The Largest Minority

August 27th, 2008 by John Geraghty

This is an absolutely sick example of police brutality against a female protester who is not creating any sort of disturbance watsoever. The police thug moves towards her and smashes his stick into her chest, knocking her down before arresting her some minutes later. I would hope that Kucinich and other rational Democrats get to see this disgrace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfISlq1gzK8

I must be the only guest blogger who can not embed a video into this blog. Can someone please explain in the comments section. I have no problem on other wordpress blogs, but this is a different version to those that I use.

August 7th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

July 26th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Three white teens were charged Friday in what officials said was an epithet-filled fatal beating of an illegal Mexican immigrant in a small northeast Pennsylvania coal town…

…According to a police affidavit, the defendants and three 17-year-olds encountered Ramirez, 25, and a teenage girl in a park the night of July 12.

The youths goaded Ramirez and the girl, saying, “You should get out of this neighborhood” and “Get your Mexican boyfriend out of here,” documents said. After Ramirez and the girl began walking away, someone yelled an ethnic slur at him, court documents said. He responded, “What’s your problem?”

A fight ensued, during which police said Walsh punched Ramirez in the face. The victim fell and hit his head on the street, leaving him unconscious, after which Piekarsky kicked him in the head, police said.

All three suspects used ethnic slurs during the fight, which ended with Ramirez in convulsions and foaming at the mouth, authorities said. The attackers fled the scene; Ramirez underwent surgery but died July 14 of head injuries.

read more…

July 18th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Jon Stewart takes on the hypocrisy of the corporate media and their obsession over such non-issues in a rather brilliant fashion.

July 13th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

With the attainment of the required delegates to claim the Democratic Party’s nomination for U.S. president, Sen. Barack H. Obama (D. ILL.) has written a new page in American history.

For by so doing he succeeds where Channing Phillips, Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, Sr., and Al Sharpton could not-by gaining the necessary delegates to demand nomination.

Of course, there have been numerous Black candidates for president, but these have been third party efforts designed more to raise issues, to organize or protest than to actually win elections. Some of the best known have been Eldridge Cleaver (former Black Panther Minister of Information), Dick Gregory, Dr. Lenora Fulani, and the former congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney.

But this is a different kettle of fish, for Obama’s candidacy is the closest to make it to the winner’s circle.

What also distinguishes Obama from his predecessors is he doesn’t come from civil rights, Black liberation, socialist or anti war movements. (He often remarks at speeches, “I’m not against all wars, I’m just against dumb wars”)

Indeed, although his detractors may try to paint him as a leftist liberal this is hardly true. On issues both foreign and domestic he would’ve been more at home in the Republican Party of his senatorial forebear, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts. For though he is Black by dint of his African father, he has studiously avoided Black political groups in his long, harrowing climb to the rim of the White House.

He has studiously avoided the very real and long standing grievances of Black America. In fact, he tried to run a “post-racial” campaign until Sen. Hillary R. Clinton (D.N.Y.) (and her rambunctious husband, former Pres. Bill), brought race front and center during the Super Tuesday February primaries, by trying to pigeonhole him as “the Black candidate.”

This primary wounded Obama, and as he won in the delegate count, he also lost a number of primary states, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, which are necessary for a win in November.

Politics is the art of making people believe that they are in power when in fact, they have none.

It is a measure of how dire is the hour that they’ve passed the keys to the kingdom to a Black man.

As in many American cities, Black Mayors were let in when the treasuries were almost barren, and tax bases were almost at rock-bottom.

With the nation’s manufacturing base also a thing of history, amidst the socioeconomic wreckage of globalization, with foreign affairs in shambles, the rulers reach for a pretty, brown face to front for the Empire.

“Real change that you could believe in” would be an end to Empire, and an end to wars for corporate greed, not just a change of the shade of the political managers.

That change, I’m afraid, is still to come.

-Mumia Abu-Jamal

June 26th, 2008 by Sam

Is Ralph Nader “starting to talk white supremacist [sic]?” According to John Aravosis he is.

In an interview with the Rocky Mountain News, Nader noted that Obama has not addressed issues fundamental to African-Americans, namely the need to crack down on “economic exploitation in ghettos,” including “Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, [and] lead.” Nader, pointing out the obvious, says that Obama is attempting to assuage white fear by “talking white” and avoiding the stigma of being “another politically threatening African-American politician.” Nader goes on, “Basically he’s coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it’s corporate or whether it’s simply oligarchic.”

So let’s try and follow Aravosis’s logic here: a) Candidate A points out that Candidate B is avoiding discussion of issues pertaining to the oppression of blacks in America so as to assuage white voters. b) Pointing this out is tantamount to being a white supremacist, or “talking white supremacist,” therefore c) Candidate A is a white supremacist.

If we apply Aravosis’s logic elsewhere, we also must conclude that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are white supremacists, or “talking ‘white supremacist.’” After all, earlier this year Jackson accused Obama of “acting like he’s white,” and Sharpton criticized Obama for trying “to grandstand in front of white people.” Jackson also pointed out that he felt John Edwards was “the only candidate addressing African-American problems.” Now, I’ve heard Jackson and Sharpton called a lot of things, but I don’t recall “white supremacist” being among them, though if the premises of Aravosis’s argument are true, then it would seem that this would be the only appropriate conclusion.

(H/T Curt Meinhold)

Read the rest of this entry »

May 28th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

As Crooks and Liars points out, Kiffiyehs are worn by nearly everybody in the middle east, even Western troops, to protect them from the sun and sandstorms. Hell, they’re even popular amongst Israeli Jews (and Meghan McCain it turns out). Affiliating such a common article of clothing with terrorism is like saying that shoes are terrorist-related apparel because bombers happen to wear them too.

The kind of proud ignorance which allows Malkin to publicly state that “Palestinian = terrorist” must finally be confronted in this country rather than catered to, and Dunkin’ Donuts should be held responsible for vindicating such vitriolic hatred and bigotry.

If the most important meal of the day for you is a deep-fried ring of dough and sugar, then please consider boycotting Dunkin’ Donuts and frequenting another doughnut place. Hell, maybe even find yourself a healthier breakfast alternative, like a bag of chips and a smoke.

May 23rd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

When Nixon was running against Kennedy, he acknowledged that much of his support was due to the anti-Catholic prejudices of Protestant fundamentalists, and denounced this bigotry. Nixon stated that he did not want the vote of anyone who was making their decision based on religious prejudices.

Hillary Clinton has done the opposite, showing that she has even less integrity than Nixon. Rather than denounce the attitudes of Americans who will not vote for Obama because he is black, she has given a nod and a wink to her “broader base” of “whites who had not completed college”, allowing them to vote their prejudices – prejudices amplified by the continuous spin of ratings-driven content.

“When ratings is the end-all, be-all of the corporate media, how can it be anything but a mad dash to a mass echo chamber, where ignorance is multiplied into mega ignorance, and wars become inevitable through rumor?”