Okay, getting back to the John McCain-MLK birthday thing referenced a few days ago (good quote, MikE!). Apparently, McCain initially voted against the measure as a fed holiday, then recanted, reversed, and supported it when it was put forth as a state holiday. Quoted as saying:

"In 1983, when I was brand-new in the Congress, I voted against the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King. That was a mistake, OK? And later I had the chance to ... help fight for ... the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King as a holiday in my state." (Link to the Salon.com article in which he's quoted...towards the bottom).

Additionally, according to the Washington Post:

• Voted to cut off federal assistance to public schools that prohibit prayer in school.

• Voted to strike provisions of the Racial Justice Act that would prohibit the death sentence in state and federal cases if a defendant could prove with statistical or other evidence that the race of the victim played a role in sentencing.

• Voted against a 1996 bill to prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation.

• Voted against measures to increase the minimum wage, against a woman's right to choose, and with Bush 91 percent of the time last year.

So, yeah, I dunno. He might've changed his mind 'cause he realized he was being a dickhead, or he might have changed his mind 'cause he knew that an anti-civil rights vote would bite him in the ass years later when he was running for a higher office. The quote above is referenced off how Barry Goldwater regretted his anti-civil rights vote (indeed, Goldwater is viewed, so far as I know, as pretty much just a high-profile bigot), and how McCain was trying to avoid it. Kinda smells like straight-up politics to me. It might be time to write off ol' Scarface as just another piece of totalitarian shit.

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