[S]o obscured has this history become that not even most Washingtonians are aware of it. Nor are they aware of the flourishing black community, mostly descended from those slaves, that once occupied a large portion of Georgetown -- until a combination of legislative, social and economic pressures gradually forced nearly all the black people out, turning the neighborhood into the wealthy, effectively all-white enclave it is today.

My son's research unearthed one part of this forgotten narrative of our neighborhood. A second hint lay in a curious Georgetown phenomenon that had always puzzled us: the continuing existence of several thriving black churches, filled every Sunday morning with African Americans who do not actually live here.

Georgetown's Hidden History
First, it was a slave port. Later, it was a thriving center of black life. Today, it's a virtually all-white enclave. Why?
By Andrew Stephen
Sunday, July 16, 2006; B01

U.S. and Russia Will Police Nuclear Terrorists
By DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON, July 14 — President Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Saturday will announce a new global program to track potential nuclear terrorists, detect and lock up bomb-making materials and coordinate their responses if terrorists obtain a weapon, according to administration officials who have negotiated the deal.

Within months, the officials said, they expect China, Japan, the major European powers, Kazakhstan and Australia to form the initial group of nations under what the two leaders are calling “The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.” The informal organization of countries is based on the American-led “Proliferation Security Initiative,” a group of more than 70 countries that have pledged to help seize illicit weapons as they move across oceans or are transported by air. Some countries in that group now hold regular drills to share intelligence and practice seizures.

The NY Times has excerpts of an interview with Robert L. Johnson, ex of BET. Some of you may think that matters; some of you may not.

The question being, Does OpinionJournal EVER present honest analysis?

They want vouchers specifically to support Catholic schools in NYC.

Catholic schools produce results far better than their public counterparts for a fraction of the cost. On last year's New York State reading and math tests, fourth and eighth graders in Catholic schools scored 7% to 10% higher than public-school students. The public per-pupil cost in New York is about $15,000 annually; Catholic school tuition is about $3,000.

The public per-pupil cost includes capital expense like building maintenance. Catholic school tuition does not. The comparison is meaningless.

The answer, of course, is no. And not only is the tuition vs. cost comparison invalid, it turns out the reported superior scoring isn't even real.

Public Schools Perform Near Private Ones in Study
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO

WASHINGTON, July 14 — The Education Department reported on Friday that children in public schools generally performed as well or better in reading and mathematics than comparable children in private schools. The exception was in eighth-grade reading, where the private school counterparts fared better.

The report, which compared fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math scores in 2003 from nearly 7,000 public schools and more than 530 private schools, also found that conservative Christian schools lagged significantly behind public schools on eighth-grade math.

I notice and encourage conscious white folks so I don't have to talk to assholes.

I'm not sure they have any more impact on said assholes than I would...

Jesse Lee Paterson, the archtypical buckdancing negro, has looked at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and, after all the documented failures of the Federal State and Municipal Governments' response, has decided the REAL source of all the problems is immoral Black people.

Nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina flooded the city of New Orleans, some prominent black conservatives and religious leaders blame cultural problems among African Americans, not the government, for "the great breakdown witnessed during and following" the natural disaster.

The conservative leaders will meet in Washington, D.C., on July 26 to discuss how best to transform the "human spirit," the destruction of which they say "is at the heart" of the still evolving crisis in New Orleans...

Steele vows to represent 'the 'hood'
By S.A. Miller
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
July 12, 2006

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele yesterday said his U.S. Senate campaign aims to bring "the 'hood" with him to Capitol Hill.

"The 'hood is going to show up on the Hill," said Mr. Steele, a black Republican. "That is what this campaign is all about, and that scares some people when I say stuff like that -- on both sides of the aisle, God bless them."

I wonder how Bill Cosby will react to that?

Oh, and we got Rev. O'Neal Dozier, ex-football player who seems to have played without a helmet.

People who don't like Latinos qua Latinos tend not to like Black folks either. And even if they hated Latinos exclusively, you really think anti-Black racists will be satisfied seeing anti-Latino racists have all the fun?

Hispanics Cite Rise In Discrimination
Immigration Debate Is Called a Factor
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 14, 2006; A09

Hispanics believe that discrimination has risen since the start of the congressional debate over illegal immigration, according to a survey released yesterday.

Even if your particular anti-Latino allies are of truly noble intent, you need to own your part in the results.

Think of the entire nation of Israel as an American military base.

I'm not saying it's true, I'm saying the assumption has greater predictive value than any other I can think of.

Necessary Steps for Israel
Confronting State Sponsors of Terror Is the Only Option
By Michael Oren
Friday, July 14, 2006; A21

JERUSALEM -- For the first time since the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Israel is facing hostilities on two fronts. The exceedingly volatile situation is liable to embroil other Middle Eastern states, culminating in a regional conflict similar to that of the 1967 Six-Day War.

Bullshit. Israel is attacking on two fronts. Their attack on and disinformation about Fatah and Hamas didn't stick. This is the next move.

Their threat to assasinate the Palestinian Prime Minister over these two soldiers was not only unprecidented it was proof Israel does not give a good goddamn.

But this is a necessary step. Without U.S. support, Israel would last as long as a wading pool in the Sahara, and U.S. support is getting real thin. After our own misadventures in Iraq we are overextended, short supplied and so disliked it will be a long, long time before we get military support from anyone but Israel. Add to that the FACT that we are in withdrawal mode in Iraq and Israel has to see their vulnerability was about to increase exponentially. 

The suit accuses the defendants of violating the Wilsons' constitutional and other legal rights as a result of "a conspiracy among current and former high-level officials in the White House" to "discredit, punish and seek revenge against" Joseph Wilson for publicly disputing statements made by President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address justifying the war in Iraq.

As a result of Cheney, Libby and Rove's conduct, the suit claims that the Wilsons have suffered violations of their rights guaranteed under the United States Constitution and by laws of the District of Columbia.

...In addition, the complaint alleges that Valerie Wilson was impaired in her ability to carry out her duties at the CIA, and to pursue her career at the agency in further service to her country, as she had planned. While no specific dollar amount is requested, the suit seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorneys' fees and costs.

The Wilsons Launch Civil Suit Against Cheney, Rove, Libby
by E&P Staff
Published: July 13, 2006 4:15 PM ET

I think Israel is going to topple the Iranian state.

I wonder where the bastard got the idea. 

GQ: Reed, Abramoff Discussed "Mortgaging Old Black People"
By Paul Kiel - July 13, 2006, 12:26 PM

Ralph Reed's primary is only a week away and things are heating up.

In advance of its August publication date, GQ has released a big piece on Ralph Reed today, with one gem in particular: a plan hatched by Reed and Jack Abramoff which sounds suspiciously like "mortgaging old black people," as a former Reed associate told the magazine.

Read this, follow the links, and consider the implications of this statement by Sen. Graham.

Graham was unapologetic over his efforts to deceive the Court. "I know what I've done. I've done it before and I'll do it again," he said.

via the Progress Report  

ETHICS -- CONSERVATIVE SENATORS SUBMIT A FABRICATED DEBATE IN ATTEMPT TO DECEIVE SUPREME COURT: Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) drafted a fictional account of a supposed debate they had on the Senate floor and submitted it to the Supreme Court in an effort to convince the Court that it did not have jurisdiction over the recent Hamdan case. Hamdan's lawyers, however, spotted the hoax. They told the Court that the legislative history was entirely invented after-the-fact, and that it consisted of "a single scripted colloquy that never actually took place, but was instead inserted into the record after the legislation had passed." The brief noted that this Graham-Kyl colloquy was "simply an effort to achieve after passage of the Act precisely what [they] failed to achieve in the legislative process." The insertion of the added comments was noted and rejected by the court. Graham and Kyl "attempted to make the dialogue -- added to the Dec. 21, 2005, record -- appear real. Kyl, is quoted at one point as saying, 'Mr. President, I see that we are nearing the end of our allotted time.' In another instance, Graham and Kyl inserted Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas in the fabricated Senate floor discussion, saying 'If I might interrupt,' according to published accounts of the comments." Graham was unapologetic over his efforts to deceive the Court. "I know what I've done. I've done it before and I'll do it again," he said.

This is ridiculous.

Cunningham to be honored

The U.S. Capitol Historical Society will hold a reception next week to honor a select group of lawmakers “for their hard work, service, time and the sacrifices made in upholding the office with which they were entrusted.”

One of the people slated to receive such accolades is former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.).

The disgraced ex-legislator, of course, can’t make the July 19 event or any other social gathering in the near future because he’s serving a prison term of eight-plus years for a bribery scandal you may have heard about.

So I sent out the link to Leave or Die to one of my email lists. Got back a little more detail.

Shining a light on sundown towns
Large number of whites-only communities surprised author
01:24 PM CST on Monday, November 7, 2005
By JEROME WEEKS / The Dallas Morning News

Vidor, Texas, is infamous for driving away black residents. Considered a Ku Klux Klan stronghold, Vidor has excluded African-Americans to the point of violence. It gained national notoriety in 1992-'93 by foiling a court-ordered desegregation of public housing in East Texas. The nine black people, including five children, who moved there were driven out by protests and threats.

And you may well be living in a similar community and not know it.

According to a new study, whites-only discrimination has prevailed in thousands of areas across the country, North and South. While Vidor is an extreme example, the same principle of whites-only residency has been in effect in other communities, not through outright threats but through local laws, social pressures, police harassment and land buyouts.

These are places such as Grosse Pointe, Mich., and Darien, Conn.

All of Idaho.

And Highland Park in Texas.

Such towns may even be in the majority among incorporated areas in America, says James W. Loewen in Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (New Press, $29.95). That means thousands of segregated places that Dr. Loewen calls sundown towns because of the sign that used to stand outside a number of the worst (in some cases, well into the 1990s). It warned blacks not to stay after dark.

One critic has called the book "a hand grenade." But Dr. Loewen says he was as shocked as anyone by his data: "I came to this conclusion kicking and screaming."

When I linked an interview with John Dean about his new book, Conservatives Without Conscience, the other day, I had no idea David Brooks would provide proof of the book's thesis.

With the perspective of a former Republican political insider, and experience in the Watergate scandal when he was White House counsel to Nixon, Dean takes a sincere, well-considered look at how conservative politics in the U.S. is veering dangerously close to authoritarianism, offering a penetrating and highly disturbing portrait of many of the major players in Republican politics and power. Looking back on the development of conservative politics in the U.S., Dean notes that conservatism is regressing to its authoritarian roots. Dean draws on five decades of social science research that details the personality traits of what are called "double high authoritarians": self-righteous, mean-spirited, amoral, manipulative, bullying. He concludes that Chuck Colson, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, and Tom DeLay are all textbook examples.

Those guys play hardball; Mr. Brooks pitches softball, underhand. Check what Mr. Brooks says in [TS] Democracy' Long Haul.

After he underwent a sex change nine years ago at the age of 42, Barres recalled, another scientist who was unaware of it was heard to say, "Ben Barres gave a great seminar today, but then his work is much better than his sister's."

And as a female undergraduate at MIT, Barres once solved a difficult math problem that stumped many male classmates, only to be told by a professor: "Your boyfriend must have solved it for you." 

Male Scientist Writes of Life as Female Scientist
Biologist Who Underwent Sex Change Describes Biases Against Women
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 13, 2006; A10

Neurobiologist Ben Barres has a unique perspective on former Harvard president Lawrence Summers's assertion that innate differences between the sexes might explain why many fewer women than men reach the highest echelons of science.

That's because Barres used to be a woman himself.

No comments on George Will's editorial today. Just some personal solidarity across political lines.

Delinquency Of the CEOs
By Robert J. Samuelson
Thursday, July 13, 2006; Page A23

CEO pay has accelerated so rapidly mainly because it lacks normal disciplines. If you and I set our pay, we'd do well, too. That's essentially the CEOs' prerogative. Some modest market pressures exist. In the 1990s about a quarter of CEOs of big firms were hired from the outside, up from 15 percent in the 1970s. But CEO pay is mostly set by sympathetic directors, often other CEOs. They want their guy to stay up with the pack.

"[N]obody has any idea what the right level should be," Pfizer's McKinnell told Fortune. True. There is no ideal way to set CEO pay. Any system can have bad, unintended consequences. That's why the current CEO pay explosion is primarily a moral failure. Would Exxon's Raymond have worked just as effectively for $100 million instead of $400 million? How about $25 million? If so, he was overpaid. By that standard, so are many CEOs.

I don't normally do multiple links to a single blogger in a single day so I have to decide: props to Give Me Your Derelicts, Your Racists, Your Semen-Connoisseurs Yearning To Read Free or Gawker's Special Correspondent for Brown-People Issues: 'NYO' on Lily-White Magland?

Techincally, since they're on seperate blogs (is Gawker a blog?) I could link both...

First of all, Zidane must be a consummate soccer player because he head-butted Materazzi instead of punching him in the face then jumping up and down on his chest.

Second, my apology...if I issued one...would be specifically directed to my fans so there's no misunderstanding.

"It was inexcusable. I apologise," said the 34-year-old Zidane. "But I can't regret what I did because it would mean that he was right to say all that."

They are determined to get that poll tax in, determined to cut back on the number of voters.

Georgia's photo voter ID law appeared to violate the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law and due process...

Earlier in the day, the state Supreme Court let stand the ruling of a lower court judge who said the new law unconstitutionally restricted the right to vote.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melvin K. Westmoreland last week temporarily stopped enforcement of Georgia's photo ID law, saying the measure "unduly burdens the fundamental right to vote."

All of the state Supreme Court justices agreed in the decision, except Justice Carol Hunstein, who did not participate.

Photo ID law suffers 2 setbacks
Georgia voters will face less strict requirements
By SONJI JACOBS , CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/13/06

Georgia's voter photo ID law suffered two major setbacks in two courtrooms Wednesday.

The federal and state legal blows mean voters will not be required to show one of only six forms of government-issued photo identification when they go to the polls in Tuesday's primaries.

Schrenko steps closer to prison

"I'll probably be paying the rest of my life," she says of restitution
By BETH WARREN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/13/06

Four years after Linda Schrenko assailed Democrats for corruption as she campaigned in the Republican primary for governor, the former state school superintendent is heading to federal prison herself.

Schrenko, who has a few more weeks of freedom before she begins serving an eight-year sentence, said then that accusations of cronyism and corruption against Democrat-dominated state government reflected "a good ol' boy system" that voters would no longer tolerate.

via Raw Story, which has a rush transcript

Nice one ...relatively speaking, of course.

Cheney, in a May speech in the ex-Soviet republic of Lithuania, accused Russia of cracking down on religious and political rights and of using its energy reserves as "tools of intimidation or blackmail."

Asked about Cheney's remarks, Putin said, "I think the statements of your vice president of this sort are the same as an unsuccessful hunting shot."

I understand Cheney is plumbing his stash of "yo mama" jokes for a reply.

...because I though it was that useless discussion again (though I did dog jheri curls myself, and took YEARS to adjust to Black women with yellow hair...Mary J. herself almost lost me...).

Then I noticed the author and decided to read it. And once again Ms. Kaplan comes correct.

Erin Aubry Kaplan: Still Trying to Kick the Kink
The debate about the future of African American hairstyles is flaring up again.
July 12, 2006

...Denial is still at the core of black hair fashion, which in turn is at the still-unstable core of black identity and acceptability in the United States in 2006. Although braids, dreadlocks and other natural black hairstyles have become more visible, perms, weaves and extensions for black women have become ubiquitous.

In [TS] What Girls Ought to Learn From Boys in ‘Crisis’ she eased up on the poor, poor men...

 

A new report that came out yesterday from the American Council on Education has confirmed that there is a gender gap on American college campuses. It gapes the widest between African-American men and women. It is increasing, disturbingly, among low- income whites and Hispanics. It phases out as you go up the income ladder, then disappears entirely as you enter the upper middle class. (According to the report’s author, Jacqueline E. King, 52 percent of college students from the top income quartile — families earning $97,500 or more — are male.)

um, make that rich, rich men...

All of which will most likely have no effect on the affluent parents making the most noise about the “boy crisis” in our nation’s schools. No one, apparently, wants to hear about the economically disadvantaged. So let’s ride the wave, and leave aside the truly important issues the new report raises — i.e., why are fewer poor white and Hispanic men now attending college, and why, in particular, are young African-American men being left behind? — and let’s instead together have some fun, as I did, last Sunday, reflecting on The New York Times’s boy-crisis-inspired survey of “performance differences” in males and females of high school and college age.

that just can't compete.