Capitol Media Service in Arizona, and Ron Christie, vice president of the lobbying firm DC Navigators, talk about John McCain's support for a proposed ban on affirmative action in Arizona. Then Zev Chafets, journalist and author of A Match Made in Heaven: American Jews, Christian Zionists, and One Man's Exploration of the Weird and Wonderful Judeo-Evangelical Alliance, talks about the significance of the Western Wall.


Comments

  • [1] Thad Finch from Washington Heights July 29, 2008 - 10:05AM

    A Ma'ariv spokesman said that "Barack Obama's note was approved for publication in the international media even before he put in the Kotel, a short time after he wrote it at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

    Link: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331112489&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


  • [2] O from Forest Hills July 29, 2008 - 10:17AM

    If Affirmative Action is a Federal statute, how can McCain make a state not obey a federal law?

    I don't believe he can. The State Governments govern their jurisdiction but they must submit to the Federal Government and their laws override state laws.

    What McCainn is proposing is not possible.


  • [3] Robert from NYC July 29, 2008 - 10:18AM

    Interesting, did the Ma'ariv spokesman (whatever that means) say what the right offering price was for that approval. What does that say about one's private prayer and conversation with god? Let's all wail for the western wall, it's moral value was just cheapened.


  • [4] derek from new jersey July 29, 2008 - 10:28AM

    Democratic operatives leaked Obama's private note as dirty trick #113 to burnish Obama's image as humble (i.e. non-arrogant).

    Such phonies... Obama and his "team" are even more ruthless than the Clintons.

    Cynicism you can believe in.


  • [5] chris July 29, 2008 - 10:34AM

    McCain supports the AZ measue- it doesn't have to do with any presidential power.

    The idea that the candidates don't support "quotas" is silly: they were ruled unconstitutional long ago (in the 1978 Bakke case, I believe). Republicans have been campaigning against them as a boogey man for decades. let's not be fooled by this rhetoric.


  • [6] BORED July 29, 2008 - 10:38AM

    White women are the people who benefit from affirmative action.


  • [7] J.C. from Minneapolis July 29, 2008 - 10:41AM

    Re: Comment #2

    It might not be that simple since it appears the proposed law only targets the Arizona state and local governments (per cnn.com). I don't know the federal affirmative action law offhand, but one shouldn't assume that the courts will allow federal gov't to force the state governments to do anything it wants

    The Supreme Court, for example, first held that state government don't have to follow the federal minimum wage laws, then reversed itself a decade later (some other commenter who knows more will have to fill in the details). But there other Supreme Court cases that have held that the feds can't force a state to enforce federal gun laws or environmental laws.

    This is all part of the general mess over the power of the federal government (as defined mostly in Art. I, Section 8 of the Constitution, where you find the much-discussed "Commerce Clause") and the states' 11th Amendment immunity, among other things.


  • [8] Hugh from Crown Heights July 29, 2008 - 10:45AM

    How about a few minutes on NYPD heavies bodychecking bicyclists in Times Square? Somehow seems more relevant to New Yorkers than the Wailing Wall -- especially when caught on video, thus barring Bloomberg, Kelly and company from denying that it anything happened.


  • [9] Dan from NJ July 29, 2008 - 10:46AM

    Let's remember that we're talking about a section of sub-basement foundation. The equivalent of modern day cinder block wall.


  • [10] Duncan from Maplewood, NJ July 29, 2008 - 10:46AM

    Tell your guest that sometimes the answer to a prayer is NO


  • [11] the truth from Atlanta/New York July 29, 2008 - 10:48AM

    Bored Post #7 - you are absolutely correct!


  • [12] Mike from nyc July 29, 2008 - 10:48AM

    Obama was treated like a rock star overseas, and this is all part of it. Gotta take the good with the bad.


  • [13] Ale from NYC July 29, 2008 - 10:48AM

    the pope john pole’s prayer was published


  • [14] Dave from NYC July 29, 2008 - 10:50AM

    It might be noted that, in order to clear space for a plaza by the Western Wall, scores of Palestinian Arabs, both Christian and Muslim, were forced from their homes without compensation, and their homes were demolished.


  • [15] Tami from New Jersey July 29, 2008 - 10:54AM

    Dave - it might be noted that when the Jordanians took Eastern Jerusalem in 1948, scores of Jews were banished from their homes. some of those "scores of Arabs" you mention actually moved into those stolen Jewish homes. History doesn't begin in 1967.


  • [16] Susan from Kingston, New York July 29, 2008 - 11:04AM

    Bored! White women are the people who benefit from affirmative action.

    That has not been my experience. What do you base this statement on?


  • [17] Denise from NY July 29, 2008 - 11:04AM

    To Michael Winslow who think people who want to end affirmative action are racists-

    I am a woman of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, and I think affirmative action is insulting to minorities. It allows people to assume that the purported beneficiaries did not really earn their place in good schools. People have made that assumption about me, and I worked hard to get where I got. In some instances, affirmative action allows in people who cannot handle the rigors of good schools, making things more difficult socially for the minorites who can handle it. We need to fix the real problems, such as primary education.


  • [18] Joanne from Westchester July 29, 2008 - 11:07AM

    Intriguing...should Arizona pass this law against discrimination of any kind, will its public universities be overwhelmingly populated by the very high-achieving young women we know are out there and are currently not getting into some schools that are trying to "balance" their student populations and are instead accepting less-qualified white guys? That could sure bite McCain --and I'm guessing the mostly white male legislators in Arizona -- in the you know where!


  • [19] derek from new jersey July 29, 2008 - 11:55AM

    Would like to see some affirmative action in Muslim countries for Christians...


  • [20] DAT from Manhattan July 29, 2008 - 06:14PM

    Barack Hussein Obama is not an African American,

    like his wife Michelle Obama.

    That is not his experience, his background,

    his culture.

    Obama's Dad was born in Kenya,

    where his mother, Obama's Grandmother still

    lives.

    His mom, was white, from Kansas.

    Obama wasn't raised in the hood,

    on welfare and foodstamps, among the Bloods

    and the Crips.

    There will have to be another label

    for Obama, because while his wife is

    an African American, Obama is not.

    I will vote for Obama, this fall.

    I don't want to attack Iran or stay

    in Iraq for 100 years.


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