Death of a legend: Catwoman, Eartha Kitt dies at age 81

Orson Welles said it best. He called original sex-kitten Eartha Kitt "the most exciting woman in the world." The legendary jazz singer — known best today for her inimitable "Santa Baby" and her iconic Catwoman character on TV's "Batman" — died Christmas Day at age 81. She had colon cancer.
Eartha delighted fans for more than sixty years as a singer, dancer and actress. She won two Emmys, and was nominated for two Grammys and a number of Tonys. But her career was not without controversy. As the Associated Press reports, Eartha was outspoken about politics, making headlines in the Sixties when she told Lady Bird Johnson at a White House luncheon:
You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the street. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."
After that she was hounded by the FBI and CIA, so she performed mostly overseas for a few years. Later she told Essence magazine:
The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth — in a country that says you're entitled to tell the truth — you get your face slapped and you get put out of work."
Eartha Kitt was an amazing woman. She was beautiful, smart, talented and compassionate. On stage she was outrageously sexy, but privately she was said to be very shy. She blamed her reticence on being unwanted and unloved as a mixed-race child in the South. The AP says she called herself "that little urchin cotton-picker from the South, Eartha Mae."
Our world is a little less purrfect without her.
Here's Eartha Kitt in 1963, doing a version of "C'est Si Bon" that will knock your socks off:



Click HERE to watch a YouTube playlist of Eartha Kitt videos.

R.I.P. Eartha Kitt******

Stimulus plan could shape course of Barack Obama's presidency

By Peter Nicholas December 18, 2008

Clients learn computer skills and look for jobs last month at a Riverside job center. Republicans say job creation should be a focus of a stimulus bill.
Democrats want to have a bill ready and waiting for him. But with Republicans seeking more time for public hearings and to purge special-interest projects, his plans for bipartisanship will be tested.
By Peter Nicholas December 18, 2008
Reporting from Washington -- President-elect Barack Obama's call for speedy adoption of a massive spending plan to "jolt" the economy will prove an early test of two major promises: that he will work in a bipartisan style with a skeptical Republican Party, and that he will purge the federal budget of wasteful projects.Even conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill predict that, in the end, a substantial stimulus package will pass. Job losses and a deepening recession demand a quick infusion of money, they say.


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But Republicans in the Senate, even with their ranks diminished, still possess leverage to tailor a package that fits certain specifications. They want public hearings on the stimulus, even if it thwarts Democratic ambitions to present the bill to Obama for his signature when he is sworn in to office Jan. 20. And they insist that the bill be scrubbed of projects that, in their view, are aimed more at appeasing interest groups than creating jobs.When the new Congress convenes on Jan. 6, Senate Democrats will still lack the 60-vote majority needed to stave off GOP delay tactics -- a reality that gives Republicans some confidence that they can win concessions.Obama has identified the stimulus package as an urgent priority. His economic advisors are considering a package of no less than $600 billion and potentially as much as $1 trillion over two years, according to the transition office.
The fate of the bill could shape the course of Obama's presidency. If it works, it could help lift the economy out of recession, giving him the space to enact his ambitious energy, education and healthcare plans.Behind him is a formidable array of interest groups eager to see a major national spending program unleashed. Business groups and organized labor, mayors and governors -- all will be pressing lawmakers to pass Obama's spending plan.For her part, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has touted a $600-billion plan that would include the middle-class tax cut Obama laid out during the campaign.New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, said in an interview Wednesday that he wanted to see Obama sign the bill on the day he is sworn in. In talks with his congressional delegation, Corzine said, he learned that the "goal is to have something on the president's desk on Inauguration Day."Republicans are watching to see whether Obama will ignore them in his zeal to achieve the first victory of his presidency. Were that to happen, they caution, it could perpetuate political divisions and set a sour tone for the next four years. Republicans and conservative interest groups also want Obama to resist pressures to lard the bill with needless projects."I'm concerned that politics and pet projects will end up being as much or more of a significant consideration than what I think should be the acid test, which is what will have the most stimulus and the quickest impact," said Sen. David Vitter (R-La.). He added: "We can try to use our position of slightly more than 40 votes to shape legislation."Obama's methods may prove a revealing window into his governing style. Pushing for legislation by Inauguration Day would allow for just two weeks of public debate on a bill that could cost as much as the entire Iraq war.Republicans would like to see the timetable slowed and more debate encouraged -- which they argue would also be in keeping with the transparent and inclusive style Obama embraced as a candidate for president.Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said: "There has to be transparency for a bill that big. If it gets to be $800 billion to $900 billion, it's bigger than any single bill in the history of the country. It's going to take some work and need some oversight, and nobody's really talking about that right now."Demanding that the bill be passed by Inauguration Day, he said, "is a pretty big ask."Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), said: "If their first action right out of the gate is to pass a massive government spending bill without Republican input and with few, if any, Republican votes, that will certainly be contrary to the spirit that the president-elect campaigned on."Though no stimulus bill has yet been drafted, Republicans are wary of some of the proposals put forward by groups that are talking to Obama's transition team. They cite a report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors listing myriad projects cast as vehicles to create jobs and boost the economy. Those include a dog park in Hercules, Calif.; a bike path in San Diego; and a $1.5-million push to curb prostitution in Dayton, Ohio."My fear is it will be a tool for all kinds of pet spending projects, for wasteful pork barrel projects and redistribution of wealth," said Pat Toomey, president of Club for Growth, which promotes fiscal conservatism.Toomey said the group may run ads opposing the stimulus package.Grover Norquist, a Washington anti-tax activist who has been at the hub of conservative policymaking in the Bush years, said the package should be posted on the Internet for a minimum of 10 days so that Americans have a chance to inspect it and look for dubious projects.Obama can count on an outside alliance that includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Assn. of Manufacturers, and such Republican governors as Arnold Schwarzenegger of California.



http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obama-stimulus18-2008dec18,0,1385571.story

Lisa Jackson in line to be first black EPA chief

In this Jan. 18, 2006, file photo New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson speaks at a news conference in Trenton, N.J. Jackson was recently named as New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's chief of staff. Democratic officials say President-elect Barack Obama intends to nominate former New Jersey Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson for environmental protection agency administrator. (AP Photo/Mike Derer, File)


WASHINGTON—Lisa Jackson is in line to become the first African-American to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
President-elect Barack Obama intends to announce Jackson as EPA administrator in the coming weeks, barring unforeseen circumstances that derail his plans, according to Democratic officials close to the transition.
Jackson, a Princeton University-educated chemical engineer, would take the helm at the agency at a time of record-low morale and when it is still grappling with how to respond to a 2007 Supreme Court decision that said it could regulate the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
During the Bush administration, the White House has at times overruled the advice of the EPA's scientific advisers and the agency's staff on issues ranging from air pollution to global warming.
Supporters say Jackson, 46, has the experience to steer the agency down a new path.
She spent 16 years at the EPA in Washington and in New York before being hired at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in 2002, an agency that has been riddled by budget cuts and personnel shortages. Jackson was named the head of the department in 2006 by Gov. Jon Corzine, overseeing environmental regulation in a state plagued by pollution problems and home to the most hazardous waste sites in the country. She left earlier this month to take a job as Corzine's chief of staff.
In her short tenure, Jackson has worked to pass mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases, to reform the state's cleanup of contaminated sites and to establish a scientific advisory board to review agency decisions.
"In New Jersey, you're working on contaminated sites, you're working on open space, endangered species, clean water. New Jersey is the laboratory for environmental protection. Whatever bad happens in the environment, it happens in New Jersey first. It is a good proving ground," said Jeff Tittel, executive director of the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Another New Jersey woman, former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, headed the EPA for 2 1/2 years during President George W. Bush's first term.
Whitman, a moderate Republican, found herself occasionally at odds with the Bush White House over environmental issues and became a lightning rod for the administration's critics.
Jackson also has her detractors.
A small but vocal contingent of environmental advocacy groups came out against Jackson last week, asking President-elect Barack Obama to drop her as a candidate.
In a letter to the transition team, the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a group that represents environmentally-minded state and federal employees, said it was "distressed" that Jackson was under consideration.
The group said that while Jackson had "a compelling biography" -- she grew up in New Orleans' gritty Lower Ninth Ward -- her record at the Department of Environmental Protection did not warrant a promotion. As evidence, they cited an EPA inspector general report that found that New Jersey failed to use its authority to expedite cleanups at seven hazardous waste sites. The state also has been criticized by federal wildlife officials for failing to adopt standards for pesticides and other toxic chemicals that protect wildlife and for delays in meeting its greenhouse gas emissions targets.
DEP officials, in response to those allegations, said Jackson inherited many of the problems, and that in the case of global warming the state was getting back on track.
Other environmental groups who support her nomination but criticize some of her actions say that in those cases she was overruled by the governor.
"She is the best possible choice that President Obama could make," said Dena Mottola Jaborska, executive director of Environment New Jersey. "She has had a lot of situations where protections needed for the environment were politically difficult, and sometimes she didn't prevail and sometimes she did prevail."
Calls to Jackson were not returned Wednesday. Corzine's office declined comment.

Governor Paterson, Have You Lost Your Moral Compass?

The obscenity continues in America. The economy is destroyed -- short-term and long-term -- by incompetents and greedy people. But, it's regular people who had nothing to do with this disaster who take the hit. And now we have the governor of New York blessing the disaster by taking aim at workers and letting the rich of the hook.
The "liberal Democratic" governor in New York produces a budget that hits the poor and the middle-class but does not ask for higher taxes on the richest one percent of the population -- the people who have made off with hundreds of billions of dollars in the past decade. Instead, the state is proposing to cut pensions:
Gov. David A. Paterson on Tuesday proposed a steep rollback of some of the generous pension benefits that have been an alluring feature of government work for decades, initiating a contentious reckoning with public employee unions.
The governor is proposing to reduce benefits for newly hired state and municipal workers, including those in New York City, by placing them in a new pension category. The New York City portion of the plan was developed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
"We've made too many promises and asked for too few sacrifices," the governor said during an address to the Legislature. "We're going to have to change our culture as we know it."
The pension proposal was part of an austerity budget unveiled by Mr. Paterson.
With all due respect, Governor, have you lost your mind and your moral compass? You think that working 20 or 25 or 30 years in a job as a cop or a firefighter is not making a sacrifice? How many times have politicians rushed, to get the maximum p.r. value for their own careers, to the site of a fire or a shooting, where a cop or firefighter has died, and spouted the words "the ultimate sacrifice"... but now you are saying these people, when they survive the day-to-day grind and threats on the job, that they don't get to have a decent pension so they can live out the rest of their lives in some semblance of dignity and respect?
And exactly where in your moral frame of reference can you point to regular workers and say they have not sacrificed enough, compared to the people who you refuse to ask to sacrifice -- the richest one percent in our state?
We could wipe out the budget deficit -- or, certainly trim it down to something trivial -- by raising taxes on the very wealthy and going back to a more progressive taxation system that we had in the 1970s. You know this: if the state replaced the existing rate structure (consisting of 5 brackets with rates ranging from 4.0 to 6.85%) with one consisting of 14 brackets with rates ranging from 2.0 to 15.0%, we could bring in $6-7 billion more, and perhaps as high as $11 billion.
Under this plan, 95 percent of the state's taxpayers -- 95 percent of the people -- would receive a tax cut. Like the proposals championed by President-elect Barack Obama, a more progressive taxation system would be easing the burden on the people who are the most at risk in our economically troubled times. The top one percent of taxpayers -- whose average income is $2.685 million -- would see their taxes go up about 5.4 percent. The four percent below that top one percent -- those people whose average income is $326,000 -- would have their taxes rise 1.4 percent. In fact, the top five percent would have their dues burden slightly reduced because higher state taxes would lower their federal obligations.
Everyone else would realize a reduction in their taxes.
You want to talk about sacrifice? Over the past 30 years, workers have sweated their asses off, becoming more productive, laboring harder than ever. Their wages have not kept pace with that productivity -- if it had, the MINIMUM WAGE would be over $19-an-hour. The geniuses running our economy -- Robert Rubin et al. -- somehow didn't learn something basic in economics: if you want people to have money to spend (and since consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of our economic activity), you have to give them money in their pockets.
Well, they didn't get the wage increases. They sacrificed -- so that CEOs (who presumably donate to your election campaigns) could pocket tens of millions of dollars in pay, stock options and PENSIONS. Because of that wage robbery -- that is the only word that fits when you look at the taking of the sweat of the brow with no fair return -- people had to borrow the American Dream. Not own it. Borrow it--either by using credit cards or draining equity from their homes. That is gone.
And you say workers haven't sacrificed?
I've heard this demand calling for "sacrifice" and an end to "generous wages" before. The pundits, Republicans and economic wizards are demanding that auto workers give up "generous" pensions to save the auto industry. Of course, none of the people demanding that sacrifice have actually worked in an auto plant -- if they did they wouldn't be able to wave around their arms in such indignation at the "generous" wages and pensions because their arms would hurt too much, their shoulders would probably be disable or their tendons would ache so badly from the years and years of factory work. So much for meritocracy in America -- the people who fail continue to have jobs and get paid, while the people who had no say in the failure have to pay for it. Ain't America great?
And how, exactly, Governor, after you have cut peoples' pensions, do you think people will be able to spend money to prop up the economy once they retire? The debt-driven Ponzi scheme is over. So, Governor, are we going to replace decent pensions with coupons for Wal-Mart because that's basically the only place people will be able to shop -- and work.
Let's look at the Alice-in-Wonderland, Orwellian framing of this challenge: we have a shortfall in the budget because we've destroyed a progressive tax system, in the state and across the nation, and let an elite enrich themselves -- the same elite that has incompetently run the economy so that for three decades real wages have declined while workers pay for scandal after scandal (the savings and loan crisis, the Internet bubble, the housing bubble and on and on...).
And you ask for no sacrifice from the elite and demand all the sacrifice from those people who had no hand in the economic crisis we face?
Governor, have you lost your moral compass?

AIDS AWARENESS & AFRICAN AMERICANS

AfroCentric New's Portal ---Time Capsule reports......................

I am proud to say that preventive measures have steped up , that many in the African American community are being tested more regualarly for the Aid's virus.

'In The Continuum'

"I think as African-Americans, one of the reasons we're opposed to ending the silence is because we're already a stigmatized group of people," says actress Nikkole Salter. Salter (left), plays opposite Danai Gurira in 'In The Continuum,' the story of two black women dealing with the issue of HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe and South Central Los Angeles.
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Malcolm X once remarked that when white America has a cold, blacks have pneumonia. His metaphor for illness rings especially true as it relates to the current AIDS crisis in the black community, one increasingly dire for black women. The stats are grim: black women in America accounted for 68 percent of all new HIV infections in 2004 -- the overwhelming majority through unprotected heterosexual sex. Young black women (aged 13 to 24) accounted for 68 percent of all new infections in that age group. AIDS remains the leading cause of death for black women ages 25 to 34.Our sisters in Africa are being touched as well. Last year, 3.2 million Africans were infected with HIV. Sub-Saharan or "black" Africa, though only 10 percent of the world's population, makes up 60 percent of people living with AIDS; an estimated 4.6 percent of young women ages 15-24 are infected, compared to only 1.7 percent of men. AIDS has robbed some nine million African children of their mothers Reuters reported earlier this week.More than statistics, though, this is us. Mothers, daughters, sisters, lovers, wives, doctors, teachers, preachers, actors, writers … and the beat goes on. Being that women in both the African and the African-American community tend to be caregivers, when a woman tests HIV positive or dies from AIDS, the whole community is adversely affected.And still we rise: As women the world over become more active in the fight against HIV and the stigma of HIV, demand that women take part in clinical trials, and take more responsibility for their health and well being, the tides will turn. In June, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a six percent drop in infection rates among Black women between the years of 2000 and 2003."The exciting thing I see, not only in Nigeria, but across the African continent," says Nigerian HIV-positive activist Rolake Odetoyinbo, "is the women are taking leadership where HIV and AIDS is concerned. The most vocal, and the strongest activists and advocates right now are women."The following are profiles of six black women who war against the scourge of HIV and AIDS. Whether in America or on the continent of Africa, they use their skills and gifts to affect a positive change. They are Type A personalities.The Artists:Nikkole Salter & Danai Gurira, New York, NYActresses of 'In The Continuum'The first play to present HIV and AIDS from the perspective of African and African American women, 'In the Continuum' is so strong that its Pulitzer buzz is palpable. Thoughtful actors Danai Gurira, and Nikkole Salter, who met as graduate students at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, merged their final project into a two-woman play that juxtaposes the very specific lives of two black women -- one from Africa, the other from America -- and their searing trauma as they struggle with a sudden HIV-diagnosis. Gurira, who plays a plethora of characters from the Southern African country of Zimbabwe (where she grew up) and Salter, allowing a sophisticated nuance to working class black women, give subtle, funny and heartbreaking performances. "I consider myself a storyteller with purpose," says Salter. "I try to use my craft to reveal some kind of insight to things that are important to me and my community whether that's AIDS or dating." 'In the Continuum' will show at the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Harare, Zimbabwe April 26-30 and tour nationally through the fall.

Dr. Cheryl Smith, MD

"I think it's important that we protect ourselves because we generally are the protectors of everyone else in the family."
HIV/AIDS at North General
The Advocate:Dr. Cheryl Smith, MD, Harlem, NYChair, Department HIV/AIDS, North General HospitalDr. Cheryl Smith, 42, services about 750 community residents and oversees a staff of 33. Not only providing medical care, Smith's Harlem-based department runs support groups for HIV positive clients with information on the latest medication and clinical trials, as well as an interventional group for women called The Sister Project. "There really is not a lot of information out there specifically looking at HIV in women," says Smith, noting that only two large clinical trials have been conducted for women thus far. The good news is Smith estimates that by June, there will be the simplest medication regimen available yet -- one pill, once a day -- and that in two years, microbicides will be on the market, impacting the rates of HIV transmission here and in developing countries. "Microbicides are going to be gels that you use prior to sex," Dr. Smith explains. "We wouldn't tell women not to use condoms, but, say, her husband doesn't want to use condoms, she can still protect herself."

Former Zulu queen Desiree Rogers named White House social secretary

by Jonathan Tilove, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday November 25, 2008, 7:35 AM
Jennifer Zdon, The Times-PicayuneDesiree Rogers, daughter of late City Councilman Roy Glapion, was named White House social secretary Monday.
WASHINGTON -- Desiree Rogers, a former New Orleans Zulu queen and daughter of the late city councilman Roy Glapion Jr., was named incoming White House social secretary on Monday by President-elect Barack Obama.
In a statement Monday announcing the Rogers' appointment, Obama and wife Michelle highlighted Rogers' qualifications as one of Chicago's most high-powered executives, a former head of the Illinois Lottery, former president of the Chicago utility, Peoples Energy, and most recently president of social networking for Allstate Financial.
What the statement didn't mention is that Rogers, 49, is a native New Orleanian who twice was queen of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, a krewe dating back to 1916. She was queen of Zulu in 1988, and in 2000 reprised the reign in honor of her father, who died about two and a half months earlier.
Glapion, a former director of sports for the New Orleans public schools and member of the New Orleans City Council from 1994 until his death in 1999, was instrumental in leading the Zulu krewe from a dwindling band of fewer than 100 black men in the early 1970s to a robust, financially healthy and racially integrated krewe. Over the course of many years, Glapion served variously as finance chairman, president and chairman of the Zulu board.
Rogers is a pillar of the Chicago business and social scene -- a friend to Barack and Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Valerie Jarrett, the Obama confidante from Chicago who is co-chairing the transition effort and will serve as a senior adviser to the president in the new administration.
Rogers' new job will require all her business and social skills. Her office will be responsible for every ceremony and event that occurs at the White House, from state dinners on down. On Nov. 14, she threw a birthday party for Jarrett attended by the president-elect.
Rogers is a regular on lists of the most powerful African-American female executives in America.
Much of her work in her new job will be hand-in-glove with Michelle Obama, a friend of long standing from the same social circle in Chicago.
Rogers' former husband, John Rogers, is chairman and CEO of Ariel Capital Management in Chicago, the nation's first African-American-owned money management company. John Rogers is very close to the Obamas and a major fundraiser for Obama's Senate and presidential campaigns. He played basketball with Michelle's brother Craig Robinson, at Princeton, and played basketball with Sen. Obama on Election Day. He is co-chairman of the inaugural committee.
The Rogers have a daughter, Victoria, who is a student at Yale University.
Desiree Rogers received her undergraduate degree at Wellesley College and her MBA from Harvard University.
In a 2004 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Rogers said the best advice she ever received from her parents is that "nothing is ever impossible."
Her mother, Joyce, now retired, ran day-care centers and was also active in Carnival. She is known as a great cook and entertainer. Rogers' brother, Roy A. Glapion, an engineer, is senior vice president of Professional Service Industries Inc., and is active in New Orleans civic affairs. Both her brother and mother live in New Orleans.
According to an interview last year with the HistoryMakers, an African-American oral history project, Rogers' favorite color is black, her favorite food is chicken and her favorite saying is "laissez les bon temps rouler."
Jonathan Tilove can be reached at jtilove@timespicayune.com or 202.383.7827.
Read other articles, columns and blogs about Roger's appointment:

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/former_zulu_queen_picked_for_w.html

History & Archaeology: The Lasting Impact of a Civil Rights Icon's Murder

One of three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi in 1964 was James Chaney. His younger brother, Ben, would never be the same
By Hank Klibanoff
Smithsonian magazine, December 2008

By Hank Klibanoff
Smithsonian magazine, December 2008

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In the 44 days that his brother and two other young civil rights workers were missing in Neshoba County, Mississippi, 12-year-old Ben Chaney was quiet and withdrawn. He kept his mother constantly in sight as she obsessively cleaned their house, weeping all the while.
Bill Eppridge, a Life magazine photographer, arrived in Neshoba County shortly after the bodies of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were pulled from the muck of an earthen dam on August 4, 1964. Inside the Chaney home in nearby Meridian, Eppridge felt that Ben was overwhelmed, "not knowing where he was or where he should have been," he recalls. "That draws you to somebody, because you wonder what is going on there."
On August 7, Eppridge watched as the Chaney family left to bury their eldest son. As they awaited a driver, Fannie Lee Chaney and her husband, Ben Sr., sat in the front seat of a sedan; their daughters, Barbara, Janice and Julia, sat in the back with Ben, who hunched forward so he'd fit.
Eppridge took three frames. As he did so, he could see Ben's bewilderment harden into a cold stare directed right at the lens. "There were a dozen questions in that look," Eppridge says. "As they left, he looked at me and said, three times, 'I'm gonna kill 'em, I'm gonna kill 'em, I'm gonna kill 'em.' "
The frames went unpublished that year in Life; most news photographs of the event showed a sobbing Ben Chaney Jr. inside the church. The one on this page is included in "Road to Freedom," a photography exhibit organized by Atlanta's High Museum and on view through March 9 at the Smithsonian's S. Dillon Ripley Center in Washington, D.C., presented by the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Chaney, now 56, cannot recall what he told Eppridge in 1964, but he remembers being livid that his mother had to suffer and that his father's generation had not risen up years before so that his brother's generation wouldn't have had to. "I know I was angry," he says.
Ben had lost his idol. Nine years older, James Earl Chaney—J.E., Ben called him—had bought Ben his first football uniform and taken him for haircuts. He had taken Ben along as he organized prospective black voters in the days leading to Freedom Summer. Ben, who had been taken into custody himself for demonstrating for civil rights, recalls J.E. walking down the jailhouse corridor to secure his release, calling, "Where's my brother? "
"He treated me," Ben says, "like I was a hero."
After the funeral, a series of threats drove the Chaneys from Mississippi. With help from the Schwerners, Goodmans and others, they moved to New York City. Ben enrolled in a private, majority-white school and adjusted to life in the North. But by 1969 he was restless. In Harlem, he says, he was elated to see black people running their own businesses and determining their own fates. He joined the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army.
In May 1970, two months shy of 18, Chaney and two other young men drove to Florida with a vague plan to buy guns. Soon, five people, including one of their number, were dead in Florida and South Carolina.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Indelible-Images-Moment-of-Reckoning-200812.html#

Family of Sean Bell Meets with Federal Prosecutors

WPIX News
Family of Sean Bell Meets with Federal Prosecutors


Glenn Thomson reporting
November 18, 2008
BROOKLYN, NY - Family members of Sean Bell had their first ever meeting with federal prosecutors Tuesday. The meeting came almost two years after Bell died in a hail of 50 bullets outside the Queens nightclub Kalua, when undercover cops fired at Bell and his group, assuming they were armed. The officers who killed the unarmed father, set to get married the next day, were later cleared of state criminal charges.
"Justice was never served in this case," said family attorney Michael Hardy. "We still want justice for Sean."
The family has been pushing for the Justice department to bring civil rights charges against the officers. After their first meeting with federal prosecutors, the family now believes that it is possible.
In a statement, Rev. Al Sharpton said he believes today's meeting is "a sign that the federal government has begun to seriously look into the egregious denial of the civil rights of Sean Bell, Joseph Guzman, and Trent Benefield."
Bell's family echoed the thoughts of Sharpton, saying this meeting is a step towards justice.
"Sean had a life ahead of him," fiancee Nicole Paultre Bell told reporters. "This has given us hope."
Administrative charges are still pending on the three detectives and one other shooter not charged in the case. Officials said they are awaiting a decision by federal authorities before pursuing any or all charges.

Region mourns death of Miriam Makeba

published: Wednesday November 12, 2008

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on Monday expressed shock at the passing of South African singer Miriam Makeba, who reportedly suffered a heart attack and died after performing at an anti-Mafia concert in Italy on Sunday. She was 76.

Speaking with the Caribbean Media Corporation via telephone from Antigua, CARICOM Chairman Baldwin Spencer described Makeba as a "towering figure in the fight against apartheid.

"Not only the music world, but the black diaspora and (all) peoples of goodwill would certainly mourn at her passing," Spencer said, adding that "she has certainly made a significant contribution to the efforts of her country and indeed the world".

Obama Pledges to Confront Economic Crisis 'Head On'

Barack Obama pledged Friday to "confront this economic crisis head on" as soon as he is sworn in as the country's 44th president.

But the president-elect also warned of a tough road ahead during his first press conference since Election Day, held in Chicago just minutes after meeting with a team of top economic advisers.

"It is not going to be quick. It is not going to be easy for us to dig ourselves out of the hole that we are in," Obama said. "But America is a strong and resilient country, and I know we will succeed."

Obama stressed the need to extend unemployment benefits, stimulate job growth and reduce the number of foreclosures, and he pressed for Congress to pass a new stimulus package "sooner rather than later."

"If it does not get done in a lame duck session, it will be the first thing I get done as president of the United States," Obama said.

He also deferred to President Bush, saying "we only have one president at a time." He said he appreciated Bush's commitment to ensuring a smooth transition and said he was "grateful" Bush invited him and his wife, Michelle Obama, to the White House on Monday.

Obama spoke after he and Vice President-elect Joe Biden convened a meeting of the transition economic advisory board, a high-powered group of business, academic and government leaders. They included Lawrence Summers, who some have mentioned as a candidate for Treasury secretary, a post he held in the Clinton administration; Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, whose state has been hit hard by losses in the auto industry; Google CEO Eric Schmidt; and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

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Rahm Emanuel, who will be Obama's White House chief of staff, also participated in the meeting.
Other participants in the meeting included executives from Xerox Corp., Time Warner Inc.; and the Hyatt hotel company. Investor Warren Buffett was calling in by telephone.

More evidence of a recession came Friday when the government reported that the unemployment rate had jumped from 6.1 percent in September to 6.5 percent in October.

Obama has been meeting privately with his transition team, receiving congratulatory phone calls from U.S. allies and intelligence briefings, and making decisions about who will help run his government.

One person frequently mentioned for a Cabinet post, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, will not be available until 2011, say officials close to him. Rendell has two years left of his term, and Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, a Democrat, is ailing. Next in line to be governor is the Republican president pro tempore the state Senate.

Rather than take the chance that the GOP would gain control of the governor's office, Rendell has signaled he will stay put for the time being.

On Friday morning, Obama and his wife, Michelle, attended a parent-teacher conference at the University of Chicago Lab School where their daughters, Malia and Sasha, are students. The couple planned to visit the White House on Monday at President Bush's invitation.

Obama planned to stay home through the weekend, with a blackout on news announcements so he and his staff can rest after the grueling campaign and the rush of Tuesday night's victory. He is planning a family getaway to Hawaii in December before they move to the White House, and to honor his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died Sunday at her home there.

Obama, who bested Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, has made it clear he will rely heavily on veterans of her husband's eight-year administration, the only Democratic presidency in the past 28 years.

Obama also is certain to bring to the White House a cadre of longtime aides like senior adviser David Axelrod and press secretary Robert Gibbs. Both have worked closely with Obama since he ran for the Senate in 2004.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/07/obama-meets-team-economic-experts/

Obama turns to building a presidency*

WASHINGTON – His storied election behind him and weighty problems in his face, Barack Obama turned Wednesday to the task of building an administration in times of crisis as Americans and the world absorbed his history-shattering achievement as the first black leader ascending to the presidency.
Obama enjoyed an everyman day-after in his hometown of Chicago on Wednesday after an electric night of celebration, anchored by his victory rally of 125,000 in Chicago and joyful outpourings of his supporters across the country. The president-elect saw his two young daughters off to school, a simple pleasure he's missed during nearly two years of virtually nonstop travel, then had a gym workout.
Pressing business came at him fast, with just 76 days until his inauguration as the 44th president.
The nation's top intelligence officials planned to give him top-secret daily briefings starting Thursday, sharing with him the most critical overnight intelligence as well as other information he has not been allowed to see as a senator or candidate. And Obama planned to give the first of his daily briefings to the media on Thursday as he moves quickly to begin assembling a White House staff and selecting Cabinet nominees.
Obama was asking Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, former political and policy adviser to President Clinton, to be his White House chief of staff, Democratic officials said. John Podesta, who served as Clinton's chief of staff, was expected to join Obama Senate aide Pete Rouse and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett in leading the transition team.
President Bush pledged "complete cooperation" in the transition and called Obama's victory a "triumph of the American story."
Naming the staggering list of problems he inherits in his decisive defeat of Republican John McCain — two wars and "the worst financial crisis in a century," among them — Obama sought to restrain the soaring expectations of his supporters late Tuesday night even as he stoked them with impassioned calls for national unity and partisan healing.
"We may not get there in one year or even in one term," he said. "But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there."
Helping him to get there will be a strengthened Democratic majority in both houses of Congress. When Obama becomes the president on Jan. 20, with Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his vice president, Democrats will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994.
A tide of international goodwill came Obama's way on Wednesday morning, even as developments made clear how heavy a weight will soon be on his shoulders.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a congratulatory telegram saying there is "solid positive potential" for the election to improve strained relations between Washington and Moscow, if Obama engages in constructive dialogue.
Yet he appeared to be deliberately provocative hours after the election with sharp criticism of the U.S. and his announcement that Russia will deploy missiles near NATO member Poland in response to U.S. missile defense plans.
In Afghanistan, where villagers said the U.S. bombed a wedding party and killed 37 people, President Hamid Karzai said: "This is my first demand of the new president of the United States — to put an end to civilian casualties."
Young and charismatic but with little experience on the national level or as an executive, Obama easily defeated McCain, smashing records and remaking history along the way.
Ending an improbable journey that started for Obama a long 21 months ago, he drew a record-breaking $700 million to his campaign account alone. The first African-American destined to sit in the Oval Office, he also was the first Democrat to receive more than 50 percent of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter in 1976. He is the first senator elected to the White House since John F. Kennedy in 1960.
And Obama scored an Electoral College landslide that redrew America's political dynamics. He won states that reliably voted Republican in presidential elections, such as Indiana and Virginia, which hadn't supported a Democratic candidate in 44 years. Ohio and Florida, key to President Bush's twin victories, also went for Obama, as did Pennsylvania, which McCain had deemed crucial for his election hopes.
With most U.S. precincts tallied, the popular vote was 52.3 percent for Obama and 46.4 percent for McCain. But the count in the Electoral College was much more lopsided — 349 to 147 in Obama's favor as of early Wednesday, with three states still to be decided. Those were North Carolina, Georgia and Missouri.
The nation awakened to the new reality at daybreak, a short night after millions witnessed Obama's election — an event so rare it could not be called a once-in-a-century happening. Prominent black leaders wept unabashedly in public, rejoicing in the elevation of one of their own, at long last.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who had made two White House bids himself, said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that the tears streaming down his face upon Obama's victory were about his father and grandmother and "those who paved the fights. And then that Barack's so majestic."
Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and leading player in the civil rights movement with Jackson, said on NBC's "Today" show: "He's going to call on us, I believe, to sacrifice. We all must give up something."
Speaking from Hong Kong, retired Gen. Colin Powell, the black Republican whose endorsement of Obama symbolized the candidate's bipartisan reach and bolstered him against charges of inexperience, called the senator's victory "a very very historic occasion." But he also predicted that Obama would be "a president for all America."
On Capitol Hill, Democrats ousted incumbent GOP Sens. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and John Sununu of New Hampshire and captured seats held by retiring Republican senators in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado. Still, the GOP blocked a complete rout, holding the Kentucky seat of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and a Mississippi seat once held by Trent Lott.
The Associated Press prematurely declared incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman the winner in a race against Democratic former comedian Al Franken that by state law is subject to a recount based on the 571-vote margin. The party also held onto a Mississippi seat once held by Trent Lott.
In the House, with fewer than a dozen races still undecided, Democrats captured Republican-held seats in the Northeast, South and West and were on a path to pick up as many as 20 seats.
"It is not a mandate for a party or ideology but a mandate for change," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
After the longest and costliest campaign in U.S. history, Obama was propelled to victory by voters dismayed by eight years of Bush's presidency and deeply anxious about rising unemployment and home foreclosures and a battered stock market that has erased trillions of dollars of savings for Americans.
Six in 10 voters picked the economy as the most important issue facing the nation in an Associated Press exit poll. None of the other top issues — energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care — was selected by more than one in 10. Obama has promised to cut taxes for most Americans, get the United States out of Iraq and expand health care, including mandatory coverage for children.
McCain conceded defeat shortly after 11 p.m. EST, telling supporters outside the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, "The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly."
"This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and the special pride that must be theirs tonight," McCain said. "These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face."
The son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, the 47-year-old Obama has had a startlingly rapid rise, from lawyer and community organizer to state legislator and U.S. senator, now not even four years into his first term.
Almost six in 10 women supported Obama nationwide, while men leaned his way by a narrow margin, according to interviews with voters. Just over half of whites supported McCain, giving him a slim advantage in a group that Bush carried overwhelmingly in 2004.
The results of the AP survey were based on a preliminary partial sample of nearly 10,000 voters in Election Day polls and in telephone interviews over the past week for early voters.
In terms of turnout, America voted in record numbers. It looks like 136.6 million Americans will have voted for president this election, based on 88 percent of the country's precincts tallied and projections for absentee ballots, said Michael McDonald of George Mason University. Using his methods, that would give 2008 a 64.1 percent turnout rate, the highest since 65.7 percent in 1908, he said.
(This version CORRECTS SUBS 5th graf to correct spelling of Emanuel. AP Video.)

OBAMA ---THE CHANGE WE NEED* ROCK THE VOTE*

*********************************************************************


In Their Own Words
America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for this country that we love.
-- from his June 3, 2008, speech declaring his win as Democratic candidate

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/candidates/barack.obama.html



Video Highlights
Obama courts working women
Obama on off-shore drilling
'The system's broken'
Obama hits McCain on energy
Obama video wins Emmy
Obama: Hillary as his adviser
Oprah hits three states for Obama
Obama: Inhaling was the point
Obama on SNL
Transcripts and Speeches
Obama's Father's Day speech
Obama claims Democratic victory
Obama addresses pro-Israel AIPAC
'Just another George Bush'
Obama: McCain 'out of touch'
Obama discusses the economy
Obama: 'We closed the gap'
Obama speaks on race
Obama fires up Virginia
Obama speech: 'Yes, we can change'
Speech on the 'American Dream'
Speech about Iraq
Middle class tax fairness
Obama in South Carolina: We're doing it
Obama on education policy
Obama on the campaign trail

Police ask FBI to help find Jennifer Hudson nephew

Kyle Peterson, Reuters
Published: Saturday, October 25, 2008
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago police on Saturday asked the FBI to help find the missing seven-year-old nephew of Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Hudson whose mother and brother were found shot to death a day earlier.

Julian King has been missing since Friday when Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and brother Jason Hudson, 29, were found dead in Donerson's south side Chicago home.

Chicago police spokesman Daniel O'Brien said the FBI had been asked to assist in the search, which could cross state lines. He said, however, that there was no evidence that King had been taken out of Illinois.


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Actress and singer Jennifer Hudson performs at the Wal-Mart Shareholders Meeting in Fayetteville, Arkansas June 6, 2008. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi

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Font:****O'Brien declined to confirm various media reports that police had taken William Balfour into custody as a suspect in the double homicide investigation. Balfour, 27, reportedly had a relationship with Hudson's sister and is the father of King.

The Illinois Department of Corrections Web site lists Balfour as having been convicted of attempted murder, car theft and vehicular hijacking. He was released from prison in 2006.

O'Brien said more than one person had been questioned but that no one had been charged with a crime. He did not release any names. On Friday, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said of the murders: "It appears to be domestic related."

Hudson gained fame in 2005 as a contestant on No. 1-rated U.S. television talent show "American Idol." She was one of 12 finalists in the third season but was voted off.

Still, her booming voice and popularity kept her touring in live shows and eventually she earned the role as Effie White in the 2006 film version of stage musical "Dreamgirls."

The role of soulful singer White, who is kicked out of an all-girl 1960s singing group, earned Hudson the Oscar for best supporting actress and made her an instant star in Hollywood.

Since then Hudson has appeared in the movie version of "Sex and the City," and is currently in "The Secret Life of Bees."

Media reports said Hudson was in Florida when she was told of the shootings and was headed back to Chicago.

(Additional reporting by Michael Conlon, editing by Vicki Allen)

GOP clerk passes around Obama 'black Hitler' claim

1 day ago

FRANKLIN, Ind. (AP) — A Republican county clerk distributed to two employees an Internet blog posting referring to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a "young, black Adolf Hitler."

Johnson County Clerk Jill Jackson said Friday that she had apologized to the employees. One had complained to police.

The employees, who had voted for Obama in the Democratic primary, discovered the printouts at their desks after returning from Labor Day weekend, sheriff's Deputy Doug Cox said in a police report made public this week. A surveillance video showed Jackson placing an item on one worker's desk, he said.

Jackson told The Associated Press that she was merely passing along an item that already was circulating in the office.

"There was no motive, no intent," she said. "I never intended to offend anyone."

The unsigned item does not mention Obama by name but refers to events in his life that make clear Obama is the target.

"The U.S. citizens are just not ready to give up their country to this young, black 'Adolf Hitler' with a smile, poor direction and absolutely no experience!" it said.

Doug Lechner, Republican Party county chairman, said the incident was unacceptable and taints Jackson's ability to appear unbiased in administering this year's election.

Indiana is a swing state in this presidential election, its 11 electoral votes seen as important to Obama and to his Republican rival, John McCain. Johnson County is heavily Republican.

Another 11th-hour stay for U.S. death row inmate Troy Davis

Another 11th-hour stay for US death row inmate Troy Davis
1 day ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Troy Davis, a black American who has spent 17 years on death row for the murder of a white policeman, was Friday granted a stay of execution, three days before he was due to be put to death, court documents showed.

"Upon our thorough review of the record, we conclude that Davis has met the burden for a provisional stay of execution," said the decision taken by three judges sitting on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in the southern state of Georgia, a copy of which was sent to AFP.

Davis, 40, was scheduled to die Monday at 7 pm (2300 GMT) by lethal injection for the 1989 killing of 27-year-old white policeman Mark Allan MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia.

He has repeatedly claimed he did not kill McPhail and seven out of nine witnesses who gave evidence at his trial in 1991 have recanted or changed their testimony, which was the backbone of the prosecution's case in the absence of a murder weapon, fingerprints and DNA.

Other witnesses have since identified another man as the shooter -- a state's witness who testified against Davis.

The appeals court on Friday gave Davis' lawyers 15 days to file documents with the court, supporting defense claims that Davis is being wrongfully held in prison.

The court will then have 10 days to decide if the case of the long-time deathrow inmate should go back before a lower court, which could order a new trial.

Friday's stay of execution "means there will be more litigation, but not necessarily a new trial," which Davis, his lawyers and supporters have been pressing for, Sara Totonchi head of Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, told AFP.

The stay announced Friday was the third for Davis, who was originally sentenced to die in July last year, only to be granted a last-minute stay of execution then by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole.

Last month, the same parole board denied Davis clemency, putting him back on the path to execution.

Then, with less than two hours to go before he was due to die on September 23, the US Supreme Court granted him his second stay of execution.

"I can't imagine the emotional roller coaster Troy Davis is going through," Sara, who is also head of Davis' support committee, told AFP Friday.

Davis' case has triggered an international outcry as well as support rallies and petitions in Georgia.

A petition signed by 140,000 people was delivered to the Georgia parole board on Friday, hours before the stay of execution was announced.

The French presidency of the European Union, whose 27 member states oppose the use of capital punishment anywhere in the world, appealed Wednesday for Davis's death sentence to be commuted.

Former US president Jimmy Carter, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Pope Benedict XVI have also spoken out against the execution.


Rights group Amnesty International hailed the decision to grant Davis yet another stay of execution, but slammed the US judicial system for overlooking issues that could prove the inmate's innocence.

"Until this point, the compelling issues in this case have been virtually ignored, leaving Georgia vulnerable to the possibility of killing an innocent man," Amnesty International USA said in a statement.

Last month, Amnesty accused the state of Georgia of "trying to ram through" Davis' execution.

A pardon from the state would spare Davis' life.


http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5imGyDsBZJujx6JmkwUiBc7DPhJ0Q

WHO slams global health care, calls for universal coverage

(CNN) -- In a Nairobi slum, more than one in four children under 5 will die, but in a wealthier part of the Kenyan capital, the mortality rate is one in almost 67, according to a World Health Organization report released Tuesday.


A woman lies next to her sick child at a medical center in Sheshemene, Ethiopia, in July.

The World Health Report 2008 aims to spotlight disparities in health care across the globe, and as the Nairobi example illustrates, the differences exist not only between the First and Third Worlds -- they can occur just across town.

WHO roundly criticizes the organization, finance and delivery of health care and calls advances in the field "deeply and unacceptably unequal, with many disadvantaged populations increasingly lagging behind or even losing ground."

The report says that a citizen of a wealthy nation can live up to 40 years longer than someone in a poor country, and of the 136 million women who will give birth this year, about 58 million (43 percent) will receive no medical assistance during childbirth or the postpartum period.

UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman said the sharp inequities in the cost and access to health care often speak to larger societal ills.

"High maternal, infant and under-five mortality often indicates lack of access to basic services such as clean water and sanitation, immunizations and proper nutrition," she said in a statement.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan insists the dilemma is not just a matter of haves versus have-nots.

"A world that is greatly out of balance in matters of health is neither stable nor secure," she said in a statement from Almaty, Kazakhstan, where the report was released.

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The difference in annual government expenditures on health care is more canyon than gap, according to the report. While the wealthiest nations dole out as much as $6,000 per person each year, some countries are unable or unwilling to spend more than $20 per person.

However, while calling for wide-ranging reforms in the delivery of primary health care, the report notes that it isn't always a matter of government expenditures.

Tajikistan and Sierra Leone both spend less than $100 per person on health care. But while the health-adjusted life expectancy in Sierra Leone is under 30 years of age, Tajikistan's is almost 70 -- a figure comparable to the United States, which spends more than $2,500 a person on health care.

"When countries at the same level of economic development are compared, those where health care is organized around the tenets of primary health care produce a higher level of health for the same investment," the report says.

WHO defines primary health care as being "universally accessible to individuals and families in the community by means acceptable to them, through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford."

The organization's report -- titled "Primary Health Care -- Now More Than Ever" -- calls for a move toward universal coverage to reverse a trend over the last 30 years in which disparities in the levels of health care have actually widened.

Universal coverage, the report says, would lower the risks of disease outbreaks for everyone, not just the impoverished.

Currently, the most common means of paying for health care is out of pocket, which WHO says is the "most inequitable method for financing health care services." The report says more than 100 million people fall into poverty in a given year because of health care bills.

Another problem, the report says, is that doctors tend not to focus on prevention.

"Rather than improving their response capacity and anticipating new challenges, health systems seem to be drifting from one short-term priority to another, increasingly fragmented and without a clear sense of direction," according to the report.

But the report also handed out accolades, most notably to Iran and Cuba.

WHO applauded the Islamic Republic's 17,000 "health houses," which serve about 1,500 people each. The report credited the centers with boosting Iranians' life expectancy from 63 to 71 years between 1990 and 2006.

And in Cuba, the nation's "polyclinics" have yielded one of the longest life expectancies (78 years) of any developing country, the report says.

The report called for all sectors of society to help determine how health care is allocated, and it singled out the United States for spending just 0.1 percent of its health budget on health systems research -- the kind of research that policymakers use to decide how money is spent.

The report also points to the pharmaceutical industry's impact on health care in the United States, where the average expenditure on prescription drugs in 2005 was $1,141 per person -- twice the average in Canada, Germany and Britain, and 10 times the average in Mexico.

To combat the problems facing global health care, WHO says in its report that nations must improve coverage and delivery, as well as policy and leadership. It acknowledges that primary health care isn't cheap, but asserts that the "investment provides better value for money than its alternatives."

"The legitimacy of health authorities increasingly depends on how well they assume responsibility to develop and reform the health sector according to what people value -- in terms of health and of what is expected of health systems in society," the report says.


All About Health Care Policy • World Health Organization • UNICEF

Sharpton Leans Against Mayor’s Term Limit Plan

October 8, 2008, 9:12 am

By Jonathan P. Hicks
The Rev. Al Sharpton has been largely silent about the prospect of extending term limits by a vote of the City Council. But Mr. Sharpton said Wednesday morning that he was leaning against the legislation proposed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that would allow the mayor and city officials to run for a third term.

In an interview, Mr. Sharpton said he had not made a final decision and that he found compelling arguments for and against extending term limits. However, he said: “I’m leaning toward those who advocate in favor of making changes in the law through a referendum. But I haven’t come to any final determination yet.”

Mr. Sharpton is apparently moving toward supporting a measure proposed by City Council members Bill de Blasio and Letitia James. The two legislators, both Brooklyn Democrats, have planned to introduce legislation calling for a citywide referendum on extending term limits, to be held in the spring.

“There are some legitimate problems with the arguments of each side,” Mr. Sharpton said. “On the one hand, there are voting rights issues with changing something that the voters have agreed to twice. On the other hand, you have people arguing that term limits themselves deny voters choice. I’m between and betwixt.”

Mr. Sharpton has had a cordial relationship with Mr. Bloomberg. And he is also extremely close with Gov. David A. Paterson, who has spoken favorably about Mr. Bloomberg’s proposal. And politicians close to Mr. Sharpton said he was not eager to offend either official.

Nonetheless, officials close to him and others within his National Action Network said that Mr. Sharpton was particularly troubled by the prospect of reversing a term limits law enacted and upheld in two citywide referendums.

When asked whether there were political considerations regarding his decision-making process, Mr. Sharpton said: “This is one of those difficult decisions based on what one believes.”

By taking a position against a Council vote to extend term limits, Mr. Sharpton would add a prominent name to the opposition to the mayor’s proposal. And that comes at a time when the Bloomberg administration is attempting to portray support for the mayor’s plan as extending beyond the wealthy of the city’s business community who have championed a third term for the mayor.

In fact, a group of a dozen or so black ministers, in a letter to the Council on Tuesday, voiced their support for the extension of term limits. The most prominent was the Rev. A. R. Bernard Sr., the pastor of the huge Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, who endorsed Mr. Bloomberg in 2001 and 2005 and served on his mayoral transition team after his election.

Over the weekend, Mr. Sharpton held a forum at which the topic of term limits was front and center. At the forum, United States Representative Anthony D. Weiner and City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., both mayoral candidates, made clear their opposition to extending term limits by a vote of the Council.

City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn was also invited, but she decided not to attend, her spokesman said, because she did not want to cloud the term limits issue.

Over the weekend, Mr. Sharpton said his group had not yet determined what position to take regarding term limits.

Sharpton convicted in NYC police-shooting protests

1 day ago

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge has convicted the Rev. Al Sharpton of disorderly conduct during protests over a police shooting and sentenced him to time served.

Criminal Court Judge Larry Stephen issued the verdict Wednesday against Sharpton and seven other activists. Sharpton has already served 5 1/2 hours in jail.

About 250 protesters were arrested in May for blocking bridges, tunnels and intersections in response to the police killing of Sean Bell on his wedding day.

Most of the cases were dismissed, but Sharpton and his co-defendants had insisted on a trial.

Sharpton testified Monday that the protests were peaceful, saying: "We wanted to stop violence, not cause violence."

Voting Rights and Suppressing the Vote

U.S. Politics -
Wednesday, 08 October 2008

Stephen Spoonamore is a registered Republican, leading cybersecurity expert, and a whistleblower. In early September he gave an explosive deposition on the means and methods by which the 2004 presidential election in Ohio was stolen, and identified specific individuals with first hand knowledge of who carried out these thefts.

Black Agenda Report here reprints his deposition, along with links to an extensive interview Spoonamore gave to questioners at Velvet Revolution in which he details how electronic voting machines not only can be hacked, but appear to have been designed to be hacked.

In this interview with Velvet Revolution back in 2006,cybersecurity expert Stephen Spoonamore details his objections to electronic voting, and explains howDiebold voting machines such as those used in Ohio and a number of other states, can be hacked.

The text of his deposition can be found below the videos.

Stephen Spoonamore interview part 1
In this segment, Spoonamore details his own qualifications, and his interest in electronic voting systems.


Stephen Spoonamore interview part 2
Among other things, Spoonamore explains the several ways that a Diebold voting machine can be hacked from a remote location.


Stephen Spoonamore interview part 3
In this segment, Spoonamore continues explaining how the chain of custody of voting results can be easily hacked, and how electronic voting systems are capable of subtracting as well as adding votes.


Stephen Spoonamore interview part 4
Spoonamore reviews the "Georgia patch" which was used to flip the 2002 US Senate election in Georgia.



Stephen Spoonamore interview part 5
In this segment, Spoonamore emphasizes the importance of clean elections in a democracy.



Stephen Spoonamore interview part 6
"There is no electronic system in the world that cannot be hacked... Diebold is lying."


Stephen Spoonamore interview part 7
"Diebold machines are brilliantly designed to steal elections..."


Stephen Spoonamore interview part 8
"People do not want to believe that Americans would steal elections..."


http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=825&Itemid=1

Gwen Ifill and Corporate Conformity

A better word for her job would be hostess, not journalist.
Share your thoughts....what is her job and who profits from her questions?....


Wednesday, 08 October 2008


The Public Broadcasting newsperson's new book should have been no concern to Republicans, and is bound to get good reviews from white corporate media.

Click the flash player below to hear this Black Agenda Radio commentary

Gwen Ifill and Corporate Conformity
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
"Gwen Ifill is around to assure her white colleagues that there are Black people who agree with them."

Public Broadcasting Black news personality Gwen Ifill caught a bunch of flak from the Right when she was tapped to moderate the Sarah Palin-Joe Biden vice-presidential debate. The Republicans excel at psychological warfare; they knew that by questioning Ifill's objectivity - by suggesting she harbors a pro-Democratic bias - they could cause her to give their not-too-bright would-be VP, Palin, a free ride.


It worked. Whatever they paid Ifill was too much. If a moderator can't even request that a candidate respond to questions, what good is she? But then, I've long questioned Gwen Ifill's usefulness to the service of truth in general, and Black people's interests in particular. The Republicans threw Ifill off her game by charging that she has a monetary interest in a Democratic victory in November, when her book, titled Breakthough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, hits the stores. By that standard, journalists who write books about politicians would be disqualified from doing news stories about, or moderating interviews with, politicians. The whole notion would be silly, except for the fact that it turned Ifill into a useless lump on the screen.

Ifill's book should get good reviews, since her line on race is also shared by much of white corporate media. Ifill focuses on Barack Obama, Colin Powell, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Alabama Congressman Artur Davis, and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. These are the "breakthrough" politicians whose success proves that Blacks are well on the way to achieving racial equality, according to Ifill. That view is also widely held at the places like the New York Times and among most corporate broadcasters outside of FOX News, so Ifill fits right in. Corporate media reporters seem to share the same list of the "good" Black "leaders" who speak their language and don't upset white folks, unlike the Reverends Al and Jesse and those poor souls who are still supposedly "trapped" in the Sixties. Gwen Ifill is around to assure her white colleagues that there are Black people who agree with them. For this, she is trusted, and rewarded.

"Washington Week is a celebration of shared world views."

White favor is that special something that Ifill shares with the six Black politicians featured in her book. All are decidedly to the Right of the Black political spectrum - which should logically disqualify them from being considered as "Black leaders." But they are Ifill's soul mates, floating, like her, on a carpet of white media approval which, in the twisted logic of the post-Civil Rights era, is the equivalent of Black success. In truth, these politicians' primary usefulness is to provide an amen corner for rich white people's critiques of Black people.

Every Friday evening, Gwen Ifill hosts a little get-together of corporate media buddies, called Washington Week. It is a celebration of shared world views: Time magazine concurs with the New York Times, which agrees with the Washington Post, which is pleased to share the same opinion as Newsweek, and so forth. At the center of the table is Ms. Ifill, who agrees with them all. She is the hostess of perfect corporate conformity - which is her personal and professional "breakthrough." Gwen Ifill has a lesson for young Black people: Don't fight The Power.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.

******************************************************************


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...
written by beverly , October 08, 2008

Race is a profitable thing. Profitable financially wise as there seems no end to the books turned out and media time spent on the subject. Profitable figuratively (or maybe financially, also) as it serves as a diversion from discussion of and action upon other issues such as the real reasons for nonstop war and economic malaise.

While Ms. Ifill and her ilk gab incessantly about and make money off the race debate, Rome, er, the U.S. burns. No wonder Wall Street and Washington can get over on the public 24/7. Deregulation Babylon, giant sucking sound of job outsourcing, healthcare mess, cost of living outpacing wages, environmental meltdown – all this and more going down but what fills print space and air waves? O.J. and the race question. Obama and the race question. Imus and the race question. Yes, race is an issue but it is not the only matter and it is being used by media and others to avoid tackling the hotter infernos on the domestic and foreign front.

The right need not have fretted over Ifill being debate moderator. As a card-carrying member of the mainstream media steno pool, there was no way Ifill would perform anything resembling actual journalism. Her public broadcasting cred means nothing as that medium also carries the water for the corporment (corporation govt).



hostess not journalist
written by ea , October 09, 2008



http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=820&Itemid=1

Political Debate of the Presidential V.P.'s

In debate, a general mistake?
Email|Link|Comments (4) Posted by Jason Tuohey October 3, 2008 11:01 AM
If you tuned in to the vice presidential debate last night expecting a gaffe-fest, you probably came away disappointed.

But some liberal bloggers today are drawing attention to an apparent Sarah Palin flub, where she referred to General David McKiernan, Commander for NATO International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, as "General McClellan."

"Well, first, McClellan did not say definitively the surge principles would not work in Afghanistan. Certainly, accounting for different conditions in that different country and conditions are certainly different. We have NATO allies helping us for one and even the geographic differences are huge but the counterinsurgency principles could work in Afghanistan. McClellan didn't say anything opposite of that. The counterinsurgency strategy going into Afghanistan, clearing, holding, rebuilding, the civil society and the infrastructure can work in Afghanistan. And those leaders who are over there, who have also been advising George Bush on this have not said anything different but that."

General George B. McClellan served as commander of the Union army during the Civil War, from Nov. 1861 - March 1862.

For the debate transcript, click here.

Women to rule Rwanda parliament

Rwanda already holds the world record for highest proportion of female MPs




Rwanda will be the first country where women will outnumber men in parliament, preliminary election results show.

Women have taken 44 out of 80 seats so far and the number could rise if three seats reserved for the disabled and youth representatives go to females.

Rwanda, whose post-genocide constitution ensures a 30% quota for female MPs, already held the record for the most women in parliament.

The ruling party coalition won 78% of seats in Monday's vote.

Indirect elections for women's quota seats took place on Tuesday and votes for two youth representatives and a disabled quota seat are taking place on Wednesday and Thursday.

It is the second parliamentary elections since the genocide of 1994 when some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu militias in just 100 days.

slaughtered by Hutu militias in just 100 days.

80-SEAT PARLIAMENT
Elected seats: 53
* RPF: 42 seats, 78.76% of the vote
* Social Democratic Party: 7 seats, 13.12% of the vote
* Liberal Party: 4 seats, 7.5% of the vote
Quota seats: 27 (women 24, youth 2, disabled 1)

Women total: 44 seats, 55% of parliament
Preliminary results Rwanda National Electoral Commission

President Paul Kagame was instrumental in establishing the Tutsi-led 's Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) - the rebel force which took power and ended the genocide.

The BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma in the capital, Kigali, says the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party have conceded defeat.

In the outgoing parliament, 48.8% of MPs were women - the world's highest rate. It is now set to be at least 55%.

Women who stood in seats reserved for female candidates were not allowed to represent a party.

"The problems of women are understood much better, much better by women themselves," voter Anne Kayitesi told the BBC's Focus on Africa.

"You see men, especially in our culture, men used to think that women are there to be in the house, cook food, look after the children... but the real problems of a family are known by a woman and when they do it, they help a country to get much better."

The World wants Obama as president: poll

Posted Tue Sep 9, 2008 10:50pm AEST

US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may be struggling to nudge ahead of his Republican rival in polls at home, but people across the world want him in the White House, a BBC poll said.

All 22 countries covered in the poll would prefer to see Senator Obama elected US president ahead of Republican John McCain.

In 17 of the 22 nations, people expect relations between the US and the rest of the world to improve if Senator Obama wins.

More than 22,000 people were questioned by pollster GlobeScan in countries ranging from Australia to India and across Africa, Europe and South America.

The margin in favour of Senator Obama ranged from 9 per cent in India to 82 per cent in Kenya, while an average of 49 per cent across the 22 countries preferred Senator Obama compared with 12 per cent preferring Senator McCain. Some four in 10 did not take a view.

"Large numbers of people around the world clearly like what Barack Obama represents," GlobeScan chairman Doug Miller said.

"Given how negative America's international image is at present, it is quite striking that only one in five think a McCain presidency would improve on the Bush administration's relations with the world."

In the United States, three polls taken since the Republican party convention ended on Thursday (local time) show Senator McCain with a lead of 1 to 4 percentage points - within the margin of error - and two others show the two neck-and-neck.

The countries most optimistic that an Obama presidency would improve relations were America's NATO allies, including Australia (62 per cent).

A similar BBC/Globescan poll conducted ahead of the 2004 U.S presidential election found that, of 35 countries polled, 30 would have preferred to see Democratic nominee John Kerry, rather than the incumbent George Bush, who was elected.

A total of 23,531 people in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, the UAE, Britain and the United States were interviewed face-to-face or by telephone in July and August 2008 for the poll.

Black police 'are spied on' claim

September 22, 2008 -
Senior members of the Met's Black Police Association (BPA) say they are concerned they are being spied on by fellow officers.
Senior members of the Met's Black Police Association (BPA) say they are concerned they are being spied on by fellow officers, the BBC has learnt.

Some are so worried that they are taking counter-surveillance measures, such as having rooms "swept" for bugs.

It is the latest twist in a bitter dispute between the Met and its prominent ethnic minority staff.

A source said the BPA was fighting against attempts by the Met to "crush any challenge" to its authority.

BBC correspondent Barnie Choudhury said the revelation the BPA suspected conversations were being monitored "shows the level of mistrust of the Metropolitan Police by some black and Asian officers."

An unnamed BPA source told the BBC: "There is a constant battle and it's the systematic failure within the organisation. It's an attempt to crush any challenge, any dissent, by black and Asian officers."

Unnecessary comment is not helpful and we have taken the view that less said in public is better

Metropolitan Police spokesman


Civil war within the Met Police

The revelations follow the suspension last week of the president of the National Black Police Association, Commander Ali Dizaei, on allegations of misconduct.

BBC News has been told some prominent members of the Met BPA are now holding secret meetings in undisclosed locations. They have also bought pay-as-you go phones to prevent conversations being tapped and are having their offices swept daily for electronic bugs.

They say it is because of fears following a two-year investigation into Dr Dizaei, the current President of the National Black Police Association.

Surveillance

In 1999 Dr Dizaei was put under surveillance in an investigation codenamed Operation Helios. He was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing in 2003.

Earlier this week, the Met BPA chairman, Alfred John, said: "Dr Dizaei has been the victim of what we believe to be the culmination of a sustained witch hunt."

The Met has responded by re-issuing a previous statement, which said: "We have seen a number of comments over recent weeks from Mr John and we do not recognise his description of what is happening in the Metropolitan Police Service and Metropolitan Police Authority.

"Unnecessary comment is not helpful and we have taken the view that less said in public is better."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7628044.stm

UF Celebrates 50th Anniversary Of Its Desegregation

George Starke, the first black student to enroll and attend classes at the University of Florida, speaks Wednesday to a crowd of at least 150 people from the steps of Tigert Hall in Gainesville.


The Associated Press

Published: September 17, 2008

Updated: 09/17/2008 03:14 pm

Related Links

Levin College Of Law
GAINESVILLE - Virgil Hawkins never reached the promised land in his attempt to gain admission to the University of Florida law school, but he was honored Wednesday as a trailblazer in the fight to open the school's doors to minority students.

UF's Levin College of Law celebrated the work of Hawkins and other pioneers in its Constitution Day observance Wednesday as it marked the 50th anniversary of integration at Florida's flagship university, where more than 12,000 blacks have graduated as part of his legacy.

Hawkins waged a nine-year legal battle to attend Florida's law school and included five trips to the Florida Supreme Court and four trips through the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hawkins, who died in 1988 at the age of 81, never was able to attend the University of Florida. As part of an agreement to desegregate the state's universities in 1958, Hawkins agreed to withdraw his application to attend the UF Law School.

"Mr. Hawkins fought a battle he never planned to fight," said Harley Herman, a UF law graduate and founder of the Virgil Hawkins Foundation. "Virgil Hawkins never expected to be the Rosa Parks of the state of Florida, nor did he expect his quest for admission to become Fort Sumter in a second civil war."

Hawkins' niece, Harriet Livingston, said her uncle was a trailblazer who suffered so that others could attend public universities.

"We began to see impossibilities turn into possibilities and possibilities turn into realities," she said.

As a result of Hawkins' fight, George Starke became the first black student admitted to the University of Florida's law school on Sept. 15, 1958. A plaque noting his accomplishments was unveiled Wednesday.

Starke discussed being shadowed by two state troopers while attending class, receiving angry phone calls and letters, and being told to be careful because of Ku Klux Klan activities.

U.S. District Judge Stephan Mickle, the first black student to graduate as an undergraduate, and the second to graduate from the law school, noted that his successes were the result of Hawkins and other pioneers who paved the way.

This year, 25.4 percent of the law school students were minority students, with 5.9 percent black; 8.6 percent Asian; 10.6 percent Hispanic, and half of one percent Native Americans. Since Starke was admitted, 850 black students have graduated from the law school.

Hawkins, a teacher at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, first applied to the UF Law School in 1949. He met all the requirements, except one: He wasn't white.

Even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education that the nation's public schools should be integrated, the Florida Supreme Court still refused to admit Hawkins.

Eventually, the court relented and allowed the state's schools to be integrated with the caveat that Hawkins not be admitted to the UF Law School.

Hawkins, although disappointed, agreed. He moved to Boston, where he obtained a law degree from the New England College of Law.

Hawkins returned to Florida, but his efforts to practice law were thwarted by The Florida Bar, which refused to allow him to take the bar exam, since his degree was from an unaccredited university.

He never gave up his dream of practicing law and in 1976, the state Supreme Court ruled that Hawkins should be admitted to the Bar. He opened his practice at age 70 in Leesburg in Lake County.

Hawkins resigned from the bar in 1985 after a complaint was filed against him alleging incompetence and misuse of client moneys.

"When I get to heaven, I want to be a member of the Florida Bar," he told the Supreme Court.

Hawkins was reinstated to the Bar in 1988 shortly after his death.