Still Free

Yeah, Mr. Smiley. Made it through the entire Trump presidency without being enslaved. Imagine that.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

The True Evangelical Face

Police said a pastor urged followers to attack the ceremony, resulting in a crowd of people throwing rocks at the voodoo followers.

Beauvoir claimed the Protestant Evangelicals attacked the ceremony along with other people they hired, causing a number of injuries.


He also accused Evangelical denominations of using post-quake aid supplies such as food and medicine to try to "buy souls."


Yahoo News

Friday, February 26, 2010

Cornel West

I may be late on this but here's Dr. West saying the same thing I've been saying for many months.

That’s why you never hear Barack Obama or President Obama go to the corporate world and say, “I am a president of all America and not corporate America.” You never hear him say that when he goes to the Catholic world — they have a culture of life — “I am not a president of Catholics; I am a president of all Americans.” He would never go there in the Jewish world. He doesn’t go to a Jewish context and say, “I’m president of all Americans; I’m not president of Jewish America.” But when it comes to black people, he thinks he can get away with that. That’s ridiculous. We’re not putting up with it.


Alternet

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Martin Delany


Delany
Of late I've been having some discussions in regards to Marcus Garvey. It made my mind run back upon Martin Delany who is arguably one of if not THE first Black Nationalist in the US. His book The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, And Destiny of the Colored People of the United States is a must read for anyone studying Black Nationalism, Black Emigration ideology and Pan-Africanism, particularly Garveyism.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Necessity and Invention


The women we met were growing vegetables on what they call “vertical farms/gardens.” But instead of skyscrapers, these farms are in tall, recycled sacks filled with soil, and the women grow crops in them on different levels by poking holes in the bags. They mainly plant seeds and seedlings of spinach, kale, sweet pepper and spring onions.


All Africa

Thursday, February 18, 2010

How is this not Terrorism?

Man flies plane into government building because he was mad at said government. How is it not terrorism?
Explain that to me. Under law passed under the Bush administration and carried on under the Obama administration terrorism is defined as:

The calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious or ideological.


Now it's not that I agree with the above definition but as it stands the flying of the plane into the IRS building was clearly a violent act, intended on instilling fear with a generally political/ideological goal (the IRS sucks).

The ONLY reason that I can see that this is not being called terrorism is because the person who committed this act was a white christian male. Lets keep it real. If the man was a US citizen named, Abdul and had a beard, there would be extensive talk about what terror cell he must have belonged to.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Expected Bell Decision.

Citing insufficient evidence, federal authorities said Tuesday that they would not bring a civil rights case against the New York City police officers involved in the killing of Sean Bell, a 23-year-old black man who was shot by the police outside a strip club in Queens on his wedding day...officials from the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, the United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not find enough evidence to prove that the officers had willfully acted to deny the men their constitutional rights, according to a statement from the Justice Department.

“Neither accident, mistake, fear, negligence, nor bad judgment is sufficient to establish a federal criminal civil rights violation,” the statement said.


NY Times

I say this is expected due to my analysis of the verdict where I wrote:

If you read all the counts you'll note that there is NO second degree manslaughter charge against Isnora or Oliver for shooting at Guzman. This is significant because first degree manslaughter charges requires the proof of intent. I said back in march of 2007 that intent would not be provable. Second degree manslaughter requires no intent.


Once it was shown in court, by both Isnora and Oliver that the target of their weapons fire was Guzman, it didn't matter what happened to Bell (case wise) Bell becomes collateral damage from the assault on Guzman.


It would be foolhardy to think that the lawyers here did not have Civil Rights law in mind as they defended their clients. As the US attorney pointed out, unless you can show intent, there is no violation.

let you and I do something that "accidentally" cause someone's death and see how we fare.

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

White Supremacist Speaks

It is always "amusing" to see White Supremacist literature find it's way into the "gray lady" and today was one of those days. Hot on the heels of Ishmael Reed's take on Precious, the Op-Ed page offers an example of why white supremacy is alive and well in the US.:

a nuclear Iran is primarily a threat to its neighbors, not the United States. Thus Washington could offer regional security — primarily, a Middle East nuclear umbrella — in exchange for economic, political and social reforms in the autocratic Arab regimes responsible for breeding the discontent that led to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.


Oh It's so nice and convenient to shrug off US responsibility for the rise of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. It's the Autocratic leaders responsibility. And "nuclear umbrella"? Someone has been playing too much Missile Command.

Until now, the Middle East autocracies have refused to change their ways because they were protected by the wealth of their petroleum reserves. A nuclear Iran alters the regional dynamic significantly, and provides some leverage for us to demand reforms.


Demand? Of course! The west gets to demand all manner of stuff from other people. It's a nice arrangement isn't it?

Second, becoming the primary provider of regional security in a nuclear Middle East would give the United States a way to break the OPEC cartel. Forcing an end to the sorts of monopolistic practices that are illegal in the United States would be the price of that nuclear shield, bringing oil prices down significantly and saving billions of dollars a year at the pump. Or, at a minimum, President Obama could trade security for increased production and a lowering of global petroleum prices.


Break? Oh those pesky sand niggers! Hoarding all that oil and having the gall, the unmitigated GALL to demand we pay for it. Don't these A-rabs know that we take what we want? That old gunboat diplomacy. You will sell oil at this price or we'll let Iran slip a few nukes through that umbrella.

Third, Israel has made clear that it feels threatened by Iran’s nuclear program. The Palestinians also have a reason for concern, because a nuclear strike against Israel would devastate them as well. This shared danger might serve as a catalyst for reconciliation between the two parties, leading to the peace agreement that has eluded the last five presidents. Paradoxically, any final agreement between Israelis and Palestinians would go a long way to undercutting Tehran’s animosity toward Israel, and would ease longstanding tensions in the region.


I've said it before. Only a person who's drinking the Vodka laced Kool Aid actually thinks that Iran would drop a nuke on Palestine. The nukes they want are the nukes that keeps idiots like GWB from being dumb enough to send troops into Iran or otherwise implement "regime change". Trust me. The day Iran announces a working nuclear missile capable of reaching middle America a whole lot of things will change.

In any case what will change the situation in Israel is for the US to stop selling arms to that country. You can't seriously be upset about Iran's actions after the election there and then let the Gaza invasion go by with a Kanye shrug(tm).

Fourth, a growth in exports of weapons systems, training and advice to our Middle Eastern allies would not only strengthen our current partnership efforts but give the American defense industry a needed shot in the arm.


More money for "defense"? Yeah that should deal with unemployment.

Last, the United States would be able to stem the flow of dollars to autocratic regimes in the region. It would accomplish this not only by driving down the price of oil and increasing arms exports, but by requiring the beneficiaries of American security to bear a real share of its cost. And in the long run, a victory in the war on terrorism would save taxpayers the tens of billions of dollars a year now spent on overseas counterinsurgency operations.


Yeah they can have the real share cause, you know, people getting blown to bits while going about their business and having streets filled with bomb craters and shot up or bombed out buildings isn't cost enough.

Personally I think if they're going to let this kind of nonsense end up in the Op-Ed, then Farrakhan or Rev. Wright ought to get a piece of Op-Ed action.

Rape in the DRC

In 2004, DWB treated 270 rape victims over the course of the year in North Kivu. Today, they treat that many victims of rape on average every month. While nearly 54 percent of those affected are ages 19 to 45, a startling 40 percent of victims are girls under the age of 18. Women are targets working in the fields. Women are targets walking home. Women are targets virtually everywhere.


It's why I call them "So called freedom fighters"

Alternet

Monday, February 08, 2010

Ismael Reed NYT Op-Ed

This use of movies and books to cast collective shame upon an entire community doesn’t happen with works about white dysfunctional families. It wasn’t done, for instance, with “Requiem for a Dream,” starring the great Ellen Burstyn, about a white family dealing with drug addiction, or with “The Kiss,” a memoir about incest — in that case, a relationship between a white father and his adult daughter.


Reed is my hero.

NYT

Obey the Rules, Get Sanctioned

PARIS — Officials from the United States, France and Russia called Monday for stronger measures against Tehran after Iran told the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency that it would begin enriching its stockpile of uranium to power a medical reactor in Tehran. In Paris, the visiting United States defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, told a news conference that “the only path that is left to us at this point” was to exert greater pressure on the Iranian authorities, Reuters reported.


Let's get this straight. Iran, a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty has done what it is required of it and reported to the UNAE that it will be enriching uranium for it's medical nuclear reactor (for the dense, that's peaceable use) which is fully within the scope of rules of NPT signatories, and the "West" is threatening sanctions.

Why is anyone not on the Security Council even taking the UN seriously anymore? The UN is a joke. If Ban-Ki-Moon had any backbone; any firmness in his pants. He would have told the representatives of the countries prattling on about Iran to shut up.

I have no doubt that the Obama administration will say some dumb BS in order for Obama to look "presidential".

NY Times

Garvey's Ghost TV 2-8-2010

Monday, February 01, 2010

Garvey's Ghost TV 2-1-2010

Two parts. First one "content claim" video so I can't embed it from YouTube here:
part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOig90PGLTo

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F9_SzJi5gw

Warning: there is some "salty language" in this video.