Revolutionize Yo' Block

Occupy San Jose! Make the Banks Pay!

2011-10-03T13:21:00.001-07:00

Politicizing my seeds is the least I can do!

21st-Century Slaves: How Corporations Exploit Prison Labor | World | AlterNet

2011-07-22T16:01:00.000-07:00

21st-Century Slaves: How Corporations Exploit Prison Labor | World | AlterNet

By Rania Khalek, AlterNetPosted on July 21, 2011

There is one group of American workers so disenfranchised that corporations are able to get away with paying them wages that rival those of third-world sweatshops. These laborers have been legally stripped of their political, economic and social rights and ultimately relegated to second-class citizens. They are banned from unionizing, violently silenced from speaking out and forced to work for little to no wages. This marginalization renders them practically invisible, as they are kept hidden from society with no available recourse to improve their circumstances or change their plight.

They are the 2.3 million American prisoners locked behind bars where we cannot see or hear them. And they are modern-day slaves of the 21st century.

Incarceration Nation

It’s no secret that America imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation in history. With just 5 percent of the world’s population, the US currently holds 25 percent of the world's prisoners. In 2008, over 2.3 million Americans were in prison or jail, with one of every 48 working-age men behind bars. That doesn’t include the tens of thousands of detained undocumented immigrants facing deportation, prisoners awaiting sentencing, or juveniles caught up in the school-to-prison pipeline. Perhaps it’s reassuring to some that the US still holds the number one title in at least one arena, but needless to say the hyper-incarceration plaguing America has had a damaging effect on society at large.

According to a study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), US prison rates are not just excessive in comparison to the rest of the world, they are also substantially higher than our own longstanding history. The study finds that incarceration rates between 1880 and 1970 ranged from about 100 to 200 prisoners per 100,000 people. After 1980, the inmate population began to grow much more rapidly than the overall population and the rate climbed from about 220 in 1980 to 458 in 1990, 683 in 2000, and 753 in 2008.

The costs of this incarceration industry are far from evenly distributed, with the impact of excessive incarceration falling predominantly on African-American communities. Although black people make up just 13 percent of the overall population, they account for 40 percent of US prisoners. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), black males are incarcerated at a rate more than 6.5 times that of white males and 2.5 that of Hispanic males and black females are incarcerated at approximately three times the rate of white females and twice that of Hispanic females.

Michelle Alexander points out in her book The New Jim Crow that more black men are in jail, on probation, or on parole than were enslaved in 1850. Higher rates of black drug arrests do not reflect higher rates of black drug offenses. In fact, whites and blacks engage in drug offenses, possession and sales at roughly comparable rates.

Incentivizing Incarceration

Clearly, the US prison system is riddled with racism and classism, but it gets worse. As it turns out, private companies have a cheap, easy labor market, and it isn’t in China, Indonesia, Haiti, or Mexico. It’s right here in the land of the free, where large corporations increasingly employ prisoners as a source of cheap and sometimes free labor.

In the eyes of the corporation, inmate labor is a brilliant strategy in the eternal quest to maximize profit. By dipping into the prison labor pool, companies have their pick of workers who are not only cheap but easily controlled. Companies are free to avoid providing benefits like health insurance or sick days, while simultaneously paying little to no wages. They don’t need to worry about unions or demands for vacation time or raises. Inmate workers are full-time and never late or absent because of family problems.

If they refuse to work, they are moved to disciplinary housing and lose canteen privileges along with "good time" credit that reduces their sentences. To top it off, the federal government subsidizes the use of inmate labor by private companies through lucrative tax write-offs. Under the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), private-sector employers earn a tax credit of $2,400 for every work release inmate they employ as a reward for hiring “risky target groups” and they can earn back up to 40 percent of the wages they pay annually to "target group workers."

Study after study demonstrates the wastefulness of America's prison-industrial complex, in both taxpayer dollars and innocent lives, yet rolling back imprisonment rates is proving to be more challenging than ever. Meanwhile, the use of private prisons and now privately contracted inmate labor has created a system that does not exactly incentivize leaner sentencing.

The disturbing implications of such a system mean that skyrocketing imprisonment for the possession of miniscule amounts of marijuana and the the expansion of severe mandatory sentencing laws regardless of the conviction, are policies that have to potential to increase corporate profits. As are the“three strikes laws” that require courts to hand down mandatory and extended sentences to people who have been convicted of felonies on three or more separate occasions. People have literally been sentenced to life for minor crimes like shoplifting.

The Reinvention of Slavery

The exploitation of prison labor is by no means a new phenomenon. Jaron Browne, an organizer with People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER), maps out how the exploitation of prison labor in America is rooted in slavery. The abolition of slavery dealt a devastating economic blow to the South following the loss of free labor after the Civil War. So in the late 19th century, an extensive prison system was created in the South in order to maintain the racial and economic relationship of slavery, a mechanism responsible for re-enslaving black workers. Browne describes Louisiana’s famous Angola Prison to illustrate the intentional transformation from slave to inmate:

“In 1880, this 8000-acre family plantation was purchased by the state of Louisiana and converted into a prison. Slave quarters became cell units. Now expanded to 18,000 acres, the Angola plantation is tilled by prisoners working the land—a chilling picture of modern day chattel slavery.”

The abolition of slavery quickly gave rise to the Black Codes and Convict Leasing, which together worked wonders at perpetuating African American servitude by exploiting a loophole in the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, which reads:

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

The Black Codes were a set of laws that criminalized legal activity for African Americans and provided a pretext for the arrest and mass imprisonment of newly freed blacks, which caused the percentage of African Americans in prison to surpass whites for the first time. Convict leasing involved leasing out prisoners to private companies that paid the state a certain fee in return. Convicts worked for the companies during the day outside the prison and returned to their cells at night. The system provided revenue for the state and profits for plantation owners and wasn’t abolished until the 1930s.

Unfortunately, convict leasing was quickly replaced with equally despicable state-run chain gangs. Once again, stories of vicious abuse created enough public anger to abolish chain gangs by the 1950s. Nevertheless, the systems of prisoner exploitation never actually disappeared.

Today’s corporations can lease factories in prisons, as well as lease prisoners out to their factories. In many cases, private corporations are running prisons-for-profit, further incentivizing their stake in locking people up. The government is profiting as well, by running prison factories that operate as multibillion-dollar industries in every state, and throughout the federal prison system, where prisoners are contracted out to major corporations by the state.

In the most extreme cases, we are even witnessing the reemergence of the chain gang. In Arizona, the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America,” Joe Arpaio, requires his Maricopa County inmates to enroll in chain gangs to perform various community services or face lockdown with three other inmates in an 8-by-12-foot cell, for 23 hours a day. In June of this year, Arpaio started a female-only chain gang made up of women convicted of driving under the influence. In a press release he boasted that the inmates would be wearing pink T-shirts emblazoned with messages about drinking and driving.

The modern-day version of convict leasing was recently spotted in Georgia, where Governor Nathan Deal proposed sending unemployed probationers to work in Georgia's fields as a solution to a perceived labor shortage following the passage of the country’s most draconian anti-immigrant law. But his plan backfired when some of the probationers began walking off their jobs because the fieldwork was too strenuous.

There has also been a disturbing reemergence of the debtors’ prison, which should serve as an ominous sign of our dangerous reliance on prisons to manage any and all of society’s problems. According to the Wall Street Journal more than a third of all U.S. states allow borrowers who can't or won't pay to be jailed. They found that judges signed off on more than 5,000 such warrants since the start of 2010 in nine counties. It appears that any act that can be criminalized in the era of private prisons and inmate labor will certainly end in jail time, further increasing the ranks of the captive workforce.

Who Profits?

Prior to the 1970s, private corporations were prohibited from using prison labor as a result of the chain gang and convict leasing scandals. But in 1979, Congress began a process of deregulation to restore private sector involvement in prison industries to its former status, provided certain conditions of the labor market were met. Over the last 30 years, at least 37 states have enacted laws permitting the use of convict labor by private enterprise, with an average pay of $0.93 to $4.73 per day.

Federal prisoners receive more generous wages that range from $0.23 to $1.25 per hour, and are employed by Unicor, a wholly owned government corporation established by Congress in 1934. Its principal customer is the Department of Defense, from which Unicor derives approximately 53 percent of its sales. Some 21,836 inmates work in Unicor programs. Subsequently, the nation's prison industry – prison labor programs producing goods or services sold to other government agencies or to the private sector -- now employs more people than any Fortune 500 company (besides General Motors), and generates about $2.4 billion in revenue annually. Noah Zatz of UCLA law school estimates that:

“Well over 600,000, and probably close to a million, inmates are working full-time in jails and prisons throughout the United States. Perhaps some of them built your desk chair: office furniture, especially in state universities and the federal government, is a major prison labor product. Inmates also take hotel reservations at corporate call centers, make body armor for the U.S. military, and manufacture prison chic fashion accessories, in addition to the iconic task of stamping license plates.”

Some of the largest and most powerful corporations have a stake in the expansion of the prison labor market, including but not limited to IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom's, Revlon, Macy's, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. Between 1980 and 1994 alone, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Since the prison labor force has likely grown since then, it is safe to assume that the profits accrued from the use of prison labor have reached even higher levels.

In an article for Mother Jones, Caroline Winter details a number of mega-corporations that have profited off of inmates:

“In the 1990s, subcontractor Third Generation hired 35 female South Carolina inmates to sew lingerie and leisure wear for Victoria's Secret and JCPenney. In 1997, a California prison put two men in solitary for telling journalists they were ordered to replace 'Made in Honduras' labels on garments with 'Made in the USA.'"

According to Winter, the defense industry is a large part of the equation as well:

“Unicor, says that in addition to soldiers' uniforms, bedding, shoes, helmets, and flak vests, inmates have 'produced missile cables (including those used on the Patriot missiles during the Gulf War)' and 'wiring harnesses for jets and tanks.' In 1997, according to Prison Legal News, Boeing subcontractorMicroJet had prisoners cutting airplane components, paying $7 an hour for work that paid union wages of $30 on the outside.”

Oil companies have been known to exploit prison labor as well. Following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers and irreparably damaged the Gulf of Mexico for generations to come, BP elected to hire Louisiana prison inmates to clean up its mess. Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate of any state in the nation, 70 percent of which are African-American men. Coastal residents desperate for work, whose livelihoods had been destroyed by BP’s negligence, were outraged at BP’s use of free prison labor.

In the Nation article that exposed BP’s hiring of inmates, Abe Louise Young details how BP tried to cover up its use of prisoners by changing the inmates' clothing to give the illusion of civilian workers. But nine out of 10 residents of Grand Isle, Louisiana are white, while the cleanup workers were almost exclusively black, so BP’s ruse fooled very few people.

Private companies have long understood that prison labor can be as profitable as sweatshop workers in third-world countries with the added benefit of staying closer to home. Take Escod Industries, which in the 1990s abandoned plans to open operations in Mexico and instead moved to South Carolina, because the wages of American prisoners undercut those of de-unionized Mexican sweatshop workers. The move was fueled by the state, which gave a $250,000 "equipment subsidy" to Escod along with industrial space at below-market rent. Other examples include Ohio's Honda supplier, which pays its prison workers $2 an hour for the same work for which the UAW has fought for decades to be paid $20 to $30 an hour; Konica, which has hired prisoners to repair its copiers for less than 50 cents an hour; and Oregon, where private companies can “lease” prisoners at a bargain price of $3 a day.

Even politicians have been known to tap into prison labor for their own personal use. In 1994, a contractor for GOP congressional candidate Jack Metcalf hired Washington state prisoners to call and remind voters he was pro-death penalty. He won his campaign claiming he had no knowledge of the scandal. Perhaps this is why Senator John Ensign (R-NV) introduced a bill earlier this year to require all low-security prisoners to work 50 hours a week. After all, creating a national prison labor force has been a goal of his since he went to Congress in 1995.

In an unsettling turn of events lawmakers have begun ditching public employees in favor of free prison labor. The New York Times recently reported that states are enlisting prison labor to close budget gaps to offset cuts in federal financing and dwindling tax revenue. At a time of record unemployment, inmates are being hired to paint vehicles, clean courthouses, sweep campsites and perform many other services done before the recession by private contractors or government employees. In Wisconsin, prisoners are now taking up jobs that were once held by unionized workers, as a result of Governor Scott Walker’s contentious anti-union law.

Why You Should Care

Those who argue in favor of prison labor claim it is a useful tool for rehabilitation and preparation for post-jail employment. But this has only been shown to be true in cases where prisoners are exposed to meaningful employment, where they learn new skills, not the labor-intensive, menial and often dangerous work they are being tasked with. While little if any evidence exists to suggests that the current prison labor system decreases recidivism or leads to better employment prospects outside of prison, there are a number of solutions that have been proven to be useful.

According to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts, having a history of incarceration itself impedes subsequent economic success. Pew found that past incarceration reduced subsequent wages by 11 percent, cut annual employment by nine weeks and reduced yearly earnings by 40 percent. The study suggests that the best approach is for state and federal authorities to invest in programs that reconnect inmates to the labor market, as well as provide training and job placement services around the time of release. Most importantly, Pew says that in the long term, America must move toward alternative sentencing programs for low-level and nonviolent offenders, and issuing penalties that are actually proportionate with real public safety concerns.

The exploitation of any workforce is detrimental to all workers. Cheap and free labor pushes down wages for everyone. Just as American workers cannot compete with sweatshop labor, the same goes for prison labor. Many jobs that come into prison are taken from free citizens. The American labor movement must demand that prison labor be allowed the right to unionize, the right to a fair and living wage, and the right to a safe and healthy work environment. That is what prisoners are demanding, but they can only do so much from inside a prison cell.

As unemployment on the outside increases, so too will crime and incarceration rates, and our 21st-century version of corporate slavery will continue to expand unless we do something about it.

Rania Khalek is a progressive activist. Check out her blog Missing Pieces or follow her on Twitter @Rania_ak. You can contact her at raniakhalek@gmail.com.

U.S. Pumping AK-47's and Military Rifles Into The Hands Of Mexican Drug Cartels.

2011-07-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

Why Is U.S. Pumping AK-47's and Military Rifles Into The Hands Of Mexican Drug Cartels? | World | AlterNet

By Andrew Kennis, AlterNetPosted on July 5, 2011

The atmosphere was tense and emotions were running high at the Phoenix field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) late last year. “Are you prepared to go to the funeral of a federal officer killed with one of [our] guns?” an ATF agent shouted at one of his superiors.

Another agent described the scene in the room as “ugly,” with a lot of “screaming and yelling.” A third agent gave what would be a prophetic warning: “This is crazy, somebody is gonna get killed.”

Somebody, as it turned out, did get killed by December 2010. When that somebody was a border patrol agent, anonymous testimonies offered to CBS this past February soon gave way to more detailed whistle-blower revelations and a flurry of controversy.

The agents were dissenting against the continuance of the previously classified “gun-walking” program named “Fast and Furious,” which deliberately permits gun sales to suspected “straw purchasers” (arms buyer conduits to drug cartels) for the sole purpose of tracking the weapons in the hope of prosecuting prominent drug cartel members when they use those guns to commit crimes or when the guns are seized by authorities. The program was first started in October 2009 and accelerated in September 2010.

In effect, a U.S. federal law enforcement organization charged with regulating guns was purposefully allowing the sales of high-powered weaponry, which included AK-47's and military-grade .50 caliber rifles, to flow directly into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

In spite of the internal dissent and the ensuing controversy, damning documentation and hours of Congressional testimony and ongoing investigations -- as well as seething anger on the part of the Mexican public -- there is no end in sight to the ill-fated program.

Revelations Sparked in Wake of Death, Strong Mexican Reactions Ensue

It was a typically chilly December night in Peck Canyon just north of Nogales, Arizona. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, along with three of his fellow agents, were in hot pursuit of suspects attempting to rob undocumented immigrants.

At about 11pm on December 14, a frenetic firefight ensued and Terry was shot and killed. Four suspects were initially apprehended while a fifth remained at large.

What made Brian Terry’s death unique was the fact that the guns captured at the scene of the firefight were traced back to the Fast and Furious program. The Phoenix ATF agent’s prediction had come true.

“You feel like shit. You feel for the parents,” a Phoenix agent lamented.

The program continues to this day, however, and many others have died, mostly Mexican civilians caught in the line of fire.

Estimates vary, but many experts put the death toll since the start of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s “drug war,” as high as 40,000, dating back to when Calderon took office in a disputed election in 2006.

Unsurprisingly, when news of the program arrived in Mexico in March, a firestorm of criticism ensued. Media coverage boiled even further in the wake of Congressional hearings into the program held on June 15.

Much of the criticism coming from Mexico, however, has been left out of stateside news coverage. Nevertheless, officials from across the political spectrum voiced outrage, as did the Catholic Church.

Isabel Miranda de Wallace, a drug-war activist, suffered through her son’s kidnapping in 2005. “The Americans seemed really upset when one of their agents died here,” she told the Center for Public Integrity. “But it appears that all of the Mexican lives lost in this don't add up to the same value for them. Instead of restricting violence, [operations such as these] generate even more of it.”

Wallace’s critique was echoed by the Mexican Archdiocese’s office, which lambasted U.S. officials for crafting a situation whereby, “one of the most fervently anti-immigrant states [Arizona] is also the prime site for permitting the illegal passage of arms to go right into the hands of Mexican criminals.”

One of Mexico’s most important political figures, former Presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, characterized the Fast and Furious program as, “one of the many intrusions by U.S. policy into Mexican sovereignty.” Cárdenas added he doubted that these previously secret policies reflected the will of the American people, tagging them as “convoluted” and “poorly thought out.”

The center-left People’s Democratic Revolutionary Party’s (PRD) candidate for governor in the State of Mexico, Alejandro Encinas, echoed those sentiments, describing the program as a “flagrant violation of sovereignty.” Encinas went further, accusing the Calderon administration of “tacitly supporting these types of violations.”

Calderon administration officials, such as Jorge Alberto Lara, Mexico’s Deputy Attorney General, claimed ignorance. “We could never have known, and we would have never approved an operation that entailed any sorts of arms trade, or a controlled traffic of weapons from the US into Mexico,” Alberto Lara said in a statement to the press.

Mexican Experts Decry Lack of Official Action on Both Sides of the Border

Rhetoric from Mexico was fiery when revelations of the Fast and Furious program first came out, but when it's come to substantive action on the issue, analysts say the Calderon administration has been largely quiet.

“There hasn’t been a lot of interest on the part of the Calderon administration. He hasn’t really wanted to touch this topic and has maintained a distance from it,” said Carlos Zamudio, who is a researcher at the Collective for an Integrated Approach to Drugs (CUPIHD), a Mexico City-based think-tank.

Back in March, legislators called for hearings seeking testimony from high-ranking officials. Congressman Porfirio Muñoz Ledo of the Worker’s Party told AlterNet, “The Congress issued a condemnation of the program, but the Calderon administration only went the ‘diplomatic’ route.”

Muñoz lamented this strategy, adding that the root of the problem goes even further than the Fast and Furious program and calling for the decriminalization of drug use, which he said would neutralize illicit programs like Fast and Furious.

“The killer isn’t the marijuana that the people smoke, it’s the arms that kill,” Muñoz told AlterNet.

An international investigatory commission convened by former presidents, including Cardoso of Brazil, Gaviria of Colombia and Zedillo of Mexico, as well as former U.N. head Kofi Annan, agreed with Muñoz.

Earlier in the month, the Commission purposefully coincided the announcement of its findings to shortly precede the 40th anniversary of President Nixon’s launch of his “war on drugs.” In its findings, the commission called for the decriminalization of drugs, dubbed the “war” on drugs a failure and called for a variety of treatment options for addicts as part of a comprehensive policy change on the issue.

Brutal Murders Inspire Social Movement

Seven young adults – Julio César Romero Jaimes, Luis Antonio Romero Jaimes, Álvaro Jaimes Avelar, Jaime Gabriel Alejo Cadena, María del Socorro Estrada Hernández, Jesús Chávez Vázquez and Juan Francisco Sicilia Orteda – went for a ride in Cuernavaca, the city of eternal spring located some 60 miles west of Mexico City, on March 28. None of them ever returned home, and their dead bodies would later be found by federal authorities.

Were it not for the fact that one of the dead, Juan Sicilia, was a son of a prominent poet and author, Javier Sicilia, the odds are that no investigation or arrests would have ever occurred (only 5 percent of drug-war related murders are ever investigated by Mexican authorities). By May 25, however, Julio de Jesús Radilla, a drug cartel member of the South Pacific Cartel, was arrested for having ordered the murder.

An enormous and sprawling social movement has been spawned by the murders of Juan Sicilia and his friends. Juan's father, Javier Sicilia, has become the moral leader and spokesperson for the movement, and has routinely led marches in the tens of thousands, including a nation-wide, cross-border caravan that recently ended with gripping testimonies and accounts of families of victims of the drug war in El Paso, Texas.

The movement Sicilia is leading has been adamantly opposed to Calderon’s tactics of state-led violence and military-like confrontations with the drug cartels. Sicilia told AlterNet these tactics were nothing short of “stupid.” The demands of the social movement have included the decriminalization of drugs, the retreat of military forces from the streets, and at one point, the removal of Felipe Calderon as president.

“This strategy is mistaken,” Sicilia elaborated. “Treating the problem of drugs as a national security issue, when it is clearly one of public health policy, is a grave mistake.”

“There is a responsibility very strong on the part of the United States for the violence that is incurring in the drug war,” Sicilia explained, adding that the roots of the drug war find themselves, “inter-woven with the flawed policies inspired by the U.S. and the drug war Calderon is fighting on their behalf, with the overwhelming majority of the costs of the war flowing to the pueblo (people in the community) of Mexico.”

Agent Says 'There’s No Excuse' For the Program

Back in the States, the Fast and Furious program continues to have its share of critics. John Gibler, a specialist on the drug war, dubs the program, “another example of how the U.S. government's ideological commitment to failure on drug policy leads again and again to incompetence and horror.”

Laura Carlsen, an analyst on U.S.-Mexico relations who heads up the Americas Program in the Center for International Policy and has long resided in Mexico, agrees with Gibler. Carlsen said, “They came out with absolutely nothing in terms of results on this.” She boiled the issue down to the following:

The whole problem was that it wasn't even illegal to go in and get assault rifles, in grand part thanks to NRA successfully lobbying against gun-control laws, so they couldn’t get to them that way. The thing is, they lost track of many of the guns they let across the border and thus couldn’t “prove” any crimes or eventual wrongdoings.

The ATF has gone on record admitting some 1,998 high-powered firearms have been allowed to be sold to straw purchasers dating back to even before the program had its official start in October 2009. Of those "tracked" guns, only 602, or about 30 percent, were recovered in the US and only 195, or just under 10 percent, were recovered in Mexico.

Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Congressman Daniel Issa, R-California, have led the charge against the program. The latter held a Congressional hearing that lasted a full afternoon and featured gripping testimony from members of Brian Terry's family, as well as ATF whistle-blowing agents. Thirty-one Congressional Democrats wrote the president on June 3, asking for greater transparency.

ATF officials, for their part, have offered the convincing case that their hands have long been tied by the NRA in terms of their ability to prosecute straw purchasers. The Justice Department released a report late last year that was highly critical of the ATF’s ability to get to the Mexican drug cartels, particularly honing in on the failed past focus on straw buyers and their inability to prosecute them.

By September 2010, this pressure only resulted in the ATF further strengthening the Fast and Furious program. Mark Chait, the ATF’s assistant director in charge of field operations, told the Center for Public Integrity that he personally attended to the expansion of the program.

It wasn’t long after this that the dissenters in Phoenix began to raise their voices, as well as Darrin Gil, the former ATF attaché for the US embassy in Mexico, who resigned in protest over the continuance of Fast and Furious.

Gil, Dodson and others revealed to the media that their superiors were fully aware and supportive of the program, in spite of the fatal consequences they warned would surely happen. Gil said that Senior Justice official Lanny Breuer considered the program to be “getting good results,” while Melson, ATF's acting director, told Gil that “it's a good case, it's still going on … and we'll close it down as soon as we possibly can.” In Dodson's case, his superior told him, “If you’re going to make an omelet, you’re going to scramble some eggs.”

Both Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder denied having knowledge of the program. Obama told Univision, “this is a pretty big government … I got a lot of moving parts.” Meanwhile, in Congress, Holder told Senator Grassley, “I frankly don't know” what happened.

In spite of these high-level denials, damning information continued to flow in on U.S. responsibility for fatal flaws in the drug war, while Mexican reactions continued to be more strident.

Headlines were recently generated in Mexico in the wake of a report released by Senator Diane Feinstein and two other senators citing Government Accountability Office findings that, depending on the time period, anywhere from 70 percent to 87 percent of the arms seized by Mexican authorities could be traced back to gun sales back in the States. Many of these arms were seized from drug cartel members.

President Calderon also cited the report and criticized U.S. policies, imploring the U.S. to strengthen its weak gun control laws.

Findings like these, some officials reasoned, pointed to an inability of the ATF to “control” illegal gun trafficking by ordinary means. Dodson and his fellow agents, however, are not swayed by such arguments.

Agent Forcelli responded by telling AlterNet, “There’s no excuse for this program, there’s simply and absolutely no excuse.”

What is clear is that expert analysts in Mexico, dissident public officials and the vast swaths of the Mexican population that are forming a growing social movement roundly agree with Forcelli that “there is no excuse.” Instead, many Mexicans are not only hoping to see a quick end to a program that provides the guns to the cartel members who are killing many of their people, but also an end to the ineffective “war on drugs.”

Andrew Kennis is an investigative journalist, an adjunct professor and an academic researcher. More of his work can be found here.

© 2011 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/151517/

Woman Gang-Raped by 7 Halliburton Employees "Signed Away" Her Right to Sue? How Justice Has Become the Privilege of Corporations | Gender | AlterNet

2011-06-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

Woman Gang-Raped by 7 Halliburton Employees "Signed Away" Her Right to Sue? How Justice Has Become the Privilege of Corporations | Gender | AlterNet

By Laura Flanders, The Guardian
Posted on June 29, 2011

Worried about the influence of money in American politics, the huge cash payouts that the US supreme court waved through by its Citizens United decision – the decision that lifted most limits on election campaign spending? Corporations are having their way with American elections just as they've already had their way with our media.

But at least we have the courts, right?

Wrong. The third branch of government's in trouble, too. In fact, access to justice – like access to elected office, let alone a pundit's perch – is becoming a perk just for the rich and powerful.

Take the young woman now testifying in court in Texas. Jamie Leigh Jones claims she was drugged and gang-raped while working for military contractor KBR in Iraq (at the time, a division of Halliburton). Jones, now 26, was on her fourth day in post in Baghdad in 2005 when she says she was assaulted by seven contractors and held captive, under armed guard by two KBR police, in a shipping container.

When the criminal courts failed to act, her lawyers filed a civil suit, only to be met with Halliburton's response that all her claims were to be decided in arbitration – because she'd signed away her rights to bring the company to court when she signed her employment contract. As Leigh testified before Congress, in October 2009, "I had signed away my right to a jury trial at the age of 20 and without the advice of counsel." It was a matter of sign or resign. "I had no idea that the clause was part of the contract, what the clause actually meant," testified Jones.

You've probably done the very same thing without even knowing it. When it comes to consumer claims, mandatory arbitration is the new normal. According to research by Public Citizen and others, corporations are inserting "forced arbitration" clauses into the fine print of contracts for work, for cell phone service, for credit cards, even nursing home contracts, requiring clients to give up their right to sue if they are harmed. Arbitration is a no-judge, no-jury, no-appeal world, where arbitrators are (often by contract) selected by the company and all decisions are private – and final.

Deadly small print is not only for subprime mortgage-seekers – and neither are the costly repercussions. When corporations evade the bills for harm, no matter how huge (for medical malpractice, say, or pension fund collapse), the liability is passed on to individuals, and then to taxpayers. A new documentary, Hot Coffee, premiering 27 June, on HBO, lays out the whole picture – and it's devastating.

First-time filmmaker Susan Saladoff starts where for many Americans, the term "tort reform" first appeared. Stella Liebeck, an 81-year-old woman, sued McDonald's over coffee that was "too hot" – and became the "welfare queen" of tort reform. Pilloried in corporate-funded PR and in the media after a jury imposed an initial $2.7m in punitive damages, lobbyists used Liebeck's case to deride "frivolous" lawsuits and bludgeon congressional and state legislators into passing laws that set maximum "caps" on damages. (Politicians all the way up to President George W Bush needed no bludgeoning: "frivolous suits" became a campaign trail hit.)

But look at the pictures Saladoff shows in Hot Coffee and you'll see Liebeck's legs seared by savage, third-degree burns, which covered over 16% of her body. As any reporter could have discovered at the time, McDonalds' protocols kept its coffee at 82-87ºC (180-190ºF). Over 700 people had been burned by it. Ten years of suits and claims had forced no change. Liebeck's suit was anything but "frivolous".

Likewise, Jones's suit. Or the big-business funded effort to unseat justices opposed to "tort reform" – also profiled in Hot Coffee. It's taken Jones nearly six years and a hearing in the US Senate to force her employer, Halliburton into open court, at last, in Houston this week. Jones tells Saladoff she's driven by concern for other young women in her position – in no position, that is, thanks to mandatory arbitration, to know the truth about past claims and what they may be getting into when they sign an employment contract.

Saladoff, a plaintiff's attorney for 25 years, is driven, too – by a belief in the seventh amendment right to a jury trial. "Tort" is a complicated word for a simple thing – "harm," she explains. The courts are supposed to be the branch of government where citizens and corporations have an equal shot. The US supreme court in Dukes v Walmart recently rejected 1.6 million workers' attempt to bring a class action case – making it a whole lot harder for Americans to band together to hold corporations accountable. Go it alone and the deck is stacked, thanks to decades of effort by corporations and the politicians they pay for.

They don't pay fair wages; they don't pay their fare share of taxes. They evade liability. What gives? Says Saladoff: "When corporations harm, there should be some way to hold them accountable."

Laura Flanders is the host of GRITtv, Mon-Thursday on Free Speech TV (Dish Network chn. 9315) and streaming at GRITtv.org.

© 2011 The Guardian All rights reserved.

Fighting the Culture Wars With Hate, Violence and Even Bullets: Meet the Most Extreme of the Radical Christians | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet

2011-06-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

Fighting the Culture Wars With Hate, Violence and Even Bullets: Meet the Most Extreme of the Radical Christians | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet

By Alex Henderson, AlterNet
Posted on June 27, 2011

If there is one name some residents of Amarillo, Texas wish they could forget, it’s Repent Amarillo. Based in that North Texas city, Repent Amarillo is a militant Christian fundamentalist group whose antics have ranged from staging a mock execution of Santa Claus by firing squad to posting a “spiritual warfare” map on its Web site that cited a Buddhist temple, an Islamic center, gay bars, strip clubs and sex shops as places of demonic activity.

Repent Amarillo is also infamous for mercilessly harassing a local swingers club called Route 66. Throughout 2009, members of Repent Amarillo made a point of showing up at Route 66’s events, where they would typically wear military fatigues, shout at Route 66 members through bullhorns and write down the license plate numbers of people attending the events. After finding out who the swingers were, Repent Amarillo’s members would find out where they worked and try to get them fired from their jobs (according to Route 66 coordinator Mac Mead, at least two members of the club lost their jobs because of Repent Amarillo).

None of that has kept Repent Amarillo founder David H. Grisham from dabbling in local politics; earlier this year, he ran for mayor of Amarillo and lost to former city commissioner Paul Harpole.

But Repent Amarillo is hardly alone when it comes to promoting a decidedly radical and militant brand of Christianity. From the Army of God to the Hutaree Militia to Gary North and his Christian reconstructionists, radical Christianity is alive and well in the United States—and Christianists aren’t shy about turning up the heat when it comes to fighting the "culture war." Some radical Christianists have employed bully tactics and hate-mongering rhetoric without resorting to actual violence (Repent Amarillo, the Rev. Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church), while others have committed acts of terrorism and said the culture war will have to be won with bombs and bullets.

When religion is discussed, it is important to make a distinction between radical and non-radical practitioners. Radical Christianity is not representative of Christianity any more than al-Qaeda is representative of Islam. The average Lutheran or Episcopalian minister is no more a threat to public safety than the average member of Islam’s Sufi sect, who are arguably the Hare Krishnas of Islam. Not all Christians are Christianists; not all Muslims are Islamists. But an abundance of disturbing events bear out the fact that radical Christianity, like radical Islam, is quite capable of violence—and contrary to what Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter would have us believe, the examples are numerous.

Active since the early 1980s, the Army of God is a loose network of radical anti-abortionists with a long history of promoting terrorism and premeditated murder in the name of Christianity. The Army of God has published an anti-abortion training manual that offers instructions on bomb-making, arson and other ways to attack clinics.

The group’s Web site praises a long list of Christian terrorists who have been convicted of violent crimes, including Paul Jennings Hill (who was executed by lethal injection in 2003 for the murders of abortion provider John Britton and his bodyguard James Barrett), Scott Roeder (who was convicted of first-degree murder for the 2009 shooting of George Tiller, a Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions), Michael Frederick Griffin (who was sentenced to life in prison for the 1993 murder of Dr. David Gunn, an ob/gyn based in Pensacola, Florida), James Charles Kopp (who shot and killed Barnett Slepian, a physician who performed abortions, in 1998), Matthew Lee Derosia (who, in 2009, rammed his SUV into the front entrance of a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul and told police that Jesus ordered him to carry out that attack) and John C. Salvi (who attacked a Planned Parenthood clinic in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1994, shooting and killing receptionists Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols and wounding several others).

The Web site describes Tiller’s murder as “justifiable homicide” and describes Lowney and Nichols not as victims of domestic terrorism, but as women who got exactly what they deserved; Salvi, who died in prison in 1996 and may have committed suicide, is hailed as a hero for killing them. The Army of God exalts Hill, Rudolph, Roeder, Griffin, Derosia and Salvi as martyrs for Christianity in much the same way al-Qaeda consider Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers martyrs for Islam.

The Army of God has also been a vocal supporter of Eric Rudolph, who is serving life without parole for a long list of terrorist attacks committed in the name of Christianity. Rudolph’s crimes include bombing an abortion clinic in Sandy Springs, a suburb of Atlanta, in 1997; bombing the Otherwise Lounge (a lesbian bar in Atlanta) in 1997; and bombing an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama in 1998. The Birmingham bombing caused the death of Robert Sanderson, a Birmingham police officer and part-time security guard, and resulted in serious injuries for nurse Emily Lyons, who lost an eye. Rudolph is best known, however, for carrying out the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta during the 1996 Summer Olympics; that blast killed spectator Alice Hawthorne and wounded 111 others.

Another Christian terrorist who has been associated with the Army of God is Shelley Shannon, who shot Tiller in 1993 but didn’t kill him; in addition to being convicted of attempted murder for her attack on Tiller, Shannon was involved in a series of arson attacks on abortion clinics in different states. One person who considered Shannon a good friend was fellow Army of God terrorist Scott Roeder, who visited her frequently in prison and finished what she started when he murdered Tiller in 2009. The Army of God Web site calls Shannon “a warrior soldier in the Army of God.”

In 2010, a North Carolina-based Christianist named Justin Carl Moose was arrested by the FBI for plotting to help blow up an abortion clinic; Moose, the FBI said, considers himself an Army of God member and an organizer of a terrorist cell for that group. According to the FBI, Moose described himself as a Christian equivalent of Osama bin Laden on his Facebook page but openly advocated violence against Muslims; he also praised Timothy McVeigh (mastermind of the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing of 1995, which killed 168 people and injured 450 others).

The FBI said that Moose wrote on his Facebook page: “If a mosque is built on Ground Zero, it will be removed Oklahoma City style. Tim’s not the only man out there that knows how to do it....I have learned a lot from the Muslim terrorists and have no problem using their tactics.” Moose, according to the FBI, met with an FBI informant and offered advice on how to make TATP, the explosive used in the London subway bombings of 2005. Earlier this year, Moose was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

The Army of God’s Web site has, in the past, been managed by the Rev. Donald Spitz, who is so extreme that even the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue disowned him for promoting violence. The Virginia-based Spitz has publicly argued that killing abortion doctors is justifiable homicide, and Spitz has published the writings of Paul Jennings Hill, Eric Rudolph, Shelley Shannon and other Christian terrorists on the Army of God’s Web site. Spitz, who considered himself Hill’s “spiritual adviser” during the final months of Hill’s life, heads his own Christianist group, Pro-Life Virginia, and has said that Muslims “should not be allowed to live in the United States.”

In the U.S., the far-right militia movement has often been secular in nature; Timothy McVeigh, for example, was raised Catholic but described himself as an agnostic. But occasionally, the militia movement and radical Christianity have overlapped. A perfect example is the Hutaree Militia, a Michigan-based group with extreme Christianist views. In 2010, nine members of Hutaree were arrested for an alleged plot to assassinate police officers using firearms and explosives; allegedly, Hutaree saw that plot as part of a battle with forces of the "Antichrist."

Christian reconstructionism is one of the most disturbing schools of radical Christianist ideology. Founded by the late Calvinist theologian Rousas John Rushdoony (who died in 2001), the Christian reconstructionist movement believes in abolishing any separation of church and state and establishing a government that adheres to a rigid approach to Mosaic Old Testament law; adultery, homosexuality and blasphemy would be punishable by death under a Christian reconstructionist government.

Even on the Christian Right, Rushdoony (who was a defender of slavery and considered democracy incompatible with Christianity) is controversial. The type of government Christian reconstructionists long for would, in many respects, mirror the Taliban of radical Islam. Rushdoony’s teachings have a following that includes his son, the Rev. Mark Rushdoony (who now heads the Chalcedon Foundation, the organization his father founded) and Gary North (who was R.J. Rushdoony’s son-in-law and now heads his own Christian reconstructionist organization, the Institute for Christian Economics). According to David Holthouse (formerly of the Southern Poverty Law Center and now with Media Matters), Mark Rushdoony “now leads a small army of true believers whose fundamentalism is so hardcore they make garden-variety right-wing evangelicals seem like Unitarians at a Peter, Paul and Mary sing-along.”

North has written that under a Christian reconstructionist government, stoning should be the method of execution for gay men, adulterers and women who have had abortions. North has said that stoning (which is still practiced by radical Islamists in Saudi Arabia, the Sudan and other countries) is preferable to other methods of execution because it is more economical; he has also said that a stoning can be a community event for Christian families.

Of course, not everyone on the Christian Right is guilty of committing or promoting violence. But even without actual violence, Christianists often resort to bully tactics and violent rhetoric. After the January 8, 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona that killed six people and left Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords seriously wounded, Fred Phelps praised the shooter and said that he was doing God’s work. Phelps, who ran for political office several times as a Democrat in the 1990s, said, “Congresswoman Giffords, an avid supporter of sin and baby killing, was shot for that mischief…Westboro Baptist Church prays for more shooters...and more dead.”

Journalist Chris Hedges has often said that actual violence is preceded by the "language of violence,” and the language of violence is quite common among Christianists. In 2007, when Hindu minister Rajan Zed was asked to deliver an opening prayer for the Senate, Christianist groups like the American Family Association, Operation Rescue/Operation Save America and Faith2Action angrily protested and made it clear that they had no use for Hinduism. And Repent Amarillo isn't shy about trying to bully its victims into accepting the group's extremist view of Christianity. Certainly, the language and rhetoric of violence is a part of “Left Behind: Eternal Forces,” a video game that deals with holy war in the name of Christianity and is part of the Rev. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ apocalypse-obsessed Left Behind series. Author Frank Schaeffer, who used to be part of the Christian Right but has since renounced it, has said that the Left Behind novels and games “represents everything that is most deranged about religion.”

But despite all the extremist views, hate-mongering and terrorist violence associated with Christianists, radical Christianity typically gets a pass from Republican politicians and the Republican talk radio hosts who support them. When, in 2009, Janet Napolitano warned of the threat of violence coming from the far right (including anti-abortion extremists), she was called anti-Christian by many people on the Christian Right. But when Rep. Peter King of New York called for Congressional hearings on radical Islamic activity in the U.S., he was applauded by neocons and many of his fellow Republicans.

Far-right talk show hosts have spent a considerable amount of time talking about radical Islam, but they seldom, if ever, have anything to say about radical Christianity. They have no problem with a group like Repent Amarillo, which hasn't actually resorted to physical violence even though it has employed an abundance of violent, militaristic imagery. It’s safe to say that if an Islamist group held a mock execution of Santa Claus and harassed people at work, it wouldn’t be taken lightly in GOP circles. And if an Islamist group released a video game as twisted as “Left Behind: Eternal Forces,” it wouldn’t get a pass from Republican talk radio.

One person who has been outspoken about the Republican/far-right double standard when it comes to radical Christianity vs. radical Islam is Rob Boston, senior policy analyst for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and author of three books on the Christian Right. “From where I’m sitting, the main organizations that are trying to impose religion on other people in this country are fundamentalist Christian in nature,” Boston said:

“I can’t remember the last time, for example, that a Muslim group tried to get Islamic doctrine posted in a courthouse or attempted to ban same-sex marriage by pointing to passages in the Koran, or tried to force Islamic prayers in the public schools. But fundamentalist Christian groups do these things all the time. So if anybody is trying to impose religion on Americans, it’s not Muslims; it’s extreme fundamentalist Christian groups.”

Boston added that just as it is wrong for atheists to make broad generalizations about people of faith, it is equally wrong to automatically associate terrorism and extremism with Islam:

“Christian groups will complain if they are painted with too broad a brush—and rightly so. Christianity in America is diverse. There are Christian groups that are theologically very moderate, and there are Christian groups that are very, very conservative. Not everyone who is a Christian in America is a fundamentalist or an evangelical. We always have to remember that there is a lot of diversity out there. Yet, the same conservative Christian groups that complain about being caricatured will do the same thing to Islam; they portray the one billion Muslims in the world as if they are exactly the same. But anybody who has spent any time talking to Muslims quickly learns that there is just as much diversity in that community as there is in the Christian community about how holy books are to be interpreted and how society is to be ordered.”

Boston continued:

“I just find the whole thing ironic because if you look at the agenda of the Islamic extremists, their agenda is anti-women’s rights and anti-gay rights, and it’s about religion controlling the government. Well, what other movement do you know of that believes in those things? The Christian Right. Culturally, those movements are very similar. And there’s a reason for that. It’s not religion that’s the problem; it’s fundamentalism that’s the problem. I always remind people of that when I’m giving speeches. Sometimes, I run across people who think that religion in general is bad and that religion is why we have all these problems. And I tell them, well, religion can persuade people to do a lot of good things in the world. It’s not religion that’s the problem—it’s fundamentalism."

Some people have described Timothy McVeigh as the ultimate Christian terrorist. This is inaccurate, because while McVeigh was raised Catholic, he appeared to be motivated by extreme anti-government/militia beliefs rather than religious motives. But there is no doubt that McVeigh was responsible for the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil prior to 9/11.

American Muslim activist Haroon Moghul, who serves as executive director of the Maydan Institute and frequently lectures on Islam, said he sees a major disparity between the way radical Christianity and radical Islam are covered by the right-wing media. “I think the biggest difference in the way Islam and Christianity are covered by the right is that when it comes to Islam, the assumption has been that Islam is inherently violent or inherently political and that Islam has to prove otherwise,” the New York City-based Moghul said.

“When it comes to radical forms of Christianity or more extreme forms of Christianity, it’s always seen as an aberration by the right. But any sort of Muslim behavior that is violent or extreme or intolerant is assumed to be inherent to Islam. So the burden of proof is on a Muslim community or a Muslim individual to prove otherwise. If Osama bin Laden said something, it was assumed that it was inherent to Islam. If it’s Hutaree or something like that, it’s assumed that it is just a lone wolf or a fringe group—and it’s disconnected from the rest of what’s happening in America. Hutaree isn’t assumed to be the product of something bigger than themselves.”

Moghul views the Christianity good/Islam bad narrative of the far right as symptomatic of the soundbite culture that exists in America. “There really isn’t room for a lot of different opinions in our political discourse in the United States,” Moghul said. “Whether the two-party system makes that better or worse, I don’t really know. But you generally see that nuance disappears in our political discourse.”

Another voice of sanity on the subject of Islam and Christianity is journalist Leonard Pitts, Jr., author of Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood and a syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald. In his columns, Pitts has had a lot to say about the way some people on the far right will try to paint Islam in general as a violent religion (as opposed to making a distinction between radical and non-radical Islam). And they get away with that double standard, according to Pitts, because it is easier to attack what is a minority religion in the U.S.

“Christianity is a known element in the United States, whereas Islam is a foreign faith,” Pitts explained. He continued:

“Most people of faith in the United States are Christian. Most Americans know a lot of Christians but don’t know any Muslims. So it’s easy to look at the craziest, most dangerous Muslims and assume that they are representative of Islam as a whole. Christians in the United States will look at the Army of God and say, ‘That has no relation to any Christianity I have ever known. That has absolutely nothing to do with any Christianity I have ever known,’ but moderate Muslims will say the same thing about Muslims who commit acts of violence.”

In one of his columns, Pitts pointed to four scriptural quotes that could be construed as violent—one from the Qu’ran, three from the Bible. His point was that cherry-picking parts of the Qu’ran in order to prove that Islam is an inherently violent or dangerous religion is as intellectually dishonest as cherry-picking parts of the Bible in order to depict Christianity as inherently violent.

The far right, according to Pitts, often neglects to mention the fact that Muslims themselves have been the victims of Muslim extremists, including the Muslims killed on 9/11. “People forget that a lot of Muslims died that day,” Pitts said. “You’re not going to attack Lower Manhattan that way and not kill Muslim people.” He added: “I don't fear Muslims, I don’t fear Christians. But I fear Muslim and Christian extremists. I fear extremists period.”

If stoning proponent Gary North is mentioned at all in the Republican media, he is painted as a harmless eccentric and not part of a radical Christianist movement. But if someone in a mosque in Detroit or Oakland promoted stoning, talk-radio Republicans would be screaming about it for days.

The bottom line is that extremism in the name of religion is cause for concern regardless of whether the extremists identify themselves as Christian or Muslim. Those who claim that Christian extremism is any less dangerous than Islamic extremism are being disingenuous.

“When people embrace any kind of extreme ideology, whether it’s religious or secular, and can tolerate no dissent,” Boston said, “we’re in for trouble."

Alex Henderson's work has appeared in the L.A. Weekly, Billboard, Spin, and other publications.

© 2011 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/151436/

Alice Walker: Why I'm Joining the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza | World | AlterNet

2011-06-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

Alice Walker: Why I'm Joining the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza | World | AlterNet

Alice Walker: Why I'm Joining the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza
By Alice Walker, The Guardian
Posted on June 26, 2011

Why am I going on the Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza? I ask myself this, even though the answer is: what else would I do? I am in my 67th year, having lived already a long and fruitful life, one with which I am content. It seems to me that during this period of eldering it is good to reap the harvest of one's understanding of what is important, and to share this, especially with the young. How are they to learn, otherwise?

Our boat, The Audacity of Hope, will be carrying letters to the people of Gaza. Letters expressing solidarity and love. That is all its cargo will consist of. If the Israeli military attacks us, it will be as if they attacked the mailman. This should go down hilariously in the annals of history. But if they insist on attacking us, wounding us, even murdering us, as they did some of the activists in the last flotilla, Freedom Flotilla I, what is to be done?

There is a scene in the movie Gandhi that is very moving to me: it is when the unarmed Indian protesters line up to confront the armed forces of the British Empire. The soldiers beat them unmercifully, but the Indians, their broken and dead lifted tenderly out of the fray, keep coming.

Alongside this image of brave followers of Gandhi there is, for me, an awareness of paying off a debt to the Jewish civil rights activists who faced death to come to the side of black people in the American south in our time of need. I am especially indebted to Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman who heard our calls for help – our government then as now glacially slow in providing protection to non-violent protesters – and came to stand with us.

They got as far as the truncheons and bullets of a few "good ol' boys'" of Neshoba County, Mississippi and were beaten and shot to death along with James Chaney, a young black man of formidable courage who died with them. So, even though our boat will be called The Audacity of Hope, it will fly the Goodman, Chaney, Schwerner flag in my own heart.

And what of the children of Palestine, who were ignored in our president's latest speech on Israel and Palestine, and whose impoverished, terrorised, segregated existence was mocked by the standing ovations recently given in the US Congress to the prime minister of Israel?

I see children, all children, as humanity's most precious resource, because it will be to them that the care of the planet will always be left. One child must never be set above another, even in casual conversation, not to mention in speeches that circle the globe.

As adults, we must affirm, constantly, that the Arab child, the Muslim child, the Palestinian child, the African child, the Jewish child, the Christian child, the American child, the Chinese child, the Israeli child, the Native American child, etc, is equal to all others on the planet. We must do everything in our power to cease the behaviour that makes children everywhere feel afraid.

I once asked my best friend and husband during the era of segregation, who was as staunch a defender of black people's human rights as anyone I'd ever met: how did you find your way to us, to black people, who so needed you? What force shaped your response to the great injustice facing people of colour of that time?

I thought he might say it was the speeches, the marches, the example of Martin Luther King Jr, or of others in the movement who exhibited impactful courage and grace. But no. Thinking back, he recounted an episode from his childhood that had led him, inevitably, to our struggle.

He was a little boy on his way home from yeshiva, the Jewish school he attended after regular school let out. His mother, a bookkeeper, was still at work; he was alone. He was frequently harassed by older boys from regular school, and one day two of these boys snatched his yarmulke (skull cap), and, taunting him, ran off with it, eventually throwing it over a fence.

Two black boys appeared, saw his tears, assessed the situation, and took off after the boys who had taken his yarmulke. Chasing the boys down and catching them, they made them climb the fence, retrieve and dust off the yarmulke, and place it respectfully back on his head.

It is justice and respect that I want the world to dust off and put – without delay, and with tenderness – back on the head of the Palestinian child. It will be imperfect justice and respect because the injustice and disrespect have been so severe. But I believe we are right to try.

That is why I sail.

The Chicken Chronicles: A Memoir by Alice Walker is published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson. A longer version of this article appears on Alice Walker's blog: alicewalkersgarden.com/blog

After the excitement of the Arab Spring, has the Palestine issue slipped out of view, asks Emine Saner
Just over a year ago, in the middle of the night, Israeli commandos boarded a Turkish ship in international waters just off the coast of Israel, opened fire and killed nine activists. The Mavi Marmara was one of six ships in the Freedom Flotilla, which was attempting to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza, and the actions of Israel's military brought widespread international condemnation.

This time, as Freedom Flotilla II sets sail over the next week, with 10 ships carrying many of the same activists who travelled last year, including Swedish writer Henning Mankell, American human rights campaigner Hedy Epstein, and writer and academic Alice Walker, the Israeli government's response will be closely watched.

This week Ron Prosor, Israel's ambassador to the UN, wrote a letter saying: "Israel calls on the international community to do everything in their ability in order to prevent the flotilla and warn citizens … of the risks of participating in this type of provocation." The purpose of the flotilla, he said, is "to provoke and aid a radical political agenda". He later added: "We are very determined to defend ourselves and to assert our right to a naval blockade on Gaza."

"The threats of violence won't deter us," says Huwaida Arraf, one of the flotilla organisers. "Nobody is going in to this lightly, but we feel it has to be done. Israel has to realise its violence against us is not going to stop our growing civilian effort to challenge its illegal policies. The size of this flotilla, the number of people involved in organising it, even after Israel killed nine of our colleagues last year, is testament to that."

She says half a million people applied for the few hundred places: depending on how many of the 10 boats are seaworthy in time, there should be around 400 people on the flotilla.

The campaign began in August 2008, when 44 activists on two small fishing boats set off from Cyprus and managed to reach Gaza. Later that year, the Free Gaza Movement, as it became known, organised several other voyages, usually sending single boats containing small but symbolic supplies such as medicine and toys, and volunteers, including doctors, lawyers and politicians. Amid allegations of violence and hostility from Israel's naval forces at sea, the activists decided they would need to send a flotilla, and after months of fundraising and negotiating with NGOs from other countries, particularly Turkey, several ships met in the Mediterranean sea in May last year with the intention of reaching Gaza.

"We didn't make it to Gaza and we lost a lot of colleagues," says Arraf, "but one of the things that was achieved was that people realised what Israel's policies meant, and the violence Israel was using to maintain them. We think our action will put pressure on Israel to end its blockade on Gaza, and we hope the respective governments of all the people participating will take action and do what they should be doing, instead of having their nationals putting their lives at risk like this."

There is a danger, says Chris Doyle, director of the council for Arab-British understanding, of the Palestinian issue being overlooked – in the west at least – as focus shifts to countries going through the extraordinary changes in the Arab spring. "There is a danger that people forget how important this issue is, and that it is boiling. It is still an unresolved issue. At a time when international politicians – Obama, Cameron, Sarkozy and others – are concentrating so much on other areas of the region, the issue of Palestine has not gone away."

"Everyone has been so amazed and shocked at the beauty of the Arab revolutions, seeing these incredibly brave and wonderful citizens, that it quite naturally seizes the attention, but at the heart of the Arab revolutions is Palestine," says Karma Nabulsi, an academic and expert on the Middle East. "I would say it hasn't been properly covered in the west, but Palestine is central to what people – the Arab media, the people who are participating in the Arab revolutions – talk about all the time."

So where does Palestine fit into the Arab spring? Doyle says: "A Palestinian spring is more than possible. Many senior people within Fatah and the Palestinian authorities have been saying this is the way to go because the negotiations are not seen as credible, and they will have to adopt different tactics. I think that, on the one hand, those tactics could be against the Israeli occupation, but also it represents a threat to the Palestinian authority itself, both to Fatah and Hamas."

The flotilla "gives people heart and encouragement, that the struggle for freedom has friends and supporters", says Nabulsi. "What the flotilla did last year, these plucky little boats, was bring the entire world to look at what [the Israeli government] were doing. Not just because of the brutality of the response of the military, but it shows how simple gestures get to the heart of the issue – breaking through the silence and the siege, and all the things that seem so big and impossible to do. They did it and they're going to do it again, and that's what is so remarkably brave."

Previewing the BET Awards: Where Are the Lady Rappers?

2011-06-27T11:59:00.000-07:00

Previewing the BET Awards: Where Are the Lady Rappers?

BY Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

A glance at Justin Bieber’s stacked trophy shelf will tell you music awards shows generally reward sales over all other criteria. When they deviate from this rubric, there’s a price to pay, as when the enormously talented jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding nabbed last year’s “Best New Artist” Grammy from the Biebz and his fans hijacked her Wikipedia page in anger and retaliation. Smaller musicians are rarely rewarded if even recognized, and with the exception of shows geared towards niche audiences — MTVu’s Woody Awards, for instance — the shows generally serve to reinforce the machinations of the corporate music industry, so the masterminds can pat themselves on the back.

Which is partly why the nominees for next week’s BET Awards 2011 caused such an outrage — the “Best Female Hip-Hop Artist” category, in particular. Headed up by last year’s winner Nicki Minaj — a clear shoo-in — the rap chops (and broad appeal) of the nominees dropped precipitously thereafter. Atlanta diva Diamond, the former Crime Mob rapper who’s shined on a series of mixtapes since that group split, was a respectable runner-up. But the last two nominees seemed to dip into absurdity. There was Lola Monroe, who rap fans knew first as video girl and frequent King magazine model Angel Lola Luv, but who has made efforts to shed the “eye candy” trope and refashion herself as a rapper with a high-pitched, mafia moll flow. And then there was Cymphonique, a 14-year-old singer with a Nickelodeon contract and the honor of being Master P’s youngest show-biz progeny. To many rap fans, the line-up looked like a joke. Upon the announcement, Twitter lit up with “#Fail” hashtags. Blogger The Hip-Hop Diva suggested that “Every female hip hop artist should submit every video they ever release to BET.” And XXL summed it up succinctly with a headline bearing the unprintable acronym “FOH.”

The line-up was thin, but there was also a noticeable snub: longtime Miami rapper Trina, who’d not only released the independent chart-topping album Amazin, but had been featured in several videos in heavy BET rotation — including Lola Monroe’s “Overtime,” on which the veteran handily bested the newcomer. Trina took to Twitter to protest her exclusion — as did Nicki Minaj and Diamond — which resulted in a long, soul-searching phone conversation with BET head Stephen Hill in which he explained that she’d submitted her video outside of the qualifying dates, blah blah blah. And yet, barring Trina, maybe there really were no other viable contenders for the Best Female Hip-Hop Artist category — for one, it takes big budgets and industry clockwork to place a video in BET rotation, and what labels are pulling that kind of weight for lady rappers today?

Mini-controversies go down practically every minute on the rap internet, beef and battles inherent to the genre, so this one blew over within a matter of weeks. But it illustrated a deeper problem within the music industry. BET felt like it had to stretch for nominees because there is a constant dearth of space for female rappers. Since the heyday of strong, powerful, positive and feminist MCs piqued in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s — with Queen Latifah, Salt n Pepa, MC Lyte and YoYo at the helm — at any given time there have only been three or so female rappers topping the industry.

Missy Elliott and Lauryn Hill remain the gold standards, and Lil Kim, Foxy Brown and Eve had their day. But before Nicki Minaj stomped and snarled her way into mass consciousness, arguably the last female rapper to gain as much industry respect and recognition as her male counterparts was Remy Ma — who’s been incarcerated since 2008 after shooting her best friend in a Manhattan parking lot.

“Since ‘97 it’s really just been Kim, Foxy and Missy, and then a rotating feature of crazy ladies,” says Judnick Mayard, rap and R&B columnist at Fader’s Suite903. “But they were never included or even paid attention to unless they could at least stand a bit on the level of those top three. If you’re a female rapper, you have to prove yourself on so many levels and be so many different things.”

This is not to say there is a paucity of female rappers, nor do any of them have to fit in a sexed-up Kim/Foxy mold — though some do. The Georgia rapper Lady became a web meme in February for her song and video “Yankin,” which described in detail her particular anatomical talents. A personal favorite, Atlanta’s Rasheeda, flips explicit sex rhymes into calls for female liberation — it’s not exaggeration to say every other track she cuts includes a line advocating cunnilingus.

But in the wilds of the internet, there’s infinitely more space for varied personalities and styles. There’s been a small flurry over Kreayshawn, an off-kilter, diminuitive white girl from Oakland, who parlayed her infectious summer hit “Gucci Gucci” into a million-dollar contract with Columbia Records. (The race issues — and the Ke$ha vibes — around that deal are a whole other column entirely.) The slow but steady rise of Kid Sister and Amanda Blank — not to mention the acceptance of MIA, more of a chatter than a rapper, into mainstream hip-hop — has ensured those with less conventional styles have a place. Chipper Florida teen Dominique Young Unique raps like confetti over electro beats, UK grime divas like Lady Leshurr are gaining wider acceptance in America, and more traditional hip-hop modes live on in Brooklyn through inveterate spitter Jean Grae and rising star Nitty Scott. Another favorite of mine, Azealia Banks, barely 20, has transformed her biting, Harlem-cut style into multiple flavors, spanning double-dutch battles and pounding, ravey rap anthems complete with diva vocals.

Meanwhile, Cymphonique’s newest song is undeniably, 100% R&B (BET Awards have a whole separate category for that). It’s also quite good, the type of hip hop-informed love jam that dominated the mid-’90s and made Keyshia Cole’s first album a classic. (Cole, in another dramatic turn, was also snubbed.)

I’ve just barely touched on the lady rappers I’m into (for a daily dose of old and new, femalerappers.tumblr.com is a good source). So why does it seem like the music industry has no room for more than two or three at a time? Partly, it seems, it won’t let them be great. Meaning: industry executives seem to bet on the idea that men won’t want to listen to talented female rappers, and they’re given less opportunities in general. In some cases, they might be right — even with a history of skilled lady rappers, hip-hop still sometimes seems like a man’s game, with a glass ceiling just as impenetrable as the corporate one. Trina, who’s completing her sixth album this year, is the only female rapper outside of Missy Elliott to release so many albums. Longevity in hip-hop is tough to attain, but even so, that fact seems insane. Surely my friends and I aren’t the only rap fans dying to see a multiplicity of voices in one of our favorite genres, dying for an alternative to the dense hypermasculinity that rules it. Nicki Minaj has been a godsend and possibly a lifesaver, but how much more interesting would things be if she had formidable opponents? (Sorry, 2011 Lil Kim doesn’t count.)

Like so many lady CEOs before her, Azealia Banks’ solution is to come at the game like a man. “It’s kinda like, if you punch a dude in the face, don’t expect him not to hit you back just because you are a girl,” she says. “If you’re gonna fight a man, be prepared to fight a man, right? Sounds crazy, but it’s the same deal. I definitely think the novelty of being a female rapper has worn off completely, so you’re not getting any points for being cute anymore. As a hip-hop artist who just so happens to be female, I definitely have to step my shit up and keep stepping my shit up. Not only because of male pressure, but just because of musical pressure. I want my music to be able to stand up against everyone’s music, not just other rappers.”

It’s a reasonable response — and certainly the right attitude for an artist who’s trying to win on every level. Still, to me it doesn’t seem like the problem is that female rappers can’t go toe to toe with their male counterparts — it’s a matter of who’s willing to listen in an industry where gender bias is still entrenched at every level.

So I’ll watch the BET Awards this Sunday, psyched to see Lil Wayne and Jill Scott, Mary J. Blige and Rick Ross. But when no female rappers perform — not even Dear Old Nicki — I’ll be stewing and salty on the couch, wondering when, or if, we’ll stop being seen as second string.

Does SlutWalk Speak to Women of Color? | | AlterNet

2011-06-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

Does SlutWalk Speak to Women of Color? | | AlterNet
Does SlutWalk Speak to Women of Color?

By Andrea Plaid, AlterNet
Posted on June 22, 2011

You could have colored me unsupportive of SlutWalk.

Even though I have jokingly called myself a slut (as in “I’m a handbag slut”), as an African American woman I was rather uncomfortable with the protest’s racial dynamics, at least how it was shaping up in the US and Canada. I felt the word “slut” didn’t speak to me; I found the word “ho” more damaging. Of course, I also thought this word broke down in the black/white binary. in my experience, if a black woman was in a mostly white or all-white setting, the word “slut” as a perjorative would be used. In mostly black or all-black settings, the words “ho” and “fass” (meaning sexually “fast”) would be flung to sexually shame us.

What didn’t help my ambivalence regarding SlutWalk was, when watching some white organizers and speakers talk about the problems of race in organizing the protests, it was the usual “well, ‘slut’ is universal,” or they'd point to the speaker roster or the people in the audience (though the photos show, again, white women). It came off as another word-reclamation project that seemed to recenter white cisgender women’s sexual agency and bodies. (Sort of the way “feminist issues” tends to reincarnate a little too often as “white (cis) women’s issues.”) And, increasingly in the discussions, there is a disturbing new attribute of the “relatable rape victim” as a woman who is “young and sexy” or at least “precocious and body-conscious.”

Simultaneously, I wasn’t feeling how SlutWalk became some litmus test around women of color and being down with the "WoC agenda" of addressing the meld of racism and sexism as linked with issues around class, gender identity and body images and capacities, reproductive rights, sexual identification and sexuality, immigration, the criminal/penal system, education, healthcare, and other issues. (Yes, I mean the WoC agenda facetiously because there’s really no such thing. Women of color aren’t a monolith, and as people are wont to do, will disagree on the best ways to achieve social justice.)

Even when participants like Morgane Richardson, Harsha Walia and Creatrix Tiara have spoken their truths on why they joined the protests in their respective countries, quite a bit of rhetoric coming from some online WoC communities and bloggers is that “women of color” don’t see the use of the march because “it doesn’t speak” to “us” categorically.

But see, the thing is quite a few women of color are called sluts. Three recent examples of this, in consideration of what the word means:

1) Slut, meaning a “servant girl,” has her modern-day descendents in the women to do domestic work, be it in a home or in a hotel—like the woman who cleaned former IMF leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s room. She may or may not have been a young woman, may or may not have been body-conscious or thought herself as sexy. What I do believe she was conscious of was that doing her job didn’t involve this man allegedly sexually violating her. Strauss-Kahn probably thought the hotel worker he violated was powerless. He thought wrong, as his arrest and subsequent resignation has proven, thanks to the worker going to her union and people supporting her in getting her story in the media.

2) Slut, meaning “a sloppy, dirty, untidy woman,” which is essentially what Massachusetts Representative Ryan Fattman said regarding undocumented women. He said they deserved to live in fear because that’s what they get for living in the US without having their paperwork in order when they arrived. (Considering that the implicit ethnicity in talking about immigrant women are those from Latin America, another stereotype in play is the “spicy Latina” who’s always ready for sex, which tends to render them “unrapeable” because Latinas are naturally "asking for it.") Regardless of age and whether or not immigrant women are sexually self-confident about their bodies, what they are aware of is they are people living and contributing to this country and they are not a readily available group of women people are free to rape with impunity because the women lack paperwork. Their taxes put clothes on the cops’ and Rep. Fattman’s back and food in their bodies, Undocumented or not, that fact alone means the police and the lawmakers are beholden to these women—including responding to their reporting of sexual violence.

3) Slut, meaning a bitch, which tends to get flung at the woman who stands up for herself, like Rihanna did in her video “Man Down.” We can argue and otherwise carry on about her offing her assailant in the video. But, as a woman who survived rape, I completely understand why her character did what she did. That vengeance fantasy goes through many a victim’s and survivor’s mind because our lives are shattered and quite a few of us don’t feel anyone will bring the perpetrator to justice. We’ve seen how the criminal-justice system will let off male perpetrators, including those who had a duty to protect the citizenry from sexual violence. If the System can do that…then, yes, I can empathize with a victim going the way of the gun or needing to spit on their violators’ graves.

Actually, I have to thank Rihanna for changing my mind about SlutWalk. Not her, per se, but a comment about her video that was posted on Racialicious. The commenter said a friend of hers said Rihanna would have made a stronger point about rape if she would have worn “regular clothes.” I questioned what the commenter said, since Rihanna is wearing "regular clothes" in the video, considering the video’s location and her activities -- strolling in her neighborhood and interacting with her neighbors as well as going to the dance club. I further pointed out that this statement skated too closely to the “she was asking for it because of her clothes” justification. After the reader said that she and her friend were sexual-assault survivors and admonished me not to “attack each other,” she admitted that clothes have nothing to do with sexual assault.

The comment infuriated me…and enlightened me. I was so upset that the commenter couldn’t see the contradiction of saying clothes are a non-issue regarding sexual violence yet wanted to defend her friend making Rihanna’s clothes an issue regarding the rape in the video. That’s when I hopped on the side of the SlutWalk: I couldn’t bear another day of hearing of shaming people, especially women of color, over the “correct” way to dress or speak or needing to be a certain demographic or agree with a certain perceived agenda in order to have our fury over sexual violence be heard. In fact, I volunteered to speak at SlutWalk NYC in August.

So, yes, color my woman-of-color self supporting this cause.

Andrea Plaid is sexual correspondent for Racialicious.com and a writer based in Brooklyn.

© 2011 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/151390/

Texas May Approve A Confederate Flag License Plate

2011-06-24T14:44:00.000-07:00

Texas May Approve A Confederate Flag License Plate:

According to website Think Progress:

"Texas May Approve A Confederate Flag License Plate | Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) may soon get the chance to advertise his love of secession on his car. The Lonestar State is considering a specialty license plate that would feature the Confederate flag. The Texas Sons of Confederate Veterans (whose own logo incorporates the flag) designed the plate to “remember Texans who died fighting in the Civil War.” The president of the state’s NAACP chapter, however, said that the flag on license plates “would be humiliating and demeaning.” A state board has yet to approve the plate and will reconsider approval in a few months."

I would think that the right wing would understand why as an AMERICAN from THE UNITED STATES that I find it highly unpatriotic and quite anti-American to even consider such an idea. The Confederacy was built upon the notion that America was not great enough and thus deserved to be seceded from because the idea that slavery is immoral and thus should not be legal, did not suit their fatal capitalistic ways. However, in their never ending attempts to keep Black people de facto (and de jure) inferior to whites, they will embrace anti-Americanism. Losers.

WTF of the Week.

2011-06-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

The filmmaker's description not mine:

"Black power. Abortion. Terrorism. "Prophetic fiction". Three years in the making, "Gates of Hell" is a documentary from the year 2016 that chronicles the crimes of a band of domestic terrorists known as the Zulu 9. Finnish filmmaker Ani Juva travels to the United States to better understand the mysterious black power assassins, the bizarre eugenics conspiracy theory that drove them to commit extreme acts of violence and how America's political landscape was transformed forever. Blending real history and real public figures with a fictitious (yet plausible) future, it is safe to say that you have never seen a film like 'Gates of Hell'."

Judge for yourself.

And just some food for thought; The film's producer, Molotov Mitchell, was a vocal supporter of Uganda's anti-gay bill that legislated the death penalty for those deemed homosexual.

Michelle Obama speaks in South Africa

2011-06-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

Visionary Nurses Confront Wall Street and Advocate for their Patients in Rollicking Wall Street Rally | News & Politics | AlterNet

2011-06-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

Thousands of Visionary Nurses Confront Wall Street and Advocate for their Patients in Rollicking Wall Street Rally | News & Politics | AlterNet

Thousands of Visionary Nurses Confront Wall Street and Advocate for their Patients in Rollicking Wall Street Rally

By Kristen Gwynne, AlterNet
Posted on June 22, 2011

On Wednesday afternoon, June 22, a feisty group of 3,000 nurses, and their supporters from other unions and community groups, rallied at Federal Hall on Wall St. in New York City to confront the greedy banking industry and demand they pay tiny taxes on financial transactions to stop devastating budget cuts and finance health care for all.

In solidarity with the 40-nation International Days of Action, National Nurses United and their union and community allies--including the AFL-CIO, the UAW, The Transit Workers Union, UNITE HERE Local 100, Working Families Party, Jobs with Justice, NYPIRG, and many more--used powerful speeches, spirited stories, skits, and songs to bring attention to their Main Street Contract, a vision for a more fair and just economy. It includes as a centerpiece a bill supporters will soon introduce in Congress to tax the very transactions that led to the economic crisis.

It's always fun to be at a rally with the nurses, who are unique in American labor for their enormous spirit, rollicking sense of humor, and some of the most creative and radical analyses of the failures of the U.S. system. The nurses don't mess around. They set a high standard for the American labor movement, challenging power and engaging the public with their spirited take on American politics, the rights of workers, and especially the needs of people who use the country's health care system. The nurses are about protecting their patients as well as themselves, and America trusts and has enormous respect for its nurses, which enables the 170,000 National Nurses United to spread the word in ways that other unions are more challenged.

The nurses understand and can give witness to how the decline of the American dream in the current wretched economy is hugely impacting society. "America's nurses see and feel broad declines in health and living standards for their patients and their own families that are directly tied to the collapse in jobs, housing , health care, and other basics of what used to be called the American dream," said NNU co-president Deborah Burger, RN. "Nurses are calling for a change in priorities because they have seen enough and want to stop the bleeding now. "

And the nurses are seeing a lot that can be directly linked to the prolonged economic decline. Their message: because the economic crisis is linked to a rise in health problems, the Wall Street bankers must also pay for the ailments they have provoked. Health conditions caused by the poor economy include stress-induced heart problems in younger patients, diabetes in children due to unhealthy diets, and anxiety and depression across all age groups as parents and children alike wonder if they will be able to afford a roof over their head or food on the table.

The executive director of NNU, Rose Ann DeMoro, is outraged. "America has the wealth to end despair and deprivation. To reclaim this nation we have to start by making Wall Street pay to undo the damage that has caused immeasurable suffering, while the high rollers on Wall Street, who created this crises are rewarded with bailouts, bonuses, tax cuts, and regulatory rollbacks."

To remedy the budget crisis and its impact on Americans, organizers are pushing for a small fee on the trading of bonds, options, credit default swaps, futures, and derivatives to save crucial social programs from falling victim to the impact of Wall Street’s missteps. Organizers say the tax could generate $350 billion a year.
The equivalent of the sales tax “Main Street” Americans have long been paying, the tax is not a new idea. Great Britain has already implemented a .25 percent tax on each stock trade, and it has not inhibited financial activity. The European Parliament also endorsed a tax for European Union nations. In the U.S., measures to tax all stock sales and transfers have been underway for the past fifty years and, after the 1987 Wall Street crash, U.S. politicians including Bob Dole and President George H.W. Bush endorsed similar measures.

“Just like working people pay taxes, these yo-yos who buy and sell, buy and sell, should pay taxes on that,” said President of Amalgamated Transit Union Larry Hamley.

During the rally, there were were frequent skits to shed light on the deplorable status of our country with (a very sick) Lady Liberty. “I need relief. I can’t walk and I need to know why -- why I have no health care, why I have no health insurance,” said the green-clad woman.
“You’re sick because here in New York City, the richest city in the country, we are having one of the most drastic cuts in the budget ever,” said Ilya Geller of Bloombergville, who listed 6,000 teachers, 20 fire houses, $50 million in child care, $40 million in senior services, and $90 million in libraries as casualties to the budget cuts.

Local organizers who are fighting budget cuts at the City and State level were in full support of the goals of the rally. “We’re here to let the governor, the mayor, and the U.S. Government know they need to stop taking essential services, like supportive housing and the Medicare system, out of the community. People are going to die when they make these cuts. We know where the money is. The money is here on Wall Street,” said Wayne Starks of grassroots organization VOCAL-NY, who asks Bloomberg, “Do you care more about making the rich richer or saving lives?”
Speakers shared stories which painted a picture of the devastation Wall Street facilitated without bearing any responsibility. A son told the story of his father, a multiple sclerosis patient, whose insurance company said the medication that would allow him to use his hands was unnecessary. A nurse spoke of a friend whose monthly treatment of the homeless population rose from 1,500 to 3,000 people.

A soulful rally, organizers sang “This Little Light of Mine” with new, appropriate lyrics like “Heal America, Tax Wall Street” and “We Are The World.”

Speakers went further to discuss the lack of compassionate care in the revenue-focused medical community.

“A young mother in the Emergency Room is worried her baby has meningitis. She faces business men who ask ‘Would you like to make your co-pay now or later?’ That’s the kind of compassionate service we don’t have in the health care system. That,” said, Co-President of National Nurses United Gene Ross, “we can’t even call a health care system.”

© 2011 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/151398/

Van Jones Radical?

2011-06-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

I find it very appropriate and necessary to hold those who are deemed leaders of progressive, radical and/or revolutionary movements up for critique.

Van Jones on labor and LGBTQ solidarity

By Jos | Published: June 22, 2011 @ Feministing.com

I heart Van Jones. Check out this brief but powerful clip of Van, a leader in the movements for green jobs and racial justice, talking about valuing all sorts of families, and the need for solidarity between movements, specifically for labor and LGBTQ rights. The video was shot at a labor rally during Netroots Nation by COLAGE, an organization for people with an LGBTQ parent.

Transcript after the jump.

You know, in America we’re supposed to believe in liberty and justice for all. I take that for “all” very very seriously. We’re so blessed now, we have a country with so many different kinds of family, so many different kinds of people here, the wisdom of all people. But pretty much every American family at the base is the same: people want love, respect and opportunity. And we’ve gotta stand up for that. We have our labor unions under attack, people being mistreated, rights we fought for all these years are being thrown away. We’ve gotta get that back. At the same time we’ve got the movement for equality for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender. That movement is struggling forward, but also under attack. We need to stand together to make sure we have jobs for everybody, opportunity for everybody, fairness for everybody. Let’s bring these fights together and really have a country that lives up to liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much.

Notes from a Hip Hop Radical: The Van Jones takedown and the politricks of the Obama Administration

by Rosa Clemente

September 11th, 2009

Over the Labor Day weekend Van Jones, a member of the Hip Hop generation and special advisor for green jobs at the White House Council for Environmental Quality, tendered his resignation, and it was accepted by the Obama administration. I will be the first to say that I never found Van Jones to be a radical, a Black Nationalist or a communist as Fox News has suggested.

Although I appreciate his book The Green Collar Economy, I never believed that a green economy will save working people. I felt that the book gave solutions on how to save the current capitalist system. And fundamentally that presents a problem, as many in this country are suffering because of capitalism and its failures.

No matter my political differences with Jones, I will never discount his work, energy, community organizing skills and progressive tendencies, which have reconnected urban youth with Mother Earth and have inspired many in my generation to create space in the predominately white liberal “green” movement. As the former Green Party Vice-Presidential candidate, I am not surprised that Jones turned out to be a high-profile casualty of an administration that started at the center and continues to move to the right.

But what has surprised me is that people are not holding the Obama administration for its role in the matter. Do not be fooled. There is no doubt that the Obama administration knew about Jones’ so-called “radical” past. I am not willing to believe that they never did a Google search on Jones or looked at his past comments, speeches or actions. By accepting Jones’ Resignation the Obama administration essentially gave a victory to the very racist Glenn Beck and the most vile “news” station in modern time. They have put a target on all of us who would be deemed activists or radicals. Accepting Jones’s resignation is a slap in the face to all of us.

So for those who voted for Obama, when will you let him know that you will not accept Van Jones as a casualty of an administration capitulating to the right? How dare we allow a bunch of white boys whom in the 1950′s would have been wearing hoods and burning crosses on Black peoples lawns have this much power. Where is the movement? Where is our infrastructure? Where is progressive media?

So where do we go from here? I caution people, first do not make Jones a martyr. Van jones is not Jesus, God or Malcolm reincarnated and elevating him to icon status is dangerous and does us no good. I am urging people to go back to the grassroots, go back to local community organizing and support progressives and 3rd party candidates in local elections. Stop thinking that once you vote that is your contribution, the easiest thing to do now-a-days is vote, the work begins after you cast your ballot. Malkia Cyril the Executive Director of the Center for Media Justice the other day on Democracy Now! stated, “We need to create an echo chamber of progressive media to counter the echo created by the right.”

The Van Jones takedown has revealed our own frustrations and inability to build and sustain a powerful multi-faceted, multi-racial, self-sustaining movement. I do not know all the answers and solutions to the chaos we finds ourselves in at this moment in history, but I do hope that people take one lesson that I learned from Van Jones’ book, “Stop fight against something and start fighting for something.” Maybe our fighting for something began at 11:45pm this past Saturday. If that is the case, we should all thank Van Jones for leaving the manicured green lawns and oak offices of the White House and for those who are still not convinced, the words of dead prez:

“Everywhere we go, everyday on TV, they be talking about who you gonna vote for,
Got a Black man running but I wonder if he get in who he gonna open up the door for
I don’t want to discourage my folks I believe in hope I just want us to want more
Politics is a game, how they keep us contained, there’s gotta be more that we can hope for
Democrats and Republicans just two sides of the same coin, either way its still white power, it’s the same system just changed form,
You wanna vote, please do, cast your ballot, let your voice be heard
But what I do wanna say is after the election you’ll see mark my word
It’s Politrikkks time again.”

© KnowThySelf Productions LLC.

Rosa Alicia Clemente is a community organizer, Hip-Hop activist, journalist and the Green Party 2008 Vice-Presidential candidate. Rosa resides with her husband and daughter in the South Bronx and is currently on her speaking tour, Its Bigger than Black and White. She is also at work on her first book: When a Puerto Rican Woman Ran for Vice-President and Nobody Knew Her Name and will soon begin her doctoral studies in Political Science. She can be reached at clementerosa@gmail.com and facebook.

The 3 Wings of the Republican Party: The Crazies, the Corporatists ... and Democrats | News & Politics | AlterNet

2011-06-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

The 3 Wings of the Republican Party: The Crazies, the Corporatists ... and Democrats News & Politics AlterNet

The 3 Wings of the Republican Party: The Crazies, the Corporatists ... and Democrats

By Drew Westen, AlterNet
Posted on June 20, 2011

Today's Republican Party has three wings: the psychiatric wing, the corporate wing, and the Democrats.

The first wing, the psychiatric wing, is defined by severe psychological and intellectual impairments, exemplified by the inability to read a birth certificate. Sarah Palin's recent foray into American history, replete with her description of Paul Revere as the man who rang alarms, bells, and buzzers to signal his support for the Second Amendment years before there was either a United States or a Bill of Rights, provides an example of the kind of "gaffe" that is, in fact, psychologically meaningful. This level of intellectual dysfunction, equally common in the pronouncements of Michelle Bachmann, once disqualified a candidate for high office. That was until the "lamestream media" decided to turn elections into reality shows, where the only real criterion is celebrity (defined as the state of being or becoming famous), and where commentators may poke occasional fun but no longer communicate to the public the seriousness of intellectual deficits in someone running for high office who would actually have to make decisions in which "facts" occasionally matter. (The dangerousness of that level of media indifference to reality should have been a lesson of George W. Bush's tenure in office, but things have sadly only gotten worse since then.)

This is the wing of the Republican Party that most endangers the party's chances to turn a dismal economy into an electoral victory in 2012, because it is so far to the right of mainstream America that you can see Russia from its porch (even if it locates that porch in Minnesota). The problem for the Republicans is that this wing of the party constitutes such a large percentage of GOP primary voters that it is hard to imagine any nominee emerging from the primaries without having had to produce so many general election campaign ads for the Democrats that President Obama may well defy political gravity and get re-elected no matter how high the unemployment rate drifts.

The second wing is the corporate wing, also known as the wing-tip wing. Once the home of moderate Republicans such as Bob Dole, this wing used to be slightly to the right of the American center. Its advocates held beliefs now seen as "quaint" by modern-day wing-tips (e.g., that humans evolved the same way other animals did, that a fertilized egg does not hold property rights any more than an omelet does, and that cutting the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers, police, and firefighters does not reduce unemployment).

Today's wing-tips, in contrast, are defined by three articles of faith.

The first is that whatever ails you (whether budget deficits, unemployment, or kidney failure), the solution is tax cuts for the rich.

The second is the belief (this one true) that whatever ails them can be fixed within any two-year election cycle by an infusion of venture capital from the Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street, Big Oil, the Pharmaceutical lobby, or whosever interests could be served or threatened by some piece of legislation. These venture firms now require a controlling interest of 51 percent of an elected official (whether Republican or Democrat), but the futures market for political votes seems to be the only market that is working efficiently in America today. (Word has it that Larry Summers considers the deregulation of the commodities market for politicians one of his signal achievements, although to give credit where credit is due, he had an assist from the Roberts Court in its Citizens United ruling, which held that money need no longer be exchanged under the table, and reaffirmed that money is speech, making political payoffs a high form of rhetoric.)

The third belief that defines the wing-tips is that deficits present a grave threat to our way of life -- except when Republicans are in power, at which point deficits are deficit-neutral. This deep and abiding concern with deficits (under Democratic administrations) stands in sharp contrast to their relative indifference to unemployment, which they consider a luxury good consumed by people with too much time on their hands (after all, they're unemployed), whose "whining" is really annoying to lawmakers, lobbyists, and Washington pundits who want to get on with the real business of cutting budgets, and who have more important things to worry about than people who, for God's sake, can't even keep a job now, can they.

These are the Paul Ryan and John Boehner Republicans, whose virtue is that they seem genuinely to believe what they are paid to say. Some of them, like Ryan, can even do so with earnest looks on their faces (something Boehner has not mastered, even while smearing his mascara). This is an impressive feat, given that what they have been saying lately is that they would happily throw their own grandmothers under the bus, although they know this will never come to pass because they don't believe in public transportation (hence the absence of buses, ergo the safety of grandmothers).

The Wing of Icarus

And that brings us to the third wing of the Republican Party, the Democrats. Their standard-bearer, President Obama, has proven himself perhaps the strongest potential challenger to Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination if he decides to join the debates, having established his conservative bona fides on a wide range of social and economic issues:

Deporting more immigrants and breaking up more families than George W. Bush (or to put it in more business-friendly language, increasing U.S. "exports" of poorly documented human capital).
Coming out in support of expanded off-shoring drilling just before the BP catastrophe in the Gulf; repeatedly touting production of a mythical substance (seen only, legend has it, by industry executives) as "clean coal" (widely believed to be found in the Fountain of Youth); and calling for the building of more nuclear plants, which the Japanese have shown to be a safe complement to offshore drilling (perhaps with the hope that water contaminated with radioactive materials discharged into the ocean might prove useful as a dispersant for oil).
Extending the "Hyde Amendment" to allow GOP lawmakers to exclude abortion coverage from even private health insurance.
Cutting 120 billion in taxes for the rich while proposing billions in cuts to "entitlements," such as home heating subsidies to people who are poor or elderly.
Making sure the nation's largest banks remained solvent so they could continue to foreclose on the homes of millions of Americans, whose tax dollars supported the multi-million-dollar bonuses of the executives who continue to refuse to renegotiate their mortgages.
Saying virtually nothing as Republican governors and state legislators around the country attack organized labor (e.g., remaining almost entirely mum on the Wisconsin law stripping workers of the right to negotiate their contracts).
But that's just the president. We can't blame the party whose name he never utters for the actions or inactions of its titular leader, who prefers to remain "post-partisan."

So with nearly 15 million Americans unemployed and millions more working two and three jobs just to get by to feed their family, how are the Democrats saying they're going to solve the problems of ordinary people?

Consider the following five-point statement of conservative economic principles from ABC's This Week a couple of Sundays ago, which concisely describes what conservatives believe the Obama administration should do to solve our nation's economic ills, and how the Democrats responded to it:

Our effort now ... should be to get the private sector, to help them stand up and lead the recovery. [T]he government is not the central driver of recovery.
Now, we must live within our means.
We've got to rely on government policies that are trying to leverage the private sector and give incentives to the private sector to be doing the growth. And ... so ... these tax cuts ... will continue over the rest of this year.
Put in place this regulatory review in which all of the major agencies are going to go through, find any outmoded regulations, ones that are excessively costly for their benefits, find ways to streamline.
The free-trade agreements, trying to increase exports, which are rising at 15 percent annual rates.
So there you have all the elements of the ineffectual conservative Republican response to a severe recession bordering on a Depression: let the private sector lead and the government step out of the way; cut the budget, exercise austerity, and "live within our means;" use tax cuts as the primary stimulus to get the economy moving again (because they worked so well under the Bush administration); eliminate excessive regulations on businesses, because we all know that excessive regulations are what threw us into the Great Recession and are what are hindering the business community's ability to create economic growth; and implement free-trade agreements so the sticky fingers of the invisible hand of capitalism can work its wonders across international borders, just as it has done for the millions of Americans who once had manufacturing jobs, but just don't understand the fine points of the theory of comparative advantage in economics (by which countries with the "comparative advantage" of having the 2/3 of the world's workers who are willing to work for less than $2/day get jobs as factories in the U.S. shut their doors).

Surely this was an easy target for a Democratic counter-attack. After all, this is Hoover economics, all of which has been thoroughly discredited, if not by the Great Depression, more recently by the Bush administration and the Great Recession that capped off that glorious eight-year period of economic growth during which we managed to double the national debt and crash the economy at the same time.

So what was the Democrats' response?

Actually, that was the Democrats' response. This statement of conservative economic principles was actually from the Chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisors, Austan Goolsby.

To his credit, Goolsby, one of the smartest, clearest-headed, plainest-speaking progressive economists around, looked very uncomfortable having to recite Hoover's plan for economic recovery (actually, Hoover was substantially more proactive and progressive in his vision as the economy sank into the abyss), and he announced his decision to resign the next day, I suspect out of a sense of futility and disgust that there's not much he can do with both of Uncle Sam's hands tied behind his back.

Who Misplaced the Democratic Party?

So how did we get to this point, where Democrats in Washington are looking increasingly difficult for the average American to distinguish from Republicans, as the two parties focus with equal fervor on how to find $50-60 billion in budget cuts after passing twice that amount in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires and then wring their hands that the deficit is out of control ("there's gambling in this establishment!")?

At first it looked as if the Democrats were graciously going to accept Paul Ryan's gift (Medicare cuts that poll about as well as Wall Street bankers, particularly with a voting public of which 40 percent are age 55 and older, who punished the Democrats in large numbers in 2010 for helping finance health care reform with promises of cutting hundreds of billions of cuts in Medicare "waste." Ryan and his party's insistence on a draconian form of "austerity" for older voters, the majority of whom live on less than $20,000 a year, would have placed the differences between the parties in stark relief -- and might well have won the Democrats back the House. Now, however, for reasons that are impossible to fathom, Democrats are unilaterally disarming in advance of negotiations again, making clear that they plan to let the Republicans off the hook by "putting Medicare on the table," as if seniors will either understand or care which party seems to be selling them out more (or more efficiently) in what will become a he said-she said that is completely avoidable.

One could point to many factors that have led the Democrats to occupy the center-right wing of the GOP, but three are among the most important.

First, apologists for the president and the Democrats rightly claim that their hands are tied: the Republicans just won't let them pass any legislation that might move the economy forward, so their only tools are ineffectual ones such as tax cuts and exhortations to the business community to invest.

But what this account leaves out is that this state of affairs is entirely of the Democrats' creation. Had the White House and the supermajorities the president started out with for two years simply done what the voters asked them to do -- and what the House actually did do with remarkable speed in 2009 -- the Democrats' hands would not be tied today.

Voters were terrified when the president took office, and they were looking for him to do something dramatic -- anything -- that might turn things around, just as voters had done with FDR 75 years earlier. The economy was hemorrhaging ¾ of a million jobs a month, the Dow had dropped by over half, and credit was impossible to obtain.

Had the White House not chosen to cut the stimulus package almost in half from the size suggested by virtually all competent economists and then larded it up with $300 billion in tax cuts they already knew were inert because they had been the staple of Bush economics for the last eight years, and had the president simply foreshadowed to the American people that it might take two or three more shocks from the paddles of deficit spending to get the blood circulating again in an economy whose heart had stopped, the president and his party might not have led the average American to conclude (with a little help from some unanswered creative story-telling from the other side) that the stimulus was a failure (instead of having to argue the counterfactual that had they not half-stimulated the economy with their half-stimulus we would likely have gone into a second Great Depression).

Second, by running scared and adopting Republican talking points on economics, Democrats have created a self-fulfilling prophecy. Listening to the same pollster-industrial complex that advised them in 2002 to support George W. Bush's trillion-dollar unfunded bloodbath in Iraq, Democrats have joined with Republicans in offering massive giveaways to millionaires and billionaires and then telling working and middle class Americans that the sky is falling and we (they) have to tighten our (their) belts. Democrats inside the tightened beltway (with the exception of a strong contingent in the House and a dozen or two Senators) appear to have become convinced by the new conventional wisdom in Washington, that Americans aren't really concerned as much about jobs as they are about the deficit.

If you stop and think about it for a moment, that notion is absurd on the face of it. Is it really possible that Americans who have lost their jobs or fear losing them are more worried about an abstraction -- the budget deficit in Washington -- than about the realities of their lives -- that they face a budget deficit around their own kitchen table at the end of every month when they're trying to pay their rent or make their mortgage payment on their rapidly depreciating home?

And as it turns out, this view is as mistaken empirically as it is intuitively.

Can a pollster who believes or wants to show that Americans are as or more concerned about the national debt than jobs or the economic insecurity they face every day write questions in such a way as to get what he or she is looking for? Sure. Does this reflect what working and middle class Americans feel as they watch their economic security disappear? Not in a million years.

Consider the following statement about budget deficits, which began a message that beat a tough deficit-focused, budget-cutting message taken straight from the mouth of John Boehner with a large national sample by over 30 points with the general electorate and by an even larger margin with swing voters: "The best way to reduce the deficit is to put Americans back to work. There are 14 million Americans who've lost their jobs through no fault of their own, and they'd be happy to be paying taxes again instead of drawing unemployment insurance."

Put this way, there is nothing the other side can say that can beat this message. And that's on an issue -- budget deficits -- that's supposed to be the Achilles heel of Democrats and progressives.

What we have witnessed in the last several months is a phenomenon described in a classic book nearly 20 years ago by the political scientist John Zaller. What Zaller discovered is that public opinion tends to follow the lead of party leaders and pundits, as partisans turn to their own leaders and trusted sources for cues on what they should think and feel about the central questions of the day. Normally, when the two sides offer competing views, the 40-45 percent of voters on each side follow the lead of the "opinion leaders" on their side of the aisle.

But when leaders on one side are voicing a strong opinion -- in this case, the Republicans arguing that the sky is falling on the economy because of deficits, tax and spend liberalism, and over-regulation of business -- and the other side is either silent or echoing GOP talking points -- the average voter hears what sounds like a consensus and starts to mouth it.

Then pollsters start to pick up in their polls precisely the view they have been promulgating and elites have been putting into the minds and mouths of ordinary citizens, rendering elected officials all the more afraid of bucking what is now the conventional wisdom. And the result is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So now both the president and Congressional Democrats are making the same mistake Democrats chronically make: When the going gets rough, adopt GOP talking points. Unfortunately, that's bad politics and bad policy. It's bad politics because no one is going to believe that a Democrat is as serious as a Republican about cutting spending, especially the kind of "discretionary spending" (a term that if Frank Luntz didn't make it up, he should have) that disproportionately hits working and middle class people and the most vulnerable. It's bad policy because, as Nobel-Prize-winning economist after economist has told us, GOP plans for "economic growth" will kill hundreds of thousands of jobs, and if you really want to restore "business confidence," the best place to start is by putting Americans back to work and restoring consumer confidence.

You can't create robust growth by frightening or impoverishing everyone but the upper 1 percent, who spend the smallest percent of their income, if you want to sustain demand.

Americans need a choice again between two parties, not between two strains of Hoover Republicanism. The more Democrats offer them the latter, the more they will both sink the economy and blur any distinctions left between the parties. Frankly, if the question is, "Who can do the better job slashing programs to finance tax breaks for the rich?" I would vote Republican. If you want trickle down, vote for people who really believe in it, not the ones who say they believe in it when they are too frightened to say what they really believe.

Three Wings, One Air Supply

That brings us to the third reason so many Democrats have created a third wing of the Republican Party: because they're competing for the same corporate money, which leads them to support the same policies. The major difference between Republicans and Democrats is that virtually all of the Republicans are quite comfortable being bought because it fits their ideology, whereas most of the Democrats who are beholden to one industry or another are conflicted about it -- but not conflicted enough to pass a fair elections bill when they had the chance last year that might have taken away some of the advantages of incumbency but restored integrity to our electoral system.

From the standpoint of voters across the political spectrum, who overwhelmingly endorse statements such as, "It's time we returned to government of, by, and for the people, not government of, bought, and paid for by big corporations," or (in reference to the tax cuts to the rich), "In tough times like these, rich people ought to be giving to charity, not getting it," they have no idea where to turn, because neither party seems to be standing up anymore for working and middle class Americans, let alone for least fortunate among us. What they hear from Democrats are talking points like the following from a Senate press release, which is indistinguishable from the disingenuous pabulum coming from the other side, and does little more than reinforce the conservative economic message: "It's time for Republicans to join Democrats to cut spending in a smart, responsible way that reduces our deficit while creating American jobs, not destroying them."

In other words, let's cut our way to growth.

Somewhere Ronald Reagan is smiling.

The Democrats are at a crossroads. They can continue to populate the third wing of the Republican Party, fundamentally accepting the premises of Reagan's narrative about government the way Republicans from Eisenhower through Ford accepted the premises of Roosevelt's New Deal. If they choose that course, they will continue to marginalize, antagonize, and demoralize not only their base but the vast majority of swing voters, who don't give one whit about ideology but simply want someone to represent their interests and values -- most importantly, the idea that America ought to work again for people who work for a living.

Alternatively, they can return to progressive principles, starting by articulating for themselves as well as the American people what those principles are. (Personally, I have no idea what it means to be a Democrat anymore, other than to "talk about jobs," as if talking about them will somehow magically create them, while searching for compromises with Republicans at each successive "budget crisis" -- this time the debt ceiling -- that will endanger even more jobs.)

If they choose to endorse progressive principles again, they will need to hammer home the distinction between the party that cares first and foremost about working and middle class Americans, those who want to join the ranks of the shrinking middle class, and the small businesses that create two-thirds of all new private sector jobs for working Americans; and the party that cares first and foremost about the rich and well-connected, the big corporations that ship American jobs overseas and rake in massive profits without sharing that prosperity with their workers, and CEOs, Wall Street bankers, and their bloated bonuses.

That would be a change we can believe in. But the Democrats would have to mean it this time.

Drew Westen, Ph.D. is a clinical, personality, and political psychologist and neuroscientist, and Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Emory University.

MASS INCARCERATION!

2011-06-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE TO CLEARLY SEE THE DISTURBING INFORMATION.

Tim Pawlenty Gets Glittered BOMBED!

2011-06-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

Newt Gingrich Hit by Glitter at Anti-Gay Event - Feel The Rainbow!

2011-06-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

Saudi Feminism! Women2Drive

2011-06-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

Saudi women campaign for the right to drive!!

Are Well-Off Progressives Standing in the Way of a Real Movement for Economic Justice? | Economy | AlterNet

2011-06-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

Are Well-Off Progressives Standing in the Way of a Real Movement for Economic Justice? Economy AlterNet

By Alyssa Battistoni

Many progressives are affluent and well-educated. Does their elite status stand in the way of a movement to fight attacks on the working class?

Over the past few years, it’s become an article of faith among progressives that we’re living through a second Gilded Age -- you know, an era in which great fortunes accrue to powerful business leaders and institutions and the nation’s wealth is concentrated at the very top. In the past few months, as Republicans have proposed budgets that would cut taxes still further on the backs of the middle and working class, progressives have hammered away at the statistics -- like that the top 1 percent of Americans hold 34.6 percent of the nation’s wealth; the bottom 90 percent, just 26.9 percent.

But the growth in inequality and decline of the middle and working class, though exacerbated by Bush administration economic policies, isn’t a recent phenomenon -- it’s been in progress for decades. Which begs the question: why on earth did it take so long for the Left to take notice? How did we end up with inequality reaching levels not seen since before the Depression without waging anything approximating a real fight against it? Surely the trends of decreasing social mobility and increasing social stratification in the supposed “land of opportunity” call for serious resistance -- where has it been? As thoroughly reprehensible as the Right’s slavishness to wealth and power is, the fact that it took a financial meltdown for economic justice to even begin to replace welfare reform on the political agenda suggests progressives need to do a bit of navel-gazing.

By now it should come as no surprise that most Democratic politicians are more responsive to the interests of more affluent voters than to the working class, even if they’re nominally better than Republicans with regard to middle-class interests. But the fact of the matter is that it’s not just Democratic politicians who are operating from a position of privilege, but the broader progressive leadership. Perhaps this isn’t surprising either, but for a party purporting to defend the economic interests of the working and middle class -- to say nothing of the poor (as per usual) -- it’s a fatal weakness. By and large, the people who work at progressive think tanks, media outlets and policy centers are well-compensated -- some extravagantly so -- and staggeringly well-educated; they have solid health-care benefits and 401(k)s. As genuinely as they may care about social justice, their caring is largely based on principle rather than self-interest.

Indeed, Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels has shown that voting based on social values has increased among middle-class and affluent white voters -- making “What’s the matter with Manhattan?” a more appropriate question than “What’s the matter with Kansas?” The answer is, of course, nothing. There’s no reason people should vote based on economics rather than social issues, or vice versa. And yet the distinction does matter when it comes to questions of economic justice -- it’s harder to let wage stagnation slide when it’s a fact of life rather than a line on a graph.

While the makeup of the progressive leadership is a symptom of the decline of the working class rather than its root cause, it’s a symptom that perpetuates the disease. Built around often-competing values of technocratic policymaking and social equality, progressives have typically sought the latter via redistribution in the form of taxes and “smart” policy measures rather than trying to make the economic model itself more equitable. We're starting to see the limitations of a technocratic approach to building an essentially charitable welfare state, but by now we've already ceded so much ground that any attempt to bring the conversation back to the structure of the economy itself is labeled as crazy socialist nonsense.

Indeed, for progressive writers and policymakers to focus on economic justice as opposed to “issues” like education or health care is to run the risk of being seen as an unreconstructed lefty obsessed with class, a decidedly unfashionable position these days. A case in point may be Van Jones, who was always bringing class and economic justice into the national conversation, but got dropped like a rock when his history of radical activism came under scrutiny. Safer by far to be a clever wonk -- knowledgeable, witty, able to deploy charts and statistics on whatever topic dominates the news cycle any given day.

But while that work is important and many progressives do it exceedingly well, it doesn’t extend very far beyond the circle of educated, relatively well-off, wonky types who can access and engage with it. That is, it’s not going to result in a progressive movement with the power to fight back against the efforts of corporations and the wealthy to make the structure of the economy ever more favorable to their interests.

And to be sure, any attempt to truly tackle the injustice of our current economic system will require movement building and organizing. The political power of the wealthy is immense, and the waning of union power has left little in the way of institutions that can defend the interests of the nonrich. But advocacy from the comfortable position of the liberal establishment on behalf of the working class isn’t going to get the job done; the push needs to come from the people whose lives are directly affected. Indeed, the reason things like career pressures, blogosphere culture, and pet policies of the progressive middle class matter at all is that the Democrats no longer have a working-class base with the power to push for economic justice.

It’s not exactly news that the demise of unions is a major factor in the decline of the middle and working class, nor that what remains of organized labor is ill-suited to launching a truly transformative campaign. As former SEIU executive Stephen Lerner writes,

Unions with hundreds of millions in assets and collective bargaining agreements covering millions of workers won’t risk their treasuries and contracts by engaging in large-scale sit-ins, occupations and nonviolent civil disobedience that inevitably must overcome court injunctions and political pressure in order to succeed. The same is true for many progressive and civil rights groups that receive significant funding from corporations. Electorally focused groups have worked too hard to risk losing political access.

These aren’t criticisms. They are a reality. Groups that were built for traditional electoral politics, lobbying and collective bargaining can’t turn themselves -- nor should they -- into instruments of direct action challenging the status quo.

Yet thus far, progressives by and large haven’t done the serious work of building new organizations and institutions to replace unions in protecting the interests of poor and working-class Americans in their stead, nor to support groups that can challenge the status quo.

But it’s not too late to build a real movement against neoliberal cuts and in favor of a more just and equitable economy. Recent events offer a vision of a possible new direction: the most exciting activism the Left has seen in decades didn’t take place on the Mall or Capitol Hill, but rather, in places -- Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio -- where drastic anti-union proposals spurred thousands of citizens to come together over issues of mutual concern.

The recession is making people from different backgrounds and walks of life realize that the challenges they face are structurally similar; that not only blue- but white-collar jobs have been degraded and outsourced, and in fields from administration to academia the jobs that remain are increasingly insecure, contingent, and contractual. The looseness and spontaneity of these reactions speaks to a growing energy without an effective outlet, suggesting that progressives need to think about how to better support grassroots organizing, encourage experimentation with new forms of organizing, and create a connected but independent network of diverse organizations and campaigns chipping away at the powers that be.

I sometimes suspect that some progressives see President Obama’s decision to leave community organizing for Harvard Law as validation of policy and legal approaches to tackling injustice over movement-building. But Obama’s career trajectory is actually a case in point for why the Left can’t be led primarily by progressives with middle-class backgrounds and elite educations, even if they’re genuinely concerned with social justice. Organizing is hard work, and it takes a long time. It can’t be done by people who have the option of leaving for greener pastures; it has to be done by people who are embedded within and committed to the communities they’re organizing for the long run.

Because one thing is for sure: a movement consisting of middle-class supporters with a vague commitment to social justice will not succeed in addressing the root causes of its decline on its own, and it will certainly not succeed in addressing -- or perhaps even in identifying -- the issues that plague the poor and working class. As Vivien Labaton and Gara Lamarche of the Atlantic Philanthropies argue in the American Prospect, "Too often, debates unfold without the voices of those most affected informing them. To win the message wars and, more important, to make the strongest case possible for change, we need to put those voices front and center.”

Figuring out how to do this -- how to expand leadership and build a new type of movement that can not only lend power to progressive politics but help form and shape it -- is perhaps the most important challenge facing the American Left today.

Alyssa Battistoni is a writer and graduate student in geography and environment

Immigrants For Sale

2011-06-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

Dear Right Wing Pundits Re: Anti-Choice legislation

2011-02-21T14:22:00.000-08:00

Dear Right Wing Pundits:

I am pro-choice. Shocker! However, I also believe abortion is morally questionable. I believe that many things that human beings (conservative or otherwise) do is morally questionable (i.e. capital punishment). And, I am willing to listen to the argument that an abortion should not be federally funded and I am not so inclined to believe that tax payers should pay for abortions, especially if they have religious and spiritual concerns about paying for such a practice.

However, the political protesting of federal funds used to pay for abortions is not based on economics or fiscal conservatism, it is a calculated step towards the abolition of the right for a woman to terminate a pregnancy and even furthermore, a step down a slippery slope in which women would have their reproductive rights lessened on many levels all in the name of "religion."

While reducing federally funded abortions could be deemed as "small government;" legislation telling me what to do with my own body altogether is definitely big government in my bedroom and on my body.

The reality that your right wing peers are willing to use Live Action shady tactics, such as highly edited videos, to perpetuate falsehoods in an attempt to systematically shut down organizations (let us not forget the ACORN scandal) whose clients are by majority, low-income, non-white and disenfranchised populations, is beyond trying to influence the citizenry's moral compass or expose left wing corruption. It is a larger demonic scheme to keep certain groups of people in specific social locations so that human progress can be stifled and segregated.

In both the ACORN and the Planned Parenthood incidents, the targeted organizations whom Live Action was trying to claim were complicit with human trafficking had in actuality contacted the police to report the alleged perpetrators. You, right wing pundits, failed to mention these FACTS when pushing your fundamentalist agendas and like a dirty dope dealer pushed the false vilification of Planned Parenthood onto a weak-minded community without any second thought as to your own behavior.

Pro-choice, the personal belief that a woman should have the right to terminate her pregnancy is up front and clear. Pro-life, as it stands within social politics, is a falsehood. Pro-life, is simply anti-abortion, and should be labeled as such. If you are anti-abortion yet support capital punishment you are not pro-life. You are simply anti-abortion. Once your right wing punditry embraces this truth and is open about this nuance then perhaps a real discussion about reproductive rights could ensue.

Coming from a loving place. Peace.

Dear Right Wing Pundits. RE: Ronald Reagan Day.

2011-02-08T10:51:00.000-08:00

Dear Right Wing Pundits:

Ronald Reagan is not God or a god or even a saint. He won't be canonized. He won't be rewritten into the Bible and we aren't going to capitalize the letter 'h' when we refer to him.

Here are some reasons why:

In 1981 he fired 11,000 Air Traffic Controllers for staging an "illegal" strike (even though we have the right to protest as ordered by the constitution) and banned them FOR LIFE from working for the government. Reagan used his own citizens, fighting for their workers rights, to show the Soviets that if he was willing to oppress his own people imagine what he would do to them!

He never addressed the AIDS crisis until 1987 after 20,000-30,000 of his citizens had already died from the disease.

His presidency oversaw the Iran-Contra Affair, which not only put weapons in the hands of foreign adversaries, but the money was used to fund the violent quelling of pro-democracy revolutionaries in South America but also is directly linked to the 1980s crack-cocaine epidemic that swept the nation.

This fact alone, taints Ronald Reagan's presidency and legacy so badly that the notion that right wing pundits cry over Bill Clinton lying about getting head in the oval office, disgusts me. And if he truly didn't know about this operation, then he was a puppet. And that's not what I want in a president, just some dude who could make motivational speeches.

Just because the man could tell a joke, was kind to people in person and loved his country does not excuse the oppressive, fundamentalist, deadly actions taken during his presidency. I can accept the truth about the ongoings of governing a nation, right wing pundits should step their game up and do the same, the young conservative is not you.

Coming from a loving place. Peace.

An Open Letter to the Right Wing Pundits:

2011-01-15T07:20:00.001-08:00

Dear Right Wing Pundits:

The problem with your extreme right wing rhetoric is that it draws, by design and/or by default, from a fundamental of American society that the extreme left wing wishes to see eradicated: white supremacy. The left wing has essentially purged this institution from acceptance, not from existence, but from purposeful practice, if you will, within it's political framework. The right wing, again ignorantly possibly in some instances but openly in many others, embraces institutions that continue to sustain this ideology that specific individuals have rights above others simply by birthright (race, nationality, religion or otherwise.) Therefore you, the right wing pundits and your establishment, immortalize white supremacy and the ideals it embraces, even if you or your colleagues very own individual racial identity is subject to expulsion from such a conformity.

While I can concur that tax-paying citizens, both the worker and the business owner are due rights and input in regard to the programs they fund, such a contribution does not grant you an absolute power over others. The temptation to misuse this deceitful "right to exclude" is exercised vigorously by the right for often tyrannical purposes. Like a sick genocidal lullaby the right wing sings to edify it's belief that certain people count and certain people don't, they advocate legislation, social norms and an overall group think that encourages animosity towards your fellow human being. Right wing fundamentalism is not Christianity, please stop confusing politics with religion, they are separate as the Bible indicates they should be.

In any economic system there is a degree of serfdom, even Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey pay taxes to the man to operate their respective businesses. Which leads me to state that also in most societies, who you serve may be at your will depending on your financial situation. The richer you are the more self-governing you are, this is essential to the American Dream. What is also essential to the American Dream is that our society is open for anybody to achieve this. Because the right wing contextualizes itself within or among white supremacist ideals, American supremacy, however you wish to couch your terms, it's very definition of freedom includes an exclusion and goes against the American Dream. And the right wing's corruption of exception is used to exploit their fellow human under many given circumstances for social, political and financial benefit, ergo, and with fault for sounding redundant, exclusion is fundamental to the right wing philosophy. And this, right wing pundits, is what you espouse daily to your audience: Exclude!

If a broad socio-political dogma embracing hostility towards fellow humans is from which the right wing subscribes, it is only perfunctory that a climate of antagonism develops. I find it quite insensible to confirm contrarily. And frankly, left wing doctrine is a reaction to fundamentalism and a resistance to social stratification. United States fundamentalism presumes itself to be an initiating American genesis, so to imply that left wing practice is anything other than a reaction to this establishment would simply be unintelligent or down right deceptive.

Left wing precept is inclusive, it searches for ways to humanely annex and subsume diverse groups of people and diverse belief systems that are not harmful to society, which is why extreme leftism in America always includes a global context. American conservatism seeks to shun that which it is not familiar or that which is perceived as threatening or foreign, narrow it's scope of representation and therefore constrain society for reasons that are not righteous but are selfish and self-serving, to protect a shameful pretense: that certain groups of people deserve exclusion.

I understand the fear of lack of resources. I understand the fear of joblessness, poverty and disenfranchisement. I share those fears. However, the ruling elite, not just the government alone, but also the families and the corporations that hold the power and the resources and the money, are not going to concede that power nor privilege and are complicit with furthering division, viewing social unrest and blood shed as either an unfortunate consequence or as a strategic necessity. The right wing faction both the blind followers whom have succumbed to the bleak forecast that fundamentalism calls for or the deliberate and clever driving force for which you, the right wing pundits, speak for and to, enables an agenda that will ensure bitter aggression.

Left wing rhetoric is not about what one cannot do, it is about what we can do contrary to the oppressive right wing theories that people should be restricted. Because the right wing wants to make no concessions, what do it's pundits propose that those left out of the right wing loop do?

If the right wing and you, it's pundits, close the door more and more as to make it harder and harder to fit under the unholy umbrella of "haves" then you and your cause will soon enough mimic a system of supremacy that eventually imploded at the base and became a disgrace to even have been associated with.

Wake up! It's 2011, the paradigm is shifting, you can either help shape the future or be mired in the past schlepping around out dated and disproved social theory.

Bill Maher on Tonight Show: Right Wing will not give up violent rhetoric,video footage

2011-01-12T18:15:00.000-08:00

Pit bull attacks Vallejo 5th grader, police won't treat as crime

2011-01-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik KEEPS IT REAL about the Arizona Shooting

2011-01-08T23:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday,Pima County Sheriff, Clarence Dupnik, told the USA Today "When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous and unfortunately, Arizona I think has become the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

Conservative bloggers have already attacked Sheriff Dupnik as being a political opportunist. But I say perhaps an experienced police officer who understands a thing or two about social psychology. It's not rocket science here folks. It's common sense.

It is obvious that the Arizona gunman was mentally disturbed to the point of being criminally insane. His thoughts were incoherent, they did not make sense. His postings show a young man grappling with very intense metaphysical, political and social philosophy. His dialogue is one of someone who was being enlightened to certain ideologies, philosophies, however, due to extreme mental illness he is not sound enough to compartmentalize these ideas and instead his mental health pushed him towards violence in order to relieve the pressure from the knowledge he gained, even to want to be a terrorist and gain fame. His thoughts on terrorism suggest that he was intrigued by the idea and the action. However, the gunman isn't really the issue, I don't need to further study him, he's a non-factor, his role is now obsolete, we are left to deal with the shit he put on the table.

The socio-political environment for young people in Arizona must be extreme, no matter the class or race because of the strong racial divisions that are still being reinforced at all forms of social institutions, tangible and otherwise.

Judge Roll, the federal judge assigned to the HB2281 case, involving the legislation passed banning Ethnic Studies, was killed today during the shooting, considered possibly just a coincidence.

Why are these politicians even wasting tax dollars banning Ethnic Studies? It behooves the power elite, really it does, to have such a resource. This level of ignorance suggests that there is a serious reinforcement of power going on and therefore people must be being guided by fear rather than logic. Banning ethnic studies and passing laws targeting undocumented workers in the simultaneous fashion that was conducted by Arizona politicians overtly implies reactionary factions were sending a sincere message to the non-whites: "Stay in your place" or we will eradicate you by any means necessary. Those violent actions, disguised as docile legislation, permeate the culture of Arizonians, white or not white and physically direct the future of Arizona, the future meaning the youth. De jure social norms, if you will, can be and are often unnatural and forced to prevent humane progress (i.e. Black Codes, Jim Crow), therefore pressuring people to follow them, when there natural will or humane feelings might tell them they should do otherwise. This is particularly true among young people.

White Supremacy is a fatal farce and to continue it for any reason on any level is to go against nature, morality and humanity. Any elected official still peddling that bullshit within our governmental institutions should be subject to the justice system. Implementation of any form of racial supremacy requires violence and oppression and thus should not be a tolerated practice.

Arizona's ruling elite is killing it's future, literally.

Arizona shooting suspect left "Final Thoughts"

2011-01-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

Bitter social politics will always ignite the criminally insane to believe they have a righteous paranoia and are just in acting out violent crimes.

Arizona is obviously a breeding ground for division at this present time in history. I am not shocked that such a young man would emerge from a state that has been consistently devaluing human life and human rights. Thus causing an already disturbed individual to absorb the tone and mood and twist it into something much more sinister.

Perhaps Arizona politicians should take some time to reflect on the message it is sending out about humanity to its young people. One need not suffer from mental health disorders to recognize (knowingly or otherwise) the lack of respect for human life that is extending from the Arizona machine.

My heart goes out to those injured and killed. It is not in vain. It is with a lesson to be taught. I just hope that those who need it most will see the writing on the wall.

Right Wing gang banger "Dr." Laura uses N-word and punks out.

2010-08-17T19:43:00.000-07:00

Yet another Right Wing Fascist exposes the reality of their point of view: Narrow, racist and devoid of common sense.

After using the N-word 11 times on her radio show, when addressing a Black woman's concern about her white husband's tolerance of the racial epithet, Dr. Laura decided to call it quits so that she can be held less accountable when using racial slurs.

The younger yet equivalently acrimonious and racist pundit Michelle Malkin showed solidarity with the bigoted radio personality stating, "More power to her" on her blog Tuesday in reaction to the resignation. Conservative journalist Tim Graham from the Media Research Council penned an apologist piece declaring that Dr. Laura wasn't technically calling anybody the n-word, however, merely mimicking Black comedians, etc...and then he somehow spun the entire event into a conspiratorial witch hunt for right wing pundits. Puhleeze. Even though he eventually had to admit that she had no real basis for even using the word at all. No flipping duh Tim!

Personally, I would think a conservative woman, with supposedly high moral regard for humanity, would refrain from using such language. Oh but that's right, just like the rest of the conservative gang bangers from her hood, she's not truly trying to uplift humanity, she's just trying to get noticed. Any publicity is good publicity, wink wink. Even if we have to perpetuate or confirm negative stereotypes about ourselves and others to do so. A people divided, is good for her business, just like Malkin, Beck, O'Reilly and the whole lot of them. The desire for a positive unification of the American people is touted as corruption (i.e. working together through economic crisis) while unification under the realm of war and expansionism is correct and right even when it is proven that we are sending our TEENAGERS over to foreign soil based on lies, greed and immoral behavior.

C.J, a columnist for the Star Tribune of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota states it eloquently and succinctly in her open letter to Dr. Laura when she summarizes why Dr. Laura doesn't get to use the N-Word:

"The vicious little N-word has been appropriated, hijacked by the very people it was designed to dehumanize. That makes some people crazy. Maybe black comedians, who more than likely started the trend publicly, are smarter than I think. By co-opting the word, blacks have diminished its power. By using it in a loving way, ownership has changed hands and now the race that originated the insult shouldn't use it."

Here is one version of Dr. Laura's apology, explanation and rationalization as posted on E News:

"My contract is up for my radio show at the end of the year and I've made the decision not to do radio anymore," Schlessinger told King, who also happens to be on his way out this year (for less incendiary reasons).

"The reason is I want to regain my First Amendment rights. I want to be able to say what's on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates, attack sponsors. I'm sort of done with that."

She's not retiring or quitting, she added, but rather, hopes to be "stronger and freer to say the things that I believe need to be said for people in this country."

Schlessinger apologized for her verbal gaffe the day after it happened, admitting that she did "the wrong thing."

"I didn't intend to hurt people, but I did. And that makes it the wrong thing to have done...I was attempting to make a philosophical point, and I articulated the N-word all the way out—more than one time. And that was wrong. I'll say it again—that was wrong."

What a crock! I've heard the radio program and read the transcript, she was not attempting to make a philosophical point, in fact she was doing the exact opposite, trying to shut down the conversation and halt the caller's attempt to truly look critically at the situation. And like all the other right wing fascists who love to demagogue and suck lemons all day until the bitter sourness becomes the very essence of their scornful foundation, she looks like a narrow-minded, one track fool.

Global Women's Leadership Network JUL 31- AUG 7

2010-07-23T16:15:00.000-07:00

Photo Shelly Gordon/Special To The Town Crier Linda Alepin, left, meets Patricia Eiyo-Elotu, a graduate ofthe 2009 GWLN program. Eiyo-Elotu is from Uganda and works with women farmers to train them in sustainable farming techniques.

Los Altos Hills resident Alepin pushes cause of women leaders around world for humanity

Written by Shelly Gordon - Special to the Town Crier
Wednesday, 21 July 2010

The Global Women’s Leadership Network, in partnership with Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business and Law School, has scheduled its Global Leaders for Justice Program July 31 through Aug. 7 at the university. More than 20 global leaders will participate in the program dedicated to developing effective leadership.

The program is the fulfillment of a dream for Linda Alepin, a 37-year resident of Los Altos Hills.

Since Alepin formed the network in 2004, the organization has trained 100 women leaders from nearly 30 countries and various sectors of society and encouraged them to transform their work into breakthrough global projects.

They continue their projects in environmental sustainability, health care, economic development, food security, gender equality and human rights with ongoing coaching from Alepin and network volunteers using Internet technologies like Skype, Web conferencing and social media.

“Linda has always been a visionary,” said Linda Thompson, a longtime Los Altos friend and business colleague for 30 years. “Linda thinks big and is willing to take the actions to make dreams a reality. She can see and take advantage of opportunities that others might ignore.”

Alepin forged a partnership between the Global Women’s Leadership Network and the law school to develop the training program. They raised funds to sponsor leaders from India, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Cameroon, Ghana, Iran, Cambodia and Costa Rica.

The program demonstrates how to implement projects through workshops and classes in social policy, supplemented with opportunities to network with Silicon Valley social entrepreneurs working in developing countries. This year’s projects focus on food security, rights of disabled citizens, clean water, children’s health, education and human rights advocacy.

Alepin, who raised two sons and two daughters with her husband, Ronald, in Los Altos Hills, has blazed a trail for women since 1967, when she was one of three women to graduate from Stanford University with a degree in economics. That same year, she joined IBM as the first woman hired in sales and was promoted to sales engineer when IBM introduced its first desktop computer.

“Acceptance of women in business at that time was an issue, but I didn’t let the barriers stop me,” Alepin said.

When Alepin took a marketing position with Amdahl, she mastered the discipline of finance and within three years was promoted to vice president of strategy – the company’s second female officer.

When Amdahl foundered under a $700 million loss in 1993, Alepin led the team that returned the company to profitability a year later.

Alepin remembers driving home after a trying day and stopping at Rancho San Antonio County Park. Standing on a sandbar along Permanente Creek, Alepin envisioned an international group of women leaders, bound together by the Internet, changing the world. She’s now channeling that vision through a powerful leadership course that she wanted to make available to potential women leaders.

“It’s become painfully obvious that the world’s most persistent problems ... cannot be overcome with traditional models of leadership,” she said. “(The network’s) mission is to leverage the talents of women leaders and ignite a new future for humanity. Our goal is to create 500 women leaders by 2013.”

A public event, The Global Innovation Dialogue, to introduce the leaders is scheduled Aug. 4.

For more information, visit www.gwln.org.

Carl Cameron of Fox News calls out his colleagues bias.

2010-07-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

Does Fox News Fuel the Tea Party?

by Steve Friess
The Daily Beast
7/22/2010

Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron, in conversation at the Netroots Nation convention, said his network blew up the Shirley Sherrod story, that Senate candidate Sharron Angle “always seems confused,” and agreed that his network boosts the Tea Party.

Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron, chatting with a Daily Kos contributor in the media room Thursday at the liberal blogger convention Netroots Nation, mocked his Fox colleagues’ behavior on the Shirley Sherrod scandal and tacitly agreed that the cable network had fueled the rise of the Tea Party movement.

Cameron, speaking to blogger Dante Atkins shortly after Atkins had been interviewed for a Fox segment about the Netroots event, nodded as Atkins repeated comments he made on camera that the Tea Party movement was largely organized by Fox News hosts like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.

“Tell me about it,” Cameron smirked.

As the conversation continued, Atkins, a Daily Kos front-pager, cited examples of Fox’s undue sway over events. Cameron then offered one of his own.

“The Sherrod case is an example of some at Fox News trying to have more influence than it probably should,” Cameron said.

Cameron was referring to this week’s controversy in which Georgia-based USDA inspector Shirley Sherrod, who is black, was fired by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack after Internet provocateur Andrew Breitbart posted a heavily edited video that seemed to indicate she was bragging about not giving help to a farmer 24 years ago because he was white.

Hannity and other Fox personalities pounced on Breitbart’s “scoop” as evidence of “reverse racism” and played the edited video repeatedly. Later in the week, the full video of Sherrod’s speech to the 2010 NAACP convention emerged, showing she was using her initial reaction to the white farmer to explain her own journey toward racial enlightenment. The farmer, Roger Spooner, appeared on CNN and elsewhere vouching for Sherrod and crediting her with saving their farm, and by today President Obama called to apologize and offer the 62-year-old her job back.

Cameron told The Daily Beast Thursday night that this report takes his remarks out of context and that he was actually defending the integrity of Fox’s news division. He insisted this reporter did not hear the entire discussion, even though it began immediately after this reporter’s interview with Daily Kos blogger Atkins had concluded.

Cameron also claimed the conversation only lasted 40 seconds because he was in a hurry to get across town.

When asked later, Atkins estimated the conversation witnessed by this reporter was about four minutes long and confirmed the accuracy and context of the quotations in this report, but declined to comment further to The Daily Beast.

The remarks by Cameron were unusual but not unprecedented. Others, including Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, have called out some conservative bias in the top-rated news network’s coverage and image.

During the conversation with Atkins, Cameron also opined about Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle of Nevada, who is facing off with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in November. Angle is a Tea Party icon who has advocated eliminating Social Security and Medicare, says that teenagers who are impregnated through incestuous rape ought to be required to bear the child, and has said she supports the prohibition of alcohol.

The former assemblywoman has lost a substantial lead in the polls since her June 8 victory as Reid hammers her in TV ads. Angle is making an issue out of the fact that Reid called banks in March 2009 when an $8.5 billion development owned by MGM Resorts International on the Las Vegas Strip was hours from bankruptcy. MGM was able to secure the loans and finish the project, keeping 10,000 construction workers on the job and currently employing 12,000 others in its operations.

The conversation in the media room between Cameron and Atkins turned to Angle. Angle has been criticized for being unavailable to reporters since her primary victory, and Atkins noted Angle has stated she was appearing on Fox News because it was good for fundraising. Cameron said that she hadn’t appeared on the network “much.”

At this point, this reporter noted that she had appeared at least twice, including last week when a Fox News anchor confronted her—and confused her by doing so—on her use of the term “bank bailout” to describe Reid’s MGM intervention.

“Sharron Angle always seems confused,” Cameron said.

Cameron and Atkins then left the room and carried on their conversation in the hallway for several more minutes. Atkins declined to say what more was discussed; Cameron said he thanked Atkins for appearing on Fox and expressed frustration that the Netroots Nation organization refused to provide a spokesperson to speak to the network.

Republicans act as receptacle for Tea Party! So what does that make the Tea Party?

2010-07-21T22:42:00.000-07:00

It is always a hoot when the Republicans take on the trash. Like back in the 1970s when they let former Dixiecrats into the GOP in order to court the racist voting bloc. Or how they defend the flying of the treasonous Confederacy's flag on the United States soil. Or what about when they let Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin have the reins and go full speed ahead accusing everyone and their mother (literally) of being a communist (or wait, was that Glenn Beck making accusations of socialism and Marxism, it's all blending together.) The vast right wing conspiracy is not a secret, it is a hostile take over to stunt the growth of the American psyche.

Republicans Form Caucus for Tea Party in the House

By JANIE LORBER

Published: July 21, 2010

Members of the freshly minted House Tea Party Caucus spent their first day of existence Wednesday trying to clarify just who they are — a tricky task when the Tea Party opposes big government and the caucus members work in the heart of it.

“We’re not the mouthpiece,” said Representative Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican who is chairwoman of the caucus. “We are not taking the Tea Party and controlling it from Washington, D.C. We are also not here to vouch for the Tea Party or to vouch for any Tea Party organizations or to vouch for any individual people or actions, or billboards or signs or anything of the Tea Party.”

“We are the receptacle,” she added.

She would not elaborate on how the group would move forward — whether, for instance, the Tea Party Caucus would offer legislation of its own or whether its members would work collectively for or against bills put forward by any political party.

Ms. Bachman also tried, at a Capitol Hill news conference, to quash accusations that the new caucus represented a racist movement by introducing blacks and Hispanics who sympathized with the Tea Party. One, Tito Munoz, a Colombian immigrant who is host of a Spanish-language conservative radio show, attacked those who criticized the movement and its concerns.

“They have called us racists,” said Mr. Munoz, of Woodbridge, Va. “They have called us many names, and they have insulted the Americans who are against big government and socialist policies. We do not want a socialist democracy. We want a constitutional republic back to the basics of how it was founded.”

The group includes three members of the Republican leadership, including Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, who as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee is leading the party’s effort to win back the House.

So far, the Tea Party Caucus has these 28 Republican members from the House: Trent Franks of Arizona; Gary G. Miller of California; Doug Lamborn of Colorado; Gus Bilirakis and Cliff Stearns of Florida; Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey and Tom Price of Georgia; Dan Burton and Mr. Pence of Indiana; Steve King of Iowa; Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt of Kansas; John Fleming of Louisiana; Roscoe G. Bartlett of Maryland; Peter Hoekstra of Michigan; Ms. Bachmann of Minnesota; Todd Akin of Missouri; Walter B. Jones of North Carolina; Joe Wilson of South Carolina; Joe L. Barton, John Carter, Michael C. Burgess, John Culberson, Louie Gohmert, Pete Sessions and Lamar Smith of Texas; and Cynthia M. Lummis of Wyoming.

FOX News Tabloid Journalism...Rupert Murdoch is as un-American as Osama bin Laden.

2010-07-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

This is not the first time that FOX ~~News~~ I mean... FOX Tabloid Journalism has used highly edited video footage (i.e. ACORN human trafficking scandal) to try and shape the public opinion in regard to people of color, poor people, or any certain group that they see as challenging their right wing fascism and white supremacist agenda AND SUCCEEDED. Sure FOX News ends up having to explain themselves when the truth comes to light. And the drastic actions that were taken due to this shoddy journalism eventually are reversed; But at the end of the day, WHY IS FOX NEWS deliberately seeking out people of color and the community organizations whom advocate for them? This is not an accident. This is deliberate action taken by Rupert Murdoch. So while FOX News claims to be for the American people, patriotic and fair and balanced, they are pushing a foreign man's agenda. Rupert Murdoch is as un-American as Osama bin Laden and all those punks over at FOX News pushing his right wing fascist agenda.

Fox News' response to Sherrod fallout: Ignore, whitewash, mislead

7/21/2010
Research
Media Matters for America

Fox News spent much of July 19 and 20 ginning up controversy about the false claim that Shirley Sherrod made racist remarks at a NAACP meeting earlier this year. As the claim unraveled, Fox media personalities disappeared their role in the story, continued to smear her as "descriminat[ory]" in the face of contradictory evidence, and boldly suggested the network did not contribute to the controversy.

Fox's initial reaction: "Racist" Sharrod "must resign"

O'Reilly: "Sherrod must resign," her remarks are "unacceptable." On the July 19 edition of his show, Bill O'Reilly played the edited portion of the tape and said "that is simply unacceptable. And Ms. Sherrod must resign immediately." He also falsely claimed that "the full transcript of Ms. Sherrod's remarks is posted on BigGovernment.com."

Hannity called Sherrod's remarks "[j]ust the latest in a series of racial incitents," called for the NAACP to be "held to account" to repudiate Sherrod. On the July 19 edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity asserted that Sherrod's comments were "[j]ust the latest in a series of racial incidents," and stated that "So it's interesting that it took the new media to expose this." He also asked Newt Gingrigh if, "in light of the NAACP accusing the Tea Party of being a racist movement last week," he thought "the NAACP should be held to account for the very standard they were demanding from the Tea Party."

Perino: "This video adds fuel to a growing controversy after the NAACP" asked the tea party to denounce racists. On the July 19 edition of On the Record, Dana Perino suggested Sherrod's remarks were racist, saying that "The video adds fuel to a growing controversy after the NAACP approved a resolution condemning the tea party movement for not denouncing racist members."

Doocy: Sherrod "sure sounded racist," is "[e]xhibit A" of "what racism looks like." On the July 19 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy said that Sherrod made "a speech to the NAACP that sure sounded racist." Later, after guest-host Ailysn Camerota asserted that Sherrod's remarks are "outrageous and perhaps everybody needs a refresher course on what racism looks like," Doocy responded that Sherrod's comments are "Exhibit A."

Beck plays "videotape of USDA administration official discriminating against white farmers." On the July 20 edition of his radio show, Beck says that they "have videotape of a USDA administration official discriminating against white farmers." He then asks, "Have we suddenly transported into 1956 except it's the other way around? ... Does anybody else have a sense that there are some that just want revenge? Doesn't it feel that way?" After playing the audio of the tape, Beck says, "You tell me what part of the gospel is teaching that."

After the tide turned: Fox "didn't even do" the Sherrod story

Bret Baier absurdly claims Fox News "didn't even do" the Sherrod story. On the July 20 edition of Special Report, Bret Baier claimed "Fox News didn't even do the story, we didn't do it on Special Report, we posted it online."

Beck on Fox: "Based on the facts that we have right now, this is something that I wouldn't air and demand a resignation on." On the July 20 edition of this Fox News show, Beck stated: "I don't think Shirley should have been fired -- or, I'm sorry, forced to resign. Based on the facts that we have right now, this is something that I wouldn't air and demand a resignation on." He added that he "wouldn't air" the tape because "context matters."

Doocy on Sherrod: "What was the big hurry for them to condemn her in the first place?" On the July 21 edition of Fox & Friends, Dana Perino and Steve Doocy falsely asserted that, in Perino's words, "before the news even broke, she had resigned." Perino then stated that "everyone's nerves are raw and exposed on these racial questions, and I think we should all look before we leap." Doocy then stated: "What was the big hurry for them to condemn her in the first place? I don't get it, because the totality of what she said was out there."

Rosen: "Did the White House essentially railroad an innocent woman in this?" On the July 20 edition of Fox News' Happening Now, James Rosen reported that the additional context from Sherrod's speech "appeared to corroborate" her statement that she was telling the story of "how she came to see beyond race," and then asked: "Did the White House essentially railroad an innocent woman in this because they are on edge themselves because of the Van Jones controversy, the Black Panthers Party case, and other controversies?

The holdouts: Sherrod was still "discriminating" against the farmer

Hannity doubles down, says Sherrod "still admits discriminating," suggested he's unfairly "getting blamed." On the July 20 edition of his show Hannity asserted that "She still admits that she was discriminating against this white farmer." He added that "I'm getting blamed and Fox News is getting blamed, but it's the White House that made the decision before we ever aired the tape."

O'Reilly's ignores context, still claims "What [Sherrod] said is ridiculous." On the July 20 edition of his show, O'Reilly was still claiming that "What [Sherrod] said is ridiculous," and stated the real story is "the news blackout" on the Sherrod story, and how "the establishment press tilts left and is reluctant to do damage to a very liberal president."

***
Sherrod: I'm a Victim of Breitbart, Fox 'Racism'

July 21, 2010 11:40 am ET
by Joe Strupp
Media Matters For America

Shirley Sherrod, the former Agriculture Department Georgia Director of Rural Development, says she is a victim. A victim of poor reporting and, as she contends, clear bias and racist coverage from both Andrew Breitbart and Fox News.

"When you look at their reporting, this is just another way of seeing that they are (racist)," Sherrod told me about Fox in a lengthy interview Tuesday night. "But I have seen that before now. I saw their reporting as biased during the Bush Administration and the Clinton Administration."

Sherrod was forced to resign on Monday after a portion of a taped speech she gave last March was posted at Breitbart's Biggovernment.com.

In the edited tape, she spoke about how she had not initially helped a white farmer as much as she could have in 1986 when he was going to lose his farm. In the posting, Breitbart made it appear as though the story had occurred during her time as a federal official and not 24 years ago when she worked for a non-profit organization.

Breitbart also did not include the entire context of the speech, in which she later explained that she learned from the situation and ended up helping the farmer, Roger Spooner and his wife. Both Spooners spoke out several times Tuesday to support Sherrod and voice that they would have lost their farm if not for her help.

Breitbart has since posted the full version of the tape, but his original posting also remains.

"It was a time when I realized that they did some of the same things to white farmers that they did to black farmers," Sherrod said about the speech. "I thought that all white farmers got the best treatment, but I found out in this case that was not so."

Explaining the speech further, Sherrod said, "I am trying to say to the people there that it is time for us to move forward. We do not want to forget the past and be in a position that racism is there and we don't see it. We want to move together. Our area of the state cannot grow and thrive until we learn to get along."

But after Breitbart posted the video clip, Sherrod said the lack of context and explanation sparked anger against her. She said she found out about the clip when someone e-mailed a link to her and asked about it.

"I couldn't believe it. I found this out when someone sent me (a link to) the tape, people who follow him, who put it out there," Sherrod said about Breitbart. "I got crank calls right away. Someone sent me an e-mail and link and said 'shame on you' and other stuff. I was sitting in a meeting and I was really upset.

"I texted back that they were so wrong and that they need to know the message and they got it wrong."

Sherrod said Cheryl Cook, USDA deputy undersecretary, called her Monday and said she had to be on administrative leave."

She adds: "People were calling and writing the Department of Agriculture in Athens, Ga., and Washington to tell them about it. That I needed to be fired. That a racist like me had no business working for the department. That is the way they intimidate people and it worked."

By the end of the day Monday, she was forced to resign.

Sherrod, 62, said her first reaction was shock that, after a career working for civil rights and as the daughter of a father murdered by racists, she would be seen in such a terrible light.

"To have people say that I was such a racist was unbelievable," she said of the fallout from the video and Fox coverage. "My whole life, if you look into what I have done, my father was murdered in 1965. If you look at all of us, we all hurt with that and we got involved into the movement and channeled our effort into good, instead of hating.

"I am getting hate calls and e-mails at this point. I got one call last night at my house at 12:30 a.m. that said 'you lost your job, good for you' and 'bitch' There are people out there who will believe that I am a racist person, even though the story is getting out there."

She said her husband, Charles, and her two children, who also live nearby in Athens, Ga., were surprised, but have been toughened by years of seeing her work in the civil rights movement: "They had to grow up in the movement so they have had to deal with stuff like this through the years. We did not always take the easy road. They have some thick skin as a result."

But the clear damage to Sherrod comes from Breitbart, who posted the tape without context, and Fox, which ran with the story and did not seek to confirm it.

"The news media should tell it like it is and not the way they want it to be," she said.

Sherrod said Breitbart never contacted her before posting the video clip to ask about it.

"I never heard that name until a few minutes ago," she said Tuesday night about Breitbart. "He never contacted me. I think they intended it to be what it ended up being, a racist thing that could unite even more the racist people out there who follow them."

She also said Fox News never checked the facts with her before posting a story and the video clip.

"Not before they reported it," she said of Fox's negligence. "They have called me today and initially I had said yes (to an interview), but I thought about it and I did not think they intended to be fair in their reporting. They are going to say what they want to say regardless of what I say."

She said Fox showed no professionalism in continuing to bother her for an interview, but failing to correct their coverage.

"I think they should but they won't. They intended exactly what they did. They were looking for the result they got yesterday," she said of Fox. "I am just a pawn. I was just here. They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person."

Still, Fox continued to push for an interview with her, Sherrod said.

"It was unbelievable. I am refusing to be on there. They have been calling me and calling me. I have refused to do an interview because they are biased," she explained. "I don't think Fox News does it fairly. It is worse so now. I have sat and listened to the way they cover the news even before this administration and I saw what was going on."

Sherrod said this situation has worsened her view of racism in media coverage.

"I think it is race. You think we have come a long way in terms of race relations in this country, but we keep going backwards," she said. "We have become more racist. This was their doing, Breitbart put that together misrepresenting what I was saying and Fox carried it."

Sherrod said she has gotten no future job offers and believes this will scar her reputation forever, even if all the facts come out.

"There will be people who always think of this," she said. "I can see in the future whatever I do, this story will be recounted, no matter what. This will be brought up. People will constantly be trying to point out negative things."

Have other job offers come up? "No, no one. People are afraid of me now, I guess, with all of this. That is the other fallout from this. Anyone would be afraid of me, maybe I am a troublemaker, a racist."

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he is reviewing the matter, hinting that Sherrod could possibly get her job back.

Asked if she would return if asked, she said: "I think I would have to go back for a short time, even if I did not stay for a long haul. I would need to prove a point, that I can be bigger than them. I was doing a lot of good things. People had access to that office that never did before. I had reached out to the poorest counties."

Despite that, she plans to carry on.

"I will go back to doing what I was doing before, working with people, trying to build," she said. "There are a lot of projects in Georgia I have been involved in creating. I will get busy with that again."

Sherrod said she is considering legal action, perhaps against Breitbart, Fox or the federal government:

"I don't know enough to know. I wish I did. I would love to sue. I am going to talk about it. I have been getting calls from all over the country. I don't want to leave one stone unturned."

Sherrod said she has been helped by many media outlets, such as CNN and others that have allowed her to explain the truth, enough so that the NAACP retracted a statement Tuesday that had denounced her.

She said that has convinced her to trust some media outlets, noting she had plans to be on Good Morning America and NPR Wednesday.

"The only one I refused to do is Fox," she said, adding the fair coverage by others "makes me think highly of some of the media, but not any better about Fox. It is a bad taste in my mouth dealing with them. It would help some if they apologized and say they were wrong, but I don't see that happening."

Pro-Mehserle Rally disrespects honest cops.

2010-07-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

I do not find there to be even an inkling of a way to draw parallels between supporting a cop who killed a young man while laying face down and shooting him in the back and supporting loved ones of police officers killed in the line of duty. It is a crock that people have come together under some guise that a pro-Mehserle rally is honoring fallen cops and their families. I personally had a family friend whose father was shot in the line of duty (thankfully surviving) and this rally disrespects his service, his commitment, his sacrifice and his integrity as an honest police officer. This rally is a disservice to those honest, hard working, quality police officers who practice restraint and live and breathe to protect and serve their communities. What a shame. What a sham.

R.I.P. OSCAR GRANT

Walnut Creek police prepare for pro-Mehserle rally
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
Contra Costa Times

Posted: 07/18/2010 06:10:34 PM PDT

Updated: 07/18/2010 08:19:13 PM PDT

Motorists who use Ygnacio Valley Road may want to find alternate routes during Monday afternoon's rally in support of former BART policeman Johannes Mehserle, convicted earlier this month of involuntary manslaughter.

Police have no plans to shut down streets around the courthouse but that is subject to the ultimate nature of the rally, said Walnut Creek police Lt. Shelly James.

"We are hopeful that it will be a peaceful demonstration that won't impact the traveling public," James said. "But we have contingency plans in case it becomes unruly and we need to take enforcement action. Our mission is to protect life and property, and at the same time, make sure people's constitutional rights are respected."

The rally is set for 2 to 5 p.m. in the parking lot of the Walnut Creek Courthouse, 650 Ygnacio Valley Road.

All scheduled Superior Court hearings for the afternoon have been continued. On Sunday, portions of the court parking lot and building had yellow police tape and metal barriers surrounding it.

Affluent, suburban Walnut Creek rarely sees political demonstrations.

But after the violent, post-verdict protest in Oakland, where participants decried the jury's failure to convict Mehserle of murder while others looted stores and vandalized cars, some fear a repeat performance.

Rally organizers, in an e-mail news release, said they have been overwhelmed by media requests and dismayed at characterizations of their event as racially incendiary or disrespectful to the Grant family.

Mehserle, a white man, shot and killed Oscar Grant, a black man, on a BART platform on Jan. 1, 2009.

"No one believes that Mr. Grant deserved to be killed nor is anyone happy that this happened," they wrote. "Oscar Grant's family and friends have lost someone that they loved. Johannes Mehserle's family, friends and fellow law enforcement officials have also lost someone they loved."

Organizers wrote that they intend to host a peaceful rally designed to show support for Mehserle and other law enforcement officers. They said they selected Walnut Creek for its central location.

As of Sunday, 140 people had indicated on the event's Facebook page, "In Support of Johannes Mehserle and L.E.O. Rally," they would attend. Members of the Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant have also said they will show up.

Rally planners urged all participants to show respect to both sides, and resist name-calling or intimidation tactics.

The rally is not about inciting violence or a race war, they wrote, but an opportunity to present another view and grieve, as a community, for the pain on both sides.

BET founder Bob Johnson to build spa resort in Libera.

2010-07-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

How about also (I mean the man is a billionaire) investing into some projects that help the Gulf Coast communities?

BET founder to build spa resort in war-torn Liberia

From Stephanie Elam, CNN

July 16, 2010 11:56 a.m. EDT

(CNN) -- Billionaire businessman Bob Johnson has chosen Liberia for his latest venture, the country's first top class hotel.

Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, was the first African American to control a company on the New York Stock Exchange and the first black owner of a major U.S. professional sports team.

He told CNN why he chose a country blighted by a long-running civil war for his 78-room beach-side spa resort.

"When you go into a post-conflict country, you are going to have to be willing to take risks, but with risks there are also rewards," said Johnson.

"If I can get in first and make the right connections, you've got a good chance of not only making an investment that will return a very good reward."

Johnson, the founder and chairman of RLJ Companies, said he avoided the capital Monrovia because of its social problems, high numbers of people without proper housing and lack of reliable electricity. Instead, with the government's help, he chose a beach-side site from which he had to clear some residents.

When you go into a post-conflict country, you have to take risks, but with them are rewards.
--Bob Johnson

RELATED TOPICS

He said: "We had to take this location which was raw dirt. We relocated some buildings and frankly some people that were there, but we relocated them to a nice place. In turn we gave many of those people jobs.

"We had to train people because hotel servicing is not a natural thing if you haven't gone to school or if you've been dodging bullets for 15 years of civil war."

Despite bringing some senior staff from the United States, Johnson said he had mainly used local staff for his senior management team.

"We brought the core leadership from the U.S, but they immediately went to training Liberians. In fact the one thing we're most proud of now, probably of the top six or eight people in the hotel, five of those are Liberians," he said.

Johnson plans to continue his investment in Liberia.

"We want to put a factory in Liberia and build housing in Liberia. They got to have workers and the workers have to have someplace to stay."

Liberia, Africa's oldest republic founded by freed American and Caribbean slaves, suffered a long-running civil war throughout the 1990s and was accused of supporting rebel fighters in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Around 250,000 people were killed in Liberia's civil war, which left the country in economic ruin.

It's Jefferson Davis you needed to talk to, not President Lincoln!

2010-07-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

Racists are always scared. They are scared of people who look different then them. They are scared they are going to lose power. They are scared they will one day have to pay for their immoral behaviour. Scared punks.

When the NAACP told the truth and pointed out the obvious within the Tea Party, Mark Williams (former Chairman of the Tea Party) cried foul in a mock outrage, but quickly felt the burden lift from his shoulders. Mark Williams realized the"truth shall set me free." And with that freedom he took to his blog and emancipated his racism all over that muther! (Please scroll down for the letter after this piece.)

After about half a day of soaking up all the attention he could and basking in his new found freedom to be his authentic racist self, the high of his moment in the spot light began to crash. Mark Williams found himself in a very familiar spot, that same place of fear that had existed before the truth had set him free! WTF? He was confused. He had acted honestly. He was honestly a racist and he had honestly showed it to the world.

Nonetheless, Mark Williams folded to the pressure and took the letter down from his blog. Just like a punk.

When you are a racist, Mark Williams, you will never win. Just ask Jefferson Davis.

Letter to Lincoln
Mark Williams
7/14/2010
MarkTalk.com

Dear Mr. Lincoln

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.

The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.

And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.” What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely
Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew NAACP Head Colored Person

Right Wing Fascism at it's Finest: 1300 Latinos Listed!

2010-07-15T08:57:00.000-07:00

Right wing fascism is alive and kicking! How does the saying go? "The squeaky wheel gets the oil" (and really, I mean it, no pun intended!) Well, the fundamental-cases over in Utah have again exerted their love for bigoted hatred and while in the same breath that they, the right wing conservatives (this would be the politically correct term) liken Obama's policy decisions to somehow being Hitler's socialism, they themselves, the world's largest projection screen, have pulled one of the most bread and butter tactics of Nazi Fascism:. They Created a List.

It's no surprise that this happened or that this happened in Utah, the home of the most fundamentalist extremists and the self-proclaimed largest genealogy data base ( I mean, why are you collecting all that data on people if you aren't gonna just use it against them?! That wouldn't be any fun!)

I know, I know, it's an election year and thus the white supremacists over at FOX News want to dismiss claims of racism as a political strategy instituted by the Democrats. And, I'm okay with that, I am not the one to deny that politicians live and breathe to exploit the differences of the people. But so do right wing fascists. And what is more upsetting is that because they drink the capitalist kool-aid becoming intoxicated by the political rohypnol and actually begin to delude themselves that they are crusading for a righteous cause. What is that righteous cause? Patriotism? Love of country? The last I checked the Constitution wasn't the Bible and political rhetoric isn't the Good Word. So, if your moral compass is either (that being the Constitution and political rhetoric), then I could see why you can apologize for Big Oil, exploit history, applaud internment camps and create lists of human beings to be outed for only God knows what sinister purposes.

Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. And after they are done with the ones you've pointed out, they will notice the remaining three fingers pointing back at you.

By BROCK VERGAKIS, Associated Press Writer Brock Vergakis, Associated Press Writer – Wed Jul 14, 6:28 pm ET

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Gov. Gary Herbert's spokeswoman said Wednesday it will likely be several days before it's known whether lestate workersaked the personal information of more than 1,300 people who an anonymous group claims are illegal immigrants.

Several media outlets, law enforcement agencies and others began receiving the list in the mail this week, demanding that those on it be immediately deported.

The list sent chills through the state's Hispanic community and marks the latest example of hysteria that has spread since Arizona passed its harsh immigration crackdown this year.

A 36-year-old Salt Lake City woman whose name was on the list along with those of her husband and three children, told The Associated Press through a translator that she's consumed by fear.

"Our worst fear was that immigration will come for us or will stop us while driving or being out on the street," said the woman, who requested anonymity to protect her family's identity.

The woman, who said she has been in the U.S. for eight years, said her family is considering returning to their home outside of Mexico City where they all have citizenship.

Hispanic activist Tony Yapias, who translated the conversation over the phone, said the woman's fears are prevalent.

"This is real. This is a witch hunt style of doing things," he said while noting he had seven missed calls during his brief interview with the AP from concerned Hispanics. "What concerns me the most in this whole debate is just the cowardness, the intolerance."

Conservative Utah lawmakers are considering adopting a measure similar to Arizona's when they meet in January.

Arizona's law, which takes effect July 29, directs police enforcing other laws to ask about a suspect's immigration status if there is reason to believe the person is in the United States illegally. The Obama administration has sued Arizona to throw out the law and keep other states from copying it.

Democratic State Sen. Luz Robles of Salt Lake City said she's worried the release of the list will distract from a substantive policy debate at a forum on immigration with the governor next week.

"This is one of those issues that's volatile. I don't know what's coming next," she said. "It was obviously a very calculated process and that is concerning."

The list contains Social Security numbers, birth dates, workplaces, addresses and phone numbers. Names of children are included, along with due dates of pregnant women on the list.

Herbert spokeswoman Angie Welling said the governor did not set a timeframe for the investigation, but that it is a priority. The state's technology department is assisting to see which state agencies have records that match those on the list.

"Obviously they're working on it now and we're interested in hearing the results," Welling said. "It'll take several days. This is a lot of information and it will take some work to really get down to it because, obviously, those data are accessed for legitimate purposes on a daily basis."

The woman the AP spoke with said her family's personal information could have been accessed by government workers because they had applied to the state's Children Health Insurance Program.

While each state agency is being reviewed, Welling said most of the focus is on the Department of Workforce Services, the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services.

If there's an indication that a law might have broken, the Utah Attorney General's Office will investigate, Welling said.

Intentionally releasing a private record is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. If someone stole a protected record, it could be prosecuted as a third-degree penalty punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

"The people who sent out this information — if they are interested in making sure the law is followed — they should identify who they are and explain in detail how they obtained this information so we know whether or not they violated the law," said Paul Murphy, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's spokesman.

In a letter included with the list, the writers say their group "observes these individuals in our neighborhoods, driving on our streets, working in our stores, attending our schools and entering our public welfare buildings."

"We then spend the time and effort needed to gather information along with legal Mexican nationals who infiltrate their social networks and help us obtain the necessary information we need to add them to our list," the letter says.

Oil, Terrorists, BP, OH MY! I don't think I'm in Kansas at the NAACP anymore...

2010-07-14T21:01:00.001-07:00

...I am now smack dab back in the middle of the world's worst environmental disaster, oh wait that was probably when we dropped two nuclear bombs on the Japanese people, but no matter! Let me just shove that history under the rug so that Glenn Beck can dedicate his FOX News program to distorting the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

"We are living in dangerous times and unless you understand what people are saying and why they are saying it and how they arrived there, then too many Americans are going to be fooled."

For that I agree with Mr. Beck, but then Beck proceeds to break down United States history, social psychology, theology, the American Black community, none for which his biography says that he has been schooled, you're really beginning to sound like an off-brand Micheal Savage over there, Beck.

However, he proceeds to explain that we are in "dangerous times" because Liberation Theology (aka: African Americans!) he claims suggests "the only way you can be saved according to this theology, if you are the oppressor, is to give back what you took through reparations."

He further dissects Liberation Theology (aka: non-whites!) and states that it requires that the oppressors "Step down from that job you "took" from someone else. Give back that money you "took" from someone else."

Except "job" and "money" are Beck's words and his offense to the theory overtly implies that he identifies with the oppressor who is being spoken of through Liberation Theology (aka: poor people!).

But what's his point? Where is he going with all of this? Oh that's right, it's all about him, how ignorantly humble of me to think it would be about anything other than the "white" man. And thus, Beck, begins to explains how this is "Marxism." I can smell McCarthy's cold dead corpse right around the bend.

But I digress and I digress because as usual the right wing conservative fundamental-cases are acting like the biggest projection screen on the face of the planet, by way of the Glenn Becks and Michelle Malkins and Bill O'Reillys...And, why of course, this leads me into something O'Reilly said today:

"You get credit for being honest."

Gosh, Golly, Thanks, Bill!

Bill O'Reilly stated this when chastising Marc Lamont Hill about the NAACP charges of racism against the Tea Party and their failure to condemn the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) which has no affiliation with Huey Newton's Black Panther Party nor the NAACP, but that's not important, no, no, no.

Yet, I don't recall anybody from FOX News admitting that they should have been more honest when they voluntarily played highly edited video footage which they claimed showed ACORN complicit with human trafficking. Which was a total and complete falsehood, down to charges being pressed against the punk who took the footage for other conspiratorial behavior as well as a suit by the targeted ACORN employee. But Fox News does not see itself as a minister of information for the United States citizens. It is complicit with being a right wing propaganda machine, at the expense of integrity.

But again I digress, however, I am here now to get to the pertinent point that all the movers and shakers of the right wing propaganda machine whom set the tone for the audience they disseminate, provide cover to institutions and systems and politicians that allow for people like Rep. Joe Barton from Texas to apologize for foreign oil monopolies that wreak havoc on our homeland and our waters. Just to refresh your memory here is what the former oil company executive said during his opening remarks back in June:

"I apologize, I do not want to live in a country where every time a corporation does something wrong, it's subject to a political process that amounts to a shakedown." Spoken like a true right wing, conservative, fundamentalist, oil executive, capitalist from Texas. Damn, could it get any more obvious.

That, my brothers and sisters of the Globe is the definition of a corporate apologist, Big Oil, someone in bed with the oil companies. He doesn't want to live in this country? Buh Bye. Go to Great Britain, that's where you sold your soul.

So while Fox News blasts the NAACP for calling a spade, such, and proclaiming to have no racists images to provide the viewing public (you must be lying, uh I mean, kidding?) the Gulf of Mexico continues to fill with oil. Oil, the corporate apologists just had to go tap, oil they are killing our kids off for right now in the Middle East, oil that was never intended for our use because it is not on our soil (geniuses). Stick your heads in the sand so-called conservatives, call where I stand Socialism, Marxism, reverse racism, Liberation Theology, whatever floats your boat. And what I call you and the policies and tactics you engage in to support the politics and politicians like Joe Barton is Right Wing Fascism.

And of course we now know that the British Government, the foreign oil company British Petroleum and the Libyan government made a deal with the devil.

BP to Start Drilling Off Libya as Senators Seek Lockerbie Probe
July 14, 2010, 7:10 AM EDT
July 14 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc plans to start drilling off Libya’s coast in the next few weeks as its links with the North African country come under scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers.

The London-based company has a rig in place to start a well in the Gulf of Sirt after completing a seismic survey last year. BP also plans to drill onshore in the 13,000 square kilometer Ghadames basin by the end of the year, Robert Wine, a spokesman for BP, said today.

BP, under political pressure to stop and clean up the worst oil spill in U.S. history, signed an exploration agreement with Libya’s National Oil Corp. in May 2007 during a visit by then U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. Four U.S. senators yesterday asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to investigate whether BP helped secure the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al- Megrahi from a Scottish jail to facilitate the drilling deal.

“Evidence in the Deepwater Horizon disaster seems to suggest that BP would put profit ahead of people,” Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York wrote in the letter. “The question we now have to answer is, was this corporation willing to trade justice in the murder of 270 innocent people for oil profits?”

Libya has proved oil reserves of 44.3 billion barrels, the most in Africa, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. BP’s worldwide operations have come under examination after an unstable well caused an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, killing 11 and starting an oil spill.

“Checks Underway”

“Libya due to start in a matter of weeks,” Wine said today in an e-mail. “Rig is being made ready, final preparations and checks are underway.”

In August 2009, the Scottish government freed al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds, he was only person found guilty of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.

“It is a matter of public record that in late 2007 BP discussed with the U.K. government our concern at the slow progress in concluding a Prisoner Transfer Agreement,” the company said today.

Pay Damages

Libya formally accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie attack in 2003 and agreed to pay up to $2.7 billion in damages to families of the victims. Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi finished settling claims of U.S. Lockerbie victims with a $1.5 billion instalment last year.

The country was removed from the U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism in 2006 after Qaddafi agreed to give up chemical weapons and compensate Lockerbie victims.

--With assistance from Brian Swint in London. Editors: Will Kennedy, Stephen Cunningham.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in London at egismatullin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net

NAACP charges Tea Party w/Racism...No, Duh!

2010-07-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

Tea Party Should Hail NAACP Resolutio n on Racism
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Huffington Post
July, 14, 2010

The NAACP pulled its punch and did not flatly condemn the tea party as racist. The resolution it proposed at its national convention condemned what it called "racist elements" in the party. This was both a

tactful and crucial distinction that the NAACP was right to make. Tea party leaders, though incensed at the NAACP for calling the party out on racism, admitted that some of those who have turned up at tea party events have spouted racist slurs. The leaders also say that they have denounced them. That's an arguable point, but the bigger issue is still, is the tea party racist? And what kind of a threat does it represent? The NAACP is only the latest to weigh in on that debate, but it's still the racism issue that sticks in the craw and fuels the widespread public perception that the tea party is chock full of unreconstructed bigots. And that their members have been whipped into a fury by the mere thought of a black man in the White House.

The Obama Joker posters, crude racist scrawls on signs and banners, Confederate flags, Texas Lone Star flags and tea party backed Kentucky GOP Senatorial candidate Rand Paul's kind of- sort of put down of the 1964 civil Rights Act didn't do much to dispel the notion that the tea party is a captive of if not a wholesale creation of racists. And if so, the party represents a mortal danger to civil rights and justice concerns. That's far too simplistic, and worse, it puts a hopeless barrier up to try and understand why the tea party roared on the scene and has had some staying power.

In April, a Winston survey shocked many when it found that four out of ten tea party adherents are not Republicans, but independents and Democrats. A follow-up New York Times survey revealed that tea party backers were not ill educated, low income, blue collar whites, mostly in the South and Heartland. But the majority was middle class, and many are wealthy and highly educated. The single overriding factor that drove them no matter their politics or party was the feeling that the country was going in the wrong direction. This is not merely a case of respondents saying the politically correct thing to survey takers so as not to not appear to be racist.

Nearly two decades ago, the GOP found that the volatile mix of big government and economics could whip frustrated, rebellious, angry whites into a frenzy far better than crude race baiting. Many middle class and working class white males genuinely viewed govern

ment as big, insensitive, and a hopeless captive of special interests. Many more actually believed that they were losing ground to minorities and women in the workplace, schools, and in society. This was more perception than reality. Yet it was a real belief.

The target of their anger was big government that tilted unfairly in spending priorities toward social programs that benefited minorities at the expense of hard-working whites. That translated to even more fear, rage and distrust of big government and shouts to fight back against the erosion of personal freedoms.

Tea party activists pound on Obama, the Democrats, big government, the elites, and Wall Street. Yet, they also grouse about abortion, family values, gay rights, and tax cuts and not race.

Right-wing populism --with its mix of xenophobia, loath of government as too liberal, too tax-and-spend, and too permissive, and a killer of personal freedom-- was the engine that powered Reagan and George W. Bush's White House wins. Scores of GOP governors, senators and members of congress have used wedge issues to win office and maintain political dominance. The GOP grassroots brand of populism has stirred millions operating outside the confines of the mainstream Republican Party.

In 2008, many of these voters stayed home. Even Sarah Palin wasn't enough to budge them. Their defection was more a personal and visceral reaction to the bumbles of George W. Bush than a radical and permanent sea change in overall white voter sentiment. They were ripe for the tea party movement -- or any movement that keyed their anger and frustration into action.

Tea party leaders push back against the charge that they are racist by endlessly citing popular anger at the perceived big government creep, taxes, runaway spending, and "socialist leaning" Obama administration programs as the sole cause for their rage at Washington and mainstream politicians. The evidence is compelling that this is a sincere if wrongheaded belief. The NAACP then was still right to call out the tea party for saying and doing nothing about the bad actors that spew their racism within the tea party movement. They create mischief and havoc, poison the racial air, and in some cases pose a physical danger. Tea party leaders should welcome, not curse the NAACP for pointing that out.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He hosts a nationally broadcast political affairs radio talk show on Pacifica and KTYM Radio Los Angeles.
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson

National Tea Party Clashes with it's Local Counterparts.

2010-07-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

Iowa Tea Party Billboard Compares Obama to Hitler

Published July 13, 2010

| Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A billboard created by an Iowa tea party group that compares President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin is drawing sharp criticism -- even from fellow tea party activists who have condemned it as offensive and a waste of money.

The North Iowa Tea Party began displaying the billboard in downtown Mason City last week. The sign shows large photographs of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin beneath the labels "Democrat Socialism," "National Socialism," and "Marxist Socialism."

Beneath the photos is the phrase, "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive."

The co-founder of the roughly 200-person group said the billboard was intended to send an anti-socialist message. But Bob Johnson admitted Tuesday that the message may have gotten lost amid the images of fascist and communist leaders.

"The purpose of the billboard was to draw attention to the socialism. It seems to have been lost in the visuals," Johnson said. "The pictures overwhelmed the message. The message is socialism." He said he didn't know of any plans to remove the sign.

But others in the tea party movement criticized the sign.

"That's just a waste of money, time, resources and it's not going to further our cause," said Shelby Blakely, a leaders of the Tea Party Patriots, a national group. "It's not going to help our cause. It's going to make people think that the tea party is full of a bunch of right-wing fringe people, and that's not true."

Blakely also expressed outrage at linking Obama to Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany who oversaw the killing of 6 million Jews and whose invasions of neighboring countries led to World War II.

"When you compare Obama to Hitler, that to me does a disservice to the Jews who both survived and died in the Holocaust and to the Germans who lived under Nazi regime rule," Blakely said.

John White, an Iowa coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, said that he can understand the North Iowa group's perception that Obama is "Hitler-esque," but he thinks the billboard is offensive and unproductive. White said that he planned to discuss the matter with national tea party officials.

"I fear they may end up in some kind of trouble over it, because it's basically slanderous," White said. "I don't know that it's the message we want to send. I'd much rather see billboards that say 'Remember in November. Get Out and Vote."'

The billboard is owned by Waitt Outdoor of Omaha, Neb. Waitt general manager, Kent Beatty, said the company didn't have a problem with the message.

"We believe in freedom of speech," Beatty said. "It doesn't reflect our views, necessarily."

The White House declined to comment on the sign.

One person who welcomed the billboard was Dean Genth, a Democratic activist from Mason City, a city of 30,000 people just south of the Minnesota border, who said he thinks the sign lays bare the views of tea party supporters.

"I welcome them to continue to spew that kind of stuff because I think it's going to do a lot of good for the good Democrats around the state," Genth said.

Clarification of previous post: Wake up Michelle Malkin...

2010-07-13T11:50:00.000-07:00

The previous post was inadvertantly published, as it was not yet finished, hence the grammatical errors, lack of contextualization and such. I know Michelle Malkin is not a Black woman. I know that Michelle Malkin is an Asian woman, I have stated so, in previous posts. My point in calling her "black" is that in the realm of white supremacy, you are either white or you are not. While still in the academy, I had many mentors and professors whom would refer to people as either "white" or "black" as opposed to "white" or "non-white." It is not a nationality based description, it is a socio-political description.

I will leave the unfinished piece up, as is, because I am a keep it real kinda woman.

Wake the Fuck Up Michelle Malkin, You're Black.

2010-07-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

Guess what Michelle Malkin, You are Black. You are not white. You are not a man and the good ol' boy network that you ride so hard for, is a bad look for you. I told you once before, you are not white and you sit when you pee, did you really think that for even a moment Geraldo was going to have even roast a teensy bit for his comments. Yeah right. You spit hatred and when you lay down in shit guess what you smell like, nobody wants to be a part of that, even if they just pimped your ass out on national television to be called a whore. You can be a white supremacist until you die if you really want to. You can hate everything that you never wanted to be. You can steep yourself in the rhetoric and beleive what you say with every ounce of conviction you have in your mind body and soul. But when they pull out the list, your name wont be on, because all the white men are going in first and when they are through, there wont be a damn thing left for a black chick.

Michelle Malkin race-baiting? What a shock.

2010-07-11T22:48:00.000-07:00

Michelle Malkin is no dummy. She knows exactly what she is doing. She loves to call out everybody, except of course white people or people defending whiteness, as racists if they defend their race against attacks or call out white supremacy. She is in fact obsessed with racializing many things and defending white racism against even her own race. She is the conservative Asian pundit who wrote an ENTIRE book in defense of the Japanese internment camps during World War II. She left FOX News after they failed to defend her when Geraldo said she was "vile" and would "probably spit on her" if he met her in person. Poor Michelle, no matter how much you try to pretend you are down for their cause, you still ain't white and you sit when you pee, so guess what, you're not really in the club, to them you are just another wannabe.

In her latest blog (which I've pasted below) she is race-baiting and using scare tactics, distributing extreme positions on race to others with extreme and conflicting positions on race (from what she is serving them) in order to goad them along, especially her beloved tea party, into racial paranoia based on an inconsequential opinion.

Michelle Malkin, is desperately obvious. She knows that the people are talking about Oscar Grant and Arizona's new immigration law. She knows that racial tension between the people and the state is perhaps beginning to swell once again. So, she is stoking the flames in order to reclaim her 15 minutes.

Michelle Malkin much like Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter come across as actors in an improvisational drama. I'm not really sure that they believe in what they are saying as much as they believe in saying something sensational and putting it all off on President Obama.

Please read below and visit her site for her loyal readers' reactions.

Whitewashing black racism; Shabazz: “Prepare for war”

By Michelle Malkin • July 9, 2010 10:35 AM

My column today blasts the MSM for its silence over the black racial demagogues of the New Black Panther Party and its ilk.

Before I get to the column, some context:

Longtime readers and viewers know I go way back with the poisonous race hustlers of the New Black Panther Party.

Two months after the 9/11 attacks, I reported on Muslim NBPP head Malik Shabazz’s disgusting anti-Semitic, anti-American diatribe at the National Press Club.

He has a long history of Jew-bashing, including gems like this:

“If 3,000 people perished in the World Trade Center attacks and the Jewish population is 10 percent, you show me records of 300 Jewish people dying in the World Trade Center…We’re daring anyone to dispute its truth. They got their people out.”

In 2006, we at Hot Air covered Shabazz’s jihad-pandering protest and call to arms at the Danish embassy in Washington, D.C. over the Mohammed Cartoons.

In 2007, Shabazz called me a “whore” on Fox News because I called out his racial hucksterism in the Duke lacrosse fake rape case.

In 2008, I reported on Shabazz’s election day threats to voters and have covered the corruptocrat Obama DOJ’s role in dropping default judgments against the Philly NBPP thugs ever since. In 2009, I reported on the “Colored Only: No Whites Allowed” sign at NBPP defendant Jerry Jackson’s house and the murderous rap propaganda posted by the NBPP Trenton chapter.

DOJ whistleblower J. Christian Adams blew the lid off the case in late June in the Washington Times and his appearances on Fox News with Megyn Kelly have provoked Shabazz’s poison tongue once again. Now, he’s threatening to go after limited government activists and moaning about “Zionist conspiracies” at Fox News.

In May, Shabazz told his black power cohorts to “prepare for war,” via Bunkerville.

Read this:

“With the rise of the Tea Party, the white-right and other racist forces. With gun sales nationwide at an all time high amongst whites, with a mood that is more anti-Black than any time recent, it is imperative that we organize our forces, pool our resources and prepare for war!” Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz, Esq. Convention Convener and Party Chairman.

Watch this:

These are the people and the organization Eric Holder and Barack Obama and the MSM are covering for.

Ain’t liberal tolerance grand?

***

Whitewashing black racism
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010

Why haven’t national media outlets reported on the vile and violent rants of the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) thugs whose 2008 voter intimidation tactics got a pass from the Obama administration? Simple: Radical black racism doesn’t fit the Hope and Change narrative. There’s no way to shoehorn Bush-bashing into the story. And, let’s face it, exposing the inflammatory rhetoric of the left does nothing to help liberal editors and reporters fulfill their true calling — embarrassing the right.

This week, Justice Department whistleblower J. Christian Adams came forward with damning public testimony about how Obama officials believe “civil rights law should not be enforced in a race-neutral manner, and should never be enforced against blacks or other national minorities.” In the wake of Adams’ expose on how the Obama DOJ abandoned default judgments against the NBPP bullies for the sake of politically correct racial politics, a shocking video clip of one of the lead defendants in the Philadelphia voter intimidation case resurfaced on the Internet. It shows bloodthirsty King Samir Shabazz during a 2009 National Geographic documentary interview spewing:

“You want freedom? You’re gonna have to kill some crackers! You’re gonna have to kill some of their babies!”

These NBPP death threats and white-bashing diatribes are nothing new to those who have tracked the black supremacy movement. In August 2009, nearly a year ago, I reported on a sign on display outside NBPP defendant (and elected member of Philadelphia’s 14th Ward Democratic Committee) Jerry Jackson’s home. It reads: “COLORED ONLY: No Whites Allowed.”

In July 2009, I interviewed poll watcher/witness Christopher Hill, whom Shabazz and Jackson called “cracker” several times while Shabazz brandished his baton.

“They physically attempted to block me,” Hill recounted. He also saw a group of elderly ladies walk away from the polling site without voting while the duo preened in front of the entrance. “If you’re a poll watcher, you shouldn’t be dressed in paramilitary garb,” Hill said, as he wondered aloud at what would have happened if he had showed up in the same sort of costume.

In May 2009, I reported on the affidavit of civil rights attorney and poll watcher Bartle Bull, who witnessed the NBPP thuggery in Philadelphia and reported on billy club-wielding Shabazz’s election day boast: “You’re about to be ruled by the black man, cracker.”

In the fall of 2008, just days before he showed up to hector white poll workers, Shabazz told the Philadelphia Inquirer:

“I’m about the total destruction of white people. I’m about the total liberation of black people. I hate white people. I hate my enemy… The only thing the cracker understands is violence… The only thing the cracker understands is gunpowder. You got to take violence to violence.”

The desire to kill, subordinate and demonize white people is a staple of NBPP propaganda. An NBPP Trenton, N.J., chapter “block party” music video posted on YouTube calls on black followers to “bang for freedom,” “put the bang right into a cracker’s face,” and “if you’re going to bang, bang for black power … hang a cracker … if you’re going to bang, bang on the white devil … burying him near the river bank with the right shovel … community revolution in progress … banging for crackers to go to hell, we don’t need em.”

Chanting “Black Power,” Minister Najee Muhammad, national field marshal for the New Black Panther Party, and Uhuru Shakur, local chairman of the Atlanta NBPP chapter, issued a pre-Election Day 2008 threat to “racists and other angry whites who are upset over an impending Barack Obama presidential victory.” Said Muhammad: “Most certainly, we cannot allow these racist forces to slaughter our babies or commit other acts of violence against the black population, nor our black president.”

That’s rich, given that the only racists talking about slaughtering babies are the ones with New Black Panther Party patches on their puffed chests.

If a Tea Party activist threatened to kill the babies of his political opponents, it wouldn’t just be front-page news. It would be the subject of Democrat-led congressional investigations, a series of terrified New York Times columns about the perilous “climate of hate,” a Justice Department probe by Attorney General Eric Holder, a domestic terror alert from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and another Important Teachable Moment Speech/Summit from Healer-in-Chief Barack Obama.

But with the racism shoe on the other foot, Team Obama and its media water-carriers are exhibiting the very racial cowardice Holder once purported to condemn. Thanks to Obama’s feckless Department of Injustice, these black supremacist brutes are free to show up on the next national Election Day at polling places in full paramilitary regalia with nightsticks, hurling racist, anti-American epithets at those exercising their right to vote and at those protecting the integrity of the electoral process.

The reaction of our national media watchdogs: Shhhhhhhh.

An Open Letter To Kathleen Parker: Quit Drinkin' the Kool Aid.

2010-07-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post wrote the article "Obama: Our first female President" comparing Obama's reaction to the BP Oil tragedy as somehow being feminine (also known as: bitch-made). She then responded to readers reactions by insisting she and the President were related (also know as: I'm not racist, I have black friends.)

In the vein of one of my many anti-racist mentors, Challenging White Supremacy Workshops, I believe that as a white woman, it was pertinent that I school Kathleen Parker,another white woman. And so goes my open letter, sent to Parker's email and posted publicly here on my blog.

Please read both Parker's original article and it's follow-up so that you may contextualize my response.

Dear Ms. Parker,

You seem to misunderstand "race". Race is a man-made social location created to identify who gets to "have" and who gets to "have-not." In turn, stereotypes both positive and negative were attached to these social locations in order to box individuals and large groups of people in, highlight their differences and keep people divided in order to fatally oppress entire communities, including communities that perceived benefits from their social location.

Should you research the history of United States racial identification, as sanctioned by the government, you will find that who is "white" and "non-white" has changed throughout the decades to include and exclude certain nationalities (i.e.: the Irish, the Italians, etc) in order to make clear demarcations, again as I previously stated, to identify who is "in" and who is "out" of the running for the so-called American dream.

So, when you state your claim that Obama is not "exclusively black"... well, no duh, he is a man, he is a father, he is a President, he is a son, he is a husband. However and depressingly so, his racial identity (which is really what you were getting at when you said that he was not "exclusively black") his "blackness" follows him more often then it "transcends" him and at the end of the day he will be the "first black president of the United States" not "Kathleen Parker's eighth cousin with German descent."

In an attempt to degrade the President as being a man of no action (which I am in agreement with and which was all you really had to say) you disrespected women terribly, unnecessarily and quite sophmorically as well as showcased your ignorance on what it means to be "non-white" in a country founded on white supremacy and in turn highlighted that even women drink the kool-aid and believe that they are sub-par to men on many levels.

I expect more from someone with your position and power and access to such large masses of people.

Krista Keating

Video Link: Oscar Grant, Sr. Requests Non-Violent Protest

2010-07-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

CLICK HERE FOR FOOTAGE OF OSCAR GRANT, SR. CALLING FOR NON VIOLENT REACTION TO VERDICT IN HONOR OF HIS SON AND WHERE HE LIVED.

BART cops waiting for reaction.

2010-07-08T21:43:00.001-07:00

Police officers prepare for an angry crowd at the Fruitvale BART station after the announcement that former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Oscar Grant, Thursday July 8, 2010, in Oakland, Calif. Calif.

Photo: Lacy Atkins / The Chronicle

Women standing between protesters and police to keep peace.

2010-07-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

Several women try to maintain the peace at a brief upswell of protesters on 12th Street as police lined up to control the situation. Reaction after the verdict in the Johannes Mehserle trial is announced on Thursday, July 8, 2010. Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting of Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale BART station on January 1, 2009.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

Oscar Grant Verdict - Minister Keith Muhammad Responds! (July 8, 2010)

2010-07-08T21:16:00.000-07:00

Oakland Representative of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

As always, I encourage you to watch the entire press conference to hear the entire message.

Independence.

2010-07-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.-Frederick Douglass

I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other. - Harriet Tubman

Any unarmed people are slaves, or are subject to slavery at any given moment. -Huey Newton

Among the natural rights...First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can. -Samuel Adams

I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear. -Rosa Parks

The Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10)

First Amendment – Establishment Clause, Free Exercise Clause; freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly; right to petition

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Second Amendment – Militia (United States), Sovereign state, Right to keep and bear arms.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. ^[7]

Third Amendment – Protection from quartering of troops.

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Fourth Amendment – Protection from unreasonable search and seizure.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Fifth Amendment – due process, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, eminent domain.

No person shall be held to answer for any capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Sixth Amendment – Trial by jury and rights of the accused; Confrontation Clause, speedy trial, public trial, right to counsel

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

Seventh Amendment – Civil trial by jury.

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Eighth Amendment – Prohibition of excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment.

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Ninth Amendment – Protection of rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Tenth Amendment – Powers of States and people.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

***

Sometimes if you want to get rid of the gun, you have to pick the gun up. -Huey Newton

2010 BET Awards: Strong Women and Chris Brown

2010-06-29T17:12:00.001-07:00

I was very excited to watch the BET Awards last Sunday. I was excited to watch Queen Latifah host and to celebrate music in general. I really appreciated and felt blessed to hear all the words of wonderful, strong, motivating female empowerment from Latifah, Alicia, Jada and Nicky Minaj. The amount of respect that these women bestowed onto other strong women for being role models and onto female artists for paving the way was exhilarating and actually kinda awesome, if you will. As I was riding the wave of feeling myself, for being a woman and gassing myself up for being a strong single mother and getting through tough times, I was suddenly interrupted by a hot mess ...Chris Brown.

Considering myself a cynic especially when it comes to Big Media (and BET is Big Media all day!) I could see the "subliminal" messages clear as crystal all over the choice to have poor misunderstood Chris Brown pay tribute to poor misunderstood Micheal Jackson (both accused of abuse, both mishandling their images after the fact, both enduring intense scrutiny and judgement.)

Chris Brown was a teenager (!) when he was busted for abusing Rihanna. Let us not take that actuality lightly. A teen-aged brain is not even done developing, this is one of the biggest arguments for abolishing the death penalty in cases of minor youth. As an advocate for at-risk youth, I have compassion and empathy for Chris Brown (himself a survivor of childhood domestic violence) just as myself a survivor of hardcore domestic violence at the hands of a boyfriend I had zero tolerance for his actions when they took place, he deserved legal punishment and public shame; and I celebrated Rihanna when she left his foul ass for putting his hands on her. Rihanna should not give Chris Brown a second chance to be her boyfriend.

Should Chris Brown be shunned for life and forced into a box dubbed "abuser"? I don't think so. The public has forgiven mature adults for graver wrong-doings, shit, Ted Kennedy killed his mistress while driving drunk and plunging into a river, he did not report the crime until a day after, basically sending out a message that her life held less meaning then his public image. The man remained a beloved senator for decades after. WTF?

I do not believe that we should forgive Chris Brown simply because we have forgiven others for their transgressions. I believe that we should forgive people in general and Chris Brown in particular because it is the humane thing to do and it helps our hearts and minds to move forward as well as the people we are hoping who will rehabilitate (and I do not think that every kind of offender can be rehabilitated).

Forgiveness does not equal acceptance. I don't accept his behaviour. I accept his plea for a second chance to be a better person. My acceptance of his plea for a second chance does not beget a third nor does it make me, or any other person who agrees with me, an apologist. Let the kid grow up.

Rosa Clemente: Audio of Keynote Address at HHC National Conference.

2010-06-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

I have had quite a few candid conversations with Rosa Clemente in regard to the juxtoposition of Hip Hop and politics and how women and other oppressed groups of people fit into this picture. I have cringed at her brutal honesty and cynical approach to framing the current revolutionary movement, but ultimately pain is a truth we all need. Rosa Clemente is a true, authentic leader of the Hip Hop political movement whose impact on United States socio-political culture and policy has only just begun.

You must listen to the entire speech in order to get the full message!

Rosa Clemente's Keynote Address @ HHC National Conference 2010 in Detroit!

Kuttin Kandi: Open Letter to Hip Hop Community!

2010-06-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

AN OPEN LETTER, A CALL-TO-ACTION TO OUR HIP-HOP COMMUNITY: PUT US, WOMEN ON THAT LINE-UP & STOP THE DISRESPECT!

A BIG THANK YOU TO MY SISTER IN THE MOVEMENT – ROSA CLEMENTE WHO IS MY INSPIRATION TO WRITE THIS PIECE… I LOVE YOU SISTER!

Dear Hip-Hop Community

I come to you openly as a long-time Hip-Hop DJ, Hip-Hop Poet, Hip-Hop lover, fan and etc… I come to you as someone who appreciates all of you whole-heartedly, for all that you do for Hip-Hop, for all that you do for keeping Hip-Hop going, living and breathing. I come to you for giving so much to Hip-Hop, for providing all of us with such dope Hip-Hop beats, rhythm’s and dance. I come to you for all that we have been through with Hip-Hop. I come to you because I know Hip-Hop is a space for me to be honest, a space for me to challenge others and myself.

But I also come to you as a woman in Hip-Hop, a community organizer, a Hip-Hop feminist and activist who is tired; tired of the industry that can be so cold in leaving women out of the picture all of the time. And sadly, when we are in the picture, we’re often pictured in misogynistic, sexist videos and pictures. I am tired of seeing these images over and over again. I am also tired of not having enough alternatives of these sexist music. And even when there are these so-called “alternative” spaces, it’s just as sexist too. That’s right, I’m not just talking about “mainstream” Hip-Hop, I’m also talking about that “alternative” what has often been labeled “underground Hip-Hop”, “real Hip-Hop” too. However, let me be clear that I also say “industry” because it is not Hip-Hop culture that treats women this way. Sadly, it is our own people in this industry that is doing this to our women, and each other.

So, if these alternative spaces are created to give us other kinds of outlets for other kinds of Hip-Hop we prefer which is supposingly more ethical, more “moral”, more conscious and more “Hip-Hop”; and if these supposed more ethical, more “conscious” Hip-Hop are also just as sexist and misogynistic, then where do we go from here?

During the USSF forum in Detroit, Invincible managed to bring an all-star line up of dope female artists who are in point including Miz Korona and Monica Blair

I am specifically tired of seeing this 1 year after year show, one that will remain nameless (ahem, few coming up this August), where there is an all-star-line-up and all of them are men with 1 solo female act. This show is widely considered the “real Hip-Hop” deal. I mean really, a huge line-up of about 20 something men and maybe 1 or 2 women on the bill!? And maybe a few other women who some of the artists bring along as a surprise guest but don’t even make it on the flier or even heard or seen unless you were there? Seriously? HIP-HOP, IS THIS WHERE WE’RE AT? I can name tons of female artists, and not just “developing artists”, but dope long-time women veterans who can spit dope game and cut it up on the tablez who need to be in that supposed “all-star-line-up.” They have paid their dues by paving the way, setting their own mark, making their own records, winning battles… do they not deserve to be on that bill?

For nearly 15 years, in the industry, I have witnessed women being treated unfairly and unjustly. Whether it be through watching the way music videos depicted women as only sex objects or whether it was behind the scenes with record labels giving horrible deals and men back stages overstepping boundaries, I’ve witnessed it all. If you know me well enough, you would know that this is not the first time I’ve spoken about this. And this is not the first time that I’m tired of it all. However, I decided to make a “I AM TIRED OF HOW WOMEN ARE BEING TREATED IN HIP-HOP LIST” that I hope all of you can help add and pass on:

So, here is just a few of what I am tired of: (this is a growing list – women and allies, pls feel free to add to this list)

• I am tired of going to a show where a sound engineer would not value my expertise because they didn’t deem me as “expert” enough to know what I am talking about.

• I am tired of being the only woman headline on a bill.

• I am tired of not seeing myself or other women headline on a bill.

• I am tired of feeling uncomfortable and intimidated because I’m the only woman backstage.

• I am tired of seeing music videos of women being objectified.

• I am tired of seeing men groping women backstage.

• I am tired of seeing men grope women on stage.

• I am tired of men calling women a “b*tch” or a “h*e” when they feel threatened by her ability to know what she is doing and doing it good.

• I am tired of women being pigeonholed into stereotyped categories within Hip-Hop.

• I am tired of seeing “female battles” within Hip-Hop when women can compete and win against men.

• I am tired of women being seen as a “rarity” in the field that they tokenize a “female” artist and put any woman on doesn’t matter if she has no skill as long as she looks “good”.

• I am tired of women getting offered only “collabos” on songs but not getting offered deals.

• I am tired of the deals women are offered and how it’s often less than what a male artist would receive.

• I am tired of the “token female DJ night”. Come on now, give a woman a regular night spinning with other men too!

• I am tired of being bumped to either first or last or at a really horrible time slot last minute because someone with more “credibility” (more than likely a male) needed to go on because he has a last minute conflict on his schedule.

• I am tired of how male artists are typically offered more money then women artists and then how others use an excuse like “because he is more known”, but ideally a woman would be “more known” had female artists were given the same equal treatments of publicity, marketing and deals. DUH!

• I’m tired of women getting pushed off a bill or a track when someone with more “credibility” (more than likely a male) comes along.

• I am tired of not feeling safe enough to talk about my own gender identity, my sexual orientation and being free to be who I truly am.

• I am tired of seeing how Asian women, Black Women, Latina Women, Queer Women, and women of color as a whole are treated and perceived in Hip-Hop because of their race, class and gender.

• I am tired that people think it’s just mainstream Hip-Hop, when “underground” Hip-Hop disrespect women and LGBTQ folks too.

• I am tired that this music industry is also a size/ist and lookism industry that as a woman I have to have a certain sex appeal and size to get offers, deals and etc..

• I am tired when none of our supposed male allies within Hip-Hop don’t check other men on their privileges.

• I am tired of men not recognizing that they are the only ones on the line-up and not sayin or doing anything about it.

• I am tired of not feeling safe enough to check anyone.

• I’m tired of the women who are buying into the patriarchal thinking and get competitive with other women and enjoy being the “only female”.

• I am tired of being one of those women who once bought into the patriarchal thinking and being competitive with other women for that 1 gig or spot in the bill.

• I am tired of people not knowing that there are dope women Hip-Hop artists and Hip-Hop activists all over the world.

• I am tired of being scared right now, as we speak, writing this open letter, knowing that at any show I could be and more than likely will be threatened and/or attacked if I call out anyone on this article.

Eternia just did a nice remake of 'Live at the Barbeque' featuring all women including Rah Digga, Jean Grae, Tiye Phoenix and Lady of Rage

I am tired of being the token female artist in a Hip-Hop male lineup. This music industry has led me to behave in such a way where I would buy into the “only female-in-the-click” syndrome. While I respect the crews I have been part of in my past, it is today, and now more than ever that I recognize how important it is that we make room for more women to be included. This music industry makes no room for more women to enter the doors, that it creates a dynamic for women to compete against each other, for that 1 gig, that 1 offer, that 1 deal, that 1 spotlight. Because it only comes so often, because the chance is only once in a lifetime, us women, jump for it… because it is our only opportunity. We’re all jumping for the scraps they are offering us… and I am tired of falling for it.

I am so tired of hearing other women complaining and still it is the same. This is the not the first letter or article that has been written. Other women have been writing this for years. This is nothing new. I’ve just been lucky that within these past 15 years, I’ve been able to create my own alternatives to help keep my own sanity amongst a music industry that can make anyone lose their mind. I’ve been able to join female crews and build my own network of friends who would support me and other women. I’ve been able to find folks who have helped me out over the years during the most challenging times by providing me outlets and spaces to speak my peace and express my art. These spaces were safe that gave me a place to be real with myself, to know that I can be whoever I am. I am thankful for these spaces within Hip-Hop. I am thankful for these Hip-Hop folks that help make these spaces happen. These Hip-Hop folks are women, male allies and other allies in our communities.

However, there comes a time, where we need to stand up to the spaces and the people that don’t make help create these spaces either. There comes a time to stand up to the people that create elitist spaces, not making room for others to speak, share and be part of it. Especially, when these spaces claim to be Hip-Hop and make no room for women to be part of it. There comes a time where we as women have a right to claim these spaces, because women have been part of Hip-Hop since day one.

It would be great to see the VH1 Hip Hop Honors pay tribute to the pioneering women of this culture, like the all female crew Mercedes Ladies who have long been overlooked...

But like I am in other times that I speak up against something I am not right with, I am in fear of the repercussions. I am in fear of being attacked. I am fear of the literal physical attack that can happen when speaking out. I am also in fear that people will think that I am trying to be about me. Because it’s not about me. This isn’t about me trying to get a gig. Sorry, that’s not on my agenda. I’m not someone bitter that I didn’t get an opportunity to get my shine on. This is about my sisters, this is about us having a voice, about us having talent too. This is about the shine for all of us. This is for all my sisters out there who are practicing everyday. This is for the movement that Barbara, Eve, Lady Pink, Mercedes Ladies, Lady B, Sweet Tee, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Sista Souljah, Wanda Dee, Jazzy Joyce, Roxanne Shante, Pebblee Poo, started long before me, so that we can be put on too. This for all of them who are still doing it today. And this is about women today, who are doing their thing. I have witnessed Queen Godis, Mystic, Medusa, Anomolies, Abeer, Maria Isa, Eternia, Jean Grae, Bahamadia, Miki Vale, Apani B Fly, Bless Roxwell, Sara Kana, DJ Killa Jewel, Tyra from Saigon, DJ Shortee, DJ Chela, Pam the Funktress to the La Femme Deadly Venoms… and this list goes on and on and on and on and on. Too many to name. And I’m sad that I can’t list them all. Because we are out there and we exist. And it is for this reason that I must speak. I have learned from Audre Lorde – “your silence will not save you.”

So, come on, male promoters – you know who you are. I highly suggest to all the men within Hip-Hop to read male privilege check-list and etc. I suggest if you don’t know, you google it and educate yourself. I also suggest our male allies in Hip-Hop to stand up with us. It is not enough that you acknowledge that this goes on within Hip-Hop. If you know it does, then let a promoter know they should even out the line-up. Refer other women artists. Invite female artists on your showset to get some shine. BUT don’t tokenize us either! Also, check your male friends backstage who mistreat women. Invite us to your practice sessions, but don’t make us feel uncomfortable by making us look like rare creatures or putting us up on some pedastal or treating us like trophies or prized possessions. Don’t intimidate us by your male chauvinisms, machoisms and egotisms. But don’t think we’re gentle and demure either. Don’t victimize us or romanticize some notion that you’re going to save us. Because at the end of the day, we been always fighting our own battles. With or Without you, we have done it, made it, claimed it and taken it. We’re strong, we got a mind of our own and we got skillz. We don’t fit into any label or category because we are all shapes and sizes. We are like Hip-Hop, fluid in what what say, think, do, feel, wear, and etc… We are anything and everything we imagine ourselves to be, so don’t package us into what you envision us to be. We have our own visions and dreams.

As far as for us, women, I don’t think I really need to tell you much. You already know what we are coming into because you feel it and you are experiencing it. However, I will just say for the sake of saying – We, women, we need to just continue to come together. I say continue, because we are a movement been happening. We have been coming together long before my crew Anomolies and long before Mercedes Ladies. We have been standing together, rising up together, teaching each other, learning from one another and we need to continue to do so because we are standing at a time where we are at the crossroads. The world is going chaotic and the earth is speaking to us to stay united. And if we women hold up half the sky, we’re going to have to continue keeping it balanced by staying at peace amongst each other, loving one another and being in unity with one another. We need to acknowledge our differences, value them, and talk about our intersections. We need to talk about the things that are complexed and come out with our own plan of actions. We need to support those who are speaking out for us, voicing themselves at the risk of losing everything. We need to help each other in our crafts to progress, we need to create spaces for more women, transgender and non-conforming genders to be included, we need to check each other in our perpetuation of patriarchal-thinkings and check the men that do it to us.

So, as I close this open letter…. I close it with saying in the words of my friend’s Dead Prez’s words “It’s Bigger than Hip-Hop…”, because we all know that this is all bigger than Hip-Hop. And I’m not just talking about the genre of music, for we all know that sexism exists everywhere. However, I am saying that this is bigger than Hip-Hop, because this is not just about women being in the picture. It’s about respect. And like Hip-Hop, being about gaining respect, we too, be it a woman Hip-Hop head or not, that’s all we want too. Respect.

with love, peace and respect
DJ Kuttin Kandi

p.s. also a big shout out to DJ MarkLuv for your allyship in writing this piece as well!

"Illegal Immigration" Is that the real problem?

2010-06-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

For many years now, decades really, the issue of "illegal immigration" has been weighing down on the shoulders of many families and individuals in the United States and Mexico. I have perhaps a difficult opinion at best. Meaning, that I have seen both sides of this coin up close. I have friends who are "illegal immigrants" and I have friends who have lost jobs to "illegal immigrants."

My best friends husband, we will call him Mark, lost his job to an "illegal immigrant" willing to take half the salary of what Mark was getting paid as a construction foreman. In fact, Mark worked alongside many "illegal immigrants" who were paid a pittance in comparison to their legal counterparts. Mark had a great appreciation for the hard work that his "illegal" co-workers would put out for such low pay and expressed concern that they were being exploited. However, Mark became conflicted when his own job was taken away because his boss wanted to capitalize on the smaller payout that an "illegal immigrant" was willing to work for. Mark now believes that perhaps "illegal immigrants" do have some agency in their situation.

On the other hand, I worked with an intern a few years back, an "illegal immigrant" brought to the states as a small child by her parents, we will call her Jill. Jill has been here since she was a toddler. She has no memories of her birth country and has never been there. Her parents were deported when she was a teenager and now she is having trouble getting into a college and getting a job. Even though Jill is not quite sure if she will qualify she has risked her freedom and has taken chances of deportation to openly participate in pushing for The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (also know as: The "DREAM Act"). According to DREAM Act Portal: "The DREAM Act is a bipartisan legislation ‒ pioneered by Sen. Orin Hatch [R-UT] and Sen. Richard Durbin [D-IL] ‒ that can solve this hemorrhaging injustice in our society. Under the rigorous provisions of the DREAM Act, qualifying undocumented youth would be eligible for a 6 year long conditional path to citizenship that requires completion of a college degree or two years of military service."

Are you "illegal" when you are crossing a man-made border from which alien colonizers created in your native land to justify committing genocide on your people for hundreds of years? I just find that hard to swallow.

But the truth is that presently when people work "illegally" they are taking away jobs from other people, people who support the DREAM Act and agree that "illegal immigrants" are being exploited, people who need to support their children just as much as the "illegal" worker.

BUT... While we are bogged down debating these two realities. Are we not overlooking the fact that these are merely symptoms of a much larger problem, the inability for Mexico to sustain a healthy citizenry and the fatal role that the United States has played in this fact? And, when Mexican citizens are fighting for the right to be citizens of the United States, they are not fighting for the right to have a Mexican government free from corruption, for the people, by the people in Mexico (and if they are, that is never made clear).

17 Year-old girl punched by Seattle pig!

2010-06-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

I am a mother and when I see Oscar Grant get shot, that is my son! When I see this young girl get punched in the face by that grown man, that is my daughter! And I will not let police brutalize, abuse and kill our sons and daughters without a fight.

Female 1970's Civil Rights Leader Freezes to Death.

2010-03-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

Sadly, I blog this piece from the New York Times reporting on civil rights leader, Juanita W. Goggins, freezing to death in her home. I find it to be yet another example of how the purveyors of mainstream history allow women to fade into obscurity.

However, the silver lining is that we now have the chance to celebrate her legacy and pay tribute to her accomplishments.

Rest in Peace, Juanita W. Goggins.

A Trailblazer of Civil Rights Dies Forgotten

By ROBBIE BROWN

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Neighbors were chagrined last week when the police here found the body of a 75-year-old woman who had frozen to death, alone in her house, during unexpectedly frigid weather.

But they were shocked this week when they learned that the woman, Juanita W. Goggins, had been a civil rights trailblazer who in 1974 became the first black woman elected to the South Carolina legislature.

Now residents of this normally neighborly Southern capital say they are feeling regretful, and slightly guilty, for allowing one of its most revered figures to disappear into a sleepy ranch house with little company. Possibly mentally ill, living without running water or heat, Ms. Goggins is believed to have died on Feb. 20 — when temperatures dropped below freezing — but her body was not discovered for 11 days.

Several neighbors in her elderly, mostly black community in downtown Columbia said they had learned the full scope of Ms. Goggins’s accomplishments only from her obituaries. At the peak of her political career, in the 1970s, she twice visited President Jimmy Carter at the White House and was the first black woman appointed to the United States Civil Rights Commission.

In the legislature, where she represented Rock Hill, on the northern border of the state, for three terms in the 1970s, Ms. Goggins, a Democrat, helped pass key legislation for improving elementary school education and public health. Last year, a stretch of Highway 5 was renamed in her honor.

“She was truly a mover and a shaker, so well-liked and so well-loved by so many,” said Representative John King, 33, who holds her former seat in the General Assembly.

Family members suspect that Ms. Goggins had developed dementia or Alzheimer’s disease in her final years. She rarely left her small, cluttered house on Carousel Circle, except occasionally to ride the bus to Bi-Lo for groceries.

In 16 years as her next-door neighbor, Erskine Hunter, 83, said he was allowed inside only once, to fix a water heater.

When he dropped off groceries every month, Mr. Hunter said, Ms. Goggins asked that he ring the doorbell and leave the food on her front stoop. “She didn’t let nobody in that house,” he said. “She just wasn’t the type to stop and talk.”

So it came as a surprise when neighbors this week found Ms. Goggins’s obituary in newspapers across the South.

“When I read it in the newspaper and learned everything she had done, I was like, ‘Wow,’ ” said Linda Martin, the longtime property manager for Ms. Goggins’s rented house. “I really didn’t know anything about her.”

But that pride was tempered with sadness and regret. Her death might have been prevented, family members say, if only Ms. Goggins had been more receptive to help. Her son, Horace W. Goggins Jr., and Ms. Martin had both asked Richland County’s department of adult protective services to monitor Ms. Goggins, but she had refused their assistance.

“It’s just so sad,” Ms. Martin said. “You reach out to help a person, and they reject you. What else can you do?”

She added, “I always dreaded that something of this nature would happen.”

Ms. Goggins’s body was discovered on March 3, when the police entered through a window after neighbors reported that she had been unusually reclusive, even by her own standards. It had snowed recently, and temperatures were still in the 30s. Ms. Goggins was found wearing several layers of pants, socks and shirts.

Her thermostat and stove were working, but were turned off, said the county coroner, Gary Watts.

Ms. Goggins’s utility company shut off her electricity for nonpayment on Feb. 23. But the police found $2,500 in cash and uncashed retirement checks in her house, Mr. Watts said.

“This wasn’t a matter of not having money,” he said. “She appears to have been in the early stages of dementia and not taking care of herself.”

A funeral will be held Friday in Rock Hill. Mr. Goggins, 42, of Powder Springs, Ga., called it a “homecoming celebration of life,” adding, “We’re going to focus on her achievements and the positive part of her life, not on her death.”

Those achievements include teaching public school, founding a tutoring company and in 1972 becoming the first black woman from South Carolina to be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Ms. Goggins was elected to the State House in 1974, defeating a white male incumbent.

“I am going to Columbia to be a legislator, not just a black spot in the House chambers,” she told The Associated Press at the time. Voters, she said, “were ready to accept a person who was sincere and concerned about things. Those feelings go beyond color.”

In the legislature, Ms. Goggins helped expand kindergarten classes, reduced student-teacher ratios and approved sickle-cell anemia testing in county health departments.

“She had an amazing life,” said Mr. Hunter, her neighbor, before adding, “I just wish I’d knocked on her door more often.”

Forgive Them Father For They Know Not What They Do: Conservative Female Bloggers Can't Even Celebrate Themselves.

2010-03-06T16:55:00.000-08:00

True to form, it took female conservative journalists only less than a week to play victim, spew there cynicism all over Women's History Month and forward their attacks on liberal media.

It took Colleen Raezler, of Culture and Media Institute, less than 72 hours into the celebration of what women contribute to society to instead focus on "Sex, Violence and Hate: the Top 10 Most Disgusting Attacks on Conservative Women" as opposed to highlighting the accomplishments and advancements conservative women have made over the previous 12 months.

It took Michelle Malkin less than 24 hours after that to pick up the piece and use it to "Celebrate Women's History Month With a Review of Liberal Misogyny" again, as opposed to just simply celebrating women. Michelle Malkin likens the plight of conservative women to the Jill Scott song "Hate on Me."

Sister, please. I doubt that the love and celebration of life and freedom that Jill Scott sings, writes and speaks about is even minimally comparable to the vile, nastiness of Michelle Malkin, such as Malkin's defense for Asian internment during WWII or the fact that she posted up the recent Pentagon shooter's voter registration address on her blog with no regard for who might live at the home now.

Conservative women, particularly white and/or affluent conservative women, often loathe taking part in universal celebrations of women (unless it's to tell us what to do with our body) because it forces them to relate to women whom they do not wish to be associated with: liberals, poor women, women of color, lesbians, etc. Because fundamentalists choose narrow viewpoints, the broadness of women's history threatens their premise, meaning it shines light on the sameness of women, when their political position requires distinct, polarizing differences.

It's not the notion that these conservative women used Women's History Month to show how conservative women have been treated in the media, I find that appropriate and informational, but that it was truly just an excuse to take a hit at the left. In other words, to these conservative women, partisan punditry trumps celebrating universal womanhood, no matter what, even if or when they don't realize what they are doing.

Our History is Our Strength: Women's History 2010.

2010-03-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

Girl Power!

In 1980, the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) was founded in Santa Rosa, California by Molly Murphy MacGregor, Mary Ruthsdotter, Maria Cuevas, Paula Hammett and Bette Morgan to broadcast women’s historical achievements.

The NWHP started by leading a coalition that successfully lobbied Congress to designate March as National Women’s History Month, now celebrated across the land.

Today, the NWHP is known nationally as the only clearinghouse providing information and training in multicultural women’s history for educators, community organizations, and parents-for anyone wanting to expand their understanding of women contributions to U. S. history.

National Women's History Project:
From a Grassroots Organization into a National Institution
Over 25 years of "Writing Women Back into History"

In 1980, we were a group of women who noticed that women were absent from our texts. No more than 3% of the content was devoted to women.

Girls had few role models. Girls and boys and many adults assumed women did nothing important. This perception needed to be addressed.

We convinced Congress and the White House of the need for our nation to celebrate and recognize women’s role in history on an annual basis. As a result of our efforts, the week of March 8th (International Women’s Day) was officially designated as National Women’s History Week. In 1987, we led the successful campaign to have the entire month of March declared National Women’s History Month.

We mobilize and unify the national celebrations of Women's History Month in March each year by choosing an annual theme.

We promote a multicultural women’s history perspective by honoring women of diverse cultural, ethnic, occupational, racial, class, and regional backgrounds.

Today our aim is as clear and simple as it was 25 years ago: to teach as many people as possible about women’s role in history.

Every year we send out 100,000 catalogs and distribute tens of thousands of women's history posters, celebratory materials, books, videos, and curriculum resources.

Our website has over 1,000,000 visitors a year. Additionally, we answer over 2,500 e-mails and letters each year from students, teachers, reporters, and other interested individuals requesting information.

We work with schools, colleges, companies, churches, clubs, communities, government offices, unions, publishers, and the media.

Our staff has conducted women's history training sessions and women's historic site tours in 42 states. We have trained over 30,000 teachers and federal program managers and have delivered over 2,500 speeches.

We created the national clearinghouse to provide multicultural women's history information, materials, referrals, and strategies. This service also provides easy access to women's history performers, organizations, museums, and historic site.

We have designed, developed, and produced more than 200 multicultural women’s history resource materials, such as videos, speeches, posters, celebratory items, guides, program kits, and curriculum units.

We established the NWHP Network to strengthen the connections between and among local, state, and national women’s history and educational organizations.

In 1995 and 1998, we created and led national campaigns to celebrate and recognize the work of women in expanding and enriching our democracy. In 1995, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of women in the United States winning the right to vote and in 1998 we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Women's Rights Movement. These successful campaigns resulted in tens of thousands of local, state, and national celebrations. In 2005, we will celebrate the 85th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment and the 25th anniversary of the women's history movement.

Our staff has responded to more than 200,000 requests for information from students, teachers, authors, historians, librarians, corporate and government agency executives.

In 1997 we launched our website to serve as the digital clearinghouse for multicultural women's history information. Today, our award-winning website is the first women's history choice on all website search engines.

We have been honored to work with the President’s Commission on the Celebration of Women in American History. Our Executive Director was appointed by the White House to serve on the Congressional Commission on Women's Historic Landmarks.

Our work has been recognized by a wide-range of educational organizations including the National Educational Association, the National Association for Multicultural Education, the Association for Gender Equity Leadership in Education, and the American Educational Research Association.

We are retelling history. And changing the future. We believe that knowing women’s history gives all of us—female and male—the power and inspiration to succeed. We believe that Our History Is Our Strength

WTF? Racist Pro-Life Billboard.

2010-02-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

Georgia Right to Life (or toomanyaborted.com) is using this racialized billboard as part of their current campaign aimed at the Black community of Atlanta. As usual, the fundamentalist conservatives, dehumanize Black children to fulfill their current political agenda by calling our Black youth "endangered species" although in this attempt they are supposedly trying to garner support from within the Black community rather then alienate it.

However, the exploitation of young people to forward political agendas is not exclusive to the right wing. Check out these images from a French anti-smoking campaign comparing the tobacco industry to pedophilia.

What is so disturbing about these two very different political ad campaigns is there similarities. Both exploit young people, a disenfranchised social location, dehumanizing and objectifying them, in order to appeal to adults.

But let's get back to Georgia Right to Life (and toomanyaborted.com.) whom also produced the video below, which I can be honest and say that it asks some fair questions and presents accurate data. They are very cunning, in their accompanying article, citing Planned Parenthood's founder Margaret Sanger's Negro Project; and asking why are there so many clinics in the hood, much like revolutionists want to know why there are so many liquor stores in the hood, is a very shrewd attempt to stoke the notions of racial conspiracy . In feminist circles, the deceased Sanger's apparent racism has never been a secret nor was it ever hidden within history. In fact, whenever it was brought to my attention (mostly within the academy and activism,) Sanger's racist ideas were condemned.

Choice does not begin nor end with Margaret Sanger nor Planned Parenthood. Choice is about control over your body.

Georgia Right to Life further objectifies and insults Black women and their community suggesting that historical community leaders (such as:Mary McLeod Bethune, W. E. B. DuBois, and Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr) were duped into supporting Reproductive Rights and Black women are targeted for abortion thus, Black women are not really in control of their own bodies.

Alas, in an "if all else fails" strategy, the group attempts to shame Black women into submission by declaring that while they are only 13% of the population they have the most abortions at a rate of 3x more than white women. (Of course whiteness, at the end of the day, is always the standard, right? Gross.) In fact this is their entire rationalization for dehumanizing Black children, objectifying Black women and insulting Black leadership both past and present.

I am in support of reproductive rights. Personally, I'm not sure that abortion is morally correct. However, women should never be forced into having a child, therefore I support laws that uphold choice.

Repulican Front Runner is a Bigot. By: Casey Gane-McCalla

2010-02-26T21:07:00.000-08:00

OPINION: Ron Paul Is A White Supremacist

By Casey Gane-McCalla

http://newsone.com/nation/casey-gane-mccalla/opinion-ron-paul-is-a-white-supremacist/

Originally, when I began reporting on the Neo-Nazis and conspiracy theory driven right wing extremists and their associations with Ron Paul, I assumed they were a fringe group who jumped on to the Ron Paul bandwagon. Then after doing extensive research, I realized that not only did the Neo-Nazis and the John Birch/Timothy McVeigh based conspiracy theorists support Ron Paul, but Ron Paul supports the views of the Neo-Nazis and the conspiracy theorists.

There are several pieces of evidence tying Paul to both white supremacists and right wing conspiracy theorists. One connection that ties Paul to both Neo-Nazis and conspiracy theorists, is his close connection to the John Birch society. The John Birch Society is a group that has been called, paranoid, radical, racist, and extremist, and believes in a Jewish/Freemason conspiracy to transform the world into a communist “New World Order.”

The John Birch Society

The John Birch society holds McCarthy as a hero and believes that “liberal” politicians and are part of a “communist” conspiracy known as “Insiders”. They opposed the Civil Rights movement and Civil Rights legislation (and still do), called Martin Luther King a radical socialist threat (and still do), praised apartheid and believe that Nelson Mandela was “a communist terrorist thug” and campaigned for segregationist Presidential candidate George Wallace.

What is most scary about the John Birch Society, is that it seems to be a breeding ground for Neo-Nazis. Several members of the intellectual wing of the White Nationalist Neo-Nazi movement come directly from the John Birch society.

One of the founders of the John Birch Society was Revilo P. Oliver, who went on to found the white nationalist Neo-Nazi organization, The National Alliance which named Hitler “the greatest man of our era.”

Another member of the John Birch society was William Pierce, also a founder of the National Alliance, who also wrote “The Turner Diaries.” “The Turner Diaries” is credited with inspiring Timothy McVeigh to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City, Killing 168 people.

Other prominent members of the John Birch society, who played large roles in the Neo-Nazi movement, include Tom Metzger, who was a Grand Dragon of the KKK and Kevin Strom, the former managing director of National Vanguard, (another prominent white supremacist organization) who was convicted for child pornography.

The Southern Poverty Leadership Committee claims the John Birch society is responsible for a lot of the Patriot movement “New World Order,” anti-government ideologies that spread to militias and Neo-Nazis.

Ron Paul was the keynote speaker for the John Birch Society’s 50th Anniversary and spoke about the strong connection he had to the society and their ideologies.

The John Birch Society is a great patriotic organization featuring an educational program solidly based on constitutional principles. I congratulate the Society in this, its 50th year. I wish them continued success and endorse their untiring efforts to foster ‘less government, more responsibility … and with God’s help … a better world.’”

I am delighted to help celebrate this birthday.” “I’m sure there are people in this room who probably helped me in that campaign, because I know that so many of you have over the years.”

continue what you have been doing…..I come with a positive message and congratulations to you for all you have done. Congratulations and thank you very much for having me tonight.

The John Birch society had a big role in Paul’s “Rally For The Republic” in where their leader spoke and they distributed anti “New World Order” materials.

Aside from his involvement in the John Birch society, Ron Paul has an extensive history of writing and promoting racist literature that would seem to come from one of the many John Birch Neo-Nazi offshoots. Ron Paul’s, Ron Paul newsletter contained articles attacking African-Americans, for being unintelligent, lazy and prone to crime, and Jews for being part of Zionist conspiracies. The newsletters also contained pro-militia articles that advised militia armed groups to “Leave no clues…Avoid the phone as much as possible,”…. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here” three months before McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma.

Here are some of the many racist quotes that can be found in Paul’s newsletter from 1978 till 1995

On the L.A. Riots

“Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks three days after rioting began,”

‘civil rights,’ quotas, mandated hiring preferences, set-asides for government contracts, gerrymandered voting districts, black bureaucracies, black mayors, black curricula in schools, black tv shows, black tv anchors, hate crime laws, and public humiliation for anyone who dares question the black agenda

On African-American Political Opinion

Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5 percent of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty and the end of welfare and affirmative action

On African-Americans and Crime

Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the `criminal justice system,’ I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal,

America’s number one need is an unlimited white checking account for underclass blacks.
mostly black welfare recipients will feel justified in stealing from mostly white ‘haves.’

Paul also used the newsletter to refer to call the end of apartheid in South Africa, the “destruction of civilization” and warned of a South African Holocaust after Nelson Mandela was elected.

Paul’s newsletter also included several attacks on Martin Luther King. After Martin Luther King Day was named a national holiday, this was written in his newsletter, “What an infamy Ronald Reagan approved it!…..We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day”

While the newsletter criticized Martin Luther King, it praised former KKK Grand Wizard, David Duke, “Is David Duke’s new prominence, despite his losing the gubernatorial election, good for anti-big government forces? our priority should be to take the anti-government, anti-tax, anti-crime, anti-welfare loafers, anti-race privilege, anti-foreign meddling message of Duke, and enclose it in a more consistent package of freedom.”

In This Quote, Paul Exhibits The Paranoid Conspiracy Driven Anti-Semitic, Homophobic, Racist View From The John Birch Society

I’ve been told not to talk, but these stooges don’t scare me. Threats or no threats, I’ve laid bare the coming race war in our big cities. The federal-homosexual cover-up on AIDS (my training as a physician helps me see through this one.) The Bohemian Grove–perverted, pagan playground of the powerful. Skull & Bones: the demonic fraternity that includes George Bush and leftist Senator John Kerry, Congress’s Mr. New Money. The Israeli lobby, which plays Congress like a cheap harmonica

Source

While Paul has abandoned writing and distributing racist literature, he is still strongly connected to the Neo-Nazi movement.

It seems as if people in the white supremacist, Neo-Nazi community believe that Paul is one of them. Paul is usually somewhere between David Duke, who refers to Paul as “Our King,” and Hitler on the Neo-Nazi hero list.

Ron Paul accepted a donation from the founder of white supremacist site, Stormfront, Don Black and even took a picture with him and his son Derek. Ron Paul has been endorsed by David Duke and Sean Hannity’s Nazi cohort, Hal Turner

Several prominent Ron Paul Internet organizers are also notorious Neo-Nazis. Will Williams, also known as white will was a prominent internet organizer for the Paul campaign. He also the Southern Coordinator for Turner Diaries’ author, William Pierce’s National Alliance.

Another one is Ron Doggett. Doggett, a David Duke underling posts Ron Paul propaganda on various Neo-Nazi website, such as Stormfront and Vanguard News. Another KKK member who organized for Paul was Randy Grey,the Midland County, Michigan coordinator for the Ron Paul 2008 Presidential campaign who was also a leader for the Michigan KKK.

Ron Paul Believes In The John Birch “New World Order” Conspiracy Theory

Asides from the racism, Paul has inherited other ideologies from the John Birch society. Ron Paul has several times alluded that he believes in the John Birch conspiracy theory, that a communist secret society conspiracy is seeking to bring the world into “New World Order” one world government and destroy America.

Another one of Ron Paul’s supporters is Alex Jones. Jones is a radio host who has extensively promoted the John Birch “New World Order” conspiracy of an Illuminati secret society trying to bring the world into a socialist one world government .

Jones has enthusiastically endorsed Ron Paul for President and has even has Paul on his radio show several times. Rather than discourage Jones conspiracy theories, Paul encourages them. On Jones show, Paul said.

A world central bank, worldwide regulation and world control of the whole system, of all the commodities and all the natural resources, what else can you call it other than world government?

We have to continue to do what we are doing, you are in the business of passing on and spreading information, that, to me, is most crucial, getting more people engaged, more people understanding what the issues are, nothing else is more important than that. Then when you see an opportunity we have to turn this into political action.

Source

Ron Paul even used the phrase “New World Order” in a rally in Nashville, equating it with the UN, World Bank and IMF.

When asked “Is there a plan for a New World Order and how do we stop it,” Paul stayed to his John Birch philosophy and ranted against the U.N.

The first President Bush said the New World Order was in tune– and that’s what they were working for. The U.N. is part of that government. They’re working right now very significantly towards a North American Union. That’s why there’s a lot of people in Washington right now who don’t care too much about our borders. They have a philosophical belief that national sovereignty is not important. It’s also the reason I’ve made the very strong suggestion the U.S. need not be in the U.N. for national security reasons.

Ron Paul has denied he is racist and said that he didn’t write the many racist statements in the newsletter that was distributed in his name under his byline. The Magazine that originally uncovered the racist newsletters responded with.

To believe that Ron Paul had no knowledge of what was being written in his own name, in his own office, for 20 years — and that he didn’t even read his own monthly publication — not only “stretches credulity to the breaking point,” it actually requires believing bald-faced lies.

In the statement about the coming race war and the homosexual AIDS plot, Paul clearly identified himself as a “physician” making it seem clear that Paul had the same racist, anti-Semitic, conspiratorial views of his fellow John Birch Society members.

A now incarcerated Neo-Nazi by the name of Bill White put out a statement that Ron Paul was a man with Neo-Nazi views, but he hid them because of his political position.

I have kept quiet about the Ron Paul campaign for a while, because I didn’t see any need to say anything that would cause any trouble. However, reading the latest release from his campaign spokesman, I am compelled to tell the truth about Ron Paul’s extensive involvement in white nationalism.

Both Congressman Paul and his aides regularly meet with members of the Stormfront set, American Renaissance, the Institute for Historic Review, and others at the Tara Thai restaurant in Arlington, Virginia, usually on Wednesdays. This is part of a dinner that was originally organized by Pat Buchanan, Sam Francis and Joe Sobran, and has since been mostly taken over by the Council of Conservative Citizens.

I have attended these dinners, seen Paul and his aides there, and been invited to his offices in Washington to discuss policy.

For his spokesman to call white racialism a “small ideology” and claim white activists are “wasting their money” trying to influence Paul is ridiculous. Paul is a white nationalist of the Stormfront type who has always kept his racial views and his views about world Judaism quiet because of his political position.

I don’t know that it is necessarily good for Paul to “expose” this. However, he really is someone with extensive ties to white nationalism and for him to deny that in the belief he will be more respectable by denying it is outrageous — and I hate seeing people in the press who denounce racialism merely because they think it is not fashionable.

Bill White, Commander
Source

There are far to many connections between Ron Paul and white supremacists to be overlooked. From his close affiliation to the Neo-Nazi breeding ground, The John Birch society, to the large number of Neo-Nazis who support and organize for him, to the racist literature he wrote and or distributed for almost 20 years between 1978 and 1995.

Ron Paul is clearly a right wing extremist from the John Birch Society school of thought. Most of his policies and views come from their conspiracy theory, from his opposition to the U.N. and Civil Rights legislation, to his homophobia and anti-Semitism. He clearly believes in or chooses to spread the paranoia based New World Order, Illuminati theory that the John Birch society has spreading to militias and Neo-Nazis for so many years.

Given all the evidence it is very easy to believe Bill White’s claim that Paul has been keeping his racist views quiet in order to infiltrate mainstream politics. While it may seem that Ron Paul is a good decent man with strong political ideals, that isn’t racist, who is being supported by Neo-Nazis and Patriot movement militia people who wrongly believe that he is one of them, the opposite is true. Ron Paul is a man with Neo-Nazi, Patriot movement militia views who is being supported by good decent people with strong political ideals who wrongly believe he is one of them.

Keep Your Friends Close And Your Enemies Closer.

2010-02-21T13:30:00.000-08:00

Above is a video blog of Rachel Maddow's, an MSNBC host and one of the Left's Top 25 Journalists, as described by The Daily Beast, experience at the CPAC Convention this weekend. It is at the least a glimpse into the hearts and minds of our conservative, fundamentalist brethren.

GIVE US YOUR 8 BARS: HIP HOP CONGRESS HAITI BENEFIT SONG.

2010-02-18T20:03:00.000-08:00

Haiti

Hip-Hop Congress- Haiti Benefit Song- (spit 8Bars)-

All Proceeds Go To The People Of Haiti

ATTENTION!! All Artists Worldwide Unite For Haiti- Ongoing Rap/Song Quilt

Send back seperate tracked out wav files of verse 8 Bars (rap, poem, spoken word, singing, drops,instrumentas) ASAP

This requires our immediate atention as artists. Lets Unite for a Powerful message when it counts

Send verse here DLabrozia2005@yahoo.com and cc HipHoppa13@aol.com WAV’S please !!

This song is also in honor of Oakland Legend “Too Short” who has always made songs that spoke about struggle and issues in the world such as “The Ghetto”, “I Want to be free”, and the Mega-Hit “Life is Too Short”

List of Artists in Support so far: Add your name….

DLabrie, Rahman Jamaal, Knobody (Hieroglyfics), E-Dawg, Sir Mixalot, Bigg Mann, Bueno, Swisherbox Studios, RDV Promo, Ms Jay, YDMC, Blaze 5, Kev Choice, Kung Fu Vampire, SaikoDelic ,

The list is Growing every second. Be on the right side of History Text YELE to 501501 and donate $5 to Haiti from your phone bill!!

Download instrumental w/ hook and Logos to Promote supporting Haiti here:

INFO LINK – http://www.divshare.com/folder/665795-754

Upload pix/logos on your pages in SUPPORT of the people of Haiti www.yele.org or www.hiphopcongress.com

@HipHopCongress is organizing a song 4 Haiti 4 ALL ARTISTS worldwide.Drop 8 Bars INFO @ http://tinyurl.com/yaokadx proceeds 2 @Yelehaiti

Hip Hop Congress Worldwide stands in support of the people of Haiti and the efforts of its Chief Ambassador to Hip Hop Wyclef Jean. We encourage all Artists, Organizers, Educators, and World Citizens to help the rebuilding process in some way, whether it is by donating money, time, or by hosting events that provide resources and awareness to this tragedy. Untold numbers of Haitians have lost their lives and have been stripped of their homeland. This tragedy is the worst natural disaster to hit the island in over 200 years. There is much to be done. We need to take action NOW!!!

To help, please go to: http://www.yele.org/

The N Word and the White Boy and his David Duke dick.

2010-02-13T17:24:00.000-08:00

During an interview with Playboy, John Mayer decided his self-proclaimed "hood pass" was encompassing enough to use the n-word, objectify Black women, pontificate about the Black American struggle and compare his sexual taste in women to white supremacist David Duke; he really, really must have been delusional to think that the self-proclaimed hood pass would not be instantly revoked by the Black community whom had never granted it to him in the first place.

I don't believe Mayer is a racist. A sexist, yes. An idiot, oh hell yes.

But then in an attempt to sincerely distance himself from the remarks (see above video,) but not so sincerely take responsibility for using the n-word and objectifying Black women and men in the process of trying to act cool, Mayer delivers a rambling apology of sorts, claiming that in his attempt to be "clever" he delivered the fuel that the media fire needed to "persecute" him.

Whiteness like Blackness (or even non-whiteness, if you will) is an intensely loaded social location. A white person can be aware of the fatality of perpetuating whiteness, but still be unaware that they manifest certain characteristics learned through holding this social location, mainly such as: a sense of entitlement, lack of accountability. Thus, the white boy who hangs with the Black crowd, believes he has a "hood pass" granting him the right to use the n-word without ever having been told so. However, note, that Mayer only went there with another white person, the author of the article, Rob Tannenbaum, but was in tears about what he said when he was back on stage with his Black band members.

While Mayer may not be a Hip Hop Head, he does label his music as the "Blues" thus perhaps he could benefit from J-Love's "WHITE LIKE ME: 10 Codes of Ethics for White People in Hip Hop. Codes that could be and should be applied to a more universal context, including other Black (or non-white) musical genres, social movements, etc...

Specifically, Code 9. Where J-Love explains: "Don’t think you are the exception to the rule; YOU ARE NOT THE COOLEST WHITE PERSON IN THE WORLD! (By the way, this code relates to me also) You are not so different and unique as to warrant a special ‘cool white person’ pass..."

John Mayer, you never had a "hood pass." Duh.

I Almost Forgot She Was Bidding...for 2012

2010-02-08T20:43:00.001-08:00

Exert from Palin's Key Note Speech at Tea Party Convention in regard to President Obama's handling of the Christmas Day Bomber:

"And to win that war, we need a commander-in-chief, not a PROFESSOR OF LAW STANDING AT THE LECTURN!"

Right, we would much rather have someone who resigns from her job as Governor of Alaska to go on a book tour (because that shows commitment to the people!); and has to refer to notes scribbled on her hand when asked what her key ideas are for the convention (I could only imagine her at a G-8 Summit!)

If this is what the Republicans have to offer for 2012, I don't know whether to relax and call it easy street or to fear for my life. She's got one thing right, I am ready for a revolution.

Vanity Fair's White Supremacy.

2010-02-04T18:50:00.000-08:00

Young women who should have been included:

Zoe Saldana
Frieda Pinto
Gabourey Sidibe
America Ferrera
Jamie Chung

Vanity Fair's choice to exclude any women of color (as well as exaggerating the paleness and wanness of the young women) highlights a much bigger issue: Hollywood's everlasting lack of diverse leading roles and plot lines.

I would encourage you to write a letter to the editor at http://www.vanityfair.comand let the magazine know that thin white women are not the only young women coming up in Hollywood.

Blog For Choice Day.

2010-01-22T18:04:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wonder if we, as citizens of the United States, are enlightened, or are we indulged because we have the luxury to ponder the idea of choice while so many of our fellow global citizens do not have the extravagance of such discourse.

This is not to say that choice is a luxury (I believe choice is a human right) but perhaps the ability to exercise it could be classified as so.

Women from higher economic classes will most likely have the ability to access choice even if abortion were to be outlawed. In other words, poor women, even though abortion is legal still many times over do not have the power to exercise their right because disenfranchisement and oppression is their largest obstacle, not the fundamentalist blocking the path to the clinic.

Choice exists with or without the legal right to act on it. But without the faculty to do so what does choice even mean?

Martin Luther King, Jr.:

2010-01-17T18:29:00.000-08:00

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy, a legacy from which Hip Hop was borne.

Closing Arguments: No Pregnancy in a War Zone - Nightline's Daily Line

2009-12-22T22:59:00.000-08:00

Update: According to the Heritage Foundation, Blacks, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders are considered to be overrepresented in the United States Military. As well as low-income households. Considering that Hip Hop Politicos often oppose Military recruiting practices along with the treatment of soldiers and veterans and their families because of the aforementioned racial/socio-economic over-representations, I would have thought that the Activist arm of our community would have reacted to this news with a little more vigor. The enacted policy was rescinded on January 1st. However, what is de jure does not always trump that which is de facto. The idea that women are commodities to be viewed through bizarre and abusive regulations that seek to control their bodies is still left as the elephant in the room, even after the bizarre and abusive regulations are taken off the table.

Arguments: No Pregnancy in a War Zone - Nightline's Daily Line

It Takes a Village. The Richmond Gang Rape.

2009-10-27T12:53:00.000-07:00

The Bay Area, considered one of the most progressive and safest urban meccas to raise your child, has seen it's most disturbing juvenile crime of the year. Over the weekend, a 15 year-old girl was raped, beaten and robbed during Richmond High School's annual homecoming dance in an alley adjacent to the school property, by at least 4 males while at least 15 others stood by and watched.

According to the Richmond Police Department, no one tried to stop the assault, help the victim or call or go get help after leaving the scene. The assault lasted over two hours and was only reported to the police after someone heard others "reminiscing" about the attack. When the police arrived they found the girl, unconscious under a bench. They were able to apprehend one young man fleeing from the scene, Manuel Ortega, 19, and another young man, 15. Both being charged with the sexual assault.

Parents, have you ever told your sons, that NO means NO when a women refuses to have sex with you? Have you told your sons that when she can't answer for herself, because she is too sick, too intoxicated or too injured to say anything, that that equals a NO? Parents, have you told your sons that when they see another young man not accepting that NO for an answer or forcing himself on a woman too impaired to say anything, to intervene on the woman's behalf or if necessary to go get the proper help? Parents, have you told your sons that even if they don't participate they are just as responsible when they don't do anything to stop it?

Children do not innately know right from wrong until somebody intervenes to guide them. It is our job, parents, community, society, to teach our children right from wrong; to equip them with the courage and the power to tell their peers what is right and wrong or the sense to get an adult who will do so when they cannot.

At least 15 young men watched and/or participated while a 15 year-old female classmate was raped, beaten and robbed. And not one of them reacted to save her? To stop her from being attacked? None of them had any empathy? They could not look at the situation from the girl's perspective or check themselves on how they would react if that female was their mother, sister, aunt or even daughter?

Davey D just wrote on his website about how "troubled youth become troubled adults" when reviewing the situation around the "balloon boy" debacle. A media saturated with violent, sexist, nihilistic images will create a society with violent, sexist, nihilistic individuals. And unfortunately these images permeate our youth and tell them that people are worthless and disposable.

When the President goes to war and kills millions of people based on lies, when levies are left unsecured to kill whole communities, when music tells them to smoke dope, shoot people and have meaningless intimacies, when schools are closed and prisons are erected in their place, when football players breed animals for the sole purpose of watching them kill each other, when CEO's create schemes to rake in their employees cash and then split with the money right before the company folds, when the most popular video games require you to kill and steal to win at the highest level, how do we expect our children to act and react when the lives of their peers are put in their hands?

It takes a village to raise a child because a village is where a child is raised.

The Female MC.

2009-09-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

The female MC. She exists. I know she does. I've seen her at my local open mic. I've seen her on cheesy reality shows. I've heard her on college and independent radio. I've seen her at female MC showcases. I've read her flows on web cyphers. I've seen her on My Space. But how come I don't hear her on KMEL or see her video on MTV or BET? Yeah, I can catch some out dated joint by Lil' Kim or Foxy Brown and Lauryn Hill's flows never get old, but, where is the new generation of female MCs?

It's a man's world. I get this. Men run and ruin this world at their will. Women clean up the mess, however that may manifest itself. Hip Hop, the progressive counter-culture that we may be, still subscribes to sexist values that choke the female MCs voice. The male dominated industry of Hip Hop still lacks faith in the female MC.

A few weeks ago I was at a function when a few men started to talk about Hip Hop. This issue having been on my mind for awhile now prompted me to tell the men that there are no new female MCs on the radio and quite frankly Hip Hop, the industry, doesn't seem to give a hoot. The response, by one Bay Area MC, was "Who gives a shit? If there were females dope enough to be heard, they would be." His response angered me. There are most certainly female MCs trying to be heard who are dope enough to be put on. And there are most certainly wack male MCs getting breaded out for spitting garbage!

One might say that just like the women's liberation struggle, only women can uplift women. Thus, the responsibility of putting female MCs into the mainstream falls on the shoulders of women. But the truth is that the heads of major labels, major radio stations are not women. The labels are run by men. It's a man's world.

So, just like with the women's struggle for equality, the challenge to put talented female MCs into the mainstream, requires that men join our cause. If the same ol' cookie cutter gangster, ride or die female MC is what the mainstream allows for, why haven't we had a new one of those in few years? What's the problem?

The entertainment biz is cutthroat. It's musical chairs, there's never enough room for everybody to play. If you are trying to blow up as an MC, the threat that the next MC will take your spot is real, and can happen at any given moment. The public fan base is wishy-washy and easily distracted, often only offering unconditional loyalty after your dead and gone. Investment into an MC can be risky. But with no female MCs to speak of, why not take the leap? Why not offer up something new to a male gangster MC saturated radio line up? Isn't that why Lil' Wayne gave us Drake or why T-Pain resurrected the auto-tune, to come new? The same shit over and over gets played out, that's why T-Pain's auto-tune craze is already falling off.

I am a grown woman. I have kids to raise. The truth is a pain I need in order to arm my children for the real world. The reality that it's a man's world doesn't distract me from other truths, such as, women have the right to be heard, even if it unsettles their men's world.

The truth is that a crop of female MCs to shake up the game would be both a wise financial and cultural investment into the future of Hip Hop. Let's step our game up!

White Pride?

2009-09-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

Can white boys and girls have white pride? Can they celebrate themselves and their history as a people in an authentic manner? What can whites as a people be proud of? When will whites, as a people, be free from the stigma of white supremacy? Never?

The fatalities of white supremacy falls over the globe and manifested itself throughout history in the form of American Slavery, The Holocaust, The War with Iraq, caste systems, and all the previous and current physical and political colonizations we have created globally.

At this point in history, white American youth are the most privileged youth in the United States, even if the playing field is being leveled through human evolution. Turn on MTV, VH1, Bravo, the Disney Channel, any channel with youth or pop culture at the forefront and there are still very few to no women of color with major roles. And the casts are still being filled with white/light skin.

Today I turned on a liberal radio talk show, the host was cutting down a conservative caller who was being racist, kicking him off the air. I turned instantly to Sean Hannity's radio show and they too were talking race. As I suspected. What I heard from my conservative brethren was fear. And while I can appreciate the basic instinct for survival as natural, I cannot grasp why white supremacists are so damn scared.

And this is where I go back to the white legacy. Growing up "white" in America means that you inherit a legacy (or social status) that is institutionally privileged, but when in turn looked at in depth, is morally inferior. Even if as a child growing up you don't fully grasp this, eventually, upon enlightenment, you will have to choose to deny this truth (i.e.: that your ability to claim "white" is perpetuated through suffering by others) and live in either a negative or benevolent ignorance or you will choose to embrace this truth and work to eradicate the consequences of such immorality practiced for so many centuries.

Racial identity is obviously very personal and very political. I was conversing with two good friends, one black and one white, both males. While the white male was not a white supremacist, meaning he did not believe he was superior to black people because he was white, when discussing racial hierarchy and how it was realized in American capitalist society, he failed to see how his "whiteness" put him in a socially privileged position and denied any responsibility for perpetuating white supremacy, purposefully or otherwise (a truth I've seen many white people struggle to accept). In fact, he was angry that myself and the other gentleman were labeling him as privileged. This conversation continued for two or three more days and eventually the two men's friendship was strained. The black friend could not look past his white friend's ignorance.

Unlike my white male counterpart in the paragraph previous, discussing the fatality of whiteness is not new to me nor does it make me uncomfortable except for the fact that I, as a white person, feel an urgent responsibility to eradicate white supremacy due to the suffering that it has caused my fellow human beings. I was lucky to have clarity in this matter at a young age. Many white youth, from the past and still in the present, are not so lucky.

It seems that white youth, including myself, whom embrace the inclusiveness of Hip Hop do so because it allows us to step outside of whiteness. It's like a kid who tells their seemingly oppressive parent they "didn't ask to be born." I, a white kid, didn't ask to be white. When I was born, society put me this label upon me. I don't want people to suffer so I can have socio-economic superiority. I want people to thrive even if that means I have to sacrifice my unearned privileges obtained through a fatal system of white supremacy.

My generation of progressives, of all racial identities, did not expose the truth nor the consequences of a brutal American racial hierarchy, but we did make the choice to work against it at the highest and most public levels of community. In fact our revolutionary stance manifested itself into a global culture: Hip Hop.

The positive impact that Hip Hop has created for race relations is quite profound. In fact, it's impact, much like feminism and the civil rights struggles of the past, is now taken for granted by a younger generation, our kids! However, white Hip Hop heads, when confronted with their whitness still resist the truth. (Scroll down to my past article about MC Serch and Sage Francis).

And this brings me back to those white kids growing up in Hip Hop. What will white pride mean to them?

Kids Hate Cops and Cops Hate EVERYBODY...

2009-04-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

"Isms" in a Post-Racial Society.

2008-11-21T18:55:00.000-08:00

I've always been acutely aware of certain "isms" that plague our society and more generally aware that there are isms that affect others much more tragically or more constantly. These isms divide the people and keep us from working together to make this world a better place. These isms cause us to mistrust one another and even work against each other. These isms kill people, devastate communities and cause wars that never seem to end.

While Hip Hop may seem to innately tackle the ism of race and even class, Hip Hop has in many ways mimicked it's oppressor and perpetuated many other isms that exist to degrade humanity. And perhaps we could even say that Hip Hop is not merely mimicking the dominant hegemony but simply at this stage of the game, just being itself. It's not as though the other cultures from which Hip Hop sprang were highly progressive when it came to sexual orientation or gender relations.

We are all guilty of prejudice. Whether it's based on facts or stereotypes, we form opinions about people before we have even engaged them in meaningful or extended interaction. It's normal. We certainly shouldn't be afraid to talk about it. It's only hateful when we allow what we do not understand to become bigoted ignorance.

Many gay rights activists in California this November pointed the finger at communities of color with praise for electing Obama and with disappointment believing their vote took away the gay community's right to marry. They have rightfully said, in their plea to this conservative faction of people of color, that MLK Jr. was not offended by homosexuality and in fact had at least one key advisor who was such.

Given the history that informed Hip Hop at the foundation of its creation, I can see why we are still quite archaic when it comes to gender relations and sexual identity, whether that be within the revolution, at the video shoot, in the studio, in the academy or in our homes. When American citizens stepped up their level of humanity to show the world that we would not let prejudice and ignorance, the trajectory we were trapped onto by the Bush administration, be the course that we stay on, it spoke volumes to the social psychology of our nation.

I am elated by the contribution that Hip Hop, a worldview that seeks to look past race and class and expose why these isms were created in the first place, had on this evolved American social psychology. However, I am concerned that while we celebrate our victory, we will forget that other isms still exist to crumble our progress. Isms and phobias that deny rights to good, hard working people, who are apart of Hip Hop and our struggle as a whole; isms that still, in 2008! have me earning 75% of my male counter-part and being taken less seriously in the struggle because of my gender.

Therefore, I plan to grab the bull by it's nasty isms (versus riding the coatails of change) and tackle these issues of gender relations and homophobia within our community.

Hip Hop. It don't stop.