this is downright evil

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(clicky)caught on tape- redistricting conspiracy in florida to oust black congresswoman Corrine Brown
In the recording Republican Florida State Representative Janet Adkins said the following:
"They’re [prison inmates/ex-cons] a part of the population. No, they can’t vote. So when you take a look at, and I don’t know what the numbers are, but you take a look at how many minorities are in the prisons within that newly drawn proposed congressional — how many of them live in the prisons, that’s why Corrine Brown is so against having an east-west, because her concern is that they live in prisons and they can’t vote. So it’s a perfect storm.
It's a perfect storm, you're now reducing the percentage of minorities within that district and you draw it in such a fashion that perhaps a majority, or maybe not a majority, but a number of them will live in the prisons, thereby not being able to vote. You can actually, Danny, you can be the person that will help get rid of [Rep.] Corrine Brown."

There is a word for it: "gerrymandering". Redrawing voting districts so one party gets favored at the expense of the other. Nothing new about that kind of political corruption. But the machinations, and conspiracies, behind gerrymandering are rarely caught on tape. That IS kinda new.

So? Drawing district lines to achieve certain outcomes is the way it usually works in America. Why is this case particularly bad?

the hypocrisy involved still gets my goat, I can imagine that if the shoe were on that scum adkins' feet she'd feel differently. just because "everybody else does it" is NOT any kind of real moral justification. it is just evil IMHO.

I think it should be left the way it is for 5, Brown's district gobbles up many of the extremely liberal areas in Gainesville, Orlando, and Jacksonville in one fell swoop letting them have Crazy Brown to represent them. Several of the surrounding districts are left off as leaning conservative.

Well, I can't listen to whatever's embedded in that article, cuz I've still got Dial-up----BUT, I read the article, and found it interesting that the author didn't say, anywhere else in the article, that it was because she was black----JUST, in the TITLE----so, what if this is the MEDIA, once again, making the trouble?

Also, what if it's just this Adkins woman, wanting to get rid of a DEMOCRAT, and NOT a BLACK? Adkins didn't SAY it was because she was black----one can speculate, all-they-want, but they're not Adkins.

Also, I found THIS:

http://wislawjournal.com/2010/06/21/commentary-laws-vary-on-whether-recording-is-allowed/

So, if they ever figure-out who secretly recorded that meeting, that person could be in deep kimchi!

AFAIC that behavior of the adkins slime is still evil no matter how you slice it.

I agree; this scheme to reduce the number of blacks in a redrawn district to include convicts incarcerated in prison in order to oust this representative is purely racially motivated.

It may be manipulative, it may be unethical, it may be sneaky and undrhanded, but it is not evil.

Remember what we talked about. Just because it's not nice or seems wrong does not make something evil. It's not extremes, and there are shades of grey. Lots of them. Most of them actually.

then define evil.

Evil is the absence of any good or redeeming quality at all or of any possible good or redeeming or beneficial intent on the part of the person committing the act. Evil is usually the worst wrong there is. The holocaust was evil. Redistricting is way lower on the scale.

I'd call it sneaky and backhanded politics, but to call everything (or most things) you find personally repugnant "evil" will make people not pay any attention to your views and you will become the boy who cried political wolf.

In your opinion does this issue rank up there very high in the WORST THINGS DONE category?

Think about rape, murder of innocents, abuse, genocide, sex trafficking, slavery, etc. There is a "pretty bad" category too you know. And a "bad" and "not all that good".

my personal threshold for seeing something as evil is lower than yours. all those examples you mentioned are to me just various flavors or grades of evil. to me, evil is trying to hurt people who did you no harm [via commission or omission] for no good reason other than personal aggrandizement or out of simple bloody-mindedness.

SO then you agree that it requires intent. This may not have intent to hurt, it may simply have intent to inconvenience or to win an election, etc. An intent to win an election by any means necessary short of harming someone physically is not the same as deciding to smear someone just because you don't like them. Intent is important. In fact, intent is sometimes the deciding factor in what the act is.

Remember when we had a long discussion about absolutes? This falls into that category we were talking about that night to me.

Also, check your FB inbox. Just messaged you.

okeedookee

Hmmm. Evil is an odd word as it bears all sorts of connotations and is largely dependent on the user. Thus as far as Hitler and the German nation were concerned, the Jews were evil and warranted removal in the fullest sense. Others were differently inclined, seeing the murder of a group as outrageous.

However, in the midst of all of this no one asked the question....is this the conduct of a species with the means to distinguish irrational hatred from logical self defence. That question in itself is a dynamic one that immediately reduces Hitlers actions against a fellow species member, utterly indefensible and pure barbarism thus destroying Hitlers pretenses to modernism.

Likewise, in this instance are these the actions of the sorts of agents who should be representing Americans in a constitutional democracy. Intent is less a concern, whereas competence is.