1 Thank god for the liberals in the Congress and Supreme Court for ending that despicable system. Otherwise, Ms. Parks would probably still be in jail. Remember: it was conservatives who opposed civil rights. Sure would be nice to hear you all admit how wrong you were.

2 Ummm, Joe - Republicans passed the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, which were opposed by the Democrats. The first black men elected to the congress and the senate were on a Republican ticket. The civil rights act of 1866 was passed by - you guessed it - Republicans, as were the subsequent 1870, 71 and 75 acts when Democrats kept going around the rules. But thats not what you were talking about, right? The Civil Rights Act of 1964 - thats what you meant, I'm sure, since it was around the time of Parks. The act was almost 10 years after Parks famed protest on the bus, but better late than never. Yes, I'm sure I was very wrong to support that act 19 years before my birth, but hey - what can a single-cell organism do? In both the House and Senate, Democrats voted in the 60th percentiles to pass the act, while Republicans voted in the 80th percentile. So, let me get this straight - who opposed civil rights? It would be nice to hear Democrats come out and say "We now garner the most black votes because of FDR's work projects and entitlement programs, which bribed the black community in a time when the president was unwilling to move forward on civil rights."

3 Nice misdirection, Joe. Keep in mind that it was Democrats and Dixiecrats (every single one a Democrat, though Helms and Thurmond later become Republicans) that tried to block civil rights legislation, while Republicans forced it through. But that's okay, Joe. Liberal Democrats had their revenge with LBJ's Great Society, almost utterly destroying the black family unit.

4 Notice I said "conservatives"? Not Republicans? Sort of makes you look evasive huh? I understand - uncomfortable truths and all. And I was talking about the 1957 bill, and "you conservatives" generically. We're still waiting for that apology, btw.

5 I can't say much about what happened when my father was in junior high, nor will I apologize for something that occurred decades before my birth. I will not apologize for something I didn't do. But what is your excuse for pushing today for the same kind of social programs that destroyed the black middle class and left so many mired in poverty? The Liberal social policies pursued for the past four decades up to this very second have done far more to destroy black American families than anything Bull Conner could have ever dreamed of.

6 How about saying, "Conservatives were wrong to have opposed civil rights laws"? Especially since you want me to do something similar in regard to liberals and public assistance programs. Lyndon Johnson said something about "You don't take a man who has just shed his chains and put him in a race and expect him to compete with all the other runners." So why should 400 years of being treated like dirt not take a few decades to be erased? Blaming government programs for the fact that blacks aren't equal yet is just a convenient excuse. Just how well those programs work may be debateable. But saying a bunch of well-meaning people trying to conoct ways to help are worse than Bull Connor, who probably wanted blacks lynched, is just despicable. It is the sort of comment that just shows how reprehensibily clueless conservatives are on racial issues. I wonder where you would have stood in the 1950s. And that Bull Connor comment IS something you could apologize for.

7 Just how well those programs work may be debateable. But saying a bunch of well-meaning people trying to conoct ways to help are worse than Bull Connor, who probably wanted blacks lynched, is just despicable. Ever heard the phrase, "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions"? You created for blacks a living hell, and then try to excuse yourself for your near genocidal incompetence. Pathetic. Hundreds of societies far older and more entrenched have changed far more radically in far shorter periods of time than has black America. Perhaps if liberals and faux race-baiting "leaders" like Al Sharpton would get out of the wya, black Americans would quit thinking of themselves as victims and start appliying their God-given talents. You ascribe to Connor lynching while admitting you cannot prove your charge, and you think someone owes you an apology? The phrase, "When hell freezes over" comes to mind.

8 You're DEFENDING Bull Connor's racial views??! You are truly off the deep-end. And handing someone food stamps is pretty f'ing far from "genocide." Hyperbole much? Instead of saying people are playing "victim", maybe you should buy a clue. Just because life is dandy for you and your white male friends are doing fine doesn't mean it is for everyone. You are a dangerously insensitive person, as well as someone who has not a clue about reality. The phrase "let them eat cake" comes to mind with you. And yes, letting a facist like Bull Connor off the hook like that is worthy of an apology. Unless you think siccing dogs on people is the American way. You probably do.

9 Joe, instead of trying to divert attention away from the facts that well-intentioned, yet seriously misguided, people have crippled the ability of a race to think and act for themselves, how about you address the issue. Give some examples of how food stamps and welfare don't lead to an entitlement complex. Defend your position that some blacks don't jump at the chance to play the victim, and that leaders like Sharpton don't contribute to that. Can you do that without resorting to an ad hominem attacks in 9 of 11 sentences you wrote in the previous rebuke?

10 You say stop diverting attention, yet you continue to do it (my original post was about conservatives having a shameful history in respect to Rosa Parks, and you are still saying, 'Well, how about now..."). And you ask me to admit a little, but you are so incapable of making any concession to reason that you wrote that ridiculous defense of Bull Connor against my supposed "slander." If you are so unwilling to engage in reasonable debate, why should anyone take you seriously? (By the way, that you would even have the stomach to have written that is deeply disturbing. You've got problems, serious problems.) And as for facts, how about those "hundreds of societies" that have changed "far more radically" in "far shorter" time? If there's hundreds, how about naming, oh, say, 20 or 30? Don't forget, blacks are the only ethnic group in America subjected to legal bondage and segregation, something that as late as the early 1970s, the President was still dragging his feet about fixing (I refer to Nixon telling people to kill desegregation enforcements efforts on his WH tapes.) Again, your blindness to reality, and your simplistic retreat into self-help mumbo-jumbo (like some late night tv ad), just show why conservatives are so bad at race relations.

11 You're having problems recognizing that whether you intended it or not, your kind destroyed generations of black families, something that racists like Bull Connor never dreamed of. You still hold that you didn't slander Connor, even when the burden of proof is upon you to prove a charge you made. Of crouse, accusation, not proof is all it takes onteh left, isn't it? Sadly, about the only thing you are capable of is name calling, not reasoning. Your idea of "reasonable debate" is having me apologize for something I didn't do. Sorry, that dog won't hunt. You are the apologist of failed ideologies, not I. Want 20 or 30 societies that have changed far more radically in a far shorter period of time? In the interest of saving time, can I simply offer up Eastern Europe in the 1990s? Germany in 1945, and again in 1989? Japan at the end of of World War 2? All of known Europe after the Black Death, or societies in the Americas and Far East after encountering Europeans in trade? Societies often change radically, not incrementally. Of course, understanding history isn't your strong point, is it?

12 Joe has been tossed; his last post deleted. One ad hominem too many...

13 Jeez, some people just get all worked up.