DALLAS, Aug. 7 — Condoleezza Rice, one of the highest-ranking African-Americans in the Bush administration, told a gathering of black journalists here today that growing up in the South during the civil rights movement had informed her view of American foreign policy in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
What? Okay I’m listening.
"Like many of you, I grew up around the home-grown terrorism of the 1960's," she said. "The bombing of the church in Birmingham in 1963 is one that will forever be in my memory, because one of the little girls that died was a friend of mine. Forty years removed from the tragedy, I can honestly say that Denise McNair and the others did not die in vain."
Now I know that Rice did indeed spend her early youth in Alabama. But I didn’t know she was a friend of one of those girls who died in that church bombing. Now because I’m a skeptic, no wait let me rephrase, because I’m a cynic, I’m a little bit disbelieving of Rice’s claim here. She does have a penchant for telling whoppers, like claiming she knew nothing about that whole uranium thing, as well as a some other not-quite-truthful statements. But of course, “friend” could mean a lot of things here. Maybe they played together as little girls (with Condi still not smiling, even at 5 or 6) or maybe the girl who died was just an acquaintance, if kids that young can be said to have such a thing. Anyway, I guess I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt on this one. Though I’m not sure how it relates to Iraq. Oh wait here we go:
"We must never, ever indulge the condescending voices who allege that some people in Africa or in the Middle East are just not interested in freedom, they're culturally just not ready for freedom or they just aren't ready for freedom's responsibilities," she said. "That view was wrong in 1963 in Birmingham, and it is wrong in 2003 in Baghdad and in the rest of the Middle East."
Uh, just so you know Dr. Rice, Tom “The Exterminator” Delay (R), House Whip, is now currently in the Middle East pushing an “alternative” plan to the current Israeli/Palestinian framework for peace. The cornerstone of Delay’s plan: Palestinians “are not ready for self-government,” and shouldn’t be given a state. So, Dr. Rice, when you talk about not “indulg[ing] the condescending voices who allege that some people in Africa or in the Middle East are just not interested in freedom, they’re not culturally ready for freedom or they just aren’t ready for freedom’s responsibilities,” you’re talking about a leader of the Republican Party. So go do your fucking job and advise your boss to rein this yahoo in.
Civil Rights Movement = Iraq....I don't get it.
Posted by mike at August 8, 2003 01:12 PM