#Haiti looting horror: Girl shot dead by #police for taking paintings

guardian.co.uk: The horrifying aftermath of Haiti's earthquake has claimed another victim in the form of a 15-year-old girl, an apparent looter, shot dead by police. Fabienne Cherisma was killed with a bullet to the head after taking paintings from a wrecked shop in downtown Port-au-Prince on Tuesday. Pictures of the teenager show her slumped face down over one of the paintings and a trail of blood seeping from the wound. Witnesses said it was unclear if she was deliberately targeted or accidentally hit while police fired in the air to disperse a crowd which was carrying goods from Rue Grand Rice. A conflicting account gave her name as Fabienne Geismar and said she was killed in Rue Marthely Seiee.Police armed with rifles shot over the heads of the people and kicked a man, part of a delayed effort to regain control of a capital which has been lawless – but largely calm – since the 12 January earthquake.

Latin American Leaders: International relief operation in Haiti is a cover-up for a military takeover

globalresearch.ca: Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua say the US is using the international relief operation in Haiti as a cover-up for a military takeover. Bolivian President Evo Morales said that he will request an emergency UN meeting to reject what he calls the US military occupation of Haiti. "It's not right that the United States should use this natural disaster to invade and militarily occupy Haiti," Morales told a press conference on Wednesday. "If you have all these problems with the injured and the dead from the earthquake, you have to go there to save lives, and you don't do that from a military standpoint," he added. An outspoken critic of US policies, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez also had accused Washington of occupying Haiti "under the guise of the natural disaster." Nicaragua also has taken a similar stance toward US with respect to the situation in Haiti. The United States is deploying up to 20,000 troops to Haiti. US servicemen have taken control of the country's international airport. The Pentagon has sent one of its biggest aircraft carriers to Haiti, along with other navy and coast guard vessels. On Friday, Arturo Valenzuela, the US assistant secretary of state for Western hemisphere affairs rejected that the US was occupying Haiti."Haiti is a sovereign country, everybody respects Haiti's sovereign country, the United States respects Haiti's sovereignty," said Arturo Valenzuela.

An Old 2004 Article: The Barometer Needs Fixin by Matthew C. Stelly

The “Barometer” Needs Fixin’:  Analysis of a World Herald Editorial On Race  by MATTHEW C. STELLY



Chainz-Off Productions


December 14, 2004


INTRODUCTION

When a newspaper historically known as racist publishes an editorial on race relations, their motives are automatically racist. But in the case of the recent editorial, “Interracial Barometer: A Horrendous Assault Brings Reminder of Decline in One Type of Racial Bigotry,” (December 13th) more was displayed that the newspaper probably intended. Following are my views on this article, an article crammed with lies, historical distortions and the World Herald’s misinformed manifestations of social reality.


This short analysis of that article should serve as the basis of serious study and discussion regarding media credibility (or lack thereof), the role that race plays in analyzing social issues and, as I taught Tom Shaw several months back, the impact that bias has on editorial boards, most of which are lily-white as is the World Herald’s.

The article will also be used as but one more indicator to tourism entities that Omaha is not yet ready to deal with racial diversity.



THE ARTICLE: RACISM AND RELEVANT RESPONSE


Because the Omaha World Herald lacks racial diversity and indeed, uses white women to cover stories in the black community, its journalistic credibility should already be called into question. The fact that they see nothing wrong with this state of affairs is also an indicator of their collective ignorance of race and more importantly, of how the world is changing around them as they apparently opt to stand in place.


The article begins with the following description:

The windows of Joseph Parks’ Massachusetts house were smashed. He then was hit in the head, beaten, dragged to an apartment and stabbed in the chest with a knife. Burning cigarettes were placed on him. Racial slurs were written on his back. He was called a disgrace to his race, thrown out of a vehicle and dragged to the railroad tracks. Why? Park is a white man who once dated a black woman.


What was just described has happened to hundreds of thousands of black men over the years. When it happened in the South, the news media avoided printing these stories for the most part. When it happened in Omaha, the news media, led by the World Herald, did the same thing. In other words, the very institution that was supposed to be committed to providing news to the people was selective in what it chose to print. Why? Because of white racism, that’s why.

Now we have a white man who has been degraded because of his association with a black woman. But the World Herald doesn’t provide context. Was the man killed? Or was this one of those “warnings” that white folks gave their fellow race members for what they called “mongrelizing”? Without informing us of these facts, the World Herald is again showing how piecemeal and partial its reporting and even its editorializing truly is. It makes a big difference if the white man was killed or just beaten badly; it makes a difference how far back the “dating” went and what kind of relationship the two had. Was she his long-time companion? A concubine? A prostitute? What?


With this fundamental truth and contextual set of questions out of the way, journalistic rubrics that even the most defensive and ignorant individual can understand, we can proceed to the following passage:

An appalling story, from which society can take two things. The first is encouragement. Despite the hateful, disgusting display of racism inflicted upon Parks, it’s a story that thankfully has become a rare one told over the years.


First of all, the World Herald is in no position to inform “society” about how many things they can extract from a given story. This is ethnocentrism in its purest form: because these white males say there are two points, that is what every reader is supposed to believe? How about readers who have learned to read critically and can therefore think for themselves? It is not their role to tell the reader how many points a story contains: it is their job to present the story for the reader to glean. They could have wrote, “An appalling story, from which society can gather AT LEAST two points.” But that would have been too much like real journalism, wouldn’t it?


Secondly, the first thing we can take from the story is encouragement. Though Parks was beaten (and we still don’t know how severely), we are supposed to be thankful that this story “has become a rare one told over the years.”


This is called conjecture. Conjecture is, “Reasoning that involves the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence.” I have already informed the reader of this paper that white newspapers covered up, completely hid or otherwise circumvented stories regarding interracial relationships. So then, how can these nimrods conclude that the race hatred has declined just because the stories have?


As black people, we know about how the white man covers up stories. One white politician who was found dead a few years back was praised about what all he did. What wasn’t mentioned was that he was found in an empty North Omaha house dressed in women’s clothes. The World-Herald decided they didn’t want the public to know. The World Herald itself went out and bought in a polygraph examiner during Hal Daub’s mayoral campaign against Brenda Council and they HID the truth but printed what they wanted the public to know. When a black child was used for a Goodfellows campaign a while back, the World Herald changed the gender and race of the child – because THEY felt it was the right thing to do.


So I am making two points here: first, the World Herald’s track record disqualifies it from making any believable points regarding interracial relationships when they cover up the ones taking place right here in their back yard and secondly, that their conclusion that such incidents are diminishing is “jive-time journalism” and nothing more than an attempt to appease white suburbanites by convincing them that race relations are “getting better.” Racism is alive and, as such, interracial hatred is never going to be “rare.” As Fanon taught, “a racist in a culture of racism is therefore, normal.”

The article continues:

Gone are the days when a black man was lynched for dating, or even speaking to, a white woman. Gone are the days when interracial couples had to go to court to challenge the legality of their marriages. Gone are the days when the majority of people in this country considered the union of people from differing races as wrong.


The World-Herald’s definition of “lynching” is not appropriate and therefore, their conclusion about the diminishing of lynchings is inaccurate. According to the late, great sociologist Oliver C. Cox, in his magnus opus, Caste, Class and Race, a lynching takes place any time a group of white men use their numbers and race to attack a single black man. Is this behavior on the decline?


What about crowds of white boys throwing soda on black men at a basketball game? What about the white judicial system ganging up on young black men and giving them time away from their families? What about white cops who single out black men and ram plungers up their asses (Abner Louima case) or gun them down “by accident” as they did Amadou Diallo? In fact, every cop killing is a lynching because it involves a system (white cop is sanctioned) against a lone black person.

It stands to reason that the World Herald would consider such actions on the decline. The newspaper has historically looked the other way when such “lynchings” occur. They did it when Vivian Strong was killed, did it people like Kellin, Ammons, Bibins were all killed by racist cops. None of them had guns. That was a lynching. So when these white editorial writers talk about “declines” they cannot even make that stick here in Omaha, let alone on the national level!


As for the white woman, perhaps the editors should read my 180-plus page response to a recent article that appeared in Newsweek. The Newsweek article was titled, “The Secret Lives of Wives,” but it missed so many points I had to respond. In like manner what the World Herald doesn’t understand is that the white man has conceded his woman to men of color. He knows what she’s about and she’s sick of him for the most part. True enough, television and movies don’t reflect this reality – yet. But they soon will.


With that understanding, there is no need to lynch a black man for dating or marrying a white woman. That is the white system’s way of getting to “Slaves” for the price of one. In many cases she’s isolated and shunned and forced to live with black folks. In most cases they both work so the system wins. It’s about the money, not about a black man taking one of their blondes away. The fact is, Malcolm X wrote that the act he was most often asked to perform as a pimp was to have sex with a white woman while her husband watched. And this is still going on, right here in Omaha, today. And the World Herald’s editors know it all too well.


The issue of interracial couples having to go to court to challenge the legality of their marriages – this was never a major issue or concern. There were widely publicized cases when it happened (again, the media making sure that these cases were publicized, complete with the addresses of the couple involved), but these people knew who was in charge of the courts: the same white boy who is in charge today. The World Herald is grasping at straws in order to buttress its lies. And they should be ashamed.


But the final lie, the deathblow, is where this team of white men claims that the days are gone when the majority of people in this country “considered the union of people from differing races as wrong.”

Say what? On what planet are these fuddy-duddies residing? Later, in their own essay, these same men write that, “Even today, mixed couples are still subjected to disapproving looks, rude comments and silent, yet noticeable, signals of rejection.” If this is the case, then aren’t those looks a physical manifestation that the person doing the looking considers those relationships “wrong”?


But more profoundly, where is the data that supports this incredible fabrication of reality? How does the World Herald know? On what do they base this contention? Because surely, if those days are gone, then gone too would be the days of white people viewing RACISM as wrong! If white people could stop viewing interracial relationships as wrong, this would mean that they would see nothing wrong with the gradual browning of their race. This would mean that they accept people of color. And this would mean that white racism is on the decline.


Anyone who believes that white people are less racist than they were 400 years ago is either naïve about race relations or a total idiot. These crackers are just more afraid now because black people are not as controlled as we were back then. Their fear fuels their racism as much as their hatred did back then. But the effects are still the same: look at the murders of blacks by white cops, look a the prisons and take a long look atthe black unemployment rate. Racism has not subsided or decreased; it has merely changed (but not in its intensity).


When those days are “gone,” so too will be white folks (as they define themselves today, at least).

But once you have a distorted view of social reality (as evidenced in the World-Herald’s stories on “black progress” that have permeated its pages this year), any conclusion you arrive at is going to be warped. For example note the following excerpt:

The lack of stories like Parks’ is a sign that society has come a long way in its acceptance of interracial unions. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t more to be done. An impetus for growth also can be taken from this story.

The World Herald again errs, much akin to their earlier perceptual mistake: it is not “the lack of stories like Parks’ that is a sign that society has supposedly “come a long way,” it is the lack of reporting and media coverage of these stories that is the flaw. The media wants to “play nice” and not report issues of race against interracial couples because it has to take into consideration the city’s image, the impact on tourism, the politics of the discrimination, the status of the couple being harassed and so on. The World-Herald knows this: they didn’t report those beatings that Daub used to administer to his Asian wife, Cindy, did they?


But even if the World-Herald was correct and the incidents themselves were on the decline, how is this a sign of society coming a long way? This goes back to that white man’s thinking that Gunnar Myrdal helped to create in his study, An American Dilemma. All the time the white man felt that what black people wanted was sex with them when, in reality, interracial sex ranked last among the things blacks wanted. The white man’s fears of interracial sex have always been rooted in the way that his mind works: because he raped black women for centuries, he felt the black man wanted to do the same thing to the white woman. This is how the myth got started and the myth, in turn, fanned the hatred that white men had for black people, in general.


Interracial dating and marriage. This was the first thing that those white boys in South Africa “allowed” when apartheid was crumbling. Not more jobs, not better housing, not more liberal policies toward economic development. No. The first thing they said was, “you may now screw our women.” Look it up. This contention in itself is racist and a definite put-down of black woman, an issue I will address more thoroughly in a few minutes.


Because the newspaper knows it is lying, it has to qualify its claims that America has come a long way. So they add in the worn cliché, “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t more to be done.” The first thing that should be done is that the World-Herald – along with the rest of the American media – should stop lying. White boys in England still refer to white women who date or marry black men as “slags.” College campuses are filled with white women dating black athletes who have to hear the names they are called in doing so. The campus newspaper doesn’t cover these things. The local newspaper, because they need advertisements from the university, don’t address it. But just look at who is used to recruit black athletes: white girls. Black people have known this for years. The white man knew, but he was making money prostituting those coeds, so he kept quiet.


These are but a few facts that should show you, the reader, “there is a great deal to be done.” There is as much to be done today as there was to be done back in the 1950s, a time the white man dubs, “the golden years.” Why were they golden? No black people to worry about. Their sports teams didn’t have to compete against us, and white women knew their “place” so the white man had it all to himself. He could act “cool” because there were no brothers to compete against.


But after the Black Power Movement and the Civil Rights Movement loosened things up, white records in sports fell one by one. The white man’s control began to falter, and his manipulated “domination” of popular culture disappeared. The “golden years” of the Cleavers of “Leave It to Beaver” and “Donna Reed” were gone. He’s tried to relive those times in his movies and TV shows (“Happy Days”), but he knows his time is past. So he pretends as if interracial relationships are more accepted, but offers on evidence to prove it. This is a racist approach in itself: these writers are saying, in essence, “it is true because we say it is so.”


These people claim that, “an impetus for growth also can be takenfrom this story.” And what is that? They explain:

It wasn’t along ago – 2000 – that Alabama finally removed a law banning interracial marriage (though it hadn’t been enforced in years). That same year, Bob Jones University ended its ban on interracial dating. And while society has traveled far in its ability to be open-minded, there still are some people who react negatively when a black man and a white woman, or a Latina woman and a white man, or any other combination, are dating and marrying each other.

You call this “evidence”? One of the most racist states in the union, one that still flies the Confederate flag, decides that it shouldn’t be legislating morality and you call this progress? You call it a sign of growth because Bob Jones University ended its ban on interracial dating? You know why they ended it? Because Clinton threatened to take away their Federal dollars, that’s why! So once again, the white man had to be bribed to do the right thing in regard to displaying some “humanity.”


Having shot down the two examples that the World-Herald office as evidence of “growth,” these nitwits with notebooks nevertheless have the gall to claim that society “has traveled far in its ability to be open minded.” This has not been established in a single thing that the newspaper has written down. Look at their own city: what is there to point at that shows equitable race relations? The black community is as segregated today as it was in 1950 – the only difference is that the area is larger. Look at their own newsroom: no blacks in the 1800s and only three in the newsroom today. How can these liars draw conclusions about change when they, themselves, have resisted change?


The World Herald, in a hypocritically moralizing tone, writes that “there are still some people who react negatively when a black man and a white woman, or a Latina woman and a white man, or any other combination, are dating and marrying each other.”


Few people get angry when a Latina woman and a white man are together because many Latinas have white skin. Unlike the black woman, who is stigmatized, the Latina has the stereotype of the “hot Latin” working for her. Where OWH editors got their information is beyond me. As for a black man and a white woman, this is the most hated relationship by far. Others pale (no pun intended) in comparison. The twin myths (both concocted by the white man during slavery) of the black rapist and sacred white womanhood still exist today. In another major paper, I look at movies like “The Pelican Brief,” “Drive,” “I, Robot,” “The Bone Collector,” and others where a handsome black man is not allowed to be anything to the white female lead but a “friend.” This is an extension of the anti-black taboo alluded to earlier.


Those “some people who react negatively”? Guess who most of them are? White males – like the ones sitting in that editorial room writing this bullshit for the gullible Nebraska public to take in.


The article concludes:

Even today, mixed couples are still subjected to disapproving looks, rude comments and silent, yet noticeable, signals of rejection. So take some comfort in knowing that most of those who find love outside their race aren’t subjected to the horrors that Parks faced. But remember that even one such case is one too many.

Mixed couples? Does the World Herald care enough to provide an operational definition of what they mean? Are they talking about interracial couples? Are they talking about couples from different ethnic groups or religions. Because a “mixed couple” and an “interracial couple” can be two different things.


Furthermore, the editors order the public to “take some comfort in knowing” that “most of those who find love outside their race aren’t subjected” to what Parks was subjected to. How does the lily-white editorial board of the OWH know this? Where is there evidence? Are they speaking locally, statewide or nationally? This brings us to a final point – the title.

How can one incident be a barometer of race relations on any level? How can a “horrendous assault” show a “decline in one type of bigotry”? Even if racial abuse DID decline in that one type of bigotry, would that be enough to offset the institutional manifestations that plague people of color day by day and year by year? Of course note.


When racists like these write about issues of race, they show how little they care by not providing hard data or documentation. They have a preconception about what they want to writeabout and what they want their conclusion to be. This biased approach is what I tried to tell reporter Tom Shaw about when he made the asinine statement about reporters being “objective.”

Now I see that Shaw was not alone. The interracial barometer, at least the one that the World-Herald is in possession of, is clearly broken.


And it’ll take more than a room full of old white men to fix it.


Matthew C. Stelly
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WORKS CITED

Omaha World Herald (2004, December 13). Interracial barometer: A horrendous assault brings reminder of decline in one type of racial bigotry.

Police brutality charge by African teen disturbs mayor

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said he is "very
troubled" by claims that a Homewood high school student was beaten by
undercover police. Jordan Miles, 18, was treated at a hospital twice after an arrest
last week by three plainclothes Pittsburgh police officers. Police
suspected he had a concealed gun and -- after a chase and a struggle with the Creative and Performing Arts High School senior -- concluded he was holding a bottle of Mountain Dew instead. He was charged with aggravated assault and resisting arrest, but when officers did not show for a court hearing Thursday, the matter was postponed. Mr. Miles took several blows to the head and face, was Tasered and
had a chunk of hair ripped from his head, his lawyer said. He was
walking between homes owned by his mother and grandmother when police stopped him. Police claimed that they identified themselves to Mr. Miles and
repeatedly tried to subdue the 18 year old after he fled. Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10023/1030533-53.stm#ixzz0dSGORqqE

Honour and secrecy for families of gay Muslims

Pink News: Last week, the LGBT homeless charity Albert Kennedy Trust warned it was seeing an increase in the numbers of gay Muslims fleeing from forced marriages and family violence. However, for one gay Muslim, the experiences of gay EastEnders character Syed Masood are closer to home. While I haven't been a fan of the show for quite some time, I was intrigued when I heard that EastEnders was to feature a storyline outlining the struggles faced by gay Muslims. Being someone who is both gay and (quasi)religious in their Islamic faith, I was interested to see how they would cover it. As many people know, the relationship between religious communities and homosexuality can be volatile with both sides often holding open contempt for each other, but nowhere is this shown more than in the families of gay Muslims.

Australia, N.Zealand order review of 'bible' gunsights

Yahoo! News: SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia Friday ordered its military to look at removing biblical references from weapons used by troops in Afghanistan, after New Zealand banned the "completely inappropriate" inscriptions.Australia's Defence Minister John Faulkner said the military had been unaware of the meaning of the letters and numbers etched into the US-made gunsights, which refer to passages in the New Testament. I have asked Defence to examine the options available to deal with this matter without compromising the safety of our troops and critically important capabilities," Faulkner said. Faulkner's comments came as neighbouring New Zealand condemned the inscriptions as potentially inflammatory.

APF & EARTHLIFE ACTIVISTS ASSAULTED AND ARRESTED AT NERSA HEARINGS EARLIER TODAY FOR TRYING TO EXERCISE THEIR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

South Africa: Anarkismo

Press Alert Thursday, 21st January: 14:30

This morning, the NERSA public hearing into ESKOM’s application for tariff increases got underway at Gallagher Estate in Midrand. Both Earthlife and the APF were present, having made written submissions and requests for presentations in opposition to ESKOM’s application. Not long after proceedings began, a small group of Earthlife activists silently placed several posters on the walls inside the venue. Almost immediately, Gallagher Estate’s private security personnel arrived and tore down all the posters, whilst forcibly escorting those activists identified as the ‘perpetrators’, outside the venue. They then locked the doors and when a larger group of APF activists arrived, refused them (alongside the Earthlife activists already outside) entry.

This morning, the NERSA public hearing into ESKOM’s application for tariff increases got underway at Gallagher Estate in Midrand. Both Earthlife and the APF were present, having made written submissions and requests for presentations in opposition to ESKOM’s application. Not long after proceedings began, a small group of Earthlife activists silently placed several posters on the walls inside the venue. Almost immediately, Gallagher Estate’s private security personnel arrived and tore down all the posters, whilst forcibly escorting those activists identified as the ‘perpetrators’, outside the venue. They then locked the doors and when a larger group of APF activists arrived, refused them (alongside the Earthlife activists already outside) entry.

Despite repeated attempts by these activists to point out the public nature of the hearing, and thus their right to attend, the private security personnel continued to lock them out. When the gathered activists then started toyi-toying, the SA Police Services were called. Three of the APF/Earthlife activists tried to reason with the police and to inform them of their democratic right to participate in the public hearing going on inside the building. The police then assaulted, arrested and hauled them off to the Midrand police station where they were charged with public violence and resisting arrest. The names of the three activists are Makoma Lekalakala, Mashao Chauke and Nomaliza Xhoma. At present they are being held at the Midrand police station while a lawyer engaged by Earthlife and the APF continues attempts to get the charges dropped.

For further comment/information contact: Ferrial Adam of Earthlife on 0741813197

###

Technorati Tags: africa, south-africa, press release

25 influential black women in business

The Network Journal, an award-winning business magazine providing news and commentaries on issues that affect the growth of businesses and the advancement of professionals in the workplace for an audience of predominantly African-American professionals, corporate executives and small-business owners, announces its 2010 list of “25 Influential Black Women in Business.”. Read the list by using the link below:

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

Tea Partying with White Supremacists! - White Supremacists and Far Right Militias Mobilizing Anger against President Obama

Al Jazeera Reports: White Power USA - The Rise of White Supremacists In The Age of Barack Obama.

With the election of the Barack Obama, a failing economy and anti-immigrant sentiment on the rise, some activists are calling it the perfect storm for recruitment by racist organisations.

Supremacist groups are reportedly targeting soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as trying to become part of 'mainstream' conservatism by organising around the successful 'Tea Party' movement. 2010 © AlJazeeraEnglish, Inc.





A new report from the Anti-Defamation League© 2009 - 2010 Anti-Defamation League

The Tea Party phenomenon, which began with anti-tax rallies staged across the country on April 15, 2009, will continue as activists in almost every state are planning similar events on July 4. Notably, white supremacists are again planning to participate. As they have done with other political and social issues, for example, promoting the Ron Paul campaign and using the immigration debate, white supremacists and anti-Semites are planning to exploit Tea Parties to disseminate their hateful views and recruit a larger following.
.

Extremists plan to recruit at Tea Parties

Stormfront, the most popular white supremacist Internet forum, is home to discussion between extremists eager to influence the events. In addition to circulating a list of local organizers and promoting planned rallies, Stormfront members are trying to find ways to involve themselves in the events. In posts to the forum, many voice their intent to attend the Tea parties for the purpose of cultivating an "organized grassroots White mass movement."

Posts to Stormfront:

• "We need a relevent [sic] transitional envelope-pushing flyer for the masses. Take these Tea Party Americans by the hand and help them go from crawling to standing independently and then walking toward racialism."
  
• "We intervene to shape the new pro-White grassroots agenda from within the crowd. We intervene for active effect at the event, for advancement of White racial consciousness and solidarity, and for the growth of the organized grassroots White mass movement and the most perceptive racially aware activist element."
  
• "I also agree that spreading the WN message at these events is a good idea-it's time already,we've gotta do it!! Carefully, of course."
  
• "A big crowd of irate White folks protesting the government seems like the perfect time and place for us WN's to promote our cause, at least to my way of thinking."
  
• "I distributed WN literature at the last Tea Party in Phoenix. I will be doing it again in July. This is the time and the place. For those on a budget, I would suggest printing business cards with the web address of your group or organization. Keep it simple."
  
• "I think they'd be ideal for spreading WN literature and gaining recruits in large numbers, more quickly."

Tea Party Americans Coalition

An anti-Semite and white supremacist using the name "Whites Forward" created the Tea Party Americans Coalition (TPAC) as "a working group for serious White racialist ACTIVISTS in the US who want to effectively coordinate our efforts and intervene for effect in Tea Party-type events." Anti-Semitic, racist, and anti-immigrant themes run through the six issues on which the working group is based.

"Whites Forward" is hoping that TPAC will be the "genesis of our new White mass movement and the fertile womb for our pro-White political party." He has called on other white supremacist groups to align themselves with the coalition, "Take these Tea Party Americans by the hand and help them go from crawling to standing independently and then walking toward racialism." —Stormfront member "Whites Forward"including the Council of Conservative Citizens, the Nationalist Coalition, David Duke's EURO organization, and European Americans United.

Currently, 42 individuals have registered as TPAC members, including:

• Don Black, well-known throughout the white supremacist and anti-Semitic community, both for his role as the founder and operator of Stormfront, and for his appearances and speeches at racist and anti-Semitic gatherings. Based in Florida, Black is a former Grand Dragon in the Ku Klux Klan who served prison time for plotting to invade the Caribbean island of Dominica and overthrow its government.
  
• John Ubele, the Florida-based Operations Manager for the neo-Nazi Nationalist Coalition. A former member of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, Ubele was also a founding member of the Sons of Liberty Committee, a group whose stated goal was for "the interests of European Americans…to reign supreme in all deliberations and actions of our government." Ubele also hosted "Radio with John Ubele," a weekly radio program hosted on Stormfront.

National Alliance leader tells followers to spread neo-Nazi message at Tea Parties

Erich Gliebe, who heads the West Virginia-based National Alliance (NA), devoted a May 2009 Internet radio broadcast to recast the purpose of the Tea Parties as opportunities to unite the white race and motivate its members to action. Gliebe argued that white people have simply had enough of what he described as minorities relying on tax dollars to fund government programs. He explained that "middle class White Americans are finally protesting."

Optimistic that recruitment at the Tea Parties could expand his group's membership, Gliebe suggested that "a number of those who turned out on April 15th are ready to embrace the National Alliance's message." He also alleged that the NA had experienced an increase in applications and requests for information as a result of the Tea Parties.

Gliebe encouraged white people to exploit the events to form a movement that will address the "major issues facing White Americans today." Finally, he requested that individuals intending on participating in future tea parties distribute a pamphlet created by deceased National Alliance leader William Pierce.

White supremacist Billy Roper a Tea Party organizer in Arkansas

Billy Roper, who heads the white supremacist White Revolution group, based in Arkansas, is listed as an organizer on a Tea Party movement Web site. In a June 2009 post to the White Revolution blog, Roper claimed to be organizing a Tea Party in Arkansas and sending White Revolution "representatives who will be witnessing and converting lost souls at Tea Parties from North Carolina to Arizona." [emphasis in original]

A May blog post revealed that White Revolution members will attend local Tea Party protests and distribute leaflets and flyers. Their goal will be to "educate, activate, and recruit." The blog post encouraged readers to "plan to attend one to do your part for our race and nation!"

Israeli Hand in Iraq's Abu Ghraib Exposed

palestinefreevoice: The former American military chief of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq reiterates the Israeli involvement in the US-run facility, where hundreds of Iraqi suspects were tortured and sexually abused by US soldiers and interrogators. Shedding further light on the scandal that has served as a controversy-magnet for Washington ever since its emergence in 2004, the retired US army colonel Janis Karpinski says that Israeli agents were recruited by the US military at Abu Ghraib to interrogate the prisoners suspected of attacking US forces in Iraq. The report by the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar is set to fuel more debate on the matter as Karpinski had, until recently, refused to expound on the Israeli connection at Abu Ghraib despite admitting earlier to the presence of Israeli interrogators in the US-run compound.

Haiti non ha bisogno di portaerei, ma di riconversione delle spese militari e di reale cooperazione

Fonte: Pax Christi Italia - 20 gennaio 2010

Davanti alla tragedia di Haiti, l’Italia gioca la carta della portaerei Cavour.
Già nel 2001 l’allora presidente di Pax Christi Italia mons. Bona scriveva: “Ne abbiamo proprio bisogno? Certamente i tecnici della lobby industrial–militare adducono tante ragioni per giustificare l’opportunità... Salta agli occhi il collegamento tra l’enorme povertà di tanta parte dell’umanità e le spese militari”. Questa grande portaerei lunga 235 metri (che è costata oltre 1200 milioni di euro pari alla somma raccolta nel mondo dopo la prima settimana dal terremoto di Haiti e che ogni ora di navigazione ad alta velocità consuma 25.000 litri di carburante) porterà aiuto alla vittime del terremoto.
Ci chiediamo: quante sale operatorie od ospedali da campo si potevano e si possono realizzare con una spesa così folle?

Proprio il giorno prima del terremoto, l’11 gennaio 2010, il Papa parlando al Corpo Diplomatico denunciava "l'aumento delle spese militari, nonché il mantenimento o lo sviluppo degli arsenali nucleari". E questo, ha spiegato, "assorbe ingenti risorse che potrebbero, invece, essere destinate allo sviluppo dei popoli, soprattutto di quelli più poveri.” Non possiamo nascondere il timore che questa operazione - sponsorizzata dalle grandi aziende che lavorano con il militare e che hanno realizzato questa nave – diventi più un’operazione di facciata, utile più al mondo militare che alla popolazione di Haiti. Non dimentichiamo che l’Italia oggi è il secondo Paese al mondo per esportazione di armi, con somme da capogiro, rispetto a quelle insignificanti investite nella cooperazione.

Avremo modo di riflettere anche su questo al Convegno sul disarmo del 30 gennaio a Roma presso l’Università Lateranense, mentre cercheremo di essere accanto alle vittime di questo terremoto.

Ma vogliamo anche rilanciare una proposta.

Perchè non fare una scelta politicamente audace e coraggiosa, segno di ri-conversione, motivata dalla grande tragedia di Haiti, e anche del nostro Abruzzo?
Perchè non ridurre-riconvertire gli investimenti (si parla di 15 miliardi di Euro!) per i nuovi aerei F35?

Sarebbe un segno forte di speranza e di ‘difesa della vita’ di cui tanto si parla.
Spendere meno soldi per strumenti bellici, soprattutto in questo momento, potrebbe essere un gesto significativo di alto valore educativo. Un segno di speranza che germoglia dalle macerie di una tragedia.

Note:

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Haiti does not have need of aircraft carriers, but of reconversion of military expenses and real cooperation
Source: Pax Christi Italy - 20 January 2010

In front of the tragedy of Haiti, Italy plays the paper of the Cavour aircraft carriers.
Already in the 2001 then president of Pax Christi Italy mons. Bona wrote: “Of it we have own need? Sure the technicians of the industrial-military lobby adduce many reasons in order to justify the opportunity… He jumps to the eyes the connection between the enormous poverty of much part of the humanity and military expenses”. These large aircraft carriers long 235 meters (that it has cost beyond 1200 million equal euro to the sum collection in the world after the first week from the earthquake of Haiti and that every hour of navigation to high speed consumes 25,000 liters of fuel) will carry aid to the victims of the earthquake.
We ask ourselves: how many know them operating or field hospitals could and can be realized with an expense thus crowds?

Own the day before the earthquake, 11 January 2010, the Pope speaking to the Diplomatic corps denounced “the increase of military expenses, let alone the maintenance or the development of the nuclear arsenals”. And this, has explained, “absorbs huge resources that could, instead, to be destined to the development of polulates, above all of those poor ones.” We cannot hide the fear that this operation - sponsored from the great companies that work with the soldier and that they have realized this ship - becomes more an operation than facade, profit more to the military world that to the population of Haiti. We do not forget that Italy today is according to Country to the world for export of crews, with sums from capogiro, regarding those insignificant ones invested in the cooperation.

We will have way to reflect also on this to the Convention on the disarmament of 30 January to Rome near the Lateranense University, while we will try to be beside the victims of this earthquake.

But we want also to throw again a proposal.

Why not to make an audacious and brave choice politicamente, sign of reconversion, motivated from the great tragedy of Haiti, and also of our Abruzzi?
Because reduce-not to reconvert the investments (it is spoken about 15 billions of Euro) for the new F35 airplane?

It would be a sign hard of defended hope and `of the vita' about which a lot it is spoken.
To spend less money for war instruments, above all in this moment, could be a meaningful gesture of high educational value. A sign of hope that sprouts from the ruins of a tragedy.
Notes:

Ulterior information on www.paxchristi.it

BROWN, MEET RED!

BROWN MEET RED

Republicans celebrate now, but the victory will be a reminder that you better get your act together. Democrats, now it's time to regroup. We can't allow the defeat down you! Best believe that the "tea party movement" is a thorn in the side. But it's best to line up a strategy.

Democrats lose the seat held by the late senator Ted Kennedy. The Democrats are now scrambling for a massive defensive. Republicans celebrate a strong victory. Scott Brown, now senator-elect, what's next?

President of The United States? Who knows, Drudge? Seriously, I think dude sees the same crystal ball I see!

Conservative activists are gloating now that Scott Brown may be the future of the once disgraced party. Republicans have channeled into the anger of the "angry white male". President Barack Obama ratings according to GALLUP is standing around 50% - 43%. The support among white voters is down significantly. Again, the conservative media, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin and Matt Drudge want the president to fail!

They'll line up a moderate Republican to defeat President Obama! And once again, the partisan gap increases. Independents are the key to election victories.

Democrats, it's time to step your game up! What's the problem? If I voted for a decent health care reform, I wanted it with the public option! If one thing has taught me about politicians, they are destructive! And to make this clear, Republicans are no better. If they were better, then Senator John McCain and Sarah Palin would run this country.

I seriously believe the Republicans want to continue to push the "angry white male", "concern housewife", "the gun owner who is concerned that President Obama will take his gun", "angry banker who wants to rip me and millions of other off with high deductible loans and foreclose on my home" and follow the "angry guy on the radio who spouts off!"

2012, is coming sooner then we think?