Official regrets remarks on black voters (Taner)

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

Official regrets remarks on black voters By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 7 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - The chief of the Justice Department's voting rights division apologized Tuesday for saying that aging is not a problem with black voters because they die before they become elderly, unlike whites.

Still, some Democrats said they want him fired.

"I want to apologize for the comments I made at the recent meeting of the National Latino Congreso about the impact of voter identification laws on elderly and minority voters," said John Tanner, voting section chief of Justice's Civil Rights Division.

"My explanation of the data came across in a hurtful way, which I deeply regret," he told the House subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties.

That wasn't good enough for some Democrats, who accused Tanner of policymaking and analysis without facts to back it up. Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., last week called for Tanner's firing.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071030/ap_on_go_co/voting_rights

[GodlessBiker]

1. How can this bozo show his face and do his job effectively? Get rid of him.

[quiet.american]

2. Agreed. What you said. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

3. Ah, ha ha ha haaaa! Look how the Austin Statesman describes the hearing!

House Judiciary goes ballistic on Tanner
By Rebecca Carr | Tuesday, October 30, 2007, 02:35 PM

House Judiciary Committee Democrats criticized the head of the Justice Department’s voting rights section today for saying that “our society is such that minorities don’t become elderly the way white people do-they die first.”

John Tanner, the head of the section that was created after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, tried to apologize for the remarks.

“My explanation of the data came across in a hurtful way, which I deeply regret,” Tanner said.

But Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., said that was no excuse. He accused him of using faulty statistics to support a faulty stereotype.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/washington/washington/entries/2007/10/30/house_judiciary_1.html

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

Gee, do you think he should be hospitalized after those mean Democrats brutalized him?

[Chovexani]

4. Please tell me how this mf still has a job

Oh wait, look who's in charge. :eyes:

[Judi Lynn]

5. In a just world he would have been shunned as soon as he said that.

He'll probably be getting a Medal of Freedom from _{Bush, as it is.}

[Judi Lynn]

6. DOJ Official Apologizes for Minority Remark

Source: ABC News

DOJ Official Apologizes for Minority Remark
Voting Rights Chief Says Comment on Minorities and Age Was a 'Clumsy Statement'
By JASON RYAN
Oct. 30, 2007



A senior Justice Department official apologized before a congressional panel Tuesday for racially tinged comments he made earlier this month that prompted calls for his resignation.

At a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the work of the department's Civil Rights Division, John Tanner, the division's chief of voting rights, was extensively questioned about remarks he made about longevity and race and photo identification requirements.

At a meeting of the National Latino Congress on Oct. 5, 2007, Tanner remarked that photo identification requirements may cause voting problems for the elderly, but would not disenfranchise minority voters because "our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way white people do. They die first."

Tanner's comments, which have been widely circulated on YouTube, led presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to call for his resignation.

Before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday, Tanner said, "I want to apologize for the comments I made at the recent meeting of the National Latino Congress about the impact of voter identification laws on elderly and minority voters … My explanation of the data came across in a hurtful way, which I deeply regret."



Read more: http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3795538&page=1

[sailor65]

7. The sad part of this

is that if you actually read the transcripts, it's obvious he was making a statement about the negative effects of society on minorities, which was certainly a statement in support of, not an attack on, minorities.

But because some people are too thick to see that, he's now stuck apologizing for it.

[EFerrari]

9. No. He's not being taken to task for simply stating a fact.

He's being taken to task for stating a shameful fact of this society AS IF IT WERE THE NATURAL COURSE of things.

Thanks.

[sailor65]

11. Right now,

since it is the "Natural Course" of our society, he was telling the truth. And he did not portray that fact in a positive light, either. He made a pretty damn good criticism of our society there. Now his words go into a trash heap so that we can continue to pretend it's not that way?

Doesn't make any sense to me!

[EFerrari]

12. I disagree and this is why.

He was offering this as a DEFENSE to why requiring voter ID isn't discriminatory.

"Let me defend a discriminatory practice by reassuring you that the people at the short end of this stick will be dead before they suffer discrimination! Ain't that grand! You can't discriminate against the DEAD! Voila!"

What you're looking at is the banality of evil.

[sailor65]

15. You definitely have me there

it's messed up the way that comes out. But I just don't see in it what many seem to be angry about, i.e. a criticism of minorities. Stupidity in another sense perhaps?

Somewhere below, somebody points out his record, and I'll admit I don't know much about it, so maybe I'm wrong about him overall.

[EFerrari]

18. This is how these guys insinuate themselves into the culture.

They sound innocent. The moment you really take a hard look, they're anything but.

[stillcool]

17. my mind was going that way as well...

and it doesn't make sense to me either. None of it. Aside from the fact that there can be no doubt that the natural course of events set in motion by our government, necessitates that white people will live longer than minorities. How can that NOT be? I really don't understand what voter identification has to do with age in the first place. Are they going to make it that difficult to get an ID that someone confined to their home will be unable to attain one? Or, is he trying to say that old whites, and younger minorities cancel each other out..so demanding voter ID is okey-dokey.

Tanner overruled a 51-page analysis by four career attorneys in his section who said the Georgia law could be changed in certain aspects to be fairer to minority voters. Tanner said that at first he thought the law may have discriminated against minority voters, but said, "My presumptions ran into the facts… it did not warrant an objection."

In July 2006, a federal judge issued an injunction against the Georgia law saying it violated the Constitution because residents had to pay for their IDs, which constituted a poll tax. Members of the committee said they were concerned about reports of the Voting Section filing fewer lawsuits challenging voting practices and procedures.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., expressed his concern, telling Tanner, "We need to do a lot more in your section. You tell us it's never been better, but it's never been worse.

[EFerrari]

20. When you require voter ID, people who have molbity problems

and or limited means have a harder time getting said ID, and so, at risk of being disenfranchised. It's the functional equivalent of a poll tax.

/sorry: bad typing dya

[tkmorris]

13. Yes, that's obvious

One only has to look at his track record to realize that he is a champion of minority causes second only to the late MLK jr.

Have a closer look sailor. The man is a bigot to his core.

[EFerrari]

14. These guys sound so reasonable and mostly look like

choir boys.

But as soon as you apply the seat of your brain to what they say or do, the putrefaction comes puffing out.

I don't blame anyone who misses their poison on the first or even second pass. Because their drag is "reasonableness".

[sailor65]

16. I have to admit

that I don't know much about his record, so as I said to another poster, I could be wrong about the man himself. I was looking at just the one incident, and didn't see it exactly the same as some have. I'll have to poke around a little.

[Botany]

8. Same fucker blamed voting problems in the afternoon because ...

.... blacks sleep in late and do not work. He also ran interfernce for the admin.
and said that he found nothing wrong with the shorting of voting machines in Ohio
in 2004.

He is was he is ... control of the majority of voters by a powerful minority by any
means needed.

[EFerrari]

10. He was the one who said that?

That must account for the the reason BushCo put him in that job.

[robinlynne]

19. sounds just like Gonzales. I didn't do anything wrong; I just should have explained

it better.