Jennifer Hudson's Family Murdered

Jennifer Hudson: Family Members Killed In Chicago

By Karu F. Daniels, BlackVoices.com

Family members of Academy Award winning actress/singer Jennifer Hudson have been shot in Chicago.According to CBS affiliate WBBM-TV, Hudson's mother was found fatally shot in a South Side home on Friday. The Chicago Fire Department confirmed that two adults were found dead in a home at 70th Street and Yale Avenue.Willie Davis, pastor of the family's church, Pleasant Gift Missionary Baptist, confirmed that 57-year-old Darnell Hudson Donerson was one of the victims.

A brief statement released by Jennifer Hudson's publicist acknowledged her mother's death, and confirmed that the other body was that of Jennifer Hudson's brother, 29-year-old Jason Hudson. A cousin, who lived nearby, reportedly discovered the bodies.More details have surfaced."This is a very sad day to get that kind of news," Davis said. "This is really going to be a major, major blow to such a wonderful person ... But we know through our faith in God she'll get through it." He also to the CBS station that the J Records recording artist's relationship with her mother was "very close." The 'Spotlight' singer was expected to arrive in Chicago from Florida.The shooting is believed to be domestic. Read Popeater's account for more details.

Meanwhile, an Amber Alert has been issued for a boy, believed to be Hudson's 7-year-old nephew Julian King (pictured right) who may have been taken from the scene. Police are looking for 1994 white Suburban with the license plate X584859.

Another Hate Crime In Texas: Brandon McClelland

Hat Tip to Ann. Thank you Ann for posting the article the media overlooked.

To my fellow bloggers:

Please post this article on the hate crime in Texas town of Paris. It's outrageous and it goes to show how little Black lives are valued in America. All this summer I hear was Caylee. What about Mr. McClelland? He's just as valuable as any other American citizen.

Killing in a small town raises hate crime fears
By Howard Witt
October 5, 2008

PARIS, Texas - When the mutilated and partially dismembered body of Brandon McClelland, a 24-year-old black man, turned up lying in the middle of a rural east Texas road one morning last month, the police immediately pronounced the case a hit-and-run by an unknown driver.Within a few days, however, suspicions turned toward two white friends who had picked up McClelland in their truck a few hours before he was found dead early on Sept. 16. Despite signs that the truck had been washed, authorities discovered blood and other physical evidence on the undercarriage and arrested the two men, both with long criminal histories, for murder.Now this small, racially divided town--already seared with a racist label by civil rights groups last year over differences in how blacks and whites were treated by the local justice system--is on edge yet again, wondering if it's got a horrific new hate crime on its hands.The district attorney insists race had nothing to do with McClelland's death and police investigators are portraying the case as an apparent falling-out among friends.

But McClelland's relatives and Paris civil rights leaders are less certain. Citing the violence done to McClelland's body and reports that one of the alleged assailants, Shannon Finley, had white supremacist ties, they are demanding that Paris authorities investigate the case as a possible hate crime akin to the infamous 1998 lynching of James Byrd Jr., in Jasper, Texas, 250 miles south of here.Byrd was dragged to his death behind a pickup truck by three white supremacists who were later convicted of murder. McClelland was walking in front of the pickup when Finley, 27, and a friend, Charles Ryan Crostley, 27, who was also arrested, allegedly ran him down and then dragged him 40 feet along the road until his mutilated body popped out from beneath the chassis, according to a police affidavit accompanying the warrant for Finley's arrest."If you take somebody out to the country like that in the middle of the night and do that to him in that way, that's how they do black people around here," said Brenda Cherry, a local activist working with McClelland's family. "To me, it smells like Jasper."

Paris' race relations came under withering national scrutiny last year after the Tribune reported the case of Shaquanda Cotton, a 14-year-old African-American youth who was sentenced by a local judge to up to seven years in a youth prison for shoving a hall monitor at her high school. Just three months earlier, the same judge had sentenced a 14-year-old white girl to probation after convicting her of the more serious crime of arson for burning down her family's house.The discrepancy in the treatment of the two teenagers provoked protests from national civil rights groups and led to Cotton's early release from prison. Now McClelland's family fears that Paris officials, eager to protect their city of 26,000 from another round of negative publicity over race relations, are purposefully downplaying potential racial overtones in McClelland's murder."At the crime scene, it looked like these boys went back and poured beer on my son's body," said Jacqueline McClelland, Brandon's mother. "Two beer cans were lying out there, but the police didn't even pick them up, they just left evidence out there. They won't even consider the racial issues. That's the way it is in Paris.

"Even the editor of the local newspaper, normally an impassioned defender of Paris' reputation, has cautioned law enforcement officials to be thorough and "leave no stone unturned" in their investigation."Hopefully, this community has learned from its past," Mary Madewell wrote in the Paris News. "... Even if our worst fears prove to be true, let us realize that the actions of single individuals should in no way bring condemnation to an entire community."Family members and other critics are also concerned about the impartiality of Lamar County District Atty. Gary Young, who five years ago, before he was elected prosecutor, served as Finley's court-appointed defense attorney when Finley pleaded guilty to manslaughter for shooting a friend to death.Young has declined to state whether he will recuse himself and other prosecutors in his office from handling the McClelland case.

Although the victim in Finley's 2003 manslaughter case was white, race played a role in the incident. Finley told police he was sitting in a pickup with his friend in a park when two gun-wielding black men supposedly walked up alongside and tried to rob them. Finley said he grabbed his friend's handgun and fired at the robbers, but instead shot his friend.An autopsy determined that the victim suffered three gunshot wounds to the head, but the district attorney at the time accepted Finley's contention that the shooting was an accident and offered him a plea bargain on a reduced manslaughter charge. Finley served three years of a 4-year prison sentence. The alleged robbers were never found.That manslaughter case also tied Finley and McClelland closely together. McClelland furnished a false alibi for Finley, testifying before a grand jury that Finley was with him at the time the shooting occurred. That lie under oath earned McClelland a conviction for aggravated perjury, for which he served two years in prison.Largely because of that connection between McClelland and Finley, police discount the possibility that race played a part in McClelland's death. "I don't see how it was racial, being as how they were good friends," said Stacy McNeal, the Texas Ranger who is the lead investigator on the case.But McClelland's relatives say they have heard that Finley fell in with white supremacists while in prison and that he had grown upset over Brandon's overtures to a white girl--factors they say the police ought to investigate."I always told Brandon that Finley was bad news and he should stay away from him," said Ervin Barry, a friend of McClelland's. "But Brandon thought they were good friends."

Race relations in Paris, Texas : An update

SHAQUANDA COTTON: The black high school freshman whose sentence of up to seven years in prison for shoving a school hall monitor drew national scrutiny to the town's justice system was released from prison in March 2007. Now 17, she is studying for her GED certificate and hopes to attend junior college.TASK FORCE: Citizens concerned about racial fissures in town exposed by the Cotton case convened a local Diversity Task Force, which has held several meetings and last month hosted a community-wide block party attended by several hundred residents.INVESTIGATION: The U.S. Department of Education last month concluded a two-year investigation of allegedly discriminatory disciplinary policies in the Paris public schools. The agency said it found "insufficient evidence to support a conclusion" that black students were being disciplined more harshly than whites.

Bachmann: It’s All Chris Matthews’ Fault! ‘He Laid A Trap, And I Walked Into It’»

Think Progress » Bachmann: It’s All Chris Matthews’ Fault! ‘He Laid A Trap, And I Walked Into It’

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is still on the defensive from an appearance last Friday on MSNBC’s Hardball, in which she called for the media to conduct a “penetrating exposé” into anti-American views of members of Congress.

Speaking with the St. Cloud Times on Tuesday, Bachmann said she regretted suggesting
that Barack Obama held “anti-American” views. Referencing
Chris Matthews by name 12 times in a 6 minute interview, Bachmann
portrayed herself as the victim of a clever ploy devised by the MSNBC
host:

Chris Matthews laid a trap, and I walked into it. […]

Chris Matthews was using the term over and over, and I should not have used it. […]

This was Chris Matthews. I made a big mistake by going on the show. I never should have. […]

I just didn’t recognize — I never watched the
Chris Matthews show before. I should have before I went on. I
didn’t recognize that he would lay a trap the way that he did.

Bachmann concluded the interview by circling back to where she
began: “I didn’t bring the word choice up. That was Chris
Matthews who brought the word choice up. Unfortunately, like I said, I
walked into a trap.”

Bachmann, who appears frequently on Fox News,
apparently doesn’t understand that journalists on other networks
sometimes ask critical questions. The issue isn’t Matthews’
questions; it’s Bachmann’s answers. Here’s key
portions from the transcript:

MATTHEWS: So you believe that Barack Obama may have anti- American views.

REP. BACHMANN: Absolutely. I’m very concerned that he may have anti-American views.

[…]

MATTHEWS: What parts of America would you say are anti-American? What parts of this country?

REP. BACHMANN: Well, I would say that people who hold anti- American views. I don’t think it’s geography. I think it’s people who don’t like America, who detest America.

[…]

MATTHEWS: How many do you suspect of your colleagues as being anti-American?

REP. BACHMANN: What I would say — what I would say is that the
news media should do a penetrating exposé and take a look. I
wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great
look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they
pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an
exposé like that.

Bachmann’s biggest disappointment must be that she wishes she hadn’t been so honest about her true feelings.

McCain's black family ties touch on the GOP's racial faultline

McCain's black family ties touch on the GOP's racial faultline | Crooks and Liars

Normally, the story of John McCain's black family -- the ones who are
planning to vote for Barack Obama -- might elicit some modest interest
in terms of what it says about the complexity of race relations in
America.

But what's been even more interesting has been how John McCain has responded to the story ever since it surfaced.

Initially, back when he first was doing the "Maverick" schtick in
the 2000 primaries, he actually denied that the aristocratic
Southerners from whom he was descended were slaveholders. But it really
became impossible for McCain to deny their existence after a 2000 report in Salon in the course of which reporters showed him photographs and birth records in person and he had to concede to their existence.

One account, In the South Florida Times, describes how McCain has handled the connection publicly and privately:

White and black members of the McCain family have met on
the plantation several times over the last 15 years, but one invited
guest has been conspicuously absent: Sen. John Sidney McCain.

“Why he hasn’t come is anybody’s guess,”
said Charles McCain Jr., 60, a distant cousin of John McCain who is
black. “I think the best I can come up with, is that he
doesn’t have time, or he has just distanced himself, or it
doesn’t mean that much to him.”

Other relatives are not as generous.

Lillie McCain, 56, another distant cousin of John McCain who is
black, said the Republican presidential nominee is trying to hide his
past, and refuses to accept the family’s history.

“After hearing him in 2000 claim his family never owned
slaves, I sent him an email,” she recalled. “I told him no
matter how much he denies it, it will not make it untrue, and he should
accept this and embrace it.”

She said the senator never responded to her email.

In her CNN interview with Kyra Phillips, Lillie McCain discusses this further:

PHILLIPS: Do you think it could make a difference with regard to
diversity issues, issues of race, if John McCain did participate?

L. MCCAIN: I think it probably could. It would give him an opportunity to know us.

I e-mailed him back in 2000 to remind him of his ties to Tiak,
Mississippi. I heard him say on I believe it was "Meet the Press," that
his ancestors owned no slaves. Well, I certainly have carried the name
McCain from the beginning of my whole life, and I've known of the ties
to John McCain and tried to get him to communicate with me about that,
but he has been unwilling, at least, to date.

PHILLIPS: Well he found out in 2000, to be fair to the senator
there, and he did come forward and gave this quote -- "How the Tiak
descendants have served their community and, by extension, to their
country, is a testament to the power of family, love, compassion, and
the human spirit." And then he added in the statement, "an example for
all citizens."

That sure is a warm, fuzzy little sentimental quote from the
senator, and the fact that it really says nothing in reality says
everything we need to know about John McCain.

Limbaugh defends his Powell race comments

Limbaugh defends his Powell race comments - UPI.com

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh Monday defended his remark that Colin Powell endorsed Democrat Barack Obama simply because of race.

Limbaugh said the former U.S. secretary of state, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman and national security adviser endorsed the Illinois senator because he is black, CNN reported.

"So what if it's race?" Limbaugh said on his radio show. "Why is it so hard to admit that it's race … ? What's so problematic about admitting it?"

Limbaugh's comments were widely discussed on news programs and in the blogosphere.

"I thought it should be about race," Limbaugh said Monday. "I thought you liberals thought this was a historic candidacy because finally we are going to elect a black guy … . Why hide behind this, why act like it's not about race?

"This was all about Powell and race, nothing about the nation and its welfare."

Racist 'N-Word' Calls Reported In Pennsylvania

Racist 'N-Word' Calls Reported In Pennsylvania

According to the election analysis site FiveThirtyEight.com, some Pennsylvanians have complained about a call that impersonates Barack Obama and includes racial epithets:

"Over in Indiana, PA and Northern Cambria, PA, volunteers
fielded complaints of a massive wave of ugly robocalls both paid for by
John McCain's campaign and those paid for by third parties. The
third party call was interactive, and purported to be from Barack Obama
himself. The call starts out reasonably, and then "Obama" asks what the
listener thinks is the most important issue. Whatever the response,
"Obama" then launches into a profane and crazed tirade using "n***er"
and other shock language."

If anyone has received this call, please send us an email so we can follow up.

AAPP: John Mccain's True Colors, No Longer Red, White and Blue

African American Political Pundit:: John Mccain's True Colors, No Longer Red, White and Blue

In recent days, the Huffington Post and other outlets have reported on the McCain-funded nationwide robocall campaign charging that Barack Obama "worked closely with"

former 60s radical William Ayers. Another RNC/McCain campaign call
states that Obama is a "celebrity" politician who was fundraising in
Hollywood during the financial crisis.

On Friday, a recipient
of one of those calls, Chris Shoff of Minnesota, said that he had tied
the origins of the campaign to the St. Paul-based firm FLS-Connect, run
by prominent GOP figure Jeff Larson.

This past week, Shoff, a
Freeborn, Minnesota Democratic County Commissioner, received the
Hollywood call while at work. Because state law dictates that any such
calls be made by an actual human, Shoff demanded that he be connected
to the supervisor. That official, who worked at the robocall shop King
TeleServices in Brooklyn, New York, said that they had been contracted
out by FLS-Connect. More HERE.

AAPP: 

I wonder (like many other bloggers) whether Colin Powell will support Barack Obama - We will know on Sunday.

NEWSFLASH: NIXZALIZ FOUND GUILTY, THANK GOD!

NEWSFLASH: NIXZALIZ FOUND GUILTY, THANK GOD!

Nixzmary Brown's mother found guilty of manslaughterBY DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN

The mother of Nixzmary Brown, the 7-year-old whose death stunned a city and influenced a new law named for her, was found guilty of manslaughter but cleared of second-degree murder in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn on Friday.

Nixzaliz Santiago, 30, appeared unresponsive as the jury also found her guilty of second-degree assault, unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child.

"The journey for justice for Nixzmary is almost over," said prosecutor Ama Dwimoh. She went on to praise the jury of 10 women and two men for ruling on the case "professionally and stoically."

"Today is a good day for the children because this jury said loud and clear that parents have a duty - it's not just what you do, it's what you don't do," Dwimoh said.

Santiago faces 25 years in prison on the manslaughter charge alone. She is to be sentenced Nov. 5.

Nixzmary's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, was convicted of manslaughter in March and sentenced to 26 1/3 to 29 years.

Defense attorney Sammy Sanchez told The Associated Press after the verdict that Santiago should not have been looked at in the same light as Rodriguez. "Cesar was the true criminal," Sanchez said.

Outside the courthouse, Santiago's mother, Maria Gonzalez, avoided reporters as she hustled to a nearby garage.

The nearly monthlong trial brought back to the public's memory the grisly details of Nixzmary's death, including the chair to which she was often violently bound and the litter box she was forced to use as a bathroom.

Nixzmary was beaten by Rodriguez after she took yogurt from a fridge and messed up Rodriguez's printer. Rodriguez slammed her head against a bathtub as she was being doused with cold water. Nixzmary weighed only 36 pounds when she died Jan. 11, 2006.

Her death brought swift and comprehensive changes to New York City's Administration for Children's Services and helped influence "Nixzmary's Law," which charges parents of children who have died as a result of abuse with first-degree murder.

During the trial, Santiago sometimes broke down into tears when prosecutors showed photos of Nixzmary's bruised corpse, even remarking, "This is messed up."

The jurors also heard testimony from an ACS worker how Santiago kept the remains of a miscarriage of hers in a jar. Santiago told Child Welfare Specialist Vanessa Rhoden that she kept the remains because "once she saw the baby's eyes, she couldn't let it go."

Santiago has five other children. Gonzalez is seeking their custody.

Republicans use Obama's picture on food stamp???

The Chaffey Community Republican Women sent out a newsletter that featured a qoute that read " If Obama is elected his image will appear on food stamps -- instead of dollar bills like other presidents. The statement is followed by an illustration of "Obama Bucks" -- a phony $10 bill featuring Obama's face on a donkey's body, labeled "United States Food Stamps."

The groups president Diane Fedele says she doesn't thinks it's racist although Obama's picture is surrounded by watermelon, Kool Aid, and ribs. What's sad is that it took that picture for a black member of the group to realize why the GOP has such a hard time recruiting African Americans.
Read the story and see the food stamp here:

http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/blacknewsblackviews.html

Media Declines To Challenge McCain's Evidence-Free ACORN Charge

Media Declines To Challenge McCain's Evidence-Free ACORN Charge - NewsCloud.com

In last night's debate, John McCain claimed that ACORN "is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."

That's quite an allegation against a group that's working to register low-income voters. You'd hope that the media would ask McCain's campaign for some evidence for the claim, or at least note that the candidate himself didn't offer any. Or that moderator Bob Schieffer would have followed up in real time.

You'd be disappointed, of course. Reporters were too distracted by Joe the Plumber to pay much attention to McCain's hyperbolic accusation.

Of course, McCain had essentially no backing whatsoever for his claim. As TPMmuckraker and others have pointed out, there's virtually no evidence that fraudulent registration forms of the type erroneously submitted by ACORN in their thousands in some states ever turn into fraudulent votes.

McCain uses term ‘tar baby’

McCain uses term ‘tar baby’ - John McCain News- msnbc.com

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - Republican presidential contender John McCain on Friday used the term "tar baby," considered by some a racial epithet, and later said he regretted it.

Answering questions at a town hall meeting, the Arizona senator was discussing federal involvement in custody cases when he said, "For me to stand here and ... say I'm going to declare divorces invalid because of someone who feels they weren't treated fairly in court, we are getting into a tar baby of enormous proportions and I don't know how you get out of that."

After the event, McCain told reporters: "I don't think I should have used that word and I was wrong to do so."

Singlaub is McCain’s Ayers...Where is the neo-con backlash??

Dems hope Singlaub is McCain’s Ayers - Kenneth P. Vogel and Cecile Dehesdin - Politico.com

Since the mid-1980s, there’s been almost no attention paid to John McCain’s long-ago association with a controversial group implicated in a secretive plot to supply arms to Nicaraguan militia groups during the Iran-Contra affair.

But now, with the Republican presidential candidate stepping up his negative blitz against Democratic opponent Barack Obama, some Democrats are hoping that the group — the U.S. Council for World Freedom, and its founder, John Singlaub — will become for McCain what Bill Ayers has become for Obama: a fleeting past association used as ammunition for political broadsides.

Over the past few days, a handful of Obama allies — none directly associated with his campaign — have called attention to McCain’s ties to the council to rebut the McCain campaign’s increasing focus on Obama’s ties to Ayers, a founder of the 1960s radical Weather Underground.

“This guilt by association path is going to be trouble ultimately for the McCain campaign,” Democratic strategist Paul Begala said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “John McCain sat on the board of a very right-wing organization; it was the U.S. Council for World Freedom. It was chaired by a guy named John Singlaub, who wound up involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. It was an ultraconservative, right-wing group.”