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Speaker Oliver calls comment an insult to those who died for civil rights in South
BY TOM HESTER SR.
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
In a comment related to his call for a voter referendum on the proposal to legalize gay marriage in New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday, “People would have been happy to have referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South.”
The governor, who on Tuesday called for a referendum on the Nov. 6 ballot that would ask voters to decide if the state should legalize same-sex marriage, also said he will veto the Democratic legislation to allow it when the proposal reaches his desk.
The comment that the civil rights movement of the 1960s could have been settled through a national or southern states voter referendum stunned Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D-Essex), who became the first African-American woman to head the lower house in 2010.
“Gov. Christie better sit down with some of New Jersey’s great teachers for a history lesson, because his puzzling comment shows a complete misunderstanding about the civil rights movement,” Oliver said. “It’s impossible to ever conceive that a referendum on civil rights in the South would have been successful and brought justice to minorities. It’s unfathomable to even suggest a referendum would have been the better course.
“Governor – people were fighting and dying in the streets of the South for a reason,” the Assemblywoman said. “They were fighting and dying in the streets of the South because the majority refused to grant minorities equal rights by any method. It look legislative action to bring justice to all Americans, just as legislative action is the right way to bring marriage equality to all New Jerseyans.
“The governor’s comment is an insult to those who had no choice but to fight and die in the streets for equal rights,” Oliver said. “The governor needs to show the same courage. We do not shrug off civil rights. We do not pass on tough decisions.”
Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer) also offered criticism of the governor’s comment.
“It’s difficult to understand what the governor was thinking,” Watson Coleman said. “His words defy history and were extremely insensitive to the struggle for equality of African-Americans and other minorities in this country. Fighting and dying in the streets of the South was not a choice, governor, it was the only way.
“Anyone who lived through that time or took a history class in school understands it was an incredibly dangerous and hostile period for African-Americans and other minorities in the South,” the Assemblywoman said. “Basic human rights should never be decided by a referendum. But can you imagine the outcome if civil rights in this country, during this very racially charged time in our history, had been left up to a vote?
July 18, 2011 1:17 pm ET by Oliver Willis
David Carr writes today in the New York Times about several instances of News Corp. paying large settlements in response to lawsuits filed by companies in the U.S. In particular the Times notes a complaint from a company called Floorgraphics, against News America Marketing, a News Corp. subsidiary that does in-store and newspaper insert advertising.
In 2009, a federal case in New Jersey brought by a company called Floorgraphics went to trial, accusing News America of, wait for it, hacking its way into Floorgraphics's password protected computer system.
The complaint summed up the ethos of News America nicely, saying it had "illegally accessed plaintiff's computer system and obtained proprietary information" and "disseminated false, misleading and malicious information about the plaintiff."
The complaint stated that the breach was traced to an I.P. address registered to News America and that after the break-in, Floorgraphics lost contracts from Safeway, Winn-Dixie and Piggly Wiggly.
Much of the lawsuit was based on the testimony of Robert Emmel, a former News America executive who had become a whistle-blower. After a few days of testimony, the News Corporation had heard enough. It settled with Floorgraphics for $29.5 million and then, days later, bought it, even though it reportedly had sales of less than $1 million.
Carr also documents that News America paid $125 million to Insignia Systems to "settle allegations of anticompetitive behavior and violations of antitrust laws." News America also settled a lawsuit with Valassis Communications "in exchange for $500 million and an agreement to cooperate on certain ventures going forward."
The executive in charge of News America at this time was Paul V. Carlucci, who reportedly described those uncomfortable with the company's aggressive sales philosophy as "bed wetting liberals." Carlucci is currently the publisher of the New York Post and continues to be in charge of News America.