"The Top 10 Myths of the Iraq War"

From the Strategy page here;

http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/topten/articles/20070128.aspx


1-No Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Several hundred chemical weapons were found, and Saddam had all his WMD scientists and technicians ready. Just end the sanctions and add money, and the weapons would be back in production within a year. At the time of the invasion, all intelligence agencies, world-wide, believed Saddam still had a functioning WMD program. Saddam had shut them down because of the cost, but created the illusion that the program was still operating in order to fool the Iranians. The Iranians wanted revenge on Saddam because of the Iraq invasion of Iran in 1980, and the eight year war that followed.

2-The 2003 Invasion was Illegal. Only according to some in the UN. By that standard, the invasion of Kosovo and bombing of Serbia in 1999 was also illegal. Saddam was already at war with the U.S. and Britain, because Iraq had not carried out the terms of the 1991 ceasefire, and was trying to shoot down coalition aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone.

3-Sanctions were working. The sanctions worked for Saddam, not for Iraq. Saddam used the sanctions as an excuse to punish the Shia majority for their 1991 uprising, and help prevent a new one. The "Oil For Food" program was corrupted with the help of bribed UN officials, and mass media outlets that believed Iraqi propaganda. Saddam was waiting out the sanctions, and bribing France, Russia and China, with promises of oil contracts and debt repayments, to convince the UN to lift the sanctions.

4-Overthrowing Saddam Only Helped Iran. Of course, and this was supposed to make Iran more approachable and open to negotiations. With the Iraqi "threat" gone, it was believed that Iran might lose its radical ways and behave. Iran got worse as a supporter of terrorism and developer of WMD. Irans clerical dictatorship did not want a democracy next door. The ancient struggle between the Iranians and Arabs was brought to the surface, and the UN became more active in dealing with problems caused by pro-terrorist government of Iran. As a result of this, the Iranian police state has faced more internal dissent. From inside Iran, Iraq does not look like an Iranian victory.

5-The Invasion Was a Failure. Saddam's police state was overthrown and a democracy established, which was the objective of the operation. Peace did not ensue because Saddam's supporters, the Sunni Arab minority, were not willing to deal with majority rule, and war crimes trials. A terror campaign followed. Few expected the Sunni Arabs to be so stupid. There's a lesson to be learned there.

6-The Invasion Helped Al Qaeda. Compared to what? Al Qaeda was a growing movement before 2003, and before 2001. But after the Iraq invasion, and especially the Sunni Arab terrorism, al Qaeda fell in popularity throughout the Moslem world. Arab countries cracked down on al Qaeda operations more than ever before. Without the Iraq invasion, al Qaeda would still have safe havens all over the Arab world.

7-Iraq Is In A State of Civil War. Then so was Britain when the IRA was active, and so is Spain today because ETA is still active. Both IRA and ETA are terrorist organizations based on ethnic identity. India also has tribal separatist rebels who are quite active. That's not considered a civil war. This is all about partisans playing with labels for political ends, not accurately describing a terror campaign.

8-Iraqis Were Better Off Under Saddam. Most Iraqis disagree. Check election results and opinion polls. Reporters tend to ask Iraqi Sunni Arabs this question, but they were the only ones who benefited from Saddams rule.

9-The Iraq War Caused Islamic Terrorism to Increase in Europe. The Moslem unrest in Europe was there before 2001, and 2003. Interviews of Islamic radicals in Europe reveals that the hatred is not motivated by Iraq, but by daily encounters with hostile natives. Blaming Islamic terrorism on Iraq is another attempt to avoid dealing with a homegrown problem.

10- The War in Iraq is Lost. By what measure? Saddam and his Baath party are out of power. There is a democratically elected government. Part of the Sunni Arab minority continues to support terror attacks, in an attempt to restore the Sunni Arab dictatorship. In response, extremist Shia Arabs formed vigilante death squads to expel all Sunni Arabs. Given the history of democracy in the Middle East, Iraq is working through its problems. Otherwise, one is to believe that the Arabs are incapable of democracy and only a tyrant like Saddam can make Iraqi "work." If democracy were easy, the Arab states would all have it. There are problems, and solutions have to be found and implemented. That takes time, but Americans have, since the 18th century, grown weary of wars after three years. If the war goes on longer, the politicians have to scramble to survive the bad press and opinion polls. Opposition politicians take advantage of the situation, but this has nothing to do with Iraq, and everything to do with local politics in the United States.

Somali leader agrees to reconciliation

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Somalia's president agreed Tuesday to a national reconciliation conference to try to end 16 years of anarchy, under pressure from African governments considering sending peacekeepers to help him stabilize his country.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070130/ap_on_re_af/african_union_summit

Michelle Malkins Blog has an article about stating that the member states of the African Union can’t find enough troops to send as a peacekeeping force to Somalia.

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/01/30/somalia-the-limits-of-multilateralism/

9/11 Conspiracy Theory Comedy

Penn & Teller Bullshit! - 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's New Book

The autobiography is called Infidel, which is a term that some Muslims have called the former-Muslim-turned-atheist. The Somali-Dutch, moderate-conservative feminist and former parliamentarian who now lives in D.C. and works for the conservative American Enterprise Institute, follows The Caged Virgin, which focused on Islamic sexism. Publishers Weekly states: "In this suspenseful account of her life and her internal struggle with her Muslim faith, she discusses how these views were shaped by her experiences amid the political chaos of Somalia and other African nations, where she was subjected to genital mutilation and later forced into an unwanted marriage. While in transit to her husband in Canada, she decided to seek asylum in the Netherlands, where she marveled at the polite policemen and government bureaucrats. Ali is up-front about having lied about her background in order to obtain her citizenship, which led to further controversy in early 2006, when an immigration official sought to deport her and triggered the collapse of the Dutch coalition government. Apart from feelings of guilt over van Gogh's death, her voice is forceful and unbowed—like Irshad Manji, she delivers a powerful feminist critique of Islam informed by a genuine understanding of the religion."

Dinesh D'Souza and America

Excerpts from: Uncommon Knowledge host Peter Robinson looks at anti-Americanism in the Islamic world with guests Robert Higgs, Dinesh D'Souza, and author Gore Vidal

See the full video at:
www.dineshdsouza.com

Go See "Dream Girls"

We I went to go see the much talked about "Dream Girls" we all remember when Jennifer Hudson got voted off American Idol,well she is back in the '80s Broadway musical Dreamgirls."This girl has a future she has a great voice here are some highlights from the Movie she is just amazing!

"Katie Couric Interview Of Condi Rice"

Top Condi websites linked to via DraftCondi.org
http://DraftCondi.org

Republican Comedian Julia Gorin

Stand-up comedy at the 2004 Republican Convention by Julia Gorin. Taped at the Laugh Factory (New York City)

Poking A Little Fun At The "9/11 Truthers"

Minimum Wage Making The Poor Poorer

From the Wall Street Journal:

The strong bipartisan support for increasing the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour from the current $5.15—a 40% increase—is a sad example of how interest-group politics and the public’s ignorance of economics can combine to give us laws that manage to be both inefficient and inegalitarian.

An increase in the minimum wage raises the costs of fast foods and other goods produced with large inputs of unskilled labor. Producers adjust both by substituting capital inputs and/or high-skilled labor for minimum-wage workers and, because the substitutes are more costly (otherwise the substitutions would have been made already), by raising prices. The higher prices reduce the producers’ output and thus their demand for labor. The adjustments to the hike in the minimum wage are inefficient because they are motivated not by a higher real cost of low-skilled labor but by a government-mandated increase in the price of that labor. That increase has the same misallocative effect as monopoly pricing.

Although some workers benefit—those who were paid the old minimum wage but are worth the new, higher one to the employers—others are pushed into unemployment, the underground economy or crime. The losers are therefore likely to lose more than the gainers gain; they are also likely to be poorer people. And poor families are disproportionately hurt by the rise in the price of fast foods and other goods produced with low-skilled labor because these families spend a relatively large fraction of their incomes on such goods. And many, maybe most, of the gainers from a higher minimum wage are not poor. Most minimum-wage workers are part time, and for the majority their minimum-wage income supplements an income derived from other sources. Examples are retirees living on Social Security or private pensions who want to get out of the house part of the day and earn pin money, stay-at-home spouses who want to supplement their spouse’s earnings, and teenagers working after school. An increase in the minimum wage will thus provide a windfall to many workers who are not poor. . . .

Let’s hope that if Congress passes a stiff increase in the federal minimum wage, George Bush will emulate Mayor Richard Daley and veto it. Several months ago the Chicago City Council, by a lopsided but not veto-proof vote, passed an ordinance requiring companies that have more than $1 billion in annual sales, and own stores in Chicago having at least 90,000 square feet of floor space, to pay Chicago employees a minimum wage of $9.25 an hour plus $1.50 an hour in fringe benefits, respectively rising to $10 and $3 by 2010. About 40 stores would have been affected.

The ordinance was surpassingly foolish. The retailers that would have been most affected, such as Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot, are at best only marginally interested in placing stores in large cities because space for large stores and for the parking they require is much more expensive than in suburbs and smaller towns. Moreover, these companies could offset much of the effect of the ordinance by opening more stores in suburbs within easy reach of Chicago, or by holding their floor space to just below 90,000 square feet. Fewer jobs would be available to low-skilled workers in the city, and families with modest incomes who seek low prices rather than elaborate service would be hurt more than the affluent by the increase in prices and reduced availability of big box outlets.

Who would favor such a bad ordinance? Conventional supermarket chains and clothing stores, of course, and unions—the latter not only for the usual reasons but also because big box companies oppose unions; the ordinance sent a signal that unions have enough political clout to make life difficult for large nonunion retailers. The absence of opposition to the ordinance from low-income consumers is not surprising because they are not organized to exert political pressure. The aggressive support of the ordinance by most of the council’s black members is more difficult to understand, but the explanation may be that they are allied with unions. They may have realized that their constituents would be harmed by the ordinance, but believed that in return for taking this hit they would get the support of unions for measures that would help low-income families.

Where There Is No Vision...

There have been 158 homicides in Philadelphia this year. Of them, the days with the largest numbers of homicides have been Friday and Tuesday. The rest of the days are about even. According to a professor at Haverford College, there is some significance to these figures.

Decades ago, killings tended to happen on the weekend, after paydays, when people had the time and money to get drunk and/or focus on personal or domestic disputes. No more.

"To people who aren't legitimately employed, one night of the week isn't much different from another," Lane said. "I think what we're seeing in Philadelphia reflects the high level of poverty and unemployment among younger, black males who, in large part, are both the perpetrators and the victims of these crimes." In the Bible it says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." In this case, the lack of vision is probably two-fold. THere is the inability to see the future, but I also think a lot of the people involved in these situations don't have an accurate perception of the present, either.

http://www.averytooley.com/stereo/

Swedish Ayaan Hirsi Ali" Wants To Become Prime Minister

Volkskrant (Netherlands) does a profile on Nyamko Sabuni, a Swedish center-right politician who has drawn comparisons to Ayaan Hirsi Ali - the Somali-born moderate-conservative feminist and former Dutch parliamentarian known for her staunch criticisms of Islam, who now lives in USA. Minister Sabuni's goal is to become Sweden's first female premier (article in Dutch):

"The besnijdenis of little girls must be prohibited. Also they must be examined to see if prohibition [against female genital mutilation] is also observed. Schoolgirls can no longer veiled to school. Arranging marriages must become illegal, subsidies to religious schools to have to be stopped and immigrants must learn the language go and to the work. Nyamko Sabuni (37), minister for integration and gender equality in Stockhom, is not for nothing called the Swedish Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She is controversial.

"She is the most incompetent minister for integration ever because she lacks both empathy and experience"" says Kurdo Baksi, a Turkish scientist and columnist in Sweden. Baksi has been disappointed that Sweden has a minister "who adopts negative positions concerning Islam. Sabuni was appointed in October by center-right Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. Sabuni was born in Burundi, and at age 12 came to to Sweden. In 1980, her father got asylum in Sweden after he had been condemned in then Zaïre (current Congo-Kinshasa) because he was in opposition to Mobuto Sese Seko."The piece continues: "For Nyamko Sabuni, whose career is rapidly on the rise, she rejects the harsh Baksi's harsh judgments: "My aim is that immigrants incorporate. And that their children grow up such like other children in Sweden.

" Thus she argues that immigrants must learn to speak fluent Swedish - just like she had to learn starting at age 12 - as she argues that language and work are the most important matters to integration. Sabuni, married and the mother of 5-year-old twins, studied at the University of Uppsala. In 2002, she joined Parliament under the center-right Liberal People's Party [note: in Europe, "liberal" often means something similar to what Americans would call libertarian or classical liberalism]. She says that her appointment is proof "that Sweden has developed into a society of equal chances."....Three years, Sabuni said on television that she would like to become Sweden's first female prime minister. "That is not something that I think of daily, but my eventual aim is the premiership."

Chicken Hawks And Chicken Cops

Casey Lartigue, a black libertarian blogger, writes: "I was listening to talk show host Joe Madison a few days ago, he was bragging that he had a list of 'chicken hawks' who had not served in the military but supported the war in Iraq. He has been critical of the war in Iraq and has mentioned, on several occasions, that some major supporters themselves did not serve in the military. Madison is a member of the Save Darfur Coalition trying to end genocide and slavery in the Sudan. When it becomes clear that their petition and push for peace talks won't end the bloodshed, the coalition is bound to support U.S. military action in the Sudan....will Madison ask supporters of the Coalition whether they have ever served in the military? * * *I was listening to Rush Limbaugh yesterday, a caller mockingly noted that Limbaugh had not served in the military, yet he supports the war in Iraq. When people say, for example, that we need to have a war on crime, does anyone ever ask: were you ever a police officer?"

http://bookerrising.blogspot.com/

The Baltimore Algebra Project

Over at BlackProf.com, a liberal blog, Professor Sherrilynn Ifill highlights a noteworthy program: "I was recently trying to list the 10 most encouraging initiatives by black people in 2006 and I thought I’d share one with you. It’s the Baltimore Algebra Project, a group of African American inner-city teens who’ve evolved from tutors to activists in an effort to force change in the failing Baltimore City School system. The Algebra Project, many of you may know, was created by the brilliant soft-spoken civil rights activist and organizer Robert Moses, who left the U.S. to live in Africa, in the 1960s. When Moses returned to the U.S., he became convinced that the abysmal performance of African American students in math and science are a major barrier to full citizenship and empowerment. He created a program designed to help African American students excel in math in science. There are Algebra Projects in several U.S. cities. The Baltimore Algebra Project began as a tutoring program, but the young people in the project – students at many of the city’s struggling schools – have become increasingly more activist over the past 3 years. Finally, frustrated at continuing inequities in the school system, the Project announced the launch of 'Freedom Fall' this past September. They marched on the headquarters of the school board, and in a stroke of courage and brilliance created an alternative school board, called the Freedom Board. (Sound familiar? Remember the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party’s challenge to the 'regular' racially exclusionary Mississippi Democratic Party?) . The students found language in the Maryland constitution they believe authorizes the creation of an alternative board. Although traditional civil rights groups, like the local NAACP chapter, have offered their support to the Algebra Project (marching with the group at their autumn rally), the young people have remained in control of the Project, conceiving of and leading their own initiatives. The Baltimore City Council voted last October to recognize the legitimacy of the Freedom Board."

"Where Are Our Esteemed Black Leaders When Blacks Folks Die At The Hands Of ‘People Of Color?’"

Asks the black conservative Republican columnist:

"Our esteemed leaders have uttered not word one about the rising tide of anti-black racism among Latinos in Los Angeles, but perhaps it’s because they have more important issues on their plates. Let’s see, there’s restoring voting rights to black felons, Hurricane Katrina, keeping racial preferences intact at the University of Michigan, Katrina, perceived racial disparity in the death penalty, Katrina, bashing President Bush, Katrina and perceived racial disparity in sentencing for crack cocaine possession vs. powdered cocaine possession. Oh, did I mention Katrina? When civil rights workers Mickey Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman were killed in Mississippi in 1964, the Revs. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy made it a point to visit the county where they were killed. That shows the kind of leaders they were. The absence of 'leaders' like Jackson, Sharpton, Gordon and NAACP board chairman Julian Bond from the march protesting [Cheryl] Greene’s death [at the hands of a Latino gang, who targeted her because she was black] -- as well as their disgusting silence -- shows what kind of leaders they are."

Free Isaiah Washington

Terrence Says, on calls for ABC to fire the brotha from "Grey's Anatomy" for calling actor T.R. Knight a 'faggot'. The black, gay moderate Democrat writes:

"Allegations of double-standards and racism stem from white-run gay organizations ignoring complaints by the Black gay community regarding Charles Knipp, a 'black face' minstrel known as Shirley Q. Liquor, who perpetuates stereotypes of Black women and mocks Black culture such as Kwanzaa. I happen to agree with Ms. Cannick that there is a serious appearance of double-standards by organizations - including GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) - the lead organization pursuing action against Washington. These same white-run gay organizations have not attacked Knipp - despite the fact concern has been consistently expressed by Black gays and Black gay activists, like Cannick- with the same vigor as they have Washington.....Although some people see the Washington and Knipp controversies as separate issues, the lingering question pertaining to double-standards, apathy and possible racism by white-run gay advocacy organizations is not, in my opinion. While Washington has apologized and is supposed to meet with GLAAD to atone for his misguided slur, meanwhile, Charles Knipp has continuously rationalized his black face Jim Crow-era antics with absolutely no remorse. GLAAD is nowhere to be found....Washington ultimately reaps what he sows, and from my perspective as a Black gay man, he made a bad decision to use the word. Since then, however, he has apologized, and now it is time to move on. He should not lose his job because some bitter, hypocritical gays can't let it go.


My Reply

First Isiah Thomas is an idiot for using that word it is hurtful and he should no better.
On the other hand this blogger Terrence makes some great points I also have my own
opinions about this issue.

I have often been amazed that gay white institutions receives so much money and grants from the government yet this money never makes it to the thousands of gay black men who are homeless with out a family. This group of who many are making up the largest growing number of new HIV cases. About three years ago I volunteered at a DC outreach called Us Helping Us this group was doing great work but surviving on pennies to keep afloat. I saw so many of the men we were working with on drugs or homeless.

The gay community like many communities needs to have a real talk about race.I recall while volunteering seeing Gay publications that were notorious for putting gay black men on the HIV ads but attractive white males on there latest model sections. I often wondered how this could affect the self esteem of young black men who saw these publications. It gave the impression that if you are black you're future is HIV if you are white and gay you re future is Will and Grace. I also believe that is these and other things perpetuate the false image that gay=white in the black community.

Richie

Check out the blog that started the petition Jasmine Cannick a lesbian blogger is blasting the gay whote community for what she perceives as a double standard.

http://jasmynecannick.typepad.com/jasmynecannickcom/2007/01/the_hypocrisy_o.html

Evangelicals..Democrats Largest Voting Bloc

By Richie

The Democrat party is constantly scaring its voter base about the religious right but what it often fails to make know is that Evangelicals represent its largest voting bloc the problem is they just do not know it! The truth is that 84% of African American evangelicals identify themselves as Democrats or lean Democrat.
The Democrats would like to admit it but not to long ago in American history there party was the party of Evangelicals.

In truth the Evangelicals are in many ways Democrats they just do'nt know it. It was the evangelical and southern Baptist Sunday school teacher peanut famer Jimmy Carter that beat Ford in the popular vote 50.06% to 48.00%, and in the electoral college 297 to 240. Jimmy Carter won election because of the Southern Baptist vote and this was this was in the late 70's after the so called 'Nixon" southern strategy.

My foucus on this weeks blog post is to bring attention to the religious experince of African Americans inside the Democrat Party and through this lense sehd some light into the
evangelical Democrats. According to a combined poll done on African Americans about social issues African Americans are the Democrats Evangelicals base. The polls done in 2004 by Black Entertainment Television and CBS poll show that on every issue the left likes to attack white Evangelicals votes there own party base believes. So when democrats talk about the religious right they are talking in many ways to themselves and in truth are hypocrites for condemning views held in there own party So what did the polling find when it came African Americans an faith.

The poll found that on these issues

Gay marriage: 64% oppose, 26% support, 10%

Abortion: 56% oppose abortion in most cases, 20% oppose in all cases

Death penalty: 49% oppose, 44% favor, 7% no opinion. For minors: 80% oppose, 16% favor

What would help most to get illegal drugs out of black communities: 35% say law enforcement crackdowns, 28% more drug treatment programs, 25% more anti-drug programs

48% blame child poverty on parents' individual failures


73% believe race relations have somewhat or greatly improved


78% say they prefer to live in racially mixed neighborhoods

44% believe immigration should be decreased

49% say amnesty for illegal immigrants is bad or very bad

48% say immigrants should adopt U.S. culture

Embryonic stem-cell research: 44% oppose

Prohibit people under 18 from buying explicit music: 59% favor

71% Favor requiring Arabs, including U.S. citizens, to undergo security checks before boarding airplanes

64% favor special identification cards for Arabs

School vouchers: 57% support

School prayer: 79% support, 20% oppose, 1% don't know

2004 Harris Poll

86% are optimistic about the next five years

Jews in the Civil Rights Movement

By Joshua Muravchik

The relationship between blacks and Jews has deteriorated since the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Although black anti-Semitism was present before that time, it has grown in recent decades. The Nation of Islam, led by Louis Farrakhan, is one source of this anti-Semitism. Various factors contribute to black anti-Semitism, including the fact that Jews are more vulnerable than white gentiles to verbal attacks, making them a preferred target for blacks’ anger.

As the controversy surrounding the role of Louis Farrakhan in the Million Man March underscored once again, the greatest story of unrequited love in American political life may be the relationship between blacks and Jews.

Jews in the civil-rights movement

When the civil-rights revolution broke out in the late 1950’s and early 60’s, the front-line troops in the Montgomery bus boycott and then in the lunch-counter sit-ins were all blacks, but among the whites who soon rallied to the cause, a large share—a disproportionate share—were Jews. The Freedom Riders rode in integrated detachments; among the whites, Murray Friedman notes in his recent book, What Went Wrong": The Creation and Collapse of the Black-Jewish Alliance, two-thirds were Jews. A few years later came the “Mississippi Summer,” a project dreamed up and organized by a Jew, Allard Lowenstein; according to Friedman’s estimate, Jews made up from one-third to one-half of the white volunteers who took part. Of the three martyrs of the Mississippi Summer, two, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, were Jews; James Chaney, the local activist who shared their fate, was black.

In another new book, Blacks and Jews, Paul Berman reports that Jews contributed one-half to three-quarters of the financial support received by civil-rights groups in that era. The organizational support they provided was equally pronounced. The Leadership Conference for Civil Rights, the lobbying coalition that helped muscle all modern civil-rights legislation through Congress, was chaired by Clarence Mitchell of the NAACP, but its director was Arnold Aronson, seconded from the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council. This pattern was by no means confined to the upper echelons of the movement; all over the country, Jewish organizations assigned staffers to work on civil rights. In those days, writes Berman, “it was almost as if to be Jewish and liberal were, by definition, to fly a flag for black America.”

http://www.bookrags.com/researchtopics/anti-semitism/05.html


The American Jewish community and the Civil Rights movement

Many in the American Jewish community supported the Civil Rights Movement. The Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald funded dozens of primary schools, secondary schools and colleges for black youth. He gave, and led the Jewish community in giving to, some 2,000 schools for black Americans. This list includes Howard, Dillard and Fisk universities. At one time some forty percent of southern blacks were learning at these schools.[citation needed] Fifty percent of the civil rights lawyers who worked in the south were Jewish.[citation needed]
Jewish leaders were arrested with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1964 after a challenge to racial segregation in public accommodations. Abraham Joshua Heschel, a writer, rabbi and professor of theology at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America was outspoken on the subject of civil rights and marched arm-in-arm with Dr. King in the 1965 March on Selma.

Brandeis University, the only nonsectarian Jewish-sponsored college university in the world, created the Transitional Year Program in 1968, in part response to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination. The Transitional Year Program (TYP) at Brandeis was founded in 1968 following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, this event compelled members of the faculty to find a means for renewing the University's commitment to social justice. Recognizing Brandeis as a university with a commitment to academic excellence, these faculty members thought it only right to extend the opportunity to participate in an empowering educational experience to students from communities that offered limited educational options.

It began by only admitting 20 black males to ensue the obvious disenfranchisement of the African American Community in the United States. The progam has developed into The TYP selects students from two broad categories with respect to background that in many cases overlap. The first group is comprised of students whose secondary schooling experiences and/or home communities may have lacked the resources to foster adequate preparation for success at elite colleges like Brandeis. Many times, their high schools do not offer AP or honors courses nor high quality laboratory experiences. Despite the absence of such opportunities, students have excelled in the curricula offered by their schools.

The second group of students contains those whose life circumstances have created formidable challenges that required focus, energy, and skills that otherwise would have been devoted to academic pursuits. Some have served as heads of their households, others have worked full-time while attending high school full-time, and others have shown leadership in other ways.
The PBS television show From Swastika to Jim Crow explores Jewish involvement in the civil rights movement. Jewish professors, refugees from the Holocaust came to teach at Southern Black Colleges in the 1930s and '40s. There came to be empathy and collaboration between Blacks and Jews. Professor Ernst Borinski organized dinners at which blacks and whites sat next to each other, a simple act that challenged segregation. Black students empathized with the cruelty these scholars had endured in Europe.

The American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, and Anti-Defamation League actively promoted civil rights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_Rights_Movement_(1955-1968)

James Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – November 30, 1987) was a novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, and essayist, best known for his novel Go Tell It on the Mountain. Most of Baldwin's work deals with racial and sexual issues in the mid-20th century United States. His novels are notable for the personal way in which they explore questions of identity as well as for the way in which they mine complex social and psychological pressures related to being black and homosexual, well before the social, cultural or political equality of these groups could be assumed.


Quotes By James Baldwin

I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor


Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.

He may be a very nice man. But I haven't got the time to figure that out. All I know is, he's got a uniform and a gun and I have to relate to him that way. That's the only way to relate to him because one of us may have to die.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

Youtube Video of "Jay Z Slapping a Woman In South Africa"

~Jigga what? How would he feel if his mother/sister/or his precious Beyonce were treated in this fashion? A room full of "men" and nobody does anything!? This is surel y going to taint his image. They said that he tried to pay the lady off quickly so that it didn't get out...Guess they were too late...Maybe he had a good reason... I dont think so!

Come Together Now/Katrina Charity Song and Video

Sharon Stone Joins Songwriter Denise Rich, Producers/Songwriters Mark Feist & Damon Sharpe to Announce the Release and Preview of Charity Song and Video about
Hurricane Katrina



'Come Together Now' is an all-star collaboration with internationally acclaimed artists to benefit Hurricane Disaster Relief. Celebrities participating in the collaboration include: Celine Dion, Natalie Cole, Nick Carter, Joss Stone, Jesse McCartney, Patti LaBelle, Wyclef Jean, Chingy, Gavin DeGraw, Anthony Hamilton, The Game, JoJo, John Legend, Kimberley Locke, Brian McKnight, AJ McLean, Mya, Aaron Carter, Stacie Orrico, Kelly Price, Lee Ryan, Angie Stone, Garu, Glenn Lewis, Tren'l, R.L. Huggar, and Ruben Studdard

Sadly Coming Together was not what the black left in American choose to do
instead they choose to gear up for an elction cylce and blame Bush on the
Hurricane.

Even though President Bush signed a $10.5 billion relief package within four days of the hurricane,and National Guard troops arriving with relief of food, water, and medicine, as well as to partake in security and rescue operations within 1-2 days of the hurricane, the left concern complained that the relief efforts were slow because most of the areas were poor.

What they often fail to mention is that a sitting president does not assume control over state National Guard unless a specific request originates from a governor.
No such request originated from Blanco's office in the aftermath of Katrina. In fact, shortly before midnight on Friday, September 2, the Bush administration sent governor Blanco a request to take over command of law enforcement and the state National Guard, but this request was rejected by Blanco. Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi also rejected a similar request.

Blanco later acknowledged that she should have called for more troops sooner, and she should have activated a compact with other states that would have allowed her to bypass the requirement to route the request through Washington. The facts of that week still stand and that is local and state governments, not the Federal goverment have primary responsibility for local disasters.

An ABC News Poll conducted on September 2, 2005, showed slightly more blame is being directed at state and local governments (75 percent) than at the Federal government (67 percent), with 44 percent blaming President Bush's leadership directly.

A later CNN/USATODAY/GALLUP poll showed that respondents disagreed widely on who is to blame for the problems in the city following the hurricane — 13 percent said Bush, 18% said federal agencies, 25% blamed state or local officials and 38% said no one was to blame.

Free Genarlow Wilson

-Last month in Georgia, Genarlow Wilson stood trial on sexual assault charges stemming from a party in 2004 at which a group of teens got drunk and videotaped themselves having sex. The jury took less than an hour to acquit Wilson of a rape charge (as unsavory as the whole scenario was, the video showed there was no force involved) but was required under the law to convict him of aggravated child molestation for receiving consensual oral sex from an apparently sober 15-year-old (Wilson was 17 at the time).

It was only after the verdict was read that the jury learned the conviction came with a mandatory sentence of 10 years, followed by lifetime registration as a sex offender. As a result, Wilson, an honor student who'd had a clean record and several offers to play college football, sits in prison.

By Wright Thompson

It rests on the floor of his empty closet, near the deflated football and basketball. It's filled with things he needed in his old life. Mostly, it's overflowing with recruiting letters, from schools big and small. A "Good luck on the SAT" postcard from the coaches at Columbia. From another Ivy League college, Brown, a note from the football coach: "You have been recommended to me as one of the top scholar-athletes in your area."

There's a questionnaire from the Citadel. A brochure from Elon. An envelope from Sewanee. College after college, all wanting the undersized but overachieving Genarlow Wilson to consider their football programs. One open letter, dated three months before everything in this box became a reminder of a life derailed, invites him to take a campus visit. It begins:

Dear Genarlow,

Here you stand, on the threshold of four of the most influential, challenging, and rewarding years of your life.

Being Inmate No. 1187055 Genarlow Wilson is standing on a threshold all right, at the end of the last hall of Burruss Correctional Training Center, an hour and a half south of Atlanta. He's just a few feet from the mechanical door that closes with a goosebump-raising whurr and clang. Three and a half years after he received that letter, he's wearing a blue jacket with big, white block letters. They read: STATE PRISONER.

He's 20 now. Just two years into a 10-year sentence without possibility of parole, he peers through the thick glass and bars, trying to catch a glimpse of freedom. Outside, guard towers and rolls of coiled barbed wire remind him of who he is.

Once, he was the homecoming king at Douglas County High. Now he's Georgia inmate No. 1187055, convicted of aggravated child molestation.

When he was a senior in high school, he received oral sex from a 10th grader. He was 17. She was 15. Everyone, including the girl and the prosecution, agreed she initiated the act. But because of an archaic Georgia law, it was a misdemeanor for teenagers less than three years apart to have sexual intercourse, but a felony for the same kids to have oral sex.

Afterward, the state legislature changed the law to include an oral sex clause, but that doesn't help Wilson. In yet another baffling twist, the law was written to not apply to cases retroactively, though another legislative solution might be in the works. The case has drawn national condemnation, from the "Free Genarlow Wilson Now" editorial in The New York Times to a feature on Mark Cuban's HDNet.

"It's disgusting," Cuban wrote to ESPN in an e-mail. "I can not see any way, shape or form that the interests of the state of Georgia are served by throwing away Genarlow's youth and opportunity to become a vibrant contributor to the state. All his situation does is reinforce some unfortunate stereotypes that the state is backward and misgoverned. No one with a conscience can look at this case and conclude that justice has been served."

Wilson's mother, Juanessa Bennett, certainly doesn't understand. She has just bought a new house the next county over, hoping that a change of scenery might do her good. The past few years have been hard on her.

"You think, what in the world could I have done to God to make him punish me like this?" she says. "Am I that terrible a person?"


Her home feels empty without her son in it. He's not there to enjoy the five burgers for five bucks on Tuesday at the Sonic Drive-In, or chatting away on his telephone late at night. Now, she can only think about the past three years of their lives, and how everything is so different from before.

She points to a picture above her fireplace. There's a grinning 3-year-old boy in the frame, posing with big alphabet blocks.

"He was cute, huh?" she says, quietly.

She looks at the picture, but doesn't cry. There aren't many tears left. After it first happened, she says she cried so much she got an eye infection. Bumps broke out on her face, brought on by worry and grief.

"You need to stop stressing," the doctor told her.

She asked him how exactly she might do that.

"He didn't have an answer," Bennett says.

Now, she's numb. Now, she can only remember the boy he was and pray that when his ordeal is finally over, some of that boy will remain.

The image of a bright future dimming with each passing day is what infuriates so many people. Wilson should be held up as an example of a kid who was making it. His life should be protected by society, not destroyed. He was a good student, with a 3.2 grade point average. He was popular, the school's homecoming king, liked by students and teachers. He never got into any trouble with the law. He was a track and football star. His last two years, he was the defensive back assigned to cover Calvin Johnson, the former Sandy Creek High star who went on to Georgia Tech and is now projected as a top pick in the NFL draft. Wilson studied film, trying to figure out how to outsmart a better and taller athlete. He did well, coaches remember, limiting Johnson to four catches in two games.

Three years later, sitting in their office overlooking the field, finishing up another workday, Wilson's old coaches also remember a good but not great high school player who would have played college ball. They remember his last game, in the playoffs, way down in south Georgia. He got hit so hard on a kickoff return that he ended up spitting up blood on the sideline. The trainer shined a flashlight in his eye, figuring he had a concussion. Wilson grabbed his helmet, determined to go back in the game. He went to the hospital instead.

He admits he wasn't perfect. Far from it. He drank. He smoked pot. He'd been sexually active since he was 13. And a month or so after that final playoff game, he and some buddies were plotting a New Year's Eve bash. His mama heard them whispering in his bedroom that afternoon. She knew kids whispering usually meant trouble, so she went in and looked those boys up and down.

"Don't do anything stupid," she warned.

Something Stupid
Genarlow Wilson and his friends checked into the Days Inn right off Interstate 20. At some point in the night, according to court documents and evidence presented at trial, some girls came over to party with them. Bourbon and marijuana were consumed. One of the young men turned on a video camera.

Later in the evening, a 17-year-old girl began to have sex with the young men, first in the bathroom, then on the bed. Genarlow is captured on tape appearing to have sex with the girl from behind. Her hand is clearly visible on the floor supporting herself. Witnesses said she was a willing participant.

The next morning, the girl awoke in a stupor, wearing nothing but her socks. She called her mother and said she had been raped. Police came to the room after sunrise and took the revelers in for questioning. Genarlow had already gone home -- he didn't want to miss curfew -- but the video camera remained.

On tape, the cops saw a 15-year-old girl, a 10th-grader, performing oral sex on a partygoer and, after finishing with him, turning and performing the act on Genarlow. She was the instigator, according to her mother's testimony. Problem was, the girl was a year under the age of consent. Local prosecutors called the act aggravated child molestation, following the letter and not the spirit of the law, which was designed to prosecute pedophiles.

A week later, on the first day of the second semester of his senior year, the police went to the school and arrested the boys. Wilson was charged with four felonies and taken from the building in handcuffs. Not long before, he'd been in the newspaper for being all-conference in football. Now, he was on the front page, branded a rapist and child molester.

"It was like I had everything one day," he says, "and the next day I didn't have anything."

For the next eight months, Douglas County District Attorney David McDade, who likes to wear an American flag on his lapel and play to his law-and-order-loving base, dangled plea bargains. The other boys didn't want to risk a jury, and one by one each took an offer and went to prison, including the other football player arrested, Narada Williams, who accepted five years with the possibility of parole.

In Douglas County, according to law professors following the case, admitting sins and begging forgiveness -- not insisting on your innocence -- is the road to mercy. Williams is already out of jail, in part because McDade wrote a letter to the parole board, praising Williams for being the first to plead guilty and "take his medicine." As for Wilson, McDade called him a "martyr" in the media.

Wilson refused to admit to being a child molester. If he pled to or was convicted of any charge that put him on the sex offender registry, he couldn't live at home with his younger sister. He wouldn't accept that, so he waited for his trial.

The Saturday before it began, his last weekend as a free man, Wilson tried out for a local semi-pro football team. He wanted to be that other person once more, the one who could outrun all of life's problems. For two glorious hours, he sprinted and jumped and dived. When it was over, the coaches were impressed. They traded cell phone numbers, just another opportunity that would soon pass him by.

Two days later, in February 2005, Genarlow Wilson walked into a courtroom. Two charges already had been dropped, and it was clear from the first witness that the rape charge wouldn't stick either. The aggravated child molestation, though, was on tape. Genarlow tried to defend himself against the assigned prosecutor, Eddie Barker.

"Sir," Wilson told him, "you don't even know me. I understand you're just doing your job, sure, but I mean, how would you feel if you were my age and you were put on the stand with these serious charges at this young age? I have a little sister. Why would I molest anyone, sir?"

"I'm not on trial here, Mr. Wilson," Barker said. "You're the one who did these acts, not me."

The day before the trial was expected to end, in the last night he'd ever spend at his home, Wilson went to a church down the street and asked the preacher to pray with him. He awoke early the next morning. He knotted his tie carefully and went to the courthouse. The trial finished that afternoon, and the jury came back with "not guilty" on the rape but "guilty" on the aggravated child molestation.

He looked at the forewoman. She was crying, seeming to understand they'd just undone a promising future. Indeed, when the jurors found out there was a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence, several were incensed. The prosecution told them to write a letter, then moved on to the next case.

Genarlow Wilson put his head in his hands and wept.

Deputies yanked him from his seat. Not long after, Prisoner 1187055 found himself in the predawn darkness, riding in a bus, surrounded not by his teammates but by murderers, thieves and rapists. Some were headed to the penitentiary for the second or third time.

A scared kid looked out the window as the bus chewed up pavement. He didn't know what it was going to be like, only that he didn't want to go.

Doing Hard Time
Wilson moves to the rhythm of the prison now, up early with the shift change, tidying his cell, sitting down to rest before chow, wearing white pants with a blue stripe. It has been 23 months.

These walls and bars haven't taken his youth, though. Not yet. When he smiles, it's the same one from that old photo on his mom's mantel. Bennett wonders how her son has managed to keep that light in such a dark place and how much longer he can hold out.

With nothing but time, he has taken stock of his old life. He doesn't like the person he was back then, the cocky star athlete with the world as his yo-yo. When he thinks about the kid on that videotape, with a Pittsburgh Pirates hat cocked just so, he cringes.

"It's embarrassing to me," he says. "You see yourself. ... 'Man, I acted like that?' "

He has followed his appeals from behind bars. He watched as the state legislature changed the law that put him there, then declined to make it retroactive, for reasons that still boggle the mind. That was a dark day.

He watched as B.J. Bernstein, his new attorney, filed a petition for writ of certiorari, asking the Georgia Supreme Court to review the case. The petition was denied, then set aside, then denied again, then appealed, then denied again. Those were darker days.

The first time the Supreme Court voted on Genarlow's case, it was 4-3. The four judges who voted against the black teen were white. The three judges who voted for him were black.

"I don't understand the Supreme Court," Bennett says. "Do these people not have hearts? Can they not look and see this isn't right?"

In its written decision, the Supreme Court called Wilson a "promising young man," a paragraph that he has read a thousand times. All the e-mails Bernstein gets in support of him, he has those, too. He reads them over and over, reminding himself that he once had a future and, one day, might have it again. It's not easy.

Other people's lives have moved on.

He has corresponded with Williams, his co-defendant and old high school teammate. Williams is enrolled in college now.

Wilson sat in prison and watched Calvin Johnson, the guy he once covered, become the best college receiver in the country and a soon-to-be millionaire.

"That has made my ambitions higher," Wilson says. "That makes me want to succeed even more because I don't want to be left behind."

The Halls of Power
In Atlanta, Bernstein makes her rounds at the state capitol. It's the first day of the legislative session and men in power ties click their wingtips over marble floors, lobbyists back-slapping each other in their little groups.

"He's sitting in jail," she says. "He's in jail every day they're sitting around chatting."



When Bernstein met Wilson, who had a different attorney for the trial, she saw that light in his eyes and didn't want prison to extinguish it. Truth is, she's a rescuer. One of her cats she found on the interstate. She stopped her car in the rain on a six-lane highway to save it. In her heart, she wants to save the world, starting with Genarlow Wilson. That means working pro bono, even as every small check the firm earns goes straight into the operating account. That means figuring out this strange power-brokers' dance.

It's frustrating work. No one involved believes Wilson should be in jail for 10 years.

The prosecutors don't.

The Supreme Court doesn't.

The legislature doesn't.

The 15-year-old "victim" doesn't.

The forewoman of the jury doesn't.

Privately, even prison officials don't.

Yet no one will do anything to free him, passing responsibility around like a hot potato. The prosecutors say they were just doing their job. The Supreme Court says it couldn't free him because the state legislature decreed the new law didn't apply to old cases, even though this case was the entire reason the new law was passed. One possible explanation is that Bernstein, an admitted neophyte at backroom dealing, simply didn't know enough politics to insist on the provision. That haunts her.


The legislature still could pass a new law that would secure Wilson's freedom, so Bernstein is pushing hard for that. One such bipartisan bill was introduced this week, pushed by state Sens. Emanuel Jones, Dan Weber and Kasim Reed. This is Wilson's best shot.

"I understand the injustice in the justice system," Jones says, "and when I heard about Genarlow and started studying what had happened, I said, 'This is a wrong that must be righted.' Everyone agrees that justice is not being served."

Afterward, Bernstein can file a writ of habeas corpus, which could get him out of jail, but those are legal Hail Marys. She's a true believer, but if the legislature denies this latest attempt, she knows she might not be able to save Genarlow Wilson. Until it's over, nothing's off the table. Not even simple positive thinking. Sitting at a midtown-Atlanta Chinese restaurant on a lunch break from all the political wrangling, she picked up her fortune cookie, smiled thinly and said, "Gimme a good one: Genarlow will be free."

She's still working every angle, from the capital to cookies, riding up an elevator to the 53rd floor of an Atlanta high-rise to see David Balser, the attorney who got Marcus Dixon out of jail. The Dixon case was similar: As an 18-year-old, he had sex with a 15-year-old girl and was sentenced to 10 years before the conviction was overturned.

Sitting in a conference room overlooking Stone Mountain, Balser listens. The light shines off his gold cufflinks, the high-thread-count shirt hanging perfectly off his shoulders. He's got a little salt in his pepper and a Virgin Islands tan. They talk media strategy. They talk last-ditch plans, including a constitutional amendment returning pardon power to the governor. When they're done, Balser walks Bernstein to the elevator.

"I think less is more, B.J.," he says. "You've got to get him out and solve the world's problems after that. Just get him out."

"I'm trying," she says.

"I have faith in you," he says.

Letter of the Law
Every story needs a villain, and in this one, the villain's hat has been placed squarely on the head of Barker, the prosecutor and a former college baseball player. Barker doesn't write the laws in the books to the left of his desk. He simply punishes those who break them.

"We didn't want him to get the 10 years," he says. "We understand there's an element out there scratching their heads, saying, 'How does a kid get 10 years under these facts?' "

In Barker's eyes, Wilson should have taken the same plea agreement as the others. Maintaining innocence in the face of the crushing wheels of justice is the ultimate act of vanity, he believes.

"I understand what he's saying," Barker says. "I think he's making a bad decision in the long run. Being branded a sex offender is not good; but at the same time, if it made the difference between spending 10 years as opposed to two? Is it worth sitting in prison for eight more years, and you're still gonna be a sex offender when you get out?"

Barker is quick to point out that he offered Wilson a plea after he'd been found guilty -- the first time he has ever done that. Of course, the plea was the same five years he'd offered before the trial -- not taking into account the rape acquittal. Barker thinks five years is fair for receiving oral sex from a schoolmate. None of the other defendants insisted on a jury trial. Wilson did. He rolled the dice, and he lost. The others, he says, "took their medicine."

While Bernstein works on every possible legal solution, the Douglas County District Attorney's Office has the power to get Wilson out of prison. If the prosecution wanted, this could all end tomorrow. The D.A.'s office says Bernstein hasn't asked. Bernstein says she has. Not that any legal he said/she said matters. Only the prosecutors' opinion does, and according to at least one legal expert, prosecutorial ego is more of a factor in this case than race. The folks in Douglas County are playing god with Genarlow Wilson's life.

"We can set aside his sentence," Barker says. "Legally, it's still possible for us to set aside his sentence and give him a new sentence to a lesser charge. But it's up to us. He has no control over it."

The position of Barker and the district attorney, McDade, who refused to comment, is that Wilson is guilty under the law and there is no room for mercy, though the facts seem to say they simply chose not to give it to Wilson. At the same time this trial was under way, a local high school teacher, a white female, was found guilty of having a sexual relationship with a student -- a true case of child molestation. The teacher received 90 days. Wilson received 3,650 days.

Now, if Wilson wants a shot at getting out, he must throw himself at the prosecutors' feet and ask for mercy, which he might or might not receive. Joseph Heller would love this. If Wilson would only admit to being a child molester, he could stop receiving the punishment of one. Maybe.

"Well," Barker says, "the one person who can change things at this point is Genarlow. The ball's in his court."

Hanging On To Hope
Back at Burruss, Genarlow Wilson is standing against the wall, looking out through the glass of the control room, peering between the bars, watching his attorney and another visitor leave. He has had plenty of people who want to talk to him, including a group of concerned legislators who plan on visiting this week, which finally feels like a real step toward freedom. Problem is, they always go home after an hour or two. He stays behind.

The worst is when his mom comes. She visited on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, bringing him news of the outside world and a smile. She told him about the new house she bought, just over the Cobb County line, finally out of Douglas. She doesn't want him moving back there when he's released. Saying goodbye, though, kills him. He watches her go and is taken back to his cell, where he can just imagine her in her car, imagining him in this prison.


Hope is all he has left. He believes in a system that has failed him. He believes in those powerful men in Atlanta. He believes in the kindness of others, and in the skills of Bernstein. He lets her work, spending most of his days in the prison library, reading all the books he can. Sometimes, he pretends he's a character, living in a fantasy world, not in a cellblock.

When the weather's nice, he can run laps around the yard, as if he's still on a football field, chasing down future first-round picks. The burn in his lungs feels like a time long past. It feels like freedom.

He looks through the windows just a moment more, sadness in his eyes, then turns around. Wilson stares down the hall of his prison, waiting on a day when he can go home.

"I've got a real good feeling about what's going on," he says. "I feel like 2007 is it. This is my year."

His mom has the house ready for him because any day now, her baby's coming back. She just knows it. Over past the dryer, that's his new bedroom. She picked it because it's close to the garage, so he could come and go as he pleases. She thought he deserved that.

Everything's set, in case it's tomorrow. She left the rapper posters rolled up, figuring a man would be coming home. She set out his football trophies and his high school diploma, to remind him what he used to be. She hooked up a television and a stereo. An alarm clock is on the nightstand, so he can get himself up for school. Even the bed is made.

The only thing missing is her son.

Wright Thompson is a senior writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. He can be reached at wrightespn@gmail.com.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=wilson

This is an injustice and is wrong the guy needs to be taken out of prison immediatly ..that stupid DA needs to be charged!

Genarlow Wilson’s campaign, go to:www.WilsonAppeal.com

"Mumia Street" In NYC???

"Mumia Street" In NYC???

From the lovely folks at Anti-MOVE/Mumia

Having profaned a street in a suburb of France the pro-Jamal zealots have now decided to repeat their "success" here in the United States by having a street in New York City, named after the convicted cop-killer. Pursuant to this goal, the Mumia devotees have started a petition and have even gone so far as to raise money for T.V. commercial spots as a means of bringing attention to their cause.

To name a street after a confirmed killer, cult apologist, and virulent anti-American fanatic like Jamal would be a vile testament to the power of propaganda and an ugly reminder that ignorance has again triumphed over common sense and human decency. In order to counter the Jamal supporters efforts a petition has been launched that I encourage everyone to sign and circulate amongst your family and friends.

The facts of the case are available at danielfaulkner.com .

Sign the petition and let us show that the citizens of this country have no interest in honoring murderers.

Bloggers Who Criticize Government May Face Prison

Bill would allow rounding up and imprisoning of non-registered political writers

Steve Watson

You'd be forgiven for thinking that it was some new restriction onfree speech in Communist China. But it isn't. The U.S. Governmentwants to force bloggers and online grassroots activists to registerand regularly report their activities to Congress in the latestastounding attack on the internet and the First Amendment.

SOURCE FOR INTERNET ACCESS -http://infowars.net/articles/january2007/180107Bloggers_Prison.htm

What’s the Matter with Harlem?

Are Democrats’ policies good for blacks?

By Peter Kirsanow

Each election cycle for the last 20 years, Republicans have been hoping to increase their tiny share of the black vote. The November midterm was no exception. But despite having three solid black candidates in Ken Blackwell, Michael Steele, and Lynn Swann, the GOP’s nationwide share of the black vote failed to register any notable improvement. An article in the Washington Post a few days after the election suggested that one of the reasons Republicans didn’t post any gains is that blacks voted their self-interests. But there isn’t always a linear or readily identifiable correlation between votes and the perceived self-interests of voters.

In his 2004 book, What’s the Matter with Kansas?,Thomas Frank explores the phenomenon of working class Kansans who regularly vote against their apparent economic self-interests by voting for Republicans, whose policies ostensibly favor the wealthy and privileged. The underlying assumption is that the policies supported by Democrats better advance the economic interests of the poor and working class. Therefore, absent other (viz., cultural) factors affecting the electoral judgment of these voters they should, by all logic, vote for Democrats.

Presumably, Frank would find the voting habits of blacks more logical. A large percentage of blacks are poor or working class and blacks vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. If the Democrats’ policies are, in fact, better for blacks than those of the Republicans then blacks clearly are voting their self-interests. And emphatically so.

Blacks have been the Democrats’ most reliable voting block for nearly 50 years. In the November midterm, 89 percent of black voters cast ballots for Democrats. This is typical. In 2000 Al Gore received 92 percent of the black vote. In 2004 John Kerry received 88 percent of the black vote.

These percentages aren’t just impressive; for Democrats they’re imperative. Since 1980 the percentage of white votes received by the Democrats’ candidate for president usually has hovered around 39 percent or less. Unless they maintain a vice grip on at least 90 percent of the black vote, Democrats’ presidential prospects fade into oblivion.

Both parties know this. If the GOP peeled off just 5–10 percent more of the black vote, Democrats would be in perpetual electoral jeopardy. But it wasn’t until the 2000 presidential election that Republicans began pursuing the black vote vigorously. President Bush received a mere 8 percent of the black vote that year, but after dedicating unprecedented attention to expanding the number of black GOP voters the percentage increased to 12 in 2004. That might not seem like much, but because of increased voter turnout President Bush’s black vote count rose by nearly 100 percent.

The lesson is that the GOP can make a consequential dent in the black Democrat monolith — a lesson not lost on former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, whose indefatigable efforts to enlarge the gains were blunted by Katrina (and the racial demagoguery that surrounded it) as well as other issues that resulted in general voter disenchantment with Republicans.

Michael Steele ran an outstanding campaign to capture a larger than usual GOP share of the black vote and received the endorsement of a number of black Democrats