Who’ll be the first to demand the birth certificate?
President Obama has nominated Debo Adegbile, senior counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, to take over as head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. The former head of that division, Thomas Perez, is now Secretary of the Department of Labor.
While Adegbile served as an attorney for the Senate Judiciary, working primarily on crafting a new Voting Rights Act bill, he’s more popularly known as the lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund who argued on behalf of preserving the Voting Rights Act before the U.S. Supreme Court. Adegbile defended it twice before the high court, successfully helping to protect it when it was challenged in 2006, and again this past February before Chief Roberts’ court gutted the landmark civil rights bill. Adegbile also represented Hurricane Katrina evacuees in a federal voting rights lawsuit shortly after the storm.
“Our country needs someone like Debo with significant experience in voting rights to protect the deeply held American value that each person has the right to a voice in our democracy,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP LDF. “Debo has precisely the type of broad civil rights experience that is required at this pivotal moment in our country.”
Adegbile is the son of parents who immigrated to America from Ireland and Nigeria. As a child he coped with poverty and homelessness before working his way through law school by way of loans, various jobs and scholarships. He is now considered one of the premiere civil rights attorneys in America.
Baud
Seems like a good nominee to nuke the filibuster for.
catclub
@Baud: Or at least seems like the kind of nominee that is guaranteed to get filibustered.
FlipYrWhig
Sounds kickass.
Baud
@catclub:
Exactly my point. No way this guy sails through.
ETA: The only way I see it is if his time working in the Senate gave him a positive personal connection to some GOP senators, but I think it is a long shot.
Certified Mutant Enemy
Adegbile is the son of parents who immigrated to America from Ireland and Nigeria. As a child he coped with poverty and homelessness before working his way through law school by way of loans, various jobs and scholarships. He is now considered one of the premiere civil rights attorneys in America.
Unfortunately he attained success the wrong way. Republicans believe success should come via one’s choice of parents…
WereBear
Sounds like the right person for the job, then.
To rational folks, that is.
Tommy
@WereBear: Amen. There is a story I like to tell. My mother is a Republican. She also runs elections in her district.She calls me after every election almost in tears that more people don’t vote. She has pounded into my head she doesn’t care who I vote for, just vote. Voting is important.
She lives in Southern IL like I do, and we got voting down to a science. I can vote faster than I can order a Big Mac (I am not joking). But then again my mother doesn’t think the world is flat. And well a President should be able to appoint the folks he/she wants.
BGinCHI
@Certified Mutant Enemy: Obviously a commie furriner if he had to work his way up.
Plus funny name so stop trying to take away our freedoms.
Belafon
@Certified Mutant Enemy: He learned the wrong lesson. Obviously what you are supposed to learn if you borrow money, work at other jobs, and get scholarships is that you did everything on your own and therefore everyone else is a slacker. How else are you supposed to go on Wingnut welfare?
TR
OhnoObamasoldusout!
Tommy
@Belafon: I was kind of born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I like to think I worked for what I have, but clearly when you come from a family of PhDs and money, where you get everything paid for you, well I know I am lucky.
I never discount how important that was to my life!
So when I hear a person not with the things I had worked their way up and did greater things then I have ever done, I take note.
OzarkHillbilly
I think I see a disqualifying skeleton in his closet.
schrodinger's cat
So if this well deserving candidate cannot get a confirmation vote in the Senate, will that be Obama’s Katrina or Watergate?
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s a horrible job. Perez had to sit thru days of fake hearings on the fake Black Panther Controversy when he was head of the civil rights division.
Villago Delenda Est
Unacceptable candidate. Knows the subject. Will actually attempt to enforce the laws that Rethuglicans are so desperate to circumvent, to give them a shot at winning elections by denying people who will never vote for their neo-feudalist asses.
Pocket filibuster confirmation is obviously what Senator Yertle will do.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy:
One thing I have always wondered, how does one earn the color of one’s skin? Never yet found anyone who can explain that to me. Than again, I am a little dense.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: AHA!! Another strike against him!
Villago Delenda Est
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
And this, right here, is why mass procurement of tumbrels, and some negotiations with the French to borrow some of their old, unused equipment, need to be top priorities for the Obama administration.
Frankensteinbeck
This isn’t a cabinet post, though. Does it need congressional approval?
EthylEster
front pager wrote: Adegbile is the son of parents who immigrated to America from Ireland and Nigeria.
Oops, sounds this guy’s parents might make a conservative gag.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: You can’t. I am as white as white gets and I clearly know that never hurt me, might have actually helped.
My parents are not racist. Not how I was raised. People I know are not racist. But my brother recently married into this huge family. I will spend the upcoming holidays with them. I am told by my brother not to “engage” them cause they often say things I think are racist.
Villago Delenda Est
@EthylEster:
The Nigerian part isn’t a problem.
The Irish part, well, that’s a different story…
Oh, and on edit: Well played!
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: I can’t find the link, cause his blog is no longer around. Years ago a guy won an essay contest to spend a day with Warren Buffet. He was an MBA guy and thought he’d spend a day learning about finance. Investments.
Instead Buffet spent the entire day telling him how lucky he was that he was born in the United States. Being born white and in the US, even better.
beltane
@OzarkHillbilly: I have been told by several New Age-y types that children choose the parents they are born to so there’s that.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy: It is funny, I am as Caucasian as Caucasian can be, (take note, I do not say white, I have actually been pulled over for DWB, but one look at my face told the cop he made a mistake) and 55 years old. I know I got at least 2 jobs because I was Caucasian, and as a union capenter it never hurt, but the # of white people I know who insist that being white never gave them an advantage just boggles me. I just look at them and say, “Are you stupid?” Needless to say, that usually ends the conversation.
srv
John Galt gets Obamacare:
Will Twiner
blah guy gets fillibustered in 3 … 2 …
OzarkHillbilly
@beltane: Yeah, I know the type. “What? They chose the ghetto because rich parents take all the challenge out of life?”
OzarkHillbilly
@srv: Obviously a socialist. We’d all be better off if he would just hurry up and die.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: I am only 44. But I”ve been in a room (even recently) where you could drop the N word and nobody seems to care. At my age and being “white” I wonder how anybody doesn’t understand racism is still around. I often feel there is a “white guy club” and when in it you can be a racist and nobody cares.
Kay
@srv:
It’s a nice story. I have an acquaintance who is a window/siding washer. He has one of those power washers mounted on a truck. We found out today he qualifies for Medicaid! He was very excited :)
MomSense
@schrodinger’s cat:
I love that picture! Every time I hear/read/see another ignoranus pundit say stupid things like they do about the ACA I want to make that same face–or throw an angry cat at their crotch.
Adegbile is a stellar nominee to anyone who doesn’t have fastandfurious/Benghazi/IRS/glitches on the brain and the Justice Deptartment’s Civil Rights Division has been incredible. I hope Reid goes nukular on the Repub’s expected filibuster.
Jebediah, RBG
@Villago Delenda Est:
Somebody ought to build a few guillotines and park them in conspicuous spots on Wall Street. If nothing else it would remind some banksters of how much we all love and respect them.
Baud
@Tommy:
And they even have their own cable news channel.
Felanius Kootea
Even worse, he was on the cast of Sesame Street for nine years! And you know what Mitt Romney wanted to do to Big Bird.
I hope he gets the job/it’s not a filibuster-able appointment.
Tommy
@Baud: SNL did a skit in like the early 80s. Used makeup to turn an African American into a “white” guy. He found we had a secret handshake. We’d give us each other free stuff. Now clearly that doesn’t happen, but closer to reality then I care to admit.
Baud
@Tommy:
That was Eddie Murphy! Classic skit. “What a silly Negro.”
The party on the bus after the black guy left was the topper.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
I don’t know if any one nominee is worth nuking the filibuster for, but the combination of all the nominees (and bills) being filibustered seems as if it would make it a no brainer. Especially because the people who think the Republicans will keep the filibuster in place if/when they next win the Presidency and Senate simultaneously are living in fantasy land.
JustRuss
@Baud:
If I believed in 11-dimensional chess, I’d say that’s Obama’s ploy, nominate someone so obviously qualified that the Dems will finally decide they’ve had enough and go nuclear when the Republicans filibuster him. Well, a girl can dream.
BGinCHI
The Tea Party immediately called the kid a traitor and a Muslim.
shelly
“should come via one’s choice of parents…”
************
Didn’t one of Dr. Suess’ books address how to go about this? Maybe it was “Oh, The Places You’ll Go.” Or maybe not.
Tommy
@Baud: The town I live in is 98.9% white according to the Census. There was only one African American in my high school. Before I lived here I lived in DC. Bought a house in NE where I was the only white dude around. For the first time in my life I was a minority. Taught me a lot about life.
Sad_Dem
What a bunch of cynics we have here. Republicans love a good bootstrapping story.
JustRuss
@srv:
Is it too much to hope that the reporter followed that up with a cost/benefit analysis of those emergency room visits vs. the better insulin? Sadly, I think I know the answer.
schrodinger's cat
@MomSense: Thanks, cat has a ferocious!
IowaOldLady
@Kay: I was thinking the same kind of thing about Elijah Cummings the other day, having to sit through day after day of Darryl Issa’s hearings. Imagine getting up and knowing you have to go to the office and do that.
MomSense
@Felanius Kootea:
Tie him to the roof of his car and take him on vacation?
Xecky Gilchrist
“Our country needs someone like Debo with significant experience in voting rights to protect the deeply held American value that each person has the right to a voice in our democracy,”
Wingnuts don’t actually disagree with this statement. They just differ with us in their ideas of which colors, sexes, and closetednesses of human beings are to be considered “persons.”
Baud
@Tommy:
I’ve become something of a misanthrope, but an equal opportunity misanthrope! But I’ve experienced a lot of personal negativity so it’s made me sensitive to the damage negativity of any sort can have on people. Once you’re aware of it, it’s amazing how glaring it is.
ruemara
@beltane: I must have been drunk on angel wine when I chose mine. Thanks, Obama.
schrodinger's cat
@ruemara: How are you feeling today?
Roger Moore
@OzarkHillbilly:
A lot of the good it does poor and middle class whites is in bad things that don’t happen, which can be hard to see if you don’t look for them. Nobody notices all the times they don’t get hassled for shopping in nice stores or don’t get pulled over for DWB; it’s like a fish not noticing water. I can think of a particular incident where a friend and I were walking home late at night when we were stopped by the police who were looking for a couple of white guys who had been breaking into cars. We cooperated, mentioned where we were walking from, had our story confirmed by another police officer who had seen us earlier, and sent on our merry way. I doubt the police would have asked us our story if we and the suspects had been black, but somebody who doesn’t think about that stuff might not see the tiniest bit of white privilege in the story.
Similarly, a lot of white privilege comes in getting an advantage over others in close cases. If a company is offering a job and their two similarly qualified candidates are of different races, they’re usually going to take the white guy. Again, it takes some awareness to recognize that the breaks always seem to go your way when competing against blacks.
ruemara
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m focused on happy things for others, nee, batkid. It helps. And trying to determine which cause gets my mid month charitable giving budget of $15. Debating doing a GoFundMe bleg so I can buy this so I can do photo work again. Still questioning whether i have actual ability, but that’s another day’s worry. Sometimes I think I’m not bad at all.
ruemara
Aww, I overlinked and am in moderation.
jnfr
Filibuster must die.
Felonius Monk
@EthylEster:
Well, Richard (The Gagging Maggot) Cohen anyway.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Roger Moore: A lot of the good it does poor and middle class whites is in bad things that don’t happen, which can be hard to see if you don’t look for them.
This is as good a summary of privilege as you will ever run across. Bravo.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
isn’t america awesome?
OzarkHillbilly
@Roger Moore:
Back in ’77-’78 I applied for a job at a factory making sanders. When I walked in I was the only white person among about 20 applicants. When I walked out, there was one other white guy among another 20 or so applicants. When I walked in for my first day on the job, there were 3 new guys: Me, the other white guy, and a black man. There were about 50 people working there, and about half a dozen were black. One didn’t need a connect the dots drawing to figure how that happened.
I would like to say things have gotten better since then, but in the past 25 yrs or so as a union carpenter, I have worked with exactly 2 black men. So, no.
Yatsuno
@ruemara: I DEMANDZ UR FREEDUMBZ!!!
(BTW can we impeach him over this naow?)
Villago Delenda Est
@Sad_Dem:
We are not cynical.
We are experienced.
dmsilev
OT: The dispatches from an alternate universe (aka the NewsMax feed) currently has a headline of “Ben Stein: Obama Paves Way for Second Holocaust”. I’m afraid to click; anyone have any idea WTF that is supposed to mean? Beyond the obvious that Ben Stein is continuing his seemingly endless descent into madness.
Omnes Omnibus
Interesting that he is currently the chief counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senators actually know him and have dealt with him. In a normal world, this should help make him the shoo-in that he should be.
scav
OT WTF? Santorun Robocalling Fucking Chicago Now about Benghazi? They,re just burning money for the joy of it. Because I know damn well I’m not on any list. At least I just ran out his full dime writing this.
Kay
@scav:
They don’t really have “a list”.
In 2008 I got calls to attend Sarah Palin rallies that were 200 miles away. I thought it was interesting because 1. why were they calling me? and, 2. why is she hunting for rally attendees over such a wide area?
There is no “list”. They may all just be grifters.
Omnes Omnibus
Vaguely related to the topic: Wisconsin’s Dems have a good candidate for next years Attorney General election, Jon Richards, He is currently an Assembly member from Milwaukee and all around good guy. Bat signal for gogol’s wife; he is one of us.
schrodinger's cat
@ruemara: Good luck with all your endeavors.
Wally Ballou
@Tommy:
RINO.
TheHalfrican
Fuck this, make him a judge. I want homie on the Supreme Court if Clarence Thomas falls victim to Auto-Erotic Asphyxiation in a couple years…..
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
Let’s just forget about the federal government and knock out Walker, Snyder and Kasich. WI, MI, OH.
I can’t decide which one I dislike most. I go back and forth. Right now it’s Snyder.
Omnes Omnibus
J.B. van Hollen, our current AG, is hand in glove with Walker. If we can knock both of them off, it would be great. I went to college with Richards; he was even in my fraternity. He is really one of the few people I knew in college about whom I have no negative stories.
BTW Walker wins that contest in a walk, but that’s probably just boosterism on my part
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
At a guess, it means that Obama isn’t being sufficiently belligerent toward Iran. (Checks the feed.) Yep, that’s what it is.
Roger Moore
@scav:
I think they’re burning other people’s money so they can siphon some off into their own pockets as a service fee. Republicans: the grift that keeps on grifting.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
I saw he mentions heroin on his site. We’re seeing a lot of it here lately, too. I haven’t seen anything about it nationally in media, not like there was with meth, but it’s definitely up ‘n coming. The people we’re seeing are really young – 16, 17, 18.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: Christ, I thought people had figured that one out. Heroin is one of the bad ones.
PurpleGirl
@ruemara: If you do do a GoFundMe page, remember to tell us when it’s live. And you do take good pictures.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
I was surprised too. It’s back in a big way. The first one I got I was “what?! where is this coming from?” then there were more and more. It’s younger and better-off people than meth was.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: Republicans in WI are saying things like this about Jon:
The Spitzer comparison would be enough to get my vote.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Reposted from the next post:
Rachel just did a segment on Wisconsin. The legislature seems to have gone insane.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hah! Sherrod Brown endorsed the Ohio dem candidate for governor today. They’re excited about him. They think he can win. I do, too. Not WILL win, but CAN win and might win.
I actually like the Michigan guy because he came out strong for public schools, so I may have to cross borders and help over there :)
Tokyokie
@OzarkHillbilly: Way back when Larry King had a radio show, knuckleheads would ocassionally call in on the open-phones segment and claim that they’d been discriminated against because they were white. To which King would respond, “No, you were discriminated against because you are stupid.” (And the caller’s subsequent incoherent response would prove King’s point.) So the answer to you rhetorical question is affirmative.
One of my brothers thinks he got where he is all because of his own hard work. No matter that our father finished the last two years of his undergraduate engineering degree in one year (while helping on weekends on the family truck farm) so that he could enlist as an officer in the Corps of Engineers and receive relatively safe duty (building airstrips in the Aleutians, as it turned out), rather than wait to be drafted as a buck private in the WWII infantry. No matter that a great uncle we never knew took it upon himself to put his younger siblings, including my grandmother, through college during the first part of the 20th century. No matter that a sympathetic faculty member argued his case and saved his butt when it looked like he’d be tossed out of professional school for academic underachievement. Despite all that, he thinks that everything he’s done, he’s done on his own.
But there are no self-made men. And such thoughts are especially risible when they’re voiced by children of white privilege. I realize that most of what I have or will accomplish has been largely attributable to the relatively privileged circumstances into which I was born, and although I cannot help receiving the benefits of the social position I inherited, I can work to fight injustice when I see it. And if somebody wants to call that white liberal guilt, then fine. They’re probably too stupid to recognize their own privilege.
StringOnAStick
@Tokyokie: Nicely said!
Jebediah, RBG
@PurpleGirl:
yes – I can prolly throw in a few bucks.