Category: Racism

Nope, No Racism Here

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Justin Combs excelled at football, and got a 3.75 GPA, and so he got a $54K mertit and athletic scholarship to UCLA.

It appears that the good folks at CNN find this controversial, because it was Shawn “P-Diddy” Combs kid, (no direct link, they don’t deserve it) and they want him to give the money back.

There are plenty of kids who get scholarships whose parents are filthy rich, but they aren’t black, in a profession which is stereotypically black (rap), so there is no question if they should return their scholarships.

I believe that a two word phrase was in the head of whoever whoever mad this post (no name listed) on CNN.

The first word was probably “uppity”, and the second word probably began with the 14th letter in the English alphabet.

H/t Atrios.

Nice Takedown

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Once again, the stupidest journalist in America, Juan Williams is doing what he is bought and paid for, being a tool who alibis for racism, and is claiming, in response to the Trayvon Martin killing, that the black community is ignoring black on black violence.

Ta-Nehisi Coates notes that if Williams knew how to use the Google, he would have found multiple mass actions against violence within the community.

I’m not surprised that Juan Williams did not mention these folks. After all, he’s probably afraid to go into those neighborhoods.

Well Here’s Some Interesting Information

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In the matter of the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, we have a new development.

It appears that the detective originaly assigned to the case wanted to arrest him for manslaughter:

The lead homicide investigator in the shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin recommended that neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter the night of the shooting, multiple sources told ABC News.

But Sanford, Fla., Investigator Chris Serino was instructed to not press charges against Zimmerman because the state attorney’s office headed by Norman Wolfinger determined there wasn’t enough evidence to lead to a conviction, the sources told ABC News.

Police brought Zimmerman into the station for questioning for a few hours on the night of the shooting, said Zimmerman’s attorney, despite his request for medical attention first. Ultimately they had to accept Zimmerman’s claim of self defense. He was never charged with a crime.

Serino filed an affidavit on Feb. 26, the night that Martin was shot and killed by Zimmerman, that stated he was unconvinced Zimmerman’s version of events.

The fact that Zimmerman’s dad is a retired judge makes this decision even more suspect.

Then there is the fact that Martin’s body remained listed as a John Doe in the coroner’s office for 3 days, while repeated calls to his cell phone went unanswered. (Maybe that would have allowed them to identify the body)

Whatever else happened, given the Sandford, Florida PD’s long and notorious record of corruption and racism, it’s tough to conclude that their handling of the case was racially tinged.

BTW, Lawrence O’Donnell was going to interview Zimmerman’s lawyer, but when he realized that it wasn’t going to be softball questions he fled the studio.

O’Donnell then asked the questions of the empty chair, and they were very basic questions:

  • Who is paying you? Who hired You? When, exactly, did they hire you?
  • Does George Zimmerman have a job? Does he have any property? Does he own anything?
  • Did you represent him when he was arrested for assault on a police officer in 2005? Did you represent him in a domestic violence case in 2007 when his girlfriend accused him of assault?
  • You said Zimmerman got a broken nose, can you show us photos of him that night with the broken nose, or even the next day?
  • You said Zimmerman’s clothes had grass stains and other evidentiary material … do you have that garment, can you show us what happened to it?”

These are not unexpectedly hard hitting question.  Certainly they are a bit hostile, but if you are doing the media rounds as his lawyer (to my mind always a bad decision) you have to be able to answer these questions.

One of the interesting things here is just how hard the right is trying to smear this teenager.

It’s an article of faith among them that there is no longer any racism in the United States, and the obvious racism here kind of gets in the way of that.

I Don’t Know Whether to be Heartened or Depressed

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I am talking about the murder of Trayvon Martin, where both the Feds and the DA are opening investigations of what is clearly a murder. I guess that a few days of international condemnation got them moving:

Seven years after Florida adopted its sweeping self-defense law, the shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, has put that law at the center of an increasingly angry debate over how he was killed and whether law enforcement has the authority to charge the man who killed him.

The law, called Stand Your Ground, is one of 21 such laws around the country, many of them passed within the last few years. In Florida, it was pushed heavily by the National Rifle Association but opposed vigorously by law enforcement.

It gives the benefit of the doubt to a person who claims self-defense, regardless of whether the killing takes place on a street, in a car or in a bar — not just in one’s home, the standard cited in more restrictive laws. In Florida, if people feel they are in imminent danger from being killed or badly injured, they do not have to retreat, even if it would seem reasonable to do so. They have the right to “stand their ground” and protect themselves.

That is precisely the question in the case: Was the gunman, George Zimmerman, 28, a white Hispanic crime watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., in imminent danger and acting in self-defense during his encounter with Trayvon Martin, as he asserts?

In the three weeks since Trayvon, 17, a well-liked high school student from Miami with no criminal record, was killed, public protests have grown larger and louder, and so have calls for Mr. Zimmerman’s arrest. The Police Department in Sanford, near Orlando, said that under the law, it had no call to bring charges.

But late Monday, the Department of Justice said it had opened an inquiry into the shooting. It will run parallel with one announced on Tuesday by the state attorney in Seminole County, who said a grand jury would be convened. State attorneys use grand juries in cases when they cannot make a clear independent call, or when a case is explosive.

(emphasis mine)

Let’s be clear what happened: A white, self appointed “neighborhood watch” with a history of harassment in the neighborhood, chased a black child down down, and shot him, and the police said that they were sorry, but there was nothing that they could do.

It was only after this blew up that the DA decided to convene a grand jury, because, it became too embarrassing.

If this hadn’t made the news, it would just be one more dead black person, in a town with a long and notorious history of law enforcement racism and corruption, and it would have been “nothing to see here, move along.”

So, it looks like there might actually be an investigation (good) but only because there was an international outcry (not good).

Me, I’m a glass half empty kind of guy.

There’s a Reason You Aren’t Seeing Pat Buchanan on MSNBC

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It appears that he has been suspended, and looks on his way out the door for his latest bigoted screed, Suicide of a Superpower.

It’s only about 4 decades late. 

This guy has been peddling bigotry since he was a speech writer for Nixon.

I only hope that his suspension becomes permanent.

(on edit)

I think that his appearances on white supremacist radio to hawk his book might have had something to do with this.

Sometimes, There is Truth in Justice

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A federal court judge just said that two key prosecution witnesses are not credible because they were motivated by racism and politics”

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson in an order today lambasted two key prosecution witnesses in the State House vote-buying case as being motivated by political ambition and racial prejudice.

Thomson said Republicans Sen. Scott Beason of Gardendale and former Rep. Benjamin Lewis of Dothan had ulterior motives when they assisted investigators in the case. Beason and Lewis were key prosecution witnesses in the case, in which VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor and others were charged with offering and taking bribes to try to get a gambling bill approved in the Alabama Legislature. The two Republicans said they approached FBI agents after they felt gambling interests made improper offers to try to secure their votes on the bill.

“The evidence introduced at trial contradicts the self-serving portrait of Beason and Lewis as untouchable opponents of corruption. In reality, Beason and Lewis had ulterior motives rooted in naked political ambition and pure racial bias,” Thompson wrote.

“The court finds that Beason and Lewis lack credibility for two reasons. First, their motive for cooperating with F.B.I. investigators was not to clean up corruption but to increase Republican political fortunes by reducing African-American voter turnout. Second, they lack credibility because the record establishes their purposeful, racist intent,” Thompson wrote.

He’s allowing the testimony, but he is allowing the defense to present the evidence of racism and political dirty tricks at trial.

Still, if I were a prosecutor, and the judge just told me that their star witnesses are racist scum, and he’s also sent a message to the prosecutors that the traditional “all white jury” is not an option, and I’d be mainlining antacid right now.

H/t TPM.
gee, you think?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot … Little Green Footballs?!?!?!

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Here is a moment of WTF for you, Charles Johnson of the right wing cesspool Little Green Footballs is calling out the so-called Values Voters summit as a bunch of bigoted haters:

If there’s one right wing event that sums up the reasons why I ran screaming away from these lunatics more than any other, it’s the Values Voter Summit, put on every year by a devil’s brew of extreme religious fanatics preaching virulent hatred against everyone who isn’t them.

At the Values Voter Summit, you’ll find every sick and twisted right wing meme in existence; open racism, white supremacists, theocrats (real ones, who want to literally replace the Constitution with the Bible), creationists, historical revisionists, End Times believers, hard core misogynists, deranged homophobia and bigotry of all kinds. And those are just the speakers.

This year, as in every year, it’s attended by all the major Republican politicians, sucking up to these freaks for the almighty vote — because the haters have a dedicated base of deluded drones. Their votes can make a difference for Republicans, and the hate groups are always trying to force their primitive beliefs on the rest of America. It’s a match made in hell.

If the Republican party base, at least as understood by the Republican Presidential candidates, is too crazy for LGF, we are in a world of hurt.

The Clown Show that Keeps on Giving…

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Pass the Popcorn

The Republican Presidential Primaries.

Case in point, David Duke, former Klansman and Nazi, is looking at throwing his hat in the ring:

Add to the growing list of candidates considering a bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012 America’s most famous white-power advocate: David Duke.

A former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and Republican executive-committee chairman in his district until 2000, Duke has a significant following online. His videos go viral. This month, he’s launching a tour of 25 states to explore how much support he can garner for a potential presidential bid. He hasn’t considered running for serious office since the early ’90s, when he won nearly 40 percent of the vote in his bid for Louisiana governor. But like many “white civil rights advocates,” as he describes himself to The Daily Beast, 2012 is already shaping up to be a pivotal year.

I have no idea what Jon Stewart will do with this, but his writing staff has to be high-fiving each other, because David Duke just covered a dozen of their boat payments.

It Isn’t Real Until They Start Convicting White Billionaires

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Yes, hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam was found guilty all 14 charges of which he was accused, primarily insider trading and conspiracy, and there is a lot of talk about how this presages a new era of enforcement.

It isn’t, for a couple of reasons.

First, notwithstanding his wealth and power, Rajaratnam was still very much an outsider in the rather lily white halls of high finance.  Simply put:  He was never a member of the club, he was just a guest, and so it was an easy shot for prosecutors to get.

Second, is the likelihood that this investigation, and his wiretap, likely had something to do with his extensive ties, and extensive philanthropy toward, his native Tamil community in Sri Lanka, which likely investigators to suggest that there were potential material support issues regarding the Tamil Tigers, the now defunct terrorist group.  (A caveat here, I’ve heard nothing but rumblings on this, but if I were dealing with a judge dubious about a wire tap warrant, I’d let “Tamil Tigers” slip out).

It may be the start of something bigger, but I will not believe it until we start seeing big fish with pale complexions being frog marched in handcuffs.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) Report is Out

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The FCIC ain’t the Pecora Commission, it lacked the authority, budget, and time to do so, so it is at best a half measure, but it is better than I had anticipated.

I am rather surprised that the they did not fall back on the “Hoocoodanode” explanation in the majority report, and actually assigned blame.

They actually assigned blame, with much of that going to Alan “Bubbles” Greenspan and “Helicopter” Ben Bernanke.

The commission also cites compromised federal regulators, particularly the OCC and the OTS, who went out of their way to hamstring state regulators who were far more aware, and more proactive, as well as the SEC’s unwillingness to regulate.

I am unsurprised that they determined that Timothy Geithner’s tenure as President of the New York Fed, “missed signs of trouble at Citigroup and Lehman,” though I am pleased that they stated so explicitly, and it is nice that they called out Larry Summers for his dogged attempts to completely deregulate derivatives.

The ratings agencies get a mention as “cogs in the wheel of financial destruction,” but it seems to soft pedal the degree that these folks were both corrupt, incompetent, and essential to both the financial system and the meltdown.

Some of the insiders have leaked that they think that all the reports ignore the fact that the system failed, and instead focus on fitting the events into the philosophical worldview, and I tend to agree:  This is much less of a description of the forest than it is of the trees.

One big surprise is the fact that the FCIC has referred some of its information to the DoJ because it believes that laws have been violated:

The claim of allegedly widespread securities law violations is among the more explosive findings in a sweeping report released Thursday by the Congressionally-appointed Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Those details help explain why the panel opted to refer several financial industry figures to state or federal law enforcement agencies for potential prosecution, as The Huffington Post reported Monday.

I don’t expect any action from Barack Obama or Eric “Place” Holder on this, after all, when it comes to law breaking by powerful elites, they want to “look forward”, rule of law be damned.

As to surprising revelations, the fact that they caught Goldman Sachs in a $2.9 billion lie regarding the Vampire Squid’s claim that they got no money for their own investments from the AIG bailout is surprising.

Not the Goldman lying part, that’s pretty normal, but the fact that they caught Goldman and then released it, is a surprise for me.

On the depressing side, it appears that the FCIC’s pledge to release all the raw documents is not as sweeping as they are claiming:

The FCIC’s commissioners, for their part, believe that they’ve done their best to be transparent. But Phil Angelides, the FCIC’s chairman, told Mother Jones in a Thursday conference call that the commission simply couldn’t release everything. “In the course of doing this kind of inquiry, you look at many documents that are completely irrelevant,” Angelides says. In addition, he says, “there are trade secret laws, other laws, federal law that controls the ability of the commission to release documents… It wouldn’t be responsible to do a document dump of documents that weren’t relevant to the crisis.”

Angelides promised that the “predisposition of the commissioners” would be to have a “fairly short period” before the National Archives and Records Administration releases the FCIC documents that won’t be released immediately. In the conference call, Angelides and fellow commissioner Brooksley Born refused to quantify what percentage of the commission’s documents will be released at what times, but Born claimed that the commissioners “erred on the side of openness.”

Even so, the National Chamber of Commerce is the absurd claim that any release of documents is a job-killing action akin to Wikileaks document dumps:

“The commission’s final report and its pledge to post raw materials — apparently including information obtained from companies as well as other government agencies — is an astounding abuse of process that would effectively create a government-sanctioned Wikileaks,” said Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform.

Considering the fact that these documents will reveal things like the big Wall Street firms knowing selling “a sack of s%$#” to investors, I tend to think that a full and complete release is a good thing, because the tighter the regulations, the more confidence that investors have, and so the more willing that they are to invest.

As to the slightly less absurd, there are the two minority reports from the Republicans.

The first, issued by 3 of the 4 Republicans on the committee, seems to primarily blame, “failures, near-failures, and restructurings of 10 firms triggered a global financial panic,” which is kind of silly, because panic is what happens when you realize that your 401K is all smoke and mirrors, because the banksters have been lying to you.

It’s really pretty similar to what the majority report says, only they say that it cannot be regulation, because the crisis was worldwide, ignoring the fact that the US and UK have been leading a regulatory race to the bottom for the past 30 years.

The remaining dissent, by Peter J. Wallison, who is co director of the American Enterprise Institute’s financial markets deregulation project, basically says that it was attempts by the government to make sure that banks did not discriminate against minorities, or, to put it more bluntly, he said, “this is what happens when you lend money to n*****s.”

Domestic Terrorism in Spokane

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I’m not sure why the press isn’t covering this, but someone planted a relatively sophisticated road-side bomb along the route of the Spokane Martin Luther King Day parade:

A backpack found along the route of the Martin Luther King Jr. march in Spokane contained a bomb “capable of inflicting multiple casualties,” the FBI said Tuesday, describing the case as “domestic terrorism.”

The FBI said the Swiss Army-brand backpack was found about 9:25 a.m. PST on Monday on a bench at the northeast corner of North Washington Street and West Main Avenue in downtown Spokane.

In an interview on msnbc cable’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” Spokesman-Review reporter Thomas Clouse said confidential sources told him that the device was equipped with a remote control detonator and contained shrapnel.

There are two things that are very concerning here:

  • The FBI is being very loquacious about this, and I don’t mean, “FBI is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of people responsible for placing the device.” Considering how legendary the FBI is about keeping its cards close to its chest, this implies that they are very spooked by this.
  • Spokane is smack dab in the middle of any number of any number of white supremacist encampments, and has already seen Aryan Nation inspired bombings and robberies.

I think that the FBI has some intel indicating that more than one person has some sort of ongoing plans for a series of actions.

What is odd here is that Maddow seems to be the only national media figure who is paying any attention.

It’s Because He’s Black…

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No, it’s not because he supported McCain in the primaries

No, not Barack Obama, but rather Arizona legislative district 20 Republican Party chairman Anthony Miller, who has been harassed by the teabeggers and has resigned:

A nasty battle between factions of Legislative District 20 Republicans and fears that it could turn violent in the wake of what happened in Tucson on Saturday prompted District Chairman Anthony Miller and several others to resign.

Miller, a 43-year-old Ahwatukee Foothills resident and former campaign worker for U.S. Sen. John McCain, was re-elected to a second one-year term last month. He said
constant verbal attacks after that election and Internet blog posts by some local members with Tea Party ties made him worry about his family’s safety.

People are not upset at him because he supported McCain, who, after all demolished J.D. Hayworth in the primary, so he had broad based support from the party.

The problem here is that the Teabaggers think that his skin color clashes with the Arizona Republican Party, though they probably use a 2 word phrase beginning with “uppity”.

This is Not a Gaffe, This is a Campaign Strategy

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There is a lot of hand wringing and out rage over Haley Barbour’s comments supporting the activities of the white supremacist White Citizens’ Councils in the 1960s.

I think that this misses the point.

Not only does Barbour have a long tradition of appealing to bigots, but it is clear that he wants to run for president, and a not so veiled appeal to the tradition of white bigotry in the South goes a long way towards appealing to that demographic in the primaries.

What a Whiny Bitch!!

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So, after nearly 3,000 Americans are killed by terrorists, he leads into a war against Iraq on false pretenses, a number of the White House staff out a clandestine CIA Operative, he allows a city to drown, and, “Here, watch this swing,” George W. Bush thinks that the worst day of his Presidency was when George Bush, still thin-skinned as ever, is still stewing of Kanye West:

MATT LAUER: You remember what he said?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yes, I do. He called me a racist.

MATT LAUER: Well, what he said, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: That’s — “he’s a racist.” And I didn’t appreciate it then. I don’t appreciate it now. It’s one thing to say, “I don’t appreciate the way he’s handled his business.” It’s another thing to say, “This man’s a racist.” I resent it, it’s not true, and it was one of the most disgusting moments in my Presidency

MATT LAUER: This from the book. “Five years later I can barely write those words without feeling disgust.” You go on. “I faced a lot of criticism as President. I didn’t like hearing people claim that I lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich. But the suggestion that I was racist because of the response to Katrina represented an all time low.”

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah. I still feel that way as you read those words. I felt ’em when I heard ’em, felt ’em when I wrote ’em and I felt ’em when I’m listening to ’em.

MATT LAUER: You say you told Laura at the time it was the worst moment of your Presidency?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yes. My record was strong I felt when it came to race relations and giving people a chance. And– it was a disgusting moment.

I will actually agree with Bush that the criticism was wrong. What George W. Bush doesn’t care about is poor people, white or black.

Of course, the idea that he was more offended by the accusation of racism than he was about treason (outing CIA agent Valerie Plame), or incompetence (Katrina), or lying about weapons of mass destruction (Iraq) and killing thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, or dropping the ball before 911, is a meaningful tell.

You see, he felt that the accusation by Kanye West was unfair, but that the other criticisms had some merit, because even saw that there was an element of truth to them.

Still, what a remarkably small and petty man.

They Do This Because They Believe that Minorities Should Not Vote

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I have to invoke this when discussing the travails of anyone named “Kirk”.


In any case, let’s roll tape*

That is why Republicans like Mark Kirk spend enormous amounts of time and effort trying to keep minorities from voting.

The difference is that this time, he got caught on tape:

In a private phone conversation that was secretly recorded, Mark Kirk, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Illinois, told state Republican leaders last week about his plan to send “voter integrity” squads to four predominately African American neighborhoods of Chicago “where the other side might be tempted to jigger the numbers somewhat.”

Kirk’s campaign confirmed the candidate was secretly taped last week as he was talking about his anti-voter fraud effort.

Someone taped this discussion, and then released it into the wild.

There are some values of the Republican party that have been present since its founding, like opposition to organized labor, and there are some that are the product of the politically expedient decision to embrace the white racist portion of the electorate with the “Southern Strategy.”

It started with Barry Goldwater, was embraced and extended by Nixon, and finally came to full fruit under Ronald Reagan, who did his best to make bigotry look cool.

In the process, the bigots subsumed the party.

Thus we are left with the Republican definition of “vote fraud”: to them, it means allowing n*gg*rs to vote.

*The “tape” is actually illegal, as Illinois, like Maryland is a 2 party consent state, but that is largely irrelevant to the fact that a rock got turned over, and the slime beneath was revealed.

I Wish That I Could Write Like Matt Taibbi

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He has a post up, The Tea Party is Perverted and Irrelevant, and he notes that the tea-baggers‘ fascination with mythical reverse racism mirrors these sick f%$#s:

Years ago a friend of mine in the media told me a story about an experience he had covering the execution of John Wayne Gacy in Joliet, Illinois. You won’t find anyone in the world who’d have been sad to see serial child murderer in a clown suit like Gacy die, but this reporter friend of mine said the crowd outside the prison on execution night freaked him out almost as much as Gacy had. There were something like 400 people outside the gates at Joliet and there were people selling commemorative t-shirts and pounding beers and chanting (“Kill the Clown!” was a popular one) all night.

At the moment of truth the crowd cheered and my friend turned to interview a scraggly-looking twenty-something with thinning long hair whom he described as looking like a too-old version of the Todd Ianuzzi mean-teenager character in Beavis and Butthead. The guy was into his second six-pack and smiling goofily like he’d just gotten a half-price rub-n-tug from a Thai massage parlor. He says to my friend: “You’re not against capital punishment, are you?”

“I’m not against capital punishment,” my friend says. “I’m against enjoying capital punishment.”

I’m with my friend on this one. As far as I see it, there are three positions on capital punishment. There’s being against it. There’s being for it. Then there’s putting six-packs of beer in a cooler and driving to a hideous prison complex in the middle of the night with four hundred strangers to cheer like fans at a baseball game for the execution of some fat old child killer. Dude, if that’s what you call recreation, you’re either dangerously bored or seriously fucked up.

Taibbi notes that these people really get off on this, though he is rather more optimistic than I am, he sees them as “Basically see are a bunch of middle-aged white people who spent their teens listening to Eddie Murphy albums and deep down are a lot more worried about their credit card debt than they are about ACORN taking over the government,” but I disagree.

I see them as a lost generation, and absent a cataclysm on par with the Axis defeats during WWII, I do not see these people returning to normalcy.

In any case, go and read the whole thing.