U.S. Goverment Apologizes For Slavery

Look what God has wrought. After 140 years of denying reality and continuing vestiges of what was once a respected institution in America, slavery, as of yesterday July 29, 2008, was apologized for by the U.S. Government. Taking the risk of seeming ungrateful, I say, "It's about time." Now, with that aside, where's our 40-acres and that mule, promised for every formerly enslaved person sometime during the Emancipation Proclamation. During these days of soaring gas prices, a mule may prove to be invaluable for alternative transportation. This is a historic occasion as important as the original Emancipation Proclamation.

House formally apologizes for slavery and Jim Crow

By JIM ABRAMS – AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Tuesday issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws.

"Today represents a milestone in our nation's efforts to remedy the ills of our past," said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The resolution, passed by voice vote, was the work of Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen, the only white lawmaker to represent a majority black district. Cohen faces a formidable black challenger in a primary face-off next week.

Congress has issued apologies before — to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II and to native Hawaiians for the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893. In 2005, the Senate apologized for failing to pass anti-lynching laws.

Five states have issued apologies for slavery, but past proposals in Congress have stalled, partly over concerns that an apology would lead to demands for reparations — payment for damages.

The Cohen resolution does not mention reparations. It does commit the House to rectifying "the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African-Americans under slavery and Jim Crow."

It says that Africans forced into slavery "were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage" and that black Americans today continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws that fostered discrimination and segregation.

The House "apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow."

"Slavery and Jim Crow are stains upon what is the greatest nation on the face of the earth," Cohen said. Part of forming a more perfect union, he said, "is such a resolution as we have before us today where we face up to our mistakes and apologize as anyone should apologize for things that were done in the past that were wrong."

Cohen became the first white to represent the 60 percent black district in Memphis in more than three decades when he captured a 2006 primary where a dozen black candidates split the vote. He has sought to reach out to his black constituents, and early in his term showed interest in joining the Congressional Black Caucus until learning that was against caucus rules.

Another of his first acts as a freshman congressman in early 2007 was to introduce the slavery apology resolution. His office said that the House resolution was brought to the floor only after learning that the Senate would be unable to join in a joint resolution.

More than a dozen of the 42 Congressional Black Caucus members in the House were original co-sponsors of the measure. The caucus has not endorsed either Cohen or his chief rival, attorney Nikki Tinker, in the Memphis primary, although Cohen is backed by several senior members, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. Tinker is the former campaign manager of Harold Ford, Jr., who held Cohen's seat until he stepped down in an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 2006.

The bill is H. Res. 194

Why Don't We Hear About This In The Media?

This is Naima Franklin, of Chicago, who was missing recently. Do you have any idea how many Black women go missing on a monthly and annual basis? Do you realize that the rate of women to go missing is so high that there almost has to be some sort of conspiracy going on to contribute to genocide by erasing young potential mothers and children before they have a chance? Some have been found; victims of foul play. Others haven't ever been seen again. What's happening here? I stumbled upon a Missing Black Women’s web site and decided to help alert everyone about this.

Click HERE for the website!

Click HERE for the archives!

Jena 6 Mychal Bell's Cousin Tasered By Police

Jena 6 Mychal Bell's Cousin Tasered By Police...Ruled Homicide...

Louisiana, US: Death of Man Tased Nine Times by Police Ruled Homicide

by Hiram Lee
July 27, 2008


A Louisiana coroner has ruled the January 2008 death of 21-year-old Baron Pikes at the hands of police was a homicide. Pikes, a sawmill worker from Winnfield, Louisiana, was killed while in police custody on January 17 after being shot nine times with a Taser gun.

Wanted on charges of drug possession, Pikes was approached by police, including Officer Scott Nugent, near a Winnfield grocery store on January 17. Police claim Pikes did not stop for them and a brief chase on foot ensued. Phillip Terry, an attorney representing Officer Nugent, has said his client caught up with Pikes and fought with him on the ground without help from his partner who “had just come back to the police department from triple bypass surgery and could not assist Officer Nugent.” Terrell says Nugent only resorted to firing his Taser when he had already exhausted “every means possible” to take Pikes into custody.

Dr. Randolph Williams, coroner for Winn Parish, has challenged the official story saying Pikes was already handcuffed when Nugent fired the first shot with his Taser. Additionally, Williams’s findings reveal that Pikes was struck with six 50,000-volt shocks at the arrest site within a period of three minutes. Following this rapid succession of electroshocks, Pikes was placed in a patrol car and driven to the police station. Once there, Pikes was tased again while seated in the back of the patrol car, taking the seventh shot directly to his chest.

Dr. Williams told CNN in a recent interview that following the seventh shock, “[Pikes] was pulled out of the car onto the concrete. He was electroshocked two more times, which two officers noted that he had no neuromuscular response to those last two 50,000-volt electroshocks.” Williams says Pikes may already have been dead when the last two shots were fired. Police carried Pikes’ body into the station before calling an ambulance.

Dr. Williams, who has been extremely vocal in his criticism of the police, found that the use of Tasers in the incident that led to Pikes’ death “violated every aspect—every single aspect—of the department’s policy about its use.”

While no decision has yet been made as to whether Officer Nugent will face criminal charges for his actions, the officer has been fired by the City Council since the January incident. While Nugent apparently had a clean record, it has been revealed that of the 14 times Tasers have been used by Winnfield police since officers received them last year, 10 involved Nugent. A testament to racial tensions in the small town, no less than 12 of those 14 incidents involved black suspects.

The death of Baron Pikes, who was black, at the hands of Officer Nugent, who is white, has ignited the already tense racial situation in Winnfield, leading to angry protests. In a strange and tragic coincidence, Baron Pikes was the first cousin of Mychal Bell, one of the defendants in the infamous “Jena Six” case, which saw six black high school students from Jena, Louisiana fall victim to a racist prosecution for the schoolyard confrontation with a white classmate. Winnfield is just 40 miles northwest of Jena.

An earlier victim of Nugent’s tasing was a black teenager who had snuck out of his house to meet a girl. “I asked the police to bring him home,” the boy’s father is quoted as saying in the Chicago Tribune, “and they did, but in pieces—he was all scraped up and bruised. They told me the next time he runs, ‘You know we’re going to shoot him.’”

Read and Hear more HERE

Army, Why Lie? Who Killed LaVena Johnson?

Fellow St. Louis blogger Phillip Barron of WaveFlux fame has done an amazing job covering the case of PFC Johnson on his blog and on a separate site, LaVena Johnson dot com, where there is a petition seeking to compel the Army to reopen their investigation into PFC Johnson’s death.

The army ruled the death of PFC Johnson a suicide despite physical evidence inconsistent with suicide. As Philip relates in the first post on the LaVena Johnson petition site, that evidence includes “indications of physical abuse that went unremarked by the autopsy, the absence of psychological indicators of suicidal thoughts; indeed, testimony that LaVena was happy and healthy prior to her death, indications, via residue tests, that LaVena may not even have handled the weapon that killed her, a blood trail outside the tent where Lavena's body was found and indications that someone attempted to set LaVena's body on fire.”

The name of Corporal Pat Tillman, who died as result of friendly fire, and the story of the cover-up of his cause of death has held firm in the national press with good reason. Corporal Tillman was a sports hero who gave up millions for a military career after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

And who can forget the perfect script of a rescue that was the story of PFC Jessica Lynch? The war hungry media latched onto the Jessica Lynch capture and rescue story and there was even a movie made. But the truth of it all… a truth Lynch testified to before Congress…took years to come out.

Meanwhile the family of LaVena Johnson must fight for a legitimate investigation into her cause of death without the assistance of the national media or public outcry.

Read MORE

Sign the petition to Congress: PETITION

Burning Fever

Yesterday Sadr city; before that Amara; tomorrow God knows what place we would look at only to find people in different states of misery, poverty and fear.

It is better - It is better, everyone chants in an effort to strengthen their resolve to live on and not die in despair - And it is.

Not tens upon tens killed every day.

Not stunningly violent as it used to be - but still a long way from reaching square one.

We have a saying in Arabic that goes, "He who comes face to face with death is content to have a burning fever."

We now have a burning fever and people have no choice but to be "happy" not to be dead. Is that really what we can call good?

What are our ambitions? What happened to them? They have become so humble.

Just to stay alive. We are supremely happy just to stay alive.

We talk to people and they are supremely happy just to be alive. We ask them what they think of the quality of their lives and most look incomprehensively in our faces, "We're alive aren't we?"

Nancy, our acting bureau chief announced a pool party today, and a little reluctantly I joined the group at around five. Once in the water, fully clothed though I was, I came face to face with the deprivation we are living. A flashback into our former lives was like a punch in the gut. When will we reach square one - When! The armour around my soul fell and I saw what I was reluctant to see - That I was just as happy with my burning fever, and although I am perfectly aware that the violence was political and that it was to achieve just this result, that we should be happy just to be alive and to hell with everything else - it has actually worked. OMG! The numbness caused by all the violence has born fruit - And our people are happy just to be alive!

This revelation didn't stop me from playing ball in the pool, I'm afraid.


From Inside Iraq Blog

Obama - Well Loved Around the World

Berlin Awaits the 'Next JFK'
By STEPHANIE KIRCHNER
Wednesday, Jul. 23, 2008


Walking around Berlin recently, the American visitor could be forgiven for thinking Germany was the 51st state in the Union — and that it would vote heavily for Senator Barack Obama on November 4. Joggers in local parks proudly sport Obama T shirts; the trendy expat hangout White Trash Fast Food was turned into an Obama campaign center for a day; and a city magazine has published instructions on how to craft little American flags to wave in welcoming the junior Senator from Illinois, who visits on Thursday.

The city has been buzzing with anticipation over Obama's visit, and his reported request to use the Brandenburg Gate as the backdrop for his only public address in Europe sparked a local media frenzy. Chancellor Angela Merkel reacted with "bewilderment" to the Senator's request to speak at this historically charged location and appeared concerned that approving the request would be interpreted as taking sides in the U.S. presidential race. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, for his part, welcomed the suggestion that Obama speak at a venue rendered iconic by John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, saying it was "a vital expression of German-American friendship."



Read MORE

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Tyler Perry's "The Family That Preys" - 9/12/2008

Alicia Keye's New Vid - Superwoman

Blackface & Watermelon???

Who makes decisions such as what will be featured on the covers of national/international magazines?

A satire? I bet! More than likely it is a marketing ploy to increase notoriety and sales. Or could it be thinly disguised RACISM. Rightly or wrongly, Blacks in the United States of America have had to deploy racial discrimination detectors for all of our tenure. In many cases, we couldn't have survived the workplace, society, or any facet of the American culture. Surely, the artist, as well as those who sanctioned this cover, knew the negative effect such imagery could generate. They might as well had featured them in blackface and eating watermelon, which could have been condoned in the name of "satire!"

The Bad Frame: Why Are the New Yorker, Salon and Other Liberal Media Doing the Right's Dirty Work?

By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted July 14, 2008

The New Yorker magazine hits the newsstands today with a shocking cover -- a caricature of Barack and Michelle Obama depicting the presidential candidate in a turban, fist-bumping his wife who has a machine gun slung over her shoulder, while the American flag burns in the fireplace. The cover is shocking in that it depicts the Obamas in bizarre, caricatured images and associations that reflect the very stereotypes with which the conservatives, particularly Fox News, have been trying to frame both the Obamas. Thus, instead of satire, the cover becomes a political poster for conservatives to reinforce their messages. Sen. Obama was shown the cover image by a reporter covering the campaign on Sunday, and while seemingly taken aback, he declined to comment.

But the Obama campaign quickly put out a release condemning the magazine cover. Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama, said in a statement: "The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

Unfortunately the impact of this image will extend far beyond the reading audience of the New Yorker; cable news and the right-wing media noise machine will amplify the derogatory image to millions more. And the New Yorker of course will reap enormous publicity, clearly translating to increased sales and notoriety for the brand, and for corporate owner Conde Nast -- one of the largest and most powerful media companies in America.

But the publicity could very well backfire. Editor David Remnick and artist Barry Blitt's attempt at satire seems so arrogant and indulgent in its insensitivity, and so out of touch with political and media dynamics of tabloid TV and blogs, that it just might make a lot of people angry, including some subscribers. The cover turns the magazine into a potential Molotov cocktail, to be gleefully tossed by Fox News and the conservative blogs, into the already combustible tinderbox of race and Muslim stereotypes just below the surface of America's public discourse.

Read the full article HERE

Read other coverage of this dastardly act HERE

Gerald Campbell - This Battle Is Not Yours!

The Decline vs. Whiners

After President Bush's whirlwind tour of Europe, it got me thinking about the health of America's influence on the world stage since Bush came to power.

This administration has divided once staunch allies, went in virtually alone without the critical international support and approval and created the modern day debacle that is Iraq. In the eyes of the world community America's reputation has diminished and it has created differences between allies. We see the effects of this today with the EU's lifting of China's arms ban, their diplomatic approach to Iran and Russia selling nuclear material to Iran. Bush's tour already looks like it has been unsuccessful and the European nations are no longer filing behind America and towing the line.

Europe is now taking a different path than America and on the world stage is defining it's own role. China is an increasingly growing in economic power and it's military capabilities have exponentially improved over the last 15 years, soon it will be strong enough to take on Taiwan. The Bush Administrations sabre rattling is only making things worse and China will only continue to invest even more into improving their military capability which inturn will greatly increase their influence and power in the entire region.

The Bush Administration's rhetoric of the 'axis of evil' has contributed to the supposed development of nuclear weapons in the Korean peninsula and in Iran, which could spark off a global arms race in the entire Asian continent and may make the NPT worthless.

Today we see that the Bush Administration is eying Iran with Bush's "all options are on the table" and unmanned drone's already probing defenses and it's recent rhetoric and exploitation of what has happened in Lebanon to vilify Syria in the world communities eyes so that it may overthrow the government.

The US military is already overstretched and has no near term exit strategy for Iraq, yet the Bush Administration continues to eye it's neighbors as potential targets, risking creating a massive insurgent triangle.

Economically, the US budget deficit is running into the hundreds of billions while in 2000 it was at a healthy 200 billion surplus. National government debt is at around $8 trillion, the highest in the world and total domestic debt is at approximately $37 trillion. There is a huge trade deficit and China is doing extremely well in the US. The dream run of the 90s and the Clinton Administration's fiscal conservatism have all but been thrown out the window with the Bush Administrations policy of cutting taxes while making the government bigger. The US dollar has lost major ground and has lost much confidence and many commodities and nations are changing to the Euro.

Politically, there seems to be a wishing among the populace for the 'old days' as grass roots conservatives have gained considerable popularity among the American populace. The 2000 election debacle was a sign that all was not well in America's democracy. Non-mandatory voting has made a minority of the nation decide who runs the nation.

Deregulation of the US media has put the hands of the press into the hands of a few corporate giants under the 'veil' of a "free" press. Each giant promotes it's own political and corporate agenda and news stories are skewed and censorship is becoming commonplace for stories that hurt the corporations bottom line. We live in a world today where the state-run media stations by the Industrialized west are the one's who have reporters who's hands are not tied.

All these conclusions I have come to from what I have seen and gathered lately make me believe that we are seeing the decline of America as the global superpower and as the leader of the Western World. I believe the Bush Administration is the major cause of this, as what has seemingly happened is that the PNAC (Project For A New American Century) Agenda (invade Iraq, exploit a Pearl Harbor type event to get the support of a more pro-active role in preserving America's superpower status) has actually been the first nails in the coffin of the American hegemony and the return of the bipolar world or even a tripolar world.

So my question is to you : Do you think America is in decline?? Do you think we are witnessing the beginnings of the end of American Hegemony?

I hope to see responses from all sides of the fence, from all over the world and from Conservatives and Socialists alike.

This post from Is America in decline?

See too, Anxious In America

Rev. Jesse Jackson on Barack Obama: I Wanna Cut His Nuts Off

Why? Why would a professional person, a minister of the Gospel, a would-be politician, and a leader of my people utter such words, knowing the possibility of them being broadcast, and destroying many years of his carefully cultivated personal image.

As reported in the Detroit Free Press newspaper on July 10, 2008, "The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s unintentionally announced desire to castrate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama calls to mind former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young’s assessment of Jackson during Jackson’s 1980 presidential campaign: “He’s never run anything but his mouth.’'"

I've always had a lot of respect for Rev. Jackson and his astuteness. But, if he can't do any better than this, he doesn't have the sense he (or even I) was born with. He needs to go to the corner, face the wall, and stay there until I tell him to come out!

Miracle at St. Anna - Trailer

This is a Spike Lee movie, soon to be released -- Sept. 26. It's clearly a winner. Just as I observed about Spike Lee a few years ago, I anxiously anticipate his future releases as he gains experience and more wisdom.

THE SKY IS FALLING!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!

Received this in my e-mail this morning and it's actually the second time receiving it in a couple of years. I'm slightly upset when I think of all the other people who may be simultaneously receiving the same thing or variations of this message. Many will take this as a serious matter and may respond in turn. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! It's a scam, calculated to play upon your worst fears, to separate you from your money. Want to know more about this scam? CLICK HERE!

SOMEONE YOU CALL YOUR FRIEND, WANTS YOU DEAD

I felt very sorry and bad for you, that your life is going to end like this if you don't comply, i was paid to eliminate you and I have to do it within10 days.Someone you call your friend wants you dead by all means, and the person have spent a lot of money on this, the person also came to us and told us that he wants you dead and he provided us all necessary information we needed about you. If you are in doubt with this I will send you to death.

Now do you want to LIVE OR DIE? It is up to you. $9,000 is all you need to pay. You will first of all pay $1, 500 then I will send the tape of the person that want you dead and some information about the person, when the tape gets to you, you will pay the remaining $7,500. Warning! Don`t of contacting any body or authority for your interest.

Mr. Jacks H. Killer.

A Child Speaks Out To the World

Capitalists, Communists, Socialists, Radicals, and everyone else; PLEASE LISTEN!