White Party McNegro House Candidate Mia Love Receives Racist Mail

NewsOne

U.S. Congressional GOP candidate Mia Love who is currently the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, received racist mail at her office on Tuesday, the Deseret News reports.

Saratoga Springs police are investigating the mailing.

City Manager Mark Christensen describe the contents of the envelop as “disturbing” and “pretty freaky stuff” but stopped short of calling it a security risk. “I couldn’t tell if it was threatening or anything. It kind of shocked me, what I saw,” he told the Desseret News.

The mailing included “a picture of Love and her husband, Jason, and a hooded Ku Klux Klan character. There also were pictures of aborted fetuses, the Deseret News quoted Christensen as saying.

Saratoga Springs Police Chief Gary Hicken has assigned an officer to investigate the mailing. “I can say it’s racial in nature but I can’t tell you it’s criminal in nature,” he said.

The city has received mailed aimed at Love in the past, but this time the contents of the latest mailing was enough to involve police. Love did not review all of the contents in the envelope. But she took a defiant tone when asked about the incident.

“I want you to know, I want everyone to know I am comfortable in my skin. I’m comfortable and proud of my heritage. I’m proud of who I am. I know where I’m going and I know what we need to do to get this country back in order again. There isn’t anything that anyone can send me that will distract me from that so they can bring it,” she said.

The Deseret News reports that Love feels she was targeted because her candidacy poses a threat to President Barack Obama’s policies.

“I knew that people would come after me,” Love said. “I knew that people would try to change and distort information so I’m going to focus on things that are really important.”

Love is currently in a tight battled to unseat Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson in Utah’s new 4th Congressional District. She was featured as one of the rising Black GOP stars at this year’s National Republican Convention in Tampa, Fla.

The Washington Post And The Emergence Of Post-Truth Journalism

MediaMatters

Welcome to the age of post-truth journalism.

Glenn Kessler, the resident fact checker at The Washington Post, took Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney to task last month for continuing to accuse President Obama of going on an "apology tour," writing with clear exasperation: "Despite earning Four Pinocchios for months, Romney keeps saying this." 

Kessler's lament neatly sums up the problem of post-truth politics, a problem that has plagued the political press throughout the campaign, as pants-on-fire falsehoods accusing Obama of ending welfare work requirements, and four Pinnochio fabrications about Medicare funding were repeated on a loop en route to a Republican National convention built on the "you didn't build that" lie and focusing on Paul Ryan's fact-free convention speech.

Put simply by Boston Phoenix political journalist David Bernstein:

More important for media professionals: What do you do when people employed by your own media outlet practice post-truth journalism? What if the entire news media, including your own in-house fact-checker, has called out your colleague's lie, but he keeps pressing it? Now what?

Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, came under fire this week over a self-evidently false attack in the Post questioning President Obama's commitment to national security. 

The central claim in Thiessen's September 10 column was that Obama has not prioritized national security. Thiessen's evidence was a report (a report, it later turned out, that he commissioned) claiming that Obama has not attended half of his daily intelligence briefings.

The column itself was self-defeating: Thiessen acknowledged in the column that Obama reads his intelligence briefing every day, quoting a spokesman for the National Security Council who said that Obama "reads his [security briefing] every day." All Thiessen is quibbling over is whether Obama has his briefing dictated to him, or whether he reads it.

Perhaps book on tape would satisfy the Post scribe?

Thiessen's self-evident falsehood, published in the Post, became fodder for a Karl Rove ad, at which point Kessler weighed in, giving the "bogus" and "misguided attack" three Pinnochios.

Thiessen quickly thumbed his nose at the Post's fact checker

And Thiessen is not alone in the Post's stable of post-truth columnists. In a September 28 column, Charles Krauthammerclaimed that Obama's entire Middle East foreign policy has been built on apologies - the very basis of Kessler's exasperated Aug. 30 critique of Romney. 

Despite earning four Pinnochios for months, the Post keeps printing this? 

Grist's David Roberts, one of the first bloggers to use the term "post-truth politics" explained the problem this environment creates for journalists:

A key feature of the post-truth political landscape is that there are no longer universally recognized arbiters or referees of fact. The right has their own media ecosystem. Why should they care what journos outside it say?

Shouldn't media organizations at the very least care what the in-house fact-checkers say?  

That, of course, assumes there are any in-house fact checkers.

After Newsweek came under scrutiny in August for publishing a Niall Ferguson column riddled with falsehoods, attention turned to fact that Newsweek doesn't maintain a fact-checking department and instead relies on their writers to be factual and accurate.  Even when those writers are acknowledged Romney supporters.

In response to the Newsweek controversy, The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote in defense of fact-checking:

When I worked at Washington City Paper there was a hard rule about a writer's errors per year ratio. You get one wrong, you were invited in for an unpleasant chat. You got another wrong, you were invited in for a more unpleasant chat and you went on probation. You got another wrong and you were shown the door.

Coates' words ring particularly true this week: can a media entity like the Post deploy a model of fact-checking that has no apparent accountability?

Earlier this year, then-New York Times public editor Arthur Brisbane sparked a spirited debate when he questioned whether journalists should be expected to act as truth vigilantes. The consensus among media observers was that journalists should, in fact, strive to ascertain the truth behind claims that they print or broadcast.

Perhaps the more pertinent question is: how do media hold their own publications accountable to the facts?

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Why Isn't Fox News Covering Florida "Voter Fraud" Story? Hint: It Involves The GOP

Media Matters for America

Four years ago Fox News helped turn ACORN into a dirty word among conservatives by leading an often-hysterical right-wing crusade against the community activist group, charging it time and again with "voter fraud" on behalf of candidate Obama. In order to bolster its flimsy "voter fraud" attacks, the network repeatedly harped on reports that ACORN canvassers had submitted questionable voter registration forms.

Yet this week Fox has shown little interest in covering the unfolding story out of Florida, where the state's Republican Party has cut ties with a consulting firm accused of handing in more than 100 dubious voter registration forms.

From Tuesday night's Palm Beach Post: 

The Republican Party of Florida is dumping a firm it paid more than $1.3 million to register new voters, after Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher flagged 106 "questionable" registration applications turned in by the contractor this month.

In an interview with blogger Brad Friedman, Bucher described the  "similarities in the signatures and certain characteristics in the applications that were very disturbing" on registration applications collected by the firm. The "disturbing" defects on the forms included addresses of existing registered voters changed to commercial buildings or addresses and, "in some places, they were changing political parties."

Yesterday, Michael Isikoff reported that the registration troubles had spread:

NBC News has learned that four other Florida counties have also reported hundreds of possible fraudulent registration forms submitted by the firm, including apparent dead people being registered as new voters. Prosecutors in two counties are investigating possible voter fraud by the GOP consulting firm, officials said.  

And Thursday afternoon, Republicans in Colorado also pulled the plug on the voter registration firm, Strategic Allied Consulting, run by veteran GOP consultant Nathan Sproul.

The allegations lodged against Sproul's company are similar to the ones ACORN faced in 2008; workers submitted voter registration forms that contained dubious information. In `08, that was enough to light a short fuse on Fox News and within the right-wing media, as players rushed in to condemn the independent ACORN group as a corrupt and a criminal extension of the Obama campaign. (In 2009, a majority of Republicans believed ACORN had stolen the election for Obama.)

Note that in the unfolding Florida story, the firm in question was paid directly by the Republican Party and is accused of ACORN-like activities. But on Fox News, it's crickets.

In fact this morning, Brian Kilmeade hosted a Fox & Friends panel discussion about voter fraud. In 2008, the allegation that ACORN submitted questionable registration forms was routinely referred to and condemned as "voter fraud" on Fox. (To this day, Fox treats misaddressed voter registration forms as "fraud.") But this morning, Kilmeade and his guests made no mention of the fact that the Republican Party was just forced to fire a consulting firm for submitting potentially bogus voter registration forms; forms being reviewed by local law enforcement.

At Fox News, the hotbed for "voter fraud" stories, the embarrassing news from Florida is of little concern.

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You Are Being Watched

LewRockwell

Video of handcuffed Black woman slammed by White Norwood Police Officer released - Investigation Continues

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Palestine Conditions "More Brutal" Than in U.S. South of 50 Years Ago, Says Author Alice Walker

Democracy Now

We continue our conversation with the legendary poet, author and activist, Alice Walker, who has also been a longtime advocate for the rights of Palestinians. Last summer, she was one of the activists on the U.S. ship that attempted to sail to Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla aimed at challenging Israel’s embargo of the Gaza Strip. Alice Walker also serves on the jury of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, an international people’s tribunal created in 2009 to bring attention to the responsibility other states bear for Israel’s violations of international law. Walker describes her upbringing in the segregated South, then goes on to discuss today’s segregation in the Occupied Territories. "The unfairness of it is so much like the South. It’s so much like the South of 50 years ago, really, and actually more brutal, because in Palestine so many more people are wounded, shot, shot, killed, imprisoned. You know, there are thousands of Palestinians in prison virtually for no reason,” Walker says. [includes rush transcript]

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Senate Subcommittee Hearing Focuses on Hate Crimes in Wake of Sikh Temple Shooting

Civilrights.org

In response to the recent shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, that left six members of the Sikh religious community dead, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights held a hearing on the enforcement of federal anti-hate crime laws and the need to ensure that all communities are receiving adequate protection.

2 Ohio Counties Set Early Voting Hours On Contested Weekend

ThinkProgress 

Ohio boards of election are starting to implement plans for early voting hours after a court order lifted the ban on early voting the last weekend before Election Day. Jefferson County and Wayne County have set their own hours on that last weekend in spite of Secretary of State Jon Husted’s plea that state election boards wait until after his appeal to restrict voting on that weekend. Husted initially refused to comply with the court order and issued a directive prohibiting local boards of election from setting hours that weekend, saying it would “only serve to confuse voters.” Husted later caved after he was ordered to appear before the judge to explain his defiance.

White Party (GOP) Paid $3.1 Million To Firm Under Investigation For Voter Registration Fraud

ThinkProgress

The Republican National Committee is cutting ties to Strategic Allied Consulting, a voter registration firm under investigation for turning in fraudulent voter registration forms in Florida. The RNC hired the firm to do voter registration drives for $3.1 million this year.

The firm’s founder, Nathan Sproul, is a longtime Republican strategist whose reputation was tarred by widespread accusations of voter registration fraud and attempts to suppress Democratic voter turnout. George W. Bush’s campaign reportedly paid Sproul over $8 million for his work in the 2004 election. Sproul, now under new scrutiny, claims he started Strategic Allied Consulting because the RNC wanted to hide his past:

Sproul said he created Strategic Allied Consulting at the RNC’s request because the party wanted to avoid being publicly linked to the past allegations. The firm was set up at a Virginia address, and Sproul does not show up on the corporate paperwork.

“In order to be able to do the job that the state parties were hiring us to do, the [RNC] asked us to do it with a different company’s name, so as to not be a distraction from the false information put out in the Internet,” Sproul said.

The committee is now scrambling to distance itself from Sproul after Florida launched a criminal investigation into the company. Strategic Allied Consulting submitted 106 “questionable” voter registration forms to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, and several other counties have discovered fraudulent forms as well. The Florida GOP fired the firm on Tuesday night.

Republicans have launched relentless efforts to prevent in-person voter fraud, which is exceptionally rare, yet seem to have ignored the real threat of voter registration fraud by their own consultant. In a twist one Florida Supervisor of Elections called “ironic,” Sproul’s organization was in fact registering dead voters as Republicans, even as Republican lawmakers all over the country justified discriminatory voter purges with the threat of dead voters showing up to the polls.

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Anti-Islam video 'producer' Nakoula arrested

Aljazeera A California man linked to an anti-Islam video that stoked violent protests across the Muslim world was ordered held without bond over accusations he violated his probation linked to a prior conviction for bank fraud. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula was taken into custody on Thursday at an undisclosed location by US marshals and brought to court in downtown Los Angeles. The 55-year-old has been under investigation by probation officials looking into whether he violated the terms of his 2011 release from prison while making the film. He might face new charges that carry a maximum two-year prison term, and will remain behind bars until another hearing where a judge will rule on his case. Nakoula was jailed in 2010 for federal check fraud and sentenced to 21 months in prison.   As a condition of his release, he was barred from accessing the internet or using aliases without the permission of a probation officer, court records show.

US rapidly increased electronic surveillance

Rt.com

The US Justice Department has wiretapped the phones of more Americans in the last two years than the entire decade before it, and federal surveillance targeting the Internet usage of US civilians has surged wildly, new FOIA documents reveal.

The American Civil Liberties Union published documents late Wednesday that they received from the Justice Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request the organization filed earlier this year. According to the papers, certain phone-tapping procedures have increased by 60 percent between 2009 and 2011, and the surveillance of email and other Internet data has been authorized in court by an increase of 361 percent during the same span.

The ACLU asked the Justice Department back in January to supply them with records regarding the annual statistics reports on the use of pen register and trap and trace devices, two methods of surveillance that can target information sent to and from phones, computers and other electronic devices. Now with proof in their hands, the ACLU can conclude again that the government had ramped up its secret surveillance of Americans with concrete evidence from the District Attorney’s office that shows rampant spy programs are targeting more and more US citizens.

Pen register and trap and trade devices, the ACLU acknowledges, are “powerfully invasive surveillance tools” that at one point consisted of physical, hard equipment that attaches to phone lines to intercept communication. Today’s technology allows surveillance to be conducted without attaching actual devices in the same manner, allowing the capturing of correspondence to be that much easier.

The devices are used to capture outgoing and incoming data pertaining to specifics communication, but do not include the actual contents of the discussion. It does, however, mean that any federal agency granted permission to place a pen register or trap and trace device can still see the “to” and “from” fields of email messages sent and received, as well as the time, date, length and numbers involved in phone conversations and records about IP addresses accessed by web browsers and basic instant messaging identification.

“Because these surveillance powers are not used to capture telephone conversations or the bodies of emails, they are classified as ‘non-content’ surveillance tools, as opposed to tools that collect ‘content,’ like wiretaps,” Naomi Gilens of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project explains. “This means that the legal standard that law enforcement agencies must meet before using pen registers is lower than it is for wiretaps and other content-collecting technology.”

“Americans have a strong interest in understanding how frequently and under what circumstances their communications are the targets of pen registers and trap and trace devices. The people we communicate with through the telephone and Internet and the web pages we choose to visit can reveal a great deal about us, including the identities of our close friends and associates and what topics interest us when we engage in private sessions of reading and research,” the ACLU wrote when they filed their FOIA request earlier this year (.pdf). “It is important to Americans' privacy and their ability to feel secure when availing themselves of new communications technologies that they understand the degree to which these technologies are subject to government surveillance.”

In a post published on the ACLU’s website this week, Gilens adds that the only paperwork necessary to tap phones and emails using the technology is a judge’s signature on a certificate that says that investigators believe the information may be relevant to a criminal probe.

“As long as it completes this simple procedural requirement, the government may proceed with pen register or trap and trace surveillance, without any judge considering the merits of the request,” Gilens adds.

In 1995, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit sharply critiques the ease in which these requests can be granted, ruling, “The judicial role in approving use of trap and trace devices is ministerial in nature.”

According to the just-released info, 37,616 pen registers and trap and trace devices were authorized to target the phone calls of Americans in 2011 alone. Barely 5,000 orders were signed in the year 2000.

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Virginia GOP Group Definitely, Definitely Not Racist

Wonkette

There are probably, somewhere, very reasonable members of the contemporary GOP who are genuinely interested in improving political discourse in a way that is constructive, well-reasoned, and responsible. You could find them, if you looked.

A tip: Don’t bother searching in Mecklenburg County, Virginia.

Turns out, the people running the local GOP outfit there are a smidge… racially insensitive. Not in the “Suggest that his brownness indicates he is less fit for college/the presidency/America in general” way, either — in that way where they post pictures of the president wearing a Nobel Peace Prize on a giant gold chain

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Virginia Voting Machines Have “Vulnerability” to Wireless Sabotage

Allthingsd

In this November’s presidential election, Virginia voters will cast ballots on machines that use wireless technology state lawmakers barred five years ago to protect voting machines from hackers.

Continued reliability and security concerns over electronic voting are not unique to Virginia, or to machines that use wireless technology, but the case illustrates the credibility issues that have plagued electronic voting machines in use across the country in the aftermath of the messy 2000 presidential election, when the federal government mandated changes to election systems and processes.

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Latino Organizations Demand Apology from Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser

LatinoFox

A coalition of 30 national Latino organizations is demanding an apology from Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser after he swore at a prominent Hispanic leader.

Kaiser allegedly cursed out Felix Sanchez, the chairman for the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts.

“There is no excuse for Mr. Kaiser’s outburst and it should not and cannot be tolerated,” Janet Murguia, President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, said in a statement sent to Fox News Latino. “He profoundly disrespected our colleague Felix Sanchez and the Latino community, a community that merits inclusion and fairness, not insults, when it comes to one of the nation’s highest cultural honors."

Sanchez said Kaiser told him to “go f*** yourself” after he called the foundation's president to discuss the lack of Latino artists being named Kennedy Center honorees. Kaiser then abruptly hung up.

“Of course, they have no good answer and so it was easy to get infuriated and to simply dismiss me and my criticism of the Kennedy Center honors,” Sanchez said. “Rather than consider that there is no answer, that there is no defense because the actions are indefensible, he resorted to profanity and hanging the phone up on me.”

Kaiser did not return phone calls seeking comment. But John Dow, a spokesman for the Kennedy Center, said the conversation between Sanchez and Kaiser "in no way alters the long-standing commitment to a robust and diverse programming agenda at the Kennedy Center."

"Over the past four decades, the Center has presented performances from a wide range of national and international artists representing an unequalled diversity of cultures, including Latino and Hispanic heritages."

Kaiser told the Washington Post that he regretted using “strong language.”

“I’ve spent much of the last 20 years working with organizations of color in this country–African American, Latino, Asian American, Native American…," Kaiser told the Post. "This is a real part of who I am, and so when someone insinuates that I am a racist, it gets me really upset.”

Currently, only two Hispanics out of more than 170 honorees have been selected since 1978. The NHFA and NHLA have sent a letter to the Kennedy Center, President Barack Obama, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus requesting for more Latinos to being recognized.

Sanchez said Kaiser has yet to contact Sanchez personally about what happened.

“First of all, I asked him why are you excluding Latinos and he interpreted that as being accused of racism,” explained Sanchez. “He took that to mean I was implying that he was a racist. Since Latinos are not a race, if I had been going in that direction, I would have been talking about bigotry."

Sanchez said it shows how little Kaiser understands the community.

"And there’s no political name more closely associated with the Latino community than the Kennedy's,” he said. 

In 1960, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy released a Spanish-language campaign ad. She traveled to southwest Texas with husband John F. Kennedy to ask for the Mexican-American vote, the first time, Sanchez says, that had ever occurred. In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy met with civil rights activist César E. Chávez, also recognized as a champion for migrant workers. 

And until his death in 2009, Senator Ted Kennedy promoted immigration rights and pushed for legislation on immigration reform. 

During Kaiser’s 12 years as President of the Kennedy Center, only Spanish tenor Placido Domingo and Puerto Rican performer Chita Rivera have been honored.  

But Kasier told the Post: “There will be more.”

Dow, the spokesman, said the center and Kaiser himself try hard to be inclusive and enable minority "institutions to develop stronger management teams to ensure their own successes and a vibrant and diverse national cultural life. The Kennedy Center will not waver from its commitment to diversity."

While Kaiser has yet to respond to the coalition’s call for an apology, Sanchez hopes this situation will raise more awareness concerning Latinos being honored, all while improving the selection process at the Kennedy Center.

“When you have a secretive process you get this kind of outcome,” said Sanchez. “We have to shed some sunlight in the selection process and that means giving the responsibility to the Kennedy Center board, which is presidentially elected. And the White House has to be involved and engaged in the selection process as well."

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Labor Group Revives George Allen Racism in New Ad

NYT

As George Allen battles to regain his seat in the United States Senate from Virginia, one important name has not been mentioned — until now.

“Macaca.”

That word — a term that can refer to monkeys — torpedoed Mr. Allen’s re-election campaign in 2006 after he was caught on video using it to describe a young man of Indian descent at a campaign rally. The video instantly went viral online, one of the first such examples on YouTube.

The incident sparked weeks of national news about Mr. Allen’s past, including allegations that the Republican senator had embraced symbols of racial hatred during his political career and in his personal life.

Mr. Allen’s opponent this year, Tim Kaine, the former governor of Virginia, has steered away from all of that, preferring to argue that Mr. Allen’s economic and policy record make him unfit for a return to the Senate.

But now, a labor group backing Mr. Kaine’s election is trying to raise it all again with a series of small, online advertisements that note each of the most unsavory allegations against Mr. Allen. The ads were created by workersvoice.org, a political arm of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.

One notes that Mr. Allen “kept a noose in his office” and shows a picture of Mr. Allen giving a thumbs up next to a hangman’s noose. Mr. Allen has always claimed the noose was a lasso intended to represent cowboys.

Another banner ad says that Mr. Allen hung a Confederate flag in his living room; he said it was a symbol of youthful rebellion. A third ad notes, correctly, that as a member of the Virginia state legislature, he voted against a holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (The state celebrated Lee-Jackson-King Day for 16 years.)

A fourth ad revives the controversy over “macaca” by simply printing that word next to Mr. Allen’s picture.

“George Allen kept a noose and a Confederate flag in his office and anyone who would insult the African-American and Latino people of Virginia this way is not fit to hold office,” said Eddie Vale, the communications director for the group. “This is similar to, but even more offensive, than Mitt Romney secretly attacking 47 percent of all Americans.”

Emily Davis, a spokeswoman for Mr. Allen, said in a statement: “It is disappointing to see that Tim Kaine and his union allies would stoop to this level rather than talk about the very serious issues facing Virginia families and small businesses. George Allen has apologized and forthrightly addresses these old accusations, but when he is on the campaign trail he is hearing from Virginia families and small businesses concerned about skyrocketing fuel costs, burdensome regulations and increased taxes that are bringing uncertainty.”

The revival of questions about Mr. Allen’s racial attitudes is clearly an effort to help Mr. Kaine break away from Mr. Allen in what has been one of the closest Senate elections in the country. Mr. Kaine, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has been targeted by national conservative groups with millions of dollars of negative television ads.

Will it work?

It could. The intensity of the “macaca” coverage in 2006 made Mr. Allen toxic among donors, dashed his hopes of becoming a serious contender for the 2008 Republican presidential primary, and ultimately cost him his re-election against the Democrat, Jim Webb.

But the stories have faded now. There are plenty of new voters in Virginia who may have little memory of all that coverage. If the labor group can remind them effectively, it could cause Mr. Allen problems again.

But it also could backfire. Despite all of the negative coverage — including, for weeks, reporting about whether Mr. Allen had used a particularly offensive racial epithet often aimed at African-Americans — Mr. Allen came within just a few thousand votes of winning re-election. (He denied using the epithet.)

The avalanche of negativity was seen by political observers as evidence that many Virginia voters were turned off by the series of attacks. Mr. Allen could tap into that sentiment if Mr. Kaine’s allies try a reprise of the 2006 campaign.

Odds are that Mr. Kaine’s advisers are smart enough to avoid getting drawn into the attacks. Better for them if their allies can make the attacks work without any strings attached.

But in the end, it’s also possible that the whole thing could just fizzle this time around.

The economy in 2012 is very different than it was in 2006. People are out of work. Housing values have plummeted. The appetite for personal attacks that date back decades may have faded in the face of those more serious issues.

If so, look for “macaca” to once again become part of YouTube’s early viral history.

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Talib Kweli on Bloomberg: Treats Some New Yorkers as Second Class Citizens

Politicker

Earlier today, Talib Kweli spoke before a raucous police reform rally just outside City Hall, and he let the crowd know what he really thinks of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the way he encourages the NYPD to treat some New Yorkers as “second-class” citizens.

“I wrote some things down but I just want start by telling y’all that I came here today because I love this city,” Mr. Kweli said to begin his speech. “This is the greatest city in the world, that’s why I’m here today. But I’m here today because this city could be greater.”

The rapper mainly focused on the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy, which involves stopping and searching suspicious individuals for guns. In practice, this tactic overwhelmingly occurs in black and Latino neighborhoods, which Mr. Kweli said had the net effect of racism.

“In a fair and equal world, stop-and-frisk might make sense,” he explained. “But we don’t live in a fair and equal world. We live in a world where not everyone starts at the same place. We live in a world that was built on the backs of slaves, some of them are still buried right here under City Hall. You understand what I’m saying?”

Mr. Bloomberg has argued that stop-and-frisk isn’t racist, and those stopped are done so based on reasonable suspicion, not the color of their skin. Needless to say, Mr. Kweli didn’t sound impressed with this contention.

“To our mayor, instead of dissing all of these people–through voicing their concerns, through voicing their dissatisfaction, doing their duties and being patriots–instead of dissing them, you need to pay attention to them,” he exclaimed.

“I heard that man say that no one should ever be racially profiled,” he continued. “What world does that man live in? I don’t know, I don’t live in that world. You can’t stop racism with laws. You can’t legislate compassion. We will not allow you to support policies that encourage racism.  We will not allow you to support policies that encourage racism. We will not stand for it. We will not stand to the side, we won’t have it.”

A number of elected officials attended today’s rally, including Councilman Jumaane Williams–whom Mr. Kweli called out by name from stage–and Mr. Williams’ colleagues Tish James and Brad Lander. At least one potential mayoral candidate was spotted as well: Comptroller John Liu. But despite his criticism of Mr. Bloomberg, Mr. Kweli told reporters after his speech that he hadn’t picked a favorite pol to replace the current occupant of Gracie Mansion.

“I don’t have any politician that I simply support,” he said. “As long as all these politicians are here because they really believe in it.”

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White Party Freaks mad about Obama Phone - Ok with Mittens' Taxes/Wars

AtlanticWire

There was a video leading the Drudge Report on Thursday afternoon of a poor black woman with messed-up teeth saying she's voting for President Obama because he gave her a free phone, and perhaps you have some questions about it. Questions like: Is this video racist? Is Obama really giving away phones? Is anyone really bothered by these Obama Phones? And, come on, this is just blatant racism, right? We'll try to answer them.

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Anti-racist woman assaulted & arrested for defacing "anti-Jihad" ad in New York subway

IndyBay

A young Egyptian-American woman, offended by pro-Israel "anti-Jihad" advertisements in the New York subway system, took a stand with a can of spraypaint. Two cops and a big gnarly police dog arrested her, although a woman who had tried to stop her act of civil disobedience was not ticketed, charged, or even warned. For all the world it looked like subway love, with one of the cops whispering god knows what into the interferer's ear while grinning widely for the rest of the New York Post camera crew. [NY Post article and links to two videos at URL below].

The New York Post filmed an anti-racist woman spraypainting over an "anti-jihad" poster in the subway yesterday. What appears to be a New York Post crew member physically gets between the spraypainter and the poster, and the spraypainter is actually assaulted with the interfering woman's camera stand. 

About the time the confrontation goes from a simple standoff to an actual assault along come two cops and a dog to arrest the spraypainter. One of the cops whispers sweet somethings to the woman who had confronted the spraypainter, as the spraypainter asks why she is being handcuffed and arrested [and the cop refuses to answer, smiling coyly at the New York Post crew]. 

The spraypainter had only committed a property crime, whereas the other woman had physically attacked her. But the spraypainter was arrested and taken away, while the woman who attacked her got only sweet talk from one of the cops - not a ticket, an arrest, even a "who are you? We might need to talk to you later," or the old Castle favorite, "Don't leave town!" 

If the slogan, "Cops and Klan; hand in hand" has any truth to it, imagaine what Cops and Zionists must be like. [Okay, don't imagine - watch the video and see for yourself!] 

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Massachusetts is 17% Black & Latino: Legislature 95% White

Wickedlocal

Do your state lawmakers look like you? For white men in Massachusetts, the answer usually is yes. Minorities and women are far less likely to find a familiar face on the floor of the House or Senate, even as the state becomes more diverse. Women comprise just over half the state’s population, but men outnumber them 3 to 1 on Beacon Hill. Combined, blacks and Latinos hold only 5 percent of the state’s 200 legislative seats, despite making up 6.6 percent and 9.6 percent of the population, respectively, in the 2010 Census. Asian-Americans are more than 5 percent of the state population, but there only are three lawmakers of Asian descent on Beacon Hill. Two are just completing their first terms.

When it comes to reflecting diversity, Massachusetts government falls short of its progressive image, said Paul Watanabe, a political science professor and director of the Institute of Asian American Studies at UMass-Boston.

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Racial accusations enter N.C. Governor's race

AP

Republican Pat McCrory blasted Democratic gubernatorial rival Walter Dalton today for releasing a video in which elected leaders and others accused the former Charlotte mayor of being insensitive to black residents on issues such as voter ID and education.

The video, released as part of an effort to bolster the lieutenant governor's support among black elected officials and other activists, is the latest effort this week by Dalton and his allies attempting to raise questions about McCrory on race.

"Walter Dalton should be shameful for approving such an ad, and it shows desperation," McCrory said, adding that "it takes North Carolina politics to a new low."

The two-minute video was emailed to Dalton supporters while unveiling the "African Americans for Dalton" website. It includes several black speakers with black-and-white footage recalling the civil rights movement.

McCrory "just doesn't understand the African-American experience in North Carolina," Skip Alston, the former state president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, says in the video, which Dalton's campaign said could run on TV in an abbreviated format before Election Day.

The video's speakers also accused McCrory of wanting to cut funding for women's health, teacher benefits and early childhood education initiatives. Neither the video nor the campaign provided backup for the accusations, although McCrory didn't oppose the two budgets approved by the GOP-led Legislature that contained such reductions.

State Sen. Floyd McKissick of Durham also calls McCrory "a politician who doesn't understand why I'm upset about voter ID" legislation. McCrory supported a bill last year that would have required photo identification to vote at the polls, but outgoing Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue vetoed the measure.

While Democrats have said the photo ID would discourage older adults, minorities and the poor from voting, McCrory said it's a reasonable requirement to validate someone's identity before casting a ballot.

"Those same people approved legislation which requires ID to get Sudafed," McCrory said, referring to a 2006 law requiring purchasers of pills containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine to show a photo ID and sign a log.

Dalton campaign spokesman Schorr Johnson said the video features "leaders who voice a strong objection to Pat McCrory's proposed policies ... I'm sorry the truth offends Mayor McCrory. It should."

McKissick, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, already demanded this week that McCrory take down a television ad featuring an eastern North Carolina sheriff that McKissick alleges has racial overtones. A McCrory spokesman dismissed the claim and called it a positive ad.

Also Thursday, Dalton's campaign began running a separate TV commercial attempting to link McCrory to education cuts and potentially higher taxes. It shows Dalton standing near a construction site hole. He says McCrory's support of education spending reductions by the GOP-led Legislature have made the state's economic ditch worse.

Dalton also alleges McCrory has a "plan to raise taxes on the middle class." McCrory has never said he has such a plan. McCrory's campaign said in a video Dalton's the one who raised taxes while in the state Senate.

The two candidates will participate in their first televised debate next week.

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