Trent Lott And Gyanendra Shaha

CNN.com - Lott apologizes for Thurmond comment - Dec. 10, 2002 "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either," Lott said at last week's party...... Thurmond ran as the presidential nominee of the breakaway Dixiecrat Party in the 1948 presidential race against Democrat Harry Truman and Republican Thomas Dewey. He carried Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and his home state of South Carolina, of which he was governor at the time...... During the campaign, he said, "All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches." ..... Earlier Monday, Lott issued a statement, saying, "My comments were not an endorsement of his positions of over 50 years ago, but of the man and his life."......
CNN.com - Bush calls Lott comments 'offensive' - Dec. 13, 2002 ..... Lott, a Mississippi Republican, said he would not give up his leadership post, despite the furor over his remarks..... Lott's explanations about what he meant when he praised segregationist candidate Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign have been inadequate..... The comment in question was delivered one week ago during a 100th birthday party for the retiring Thurmond...... Lott noted that in Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign, whose centerpiece was opposition to integration, Mississippi was one of four Thurmond carried..... "We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either," Lott said....... a report of a similar comment he made at a 1980 campaign rally for Ronald Reagan in Mississippi....... "You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today," Lott was quoted as saying of Thurmond in a November 3, 1980 ...... Lott vigorously opposed desegregating his fraternity when he was a student at the University of Mississippi in the 1960s...... Lott insisted, did he mean to endorse Thurmond's since-discarded segregationist views. Instead, Lott said, he meant to praise Thurmond's stance on defense, law enforcement and economic development......
Wired News: Blogs Make the Headlines
Trent Lott - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Trent Lott: Show This Racist the Door
On Lisa Rein's Radar: Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott Is A ...
NathanNewman.org
Rush Limbaugh's Trent Lott Spin Zone

In December 2002, Trent Lott had been Senate Majority Leader for years. He showed up at a party for Thurmond, the racist who ran for president half a century or so ago. And Lott made an overtly racist comment. For the longest time he did not apologize. Finally he apologized but he never understood that he had made a racist commet. He lost his job on the issue.

"What should have I told Thurmond, that I am glad he lost in 1948!" Lott said at one point. The guy just did not get it.

The reason I am telling this story is because this reminds me of where the Nepal king stands on democracy. The guy just does not get it.

He is someone out to get for himself either an executive monarchy or an activist monarchy. Both are wrong on democratic grounds.

February 8 Will Speed Up Bipolarization

The king's international isoliation is near complete. But only internal factors will bring democracy to the country.

February 8 is to come as a blessing in disguise. It is making a rapid bipolarization possible. It is also sending the party cadres into homes across the country to spread the message of democracy.

The king's obstinacy makes room only for a confrontation, a showdown. Looks like that is what he will get.

Gagan Thapa

62 of the 75 district chairs of the Nepal Students Union have threatened to resign if Girija Koirala does not take back his arbitrarily formed central committee of the organization.

What a waste!

A duly elected Gagan Thapa leading the NSU would have been at the forefront of the movement. Instead he and his colleagues are having to fight Girija.

It is not good for his party, it is not good for the country.

Broadband Down

My broadband connection has been down. So I have been coming online wireless, through my cellphone. It works just fine for the most part. But I have been missing on some of Umesh Shrestha's video clips.

Second Sunday In January

The local group here in New York City that I meet with meets next then. There is something to be said about meeting in person. I am really hoping to put in some work. There are more Nepalis in NYC than any other place in the States. This is a good place to be for the democracy movement.