We The People Of Color

Free! When?

2008-06-12T13:04:00.000-07:00

Now for those of you, which is most of us, that
thought that we were freed from slavery under
the Emancipation Proclamation better think again.
There are a series of articles on the subject where
the story below continues that may well blow the
top of your skull off.

On March 30, 1908, Green Cottenham was arrested by the sheriff of Shelby County, Alabama, and charged with "vagrancy." Cottenham had committed no true crime. Vagrancy, the offense of a person not being able to prove at a given moment that he or she is employed, was a new and flimsy concoction dredged up from legal obscurity at the end of the nineteenth century by the state legislatures of Alabama and other southern states. It was capriciously enforced by local sheriffs and constables, adjudicated by mayors and notaries public, recorded haphazardly or not at all in court records, and, most tellingly in a time of massive unemployment among all southern men, was reserved almost exclusively for black men. Cottenham's offense was blackness.

After three days behind bars, twenty-two-year-old Cottenham was found guilty in a swift appearance before the county judge and immediately sentenced to a thirty-day term of hard labor. Unable to pay the array of fees assessed on every prisoner--fees to the sheriff, the deputy, the court clerk, the witnesses--Cottenham's sentence was extended to nearly a year of hard labor.

The next day, Cottenham, the youngest of nine children born to former slaves in an adjoining county, was sold. Under a standing arrangement between the county and a vast subsidiary of the industrial titan of the North--U.S. Steel Corporation--the sheriff turned the young man over to the company for the duration of his sentence. In return, the subsidiary, Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company, gave the county $12 a month to pay off Cottenham's fine and fees. What the company's managers did with Cottenham, and thousands of other black men they purchased from sheriffs across Alabama, was entirely up to them.

A few hours later, the company plunged Cottenham into the darkness of a mine called Slope No. 12--one shaft in a vast subterranean labyrinth on the edge of Birmingham known as the Pratt Mines. There, he was chained inside a long wooden barrack at night and required to spend nearly every waking hour digging and loading coal. His required daily "task" was to remove eight tons of coal from the mine. Cottenham was subject to the whip for failure to dig the requisite amount, at risk of physical torture for disobedience, and vulnerable to the sexual predations of other miners-- many of whom already had passed years or decades in their own chthonian confinement. The lightless catacombs of black rock, packed with hundreds of desperate men slick with sweat and coated in pulverized coal, must have exceeded any vision of hell a boy born in the countryside of Alabama--even a child of slaves--could have ever imagined.

Waves of disease ripped through the population. In the month before Cottenham arrived at the prison mine, pneumonia and tuberculosis sickened dozens. Within his first four weeks, six died. Before the year was over, almost sixty men forced into Slope 12 were dead of disease, accidents, or homicide.

Most of the broken bodies, along with hundreds of others before and after, were dumped into shallow graves scattered among the refuse of the mine.

Others were incinerated in nearby ovens used to blast millions of tons of coal brought to the surface into coke--the carbon-rich fuel essential to U.S.

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Can Obama Pull The Jewish Vote?

2008-06-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

Will it be possible for Barack Obama to
pull the Jewish vote and at the same
time not upset the Muslims? Check out
the article below and you decide.

Barack Obama certainly has work to do in bringing Jews, a bedrock Democratic constituency, over to his side before November. In Pennsylvania, the last primary state with a good-sized Jewish population--they accounted for one in twelve Democratic voters there--Obama lost Jews to Hillary Clinton 62-percent to 38-percent. It's a vulnerability Obama has long recognized. He's made a habit of meeting with Jewish activists to address their concerns, rooted largely in his stated support for talking to Iran, past sympathetic statements toward the Palestinians, and the fact that he's not Hillary Clinton, who has neither of those first two problems.

Now, Obama has given an interview to The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg to talk Jews and Israel. The second half of the interview captures Obama's Israel/Middle East positions, and has the Illinois senator challenging some of the Jewish state's policies even while attempting to establish credibility as a reliable backer. What God-o-Meter finds more intriguing, however, is the first half, in which Obama speaks cogently and in detail about what the Jews and Israel mean to him as a person:

[W]hen I think about the Zionist idea, I think about how my feelings about Israel were shaped as a young man -- as a child, in fact. I had a camp counselor when I was in sixth grade who was Jewish-American but who had spent time in Israel, and during the course of this two-week camp he shared with me the idea of returning to a homeland and what that meant for people who had suffered from the Holocaust, and he talked about the idea of preserving a culture when a people had been uprooted with the view of eventually returning home. There was something so powerful and compelling for me, maybe because I was a kid who never entirely felt like he was rooted. That was part of my upbringing, to be traveling and always having a sense of values and culture but wanting a place. So that is my first memory of thinking about Israel.

And then that mixed with a great affinity for the idea of social justice that was embodied in the early Zionist movement and the kibbutz, and the notion that not only do you find a place but you also have this opportunity to start over and to repair the breaches of the past. I found this very appealing.

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Koran Gets No Respect

2008-05-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

With nothing better to do with his time
a U.S. soldier decides to take target practice
at the Koran. This type of action is not acceptable
wither or not you agree or disagree with it's teachings.
one should not go around disrespecting another's
religion.

U.S. commanders moved swiftly to avert a crisis after a soldier deployed in Baghdad was found to have used a copy of the Koran for target practice.

The incident had the potential to inflame Muslim opinion against the U.S. military and compromise the delicate alliance it has been forging with Sunni Arab communities against religious extremists.

Local leaders accepted an apology from senior U.S. commanders, and the military said Sunday that the soldier responsible had been disciplined and pulled from Iraq.

Col. Bill Buckner, a U.S. military spokesman, described the incident as "serious and deeply troubling" but emphasized that it was an isolated case.

"This incident is not representative of the professionalism of our soldiers or the respect they have for all faiths," he said in a statement.

Iraqi police found the desecrated copy of the Muslim holy book on May 11 at a small shooting range near a police station in Radwaniya, a mostly Sunni district on Baghdad's western outskirts, Buckner said. The volume was riddled with bullets and had graffiti inside the cover.

Community leaders were outraged and threatened to stop helping the U.S. military fight the Sunni Arab militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq, said Ayad Jabouri, a tribal leader and member of the country's largest Sunni political party. The U.S. command ordered an immediate investigation.

"Commanders have since briefed local leaders on the results of the investigation and expressed their deep regret," Buckner said. "They have also undertaken disciplinary action against the soldier who was involved, and he has been removed from Iraq."

The military did not release the soldier's name or detail how he would be disciplined, saying that the case was still being adjudicated.

A CNN crew was present when Army Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, the commander of U.S. troops in Baghdad, met Saturday with tribal leaders in Radwaniya to offer an apology before a crowd of angry protesters.

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Suge Put To Sleep

2008-05-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

If Suge night is to rebuild his empire then
he must let this incident pass and chalk it
up to a misunderstanding. Sure his ego will
be a little bruised but time will take care of
that. Beside what's more important rebuilding
his company or his ego?

The man who claims to be behind Suge Knight's knockout punch has emerged.

According to TMZ.com, dude is a barbershop owner in Los Angeles who is friends with the man Knight was trying to defend in the now infamous altercation outside of Hollywood's Shag nightclub.

The brawler, who would not give his name, yet is pictured on TMZ, says he was playfully arguing about money with the mutual friend when the former music mogul misunderstood and thought it was serious.

When Suge tried to defend his friend, fisticuffs jumped off and the barber – all of 5'10" and 173 lbs – delivered the punch that knocked 6'3", 315 lb Knight unconscious for a good three minutes, according to the Web site.

View TMZ's photo gallery of the "knockout kid" here.

Meanwhile, the author of a new book about Knight's former Death Row partner, Dr. Dre and West Coast hip hop, fears a war may have been started by the knockout punch.

Bruce Williams

Bruce Williams, whose book "Rollin' With Dre" is in stores now from Ballantine/Random House, said in a statement Monday: "Although it goes against my gut feeling of how he’ll handle this situation, I hope and pray that Suge doesn't do anything stupid and lets this thing go."

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The Fires Still Burn In Our Minds

2008-05-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

Below is the story of one cities trials after the
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. This
story should be read and studied by those
that were not around at the time so they'll
know the frustration that blacks went through
at that time in history.

Forty years ago today, the District was emerging from three days of riots that began after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Hundreds of stores had been looted or burned. Thousands of federal troops were standing by to prevent further disturbances. And residents had witnessed chilling scenes that would remain vivid in their minds for decades.

In April 1968, students and store owners, civil rights activists and politicians, police and firefighters had encountered a wave of rage, pent-up frustration and lawlessness that devastated the commercial strips along Seventh and 14th streets NW and H Street NE.

Trouble began barely an hour after King's death on April 4, a Thursday. When a brick crashed through a window of a Peoples Drug Store at 14th and U, it was the beginning of a frenzy of looting, burning and violence.

Washington's disturbances were a visceral reaction to King's assassination, but they were also a response to racial tensions in a city where blacks were angered by inflated prices at neighborhood stores, real or perceived cases of housing and job discrimination, and incidents of brutality by a predominantly white police force.

During the first 24 hours, police and firefighters struggled to keep pace. Fires had consumed whole blocks by the time the first of 13,000 federal troops arrived Friday afternoon.

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Hillary Can't Get Off The Ropes

2008-05-09T12:46:00.000-07:00

This campaign reminds me of the last fight
Muhammad Ali had with Larry Holmes. The
old rope-a-dope didn't work then and it ain't
going to work now. So why doesn't she just
throw in the towel before she does greater
damage to the democratic party?

The flow of Democratic superdelegates to Sen. Barack Obama continued today, and at least two media outlets reported that their tallies show him catching Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the last significant voting category in which she had claimed superiority.

ABC News put Obama slightly ahead, and the New York Times counted them even. The Associated Press, the tally used by the Los Angeles Times, still gave a slight advantage to Clinton -- with Obama closing quickly.

The five new endorsements include at least one defection. Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-N.J.), an early African American supporter of Clinton, jumped ship this morning, telling the Newark Star-Ledger that he backed Clinton when he thought Obama's campaign was "just a trial balloon."

Among the previously uncommitteds now behind Obama: Ed Espinoza, a Democratic National Committee member from Long Beach, who also urged uncommitted superdelegates to make their declaration by May 26.

"This needs to be over and done with by Memorial Day," Espinoza said.

Evidencing the kind of behind-the-scenes lobbying underway, Espinoza said he backed Obama in part at the urging of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, for whose presidential campaign he had worked before Richardson dropped out.

Vernon Watkins, a Democratic National Committee member and superdelegate, also shifted to Obama this morning, the Associated Press reported. Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) announced his support for Obama and was scheduled to campaign with the Illinois senator this morning. The fifth new superdelegate was John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

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Her Hero Was A Hero!

2008-05-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

Do you remember going somewhere special with
dad or mom and what made it so special was that
it was just you two. None of your other brothers
or sisters competing with you for attention. Well
that special day for Kaniyah Richardson and ended
in tragedy and one she may never forget.

A minister’s son died as he shielded his 4-year-old daughter from an out-of-control car Monday night on the South Side, apparently saving the girl’s life, police and relatives say.

Joseph Richardson, 39, was walking his daughter Kaniyah to a McDonald’s for burgers when a car jumped the curb at 95th Street and Wentworth Avenue, according to police.

Richardson grabbed his daughter just before the car slammed the two into a fence, police and family say.

“He held the baby up to keep the car from destroying the baby, but it totally destroyed him,” his father, the Rev. L.V. Richardson, said this afternoon. “It’s hurt me pretty bad, but the Lord’s going to keep me moving on.”

Richardson was pronounced dead at the scene. Kaniyah was taken to Comer Children's Hospital in serious condition.

Charges are pending against the driver of the car, a 33-year old Chicago man, as police investigate whether alcohol or drugs were involved. Witnesses say the man was driving erratically before the accident.

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Rodman Back In the News

2008-05-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

Dennis Rodman is making headlines these days
and it's not all good either.

Former basketball player Dennis Rodman was arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of domestic violence, authorities said today.

Rodman was arrested at 10:15 p.m. in Century City at a hotel in the 2100 block of Avenue of the Stars.

"During the investigation, police learned he had hit a woman and she suffered injuries to her arms," said Richard French, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Rodman was booked at the Van Nuys jail at 2:50 a.m. today. He was released less than two hours later on $50,000 bail.

Steve Simon, one of Rodman's managers, said Rodman has been struggling to cope with a recent divorce. Simon said his client has not been able to see his children.

"He's been really heartbroken about it, and it hasn't been a great time for him," said Simon, who was reached at the offices of the Prince Marketing Group.

Simon said that alcohol was involved in the altercation, which left the woman with a bruise. Rodman has sought help for substance abuse problems in the past.

"The legal process will sort itself out," Simon said. "I'm kind of waiting for the facts to unfold because it's really uncharacteristic for him."

Rodman played on five NBA championship teams, first with the Detroit Pistons and later with the Chicago Bulls. On the court he was known for his defensive prowess, twice earning NBA defensive player of the year honors.

Off the court Rodman earned a reputation for his flamboyant personal life, making headlines for cross-dressing, ever-changing hairstyles, body piercings and tattoos. There was also his quickie, and short-lived, Las Vegas wedding to actress Carmen Electra.

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Got Felony?

2008-04-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

Want to join the military but that felony conviction
for having that small amount of cocaine is standing
in the way? Well just march on down to your local
recruiter. Seems that the armed forces are in a
pinch and Uncle Sam still needs you. I think the idea
of allowing felons join is good if they only have one
non-violent felony. This may give a person a chance
to straighten out their life. What's up?

Under pressure to meet combat needs, the Army and Marine Corps brought in significantly more recruits with felony convictions last year than in 2006, including some with manslaughter and sex-crime convictions.

Data released by a congressional committee shows the number of soldiers admitted to the Army with felony records jumped from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007. And the number of Marines with felonies rose from 208 to 350.

Those numbers represent a fraction of the more than 180,000 recruits brought in by the active-duty Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2007. But they highlight a trend that has raised concerns within the military and on Capitol Hill.

The bulk of the crimes involved were burglaries, other thefts, and drug offenses, but nine involved sex crimes and six involved manslaughter or vehicular homicide convictions. Several dozen Army and Marine recruits had aggravated assault or robbery convictions, including incidents involving weapons.

Both the Army and Marine Corps have been struggling to increase their numbers to meet the combat needs of a military fighting wars on two fronts. As a result, the number of recruits needing waivers for crimes or other bad conduct has grown, as has the number of those needing medical or aptitude waivers.

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Blacks Take Boston!

2008-04-21T11:18:00.000-07:00

A Kenyan and Ethiopian won the Boston Marathon further
proving that Hitler was a long way from creating super
human white race. (Laugh) But all jokes aside, congratulations
to Robert Cheruiyot and Dire Tune!

Robert Cheruiyot won his fourth Boston Marathon today, and Dire Tune out-kicked Alevtina Biktimirova by two seconds in the closest finish in the history of the women's race.

Cheruiyot ran away from the pack to finish in a blistering 2 hours 7 minutes 46 seconds. He missed the course record he set two years ago by 32 seconds, but became the fourth four-time winner of the world's oldest annual marathon.

Cheruiyot and Tune, who finished in 2:25:25, each earned an enhanced prize of $150,000 -- the biggest in major marathon history.

Abderrahine Bouramdane was 1:18 behind Cheruiyot and Khalid El Boumlili came in third, another 1:31 back. Nicholas Arciniaga of Fountain Valley was 10th, giving the Americans a top-10 finish for the fourth straight year.

This Article Continues Here

Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

With his third straight victory, Cheruiyot gave Kenya its 15th men's victory in 17 years. Tune was the first Ethiopian woman to win since Fatuma Roba won three straight from 1997-99.

Cheruiyot pulled away from a pack of four at the base of the Newton Hills, running the 19th mile in 4:37 to finish Heartbreak Hill 27 seconds ahead of his Moroccan pursuer. He passed defending women's champion Lidiya Grigoryeva, with the two No. 1 bibs running side-by-side, just before the 24-mile mark.

Cheruiyot remained on a record pace as he approached Kenmore Square before slowing over the last mile.

Tune and Biktimirova came into Kenmore Square side-by-side, jockeying for position. Biktimirova appeared to get an edge when Tune nearly missed one of the final turns and ran into a camera vehicle. The Ethiopian quickly composed herself and took the lead before the last turn.

Biktimirova caught her and regained the lead briefly, but Tune pulled ahead for the good in the last 100 yards on Boylston Street to beat her to the line.

Bitter Big Town Californian's Too!

2008-04-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

Small town Pennsylvanians are not the only
ones that are bitter. Bitterness is also rampant
in large towns. Things in small town Pennsylvania
have been bad for a very long time so Obama once
again is just merely setting things straight.

The Democratic candidates for president debated forcefully Wednesday over who would prove more electable in November, with Hillary Rodham Clinton repeatedly raising questions about Barack Obama's past associations and Obama contending that her approach typified the blowtorch political style that Americans decry.

Obama, the Illinois senator, was thrown on the defensive for the first half of the nearly two-hour debate. The moderators, ABC News anchors Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, pressed him on his recent comments about "bitter" small-town Pennsylvanians; his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.; his acquaintance with a long-ago member of the Weather Underground group; and the absence of an American flag in his lapel -- though no one else on stage wore one.

Clinton criticized Obama as well. She defended those who she said were "taken aback and offended" by Obama's remarks at a recent San Francisco fundraiser that voters upset by economic downturns "get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment."

The New York senator repeatedly zeroed in on Wright and -- after Stephanopoulos opened the issue -- Obama's relationship with fellow Chicagoan William Ayers, the 1960s radical who is now an education professor at the University of Illinois. She noted that Obama and Ayers were at one point on the same philanthropic board.

"I think it is, again, an issue that people will be asking about," said Clinton, who repeatedly characterized herself as thoroughly vetted during her husband's administration.

Adopting a more-in-sorrow-than-anger mien, she added: "I know Sen. Obama's a good man, and I respect him greatly, but I think that this is an issue that certainly the Republicans will be raising. And it goes to this larger set of concerns about, you know, how we are going to run against John McCain," the unofficial GOP nominee.

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Tom's Letter

2008-04-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

This didn't have to happen like this but it did. I
said it before and I'm saying it again, we black
folks have to stop criticizing one another because
we don't agree. Just because we now have a black
man that has a chance to go all the way to the
White House doesn't mean he has a bullet proof
vest against other black folks scrutinizing him.
Barack Obama has to be and should be looked
at from every angle possible!

"Well, you did it. This isn’t the way you wanted it to happen, but it happened anyway. Just like I knew it would," begins an open letter from veteran radio personality Tom Joyner to Tavis Smiley.

It's the latest in ongoing drama that followed Joyner's announcement Friday that Smiley will end his twice-a-week commentaries on the syndicated morning show.

When the news broke, folks speculated that he couldn't handle the backlash he's been getting from blacks over his criticism of Barack Obama. Although Smiley released a statement saying he was leaving to focus on future projects under his company, The Smiley Group, Inc., Joyner isn't buying it.

"We all know that isn’t the real reason he’s leaving the show," Joyner writes in the open letter, posted on the radio industry blog Urbansite.com. "The real reason is that he can’t take the hate he’s been getting regarding the Barack issue — hate from the black people that he loves so much. He needed to feel the love. We all do, whether it’s from our radio audience or from people we know personally. He wasn’t feeling any love, so he quit."

As previously reported, Smiley sent a letter to EUR and other media outlets stating that he did not “quit” the Tom Joyner Morning Show effective immediately.

"In July I will celebrate my 12th anniversary with the show, and as I discussed with Tom, it is my intention to take on the issues of the day in my commentary twice every week with the same energy, passion and commitment until the end of June," Smiley wrote.

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A Day In The Life

2008-04-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

One of my most favorite sayings comes from
the Simpson's convenient store owner. "In
every life a little rain must fall." I'm sure that
Oprah expected some kind of a fallout when
she made her political stance. So I'm sure she'll
bounce back in due time. What do you have to
say?

Costas Panagopoulos, an assistant professor of political science at New York's Fordham University, suggests that Oprah Winfrey's popularity has diminished in recent months due to her public support for Barack Obama.

Writing at Politico.com, he calls into evidence an August 2007 CBS poll that found her favorable rating had dropped from 74% to 61%.

Also, 10 days after the media firestorm over Obama's tie to Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ, which Oprah has attended, the TV host's favorable rating had dropped further to 55% and her unfavorable ratings for the first time climbed to 1 in 3.

A December ABC/Washington Post poll of Democrats found 8% were persuaded by Winfrey's Obama endorsement, 82% said it wouldn't matter either way and 10% said her recommendation had turned them off Obama.

Panagopoulos also points to an AOL TV popularity survey of 1.35 million Americans that found 46% said the daytime TV host who "made their day" was Ellen DeGeneres while only 19% chose Winfrey. Forty-seven percent said they'd like to have dinner with Ellen, while only 14% chose Oprah.

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A Black Man's Touch!

2008-04-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

It looks as if what the middle east really needs
is someone that both sides can trust and that
someone is Barack Obama. Check out the article
below and let us know your thoughts.

It was a celebration of Palestinian culture -- a night of music, dancing and a dash of politics. Local Arab Americans were bidding farewell to Rashid Khalidi, an internationally known scholar, critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights, who was leaving town for a job in New York.

A special tribute came from Khalidi's friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi's wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking.

His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama said, had been "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases. . . . It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation -- a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table," but around "this entire world."

Today, five years later, Obama is a U.S. senator from Illinois who expresses a firmly pro-Israel view of Middle East politics, pleasing many of the Jewish leaders and advocates for Israel whom he is courting in his presidential campaign. The dinner conversations he had envisioned with his Palestinian American friend have ended. He and Khalidi have seen each other only fleetingly in recent years.

And yet the warm embrace Obama gave to Khalidi, and words like those at the professor's going-away party, have left some Palestinian American leaders believing that Obama is more receptive to their viewpoint than he is willing to say.

Their belief is not drawn from Obama's speeches or campaign literature, but from comments that some say Obama made in private and from his association with the Palestinian American community in his hometown of Chicago, including his presence at events where anger at Israeli and U.S. Middle East policy was freely expressed.

At Khalidi's 2003 farewell party, for example, a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, "then you will never see a day of peace."

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Getting Even

2008-04-02T15:39:00.000-07:00

Looks as if a group of 3rd graders decided they
were going to get even with their teacher. After
reading the article below you'll see just how
resourceful theses youths were.

A group of children ages 8 to 10 apparently were mad at their teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, authorities say.

That led the third-graders, as many as nine boys and girls, to plot an attack on the teacher at Center Elementary School in south Georgia.

Police Chief Tony Tanner said the students apparently planned to knock the teacher unconscious with a glass paperweight, bind her with handcuffs and duct tape and then stab her with a broken steak knife.

The scheme involved a division of roles, Tanner said. One child's job was to cover windows so no one could see outside, and another was supposed to clean up after the attack.

"We're not sure at this point in the investigation how many of the students actually knew the intent was to hurt the teacher," Tanner said.

School officials had alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had taken a weapon to school.

Tanner said the teacher told detectives the children weren't known as troublemakers.

"You can't dismiss it," Tanner said. "But because they are kids, they may have thought this was like a cartoon -- we do whatever and then she stands up and she's OK. That's a hard call."

The purported target teaches third-grade students with learning disabilities, including attention deficit disorder, delayed development and hyperactivity, friends and parents said.

Two of the students were arrested on juvenile charges Tuesday and a third arrest was expected. District Attorney Rick Currie said other students told investigators they didn't take the plot seriously or insisted they had decided not to participate.

"Some of the kids said, 'We thought they were just kidding,"' Currie said. "Another child was supposed to bring a toy pistol, and he told a detective he didn't bring it because he thought he would get in trouble."

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Tupac Story Fabricated?

2008-03-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

Opps, looks as if the L.A. Times has made a boo-boo.
Now why didn't they check the facts first. This is an
uncalled for mistake by a major publication such as
the LA Times. What do you think?

Los Angeles Times Editor Russ Stanton said today he will launch an internal investigation into the authenticity of documents used in a story last week asserting that the newspaper had uncovered new evidence implicating associates of rap impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs in a bloody 1994 assault on hip-hop superstar Tupac Shakur.

Stanton ordered the review after the editor of the celebrity-centric website, The Smoking Gun, told the newspaper that he had reason to doubt The Times' account and in particular the FBI records that were supposed to buttress the story.

The website this morning posted a story saying the records -- purportedly statements by an unnamed informant to an FBI agent, which the newspaper posted on its website -- appeared to be forgeries. The Smoking Gun ( www.thesmokinggun.com ) said the documents seemed suspicious for multiple reasons, including the fact that they appeared to be written on a typewriter, rather than a computer, and included blacked-out sections not typically found in such documents.

This Article Continues Here

Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

As Detroit Turns

2008-03-25T11:09:00.001-07:00

The case against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his
former chief of staff may end up with better ratings
than any soap opera on television. Check out latest
segment below. Things can only get better or worse
depending on how one looks at.

The civic soap opera engulfing Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick took a new plot twist Monday when a county prosecutor charged the onetime rising political star with obstruction of justice, perjury and misconduct in office, all related to a romantic relationship with his former chief of staff.

Facing political catastrophe and a long prison term, Kilpatrick defiantly vowed to fight the civil felony charges, which grew out of an $8.4-million settlement of a lawsuit against him by police officials and the leaking of steamy romantic text messages between the mayor and longtime aide Christine Beatty.

Kilpatrick and Beatty surrendered to authorities separately Monday. Kilpatrick was expected to face arraignment in a Detroit courtroom today.

In a brief news conference, Kilpatrick dismissed the case against him as "a very flawed process from the beginning." But the seriousness of the charges is daunting. He faces a lengthy prison term if convicted of the eight felony counts against him. Each of the four counts of perjury against him carries a maximum 15-year sentence. He faces five years each on two charges of misconduct in office and two charges of obstruction of justice.

The charges against Kilpatrick are the latest developments to derail the meteoric rise of a youthful political figure who had gained fame as "the hip-hop mayor," both for his election, at age 31, and his penchant for the high life. Kilpatrick has been dogged by allegations of a party at the mayor's mansion that featured appearances by strippers and recent revelations about his affair with Beatty.

Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy accused the mayor of lying under oath during a "public whistle-blower" trial last fall and trying to obstruct justice by attempting to hide his extramarital relationship with Beatty, who was charged with seven felony counts.

This Article Continues Here

Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Richard Williams Acusses WTA

2008-03-24T14:34:00.001-07:00

The father of tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams
recently accused the Womens Tennis Association of
racism and the head of WTA Larry Scott isn't taking
it laying down.

Women's Tennis Association head Larry Scott is denying recent claims made by Richard Williams, father of Serena and Venus, regarding racism on the women's tour.

While his daughters were playing earlier this month in Bangladore, India, where Venus reached the quarterfinals and Serena won the title, Williams told the Deccan Herald: "Well, I'm black and I'm prejudiced, very prejudiced. People are prejudiced in tennis. I don't think Venus or Serena was ever accepted by tennis. They never will be."

Scott, who strongly disagrees with Williams' comments, said in a statement: "The Tour has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to racism, and I have previously let Mr. Williams know that he should let me know if he ever had evidence of racist comments or acts in women's professional tennis."

This Article Continues Here

Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

2008-03-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

*Women's Tennis Association head Larry Scott is denying recent claims made by Richard Williams, father of Serena and Venus, regarding racism on the women's tour.

Justice-A Long Time Comming!

2008-03-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

That old adage "The wheels of justice turn slow" is
very much true and after twenty-five years in
prison, Willie Green is a freed man. Congratulations!

Willie Earl Green looked dazed. He walked slowly.

Before him were streets he could stroll freely for the first time since he was young. Behind him were the last of the lockups that had caged him since 1983, for a murder he insists he did not commit.

"It's like I'm in a dream," said Green, 56, moments after he stepped into the sunlight outside the downtown Criminal Courts Building, where a judge ordered him released Thursday. The witness whose testimony had sent Green away for 33 years to life recanted, and prosecutors decided not to retry him.

Now, after a quarter-century behind bars, there were all these wonders for Green to behold: cellphones, remote car locks, a hug from his wife that would not be cut short by a prison guard. He sobbed as they embraced at the Kyoto Grand Hotel, around the corner from the courthouse, his first stop on the way to their Chowchilla, Calif., home. "It's all right, baby," his wife, Mary, said. "Everything's all right. . . . It's time to start living."

Her husband said he half-expected a guard to tap him on the shoulder, the routine at San Quentin State Prison. "That's what I'm waiting for," he said, "for them to come and tell me now, 'One hug, one kiss, you're over.' "

There was another person to hug Thursday -- Susan Breyer, the forewoman of the jury that found him guilty. "I'm thrilled," said Breyer, who had come to believe in Green's innocence. "I, they, took 24 years of his life."

And Green remarked on all the hugs he could have given -- to his father before he died in 1999, and to Mary before she underwent surgery for breast cancer last year. "I never asked for mercy," Green said. "I only asked for justice. . . . They can't hurt me no more. I'm free."

It was a day of firsts for Green. He drank his first cup of Starbucks coffee. He took it with cream and sugar -- two treats forbidden in state prison. His wife told Green that she would teach him to use her newfangled coffee maker and washing machine when they got home.

This Article Continues Here

Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

We Must Not Be Divided This Time!

2008-03-19T20:36:00.000-07:00

His opponents have tried to use the trickery that
has worked on use beautifully for over 200 years.
Well they've got to find something different now.
Instead of Obama distancing himself from his much
beloved pastor because of his fiery comments, the
democratic presidential candidate simply explained
that the comments from the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.
were the feelings that most African Americans are
feeling and now we should find ways of solving this
pent up racial anger together. For much too long black
folks have been told to be patient, we'll work something
out, and for much too long we've been saying "yeah-sa."

From the earliest days of his career, Barack Obama has sought to assure black voters that a political leader of mixed race, coming from the outpost of Hawaii, could understand the resentments of an African American community shaped by slavery and segregation.

On Tuesday, Obama tried to explain that anger to voters who have been repelled by racially incendiary comments from his longtime pastor.

In a speech widely seen as his most important to date, Obama again denounced the comments by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., which have played continuously on television news shows and threatened to undermine Obama's campaign theme of uniting a fractured America. At the same time, the Democratic presidential candidate asked voters to understand the frustrations and anger that gave rise to the preacher's condemnation of America as racist and brutal -- "the U.S. of K.K.K.A."

"That anger is not always productive. . . . But the anger is real; it is powerful," Obama said. "And to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races."

While asking all Americans to sympathize with blacks, Obama said he understood the anger that some whites feel over affirmative action or "when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced."

"It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. . . . But I have asserted a firm conviction -- a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people -- that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds," he said.

A rare perspective

Speaking at a museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution, Obama in effect offered his candidacy as the next chapter in a story of racial tension and reconciliation that has unfolded since the country's founding. The son of a Kenyan father and a white mother with Kansas roots, he spoke in sweeping terms about his unusual perspective on race, and more than ever elevated it as essential to his White House campaign.

It was a speech that seemed unlikely to come from a politician viewed as simply white or black. Obama rejected the most controversial of Wright's comments, while saying he could never renounce the man who had helped introduce the senator to Christianity, officiated at his wedding and baptized his children.

"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," Obama said. "I can no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me . . . but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

This Article Continues Here

Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Death Row inmate Get the Thumbs Down!

2008-03-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

Troy Anthony Davis should have been granted a
new trial in his murder case but the Georgia State Supreme
said no way even though most of the witnesses recanted
their story. Check out the article below and see if you
agree with the courts decision.

The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday turned down a death row inmate's request for a new trial, even though most of the key witnesses in the case have recanted or contradicted their earlier testimony.

Troy Anthony Davis, 39, was convicted of killing a Savannah police officer after a 1991 trial based entirely on witnesses' accounts. Seven of the nine who implicated Davis have since changed their story in sworn affidavits, with several claiming they were pressured by police in their earlier statements.

In a 4-3 decision, the court ruled that the recantation testimony suffered from a "general lack of credibility." Justice Harold D. Melton, writing for the majority, said many of the witnesses who had "allegedly recanted have merely stated that they do not feel able to identify the shooter."

"We simply cannot disregard the jury's verdict in this case," Melton wrote.

In a strongly worded dissent, Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote that the majority opinion was "overly rigid." Disregarding all recantation testimony, even when it offered a convincing argument that prior testimony was false, "simply defies all logic and morality," she wrote.

"In this case," Sears noted, "nearly every witness who identified Davis as the shooter at trial has now disclaimed his or her ability to do so reliably."

Davis has been on death row since 1991, when he was convicted of killing Mark Allen MacPhail, 27, an off-duty Savannah police officer working as a security guard. MacPhail was shot to death in a parking lot after rushing to help a homeless man who had been assaulted outside a bus station. With no murder weapon, prosecutors relied on witnesses to convict Davis.

Yet the case against Davis, defense attorneys say, has unraveled as the seven witnesses changed their testimony. One of the two remaining witnesses against Davis, they point out, is himself a suspect who has been incriminated by new witnesses.

This Article Continues Here

Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Preemtive Strike?

2008-03-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

Planned Parenthood, Hmmm, I believe this organization
came out of one of those Washington D.C. think tanks.
White folks have known for a very long time that one
day they would become the minority and they have
succeeded to some degree in slowing down the birth rate
of African Americans. Now what do they do about the
Latino's?

Is Planned Parenthood a racist organization with a covert mission to control black births? Well if you believe a UCLA right-to-life student newspaper called The Advocate and other reports, it would be hard to argue against that allegation.

Last Wednesday, in Idaho, Planned Parenthood officials apologized Wednesday for what they called an employee's "serious mistake" in encouraging a donation aimed at aborting black babies, reports the Idaho Statesman.

The organization also lashed out at The Advocate for trying to discredit employees in seven states in a series of tape-recorded phone calls last summer.

In Idaho, last July, The Adcocate's call went to Autumn Kersey, vice president of development and marketing for Planned Parenthood of Idaho. A recording provided by The Advocate has an actor portraying a donor saying that he wanted his money used to eliminate unborn black children because "the less black kids out there the better."

Laughing nervously, Kersey responds: "Understandable, understandable. ... Excuse my hesitation, this is the first time I've had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I'm excited and want to make sure I don't leave anything out."

The Advocate says this is evidence that Planned Parenthood targets minorities and minority neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, according to The Statesman, Planned Parenthood of Idaho "firmly and unequivocally" denounced racial bias, admitted making a mistake and said the group had taken corrective action.

"A fundraising employee violated the organization's principles and practices when she appeared to be willing to accept a racially motivated donation," said CEO Rebecca Poedy in a written statement. "We apologize for the manner in which this offensive call was handled. We take full responsibility for the actions of the fundraising staff member who created the impression that racism of any form would be tolerated at Planned Parenthood. We took swift action to ensure that each of our employees understands their responsibility to communicate clearly with donors about the fact that we believe in helping all individuals, regardless of gender, race, or sexual orientation, make informed decisions about their reproductive health care."

Where They Stand

2008-03-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

The weekend is here so let's take a moment
to see where the two democratic presidential
candidates are. The article below is quite
interesting. Take a look at it and let us know
what you think.

It's not exactly halftime. Most states have voted, and more than 80% of the delegates have been divvied up. Still, with more than five weeks left until the April 22 primary in Pennsylvania, the Democratic presidential race has entered a lull of sorts. So now seems a good time to pause and take a look at the scoreboard:

* Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has won 29 contests to 17 for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, if you include her disputed Michigan and Florida victories.

* Obama leads in the popular vote by just under 700,000 votes: 13.4 million for Obama, 12.7 million for Clinton. His lead holds up even if Michigan and Florida's votes are included.

* The delegate count varies, depending on who is doing the tallying, but news organizations and other independent aggregators give Obama a lead of about 100 to 150 delegates. (The Associated Press, which The Times uses for its head count, has Obama ahead 1,602 to 1,497.)

The Clinton campaign is quick to point out that her victories include most of the largest states, including California, Ohio and Texas. Which brings us to Pennsylvania.

Clinton may be trailing in the popular vote and delegate count, but her campaign has whipped Obama when it comes to setting expectations and spinning results. (Rule of thumb: The states Clinton has won are important; the ones that Obama has won aren't.)

Another Knife In The Back!

2008-03-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

Well it looks as if O.J. has been knifed in the back
once more by one of his buddies. I won't give it
away, instead I'll let you check out the article below
and you let me know what you think.

The Web site Smoking Gun is reporting that gossip site TMZ.com paid $165,000 to a witness in the O.J. Simpson armed robbery case for a copy of an audiotape he secretly made during the incident in a Las Vegas hotel room.

TMZ.com reportedly made the transaction last September, within days of the violent encounter between Simpson, his posse and two businessmen Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong.

Smoking Gun reports: Riccio, who orchestrated the Palace Station meeting, used a digital recorder to memorialize the confrontation, and then immediately contacted TMZ to negotiate a sale of the audio evidence. While he initially sought $2 million, Riccio settled for the six-figure payout, which is still likely the largest sum paid by a gossip site for a story.

In its original report about the tape, TMZ stated that it had "obtained" the recordings, avoiding any mention that their procurement was secured by a $165,000 check delivered to Riccio's Los Angeles home.