Prometheus 6

Hey, Bennie.

"We're still working to get the other people to reconsider," Thompson said. "Their decision to make Fox News the issue is not a good idea. Whether you agree or disagree with [Fox], they have a viewership."

Let's assume Fox News has a viewship that cannot be reach by anyone but Fox News. Do you think they will ever vote for a Democrat?

"There will be a direct effort to put in the minds of [viewers] that every candidate had more than enough time to put this on their schedule," he said.

We've already done that, relax.

Meanwhile, The Politico does, on occasion, repay close reading.

Fox has been seeking to improve its relations with African-American groups, especially after an embarrassing incident last month when it mistook Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) for indicted Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), another black lawmaker. Pulling out of the black caucus debate would likely jeopardize the network's outreach efforts.

Not African Americans. African American groups.
target="_blank">Leading Blacks. 

Fox and CBC struggle to save Dem debate
By: Josephine Hearn
July 7, 2007 12:36 PM EST

The Democratic debate hosted by Fox News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute threatens to be 90 minutes of bad TV, a planned presidential forum without the big-name candidates, a political event with few politicians.

Only three candidates, mostly lesser-knowns at that, have agreed to show up. The Big Three -- Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) -- said several months ago that they would not debate on the network that many Democrats believe tilts far to the right.

This week, even as I continued asking questions about Officer Gonzalez’s status, the Police Department gave him back his gun and his badge and put him back on patrol.

It was a wildly irresponsible decision. Parents across the city should be warned about this officer.

Get the idiot that cleared this man to go back to duty off the damn force as well.

[TS] A Girl’s Fear and Loathing
By BOB HERBERT

In a column earlier this week I wrote about a cop who grotesquely abused his power by invading a high school classroom in the Bronx because a girl had uttered a curse word in a hallway. Not only did the cop handcuff and arrest the girl in a room filled with stunned students and a helpless teacher, but he arrested the school’s principal, who had attempted to reason with the officer.

The principal was suspended from his job immediately after the arrest in February 2005, but was reinstated when the charges — bogus from the very beginning — were eventually dropped. Still, the police commissioner, Ray Kelly, defended the police officer’s action, telling reporters at the time, “The principal was simply wrong.”

As I continued to look into this case, it became clear that police officials were trying to withhold important information about the officer, Juan Gonzalez. [P6: No snitching,, yo...] In response to a question, a spokesman for Commissioner Kelly said that Officer Gonzalez, now 29, had been placed on modified duty and that his gun and shield had been taken away.

But why? Despite repeated requests, the department would not say.

Then I found out through other sources that Officer Gonzalez had gotten into trouble for stalking, kissing and otherwise harassing a 17-year-old girl at another high school in the Bronx. The girl, extremely upset over the unwanted advances, notified school authorities and they notified the Police Department.

The Police Department confirmed this yesterday.

The Jack format began five years ago in Canada as a looser, younger variation on the traditional oldies format, with a much wider playlist than is usual in commercial radio. Aiming to recreate the experience of an iPod set to shuffle, the creators of Jack cultivated the sometimes jarring juxtapositions long derided in the radio industry as “train wrecks” — Bon Jovi following Whitney Houston, for example, or Pearl Jam abutting Ricky Martin.

The format spread quickly throughout North America and has been successful in many markets; besides WCBS, CBS Radio has eight Jack stations. But Jack failed to attract much listener attention or advertising revenue in New York.

WCBS-FM Reconsiders, Deciding Oldies Are Goodies Again
By BEN SISARIO

Two years after an unceremonious dismissal that drew street protests and appeals from figures like Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Senator Charles E. Schumer, the oldies radio format is returning to WCBS-FM.

“A lot of people made plans to come from Europe and other states in America to be there,” said Mr. Poulis, who added that he and his wife planned to leave town for the weekend. “I have no control over that. I will not be around.”

Smart move. 

A Party Is Off, but Who’ll Stop the Guests?
By ELLEN BARRY

By sundown last July 9, the park police were running out of ideas. The permit allowed for 1,500 attendees, but the crowd had swelled to 40,000, nudging the person-to-port-a-john ratio to a vertiginous 2,200 to 1. Revelers pitched tents, hammering stakes into the asphalt runways of Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. Several set up barbecues in the visitors’ center.

The event was Guyanese-American Family Fun Day, a yearly celebration that began 11 years ago with 30 people and grew exponentially, largely via word of mouth.

I read this headline 

NAACP Will 'Bury' Slur At Gathering

...and my first thought was, "Nigga, please!"

Africa in the new millennium: Interrogating Barbie democracy
Francis B. Nyamnjoh (2007-07-04)

Inspired by the market logic, the world is currently hostage to a stifling vision of democracy informed by a very narrow idea of what it is to be beautiful, healthy, successful and free. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the colossal investment that consumer capitalism has made in slimness, the greatest icon of which is Barbie. This image is made and sold aggressively around the world by global consumer and entertainment media to be consumed as the ideal to which all must aspire, if they are to attain the good life. Francis Nyamnjoh assesses the lessons Africa has learned from the implementation of Barbie democracy and examines alternatives to the market model for Africa.

9 am and I haven't even considered the news yet.

I saw this headline

Attacks are just political, not bigoted
Perceived racism nothing more than partisan rhetoric

...and thought I'd explain why I don't believe it.

Over the last decade or so it has become clear you never say only one thing at a time. You always consider the message you're sending with every statement and gesture. I've heard "We can't because it sends the message..." more times than I ever really needed to, and I'd be foolish to pretend the plain-text meaning of anything you say is the full measure of your intent.

And you've been speaking the same code to the same people for so long we know what you're saying too.

When will those who produce the Coon Show, step up to the plate and admit that they are producing it for the money? It's the perpetrating that they actually give a rat's ass about the community that disgusts me most.

"We've tried reasoning, but Their agendas are in direct opposition to ours," Vice-President Dick Cheney said. "They stand in stark defiance of stated U.S. policy. We cannot and will not allow Them to dictate global policy."...

"The U.S. is surrounded on all sides by Them," Rumsfeld said. "Over 90 percent of the planet's land mass is controlled by Them, and the territories immediately south, west, east, and north of the U.S. are all occupied by Them. Until we can correct this risky state of affairs, it is vital that we maintain our military readiness to intervene whenever and wherever They oppose us."...

"They only think about what's good for Them, but we're concerned with the needs of all Americans," Rice added.

Relations Break Down Between U.S. And Them
September 10, 2003 | Issue 39•35

WASHINGTON, DC—After decades of antagonism between the two global powers, the U.S. has officially severed relations with Them, Bush administration officials announced Tuesday.

The petition

The video

The bigger challenge, however, may be enforcing such laws, if Arizona is any example.

Or maybe they are. 

Employers feel heat on immigration
Arizona's new law imposes sanctions – the stiffest in the US – for hiring illegal workers.
By Faye Bowers | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Phoenix

Arizona leads the nation in population growth. More illegal immigrants cross its border than any other in the United States. Now, in an apparent backlash to those trends, the state is leading the charge to halt illegal immigration by cracking down on employers.

Its new law effectively sets up a two-strikes penalty. A business employing an illegal immigrant would have its business license suspended temporarily. A second offense would mean a permanent revocation of that license.

Catching the changes as they occur is a LOT better than recognizing them as you analyze what went wrong.

Expecting integration, Americans find themselves confronting polarization and fragmentation. Amid all the problems that have made Americans sour and pessimistic, this is the deepest.

It could be that all we need is a change of leadership in order to rediscover the sense that we’re all in this together. That’s what the Obama and Bloomberg boomlets are all about. It could be we just need to work harder to overcome racism and tribalism.

But it could be the dream of integration itself is the problem.

Thank you Mr. Brooks. And I ain't mad at ya for saying it. I just want to make it clear: Black Americans were not the obstacle. Black Americans were not the ones fighting tooth and nail against it. Even those Black people who did resist it just wanted to get out of its way.

Liberals are going to assault the man for this one. Not me. It just seems to me those white folk who are inclined to are already working on understanding...what, I'm not always clear on. And there's enough white folks actively opposing integration that, added to those who are confused by their intentional fogging of the issues, and those who can't support the effort required, and those to whom it simply wasn't an issue, the handwriting on the wall has long been visible.

[TS] The End of Integration
By DAVID BROOKS

Nothing is sadder than the waning dream of integration. This dream has illuminated American life for the past several decades — the belief that the world is getting smaller and that different peoples are coming together over time.

If you are so easily duped, what if Bush had concocted a convincing story of fissile material entering France? Would you have stood idly by as he invaded Paris? Maybe I should have used Venezuela in that hypothetical. Or maybe China. You can see why this game is hard.

Man up, you doves
Sure, now everyone's against the war in Iraq. Next time we'll let the old folks do the deciding.
Joel Stein
July 6, 2007

STOP BLAMING George Bush. "He lied to us." "He tricked us." Suddenly everyone — Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, all of my friends — is claiming to have been a dove who was bamboozled by the cleverness of our president. When "American Idol" drops to a 30% approval rating, I predict you all also will claim that Paula Abdul outsmarted you into watching two hours of karaoke each week.

There is no better example than Clinton's comment about the disproportionate effect HIV has on black communities. She said that if "HIV-AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of 25 and 34, there would be an outraged outcry in this country." For Obama to have said the same words in the same fiery manner could have been political suicide. By forfeit, Clinton essentially becomes the black candidate; it's not a space America would allow Obama to fill.

That right there is the heart of Amina Luqman's article, Obama's Tightrope. No Black person with any awareness can doubt the truth of that statement.

Despite dire predictions, the institution of marriage didn't crumble under the weight of homosexuals seeking the rights and responsibility that come with it.

Some disagree. 

Dunne scored a 268.866 on the bar exam, just missing a passing grade of 270. The exam question at issue concerns two married lesbian attorneys and their rights regarding a house and two children when one decides to end the marriage.

“Yesterday, Jane got drunk and hit (her spouse) Mary with a baseball bat,breaking Mary’s leg, when she learned that Mary was having an affair with Lisa,” the bar exam question stated. “As a result, Mary decided to end her marriage with Jane in order to live in her house with Philip, Charles and Lisa. What are the rights of Mary and Jane?”

    Dunne claims the question was used as a “screening device” to identify and penalize him for “refusing to subscribe to a liberal ideology based on ‘secular humanism,’ ”according to his lawsuit.

    “Homosexual conduct is inconsistent with (Dunne’s) Christian practices, beliefs and values, which are protected by the First Amendment,” the lawsuit states. 

You don't want a lawyer that thinks he can ignore the law he doesn't like. This idiot not only deserves to have his suit dismissed, he should be publicly humiliated in the process, and penalized for bringing a frivolous lawsuit.

The Sky Isn't Falling
Experience may be trumping hysteria over gay marriage.
Thursday, July 5, 2007; A16

WHEN THE high court of Massachusetts ruled in 2003 that the commonwealth's constitution gave same-sex couples the right to marry, detractors railed against "activist judges" who were "imposing" their will on the people. Only the people, through their elected representatives, should decide something so fundamental, they said. Thus began an effort to amend Massachusetts's constitution by referendum to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Four years and about 10,000 same-sex marriages later, here's what the people have said: never mind.

Nutrition class not curbing junk-food craving
Child obesity up despite US push on healthy eating
By Martha Mendoza, Associated Press  |  July 5, 2007

PANORAMA CITY, Calif. -- The federal government will spend more than $1 billion this year on nutrition education -- fresh carrot and celery snacks, videos of dancing fruit, hundreds of hours of lively lessons about how great you will feel if you eat well.

But an Associated Press review of scientific studies examining 57 such programs found mostly failure. Just four showed any real success in changing the way children eat -- or any promise as weapons against the growing epidemic of childhood obesity.

"Any person looking at the published literature about these programs would have to conclude that they are generally not working," said Dr. Tom Baranowski, a pediatrics professor at Houston's Baylor College of Medicine who studies behavioral nutrition.

The results have been disappointing :

Challenge to Lynn's race policy is revived
High court buoys foes of school transfer rule
By April Yee, Globe Correspondent | July 5, 2007

Lawyers representing a group of Lynn parents who began challenging the city's desegregation plan eight years ago revived their legal battle this week, days after the Supreme Court declared similar plans unconstitutional in Seattle and Kentucky.

The brief filed in US District Court in Boston late Tuesday sets the stage for the first challenge of a race-based school assignment policy in Massachusetts since last week's Supreme Court decision. The justices' June 28 ruling could affect roughly 20 school-assignment plans in Massachusetts, as well as the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity , which has bused minority students to affluent suburban schools since 1966.

Picture the reaction if Black folks had said, "Hey our kids are drinking anyway, so we'll just let them knock back a couple of 40s in the living room."

Okay, some folks did that, I know. What I'm saying is, with all this talk of 'bad behavior', people are being remarkably understanding on the hand and remarkably ignorant of the fact that they have become part of the problem on the other hand. Then again, they've always been part of the process that is the problem.

Or maybe I'm still bugging out over the idea of Knocked Up with a Black cast.

Justice Denied

In the 1960s, Chief Justice Earl Warren presided over a Supreme Court that interpreted the Constitution in ways that protected the powerless — racial and religious minorities, consumers, students and criminal defendants. At the end of its first full term, Chief Justice John Roberts’s court is emerging as the Warren court’s mirror image. Time and again the court has ruled, almost always 5-4, in favor of corporations and powerful interests while slamming the courthouse door on individuals and ideals that truly need the court’s shelter.

President Bush created this radical new court with two appointments in quick succession: Mr. Roberts to replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Samuel Alito to replace the far less conservative Sandra Day O’Connor.

The court's decision on June 28 marks a cultural as well as a legal turning point on the issue of race, and conservative Thomas probably deserves more credit — or blame — than anyone has yet recognized.

Thomas gets credit for being the first to use the Jedi Answer Avoidance Technique before Congress. Again, once it works on the naygurs, it will work on anyone.

That's all he gets credit for.

After 16 years on the court — often spent as invisible as he was last week — Thomas' disdain for affirmative action, and his skepticism about the value of integrated schools, carried the day.

To say his disdain carried the day is true...to imply he played a leadership role in mainstreaming that disdain is just white folks hiding behind the Black stalking horse.

He has an autobiography coming up that I will ignore most studiously...his gutting the EEOC and Supreme Corporate voting record is all I care about.

Justice Thomas carries the day
The only African-American on the Supreme Court is often a quiet presence on the bench. Yet as evidenced in the court’s ruling on desegregation last week, his conservative voice on civil rights issues is loud and unmistakable.
By Tony Mauro

A week has passed, yet the memory of what transpired at the Supreme Court on June 28 remains vivid.

Usually a staid and solemn place, the court produced high drama that morning as Chief Justice John Roberts announced a landmark ruling curtailing the use of race in assigning students to one public school or another in pursuit of diversity. There was drama in what could be seen, and in what was invisible, as well.

As the court announced perhaps the most significant race case in a decade, Clarence Thomas, the court's only African-American justice, was barely visible — literally. He sits next to Justice Stephen Breyer, and the two can often be seen chatting amiably. But as Breyer read his angry dissent, accusing the majority of turning its back on decades of civil rights precedents, I looked up to see how Thomas was reacting — and could not see him.

The Court Returns To Brown
By George F. Will
Thursday, July 5, 2007; A17

For most of the 53 years since the Supreme Court's school desegregation decision, the court, in collaboration with people who fancy themselves "progressive," has been instructing Americans to unlearn the lesson of those decisions -- the lesson that race must not be a source of government-conferred advantage or disadvantage. Last week the court began rectifying its abandonment of that premise in the name of "diversity."

Yeah, the title sounds a bit hysterical, but that is the plain text meaning of that last sentence. It's pretty much the only thing he says here that I agree with. He's either badly miseducated or mendacious as he wanna be. Though I credit young conservatives with miseducation, Will was around when the facts on the ground were laid down.

Why love such a country? Why celebrate its birth? The answer was given from the pulpit of the Ebenezer Baptist Church on Independence Day 1965.

Why We Keep This Creed
By Michael Gerson
Wednesday, July 4, 2007; A15

One of the great Independence Day speeches of American history was an attack on Independence Day.

On the Fourth of July, 1829, William Lloyd Garrison-- who looked like a shop clerk and set rhetorical fires like an arsonist -- took the pulpit at the Park Street Church in Boston. Rather than celebrate, he said, Americans should "spike every cannon and haul down every banner" because of the "glaring contradiction" between the Declaration of Independence and the practice of slavery. The grievances of slaves, he argued, made the grievances of the American colonists look like trivial whining. "I am ashamed of my country," he concluded. "I am sick of our unmeaning declamation in praise of liberty and equality; of our hypocritical cant about the unalienable rights of man."

Even across the centuries, his gall is startling. But Garrison laid bare the central contradiction of the American experiment: that the land of the free was actually a prison for millions of its inhabitants.

The war that ended slavery, it turned out, did not end oppression. In "Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War," Nicholas Lemann recounts how armed paramilitary groups, often consisting of former Confederate officers and soldiers, conducted a violent guerrilla campaign to reimpose race-based rule across the South in the 1870s. In our own period of ethnic cleansing, local officials were assassinated, elections were overturned and resisters were massacred. Lemann tells the story of Charles Caldwell, a black state senator from Mississippi, lured to a bar for a Christmas drink and shot in the back. Staggering to his feet, he said: "Remember when you kill me you kill a gentleman and a brave man." He was then shot 30 or 40 more times.

At the end of the first Reconstruction, the Supreme Court approved segregation by saying in 1896 that African-Americans wrongly assumed that "social prejudices may be overcome by legislation and that equal rights cannot be secured to the Negro except by an enforced commingling of the two races. We cannot accept this proposition. If the two races are to meet upon terms of social equality, it must be the result of natural affinities, a mutual appreciation of each other's merits."

All that did was usher in nearly 60 years of lynching, race riots, and quiet daily oppression and humiliation of black people.

Showing that history can repeat itself, if written by people who refuse to study it, Chief Justice John Roberts said in the 5-to-4 majority against the Seattle and Louisville school plans: "Accepting racial balancing as a compelling state interest would justify the imposition of racial proportionality throughout American society."

Concurring with this, Justice Clarence Thomas asked in a footnote, "Can the government force racial mixing against the will of those being mixed?"

Another era of willful white ignorance
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist  |  July 4, 2007

ON THIS day of red, white, and blue, opportunity is black and blue. By throwing out the voluntary desegregation plans of Seattle and Louisville, the Reagan-Bush wing of the Supreme Court officially ended a second Reconstruction.

It ushered in a third era of willful white ignorance.