Georgia GOP Official Quits Job After Calling for 'Whiter' Downtown Augusta

[AlCzervik]

A Republican Party official has resigned from the Augusta housing authority board after fallout from an e-mail in which he appeared to endorse "making the downtown whiter."
Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver said Monday that Dave Barbee resigned from the Augusta Housing Authority effective Sunday.

A release from Copenhaver's office said Barbee expressed "sincere regret" for poor wording in the Aug. 7 e-mail -- which urged developers to support a plan to shut down a public housing development and replace it with "high income folks who will tend to be White."

"We will be making the downtown Whiter with moving 200 whites in and moving 500 blacks out!" he wrote.

Copenhaver was among a group of local politicians calling for Barbee to step down.

"He apologizes to anyone in the Augusta community that he may have inadvertently offended," Copenhaver said in the statement. "I have accepted his apology and with God's help, may we forgive and move forward as a community of trust and hope."

more at link
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,297186,00.html

[aquart]

1. "Poor wording"? What was a good way to say it?

[AlCzervik]

4. yes, it's is "wording" deficiency thats the problem, not his racists views.

these people are just out of their minds.

[Retired AF Dem]

15. Is this any different than

"A chocolate New Orleans"? Even though chocolate is sweet. :)

[DefenseLawyer]

19. Seems a lot different to me

New Orleans, where I used to live, was already demographically "chocolate". Nagin was basically saying he wanted the make up of the city to stay the same. He didn't want this guy's plan in Georgia, where urban renewal equals "condos for white people", to be put in place in New Orleans.

[Retired AF Dem]

20. No different to me

The incident in GA and the incident in LA are no different. This shit from all sides in our country has to stop.

[DefenseLawyer]

22. How is it the same?

In Georgia he said he wanted to displace poor black people with rich white people. In New Orleans he said he didn't want to displace poor black people with rich white people. Those are in fact exactly opposite positions.

[yardwork]

26. I think that they are different for several reasons.

The mayor of New Orleans said that he wanted the city to remain the same. This bozo was saying that he wanted Augusta to change. That's a big difference.

Add in the fact that African Americans have been historically and systematically oppressed in this country, and its disingenuous to say that the comments are equally wrong.

[Retired AF Dem]

28. So

two wrongs make a right? Let me say again, in my opinion, both comments are racist. Neither can be defended no matter what the history. Racism in this country cannot be defeated unless all parties choose to end it.

[DefenseLawyer]

34. Nagin's use of the term

"chocolate city" may have been somehow inflammatory to angry white man, but simply saying he didn't want the residents of New Orleans to be displaced is not racist.

[yardwork]

35. No, I didn't say that two wrongs make a right. Where did you get that?

I don't think that there is anything wrong with Nagin's comment. It was perfectly acceptable to comment that he would try to keep the city's demographics the same.

The bozo in August, however, is a total white supremacist. His comment was very wrong.

Is my meaning clear to you now? Let me make it really clear.
In my opinion, Nagin comment = perfectly ok. Augusta bozo = white supremacist.

[Retired AF Dem]

37. Sure

it is perfectly clear to me.

[yardwork]

38. Good! By the way, I'm white.

[pampango]

40. And if a suburb wants to remain the same - white - is that OK?

They are not proposing any change, after all.

[yardwork]

49. What part of this statement is "not proposing a change????"

"We will be making the downtown Whiter with moving 200 whites in and moving 500 blacks out!" he wrote.

[aquart]

46. One was pro-ethnic cleansing, one was not. Guess which?

Incredible that this has to be explained.

[hisownpetard]

24. I didn't like Nagin's comment, either. n/t

[KamaAina]

30. Speaking of New Orleans, how come Alphonso Jackson still has a job?

the head of HUD who infamously said that New Orleans "is not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again".

Oh, right, Bushies can do pretty much whatever they want, and even in egregious cases like Rove and Gonzales, hang on for months if not years. It's just little state-level peons like this that get thrown under the bus.

[KingFlorez]

47. There is a difference

And it's not hard to see there is one.

[onenote]

6. i think he meant to say Christian Caucasian Purebreads

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. "gentrified"

[hisownpetard]

23. He apologizes to anyone his words may have "inadvertantly offended"?

NAH. Who could take offense? Jeesh. Just another ignorant racist
in a position of power. No biggie, right?

[aquart]

45. No apologies to the people he deliberately offended.

[hisownpetard]

50. !! n/t

[tanyev]

2. They're not even trying to hide it anymore.

[bkcc]

11. you mean as opposed to the way they've done it up til now?

it's the south. it's racism.
i'll try to act shocked if you really want me to.

[Tyler Durden]

3. Don't tell me discrimination is dead.

We certainly are not blameless here in the North either.

[onenote]

5. "inadvertently" offended?

give me a break.

[AlCzervik]

9. obviously thats more of that "Poor wording" he seems to have.

[bunkerbuster1]

8. or, "what GA Goopers say when they think 'those people' aren't listening."

Par for the course. What a dumbass.

One day my state will turn blue. Until then, GA has some of the nation's stupidest people running it.

[Donnachaidh]

14. uh no dear - GA has some of the dumbest VOTERS on the face of the planet

The people running the state, and our reps in Washington know EXACTLY what they are doing. The *goobers* are the voters who buy into the bullshit they shovel to stay in office.

[bunkerbuster1]

17. Agree up to a point...

yeah, there are some fairly slick people who are quite adept at manipulating public opinion and leveraging fraidy-cat Georgians.

But seriously, this Augusta dimwit? You think it was intelligent, writing something like that in an email?

[hisownpetard]

25. Well said! n/t

[conscious evolution]

44. Actually,Ga has Diebold voting machines.

Granted,there are a lot of dumbasses here,but the biggest problem is the election fraud that goes on here.

[DefenseLawyer]

10. He has a job waiting for him

helping George Bush "rebuild" New Orleans.

[onehandle]

12. Welcome to Georgia. Where we threw out the Dems because we're racists. nt

[CottonBear]

13. Oh god. What a racist moran he is. He wrote what many other GOPers also think.

I don't think a just God would forgive him for displacing poor minorities from public housing.

Good riddance. We don't need more of his kind here in Georgia. We have enough racist morans as it is. :(

[gratuitous]

18. At the very least

I'll give this garbanzo credit for resigning after this episode. We've seen over and over again Republicans trying to brazen it out and making the bad situation they created even worse. His non-apology apology aside, at least he's stepping down for being such a vaporbrain.

[CottonBear]

32. True. However, I'm sure there are more of his kind to fill his job. n/t

[SoCalDem]

16. Gee.. maybe he should have just wished quietly for a Biblical flood or something

and then bused them to ND, UT, TX, IN, CA..:)

[Marrah_G]

21. This shit makes me mad and sad

To think we still have people that racist and ignorant in this country just makes me shake my head. He didn't even try to hide his racism.

[Beelzebud]

27. Now if only his parents were around to apologize for breeding.

[CatWoman]

29. A smaller version of the NOLA plan

in plain English.

[Zenlitened]

31. The new GOP motto:"'Katrinafication.' Because 'ethnic cleansing' just takes too long."

:wow:

[CottonBear]

33. ...

:(

[Enrique]

36. the best part of this story

Barbee, who is white, is the GOP's chairman for the 10th Congressional District. Party officials said he has not been asked to step down from that position.

[Rude Horner]

39. Personally, I think they should call him on the Bullshit

I say don't let them get out of this the easy way - being able to say it was poor wording and then forgive and move forward. Bullshit.

Ok, so if this is "poor wording" then give them one chance to correct their wording. So tell me, Barbee...what did you mean to say? Hmmmmm?

Watch 'em squirm. "Well uh...um...uh....well...uh"

[ljm2002]

41. And the real reason he stepped down...

...is because he was stoopid enough to say out loud, in plain English, what the real plan was.

It's not because he may have offended anyone, it's because the powers that be are pissed he gave the game away.

[Bluebear]

42. 'that he may have inadvertently offended' - inadvertently?!?!

[ecstatic]

43. Tiger Woods should boycott Augusta...

But I won't hold my breath.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

So there's a better 'wording' for Whites Only?

Just do me a favor Dave. Don't bother. The hole will only get deeper.

[KingFlorez]

48. And Republicans always claim they aren't racist

This is the way probably around 90% of them think, yet they get angry when they get called out on it.