Johnson County Clerk, Jill Jackson, distributed an inflammatory chain e-mail to two of her employees who voted for Senator Obama in Indiana's Democratic primary.
Though the e-mail did not refer to Obama by name, it refers to Obama's ties with Reverend Wright, and in the words of the Louisville Courier-Journal, is "heavy with racial references, criticizing the candidate's parentage with such comments as, 'He is proud of his 'African heritage' (a father who got a white girl pregnant and deserted her)."
The letter concludes: "The U.S. citizens are just not ready to give up their country to this young, black 'Adolf Hitler' with a smile, poor direction and absolutely no experience!" Apparently, Hitler is not nefarious enough, so the author needed to add the "black" adjective.
Clerk Jackson states it was intended as a joke. WHAT?!? That's your excuse?!?! So are ALL racist jokes, Clerk Jackson, but it doesn't make them excusable to distribute to your employees. If these employees were African-American, this would be ACTIONABLE!
Kudos go to Doug Lechner, Republican Party chairman in Johnson County, who didn't even try to explain the letter away. He stated it was "unacceptable and taints Jackson's ability to appear unbiased in administering this year's election."
Only when both parties attack racism where they find it will it be uprooted. It's sad for the GOP that they find it in their elected officials.
6 comments:
It sounds like the offensive letter was like a Very Serious Post at AdvanceIndiana by local GOP nutterball Gary Welsh. If it weren't for the fact he'd likely have to do it pro bono, Gary Welsh would probably leap at the chance to defend the racist employee being chastised for her impermissable actions...
well said
This "Hitler" thing has obviously been making the rounds as a right-wing talking point, as one of the most vocal Republican operatives in our little slice of Heaven in Southern Indiana recently sent a letter to the editor in the local paper tacitly comparing Obama to Adolf Hitler - albeit without mentioning Obama by name, but rather as "the one" yet again.
They just can't decide if he's a fascist or a socialist, I guess. But they obviously have decided that he's black, and that if that isn't enough to bring him down, they'll stoop to anything. It's really alarming actually. I knew there were some racist idiots running around, but I now fear that there may be real violence from the right after all is said and done.
All you have to do is read Advance Indiana to know that racism is alive and well in Indiana.
God I wish I wasn't born in Indiana sometimes.
Especially when you have lawyers like Berg and Gary Welsh running around, basing opinions on very incorrect information. Like immigration law. If I was a immigration judge, I would have Welsh barred from practicing in immigration court. His asertation on Obama is simply factually wrong.
Of course he knows this and won't debate me further.
Anyway, good post Chris.
Cheers!
johntruthblogger
After reading and heading back from time to time I'd like to add a few facts that some may not be aware of.
1. The employees were not Democrats (the press got it wrong) The two employees simply pulled democrat ballots in the primary.
2. No one is bringing up the fact that both individuals never spoke of whom they voted for in the office as Jill Jackson states. They work for a staunch Conservative Republican in a Republican controlled County- both are smart people- neither said a word about how they voted- plain and simple- Jill abused her power to obtain voting records and attempted to intimidate both of these people into swaying their vote- PERIOD!
3. The one employee never "called the police" Because it is a court house- the security of the courthouse happen to be Deputy Sheriff's. The breach in security was reported to courthouse security as it happened over a weekend. At the time he never knew who placed the item there- it could have been anyone- it just happened to turn out to be his boss! Courthouse security in turn pushed it to their superiors- the sheriff's office and they were the ones who then turned it over to the prosecutors office. Neither employee had a hand in getting it this far. That was up to the sheriff.
4. What is being done? Nothing. The clerk has now decided since the incident to snub both employees and treat them as if they don't work there at all- she does not acknowledge their presence or speak to either of them. As if they did something in all of this. When the flood of calls starting coming in one of her office staff finally went to her and said "what am I supposed to tell these people" Her response to her was that "I'm elected- I'm not going anywhere."
TheTruth
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