Jack & Jill Politics

Just an FYI. Sojourner's Place is now a dot com. Find me at http://www.sojournersplace.com

WTH is really going on? I've never seen or heard so many scared white folks in all of my born days. Strange...just strange... I guess that's what happens when you find out that the world is not flat and you are not the only inhabitant...

Want To Teach Schools About White Pride? Send Your Kid To School With A Swastika: Well it seems that there are parents who simply cannot tolerate the idea that their children be taught about the history and culture of other races and the solution of course is to fall back on white pride.

Swastika and christianity were imported, both ARE not european (white if you prefer).

Wonder if they ask that.

What is evident here is the walls of whiteness, enttitlement, priviledge, and superiority are cracking, peeling and tumbling down. I don't have any sympathy for these folks, none whatsoever.

Let them SQUIRM, WHINE, REBEL, KICK, SCREAM, HOLLER, RAGE, SHOUT, CRY, HURT, BLEED, FLEE, let them FEEL what it's like to be HUMAN.

Maybe I'm the dumb one here, but I thought history, english, geography, social studies, government, psychology, language arts and math all reaffirmed white superiority (i.e. white pride)?

Exactly..rendering this womans complaints absolutely ridiculous. What she has done to her children is abusive.

It is abuse because she is denying her children the opportunity to form their own opinions about the world they live in.

Bring Me Your Non-Poor, Your Unhuddled, Your Disinterested Masses So Long As They’re White
An alleged reader letter to John Derbyshire:

Derb — I’ve been hoping that someone might be bold enough to rain on the Sotomayor “compelling life story” parade.

The woman grew up in the capital of the world, went to two Ivy League schools, and was blessed by Providence with the precisely correct right race-gender two-fer for the moment.

This is a story of privilege, dammit, not adversity.

Show me a Montana girl of un-useful ethnicity who put herself through law school waiting tables, after being left with two young children when her Army husband was killed overseas, and I’ll start oohing and aahing over her compelling story.

Of course, such a person would never ever end up on any President’s short-list, no matter if she graduated first in her class at her non-Ivy institution, no matter how extreme the intelligence and dedication and hard work she displayed over the subsequent course of her career. That’s simply how the world — and especially the legal world — is constructed today.

It’s so much easier to take a properly-credentialed member of the East Coast elite and hold her up as a shining example of American meritocracy instead, because she is conveniently hued and delayed her entry to the world of the well-heeled until the age of 18 or so. Easy, and misleading. Feugh!

There’s racism, there’s glorious racism, and then there’s supernova racism. Welcome to the last category, “reader”.

The case being made here, which is straight out of 1967’s primer on how to respond to the Negro taking a rightful White place on the Supreme Court, is that a white person’s most mediocre accomplishment in the face of adversity is de facto superior to a minority’s stellar achievement in the face of adversity more closely related to their racial status; in fact, a minority doing well makes them the dominant and privileged class, taking opportunities that otherwise justly belong to white people.

This is Jesse Helms/White Hands racism, creating an image of white people as blameless angels suffering through the slings and arrows of the brown hordes setting upon them to steal their sacred fortunes. If minorities fail, it’s because they are inherently inferior to whites; if minorities succeed, it is by stealing attention and opportunities from whites. This makes minorities illegitimate by their very nature, and sets us up for a world where unremarkable white people are the pinnacle of society, their every misspelled, poorly formed thought the new gospel of modern society.

It explains the National Review, though, doesn’t it?
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/bri...

I'm just waiting for Limbaugh and Gingrich to start rolling out their token white men that were "systematically denied" opportunities because they had the misfortune of being born white and male.

Not surprising that you have some idiots who can't tell the difference between coming from nothing and making something out of yourself vs. being born into wealth and not really having to work as hard. These are the same people who went on and on about Obama and many liberals being elitists when many of the GOP are the elitists and voted for a guy to be President who came from one of America's most elitist families.

These people will believe anything a person with an R in front of their name, or FOX News, Stormfront, and those other propaganda spinning outlets of the same ilk.

If you wanna read some funny hysteria, google this story up and check out the right wing blogs...that's some funny stuff

Justice Department drops charges in voter intimidation case
From CNN Senior Producer Kevin Bohn

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Justice Department is dropping charges against the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and two of its members who were allegedly involved in voter intimidation on Election Day at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania polling station.

A Justice spokesman said the department decided to take this action after winning an injunction earlier this month against a third member, Samir Shabazz, that prevents him from ever brandishing a weapon outside a polling place again as he was charged with doing last November.

Shabazz was one of the three persons, along with the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, charged with voter intimidation last January in a lawsuit filed under the Voting Rights Act. Shabazz will not face any jail time or a fine.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/28...

AFTERNOON OPEN THREAD IS UP!!

Juries
Media Atwitter over Al Roker’s Twitter Photos from Jury Duty Wait
Posted 2 hours, 2 minutes ago
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Today show weatherman Al Roker got caught in the middle of a media storm when he took pictures of potential jurors on his iPhone yesterday and posted them to Twitter while waiting to be called for jury duty.

The postings spurred a lesson in courthouse decorum and an apology from Roker. The New York Post ran a story headlined “Oh, What a Twit!” while a story in the New York Daily News began, “Al Roker's stint on jury duty was short--and Tweet.”

One photo showed potential jurors from the back while another showed a potential juror’s face, the Post story says.

The chief jury clerk asked Roker to knock off the photography, spurring Roker to acknowledge a mistake. On his Twitter page, the weatherman tried to explain his actions. "So everyone is clear, I am NOT taking pictures in the courtroom," Roker explained. "So folks need to lighten up. I am in the jury lounge."

Roker said he was “just trying to share the experience of jury duty. One that I think is important and everyone should take part in."

Court spokesman David Bookstaver put a positive spin on the faux pas. “It does a world of good to let people know about jury service and that Mr. Roker did his, just like everybody else," he told the Post.

Roker was not chosen for jury duty.

http://www.abajournal.com/news/media_atwitter_o...

Where was his common sense at that moment?

The road back to the NFL: How does Michael Vick get there?
By Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY

The exciting rise of Michael Vick's football career is an afterthought. The attention now is on his attempted recovery from a catastrophic and very public fall.
From Pro Bowl quarterback with a $130 million contract from the Atlanta Falcons to felon guilty of dogfighting conspiracy charges, Vick's road to personal, professional and financial redemption began last week with his release from a federal prison.

Where does Vick go from here?

Tommy Reamon, Vick's high school football coach, has met Vick at least twice since he left a penitentiary in Kansas for home confinement in Hampton, Va. Reamon also visited Vick three times during his 18-month incarceration.

Read on.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/200...

You know the thing that bothers me so much about Vick is the way that PETA has sought his blood. The want him to be unable to earn a living and they know that he is 20 million dollars in debt. The life span of a professional athlete is very small and I believe their witch hunt is based more in his race than his actions.

Don't you know the Atlanta Falcons have a player on their roster RIGHT NOW, a starter no less...who got mad with his girlfriend, she left...he took her pitbull puppy and slammed that dog up against a wall then called her and told her she needs to come see about her dog - she gets there the puppy coughing up blood she takes the dog to the vet where they put him down and they call the cops....and the Falcons gave him a contract extension. Now I know you have not heard this story, because unless you lived right here, nobody did...and I know you haven't heard any animal rights group holler about it...because he wasn't a big enough target...but more importantly, we didn't hear ONE person state that what this guy did, was out of SPITE and anger towards his girlfriend. Now, who should we be more afraid of? Vick? Hell no...the guy that got mad at his woman and proceeded to kill her dog is the one that should make us all afraid.

These people still don't want Vick to even eat.

But nobody is protesting THIS:

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/Child_Rapist_G...

MIranda, please, PLEASE don't tell me sistagirl went back with this fool. PLEASE don't tell me that...

I know she wouldn't cooperate with the investigation, but I dont know if they're together right now or not. In other news, a third player from the team was arrested on domestic battery today. I expect him to get probation, pay a fine, go to court-ordered counseling - and be on time to training camp.

I would prefer to see this kind of humiliation and punishment meted out to celebrities who beat their wives and girlfriends....

Say it again.

Why am I over at Crosswalk.com (the Salem Communication owned website whose Townhall.com produced the article called First Lady Obama a B@#%^), the so-called Chrisitian site debating with these small-minded idiots over Sotomayor?

You know when you bring up facts to far-right people, they don't want to admit to it or ignore for that matter. So of course, they're harping over their daily RNC talking points, in this case Sotomayor's wise Latina comment. I provided them with the link to the full speech and told them she gave the speech at a forum that was addressing the role of judicial diversity in determining race and sex discrimination cases. I brought up what Clarence Thomas and Alito said that were similar to what Sotomayor said, but these misguided souls are saying it's not the same because she she said she was a wise Latina vs. a white man. I'm like well in the context of what she was talking about, her being a Latina (a person of color and a woman), she would have a different outlook and perspective as a white man, because historically in this country, they haven't had to deal with it.

So her comment is no different than Thomas saying he understands about race and will use it in deciding such cases (which we knew was BS then and BS now) and Alito when talking about immigration and relating to it when it comes to cases like that.

Here's the link the topic on that forum, but I really encourage you all to join and try to educate these backwards people even though it seems it's a neverending battle:

http://forums.crosswalk.com/m_4351410/mpage_1/t...

They ALL say the same thing - their life experiences and background will bring better decision-making to the bench......blah, blah, blah. It's said (as far as they're concerned) to be "seen" as human. They're not.

I've had it with these silly-assed people - ReThugs all - when the FUCK did empathy become a goddamned major sin? Empathy isn't about pity; it's about understanding another's place in the world - or at least MAKING some attempt to relate & understand.

These folks are doing nothing but showing the true side of themselves - their ASS. Spoiled, selfish 2 year-olds who still want to suck their mother's tit.

I don't educate grown White folk. Don't have the time nor the inclination.

Very old school country sayin'... Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.

I agree, rikyrah. I gave up trying to educate white folks back in college. It's tidious and thankless work. Besides, I'm not white validating the experiences of poor Black men and women so white folks wouldn't listen to me anyway.

I will do it, but I chare 100 dollars an hour to start. This is my consultation fee. If they are extremely ignorant, the cost goes up from 100 to 250. Time is money.

I'm not trying to EDUCATE these backwards racist white folks. I don't have the inclination, time or the energy.

Yu'll just sound OLD! :))

I stopped doing certain shit around 40.... and for damn sure when I hit 50. I can hardly stand an explanation for anything longer than a sentence - a 5-6 word sentence. Keep it simple AND short; succinct.

Of course, now ya give me floor - I'll go FOREVER!!! hee-hee.

A Co-Signing Amen! While I believe in the power of diversity, the onus is not on black folks to educate white folks. It's like that scene from the Last of the Mohicans:

Hawkeye: "Do not try to understand them".
Cora Munro: What?
Hawkeye: Yes, and, "do not try to make them understand you. That is because they are a breed apart and make no sense."

That, believe it or not, is one of my favorite movies because of you-know-what. There's some damned good-looking men in that movie.

That's perfect, and I laugh every time because of the disbelief in poor Cora's voice.

AMEN! Loved that movie too.

Hawkeye is one SMART dude.

I don't blame you. Just a month ago some dude had the audacity to start a thread there about Democrats being racist and their history (prior to 60's) and the Republicans aren't and don't see why more minorities aren't Republicans and are in the racist Democratic party. I had to tell old boy that if you're going to call yourself "educating people" then you need to tell the whole story. I told him it's funny how you conveniently left out how after the Civil Rights act was signed, many of those Southern Dems joined the GOP and made it what it is today with the help of Nixon's Southern Strategy. Then all hell broke loose because they didn't didn't want to acknowledge it.

What also irks me is these people call themselves Christians, but I really don't believe they are. If they were, they wouldn't think and write the things that they do. Case in point, those people are in favor of killing so-called terrorists (keep in mind the US doesn't know for sure if the people in those detainee camps are) and their families and support torture against terrorists. What in the world?? Jesus, didn't teach that, and yet many of the people on that forum call themselves pro-lifers? They want to pick and choose scriptures to suit their agenda... ugh, I could go on and on...lol.

In this day and age, it doesn't matter what you name it, as long as you
claim it.

That's true...

These folks have their TALKING POINTS. You notice how they are all saying the same DAMN things at the same DAMN time.

Blacks and other POC know just about all we'd ever want to know about white folks. We've had to just to survive on some levels.

These folks can't and won't make an effort to get to know anything about us, which keeps them trapped in their narrow world of fear and hate.

The really are the TRUE SLAVES. Fear, paranoia & hate enslaves one so their views and experiences in life are one dimensional.

Amen Again, as President Obama said:
"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you're on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

This same principle applies to race relations in America.

Thanks, Webb, for the PBO quote.

Don't cha just LOVE our President?

Collusion Course
Does today's hush-hush meeting of newspaper executives violate antitrust law?
The newspaper world has temporarily diverted its gaze from its collective navel to Rosemont, Ill. That's where, reports James Warren in the Atlantic, top executives from major papers have gathered to plot the future of their business. Machers from, among others, the New York Times, Gannett, E.W. Scripps, Advance Publications, McClatchy, Hearst Newspapers, MediaNews Group, the Associated Press, Philadelphia Media Holdings, Lee Enterprises, and Freedom Communication Inc. were scheduled to gather for a "discreet" "discussion about content models," including the possibility of charging for Web content. This comes barely a month after a similar meeting in San Diego, where CEOs at the "Newspaper Association of America convention [held] a clandestine meeting to discuss, among other topics, whether and how to start charging readers to view articles and other content online."
Read More
http://www.slate.com/id/2219260/

I may be oversimplifying the situation, but wouldn't charging for content push readers further away from their publications and closer to the blogosphere? After all, that's who they're competing with nowadays.

No it wouldn't. Much as bloggers do not like to admit it an enourmous amount of material comes directly from newspapers, Magazines, TV and radio stations news.

But wouldn't blogs with advertising dollars like HuffPost and DailyKos continue to post articles and not charge their readers?

According to the MSM, people who blog are not real journalists.All bloggers do is steal their content and dont reimburse the newspaper for it.

If the news publications were doing their job and hiring real journalists, despite racial or gender make up, then they wouldn't have to compete with citizen journalists and college freshmen for their readers. It was their lack of foresight, innovation and healthy doses of arrogance that has placed them in this predicament. (I could also cite their investments with Lehmann Brothers, Merrill Lynch and the like as another contributing factor for their financial woes.)

Well said, soulsista02!

We shouldn't sleep on this antitrust stuff. It always ends up hurting *us* the most.

I know that some have a problem with the little brown baby but I think he's ADORABLE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x26x9xVNH98

They're too cute! Love them.

LOL!! I love those babies, especially l'il man!

WANDA SYKES REVEALS WHAT THE MEDIA REALLY THINKS OF MICHELLE OBAMA

Jay Leno Video

http://blogs.bet.com/entertainment/staytuned/wa...

TRANSCRIPT OF THE ROXANA SABERI NPR INTERVIEW

http://thepage.time.com/transcript-of-saberi-in...

Kennedy's Health-Care Measure To Require Employers to Chip In

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 29, 2009

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) is circulating the outlines of sweeping health-care legislation that would require every American to have insurance and would mandate that employers contribute to workers' coverage.
The plan in the summary document, provided by two Democrats who do not work for Kennedy, closely resembles extensive changes enacted in the senator's home state three years ago.
In many respects it adopts the most liberal approaches to health reform being discussed in Washington. Kennedy, for example, embraces a proposal to create a government-sponsored insurance program to compete directly with existing private insurance plans, according to one senior adviser who was not authorized to talk to reporters.
The draft summary also calls for opening Medicaid to those whose incomes are 500 percent of the federal poverty level, or $110,250 a year for a family of four.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

'Laodicean' launches Kansas teen to spelling bee victory

CNN) -- Thirteen-year-old Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kansas, spelled "laodicean," Thursday night to take top honors in the 82nd annual Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The eighth-grader won $40,000 in cash and prizes for nailing the final word. Pronounced lay-odd-uh-see-an, the word means lukewarm or indifferent, particularly in matters of politics or religion.
This year's bee -- an event that has skyrocketed in popularity, thanks to exposure on television and in movies -- started on Tuesday in Washington with a record 293 spellers.
The competition went 15 rounds. Spellers ranged from 9 to 15 years old. According to the contest's Web site, 117 of the spellers speak languages other than English, and English was not the first language of 33 of the spellers.
The first National Spelling Bee was in 1925 and featured nine contestants.
In an event that has seen contestants visibly crack under the strain of the national spotlight in past years, Shivashankar -- competing in her fourth national finals -- appeared composed throughout.

As she spelled words that included "phoresy," "hydrargyrum" and "huisache," she calmly went through the routine of asking each word's pronunciations, origin and roots before ticking them off for the judges.
Her father, who is her spelling coach, would tap his foot in time as she spelled the words and at one point appeared so confident that he waved to someone while his daughter was in the middle of spelling a word.

Second-place finisher Tim Ruiter of Reston, Virginia, bowed out after misspelling "Maecenas," a generous patron of the arts.
Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, was in the audience to watch the finals, which were nationally televised on ABC.
Shivashankar attends California Trail Junior High School. Her hobbies including swimming, cycling and traditional Indian dance, according to the contest's Web site. She plans to become a neurosurgeon.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/28/national.spell...

Fro those watching I caught her wining spelling. I noticed she used some sort of nmeonic(sic?) techinique t win, i.e. she spelled out the word in her hand as she recited the letters. Is anyone familiar w/ the techniques she used?

Maybe it has something to do with her culture. I traveled to Taiwan numerous times and my husband also spent alot of time there as well as mainland China and it is very common to see people spelling out characters with their hand.

Here we GO! Have you oppressed a white man today? contest.

Culture Kitchen!

Love them ALL!

Spirit! We were JUST reading that same story! I SAW Jill Biden last night, but Dr. T said, "man, I sat straight up when I saw her sitting there." What a testament to what education is all about with this administration.

Indeed. Sometimes all we have to do is just SHOW UP for our youth.

More on that fucking Tancredo: check this

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/?s=tancredo&submit=

This is what I've been looking for!
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/arti...

(Southern Law Poverty Center) I always want to say 'conference.'

As an aside, one of our radiologists was on call last night and he came in this morning and said he watched the Scripps Spelling Bee last night on ABC. We were all laughing at how we pride ourselves for being so educated and articulate and these kids outspelled us fer sure.

Sen. Levin: Cheney Lying About CIA Docs
Levin: CIA Torture Documents Cheney Wants Don’t Prove Squat
There’s some important news about Dick Cheney and torture in a speech that Senator Carl Levin gave before the Foreign Policy Administration this week.

Specifically: Levin confirmed that he’d seen the classified CIA documents that Cheney has been asking the CIA to declassify and release — and said that they don’t prove Cheney’s claim that torture worked by any stretch.

Levin’s comments are highly newsworthy because they give us the most detailed picture yet of what’s in the documents Cheney wants. You can watch Levin’s speech right here at TPM. This is what Levin said about the documents:

Mr. Cheney has also claimed that the release of classified documents would prove his view that the techniques worked. But those classified documents say nothing about numbers of lives saved, nor do the documents connect acquisition of valuable intelligence to the use of the abusive techniques. I hope that the documents are declassified so that people can judge for themselves what is fact and what is fiction.

If this is true, it’s big. A Senator who has seen the documents Cheney claims will prove that torture saved lives says that those docs contain absolutely nothing about whether the torture techniques were actually responsible for yielding any valuable intelligence.

Networks such as MSNBC have given literally hours of airtime to Cheney and his daughter Liz to claim endlessly that these docs will prove Cheney’s torture assertions. These claims have gone almost entirely unchallenged, due to the classified nature of the documents. You’d think that a contrary claim from a well-respected Senator who has also seen the docs would merit a few passing mentions, too.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/levin...

Fresh from This Black Sista's Page:

# Rihanna to Testify at Chris Brown’s Trial
# Obama Nominates Sonia from the Bronx
# Prop. 8 in Cali Upheld: A Split Decision
# Choose Your Poison: North Korea or Pakistan?
# This One Black Woman is Broke
# Jay Mohr is an A@*h#le for Dissing Michelle Obama: “She is a big, big dude…”
# Jon and Kate Gosselin: The Louds All Over Again?
# Feuding, Fighting and Fussing: King Siblings Square Off Over Father’s Biopic

Disgraceful

Venus out of the French Open, and it wasn't pretty.

I'm not surprised at the scheduling of Venus. It was deliberate. The French Open has a history of not playing "nice" when it comes to the Williams sisters.

CraigHickman your B&B looks so inviting; I have never been to Maine. I love Nantucket I find it quaint and serene, much different from Martha's Vineyard, IMO.
Are you from Maine or are you a transplant?

I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, lived in Boston for 16 years, and moved to Maine nearly 7 years ago from there.

No one visits Maine and leaves without falling in love with it.

The williams sisters need to get refocused and Serena needs to get back in shape. off topic. Your blog is beautiful, and it is so esthetically pleasing.

rorysmomma, Serena is in shape and fully committed to her tennis right now.

Paris does not treat the sisters kindly. Never has, never will.

And thank you.

The reason that I said that is I watched her in a match a few days ago and she seemed to be overly winded...... Just an observation.

Serena hadn't won a match on clay this year before that match. And that player beat her in April when Serena was injured. That was such a mental battle for Serena she was winded as much from emotions as all the running her opponent made her do. She waxed her next opponent to the loss of just two games in 57 minutes. She was serene and devastating.

Thanks for clearing that up.? I was wondering what was going on with her.? It seemed out of character.? I haven't been able to keep up with tennis like I would like..... my other assigned duties....... at any rate thanks for clearing that up.?? I hope she wins the French open.? I hear she wants to move to Paris.....

She has a home there and speaks French pretty well.

She loves a country that doesn't love her.

Wonder where she learned how to do that.

How American.

When Oil companies CEO tell you the world is awash in crude oil(there is a shortage of refineries to turn it into product) you know something is wrong. I believe it is because the CFTC has not moved to reign in large speculators whom do not have to show their positions. I believe that they have a right to speculate over fear of the dollar losing value, long term inflation outlook but I do not believe that the CFTC should make it easy for them by keeping margin requirements(the amount of money needed to hold a commodity contract over night) so low. Commodity margins need to go to 50% like stock margin accounts.

The other reason for this is if you are going to protect what you believe is a nascent recovery and provide income for spending on product why do you want to take income away by making it more expensive to go to work and the store. Even if you believe that rising cost of oil is an indicator of expansion to "pysche" up the consumer is this "truth" the right idea. I say no.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

RedState’s Erick Erickson Compares Rush Limbaugh to Jesus Christ
By: Blue Texan Thursday May 28, 2009 10:30 am 0

That's right. Jesus. Christ.

Peter, under pressure and fear, denied Christ not just once, but three times. Peter, though, feared death. The strain on Peter was great. The rest of us, though, typically fear the opinions of others.

...

The incidents of late with Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Dick Cheney, and others is why I raise this. Putting it bluntly, were these guys on the left, their fellow leftists would at best be cheering them on and at worst silently nodding along. There wouldn’t be any on that side rushing to the nearest microphone to condemn them.

It gets much worse.

The vultures in our mist are typically the ones squawking loudest about other conservatives instead of the leftists out to destroy the country.

As Rush Limbaugh says, we should always play on offense. The moment the left gets us to start wringing our hands over one of our own is the moment they advance.

Truly, a twisted little masterpiece of everything that's wrong with the conservative movement: Christianism, authoritarianism, dehumanization of "enemies", pathological paranoia, the framing of political disagreements as "war", the insistence on party purity and obedience -- it's all there.

And remember, this guy was invited to the Bush White House (h/t TS).

UPDATE

Even GOP 12 is freaked out by this post.

Way over the top...His overall point is taken, but it's not clear why he has to resort to impugning opponents of Rush et al with some kind of form of Christ-denying.

Ya think?
http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/28/redstates-eri...

La Raza has a page answering 'critics' = http://www.nclr.org/content/viewpoints/detail/4...

And this in relation to that fucking dimwitted Tancredo. Does Tancredo not get that his grandparents came to the U.S. from Italy? What a fucking pig. It's OK, I"m in.

http://coloradoindependent.com/29843/la-raza-bl...

The National Council of La Raza doesn’t think much of former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo’s attack on the 40-year-old civil rights organization as “a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses.” The Littleton Republican made the claim Thursday afternoon in an interview on CNN, arguing his claim that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sottomayor “appears to be racist.”

AND - I don't know how I'm expected to work when this shit's going on!! Oh yeah, before I forget. The Southern Law Poverty Center has Tancredo listed as a nativist - racist fucker.

Booked marked for later use. Nothing like a good site to back up STFU.

1. La Raza - does Tancredo know who or what LA RAZA is about? Gezzus fucking christopher. http://www.nclr.org/

2. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/3097821... = at 6:00 into the video, 'they' address the issue of the runaway mother blaming "two black men" for their bullshit abduction. My thought was that unless someone had actually been arrested or taken into custody for questioning, it wouldn't go anywhere 'wide' - meaning being classified as "a hate crime."

My guess is Tancredo doesn't care, just as long as he can spread his hateful and misinformed views to whomever will allow him air time.

I thought some of you might enjoy a look at a few of my field hands.

The View From Here

Nice, Craig!

Nice! Craig, your farm is vibing with the richness of LIFE. I can't wait to come for a visit.

LOL @ your field hands. I'll bet they love the land just as much as you do.

Did you build your greenhouse from a kit?

Absolutely.

Craig,

with every picture, it just proves what a Renaissance Man you are. I can't grow anything. I just don't have the talent. Your farm has been put on my list of ' places to go'.

Would love that. And when you leave, you'll know how to grow anything you want.

A Supreme Sotomayor: How My Country Has Caught Up to Me, by Maria Hinojosa

Maria Hinojosa, senior correspondent of NOW on PBS, reflects on Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court — an event that ‘will forever and profoundly change the image of what a "Puerto Rican girl" really is.’

....."All this unity notwithstanding, this nomination has the deepest and most profound meaning for my Puerto Rican sisters. Stereotypes of Puerto Rican women from NYC run so deep in our popular culture. I can still hear Mick Jagger singing, "We’re gonna come around at 12 with some Puerto Rican girls that are just dyin to meet you. We’re gonna bring a case of wine. Hey, let’s go mess and fool around. You know, like we used to."

My Puerto Rican hermanas know that on some level they have always been fighting against a pervasive image. They are brilliant and accomplished but oftentimes minimized to a mere stereotype that is disconnected from reality.

What President Obama has done for men of color, Sonia Sotomayor will do for Puerto Rican women. She will forever and profoundly change the image of what a "Puerto Rican girl" really is..........

...This Friday night I will go to a Cuban playwright’s brownstone in Spanish Harlem, where we will listen to El Gran Combo and toast a Latina who has "made it." My daughter will be with me. And while I remain stunned by the shocking reality of my country so quickly changing to reflect me and my reality, I am sure my daughter won’t have it. My America was always, at best, a place of hopeful change. In her America, a black man can and does become president; a Latina can and does end up on the Supreme Court....

I read that on WOWOWOW. I thought that was a nice and moving piece.

Evil thought; why is J-Lo so has been?

Because she's a negro de la casa. JLo's popularity in the first place was because she was supposed to be this hot Latina, playing Selena, repping the Bronx, desired by men of all races etc.

Then she thought she'd be on the A-list with people like Brad and Jen so she tossed over Cris Judd to grin up in Ben Affleck's face (who was totally disinterested) and talk about no matter how many rocks she got she's still Jenny from the block.

And the Latinos on the block were like Bitch Por Favor, you don't come around here no mo'. I remember there was some controversy when she wouldn't do an album signing at a Latino record store but only did her signings at Virgin.

And then after Marc Anthony dumped his wife and married JLo 4 days later, that turned a lot of people off. Marc Anthony kept her ass on lockdown and shut down all the hip hop noise coming from her lips during the last few years of her prime.

Now JLo is washed up. All her movies bomb and she'll be lucky to get a role as Gabrielle Solis' sister on Desperate Housewives. Her music sucks and if people want to see a hot chick singing all they need to do is watch Beyonce, Rihanna or this Lady Gaga person. She tried to get that Latino street cred back by making a Spanish language album and playing in that Cantante movie but nobody was feeling it and they both flopped.

She tried to shop a reality show to the cable stations and they aren't even interested. That's pretty bad considering all the sorry reality shows out there. And who buys JLo brand clothing and accessories anymore? Besides TJ Maxx and Marshalls? (I do like "Still Jennifer Lopez" though).

So she's over, and all she has left is being Marc Anthony's wife (he's still hot) and taking care of the kids.

Somewhere Mariah Carey, Dayanara Torres and Cris Judd are snickering.

Damn. Plus remember, wasn't she flowing with Puff Daddy, uh Puffy, oops. P. DIddy. Sean.. whatever...

I swear, Town, I wish you'd been my first math teacher; you broke it down like a fraction.

Broken down to the least denominator....good job!

Meltdown: Cornyn repudiates Rush and Newt, wingnuts freak out
The political quandary facing Republicans becomes more evident every day. The stark division between its radical base and the rest of the country would be difficult enough to navigate under any circumstances, but Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich insist on making the task completely impossible. And there is seemingly no way out.

Yesterday, Texas Senator John Cornyn, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, stepped forward to repudiate Rush and Newt for their disgusting and politically-suicidal racial attacks on Sonia Sotomayor. And the predictable backlash from the the Republican base began almost immediately.

Free Republic, the heart and soul of Wingnuttery, is erupting with anger. They want their racism, damn it! And John Cornyn can go to hell!

Watch the Republican Party driving itself into extinction...

ryeland's diary :: ::
First, Cornyn's comments:

Cornyn, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told NPR's "All Things Considered":

"I think it's terrible... This is not the kind of tone any of us want to set when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advise and consent."

Cornyn dismissed Limbaugh and Gingrich, adding: "Neither one of these men are elected Republican officials. I just don't think it's appropriate. I certainly don't endorse it. I think it's wrong."

Cornyn's job is to get more Republicans elected to the Senate (or at least stem the losses) and he's astute enough to know that racists attacks against Sotomayor are extremely dangerous for the GOP.

But what do you do when your own party's base rallies behind racism?

First comment when the story broke on Free Republic:

RINO girlyman Cornyn needs a primary challenger.

Excellent idea! And the crowd agrees:

Cornyn, you’re a loser today, and — if there’s any justice in the universe — you’ll be a loser in your next Primary Election.

A Texas conservative needs to run against him in the primary next time. He’s worse than useless.

Asked by NPR if he’s worried that comments like Limbaugh and Gingrich’s harm the confirmation debate, Cornyn said: "Neither one of these men are elected Republican officials."

And with any luck neither will you come next election.

Sotomayor is a racist just as surely as Cornyn is a coward.

Senator Cornyn is a living, breathing example of how spineless the McCain wing of the Repub Party is.

The Dems had no hesitation to go after Black and Hispanic nominees of Bush.

Of course, in the Civil War and Jim Crow years, it was the Dems who wanted to keep slavery of Blacks. And the way 95 pct of Blacks vote Dem, shows the Blacks want back on the plantation.

Lets ask Cornyn about his support for Spectre just days before the man flipped? He has some bad judgement.

Ridicule may eventually work because this guy fancies himself a real man instead of a girly boy. My FAX to him earlier this morning pointed out his RINO status and flawed judgment, so I can only hope his office will be flooded with e-mails and FAXES so that they'll have to acknowledge how many Texans and non-Texans, too, find him to be a useless RINO.

Whats wrong with this guy’s brain?

does he not remember what happened to Estrada just a little while ago at the hands of Democrats??

See, the liberals know how to fight for what they believe in.
I wonder that Cornyn has no such beliefs at all.

Grow a pair Cornyn.

We are sick of your type.

And some Freepers are suspicious! Hillary must be behind this!!

The RINOs are so spineless I wonder if Hillary is playing around with the FBI files again!

Perhaps Cornyn wasn’t aware that she is a card-carying member of the racist separatist group La Raza ("The Race"). It is odd that he would be so quick to pass judgement before even reviewing her background.

I'm gonna have to start wondering if they're in on this deal to turn the country over to socialism! If they were told not to worry, they can keep their stuff, or they'd still get to have "roles" in the government, token power, or what. They just won't stand up for anything, no matter how legitimate!

I've already mentioned that [Cornyn] used our church's directory for political purposes, which indicates to me his church membership is based on politics and not Christian values and principles.

Someone on FR observed that the republicans had been infiltrated by the democrats. I see more evidence supporting this assertion daily, and now from one of my own representatives.

I will begin asserting to him that he is a democrat, usurping the party in an attempt to destroy it and America.

He should follow Specter.

But in the midst of all this Freeper angst, one member sounded a note of excitement:

I can’t wait to listen to Rush’s show tomorrow.

Thanks, Rush! Thanks, Newt! You've now managed to make John Cornyn unacceptable to the Republican base. At least until Cornyn begs Rush for forgiveness.

Is it any wonder that Rush is starting to get annoyed at all the coverage and publicity he's receiving? Used to be that he could spread his racist hate speech under the radar and Republican elected officials could stay out of the muck. Now, every insane thing Rush utters becomes a litmus test for currying favor with the Republican base.

Quite simply, Rush Limbaugh has become the Perfect Storm facing the Republican Party. He is the bread and butter that wingnuts need to get through every day, and he is deadly poison to Republican electoral prospects.

What a shame. Bye, bye, GOPosaur.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/29/736...

The Texas Senator only "thinks" it hurts?????!!!!!

Field Negro discusses Russell Simmons latest find at the Ms California contest. Only white privledge allows someone to say we are post racial.
http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2009/05/does-sh...

So Russell finally got one, huh?

You knew it was gonna happen...heh

Russell's special friend, eh?

Russell Simmons looks like a freeze-dried turtle, so if Miss Julie thinks she's got something special, more power to her.

Town I am happily married, but I think I love you for that comment.

HA HA HA!

"freeze-dried turtle"

Brilliant.

Russell is about Russell. Whenever he speaks, I wonder what paycheck is behind it.

Has anyone from the Hispanic community spoken out on the virulent racism Ms. Sotomayor is facing?? It's just despicable...

IDK, but I wish someone of Latin orgins whether they be a Democrat, Republican, or whatever will speak out against this and educate those who so willing spout and believe such ignorant, untruthful, and hateful things.

Sidenote: It also irks me when you have those who are white and ignorant say African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians are racist because we have organizations that are "race-based" such as LULAC, NAACP, NABJ, La Raza, ect. without knowing the orgins behind them. Those type of organizations were started because of segregation when most whites wouldn't let us join theirs and so forth, but to turn around and call us racists for having these organizations is just pathetic.

Why do you think I've been asking about the Latinos on tv? Been especially curious about those that had toted the water for the GOP Party Line.

We sometimes assume that the divisions among Spanish speaking Americans from different backgrounds aren't as wide as chasms.

Now that LaRaza is under attack, we MAY see more, but they can't be on TV to defend her if they aren't invited on TV to defend her and even if they are invited, they might not accept.

Safe to say a large swath of Spanish speaking Americans are still in a bit of shock at this appointment and don't quite know what to say or do about it.

Senator Hernandez of New Jersey was on MSNBC defending Sotomayor. I don't think there is any main Chicano/Latino speaker or group defending her. The media likes to see one spokesperson for a cause, group, or person, so they can break him/her down. I think Chicanos/Latinos are all talking, though.

I keep wondering whether it is machismo that may be keeping them from speaking forcefully. Or intragroup jealousy. Sotomayor is a Puerto Rican, her people are from the islands, while the most numerous Hispanics, I feel, are Chicanos or Mexican Americans. Perhaps I am wrong.

OMG you are so right about the media using one spokesperson of color to speak on behalf of causes for that particular race. In Houston there's an community activist named Quanell X who the local media is always interviewing when there's been some type of injustice done towards a person of color, in particular an African-American. While I commend Quanell X helping those who have been wronged, at the same time, I wish the media outlets get another perspective from another person of that color to speak from time to time.

I'm saying though! It seems like I'm more pissed about it than the Hispanic community!

Torture photos: US soldiers raped, sodomized Iraqi prisoners
By Tom Eley
29 May 2009
In an interview with the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph published Wednesday, former US General Antonio Taguba said that photographs the Obama administration is seeking to suppress show images of US soldiers raping and sodomizing Iraqi prisoners. Taguba, who conducted the military inquiry of prisoner abuse at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 after some photos of US soldiers torturing prisoners became public, said that among the photos are images of soldiers raping a female prisoner, raping a male detainee, and committing “sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and phosphorescent tube,” according to the Telegraph. Gen. Taguba said even the description of the photos is explosive. “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency,” Taguba said. “The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it.”

Taguba’s revelations expose the deceit of President Barack Obama’s claim, used to justify the photos’ suppression, that they “are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib.” In all, it is believed that there are some 2,000 photographs depicting about 400 cases of US military personnel torturing Iraqis and Afghans at seven military prisons. The Bush administration, and now Obama, have sought to block publication of the images.

Obama also claimed that “the most direct consequence of releasing them...would be to inflame anti-American public opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.” While this may likely be true, the criminal nature of the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan is already well known by the nations’ populations, who have died and been made refugees in the hundreds of thousands since being invaded in 2003 and 2001, respectively. Indeed, this claim only exposes the true nature of the US occupations: they have never been about establishing democracy, but aimed at stamping out resistance to US control of the strategically important nations through mass bloodletting and terror, the historical modus operandi of every imperialist occupying power.

However, the central reason Obama has chosen to fight the photos’ release is that top US generals announced their opposition to their publication. The generals’ intervention came in the midst of increasingly open dissension from the ranks of the military-intelligence apparatus over Obama’s handling of “the war on terror.” After Obama released four Bush administration legal memos justifying torture, a campaign, spearheaded by Bush Vice President Dick Cheney, was launched, appealing to the military brass and spies. Obama responded by promising he would block any investigation of the previous administration’s carefully crafted and controlled torture policies. He then reversed an earlier decision to not appeal a judge’s ruling in response to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) freedom of information lawsuit launched in 2004, which demanded the release of dozens of the torture photos.
An Obama Pentagon spokesman denied that the suppressed images depict rape, while a carefully worded statement seemed to indicate other photos depict precisely such actions. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Telegraph “has completely mischaracterized the images.... None of the photos in question depict the images that are described in that article.” Whitman did not specifically deny Taguba’s claims.

Obama claims that the torture depicted in the photographs was committed by “a small number of individuals,” and that those “involved have been identified, and appropriate actions have been taken.” Here we may safely assume Obama is referring to a small handful of rank-and-file soldiers.

But what of the high-ranking officers who oversaw, endorsed and most likely ordered the torture and rape of prisoners? If there are 2,000 photographs of prisoner torture that fell under the control of the Pentagon, how many more cases were not photographed? It is clear that the torture and rape of prisoners went far beyond the actions of “a few bad apples.” This torture and sexual humiliation of prisoners—up to and including rape—can only be described as the systematic policy of the US military and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), sanctioned at the highest levels of government. Indeed, the generals’ opposition to further publication of the photos is likely based in part on their own association with the crimes.

The policy of torture came from higher still, however, as recently released Justice Department legal memos and other evidence show. Various forms of torture, including forced nudity and sexual humiliation were studied, justified, and individually approved by top White House and congressional officials. A US Senate Armed Services Committee report issued in April reveals that Bush Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld personally approved 15 “harsh interrogation” methods. A version of Rumsfeld’s document was used, verbatim, at Abu Ghraib, according to the report. (See “Bush, top cabinet officials monitored torture of detainees”)

In his Telegraph interview, Taguba solidarized himself with Obama’s decision to suppress the photos. Taguba’s own investigation in 2004 was in fact a partial cover-up. He later admitted that he was ordered to confine his investigation to low-ranking military police, although he was aware that high-ranking generals had “extensive knowledge” of the torture. And though he was aware of the photographic evidence of torture and rape at the time, Taguba’s report made no mention of them.
Because his report was not a total whitewash, however, the Bush administration forced the major general into retirement in 2007. He has since described the actions of the Bush administration in Iraq as war crimes. “There is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes,” Taguba wrote in the forward for a report by Physicians for Human Rights. “The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held to account.”

The photographic evidence of rape substantiates evidence Taguba gathered in his investigation, which only became public due to another freedom of information lawsuit. For example, in a sworn deposition Kasim Mehaddi Hilas said he witnessed US military personnel raping a boy. “I saw [a US military translator rape] a kid, his age would be about 15 to 18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn’t covered and I saw [the soldier] who was wearing the military uniform, putting his **** in the little kid’s **** and the female soldier was taking pictures.”
The sworn deposition also described the anal rape of prisoners with phosphorescent tubes and police clubs, as well as the use of wire in sexual torture.

The rape of Iraqi boys by US military personnel is corroborated by other evidence. Journalist Seymour Hersh, who played a critical role in breaking the Abu Ghraib story in 2004, has evidently seen all of the photos, and is aware of video footage depicting rape. He has not written publicly on their content, but a 2004 speech he gave to the ACLU indicates the sheer horror of the US military’s methods:
“Some of the worst things that happened you don’t know about, okay?” Hersh said. “The women were passing messages out saying, ‘Please come and kill me, because of what’s happened,’ and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst, above all, of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It’s going to come out.” In another speech, quoted by Rick Pearlstein, Hersh spoke of “horrible things done to children of women prisoners, as the cameras run.”
The unfathomable crimes depicted in the photos arise inexorably from the project of aggressive wars based on lies. As such, they are the flip side of the conspiracy against the democratic rights of the American people. Both arise from the deepening crisis of US capitalism, which the ruling elite seeks to offset by seizing hold of key resources and strategic advantage over its rivals.

One can only react with horror. Contained in the stories and images of the torture of defenseless prisoners, some of them boys and women, is the true face of US imperialism, which finds no crime beneath its dignity in its effort to subjugate Iraq and Afghanistan. Just as the Vietnam War conjures up images of napalmed children fleeing US soldiers, and Nazi Germany invokes images of emaciated prisoners near death, the images of sexual torture will forever be associated with the American “war on terror.”

In acting to suppress the images and protect the torturers, Obama has made himself an accomplice in these crimes. Moreover, in the absence of criminal investigation, there is every reason to believe that similar crimes continue in Iraq and Afghanistan today.

Indeed, the American ruling class is now engaged in an acrimonious debate over whether or not to openly embrace torture and other illegal aspects of the war on terror—the position advocated by Cheney—or to construct a quasi-legal framework within which similar policies can be carried forward—the position advocated by Obama.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/tort-...

AM2K9 --thanks for the link. I sent them a short note stating "this was debunked years ago. At least take the time to read the following provided in the link below and consider doing the right thing by updating your article to reflect the facts.

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/05/28/the-...
******************************************************************************************************************
lazy lazy people. no one does any research these days. sad sad sad.

So Seymour Hersh was wrong, again?

His sources aren't The Telegraph.

I'm willing to imagine the worst. To me, those pictures need to be released.

I still haven't heard a good argument as to why they should be released. I'm open.

aaahhh this was debunked years ago and again last night by lamh32's post.
See below
Many of the white liberal blogs are flagging the story from UK Daily Telegraph about the unreleased torture pics that says that some of the pictures involved raping detainees, and are using the Telegraph's report to say that Obama is covering up for war criminals, and therefore is no better than Bush or is purposely shielding the wrong doers.

Well reporter Michael Scherer of Time magazine.com has done some "REAL" reporting on the subject, and he is giving some some well founded skepticism ont he Telegraph's reproting, and the history of the Telegraph erroneous reporting on prior torture issues.

It's a good read. Ya'll should check it out. http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/05/28/the-...

you gotta get up waaayyy early in the morning to put anything past JJP. buh bye

Good find, Val.

"you gotta get up waaayyy early in the morning to put anything past JJP. buh bye."

You can't sleep on JJP's watch. PERIOD.

Once when I said the Telegraph was a rag, someone thought I was joking.

I wasn't.

This morning's Philadelphia Inquirer brings the following news; Ms Sweeten is a potential thief but no mention of two black men. I called the author and told him White priviledge didn't allow them to ignore that aspect of the story in print
Annette John-Hall however called them out, held their feet to the fire in the name of accountability by naming names; pay attention to the comment by the Bucks County DA whom has not apologized to my knowledge(don't watch local TV news)

Posted on Fri, May. 29, 2009


Annette John-Hall: Time to stop demonizing 'black men'
By Annette John-Hall

Inquirer Columnist

Turns out Hostage Mom made it all up.

Her elaborate, alarming story - she and her 9-year-old abducted in broad daylight after a fender bender - was enough to set off an Amber Alert and heat up FBI tip lines.

Oh, and get Nancy Grace's juices flowing, of course. A fresh abduction of a blond and her child? Watch those ratings soar.

But Bonnie Sweeten, 38-year-old Upper Southampton mother of three, wasn't done telling her story yet. She knew exactly what to say to sweeten the hunt - and to buy herself 24 hours to make a run for it.

A black man did it. No, wait. For good measure, two black men did it, she said.

And yet again, the nation jumped. Station after station, from CNN to MSNBC to local news outlets, bit hard, throwing up breaking-news bulletins, sending reporters for scene shots in front of the family home.

Yet another white woman plays the tried-and-true bogeyman race card.

The one that trumps everything else.

From day one, investigators say, they suspected Sweeten's story. It just never passed the smell test.

Really. Wonder what was their first clue?

Let's see. Two black men in a Cadillac abduct a blond white woman and her daughter after rear-ending them in the middle of the day on one of the busiest thoroughfares in Bucks County. Hmm, not a single person notices and calls police.

The alleged victim makes several frantic cell-phone calls, ostensibly from the trunk of a car, yet police can't hear the daughter, who is supposed to be in there with her? Not to mention these bad, bad black men never thought to take Sweeten's cell phone?

Are you kidding me?

But somehow, the black-bogeyman card works every time - for a minute.

It worked for Susan Smith. South Carolina mother. Children missing. The black man did it. Racial tension. Turns out she had driven her "missing" car into a lake to drown her kids.

Charles Stuart, Boston store manager. Pregnant wife murdered in a carjacking. The black man did it. The case ignites fear and door-to-door searches. Except that Stuart did it.

Tanya Dacri from Philly. Child missing. Black men did it. Three of them. It worked until police discovered that Dacri had drowned and chopped up her infant son.

Ashley Todd, John McCain campaign volunteer in Pittsburgh. Accosted at an ATM. A backward B (presumably for Barack) cut into her forehead. The black man did it. She gets sympathy call from Sarah Palin. Todd was sentenced to probation this week, having confessed to her self-mutilation.

Example after example of people showing the capacity for evil and deceit, yet they dispassionately and cruelly play into the long-held belief that a generic black man should always be feared.

A sentiment expressed since our nation's existence - with an overseer's whip during slavery. With a rope and a tree in the 20th century. With racist blame games that work even today.

"It's a terrifying thing for a community to hear that two black men in a black Cadillac grabbed a woman and her daughter. . . . It's terrifying," Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry admitted at Wednesday night's news conference after the hoax was revealed, probably telegraphing more about her own fear than she intended to.

Fact is, there are plenty of victims in this story. A husband and an ex-husband. The children Sweeten abandoned. Loyal friends. And not least of all her 9-year-old, whose face is plastered next to her mug shot on every station in the country.

But long after the dust settles, there will still be residue left on black men. No matter who they are.

"I was certainly distressed as an African American male," Mayor Nutter told 6ABC yesterday. "Just another case of 'here we go again' . . . that once again was not true."

Good thing he doesn't drive a black Cadillac

At some point, blaming the phantom Black man for heinous crimes, needs to become a felony hate crime. It's no different than an Arab Muslim mother doing something heinous to her child, and then proclaiming that "two Jews" did it.

The result of blaming a "race" for heinous crimes is, at some point, going to be violence against said race or ethnic group.

Second. All in favor; Hell yes. all opposed: ...........

100% agree, RonnieB. The consequences from fake accusations are far more devastating on so may levels to blacks.

It is CRIMINAL and should be treated as a hate crime.

I noticed that too that there have been no mentioned of this anywhere in the media, people using black men and our brown brothers too as scapegoats. I think this would have been a good time for some in the media to question people's motives on using men of color as their scapegoats when they are the ones committing the crimes., but I guess that would be too much for some to handle.

There is one exception. I did see a story on Phila 6-ABC (local news) that reported comments from "Concerned Black Men" a civic organization and Mayor Nutter (who is black) decrying the false accusations by the lyin' , thievin' heifer.

Good piece of journalism, Ms. Annette-John Hall.

"But long after the dust settles, there will still be residue left on black men. No matter who they are."

Telling it like it is and not like it was.

I'm glad folks are calling them out, RobM.

also from an editorial at http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20090529...

......"The false-report charges against Sweeten are misdemeanors, but the damage goes beyond a minor crime. Once again, a white person in trouble with the law sought to cover tracks by blaming phantom black men. It has become the default alibi.

The list includes Tanya Dacri, the Philadelphia mother who drowned her infant and dismembered it in 1989, then told cops a black man had stolen her child. There was Charles Stuart of Boston, who killed his pregnant wife and told cops a black man shot her. (In that case, police rounded up black "suspects.")

Susan Smith of South Carolina told police in 1994 that a black man abducted her young sons to cover the fact that she'd drowned them in a lake. Ashley Todd, a McCain-Palin campaign volunteer, claimed she was robbed in Pittsburgh last October by a black man who carved a "B" for Barack Obama on her face. She later confessed she'd made it up and mutilated her own face.

Black Americans understandably feel disgust at these desperate inventions by white accusers. They can't be blamed for wondering if such a story lacking the racial component would have received as much national media attention.

It may not be much consolation to African Americans, but many white people also suspected that Sweeten's story didn't ring true. Perhaps this sorry tale will bring us a step closer to a day without racist-manufactured bogeymen."

The black guy did meme exists to present whiteness as good. It is simply the binary playing itself our in criminal justice. We are taught to fear the black man hiding in the bushes who is incapable of controlling his baser instincts and yet white criminals are not seen as threatening. Look at the recent case in England where a white man stabbed his wife repeatedly and he only got 4 years. Of course this was seen as an aberration but you can bet if he was black the judge would have thrown the book at him.

It is always constructed as some kind of weird aberration when white men are violent and a natural instinct when MOC are and this is why people are so ready to believe that a POC is responsible for violence.

Well articulated, womaistsmusings!

What's more I already begin to see which way this Sweeten thing is going . . . .
I'm hearing--"What went wrong? Is she postpartum? She just isn't like this."
She's such a good mother (who left two children in PA.)

Shorter- Let's get the racist idiot back home without any fanfare.

Why is it that every ingrate who plays this card is just sick--- and not just a criminal racist?

Why? Because criminal racists always protect their own.

Always.

Good Morning.Its roots friday.This is for Greenlady hoping you are feeling better
Aswad - Shine Like A Star [Reggae1008]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GROdIwG_7Ok

For those of you in the NYCity area: White Cop Shots off duty Black Cop....this will be interested.

Off-Duty Officer Fatally Shot by Police
A New York City police officer who had just gotten off duty was fatally shot late Thursday in East Harlem by a fellow officer who mistook him for an armed criminal, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said.

The officer who was killed, Omar J. Edwards, 25, a two-year veteran who was assigned to patrol housing projects and was wearing plain clothes, was shot in the arm and chest after a team of three other plainclothes officers in a car came upon him chasing a man on East 125th Street between First and Second Avenues with his gun drawn, Mr. Kelly said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/nyregion/29co...

not a surprise. same old. same old.

As a person of color who grew up in NY, nothing scares me more than the NYPD. They're S.C.A.R.Y. Period. No only are they lethal, but they're basically trained to look at all people of color as criminals who can be killed without any consequences. That's why they have a shoot first and ask questions later. That's what happened to Amadou Diallo, who was shot 41 times (five minutes away from my house)....they shoot and then pretend like one man is the biggest threat to world peace. Mark my words: Nothing will happen to the cop who killed this man. Nothing.

Sad to say, but so true. At the same time, you've got to ask yourself will this ever end, will these cops finally get punished for abusing their power, even it doesn't result in death.

Perusing Field Negro and found this by a poster there; Oklahoma State Troopers losing their mind:
http://bigsole.blogspot.com/2009/05/state-troop...

I hope President Barack Obama insists that all his SS guards are black. He is going to get shot by the SS if someone draws down.

and this man is/was a U.S Congressman? I wonder if he ever went straight from Capitol Hill to a KKK rally.....

Anyways, the NYTimes's already questioning Sotomayor's "temperament." Their evidence?:

"WASHINGTON — Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s Supreme Court choice, has a blunt and even testy side, and it was on display in December during an argument before the federal appeals court in New York. The case concerned a Canadian man who said American officials had sent him to Syria to be tortured, and Judge Sotomayor peppered a government lawyer with skeptical questions.

“So the minute the executive raises the specter of foreign policy, national security,” Judge Sotomayor asked the lawyer, Jonathan F. Cohn, “it is the government’s position that that is a license to torture anyone?”

Mr. Cohn managed to get out two and a half words: “No, your hon—— .”

Judge Sotomayor cut him off, then hit him with two more questions and a flat declaration of what she said was his position. The lawyer managed to say she was wrong, but could not clarify the point until the chief judge, Dennis G. Jacobs, stepped in, asking, “Why don’t we just get the position?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/us/politics/2...

Will we ever have an honest press?

The Face Of The Sotomayor Opposition
If your only source of news was cable television, you might think that the Senate was gearing up for an historic fight over a Supreme Court hopeful so out of the mainstream that it might be worth questioning the sanity of the President who nominated her.

The reality on the Hill is much less exciting than that. Most Republicans, I'm sure, don't really care for Sonia Sotomayor, but they're nonetheless preparing themselves for her eventual confirmation. And, for the most part, they're actually pretty sanguine about it.
Read More
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/the-...

Is LaRaza the new Acorn??

During the elections, the Republicans went after both LaRaza and ACORN together and painted LaRaza as racist. No new tricks for old dogs.

Hmmm...could be.

If the Boy Scouts were all of a sudden turn black and brown the rethugs would demonize it.

Yes.
To kill the lie of ACORN bookmark this:
http://www.thedeal.com/dealscape/2009/02/fed_re...

Thanks for this link! I will definitely bookmark it.