Sunday, April 20, 2014

Rubin "Hurricane Carter Dies At 76......





Rest in Peace, Hurricane Carter!



Here's a well-written obituary on the legend who was wrongly convicted and whose life story was brought to life in the famous movie featuring the legendary Denzil Washington.

_____________________________________________



Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the boxer whose wrongful murder conviction became an international symbol of racial injustice, died Sunday. He was 76.
He had been stricken with prostate cancer in Toronto, the New Jersey native's adopted home. John Artis, a longtime friend and caregiver, told The Canadian Press that Carter died in his sleep.
Carter spent 19 years in prison for three murders at a tavern in Paterson, N.J., in 1966. He was convicted alongside Artis in 1967 and again in a new trial in 1976.
Carter was freed in November 1985 when his convictions were set aside after years of appeals and public advocacy. His ordeal and the alleged racial motivations behind it were publicized in Bob Dylan's 1975 song "Hurricane," several books and a 1999 film starring Denzel Washington, who received an Academy Award nomination for playing the boxer turned prisoner.
Carter's murder convictions abruptly ended the boxing career of a former petty criminal who became an undersized middleweight contender largely on ferocity and punching power.
Although never a world champion, Carter went 27-12-1 with 19 knockouts, memorably stopping two-division champ Emile Griffith in the first round in 1963. He also fought for a middleweight title in 1964, losing a unanimous decision to Joey Giardello.
In June 1966, three white people were shot by two black men at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson. Carter and Artis were convicted by an all-white jury largely on the testimony of two thieves who later recanted their stories.
Carter was granted a new trial and briefly freed in 1976, but sent back for nine more years after being convicted in a second trial.
Thom Kidrin, who became friends with Carter after visiting him several times in prison, told The Associated Press the boxer "didn't have any bitterness or anger -- he kind of got above it all. That was his great strength."
"I wouldn't give up," Carter said in an interview on PBS in 2011. "No matter that they sentenced me to three life terms in prison. I wouldn't give up. Just because a jury of 12 misinformed people ... found me guilty did not make me guilty. And because I was not guilty, I refused to act like a guilty person."
Dylan became aware of Carter's plight after reading the boxer's autobiography. He met Carter and co-wrote "Hurricane," which he performed on his Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1975. The song concludes: "That's the story of the Hurricane/But it won't be over till they clear his name/And give him back the time he's done/Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been/The champion of the world."
Muhammad Ali spoke out on Carter's behalf. Advertising art director George Lois and other celebrities also worked toward Carter's release.
With a network of friends and volunteers also advocating for him, Carter eventually won his release from U.S. District Judge H. Lee Sarokin, who wrote that Carter's prosecution had been "predicated upon an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure."
Born on May 6, 1937, into a family of seven children, Carter struggled with a hereditary speech impediment and was sent to a juvenile reform center at 12 after an assault. He escaped and joined the Army in 1954, experiencing racial segregation and learning to box while in West Germany.
Carter then committed a series of muggings after returning home, spending four years in various state prisons. He began his pro boxing career in 1961 after his release, winning 20 of his first 24 fights mostly by stoppage.
Carter was fairly short for a middleweight at 5-foot-8, but he was aggressive and threw a lot of punches. His shaved head and menacing glower gave him an imposing ring presence, but also contributed to a menacing aura outside the ring. He was quoted as joking about killing police officers in a 1964 story in the Saturday Evening Post, which was later cited by Carter as a cause of his troubles with police.
Carter boxed regularly on television at Madison Square Garden and overseas in London, Paris and Johannesburg. Although his career appeared to be on a downswing before he was implicated in the murders, Carter was hoping for a second middleweight title shot.
Carter and Artis were questioned after being spotted in the area of the murders in Carter's white car, which vaguely matched witnesses' descriptions.
Both cited alibis and were released, but were arrested months later. A case relying largely on the testimony of thieves Alfred Bello and Arthur Bradley resulted in a conviction in June 1967.
Carter defied his prison guards from the first day of his incarceration, spending time in solitary confinement because of it.
"When I walked into prison, I refused to wear their stripes," Carter said. "I refused to eat their food. I refused to work their jobs, and I would have refused to breathe the prison's air if I could have done so."
Carter eventually wrote and spoke eloquently about his plight, publishing his autobiography, "The Sixteenth Round," in 1974. Benefit concerts were held for his legal defense.
After his release, Carter moved to Toronto, where he served as the executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted from 1993 to 2005. He received two honorary doctorates for his work.
Carter's papers will be sent to the Rubin Carter/John Artiz Innocence International Project at Tufts University in Boston, Kidrin said.
Director Norman Jewison made Carter's story into a well-reviewed biographical film, with Washington working closely alongside Carter to capture the boxer's transformation and redemption. Washington won a Golden Globe for the role.
"This man right here is love," Washington said while onstage with Carter at the Golden Globes ceremony in early 2000. "He's all love. He lost about 7,300 days of his life, and he's love. He's all love."
But the makers of "The Hurricane" were widely criticized for factual inaccuracies and glossing over other parts of Carter's story, including his criminal past and a reputation for a violent temper. Giardello sued the film's producers for its depiction of a racist fix in his victory over Carter, who acknowledged Giardello deserved the win.
Carter's weight and activity dwindled during his final months, but he still advocated for prisoners he believed to be wrongfully convicted.
Carter wrote an opinion essay for the New York Daily News in February, arguing vehemently for the release of David McCallum, convicted of a kidnapping and murder in 1985.
Kidrin said Carter would be cremated, with some of the ashes given to his family. Two sisters are among Carter's survivors, though Kidrin said Carter was alienated from many relatives.
Kidrin planned to sprinkle Carter's remains in the ocean off Cape Cod, where they spent the last three summers together. Artis planned to bring some of the ashes to a horse farm in Kentucky the boxer loved.
Kidrin spoke with Carter on Wednesday.
"He said, `You know, look, death's coming. I'm ready for it. But it's really going to have to take me because I'm positive to the end."'

Chris Hayes Takes On Bundy Supporter!

Right wing rancher threatens armed assault on the federal government. In his mind, he didn't violate the federal lands. So he kept on allowing his cattle graze on the land. When the government grabbed the cattle, the rancher and his supporters stood in the way with firearms in toll.

A Nevada legislator is a supporter of right wing activist Cliven Bundy. She goes to All In With Chris Hayes to spar with the liberal agitator over the controversy involving Bundy and the federal government's round up of his cattle.

Cliven Bundy is Nevada rancher who constantly kept violating the United States Bureau of Land Management's order to keep his cattle off the land. He refused to pay bills to the US government for his cattle grazing on federal lands near Bunkerville, Nevada. Bundy was eventually prohibited from grazing his cattle on the land by an order issued in 1998 by the United States District Court for the District of Nevada in United States v. Bundy.

After years of repeated violations of multiple court orders, in early April 2014 the BLM began rounding up Bundy's cattle that were trespassing on the land, confronted by protesters and armed supporters of Bundy.

Michele Fiore shows her pistol and beauty.
Media personalities have weighed in on the confrontations. During the stand-off Bundy was interviewed (via remote link) by television host That Guy Who Helped Obama Win.

That asshole stated that some fear events could wind up mirroring the Waco siege and Ruby Ridge and asked how far Bundy was willing to take his cause, he replied "my statement to the American people (is), I’ll do whatever it takes to gain our liberties and freedom back."

Talk radio show host, Tea Party activist, and former Illinois Representative Joe Walsh also supported the protesters.

Walsh, who traveled to the area and stood by Cliven Bundy as the BLM released the cattle, described the outcome as "talk radio, social media, grassroots activists, and boots-on-the-ground patriots joined together...[&] overcame the tyranny of big government."

Walsh added "we should be smart enough to know that this isn't the end. The BLM could easily show up again tomorrow, next week, or next month. ...We must be vigilant."

Assemblywoman Michele Fiore is a Republican legislator from the Las Vegas area.

A woman who's partly Italian and Latina, Fiore is an active member of the Tea Party movement. She likes to flaunt around her beauty and her many pistols.

She didn't follow the byline of what happened in reality. She would just open her damn mouth insert foot in.

Chris Hayes decides to call her on her bluff and sparks fly.

The Raw Story reports that Fiore was in Bunkerville showing her support for the rancher. She defends this standoff with the right wing rancher and the federal government.

“I’m not saying I agree with Cliven Bundy, I’m saying the way this was handled was really suspicious,” state Assembly member Michelle Fiore (R) told Hayes. “When in the heck do we send our federal government with arms to collect a bill? When do we do that? When have we ever done that? I mean, literally, if we sent our federal government to the borders to secure them against terrorist crossing, hey, I got that. But they want to come here with arms because cows are grazing?”

Fiore spoke with Hayes from outside Bunkerville, Nevada, where a crowd has formed in support of Bundy. The government holds that Bundy has refused to pay federal grazing fees for two decades, incurring a debt of more than $1 million after losing several court battles.
Right wing militia stands off with U.S. Federal Authorities.
After Bundy declared he he would give the government a “range war,” the dispute led to a stand-off between his supporters — many of whom arrived with firearms — and officials from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), who later left the area.

But Fiore accused the bureau of “coming up” with the fees in 1993 over unspecified damages, and cut Hayes off when he was about to mention that Bundy’s supporters were armed. Hayes also showed footage of one of them openly discussing being willing to kill or be killed by BLM officials during the stand-off.

“Chris, do you want them coming to your house pointing guns at your wife and children? Is that okay with you?” Fiore asked. “Because it’s defnitely not okay with me, it’s not okay with Americans across the United States.”

“Is it okay with you if every rancher in the country stopped paying their grazing fees?” Hayes asked.

“No, it’s not okay,” Fiore responded.

“Well, that’s the issue, right?” Hayes said.

“Great,” Fiore replied. “Lien the cows. Lien the property. Don’t come here with guns and expect the American people not to fire back.”

Fiore did not mention that conservative media outlets have been keen to cheerlead for future conflicts between the Bundy ranch and federal officials.

But when Hayes asked Fiore if she would support any undocumented immigrants who felt it best to have their own armed supporters on hand to resist deportation efforts, Fiore did not answer.
Chris Hayes goes to battle with Nevada legislator.
“Are we talking about cows, or are we talking about illegal immigration?” she asked, instead. “I’m talking about cows.”

“I’m talking about human beings,” Hayes retorted. “Which seems to me even more important.”

“Human beings that, thank God, did not get slaughtered,” Fiore told Hayes. “Cows did get slaughtered out here.”

“What is gonna happen to those cows later on?” Hayes asked her.

“Are you saying it’s okay to cruelly slaughter them because they’re raised for beef?” Fiore shot back. “Is that what you’re saying? I would retract those statements, because it’s pretty sad, Chris.”

“Don’t put words in my mouth,” Hayes said.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Forget Fifty Shades of a Certain Dark Color—How About Fifteen Reasons to Read The Sister Queens

Forget Fifty Shades of a Certain Dark Color—How About Fifteen Reasons to Read The Sister Queens



The Heartless Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin





How heartless of her!  When is she going to get her comeuppance?

Hear what this "governor" has to say regarding Oklahoma's ban on local government setting minimum wage.




She is truly heartless!

Paris - Sainte Chapelle: "The Holy Chapel





"La Sainte-Chapelle ( The Holy Chapel ), is the only surviving building of the Capetian royal palace on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris, France. It was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion Relics, including the Crown of Thorns - one of the most important relics in medieval Christendom."


The Sainte-Chapelle or 'Holy Chapel', in the courtyard of the royal palace on the Île de la Cité (now part of a later administrative complex known as La Conciergerie), was built to house Louis IX's collection of relics of Christ, which included the Crown of Thorns, the Image of Edessa and some thirty other items. Louis purchased his Passion relics from Baldwin II, the Latin emperor at Constantinople, for the sum of 135,000 livres, though this money was actually paid to the Venetians, to whom the relics had been pawned. The relics arrived in Paris in August 1239, carried from Venice by two Dominican friars. For the final stage of their journey they were carried by the King himself, barefoot and dressed as a penitent, a scene depicted in the Relics of the Passion window on the south side of the chapel. The relics were stored in a large and elaborate silver chest, the Grand-Chasse, on which Louis spent a further 100,000 livres. The entire chapel, by contrast, cost 40,000 livres to build and glaze. Until it was completed in 1248, the relics were housed at chapels at the Château de Vincennes and a specially built chapel at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. In 1246, fragments of the True Cross and the Holy Lancewere added to Louis' collection, along with other relics. The chapel was consecrated on 26 April 1248 and Louis' relics were moved to their new home with great ceremony.
As well as serving as a place of worship, the Sainte-Chapelle played an important role in the political and cultural ambitions of King Louis and his successors.[2][3]With the imperial throne at Constantinople occupied by a mere Count of Flanders and with the Holy Roman Empire in uneasy disarray, Louis' artistic and architectural patronage helped to position him as the central monarch of western Christendom, the Sainte-Chapelle fitting in to a long tradition of prestigious palace chapels. Just as the Emperor could pass privately from his palace into the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, so now Louis could pass directly from his palace into the Sainte-Chapelle. More importantly, the two-story palace chapel had obvious similarities to Charlemagne's palatine chapel at Aachen (built 792-805) - a parallel that Louis was keen to exploit in presenting himself as a worthy successor to the first Holy Roman Emperor.

Silent Kill!

Hate groups are plotting domestic attacks.

The Southern Poverty Law Center said that it's going to be an explosive year for domestic terrorism.

Proof positive that the hate groups are plotting to cause senseless destruction.

They released a report stating that the country's most notorious White extremist website may have ties to unsolved murders. And some of these members are openly bragging about it.

The report said nearly 100 people in the last five years have been murdered by frequent users of one white extremist supremacist website, "WHO CARES". The site describes itself as a community of “White Nationalists” and “the voice of the new, embattled White minority.”

Potok called on law enforcement, particularly the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to increase its focus on racist online forums.

There's ten active hate websites online. Not to mention there's websites such as That Guy Who Throws Shit To The Wall. That Guy links up stories to appeal to the White extremists.

The website's founder dismiss this as propaganda created by the SPLC to tarnish a civil "pro-White" forum

Yeah, I can tell you the truth. It's real.

Could you imagine that over 1,000 active hate groups exist in the United States?

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