It Just Keeps Getting Worse

Pretty soon I’m going to go hide in a hole. I don’t know how much more insanity I can take.

From Get spied on without doing anything wrong by D. Parvaz:

If you're wondering how desperate of a pickle we're in in our "war on terror," check out the following item: The Department of Justice is mulling over whether to let the FBI investigate U.S. citizens and legal residents without evidence of wrongdoing. Instead, investigators would be allowed to use racial profiling, targeting, according to The Associated Press, "Muslim, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups. ... The changes would allow FBI agents to ask open-ended questions about activities of Muslim- or Arab-Americans, or investigate them if their jobs and backgrounds match trends that analysts deem suspect." Attorney General Michael Mukasey denies this is happening. Then again, just as he doesn't consider waterboarding torture, perhaps Mukasey has a new term for racial profiling ("racial recognition" would sound downright complimentary). Also, senior FBI agents and law enforcement officials spoke to the AP about the potential new guidelines, so we know it was/is being considered. Say hello to the World War II days, when just being Japanese was enough to be seen as a threat. So, we're being told that racial profiling might be allowed as a legitimate investigative tool. I guess that means all that warrantless spying on thousands of Americans, snooping through our mail and e-mail and keeping tabs on whom we call hasn't been yielding much in the way of evidence. Anyway.

Read the rest here.

Bias Removal?

From Police (usually) are able to curb racial bias in shooting suspects by Dave Munger:

In 2005, E. Ashby Plant and B. Michelle Peruche tested 48 Florida police officers and found that they were initially more likely to shoot unarmed Black "suspects" in a crime-fighting simulation than White people holding similar objects. Interestingly, however, as the test went on, the officers improved, and by the end of the session, any bias had been removed.

Read the rest here.

Strange Fruit

I try to refrain from calling people names, but Senator Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma is an ass. It seems that he is racist as well. One third of our government is supposed to be devoted to justice and another third to laws. It seems that Senator Coburn does not think that laws and justice are important. At least when they pertain to black people.

From New evidence collected in 1946 lynching case by Doug Gross:

State and federal investigators said Tuesday that they spent the past two days gathering evidence in the last documented mass lynching in the United States: a grisly slaying of four people that has remained unsolved for more than six decades.

Read the rest here.

Six decades? Whatever happened to the swiftness of justice?

This is the part that pertains to Senator Coburn:

Investigations like the one into the Georgia slayings may have gotten another boost in the past week. A U.S. senator agreed to unlock a bill that would create a "cold case unit" at the U.S. Justice Department.

The legislation is sponsored by Democratic U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia and passed 422-2 in the House. But Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, used an obscure Senate rule to freeze the bill, just as he routinely does on efforts that require government spending.

The plan would authorize $10 million a year for the next 10 years for the Justice Department to create a unit prosecuting pre-1970 civil rights cases. Another $3.5 million would go annually toward the department's cooperative efforts with local law enforcement.

But last week, a spokesman said Coburn would lift the hold in exchange for a vote on cutting Justice Department spending in other areas.

In what is essentially blackmail, Senator Coburn seems to think that it is completely ethical to exchange some justice here for some justice there. How does this help the cause of justice?

Why was Senator Coburn trying to freeze a bill that would help to give us the truth? The cost of the truth should be worth a few tax dollars. If we can spend countless billions on the war in Iraq, can’t we spend ten million a year for the next 10 years to help the United States try to heal from slavery, lynching, forced black labor after the Emancipation Proclamation, and other forms of racism? To his credit Coburn has voted against funding the war, a war he initially supported.

Time is an important factor here, as some of the people involved in pre-1970 civil rights cases are still alive. Did Coburn want to wait until they had all died off?

With Barack Obama running for president we are at a remarkable point in our history. I do not share the fear that some have of an African-American president. I do not sense that Barack Obama wants to punish white people; I sense that he wants to help us heal and move forward. Along with people like Douglas A. Blackmon, the author of Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, Barack Obama and all the rest of us have an opportunity for a little healing to take place.

From Douglas Blackmon’s blog:

The discussions I've been had over the weeks since the book appeared have been powerful and moving. And with all due respect, they have forcefully contradicted the assertions of a few readers and posters on this blog that it is a mistake to bring forth these terrible aspects of our past.

The reality is that again and again I have experienced marvelously honest conversations in which African-Americans often appeared slightly astonished that whites in the room were able to discuss this past without defensiveness or anger, and in which whites found it remarkable that their black counterparts weren't hammering them with historic crimes, but expressing thanks that it was finally being honestly discussed.

All of these things convince me that America has arrived at a remarkable moment, when a frank and full accounting of the past is possible for the first time, without the recriminations and denial that have characterized so much of our national discourse on race in the past. It has been thrilling to see that conversation unfold in so many venues over the past two months. Thank you all for being part of it.

It seems to me that Senator Coburn is not too enthusiastic for this healing to take place. It seems to me that Senator Coburn does not believe that “the truth shall set us free.”

How can you put a price on justice, Senator Coburn?

Is America Racist?

From America Is Racist (According to the United Nations) by Krzys Wasilewski:

The United Nations is launching an investigation into alleged racism in the United States. U.N. representatives say that according to their report, prepared in March of this year, American security forces too willingly profile people of Middle Eastern origin.

Senegalese lawyer Doudou Diene, a U.N. special envoy, is to start his investigation on Monday. During his three-week mission, he is scheduled to meet with federal and local officials that are to answer his questions about how American agencies work and whether they negatively focus on racial minorities such as Arabs and Southern Asians. A U.N. press release issued last Friday said the investigator would "gather first-hand information on issues related to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance."

Black Folks Can Hear That Dog Whistle Too

From There’s A Pattern Emerging Here by Terrance:

Perhaps no one in the Clinton campaign understands this, so let me make it plain. Black folks can hear that dog whistle too. I guarantee that in Black homes across America, where two or more are gathered and listened to that interview, one turned to the others and asked “You all heard that, right?” And the answer came back, “Mmmm hmmm,” followed by a collective sigh.

There is history in that sigh. I used to wonder, growing up, why some of the older folks I saw at church would shout and cry as if something traumatic had happened to them, and I always wondered what that trauma was. Now I think I understand. What the Clinton campaign is attempting to telegraph to white (and specifically southern) Americans is something those Black folks I witnessed shouting and crying had to hear every day, from people they knew and in many cases worked for. And for generations they had to quietly absorb it.

What is the Clinton campaign saying with its dog whistle to white Americans? In the bluntest terms, the Clinton campaign is saying to those who can hear their dog whistle: “That uppity nigger thinks he’s better than you. That black sonofabitch thinks he’s smarter than you. Are you really gonna let that boy run your country?”

Does the Clinton campaign think Black Americans don’t hear that dog whistle?

My Fellow Americans Are Racist, Ignorant, And Stupid As Hell

From W Virginia keeps distance from Obama by Andrew Ward:

“I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife’s an atheist,” said Mr Simpson, drawing on a cigarette outside the fire station in Williamson, a coalmining town of 3,400 people surrounded by lush wooded hillsides.

Most people questioned said they mistrusted Mr Obama because of doubts about his patriotism and “values”, stemming from his cosmopolitan background, his exotic name and the controversy surrounding “anti-American” sermons by Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor. Several people said they believed he was a Muslim – an unfounded rumour that has circulated on the internet for months – despite the contradiction with his 20-year membership of Mr Wright’s church in Chicago. Others mentioned his refusal to wear a Stars and Stripes badge and controversial remarks by his wife, Mich­elle, who des­cribed America as “mean” and implied that she had never been proud of the US until her husband ran for president.

Josh Fry, a 24-year-old ambulance driver from Williamson, insisted he was not racist but said he would feel more comfortable with Mr McCain, the 71-year-old Vietnam war hero, in the White House. “I want someone who is a full-blooded American as president,” he said.

My Fellow Americans Are Racist As Hell

From Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause by Kevin Merida:

"The first person I encountered was like, 'I'll never vote for a black person,' " recalled Ross, who is white and just turned 20. "People just weren't receptive."

Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!"

On Election Day in Kokomo, a group of black high school students were holding up Obama signs along U.S. 31, a major thoroughfare. As drivers cruised by, a number of them rolled down their windows and yelled out a common racial slur for African Americans, according to Obama campaign staffers.

Later, there would be bomb threats to three Obama campaign offices in Indiana, including the one in Vincennes, according to campaign sources.

At Scranton's annual Saint Patrick's Day parade, some of the green Obama signs distributed by staffers were burned along the parade route. That was the first signal that this wasn't exactly Obama country. There would be others.

In a letter to the editor published in a local paper, Tunkhannock Borough Mayor Norm Ball explained his support of Hillary Clinton this way: "Barack Hussein Obama and all of his talk will do nothing for our country. There is so much that people don't know about his upbringing in the Muslim world. His stepfather was a radical Muslim and the ranting of his minister against the white America, you can't convince me that some of that didn't rub off on him.

"No, I want a president that will salute our flag, and put their hand on the Bible when they take the oath of office."

According to Seifert, the woman pointed to Obama's face on Seifert's T-shirt and said: "He's a half-breed and he's a Muslim. How can you trust that?"

Whose God Blesses This America?

The Haunting

From Commentary: Wright issue will haunt conservative media elite by Roland S. Martin:

Now that Wright has set the so-called standard for what isn't acceptable for religious leaders, let's see these same critics take their own kind to task for making absolutely outlandish comments.

But don't stop there. Demand that candidates don't seek counsel from them. Demand that Republican candidates not go to their churches and sit in their pews and accept their contributions. And if elected, make sure those same candidates don't allow them access to the White House or halls of Congress. Turnabout is fair play, and that means guys like the Revs. Pat Robertson and John Hagee should not be sought out for their endorsements, and should be removed from any committees associated with a candidate or a political party.

It would be nice if all of this were to happen, but I don’t think it will. I believe that Wrightgate is more about race than anything else. Painting Jeremiah Wright as a crazy anti-white black man is exactly what the followers of Pat Robertson and John Hagee are looking for. Facts and reason mean nothing to them. It is all about belief. And some of them believe that a black President will seek revenge on the white population and they are trying to use Wrightgate as their “proof.” The idea of a black President haunts them.

Pat Robertson and John Hagee got where they are today by saying crazy things. That is why they are so popular. Believing crazy things is the name of the game for their followers. To them what Robertson and Hagee say is not crazy, they actually believe it.

Robertson, Hagee, and Wright are all religious leaders who have said some crazy things. The only difference is that Wright is black.

Too Sense Makes Sense

One Drop over at Too Sense asks the question Why Is Anyone Surprised About Angry Black Folks?

I'm not trying to be simple-minded here. Hell, I'm trying to be rational. But I don't get it. I just don't get it. Why are so many white folks surprised about the existence of black anger against white people.

Read the rest at Too Sense.

God Damn And Shut Up

The whole recent uproar over Jeremiah Wright smacks of institutionalized racism at its most insidious. One of our largest institutions, the news media, is practicing racism and seems to be getting away with it.

During the time of the Vietnam War a popular phrase that was uttered by supporters of the war was “My country, love it or leave it.” It always used to piss me off. The furor that has been raised recently over what Jeremiah Wright has said in the past reminded me of “My country, love it or leave it.” What a concept, deny citizenship and deny dissent, all in one stupid phrase. Bill O’Reilly has taken this phrase and refined and simplified it into “shut up.”

“My country, love it or leave it.” The implication is that the listener is not an American, that only the speaker is. The implication is that America can do no wrong. The implication is that if you are critical you don’t “love it.” (Most sane and rational people know that you can be critical of something or someone you love.) The implication is that if the listener would just leave, everything would be just fine. Yet all the implications are simply wrong. Now, we seem to have added the above mentioned “shut up” as well as “unpatriotic” and “UnAmerican” to the list of inane mutterings of the moronic. It scares me to think that some of these people may live near me.

What is the point of all of this kind of talk, other than to incite and inflame? Does Bill O’Reilly really believe that telling someone to shut up is going to actually silence that person? If he does, then he is a bigger idiot than I think he is. Does someone who says “My country, love it or leave it” really think someone is going to pack up his belongings and move to another country just because he was challenged in such a meaningless fashion? What does calling someone names accomplish? The most likely result of all of this is a deeper divide and a deeper hate from all involved. Is this something we want? The most likely result of the mass media trying to shame and silence Jeremiah Wright will be an amplification of his voice. They have already made his name known the world over. They have given him a power he did not have even a week ago.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary some Americans cannot tolerate the concept of a flawed America. Like the pope, America is not infallible. Or if you must, only the pope is infallible. Either way makes my point. During the Reagan era some saw nothing wrong with Iran-Contra. Some still don’t see anything wrong with it. Some see nothing wrong with Bush’s wars also. Jeremiah Wright can tolerate the concept of a flawed America. And because of this, he wants a better America. You have to see the problems before you can fix them. And we have a lot of problems.

Dissent is necessary and it is not evil. Dialogue, especially dialogue between people who see things differently is absolutely necessary. How else can we possibly live together and get along with one another?

Barack Obama’s “solution” to what he perceives as the “problem” of Jeremiah Wright reminds me of Bill Clinton’s “solution” to what he perceived as the “problem” of being liberal. Act like a politician and pacify, instead of sticking to your guns. In other words, wimp out in order to be “electable.” I am so weary of gutless Democrats. Courage is just thrown out the window. Play to that terribly bland middle America “center.” Opt for McPolitics rather than substance. Although the political right would never believe it, Bill Clinton actually pissed off many on the left. Just look at any old copy of The Nation that was printed while he was president, if you don’t believe me. I wish Barack Obama would stop allowing the mass media and a bunch of idiotic pundits to push him around.

To be extremely blunt, here is my take on the whole Jeremiah Wright issue. This is the message that the mass media is sending to all of us: “White America will not tolerate no uppity niggers.” That’s the way it’s always been and they want to keep it that way. They are afraid of African-Americans who speak their mind. It’s a shame that Barack Obama is taking the side of white America in this situation. My question is “What the hell are they thinking?” Do they want to rekindle the race riots of the sixties? A race that has been repressed for more than three hundred years has one voice speak it’s mind and what is the reaction? More repression. How stupid is this? Never mind how unethical and immoral it is. Just what is an African-American supposed to make of all of this? Some things you say are OK, but cross a certain line and we’ll put you in your place. You can’t say that about white folks, remember what we did to Jeremiah Wright.

Doesn’t Jeremiah Wright have the same rights as Rush Limbaugh? The right to be an asshole, to be pissed off, to endorse a presidential candidate, and to call Chelsea Clinton a dog? To my knowledge Jeremiah Wright has never called Chelsea Clinton a dog, but good ol’ Rush has. I also don’t think Jeremiah Wright is an asshole, but it seems clear that many Americans think he is. Whether he is or not, the point is that he has a right to be one. By the way, this is a point that seems lost on those who hate the ACLU. Or are the rights of a white man different from those of a black man? Black people once were slaves, were considered property, couldn’t own property, and couldn’t vote. White men were never slaves, once owned slaves as property, could always own property, and could always vote. Who has more of a right to be pissed off, Jeremiah Wright, or Rush Limbaugh? Yet the one everybody wants to shut up is Jeremiah Wright ( I could have thrown a brick at Matt Lauer this morning, but then all I’d have is a broken TV ), and Rush Limbaugh gets to go merrily on his way, bloviating his hate speech with nary a peep from the mass media about his connection to George W. Bush. This all seems extremely racist to me.

All this outrage over Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright. Where is the outrage over John McCain and John Hagee? Over John McCain and Rod Parsley? The answer is as simple as black and white. Barack Obama has diligently tried to make his candidacy be race neutral. The right-wing smear machine is having none of that. I guess to them Barack Obama is just one more uppity nigger.