Saturday, August 28, 2010

WHITE AMERICA IS SCARED TO DEATH

conservative-rally-cp-9276021.jpgI believe that all those ten of thousands of almost completely white faces, of various classes, educational levels, and sexes who gathered today on the mall were able to do so because they identify as whites before all else and they are desperate to save the America they know and love, the America of the white mainstream, the only America they believe is legitimate.

They are scared to death at the prospect of an America in which they are not the majority.  They fear losing that America not as women, or workers, or high school or college graduates, middle class, but as WHITES. They see an African American President (even a moderate one), they see non white people coming across the border and filling up kindergarten classes and they are scared. They see a rising China populated by a billion or so yellow people and they are scared.  God knows, they are still in command here and in the world, but they fear rightly that their days are numbered...and it scares the hell out of them.

And I say tough shit to them.  Get used to it.  Get out of the way.

Friday, August 27, 2010

WHITE NATIONALISM AND SACRED GROUND

Mobs in the streets to protest the Muslim equivalent of the YMCA being built two blocks from the scene of the September 11th attacks, now referred to as "Sacred Ground."  


Meanwhile, Glenn Beck and his army of bigot get geared up for a rally 47 years to the day at the site of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech which is not referred to by the corporate media or white mainstream America as "Sacred Ground."


Hmmm.  A puzzle.


Okay, maybe sacred ground is only where dead people lay.


Indian Culture map
SACRED GROUND: TERRORIST BUILT THEIR CHRISTIAN CHURCHES ON IT
But wait, hasn't America in fact built itself on sacred ground where tens of thousands of  Indians were massacred by WHITE AMERICANS.  I know I've seen lots of churches all over America representing lots of denominations of Christians who were responsible for lots of dead Indians.  Think Sen. Reid cares?


And what about that land hither, thither and yon, where the souls of murdered slaves roam, is that "sacred ground?" Well, not to white America, not really.  That is more like "forgotten ground."  Wonder if the governor of Mississippi has ever gotten his bowels in an uproar about what has been build in his state?



How about those Japanese internment camps?  I'm thinking Sara Palin could care less what's built where they once stood.


What about the bones that litter American museums?  I bet they're sacred to someone, but probably not too many white someones.  FOX News must be all over that?  Not so much.


Oh hey, how about all those dead bodies they find down around the border, you know, of those pesky illegal people who are stealing  really good jobs from white Americans who have been clamoring for years to pick vegetables in the hot sun?  Could they be someone's sacred ground?  I bet Rush doesn't think so.


For that matter, I remember visiting Dachau and watching a bunch of white German teens cutting up and laughing with each other at the site of the furnaces.  I kinda wasn't too happy with that, but I didn't notice their teacher saying a word.  I guess it wasn't sacred ground to her.


Weird, isn't it?


Not really.


The following is from Black Agenda Reports.

Freedom Rider: “Sacred” Ground Zero


protesting flagheads in NYC
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley


If American whites practiced what many of them preach to Muslims, they would ban themselves from building cultural institutions of any kind in much of the United States, since so many places are sites of depraved atrocities and mass killings of people of color by whites. Or, are only white folks’ “sensitivities” to be respected? Where is “hallowed ground” for descendants of Black slaves and Native Americans?



Freedom Rider: “Sacred” Ground Zero


by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley


Should white people have been forced to move away from the locations where they committed terrorist acts?”


The controversy generated by the so-called “ground zero mosque” is both illuminating and terrifying. In case there were any doubts, it proves that America is still a vast wasteland of ignorance created by racism and the belief that white Americans must be dominant and measured by standards that apply to no one else. If that were not the case, the planned construction of an Islamic cultural center would be a simple matter that is only of interest to those involved with the project.


There is nothing about the planned center that ought to create any opposition. The center is a project of the Cordoba Initiative, an effort to foster inter-faith and inter-group dialogue. The property has been legally sold, the project won the approval of a community board comprised of area residents, and has followed all relevant New York City regulations.


The level of vitriol directed at the Cordoba Initiative is but the latest example of white nationalism personified by the Tea Party movement, beliefs that president Obama is Muslim who wasn’t born in the United States, and a crusade to end birth right citizenship.


If opposition to the cultural center prevents it from being built, the demonization and marginalization of an entire religious group will have succeeded.


America is still a vast wasteland of ignorance created by racism.”


Arguments against the center focus on the role of “jihadists” in the September 11thattacks. We are told that opposition is justified because the attacks were carried out in the name of the Islamic faith. While the attackers were Muslims, their action was political in nature. Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders were quite clear. The attacks were a response to the Israeli and therefore American sponsored occupation of Palestine, and the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia. In one of his many video messages, bin Laden says he wanted to attack Americans ever since the Israelis made one of many incursions into Lebanon in 1982.


It is easier to think of a religion foreign to most Americans as being the cause of terrorism rather than American actions themselves being responsible. The United States was hated enough in 2001 to inspire the terror attacks which took place before the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Israeli attacks on Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2008, and the United States destruction of Somalia. That resentment has only deepened after the deaths of so many thousands of Muslims. Instead of vilifying people who want to build a cultural center which comes equipped with a Muslim prayer room, Americans would be better off acknowledging their government’s complicity in inciting that hatred.


The attacks were a response to the Israeli and therefore American sponsored occupation of Palestine, and the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia.”


The closeted bigots have opened the doors, unafraid to publicly declare their hatreds. At a time when Mexican infants are derided as “anchor babies” who should have their rights of citizenship taken away, it shouldn’t be surprising that one section of Manhattan might be cordoned off to any Muslims because of an act committed by a few of their co-religionists.


If “ground zero” is as some say, sacred ground which can’t be violated by anyone who shares an affinity with the terrorists, then the same logic should be applied to the sites of other atrocities. Lower Manhattan is “ground zero” for the many acts of violence perpetrated against black people during the era of enslavement.


In 1991, workers building a federal courthouse in the same area as the disputed cultural center discovered the bones of 400 enslaved men, women and children. The African Burial Ground was used as the place of interment for black people in the 17th and 18thcenturies. Even in death the enslaved were not accorded any respect, being buried outside of what were then the city limits.


In 1712 and 1741 slave insurrections and even rumors of slave insurrection caused both enslaved and free black New Yorkers to be hanged or burned to death. These events took place near what is now known as the September 11th ground zero. The terrorism inflicted on those people did not prevent their killers from building on grave sites and scenes of depraved violence. Should white people have been forced to move away from the locations where they committed terrorist acts? If so, there should be another debate. If the center’s opponents are correct, then only black people should be allowed to live in lower Manhattan.


White nationalism still rules.”


The spectacle created by this controversy is making for strange bedfellows. Democratic Governor David Paterson insists on meeting with Cordoba Initiative representatives to discuss a compromise location. They have refused. Former presidential candidate Howard Dean also thinks the center should be located elsewhere because, “There is no point in doing something that’s good if it is going to meet with resistance from a lot of folks.“ Meanwhile billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg has been steadfast in expressing support for the center.


Let us not forget Barack Obama’s double talk on the issue. At a White House Ishtar celebration of Ramadan, the president at first asserted that the center should be built as planned. “I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.” Less than 24 hours later he backtracked. “I was not commenting, and I will not comment, on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there.”


Marginalizing the “out” group, usually one of color, for political gain has a long tradition in America. Mosques have been opposed not just near the World Trade Center site, but in cities and towns all over the country. The battle over the so-called “ground zero mosque” is but the latest example. White nationalism still rules, this time in the guise of fighting “Islamists,” but never far below the surface.

Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as athttp://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.com.

IT'S PAST TIME FOR EUROPEANS TO TAKE TO THE STREETS AGAINST THE NAZI LIKE DEPORTATION OF ROMA IN FRANCE




The French mainstream seems right in line with the American white mainstream when it comes to its feelings about anyone they consider to be an outsider. Despite widespread criticism abroad, but with popular support at home, the French government continues its nazi like expulsion of the Roma and other travelers. OVER 8.000 HAVE ALREADY BEEN DEPORTED.


SARKOZY FOLLOWS THE LEAD OF FASCIST VICHY FRANCE

"French officials should be working to fight discrimination, rather than making inflammatory statements that link entire communities to alleged criminality and may lead to even further discrimination against Roma and Travellers," said David Diaz-Jogeix, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia programme."Under no circumstances should anyone be returned or expelled simply because they are Roma."

Talk is cheap. The streets should be full of people fighting the expulsions. The Roma shouldn't be left to fight on their own. They need more than words.


The following is from the SETimes.

Roma rally in Istanbul against France's deportations



ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Representatives of several Roma organisations in Turkey rallied outside the French consulate in Istanbul on Thursday (August 26th) over France's repatriation of Roma to Romania and Bulgaria. "We gathered to protest the wind of racism blowing from Europe, particularly from France against the Roma," the organisations said in a statement. They urged the European Commission to move to stop the spread of racism. The Roma community in Istanbul has about 2 million members.


Meanwhile, France continued the repatriation Thursday, sending nearly 300 Roma to Bucharest aboard two flights.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

CAUGHT UP WITH A DEBATE AND A DENTIST

Sorry folks I've been involved in some long winded argument on facebook concerning my views on white privilege, racism, white supremacy and my disgust with mainstream white America.  If you are inclined, you can read the debate, even enter it at
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1129785784&ref=ts


And you, too, can yell and scream at me and call me names....


and then I had to go to the dentist and do laundry...so nothing else from me today.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

CHERNOBYL: IT'LL NEVER BE OVER

The latest scientific studies suggest that the damage to wildlife and fauna continue unabitated in and around the Chernobyl exclusion zone - and far beyond.


Research recently concluded  provides more evidence that contamination has a "significant impact" on biodiversity.


Professor Timothy Mousseau from the University of South Carolina and Dr. Anders Moller from the University of Paris-Sud, France, spent three years counting and studying animals in the area.


In a report in the journal Ecological Indicators, they say they found evidence that radiation contamination has a "significant impact" on biodiversity.

"The truth is that these radiation contamination effects were so large as to be overwhelming," Mousseau said.

Professor Mousseau says the effects are particularly obvious in birds. Barn swallows, for instance, were observed to have tumours on their feet and necks and around their eyes.

Meanwhile, doctors at the Children's Cancer Hospital in Minsk, Belarus and at the Vilne Hospital for Radiological Protection in Eastern Ukraine are telling international media that they are seeing what they have no doubt is a spike in cancer rates, mutations and blood diseases among their patients linked to the world's largest nuclear disaster at Chernobyl 

And then there are the radioactive boars in Germany.Boars are among the species most susceptible to long-term consequences of the nuclear catastrophe 24 years ago. Unlike other wild game, boars often feed on mushrooms and truffles which tend to store radioactivity and they plow through the contaminated soil with their snouts, experts say.  As the boar populaton explodes in germany it seems that so does the number of radioactive boars.

And finally there is Marina Sharpanova whose family still resides in an area deathly affected by the radiation.  An article in the Sydney Morning Herald reported on her campaign on behalf of the children still being horribly impacted there thusly:


 Sharapova grasps the pain of her family history and has read, voraciously, about the impact of the Chernobyl catastrophe.


She is keenly aware that 9000 people around Gomel will die prematurely because of their exposure to radioactive dust, and has not hesitated in her work as an ambassador to the region, on behalf of the United Nations Development Project.
''My dad's family still live here, so there are a lot of people I'm coming back to,'' she says. ''I was too young to appreciate all the details, apart from the fact that there had been a big disaster, but as I grew older I became more interested, wanting to help people who had been affected or been born here.
''Too many people have forgotten about Chernobyl, but I'm determined to remember. I'm trying to help the kids who have been born since, to find a way of their own, to give them perspective.''
Assuredly, the children of the ''Gomel Oblast'', as this area is known, need her care and the money the attention can bring - as she discovers in Chechersk District Hospital, there has been a 1400 per cent increase since the disaster of those being born with thyroid cancer.

The next time someone mentions how clean nuclear power is...ask them if this is what they mean.

The following is from IPS.chernobyl



Chernobyl Effects Could Last Centuries
By Pavol Stracansky

KIEV, Aug 20, 2010 (IPS) - Almost 25 years after the world’s worst nuclear accident a series of new scientific studies have suggested the effects of the Chernobyl disaster have been underestimated.

Scientists last month published information that, contradicting previous claims, animal populations are declining in the exclusion zone surrounding the site of the former Soviet nuclear power plant, and that radiation contamination effects following the explosion had been "overwhelming".

The German government also reported that compensation payouts made to hunters capturing radioactive wild boar had quadrupled in the last two years as more and more animals were found to have high levels of caesium.

This came just months after doctors in the Ukraine and Belarus said they had seen a rise in cancer rates, mutations and blood diseases in patients they believe are linked to Chernobyl. And a separate U.S. study published in April claimed there had been a rise in birth defects thought to be linked to continuing exposure to low-level radiation doses.

Campaigners against nuclear power say that the studies show that people will be living with the devastating consequences of the disaster for decades, possibly centuries, to come.

Rianne Teule, a campaigner on nuclear issues at Greenpeace, told IPS: "This is a problem that will not go away in a few years, it will be here for hundreds of years to come.

"The new studies confirm that the problems, as presented in 2006 by the World Health Organisation and International Atomic Energy Agency, were really much bigger and will continue to exist and be shown up in other studies. It is not something that is going to go away soon."

When one of the blocks of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in what is today the Ukraine exploded in April 1986, it caused the world’s worst nuclear disaster. It was estimated that the total radioactivity from Chernobyl was 200 times that of the combined releases from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The blast and following fires sent a huge radioactive cloud spreading across Europe, and 350,000 people in areas near the plant had to be evacuated.

The United Nations, World Health Organisation, International Atomic Energy Agency and other bodies later joined with the Russian, Belarus and Ukraine governments to set up the ‘Chernobyl Forum’ to undertake a major study into the effects of the disaster, and released their findings in 2006.

Their study claimed that there had been only 56 direct deaths (47 accident workers and nine children with thyroid cancer), and estimated a future 4,000 deaths due to the accident.

But the report was heavily criticised by other groups who said it grossly underestimated the deaths and potential future health effects of the disaster and had used selective reporting of data.

Some questioned the stance of the IAEA, which has backed the use of civil nuclear power for decades.

Alternative studies contradicted some of the Chernobyl Forum findings and suggested the health effects of the disaster had been much greater. One, the 2006-published TORCH report by British scientists Ian Fairlie and David Sumner which was commissioned by a German Green Party MEP, pointed out the uncertainty surrounding the health effects of low doses of radiation and of internal radiation doses through ingestion. It also said that amounts of some radioactive particles released into the environment were underestimated by as much as 30 percent.

Official figures from the countries worst affected by the initial accident – Belarus, Ukraine and Russia – also contradict the report’s findings.

The United Nations’ International Agency for Research on Cancer has said that there are more likely to be 16,000 deaths from Chernobyl while the Russian academy of sciences claims that to date there have been at least 140,000 deaths in Ukraine and Belarus and 60,000 in Russia. The Ukrainian national commission for radiation puts the figure much higher at 500,000.

Doctors in the Ukraine and Belarus told Ukrainian media earlier this year that there has been a recent rise in cancers, infant mortality and other instances they are convinced is caused by the continuing effects of the catastrophe.

Oksana Kostikova of the Children’s Cancer Hospital in Minsk said: "These figures cited by the WHO and the IAEA don’t even match with figures other UN organisations are predicting in terms of cancer deaths," adding that 16,000 deaths from Chernobyl predicted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer was "a more accurate assessment of what we see daily."

Dr Wladimir Wertelecki, a U.S. doctor who has led an extensive study on birth defects in the Ukraine, published research results in April which showed increased levels of certain birth defects in parts of the Ukraine, which he said could be linked to continuing exposure to low-level radiation doses.

At the time critics attacked a statement in the Chernobyl Forum’s report that there was no evidence of an increased risk of birth defects in areas contaminated by the accident. And Dr Wertelecki says that the Forum’s findings need to be re-examined and comprehensive studies undertaken to gain a true picture of the health effects of the catastrophe.

He told IPS: "The official position is that Chernobyl and birth defects are not connected. That position needs to be reconsidered at the very least."

The same call has been backed by groups like the UK Chernobyl Children's Project, which helps affected children. It has said women in the Ukraine and Belarus are still giving birth to children with disabilities and genetic disorders but that no comprehensive research on this is being carried out.

WHO and IAEA officials continue to back their findings in the Chernobyl Forum report. The IAEA has also suggested that many illnesses claimed to be linked to Chernobyl were in fact down to stress brought on by radiophobia – a fear of radiation -- or poverty and unhealthy lifestyles.

But anti-nuclear power campaigners say international organisations such as the WHO and individual governments have an important role to play in ensuring the consequences of the disaster are examined in full and the public are protected.

Greenpeace’s Teule told IPS: "Outside the exclusion zone there are still areas that are highly contaminated but publicly accessible. Also, as seen with the wild boar being contaminated in Germany, there is still radiation in wild berries and other wild food which could be eaten by humans. More could be done to protect the public.

"There is also a role for the WHO to oversee a comprehensive international study of all the data."

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

MORE HISTORY DENIAL ON KATRINA RECOVERY




The following was written by a friend of mine, Lance Hill.  Lance has published a series of commentaries about New Orleans  since Katrina in local and national publications on his experiences during the rescue and race and equity in issues in the recovery.  You can read some of those commentaries at http://www.southerninstitute.info/commentaries/?page_id=2


Lance is the Executive Director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research, a tolerance education and race relatioresearch center based at Tulane University in New Orleans. He was a community organizer for fifteen years before embarking on an academic career. From 1989-1992, he served as Executive Director of the Louisiana Coalition against Racism and Nazism (LCARN), the grass roots organization that led the opposition to former Klansman David Duke’s Senate and Gubernatorial campaigns. One of the coalition’s founders.



Before that Lance was involved in all manner of anti-racist work dating back to his days in Lawrence, Kansas where I first met him fresh out of high school and organizing the "hippie" community which had grown up around the University of Kansas.  Lance was one of the initial founders of the original Oread Daily back in 1970.


On top of everything else, no one tells a story better.


Anyway, here is what I received from Lance today.






MORE HISTORY DENIAL ON KATRINA RECOVERY


Today the New Orleans Times-Picayune published their first full story on
the Bring New Orleans Back Commission (BNOBC) "greenspace" plan.
Predictably, it revises the history of the plan that they editorially
endorsed and that Brown University researcher John Logan said would
eliminate 80% of the black population. One popular misconception
reiterated in the article is that the only areas slated for demolition
were those under the "green dots" on the planning map.  In truth, the
BNOBC plan, first proposed by the Urban Land Institute in November 2005,
was designed to demolish all homes that flooded--and using that flood
criteria, the result would have been the demolition of virtually all
black neighborhoods.  Race was a key factor in given that the white
Lakefront area was explicitly exempted from demolition (see attached
map).  The homes under the green dots were simply reserved for
conversion to parks and retention ponds--"greenspace."  In the end,
under the BNOBC plan, most of New Orleans residential neighborhoods
would have reverted to woodlands and swamps.

Granted, the BNOBC plan did contain a 120 day "planning period" in which
neighborhoods had to prove they could recover or face demolition, but
given that the residents of these neighborhoods were scattered to 5,500
cities in 48 states and most had no jobs, no means of returning, and it
was illegal for residents to stay overnight even in their gutted homes
in New Orleans East, the BNOBC planners knew that no neighborhood could
re-convene and meet the criteria or deadline.

The best evidence of that the "neighborhood planning process" was a
charade is found in the plan budget on page 57 of the BNOBC report below
(
http://bit.ly/BNOBCGreenspacePlan) which allocates $12.7 billion for
"heavily flooded/damaged home acquisition" and "demolition and site
remediation."  The budget was sufficient to ensure that virtually all
homes in the flooded residential areas would be demolished. In addition,
although over 40% of blacks rented pre-Katrina, not one penny was
budgeted to rebuild rentals.

More than simply a "green dot" problem, the fear that blacks had was of
a vastly greater removal policy. As the Brown University report found:
"The city of New Orleans could lose up to 80 percent of its black
population if people displaced by Hurricane Katrina are not able to
return to damaged neighborhoods, according to an analysis by a Brown
University sociologist. Professor John R. Logan, in findings released
Thursday, determined that if the city's returning population was limited
to neighborhoods undamaged by Katrina, half of the white population
would not return and 80 percent of the black population would not
return."

Finally, the current level of blight is not, as the Times-Picayune
suggests, the result of the failure to demolish homes and relocate
residents.  Since the plan was never to rebuild the city in its
entirety, the city never requested funding to rebuild the damaged roads,
water lines, and sewerage system for the entire city.  Entergy, the
local electric company, asked for and received $400 million in a federal
bailout funds to rebuild the electrical grid for the entire city.  New
Orleans would have adequate infrastructure today if the elite planners
had not been preoccupied with keeping most of the population out of the
city.  Most of the current blighted homes are a result of the failure of
the planners to request any funds to restore rentals and then
subsequently the state's policy of allocating home-owner rebuilding
funds in a racially discriminatory way, according to a recent federal
court ruling.

All of these injustices can be remedied and all neighborhoods restored
if the poltical leadership, locally and nationally has the will to make
people whole again.
___________________

August 24, 2010 Times-Picayune article on BNOBC "greenspace" plan
http://bit.ly/greenDotArtcile

Revised Times-Picayune Map published August 23, 2010 (leaves out
"flood-damaged" neighborhoods targeted for demolition. See attached map
originally published) 
http://bit.ly/revisedmap

Original BNOBC Plan with $12 Billion Budget for buying and demolishing
homes
http://bit.ly/BNOBCGreenspacePlan

Brown University says plan would have eliminated 80% of black community
http://bit.ly/80percentBlacksOut

WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH REFUSES TO ANSWER QUESTION ABOUT DOUBLE ANAL SEX DURING MARRIAGE





I don't usually repost from Huffington Post, but this is too good to pass up. If you haven't heard about what happened to the befuddled Westboro Baptist Church when they decided to protest a meeting of the Jewish Federation , well, you have got to see this.


Westboro Church Protest Against Jews Hilariously Interrupted By Brick Stone (VIDEO)
AT AN EARLIER RALLY




The loathsome Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), best known for "protesting" the funerals of U.S. soldiers with signs saying "God hates fags" and "God hates America," staged another "protest" on August 13th, this time of the Jewish Federation. Presumably, the Federation's sin is being Jewish.

However, the WBC members got a whole lot more than they bargained for when Brick Stone showed up and started asking them lots of confusing questions about Lady Gaga, Hell, Jews and double anal sex, among other topics.
The church members were sufficiently disturbed by Stone's interviewing style that they decided to end their "protest" early.
Some sample questions:
--If you hate gays, why are you holding the sign that way?

--If a woman dressed as a man has sex with a guy with a vagina, can they still get into heaven? Or, are they already there?
Our personal favorite was this exchange:
STONE: If God hates fags, then why did he create chiffon?

WBC MEMBER: Who's Shivon?
Story continues below
STONE: Chiffon, the fabric.
WBC MEMBER: Oh, chiffon. See, this isn't a serious interview, but I will answer your question because the Bible answers it for you very simply. He's made all things for Himself, even the wicked for the day of evil.
The WBC is exposed: something as elegant as chiffon could never be evil.



FOR THE VIDEO YOU HAVE GOT TO GO TO    



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAeJC9_UWOQ&feature=player_embedded

DO IT!