Why is it that fifteen years after the Rodney King
riots not much has changed since then. Promises
were made but not kept. Supermarkets said that
they would rebuild bigger and better have not lived
up to those promises. Who says black folks don't have
patience. African-Americans have been put on hold
long enough. Every other race that has been dealt
with unjustly in the American society has been apoligized
to and compensated for the wrongs that have been done
to them. But still black folks patience must constantly
be tested. Well if thats the case then we are being
disrespected and being pushed out of character.
Although a 15th anniversary typically does not carry the emotional cachet of, say, a 10- or 25-year milestone, hundreds of residents gathered Saturday at two South Los Angeles events to call attention to a community still racked by the poverty and violence that fueled the 1992 Los Angeles riots.The message from both gatherings on the eve of today's anniversary was stern and angry: The city's southern neighborhoods are still largely ignored.
A standing-room-only crowd at the Community Coalition lambasted city officials for failing to close nuisance liquor stores and motels that the nonprofit group has pinpointed as hot spots of illegal drinking, drug dealing, prostitution and violence.Six months ago, coalition members gave city Planning Director Gail Goldberg a list of the 21 "most egregious" businesses and pleaded for their closure or improvements within six months. They learned Saturday that public hearings have been held or set for only eight stores, frustrating many who said they expected more from the city."We have heard this so many times," an angry Manya Anderson, 58, told Goldberg as nearly 200 people looked on at the coalition's offices on South Vermont Avenue.
"We are dying. This community is dying. The bottom line is, this never would have been allowed in any other community."Resident Jackie Garrett, 60, was equally discouraged."I feel like we're living in Iraq," she said. "Tell me we lost the war in Iraq — we lost the war in L.A."Across town at First AME Church on Harvard Boulevard, civic leaders warned 70 to 100 listeners that the conditions that sparked the riots still fester, despite the myriad post-riot promises of better jobs, schools and supermarkets. Many promises never materialized, leaving some residents embittered and resigned.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Monday, April 30, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
Justice Served In Atlanta ?
Justice has prevailed in the city of Atlanta. Two
police officers pleaded guilty to reduced charges
of manslaughter in exchange for their cooperation
in a ongoing federal investigation into police corrup-
tion. After reading the article below should the
officers have gotten more time? Please feel free to
comment.
Two police officers pleaded guilty Thursday to fatally shooting a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid on her home, but prosecutors warned that an investigation into corruption in the Atlanta Police Department continued. Gregg Junnier, 40, and Jason R. Smith, 35, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, violation of oath by a public officer, criminal solicitation, making false statements and civil rights conspiracy.
In exchange for cooperating with the federal corruption probe, the prosecutors dropped state murder charges against Smith and Junnier, meaning they will avoid life in prison. Sentences have not been set, but Junnier, who retired from the force in January, is expected to get about 10 years in prison; Smith, who is on administrative leave, is expected to be sentenced to about 12 years. On the night of Nov. 21, plainclothes Atlanta police officers burst through the front door of Kathryn Johnston's home after obtaining a no-knock warrant based on false information that drugs were sold there.
Johnston fired a single shot from a .38-caliber revolver, according to the Fulton County prosecutor. Ballistic evidence showed that she did not hit any of the six officers, but that they fired 39 shots, striking Johnston five or six times, including a fatal blow to her chest. Assistant U.S. Atty. Yonette Sam-Buchanan said officers lied to a magistrate to get the no-knock warrant, claiming that a confidential informant had made a purchase at the address and that the house was fitted with electronic surveillance. After the shooting, Smith allegedly planted three bags of marijuana in the basement of Johnston's home and then called an informant to ask him to pretend the three officers had sent him to the address earlier to purchase drugs.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
police officers pleaded guilty to reduced charges
of manslaughter in exchange for their cooperation
in a ongoing federal investigation into police corrup-
tion. After reading the article below should the
officers have gotten more time? Please feel free to
comment.
Two police officers pleaded guilty Thursday to fatally shooting a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid on her home, but prosecutors warned that an investigation into corruption in the Atlanta Police Department continued. Gregg Junnier, 40, and Jason R. Smith, 35, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, violation of oath by a public officer, criminal solicitation, making false statements and civil rights conspiracy.
In exchange for cooperating with the federal corruption probe, the prosecutors dropped state murder charges against Smith and Junnier, meaning they will avoid life in prison. Sentences have not been set, but Junnier, who retired from the force in January, is expected to get about 10 years in prison; Smith, who is on administrative leave, is expected to be sentenced to about 12 years. On the night of Nov. 21, plainclothes Atlanta police officers burst through the front door of Kathryn Johnston's home after obtaining a no-knock warrant based on false information that drugs were sold there.
Johnston fired a single shot from a .38-caliber revolver, according to the Fulton County prosecutor. Ballistic evidence showed that she did not hit any of the six officers, but that they fired 39 shots, striking Johnston five or six times, including a fatal blow to her chest. Assistant U.S. Atty. Yonette Sam-Buchanan said officers lied to a magistrate to get the no-knock warrant, claiming that a confidential informant had made a purchase at the address and that the house was fitted with electronic surveillance. After the shooting, Smith allegedly planted three bags of marijuana in the basement of Johnston's home and then called an informant to ask him to pretend the three officers had sent him to the address earlier to purchase drugs.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Three Texas Won't Get !
Finally justice is served up for three convicted
murderers on Texas death row. For now this
comes as a sort of vindication for the U.S. Supreme
court who last week reversed a decision on the
abortion issue. The article below gives the details
on the high court decision to spare the lives of three
men.
The Supreme Court overturned the death sentences of three Texas murderers Wednesday, ruling that jurors were not given a fair chance to spare them given their mental difficulties and histories of childhood abuse. In a series of 5-4 votes, the court pointed to the flaws in the Texas capital sentencing system before 1991. The rulings will probably lead to new sentencing hearings for a handful of Texas death row inmates who were given death sentences under the old system.
Until Texas was forced to revise its law in 1991, jurors were given only two questions when deciding whether a convicted killer would receive a sentence of death or life in prison. Was the murder deliberate, and did the killer represent a "continuing threat" to society? If the jury agreed on a "yes" answer to both, the defendant received a death sentence. In the late 1970s, however, the Supreme Court had said jurors must be permitted to weigh any "mitigating factor" in a defendant's life or character as a reason to spare him from a death sentence. Nonetheless, the justices upheld the Texas system at the time, even though it left little or no room for jurors to weigh mitigating evidence.
For a time, Texas judges tried to get around the problem by telling jurors they could falsely answer "no" when they were asked whether the murderer presented a continuing threat to society, even though they thought the right answer to the question was yes.Not surprisingly, the justices in the majority Wednesday described that approach as "fatally flawed" because it depended on jurors giving an answer they knew to be untrue. Justices John Paul Stevens, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer formed the majority in all three decisions.
The rulings reversed death sentences for Ted Cole, now known as Jalil Abdul-Kabir, who strangled and robbed a 68-year-old man in San Angelo; Brent Brewer, who stabbed and robbed a 66-year-old store owner in Amarillo; and LaRoyce Smith, who stabbed and killed a former co-worker at a Taco Bell in Dallas.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
In a strong dissent, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the fault in the handling of the cases lay with the Supreme Court, not the state and federal judges in Texas
murderers on Texas death row. For now this
comes as a sort of vindication for the U.S. Supreme
court who last week reversed a decision on the
abortion issue. The article below gives the details
on the high court decision to spare the lives of three
men.
The Supreme Court overturned the death sentences of three Texas murderers Wednesday, ruling that jurors were not given a fair chance to spare them given their mental difficulties and histories of childhood abuse. In a series of 5-4 votes, the court pointed to the flaws in the Texas capital sentencing system before 1991. The rulings will probably lead to new sentencing hearings for a handful of Texas death row inmates who were given death sentences under the old system.
Until Texas was forced to revise its law in 1991, jurors were given only two questions when deciding whether a convicted killer would receive a sentence of death or life in prison. Was the murder deliberate, and did the killer represent a "continuing threat" to society? If the jury agreed on a "yes" answer to both, the defendant received a death sentence. In the late 1970s, however, the Supreme Court had said jurors must be permitted to weigh any "mitigating factor" in a defendant's life or character as a reason to spare him from a death sentence. Nonetheless, the justices upheld the Texas system at the time, even though it left little or no room for jurors to weigh mitigating evidence.
For a time, Texas judges tried to get around the problem by telling jurors they could falsely answer "no" when they were asked whether the murderer presented a continuing threat to society, even though they thought the right answer to the question was yes.Not surprisingly, the justices in the majority Wednesday described that approach as "fatally flawed" because it depended on jurors giving an answer they knew to be untrue. Justices John Paul Stevens, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer formed the majority in all three decisions.
The rulings reversed death sentences for Ted Cole, now known as Jalil Abdul-Kabir, who strangled and robbed a 68-year-old man in San Angelo; Brent Brewer, who stabbed and robbed a 66-year-old store owner in Amarillo; and LaRoyce Smith, who stabbed and killed a former co-worker at a Taco Bell in Dallas.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
In a strong dissent, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the fault in the handling of the cases lay with the Supreme Court, not the state and federal judges in Texas
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Discrimination Rears It's Ugly Head
Blacks in New Orleans face a new problem of an
old nature-discrimination. Since post Katrina
revitalization of the city blacks have had a tough
go at findind housing and as residents continue to
return the situation grows worse. My call says that
violation of discrimination laws should be prosecuted
to the fullest extent of the law especially since these violators
are taking advantage of the current judicial situation in the area.
Check out the article and then weigh-in on this issue.
African Americans seeking rental housing in the New Orleans metropolitan area face significant discrimination and fewer accommodations to choose from since Hurricane Katrina, a report released Tuesday found. In 6 out of 10 transactions, African Americans faced less favorable treatment than comparably qualified whites, the report said."For Rent, Unless You're Black," a study by the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, surveyed 40 properties in the parishes of Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany and St. Bernard.
Race-based housing discrimination exists in many U.S. cities, but discrimination against blacks in New Orleans was particularly egregious given the housing shortage, said James Perry, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center.The shortage resulting from the loss of homes in hurricanes Katrina and Rita is already difficult to overcome, Perry said."It's unfathomable that on top of that, African Americans have to deal with discrimination," he added.
The storms destroyed more than 200,000 homes and apartments in Louisiana — the majority of them in the New Orleans metropolitan area — according to Louisiana statistics. The study comes as fair housing advocates say some local governments and politicians are using zoning and other policies to discourage poor and minority residents from living in their neighborhoods. Last fall, St. Bernard Parish passed an ordinance that required owners of single-family homes there, more than 90% of whom are white, to rent only to blood relatives — making it almost impossible for nonwhites to rent in the parish.
Faced with a legal challenge, the ordinance was repealed.Jefferson Parish politicians have passed a resolution aimed at limiting the construction of low-income units. In Orleans Parish, strong community opposition forced two councilwomen to drop a proposal to put a moratorium on building multifamily housing in their districts. Anthony Keck, president of the Greater New Orleans Housing Action Center board of directors, cited fair housing practices as crucial to New Orleans' recovery."In order to attract people back to the city, we really need to tackle housing discrimination," Keck said.In an investigation between September 2006 and April 2007, the fair housing action center followed black and white would-be renters as they tried to lease properties from private landlords.
The "testers" were from the same income bracket, on similar career paths and had matching family and rental histories, said Thena Robinson, the group's coordinator of investigations.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
old nature-discrimination. Since post Katrina
revitalization of the city blacks have had a tough
go at findind housing and as residents continue to
return the situation grows worse. My call says that
violation of discrimination laws should be prosecuted
to the fullest extent of the law especially since these violators
are taking advantage of the current judicial situation in the area.
Check out the article and then weigh-in on this issue.
African Americans seeking rental housing in the New Orleans metropolitan area face significant discrimination and fewer accommodations to choose from since Hurricane Katrina, a report released Tuesday found. In 6 out of 10 transactions, African Americans faced less favorable treatment than comparably qualified whites, the report said."For Rent, Unless You're Black," a study by the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, surveyed 40 properties in the parishes of Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany and St. Bernard.
Race-based housing discrimination exists in many U.S. cities, but discrimination against blacks in New Orleans was particularly egregious given the housing shortage, said James Perry, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center.The shortage resulting from the loss of homes in hurricanes Katrina and Rita is already difficult to overcome, Perry said."It's unfathomable that on top of that, African Americans have to deal with discrimination," he added.
The storms destroyed more than 200,000 homes and apartments in Louisiana — the majority of them in the New Orleans metropolitan area — according to Louisiana statistics. The study comes as fair housing advocates say some local governments and politicians are using zoning and other policies to discourage poor and minority residents from living in their neighborhoods. Last fall, St. Bernard Parish passed an ordinance that required owners of single-family homes there, more than 90% of whom are white, to rent only to blood relatives — making it almost impossible for nonwhites to rent in the parish.
Faced with a legal challenge, the ordinance was repealed.Jefferson Parish politicians have passed a resolution aimed at limiting the construction of low-income units. In Orleans Parish, strong community opposition forced two councilwomen to drop a proposal to put a moratorium on building multifamily housing in their districts. Anthony Keck, president of the Greater New Orleans Housing Action Center board of directors, cited fair housing practices as crucial to New Orleans' recovery."In order to attract people back to the city, we really need to tackle housing discrimination," Keck said.In an investigation between September 2006 and April 2007, the fair housing action center followed black and white would-be renters as they tried to lease properties from private landlords.
The "testers" were from the same income bracket, on similar career paths and had matching family and rental histories, said Thena Robinson, the group's coordinator of investigations.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Are Passengers Seized Too ?
I've been in cars that have been pulled over by the
police and treated by them just as if I too was driving.
Yeah, they asked me for identification and subjected me
to unwanted searches. Well the U.S. Supreme court will
take up this matter to determine if a passenger is also
seized or not during a routine traffic stop. What do you
think about this?
Are the passengers in a car that has been stopped by the police "seized" by the authorities, or are they free to walk away?The Supreme Court took up that question Monday in a California case that could decide whether passengers are protected from "unreasonable searches and seizures" when officers pull over the vehicle in which they are riding.
Last year, the California Supreme Court gave police more leeway to search occupants of cars they stop when it ruled that drug evidence found on a passenger could be used against him.The passenger was "not seized as a constitutional matter" when the driver was pulled over, the state court said in a 4-3 decision. Under that reasoning, the passenger had given tacit consent to be searched by staying in the car. Most of the justices on the U.S. high court said Monday that view did not square with common sense. Several said they would not feel free to walk away if a police officer stopped the car they were riding in.
The tenor of their comments suggested the California ruling would be reversed."Policemen don't like people jumping out of the car," said Justice Antonin Scalia. "If I were … a passenger … I would certainly not feel free to immediately open the door and start walking away."Asked Justice David H. Souter: "Don't you think that a reasonable passenger … would assume the officer is in control and that, in the absence of some affirmative indication that the passenger can go, that he's supposed to sit there?"A lawyer for California defending the state court's ruling insisted passengers in stopped cars are free to leave.
He also described the interaction between police and passengers as "consensual encounters."When a police car flashes its red light, the officer is ordering the driver to pull over, said Clifford Zall, a deputy state attorney general. "When the driver submits to that show of authority, the driver is seized. The passenger is not seized."
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
police and treated by them just as if I too was driving.
Yeah, they asked me for identification and subjected me
to unwanted searches. Well the U.S. Supreme court will
take up this matter to determine if a passenger is also
seized or not during a routine traffic stop. What do you
think about this?
Are the passengers in a car that has been stopped by the police "seized" by the authorities, or are they free to walk away?The Supreme Court took up that question Monday in a California case that could decide whether passengers are protected from "unreasonable searches and seizures" when officers pull over the vehicle in which they are riding.
Last year, the California Supreme Court gave police more leeway to search occupants of cars they stop when it ruled that drug evidence found on a passenger could be used against him.The passenger was "not seized as a constitutional matter" when the driver was pulled over, the state court said in a 4-3 decision. Under that reasoning, the passenger had given tacit consent to be searched by staying in the car. Most of the justices on the U.S. high court said Monday that view did not square with common sense. Several said they would not feel free to walk away if a police officer stopped the car they were riding in.
The tenor of their comments suggested the California ruling would be reversed."Policemen don't like people jumping out of the car," said Justice Antonin Scalia. "If I were … a passenger … I would certainly not feel free to immediately open the door and start walking away."Asked Justice David H. Souter: "Don't you think that a reasonable passenger … would assume the officer is in control and that, in the absence of some affirmative indication that the passenger can go, that he's supposed to sit there?"A lawyer for California defending the state court's ruling insisted passengers in stopped cars are free to leave.
He also described the interaction between police and passengers as "consensual encounters."When a police car flashes its red light, the officer is ordering the driver to pull over, said Clifford Zall, a deputy state attorney general. "When the driver submits to that show of authority, the driver is seized. The passenger is not seized."
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Monday, April 23, 2007
Hip-Hop Reaches All New Low
Hip-hop has moved to an all-time low when a rapper has
to have simulated sex with a minor. After reading the
story and viewing the video I found it to be inappropriate
and quite distateful. How long will it be from now before
actual sex is part of hip-hop shows? This latest incident
will only further add fuel to the fire that swirls around
the hip-hop industry.
The father of the 14-year-old girl pulled on stage to engage in simulated sex with R&B singer Akon is calling the act “atrocious,” but refuses to lay total blame on the superstar crooner.
Video footage of Thursday’s incident in Port of Spain, Trinidad made national headlines after it hit YouTube the next day. Pastor Dave Alleyne of the Flaming Word Ministry of Chaguanas, father of the 14-year-old, says his daughter Deena was taken advantage of during the concert at Zen nightclub.
Deena had won round one of a dance competition which carried prizes, including a "free trip" to Africa, announced Akon from the stage. Footage of the “dance” showed Akon simulating sex with Deena and tossing her around the stage into different sexual positions. At the end of the
“competition,” contestants learned that the prize of a free trip to Africa turned out to be a con. Akon joked that he was Africa.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
to have simulated sex with a minor. After reading the
story and viewing the video I found it to be inappropriate
and quite distateful. How long will it be from now before
actual sex is part of hip-hop shows? This latest incident
will only further add fuel to the fire that swirls around
the hip-hop industry.
The father of the 14-year-old girl pulled on stage to engage in simulated sex with R&B singer Akon is calling the act “atrocious,” but refuses to lay total blame on the superstar crooner.
Video footage of Thursday’s incident in Port of Spain, Trinidad made national headlines after it hit YouTube the next day. Pastor Dave Alleyne of the Flaming Word Ministry of Chaguanas, father of the 14-year-old, says his daughter Deena was taken advantage of during the concert at Zen nightclub.
Deena had won round one of a dance competition which carried prizes, including a "free trip" to Africa, announced Akon from the stage. Footage of the “dance” showed Akon simulating sex with Deena and tossing her around the stage into different sexual positions. At the end of the
“competition,” contestants learned that the prize of a free trip to Africa turned out to be a con. Akon joked that he was Africa.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Friday, April 20, 2007
A Change Has Come !
The face of politics in America has been changing for
about the last twenty years but more recently it's
been quite dramatic. My take on this is that people
are listening more to what a candidate has to say
and then judging them more for the actions they've
taken both in the past and present. The people are
looking for politicians that mirror not only their beliefs
but also have a deep understanding of their feelings
and struggles.
Yes the average white american today is struggling to
make ends meet and to achieve what is now the elusive
american dream. So today the color of a politician does
not matter as much as how he's able to relate to the
common folk. So check out the article below, then
weigh in on the rapidily changing color of politics in
america.
Early in Deval Patrick's run for governor, when few Massachusetts voters had heard of the maverick candidate with the odd first name, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama stopped by Cambridge for a class reunion at Harvard Law School.
Obama extolled the virtues of Patrick, a fellow Harvard Law School alum who, like Obama, faced better known and better financed opponents.
"He recognized that there was something very special about Deval and there were similarities in their experience," said Cassandra Butts, an Obama classmate who attended the reunion. "He wanted to give Deval the chances that he didn't have early on in his Senate race."
As Obama campaigns for president and Patrick works to shake off a rocky start as governor, observers are seeing in the two old friends the new face of black political leadership — figures as comfortable in the boardroom as on the picket line who can appeal to large swathes of white voters. Both candidates share similar life stories, rising from modest means with the help of family and education.
For Obama, it meant Columbia University before Harvard Law School, where he was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. For Patrick, who grew up in the shadow of the Robert Taylor Homes housing project in Chicago, it meant Milton Academy before Harvard University and Harvard Law.
They also share a political language ringing with themes of hope, new beginnings, and citizen-friendly government. At times they seem to be reading off the same script.
"They've moved beyond the rhetoric of the civil rights generation," said David Gergen, a former White House aide now teaching at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
"They accept the nobility of that generation ... but they believe there are new solutions," he said. "We are in a new age where these new black politicians are not just trying to appeal to a broad base of voters, but they are succeeding."
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
about the last twenty years but more recently it's
been quite dramatic. My take on this is that people
are listening more to what a candidate has to say
and then judging them more for the actions they've
taken both in the past and present. The people are
looking for politicians that mirror not only their beliefs
but also have a deep understanding of their feelings
and struggles.
Yes the average white american today is struggling to
make ends meet and to achieve what is now the elusive
american dream. So today the color of a politician does
not matter as much as how he's able to relate to the
common folk. So check out the article below, then
weigh in on the rapidily changing color of politics in
america.
Early in Deval Patrick's run for governor, when few Massachusetts voters had heard of the maverick candidate with the odd first name, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama stopped by Cambridge for a class reunion at Harvard Law School.
Obama extolled the virtues of Patrick, a fellow Harvard Law School alum who, like Obama, faced better known and better financed opponents.
"He recognized that there was something very special about Deval and there were similarities in their experience," said Cassandra Butts, an Obama classmate who attended the reunion. "He wanted to give Deval the chances that he didn't have early on in his Senate race."
As Obama campaigns for president and Patrick works to shake off a rocky start as governor, observers are seeing in the two old friends the new face of black political leadership — figures as comfortable in the boardroom as on the picket line who can appeal to large swathes of white voters. Both candidates share similar life stories, rising from modest means with the help of family and education.
For Obama, it meant Columbia University before Harvard Law School, where he was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. For Patrick, who grew up in the shadow of the Robert Taylor Homes housing project in Chicago, it meant Milton Academy before Harvard University and Harvard Law.
They also share a political language ringing with themes of hope, new beginnings, and citizen-friendly government. At times they seem to be reading off the same script.
"They've moved beyond the rhetoric of the civil rights generation," said David Gergen, a former White House aide now teaching at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
"They accept the nobility of that generation ... but they believe there are new solutions," he said. "We are in a new age where these new black politicians are not just trying to appeal to a broad base of voters, but they are succeeding."
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Sofa Company Creates New Color ?
The article below describes how a family bought some
furniture and when it arrived the black couples young
daughter found an unusual tag describing the color of the
furniture. Read the article below and then offer up your
opinion on this sad turn of events
A black family living in Ontario, Canada had to do a double take at the label accompanying the arrival of their new chocolate-colored furniture.
Doris Moore and her husband, Douglas, had purchased a sofa, loveseat and chair in dark brown leather earlier this month from Vanaik Furniture and Mattress store. Upon its delivery, the couple’s 7-year-old daughter Olivia read the label and asked: “Mommy, what is nig…ger brown?”
“I went over and just couldn't believe my eyes," Moore told the Toronto Star, stating each furniture piece had the description “nigger brown” attached to the woven protective covering wrapped around the furniture. "In this day and age, that's totally unacceptable."
After explaining the ugly history of the N-word to their daughter, the couple called the furniture store on three separate occasions, but never received a return call.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
furniture and when it arrived the black couples young
daughter found an unusual tag describing the color of the
furniture. Read the article below and then offer up your
opinion on this sad turn of events
A black family living in Ontario, Canada had to do a double take at the label accompanying the arrival of their new chocolate-colored furniture.
Doris Moore and her husband, Douglas, had purchased a sofa, loveseat and chair in dark brown leather earlier this month from Vanaik Furniture and Mattress store. Upon its delivery, the couple’s 7-year-old daughter Olivia read the label and asked: “Mommy, what is nig…ger brown?”
“I went over and just couldn't believe my eyes," Moore told the Toronto Star, stating each furniture piece had the description “nigger brown” attached to the woven protective covering wrapped around the furniture. "In this day and age, that's totally unacceptable."
After explaining the ugly history of the N-word to their daughter, the couple called the furniture store on three separate occasions, but never received a return call.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
To The Rear Face !
For those of y'all that thought laws were sealed in stone.
Better think again cause the U.S. Supreme Court has just
reversed itself on a decision that was made in 2000. This
is scary in that this ruling is a major departure of past rulings
on the abortion issue. Read the story below from the New
York Times and please serve up your comments.
The Supreme Court narrowly upheld a federal law today banning a controversial abortion procedure, giving the anti-abortion movement one of its biggest legal victories in years.
The justices ruled, 5 to 4, that a law passed by Congress in 2003 and signed by President Bush does not violate the Constitution by imposing an undue burden on a woman’s right to end a pregnancy. The majority said its ruling reflects the government’s “legitimate, substantial interest in preserving and promoting fetal life.”
“The act, on its face, is not void for vagueness and does not impose an undue burden from any overbreadth,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court, rejecting key arguments of the law’s opponents. The majority upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, whose very name can set off heated debate. The procedure addressed is known medically as “intact dilation and evacuation” and “D and X,” for dilation and extraction. It involves partly removing an intact fetus, then destroying the skull to complete the abortion. Doctors and other abortion-rights advocates who challenged the law maintained that the procedure is often the safest because it minimizes the chances of injury to the uterus.
The majority said that the 2003 law would not affect most abortions, which are performed early in a pregnancy; that the law does not encourage “arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement,” and that alternatives to the prohibited procedure are available. Justice Kennedy was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the majority decision “alarming” and a retreat from the court’s earlier holdings. “It tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,” Justice Ginsburg wrote, in a dissent joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer.
The ruling overturned findings of several lower federal courts that had found the 2003 law unconstitutional. Today’s ruling is also a change of course from a Supreme Court ruling in 2000, when the lineup of justices was different, striking down a Nebraska law banning the procedure.
Justice Ginsburg was so disappointed in today’s ruling that she took the highly unusual step of reading part of her dissent from the bench.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Better think again cause the U.S. Supreme Court has just
reversed itself on a decision that was made in 2000. This
is scary in that this ruling is a major departure of past rulings
on the abortion issue. Read the story below from the New
York Times and please serve up your comments.
The Supreme Court narrowly upheld a federal law today banning a controversial abortion procedure, giving the anti-abortion movement one of its biggest legal victories in years.
The justices ruled, 5 to 4, that a law passed by Congress in 2003 and signed by President Bush does not violate the Constitution by imposing an undue burden on a woman’s right to end a pregnancy. The majority said its ruling reflects the government’s “legitimate, substantial interest in preserving and promoting fetal life.”
“The act, on its face, is not void for vagueness and does not impose an undue burden from any overbreadth,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court, rejecting key arguments of the law’s opponents. The majority upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, whose very name can set off heated debate. The procedure addressed is known medically as “intact dilation and evacuation” and “D and X,” for dilation and extraction. It involves partly removing an intact fetus, then destroying the skull to complete the abortion. Doctors and other abortion-rights advocates who challenged the law maintained that the procedure is often the safest because it minimizes the chances of injury to the uterus.
The majority said that the 2003 law would not affect most abortions, which are performed early in a pregnancy; that the law does not encourage “arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement,” and that alternatives to the prohibited procedure are available. Justice Kennedy was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the majority decision “alarming” and a retreat from the court’s earlier holdings. “It tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,” Justice Ginsburg wrote, in a dissent joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer.
The ruling overturned findings of several lower federal courts that had found the 2003 law unconstitutional. Today’s ruling is also a change of course from a Supreme Court ruling in 2000, when the lineup of justices was different, striking down a Nebraska law banning the procedure.
Justice Ginsburg was so disappointed in today’s ruling that she took the highly unusual step of reading part of her dissent from the bench.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
A Brother Is One Of First Victims
Call it bad luck or just being in the right place at the
wrong time but a black man from Georgia was one
of the first to be killed by a gunman at Virgina Tech.
Lots of questions are swirling today and the main one,
were there one or two gunman and was this two seperate
shootings? Read the following article and let us know
what you think of this tragedy.
Armed with two handguns and several clips of ammunition, a gunman went on a rampage at Virginia Tech early Monday killing 32 people on the campus before fatally shooting himself.
The campus newspaper confirmed what EUR first reported this morning; one of the shooter’s first two victims, a resident advisor at West Ambler Johnston dormitory, was African American student Ryan Clark. He was described by the Collegiate Times as a student from Martinez, Ga. who had three majors and a 4.0 GPA. [Click here to see today's "Good Morning America" interview with Clark’s twin brother Bryan and sister Nadia.]
According to police, the gunman was 23-year-old English major Cho Seung-Hui, a South Korean national whose family lives in Centerville, Va. His shooting spree began at about 7:15 a.m. on the fourth floor of the high-rise coed dorm, killing the resident advisor and another student. About two hours later, the shooter was on the other side of the 2,600-acre campus storming into Norris Hall, a classroom building located about a half-mile away from West Ambler Johnston.
Thirty people were killed and 15 injured in Norris Hall. Police say at least two of the doors to the building were chained from the inside, most likely by the gunman. Some students escaped by jumping out of classroom windows in a panic. The gunman eventually committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
wrong time but a black man from Georgia was one
of the first to be killed by a gunman at Virgina Tech.
Lots of questions are swirling today and the main one,
were there one or two gunman and was this two seperate
shootings? Read the following article and let us know
what you think of this tragedy.
Armed with two handguns and several clips of ammunition, a gunman went on a rampage at Virginia Tech early Monday killing 32 people on the campus before fatally shooting himself.
The campus newspaper confirmed what EUR first reported this morning; one of the shooter’s first two victims, a resident advisor at West Ambler Johnston dormitory, was African American student Ryan Clark. He was described by the Collegiate Times as a student from Martinez, Ga. who had three majors and a 4.0 GPA. [Click here to see today's "Good Morning America" interview with Clark’s twin brother Bryan and sister Nadia.]
According to police, the gunman was 23-year-old English major Cho Seung-Hui, a South Korean national whose family lives in Centerville, Va. His shooting spree began at about 7:15 a.m. on the fourth floor of the high-rise coed dorm, killing the resident advisor and another student. About two hours later, the shooter was on the other side of the 2,600-acre campus storming into Norris Hall, a classroom building located about a half-mile away from West Ambler Johnston.
Thirty people were killed and 15 injured in Norris Hall. Police say at least two of the doors to the building were chained from the inside, most likely by the gunman. Some students escaped by jumping out of classroom windows in a panic. The gunman eventually committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Monday, April 16, 2007
High Court Rejects Appeal On Racial Slur
A black man in Maryland complained to his employers
about a racial slur that came from a white co-worker
and is fired on the grounds that he was disruptive to
his co-workers. But get this there is an ironic twist to
the story below so after you have read it feel free to
comment on it.
The Supreme Court refused today to put stricter limits on racial slurs in the workplace, turning away an appeal from a black computer technician who was fired shortly after complaining that a white co-worker loudly described a pair of crime suspects as "two black monkeys in a cage." Robert Jordan, the computer technician, was dismissed from his contract job for IBM in suburban Maryland a month after his complaint and was told that he was "being disruptive." Jordan said he found the comment shocking and disgusting and believed his supervisors should reprimand the employee who said it.
But his race-bias lawsuit against IBM exposed the fact that the nation's civil rights laws do not necessarily protect an employee from a racist or sexist slur from a co-worker. Even if Jordan was fired simply for complaining about the racist comment, his employer did not violate civil rights law, a federal judge and the U.S. court of appeals said in dismissing his lawsuit. That's because "an isolated racial slur" does not create a "hostile work environment," the lower court said. "No objectively reasonable person could have believed IBM's office was in the grips of a hostile work environment," said Judge Paul Niemeyer for the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, nor was there evidence it was "infected with severe or pervasive" racism.
The full appeals court split 5-5 on the issue last fall, and the dissenters urged the Supreme Court to hear Jordan's appeal. Civil-rights lawyers also filed briefs urging the justices to take up the case. They said the ruling left employees in a "Catch 22 situation." They had been told by managers and by the courts that they should report instances of racism or sexual harassment in the workplace. At the same time, they were vulnerable to being dismissed for making such complaints. Today, the Supreme Court issued a one-line order without explanation, saying Jordan's appeal had been turned down. The incident that led to Jordan's firing took place on the day police captured the two snipers who had terrorized the Washington area in October of 2002. Jordan and several other employees were watching on television when the two suspects, both black men, were shown.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
about a racial slur that came from a white co-worker
and is fired on the grounds that he was disruptive to
his co-workers. But get this there is an ironic twist to
the story below so after you have read it feel free to
comment on it.
The Supreme Court refused today to put stricter limits on racial slurs in the workplace, turning away an appeal from a black computer technician who was fired shortly after complaining that a white co-worker loudly described a pair of crime suspects as "two black monkeys in a cage." Robert Jordan, the computer technician, was dismissed from his contract job for IBM in suburban Maryland a month after his complaint and was told that he was "being disruptive." Jordan said he found the comment shocking and disgusting and believed his supervisors should reprimand the employee who said it.
But his race-bias lawsuit against IBM exposed the fact that the nation's civil rights laws do not necessarily protect an employee from a racist or sexist slur from a co-worker. Even if Jordan was fired simply for complaining about the racist comment, his employer did not violate civil rights law, a federal judge and the U.S. court of appeals said in dismissing his lawsuit. That's because "an isolated racial slur" does not create a "hostile work environment," the lower court said. "No objectively reasonable person could have believed IBM's office was in the grips of a hostile work environment," said Judge Paul Niemeyer for the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, nor was there evidence it was "infected with severe or pervasive" racism.
The full appeals court split 5-5 on the issue last fall, and the dissenters urged the Supreme Court to hear Jordan's appeal. Civil-rights lawyers also filed briefs urging the justices to take up the case. They said the ruling left employees in a "Catch 22 situation." They had been told by managers and by the courts that they should report instances of racism or sexual harassment in the workplace. At the same time, they were vulnerable to being dismissed for making such complaints. Today, the Supreme Court issued a one-line order without explanation, saying Jordan's appeal had been turned down. The incident that led to Jordan's firing took place on the day police captured the two snipers who had terrorized the Washington area in October of 2002. Jordan and several other employees were watching on television when the two suspects, both black men, were shown.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Friday, April 13, 2007
We Bad Man-We Bad !
Yeah, the civil rights activist are gathered in the backrooms
today passing the champagne, patting themselveson the back.
Yeah the Frankinstein monster has been slainthis week. I feel
bad for Don because I hate to see anybodylose their job unless
it's Bush. You know I often wonder,are we becoming the same
heartless race of people that weproclaim to be our oppressors
or are we exacting a revengeon guys like Don Imus because
in reality we lack the will andbackbone to really attack the
real issues that dog black folks. Homelessness, healthcare
and affordable housing are thereal monsters. Black activist
wait for someone else topractically solve a problem then they
start to act, or whenthe media suddenly puts one of those issues
into itscrosshairs then they jump into the frey. But until then
those larger issues are dragons and for the moment their
armour is much to thin and it doesn't quite feel as good as
that three-piece tailor made suit from Brooks brothers.
It took Don Imus decades to get to the pinnacle of the radio world, and about a second to utter the five syllables that would ruin him.After an eight-day media drumbeat and unrelenting pressure from activists, advertisers, a member of CBS Corp.'s own board of directors and its staff, CBS Corp. announced on Thursday afternoon that the "Imus in the Morning" radio program would cease to be broadcast "effective immediately, on a permanent basis." His MSNBC TV simulcast was canceled the day before.
The firing came after a 75-minute meeting Thursday at CBS' headquarters in New York, nicknamed "Black Rock." Civil rights and feminist leaders urged CBS President and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves and four of his executives to take a stand against Imus' sexist and racist comments. At one point during the meeting — which was described variously as "very pleasant," "emotional" and "tense and confrontational" — Moonves was asked whether he or his lieutenants had daughters. Yes, Moonves answered, he has a daughter in college. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was at the meeting, said network executives were also asked,"What are your standards?
Is referring to women as 'hos' or to Hillary Clinton as a 'bitch' or saying Venus Williams should be in National Geographic, is this your standard? And if it is, you should declare that, and if not, you have a decision to make."And when would Moonves make that decision?"Soon," he replied. Three hours later, the controversy that began April 4 when Imus called the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" had culminated with the decision to end Imus' CBS radio career. In an e-mail to CBS employees announcing the firing, Moonves reflected on how the controversy had ballooned beyond Imus and cast a spotlight on demeaning speech in general.
"One thing is for certain: This is about a lot more than Imus," the e-mail read in part. "As has been widely pointed out, Imus has been visited by presidents, senators, important authors and journalists from across the political spectrum. He has flourished in a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people. In taking him off the air, I believe we take an important and necessary step not just in solving a unique problem, but in changing that culture."For Imus, 66, it was an abrupt and unexpected end to a career that was beyond successful by any standard. His was a powerhouse radio show, generating millions of dollars in revenue, reaching nearly 3 million listeners, and in the process turning him into a very rich man.
On the air almost every day for several hours, Imus displayed a dual personality — one minute he could be a foul-mouthed crank dishing insults and the next an erudite student of history, asking politicians tough questions about their stances. He referred to Arabs as "rag heads" and took Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to task for supporting the Iraq war. Imus always survived his scrapes with the taste police after making offensive comments about Jews, gays, blacks and others. On talk radio, just about any verbal outrage can be forgiven as long as ratings, revenue and the boss' reputation aren't hurt. But this misstep was caught on TV, in the MSNBC simulcast of Imus' show, and in replays it gained a life of its own.
"Imus in the Morning" aired on about 70 stations — in Southern California, on KCAA-AM 1050 in San Bernardino. It offered a platform for politicians, pundits and authors pushing books on serious subjects. Imus managed, despite his raunchy humor and puerile sensibility, to turn the show into a kind of clubhouse for the Washington/New York politico-media elite who were comfortable with the "I-Man" and did not criticize him for his outrageous conduct.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
today passing the champagne, patting themselveson the back.
Yeah the Frankinstein monster has been slainthis week. I feel
bad for Don because I hate to see anybodylose their job unless
it's Bush. You know I often wonder,are we becoming the same
heartless race of people that weproclaim to be our oppressors
or are we exacting a revengeon guys like Don Imus because
in reality we lack the will andbackbone to really attack the
real issues that dog black folks. Homelessness, healthcare
and affordable housing are thereal monsters. Black activist
wait for someone else topractically solve a problem then they
start to act, or whenthe media suddenly puts one of those issues
into itscrosshairs then they jump into the frey. But until then
those larger issues are dragons and for the moment their
armour is much to thin and it doesn't quite feel as good as
that three-piece tailor made suit from Brooks brothers.
It took Don Imus decades to get to the pinnacle of the radio world, and about a second to utter the five syllables that would ruin him.After an eight-day media drumbeat and unrelenting pressure from activists, advertisers, a member of CBS Corp.'s own board of directors and its staff, CBS Corp. announced on Thursday afternoon that the "Imus in the Morning" radio program would cease to be broadcast "effective immediately, on a permanent basis." His MSNBC TV simulcast was canceled the day before.
The firing came after a 75-minute meeting Thursday at CBS' headquarters in New York, nicknamed "Black Rock." Civil rights and feminist leaders urged CBS President and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves and four of his executives to take a stand against Imus' sexist and racist comments. At one point during the meeting — which was described variously as "very pleasant," "emotional" and "tense and confrontational" — Moonves was asked whether he or his lieutenants had daughters. Yes, Moonves answered, he has a daughter in college. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was at the meeting, said network executives were also asked,"What are your standards?
Is referring to women as 'hos' or to Hillary Clinton as a 'bitch' or saying Venus Williams should be in National Geographic, is this your standard? And if it is, you should declare that, and if not, you have a decision to make."And when would Moonves make that decision?"Soon," he replied. Three hours later, the controversy that began April 4 when Imus called the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" had culminated with the decision to end Imus' CBS radio career. In an e-mail to CBS employees announcing the firing, Moonves reflected on how the controversy had ballooned beyond Imus and cast a spotlight on demeaning speech in general.
"One thing is for certain: This is about a lot more than Imus," the e-mail read in part. "As has been widely pointed out, Imus has been visited by presidents, senators, important authors and journalists from across the political spectrum. He has flourished in a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people. In taking him off the air, I believe we take an important and necessary step not just in solving a unique problem, but in changing that culture."For Imus, 66, it was an abrupt and unexpected end to a career that was beyond successful by any standard. His was a powerhouse radio show, generating millions of dollars in revenue, reaching nearly 3 million listeners, and in the process turning him into a very rich man.
On the air almost every day for several hours, Imus displayed a dual personality — one minute he could be a foul-mouthed crank dishing insults and the next an erudite student of history, asking politicians tough questions about their stances. He referred to Arabs as "rag heads" and took Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to task for supporting the Iraq war. Imus always survived his scrapes with the taste police after making offensive comments about Jews, gays, blacks and others. On talk radio, just about any verbal outrage can be forgiven as long as ratings, revenue and the boss' reputation aren't hurt. But this misstep was caught on TV, in the MSNBC simulcast of Imus' show, and in replays it gained a life of its own.
"Imus in the Morning" aired on about 70 stations — in Southern California, on KCAA-AM 1050 in San Bernardino. It offered a platform for politicians, pundits and authors pushing books on serious subjects. Imus managed, despite his raunchy humor and puerile sensibility, to turn the show into a kind of clubhouse for the Washington/New York politico-media elite who were comfortable with the "I-Man" and did not criticize him for his outrageous conduct.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Killing Two Birds With One Bomb
Welcome to war 21st century style. One country
supplies both sides of another country's civil war
with arms and training then when both sides wear
each other down, then the country thats been fanning
the flames moves in and it's all over. But why supply
both sides you say? Because in this situation you have
a third party involved trying to keep the two sides apart.
It's like a referee between two fighters in the ring. Both
fighters are throwing punches but the ref is catching the
brunt of the blows and sooner or later the ref is going
to move out of the way. When that happens all hell
breaks loose. What I'd like to know is what should we do
now? Any suggestions.
The chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq asserted Wednesday that Iranian-made arms, manufactured as recently as last year, have reached Sunni insurgents here, which if true would mark a new development in the four-year-old conflict.
Citing testimony from detainees in U.S. custody, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said Iranian intelligence operatives were backing the Sunni militants inside Iraq while at the same time training Shiite extremists in Iran.
We have, in fact, found some cases recently where Iranian intelligence services have provided to some Sunni insurgent groups some support," Caldwell told reporters, adding that he was aware of only Shiite extremists being trained inside Iran. Caldwell cited a collection of munitions on a nearby table that he said were made in Iran and found two days ago in a majority-Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad.
Khalil Sadati, media adviser for the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, denied his government was backing militant groups inside Iraq. "There's no such thing." Sadati said. "Why don't you ask the Americans why they continue to make accusations without any evidence?"
For months, U.S. officials have alleged that Iranian entities have provided Shiite militias with weapons, including potent roadside bombs the military calls EFPs, or explosively formed penetrators, that have killed dozens of U.S. soldiers. Wednesday marked the first time that U.S. officials have asserted that Sunni insurgents were also receiving arms from Iran.
It was unclear what motivation Iran, a Shiite theocracy, would have for backing Sunni insurgents, many of whom are staunchly anti-Iranian and fear the rise of Shiite power in the region. Critics have dismissed the U.S. assertions, saying that evidence provided so far gives no solid proof that Iran has supplied weapons to Iraqi militants.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
supplies both sides of another country's civil war
with arms and training then when both sides wear
each other down, then the country thats been fanning
the flames moves in and it's all over. But why supply
both sides you say? Because in this situation you have
a third party involved trying to keep the two sides apart.
It's like a referee between two fighters in the ring. Both
fighters are throwing punches but the ref is catching the
brunt of the blows and sooner or later the ref is going
to move out of the way. When that happens all hell
breaks loose. What I'd like to know is what should we do
now? Any suggestions.
The chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq asserted Wednesday that Iranian-made arms, manufactured as recently as last year, have reached Sunni insurgents here, which if true would mark a new development in the four-year-old conflict.
Citing testimony from detainees in U.S. custody, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said Iranian intelligence operatives were backing the Sunni militants inside Iraq while at the same time training Shiite extremists in Iran.
We have, in fact, found some cases recently where Iranian intelligence services have provided to some Sunni insurgent groups some support," Caldwell told reporters, adding that he was aware of only Shiite extremists being trained inside Iran. Caldwell cited a collection of munitions on a nearby table that he said were made in Iran and found two days ago in a majority-Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad.
Khalil Sadati, media adviser for the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, denied his government was backing militant groups inside Iraq. "There's no such thing." Sadati said. "Why don't you ask the Americans why they continue to make accusations without any evidence?"
For months, U.S. officials have alleged that Iranian entities have provided Shiite militias with weapons, including potent roadside bombs the military calls EFPs, or explosively formed penetrators, that have killed dozens of U.S. soldiers. Wednesday marked the first time that U.S. officials have asserted that Sunni insurgents were also receiving arms from Iran.
It was unclear what motivation Iran, a Shiite theocracy, would have for backing Sunni insurgents, many of whom are staunchly anti-Iranian and fear the rise of Shiite power in the region. Critics have dismissed the U.S. assertions, saying that evidence provided so far gives no solid proof that Iran has supplied weapons to Iraqi militants.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Can Bush Even Spell Unethical ?
Here we are smack dab in the middle of an unethical civil war
where Americans are dying by the carloads and our knuckle-
headed president is going to veto funding on stem cell research.
I don't know about you but I can't wait for the presidential
elections next year. Believe me I'm gonna be the first person
in line at the voting polls. How does old boy begin to say that
stem cell research is unethical when an article in today's LA
Times says Reseachers use stem cells to rein in Type 1 diabetes.
Diabetes is rampant in Hispanic an Africna American communities.
Continue reading the article below and please offer up your opinion.
In 2003, federal officials inspected California-based Advanced Cell Technology. They rummaged through refrigerators, scrutinized labs and checked microscopes to make sure the firm wasn't using federally funded equipment to work on embryonic stem cells.Similar scenes have played out across the U.S. since President Bush issued an executive order banning federally funded research on embryonic stem cells created after 2001. The president and other religious conservatives believe such research is unethical. Scientists like those at Advanced Cell Technology, meanwhile, say that the limitation has hampered the search for cures and put them at a competitive disadvantage.
That debate played out on the floor Tuesday as the Senate began two days of debate on stem-cell research, the latest battleground on which Democrats are challenging the president. A bipartisan Senate bill that would make more stem-cell lines available to scientists, with certain limits, is expected to pass with broad support and face a veto from Bush, who rejected a similar bill last year. "He would veto again, if it were to pass," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "It is incumbent upon the president to balance both the moral and the ethical boundaries for new scientific research."
Citing strong public support for the bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) noted Tuesday that stem-cell research is thought to hold the potential to cure diseases that afflict about 100 million Americans, including cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries, heart disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. "We must take on this urgent cause once again," Reid said, referring to Bush's previous veto. "We will fight to see that it becomes law."The House passed a similar bill in January, 253 to 174, well short of the two-thirds majority needed to overturn a presidential veto.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
where Americans are dying by the carloads and our knuckle-
headed president is going to veto funding on stem cell research.
I don't know about you but I can't wait for the presidential
elections next year. Believe me I'm gonna be the first person
in line at the voting polls. How does old boy begin to say that
stem cell research is unethical when an article in today's LA
Times says Reseachers use stem cells to rein in Type 1 diabetes.
Diabetes is rampant in Hispanic an Africna American communities.
Continue reading the article below and please offer up your opinion.
In 2003, federal officials inspected California-based Advanced Cell Technology. They rummaged through refrigerators, scrutinized labs and checked microscopes to make sure the firm wasn't using federally funded equipment to work on embryonic stem cells.Similar scenes have played out across the U.S. since President Bush issued an executive order banning federally funded research on embryonic stem cells created after 2001. The president and other religious conservatives believe such research is unethical. Scientists like those at Advanced Cell Technology, meanwhile, say that the limitation has hampered the search for cures and put them at a competitive disadvantage.
That debate played out on the floor Tuesday as the Senate began two days of debate on stem-cell research, the latest battleground on which Democrats are challenging the president. A bipartisan Senate bill that would make more stem-cell lines available to scientists, with certain limits, is expected to pass with broad support and face a veto from Bush, who rejected a similar bill last year. "He would veto again, if it were to pass," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "It is incumbent upon the president to balance both the moral and the ethical boundaries for new scientific research."
Citing strong public support for the bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) noted Tuesday that stem-cell research is thought to hold the potential to cure diseases that afflict about 100 million Americans, including cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries, heart disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. "We must take on this urgent cause once again," Reid said, referring to Bush's previous veto. "We will fight to see that it becomes law."The House passed a similar bill in January, 253 to 174, well short of the two-thirds majority needed to overturn a presidential veto.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Put Apology Back In Your Pocket
Why do we keep falling for the same tired-axx cons.
Two things that sell in this country is sex and black
blasting. This isn't something that the white man
invented either. As long as rappers where making
money calling black sisters B#$%&*s and ho's we
made a little noise about it but in the long run it be-
came the norm. Rap songs continued to sell and a
great many of them were bought by black women.
So now a white radio talk show host who is known for
blasting women and blacks says something derogatory
about the Rutger's womens basketball team and black
folks bite into it, locking on like a pit bull. Calls short
of public lynching are now heard comming from prominent
African-American activist which in turn is picked up
by the media and a frenzy starts. Then the talk show
host makes a watered down apology that usually
satisfies his bosses because by then there's been a
spike in the overnight ratings. And quess what, the
longer we bicker about the situation the higher the
ratings go for the talk show and larger ratings mean
larger ad dollars. Anyway check out the column below
and feel free to holler at me about how you feel about this
latest media frenzy.
Mo'Kelly doesn't want an apology from Don Imus. Mo'Kelly would want an apology from Don Imus about as much as he wants a Senate discussion on reparations or an official slavery "apology" from the United States government. Save it. Don't insult Mo'Kelly's intelligence or waste his time. Two week simulcast suspension? Whatever. It's all the same. Although the outrage and outcry for the ouster of Don Imus from the terrestrial radio airwaves has been deafening; Imus should keep his apology…AND his show for that matter. In fact, NBC could've just kept their two-week simulcast suspension too.
Hear Mo'Kelly out… This is all too familiar to "other" incidents in recent memory. If you know the words to this song, feel free to sing along. Public figure makes horrible remark, public becomes angry and demands his/her job in retribution. Public figure apologizes and goes "slumming" on a Black press tour. Public moves on. Public figure keeps job. With the exception of Rush Limbaugh's removal from the ESPN football crew in the wake of his disparaging remarks regarding Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb…exactly when does anyone lose his/her job for disrespecting my people?
Probably not since former sports analyst Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, has a public media figure gone completely up in flames in a professional sense after grossly demeaning African-Americans. It just doesn't happen.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Two things that sell in this country is sex and black
blasting. This isn't something that the white man
invented either. As long as rappers where making
money calling black sisters B#$%&*s and ho's we
made a little noise about it but in the long run it be-
came the norm. Rap songs continued to sell and a
great many of them were bought by black women.
So now a white radio talk show host who is known for
blasting women and blacks says something derogatory
about the Rutger's womens basketball team and black
folks bite into it, locking on like a pit bull. Calls short
of public lynching are now heard comming from prominent
African-American activist which in turn is picked up
by the media and a frenzy starts. Then the talk show
host makes a watered down apology that usually
satisfies his bosses because by then there's been a
spike in the overnight ratings. And quess what, the
longer we bicker about the situation the higher the
ratings go for the talk show and larger ratings mean
larger ad dollars. Anyway check out the column below
and feel free to holler at me about how you feel about this
latest media frenzy.
Mo'Kelly doesn't want an apology from Don Imus. Mo'Kelly would want an apology from Don Imus about as much as he wants a Senate discussion on reparations or an official slavery "apology" from the United States government. Save it. Don't insult Mo'Kelly's intelligence or waste his time. Two week simulcast suspension? Whatever. It's all the same. Although the outrage and outcry for the ouster of Don Imus from the terrestrial radio airwaves has been deafening; Imus should keep his apology…AND his show for that matter. In fact, NBC could've just kept their two-week simulcast suspension too.
Hear Mo'Kelly out… This is all too familiar to "other" incidents in recent memory. If you know the words to this song, feel free to sing along. Public figure makes horrible remark, public becomes angry and demands his/her job in retribution. Public figure apologizes and goes "slumming" on a Black press tour. Public moves on. Public figure keeps job. With the exception of Rush Limbaugh's removal from the ESPN football crew in the wake of his disparaging remarks regarding Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb…exactly when does anyone lose his/her job for disrespecting my people?
Probably not since former sports analyst Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, has a public media figure gone completely up in flames in a professional sense after grossly demeaning African-Americans. It just doesn't happen.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Monday, April 9, 2007
DNA vs The Texas System of Justice
After reading articles like the one below I often wonder
just how many black people sit in prisons today wrongly
convicted of a crime they didn't commit. Today many
such peoples innocence is being proven by a simple DNA
test and many more could walk free if this test is used in
their cases. But justice as they say moves slowly and even
slower for those already convicted of crimes. Today
more and more courts are using DNA testing to prove guilt
or innocence but it is also exposing a justice system that is
far from being perfect at least if your black. In Texas where
executions occur more often than in any other state, how
many do you think have died under false persecution?
I'll be waiting for your comments
Many men claim innocence when staring at iron bars. But James Giles knew he was no rapist — and he believed three fellow Texas prisoners who told him they too were wrongly convicted of rape. They shared their despair over games of chess and dominoes, worked on longshot appeals together in the law library, and dreamed of the day they would win exoneration from a justice system that failed them. It has taken nearly 25 years, but with the assistance of DNA testing, the men — all African American — are proving they are indeed innocent.
Two were freed from prison. A third was cleared last month, years after serving his sentence. Today, Giles is expected to clear his name and become the 13th man from Dallas County to prove with genetic testing that he was wrongly imprisoned. Giles, who spent 10 years in prison and was paroled in 1993, is seeking to vacate his 1983 conviction. New evidence suggests that another man — also named James Giles — committed the rape. Dallas County prosecutors more than two decades ago knew about the other James Giles, who lived across the street from the victim, but never told Giles' defense."I lost everything in the world," said Giles, 53.
"I just thank God we finally got someone to see that I was the wrong guy."Giles struggled to rebuild his life after he got out of prison, branded a rapist. The skilled construction laborer had a hard time finding menial jobs, and his wife, who stuck with him through his prison term, eventually sought a divorce. The Dallas County district attorney was scheduled to personally apologize to Giles today. The three wrongly convicted men whom Giles befriended in prison will be cheering in the courtroom.The wrongful convictions of these four men are some of the most dramatic examples of prosecutions in the Lone Star State that have come under increasing scrutiny.
Dallas County has had more people exonerated by DNA than all but three entire states. Texas, which leads the nation in convictions overturned by genetic testing, has had 27, Illinois, 26, and New York, 23. California has had nine exonerations.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
just how many black people sit in prisons today wrongly
convicted of a crime they didn't commit. Today many
such peoples innocence is being proven by a simple DNA
test and many more could walk free if this test is used in
their cases. But justice as they say moves slowly and even
slower for those already convicted of crimes. Today
more and more courts are using DNA testing to prove guilt
or innocence but it is also exposing a justice system that is
far from being perfect at least if your black. In Texas where
executions occur more often than in any other state, how
many do you think have died under false persecution?
I'll be waiting for your comments
Many men claim innocence when staring at iron bars. But James Giles knew he was no rapist — and he believed three fellow Texas prisoners who told him they too were wrongly convicted of rape. They shared their despair over games of chess and dominoes, worked on longshot appeals together in the law library, and dreamed of the day they would win exoneration from a justice system that failed them. It has taken nearly 25 years, but with the assistance of DNA testing, the men — all African American — are proving they are indeed innocent.
Two were freed from prison. A third was cleared last month, years after serving his sentence. Today, Giles is expected to clear his name and become the 13th man from Dallas County to prove with genetic testing that he was wrongly imprisoned. Giles, who spent 10 years in prison and was paroled in 1993, is seeking to vacate his 1983 conviction. New evidence suggests that another man — also named James Giles — committed the rape. Dallas County prosecutors more than two decades ago knew about the other James Giles, who lived across the street from the victim, but never told Giles' defense."I lost everything in the world," said Giles, 53.
"I just thank God we finally got someone to see that I was the wrong guy."Giles struggled to rebuild his life after he got out of prison, branded a rapist. The skilled construction laborer had a hard time finding menial jobs, and his wife, who stuck with him through his prison term, eventually sought a divorce. The Dallas County district attorney was scheduled to personally apologize to Giles today. The three wrongly convicted men whom Giles befriended in prison will be cheering in the courtroom.The wrongful convictions of these four men are some of the most dramatic examples of prosecutions in the Lone Star State that have come under increasing scrutiny.
Dallas County has had more people exonerated by DNA than all but three entire states. Texas, which leads the nation in convictions overturned by genetic testing, has had 27, Illinois, 26, and New York, 23. California has had nine exonerations.
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Friday, April 6, 2007
Drug War Or Minority War-How Can I Tell ?
When you look at the statistics below they are quite
shocking. Blacks are the smallest users of illegal drugs
in the country but garner the most prosecutions. So
why is that? Those figures would also seem to reflect
that not only are blacks the smallest users percentage
wise but it would seem also the major players of the drug
game drugs based on convictions. The article below deals
with the fact that none of the candidates for president
seem to want to talk about this miscarriage of
justice for fear of seeming soft on crime. After
reading the article please tell me what you think of
this issue.
THERE IS A subject being forgotten in the 2008 Democratic race for the White House.
While all the major candidates are vying for the black and Latino vote, they are completely ignoring one of the most pressing issues affecting those constituencies: the failed "war on drugs" — a war that has morphed into a war on people of color. Consider this: According to a 2006 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, African Americans make up an estimated 15% of drug users, but they account for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.
Or consider this: The U.S. has 260,000 people in state prisons on nonviolent drug charges; 183,200 (more than 70%) of them are black or Latino. Such facts have been bandied about for years. But our politicians have consistently failed to take action on what has become yet another third rail of American politics, a subject to be avoided at all costs by elected officials who fear being incinerated on contact for being soft on crime. Perhaps you hoped this would change during a spirited Democratic presidential primary? Unfortunately, a quick search of the top Democratic hopefuls' websites reveals that not one of them — not Hillary Clinton, not Barack Obama, not John Edwards, not Joe Biden, not Chris Dodd, not Bill Richardson — even mentions the drug war, let alone offers any solutions. The silence coming from Clinton and Obama is particularly deafening.
Obama has written eloquently about his own struggle with drugs but has not addressed the tragic effect the war on drugs is having on African American communities.As for Clinton, she flew into Selma, Ala., to reinforce her image as the wife of the black community's most beloved politician and has made much of her plan to attract female voters, but she has ignored the suffering of poor, black women right in her own backyard. Located down the road from her Chappaqua, N.Y., home are two prisons housing female inmates, Taconic and Bedford. Forty-eight percent of the women in Taconic are there for nonviolent drug offenses; 78% of those in the prison are African American or Latino.
And Bedford, the state's only maximum-security prison for women, is home to some of the worst victims of New York's draconian Rockefeller-era drug laws — mothers and grandmothers whose first brush with the law resulted in their being locked away for 15 years or more on nonviolent drug charges. Yet even though these prisons are so nearby, Clinton has turned a blind eye to the plight of the women locked away there, notably refusing to speak out on their behalf. Avoidance of this issue comes at a very stiff price (and not just the more than $50 billion a year we're spending on the failed drug war). The toll is paid in shattered families, devastated inner cities and wasted lives (with no apologies for using that term).
\
During the 10 years I've been writing about the injustice of the drug war, I've repeatedly watched as politicians paid lip service to the problem but then ducked as the sickening status quo claimed more victims. Here in California, of the 171,000 inmates jamming our wildly overcrowded prisons, 36,000 are nonviolent drug offenders. I remember in 1999 asking Dan Bartlett, then the campaign spokesman for candidate George W. Bush, about Bush's position on the outrageous disparity between the sentences meted out for possession of crack cocaine and those given for possession of powder cocaine — a disparity that has helped fill U.S. prisons with black low-level drug users (80% of sentenced crack defendants are black).
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
shocking. Blacks are the smallest users of illegal drugs
in the country but garner the most prosecutions. So
why is that? Those figures would also seem to reflect
that not only are blacks the smallest users percentage
wise but it would seem also the major players of the drug
game drugs based on convictions. The article below deals
with the fact that none of the candidates for president
seem to want to talk about this miscarriage of
justice for fear of seeming soft on crime. After
reading the article please tell me what you think of
this issue.
THERE IS A subject being forgotten in the 2008 Democratic race for the White House.
While all the major candidates are vying for the black and Latino vote, they are completely ignoring one of the most pressing issues affecting those constituencies: the failed "war on drugs" — a war that has morphed into a war on people of color. Consider this: According to a 2006 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, African Americans make up an estimated 15% of drug users, but they account for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.
Or consider this: The U.S. has 260,000 people in state prisons on nonviolent drug charges; 183,200 (more than 70%) of them are black or Latino. Such facts have been bandied about for years. But our politicians have consistently failed to take action on what has become yet another third rail of American politics, a subject to be avoided at all costs by elected officials who fear being incinerated on contact for being soft on crime. Perhaps you hoped this would change during a spirited Democratic presidential primary? Unfortunately, a quick search of the top Democratic hopefuls' websites reveals that not one of them — not Hillary Clinton, not Barack Obama, not John Edwards, not Joe Biden, not Chris Dodd, not Bill Richardson — even mentions the drug war, let alone offers any solutions. The silence coming from Clinton and Obama is particularly deafening.
Obama has written eloquently about his own struggle with drugs but has not addressed the tragic effect the war on drugs is having on African American communities.As for Clinton, she flew into Selma, Ala., to reinforce her image as the wife of the black community's most beloved politician and has made much of her plan to attract female voters, but she has ignored the suffering of poor, black women right in her own backyard. Located down the road from her Chappaqua, N.Y., home are two prisons housing female inmates, Taconic and Bedford. Forty-eight percent of the women in Taconic are there for nonviolent drug offenses; 78% of those in the prison are African American or Latino.
And Bedford, the state's only maximum-security prison for women, is home to some of the worst victims of New York's draconian Rockefeller-era drug laws — mothers and grandmothers whose first brush with the law resulted in their being locked away for 15 years or more on nonviolent drug charges. Yet even though these prisons are so nearby, Clinton has turned a blind eye to the plight of the women locked away there, notably refusing to speak out on their behalf. Avoidance of this issue comes at a very stiff price (and not just the more than $50 billion a year we're spending on the failed drug war). The toll is paid in shattered families, devastated inner cities and wasted lives (with no apologies for using that term).
\
During the 10 years I've been writing about the injustice of the drug war, I've repeatedly watched as politicians paid lip service to the problem but then ducked as the sickening status quo claimed more victims. Here in California, of the 171,000 inmates jamming our wildly overcrowded prisons, 36,000 are nonviolent drug offenders. I remember in 1999 asking Dan Bartlett, then the campaign spokesman for candidate George W. Bush, about Bush's position on the outrageous disparity between the sentences meted out for possession of crack cocaine and those given for possession of powder cocaine — a disparity that has helped fill U.S. prisons with black low-level drug users (80% of sentenced crack defendants are black).
This Article Continues Here
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Remembering Where He Came From !
It's nice to see that somebody that has made it big remembers
from which he came from. When I was growing up All-Stars
were the tennis shoe to have and at $8.00 a pop even that
was too steep for my parents who both worked and also had
8 of us to feed. Back then too I can't recall there being any big
time shoe endorsements such as there are today. So Stephon
Marbury should be commended for forgoing the big bucks in
the shoe endorsement game and giving back to the community
and at the same time not sticking his hand deeply into the pockets
of those trying to make ends meet.
Waiting in a winding line for autographs from his favorite NBA player, 15-year-old Brian Cox lifted the lid of a shoebox to show off his synthetic leather high-top sneakers with black sides and blue-and-orange soles. At a price his mother doesn't mind — $14.98 — he got his fourth pair of Starburys this week, a sneaker created by New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury. Joanne Cox brought her two teenage sons to Steve & Barry's University Sportswear after church Sunday for the launch of Marbury's spring line. The NBA star "grew up in a poor neighborhood just like we did," said Cox, who is raising the boys on her own.
She says it is not easy on the wages she earns as a city traffic officer, and she has spent thousands on her sons' shoes over the years. "Now that we got a price of $15, we're not going higher than that."This is the world the 10-year NBA veteran is trying to change with his $15 shoes — a world where parents are pressured to shell out money for expensive sneakers while struggling to pay rent and buy groceries; a world where kids get robbed, shot and strangled over the latest styles. (In January, 10 Detroit middle school students were robbed of their Nike boots and Air Force One sneakers at gunpoint.)
Marbury knows it will take a while to pull off a Michael Jordan impact at a Wal-Mart price. So far, he says, he's willing to do it one sneaker-crazed teen at a time. Starburys have been holding their own in schools and on basketball courts alongside kicks that cost 10 times as much. Marbury is so confident of the sturdiness of his shoes that he is wearing them on the court this season. He says his pair is straight off the shelf, with no alterations or enhancements. Chicago Bulls center and four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace has also partnered with Steve & Barry's to release his own inexpensive sneaker — Big Ben — in late August or fall. Still, sneaker aficionados wonder whether a $15 shoe will change a cultural phenomenon that has thrived since Jordan came out with his line in 1985.
Not all kids are sold on the idea, even if the sneaker is endorsed by someone they admire. "The theory is because an NBA athlete is playing in the shoe, it's a perfect shoe," said Matt Powell, a senior retail analyst with SportsOneSource, a data and research firm for sporting goods. "I could go out and play basketball in a pair of flip-flops, but that doesn't make them a perfect shoe."
This Article Continues Here:
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
from which he came from. When I was growing up All-Stars
were the tennis shoe to have and at $8.00 a pop even that
was too steep for my parents who both worked and also had
8 of us to feed. Back then too I can't recall there being any big
time shoe endorsements such as there are today. So Stephon
Marbury should be commended for forgoing the big bucks in
the shoe endorsement game and giving back to the community
and at the same time not sticking his hand deeply into the pockets
of those trying to make ends meet.
Waiting in a winding line for autographs from his favorite NBA player, 15-year-old Brian Cox lifted the lid of a shoebox to show off his synthetic leather high-top sneakers with black sides and blue-and-orange soles. At a price his mother doesn't mind — $14.98 — he got his fourth pair of Starburys this week, a sneaker created by New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury. Joanne Cox brought her two teenage sons to Steve & Barry's University Sportswear after church Sunday for the launch of Marbury's spring line. The NBA star "grew up in a poor neighborhood just like we did," said Cox, who is raising the boys on her own.
She says it is not easy on the wages she earns as a city traffic officer, and she has spent thousands on her sons' shoes over the years. "Now that we got a price of $15, we're not going higher than that."This is the world the 10-year NBA veteran is trying to change with his $15 shoes — a world where parents are pressured to shell out money for expensive sneakers while struggling to pay rent and buy groceries; a world where kids get robbed, shot and strangled over the latest styles. (In January, 10 Detroit middle school students were robbed of their Nike boots and Air Force One sneakers at gunpoint.)
Marbury knows it will take a while to pull off a Michael Jordan impact at a Wal-Mart price. So far, he says, he's willing to do it one sneaker-crazed teen at a time. Starburys have been holding their own in schools and on basketball courts alongside kicks that cost 10 times as much. Marbury is so confident of the sturdiness of his shoes that he is wearing them on the court this season. He says his pair is straight off the shelf, with no alterations or enhancements. Chicago Bulls center and four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace has also partnered with Steve & Barry's to release his own inexpensive sneaker — Big Ben — in late August or fall. Still, sneaker aficionados wonder whether a $15 shoe will change a cultural phenomenon that has thrived since Jordan came out with his line in 1985.
Not all kids are sold on the idea, even if the sneaker is endorsed by someone they admire. "The theory is because an NBA athlete is playing in the shoe, it's a perfect shoe," said Matt Powell, a senior retail analyst with SportsOneSource, a data and research firm for sporting goods. "I could go out and play basketball in a pair of flip-flops, but that doesn't make them a perfect shoe."
This Article Continues Here:
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Fifty-Five And Still Going !
At fifty-three the thought of retiring is the furtherest
thing from my mind. The way I see it I'm just hitting
my stride. Besides with all that extra time on my hands
I'd probably get in trouble running behind a young skirt.
The mind is still sharp and my health is ok so why would
I want to retire. My dad still works because he says he gets
bored sitting around the house. So why not continue to work
if you can. Lots of employers are begging for qualified people
to fill positions. I'll retire when they put me in the ground.
Gary Passmore sold his thriving public affairs business and moved to California with retirement in mind — a little fishing, some travel and a lot of relaxation. Then the stock market took a nosedive, his savings dried up and the blue suits came back out of the closet."I love my work and I'm happy with what I do, but it was not a choice," said Passmore, the 61-year-old director of the Congress of California Seniors, a Sacramento-based advocacy group. "I thought I should go back to work to re-create a nest egg…. I'll work as long as I can."
Passmore is one of a growing number of Californians who find themselves working later in life, according to a report released Monday by the California Budget Project. The proportion of women ages 55 to 69 who were working rose 9.2 percentage points between 1995 and 2006;
for men, the increase was 10.6 percentage points. Experts in aging and the workplace called the change significant and said it has been fueled by a complex mix of social factors, good and bad.
Longer lives and better health mean people are physically able to work longer. A diminished retirement system and a sharp rise in baby boomers who feel financially unprepared to swap briefcases for golf bags mean that many will be forced to work longer. Some industries — healthcare, for one — are so strapped for qualified workers that older employees have more opportunity to work longer. And a cultural change in the way Americans think about employment means that some may actually want to work — in second careers, new small businesses or jobs that are less lucrative but more fulfilling.
"Financial security, retirement security, is a lot more precarious," said Mark Beach, spokesman for AARP California. "That's the downside. The upside is that a lot of people are looking at work differently. They are embarking on second careers, seeing their work life as multitiered." The California Budget Project is a Sacramento-based think tank that works as an advocate for low- and middle-income residents. Its report, which culled data from federal statistics, showed that workers ages 55 to 64 and those from the traditional retirement age of 65 to age 69 are working more than in the past.Workers in the younger group were employed at a fairly steady rate of about 54% between 1979 and 1995, but then the percentages began to surge — to about 59% in 2000 and nearly 62% in 2006.
This Article Continues Here:
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
thing from my mind. The way I see it I'm just hitting
my stride. Besides with all that extra time on my hands
I'd probably get in trouble running behind a young skirt.
The mind is still sharp and my health is ok so why would
I want to retire. My dad still works because he says he gets
bored sitting around the house. So why not continue to work
if you can. Lots of employers are begging for qualified people
to fill positions. I'll retire when they put me in the ground.
Gary Passmore sold his thriving public affairs business and moved to California with retirement in mind — a little fishing, some travel and a lot of relaxation. Then the stock market took a nosedive, his savings dried up and the blue suits came back out of the closet."I love my work and I'm happy with what I do, but it was not a choice," said Passmore, the 61-year-old director of the Congress of California Seniors, a Sacramento-based advocacy group. "I thought I should go back to work to re-create a nest egg…. I'll work as long as I can."
Passmore is one of a growing number of Californians who find themselves working later in life, according to a report released Monday by the California Budget Project. The proportion of women ages 55 to 69 who were working rose 9.2 percentage points between 1995 and 2006;
for men, the increase was 10.6 percentage points. Experts in aging and the workplace called the change significant and said it has been fueled by a complex mix of social factors, good and bad.
Longer lives and better health mean people are physically able to work longer. A diminished retirement system and a sharp rise in baby boomers who feel financially unprepared to swap briefcases for golf bags mean that many will be forced to work longer. Some industries — healthcare, for one — are so strapped for qualified workers that older employees have more opportunity to work longer. And a cultural change in the way Americans think about employment means that some may actually want to work — in second careers, new small businesses or jobs that are less lucrative but more fulfilling.
"Financial security, retirement security, is a lot more precarious," said Mark Beach, spokesman for AARP California. "That's the downside. The upside is that a lot of people are looking at work differently. They are embarking on second careers, seeing their work life as multitiered." The California Budget Project is a Sacramento-based think tank that works as an advocate for low- and middle-income residents. Its report, which culled data from federal statistics, showed that workers ages 55 to 64 and those from the traditional retirement age of 65 to age 69 are working more than in the past.Workers in the younger group were employed at a fairly steady rate of about 54% between 1979 and 1995, but then the percentages began to surge — to about 59% in 2000 and nearly 62% in 2006.
This Article Continues Here:
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/
Monday, April 2, 2007
The Church Of Hip-Hop ?
Constintine relied upon gimmicks to draw people into
the early Christian church. Since then there have been
many types of promotions used in the church to attract
new followers. For a long time the civil rights movement
was used by the church to fill the pews. Well the civil
rights movement is old-old school to todays youth and of
course the church is going to have to find ways to relate to
youn folks if it is to continue to prosper. Drop me your
comments on this issue of hip-hop and the church.
He goes by the name of Pastor Flo. As he stood in the pulpit of the Hip-hop Sanctuary
New Generation Church, all eyes were on him."They say we can't have hip-hop and church," said Flo, a lay preacher whose real name is Roosevelt Sargent. "I say this is real church. It's just presented by and for the hip-hop community, but don't get it wrong, this is a place of praise and worship."In the dimly lighted church, a chorus of agreement rang out. Murals of the Last Supper dangled from the wall. A deejay scratching bass-booming, wall-thumping music worked from the pulpit.
Churchgoers wore do-rags and New Era fitted hats, and clutched worn Bibles. With traditional churches seeking ways to revitalize interest in worship — particularly among the young — the distance between hip-hop and religion is closing.And although some churches in mainly urban areas of the U.S. devote portions of services roughly every month to hip-hop congregations, this Baptist church in Moreno Valley is one of the first to present its worship services in hip-hop terms."What this indicates is the fact that the black church recognizes that hip-hop has more of an appeal than religion to black youth," said Todd Boyd, a professor of critical studies at USC and author of "The New H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop."
"It's a case of them recognizing that their message is old and tired, and hip-hop gives them an opportunity to reach a new audience."The movement has been applauded by some as a means to draw in those who otherwise show no interest in religion. It has also been called a fad and a shallow take on Christianity. Felix Roger Jones III, pastor of All People Unity Baptist Church in Redlands, says he has concerns about hip-hop-oriented churches based in large part on the mainstream segment that glorifies violence, street gangs, lavish lifestyles and misogynic views."My ears are up as to what individuals who call it hip-hop church are about," he said.
"It is a gimmick to an extent. Are you preaching from the word of God, are you disciplining people like Jesus did, or are you just trying to experiment with hip-hop?" Flo, 33, says he has received plenty of e-mails and phone calls discounting his methodology. "You already have rock 'n' roll Christianity, old-school Christianity, country Christianity," he says. "How can there be all these different types of Christianity and no room for hip-hop Christianity? And these kids who go to church and sit in the back will only be there for so long. The next step is out the door."Flo used to be one of those kids out the door. He fathered his first child at 15, messed with gangs and saw three brothers and his father incarcerated for long periods.
He moved from Portland, Ore., to the Inland Empire to escape the culture that had seduced him.He has dabbled in the hip-hop church movement for more than a decade, after his former girlfriend's grandmother asked him to read the Scriptures with her. He dreamed of starting the church last year, opened it in January and plans to open a branch in Compton soon. More than 300 people packed the church's grand opening. The event featured hip-hop pioneer Kurtis Blow, who tours the country establishing hip-hop churches. "We were messing with some fire codes that night," Flo says. After finishing the opening greeting on a recent Thursday night, Flo introduced Young Pro, born Santiago Abarca.The 21-year-old Riverside artist travels from church to church performing and testifying about his faith.
This Article Continues Here:
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net
the early Christian church. Since then there have been
many types of promotions used in the church to attract
new followers. For a long time the civil rights movement
was used by the church to fill the pews. Well the civil
rights movement is old-old school to todays youth and of
course the church is going to have to find ways to relate to
youn folks if it is to continue to prosper. Drop me your
comments on this issue of hip-hop and the church.
He goes by the name of Pastor Flo. As he stood in the pulpit of the Hip-hop Sanctuary
New Generation Church, all eyes were on him."They say we can't have hip-hop and church," said Flo, a lay preacher whose real name is Roosevelt Sargent. "I say this is real church. It's just presented by and for the hip-hop community, but don't get it wrong, this is a place of praise and worship."In the dimly lighted church, a chorus of agreement rang out. Murals of the Last Supper dangled from the wall. A deejay scratching bass-booming, wall-thumping music worked from the pulpit.
Churchgoers wore do-rags and New Era fitted hats, and clutched worn Bibles. With traditional churches seeking ways to revitalize interest in worship — particularly among the young — the distance between hip-hop and religion is closing.And although some churches in mainly urban areas of the U.S. devote portions of services roughly every month to hip-hop congregations, this Baptist church in Moreno Valley is one of the first to present its worship services in hip-hop terms."What this indicates is the fact that the black church recognizes that hip-hop has more of an appeal than religion to black youth," said Todd Boyd, a professor of critical studies at USC and author of "The New H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop."
"It's a case of them recognizing that their message is old and tired, and hip-hop gives them an opportunity to reach a new audience."The movement has been applauded by some as a means to draw in those who otherwise show no interest in religion. It has also been called a fad and a shallow take on Christianity. Felix Roger Jones III, pastor of All People Unity Baptist Church in Redlands, says he has concerns about hip-hop-oriented churches based in large part on the mainstream segment that glorifies violence, street gangs, lavish lifestyles and misogynic views."My ears are up as to what individuals who call it hip-hop church are about," he said.
"It is a gimmick to an extent. Are you preaching from the word of God, are you disciplining people like Jesus did, or are you just trying to experiment with hip-hop?" Flo, 33, says he has received plenty of e-mails and phone calls discounting his methodology. "You already have rock 'n' roll Christianity, old-school Christianity, country Christianity," he says. "How can there be all these different types of Christianity and no room for hip-hop Christianity? And these kids who go to church and sit in the back will only be there for so long. The next step is out the door."Flo used to be one of those kids out the door. He fathered his first child at 15, messed with gangs and saw three brothers and his father incarcerated for long periods.
He moved from Portland, Ore., to the Inland Empire to escape the culture that had seduced him.He has dabbled in the hip-hop church movement for more than a decade, after his former girlfriend's grandmother asked him to read the Scriptures with her. He dreamed of starting the church last year, opened it in January and plans to open a branch in Compton soon. More than 300 people packed the church's grand opening. The event featured hip-hop pioneer Kurtis Blow, who tours the country establishing hip-hop churches. "We were messing with some fire codes that night," Flo says. After finishing the opening greeting on a recent Thursday night, Flo introduced Young Pro, born Santiago Abarca.The 21-year-old Riverside artist travels from church to church performing and testifying about his faith.
This Article Continues Here:
Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net
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