You know how Republican Congress members like to invoke 9/11?  Well, here’s one invocation that I think they might want to take back.

California Rep. Darrell Issa, in expressing his opposition to extending benefits for first responders.  You remember them right?  These were the people that actually rushed into danger at Ground Zero to save people, scores of whom actually sacrificed their lives to do so.  Now, Issa is opposing actually doing something to help those first responders who survived that day but are still dealing with health issues from the toxic dust they breathed in and the families of those who lost their lives.

However, if his opposition is not offensive enough, you have to read the way in which he expressed his opposition.  Read this account of what was said:

During a hearing this week about legislation to extend victims’ benefits, Issa, a Republican, described the attacks on the World Trade Center as “a fire that had no dirty bomb in it, it had no chemical munitions in it. It simply was an aircraft, residue of two aircraft and residue of the material used to build this building.”

He questioned “why the firefighters who went there and everyone in the city of New York needs to come to the federal government for the dollars versus, quite frankly, this being primarily a state consideration.”

Issa went on to say that he could not vote for additional compensation money for New York “if I can’t see why it would be appropriate to do this every single time a similar situation happens which, quite frankly, includes any urban terrorist. It doesn’t have to be somebody from al-Qaida. It can be somebody who decides they don’t like animal testing at one of our pharmaceutical facilities.”

So, out of hand, Issa makes the 9/11 attacks appear like some air traffic accident.  And, even when he does get around to acknowledging this as an attack, he is basically saying that, if another terrorist attack occurs, Congress should tell the people, “you’re on your own.”

Issa’s statements have draw criticism from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in New York.  I am just waiting for the pundits and commentators to make a firestorm out of this as they did with Jeremiah Wright’s comments.

Something tells me that I shouldn’t hold my breath.

Popularity: 7% [?]

If someone were to hang a noose in my workplace, I would consider it a symbol of hatred, not unlike have a swastika painted on a home or a cross burned in one’s front yard. For that reason, I find them neither humorous or something to take lightly.

More importantly, it is nothing to lie about.

That why I agree with the decision to fire a black firefighter in Baltimore, MD. There have long been issues of race in the Baltimore fire department…legitimate issues. So, why Donald Maynard, a six-year veteran of the department, took it upon himself to fabricate a story about being the recipient of a threatening note and a noose is beyond me.

As of now, Maynard is suspended with a recommendation that he be fired. To that I say, good riddance.

Popularity: 23% [?]

I was kind of riled up yesterday when I read about 6 white football players from Hamline University in Minnesota dressing up, in blackface, as African tribesman for a Halloween party.

Once again, photos of this appeared on Facebook and, as a result, these players were suspended. Previously, I have shared other stories about people dressing up in blackface. So, this should come as no surprise. Also, you can almost chalk it up to youthful stupidity.

However, what happens when adults, who should know better, do the exact same thing? Worse yet, what if it’s a federal government employee who does it at a work function?

Right now, the assistant secretary overseeing the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division has egg on her face. Julie Myers was forced to apologize for her participation as a judge in a Halloween costume contest where the panel awarded an employee the “Most Original Costume” award and even took a photo with him. So, what’s the problem? The employee came dressed as an inmate in prison stripes, dreadlocks and makeup used to darken his skin.

According to a spokesperson for ICE, the employee was not in blackface but “makeup that was a darker color than his skin.”

Sadly, these are supposed adults carrying on like this. If this is their idea of humor, this says a lot about their views on people of color.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

A Klan group is planning to protest another Klan group for…being…too…intolerant?

This is actually going in Alabama.

When I read this, needless to say, I was floored. I just have to let you read this for yourself:

Members of one Ku Klux Klan organization say they will assemble at the courthouse Nov. 10 to show their opposition to another Klan group that plans an anti-immigration rally there that day.

Ken Mier, who described himself as an investigator for the Alabama Ku Klux Klan and the national office of the Ku Klux Klan LLC, said in an e-mail to The Cullman Times that his group is against the tactics of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which held an anti-immigration protest last month in Athens.

“We are opposed to the ignorance and stupidity as displayed by the individuals that thumbed their nose at the area churches by continuing to use racial slurs, threats and avoided Christian deportment,” he said.

This ranks pretty high on the weirdness factor. I guess someone is trying to show the “kinder, gentler” face of the Klan.

Popularity: 35% [?]

Last week, I shared the comments of Dr. James Watson. Dr. Watson, in a interview with the Sunday Times, made comments labeling black people intellectually inferior.

At the time, Britain’s Science Museum canceled a talk he was scheduled to have there. Now, he is dealing with further backlash over his statements. Watson has been suspended from his research position at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, New York. According to the institution’s trustee board, this step is being taken “pending further deliberation by the board.”

For his part, Dr. Watson must have felt the heat because he offered the following:

“I can certainly understand why people, reading those words, have reacted in the ways they have,” he said.

“To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise unreservedly.

“That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief.”

Shamefully, this man knew, with all his credentials, that his opinions on intellectual capacity as they relate to genetics would carry weight. Now, because he is facing heat for his words, he’s sorry.

I, for one, am not buying it.

Popularity: 43% [?]

A big thanks to Brad Blog for this one. If you are not familiar with Brad Blog, it provides excellent coverage on voter issues, particular being a watchdog on those public officials and companies that are working against the voters through an assault on even their most basic voting rights.

In a recent post, they cover a talk given by US Attorney John Tanner, who is — get this — the Chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. This means that he is supposed to be insuring the rights of voters of color. Instead, he is actively working against them.

While addressing the National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles, he offers an amazing rationale for requiring voter ID (which is likely a violation of the Voting Rights Act). According to Tanner, those most likely to be adversely affected by this requirement are elderly voters but, since minority voters don’t live that long, this wouldn’t be an issue for them. So, according to Tanner, this should work in favor of minorities.

No, I am not twisting his words, he actually stated this. To be precise, he stated the following:

“I think it’s probably true that among those who don’t, it’s primarily elderly persons. And that’s a shame…You know, creating problems for elderly persons just is not good under any circumstance.

Of course, that also ties in with a racial aspect, because our society is such that minorities don’t become elderly…the way that white people do. They die first.”

Well, you can hear/see it for yourself…

Popularity: 32% [?]

Granted, I was once young and stupid but, I was at least smart enough to not make my stupidity publicly available.

Some white Louisiana college students are facing some very sharp criticisms after images and a video of them covering themselves in mud and re-enacting the altercation that has the ‘Jena 6′ facing legal issues were posted on one of the student’s Facebook page.

The students all attend the University of Louisiana at Monroe, which is located about 65 miles north of Jena. In the pictures were in an album titled, “Jena 6 on the River” and in the video, people are heard saying “Jena 6″ and “Ni**ers put the noose on.” According to the student who posted these items, they were all drunk and are not racist. According to her, “i have just as many black friends as i do white. And i love them to death.”

The video is posted below:

Popularity: 23% [?]

I honestly believe that the tactics once used solely to suppress dissent from people of color are now being utilized on the public at large. As black people, we know of the long history of COINTELPRO and its devastating effects on our forward progress as a people but, I believe that, in addition to it being a program, it was also a grand experiment. America didn’t squeal too loudly when it happened to people who didn’t matter much so, perhaps, it might not squeal much if enacted on America as a whole.

In post-9/11 America, we continue to silently accept the erosion of our rights and “experiments” like these continue to go on using people who still don’t matter much as the test subjects.

I say all that to say this — once again, another program has been uncovered that shows us just how badly we can expect our rights to be trampled. During the last Congress, the Posse Comitatus act of 1878 was abolished. You don’t know what it is, you say? Don’t be ashamed — until last year, I didn’t know either. The act basically said that the U.S. military could not be used against U.S. citizens. Now, some in power recognized that U.S. citizens may not easily accept having the last of their rights stripped from them, should martial law be declared so, they had a brilliant idea — they would train members of the clergy to suppress opposition. These groups, known as “Clergy Response Teams”, are U.S. Government-trained ministers who are deployed into areas under martial law to help quiet things down.

Now, just as I hypothesized, people of color were used as the guinea pigs of this experiment. A “Clergy Response Team” was used in New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina.

Sounds Orwellian, you say? Just check out this excerpt from the piece on them:

Such clergy response teams would walk a tight-rope during martial law between the demands of the government on the one side, versus the wishes of the public on the other. “In a lot of cases, these clergy would already be known in the neighborhoods in which they’re helping to diffuse that situation,” assured Sandy Davis. He serves as the director of the Caddo-Bossier Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

Yes, you read right — Homeland Security and the clergy working hand-in-hand to “diffuse” these situations.

But, this part is even more chilling:

For the clergy team, one of the biggest tools that they will have in helping calm the public down or to obey the law is the bible itself, specifically Romans 13. Dr. Tuberville elaborated, “because the government’s established by the Lord, you know. And, that’s what we believe in the Christian faith. That’s what’s stated in the scripture.”

A few weeks back, I wrote about how mega-preacher Creflo Dollar had written a letter to his followers admonishing them to be unquestioningly loyal to the guidance of George Bush. Please trust, such calls did not begin or end with Creflo Dollar so, we have to believe that this message was played out in congregations across this country. Now, this program seem to be its next, logical evolutionary step.

Below is the link to the video of KSLA’s story on this program.

See video here

Popularity: 50% [?]

You know, I used to think Isiah Thomas was a sensible brother. Now, I really don’t know.

To be honest, I had heard some things in passing about him being named in a sexual harassment suit but, I had not really followed it. But, something I read recently made me do a double-take.

The plantiff in the case is former Knicks vice president Anucha Browne Sanders. According to Ms. Sanders, she was subject to some rather foul, berating language at the hand of Thomas. In a 2004 incident, she alleges that Thomas called her a “f—ing ho”,”b–ch”,”f—ing b–ch” and “ho”.

In another incident, Thomas supposedly told her, “Don’t forget, you f—ing b–ch, I’m the president of this f—ing team.”

But, believe it or not, this was not the worst part of the story for me. This was:

(Jeffrey) Nix’s testimony came a day after a jury watched Thomas’ video deposition, where he said that white men weren’t allowed to call black women “b–ch,” but black men could.

“I’m sorry to say, I do make a distinction,” Thomas said in a videotaped admission viewed by a Manhattan federal jury yesterday.

“A white man calling a black female ‘b–ch,’ that is wrong with me. I am not accepting that. That’s a problem for me,” he said.

But asked if he’d have a problem with a black man calling a black woman “b–ch,” Thomas said, “Not as much.”

Okay…now I have a headache.

Popularity: 39% [?]

It’s time for another installment of “Freaky-a** Republicans” — the show that shows you that “hypocrisy” is spelled G-O-P. In this installment, we bring you Senator Larry Craig of Idaho. The Senator has recently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in Minnesota (in addition to a $500-dollar fine and a year’s probation) over an incident in an airport there. Craig was spared a charge of lewd conduct.

So, what’s so freaky about this, you say?

According to D.C.’s Roll Call newspaper, Craig’s arrest record shows something very interesting. Police in the airport had been investigating claims of sexual activity in the men’s bathroom. On June 11, 2007 an plainclothes officer had stationed himself in a stall when…well, I’ll just quote this one and let you see for yourself:

Karsnia entered the bathroom at noon that day and about 13 minutes after taking a seat in a stall, he stated he could see “an older white male with grey hair standing outside my stall.”

The man, who lingered in front of the stall for two minutes, was later identified as Craig.

“I could see Craig look through the crack in the door from his position. Craig would look down at his hands, ‘fidget’ with his fingers, and then look through the crack into my stall again. Craig would repeat this cycle for about two minutes,” the report states.

Craig then entered the stall next to Karsnia’s and placed his roller bag against the front of the stall door.

“My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall,” Karsnia stated in his report. “From my seated position, I could observe the shoes and ankles of Craig seated to the left of me.”

Craig was wearing dress pants with black dress shoes.

“At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area,” the report states.

Craig then proceeded to swipe his hand under the stall divider several times, and Karsnia noted in his report that “I could … see Craig had a gold ring on his ring finger as his hand was on my side of the stall divider.”

Karsnia then held his police identification down by the floor so that Craig could see it.

“With my left hand near the floor, I pointed towards the exit. Craig responded, ‘No!’ I again pointed towards the exit. Craig exited the stall with his roller bags without flushing the toilet. … Craig said he would not go. I told Craig that he was under arrest, he had to go, and that I didn’t want to make a scene. Craig then left the restroom.”

Here’s another interesting part of the tale:

After he was arrested, Craig, who is married, was taken to the Airport Police Operations Center to be interviewed about the lewd conduct incident, according to the police report. At one point during the interview, Craig handed the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card that identified him as a U.S. Senator and said, “What do you think about that?” the report states.

Craig, who is up for reelection in 2008, has not commented on whether or not he will run again.

Update: talkingpointsmemo.com has posted the police report.

Popularity: 26% [?]