Remember the Victims of S.C. Hate Crime

Thanks Ann for remembering the Black victims of heinous hate crime in S.C. two years ago. I haven't forgot about the brave women who brought the two men to justice.

Let's also remember Megan Williams, who was another hate crime victim.

Related links and posts:

The Carol Jenkins Murder

More on the Racial Hate Crime in S.C.

Megan Williams

The Sparkle Rai Case

May these women never be forgotten.

President Obama? Many White Supremacists are Celebrating

President Obama? Many White Supremacists are Celebrating | Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center

With the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate clinched, large sections of the white supremacist movement are adopting a surprising attitude: Electing America’s first black president would be a very good thing.

It’s not that the assortment of neo-Nazis, Klansmen, anti-Semites and others who make up this country’s radical right have suddenly discovered that a man should be judged based on the content of his character, not his skin. On the contrary. A growing number of white supremacists, and even some of those who pass for intellectual leaders of their movement, think that a black man in the Oval Office would shock white America, possibly drive millions to their cause, and perhaps even set off a race war that, they hope, would ultimately end in Aryan victory.

“He will make things so bad for white people that hopefully they will finally realize how stupid they were for admiring these jigaboos all these years,” “Darthvader” wrote on the neo-Nazi Vanguard News Network web forum. “I believe in the motto ‘Worse is Better’ and Obama certainly fits that description.” Just last week, another poster on the same thread chimed in with this: “I hope Obama wins because in four years, white people just might be pissed off enough to actually do something. … White people aren’t going to do a thing until their toys are taken away from them. So things have to be worse for things to be better.”

“Oh man,” enthused “Centimanus” on the white nationalist Stormfront website. “I am gleefully, sadistically looking forward to Obama as president. … It will be a beautiful day when the masses look at the paper and truly realize they have lost their own country. Added “Fulimnata”: “To the average white man and woman, they could look at Obama and see plain as day that whites are not in control.” Another message, from “TheLastOfMyKind,” agreed: “Could it be that the nomination of Obama finally sparks a sense of unity in white voters? I would propose that this threat of black, muslim [sic] rule may very well be the thing that finally scares some sense back into complacent whites throughout the nation.” “Actually,” said another poster, “if Obama were to win, it would be the best thing that ever happened to the Klan. They would have massive growth.” And “TeutonicLegion” said that “a whole bunch of people will join us and find these boards” if Obama becomes president.

David DukeEven David Duke (right), the neo-Nazi and former Klan boss who is the closest thing the movement has to a real intellectual these days, sees clear advantages in an Obama victory in the fall. “Obama will be a signal, a clear signal for millions of our people,” Duke wrote in an essay entitled “A Black Flag for White America” last week. “Obama is like that new big dark spot on your arm that finally sends you to the doctor for some real medicine. … Obama is the pain that let’s [sic] your body know that something is dreadfully wrong. Obama will let the American people know that there is a real cancer eating away at the heart of our country and Republican aspirin will not only not cure it, but only masks the pain and makes you think you don’t need radical surgery. … My bet is that whether Obama wins or loses in November, millions of European Americans will inevitably react with new awareness of their heritage and the need for them to defend and advance it.”

Opinion on the radical right is far from unanimous on the topic of a possible Obama victory. Many of those writing on the topic — perhaps half of those who have posted recently — think an Obama presidency would destroy the country and oppose it mightily. On the other hand, there is virtually no enthusiasm on the radical right for presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, who is widely seen by white supremacists as a sellout, particularly on the issue of nonwhite immigration into the United States. But increasing numbers think that a bad situation with a black president will be good for their movement.

“Thomas Dixon Jr.,” a Stormfront poster using the name of the racist author who wrote the classic novel The Clansman, put it like this: “As WLP [William Luther Pierce, the late leader of the neo-Nazi National Alliance] would say… ‘What is bad for the system is good for us.’” “Obama,” added “The Patriot” in the same thread, “would be better for our cause in the long run, no doubt about it.”

The Firefighters, Paramedics, and Utility Workers are Watching You

Disinfo.com - The Firefighters, Paramedics, and Utility Workers are Watching You

Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and even utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as "Terrorism Liaison Officers" in Colorado and a handful of other states to hunt for "suspicious activity" — and are reporting their findings into secret government databases. "Suspicious activity" is broadly defined in TLO training as behavior that could lead to terrorism: taking photos of no apparent aesthetic value, making measurements or notes, espousing extremist beliefs or conversing in code.

Sorry FOX, we won't let you trash Michelle Obama

Want some torture with your peanuts?

Washington Times - Politics, Breaking News, US and World News - "Want some torture with your peanuts?" by Aviation Security

By Jeffrey Denning

Just when you thought you’ve heard it all...

A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers.

This bracelet would:

• take the place of an airline boarding pass

• contain personal information about the traveler

• be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage

• shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes

The Electronic ID Bracelet, as it’s referred to as, would be worn by every traveler “until they disembark the flight at their destination.” Yes, you read that correctly. Every airline passenger would be tracked by a government-funded GPS, containing personal, private and confidential information, and that it would shock the customer worse than an electronic dog collar if he/she got out of line?

Clearly the Electronic ID Bracelet is an euphuism for the EMD Safety Bracelet, or at least it has a nefarious hidden ability, thus the term ID Bracelet is ambiguous at best. EMD stands for Electro-Musclar Disruption. Again, according to the promotional video the bracelet can completely immobilize the wearer for several minutes.

So is the government really that interested in this bracelet? Yes!

According to a letter from DHS official, Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development, to the inventor whom he had previously met with, he wrote, “To make it clear, we [the federal government] are interested in…the immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a written proposal.” The letterhead, in case you were wondering, came from the DHS office at the William J. Hughes Technical Center at the Atlantic City International Airport, or the Federal Aviation Administration headquarters.

In another part of the letter, Mr. Ruwaldt confirmed, “It is conceivable to envision a use to improve air security, on passenger planes.”

Martin Luther King Jr. Was A Republican?

The Raw Story | Billboards Claim Rev. King Was Republican

TALLAHASSEE - A black Republican group has put up billboards in Florida and South Carolina saying the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican, a claim that black leaders say is ridiculous.

The National Black Republican Association has paid for billboards showing an image of the civil rights leader and the words "Martin Luther King Jr. was REPUBLICAN." Told about the billboards, the Rev. Joseph Lowery let out a soft chuckle that grew stronger as he began to think more about the idea.

"These guys never give up, do they?" said Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King. "Lord have mercy."

Seven billboards have gone up in six Florida counties, and another in Orangeburg, S.C., said Frances Rice, the Republican group's chairwoman. Part of its mission is to highlight what she said is the Democratic Party's racist past.

"I knew the King family well. We were all Republicans," said Rice, 64. "There was no way Dr. King would have wanted to be in the party of the Ku Klux Klan."

Her assertion angered state Rep. Joe Gibbons, a Democrat who chairs the Florida Legislative Black Caucus.

"Nobody knew who was leading the Ku Klux Klan, they had sheets over their heads. Was she at the cross burning meetings?" Gibbons said with a disgust that was just as strong when he talked about the billboards. "To make a statement like that is ridiculous. To make a claim without presenting proof is bogus."

The King Center in Atlanta says there is no proof that King was ever a Republican. Rice stands by her claim.

How Can We Call Ourselves Civilized?

How can we call ourselves civilized when no one came to the aid of the dying woman? A civilized society is one that regards the least of all people as worthy as the one who is high and mighty. That video shows how callous this society is when it comes to helping the least of all.
______________________________________________-
Hospital video shows no one helped dying woman
BY JOHN MARZULLI

A shocking video shows a woman dying on the floor in the psych ward at Kings County Hospital, while people around her, including a security guard, did nothing to help.
After an hour, another mental patient finally got the attention of the indifferent hospital workers, according to the tape, obtained by the Daily News.
Worse still, the surveillance tape suggests hospital staff may have falsified medical charts to cover the utter lack of treatment provided Esmin Green before she died.

"Thank God for the videotape because no one would have believed this could have happened," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
"There's a clear possibility of criminal wrongdoing with regard to recordkeeping, and that has to be investigated."
The city Department of Investigation is part of a sweeping probe that has brought some changes to the ward known as G Building.
A federal suit filed last year in Brooklyn alleged neglect and abuse of mental patients at the hospital. The suit sparked an investigation by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's civil rights unit before the June 19 death.
Two different security guards spotted Green, a native of the island of Jamaica, prone on the floor and did nothing, the tape shows. They have been fired, along with four other staffers.
Green, 49, taken to the unit for "agitation," keels over out of her chair at 5:32a.m., according to the time stamp on the video. She had been sitting about 3feet from an observation window. Two other patients were in the room.
Green is lying facedown on the floor, her legs splayed, when a security guard strolls by at 5:53 a.m., looks at her for about 20 seconds and then walks away.
She is writhing on the floor, thrashing her legs, about 6 a.m., when her medical chart contends she was "awake, up and about, went to the bathroom."
Green rolls on her back at 6:04a.m. She stops moving at 6:08 a.m., but two minutes later a security guard pushed his chair into camera view.
He never gets out of the chair, but looks at Green and scoots away. A female patient who was in and out of the room finally brings a clinic staffer to check the woman and a crash cart is summoned.
The medical chart claims she was "sitting quietly in [the] waiting room" at 6:20 a.m., although she was already dead. The cause of death is still under investigation.
"We are shocked and distressed by this situation," the Health and Hospitals Corp. said in a statement.

McCain Would Make Blacks Miss Bush

McCain Would Make Blacks Miss Bush - Black Voices Blogs

John McCain is showing no love to black Republicans say some who are being left out of his campaign outreach. According to Yvonne R. Davis, a former national co-chair for African Americans for Bush, McCain's efforts to enlist black support pale in comparison to soon to be former President George Bush's.

Minus a couple of black folks seen with him on the campaign trail, you still don't see many in the room with McCain when he is meeting and greeting or standing in crowds.

What you see with McCain are packs of what Ron Heifetz in the Harvard Executive Leadership School calls older "silverback" white males. When President Bush was on the stump in 2000 and 2004, and later in the White House, African American Republicans often heard that President Bush strongly admonished his staff for inviting the same old white guys to everything.

As fellow Afrospear bloggers Jack and Jill Politics points out, come November, black Republicans may find themselves down with Obama afterall. In general, black folks are pretty slow to warm to John McCain because although he has consistently stated that he was wrong, many remember that John McCain once voted against the holiday celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King and recently voted against raising the minimum wage. And he refuses to end the war.

Bill Clinton says Barack Obama must 'kiss my ass' for his support

Bill Clinton says Barack Obama must 'kiss my ass' for his support - Telegraph

Bill Clinton is so bitter about Barack Obama's victory over his wife Hillary that he has told friends the Democratic nominee will have to beg for his wholehearted support.

Rove picks the wrong metaphor to slam Obama

Rove picks the wrong metaphor to slam Obama - The Carpetbagger Report

Karl Rove has made it clear on multiple occasions that he actively dislikes Barack Obama — if there’s a more helpful testament to the strength of Obama’s character, it doesn’t come to mind — and he continues to make his criticisms of the Democratic candidate more and more personal.

ABC News’ Christianne Klein reports that at a breakfast with Republican insiders at the Capitol Hill Club this morning, former White House senior aide Karl Rove referred to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, as “coolly arrogant.”

“Even if you never met him, you know this guy,” Rove said, per Christianne Klein. “He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.”

Rove said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., “needs to come right at him.” He referred to the latest Newsweek poll showing Obama with a 15-point lead over McCain as nonsense, though he used a more scatological synonym. Rove said he was heading over to the White House for lunch and a chat with the President, Klein reports.

Andrew Sullivan noted that Rove is “revealing more about his own insecurities than Obama’s.” I think that’s certainly true, but it’s worth going even further.

Promised Obama-Native event in limbo

Promised Obama-Native event in limbo : ICT [2008/06/27]

WASHINGTON - Scheduling for an event to have Sen. Barack Obama make an appearance before several tribes and Indians has turned problematic.

Before the Illinois senator became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, he made a pledge to Kalyn Free, founder of the Indigenous Democratic Network, that he would appear at a tribally focused town hall-style meeting. Initial logistics of the agreement called on him to speak at a reservation or Indian-owned venue somewhere in the Southwest before the Democratic National Convention in August if he became his party's candidate.

Obama's verbal promise was seen as key among influential Indian political activists, and it played a factor for some Native individuals who threw their support behind his candidacy. The promise even partially influenced the decision of at least one of the four Native superdelegates who will attend the DNC to cast their votes for him. All four Native superdelegates, including Free, have verbally pledged their support to the senator from Illinois.

Obama donates, asks donors to help Clinton's debt

Newsvine - Obama donates, asks donors to help Clinton's debt

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama told Hillary Rodham Clinton's top financial backers Thursday that he personally has donated $2,300 to her campaign and more significantly has asked his biggest donors to help pay off her more than $20 million debt.

Obama made the announcement at a meeting with Clinton donors who have been frustrated that the Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting had not done more to help her pay the bills even as they are expected to help fund his campaign.