Scary people.

In honor of Halloween, here are some of the scariest people in A-merry-ca. (Not necessarily in order of scariness.)

1. Charles & David Koch: These clowns represent the money behind the teabag movement. They made millions from *shakes and fries, and now they are trying to make sure that they don''t have to share it. (*Correction from that previous post. It is Ray Kroc of McDonald's fame who made money from shakes and fries. His burgers and some of his managers might be scary, but he is not.)

2. Glen Beckkk: I spell his name that way for a reason.

3. Rupert Murdoch: He owns Radio Rwanda. Nuff said.

4. Clarence Thomas: Quite possibly the worst member of the supremes since Roger B. Taney.

5. Wayne LaPierre: The head honcho over at the NRA. Over one million homicides from firearms here in A-merry-ca since 1962. Now that's scary.

6. Erik Prince: This religious fanatic owns the worlds most powerful private army. He helped another religious fanatic, George Bush, prosecute the war in Iraq.

7. The members of the CNP (Council for National Policy): If you don't know who they are you might need to start reading more.

8. Simon Cowell: I am only using him because he has contributed to the dumbing down of our culture with shows like -his- American Idol.

9. Timothy Geithner: The former head CEO and president of the federal reserve bank is now Treasury Secretary of these divided states. I don't know about you, but he scares me.

10. Andrew Breitbart & Matt Drudge: Millions of people read their nefarious slant to the news every day. But as long as they are paid they will keep doing what they do. Here is hoping that Shirley Sherrod takes Andrew Breitbart to the cleaners.

Booo!

Survival’s New Petition for Botswana Bushmen Goes Global

by Survival: The Movement for Tribal Peoples
October 27, 2010

A new petition calling on controversial holiday company Wilderness Safaris to move its luxury lodge off Bushman land in Botswana is gathering support from all over the world.

While the Central Kalahari Bushmen are banned from accessing water on their own land, Wilderness Safaris erected its luxury lodge, with swimming pool and showers, on Bushman land without first seeking their consent.

Stephen Corry, Survival’s director, explained, ‘As long as the Bushmen are banned from accessing drinking water on their own land, Wilderness Safaris needs to stay away. While their lodge stays open but Bushmen remain parched, Wilderness is effectively supporting the Botswana government’s policy to drive the Bushmen off their lands.’

The petition has already gathered signatures from more than 100 countries, even though it was only opened a week ago.

A supporter from the UK, wrote, ‘History will view your behaviour as shameful. The Bushmen and their tribes and families are a proud and magnificent people.’

Another supporter in Tanzania wrote, ‘There is absolutely no justification for a supposedly eco tourist oriented company to build a lodge without the original land owners’ full consent and participation.’

An American supporter wrote, ‘I am mortified that the Botswana government would endanger the live of their citizens for a bit of money. Once tourists know the manner in which this land was acquired they will not want to visit.’

The Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana were evicted from their land by the Botswana government in 2002. The country’s High Court ruled the evictions were ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘unlawful’ and that the Bushmen have the right to return home. However, many Bushmen are unable to do so because the government insists on denying them access to drinking water or permission to hunt for food.

Survival has also launched an international boycott of Botswana tourism, which is endorsed by celebrities including Gillian Anderson, Quentin Blake, Joanna Lumley, Sophie Okonedo and Mark Rylance.

Credits

To Whom Apologies Are Really Due

Melissa Harris-Perry

The Nation 

October 27, 2010

I had a visceral reaction to the news that Virginia Thomas had called Anita Hill and asked her for an apology. In 1991 I was a college freshman, and the televised Hill-Thomas hearings were my adult initiation into the public vilification of black women. I watched as white male senators and conservative commentators exploited the common myth of black women as promiscuous to cast Hill as oversexed and delusional. I remember when Thomas draped himself in the history of America's racial violence by angrily referring to his confirmation process as a "high-tech lynching." Although there is no history of white men forming a posse to punish those who sexually assault black women, Thomas deployed the lynching trope to great effect. After the comment, his approval ratings rose sharply among black Americans, many of whom maligned Hill as a race traitor who allowed her story to be used by powerful white opponents to harm the credibility of an African-American man. The Hill-Thomas hearings were an object lesson in the joint complicity of black communities and white power structures in the public humiliation of black women to meet conservative ends: being both black and a woman means you can be maligned by both racist and sexist discourse.

Read the rest of this article here.

After Don't Ask, Don't Tell

 

Comment: The "don't ask, don't tell" policy prohibits the US military from requiring enlistees to declare their sexual orientation but it also bans openly gay folks from becoming service members.

See Bloomberg Businessweek's "Military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy Will Stand for Now" (October 21, 2010) for more background information.

Cartoon  Credit
See more Mr. Fish cartoons here.

Another Arab American Finds Tracking Device in His Car

By Matthew Rothschild,

The Progressive

October 15, 2010

Yesterday, I wrote about the FBI placing a GPS tracking device on the car of Yasir Afifi, an Arab American in California.

Today, I learned about a similar story.

Veena Dubal, a staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, based in San Francisco, tells me that she has a client who found such a tracking device in his car in June 2009.

“I have an elderly Arab American client who was attending a free workshop on how to be a mechanic, and they were using his car as the demonstration car for an oil change,” she says. “In the middle of the class, the instructor stopped and said, ‘Oh my God, there’s a bomb in the car.’ So everyone evacuated. But it wasn’t a bomb. It was a tracking device. You can imagine how humiliating this was for my client. Everyone was looking at him like he was a terrorist and like he was going to blow them up.”

Her client, a retired social worker and a U.S. citizen, pulled the tracking device off the car and took the battery out.

A few days later, he took his car to a professional mechanic at Carlos Auto Repair in San Rafael.

“He came by one day and we worked on his car,” says Jorge Nogueiro, one of the owners of the shop. “And then a few weeks later some San Rafael undercover police came by and were looking for his car and his tracking device. They left me their card. The next day, the car owner stopped by, and I told them the police were looking for him. He said, ‘I’ll be damned.’ ”

Read the rest of this article here.

Comment: In the months after 9/11 a few of my undergraduate Arab students (most of them from the UAE) were detained in Portland, Oregon.  They were not charged with breaking any law.  The police wanted to know why they traveled to Detroit so often.

The students explained that they have friends and relatives in Detroit (a city with one of the largest Arab communities in the US).

It was around this time that Portland State University administration informed us that it was our responsibility to make sure that foreign students were in class.  "If a student misses more than three classes you must let the registrar know," we were told.

"If a foreign student is habitually absent and is found to be guilty of a crime against the US you may be held responsible," was added without a flinch.

My immediate reaction was to ask why foreign students only.  I asked the chair of my department if we should also, as a measure of democratic inclusion, let the university authorities know when any student missed more than three classes.

"Are we being asked to spy on Arab students," I asked without expecting a straight answer.

My question went unanswered.

It was becoming apparent that there was some kind of collusion between the University and those in the US security complex.  In short, they were watching Arab students and other foreign students deemed to come from suspect terrorist regions, of course.

A few days after my students were detained they came by my office to tell me that they were released with no explanation.

"They had been watching us for a long time.  They entered our house and confiscated our computers.  Travel documents were taken too, " I remember one saying.

"Did you ask them or the University to explain why you guys," I asked.

"When they could not connect us to anything bad in Detroit they said they were investigating us for concerns about fraud," another replied.

"Fraud, what kind of fraud?," I asked in amazement.

"They said they had heard that Arab students use term papers that are not written by them but that we were OK because they did not find plagiarized papers on our computers or in our house and cars," the answer followed.

"What does Detroit have to do with term papers and plagiarism and such a high profile attention from the national security folk," I asked.

"There are Muslims and lots of Arabs there," the answer came.

In the weeks and months after 9/11 Arab students started leaving the campus for home.  Their parents were worried that there kids were being profiled in a country that was growing more and more paranoid about Islam and Muslims.

What amazed me about the profiling of Arab students was that not one academic or staff member stood up to question what was going on.  The manner that the University was obviously colluding to make the records of Arab students available to national security authorities and for no reason other than the fact that they were Arab and mostly Muslim was not called into question.

The excuse that this incident was about plagiarism was laughable.  When did plagiarism become a national security issue?

So much for democracy and all that Bill of Rights fluff that is thrown around.  It is all contextual and can be set aside when the US is at its authoritarian best.

I pressed for answers best I could but the affair was hidden and closed for discussion.  The University only started to worry when the declining registration of Arab students started to hit its coffers.

Onward!

How can you "Restore" what never was?

It's only fitting that here in A-merry-ca two comedians held a very successful rally on the hallowed grounds of the Washington Mall today. They mocked the folks on both extremes of the A-merry-can ideological spectrum, and they exposed the A-merry-can political debate for the fraudulent discordant charade it has become. Throw in my home-boyz, The Roots, and folks like Tony Bennett, (who, by the way, I love) and you had a real party. I suspect that is why many folks went in the first place.- For the party. Which is all good as far as I am concerned.

While political pimps like Glenn Beckkk continue to exploit the fears of a certain segment of the population, cable television continues to show us their fears 24/7 and rake in advertising dollars along the way. What a country! Of course it helps if Beckkk and his ilk are being paid by some of the same cable television networks to keep the fear going. The irony is, of course, that the organizers of today's rally were also created and packaged to the A-merry-can people by cable television. I hope the irony wasn't lost on Jon Stewart, and I hope he won't take himself too seriously like the aforementioned Mr. Beckkk.

Still, we needed a rally to "restore sanity." When you have folks writing crap like this, you have to wonder how many rallies it will take to purge the insane from among us. With all due respect to Colbert and Stewart; the name of their rally was misleading. It was misleading because these rabid wingnuts with their manufactured anger- which was bought and paid for by corporate interests, were never sane to begin with.

"Money's Too Tight To Mention"

The Valentine Brothers said it right in 1982 and so it is again.

Jobless growth.  Folks struggling to find work and giving up in Mzansi.

And, "we’re talking ’bout reaganomics", still.

Most folks will remember this line from the Simply Red cover of "Money's too Tight to Mention".  The sad and ironic truth is that the original and better version hardly profited The Valentine Brothers who hail from Columbus, Ohio.

Appropriation? Cultural mining?

"We’re talking ’bout money money. We’re talking ’bout money money ..."

And nothing changes broer.

Onward!


Zapiro Credit
Picture Credit

Just your garden variety "Tea Party" candidate.

I swear my man racism is slowing down in his old age. It's getting too damn easy to chase him these days:

"Republican Party leaders in central Illinois are calling on their own candidate for state senate to step down following racist remarks he made at a candidate’s forum last week.

Al Reynolds, who is considered the Tea Party candidate in Illinois’ 52nd District, has been unavailable to the media since saying that African American men preferred dealing drugs to going to college, because it is “easier.”

'I’ve been in the city and the dichotomy of the women and the men in the minorities, there is a difference in the fact that most minority women, either the single parent or coming from a poor neighborhood, are motivated more so than the minority men,' Reynolds said, when asked what he would do to increase diversity at state colleges. 'And it’s a pretty good reason. Most of the women who are single parents have to find work to support their family. The minority men find it more lucrative to be able to do drugs or other avenues rather than do education. It’s easier.”' [More]

Oh my! Mr. Reynolds, it looks like some of those drug dealing black men have been allowing you to sample their products.

Don't you just love when certain people show their true colors? [h/t NewsOne]

Indonesia's Mount Merapi Erupts

News24 captions reads: "Indonesia's most active volcano was spewing clouds of ash and lava on Friday, after a series of eruptions earlier this week left 34 people dead. (Irwin Fedriansyah, AP)"

Mbah Maridjan

Ki Surakso Hargo (85) who is best known as Mbah Maridjan, the spiritual guardian of Mount Merapi, predicted the eruption.  Sadly, he died as a result of the eruption according to The Jakarta Post.

The loss of life and devastation is heartbreaking!

May the departed rest in peace.

Onward!

Picture and Caption Credit
Mbau Maridjan Picture Credit

Survival Under Cyberattack

GLOBAL Website Down After Bombardment

Survival International has today been targeted by a massive cyberattack, assumed to be the work of the Indonesian or Botswana authorities, or their allies, reacting to our campaign work.

The attack comes one week after Survival reported on a shocking video of Indonesian soldiers torturing Papuan tribal people, and four weeks after calling for tourists to boycott Botswana over the long-running persecution of the Kalahari Bushmen.

Starting with a test attack at 5pm (London time) on Wednesday 27 October, and building to a very sophisticated ‘distributed denial-of-service’ onslaught through that evening and today, many thousands of PCs around the world simultaneously bombarded Survival’s website, knocking it offline.

Survival International has always known that the forces ranged against tribal peoples are very powerful and have unlimited resources. We need you to help us fight them.

More on cyberattack »

Donate to Survival »

Credit: Angryindian sent the above report to me.

It's that time again.

As we get closer to November 2nd, his O ness and the dems are making their usual push for votes from the usual suspects. Old reliable. Black folks. Truth is, if black folks actually get out and vote come Tuesday, that well touted republican tsunami will be more like a huge wave. O and his boyz have been visiting states with a large concentration of African Americans, and they have been hoping for a little election day passion. It won't happen. O, you aren't on the ticket, black folks don't care if Mr. White from the democratic or republican party gets elected. It's just another old white man in D.C. giving them the same old same old.

But you gotta love the dems for giving it the "old college try". They called black bloggers, (No, the field didn't get an invite. Corporate and pop culture bloggers, only.) to the White House, and O has been on black radio more than Kanye and Jay Z combined. Sadly, in spite of all his efforts, you Negroes will stay home. The republicans, of course, know this. So in a way, you are loyal to them as well.

Finally, I was sent this Jason Riley article from the WSJ (h/t Pilot X) about the NAACP alleged obsession with the Tea Party Movement. The author thinks that the NAACP should be doing better things with their time:

"Given that the tea party—a diffuse network of local groups with no central leadership—focuses not on race but on limited government, the NAACP's obsession with the movement might seem odd. And given the real challenges facing black Americans today, the fact that the nation's largest civil rights group is devoting time and resources to monitoring Sarah Palin rallies for Confederate flags is also rather sad.

The nation's unemployment rate is 9.6%, but it is 16.1% for blacks and an unconscionable 41% for black teens. Politicians continue to promote minimum-wage hikes that harm the job prospects of younger and less-skilled individuals, a disproportionate number of whom are black. Wal-Mart's attempts to open a store that would bring jobs and low-price goods to a depressed neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y., have been thwarted repeatedly by labor unions. And the NAACP is issuing studies on the tea party movement?

Black children are funneled into the nation's worst public schools, where they underperform and often don't graduate. Black boys in eighth grade read at about the same level as white girls in fourth grade. The achievement gap persists through high school, where the average black student is graduating with an eighth-grade education—if the student graduates at all.

The situation has remained essentially unchanged for three decades. President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have noted that just 2,000 of the nation's 20,000 high schools produce half of all dropouts, and nearly 50% of black kids attend one of these "dropout factories." But that hasn't stopped the Obama administration from phasing out a Washington, D.C., voucher program for low-income students that improved graduation rates. Still, the NAACP is worried about the tea party?" [Article]

OK, keeping it real alert! I actually agree with a lot of what this clown wrote. But here is the thing: the NAACP was also right to put some focus on the teabaggers for their sudden obsession with smaller government and the deficit. We all know that it wasn't there before, because previous presidents didn't look like this one.

Still, the NAACP can move on now and start focusing on the important things the author mentioned. Us racism chasers will take it from here.

Kenya On My Mind

It is a rainy day in Pretoria. The first real rains of the season. The Jacaranda trees that line the streets of Pretoria are in full purple bloom. Quite a beautiful sight to see.

By the end of next week I will be in Nairobi and surrounds for 22 days and I can't hardly wait. I need to be outside of South Africa for a while.

Over the years I have noticed that extended periods of time in any one place makes me even grumpier than usual. ;0)

This morning I was listening to a talk station on my way to work and working up a tension sweat each time the presenter, or advertisements, lauded the role of "entrepreneurship" to take "South Africa (or a company) to the "next level".

Why is there is such a fixation on "entrepreneurship" in South Africa? And, what the hell is the "next level"?

Can anyone run out of "levels"? Or, is "entrepreneurship" a means of creating infinite "levels" to step up to?

On Monday I attended a forum held by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) or what was just the Department of Foreign Affairs not too long ago.

The forum was aimed at bringing academics and think tankers together to brainstorm about the "next level" in foreign policy.

The impressive conference room was filled with thinking folks you see on TV, usually the news. Important personalities that have "taken it to the next level" and now hover above mere mortal academics who are still trying to figure out how to cite and footnote properly.

A lot was said. A lot of pretense was postured. A lot of levels were pointed to.

At the end of the 8 hour deliberations it was concluded that South Africa needed a new drive, a new "entrepreneurship" in international relations, so that the country can "take it to the next level" to meet the "prospects and challenges" of a rearranged globe.

I was lost.

In the international relations theory I studied and taught there was/is no section on "entrepreneurship" and the "next level".

I am worried. Really worried.

What happened to all that emphasis on the politics of power and interests? Has Realpolitik been replaced by "entrepreneurship" and "the next level"?

Should I expect calls from former students, particularly the unemployed ones, who will  angrily blame me for not teaching them about "entrepreneurship" and the "next level" in international relations?

On my way out of the very impressive DIRCO building I looked around thinking that it looked more like The Smithsonian in Washington D.C. than a building housing a very small African power in global politics.

DIRCO had obviously stepped up to a "next level" but hardly anyone noticed, or even cared.

Nonetheless, the very shiny floors and over-trained personnel who were so un-South African in their demeanor and habit of helping you find your way around the large vacuous spaces was not lost on me.

As I walked to the elevator a former colleague from Village Hell University asked me if I had driven my old pick-up truck to DIRCO with a recurring smirk on his face.

I nodded yes and he shook his head disapprovingly. He obviously thought I needed a "next level" vehicle to park alongside the "entrepreneurship" cadres.

We stood in front of the elevators (lifts) momentarily as I tried to remember which floor I had parked on.

"I think I have to go down a level," I said.

"I have to go up a level," the colleague replied.

I nodded and took the stairs down to the basement.

I drove home quietly inside the noise of a 14 year old pick-up. Inside my head were random thoughts about learning what is meant by "entrepreneurship" so that maybe I could, you know, take it to the "next level".

Or maybe not.

I wonder if they have "entrepreneurship" and the "next level" in Kenya?

I will let you know in the coming weeks.

Onwards!

Arundhati Roy: Pity the Nation

Countercurrents.org

October 27, 2010

I write this from Srinagar, Kashmir. This morning’s papers say that I may be arrested on charges of sedition for what I have said at recent public meetings on Kashmir. I said what millions of people here say every day. I said what I, as well as other commentators have written and said for years. Anybody who cares to read the transcripts of my speeches will see that they were fundamentally a call for justice. I spoke about justice for the people of Kashmir who live under one of the most brutal military occupations in the world; for Kashmiri Pandits who live out the tragedy of having been driven out of their homeland; for Dalit soldiers killed in Kashmir whose graves I visited on garbage heaps in their villages in Cuddalore; for the Indian poor who pay the price of this occupation in material ways and who are now learning to live in the terror of what is becoming a police state.

Yesterday I traveled to Shopian, the apple-town in South Kashmir which had remained closed for 47 days last year in protest against the brutal rape and murder of Asiya and Nilofer, the young women whose bodies were found in a shallow stream near their homes and whose murderers have still not been brought to justice. I met Shakeel, who is Nilofer’s husband and Asiya’s brother. We sat in a circle of people crazed with grief and anger who had lost hope that they would ever get ‘insaf’—justice—from India, and now believed that Azadi—freedom— was their only hope. I met young stone pelters who had been shot through their eyes. I traveled with a young man who told me how three of his friends, teenagers in Anantnag district, had been taken into custody and had their finger-nails pulled out as punishment for throwing stones.

In the papers some have accused me of giving ‘hate-speeches’, of wanting India to break up. On the contrary, what I say comes from love and pride. It comes from not wanting people to be killed, raped, imprisoned or have their finger-nails pulled out in order to force them to say they are Indians. It comes from wanting to live in a society that is striving to be a just one. Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds. Pity the nation that needs to jail those who ask for justice, while communal killers, mass murderers, corporate scamsters, looters, rapists, and those who prey on the poorest of the poor, roam free.

Arundhati Roy
October 26 2010

See also Section 124 A: An Evil Law by Ajit Sahi for more on what may be an emerging case to arrest Roy for sedition.

Credit

Western Sahara and the Tide of History

by Ken Loach and Stefan Simanowitz
Mail and Guardian
Oct 27 2010 12:23

In 1960 the United Nations adopted resolution 1514 which stated that all people have a right to self-determination and that colonialism should be brought to a speedy and unconditional end.

Half-a-century later it may come as a surprise to readers to learn that there are still 16 territories around the world that have yet to achieve decolononisation.

Known as "non-self-governing territories" the list of places still ruled by a foreign power contains some familiar names: Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) to name just two.

But while some of these territories, like the tiny Pacific Island of Tokelau, are dependencies that could be said to have rejected independence and democratically chosen to maintain their territorial status, others are more controversial.

Most notable is Western Sahara, known as Africa's last colony, which has fought for self-determination for more than 35 years against neighbouring Morocco.

Read the rest of this article here.

Credit

I'm NOT lovin it!

Brothers, have any of you ever had to go to the "head" while traveling down the highway? You then pull up to an establishment, buy some gas, (even though you don't need any) then ask to use the facilities; only to be told that it's broken? Don't front like it's just me. I bet it's happened to damn near all of you at some point. In fact, I am sure it's happened to some of you ladies as well. (Sorry, I can't speak for white folks.) I once had to go so bad that I told the dude behind the counter playing "head"- guard that I would piss on the floor if he didn't give me the key. He did, and, guess what? The toilet worked.

Anywhooo, I gave you this little vignette because a couple of brothers up in Zoo Yawk are accusing Micky D's of playing bathroom guard with a racial angle:

"Can I get a Big Mac and the key to the bathroom?

That's what three black men are claiming happened to them when they asked to use a bathroom at a McDonald's in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan.

Christopher White, Abdul Rasuul, and Leroy Johnson allege that they were told they had to buy food when they asked to use the restroom at a Third Avenue McDonald's.

Meanwhile, they claim, a white woman who did not buy anything was allowed to use the restroom. The men say they suffered "shock, pain, emotional, psychiatric, psychological and mental injuries" as a result of the alleged race-based slight.

McDonald's declined to comment saying it hadn't seen the suit.." (Link)

Hold up! Come on now; not Micky D's? All those commercials they have on BET, and ads in Essence and Ebony? Naaahh. And not in New York. I mean I experienced these little inconveniences while traveling down South. I didn't expect brothers to experience bathroomism in New York.

Oh well, I guess you Negroes are just going to have to tinkle before you leave home.

Or, take heart, there is always Burger King.

"Blue grass" beatdown, and "Wacka Flocka Flame."

Who said the tea party folks were soft? They didn't seem that soft in Kentucky recently. That was a blue grass beatdown if I ever saw one. Or, as my man Rippa called it: A "Kirk Franklin approved...."Rand Paul Somp." It won't be long before politics here in A-merry-ca looks like politics in my country. As the rich folks continue to get richer, those of us left behind will continue to beat up on each other while we fight for what little scraps they leave us.

Honestly, WTF is that Rand Paul supporter so angry about that he has to put a beat down on that young woman? (Yes, I said woman) And, if I am going to be fair, I have to ask the same thing of the SEIU folks who went all Floyd Mayweather on some black wingnut from the Lou. Do you see that folks? I am consistent. I am not condoning violence on either side.

Here is the thing, A-merry-ca: you don't have to be this angry. You live in A-merry-ca. I am pretty sure that if either a dem or a repub gets elected you will still have your three bedroom two bath home in suburbia. You will still be able to buy dog food for Fido, and your kids will still be able to attend a school in a....ahhm...safe environment. So relax. It's not like you live in a Third World country or anything. Not yet. The uber rich will give you just enough to keep you thinking that one day, if you are lucky, (and if those evil tax loving democrats stay out of your way) you will be just as rich as they are. "Pursuing happiness is much easier if you are rich. It's no wonder that wingnut went nuts (pun intended) in Kentucky. He wants to be rich; just like his heroes. If only the folks on the left would see it his way. I am sure he is thinking that we all could be rich together.

Finally, could you all peep this Wacka Flocka parody of his O ness and tell me what you think?

I am curious about something. It's a little sociological study I am doing for my dissertation while I study for my doctorate in fieldology. Thanks.

Sorry Juan, you will have to "fight the power" without us.

Someone asked me earlier: "Field, why is it that black folks like you turned on Juan Williams, when damn near everyone else in A-merry-ca, including Michael Moore, thinks that he was wronged?"

I will write for you what I told my curious friend: Juan Williams, is a disappointment to most black folks. He represents the type of wishy washy Negro in A-merry-ca who makes it hard to convey our pain and frustration to those who need to know. In his high profile media position, he might as well be just another white host pontificating about the politics of the day. Which is fine, if he is just another political pundit on television who just happens to be black. With Juan you always get the impression-at least when he is on FOX-that he is the token black guy, and he is playing the role of the Negro "contrarian".

Unfortunately for us black folks, Juan never seemed to play that role very well. He never expressed what we were really thinking. Which, I suspect, is just the way FOX wanted it. (The fake black man on a fake news station) I bet that all those lily white families watching in red state A-merry-ca clung to Juan's every word as if it was black gospel. Juan is black A-merry-ca. Not. So when Juan said that he gets nervous when he sees people in Muslim garb we (black folks) immediately felt outrage and thought: this is bulls&^%! In urban areas across A-merry-ca we see and interact with folks in Muslim garb damn near every day, -And yes, I know, they aren't all necessarily Middle Eastern men- and they sure don't make us nervous.

I have said this before, but it's worth repeating: They don't make Juan nervous,either. He was just saying what he thought that the lily white family in Iowa wanted to hear. That is why black folks aren't crying a river over Juan's firing. Yes, we know that it was wrong the way NPR handled it. We know that the PC police overreached, but, believe me, it's not worth our outrage.
Juan has plenty of white folks (from the left and the right) who will get his back. We will sit this one out. (BTW, for a great analysis of what went on behind the scenes at NPR and why Juan 's black ass should have been fired a long time ago, read this excellent article from my friend, Farai Chideya.)

Calling Michael Steele! Calling Michael Steele!

"Jerry Alexander, campaign manager for Marvin Scott, who is challenging Rep. Andre Carson (D), said the Scott campaign has received virtually no help from state or national GOP leaders.
'If you call getting no support, not even a phone call, not even a how are you doing kind of support, then I would have to say that is a pretty accurate assessment,' Alexander said.

Alexander said that he has talked with the other 14 African-American Republican candidates’ campaigns, and each has similar complaints.

'It’s been a bunch of guys grumbling that they are getting no support,' Alexander said of a slew of e-mails that were sent back and forth this week.

Alexander, who served as Rep. Mike Pence’s political director for nearly seven years, said his former boss is the only Republican who has helped the Scott operation. Pence, who represents Indiana’s 6th district, is the GOP Conference chairman, the No. 3 Republican leader. "

Oh my! And just when I thought that I was going to give those republican folks a serious look....

Saint Juan!

OK, enough of this already! Juan, we all agree; maybe NPR should not have fired you. Censoring someones speech is never cool. But Juan, you have got to stop the woe is me pity party that you keep throwing over there at Radio Rwanda. We get it! You are their token Negro, and they love you. (How much head patting can one Negro take?) But it's getting a bit pathetic now.

BTW, I know folks call me a racism chaser, but are there any bigger racism chasers in A-merry-ca than the Radio Rwanda folks? Now they are throwing the race card into your firing? Come on, Juan, for the sake of all that is decent; please make them stop!

"..It's a howling double standard. The standard being applied to Juan Williams is manifestly not being applied to other NPR people. And I think it is simply this, that in the culture of NPR, appearing on Fox is a sin. And in the culture of NPR, for an African American man like Juan, regardless of his extraordinary stature, to be there and be kind of a Bill Cosby liberal, not a down-the-line liberal, is a sin as well. They have been gunning for him for years. These remarks about Muslim garb at airports was merely a pretext. They have been wanting to get him, and got him, and in so doing exposed themselves for who they are..."

Huh? WTF is a "Bill Cosby Liberal"? Leave it to these clowns at Radio Rwanda to take this to a whole other level. See what you are causing, Juan? Although, hey, maybe you love being the new martyr of the right. A regular Catherine Of Alexander. You are the new wingnut saint of victim- hood. And if it's one thing we know that wingnuts love to do is play the victim role. They are victim experts.

Finally, I can't let a post go without taking one more shot at my man, Uncle C.

"He was always actively watching the women he worked with to see if they could be potential partners," McEwen told the Post, adding that he was particularly "partial to women with large breasts" and even would ask woman about their bra size.

"He was obsessed with porn," McEwen also said of Thomas, a claim that is particularly relevant to Hill's allegations that the then-chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had repeatedly relayed scenes from pornographic movies to her. "He would talk about what he had seen in magazines and films, if there was something worth noting," McEwen continued.

As for why McEwen has decided to break her silence now, the Post explains that the woman who partook in Thomas's "freewheeling sex life" between 1981 and 1986 has a story to tell.

She has written a memoir, which she is now shopping to publishers. News broke that the justice's wife, Virginia Thomas, left a voice mail on Hill's office phone at Brandeis University, seeking an apology -- a request that Hill declined in a statement. After that, McEwen changed her mind and decided to talk about her relationship with Thomas."

Maybe Virginia should be calling Ms. McEwen and not Ms. Hill. Sounds like she is going to be doing more damage to Uncle C's legacy. *shaking head*

Still, you know what's shameful about all of this? That Uncle C's proclivity to get his freak on is clouding a more serious and potentially scandalous issue: The fact that his wife is a right wing activist who raises millions of dollars to support causes that are connected to cases that her husband, the supreme court justice, has to hear. That is the shame of all of this. But here in A-merry-ca we don't care, because we have gotten used to such sleaziness. And no, I am not talking about Uncle C's breast fetish.

2010 Coonies

I thought I was finished with the Coonies, but some folks here in A-merry-ca are taking cooning to a whole different level. They have redefined cooning and how we, as A-merry-cans, should perceive the coon. Because of this I am going to be sending out some Coonies to some well deserving folks. Oscar has nothing on the Coonie.

Anyway, here they are:

1. Clarence Thomas: Who else did you expect to be first on the list? Uncle C has a shelf full of Coonies. Still, I am handing him this latest one for different reasons. This time he gets one for being complicit while his wife rehashed old wounds by calling his former accuser after 20 years. Throw in the news of his porn addiction which might be cool, (Who am I to judge?) but stuff like this in the news is so undignified for one of the supremes. For the reasons stated above, Uncle C gets another Coonie.

2. Juan Williams: Juan, your ignorant statement about Muslims and subsequent firing by NPR put you front and center in the news. Unfortunately for you, it made us take a whole new look at your body of work. And guess what, Juan? it ain't pretty. (Was O'Reilly patting that Negro on the head?)

3. Thomas Sowell: Oh yes, the wingnuts favorite black intellectual. Sorry, he gets a Coonie. Not because of the way he leans politically or ideologically, but because of the way he tries to justify it. Just remember, Thomas: it's always easier to be loved in A-merry-ca when you turn on your own. They call that courage. I call it cooning.

4. Lloyd Marcus: No explanation needed.

5. Robert Johnson: Black entertainment television could have been so much more. Instead, you sold out for the booty shaking and the laughs. Your Coonie will be heading to your Virginia farm any day now.

6. Artur Davis: This Negro voted no on health care reform. Artur, that kind of jigging gets you a Coonie.

7. James E. Clyburn (D-SC): Many of you won't like this, but some of these dumbocrats can jig with the best of them. Sorry James, I know you think that all bloggers do is complain, but maybe you shouldn't give us so much to complain about. Please put your Coonie where all of the other members of the CBC can see it.

8. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas): I know that "a mind is a terrible thing to waste", but you shouldn't have hooked up your relatives at the expense of more deserving constituents. Congresswoman, that gets you a Coonie.

9. Michael Steele: Come on now. How could I give out coonies and not get one to my main man, Mike?

10. Walter Williams: "Obama's presidency is due to the goodness of Americans"? Please handle your Coonie with care.

11. Jesse Lee Peterson: "Thank God for slavery"? WTF is wrong with some of you Negroes? I am scared to give you a Coonie. You might put it on your lawn.

Honorable Mention goes out to:

Harold Ford

Larry Elder

O.J. Simpson

Angela McGlowan

Ignorant rappers.

Money hungry preachers

H.K. Edgerton

Alveda King

Stephen Broden. (Thanks Geneva Girl)

Erick Rush

Michael Strahan

Shaquille O'Neal

George Foreman

And every Negro doing s&^% to undermine -and embarrass- their family, their community, and their race.

Wikileaks Iraq War Diaries

by Wikileaks.org

At 5pm EST Friday 22nd October 2010 WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history. The 391,832 reports ('The Iraq War Logs'), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a 'SIGACT' or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.

The reports detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, comprised of 66,081 'civilians'; 23,984 'enemy' (those labeled as insurgents); 15,196 'host nation' (Iraqi government forces) and 3,771 'friendly' (coalition forces). The majority of the deaths (66,000, over 60%) of these are civilian deaths.That is 31 civilians dying every day during the six year period. For comparison, the 'Afghan War Diaries', previously released by WikiLeaks, covering the same period, detail the deaths of some 20,000 people. Iraq during the same period, was five times as lethal with equivallent population size.

See Wikileaks.

Iraq War Logs: Secret Files Show How US Ignored Torture

by Nick Davies, Jonathan Steele and David Leigh
guardian.co.uk
Friday 22 October 2010 21.26 BST

• Massive leak reveals serial detainee abuse
• 15,000 unknown civilian deaths in war
• Full coverage of the Iraq war logs

A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.

Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in the Afghan war.

The new logs detail how:

• US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.
• A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.
• More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent death.

As recently as December the Americans were passed a video apparently showing Iraqi army officers executing a prisoner in Tal Afar, northern Iraq. The log states: "The footage shows approximately 12 Iraqi army soldiers. Ten IA soldiers were talking to one another while two soldiers held the detainee. The detainee had his hands bound … The footage shows the IA soldiers moving the detainee into the street, pushing him to the ground, punching him and shooting him."

Read the rest of the article here.

Comment: Charge George Bush and company with war crimes and crimes against humanity!

Onward! Wikileaks

Credit

Black folks, dogs, and welfare.

*

Just a quick field Negro programing note before I get to my next post: I will be reviving the "COONIE AWARDS" this weekend. I know that I retired them a couple of years ago, but A-merry-ca has been struck by a wave of coonism of late, and I feel pressed to recognize those who are contributing to our coonieness. I am still trying to find a venue for an official awards ceremony, but until then, I will just have to send them out.

Anyway, tonight, once again, I want to pose a question to my black conservative friends who choose to align themselves with the republican tribe: Could one of you please explain this guy Dave Batholomew to me? And has he been denounced on your blogs and on your television station?

And, --maybe he has already, and if he has I apologize-- where is Michael Steele when you need him to come out publicly against folks like the aforementioned Mr. Bartholomew? I am just asking. Usually I wouldn't really care, but hey, it's political season, and these things tend to be kind of important around this time.

"Virginia Beach Republican Party chair Dave Bartholomew... may not be a racist, but he is certainly acting like one. Bartholomew is under fire for forwarding an e-mail comparing African Americans to dogs on welfare. I won't say another word and will let you read the e-mail yourself.

MY DOG

I went down this morning to sign up my Dog for welfare.

At first the lady said, "Dogs are not eligible to draw welfare".

So I explained to her that my Dog is black, unemployed, lazy, can't speak English and has no frigging clue who his Daddy is.

So she looked in her policy book to see what it takes to qualify...

My Dog gets his first check Friday.

Is this a great country or what?

I would say that when I saw this e-mail I was furious, but I wouldn't be telling the entire truth. Instead of being furious, I was only surprised that Bartholomew was caught. Many of us have known that the Republican Party attracts the very worst and most racist of us and is the party that every Klansman, skinhead, neo-nazi and militia member wants to join.

Their racism is typically cloaked in creative metaphors and diatribes on personal responsibility, but the truth is that being poor and/or black is a crime in the minds of many Republicans. This e-mail doesn't surprise me one bit, and I'm sure the chair was forwarding the message to another Republican.

I look forward to seeing how Bartholomew spins this one after the public expresses its outrage. He may admit that it was a horrible mistake and pretend that he's not racist. He might try to say that someone broke into his e-mail account and sent the messages without his knowledge. He may even try to justify the horrible joke in some ridiculous way. After our recent fight in the city of Syracuse about a sheriff's candidate who appears to have sent racist e-mails, I've seen how deep denial can go in the world of politics.

Dave Bartholomew needs to resign immediately. He also needs to issue an apology to the American public for passing on such an offensive message. If other Republicans do not stand together to denounce Bartholomew's actions, we will know what they are all about." [Article]

Wrong Dr. Watkins, why should he resign? He is merely expressing how he feels. I expect that from the Dave Bartholomews of the world. What disappoints me is that black folks in his tribe choose to remain silent while folks like him show their ignorance.

Hey, maybe the Coonie trophy is more coveted than I thought.

*Pic lifted from BTX3's blog.

Two millon dollars over three years?!! Juan, I bet that new contract from FOX doesn't make you nervous.

I wonder if Juan Williams and John Williams are related?

"A racially-charged exchange at a small city council meeting in Georgia has grabbed the attention of the national media and the NAACP. In the caught-on-tape exchange, Warner Robins Councilman Daron Lee, who is black, complains, “I was disrespected on Monday. I’m getting tired of you all, talking to me any kind of way. I’m not working in a cotton field.” Councilman John Williams, who is white, replies, “You should be.”

Lee stormed out of the meeting. “He smiles in your face and makes racial remarks. I am pretty much used to it by now,” he told a CNN affiliate. But Williams says the remark was innocent. “I worked in the cotton field,” he protested. “It is not a racial remark at all. He makes everything racial.” [Article]

Yes John, Negroes down south tend to be bit sensitive about things like "cotton fields". Especially when they had to work in them it for your granddaddy without getting paid.
You know what's funny? If John Williams saw Juan's black ass walking towards him in downtown Warner Robbins,Georgia, I bet he would get nervous.

Anyway, I am sorry to hear that Juan Williams lost his job because of his little verbal faux pas. We all need our jobs here in A-merry-ca, these are tough times. I am also sorry to hear that Rick Sanchez lost his job, but... *crickets*. Still, my man Juan shouldn't worry, he will be cashing more of those Rupert Murdoch checks in no time. (Wait....) Juan's problem was that he tried to play both sides of the fence. He would jig for his FOX benefactors, and turn around and write books on civil rights and address black organizations (Like the one occasion when I had to sit through his phony dribble for CLE credits. Juan, you still owe me two hours of my life.) as if we were all ideological soul- mates. At some point, Juan, the truth will catch up to you, it always does. And now you have been exposed for the charlatan you really are. You see people, it's like this: unlike most folks; I don't think Juan believes what he said about Muslims. (How could he?) I think he said that for Bill O'Lie-ly's ears. He said that to fit in with the rest of the folks at FOX and their ongoing anti-Muslim narrative. The folks over at NPR called him on it, because, I suspect, that they have been trying to get rid of his moonlighting ass all along. This just gave them an excuse.

"Michelle Obama“got this Stokely-Carmichael-in-a-designer-dress thing going,”

And you, Juan, have this Negro in a house thing going. Actually, I think I like the Michelle Obama imagery a little more than yours.

"STAND BY YOUR MAN"

I just got off the phone with Taye Diggs and Terrence Howard. I needed some pointers for this post.

Anywhoo, let's talk about Clarence Thomas, shall we? Seems his lovely wife has some unfinished business with our girl, Anita Hill:

"I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband," the voicemail said in part, according to NBC News. "So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did."

I wonder what would lead Virginia to do this? Girlfriend, it has been 19 years; let it go! Maybe being in the tea party movement has led to some kind of epiphany, and she wants to fully embrace her spiritual side. Maybe Clarence is talking about Anita in his sleep and Ginny just can't take it anymore. Who knows?

Husbands , can you imagine this s*&t? Your significant other, out of the blue, decides to give some woman you were involved with 19 years ago a call?That is so not cool.

“I initially thought it was a prank,” Hill told ABC News. “And if it was, I thought the authorities should know about it.”

No Mrs. Hill, it was no prank. Girlfriend was deadly serious.

“I did place a call to Ms. Hill at her office extending an olive branch to her after all these years, in hopes that we could ultimately get past what happened so long ago. That offer still stands, I would be very happy to meet and talk with her if she would be willing to do the same. Certainly no offense was ever intended.”

Don't do it Anita. Don't meet with her. And, if you do go, you better not go alone. You can't trust those tea party folks.

Finally, from the you can't make this stuff up department. What do you think is pissing off wingnuts about Obama these days? If you guessed his handling of the economy or the war in Afghanistan, you would be wrong. What has them seeing red now is his O-ness leaving the words "our creator" out of a couple of his speeches ,while referring to the Declaration Of Independence. My god! How will the republic survive?

O man, you have got to start embracing your spiritual side. But, when you do, please don't send the secret service to harass any of Michelle's exes. That wouldn't be too cool.

Native American Farmers Settle with USDA for $760 million

By Spencer S. Hsu and Krissah Thompson

The Washington Post

October 19, 2010.

The Obama administration announced a $760 million settlement Tuesday to resolve charges by thousands of Native American farmers and ranchers who say that for decades the Agriculture Department discriminated against them in loan programs.

The farmers have fought for 11 years and through three administrations to resolve the case.

"The settlement announced today will allow USDA and the Native American farmers involved in the lawsuit to move forward and focus on the future," Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a statement.

The roughly 50-page agreement resolves a class-action lawsuit brought in 1999 by nearly 900 people, covering Department of Agriculture actions dating to 1981.

"This settlement marks a major turning point in the important relationship between Native Americans, our nation's first farmers, and the USDA," said lead plaintiffs' attorney Joseph M. Sellers, a partner at the Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll law firm in Washington.

Under the agreement, the department would pay $680 million in damages and forgive $80 million of outstanding farm loan debt.

Read the rest of this article here.

"Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me"...well, some of them.

Before I drop my next post, I want to give a shout out to two brothers who made my day yesterday. The first is my man Rasheen Bingham, who, to his credit, defused what could have been a deadly situation on a city bus here in Killadelphia. Please watch the video of grandma threatening to pop some young girl's top for talking too loud on her cell phone. Here in Killadelphia we have got to work on our anger management.

The other brother who brought a smile to my face was Jimmy McMillan of New York. Jimmy is running for governor of that fine state and if I lived there he would get my vote. You have got to love the "Rent Is Too Damn High Party". In this crazy political climate guys like Jimmy McMillan are actually making sense. Go figure. Maybe "O" should hire him to replace Rahm Emanuel.

Anyway, now to my post: Tonight I want to take on one of the the darlings of conservative intellectualism; the appropriately named Thomas Sowell.

Mr. Sowell recently wrote a post about multiculturalism and, as is usually the case, he doesn't get it.

In his article he praised the Chancellor of Germany for saying that multiculturalism has failed in her country, and he rips -what he calls- the "high IQ" folks for failing to see the obvious: that millions of foreign workers in Germany who failed to assimilate into that country's culture, has created problems for the government.

In truth; conservatives here in A-merry-ca are all fired up because of Merkel's recent comments. But my question to them would be this: Why? How do they equate German society to what currently exists in these divided states? Clearly they do not know the history of that country and what it represents. Here is what she said:

"We kidded ourselves for a while," ...said, but now it was clear that the attempt to build a society where people of very different languages and cultures could "live side-by-side" and "enjoy each other" has "failed, utterly failed."

OK, fine. But madam Chancellor, A-merry-ca was built on principles of multiculturalism. It is what A-merry-cans will tell you makes this country great. People of different races, religions, cultures, belief systems and backgrounds, being able to live and work "side-by-side" while they pursue happiness. Did my conservative brothers and sisters forget that beautiful little sonnet by Emma Lazarus? I hope not.

But let's see what that "brilliant" conservative thinker, Thomas Sowell, has to say:

"This is not a lesson for Germany alone. In countries around the world, and over the centuries, peoples with jarring differences in language, cultures and values have been a major problem and, too often, sources of major disasters for the societies in which they co-exist.

Even the tragedies and atrocities associated with racial differences in racist countries have been exceeded by the tragedies and atrocities among people with clashing cultures who are physically indistinguishable from one another, as in the Balkans or Rwanda.

Among the ways that people with different cultures have managed to minimize frictions have been (1) mutual cultural accommodations, even while not amalgamating completely, and (2) living separately in their own enclaves. Both of these approaches are anathema to the multicultural cultists.

Expecting any group to adapt their lifestyles to the cultural values of the larger society around them is "cultural imperialism" according to the multicultural cult. And living in separate neighborhoods is considered to be so terrible that there are government-financed programs to take people from high-crime slums and put them in subsidized housing in middle-class neighborhoods.

Multiculturalists condemn people's objections to transplanting hoodlums, criminals and dysfunctional families into the midst of people who may have sacrificed for years to be able to escape from living among hoodlums, criminals and dysfunctional families. "

That, quit frankly, was garbage. And it is exactly why the conservative movement in this country is so intellectually bankrupt. If they consider clowns like Sowell to be a brilliant, I wonder what the not so brilliant thinkers of their ilk has to offer?

But let's dissect it a little bit: So according to the anti- multiculturalist (like Sowell) the minority in a given society should adopt the lifestyle of the majority?- Hmmmm, sounds a lot like Communism to me.- Whatever happened to individual liberties and freedom? And who said that multiculturalist objected to transplanting "hoodlums, criminals, and "dysfunctional families" away from people who want to do the opposite? By this logic he is admitting that some of these people who choose not to assimilate into the larger culture by adopting it's lifestyles are good people. So what's the problem?

He blames multiculturalism for the atrocities that took place in places like Rwanda and the Balkans; forgetting , of course, that the people who were at war with each other were natives of those very same countries.

So what exactly is it about multiculturalism that scares the right and their gatekeepers like Sowell so much? It's simple. The fear of losing political power and influence. They know that people who might look and act differently than they do will not embrace their politics of division and fear, so they must be marginalized and kept at a minimum. They know that what is happening in Germany is in no way analogous to the situation in this country, but they need something, anything, to justify their absurd and farcical positions.

Nice try Mr. Sowell, but us folks in the "multiculturalist cult" are not moved. No one denies that immigrants have some duties to assimilate if they want to live in a country, but I am pretty sure that is not what you want. You don't want them here at all. You want Lady Liberty to be much more selective with her "huddled masses." Sorry, I like my "cult". I still want a little flavor in our A-merry-ca. I hate bland stuff.

Russel Means on Being American Indian

"It takes a strong effort on the part of each American Indian not to become Europeanized. The strength for this effort can only come from the traditional ways, the traditional values that our elders retain. It must come from the hoop, the four directions, the relations: it cannot come from the pages of a book or a thousand books. No European can ever teach a Lakota to be Lakota, a Hopi to be Hopi. A master’s degree in “Indian Studies” or in “education” or in anything else cannot make a person into a human being or provide knowledge into traditional ways. It can only make you into a mental European, an outsider."

Read Russel Means' 1980 speech from which the above extract is taken.

For more information on Means and his struggles see the Republic of Lakota website.

Onward!

Picture Credit Unknown

Why is the word party in their name? These guys aren't very much fun.

Oh my! It is getting ugly here in A-merry-ca folks. Over at the NAACP they are blaming the tea party folks for doing not so nice things:

"A mysterious package arrived at the NAACP’s headquarter in Washington D.C. this afternoon. The envelope, filled with a white powder, sat in a conference room as staffers worked to alert authorities. While the organization is still investigating the envelope’s contents, it cannot confirm if it is a threat. But NAACP President Ben Jealous says the organization has seen a number of death threats over the past few weeks as it has ramped up pressure on the conservative Tea Party movement.

“We have received dozens of death threats, more than 100, since we called for the Tea Party to expel racists from its ranks,” Jealous told Blackenterprise.com today. The 37-year-old says the NAAC,P along with a number of black congressmen and women, have been at the end of racially motivated intimidation over the past few weeks. He says the harassment stems from their protest against racism within the Tea Party. " [Article]

Say it ain't so, Ben. And here I thought the teabaggers were just a bunch of nice older white folks.

Speaking of the tea party; it seems that their candidate up in Alaska has his own ideas about the First Amendment:

"Security guards for Alaska senate candidate Joe Miller handcuffed and detained the editor of the online magazine "Alaska Dispatch" on Sunday while he tried to interview the Republican nominee, according to multiple reports.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that Tony Hopfinger, who founded and edits "Alaska Dispatch," was arrested by Miller's private guards at an Anchorage school. The senate hopeful was on hand as part of a town hall event.

The firm that handles Miller's security says that Hopfinger shoved a man, but Hopfinger claims that he only pushed back at a guard after the guard began pushing him.

According to an article at the website for "Alaska Dispatch," Hopfinger was warned that he would be charged with trespassing if he did not cease asking questions and leave the premises:" [Article]

Yes, watch those questions. Some of my tea party friends aren't very comfortable with things like questions. Answering them might actually involve using their brains.

Yep, those tea party folks are something else. I just hope that they stick around for awhile. Politics is so much more fun now.

Finally, on a far more serious note: I see that another young African American man lost his life due to the actions of the po po up in the Empire State. I wonder what he did which was so egregious that caused him to pay for it with his life? Wait....

"..Investigators said several dozen police officers responded to a large brawl that occurred outside Finnegan's Grill in Thornwood, N.Y. early Sunday morning, and Mount Pleasant Police Chief; Louis Alagno said at least 4 officers were directly involved in the incident with Henry.

A Mount Pleasant police officer, identified Monday as Ronald Gagnon, approached Henry's Nissan Altima which was parked in a fire lane. For reasons unknown, Henry junior drove away into the path of a second officer, Aaron Hess, who ended up on the hood of the vehicle as it accelerated, reports CBS station WCBS.
Alagno told the station that at some point Officer Hess drew his weapon and fired into the vehicle.

The chief said in addition to another officer who was struck by Henry's side view mirror, the fourth and last officer involved in the incident drew his weapon as Henry's vehicle came in his direction, and also fired.

Henry who hails from Easton, Mass. was shot and killed, and his front seat passenger, 20-year-old Brandon Cox of South Easton, Mass., was also shot, but survived. A third, rear seat passenger, 21-year-old Desmond Hinds of Stamford, Connecticut, also survived with unknown injuries." [Article]

OK, carry on A-merry-ca, there is nothing to see here. Law and order must be maintained at all cost.

We don't want to end up like the people in Germany. Thank goodness the tea party folks are coming.