Racist Paul LePage, Maine Guv, is at it again.

[ponderingturtle]

The funny part is, Paul's actually the member of the GOP who does outreach to black people. He was the only person in the GOP who said "Hey, this is awful!" back when police were driving around in military equipment in Ferguson.

LePage is from the "I love elites and hate the lessers" wing of the GOP. As much as he's an obvious racist, truth is that he'll sell the average white person up the river, too.

He is one of the few people in the GOP who seem willing to make a stand to the party leadership on personal principles and not as say a teaparty vs mainstream republican principles.

 

[seayakin]

My perception of Rand Paul is that he is consistently libertarian and truly stands for libertarian policies.

It is also my perception that many whites seemed to feel that by ending slavery, we solved the race issue ignoring things like Jim Crow. LePage is probably the best example of this.

 

[Mumbles]

LePage is simply awful. Recall that he also took down a mural dedicated to workers.

I'd never vote for Rand Paul. But when he says that he'd never enter a store that banned people based on race, I think he's telling the truth. I think his visit to Howard was also honest, though he was deeply ignorant as to his audience. There's a certain level of ignorance to his old objection to the Civil Rights Act, for sure. Even he could have made an argument based on the idea that racist businesses had formed a cartel. And of course, I lean liberal.

But I do prefer him to the flat out raging hostility towards black people (or Hispanic people, or LGBT folk) that we often see from Republicans like LePage. And he does seem to stick to some principles, while others bend based on skin color. He's the best of a bad lot, I guess - while LePage is among the worst of the worst.

(BTW, I don't trust Paul to be libertarian towards LGBT folk - and yes, that is a problem)

 

[Stacko]

He's making revisionist history now.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage defended monuments to the Confederacy in a radio interview on Tuesday, claiming that 7,600 Mainers fought for the South and that the war was initially about land, not slavery.

Two Civil War historians contacted by told CNN disputed LePage's assertions.

"What was the war? If you really truly read and study the Civil War, it was turned into a battle for the slaves, but initially — I mean, 7,600 Mainers fought for the Confederacy," LePage, a Republican, said in an interview with Maine radio station WVOM. "And they fought because they were concerned about — they were farmers — and they were concerned about their land. Their property. It was a property rights issue as it began. The President of the United States, who was a very brilliant politician, really made it about slavery to a great degree."

...

Jamie Kingman Rice, the director of Library Service at the Maine Historical Society, told CNN that LePage's 7,600 figure "is not a number that is known to the research community."

David Blight, Civil War historian and professor at Yale, told CNN in an interview that it was doubtful more than a handful of Mainers fought for the Confederacy. The state of Maine was one of the strongest supporters of the Union.

Blight also took issue with LePage's claim that the Civil War was initially a conflict over land.

"That's patented nonsense. It's appalling degree of ignorance and misinformation by a governor of a New England state, or any state for that matter," he said.

Blight reiterated that the war was fought over slavery and its expansion into new territories.

 

[Babbylonian]

Blight also took issue with LePage's claim that the Civil War was initially a conflict over land.

"That's patented nonsense. It's appalling degree of ignorance and misinformation by a governor of a New England state, or any state for that matter," he said.

No, it's not. It's an appalling flat-out lie. It would be "ignorance and misinformation" if we were to believe he'd actually heard from someone that 7,000 people from Maine fought for the Confederacy. However, believing that is even more ridiculous than believing the lie itself.

This is one of the problems we're having dealing with these ****** politicians: Even their critics too often avoid calling blatant lies what they are, moderating the tone of their comments as if they're dealing with an honest difference of opinion. There should hardly be a news story about LePage or the current occupant of the Oval Office that doesn't include some variation of the words "but given the number of lies he's told..."

 

[phiwum]

No, it's not. It's an appalling flat-out lie. It would be "ignorance and misinformation" if we were to believe he'd actually heard from someone that 7,000 people from Maine fought for the Confederacy. However, believing that is even more ridiculous than believing the lie itself.

This is one of the problems we're having dealing with these ****** politicians: Even their critics too often avoid calling blatant lies what they are, moderating the tone of their comments as if they're dealing with an honest difference of opinion. There should hardly be a news story about LePage or the current occupant of the Oval Office that doesn't include some variation of the words "but given the number of lies he's told..."

Lies are a form of misinformation. You might wish that Blight was more precise, but what he said was accurate.

 

[Babbylonian]

Lies are a form of misinformation. You might wish that Blight was more precise, but what he said was accurate.

In context, he was saying that LePage was ignorant and misinformed. In other words, it's the benefit of the doubt being given that he was in possession of inaccurate information. It's how you say that someone has made an incorrect statement without calling them a liar. That makes it easier for others to shrug it off because, shucks, who hasn't repeated information that they found out later was wrong?

 

[Spindrift]

Luckily LePage is term limited and will be gone next year but I don't think he would be re-elected this time.

 

[Mumbles]

In context, he was saying that LePage was ignorant and misinformed. In other words, it's the benefit of the doubt being given that he was in possession of inaccurate information. It's how you say that someone has made an incorrect statement without calling them a liar. That makes it easier for others to shrug it off because, shucks, who hasn't repeated information that they found out later was wrong?

Well, it's entirely possible that he actually does believe it. Everything we've seen from LePage points to him being a raging idiot, after all.

 

[Minoosh]

LePage:

It was a property rights issue as it began.

It was about property rights - whether there was a right to own people as property.

 

[Arisia]

Hopefully he won't get it into his head to run for US Senate, there are clearly enough people in Maine who think he's just great!

 

[dudalb]

Can't wait for Stephen King's comments on this; Maine's most famous current native son and LePage have been engaged in warfare for some time,most famously when Lepage accused King of paying no taxes in Maine....which LePage had to retract.
LePage probably has never heard of the 20th Maine, whose stand at Little Round Top on the Second Day of Gettyburg might have saved the Union.

 

[C_Felix]

Maine Gov. Paul LePage defended monuments to the Confederacy in a radio interview on Tuesday, claiming that 7,600 Mainers fought for the South and that the war was initially about land, not slavery.

Two Civil War historians contacted by told CNN disputed LePage's assertions.

"What was the war? If you really truly read and study the Civil War, it was turned into a battle for the slaves, but initially — I mean, 7,600 Mainers fought for the Confederacy," LePage, a Republican, said in an interview with Maine radio station WVOM. "And they fought because they were concerned about — they were farmers — and they were concerned about their land. Their property. It was a property rights issue as it began. The President of the United States, who was a very brilliant politician, really made it about slavery to a great degree."

...

Jamie Kingman Rice, the director of Library Service at the Maine Historical Society, told CNN that LePage's 7,600 figure "is not a number that is known to the research community."
David Blight, Civil War historian and professor at Yale, told CNN in an interview that it was doubtful more than a handful of Mainers fought for the Confederacy. The state of Maine was one of the strongest supporters of the Union.

Blight also took issue with LePage's claim that the Civil War was initially a conflict over land.

"That's patented nonsense. It's appalling degree of ignorance and misinformation by a governor of a New England state, or any state for that matter," he said.

Blight reiterated that the war was fought over slavery and its expansion into new territories.

I'm going to have to use that phrase.

"Your claim of (X) is not known to the research community"

 

[Trebuchet]

I'm going to have to use that phrase.

"Your claim of (X) is not known to the research community"

I'd prefer "Your claim of (X) is complete ******** (male bovine feces)."

 

[Mumbles]

Can't wait for Stephen King's comments on this; Maine's most famous current native son and LePage have been engaged in warfare for some time,most famously when Lepage accused King of paying no taxes in Maine....which LePage had to retract.
LePage probably has never heard of the 20th Maine, whose stand at Little Round Top on the Second Day of Gettyburg might have saved the Union.

"Probably"?

Don't you think you're giving LePage too much credit?

 

[Cleon]

Someone hook a generator up to Joshua Chamberlain's grave, it'll power the Western Hemisphere for the next 30 years.

 

[dudalb]

Someone hook a generator up to Joshua Chamberlain's grave, it'll power the Western Hemisphere for the next 30 years.

 

[TragicMonkey]

My grandpa would be horrified if he knew Yankees were trying to claim to have been on the right side of the War of Northern Aggression. I mean, Maine? You can't get any more Northern without turning Canadian!

 

[Bubba]

The funny part is, Paul's actually the member of the GOP who does outreach to black people. He was the only person in the GOP who said "Hey, this is awful!" back when police were driving around in military equipment in Ferguson.

LePage is from the "I love elites and hate the lessers" wing of the GOP. As much as he's an obvious racist, truth is that he'll sell the average white person up the river, too.

terrifyingcpstales.weebly.com/governor-lepages-poor-adopted-son.html

Just because LePage has a black son (by adoption) doesn't mean no one can or should question his racial sensitivities. I mean, Justin Volpe, a white New York City police officer who violated Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, in a stationhouse bathroom in 1997, had a black girlfriend at the time.