Prometheus 6: June 01, 2003 - June 07, 2003 Archives

June 07, 2003

It's still not an ad

One of those light blogging days because writing about my original plan to make a blogging tool (plus a Blogger glitch here and there) got me thinking about it again.

Part of the reason I stopped working on it was the user interface I built wasn't so great… I made it before I did any real writing in this thing and it turns out I use it slightly differently than I thought I would. And a couple of wish-list things occurred to me as well. So I've been working all day on it. I was less ambitious with the underpinnings (I had database abstraction in mind—it's not abstracted yet but I designed it so I won't have to start from scratch if I go there) and more ambitious with the UI. Once I gave up on wysiwyg it moved at a reasonable pace.

I didn't change the underlying tables, so the templating system ideas I had will still work. That leaves the FTP functionality and a little clean up of edit field labels, and I'll have something I can actually use.

My intent, if I follow through this time, is to automatically ping Weblogs.com, and possibly act as a front end for the Blogger and MetaWeblog APIs. And I just downloaded the code to implement spell checking with the editor component I've settled on.

It's been a good day.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/7/2003 08:56:32 PM |

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from The East African Standard (Nairobi) via AllAfrica.com

29 Kenyan Students in Algeria to Be Repatriated
June 6, 2003
Posted to the web June 6, 2003

By Eliud Chisika in Cairo,
Nairobi

Kenyan Ambassador to Egypt Mohhamed Mahamud yesterday said 29 Kenyan students caught up in the Algerian eargthquake tragedy would be repatriated back to Kenya until the situation normalises.

The envoy, however, said all the students were safe "and we have continued to monitor them on a daily basis". He was speaking in Cairo after attending the graduation of African journalists who have been here on a three-week training course.

The course was sponsored by the Egyptian government and the African Union of Journalists (UAJ).

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/7/2003 04:04:28 PM |

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First attempt at peace

from Vanguard (Lagos), via AllAfrica.com

We are trying to redress the injustice of the war years - Minister of Justice
June 6, 2003
By Nduka Uzuapundu

After a devastating civil war, Sierra Leoneans are presently going through a healing process, in the expectation that some of the grievous offences committed during the war, like chopping off the limbs of opponents, would be forgiven.

The healing process involves rehabilitation and provision of false limbs and medical care for the amputees by both the Tejan Kabbah administration and the United Nations. The country's Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Eke Ahmed Halloway, who was at the recent Abuja conference of the Coalition of African Jurists, told correspondent NDUKA UZUAKPUNDU, in an interview, that while efforts were also being made to fight corruption, the stage was set, at the International or Special Court, to try individuals who bore the greatest responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The arrangements so far made to that effect may not be entirely tidy, but truth is that Sierra Leoneans want peace and are desirous of putting the past well behind them. Halloway said that there was a snag though: those who have been pardoned by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) - an exercise that is not recognised by the Special Court - may still be tried. And amputees of diverse shades, whose lot is quite a woeful spectacle, were demanding justice, he said, for the obvious injustice they'd forever have to live with.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/7/2003 03:52:49 PM |

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We'll see

from AllAfrica.com

'If I Stand in the Way of Peace,' I'll Quit, Says Taylor
June 5, 2003

By Abdoulaye W. Dukulï¿½
Accra

With reports circulating that Liberian President Charles Taylor had been indicted by a United Nations-backed tribunal, the 55-year old former warlord made an unexpected offer to step down at the end of his term.

"If I am the problem and seem to stand in the way for Liberia to achieve peace, I will remove myself from the process to allow peace to come to our country," Taylor said during the opening session of the Liberian peace talks here on Wednesday. He also suggested he was open to the formation of a transitional government after his five-year tenure ends in October.

Prior to the session, news of the indictment was confirmed in an announcement from Freetown by the court established to investigate war crimes during Sierra Leone's civil war. "My office was given an international mandate by the United Nations and the Republic of Sierra Leone to follow the evidence impartially wherever it leads. It has led us unequivocally to Taylor," David Crane, the Court's chief prosecutor, said in a statement.

The court decided to indict Taylor in March but waited until he arrived in Ghana to make the action public.

… Even Taylor 's own supporters seemed surprised by his pronouncement. Lewis Brown, minister of state for foreign affairs and leader of the government delegation, said that he could not make any comment because he was as surprised as anyone else.

While the positions of the African leaders remain unclear, none of them publicly shook hands with Taylor and nobody exchanged a single word with him during the meeting, even though they were speaking to each other and making jokes at the microphone. Late in the day, Taylor boarded a plane provided by the Ghanaians and flew back to Monrovia.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/7/2003 03:46:27 PM |

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Questions for Mr. Ashcroft

If I was willing to get close enough to his creepy-looking ass to ask:

In what has become Mr. Ashcroft's public mantra, he said: "These successes send a clear message to terrorists here and abroad: We will find you. We will track you down. We will track down all those who support you. We will not rest until justice is brought to all who would plot against America and strike against the freedom we hold so dear."

With such "success," why do you need to bolster your already disturbing power by incrementally assembling The Son of P.A.T.R.I.O.T.? Between the war lies and the civil liberties assaults, it's looking more and more like the current administration "fits the description" better than I did any time the cops were looking for "a black male, 6'2" with facial hair."

Privacy parts

His spokeswoman, Barbara Comstock, said Mr. Ashcroft did not have time to take questions about the report because of his schedule. After the report was released on Monday, Ms. Comstock said, "We make no apologies for finding every legal way possible to protect the American public from further terrorist attacks."

You wouldn't.

What you should be ashamed of is the new laws that made much of your efforts legal. It puts me in mind of a man and woman getting caught in the rain. The woman complains about her hair getting ruined so he tears off her skirt to cover her head.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/7/2003 04:41:59 AM |

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June 06, 2003

Hey, I forgot to brag

Progressive Gold has listed me in it's blogroll. Between Martin and The Lefty Directory, I'm now officially a left wing extremist. Yay!

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/6/2003 08:18:19 PM |

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Maybe we can arrest the whole administration under the RICO laws

from It's Still The Economy, Stupid

I got my first clue as to just exactly what that might mean from this snippet in this morning's AP report on the jobless numbers:

The data from the Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National) program is currently unavailable. We will restore the data as soon as possible. For immediate assistance, contact our data specialist listed below. Thank you for your interest in BLS data, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Well, fortunately, I wasn't kidding yesterday when I suggested people download the old data, and took my own advice. Lo and behold, when I looked up it up in my trusty Excel spreadsheet, as of yesterday, prior to today's "revisionism", the BLS reported a loss of 48,000 jobs in April. I sometimes hate it when I'm right.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/6/2003 07:46:55 PM |

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I'm not happy

from Wampum, no point in linking, I guess

Adio, Nid8bak
Well, the Wampum lodge has only been set up in its new home a couple of weeks and sadly, it's coming down. There have been a lot of strange happenings in the Blogosphere as of late, and I decided it's time to put on my jingle shawl and hit the powwow highway. I thank all of my readers for their time and input, and hope that you'll keep advocating for the poor, disadvantaged and needy, especially in this time of an Administration which has shut out such voices.

For economic news, my colleagues at It's Still the Economy, Stupid are always spot on. Dwight Meredith of PLA is the voice for autism advocacy, and there is no better. Ross at the Bloviator (happy belated anniversary!) always has the latest scoop on medical news, including vaccine and autism research. I wish I knew of other American Indian bloggers, but, alas there are so few. However, Barry, of Alas, has always been a welcome non-native voice in the wilderness.

It's been a great journey these past six months. Oliwni.

I don't understand the part I underlined.

I'm leaving her on the blogroll a while in case she changes her mind.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/6/2003 07:17:45 PM |

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Ya been by Eschaton recently?

Of course you have.

Got a whole different feel nowadays, don't it? This is a serious demonstration of the power of a brand name.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/6/2003 07:12:35 PM |

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Why I'll never make the A-list, and why that's okay

First of all, I want to link to Mac Diva's entry in the TLB New Blog showcase. This isn't a gratuitous act; I literally don't do those things. I linked to this article before, but it scrolled off and the official count is Sunday so I'm putting the link where it will be counted. I want a leftie blog to win, to get that attention. Think of it as affirmative action for the left if you want; to me it's more like pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

Last week a total of 67 votes, and I didn't get one. I mean, I know what I submitted was a bit pompous, especially the title, but…

This is what happened. I saw the contest, and I said "what the hell, found the post on my front page that gave the best idea of my concerns and submitted it. Next day I checked the current stats and I found I had no votes, but an entry about which roll of toilet paper would one use (I swear to god) had one vote. At that point, I stopped checking until today because a suspicion I'd been nursing for a few weeks gelled… I have no idea what people will want to read.

See, I had no idea whether or not I wanted this blog to be popular when I started this. You hear so much about a thing, you get curious. And this was a curiosity I could sate with no additional cost. Instead of thinking about, analyzing and being unpleasantly surprised by current events, I could write down my thoughts. analyses and unpleasant reactions instead. Hey… in the process, I might learn how a blogging tool should work and make millions (don't worry, this isn't an ad. I've been too busy blogging to write a blogging tool).

Also, I have a real interest in how people work. That knowledge wasn't automatic for me, I had to consciously learn about people and decide how to act toward them. Watching and participating in this Internet thing has given me a whole new set of parameters to deal with, new ways to test my basic Theorem of Human Nature:

Humans never change what they do; they just change what they do it with.

I've come to blogging with a sense of curiosity as well as urgency. The Conservative agenda is a threat to the majority of the country, and too many people go for the okey-doke.

So I write in public. It's an extension of other activities Iï¿½ve been involved in, and I'll get further involved as long as the threat exists. I quote things that either raise an issue I want to comment on or says something I agree with better than I would. I frequent every blog on my blogroll several times a week… I'll not likely let it grow to the point where I can't.

And the subjects I choose aren't always those that show up in the Great Attractor of blog subjects. Why? Because not too many folks are blogging on them. Either no interest or no knowledge they exist. So I bring them up, and you can say "yeah and" or you can say "no, but," I don't care which.

And I see my theory holds true for the most part; blogtopia is a society and has its pecking order. I see some of the impact of being mentioned by the "cool guys" on links and view counts. I see subcultures, A-lister being the nucleus around which lesser blogs orbit, with swarms of commenters flitting in and out of the systems like virtual particles. I see Mac's entry doing really well this week—the very entry she submitted last week. TLB reorganized the presentation of entries so everyone has a better chance of being seen. And Cowboy Kahlil referred people to a post I wrote after my entry—same week, though—that really was much better than the one I submitted, while I respond to the issue with myself I mentioned in that post by blogging about Africa, but ALL of it— not just AIDS and starvation, though that must also be mentioned.

Somewhere, I think it was on Anil's blog, I read something about how to create an A-list blog in this power-law environment. The first step, he said, was to start blogging a year ago. And that was six months or so ago. And there's a major element of randomness in who see you. And I still don't know what people want to read.

But I know what I want to write. So that's what I write. And if the number of links I get ever becomes important that it becomes the reason I maintain the blog, I'll find a new way to express myself… which means I'm just not dedicated enough to "break in."

But since that's not why I started, that's okay with me.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/6/2003 06:57:53 PM |

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sigh

All this talk about link counts and microbes makes me curous enough to check Technorati again, and I see a certain Babylonian deity has been reading the page. From the comment he madeon his site, he's almost a fan. So I figure, what the hell, I'll clarify something for him. Referring to this post, he asks:

Are you kidding me?

You're now telling me that the Republican Administration, which is being constantly denounced by both the far-left and the far-right of being led by the nose by a Jewish/Zionist Cabal, is, in fact, secretly supportive of the Christian Identity movement?

Here's a thought: instead of just looking at a cover of a publication, how about actually reading it? That way, you have a better, albeit not great, chance of not making an utter ass of yourself.

I'm not kidding, but neither do you have it quite right.

I'm suggesting they're secretively appealing to the Christian Identity movement. That's not the same thing as being supportive of it, though even that's not a stretch. We know several Republican Senators had or have connections with the Council of Conservative Citizens, about whom I shall quote from the ADL's report:

A racist political group, the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), has been making waves in the national media ever since it became known that mainstream politicians such as Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) and Representative Bob Barr (R-GA) were keynote speakers at CCC conferences. According to the CEO of the CCC, Gordon Lee Baum, Sen. Lott has addressed the group a number of times, and Rep. Barr made an appearance in front of the group in 1998. These appearances by mainstream politicians such as Sen. Lott and Rep. Barr, and by numerous elected officials at the state and local levels, such as Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice, give the CCC a false imprimatur of legitimacy.

How far from removed is the Christian Identity movement from a group like the CCC, really? The groups are close, nearly identical in fact, in philosophy. And as they operate in the same area there's likely a lot of overlap in membership. The Christian Identity movement benefits would be side effects of the direct benefit the CCC get from the respectable aura folks like Lott and his supporters have. If I did say the Republicans had a connection with the Identity Christians it would be a supportable claim.

Anyway, back to the original subject, I'm saying the Republican party consciously chooses the names of their initiatives. I'm saying the name "Desert Shield" would appeal Identity Christians. I'm saying it's possible the Republicans in charge at the time of Operation Desert Shield knew that, and chose it partly as a no-cost method of giving strokes to their Southern Strategy constituency.

Later: looking at the spelling in that hastily typed entry, "shit-spew" might be applicable.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/6/2003 06:04:14 PM |

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Look on the bright side

You have to wonder what things would look like at this point if there had been no Iraqi war.

Immediately after the SCOTUS Coup (that's what SC stands for now, sort of like GNU stands for GNU is Not Unix), the Republican extremists started jamming through as many of their programs as possible along strict party lines. The run-up to war delayed a lot of that; knowing what we know now, you gotta figure we'd have been having much of this discussion a year and a half ago. At that time, tax cuts were received wisdom; now it's questioned only because of the timing vis a vis paying for the war. Unemployment wasn't as bad as it is now, so it wouldn't have been as evident how damaging shredding the social safety net is to the average citizen. And though even now the conversation isn't taking place between as much of the populace as should be the case, think of how many fewer would be up on things before you had liberal blogs getting five and ten thousand unique visitors per day (I'm not sure how much right wing blogs actually spread their message as opposed to entrenching it because their message is pretty much all the liberal media has been transmitting).

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/6/2003 10:30:02 AM |

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Mark Fiore agian

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/6/2003 10:05:49 AM |

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I can't tell if they're sympathetic or not

Bill DeOre and Glen McCoy comment on Mrs. Clinton's upcoming book.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/6/2003 08:14:34 AM |

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Stolen from The Daily Distopian

House Bill Threatens End of Head Start Programs

Discouraging bit of movement on the Head Start front, per Interest Alert:

The 72 local Head Start programs serving 38,000 at-risk children could be targeted for "liquidation" under a controversial bill introduced in the US House of Representatives...an initial group of at least eight states, including Ohio, could see their access to the 38-year-old Head Start program wiped out in favor of untested state-level programs with lower standards and fewer of the currently provided comprehensive Head Start services that at-risk children need in order to succeed in school.

Haxton, Heil and Harper noted that, while there are positive reforms outlined in Title I of the controversial House bill, any good that the provisions might do would be more than offset by the widely criticized Title II provisions permitting states to raid federal Head Start funds for their own programs.

Here's an article from last week on scare tactics used by the feds against Head Start employees over this issue.

Go to Save Head Start or the National Head Start Association for more info.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/6/2003 03:13:23 AM |

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Christian Identity

Orcinus is active again, and once again producing important stuff on our native-born terrorists, among other things. Today he tells about (among other things) a slide show by Political Research Associates called Christian Identity: A Bibliographic Genealogy. This is a lightweight introduction to the Christian Identity movement and its philosophical ancestry by means of images of various books that propagandized for their theology.

Now, I have to admit that since understanding its Southern Strategy and the means by which it is executed I haven't trusted a damn thing that comes out of the Republican Party. That distrust has gotten worse since the neo-Con~~federate~~servatives have shown how little they respect the truth, starting with the SCOTUS coup, continuing through the serial falsehoods used to justify a preemptive war on out through the daily ass-covering press releases we endure today. Still, I was kind of jarred when, on page 14 of the slide show I ran across this book cover:

Does this title sound familiar?

I would love to write this off as paranoia on my part… but as they say, being paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. Republicans have shown a deep understanding of subtle ways to embed statements supportive of the most extreme elements of their party in the most innocent-looking ways. And in fact, the Christian Identity movement would see an American military occupation of the Middle East as no less than the return of True Israel to the Holy Land. Combine that with the fact that most of the current band of liars were officials of some sort in the earlier Bush administration, and well…

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/6/2003 02:43:13 AM |

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Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center

The Souls of Our Feet: People of Color Dance Festival
SEASON SCHEDULE
2003

Saturday, June 7 - Sunday, June 8 @. 8 PM
WOMEN DANCEMAKERS
Joan Miller's Dance Players, Tania Isaac, Gabriela Poler
Curator: Marshall Swiney

Saturday, June 14 - Sunday, June.15 @ 2 PM
NEW GROWTH FROM THE CONCRETE JUNGLE
Children's Dance Workshop
Curators: Natasha de Sanders and Valerie Winborne

Saturday, June 14 - Sunday, June.15 @ 8 PM
TONAILS OF STEEL & RUBY RED TEXT
MonstaH Black and the Sound of Messami
Curator: Marshall Swiney

Saturday, June 21 @8 PM - Sunday, June.15 @ 7 PM
MIXED NUTS
Meolaka Arebreone, Pene McCourty, Treva Offutt, Aparna Sindhoor, Rubin
Delgado
Sunday performance will include the awarding of Lifetime Achievement
Awards to
Fred Benjamin & Kathleen Stanford Grant
Curator: Marlies Yearby

Wednesday, June 25, 6-10:30pm
WORKSHOPS
Instructors:
Nia Love - 6:30-7:30 Nils Ford - 7:30-9:00 Marlies Yearby- 9:00-10:30
Rod Rogers Dance Studio, 62 E. 4th Street, Man.
admission $10 1 set of 3 tickets $18 2 sets of 2 tickets $16
partial proceeds will go to the Rod Rogers Dance Studio

Saturday, June 28 - Sunday, June 29 @ 8 PM
URBAN DANDELIONS
Artists: Nia Love's The Blacksmith's Daughter Dance Theater Company
Urban Dance Collective
Curator: Marlies Yearby

General Admission for all programs $15
Students and seniors $12

Special Urban Dandelion performance and Lifetime Achievemnet Awards plus
after performance reception $40

Performances at The Long Island University Triangel Theater, located at
Flatbush & Dekalb Avenues (inside the LIU Campus across from Junior's)

for information, (718) 875-9710
e-mail: [email protected]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/6/2003 02:04:00 AM |

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June 05, 2003

Picking on my blogroll

The Slacktivist asks "Why Are Mass Graves Worse Than Mass Killings?"

What's startling is that Friedman shares the Claude-Raines-ish surprise so many war supporters are expressing over the unearthing of mass graves in Iraq:

Once the war was over and I saw the mass graves and the true extent of Saddam's genocidal evil, my view was that Mr. Bush did not need to find any W.M.D.'s to justify the war for me.

Set aside Friedman's reckless stretching of the word "genocidal" here. Friedman writes for The New York Times -- doesn't he also read the paper? Why is he so startled at the existence of these mass graves? And why are the mass graves considered more newsworthy than the mass killings that produced all those bodies?

There's an answer, Fred.

Mass killing on the same scale as the mass graves Friedman decries has a name: war. And war is a ritual we respect. We're good at it, it advances our interests. We get REALLY worked up over a single death but war, well… they should have respected our authori-tay. Our burial rituals, on the other hand require caskets, lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth and even more money. Plus, everyone is so much more noble when their dead. We hate to see all those noble people piled up in a heap (though spreading them across the landscape was no biggie, know what I'm sayin?

And MB over a "It's Still The Economy, Stupid" is just plain cynical about The Bureau of Labor Statistics' decision (orders?) to revise statistics all the way back to 1990 using Bush regime standards this coming June:

[Update] I've been thinking about what these changes in the report might entail from a political perspective, and this fictitious exchange popped into my head:
Fox News, June, 2004
Sean Hannity: So, Terry McAuliffe, what again are these charges you're making against our fearless leader's stewardship on economic issues?
Terry McAuliffe: Under George Bush's watch, this economy has lost 2.7 million jobs.
Hannity: 2.7 million? Who says?
McAuliffe: The Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Hannity: Really. Well, I'm looking at the website right now, and its says that George Bush has created 2.7 million jobs.
McAuliffe: Yes, but, but, but... that's only because last summer, he had the BLS change all the numbers.
Hannity: Yes, sure he did, Terry (winking to the camera.) By the way, Terry, have you seen my Pulitzer, er, Peabody?

Now, who would possibly believe such a perversion of truth would EVER take place on Fox?

um… Fox.

Well, the other, more honest broadcasters would surely take the opportunity to blast Fox for … hmm. FCC rulings.

Okay, MB. I'm downloading them stats from the BLS tonight. I may not understand them but SOMEone I know will.

Meanwhile, John Constantine writes there are no Christian terrorists, oh no, of course not (wink-wink). He actually visited the web site of Army of God to support his thesis, which showed more intestinal fortitude than I can muster after just having read some crap on the VDARE site this morning. I hope he washed his hands after seeing that site.

You want to see what he came up with, you have to follow the link to his site.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/5/2003 06:27:51 PM |

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You know what? I don't even care if it's true

… because if it's not it's untrue in the same way the great mythologies of the world are untrue;

via The Daily Distopian

Teen wins lying contest, plans to study politics
Associated Press
Jun. 5, 2003 09:30 AM

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The winner of the state's annual tall-tale-telling contest will study a field in college that's had more than its own share of exaggerating and truth-shading. He plans to study politics.

Justin Wood, 17, a junior at George Washington High School, was named the biggest liar in last month's Liars Contest, held in conjunction with the 27th annual Vandalia Gathering.

"I'm just a natural liar, I guess," said Wood, the recently elected class president who plans to major in political science at either American University or George Washington University.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/5/2003 05:50:13 PM |

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Oh, yeah

I changed my commenting system.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/5/2003 05:42:46 PM |

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Sucker play

from BlackPressUSA.com

Republicans Criticized for ï¿½Tokenï¿½ Outreach Efforts
by Hazel Trice Edney
NNPA Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA)—A string of Republican-led initiatives aimed at impressing Black voters—including proposals to increase funding for AIDS prevention in Africa, add money for sickle cell anemia research, improve technology at historically Black colleges and universities and renovate the Frederick Douglass national historic site in the nationï¿½s capital—are being dismissed by Black political observers as being all style and no substance.

ï¿½The Republican Party outreach is purely symbolic. For over 40 years, they have failed to stand up and fight for the inclusion of African-Americans in all walks of life, from civil rights to affirmative action to the appointment of judicial candidates who turn back the clock on voting rights,ï¿½ says Donna Brazile…

… ï¿½Thereï¿½s no question that itï¿½s substance,ï¿½ says Racicot, the GOP leader. ï¿½We are finding a great many of our fellow citizens who are African-Americans find the value and the ideals of this party and its policies very attractive. And I think that that presents a certain amount of fear and trepidation to those who have relied upon or taken them for granted for a long time.ï¿½

… Toni-Michelle Travis, a government professor at George Mason University, says the Republican efforts to recruit Blacks are more show than substance.

ï¿½Republicans tend to find a showpiece,ï¿½ says Travis. ï¿½These are projects that show that someone remembers that there is an African-American community. They are positive steps, but they are not comprehensive programmatic initiatives.ï¿½

Travis says Republicans would be more attractive to Blacks if they supported affirmative action and stop supporting Right-wing judges.

[Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison] defends the GOP on both issues.

ï¿½There is not a question that President Bush and the party are nominating judges who are going to uphold civil rights. They have stellar records,ï¿½ she says.

As far as I'm concerned, Hutchinson's comments are proof that drug use is more than an inner-city problem. At least Racicot got it right; there is no question whether or not a small bag of money is substantial action in the face of using poor folks as a lever to pry more wealth out of the national economy for rich folks, an unfinanced education program structured to fail, thereby allowing more money to be sucked out of localities (ok, let's be accurate… it allows the feds to deny payments to them rather than actually removing money) and a series of judicial nominations that would create a bench that would likely re-ratify Dred Scott. Nope. No question at all.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/5/2003 05:32:50 PM |

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Spike TV

Spike Lee is fronting for a TV station?

Nope. But the name Viacom intends to use for what is currently called TNN led former Sen. Bill Bradley, and actors Ossie Davis and Ed Norton to believe so, and they signed affidavits saying so.

Because Spike Lee isn't happy about TNN assuming his name. He's bringing suit against Viacom and TNN to prevent it… he says Albie Hecht himself, president of TNN, has said the public associates the name "Spike" with Lee.

Of couse, Viacom is confident they will win the right to use the "popular" term for the name of its station. They feel it will bring in more male viewers.

Disclaimer: The information in this post was plagiarized from BlackVoices.com. I figured since it's a Black oriented news source, I'm safe from the right wing.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/5/2003 05:23:02 PM |

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Hasn't anyone in this fucking government read George Orwell?

I used to think Conservatives wanted to turn back the clock to the 1950s. Turns out they are conservative… They're satisfied turning it back to 1984.

For now.

from Yahoo News, via Counterspin Central

Ashcroft Wants Broader Anti-Terror Powers
By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) asked Congress Thursday for expanded powers to hold suspected terrorists indefinitely before trials and to let him seek the death penalty or life imprisonment for any terrorist act.

"The law has several weaknesses which ~~citizens~~terrorists could exploit, undermining our defenses," Ashcroft said. [p6: couldn't resist, sorry…]

Ashcroft also said the department did not break any laws despite an internal Justice Department report that criticized the government's treatment of illegal aliens held after the attacks. [p6: Hitler didn't break any laws in Dachau either]
[p6: Fuck Godwin's Law]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/5/2003 12:34:55 PM |

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NY Times editorials

The Poor Held Hostage for Tax Cuts
Low-income families were denied child credits in the administration's latest detaxation victory. Now Republican leaders are threatening another tax-cut bidding war as the price for repairing the damage.

Grade the Teachers
By ALFRED S. POSAMENTIER
There was a time when teachers were held in high esteem. But that can change if we view them in a different light than what we see them. Paying them more couldn't hurt either.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/5/2003 09:08:17 AM |

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My, aren't we full of surprises today

I've got to remember not to underestimate Bill DeOre

Even Glen McCoy is on point today (June 5, 2003 - don't blame me if you look too late)

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/5/2003 09:01:43 AM |

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Cynical times

Mike at TOPDOG04.COM is asking what's up with all the apologies. Of all those he's complaining about, my favorite is:

Sixth, the Bush administration admits that the tax bill Bush proudly signed into law - just last week - was not such a good idea after all:

No, Mike, they have no shame. My true feeling is that this "change of heart" is a hypocritical attempt to associate themselves with the outraged people who see the Bush tax cut for what it is: class warfare against the 95% of the country that live on less than half the wealth of the country. You'll note the POTUS approves of the bill that deepens the deficit rather than the one that pays for additional relief by closing business tax loopholes.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/5/2003 07:51:14 AM |

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BBC on Africa

Liberia chaos as leader returns

Fears of a violent power struggle following the indictment of President Charles Taylor of Liberia by a United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal have caused panic in the capital, Monrovia.

… Prosecutors called on Ghana to arrest Mr Taylor - where the Liberian leader was on a rare trip on Wednesday - but this was not heeded and he flew back to Monrovia shortly afterwards.

He had been attending peace talks with Liberian rebels in Ghana.

… The BBC's West Africa correspondent, Paul Welsh, says the indictment was drawn up secretly three months ago, and prosecutors timed the announcement of the charges of war crimes carefully to coincide with Charles Taylor's trip out of his own country.

But instead of arresting President Taylor, the government flew him home in one of their own official jets.

Diplomats in Ghana say they believe that the government decided the future of the Liberian peace talks was more important than trying the Liberian president.

Zimbabwe activist 'dies from torture'

Zimbabwe's main opposition group says that one of its members has died after being tortured by police officials and soldiers.

Tichaona Kaguru was taken away from the house of a Movement for Democratic Change councillor in Harare, beaten and died while waiting for an ambulance, the MDC says.

… [Mr Mugabe] also said that the use of force against opposition marchers had been unavoidable even though "we don't want to make our people suffer".

"It's sad when we are forced as government... to have to use tear gas against our youth, who are being misled," he told South African television.

"But we have to do it in the interest of peace and security."

Central Africa backs coup leader

General Francois Bozize has been recognised as the head of the Central African Republic by the leaders of neighbouring countries.

Mr Bozize seized power on 15 March while President Ange-Felix Patasse was out of the country.

The African Union has said that it will no longer accept military coups and those who seize power will not be invited to its meetings.

However, Mr Bozize was officially invited to the summit of the Central African Economic and Monetary Union (Cemac) meeting in Gabon, which ended on Tuesday.

Viewpoint: G8 fails to deliver

Patrick Nicholson, spokesperson for British aid agency Cafod, gives his perspective on what was achieved at the G8 summit in Evian.

It is hard to be positive about the G8 summit in Evian.

The French hosts had promised the summit would concentrate on tackling poverty. Britain had also pledged to make Africa its priority.

African countries were looking for progress on greater development assistance, on trade reform and on debt reduction.

All three are needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of halving the number of people living on less than a dollar a day in Africa by 2015.

But African countries cannot feel any closer to meeting those goals now than they were before the summit began.

African growth 'set to improve'

Africa should experience modest economic growth in 2003 - but only if the developed countries can get their act together and the droughts ravaging southern Africa ease, the African Development Bank believes.

In its annual African Development Report, released during its annual conference in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, the Bank said that the economies of African nations should expand about 3.6% on average this year.

The predicted performance would comfortably outstrip last year's 2.8% growth, and benefits from the relatively quick end to the US-led war on Iraq.

But it remains way below the 7% generally accepted as necessary to make a serious dent in the poverty endured by most of the continent's citizens, and meet the United Nations' goal of halving the number of people living in poverty by the year 2015.

African debt relief 'not enough'

A group of African leaders who were guests at the summit of the G8 major powers have criticised their hosts' performance on debt relief for poor countries, most of them in Africa.

After a working dinner in the French alpine resort of Evian, one African leader said the debt relief initiative run by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank had delivered too little too late and had little impact.

The debt relief scheme for the poorest countries has been running for more than six years.

It is often criticised for delivering insufficient debt relief too slowly to too few countries.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/5/2003 07:38:24 AM |

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Racial Privacy Initiative

Discussion Ward Connerly's most recent brain child, I told a friend (a right-wing watcher so good, I suspect it's part of his job, though I never asked) that some Conservatives opposed it because it would make opposing divieristy programs like that of the University of Michigan and Boston's public school program harder by denying them de facto "evidence." He'd never seen it, and I forgot where I read it, so it was off to Daypop and Google.

Daypop led me to VDARE (the less said about which, the better) and a post on The Hoosier Review which I could only read in Daypop's cache. It links approvingly to another VDARE post.

Google led me to a non-vomitous John Derbyshire article in NRO that discusses the debate on the right.

What is surprising, and makes for a good debate, is that some conservatives are against RPI. They have two sets of arguments: one respectable and one less so. The more respectable argument is: "Without hard data on race differences in attainment and the progress of racial minorities, the race hucksters ï¿½ the Sharptons, Jacksons, McKinneys, and Mfumes ï¿½ will be able to make any claims they like, and nobody will be able to refute them." The less respectable argument goes something like: "Real progress in dealing with racial issues won't be possible until the 'no such thing as race' dogmas have been decisively refuted. You can't build sensible policies on falsehoods, and you can't refute falsehoods without data. If you pretend that every group is equally capable of everything, or even just equally interested in everything, you get into absurdities and counterproductive policies ï¿½ look at the Title IX fiasco."

The counterargument, put forward by Connerly himself, is that our governments need to stop taking notice of our race (or, in the case of "Hispanics," pseudo-race) as decisively as they stopped taking notice of our religion when the First Amendment was ratified. It's none of their business. True, it's difficult for our governments to wean themselves off their race fixation, which is as old as the Constitution itself. And we all know that once they have their fingernails dug into any one part of your flesh, it's awfully hard to pry them away. But if we could once get government people out of the race business, we might have a fair shot at racial peace, as we have had religious peace for 209 years.

Any Jewish readers out there? Have we had religious peace in this country for 209 years? If so, whence the ADL and Abraham Foxman?

Any Islamic readers out there? Do we have religious peace?

Then there's the Christian Identity Movement. And didn't folks take particular note of JFK's Catholicism?

This is off the top of my head, and no one should think I'm equating these religions—but the fact that I have to make that disclaimer is significant. I don't really know what this has to do with RPI or how that should be reflected in Connerly's argument, but I suspect what he calls religious peace is actually an overwheming predominance of one religious traditions to the point that (for the most part: see ADL) the others are just written off as part of the lunatic fringe. Given the demographic trends, that's just not going to happen as regards race.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/5/2003 07:37:35 AM |

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June 04, 2003

Because I could

The posts that linked to a number of documents, transcripts, etc. on The Development of Race have earned a permanent spot on the site, under "Local Links."

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/4/2003 05:47:11 PM |

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How's your stomach?

Bush Lies, about guess what?

I wonder if it's possible to figure out how many people died for each lie?

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/4/2003 12:51:36 PM |

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More information is a Good Thing

J.G. at Silver Rights is a copy cat:

I've been thinking about the blog ecosystem and Silver Rights. My intentions in regard to this blog are to keep it relatively small and separate from any other Web endeavors I try. Civil rights is a delicate subject, so I believe maintaining a blog focusing on the topic is a challenge in itself. Once I upgrade to Blogger Pro, I hope to turn SR into more of a compendium of information about civil rights resources, as well as a blog.

Cool. I'm not nearly as focused as Silver Rights. My theme would be more accurately described as "Black stuff" than civil rights. Civil rights is a delecate subject if you want to try convincing folks of stuff, and I don't mind being a little rude. Others aren't as jaded as I, though.

I keep historical stuff, I find references and articles of interest, I make comments and share them all. J's approach willl likely be different than mine and that's good because different people hear different voices.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/4/2003 11:33:11 AM |

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Mark Fiore Day

Mark shows you why you don't have to worry about the ~~Total~~Terrorist Information Network after all.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/4/2003 10:24:12 AM |

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Ta-Nehisi Coates kicks ass again

This is an aggressive challenge to the way hip hop is commercialized. A LOT of brothers and sisters are gonna be annoyed as hell over this article. But you want to talk keepin' it real? Ta-Nehisi Coates is looking like the one for that.

from the Village Voice

$elling the Myth of Blaï¿½k Male Violenï¿½e, Long Past Its Expiration Date
Keepin' It Unreal
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
June 4 - 10, 2003

The promotion of 50 Cent from bootleg king to god of the streets was PR genius. His handlers have played the angle magnificently. The attempts on his life come up repeatedly in interviews, and 50 is happy to provide embellishment. Even critics have bought into the mystiqueï¿½review after review of 50's Get Rich or Die Tryin' cites his battle scars as evidence of his true-to-life depiction of the streets. On the cover of Rolling Stone, he posed with his back to the camera, exposing one of his wounds. Who knew nine bullet holes could be such a boon?

Now the banners are unfurling: "2003: the year hip-hop returned to the streets." …

… But not much more. At its core the hubbub around Get Rich and the return of gangsta rap is crack-era nostalgia taken to the extreme. Imagineï¿½articulate young black men pining for the heyday of black-on-black crime.

… White America has always had a perverse fascination with the idea of black males as violent and sexually insatiable animals. A prime source of racism's emotional energy was an obsession with protecting white women from black brutes. Since the days of Birth of a Nation up through Native Son and now with gangsta rap, whites have always been loyal patrons of such imagery, drawn to the visceral fear factor and antisocial fantasies generated by black men. Less appreciated is the extent to which African Americans have bought into this idea. At least since the era of blaxploitation, the African American male has taken pride in his depiction as the quintessential man in the black hat. It is a desperate gambit by a group deprived of real powerï¿½even on our worst days, we can still scare the shit of white suburbanites.

"These are corporate-made images," says Kelley. "It's not that the image is new, it's an image that always sold, this idea of a dominant black manï¿½they are violent, they are out of control. But we've established that a lot of these narratives are just made up from Italian gangster movies."

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/4/2003 10:14:49 AM |

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Heh

from The Onion

Bush Visits U.S.S. Truman For Dramatic Veterans'-Benefits-Cutting Ceremony

NORFOLK, VAï¿½With more than 5,400 jubilant Marines and sailors cheering him on, President Bush landed on the deck of the U.S.S. Harry S Truman in a Navy jet Monday to preside over a historic veterans'-benefits-cutting ceremony.

"Your brave and selfless service to your country will not soon be forgotten," Bush told the recently returned Operation Iraqi Freedom soldiers. "At least, not for another five or ten years."

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/4/2003 10:07:07 AM |

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A positive thang...

This via email from Soul Patrol, a web site/magazine that's venerable as hell in Internet Time. If you have RealPlayer (which I actually consider to be the Republican Party of media software) and are into any type of Black music check him out.

Side note: I haven't asked him, but he's probably right angry about the FCC's deregulation decision. He's been railing against Clear Channel for quite a while.

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Word of the day

kakistocracy ï¿½ \kak-uh-STAH-kruh-see\ ï¿½ (noun)
: government by the worst people

Example sentence:
The free election won't guarantee an end to kakistocracy, because none of the candidates have any more integrity than the corrupt dictator currently in power.

Did you know?
A reader of Time magazine was once so surprised to find this rare and unusual word in the pages of that publication that he decided the occasion warranted a letter to the editor. "Where in the name of Semanticus, did your writer come up with that word 'kakistocracy,'" he wrote in a letter dated February 6, 1956. "Is it a government of parrots?" (A "kaka" is a New Zealand parrot.) Good guess, but "kakistocracy" actually originated as a combination of the Greek "kakistos" (superlative of "kakos," which means "bad") and the English suffix "-cracy," meaning "form of government."

NOTE:
Today's Word of the Day is taken from Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/4/2003 09:24:37 AM |

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Hesiod

Over at Counterspin Central, Hesiod is wondering if he's having any impact. From the response he's gotten, he can relax.

I don't link to him that often, but I read his stuff daily—multiple times daily, in fact. This is what I said:

There's a lot of overlap in your concerns and mine. The major impact you've had on me is that I don't have to cover what you do. It lets me ferret out some of the more "me-specific" concerns.

I actually read everything I abstract and comment on here. For a lot of what I think of as mainstream issues, I pretty much trust Hesiod to have a good analysis and more importantly, the appropriate level of outrage. If Counterspin Central and a couple others weren't there I'd probably be a 100% political blog… which, to tell the truth is about 100 more percents of politics than I really want to deal with.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/4/2003 08:02:39 AM |

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Kicking the dog

Because We Could
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

… Why? Because there were actually four reasons for this war: the real reason, the right reason, the moral reason and the stated reason.

The "real reason" for this war, which was never stated, was that after 9/11 America needed to hit someone in the Arab-Muslim world.

… The only way to puncture that bubble was for American soldiers, men and women, to go into the heart of the Arab-Muslim world, house to house, and make clear that we are ready to kill, and to die, to prevent our open society from being undermined by this terrorism bubble. Smashing Saudi Arabia or Syria would have been fine. But we hit Saddam for one simple reason: because we could, and because he deserved it and because he was right in the heart of that world. And don't believe the nonsense that this had no effect. Every neighboring government ï¿½ and 98 percent of terrorism is about what governments let happen ï¿½ got the message. If you talk to U.S. soldiers in Iraq they will tell you this is what the war was about.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/4/2003 07:25:10 AM |

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I wish I owned a newspaper

I would put Tom Toles on the front page.

Given the media consolidation, of course, there's little chance of THAT happening.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/4/2003 06:39:45 AM |

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June 03, 2003

Snowball's chance in hell

Stumbled into GlenReynolds.com where he suggests putting a big bag of bloggers online in Iraq.

See the title to this post.

What makes anyone think anyone empowered to do such a thing would want to do such a thing? One unfiltered voice is bad enough.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/3/2003 10:38:41 PM |

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Just to prove I can rhyme

Images
by Earl Dunovant
Copyright © 1995

Images upon my screen
dance in pink and tangerine
I often wonder what they mean
(they leave no message to be seen)
and now the swing in gold and green!

Noises spinning through my head
black and yellow, tinged with red
tried for peace and got instead
swill for water, dust for bread
Iï¿½m leaving all my hopes for dead

Night dreams spinning through my mind
sleep is quiet, sleep is kind
but even in my dreams i find
I still repeat the same old grind
even here, I'm left behind

Dancing through the day-to-day
I can't believe the price I pay
it seems to me I have no say
don't even have the faith to pray

But I keep trying, anyway

_{Damn. . .}

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/3/2003 09:51:26 PM |

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Another warrior, another world

from BlackAmericaWeb.com

Civil rights figure Burke Marshall dead at 80
06/03/2003 06:17 PM EDT

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Burke Marshall, a Justice Department lawyer in the Kennedy administration who was a key figure in the government's efforts to desegregate the South, died Monday. He was 80.

Yale Law School announced on its Web site Monday that Marshall had died. Marshall had been a member of the faculty at the New Haven university for more than 30 years.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/3/2003 09:25:59 PM |

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What's so damn funny?

I keep seeing references to some right-wing site being hilarious today. But all I see is the same old stuff they always talk about.

I don't get it.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/3/2003 08:08:38 PM |

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Interesting view

No comment beyond presenting it.

from ESPN.com

What would Larry Bird say?
By Jason Whitlock

… Again, I'm not suggesting that Nader's request of James was wrong. I'm just wondering why there's rarely a push for non-African-American athletes to develop an agenda that goes beyond on-field performance. Michael Jordan is vilified and deemed a coward for keeping his mouth shut on controversial social issues. I can't remember anyone wanting to probe Larry Bird's mind about anything more important than "tastes great" or "less filling."

Look no further than the PGA Tour. We in the media want Tiger Woods to be a freedom fighter of Nelson Mandela proportions. Woods, who is only one-fourth African-American, is expected to speak out against racism, sexism, war and Phil Mickelson's refusal to wear a manbro. Meanwhile, the Tour's non-Cablanasian players need only worry about their games.

Is that fair? More important, is it counterproductive?

Shouldn't the majority community be pressured into having a collective social conscious? Do African-Americans own the moral high ground in America? Is that why the burden of a social conscious seems to fall in our laps?

I've often been disappointed that the majority community seems to be so willing to overlook injustices that occur right here at home. America's social ills -- racism, sexism, etc. -- could be stymied more effectively if the white men in power were asked to be as courageous as Ralph Nader wants LeBron James to be.

Jack Nicklaus could spark more change than Tiger Woods. When an African-American speaks out against injustice, too many people dismiss the complaint as just another black man crying the blues. What do you think would happen if Bill Parcells, who has made millions of dollars off the sweat of predominantly black football players, said it's shameful that these same players don't receive a fair opportunity when they move into the NFL coaching ranks or into front-office positions? You think Parcells words wouldn't carry more weight than Johnnie Cochran's or the New York Times' William C. Rhoden's?

Trust me, African-Americans -- with the possible exception of Jesse Jackson -- get tired of bitching. We'd like a month or two off. I'd love nothing more than to see our lawmakers make the month of March "White Social Consciousness Month." It would follow "Black History Month."

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/3/2003 03:06:52 PM |

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Two from Dave Winer of UserLand

A heads-up from Corante on Blogging

On the NY Times archives:
I got a tour of the NY Times news room today from Martin Nisenholtz the CEO of NY Times Digital, and Michael Oreskes, Assistant Managing Editor for Electronic News. We also concluded our discussion about the Times archive, we found a good compromise, the archive will remain open to people who link from weblogs, but they will keep the toll booth up for others. We have to hammer out a final statement, which I expect to have in a few days

I can't wait to see how THAT works.Some kind of registration system will be needed, obviously. I'd have no problem with it since I''ve been registered since like two days after they first hit the web.

On warblogging
Amazingly, Glenn Reynolds is still covering the war. Seems like an exercise in futility. In its aftermath, of what use were the warbloggers. A lot of punditry, a lot of furor and outrage, quite a few flames, but what did they actually do other than act important. They got no stories, no new data, they didn't balance the press, which reported the war as if the US was a petty Third World dictatorship. They didn't even out the press. Pheh.

From that last line, I'm assuming he's discussing the pro-war side. Stand by for outraged howls and much gnashing of teeth.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/3/2003 11:58:55 AM |

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Like attracts like

Slashdot (oh, you have the URL, you know you do) reports an "iChat on Crack" application. SERIOUSLY a power that can be used for good or evil.

from TwinCities.com - Piuneer Press

You are here
BY JULIO OJEDA-ZAPATA
Pioneer Press

… The Trepia program essentially turns network users into homing beacons. If they're sitting at their PCs and running the software, they broadcast their general locations along with whatever personal data they choose to make available. If two or more Trepia users happen to be near each other, they instantly become aware of that fact and are able to interact.

So if two Trepia-using college students who share a passion for the "Matrix" movies and the "Smallville" TV show are on the same campuswide network, they can electronically see each other. They are able to swap text messages and, soon, physically meet.

Likewise, if a St. Paul businesswoman checks into a Tokyo hotel and wants to find other Americans, she can fire up Trepia on her laptop to see who's nearby. If she's plugged into a hotel Ethernet network, the software searches it. If she's within range of public Wi-Fi wireless networks, Trepia also trolls those.

The latter technique so impressed Paul Boutin, a frequent contributor to Wired magazine, that he recently listed its parent firm, also called Trepia, as one of "25 companies to watch." The list appeared in a special "Unwired" issue focusing on wireless technologies.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/3/2003 11:41:37 AM |

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Site update

"The Right Wing Attack on Civil Rights" page has been updated with pointers to:

the DOJ response to the Judiciary Committee's questions on the use of P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act powers
the report on the treatment of detainees in connection with the 9/11 attack

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/3/2003 11:32:14 AM |

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I couldn't help it

You must now, without delay, go read the best Tom Toles cartoon in the history of the world.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/3/2003 06:41:47 AM |

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D'oh! or Template Fixed

I really wasn't paying attention to how my local links were working in the archives. I fixed it now so if you access something from a permalink, you can get to all the other stuff directly without needing to go to the home page.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/3/2003 06:21:19 AM |

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Don't blame me, blame Notes on the Atrocities

I'll read the news later. This is to give you something to read for now.

A few years ago I noticed something about public discussions: they start with disagreements. I wondered what would it be lke to start a discussion from an agreement instead. Being really focused on Black folks at the time, I decided I wanted to write an essay about us that was 1-positive and 2-so inarguably correct not a single word could be disputed (or at least, given that we were in "Contract on America" times, every word could be successfully defended).

Folks told me what I came up with is a poem. So fine it's a poem, and I think of it as one of my signature pieces. I blame Notes on the Atrocities for posting a couple of poems last week and putting it im my mind to post this one.

The People We Are
Earl Dunovant © 1995

We are men. We have the strengths of men; we have the weaknesses of men. We have the needs and desires of men—a way to live, a way to be respected, a way to grow, a place to retire to when we need rest.

We are women. We have the strengths of women; we have the weaknesses of women. We have the needs and desires of women—a foundation of tradition for our roots, the space provided by freedom to grow according to our nature and the light of knowledge to reach the heights we are capable of.

We are the children of Africa, the last tribe. We know no tribe but ourselves. We respond to the rhythms of the heart of Africa, its pulse is in our stride, our speech, our music. We have the power of our ancestors, but the ways of power known to them are no longer known to us. We are a wandering tribe. We search for ways of power, we search for the way home—a home we've never seen but will recognize at once.

Older than this country, our tribe allowed the world to be what it is today. Builders of nations, we were shaped in turn by the nation. Seeking nothing save that which is ours by right of our efforts and those of our ancestors, we want no more than others…yet want it more, for we were denied for so long.

The memory of a people is longer than the memory of any man. And tradition vies with history as a shaping force. Some still feel they are not entitled to the best; some still serve another (angrily or happily); some still feel the lash.

But some speak wisdom against all odds. Some warm the heart of the world with the beauty inherent in our soul. Some are builders. Some are teachers. And some have given their lives so that we could have ours.

Remember. We survived the Middle Passage.
Remember. We grew against all odds.
Remember. The pain of slavery.
Remember. The sacrifice for freedom.
Remember. The possibilities of unity.
And go forward. There is nothing beyond our reach.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/3/2003 06:03:50 AM |

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Speaking of Progressive Gold

The bad part about blogs is, segues don't get read in the order you think of them. Trust me, I was speaking of Progressive Gold.

Anyway, speaking of Progressive Gold, at the top of the page they say:

Outraged by what you read below? Take action!

In the U.K., fax your local M.P. via FaxYourMP
In the U.S., write to your Senator
or write to your representatives in the House.
In urgent cases, you could also dial up the Congressional toll-free switchboard at 1-800-839-5276 and talk to your Congresspeople directly.
If you would like to reach the socalled "liberal media", Take Back the Media has a directory with contact addresses available.

I don't need to say that whatever you do, please stay polite and concise, do I?

Cool. Now bloggers. do your readers know about these links?

Even better, do they know what to contact their Congress critters about?

Enter the Congress.org -- Issues and Action. Run by Capital Advantage, the consulting firm from which (with a little direction from Frank and I Protest) I got the lookup form for media organizations, and state and federal legislators in the right-hand column, you can look up what's on tap for said legislators. They also provide a mechanism for contacting your rep right on the spot.

Congress.org has another query box that taps into the Issues and Action pages. I'm considering getting the code so I can peel it apart and add the necessary code to the box I have. That way folks can look up Federal and state legislators, media organizations (a frighteningly complete list is returned by zip code) and issue-specific legislative items, all in ine handy container.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/3/2003 05:46:31 AM |

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The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy has an address

Said address being The Lefty Directory, where I am listed with 55 new entries, 346 total entries.

Told you I was a new inductee. neener-neener…

Okay, so I applied. But I'm glad to be listed, and glad the list is so long. It's important to know that You Are Not Alone. Although who's the aliens is an open question…

Now, if I can get into Progressive Gold.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/3/2003 05:05:11 AM |

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June 02, 2003

Random weirdnesseses

A Wager
I just made a bet in the comments to this post over something I'm having a serious problem wrapping my mind around.

Mixed Emotions
The 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference
"Write better emails. Make more moneys."

Yeah, I see the humor. Call it residual sensitivity from when I used to be sensitive. I don't know why; I had no problem when Illiad had Cthulu eat Larry Odogwu's head.

Accidental Information
Notes on the Atrocities had a Literary Week at the end of the last month that I just stumbled into by accident. That's not weird, just the timing of it since I've reached the point of considering some of the issues she raised. The post on The Prose of Blogging and the connected downpage posts I found particularly timely because they describe three blogging styles that I thoroughly recognize and see that I don't quite fit into. I've actually tried a variant of each type.

Comments on comments
Someone asked me to delete a comment left in his name because he didn't leave it. I've done so, but it occurred to me later I should have checked the IP of the comment vs. the IP of the email. The comment is gone, but I still have the email so whenever I see that person's name in a post I'm going to check it against the email. I don't get enough comments that it would be a burden to do so. My commenting service is nice and once I'm fully settled I'll probably go ahead and get the pay service so I can ban by IP and be done with it. I'd also like to change the template so I can hide the IP address in the post and match the visual style of the comment box to the blog page.

The library
Again, not weird (unless you know me well enough to know how weird an apology is for me). No new book added last weekend. This weekend I think I'll go for some fiction. I'm thinking "Our Nig" by Harriet E. Wilson, "Clotelle, or, The Colored Heroine" by William Wells Brown or something by G. K. Chesterton. I'm leaning toward Chesterton because I have a couple of his books.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/2/2003 11:43:30 PM |

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from AllAfrica.com

Police Crack Down on Anti-Government Protests, Opposition Leaders Held,
June 2, 2003
By Ofeibea Quist-Arcton
Johannesburg

A planned week of opposition demonstrations in Zimbabwe was disrupted by police, Monday, after the arrest of the countryï¿½s main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, and other officials of the Movement for Democratic Change, MDC.

Tsvangirai was charged with contempt of court for refusing to comply with a judicial order to cancel the demonstrations. He was later released, but told Reuters, "I donï¿½t think there will be any marches, because they (the government) will not allow it."

Police fired teargas to quell protests in the capital Harare, in an apparently successful operation to stop opposition supporters from taking part in the planned protests called to challenge the authority of President Robert Mugabe, 79, and force him from power.

About 6,000 students at the University of Zimbabwe were prevented by police from marching from their campus into the city centre.

… Journalists reported witnessing security forces ordering about 50 people - including women - to lie down on the street. They were then beaten with rubber batons and home-made whips. The Associated Press reported some people crying out: "What have we done?"

An MDC news release, Monday, reported that members of the army and police had opened fire on peaceful demonstrators in the Highfields district of Harare. "There are as yet unconfirmed reports that two people have been killed. An MDC youth has a bullet wound in his leg and is currently in the Avenues Clinic in Harare."

… In the second largest city, Bulawayo, witnesses reported police sealing off the main square to stop opposition demonstrators from marching. In other parts of the country, opposition protestors and officials were reported to have been picked up for attempting to march.

… Zimbabwe state radio described the opposition protests as a "flop", adding that the police and army patrols had contained the situation and maintained peace nationwide, with no mention of fighting between the security forces and protestors.

The MDC said it was determined to continue its week-long protest campaign, but acknowledged that the police crackdown on Monday had quelled potential demonstrations.

… Zimbabwe is the facing severe food and fuel shortages and the economy has collapsed. Mugabeï¿½s largely unsuccessful and contested land reform policies have prompted criticism in and outside the country.

… In repeated and colourful verbal attacks of a very personal nature on the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, Mugabe has denounced the internal opposition in Zimbabwe of being in cahoots with London to try to bring down his government.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/2/2003 09:24:28 PM |

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Confused about race? You must be in California

'Some other race?'
Louis Freedberg

Begin with the basics. Forty-seven percent of us are white, 32 percent are Hispanic, 12 percent are Asian and 7 percent are black. Hispanics make up California's largest minority group.

… On the 2000 U.S. Census, 40 percent of Hispanics classified themselves as "white," according to a new report by the Public Policy Institute of California (check it out on www.ppic.org). Another 51 percent said they belonged to "some other racial group."

… The Census first asks us to indicate whether we're "Spanish/Hispanic/Latino." No matter if you're an astronaut born in Spain, a third-generation Mexican American neurosurgeon or a farmworker from Guatemala who came here last week, you can check that box.

… They do however have the option of checking an unspecified "some other race" box. In California, an astonishing 5.5 million Hispanics chose that option.

In fact, 99 percent of those who checked "some other race" were Hispanic. After whites, "some other race" Californians are now the state's largest racial group, dwarfing the state's 3.7 million Asians and 2.3 million African Americans.

… As of March, the [Department of Finance] began to recognize that Hispanics aren't really a unitary group. For the first time it issued statistics breaking down Hispanics by racial group. Progress, right?

Not really. Now we're told that of the state's 10.9 million Hispanics, 10.2 million are "Hispanic whites." Another 180,000 are "Hispanic Asians and Pacific Islanders" and 200,144 are "Hispanic blacks."

Now I'm really confused. Almost all of the state's largest minority are actually "white?" And in addition to deciding on whether to call someone a Latino, Hispanic or Chicano, I now also have to consider whether they are Hispanic Asian or a Hispanic black?

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/2/2003 09:17:22 PM |

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Sorry

Light blogging today because I was on my favorite mailing list dealing with the continuation of the conversation in this post. I'm actually not thrill being rude, but sometimes things are said that simply can't be allowed to stand.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/2/2003 07:34:39 PM |

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Why put put that shit where people can step in it?

Inspiration can come from the strangest places. Mac Diva was inspired by getting three toxic nasties in the space of an hour to write about the reasons some folks blog. Interestingly enough, the NY Times has an article in the Technology section that touches on the type of blogger, though not the type of blog, Mac is dealing with.

The article in the Times is about first amendment rights and such:

… Tucker Max's site promotes something like the opposite of character education. It contains a form through which women can apply for a date with him, pictures of his former girlfriends and reports on what Mr. Max calls his "belligerence and debauchery."

… "Katy Johnson holds herself out publicly, for her own commercial gain, as a champion of abstinence and a woman of virtue," Mr. Carey said. "The public has a legitimate interest in knowing whether or not her own behavior is consistent with the virtuous image that she publicly seeks to promote."

That last quote just makes me say, "C'mon. Am I supposed to believe Tucker Max's site is trying to perform some public service?" The man sells a book titled "The Definitive Book of Pick-Up Lines" at his site. At best, his reason is to say, "Hey, I screwed Ms. Vermont, and you can too with the help of my book." At worst, it's a means of lashing out at her. Between the two extremes lie all manner of possible motivations but I cannot be convinced the public interest is one of them. Neither can I be convinced that posts containing nothing but vile language is useful in any way.

I don't mind seeing folks actively market their stuff. Seeing it done based on link count doesn't bother me as much as the fact that it works… but it doesn't surprise me much. And I'd much rather see "hey, look how cool I am" than "hey, look how much he sucks.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/2/2003 11:08:18 AM |

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Rudolph the Red-Nosed Racist

I'll get hyped when he's convicted.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/2/2003 10:00:02 AM |

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Is it yet obvious that Conservative and Republican extremists are not your friend?

from the NY Times

The Reverse Robin Hood
By BOB HERBERT

… But to really get a sense of the scandalous nature of this G.O.P. tax-cut scam, consider that the House and Senate negotiators also got rid of a number of measures in the Senate bill that would have saved billions of dollars by closing abusive corporate tax structures. The Center on Budget noted the following:

"As the Washington Post has reported, the Senate bill `included provisions to crack down on abusive corporate tax shelters, combat some accounting scams such as those pursued by Enron Corp., prevent U.S. companies from moving their headquarters to post office boxes in offshore tax havens such as Bermuda and limit grossly inflated deferred compensation plans for corporate executives.' "

The savings from those provisions would have been about $25 billion, much more than enough to cover the cost of Senator Lincoln's $3.5 billion attempt to give a bit of a break to several million working families.

How many Republicans earn between $10,500 and $26,625? You were left behind by your own leaders. And why? To pay for benefits to people who would suffer no hardship without them.

How about you? Would additional child care credits benefit you? Does your family have any of the 1 in 6 children whose benefit Congress consiously disregarded for the benefit of a special interest group?

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/2/2003 09:51:29 AM |

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June 01, 2003

Well… yeah.

from the Washington Post

Rice Repeats U.S. Complaints About France

"There were times that it appeared that American power was seen to be more dangerous than, perhaps, Saddam Hussein. I'll just put it very bluntly," Rice said, according to an English- language transcript of the interview.

"We simply didn't understand it."

C'mon, Ms. Rice. You're not stupid.

They had a relationship with Iraq. They knew Iraq's limitations. They knew you overstated the WMD case. They knew you did it for the most cynical of reasons… you wanted to invade Iraq anyway so you found the only reason the American people would accept— a direct threat. Absent that, all your other reasons combined wouldn't have gotten you the support you needed a home, much less overseas. They saw you bribe "coalition" "members" into being "willing." They see you spend more on weapons then the next 10 guys combined and just as you claimed about Iraq's phantom arsenal, if you have weapons of mass destruction (and I'd say a MOAB is more accurately described that way than anything Iraq had) you will eventually used them. And they saw leading Conservative figures, the face of your movement, attack their honor over this disagreement, demand boycotts and petulantly rename anything with the word "french" in it.

Yeah, I'd say they thought American global military and economic power was a greater threat than Hussein's.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/1/2003 03:13:48 PM |

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Typical

from AllAfrica.com

US Firm Opens Talks to End Dispute with Ghana's Government
May 27, 2003

By Reed Kramer
Washington, DC

Negotiations are taking place this week in Ghana to resolve an ongoing dispute between the government and an American mining company that is complicating an otherwise cooperative relationship between two countries with long historical ties.

The disagreement, involving Houston-based Kaiser Aluminum and its Ghanaian subsidiary, Valco, has led to a suspension of all lending to Ghana by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic), a U.S. government agency that provides political risk insurance and loans to American businesses investing abroad.

"Ghana is being seen as not acting in a commercially reasonable manner that would ensure investor confidence," OpicPresident Peter Watson stated in a letter to Ghana's ambassador in Washington early this year. As a result of Ghana's actions, he said, "All applications for investment support in Ghana will remain under review." Watson, who refused several requests for an interview, said through a spokesperson this week that the agency "is accepting applications but not acting on them at the current time."

This week's negotiations in Ghana involve the Kaiser corporate vice president and general counsel, Edward F. Houff, and a ministerial team led by Ghana's energy minister, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom. Riva Levinson, who represents Kaiser Aluminum in Washington, said the company is "hopeful that a commercially negotiated deal can be reached."

The talks are being closely monitored in Washington, where the dispute has received high-level attention at a number of agencies, including the Treasury, State and Commerce Departments and the office of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. At issue is the price and availability of electric power for the aluminum smelter at Tema operated by Valco, the Volta Aluminum Company, which is owned by Kaiser (90%) and Alcoa (10%).

Kaiser Aluminum first invested in Ghana shortly after the country gained independence from Britain in 1957. Since aluminum processing requires a large volume of affordable electricity, the investment was made feasible by construction of the huge Akosombo Dam on the Volta River, built with U.S. government assistance in what was regarded in Washington as a Cold War counterpoint to the massive Soviet-built Aswan Dam in Egypt.

Part of the current disagreement centers around the 50-year Master Agreement that was signed in 1962, when Kaiser began operations in the country. Although the agreement remains in effect, the government argues that the Power Contract contained in the Agreement has expired and that renewal is subject to Parliamentary approval. The government has sought to garner international support for its stance by publishing its position paper in various media, including allAfrica.com (see The Position of Ghana on the Arrangements with Valco.)

Ghana says Valco is paying 1.1 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour, while the cost of producing electricity in the country has risen to 6.5 cents. Kaiser disputes the government's cost calculation and says the price of 3.0 cents that Ghana is demanding would push the cost of producing aluminum above the world market price.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/1/2003 01:20:01 PM |

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This something I was hoping to read about

On the other hand, as the article say, this is the 14^th shot at this. I honestly don't know enough about the situation to say whether or not this is a realistic hope—that will chnage, in time.

from The Nation(Nairobi) via AllAfrica.com

New hope for consensus in peace talks
Nairobi

There is hope for a consensus on the controversial federal charter issue, Kenya's special envoy to the Somali peace talks, Mr Bethwel Kiplagat, said yesterday.

A conference would soon receive recommendations to pave the way for setting up new transitional institutions in the country. A parliament would be created by the Nairobi talks based on clans, he said.

Organisers of the peace talks say the second phase will soon end after a plenary session tackles the recommendations of six technical committees dealing with the core issues. These include federalism, disarmament, conflict resolution, economic reconstruction and land rights.

The talks are the 14th international effort to restore stability in Somalia since 1991.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/1/2003 12:58:22 PM |

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This is not something I wanted to read about

The thing abour SARS that bothered me was how a bad cold got all that attention because its official name ends in "Syndrome." Since AIDS, any disease that wants good press has to end with "Syndrome" (although I never understood why Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, paradoxically the senior disease, didn't get the attention it should have). Not to seem too harsh, but don't more people die of the flu than SARS in the same time frame?

But the elderly and people with compromised immune systems are at serious risk from SARS. And enough Africans are in that last category due to AIDS and starvation that another imported problem threatens to scour the continent of human life.

from SouthScan via AllAfrica.com

First Suspected SARS Cases in Kinshasa

Several persons suspected of being carriers of the SARS virus were put in quarantine last Sunday, May 25 at Kinshasa airport. The DR Congo's minister of health, Lï¿½onard Mashako Mamba, announced on Monday that all had come from Hong Kong via South Africa.

Medical experts have warned that an outbreak of SARS in an African country with limited health facilities could result in a sustained epidemic with worse effects than AIDS (see SouthScan v18/10).

Two Gambian citizens, a Congolese national and a unspecified number of Hong Kong Chinese traveled in the same flight from the Far East to Johannesburg with passengers who showed the symptoms of the disease, said Congolese health officials.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/1/2003 12:48:31 PM |

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Kofi Annan Asks G8 to Help

from AllAfrica.com

Africa's deadly triad

… As you know, many countries - especially the least developed - will be unable to take advantage of trading opportunities unless they also receive direct help in building their capacity and overcoming the numerous obstacles that they face. Many of these countries are in Africa, which makes it all the more appropriate that you are supporting the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and have invited the five African leaders who initiated it.

In preparing for this year's summit, you have rightly focused on food security, the lack of which is at the heart of Africa's problems. Indeed, this crisis is inextricably linked to two others, by which Africa is especially afflicted: HIV/AIDS, and an emaciated capacity to govern.

Through malnutrition, food shortages make Africans more vulnerable and accelerate the progress of HIV/AIDS - affecting especially women, who now make up 58 per cent of Africans infected with HIV.

And in turn, AIDS weakens African agriculture - again, particularly through its impact on women, who account for eight out of every ten small farmers on the continent, and who traditionally provide the vital coping skills needed in times of food crisis.

By killing the most skilled and productive members of society, AIDS also undermines Africa's ability to develop and mobilize the institutions, skills and policies that it so badly needs to confront both the food crisis and the epidemic itself.

These three crises form a "deadly triad", each feeding on the others. We must make a concerted effort to confront them all at once through an integrated approach. Otherwise we will not succeed in overcoming any of them.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/1/2003 12:36:26 PM |

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from Amateur Hour

What if we had a Democracy and no one showed up?

Today in Salon I was amazed to read that two FCC commisioners were in Atlanta to hold an "unsactioned" hearing on media deregulation sponsored by two "dissident" FCC commisioners on Wednesday of this week. I didn't find this out from Cox Communications' "local" television, radio or newspapers, they didn't report on the event before or after it occured. Promotion of the event was only carried on local college stations WRAS and WRFG (Radio Free Georgia indeed!) and in the local free weekly, "Creative Loafing" (which never made it into the house from the floor of my car this week).

Even right-wing types might have cared to attend, as evidenced by the National Rifle Association's support for Copps and Adelstein's drive to preserve the existing regulations. So why didn't local conservative talk show host Neal Boortz, an avowed libertarian, mention the hearing to his loyal troops? Possibly because his station, WSB-AM, is owned by media giant Cox Communications. Centrist and right-wing Atlantans did not learn of the hearing because their media outlets are owned, in large part, by the self-same Big Media corporations that want the ownership caps relaxed -- which is, of course, the very problem that the dissident commissioners are trying to publicize.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/1/2003 09:12:19 AM |

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In email

I have just come to the close of a discussion in email that would have been dismaying were the people involved not so predictable. It was in connection with this, which a member posted with the entirely apt title "Tyson Needs To Be Placed In Concrete."

WTOV9.com
Tyson Says He Now 'Really' Wants To Rape Woman
UPDATED: 2:01 p.m. EDT May 29, 2003

While denying once again that he raped Desiree Washington 12 years ago, Mike Tyson said in a television interview that the burden of being labeled a convicted rapist makes him want to do it now. The interview is scheduled to air Thursday night on Fox network's "The Pulse." "I hate her guts," Tyson said. "She put me in that state, where I don't know. I really wish I did now. But now I really do want to rape her."

… Tyson made the comments during a recent interview in Miami Beach with Greta Van Susteren, who was reviewing the circumstances of Tyson's 1992 trial. The former boxing champion was convicted of raping Washington, who was a contestant in the Miss Black America pageant in an Indianapolis hotel room and sentenced to six
years in prison. He served three years of the sentence before being released on parole.

Now, I been on this mailing list for years and I know what to expect from the players. There's always been a more diverse set of opinions on it than any other Black oriented list I know of, and the participants are articulate. However several of the participants think they're intellectual gunslingers. They've taught me there's no proving anything to people who have something to prove. The list is still recovering from a major flame war between a number of them, and in fact I got caught up in it trying to be the voice of reason.

Recursive fisking isn't a sport I choose to participate in anymore so I've taken to simply expressing my opinion when I feel like it and letting people convict themselves out of their own mouth, much as Tyson did. It's actually more effective with intelligent folks. At the end, though, I couldn't take the bullshit anymore.

Note 1: "Phase" refers to me
Note 2: Linda, you know the purple person

That WAS, um what's the word I'm lookingfor...
OneOfTheMostDisgustingCommentEverMadeInPublicAndMaybeEvenInPrivate

Phase, it appears to comes down to whether one believes that Mike Tyson ACTUALLY raped that woman, or that he was simply convicted of having raped her (which are two totally different things).

This situations reminds me of a story I read once, where a man had been framed and falsely accused of murdering a woman, and he was convicted and spent time in jail for it. After he completed the sentence, he settled in someplace trying to start his life over again. As luck would have it, he encountered the"supposed-to-be-dead" woman, constructed a ruse to get the woman to a secluded place, and once there he told her that since he had already paid the price for murdering her, he might as well get his money's worth, and he wacked her on the spot.

And, under the circumstances, I'd have to agree with him.

What I said was to wish he had raped her wasa stupid, brutal tacky thing that removes the last hope of his gaining my respect as a human. That's got nothing to do with the trial.

Wish his comments now were just some disconnected Mike-babble. Trouble is that he uttered equally "insensitive" comments regarding rape during his trial. Hmmm. Is there a Mike Tyson Boneheaded Comment Award out there? Or maybe it's just in the water in Indiana. Remember Dan Quail (former Vice President of the United States--and thank God for the Secret Service protecting the President...in this case)? He's from Indiana too. Home of the famous Indiana PotatoE.

Yeah, I know. I read a big chunk of the transcripts and it convinced me that I'd have voted to throw his ass in jail too. It's just not something I choose to go into with any more detail than that.

Sounds like you might have been one of the black jurors where his presumption of innocence would've melted before your very eyes.

I understand your feelings about this. My point, however, is that -- stupid, brutally tackiness aside -- he would never had occasion to make that statement had he never been sent to jail being convicted for having raped someone who he says he did not.

Recognizing the trauma that rape causes, I would say that being unjustly accused and imprisoned for a crime has to be as bad or worse, and I can also say that were I in his situation it is quite possible that I would harbor the exact same sentiment toward someone who caused me such consternation.

And, to paraphrase the poetess, "Ain't I a man"?

Yeah, but one difference between you and him is that you have sense enough to know what to say....and what not to say. The saying "be sure brain is engaged before putting mouthin gear" comes to mind.

Assuming he did not... which we, as outsiders, can be no more sure of than the opposite.

Also, if he wasn't stupid, brutal and tacky enough to make such a statement he may not have put himself in the position to be accused in the first place.

If, if, if.

Phase, I didn't say "if", you did.

That's like having a man in jail, falsely convicted of a crime,and having to kill someone who has threatened his life, and then you turn around and say: "well, if he wouldn't be in jail if he wasn't a criminal anyway ...". It just goes on and on, down the rabbit hole until you get to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

Yes, I said if.

You write as though you assume his innocence. I do not.

I am not the legal system.

The words out of his own mouth, during and after the trial show him to be an ignorant brute for whom I have no respect.

I have not said anything similar to "if he weren't a criminal he wouldn't be in jail." I am saying he has demonstrated a level of ignorance, thuggery and brutality that makes giving him any benefit of the doubt beyond that necessary to absorb the words he himself said stupid and/or hypocritical and/or unnecessarily hostile to women and the truth.

You said the other day:

> I understand your feelings about this. My point, however,is that --
> stupid, brutally tackiness aside -- he would never had occasion to make
> that statement had he never been sent to jail being convicted for having
> raped someone who he says he did not.

The thing is, in the case of rape, you CANNOT PUT STUPIDITY,BRUTALITY AND TACKINESS ASIDE because they have bearing on the expectations one can have of the individual under thecircumstances.

Now, don't get ignant and claim I am dismissing the woman's part in making herself vulnerable to this. She was foolish. But for anyone to put the blame exclusively on her is no less than monstrous, and insulting to any mature man. Such a person sees MEN as weak, too weak to resist animal passions, less than the least woman on the planet.

I do not accept that view of men. Men CAN refuse to be brutal.Men CAN respect the choices of others. And I have no respect for any male that holds otherwise.

> > That's like having a man in jail, falsely convicted of a crime, and
> > having to kill someone who has threatened his life, andthen you turn
> > around and say: "well, if he wouldn't be in jail if he wasn't a
> > criminal anyway ...". It just goes on and on, down the rabbit hole
> > until you get to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.
>
> Yes, I said if.
>
> You write as though you assume his innocence. I do not.

I thought that the legal system (at least states that it)requires a presumption of innocence. I could be wrong.

> I am not the legal system.
>
> The words out of his own mouth, during and after the trial show him to be
> an ignorant brute for whom I have no respect.

But ignorant brutes can be falsely charged, Phase. Go and read the history of the Blackman of America in the South (and North,for that matter). There are newspaper articles that almost verbatim describe the alleged Black "rapists" as "ignorant brutes", etc., etc.

> I have not said anything similar to "if he weren't a criminal he wouldn't
> be in jail." I am saying he has demonstrated a level of ignorance,
> thuggery and brutality that makes giving him any benefit of the doubt
> beyond that necessary to absorb the words he himself said stupid and/or
> hypocritical and/or unnecessarily hostile to women and thetruth.

Then your conclusion is purely emotionally-derived, rather than factually-derived.

> You said the other day:
>
> > I understand your feelings about this. My point, however, is that --
> > stupid, brutally tackiness aside -- he would never had occasion to make
> > that statement had he never been sent to jail being convicted for having
> > raped someone who he says he did not.
>
> The thing is, in the case of rape, you CANNOT PUT STUPIDITY, BRUTALITY AND
> TACKINESS ASIDE because they have bearing on the expectations one can have
> of the individual under the circumstances.

It is not a crime, nor an indication of a potential criminal, for one to be stupid, brutal or tacky.

> Now, don't get ignant and claim I am dismissing the woman'spart in making
> herself vulnerable to this. She was foolish. But for anyone to put the
> blame exclusively on her is no less than monstrous, and insulting to any
> mature man. Such a person sees MEN as weak, too weak to resist animal
> passions, less than the least woman on the planet.

Who put the blame exclusively on her? She was not charged with any crime, even though there is evidence of a conspiracy to extort money from Mike Tyson.thing.

Lemme ask you a question, and very seriously -- if I walked around in a maximum security prison shower with pasties on my nipples, and a G-string, and a brunette wig, and I was sexually assaulted, whose fault would you say it was? Be truthful.

> I do not accept that view of men. Men CAN refuse to be brutal. Men CAN
> respect the choices of others. And I have no respect for any male that
> holds otherwise.

Men do things that can range from brutishness to tenderness,depending on the situation. At least I can and do, and, afterall, "ain't I a man?" Men CAN respect the choices of others, and they can ALSO acknowledge the choices of others that put those"others" in situations where the "others" might be compromised.

We are talking about real life here. Not nirvana, Phase.

I've already stated my position. I don't think I was unclear.

If YOU have more to explain, feel free.

I'm through.

Thanks.

I'm not. I changed the way I do this a while back, remember?

If you truly think emotion doesn't come into play in your decisions and judgements as it does with all humans, you are either delusional or brain damaged. If you don't, you are fronting and lying.

Either way it's not ever going to be useful to shift a list conversation with me to private mail. And it can't have been an accident - you've been using email too long, you're too technically knowlegeable for that.

You convict yourself out of your own mouth, just like Mike.

You're a male.

Don't ask me ain't you a man again. You might be surprised by my answer.

> That's like having a man in jail, falsely convicted of a crime, and
> having to kill someone who has threatened his life, and then you turn
> around and say: "well, if he wouldn't be in jail if he wasn't a
> criminal anyway ...". It just goes on and on, down the rabbit hole
> until you get to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

At no point have you said he did not rape her. So the correct parallel is "That's like having a man in jail who claims he's innocent..." A whole different case than a man who is ACTUALLY innocent. Just as different, in fact as the case of being guilty and being *found* guilty.

This point is empty until you can say you've examined the case and decided he was not guilty.

> > You write as though you assume his innocence. I do not.
>
> I thought that the legal system (at least states that it) requires a
> presumption of innocence. I could be wrong.

That "phase" of the case is over. The presumption of innocence does not extend beyond being found guilty.

> > The words out of his own mouth, during and after the trial show him to be
> > an ignorant brute for whom I have no respect.
>
> But ignorant brutes can be falsely charged, Phase. Go and read the history
> of the Blackman of America in the South (and North, for that matter). There
> are newspaper articles that almost verbatim describe the alleged Black
> "rapists" as "ignorant brutes", etc., etc.

That's not only insulting to me personally, it's insulting to every Black person to equate a convicted rapist's case to our enslaved and oppressed ancestors. You have no respect.

> Then your conclusion is purely emotionally-derived, rather than
> factually-derived.

Your motivation is purely emotionally driven, regardless of your carefully constructed language.

He had the benefit of the doubt from me until I read his statement. HIS statements-yours mean nothing in this case.

I have no reasonable doubt.

> It is not a crime, nor an indication of a potential criminal, for one to be
> stupid, brutal or tacky.

It is, in fact, an indication of potential criminality to be stupid, brutal AND tacky, which he is. I can understand your desire to deny that, though.

> Lemme ask you a question, and very seriously -- if I walked around in a
> maximum security prison shower with pasties on my nipples, and a G-string,
> and a brunette wig, and I was sexually assaulted, whose fault would you say
> it was? Be truthful.

Truthfully, if you are equating Tyson's hotel room to a maximum security prison and Ms. Washington to a prisoner, then she was CLEARLY in a coercive situation and he is guilty of rape. If you are not equating the conditions then this is a pointless aside.

That said, it would be your fault.

> Men do things that can range from brutishness to tenderness, depending on
> the situation. At least I can and do, and, after all, "ain't I a man?"

Well, I assume you got a dick. I'm not making any further judgements based on the statements before me.

> We are talking about real life here. Not nirvana, Phase.

You're talking about your particular view of life. Not real life by any stretch.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/1/2003 03:54:01 AM |

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Sekou Sundiata in Brooklyn

Sekou Sundiata will be performing with his band on June 14th for the Celebrate Brooklyn Festival at the Bandshell in Prospect Park. The band includes:

Marc Cary on keyboards and piano
Damon DueWhite on drums
Jeff Haynes on percussion
Calvin Jones on bass
Bill Toles on guitar
Gina Breedlove on vocal

Celebrate Brooklyn: SEKOU SUNDIATA
DATE: 6/14/03
TIME: 7:30 pm
ADMISSION: Free Event
DETAILS: SEKOU SUNDIATA/ BLACKALICIOUS
Blackalicious, one of the most furiously articulate, soulful, and eclectic rap duos on the planet, brings its progressive West Coast flavor to the Big Apple.

FOR MORE INFO: 718 855-7882 ext 33
http://www.bcat.tv/celebrate/schedule.asp

Here's what some artists and writers have said about Sundiata:

...Sundiata is serious as light overhead in darkness...
*Amiri Baraka

Sekou Sundiata taught me everything I know about poetry
* Ani DiFranco

... the spectacular poet Sekou Sundiata lifts and carries you a visionary way away on the wings of his utterly distinctive, new and furthering-the-tradition gifts of beautiful poems landing on holy ground.
* June Jordan

Sekou is a griot, a mentor, an icon...
* Vernon Reid

...Sundiata is to modern poetry what Marvin Gaye was to modern soul... If Homer were a black man born in the project, he would be this... poet
* Greg Tate, The Village Voice

Sundiata has been exploring the crossroads of spoken words and song for 20 years... he is steeped in African American music. On the page, Sundiata can surprise with the fierce purity. His poem "Mandela in Harlem" has lines that resonate with the classical grace of Horace.
* Mona Marlarsky, The Nation

His music comes from so many place it is impossible to name them all. But I will wager that if we could trace their common origin, we'd arrive at the head waters of the soul...
* Bill Moyers

posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/1/2003 01:30:37 AM |

Posted by P6 at 01:30 AM |Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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