Dumbya Visits Atlanta

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/2763417/detail.html

from the ATL indymedia

from Atrios

Local leaders also criticized the short notice of the visit, which conflicted with other King holiday events.

The MLK March Committee, a group of area civil rights activists who knew King, has worked for months on a human rights forum at Ebenezer Baptist Church, across the street, which was planned to run all day.

Organizers said they initially were told to conclude their event early for security reasons, but the Secret Service later agreed to allow the event to proceed as scheduled.

The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change said it extended no formal invitation to Bush but accepted his offer to come.

he invited himself. (though IMHO they should've told him that he wasn't welcome.)

Depends on whether he was asked to come, or if he invited himself. Either way, taxpayers foot the bill. The only difference comes from which side of the pond played the host.

Dubya Visits ATLANTIS!

Did they ever extend a formal announcement to President Clinton?

Does anyone else? Not that other presidents have whored themselves to the King family or anything.

As far as I'm concerned, every damn sitting president should be kneeling at the grave of King at least one time in their career. I don't give a shit whether they are invited or not. It's the least they can do for arguably one of the most influential, important Americans of all time.

http://isxios.home.mindspring.com/images/poseidon.jpg

http://www.standingstone.com/donovan/downtown/closeup01.jpg

Humor me and tell me that you're joking, May.

Which legislation and regulations exactly should Bush support in order to respect King's legacy? King has been dead for 40 years. How are we supposed to know what King would have supported? Or are we just supposed to trust...Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton or Kweisi Mfume? Or if Terry McAuliffe comes up with some bills should Bush sign on to that? I mean, who gets final word on who speaks for the King legacy in this country? Condi Rice or Colin Powell? Clarence Thomas? Walter Williams? Don King? Willie Brown? Jay Z? Or should it just be some sort of majority vote deal, where Bush polls some issue and if the majority of African Americans vote one way, then that's the way Bush should vote. It's kind of a specious argument, unless you think that Bush's refusal to vote for whatever the NAACP tells him to is some form of bigoted/racist behavior.

Besides, I think we all know that unless Michael Jordan is on the ticket, no Republican is ever going to pick up more than 10%. Paybacks being a bitch and all.

*reviews thread*

But Tracer didn't post?

I was reading this article in the NYT about the Clark people giving the candidate a wardrobe change and speculating on what else they could change in order to "educate" women who weren't warming up to the General. It made me queasy, and then I thought to myself, aren't there lots of people who feel like they get this treatment every election? I heard Dean criticizing the way lots of Democratic candidates pretty much wait til the last weeks and then expect black leaders to organize a massive GOTV effort on their behalf.

Also, I hear so many MLK quotes in speeches and I think, how many of those speechwriters thought about what was being said, and how many pulled out a book of quotations? There's a study waiting to be written on the quoting of King in contemporary American political discourse. (If it has been written please someone let me know, I want to read it ASAP.)

I think George W Bush has as much a right as anybody to pay tribute. But I do think there's a real dissonance with the fact that he proceeded to a $2,000 a plate fundraiser immediately afterward.