Sometime today I "earned" the first $100 in commission from the Google ads. Amazing.

Blacks Deem Bush's Inauguration Speech  Propaganda 

Date: Friday, January 21, 2005
By: Walter Higgins, BlackAmericaWeb.com

When asked about how she felt about President Bush s inaugural address, Kesha Carlis frowned painfully.

Carlis, a 33-year-old single mother from Tulsa, Oklahoma, said she was disgusted by second-term President George W. Bush s speech, during which he spoke of freedom, ending tyranny and national unity   so disgusted, in fact, that she joined TulsaPeace, a local organization that held a protest during the inauguration.

 I couldn t stomach half of his lies,  Carlis told BlackAmericaweb.com.  I think he is profiting from the war in Iraq, and the people are suffering. 

Specter in New Trouble. Hires former NAACP Assistant General Counsel

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter went back on his word to Republican caucus members and conservative groups alike when he recently hired Hannibal G. Williams II Kemerer, who until recently was the NAACP's assistant general counsel. Specter hired Kemerer against the wishes of his senior Judiciary Committee staff. "We warned him this was going to cause trouble, but Specter said it was his committee, we are his staff, and he's going to do what he believes is right," says a Judiciary Committee staffer.

Kemerer was a protégé of Elaine Jones, who three years ago, as head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, lobbied Sen. Ted Kennedy to delay confirmation of many of President Bush's judicial nominees to a federal circuit court where her group had pending litigation. When Jones and Kennedy's deal was revealed, she was forced to resign.

Two wrongs do not make a right, but it does produce equality.

...The truth is that the effects of racism cannot be offset without the practice of racism. Inequality was created from unequal treatment of equal peoples. The only way to undo the effects of unequal treatment is to reverse the unequal treatment. Mathematically, inequalities are created when an equation that was once equal is manipulated asymmetrically. In other words, one side is treated out of balance with the other, changing the equality to an inequality. A fundamental rule of mathematics is that in order to maintain equality, both sides must be treated equally. Thus, the only cure for inequality is to go forward with reversing the unequal treatment of sides. That is the only solution that logic provides.

My preferred phrasing is, "The only way to undo specific exclusion based on a quality is to practice specific inclusion based on that same quality." It provides no place one can hang folks' visceral reaction to race on while leaving no doubt what I'm talking about.

Quote of note:

"If Bush means it literally, then it means we have an extremist in the White House," said Dimitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center, a conservative think tank that reveres the less idealistic policies of Richard Nixon. "I hope and pray that he didn't mean it[and] that it was merely an inspirational speech, not practical guidance for the conduct of foreign policy."

Bush Pulls 'Neocons' Out of the Shadows
By Doyle McManus
Times Staff Writer

January 22, 2005

WASHINGTON —  In the unending struggle over American foreign policy that consumes much of official Washington, one side claimed a victory this week: the neoconservatives, that determined band of hawkish idealists who promoted the U.S. invasion of Iraq and now seek to bring democracy to the rest of the Middle East.

Low-Cost Housing Threatened by Gentrification
Culver City wants to replace two mobile home parks, possibly with townhomes.
By Bob Pool
Times Staff Writer

January 22, 2005

They're going toe-to-toe to keep from getting towed.

Mobile home residents in Culver City are fighting an effort by the city to replace their park with nicer housing, a neighborhood renewal project they say their community doesn't need.

City officials have labeled two Grand View Boulevard mobile home parks "blighted" and picked a private developer to draw up plans to replace the parks' 43 coaches, possibly with townhouses.

But residents contend that their trailer parks are well-maintained and provide badly needed affordable Westside housing for senior citizens and others with low incomes.

I just saw a Google query for how to gain the human powers.

Boring answers...and it found my copy of The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity.

But a really fascinating query. I think I'd like to meet the person that submitted it.

Powell Jr. is leaving the FCC in March.

I remember how folks insisted he didn't get that position in connection with Gen. Powell signing on with Bush.

Quote of note:

During a floor speech, addressing the Democratic filibusters of controversial judicial nominees, Frist said: Right now, we cannot be certain judicial filibusters will cease, so I reserve the right to propose changes to Senate Rule 22 and do not acquiesce to carrying over all the rules from the last Congress.

Rule 22, adopted by the Senate in 1917 and later modified, enables senators to limit extended debate, the polite term for filibusters, by a vote of three-fifths of the entire chamber, or 60 senators. The rule is routinely invoked by the majority leader when a senator or a group of senators attempts to stall a vote.

Frist aims nuke at the Dems
By Alexander Bolton

Little-noticed remarks delivered by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) at the start of the new Congress have stirred debate over their implication for lawmakers’ ability to filibuster controversial legislation and nominations.

A few of Frist’s conservative allies are interpreting his Jan. 4 comments to mean that Rule 22, which establishes the ground rules for filibusters, is not in effect for the new session of Congress. The uncertainty leaves it unclear whether all filibusters, including filibusters of legislation, could be dispensed with by a mere majority vote or the agreement of all senators present in the chamber unanimous consent would be needed to move forward on even the most controversial business.

You can't tell me Huey, Dewey and Louie aren't Donald and Daisy Duck's illegitimate kids. And what about Poopeye, Pupeye, Pipeye and Peepeye? Swee'pea might be Bluto's kid but them four ugly suckers in the sailor suit look just like they daddy.

RELIGIOUS RIGHT —  STOP SPONGEBOB: Alas, five years after Jerry Falwell threw down the gauntlet and demanded Tinky Winky stop "damaging the moral lives of children," a new threat to America's youth has risen. "Does anybody here know SpongeBob?" James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, asked members of Congress and fellow conservatives at a black-tie dinner on Tuesday. Conservative culture warriors say SpongeBob Squarepants, the popular children's cartoon character, has been enlisted in a "pro-homosexual video" that seeks to "indoctrinate children to accept homosexuality." The video maker's lawyer says the critics "need medication." The New York Times reports that the movie, which will be distributed to public and private elementary schools nationwide through a partnership with FedEx, doesn't even mention sexual identity, though there is a music video to teach children about multiculturalism.

Read it. Take it seriously. Use it as a guide to translate all the bullshit rhetoric into understandable English...you'll be shocked how many people you've been agreeing with are saying things that do not work to your benefit.

Share it. You don't have to link to me, copy it and take credit for finding it. Link to a copy on a site you agree with.

Quote of note:

As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house.

Politics And The English Language
by George Orwell
Published in Horizon, April 1946; Modern British Writing ed. Denys Val Baker, 1947.

Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent, and our language   so the arguments runs   must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.

Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influences of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step towards political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers. I will come back to this presently, and I hope that by that time the meaning of what I have said here will have become clearer. Meanwhile, here are five specimens of the English language as it is now habitually written.

Instead, I'm going to post the whole thing. It seriously changed my own presentation of things. Meanwhile, the editorial that reminded me to look at it again.

Hear 'Reform,' Think 'Destroy'
Bush warps the language in his effort to kill Social Security.
By Susan Jacoby
Susan Jacoby is the author of "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism" (Metropolitan Books, 2004) and director of the Center for Inquiry-Metro New York.
January 21, 2005

In a 1946 essay titled "q," George Orwell observed that all political language is designed "to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

Necessary.

And call the current situation what it really is: out of control drug prices.

Anyway...

Call 'Negotiated' Drug Prices What They Really Are: Price Controls
By Benjamin Zycher
Benjamin Zycher is a senior fellow in economics at the Pacific Research Institute, which receives some grant funding from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Assn.
January 21, 2005

Advocates of cheaper drug prices like to talk about federal "negotiation" of prices with pharmaceutical companies. And when they do, they almost always point to the Department of Veterans Affairs, which they say has used its size to "bargain" for better deals on prices for years. Why, they want to know, can't Medicare do the same thing?

Why does this not surprise me?

Connerly is a principled hero to some, including John McWhorter, a former UC Berkeley linguistics professor and now a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute.

"Ward took an H-bomb approach to the racial preference problem, no doubt, but that was the only way that any change could be made," said McWhorter, who is black and often writes about race. "The people who were in charge of that policy were so deeply committed to it, and so deeply committed to keeping the real nature of the program out of the public eye that   you couldn't have mended it."

His Tenure's at the Finish Line, but for Connerly, Race Goes On
By Rebecca Trounson
Times Staff Writer
January 21, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO   Even at his final meeting as a member of the University of California's Board of Regents, Ward Connerly was doing what he had done through much of his 12-year tenure there: focusing on the contentious issue of race.

And, as he noted, no doubt making many on the board   and in the wider public   more than a little uneasy.

"I sense some discomfort among my colleagues and in the audience as we talk about things in terms of black and white," Connerly said near the end of a debate he instigated this week on the merits of affirmative action in U.S. law schools. "That's understandable. But it's vitally important."

Never mind that UC, because of campaigns he helped lead, cannot consider race in its admissions to law schools or anywhere else.

Putting Democracy First May Test Key Relationships
By Doyle McManus
Times Staff Writer
January 21, 2005

WASHINGTON   For more than a century, presidents have wrestled with the recurring conflict between America's democratic ideals and its real-world interests   interests that sometimes led the U.S. into alliances with unpalatable dictators.

In his inaugural address Thursday, President Bush boldly declared that debate over.

From now on, he said, the principal goal of the United States must be to promote democracy everywhere in the world, even where that may mean instability in the short run.

"America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one," Bush said. "It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."

Alameda County suit alleges Wal-Mart cheated workers
- Bay City News
Thursday, January 20, 2005

Three former Wal-Mart employees, including one who worked at the company's San Leandro store, have filed suit in Alameda County Superior Court alleging that Wal-Mart manipulated their time cards to cut their pay.

The suit, filed Friday by Jessica Grant of the well-known Fred Furth plaintiff's law firm in San Francisco, seeks class-action status for about 215,000 current or former employees who worked at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club stores in California since 1997.

Silicon Valley does more with less
Profits are up, employment down in high-tech capital
- Todd Wallack, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, January 21, 2005

When economist Stephen Levy peers out his window in Palo Alto, he sees two Silicon Valleys: Business is booming, but jobs are scarce.

Major companies are reporting soaring profits and revenue. IPOs are back in vogue. And the tech-heavy Nasdaq is near three-year highs.

But some of those same companies are slashing their payrolls, making it harder than ever for many average residents find work in the area. Many office buildings, which glowed late into the night during the tech boom a few years ago, stand dark. And some people have given up finding work altogether, piling their belongings into moving vans and saying goodbye.

O.C.'s Mystery of the Deep: Invasion of the Jumbo Squid
About 1,500 of the natives of South America wash up, leaving experts puzzled.
By David Reyes
Times Staff Writer
January 20, 2005

More than 1,500 jumbo squid — common to South America — have washed onto Orange County beaches over the last few days, leaving marine experts perplexed as to why so many of these torpedo-shaped mollusks have traveled so far north.

"We've known that there's something peculiar going on with those species," said John McGowan, professor emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla and one of the leading oceanographers on the West Coast.

It seems the President's vision is scaring the hell out of those who can bring themselves to take it seriously.

DAVID BROOKS: I'll read the speech: We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require decent treatment of their own people. We will encourage reform. That means you sit with Putin, as the president already has, and said your treatment of your people is outrageous and we can't have successful relations unless you change. Does it mean you go to war with Putin? Does it mean you break off all relations? No, that's not going to happen.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Again, I thought it showed this is an administration that feels, I think as the president mentioned, has had its accountability moment. It went to the people. It received a majority this time. And so the feeling is their instincts have been confirmed. They do not believe that the Iraq War is a failure. They do not believe that we are facing another Vietnam there. They believe we're winning. And they are ready to do more of this if they think they need to.

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: If the speech, if the speech was to be taken literally, then clearly it would imply commitment to some sort of a global crusade vis-à-vis a variety of states with many of whom we have all sorts of mutual concerns, even if we don't like their practical policies. I mean, take a few examples. Take China; we have a major state instability with China, but China is hardly a democracy. What about the Tibetans? Take Russia; we have a common stake with regards to terrorism, but what about the Chechens? They're being treated in a tyrannical fashion. Take an even more complex issue: what about Israel, which is a friend of ours, and its security against Palestinian terrorists? But what about the oppression of the Palestinians and their desire for freedom?

The fact is that the speech was high-sounding. If it was to be taken literally, it would mean an American crusade throughout the entire world, and I don't know how that would be implemented practically. More Iraqs, perhaps, or is it just a general statement which doesn't give us much guide to policy, suited for the occasion but not to be taken as the point of departure for serious policy?

MARK SHIELDS: Jim, I think it's a remarkable trip, a remarkable journey if you think of the campaign of 2000. Candidate George W. Bush upgraded the Democrats for their passion for nation building, criticizing them for using the United States' military for very limited activities in the Balkans at that point by comparison. Now we're into world building. Make no mistake about it. That's what this president outlined today. This is world building. We're not stopping at nations. We're going to rebuild the world.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: you're going to see an administration which may always want to act in certain ways, sometimes not be able to, but I would say that it would be a real mistake to underestimate the degree to which what you heard was what the president really deeply believes. It seems to me this is his world view, and I would also say that possibly in this administration the idea of more Iraqs is not as frightening a thought as it might be for some -- for many of us maybe outside the administration.

And I would say some of the things we heard from the vice president recently about Iran make me think that this administration may press rather hard.

MARGARET WARNER: Do you agree with Walter, though, that this sounds to him like really the president's deep-seated beliefs?

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: Well, maybe, but you know deep-seated beliefs are one thing; capabilities is the other. And what capabilities do we have actually at hand to pursue this global crusade?

I haven't forgotten the Tennessee Court of Appeals left a man on Death Row for what looks like political purposes.

January 25, 2005 - All day

Opposition to the Death Penalty: States Leading the Way

Join Moving Ideas and Amnesty International for an online chat about how state legislatures are leading the opposition to the death penalty and what you can do to get involved in the fight.

Featured Panelists:

David Elliot is the communications director for National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP). He is a former newspaper reporter for the Austin American-Statesman in Austin, Texas, where he extensively investigated and reported on problems with Texas´ death penalty system.

Is anyone watching Lou Dobbs on CNN?

Is there like right wing rants against Dobbs? Because he really doesn't like what the Bush administration is doing.

Really.

Rather protectionist, I think, but I suspect if the economy were on a sounder footing he'd be more relaxed. He looks like a globalization kinda guy.

I may regret not watching the coronation ball today. I happened to catch a small slice of it at a friend's house and heard George Will speak disparagingly of the militaristic spectacle that was the beginning of the presidential parade. Peter Jennings tried to pretty it up, but Will came back again with how all the armored SUVs looked like so many tanks. And David Brooks was there. Jennings asked him if he wanted to agree with Will and he did.

Quote of note:

Berkeley's Else estimated it will cost nearly $500,000 to clear rights. Forman hopes to get the series back on television by 2006.

In the meantime, fans of Eyes on the Prize can likely find old copies of the series at their local library, and VHS sets are available used on Amazon.com for the eye-popping price of $700 to $1,500.

and

Eyes on the Prize is only one example of documentaries that are in limbo. The Center for Social Media recently detailed the licensing problem in its November study, "Untold Stories: Creative Consequences of the Rights Clearance Culture for Documentary Filmmakers." The study interviewed 45 professional documentary filmmakers and found that rights-clearance costs have risen "dramatically" in the past 20 years, and the process for clearing rights is "arduous and frustrating, especially around movies and music."

Bleary Days for Eyes on the Prize 

By Katie Dean

02:00 AM Dec. 22, 2004 PT

Eyes on the Prize, the landmark documentary on the civil rights movement, is no longer broadcast or sold new in the United States. It's illegal.

The 14-part series highlights key events in black Americans' struggle for equality and is considered an essential resource by educators and historians, but the filmmakers no longer have clearance rights to much of the archival footage used in the documentary. It cannot be rebroadcast on PBS (where it originally aired) or any other channels, and cannot be released on DVD until the rights are cleared again and paid for.

Quote of note:

ChoicePoint and other private companies increasingly occupy a special place in homeland security and crime-fighting efforts, in part because they can compile information and use it in ways government officials sometimes cannot because of privacy and information laws.

Reminder of note:

http://www.prometheus6.org/node/173

In Age of Security, Firm Mines Wealth Of Personal Data

By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 20, 2005; Page A01

It began in 1997 as a company that sold credit data to the insurance industry. But over the next seven years, as it acquired dozens of other companies, Alpharetta, Ga.-based ChoicePoint Inc. became an all-purpose commercial source of personal information about Americans, with billions of details about their homes, cars, relatives, criminal records and other aspects of their lives.

Looking to Apply Lessons Learned

President Bush is a politician with large ambitions and few doubts, someone not easily given to mea culpas. But in the run-up to his inauguration, he has at least hinted at some of the lessons learned in office. From his relations with Democrats in Congress to his approach to the rest of the world, Bush has suggested he will try to strike a different tone.

This Drupal installation has been hacked to slot that rel="nofollow" attribute into any link in the comments.

That means the few of you that sneak past my guard still get no page rank boost

Listen to this message from the Mississippi State Tax Commission about their office hours.

Spammed man sued by alleged spammer wants cash
Jo Best
silicon.com
January 18, 2005

A man who claims he has been receiving unsolicited emails from a US company for two years is now being sued by them, for branding them spammers and reporting their actions to ISPs.

Jay Stuler is now on the receiving end of a lawsuit from New Hampshire firm Atriks, which alleges Stuler caused financial harm to the firm and caused it to lose contracts. The suit also states that Stuler had been making defamatory statements, including calling CEO Brian Haberstroh a "criminal" and the company "a notorious spam gang", which the suit denies.

Quote of note:

Let's spell it out again, one more time, just for old time's sake. There was no "bad" intelligence. There was no evil Saddam plotting an overthrow of the world. There was only BushCo-branded coercion and misprision and traitorous presidential lies the scale of which make Nixon look like a pickpocket. The CIA and the FBI and the Pentagon said it outright: Saddam was harmless. No threat. No WMD. No reason to go to war. Period. Didn't matter.

And Saddam did not, as some Repubs whined and as the new reports -- again from Bush's own people -- prove, Saddam did not hide WMDs in Syria. Or Pakistan. Or New Jersey. He did not bury them underground or paint them over to look like circus tents or stash them in the back of the Winnebago Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were driving in "The Simple Life 2." Bush's WMDs never existed. And he knew it. What's worse? We knew he knew it. And he got away with it anyway.

And now, more than 1,300 U.S. soldiers have died and over 10,000 have been wounded and countless tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, women and children and families, have died, brutally, horribly, and the war is getting uglier, worse, more violent and out of control and increasingly controlled by guerrillas and astoundingly effective Shiite radicals and no one anywhere really knows why we're at war anymore. No one.

Ho Hum, More War And Death
What happens when habitual warmongering and BushCo lies become part of our daily diet?
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Quote of note:

Many healthcare leaders believe that Kuehl's sweeping plan has no realistic chance of being enacted, especially given Proposition 72's defeat.

"It's an expensive option and one that we don't think has any political viability at this time," said Dr. Jack Lewin, chief executive officer of the California Medical Assn.

Kuehl Pushes for State-Run Health Plan
The senator's proposal would levy payroll and other taxes to create a single-payer system.
By Jordan Rau
Times Staff Writer

January 20, 2005

SACRAMENTO   Despite the ballot defeat last fall of a plan requiring that most California businesses provide employee healthcare, some Democratic lawmakers are considering an even broader insurance overhaul that would replace private companies with one government-run program.

I'm glad Marvel is making money for the same reason I'm glad Stan is getting his...but I'm annoyed they're suing the only online role playing game I was ever tempted to subscribe to, largely because it's a selfish and silly lawsuit.

Anyway...

Marvel Told to Pay Stan Lee 10% of Profits From Recent Films
Creator of Spider-Man could be entitled to tens of millions of dollars. The clash continues over merchandising deals.
By Lorenza Muñoz
Times Staff Writer

January 20, 2005

Caught in a sticky legal web, Marvel Enterprises Inc. was told it owes comic book icon Stan Lee 10% of the profit it has received since November 1998 for films based on Spider-Man and other superheroes Lee created.

Quote of note:

Some experts believe the award might make police departments, which in the past have been accused of being too soft on officers accused of excessive force, think twice about how they discipline them in the future.

Anyway...

Police Case May Haunt Cities
A $1.6-million jury award for an Inglewood officer fired over a taped beating could lead to reluctance to discipline officers, experts say.
By Hector Becerra
Times Staff Writer

January 20, 2005

The former Inglewood police officer fired after being videotaped hitting a black teenager expressed vindication Wednesday by a $1.6-million jury award for wrongful termination, while local police agencies assessed how the judgment would affect the way they discipline officers.

U.S. Contractor Slain in Iraq Had Alleged Graft
The weapons dealer had accused officials in the Defense Ministry of a kickback scheme.
By Ken Silverstein, T. Christian Miller and Patrick J. McDonnell
Times Staff Writers

January 20, 2005

WASHINGTON   An American contractor gunned down last month in Iraq had accused Iraqi Defense Ministry officials of corruption days before his death, according to documents and U.S. officials.

Dale Stoffel, 43, was shot to death Dec. 8 shortly after leaving an Iraqi military base north of Baghdad, an attack attributed at the time to Iraqi insurgents. Also killed was a business associate, Joseph Wemple, 49.

I love stuff like this.

Judy Bachrach hit it out of the park, and the bullshit responses the anchor came up with were wonderful. When the anchor started a to Ms. Bachrach with "let me ask you this," Chris Rock flashed through my mind: "Can you kick MY ass?"

And when you're challenged about insufficient equipment for the troops and your response is, "We respect them; after all we prayed for them," it's pretty sad.

Proficiency in English Decreases Over a Decade

By NINA BERNSTEIN

The number of New York adults who have a problem speaking English increased by 30 percent between 1990 and 2000, to more than 1.5 million throughout the city, according to figures released by the city yesterday. That amounts to more than one in four adult New Yorkers, and officials said more recent figures show no sign of a decline.

With the supply of English classes for immigrants lagging far behind demand, Joseph Salvo, the city's demographer, said the language problem is now affecting the education of the next generation. More than half of all births in the city are to foreign-born women.

That's not the point, though.

Gonzales Says '02 Policy on Detainees Doesn't Bind C.I.A.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 -Officers of the Central Intelligence Agency and other nonmilitary personnel fall outside the bounds of a 2002 directive issued by President Bush that pledged the humane treatment of prisoners in American custody, Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, said in documents released on Tuesday.

In written responses to questions posed by senators as part of his confirmation for attorney general, Mr. Gonzales also said a separate Congressional ban on cruel, unusual and inhumane treatment had "a limited reach" and did not apply in all cases to "aliens overseas." That position has clear implications for prisoners held in American custody at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and in Iraq, legal analysts said.

At the same time, however, the president has a clear policy opposing torture, and "the C.I.A. and other nonmilitary personnel are fully bound" by it, Mr. Gonzales said.

Cobb got questions that indicates some concern for the Black communities rather than simply the one wealthy community.

I find myself conflicted at the heart of this issue. I desire to see some cogent black upperclass which embodies the spirits of black nationalism and the traditions of African American family & history. In fact, I am convinced that the future of black history depends upon its establishment. If there is a mainstream pop culture which carries the vulgar burden of ugly Americanism, it would break my heart to see that the black elite has bought into it. But I doubt that seriously given my personal experience and the obvious distance between black talent and American pop. At the same time, I know this is just my hope speaking, and I further know that there must be some very good reasons such a cogent upperclass is not in clear evidence today. I rationalize this by asserting that we simply have not reached a critical mass. But I also know that the ways of this world bring us away from the ways of our world. One establishes oneself through market values or constituencies, and the simple fact is that black wealth doesn't often owe itself directly to the black masses in the same way that black political power owes itself largely from black constituencies. The success of wealthy and influential black families may ultimately be dissapated.

And yet the legacy of African American history is at stake. How will we appear? I wonder. I worry.

I got answers. Actually, so does Cobb.

Dept. Of Bad Ideas

Word is running that Hillary Clinton is really gunning for '08. So on paper for '08, there's probably Hillary, Wes Clark, John Kerry, John Edwards... and Al Gore.

Just In: Planned Parenthood's Condoms Don't Work

Speaking of Planned Parenthood, Consumer Reports recently released some research that suggests that just maybe, they hand out condoms and birth control with the hopes that youth will fail and become customers in the infanticide turned big business holocaust known as "abortion clinics". Ya don't say?

Here's a reminder of what we're talking about.

Quote of note:

"This will have an impact in police departments across the country."

Ex-Calif. Officer Wins $1.6M in Lawsuit
By CHRIS T. NGUYEN

Associated Press Writer

Published January 19, 2005

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A former Inglewood police officer who was fired for punching a black teenager and slamming him against a patrol car was awarded $1.6 million Tuesday by the jury in a discrimination lawsuit he and his partner brought against the city.

The jury voted 11-1 in favor of the verdict for Jeremy Morse, said defense attorney Gregory Smith. He said the jury was unanimous in awarding $810,000 to Morse's partner, Bijan Darvish, who had been disciplined in connection with the 2002 incident.

This is from Horowitz' FrontPage Magazine. The url is

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16679

Murder of Police Officer Tied to Black Panthers
By Paul Gustafson and Howie Padilla and Curt Brown
Minneapolis Star Tribune | January 19, 2005

Jeanette Sackett-Monteon got some peace of mind Friday night. It was more than 34 years in the making.

"I'm so elated, I don't know if I can talk," she said Saturday morning at a news conference to announce arrests in the killing of her husband, St. Paul officer James Sackett. "When I first heard, all I could do was cry. I'm good at crying.

"I've cried for almost 34 years."

Officials at the news conference were tight-lipped about the details that led to the indictment and arrests of Ronald L. Reed, 54, and Larry L. Clark, 53.

The path to the arrests was largely set in 2002, officials said, declining to elaborate.

Nowhere does the article mention the Black Panthers.

Rice: U.S. was prepared for war in Iraq

Date: Wednesday, January 19, 2005
By: Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice gave no ground in Senate confirmation questioning Tuesday, insisting the United States was fully prepared for the Iraq war and its aftermath and refusing to give a timetable for U.S. troops to come home.

via Minority Report

The scandal sheet
By Peter Dizikes

Jan. 18, 2005  |  Once upon a time -- about five years ago -- conservative pundits often talked about "scandal fatigue." Remember scandal fatigue? It was an affliction supposedly either turning voters against Democrats or, alternatively, a weariness in the body politic preventing Republicans from pursuing even more grievances against Bill Clinton. By any objective measure, however, after four years of George W. Bush's presidency, the entire nation should be suffering from utter scandal exhaustion.

Consider the raw materials of scandal that this administration has produced: False claims about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction. Torture in Abu Ghraib. The virtually treasonous exposure of a CIA agent by White House officials. And those are just the best-known examples.

Angry Desi extracted the thirty four items and listed them neatly.

In Las Vegas there was a vocabulary malfunction.

He was delivering the extended forecast early Saturday when he said, "For tomorrow, 60 degrees, Martin Luther Coon King Jr. Day, gonna see some temperatures in the mid-60s."

About 20 minutes after the comment, Blair went on the air live to tell viewers of the ABC affiliate, "Apparently, I accidentally said Martin Luther Kong Jr., which I apologize about -- slip of the tongue."

On the 6 p.m. broadcast, Blair made a formal apology: "On a weather report earlier this morning, I made an accidental slip of the tongue when talking about the Martin Luther King holiday, and what I said was interpreted by many viewers as highly offensive. For that I offer my deepest apology. I in no way meant to offend anyone. I'm very sorry."

"I in no way meant to offend anyone."

Support for War in Iraq Hits New Low
Most no longer back the administration's basis for invading, but a majority say U.S. troops should stay longer to assist with stabilization.
By Doyle McManus

Times Staff Writer

January 19, 2005

WASHINGTON   Support for the war in Iraq has continued to erode, but most Americans still are inclined to give the Bush administration some time to try to stabilize the country before it withdraws U.S. troops, the Los Angeles Times Poll has found.

The poll, conducted Saturday through Monday, found that the percentage of Americans who believed the situation in Iraq was "worth going to war over" had sunk to a new low of 39%. When the same question was asked in a similar poll in October, 44% said it had been worth going to war.

But when asked whether the United States should begin withdrawing troops after Iraq's election Jan. 30, 52% said the administration should wait to see what the new Iraqi government wanted. More than a third, 37%, said the United States should begin drawing down at least some of its troop strength.

Americans are almost evenly divided over how long U.S. forces should stay in Iraq, the poll found: 47% said they would like to see most of the troops out within a year, while 49% say they could support a longer deployment   including 37% who say the troops should remain "as long as it takes" to secure and stabilize the country.

The results suggest that while Americans have grown more pessimistic about the chances for success in Iraq, most are willing to give President Bush some time to try to turn the operation into a success.

From A Model of Reform in today's Washington Post:

Are Mr. Schwarzenegger's motives pure? It doesn't really matter. California is a largely Democratic state, so partisan redistricting has tended to aid Democrats and a nonpartisan, professional system might help Republicans. By promoting reform, Mr. Schwarzenegger may help the long-term prospects of his party. But what's wrong with that? If Republicans in California would fare better under a more equitable system, whatever legislative windfall they might receive would be no more than they deserve.

Anyone who supports the rights guaranteed by the Voting Rights Act should be behind election reform. The tightness of the split in the electorate, the new technology that, frankly, must be used, the evidence drawn from the different systems implemented across the nation all demand changes.

Done right you can actually have input into the process...not as good as impact on the process, but it's a start.

Done wrong and we'll be swearing in Doctor Doom as President for Life.

But it goes beyond voting machines, on the spot registration and week-long election periods instead of a single election day. The process of laying out electoral districts is badly screwed and there's only motivation for the guys who can fix it to screw it further (can you say Tom DeLay, children? Of course, you can). So I pay attention when suggestions on fixing it are floated and I find it somewhat...curious that a reasonable one came from a guy who got his job via the manipulation of the electoral process in California.

New Doubts On Plan For Social Security

House Republican Says Bush Plan Is Doomed, Seeks Review of System

By Mike Allen and Jonathan Weisman

Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 19, 2005; Page A01

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) predicted yesterday that partisan warfare over Social Security will quickly render President Bush's plan "a dead horse" and called on Congress to undertake a broader review of the problems of an aging nation.

Thomas, one of Capitol Hill's most powerful figures on tax policy, is the highest-ranking House Republican official to cast doubt on the president's plan for creating individual investment accounts. He said that as an alternative, he will consider changes such as replacing the payroll tax as Social Security's financing mechanism and adding a savings plan for long-term or chronic care as "an augmentation to Social Security payments."

Torture by U.S. Personnel Illegal, Gonzales Tells Senate
By Dan Eggen and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 19, 2005; Page A04

Attorney general nominee Alberto R. Gonzales, responding to questions about his role in setting controversial detention policies, told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that any form of torture by U.S. personnel is illegal, according to new documents released yesterday.

But Gonzales, the White House counsel who is expected to be confirmed by the Senate in coming weeks, declined to identify the techniques allowed under U.S. interrogation policies, citing restrictions on classified information. He also reiterated his view that a president could theoretically decide that a U.S. law -- such as the prohibition against torture -- is unconstitutional, though he dismissed the question as irrelevant under President Bush.

Of course torture is illegal.

Didn't watch the job interview. Didn't figure there was anything to learn there. But this headline gt me thinking:

Rice Stays Close to Bush Policies In Hearing

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 19, 2005; Page A01

Secretary of state-designate Condoleezza Rice signaled yesterday that the Bush administration will seek to rebuild alliances and work with multilateral institutions as it tries to move beyond the military campaigns of President Bush's first term, declaring twice that "the time for diplomacy is now."

Rice struck the distinctly internationalist tone in her opening statement at her Senate confirmation hearing and then, in nearly 10 hours of cordial but occasionally pointed questioning, stuck largely to well-known White House positions on Iraq, Middle East democracy, North Korea and a range of other issues. Rice will return for more questions this morning, after which the Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans to quickly approve her nomination. Legislative leaders plan to bring the nomination to the full Senate tomorrow.

Republicans, when asked their opinions, tend to respond with "The President says..." Leaves a lot of deniability on all sides. I think I'd like to see that pressed...I'd like Mr. Russert to say, "Well, we know the President's position, we're trying to find out yours." I'm willing to bet a lot of folks ran locally on positions that would be embarrassing on a national scale.

So Google has this Picassa 2 image organizing and editing software they're giving away.

A free software download from Google.

Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you know. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized.

Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips. And Picasa makes it a snap to share your pictures   you can email, print at home, make gift CDs, instantly share via Hello , and even put pictures on your own blog.

And I see this link:

Iran Says It Has Military Might to Deter Attack
Tue Jan 18, 2005 01:28 PM ET

By Paul Hughes
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has the military might to deter attacks against it, Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said, after President Bush said he would not rule out military force against Iran over its nuclear program.

"We are able to say that we have strength such that no country can attack us because they do not have precise information about our military capabilities due to our ability to implement flexible strategies," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Shamkhani as saying Tuesday.

"We can claim that we have rapidly produced equipment that has resulted in the greatest deterrent," he said, without elaborating.

I stopped at like seventeen, I think.

Anyway...

A Permanent Presence

In his first debate with President Bush, John Kerry made a surprisingly bold assertion about US policy toward Iraq: "I think a critical component of success in Iraq is being able to convince the Iraqis and the Arab world that the United States doesn't have long-term designs on it," Kerry said. "As I understand it, we're building some 14 military bases there now, and some people say they've got a rather permanent concept to them."

Though the media ignored Kerry's statement and failed to do any substantive follow-up research, his comments were well-grounded in reality. On the day of the debate the Christian Science Monitor spotlighted the findings of defense specialist John Pike, whose website, GlobalSecurity.org, located twelve "enduring bases" in Iraq, including satellite photos and names. In March, the Chicago Tribune reported that US engineers were constructing fourteen such long-term encampments--the number Kerry referred to. The New York Times previously placed the number at four.

U.S. Military Resorting to Collective Punishment
Dahr Jamail

BAGHDAD, Jan 18 (IPS) - The U.S. military is resorting to collective punishment tactics in Iraq similar to those used by Israeli troops in the occupied territories of Palestine, residents say.

Military bulldozers have mown down palm groves in the rural al-Dora farming area on the outskirts of Baghdad, residents say. Electricity has been cut, the local fuel station destroyed and the access road blocked.

The U.S. action comes after resistance fighters attacked soldiers from this area several weeks back.

"The Americans were attacked from this field, then they returned and started cutting down all the trees," says Kareem, a local mechanic, pointing to a pile of burnt date palms in a bulldozed field. "None of us knows any fighters, we all know they are coming here from other areas to attack the Americans, but we are the people who suffer from this."

Quote of note:

The study is based on an analysis of previous research produced since the beginning of the last century - and it concludes that teaching formal grammar is not the best way to develop children's writing.

The university says this review "discovered no evidence that the teaching of traditional grammar, specifically word order or syntax, was effective in assisting writing quality or accuracy among five to 16 year olds".

Formal grammar is 'ineffective'

Formal grammar is not an effective way of teaching children to write, say researchers at the University of York.

The government-funded study claims this resolves the longstanding debate as to whether drilling pupils in grammar improves their writing skills.

Quote of note:

The Williams controversy was magnified by earlier revelations that the Education Department had paid Ketchum to rate journalists on how positively or negatively they reported on No Child Left Behind and to produce a video news release on the law that was used by some TV stations as if it were real news.

Other government agencies, including the Census Bureau, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Department of Health and Human Services, have distributed such prepackaged videos, a practice that congressional auditors have described as illegal propaganda in some cases.

The news about the Williams deal, coming on top of the other incidents, triggered a slew of accusations and investigations last week.

Firms Fear Backlash From Williams Case
Public Relations Industry Takes Offensive To Protect Lucrative Federal Contracts

By Christopher Lee and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 18, 2005; Page A15

Public relations firms that are paid millions of dollars a year by the federal government to promote programs and policies are worried the money might dry up because of the Armstrong Williams flap at the Department of Education.

A deluge of government business in recent years has helped make Washington a growing market for public relations firms. To protect that market, PR executives are voicing their objections to that kind of deal, in which the commentator was paid to tout Bush administration education policy in television and radio appearances.

Poll suggests public hopeful, skeptical about his leadership
By Richard Morin and Dan Balz, Washington Post | January 18, 2005

WASHINGTON -- President Bush will begin his second term in office without a clear mandate to lead the nation, with strong disapproval of his policies in Iraq, and the public both hopeful and dubious about his leadership on the issues that will dominate his agenda, a Washington Post-ABC News poll suggests.

Spurred by son's addiction, educator pushes drug testing
By Kathleen Burge, Globe Staff | January 18, 2005

SALEM -- There were hints of trouble, but the father missed them. His affectionate son had transformed into an angry, door-slamming menace. The boy's childhood friends were replaced by a rougher crowd. Police warned that the new friends were dangerous.

For more than a year, the father lived in ignorance. Salem's school superintendent, Herbert Levine -- guardian of 5,000 students, holder of a doctorate in education, overseer of students for 36 years -- overlooked the powerful drug addiction of the teenager living in his own house.

"I didn't know that my kid was in trouble," Levine said Thursday, still sounding surprised seven months after he discovered his son, Joel, could not get through most days without inhaling the prescription painkiller OxyContin.

Now the father who feared he might lose his son is crusading to save other daughters and sons on the North Shore, where dozens of people die each year of OxyContin and heroin overdoses. Levine has suggested that Salem schools start randomly testing students for drug use.

The proposal has ignited a firestorm in the city, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts has threatened to sue if Levine's idea takes flight. In classrooms and in school hallways, students are debating the merits of drug testing.

"I don't see the point of it," said Christina Davies, a Salem High School freshman. "Just because the superintendent's son did drugs, everyone in the school shouldn't be [required] to take a drug test."

Other students were less alarmed at the possibility that they would have to submit urine samples for testing. "I have no problem with it," said freshman James Burnes.

Denise Royal, the mother of a Salem High student, said drug testing could be comforting to parents. "I'd rather know than not know," she said.

Quote of note:

Lawmakers would not allow the film of Johnson's victory to show the decisive knockout of Burns -- it stops as Burns is falling, yet again, to the mat. In quick order, Congress would also bar the interstate shipment of fight films, worrying that Johnson's humiliating domination of white opponents would further race riots and embolden the black community.

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson: Documentary. 9 p.m. Today and Tuesday, PBS.

Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion of the world, never had much trouble in the ring. He often toyed with his opponents, like a big bear swatting around cubs, and many boxing historians consider him the greatest heavyweight boxer ever.

Quote of note:

But some of Johnson's acts proved intolerable to the public -- and apparently not worth of mention in most American history texts. The sight of Johnson knocking out a white man was enough to trigger race riots across the country, sparking lynchings and stabbing. After Johnson beat the over-the-hill Jeffries in Reno, Nev., on July 4, 1910, as many as 26 people were killed in race riots, one of the largest incidents of racial violence until the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. nearly 60 years later.

Yet his flaunting of accepted "moral'' behavior led to Johnson's fall. At a time black men were lynched for even looking at white women, Johnson married three and had affairs with a host of others. Overzealous federal prosecutors, armed with the Mann Act -- which made it an offense to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes -- went after Johnson and convicted him on the flimsiest of evidence.

A final round for the great Jack Johnson
- Ken Garcia
Monday, January 17, 2005

JACK JOHNSON could evade almost any punch, and in his prime, no white boxer could ever defeat him. But outside the ring, he was hardly a match for a blatantly racist society.

There are still many unanswered questions about Johnson's life and times -- he was flamboyant and notorious for telling stories that blurred fact and fiction -- but now, more than a half-century after his death, one question lingers beyond the rest. Will the U.S. government, in the form of a presidential pardon, make amends for its malicious pursuit and treatment of a man who was a legitimate American hero yet was wrongly prosecuted because of the color of his skin?

I'm sorry, but if you consider teaching a robot to dance a way of preserving your culture, you're a Borg precursor.

Anyway...

Promet the robot puts best metal foot forward to preserve ancient dance

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese researchers said they had turned a humanoid industrial machine into a master of Japanese traditional dance in a bid to use a robot as a guardian of cultural heritage.

The 1.5-meter-tall (five-foot) robot HRP-2 Promet, which looks like an animation character wearing a visor, shuffled its gray metal feet and waved its hands in the air in synch with a woman in a kimono.

Quote of note:

A key financial industry concern is that, at least initially, the accounts might be too small to be profitable for most companies to manage, given the paperwork and investor hand-holding that could be required.

"None of my members are salivating at the prospect of managing millions of small accounts," said Marc Lackritz, president of the New York-based Securities Industry Assn., the brokerage business' chief trade group.

But over time, private accounts would become a pie too massive to ignore, many analysts say. Some estimate that annual inflows to the accounts could reach $75 billion in the first few years alone.

Wall Street Lying Low on Social Security
By Tom Petruno and Walter Hamilton
Times Staff Writers

January 18, 2005

Discount stock trading pioneer Charles R. Schwab has long supported the idea of diverting a share of Social Security taxes into private investment accounts.

Quote of note:

"For the first time, even those who may have been most against what the administration stood for realized they had a friend in the White House," she said. The GOP wooing of African Americans took other forms as well. Early this month, it was disclosed that the administration paid $240,000 to a prominent black commentator, Armstrong Williams, to promote Bush's education agenda.

So...you're against his policies...but when he offers you cash he's your friend.

Amazing how shortsighted you can be when your eyes are fixed on eternity.

Anyway...

Bush Rewarded by Black Pastors' Faith
His stands, backed by funding of ministries, redefined the GOP's image with some clergy.
By Peter Wallsten, Tom Hamburger and Nicholas Riccardi
Times Staff Writers

January 18, 2005

MILWAUKEE — Bishop Sedgwick Daniels, one of this city's most prominent black pastors, supported Democrats in past presidential elections, backing Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

The American Street is hosting The Perranoski Prizes.

The categories are Best Designed Blog, Best Art or Photoblog, Best Moving Image Blog,, Walt Kelly Best Toon Blog, Best Technical Achievement Blog, Best Humanitarian Blog, Don Drysdale Award, and Best Investigative Research Blog. They compliment the Koufax Award...check it out.

The 'Whiteness Checkpoint'

By William Craig  |  January 17, 2005

HARTFORD, Vt.
ARRIVING a few minutes late, I told my students about a delay at the Interstate 91 Border Patrol checkpoint in Hartford, 100 miles from the Canada line. "Oh," a twenty-something student asked, "you mean the `Whiteness Checkpoint' ?"

His classmates didn't laugh out loud. They just snickered, appreciating an apparently well-worn joke.

"Excuse me?" I was shocked -- though not by their dead-on assessment of the checkpoint.

When that barrier was first set up in December 2003, ostensibly to fight terrorism, Border Patrol agents stopped every driver to ask, "American citizen?" But long before summer, they started waving white people like me right on through. We've been more or less exempt ever since, regardless of the threat alert's color.

Spotted this on my monthly visit to Eschaton:

Disclaimers
  Rebecca MacKinnon @ 11:30 am
1. Just because we link to something does not mean we endorse it.
2. We link to things online that we find interesting and worth further discussion or examination before and during the conference. We do not fact-check articles, blog posts, and other online material before linking to them.
3. We welcome comments that will help to fact-check the material we have linked to.
4. The information, ideas, and opinions found on this blog are the authors  own. They are not official positions of Harvard, The Berkman Center, The Shorenstein Center, or the American Library Association.

Re: 1 - Atrios handled it

William Safire just had to raise the stupidest objection of the holiday season. Forcing me to explain why it is the subtlest self exposure of bigotry.

2. On resentment of media elitism by awakened cultural and religious voices: They're not crazies. Their opinions on stem cells and same-sex marriage are newsworthy and not an assault on church-state separation. Protests at "wardrobe malfunction" and campaigns against state-sponsored gambling are neither bluenosed nor repressive.

But there is no need for sensible seculars in mainstream media to feel an urgent call to get right with religion. It's O.K. to say "Merry Christmas" at the end of a newscast without worrying about equal greeting for Ramadan and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and all the rest.

If there's no need to "get right with religion," then ending the broadcast with equal acknowledgement of all four traditions is no more or less problem than acknowledging only one would be.

As Rice Prepares to Move Up, Diplomacy May Be on Rise, Too
By TODD S. PURDUM

ASHINGTON, Jan. 16 - Her confirmation as the 66th secretary of state is a foregone conclusion, and the White House plans to swear her in on Inauguration Day. But starting Tuesday morning, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will begin what could stretch to two full days of questioning Condoleezza Rice about almost every aspect of her past performance and future plans.

No question looms larger than just what kind of secretary of state Ms. Rice will be. She declined to be interviewed for this article, but her associates and even some of her rivals say she shows every sign of setting a course aimed at putting diplomacy at the top of the Bush administration's foreign policy agenda after a period dominated by military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ms. Rice's goals vary from restoring America's reputation in the capitals of Europe through a vigorous campaign of public diplomacy to actively promoting free institutions throughout the Middle East and renewing involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and include a heightened focus on free trade and economic issues, associates say.

I asked myself, what does Dr. Rice deliver that Gen. Powell couldn't?

I'll reiterate the intellectual answer: don't grant such people an ounce of power over you. Write them out of your life, they have nothing of use to you. Look through them as if they don't exist.

I understand it's not that simple, but that's the goal. Don't let them consume your energy. Seek experiences with people who provide energy. Good people exist, a lot of them. Some of them are one's own race, some are other races.

Advice from one disembodied spirit to another.

This only works if your main obstacles are procedural or psychological. Unfortunately the obstacles placed before Black folks have been too substantial to ignore. When they wanted Black people excluded from labor unions they didn't spread rumors...they passed by-laws. When Black folks got out of pocket they didn't besmirch their good name before the community...they sacrificed him. When they wanted to build all-white communities they didn't just suggest it, they devalued areas that Black people moved into.