What a disgrace!

"Presidential Candidate Moseley Braun Denies Support For Past Nigerian Dictatorship; the brother of Slain Nigerian Activist Disagrees.

When asked in a recent Democratic Presidential debate to describe a mistake in her career, candidate Carol Moseley Braun described a politically "devastating" trip she took to Nigeria in 1996 under the dictatorship of Sani Abacha. Moseley Braun came under criticism for supporting the regime. Abacha had executed activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 others months before.

Unfortunately, shoring up dictators has been a bi-partisan affair for years. Certainly in the case of Nigeria. The internationally renowned playwright and Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged by the Nigerian junta in 1995, when Bill Clinton was president. Saro-Wiwa's crime was organizing an international campaign against the Shell oil corporation for the environmental devastation it was causing in the Niger Delta and its close relationship with the military junta. The Clinton administration did not intervene to prevent the execution of Saro-Wiwa and 8 other Ogoni leaders, instead opting to aggressively pursue its advocacy of US corporate involvement in the country. The current National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice was on the board of the Chevron corporation for more than a decade, including in May 1998 when Chevron was involved in the killing of indigenous villagers in the Niger Delta. Rice's involvement with Chevron was so valued by the corporation that she had a Chevron oil tanker named after her.

In August 1996, Moseley Braun traveled to Nigeria and attended the funeral of Ibrahim Abacha, the son of then-dictator Sani Abacha. She said at the time "I was on a holiday and I wanted to see I have a personal relationship with her. I wanted to express my sympathy because her son was killed." During the trip, she also met with the dictator Abacha.

In Sunday's Iowa Democratic Presidential debate, when all of the candidates were asked to describe a mistake in their careers, she responded:

I went to the funeral of a friend who had been assassinated, and the right wing was able to convert that into dancing with dictators and overturned a 25-year record of fighting for human rights.

Having worked on every human rights issue from the time I got into public life, to see that one funeral visit, memorial service visit, turned into the kind of political issue that it was for me was really devastating.

Who cares? She's a babe!

Not in my book. I googled her pic. And she sold her people down the river. I can't decide which rag head I despise the most: Colin, Rice or her.

As far as my limited knowledge goes, I don't know if Braun has lied to Congress and the UN like Powell and Rice and Co. did about Iraq.
And my babe comment was tongue-in-cheek. I don't know if ANY elected senatoress or congresswoman would qualify as a "babe".

>As far as my limited knowledge goes, I don't know if Braun
>has lied to Congress and the UN like Powell and Rice and Co.
>did about Iraq.


She supported the brutal dictatorship of Sani Abacha in Nigeria where a playwright and activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, was hanged in 1995. He had organized an international campaign against the Shell oil corporation for the environmental devastation it caused in the Niger Delta.

If you'd like to listen to an interview, go here: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/06/1554239

As always Hal you read skin deep and no further. You see what you want to see, cut and paste it, use it in your argument's without reading or comprehending the rest of the article.

I do not know this person, nor will I read more about her as I really don't care to much until she is in a position to where I will have to care. From what I read in the article, there is mud slung with plausibility to her innocence of being in the wrong place at the wrong time doing the right thing for the wrongly interpreted reasons.

Do I know her beyond this article? No. Until I do, my mind is open for further information and knowledge about her. I will not form a basis of opinion for or against this individual until I have the story from more locations that I trust and know to be unbiased.

As for your slander, everyone here agrees, take it away with you when you get bored of being here again and hide for another few months. its not appreciated and your excuse to use it does not become the person you wish to portray yourself as unless you want everyone to think you are a bigot.

Two things you should learn not to bring into a crowd of people. Religion and Politics.

"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll learn."

>As always Hal you read skin deep and no further. You see
>what you want to see, cut and paste it, use it in your
>argument's without reading or comprehending the rest of the
>article.

How would you know? You've never even heard of her, and I'll bet you could care less. At least I'm informed enough to to know who the hell she is; at least I cared enough to have read an article about her so I would know what statements she makes, and what her positions on foreign policy are. You probably didn't even know she existed.

You say I shouldn't speak of religion or politics. What, are you kidding? Have you read the news lately? That's all that's talked about. And what do you bring to a conversation -- jokes, and baseball scores.

"rag head"

Racist comments?

Go away, Hal. Don't come back. Racism has no place here.

They're the racists, and used their political clout to further their own careers and agendas. They had a chance to make a difference -- to speak out against injustice, but cashed in instead.

Hal,

The term, "rag head" has no place in this Forum. You owe all of us an apology.


Norm

Whether they are racist or not is no excuse to use a racist term to describe them. Please keep any racism off this site.

>Whether they are racist or not is no excuse to use a racist
>term to describe them. Please keep any racism off this
>site.

I agree; I shouldn’t have used that term; I should have explained they are black folks who have sold themselves and their brethren out to white, Anglo-Americans and European immigrants who have massacred, enslaved, oppressed, disgraced and dishonored them for centuries.

Hal, I am very disappointed in how far you have lowered yourself trying to force your thought on all of us. Your racism still shows thru that reformatted remark.



Ed W.

What's a "Rag Head"?

I guess it must be bad if Hal said it?

Mitch

That depends on a few things.

One definition is a derivitive of the American term "Towel Head", a derogatory name for religious groups that wear cloth on their heads, such as Muslims or Sikhs.

The other definition refers to black Americans that are seen as "lap dogs" or "yes men/women" of a white majority, or are employed by a white person/organization. The common bond is that the employed black person is somehow giving up an aspect of their traditional "blackness" in order to become economically, politically, or socially superior to other whites and especially other blacks.

There is also the useage which implies membership in some sort of street gang, generally having membership along racial lines, but not limited to one race.

Perhaps Hal meant to use the word "sell out" instead.

"Uncle Tom," is of course the quintessential pejorative in this case. Maybe I should have gone with that, no...no...I suppose not.