Is racism in America over?

Abagond
John McWhorter, in his Forbes.com article, “Racism In America Is Over” (December 30th 2008), says that the election of a black man as president proves that racism against blacks is no longer a big issue in America. I expect white people to say that sort of thing, yet McWhorter is black.

McWhorter is not saying that racism has gone away completely, that no white person will ever use the n-word again, say. America will continue to be imperfect. But a racism that allows a black man to become president can only be so bad - and, in practice, not bad enough to matter much. It certainly cannot be the main issue or even one of the main issues that affects black Americans. Those who truly want to help blacks should give their attention to other, more important things.

I agree that America has come a long way in the past 50 years and the election of Obama is a big step on that road, but that does not mean racism no longer matters.

Socialist Aotearoa: Palestine’s long torment

Palestine’s long torment

by Anindya Bhattacharyya

The Gaza Strip is effectively the world’s largest prison camp.

Zionist terror gangs drove its population from their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948.

That event – known in Arabic as the Nakba (catastrophe) – saw 750,000 Palestinians ethnically cleansed. They fled to the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and to other countries.

Prior to this Britain controlled Palestine. The British imperialists had promised the land to both the native Palestinian population and to the Zionists, who had settled there over the previous 50 years.

Zionism was a Jewish nationalist movement that arose in Europe in the late 19th century as a response to the growth of anti-Semitism.

Zionism’s founder Theodor Herzl argued that anti-Semitism could never be defeated and that Jews should found a new “homeland”. Only a small minority of Jews backed this. Herzl and his supporters looked to the major powers for support.

In 1917 the British foreign secretary Lord Balfour gave official backing to their colonial ambitions. He hoped that a Zionist state in Palestine would serve the interests of British imperialism.

After the horror of the Holocaust, when Nazi Germany exterminated six million Jews, Zionism became a majority trend amongst Jews.Tragically, some Jews went from being the oppressed in Europe to becoming the oppressor in the Middle East.

Aotearoaa/New Zealand: Major Mobilisation for Justice in Palestine

Socialist Aotearoa: Major Mobilisation for Justice in Palestine- Auckland Sat Jan 10th


Global Peace and Justice Auckland and the Palestine Human Rights Campaign are planning a major mobilisation to protest the latest Israeli outrages against Palestinians living in the Gaza strip.

The protest will gather at 12 noon, Aotea Square, Auckland on Saturday 10th January.

We have received numerous calls asking what actions are planned for Aucklanders to register their outrage at Israel's actions. Saturday's mobilisation gives that opportunity.

(An organising meeting for the mobilisation and to plan immediate steps in the campaign to boycott Israel will be held at 6pm on Tuesday 6th January at the Unite Union Office at 6A Western Springs Road, Auckland)

Meanwhile like most New Zealanders we find the government's failure to condemn the Israeli massacre an outrage. The utterances of Foreign Minister Murray McCully are obsequious and embarrassing. His fawning to the US position will be welcomed in Israel but will be condemned around the rest of the world. He is putting New Zealand well out of step with the United Nations.

United Nations General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto called the launching of the ground offensive in Gaza "a monstrosity" in an accurate reflection of international opinion. McCully on the other hand has yet to issue a single word of criticism.


Mike Treen – (09) 8452132 or 0295254744
John Minto – (09) 8463173(H) or (09) 8469496(W)
For the GPJA Committee

Janfrie Wakim – 09 5200201 or 027 629 1004
For the Palestine Human Rights Campaign

Radio New Zealand News : Stories : 2009 : 01 : 03 : Vatican not bound by Italian laws

Radio New Zealand News : Stories : 2009 : 01 : 03 : Vatican not bound by Italian laws: "Italian laws do not automatically apply in the Vatican, owing to a ruling signed by Pope Benedict XVI designed to give the Holy See more autonomy.

Jose Maria Serrano Ruiz, president of the Vatican commission on law revisions, explained in the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano that there are too many Italian laws, many of which are not in line with Catholic doctrine.

Under the new ruling, which went into effect with the New Year, Italian laws and ordinances must be specifically ratified by the Vatican to have the effect of law.

The change revises the 80-year-old practice, agreed to in 1929 by Pope Pius XI and Benito Mussolini, by which the Vatican automatically took over Italian laws affecting Rome and the surrounding region for areas where the Holy See did not have its own ordinances."

Israeli Steps up its Genocide Against the the Palestinian People

Radio New Zealand News : Stories : 2009 : 01 : 02 : Israeli sends tanks into Gaza Strip
Israeli tanks and infantry battled Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in a ground offensive launched after eight days of deadly air strikes failed to halt the Islamist group's rocket attacks on Israel.

Wearing night-vision goggles on their helmets and camouflage paint on their faces, Israeli soldiers entered the densely populated enclave on Saturday along with tank columns that swept in from four points as combat helicopters flew overhead.

In initial fighting, Israeli ground forces killed eight Gazans, five of them gunmen, bringing the Palestinian death toll since the start of an air campaign on 27 December to more than 450, medical officials said.

There was no official word of any Israeli casualties.

Israel said it called up 10,000 reservists and the military's chief spokesman estimated the operation in the Hamas-run territory could take "many long days".

The ‘Other’, Older Palestinian Coup D’etat

Aotearoa IMC: The ‘Other’, Older Palestinian Coup D’etat

PLO commitment to the Annapolis understandings was a milestone that vindicated Hamas fears and accusations that Abbas was leading and pursuing an older political coup d’etat to deprive the Islamic movement from its electoral victory
The ‘Other’, Older Palestinian Coup D’etat

By Nicola Nasser*

Failing to substantiate for the President of the autonomous Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas, a credible “legal” basis to extend his term from the Basic Law, which is the constitutional terms of reference that govern the rotation of power and the renewal of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the PA, Abbas in his capacity as the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) convened the rubber stamping Fatah –dominated Central Council (CC) of the PLO in the West Bank city of Ramallah to elect him also President of the State of Palestine on November 23.

The move could have been the last “constitutional” resort to extend his term as PA president before it expires on January 9 next year in order to secure himself as the supreme “legitimate” authority on Palestinian decision –making in the context of the “make - or – break” bloody wrangling with the rival Hamas on the leadership of the Palestinian national movement.

The symbolic position secures his presidency for life in line with the “tradition” of his predecessor, but without any constitutional stipulation to support it as the PLO regulations lack even an official text of a presidential oath, an embarrassing fact that threw his senior aides into a whirlwind of frenzied last minute efforts to write down an oath for him to read out on November 23.

The position has been vacant since the death of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2004. The PLO lawmakers in exile withheld the position from Abbas because they were demanding a separation between the PA presidency and the PLO chairmanship as a precautionary measure lest Israeli tanks bulldoze away the PA as they did in 2002 taking down with it the PLO, the internationally – recognized sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, which legitimized the creation of the “Palestinian National Authority” (PNA) in 1993 as a subsidiary reporting to the PLO.

Nixzmary Brown 1998-2006

This video is a tribute to Nixzmary Brown who died three years ago this month.

May she rests in peace.

MAMA Radio: Citizen's for Life (About the False Positives)

MAMA Radio: Citizen's for Life (About the False Positives): "To judge by what stands out in the media, nothing other than money - like in the case of the pyramid schemes - or Uribe’s reelection seems to move the country. Cases keep appearing of murdered civilians who are classified as “false positives.” They kill the husband of an indigenous leader at 4:00 in the morning, when he is going to pick her up [at the airport after a trip to Geneva], and the discussion is limited to whether the civilian justice system, the UN or another authority should investigate the crime. The majority of our fellow citizens don’t seem concerned that Colombians, especially those with low incomes, young people in the large cities’ slums, union leaders, indigenous and campesino leaders cannot travel freely without fear of being killed, of being treated like suspects who tried to escape, or of having their bodies end up disguised, post mortem, as those of guerrillas."

Earth Kitt Dies at 81

Rest in Peace, Eartha.

For more about Earth Kitt's life and her passing, please visit:

In Memoriam: Earth Kitt by Abagond

Eartha Kitt at Wikipedia.com

Citizens for Legitimate Government

Citizens for Legitimate Government: "Michael Connell's ill-fated flight originated from airport only 50 people can use. College Park Airport users are vetted --including fingerprinting -- in an 'extensive process,' and there are 'significant limitations' as to how the airport can be used."

Katrina's Hidden Race War

Katrina's Hidden Race War

A.C. Thompson's reporting on New Orleans was directed and underwritten by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. ProPublica provided additional support, as did the Center for Investigative Reporting and New America Media.

The way Donnell Herrington tells it, there was no warning. One second he was trudging through the heat. The next he was lying prostrate on the pavement, his life spilling out of a hole in his throat, his body racked with pain, his vision blurred and distorted.

It was September 1, 2005, some three days after Hurricane Katrina crashed into New Orleans, and somebody had just blasted Herrington, who is African-American, with a shotgun. "I just hit the ground. I didn't even know what happened," recalls Herrington, a burly 32-year-old with a soft drawl.

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  Conyers Responds to Vigilante Revelations
  

• A.C. Thompson:
  Rep. John Conyers expressed concern and a California activist group
  called for investigations of vigilante violence in the wake of
  Hurricane Katrina.
  

  
  
  

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  New Orleans: Victims and Vigilantes

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  The Nation Institute :
  Both the perpetrators and victims of violent attacks in the wake of Hurricane Katrina share their stories in vivid detail
  
  
  

The sudden eruption of gunfire horrified Herrington's companions--his
cousin Marcel Alexander, then 17, and friend Chris Collins, then 18, who
are also black. "I looked at Donnell and he had this big old hole in his
neck," Alexander recalls. "I tried to help him up, and they started
shooting again." Herrington says he was staggering to his feet when a
second shotgun blast struck him from behind; the spray of lead pellets
also caught Collins and Alexander. The buckshot peppered Alexander's
back, arm and buttocks.

Herrington shouted at the other men to run and turned to face his
attackers: three armed white males. Herrington says he hadn't even seen
the men or their weapons before the shooting began. As Alexander and
Collins fled, Herrington ran in the opposite direction, his hand pressed
to the bleeding wound on his throat. Behind him, he says, the gunmen
yelled, "Get him! Get that nigger!"

Racist Violence Against Blacks in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

Thank you Abagond for posting this sad article. How come I wasn't aware of this racially motivated violence in the aftermath of Katrina? Perhaps the mainstream media cover up this one because they don't want people to be outraged by the violence against Black citizens of New Orleans, Louisiana in the aftermath of Katrina. No, they're too busy painting Black citizens as criminals and thieves in the aftermath of the storm. Here's the post below:

The white gunmen of Katrina
Posted by Abagond

In the days after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 we heard stories of lawless black people running loose in the city. What we did not hear was that some of the lawless people running loose in the city were white men with guns who shot on blacks at will, even killing some.

They have never been brought to justice. The mainstream press and particularly the police are strikingly incurious.

Most people who died in the days after Katrina died in the waters. But in the Algiers Point part of New Orleans, which was above the water, most died from being shot.

At least 11 were shot and four killed in Algiers Point in the days after Katrina. A nearby doctor says he handled about nine shooting cases, three ending up dead. In all known cases those shot were black and those shooting, as far as we can tell, were white.

The coroner says more than ten were shot dead, but his records from that period are so incomplete that it is hard even to say which ones took place in Algiers Point.

People remember the body of one black man lying on Opelousas Avenue. On one side of Opelousas is Algiers Point: nice houses where mostly white people live. On the other side is the black ghetto of Algiers.

About 15 to 30 white men of Algiers Point banded together shooting on any black person they found in their neighbourhood who they did not know. They were afraid that blacks would come and break into their houses and take everything.

One black man was shot dead trying to break into Daigle’s Grocery. Another, who lived in Algiers Point itself, was told at gunpoint in front of his house to leave the neighbourhood. Three others were shot when they tried to cross Algiers Point to get to the buses going to Texas.

One of those three, Donnell Herrington, was shot in the neck. Blood coming down from his neck, he saw two white men drive by in a black pickup truck and said, “Help me, help me - I’m shot.” They said: “Get away from this truck, nigger. We’re not gonna help you. We’re liable to kill you ourselves.”

The police were no where to be seen in the week after Katrina hit. They told one guman: “If they’re breaking in your property do what you gotta do and leave them [the bodies] on the side of the road.”

The gunmen were seen as holding the neighborhood together until the army arrived.
Not long afterwards one gunman said, “It was great! It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it.”

One woman said they learned what the n-word meant.
Another woman, whose uncle and two cousins were gunmen, said:

"My uncle was very excited that it was a free-for-all - white against black - that he could participate in. For him, the opportunity to hunt black people was a joy."

How satanic and evil her uncle really is. He obviously view Blacks as being less human than nonblacks. He needs help, seriously.

The police have not looked into any of the killings.

This goes to show how little Black lives worth in the eyes of mainstream American society. When it comes to Blacks, our humanity is denied, in life and in death. That's a travesty and it ought to be brought to light.