I would very much appreciate it if people would stop labelling other people as racists within the membership of this forum. It leads nowhere good to do that. As I said to someone awhile back, it amounts to verbally punching someone in the nose, and there is no way they can ever prove they are NOT racist, once accused of it...just as there was no way that anyone in Salem could ever prove they were NOT a witch, once accused of it. The accusation is the damnation.

The same goes for calling people anti-Semitic in the present political milieu. Those terms, "racist" and "anti-semite" have both become a way of intimidating and silencing others and, in effect, excommunicating them from the fellowship of their peers.

I think Doug's views of Colin Powell's character and motivations are entirely incorrect, but I will not call him "racist" on account of expressing those views. I will simply say that I think he is very much in error.

Doug, I expect that Obama may give Powell a significant place in the new administration if Obama wins the election. I would if I was Obama. Colin Powell is a very capable man.